Imperialism in Mali

French attack on Mali is an imperialist venture

by Ken Olende

Socialist Worker Online
January 15, 2013

French warplanes began pounding the northern half of the West African state Mali on Friday of last week.
More than 100 people have been killed as Mali’s former colonial master tries to shore up the weak regime.
The French government says it has sent more than 500 troops into the country to combat an “Islamic rebellion”. The country is 90 percent Muslim.
Islamist forces, which have held the north of the country since March last year, were sweeping south.
Rebel groups had taken over following a military coup in the capital Bamako. Initially Tuareg separatists dominated the new government, but these were pushed aside by Islamic militias.
Contrary to Western propaganda, the north is not controlled by a unified Al Qaida force, but three Islamic militias with differing agendas.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, “Bamako would have fallen two or three days later. France is at war against terrorism.”
In the past French governments have been happy to prop up dictators across the region, like Félix Houphouët-Boigny in the Ivory Coast.
It carried out a brutal colonial war to stop Algeria getting independence.
The French government supported Tunisian dictator Ben Ali until he was toppled by a popular revolution two years ago this week.
Crude
As the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have found out, Western imperialism never comes to bring democracy but to defend its own crude interests.
French president Francois Hollande hopes to entrench French interests in West Africa and improve popularity at home.
But he risks dragging France into a drawn out conflict. One French helicopter has been shot down already.
Two British transport planes are set to fly to Mali to reinforce government troops. Britain may also supply drones and spy planes.
Some British military personnel are already in Mali, and the government says troops are likely to follow in a training role later this month.
The French say that they may use their old imperial Foreign Legion army if ground fighting intensifies. But they are still hoping that an alliance of forces including African troops will be sufficient.
The intervention may have stopped the advance and led the rebels to abandon the main northern cities, but they are regrouping in the desert. They are well trained and well armed.
French forces have carried out scores of air raids across towns and cities in the north, including Timbuktu. France threatened an intervention in September, and European troops were due to train Malian forces.
France has frequently used military force in its former colonies. It still maintains military bases, including in Chad, from where its current assault is being launched.
At the same time the French military has carried out a disastrous raid on Somalia intended to free a French agent.

Rulers' racism masks imperialist war in Mali

Socialist Worker Online
January 19, 2013

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously supported Western intervention in Mali.
Very few people have come out against this latest imperial venture. The liberal press is silent because the enemy are Islamists—apparently aligned to Al Qaida.
In reality the new scramble for Africa is a battle for resources and strategic interests.
Now the US and China have joined old colonial powers like Britain and France.
In some periods they have felt their best interests are served by supporting dictators.
They’re also happy to claim to be bringing freedom and ending oppression when they use force.
When Belgium invaded the Congo region in the 1870s and took control of its rubber, its excuse was the need to stop the slave trade.
In the following years forced labour killed half the country’s population—some ten million people.
The imperialist cure was far worse than the original problem.
When the US invaded Somalia in 1992 people came out to welcome troops. But they soon came to support the resistance that drove the invaders out.
France’s record is no better.
Genocide
It sent troops to Rwanda during the genocide—but not to help the victims. Instead they protected French-owned property and citizens.
Somehow the rebels in Mali are seen as worse because they are Islamists. The Financial Times argued, “Mali was fast becoming a launch pad for a regional jihad a few hours’ aeroplane ride from Europe.”
But it warns that the intervention “will help Islamists to internationalise the conflict”.
The neoliberalism that is sweeping Africa has concentrated what investment there is in ever smaller areas. In Mali this is the capital Bamako and its hinterland.
Anger at this has led to separatist movements that feel their areas have been marginalised. This anger is repeated across the continent.
Mali is an overwhelmingly Muslim country. Islamism has grown there because the fighters claim to challenge imperial intervention.
It offers a solution to people’s growing poverty and marginalisation.
The arrival of foreign troops strengthens the Islamists’ argument that a small elite benefits from neoliberalism, and has succumbed to Western values and capitalist greed.
This is why French and British commanders are scared of getting bogged down in a ground war.
Even if the Islamists beat them the Islamists will not be able to deliver change. The hope for the future lies in revolutionary movements like those in Egypt.
These show it is possible to challenge imperialism, reject neoliberalism and provide for the poor and marginalised.