That means fuck ECOWAS as a tool of the oppressors also. Critical support for every most coup(s) in Africa, and for the rights of Africans to demand the French and US militaries leave their country.

Critical Readings:

  • Neocolonialism by Kwame Nkrumah.
  • How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney.
  • Rethinking Ownership of Development in Africa by T.D. Harper-Shipman.

Recommended readings:

  • Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaii Statehood by Dean Itsugi Saranillio.
  • Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society by Eric A. Posner and E. Glen Weyl.
  • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Colonialism bad, but this post sets off too many red flags. Critical support to all coups? Critical support too often means silencing of valid criticisms. I’ve only ever seen people using that term unironically if they believe in things like democratic centralism are a good idea. Some coups result un making things better, some make it worse. Some could even allow reactionaries to gain power or result in neocolonialists gaining more control.

    Also, that Radical Markets book is fishy. Posner seems like a sleazy neoliberal and while Weyl has a point with quadratic voting, I don’t want that applied to the government. I think that we should redistribute excess capital held by private individuals to the people evenly so that no single individuals can wield power without having it given willingly.

    Edit: grammar

  • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Critical support for every coup in Africa

    Hurr durr Western imperialism bad Russian imperialism good

    Why don’t we get France (a democracy) to pressure their leaders to set up free and fair elections then get the fuck out after they’re done (simplifying things here as it’s a slow process to not create a power vacuum) rather than supporting a like-for-like swap of France for Russia or Chinese control of the country through debt?

    I’m not against the premise of the post, just the caption which reads like mindless Russophilia

    • Hegar@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Your comment about Chinese debt is uninformed - China holds a small percentage of total African debt and there’s only 1 country (Zambia, iirc) where Chinese debt is even close to half of the debt.

      Eurobond debt is far greater in almost every debt distressed African nation and is the debt that African leaders and bankers commonly cite as the problem.

      The Chinese debt-trap story keeps being repeated by the US state department, but it does not reflect in any way the reality of African debt.

      https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/07/13/graph-of-the-day-chinas-real-share-of-african-debt/

      • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        Oh no, are you having hallucinations? Because last I checked the majority of coups in former French Africa were Russia/Wagner backed so there’s no strawman in sight.

        • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tfOP
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          You’re advocating for FRANCE to DICTATE TO AFRICAN COUNTRIES HOW THEY CAN BE SOVERIEGN. Do you not see the irony in that statement? When has France ever set up “Free and Fair Elections” in ANY of their vassal states or neo-colonies? Was it a free and fair election when they murdered democratically elected revolutionaries? Was it fair when they dictated the currency and exchange rate for all of their vassals? Who do the people support? Have you even looked? It’s not France lmao.

          • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            Nice strawman.

            I’m saying that the French people make it be known (as they’re so good at making things known to the government - probably the best in the world) that they don’t want their government to continue abusing their former colonies, then hopefully that gets pushed up the agenda for prospective parties, who then go on to organise a transition to full self rule. If that had happened before we wouldn’t be having this discussion, so not only are you constructing a strawman by using the acts of former French governments against a hypothetical future one, you’re not even destructing it properly as you’re just saying “look this happened before” rather than actually giving reasons as to why your hypothetical future French strawman government would go against the will of their voters to maintain control over their former colonies.

            • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tfOP
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              1 year ago

              So again, you don’t support Africans taking their sovereignty, but you do support French citizens asking their government to give African countries sovereignty.

              Why would the French government vote against the will of their constituency? I don’t know, maybe you should ask them why they forced through that retirement bill earlier this year.

              This all neglects the fact, that it is not the French governments NOR the French peoples right to determine African sovereignty, it is Africans right and theirs alone. I have a feeling you would’ve supported the French over Sankara just because he gained power in a coup.

              • mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 year ago

                So again, you don’t support Africans taking their sovereignty, but you do support French citizens asking their government to give African countries sovereignty.

                both have the same result, and if the former is the only option then fine, but the latter certainly results in less death and suffering than a violent coup might

          • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            I meant recent/ongoing, as I imagine the OP did in their caption, but I see how the confusion arose reading the comment in isolation.

            That said, the Soviet Union did do their fair share of meddling in post-colonial Africa so it wouldn’t shock me, but I can’t remember which countries they were involved in off the top of my head so I couldn’t say yes or no with any real confidence

  • Femcowboy@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    For those asking for lists/sources, I did a quick duckduckgo search and here is the first thing I got. Just taking a quick glance and seeing Gaddafi on the list leads me to believe the claim is at least slightly dubious. Yeah, sure, France was involved in that revolution, but his death at the hands of his own countrymen was immortalized in a snuff film you don’t wanna watch.

    https://www.africanexponent.com/post/10487-france-has-always-carried-evil-imperialism-with-it

  • Ignacio@kbin.social
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    Critical support for every coup in Africa, and for the rights of Africans to demand the French and US militaries leave their country.

    No critical support for the rights of Africans to demand the Russian and Wagner militaries leave their country? Because you’re replacing one colonialism with another colonialism. Should I point out that Wagner is paid with African natural resources like diamonds? What is the difference between the exploitation from France and the exploitation from Russia?

    • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tfOP
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      1 year ago

      I’ve yet to see any evidence of Wagner interference in these coups, and in fact, the countries they’ve been taking place in most recently have been countries with heavy western military presence, not Wagner. Not to mention, the suggestion that Africans are not capable of performing a coup themselves to me smells of paternalism, but that may not be your implication and I’m sorry if I misinterpreted it.

      • Ignacio@kbin.social
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        I’m not talking about them performing a coup. Although I don’t like coups, they’re property of nobody but themselves, and eventually democracy will return.

        But French troops doing bad stuff, or doing neither bad nor good stuff (that’s doing nothing at all), that doesn’t mean they should be replaced by another foreign nation troops, being either private or not. If we agree that African nations are sovereign enough to decide their own future, they’re also sovereign enough to defend themselves, or to ask for help to neighbouring countries in exchange of nothing. But in the countries we’re talking about, they asked for help to another potential colonial nation in exchange of natural resources, that could be manufactured in place, thus creating employment, wealth and other benefits.

    • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tfOP
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      1 year ago

      Supporting popular uprisings against neocolonial compradore regimes is tankie propaganda now? I’ll be sure to tell my entire Food Not Bombs group they’re all tankies, and that we can no longer practice anarchism anymore because some guy on lemmy says we’re tankies because we support the right of the African people to self-determine.

      What praxis groups are you a member of that support the ousted government despite the popular support for the coups? I’d be interested in knowing, so I can be sure to never give material support to such a reactionary organization.

      Edit: Also, two comments in three months, only one of which (this one) in 196. For being your community, you sure contribute a lot less than I and many others do.

      • suny@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        you sound like you’re in dire need of a shower and a grass touching session

        as per your edit, i’m shy and also have better things to do than having twitter level discourse with annoying anarchists that whine about western imperialism while suspiciously getting defensive about russian influence in recent military coups (not popular uprisings) :^)