Imperialist
Troops Out of Somalia Yankee Go Home!
Oppose
Imperialist Invasion and Aggression No Matter What the Pretext!
- Statement
by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
31 December
1992
Here we are,
witness to imperialist invasion with a new twist, "humanitarian
aid". Thousands of American marines and their counterparts,
the French Foreign Legion along with a handful of mercenary contingents
from a number of lacky regimes of the Third World, pounced on Somalia
in the arrogant imperial style of the conquistadors of old, seizing
Mogadishu its capital. Sanctioned by the United Nations (where imperialist
masters and a few others, for show, make deals) although without
invitation from Somalia, these imperialist armies, with the U.S.
once again leading the pack, sophisticated weapons in hand, trample
across a militarily weak and exceedingly poor country to force
its population into submission. Roughing up unarmed dock workers
and even killing families traveling at night. Do they supply more
airplanes to increase food distribution to peasants in the remote
interior of the country? Of course not. Even a U.S. general warned
against any absurd notion that the marines were in Somalia to distribute
food.
We've seen
invasions like this before, from the most recent high-tech mass
slaughter in Iraq, to Panama, Grenada, need we go on? The U.S. marine
force is the "elite force" chosen and trained to be particularly
brutal even by U.S. standards, while the French Foreign Legion is
made up of criminals promised a new identity for serving as mercenaries
for French imperialism. Throughout history the armed forces have
been the main tools of enforcing and maintaining colonial and neo-colonial
slavery of the masses in the Third World through a variety of brutal
means.
With a thick
blanket of lies and distortions the U.S. has been able to use the
famine in Somalia to win or at least neutralize international public
opinion to unashamedly endorse this invasion. They seek to fool
the world's masses into believing that the imperialist's bloodthirsty,
repressive and reactionary nature has changed. They blame armed
gangsters and the warring factions of the rich and feudals, many
of whom are of their own creation, for all the anarchy, disaster
and misfortune that has been tormenting the Somali masses. In the
name of preventing mass-death, the U.S. military takes on the mantle
of saviour of the dying Somali masses, stamping their invasion with
a humanitarian seal.
The fact is,
as in any part of the oppressed world, the imperialists themselves
and especially the U.S. imperialists are directly and mainly responsible
for today's famine, starvation, and death of hundreds of thousands
of Somali masses.
After Somali
independence in 1960, the former Soviet Union became its chief army
supplier, but by the late 1970s switched sides to arm Mengistu of
Ethiopia. The U.S. stepped in and the Somali military swelled disproportionately
to the size of its population and economic ability to sustain it.
The military despot and hated anti-people government of Siad Barre
was propped up by the U.S. to gain hegemony in a region considered
strategically important for superpower rivalry.
Imperialist
loans and food aid poured in, creating a dependency, always profitable
for the imperialists and ultimately perverting Somalia's economy
and agriculture. The result: a military build-up with accompanying
bureaucracy to the death of indigeneous industry, national capital
and of its diversified, self-sufficient agriculture. Along with
imperialist loans come strangulation from International Monetary
Fund adjustment programs to insure debt repayment. Somalia became
dependent on food imports despite the fact that there are ample
agricultural resources to feed the people comfortably within the
country itself.
The comprador
and rich class and bloated bureaucracy, along with an expanded parasitic
intermediate urban strata of the population, had nothing to do with
production and mainly depended upon trading, military supply and
contract business, involving all sorts of profiteering, bribery,
corruption, misapproporation and theft. With the fall of Mengistu
of Ethiopia and more decisively the USSR, Mengistu's main backer,
the military-strategic importance of Somalia evaporated for the
U.S. The Siad Barre regime was gladly dropped by the U.S. as it
became increasingly exposed for the dictatorial regime it was. A
severe crisis followed as the swollen state and military machinery
and the parasitic urban intermediate strata could no longer sustain
itself without outside, artificial support. Wildly looting and robbing
the masses, especially the rural peasants, became the order of the
day. The feudal lords and clan heads remained as before, partners
in this crime.
With the end
of the Cold War came the end of U.S. imperialist food aid. When
the market was exhausted of food and grains, the desperate peasants
were forced to eat even the seeds that were meant for planting the
next crop. Mass starvation and death drove hundreds of thousands
from the countryside to overcrowded urban centres, especially Mogadishu,
in the hope of survival.
The overthrow
of the decades-long dictatorship of Said Barre gave rise to a power
vacuum. There was no government, the state had collapsed. Rival
military and comprador factions fought to gain control. To enlist
youth into their armies these factions gave a blank cheque to loot
relief convoys.
All these factors
together, created and conditioned by the imperialists themselves,
especially U.S. imperialism, threw the country into a situation
of virtual famine. The unfortunate coincidence of drought has only
added to this disaster.
Imperialist
aid may bring some temporary relief for some of the masses. But
these little humanitarian displays do not and can not solve the
fundamental problem of the masses - an exploitative society under
the imperialist system itself.
Despite all
the fanfare about imperialism's humanitarian gestures and the lies
and distortions by the imperialist media, it is already evident
that the invading troops have not been welcomed as liberators (as
they portray themselves) by the broad masses of Somalis except by
some toady compradors and a small section of the middles classes.
If there is
no material or geo-political strategic interest in Somalia, then
why this imperialist invasion? It is clear that one of the goals
of the Somalia invasion is to repair and reconsolidate the wrecked
central state machinery, in the service of imperialism, to prevent
the spread of clan fighting and the armed, rebellious mood of the
youth from spilling over to neighbouring oppressed countries. This
is what they mean by peace and stability. But most importantly,
U.S. imperialism, through leading this invasion, strives to ensure
its right to feast on Africa in its proclaimed New World Order,
a continent which until the recent past has been a sort of reservoir
for exploitation and domination by mainly the European imperialist
powers. For the U.S. imperialists, an invasion in Somalia means
no risk, no dying on the part of the invaders. Because on the one
hand there exists no revolutionary resistance nor viable state army
to resist the invasion; on the other hand in the aftermath of the
Cold War there is a lessening of intensity in imperialist rivalry
for a temporary period. Therefore this was a very favourable opportunity
for them to acquire precious practical experience for future precision
strikes. And the pretext is perfect, "humanitarian intervention".
Today, hunger,
starvation and death threaten many pockets of the Third World -
many of which are partly and apparently caused by natural disasters
- but mainly caused by the functioning of the imperialists and their
plunder machines like the IMF, World Bank and aid consortiums.
As the masses in these and other countries increasingly rise up
against imperialist-backed reactionary regimes, we may well witness
many Somalias led by the U.S. imperialists, posturing as guardian
and policeman of the world and repeating the pretext of "humanitarian
intervention". A dangerous precedent is being set here.
For example,
we can imagine the imperialists developing so much phoney sympathy
for the starving masses of Peru, that in addition to another pretext,
their so-called "war on drugs", the U.S. imperialists
must "in all good conscience" assume the burden of sending
even more marines to Peru, again with UN permission and a little
help from its allies. That's what the New World Order means for
them.
For the masses
of the world it can only mean a more intolerable old imperialist
order, the same system of plunder, injustice and degradation for
the people, under a cunning new slogan.
The Revolutionary
Internationalist Movement calls upon the broad masses of Somalia
to contemptuously reject all the deceptive apologies for U.S. imperialist
intervention and resolutely oppose U.S. attempts at domination.
The imperialists have been able to invade and humiliate the Somali
masses because the latter are neither united nor led by a proletarian
revolutionary party which alone can lead thoroughgoing anti-imperialist
struggle and the necessary people's war to rid themselves of the
local exploiting classes and the imperialists' thugs behind them.
The RIM also
calls upon the revolutionary proletariat and the masses of the world
to firmly oppose and courageously resist the invasion in Somalia
and any kind of imperialist intervention, invasion, occupation or
aggression in any part of the world no matter what the pretext.
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