Suggested Title: Famine in Africa & Ireland
Two articles, 2nd is '150 years on: The Irish famine, why
one million died' [ws46].

    ******** Why are people starving in Africa ********
                   from Workers Solidarity No 33
                                          [1991?]

It's hard to know how any one can consider 
capitalism a viable system when looking at 
the situation of the less developed countries.  
After the millions raised by Live Aid, it seems 
unreal that people are going hungry. A recent 
UN report estimates that 30 million people 
face starvation.  Yet EC beef, butter and wine 
mountains rot in European warehouses, 
farmers are ploughing crops back into the 
land, in US corn belt fields of wheat are 
burnt.

There's a bit of a modern myth that the problems 
of Africa are either there own fault (over 
population, wars) or beyond anyones control 
(drought, desertification).  Though it's true these 
are contributary factors, many other countries 
cope with these same problems without the huge 
loss of life suffered by Africa (for example China,  
even England has been through war and drought). 

The reasons cited by the UN for the deaths of 
these people are as follows; lack of resources from 
the international community, poor planning and 
falling prices on the commodity markets 
(especially for cocoa and coffee).  Companies selling 
to Africa have tightened up credit terms while  
external debt levels continued to increase.

COCOA AND COFFEE

When Africa was first colonised, land was switched 
from production of food to feed the local population 
to the production of 'cash crops' such as cocoa, tea, 
coffee and sugar.  These crops were exported to 
colonising countries at low prices.  In a similar way 
corn was grown in Ireland during the 1845 famine.  
Today coffee and cocoa is still a major export of 15 
African countries as they need the cash provided to 
keep up with debt repayments.  Cocoa prices have 
fallen to there lowest level in 15 years while coffee 
is at similarity low level.

DEBT

In the early 1970's many African governments 
borrowed heavily.  About 40% of debt is owed 
directly to other governments.  In almost all cases 
this money was lent on the condition that it be 
used to purchase arms from the donor country or 
that subsides be granted to multinationals based in 
the donor country. In this way the third world 
country is made to pay twice over.  25% of the debt 
is owed to the IMF and the World Bank.  Today 
Africa's debt is estimated at 270 billion dollars.  
Repayments consume 30 per cent of export 
earnings.

UNITED NATIONS

It's obvious that the governments of the U.S., 
China and Europe aren't really interested in 
combating the crisis and these are the 
governments that run the UN.  The last program 
of aid implemented by the United Nations 
(according to their own report) in 1986 met with 
little sucess.  This was the plan the UN promised 
would revive Africa's economies.  Instead, in their 
own words "By the end of 1990, it had become 
evident that the African crisis had indeed 
deepened...the average African continued to get 
poorer and suffer a persistent fall in an already 
meagre living standard". Now, five years later, 
they add that even if their latest plan was fully 
implemented (they call it ambitious) the average 
income per head in sub-Saharan Africa would only 
reach US$700 per annum in 25 years time.  
Rather than offering the solution the governments 
that make up the UN itself that are the problem.

THE FUTURE

 So it doesn't look as if the situation will 
fundamentally change.  But then, why should the 
Western governments want things any different?  
Africa provides the bosses with markets for the 
surplus goods we produce as well as cheap labour 
and raw materials.  Live Aid showed that workers 
of the West are not willing to let Africa starve (as 
some Greens would argue), however it also showed 
that while the means of production and all the 
resulting profits are in the hands of the bosses, 
individual attempts at resolving the problems will 
do little more than make a dent in the problem.  
The type of massive development that Africa 
requires will only come about when the resources of 
this world are distributed according to need and not 
according to profit. 

Aileen O'Carroll

 ************ Putting the record straight  ************
              on the Irish Famine 1845-49
                 Why 1,000,000 died
                                     from WS 46 [1995]

The Famine was not just a result of British 
Government incompetence or the greed of a few 
landlords. Andrew Blackmore explores what happens 
when you have a system that puts profits for the 
few above all else.

The conditions for Irish peasants leading up to the 
famine accentuated what was to be the worst 
disaster in Europe in the 19th century. Before the 
famine struck nearly half of rural families lived 
in windowless, mud cabins of one room. They were 
the lucky ones. The unemployed roamed the country, 
begging and sleeping in ditches.  

With a population of 8 million, land was scarce, 
and many families had to survive on half an acre of 
land. They could only do this by growing potatoes 
to feed them through the winter months.

When the potato blight (a type of fungus) struck in 
1845, mass starvation was inevitable. Families who 
relied on the potato to keep them alive were left 
with nothing. Even those who grew grain or barley 
were faced with a stark choice; sell the food in 
order to pay the rent, or eat the food and be 
evicted. 

As the years went on, the blight continued. 
Millions lost everything, their homes, their few 
possessions, and of course, their lives. 

The rich too had to tighten their belts. But not as 
much. In 1847, while the famine reached a peak of 
death and despair, the Dublin 'season' continued as 
before in a lively fashion. With the exception of a 
few notable cases, the rich felt their only 
obligation was to make a donation to charity. After 
that they were free to hunt and party, as they 
always had done. Lord Bessborough, the Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland, who died in that year 
complained that what had made him poorly was not 
the famine but too much 'balls and drawing rooms'

These landlords continued to make valuable cash 
through the export of foodstuffs such as grain, as 
well as wool and flax. All through the famine they 
were exporting food that could have kept people 
alive. John Mitchell (who published the United 
Irishman) claimed that for every ship that came to 
Ireland with food, there were six ships sailing 
out.

As far as landlords were concerned they had the 
right to do so. The right of the rich few to sell 
food to the highest bidder, came before the needs 
of the majority for food for survival. And the 
right of the rich to collect rent came before the 
right to housing. The British government supported 
that 'right' by bringing in the 'Coercion Act' 
enabling it to declare martial law, and a curfew 
between sunset and sunrise wherever they wanted. 

The 'Coercion Act' and other previously existing 
laws were used to evict tenants who could not pay 
rent. The soldiers and constabulary were used to 
protect food for export from the starving.

In order to avoid mass revolt the government set up 
public works schemes. Impoverished peasants were 
asked to build roads that went from nowhere to 
nowhere,  for such low wages that they could hardly 
buy enough food to live on. 

Even this work was not available for many people.  
For example, in Mayo in 1846, 400,000 people 
applied for 13,000 jobs. 

Along with such a pathetic response, the government 
pushed much of the responsibility to feed the poor 
onto the shoulders of charities. Soup kitchens were 
set up, by religious groups and charities 
throughout Ireland. In some cases the soup was so 
watery that doctors would advise people not to 
drink it! 

Even if the charities had been able to feed 
everyone that was not the point. The right of 
people to food and the right to life should have 
come before everything else.

The famine caused roughly 1,000,000 deaths and 
1,500,000 emigrants. In the aftermath, the 
population of Ireland was to halve to 4,000,000. It 
is an example of a terrible tragedy,  but one that 
is inevitable only when the profit motive comes 
before people.

