When I saw how the international media was savaging Gbagbo I knew he had to be something right. I also found it curious that the Anglophone press in CI, that which was available on the net, was universally favorable to Ouattara, and the Francophone press just the opposite. I started to research and write something about it but got sidetracked. Now that Gbagbo is on trial in the Hague, I thought I'd share what I learned. What follows is a very brief history with some notes and links.
After WW2 the French empire was in tatters and was forced to grant concessions to its colonies. One was to grant representation in the French Parliament. Cote d'Ivoire sent one Felix Houphuet-Boigny whose family had long been in collaboration with their colonizers, and had profited handsomely because of it. The Boigny family owned a considerable amount of land, very unusual for native Ivoirians, upon which they grew coffee and cocoa, CI's biggest exports.
In Paris -Boigny made important contacts with imperial interests and became a favorite of de Gaulle's government. Eventually he made his way back to Africa where he founded a putatively leftist party. When elections were held he was swept into power whereupon he did a volte-face and renounced socialism and introduced neoliberal trade policies. He also banned political parties and trade unions. In furtherance of his decision to destroy organized labor, he instituted a liberal immigration policy which flooded the country with cheap labor, from which he benefited personally as well as politically.
Needless to say -Boigny became the toast of international capital, as he followed a zealously anti-USSR, pro-West foreign policy. It is said that -Boigny was a point man for Western intelligence operations in western Africa which destabilized defiant African governments including those of Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, and Kwame Enkruma, just to name a few.
He couldn't have been more accomodating to capital, particularly French capital
His imperialist bent gave rise to an opposition movement. This was headed by Laurent Gbagbo. He was one of the beneficiaries of France's post-WW2 colonial liberalization program. After getting a bachelor's in CI, he headed to Paris getting his master's and PhD at the Sorbonne. He then returned to his native country and formed a real leftist organization known as the Ivorian Popular Front. He was arrested and imprisoned for a year or two and only freed due to favorable circumstance and an angry public's clamor for his release.
The attempts to oust -Boigny were unsuccessful in large part because CI was relatively prosperous and enjoyed low unemployment. With a global drop of coffee/cocoa prices this period of equanimity ended. Unrest followed and -Boigny was forced to grant freedom of expression, and the formation of political parties and trade unions. Eventually, after an army mutinee, he had little choice but to call an election. He then trounced Gbagbo drawing five times his challenger's tally, leaving some to wonder about the reliability of the results.
When commodity prices dropped austerity measures were instituted. The man -Boigny pegged to design and implement the new fiscal program was Allasane Ouattara, the son of immigrants.
After -Boigny's death a violent succession struggle ensued, one replete with bizarre accidents and mysterious suicides. After years of strife a new election was called and Gbagbo garnered the most votes but not a majority. The run-off was much in dispute but Robert Guei was declared the winner. Public outrage was so fulsome that Guei fled and Gbagbo assumed the presidency.
Gbagbo's tenure was rather disappointing. Whether he was hamstrung by resistant capital, or was seduced by the trappings of power, or sank into the muck of compromise, not much changed in CI. There were no nationalizations of critical industries, no redistribution of land, no significant redistribution of wealth.
So why was he toppled? Most likely three things made capital depose him:
1, Oil was discovered offshore and Gbagbo proved a tough negotiator for big oil. He ran afoul of energy giant Total. [http://www.total.com/en/about-total/news/news-940500.html&idActu=2460]
2, He arrested "Chocolate Barons" of Bollore, the French agricultural titan, for swindling the government of CI. The resulting "Chocolate Trial" was a humiliation for international capital.[http://www.notrevoie.com/a_la_uneDerHeureN.asp?id=27]
3, He sided with workers when they went on strike against the French telecom/energy company Bouygues. The latter had engaged in a fierce union-bashing campaign which precipitated the walk-out.[http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1544-French-based-Bouygues-Creating-Union-Problems-in-Cote-d%E2%80%99Ivoire
]
These affronts caused international capital to issue genocidal sanctions. Here are some links and brief notes:
EU bans bonmd ivorian
http://www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/en/article_10899_en.htm
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article20980
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article20962
http://www.notrevoie.com/a_la_une.asp?id=39208
papal nuncio ambroise madtha condemns embargo closure of banks/schools/lack of medications
http://www.notrevoie.com/a_la_une.asp?id=39208
US sanctions
http://eliesmith.blogspot.com/2011/01/united-states-imposes-sanctions-on-cote.html
http://sanctionlaw.com/2011/01/06/ofac-issues-cote-divoire-sdn-designations/
This brings us to the election which prompted the civil war. Here's some of the evidence of Gbagbo's victory offered by his supporters:
election fraud data [pdf]
http://www.docshare.com/doc/260210/EXEMPLES-FRAUDE-ELECTORALE-COTE-D-IVOIRE-OUAT
IEC declares O winner/ counstitutional council says gbagbo
http://allafrica.com/stories/201012140623.html
French give order that election results must be released today'
IEC hides out in secret in hotel and give resulkts from there.
what media didnt tell u
http://agendia.jigsy.com/entries/africa/2010-elections-in-cote-d-ivoire-what-most-media-do-not-tell-you
It didn't matter though, capital wants Gbagbo out and their agents--the media, the UN, the Western governments etc.--launched a war against him which led to the his arrest.
Gbagbo laid the blame with French capital:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27879.htm
Gbagbo now languishes in prison, but he still has a large contingent of supporters despite Ouattara's undisguised efforts to genocide them. Of what I've read of Gbagbo, this was the most flattering:
http://www.notrevoie.com/a_la_une.asp?id=39209
I am not sure what to make of Gbagbo, as a revolutionary he leaves a bit to be desired. But what is clear is that he, like Slobodan Milosevic before him, is innocent of the maccabre charges lodged against him in the Hague. And as such is worthy of our support.
