Hands off Mali!

15 January 2013

The World Socialist Web Site denounces France’s war in Mali as an act of imperialist piracy. After mass bombings of cities in northern Mali that killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, French tank columns crossed into Mali yesterday from the Ivory Coast.

Mali is the fourth country attacked by France in two years, after Libya, the Ivory Coast and Syria. Of these countries, all but Libya were former French colonies. Explanations for this war given by President François Hollande and other French officials—that France aims to defend Mali’s “democracy” from Al Qaeda, and not what Hollande called France’s “fundamental interests”—are cynical lies.

French imperialism is setting out to reestablish a dominant position in West Africa, using military force to assert its interests.

The war in Mali emergesdirectly out of the 2011 war in Libya. The rebel forces in northern Mali that France is fighting include fighters allied to the Al Qaeda-affiliated forces who helped NATO overthrow and murder Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, as well as ethnic Tuareg soldiers who served in the Libyan army and fled to Mali after the NATO victory. They also include Malian army deserters who joined the revolt against the unpopular coup regime in the capital Bamako.

French imperialism is pressing the advantages opened up to it by Gaddafi’s defeat. With the Gaddafi regime destroyed and hundreds of billions of dollars of Libyan oil money seized by Western banks, African regional organizations funded by Gaddafi have collapsed and the US and France are rapidly setting up military bases throughout Africa. France’s