This article appeared in the Lutte de Classe journal No. 242 in September 2024 - translated from the original Italian written by comrades of L'Internazionale (Italy - Internationalist Communist Union) in Lotta di Classe n° 43, May 2024.
At the time of publication of our current journal, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had just returned from a trip to Italy, in order to discuss the immigration policy carried out by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In fact, Keir Starmer had already paid Meloni a visit in September, declaring he was open to her views. Never mind that not so long ago the fact that Sunak and Braverman had aligned themselves with the far-right Meloni was met with condemnation!
In her interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday 15 December, Cooper said enthusiastically of Meloni's policy (to send refugees to Albania for “processing”) that it had cut Mediterranean crossings by 50% - and was thus worth looking at. Indeed, Italian ministers claim that 58% fewer boats crossed between January and late March 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. These figures, however, don't take into account crossings during warmer months of the year, when they usually sky-rocket.
Italy is part of a wider European “effort” to reduce “irregular” migration: in July 2023, the European Union made a €1bn deal with Tunisia to reduce boat-crossings. This led large numbers of migrants to concentrate in northern Tunisia, where they are abused by national guard officers who, according to an investigation by the Guardian newspaper, act together with “smugglers” to arrange crossings. (“The brutal truth behind Italy's migrant reduction: beatings and rape by EU-funded forces in Tunisia”, Guardian, 19 September 2024).
Italy's deal with Tunisia is one of the “partnerships” which its far-right government has been establishing with different African countries, and which this year was formalised as the “Mattei Plan”
On 28 January in Rome, the Meloni government officially launched the “Mattei Plan” for Africa. The title of the conference was “A Bridge for Common Growth”, but the intervention of the chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, immediately spoilt the occasion. He complained that neither he nor the other African institutions were consulted in the drafting of the plan.
The Mattei Plan and in fact the entire “African” policy of the Meloni government consist mainly of hot air and trumped-up propaganda for domestic use, designed to appeal to a right wing electorate, with its pledge to stop migrants coming from Africa. On the whole, there is nothing really new in this policy. Italian imperialism has, for decades, had significant interests in various and, in the current situation, seeks to participate, to its advantage, in the redefinition of political and economic spheres of influence that is taking place in Africa - as in the rest of the world.
Even Meloni's hints at a relationship with African countries that “is no longer predatory” but one of cooperation, echoes the colonialist propaganda of the past.
This extract, taken from a speech by Mussolini in 1922 - the year Mussolini's Black Shirts took over political power in Italy - is a good example: “It is not a matter of conquering territories ...but of a natural expansion that must lead to the cooperation of Italy and the African populations...”. This “enlightened” declaration did not prevent the extermination of thousands of Ethiopians - bombed with mustard gas - by the fascist regime in 1935.
Government propaganda has tried to credit Meloni's plan as original, capable of solving Africa's historical development problems. This claim may comfort a section of the right-wing electorate by fostering an illusion that Meloni's Italy is delivering in this regard. But, as the right-leaning daily newspaper La Stampa wrote several months ago: “The Mattei plan cannot exist without robust international aid and without being overseen by the United Nations. For the simple reason that Italy does not have the money to implement this grand plan for the rebirth of Africa, to which, since her first day in office, Giorgia Meloni has entrusted the mission of stopping the fl ow of migrants from the Mediterranean”.
What's Mattei got to do with it?
Enrico Mattei was one of the great figures of post-war Italian capitalism. With no political scruples, he financed both the Christian Democrat currents that supported him, and the Italian Communist Party of Palmiro Togliatti. He played a leading role in Italian energy policy and founded and led the ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi - the state-owned National Hydrocarbons Board) - in 1953. At the time, there were certain illusions that Italy could be self-sufficient in energy, based on the supposed existence of large hydrocarbon deposits under the Po Valley in Northern Italy. Mattei counted on these illusions, to ensure himself far greater freedom of movement than other directors of state-owned companies, in order to develop his own foreign policy in parallel with that of the government. As a result, Italian imperialism was able to establish its own share in the exploitation of oil and gas deposits in Iran, Egypt, Libya and the Soviet Union.
Mattei's “foreign policy” was called neo-Atlanticism. It was a reminder that the strategy of Italian imperialism was to be in the camp led by the United States, while at the same time claiming the freedom to take certain initiatives and conclude economic agreements independently of the rules dictated by the big American and British oil companies.
In the climate of decolonisation, which had begun in those same years, ENI's policy seemed to support the nationalist organisations of the Arab bourgeoisie. During the same period, Mattei broke the Cold War ban imposed by Washington by signing an agreement with Moscow for the supply of oil at prices well below market levels, in exchange for the supply of pipes for the construction of pipelines produced by the Taranto steelworks, in southern Italy.
In this period of relative economic expansion, known as the “Italian miracle”, Mattei was an advocate of energy independence. This meant forging a number of economic relationships that would free Italian industry and capitalism as a whole from their dependence on the big American and British oil companies. Today, in a completely different context, but still in the name of the country's energy independence, the architects of the Mattei plan are, on the contrary, putting forward the complete abandonment of Russian supplies and, in political and diplomatic terms, total subordination to the United States. It is true that, in both cases, the objective remains the guarantee of capitalist profits.
Interest in Africa
Over the past decade or so, Italian foreign policy has shown a “renewed interest” in Africa. Research commissioned from ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale - Institute for International Policy Studies) by the Italian government in 2013 (when Enrico Letta, from the centrist Democratic Party, was president) highlighted that the underlying reasons for this interest are based on a highly optimistic interpretation of the future economic development of the African continent, and the sub-Saharan region in particular. The ISPI report emphasises the growing role of the United States, France and Britain in sub-Saharan Africa, along with China, India, Brazil, Turkey and others who are “carving out a role of greater influence on a global level, also through increasing penetration in Africa”.
The authors of the report call on Italy not to allow itself to be robbed. Aside from East Africa, for which Italy “retains a particular interest ...inherited from historical events”, Mozambique and Angola “constitute a privileged area of Italian influence, with Italian companies having cornered a large share of the markets for the extraction of raw materials in both countries”. The report they represent, it is necessary to widen the area of influence on which to focus. It lists eight priority African countries: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
Since 2013, “bilateral missions” with African countries have been carried out. These are operations by which the Italian government has, amongst other things, increased its military presence and operations in countries such as Libya or Nigeria, in order to “support” their military forces. Five new embassies have been opened and three Italy-Africa inter-ministerial conferences have been held. The expectation was that the sub-Saharan economies would continue to grow at a high rate, at the 5.4% annual rate recorded by the statistics up to 2015. Not only could Italy's big companies pounce on this African “boom”, but it could also benefit small and medium-sized businesses. But in the years that followed, this growth has halved as conflicts and political crises have increased. The number of people fleeing misery, wars, persecution and drought increased; and so curbing immigration became another fundamental component of Italy's interest in Africa.
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which triggered the race for “energy security” by all European governments, brought Africa centre-stage again. “Italy wants to be a bridge to the southern shore of the Mediterranean, to the entire African continent”, former Prime Minister Mario Draghi explained to the European Parliament in 2022. Antonio Tajani, Foreign Minister, repeated in 2023: “Italy is a natural bridge between Europe and Africa. That is why we want to become an energy hub in the Mediterranean...”.
The shameful story of “aid”
The willingness to cooperate and help the development of the African economy is supposed to be measured by the amount of economic aid granted by the various “donor” countries. But of course, these “gifts” are never free nor disinterested. In return, the donor country expects purchases of consumer goods or investment opportunities of questionable interest to the African people, but of very good interest to Italian capitalists.
Over fi fty years ago, countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) undertook to devote 0.7%(!) of their GDP to the development of poor countries. commitment was reaffirmed at the UN assembly in 2015. As far as Italy is concerned, however, the aid in question dropped from 0. 33% in 2022 to 0.27% in 2023. OECD data itself showed that aid to Africa fell from $515 million in 2022 to $351 million in 2023, a drop of 32%. So much for so-called development aid!
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an indicator of the confidence of various international industrial and financial groups in economic growth that is likely to provide a return on the money invested. Here the picture differs greatly between different regions in Africa. While Egypt received $11 billion in investment in 2022 - more than doubling the previous year's figure - in sub-Saharan Africa, investments have declined. And in the same year, $187 million was withdrawn from Overall, in 2022 aid to Africa almost halved compared to the previous year, from $80 billion to $45 billion.
Of course, this is not a static situation, and it is possible that a new fl ow of capital could reverse this trend. In any case, the instability of a large number of African countries obviously influences the quantity and characteristics of foreign investment.
But a simple comparison with the investments made by other countries in Africa is enough to demonstrate the vague and propagandistic nature of Italian imperialism's claims that it plays a leading role in the continent's economic development. The figures for 2022 are as follows: Great Britain $60 billion, France $54 billion, Netherlands $54bn, and, after several other countries, Italy with.$6.6 billion.
“Strengths” of Italian imperialism
The political and social upheavals shaking the countries and peoples of Africa are intertwined with the struggles between the great powers to share markets and areas of influence. The so-called African economic “boom” that was still being talked about a decade ago has so far benefited mainly the banks and big corporations of the major powers.
For the time being, apart from the statements of the Meloni government, claiming to be “promoting development” in Africa, Italian imperialism can only rely on its traditional points of support. The ENI has shown in Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Congo and Mozambique that it knows how to defend its investments, even in the midst of chaos and civil war, and that the profits generated by this energy giant will continue to fl ow into Italian banks in spite of everything. The other sector that has remained profitable for the Italian bourgeoisie is that of major construction projects, such as the Renaissance Dam, built in the Ethiopian Nile Valley at an estimated cost of $3. 5 billion. The main builder is the engineering specialist WeBuild - owned by Pietro Salini - one of the world's construction giants, which has already built two dams in Ethiopia.
The other sector where Italian capitalism retains and even increases its business is that of arms exports. In general, despite Italy's claim to defend “democratic values” and “fight autocracies”, 72% of the arms it exports go to countries whose regimes are classified as “not free” by the international agency Freedom House. This percentage is much higher than that of Russia (54%) and exactly twice the European average. Many of these regimes are African. The company Leonardo - which builds technological capabilities in aerospace, defence and security - is doing excellent business in Nigeria. In April, the final details of the contract for the sale of 24 military aircraft were agreed with the Nigerian Ministry of Defence. According to several sources, this is a billion-dollar deal, or around ten times more in a single contract than the total value of Italian arms exports to Nigeria last year. The prospect is promising, with the most serious estimates pointing to a 20% growth in Nigeria's military spending in 2024 alone.
Egypt is another emblematic case: Italy reserves a fifth of its heavy arms exports for the al-Sisi regime. Never mind that it was implicated in the kidnapping, torture and murder of the young researcher Giulio Regeni - an Italian PhD student who was “found dead” in Cairo in 2016 by the local political police, while he was researching Egypt's independent trade unions. According to Italian law 185/90, which prohibits the sale of arms “to countries responsible for human rights violations and recognised as such by the competent bodies”, these exports are illegal.
In 2023, total military spending by African countries was $51.6 billion. The largest increase in military spending was in the sub-Saharan region, by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. The DRC more than doubled its spending in 2023, and South Sudan increased it by 78% to $1.1 billion. But the death industry is also doing well in the north of the continent. Algeria and Morocco take the lion's share, accounting for four-fi fths of total regional spending. According to Nigrizia magazine, Algeria leads the way in spending, with an increase of 76%, to a total expenditure of $18.3 billion. This is “the highest level ever recorded by Algeria and the largest annual increase since 1974. This increase has been boosted by higher revenues from gas exports to Europe, which has been forced to turn to North African countries following the blockade on Russian imports”.
Even if it is not a question of real economic “development”, the picture is promising for those Italian capitalists who produce heavy and light weapons. While waiting for the miracles of the Mattei Plan, the Italian defence industries also supply to Algeria, its eighth largest customer.
In order to buy weapons that serve to defend the interests of local owners and, more importantly, the profits of capitalist companies and the interests of the imperialist powers, African governments are driving their people even deeper into poverty. But for the Italian capitalists and their counterparts in every country it is immediate profit that counts, and the saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” applies.
4 May 2024