THE AMERICAN-led raids in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, are a new version of an old theme - imperialist domination of Africa. Its results will be as disastrous now as in the past.
inacco, ine civil war and famine in Somalia have their roots in the dictatorship of General Siad Barre, supported until 1990 by the United States as part of its Cold War strategy.
When Barre came into power he had to balance out the vari. ous Somali clans in order to stay on top. His own clan is formally a very slender power base which partly explains how be was dislodged later on. From the late 1970s on, he started using clans against each other Most Somali people follow a pastoral way of life. Capitalism has penetrated Somalia to the extent that there are linkages to the ports that export to Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab workd. Otherwise self-sustaining communities grow just enough for themselves, their family and to raise livestock.
Since colonial times - espeItalians and the British - the growing of cash crops like bananas has been in plantations owned by Italian trading the last few vears Somalis seeking food have boen shot or tortured by specially hired guards as a warning not to come into the plantations.
Barre's response to mounting opposition took the form of killing the livestock which bel longed to his opponents, the destruction of water tanks, the poisoning of wells. This created a large refugee population disin turn made it more difficult for rural populations to make a living from their own land.
One of the products of the US's stake in the proxy war between Somalia and Soviet-backed Ethiopia was that every clan was able to get arms. Today having arms means that they have power.
Now, with the end of the Cold War, the West no longer needs to finance proxy regimes.
But some things don't change.
Right from post-colonial Fourth Internationalist speaker Alain Krivine to maintain an anti-capitalist perspective in the face of the huge world-wide attack on working class rights, gains and organizations at the heart of the Maastricht Treaty and to resist ine wholeste abandonment ol socialist references by much of the erstwhile left. days. Italian imperialism has been present in Somalia. Italy when Britain controlled the north. In the 1950s, they govemed it again under a UN trus teeship. They suppressed vanous anti-colomal move ments in that period.
One of the causes for the fighting between supporters of Aala lorde Apie are fight for allies against Barre prior to the fall of Mogadishu -is that All Mabdi is closely associated with Italian business interests in Somalia. The Italian Ali Mabdi he should become General Aidid, meanwhile. has been singled out as 'the enemy by the neo-colonialists.
iven the diversity of the forces involved, the Assembly was seen as an arena for reflection and debate. It was decided to continue to seck further sigBalories to tie appeal and work towards a further meeting to be held in another European capital next year. NO FALSE modesty at the recent 14th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Delegates adopted a report by party first secretary Jiang Zemin, proclaiming the beginning of another 'mighty revolution'.
According to a behind-the-scenes source adding the phrase 'market economy is unprecedented in the history of world development and is an invention of the CCP!
This new 'massive theoretical contribution' is the work of top leader Deng Xiaoping who also explained that 'the methods of socialist market economics are basically similar to capitalist society's.' Any takers for Socialist Market Outlook?