[lbo-talk] RE HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IS BLOWING IT:

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Nov 4 07:30:56 PST 2003



> For that matter, the only reason we landed on Africa is because you
know
> it's got the smallest ties to U.S. economic statistics. Is Mexico's
poverty
> vital to American business elites? That's a rather more pungent
problem for
> you, isn't it?

My friend, the problem of Africa is not that it is needed (and thus exploited) for the production of surplus in the West and North - but precisely the opposite - that it is NOT. Africa had its use value during the cold war as a proxy battle ground between the US and x-USSR, but was discarded like a piece of trash after that usefulness expired with the end of the cold war. Worse yet, the victorious US made the situation worse when it tried to "stomp out the reds" and in the process killed a few indigenous institutions that actually worked (such as African socialism).

At this point, the best thing that can happen to Africa is to be included in the Western/Northern orbit again rather than sever those ties even further due to real or perceived "exploitation."

Wojtek



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