Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, presenting a paper on the legacy of Che Guevera at the "Abolish Capitalism, Fight for Socialism" conference held at the Paul Robeson Auditorium in New York on October 8-9, 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
AFRICOM and the Continuing Struggle Against Imperialism
Libya, Somalia and throughout continent the people must rise and fight against aggression
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
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Note: The following address was delivered at the "Abolish Capitalism, Fight for Socialism" Conference held in New York on October 8-9, 2011. The event took place at the Paul Robeson School Auditorium located in the South Bronx. The conference, sponsored by Workers World Party, was dedicated to Che Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967).
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This year's conference is recognizing the monumental contributions of Ernesto Che Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who fought against neo-colonialism and imperialism in the Caribbean-island nation of Cuba, in the central African state of Congo and in Bolivia in South America.
Che's life is a testament to the necessity of maintaining an internationalist outlook. An outlook that understands the political character of the global class war between the workers, farmers and the nationally oppressed on one side and the international bourgeoisie and its allies on the other.
So committed was Che Guevera to the eradication of imperialism that he left his home in Argentina to travel throughout Latin America to Cuba where he helped lay the foundation for the emergence of one of the greatest socialist experiments in the history of the world. Just ninety miles from the coast of the citadel of world imperialism, revolutionary Cuba has for the last five decades served as a model of societal transformation from slavery, to colonialism and neo-colonialism to national liberation and proteletarian internationalism.
The Significance of Tactical Flexibility in the Revolutionary Movement
According to Che Guevera in his theoretical reflections gained from the triumph of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the guerrilla fighters must be flexible in their tactical approach to the struggle against oppression. Che notes that " In military language, tactics are the practical methods of achieving the grand strategic objectives."
He continues by pointing out that tactics "In one sense they complement strategy and in another they are more specific rules within it. As means, tactics are much more variable, much more flexible than the final objectives, and they should be adjusted continually during the struggle. There are tactical objectives that remain constant throughout a war and others that vary. The first thing to be considered is the adjusting of guerrilla action to the action of the enemy." (Che Guevera, Guerrilla Warfare)
Che maintained that the history of the Cuban Revolution provided the workers and oppressed profound lessons in their struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism. He states that "The armed victory of the Cuban people over the Batista dictatorship was not only the triumph of heroism as reported by the newspapers of the world; it also forced a change in the old dogmas concerning the conduct of the popular masses of Latin America. It showed plainly the capacity of the people to free themselves by means of guerrilla warfare from a government that oppresses them."
He then goes on to state that "We consider that the Cuban Revolution contributed three fundamental lessons to the conduct of revolutionary movements in America. They are:
1. Popular forces can win a war against the army.
2. It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them.
3. In underdeveloped America the countryside is the basic area for armed fighting."
Cuba and the African Revolution
Che Guevara intervened with Cuban combatants in Congo during 1965 in a war to reclaim the advances of Patrice Lumumba and the party of the masses that sought to break with colonialism and imperialism. Although Lumumba was overthrown and martyred in 1960-1961 and the efforts of the Cuban internationalist in 1965 were not successful, it would only take a decade of actual historical development that would create the conditions for the first defeat of the US imperialists and their South African apartheid allies in Angola in 1975-76.
Cuba would send over 300,000 of its own people to Angola between 1975-1988 to fight alongside the African revolutionaries in their politico-military campaign that resulted in the total liberation of Southern Africa. This stunning victory not only defied the notion of the superiority of the military forces of racism and settler-colonialism, but it provided hope to the workers and oppressed of Africa and the world.
Today, some two decades later since the consolidation of the independence of Angola and the liberation of Namibia and the eventual abolition of the racist apartheid system in South Africa, imperialism is once again escalating its aggression on the continent. In 2008 the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was formed in an initially deceptive attempt to regain what had been lost by imperialism during the anti-colonial struggle.
Although the Pentagon said in response to the rejection of AFRICOM by the governments and peoples of Africa that this military structure would merely assist in the consolidation of the national security of individual states to address natural disaster and development challenges, the events in Libya and Somalia indicate clearly the imperialist designs on the oil, strategic minerals and waterways of the continent.
In Libya the forces of NATO led by the United States has imposed a naval blockade, engaged in over 20,000 sorties and 9,200 airstrikes against a country of 6 million people. This African state just so happened to be the most oil-rich on the continent that is located in a region that is of significance to the overall objectives of domination by the ruling classes of the imperialist countries.
In Somalia it is the role of U.S. imperialism that has devastated this Horn of Africa nation for the last two decades or more. The fact that successive administrations in Washington have engaged in numerous military adventures against the country, the people face dislocation, starvation and repression in the millions.
The Real Aims of Imperialism in Africa
A close collaborator of Che Guevara was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, the leader of that country's independence struggle during the post World War II period as well as a theoretician of the African Revolution. Nkrumah and Guevara during the mid-1960s brought into existence greater cooperation between progressive and revolutionary forces in Africa and Latin America.
According to Nkrumah, "Military strategy presupposes political aims. All military problems are political, and all political problems are economic. Both the basic nature of neo-colonialism and the accumulated experience of liberation movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America indicate clearly that the only way for the broad masses to eradicate neo-colonialism is through a revolutionary movement springing from a direct confrontation with the imperialists, and drawing its strength from the exploited and disinherited masses." (Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 1968)
Nkrumah continues by stressing that "The struggle against puppet governments, and against all forms of exploitation, is the basic condition for the survival and development of a genuine liberation movement in Africa. We must accept the challenge and fight to destroy this threat to our future as a free and united continent."
Anti-Imperialists Must Defend the Peoples of Africa and Latin America
Our major strength is our internationalist outlook and consistent anti-imperialist position that flows from the firm understanding that the workers and oppressed are the class enemies of the bourgeoisie. Consequently when there is imperialist aggression we have no other choice than to stand with the masses irrespective of the class composition of the various governments that exist in Africa, in Latin America and throughout the so-called developing countries.
In the present period of worldwide economic crisis, imperialist militarism and rising class warfare, it is the U.S. ruling class that is the focal point of struggle for the international proletariat and the oppressed. It was inside the U.S. that the origins of the global capitalist crisis can be found.
Therefore our task is clearly defined: we must organize the masses of workers, farmers and oppressed into a revolutionary organization and movement whose objective is to build genuine national independence and socialism. The world capitalist system has driven billions around the planet into poverty and desperation.
Only under a socialist system can we create a world devoid of exploitation and oppression. Only under socialism will there be the potential for winning peace and sustainable development throughout the world.
Long Live the Legacy of Comrade Che Guevara!
Long Live the Revolutionary Struggles of the Peoples of Africa and Latin America!
Victory to the Workers and Oppressed Throughout the World!
Down With Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism and Imperialism!
Forward to the Victory of World Socialism That Must Be!
There Is Victory for Us!
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