Allies in Empire
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ALLIES IN EMPIRE The US & Portugal in Africa ~-·--- Vol. 17, No. 4 JUL Y-AUGUS.T 1970 Price $1.50 AFRI[A JULY-AUGUST, 1970 About the Cover R VOL. 17, NO. 4 and this Issue TABLE OF CONTENTS The cover depicting an African guerilla appeared on the New Years card of the Mozambique Liberation Front <FRELIMOl in 1968. The message which accompanied the ALLIES IN EMPIRE card is of lasting inspiration to all engaged in the struggle. Part I-U. S. Economic Involvement 1 Time does not matter. What matters is to continue fighting, greeting each new day as if that were the decisive day U. S. TRADE WITH ANGOLA of victory. Difficulties do not matter. AND MOZAMBIQUE What matters is that we walk on the path 16 together, all of us, the oppressed people of the world, certain that at the end of the path there is f~eedom within our grasp. GULF OIL IN CABINDA ···········-·--··················· 20 In this year our people will achieve new victories~ more territory will be reconquered from colonial forces, more areas will be brought ALLIES IN EMPIRE under the government of the people. Neither time nor difficulties matter. Part 11-U. S. Military Involvement 28 For us, what matters is to know that Mozambique will be free. FRELIMO ALLIES IN EMPIRE This Special Issue of AFRICA TODAY, "Allies in Empire: The U. S. and Portugal in Africa." was made possible by the research staff of the Africa Fund, and by special contributions Part III-American Foreign Policy from the Africa Fund and the American Committee on Africa. and Portuguese Colonialism 34 Bulk copies of this issue can be ordered from: The Ameri can Committee on Africa, 164 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Price: $1.50 each. Bulk rates available. EDITORS: Georee W. Shepherd, Jr., Tilden LeMelle, Ezeldel Mphablele, Univ. of Denver Book Review Editor: W. A. E. Skurnik, Univ, of Colorado Maeaglag Editor: Shirley Shepherd Editorial Contributors Board: Robert Browne-Black Economic Research Council John Marcum-Univ. of Denver Fred Burke - SUNY at Buffalo Robert I. Rotberg- MIT Kenneth Carstens- National Council of Churches Donald Rothchild - UC at Davis Leo Cefkin- Colorado State Univ. James Scarritt- Univ. of Colorado Stanley Diamond - New School for Soc. Research Richard L. Sklar - UCLA William H. Friedland - UCSC Richard Stevens - Lincoln Univ. Collin Gonze- UAW Sheldon Weeks - Harvard Univ. George Houser - American Committee on Africa Peter Weiss - American Committee on Africa Betsy Landis- U. N, Immanuel Wallerstein - Columbia Univ, The oplnlons expressed In AFRICA TODAY are not necessarily those of the Graduate School of International Studies or of the Center on International Race Relations. Published bi-monthly by Africa Today Associates in association with the Center on International Race Relations, University of Denver, University Park Campus, Denver, Colorado 80210. Founded by: The American Committee on Africa. Subscriptions: one year, $6.50: two years, $12.50; three years, $18.00 students: one year, $4.50. Foreign (except Canada and Pan America) add $2.00 per year. Sterling zone checks accepted. Advertising: Rates on request. Change of Address: Notify four weeks in advance advising old and new address, Unso licited manuscripts will not be returned unless requested and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. @1970, Africa Today Associates, c/o Graduate School of Inter national Studies, University of Denver, University Park Cam pus, Denver, Colorado 80210. -·- .. ~'}'-..}-.. ' : _t. UPDATE: ALLIES IN EMPIRE .. ···.; Allies in Empire, an examination. of the support given by 'the US to Portu.-: · guese coJ,.onialism was written in ·1970. Some of' the .statisticar':ma'terial is now out of date, but the pamphlet still provides a useful guide tb the basic ·nature. of US policy towards Portuguese colonialism and the struggle of the African poeple for liberation. The trends identified in the pamphlet did. not change - they were simply accelerated in the fottr years until the April 1974 coup in Portugal brought to power a Government which responded to the African call for independence an~ initi.ated a rapid process of decolonization. We have updated below some of the m_ost important statistical material in the pamphlet. US CORPORATIONS IN ANGOL~. (Page 7 seq. and pages 20-21) 1970-74 saw ·inc-rc.ssing US interel?t in_ the exploration of Angola 1 s signif icant oil resources. Several US firms obtained oil concessions. The Portuguese responded to the greater interest by increasing their demands on the Corporations. Thus new contracts all contained a clause that in times of emergency all oil produced would be supplied to the Portuguese Government. Gulf Oil, Cabindd~ Gulf remained the largest single US investor,' in Angola~ with an invest ment totalling ~?333 ·million by 1975. In 1973 Cabinda Gul:t signed a new agree ---men-t >'lith 1ffie Po-rtuguese GO";ernmen-t-guaranteeing i ~essi-o-:r-, rights over some 5000 sq km on and off shore. According to Gulf, by 1974 the Cabinda operation represented 6'{:; of. the ._ company 1 s total profits aid lop of their proved reserves. Gulf continued to discover new -oil sources but also attempted to conceal the si.z.e of such discoveri.es. - Oil p~oduction increased steadily, reaching an estimated 150,000 ·:.. 170,000 barrals a day by 1975. By 1973, Gulf continued to.make larger and larger payments to the Portu guese Government, providing vital income to the hard-press-ed regime. By 19 73, Gulf had paid $175 million to the Portuguese Government - $90 million of that being payments made in 1973 alone. (The Angolan Government military budget estimates for 1973 were $60 million, for 1974 they were .$70:miJ,.lion). The value of 1974 exports was $539 million; payment to the Portuguese had jumped to $392 million and it was estimated that in 197.5 the value of tibi:; royalty and other· payments to the Portuguese Government would reach·$500 million. Gulf's oil exports in 1974 accounted.fof approximatel1 50% of all Angolan exports. ·.. , · ·o Gulf continued production in 1975,-making some payments to the Transitional Goverrin1-ent. Gulf went on operating after the November-11th establishment of the 'Peeiples 1 Repub'J1ic of Angola - but in December anno-unced that it was sus- - pending operations and p'ayments at the urging of the -tis "State Department. $125 million was due the Angolan Government in taxes and royalties - but Gulf refused to.make these payments. Texacu. Texaco continued to act as a major distributor in Angola, selling some 800,00 barrels cf petroleum in 1973. It also extended its exploration program, acting as the operator in a consortium with Petrangol and Angol. This consortium began to develop oil production, anS.,, in 1974 was producing some 13,000 barrels a day. .. .·... .. -. .:. '..._"!·-' ~ ... ··.; Most sign::.ficafi.t how~~~r - 'v,¢fi -the ,Ve:ty gua,:pd,ed announcements relating to a major oil strike·' in·:: T~~aco r ?>. :6.e;J _: ( 1974) · coi:i<;:essiori area in tte San Antonio do Zaire area; while ·Te-Xai!:p· wqu)_d give only the most cautipus estimates of potential output tr~e Seiut l;l;: .t\frica,rt Fin1').ndai" Ma.il was predicting a d&ily ·--.- ·'-· output of 75,000 baricie§lq,J~: ~~ dB:Y . · . ~ · , •1·r:'; Jl :- .. , , <.-' ·. ·. .. .·.· •.r :·· · · .:·· z ; ·-~1 ·: . ··.··. .... .. ;' . .~ Other Oil Co~porations. A number of US oil ~~~orations were granted exploratory concessions in 1974. Among these were Amoco Cuanza Petroleum Co. (a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana) in a consortiumwith Continental Oil Co. and Occidental Petroleum; Esso Exploration (a subsidiary of Exxon); Amerada Hess Corporation, Cities Service Co -~ and Sun Qil Co. in a consortium. : ·t .... These concessions· ran all the way ~p the coast, starting. at Benguela; and going as high as Santo . -~tonic do Zaire. The Rockefellers. Rockefeller -interests _have been reported to own a one third share in a large phos:rL'>:-.·· conce~sion covering most of Cabinda. The company, ·known as Companhia do·s Fosf~tos de~· Angola {COFAN ) started prospecting in 1969 and by 1972 was reported clos·e to beginning actual, exploitation. : ,. ·. US TRADE WITH ANGOLA. ( Pages 16, 17) US trade w:' . t;h Angola continued to grow. In 1973, the US overtook · Portugal to become the largest single market for Angolan products, buying 28% of the total value of exports, and 5o% of Angolan coffee. In 1974, for the first time, oil became Angolars largest single export, followed by coffee (27%), diamonds and iron ore, The US bought ..almost 50% of the oil exported - oil produced by Cabinda Gulf. In 1973, the US supplied 9% of Angola's imported products -mainly machinery, heavy earth moving ~quipment, aircraft. US POLITICAL AND MILITARY INVOLVEMENT. In 1971, the US signed a new agreement with the Portuguese Government allowing the US continued use of the Azores Islands as a base iri ·exchapge for over $400 million in grants and Ex-Im loansand credits. Under attack for this action, the US denied that the credits could be used for military purposes, but the funds were used, inter el:ta,for the purchase of large Boeings, which -vwre used as troop transports by the r ortuguese. Critics of the Agreement suspected that there was almost certainly a "bidden clause" in the Agreement which allowed for the relaxation of the arms embargo . In the years that followed, there continued torbe evidence - well concealed but occaqionally visiole in small part-of significant military co-operation between the US .and the Portuguese regime. ALLIES IN· EMPIRE PART 1-U. S. Economic ·lnvolveme·nt acceptance of brutal oppression; recognizing this, BY JENNIFER DAVIS the people turned to armed struggle. Wars of liberation began ip. 1961 in Angola, in 1963 in I wonder if we could contrive .