GUINEA MILITARY JUNTA: THE PLANNED REFERENDUM WILL END UP AS A PLOY FOR POWER CONSOLIDATION

Only a Government of Workers and the Poor Armed with an Independent Socialist Programme Can Guarantee a Genuine Democracy and Satisfy the Aspirations of the Guinean Working Masses

By Abbey Trotsky

Guinea’s military junta, led by General Mamady Doumbouya, have arranged for a constitutional referendum to be held on 21 September 2025, ostensibly to replace the constitution adopted in 2020. However, the deeply suspicious circumstances surrounding the announcement raise serious doubts about its real purpose. It appears to be a mere gimmick to consolidate authoritarian rule and legitimize the privileges of the ruling elite.

The junta has moved swiftly to silence opposition voices by suspending three major political parties, including that of former president Alpha Conde. This suspension means that participation in the referendum has already been restricted and stifled even before the process begins. On 30 August 2025, the regime further announced on state television that the referendum campaign would be postponed by one week, with the official campaign period beginning on 31 August. Under this order, political actors are permitted to advertise their proposals for a new constitution only under strict conditions and restrictions imposed by the military rulers.

These repressive measures, including the banning of planned protests and demonstrations organized by Guinea’s main opposition forces and civil society groups for 5 September 2025, are clear indications that the referendum is far from a democratic exercise.

The current constitutional crisis has its roots in the coup of 5 September 2021, when President Alpha Conde was ousted after a decade in power. On that day, Mamady Doumbouya, then commander of the Special Forces, appeared on state television to declare the dissolution of the constitution and the government. On 1 October 2021, he was sworn in as interim president and promised that a transition to civilian rule would culminate by 31 December 2024. Of course, the transition turned out be a sham and empty promise, and the junta instead has continued to unleash attacks on democratic and economic rights. Even now, when domestic and international pressure has compelled the junta to promise that all elections will be held in 2025, its conduct in relation to the referendum suggests that it cannot deliver a genuine democratic process

This situation must serve as a wake-up call to the working people of Guinea—workers, peasants, youth, and students. They need to organize independently around their own programme and put no hope in the upcoming referendum which will amount to nothing more than a hollow spectacle. Guinea’s history, and indeed the broader history of Africa, demonstrates that the capitalist class—whether in military fatigues, civilian office, or multinational boardrooms—cannot be relied upon to deliver genuine democracy

What Guinea urgently requires is not pro-capitalist reforms either by the military or the civilian section of the ruling elite, but a mass movement that fights for enthronement of a genuine democratic process and also a socialist programme that speaks directly to the needs of the majority. Such a programme must place at its core the nationalization and working people’s democratic management of Guinea’s immense natural resources and other commanding heights of the economy so that they benefit the people rather than enrich foreign corporations and a corrupt local elite. This fight must also entail consistent struggle against anti-poor capitalist policies, corruption and attacks on democratic rights linked to the overall need to have a completely different system.

So, trade unions, workers, peasants, youth, and students need a united action to build such a mass movement. The movement must be built at grassroots levels, run democratically and be prepared to organize a series of mass protests and strikes, in the struggle to challenge the junta and expose its fraudulent maneuvers. At the same time, such a movement must struggle for political power and thereby ensure that the struggle of the masses against Doumbouya military regime is not betrayed by opportunistic politicians who seek merely to replace one privileged faction of the capitalist elite with another.

Only a government of workers and the poor, armed with an independent socialist programme, can fulfill the aspirations of the Guinean masses. Such a victory would not stand in isolation; it would mark a step toward the creation of a socialist confederation of Africa and ultimately contribute to the realization of a world socialist order. If there are a revolutionary mass movement and international working-class solidarity, it is possible for the working people and youth of Guinea to rise to this historic challenge and fight boldly for a future that serves the majority rather than the privileged few.