i
I
4
Portland Observer
Third World Wrapup
by Koy Harvey
O A U Decision Prolong* Angolan W ar
sy
The O AU stalemate on the question of
the recognition of the Peoples Republic of
Angola was a victory for reaction, but as
Guinean president Sekou Toure noted
last week, the lack of a wholehearted
backing of the M P L A by the O A U will
mean the end of the O AU, and the
formation of new inatitutions and al
liances that are more meaningful. Most
probably thia will be worked out within
the Committee of 77 non aligned nations
- or the group of nineteen which recently
met in Paris. The head of the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa,
Adebayo Adebeji, said January 6th in
Addis Ababa "African states are more
conscious everyday of the necessity of
strengthening their economic relations
with the socialist camp...recent ECA
statistics are testimony to the fact that
the current economic crisis in Africa has
been provoked by Western capitalist
countries."
The vote in the O A U was split 23 to 23.
None of the 23 countries which did not
vote for recognition of the M PLA 's
People's Republic of Angola has officially
recognized the F N L A U N IT A Huambo
concoction as a government.
The
following O A U members have recognized
the RPA:
Algeria, Somalia. Mozambique, Tan
zania, Guinea, Guinea Bisaau. Congo-
Brazzaville, Cape Verde, Niger, Sao
Tome. Libya, Burundi, Ghana, Nigeria,
Mali, Sudan, Madagascar, Comoros,
Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Marui
tania and Mauritius.
Other nations which have recognized
the RPA:
Bulgaria. Brazil, Cuba. Czechoslovakia,
Laos, Iraq, Governments of North and
South Vietnam, North Korea, German
Democratic Republic, Poland, Rumania,
Syria, Sweden. South Yemen, Yugoslavia
and USSR.
While the fighting in Angola will be
prolonged as a consequence of the
stalemate in Addis Ababa, out of the
wreckage of the O A U the leading Black
African countries will increasingly merge
with the pro-development Arab sector -
and the Socialist bloc. Typical of this kind
of arrangement is the Group of nineteen
Third World countries which have called
for Soviet block participation in global
economic reconstruction a move toward
bypassing the International Monetary
Fund and the bankrupt dollar.
i
Economic W arfare
The mechanism used to frighten
wavering African states (in particular
Ethiopia, Gambia, Upper Volta, Uganda)
from recognition of the RPA was
economic blackmail. Next week in this
column we will analyze this in detail, but
a taste of economic warfare used by the
IM F can be seen in last week's funeral
IM F Washington meeting.
The IM F
issued extraordinary and explicit de
mands for import reductions, currency
devaluations, government spending cuts
and industrial investment-slashing for
IM F member nations - as a precondition
lor loans (IM F conduits capital from the
Chase and First National City and other
banks or rather it collects debt for those
banks). The short term loans issued to
member countries are immediately to be
returned to the very banks (to pay off old
loans) which issued them!
The IM F
countries must force austerity on their
working populations
but get a good
credit rating' with the banks. This is
called ‘bilateral financing'. On top of it
all. there is only about $9 billion in the
IM F coffer, while the outstanding Third
World debt is $60 billion
not even
enough capital exists to develop the labor
intensive austerity programs the IM F
demands: some countries are simply
slated for extinction.
The primary targets of the IM F
maneuver are the leading Third World
countries India. Mexico. Peru, Algeria
and Turkey -- which have made the most
substation moves toward the impkmen
tation of the new world economic order
(though none of these countries has
forthrightly called for debt moratoria).
The irony of the O AU decision is that
those countries which did Kissinger's
bidding will suffer most from their
derisions: they are the countries to be
triaged, according to the IM F World
Bank scenario.
On January 4th Mexico's President
Echeverria sUted “to prevent World
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major obstacle to further NBA progress,
growth and development.
In the face of massive and mounting
opposition to is leadership, Baraka
submitted his resignation as Secretary
General before the new structure was
adopted in Dayton. In submitting his
resignstion Baraks expressed an interest
in being elected to the Executive Council
under the new structure. However in the
North regional caucus election for
representation on the Executive Council,
Baraka was defeated in his bid for
election.
W hile all ideological points ol view and
political factions, including the Congress
of African People remains welcome
within the N B A , the newly elected
Executive Council has resolved that
disruption tactics will not be tolerated
and that any future disruption by the
Congress of African People will be met
with total expulsion from the NBA.
The Dayton Mandate provides the
foundation for the launching of a new era
in the development of the National Black
Political Assembly. The present NBA
leadership is determied to offer a new
leadership style characterized by an
energetic effort to work co-operatively
with Black Elected Officials. National,
regional and local Civil Rights organiza
lions, human rights groups, labor organi
zations, and grass roots community
organizations around concrete issues of
Jim Watson, at a Socialist W orker's
Party forum, called for the U.S. to quit
Angola •• and leave the nationalist
groupings to fight it out amongst
themselves. Watson said “the dominant
nationalist group is the Popular Move
ment for the Liberation of Angola --
M P L A .” Watson said “the imperialists in
Washington are not united on the
question of Angola, and see as foolhardy
Kissinger's determination to stop the
M P L A in Africa..." Under questioning
Watson could not say what section of
capital Kissinger represented. "Ford is
in a bind, because he wants detente in an
election year -- while the Soviets want
detente too - Angola is one of their
bargaining chips.“ Having analyzed the
conflict in Angola in that fashion, Watson
went on to say “there is not a whole lot of
difference between the F N L A (National
Front), U N IT A (National Union) and the
M P L A (i-opular Movement) in terms of
program."
Under questioning the
speaker said he was unaware that
U N IT A and the F N L A had coalesced (in
Huambo) as an anti communist force to
destroy the pro-socialist M PLA .
Questioned by the audience as to
whether it didn't make some difference
that F N L A and U N IT A got their
financial support from the C IA . South
Africa, and N A T O countries, while the
M P L A was supported by the C O M ECO N
countries and other prt> Socialist coun
tries, Watson replied that it was “not an
indictment of their politics that their
monies came from various places..." The
SW P's mayoral candidate Kontanis add
ed: “I t is not a principled question where
you get your money, but what you do
with it..."
Or, added another SW P
member, 'what you say you will do with
it.’ Jim Watson said that the statements
of the three groups in Angola were
virtually identical: "None of the move
ments has an anti-capitalist policy or
program...all support sustained foreign
investment...” As an indictment of the
M P L A the speaker offered these events:
1. M P L A forced striking dockers to go
bark to work. 2. M P L A was willing to
collect $500 million from Gulf Oil.
3.
M P L A called for the Portuguese troops
to intervene in Angola. Discussion of
these events was not permitted in the
meeting (question period).
Dockers
striking while the young PRA govern
ment is under attack by the C IA financed
F N L A from the north, and South African
troops from the south would appro
priately be viewed as C IA instigated
activity. On the third point the M P L A
called for intervention by the M F A. at a
time when the M F A was closely aligned
with the Portuguese Communist Party
(the soldiers group which became the
S U V ).
During that period the M F A
published documents identifying the
F N L A and U N IT A as counter-gangs
created by the C IA and the Portuguese
secret police (respectively). As for point
continues to fund its countergang concoc
tions in Angola, more Black African
nations will commit troops to the People's
Republic of Angola.
Meanwhile the
M P L A has consolidated its hold in the
northern enclave of Cabinda - last week
capturing some 100 white South African
prisoners, New Solidarity reports. In the
south the M P L A army faces South
African troops - with no U N IT A /F N L A
troops with them - in Quibala, just a
hundred miles south of Luanda. A t press
conferences in Addis Ababa and Luanda,
U N IT A prisoners told reporters: “South
Africans provide the cannon, we provide
the fodder."
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mutual concern. An immediate dialogue
with many of these groups is expected to
being immediately.
Programatically, the NBA can be
expected to press forward vigorously
with its 1976 political strategy and its
1976 National Black Political Convention
in Cincinati, Ohio March 17th-21st, 1976.
The NBA's “76 political strategy calls for
a Black candidate for the Presidency, as
an independent,” the selection of a
Peoples Cabinet, and the adoption of a
1976 platform of issues of vital concern to
Blacks and other oppressed national
minorities. Among the issues expected to
receive detailed attention are National
Health Insurance, Tax Reform, and Full
Employment legislation. The NBA is also
expected to launch a drive to register a
significant number of the same six million
Blacks who remain unregistered in the
U.S.
Plans for a series of State Conventions
are also underway. The Assembly plans
a massive effort in the southern states
where with the exception of Louisiana,
Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Ken
tucky, no assemblies have been active
since Gary in 1972. The State Conven
tions will elect the 5,000 delegates to the
national convention, and prepare recom
mendation and resolution on issues. The
ratification of the platform and nomina
tion of the Black Presidential Candidate
will occur at the National Black Political
Convention at Cincinati in March.
number two, Watson was unaware of the
new world economic order and what that
represents for the development of the
Third World; raw materials for industrial
development: an international develop
ment bank type arrangement.
An SW P member summed up his
group’s position: “Americans shouldn't
try to formulate Angolan policy. W hat is
important is that all American involve
ment should cease. That is the radical
demand."
Now what's a radical? I t is this w riter's
objective view that a radical is a
physically grown up proto human who
has w et its diapers and screams loudly
for someone to change them. The more
loudly the radical screams, the more
'm ilitant' it is.
The radical says “the
world is a mess” but rather than actually
formulate program - and take responsi
bility for the implementation of that
program -- the radical says "do some
thing!"
Several members of the SW P forum
audience including this w riter expected
to hear a cautious defense of the M P L A -
the group which in fact has been the only
movement in Angola which fought the
NATO-backed Portuguese, while UPA -
G R A E - F N L A - U N IT A
countergangs
spent their time fighting the M P L A . This
w riter was not prepared for the SWP's
m oral in te lle c tu a l debasem ent which
could not distinguish the M P L A from the
CIA-South African financed counter
gangs in Angola.
port ol Angola is only the beginning of g
deeper Nigerian engagement in southern
Africa.” I t is likely that if the U.S.
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Radicals say: U.S. out of Angola
by Roy Harvey
Page 3
Wards Bargain Center
National Black Assembly reorganizes
Recently in Dayton, Ohio 400 delegates
and observers, from nineteen states
attended one of the most crucial meetings
ever held within the National Black
Political Assembly. By an overwhelming
2 3 majority the NBA delegates voted to
adopt a new structure, a Statement of
Principles, a Constitution, and elected
officers under the new structure.
Elected to office were the following
persons: Chairperson -- Ronald D.
Daniels, Assistant Professor of Political
Science, and Pan African Studies, Hiram
College, Hiram, Ohio. Co-Chairperson
Mashariki Kurudisha. Social W orker, and
Community Organizer from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania: Secretary John W arfield
- Chairman of the Afro American Studies
and Research Center. University of
Texas at Austin: Treasurer
State
Representative Ixtia Deberry. M ajority
Whip. Tennessee State leg islature,
Memphis, Tennessee.
The decisions of this meeting climaxed
more than three years of struggle to
define the purpose of the NBA, outline a
political direction, and adopt clear
procedures for action. W ithin the last
year in particular serious internal con
flirts largely provoked by playw riler,
political activist, Am iri Baraka ot Ne
wark. New Jersey and the Congress
of African People which he heads,
Baraka's disruptive tactics, harassment
and intimidation of the delegates, and
abrasive leadership style had become the
W ar I I I the new world economic order is
needed: the response we want is a
favorable chain reaction from all coun
tries, including industrial nations...our
defeat would mean ruin for all.” The
coalescing of the leading Third World
countries will again occur at the second
session of the North South talks January
26th: the Conference on International
Economic Cooperation (CIEC).
I t is
probable that the organizing efforts of
the leading O AU countries will be
directed toward the CIEC, rather than
trying to herd various C IA and Rocke
feller African satrapies into a pro
development decision of any kind.
Meanwhile, Back In Angola
January 5th the Nigerian Head of State
Murtala Muhamed said “Nigeria's sup
Thursday, January 16. 1976
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