{"id":736,"date":"2019-03-05T01:21:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T01:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=736"},"modified":"2019-10-18T01:01:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T00:01:10","slug":"africa-and-the-reality-of-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/africa-and-the-reality-of-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa and the reality of capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
January 1998, The Gambia<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Africa, a continent with virtually all the resources it takes for development, is the\nworst hit by hunger, starvation, armed conflicts, instability, displacement and abject\npoverty. Politicians, jockeying for the little resources left by the capitalist class,\ndisplay the politics of hide-and-seek, repression and oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is mainly because of the system which encourages capital accumulation and\nprofit-seeking. The cumulative effect is flagrant corruption, deprivation, wastage and\nimpoverishment which intensifies underdevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worst of all, as Africa is helplessly dragged into the global free trade championed by\nthe International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) and World Bank, Africa’s natural resources are\nfurther exposed for deep exploitation by international capitalism, which deteriorates the\nwoes of the already impoverished African working class. This shows that the objective\nconditions of African socio-economic formations do not favour capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capitalism and imperialism are perceived as the major cause of the current\nunderdevelopment in Africa. Capitalist development has tended to reinforce the\nexploitative dependence that enables underdevelopment to persist. The fact remains that\nAfrica will never witness any meaningful development under capital accumulation and market\nprofit-seeking which breed dissension, division, greed, selfishness, tribalism, ethnic\nchauvinism and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, after the just concluded 22nd ECOWAS Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, one African\npresident identified division and the exposure of the region’s economy (market) to the\nWestern capitalist class as the major source militating against the development of the\nregion. But this is the base of capitalism–market profit-seeking and exploitation. It is\nnot enough to identify these problems but more so to resolve them by helping to abolish\nthe system that creates them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The African working class have the cards in their hands for socialism if only they want\nit. Indeed, African conditions have revealed capitalism in its harshness and brutality:\ninequalities are too glaring. In the face of extremities of want and a meagre surplus, it\nis difficult to sell the idea that those who are in positions to accumulate should take\nwhat they can and leave the rest to suffer what they must. Africa’s ruling class has run\nout of ideas for fashioning and inspiring a functional development strategy, limited as it\nis by the constraints of working with ideas compatible with the maintenance of the\nexisting property relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The evils of capitalism are conspicuous in Africa and Africans have lost confidence in\ncapitalism, exemplified by the renewed springing-up of working-class consciousness in\nSouth Africa, The Gambia, Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and others but are choked by the\nexternal forces of capitalism. Again, another problem for the transition to socialism is\nthe state of the development of productive forces in Africa which may turn even the best\nof intentions into caricature. The lack of the development of the productive forces\nappears to encourage political authoritarianism and reduces “Socialism” to the\nmanagement and redistribution of poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But underdevelopment will surely persist if the existing capitalist relations of\nproduction are maintained, and if the dependence of Africa on international capital\/main.htm\ncontinues. Therefore, the overturning of the existing relations of production is necessary\nfor overcoming underdevelopment. Socialism is inevitable if development is desirable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is obvious that in the event of protracted futile developmental efforts, the\npolitics of anxiety has become institutionalised and increasingly the ruling class is\ndisplaying signs of paranoia while the subordinate classes have become frustrated,\ndemoralised and available for induction into extremist movements as in Algeria, Senegal,\nBurundi, Rwanda and the like. The ruling class is fast psychologising failures which lie\nin the economic sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact is that Africa \/main.htmhas less hope of development if the property relations of\nproduction and distribution and the market system continue. The reverse is the\nsolution–socialism abolishing capital accumulation and market profit-seeking and\nembracing production for need. The time is now to co-operate with fellow workers all over\nthe world to establish global socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author: Johnbull Nwarie <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Please email your comments about this article to feedback@worldsocialism.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Back to the Global Economy Index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
January 1998, The Gambia Africa, a continent with virtually all the resources it takes for development, is the worst hit by hunger, starvation, armed conflicts, instability, displacement and abject poverty. Politicians, jockeying for the little resources left by the capitalist class, display the politics of hide-and-seek, repression and oppression. This is mainly because of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-736","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2536,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/736\/revisions\/2536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}