Africa

Whitewashing the Islamists

Socialist Worker has avoided explicit support for the Islamist militias which ruled northern Mali from April 2012 until recently. But in its 9 February issue it sidled to the defence of what it sarcastically called “the dastardly Islamists”. “Media” accused the Islamists of destroying Timbuktu's unique holdings of ancient manuscripts. “But it was never true”. In fact, the Islamists torched the building where the manuscripts where kept, but most were saved because staff had hidden them elsewhere shortly before the militias seized Timbuktu last year. Socialist Worker takes the credit due to the...

Letters

I find it difficult to agree with Martin Thomas’ statement in Solidarity 272 (30 January): “Better troops out now than an African Afghanistan.” The differences between the French action in Mali and the US-led action in Afghanistan are as important as any similarities. For a start, the French are in Mali at the invitation of the Malian government (admitted not a democratically elected government), and all credible reports show overwhelming popular support from Malians for the French action. Additionally, this is not just a French action. It is supported by the African Union and west African...

British troops go to Mali

On 29 January the Government announced that up to 400 British troops will be sent to Mali to help the French intervention, and maybe for over a year. The French troops have now taken control of all three main towns in the north-west of Mali, and the French government talks of withdrawing soon. Full French withdrawal any time soon still remains unlikely. The Islamist militias have retreated from the towns to the desert, rather than being defeated in combat. A stable and widely-accepted political settlement in Mali is still remote.

The Tuaregs in the Malian conflict

The Tuareg people, a nomadic Berber people living in Saharan north Africa, have had five rebellions in the last century — 1916-1917, 1962-1964, 1990-1995, 2007-2009 and in 2012. These rebellions have not often been featured in the far-left press. The most recent, in 2012, involved the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declaring an independent state of Azawad. It is only since France’s intervention into the conflict in Mali that the left has discovered an interest in the region. Many on the left have been quick to apply to Mali the same analysis of imperialism they used...

Mali: into an imperial quagmire

The French military intervention in Mali promises no better than the US military intervention in Afghanistan since 2001. Or even worse. This is a longer version of the article than in the printed paper . The French troops may be able to push the Islamist militias out of the cities of Mali's north-west. But, when the Islamists have retreated to the vast remotenesses of the desert, then what? Both French president Francois Hollande and British prime minister David Cameron have been trying to prepare public opinion for the operation lasting a long time, maybe decades. The French military are...

Workers key to real development in Congo

Jonny Keyworth reports on workers’ struggles in war-ravaged Congo. “History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations will teach... they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets... a history of glory and dignity”. These are the words of the first Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, who led a nationalist movement against Belgian colonial rule. At the ceremony for the handing over of power Lumumba declared (whilst the Belgian King and his entourage sat nervously in the front row): “We...

Support Cameroon's trade unions against state repression!

On 8 November, musicians from the Musicians’ Union of Cameroon protested in the capital Yaoundé against the Port of Douala’s refusal to pay copyright royalties to artists. More than 500 artists are reported to have been beaten with police batons and fists. 63 ended up in jail. Roméo Dika (Vice-President of the International Federation of Musicians) has now being accused of masterminding an insurrection in the country, a crime that could mean life imprisonment and even the death penalty. This sort of political psychosis is unfortunately common place in President Paul Biya’s Cameroon. Having...

Victims of British torture win right to seek damages

The High Court has ruled that Kenyans tortured by the British empire in the 1950's can seek damages from the British government. During and after the Mau Mau uprising which began in 1952, the British empire interned, tortured and murdered many tens of thousands of activists fighting for Kenyan independence. Rape, maiming including castration, and severe beatings were common; in some cases prisoners were simply beaten to death. There is now so much evidence of what happened that the Coalition government is in no position to deny it. Instead, it argued that since the Kenyan government is the...

Fighting “kill the gays” bigotry

On Friday 15 June, LGBT rights activists staged a determined demonstration outside the Uganda High Commission in London. The rally, organised by the Movement for Justice, was protesting the UK’s deportation of Ugandan LGBT asylum seekers and the revival of the notorious “kill the gays” anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. Protestors cheered when news came through that 22-year-old Ugandan lesbian Linda Nakibuuke had won her appeal for refugee status in the UK. Linda had been detained since 11 April by the UK Border Agency who planned to deport her despite being told that she had been tortured for...

Kenyan health workers face down mass sackings

The Kenyan government has sacked 25,000 health workers in a desperate attempt to break a mass strike over pay. The government is asking unemployed and retired health workers to report to their nearest hospital or clinic to participate in interviews for the vacant posts. The workers are on strike for higher pay; health workers in Kenya currently earn around 25,000 shillings (less than £200) per month, and are fighting for an increase that would double this amount. Alex Orina, spokesman for the Kenya Health Professionals Society, said: "We are ignoring the sacking threat. These are cat-and-mouse...

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