The death of Queen Elizebeth of Britain caused some examination of colonialism as a legacy, but some point to continuing neocolonial policies like AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command. (See “Colonialism is an Everyday Story” by IPA communications director Sam Husseini.)
The UN General Assembly is meeting in New York, see livestream. Wednesday is the International Day of Peace.
ROSE BREWER, rosebrewer001@gmail.com, @
Brewer is an activist scholar who specializes in political economy, social movements, and studies in Africa and the African diaspora. She is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace’s Africa team and a professor of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota.
The Black Alliance for Peace is launching an educational campaign about AFRICOM. The group states: “Despite its rhetoric, the purpose of AFRICOM is to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control on African land, resources and labor to service the needs of U.S. multinational corporations and the wealthy in the United States. It also serves as a major boon to ‘defense’ contractors.
“AFRICOM is a direct product of NATO via the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which originally took responsibility for 42 African states. In 2003, NATO started expanding; four years later, in 2007, EUCOM commander James L. Jones, who was also NATO commander of operational forces, proposed the creation of AFRICOM.
“NATO has become a huge global axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex, which includes more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world as well as joint bases or relationships with almost all African countries. These are all controlled by the U.S. empire for realizing the U.S. policy of Full Spectrum Dominance, which is driven by the ferocious appetite of international finance capital.”
The group argues AFRICOM is an instrument of neocolonialism and that the “hypocrisy explains why 17 African nations abstained from the March 2 United Nations resolution condemning Russia. One African state, Eritrea, even voted no. Their experiences with NATO and AFRICOM ensure skepticism of self-proclaimed noble motives.”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, David Zupan,
September 21, 2022
