The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.32           September 14, 1998 
 
 
Long History Of Imperialist Attempts To Divide And Rule Sudanese People  

BY NAOMI CRAINE
Sudan is one of the countries U.S. officials have declared to be a "terrorist state." That's the U.S. rulers' term for governments that don't "follow the rules," as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and most recently her boss William Clinton, frequently puts it.

The imperialist powers - first London and in the last half century Washington - have a long history of trying to keep Sudan under imperialist domination. That country, the largest in Africa geographically, borders eight other nations - from Libya and Egypt in the north to Uganda and Congo in the south. Its northern coast lies just across the Red Sea from oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Sudan's economy is marked by the legacy of colonialism and imperialist exploitation. Although there is extremely fertile land in the central and southern parts of the country that could produce enough food for all, only a small portion is cultivated. About 80 percent of the population of 30 million is engaged in agriculture, much of it subsistence farming. The main exports are cotton, gum arabic, and livestock, while most machinery, manufactured goods, and petroleum products are imported. Life expectancy is about 55 years, the infant mortality rate is 78 per 1,000 live births, and the literacy rate is just 27 percent.

Most of the inhabitants in northern Sudan are Arab; in the south most are Black. Overall, 52 percent of the Sudanese population is Black and 39 percent Arab. About 70 percent of are Muslim, 25 percent hold indigenous beliefs, and 5 percent are Christian.

During the imperialist powers' final frenzy to carve up the African continent at the end of the 19th century, an independent government took power in Sudan in 1885, the victory of a four-year uprising. It was immediately besieged by Turkish, Egyptian, Italian, and Belgian troops - backed by the British rulers - and eventually overthrown in 1899. Rebellions against British rule continued almost nonstop for the next 20 years.

London imposed private land ownership in place of the communal relations that existed, and fostered the growth of a Sudanese landlord class. The colonial rulers consciously carried out a "southern policy" in Sudan that sought to pit the majority Muslim and Arab peoples of the north against the Black Africans in the south. According to an official 1924 British government report, the southern policy was aimed at "teaching these savages the elements of common sense, good behavior, and obedience to government authority."

Struggle for national independence
Despite repression, the struggle for national independence began to grow again in the 1930s. Workers began to fight for higher wages, and in 1951 the Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation adopted a clear stance for independence from Britain. In December 1955 the Sudanese parliament declared independence; British rule formally ended Jan. 1, 1956.

Prior to independence, a rebellion by forces calling themselves Anyana began in the south, fueled by the antagonisms that had previously been fostered by the British colonialists as well as by discrimination against southern peoples by the regime in Khartoum. Social conditions, poor throughout the country, were worse in the south and remain so to this day.

Workers, students, and farmers throughout country also demanded from the newly independent government, and the series of regimes that followed it, land reform and other steps to improve their lives. In 1969, Col. Gaafar al-Nimeiry took power in a coup by radical nationalist forces politically inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt.

Nasser was the former Egyptian president whose regime carried out extensive nationalizations in the 1950s. These included the 1956 expropriation of the Suez Canal, which sparked a British, French, and Israeli invasion of Egypt and massive popular mobilizations throughout the Arab world.

Washington and Tel Aviv, which had been giving some backing to the Anyana rebels, stepped up that aid to put pressure on the new government.

As Nimeiry moved in by the early 1970s to clamp down on the trade unions and working-class parties, his regime won the confidence of Washington and signed a truce with Anyana in 1972.

Nimeiry threw Sudan further open to exploitation by corporations from the imperialist centers and agreed to large loans from the International Monetary Fund and other imperialist banks that did very little to develop industry and infrastructure. By the early 1980s, Sudan's foreign debt was $9 billion, with interest alone totaling $1 billion a year. Annual inflation hit about 50 percent, while wages remained stagnant.

Nimeiry responded to the growing discontent among workers and peasants with stepped up repression, including imposing his own extreme version of sharia (Islamic law), providing for amputations and hanging as the penalty for a variety of "crimes." This move was widely opposed, including by the main organized Muslim currents, and was particularly resented among the non-Muslim peoples in the south. Movements in the south for autonomy or for independence started up again in 1983. The main force that emerged there was the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which at that time rejected the call for a separate southern state and instead sought to unite opposition forces throughout the country.

Emergence of civil war
Nimeiry's attempt in March 1985 to raise food prices as demanded by the IMF and World Bank sparked a wave of protests that culminated with his ouster in a military coup later that year. Sadiq al-Mahdi was elected prime minister the next year on pledges that he would repeal the sharia, but he merely suspended the code. The civil war continued. Combined with a drought that hit much of Africa, the internal conflict led to famine conditions, particularly in the south. In 1989, a group of military officers led by Brig. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed al- Bashir took power, abolishing the constitution and banning political activity.

The new regime, which carried out similar policies to those of the Mahdi government, earned the wrath of Washington for its stance in relation to other political forces in the region. During Washington's 1990-91 assault on the people of Iraq, the Sudanese government sided with Baghdad. Sudan was one of many countries in the region where thousands of working people took to the streets to denounce the U.S.-organized slaughter. Bashir also pursued closer ties with the Libyan government, including floating the idea of merging the two countries. And the Sudanese government has backed the Palestinian people in United Nations votes to condemn the Israeli regime.

Citing such deeds, the White House has branded Sudan a "terrorist state" for the last five years. Among the charges Washington has used to justify the label are that Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas have supposedly been allowed to train on Sudanese soil.

Meanwhile, the economic squeeze by U.S. and other imperialist banks grinds on. Sudan's foreign debt in 1996 was $20 billion, nearly equal to the country's Gross Domestic Product, and the IMF has continued to demand austerity to ensure payments on this debt.  
 
 
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