Neocolonialism and Africa in the 1970s

336 Pages·1978·15.406 MB·English

by  E. A. Tarabrin, I. P. Belayev, E. Kamenov, S. I. Tyulpanov, M. V. Zavyalov

NEOCOLONIALISM
AND
RFRICR
IN THE
197Os
PROGRESS
PUBLISHERS
MOSCOW
This book has been written by
a group of Soviet and Bulgarian
Africanists. Among the contribu­
tors are Corresponding Member
of the USSR Academy of Sci­
ences V. G. Solodovnikov and
Academician of the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences E. Kame-
nov. The work is under the
general editorship of the pro­
minent Soviet Africanist, Evgeny
Tarabrin, Dr. Sc. (History),
whose book, The New Scramble
for Africa, has already been pub­
lished in English.
The present work examines
various aspects of the activity
of the neocolonialists, their strat­
egy and tactics in regard to
newly independent African
states. It exposes the methods of
economic and ideological expan­
sion by which the imperialist
states seek to preserve their in­
fluence and positions in Africa.
The book also discusses and
analyses the ways and means of
struggle against neocolonialism
by the progressive states of the
continent in their effort to con­
solidate their political independ­
ence, attain economic independ­
ence, and achieve genuine social
progress.
NEOCOLONIALISM
AND
RFRICR
IN THE
1370 s
Editor-in-Chief
E. A. Tarabrin
D. Sc. (Hist.)
Progress Publishers
Moscow
Translated from the Russian by Anatoly Bratov
Designed by Vladimir Yurchikov
HEOKOJIOHHAJIH3M H AO>PHKA B 70-X TOflAX
Ha amjtuiicKOM xauKe
Editors: E. A. Tarabrin, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Sc.
(Hist.); I. P. Belayev, D. Sc. (Econ.); E. Kame-
nov, General Editor, Academician, Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences; S. I. Tyulpanov, D. Sc.
(Econ.); M. V. Zavyalov, Academic Secretary
Authors: Preface—V. G. Solodovnikov; Introduc­
tion, Chapters 1 and 2—E. A. Tarabrin (Chapter 1,
§3—E. Kamenov, Chapter 2, §2—E. Malkhasyan);
Chapter 3, §1—M. L. Vishnevsky, §2—V. V. Ro­
manov, §3—B. M. Kolker, §4—S. S. Kozitsky,
§5—1. V. Volkova, §6—D. K. Ponomarev, Chapter 4
—T. Vylchev; Chapter 5—V. S. Baskin; Chapter 6
—E. Kamenov, E. Malkhasyan; Chapter 7—
Kh. Fundulis; Chapter 8—S. S. Kozitsky, B. M. Kol­
ker (§3—E. A. Tarabrin, §6—D. K. Ponomarev);
Chapter 9—N. I. Vysotskaya; Chapter 10—S. I. Tyul­
panov; Conclusion—E. A. Tarabrin
© HagaTejibCTBo «Mncab», 1975
© HagaTenbCTBo «Hporpecc», 1978, c gonoJineHiiHMn n iiBMeueHiiuMii
English translation © Progress Publishers 1978
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
11104-335
81-78
014(01 )-78
CONTENTS
Page
Preface .............................................................................................. 5
Introduction. The Present Stage of the Anti-Imperialist
Struggle...................................................................................... 13
PART I. CHANGES IN THE BALANCE OF FORCES
Chapter 1. NEOCOLONIALISM IN THE 1970s.......................... 37
1. A Brief Summing Up........................................................... 38
2. The Specifics of the Evolution of Neocolonialism .... 44
3. Neocolonialism and the Socialist Orientation................. 64
4. Neocolonialism and State Power........................................ 69
Chapter 2. THE CRISIS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE
NEWLY FREE COUNTRIES AND IMPERIALISM .... 75
1. Sources of the Crisis........................................................... 76
2. The Foundations of Contradictions................................... 79
3. Antagonisms in the Economic Sphere................................. 85
4. Political Clashes.................................................................... 92
5. Ideological Watersheds........................................................... 97
Chapter 3. THE NATURE OF CHANGES IN THE AFRICAN
POLICY OF IMPERIALIST STATES........................................ 101
1. The USA: Quest for Partners...................................................102
2. Britain: Strengthening Traditional Ties................................Ill
3. France: A New Interdependence........................................ 120
4. The Federal Republic of Germany: Under the Flag of
Euroafrica ........................................................................... 128
5. Japan: Economic Diplomacy.......................................................136
6. Israel: Aggressor in Isolation...................................................143
3
PART II. ECONOMIC ASPECTS
Chapter 4. FOREIGN PRIVATE CAPITAL IN AFRICA:
MODIFICATION OF METHODS........................................... 149
1. New Conditions of Activity.......................................................149
2. Structural Changes................................................................ 154
3. Expansion of Functions............................................................164
Chapter 5. A NEW COURSE IN THE POLICY OF “AID” . . 174
1. A Major Instrument of Neocolonialism................................174
2. Sources of Contradictions............................................................178
3. The Burden of Debts.................................................................187
4. The Problem of Effectiveness...................................................191
5. Some Perspectives................................................................ 196
Chapter 6. AFRICAN COUNTRIES’ UNEQUAL POSITION IN
TRADE WITH CAPITALIST STATES........................................203
1. Nonequivalence as a Typical Phenomenon...........................204
2. The Range of Inequality............................................................207
3. The Scientific and Technological Revolution Widens
the Gap...............................................................................................213
Chapter 7. IMPERIALIST INTEGRATION IN THE SYSTEM
OF NEOCOLONIALISM...............................................................218
1. Ways and Means of Exerting Influence.................................218
2. Broadening the Base of Collective Neocolonialism . . . 228
3. Africa and the Tactics of the Neocolonialists.......................235
PART III. SOCIAL AND IDEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
Chapter 8. BOURGEOIS SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE IDEO­
LOGICAL EXPANSION OF NEOCOLONIALISM.....................242
1. The Use of Science.....................................................................243
2. Research Directions......................................................................246
3. Neocolonialist Theories............................................................249
4. Science and Propaganda............................................................253
5. The Problem of a “Social Basis”..............................................262
6. National Personnel......................................................................268
PART IV. THE PRESENT STAGE OF THE STRUGGLE
FOR INDEPENDENCE
Chapter 9. THE STRUGGLE OF THE AFRICAN PEOPLES
AGAINST NEOCOLONIALISM......................................................277
1. Directions of the Struggle.......................................................277
2. Collective Rebuff..........................................................................283
3. International Factors.................................................................292
4. The Difficulties Can Be Surmounted.....................................296
Chapter 10. THE NATIONAL STRATEGY OF SOCIALIST-
ORIENTED COUNTRIES...............................................................303
1. Initial Positions..........................................................................303
2. Internal Problems......................................................................305
3. External Economic Strategy.......................................................313
Conclusion.................................................... . . ..............................323
PREFACE
The consequences of the collapse of the colonial empires,
the further revolutionary changes taking place in the lib­
erated countries of Africa, the heightened role of these
countries in world development and the struggle of the
peoples of the continent for genuine independence are sub­
jects of continuous interest to scholars in the socialist states.
The interest of broad sections of the general public in these
problems is also growing. Marxist-Leninist science devotes
a great deal of attention to the work of analysing the factors
impeding the newly independent countries’ rapid progress,
especially the external factor of neocolonialism, whose neg­
ative effect is particularly baneful.
Under contemporary conditions, neocolonialism accumu­
lates, as it were, all the basic aspects of imperialist strategy
and tactics with respect to developing countries, and at the
same time is one of the manifestations of the attempts being
made by imperialism to adapt to the new situation in the
world. But imperialism does not change its aggressive es­
sence. As L. I. Brezhnev said in the Report of the Central
Committee to the 25th Congress of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union: “The recent experience of the revolu­
tionary movement provides graphic evidence that imperial­
ism will stop at nothing, discarding all semblance of any
kind of democracy, if a serious threat arises to the domina­
5
tion of monopoly capital and its political agents. It is pre­
pared to trample upon the sovereignty of states and upon
all legality, to say nothing of humanism. Slander, duping
the public, economic blockade, sabotage, bringing about
hunger and dislocation, bribes and threats, terrorism, as­
sassination of political leaders, and fascist-style pogroms—
such is the armoury of present-day counter-revolution, which
always operates in conjunction with international imperialist
reaction.” 1 That is why Marxist science defines neocolonial­
ism as a new imperialist system for holding the developing
countries in a state of dependence and exploitation under
conditions when direct colonial dominance has been elimi­
nated and the balance of forces in the world has changed
in favour of socialism.
In the last decade, Marxist literature has been augmented
by works devoted to an analysis of the neocolonialist policies
of the United States, Great Britain, France and the Federal
Republic of Germany. Neocolonialism, however, is contin­
uously evolving within the general framework of those
changes which capitalism itself is undergoing at the present
stage of its deepening general crisis.
Until now there has been no special comprehensive study
of the policy of neocolonialism in Africa, yet, the need
for such a work has matured. If in the 1960s only individual
progressive leaders in African and other developing countries
condemned neocolonialism (or even used this term), the
situation is quite different today. The developing countries
regard confrontation with neocolonialism as one of the
chief realities of the time. This is brought up at all forums
in which African, Asian and Latin American countries take
part, such as the United Nations and its specialised agencies,
sessions of UNCTAD, the Organisation of African Unity,
and conferences of non-aligned countries.
Consequently, it becomes especially important to make
a scientific Marxist analysis of neocolonialism, to reveal its
vulnerable points and determine what the anti-imperialist
forces in the developing countries of Africa can do to com­
bat neocolonialist expansion most effectively.
The present work, a collective effort by scholars from
the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, is
1 Documents and Resolutions. XXV Congress of the CPSU,
Moscow, 1976, p. 36.
6
a joint study of one of the most complex and changing
phenomena in contemporary international relations. Drawing
on the results of research into the problems of neocolonial­
ism already obtained by Marxist science, the authors exam­
ined these problems from the standpoint of the 1970s, and
sought to reveal their long-term trends, analyse the new
historical experience, and, most important, to make some
generalisations and determine the prospects of the struggle
of the African peoples and their vanguard—the socialist-
oriented countries—against neocolonialism. As L. I. Brezh­
nev stressed in the Report of the Central Committee to the
25th Congress of the CPSU: “The importance has been
steadily growing of scientific research into the cardinal
problems of world development and international relations,
the revolutionary process, the interaction and unity of its
various streams, the relationship between the struggle for
democracy and the struggle for socialism, and the contest
of forces on the main issue of our day, the issue of war
and peace.” 1
Although African countries have made definite progress
in individual branches of their economies, for most of them
the 1970s are still a time of severe trials and tense struggle
with imperialism to assert their rights and overcome the
consequences of colonial oppression. A sober assessment of
the situation after the first decade of independent existence
has shown that the results of socio-economic development are
still very far from enabling one to say that backwardness
has been overcome. And we are not speaking here of
“catching up” but of solving the most pressing problems
and satisfying especially urgent needs.
Of course, it would be wrong to impute the whole com­
plexity of the situation and the individual failures of the
new states solely to the influence of external factors. Much
is determined by the objective laws and specific contradic­
tions of societies coming out of the colonial status, by the
complex interaction between social, political and ideological
factors and the economy. But it is also wrong to reduce
the problem, as bourgeois social science does, solely to “in­
ternal conflicts” in the development of the young states
and to place the blame for the troubles on these states
1 Documents and Resolutions. XXV Congress of the CPSU,
p. 88.
7
themselves. This approach is one of the basic devices used
by the ideologists of neocolonialism.
Most of the leaders of the developing countries come out
against this point of view. While aware of the internal
problems, they also clearly see the external impediment to
harmonious socio-economic growth. As Houari Boumedien­
ne, Chairman of the Algerian Revolutionary Council,
stressed in his speech at the opening of the Fourth Con­
ference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned
Countries, classical colonialism has lost its positions on
many fronts but is spreading its influence in another
form. The countries of the Third World are being subjected
to coercion and pressure by foreign states which hold them
in a condition of economic dependence and subordination
and nullify many undertakings aimed at development.
Neocolonialism has many faces. It includes a multitude
of political, economic, social, ideological and other ways and
means of keeping the developing countries in the orbit of
world capitalism. At the same time, it is a system that
reacts to changes in the situation; it is an evolving system.
Different forms of neocolonialism are moved to the fore at
different times, as dictated by necessity, but its socio-polit­
ical and ideological expansion is steadily intensified, as are
attempts to impose new forms of capitalist international
division of labour. Therefore, only by employing a compre­
hensive approach—as called for by the Marxist-Leninist
methodology of analysing international relations—can we
reveal the nature, depth, scope, contradictions and limits
of imperialist policy with respect to the developing coun­
tries.
The authors of the present work regard neocolonialism
as a mobile, rather than static, system of the imperialist
powers’ common class interests, intentions and concrete
actions, under which each of these powers at the same time
retains its own specific features and pursues its own im­
mediate interests and objectives. The problems of the newly
free countries’ opposition to neocolonialism are analysed in
the context of the struggle between the two world social
systems—socialist and capitalist—not as defence against
neocolonialism but from the standpoint of the further of­
fensive against imperialism. The authors proceed from the
fact that, despite the nonuniformity of the socio-political
and economic map of modern Africa and the substantially
8