Revisiting the Polisario Front and the SADR

While Sahrawi folks continue to resist, Morocco’s settler-colonial occupation of Western Sahara consolidates its legitimacy. 

Many countries, from Kenya and Madagascar to Mali, Bolivia, and Honduras, are joining countries like Burundi, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, and other international culprits to recognize the Moroccan “autonomy plan” that C&C discussed in “The Rules Based Order is Rotting.”

Where that leaves the Polisario Front, the SADR (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), and the Saharawi people

• Given Morocco’s geopolitical reposturing towards Europe and growing economic prowess, it seems like they, along with many other nations, are tired of the fight over “Africa’s Last Colony.”
• Even as solidarity for the Sahrawi struggle falls to the wayside, some remains, including support from Algeria, Cuba, Venezuela, and Irish parliamentarian Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire. The commitments are not as strong as many of the ties Morocco has to its allies, though; they are either symbolic or potentially wavering/otherwise not unified. 
• As the Sahrawi Republic crosses 50 years of existence, Polisario renews its commitment to self-determination. The fight is still ongoing, with lehbib mohamed abdelaziz being killed by Moroccan forces.
• Like with many settler colonial situations, consolidation of the territory, of the geopolitical situation as discussed, and the displacement of indigenous folks occur in tandem with resource use and “development.”

What allies can do

• More ties need to be built between autonomous movements and indigenous resistance to Morocco; we’re some of the few people in the US talking about and tracking the struggle to any degree, especially from a radical angle. Friends at Iansá are talking about it from personal perspectives, but it’s not enough. We need to see this struggle in our media, in our conversations.
• Alongside this, we gotta fight against this government’s geopoliticking; US-Morocco coziness only makes this harder. At risk of sounding like a broken record, building dual power and leveraging that to pressure electeds seems like a good general posture that can both be used to take care of ourselves as marginalized folks and to fulfill our internationalist commitments.

Here’s the Big Picture: it is supremely important that we in the US, with it being the most powerful slavocratic settler empire ever, fight to impede settler colonial efforts abroad and “domestically.” It also seems apparent that this must happen through dual powers that are also against statecraft; if the national names above are any indication, Morocco is working to court more and more state support for their colonial efforts. It is from below and from the margins that liberation grows.