The United States is one of the leading imperialist powers fighting to maintain dominance on the African continent and around the world. The conference seeks to aid in the movement to push out the U.S. and other malign actors from their nations and achieve true sovereignty.
Originally published in Struggle La Lucha .
From the Aug. 16 Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria, on the International Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, from August 12-13, 2024:
“The conference, which included delegates of colonized and oppressed peoples who flew in from the Caribbean, North America, Latin America, and Europe, was a potent reminder that although some have been colonized for hundreds of years, they have not forgotten their roots.
“African-American internationalist John Thompson Parker had already written to register for the conference when, two weeks ago, DNA tests revealed that his forebears were taken from Nigeria. For a widely traveled man who had undertaken peace and solidarity visits to countries like Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and Gaza, his participation in the conference was initially in solidarity with the colonized peoples of the world and to make suggestions on how this human scourge can be brought to an end. But finding out that he was originally Nigerian added urgency to his footsteps to be in Abuja. He said: ‘For Black folks in the U.S., it is a big deal to know where our ancestors came from.’
“However, his enthusiasm was dampened when, on August 10, he was refused boarding in Germany for his connecting flight to Abuja on the basis that his application for visa-on-arrival had not been confirmed. As the aircraft that should have taken him to Abuja took off, he lamented: ‘They stole me from Africa, and now they told me I can’t come back; that I can’t even get back to my homeland.’ He later got the confirmation, so the next day, he flew into Nigeria.”
A 24-year-old Nigerian man who works in a tailor shop cannot go home to his mother and two siblings because the bus fare doubled. When he can afford to go home, he brings home the money to support his mom and siblings and skips meals to allow others to eat. He’s got his food cost down to $1.60 a day.
Nigeria is facing the worst economic crisis, facing inflation levels not seen in almost three decades.
Basic staples like rice, milk, and corn are now at levels that promote malnutrition. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 26.5 million of Nigeria’s 220 million people are food insecure, with at least 9 million children at risk of wasting – a medical condition that stunts development.
In Ghana, the level of poverty cannot be explained when the production of timber, iron or diamonds, etc., including gold – the fifth largest producer of that metal in the world – seems to only maintain poverty.
Poverty in Somalia and in Sudan, etc., on our earth’s African continent is left in torment by Western imperialism and especially U.S. imperialism, and the IMF and World Bank in maintaining that torment.
The IMF was created at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. And the primary architects from Britain and the United States ensured that African, Latin American, and Asian self-determination would be denied in the service of the maximization of profits of financial and industrial monopolies of the United States and Britain.
The IMF sits in Washington, D.C., which guarantees that the U.S. Treasury exerts the greatest influence.
World War II allowed the United States to be in virtual control of the world economy and place the world on the U.S. dollar rather than local currencies.
Only three of the 40 original members of the IMF were in Africa and at the time most of that continent was still under colonialism. Eventually, one-third of the IMF members were from Africa. But, they’re low income, the effect of years of colonialism. This gave them less than 9% of the voting power, and they held only three of the 22 seats on the executive board. Meaning self-determination for Africa was not a priority of the IMF.
African scholar Walter Rodney exposed in 1968 “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” and wrote: “In the first place, the wealth created by African labor and from African resources was grabbed by the capitalist countries in Europe and in the second place restrictions were placed upon African capacity to make the maximum use of its economic potential, which is what development is all about.”
And in their own words, the IMF writes: “Their economic problems tend to be structural even more than macroeconomic; rooted in the need for improvements in education, health care, infrastructure and governance rather than finance and more deeply ingrained and persistent than in other regions.”
In spite of those words, the IMF does not help build vital infrastructure of a nation. It prioritizes privatization and a dearth of social spending.
While in the U.S., I saw a photo from a protester’s sign in Kenya that read, “IMF keep your hands off Kenya” and “Kenya is not IMF’s lab rat.” That protester and many others were subject to gunfire and tear gas from police in Nairobi’s streets. They were responding to President Ruto’s fiscal and austerity policies that were driven by the IMF in order to be eligible to receive loans.
The so-called shock therapies that are currently being used by the Nigerian president includes the reduction of gas subsidies, higher electrical costs, and the devaluing of currency which is like a pay cut for workers; which is why labor unions have gone on strike and protest. That austerity allowed Nigeria to get a $2.25 billion loan from the World Bank, and the austerity is celebrated by the banks.
Latin America has also inspired protests from the victims of the IMF social cutbacks.
In 1980, the structural adjustment programs or SAPs imposed deep cuts on public services and encouraged privatizations and trade policies in favor of capitalist countries.
Fela Kuti, the famous Nigerian musician – famous in the U.S. as well – sang a song about taking the wealth from African people called “SAP,” which he interpreted as meaning “Suck African People – suck them dry.”
The IMF has also been used in North African countries for a long time, inspiring inflation and high poverty rates. But, unauthorized protests are strictly enforced. I can tell you that I got a taste of the police on this continent in an unauthorized protest in Egypt that landed me in detention last November. I was simply a part of an international delegation trying to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
I should also mention that I found out more of my history using Ancestry.com, which is a relatively new ability – being able to find out your ethnicity using DNA really is a big deal. You see, it is a unique disability that African Americans endure – our families were broken up and sold on arrival to foreign shores. But, two weeks ago, I found out where my ancestors are from, and that is a very big, emotional deal – just imagine not knowing where you are from. Just two weeks ago, I found out – it is a really big deal because most of my DNA comes from here – Nigeria! I’m so proud looking at the people here in Nigeria – my people, my family. I just found out two weeks ago!
And while I’m on the subject of my ancestors who were taken to the United States in chains from here, I want to point out that the wealth that was created by slaves in the U.S. in cotton production created the capital of the ruling class and the founding capital of the IMF.
The great wealth that was used to catapult capitalism in the U.S. was from cotton, thanks to the invention of the cotton gin and another advance in technology that increased production. Annual cotton exports reached 4 million bales. The cotton traveled up north and out of New York, making way for England and other places, allowing the fortunes of the industries facilitating its movement there to grow exponentially. And who were those beneficiaries? They were the railroads of the Vanderbilts. They were J.P. Morgan’s steel. They were Rockefeller, Melon, and Morgan’s Manhattan Bank (now Chase Manhattan), and created the capital for Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. All thanks to African slaves who were now producing for them and the world – for free. That’s where this insane wealth of the ruling class originated, and also some of the wealth of the English ruling class and the banks that made the IMF possible.
The IMF also induced inflation, and it also comes from the U.S. imperialist wars and proxy wars like the proxy war against Ukraine.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense 2022 report states right out of the gate that China and Russia are the main targets of the U.S. and China is the number one target – not because of a military threat – it states China’s threat is economic and, according to the Department of Defense, warrants war against China. And the plans also include Russia.
Last September, the U.S. held a meeting in India, pushing the Indian Middle East Corridor initiative with cooperation between Saudi Arabia and India and the U.S. with invites to Jordan. The destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline by the U.S. and the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine helped push the IMEC initiative, pushing an alternative hydrogen pipeline to replace the natural gas that Russia had provided to Europe. The pipeline flows from India to Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Haifa and occupied Palestine close to the West Bank and Gaza. The pipeline would then go to Greece to supply Europe.
It’s very interesting that before Oct. 7, the U.N. reported record-breaking violence with settler attacks against Palestinians in Gaza. And before Oct. 7, Israel’s Netanyahu presented a new map of Israel that eliminated Palestine.
But, in their haste for proxy war in Ukraine and funding of genocide in Gaza, the U.S. exposed itself and became isolated, especially in this African continent. Therefore, some are seeing Russia as an alternative. The African continent has experienced China and Russia as an alternative to the IMF and World Bank in building the infrastructure with no demands for austerity – that is the threat that the U.S. sees and does not mind playing with our lives by pushing World War III.
You might ask if it’s possible that there would be such a lack of basic morality to make such a threat against our lives, but what’s going on in Gaza makes clear the horrors of the U.S. The Biden and Harris administration funds and arms Israel. They have no limit in their tolerance for Israel’s most heinous genocide, which would not be possible if the U.S. was not on board.
One of the most trusted journals concerning health care and medical research, The Lancet, said a conservative estimate of the real number of folks dying is not 37,000. It’s more like 186,000 in Gaza.
And we know that the terror is also on this continent, coming from the same source.
Former President Obama fulfilled the U.S. imperialist dream of getting AFRICOM stationed on the African continent to supposedly fight terrorists.
What was the result? The number of extremist groups went up 400%, according to the Defense Department’s African Center for Strategic Studies.
This also echoes the 2017 U.N. report in the film “Journey to Extremism in Africa,” which states that government actions of repression – including the increased drone killings, killing of family members, and jailings and repression by the U S. and their collaborators – are the main motivation for recruitment into extremist organizations.
Many studies have correlated the lack of food and basic necessities of life as the greatest cause of internal conflict.
In 2018, the U.N. also reported that it would take just $175 billion per year for just 20 years to eradicate not only poverty on the entire continent of Africa but the entire world. So that’s just 17% of the U.S. yearly military spending of $1 trillion.
The fact is that AFRICOM’s war on terror, in addition to being a vital tool for U.S. imperialism, is also a self-perpetuating money machine for the ruling class, a huge buffet for the military-industrial complex and the politicians and corporations who directly and indirectly benefit from it.
Former President Obama’s father was Kenyan, so the contradiction of U.S. imperialist white supremacy in Black skin, which we know is a tactic of U.S. imperialism, is again being used by presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Harris is a former District Attorney – encouraging and enabling police genocide in the U.S. that most acutely affects Black and Brown people — particularly in the Los Angeles Police Department. Harris is also a current supporter of “Israel’s” genocide.
But my ancestry knowledge of my Nigerian heritage does not allow that contradiction for me.
I am hoping this conference will be a qualitative change in our power. And increase the power of humanity organized with international collaboration to effectively fight our enemies who we have irreconcilable differences with. We have no interest or gain in the interests of the ruling class — and I like to say that our irreconcilable differences can also be expressed as the capitalist system vs. the winning socialist/communist solution.
John Parker is the coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice in Los Angeles and a leading member of the Socialist Unity Party. Following is his presentation to the Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism.