Washington’s regime change network has launched new attacks against Burkina Faso’s revolutionary government, with LGBT rights being the focus of the propaganda. To defend the revolution, we should avoid trying to prove that Burkina Faso is a woke haven; that would be falling into a trap. Instead, we must use this moment to galvanize the global workers, which have already shown they aren’t susceptible to the culture war propaganda of the imperialist NGOs.
That we continue to see major propaganda campaigns from the NGO-industrial complex, even after the steps the Trump White House has taken to dismantle this wing of the empire, shows how our ruling class remains divided in important ways. When the Trump wing has attacked African revolutionaries, it’s used the narrative that these anti-colonial figures are anti-white racists. The NGO left does still exist, though, so we’re now seeing a renewed effort by it to attack these revolutionaries from a pro-LGBT angle.
Throughout social media in these last few days, there have been heavily boosted rumors about Burkina Faso’s president Ibrahim Traoré having condemned gays; which is a false story, as Traoré has not made any statement to this effect. The story that the propagandists have seized on is one where Burkina Faso’s Justice Minister made an anti-homosexuality dictat, which Traoré has not so far signed the approval for due to the controversial nature of the issue. This doesn’t mean Traoré is pro-LGBT; Burkina Faso’s 2024 constitution banned same-sex marriage. It does mean, though, that the liberal pro-imperialists are taking events out of context to try to reverse the Sahel’s triumph over neo-colonialism.
To combat these schemes, we don’t need to prove to the liberals that Burkina Faso is actually woke; we only need to defend Traoré on an anti-imperialist basis, and show how he’s working to save his country from imperial sabotage schemes. Burkina Faso’s revolution must be discussed on its own terms, not on the terms of the liberals who seek to re-subjugate the region’s people. As Thomas Sankara said about the independent nature of his country’s anti-colonial struggle:
If our revolution worries some, it's primarily because of the example it can set, and not just in our sub-region. We didn't import our revolution, let alone decide to export it. It is the result of a historical process - scientifically verified and inevitable - in the transformation of the struggles that the social classes have to wage against each other in order to achieve this form of revolution that only asks to be perfected, the same causes producing the same effects no matter the skies under which one finds oneself.
The hope of these NGO propagandists is that they’ll be able to destabilize the Sahel’s revolution from within, and rally the liberal elements inside of it towards a successful color revolution. Historically, the imperialists have done this by nurturing discord inside the revolutionary structures themselves, using the help of left opportunists who claim to be the liberation struggle’s real representatives. While discussing the Committees for the Defense of Revolutions, the entities that the country’s 1983 revolution was relying on to keep gaining strength, Sankara recognized the presence of such left-wing reactionaries inside the movement’s own ranks:
It's true that you find a little bit of everything in the CDRs. You encounter reactionaries, who have cleverly integrated themselves, as well as left opportunists. The problem isn't limited to these two categories. It is essential to understand that the CDRs constitute the main weapon, the frontline shock troops in the battle that will allow our revolution to triumph. So we are working to purify them, that is to say that we are working to get rid of counter-revolutionary elements. This can only be done with the patient but determined development of the democratisation of our structures.
Whether Burkina Faso’s new revolutionary government overcomes the modern equivalents of these infiltrators will depend on how well Traoré can suppress the traitorous elements, compared to how well Sankara’s government could. Sankara was overthrown in a military coup, where an opportunistic faction that claimed to represent the revolution’s goals came to power; the one who assassinated him was Blase Compaore, who’d been pretending to be Sankara’s friend. With the NGO network’s use of propaganda around the LGBT issue, it’s trying to create another internal rift such as this, where the pro-LGBT side is pitted against the country’s anti-imperialist project.
The way we can assist Traoré in fighting back against this plot is by pointing to how he’s objectively advancing the material interests of the people. The State Department propagandists who’ve been assigned to discredit Traoré assert he’s leading a “cult,” and say we must not support a leader just because they’re anti-western; yet we can point to many, many ways in which Traoré has improved his people’s conditions, beyond the most overtly anti-western acts like banning French troops or banning British colonial symbols. Which proves that when a leader is anti-western, that’s indeed a good indicator of them also caring about their people.
Earlier this year, international development analyst Sang N. wrote about Burkina Faso’s economic and infrastructural achievements since Traoré’ came to power. Sang N. reported that in these last two years…
Burkina Faso’s GDP grew from approximately $18.8 billion to $22.1 billion. He [Traoré] has rejected loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He said, “Africa doesn’t need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America.” He reduced the salaries of ministers and parliamentarians by 30% and increased the salaries of civil servants by 50%. He paid off Burkina Faso’s local debts. He established two tomato processing plants, the first-ever in Burkina Faso. In 2023, he inaugurated a state-of-the-art gold mine to enhance local processing capabilities. He stopped the export of unrefined Burkina Faso gold to Europe. He built Burkina Faso’s second cotton processing plant. Previously, the country had only one. He opened the first-ever National Support Center for Artisanal Cotton Processing to assist local cotton farmers…
He prioritized agriculture by distributing over 400 tractors, 239 tillers, 710 motor pumps, and 714 motorcycles to boost production and support rural stakeholders. He provided access to improved seeds and other farm inputs to maximize agricultural output. Tomato production in Burkina Faso increased from 315,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 360,000 metric tonnes in 2024. Millet production rose from 907,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 1.1 million metric tonnes in 2024. Rice production increased from 280,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 326,000 metric tonnes in 2024…His government is constructing new roads, widening existing ones, and upgrading gravel roads to paved surfaces. He is building a new airport, the Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport, which is expected to be completed in 2025 with a capacity to handle 1 million passengers annually
It’s these realities which destroy every talking point that the enemies of Africa’s liberation are using. Because this revolutionary project has demonstrated that it’s effective, and has successfully been lifting the people out of the poverty which colonialism engineered, it will be embraced by ever-more of the world as an inspirational example. The overwhelming majority of the globe’s people do not share the anti-human ideology of those who would hate Traoré based on his social policies; they understand that to condemn an anti-colonial movement or government is inherently despicable.
The NGOs are only able to appeal to a monumentally privileged part of the world’s population. A subset which benefits from neo-colonialism, to a much greater extent than even the majority of modern Americans or Europeans do. The bulk of the masses in the imperialist countries have been proletarianized by declining living standards, so whatever “benefits” they get from imperialism are overshadowed by the ways that capitalism harms them. This means the only elements that align with the color revolution agenda are the bourgeois or petty-bourgeois liberals, who of course hold outsize power but find themselves increasingly isolated.
As the imperial order collapses, not only are more of the masses coming to be aligned with the anti-imperialist forces, but the different capitalist wings are fighting among themselves with ever-greater ferocity. The recent developments with USAID, where the empire has vacillated between fully supporting the NGOs and cutting them off, is an example of this inter-elite conflict. Traoré’s movement, and the global revolutionary struggle, have an opportunity to take advantage of these squabbles between our enemies.
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