Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Russian Imperialism and the Coup d’État in Burkina
Faso
On January 24th, the army, led by lieutenant-colonel Paul-Henri
Sandaogo Damiba and other high-ranking military figures, seized power in
Burkina Faso. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore was put under arrest, and
representatives of the putchists announced the coup on state television. A
nighttime curfew was imposed, the constitution suspended, and the government
and parliament dissolved.
The coup was quickly condemned by Yankee imperialism,
the world’s sole hegemonic superpower, French imperialism, the so-far principal
imperialist in the country, the United Nations, as well as the principally
French-lackey West African union ECOWAS. On the contrary, Russian imperialism
has not condemned the coup. In fact, “Communauté des Officiers pour la Sécurité
Internationale (COSI)”, a front for the Russian mercenary “Wagner Group”,
offered the putschists their hand. At the request of bourgeois journalists
inquiring about the position of COSI on the coup, a letter by COSI-head
Alexander Ivanov was published saying:
“People started to take to the streets demanding the
resignation of the country’s administration and better material support for the
soldiers and their families. As a result, the army announced on television the
overthrow of the president, the dissolution of the government and parliament
and the closing of the borders in order to control the situation in the
country. Their aim is to defeat terrorism and protect their people. It is a
good cause and society agrees with the military. […] I believe that if Russian
instructors are invited to train the army of Burkina Faso, they will be able to
do it effectively.”1 In an interview, Ivanov elaborated by saying “I believe that this
coup, which took place because of the deteriorating security situation in
Burkina Faso, was nothing more than a ‘peaceful’ rebellion.”2
Reportedly, putsch-leader and quisling Dambia had
inquired twice to former lackey president Kabore on the question of inviting
Russian imperialist intervention through the Wagner Group. Denying the second
inquiry was reportedly one of the last actions of Kabore before his ousting.3 In an interview, a Yankee Deparment of State spokesperson said: “The
Department of Defense is aware of the allegations that the Russian-backed
Wagner Group may have been a force behind the military takeover in Burkina
Faso”4 but did not want to comment on their position on this question.
For almost a decade, French imperialism has been
waging war of aggression in the Sahel-region to maintain their presence and subjugation
of the country. The war of aggression is directed at the just struggle and
heroic resistance of the masses against imperialism, at this moment being
fought under reactionary banners in the absence of a proletarian leadership,
represented by a militarised Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party. However,
just like the imperialist military intervention in Afghanistan, the
intervention in the Sahel-region has also become quicksand for the
imperialists, consuming ever more troops and resources. In the period from
2015-2020, armed actions doubled every single year in the Sahel. This is
characteristic of the strategic defensive of imperialism – it is in an advanced
state of decomposition, and correlating to this we find ourselves in the
strategic offensive of the World Proletarian Revolution, while a new great wave
of the world proletarian revolution is developing and we are entering a new
period of revolutions, within the period of 50 to 100 years when Chairman Mao
foresaw that imperialism and reaction will suffer defeat at the hands of the
iron legions of the proletariat which is continuously being formed and
strengthened.
In June last year, French imperialism was forced to
admit a relative defeat in their war of aggression in the Sahel-region, and
announced a drawdown of their troops from 5,100 to 2,500-3,000 by the first
quarter of 2022. Recently, a military convoy en route from the Ivory Coast to
Mali was met with fierce resistance from the masses in both Burkina Faso, Niger
and Mali. In our article “Annotations on the International Situation” we write:
“The regime of the big landlord-bureaucratic state in Burkina Faso shut down
the internet for several days to prevent the masses from exchanging information
and to prevent masses elsewhere along the route of the convoy to be inspired.
The French army responded to the civilian blockades with bullets”.
Moreover, A Nova
Democracia, reported that 3 million people protested against
French imperialism and ECOWAS in Mali, mid-january of this year.5
The big bourgeoisie in Burkina Faso is trembling at
the wrath and fury of the masses oppressed by the three mountains; imperialism,
bureaucratic capitalism, and feudality. Infused with fear by the defeat faced
by French imperialism, a faction of the big bourgeoisie lost faith in French
imperialism and their abilities to keep them safe while they embellish in
riches at the expensive of the masses. Consequently, in light of the defeat
faced by French imperialism, this section of the big bourgeoisie is looking
elsewhere to safeguard and maintain their position as parasites on the backs of
the people. This is expressed in the ambitions of this section of the big
bourgeoisie of a change of master, from French to Russian imperialism, in the
hopes that they can continue living their parasitic life in return for
prostituting Burkina Faso to Russian imperialism. It is this group of one
faction of the big bourgeoisie, colluding with Russian imperialism, that the
putschists are acting in the interests of and on behalf of.
This must be seen in the context of the
inter-imperialist contradiction, which develops in the midst of collusion and
struggle, and how it operates in the oppressed countries by managing the
internal inter-reactionary contradictions – which, too, develops in collusion
and struggle between factions and groups of the big bourgeoisie and the
landlords – and the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed
nations, the latter being the main contradiction in the world today. The
inter-imperialist contradiction is expressed in the struggle between the
imperialist powers for the partition and repartition of the colonies and
semi-colonies, the very reason why they are fighting for world hegemony; they
are currently preparing for a third world war, which will take place when they
are in a position to do so, as we have explained in “The World Scene”.6 But we maintain that imperialism is not just one, there are a handful
of imperialist countries struggling for world hegemony, to be the one, to share
the spoils, this contradiction is developing in collusion and the struggle is
absolute and the collusion is temporary and relative, and at the moment the
collusion is the main aspect.
Thus, the oppressed nations of the Third World are
battlefields, where the imperialist powers contend in various forms for spheres
of influence. Lenin taught us that the change of the forms of the contest from
peaceful to violent forms and back to peaceful forms, etc. does not change the
class character of the struggle. In this inter-imperialist contest, the Third
World is the spoils, and they wage this struggle by direct and indirect means,
coup d’états being one of the latter. More concretely, the events in Burkina
Faso must be seen as part of a wider trend in which Russian imperialism is
trying to seize the initiative by offensive measures within its defensive
position due to the encirclement being developed by the US imperialists and
their “allies” against its own territory. Russian imperialism is thus
exploiting the cracks in French imperialism’s spheres of influence in West
Africa.
The Wagner Group is currently operating in at least 12
countries, roughly half of them in Africa. Among the countries where Wagner has
operated are two other Sahelian countries, namely Chad and Mali. In Chad,
Russian imperialism utilized civil war as an indirect means in the struggle for
repartition in contention with French imperialism through the backing of “rebel
group” “Front for Change and Concord in Chad”. It is the expression of its
so-called “hybrid war”, to respond to the “low intensity war” of US
imperialism, which under the government of the genocidal Obama privileges
indirect aggression by establishing a large military base in Africa with a
system of smaller bases in key countries and the use of mercenary commandos for
its special operations and the training of native mercenary troops and
extensive use of “drone warfare”, a tactic that was baptised as “Obama’s wars”.
In Mali last year, lackeys of Russian imperialism also carried out a coup, and
very soon after these quislings invited Russian military intervention, which as
mentioned, often maintains a covert profile through the so-called “Private
Military Company” Wagner Group, supposedly only responsible for training and
security. But as we have seen in the Central African Republic, the outlined
mandates has not prevented these Russian mercenaries from fighting alongside
the native lackey army, in return for control of mining deposits.7
A section of the big bourgeoisie in Burkina Faso, one
of the groups into which the factions of the big bourgeoisie are divided, by
taking over the representation of the big bourgeoisie and the landowners in the
country, wants a change of imperialist masters in the hope of saving its own
skin. We say: dream on! Their days are numbered. Deep down, they know. They are
trembling. We can see unfolding before us a new high tide of national
liberation struggle as part of the new great wave of World Proletarian
Revolution and of the new period of revolutions we are entering.
That the imperialists in general resort, whenever
possible, to indirect aggression through covert forms of aggression such as
“low-intensity warfare”, “hybrid warfare”, “asymmetric warfare” etc., before
their failures in direct interventions through occupation and rejection on
their home front, which they have all reaped since World War II, demonstrates
the great truth of Maoism, rightly and correctly repeated by Chairman Gonzalo,
that the masses have stood up and will never again allow themselves to be
stifled, thus showing that revolution is the main historical and political
trend in the world today, that the main contradiction is oppressed nations-imperialism,
in the world today, that the nations oppressed by the weight of the masses are
the basis of the world revolution, that the peasantry is the main force of the
struggle against imperialism, of the struggle against the three mountains
(against imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and feudalism), that this
movement of the oppressed nations, together with the movement of the
international proletariat, are the two forces which, led by the international
proletariat through its Communist Parties, make up the world proletarian
revolution. The international proletarian movement is the movement of the
proletariat throughout the world and the national liberation movement is the
movement of the oppressed nations. Lenin said that it is a movement that will make
great contributions and cannot be marginalised. All this falls within the
period of “50 to 100 years” when imperialism and reaction will be wiped off the
face of the earth.
Chairman Mao said: “The world after World War II has a bright future.
This is the general trend. […] The world is progressing, the future
is bright and no one can change this general trend of history. We should carry
on constant propaganda among the people on the facts of world progress and the
bright future ahead so that they will build their confidence in victory. At the
same time, we must tell the people and tell our comrades that there will be
twists and turns in our road. There are still many obstacles and difficulties
along the road of revolution. The Seventh Congress of our Party assumed that
the difficulties would be many, for we preferred to assume there would be more
difficulties rather than less. Some comrades do not like to think much about
difficulties. But difficulties are facts; we must recognize as many
difficulties as there are and should not adopt a “policy of non-recognition”.
We must recognize difficulties, analyse them and combat them. There are no
straight roads in the world; we must be prepared to follow a road which twists
and turns and not try to get things on the cheap. It must not be imagined that
one fine morning all the reactionaries will go down on their knees of their own
accord. In a word, while the prospects are bright, the road has twists and
turns. There are still many difficulties ahead which we must not overlook. By
uniting with the entire people in a common effort, we can certainly overcome
all difficulties and win victory.”8
1https://twitter.com/officierssi/status/1485975235321110530?s=21 (Our translation)
2https://news.myseldon.com/ru/news/index/266104219 (Our translation)
3https://www.thedailybeast.com/burkina-faso-president-ousted-after-refusing-to-pay-wagner-mercenaries
4https://www.voanews.com/a/us-aware-of-allegations-of-russian-links-to-burkinabe-coup-/6415668.html
5https://anovademocracia.com.br/noticias/17093-mali-mais-de-3-milhoes-protestam-contra-o-colonialismo-frances-e-rechacam-sancoes
6ci-ic.org, “The World Scene –
A Report on the International Situation in Relation to the “Ukraine Crisis”,
February 4, 2022
7https://ci-ic.org/blog/2021/11/10/imperialism-and-the-coup-detats-in-africa/
8Mao Tse-tung, “On the
Chungking Negotiations”, October 1945
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