The Moroccan “invasion” of Ceuta
On July 30, around 50,000 migrants from Morocco entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. The right wing and left wing of Spain joined in calling it an invasion of Europe. Sixty-seven Moroccans have died while crossing the waters. Spain deployed the military, including armored vehicles.
To complicate the situation, Spain’s poor relations with the U.S. and the illegitimate settler-state of Israel were cited as the reason for the migration.
Even some colonized people have described it as a Zionist-orchestrated plan unleashing poor young fighting-age men, including prisoners, into Spain to punish Pedro Sánchez’s government. This analysis concludes that Spain refused to let the U.S. use its territory to attack Iran. It also cites Spain’s recent agreement to receive gas from Algeria, which bypasses the EU’s dependence on U.S. LNG. The analysis further points to a U.S. attempt to control both sides of the British-occupied Strait of Gibraltar and gain control over 10 percent of global trade by relying on a more cooperative ally in the region—the government of Morocco. Morocco also got a $40 million military aid package from the U.S. as a reward for its loyalty to the U.S.
There is one glaring problem with this analysis, though: Ceuta is in Africa. The Spanish border should not be anywhere in Ceuta or Melilla, Spain’s other remaining colony, for that matter.
Spain’s colonial history in Africa
Portugal overtook Ceuta in 1415, and Spain has occupied it since 1580. During the 19th century, the people of the Indigenous land called the Americas rose up, taking back their land and resources from Spain.
By 1875, Spain—which once had 35 colonies—only held Equatorial Guinea, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. At this point, a segment of Spanish colonizers decided to look toward North Africa.
These “Africanistas” entered Morocco in 1875. By 1906, Spain occupied part of Morocco. By 1912, Spain and France partitioned Morocco into a Spanish protectorate. During the Spanish Civil War, the Francoists, led by rabid white nationalist Francisco Franco, forced 80,000 Africans from Morocco to fight for nationalist Spain.
Spain discovered phosphate in Western Sahara in 1963, and Western Sahara became part of Morocco in 1975. Spanish nationalists to this day have used their pro-Palestine position dubiously to claim Western Sahara needs a UN referendum on self-determination against Morocco.
Even though the government of Morocco has been neocolonial, asserting that Western Sahara needs closer ties to Madrid than to Rabat reveals that Spain is just like the rest of Europe: salivating over every bit of Africa it can keep in its colonial grip. Spain made its intent clear on July 23 when it gave 70,000 Sahrawis Spanish citizenship.
Spain is still part of NATO
Support for Pedro Sánchez’s government, which has been critical of Trump, depends on constantly reminding people of the threat of the far-right while suppressing dissidents in Spain. Even some officials in Madrid have been calling for Spain’s withdrawal from NATO.
Spain’s membership in the EU and NATO has come to backfire on it, because the recent fires in Spain and France that have destroyed over 100,000 hectares cannot be put out due to EU sanctions on Russian helicopters.
Sánchez’s government did not recognize president Nicolás Maduro’s government, and it has been hostile to Bolivarian Venezuela. Sánchez has met with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, but has he met with Unión del Barrio? Sánchez’s government has worked only to preserve the colonial status quo, obscuring the issue of the 600-year-old debt that Spain and all of Europe have incurred from their genocide of African and Indigenous people.
Morocco’s contradictions do not excuse Spain
Morocco currently receives weapons from the U.S. and the illegitimate settler-state of Israel and is deploying troops to join the “international stabilization force” to Gaza. As African Internationalists, we, however, recognize North Africa as part of Africa, and Africans must achieve State power to resolve contradictions, such as collaborations with the colonizers.
The only correct stance the colonizer can take is to be under the leadership of the African working class, and non-Africans in Africa would have to unite with the interests and leadership of the African working class and join the struggle to liberate Africa!
Uhuru!
