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French Imperialism

People Of Sahel Inspire Global Movement Against Imperialism

Shouts of “Free, Free Palestine” and “Down with Imperialism” rang through the streets of Niamey as anti-imperialists from Niger and around the world marched together against Israel’s genocide on Thursday, November 21. The march culminating in the landmark Thomas Sanakra Memorial came at the conclusion of the three-day Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel, organized by the Pan-Africanism Today Secretariat and the West African People’s Organization. The march was no symbolic event. Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have been in the frontlines of the struggle against imperialism over the past few years.

Imperialism And The Destabilization Of The Alliance Of Sahel States

Since the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, during 2023, the governments of France and the United States along with their surrogates have sought to undermine the political and economic objectives of these developing nations. When the military Committee for the Safeguard of Our Homeland (CNSP) took power in Niger last year on July 26, Paris and Washington sought to have members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stage a military intervention into this uranium-rich country to reimpose the French and U.S.-backed ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

We Don’t Want Our Islands To Be Used To Kill People

For the past few weeks I have been on the road in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia at the invitation of groups such as Te Kuaka, Red Ant, and the Communist Party of Australia. Both countries were shaped by British colonialism, marked by the violent displacement of native communities and theft of their lands. Today, as they become part of the US-led militarisation of the Pacific, their native populations have fought to defend their lands and way of life. On 6 February 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) was signed by representatives of the British Crown and the Māori groups of Aotearoa.

The Pacific Lands And Seas Are Neither Forbidden Nor Forgotten

Since May, a powerful struggle has rocked Kanaky (New Caledonia), an archipelago located in the Pacific, roughly 1,500 kilometres east of Australia. The island, one of five overseas territories in the Asia-Pacific ruled by France, has been under French colonial rule since 1853. The indigenous Kanak people initiated this cycle of protests after the French government of Emmanuel Macron extended voting rights in provincial elections to thousands of French settlers in the islands. The unrest led Macron to suspend the new rules while subjecting islanders to severe repression. In recent months, the French government has imposed a state of emergency and curfew on the islands and deployed thousands of French troops, which Macron says will remain in New Caledonia for ‘as long as necessary’.

Haiti: 20 Years After The Coup

My comments today focus on the general refusal to acknowledge that since 2004, Haiti has been under a foreign occupation initiated by a U.S./France/Canada-led coup d’état, and adopted and managed by the machinery of the United Nations. The simple facts of both the coup and the violence of the international legal mechanisms used against Haiti and its people have been shamefully ignored. What enables the refusal to acknowledge the occupation of Haiti?  I demonstrate that it is both how the occupation was established, and how it is administered that obscures the occupation’s existence.

France Out Of Africa, US And NATO Too: Activists Picket The United Nations GA

On Tuesday September 19, the opening day of the United Nations General Assembly, anti-imperialist activists rallied outside the UN Headquarters in New York City to demand that France end its imperialist meddling in West Africa and the Sahel. Organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the December 12th Movement, Bridging Africa and Black America, and others denounced the neocolonial policies of the European nation and voiced solidarity and support to Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Niger, which recently underwent coups opposing French neocolonialism. Activists demanded that France end its neocolonial exploits in the Sahel, principally Niger. 

Burkina Faso, Mali, And Niger Form Alliance Of Sahel States

In a major advancement towards mutual cooperation, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The move was finalized with the signing of the Liptako-Gourma Charter, named after the tri-border region shared by the three countries, in Mali’s capital Bamako on Saturday, September 16. “This alliance will be a combination of military and economic efforts between the three countries…Our priority is the fight against terrorism,” Malian Defense Minister Abdoulaye Diop told journalists. The three countries have committed to “prevent, manage, and resolve any armed rebellion or threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty…

No Respite For France As A ‘New Africa’ Rises

By adding two new African member-states to its roster, last week's summit in Johannesburg heralding the expanded BRICS 11 showed once again that Eurasian integration is inextricably linked to the integration of Afro-Eurasia. Belarus is now proposing to hold a joint summit between BRICS 11, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).  President Aleksandr Lukashenko's vision for the convergence of these multilateral organizations may, in due time, lead to the Mother of All Multipolarity Summits. But Afro-Eurasia is a much more complicated proposition.

Another Regime In ‘French West Africa’ Is Toppled

Wild celebrations have broken out on the streets of Gabon’s cities on Wednesday after a military junta announced on television that it had put President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest and had seized power. The Bongo family had ruled the former French colony since 1967. Ali Bongo was the wealthiest man in Gabon with an estimated $1 billion in assets.  The coup took place just after the country’s electoral commission declared that he won a third term. It is the fifth coup in a West African country once ruled directly by France since August 2020, when Mali fell to military leaders.

People Of Niger Want To Shatter Resignation

In 1958, the poet and trade union leader Abdoulaye Mamani of Zinder (Niger) won an election in his home region against Hamani Diori, one of the founders of the Nigerien Progressive Party. This election result posed a problem for French colonial authorities, who wanted Diori to lead the new Niger. Mamani stood as a candidate for Niger’s left-wing Sawaba party, which was one of the leading forces in the independence movement against France. Sawaba was the party of the talakawa, the ‘commoners’, or the petit peuple (‘little folk’), the party of peasants and workers who wanted Niger to realise their hopes.

Anti-Imperialist Sentiment Spreads Across West Africa

Niger has remained defiant in the face of repeated threats by French and United States instigated efforts to stage an invasion of the uranium-rich West African state. On August 6, tens of thousands of Nigeriens rallied in the capital of Niamey in support of the now ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), which came to power on July 26, overthrowing the western-backed President Mohamed Bazoum. Federal Republic of Nigeria President Bola Tinubu, whose recent election was shrouded in controversy, has been the subject of fierce criticism inside the country and within the entire West Africa region.

Mass Rally Backs Niger’s Military Leaders As Intervention Looms

Approximately 30,000 people gathered in Niger’s capital of Niamey on August 6, as the country faced a looming threat of military intervention led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc. However, as the deadline set by ECOWAS expired on Sunday, the regional bloc held an emergency virtual meeting with the African Union to discuss the situation in Niger. The bloc did not publicly comment on the expiration of its ultimatum, but did on August 7 issue a brief statement, announcing that the chair of ECOWAS, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, had convened a second Extraordinary Summit of the Authority which would take place in Abuja on August 10, to discuss “the political situation and recent developments in Niger.”

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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