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Regardless he calls himself socialist or not, his gov't is a progressive and anti-imperialist one, first and foremost.
Perhaps his gov't may head the Cuban route (secretly nationalizing and hiding power level of basedness), but even without that, I believe he is good ally we should critically support him
Regardless he calls himself socialist or not, his gov't is a progressive and anti-imperialist one, first and foremost.
That doesn't make the question irrelevant. We all support AES, but we want to understand more what its objectives and proposed long-term course are.
That doesn't make the question irrelevant.
Sorry if I sound dismissive. I did not intend to (do you find me like that, jack, before and after?)
We all support AES, but we want to understand more what its objectives and proposed long-term course are.
That's the thing. We don't know exactly.
Cuba's revolutionary gov't and the leader did not mention anything about its explicit path from Jan. 1, 1959 to April 16th 1961, when Castro proclaimed it socialist explicitly.
Meanwhile, Traore's government, let alone him, despite similar anti-colonial and pro-sovereignty rhetoric, does not have that defining moment YET in which he claims it as socialist.
Unless the time comes when it comes straight from the horse's mouth, I can't make any judgements of whether he's socialist or not publicly.
Sorry if I sound dismissive. I did not intend to
I read it that way, yeah. No worries.
Information to completely confirm it is sparse but:
Gensec Biro supports it CPM-K (Kenya).
Tambela, the Prime Minister chosen by Traore in 2022 was 100% a communist, he was dismissed in December 2024.
I don't think this appointment would've been made and kept for over 2 years by someone that was not also a marxist. As long as regional marxist groups are supportive I will be supportive, they know more.
He was part of a Marxist org in his youth and has staffed his administration with various Sankarists, who are socialists because I have never seen a Sankarist org or person who wasn't also socialist. Socialist Burkinabe orgs like the Thomas Sankara Center pretty much treat him like a socialist.
It's pretty obvious he is one even if he's not being open about it. At the certain point, when someone has a past history of being in a socialist org, is widely acknowledged by socialist orgs within the country to be a fellow socialist, and is more or less making decisions that a socialist would make, they pretty much are one. Traore doesn't have to be carrying around giant portraits of Lenin or make a speech called "Why I am a Socialist" in order to be one.
It's good that Sankarists are being employed across the state. My fear is that he gets merked by a lucky assassin and the revolution just instantly folds without a figurehead.
I dont wanna lean into great man theory but it isnt unheard of for a single assassination to largely kill the momentum of a movement immediately.
He allegedly was a local leader of sorts in Association nationale des étudiants du Burkina, a Burkinabe Marxist organization. But I'm far from an expert.
He reminds me of the Derg, a bit. He does a lot of socialist policies and is anti-imperialist - so does him announcing it to the world matters? He probably doesn’t want to get killed by the CIA and their Ukrainian mercs.
That's a weird comparison.
Unlike Traore's Burkina Faso, which joined with Niger and Mali, in an anti-imperialist West African military agreement of AES, with no ideological path to meet YET,
the DERG was an explicitly Marxist Leninist state focused on cracking down on other fellow Marxist Leninists, like the states of Somalia and Eritrea and Tigrayan rebels, in a fit of ethnic sectarianism, in East Horn of Africa.
Oh no not how derg operated, but the whole military leading couping the government but doing socialist actions. There is a very informative and mostly neutral with some lib video about them.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: