“USA Rush Out Of Niger”

Close All US, French Bases in the Sahel! No Collaboration With Russian and Chinese Imperialism!

Statement of the Revolutionary Socialist Vanguard (RSV), Nigerian Section of the RCIT. 19.04.2024 https://www.communism4africa.wordpress.com

…read a sign as thousands of people poured onto the streets of Niamey, calling for the evacuation of US troops from Niger and the shutdown of all US military bases in the country.¹ This mass protest is the continuation of the revolutionary upsurge which began in July 2023 with the ouster of president Bazoum by the Tchiani junta. It was this same revolutionary current that led the heroic Nigerien masses to weather the storm of the biting blanket sanctions of the body of comprador stooges of Western imperialism — ECOWAS, and their masters USA and France. Now that the sanction regime has collapsed due to the renunciation of ECOWAS by the military governments in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea who together formed the Sahel Alliance, the popular masses in Niger have a true feel of their power.

Motivated by the unprecedented success of sending French imperialism and its neo-colonial apparatus packing from almost everywhere in the Sahel, the advancing masses have their sights on the expulsion of the US occupying force from Niger. While the junta in the Sahel have displayed varying degrees of rapprochement with Russian imperialism and continue to do so, the revolutionary onslaught of the popular masses in the Sahelian countries of West Africa is little fuelled by friendship with Putin. Despite the appearance of a few Russian flags during the demonstrations, the petty-bourgeois M62 Coalition and other protesters have been critical of the Russian “partners” of the military junta:

“We must not subsequently see the implementation of Russian foreign military bases,” said Abdoulaye Seydou, the coordinator of the M62 coalition of civil society groups that led anti-French protests last year.
His concerns were echoed by student Souleymane Ousmane: “This is how the French and the Americans and all the other countries settled in Niger – from military cooperation, they ended up occupying large parts of our country…”²

Even though the recent set of events favours the penetration of Russian geopolitical sphere of influence into spaces in Africa that were otherwise filled by Western imperialism, the decisive factor is the determined resistance of the masses that is a component of revolutionary upswing of the oppressed all over the world occasioned by the crises of decadent capitalism. Another landmark in the triumphant advance of the oppressed in West Africa is the capitulation of the Sall regime in Senegal and its defeat in the recent elections.

ALLIANCE OF SAHELIAN STATES: AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST (PROGRESSIVE) BLOC OF POPULAR BONAPARTIST REGIMES.

The Alliance of Sahelian States formed after the crippling sanctions imposed on Niger due to the Tchiani led coup mainly by France and ECOWAS has taken giant strides against Western imperialism and its neo-colonial grip on member countries. This coalition formed by military governments in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea have withstood through popular support and progressive decolonial changes the sanctions placed on them by the regional imperialist puppets, ECOWAS, cum Western Powers which is the main common ground for their alliance. By breaking out of ECOWAS, an already weak regional body whose credibility was severely deflated when it failed to achieve the reinstatement of president Bazoum in Niger through the threat of military invasion and inhuman sanctions. They dealt a debilitating blow to the grip of imperialism in the region.

While the regimes of the Sahel Alliance wax stronger and enjoyed mass approval to the point of becoming the face of anti-imperialism on the African continent. The major shot callers in ECOWAS driven by the fear of an increasingly likely loss of power in their countries either through a coup or otherwise have become largely estranged from the masses and are faced by multifaceted domestic crises. Such is the case of the Sall regime in Senegal that has suffered an irreparable wreck from the tempestous youth uprising in the country. Likewise the Tinubu administration that is rocked by chronic crises of devaluation of the local currency for which it has had to embark on a desperate depletion of the country’s foreign reserves without any success in arresting soaring food inflation even though the consequences are yet unknown. Having lost all credibility ECOWAS now goes cap in hand to the countries it once sanctioned and suspended begging for their return.

It is not by coincidence that Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the new president of Senegal, had some tough words for French imperialism during his inaugural speech, meaning that the social movements in each West African country continue to draw strength from the progress of its neighbours. It is also safe to assume that the current push of the masses against US troops in Niger draws morale from PASTEF’s electoral victory. Yet all these leaps against neo-colonialism are fettered by the bonapartist nature of the leadership and the persistence of foundational working mechanisms of neo-colonialism.

The promotion of native languages by Mali’s Assimi Goita in opposition to French; the increase in the value of Niger’s Uranium on the world market; and the reduction of salaries and allowances of government officials by the young Sankaraist Ibrahim Traore are important feats that have no doubt made these regimes champions of anti-imperialism in the concrete sense even more than Julius Malema’s EFF in South Africa which is merely a petty-bourgeois reformist party. Even now, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali are working to reject the French, CFA, in place of a currency that will be local and controlled by the trio.

Even in the face of all these important progressive feats the foundation of the old system remains intact. Tensions are already brewing from the cancellation of promised February elections in Mali by the Goita regime.³ In Burkina Faso the coups to oust the Traore government are yet to cease. True the campaigns are anti-imperialist but are not yet definitively anti-capitalist. Add to this the mechanical approach to solving the issue of ‘terrorism’ in these countries rather than understanding the rights ethnic nationalities to independence and sovereignty from the imperialist designed countries that constitute the Sahel Alliance.

The bonapartist nature of the regimes; the lack of a consistent anti-capitalist movement and the sustenance of the colonial structures between ethnic nationalities; are cancers that can hollow out the revolution that kicked out French troops; reverse or nullify reforms and dissipate the revolutionary energy of the masses. The penchant to hold on to or cease power will further push this or that military clique/faction further into the embrace of Russian imperialism and the other to seek backing from the Western imperialists widening the rift between them and the masses. Moreso, failure to resolve the national question may lead ethnic nationalities to pander to this or that imperialist power.

It was the failure to destroy the foundations of neo-colonial capitalism that led many anti-colonial military cliques to slide wittingly or unwittingly in to the camp of the comprador bourgeoisie and become reactionary dictatorships. Others who didn’t go down that road, like Thomas Sankara, were simply eliminated when the regimes were isolated because the government did not constitute institutions controlled by the workers and oppressed.

THE ECOWAS PARODY: A LESSON FOR PAN AFRICANISTS

The persistence of the popular masses to neither bend nor break under the weight of biting sanctions bolstered the regimes which now constitute the Sahel Alliance to break off from ECOWAS. It must first be stated here that this was and is the decisive factor in the defiance of these regimes against imperialism not the military fatigues of the leaders nor the aid from the Eastern imperialists.

After each of these regimes were effectively ostracised from ECOWAS they all began to carry out local and foreign policy independent of the regional body. With a repetition in other countries where a military putsch had occurred especially where the coupists had given official endorsement to the push of the masses to throw off the yoke of French imperialism so that they could maintain the support of the people, it became clear that an alliance was brooding. This is a powerful confirmation that the administrative bodies both national and international on the African continent are ready-made only for the continual colonisation of African peoples.

The fact that non of the member states of the Sahel Alliance left ECOWAS of its own accord but was pushed out; the fact that this withdrawal from the regional body was inadvertent makes this even truer. Africa does not need to ‘unite all her countries’ before a face-off with imperialism can be successful because the countries themselves are neo-colonial structures where as in ECOWAS, Nigeria determines mostly the direction of the remaining countries, one or a few ethnic nationalities is in a process of colonising the others in the country. Also like the member states of the Sahel Alliance who were isolated, even if not of their own doing, before they decided to form an alliance to defend each other against invasion and the shared popular sentiment in each country to kick out French and Western imperialism. So must African ethno-nations be given space for introspection and cultural reaffirmation before any genuine anti-imperialist alliance can be formed.

It must also be recalled that the anti-imperialist struggle reached its peak in all these countries when they were isolated meaning that a level of freedom from the overbearing neo-colonial structures whether as a country or regional body is needed for the decolonial process to mature. While the then suspended states saw in one another allies against the pro-imperialist invasion of their countries by ECOWAS, it was the ethnonationalist contiguity of the northern people of the dominant force in ECOWAS — Nigeria — and southern Niger that grounded the invasion before it could see the light of day.

A BRIEF SURMISE ON THE PROPOSAL FOR A JOINT CURRENCY

It is an indisputable fact that the continent has suffered under the hegemony of Western currencies. For the Sahel states of West Africa, it has been the CFA Franc which is the dominant currency regime under which the countries foreign reserves must be controlled by France and the country in a humiliating 70:30 proportion. In Anglophone countries, it is the dollar that continues to determine the success or failure of local economy, while itself remains untouched and maintains ever widening disparity to its favour. There is certainly no question about the consensus among revolutionaries for the destruction of the hegemony of Western currencies not only in Africa but globally.

However, there is some confusion over what should replace it or how international trade should proceed in its absence. Even the BRICS alliance has failed to give any clear cut method to organise international trade among member states partly due to the difficulty it will experience as its imperialist leaders will be exposed as the selfsame Western Powers they denounce should they promote their own currency.

The rejection of the CFA Franc by members of the Sahel Alliance is much appreciated even if it is in the form of a joint currency. Albeit, the proposed joint currency must not be seen as the model for economic independence of semi-colonial countries. Whether or not there is a joint currency between countries is not as important as the anti-capitalist orientation of the national economic policy of such countries. For instance, will the joint currency still be converted to some foreign currency, be it Eastern or Western, before it can be used in international trade? Lastly, the success or survival of any currency is based on local control of resources and the ability to compete favourably with the imperialists which is impossible for semi-colonial countries under capitalism.

We welcome the protests to send US troops packing from Niger, even with sympathies for Russian imperialism among the masses, it remains the concrete expression of anti-imperialist sentiment directed, first and foremost, against the faction of imperialism which colonised and has subjugated the region for decades. We reject the replacement of Western imperialists by Russian/Chinese imperialism and call for an end to rapprochement between the military governments and Putin. Thus, we likewise call for the removal of Wagner mercenaries or Russian troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

We condemn the recent hosting of Russian military instructors by the Tchiani government.⁴ The troops and instructors of imperialist Russia are only on African soil to keep the continent a colonial enterprise through the forced union of nations in pseudo countries under the guise of aiding the fight against “terrorism”, “insurgency”.

Revolutionaries must support the self determination and/or sovereignty of all oppressed ethnic nationalities in the region for true decolonisation and more genuine anti-imperialist alliances to run its course. They must fight for an end to the dollar hegemony and a system where each country uses its local currency in international trade unless a voluntary agreement on a joint currency is reached between African nations.

Only a workers and poor peasant government can balance dealings with Russia and China with fulfilling the yearnings of the people of West Africa for peace, freedom, and improved stand of living. Socialist must call for the formation of workers’ and communal councils which are the embryonic organs of workers power.

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[1] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/thousands-protest-in-niger-for-us-troops-to-leave/amp/

[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/13/hundreds-protest-in-niger-demanding-departure-of-us-troops

[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/mali-political-parties-request-elections-after-junta-shuns-transition-promise-2024-04-01/ https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/9/25/mali-postpones-february-presidential-election-due-to-technical-issues

[4] See [2] above.