Africa and the G8

No matter what Bono and Bob Geldoff (the self-appointed and self-righteous heads of the Make Poverty History Campaign) have to say, the deal on Africa agreed by their friend Tony Blair and the other leaders of the G8 in Gleneagles was absolutely pathetic. Despite being hailed as 'the most successful G8 summit ever' by the right-wing media, the agreement will in reality make absolutely no difference to the lives of the impoverished masses of Africa.

However, International Socialist Resistance (ISR) was not shocked or disappointed by this outcome. We explained that the G8 represents the system of capitalism. All the governments in the group are completely tied up with and reliant upon big business and the multinationals which are responsible for the impoverishment of the so-called 'third world'. The capitalist system cannot function and provide profit for the owners of big business without forcing the working class and other sections of society into poverty.

On debt, it was agreed that the money owed by the 18 poorest countries in the continent to the governments that make up the G8 and other international financial institutions would be dropped. This isn't any huge loss for the advanced capitalist governments. These 18 countries couldn't afford to pay the interest on their debt, never mind pay it off! The deal completely ignores the plight of the rest of the impoverished continent of Africa. Also, even those countries that have had their public debt forgiven are still faced with debts of hundreds of billions of dollars to Western big business, banks and financial institutions. In reality, the effect of the debt cancellation by the G8 is unlikely to be felt in any significant way by the poor of these countries.

Alleviating some public debt is in fact ultimately in the interests of capitalism. There is a growing anger in Africa at the parasitic nature of Western lenders. If debts were allowed to continue to mount it would be more likely that in the neo-colonial world, a government could be forced into defaulting on all debt by pressure from a mass movement of the poor masses. If this happened in one country, it could spark a chain reaction that would lead to a huge economic crisis for capitalism.

The leaders of the G8 do not want an independent, prosperous Africa. Debt relief is being used by these capitalist representatives to open up the continent's economy to even greater domination by Western multinationals. Even Gordon Brown, portrayed as the saviour of the African poor, insisted that any debt relief must be linked to 'economic reform'. To qualify for debt relief, the 18 countries must meet the conditions of the Highly Impoverished Poor Countries Process; the sell-off of resources, industry and essential public services and the dropping of any measures aimed at protecting local industry. In private hands, these industries and services are run to provide as much profit as possible for the bosses, not decent products and service. This leads to huge cutbacks and job losses that force down the living standards of the working class and poor even further.

While expressing a total commitment to the 'free market' as being the solution for the economic problems of Africa and the rest of the neo-colonial world, the G8 have stated that they will continue to subsidise agriculture in their own countries. This makes it even harder for African farmers to compete on the global market and support themselves and their families. This is a clear case of double standards, with Western capitalism using debt as a bargaining chip to open the way for even greater profits at the expense of the African people.

The G8 also agreed to double aid to Africa by 2010. However, even then the continent of Africa will be paying roughly 50 cents in debt repayments for every dollar it would receive from the West. The aid being promised is tiny compared to the wealth stolen from Africa by Western multinationals that exploit Africa's natural resources and cheap labour for profit. We must also remember that the governments in the G8 do not have a good track record on meeting targets like these! They are not on target to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals they signed up to, while only one of the eight governments has paid in full the aid that it pledged to the countries affected by the tsunami disaster.

People can be forgiven for thinking that Africa is simply a naturally poor continent, where starvation and poverty and regrettable but inevitable, a burden on the rich West. However, this view, put across by capitalist representatives and the media, is completely false. Africa has huge natural wealth. In fact, the continent's natural resources were the lifeblood of the British imperial economy and that of other imperialist powers that once directly politically and militarily dominated almost the whole of Africa. For example, the vast oil wealth in the Niger Delta could provide its entire population with an annual income of around $250,000! Instead, most people in the area subsist on less than $1 a day, while the huge profits are pocketed by Shell, other huge oil concerns and their corrupt stooges in the capitalist government of Obasanjo.

Famine in Africa is not necessary. Enough food to meet the needs of the entire continent is destroyed very year because it's considered unfit for the Western market and to keep market prices artificially high. If modern farming technique were applied across Africa, which would cost a fraction of what Western governments spend on arms, the continent has the potential to provide enough food for the entire planet. Instead, Western big business seeks ways to keep Africa dependent on their products. For example, seeds have now been genetically modified so that they will only produce one generation of crops, meaning that farmers must buy new seed every year!

International Socialist Resistance calls for the total cancellation of all debt, public and private, with no economic or other conditions and the repatriation of all wealth stolen from the African people by their local, corrupt capitalist leaders. However, the only way to secure an end to poverty and suffering in Africa is a united struggle by the working class and poor masses of the continent and the rest of the neo-colonial world, together with the working class of the advanced capitalist world, for a socialist future. This movement could take the important sectors of the global economy into democratic control and ownership by ordinary workers and consumers, and replace the anarchy of the capitalist market with a sane plan of production. Then the huge natural resources of our planet can be used with modern technology to provide decent housing, healthcare, education, employment and food for all, rather than being used to fill the coffers and protect the interests of the tiny group who currently dominate our world's economy.