22.05.1997

New opening for imperialism

The sudden, but not unexpected end of Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko has received an almost universal welcome, tempered only by uncertainty over the allegedly Marxist past of the country’s new leader, Laurent Kabila.

As it was impossible for any business to survive without cooperating with the corrupt former regime, some small firms may be confiscated and their owners brought to book. But the fact that the rebels had overwhelming imperialist backing and that Kabila can achieve nothing without continued western cooperation means that the development of real capitalism will now be on the cards.

During the Cold War Mobutu was feted by western leaders as providing a bulwark of ‘democracy’ against Soviet ‘expansionism’. They were more than happy to look the other way while he amassed a personal fortune estimated at £2.4 billion at the expense of the citizens of ‘his’ country. Mobutu may have kept Zaire safe for imperialism, but his ‘kleptocracy’ made it impossible for the west to make use of its potentially vast wealth.

Far from aiding the process of capital accumulation, the ‘Great Helmsman’ ensured that Zaire could not be developed. The country was run not in the interests of any ruling class, but for a tiny circle of those around him. No infrastructure was built, few natural resources were exploited and no proletariat was created. Today with the Soviet ‘threat’ gone imperialism is no longer content with spheres of influence alone. It seeks to make positive use of its control. There is no reason why Africa could not see rapid and intense capital development, as has occurred in the Pacific rim.

In order for that to happen regimes totally based on corruption and plunder must be swept away. Imperialism hopes that a newly stable South Africa will provide the bridgehead it needs to fulfil its plans for stepping up its exploitation of the whole continent

The replacement of France by the United States as the main imperialist influence is a secondary question, compared with the possibilities now opened up for the moulding of Africa under capitalism’s hegemony. To have any hope of resisting what imperialism has in store the existing African proletariat - together with that about to be created - will need an international response, embracing the whole continent.

The key is working class organisation, and most importantly within South Africa itself, where the potentially powerful workers’ movement still lies dormant. It is anaesthetised by the past heroism of the African National Congress into acceptance of its present actions, as the ANC takes up imperialism’s dirty work, both at home and abroad.

Peter Manson