Fifteenth World Congress - 2003

Fourth International

 

A new world situation

 

 

[...]

 

4 The disintegration of the African continent

 

The neo-liberalization of sub-Saharan African has proved particularly brutal and murderous, worsening the already catastrophic situation of the part of the capitalist periphery. The Strategic Adjustment Programmes, through privatization of state enterprises, favour the liberalization of markets, control by multinationals of the most profitable sectors of local economies, and recolonization processes accentuated in some cases by proxy wars. Local neo-colonial factions, linked to various imperialist interests, give themselves over to wars of primitive capital accumulation, and pillage of natural resources (minerals, energy, etc), wars whose ethnicization tears apart the national fabric, and create fiefdoms under the rule of extremely criminal politico-mafia gangs (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville...). These further worsen the situation for populations in the conflict zones, often condemned to wander, giving sub-Saharan Africa a huge number of refugees. In addition there is the situation of workers suffering through restructuring of social expenditures, massive layoffs, the freeze on hirings ... Despite this catastrophic situation, the ruling elites, in adopting NEPAD, sanctioned by the G-8 at Kananskis, June 2002, and the multinationals at Dakar, 2002, remain attached to the Washington Consensus. This promises a worsening social situation for a majority of the African people.