 |
| Nelson Mandela |
By
Patrick O’Connor
Long
standing leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and the first president
of post-Apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela, died yesterday in Johannesburg
at age 95, after suffering a protracted respiratory illness.
Mandela’s death has been accompanied
by an outpouring of tributes from world leaders, each seeking to outdo one
another in presenting the most mawkish depictions of Mandela as a secular
saint. US President Barack Obama declared the former ANC leader as “one of the
most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us
will share time with on this Earth,” while his predecessor George W. Bush
described Mandela as “one of the great forces for freedom and equality of our
time.”
Underlying the cynical rhetoric of
the current and former war criminals occupying the White House, and that of
their allied heads of government around the world, is a genuine gratitude for
the invaluable service that Mandela rendered to the South African ruling elite
and world imperialism. Mandela utilised his indubitable political skills and
personal courage to stave off the threat of a social revolution in South
Africa, dismantling the Apartheid regime while defending capitalism and
protecting the property and wealth of the country’s white rulers and of transnational
corporate investors.
Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela
on July 18, 1918, in Cape Province when South Africa was a British dominium.
Born into a chiefly Xhosa family, Mandela was assigned the name Nelson when he
first attended a school run by British Methodist missionaries. In 1939 he began
attending the University of Fort Hare, where he met future ANC leader Oliver
Tambo.
After moving to Johannesburg,
without the necessary permit issued by the Apartheid regime, Mandela worked
illegally as a night watchman at a mine pit, before he met ANC figure Walter
Sisulu, who later secured him a position as an articled clerk in a white law
firm. He studied part time to complete his law degree at Witwatersrand
University, one of only four universities that would accept blacks on
specialist courses.
Mandela joined the ANC in 1943, and
was one of the co-founders of the ANC Youth League the following year. By 1950
he was a member of the ANC’s national executive committee. From the beginning
of his political life, Mandela was a hostile opponent of Marxism and any
perspective of organising the working class in a revolutionary struggle against
the Apartheid regime and the capitalist system it served.
In 1950, he opposed the organisation
of a general strike of the Johannesburg proletariat to commemorate May Day, and
was involved in efforts to physically break up meetings organised by the
Communist Party (CP) of South Africa. The successful mass strike, however,
demonstrated the enormous social power of the burgeoning urban working class,
and the incident had a significant impact on Mandela. He subsequently developed
close ties with the CP.
The South African Stalinists, like
their counterparts internationally, advanced a “two stage” theory, under which
colonial and semi-colonial countries were deemed to have to first pass through
a period of “democratic” capitalist development, under the leadership of
so-called progressive layers of the national bourgeoisie, with the struggle for
socialism postponed to the indefinite future. The “two-stage” theory was first
advanced by Joseph Stalin in the USSR as part of the counter-revolutionary
bureaucracy’s attack on the internationalist Marxist perspective defended by
Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition.
Trotsky, and the Fourth International
he helped found in 1938, upheld the Theory of Permanent Revolution, which
explained that in colonial and oppressed countries only a fight for power by
the working class could advance the struggle against imperialism and ensure
genuine national liberation and democratic and social rights for workers and
the oppressed masses. This revolution was permanent in that the working class,
having seized power, could not restrict itself to democratic tasks and would be
compelled to carry out measures of a socialist character, at the same time
turning to the working class in the advanced capitalist countries in a unified
fight for world socialist revolution.
Mandela was certainly aware of the
Fourth International’s perspective, having met in 1948 with the South African
Trotskyist Isaac Tabata. (“It was difficult for me to cope with his arguments,”
Mandela later told his authorised biographer Anthony Samson. “I didn’t want to
continue arguing with the fellow because he was demolishing me just like
that.”)
The ANC leader utilised the
Stalinists as a means of subordinating the South African working class to a
bourgeois nationalist perspective. The ANC’s Freedom Charter, adopted in 1956,
was drafted by a member of the CP, Rusty Bernstein. In an article published the
same year, Mandela explained that the Charter was “by no means a blue-print for
a socialist state.”
While the document called for the
nationalisation of the banks, gold mines and land, Mandela continued, these
measures would be capitalist in character: “The breaking up and democratisation
of these monopolies will open up fresh fields for the development of a
prosperous non-European bourgeois class. For the first time in the history of
this country the non-European bourgeoisie will have the opportunity to own in
their own name and right mills and factories, and trade and private enterprise
will boom and flourish as never before.”
This perspective of a “Black
capitalism” in South Africa remained at the heart of Mandela’s political
career, for all its vicissitudes, over the next five decades.
In 1961, Mandela managed to defend
himself against treason charges levelled by the Apartheid regime, and was
acquitted following a six-year trial process. Soon afterwards, however, Mandela
returned from a six month overseas tour canvassing for international support
and was again arrested after the US Central Intelligence Agency tipped off
their South African colleagues. He and his co-defendants were imprisoned and
ultimately put on trial under the Sabotage Act and the Suppression of Communism
Act for complicity in more than 200 acts of sabotage aimed at aiding guerrilla
warfare, and facilitating violent revolution and armed invasion.
Mandela further raised his stature
within the ANC with a defiant speech in which he pledged to die if necessary in
pursuit of the destruction of Apartheid, while at the same time rejecting
allegations that he was a communist. He told the court: “The realisation of the
Freedom Charter would open up fresh fields for a prosperous African population
of all classes, including the middle class. The ANC has never at any period of
its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the
country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist
society.”
Found guilty in 1964, Mandela and
the other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, much of which was spent
in Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town.
By the mid-1980s, the government was
in enormous crisis, amid an upsurge of mass strikes and revolts by workers and
youth across South Africa’s townships and cities. From jail, Mandela was
courted by leading corporate executives, who recognised the revolutionary
threat from below and saw in Mandela the best hope of politically defusing the
situation.
The Apartheid regime opened up
negotiations with the ANC leader in 1985, the same year that it declared
martial law in a bid to suppress the insurrectionary struggles being waged by
working class black youth. The negotiations led to Mandela’s release from
prison in February 1990. Multi-party elections in 1994 saw the ANC take power
with 62 percent of the national vote, and Mandela become president, a post he
held for the next five years, until 1999.
Mandela and the ANC came to power
having beforehand made a secret commitment, as Anthony Samson explained, to “to
reduce the deficit, to high interest rates and to an open economy, in return
for access to an IMF loan of $850 million, if required.” Implicit in all of the
negotiations over the end of Apartheid was an assurance that the property,
wealth, and commercial interests of both the white elite and international
finance capital would be protected.
Mandela warned ordinary South
Africans against any expectation that the new government would alleviate the
country’s mass poverty. “We must rid ourselves of the culture of entitlement
that leads to the expectation that the government must promptly deliver
whatever it is that we demand,” he declared. The New York Times today
noted that Mandela also told workers to “tighten your belts” and “accept low
wages so that investment would flow.”
At the same time, Mandela courted
the South African ultra-wealthy. The Guardian’s obituary noted his
“attachment to the glamour of the very rich.” The newspaper explained: “[M]oney
was dazzling. Hence, once freed, he holidayed at the Irish businessman Sir Tony
O’Reilly’s Caribbean island and gave the go-ahead for his takeover of South
Africa’s biggest newspaper group, in anticipation of his ‘magic money’
providing black empowerment in the media. He allowed the casino king, Sol
Kerzner, to host the wedding of his daughter Zinzi. He borrowed rich men’s
houses and flew around South Africa in their aircraft.”
The social and economic disaster now
evident in South Africa stands as an indictment of Mandela’s role in preserving
capitalist rule and of his perspective of promoting a “non-European
bourgeoisie.”
The end of apartheid saw the
country’s people win the ability to vote and secure other democratic rights
denied to them under Apartheid rule—but it did not alter the fundamental
division in society, which is based on class not race.
Nearly 20 years after the end of
Apartheid, South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.
Grotesque levels of exploitation and poverty afflict most of the population,
with just over 50 percent living below the official poverty line. Officially,
unemployment stands at 25 percent of the workforce, but the real figure is far
higher. South Africa has the largest population infected with HIV/AIDS in the
world, with up to 6.4 million people, or 12 percent of total population,
including 450,000 children affected. Official data shows that only 28 percent
of those infected are receiving treatment. Life expectancy was just 58 years in
2011, among the lowest in the world.
At the other end of society, a tiny
minority that now includes a layer of ANC, ex-Stalinist, and trade union
figures have amassed enormous personal wealth. The country now has the most US
dollar billionaires of any African state, with 14 individuals now in this
category, up from two a decade earlier.
Mandela has died right at the point
where social and political tensions in South Africa have reached a boiling
point. The ANC and its Stalinist and trade union allies are deeply despised by
the working class, and the administration of Mandela’s successor Jacob Zuma is
in an unprecedented crisis.
The deepening global capitalist
crisis has seen a stepped up drive by multinational mining and other
corporations to further undermine the wages and conditions of the South African
working class, while the country’s ruling elite is seeking to attract
investment from other low-wage platforms in Africa and other regions. These
processes have generated enormous social tensions.
The 2011 police massacre of striking
platinum workers at Marikana was an expression of the bitter hostility of the
ANC government and its allied trade unions against the aspirations of ordinary
workers for decent living standards and workplace protections, and of the
enormous political vacuum that has emerged. A government that claims to embody
the struggle to end Apartheid had carried out a massacre of workers that echoed
the mass killings at Sharpeville and Soweto, the worst crimes of the Apartheid
regime.
The former president’s death will
inevitably be followed in the next period by social and industrial upheavals
that will once again raise the necessity of a socialist revolution in South
Africa.
Editorial
THE SAINT
Since
the death of Nelson Mandela right wing centres around the world are desperately
trying to portray him as the greatest African that ever lived.
It
is more than obvious that these centres want the African people to emulate
Nelson Mandela instead of leaders like Patrice Lumumba, Osagyefo Dr Kwame
Nkrumah, Sekou Toure and Modibo Keita.
The
reason for this is also obvious.
Mandela
failed to dismantle the stranglehold of the leaders of apartheid on the South
African economy and created favourable conditions for the continuation of
economic apartheid.
On
the other hand Nkrumah and others stood firmly against the perpetuation of the
neo-colonial order and insisted that the resources of Africa ought to be
exploited for the benefit of the African people specially the disadvantaged.
There
can be no doubt that Mandela was a great man in his own right. His courage was
admirable and his passion in the struggle against apartheid was remarkable.
However, the point ought to be made that if
African leaders emulate his example we will continue to be in the grip of
neo-colonial exploitation.
Africans
have a duty to take control of their resources and to exploit them for their
own benefit.
Mandela may be a saint but certainly not the
saint who was against neo-colonial exploitation.
IMPORTERS CRY -Over Implementation of
Ban of Used Fridges
 |
| Used fridges on sale |
By
Christian Kpesese
Importers
and Sellers of Used Fridges in the country have appealed to the Government to
release the 80 confiscated containers of fridges valued at about 240, 000.00
Pounds imported into the country on humanitarian grounds.
In
a letter signed by the National Secretary, Mr Alex Opong Antwi and addressed to
the Ministers of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Energy and
Petroleum and Trade and Industry, the Ghana Association of Importers and
Sellers of Used Fridges (GAISUR) conceded that some of its members breached the
moratorium period of 30th June 2013 by government to stop importation of used
fridges into the country.
However they are pleading with authorities to
release the ceased containers which have already arrived in the country to
enable them settle their huge financial commitments and avoid going bankrupt.
According
the importers they cannot survive losing their hard earned investment due to
the current economic challenges facing the nation if the goods are not released
to them.
The
letter explained that some of them had deposited various amounts of money with
their suppliers for the goods and hoped to receive them prior to the deadline
but were unable to do so.
It
urged government to change its decision and temper justice with mercy by
releasing the containers to the importers purely on humanitarian grounds.
The association acknowledges that offenders
who invested in the transaction have shown enough remorse for their action
which has necessitated the intervention of the association.
GAISUR
promised to distribute the containers equitably among all members when released
to avoid the wrath of majority of its members who obeyed the regulation.
The
association has thus vowed to prevent its members from any subsequent
importation of used fridges into the country.
It
revealed that the association`s resources are being diverted towards building
an Assembling Plant in Ghana to assemble fridges for distribution to all
Ghanaians according to the nation’s energy conserving regulations.
According
to Mr Antwi plans are far advance for the building of the Plant.
He
urged government through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
Energy Commission to lend a hand of support to the initiative by the
association.
Government
in 2010 gave a two year moratorium to ban the importation of used fridges into
the country.
The
Importers and Sellers of the Used Fridges pleaded with for an extension to five
years but their plea was rejected and they were granted only a six months
extension period.
The
extension expired by June, 2013 giving rise to the current challenge facing the
used fridge importers.
Mr.
President, please save the trainee nurses!!
 |
| President John Dramani Mahama |
By
Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
My
good friends, there seems to be too much running around in circles. No day
passes by without something coming from officialdom to confirm my fears that
the government is spiraling itself out of control and stepping on too many toes
for which it will be punished at Election Time.
We
are even not talking about the adverse impact on the country itself. Of course,
not everything done by the government can be said to be in the national
interest. That is why we must sit up to face up to the government, especially
when it goes wrong.
So,
the latest mis-step is that the government is moving ahead to scrap allowances of trainee nurses too. It is a bad move to be reconsidered.
Of course,
it appears the government’s cost-recovery measures are being pursued with a
heartlessness that must frighten everybody who sympathizes with the
victims-to-be.
As if not
perturbed by the agitations at the teacher-trainees’ front regarding the
cutting off of their allowances as recently announced (and is set to be
enforced), the government has decided to take its draconian measures to the
health sector.
In fact, I
don’t welcome this move at all. It is counter-productive and must be abandoned
before it creates more credibility problems for the government.
Anybody
who supports this move to deny the trainees their little allowance is
heartless. That is what I have gathered from the statement attributed to Kwame Adinkra Amo (the President of the
Ghana Registered Nurses Association).
He has described statements made by the former
Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Prof. Badu Akosa, in support of
government’s decision to scrap allowances of trainee nurses as unfortunate.
Added to that is my political instinctual
feeling that those supporting the move by the government are not seeking the
wellbeing of the government and the country that it rules. The measure will
definitely create enemies for the government, which Election Time will confirm.
There are more gripping aspects of the issue,
though. The common saying that the teacher’s reward is in heaven must be enough
to touch any heart that pumps blood. Like teachers, nurses too are gearing up
for their reward in heaven. Two vital professions that no society can do with
but whose members are least respected or rewarded for their human-centred
activities.
Tell me, someone. Who can progress in life
without the influence of a teacher or a nurse? Whose labour brought up the
Presidents and so-called bigshots in government? How many teachers haven’t
influenced lives? How about the nurses to whom they rush whenever they have the
slightest health problem? So, why no respect for these professionals?
I am really troubled by this decision to
withdraw allowances for the trainee nurses. That on the teacher trainees seems
to have been finalized and won’t be changed despite all entreaties. Sad; really
saddening!!
Undoubtedly,
nursing is more of a yeoman’s job than any profit-making venture, regardless of
how nurses join their fellow public sector workers to agitate for better
remuneration and conditions of service, generally. After all, they go to the
same market for survival and must have their labour’s worth.
But beyond
that material level is the real issue: nursing is more of a philanthropic or
humanitarian venture than anything else. Nurses guided by the Florence
Nightingale spirit are in the profession to save human beings from suffering,
using their training and natural bent for empathy to serve humanity’s health
needs.
Some bad
nuts in the profession may put their personal interests above the humanitarian
aspects of the profession; but their deeds or posture don’t devalue the
foundation on which the profession is built. Every human community has bad nuts
to explain why perfection is not a human quality.
But in
this case of Ghanaian nurses, it is imperative that the authorities don’t do
anything to add more to their woes. We know the challenges facing them at the
workplace—working under virtually inhuman conditions, improvising in the face
of obsolete or non-existent healthcare equipment; being exposed to communicable
diseases brought for treatment (because they lack the appropriate gadgets and
protective cover); coping with the general harsh economic situation in the
country; lacking means of transportation to and from work and, therefore,
working overtime to keep themselves afloat; and many other depressing reasons.
Translate
all these problems from these established professionals to those in training
and you should see the enormity of the problem and sympathize with those
trainee nurses now to be deprived of their allowances.
In fact,
the government is being insensitive to the highest degree and must be blamed if
the health sector suffers adversely from this draconian measure. We don’t know
how much “allowance” a trainee nurse is paid to warrant any fuss over this
concession; but we can say that conditions under which these trainee nurses
function don’t justify any removal of the allowances.
The
problems associated with their admission into the training institutions,
board-and-lodge facilities, and many others that confront them are heavy.
If the
government indeed wants the health sector to survive, it must rather invest
much in them, including providing every opportunity for anybody entering that
sector to have the best training and be psychologically attuned to the reality
of the health situation in the country. Nothing must be done to demoralize of
shoot down the system.
I urge the
government to rescind this decision on allowances for the trainee nurses and
teachers so that those who have the aptitude for those professions can help us
move the country forward.
A country
that has a good system of education and health delivery is next to being
developed with a human face. Education and health are very crucial to national
development, and the government must do all it can to sustain efforts at
improving the situation, not dampening spirits and negating efforts.
Day-in-day-out,
President Mahama and his team boast of the vision to establish hundreds of
schools and hospitals all over the country as part of the “Better Ghana
Agenda”. What will these physical structures amount to without the human
elements? How do we hope to produce professionals for the schools and hospitals
if we demoralize the trainees and frustrate efforts at preparing them for the
challenges ahead?
I hope
that those in government supporting the removal of all these allowances have
the capacity to see things beyond their noses to know that the future is at
stake and that the government’s ill-considered measures regarding the
allowances for these trainees will definitely have a negative impact on human
resource development.
It is
better for the government to look more closely at how revenue is spent and to
close the loopholes so that enough money can be generated for use to support
human resource development in vital areas such as health and education. Turning
round to deprive the trainees of the allowances that they need to undergo
training will not solve any budget shortfall problem. Is this NDC government
really socially democratic? A paradox of sorts!!
I shall return…
No comments:
Post a Comment