Good day comrades. Those of you who watched news recently surely heard about a “coup” in the Republic of Niger. Apparently Westerners are very mad because I am hearing of the west cutting diplomatic ties and thinking of imposing sanctions.
Now, as you know, Western news sources are not reliable when it comes to the happenings in other countries - especially in those that are either not west-friendly or part of the Global South. My question is, can anybody here explain to me what exactly happened in the Republic of Niger and if possible, provide a Marxist estimate of the situation? Is the “coup” (I’ll use the term for now because of a lack of better knowledge about the situation) good or bad for the working class of the Republic of Niger? Is it good for the global working class movement? I have seen pictures of protestors waving the Russian flag and some Western media is already claiming this somehow benefits Russia. What is going on?
Thanks in advance.
The French puppet president was deposed and the military is taking charge. Whether this will be a positive development or not remains to be seen. It could end up making things worse if this results in some kind of intervention, civil conflict or insurgency being launched by the West, especially France whose tentacles are still deeply embedded in the region.
Luckily Russian forces are already in neighboring countries suppressing western backed Jihadists and safeguarding stability, and Niger could invite the Russians to do the same for them, preempting any kind of Western ploy to destabilize the situation.
There is good reason to be optimistic imo, since if through this change of government Niger ends up gaining some real sovereignty and independence from European neo-colonialism - most importantly they have to break free from the stranglehold that France has over the economies of West Africa through various monetary instruments - the way for example has been happening in places like Mali recently, this will undoubtedly be a good thing for the working class in Niger, and in the region as a whole since it will serve as yet another example of Africans evicting the colonizers and their comprador puppet leaders and Africans taking control of their own destinies.
If stability is maintained, whatever new government emerges, if it is truly one that is no longer subservient to France or the collective West, can begin to develop the country, its infrastructure, it’s productive forces and it’s human resources with the help of China and slowly but surely improve the living conditions.
There is still a lot of uncertainty over how things will develop in this situation in the short term or whether the West can apply enough pressure to reverse the coup, or if they can co-opt the military government through bribery and coercion, or control whatever civil government inevitably comes to take its place. If so it would be a significant setback but it would be temporary as the overall trend of the region as a whole is accelerating more and more in the direction of the multipolar world, i.e. away from Euro-American hegemonic dominance, and that is definitely a good thing for us as Marxists since it opens the door to a new wave of liberation movements, people’s revolutions and socialist governments.
For some historical context, remember that there have been a number of progressive (i.e. socialist inclined) governments which were brought to power by military coups, for instance in Lybia 1969, Afghanistan 1978, and Burkina Faso 1983 as a result of a desire for national liberation among certain segments of the military.
And even if this particular military government is not an explicitly progressive one but merely a nationalist one suffering from many contradictions and possibly even some reactionary tendencies…well, as Stalin points out in “Foundations of Leninism”, even these kinds of regimes when pushing back against conditions of colonial-imperialist subjugation can still serve a progressive world-historic role.
Every step toward liberation from Western neo-colonialism is also a step toward socialism. And every domino that falls, no matter how small, matters as it contributes to the overall building of an unstoppable momentum against the US dominated unipolar hegemony.
The more countries flip the more others will see it is possible and will also flip to the side of the multipolar world and will no longer be paralyzed by the fear of US military or economic retribution. Instead they will start to participate in China’s global development initiatives which will lift all of the global south up from the underdevelopment that the West’s colonial yoke has imposed on them, which in turn will deprive the imperial core of the ability to exploit the global south for the resources they need to stave off revolution in their own countries.
I mean, Niger has a literacy rate of 37% and the worst HDI of any country in the world, It doesn’t take much for them to be progressive.
Phrased differently we can say there is a lot of potential for improvement. And since things have not been improving under the previous civilian government that was just doing France’s bidding siphoning off Niger’s resources to Europe while its own people lived in poverty, we should at least give the new military/military-installed government a chance to see if they can do better.
Weren’t they already in Niger? And supporting the now ousted president? That was the impression I got from the news
Did China announce their position regarding the situation already?
China will probably adopt their usual position of non-interference. If the new government manages to establish itself and solidify its hold over power they will recognize it and do business with it. What China needs first and foremost in order to be able to come in and start development projects is peace and stability.
From Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regular Press Conference 2023年7月27日
That’s the most recent published official comment on the matter on the MFA website.