Rand Paul's Problem With Ilhan Omar. It's the Politics Stupid

It's her politics. 

Fortunate Son Rand Paul Has Never Thanked the US Worker For Giving Him Opportunities

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Rand Paul told Breitbart about Ilhan Omar, "maybe after she’s visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more."

What arrogant scum these people are. Rand Paul is a privileged member of the US upper class, a political representative of dying economic system fortunate to have been born a white male. Many workers will fall for his historical dishonesty as more than any other advanced capitalist country, US workers and the population in general are completely ignorant about colonial and imperialist history in Africa or anywhere else.

He talks of Somalia as if it has no history. He does this because to do so in an honest manner would explain why this small country is like it is. Why is the Congo and other countries in Africa continuously in crisis and unable to develop in the same manner that the European democracies did? Because it is rich in natural resources, that's why. Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya, Uganda Tanzania, I have heard such criticism about how backward these countries are throughout my life.

I heard it about Latin America and about Ireland one of Britain's first colonies. The Irish were too stupid to govern, the blacks are as well and they can’t govern either, and so on. Without understanding history, racism, religious hatred, nationalism are the only explanations left. The colonizing power has to justify its position by demonizing the colonized. Why else would they be in charge?  I am sure the Romans didn’t consider the original inhabitants of Britain to be smarter than them when they invaded in 55 BC and during their occupation of the island in the 1st century AD

I spent three years of my early childhood in Nigeria, another former colony. This was a British colony as was much of Africa. My father was in the army and he was posted there after WW2. He spent the entire war as a prisoner of the Japanese in Hong Kong and then Tokyo working for Mistubishi on the docks. Like millions of ordinary workers, he was one of the victims of the great wars of the 20th century between the former colonial powers of Europe and the Japanese which led then to the domination of US imperialism on the world stage.

For over 200 years, some 15 to 20 million of Africa's inhabitants were kidnapped with 3 million of them brought to the US.  British capitalism was quite happy to be the leading transporter of this cargo, and profiting handily from the slave trade. Liverpool and Bristol became major ports in this process.  This relationship with Africa was primarily through coastal communities and outposts where the cargo was picked up and loaded on to ships, it was less costly and not as dangerous as invading the land. But the abolition of slavery, the development of capitalist industry and the struggle for power between competing European powers necessitated expansion beyond the confines of the nation state and forced the colonial powers to head deep in to the continent. Another problem was also the inability of capitalist development to absorb the growing populations. This led to horrific conditions in Britain as the peasantry was driven off the land unable to find work. So the export of labor to the colonies was another by-product of capitalism’s rise and it could be a base on which the plundering power could rest. The plantation of Protestants in Ireland was another example of this strategy.

Colonial Africa 1920

According to some sources, as late as the 1870’s only 10% of the African continent was under direct European rule but by 1900, European colonial powers, France, England, Germany Portugal, had added some 10 million square miles of Africa as colonial possessions, about one fifth of the land mass of the globe according to Dr Saul David in Slavery and the Scramble For Africa. This was made possible to a great degree by the Berlin conference of 1884-85 that was designed to prevent war and competition between the colonial powers over the spoils.

The first World War revealed the worthlessness of treaties between the ruling classes of a social system in which the drive to war is an integral component; an agreement among thieves, by its very nature, is not binding. Millions of European workers died in this war so while the English working class benefited form British capitalism’s plunder of Africa, India and it’s colonial possessions, or a significant section of it did, millions of workers suffered there too. As for India, it has been estimated that British capitalism extracted some $40 trillion in wealth during its century of occupation in India.  

If we look at the national boundaries of the states in Africa, these were drawn up by the colonial powers.  There was British East Africa and Nigeria for example, was an area under control of the Royal Niger Company eventually becoming the two British protectorates (Protecting the economic interests of the British ruling class not Africans living there) of Northern and Southern Nigeria and eventually Nigeria. These borders are all artificially imposed. Imagine Nigeria as a box and contained in it are numerous cultures, traditions and tribal groupings who are now to adopt that national identity as “Nigerians”. It is no wonder tribal identity prevailed for so long and national identity was weak.

This is the same throughout Africa and the former colonial world. In Nigeria, British capitalism profited from the palm oil trade and also coal which was discovered there in 1909.  There was a huge coal strike in Nigeria in in 1949 as miners fought for higher wages and better conditions. The management refused to recognize the union and workers occupied the mines to avoid being replaced.  Miners’ wives got involved and led protests at the mine offices. Mine owners used the police to attack the women and the colonial government used the military and the police to crush the strike fearing it was also a precursor to the drive for independence.

These events became known as the Iva Valley Massacre. But this pales when compared to the 10 million or so estimated to have died at the hands of Belgium’s King Leopold who considered the Congo as his own back yard. The US and Belgium murdered Patrice Lumumba the Congolese leader who fought for independence in the 1960’s.

I know less about Somalia except it was French, British and Italian capitalism that controlled this part of the world, fought proxy wars there and plundered its resources. I only ask my fellow workers that when you read headlines in the US mass media about Rand Paul, in an interview with the ant-union right wing website, Breitbart saying, "I’m willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia. I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia." , ask why Somalia is a disaster and do a little investigation yourself. 

I do not support the Democratic Party. I would not vote for Omar on that basis. But listen to her. Pay attention to what she says, party or not, she stands up for workers interests far more than Paul, and is an embarrassment to Pelosi and the Democratic Party power. Her four years in a refugee camp has made her a tough nut. She is courageous and smart. I fear for her safety given the assault on her by parasites like the sexual deviant Trump and this right wing fortunate son, Rand Paul.

Rand Paul is no friend of the worker. These people blame American workers for our predicaments and the disaster that is the US. Auto-workers and unions are blamed for the auto crisis and the export of jobs (we’re paid too much and too lazy). The West Virginian working class is blamed for their own unemployment and the subsequent drug crisis. Blacks are blamed for conditions among the black working class that are a product of centuries of racism and exclusion form society. Teachers are the cause of the crisis in public education. The poor are to blame because they made the wrong decisions and the homeless the same. It’s never capitalism

The capitalist class in the former colonial world cannot solve the crises affecting its millions of inhabitants. Somalia is a mess because of capitalism; it cannot solve its own creation. Only a conscious and determined intervention by the working class in the US and internationally can reverse the disastrous course this rotten system and its adherents have charted for us. And the sooner rather than the later. Nature doesn’t guarantee us a future as a species.