>>471667Recent coups that might lead to developmental progress and more political and economic sovereignty could be the ones in Burkina Faso and Mali.
>>471669You can't say with a straight face that Western foreign policy spreads democracy, so many democratically elected leaders have been deposed and murdered in the name of "freedom and democracy". Like for example Patrice Lumumba in Congo that was dissolved in acid, or Thomas Sankara the socialist leader of Burkina Faso in the 80s that was shot.
The overall context here is that the imperial ruling class in the west wants to maintain or re-assert Neo-colonial domination over these countries. There is a rationally self interested reason to oppose this, because this will be very costly, and it will come at the expense of the working class in the imperial core. Of course the people in those other countries also get the short end of the stick too. The only benefactors here are a narrow slice of haute-bourgeoisie usually like imperial finance capital and their lackeys.
For the case in Niger, French workers do benefit from the cheap electricity that can be made from cheap niger-uranium. However if you tabulate all the economic odds and ends the conclusion is that, France having trade with Niger on equal terms instead of neo-colonial terms is more beneficial for the workers.
Mutually beneficial bilateral trade on equal terms between countries leads to mutual economical development that increases demand on labor-power which increases the leverage for workers in both countries. While the neo-colonial relations causes super-exploitation in the neo-colonized country and the workers in the imperial country loose economic leverage because they have to compete with the low wages of the super-exploited workers in the neo-colonized country. It also causes economic stagnation because when the wages of workers are depressed, there is less incentive to invest in productivity enhancing technology.
The solution to the Niger crisis, is that France accepts that it has to pay like 5% to 10% more Euros for Niger-Uranium and other Niger resources, but if they package it in a trade deal where Niger spends those Euros on French goods and services that help Niger develop economically. Then it becomes an exchange where France gets resources and Niger get advanced French means of economic development. The medium sized capitalists and the workers in both countries will benefit from this. The big bourgeoisie in France will not.
One has to note that the alternative to mutual-trade on equal terms, that i proposed here isn't necessarily that the big bourgeoisie in France gets it's neo-colonial designs. This could fail, and if they attempt to start a war, China will get the opportunity to do one of their Ninja peace initiatives. (like the one that broke the alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia).
One of the other big stakes is the US's massive drone base in Niger (Air Base 201). That one will go poof in a failed neo-colonial war. And then Chinese SOE bulldozers will come and turn it into a industrial park + commercial freight airport.