Pan-Africanism's Political Economy

[RWalker]

"Seek ye first the political kingdom," Kwame Nkrumah advised. Malcolm used to quote this Nkrumah axiom frequently. With good reason. Because without political power, without an independent political system you are hopelessly lost and destined to be exploited by every passing pirate and brigand of the capitalist world. It is our politics, the way we organize our society, our state, our day to day existence that determines everything. Including our economic well-being or lack of same.

So, does that mean economics are not important? Of course not. As Nkrumah wrote:

"The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory. It is on this basis that the new Africans recognise themselves as potentially one nation, whose dominion is the entire African continent." (Class Struggle in Africa")

However we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the politics which guides, informs and holds the system together. Which is why Nkrumah's most consistent colleague, Seku Ture, reminded us that we must find the economics of our politics, rather than the politics of our economics.

It is critical that we recognize the proper role of economics in our liberation struggle. After all it is economics that is the mechanism by which transactions are made that provide people with all the necessary elements of human existence from food stuff to satellites. And it is essential that our economics be the economics of our people, be at the total undiluted service to our people and generally speaking be a systemic reflection of the highest, most altruistic values principles, ethos, mores and ethics of our people historically -- from day one of our cultural existence, starting with the first human beings, which emerged on the continent of Africa, to this very moment.

A few days ago the African Union (AU) concluded the annual meeting of African Heads of States and Government in Ethiopia. The theme of that summit was the infrastructural development of Africa. Many of the leaders in attendance at this AU meeting, have direct obligations to deliver Africa and her people to our enemies. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this element of the official leadership is to increase the monopoly capitalists' control over Africa and African people. Hence, this element, the same element who oppose the concept of an All-African Union Government, who advocate the dominance of the private sector, that is capitalism and the maintenance and enhancement of the transnational corporations and agencies of the capitalist, racist west; the same forces who are totally wedded to the so-called go slow method when it comes to the unity of Africa, who extol the virtues of the NEPAD approach, who are wedded to primacy of the individual regions -- all of which are the position of the capitalist since the days of the OAU as they are to this moment; these kinds of leaders, if I may point out, are only interested in ripping off the people so that their masters in the US and the EU will keep them in Mercedes, fine mansions and all the other piddling rewards they believe are the things that make a heaven on earth. They are the people who dream of not only dominating and exploiting their own countries and peoples in the interest of the imperialist neocolonial system, but as in the case of Museveni of Uganda, have aspirations of building a compliant regional base that he can exploit just as he exploits Uganda. So, to these kinds of men and women infrastructure in Africa means creating the means for the imperialist powers to exploit Africa and oppress African people more effectively and efficiently. It means better physical and informational communication systems, ports, airports, a few roads, adequate telephone and computer systems, supplemented by suitable h otels, amenities appropriate to the taste of the imperialists and the neo-colonialists and so on. This concept of infrastructure is not for benefit of the people of Africa, not at all. These are intended to facilitate the work of the IMF, the World Bank, Microsoft, IBM, Bank of America, western stock markets, ADM. AFRICOM, western diplomats, representatives of imperialist cultural, religious and educational institutions and the like. It is to facilitate Israel's theft of the diamonds of Liberia and other states on the continent, Shell's and other petroleum companies looting of Africa's oil wealth, to maintain their control over the extraction of our wealth from the Congo, from southern Africa, Tanzania, Ghana and so forth. In short, to use Kissinger's phrase, applied to South Africa/Azania, to the continent as a whole, this concept of infrastructure is aimed at the "orderly marketing" of Africa's wealth for the benefit of the imperialist themselves, of course, and to cement/secure .imperialist strategic position relative to Africa. with which they will use to strengthen imperialist military and political dominance of Africa, Asia and indirectly the world itself. This is the role of the neo-colonialists leadership in the AU.

On the other hand, there is a significant section of the AU, more than 33% according to most journalistic accounts, that sees infrastructure differently. That is those elements, led by Libya, who wish to see the AU turn itself into a Union Government. Indeed, Libya has advocated that the United States of Africa it envisioned would include Caribbean states with African populations...such as Haiti, Cuba....these states generally see infrastructure as a way of enhancing intra-Africa communication (physical and symbolic), intra-Africa trade and general commerce, movement of African people from one area to another, as they see every African as a citizen of all of Africa (this is one of the things that Libya and the social leadership from around the continent having been pushing very hard...), as a means of enhancing African security, by developing Pan-African satellite systems, creation of a Pan-African defense force and so forth. They see the infrastructure issue as one where the goal is to feed, house, educate, entertain, clothed, and otherwise serve the African people. (To varying degrees of course, as everything is dialectical and these states are by no means a monolith ideologically or organizationally,)

Between the two poles on the infrastructure debate are elements that waver sometimes leaning toward the right wing Museveni-type approach, other times going with the advocates of Pan-Africanism -- Union Government. We must help our people understand these distinct tendencies and to help them assist the Union Government forces in the AU.

To do this we have to develop the proper ideological systems, that is the development of theory, interpretation of our history for ourselves, efficient modern delivery systems, cultural arts in service to the people and the peoples' cause, education and the whole nine yards, in addition to the infrastructural systems and methods. Because without a proper set of superstructures, ideology, laws, philosophy and the like, we will not be able to overcome those who wish to stick us with infrastructures that serve our enemies and not ourselves. We must not dally in doing this, as already our enemies are on the move. For example for African History Month, the US government had Alex Haley's brother making a presentation to the AU Staff Association on Civil Rights in the US, which falsely asserted that the culmination of the work of Dr. King was the election of the neocolonialist Obama. And those in the AU who set this up lauded this as the history of African peoples' struggle in the US and the election of the AFRICOM cheerleader, pro-zionist agent as the pinnacle of that history. As I have demonstrated early on Obama's policies are in direct contradiction to that of Dr. King, as Dr. King was very clear, the racism of the US is a reflection and an aspect of capitalist war mongering. He saw the three as a triad of evil war, capitalist exploitation, racism, a triad that formed a single evil system that must be opposed by all humans of conscience. This is not the position of Pres. Obama or his party. (You will note his support for Israel, his opposition to the AU position on Sudan and Zimbabwe, his sending of 17000 more troops to Afghanistan, his catering to the wishes and dictates of the big banks and financial service industry, generally...these are not the actions or policies or beliefs that Dr. King would have sanctioned, if he were here today. Unfortunately, he is not here to defend his position...as we all know...and we all know why he isn't and who is responsible for him not being with us...)

So, we see that the struggle for Pan-Africanism, the political struggle to direct the economy of Africa, at the macro, micro and mezzo (messo) level, is very much alive today. It only requires a radical improvement in our capacity to recruit and train ourselves so that we are working for our own interests, and not against our interests.

We need a Union government; and that must be the message of every single African in the world who is interested in seeing us free and prosperous.

[Im The Truth]

Great article! If anyone hasn't read this one yet please do yourself a favor!

[Majadi]

Bro. Walker this paper is fire, I love it, as my intention was to revisit Economics this week for AssataRadio, I would of course rather have you call me on the program but if not may I have permission to use portions of this! Of course as a researcher I make sure correct credit is given to my sources!
Excellent work and actually something I had pondered for a moment, Politics defining Economics, I love it!