By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Note: This paper was presented at the Left Forum held at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York (CUNY).
The Left Forum took place from May 30-June 1, 2014, where several
thousand people gathered from various progressive, radical and
socialist tendencies and movements. This panel was hosted by the
International Action Center (IAC) and was entitled ?The New Cold War:
What?s Driving It and Will It Escalate?? In addition to Abayomi
Azikiwe, the discussion featured Bill Doares as chair of the IAC,
Meejin Richard and Seyeon Lee of Nodutdol for Korean Community
Development, Berta Joubert-Ceci of the Women?s Fightback Network in
Philadelphia and Jess Sudin of Freedom Road Socialist Organization
(FRSO).
Many people today are describing the renewed political and military
tensions between the Russian Federation and the United States-European
Union alliance as a manifestation of a so-called ?New Cold War.? The
previous Cold War developed after the conclusion of World War II when
the U.S. and the Soviet Union emerged as the major powers on the
international scene.
Coinciding with the Cold War between 1947-1991, was the rise of the
national liberation movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America and
the struggle for civil rights, empowerment and social justice in the
western countries during the same time period. The Cold War did not
only have foreign policy implications but also influenced the
character of oppression, class exploitation and race relations inside
the imperialist states.
The question of a Cold War cannot be fully answered without dealing
with the political character of international racism in the overall
world capitalist ideological and military struggle against Communism.
During the course of World War II the peoples of the oppressed nations
were thrust into protracted conflict by demanding both social equality
and national independence.
In October 1945, the Fifth Pan-African Congress was held in
Manchester, England. The meeting represented the apex of a series of
similar gathering that were organized between 1893 in Chicago to the
First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. After the turn of the
19th and 20th centuries, there was an upsurge in national
consciousness and class struggle.
The Niagara Movement of 1905 lead directly to the formation of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
co-founded by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Both
of these prominent African American leaders were militant opponents of
racism in the U.S., where African Americans were being lynched in the
hundreds during this period.
With the conclusion of World War I, a previous upsurge in national
consciousness arose. Another Pan-African Congress was held in 1919 in
Paris. Du Bois had become the chief proponent of these summits which
continued in 1921, 1923, 1925 and 1927.
The Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities League
(UNIA-ACL) founded by Marcus and Amy Ashwood Garvey in 1914, drew
millions of members and supporters throughout the western states and
within occupied colonial territories in the Caribbean, Central
America, South America and on the African continent.
Trade unions were formed in various parts of Africa during this
period; for example in the Gold Coast railway industry in the late
1930s to the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union in South Africa
after World War I and continuing through the African Rand Miner?s
Strike of 1946 after the second World War.
In 1919 there was a series of so-called race riots in the U.S. with
Chicago being the most violent. Also in Egypt during the same year a
rebellion erupted which brought new social forces, including women,
into the anti-colonial struggle in Africa.
Pan-Africanism, World Revolution and the New Cold War
The national liberation movements achieving independence in Africa and
the gains of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the U.S.
had a profound impact on the character of world capitalism and
imperialism. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of the modern state of
Ghana and the chief tactician and strategist of the African Revolution
during the 1950s through the early 1970s, identified neo-colonialism
as the principal impediment to the achievement of genuine liberation
and economic development.
After World War II the U.S. capitalists consolidated their global
hegemony. Nonetheless, periodic crises within the economic system of
exploitation were never fully resolved.
Even with the collapse of the former Soviet Union and shifts within
the domestic and foreign policy of the People?s Republic of China and
other socialist countries, the ruling class inside the U.S. and
Western Europe are by no means socially secure. The declining rates of
profits and the ongoing resistance of the working class and the
national oppressed have continued to be a cause for concern by those
who control the means of production and the state.
This ongoing domestic war against the working class and oppressed
inside the U.S. is in evidence through the attacks on public
employees, public assets, unions, municipal pension funds, public and
low-income housing and the evisceration of public education, both K-12
as well as colleges and universities.
Today China is considered by the U.S. imperialists as a major
impediment to their control of various geo-political regions of the
world including the Asia-Pacific region and the African continent.
Developments in Africa have landed China the status of being the
largest trading partner with the continent.
In relationship to the role of the Russian Federation, the
U.S.-engineered coup in Ukraine and the utilization of fascist
organizations is by no means unique. Many of these same fascist
elements were recruited by the U.S. after World War II where they
played a role in framing the political character of the intellectual
and political nature of contemporary society.
The present hostility directed against Russia and China is a clear
reflection of the crisis within the imperialist system led by the U.S.
By attempting to demonize and criminalize the governments of China and
Russia, the ruling class and the state are extending their domestic
policies used against the oppressed nations inside the U.S. who
disproportionately represent the incarcerated populations and those
which remain under legal and law-enforcement supervision.
Nonetheless, these efforts by the ruling class have not halted the
struggle for liberation, social justice, socialism and peace. In
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Sudan, and all throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean, the imperialists have not been able
to win an outright victory.
Consequently, efforts to reshape society and the world are very much
in order. The people need food, housing, medical care, education, safe
environments and political independence. Capitalism cannot provide
these essential needs of the modern world.
Only the socialist organization of the economy and political
structures of societies internationally can provide hope and
reasonable prospects for a world based upon social justice,
self-determination and genuine equality. This realization continues to
be the pre-occupation of progressive forces in the struggle to achieve
these advancements throughout the planet.
