Kentucky, March 25—Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades held an event with our school’s African Students Association (ASA) on 21st Century Imperialism and Africa. We were joined virtually by a friend from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a Party member. The professor and faculty advisor for the ASA even held a Zoom call of the event with his students. We handed out the Party’s leaflet “PLP Viewpoint: Inter-Imperialist Rivalry in Africa” and gave a presentation that was inspired by this leaflet. The friend from the DRC gave his knowledge and took questions from attendees of the event.
Why does the ruling class want Africa?
The event was a huge success, as the room was packed with mostly Black students who attended our presentation. The talk featured an analysis of how inter-imperialist rivalry is shaping the lives of workers in various parts of Africa, and why specific regions are of strategic importance to the ruling class as they compete for control over markets and territory. Covering Southern Africa, Northern Africa, Democratic Repuplic of Congo, West Africa, and the horn of Africa, we tied together working-class struggles across the continent, showing that no matter national identity all workers share an interest in opposing imperialism and uniting under the international banner of the working-class.
The presentation highlighted resistance to imperialism in Africa through figures such as Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah and others, while mentioning their limits, such as how the leaders of these movements relied on shaky alliances with national capitalists that led to newer forms of neo-colonial exploitation. The takeaway from this is that nationalism divides workers and creates false narratives about workers being able to ally with their exploiters as long as they share the same national birthplace. African workers must recognize their enemy as capitalism, the system that collectively exploits us all, and fight together to overthrow it!
Congolese workers hit bosses hard
The friend from the DRC gave an excellent talk about the history of exploitation in his home country, beginning with the Belgian colonialism carried out by King Leopold II, forcing the native Congolese tribes into brutal slavery and making them harvest rubber, up to today where the DRC is largely seen by the ruling-class in terms of its mining potential, relying on the same old tactics of taking land and forcing locals to work for cheap. When asked for specific examples of how workers are fighting back, we heard an anecdote from a village where some capitalists were making plans to begin an operation that would have required the destruction of land and likely would have produced all sorts of environmental hazards for the nearby locals.
Understanding lessons from their own history, the workers in the village collectively refused to allow this project to go through. When it was seen that the company trying to mine there would not listen to their concerns, they decided to take things a step further and attack bosses’ equipment, making it inoperable and costing them thousands of dollars in damages. This sent a message that these workers would not bend, and as a result the mining company decided to leave, abandoning the project. This showed how lasting victories can be won through militant organized fightback, while electoralism and other channels provided by the bosses often offer no real solutions.
After the presentation was over, we broke for food and discussion. One student in the ASA who attended the event commented that he was pleasantly surprised that many white students came to this event. Students commented on how most of the time, it is difficult to get non-Africans to care about Africa. We gave our Party’s line on multiracial unity and how this event is an example of it. One Latin student who attended the event shared how our study group feels very multiracial and makes him feel like he belongs.
Identity politics will never liberate working class
Still, our work is far from over. Many students still have illusions that identity is the most important factor in determining who should lead the fightback. We gave our analysis that it is in every worker’s interest to fight racism and the imperialist, capitalist system that endorses it. At the end of the event, we agreed with the ASA to continue to support each others’ organizations by attending each others’ events. Prior to this, we had attended a discussion put together by the African Students Association and the Black Student Union where we witnessed students expressing frustration at feeling isolated and unsupported on a campus that was predominantly white and dominated by right-wing politics. As one student put it, “Here the anti-Blackness is just in your face.” In Kentucky, a state dominated by the politics of small-fascist supporters of Donald Trump, it’s all the more important that we build a multiracial movement and fight openly against racism in our schools, workplaces, and communities.