Africa is emerging as a massive battlefield between U.S. and Chinese imperialism, who covet total control over the continent’s enormous resources, labor, and emerging markets. The multilingual, multiethnic working class is caught in between this rivalry, having already endured centuries of pillaging and underdevelopment by European imperialism, with nothing but more violence, bloodshed and devastation from either bosses’ side.
While U.S. imperialism tries to regroup militarily from the devastating defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rate of U.S. military involvement in Africa has been ramping up quickly. U.S. Special Forces units are now conducting operations in 33 countries in Africa, or two-thirds of the continent. “’It’s the land of tremendous opportunity, but the land where, if the perfect storm brews, a lot of negative things could happen,’ said Major General Joseph Harrington, commanding general of U.S. Army Africa. (Defense Times 10/2/2016)
While Obama frequently claimed humanitarian reasons for sending troops to Africa, “The majority of African governments that hosted deployments of U.S. commandos in 2016 have seen their own security forces cited for human rights abuses by the U.S. State Department, including Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania, among others. Elite U.S. troops are also deployed to Sudan, one of three nations, along with Iran and Syria, cited by the U.S. as “state sponsors of terrorism” “(The Intercept 12/31/16).
The military operations aid in propping up governments that support U.S. imperialism, kicking out governments that don’t, and conducting “proxy wars.” Proxy wars are provoked by major imperialists, but are not fought by them directly. In Africa, proxy wars secure the U.S. bosses’ access to those natural resources, emerging markets and sources of cheap labor without which capitalist production cannot function without.
China’s Bosses Gain at U.S. Imperialism’s Expense
Chinese and U.S. imperialism are already in direct economic confrontation in Africa, where the U.S. is being “crushed” (CNN Money, 6/30/16).
The Democratic Republic of Congo is just one example. It is Africa’s second largest country and, with 80 million workers, is the largest French-speaking country in the world. Its potential as an emerging capitalist market is rivaled only by its richness in natural resources. The DR Congo contains the world’s largest supplies of fresh water, as well as the world’s largest deposits of oil, copper, diamonds, gold, uranium, and coltan. Nearly every cellular phone in the world, for example, uses coltan and cobalt, likely mined by working class children as young as seven (Reuters, 1/19/16).
The situation of women workers is extreme, with the UN blasting the DR Congo’s government for routinely permitting and using rape as a tactic to terrorize politically active women workers.
Only when China’s bosses started coming out on top of the mass slaughter of the Congo Wars, in 2002, did reports about “human rights” become a concern to the U.S. bosses. “Since 2000, China has emerged as Africa’s largest trading partner and a major source of investment finance as well. Large numbers of Chinese workers have moved to Africa in recent years…as high as one million” (Brookings.edu, 7/11/16). In addition, China has added Africa to its $8 trillion “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) project, building strategic deep-water ports and railway networks (The Duran, 6/7/16).
While the imperialist powers fight it out behind the scenes, workers everywhere else in Africa are bearing the brunt of the attacks carried out by warring militias, leading to massive casualties as well as starvation and homelessness and the forced enlistment of child soldiers. “Chad’s forces just a few years ago were involved in a report from Amnesty International about a massive recruitment of child soldiers. …this is one of the U.S.’s main proxy forces [in Africa]” (In These Times 8/17/2015).
Workers Fight Back!
The working class of Africa has produced masses of women and men leaders who have led tremendous fightbacks against imperialism. The masses continue to organize and fight! In 2011, demonstrations against unemployment in Tunisia transformed into rebellions that brought down the government. Repeated general strikes in 2016 in the DR Congo, (Reuters, 2/16/16) brought entire sectors of the mining-based economy to a screeching halt. Miners, students and workers have rocked South Africa with rebellions for years.
The workers are bravely fighting, amidst lethal danger, under the leadership of liberal misleaders and reformist ideas. The history of mass communist-led fightback and anti-imperialist struggle, however, is in the fabric of working class history. Our work to earn the leadership of the masses is cut out for us, and we continue building the communist Progressive Labor Party across Africa.