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Showing posts with the label "Thomas Sankara"
With a few rare exceptions, "most governments [of the developing countries] have not been willing to act counter to neoliberal policy. The links between the leaders of these countries and the hub of decision making in most industrial countries are multifarious. Some of the ruling presidents, in particular in Africa, were brought to power during the Cold War, or owe their positions to it. Some are in power because they helped the elimination of or allowed the overthrow of heads of states who, like Thomas Sankara, the President of Burkina Faso and assassinated in 1987, wanted to commit their country to alternative, locally generalised development and social justice. Others simply prefer to follow the neoliberal current for fear of being destabilized or overthrown. But there is another factor of conservatism that works in favour of large debt and should not be underestimated. Most governments, both left and right wing, try to gain the goodwill of the local capitalists who have eve