Hawkins said the United States now receives 15 percent of its oil from West Africa, and seeks to increase that figure to 25 percent within 10 years. She connected Washington’s profit-seeking exploitation on the African continent and elsewhere to the employers’ drive to increase production at home at the expense of workers’ health and safety. Hawkins also pointed to the revolutionary example of Cuba and its efforts to extend human solidarity. There are currently 18 Cuban medical missions in Africa, with 144 doctors in Equatorial Guinea alone.

About 25 people attended the University of Pittsburgh event, which was sponsored by the Black Action Society, Sankofa, the Muslim Student Association, and the Young Socialists. Mariano Nsue Nguema, an Equatoguinean student, said that he had not previously thought about how the development of the oil industry is bringing into being a working class in the country.

In the discussion, Stan Jabari, a worker attending the meeting, said that boycotting products that are made in overseas “sweatshops” is a way to end workers’ exploitation in those countries and “protect” jobs by workers in the United States. Hawkins responded that protectionist protests and boycotts seek to encourage workers to buy products manufactured in the United States to help prop up U.S. capitalism and convince workers that they share similar interests with the employers in this country. “We have more in common with workers in other parts of the world than with the bosses here in the United States,” she said.

Some 35 people attended the West Virginia University meeting in Morgantown, West Virginia, organized by a history professor on the campus. Nicholas Makana, 39, a student originally from Kenya, spoke about the dilemma African nations face in trying to control their natural resources while imperialist banks and governments push for increased privatization of their economies. Hawkins cited the example of the Central African nation of Chad, whose oil assets in a Citibank account in London were frozen by the World Bank after the Chadian government announced it was seeking more control over the revenues from an oil pipeline in Chad operated by US.-based ExxonMobil.
 

“Black and white we fought for our rights and defeated Tyson,” said Robert Akol, who was first to speak in the discussion, after the presentation by Hawkins. Akol, originally from Sudan, is a chief shop steward at Lakeside. Workers there come from 36 countries in Africa, South America, Asia, and Canada. Efforts to build unity across nationalities was an important factor in the success of the strike and organization of the union.

“The media doesn’t show what Africa is doing to build itself up,” commented Ashley Bratten, also a union shop steward. “The same is true in Alberta, where they only showed negative images of the Sudanese [workers] during the strike.” During the strike the provincial government brought hundreds of riot police into Brooks and put the Canadian army on standby, Bratten noted.

During Hawkins’s three-day visit here, 13 people renewed or signed up for new subscriptions to the Militant, including two of the 11 people who took part at the February 19 meeting.  
 
 
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