On 140th anniversary of W.E.B. Dubois’ birth
Anti-war organization says 'U.S. imperialism - HANDS OFF AFRICA!'
By
Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Feb 28, 2008 9:54 PM
Debbie Johnson, DANFORR
WW photos: Cheryl LaBash
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Less than a month before the fifth anniversary of the U.S. military occupation
of Iraq, a one-day Black History Month conference sponsored by the Michigan
Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice on Feb. 23 challenged the
anti-war movement to address the increased U.S. military and political
intervention in Africa. The conference commemorated the 140th anniversary of
the birth of the great scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois.
African countries are resisting the U.S. government plan to build permanent
military bases on the African continent and a unified U.S. military
headquarters focusing exclusively on Africa, known as the Africa Command, or
AFRICOM. The historical and political context of this resistance was set
through three overview presentations by Debbie Johnson, Detroit Area Network
for Reproductive Rights; Abayomi Azikiwe, founding member of MECAWI and Pan
African Newswire editor; and Mark Fancher, National Conference of Black
Lawyers. Fancher is a primary contributor to the NCBL’s position paper,
“AFRICOM Threatens the Sovereignty, Independence and Stability of the
African Continent.”
“DuBois and other activists saw the Black struggle in the United States
as being part and parcel of a broader movement against racism, colonialism,
imperialism and for national liberation and socialism,” said Azikiwe, who
quoted extensive eloquent passages from W.E.B. DuBois’ seminal work,
“Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part
Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America,
1860-1880,” published in 1935 during the Great Depression.
Azikiwe highlighted and paid tribute to the contribution of African-American
women “who took charge of their political and social agendas to promote
self-organization and self-help programs for the African-American people. ...
Ida B. Wells-Barnett played an instrumental role in this movement by
intersecting with women’s groups throughout the country while carrying
out her anti-lynching mobilizations.”
Abayomi Azikiwe, MECAWI, Pan African Newswire editor
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Azikiwe concluded: “The solution to the national question in the United
States will be a collective one, rooted in a struggle against capitalism and
imperialism on a world scale. Irrespective of the machinations of the Bush
administration’s Africa policy, the fact that the problem of race, class
and gender oppression in the United States has not been resolved speaks volumes
to the peoples of the continent and other oppressed and struggling peoples
around the globe.
“The deepening crisis of capitalism and imperialism requires the
heightening of the struggle of working people and the nationally oppressed
against exploitation, racism and gender oppression. In the tradition of DuBois
and other luminaries of the 20th century, the present generation must continue
the fight to achieve genuine political freedom and social
emancipation.”
Reports by MECAWI activists on Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sudan exposed specific
examples of U.S. imperialist intervention in African nations.
Andrea Egypt noted: “National press associations and other propaganda
machines are the modes of operation to make it appear that Robert Mugabe is
some deranged ruler who is sabotaging the economy [in Zimbabwe]. Yet sanctions
imposed by the U.S., Britain and the European Union and its allies are the real
cause for the failing economy. ... Just recently the Washington Post put out a
call for the overthrow of Mugabe. They also insisted that President Thabo Mbeki
[of South Africa] cut off 15 percent of the electricity that South Africa
provides for Zimbabwe, similar to what has occurred recently in
Palestine.”
Kim Greene reported that the U.S. encouraged hostilities between Somalia and
Ethiopia during the 1980s, intervened directly under the guise of providing
humanitarian aid in 1992, but was expelled after Black Hawk helicopters were
shot down in Mogadishu. In 2006 the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion of
Somalia.
Kevin Carey also paid tribute to W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson. On Sudan,
Carey pointed to the oil and uranium resources as a motive for U.S. political
and military intervention. In 1998, 19 cruise missiles were used by the Clinton
administration to destroy a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
Fancher exposed the real intent of AFRICOM, using the U.S. Navy’s own
website. “The U.S. military is stepping up operations in the Gulf of
Guinea to enhance security in this strategic and resource-rich region. ...
Maritime security is critical for the region to benefit from its natural
resources and prosper economically, [Capt. Tom Rowden] said. Africa provides
almost 15 percent of the United States’ oil supply, much of which comes
from the Gulf of Guinea. In addition, the region is rich in timber, iron ore,
copper and other resources. ‘Our goal is to ensure a more stable maritime
environment to ensure their ability to get those resources to
market.’”
The full NCBL position paper on AFRICOM is at www.ncbl.org.
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