May 25 –
African Liberation Day
The peoples of Africa and of African origin have a
proud history of celebrating African Liberation Day. It is the day when they
mark the victories of their struggles against colonialism and for independence,
and pledge to strengthen their unity in the struggle against all exploitation
and for the complete liberation of the African continent. WDIE hails
this important day and the advances the peoples of Africa have made. It
condemns the big powers for their continued interference and intervention in
Africa and their attempts to enslave Africa anew and commit new acts of
genocide against the African peoples under the signboards of globalisation and
humanitarianism.
African Liberation Day was born out of the consciousness of
the peoples of Africa that their liberation was their own act and part of the
world-wide struggle against imperialism and of the united front of the working
class and peoples to end the exploitation of persons by persons. It was
initiated at the first Conference of Independent African States held in Accra,
Ghana, on April 15, 1958, and attended by eight independent African heads of
states. That day was declared "Africa Freedom Day" to mark the onward
progress of the liberation movement. In 1960, seventeen African states gained
their sovereignty marking it as the "Year of Africa". On May 25,
1963, the Organisation of African Unity was founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
when more than 1,100 people representing 31 African states, 21 African
liberation movements and hundreds of supporters and observers were in
attendance. The OAU proclaimed that May 25 would from then on be celebrated as
"African Liberation Day", to be observed annually and to carry
forward the aspirations of the peoples of Africa for freedom, sovereignty and a
new society.
African Liberation Day 2000 comes at a time when the big
powers, particularly Britain and US imperialism, are engaged in what could be
termed a new "scramble for Africa", a fresh attempt to reverse the
tide of history and ruthlessly exploit the African continent for its vast human
and material resources. It is an unimaginable crime on the part of these powers
that their legacy and their present programme of globalisation have resulted in
the African peoples being so impoverished, wracked by divisions and internecine
conflict, while the resources under their control are so bountiful. Britain
would like to erase the memory of its inhuman colonial period when it took the
lead in the slave trade and devastated whole peoples and cultures in acts of
genocide. The government refers to this period only as "our common
history" with the former subjugated peoples, and then takes a high moral
tone when its Anglo-American and Eurocentric values and policies are rejected
by the African peoples and governments.
However, the world is passing through a defining moment,
and Britain, US and other big powers cannot simply erase the peoples from the
world equation with their imperialist, neo-colonialist and neo-liberal
programme of globalisation in the conditions of the intensifying world
capitalist crisis. The peoples of the developing world, including Africa, are
strengthening their unity, as they must, against this neo-liberal agenda. One
such example was the South Summit of the Group of 77 held in Havana, Cuba, in
April this year, which issued a draft programme of action declaring that the
peoples of these countries, making up almost four-fifths of the world’s
population, would not be passive observers of globalisation but would take up
the task of making their own history. The heads of states and governments
assembled there pledged, on behalf of their peoples, to unite and establish
close cooperation to put an end to the agenda of globalisation.
It is the duty also of the working class in Britain, Europe
and throughout the world to take a stand in favour of their own rights to break
with and smash the chauvinist illusions promoted by the financial oligarchy and
the monopolies that encourages the workers to join with them in taking up the
new "white man’s burden", and to make the monopolies successful
in the global marketplace. This is a duty which is to make common cause with
the peoples of Africa and the developing world who are struggling to advance on
their own course of development and secure and consolidate complete political
and economic independence and to secure a future world which is fit for all
human beings.
Hail African Liberation Day!
