[Dissent-bristol-info] Briefing paper - Africa (DRAFT)

[anarchist606 at hushmail.com]

It's good I like it!  The only minor point wiould be to mention all 
the other times the G8 'promised' to sort Africa/Debt out and 
didn't -eg.g 98 when they said they would drop the debt - and did 
not.

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 10:30:27 -0800 auto_gnome at riseup.net wrote:
>Hi - here's a draft of Africa debt/poverty. In the end I decided 
>to leave
>out loads of stats etc as I don't think we need to 'prove' the 
>problem
>exists. Have concentrated instead on history of exploitation, 
>aid/charity,
>and what capital wants from Africa. Note this draft has already 
>been cut
>down and is running at about 1300 words (about same as PFI one).
>
>As we need the briefing papers laid out ready for printing, say by 

>Friday
>latest, can you get back to me with any comments etc asap - by 
>Tuesday?
>cheers......ag
>
>Bristol G8 Dissent Briefing Paper
>
>Africa – Debt & Poverty
>
>Blair & NewLabour are promoting African debt & poverty as a main 
>issue for
>this year’s G8 Summit in Scotland. In preparation, Blair’s 
>Commission for
>Africa produced its recommendations. Additionally, we have had the
>re-recording of Band Aid, another annual Comic Relief, and a 
>stream of
>reports, media articles and programmes on the subject. So will 
>poverty
>become history in 2005?
>
>A plundered continent
>African history makes uneasy reading for anyone with the slightest
>conscience or sense of human solidarity. Plundered by West 
>European
>empires and traders for centuries – colonialisation, theft of 
>natural
>resources, repression, and enslavement & deportation of its 
>people. The
>wealth accumulated by Bristol’s merchants & traders was replicated 

>across
>Europe and the Americas, as early, generally white, capitalists 
>got very
>rich indeed.
>
>The slow eradication of slavery did not end Africa’s misery. 
>Colonial
>regimes and puppet governments & dictators continued the thieving. 

>Post
>WW2 Africa was another cold war playground for the West & the 
>USSR,
>ensuring ongoing civil wars, chaos, death and plunder. Tragically,
>national liberation movements, despite their sometimes socialist 
>rhetoric,
>and their heroic struggles against all odds, led often to the 
>replacement
>of one set of foreign rulers with equally barbaric and dictatorial
>home-grown ones - usually reliant on an external power for their
>domination. As capitalism has modernised, the theft and 
>exploitation of
>Africa’s resources has continued, now less obviously by foreign 
>nations
>and more blatantly by multinational corporations.
>
>As imperialist powers withdrew, they took the expertise & 
>governing
>structures they’d imposed on Africa, leaving behind the false 
>nation
>states they had created across the continent. They also took, and 
>continue
>to take, those Africans who we may term ‘middle-class’ – educated, 

>with
>specialist skills. The old ways of the tribes had been largely 
>repressed
>or destroyed, now they found themselves expected to follow the 
>ways of the
>West’s industrialised, ‘democratic’ states, but without the skills 

>to do
>so, with a continuing ‘brain drain’. They have continued to be 
>ripped-off
>by western financial institutions & corporations, who have greased 

>the
>palms of any dictators or ruling elites. Wealth has flowed out of 
>Africa
>into the pockets of western business & banks, and the overseas 
>accounts of
>the ruling elite. The result – more chaos, debt, poverty, disease, 

>and
>civil war.
>
>Gaping wounds & band-aids
>Largely white do-gooders have been travelling to Africa for 
>centuries.
>Despite the best intentions of some of them, they have been part 
>of the
>colonialisation, exploitation, and creation of dependency. The 
>Church sent
>missionaries to help ‘civilise’ the ‘savages’, and teach them 
>about ‘our’
>god – that very wealthy one that forms part of the system that 
>rules us.
>Many NGO’s (non-governmental organisations, charities) arose from 
>such
>beginnings ie Oxfam & Christian Aid. The TV era brought heart-
>wrenching
>pictures of starving & sick kids and their mums, and the inherent 
>humanity
>& solidarity of many westerners ensured gave vast donations 
>towards aid
>for these tragic people. The aid industry acknowledges that in the 

>west
>those with the least to give, give proportionally the most. It is 
>no irony
>that in the west, those with the least income pay proportionally 
>more in
>taxes; whilst Africa pays proportionally the highest amounts of 
>GDP back
>to the western banks/institutions in debt repayments. Think on 
>that a
>moment.
>
>The Ethiopian famine on our TV sets in 1984 led to BandAid, 
>LiveAid, Comic
>Relief, and an upsurge in donations to old and new charities. Yet 
>Geldof
>has admitted recently that Africa is worse off now than in 1984. 
>In fact,
>Africans are proportionately poorer now than 40 years ago! In 
>Ethiopia
>alone, 6 to 8 million people are reliant on food aid to survive 
>each year.
>
>The Commission for Africa
>Aid and charity has not worked, in the majority of cases at least. 

>It is a
>multi-million pound business, offering very well paid careers, 
>especially
>at the top-end of its bureaucratic structures. Some would say it 
>has
>re-launched a thousand showbiz careers! But continued poverty in 
>Africa
>has become an embarrassment. There is a growing awareness, fuelled 

>by the
>aggressive campaigning of some – such as the Drop the Debt 
>campaign, that
>our political & big business elites are taking the piss over 
>Africa. We
>keep giving, they keep getting poorer, and the corporations keep 
>getting
>richer.
>
>The terms & conditions of ‘loans’ to Africa; the requirements that 

>they
>privatise everything in the name of ‘structural adjustment 
>programmes’;
>the restrictions on their trade out whilst taking our goods (and 
>weapons)
>in; and the ongoing corruption of corporations and ruling elites; 
>does not
>give Africa a chance. This has led Blair and his NewLabour cohorts 

>to act
>out of a confused, and hypocritical, christian-socialist form of 
>morality;
>along with Blair’s selfish desire to be remembered in history for
>something good. That has led to the cancellation of bi-lateral 
>debts
>(where one country owes one other country) to the UK.
>
>His Commission correctly identifies some problems – corruption and
>exploitation; lack of internal infrastructures & resources for 
>education,
>health, training & administration; massive failure to alleviate 
>disease.
>It does call for - 100% cancellation of both bi-lateral and multi-
>lateral
>debt (being debt owed to more than one country, usually an 
>institution
>such as the IMF or World Bank) for at least the 42 HIPC (42 
>poorest
>African nations); for massive increases in aid (not loans!) to 
>fund
>education, health, housing, water provision, training & other 
>basic
>programmes; for the removal of restrictive trade barriers and 
>tariffs to
>stimulate the economy.
>
>But these proposals are underpinned by the expectation that all 
>western
>nations, institutions & banks will comply, of which there is zero
>guarantee – the US has already ruled out 100% debt cancellation 
>due to
>corporate pressure; and by an idea named the International Finance
>Facility (IFF), a brainchild of Gordon Browns. The IFF intends to 
>raise
>money on private finance markets, guaranteed by government bonds
>(essentially our, taxpayers, money). Which is a bit like saying 
>‘you give
>them 50 quid, and if they don’t pay it back with interest our 
>taxpayers
>will bale you out.’ Which sounds to us like another con-trick to 
>help
>corporations make money, that may not help Africa.
>
>What the west really wants
>Never mind such illusions as fair-trade, or trade justice, such 
>concepts
>are alien to capitalism, and will only be embraced in any way if 
>profit
>can be made out of them – hence Starbucks & Tescos getting fair-
>trade
>certification! What the G8 & corporations really want is this: a 
>market to
>expand into. They want a relatively (!) healthy, educated, 
>skilled,
>un-unionised workforce to produce goods cheaply; and they want a
>relatively peaceful, stable, healthy continent to consume those 
>products.
>A continent they control. They look at Africa and they think of 
>China,
>with it’s fast growing economy & consumption, where 60% of all 
>exports
>come from businesses wholly or partly western controlled, and no 
>human
>rights! When they talk of freedom & democracy, the only human 
>rights they
>have in mind are those that allow you to exist on their terms – 
>enslaved
>under capitalism, the consumer society, and personal debt, with 
>only the
>false illusion of choice. Just like in the West.
>
>What can we do?
>We know aid & charity doesn’t work, particularly when tied up with
>imposing western values & structures. Some NGO’s work to encourage
>self-help & self-management in Africa, to facilitate the desires 
>of
>African people, not impose on them. Look into it and help where 
>you can.
>Although we very rarely hear of them, there are massive social 
>movements
>in some African nations, continuing their tradition of struggle, 
>but
>directed towards land rights, workers rights, resisting 
>privatisation &
>oppression & corruption, demanding access to resources. Look into 
>it.
>
>The most useful things we can do are to oppose the corporations & 
>ruling
>elites in our countries. Yes, buy ethically if we can, but more
>importantly confront & harass the institutions, corporations and
>politicians at home - give them no peace until we have changed our 

>own
>society.
>
>More Info
>www.jubilee2000uk.org/
>www.african-initiatives.org.uk/
>www.wdm.org.uk/
>www.ifiwatchnet.org/
>www.commissionforafrica.org/
>www.makepovertyhistory.org/
>
>Bristol G8 Dissent…contact details etc.
>
>Images:
>I have jpgs of
>1. Black/white outline of African continent (maybe text could be 
>laid on
>top of this on 1 page?)
>2. Graffiti on wall – No 2 G8 2 End Poverty
>3. B/white pic of shanty town
>And somewhere a subvert of BandAid logo
>
>
>
>
>
>
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http://anarchist606.blogspot.com
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