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On Sunday, Feb. 24th, 8PM Central time, UNAC (United Nat'l Antiwar
Coalition) will have an educational conference call on Mali and --
speakers to include Glen Ford, Ana Edwards, and <span><font
style="font-size:10pt">Abayomi Azikiwe. Call in if
interested. Phone number etc. below.<br>
<br>
</font></span>(via Chris Gavreau of the UFPJ-Activist mailing
list...)<br>
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<div><b>From:</b> UNAC <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:unacpeace@gmail.com">unacpeace@gmail.com</a>><br>
<b>Date:</b> February 15, 2013, 1:54:01 PM EST<br>
<b>To:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:unac@lists.riseup.net">unac@lists.riseup.net</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> <b>[unac] Mali/Africa educational conference
call & fact sheet.</b><br>
<b>Reply-To:</b> UNAC <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:unacpeace@gmail.com">unacpeace@gmail.com</a>><br>
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<p align="center"><img
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span><font
style="font-size:8pt"> </font></span><small><span>
(please forward widely)</span><span>
</span></small></p>
<p><big><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>Join
UNAC for an educational
conference call on the situation
in Mali and Africa. There will
be short presentation by three
UNAC leaders followed by
questions and discussion. The
conference call will be at 9 PM
(EST) on Sunday, February 24.
Speakers will include, Glen
ford, Ana Edwards and Abayomi
Azikiwe. To access the call,
please dial <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="tel:%28218%29339-3600"
target="_blank"
value="+12183393600">(218)339-3600</a>.
The access code is 342310#. </strong></font><br>
<br>
</big> </p>
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<td style="vertical-align:top"><img
title="glen" style="margin:
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<td style="vertical-align:middle"><font
face="Times New Roman"><big>Glen
Ford is a longtime
journalist and executive
editor of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://BlackAgendaReport.com">BlackAgendaReport.com</a>,
a weekly journal of
African-American political
thought and action</big>.
Glen is also the vice-chair of
the Black is Back Coalition,
an antiwar and social justice
coalition</font><br>
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<td style="vertical-align:middle"><font
face="Times New Roman">Ana
Edwards is the host of
DefendersLIVE a radio show in
Richmond Virginia. She is
also a founding member of the
Defenders for Freedom, Justice
& Equality and the chair
of the Sacred Ground
Historical Reclamation
Project. Ana recently
returned from a trip to Mali</font><br>
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<td style="vertical-align:top"><img
title="ana" style="margin:
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inline; min-height: 115px;
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html"
target="_blank"><img
title="abayomi"
style="margin: 0px;
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width: 107px; height:
120px; padding-top: 0px;
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display: inline;
min-height: 111px;
background-image: none;"
alt="abayomi"
src="cid:part9.04040201.09010507@gmail.com"
border="0" height="216"
width="233"></a></p>
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<td style="vertical-align:middle"><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">Abayomi
Azikiwe is the editor of the
Pan-African News Wire. He
is also a founding member of
the Michigan Emergency
Committee Against War &
Injustice (MECAWI). </font></span></td>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br>
<span></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span>The
United National Antiwar
Coalition says: </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span></span></b> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span><font
style="font-size:14pt">France
and the US out of
Africa Now!</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span><font
style="font-size:14pt">No
Resource Wars for the
Profits of the 1%!</font></span></b></p>
<b><span><font
style="font-size:14pt">Not
One More Cent for the
new Scramble for Africa!</font></span></b></td>
<td style="vertical-align:top"><img
title="mali" style="border:
0px currentColor;
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</b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:11pt">The
recent French military
intervention and the US military
and intelligence operations in
the region must be opposed by
all those who stand in favor of
self-determination for African
peoples. Contrary to the
self-serving claims of both
France and the US that they are
out to defend democracy, both
nations' military operations in
the Sahara-Sahel are in defense
of their access to Africa's
minerals, oil, gas, and arable
land at bargain basement
prices. </font></span><b><span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:211.5pt"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:11pt">The
invitation for a French military
attack by a Malian coup regime
armed by Washington is but a fig
leaf for an escalation of
already existing efforts to
protect the 1%'s plunder of
Nigerién uranium, Malian gold,
Nigerian oil, Algerian natural
gas, Western Saharan phosphates,
Cote d'Ivoire’s plantations,
and more. Africanists liken the
current situation to the period
in the late 19th and early
twentieth century when the
European countries carved up
Africa between them. In the new
"Scramble for Africa," Europe
and the United States, are
competing for petroleum,
minerals, and land to the
detriment of the economic
well-being of the African
peoples. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span></span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span><font
style="font-size:11pt">The
claim that the French
intervention, an intervention
supported by the U.S., is an
emergency humanitarian
response to help the people of
Mali is belied by the context
in which it is occurring:</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">≈<b>Colonialism
Redux and Ecological Disaster.
</b>France, who held many
colonies in Africa, really never
left after granting independence
in the 1960's. France
intervened militarily in Africa
19 times between 1962 and 1995
and more recently intervened in
Cote d' Ivorie, Chad, and the
Central African Republic in
order to defend the 1%’s
interests. <span> </span>On
January 23, news sources
reported that French special
forces were sent to protect the
French privately owned Areva
uranium mining operation in the
border country of Niger.
Uranium from Niger supplies
reactors supplying 75% of
France’s electrical needs. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">≈ <b>National
Oppression.</b> The Tuareg and
other Northern peoples were
first denied control over their
homeland when the colonial
map-makers divided their
territory between Mali, Niger,
Chad, Algeria, and other
countries that border the
Sahara. Tuareg rebellions, like
the one that prompted this
French intervention, have
challenged France’s right to
extract uranium in a manner that
poisons the local populations
and decimates their livelihood.
At the same time, the Tuareg
claims are disputed by other
Northern peoples, such as the
Songhai, and by Southern groups
that feel Mali proper would be
weakened by Tuareg independence.
Colonialism’s legacy of divide
and conquer cannot be solved
with the colonizer’s guns.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">≈<b>Austerity
Mandated by the 1%.</b> The
last two decades of IMF and
World Bank-imposed economic
restructuring in Mali made gold
mining so profitable that Mali
is now the number three gold
producer on the African
continent.<span> </span>At the
same time, this development has
left the majority of Malians
living on less than US$1 a day
and the peoples of that nation
some of the poorest on the
planet.<span> </span>US
military aid to Mali reinforces
this state of affairs.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span>≈<b>Competition
for</b> <b>Oil and Natural Gas.</b>
Nigerian oil, a high quality sweet
crude, is a crucial part of the
U.S. energy plan and is cited as
part of the reason that the U.S.
has created</span><span> the
Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism
Initiative (TSCTI). A 2009
agreement for a $10 billion
natural gas pipeline from Algeria
to a Nigerian port further
demonstrates the hydrocarbon basis
of the TSCTI and related US
military plans for the region. The
2010 budget request for Trans-
Saharan Counter Terrorism <span>Partnership<i>
</i></span>(TSCTP) was $80.3
million. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span></span> </p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><b><span>≈â€War
on Terror†Funding Used
Against the 99%.</span></b><span>
</span><span>Washington recently
asked France and Algeria to be
sure to include US favored partner
Morocco in the unfolding so-called
“War on Terror “in the
Sahara-Sahel.<span> </span>Morocco
has been using the US’s “War
on Terror†rhetoric to justify
its occupation of Western Sahara
and contain the national
aspirations of the Sahrawi people
organized in the Polisario Front.
Africanist </span><span><font
face="Trebuchet MS">Franklin
Charles Graham IV, in an article
in the <i>Review of African
Political Economy,</i> says
that it is fair to say that most
US aid for counter-terrorism
activities in the Sahara-Sahel
goes to suppress indigenous
rebellions against corrupt and
undemocratic regimes.</font></span><span></span></p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span></span> </p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span>≈<b>Elite
Rivalries.</b> </span><span>The
2008 authorization of AFRICOM, the
U.S. Africa Command under whose
aegis Washington is sending troops
and special forces to 35 African
nations is, according to <i>Concerned
Africa Scholar’s</i> <span> </span>Daniel
Volman, a direct response to the
growing competition from China and
other players for Africa’s
energy resources. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">≈<b>Looting
of Africa.<span> </span></b>According
to the South African political
economist Patrick Bond,
development aid and investment
in Africa from the imperialist
countries since the colonies
were granted formal independence
has resulted in a growing
impoverishment of the people of
the continent, leaving more
Sub-Saharan people living on
less than a $1 a day than in the
1950’s.<span> </span>Including
the loss to the peoples of their
raw material wealth, and the
ecological damage wrought by its
extraction, raises the dollar
amount of the plunder to
unimaginable levels. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">≈War
at Home.</font></span></b><span><font
style="font-size:10pt"> Each
cent spent for the extraction of
profits from Africa for the 1%
could be spent at home for the
victims of the current economic
crisis.<span> </span>Each
effort to paint the main threat
to the well-being of the African
people as terrorism will be
accompanied by new threats to
civil liberties here in the
United States.</font><span><font
style="font-size:10pt"> </font></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><font
style="font-size:10pt">Whatever
the exact reality of a new
influx of non-Malian Islamic
radicals into the
Sahara-Sahel, based on the
experience of US propaganda
and military action in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan,
Yemen, and Somalia, those who
support self-determination
must take any claim by
Washington that it is
intervening to fight an Al
Qaeda threat with a grain of
salt.<span> </span>The
evidence that resources are
the main reason for war in the
Sahara-Sahel is too strong.<span>
</span>If the recent
occupations of the Middle East
by the US have taught us
anything, it should be that no
problem will be solved by US
and European military
intervention.</font></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Join the
United National Antiwar
Coalition is its efforts to
educate about European and US
resource wars in Africa and
build a movement to end them.<span>
</span>UNAC speakers are
available for forums and
interviews. See the <span> </span>United
National Antiwar Coalition at <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.unacpeace.org"
target="_blank">www.unacpeace.org</a>
</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Some
places to look for information
on the resource wars in Africa:</span></b></p>
</div>
<b><span><br clear="all">
</span></b>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.roape.org/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Review
of African Political Economy</font></a></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://concernedafricascholars.org/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Bulletin
of the Concerned Africa
Scholars</font></a><font
style="font-size:10pt"> </font></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://journals.academia.edu/ThirdWorldQuarterly"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Third
World Quarterly</font></a></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.pambazuka.org/en/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Pambazuka
News</font></a></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Pan-African
News Wire</font></a></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blackagendareport.com/"
target="_blank"><i><span><font
style="font-size:10pt"
color="#1a1a1a">Black Agenda
Report</font></span></i></a><i><span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://newint.org/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">New
Internationalist</font></a><font
style="font-size:10pt"> </font></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Jadilyya</font></a></span></i></p>
</div>
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target="_blank"><br>
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target="_blank"><br>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span><a
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target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">click
here to donate to UNAC</font></a></span><span></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/home.php?sk=group_157059221012587&ap=1"
target="_blank"><font
style="font-size:10pt">Click
here for the Facebook UNAC group</font></a><font
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