The anonymous poster that uses a number for a name wants to dismiss the role of capitalist / imperialist economics on keeping the world starving and simply blame the whole thing on corrupt leaders in the third world. Yet what “n5667� fails to see is that the worst and most corrupt dictators in the world are installed by the U.S. government and U.S. capitalists and propped up with all kinds of "aid" that is used to keep the people down as well as by the constant threat of U.S. military intervention.

Nigeria is a good example, I’m glad the number named “n5667� brought it up.

When talking of Africa we must speak of colonialism. Nigeria was a British colony until 1960. The new leaders the British put in power shared the British colonial contempt for the average Nigerian person. From Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to Abdulsalam Abubakar and now Olusegun Obasanjo, successive oppressive Nigerian governments have flowed from the system first set up by British imperialism.

Involved in these corrupt governments Shell Oil has shipped oil from Nigeria for 50 years. Those who have spoken out on the environmental and economic crimes of Shell Oil have been executed for their words. Seventy percent of Nigeria’s 130 million people live on less than $1 a day. Presently Nigeria is producing about 2.33 billion barrels of oil a day. The profits from this oil are made by Shell Oil, not the Nigerian people. What the corrupt puppet dictators of the Nigerian government get out of the whole deal is not even a drop in the bucket compared to what Shell oil has and continues to plunder.

Today Venezuela has been using their oil resources to help meet the human needs of the Venezuelan people through various programs. In one of these Chavez has been trading Venezuelan oil with Cuba providing doctors for Venezuela’s poor. For these sane and reasonable policies that are lifting up the conditions of the Venezuelan people, the U.S. government has attempted two coups against Chavez.

Today there is widespread rebellion in Nigeria. A people’s revolution is on the order of the day. The first tasks will be to totally dissolve the current government including its military and judiciary and establish a people’s government that nationalizes the oil to spend oil money on meeting the needs of the Nigerian people rather than enriching Shell share holders and corrupt dictators. Such a government, touching sacred capitalism, will become a target of U.S. and British imperialism so the building of a people’s army to defend themselves from imperialist attack will also be on the order of the day. The quagmire the U.S. government has gotten itself in Iraq could likely give the Nigerian revolution the breathing space needed to win their freedom.