Soviet influence and neocolonialism in black Africa
Soviet influence and neocolonialism
In the December 1980 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique, Lilly Marcou analysed the October 1980 Berlin Conference which brought together Communist
Parties and liberation movements. She points out that 'The Berlin Conference sealed the unity between the Communist Parties and the national liberation movements: more precisely it confirmed an important line of evolution of a certain number of them into Leninist-type parties in the
And Lilly Marcou gives some examples from Africa: Mozambique,
If this analysis were correct we would have to state that in a number of
African countries the Western powers have suffered major defeats which have benefitted the USSR. We would have to conclude that in these coun tries, the relationship of forces between the classes has been drastically reversed, and that today the USSR is capitalising on the overthrow of
Western economic domination. In other words, if the Leninist model is being followed, it must be assumed that the coming to power of Marxist-Leninist parties means the overthrow of capitalism in these countries.
But Lilly Marcou doesn't go that far. She is content to stress 'the direc-
However, the coup d'etat of the 15th November 1980 in Guinea-Bissau singularly contradiets the argument of Lilly Marcou that 'we are dealing with movements of national liberation which have opted for the Soviet
. How is the collapse in a few hours of the Guinean section of the
African Independence Party of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to be explained - ' the party of the masses ' according to the defunct regime? It isn't a characteristic of ' soviet models ' to collapse and disappear in a few hours because of a palace revolution. In fact in Guinea-Bissau there was a classic black African power structure: a state with a monolithic party composed of military cadres and fractions of the petty bourgeoisie.
How then can we deal with the question of the apparently fraternal relations between the USSR, the 'socialist camp' and some leaderships of liberation movements and military regimes (Congo, Benin, Madagascar) that
To avoid impressionistic interpretations the best method is to look at the concrete reality of these countries — their economic and social relations. It is only then that it will be possible to interpret their ideologies, foreign policies in black Africa
Claude Gabriel
Soviet mould.' model ' have come to power?
Ethiopia, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
tion of evolution for the years to come
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19
Two years after the victory in Angola, Mozambique issued an urgent appeal to the Western countries, in the hope of getting investments in manufacturing, not just in raw materials. In November 1979 Samora Machel reasserted: 'We are open to the development of economic and commercial relations with all countries. We need expertise, technology and financial
Is it possible to identify this declaration with the requests of the Polish regime, for example, for aid from the West? Can we say that Samora Machel is doing nothing other than calling, like Fidel Castro, for co-operation with the capitalist powers? In other words are we dealing with an economy where the essential resources are nationalised, where the main part of productive forces is no longer in the hands of private enterpreneurs but which for conjunctural reasons is asking for extra help from imperialist countries?
It is nothing of the sort. In Mozambique, as in Angola, the nationalisations have essentially touched Portuguese capital. This includes the small and medium-sized businesses of the colons which have been taken over by the new regimes, either because the owners had fled or because of the open sabotage by the bosses. But the essential parts of Western capital, notably in
The 1980 official figure for the number of businesses nationalised in
Mozambique was 45. In 1977 the number of workers in state enterprises was
21,664 - 14% of the labour force. The average number of workers per nationalised business was 68, showing that essentially small and medium sized businesses are involved. In reality, these countries have economies dependent on the West and structurally connected to the Western market, to private investors and to the politics of the multinational corporations.
In Angola, a good part of the balance of payments is determined by oil and diamonds. In these two sectors, the capitalist countries are notorious for their control of capital, technological aid and markets. Jose Eduardo dos
Santos, Angola's Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, said 1976: 'A general principle is inscribed in our constitution. We are prepared to respect the interests of multinational companies in Angola if they are helping the development of our country and are benefitting our people. Generally speaking, we do not have the intention at present of proceeding with nationalisations, except in the case of commercial businesses and foreign manufacturing plants which have been abandoned by their owners'
We are not dealing here with economies where capitalist social relations economies. We should hasten to add that these economies are not similar to those of Senegal or Zaire. The existence of a state-capitalist sector permits the leading classes and social layers to find the collective economic roots which they lack through the absence of a true ruling class. But the structure of capital is one thing, the real existence of this capital is another. These countries are suffering from the world economic crisis in the same way as all the third world countries. The reformist or populist endeavours of their leaders have no future since they are not autonomous from the general
20 and power structures.
Economies Dominated by the Western Powers support. We have the resources and the labour power' big industry, have been maintained, and expanded.
have been destroyed. Objectively we are faced economic projects of the capitalist powers.
International Marxist Review with neo-colonial
Soviet influence and neocolonialism in black Africa
Where, then, is Soviet 'domination' being exercised? Claude Cheysson, member of the Brussels EEC Commission, slots things into place perfectly.
He spelled out in 1978 that the EEC 'was working very well in Ethiopia and in Guinea, probably because we are, by far the biggest providers of aid to these countries... where aid for development is concerned, the USSR and its partners suffer a terrible handicap: they are not yet equipped to really take part in the development of the third world. Financially the total of their support is limited to 500 million dollars a year, while the oil-producing countries give five thousand million and the OECD fifteen thousand millions"
time the BEC was in fact giving 200 million dollars of aid to Ethiopia within the framework of the Lome Convention and another eleven million besides, as an exceptional measure. Claude Cheysson is far from believing, it seems,
And this is exactly why, as Lilly Marcou stressed, the Italian delegate at the Berlin Conference "puts the accent on the distinction between imperialism and big power politics... also being practiced by certain Socialist
The USSR is evidently not content with constructing political alliances.
It is also trying to obtain economic advantages from its support for the
"progressive"' countries under discussion here. In certain cases "unequal exchange" can even look like looting, as in the case of fishing rights. But that does not transform the actual stuctures of these economies, orientated towards the Western market and structured by imperialist capital. Let's not forget that the "metical", the Mozambican curreney, is aligned with the
And if the American State Department or the French Foreign Ministry frequently talk about Soviet expansionism, it is obviously because for these governments the greatest security for their investments isn't in these
"progressive" countries but in states with regimes which are more stable and more aligned with Western governments. Besides, the West takes a dim view of the aid that these regimes sometimes give to liberation movements in Southern Africa. But the pro-Western African leaders took advantage of the pressure of Mozambique on Mugabe's ZAPU at the time of the Lancaster House agreement; they benefitted from the attentive ear of Angola in order to lead Namibia's SWAPO to follow the wishes of the "Group of
Five" (USA, Britain, France, Federal Republic of Germany and Canada),
Generally speaking, the Western leaders, the big banks and the multinational companies don't have an over simplisitic view of the world, East-
West relations and the relation of forces in Africa. Claude Cheysson said more about this in the same interview: "to put all the problems of Africa down to destabilization or to the East-West conflict is false"
European Commissioner M. Cheysson is well placed to appreciate the possible benefits that European countries can obtain from Angola — where stability is maintained with Soviet and Cuban help but benefits accrue above all to the investors of the European Community. It is in this context that Carlos Rocha, Italian deputy prime minister stated in June 1978 that
"in Cabinda the Italian engineers but back into working order the plywood factory, while training Rumanians to work in it, Rumanians who are supposed to be responsible for technical assistance in this sophisticated facstates"
American dollar.
etc.
that Ethiopia has gone over to the Soviet camp.
21
'. At this
International Marxist Review tory. In the Petrangol refinery Cubans are under contract to the Belgian company Petrangol. In textiles, Swiss and Belgians are expected to come while socialist technical assistants plan the management. At the Cellulose Company, a team of Czechoslovak technicians are taking over the factory while the technology is Swedish'
We are therefore faced with a particular form of peaceful co-existence, and all this does not seem to add up to a ' Leninist model ' of the destruction of capitalist property.
The few economic advantages that the Soviet Union may gain from its authority in certain countries does not change the fundamental nature of those economies. And that is why the diplomatic alliances are themselves subject to constant changes and spectacular turns. It is the same for the economy as it is for everything else: chase away the reality and it comes back at a gallop. The reality of the Siad Barre regime in Somalia for example, was that of a military nationalist group at the head of a traditional society dominated by an urban petty bourgeoisie and a few clan leaders. According to the Ethiopians and Cubans within a few days, the ' socialist ' and ' friendly ' Somali regime became reactionary and an agent of imperialism! But who will believe that the Mogadishu regime and Somali society had fundamentally changed its nature solely through the explusion of Soviet engineers and military personnel?
But the policy of peaceful co-existence of the Kremlin leaders does not mean either that outside the ' socialist camp', the imperialist powers can do what they want. Relations between Moscow and Washington remain full of conflict so long as the United States does not give up its aggressive policy towards the workers states. Within the context of peaceful co-existence the Soviet Union permanently attempts to increase its diplomatic and economic advantages. The crisis of United States domination since its defeat in Vietnam offers the Soviet Union more room for manoeuvre than in the past. But the Angolan civil war, or the collapse of the Ethiopian imperial regime, or even the Mugabe victory are the results of a struggle with real social roots and not ' the hand of Moscow '
Within this framework, the Kremlin can effectively attempt to push forward its advantage, by giving critical support to a particular movement or supporting a particular regime. But it does so only if there is the certainty that on the one hand, the conflict will not result in an authentic social revolution, and on the other hand, that the United States will not unleash a full scale counter-offensive. It is not done in order to "export revolution" Quite often, on the contrary, the Soviet Union undermines these progressive social movements: in Angola by helping the MPLA to impose itself against the neighbourhood committees of the 'Poder Popular '(Popular Power ), in Ethiopia by helping the DERG fight the Eritrean resistance. Why a 'Leninist Model'?
Is the adoption of a 'Soviet model' therefore a simple farce by these regimes? Let's be clear. The famous 'Leninism' of Angola or of CongoBrazzaville, these famous 'Marxist-Leninist parties' have got nothing to do with the Leninism of Lenin. At best these regimes apply at home a bureaucratic and repressive centralism, the ideological expression of which is an imitation of a few simple Stalinist ideas. Once again this does not make
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Soviet influence and neocolonialism in black Africa these regimes either workers states or revolutionary leaderships, nor
The Ethiopian DERG explained this contradiction between theory and practice very well. 'The fundamental reason for the exploitation of man by
', it said, 'is the private ownership of the means of production... the elimination of exploitation by the public ownership and control of the most important means of production is therefore one of the first goals of Ethio-
. In this manner that the Ethiopian military junta, just as much as the regimes of Angola, Mozambique, Congo and Benin, pretend to confuse nationalisation of certain enterprises with a break with capitalist
By substituting individual private property with collective ownership by a new ruling class, the Ethiopian military make out that there is no longer an exploiting ruling class. But how can they explain that in Ethiopia, as in countries with a similar regime, we are witnessing not the extinction of private accumulation but its revival in commerce and transport, contrary to what is happening even in the bureaucratised Eastern European
Two factors are crucial to understanding these official 'Leninisms' in the framework of neo-colonial economies: complex revolutionary processes have resulted in situations of dual power between the mobilisation and organisation of people in committees and the nationalist leadership teams. This was the case in Angola between the MPLA and 'Poder Popular' as well as in Ethiopia between the DERG and the Kabele.
In order to reconstruct the state it is necessary to integrate these popular structures to preserve the power of the petty bourgeoisie and bureaucratic social layers. The radical phraseology, the myth of the 'state of all the people' of the 'Popular State' is the ideological cement necessary to integrate social layers, which at the grass roots, are taking a dangerous orientation towards self-organisation with armed militias and occupation of
The weakness of the new ruling classes, their lack of real roots in production and for some (Congo, Benin) the lack of any credibility from backing a liberation struggle make them vulnerable, fickle and divided.
Therefore, torn apart by tribalism and, by short-sighted racketeering, the only means that they objectively have to constitute themselves into a modern ruling class, is to adopt a rigid hierarchical system of reproduction and ideological representation. The Stalinist 'model' comes to fill this double function by giving an authoritarian control over the masses, while giving an ideological framework to the petty bourgeoisie in power.
The Congolese case is undoubtedly the most 'pure' example in this
The Congolese economy is a classic neo-colonial economy. It is integrated in the French franc zone. The code of practice for investments is very advantageous for foreign capital and is conceived on the traditional model which is found all over Africa: temporary tax exemption for investors, reduction of taxes and freedom to transfer capital. France is the first supplier of the Congo which receives half its imports from France. Itaman' pian socialism' countries?
the factories.
field.
societies in transition to socialism.
relations of production.
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The Case of the Popular Republic of the Congo
ly is in second position supplying only 5.9 per cent of the total imports.
More than 200 French enterprises are established in the country and there
There are of course certain firms which are in the hands of the state. But chaos and corruption forces the regime to open these firms more and more to European experts, engineers and financial advisors. Above all the Congolese economy depends on oil where the French ELF-ERAP and the
In this plundered and wrecked economy, the conditions of the Congolese people are unenviable. Agiculture is neglected and this process is accentuated by the increasing payments for oil. Income tax is crushing, misery total. The minimum salary is 13500 francs CFA (£27 per month) in a country where the cost of living is nearly as high as it is in France. Wages have not been increased for seven years while inflation runs at 20-25% a year. Businessmen prosper under the patronage of the government in pro-
Nevertheless, the Congo is a ' Popular Republic'. The Internationale is officially sung, the national flag is red and the only party is ' Marxist-
Leninist '. Its cadres receive an ideological formation in Moscow, Berlin or
However, the economic influence of the ' socialist camp ' is derisory.
The Soviet Union built the Blanche-Gomez maternity hospital and the
Cosmos hotel. Cuba maintains a few cattle ranches and has established a firm for property development and management, the SOFROSI which rents
On the other hand, the Soviet Union has to a large extent equipped the
Congolese army despite the paradoxical presence in Congolese uniform of
French military advisors. There are also approximately 1,500 Cuban should we interpret this situation? Should we follow Lilly Marcou and say
The weakness of the Congolese ruling class, a sort of lumpen petty bourgeoisie, necessitates this bureaucratic centralism. The hierarchy of the party, the Congolese Party of Labour (PCT) is a sort of clearing house for sharing of the riches. This is compounded by the fact that most of the political personnel comes from the northern regions and recruits solely
Official propaganda first and foremost is about the struggle against 'the bureaucratic bourgeoisie' — and this theme dominates the editorials and speeches. But this struggle is in reality directed against the rival fractions still represented here and there, the partisans of Massemba-Debat or of M.
Yhombi, now that it is the group of Sasgou Nguesso which is in power. The few rare diatribes against imperialism carefully refrain from mentioning
France or any other country specifically. This artistic fuzziness is intended
The regimentation of the population takes place through the JOC, the youth organization, the militants of which are responsible in their
Classrooms for drawing up lists of those who will constitute the crowds for the official walkabouts. And the Congolese Union Federation also attempts to create an intimidatory atmosphere in the workplaces.
24 are approximately 5500 French people living there.
Italian AGIP rule.
perty speculation, hotels, commerce and transport.
houses at 20,000 or 30,000 francs CFA per month.
soldiers at Pointe Noire, that it is a ' Leninist model '?
from the tribes in that region.
to keep the official phraseology at its most abstract.
International Marxist Review the second largest town in the country. How
Soviet influence and neocolonialism in black Africa
Last year, for the centenary of Brazzaville celebrations, the regime had the opportunity to announce the alliance between France and the Congo.
Jacques Chirac was the guest of honour along with Pierre Mesmer, the last
The Soviet Union understands the situation very well. If the leaders of the PCT speak of their brothers in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the
Soviet Union for its part carefully calls the Congolese party a 'vanguard party' or a 'revolutionary party'. The leaders of the Kremlin call brother parties' only those communist parties linked to the Soviet Union.
All impressionism should thus be avoided - as should the idea that there are 'Leninist' parties in black Africa. The Berlin Conference brought together communist parties, liberation movements and regimes
In the same way that the Soviet theoreticians talk now about 'states capitalist roads". Remember Guinea: what has happened to the 'Com-
It is nevertheless important to stress the role of the Soviet Union in these countries and the support it brings to repressive regimes and to neocolonial states. The idea that it is encouraging the "progressive aspects of these leaderships, contributes to confusing the people, and to maintaining them under the yoke of monolithic parties and multinational corporations.
governor general of the country under colonial rule.
whose policies do not break with capitalism.
, in 1961 they were talking about 'nonwith a socialist orientation' munism"
which Sekou Toure took pains to expouse at the time?
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