By Hulisani Mmbara
The recent visit, as with all past, by Chairman Omali Yeshitela to Azania served one of the most important purposes in our struggle to liberate the people of African-hood at home and abroad. This purpose is that of uniting and welding into one the voice and efforts of African people to free themselves from the shackles of capitalism, imperialism and neocolonialism.
We, the Pan Africanist Youth Congress (PAYCO), concur with Chairman Omali in tandem with the principles of the African People s’ Socialist Party (APSP) and the African Socialist International (ASI), that crucial to this revolutionary process is that the leadership of the revolution be placed in the hands of the African working class and the poor masses themselves.
As was the case in the beginning of the systemic onslaught against African people, the forces responsible for our oppression and exploitation, as exemplified by the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, that facilitated the formalization of the scramble for Africa, always had a global character. Hence its antithetical force, Pan Africanism.
To this systemic onslaught I must also add the American Slave Trade, which represents the earliest, most brutal massive dispersal and utter exploitation of Africa’s human resources. Our erstwhile colonial slave masters are obliged in law and morality to pay reparation for the destruction they have caused to Africa and its resources.
History shows that Africans and their resources are the most brutally exploited in the world. However we are not the only victims, hence the need for internationalism, which calls for unity of action between African people and other oppressed people of the world.
This unity of action may take different forms, for example we may decide to trade with China, Arabia, India, Caribbean Island and Latin America and shun exploitative trade with the U.S. and Europe. In that way we can weaken and finally defeat the common enemy who thrives on our divisions and depend solely on our resources for their survival.
The importance of the work that Chairman Omali is doing in fulfilling the ASI vision is clearly self-evident and cannot be over-emphasized. Without the coming together of the oppressed forces on a Pan African and international basis, we run the probable risk of being isolated and quashed one by one by a global coalition of capitalism.
The ASI must serve as a collective union and embodiment of African people, outside and away from the African bourgeois institutions such as the ‘African Union’ (AU) and the ‘Pan African Parliament’ (PAP).
It must be said that as these structures stand, they are far away from what Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Robert Sobukwe and other founding fathers of Pan Africanism envisaged. Just as we ended up with the OAU when Nkrumah had called for a single continental government, the AU is yet again another self-defeating compromise move, far away from what Colonel Khaddafi had in mind.
Unfortunately, reactionary forces have for many years now managed to frustrate all efforts towards a complete political, economic and social reintegration of the African people. It is the duty of the ASI to fulfill this historic task because these dummy institutions have not either the will, spirit or political courage to change the status quo.
These ‘heads of State’ and ‘representatives’ are the same people who have opted for conformity with the structural foundations and legacy of colonialism and settler colonialism. Hence, the inevitable state of neocolonialism characterizes the nation-states.
The supposed independent States of postcolonial Africa continue to manage and administer the States to serve as markets, source of cheap labor and raw materials, which benefit the ruling class of the imperialist countries. As a matter of fact, the only change is that instead of colonial governors or minority settler rulers, you now have black faces in government offices and as Nkrumah alluded, these neocolonial regimes are more dangerous than the erstwhile colonial governments. In the past, the enemy was easily perceivable and identifiable.
It is in this context that our work with the APSP and within the ASI becomes of paramount importance. We are also delighted that the ASI community is growing day by day with the Africanist Movement in Sierra Leone and the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) of Swaziland also on board.
The interaction between the ASI and different organizations including ourselves, Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA), Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO), Pan Africanist Students Movement of Azania (PASMA), National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), Global African Congress (GAC, Azania Chapter), and the Azanian People s’ Liberation Army (APLA)/Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) veterans in Azania while Chairman Omali was here will go a long way in building an African international socialist organization that we want.
These interactions create the necessary point of convergence for revolutionary forces to share their experiences, aspirations and develop a complimentary and coherent strategy, political program of action and strategy and tactics with the aim to dismantle enemy forces.
The ASI is walking the talk in the true spirit of the African revolution in its Pan African and international character. We have benefited extremely in our workings with the APSP because we have become aware of what is happening in other parts of the continent and the world.
This revolutionary work must be intensified and we are ready to play our part because we recognize the strategic place and role of South Africa (Azania) in the continental and international political-economic scheme of things.
Not Yet Uhuru! Aluta Continua!
Forward with ASI!
Tomorrow the United States of Socialist Africa!
