can be counteracted by the action of national unifying political formations that overcome tribal characteristics in the composition of their membership as well as within their leadership. (g) To completely rebuild the state and government apparatus by creating organisms of workers and peasants power and putting up a new government structure corresponding to the new economic structures, particularly the structures of self-management whose real functioning must be imperatively assured. Hence the very sharp character of the social and political conflicts, the much clearer differentiations, including those in the ranks of the opposition, and the violence and repression employed by the regime where the king remains the pivot although his authority has been weakened. (Occasionally a decline in the standard of living appears, due to the fact that the dissolution of the former pre-capitalist economic and social forms destroys certain possibilities of cooperation in eking out a living without assuring by way of compensation new openings, particularly through absorption into the expanding modern sectors.). Against this, violent forms of struggle have developed, representing a break with the methods advocated in the past by broad sectors of the nationalist movement; and, in principle, a turn was made in this field by the African National Congress (ANC) and the Communist Party (PC). Nigeria, in the British scheme of things, was to play the role of a pilot test in neocolonialism. A part of the industrial sector was also taken away from the former masters. WebBurke viewed the French Revolution as the violent overthrow of a legitimate government and contended that citizens do not have the right to overthrow their government. Cubas brilliant example has inspired them. With regard to the sector of Africa that is still colonial and racist, the resistance of the reactionary classes and forces cannot be regarded as simply a rearguard action. For a considerable time it succeeded in presenting itself publicly as fundamentally united. Nevertheless, one general characteristic is observablewhile international capital has a certain room for maneuver, it is difficult for it to consolidate a relatively stable indigenous base. ); (e) the big and middle Algerian landowners; (g) the well-to-do petty bourgeoisie; (h) international capital (oil companies, banks). The crisis in the summer of 1962 developed along lines that were sometimes unclear, involving among other things equivocal and ephemeral alliances and the momentary passivity of healthy elements and forces, but it marked fundamentally a victory for the Ben Bella-Boumedienne team, which, at the time, at the level of the mass forces, was the most conscious and most resolute expression of the outright anti-neocolonialist, revolutionary-democratic and socialist-minded orientation. To assure the defense of the revolution both externally and internally by genuine, nonprofessional workers and peasants militia. In 1859, Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, biologist, and geologist, published his book, On the Origin of Species. The line of a leadership or a few leaders cannot be a decisive criterion, all the less so in the case of insinuations or suspicions about this or that person. Revolutionary intellectuals. To achieve their selfish economic and political interests, the rapacious colonizers deliberately distorted and grossly misinterpreted As yet, history has not furnished us with an example of any country achieving this without a deep-going revolutionary mobilization of the masses except where the change has been accomplished through the military action of the Soviet bureaucracy. In the economic field, the new regime envisaged economic planning and a considerable rise in the rate of accumulation, asserted the primacy of the public sector, represented by nationalized industries the construction of which was projected by the State Bank, by the Guinean Department of Foreign Trade (an export-import company whose aim was to assure an extensive state monopoly of foreign trade) and by the Guinean Department of Domestic Trade whose aim was to control domestic trade. But the peasant sectors there will play a much less important role as a revolutionary striking force. From this it follows that the revolutionary Angolan vanguard must set about elaborating a perspective of permanent revolution, clarifying in a systematic way the need for the national liberation struggle to have an anti-capitalist and socialist content. The Nasserite movement was reorganized. Moreover, cases of corruption, officially denounced, do not constitute incidental phenomena but have a deeper significance.
It is particularly clear that the fundamental economic problems cannot be resolved within the framework of the present national entities of separated economic structures, all the more so since many of the African states are artificial creations due to the imperialist insistence on Balkanizing them: i.e. At the same time Algeria remained integrated in the zone of the French franc and a very high proportion of its foreign trade was with France. None of these factors should be taken independently of one another, but in their dialectical interaction they determine the social and political situation as a whole, all the more so in the absence of any revolutionary mass action. and on the plane of phenomena like smuggling, illegal exports, speculation in money etc., which often have grave effects on the economy in general. But they imply recognition of a fundamental tendency. The experience of Zanzibar is most enlightening in this respect, even though it occurred only on a small, almost laboratory scale. Francesco Campagnola. Despite its specific traits and the progressive measures that have been carried out, Mali remains within the framework of structures fundamentally of the past. In general these layers swell completely out of proportion to their real functions and assume privileges for themselves that are all the more hated in view of the miserable standard of living of virtually the entire population. No measures have either been taken or projected with regard to the imperialist holdings or in an at all progressive direction. Generally, the fundamental elements of the situation But from their own experience, they are coming more and more to the conclusion that the peculiarities of the revolution in their continent and in the various countries of this continent do not eliminate the profoundly integrated and combined character of the tendencies operating in the contemporary world which, in the final analysis, also determine African developments. (d) To establish an effective monopoly of foreign trade and to introduce economic planning. Some who characterized Nasserism as reactionary only yesterday are today ready to proclaim that Egypt is on the road to socialism; but even for those who have not conceded to impressionism or to diplomatic or propagandistic considerations, the question is raised whether the capitalist regime has been done away with and whether a workers state has been instituted. The freezing of prices failed also. That is why political leaders throughout Africa, who make any pretense at all of voicing mass aspirations, talk in terms of socialism. (b) The indigenous landholding bourgeoisie were likewise dealt some blows, while certain measures, apparently secondary, were passed which in principle can hinder or block the process of embryonic capitalist accumulation and possible consolidation of indigenous bourgeois nuclei (expropriation of movie houses, hotels, cafes, etc.). Control over foreign trade turned out to be largely formal. Particularly in the most recent period, an indigenous capitalist class has developed in the consumer sectors of industry where they are protected by restrictions on imports. The political and leadership system adopted entailed, moreover, the logic of a Bonapartism personalized to the extreme. An agricultural society of this kind may not experience the tragic conflicts of a capitalist society or a society in transition to capitalism, but it is condemned by and large to immobility and, in the final analysis, cannot avoid a whole series of imbalances following the finally inevitable breakup of the former equilibrium. From the point of view of imperialism, the Congo of the late fifties had reached a point where domination in the old style could not be continued any longer; nevertheless hardly anything had been done to prepare an alternative of even the most fragile kind. Among other observations, the United Secretariat declared: As is characteristic of a Workers and Peasants Government of this kind, the Algerian government has not followed a consistent course. It is clear, in fact, that it has no genuine indigenous capitalist class (either industrial, commercial, or landholding) and one cannot speak of domination by foreign capital. WebWhat controversies met the revolution? This in no way means that the objective necessities will be automatically met. The unification with Syria, undertaken after much hesitation, again increased Nassers prestige for a time. The real power of decision-of decision and not of application, since after a decision forces came into play to block or neutralize it-was concentrated in the Central Committee and particularly the Political Bureau to which all the other bodies, from parliament to the trade-union leaderships, were subordinated in the final analysis. 1763 seemed to be the start of all controversies in the revolution. However thanks to the Cocoa Marketing Board, the domination of foreign middlemen has been broken and the government now buys the cocoa beans from the producers at a stable price for a whole period and sells them on the world market itself. A highly progressive element, one capable of playing an even bigger role in the future, is the dynamism displayed by considerable sectors of the urban masses, those most integrated in the modern economic web (e.g., the Lagos dockers strike, the June 1964 general strike, etc.). In fact, it can be confidently predicted that as in Cuba, revolutionary readerships will rise in the very course of revolutionary struggles. We will limit ourselves to referring to a few of the more significant cases in the various zones. It must nevertheless be added that the international forces interested in counteracting the negative evolution of the Congothe progressive African states and the workers stateseven if one leaves aside the criminal responsibility of the Soviet bureaucracy in facilitating the intervention of the UN in July 1960, could not or did not want to contribute in a decisive way to lancing the Congolese abscess, even if they have granted the insurgents considerable aid since then. Under certain conditions, the unions can be used effectively in mobilizing sectors of the masses and educating them. The old ruling classes maintained a hostile attitude. Hence the significance of a struggle whose possible victorious outcome could very shortly modify the tendencies in southern Africa, by creating the preconditions for the collapse of the most reactionary rampart on the continent. The regime is completely unstable, the ruling-class forces-even those that constituted the base of the governmental system for a whole period-are divided and in sharp internal struggle. Alongside the cooperatives exist big indigenous landlords who employ wage labor, very often on a seasonal basis. The forces hostile to the revolution, both on the domestic and international level, never seriously counted on these opposition movements and, beginning with 1963, chose the tactic of obstruction, sabotage and struggle within the regime, its state apparatus and even the party. Under these conditions, despite the sweeping statization of industry, commerce and banking, Egypt still faces the problem of making a qualitative leap in order to establish a workers state. The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries in East Asia are known as a time of rapid change. Nevertheless the coup marked a turn to the right, a backward step in relation to the past, regardless of the subjective intentions of some of its organizers. It brought about, first of all, a change in political personnel at the top, began a series of reforms, struck directly at British imperialism and made itself the spokesman of the aspirations for Arab unity. At the same time, nuclei of often rather substantial indigenous exploiting classes have been consolidated (landlords, merchants, small industrialists, entrepreneurs in transport, intellectuals with a Privileged standard of living and an aristocratic outlook, etc.). The lesson of Cuba and Guinea should not be lost on the African vanguard. These positions have been consolidated on the economic level. The fact that the problem that exploded in the summer of 1962of reconstructing the FLN on a new basiswas not resolved and that the party still functioned in a precarious and bureaucratic fashion, with real activity concentrated particularly at the top, served as a concomitant factor in reinforcing the bureaucratic tendencies as well as the uncertainties and the retreats of the stage that followed the measures of 1963. (c) Despite certain progressive positions (with regard, for example, to the need for an agrarian reform), the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) in itself was a socially undifferentiated front with vague political contours.
Hence, the alternative, technical terms are "pre Socratic" or "non-theological" or "first philosophy". Nevertheless, the possibility of success cannot be ruled out, particularly if certain conditions were fulfilled. Coordination and unity are not yet assured. The most positive developments since the end of 1964 occurred among the workers in the self-managed sector and even in the state and private sectors-strikes against the employers and machinations of the bureaucrats, lively discussions, critical ferment, movements supporting the left wing, particularly in the trade-union congresses. Involved in this struggle is the threat of consolidating a counterrevolutionary government that would bear down on other African countries and accentuate the differences in the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the governments of the Organisation Commune Africaine et Malgache (OCAM), first making an alliance with Tshombe, then Kasavubu and finally Mobutu. When independence came, Mali was an extremely backward country, with an almost completely agricultural and subsistence economy (around 80 per cent). The result of this has been that not only has no step been taken to get out of the existing blind alley but that workers self-management is threatened more than ever. A whole series of its elements have not crystallized politically, move in zigzags, work in a completely empirical way. Even in the radical periods, assurances and guarantees were still given to foreign capitalists. Public Domain: Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line 2005. In addition, the fresh bureaucratic layer crystallizing in the state apparatus is closely linked with the directing apparatus of the economy, giving it a vested interest in maintenance of the status quo. WebThe Islamist revolution of 1979 sought the radical transformation of a state and society perceived by many as overly secular and tainted by Western values and culture. African Intellectual Revolution created by Cynde De La Pena on Nov. 10, 2020 However, the OAU was conceived with the objective of self-preservation by most of the governments belonging to it; that is why it has suffered setbacks and is now going through a crisis which could reduce it to a formula without any real content. The central government rests in the hands of the man most detested by Finally there has been the obstacle of the struggles within the national movement and its cleavages, the alternating positions taken by certain African states and the rather heavy intervention of the Soviet bureaucracy, which participated in the effort to discredit the GRAE (Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile) and the FLNA (Angolan National Liberation Front). In the last analysis, the situation can change only through the upsurge of a new mass movement, the resumption by the masses of active participation in politics. This was not in contradiction to the successes won by the regime in its struggle against the open and illegal opposition. But this does not necessarily imply victory for the anti-colonialist forces within the near future. Speculation and smuggling (particularly in rice) have caused serious losses to the national economy. At the same time they also raised the problem of radically transforming the state apparatus.
If, in a stage of overturn, the relative rise of percentages is more important than the absolute figures, in a static period it is the absolute proportions that represent the decisive criterion. The rising curve reached its climax in March 1963, extending to the new measures of expropriation taken in October the same year. The Angolan armed forces outside the country continue to exist, despite the grave limitations imposed on their struggle by the reactionary Congolese governments.
Due to the pause during 1964 and the beginning of 1965, in which some measures were passed that were more spectacular than of real import (such as the expropriation in October 1964 of collaborators with the counterrevolution), the economic and social structures of Algeria became relatively crystallized into a series of different and opposing sectors. This meant that far from being a means of transmitting the will of the masses and an instrument for translating a revolutionary orientation into practice, this apparatus constituted a barrier separating the masses from the real exercise of power, a means of paralyzing and rendering null decisions that were correct in the abstract, an arena for the crystallization of conservative and reactionary forces and tendencies. A percentage of the profits was earmarked to be used for the needs of the workers; and minority participation by workers, chosen through elections, was envisaged on management boards. Thus another element must be included in the Algerian social stratification: a bureaucracy of the state, the government, the growing economic apparatus and the military apparatus, a bureaucracy that in reality enjoys a privileged share of the national income, even if the quantity is still modest, and that holds a position of strength in relation to the popular masses. In industry little progress was made. WebThe last quarter of the 19 th century witnessed the outward and inordinate expression of Europeans quest for territorial occupation of Africa in order to massively control and brutally exploit African resources for their benefits. Rights were granted to the workers in the factories.
In fact, as the events at the end of 1964 and beginning of 1965 showed, the country is undergoing a profound crisis. The question that remains to be answered is whether this government can establish a workers state. The FLN congress in 1964 was significant in this respect, the conservative and rightist elements not engaging in struggle over the program-adopting it unanimously and without much discussionbut infiltrating into all levels of the party, including the Political Bureau, acting as a brake and as a stubborn opposition which clearly gained results. Particularly during the decisive weeks of March-April, the adoption of all these measures was accompanied by immense mass mobilizations, in which the union of the most advanced wing of the leadership with the masses occurred at the highest pitch. It is very likely that some of them have been under American imperialist influence in the past or still are. In South Africa in particular the Trotskyist movement has a long tradition going back thirty years; it has many cadres tempered in a struggle that has been marked by an especially harsh repression; it has been able to win a place in the front ranks of the anti-imperialist organizations; and it has worked out, with the aid of the International, a correct line of armed insurrection based on the peasant masses. To understand this radical shift and the frustration behind it, we must revisit the promises that the revolution made four decades ago. The theoretical amplifications carried out by our movement on the basis of certain Asian experiences and the Cuban revolution are likewise pertinent in relation to Africa, particularly with regard to the dynamics of the revolutionary process, the fundamental motor forces, the special role of the poor peasants and the nature of the leaderships, which, under the pressure of objectively powerful factors and in conjunction with mass movements, can take a far-reaching anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist course despite their empiricism, their bureaucratic deformation and their non proletarian origin. Mass opposition, particularly in the most developed regions, is growing. His inability to stabilize his positions to any extent, the rapid resumption of inflation, his encounters with Kasavubu and the Bakonsro tribal forces led to his downfall. Thirteen years after the downfall of Farouk, per capita income remains stagnant, even if in some sectors, particularly the cities, some improvements have occurred. In relation to this aim, a struggle limited to acts of sabotage or to isolated actions is ineffective, even favorable to the projects of the neocolonialist forces. Such measures have been shown to be necessary to prevent, among other things, the strangulation or the distortion of the self-managed sector. The feudal class welded together around the Negus and his family aims at consolidating its position through an alliance with foreign capital. But, on the other hand, an economic and social structure relatively advanced for an African country, the lack of a genuine indigenous bourgeoisie, the existence of a quite large mass of proletarians and very broad masses of poor, even proletarianized peasants, are also factors of a nature to stimulate the revolutionary anti-capitalist and socialist dynamics of a revolution starting off as a national and democratic revolution. The revolts which broke out at different times in isolated regions met with very harsh repression and were thus crushed. In this context, tribal and religious factors play a big role. Thus the problem is not at all to seek an alliance with this social layer-as the Nigerian partisans of the line of the Soviet bureaucracy maintain-but to appeal to the sectors of the people still under the influence of a vaguely progressive outlook (for example, the Action Group) on the basis of a revolutionary platform and to organize them under a consistent socialist leadership.
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