A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #46 - Lobito Corridor, the railway that's redrawing African geopolitics ---- Lino Roveredo (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From the Angolan port of Lobito to the copper and cobalt mines of the 
Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia runs one of the most strategic 
infrastructures of 21st-century Africa. The Lobito Corridor is more than 
just a logistics project designed to improve connections between the 
Atlantic and Central Africa. It lies at the heart of the transformations 
affecting the global economy: competition between major powers for 
control of critical raw materials, the reorganization of global value 
chains, and the growing demand for resources necessary for the energy 
and digital transition.

To understand its significance, we need to begin with the region's 
economic geography. Lobito, a port city overlooking the Atlantic, 
represents the western end of the historic Benguela Railway, which 
crosses Angola to its eastern border, connecting to the mining areas of 
the so-called Copperbelt. The latter is one of the most important mining 
districts on the planet and contains some of the world's largest 
reserves of copper and cobalt, materials essential for the production of 
batteries, electric vehicles, energy infrastructure, and digital 
technologies.

The growing importance of these resources has transformed the Copperbelt 
into a major battleground for global economic powers. Over the past two 
decades, China has consolidated a dominant position in the extraction, 
processing, and marketing of numerous strategic minerals, building a 
widespread presence in several African economies. In this context, the 
Lobito Corridor has been embraced by the United States and the European 
Union as one of the tools for rebalancing supply chains and reducing 
dependence on production networks where China's presence is particularly 
strong.

Washington's interest in the project reflects this logic. Ensuring more 
direct access to critical raw materials strengthens US economic and 
technological security at a time of growing international competition. 
At the same time, the corridor allows for the redesign of trade routes 
and strengthens Western presence in a region increasingly central to 
global equilibrium.

The European Union also views the project as part of its strategic raw 
materials procurement strategy. Through the Global Gateway program, 
Brussels promotes infrastructure investments that, in addition to 
strengthening economic connections with the African continent, aim to 
ensure greater access to the resources necessary for European industrial 
competitiveness.

Italy also fits into this framework. The financial support provided by 
Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and SACE to the Africa Finance Corporation in 
2025 demonstrates Rome's commitment to playing an active role in the 
corridor's development. This initiative is part of the Mattei Plan, 
through which the Italian government intends to strengthen its economic 
presence on the African continent and create new opportunities for 
national companies operating in the infrastructure, energy, and 
logistics sectors.

Recent statements by Samaila Zubairu, CEO of Africa Finance Corporation, 
highlight how the project is considered one of the main catalysts for 
investment in Southern Africa. For the corridor's promoters, the new 
infrastructure should foster greater regional economic integration and 
attract significant international capital flows. However, beyond 
official statements, the project's economic and political significance 
lies in the structural dynamics driving its implementation.

From this perspective, the Lobito Corridor is not simply a railway, but 
a tool through which the processes of extraction, circulation, and 
appropriation of wealth are being reorganized on a global scale. The 
competition between the United States, the European Union, and China is 
not just about access to resources, but about control of the 
infrastructure and value chains that enable them to transform those 
resources into economic and geopolitical power.

Infrastructure is part of an international division of labor that 
continues to assign most African economies the role of suppliers of 
strategic raw materials. Although trade routes

and the geopolitical balance may change, the position

The subordinate position occupied by these countries within the world 
economy remains substantially unchanged. Value added, technological 
capabilities, and financial control continue to be concentrated in the 
main centers of global accumulation.

In this process, African national bourgeoisies do not present themselves 
as alternatives to international capital, but participate directly in 
the mechanisms of accumulation through their control of mining 
concessions, infrastructure, state apparatuses, and trade flows. 
Competition between powers thus unfolds through a network of alliances 
and convergences of interest that involves both global actors and local 
ruling classes.

The economic benefits generated by the corridor will therefore tend to 
be concentrated in the hands of these players, who possess the economic 
and political resources necessary to capture the dominant share of the 
value produced. Working classes and local communities, however, will 
continue to occupy the weakest position in the international division of 
labor, providing low-cost labor and bearing a significant portion of the 
social and environmental costs associated with the expansion of 
extractive activities.

From this perspective, the Lobito Corridor does not represent a break 
with the past, but rather the adaptation of historical relations of 
dependence to the demands of the energy transition and global 
competition of the 21st century. More than a simple infrastructure 
project, it represents one of the ways in which contemporary capitalism 
reorganizes access to strategic resources and renews the mechanisms of 
wealth concentration on a global scale.

================================

Spain 1936: Utopia becomes history

Presentation of the book "Between War and Revolution"

A journey through the history of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution.

September 26, 2026 Railway Afterwork

Viale I. Nievo, 32 Livorno at 5:30 p.m.

In Spain, in July 1936, the military coup was the spark that ignited an 
intense revolutionary period that constituted one of the greatest 
"assaults on heaven" in the history of the world working class. In many 
cities, the army was defeated by the proletariat-organized in Catalonia 
and other regions in the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-which transcended the 
struggle to defend the bourgeois republic to establish an egalitarian 
libertarian communist society.

The text presented here deals in a concise and concise way with the 
birth and development of anarchism in Spain, the coup d'état and the 
response of the working class in the cities and countryside, the 
subsequent government choices of the Confederation and the Iberian 
Anarchist Federation caught between the dichotomy between war and 
revolution.

For inquiries: ilcantiere@autistici.org

Sources:

https://lobitocorridor.com/

https://www.africafc.org/

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/africa-finance-corp-sign-320-million-deal-with-italy-bolster-lobito-funding-2025-06-05/

https://www.iai.it/en/publications/c41/what-role-italys-infrastructure-diplomacy-lessons-lobito-corridor

https://www.africaeaffari.it/piano-mattei-cdp-sace-250-mln-per-corridoio-lobito/

https://www.mur.gov.it/it/piano-mattei-ricerca-e-alta-formazione

https://www.afdb.org/en

https://24plus.ilsole24ore.com/sez/scenari

https://alternativalibertaria.org/
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