Burkina Faso

Revolutionary Communist Party of Volta

Statement on the Danger of a Reactionary Civil War in Our Country

The important political events and actions that are unfolding show that the most dangerous way out of the current national situation (a coup d’état and the outbreak of a reactionary civil war) is not an absurdity but a possibility. Therefore, neither the people nor our Party should be surprised, but on the contrary they should be prepared and organized to prevent that danger. If it cannot be avoided, they must confront it courageously and with vision to transform the reactionary civil war into a revolutionary war to carry out the National Democratic and Popular Revolution.

With this present statement the PCRV commits itself to:

• Inform the working class and people about the forces that are promoting this dangerous way out and the consequences that this would bring to our country and the West African region.

• Propose to the working class and the people political solutions to achieve their aspirations and interests and to victoriously confront this dangerous way out.

I. Acts that Promote the Dangerous Way Out of the Current National Situation

Currently we are witnessing a disturbing development, which is confirmed by the speech to the nation by the Transitional President, Michel Kfando, on July 10, 2015, as a result of the movement within the RSP (Security Regiment of the Presidency), and the agreements put forward on the events of June 28, 2015, to mark the return of the Prime Minister from Taiwan.

The evolution of the national situation is very serious, and the subsequent political events and developments show that a coup d’état and a reactionary civil war are possible.

1) The exclusion from the electoral process of the entire section of the reactionary bourgeoisie whose political representatives are the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) and its allies in the Republican Front, the New Alliance of Faso (NAFA) and the UBN [Union for a New Burkina]. The plan for their political, economic and military elimination, are shown by:

• The hasty adoption by the President of Burkina Faso of a new electoral code for the National Transitional Council (CNT).

• The launching of the operation "clean hands".

2) This wing of the reactionary bourgeoisie, which is not going to sit idly by and be eliminated, shows:

• Their struggle on the political and legal plane to stay in the electoral process of the 1991 Constitution and the Transition Charter.

• The military resistance and counter-offensive to regain political Power and to preserve their economic base, as shown by the reorganization of the military forces by Blaise Compaore in the Ivory Coast, and the political alliances that he has established in that country, which serves as a rear base for his maneuvers to destabilize the Transitional Government and any Power that emerges from the elections on October 11, if they are held without the participation of the CDP and its allies.

• The activation of the economic, political and military networks of the mafia clan of Blaise Compaore in our country and of his supporters within the Defense and Security Forces (FDS), particularly in the RSP.

3) The Transitional Power and its different components see their stay in power being threatened and are filled with panic. They count on the support of the French and US imperialists to confront an eventual reactionary coup d’état and intervention by Blaise Compaore from the Ivory Coast to regain power by the CDP and its allies. No wonder they are very restless, because they cannot fully rely on the Defense and Security Forces, since some of them are favorable to the mafia clan of Blaise Compaore and his allies. They are also being increasingly rejected by the popular masses and the workers, whose struggles have been criminalized and whose just demands have been postponed indefinitely.

II. Consequences if the Most Dangerous Way Out Takes Place

A reactionary civil war in our country would have disastrous consequences for society, such as the following:

1) Consequences within the country.

a) For the working class and the different strata of the people, a disastrous social situation, with the collapse of the national economy, the tearing apart of the social fabric, poverty, massacres and a wave of displaced persons, refugees, etc. Political confusion and the danger that the class struggle, which would be more complex, would be concealed by questions of identity, community and faith.

b) The different sections of the reactionary bourgeoisie who are the real causes of the war with their political practice and odious designs. These sections will be supported by the imperialist powers, particularly by French imperialism, in the “international community” to find a solution to the Reactionary Civil War (RCW), but always at the expense of the working class and the people who will pay for the costs of that war. Hence we see the anti-patriotic character of the various sections of the reactionary, anti-national bourgeoisie.

c) The defense and security forces will see their ranks break apart and their total or eventual disintegration, which will mean:

• The collapse of the neocolonial State in crisis, of which they are the principal pillar.

• The rise of identity and communitarian tendencies (tribalism, regionalism, grouping based on religion). The experience of the Central African Republic is a clear example.

d) The military occupation of the country by foreign forces, especially French, in the framework of Operation Barkhane and the UN, with the following consequences:

• Total loss of sovereignty of the country. Strengthening of the domination and exploitation of the country by imperialist powers.

• Exacerbation of inter-imperialist contradictions, since French imperialism does not have the capability and the strength it had in Africa in the 1960s, forcing it to support other imperialist forces (US, EU), which have their own plans and specific interests in Africa, particularly in our country.

• French imperialism will find itself in a dilemma, because the reactionary bourgeois sections that are promoting the reactionary civil war in order to defend their selfish interests are all its allies, so that French imperialism will have to play different games at the same time if it cannot prevent the outbreak of the civil war, and will eventually have to choose those sections able to defend their interests in our country and throughout the sub-region of West Africa in perpetuity.

e) The creation of favorable conditions for the activities of jihadist terrorist groups, linked to the mafia clans of Blaise Compaore, who made our country a rear base for these groups. These groups will support the mafia clan of Compaore and his allies, while maintaining their own political and social plans, since they already have "sleeper" cells in our country.

2) Consequences for the West African Sub-Region and for the Diaspora from Burkina.

a) Aggravation of the crisis in the sub-region in which our country has a strategic position in the heart of West Africa, and plays an important role in the service of imperialism, particularly French imperialism.

b) The risk of development of chauvinism and xenophobia, both in our country and in Ivory Coast, if aggressor troops arrive from that country, which serves as a rear base for the CDP and its allies.

c) The diaspora of the Burkina population is suffering enormously. Intense efforts will be needed, especially by our Party, to explain the causes and organize the people on the correct bases to prevent them from becoming a reserve of the reactionary bourgeois forces that are causing the war, French imperialism in particular.

III. Political Solutions that the Revolutionary Communist Party of Volta Advocates Regarding the Dangerous Way Out of the Current National Situation.

Our analysis of the current national situation clearly shows that the danger of reactionary civil war is real and that its consequences for our society as well as the diaspora from Burkina and the countries of the sub-region would be disastrous. But the outbreak of the reactionary civil war is not inevitable and can be prevented.

Therefore the PCRV calls upon the working class and the various sections of the people to adopt the following political solutions:

1) A decisive, persistent and organized struggle to prevent the outbreak of the war. This means:

• A denunciation and fight against the coups that have become a tradition within the armed forces of our country; coups that have plunged these armed forces into political instability and that threatens to bring society to the chaos of a reactionary civil war, maintaining the domination and exploitation of the people by French imperialism. To stop the popular uprising of October 30 and 31, 2014, the Presidential Security Regiment and French imperialism carried out a counter-revolutionary coup d’état on November 1, 2014, after frustrating the coup fomented by General Honoré Taoré, Chief of Staff, and suppressing the attempt to seize power by General Kouamé Lougue. All this shows the existence of groups that were preparing a coup in the armed forces.

• To denounce and combat ethnic prejudices, regionalism and religious affiliation that the corrupt politicians and obscurantists are trying to use to divide the people and satisfy their selfish interests, also threatening national cohesion.

• To denounce and struggle against chauvinism and xenophobia in our country and also in the diaspora.

• To denounce and struggle against the reactionary and destabilizing politics in our country, which the mafia clan of Blaise Compaore and his allies are carrying out, both in our country and in the Ivory Coast, which serves as his rear base.

• To denounce and struggle against the interference of imperialist powers (France, United States, European Union) in our country.

2) The brave, splendid and continuous struggle to transform the reactionary war, if it should break out, into a revolutionary war to carry out the National Democratic and Popular Revolution (NDPR).

Even in the difficult conditions of a reactionary civil war, the PCRV will be together with the working class, the people and those in the diaspora and will deploy all the forces necessary to:

• Help to organize them on correct, patriotic and revolutionary bases in order to transform the reactionary civil war into a revolutionary war.

• Carry out the National Democratic and Popular Revolution, national and social liberation and the formation of a Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) and a Constituent Assembly.

No to the reactionary coup and civil war!

Down with those who cause wars!

No to foreign interference in our country!

Long live the Popular National Democratic Revolution!

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PARTY OF VOLTA!

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