anxiety encountered in the meaning of things and of beings in the full moon lit instead of street lamps because poverty and moonlight marry well anxiety in the skeleton of wooden poles threateningly inclined holding up a heat zinc roof and in the backyards sign with excrement and bad smells in furniture dirty with grease in tattered sheets in mattressless beds in the brooding and sorrowful poem saturday in the musex castino natto the first president of liberated angola reflects on the sordid physicality of the poverty endemic in the sprawling slums surround his birthplace the country's capital luanda the destitution situated in the city's outlying informal settlements is depicted within nito's verse as a chokehold on the collective imagination of the ghettos in the poem nato gestures towards a dual character of poverty highlighting at once the ever-present permanence of probation whilst also alluding to its kinetic aggressive dominance over the corporeal senses taste touch sight and smell until the mid-1970s angola had served as a colony of the portuguese empire the sudden collapse of the ultra conservative estado novo government in lisbon during 1974 abruptly halted the centuries of over imperial exploitation wrought upon angola the success of the mainland domestic coup would ensure the simultaneous triumph of the angolan struggle for independence and the broader defeat of colonial rule in lucifer and africa the seismic recalibration of power catalysed by the carnation revolution was in actuality the culmination of localized independence campaigns waged against colonialism in angola then portuguese guinea and mozambique any analysis of angola's experiments in socialism must therefore begin with a brief overview of the material conditions of the country prior to and during the era of colonialism the early portuguese colonisers were more interested in cataloguing the interactions of other europeans with angola than recording the culture of the colonised however from these early records we can still discern a potted history of the indigenous whose legacy informs the socialist experiment of the late 20th century from the 15th century through to the early 1900s angola was divided into kingdoms the congo kingdom was established at least as early as the 15th century and this mode of territorial government co-existed and synthesized with the portuguese colonial system until the early 20th century which saw the collapse of the kwanama kingdom and the external imposition of portuguese republican rule on angola a right-wing portuguese military coup of may 1926 would lead to the installation of a one-party regime in lisbon consequently angola's political and economic development would align with the direction and thrust of the estado novo the 1940s and 50s bore witness to a weakening in african acquiescence to portuguese colonization three primary channels of resistance to direct colonialism emerged during this time period these being the people's movement for the liberation of angola or the mpla the national liberation front of angola or the fnla and finally the national union for the total independence of angola or unitar the ideological frictions that existed between these groups in the foundational stages of angolan independence would go on to inform the fractured trajectory of vanguard and socialism in the decades to follow the visible presence of the portuguese colonial hierarchy which had become more culturally invasive during the salazar years fueled an antagonistic dichotomy between the indigenous population of angola and the elite occupiers the fnla led by holden roberto steered the early struggles against nato's mpla under 1966 at vimbi a former member of the same group broke away and formed unitar by the early 1970s united began infiltrating the major population centers expanding its area of influence westward savimbi's grouping became an alternative centre of mass power during the 1970s they focused on raising the political consciousness of the peasantry and by the time of independence claimed the allegiance of around 40 of angola as the official government of angola this video will focus primarily on the successes and failings of the mpla led first by augustino natto and then by dos santos the departed portuguese colonisers did not officially recognize any one of the four most pro-independence groups as the governing power in their wake they instead officially declared the angolan people to be sovereign the mpla announced the establishment of its government in luanda and named its territory the people's republic of angola the mpla was able to establish themselves as the superior military power with the support of 10 000 to 12 000 cuban troops and soviet arms worth around 200 million dollars after successfully pushing back their competitors the organization of african unity along with the united nations and portugal would finally recognize the mpla as the legitimate governing party however this dudura authority would not automatically translate into de facto power and so a prolonged attempt at the establishing of socialism within the context of civil war began the mpla was founded in 1956 during the rule of the estado novo some commentators have sought to characterize the movement as intellectually insular a party machine whose ideological reach was limited to urban centers such as luanda this however is far from the truth whilst luanda would prove a pivotal post for strategic outreach the party's popular support would reach as high as 25 percent amongst the angolan population whilst agitating outside of government prior to taking power the mpla successfully embedded itself in the political and cultural life of the umbundu people the second largest ethnolinguistic group of angola their influence extended from luanda to the dante and kwanzaa rivers of the north and south respectively the mpla's grounding in northwestern angola facilitated interplay between party members and large numbers of angolan refugees from the northerly leopoldville or modern day kinshasa in the democratic republic of the congo there were limits to the mpla's authority during the anti-colonial struggles of the 60s and the party's failure to build a wide enough base of support will become apparent during the course of the video it should be noted however that the party was able to successfully entrench itself in northwest angola and the effective building of the large popular power base precipitated the external promotion of the mpla by soviet russia and sections of portuguese society party rules dictated that the members of the mpla could not own the means of production this was introduced as an anti-corruption measure of party recruitment in the late 1970s paul fauvay writes that quote in a workplace where a party sell is being established prospective members have to justify their application not only to the party but also to the workers in that particular factory all applicants must appear before a mass meeting and answer any questions their workmates care to put end quotes this mechanism was established to forge a close interconnection between the party rank and file and the angolan masses the mpla had initially aspired to encourage people's power in aid of maintaining relationships between central authority and the general population basil davidson writing in 1977 gives a specific example of this in action detailing the functioning of a citizens community quote the town and rural district of puma lying within the shadow of the western rim of the high plateau in huambo province is administered by a commissioner of consul or districts but he works together as he explained to me with a commute design this is a citizens committee it represents action groups of puma town a district these form the elements of elective self-government and embody the administrative aspect of the mpla as a movement the object is to ensure that democratic centralism incorporates a real and living influence from the base end quote prior to independence only those dwelling in city centres were eligible for health treatment the colonial hierarchy of race ensured that large swathes of the indigenous population were left without any form of health coverage or access upon taking power the mpla prioritised establishing a national health service to span the entire country this ambition was never realized due to the constant disruption of government services in unitar controlled areas during the civil war however there were still limited advances in healthcare to the benefit of the rural population in the late 1970s the government launched a mass inoculation campaign amongst children to fight the scourge of polio the mpla also sponsored a network of clinics for preventative and curative medicine by the 1980s the government claimed to have established 700 health posts and 140 health centers in the rural areas conflict between the mpla and unitar prevented the flourishing of the effective healthcare transformation that the country so badly needed however under fraught conditions the angolan socialist government was able to expand health coverage to those left for dead by the now extinct colonial system the government estimated the level of illiteracy following independence at between 85 and 90 percent and prioritized education as an immediate task initiated in 1976 the literacy drive gave priority to rural peasants who have been completely ignored by the portuguese education system due to the ongoing conflict the program was limited in reach however the mpla reported that in the first year of the literacy campaign 102 000 adults learned to read and write by 1980 the figure had risen to 1 million the government prioritized literacy and education in its policy formulation however the ongoing conflict surrounding the empire state building prevented the roll out of an effective national education infrastructure the early years of mpla rule saw positive reforms in agriculture to the benefit of rural workers the government encouraged the expropriation of abandoned settler properties which were subsequently turned into state farms agricultural enterprises were nationalized and peasant cooperatives were encouraged early experiments in socialist enterprise were successful especially near to luanda however due to limits on territorial jurisdiction these early government schemes couldn't be rolled out across angola the impressa nationale de cafe was established as a state body to distribute angola's most important cash crop coffee the agricultural sector which had under the colonial rulers suffered from the imposition of forced and child labor was liberated from such antiquated forms of servitude unfortunately many of these early successes were not sustainable over the long term and as early as the late 1970s angola had already begun to reorient its policies towards western collaboration and marketization after the swift departure of the portuguese colonizers many enterprises were left abandoned these enterprises were subsequently taken over and run by the same angolans formerly subservient to the erstwhile colonial capitalists leading to the organic growth of a barter economy whose profits which took the form of the products generated by each enterprise were then shared out evenly among the workers in october 1976 the mpla government sought to realize the potential of these enterprises in order to generate tax revenues for national reconstruction governmental management was assigned to the worker enterprises and each of the firms forged close links with the new trade union organizations taking form across angola basil davidson writing in 1977 observed the economic progress unleashed by the integration of these firms into the national economy he writes that quote investigation of some of the larger enterprises especially in benguela libito and huambo city indicated that they were on the way to recovery the nationalised casa quail sugar refinery at caton baylor for example is set to produce 24 000 tonnes this year and 30 000 tons in 1978 against a 1973 high of 33 000 tonnes the nationalized saw fame ship repair yards at the beto could handle only 73 ships in 1976 compared with 113 in 1973 but expects to handle more than 140 in 1977. other enterprises have done better than these examples others again have done worse end quote the law of state intervention was enacted by angola in february 1976 which allowed for the nationalization of private property the angolan government passed a new mining law which stated that all the minerals in angola belonged to the angolan people the mid-1970s saw the nationalization of banks insurance companies internal transportation and distribution networks and foreign trade as well as all of those enterprises which were abandoned by their former portuguese owners the stated aim of this large-scale insourcing revolution was to return production to the levels of 1973. in manufacturing 55 of shares that had previously been in portuguese hands were co-opted by the state the remaining 45 remained owned by foreign imperial powers such as west germany britain and south africa miles stated that in all the practical work of the party all correct leadership is necessarily from the masses to the masses what this point presupposes is a necessary level of alignment and symbiosis of ideas between the party and the masses the idea should be derived from the needs and wants of the masses before being refined and ideologically condensed for mass consumption this dynamic tailors party policy to popular world and in theory guarantees the integrity of said ideas after the portuguese colonizers departed angola all three of the pro-independence groups the fnla unitar and of course the government in waiting claimed to be true representatives of the angolan people that the three belligerents would want to claim individual legitimacy as governing forces is no surprise the fraud situation demanded political assertiveness though the elongated territorial and ideological fracturing evident during this period also attached to the fact that no single group could legitimately claim to be the authentic voice of the masses as previously discussed the mpla did introduce mechanisms to increase party accountability once in power but their initial estrangement from the masses so the fact the party was never able to claim 50 support ensured the inapplicability of their policy formulation in the post-colonial context at least according to this maoist framework the mpla's party programme of 1977 affirmed that quote the mpla is the party of the working class uniting workers peasants revolutionary intellectuals and other workers dedicated to the cause of the proletariat in a solid alliance end quote these words date back to the founding stages of the mpla government and analyzed in retrospect they convey an unrealised aspiration rather than a reality made concrete during the era of angolan socialism bhagavan writing in the 80s points out that quote the state has not intervened in the peasant sector which comprises 80 percent of the angolan population it cannot even if it wanted to as it lacks the capacity end quote beyond the reach of the state and party influence the rural peasantry were engaged in a car struggle only insofar as their sons comprised the majority of the armed forces the fact of the majority peasant population would not have presented a barrier to revolutionary activity in isolation however the territorial limitations imposed by the ongoing civil war made it nine impossible to integrate this section of the population into socialist angola prior to independence the commercial farms have been the central supplies of food products to the urban population this source of supply was bolstered by the contributions of the subsistence peasantry whose foodstuffs navigated their way to city dwellers via portuguese traders after the departure of the colonisers numerous gaps in the angolan economy became visible these economic rifts have previously been obscured by the relationship of dependency cultivated by the portuguese imperialists with the collapse of cultivation in commercial farms and the simultaneous departure of portuguese traders two vital lines of supply dried up the detrimental impact of angola's rupture with imperial portugal can be observed in the decline of food exports trade in all of the main cash crops saw significant diminution the supply lines faltered to gain a concrete idea of the scale of supply failures we should analyze two cash crops and the changes in their respective supplies between 1977 and 1985. take beans and cotton exports and beans during the 1977 year titled 33 500 tons by 1985 this figure had slumped to 2 400 tons cotton exports experienced similar depreciation dropping from 79 300 tonnes to a dismal 260 tons in 1985. the mpla had attempted to increase food production through state farms about a fifth of all foodstuffs that made its way to governmental shops came from these organizations however the produce from these farms could not cover the demand therefore about five times that amount had to be imported from abroad by 1985 inefficiency and wastefulness of resources within the farms had ensured that almost total decline the farms had initially suffered with staff shortages and problems of absenteeism as those who had been compelled to work for their portuguese overlords now took leave to return to their families however in later years the worker absence was caused primarily by the failure of the state to pay workers wages as funds were diverted to combating unitar the failure of the state to properly incentivize staff retention in farms and the enduring skills gap bequeathed by the coloniser's withdrawal from the sector ensured the failure of these organizations in the context of an underdeveloped economic framework sankara's government in burkina faso provide an interesting counterpoint in history they would learn from the failed experiments of nato and dos santos his government placed a priority on increasing wages to state farm workers and targeted food self-sufficiency as opposed to cash crops angola is a country that at least in theory is sufficiently endowed with natural resources to realize its own development however the development strategy adopted by the mpla in the 70s and 80s failed to leverage the benefits of these mineral riches the country possesses iron ore phosphates uranium titanium copper gold manganese bauxite mica nickel cobalt chrome limestone and more prior to the mpla's takeover the vast majority of angola's skilled labor have been derived from the portuguese settlers whose departure ensured significant skills and brain drain where in 1972 5561 manufacturing enterprises were functioning by 1985 this number had dropped to 156 a miserly title in comparison to previous among mass consumption goods textile cloth and wheat flour production were in 1985 about two-thirds of what they were in 1973. similar depreciations were observable in the production of oils fats sugar and salt the diamond export trade during the eighties is an instructive indicator of angola's failure to diversify away from oil doyoman the country's major diamond mining company was owned by the south africans prior to the advent of angolan socialism the mbla subsequently took the majority shareholding of daimang in an attempt to return exports to the heights of the early 70s when angola had been the fourth largest producer of diamonds on the planet due to the dual impact of unitar insurgency and technological underdevelopment the majority state-owned diamane was unable to reach production on the scale of the portuguese after some encouraging improvements in production during the early 1980s the numbers slumped to 200 000 carats by 1986. folio to maintain the portuguese mining equipment led to the shutting down of one of the more productive plants and unitar attacks massively constrained productivity in two other regional divisions of the state-run organization in the oil sector as with other parts of the economy the angolan state was not able to develop the technological and infrastructural capacity enough to ensure sufficient production therefore the mpla allowed for western companies to extract angola's natural wealth such western companies included cabinda petrofina texaco and alfaquatin when oil prices collapsed in 1986 the government chose to cut imports of goods and services whilst producing double the oil the subsequent drought in the availability of raw materials further stymied angular's struggling manufacturing sector and led to the halting of development investments on the part of the cash-strapped state [Music] angola was headed first by augustine anito from 1975 to 1979. after nito's death jose eduardo dos santos took over and ruled angola right up to 2017 the two leaders would develop polar fascination effects during the 1970s and 1980s the former with the soviet union the latter with the international monetary fund nieto had sought to model angola's economy on the soviet system which was no surprise given that the level of military support offered by moscow was instrumental in securing the mpla power however the positive policy actions that saw the successful nationalization of the angolan economy did not directly align angola's development with the socialist road why was this as we previously observed the mpla initially expanded the role of the state to protect the country's wealth from foreign exploitation they did this by creating companies to control angola's mineral and petroleum wealth even the original deals the state struck with western oil companies successfully protected a large amount of profits for domestic use and yet many of the key features or aspirations of a successful left economy are not identifiable in the formative years of angolan socialism these being independence self-sufficiency and industrial development other than picking the low-hanging fruit and highlighting the ongoing conflict again what other impediments were there to angola's realization of socialism via the soviet model somerville writing in the 1980s states that quote although the soviet union and its allies have sought to increase trade and have begun to purchase coffee oil and cotton the country's trade relations have remained western oriented end quote there isn't an unwritten code stating that socialist states should not trade or open up to the west in fact angola would have required such developments and relations in order to more quickly advance their technological sector though the over-reliance on the export of cash crops and valuables to western powers quickly cemented a neocolonial dynamic that remains evident in angola's trading relations today over time these forms of economic exploitation can corrode at the state's ability to control its own destiny and angola was at most times exporting its natural wealth in order to secure finance that would be handed straight back to the imperial core in order to fund food imports the failure to incentivize production in state farms and take radical steps towards land reform for the growth of foodstuffs for domestic consumption ensured angola's ensnaring in lower plains of development whilst the nationalisation of the economy may be a necessary precondition for socialist development and the expansion of industrial base it is not an end in itself further depth of strategic planning would have been necessary to diversify angola's economy away from these exports of diminishing returns by the time of augustine natto's death the mpla had already been trying and failing to win wars on two fronts the first frontier was on the national theatre against ideological antagonists unitar the second war was against food insecurity dos santos had inherited a state modeled on the revisionist soviet archetype but he lacked either the will or the nause to steer the country's development down the socialist road throughout the nito era technological and infrastructural sluggishness had prevented the building of socialist prosperity in angola and given that the country's only high performing sector oil was largely made viable by the deployment of western mining equipments a gradually softened attitude towards liberalization on the part of the mpla was and is pretty understandable adriano nito and elder jamba draw our attention towards some of the key conditions to realize development along imf lines this being the international monetary fund the end of monopolies in key sectors policies are designed to put an end to monopolies at both state and private level curtailing state capitalism in favour of encouraging market-oriented wealth accumulation this can be achieved through the privatisation of public enterprises dismantling of business centralization opening of market to private investors and eradication of other various situations involving revenues and government agencies the failures of imf policies in the developing world are well documented and angola did not but this unavailing trend when they too succumbed to the imf's monetary enticements in 1987. from 1982 onwards the dos santos government had attempted to deal with the synchronous crises in the balance of payments and oil devaluation by cutting imports this was to the devastation of supplies of raw materials intermediate goods tools and other essentials the fallout from pursuing such brutal forms of austerity would likely have been a push factor in signing up to the imf's terms angola in common with many other countries that have opened up to western capital from a position of geopolitical vulnerability implemented supply-side reforms handing over the hard-won gains of the state to the capitalist class nieto and jamba argue that quote the privatisation of natural resource sectors became a key goal for reform programs across africa supported by the provision of guarantees for the private sector enquired this approach can be contrasted with the development strategy undertaken by countries in the east such as singapore and china whose marketization policies have been guided and implemented through state-owned enterprises and where the state itself still maintains control over national assets and the commanding heights of the economy harry lai writes that quote china's approach is liberalisation without privatization the state gradually relaxed entry of firms to the market while trying to improve the performance of soes and avoided mass selloff of their assets end quote the mpla may have benefited from adopting a liberalisation program with similarly significant state involvement however such an approach would have required the forfeiting of imf capital and its attached conditions in the years that followed the adoption of the imf package the mpla would distance itself from its nominal commitment to marxism leninism after the disbanding of the soviet union the party officially identified itself as social democratic and gave up any pretense towards pursuing a transformative socialist agenda as i've mentioned earlier in the video angola is a country endowed with significant mineral wealth throughout much of the 20th century it was assumed that nations like angola countries have plenty should be able to evolve political institutions to properly capitalize on this natural wealth in order to realize their own development as the respective processes of independence and formative decolonization swept across the continent of africa however it became evident that the resource-rich nations were often times those least able to break from the structures of neocolonial trade relationships in the african context some of these countries might include nigeria the democratic republic of the congo sudan sierra leone and of course angola the advent of ongoing conflict with unitar can also be read as a grim symptom of the resource curse the abundance of natural wealth was likely a key driver of the intense conflict with the united states and the people's republic of china both seeing fit to angle for their share of the spoils via their backing of unitar the resource curse however whilst a prevalent affliction in the developing world is not inevitable there are measures that the mpla could have taken to fortify socialist development the parallel example of libya during the period of gaddafi's jamaria serves as an exemplar of a successfully diversified developed economy in common with angola libya was reliant on oil production albeit with smaller reserves to expand its economic base but by placing an urgent emphasis on harnessing the revenues generated to develop industry and augment production libya was able to win concrete gains for its people across a range of public services it's worth mentioning too that libya's membership of opec or the organization of the petroleum exporting countries was a decisive factor in their ability to weaponize oil against nefarious western capitalists and in the interests of the libyan people angola did not join opec or seek to weaponise their oil resources in this way until the mid-2000s well after their imf restructuring had rendered impossible the possibility of socialism throughout the early 80s the mpla government tried to encourage economic self-sufficiency and was cautious towards taking loans from foreign powers however their prudent avoidance of economic largesse did not ensure the necessary level of diversification to realize socialist development the mpla was successful in adopting the soviet model and achieved large-scale nationalizations of the state and services but rather than harnessing this power to roadmap the socialist path the government consumed an ongoing conflict instead relied on the export of raw materials in order to maintain the subsistence diet of its population without the benefit of counterfactual knowledge we'll never know what could have been achieved by angola and its people had they achieved victory in the prolonged civil war against unitar and the fnla the large mass of peasantry that inhabited the rural areas of the country were largely unreachable due to conflict and what tentative steps were taken in generating a manufacturing base were rendered fruitless as a result of unitar attacks the angolan socialist experiment was initiated in some of the harshest conditions conceivable to the onlooker this doesn't exempt the mpla from its failings in the task of state building but it has to inform our perspective on the ultimate defeat of the neto project during the late 1970s the radical left of the mpla led by nito alves had attempted to overthrow the more moderate nito i didn't include this aspect of the period in question in my video as there isn't that much to analyze the coup was crushed with the backing of castro's cuban forces it's entirely plausible that a project with better fortified marxist loneliness credentials could have fared better in the duty of developing angola they've had the ascendant alves factions simply align themselves more closely with the soviets whilst overlooking the hard graft of economic diversification it's hard to envision an outcome any different from that muted out to nito and its adherence angola's imf approved economic model is tailored built by the bourgeoisie for the benefit of the bourgeoisie despite enormous growth since 1991 there has been no observable trickle-down effect to the masses technological acceleration has facilitated gradual rises in life expectancy and living standards in line with gains experienced by other third world nations but broadly speaking angola remains a country tied to the extractive relations of the neocolonial period the failure to build a lasting socialist legacy from 1975 to 1991 whatever the reasons does not deflect from the need for angola to engineer socialism anew in the present angola is still led by the mpla and perhaps the spirit that produced socialism in the region back in the mid to late 70s still informs the direction of the governing party we can hope at least thanks so so much for watching i'll be dropping the sources in the description again apologies for how long it's taken me to put out content i have a job and it's taking up all of my time so i'm just trying to fit in these videos around work that i'm doing but i'd just like to thank all of you who've engaged with the channel so far if you like the video go ahead and like it if you want to subscribe that would be great or if you want to comment all of that helps the algorithm and thank you so so much comrades for watching and supporting the channel that means and absolutely the world to me that so many people have already subscribed um so yeah share it if you want to and let's keep this thing going maybe or not this has been socialist quick folks thank you and goodbye [Music] so [Music] because [Music] [Music] so [Music] you