The Multilateral Policy of President Thomas Sankara: Between Revolutionary Internationalism and Anti-Imperialist Struggle

This article discusses president Thomas Sankara’s multilateral policy dating back to his appointment as Prime Minister on January 11, 1983. Already, he made no secret of his anti-imperialist orientation and then became president on August 4, 1984. The ideological bases of his multilateral policy contained in the Political Orientation Speech (DOP) depended on the ideological orientations of the Revolution. Inspired by Marxism, its multilateral policy should be analyzed in the light of the so-called “Marxist” approach to international relations, which favors revolutionary class struggles. This revolutionary orientation is reflected in its foreign policy and the country very quickly makes known its course of action to the international community, the main principles of which are: revolutionary internationalism and the anti-imperialist struggle of the West. The manifestations of the multilateral policy were visible through the multilateral meetings at the sub-regional level which were opportunities for president Sankara to express himself and show his revolutionary ideas to the world. At the international level, the non-aligned summits, the France-Africa summits, the United Nations General Assembly were also places where this policy was expressed. In these forums, Thomas Sankara does not cut corners to raise the problem of debt, evils that undermine the development of the Third World, to support the class struggle and tackle major international issues. Lessons are learned at the political, economic and socio-cultural levels of its policy which serves as a substrate on which the current anti-neocolonialist struggles on the African continent are anchored. Keywords: Multilateral Policy, Thomas Sankara, Revolution, Anti-Imperialism