Class struggle in the African world: Imperialist wars to maintain status quo are part of class struggles

The capitalist world system is undergoing a major crisis as nev­er experienced before. Any atten­tive observer of world events can see its leader, U.S. imperialism, has entered a period of decline.

In an effort to regain its stronghold and prominence, the U.S. has responded in Asia with military strategic initiatives aimed at containing China. In Africa, George Bush started “AFRICOM.”

It is widely reported that Chi­na is the potential power to rival and even supersede the U.S. as the world’s power. The Barack Obama administration, like previ­ous administrations, continues to focus on “the pivot” to maintain oppressive power.

The major antagonistic con­flicts in the world and the main bloody class struggles in the world are between oppressor and oppressed nations. This can be seen in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Venezuela, South Africa, Sudan, Congo and elsewhere.

The class struggle is not con­centrated between the pathetic white left and labor movement and the greedy white bourgeoisie.

When we speak of class struggle in the African world, we want to alert everyone that, as dialectical materialists, we are not looking into a world restricted be­tween the African petty bourgeoi­sie and the African working class.

Rather, we are looking at the sharpening class struggles between these two forces as part of all other social conflicts that are all concen­trated in the colonial ques­tion as expressed between oppressor and oppressed nations.

We are not liquidating or ignoring in any way the respective secondary con­flicts that exist on either side of the main irreconcilable conflicts between these two types of antagonistic na­tions in the world.

Since the late 1920s during the height and downfall of the interna­tional movement of Marcus Garvey to the rise and de­struction of black national liberation struggles in the 1960s, the African working class has never led the na­tional liberation struggles in its own name or for its own selfish class interests. The class struggle has been a fierce one.

Recall Marcus Gar­vey and W.E.B. Dubois or Patrice Lumumba and Moise Tshombe. In both cases, the for­mer represented the African work­ing and poor peasant classes and the latter the represented the Afri­can petty bourgeoisie.

These class struggles were never characterized as struggles between socialism and capital­ism. Nevertheless, the experience was always a struggle against co­lonialism, the immediate form of capitalism.

The creation of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) is an important development in this struggle. It marks a new phase in the history of the African proletar­iat—the creation of a political party for black power and African work­ing class rule.

APSP Chair­man Omali Yeshi­tela asserts the real class ques­tion in the real world is concentrated in the co­lonial question. From an African internationalism standpoint, this means the African working class must fight to achieve power and usher in the era of socialism.

The African worker class or­ganized around its advanced de­tachment, the African Socialist International (ASI), must become conscious of its mission: the erad­ication of the parasitic capitalist relationship between the African nation and the new and old impe­rialists, the defeat of the African petty bourgeoisie, the organiza­tion of a new international led by the workers of the oppressor na­tions, the organization of white solidarity under the banner of African Internationalism, and the creation of a single united social­ist State of Africa, a black power State.

Our preparedness is a measure of our commitment to the looming class struggle

Part of our task is the dissemi­nation of the general principles and ideas of the African Interna­tionalist philosophy inside African working class communities. This includes a constant criticism of foreign and anti-working class principles as well as exposing and defeating strategies and tactics of the alliance between the African petty bourgeoisie and imperial­ism.

The road to socialism is paint­ed black by African Internation­alism, and we cannot allow any other social force to paint it black in the interests of imperialism.

Pan Africanism is an idea that serves the African petty bour­geoisie. Pan Afri­canism is silent on what happens to the value produced by workers. Where does it go?

Every democ­racy is a form of State, so what so­cial force will be oppressed if Pan Africanists seize power?

Just look at Mugabe. He is a Pan Africanist.

Who is exploit­ed and oppressed in Zimbabwe? The African workers.

Thabo Mbeki claimed to be a Pan Africanist. Who is oppressed and ex­ploited in South Africa? The African workers.

In our daily work, we must do all we can to dis­tinguish between revolutionary and reformist politics. The latter must serve the former, not become an end unto themselves.

We must clearly distinguish petty bourgeois material interests from African working class mate­rial interests.

Colonial rule was bad for the African nation. Both the African petty bourgeoisie and working classes suffered indignity, but it was the petty bourgeoisie that took the mantle of leadership.

They spoke on behalf of the working class, but politically pur­sued their own class interest, and they extinguished the creation of the African economy.

The Burn­ing Spear newspaper is the main tool to educate and organize the masses of Af­rican people. The produc­tion, publication and distribution of the bilingual (French/English) newspaper must become monthly and weekly in the months to come to prepare workers for the loom­ing battles to arm them with a Burning Spear and other means of communication.

We must be engaged in the massive work to win subscription to secure regular publications. The solution is in the hands of the people. An informed African pop­ulation must mean Africans with African internationalist conscious­ness. An organised African popu­lation means the masses of people are organised according to the prin­ciples and programs of African in­ternationalism.

It is The Spear that allows us to deepen our relationship with the masses, our unending source of our strength.

It has been said before that the masses are the makers of history. If they are educated and organized under the banner of Af­rican Internationalism, the loom­ing struggles will be lead by the African working class.

It is education and prepared­ness that help to purge African petty bourgeoisie opportunism from our ranks.

It is preparedness that will al­low us to test the qualities of our cadres, to determine if they are worthy of African internationalism or not.

It is an open call for African workers to lead their own strug­gle for African self-determination and socialism. This current pe­riod, filled with uncertainties and unpredictable events, must be seized as a preparation period, the last phase of rehearsal for the final offensive of the African work­ing class.

Impact of the defeats and decline of U.S. imperialism are becoming common knowledge

The U.S. rulers are failing to maintain their power over Afghan­istan and over the Middle East because of the stiff resistance of the peoples there. The U.S. is also failing to maintain control over countries such as Venezu­ela, Bolivia, Cuba and others in a meaningful way because of the revolutionary national resistance of the people there.

Imperialist centers are no longer shielded from the conse­quences of the dynamism of the national struggles between the oppressor and the oppressed na­tions. The success and victories of the colonized nations and the impact of defeat of U.S. led white imperialism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, and elsewhere allows for clarity and the ability for everyone to wit­ness the gradual, unrelenting and irreversible decline of U.S. power.

What the U.S ruling class does not understand is that, al­though China threatens to sur­pass them as a capitalist leader, the main threat to the existence of U.S.-led imperialism is not China.

Since China’s development takes place within parasitic capi­talism, China needs the status quo—the maintenance of the relationship between oppressor and oppressed nations—to se­cure its own industrial and trade development.

China is a problem for the old imperialists, especially as some leaders in Africa have chosen China over the old white imperi­alists as their main money lender and trade operator, believing that they would be better off than they were when dealing with tradition­al white imperialist.

However, it is the struggles for genuine self-determination be­ing waged by the oppressed na­tions—struggles that can only be achieved at the expense of all of the new and old imperialists—that represent an existential threat to imperialism.

This worldwide imperialist system cannot survive a world­wide African revolution, resulting in the creation of an African unit­ed socialist State.

The role of African revolution­aries at this stage is to clearly define our ideological, organiza­tional and political tasks for this period.

It is not enough to repeat at every meeting, “Organize! Orga­nize!”

African Internationalists and the worldwide African working class need to know the tasks to be done at this very moment of imperialism in crisis and decline.

Class struggle begins with recognition of the necessity to eradicate a system that requires that Africa and African people be enslaved and that we and our land exist to serve the reproduc­tion of white people and white power at our expense.

The price of such enslave­ment and the absence of our own power over our lives means that we are at the mercy of hostile foreign people, who can oppress and exploit us at will, who can rob our resources and our land and use them to forward their own for­eign interests.

Class struggle is about freeing the African economy. It is to take back our land, to end our relation­ship with worldwide imperialism and to free the trade routes that connect Africa with African people and any other nations of the world who are prepared to join us for a common future for humanity.

The colonial physical and mental borders make us artificial­ly strangers to one another. One cannot defend the Africa nation if they are still dominated by colo­nial mental and physical barriers that define us as properties of our colonizers. Remember that all the demarcation lines throughout Af­rica and in the Americas were the decisions of our oppressors.

Raising the consciousness of the African working class in pursuit of State power

Part of the class struggle in­volves the broadening of political education and consciousness of the African working class every­where in pursuit of State power.

We have several identities, in­cluding religious, cultural, sexual, familial and tribal. However, the most important identity is the one that defines our place and rela­tionship in the world, particularly in the parasitic world economy.

Accordingly, the leaders of the parasitic world economy have defined us as expendable objects of white people’s history. That is why we are dispersed and frag­mented around the world with false identities given to us by our white oppressors and the African petty bourgeoisie, making us less capable of assuming our signifi­cance on the world stage.

Tribalism has always been the ideology of the African petty bourgeoisie opposing genuine Af­rican unity. Tribalism as practiced by the African petty bourgeoisie depends on white power to be ef­fective.

Our true common identity is our Africanness, which can only be consolidated through the defeat of parasitic capitalism and the building of a single united social­ist State. Nothing less will do.

Our salvation depends on our ability to build the African nation. It requires connection with each other and other colonized peo­ples on a global scale.

A successful fighting capacity depends primarily on achieving one common identity. Anything less can only serve the bourgeoi­sie.

Build the African Socialist International!