[D66] The Libya conference and the new scramble for Africa

[A.OUT]

wsws.org:

The Libya conference and the new scramble for Africa
18 January 2020

A major international conference on Libya will convene in Berlin on 
Sunday. At the invitation of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, heads 
of state and top officials of the leading imperialist powers in Europe 
and the US will come together to determine the fate of the resource-rich 
country and ultimately the entire continent. Also in attendance will be 
representatives of Russia, China and the most important regional powers, 
including Egypt, Algeria and Turkey, together with the leaders of the 
opposing factions in Libya’s civil war, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj 
and Gen. Khalifa Haftar, and representatives of the African Union.

In both its form and venue, the meeting is reminiscent of the infamous 
Congo Conference, which was also held in Berlin from November 15, 1884, 
to February 26, 1885, at the invitation of German Chancellor Bismarck. 
Its outcome was the “General Act of the Berlin Conference” adopted by 
representatives of the US, the Ottoman Empire, the European powers and 
Russia. This agreement accelerated the division of Africa into colonies 
and ultimately intensified the tensions between the imperialist powers, 
culminating in the mass slaughter of the First World War that began in 
August 1914.

Even before the Congo Conference, the scramble for Africa was already in 
full swing. France occupied Tunisia in 1881, and Guinea in 1884. In 
1882, British troops invaded Egypt, which at that time was officially 
part of the Ottoman Empire. Italy subdued parts of Eritrea in 1870 and 
1882. In April 1884, the German Reich annexed German Southwest Africa 
(today Namibia), moving into Togo and Cameroon in July of the same year.

With the Congo Conference, the colonial subjugation of Africa, 
accompanied by a previously unknown level of imperialist barbarism, 
gathered pace. Within a few years, the European powers had carved up 
virtually the entire continent. The Congo fell to Belgium, most of the 
Sahara and the Sahel to France, Berlin secured German East Africa 
(today’s Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, as well as part of Mozambique) 
and Britain conquered Sudan by finally crushing the Mahdist Revolt in 
1899. This was followed by the subjugation of South Africa by Britain in 
the Second Boer War (1899 to 1902), the division of Morocco by France 
and Spain and Italy’s conquest of Libya in 1912.

As at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the 
major powers pursued their predatory imperialist interests under the 
guise of “diplomacy” and “peace.” Today, they act even more nakedly to 
achieve the same objectives.

In a commentary on the Libya conference, the daily Tagesspiegel states 
quite bluntly, “Libya’s strategic importance is the reason why so many 
people want to get involved there—although it is generally not 
attractive to invest soldiers or mercenaries and billions in a civil war 
with an uncertain outcome. Libya has oil. Whoever controls Libya 
controls what is currently the most important migration route to 
Europe—and thus becomes an indispensable partner of the EU”.

The author, Christoph von Marschall, whose aristocratic ancestors were 
high-ranking foreign policy-makers of the German Reich, openly expresses 
the traditions to which Berlin is returning. “Germany now needs the cool 
perspective of Otto von Bismarck on realpolitik. And it calls for his 
diplomatic skills as an ‘honest broker.’” But “the role of the honest 
broker does not mean that he has to be altruistic and cannot represent 
his own interests. Germany has these: stability in Libya, reducing 
pressure on Europe through uncontrolled migration.”

Then, as now, the “honest broker” is really an imperialist brigand, who 
is seeking a “place in the sun.” While the German government did not 
participate in the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011, it has been all the 
more aggressive in its involvement in Africa since its about-face in 
foreign policy in 2013–14. Now, Germany is engaged with more than 1,000 
soldiers deployed in the French-led occupation of Mali, maintains a 
military camp in neighbouring Niger and advances its imperialist aims 
across the continent with increasing aggressiveness.

Last March, Berlin updated its “Africa Policy Guidelines,” which were 
first adopted in May 2014. This revision evokes the “growing relevance 
of Africa for Germany and Europe,” which is due, among other things, to 
the continent’s increasingly dynamic economy and “rich natural 
resources.” The government therefore called for the strengthening of 
“Germany’s political, security and development policy commitment in 
Africa in a targeted manner,” to act “early, quickly, decisively and 
substantially” and to “deploy the entire spectrum of its available 
resources cross-departmentally.”

The other imperialist powers are pursuing similar objectives and have 
also increased their military and political intervention on the 
continent in recent years. France has massively expanded its engagement 
in the Sahel zone, and the US is also escalating its intervention in 
Africa, especially to curb Russian and Chinese influence. Nine years 
after the NATO bombing of Libya—which reduced much of the country’s 
infrastructure to rubble, left thousands of civilians dead and wounded 
and led to the lynch-mob murder of Colonel Gaddafi—the country is once 
again at the centre of imperialist intrigues. But now, the stakes are 
even greater, with all of the belligerents of the previous war arrayed 
against each other, fighting for control of the booty.

Last year, France, in alliance with Russia, Egypt and the United Arab 
Emirates, supported Haftar, at least unofficially, while Italy and Qatar 
worked closely with the internationally recognized transitional 
government (GNA) of al-Sarraj. Turkey began sending soldiers to Tripoli 
on January 5 of this year to strengthen the GNA against Haftar’s 
military offensive. The decision was criticized not only by the 
general’s open allies, but also by Trump and the German government.

Berlin, in particular, is trying to use its contacts with both of the 
opposing factions in the Libyan civil war to bring the belligerents 
together and increase its own influence.

There are many indications that, behind the scenes, Berlin and the 
European Union (EU) are preparing a comprehensive military intervention. 
On Friday, EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell did not rule 
out a European Union military intervention in Libya. “It is crucial that 
we assert our interests more strongly and, if necessary, robustly,” he 
said in an interview with Der Spiegel. “If there is a ceasefire in 
Libya, then the EU must be prepared to help implement and monitor this 
ceasefire—possibly also with soldiers, for example as part of an EU 
mission.”

Borrell left no doubt that such a military operation could be quickly 
extended to large parts of North Africa and to more aggressively enforce 
European interests against Russia, China and the US. “The situation in 
the Sahel is no better—on the contrary. Last year, 1,500 soldiers were 
killed in the fight against terrorists in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger 
alone.” The entire region is “a powder keg,” he said.

But Europe has “many opportunities to exercise power. We just have to 
want it. I’m not talking about military power, at least not only. The 
New Year has hardly begun, and it almost seems as if there are only 
crises everywhere. So, we should know what our goals are. And we must be 
ready, if necessary, to defend these goals even if they run counter to 
those of our allies.”

This situation of growing conflict, paired with threatening gestures on 
the eve of the conference, confirm the analysis Lenin made in his 
classic work Imperialism: “…the only conceivable basis under capitalism 
for the division of spheres of influence, interests, colonies, etc., is 
a calculation of the strength of those participating, their general 
economic, financial, military strength, etc. And the strength of these 
participants in the division does not change to an equal degree, for the 
even development of different undertakings, trusts, branches of 
industry, or countries is impossible under capitalism.”

Alliances between imperialist powers, according to Lenin, are therefore 
“no matter what form they may assume, whether of one imperialist 
coalition against another, or of a general alliance embracing all the 
imperialist powers, are inevitably nothing more than a ‘truce’ in 
periods between wars. Peaceful alliances prepare the ground for wars, 
and in their turn grow out of wars; the one conditions the other, 
producing alternating forms of peaceful and non-peaceful struggle on one 
and the same basis of imperialist connections and relations within world 
economics and world politics.”

As with the murder of Tehran’s Gen. Qassem Suleimani, in violation of 
international law, and US war preparations against Iran, workers and 
young people must understand that the Libya conference constitutes a 
warning. The profound crisis of the capitalist system is driving the 
great powers ever deeper into the abyss of imperialist war and 
barbarism. The preparation of new neocolonial wars of aggression in 
Africa and the Middle East, which pose the danger of a Third World War, 
can only be prevented through the mobilization of the international 
working class on the basis of a socialist and revolutionary program.

Johannes Stern