Jack Straw Attempts to Justify Britain’s Interference in Africa

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Jack Straw Attempts to Justify Britain’s Interference in Africa

Intervention With a Conscience Is No More a Solution than Intervention Without

For Your Information:
Tony Blair's Visit to Western Africa

Mugabe Faces Political War with Britain

EU Fishing Out Senegal's Grounds

EU Subsidy Ruling Alienating Prospective Members

Lack of Health Workers Imperils Africa's Gains

RCN on Nursing Figures

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to West Africa later this week, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, wrote an article entitled "Africa Matters", for the Independent on Sunday, on February 3.

There has been much speculation in the media regarding the reason for Tony Blair’s trip to Africa, where he is expected to visit Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and probably Sierra Leone. According to Jack Straw, the government’s concern is of a humanitarian nature: it simply cannot ignore the fact that "poverty and conflict are bound together in a lethal embrace throughout much of Africa". The Foreign Secretary’s article does not venture to suggest why "poverty and conflict" are so prevalent in Africa, or in any way link this with the exploitation of the African continent and its human and other resources that has been carried out by Britain and the other big powers for centuries. He does not mention the legacy of the invasion, conquest and partition of the continent by Britain and the other imperialist powers, nor the imposition of colonial rule and their continued interference in the affairs of the continent. For the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister, the problem facing Africa is that it "is the one continent to miss out on the prosperity generated by globalisation", and for this reason "the Prime Minister is giving Africa a higher priority than his predecessors did".

The Prime Minister’s visit to Africa this week is therefore part of a wider government strategy to create the conditions for the countries of Africa to be more fully integrated into the global market. The aim is to establish even greater privatisation and the penetration of foreign, and especially British, capital in Africa and to secure the interests of the British monopolies and financial oligarchy throughout the continent, at a time when there is a growing scramble between all the big powers for Africa’s resources and markets and to secure strategic advantage in the continent. It is in this context that the British government speaks of its "humanitarian" concern for "conflict resolution", working to "bring order out of chaos" and avoiding the prospect of "failed states" in various parts of the African continent. It uses such pretexts to justify its intervention and interference in such countries as Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe as well as to subvert African countries’ initiatives to solve the continent’s problems.

The Prime Minister’s visit to West Africa will aim to strengthen the ties with those countries where Britain already enjoys considerable economic, political and military influence such as former colonies of Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. At the same time, its aim is to develop support for the British government’s forays into other parts of Africa where it does not have historic ties, such as the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Sudan. Both Senegal and Nigeria have also played a leading role in the so-called New Partnership for Africa’s Development, an initiative for African development that the government have been eager to influence and subvert. The government is also particularly keen to develop strong ties with Africa’s regional organisations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), comprising former British colonies and based in Nigeria, which is seeking wider economic integration with those countries in the region that were formerly French colonies.

Tony Blair, Jack Straw and the British government are claiming that although they cannot solve all the world’s problems, nevertheless in Africa "Britain can make a difference". But such sentiments are no more than a regurgitation of the 19th century notion of the "white man’s burden", supposedly undertaken for altruistic motives but in fact representing the rapacious interests of the monopolies. Britain and the other big powers are the cause of the problems confronting Africa, and are incapable of providing any solutions.

Whereas George W. Bush is threatening to extend the "war on terrorism" by military means in Iran, Iraq and north Korea, as well as Somalia and other falsely named "sponsors of terrorism", in naked pursuit of the interests of US imperialism, Tony Blair is speaking of the "duty to act" because Africa is a "scar on the conscience of the world".

By "scar on the conscience of the world", as he called Africa at the Labour Party conference, it is evident that Tony Blair is not referring to the unspeakable crimes against humanity committed in the name of the slave trade, the genocidal colonialism which wiped out peoples and cultures in the name of the "white man's burden". The British government has not apologised, settled scores with this conscience and made reparations to the African peoples. At the World Conference against Racism in Durban last year, this was precisely what the British government refused to do. If the British government is not prepared to come to terms with this history and make a clean break with its period of empire, with its scramble for the untold material and human wealth of Africa, preferring to sweep it and its motives under the carpet, then it cannot be otherwise than it will perpetuate this "scar on the conscience of the world".

What is required is that the African peoples take control of their own destiny, sorting out the forms by which this can be achieved. The problems of the African continent cannot be solved by taking over the Anglo-American values which are championed by Tony Blair, not least because these values have been a component of the cause of the problems.

In the wake of the second world war, colonial relations were broken through the deeds of the peoples of Africa themselves, despite the efforts of the big powers, chief of which was Britain, to block the march of history. In those days, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it was commonplace to hear the forces who were struggling for independence of their countries described by the big powers as "terrorists". Many progressive leaders were imprisoned, assassinated, or subverted.

With the deepening of the global crisis of capitalism, especially since the end of the bipolar division of the world, renewed efforts have been made by the big powers to control the resources of the African countries, to dominate Africa, to manoeuvre to integrate it into the neo-liberal agenda of globalisation. This has gone hand in hand with intervention, the denigration of African leaders who do not accept this agenda, and the blaming of the problems of Africa on the African people themselves. Post-September 11, the spectre raised by US imperialism and the British government has become one of new terrorist threats unless measures are taken, through the adoption of the plans of the big powers, to "relieve African poverty", to not allow Africa to "deteriorate into a failed state living on drugs and terrorism" as allegedly was the case with Afghanistan.

Tony Blair is saying that the September 11 attacks on the US had strengthened his view that Britain must help Africa, not only because of the "obvious misery of people living there", but also because "in today's world, mutual interest and self-interest increasingly walk hand in hand", according to an interview in The Times. His stated aim is that this week's mission will pave the way for agreement from the world's richest states at June's G8 summit in Canada on the implementation of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad).

This is the bottom line. While the world's people are aghast at the open warmongering of George W. Bush and the violence he is threatening to further unleash on the world, Tony Blair is wrapping his intentions in the cloak of humanitarianism and a duty to act to alleviate suffering. However, such intervention is no more a solution of the problems of Africa than is military aggression. The working class and people must demand that Britain get out of Africa, end all relations of exploitation, and allow the peoples and nations of Africa to forge their own destiny.

Tony Blair leaves today, Wednesday, with his first destination likely to be Nigeria. From there Blair is expected to travel to Ghana, Senegal and possibly Sierra Leone, according to informed sources.

Downing Street, citing security concerns, is refusing to give details, but travelling with the Prime Minister will be International Development Secretary Clare Short and Junior Foreign Minister Valerie Amos.

Much of the burgeoning trade with Africa is in the form of arms deals.

According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), African nations spent £52 million on arms in deals with British firms in 1999.

It estimates that the figure will have quadrupled by next year, including a controversial £28-million contract for a military air defence and traffic control system for Tanzania, which Britain approved in December.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said he faces a "political war" against former colonial ruler Britain, accusing London of backing his opponent in presidential elections next month.

In his first speech of the campaign, Robert Mugabe said: "We are in a state of political war. We are in a war to defend our rights and the interests of our people. The British have decided to take us on through the MDC."

He continued: "Whatever Blair tries to do, we will not back down. We went to war. We went to prison. We have suffered over the years, but we are not afraid of the struggle. We will not run away. You can count on us to fight." The participants at the election rally chanted, "Down with MDC, Down with Britain!"

"Tsvangirai has decided he must be white and he has now become Tsvangison, in line with his wishes to become all things white," President Mugabe said, speaking in Shona, referring to the leader of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change).

The following article is reproduced from The Democrat, paper of the Campaign against Euro-federalism, January 2002.

Senegal on the west coast of Africa has one of the most successful fishing industries in the region. Fish exports account for about a third of foreign exchange.

Talks over a new accord between the EU Commission and Senegal have broken down. There is a potential disaster in the offing as all the warning signals go off about depletion of fish stocks along this coast of Africa.

The negotiations came to a halt over Senegalese proposals to extend the area for exclusive fishing by the local fishing fleet, rest periods to enable stocks to recover and the price of the new "accord".

Factory ships and trawlers from EU member states, mainly France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, gained restricted access to Senegal's fishing grounds in 1997. Although the deal brought 48m ecu to the Senegalese government there is intense rivalry between the national fishing fleet and the high-technology industrial trawlers from the EU.

Nearly half a million Senegalese derive their livelihood from the fishing industry. Local fishermen using hook and line cannot compete with the factory ships. Environmentalists say most damage to fish stocks is caused by foreign trawlers who tend to dispense overboard huge quantities of unwanted species. In addition certain techniques destroy the habitat and diet of large fish.

The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said developing countries who opened up to foreign fishing fleets may lose more than they gain. "Liberalising" the Senegal and Argentinean fishing grounds "has had a devastating effect on some key stocks".

The European Commission on January 30 released the details of its financial plan to pay for the 2004 European Union enlargement. The most controversial measure in the proposal is the withholding of full agricultural subsidies from EU applicants until 10 years after membership. This extended timeframe has angered prospective members such as Poland. Other prospective members are Hungary, the Czech Republic and Cyprus.

The proposal has provoked opposition among all the applicants, as it would withhold full agricultural subsidies from countries for 10 years after they join the EU and would initially give farmers in current EU states a subsidy level four times greater.

The Commission recommends that farmers in the new EU nations receive only 25 percent of the direct payments made to Western European farmers under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The proportion would increase to 35 percent by 2006 but not reach full parity until 2013.

The Commission's justification for the timeframe is that beginning full payments immediately would not only bankrupt the European Union but also would derail attempts at agricultural reform among the new members. Last year the CAP consumed 43 percent of the total EU budget.

The enlargement of the EU, which is being pursued to further consolidate Europe as a superpower bloc, is for the advantage of the big powers of Europe, notably Britain, France and Germany, who wish to maintain a two- or multi-tier Europe which does not threaten their domination.

An emerging "crisis of health manpower" in Africa threatens to derail the continent's progress, according to experts who attended a United Nations-sponsored meeting that ran from January 29 to February 1 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Officials from 17 African countries, who took part in the conference sponsored by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank, agreed that the problem stems from unsuitable training programmes, inadequate co-operation among the many parties concerned, and losses of staff to opportunities outside Africa.

These factors combine to render Africa's health care facilities "barely able to function for lack of qualified, motivated doctors, nurses and other health workers", WHO said in a statement.

The AIDS epidemic is exacerbating the situation by further reducing the availability of trained health workers because of staff deaths and by increasing the demand for care, according to participants at the meeting.

Addressing participants, Dr. Ok Pannenborg, who oversees the World Bank's work on health in Africa, placed the lack of African doctors and nurses in the global context of an increasingly flexible labour market, which facilitates the migration of skilled manpower to other countries.

According to WHO, the issue is gaining greater urgency amid such dramatic events as the recruitment by a European country of an entire graduating nursing class in one African country. The UN agency warned that without "urgent action there is a risk that the contributions soon to be committed in Africa by the new Global Fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria will not even have a serious possibility of achieving their goals".

According to latest figures, the total number of qualified nurses working in the NHS rose by 4.3 per cent last year – the biggest increase in qualified nurses on record – going up by 14,400 to 350,400.

Dr Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, commented: "It is very positive that the NHS Plan targets for nurses recruitment have been met. However, shortages still exist. The challenge now must be to retain existing nurses and to sustain this growth in the context of an ageing nursing workforce. In the long term we have to reduce our current dependence on internationally recruited nurses. Nurse numbers are only part of the story. Nurses are working harder than ever to maintain high quality patient care in difficult circumstances. In order to retain our nurses we must value them through improvements to both working lives, career development and in their pay."