Over the past number of years the horrific plight faced by the population of Africa has increasingly affected the outlook of radical young people and workers across our globe. This was shown by the 200,000 strong demonstration organised by the "Make Poverty History" campaign in Edinburgh in July 2005.
The demands of this demonstration focused on more and better aid for Africa, an end to the debt burden faced by African countries and reversing the unequal terms of trade which favour the major capitalist powers. We look at the present situation and the prospect for the workers’ movement.
In popular culture, films such as Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, The Last King of Scotland and Hotel Rwanda have all to one degree or another highlighted the problems and suffering confronted by Africa’s workers and poor.
These problems include the plundering and exploitation of its wealth by the major multinationals, the corruption and despotism of its local capitalist leaders and the enormous tensions that exist between ethnic groups in a number of African countries. The latter is a by product of the past divide and rule policies of the imperialist powers that colonised Africa at the end of the nineteenth century.
The majority of African people have seen virtually no improvement in their living standards despite an economic boom that has taken place there since the beginning of this decade. This boom has seen average growth rates of 5%, while foreign direct investment has quadrupled in the past 6 years. However, numerous statistics graphically illustrate the real desperate situation faced by ordinary Africans. Today 40% of the population live on less than $1 a day and 46% of children under 5 living on the continent are underweight. Despite its vast oil wealth GDP per capita in Nigeria is $827 - in Germany the figure is $31,400.
 This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the African "gold coast" country of Ghana from the direct rule of British imperialism. Ghana was one of the first countries in Africa to win independence from its colonial rulers. Its struggle for independence in the aftermath of the Second World War was part of the growing colonial revolution which swept Africa and Asia in this period as working people in these countries sought to rid themselves of the shackles of imperialism. Today all the countries in Africa are independent insofar as they are not under the direct military and political rule of the major powers. But despite this fact why is it that these countries face such problems as poverty, the constant threat of famine and ethnic civil war?
Establishment politicians and commentators in the West have sought to imply that the cause of the problems lie with Africans themselves. Despite their repeated commitment to tackle poverty in Africa, both Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have said that their respective countries no longer have to apologise for their occupation and colonialisation of Africa in the past and the problems that confront it today. The Economist magazine recently described post-colonial Africa as a "colossal flop". Such a viewpoint fails to recognise that the nominal independence won by African countries did not bring the epoch of imperialist domination over this continent to an end.
For socialists imperialism or monopoly capitalism is a term used to describe a specific stage which capitalist development has reached. This period which emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century was one where the major capitalist powers sought to gain “spheres of influence” in Africa, Asia and Latin America where they could gain access to new markets as well plundering natural resource and gaining a pool of cheap labour. In 1880 only 10% of African territory was colonised, by 1900 this figure had grown to a staggering 90%.
With the growing upheavals in colonial countries in the post war period as well as the weakening of imperialist powers such as Britain and France, the strategists of capitalism believed it was better for imperialism to relinquish its direct domination over Africa and Asia while at the same time continuing the exploitation of its economies. For example, one of the last acts of British imperialism before Sierra Leone gained independence was to pass a law which meant that foreign multinationals mining for diamonds there would automatically repatriate 100% of their profits.
Today the largest 500 companies on our planet control 80% of world trade. Just 300 multinationals and big banks account for 70% of all foreign direct investment. The 100 biggest companies now control 70% of world trade. And the fifty largest banks and financial companies control 60% of all global capital- this is the real face of monopoly capitalism. All of these companies and financial institutions are based in the US, Europe and Japan. They have a vested interest in holding back the economic development of Africa fearing it may emerge as a potential rival as China has done recently. Massive indebtedness and the colossal tariffs which African goods face are the mechanisms by which they do this. The consequences of Africa’s domination by multinationals are tragically shown with the failure to tackle the AIDS epidemic. Pharmaceutical monopolies have sought to patent life saving antiretroviral drugs and sell them at exorbitant prices thus putting them beyond the reach of those who suffer from a disease which is the number one cause of death on the continent.
Vast mineral wealth
The capitalist powers have simply looked upon Africa as a continent where they can plunder vast mineral wealth such as diamonds, oil, gas and ores such as bauxite. The African Union estimates that $150 billion of this wealth is stolen every year. As oil in particular becomes an increasingly scarce resource a new "scramble for Africa" has begun between China and imperialist powers such as the US. Today it produces a third of China’s oil imports. China in turn has invested vast sums through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and in developing infrastructure in order to facilitate its extraction of wealth through, for example, the building a new railway network.
This struggle for oil in Africa has manifested itself in the Sudan. There China has sided with the Sudanese government which is responsible for massacres in Darfur so it can gain access to oil in the country. The US has also sought to intervene into the region under the auspices of the United Nations which last month voted to send over 26,000 troops to Sudan. The experience of the US invasion of Somalia in 1993 shows that the people of Darfur can have no confidence in this "liberal interventionism".
Ten years ago South African President Nelson Mandela said that Africa would experience an "African renaissance" in the 21st Century. The Russian revolutionary Lenin once said that capitalism means "horror without end". Tragically Africa today shows the real truth in Lenin’s aphorism. As long as the rich resources of Africa continue to remain in the hands of multinationals that strip this continent of its wealth poverty, war, ethnic conflict will continue to destroy the lives of millions of its inhabitants. Now more than ever there is a need to build a powerful revolutionary socialist movement on this continent that will bring an end to this capitalist profit system.
Workers’ struggles across the African continent
The Socialist Party does not simply believe that Africa’s poor are victims of poverty and exploitation by multinationals. From the emergence of national liberation movements in much of Africa in the post war period, the African working class and its oppressed allies have a rich tradition of struggle that continues to this day. We believe that this is the force that can end the nightmare that Africa faces.
In the past year important mass struggles and strike movements of the African working class have taken place in a number of countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Guinea, Ghana, Congo, and Zimbabwe to name but a few. Significantly these movements have linked themselves in with other oppressed sections of society and united the different ethnic groups in these countries against a common enemy. Many of these strike movements have started out as movements on "bread and butter" issues but have quickly developed into more overtly political struggles against their respective regimes. Despite their relative numerical weakness this shows the crucial role that African workers can play in the struggle against imperialism and its stooges who govern many countries across the continent.
Guinea
One example of such struggles is in the West African country of Guinea. Like many other African countries there is a stark contrast between its vast natural wealth and the grinding poverty suffered by its population. Almost half of the world’s reserves in bauxite, an ore that is a key substance in aluminium are concentrated in Guinea. In addition, Guinea's mineral wealth includes more than 4 billion tons of high-grade iron ore, significant diamond and gold deposits, and undetermined quantities of uranium. More than half of the production in bauxite is owned and controlled by private foreign companies. In the past ten years the poverty faced by Guineans has dramatically worsened as the government there has come under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to privatise state owned companies.
At the beginning of this year an 18 day general strike took place that was led by trade union movement. It initially started out as a struggle on economic issues but soon developed as a movement against the existing dictatorship of Lansate Conté who has ruled the country since 1984 after coming to power in a military coup. Predictably this movement was met with vicious repression by the ruling elite. Soldiers opened fire on protesters killing 120 and troops from neighbouring countries were sent in to quell the unrest.
Nigeria
In the summer of this year Nigeria saw its eighth general strike since 2000 against the government of President Obasanjo. The world oil boom has seen the oil revenue of Nigeria increase massively. Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria’s exports. Despite this boom Nigeria’s poor have seen their living standards worsen since the end of military rule in 1999. Many of the general strikes that have taken place since then have actually been against the rise in fuel costs. Nigeria’s electricity capacity is only one eighth of South Africa’s. In May Obasanjo’s successor Yar’Adua was elected in what were widely regarded as fraudulent rigged elections. Demonstrations took place throughout the country in the aftermath of the election which was followed by a four day general strike that brought the whole of Nigeria to a standstill. This general strike was sparked off by the decision to once again raise the cost of fuel.
When general strikes take place broader questions begin to emerge that go beyond the initial factors that led to them taking place. This was particularly true in the recent general strikes in Nigeria and Guinea where, given their longevity, the question of workers control over society was posed. During the general strike in Nigeria the Democratic Socialist Movement, the Nigerian section of the Committee for a Workers International argued the need for action committees elected by and made up of workers and other groups involved with the strike movement. Such committees could democratically take control over the strike movement and organise the distribution of food and transport during it. However, like the general strike in Guinea, the trade union leaders backed away from all out confrontation with the government and it was called off after the latter made concessions on the price of fuel. Absent in this movement, as is the case in most of Africa, was the existence of a fighting mass party of the working class based on a socialist programme which could point a way forward for the masses.
URGENT: See our Solidarity Appeal for our Nigerian student comrades facing trumped up charges for 'conspiracy to murder'.
South Africa
At the same time that the general strike was taking place in Nigeria one of the most important movements of the South African working class was taking place since the end of apartheid regime in 1994. South Africa has been experiencing an economic boom for the past eight years. South Africa’s poor have only experienced unemployment, (which stands at 40%) inflation and the consistent implementation of neo-liberal policies by the ANC government. At the beginning of June a general strike amongst public sector workers who demanded a 12% wage increase took place.
While the strike was only limited to state employees it nevertheless received support from the National Union of Mineworkers and other workers within the private sector. This support undoubtedly reflected a wider disgust and disillusionment with the ANC. During the strike tensions began to emerge within the Tripartite alliance of the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The pro-capitalist and anti-worker nature of the present South African government was shown by the deployment of state forces against peaceful protests during the strike who used stun grenades against the protesters. The strike ended with the leadership of COSATU accepting a 7.5% pay increase, far short of the original demand of 12%.
Socialist future
As in Latin America the neo-liberal offensive against the rights and conditions of working people in Africa has laid the basis for the emergence of important class movements throughout the continent. These struggles initially are of a defensive character with the working class seeking to defend its lot against governments that are bowing to the diktats of the IMF and the multinationals it represents. Struggles such as these however can lead to a politicisation of wider sections of society as it becomes clear to the working class that their current governments are representing the interesting of mulitinational capitalism.
Real freedom and independence will only come when the continent’s resources are put under the ownership and control of working people instead of it being pillaged to boost the profits of parasitic corporations such as Shell. A socialist federation of Africa linked with an international struggle for socialism could end the poverty, want and war that scars it and fulfill the aspirations of its people.
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