San Jose, CA – Dozens of San Jose community members attended San Jose Against War’s educational mini-series for Black August, honoring Black resistance and liberation struggles around the world. The series consisted of two educational programs, one focusing on Haiti and the other focusing on the Confederation of Sahel States.

The educational event about Haiti was on August 24. Guest speakers from Haiti Action Committee gave a presentation covering an extensive history of Haiti from its colonial exploitation by Spain and France, to the current role that the U.S. has played in toppling progressive governments.

“[Haiti] is poor, but like many countries, it’s been made poor,” said Judith Mirkinson from Haiti Action Committee. “At the time when they overthrew the French, it was France’s richest colony in itself. It generated more wealth than all the other colonies. It’s estimated that like 20% of the French economy came from Haiti.”

“When we look at the situation in Haiti today, it has its genesis in the long history of colonialism, but specifically it has its genesis in the 2004 coup,” said Mirkinson, referring to the coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“This was the most progressive government that Haiti ever had,” Mirkinson stated about Aristide’s time in office. “More schools were built in Haiti than in its entire history. He did literacy campaigns; he introduced hospitals and clinics.”

“Aristide was overthrown and a U.S.-UN occupation came in,” said Mirkinson. “The U.S., Britain, France, and Canada have bankrolled paramilitary death squads. This is a strategy to destroy society. They want the gold, they want minerals. They just want people to leave or die or whatever.”

On August 27, over two dozen community members gathered for the educational event about the Confederation of Sahel States, an anti-imperialist alliance between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The event featured guest speakers Inem Richardson of the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union and the Thomas Sankara Center, and Akubundu Amazu Lott of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party.

“The first coup that led to the Alliance of Sahel States happened in Mali in 2021,” said Richardson. “For several years before the coup happened there was this emerging budding anti-imperialist movement that kept growing. The people first called for the alliance. In July of last year, the three countries became the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States.”

“For the first time in a long time Burkina Faso is nationalizing its gold reserves,” stated Richardson. “Niger is nationalizing its uranium deposits. Africa’s largest solar power field is being built right now in Mali. It’s this massive transformation.”

“These countries ended a lot of different forms of collaboration with countries in the NATO bloc and started to move towards collaborating more with countries like Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela and Cuba,” Richardson continued. “Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger share a lot in common with these countries in terms of how they’ve been targeted by imperialists.”

“There are U.S. sanctions on Mali right now. The European Union is sanctioning Mali and Niger,” Richardson said. “The propaganda war is enormous, adding that Western media “has come down really hard against these three countries.”

“There’s been reports stating that AFRICOM, the U.S. military, now that it’s been chased out of Niger, is working to create a drone base in the Ivory Coast. The U.S. is trying to move to the border of the Alliance of Sahel States,” stated Richardson. “In this moment, we really need to focus on protecting and defending these revolutions.”

#SanJoseCA #CA #International #Haiti #Sahel #Africa #OppressedNationalities #HAC #AAWRU #AAPRP

St. Paul, MN – On February 8, in honor of Black History Month, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) presented an educational panel titled “Black Against Empire: Perspectives On Liberation In Haiti, Congo, Sudan, and the U.S.A.”

The panel was held at Macalester College in Saint Paul. Experts, activists and community leaders spoke about the timelines, struggles and victories of African people throughout history against imperialist oppression.

The panelists included Frank Chapman, head of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR); Nick Tolliver, member of the AWC; Mohammed Farah, member of Healthcare Workers For Palestine, along with a written statement submitted by Ruben Joanem of the Haiti Justice Committee. Facilitating the event were Liz Bolsoni from the AWC and Trahern Crews from Black Lives Matter Minnesota.

“The bottom line is, we have to fight our way out of this. We can’t analyze our way out of it. We can’t pray our way out of it. We’ve got to fight our way out of it,” Chapman said. “We’re building a mass movement, and we’ve got to build even greater.” Chapman is the Executive Director of NAARPR, field organizer of its Chicago chapter, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and sits on the Central Committee of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

“The exploitation of the Congo is the beating heart of the global capitalist system and our collective liberation from imperialism and capitalism is bound together with the liberation of the Congo,” said Tolliver, who provided a history of liberation struggles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tolliver is an anti-war activist and self-proclaimed “Black history nerd” who is passionate about Congo solidarity and African liberation.

Farah was born and raised in Khartoum, Sudan, and works as a hospital pharmacist in Minnesota while pursuing a graduate degree in public health. Farah expanded on the cultural foundation of Sudan found in art and poetry. He said, “Poets are the embodiment of the soul of a nation. It creates the spirit of Sudanese nationalism.”

As presentations and speeches concluded, a dialogue was opened between the panelists and the audience to further discuss issues that Black people have historically faced and how they tie in with modern struggles connected with capitalism and imperialism.

The final question asked was about the future of community organizing around Black liberation, to which Chapman closed with the statement, “Well, the future is always now. And the future belongs to those who are willing to fight for it.”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #International #Africa #Sudan #Congo #StudentMovement #NAARPR #MNAWC #BLM

Chicago, IL – “We are busy building a new nation out of the embers of apartheid, and if we had sanctions and American companies withdrawing from South Africa it would devastate our country and create a total disaster,” said Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

Pandor is visiting the United States and speaking out against the U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Bill, which passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a vote of 36-13. The bill accuses South Africa of having a “history of siding with malign actors,” namely Hamas, Russia and China. It further says South Africa’s international relations policies “undermine United States national security and foreign policy interests.”

Pandor spoke during a meeting on Sunday with representatives of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR).

“We have become a target because we have been so prominent in our steadfast support of the just cause of the Palestinian people,” Pandor explained. The bill is being pushed through the U.S. Congress in retaliation for South Africa charging Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Israel has killed over 36,000 Palestinians in the six months since October 7, 2023, with the help of billions of U.S. tax dollars sent by President Joe Biden and the U.S. government

“For decades South Africa has been one of the strongest supporters of Palestinian liberation,” Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair of USPCN elaborated after the meeting. “We condemn the U.S. government’s attempt to punish South Africa for opposing the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” and noted “the millions who have stood for a free Palestine will also defend South Africa.”

The bill was introduced by Republican John James from Michigan and Democrat Jared Moskowitz from Florida. It will now face a vote in the House of Representatives. If it passes, South Africa could face the kind of sanctions that attempt to destroy economies and starve millions in countries like Venezuela, Iraq, Syria and Zimbabwe.

“This bill is an attack on a sovereign nation for exercising its right to self-determination,” commented Frank Chapman, NAARPR executive director. Chapman and other members of NAARPR and USPCN discussed the importance of Black and Palestinian solidarity in ensuring the success of both liberation struggles.

“Those of us who've been in the movement for a long time have seen plenty of attacks like this. We've never been confused about supporting Palestine, South Africa or anyone who's fighting against imperialism,” Chapman said.

The next night Pandor spoke at a reception dinner at the DuSable Museum of African American History alongside Reverend Otis Moss of Trinity United Church of Christ and Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter. She saluted veterans of the anti-apartheid solidarity movement and uplifted the history of solidarity between oppressed people.

“Black people in South Africa and the U.S. share a common history and stand united against apartheid wherever it might be,” Pandor declared.

“South Africa is very near and dear to our hearts, so I will be on the phone tonight calling my congressman,” Senator Hunter said.

#ChicagoIL #IL #International #Africa #SouthAfrica #USPCN #CAARPR

Orlando, FL – On Saturday, September 16, around 45 community members gathered at Knowledge for Living in the Parramore district for an educational forum on U.S. and Western intervention in Haiti and West Africa. The event was hosted by the Revolutionary Education and Action League (REAL) and the Florida chapter of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).

The presentation began by highlighting the connection between imperialism abroad and political repression and police violence domestically. For example, the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program allows state and local police forces to acquire surplus military equipment including weapons, tanks, drones, and more for next to no cost. These highly militarized police agencies then serve as occupying forces in working-class and oppressed nationality communities. The police also utilize that same military-grade equipment to suppress popular movements, as seen most recently with the George Floyd uprisings in 2020 and in the current efforts to build Cop City in Atlanta.

On the other hand, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) operates 46 military bases across the African continent, with tens of thousands of troops currently stationed on African soil. In many cases, the police and militaries in these African countries receive training from U.S. and NATO military forces, and are taught the same tactics of oppression used here in the U.S.

“We cannot understand our struggle for justice, our struggle against police brutality as isolated from what's happening in Nigeria, what’s happening in Burkina Faso, what’s happening in Haiti or what’s happening in any part of the world resisting imperialism. We have to understand that we have more in common with the poor and working-class masses, with those youth fighting back against police violence than we do with the people in power here,” said Onyesonwu Chatoyer of the A-APRP. 

Chatoyer then laid out the historical and political context through which imperialism and neocolonialism arose. This gave the audience the background necessary to understand the recent anti-colonial military take overs springing up throughout West Africa and the Western imperialist meddling in Haiti. 

The main goal of these military takeovers, spearheaded by military leaders like Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso and Abdourahamane Tchiani in Niger, is to secure their country’s natural resources and sever the extractive and exploitative relationship with Western imperial powers, namely France and the U.S. For example, one in three lightbulbs in France are powered using electricity generated by nuclear power using uranium ore extracted from Niger. At the same time however, 80% of Nigeriens do not have access to electricity in their own homes. Shutting down foreign military bases and kicking out foreign – namely French and U.S. – troops occupying the land is part and parcel with this goal.

One of the main ways we can support revolutionary movements – not just in Africa but around the world – is to staunchly oppose U.S. economic sanctions against these progressive governments, sanctions which only serve to crush and starve the everyday people of these countries. Chatoyer added, “The same that we show up for Cuba, that we show up for Nicaragua, that we show up for Venezuela, we have to show up for Niger, for Zimbabwe, for Azania, for Algeria.”

REAL and A-APRP hope to host more educational forums for the community, especially in the Pine Hills and Parramore district, one of Orlando’s historically Black neighborhoods. Their next event will be on Saturday, September 30 at the Hiawassee Branch Library. See @aaprpflorida on Instagram for more information.

#OrlandoFL #Africa #Haiti #Imperialism

Milwaukee, WI – On August 26, organizers with the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC) and their supporters, numbering around 20 in total, gathered in downtown Milwaukee to protest the threats of the U.S. government at intervening in the internal politics of the west African country of Niger.

Remi Schueler, the emcee of the event, began by explaining the situation in Niger to the crowd that had gathered. A month before, a military government took power in Niger, led by the commander general of the presidential guard, Abdourahamane Tchiani. Tchiani quickly proclaimed that Niger would no longer be welcoming to former colonial powers and that the wealth of the country would no longer be freely accessible to them. Further, Tchiani moved to align with other recently established governments in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso.

These decisions did not sit well with the U.S government and their European allies. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a Western-aligned organization that threatened combined military intervention if Tchiani and his new government do not step aside. Mass protests have occurred in Niger demonstrating support for the Tchiani leadership and their new anti-colonial outlook.

The crowd in Milwaukee stood in solidarity with the mass protests in Niger, chanting, “From Niger to the Philippines, end the U.S. war machine!” “Hands off Niger!” and “Got money for war? Feed the poor!”

The spirited group marched from their initial meet-up location of Red Arrow Park to City Hall, where they stopped to hear speeches from Milwaukee Anti-war Committee, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR), Students for a Democratic Society chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (SDS-UWM), and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Farzad Ghodsi, speaking for MAC, brought up the real reason that the U.S. is so interested in intervening in Niger, stating, “Democracy is clearly not under threat in Niger, so what possible reason do the U.S. and France have for this intervention? Perhaps what’s more important for the U.S. are the three, formerly four, active drone bases that give them the power to unilaterally kill anyone they see fit in the region in coordination with their AFRICOM bases.”

Offering perspectives from other areas of organizing, Alan Chavoya of MAARPR and Patricia Fish of SDS-UWM connected the events in Niger to the struggles of Black and brown people in the U.S. and the student movement respectively. They both stressed the Nigerien people’s right to self-determination and related it to the denial of rights at home. Fish said, “the U.S. doesn’t care about the people of other countries – they don’t even care about their own people. All that matters to the American government and military is resources, money, and power.”

Sam Charnon from FRSO followed them up by naming that the exploitation of Niger and other countries in Africa did not simply “happen.” He said, “When the billionaires and corporations find that their own countries are overripe from exploitation, their insatiable pursuit of profit turns them towards other parts of the world.”

After four rousing speeches, the group marched back to Red Arrow Park, with chants of “Hands off Niger! Hands off Africa!” filling the air.

#MilwaukeeWI #AntiwarMovement #Africa #Niger

New Orleans, LA- On August 12, New Orleans students and their supporters demonstrated during a 120-degree heat index against the potential U.S. intervention in the West African country of Niger. They gathered on the University of New Orleans campus with the group Students United UNO and chanted under a Nigerien flag and a banner reading “US: Hands off Africa.” Demonstrators passed information handouts to students as they returned to campus on move-in day.

The demonstration comes days after Nigerien leaders refused to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and pro-West military forces taking positions around Nigerien borders. Nuland had visited the country to threaten the new government with economic warfare such as sanctions and an end to humanitarian aid.

“Having troops on the border and saying that you want to talk peace is like putting a loaded gun on the table before starting a conversation,” said Loyola Young Democratic Socialists of America member Carson Cruse

Since the military overthrew the former Nigerien president in late July, it has moved to end French control over resources in the country. It has also demanded that France remove all troops from the territory of Niger, which France has refused. France exploited Niger as a colony until 1960 and has retained enormous economic power in the country until the recent coup.

“This is an issue that has more to do with dictating who has rights over the economic policies of a nation. Not some kind of farce about what America thinks that democracy should look like,” said Antonia Mar of New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police.

#NewOrleansLA #International #AntiwarMovement #Africa #Protest #Niger

The events were the result of decades-long discontent with the Bazoum government; poor conditions and societal breakdown in Niger resulting from economic stagnancy, high cost of living, periodic drought and desertification leading to poor agricultural yield, and the rise of religious extremism.

These conditions in Niger, however, did not arise out of the blue. Niger, despite having high percentages of uranium ore, gold and coal, remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The poverty and generally terrible conditions of Niger were the result of the country being for many decades compliant with Western countries, such as France and the United States.

France had a direct role in the arm twisting and manipulation of Niger's political system. Through the deployment of troops, in their so called “anti-jihadist” campaign, France was able to secure its material and resource interests from Niger. Despite independence from France in 1960, Niger and the larger Sahel region has seen resource exploitation by France.

About 48 to 51% of the uranium ore extracted from Niger is utilized in the nuclear power plants in France for electricity, while at the same time, 80% of the Nigeriens do not have access to electricity in their homes.

On July 29,  people came in large numbers outside of the French embassy in Niamey to defend the military takeover, calling out the decades long exploitation by France. After taking power, Abdourahamane Tchiani openly said Niger would immediately stop the export of uranium and gold to France.

The result of the curtailment on uranium exports resulted in the Biden administration putting out a statement saying they would halt financial aid to Niger. Abdourahamane Tchiani replied to this statement in a video saying that “Charity should begin at home,” and suggested the United States utilize this aid to feed the millions of homeless inside of the U.S.

The pro-Western allies of the African Union and a section of the ECOWAS group – Nigeria, Liberia, Benin and Guinea Bissau – condemned the coup. This prompted a threat of military invasion from these countries.

On July 30, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Twitter, “I strongly welcome and support ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments to defend constitutional order in Niger” thereby urging intervention in Niger. Soon after, France decided to pull out French nationals from Niger.

However, during the Russia-Africa summit, Ibrahim Traore of the new government of Burkina Faso provided support to Niger. At the conference he said, “A slave that does not rebel does not deserve pity. The African Union must stop condemning Africans who decide to fight against their own puppet regimes of the West.”  Traore came to power in 2022 and immediately banned the export of uranium to France as well.

On July 31, Leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso put out a statement saying that they would declare war on the ECOWAS countries in the event that the new goverment was overturned in Niger. Algeria and later Guinea also provided support militarily to Niger.

The results of the coup are worth following and the next days will show the results and fallout of the event.

#Niger #Africa

New York, NY – A crowd of over 50 people gathered in front of the United Nations on Saturday, September 24 to rally in solidarity with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who spoke at the UN a couple days before. The group was also protesting the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, which they stated are illegal. Despite the sanctions, President Mnangagwa has started making progress toward ending poverty and hunger, as well as implementing various infrastructure projects to help build Zimbabwe and maintain independence from U.S. influence.

The action was called for by the December 12th Movement and included speakers from Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, as well as other anti-imperialist movements standing up against the United States. All speakers emphasized the importance of independence for Zimbabwe and all African countries that have been colonized by Britain and subjected to U.S. imperialism. A small group of counter-protesters tried to disrupt the rally, but the crowd maintained focus and out-chanted the detractors.

After the rally, the crowd marched down the streets of New York, demanding U.S. hands off Zimbabwe.

#NewYorkCityNY #AntiwarMovement #InternationalSolidarity #antiimperialism #Zimbabwe #Africa

New York, NY – A crowd of over 50 people gathered in front of the United Nations on Saturday, September 24 to rally in solidarity with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who spoke at the UN a couple days before. The group was also protesting the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, which they stated are illegal. Despite the sanctions, President Mnangagwa has started making progress toward ending poverty and hunger, as well as implementing various infrastructure projects to help build Zimbabwe and maintain independence from U.S. influence.

The action was called for by the December 12th Movement and included speakers from Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, as well as other anti-imperialist movements standing up against the United States. All speakers emphasized the importance of independence for Zimbabwe and all African countries that have been colonized by Britain and subjected to U.S. imperialism. A small group of counter-protesters tried to disrupt the rally, but the crowd maintained focus and out-chanted the detractors.

After the rally, the crowd marched down the streets of New York, demanding U.S. hands off Zimbabwe.

#AntiwarMovement #InternationalSolidarity #antiimperialism #Zimbabwe #NewYorkCity #Africa

New York, NY – A crowd of over 50 people gathered in front of the United Nations on Saturday, September 24 to rally in solidarity with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who spoke at the UN a couple days before. The group was also protesting the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, which they stated are illegal. Despite the sanctions, President Mnangagwa has started making progress toward ending poverty and hunger, as well as implementing various infrastructure projects to help build Zimbabwe and maintain independence from U.S. influence.

The action was called for by the December 12th Movement and included speakers from Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, as well as other anti-imperialist movements standing up against the United States. All speakers emphasized the importance of independence for Zimbabwe and all African countries that have been colonized by Britain and subjected to U.S. imperialism. A small group of counter-protesters tried to disrupt the rally, but the crowd maintained focus and out-chanted the detractors.

After the rally, the crowd marched down the streets of New York, demanding U.S. hands off Zimbabwe.

#AntiwarMovement #InternationalSolidarity #antiimperialism #Zimbabwe #NewYorkCity #Africa

New York, NY – A crowd of over 50 people gathered in front of the United Nations on Saturday, September 24 to rally in solidarity with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who spoke at the UN a couple days before. The group was also protesting the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, which they stated are illegal. Despite the sanctions, President Mnangagwa has started making progress toward ending poverty and hunger, as well as implementing various infrastructure projects to help build Zimbabwe and maintain independence from U.S. influence.

The action was called for by the December 12th Movement and included speakers from Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, as well as other anti-imperialist movements standing up against the United States. All speakers emphasized the importance of independence for Zimbabwe and all African countries that have been colonized by Britain and subjected to U.S. imperialism. A small group of counter-protesters tried to disrupt the rally, but the crowd maintained focus and out-chanted the detractors.

After the rally, the crowd marched down the streets of New York, demanding U.S. hands off Zimbabwe.

#NewYorkNY #InternationalSolidarity #Zimbabwe #Africa

Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Anti-War Committee (AWC) introduced the event by describing how drone strikes in Somalia escalated under the Trump administration, and how President Joe Biden is continuing Trump’s devastating policies. “The fact is that Biden amping this up again has us very much concerned,” Aby-Keirstead stated. “We know from Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran and Syria, that U.S. airstrikes kill civilians, increase anti-U.S. resentment, and violate sovereignty on a daily basis.”

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations-Minnesota (CAIR-MN), who recently visited his home country of Somalia, provided the main presentation, covering the history of U.S. intervention in Somalia and the ensuing political instability. He described how the U.S. has been intervening politically, economically and militarily in Somalia since the Cold War, including troop deployments beginning during the Somali Civil War of the 1990s.

Hussein explained that in 2006, after a long period when Somalia had no functional government, a group of religious leaders known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) armed themselves and restored a functioning government in southern Somalia. The U.S. designated the ICU as a “terrorist” group and backed an Ethiopian military intervention that destabilized Somalia once again, which, according to Hussein, led to the growth of more armed groups like Al-Shabaab. He said that U.S. foreign policy “literally created terrorists,” adding, “In 2006, if the U.S. just listened to the Somalis, and just allowed us to move forward and not intervene, Somalia today would be projected in a totally different way.”

According to the New America think tank, the U.S. to date has carried out 269 known drone strikes in Somalia, estimated to have killed almost 2000 people in total, including many civilians, with the most recent strike taking place on July 17, 2022. Hussein described how many Somalis know or are related to someone who has been killed by an American drone strike.

Hussein criticized the U.S.’s efforts to ameliorate the ongoing famine in Somalia, noting, “In situations like right now, drone strikes could actually further exaggerate the famine.” Hussein highlighted the role of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in helping weaken the country’s agricultural industry, by flooding the local market with cheap food produced by U.S. farming monopolies instead of supporting Somali farmers. “The United States policy on food, whether it’s during war or in peacetime – both are wrong. USAID completely annihilates every farming community that exists in the Third World,” Hussein explained. “There is no intention of actually solving the food security issues in these communities.”

Hussein also called attention to state repression of the Somali diaspora community in the U.S. “The FBI continues to target the Somali community in Minnesota. They have a clear distaste for the Somali community,” he said. CAIR-MN helps represent Somalis in the Twin Cities who face FBI harassment and abuse.

“The United States has no interest in helping the people of Somalia, of Ethiopia, of Kenya, in any other way than to have their military have access to do what they want,” Hussein concluded. “We do not ship our American hospitality. We ship our cowboy racist white supremacy.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Imperialism #Somalia #Africa

Minneapolis, MN – On June 1, 40 people stood holding signs that read, “No troops! No drones! U.S. hands off Somalia!” and “Troops home now!” on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

The Biden administration announced that 400 to 500 U.S. troops will be going to Somalia and that the U.S. plans to increase drone strike activities against Somali targets.

A statement issued by Women Against Military Madness and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign organizers said, “U.S. troops do not fight terrorism, U.S. drone strikes do not bring democracy. Join the June 1 Bridge Peace Vigil to say no to yet another endless U.S. military intervention.”

The weekly peace vigil is sponsored by Women Against Military Madness and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #International #AntiwarMovement #Africa #PeoplesStruggles #Somalia #WomenAgainstMilitaryMadnessWAMM

The protests were largely led by the National Consensus Forces (NCF), an alliance consisting of political parties including the Sudanese Communist Party, the Sudanese Baath Party, the National Umma Party, and the Sudanese Congress Party, amongst others, with the Sudanese Communist Party being the largest and most active party.

The NCF, along with the Sudanese Professionals Association, an association of 17 different trade unions, and the Sudan Revolutionary Front, a rebel group against Omar Al-Bashir, came together and formed the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), a wide coalition against the rule of Omar al-Bashir.

A military junta created after the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir held on to power, promising a “transition” to democracy sometime in the future. That military council leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the ground forces of the army under Omar Al-Bashir, faced strong opposition from groups who participated in the Sudanese revolution, most notably the Sudanese Communist Party, and protests continued after the formation of the military junta.

On June 3, 2019, the Sudanese military, along with a pro-government paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), composed of former Janjaweed members, an ultranationalist paramilitary that fought on the Sudanese government's side in the Darfur War, opened fire on protesters against military rule in Khartoum, killing over 100 demonstrators.

In response to these protests, the military agreed to the formation of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, a ruling body composed of five representatives of the FFC and five representatives of the military to theoretically share power equally amongst the two groups. In reality however, the military exercised greater control of the Sovereignty Council than the FFC, with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan serving as its chairman. The Sovereignty Council's deputy chairman was Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed Hemetti, the commander of the Rapid Defense Forces, and richest man in Sudan after he used the RSF to seize control of Darfur's gold mines and establish the Al-Junaid Gold Mining Company.

The Sudanese military junta enjoys strong support from the United States, who pretend to care about “democracy” in Sudan while at the same time, offering training to the military, as well as offering a military partnership to Sudan through the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). The military junta is also supported by the Zionist entity of Israel, which the military junta normalized relations with in exchange for a military partnership with the United States, and a lifting of Sudan from the U.S. “List of State Sponsors of Terrorism”, a list made to attempt to delegitimize governments which don't align with U.S. imperialist foreign policy.

The military junta of Sudan discarded Sudan's historical support to the Palestinian struggle in order to ally closer with the United States. On January 25, 2021, senior AFRICOM leaders met in Khartoum for two days with members of the Sudanese military to discuss details of a new military partnership between the United States and Sudan, all while the Sudanese military was participating in bloody repression against protesters for democracy in the country.

The Sovereignty Council appointed Abdalla Hamdok, a liberal politician as prime minister of Sudan. Hamdok held relatively nominal power in comparison to the military, which still retained control of most state institutions in the country. Hamdok used his position as prime minister to pass a series of reforms relating to agriculture and women's rights. On October 25, 2021, Hamdok, his cabinet, and many of his supporters were detained by the military, and the Sovereignty Council disbanded. The coup by the military resulted in mass protests, led largely by the Sudanese Communist Party and the Sudanese Professionals Association, who also encouraged workers to go on strike across the country against the military's attempt at gaining complete control of the country.

On November 21, 2021, Hamdok was reinstated as prime minister and his cabinet freed from prison after a political agreement with the military formulated by the United States to attempt to internationally legitimize the military junta.

The agreement reinstated Hamdok as the prime minister in name only while the military still remained in control of the country. The agreement was lauded by the U.S. as well as other Western imperialist nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union as a triumph of “democracy” while groups opposed to the military junta in Sudan, such as the Sudanese Communist Party saw through the agreement, and condemned Abdalla Hamdok's capitulation to the military junta in exchange for being released from prison while bloody repression continues against protesters.

The Sudanese Communist Party and the Sudanese Professionals Association have called for a continuation of mass demonstrations and strikes to demand an end to the military government. “It was clear to the masses from the beginning of the December Revolution in 2018 that our struggle does not have the sympathy of international agencies, the media and governments of Western or other African countries. But the people and people’s movements across the world are standing in solidarity with the Sudanese people who will continue to fight on,” stated Osama Saeed, a protester who is also a member of the Sudanese Communist Party.

#DallasTX #Sudan #PeoplesStruggles #Africa

Dallas, TX – Hundreds of members of Dallas's large Ethiopian community rallied outside Dallas City Hall on November 21 against U.S. intervention in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The protest was associated with the nationwide #NoMore movement and was called by community members, though the rally was also attended by members of the All African People's Revolutionary Party and the Dallas Anti-War Committee.

A community spokeswoman talked about the sanctions and diplomatic moves that the Biden administration has taken against Ethiopia in recent weeks, stating, “The Biden administration actions are a pretext to get military intervention in the form of a peace mission to ultimately overthrow a democratically elected Ethiopian government and restore the TPLF back to power.”

All African People's Revolutionary Party member Bandele Johnson read off a list of people killed by the Tigreyan People's Liberation Front in recent months, pausing after each name for the crowd to yell “no more.”

Jo Hargis, from the Dallas Anti-War Committee, urged the community to get organized, to realize their own power, and to continue the fight. “I want to talk about seeing the same lies about Ethiopia that we have seen time and time again used to manufacture consent, used to get people to agree to wars that are against human beings, that are against people, and that only serve the wealthy, only serve the rich and the people in power, especially in the United States,” they said.

Daniel Sullivan from the Dallas Anti-War Committee explained the committee's position on the conflict: “As some of the speakers at this rally have said, African problems need African solutions. The current civil war in Ethiopia is a tragedy for the Ethiopian people. But the role of the United States in these conflicts is almost always to pour oil on the fire. Only Ethiopians can settle this and find a peaceful path for their country, and the U.S. must stay out.”

Among the chants at the rally was one that recalled Bob Marley: “One Africa, one nation, one love.”

#DallasTX #AntiwarMovement #Africa #PeoplesStruggles #Ethiopia

The MN Anti-War Committee organized multiple protests, including one of 15,000 people in downtown Minneapolis in January 2017, to protest the Trump’s Muslim ban.

The MN Anti-War Committee has initiated a call-in day for January 27 and are asking their supporters to call their members of Congress to tell them to take action to stop the president from targeting more immigrant communities

The MN Anti-War Committee also announced they will call an emergency response protest if the president expands the travel ban. The protest will take place at the Federal Building at 4th Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Minneapolis at 5 p.m. within 24 hours of the announcement. Supporters can go to AntiwarMN on Facebook or Twitter or to antiwarcommittee.org for details for up-to-date information about our emergency response protest.

Wyatt Miller, an organizer with the Anti-War Committee explained the importance of this potential ban to Fight Back!, “Regardless which countries make the final list, the underlying message of Trump’s expanded travel ban will be the same: no independent or non-aligned nation in the world is safe from U.S. pressure. Travel bans are a form of coercive sanctions and Trump has shown he’s willing to exploit racism and xenophobia to build support for them. As an issue at the intersection of immigrant rights, anti-imperialism and anti-racism, all progressive people in the U.S. have a duty to oppose this.”

#MinneapolisMN #International #AntiwarMovement #Sudan #US #Africa #Asia #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #AntiWarCommittee #DonaldTrump #TravelBan

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for some socialists in the United States last year when Robert Mugabe resigned as president of Zimbabwe. Far from celebrating the achievements of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, or even just taking an even-handed look at the successes and challenges facing the Southern African nation, a number of voices on the U.S. left seized the opportunity to smear the 93 year-old liberation leader’s legacy.

Zimbabwe underwent a tense but peaceful transition of power in November 2017 that saw Mugabe leave office after 37 years as head of state. Though the usual denunciations of Mugabe as a ‘tyrant’ came from the U.S. and British press, the left-wing journal Jacobin joined in the chorus, publishing some of the sorriest articles on Zimbabwe ever.

Jacobin is a social democratic publication that sometimes carries insightful articles about the U.S. economy and the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party. But for all their talk of socialism, they’re remarkably comfortable parroting the State Department’s line on many international issues.

So it is with Zimbabwe.

Writing in Jacobin on December 5, 2017, Benjamin Fogel asks “Why do so many Western leftists defend Robert Mugabe?” According to Fogel, Mugabe did absolutely nothing right. The charges made by Fogel are all familiar to anyone who has read a BBC or CNN article on Zimbabwe in the last 20 years: rampant corruption, opulent wealth, eliminating political opponents and using the nation’s fast-track land reform to enrich his “cronies.” But Fogel takes it one step further claiming “that Mugabe and ZANU-PF betrayed the national liberation struggle” in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle

Let’s look at the facts. In Mugabe’s 37 years as head of state, Zimbabwe transitioned from decades of white-minority rule to an independent Black-majority republic. Under British colonial rule, Zimbabwe – then known as Southern Rhodesia, named after the genocidal imperialist Cecil Rhodes – existed as an apartheid state, where a tiny class of white plantation owners possessed most of the nation’s land and natural resources. A 1962 survey by the Rhodesian government found that while Europeans comprised just 1/16th of the population, they owned more than half of the country’s land—and 82% of the fertile land!

Land hunger by the indigenous Black population fueled the nation’s liberation struggle. Led by the Zimbabwean African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwean African People’s Union (ZAPU), a popular insurgency of workers, peasants and farmers defeated the Rhodesian Army – and its apartheid South African backers – in 1979.

Mugabe, one of the founders of ZANU, played an instrumental role in the liberation war’s victory, suffering 12 years of imprisonment by Rhodesian president Ian Smith, training guerrilla fighters in neighboring Mozambique, and crafting political and battlefield strategy. It’s hard for many activists in the U.S. to grasp the level of sacrifice it takes to spend 12 years in prison fighting for liberation, but it doesn’t excuse Fogel or Jacobin’s trite dismissal.

ZANU and ZAPU signed the Lancaster House Agreement with Britain and the U.S. in 1979, bringing an end to the liberation war and bringing majority-rule democracy to Zimbabwe. According to the terms of Lancaster House, the newly formed government of Zimbabwe agreed to a gradual land reform, whereby Britain and the U.S. would subsidize the purchase of land from white settlers and its redistribution to the indigenous black population. In total, both countries pledged around $1 billion in aid to Zimbabwe.

The people elected Mugabe prime minister in 1980 because of his revolutionary leadership. But while victorious, Mugabe inherited enormous economic damage inflicted by the white-minority Rhodesian government and severe underdevelopment in the countryside. Worse yet, Britain paid only a fraction of its obligation and the U.S. paid nothing at all. White landowners took advantage of the agreement, only selling fallow land to the government – at a markup! Fogel pays only lip-service to these obstacles, treating them as an after-thought rather than the set of concrete conditions that Mugabe’s government faced.

More tellingly, Fogel completely ignores the devastating foreign intervention by apartheid South Africa in the 1980s aimed at crushing independent African governments, Zimbabwe included. South Africa sent troops to back Ian Smith’s white minority regime as it terrorized indigenous Black Zimbabweans during the liberation struggle, but even after independence, South African destabilization cost Zimbabwe a staggering $10 billion – more than 14 times the total debt left by the deposed Rhodesian government – according to a 1998 study by Joseph Hanlon of the London School of Economics. The disturbances in Mtebeleland during the 1980s, which Fogel also cites, trace back to South African-backed death squads and arms shipments to anti-government rebels in the countryside.

In the 1990s, a series of the worst droughts in modern Zimbabwean history added fuel to the fire of Western betrayal. These challenges forced the government to take loans from international creditors in order to pay workers’ wages, finance future land reform efforts, and continue funding successful social programs, like the public education system. Like countless oppressed nations have experienced though, the IMF and World Bank never loan money without strings attached.

Fast-Track Land Reform

Mugabe’s government found itself between a rock and a hard place, as international creditors pushed for austerity measures while the U.S. and Britain continued to ignore their obligations. War veterans launched protests demanding more radical measures, and trade unions struck government services demanding raises. Something had to give – and it did in 1999, when liberation war veterans began directly organizing peasants, workers, and the urban poor to seize land from white owners.

While initially concerned that the land occupations would worsen the nation’s economic situation, Mugabe’s government came to embrace these actions. In the year 2000, the ruling ZANU-PF party, led by Mugabe, codified these land occupations in the constitution as the ‘Fast Track Land Reform Program’.

This is where the Jacobin drive-by of Mugabe really hits the skids. Fogel offers some mealy-mouthed praise for the “popular movement performing actual land reform” while also making the tired claim that Mugabe “hijacked the land reform project, ensuring his family and their cronies made off with the prime land.”

But that’s just a bald-faced lie. According to a study of Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform published in 2013 by Joseph Hanlon, J. M. Manjengwa and Teresa Smart, “less than 5% of new farmers with under 10% of the land are ‘cronies’ [of the government]” – a term they heavily criticize as a vague political slur.

In actuality, the vast majority of the land reform recipients were workers, peasants, and farmers. Ian Scoones’ groundbreaking 2010 study of Zimbabwe’s land reform found that 54% of recipients of individual land plots were peasants and farmers, 12% were workers or urban poor people, 17% were civil service workers, ranging from teachers to public sector workers, 4% were security services personnel, 5% were business people, and 8% were former farm workers. For the larger commercial farms, 12% of land recipients were peasants/farmers, 44% were workers or urban poor, 26% were civil service, 2% were security service personnel, 10% were business people, and 5% were former farmworkers.

From 2000 to 2013, 169,000 Black Zimbabwean farmers and their families received land, making it the single-largest and most progressive land reform in the history of Africa. Compare this to South Africa, where white landowners still possess over 73% of the nation’s land 14 years after the end of apartheid, and its clear that Zimbabwe’s example is something to celebrate.

For years, the State Department and the British government churned out this garbage of land reform “cronyism,” which wasn’t backed up by any data, and the corporate media was more than willing to publish it. But by 2009, study after study disproved the claim that the land reform had only benefitted Mugabe’s “cronies.” With so much data at their disposal, Fogel and Jacobin are either stuck in the mid-2000s or just willingly ignorant.

Socialism and National Democratic Revolution

The weirdest part of Fogel’s article is how much time he spends denouncing the idea of “Mugabe as a socialist revolutionary” – an idea I’ve only seen published in the Wall Street Journal.

While Marxism heavily influenced both ZANU and Mugabe during the liberation struggle, Zimbabwe did not pursue a socialist path after independence. Like many oppressed nations that overthrew colonialism in the post-WWII period, Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle was a national democratic revolution, which brought together all classes opposed to imperialism. The government led by Mugabe and ZANU-PF was national democratic, not socialist.

But as socialists living in the United States – the largest and most violent imperialist country on earth – it’s our duty to support the struggles of oppressed nations to win their freedom, whether they’re socialist or not. Workers in the U.S. have a common interest with all people around the world fighting the same class of billionaires, banks and corporations that we do. That’s part of the material basis for international solidarity and Jacobin just doesn’t do that.

Fogel’s opportunism reaches new heights when he compares Mugabe’s government to two other national democratic projects: the socialist-led government in Venezuela, and Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya. While acknowledging that “Venezuela suffers from serious economic problems,” he quickly adds that the oil-rich Latin American nation “reached heights far beyond those in Zimbabwe.” Incredibly, he also writes that Qaddafi “at least built a semi-decent welfare state for Libyans.”

Oh my! What a stunning reversal for Jacobin, which published a disgraceful hit-piece on Venezuela just five months earlier (see: “ Being Honest About Venezuela” by Mike Gonzalez) and gave hand-wringing support for the NATO-backed Libyan rebels in 2011, who now operate open-air slave markets along the Mediterranean (see: “ Libya and the Left” by Peter Frase).

One wonders what kind of outcome Fogel and the editors at Jacobin would like to see for Zimbabwe. Is it one where the U.S. and British-backed Movement for a Democratic Change (MDC) come to power? MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a sell-out opportunist trade union leader, regularly meets with U.S. and British officials and lobbies for more devastating sanctions on his own nation. Would his pro-West party better advance Jacobin’s misguided concept of ‘socialism’? Or would they like an imaginary, non-existent clique of perfect socialist revolutionaries, with well-worn copies of Jacobin’ s holiday issue tucked in their coat pockets, coming to power like they wanted for Libya in 2011?

Liberation from Zimbabwe to the U.S.A.

While this issue may seem abstract to a lot of socialists in the U.S., some of the implications hit closer to home than many realize. For one, Zimbabwe still suffers far-reaching sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Britain for taking back its land – under Mugabe’s government, no less. Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s promise of financial support in the Lancaster House Agreement goes unfulfilled, as does Britain’s obligations. The enormous economic challenges that Zimbabwe indeed faces today – from inflation to high unemployment – principally come from these outside factors. Socialists in the U.S. owe our support and international solidarity to the people of Zimbabwe as they continue struggling against imperialism.

But beyond the immediate economic struggles, there are many striking parallels between Zimbabwe’s ongoing liberation struggle and the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S.

These parallels weren’t lost on then-Rhodesian president Ian Smith, who looked to another former British colony ruled by a white minority when he issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. Smith saw a kinship with slaveowners like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who issued their own “UDI” in 1776. Indeed, Rhodesia’s UDI drew its textual inspiration from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, hoping to stave off the international pressures of decolonization.

Zimbabwe’s ‘civil war’ from 1966 to 1979 brought a majority-Black government to power, just as following the U.S. Civil War – the second American Revolution – the formerly enslaved Black population elected majority Republican state legislatures committed to equal rights, including a Black-majority legislature in South Carolina.

Reconstruction in the U.S. wasn’t a socialist revolution. It was a democratic revolution, whose aim was to bring the political and economic gains made under capitalist democracy to a section of the people – African Americans – that remained in literal slavery after the Revolution of 1776.

But in the U.S., the second revolution didn’t solve the land question. The guarantee of redistribution to the freed Black population – “40 acres and a mule,” promised in General Sherman’s Field Order 15 – went unfulfilled, and the white plantation class was allowed to keep their land and wealth. With their economic power intact, they used paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize the Black population and restore their political power by 1877.

Zimbabwe faced a similar dilemma in the late 1990s. The land question remained largely unresolved, with the white landowning class retaining most of their wealth and angling to restore their political power.

But the Zimbabwean people wrote their own history and took back their land. President Mugabe and ZANU-PF supported these efforts and codified them in the constitution – and they paid an enormous price for this, ranging from sanctions to foreign-backed destabilization. Whatever Mugabe’s shortcomings and mistakes – and he had plenty – his government represented the people’s continued national democratic struggle against imperialism.

Jacobin’s attacks on Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s national democratic revolution are just another sorry example of the chauvinism far too common in the U.S. Thankfully there are better examples of international solidarity we can look to, like the 1,000-plus crowd of African Americans who packed into Mount Olive Baptist Church in New York to hear Mugabe speak in 2000. While discussing land reform in his own nation, Mugabe expressed his solidarity for the fight against racism and white supremacy in the U.S.

Fogel’s piece seems preoccupied with the fate of ex-patriot intellectuals in Zimbabwe, and he seems very offended by the criticism of Jacobin’s position on social media. He doesn’t seem very concerned with the masses of ordinary Black Zimbabweans who, for the first time in a century, own their own land and control their own nation. He should probably spend less time on Facebook and Twitter, and more time organizing against the U.S. government’s imperialist designs for nations like Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Libya.

Jacobin, too, should consider that workers in the United States need every ally we can get in the fight against our own ruling class of billionaires, bankers and corporations. We should put our time and energy towards helping to break the shackles on independent nations, like Zimbabwe, rather than echoing the talking points of the rich and powerful.

#UnitedStates #OpEd #Zimbabwe #RobertMugabe #Jacobin #Africa

One of the CIA-trained proxy forces was called “The Brigade for purging slaves and black skin”- which sought to ethnically cleanse the Tawurgha area, was supported by NATO strikes from the air and on the ground by U.S. Special Forces. Tawergha was mostly inhabited by black Libyans, due to its 19-century origins as a transit town in the slave trade.

There was horrific video footage showing public lynchings of black soldiers from the Libyan army, migrant workers from other African countries, and any darker skinned Libyan civilians.

Human Rights Watch reported: “Dark skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans face particular risks because [the CIA-trained proxy forces] consider them pro-Gaddafi mercenaries.” Amnesty International also reported on the cruel detention of Libyans and other Africans by the CIA-trained proxy forces.

The myth of black mercenaries fighting to protect Libya from foreign occupiers was spread by NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu, British Defense Minister Liam Fox, and other Western leaders. This myth was useful to claim that the NATO invasion and occupation of Libya was actually a war “between Gaddafi and the Libyan people”, as if he had no domestic support at all – a colossal fabrication.

What did Gaddafi really do for Libyans, and African people as a whole? He openly challenged AFRICOM’s intent to establish U.S. military bases in Africa, and often backed national liberation movements, including that against Apartheid South Africa as a close ally of Mandela. He oversaw a range of projects intended to lessen African dependency on the West, and challenge the legacy of Western colonialism. By challenging Western military and economic domination over the whole of Africa, he was a rival to U.S. interests in real terms. U.S. companies such as ConocoPhillips, Marathon and Hess Energy have already profited from new oil contracts in Libya.

What does it mean when the West slanders an African head of state who promotes African economic independence, funds public housing and subsidizes incomes? It means that he is progressive. Western imperialism is trying to impose a dictatorship of capital on Africa. It must be stopped.

#ChicagoIL #Chicago #Libya #Slavery #Africa

Editor’s note: Fight Back! is publishing this informative analysis by Dave Schneider on the recent events in Zimbabwe. It contains the views of the author, and Fight Back! editors welcome commentary and responses from readers.

On Nov. 21, Robert Gabriel Mugabe resigned as president of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The resignation came amid impeachment proceedings in the Parliament of Zimbabwe initiated by Mugabe’s own party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). In a letter read by Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda to lawmakers, Mugabe tendered his resignation effective immediately.

Mugabe is succeeded by his former vice president and longtime liberation war leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was sworn in as interim president on Nov. 24. Mnangagwa, 75, was sacked as vice president earlier this month, sparking a dramatic military intervention that led to Mugabe’s resignation.

These explosive events mark the latest chapter in an intense political struggle within the ruling ZANU-PF party, which boiled over onto the whole nation on Nov. 15. A week after the sacking of Mnangagwa, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) moved into Harare, the capital, and secured Mugabe in his home in order to target “criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country,” according to a ZDF statement.

In the days that followed, First Lady Grace Mugabe, who at one time seemed poised to succeed Robert as president, left the country and had her party membership stripped by ZANU-PF. Several government officials closely tied to the Mugabes were removed from their posts. Most significantly, the ZANU-PF Central Committee and all ten party provinces voted unanimously to downgrade Robert Mugabe from First General Secretary of the party to a rank-and-file member on Nov. 19, setting the stage for his resignation two days later.

Many observers and authorities have labeled the ZDF’s intervention a ‘coup.’ Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Western-backed opposition Movement for a Democratic Change (MDC), jumped on the bandwagon, along with most of the Western media.

Notably, however, neither ZANU-PF, nor the military, nor Robert Mugabe himself have referred to the events as a coup. Indeed, while the military intervened in Zimbabwean politics, no unconstitutional change in government took place. Mugabe was not removed from power at any point until his resignation, which he called “voluntary.”

The dramatic events in Zimbabwe that led to this change in leadership were not a coup d’etat. Instead, they were the product of an intense struggle within ZANU-PF over succession and the direction of the country. With Mnangagwa as president, Zimbabwe enters a new chapter in its history marked with challenges and opportunities to build on the legacy of Mugabe.

ZANU-PF, Mugabe and the Liberation War Veterans

ZANU-PF is a revolutionary party that comes out of Zimbabwe’s national liberation struggle, known as the Second Chimurenga, which overthrew white-minority rule in 1979. Two parties led the 15-year liberation war: the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which had its social base among black peasants and farmworkers, and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). The two parties would later merge in 1988 to become the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

Land and freedom were the driving issues of the Second Chimurenga. White British settlers led by infamous mass murderer Cecil Rhodes colonized Zimbabwe and most of southern Africa in the 1880s. Calling it ‘Rhodesia’, the white settlers created a horrific racist state built on removing black peasants from their land and enforcing racial inequalities. A 1962 survey of land in Rhodesia found that white settlers – never more than 1/16th of the population – owned 51% of the land and 82% of the best land in the country, although by 1976, only 15% of their land was actively used.

This monstrous colonialism sparked resistance. Influenced by Marxism-Leninism and socialist guerrilla movements across Africa, ZANU and ZAPU waged an insurgency against Rhodesian President Ian Smith’s racist regime from 1966 to 1979. Thousands of black revolutionaries faced incarceration or death at the hands of white Rhodesian troops and their apartheid South African counterparts. Among those locked up was ZANU founder Robert Mugabe, a former school teacher incarcerated by Smith from 1963 to 1974.

ZANU and ZAPU signed the Lancaster House Agreement with Britain and the U.S. in 1979, ending decades of white-minority rule and transferring political power to the indigenous black majority. As part of the agreement, the newly formed government of Zimbabwe agreed to a gradual land reform, whereby Britain and the U.S. would subsidize the purchase of land from white settlers and its redistribution to the indigenous black population. In total, both countries pledged around $1 billion in aid to Zimbabwe toward this effort and redevelopment.

Robert Mugabe was elected prime minister in 1980, but he quickly encountered obstacles. Britain paid only a fraction of its obligation under the Lancaster Agreement, and the U.S. paid nothing at all. Worse yet, white farmers refused to sell the best farmland to the government, even land that they didn’t use. When these white farmers did sell land, it was over-tilled and priced much higher than its actual worth to the point where less than 19% of redistributed land from 1980 to 1992 was of prime value. Land hunger for the black majority continued.

By the late 1990s, war veterans of the liberation struggle became enraged at how little had changed in terms of land ownership. The influential Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association has worked closely with ZANU-PF throughout its history, but Zimbabwean war veterans also see themselves as guardians of the liberation struggle. Amidst a deteriorating economy, they began directly organizing peasants, workers and the urban poor to seize land from white owners – a campaign known as jambanja.

Under massive pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Mugabe initially opposed these land occupations. However, war veterans inside ZANU-PF called massive rallies, mobilized popular support and convinced Mugabe to back the process. In 2000, ZANU-PF and President Mugabe approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine the “Fast-Track Land Reform Program” into law. In the years that followed, Zimbabwe undertook the largest, most progressive land reform in the history of Africa. Among the leaders of this enormous land reform program was current Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Most Western reporting on the recent military intervention in Zimbabwe has neglected this historical context. ZANU-PF is a revolutionary party whose commitment to national liberation goes beyond any single leader. Importantly too, war veterans and the military have played a unique, revolutionary and sometimes corrective role in Zimbabwe’s post-independence politics.

Power struggle in ZANU-PF sparks intervention by military

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces maintain that they have not executed a coup d’etat. Instead they claim to have targeted “corrupt elements” seeking to destabilize the government and take power within ZANU-PF. These “elements” loosely organized themselves as a faction within the party known as Generation 40, or G40.

G40 is a collection of middle-aged intellectuals who did not fight in the liberation war. These members view the continued prominence of war veterans in Zimbabwean political life as stifling their opportunities at self-advancement, and many have disturbing ties to the West. Jonathan Moyo, the brains behind G40, is a liberal professor who fled Zimbabwe during the Second Chimurenga. He worked for the multi-billion-dollar Ford Foundation in Kenya before returning to Harare in the early 2000s. Others have similar ties to massive non-profits in Europe and the U.S., which have often advocated for regime change in Zimbabwe. Although the G40 claimed to have support among the ZANU-PF youth, its actual leaders were much older and the faction lacked any real mass base.

After Mugabe’s re-election in 2013, ZANU-PF began to talk internally about a successor to the president, whose old age made another term unlikely. War veterans like Mnangagwa and then-Vice President Joice Mujuru emerged as leading candidates, much to the dismay of G40. Needing a contender of their own, the faction united behind First Lady Grace Mugabe and advocated making her the next president.

Grace Mugabe’s extravagant luxury spending in Europe and her ties to rampant corruption in the diamond industry made her wildly unpopular among ordinary Zimbabweans. Beyond this, Grace Mugabe also lacked any credentials as a liberation war veteran. Her proximity to Mugabe gave G40 great influence to purge potential rivals and long-time ZANU-PF leaders, which began in 2014. As Mugabe’s age increasingly forced him to take a step back from governance, Grace Mugabe’s role became more pronounced, culminating in the sacking of Mnangagwa on Nov. 6, 2017.

G40’s accumulation of power greatly disturbed Zimbabwe’s war veterans, who held protests against Mugabe’s government in 2016. According to ZDF General Constantino Chiwenga after the military intervention, the G40 had captured state authority by manipulating Robert Mugabe and targeting opponents within ZANU-PF. By extension, many of the newly resettled black farmers, whose land acquisition was organized largely by liberation war veterans, feared the prospect of a G40 takeover of ZANU-PF. Factional infighting in the ruling party risked opening the door to the reversal of fast-track land reform.

Mnangagwa’s removal proved the last straw in this intra-party struggle. With the full backing of the Liberation War Veterans Association, the ZDF targeted G40 members, secured Mugabe in his home, and responded to assassination threats against Mnangagwa and other ZANU-PF leaders. They arrested Moyo and others, while Grace Mugabe fled the country.

Importantly, they did not force Robert Mugabe to resign, nor did they prevent him from speaking at a graduation ceremony days later or calling a cabinet meeting. Mugabe was not forced to resign – in fact, he defied expectations that he would leave office in his Nov. 19 speech – and was neither arrested nor forced to leave the country. The goal of the intervention was to stabilize ZANU-PF and ensure an orderly transition of power within the party.

Mugabe himself affirmed this in his resignation letter to Parliament. The 93-year-old liberation leader, who sources say was “relieved” to finally resign, cited two reasons for his resignation: first, his “concern for the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe,” and second, his “desire to ensure a smooth, peaceful and non-violent transfer of power that underpins national security, peace and stability.”

Mugabe, ZANU-PF reject the ‘coup’ label

While the Western media and their darlings, like MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, describe the military’s intervention as a ‘coup’, this is not an opinion shared in most of Zimbabwe or southern Africa in general. ZANU-PF declared that the military was playing a “patriotic” role in protecting the “national democratic project” of the country. The party’s Youth League – once considered a bastion of support for G40 – echoed the same sentiments and praised the ZDF.

Mugabe also refused to call the military intervention a coup and united with the criticisms issued by the war veterans, ZANU-PF and other sectors of Zimbabwean society. In a nationally televised address on Nov. 19, he said the ZDF’s actions “did not amount to a threat to our well cherished constitutional order, nor was it a challenge to my authority as head of state of government, not even as commander in chief of the ZDF,” adding that “the command element remained respectful with the dictates of constitutionalism.”

“Whatever the pros and cons, where they went about registering those concerns,” continued Mugabe, “I as the president of Zimbabwe and their commander in chief do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to and do believe these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep patriotic concern for the stability of the nation and welfare of our people.”

Far from denouncing the military’s actions – as one would expect during a coup – Mugabe instead acknowledged the underlying issues behind the military intervention, namely disunity and factionalism within ZANU-PF and the country’s worsening economic conditions.

Later in his speech, Mugabe offered words of self-criticism. “Of greater concern to our commanders are the well-founded fears that the lack of unity and commonness of purpose in both party and government was translating into perceptions of inattentiveness to the economy, open public spats between high ranking officials in the party and government, exacerbated by multiple conflicting messages from both the party and government, [which] made the criticism leveled against us inescapable.”

Speaking to the sidelining of war veterans and liberation leaders in ZANU-PF by the G40 faction, Mugabe said, “the current criticism raised against it [party disunity within ZANU-PF] by the command element and some of its members, have arisen from a well-founded perception that the party was stretching or even failing in its own rules and procedures.” In response, he acknowledged, “the war of liberation exacted life-long costs, which whilst hardly repayable may still be ameliorated,” and “have to be attended to with a great sense of urgency.”

Members of Southern African Development Commission (SADC), which mediated talks between Mugabe and the military, likewise refused to call the events a coup. In neighboring South Africa – Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner – neither the ruling African National Congress, nor the South African Communist Party, nor the Economic Freedom Fighters attached that label to the ZDF’s actions. All three parties instead praised the peaceful transition of power.

Some observers argue the question of whether or not to call these events a ‘coup’ is just semantics. In actuality, this question of ‘coup’ or ‘not a coup’ has incredibly significant consequences. The African Union and important regional bodies like SADC are charter-bound to expel any member state that experiences a coup d’etat or unconstitutional change in government.

Similarly, laws in the U.S. and other major countries suspend diplomatic relations and aid to countries deemed to have undergone a coup. However inconsistently the U.S. applies the label, the allegation of a ‘coup’ has often served as a pretext for foreign intervention.

Zimbabwe continues to undergo massive changes, the effects of which will become clearer overtime. However, it’s important to seek truth from facts, and the fact is that a ‘coup’ did not oust Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe’s legacy and moving forward

While Mugabe’s resignation letter brought cheers from the MDC opposition, members of ZANU-PF did not share their reaction.

ZANU PF Member of Parliament Terrance Mkupe said in an interview with the BBC on Nov. 11, “What was quite interesting was that when the letter was read out, only half of the House [of Parliament] was actually celebrating. Almost every ZANU-PF MP was actually almost in tears.” He continued, “A lot of guys were crying. We didn’t want this for our leader. We still love our leader. We didn’t want our leader to go out this way, because it felt like things could have been done in a much better way.”

For ZANU-PF, the military intervention and Mugabe’s resignation were necessary steps to protect the future of the party and the ongoing struggle for national liberation from enemies. G40 factionalists have taken advantage of Mugabe in his old age and jeopardized the party. The threat of impeachment came as a last resort to ensure a smooth transition of power to new leadership, namely Emmerson Mnangagwa. It was not intended to destroy or reverse the tremendous revolutionary gains made under Mugabe.

In his inauguration speech, Mnangagwa opened with a moving tribute to Mugabe, who he called “my leader” and praised for his leadership in the liberation war. He also declared in no uncertain terms that the fast-track land reform was “irreversible,” and called on the U.S. and Europe to lift its barbaric sanctions on Zimbabwe. True to Mugabe’s anti-imperialism, Mnangagwa also pledged the nation’s continued support for the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Mugabe’s revolutionary legacy continues in the 169,000 indigenous black farmers – most of whom were peasants, farmworkers, and the urban poor – who received 7 million hectares land under the fast-track land reform program. It continues in the majority-black ownership of major Zimbabwean companies and industries achieved through the indigenization program, and the nationalization of the nation’s diamond mines. Zimbabwe’s incredible achievements in the field of public education has virtually wiped out illiteracy and created one of the most educated nations on the continent.

The achievements of Mugabe’s 37-year tenure brought harsh reprisal from the Western imperialist powers. Devastating economic sanctions, political destabilization and predatory loan schemes by the IMF and World Bank have wreaked havoc on the people of Zimbabwe, leaving an economy with high unemployment and inflation. As president, Mnangagwa will have to confront these challenges and more.

But if the history of ZANU-PF proves anything, it’s that no challenge is insurmountable. The party remains in power and stands poised to win next year’s presidential election. Socialist China, a long-time ally of ZANU-PF dating back to the liberation war, offered its congratulations to Mnangagwa and pledged its continued economic support for the nation. Opportunities abound as Zimbabwe begins writing its next chapter.

#Zimbabwe #RobertMugabe #ZANUPF #Africa

The World Federation of Trade Unions extends its class solidarity to the struggles of Ethiopian working class and youth against the foreign investments and the destruction of natural environment in Ginchi, Ethiopia.

The WFTU representing 92 million workers in 126 countries condemns the actions of the Ethiopian government which cost the lives of 75 people since the middle of November; we express our condolences to the families of the victims of the police atrocities.

We call the workers of Ethiopia to continue their struggle, we strongly believe that the natural resources and the environment belong to the working class, not the national and international capitalists. We want to remind that the workers are not alone; they have on their side the workers of the world when they fight for their rights in every country of the world.

THE SECRETARIAT

#Ethiopia #International #Africa #PeoplesStruggles #WorldFederationOfTradeUnions #WFTU