Political economy, oil and social resistance in Africa Patrick Bond University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies and Centre for Civil Society,

Political Political economy, oil economy, oil

and social and social resistance in resistance in

Africa Africa

Patrick Bond University of KwaZulu-Natal

School of Development Studies and

Centre for Civil Society, Durban

Presentation to Presentation to OilWatch and OilWatch and

groundWork, 11 groundWork, 11 September 2008 September 2008

Durban Durban

Africa’s oil map

• Substantial oil reserves • Oil and wars: Sudan,

Angola, Chad, Congo• US imports 16% from

Africa• In ten years will import

25%

http://www.catholicrelief.org/images/oil/Africa-Map-Web-PS0301-Da.jpg

(credit: Horace Campbell)

Which regions have used up their ‘own’ oil already?Source: C.J.Campell, www.energycrisis.org

Africa’s ‘resource curse’: Excessive fossil fuel resources in a context of growing int'l

interest (US Africa Command, Chinese patrimonial politics, EU EPAs, SA arms

acquisitions, persistent coups)

What is main concern about ‘keep the oil in the soil’ (or ‘coal in

the hole’, or ‘resources in the ground’)?

Answer: loss of financial resources, jobs, opportunities for ‘development’Can we argue that oil Can we argue that oil impoverishes impoverishes African countries; that oil threatens African countries; that oil threatens

the climate; and that in any case, the the climate; and that in any case, the North owes the South an ecological North owes the South an ecological

debt?debt?Can activists make these strategic Can activists make these strategic

arguments convincing and establish arguments convincing and establish formidable tactical tools of struggle?formidable tactical tools of struggle?

1) traditions of African political economy

2) wealth extraction: debt, capital flight

3) Ecological Debt4) trends in aid, trade

and commodity prices5) correcting GDP for

environment, society6) energy rights7) climate

1) Our 1) Our traditionstraditions

Walter Rodneyon the production

of povertyThe question as to who and what is responsible for African underdevelopment can be answered at two levels. Firstly, the answer is that the operation of the imperialist system bears major responsibility for African economic retardation by draining African wealth and by making it impossible to develop more rapidly the resources of the continent. Secondly, one has to deal with those who manipulate the system and those who are either agents or unwitting accomplices of the said system.

The national bourgeoisie will be quite content with the role of the Western

bourgeoisie’s business agent, and it will play its part without any complexes in a

most dignified manner... In its beginnings, the national bourgeoisie of the colonial

country identifies itself with the decadence of the bourgeoisie of the West.

We need not think that it is jumping ahead; it is in fact beginning at the end. It

is already senile before it has come to know the petulance, the fearlessness, or

the will to succeed of youth.

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

African progressive leaders, political economists and social justice strategists,

including resource-watchersCharles Abugre, Adebayo Adedeji, Jimi Adesina, Claude Ake, Neville Alexander, Samir Amin, Peter Anyang’Nyong’o, A. M. Babu, Ahmed Ben Bella, Steve Biko, Dennis Brutus, Amilcar Cabral, Fantu Cheru, Jacques Depelchin, Demba Dembele, Yasmine Fall, Frantz Fanon, Ruth First, M. P. Giyose, Yao Graham, Gill Hart, Pauline Hountondji, Eboe Hutchful, Khafra Kambon, Dot Keet, Rene Loewenson, Sara Longwe, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, Archie Mafeje, Ben Magubane, Amina Mama, Mahmood Mamdani, Guy Mhone, Darlene Miller, Thandika Mkandawire, Dani Nabudere, Léonce Ndikumana, Njoki Njehu, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Oginga Odinga, Ike Okonto, Adebayo Olukoshi, Oduor Ongwen, Bade Onimode, Haroub Othman, Kwesi Prah, Eunice Sahle, Thomas Sankara, Issa Shivji, Yash Tandon, Riaz Tayob, Aminata Traoré, Dodzi Tsikata, Kwame Ture, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, Tunde Zack-Williams, Paul Zeleza

Who supports the tradition? • For internet-based guide to the toughest contemporary arguments against

imperial power emanating from the continent, there is no better web resource than fahamu.org’s ‘Pambazuka’ weekly news and analytical service;

• at Africa World Press, Kassahun Checole puts many of these writers into print - as do Zed Books, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Codesria in Dakar

• International supporters of African poli econ include Hans Abrahamsson, Soren Ambrose, Michael Barratt-Brown, Salih Booker, Sarah Bracking, Victoria Brittain, Jan Burgess, Ray Bush, George Caffentzis, Horace Campbell, Claudia Carr, Lionel Cliffe, Carole Collins, Dan Connell, Fred Cooper, Imani Countess, Basil Davidson, Jennifer Davis, Silvia Federici, Bill Fletcher, James Ferguson, Reginald Green, Branwen Gruffwydd Jones, Joe Hanlon, Colin Leys, Bill Martin, Bill Minter, Giles Mohan, Jane Parpart, John S. Saul, Ann Seidman, Tim Shaw, Vladimir Shubin, Colin Stoneman, Carol Thompson, Meredith Turshen, Michael Watts, David Wiley, Gavin Williams, Anna Zalik and many others;

• Aside from solidarity activism, they work through radical academic associations (e.g. Association of Concerned African Scholars and the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa), journals (e.g. the Review of African Political Economy) and solidarity groups (the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa was exemplary, as is Africa Action today).

• Key funders: Osisa, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, ActionAid, Oxfam

2) Wealth 2) Wealth extraction: extraction: debt and debt and

capital flightcapital flight

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Debt slaveryDebt slavery includes the includes the uncompensated environmental uncompensated environmental goods and services that African goods and services that African

countries give to Northern countries give to Northern countries – which along with countries – which along with Odious Debt that the North Odious Debt that the North

should cancel, and capital flight should cancel, and capital flight that should be repatriated, that should be repatriated, would result in substantial would result in substantial

resource transfers to the Southresource transfers to the South

‘Odious debt’ (16 African countries)

Source: Eric Toussaint

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Capital flight from Africa, 1970-2004

Source: James Boyce, Leonce Ndikumana

3) Ecological 3) Ecological debtdebt

Jubilee South: ecological debt is ‘the debt accumulated by

Northern, industrial countries toward Third World countries

on account of resource plundering, environmental

damages, and the free occupation of environmental

space to deposit wastes, such as greenhouse gases, from the industrial countries.’

Types of ecological debt (Joan Martinez-Alier):• unpaid costs of reproduction or maintenance or sustainable

management of the renewable resources that have been exported;

• actualised costs of the future lack of availability of destroyed natural resources;

• compensation for, or the costs of reparation (unpaid) of the local damages produced by exports (for example, the sulphur dioxide of copper smelters, the mine tailings, the harms to health from flower exports, the pollution of water by mining), or the actualised value of irreversible damage;

• (unpaid) amount corresponding to the commercial use of information and knowledge on genetic resources, when they have been appropriated gratis (‘biopiracy’);

• (unpaid) reparation costs or compensation for the impacts caused by imports of solid or liquid toxic waste; and

• lack of payment for environmental services or for disproportionate use of ‘Environmental Space’, e.g. (unpaid) costs of free disposal of gas residues (carbon dioxide, CFCs, etc) assuming equal rights to sinks and reservoirs ($75 billion/year) – crucial for addressing climate crisis, which will hit Africa far worse than elsewhere.

Lake Chad dries – 1973-2001

Kiliminjaro melts –

1970-2000

Climate and African food“It is projected that there could be a

possible reduction in yields in agriculture of: 50% by 2020 in some African countries... In Africa, crop net revenues could fall by as much as 90% by 2100, with small-scale farmers being the most affected.”– Testimony to the US House of Reps. Select Committee

on Energy Independence and Global Warming, by R.K. Pachauri, Chairman, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, August 2007

4) Trends in 4) Trends in aid, trade aid, trade

and and commodity commodity

pricesprices

AID: Declining commitmentsSource: ActionAid

Aid in context:

Far less than military

spending Source: UNDP HDR 2005

“Trade not aid”?Recent commodity price

increases

But longer-term commodity export

value trends are negative

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Africa’s exports (excluding SA)Source: Africa Commission

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Export dependenceSource: Africa Commission

Multinational corporate profits

Source: UN Conference on Trade and Development (2007), World Investment Report 2007, Geneva.

5) Correcting 5) Correcting GDP for GDP for

environment, environment, society society

It is time to correct GDP bias (global)

for pollution, resource extraction, etc

A “genuine progress indicator corrects the bias in GDP” Source: redefiningprogress.org

31

World Bank estimates of tangible wealth:

subsoil, timber, not-timber forest resources, protected areas, cropland, pastureland, produced capital, urban land, intangible

wealth - the cases of Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles,

Singapore and South Africa(per capita US$ measure – Where is the Wealth of Nations?, WB,

2006)

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World Bank method for adjusting savings to

account for a country’s tangible

wealth and resource

depletion:The case of Ghana, 2000

(per capita US$ measure)

Where is Africa’s wealth?

World Bank recording of

African countries’ adjusted national

wealth and ‘savings

gaps’, 2000

6) Energy 6) Energy rights rights

A typical rural African energy

systemEnergy Source

Energy Transmission

Energy Use

Electrification rates

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World average

Developing countries average

Redirect resources to lifeline household supplies:SA’s ‘Free Basic Electricity’

• ‘African National Congress-led local government will provide all residents with a free basic amount of water, electricity and other municipal services, so as to help the poor. Those who use more than the basic amounts will pay for the extra they use.’

(ANC campaign promise, 2000 municipal elections)

Two features:• The promise is based on a ‘universal

entitlement’ -- basic needs should be met (regardless of our income), consistent with the SA Constitution’s Bill of Rights to a clean environment;

• The promise also means that those who consume more should pay more per unit after the free basic supply, which promotes ‘cross-subsidies’ (i.e., redistribution), and conservation.

• Of course, in reality: still too expensive for the poor, as large corporations get cheap electricity

7) Climate 7) Climate

Genuine climate change reform:

plug fossil fuel consumption

leave the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole,

the resources in the ground

Enlightened establishment:The Extractive Industries Review

Dec ’03 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE WORLD BANK, MANY OF WHICH WERE IMMEDIATELY REJECTED:

• Phasing out lending in support of oil and coal and to invest its scarce development resources in renewable energy by setting lending targets of increasing renewable energy lending by 20% a year

““I can’t understand why there I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and blocking bulldozers and preventing them from preventing them from constructing coal-fired power constructing coal-fired power plants.”plants.” - Al Gore - Al Gore speaking privately, speaking privately, August 2007August 2007

Petro-mineral resources:Leave the oil in the soil!

• Alaska wilderness and California offshore drilling campaigners• Oil Watch• women of the Niger Delta, ERA, MEND• Australian Rising Tide v Newcastle coal exports• British Climate Camp• Attac, Norway• Alberta, Canada tar sands green & indigenous activists • South Durban Community Environmental Alliance against new

pipeline that will double petrol flow to Johannesburg• Ecuadoran indigenous activists, Accion Ecologia and Rafael

Correa - who agree that Ecuador’s main oil reserve (Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha, in Yasuní National Park) should stay in the ground (August 2007)

Climate Justice Now!

Bali, December 2007• Carbon Trade Watch (a project of

the Transnational Institute);

• Center for Environmental Concerns;

• Focus on the Global South;

• Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines;

• Friends of the Earth International;

• Women for Climate Justice;

• Global Forest Coalition;

• Global Justice Ecology Project;

• International Forum on Globalization;

• Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment;

– La Vía Campesina;

– Durban Group for Climate Justice;

– Oilwatch;

– Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition;

– Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (Institute for Policy Studies);

– Indigenous Environmental Network;

– Third World Network;

– Indonesia Civil Society Organizations Forum on Climate Justice;

– World Rainforest Movement.

Climate Justice Now!

Bali, December 2007Movement demands:

• reduced consumption;• huge financial

transfers from North to South based on historical responsibility and ecological debt for adaptation and mitigation costs paid for by redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation;

• leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy;

• rights-based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and promotes peoples’ sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water; and

• sustainable family farming and peoples’ food sovereignty.

Leave the Oil in the Soil!

Nigerians campaign against Shell and against drilling in new blocks, June

2008

Is a green-red energy alliance possible? Leave oil in soil plus electricity-as-a-

right?