WORLD WORLDWIDE AFRICA ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, UCADI #182: Assault on Africa (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Between blasts of trumpets and rolls of drums and pickets of honour, the
Prime Minister retraces the paths of the Duce and turns her attention to
Africa. You say you did it with a new spirit, that of the Catholic
partisan Enrico Mattei, who however distinguished himself for a
strenuous fight against the 7 sisters, to break their oil monopoly, and
of this choice he became a victim. The Prime Minister says she is
turning to Africa with a new look and equal intentions, however she has
summoned 23 African nations to the solemn hall of the Senate of the
Republic to present them with vague intervention plans, without having
discussed them in advance with them, as she did kindly note the
President of the African Union Azali Assoumani, Representatives of
numerous countries of the Arabian Gulf, the World Bank and other
international bodies also participated in the event, as well as Ursula
von der Leyen, Roberta Mezzola and Luis Michel, desperate for votes in
the imminence of the elections for the renewal of the Parliament of the
European Union.
Shifting attention to the substantial level, we note that the intention
of the prime minister, supported by her partner Eni, was to deal mainly
with finding gas and setting up crops for the production of biofuel,
taking away land useful for subsistence agriculture , which is one of
the primary needs of African populations in their fight against hunger.
Beyond the vagueness of the programs, the Mattei plan appears poor in
resources, because it has three billion euros subtracted from the
allocations for the fight against climate change, and two and a half
billion subtracted from international cooperation, spread over four
years. The only qualifying fact, for the Prime Minister, is the creation
of a control room at the Prime Minister's Office, under her direct
control which will ensure financial and political control of the
initiatives to her trusted entourage made up of 19 people.
The dirigiste nature of this operation should not be surprising. The
"Mattei Plan" does not contemplate ex novo projects, but initiatives
already underway: in fact it incorporates the agreements with Algeria to
guarantee the supply of natural gas to Italy and Europe after the
suspension of energy supplies from Russia, already defined by Draghi in
April 2022; some of the cooperation and development projects to be
implemented in Africa with the support of Eni, already foreseen in the
company's industrial plans, before the definition of the "Mattei Plan",
such as the production of biofuels in Kenya; other plans envisaged
within the Migration Fund, the African Development Fund and bilateral
agreements with individual states on the continent.

A fluff plan

Yet the problem of investments in Africa is serious and constitutes a
necessary commitment, because it serves to counteract the constant
growth of investments and political and military presence, both Chinese
and Russian, on the continent. In fact, these two countries have been
investing in Africa for some time, massively and with partly different
operational characteristics.

The Chinese stand out for a policy of easy credit to African countries
and for investments in infrastructure in exchange for a period of
management entrusted to them to recover the cost of the intervention.
Thanks to these initiatives, railways, roads, ports and airports have
been built, which constitute stable, immovable structures that the
recipient States acquire now and for the future. The construction is
carried out mainly by Chinese labor and in any case represents a
structural enrichment of these countries as it provides infrastructures
that facilitate and facilitate the overall development of the territory,
but effectively enfeoffing it to Chinese politics. China also has great
interest in oil and mineral extraction and in rare earth extraction.
 From these relationships, China obtains overall penetration for its
low-tech goods in local markets, effectively covering the needs of small
trade.

Russia, on the other hand, stands out for an intervention that is mainly
based on the creation of good relations thanks to the supply of
foodstuffs, mainly wheat and cereals, supplied free of charge or at
favorable prices, which is accompanied by an interest in mining and
extractive activities. This presence is supported through the
contracting of the supply of the necessary armaments to the various
governments and by the support, when necessary, through mercenary troops
organized in companies such as Wagner, which is only the most famous and
well-known of a galaxy of mercenary organizations serving of the Kremlin.
It is no coincidence that none of the Sahel countries governed by
military and dictatorial regimes were present in Rome, making the
difficulties in approaching the problem clear.
It should be added that with the strengthening of the BRICS and even
more so with their enlargement, the actors interested in intervening in
Africa will increase, where India has long been present to a large
extent and with an increasingly important role, with its own products
and investments, Turkey which seems to have specialized in the
construction of airports, the Arab countries, oil extractors, who are
looking for good opportunities for their investments and who are
acquiring an ever-increasing capacity for economic and financial
intervention, as evidenced by their entry into the BRICS .
The fact is that Italy comes last in Africa and, even if it has managed
to make us forget, at least in part, the tragic consequences of its
colonial adventures, because the generation of those who suffered the
damage is now dead and because more recent tragedies have dotted the
history of Africa, obscuring its memory, however it suffers from the bad
reputation of others, and above all of the post-colonial French
presence, which caused enormous damage and sowed hatred and mistrust,
which today appear difficult to overcome, and which allow both to China
and Russia to be seen as privileged interlocutors in a constructive and
useful relationship for the development of the economy of these
countries; also because Russians and Chinese do not distinguish between
the political regimes that govern these states, but maintain relations
based on mutual interest. This does not mean that despite all these
defects, the Italian action to penetrate the African economy will be
strongly opposed both by France and England, as well as by the United
States, which despite being effectively absent from the continent and
not having its own policy for Africa, view the entry of any new player
into the field with suspicion.
Having noted the absence of investment capital which Italy does not
have, the program for Africa, although strategically valid, should have
been supported by prior consultation with the European Union,
highlighting the common interests in the area rather than by offering
some European politicians in search of votes a catwalk on which to
perform, which would certainly have allowed for greater availability of
investment capital.
Furthermore, a diplomatic weaving of bilateral relations with individual
countries would have been necessary, aimed at involving them in the
development and planning of interventions, thus truly inaugurating a new
methodology of truly equal relations. But despite Meloni's much-vaunted
competence and diplomatic ability, the country's structures and its
diplomacy do not have the ability to work in this direction, lacking a
strategic vision of long-term international relations.
The one suggested is a strategic vision while instead the Italian
government seems to be looking at immediate results and interprets the
initiative as a tool to ensure that immigration finds a limit by
obtaining the adoption of policies from cooperating countries in
exchange for investments restrictive and control of the migratory flow.
The evident failure of this intent is demonstrated by the fact that
those who were absent from the Roman event were precisely the countries
that hold control of the caravan routes for the transit of migrants from
Central Africa to Europe, not to mention the absence of a country like
Nigeria which, with its explosive demographic development, constitutes
the reservoir from which migratory flows emerge and feed.

The Editorial Staff

https://www.ucadi.org/2024/02/17/assalto-allafrica/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca