Former British Soldier Simon Mann has been sentenced for his involvement in a coup plot against the government of Equatorial Guinea in 2004. The plot was uncovered by the Zimbabwe Government.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Pathfinder book spotlights new class relations emerging today in Equatorial Guinea
BY BEN JOYCE
Reprinted From The Militant,
February 16, 2009 Issue
Capitalism and the Transformation of Africa, a new book by Pathfinder Press, is a must read for those who want to understand the realities facing millions in Africa and the semicolonial world as they are drawn into the capitalist world market, and how this advances the fight to emancipate the working class and oppressed peoples the world over.
The book is the product of two trips by reporting teams to the Central African nation of Equatorial Guinea in 2005 and 2008. The reporting teams were led by the authors, Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press, and Martín Koppel, managing editor of the Militant. The compilation of reporters’ notes, articles, photographs, and interviews presents a picture of the new class structure emerging in that country and much of Africa today, as capitalist economic and social relations penetrate even the most remote areas of the world to a much greater extent than ever before.
Some 15 years ago, large deposits of oil and natural gas were discovered off the coast of Equatorial Guinea and today that country is the third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. This highly modern, capital-intensive industry is laying the foundations for the development of a modern capitalist class structure there.
Equatorial Guinea is a small country, largely unknown to many, located on the western coast of Africa.
Part one of the book contains large, illustrative maps and concise background information. Several pages of attractive photo spreads help walk the reader through what the reporters discovered and give a real-life feel for the unfolding development in the country.
Working class in formation
This is not a book about the legacy left by centuries of colonial domination and the consequences of imperialist plunder, already widely known and documented. Instead, the authors take a much more forward-looking approach focusing on the working class, being drawn from the four corners of the earth, that is developing.
The “transformation” that the title refers to is the rise of a modern capitalist class structure in this historically underdeveloped part of the world. The book shows how capitalism, in its never-ending search for profits, scours the globe and constantly brings new forces into the world economy. The authors cite the Communist Manifesto, which said that as capitalism spreads, “in place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations.”
Revenue taken in by the Equatorial Guinea government from oil contracts is being used in part to develop basic infrastructure on which modern industry and rising labor productivity depend. The book gives some examples of these structural developments and the impact it has on the population. An upgrading of the road system, for example, means that hundreds of thousands gain much easier access to health-care facilities, schools, markets, and jobs. Travel that previously took days can now be done in a few hours. The book highlights these and other developments that pose far-reaching advances in the standard of living for the working class there.
The authors point out that as the working class is consolidated in new parts of the world, it gains strength not only numerically, but more importantly in terms of its social weight. “The intertwining of all these experiences is of even greater importance today as the most devastating global contraction of capitalist production in some three-quarters of a century accelerates worldwide,” explains the introduction. “Decades of wars, economic, social, and political crises, explosive class battles, and revolutionary struggles lie ahead of us… . As the beginning transformation of Equatorial Guinea helps underscore, the toilers of Africa will have greater weight in shaping that future than ever before.”
Cuba’s proletarian example
Parallel to the developing capitalist class structure, another side of the transformation taking place in Equatorial Guinea is the impact of internationalist solidarity from working people in Cuba and their revolutionary government. A 2005 speech by Víctor Dreke, then Cuban ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, at the country’s first book fair is included in this volume.
The book illustrates through the reports and photographs one of many examples of proletarian internationalism that Cuba has extended to toilers around the world—in this case the efforts and resources that Cubans extend to the toilers of the region through cooperation in establishing a medical-care system.
As of September 2008 there are some 160 Cuban doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians in Equatorial Guinea who provide services in hospitals and health centers throughout the country, including in remote areas where such care has previously been inaccessible and unaffordable.
A section of the book that details the medical cooperation program includes a report on the medical school in the city of Bata, which is led and staffed by Cuban volunteers. A top priority of the medical program is the training of Equatorial Guinean doctors who will eventually replace the brigades of Cuban volunteers. An article on the medical program at the university in Bata describes the pride and confidence of recent Guinean graduates.
The medical cooperation with Equatorial Guinea and many other examples of Cuba’s internationalist missions throughout the world stand out as a truly unique expression of working-class solidarity. The depictions of this in the book enable the reader to see the living example of Cuba’s socialist revolution in action.
The process unfolding in Equatorial Guinea described in this book bodes well for working-class fighters and their allies around the world. New recruits to the international proletariat who have the benefit of the internationalist example of Cuba’s socialist revolution adds strength to the struggle for emancipation of the working classes and oppressed peoples of the world.
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