Thread by @nssylla

A video is circulating showing the Italian PM criticize the #CFA franc in very harsh terms. Wow! Has the Far Right suddenly become “anti-imperialist”? Does this criticism make the Far Right an ally for our long time struggles? Below our take with @fpigeaud

Every time the Italian government has been lectured by its French counterpart, especially on migration, raising the CFA franc has been a convenient way for Rome to “retaliate”. This was already the case on January 2019. nytimes.com/2019/01/22/wor…

The #CFA #franc has been a kind of shameful and dirty secret for France. With limited exceptions, the French Left and media have always been silent on this harmful colonial relic and on French Imperialism more generally.

Whenever they speak about it, they tend to repeat their govt’s propaganda. See below the article by @fpigeaud on this.
blogs.mediapart.fr/fanny-pigeaud/…

From an African perspective, it’s a welcome development that the CFA franc gets more global publicity as the incident outcome of “intra-European contradictions”. plutobooks.com/9780745341798/…

During the last six decades, successive generations of anti-imperialist African economists and politicians have been documenting French (monetary) imperialism and its devastating record in terms of development in #CFALAND.

Now, what they have been saying – their legitimate message - is being amplified by the Italian Far Right in its own distorted way.

For us, the Far Right is not an ally. Their "popularity" and their seemingly anti-imperialist stance are an unfortunate indicator of the tragic state of the European/Western Left.

The European/Western Left should blame itself. The Far Right is only “filling the void” it has left in national as well as international affairs.

The Far Right discourse on the CFA franc (and Africa’s underdevelopment) is just demagoguery. They have taken no concrete steps at the EU level to end this “currency arrangement”…which is under Eurozone institutions' legal authority. eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

Their “anti-imperialist” rhetoric of the Far Right is deployed on the background of an undisguised hatred against Africans and so-called “migrants”. It also camouflages Italian “market imperialism” (as opposed to “state imperialism”).

The Italian politicians, Far Right included, never acknowledge the responsibility of the “free trade” policies the EU (and the Italian govt) regarding the underdevelopment of Africa and the resulting “illegal” migration flows to Europe.

Take the case of “illegal” migrants from #Ghana to #Italy. Some of them used to be rural workers. Their livelihoods have been devastated by the trade liberalization agenda advocated by the #EU and its member countries like #Germany, #France, #Italy, etc.

The impoverished Ghanaian tomato producers whose livelihoods were destroyed by Western/EU trade policies…ended up picking up tomatoes in #Italy.

The heavily subsidies tomato cans produced by Italian companies are exported to Ghana…to destroy national tomato self-sufficiency and livelihoods. Market violence!
premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines…

Any form of international solidarity with #Africa must be premised on the acknowledgement of the harmful ongoing policies imposed by the EU, US, IMF, WTO, World Bank, etc.

In our fight against the #CFA system, we have benefited from the intellectual and activist support of a number of people across the world we cannot enumerate here. They will recognize themselves. We are grateful to them for their #solidarity.

Our book on the CFA franc is available in Italian thanks to the efforts by Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope
fazieditore.it/catalogo-libri…

This thread is available in French on the twitter page of my coauthor @fpigeaud