admin
Abayomi Azikiwe Correspondent
May 25, 2014 marked the 51st anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU), which was initiated through the Sirte Declaration of 1999 and formally established in 2002. Last year was the focus of the Jubilee Celebrations for the AU where there was much reflection on the historical developments on the continent since the 1960s.
A projection of 50-years forward was encompassed in the plan for 2063 through a document that was accepted by the 54-member organisation which is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The initial focus of the OAU was to facilitate the independence struggle throughout Africa where in 1963 over 30 countries were already members of the United Nations.
Nonetheless, just in the last 12 months there have been enormous challenges and setbacks for the cause of African unity, sovereignty and economic self-reliance. Within the political context of worsening internal disunity and social turmoil, the actual role of the AU appears almost negligible within the broader international division of power and global decision-making.
At a recently held Africa-European Union (EU) Summit in Brussels, Belgium, the political will of the AU was totally disregarded. The Peace and Security Council (PSC) established guidelines for participation in the gathering which were disrespected by the EU, making a mockery of any semblance of authority and sovereignty for this continental organisation.
What was revealing about the entire scenario was that despite the EU actions that sidestepped the PSC, some 36 African heads of state still participated in the summit. Although several leading African states declined to send their presidents and prime ministers, in addition to those that were not invited such as the Republic of Sudan and Eritrea, the event went on and issued a series of declarations including a plan to deploy EU troops to the former French colony of the Central African Republic (CAR).
What was reinforced in the whole situation was that the EU still supplies a considerable amount of aid and investment in Africa. Consequently, most of these governments, including the AU itself, could not afford to boycott a summons issued by Europe.
These events are a manifestation of the ongoing instability in several geo-political regions throughout the continent.
The fact that the AU has not been able to effectively address these problems and crises is a key component of why Africa is not respected within the world corridors of power that remain largely in the hands of the imperialist states in Western Europe and North America.
Whither the AU and the Need for Genuine Unity and Development
These unresolved internal and regional security issues are providing the imperialist states with a rationale for their escalating military and political intervention in Africa. What is even worse is the silence of the AU and the PSC in this entire process of fortifying neo-colonialism.
However, these Western industrial states themselves are suffering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Mass unemployment and increasing poverty within the imperialist states are prompting bank-imposed austerity programmes that further disempower the working class and nationally oppressed within these countries.
In Western Europe right-wing parties are gaining currency within the electoral arena and governance structures. Hostility towards African migrants in Europe has reached unprecedented levels.
In the state of Israel, tens of thousands of economic refugees from Central and East Africa are treated as criminals and labelled “infiltrators”. These migrants are subjected to racist mob violence and the construction of a special prison to remove them from the occupied Palestinian lands.
The US, although headed by a self-identified African American president, Barack Obama, is making a major push toward the total domination of the continent militarily. Obama is a militarist and has engaged in massive Pentagon and CIA interference in Africa.
If Afghanistan is any indication, the president announced on May 27 that the 13-year US-engineered war of occupation is coming to an “end”, yet some 10 000 Pentagon troops will remain in the country until at least 2016. While at the same time the White House threatens war with Russia by overthrowing the government in Ukraine and placing a fascist regime in power on the doorsteps of Moscow.
The Obama administration has endorsed the economic strangulation and illegally-forced bankruptcy of the largest African American populated municipality in the country, the City of Detroit. It is no surprise that this same administration is working feverishly to cripple Africa by sowing divisions and sending in Special Forces, intelligence operatives and conducting massive bombing operations utilizing drones and fighter jets.
The real solution to Africa’s current plight is a total break with the world imperialist system. The capitalists of the West have nothing to offer Africa except more economic exploitation, oppression and militarism.
This holds true as well for the African American population within the US. The benign neglect of the Obama administration is obvious to all who seek to look and listen.
African Americans are even more unemployed, impoverished and politically marginalised after five years of Obama at the White House. The only solution offered by this administration is to half-heartedly encourage African American men to engage in self-help efforts while their communities are being destroyed by bank foreclosures, low-wage employment, escalating law-enforcement repression and social containment through the prison-industrial complex.
A political alternative based upon revolutionary pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism and socialism provides the only hope for African redemption. The consolidation of Africa under genuine independence, unity and sovereignty will make a tremendous contribution to the abolition of all forms of injustice and inequality throughout the world. – Pan-African Newswire.
Online Reporter