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Vol. 82/No. 12 March 26, 2018
(front page)
Washington pushes back against Beijing rulers’ challenge in Africa
Michiel Hulshof and Daan Roggeveen
Chinese-owned Huajian shoe factory in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Inset,
banner over the factory.
BY TERRY EVANS
Sharpening competition between Washington and Beijing marked the
five-nation African tour begun by then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
March 7. He had to break off his visit when he was dismissed by
President Donald Trump six days later.
The rulers of the world’s dominant imperialist power are acting to
defend their economic and political interests against both Beijing and
Moscow, who are challenging Washington in the cutthroat battle for
markets and political influence in Africa and elsewhere around the world.
Tillerson met with government officials in Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Kenya and Nigeria, all countries whose rulers are conducting military
action against Islamist forces with Washington’s backing. These
operations take place against the backdrop of sharpening class
antagonisms on the continent built on developing capitalist economic and
social relations there.
Prior to the trip, Tillerson said Washington’s approach to the continent
“stands in contrast to China’s,” which he claimed “encourages
dependency,” using “predatory loan practices” that “undercut their
sovereignty.”
The propertied rulers in both Washington and Beijing compete to exploit
the toilers of the continent. Both are driven to extend abroad their
profit-driven assaults on working people at home. They seek fields of
profitable capital investment to loot the continent’s natural resources
and to market their exports. In so doing, they impose more debt bondage
on the peoples of Africa — with ruinous consequences for working classes
there.
Beijing tried to disrupt Tillerson’s efforts. At a joint press
conference with Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union
Commission, a reporter from the China Global Television Network pressed
him on reports that Trump called Africa a bunch of “s--hole countries.”
Contrary to claims in the liberal press that Tillerson’s tour was just a
“fence-mending” operation to apologize for the U.S. president,
Washington aimed to build on its increasing military collaboration with
governments in a number of African countries. Over several
administrations — Democratic and Republican alike — the U.S. rulers have
sought to put down destabilizing threats to their interests.
Acknowledged U.S. troop deployment in Africa rose from some 6,000 last
year to 7,500 today. Washington has doubled its forces in Somalia, where
they operate alongside Somali troops combating al-Shabab terrorists.
U.S. airstrikes there are increasing.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told Tillerson that Washington should
launch a “surge” against al-Shabab, which holds territory in the
country’s rural areas. He also pressed for a review of the decision to
withdraw all African Union troops, including Kenyan forces, from Somalia.
Tillerson met government leaders in Ethiopia, who have been a staunch
military ally of Washington. The country is wracked with political
instability, growing class antagonisms and tribal divisions. The rulers
have been unable to find a replacement for Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn, who resigned in February, but hangs on while the struggle over
his successor drags on.
Days before Tillerson’s arrival, strikes were organized across the
Oromia region by opposition forces fighting a government-imposed state
of emergency that restricts political activity.
This follows over two years of protests by people in Oromia against
government seizure of farmers’ lands, high unemployment and suppression
of political rights, where over 1,000 people have been killed. For years
the governing coalition has been dominated by the Tigrayan People’s
Liberation Front, which has sought to limit the influence of parties
based on other tribal groups. Tigrayans make up only 6 percent of the
country’s 100 million people.
Washington has begun construction of a new military base in Niger, where
four U.S. special forces troops were killed in a 2017 military
reconnaissance mission.
U.S. rulers challenged by Beijing
Chinese bosses replaced their U.S. counterparts as the largest traders
across Africa in 2009. The big expansion of Chinese industrial
production over the last 35 years has driven Chinese capitalists to seek
markets and sources of raw materials abroad. As they’ve built new
factories and large infrastructure projects in several African nations,
they have drawn more toilers off the land and into the working class.
Chinese bosses are building roads and hospitals in the Democratic
Republic of Congo in exchange for a 68 percent stake in Sicomines — a
vast copper and cobalt mine — rather than asking for cash.
Alongside the Chinese-built rail line connecting Addis Ababa with the
Red Sea port at Djibouti, thousands of Ethiopians work 13-hour days at
the Chinese-owned Huajian shoe factory. Workers there interviewed by
Deutsche Welle described the low wages and daily indignities they
confront. Abu Ibrahim, a leather cutter at the plant, complained that
the bosses constantly berate workers, pressing them to work faster. He
said the bosses fired workers who tried to organize a union in 2015.
As the Chinese rulers expand their economic interests in Africa they
have begun to establish a military footprint too. Last year Beijing
opened its first military base in Africa, in strategically located
Djibouti. In September Beijing assigned an additional 8,000 troops to
participate in U.N. “peacekeeping” operations in Liberia, Sudan, the
Republic of the Congo and in Mali, where they gain combat experience.
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