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June 21, 2022
by Pete Brown, Detroit Workers’ Voice
In June resistance committees (RCs) in Sudan continued the struggle to overthrow the military junta. The RCs received some limited recognition from Western bourgeois governments when a high-level American diplomat invited their Coordination Committee to a meeting at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum. But meanwhile bloody struggle in the streets of Khartoum continues, and the meeting has not resulted in any breakthroughs. The U.S. and other Western governments remain opposed to the RCs coming to power because they see a revolutionary people as a greater threat than a dictatorship they can make deals with.
The RCs have been holding regular demonstrations in June every Monday
and every other Thursday. Military forces have blocked them from
approaching the presidential palace and parliament building in
Khartoum. Confrontations have resulted in hundreds injured and some
killed. The number killed in anti-coup protests since October has now
risen to over 120. On June 16, one man was killed by a shotgun blast to
the chest (1) and there were another 136 injured. These included people
hit by bullets and other projectiles and six people run over by
vehicles. The military also used stun grenades and tear gas against the
protesters. (2)
Another feature to the present movement is the outbreak
of economic strikes. Sudan’s economic crisis is growing worse. To try
and cool off unrest, the government announced a new wages structure for
2022 that included raises for government employees. But as the year
progressed, government units have been very slow at actually
implementing the pay raises. This is especially true in the provinces,
away from the tri-cities area (Khartoum, North Khartoum and Omdurman).
Workers in the government’s own Ministry of Finance have not received
their scheduled raises in north and south Sudan, and they have gone on
strike in protest. (3) Hospital workers in Wad Madani, southeast of
Khartoum, have gone on strike for nonpayment of salary increases. Dam
workers throughout Sudan were laid off last year because the government
said they could not afford to pay them. This year they were called back
to work, but have not been paid, and since then they have gone on
strike in protest. In another example of government incompetence and
neglect, in Sennar the government is putting land up for sale that was
promised to poor people in a land reform 30 years ago. The land reform
was promised but never actually implemented. People have been waiting
30 years for their promised land, and now it is being put up for sale
to the highest bidder!
The resistance committees have received a nod of
recognition from the U.S. government. When U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State for Africa Molly Phee visited Khartoum in early June to encourage
talks on how to resolve the political crisis, she met with a
representative from the Coordinating Committee of the RCs. (4) The
American position so far has been to encourage “stability” by
supporting a slow transition to civilian democratic rule in Sudan. By
“transition” they mean a transition to a transition to a transition, a
process taking many years and with many opportunities to fall through.
Previously the U.S. refused to meet with or recognize the RCs, which
have been the mainstay of opposition to the military junta that
overthrew the previous “transitional” regime last October 25. Now,
apparently, the U.S. is at last willing to give a nod of recognition.
But this is still far from embracing the demands of the RCs, which are
for immediate transition and complete overhaul of the state security
forces. The RCs’ motto is the three No’s: No negotiations! No
compromise! No power-sharing [with the military]! They also insist that
anyone who participates in negotiations with the military be excluded
from participation in a new government at least for a while, during
which they must undergo self-examination and issue an apology. This
would include those within the FFC (Forces for Freedom and Change) who
sat down to negotiate with the military along with Ambassador Phee. The
U.S. -- and along with it the UN bureaucracy, the African Union
leaders, and other Western nations like Britain and Norway – still
advocates negotiations, compromise, and power-sharing, and so is still
a long way from agreeing to the demands of the RCs.
Some other imperialist powers don’t even pretend to be encouraging a transition. India and China are still happily pumping oil and shipping it out of Port Sudan. Russia is elbowing its way into the oil business in Sudan, building a new port and planning a new military base on the coast. Mideastern friends of the U.S. such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are on friendly terms with the Sudanese military. The Saudis use Sudanese conscripts for its war in Yemen. The Tripartite Group (the U.S., UK, and Norway), despite its talk of a democratic transition, doesn’t want to see a militant movement come to power as it might jeopardize neo-liberal economic alignments in Sudan. Eastern bloc nations like China and Russia are happy to see Western nations imposing some mild sanctions on Sudanese leaders, as it enables them to pose as anti-imperialist friends of Sudan. But like the Western powers, they too want to dominate Sudan, not see it free and independent. The struggle of people in Sudan for a democratic future should be embraced by working class people everywhere. Power-sharing with the military is not the way forward, since that has been tried and failed many times before. The RCs need friends in the international community, but these are not found among the imperialists trying to dig their claws in deeper.
(1) “Another protester killed and journalist detained during yesterday’s anti-coup protests in Sudan”, Radio Dabanga, June 17, 2022. https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/another-protester-killed-and-journalist-detained-during-yesterday-s-anti-coup-protests-in-sudan.
(2) “Doctors: one dead, 136 injured at June 16 marches in Sudan capital,” Radio Dabanga, June 19, 2022. https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/doctors-one-dead-136-injured-at-june-16-marches-in-sudan-capital.
(3) “More Sudan strikes and protests, especially around salaries”. Radio
Dabanga, June 14, 2022
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/more-strikes-and-protests-especially-around-salaries.
(4) “U.S. embassy: Sudan resistance committees invited by U.S. Ass’t. Secretary of State ‘to resolve crisis’”, Radio Dabanga, June 6, 2022. https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/us-embassy-sudan-resistance-committees-invited-by-us-asst-secretary-of-state-to-resolve-crisis. <>
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Picture: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/another-protester-killed-and-journalist-detained-during-yesterday-s-anti-coup-protests-in-sudan.
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