THE GATHERING STORM
Since the French crisis of May-June, events in Negro Africa have been developing at ever greater speed. The insoluble difficulties of French imperialism in Algeria have on the one hand been an encouraging example to the peoples of Central Africa and on the other forced de Gaulle to demagogic concessions over which he runs an increasing risk of losing all control. Overnight the territory of Guinea has won complete independence and stands as a beacon to the other territories which, each in its own way, are following
In the traditional Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, the long-dominant conservative right wing under HouphouetBoigny can no longer impose itself as formerly, and is seriously challenged by the left under the leadership of Sékou Touré It is further being outflanked on the left by the Parti du Regroupment Africain. At the stormy meeting at Cotonou on July 26th the PR A called for nothing short of full independence, a constituent assembly to form an All-African federationing in which however cia left dominate is led by "African socialism." This heterogeneous the ex-R D A sections of Senegal and Nigeria; Djibo Bakary, Nigerian leftist and trade-union leader, won election as
Algerian expressed and open with she stregio oops
and opposed the use of Negro troops in the French Army's operations in Algeria. Even if, under behind-the-scenes pressure by Houphouet-Boigny, resolution was a compromise, Cotonou marked an indisputable advance over Bamako.
All eyes are, naturally, on French Guinea, which French imperialism hopes to reduce by economic strangulation, which, with its rich bauxite deposits, has a strong bargaining position. The degree to which the Houphouet-Boigny wing of the RD A is sold out to French imperialism is indicated by its proposing the expulsion of Sékou Touré and the Guinea section, a boycott of Guinea, and the establishment by France of a cordon sanitaire around the new independent state. But Guinea nevertheless stands fast in its independence, in which it will be joined in a year by Togoland and Nigeria, with the Cameroons to follow.
bil-African Red fos Done a
Accra, in Ghana, gathering together at a non-governmental level the most sealed. nive asan repee slogao is : "Peoples of Africa, unite ! universal representation of You have nothing to lose but your chains! You continent to win! You must attain human dignity!" The sponsoring committee surprisingly proposes "Gandhian non-violent" methods for attaining the goal of a United States of Africa ; it remains to be seen to what extent Gandhianism will be swallowed by delegates of peoples already deeply involved in militant struggle.
For in a confused but turbulent and ever more irresistible tide, the colonial revolution is sweeping Negro Africa. One more vast area, in process of liberating itself, is sapping the economic foundations of an imperialism already harried elsewhere. Revolutionary Marxists must devote to this new sector of the colonial revolution the attention and
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