Версия для печати

---

The White House and the Black Continent

Subversion

 

The real policies of any state are shown not so much by the words of its leaders as by what it actually does in practice. Let us then consider in this connection some of the attempts made by the White House to subvert the countries of Africa that have chosen the progressive path of development.

The People's Republic of Angola is an example of a country that has been subjected to massive, uninterrupted pressure from the United States and its ally, South Africa. Any means have been used, from direct armed aggression by the South African racists to threats to review US legislation in respect of the Clark Amendment, so as to allow the US government to give official instead of secret aid to the counterrevolutionary forces in Angola. This was precisely the subject under discussion in December 1981 when Jonas Savimbi was received in Washington and his UNITA gangs were officially declared the legal political force in Angola to which it was essential to give consideration. And meanwhile with the encouragement and direct instigation of the United States and South Africa the bandit UNITA groups operate together with the South African occupation forces spreading death and terror in the southern provinces of Angola that are under South African occupation.

The head of UNITA is clearly being prepared the role of ruler of a buffer state which Washington and Pretoria would like to form on the territory that they have seized from Angola and make into a cordon sanitaire isolating South Africa occupied Namibia from free Africa. At the same time US propaganda increasingly refers to UNITA's "successes" and the political credo of its leader, Savimbi.

American imperialism is pursuing an aggressive policy throughout the world which is aimed at subverting the revolutionary and democratic states. In Africa the US administration forms military bases so that its Rapid Deployment Force can interfere in the internal affairs of any of the progressive states.

Perhaps the most blatant forms of subversion practised by the United States on the African continent have been used against Libya. On various occasions the US has instigated acute crises in relations between the two countries. Libya, of course, supports the Palestinian resistance movement and sets the style for the other independent African and Middle Eastern countries in their struggle against the United States. For this reason in April 1981 the US closed the Washington People's Bureau of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and expelled a number of Libyan students. In August 1981 the United States shot down two Libyan military aircraft that were on a patrol flight in the Gulf of Sidra. In 1981 and again in 1983 large-scale military manoeuvres were held on the Libyan border in which United States units participated directly.

In the summer of 1981 the Reagan administration resorted to exerting economic pressure on Libya and in November of the same year it announced an economic boycott of the country. All the US oil companies, whose share in the overall production of Libyan oil was about 40 per cent, ceased work in Libya and a ban was put on the deliveries from the United States of spare parts and oil equipment, while US oil specialists were recalled. In March 1982 an embargo was put on Libyan oil imports and the export of US high technology to Libya was reduced. Reagan also asked his West European allies to support US sanctions against Libya.

The signs are that the Reagan administration has essentially adopted a policy that is aimed at overthrowing the present regime in Libya and physically annihilating the Libya leader, Mu-ammar al-Gaddafi. In the meantime Washington has noticeably increased its military cooperation with Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan under the pretext of strengthening their security allegedly threatened by the Libyan leaders.

These provocations on the part of the United States were thoroughly rebuked by the Libyan representative at the 4th Conference of the Organisation of the Progressive Socialists of the Mediterranean, which was held in Algeria in May 1982. He resolutely rebuffed the accusations of terrorism that were levelled against Libya by the Reagan administration and emphasised that Libya onlv supported the national liberation struggle throughout the world. For this reason, he said, Libya had to stand up against the vicious attacks of the United States and other imperialist powers that were out to destroy the Libyan revolution. It is the United States that is the terrorist, not Libya. It was the United States that was sending its ships armed with the latest weapons to all parts of the world and supporting the most reactionary regimes in Latin America, not to mention the racists in South Africa. The real terrorists were those who threatened the world with a thermonuclear war. All Libya was doing was supporting the struggle for freedom and independence.

It is hardly surprising that the ideological pretext for the subversive policies practised by Washington against the progressive countries of Africa, is the campaign launched in the United States to combat "international terrorism". Its organisers have purposely equated "terrorism" in the generally accepted sense of the word with the legitimate struggle of the peoples for genuine national independence and economic and social progress.

African leaders pointed out more than once that US imperialism and the Western countries were launching a large-scale offensive on the African continent in a bid to secure their own national domination and turn the region into a military stronghold for crushing the progressive regimes and the national liberation movements.

 

Against the Laws of Historical Development - Back

Next - Reaganomics: the African Version

 

Translated from the Russian
Designed by Oleg Grebenyuk
Белый дом и черный континент
На английском языке
Group of Authors: An. A. Gromyko (Editor's Note);
Ye. A. Tarabrin (Ch. I, III, Conclusion); V. P. Kasatkin (Ch. II
IX); V. Ya. Lebedev (Ch. IV); A. Yu. Urnov (Ch V)-
V. S. Baskin (Ch. VI); A. V. Prudnikov (Ch. VII)-
M. L. Vishnevsky (Ch. VIII)
Издательство "Прогресс", 1984.
English translation. Progress Publishers 1984
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

---