Guinea’s socialist delegation arrives in Freetown
An eight-man delegation of the African Socialist International (ASI) from Guinea-Conakry has arrived Saturday night in Freetown for a three-day internal consultative discussion with the Interim Leadership Committee of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) of Sierra Leone.
The delegation comprises Comrades Madiou Diallo, Tamadou Mouhamed, Ediatou Barry, Boubacar Souaray, Aicha Conte, Jean Baptiste Camara, Alpha Cisse and Mamady Conde
The delegation hopes to present a report on the current political situation in Guinea and hold a mini-discussion with members and leaders of the APSP in Sierra Leone on the struggle for socialism in Guinea and the West Africa region
Comrade Madiou Diallo, ASI’s West Africa Regional Secretary who is leading the Guinea delegation, is also expected to address journalists at press conferences scheduled in Freetown and Makeni during the course of the visit. He will brief journalists on the political situation in Guinea and the upcoming elections scheduled for June of this year with specific focus on the role of the socialists in the struggle for change in that country.
All members of the delegation were part of the leadership of the Africanist Movement, the regional mass movement founded by Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah towards the end of 2001 to fight for uncompromising liberation and unification of Africa and the control of its resources. The Africanist Movement was reputed for having initiated the process that culminated into the massive two-month long demonstrations in the first quarter of 2007 that crippled the Conte regime and subsequently created the political space that resulted in the coup of December 2008.
The Movement was dissolved few weeks to the consultative conference to build the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) of Sierra Leone. A statement issued on October 8, 2009 by Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, the Movement’s Founder and Director, called on all former members of the Africanist Movement to construct the APSP in their respective areas of operation.
Comrade Madiou Diallo, leader of the Guinea delegation visiting Sierra Leone, attended both the West Africa Socialist Conference of 2008 and the 2009 Consultative Conference to build the APSP held in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
A statement from the APSP leadership in Freetown states that the visit will help to contextualize the future of the socialist struggle in Guinea and its harmonization with current trends in the region.
“It gives us an opportunity to review the overall work of the movement in Guinea and the re-development of a new strategy within the context of the rapidly evolving situation in Conakry and also one that reflects the overall African internationalist approach,” Comrade Chernoh Alpha M. Bah said.
However, this is the first high-level meeting of socialist leaders from the two countries since the 2007 Africanist Movement inspired mass demonstrations against the regime of late Lansana Conte
