1. Delegates got to know each other better from the varied platforms offered. Personal and organizational relations were also deepened and new networks established through bilateral meetings. Our evaluation, at the end, of the Conference showed that the meeting enabled them to connect and explore work and struggle together.

2. Reports from the Working Committees of the Conference further revealed that the delegates understood the common sub-regional problems concretely and how these fit into the larger global scheme of international development. Delegates have therefore at the end of the Conference developed specific strategic working documents to follow through and guide their respective implementation plans.

3. It has also developed, approved and adopted a structure that enables functional working relationships. It consists of a General Assembly of all participating organizations, a Coordinating Council that acts between General Assemblies and a Secretariat hosted by a member organization. The latter is responsible for-day-to-day administration. We also came up with the rules of engagement and a framework to guide our future work.

4. The Conference put in place an elected 7-man leadership team which reflected our diversity.

5. Finally, we left the Conference with a communique expressing our collective position on matters of shared interest. Some of the thematic areas covered included Gender Equality, Climate Justice, Workers’ Rights and International Peace.

and the broad anti-imperialist and progressive movements in West Africa.

DELEGATES DELIBERATED, in 3-themed commissions, and in plenary on the struggle in West Africa sub-region, Africa in general and across the world for a just, and prosperous future including how to advance this struggle. Delegates specifically reviewed the current geopolitical situation as it affects our region, history and the devastating impact of the collapse of the neo-liberal within the on-going struggles of our people. They also identified internationalist forces, which are engaged in similar or same struggles, and stressed the imperative of building solidarity around the world to confront the backward forces of imperialism, neo-colonialism, colonialism, and racism. They further made projections into the future and defined a path to the liberation of the peoples of West Africa from all forms of exploitation and abuse of their fundamental political, social & economic rights. Their key reflections and declarations are reproduced below.

1.               West Africa Peoples Organization

1.1       At the end of three-days of deliberations, Conference believes that to end the poverty, inequality, corruption, discrimination, backwardness, and violence inflicted on our region, we – as West Africans – must unite across borders and themes and confront Imperialism as one.

1.2       Conference therefore resolves to set up the West Africa Peoples Organization (WAPO) or Organization des Peuples d’Afrique de l’Ouest or Organizaçao do Povo da Africa Ocidental in French and Portuguese respectively and heretofore accepts the proposal of the organizing committee regarding the set-up of the West Africa Peoples’ Organization including its platform and statutes as set out in a separate document.

1.3       Accordingly, Conference hereby adopts the Constitution recommended by its Constitutional Commission and amended in Plenary as the Constitution of the West African Peoples Organization.

1.4       Conference further approves, unequivocally, the recommendation of the Constitutional Commission that organizations, which participated in the foundation conference, should constitute themselves as the founding members of the West African Peoples Organization.

1.5       Conference notes that the basis of the West Africa Peoples Organization is clear. It is based on a fundamental need to maintain between West African States and their people a collective identity and shared approach to West African (or African) problems in a forward march to true independence and African Unity. The Conference’s definition of “West Africa” is not exclusive and will happily work with movements physically outside on a non-exclusive basis who share our platform.

2.       Global Situation

2.1       Conference reviews the global situation and concludes that neo-liberal imperialism and United States hegemony are responsible for the present sordid state of society. It further observes that a number of notable events have occurred on the geopolitical front relating to a seeming fragility of United States’ hegemony, the rule-based global order and the emergence of multipolar world which present both positive and negative opportunities to the peoples of West Africa to mobilize for the eventual confrontation with capitalism.

2.2       Conference likewise notes that capitalism continues to impose several existential crises on the world with the recent ones being the proxy war with Russia, the declared containment of China and increased NATO-led military presence throughout the world under the hegemony of the United States. Conference therefore opposes the United States’ “global NATO” initiative.  The increasing regimentation of western countries by NATO does not push them into costly conflicts that serve only the US establishment but Europe has nothing to gain from provoking China and Russia; both nuclear powers.  Their current sabre rattling could lead us along a one-way route to unwinnable nuclear war.  We call for multilateral processes to end the Ukraine conflict and reduce the tensions around Taiwan based on international law and convention.

2.3       Conference further observes that imperialism is no longer a viable system for managing the resources of our planet.  It is the problem and not the solution.  Imperialism’s leading proponents seek to compensate for its past productive and innovative hegemony by its current overwhelming military capacity.  US politicians are also beholden to powerful armaments industries, for whom war and destruction mean profit.

2.4       Conference hereby commits itself and their organisation to the fight against colonialism and neo-colonialism including global domination by a handful of super-rich individuals, working through networks of transnational and multinational corporations, to direct all productive activity towards accumulating more and more profit. It further commits to the fight against the subordination of the Global South to facilitate its profit accumulation at the expense of the needs and aspirations of the People.

2.5       Conference therefore demands that the Coordinating Council of WAPO to fight for popular democratic control of the world’s economies so that people can build societies that solve fundamental problems and meet the collective aspirations of the world’s eight billion people.  Humankind can redeploy our wealth from profit accumulation and wasteful competition.  We would release resources to end hunger, homelessness, inequality and war.  We could avert a looming climate catastrophe, educate everyone, control disease, and provide leisure time that would enrich culture.

3.       West Africa

3.1       Conference, following a comprehensive review of the West Africa Conjuncture, notes that West Africa and its people made independent contributions to the development of human society over several hundred thousands of years. It also developed civil, legal, economic, educational, military and governance systems which were autonomous to those of Europe, the Americas and Asia. However, these developments were abruptly stopped some 600 years ago by intruders who came to colonize us, plunder our resources and carved our nations into non-beneficial social and economic entities. The total effect of these reorganization is the reduction of our societies into primary commodity producers.

Though since the 1940s we continue to resist the forces of colonialism and neo-colonialism, imperialism – represented by the comprador bourgeoisie and their allies – has become the principal aspect of the contradiction facing us as West Africans. Despite West Africa’s extensive extractive wealth, arable lands and human labour resources we are faced currently by a number of common issues. Between 80% to 90% of our extractive wealth are owned and controlled by capitalist foreign interests through transnational and multinational corporations. Only up to 2.6% of the arable land endowment is under direct cultivation. With regard to human labour resource, which is the creator of value, around 75% of that resource is dominated by unskilled or non-technical labour and after 60 years of political independence, West Africa has no industrialised State. Traditional industry is still crude, rudimentary or non-mechanical and characterised by low productivity and output. The current situation is a reflection of the neo-colonial industrial strategies and development implemented at independence.

3.2       Conference therefore reaffirms that imperialism, for some 139 years, has strategically divided West Africa into small fractious groupings of uneconomic regions, states, religions, ethnicities, clans, languages, and genders. It is primarily through this strategy of divide and rule that imperialism is able to confront each of our nations individually and prevail. Hence, West Africa’s respective geographic and thematic challenges are either facets of or conditioned by Imperialism and it is responsible for the sorry state of our societies today.

3.3       Conference further asserts that while the current nature of the region’s produced means of production pose a major challenge to further growth and development of the productive forces, the corresponding production relations remain a fetter or brake leaving our various societies paralyzed economically, heavily exploited, deprived and poor.

3.4       Conference has also taken note that the independent states of West Africa are dependent, peripheral, neo-colonial states run on behalf of capitalism by political elites and comprador bourgeoisies. The current governance institutions are not only modelled after the English, French and Portuguese systems but have the objective of keeping West Africa safe for capitalism and are not made to promote national cohesiveness, regional coherence and development.

3.5       Conference observes that institutions of coercion suffer from ethnic and tribal biases and often lack professionalism. These promote factionalism and rivalry threatening the stability of the neo-colonial states. Political parties, on the other hand, have become bureaucratic vehicles which allow sections of the national elites to compete for power every 4 or 5 years.

3.6       Conference reviews the regional security and stability within West Africa and notes that conflict in our Region is escalating and destabilising many neo-colonial governments. The West Africa Sahel has become one of the unstable regions of Africa with prevalence of recurring armed conflicts, low intensity civil wars, piracy, political and communal violence; a trend the West has seized upon to justify its interventions.

3.7       Conference further notes that some of the contributory factors include high concentration of SALW (Small Arms & Light Weapons); growing strategic importance of West Africa for Western Powers due to the presence of large reserves of crude oil and minerals such as uranium; France and United States interference; and insurgencies by 10 non-state actors particularly, those of the Islamic Jihad.

3.8       Conference observes that, at present, foreign military bases (FMBs) are hosted by eight out of the 16 West African countries namely Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. These bases are used chiefly to carry out drone attacks, low profile commando raids and intelligence gathering. The United States and France have 11 FMBs bases located in the territorial spaces of Niger, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Mauritania. These military bases as well as military cooperation agreements serve mainly to ensure continued geostrategic presence of foreign powers in Africa while putting it at the center of geopolitics and inter-imperialist rivalries.

3.9       Conference opposes imperialism’s militarisation of West Africa.  We recall post-WWII “Indochina”, where the US similarly intervened to save (and absorb) French Imperialism and the resultant devastation of the Vietnam war. We vehemently denounce these military presences and regard them as unwarranted attack on the national sovereignty of African countries. We therefore call on the peoples of Africa to step up their struggle against foreign military presence and their bases on the continent.

3.10     Conference further believes that any solution to the problems of the Sahel will require the complete withdrawal of foreign combatants from the Region; especially those of the United States, French and Jihadist.  We must make space for a popular peace process that addresses land, water rights, and cultural rights. In this connection, Conference completely rejects the decision of leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to erect a military apparatus to restore so-called multi-party democracy to countries in the grips of military coup regimes. This is a ruse deliberately crafted for the preservation of the neo-colonial order and the entrenchment of western military interest in our sub-region.

3.11     Conference finally opposes the use by West Africa neo-colonies of violence against dissenting citizens. WEST AFRICA’s neo-colonial states correctly interpret the rising tide of communal unrest and civil society dissent as revolutionary stirring and increasing awareness of imperialist exploitation and class betrayal by our leaders.  They are both terrified by the spectre of Islamic jihad moving through the Region and opportunistically glad of a “real” security threat that can justify crackdowns.  Like their principals, they incorrectly believe they can postpone and intimidate the future.

4.       Climate Justice and Reparation

4.1       Conference notes with great concern the rising temperatures and more extreme weather conditions which pose existential challenges to semi-arid regions like the Sahel in the areas of damages to traditional agriculture, livelihoods and the health of millions of people across the region. It is further understood that the Sahel, located in the states of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, forms a natural border between the Sahara Desert to the north and the tropical savannas to the south. While these countries share long-standing cultural and political linkages, their socio-economic, political and security dynamics are known to be intrinsically linked.

4.2       Conference observes that people in the Sahel are affected by multiple interrelated crises with nearly 50 % of the population living in extreme poverty. In the Sahel, Rain-fed agriculture is the most important sector and provides livelihoods for the majority of the population but it is vulnerable to climate change. Repeated cycles of droughts, desertification and floods make it increasingly harder for the local population to sustain subsistence agricultural practices. As a consequence, such extreme weather events most often lead to widespread crop failure and a reliance on food assistance programs.

4.3       Conference further observes that the impact of climate change is straining the relationship of herders and pastoralists and thus also ethnic relations. For centuries, pastoralists have crossed the Sahel following seasonal patterns, which allowed them to feed their herds. The scarcity of water, pasture and fertile soil force people to migrate. Such displacement is now leading to conflicts over land and resources between herders and farmers, which in turn further fuel displacement dynamics which are increasingly filled by Jihadist groups.

4.4       Conference notes that while the Sahel is highly exposed to climate change, impacts do vary across different regions especially as Africa is the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Already, with temperature increases of approximately 1.5°C over much of the continent, and with predictions that temperatures will rise further, the Sahel will gradually become hotter, with some areas experiencing increased, but erratic rainfall. Total available water in the large basins of the Niger, Lake Chad and Senegal has decreased by 40–60 per cent and many climate models project declining mean precipitation in the already-dry regions of southern Africa. Subsequently, extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, are expected to intensify in this context leading to additional widespread food insecurity and significant displacement within the region.

4.5       Conference therefore calls for the establishment of a Joint Commission by countries within the Sahel region to address the existential climate change challenges. These may be done through putting in place institutions to formulate effective policies and implement several adaptation measures to reduce vulnerabilities and mitigate adverse conditions in the region.

4.6       Conference further demands for climate justice through reparation as compensation to African countries who account for less than 5% of the global carbon emission but are worst hit with the impact of climate change brought about by the highly industrialized countries of the Global North.

5.       West African Common Currency

Conference supports moves for the development of a common currency for countries in the sub-region in order to eliminate the control of trade and other interaction by the colonial metropolis. The situation in which former French colonies keep all their foreign reserves in the Central Bank of France is unacceptable.

6.       Workers’ Rights

6.1       Conference affirms that the West Africa’s working class is heavily exploited by the imperialist monopolies and the bureaucratic bourgeois who control the neo-colonial powers. Wages are not only drastically low compared to the cost of living in the countries where these workers find themselves but many of these low wage workers also cannot provide for the sustenance of their material existence and reproduction. Unemployment and precarious jobs are widespread and fixed-term or daily contracts are the most common.

6.2       Conference notes with concern that wage workers and peasants are under-unionized in most countries due to unbridled implementation of neo-liberal policy assaults packaged as structural adjustment programmes by West African States in the 1980s. For the small proportion of union members, in many countries, a good part is in the hands of union monks or labour aristocrats who advocate participatory unionism; a type union ideology which expounds worker submission to its exploiters and plunderers thereby and weighs on the class struggle.

6.3       Conference therefore sincerely congratulates workers in the trade union movement who share in its ideology and came in large numbers to the founding of WAPO. Conference therefore calls upon the Coordinating Committee of WAPO to bring together all the trade unions of member countries and effectively support them to become the main actors for the defense of the rights of the workers of the sub-region and for the fight for progressive political change in each country.

 7.      Women

7.1       Conference stresses that although women represent more than 50% of the West African population and constitute over 40% of its active work force; they are still largely marginalized, under-represented and continue to face significant societal discrimination imposed by a patriarchal society. In many West African countries, they are disadvantaged by family law and other aspects of legislation that take away their authority over children notwithstanding the stipulated equality before the law.

7.2       Conference observes that inequalities are greater in rural areas where girls receive even less formal education and calls to women of West Africa to rigorously continue the struggles on the barricades and ramparts until positive discrimination is achieved and equality restored. WAPO is your organization. Be the ambassadors of WAPO; an organization whose primary commitment is to lead the fight for the emancipation of women. Mobilize women from all corners of your country, form the impassable cordon of women for another world in Africa.

8.         Youth

8.1       Conference further observes that West African youth, the segment of the population aged between 15 and 35, is estimated in 2022 at 14,392 million, or 33.8% of the population. Despite this immense endowment of young people, national governments are unable to create enough jobs across the economy and equip young people with the skills to serve their respective economies. The lack of economic opportunities and the weak job creation within the economy make these young people feel more than marginalized and in the face of so much uncertainty, they become fascinated by capitalist and imperialist propaganda to migrate to Europe and the Americas which are presented as the haven where one realizes oneself individually, the center of abundant life, freedoms and democracy.

8.2       Conference notes that the youth has proven that it can be the spearhead of the fight against predators and their imperialist masters. The current insurrectionary movements against France Africa and the local powers in its service, the barricades erected in the streets to demand more justice, freedom, for the defense of sovereignty in all countries, have young people as central leaders. There is therefore hope. It is with this conviction that the Conference places the defense of the interests of young people at the center of its main concerns.

8.3       Conference therefore congratulates all the young people who have come to represent parties, trade unions, and youth associations. Be the ambassadors of WAPO, one of whose utmost goal is the fight for the promotion of youth. Mobilize young people from all corners of your country, form the impassable cordon of young people; since you know how to do so well, for the fight for another world in Africa, the slogan of WAPO.

9.       International Solidarity

9.1       Conference notes that the peoples of West Africa have a shared history, which reached back to the dawn of civilisation.  Blending our separate struggles into one West Africa struggle is a logical next step for the sub-region.  But it does not stop there because West Africa is also consciously a unit of a broader Pan-African struggle alongside anti-imperialist movements and organisations in other sub-regions of Africa, including the Diaspora.  Besides, West Africa is an integral part of a global struggle working with people from other regions.

9.2       Conference believes that a multifaceted global fight against imperialism must be strategically coordinated within proximate political, cultural, historical, and geographic spaces.  We share an agenda and can work democratically to advance it.

9.3       Conference therefore declares solidarity with all the people struggling for self-determination.  We are especially committed to the only colony on the African continent -Saharawi Peoples Democratic Republic and the Polisario Front; and other colonial people struggling for freedom and the right to self-determination in the Chagos Island, French Guadeloupe, Mayotte, French Martinique and French Guiana.

9.4       Conference also declares solidarity with the people, government and Communist Party of Cuba whose practice of internationalism remains exemplary and unmatched. Cuba today reels under grave destabilisation orchestrated by United States imperialism to undermine and overthrow the people’s revolution of 1959. We, in no uncertain terms, denounce this renewed attempt and call upon all the progressive movements throughout the world to mobilize basic resources towards alleviating the suffering of the Cuban people.

9.5       Conference further declares solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), in the face of unrelenting Israeli aggression and apartheid. For 75 years, the Palestinian people have been waging a just and legitimate struggle against the Zionist State of Israel, for the liberation of its territory illegally occupied, the return of its inhabitants who were pushed into exile in various countries and the construction of its independent, democratic and secular state. At present, the situation is still very worrying and characterized by escalated aggression in Gaza, targeted assassinations of heroic Palestinian militants and fighters, home demolitions, land confiscations and continuous expansion of Zionist settlements. The Conference vehemently deplores the attempts being made to change the current demographic composition of Jerusalem and the West Bank with the open support of the United States and the West and unreservedly calls for the prosecution of all Israel’s crime against the Palestinian people and humanity. We also condemn all normalizations or attempts to normalize economic, political or cultural relations with the Zionist State and appeal to the peoples of the world to support the Palestinian cause and boycott the State of Israel.

9.6       Conference finally declares solidarity with the peoples of Venezuela, Iran and Yemen who continue to reel under various imposed sanctions and overt internal interferences designed to control their vast natural wealth, resources and to impose regime changes.

9.7       We also commit to popular mobilisation against the use of violence in the resolution of social conflict globally, regionally, sub-regionally, and nationally.

9.8       Conference expresses appreciation to the officials from the Secretariat of the Pan Africanism Today, the International Peoples Assembly, Peoples Dispatch, Socialist Party of Zambia, Communist Party of Benin and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire. These internationalist participations deepened and enriched our discussions. Conference also acknowledges the participation of comrades from fraternal partner organizations of MVIWATA, PDT and PUDERMO.

9.9       Conference also expresses gratitude to each and every volunteer of the Justice Kofi Akuffo-Henaku Brigade who managed the Secretariat, and provided logistical support toward the success of our meeting not leaving out the workers of Windy Lodge.

Issued from this historic town of Winneba, where Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah established the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute to provide the ideological frameworks for the liberation of Africa from the clutches of imperialism. We make the pledge to continue the struggles initiated by Padmore, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, etc., until final victory. We dare not fail. Victory is for the working people of West Africa and their allies.

DATED 10^TH DECEMBER, 2022, WINNEBA, GHANA.