[lbo-talk] Slavery in Mauritania, 2007

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 3/22/07, B. <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [Apropos of a discussion a couple of weeks back. -B.]
>
>
> Slavery still exists in Mauritania
> By Pascal Fletcher
> Wed Mar 21, 3:22 PM ET
<snip>
> He says a 1981 decree outlawing slavery is a dead letter
> and slavery is alive in Mauritania, with all its manifestations
> of non-paid work, punishment, forced sex and other abuses.
>
> Mauritania's military rulers, who are handing over to civilian
> rule in democratic elections, shy away from discussing
> the issue and prefer to talk of "vestiges of slavery."
<snip>
> But anti-slavery campaigners say the master-slave
> relationship and its social repercussions are branded
> into the minds of all Mauritanians, just as class-consciousness
> still haunts social discourse in Britain and other European states.
<snip>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070321/lf_nm/slavery_mauritania_dc

Isn't this basically a case of complete lack of modern class
consciousness in an extremely underdeveloped country, for which the
best known solution is Maoism?

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai wrote about Nepal before the rise of a Maoist
movement: "As a result no basic structural change in the semi-feudal
and semi-colonial socio-economic formation was brought about in the
ensuing years, and the country continued to reel under abject poverty,
inequality, dependency and all-round underdevelopment. Acute class
exploitation was accompanied by yet more onerous national, regional,
gender and caste oppression of the overwhelming majority of the
population" ("Birth Pangs of Democracy in Nepal," January 2002,
<http://www.monthlyreview.org/0102bhattarai.htm>).  Such "semi-feudal
and semi-colonial socio-economic formations" are found in many parts
of the world, from Asia to Africa, though details of local gender and
caste systems vary greatly.
-- 
Yoshie