A response to an article in Schnews 793 and informative information about the present situation in Uganda
I was pleased that a story from Uganda appeared in Schnews 793 but it will be helpful for a wider audience to be aware of issues current in Uganda and links with events in other countries. However, I would welcome people to find out a lot more about the politics, society and social hierarchies of this country. Certainly, the story is endemic across Africa of multinational (and Chinese state-capitalist) companies seizing land and evicting people. The Ugandan High Court had put a temporary ban on these evictions during 2009 but this had been ignored by the company involved. The Oxfam Report, and the article highlighting the report in 'The East African' weekly newspaper, emphasised the reasons for these evictions, such as the demand for biofuels and the activities of hedgefunds doing their global gambling with land this time, instead of houses and so-called underperforming companies.
There are several other contexts in which this story can be understood. Firstly, despite justifiable criticisms of colonial landgrabs, the acquisition of land by the colonial power was never on the scale that happened in Kenya. Instead, a quite common story, local monarchies and elites collaborated with the imperial powers in order to protect and expand upon their own status and wealth. The status of the Buganda Kingdom has been an ongoing story in the history of post-colonial Uganda. Yet it may be more useful to reflect upon where Uganda is now.
President Museveni and his ruling party have been in power for 25 years. His rhetoric of a quarter of a century ago may have sounded egalitarian in its talk of redistribution of wealth, but Museveni quickly adopted neoliberal economic reforms that may have generated economic growth and provided advances for a few but at the cost of corruption and greater inequality. These reforms have reinforced the widely accepted social hierachies within Ugandan society, which existed before the colonial period.
The farcical election in February this year passed with Museveni and his ruling party winning by plundering the treasury for bribes handed out to villagers and constitutional procedures that granted State House millions of dollars. Yet not much happened. It was only with the walk to work protests over the rising cost of living that the violence of the State was inflicted on the people with dozens killed and injured as both the army and the police tried to prove that the 'Big Man' also owed them favours for his continued hold on power.
In recent months the issue of selling off land in the Mabira forest has also highlighted some of the issues mentioned in the article. In 2007, a similar plan provoked widespread riots and targetting of the Indian community for its apparent involvement. In fact the involvement was specifically that of a few Indian capitalists. There has been widespread vocal opposition to the plan, from many of Uganda's diverse communities. This time people have focussed on what are the real courses - corporate greed and the desperation of State House to seek new sources of revenue. The rate of inflation in Uganda is 28% with sugar a staple commodity (the plan is that the cleared forest land will be used to grow sugarcane). However, several government ministers who export sugar have refused to follow a ban on exports proposed to stabilise the price within Uganda.
So what of the bigger picture? The events that have happened north of the Sahara have potential to take place within Uganda in the next couple of years. The urban elite continue to party, developing for a consumer society the hierarchies and prejudices that existed already. The emerging urban middle classes focus on their individual needs and that of their families, too scared to get involved in political discourse. The urban working classes struggle to make ends meet and many accept Museveni's patriotism as their first loyalty. The political opposition is just that and seeks a liberal democracy without challenging the underlying economic inequalities in Ugandan society. Political ideas such as socialism or anarchism are mostly unknown (even Nyere's experiments, though state contolled, with African socialism in neighbouring Tanzania) or taught to be anathema by the evangelical churches that have such a hold on those people who would benfit most from engaging with such ideologies. The majority of the rural population continue to live in poverty.
Museveni has aspirations for Uganda to become a middle income economy by 2016, when he will finish his fourth term in office (and, in his ever distanced from reality world, hand over power to his son, a senior officer in the armed forces). In reality this will not happen. The raised aspirations of millions of Ugandans who have benefitted from improvements in education, and the thousands who benefit every year from gaining a degree, will find that these benefits mean nothing because their standard of living is getting worse. The economy is on borrowed time and will crash in several years. Obviously multinational corporations and capitalist parasites will move in to seize whatever they can and, since the State and the ruling classes have no qualms, will use whatever force is necessary to protect their profits.
This is where Uganda is now. With no disrespect to the author of the article who highlighted some of the issues raised above, we cannot rely on Presidents and Governments and States to safeguard principles. Only people can do this themselves. In the east of Uganda resistance is growing to the introduction of genetically modified organisms, despite the pressure of the Government to accept the new technology and the dominant role of the companies introducing it.
Resistance has the potential to be so fertile in Uganda, in keeping with the fertility of the soil. However, those forces that will refuse to accept change are the same as the capitalist and statist forces that exist throughout the world. The concern is that when Capital and the State commit atrocities here no-one will notice instead of connecting them with their own struggles.
In solidarity,
anarchossebo
There are several other contexts in which this story can be understood. Firstly, despite justifiable criticisms of colonial landgrabs, the acquisition of land by the colonial power was never on the scale that happened in Kenya. Instead, a quite common story, local monarchies and elites collaborated with the imperial powers in order to protect and expand upon their own status and wealth. The status of the Buganda Kingdom has been an ongoing story in the history of post-colonial Uganda. Yet it may be more useful to reflect upon where Uganda is now.
President Museveni and his ruling party have been in power for 25 years. His rhetoric of a quarter of a century ago may have sounded egalitarian in its talk of redistribution of wealth, but Museveni quickly adopted neoliberal economic reforms that may have generated economic growth and provided advances for a few but at the cost of corruption and greater inequality. These reforms have reinforced the widely accepted social hierachies within Ugandan society, which existed before the colonial period.
The farcical election in February this year passed with Museveni and his ruling party winning by plundering the treasury for bribes handed out to villagers and constitutional procedures that granted State House millions of dollars. Yet not much happened. It was only with the walk to work protests over the rising cost of living that the violence of the State was inflicted on the people with dozens killed and injured as both the army and the police tried to prove that the 'Big Man' also owed them favours for his continued hold on power.
In recent months the issue of selling off land in the Mabira forest has also highlighted some of the issues mentioned in the article. In 2007, a similar plan provoked widespread riots and targetting of the Indian community for its apparent involvement. In fact the involvement was specifically that of a few Indian capitalists. There has been widespread vocal opposition to the plan, from many of Uganda's diverse communities. This time people have focussed on what are the real courses - corporate greed and the desperation of State House to seek new sources of revenue. The rate of inflation in Uganda is 28% with sugar a staple commodity (the plan is that the cleared forest land will be used to grow sugarcane). However, several government ministers who export sugar have refused to follow a ban on exports proposed to stabilise the price within Uganda.
So what of the bigger picture? The events that have happened north of the Sahara have potential to take place within Uganda in the next couple of years. The urban elite continue to party, developing for a consumer society the hierarchies and prejudices that existed already. The emerging urban middle classes focus on their individual needs and that of their families, too scared to get involved in political discourse. The urban working classes struggle to make ends meet and many accept Museveni's patriotism as their first loyalty. The political opposition is just that and seeks a liberal democracy without challenging the underlying economic inequalities in Ugandan society. Political ideas such as socialism or anarchism are mostly unknown (even Nyere's experiments, though state contolled, with African socialism in neighbouring Tanzania) or taught to be anathema by the evangelical churches that have such a hold on those people who would benfit most from engaging with such ideologies. The majority of the rural population continue to live in poverty.
Museveni has aspirations for Uganda to become a middle income economy by 2016, when he will finish his fourth term in office (and, in his ever distanced from reality world, hand over power to his son, a senior officer in the armed forces). In reality this will not happen. The raised aspirations of millions of Ugandans who have benefitted from improvements in education, and the thousands who benefit every year from gaining a degree, will find that these benefits mean nothing because their standard of living is getting worse. The economy is on borrowed time and will crash in several years. Obviously multinational corporations and capitalist parasites will move in to seize whatever they can and, since the State and the ruling classes have no qualms, will use whatever force is necessary to protect their profits.
This is where Uganda is now. With no disrespect to the author of the article who highlighted some of the issues raised above, we cannot rely on Presidents and Governments and States to safeguard principles. Only people can do this themselves. In the east of Uganda resistance is growing to the introduction of genetically modified organisms, despite the pressure of the Government to accept the new technology and the dominant role of the companies introducing it.
Resistance has the potential to be so fertile in Uganda, in keeping with the fertility of the soil. However, those forces that will refuse to accept change are the same as the capitalist and statist forces that exist throughout the world. The concern is that when Capital and the State commit atrocities here no-one will notice instead of connecting them with their own struggles.
In solidarity,
anarchossebo
