Niger’s military government has announced the nationalisation of the country’s sole industrial gold mine, accusing its Australian operator of “serious breaches” as the junta seeks greater control of natural resources.
The military junta has ruled the West African nation since seizing power in a 2023 coup, promising to crack down on Niger’s myriad security issues.
Juntas in Niger, neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have ramped up pressure on foreign mining companies in recent years, with Niger nationalising the local branch of French uranium giant Orano in June.
Imperialism slowly dying
Acceleraring its demise, too!
yes!
Based and correct
Fuck yea. Imperialists out!
Rad.
lessgo
WaPo next week: “Authoritarianism is on the rise in Niger”
So the nation can share its own wealth instead of bowing to modern day colonialism
Let’s hope so. Military juntas don’t have a great track record though.
Neocolonialism wasn’t doing the country any favors either
It’s a military dictatorship, that wealth is going to the military leadership, and no one else.
No, that’s not how it works. Previously, all of the wealth was going to Australian imperialists and a few compradors, now that wealth stays within Niger. Through opposing Australian imperialism and nationalizing industry, Niger gets to use that wealth on developing themselves, which is in the interests of the proletariat of Niger. This is a fantastic thing, and you’re finger-wagging them for kicking out the imperialists.
I’m saying that a dictatorship never cares about the people.
Because Niger is a military dictatorship not a communist utopia.
At best, that wealth will be spent on a lavish palace that will be used by the general and only the general.
At worst, it will buy weapons that will be used to further subjugate the people.
The post-coup government is broadly supported by its people precisely because it kicked out the comprador government that actually did spend all of their kickbacks on lavish material goods as bribery from siphoning all of that wealth outside. You’re justifying the western narrative against the Sahel States despite the people supporting the new government as though you know better than them. No investigation, no right to speak.
Removed by mod
Nice bit of ableism there. I’m going to cheer for what materially benefits the people of Niger and how they choose to chart their own course, and I’m going to call out chauvanists that think they should be able to tell the people of Niger what to think and how to best express their soveriengty.
Removed by mod
We follow the money and we will know, right? If they start getting new infrastructure we know the guy is for real.
The money is being concentrated in Gen Tiani’s hands, and nowhere else.
He’s abandoned much of the country to Jihadists, while only securing the capital…
Although that’s technically not true, he’s brought in mercenary units from other countries, including the Wagner Group, (the Russian neo-Nazi brigade that tried to coup Putin)
Tiani has given the mercenaries free rein in the countryside, as long as they help protect his capital.
And like any other dictatorship, the war against the media has been intense, with even random bloggers being disappeared off the street.
Easy money is made by making a corrupt backroom deal with Australia so they can plunder the mine for pennies on the dollar.
Kicking out the colonists is a risky move which isn’t good for short term profits which is what an exploitative government always seeks.
Does this make the Junta 100% epic good and based? No. But this specific action is good.
Say that in a year when it’s revealed that the Junta is using slave labor in the mine that they seized.
Military dictatorships are never good for the people. Full stop. We have thousands of years of examples of militaristic rulers, from warlords to kings. Every single time someone seizes power in a coup, the people suffer for it.
At worst, I’d say it’s a neutral change. Even the scenarios you’ve outlined are better than the alternative. But the truth is, we won’t know until we know. Simple as that.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think they are a communist utopia either, and I think people get carried away hyping them up. I just don’t think arguing about it is a hill worth dying on.
I got a little giddy, did a little jig and crossposted someone else’s article. Apologies to you and the mods, , I deleted it now, but this is excellent news!
I don’t mind crossposts. And this is indeed great news for the Global South.
You’re so generous, and I do appreciate it. It would have been two articles about the topic in World News, so I just saved the mods an unnecessary step. You posted first, so naturally your post should remain. The source from the other article was Barron’s if you’re curious.
Fuck yeah, nationalize the whole continent.
W
Lol.
I saw this and was going to say “I kinda wanna say this is good, but I’m skeptical of Niger’s government to share the wealth with its people etc etc.” and then I see “Niger’s military government” in the preview.
Sigh.
So instead of wanting Niger to have sovereignty over its own industry, you’d trust western imperialists to share the wealth more? This is absurd, the only way to kick out imperialists is through nationalization of imperialized industry.
Gonna block ya.
The bad faith arguments and dogpiling to fit in gets old.
It’s not being bad-faith, you made a bad argument in favor of Australian imperialists. People are calling you out for it, deservedly so. “Fitting in” has nothing to do with it.
I’m not going to suggest european/western companies be “better” for a country and continent that has suffered centuries of abuses by those same people, but at the same time it is perfectly sane to question whether or not a military junta, in an area historically also terrorized by those same kinds of “leaders”, won’t just siphon off all the money to foreign bank accounts until they too are killed or run away to another country and live off their gains.
That’s not an argument in favor of either group, it’s saying maybe out of the frying pan and into the fire.
And I am saying that suggesting that the conditions on the ground in Niger will be the same or worse, without actually doing the research into why this is happening or why the people of Niger support this overwhelmingly, just cedes the narrative to western imperialists unhappy that Niger is charting its own course. The only way for the development of Africa is to throw off the reigns of imperialism the west has shackled them to.
Even if the new gov does disproportionately benefit from this move, the wealth will stay more in Niger, whereby the national bourgeoisie will at minimum be incetivized into expanding production and continuing development on Niger’s own terms. That’s the worst-case scenario from this, the best case is that the gov itself directs this new wealth directly into expanded production and infrastructural development. Either case is much better for the people of Niger, which is why they support it so strongly.
You really need to “research” it after already laying blame? Quire apparent your mind is made up.
Yea, because I’ve been following what’s been going on in the Sahel States enough to know that this is a good thing, and that those who just cede the narrative to the imperialists they are throwing off are doing more harm than anything else.
Boo hoo our imperial corporations can no longer terrorize this piece of africa, continuing in our proud colonialist legacy. Yes lets be sceptical of the military kicking them out(hopefully). Lets address THEIR democratic record. Who do you think you can fool here? When the government in Burkina Faso took power same argument could be made. Yet they invest massively in for example agriculture industry. They prop up education for young children. Compare this to what was there before.
I hope that this will become liberation to the Niger and others soon to follow.
I gotta admit, you’re about the 5th hexbear user within the past hour that has responded to me with unintelligible nonsense.
I gotta see if it’s possible to block your instance as a whole, now.
Oh hey look you’re not just racist about Mexico but also Africa! Go fuck yourself kid.
For your entire life you have been fed a certain narrative about the evils of nationalisation, the scary brown “juntas”, the boogeyman of communism. You read this headline, thought this seems good, looked at the propaganda, then thought “this seems bad”
You are getting flamed because of your failure to engage critically with the propaganda. The fact that everyone else in the thread sees this as positive should tip you off
no investigation, no right to speak
It’s Africa. With all the imperialist Western meddling and bribery there is no possibility for Democracy to help their population.
This dipshit was in another thread a couple minutes ago saying racist shit about Mexico too.
Figures, lol.
Damn now I feel bad for replying in good faith instead of PPB which was my initial response
Gotta trust your instincts folks
I was thinking the same. It would be nice if the profits end up benefiting the people but it might end up benefiting just the select few elites. Local elites but still.
The privatized system already only benefited the Australian elites and compradors in Niger. Nationalization directly keeps the wealth in Niger, and not flowing out to Australia. This is anti-imperialism in action, and you’re finger-wagging them for it.
Uhm, that’s what i was saying. Before it was foreign elite few who benefited from it, now it might unfortunately still be elite few, but local.
This is anti-imperialism in action, and you’re finger-wagging them for it.
I’m just saying i wish the money will end up benefiting the people at large, not a select few. If it’s some military junta who will use it to buy gold plated Rolls-Royces while the people live in poverty then of course I’m going to finger wag at that lol
Maybe give it more than five minutes before deciding they’re doing it wrong.
I mean the whole point was that I’m hoping they aren’t
Your immediate insinuation that kicking out foreign plunder, therefore freeing up resources for domestic development of their own industry, somehow is the exact same and that this must be the case, is an extremely western-centric viewpoint and is chauvanistic.
Nope. I’m apprehensive because it’s a military junta behind it.
Niger is in the Alliance of Sahel States, a progressive coalition of anti-imperialist countries in Africa turning their backs on France, Austrailia, and other imperialists. You’re accepting the imperialist framing of a popularly supported government that couped the old, French comprador government that did the exact thing you accuse the new government of doing.
No investigation, no right to speak. You’re acting like a parrot for French propaganda.
The text in the OP and the article it links to is talking about a military junta…
Amazing
Fuck yeah
I’d approve more if it wasn’t a military dictatorship doing this.
It never ends well.
Good thing the people of Niger don’t need your fucking approval.
Take this chauvinist bs somewhere else.
Why Stan for a dictatorship?
You probably stan zelensky, Mr “cancel all elections and make certain parties illegal” without a hint of irony.
No, it’s a fucked up thing to do.
I understand why he wanted to. Fighting off the unprovoked invasion from Russia does tend to sap a country’s attention. But even so, it’s the duty of democracies to fight against dictatorships. Or at least it should be… I can’t say that many live up to even that low bar… But I’d still take even a broken democracy over any form of dictatorship.
I love how cancelling elections and outright banning parties is just “breaking” democracy.
I’m sure he’ll fix it up! you know, because he accidentally broke the democracy and will totes fix it right up 👍
Zelensky is a dictator slaughtering his own people, and the only reason he canceled elections is because they would vote him out the moment they could.
Niger should have the ability to chart its own course. Nationalizing industry previously imperialized by the west is the only way out of the thumb of imperialism and underdevelopment, Niger doesn’t need the approval of foreigners in order to exert their own sovereignty.
Military dictatorship. Enough said.
Just look at the other military dictatorships of Africa and tell me that the people are charting their own destiny.
Very big difference between a popularly-supported anti-imperialist government and western-backed compradors, and pretending there isn’t is just a way to legitimize the western intent on plundering and punishing the Sahel States for kicking out the imperialists. Enough said.
Again, military dictatorship.
For contrast, the Nazis were considered broadly popular in Germany in the 1930s.
But a dictatorship is always a dictatorship. It’s never good for the people, regardless of how much they like the boot on their neck.
But it’s a local boot and not a foreign boot. So that makes it okay. somehow.
This is pure chauvanism, the Nazis gained popularity through colonizing their neighbors and appealing to racist conspiracy. The government of Niger is popular because they kicked out the imperialists and have been investing in development, and you’re finger-wagging the people of Niger as though you know better than them.
I can’t find any actual evidence that the Military Junta is in any way popular…
They seem to have crashed the economy, then implemented a law that lets the military rob from the rest of the government in order to enrich themselves.
They partnered with various mercenary groups, including the Wagner group, to put down juhadists and dissidents as if those were the same thing…
Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a military dictatorship.
