| Blair's competition with the British people over the amount of our money the government will send to the victims of the tsunami disaster focuses attention on the politics of aid... |
Who says disaster aid is not a political issue?
WORKERS, FEB 2005 ISSUE
Working-class generosity and solidarity look very different from aid by capitalist governments. Workers regularly give up their time and money to assist victims of a natural disaster or for other workers in struggle - as in the solidarity with the Soviet people in the Second World War and with the Vietnamese people in the 1960s. Remember the generosity shown to Africa both during the famine and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Remember the support for the miners in 1984/5.
But Brown's talk of cancelling debt to Indian Ocean countries is a smokescreen for the fact that most of the Department for International Development's budget has been spent on the war in Iraq. The cost of debt forgiveness will not be felt by the British government for at least a year if not more. Many debt cancellations will be conditional on IMF "structural adjustment" - privatisation. Meanwhile, US and UK governments urge all involved in conflict in the region to stop it and be friends - aid is above politics.
It's worth looking a bit closer at the politics of aid in two calamitous disasters in Africa and Central America.
Mozambique
In 1975, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) won independence after decades of ruthless Portuguese colonialism. The only liberation movement, Frelimo set about developing a non-aligned foreign policy and a socialist domestic programme. Despite the flight of most Portuguese, leaving a vacuum where the civil service once was and a bankrupt and crippled economy, Mozambique built schools, clinics and hospitals, and developed its sugar and other industries. By 1980, the number of school leavers had quadrupled and the primary health care system was praised by the World Health Organisation.
Mozambique had also implemented the mandatory sanctions against the white racist regime then ruling in neighbouring Rhodesia and closed the port of Beira to any goods destined for that country. The Portuguese had flouted the sanctions and thrown a lifeline to the Smith regime. The Rhodesian racists retaliated by establishing a mercenary army, Renamo, whose job was to destroy all of the gains of Mozambican independence by destroying schools, clinics, railway lines and transport, and by terrorising the population.
Massacres
After the the victory of independence forces in Zimbabwe in 1980, control of Renamo switched to the apartheid regime in South Africa, with the tacit approval of the Reagan government in the US. Renamo now accelerated its bloody work, killing every teacher, nurse, doctor and skilled professional it could find and massacring hundreds of thousands, forcing them to flee to the cities. South African troops and mercenaries were directly involved in this war, which resulted in nearly one million Mozambican deaths.
At the same time, Mozambique began to suffer from severe droughts which, coupled with the Renamo action, led to the collapse of agricultural production and starvation. Mozambique appealed for food aid but was consistently refused it by the US. The US dominated the UN World Food Programme at the time, and mass starvation was delayed only by donations from the Soviet Union, Sweden and the Mennonite Church.
After 100,000 Mozambicans had starved to death and the country was economically on its knees and desperate for aid, the US said it was prepared to send aid on certain conditions: drop any reference to Marxism -Leninism in the Frelimo constitution, drop any reference to socialism in the country's constitution, introduce a free market and privatisation, share power with Renamo, show independence from the USSR, stop voting against the US in the United Nations, and stop the Mozambican press from attacking the US. Any aid would be distributed by US-appointed charities, usually linked to fundamentalist Christian organisations or right-wing bodies such as 'Heritage': the Mozambican government could have no part in the allocation or distribution of the aid. All aid was to be privatised, as were all state-owned institutions.
Ultimatum
Mozambique had no choice - either starve or give in, and it remains today among the poorest of nations in the world, dependent on aid and charities, where government offices and social services buildings have their electricity supply disconnected because they cannot pay their bills to the privatised electricity company.
Cuban doctors in Gonaives, Haiti: class solidarity in action
Haiti and Honduras
In 1998 hurricanes Mitch and Georges devastated Central America and the Caribbean killing more than 60,000. Worst hit was Honduras (Mitch) where the hurricane paused off the coast before moving inland, where it dropped all its water, washing away bridges, roads, villages and livestock, leaving nearly 20,000 dead and missing.
Hurricane Georges devastated the Caribbean. In Haiti over 1,000 were killed with 250,000 left homeless and scores of thousands of cattle washed away. Honduras had been used as a US base for the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s, but was no longer of any value to the US. Haiti had no infrastructure to cope with such a crisis before the hurricane and was the poorest country in the Americas.
The international aid agencies, including some from the US, went in to help, as did a small number of Cuban doctors. After a short time, the agencies left, but the Cubans stayed and built up their medical brigades, and are still there today, with the blessing of the people.
Cuba had no diplomatic relations with either country and the Honduran government was hostile to Cuba. But the people of both countries demanded that the Cuban doctors stay and stay they did, building health systems, saving lives and providing (free) medical training to young poor Hondurans and Haitians both in Havana and in their own countries, so they can take over from the Cubans.
At the Latin American Medical School in Havana, where 8,000 young people from 24 African and Latin American countries are being trained to become doctors to return to their countries, the Rector describes the philosophy of the school as "Love and Solidarity".
In this spirit, 300 Cuban doctors and health professionals in Honduras and 600 in Haiti have between them saved well over 100,000 lives in the two countries since the hurricanes. In Honduras, only 60% of the population were covered by the government, private or military health systems. The rest were in inaccessible areas worst hit by Mitch, and this is where Cuban doctors have built a health care system where none existed before.
In Haiti, neither the US-inspired coup which overthrew President Aristide nor hurricane Jeanne, which left 2,000 dead in 2004, has deterred the young Cuban doctors from providing a free health service. At the peak of the violence surrounding Aristide's overthrow, when all the aid agencies fled the country, it was left to the Cuban Medical Brigade to provide the only medical facility in the country to look after the population.
This is working-class generosity and solidarity in action. They do not boast and shout about how many millions of dollars they have donated because they have none, only human resources - workers. They don't trumpet a new Marshall Plan for Africa and they lay down no conditions. They just get on with it modestly and the workers of the host countries understand exactly what working class internationalism means. Just as British workers understand the concepts of generosity and solidarity.
