The Algerian government is critical of the coup in Niger but opposes any potential military intervention by ECOWAS, calling instead for a political solution.
    • KiG V2@lemmygrad.ml
      10·
      1 year ago

      I think the result of Ukraine has made then desperate to make moves before the imperial siphons are all stripped from them. If they don’t make major moves over the next 5-10 years the collapse will be dizzingly fast IMO…they lose power to make moves every passing day…

    • jackmarxist [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Basically just do it fast and distract people with Ukraine because people will eventually get bored of Ukraine and it won’t be an effective distraction method

  • Muad'Dibber@lemmygrad.mlM
    212·
    1 year ago

    Algeria should take retaliatory action against france for all the atrocities they committed there.

  • Effort0499@lemmygrad.ml
    181·
    1 year ago

    Frankly, Algeria is way too nice to France. They really should be issuing arrest warrants for every French imperialist and demand reparations for their crimes in Algeria and elsewhere, which are still ongoing.

  • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.eeEnglish
    122·
    1 year ago

    In all earnestness, as someone who isn’t too aware of Nigerian politics - why shouldn’t the elected government be helped back into power? What reasons do we have to believe that the junta has the best interests of the Nigerian working class more than the previous regime?

    • OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml
      39·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know much about Nigerien politics (btw Nigerian refers to Nigeria), but I’ve been trying to read up since the coup. It seems the coup government enjoys a lot of popular support, as opposed to the previously “elected” government. I’ve seen people claim that the previous elections were a sham, with the winning candidate straight buying up votes with US and French funds, though I don’t have proof for this claim (but seems plausible).

      As an outsider looking it, it certainly seems to me that a government that wants to oust French economic and political influence from the country will be far better in improving Nigerien people’s lives rather than a government that is in favour of maintaining French influence in the country.

      Niger is a prime example of Parenti’s view “there are no poor countries, there are over-exploited countries”. Niger has rich deposits of Uranium, Gold, precious stones, Oil, and rare minerals.

      The reason it has become such a headline is that Niger is France’s prime supplier of Uranium, and France acquires that Uranium at 20% its regular price. France is the EU’s largest producer of electricity from nuclear powerplants. And it sells this electricity at quite a profit. France should have the cheapest electricity in the EU by far, but it actually sells it at the average EU price, which means all that difference is pure profit. It also exports a lot of this electricity, primarily to Belgium and Germany.

      Long-story short, if France loses Niger as a Uranium supplier, its economic rating WILL go down from AA to A, which, along with everything else going on, will trigger a major recession. Germany’s energy needs will also be directly impacted, especially since they are cut off from Russian gas.

      So I don’t know much about the Junta in Niger and their intentions, beyond what they’ve already announced publicly, but I do know that France has a vested interest in exploiting Niger. Therefore, any Nigerien government that France doesn’t like, is probably good for the people of Niger.

      And lastly, we should remember that what is branded as military coups by the West are sometimes socialist revolutions led by the military. Examples: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Thomas Sankara in (the neighbour of Niger) Burkina Faso.

      • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.eeEnglish
        121·
        1 year ago

        It seems the coup government enjoys a lot of popular support, as opposed to the previously “elected” government.

        I fully expect it to if they publicly frame it as a response to widespread grievances but they’ll have to quickly move to address them lest they lose that support. Junta and “protest” generally don’t mix.

        branded as military coups by the West are sometimes socialist revolutions led by the military

        True, but Sankara seized powers from other military rulers, not a civilian government. Chavez also won elections before rewriting the Constitution. The “military coups” in Venezuela were generally to ensure democratic institutions and processes were followed since the Venezuelan right wing engages in subverting Bolivaran Constituonal processes.

        • OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml
          5·
          1 year ago

          I could see similar conditions existing in Niger as in Venezuela and Burkina Faso. As I said, I don’t know much about Niger politics. They do enjoy up to 80% support from their people (according to the Grayzone), which is an extremely high approval rate. I don’t think the previous government was that democratic to begin with.

          • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Next elections weren’t supposed to be until 2025. I hope the military government moves that up.

            Semi-related, the idea that a constitution can be suspended via unilateral action in the first place fascinates me. It seems like it relies on weak and dysfunctional courts in order to work.

        • Buchenstr@lemmygrad.ml
          61·
          1 year ago

          Not to mention the “democratic” president in custody belongs to a certain arab tribe, which doesn’t even make up 0.1% of the population. This arab tribe was also used by france as foreign mercenaries to beat down any rebellions which happened. This tribe is also immensely rich and powerful. So in sort these guys claim to be democratically elected, but once again the entire democratic process favours this particular group and in return, these guys give wealth to france for them to keep being in power.

      • novibe@lemmy.mlEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        99.9% good, except Venezuela never had a socialist revolution at all. It’s not socialist now and it never was. Some slight social democrat policies doesn’t make a country socialist. Socialising national resources, building housing, giving economic support to the poor etc. that’s not socialism.

        And Hugo Chavez led a coup before becoming president, in the 90s. He came to power democratically.

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          The Venezuelan government not too long ago said its goal was to develop into a socialist country (which surprised me). Obviously that is only so many words, but that’s better than their absence.

          • novibe@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            I mean… Chavez said that on his second government. And they didn’t move an inch towards socialism since.

            They have their own version of socialism, “bolivarian socialism”, which is basically welfare state and nationalising strategic resources. And that’s it. Like they even enshrine markets and private property as necessary…

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        As I understand it the French paid the last guy a lot of money to shut down human trafficking. A lot of people in Niger make their money from that and the last guy rather than use the money to create alternative industries people could work in elected to keep the money

    • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      I’m not super well read on it, but to summarize:

      • We KNOW that the French definitely don’t have the interest of the Nigerian people at heart. (ask more if this isn’t clear).
      • We also know that the French government is neoliberal capitalist, and opposes the aims of the global socialist movement.
      • It remains to be seen how “good” or how “socialist” the future government turns out to be, but their initial actions of being hostile to French colonialism have been good for socialism so far.
      • the most demonstrable action has been to cut off exports of uranium to France, putting the government of Niger in the driver’s seat to control that. Now we wait (months, years?) to see if they use that to benefit their people.
        • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          14·
          1 year ago

          Yes, my bad, and I agree but I wish (who tf cares what I wish lol) that they would do their revolutionary action under a socialist banner which isn’t exactly how I see it at this point.

      • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        We KNOW that the French definitely don’t have the interest of the Nigerian people at heart. (ask more if this isn’t clear).

        Of course. I took that for granted that a former European colonizer wouldn’t.

        the most demonstrable action has been to cut off exports of uranium to France, putting the government of Niger in the driver’s seat to control that. Now we wait (months, years?) to see if they use that to benefit their people.

        They could easily switch to exporting to a country in a different ideological camp. International relations is always about power - no country behaves altruistically on the world stage.

        • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          Right. I think we are about in the same place then. We need to see what comes up next.

          There are certainly questions we can discuss about the democratic process, and where it may fall short, and it may be necessary to circumvent, but that’s probably a topic for another thread.

          I think that looking ahead, the country is better off paving a new future rather than restoring a government that’s gonna cozy right up to the French again and maintain the status quo. That could backfire. I guess one thought is that even if it backfires and they end up in kind of an Iran situation, the situation is overall good for the global socialist movement since it weakens at least one colonial power, and we can hope that the movement reforms the country again to something “good” at some point in the future.

          • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.eeEnglish
            10·
            1 year ago

            Any long-term solution to Niger’s issues has to come from within the people of Niger, of course.

            I expect that a status quo change is likely only on a geopolitical scale and that once the excitement of a change in government dies down the military will run into and perpetuate much the same issues.

            I only really trust China to be able to invest and trade with the Global South without being exploitative (even if they aren’t doing so out of altruism).

          • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
            7·
            1 year ago

            Could be two or more global powers in one of Niger locks down uranium exports for long enough – or even just racks up the price. Geopolitically, bringing Nigerien uranium into China’s orbit at the same time as bringing Afghan lithium into China’s orbit is going to have a ripple effect eventually. Hard to predict more than that.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOP
      311·
      1 year ago

      The government that got deposed has practically no popular support in Niger. We don’t know whether the junta will do a better job representing the people, but at least it’s not controlled by the west. That’s a necessary prerequisite for Niger to gain even a modicum of sovereignty and self determination. This is a really good breakdown of the situation if you’re interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAcc6U69E6o

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
        17·
        1 year ago

        That’s how I see it. At risk of regretting my words (the new gov could be terrible and could e.g. be backed by or fall prey to another imperialist power), at least the future (for) now holds the possiblity of a fair election. That’s not remote possibility while the French have their bloody fingers in the country.

        Still likely have a long way to go for peace and prosperity. The French (and yanks) won’t just roll over. Hopefully the day is not too far away when Nigerien workers can enjoy their national wealth and support other independent movements. Looking forward to seeing Niger become a socialist nuclear-solar power house (I’m assuming it’s quite sunny in that part of the world), working with the Chinese to connect West Africa with HSR.