Sudanese CP, Contribution to the Athens Meeting 21J2002

by Dr. Fathi Mohamed El Fadl

Since the 11th of September, the war on terrorism has
provided a pretext for the rich countries led by the US, to
further their dominance over the world affairs. By
spreading fear and respect, US intend to control and manage
the global economy and seize the world resources and
markets. In tandem with the military intervention in
Afghanistan and threats of the same elsewhere, the US and
its allies, are making every effort to control
international financial institutions with the power to
intervene in the economies of the poor countries to demand
privatisation and the destruction of the public sector.

It is time we recognise that the real terrorism is poverty
which kills thousands of people every day, and the source
of their suffering and that of innocent people bombed in
their dusty villages is directly related.

The US is not innocent when it comes to killing civilians.
We should not forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki nor the
thousands upon thousands of civilians who were targeted in
their towns and villages alike the several wars unleashed
by the US against the people of the world. What happened on
September 11th was hideous, cruel and senseless crime, the
loss of thousands of lives haw neither moral nor political
justification.

Taking advantage of the anger of the American people and
human anguish arising from the tragedy and exploiting their
fears, the US administration moved quickly to plan and
execute a globalised, permanent war, to expound what
amounts to a new doctrine of US's right to use its military
might as it pleases; and to put in place in the USA a new
regime of infinite surveillance on its citizens curtailing
civil liberties as well as to demolish restrictions curbing
the power of the CIA and police institutions from covert
crimes and assassinations.

It has become clear that the real aim of the USA is neither
to topple the regime in Afghanistan not to detain Ben
Laden, but to obtain realignment of power across the globe.
In his speech to the Congress, President Bush said that
there were thousands of terrorists working in some 60
countries and the US was going to wage a global war to
eradicate them. This is not a new policy. The US has a long
history of overt and covert interventions around the globe
with explicit aims of domination and overthrowing of
governments. Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Indo-China are
distinct examples. The US has waged many wars, the war
against drugs, so-called humanitarian war in Yugoslavia,
and now the war against terrorism. In all cases, war was
unjust, bloody and brutal. For those in the receiving end,
it is a literal reality, with the force of the US military
might behind it. This has been so consistently true that we
may be forced to accept the policy of war disconnected from
objectives and consequences as an end in itself. What is
new now is the globalisation of war and as such the
globalisation of the same old policy, an attempt to draw
the geo-strategic and political maps of the world. The
collapse of the Soviet Union presented the US with the
chance of rebuilding the world according to its own
interest.

For the US war in Afghanistan has paved the way for control
over the immense and largely untapped economic resources of
the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. What this
current phase of the war against Afghanistan has brought
about, is this realignment of the resources of rich Central
Asian States with the US at the expense of Russia.

In addition to the US military bases all over the world the
war against Afghanistan has increased the military
facilities the US enjoy from the countries of the region.
Furthermore, it acquired four new military bases in
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan which
offers control of the oil in the Caspian Sea area and
extends the interests of the American oil cartels to new
resources.

At the same time, the war against Afghanistan gave new
rebirth to the star project. Now, it looks a reality that
the missile shield will be put into practise and will allow
the US to destroy any installation in the world without
deploying any troops. To achieve this, international
treaties that might obstruct these plans must be abandoned,
thus the US has decided to unilaterally ditch the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia which might have
restricted the US war project.

The �war against terrorism� or against poor Afghanistan has
demonstrated the power of global capital. The borderless
war against an invisible enemy very well the US imperialist
plans of globalisation. The objective today is not the
capture of territory or the establishment of colonies. The
Issue at stake is to control the whole world economy,
everywhere and all the time. In this respect, one must
point out that the war against Afghanistan has presented
new issues which need and necessitate serious
considerations.

It has pushed forward the issue of uni-polar world. It is
true that he collapse of the Soviet Union has provided the
US with the chance to be the only world power. But never
before has the US acted so bluntly like the supreme power.
Now the US and its capital are attempting their final push
to take control of new markets in Central Asia, after it
controlled Eastern Europe and made auxiliary markets. At
the same time, the US has paved the way for international
capital to unleash its exploitation of the third world
countries. It is through forced agreements in the World
Trade Organisation, the programs of the IMF and the WB that
the third world countries stand to further loose their
control over their economies and natural resources.

The US reply to the September 11th attacks was to confront
and destroy any attempt to challenge its power or position
as the leader of the world. The US is strengthening the
grip of the US based transnational capital on other
transnational corporations. At the same time, globalisation
is becoming more ruthless in exploiting the world economy
and in serving the interest of the G7 against the rest of
the world.

The war in Afghanistan uncovered concealed US plans to deal
with Russia and China. The US intends to control Russia and
its vast and rich natural resources, and put Russia under
its armpit. Thus getting rid of a nuclear power and a
staunch challenger.

The war in Afghanistan put the US a step closer to China.
It is believed, as the British leading Marxist Istvan
Meszaros wrote, that they are two schools of thoughts
within the US ruling circles. One, which believes in
drawing China under the US influence through occupation.
The second believes through economic agreements and through
the capitalist development in China the partition of China
can be achieved. This is because China represents a future
danger to the US economic power. It is expected that within
the coming twenty years the Chinese market will expand to
be three times that of the US.

Against this background it is imperative that the
communists, workers and socialist parties should rethink
their role in how to confront the new-old challenges. The
11th September attacks and what has followed represent a
set back to the causes we believe in the only makes it much
more difficult for our struggle. It is true, the challenges
are of international character and need to be confronted as
such. But it is also true to be an internationalist one
must be a genuine nationalist. The point of departure will
always be how we relate to our national situation. We shall
succeed only when we gain the support and confidence of our
masses. Revolutionary theory is not a monopoly of anyone.
My monopoly is how to apply it in my own conditions in my
own country. We must be modest, open and democratic . We
must interact with other forces in the anti-globalisation
movement.

The US and its allies thought that after the collapse if
the Soviet Union they can do with the world according to
their wishes. Thus, the introduced their brutal
globalisation. But they soon discovered that despite the
temporary defeat, the masses can still fill the streets.
They were proved wrong through the mass actions against
globalisation in the heart of G7 countries and elsewhere.
The masses protested against imperialist policy of
exploitation and the role of the international financial
institutions. The movement for the promotion of human
rights of the working people is gaining momentum in the
capitalist countries. Avenues of co-operation are open on
the struggle against poverty, disease, famine and debts in
the third world. This huge movement which continued the
struggle from Seattle to Naples is called upon to draw the
lessons and stand firm not only against terrorism, but also
against the war in Afghanistan and the US plans to attack
other countries at will.

We communists must interact with these new forces. We must
learn from them and give them part of our rich experience.
We must encourage all the positive aspects of the movement,
encourage new forces to join especially the working people
and trade unions. We must find our place in this movement,
and play our role as well as shoulder our responsibility.

The situation in Sudan is characterised by the failure of
the policies of the National Islamic Front government in
all fields. It is because of this and the struggle of the
Sudanese people for the restoration of democratic rights
and liberties that the NIF government is forced to retreat
and to look for a compromise of a sort.

Many initiatives were introduced to solve the crisis facing
the country. The IGAD initiative, the Egyptian-Lybian plan
and recently a number of American and EU proposals.

The Sudanese Communist Party while recognising the fact
that the international community and this of that country
may have a particular interest in the Sudan, especially
with the discovery of oil and the existence of the Nile
water, understands and welcomes all efforts aimed at
reaching a political solution to the present crisis.
However, any plan must satisfy the inspiration of the
Sudanese people.

First, the NIF must indicate its good will by releasing all
political prisoners and detainees, abolish all repressive
laws and suspend the present constitution. These steps will
help to establish conducive atmosphere for talks that can
tackle the most serious issues facing the Sudanese people.
The points for discussion must include the end of civil
war, and reaching of a peaceful settlement, separation of
religion from the State, rule of law and new constitution,
peaceful transfer of power to transitional government, and
the right to self-determination.

While these talks can immediately start between the
National Democratic Alliance and NIF, the DNA must reserve
its right to continue struggling to achieve the daily
demands of the Sudanese people. The pressure exerted by the
masses on the NIF government is helping the talks to reach
their desired end. The struggle of the Sudanese people for
their rights will strengthen the hands of the
representatives of the NDA, and will show the whole world
that the DNA is serious to get rid the Sudan once and for
all of the vicious circle - deep socio-economic crisis that
continued to plague the Sudan since its independence.

On the other hand, we, the Communists, must continue to
strengthen the unity and activity of the DNA, and try with
other forces to propagate its programme among the Sudanese
people. At the same time, we call upon fraternal parties,
democratic forces to extend their solidarity with our
struggle.

All these efforts will help to strengthen the preparedness
and alertness of the Sudanese people, and at the same open
the way to achieve the democratic alternative and make use
of international solidarity.