Defying threats by Mali’s dictatorial military government, hundreds of people took to the streets of Bamako, capital of this west African nation, May 3 to protest the announcement by the regime that junta ruler Assimi Goita would be named as president through 2030, and at the same time all political parties and activity were now dissolved.
General Goita seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, promising elections would be held soon. But the junta has repeatedly postponed them over the past four years.
Protesters rallied and chanted against the dictatorship outside the Palais de Culture, despite supporters of the military regime gathering there hours earlier in a futile attempt to prevent the protest. This “attempt to limit, suspend or dissolve political parties,” rally organizers said in a statement, “is a direct attack on the constitution and the sovereignty of the Malian people.”
On May 7 the junta announced that all political activity was suspended until further notice, allegedly to “preserve public order.” The decree banned larger protests set for May 9 at the Independence Monument in Bamako and in the city of Segou. Organizers postponed the actions, but said a new date would be announced soon.
A couple of weeks earlier, authorities arrested Mamadou Traoré, leader of the Alternative for Mali party and a vocal critic of the military regime. He is charged with “spreading knowingly false news likely to disturb public order.” The charge stems from an April 22 interview posted online where Traoré accused members of the junta-appointed National Transition Council of enriching themselves at public expense. His trial is set for June 12.
After the coups in Mali, military commanders seized power in the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso in January 2022 and a year and a half later in Niger. These countries are all in Africa’s Saharan and Sahel regions, with desert and arid conditions that make life harsh for working people. They also have an abundance of natural resources, including oil, uranium, natural gas and lithium, that the French, the former colonial masters there, and U.S. imperialist rulers seek to exploit. Moscow and Beijing also have moved to expand their influence and access to the valuable resources there.
The military governments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso all face Jihadi attacks that have disrupted the economy and created a disaster for the toilers. They ordered French forces to get out and announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States, a regional trading bloc influenced by Washington, and looked to Moscow for help. Moscow sent in troops from the former Wagner forces. These three military dictatorships formed the Alliance of Sahel States, claiming they were a new anti-imperialist alliance, hailed by Moscow, Beijing and the left.
Among poorest countries in world
Landlocked Mali, with a population of some 23 million, is one of the poorest countries in the world, a product of the harsh desert conditions and decades of imperialist exploitation. Out of 1,000 newborn children, 97 will be dead before they reach the age of 5. Some 47% of the population are below the age of 15. The majority of the working population works on the land, but the arid conditions and soil erosion makes surviving rough.
For over a decade Mali has been wracked by attacks by reactionary Islamist groups, who wreak havoc on the population.
The French proved incapable of halting the slaughter. The Islamists took over vast swathes of land in Mali, and in Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands of civilians and forcing millions to flee their homes.
After taking power, the military junta in Mali ousted the French troops and replaced them with 1,500 Wagner soldiers for hire from Russia. Russian forces have also been deployed in Burkina Faso and Niger.
The Wagner troops, with no connection with the population of Mali, have had no more success against the Islamists. Caught in the crossfire, peasants and workers have faced mounting deaths, injuries and dislocations. Over the past year at least 400,000 people have been uprooted from their homes.
Toilers need to take power
At first the expulsion of the French won support for the military, which claimed it was bringing decades of imperialist rule by Paris to an end. Today there is widespread opposition to the junta, which has used its rule to enrich itself while shutting down the space for working people to engage in political activity. This is what led to the demonstrations.
The only road forward is for the toilers to develop a leadership that can lead them to take political power into their own hands and take control of their own destiny.
There is a powerful precedent for this in the region — the popular, democratic revolution that brought Thomas Sankara to power in Burkina Faso 1983-1987.
In his “Political Orientation Speech” broadcast to the nation in October 1983, Sankara said that the revolution there “draws its popular character from the full participation of the Voltaic masses in the revolution, and their consistent mobilization around democratic and revolutionary slogans that concretely express their own interests in opposition to those of the reactionary classes allied with imperialism. The popular character of the August revolution also lies in the fact that, in place of the old state machinery, new machinery is being built, capable of guaranteeing the democratic exercise of power by the people and for the people.”