Since September 25th and the 27th, both African states have been experiencing protests against government corruption and an overall rapid decline in social conditions. These protests have been under the banner of the Gen Z protest movement; this is because the composition of the movements has primarily been the youth who find their positions as proletariat extremely precarious. The governments of both countries are extremely corrupt. In Madagascar, one of the poorest countries on earth, there have been continuing power cuts, and most basic services aren't functional, as the ruling class works around this by paying for their own power generators. In Morocco the economy and political power are held in an iron grip by a tight-knit clique of capitalists, state functionaries, and heads of the military in King Mohamed VI’s inner circle. The regime rests heavily on the military’s brutality in ensuring exploitation in order to squeeze as much profit as possible from the working class.

The protests in Morocco are happening in the midst of the regime proclaiming great fortunes and that the economy has recovered with a 4% GDP growth. This is of course on the backs and with the blood and sweat of the working class, who have been terribly exploited in the growing manufacturing industry and in agriculture. Morocco also received vast European investments into its manufacturing industry, fueling most economic growth. The foreign investments have been in order to modernize and increase the rate at which surplus value is extracted, further exacerbating income inequality. The regime wants to make its debut by hosting events such as the 2025 FIFA African Cup and the 2030 FIFA World Cup. The 2025 African Cup has cost $1 billion USD, while $41 billion USD has been approved for infrastructure in preparation for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. This is all while the youth are finding employment nearly impossible with a 36% unemployment rate, workers remain increasingly precarious, and agricultural laborers continue to languish under brutal exploitation or are made to go to Europe for work and send home remittances.

On the other side of the continent, the Gen Z protest movement in Madagascar is protesting government corruption; all services remain inadequate with electricity rationing. Within cities such as the capital Antananarivo, many workers have less than a few hours of electricity per day, which leads to medicine and food spoiling in the tropical heat, and most water remains unpotable. The Gen Z movement has taken to the streets and also to social media in both countries. In Madagascar the police have used live ammo against protesters and enforced curfews and bans on public gatherings, but this couldn't save President Rajoelina, who initially decried the protesters as being paid to carry out a coup despite him rising to the presidency through a coup in 2009! First he tried a ministerial reshuffle and eventually stepped down on October 4th when it was clear he was finished after trying to gather his own support base onto the street and accepted exile in France. The Gen Z movement in Madagascar has called for a general strike to be carried out by the precarious workers and toilers in one of the poorest countries on earth. So far 20 protestors have been killed and hundreds have been wounded. There's now a transitional government firmly in the hands of the military, which has become a common outcome for protests that bring down governments, such as in Nepal or last year in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh the military chief of staff, Waker-Uz-Zaman, met with opposition parties against ousted president Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League to form an interim government consisting of the Bangladesh National Party, Jatiya, and Jaamat-E-Islami, with Muhammad Yunus appointed the government’s chief advisor. This was done in order to take workers back onto bourgeois democratic terrain.

In Morocco 3 protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded, but the media has been silent about Morocco due to its importance for major imperialist powers such as the US and the EU. For the USA, Morocco participates in the Abraham Accords, which are used to isolate Iran in preparation for generalized imperialist war. A part of it is recognizing Israel, which has granted Morocco recognition of its control over Western Sahara and the immense amount of resources to plunder there. Morocco can now share in the exploitation with Western international firms in extracting precious and rare earth metals, which will be necessary for further accumulating war material. Morocco also acted as a gendarmerie to neutralize Algeria’s regional imperialist interest and to enforce stability onto Mauritian’s basket case government. But now they mainly serve as a police force on African migration into the EU and have been paid handsomely in aid and support for doing so. Madagascar remains very firmly within the Francosphere, and this doesn't appear to change either under President Rajoelina. France completely surpassed China, the US, South Africa, etc., as their trade partners and conducted joint military operations. The old regime likely got its papers from France, and the new one is still within their orbit and is hoping that the change in presidency is enough of a pressure valve to sop up social discontent.

Whether it be Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar, Peru, or potentially Ecuador, Morocco, Indonesia, or Serbia in the future, the capitalist will remain in control when the protests are only focused on aspects of capitalism and not the entire system. The main thrust for the protests has been against the corruption of regimes, nepotism, etc. However, as long as the working class isn't able to collectively act as a class for itself, there will be instead military takeovers, ministerial reshuffles, and fresh elections, with anti-working class massacres becoming more punctual occurrences. The bourgeoisie are becoming more desperate to continue exercising their collective class rule over the working class as the social situation worsens for precarious workers everywhere. It's the proletariat, not Gen Z, that's an international class that can bring an end to capitalism, which is liable to ride off of the rails and plunge the world into generalized imperialist wars.

Only the working class can usher in the alternative to decadent, imperialist capitalism. The only alternative is communism, and it's only possible when the class is organized on our own class terrain. This will require revolutionary subjectivity in the form of an international communist party. It's a vital necessity in order to prevent the working class movement from getting channeled back into the reformist cul-de-sac and support the capitalist state and continue the working class’s indefinite misery. Communism isn't an idea, but it's a stateless, classless society without borders or exploitation; capitalism is in deep, insoluble crisis, and its solution is another world war.

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Image: QM Keen (CC BY-SA 4.0), commons.wikimedia.org