Panel #3: 2022 GPAM People’s Intervention
Specific Topics: Trade, Sudan, Ukraine War, Global Fragility Act, US Strategy of Africa, China-Russia counter policies, Discriminatory visa practices
Panel Chair: Benjamin Tetteh
Panelists:
- Sanusha Naidu, Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa
- Marc Mealy, Vice President, ASEAN Business Council
- James Early, Former Assistant Secretary Education and Public Service, Smithsonian Institution
- Horace Campbell, Chair GPAM North America
- El Waleed Ali, Sudanese Professionals Association-Radical Change
Watch this panel:
Panel Summit:
Speaker 1:
Speaker 2: Marc Mealy
Using examples from 20 years of experience in working with countries in South East Asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia), Brother Marc shared strategic considerations and accounts Africans need to consider in their international economic relations with the US, particularly given the current trends shaping the evolution of the global economy.
Where did your experience begin?
I want to center my remarks by noting that I started my career in 1989 as an economist with the United States Government working in Africa. I brought with me knowledge of the works of Walter Rodney, Samir Amin, Yash Tandon, as well as Ricardo and Smith. I saw first hand how my employer was actively helping to perpetuate white minority control over land in Zimbabwe, which is why I resigned.
Can the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) contribute to the transformation of African economies?
I worked with several African nations in the 1990s and was thus well positioned to publish two analyses of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that Clinton signed in 2000. In the first, I noted that in my opinion contrary to the celebratory rhetoric about AGOA, not only was it rooted in false assumptions like African nations are poor because they are left out of the global economy, something which AGOA would help fix, but the economic policy prescriptions to get the benefits of AGOA were identical to same old neoliberal based structural adjustment program policies of the world bank and IMF, which we know have never supported processes of sustainable socioeconomic development to help structurally transform colonial, neocolonial and neoliberal oriented African economies to serve the interests of African societies in the 21st century global economy.
In the second, I raised two questions about how African peoples should evaluate AGOA in relation to US economic relations with African nations. For trade to support sustainable and inclusive processes of socioeconomic development which help structurally transform the economies of African nations to better serve their societies, increasing levels of trade (quantity) is necessary, but not sufficient. What is also needed is changing what is traded (quality). This begs the question, will AGOA help to change the quantity and quality of trade between African nations and the US?
African societies need trade and capital flows (investment) to represent net resource positive transfers if they are to be sources of finance for development. This begs the question, will AGOA help reverse US-African trade, investment, and other resource net outflows? On the eve of next week’s summit, where the United States government has said it wants to “update” AGOA and the US Chamber of Commerce plans to help promote deals between American and African companies, African peoples can look at the data to help answer the above questions after 20+ years of AGOA.
In short, the quantity of US Africa two-way trade went up until 2011 (been declining since), but with a few exceptions, the quality of what is traded is pretty much the same, Africa exports oil and gas, minerals, commodities, & textiles and the US exports manufactured products transport equipment, chemicals, & machines. Ironically in recent years US exports of oil & gas have become a bigger share of US exports to Africa and African exports of oil & gas to the US are declining. Most importantly, most African economies are still net exporters of resources, particularly capital.
How can African economies be transformed in the current period? What lessons can we draw from Asia?
[The form of trade relations between Africa and the Global North and that] history matters today because the US African Summit is occurring in the current period of changing dynamics in the global economy, best summarized as the growing weaponization of international economics. For some it will perpetuate the status quo, but for others including Asian nations that were also once colonized, we see alternative regional economic frameworks and institutions, not necessarily radical but more nationalistic but alternative nonetheless, being developed and led by Asian governments themselves.
Asian led initiatives like the RCEP, DEPA, CMI, ERIA and AMRO, actually generating degrees of structural change in societies, within the global economy system. In addition, because Asian’s have created alternatives in Asia, when 9 of the 10 Southeast Asian leaders came to Washington in May as the ASEAN region to attend the US-ASEAN Special Summit, they came with degrees of freedom and flexibility and even made some demands about their priorities in response to some of the U.S.’s new proposed economic initiatives.
When I started working in SE Asia, I was drawn to nations like Malaysia not only because they had governments who have said no to adopting an IMF/World Bank structural adjustment program to address the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and to western financial credit card companies who wanted them to not limit the number of credit cards their citizens including students could have, but because as a multiracial & religious nation that at the time of their political independence had a colonial structured economy which produced tin, rubber, and palm oil for export, but today has a structurally transformed economy which also manufacturers cars, rubber gloves, semiconductor chips, and laptops for Malaysians, Asians and the world.
Over the past 20 years, I’m not sure any “developing nation” has achieved degrees of structurally transforming its economy to a greater degree than the nation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. From an economy that went global as a producer of coffee, rice, tea, and cashews, to now also being a part of the global economy for cell phones, semiconductors, wind energy turbines by significant investments in STEM oriented higher education & training. Again, while quantity of trade is not key for socioeconomic development it should be noted that in 2000, the US and Vietnam also signed a bilateral trade deal. Today, Vietnam is America’s 4th largest trade partner in the world with over $100B in 2-way trade
last year, compared to $64B in US 2 way trade with all African nations combined.
Lastly, the recent example of Indonesia which had a colonial structured economy that included the mining and export of raw materials such iron & bauxite, copper, tin and nickel. Led by non-progressive elites who have successfully used non neoliberal policies including banning exports of raw minerals over the objectives of MNC’s, IMF, World Bank, EU, and USA) to transform their colonial based economic structures in the mining and export of its minerals into new models where Indonesia’s minerals are no longer exported, but processed in Indonesia into higher value products for either export or use inside Indonesia’s domestic manufacturing industries like electronic vehicle batteries.
What should Africans on the continent and abroad demand from their leaders?
- Understanding that as talk of updating AGOA and doing more of the same (EX-IM Bank announced that it will finance up to $1 billion in US exports to Africa) is announced, the geopolitical economic strategies of the west to combat China are underway in technology and industrial sectors and for African societies. Even non progressive analysts note that such strategies and investments by the United States’ government really don’t include societies in Africa or Black and brown communities in America.
- Progressive analysts would challenge that by noting economies in Africa are included in the same ways they’ve always been included, as source of raw materials at the bottom of technology and other strategic industries global value chains.
- Elites in Asian societies are increasingly using their states to navigate the current period in the global economy (increased weaponization of international economics) by:
- Rejecting the pressure of zero sum picking sides (non aligned)
- Hedging with the geopolitical powers (play chess not checkers) because what they see happening inside the US and EU.
- Investing in building their own alternative frameworks (creating new competing tables) and institutions within the system, which in some areas are beginning to influence the evolution of global capital
- Not looking for leadership from either China or the USA to help their societies navigate the global system.
- Understanding that European elites are choosing to sacrifice their economies (deindustrialize) to be aligned with the USA, a choice Asia and Africa as former colonies can’t afford to make, but which should also send a signal to African citizens about where and what their governments should be prioritizing in terms of international economic partnerships.
Speaker 3: James Early
Brother James began his discussion by walking us through the many complexities that we have to negotiate as progressives, from earning a living to attempting to change the conditions of working people. He referenced the discussions that we had in the Summit to close with the need to build networks and networks of networks in order to make radical transformation, which will require making critical yet nuanced analyses and complex engagement with reality.
What is at the core of the problem?
“So in the context of the United States, which is still the dominant, life defining nation in the world, by way of its neoliberal paradigm, capitalist system, and the impositions of its media capacity, its cultural perspectives, and its economic warfare.” Brother James continued to explain how this system uses economic warfare and deploys tools such as sanctions, which is “another means of war.” Sanctions are “against working people, the most impoverished, the most marginalized, the most needy people in this society. Yes, it does hit elites…but who is really suffering from this, it is the ordinary everyday people that Julialynne Walker has described, where women are really the business backbone of not only Africa, but many developing countries.”
How do we engage this?
“There are a number of battlefronts. Yes, we engage it by trade unions, by left wing parties, and by social movements. But we have to engage it where everyday people are and from the vantage point of the US positionality on the globe. And the role that we as citizens here [in the US], either willingly, inadvertently or undecidedly play because we want to keep our job.”
Brother James continued to discuss a neglected battlefront in the U.S., the electoral battlefront, and the emphasized the importance of struggling in what becomes policy and programs, budget allocations, and the politics that affect our lives and security. And this battlefront is important for us to engage in the positionality of the US with the rest of the world. In regards to engaging Africa, Brother James urged it be by way of organized peoples movements, be they women’s movements or left wing parties, and urged caution when engaging governments.
Why is Africa important to those of us in America?
“Africa is not only important because we have a cultural legacy with Africa, or because we are Black skinned.” Brother James reminded us of the misery of exploited, oppressed and formerly colonized people’s expressed in W E Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk and Dubois’ claim that the major question of the 20th century is the question of the color line. He explained how both of these analyses ring true today in the face of racial capitalism. Africa not only links African descendants with a cultural legacy, but an interconnected struggle of the systems of oppression under racial capitalism.
What can those of us in America (and citizens) do to challenge racial capitalism?
African Americans of all backgrounds, as citizens of the US, have a serious responsibility to call out brothers and sisters like Lloyd Austin and Amb. Linda Greenfield in their roles at the helm of imperialism. There is a need for African descendants to be informed about the dynamics and intersection of struggles and involved with progressive movements across the continent of Africa, and in regards to Global Africa. The Caribbean countries have served as the center for Reparatory Justice, and despite their capitalist economies, Caribbean countries have been doing democratic work with socialist Cuba, President Obrador of Mexico, Brazil’s Lula de Silva, and Colombia’s President and former guerrilla leader Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez. Political leaders like Francia Marquez and Mia Motley have been discussing reparations in relation to debt, and challenge the Bretton Wood institutions.
Speaker 4: Horace Campbell
Speaker 5: El Waleed Ali
Brother Waleed shared a video recording from Sudan, which is too concise to summarize:
“SPA is an association of different Sudanese revolutionary trade unions. The association started forming in 2012, as an extension for the Professional Union which had a significant role in the 1985 revolution. After the coup in 1989, the trade Union was dissolved and all its leaders were detained, assassinated or had to leave the country. SPA has a significant contribution in the 2018 revolution organizing the protests and civil disobedience. SPA still fights alongside the revolution forces like Radical Change Forces and Resistance Committees to achieve the revolution’s demands: freedom, peace and justice.
The fierce battle for freedom, peace and justice has been going on, up and down since 1956, the year of political independence from the United Kingdom. Of course, as in many regions of the world, the colonizers left their agents to take care of their interests, and to ensure the continued exploitation of resources against the interests of the local people. The agents of colonialism were fed up with the newborn democracy, which at that time was moving towards an independent economy, so they produced the first coup 1958 in the favor of commercial agents of colonialism.
The first wave of the revolution took place in October 1964, but it soon led to a fragile regime that restored the power of the traditional agents of colonialism. In 1969, a military coup was carried out with attractive patriotic slogans first, but it soon fell into the trap of dictatorship after it was contained by the imperialist and regional allies. In 1986, the second wave of the revolution came and led to a democratic regime, but the dark forces of the Muslim Brotherhood got fed up with it and turned against it in 1989. They continued in power for 30 years, which was enough to corrupt public service, separate the south, and start war in Darfur, all in favor of the thirsty global monopolies for land and resources exploitation.
In December 2019, we witnessed the third wave of the revolution, which continues up to date. The counter-revolution forces are seeking, with the help of imperialism, to reach a compromise between the people of Sudan on one side, and the interests of the Muslim brotherhood and military generals on the other side. We are not surprised that the Sudanese old political club, supported by the United Nations and the international community, are seeking an illusion of stability through agreement with the interests of the defeated Islamic regime.
The revolutionary forces refuse to compromise on the blood of the martyrs and refuse to continue exploiting mineral and agricultural resources except for the benefit of people’s basic services, on top of which are free education and medical service. The revolutionary forces are seeking a healthy relationship with international financing institutions on the basis of national priorities and preserving national sovereignty. The revolution continues, and in the midst it gathers professionals, resistance committees, and the rising forces of radical change. Our confidence and belief are strong in the ability of the masses to change, no matter how long the journey takes. We, in the SPA, are working to continue constructing and empowering the trade unions of professionals and workers. We are striving to mobilize the largest popular and international solidarity among free peoples for the Sudanese revolution.”
