LETTER TO SONS OF MALCOLM ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACIST SNIPER IN MALMO, SWEDEN, FROM A BROTHER THERE

Black communities in Malmö, like everywhere else, stand up with strength, collectively and militantly for your family, friends and communities. Organise street watch teams on every street and hunt this white supremacist terrorist(s). We must not cower and continue to fight for our right to be free - Sons of Malcolm

Dear brother Sukant,

I was contacted by brother K this morning with regards to your

request for information about the situation in Malmö and our

reactions. As you already know, for over a year ago, a woman was shot

dead in her car and a man seating next to her seriously injured.

There has been over 17 similar shootings since then, targeting non

white residence of Malmö.

Please observe that the target group includes people of colour born

and raised in Sweden like my own children but also all non-white

immigrants. Skin complexion and looks seem to be his determining

factor as to who is Swede or not.

Bear in mind that the police have known the nature of the situation

for over a year but decided not to inform the general public of it

until last week, which makes me, wonder if the Malmö police actually

have the intention of protecting us. The police and the media has

until last week blamed gangs for the shootings even though, the

police have always known that it was a perpetrator driven by racist

motives targeting non whites.

Both the police and the media have been calling this perpetrator a

lunatic instead of a what he really is a racist terrorist and the

black community amongst others feel extremely abandoned and not taken

seriously.

I was on the radio yesterday and today trying ask questions to both

the police and the politicians. The police tell the media that they

take this situation to be extremely serious and that they have

invested all they have got to try and find this lunatic. However when

I go through the city of Malmö on my way to work, I do not see any

police cars, police officers or anything indicating their presence i

the city in spite of what they keep telling the media.

I don't feel safe and everyone that looks like me feels the same way.

The question is what would have happened if this was a Muslim man

shooting white Swedes with blond hair? I am sure that the police and

the media would have called him a terrorist and every single

policeman, car, helicopter and intelligence would have been sent to

Malmö.

I keep asking this question but no one seem to know the answer why

this individual/s is not considered a terrorist. I cannot help to

think that its probably because my life a Afro-Swede is not worth as

much as a white blond Swedes life is worth and whenever an immigrant

or a citizen of colour is a victim of a crime, then it is an

integration problem or a gang related problem.

Two days ago, the government sent the minister of integration to

Malmö as if these shootings have to do with the failure of immigrants

to integrate instead of seeing it as a national security problem

where a terrorist is shooting human beings, Swedish citizens and

ordinary human beings who have nothing what so ever to do with gangs

or criminal activities.

The journalist that interviewed me on the radio asked me today what I

would do if the police do not step up their activities, I responded

that if I have to move from my own home country and my children's

home country SWEDEN because I fear that we might be killed, then

Sweden will be considered a failed state and therefore is no better

than Afghanistan or Somalia are any other state when citizens flee

from their countries because the state is incapable of securing their

safety.

I really hope that the government will take its responsibility in

protecting the people of Malmö just as they would do if it were white

blond citizens in the line fire.

THE EDL CHALLENGE TO ANTI-RACISTS AND BLACK COMMUNITIES

EDL, Borne out of Empire pride and New Labour

Lizzie Cocker

Morning Star

26 Oct 2010

Over the past 13 years the relentless promotion of liberal Western

values and multiculturalism in Britain, mirrored by the absence of an

internationalist and civil rights counterweight, has handed a gift to

the far-right which today it is cashing in.

While the values and multiculturalism promoted by the previous Labour

government were always absent of any substance, the English Defence

League (EDL) is joined across the world, including with the US Tea

Party, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Swedish Sweden Democrats,

in proclaiming that not only has multiculturalism failed but it is a

threat to those values which it is now beginning to define.

Putting discussions about who controls the EDL aside, it stands out

as being the only movement in England that is galvanising young

working-class white people - and fast.

From its beginnings just last year the EDL now claims almost 40,000

members on its Facebook page and has mobilised hundreds of those in

three cities over the past two months.

Not only is this the generation a product of "failed"

multiculturalism, it is the generation of the "war on terror."

Exacerbated by domestic policies which have increased segregation in

communities along ethnic and religious lines, these young people have

rejected the insistence under 13 years of Labour government that

Britain does have its own cultural identity, one which is made up of

many cultures preserving themselves.

But that discourse been accompanied by a whitewash of why those

cultures exist in their various manifestations in Britain in the

first place and so its only success has been in protecting the

sentiment that Britain's imperialist past is glorious.

The flipside of that being that the glory depends on perpetuating a

dehumanised image of those who resisted that imperialism - those

whose cultures, we are assured, are a vital part of Britain's

multicultural identity.

As the war on terror took off, Labour's funding of Muslim pressure

groups in the name of "social cohesion" - vital for the credibility

of multicultural identity - was coupled with its dehumanisation of

Muslims at home and abroad to justify the imperialist pillage of

Middle Eastern and Afghan lands and the oppression of their resisting

peoples.

This created hypocrites out of the Establishment in the eyes of the

white working-class EDL members - the same demographic targeted for

support for the illegal wars and for army recruitment.

After all, for nine years the fear and resentment inducing debate

about an enemy and its drive to Islamify the West has been

relentless.

In reality working-class people in this country, and indeed across

the world, benefit the least from British capitalism and the

US-headed imperialism which since World War II has sustained it.

But in the face of an education system which does little to help

young people understand social problems in their communities,

working-class black, Asian and people from ethnic minorities have

cultures from across the Third World that have and are resisting

imperialism to readily identify with.

This is on top of cultural currents in Britain that have flourished

out of black and Asian resistance to police and far-right brutality.

These cultures open up a range of references for youngsters to

understand the imperialist system in which they live.

Meanwhile the lack of any effective political alternative

historically to that system in the English belly of empire has left

the system able to dictate the culture of white working-class people.

This has left them with little other than cultural references that

make them aspire to a place within that system and does nothing to

help them understand their social conditions.

So the EDL has filled the void. While the media and politicians tell

us extreme Islam is the biggest threat we face, the EDL uses its

criticisms of Islam and the Koran to provide a false understanding of

those social conditions. But just as importantly, it is also using

these criticisms to shape an identity for its members - one which

gives attention to people who have hitherto been ignored.

It is an identity defined by everything the EDL sees as a

contradiction to Islam. This positioning also enables the EDL to

undermine claims that it is a typical, homophobic, neonazi, macho

fascist outfit.

So at a rally of approximately 200 members last Sunday in the heart

of London on Kensington High Street, the pink union jack and rainbow

flag in support of gay rights flew high. And speakers made numerous

references in support of women.

Moreover, in spite of leadership claims to be against the wars in

Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelmingly EDL members support the fight of

the troops which they see as part of the fight against the spread of

Islamification.

But most significantly, that rally was specifically called near the

Israeli embassy to show solidarity with the zionist mission for a

pure Jewish state free from Islamic influence.

That solidarity was sealed with the invitation of a "distinguished

guest," activist from the far-right US Tea Party movement and

California Senate candidate Rabbi Nachum Shifren.

Before criticising "Hitlerism," EDL Luton division member Kevin

Carroll said: "Israel has a right to defend itself from any

aggressor, Islamist or otherwise. And if those two things make me a

zionist than so be it, I must be a zionist."

Arab and Asian people across the country are already paying the

greatest price for the EDL emerging as the upholder of radical white

working-class identity and are left with no choice but to physically

defend themselves.

And in Harrow, Tower Hamlets and Bradford in particular they have

successfully defended their communities from the physical threat -

albeit with virtually no organisation.

If the EDL would have been similarly embarrassed in Leicester earlier

this month it would have been a potentially fatal setback for them.

Nonetheless the conditions are ripe for working-class young people

from all backgrounds to be galvanised by any movement that

effectively engages with their plight, however shady their

intentions.

But the anger of those young people will only be focused into

changing those conditions when they are part of a movement which both

deals with the deficiencies of an education system that fails to

harbour understanding of social problems in our communities, and

equips them to deal with those problems.

SONS OF MALCOLM WISHES THE SWEDISH GANGS ALL THE BEST IN CATCHING RACIST SNIPER

Ex-gang members hunt Malmö gunman: report

Published: 25 Oct 10

Ex-members of criminal gangs in Malmö in southern Sweden have taken

up the hunt for an unknown gunman thought to be responsible for

nearly 20 shootings targeting people with immigrant backgrounds.

According to the local Sydsvenskan newspaper, the former leader of

one of the town’s largest criminal networks is among a group of “old

friends who have stuck together”and who are now actively looking

for the gunman which has left Malmö’s immigrant community gripped

with fear.

“He had better hope that we don’t find him first,” a man who referred

to himself as “Leo” told the newspaper during an interview in his

apartment in the city’s Rosengård neighbourhood.

The man believes he and his friends have better knowledge of the area

where the shootings have taken place and will likely find the gunman

before the police.

“It will be much easier for us to catch him than for the police,” he

told the newspaper.

At a Monday morning afternoon press briefing, police in Malmö

expressed urged concerned citizens to leave the investigation to the

police.

"People shouldn't take the law into their own hands," said criminal

inspector Börje Sjöholm.

"It’s totally reprehensible. You can’t have that in a society

governed by the rule of law; it’s the job of the police to uphold law

and order."

Sjöholm added that a number of false alarms had come in at the

weekend.

"We received calls about a number of shootings that didn't turn out

to be shootings," he said.

He explained that a special investigative group was launched after

police concluded that several unexplained shootings in the city may

be related.

“We’ve gone through the shootings we’ve had. When we realized it

could be the same perpetrator we decided to launch this

investigation. We’re talking about 15 shootings or so in the span of

a year,” he said.

However four additional shootings have taken place since the

investigation began which have been added to the original 15

incidents.

Altogether eight people have been injured, and one killed in the

shootings.

“We don’t want to say exactly which shootings,” he said.

Sjöholm also commented on the weapons believed to be used in the

shootings.

“We’ve confirmed that a number of weapons have been used in several

shootings,” he said, although he refused to confirm how many

shootings may be tied to the same gun.

Sjöholm also explained that police believe they are hunting a single

individual.

"The profiling group has gone through all the shootings and things

there is a strong grounds to believe it's the work of one and the

same assailant, but we can't let ourselves get locked into that," he

said.

Police nevertheless hope they have secured DNA evidence from a man

who beat and eventually fired a shot at a tailor and hairdresser in

the Augustenborg district on Saturday night.

“The tailor was headbutted, so we’ve taken swabs, taken clothing and

samples. We’ll send them over to the National Forensics Lab straight

away tomorrow morning for analysis,” Ewa-Gun Westford of the Malmö

police told the Aftonbladet newspaper on Sunday evening.

Police in Skåne county received a number of calls about suspected

shootings on Sunday night.

“Since 8pm, we’ve had eight or ten calls. We’ve gone out to all of

them, but nothing has proven to be acute,” police spokesperson Sofie

Österheim told the TT news agency.

Tensions in the city remain high as one young women learned on Sunday

night when she was stopped by two police officers at Nobeltorget

square.

“A caller warned of a woman wearing dark clothes and shorts who had a

holster on her thigh with a gun in it,” said Calle Persson of the

Skåne county police.

It turned out that the woman was on her way to a costume party.

“We pointed out to her that her clothing was in appropriate,” said

Persson.

Robert F Williams and Mabel Williams. Pioneers of militant self-defence in the Black civil-rights movement. Read of his arguments on the Sons of Malcolm blog HERE.

VIDEO: RACIST SNIPER SHOOTS 18 IN SWEDEN

Black communities and their allies in Malmo in Sweden need to organise militant, extensive, wide and comprehensive community defence and community watch to catch this racist(s).

No one will defend us, but us.

SUSPECTED WHITE SUPREMACIST SHOOTS 15 'IMMIGRANTS' IN MALMO, SWEDEN

Malmö shooter targeting immigrants: police

The Local

Police in Malmö now believe that more than a dozen unexplained shootings

which have taken place in the city this year may be connected.

"We have established a special unit here in Malmoe to investigate
between 10 and 15 similar crimes ... They are all shootings with no
apparent motive," local police spokesman Lars-Haakan Lindholm told
AFP.

While the special unit has refused to reveal exactly which cases it
is looking into, Lindholm said they had in common that the victims in
virtually every case appeared to be of immigrant origin and "we have
no explanation for why they were shot."

"It does appear that there are racist motives," he said, adding that
"we are receiving help from profilers from the national police force.
This is our number one top priority right now."

In nearly every case, the shootings have taken place just after
nightfall and have targeted people with immigrant backgrounds, Skåne
County police spokesperson J-B Cederholm told reporters during a
Wednesday morning press conference.

“The two most recent shootings look exactly alike: men of colour have
been shot from behind near a bus stop,” said Cederholm, according to
the TT news agency.

A criminal profiling unit from Sweden’s National Investigation
Department (Rikskriminalen) has been brought into the investigation
and is now working in parallel with the county police in Skåne.

The 28-year-old man who was shot near a bus stop in Malmö on Tuesday
night has had the bullet removed.

“It landed 5 centimetres from the spine,” said Cederholm.

The man was among three victims who were shot within within the
course of just a few hours Tuesday night in Malmö. Each of the
victims was seriously injured.

A 19-year-old suspect was detained later on suspicions of attempted
murder for the shooting of the two victims around 12.30am Wednesday
morning in the city’s Lindängen neighbourhood.

The shootings involving the 19-year-old are not believed to be
related to the shooting of the 28-year-old man who was waiting for a
bus.

During their press conference, police focused on the possible
connections between the shooting of the 28-year-old and other,
similar shootings in the city in recent months.

The shooting incidents have taken place throughout the city and none
of the victims had any known threats directed against them.

Each victim has no understanding of why they were suddenly and
inexplicably shot. Nor have they been able to make any observations
of what may have transpired in the moments before they were shot.

The county police now believe that the fatal shooting of a women in
her twenties in October 2009 in Västra Skrävlingevägen, near the
Rosengård neighbourhood, may be the first in a series of related
shootings.

The woman sat in her car together with a 21-year-old man who was
injured, but survived.

“One theory is that a single assailant, or several, are focused on
people with immigrant backgrounds,” said Cederholm.

Swedish criminology professor Jerzy Sarnecki expressed concern about
the ramifications of the police's new theory about the shootings.

“It’s extremely disconcerting, really nasty and it’s really urgent
that the police arrest the perpetrator as quickly as possible. These
sorts of people don’t stop until they are arrested,” he told TT.

He drew parallels between the Malmö shootings and the “lasermannen”
('Laser Man'), shootings which kept Sweden on edge in the early
1990s.

“Even then there was a heated debate in society about immigrants,
similar to the one we’re having now about the Sweden Democrats. This
is naturally speculation on my part, but there are people with mental
illnesses, on the verge of a breakdown, who can be affected by such a
debate which can then unleash (an outbreak),” said Sarnecki.

The apparent randomness of the shootings and the fact that they
appear to be targeting people of immigrant origin has raised fears
that Sweden again could be facing a wave of racist shootings by a
lone gunman.

The ‘Laser Man’, John Ausonius, received his moniker because his
victims were targeted with a red dot from a rifle equipped with a
laser sight.

Ausonius targeted his first immigrant victim at the end of the summer
of 1991. Two Eritreans saw a circle of red light rest on their
compatriot’s body before he was hit.

The man survived but Laser Man terrorized Stockholm’s immigrant
population for a further eighteen months.

Between August 1991 to January 1992, Ausonius, today 57, shot 11
people -- most of them immigrants -- in and around Stockholm. He
killed one person and seriously wounded the others.

He was sentenced to life behind bars in 1994 and remains in prison.

Lindholm however stressed Wednesday that "there is nothing to
indicate yet at least that we're dealing with another Laserman,"
pointing out that it has yet to be determined whether the crimes were
committed by a single shooter.

VIDEO: TURKEY IS BIGGER THAN EUROPE/EU: NOW LOOKING TOWARDS THE GLOBAL SOUTH

WEST PLAYING DIRTY TRICKS OF DIVIDE AND RULE AT COPENHAGEN, CHINESE LEAKED PAPER REVEALS

China's fears of rich nation 'climate conspiracy'
at Copenhagen revealed

'Conspiracy to divide developing world' will make future talks harder, says leaked government report

The Guardian

Rich nations furthered their "conspiracy to divide the
developing world" at December's UN climate summit in
Copenhagen, while Canada "connived" and the EU acted "to
please the United States", according to an internal
document from a Chinese government thinktank obtained by
the Guardian.

The document, which was written in the immediate aftermath
of Copenhagen but has only now come to light, provides the
most candid insight yet into Chinese thinking on the
fraught summit.

"It was unprecedented for a conference negotiating process
to be so complicated, for the arguments to be so intense,
for the disputes to be so wide and for progress to be so
slow," notes the special report. "There was criticism and
praise from all sides, but future negotiations will be more
difficult."

The authors - all members of a government environmental
research institute - were not part of the Chinese
negotiating team, but their paper was commissioned by the
environment ministry and circulated internally to the
minister, vice-ministers and department chiefs in the days
after the conference. The ministry currently plays only a
marginal role in climate policy making but many of the
paper's observations were echoed by China's chief climate
negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, in a recent speech given at
Beijing University.

The authors were downbeat about the prospects for
international talks and China's position within them.
"China, which was in the conference spotlight, played an
active and constructive role, but was also under huge
international pressure. It is predictable that our country
will face a tougher challenge in future climate talks," it
says.

Analysing international reaction to Copenhagen, the paper
lists a selection of responses from the UN
secretary-general, the Chinese foreign minister, the
European commissioner, prominent NGOs and major media
organisations, including the Guardian. It was written
before the publication of the most strident criticisms of
China's tactics by Mark Lynas, climate change adviser to
the Maldives, and the UK climate and energy secretary, Ed
Miliband.

Contrary to those views, the paper argues that the primary
goal of China's negotiators was not to spoil the summit,
but to resist a deal from rich nations that would put an
unacceptable burden on China and other developing
countries.

In their evaluation of the outcome, the officials' top
point is that "the overall interests of developing
countries have been defended" by resisting a rich nation
"conspiracy" to abandon the Kyoto protocol, and with it the
legal distinction between rich nations that must cut carbon
emissions and developing nations for whom action is not
compulsory.

The internal report acknowledges that unity among China's
traditional allies in the developing world became harder to
maintain in Copenhagen. "A conspiracy by developed nations
to divide the camp of developing nations [was] a success,"
it said, citing the Small Island States' demand that the
Basic group of nations - Brazil, South Africa, India, China
- impose mandatory emission reductions.

The paper is scathing about the US-led "umbrella group",
which it says adopted a position of inaction. Canada, it
says, "was devoted to conniving" to convince the world that
its pledge of a 3% emissions reduction between 1990 and
2020 is significant, while having no intention of meeting
its Kyoto protocol target of 6%.

There are no comforting words for the European Union, which
used to pride itself on playing a leadership role in
climate talks. "Copenhagen was a setback for the EU", the
authors say, in part because Europe "suggested the
abandonment of the Kyoto protocol in order to please the
US." The ministry has not responded to the Guardian's
request for a comment on the leaked paper.

The authors note that the Copenhagen accord which emerged
from the summit was not legally binding and lacked a global
target for emissions. But it says that overall the accord
was a "step forward", noting progress on a consensus to
limit global warming within 2C, progress on the funding by
rich nations of climate change adaptation measures in
poorer nations and a "last minute" compromise by developing
nations on the verification of their carbon pledges.

Lynas, who was present at many of the key negotiating
sessions, said: "It's astonishing that this document
suggests the Chinese really believes the absurd conspiracy
theory that small island states were being played like
puppets by rich countries. The truth is that the small
island states and most vulnerable countries want China and
its allies to cut their emissions because without these
cuts they will not survive. Bluntly put, China is the
world's No1 emitter, and if China does not reduce its
emissions by at least half by mid-century, then countries
like the Maldives will go under."

He added: "I think these claims of conspiracy are just a
bullying tactic, to force more progressive developing
countries back into line in case they too start demanding
more serious action by China."

Speaking last month, China's chief climate negotiator, Xie
- who also serves as vice-minister of the National
Development and Reform commission which controls China's
climate policy - also referred to the pressure from small
island nations. "The rich nations were completely trying to
make conflict among developing countries," he said.

He also described the "international fight on climate
change" as a contest for economic development space and
stressed that the way forward for China was to put more
effort into building a low-carbon economy. "Countries with
low-carbon industries will have a developmental advantage,"
said Xie. "Some people believe this is a global competition
as significant as the space race in the cold war. "

The concluding section of the leaked document proposes a
series of constructive initiatives. In what appears to be a
bid by the environment ministry to play a greater role in
carrying out climate-related policy, the report suggests
amending air pollution control laws to include greenhouse
gas emissions.

The official US version about what happened at Copenhagen
is also harsh. Todd Stern, the state department climate
change envoy, said this week that the summit "a snarling,
aggravated, chaotic event." But America attributes the
difficulties to a central divide between those countries -
led by China - insisting rich countries bear the entire
burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the
position held by the US that rapidly emerging countries
must also take action. Stern suggested the divide had not
been bridged. China, along with India, South Africa and
Brazil, had been "ambiguous" in its follow-up commitments
to the accord.

Tom Burke, the influential environmentalist and a founder
of E3G consultants, said: "There was indeed a lot of work
done to get developing nations to put pressure on China.
[But] it was not a conspiracy of any kind unfortunately as
Britain was acting entirely alone on this front. Neither
our EU allies nor the US mounted any kind of diplomatic
effort. Pretty well everyone in Copenhagen, not just the
developed countries, complained about China's blocking
tactics."

THE WEST OWES HAITI BIG-TIME

The west owes Haiti a bailout. And it would be a hand-back, not a handout

The Caribbean nation should be reimbursed for centuries of punitive treatment and brutality by the outside world

Gary Younge

guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 31 January 2010

Last week started with a conference in Montreal, called by a group of governments and international agencies calling themselves Friends of Haiti, to discuss the long and short term needs of the recently devastated Caribbean nation. Even as corpses remained under the earthquake's rubble and the government operated out of a police station, the assembled "friends" would not commit to cancelling Haiti's $1bn debt. Instead they agreed to a 10-year plan with no details, and a commitment to meet again – when the bodies have been buried along with coverage of the country – sometime in the future.

A few days later in Washington, Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, came before the house oversight committee to explain why he paid top dollar for $85bn worth of toxic assets when he bailed out the insurance company AIG. Geithner said he was faced with a "tragic choice". "The moral, fair and just choice is to protect the innocent," he said.

There is no connection between these two events. But in the public imagination maybe there should be. The world cannot yet find $1bn in debt relief for Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, a country that spent more in 2008 servicing its debt than it did on health, education and the environment combined and that has now been flattened. But, over a weekend, a single country could rustle up $85bn to keep a single company in business. It is an obscene reminder that, in the world of global capital, distressed assets are still more valued than distressed people.

The scale, urgency and determination with which western governments moved to salvage a broken system stands in stark contrast to their laggardly, inadequate and negligent approach when it comes to rescuing a broken society. I refer here not to the emergency aid operations in Haiti, which, given the logistical obstacles of operating in a crushed nation, have been impressive. Nor to the charitable donations from all over the world that prove that people are far more generous than the governments they elect. But to the resources and long-term systemic solutions that Haiti needs and the west could summon – if it so desired.

The recent earthquake was an act of nature. But the magnitude of the devastation, the consequent human toll and the inability of the country to recover unaided are the product of its political and economic marginalisation. Haiti was not so much a disaster waiting to happen as a disaster that kept happening, but that too few cared about. Haiti needs a bailout. And if it does not get one the disasters will never end.

A recent UN study on the impact of 21 natural disasters on heavily indebted poor countries concluded that rebuilding costs leave long-term financial burdens. The UN's trade and development body found that a natural disaster leads to a 24 percentage-point increase in a country's debt-to-GDP ratio.

"Shocks on such a scale can lead to a vicious cycle of economic distress, more external borrowing, burdensome debt servicing and insufficient investment to mitigate future shocks," it said.

Like a moviegoer walking into a thriller halfway through, those unfamiliar with Haitian history could be forgiven for mistaking the villains for the victims and benefactors for malefactors. For it was not simply a mixture of bad governance and even worse luck that got Haiti to this place (though they have played their part). Haiti is not a failed state; it's a state that has been failed since its birth, and precisely because of the nature of its birth.

Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804 through a slave rebellion – the first postcolonial, independent black-led nation in the world. For this audacity they would pay for generations. Napoleon told one of his ministers at the time: "The freedom of the negroes, if recognised in St Domingue [as Haiti was then known] and legalised by France would at all times be a rallying point for freedom-seekers of the New World." The US president Thomas Jefferson was similarly concerned that Haiti would set a bad example.

The US refused to recognise the new country for more than half a century, and would then go on to occupy it for 20 years between the wars. The French burdened it with a punitive debt the country shouldered for over a century.

Both the US and France backed the Duvaliers' brutal dictatorships and when democratic government did arrive it was hogtied by terms imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. Among other things, rigged trade agreements transformed Haiti from a self-sufficient rice producer to importing the bulk of its rice from subsidised growers in the US. When Haiti fined American rice merchants $1.4m in 2000 for allegedly evading customs duties, the US responded by freezing $30m in aid. With friends like these, Haiti does not need enemies.

So Haiti's bailout would not be an act of charity, but reimbursement and reparation. This is not a hand out but a hand back. In terms of Haiti's needs, it would be the beginning not the end. The country needs investment in its social and civic infrastructure so that it can shape its own future. It needs the kind of long-term interest from honest brokers that does not arrive for a coup or disaster and then leave when the cameras are gone.

A few months after President Betrand Aristide was ousted in a coup in 2004, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, told the UN forces: "The stakes are high. This time let us get it right." A month later I visited the town of St Marc to find the Red Cross centre had only one (broken) ambulance; the chief inspector of police had no walkie-talkies and one car; the town hall had no phones, and few tables or chairs; and its unelected deputy mayor had not been paid for four months. The stakes were high. But they did not even come close to getting it right.

The west owes Haiti. And yet still it keeps trying to extort more from the misery. The living had not yet been pulled from the debris when the vultures started circling. A day after the earthquake The Street, an investment website, published "An opportunity to heal Haiti", claiming: "Here are some companies that could potentially benefit: General Electric, Caterpillar, Deere, Fluor, Jacobs Engineering."

James Dobbins, a special envoy to Haiti under President Clinton and director of the International Security and Defence Policy Centre at the Rand Corporation, saw other possibilities. "This disaster is an opportunity to accelerate oft-delayed reforms," he argued. The reforms included "breaking up or at least reorganising the government-controlled telephone monopoly", and restructuring the ports. In other words, privatising what little is left of the country's state enterprises.

It is difficult to see what more the west could extract from a country where half the population struggle to eat once a day and people pay to have their ­children sold to families in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Tragic choices indeed.

When they believe something to be a priority, western governments can forgive bad loans, pump out money and ease restrictions on credit. They have done it to save the wealthy from themselves; now they must do it to save the poor from the wealthy.

NADINE ROSA-ROSSO's SPEECH TO BEIRUT FORUM ON RESISTANCE

[Nadine Rosa-Rosso at a meeting in London July 2009 alongside Azzam Tamimi]

Challenges in the West in building solidarity with the Resistance

Speech delivered by Nadine Rosa-Rosso at the Beirut Forum on Resistance, Jan 17^th 2010

The Zionist aggression against Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 is the extension of a colonial and imperialist war that originally started in 1947. This war was planned with full knowledge of the USA and the European Union whom assigned the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and 5 other Palestinian organizations on international list for terrorist groups.

Hence according to Dirk Marty, reporter to the European Council “to find yourself on this list comes to being condemned to the death penalty”. The aggression against Gaza was clearly intended in executing this death penalty: to liquidate the Palestinian resistance through the destruction of the Palestinian government, a democratically elected one.

What the Zionist army has achieved today with its soldiers, F16’s, bombs and tanks is what the European government tries to achieve by engaging through legal means that will in effect criminalize the resistance and those who support it. So resisting against aggression and colonization also means that what should be fought for today in Europe is the withdrawal of these Palestinian organizations from the list of terrorist organizations.

It is for this reason I called on the 1^st of February 2009 for the withdrawal of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations from the European list of terrorist organizations.

We understand and base our arguments on the premise that the question of Palestine is neither a religious question neither is it a humanitarian one. It is purely and entirely a political one. We denounce Israel as being a colonial and settler state as well as encouraging colonial policy. We understand, recognize and support as legitimate any resistance of the Palestinian people and all of its organizations of resistance. This call has received support from hundreds of public figures in Europe, the USA and Canada. Their support presents 5 arguments that justify this appeal:

1. The European Union along with the USA have always requested that peoples organize their elections under the watching and scrutinizing Western eye. Thus when the results are not satisfactory they organize an embargo, participate in the war (directly or indirectly) and support the aggressors so that it can be sure to overthrow the elected representatives.
2. The European Union needs to admit that the time for colonial settlements is over and that it needs to be stopped. The EU needs to renounce to its imperialist politics and needs to adopt post-colonial relations with the rest of the world, in respecting their sovereignty and dignity. This implies also renouncing an internationally racist policy that treats Third World societies as incompetent and helpless in choosing their own political system in a responsible way. It is now time to respect Resolution 2621 XXV (12.10.1970) of the United Nations that asserts “the inherent right of colonial peoples to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial Powers which suppress their aspiration for freedom and independence”.
3. The European Union needs to distance itself from the USA and needs to stop blindly following the military adventures of the USA in their imperial wars. To remove Hamas from this list might be a step in that way because this is a U.S. list established in 1995 after the Oslo Accords to constrain the Palestinian people in giving up its fundamental rights. Their right to resistance is highlighted in the first article of the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of the 08.06.1977 wherein “peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations”
4. To remove all Palestinian organizations from any terrorist list is recognizing the legitimacy of resistance. All of the resistances around the world were labelled terrorist. In the last century resistance to Fascism were labelled terrorists by the Nazis. Nationalist leaders such as Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for decades was accused of terrorism. It is only in July 2008, 15 years after having received the Nobel Peace Prize, and 14 years later when he became president of South Africa that the United States decided to remove Mandela’s name from their “Terror List”. And today we commemorate the death of the nationalist Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, assassinated for having claimed policies of independence. The celebrations in France and Belgium of the 50^th anniversary of independence of numerous African states might be an opportunity to denounce these murderous policies.
5. Finally it is also to be recognized our right to our resistance here in European countries, so we can put an end to criminal politics in the criminalization of activists, of anti war combatants and anti imperialists. This criminalization has particularly affected immigrants of our countries. In particular Arab and Muslim communities who are communities under attack as people who want to poison our cities with minarets and hijabs.

Reactions of this appeal have showed that despite the obstacles it is possible to build in Europe and North America a front of support for anti-colonial resistance and for anti-imperialists in the world. The first condition for this is to reinforce this front and a refusal to be intimidated by criminal measures like for example the ban to challenge the presence of British soldiers in Afghanistan. European democrats, worthy of such an appellation, cannot in any case whatsoever accept this slide towards fascist policies.

Secondly it is needed to impose here with us different point of views but also impose a physical presence of representatives of resistant groups so that we establish direct connections with peoples struggling across the world.

The world is changing but most traditional politics in particular the Left does not admit it. The time the West dictates its system is over. Economics have changed with the rise of countries like China, India, Brazil or Russia. Politically, South America is evolving and moving. As Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president proclaimed in Copenhague: “If capitalism resists, we are obliged to take up a battle against capitalism and open the way for the salvation of the human species. It’s up to us, raising the banners of Christ, Mohammed, equality, love, justice, humanity, the true and most profound humanism. If we don’t do it, the most wonderful creation of the universe, the human being, will disappear, it will disappear.”

People struggling have the possibility today to reunite their resistances to confront their governments and an imperial character that is weakening and disintegrating. If these peoples unite and overcome their differences, this century will not be the clash of civilizations rather it will be the victory of resistance against imperialism.

Translated from the French by Sons of Malcolm

Nadine Rosa-Rosso is a Brussels-based independent Marxist.
She has edited two books: "Rassembler les résistances" of
the french-language journal 'Contradictions' and "Du bon
usage de la laïcité", that argues for an open and
democratic form of secularism. She can be contacted at
nadinerr@gmail.com

SONS OF MALCOLM's SUKANT CHANDAN PANEL GUEST ON PRESS TV's FORUM WITH ANDREW GILLIGAN REVIEWING THE LAST DECADE

CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN's SPEECH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change and China

London School of Economics
Ambassador Fu Ying
12 December, 2009

Professor Corbridge, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to talk to you on such an important subject
as climate change.

It's a special honour, because the LSE is well-known for
its scholarship on climate change and its crucial
contribution to this global debate.

China is a huge country with a population of 1.3 billion.
It has diverse climatic conditions and a fragile
environment. The effect of climate change is a very real
threat which we face everyday.

According to Chinese scientists, the average temperature in
China has risen by 1.1 degrees centigrade in the last 5
decades.

It is higher than the reported global average. We are
seeing more frequent bouts of extreme weather in many parts
of the country. Last spring, for example, the most severe
drought in 50 years hit northern China affecting the
livelihood of 4 million people.

Environmental damage and climate change is a reality for
us. Out of the world's most polluted 20 cities, half are in
China.

70% of Chinese rivers are polluted to some degree. China
has become the largest carbon emitter of the world.
How have we got here? China has reached this stage when it
is making great endeavours to lift people out of poverty.
Unlike you here, we have condensed 2 centuries of
industrialization into only 30 years.

Now, the Chinese people have woken to the threat and, with
the same zeal that we have embraced industrialization, we
are embracing cleaner development.

In China, climate change is not just a topic for
discussion; It's backed up with policy and action
throughout the country. Let me share some examples with
you.

First, on the legal and policy front. China set forward a
voluntary reduction program for 2006 to 2010 period,
including 20% reduction in energy intensity per unit of
GDP.

To achieve this, we amended the Law on Energy Saving and
the Law on Renewable Energy. We've also set up a strict
evaluation system for energy efficiency. This enables the
central government to hold provincial leaders accountable
for meeting energy efficiency targets.

Last month, the evaluation result for 2008 was released on
the web for all to access. Out of 31 provinces and regions,
26 fulfilled emission reduction targets. One can't
underscore enough the importance of having such
transparency as it places great pressure on those who are
not meeting the target.

Beijing is doing better, over-fulfilling its target for
2008, with over 7%. I am sure the Olympics helped. It has
already achieved over 17% for the 20% target of 2010. At
the bottom, you can see Xinjiang. It is lagging far behind
and looks unlikely to meet the target and would need a lot
of help.

Secondly, now the industries have to take very tough
decisions to achieve clean development. Projects with high
emission can no longer go ahead and some existing high
emitters are being phased out.

It is understandably difficult to push through such reforms
and there is, inevitably, resistance. Being a developing
country, shutting down factories means job losses for many
who need them.

For example, we have achieved cutting down the average
consumption of coal per unit of power by 20%, by
demolishing the high-polluting and inefficient power
plants. But it led to the loss of 400,000 jobs.

So the third point is that we have increased and will
continue to increase the percentage of cleaner alternative
energy sources. Low-carbon and energy conservation have
become new growth sectors in China. Many British companies
are actively involved in clean development projects in
China.

In the first 9 months of this year, clean energy
contributed a third of China's newly added power capacity.
China now ranks as first in the world for solar heating and
photovoltaic generation, as well as installed hydro power
capacity. You may be surprised to know, 1 in 10 families in
China already use solar energy. That includes my family.

Many new buildings in Chinese cities are equipped with
solar energy. The fact that the Chinese people are so keen
to adopt clean energy is an excellent indicator of our
dedication to a better future.

Next, let's talk about trees and reforestation. We all know
how trees can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Chinese
people have really taken tree-planting to heart. It has
even become fashionable for young couples to plant trees to
mark their wedding. China has planted more trees than any
other country in the world, with 2.6 billion trees planted.
That is 2 trees per individual, an incredible number.

Last but not least, the only means for China to really
achieve its ambitious plan is through science and
technology. This is why China is investing heavily in
research and development. The country has become a giant
laboratory for testing all kinds of clean energy
technologies.

In the latest stimulus package worth 400 billion pound, 15%
was invested in addressing climate change. I am sure you
will agree that it is a huge amount by any standard,
especially during the financial crisis.

Thanks to all these efforts, China is well on track to
reach our targets set for 2010. That would mean a reduction
in CO2 emissions of 1.5 billion tons in five years by 2010.

This is an achievement that compares well with the efforts
of other countries.

At the UN climate change summit last September, President
Hu Jintao stated that China would take even further steps
to counter climate change. To follow up, the Chinese
government has announced its targets for 2020 based on 2005
levels.

They include:

- bringing down CO2 per unit of GDP by 40-45%,

- increasing the ratio of non-fossil energy to 15%,

- expanding forest coverage by 40 million hectares, that is
bigger than one and half times the size of United Kingdom.

We will make all these into compulsory and verifiable
targets, within the framework of our domestic development
program. I hope you will appreciate that achieving these
targets and further reducing emission will get increasingly
harder.

Let me elaborate on that point. We have already closed down
many of the old and high energy consuming factories, That
is to say, the easier part is done.

Between 1990 to 2005, the per unit GDP energy consumption
came down by 47% and between 2005 to 2010 it will again
come down by 20%. The next will be raising the energy
efficiency of the remaining plants. It's going to cost more
and involve more sacrifice to reduce further.

This is why investing in research and development is so
critical for us, as only innovation can help China to make
that leap. And this is why we are looking to developed
countries for technology transfer and capacity building.
According to the International Energy Agency, if China
fulfils its target for 2020, it will have reduced its
emissions of CO2 by 1 billion tons. That will be a great
achievement, given that we are a developing country and we
have equally pressing survival priorities.

If you would allow me, I'd like to expand on this point;
China may soon become the 2nd largest economy in the world.

Yet it remains a developing country. This is something that
many people often forget. China's per capita GDP has just
passed 3,000 US dollars. UK and US are 13 to 15 times that
of China. China is behind Jamaica and Namibia.

Now, let me ask you all a question: In which year in
history do you think Britain was at the same income level
China now is at? According to British economist Angus
Maddison, the answer is the year 1913.

In per capita GDP terms, China only ranks at 104th place in
the world. It might be a surprise to some of you that China
has 135 million people living under one dollar a day.

Sometimes even the most basic things that we take for
granted, like water, are beyond the reach of some Chinese
people.

Take for example, in China's northwest, water is so scarce
that farmers in a village in Gansu province only take three
baths in their entire life, at birth, at marriage and at
death.

When discussing climate change, we tend to talk mostly
about facts and figures, but we should not forget that,
there is also the human dimension. Imagine when electricity
reaches this Gansu village, which is what China has been
doing, bringing electricity to every village, not only are
the farmers able to drill deeper for water, but also their
children would be able to watch TV for the first time and
see the wonderful outside world. They of course will dream
about a better life and all the things that come with it.
Who are we to tell them, that they have no right to have
what we have? Who are we to tell them that they can't live
like the people in Shanghai or London they see on TV? Why
can't they have ipods, laptops and refrigerators, or even
cars?

This is the human dimension, and this is the challenge.
China's difficult mission is to enable all of its 1.3
billion people to have the opportunity to realize their
dreams, but to achieve it in an environmentally responsible
way.

Now let's come back to the point about China being the
world's biggest CO2 emitter. If you look at the figures in
per capita terms, an average Chinese person's emission is
4.6 tons. An average American emits 20 tons and Britain 8.7
tons. You can hardly call China energy greedy, can you?

Yet, according to an FT survey, 63% of Americans believe
that China is not doing enough and that it should undertake
more emission reduction. It feels like a person taking 4
pieces of bread asking the person who got the first piece
of bread to go on diet.

Between 1750 and 2005, developed countries accounted for
80% of the world's CO2 emissions. Even today, with only 20%
of the world's population, developed countries pump more
than 55% of the total emissions into the atmosphere. So
when it comes to emissions, developed and developing
countries can't be compared like for like, not to be
painted in the same brush. This is why we attach so much
importance to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, which set out the principle of common but
differentiated responsibilities.

This is ultimately about fairness and equal right to
development.

The Copenhagen conference will commence in 5 days' time. It
will be a major milestone in the global effort to tackle
climate change and the people of the world have high hopes
on its outcome. For Copenhagen to be successful, China
believes several things need to happen.

First, developed countries should undertake to achieve
substantial emission reduction targets for the second
commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. Countries that
have not signed up to the Kyoto Protocol should formulate
similar reduction targets.

Second, effective mechanisms should be set up to ensure
that developed countries provide financial and
technological support to developing countries.

Third, developing country should also adopt mitigation
measures according to their national conditions, within the
framework of sustainable development and with financial and
technological support from the developed countries.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the conference.

China is willing to play a constructive role in bringing
the negotiations to a successful conclusion. We look
forward to close cooperation with the UK and the rest of
the world in this process.

All in all, climate change is a global challenge, which can
only be resolved through global cooperation. As a mother, I
do hope my daughter and the future generations will breathe
clean air and live in a good environment. So countries
should work together as partners to make sure that our
children inherit a better world.

Thank you.

SUKANT CHANDAN, OF SONS OF MALCOLM ON PRESS TV WITH THE 'EDL' AND BNP

SONS OF MALCOLM's SUKANT CHANDAN ON PRESS TV ON THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT

WORKERS THREATS TO BLOW UP FACTORY IF NOT PAID BECOMING A FASHION IN FRANCE

New Threat By French Staff To Bomb Factory

Sky News Friday, July 17

Construction firm JLG which makes platforms for cranes,
wanted to lay off 43 workers.

Staff responded by placing four cranes worth £216,000 in a
car park, and surrounding them with gas canisters and
kindling.

The firm caved into the demands and agreed to give each
worker £26,000 euros in compensation.

"It's a shame that we reached this point. If management had
wanted, we could have avoided this tough conflict," said
union representative Christian Amadio.

It is the third time French workers have threatened to
stage bomb attacks against their employers.

Earlier this week staff at Nortel obtained an agreement in
principle to resolve a dispute over severance pay by
stacking gas canisters in the company' factory in
Chateaufort.

They were asking for £90,000 each in addition to their
standard pay-offs.

And sacked car workers are threatening to blow up the New
Fabris' plant in Chatellerault unless they get improved
redundancy pay.

The 336 employees have been occupying the car plant, which
makes Renault and Peugeot parts, since it went bust a month
ago.

The threats mark a new escalation in tactics used by
disgruntled French workers after a spate of "bossnappings"
earlier in the year in which managers were detained on
company premises.

Despite talking tough, the government has been unwilling to
send in police to help resolve the disputes.

OBAMA, CHINA AND AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT AND INDEPENDENCE

China doubles down in Africa

By Peter Lee
Asia Times Online

"Obama to Africa: Drop Dead," echoing the famous admonition
of president Gerald Ford to a cash-strapped New York City
in the 1970s, was, for all practical purposes, the message
the American president delivered to the African continent
in Ghana on Saturday. Barack Obama, mindful of the shaky
United States domestic constituency even for the bailout of
the American economy, and loath to display favoritism to
his father's home continent, decided against investing any
political capital in a call to provide significant amounts
of assistance to sub-Saharan Africa during the current
global recession.

His rather empty declaration, "We must start from the
simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans,"
provided little consolation or inspiration for the poorer
nations of Africa, which are reeling from the balance-of-
payments, aid, investment and developmental consequences
of the West's catastrophic exploration of the extremes of
sophisticated financial leverage.

Obama's speech was also a remarkably cynical piece of
diplomatic triage, given what is widely recognized to be
the genuine state of economic affairs on the African
continent.

However, China appears to have made a strategic decision to
funnel in more aid and investment, as the West struggles
with the consequences of the global recession and fights a
losing battle to focus on Africa's needs for aid, trade and
investment.

For Africa, it couldn't come at a better time.

Even before the current crisis, with optimistic pre-crash
assumptions about exports, inward remittances, financial
reform and reduced capital flight, the United Nations
estimated that sub-Saharan Africa would need tens of
billions of dollars per annum in external funding if it
were to make any headway in its struggle to alleviate
widespread poverty.

Post-crisis, the African Development Bank projects that the
continent's exports will drop a staggering 40% by 2010
compared to pre-crisis projections. This shortfall, a loss
of a quarter trillion dollars in revenues, will throw the
aggregate current account into deficit, create a dire food
and fuel import crisis for cash-strapped countries and put
paid to the idea of servicing any normal external debt for
infrastructure construction.

Therefore, much of the perhaps US$50 billion in
infrastructure investment needed per annum to sustain
Africa's economic growth will have to come from outside in
the form of investment or aid.

However, the message in the alphabet soup of international
finance is not encouraging: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
and Official Development Aid (ODA), at least from the
Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for
Economic Co-Operation and Development, will not be
forthcoming in significant amounts.

ODA to SSA (sub-Saharan Africa) peaked at $22.5 billion in
2008 and is expected to drop by 15-20% in 2009; forget
about achieving the growth targets announced at the Group
of Eight summit at Gleneagles in 2005.

FDI to SSA looks like it's DOA; it reached $30.6 billion in
2008 but is going way down and nobody knows how far; a
recent estimate pegs the decline in FDI to all emerging
markets at a colossal 60% as commercial banks pull in their
horns.

Foreign remittances to the continent - a staple of many
African economies - are expected to drop by a third from
pre-crisis levels of roughly $10 billion per annum.

If billions in desperately needed investment and aid for
Africa is going to materialize in the next two years, it
looks like it will have to come from the BRIC countries
(Brazil, Russia, India and China).

And China is ready to step up.

Since the crisis began, China has announced its intentions
to maintain its existing levels of aid to Africa, promoted
its $1 billion mini development bank, the China-Africa
Development Fund, and sent the Industrial and Commercial
Bank of China - its designated investment bank for Africa
and the 20% partner (at the tune of US$6 billion) in South
Africa's Standard Bank - on the road to look for investable
projects.

More notable, China has undertaken significant
post-recession initiatives to advance its interests on the
continent through government-to-government resources,
infrastructure and financial mega-deals.

In recent months, Beijing has taken major steps to secure
its relationships with Zimbabwe, Uganda, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Zambia, Angola and Botswana.

Its only conspicuous setback to date appears to be a train
wreck of a deal in Nigeria - a $3 billion modernization of
the Lagos-Kano railroad line that mysteriously acquired a
price tag of $8.5 billion under the presidency of Olusegun
Obasanjo and attracted the unfavorable scrutiny of the
incoming administration this year ... and that deal may
even go ahead in a truncated form.

China's willingness to finance resource and infrastructure
projects without the nagging conditions demanded by the
West is well known - and often derided as a willingness to
"deal with dictators". The German government decided to
make that point to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during
his recent state visit.

In what might be a sign of changing times, Museveni decided
not only to make his disagreement known during the visit;
he publicized his views in a press release on June 17.

In the follow-up entitled "China is not a threat to Africa
- Museveni", the Ugandan media painted an amusing picture
of the Chinese bankers doing everything short of joining
the Ugandan president on the plane to Berlin to demonstrate
their eagerness to cooperate:

[Germany's President Horst] Kohler observed that Africa had
opened its doors wide for Chinese investments because the
Beijing authorities do not put conditions in terms of
democracy or human rights.

Museveni, accompanied by the First Lady, Janet, said unlike
in colonial times, African leaders have identified their
priorities and are capable of protecting the continent's
interests.

"Therefore, no power can exploit Africa," a press release
from the State House quoted him.

Kohler's remarks come two days after the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China expressed interest in building an
oil refinery and pipeline in Uganda. Meeting Museveni at
Entebbe Airport just before his departure for Germany, the
Chinese bank's chairperson also said they were keen on
constructing hydro-power stations and transmission lines.

On July 6, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the target
of Western outrage for his inflationary, power-grabbing
ways, was gratified by China's unconditional extension of a
$950 million credit tranche, even as the United States was
seeking to embarrass and isolate his regime and channel
economic aid directly to [non-governmental organizations]
NGOs:

The Chinese package, the president said, was well meant as
it was coming to the government not NGOs, to assist in
national development and economic revival.

"That is the kind of help we would want to get, and not the
Western dictates," he said.

The president said Western countries never give the
developing world development funds that promote economic
growth and prosperity as that would put them at par with
the West and negate grounds for dominance.

"There is no funding with an investment capacity from the
West that will enable us to move from primary agriculture
to secondary stages of development. They do not want us,
the West, to be that. They do not want us to be their
equals, they enjoy being masters over us and this is what
Zimbabwe rejects," he added.

What is striking about the Chinese experience in Africa is
that it is beginning to look like engagement, and not
simply exploitation. To a significant extent, it is driven
by Beijing's need to deal both with the fallout of the
global recession, and the political and economic
consequences of its push into Africa.

With the collapse in commodity prices, many Chinese
investors who are either fly-by-night or profit-driven,
depending on your point of view - and helped power the
Chinese investment push into Africa in flush times - have
literally disappeared, as the Financial Times reported in
February 2009:

More than 40 Chinese-run copper smelters are standing idle
in the Democratic Republic of Congo after their owners fled
the country without paying taxes or compensating staff at
the end of the commodity boom…

The abrupt downturn has released resentment over the
conduct of some Chinese businesses in Africa, where hard
bargaining and a lack of warmth towards local people won
them few friends.

"Some serious companies remain with metallurgical plants. I
don't have any problem with them. But they are 10% of the
Chinese who were here. Ninety percent have gone," [Governor
of Katanga Province] Mr Katumbi said, dismissing them as
"speculators".

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously Zaire), the
Chinese government is not counting on Chinese speculators
to manage its relationship with the DRC's copper industry.

Instead it has pinned its hopes on perhaps its biggest
strategic investment on the continent: a $9 billion project
designed both to produce copper and rebuild the DRC's
war-shattered infrastructure.

The International Monetary Fund, egged on by the United
States, is demanding a renegotiation of the project on the
grounds (which the Chinese deny) that the financing
increases the DRC's sovereign debt.

Fortunately for China, the DRC - which currently has only
enough foreign exchange on hand for a few weeks of import
cover - is maintaining its enthusiasm for the proposed
megadeal.

However, neighboring Zambia, which shares in the immense
bounty of copper ore crossing the southern Congo, presents
a greater challenge for the traditional Chinese way of
doing things in Africa.

The wake-up call for China probably came in 2007, during
the flush years of the commodity boom, when China's
President Hu Jintao was met by protesters in Zambia's
capital of Lusaka, and the government cancelled a trip to a
China-run copper mine at

Chambeshi to spare him the embarrassment of further
protests.

For several years, anti-Chinese sentiment has been central
to Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata's electoral
platform.

A July 2008 report quoted Sata as follows:

"It is not only Zambia - it's all Cape to Cairo where the
Chinaman is," Sata says. "That's the way they look at us.
They have no regard for us. They have no regard for our
independence. They have no regard for any black person as a
human being. Those are very abnormal conditions, very
abnormal conditions. Very abnormal conditions, which a
civilized society, in this century, cannot accept."

Sata came to the United States to play the human-rights and
democracy card at Harvard, and also threatened to play the
nearly-defunct Taiwan card:

"…the Patriotic Front in Zambia finds it more prudent to
cultivate relations with Taiwan, a democracy and a more
advanced country than China, which can provide high quality
investment and more equitable trading opportunities."

Sata's provocative stance on Taiwan prompted China to make
an exception to its principle of non-interference in local
politics and state. In 2006 there was a chance of severing
relations if Sata was elected.

China is acutely aware that Sata may gain the presidency in
his fourth try, in 2011, and that his defeat in 2006
occasioned anti-Chinese looting and rioting in one of
Sata's electoral strongholds, the capital of Lusaka.

In the midst of the recession - and undoubtedly at the
prodding of President Hu, who is accustomed to very
friendly and deferential welcomes in African capitals -
China has stepped up its efforts to repair the damage and
ingratiate itself with public opinion in Zambia.

Beijing is confronting two hot-button issues for Sata's
base: domination of the domestic textile and garment trade
by Chinese traders and imports, and Chinese abuses in the
Copperbelt, where a combination of generally miserable
working conditions, violent and at times deadly
union-busting at the China-run Chambeshi mine and Sata's
demagoguery have created a toxic atmosphere of resentment
and labor unrest.

A conspicuous political albatross for the pro-Chinese
ruling party has been the closure of the Zambia-China
Mulungushi Textiles enterprise. Originally a symbol of
state-run benevolence, the Chinese interest was turned over
to the Qingdao Textile Corporation in 1997 and run along
time-tested sweatshop principles, including demanding,
abusive managers who locked the employees into the plant at
night.

The plant closed in 2006 amid intense rancor and resentment
against the Chinese management and turned into a symbol of
the Zambian government's unwillingness to protect Zambians
against Chinese exploitation.

In March 2009, Zambia's defense minister (the Ministry of
Defense holds Zambia's interest in the plant) announced
that China and Zambia were jointly studying the re-opening
of the plant and the expected creation of 2,500 presumably
desirable jobs:

"The team of experts have so far captured a comprehensive
factor of what we need to ensure the company is back into
serious business and further strengthened. For us as
government this is a significant development," said Mr
[George] Mpombo.

The defense minister pointed out that Zambia and China
would like to ensure the company is utilized to its full
capacity.

"For the last two years there have been serious hiccups in
operations and a yawning capacity of that company. That
company has the capacity to export and do miracles for the
country," said Mr Mpombo.

Furthermore, on June 25, it was announced that China
Non-Ferrous Metal Corporation would take over operation of
the Luanshya Copper Mine, which had been shuttered due to
low global copper prices.

The Zambian government was quite frank about the political
background to the transaction:

Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Maxwell Mwale
said at the official handover in Zambia's Luanshya District
on the Copperbelt province that the coming of a new
investor was an indication that the government was
committed to bringing development to the district because
the closure of the mine was turned into a political
platform.

China bid $50 million for the controlling foreign interest
in the mine, and promised $400 million in investment,
including the seemingly mandatory hospital, school and
sports facilities infrastructure outlays.

It appears that China's posture in Zambia has quickly
evolved from old-style socialist solidarity to unfettered
Wild West capitalism run by entrepreneurial Chinese
enterprises to adult supervision - strategic engagement
directed by the Chinese government.

It remains to be seen if Beijing's public relations and
financial efforts are enough to stem the Sata tide in 2011.

China also displayed its commitment to strategic engagement
in Angola, site of its most conspicuous triumph in its post
9/11 drive into Africa.

The basic objective of the $6 billion
oil-for-infrastructure deal has been met; as Angola has
joined Saudi Arabia and Iran as one of China's three
biggest suppliers of crude.

The notoriously independent and prickly Angolan government
is determined to keep channels to the West open, and
recently denied China's Sinopec petrochemical corporation
the opportunity to invest in an $8 billion new refinery at
Lobito; instead Angola decided to come up with the money
itself and give the design and build contracts to former US
vice president Dick Cheney's old outfit, KBR.

Nevertheless, since the global recession and the drop in
international oil prices has punched a hole in Angola's
balance sheet, China has stepped forward with new credits:
$1 billion from its Export-Import Bank in December 2008,
and another $1 billion from the China Development Bank in
March of this year.

Additionally, China purchased almost one million barrels of
oil from Angola for its strategic petroleum reserve, which
can be interpreted simultaneously as an opportunistic move
to take advantage of low prices, an attempt to find a
better home for its bloated forex reserves than US T-bills,
and an expansion of oil imports in tough times that Angola
would appreciate.

Nancy Corkin of South Africa's Center for Chinese Studies
at Stellenbosch University writes in the March 2009 China
Monitor that the new credit appears to illustrate Beijing's
efforts to develop policy-driven engagement with Angola
beyond the narrower self-interest that drove the original
oil-backed loans:

"The size of the loans and the eagerness of several Chinese
financial institutions to lend to Angola signify the
strategic importance with which Beijing views Luanda as
Chinese banks vie to engage with Angola to curry favor with
the Chinese State Council."

In a sign that China is interested in promoting indigenous
financial development and integration, and not just writing
checks to interested governments, on June 16 the
ICBC/Standard Bank joint venture concluded the largest
Chinese investment banking transaction to date in Africa -
an $825 million loan (plus $140 million in bridge
financing) to finance the expansion of Botswana's Marupule
power station.

Not unsurprisingly, supply and build for the project will
be handled by China National Electric Equipment
Corporation.

Jiang Jianqing, the president of ICBC - which now bills
itself as the largest bank in the world in terms of market
capitalization - flew out from Beijing for the signing
ceremony to emphasize that China was open for business to
Africa in these tough times:

"Africa is a huge market with massive potential," Jianqing
said. "Africa needs urgent foreign investment, especially
after the impact of the global crisis, so we will look at
more projects to invest [in]."

"The financing of the Morupule B Power Station is just one
of 65 projects that the ICBC is currently funding on the
African continent and is evidence of China's strong
appetite for African investment opportunities," said Jiang.

Hu Jintao's 2009 tour of Africa - which covered the
distinctly non-strategic states of Senegal, Mali, Tanzania
and Mauritius - was apparently designed to demonstrate that
China was not just in Africa for the oil, cobalt and
copper, as Peking University's Zha Daojiang told Reuters:

"The itinerary appears intended to show that we treat all
the African countries, big and small, equally," said Zha.
"There's also the implicit message that China's
relationship with Africa isn't solely defined by resource
and energy investments."

It appears that China hopes to emerge from the global
recession not only with its economic standing intact; it
intends to enhance its position and present itself in
Africa as the responsible, perhaps indispensable
stakeholder that the West has claimed to yearn for but is
perhaps not anxious to see materialize.

Peter Lee writes on East and South Asian affairs and their intersection with US foreign policy.