Good day comrades. Those of you who watched news recently surely heard about a “coup” in the Republic of Niger. Apparently Westerners are very mad because I am hearing of the west cutting diplomatic ties and thinking of imposing sanctions.
Now, as you know, Western news sources are not reliable when it comes to the happenings in other countries - especially in those that are either not west-friendly or part of the Global South. My question is, can anybody here explain to me what exactly happened in the Republic of Niger and if possible, provide a Marxist estimate of the situation? Is the “coup” (I’ll use the term for now because of a lack of better knowledge about the situation) good or bad for the working class of the Republic of Niger? Is it good for the global working class movement? I have seen pictures of protestors waving the Russian flag and some Western media is already claiming this somehow benefits Russia. What is going on?
Thanks in advance.
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The French puppet president was deposed and the military is taking charge. Whether this will be a positive development or not remains to be seen. It could end up making things worse if this results in some kind of intervention, civil conflict or insurgency being launched by the West, especially France whose tentacles are still deeply embedded in the region.
Luckily Russian forces are already in neighboring countries suppressing western backed Jihadists and safeguarding stability, and Niger could invite the Russians to do the same for them, preempting any kind of Western ploy to destabilize the situation.
There is good reason to be optimistic imo, since if through this change of government Niger ends up gaining some real sovereignty and independence from European neo-colonialism - most importantly they have to break free from the stranglehold that France has over the economies of West Africa through various monetary instruments - the way for example has been happening in places like Mali recently, this will undoubtedly be a good thing for the working class in Niger, and in the region as a whole since it will serve as yet another example of Africans evicting the colonizers and their comprador puppet leaders and Africans taking control of their own destinies.
If stability is maintained, whatever new government emerges, if it is truly one that is no longer subservient to France or the collective West, can begin to develop the country, its infrastructure, it’s productive forces and it’s human resources with the help of China and slowly but surely improve the living conditions.
There is still a lot of uncertainty over how things will develop in this situation in the short term or whether the West can apply enough pressure to reverse the coup, or if they can co-opt the military government through bribery and coercion, or control whatever civil government inevitably comes to take its place. If so it would be a significant setback but it would be temporary as the overall trend of the region as a whole is accelerating more and more in the direction of the multipolar world, i.e. away from Euro-American hegemonic dominance, and that is definitely a good thing for us as Marxists since it opens the door to a new wave of liberation movements, people’s revolutions and socialist governments.
For some historical context, remember that there have been a number of progressive (i.e. socialist inclined) governments which were brought to power by military coups, for instance in Lybia 1969, Afghanistan 1978, and Burkina Faso 1983 as a result of a desire for national liberation among certain segments of the military.
And even if this particular military government is not an explicitly progressive one but merely a nationalist one suffering from many contradictions and possibly even some reactionary tendencies…well, as Stalin points out in “Foundations of Leninism”, even these kinds of regimes when pushing back against conditions of colonial-imperialist subjugation can still serve a progressive world-historic role.
Every step toward liberation from Western neo-colonialism is also a step toward socialism. And every domino that falls, no matter how small, matters as it contributes to the overall building of an unstoppable momentum against the US dominated unipolar hegemony.
The more countries flip the more others will see it is possible and will also flip to the side of the multipolar world and will no longer be paralyzed by the fear of US military or economic retribution. Instead they will start to participate in China’s global development initiatives which will lift all of the global south up from the underdevelopment that the West’s colonial yoke has imposed on them, which in turn will deprive the imperial core of the ability to exploit the global south for the resources they need to stave off revolution in their own countries.
I mean, Niger has a literacy rate of 37% and the worst HDI of any country in the world, It doesn’t take much for them to be progressive.
Phrased differently we can say there is a lot of potential for improvement. And since things have not been improving under the previous civilian government that was just doing France’s bidding siphoning off Niger’s resources to Europe while its own people lived in poverty, we should at least give the new military/military-installed government a chance to see if they can do better.
Luckily Russian forces are already in neighboring countries suppressing western backed Jihadists and safeguarding stability, and Niger could invite the Russians to do the same for them, preempting any kind of Western ploy to destabilize the situation
Weren’t they already in Niger? And supporting the now ousted president? That was the impression I got from the news
with the help of China
Did China announce their position regarding the situation already?
China will probably adopt their usual position of non-interference. If the new government manages to establish itself and solidify its hold over power they will recognize it and do business with it. What China needs first and foremost in order to be able to come in and start development projects is peace and stability.
AFP: A coup happened in Niger, an African country. What’s your comment?
Mao Ning: We are closely following the development of the situation in Niger, and have noted the statements by the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States on this. China calls on relevant parties in Niger to act in the fundamental interest of the country and its people, solve differences peacefully through dialogue, restore order at an early date, and safeguard the overall peace, stability and development of the nation.
From Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regular Press Conference 2023年7月27日
That’s the most recent published official comment on the matter on the MFA website.
If mainstream media says it’s bad, then it’s likely good for the people of Niger.
I don’t know if you’re just being cheeky but this is not a useful approach at all.
It’s good as a heuristic because 90% of the time it’s correct. Same thing as saying “if the U.S. is supporting it as part of its foreign policy, it’s likely bad.”
You still have to educate yourself and think, but this is a useful starting point and tiebreaker.
nah it’s definitely bad. broken clocks etc.
Western capital is just mad because instability will slow production of cheap imports and they will have to start from scratch with new bribes and business relationships.
Is it instability of puppet authoritarian regime? The local community seem to be stable enough for an independent democratic accountant government that serve its people instead of a terrorist regime.
Instability is relative. Farming communities are partially insulated against the economic effects of a coup, some may even benefit as food prices have gone up and imports of certain goods have ceased. Other workers are not and there is much uncertainty whether the goods they produce can be exported and what the value of the national currency will be. This leads to layoffs and high prices of basic consumer goods.
There is also the possibility of greater oppression of certain ethnic minorities and of those who practice traditional religions as opposed to Islam. The coup leadership has not said they will do anything like that, but they are to the right of the previous government.
I found this Twitter thread to be useful in explaining some background on the situation.
This is further complicated by the fact that coup supporters have been waving Russian flags and burning French flags; Putin meanwhile held a summit in St.Petersburg for strengthening economic ties with the African continent— forgiving $23 billion in debt owed by African states.
NATO keeps forcing Putin to actually do good things, then look around in awe as his international support grows. Sometimes I wonder if they’re that incompetent in geopolitics or they just really hate themselves really hard. Whoever convinced NATO officials to change course in adding Russia to it might’ve been a time-travelling comrade in disguise.
They’re an ossified gerontocratic kakistocracy, they have no ideas. Yes they’re incompetent. These people are supremely entitled and know for sure that the god is on their side. It’s a shitshow and we’re all along for the ride. Try to enjoy it I guess.
From the reading, the Western European diaspora need a puppet authoritarian regime in Nigeria for their natural resources, center route of human trafficking, and establishment of the largest group of foreign military bases. That is believable since the Western European diaspora never care about human rights nor humanitarian goals, and they only raise report of a country when that country has an event that severely threatens the oppressive authoritarian rule of Pax Americana.
While what you say is semi-true, the coup is in Niger, not Nigeria, two quite different countries. They share the same river thus the names.
My apology for the mistake
I tried learning more about them a while back, but then discovered Google doesn’t think they exist.
The other comment sums it up pretty well though and I have nothing to add.
The name is officially the “Government of Niger”, as they anticipated problems with Nigeria having a very similar name.
Makes sense, but that there is just one clearer instance of google autocorrecting queries about Niger to Nigeria. Like I was looking into cultural traditions it kept linking only articles about Nigeria. For example, I was trying to understand traditional clothing usage along MENA countries like head coverings and it didn’t even bother to include a “did you mean…?”
I was trying to understand traditional clothing usage along MENA countries like head coverings and it didn’t even bother to include a “did you mean…?”
Try looking for one of these graph thingies then looking at the culture of each one, much easier.
I mean that is useful, but I at that point I didn’t even know much about the difference between Hausa and Tuareg culture (and still am not confident in my knowledge of that), so my base was way too lacking. I was mostly interested in understanding and dispelling common myths about Muslim and broader MENA culture, which usually can be summed up as lumping them all as a single homogenous imaginary culture and then going “foreigner bad.” Not sure how on-topic it would be for here, but I’d love to learn more about the cousins from Africa and Asia that are always misrepresented and simplified to absurdity by Northwesterners.
the difference between Hausa and Tuareg culture
Touaregs are Berbers/Amazigh (like me), so I appreciate your thingy, good luck on it.
