Africa

Comrade Booker was detained for several hours and released, but the Kenyan government seized his passport and other travel documents. He has been charged with “Incitement to Violence.” This could have reached a tragic ending, as the Ruto régime has made others disappear, and is still an example of a bourgeois state cracking down on and punishing revolutionary Marxist-Leninists.

The Communist Party of Kenya went through a series of struggles in order to become what it is today. The Marxist-Leninist faction in the Social Democratic Party of Kenya won the leadership of the party and, in 2019, changed its name to the Communist Party of Kenya. The CPK announced that it was a communist party and the vanguard of the Kenyan proletariat and peasantry.

After getting the Kenyan régime to recognize it as a legitimate party, the CPK acknowledged two important things: 1. pre-revolutionary reforms aid the working class and peasantry and should be supported. 2. The party recognizes that its mission as the vanguard of the Kenyan people is to use revolutionary tactics to overthrow the Kenyan capitalist class and the [neo]imperialists, represented by William Ruto today.

Comrade Booker, in his autobiographical work, “Communist Party of Kenya and Manifestations of Class Struggle in Kenya,” said: “Kenya is a dictatorship, with a few wealthy people dominating all spheres of life. Capital is the dominating factor, with money, everything is for sale! Even people!”

With this fact in mind, Comrade Booker has fought the Kenyan big bourgeoisie, and for this the state repressive forces are trying to silence him. He acknowledged that he was lucky in that the police did not “disappear” him, an unfortunate risk of being a vocal communist living under a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

While the revolution is much bigger than just one person, Marxist-Leninists acknowledge the importance individual people can have in the experience and course of a revolution. It is one of the responsibilities of communists worldwide to demand that Comrade Booker’s life and freedom be maintained and that the Kenyan state keeps its hands off him.

The International Relations Committee of Workers World Party calls for the Kenyan state to drop the charges against Comrade Booker and allow him to live freely. We support the Kenyan people’s demand for the resignation of Ruto and all anti-proletarian/anti-peasant forces in Kenya.

The revolutions in the Sahel have captured the imaginations of Africans across the continent - including artists who decorate Kenya’s beloved ‘matatu’ taxi minibuses, which are like art galleries on wheels. Their exteriors are typically bedecked with colourful graffiti-style designs and cartoons, as well as portraits of cult musicians and actors. But a new face has been spotted on Nairobi matatus: that of Burkina Faso’s anti-imperialist leader, Ibrahim Traoré. Like the people of Burkina Faso, Kenyans have been standing up for their rights and fighting back against exploitation by imperialist foreign actors. This was most evident in the recent mass protests that swept Kenya in opposition to IMF-pushed tax hikes. These were mainly attended by young people, undeterred by the harsh police crackdown which proved fatal to dozens. Burkina’s youth are also instrumental in the change their country is undergoing, with Traoré - at 36 - one of the world’s youngest leaders. So the question for Kenyans is: will it just be their matatus’ wheels that will be experiencing a ‘revolution’?

Alongside the debate on ways to boost industrialization, economic growth and development in the region, the participants expressed great concern at the continued [neocolonial] attack on civilians in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip. This attack is causing thousands of victims, the devastation of towns and villages and the deterioration of humanitarian conditions. In its final communiqué, SADC called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all prisoners and the start of talks to reach a lasting solution to the conflict.

The Harare summit reiterated the call for the unconditional removal of the sanctions the United States of America, the United Kingdom and [their] allies have imposed on Zimbabwe and pointed out that these illegal measures continue to hinder the progress and prosperity of Zimbabweans and the region in general.

The heads of state also addressed the problem of Mpox on the continent and in the region, noting the declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO), which classified the issue as a “public health emergency of international concern.” In this context, they called on the WHO, African health bodies and other partners to mobilize resources to respond to the disease in the region.

The Southern African leaders meeting in Harare reiterated their “unwavering support” for Mozambique and the DRC in promoting and consolidating peace, security and stability in the two countries. They highlighted the efforts of Angola and its leaders to achieve lasting peace in the face of security challenges in the eastern part of the DRC, brokering a ceasefire agreement between the DRC and Rwanda.

Interpreting the spirit of the summit, the new SADC chairperson defended the modernization and industrialization of southern Africa and stressed that the region must be developed by its own peoples. The development process must be carried out “through our individual and collective efforts,” insisted Mnangagwa. He said that “those who want to help us are welcome,” but they must do so “on our terms, guided by our priorities and respecting our sovereignty.” And he assured that with unity and hard work “nothing is impossible.”

In 2021, the Malian government had hired the Wagner group, a privately owned Russian military company, to provide training to its armed forces and security to government officials, tasks that the French forces neglected.

After the French left, the Malian Armed Forces and the Wagner Group generally conducted joint operations.

Soldiers from the Wagner Group and the Malian Armed Forces were operating on the Algerian border near the commune of Tinzaouaten in late July when an insurgent group ambushed them, leaving dozens of Malian and Wagner forces killed, injured or captured and the insurgents in control of the commune.

Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence, was speaking on Ukrainian television when he indicated Kyiv’s possible involvement: “That the rebels received the necessary data to successfully carry out an operation against Russian war criminals has been observed by the entire world. Of course, we will not disclose details.” (Al Jazeera, Aug. 8)

Some security analysts with inside knowledge of the attacks said Ukrainian forces could have provided limited training to Tuareg fighters, teaching them how to operate drones, drop IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and launch mortar attacks.

Ukraine is proving to be a very useful proxy for both European and U.S. [neo]imperialists.

Deploring the “alarming” security situation in the Sahel, with attacks committed by “terrorist groups financed and trained by the West,” the Senegalese organizations expressed solidarity with the Malian armed forces and with the Alliance of Sahel States, a recently created collective defense alliance made up of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which is fighting against the terrorist groups now aided by Ukraine.

Senegalese diplomacy, meanwhile, severely criticized the publication of the video by the Ukrainian Embassy, considering it “unequivocal and unreserved support for the terrorist attack perpetrated in northern Mali by Tuareg rebels and members of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims against the Malian armed forces.”

What’s more, Sénégal “rejects terrorism in all its forms and cannot accept, on its territory and in any way whatsoever, comments and gestures that glorify terrorism, especially with the aim of destabilizing a sister country like Mali.”

Similarly, Burkina Faso criticized Ukraine and “called on the international community to assume its responsibility” in the face of Kiev’s choice to collaborate with terrorism “in a global context where there is unanimity on the need to fight this scourge.”

The Burkinabe government called on “peace-loving African countries, in particular, to condemn these subversive actions that threaten the stability of the continent.” And it called on Ukraine to “get its act together” and refrain from aiding the terrorists who “are massacring, killing, raping and pillaging” in northern Mali and throughout the region.

In an interview, Shahid Bolsen, founder of Middle Nation and a political commentator on global Muslim affairs, discusses how countries’ leaders and governments are not managing their economies.

Using Kenya as an example due to the recent protests over tax hikes, he stated that President William Ruto is just a face. The actual decision-makers are lenders, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who aim to secure the profits of Western multinational corporations, such as Coca-Cola, Barclays Bank, Nestlé, and others.

Some great information and critique here. Dominant western perspectives, even when dubbing themselves "decolonial", still paint Africa as the Dark Continent, whose inhabitants are powerless against external forces.

Instead, Vijay Prashad and Mikaela Nhondo Erskog argue, we need to center the (re-)emergence of Red Africa, the indigenous efforts towards socialism.

The heroic uprising has propelled Kenyan President William Ruto, an ally of President Joe Biden’s administration, not to sign the controversial bill, at least on a temporary basis. Many Kenyans are now demanding that their president resign.

The Communist Party of Kenya stated: “The blood spilled on the streets of Kenya lies squarely in the hands of the IMF, the World Bank and their local puppets led by President Ruto in Nairobi. Ruto resign or be overthrown.” (communistpartyofkenya.org, June 26)

This unimaginable debt should be canceled once and for all. Reparations are owed to the people of Kenya along with the entire African continent for hundreds of years of stolen resources and superexploited labor, first on the part of the [neo]imperialist ruling class of Britain, France, Germany and other rich European countries and presently by the [neo]imperialist banks dominated by the U.S.

Julian Assange is free! After accepting a deal that will see him plead guilty to a conspiracy charge in exchange for his freedom, he has departed for a court in the US commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, from where he’ll continue on to Australia. He has spent five years in what has been dubbed ‘Britain’s Guantanamo,’ aka the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

His real ‘crime,’ many would argue, was simply lifting the lid on US wrongdoings - by publishing a trove of diplomatic cables that implicate Washington in atrocities and alleged war crimes. Many of these relate directly to Africa.

Here’s a reminder of some of Assange’s key revelations concerning American foul play on the African continent - and why his freedom is important.