V. G. SHUBIN

Doctor of Historical Sciences Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences

Socintern Keywords:, Afrikintern, Commission for Africa, XXIV Congress of the Socintern

The policy of the Socialist International (Socintern, SI) and its individual members in relation to the African continent, the activities of social-democratic parties in African countries and their association-the African Socialist and Democratic International (AFDI, or Afrikintern) - were devoted to many works of Russian scientists in the 1970s-1980s. ¹

The last major work on this issue, the collective monograph "Modern Social Democracy and Africa", was published in 1990.2 However, in ^the subsequent period, interest in this topic declined sharply, ³ which obviously reflected changes both in the world and in Russia.

International social democracy has ceased to be for the ruling political circles of our country an ideological rival and at the same time a potential, and on a number of issues, a real partner, as it was under the USSR.

In Africa, the "socialist orientation" ceased to exist, although, it should be recalled, the Africans themselves, unlike a number of Russian scientists, practically did not use this term, and the African International turned out to be an extremely weak organism. After his" midwives " - Senegalese President Leopold Senghor (1906 - 2001) and Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba (1903 - 2000) - left the political scene, he continued to exist under their successors - Abdou Diouf and Ben Ali. As part of the general rapprochement with international social democracy, the CPSU also established contacts with it and the African parties that were part of it. But in 2000, the Senegalese president was defeated in the elections, and the Tunisian president chose to dissolve his Socialist Desturov Party in 1998 and create a Democratic constitutional Association. And Afrikintern somehow quietly "ordered to live long".

However, a kind of paradox lies in the fact that systematic research of the Socintern's activities in Africa actually stopped in Russia just at the time when this organization managed to achieve considerable success in spreading its influence on the African continent, both ideologically and organizationally.

AFRICA IN THE SOCIAL INTERNATIONAL

In the first half of the 1990s, a number of influential parties in African countries joined the Social International. Among them are the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the People's Organization of South-West Africa (SWAPO, Namibia), which were previously national liberation movements and turned into ruling parties after the independence of these countries. Following this, in 2000, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa became a member of the Social International - the oldest political party on the continent, which heads the government in the most developed African country - South Africa and has considerable influence not only in Africa, but also abroad.

The total number of African parties included in the Social International has increased over the past two decades from 7 to 20 full (in 18 countries) members, 5 parties with consultative status and 7 observers. 12 of them are ruling parties, and two are part of ⁴ coalition governments.

At the last Congress of the Social International (which will be discussed below) In addition to the President, former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, 33 vice - presidents were elected to its presidium. Among them - 7 from African countries. These are ANC (and South Africa) President Jacob Zuma, MPLA Secretary General Juliao Paulo Mateusz (Dinu Matros), then SWAPO Secretary General Pendukeni Iwula-Itana, United Democratic Forces (Mauritania) party leader Ahmed Ul Dadda, Senegalese Socialist Party leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Chantal Kambibwa from the Cameroon Social Democratic Front and Nuzha Shekruni. from the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (SSNS) of Morocco (the last two are women).

In addition, Mohamed El Yazghi, also from the SSNS, became one of the most prominent figures in the world.

of the 15 honorary presidents of the Social International, ⁵.

It is useful to compare this data with the participation of Africans in other international political associations. In the center-right International Democratic Union (often called the Conservative International), there are only three African parties - full members and three associate members, all of them in opposition. However, in its branch-the Democratic Union of Africa-there are already 11 parties.⁶

The Liberal International has 11 full members from Africa, mostly in opposition, and four observer parties.⁷

Another association, the Centrist Democratic International (CDI, formerly Christian Democratic International), has 10 full members and three observers from Africa, including "democrats" such as the Angolan UNITA and the Congolese Liberation Movement (DRC), ⁸ whose leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, former personal assistant to Mo-butu, is on trial in The Hague for war crimes.

As far as the communist movement is concerned, there is no international association of this kind, and there is very little representation of Africa at the annual "meetings of Communist and workers 'parties" ^.9

Thus, the advantage of organized social democracy over other international political movements in terms of influence in Africa is obvious.

The attention shown by the Social International to Africa and the increased degree of its influence on the continent is shown by the fact that its last, XXIV Congress (August 30 - September 1, 2012) was held in Cape Town (South Africa).

It seems that the convergence of African parties with international social democracy has occurred for a number of reasons.

One of them is undoubtedly the end of the "world socialist system"and the subsequent "collapse" of the Soviet Union. This led to a sharp narrowing of the international relations of a number of African parties and, consequently, required the search for new political partners.

On the other hand, some parties that abandoned the ideology of Marxism-Leninism at the turn of the 1990s, at the same time remained committed to the socialist perspective and saw the Social International as an alternative to the currently prevailing neoliberal tendencies in the international arena.

Pragmatism has played and continues to play an important role in determining the attitude of African parties to the Social International: the desire to establish close relations with this political force, on which the African policy of Western countries largely depends, including issues of economic assistance, debt relief, etc.

WESTERN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AND AFRICA

Member parties of the Social International are represented, although not regularly, in the governments of Western and Central European states. At the moment, the socialists are in power in France, and recently they headed the governments of other leading European countries-Great Britain, Germany, and Spain. The Spanish socialist X. Solana was a long-time coordinator of the European Union's foreign and defense policy, and the English Labor leader, J. P. Morgan, was a member of the European Parliament. Robertson was Secretary General of NATO, and Strauss-Kahn, who was a likely candidate from the Socialist party for the post of president of France, headed the International Monetary Fund.

It also affected the fact that even during the years of the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, the Social International and some of its constituent parties established links with national liberation movements. It should be noted, however, that the position of the members of the Social International on this issue was by no means unified. I recall ANC President Oliver Tambo saying in a conversation in Moscow in 1978 that while some Social Democratic parties provided practical assistance to the Congress, others were "unbearable" ¹⁰.

Governments led by the Social Democrats, although belatedly, began to provide support to the public.

substantial financial assistance to national liberation organizations in the Portuguese colonies, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. At the same time, Scandinavians, especially Swedes, were especially active. So, after the end of the struggle against colonialism and apartheid in Southern Africa, a group of researchers led by Thor Sellstrom was created in Uppsala, Sweden, at the Institute for Northern Africa, in which the Social Democrats played a leading role even under the country's conservative governments. In seven years of work, she published 6 volumes under the general title "National Liberation in Southern Africa: the role of the Nordic countries" ¹¹. It was this Swedish Institute, together with the Robin Island Museum of South Africa and the Mayibuye Center of the University of the Western Cape, that organized the international conference "Nordic Solidarity with the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa and Challenges for Democratic Partnership in the Twenty-first Century" in 1999 in the former prison for political prisoners on Robin Island. While attending it, I happened to be an unwitting witness to a conversation between a member of the ANC leadership and Scandinavian representatives about the party's entry into the Social International. However, the process of rapprochement of the ANC with this international association began even earlier. The South African leadership facilitated the holding of the General Council of the Social International in Cape Town on July 10-11, 1995, the second most important forum after the Congress.¹² Then President of the Social International (and former Prime Minister of the Socialist Government of France) Pierre Mauroy, opening the meeting, spoke about the crisis in Africa, which has been going on for 10 or 15 years. He contrasted the position of the Social International with that of those "certain political and financial groups "who" make impressive lyrical statements in public "and" come to terms "[with the situation in Africa] in private conversations,"and the music of rejection sounds more and more strongly" ¹³.

THE BLAIR COMMISSION

It would not be a mistake to say that the ANC leadership at the turn and in the first years of the new century had a particularly close relationship with the leader of the Labour Party and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was distinguished from other Social International figures by a special interest in Africa. This was reflected, first of all, in the creation of the ¹⁴-member Commission for Africa (with British funding) in 2004 on his initiative, consisting of 17 people. The Commission included prominent Africans such as then-Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. In addition to Blair himself, the Commission included two other prominent Labour figures: the Finance Minister (and future Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn , UK Secretary of State for International Development.

The Commission's report on "Our Common Interest" ¹⁵ was presented simultaneously in London and Addis Ababa on 11 March 2005. However, its drafters were not overly modest, calling it "the most important document of our time" ^.16 However, the reaction to this publication clearly disappointed the Commission's organizers.

By that time, African countries had already developed their own program, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and the appearance of another program was met with a very cool reception on the continent. For example, prominent Ugandan scholar Dani Nabudere expressed concern that the Blair Commission would deprive African leaders of the initiative, Blair would become a "colonial governor" and a "recolonization process"would begin¹⁷.

The leaders of the Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), A. Vines and T. Cargill, in their article on the "new" Labour policy in Africa, ¹⁸ explicitly called one of its sections "The Rise and Fall of the Commission for Africa".

Blair also put forward another initiative-holding regular "center-left" Conferences of "progressive Governance" (Progressive Governance Conference). The first such conference-

The lecture was held in London in July 2003 with the participation of more than 650 "politicians and strategists" from 30 countries, including 12 "world leaders". The preparatory meeting, which discussed seven papers on "the challenges facing modern Social Democrats", was held directly at Tony Blair's Downing Street residence.

The London conference was also attended by the then leader of the ANC, South African President Thabo Mbeki.¹⁹ This was followed by a regional African "conference on progressive governance"in South Africa in 2005,20 followed by a G-21 summit in 2006. It is interesting to note that in one of his speeches to "progressive managers" Mbeki referred to what he called the then "very unfashionable" Karl Marx, who more than 150 years ago realized that it was no longer possible for the workers of one country to defend their interests by acting alone, and so the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, connect!" Mbeki further stated: "The process of globalization has gone much further now than it did then, but perhaps we should also say,' Progressive [people] of all countries, unite! '" ²²

All this gave researchers reason to talk about a certain similarity in the policies of Mbeki and Blair.²³

It should be noted that even earlier, under Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, who became the leader of the ANC in 2007 and President of South Africa in 2009, the ANC positioned itself as a "broad church". Cyril Ramaposa, who was elected Deputy President of the Congress at its congress in December 2012 (a multi - millionaire who went from being the pro-socialism general secretary of the miners ' union to being the second richest African in South Africa), emphasized in a recent interview that "the ANC is a political organization that welcomes everyone. It welcomes socialists, communists, capitalists, rural residents, urban residents, the poor, the rich, professionals - all of these people are welcome in the ANC. What binds us together is the goal that the ANC strives to achieve. " ²⁴

This goal has never been proclaimed as socialism, at least not in official documents, although in the 1970s and 1980s members of the South African Communist Party formed the majority in its leadership. Jacob Zuma, after his re-election as ANC president, said: "We reaffirm the character of the ANC as a disciplined leftist force, a multi-class mass movement and an internationalist movement with an anti-imperialist stance. Being non-racial in outlook and character, the organization will remain predisposed to the poor and working class, most of whom are black and African, until we achieve equality and socio-economic freedom. " ²⁵

A notable detail is that the slogan" United for a progressive, better world", under which the International Solidarity Conference convened by the ANC was held in Pretoria at the end of October 2012, is in tune with the slogan of the Social International - "Progressive Politics for a more just world".

However, the ruling party in another leading African country, Angola, is much more clearly in favor of the social-democratic orientation. The transformation of the MPLA based on the "ideological principles of democratic socialism" was identified as a strategic goal at its 3rd Congress in ^{December 1990.26}

Estudushe Opiniush, a magazine published by the MPLA Department of Education Coordination and Analysis, has devoted one of its recent issues to "Democratic Socialism-the MPLA ideology" ^.27 An extensive article by Roberto de Almeida, vice-president of the party and a veteran of the national liberation struggle, points out, in particular, the reasons for the party's "rejection" of Marxism-Leninism, which was its official ideology from 1977 (when the MPLA movement was transformed into the MPLA-Party of Labor) until 1990. that these principles restricted creativity in the party, pluralism of ideas, the right to freedom of expression, and did not contribute to strengthening national unity. The "crisis of the socialist bloc" is also mentioned "on an external level", but it is emphasized that the MPLA remains essentially a " left-wing party "(it Parido de Esquerda)²⁸.

SOCINTERN AND PROBLEMS OF AFRICA

Let us now consider the position of the Social International and its leading members on the most important problems facing the African continent. It was described in some detail in the proceedings of the XXIV Congress in Cape Town, convened for the first time in Africa and held, frankly, under the not very clear slogan - "For a new internationalism and a new culture of solidarity".

Representatives of 130 parties and organizations were present in Cape Town, including all 20 full members, 3 in consultative status, 4 observers and 6 visiting parties from Africa.²⁹ It is worth noting that at this Congress, the ranks of Africans in the Social International expanded again - the Tunisian Democratic Forum for Labor and Freedoms received full membership, the United Democratic Party of the Gambia and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party became advisory members, ³⁰ and the Labor Party of Kenya became an observer.

Four main topics were discussed at the Congress:

- for an economy with jobs, growth and social protection: a social democratic response to the financial crisis;

- fight for rights and freedoms: strengthening representative democracy and the emergence of new democracies in the world;

- for a shared path to peace, sustainability and cooperation: the need for multilateralism;

- for a new internationalism and a new culture among peoples and between countries.

South Africa's Deputy President Khalema Motlante, who was then Deputy President of the ANC, delivered a welcoming speech at the opening of the Congress. Noting "the similarity between the ANC and XI's foundations, which are both inspired by the desire to change the world for the better, the desire for freedom, social justice and solidarity", as challenges facing "all of us", he named "the reduction of the wealth of multinational corporations, the homogenization of the media and the reform of the weakened global governance system", calling on the Congress "find a clear path forward on these issues. " ³¹

On the first item of the agenda, African participants included Manuel Lagouarda, representative of the Socialist Union of the People of Morocco, former Minister of Finance and Economy, and Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Vice-President of the Social International, from the Senegalese Socialist Party. The resolution adopted unanimously contained a number of reasonable provisions and requirements, including the creation of a "new multipolar global financial architecture." Both the danger of "widening inequality among countries" and the threat to progress and implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals were noted.³²

The tone of the discussion on the second topic of the Congress was set by J. Zuma's "special speech". He highlighted the impact of globalization, which, while having had "profoundly positive effects", has also led to "extremely negative consequences", and 3/4 of the world's population "have become victims of the globalization process and now suffer from poverty and inequality". Referring to the widening "gap between rich and poor" and the vulnerability of countries to military conflicts, he stressed the need for" democratic multilateralism "rather than the" growing unilateralism " that is currently being observed.³³

The resolution on the second topic was also adopted unanimously. It expressed support for the Arab Spring ,among other things, and highlighted "deep concern" about the situation in Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau from the African "stories". Support was also expressed for the "restoration of democracy" and the "integrity and unity" of Mali. There were also some phrases on duty for the Social International about the need to "release all political prisoners in Belarus" and"restrict democracy" ³⁴ in Russia (although the host country, South Africa, has friendly relations with both Minsk and Moscow).

The ANC representative was also the main speaker on the third topic - Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, recently elected to the post of Chairman of the African Union Commission. The importance of multilateralism and, in particular, the role of the UN, which she called "the greatest collective achievement of humanity"; and at the same time, the need to reform both the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions were reiterated, calling on the Social International to translate words into actions.³⁵

With regard to Africa, the resolution on this topic referred to the situation in Western Sahara, where the Social International promotes "the search for a just, peaceful and lasting solution" to the conflict. ³⁶

And on the final, fourth topic, the main speech was made by the representative of Africa - former Prime Minister of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The discussion referred to "the importance of renewed solidarity among peoples and countries", and the resolution stated that "a new internationalism and a new culture of solidarity constitute both a path and a necessary condition for achieving a just global society of rights and freedoms"³⁷. But these concepts were not specified.

In the closing speech of J. R. R. Tolkien,Zuma noted"the growing role of Africa in the world" ³⁸. The future will show how much this situation will be reflected in the practical activities of the Social International and its member parties.

SOCINTERN COMMITTEE ON AFRICA

It seems that much will depend on the activity of the Socintern Committee on Africa, one of the nine regional committees of this organization. It should be noted that if the aforementioned Afrikintern has long since "rested in bose", then this Committee on Africa seeks to respond to the most important events on the continent. So, on March 17-18 of this year, it convened a meeting in Niamey, the capital of neighboring Niger with Mali, where a member of the Social International-the Party for Democracy and Socialism-is in power.

As this was the first meeting since the Cape Town Congress, the election of the committee's leaders was held. Its chairman is Emmanuel Golou, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Benin, and its deputy is Ebrahim Ebrahim, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa, a veteran of the struggle against the apartheid regime, inr-

spent many years in racist prisons.

The main topic of the meeting was the situation in Mali and its impact on the region and the African continent as a whole. Judging by the information published by the Social International headquarters, its participants analyzed the causes of the Malian crisis quite deeply, such as mistakes in resolving previous conflicts, when government forces were withdrawn from the northern regions, the weakening of democratic institutions, and the "vacuum in the democratic opposition" that arose after the "national consensus", starting with the "national consensus", began to take place. Since 2002, all parliamentary parties have been members of the Government.

As for foreign military intervention, oddly enough, the declaration adopted by the Committee does not mention France at all, although troops from this country were sent by the government of a member of the Social International.³⁹ It only says that the "mandate of the UN force" ⁴⁰ must be clearly defined so that the intervention results in the" full restoration of territorial sovereignty " of Mali. At the same time, the success of the "reconciliation process" requires that "equal rights and freedoms are guaranteed for all ethnic groups from all regions, regardless of gender or religion"^.41

The crisis in Mali is far from the only one in Africa, and the Social International member parties, both in the "North" countries and on the continent itself, have considerable opportunities to resolve conflicts and solve other problems of the continent. I would like to hope that these opportunities will be implemented in practice, and will not remain just declarations.

¹ See, for example: Schweitzer V. Ya. Nekotorye aspekty politiki sotsial ' -demokratiya v afro-asiaticheskikh stranakh [Some aspects of the policy of social democracy in Afro-Asian countries]. Rabochy klass i sovremennyi mir, 1979, N 4; Amvrosova M. N. Skandinavskaya sotsial-demokratiya i Afrika [Working Class and Modern World]. 1981, N 2; Pavlov M. Afrikanii mini-Sotsintern [The African Mini-Socintern]. 1981, No. 10; Sadovskaya L. M. Sotsial ' -reformizm v Afrikane [Social reformism in Africa], Moscow, 1982; Gavrilov Yu. N.Sotsialisticheskiy internatsionalal i osvobozhivshiesya strany [The Socialist International and the Liberated Countries]. 1982, No. 10; Shubin V. T. Sotsial ' -demokratiya i bor'ba protiv kolonializma i aparteida [Social Democracy and the Struggle against colonialism and apartheid]. Moscow, 1985.

² Modern Social democracy and Africa. Program positions and practice (ed. by N. I. Vysotskaya, G. B. Starushenko). Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1990.

³ An exception is the pamphlet by N. I. Vysotskaya and N. D. Kosukhin "Western European Social Democracy and Africa: the end of the 80s - the first half of the 90s "(Moscow, 1995).

⁴ http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm7Article PageID=931. The status of three African parties was reduced to observer status due to non-payment of membership fees.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ http://www.idu.org/member.asp

⁷ http://www.liberal-international.org/editorialSingleIndex.asp7ia_ id=509

⁸ http://www.idc-cdi.com/parties.php. By the way, back in 2008, it was announced that along with them, United Russia was becoming a member of the IDI, but in its official documents it was still listed as a"candidate".

⁹ http://www.solidnet.org/13-international-meeting/2296 - 13-im cwp-parties-participated-en

¹⁰ The author's conversation with O. Tambo. Moscow, October 5, 1978

¹¹ National Liberation in Southern Africa: The Role of the Nordic Countries. Uppsala, Nordiska Afrika Institutet, 2001. A series of six volumes by Christopher Munthe Morgenstierne [Denmark], Iina Soiri and Pekka Peltola [Finland], Tore Linne Eriksen [Norway] and Tor Sellstrom [Sweden], three volumes.

¹² The author attended it at the invitation of the ANC leadership.

¹³ Speech by Pierre Mauroy, President of the Socialist International. Council of the Socialist Internationa]. Cape Town. 10 July, 1995, p. 1.

¹⁴ Not coincidentally, it was often referred to as the "Blair Commission".

¹⁵ Our common interest: an argument. By the Commission for Africa. L., 2005. In 2010, a new version of the report was published - "Still Our Common Interest" http://www.commissionforafrica.info/articles/commission-for-africa-launches-review-of-progres s

¹⁶ Ibidem.

¹⁷ Cit. by: International Affairs. London. October 2005, p. 931.

^{Vines A., Cargill T.} 18 The New Labour Policy in Africa: coherence or Disorder? // Asia and Africa today. 2006, No. 6, pp. 53-56.

¹⁹ http://mg.co.za/article/2003 - 07 - 14-rich-states-must-pay-up-to-tackle-poverty-says-mbeki

²⁰ http://www.policy-network.net/event/460/Progressive-gover-nance-2005-Africa-conference

²¹ http://www.docstoc.eom/docs/l 10375314/Progressive-Gove-rnance-Summit-2006

²² http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/colleges/docs/2005/tm2005/ tm072805.pdf

²³ The analysis of both similarities and differences in the policies of these two leaders was conducted by F. Eidelberg Ph. ANC, New Labor and the Post-Keynesian neoliberal World: A Comparison // Vostok. 2006, No. 5, pp. 89-100.

²⁴ http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/08/ampr.01.html

²⁵ http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid-350068&sn-Mark etingweb+detail

²⁶ Revista Estudos & Opinioes. Luanda. 2011, No. 7, p. 10. It can be noted that the same ideology was proclaimed in the "Gorbachev" draft Program of the CPSU, prepared for discussion at the never-held congress in 1991.

²⁷ Revista Estudos & Opinioes.., p. 7 - 13.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 9.

²⁹ http://www.socialistinternational.org/images/dynamicImages/ files/CPT%20Congress%20L%20of%20P%20ENG.pdf

³⁰ Earlier members of the Social International were the ruling parties-the Democratic Constitutional Union (formerly the Socialist Desturov Party) in Tunisia and the National Democratic Party in Egypt, but they were quickly "disposed of" after the fall of the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes.

³¹ For a New Internationalism and New Culture of Solidarity. Resolutions and Decisions. L., 2013, p. 2 - 3.

³² Ibid., p. 19 - 24.

³³ Ibid., p. 11.

³⁴ Ibid., p. 25 - 33.

³⁵ Ibid., p. 14.

³⁶ Ibid., p. 15. Recall that the Frente POLISARIO is a member of the Social International.

³⁷ Ibid., p. 17.

³⁸ Ibid., p. 18.

³⁹ The document also does not mention the impact of events in Libya on the situation in Mali.

⁴⁰ "UN forces" were not present in Mali at that time. Resolution 2085, adopted by the UN Security Council on December 20, 2012, provided only for the deployment of an African-led International Support Mission (AFRISMA) - http://www.un.org/ ga/search/ view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2085 (2012). A resolution on the establishment of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was adopted by the Security Council on 25 April 2013.

⁴¹ Supporting peace, democracy and solidarity in the Sahel -http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm7ArticleID-2213?