By Cassacá-64
On December 3, 2023, the President of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, issued a decree dissolving the ANP (National People’s Assembly) in violation of Article 94, No. 1 of the Constitution, which prohibits the dissolution of parliament for twelve months after elections. Thus, with the President’s attempt to dissolve Parliament, we are witnessing a constitutional coup whose intention is to establish an authoritarian dictatorial state.
Yes, his actions reveal his intention to establish a dictatorial state. Embalo’s actions violate constitutional principles, just as he has been doing so since he proclaimed himself President of the Republic. The collapse of Parliament under such conditions is only possible in a dictatorial regime, and Guinea-Bissau is under a dictatorial regime. The implantation of the regime began during the mandate of former President José Mario Vaz in 2014. Embalo has given continuity to it and has fought relentlessly to help this authoritarian regime, which is anchored in the desires of the bourgeoisie of Guinea-Bissau and subregional, take root.
It is extremely important to denounce the involvement of some states that promote Embalo’s dictatorial regime like the Portuguese Republic via President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and former Prime Minister António Costa, and the Republic of Senegal under the command of President Macky Sall, who has been his godfather from the beginning. In addition, other West African states have supported the creation of an anti-democratic and dictatorial state in Guinea-Bissau.
The prize awarded to Embalo by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa during his state visit to Portugal last October was not only a recognition of the servile role Embalo has played in the defense of the interests of the Portuguese state in the sub-region ECWOS (Economic Community of West African States), especially in Senegal, but also the vain attempt to sanitize the authoritarian regime of Embalo. The aim, it seems, was to help him attract Guinea-Bissau voters for the 2024 presidential elections and, of course, to project his image at the international level. It is worth noting that most African leaders have received prizes from Western states for betraying the African peoples’ struggle.
The efforts of both the Guinea-Bissau bourgeoisie and the international bourgeoisie to consolidate a dictatorial state in Guinea-Bissau have a material basis. It is well known that Guinea, despite being a small country, has enormous potential in its natural resources, especially mineral and energy resources. And since it is a country known for its political instability, the sub-regional bourgeoisie, under the command of imperialism and in collusion with the bourgeoisie of Guinea-Bissau, has decided to forge the dictatorial regime of Embalo to guarantee the plundering of the natural resources of the homeland of Amilcar Cabral! This is to say that they are supporting Embalo in the name of supposed political stability. To accomplish this, it is necessary to suppress possible voices that challenge the unbridled plundering of the country.
Given that the presidential elections are nearing, as is the end of the ongoing oil exploration in Guinean waters, everything indicates that the exploitation will begin between 2024 and 2025. This is the reason why the Guinean bourgeoisie, personified in the MADEM G-15 (Movement for Democratic Alternation, Group of 15), is desperately selling its soul to the devil in exchange for the maintenance of the bloodthirsty regime of Embalo: to guarantee the profits in the mega-business of the exploitation of oil and other resources in Guinea.
However, the desperation of the MADEM G-15 has combined with the capitulation of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), which, even though it is the winning party of the last legislative elections and historically the party with the largest social base, as well as the biggest victim of the regime of Embalo in that it has suffered the most persecutions, has shamelessly boycotted calls to the masses to struggle. And when they have organized independently, they have been the first to call for calm and serenity. The PAIGC consciously rejects the masses’ participation in the struggle because it prefers to sit at the table with Embalo’s dictatorial regime and negotiate the distribution of profits from the sale of natural resources on Titina Silá’s land. This is why PAIGC, even after winning the elections in June of this year, has invited parties that were and still are on the side of Embalo’s regime – the PRS (Party of Social Renewal) and the PTG (Guinean Workers’ Party) – to be part of its government. It has done so, all in the name of a rotten peace that is aimed at stifling the conscience of the people and allowing all parties to participate in stealing the riches of the starving people of Guinea-Bissau.
Given the optimistic character of Guinea-Bissau’s political class, the people of Guinea-Bissau must organize with the working class to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Embalo. This is a process in which the PAIGC has a decisive role to play, which is to mobilize its support base to participate in this march. Embalo’s regime, feeling cornered, is irrevocably trying to revive the tribal discourse as a way of dividing to rule. Therefore, from Guinea to the Diaspora, our focus at this point should be to fight any divisive and xenophobic party that seeks to weaken us as a people through ethnic and religious instrumentalization. It is time for unity. Unity with all those who are determined to overthrow the regime of Embalo through strikes and street demonstrations. Together with the working class, the people of Guinea have the historic mission of saving our country from the hands of Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the dirty hands of imperialism. This is the only way we will be able to regain our freedoms and guarantees, take the country’s destiny into our hands, and control our resources to defend the interests of the people.
To achieve this, it is essential to promote discussions, debates, djumbais [1] (traditional meetings) in every region, sector, tabaca [2] (tobacco) shop, workplace, union, school, university, neighbourhood, and (parliamentary) seat. That is, we must organize in every corner of the country to find mechanisms to overthrow once and for all the dictatorial regime of Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
Down with the dictatorship!
Down with Embalo and his thugs!
Long live the workers of Guinea-Bissau!
Long live the working people of Guinea-Bissau!
New Constituent Assembly now!
Notes:
[1] A “djumbai” (traditional gathering) in Guinea-Bissau, a country where the level of violence against the most vulnerable remains very high, is a meeting to exchange views on rights violations and other issues such as justice, etc.
[2] Tabaca is where rolled tobacco is produced, one of Guinea-Bissau’s most important exports.
