[Marxism] British Chancellor Gordon Brown In Africa

[Octob1917@xxxxxxx]

Over the past week Gordon Brown has been touring Africa to publicize his and
Tony Blair's initiative to help repay a portion of Africa's debt to the IMF
and World Bank. In a trip that has attracted much publicity in the UK press,
Brown has been keen to trumpet his vision of a Marshall Plan for Africa, 
inviting
other First World nations to join Britain in performing what, he maintains,
is not only a moral crusade, but also a vital step in fighting the war on
terror by removing what is, according to him, the most fertile ground for
recruitment by terrorists, abject poverty and hopelessness.

If a Marshall Plan for Africa does come into being, then it is worth noting
that the original version, devised and implemented by the US after the Second
World War to rebuild Europe, was not the noble, moral and altruistic scheme as
is commonly portrayed. Simply put the US, in order to ensure its economy
continued to enjoy the huge growth it did as a result of the war, had to be 
able to
rely on a buoyant European market for its exports. In the short term, as in
Iraq today, the major construction projects were carried out by US companies,
largely funded by a newly constituted World Bank and IMF, again predominantly
the product of US investment with a view to US economic hegemony. In short, the
US economy hit the jackpot, both in the long and short term, ensuring an
economic dominance which continues to this day.

Africa today is the last continent where no strong market for First World
exports exists. Consumption levels are almost nonexistent compared to the rest 
of
the world and with a population of around 800 million the potential for
economic growth is obvious.

What Africa truly requires is control over its own natural resources, an
internal market along the lines of the European Union, an end to tribal 
conflict,
largely exacerbated by the influence of First World transnational corporations
and governments, and the autonomy to set up governments according to the
wishes of the African people and not the capitalist West.

On the surface, Brown's mission is to be welcomed as a sincere attempt to
finally eradicate the astounding contradiction of so many millions living in
conditions of abject poverty whilst consumption level in the West climb ever
higher and which constitute a disgrace by comparison.

However, it is hard to escape a five hundred year history of plunder,
enslavement and brutality suffered by the African people at the hands of 
European
colonialists.

Ultimately, what Africa needs is not a British politician from the privileged
halls of Oxford University walking around an African township smiling and
pontificating whilst surrounded by a hand-picked group of adoring African
children, but instead a new generations of Lumumbas, Mandelas, Nkrumahs, etc., 
to
unite, inspire and mobilize, not only a nation but an entire continent.

And regards any debt relief which may or may not materialise, don't expect
Africa to be grateful. For the fortune stolen in resources and the blood of
millions of Africans sold into slavery can never be repaid.

Joe
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