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Algeria denies French military aircraft passage to Niger (www.newarab.com)

submitted 1 year ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/worldnews@lemmygrad.ml

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[–] spectre@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Comrade_Vig@lemmygrad.ml 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Also:

Niger's coup leader has promised to return the West African nation to civilian rule within three years.

Revolutionary action, in this case a coup, is important to drive out colonial/imperialist grip over the country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66562765

Note: I assume you mean Nigerien (Niger) not Nigerian (Nigeria)

[–] spectre@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 1 points 1 year ago

I mean, didn't they say that "Sankara showed that the only path forward for Burkina Faso is socialism"? Or am I misremembering?

[–] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

Note: I assume you mean Nigerien (Niger) not Nigerian (Nigeria)

thank you for teachin me that o7

[–] GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.ee 11 points 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 9 points 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.

[–] WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

cut off exports of uranium to France

Wasn't that just a rumor (would rock if true though)

[–] spectre@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

Idk, if it's not true than that would change my thoughts on the current situation