AFRICA NEWS DIGEST
Mandela Denounces U.S. for Bullying 'The Whole World' in Rejecting Iraq Offer
Former South African President Nelson Mandela angrily denounced the U.S. for "bullying," because of the White House reaction to Iraq's agreement to admit UN weapons inspectors.
Mandela told reporters at his Johannesburg office on Sept. 17: "If President Saddam Hussein has said the United Nations inspectors can come without condition, what right has he [President Bush] to come in and say that offer is not genuine? On this question of Iraq they are absolutely wrong. It is the United Nations that must decide. We must condemn that very strongly. That's why I criticize most leaders all over the world for keeping quiet, when one country wants to bully the whole world."
'LaRouche' Means Economic Development, Especially to California's Green Governor
When former California Governor and radical population control advocate Jerry Brown was asked about economic development, he turned to the interviewer, journalist Marc Morano, and snapped, "Are you with LaRouche?" Morano, who is not "with LaRouche," wrote that after a "contentious" interview, "Brown turned to this reporter and asked, 'Are you with LaRouche?' " The story was reported by CNSNews.com on Sept. 3.
In the exclusive interview, Morano asked Brown "whether he thought the residents of the poorest nations of the world wanted to develop economically as the U.S. has done." Brown responded, "Many do, but it's not viable. I would say we can't develop like us, nor them ... the developed model cannot work without another five planets." Brown, who is currently Mayor of Oakland, Calif., was at the recent Johannesburg summit on behalf of Global Greens, and appeared in numerous panel discussions. He defended efforts "to stop infrastructure projects deemed too ecologically destructive in countries like India and Brazil. The projects would have brought running water and electricity to the poor residents of the nations," according to CNS.
The CNS story also reports how Philip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London, reacted to Brown.
"The more people develop, the less environmental problems there are," Stott told CNS. "Just remember history over and over again, they have all been proved false prophets." Stott said Brown's comments reminded him of Marie Antoinette's supposed remark, "Let them eat cake." Stott opposes the environmental anti-development movement in his book, Political Ecology: Science, Myth and Power.
Commonwealth 'Troika' Takes No Action Against Zimbabwe
The Anglo-American empire forces have been demanding that Zimbabwe be ostracized, and that President Robert Mugabe be overthrown, but the latest meeting of the British Commonwealth's "Troika" took no action to sanction Zimbabwe. Presidents Mbeki of South Africa and Obasanjo of Nigeria rejected Australian Prime Minister John Howard's plea for stronger action against Zimbabwe over the outcome of the election last spring and seizures of white-owned farms, when the three, appointed by the Commonwealth heads of state, met in Abuja Sept. 23.
Afterwards, Howard said, "I was of the view that Zimbabwe should be suspended immediately from the Commonwealth." Since Zimbabwe is already suspended for a year, he presumably meant an indefinite suspension. Mbeki and Obasanjo continue to advocate a renewal of negotiations between the Mugabe government and the British-directed Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Zvangirai, even though neither side is interested.
In Australia, government and opposition MPs are calling for the government to impose its own sanctions against Zimbabwe, following the lead of the EU and the U.S., according to Reuters Sept. 24. Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said the government would consider this when the Prime Minister returned home.
Trans-Saharan Highway Planned by Nigeria and Algeria
Nigeria and Algeria established a committee to oversee the construction of a Trans-Saharan highway, during a Sept. 19 meeting in Abuja of delegations led by the two countries' ministers of public works. The main route will run north from Lagos, on the Gulf of Guinea, through Nigeria, Niger, and Algeria, to the latter's capital, Algiers, on the Mediterranean. Feeder routes will apparently come in to the main route from Mali and Chad (to the west and east of Niger, respectively). The main, north-south road will run 2,344 kilometers, with the total length being 4,800 kilometers.
In Algeria, construction of its national segment began in 1971, but was only half-done when work was suspended for lack of financing. The Algerian government is now to build a 170-km section from Tamanrasset to Ain-Guessam on the Niger border.
In Nigeria, a contract to widen the road from Ibadan to Ilorin has already been signed, and the segment from Ilorin to Kaduna, further north, will come next. The segment through Niger will require external financing, according to the communiqué of the Sept. 19 meeting. A donors conference will be held in Algiers in March.
The highway project and a trans-Saharan natural gas pipeline project to take gas to Europe by way of Algeria are being overseen at a higher level by a Nigeria/Algeria Joint Commission to strengthen bilateral relations, created Jan. 14. Both countries are members of OPEC.
South Africa General Strike Looms Against Privatization
On the eve of its general strike, Oct. 1-2, against the policies of privatization that are increasing unemployment and poverty, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU, angrily underscored the latest unemployment statistics, and rejected the argument that mass unemployment was caused by inadequate skills.
"That contention ignores the fact that young people have the highest rate of unemployment and also a higher educational level, by far, than the average employed person," said a COSATU statement this week. Among COSATU's demands on the unemployment front is that the state, as a short-term measure, should develop a large-scale jobs program. "These jobs programs should include youth brigades to be involved in public works projects," but also to provide services such as support for people with AIDS, and to become involved in the program to educate adults (ABET). COSATU insisted that land reform must be accelerated to provide employment for the rural landless and to ensure affordable working-class housing near centers of employment.
Speaking at the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce Congress at Sun City Sept. 22, COSATU president Willy Madisha has vowed the strike action will take place despite pleas by Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, and other government officials. "Government presents restructuring as if privatization is the only solution, and as if it will serve all of us. They offer us shares ... to try and buy our support. But all of us must see the bigger picture. The rising cost of privatized infrastructure also hits hard on small-scale producers, the bulk of whom are black," Madisha said.
On the eve of the strike, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) rejected Education Minister Kader Asmal's plea to education-sector labor unions not to participate in the strike called by COSATU. Reacting to Asmal's plea, NEHAWU president Vusi Nhlapo said their decision was final. "The work stoppage is about the broader action of stopping privatization in this country." Nhlapo said the fact that the Students Congress had also weighed in as part of the strike action has shown that even students realize the importance of the anti-privatization strike.
In addition to the employment crisis, food price inflation has forced high-level discussions of introducing strategic food reserves so that the population can be fed.
'No to Economic Slavery,' Say Nigerian Strikers
Two Nigerian oil and gas workers' unions have merged and are planning an indefinite strike against privatization. The National Union of Petroleum and Gas Association of Nigeria (NUPENG) and the National Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have united to form NU-PENGASSAN under the presidency of Shina Luwoye, and planned an indefinite strike against the government's insistence on privatizing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Luwoye called upon the workers Sept. 18 to say "No to economic slavery." He said that petroleum product tanker drivers had been told to stop work from the same day, Sept. 18. NU-PENGASSAN will make sure that all points of crude oil export and all points of import of refined oil products are on strike.
Luwoye said, according to the newspaper Vanguard, "Privatization meant loss of resource control, recolonization of the country, arbitrary hike in prices of products, poor management, and incessant strikes." He also said privatization of NNPC and its subsidiaries was unnecessary, because they are viable and profitable. "The union," he said, "believed in the liberalization of the oil sector and allowing private refineries to operate alongside those owned by the government."
Zambia Daily Declares IMF Anti-Human
"If humans prevail, alternative policies to the IMF and World Bank's programs will be found and implemented,' concludes a hard-hitting editorial in Sept. 19 edition of The Post, a Zambian daily that details what these policies have done to that country. "The hardships Zambians are going through are primarily a consequence of the resounding and irreversible failure of an economic and political conception imposed on our country and indeed the whole world: neoliberalism and neoliberal globalization. And these economic and social hardships our people are forced to endure are totally being blamed on our leaders' corruption, extravagance, and lack of priorities. Yes, these have some truth in them, but they don't tell the whole story there's much more to it. Attribution of all our economic and social problems to these factors could only be made out of ignorance or as an attempt to hide the real cause the resounding and irreversible failure of IMF and World Bank indirect rule in Zambia....
"We are certainly paying a premium for the stupidity of our leaders, those who thought they can improve our country's economy by levelling everything to the ground; those who foolishly thought the world was a perfect market where privatization and unbridled economic liberalization was the solution to a nation's problems...."
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