2023-06-29 14:03:39
The government of the dictator João Lourenço, of the MPLA, decreed the doubling of the price of gasoline and immediately doubled the prices of transportation and food.
The reaction was immediate: large mobilizations began throughout the country and reached their peak on Saturday the 17th.
By César Neto* / June 26, 2023
Reasons for the mobilizations
The increase in fuel prices from 160 to 300 kwanzas immediately meant an increase in the dollar and in the price of food. The dollar jumped from 550 to 800 kzs. The bag of rice that was 7,000 just doubled the price; beans jumped from 18,000 to 27,000 kzs, sugar jumped from 16,000 to 26,000 kzs.
Without any salary compensation for public and private employees, without any kind of help for the zungueiras (street vendors), that is, what was wrong got worse.
In the specific case of the zungueiras, the government of João Lourenço, faced with pressure from commercial capital, also tried to control and withdraw their right to work.
…and why did gasoline increase?
Since 1956, or since colonial times, the only refinery in the country existed in Luanda, which could refine up to 60,000 barrels of oil per day. Angola is today perhaps the largest oil producer in Africa, surpassing Nigeria itself. Therefore, there is no apparent explanation for the increase in gasoline.
The refinery is old and since the government of José Eduardo it has gone through a process of lack of investment and dismantling.
The daughter of former dictator José Eduardo Santos, Isabel Santos, is accused (not without reason) of stealing millions from the state oil company Sonangol. The accusation of corruption – which is correct – also serves to discredit Sonangol itself and create the idea that private companies are better than state ones.
Many only see corruption as the problem. If the new dictator really wanted to fight corruption, he wouldn’t be favoring his friends in shady deals, as the site reports. www.africaintelligence.com. According to him: “Several businessmen with good connections in Luanda gained control of Angola’s mineral resources. Among them are the lawyer Alberto Cabongo de Ja, the Rwandan businessman Alexis Bayigamba, the general in charge of the Simportex arms company and the governor of Benguela province.
The Luanda refinery was 100% state owned. The smear campaign against Sonangol and the scrapping process opened up the possibility for private capital to begin refining the oil. Today, the investments are presented as follows: the Cabinda refinery is controlled by British capital through Gemcorpo Capital LLP, which controls 80%, 10% is owned by Sonaref (a Sonangol subsidiary) and another 10% is distributed among private shareholders.
The Lobito refinery will no longer be built by the Chinese and everything suggests that it will have a majority of US capital and perhaps a marginal participation from Zambia and Namibia.
The Soyo refinery, essentially private, without Sonangol, will surely be controlled by the Quanten Consortium, made up of four companies, three from North America (Quanten LLC, TGT INC and Aurum & Sharp LLC) and one from Angola (ATIS Nebest). .
It goes without saying that if the capital is foreign, the price should be in line with the international price of gasoline, something like 0.80 euros or 450 Kwanzas, which indicates that new increases and also new fights will come.
The weight of foreign debt
Angola’s external debt is leading the country to default, that is, to the impossibility of payment. Since there is no money to pay, there are two paths: one is the sale of state companies and on this the government has already announced its privatization plan: “The Government of Angola must move forward this year with the privatization of companies such as Unitel, the Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA), the insurance company ENSA and TV Cabo. Patricio Vilar, from the IGAP (Institute for the Management of State Assets and Participations), when talking about the privatizations already carried out, said: “the filet mignon was yet to come”. [la mejor carne aún estaba por venir]
The other path is to intensify the exploitation of workers. The approval of the new law on the Labor Procedure Code, approved at a time of many union struggles for salary increases or delays in payments, seeks to delegitimize the unions’ right to strike and, even more, grants the employer the right to challenge and therefore, outlaw eventual strikes. Only a dictatorship can prevent the free demonstration of workers. It should be noted that this law contrary to the interests of the workers was approved by a large majority, including all the votes of Unita.
Coincidentally, the Law was approved in May and immediately state workers did not receive their monthly salary.
A country broken by colonialism, where João Lourenço is the current colonial administrator
José Eduardo Santos ruled Angola for thirty-eight years. He was elected president of the MPLA one day and the next day he was given the posts of president of the People’s Republic of Angola, commander-in-chief of the Popular Armed Forces of Angola and then president of the People’s Assembly. He simultaneously held the most important positions and thus the MPLA, which was a party-army, became a party-state, to put it more simply: a dictatorship.
In 2017, João Lourenço took power. Immediately a deaf war broke out between the followers of José Eduardo and the followers of João Lourenço for control of the state apparatus and its benefits.
José Eduardo left and João Lourenço entered and nothing changed. And it would only change if an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist program were applied.
The necessary solidarity of the workers of the advanced capitalist countries
The repressive violence of the João Lourenço dictatorship caused the death of six people, including a twelve-year-old boy. Other demonstrations had numerous prisoners, wounded even with firearms. The countless videos show the savagery of the dictatorship against those who claimed their rights.
Black dictators at the service of the white and imperialist bourgeoisie massacred poor blacks. In this fight, in addition to the will and willingness to fight, it is necessary to count on international solidarity.
It is necessary to learn from the Senegalese in the diaspora
In the recent wave of demonstrations in Senegal against the Bonapartist government of Macky Sall, the Senegalese diaspora in Washington, Paris, Milan, among other cities, mobilized and temporarily closed several consulates.
Social media also played an important role in disseminating images, news, and analysis. The hashtag #FreeSenegal was one of the main channels of information. The cyber-activists in the diaspora, with their numerous followers, were able to raise awareness and broaden the attention of the global fighting vanguard on the events that were taking place in Senegal.
The Anonymous hacking group took down government websites in support of those fighting.
The hypocrisy of sectors of the Brazilian and North American black movement
In conversations with Angolan activists, who are always very nice, they are happy with our concern and support, but as the conversation takes off, it is inevitable that they will talk about hypocrisy on the part of the black movement in Brazil and the United States. According to them, these sectors talk a lot about an “edilic Africa, mother country, cradle of civilization and a supposed saving pan-Africanism”, but they are all silent before the policies of their countries and governments.
They say that “the Brazilian bourgeoisie sends Odebrecht to do business, the Universal Church to sell illusions and the Condor tear gas bombs, manufactured by Rossi in Rio Grande do Sul.” Thus, they remind us of the famous phrase of Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan leader: “When the Europeans arrived in Africa, we had our lands and they had their bibles. Today we have their bibles and they have our lands”.
And this is true. Sectors of the Brazilian black movement, because they are more and more adapted to the Brazilian capitalist State and especially to the Lula-Alckmin government, are silent before the abuses of the Brazilian bourgeoisie on Angolan lands.
In August Lula will travel to Angola. What will he say about the political prisoners?
In August, possibly, Lula will go to Angola. There are several political prisoners in subhuman conditions. A few days ago the singer Tainace Neutro was released. Imprisoned since July of last year, convicted of disrespect for authority (read dictator), he served his sentence and remained in prison. A hostage of the MPLA dictatorship.
The Brazilian black movement has to demand from Lula a clear condemnation of political persecution and the immediate release of all political prisoners.
*César Neto is a member of the International Sector of the CSP-Conlutas.
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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