By WORKERS’ VOICE

Angola is currently one of the main sites of class struggle in Africa. Workers are engaged in struggle against the austerity policies that Joao Lourenço of the MPLA has imposed for the benefit of U.S. and Chinese imperialism, with cuts to social services and fuel subsidies, as well as the privatization of public services and attacks on workers’ few remaining legal rights.

Workers have responded with significant mobilizations, which have faced severe repression from the MPLA, leading to dozens of deaths and thousands of injuries and arrests. These mobilizations have been largely spontaneous, led by the poorest sectors of the country, but they have also joined forces with organized workers, such as taxi drivers on strike.

Angola has special importance in the history of the movement for Black liberation, as it was one of the key regions of Africa plundered by the transatlantic slave trade. From about 1960 to 1975, Angolan working people fought a bitter war in which they were able to throw off the yoke of Portuguese colonialism.

Today, Black people both in Africa and in the diaspora, and their comrades, continue to fight against oppression, whether that’s expressed in discriminatory racism against Black people in multiracial societies or in the neocolonial economic roles assigned to the countries of Africa by the institutions of imperialism.

We are in full solidarity with the Angolan workers and students that are fighting for their rights against the brutal, reactionary oppression unleashed by the MPLA and the broader capitalist order that it serves today. On Aug. 8, there will be a day of action, with rallies organized at Angolan embassies and consulates around the world to lift up the voices of the Angolan people fighting against repression, and to unite as an international working class against oppression and exploitation.