Baltic Platform
Dear participants of the international conference!
We are pleased to welcome those present here and, through you, all active fighters against imperialism.
The outcome of World War II, the colossal rise in the global prestige of the victorious country—the USSR—and the establishment of the world socialist system gave a powerful impulse to the anti-colonial movement. For the African continent, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 served as an inspiring example, the achievements of which were consolidated in 1956 with the nationalization of the Suez Canal. In the same year, Sudan, Morocco, and Tunisia gained independence; in 1957, Ghana; and in 1958, Guinea.
The year 1960 went down in history as the “Year of Africa”: 17 colonies gained political independence—Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo—DRC), Cameroon, the future Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Togo, the Central African Republic, and Chad. In 1961, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika ceased to be colonies; in 1962—Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Algeria; in 1963—Kenya, and so on. The Soviet Union was at the forefront of the countries that resolutely advocated for the right of African peoples to sovereign development.
Starting in 1963, when the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established, Africa’s role in the global economic system and international relations began to grow rapidly. At the same time, a more solid foundation emerged for unity and coordination of efforts in resisting imperialist pressure and developing their economies. After all, the region’s huge growth potential was already evident to the entire world.
Today, Africa’s 54 countries collectively account for about 3% of global GDP and 17% of the world’s population. Half of Africa’s population is under the age of 20 (compared to under 30 for the world as a whole). Overall, Africa is one of the world’s fastest-growing regions: the continent’s aggregate GDP in nominal terms has grown by 50% over the past decade and currently stands at $2.8 trillion.
The vast prospects for the economic development of African countries are a source of concern for the imperialist West. Former colonial powers are striving to keep the natural and intellectual resources of the continent’s peoples under their control. To this end, they employ time-tested methods—bribery and regime change, color “revolutions” and interference in internal affairs, economic control, and unequal trade relations. French and U.S. military contingents in African countries have been assigned the role of overseers, ready at any moment to use armed force to replace legitimate governments with their own puppets.
More than a century ago, in his work “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” (1916), V. I. Lenin identified the export of capital by the leading imperialist countries as the third characteristic of imperialism. In practice, this means that they effectively receive double profits from investments in the poorest countries—both from obtaining cheap resources and in the form of interest earned on those investments.
But as early as the 1970s, another method of exploitation by the developed countries of the West of the less developed “Third World” countries became apparent. Namely, the import of capital in the opposite direction, from less to more developed countries (V. Katasonov, “International Investments: Rich Countries Become Even Richer, Poor Countries Even Poorer.” URL: https://fondsk.ru/news/2024/04/24/mezhdunarodnye-investicii-bogatye-strany-stanovyatsya-esche-bogache-bednye-esche). It began when OPEC countries started generating unprecedented revenues from oil prices that had quadrupled. These proceeds were invested in the U.S. economy in the form of deposits in American banks, as well as direct and portfolio investments in various sectors of the U.S. economy. The inflow of funds increased significantly. America began to transform from a net exporter of capital into a net importer of it. Although America had to pay interest and dividends on incoming foreign investments, these payments were substantially less than the investment income received from American capital abroad. Through such maneuvers, imperialism and neocolonialism continue to exploit other countries in the modern era.
To maintain and strengthen its control over the countries of the African continent, the collective West is spreading behavioral norms that are advantageous to itself and that undermine traditional spiritual and moral values. For example, the trade partnership agreement signed in November 2023 between the EU and members of the Organization of African, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, included a requirement that the EU’s partners legalize abortion, the LGBT agenda, comprehensive sex education, and other ideological tenets of modern Europe. This tactic of strategic influence has already been successfully tested on the populations of several former Socialist Bloc countries. As a result, for example, Latvia’s population has been declining every year since 1991 due to a consistent excess of deaths over births.
To achieve these same goals, the imperialists do not hesitate to exploit even the drug trade. The drug trade became firmly established on the African continent in the 1950s–1970s. Initially, these were local shipments and shipments of a volume that would be considered small by today’s standards. Soon, the volume of cocaine smuggled from Latin America to West African ports for European countries had already risen to 130–150 tons. This was driven by increased drug consumption in European countries. According to data presented by the UN for the period 1999–2009, the volume of drugs consumed doubled. Africa has been turned into a transit drug route linking Latin America and Europe.
Imperialists, primarily American ones, skillfully provoke hotbeds of internal and external conflicts on the continent, contributing to the creation of a massive number of refugees from the countries of the “Global South” toward the “Global North” (primarily to Europe). In doing so, they are carrying out a massive drain of one of Africa’s main resources—its human capital—from African countries. Even the costs to the countries receiving migrants, such as the negative impact on their own internal stability, are not taken into account. The strategic benefits of this process for the United States are evidently deemed to outweigh these costs.
At the same time, the role of certain migration routes manifests itself in a very distinctive way, as is the case in the Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. On the one hand, it is clear that they lie outside the main migration flows; on the other hand, they still hold a certain appeal for African migrants (at least as EU members). Furthermore, some migrants from Africa view these countries as part of the former Soviet Union and as neighbors of Russia.
It is no secret that unconditional support for the hegemonic policies of the United States and the West it leads has become the raison d’être of the ruling Baltic regimes. In this case as well, they readily participate in foreign military missions of Western coalitions that generate refugee flows. Yet they go to great lengths to avoid accepting even a fraction of these flows into their own countries.
As shown by an analysis of migration statistics (Atlas of Migration // Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography—KCMD Data Portal, 2022. URL: https://migration-demography-tools.jrc.ec.europa.eu/atlas-migration), to date, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have essentially not accepted migrants from African and Middle Eastern countries. For example, in Lithuania in 2022, the largest number of asylum applications came from citizens of Belarus—400, 91% of which were approved.
However, when looking at other countries whose citizens submitted the highest number of applications, 95% of applications from Iraqi citizens (out of 190) were rejected (by the first-instance decision), 33% from Afghan citizens (out of 50), 43% of applications from Syrian citizens (out of 35), 100% from Guinean citizens (out of 25), 100% from DRC citizens (out of 25), 100% from Nigerian citizens (out of 20), and 100% from Cameroonian citizens (out of 20). Thus, Lithuanian authorities rejected all 90 applications from citizens of African countries in 2022.
The strategic documents of the Baltic states on migration policy and migrant integration for the 2020s also effectively reflect a reluctance to accept migrants or refugees who do not belong to the host country’s titular nation and who would place an additional burden on the budgetary system. Thus, the migration policies of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, despite their governments’ full solidarity with the West’s neocolonial policies, actually contribute to exacerbating the consequences of the migration crisis in other EU countries.
Despite their potential both as a transit region and as a region for the accumulation of migrants, the Baltic states generally do not wish to accept citizens of African countries. Such are the “principles of solidarity” of the countries of the “civilized West” in practice. Bowing down to their hegemon—the United States—they are ready at any moment to disregard each other’s interests.
In 2022–2023, France’s decades-long presence in the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger came to an end. The withdrawal was not voluntary but forced, due to changes in government in those countries. However, the French and Americans still wish to control the Sahel region—a vast land corridor in sub-Saharan Africa stretching from the Gulf of Guinea across the continent to the Gulf of Aden. Therefore, they did not go far and have established a presence in Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, and Benin.
The West is trying to turn the Sahel into the epicenter of the Islamist threat in Africa. Terrorists are most active in the countries that have united in the Alliance of Sahel States—AES: Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Western intelligence agencies are using them to block the Sahel Corridor’s access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, preventing it from becoming part of a strategic multimodal logistics route that connects with the “North–South” route being built by Russia and Iran.
It is not surprising that the authorities of the Central African Republic—CAR, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have turned to Russia for military assistance. The Wagner Group is fighting in the CAR. In Niger and Burkina Faso, instructors from Russia’s Africa Corps are training local military personnel. Through the joint efforts of contingents from African countries and Russia, the goal is being achieved: to prevent the West, which controls the Tuaregs and Islamists, from cutting off the Sahel Corridor’s access to the ocean.
Such cooperation not only helps successfully counter terrorists but also strengthens the position of African countries in their dialogue with Western nations. And this is very important, since the West’s neocolonial practices are one of the main causes of instability and economic backwardness in the countries of the African continent. This was stated by CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra at the opening of the forum of supporters of the fight against modern practices of neocolonialism, “For the Freedom of Nations!”
By unleashing aggression against Iran, the United States has definitively dismissed the notion of international law as it applies to them. No clear or plausible pretext for the strike was required. The desire to replace the government of a sovereign nation with one loyal to itself serves as both the pretext and the justification for action. Iran, unlike Venezuela, has decided to resist.
The world crumbles and is ground down in the interests of the powerful. The powerful demonstrate that anything goes and that they are above the law. Those of their own kind cannot stop them. Together with whom do they profit from wars and pandemics, and participate in “Epsteins’” orgies?
And no single nation or country can subdue it on its own. The still-silent majority of countries and people—for whom it is clear that imperialism means world war and death—must rise up against it.
The task of anti-imperialist forces is to expose the increasingly sophisticated practices of Western neocolonialism on the African continent and in other regions of the world. No mask of hypocritical “assistance in establishing democracy” can hide the true intentions of greedy and cruel colonizers. Their time in Africa is inexorably coming to an end. The struggle of countries and peoples for a system of international relations free from interference will inevitably achieve victory.
Down with imperialism and neocolonialism!
Independence and prosperity to the peoples of Africa!
Peace to labor, not capital!