Caught in the fishers’ net? The colonial plunder of Western Sahara’s natural resources

Caught in the fishers' net? The colonial plunder of Western Sahara's natural resourcesThis Special Issue develops an analysis of the political economy of Western Sahara.It does so through the lens of its natural resources, with a particular focus on the fisheries sector.Bringing together contributions from different disciplines, the issue examines how resource exploitation has evolved from Spanish colonisation to the current Moroccan occupation and how this has shaped the political, economic and cultural dynamics of the region.Natural resources provide a crucial lens for understanding the complex dynamics of power and resistance in occupied territories.The issue argues that, far from being exceptional, the case of Western Sahara reflects the broader dynamics of global capitalism and neoliberalism.This editorial contributes to an understanding of how colonial and neocolonial exploitation are intertwined with global capitalist processes in Africa, and highlights the resilience and adaptability of Sahrawi nationalism in the face of occupation.In October 2024, the European Court of Justice 'ruled that fishing and farming deals struck between the EU [European Union] and Morocco in 2019 were invalid due to the lack of consent of the people of Western Sahara' and upheld the cancellation of those agreements (Euronews 2024).Despite numerous pushbacks, international law and the right of Sahrawis to their own resources prevailed.The EU, one of the biggest foreign actors in the region, and its companies can no longer fish in Western Sahara.This legal and political victory is of tremendous significance in the struggle for the independence of Western Sahara.It sheds light not only on the complicity and responsibilities of political institutions but also on the economic interests that they enable.Two considerations, however, are cause for caution.First, today's complexity of global capitalism shows both how economic actors renegotiate their positions within value and production chains and how, sometimes, leaving the lower stages of resource extraction to periphery or semi-periphery actors does not alter the global structures of exploitation and accumulation.Second, imperialism in Africa is no longer solely a European issue, even though it is clear that racial capitalism