African Awakenings And The Implications Of The Capitalist Crisis

The eruption of citizens onto the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and elsewhere in the Middle East has come to be referred to by many as the ‘Arab Spring’. Much less attention has been given to similar uprisings of citizens this year in Western Sahara, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria, DRC and South Africa. These are just some of the countries on the African continent where large-scale protests have taken place recently, many of which have been met with brutal repression. At the same time, empire has intensified regime change through the use of military might as in Libya, Cote d'Ivoire and Somalia, and the increasing deployment of US-AFRICOM. As the crisis of capitalism intensifies, there will be greater threat to the potential for self-deterimation of African peoples. The uprisings across the continent provide a powerful counterposition to the threat of intervention. The rise of the Occupy movement, in the North as well as in places such as Nigeria are themselves a reflection of a growing disaffection with the solutions offered by the ruling class. This panel will explore the potentials for revolutionary change in Africa as well as assess the constraints and threats to the emerging revolutions in North Africa as in the rest of the continent.