No to terror! No to imperialist intervention!
Solidarity with the working class and poor people of Somalia
By Mametlwe Sebei, Executive Committee
The horrifying carnage of the bomb blast in Somalia resulted in the tragic loss of more than 300 lives, maiming and terrible injuries of hundred more and massive destruction of the already ruined infrastructure of the capital city, Mogadishu. The Workers and Socialist Party condemns this barbaric attack in the strongest possible words and holds its perpetrators with the extreme contempt they deserve.
As we mourn with the families, friends and people of Somalia for their painful losses, we should, however, never lose sight of the fact that these barbaric attacks and the terrorism of Al-Shabaab are not a natural disaster nor do they fall from a clear blue sky.
The barbarism of religious terrorism flows directly from the horrendous living conditions of the masses in the colonial world, of decaying capitalism, deepening economic crisis and the disastrous policies of imperialism in the Middle-East, North Africa and Horn of Africa in particular. This becomes all the more important to remember, particularly with the expected outpouring of ‘crocodile tears’ from imperialism, which will try to present itself as a genuine friend of Somalia. In reality they will want to exploit the legitimate outrage of the Somali people to further the very same imperialist ambitions and interests that created the present anarchy and terrorism.
WASP calls for vigilance by the people of Somalia and Africa not to allow this tragedy to be exploited for military adventures in the Horn of Africa under the false pretext of a ‘war on terror’, which, as the horrific, ‘collateral damage’ of US, NATO and Russian interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria shows, simply entails complimenting the primitive terrorism of these backward religious fanatics with terror on an industrial scale – daily massacres of civilians by the technologically advanced bombardment of imperialist armies.
The intractable problems of Somalia can only be solved by an organised, democratic mass movement of the working class armed with a clear socialist and internationalist programme that can cut across religious sectarianism, effectively combat violent terrorism and offer disgruntled young people attracted to Islamic fundamentalism a progressive revolutionary alternative to a failed bourgeois state, primitive ecclesiastic feudalism or warlordism.
On the basis of the workers and urban poor of Mogadishu and the ruthlessly exploited peasants and impoverished rural masses of Somalia it is possible to build this movement. WASP pledges its solidarity with the forces willing to build this movement here in South Africa and other countries where many Somali refugees have come to escape the violence of their homeland.
In the meantime we continue to call on the working class of the world to support, in every way they can, efforts to alleviate the conditions of the people of Somalia, welcome those that are in their countries who were forced to flee this violence and defend them against reactionary anti-immigrant sentiments and xenophobic attacks such as we have done in the marvellous interventions of the Coalition Against Xenophobia here in SA at the start of the year.
Ultimately, it is only on the basis of the united mass movement of the working class and poor people of Africa and the world that we can build a just and prosperous world free of inequality, violence and poverty – the conditions that create barbarism. For us, in WASP and the CWI, this world is a Socialist Africa and World. The tragic events in Mogadishu are not a cause only for mourning and weeping. Nor does it warrant cynicism and demoralisation. It is a cruel, painful reminder to multiply our efforts and energy to fight for this socialist world because the only other alternative is deepening barbarism under capitalism.
See our 2015 article The Garissa Masacre, Al-Shabaab and US Imperialism for more analysis and background on the legacy of imperialism in the Horn of Africa that created the conditions for the rise of Al-Shabaab.