SPEAKER’S VERDICT: The Full text of Ruling On Fortiz Debate

Rt Hon Doe Adjaho, Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament

Honourable Members,

The Motion before us seeks to invite this Honourable House to investigate the offer by and acquisition of Merchant Hank by Fortiz Equity Fund Limited and other related matters.

Since this matter was brought to my attention, I directed the Clerks at Table to conduct a search at the Court Registry, which has established that there are three (3) applications pending before our Superior Courts of Judicature, aside the notice of appeal.

The motion is not only making reference to the matter in Court but is calling for an investigation of the same matter and the same issues before the courts. Indeed, it is the same matter which the Courts are looking into, that this Honourable House is being called upon to pronounce on. See the reliefs being sought by the Plaintiff in the above cited case.

The relationship that must exist between the legislature and the judiciary should be based on mutual respect and trust. As you are all aware, Ghana is among the comity of nations forming the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles on the relationship among the Three Branches of Government in 2003 reaffirms this and stipulates that "(a) Relations between parliament and the judiciary should be governed by respect for parliament's primary responsibility for law making on the one hand and for the judiciary's responsibility for the interpretation and application of the law on the other hand;

(b) Judiciaries and parliaments should fulfill their respective but critical roles in the promotion of the rule of law in a complementary and constructive manner'". Erskine May states that "Where an issue is awaiting determination by the courts, that issue should not be discussed in the House in any motion, debate or question in case that should affect decisions in court". See 24th Edition of Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice and Procedure, page 441 .•

Thus the legislature must accord and respect the independence of the judiciary especially on matters that are before the courts for adjudication. The sub juice rule guards against Parliamentary interference in cases currently before the courts.

This is captured in Order 93(1) of our Standing Orders which clearly states that "Reference shall not be made to any matter on which judicial decision is pending in such a way as may, in the opinion of Mr. Speaker, prejudice the interest of parties to the action".

My understanding of Order 93(1) is that you can make reference to matters before the Courts, but these should not, in the opinion of the Speaker prejudice the interests of the parties in the case, and I agree with the Hon. Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Member for Sekondi on this point.

The Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, Speaker of the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic, in making a ruling on Order 93 (3) of our Standing Orders made an allusion to this sub judice rule when he said" The Speaker, may, in a particular case where it is quite obvious, refuse to have a motion admitted, especially when it is covered by a clear-cut case. For example, if you put forward a motion affecting a matter which is pending in court directly and it was brought to the knowledge of Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker is bound to draw attention to the fact that such a motion cannot properly be debated by the House and, therefore, cannot be accepted, But it does not follow that in every case in which a motion is accepted and listed the Speaker has necessarily gone through the motions of deciding every issue of propriety involved in that motion, no. 

Indeed, although the Speaker has power to intervene in matters which are out of order, he may nevertheless refrain from exercising that power. If I may refer, on this matter, to Erskine May; it deals with this question of the Speaker exercising power to intervene. And it says in the 22^nd edition which the Hon Member for Avenor referred to-page 396:

{It is the duty of the Speaker to intervene to preserve order, though he may refrain from intervening if he thinks it unnecessary to do so. If he does intervene, however, whether for the above reason or because he has not perceived that a breach of order has been committed, it is the right of any Member who thinks that such a breach has been committed to rise in his place, interrupt any Member who may be speaking and direct the attention of the Speaker to the matter}. 

So quite obviously, the fact that this matter was admitted and put on the Order Paper does not prevent any Member of the House from raising issues with regard to the propriety of the matter being debated by this House when the matter comes before this House". See the Official Reports of the House of 12th and 13^th December 2001, Column 2262.

The proper relationship between Parliament and the courts requires that the courts should be left to get on with their work [ ... ]. Restrictions on media comment are limited to not prejudicing the trial, but Parliament needs to be especially careful: it is important constitutionally, and essential for public confidence, that the judiciary should be seen to be independent of political pressures. Thus, restrictions on parliamentary debate should sometimes exceed those on media comment. See Richard Benwell and Oonagh Gay, on "Separation of Powers", Library of the House of Commons, Standard Note: SN/PC/06053, Last updated 15 August 2011.

Honourable Members, undoubtedly the matters contemplated for debate in this motion are of public interest and ordinarily the general public would be interested in following developments in the House. I cannot, however, fathom a situation in which the movers of this motion can articulate their case, and the matter thoroughly debated for a decision by this House without reference to the material issues in the case before the Courts.

To assist me in forming an opinion on the application of Standing Order 93 (1) to a matter of profound importance such as this, it is useful to draw on the experiences and guidance established by precedence in other jurisdictions, especially the United Kingdom House of Commons from where most of the provisions of our standing orders have been taken.

The Hon. Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Ayine also made reference to it.

In 24th Edition of the authoritative Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice and Procedure, under the sub-heading "Matters Awaiting Judicial Decision", there is reference to the current practice governing matters sub judice as follows:

(1)   Cases in which proceedings are active in United Kingdom Courts Shall not be referred to in any motion, debate or question.

(a)  (i).Criminal proceedings are active when a charge has been made or a summons to appear has been issued, or in Scotland a warrant to cite has been granted.

(ii) Criminal proceedings cease to be active when they are concluded by verdict and sentenced or discontinued, or in cases dealt with by Court Marshal after the conclusion of the mandatory post trial review.

(b) (i) Civil proceedings are active when arrangements for the hearing such as setting a case for trial have been made until the proceedings are ended by judgment or discontinued.

(ii) Any application made in or for the purposes any civil proceedings shall be treated as distinct proceedings.

(c) Appellate proceedings whether criminal or civil are active from the time when they are commenced by application for leave to appeal or by notice of appeal until ended by judgment or discontinued. 

The above-stated authorities on the sub judice rule in Parliament, which have also been confirmed on pages 94 and 95 of DODs Handbook on House of Commons Procedure, establish clearly and unequivocally that cases in which proceedings are active in United Kingdom Courts Shall not be referred to in any motion, debate or question.

Based on this practice, it is my considered opinion that this case is active: A notice of appeal has been filed in the Ghanaian Court of Appeal and a date has been fixed for settling of records. Three other applications have been filed in the High Courts and a corresponding date fixed for their determination. 

Indeed, I am yet to come across a situation in which both Parliament and the Judiciary are inquiring into the same matter simultaneously. Honourable Members, what would be the effect if an investigation undertaken by Parliament as anticipated under the present motion, arrives at an outcome and a decision contrary to the outcome and decision of the Courts?

It is therefore my ruling that a discussion of this motion will prejudice the parties to the various cases currently before the Courts. The Point of Order is hereby sustained.

Accordingly, the motion calling on this House to investigate the offer by and acquisition of Merchant Bank by Fortiz Equity Fund Limited and other related matters, is ruled out of order. There are other tools available to the House, that can be utilized if the House so desires. 

Editorial

GLORIFYING A CRIMINAL

Western Leaders don’t appear to have any shame.

At a time a when they are busily pretending to be fighting international terrorism, they have all lined up to pay tribute to one of the world’s most accomplished terrorist – Ariel Sharon.

This is the man who led the slaughter of at least 2000 Palestinians including innocent women and children for the sole purpose of defending colonial occupation.

Sharon was a terrorist even in his infancy when he joined terror gangs of racist youth whose only objective was to steal Palestinian lands.

His invasion of Gaza brought terror and despair to a colonized people.

He openly advocated the assassination of those who disagreed with him and led the crusade for the building of more settlements on Palestinian lands.

Everything Sharon did was in violation of international law and for the entrenchment of colonial occupation.

Those in the West who are glorifying .this criminal only reveal their own true nature. 

THE LIE

By Ekow Mensah.

The claim that no cases are pending in the courts in respect of the off loading of the shares of SSNIT to Fortiz has turned out to be false.

A search at the Commercial Division of the High Court has confirmed that three applications are pending.

These applications will be determined on January 27, 2014.

The search was conducted apparently on the instructions of the Hon Edward Doe Adjaho, Speaker of Parliament.

The search request was signed by Mr Ebenezer Ahumah Dijetor, Principal Assistant Clerk for the Clerk of Parliament.

It was dated January 3, 2014.

The ruling of the Speaker on the “Fortiz motion” is vindicated by an earlier one made by the Right Honourable Peter Adjetey.

In the Hansard of December 13, 2001, The Speaker is quoted as saying “The Speaker may, in a particular case where it is quite obvious, refuse to have a motion admitted especially when it is covered by a clear-out case. For example, if you put forward a motion affecting a matter which is pending in court directly and it was brought to the knowledge of Mr Speaker”.

There is no peace in South Sudan for Ghanaian troops to keep!!

Special Forces of Ghana

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Folks, the headline is loud and clear: “Ghana to send peacekeepers to South Sudan”.

Miss Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has said that Ghana will be contributing troops for peacekeeping operations in South Sudan. We are not yet given specifics.

Miss Tetteh, who spoke at a public forum in Accra dubbed “Advancing the better Ghana Agenda: Prospects for 2014” as part of activities marking the first anniversary of President John Dramani Mahama’s government, said Ghana was committed to the maintenance of peace in Africa.

(See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=297162)

Not a good message to celebrate, at least, for now. And I will bluntly say so: that there is no justification to rush Ghanaian troops into the situation unfolding in South Sudan.

There is no peace in that country to keep. It is a war being fought for political power, which has already been qualified as nearing a civil war, pitting the South Sudanese President (Salva Kiir) and his Dinka people against his former Vice (Riek Machar) and his Nuer tribe.

When there is civil war anywhere, outside forces risk becoming embroiled in it without the possibility of solving any problem.

We recognize the importance of peace on the African continent but want to caution against any rash move to insert Ghana into needless trouble spots on the continent.

Considering the fact that heavy fighting is still going on in the country while the negotiation in Ethiopia to patch up differences have just begun without any clear indication of a compromise being reached, can we not say that there is no peace to keep in that country? Why send any outside force there all too soon to be caught up in the catastrophe?

Of course, a soldier’s duty goes beyond peacekeeping. Soldiering involves fighting as well—and the troops know it for a fact that their job is a matter of life-or-death, which they live with. But if the situation doesn’t call for any life-threatening sacrifice, no one should tempt Fate.

A glaring fact is that all too soon, South Sudan has been plunged into this kind of mess—just like all other hotbeds in Africa or anywhere in the world that Ghana has contributed troops and police personnel to “keep peace” there.

The country deserves better than what has unfolded so far. Disappointing, indeed!

The situation there doesn’t portend peace being made soon. It is a free-for-all situation in which the various forces pitted against each other are not sure of where they want to move their own country.

South Sudan is rich in petroleum resources and can stand on its own feet if its political administration so desires. But what has erupted, barely 2 years after gaining independence from Sudan is deplorable.

Sudanese President Al-Bashir has just concluded talks in Juba with Mr. Kiir—talks centring around protection of petroleum installations and oil pipelines (through joint patrols by Sudanese and South Sudanese forces). No talk of Sudan’s intervention to ensure peace in its neighbor. Not surprising because it was only recently that hostilities between both seemed to have lulled.

Other countries with huge stakes in South Sudan (the United States, China, the UK) have evacuated their citizens from there and not indicated any direct involvement in the fracas going on. All of a sudden, Ghana has emerged to contribute troops for peace-keeping there!!

Obviously, there are vested interests in South Sudan. What is Ghana’s interest there, anyway? What is Ghana interested in securing in South Sudan?

Of course, one may want to say that Ghana has always played an important role in peacekeeping all over the world and is well known for it. The Ghanaian military establishment also rakes in some benefits. Let’s not forget that the UN pays countries that contribute troops to such missions; but beyond all those considerations rises the overarching question: Is it Ghana’s duty to be in South Sudan at this time? I don’t think so.

We note that Ghana has actively participated in military operations in recent times , including ECOMOG in Liberia and others in Rwanda, Somalia, Mali, etc.

I am not suggesting that Ghana should sit down unconcerned for those countries to “burn” but we must at the same time be cautious how we rush headlong into conflict zones.

The reality of the South Sudanese situation is that Salva Kirr and his opponents don’t seem to be committed to building that young country. They appear to be more interested in realizing their own political ambitions than working together to develop the country and bring decency to the homes and lives of millions of their compatriots suffering from excruciating poverty.

Sadly, these were people who had fought a war of liberation for decades, putting their own lives and those of many other compatriots on the line.

Colonel John Garang did so but couldn’t survive to lead the country at independence. Those who took over from him seemed to have understood the relevance of the liberation struggle but are at each other’s throat over the spoils of that long-drawn-out struggle for freedom.

President Kiir has been accused of making moves to stifle opposition and consolidate his hold on power, which is likely to turn him into a despot.

The stiff opposition facing him is born out of that fear and is borne out by the fact that since he dismissed his entire Cabinet in July last year and did away with Riek Machar, his closest nemesis, nothing has been done to establish the framework for democracy.

The immediate cause of the December 15 disturbances in Juba can be traced to the apprehensions that he was gradually and steadily establishing himself as a despot and needed to be halted in his stride before he could accomplish his objective.

Indeed, the skirmishes going on all over the country, especially in the Jonglei and Unity States indicate that the rebel forces under Mr. Machar are formidable. They have re-taken Bor in Jonglei State from the government forces and consolidated their hold on other areas.

Although efforts at negotiation are ongoing, the reality on the ground indicates that heavy fighting won’t stop soon. The government forces may have the full backing of the Establishment but they cannot over-run the rebel forces (made up of thousands of disaffected professional soldiers defecting from the military and joining disgruntled militiamen and other pockets of rebel factions all over the country).

From all indications, the negotiations in Ethiopia won’t lead to any peace soon. And “peace” what will the troops from other countries be going to Sudan to maintain?

A lesson worth teaching those whose mishandling of affairs sparks off conflicts is not far off. It takes common sense to know that no country can develop in the face of war and needless destruction of limb and property.

Had Ghanaians also chosen the path of war, could the country have been stable enough to breed troops for peacekeeping operations anywhere? It’s high time power-hungry elements in African countries recognized the fact that they would not be allowed to create problems only for us to be pushed around to solve for them.

It takes level-headedness to rule a country. Those in charge of affairs need to put the national interest far above their parochial quests and allow decency to control their mindset and attitudes.

Those in South Sudan are not prepared to rule themselves and should be dealt a severe blow. Salva Kiir and Riek Machar should be sanctioned and made to pay for any damage to country and people. It’s high time African politicians learnt how to conduct affairs and not plunge their countries into the catastrophe of the sort that is testing the resolve of Ghana and other countries being urged to contribute troops for peacekeeping duties in South Sudan.

All-in-all, though, our government has to tread cautiously so it doesn’t overdo things.

I shall return…

E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com

Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.

Mali, Western Powers Target its Natural Resources

By Timothy Alexander Guzman

France’s intervention in the West African nation of Mali under Operation Serval drove Islamic groups associated with Al-Qaeda out of Northern Mali in February 2013. When the Tuareg rebellion occurred in early 2012, it was against the Malian government led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) for the independence of Northern Mali also known as Azawad. There were also Islamic groups such as the Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who originally helped the MNLA. Eventually both Islamist groups turned on the MNLA forcing them out and creating a Sharia based Northern Mali. The government of Mali requested foreign assistance to re-take the north and France answered the call. France restored Mali’s government back to power.

France’s military incursion with Western support was described as a “humanitarian intervention” which resulted in a race for Mali’s natural resources. That was the plan after all. New drilling contracts have just been established after Mali’s civil war was contained by the French military with the backing of the United Kingdom and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). The collaboration of Western powers just opened up Mali for business. A new press release by Legend Gold of Vancouver, BC Canada states the intention of gold mine drilling in several regions of Mali. The press release titled ‘Legend Gold Announces Signing of Drilling Contracts for Exploration in Mali’ stated exactly what areas of Mali will be extracted for gold by the new drilling contracts:

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – Jan. 6, 2014) – Legend Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Legend Gold”) (TSX VENTURE:LGN) is pleased to announce the commencement of drilling for the season. Legend Gold has contracted for a minimum of 5,000 m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 10,000 m of air core (AC) drilling for the Diba and Lankafla projects in western Mali and the Mougnina project in southern Mali. 

In western Mali, Legend Gold plans to explore for extensions to the Diba-Badiazila resource which contains 234,000 oz at 1.67 g/t gold of indicated and 26,700 oz of inferred mineralization at 1.9 g/t at 0.8 g/t gold cutoff (AMEC’s NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report, August 2013). There remain a number of gaps in the AMEC resource which can be in-filled by a number of shallow RC holes to bring the oxide resource from the indicated and inferred categories to measured and indicated. The oxide resource evaluated to date extends to about 50 m below the surface. A minimum of 3,000 m of RC drilling will be used to infill gaps in the existing resource as well as testing the immediate on-strike extensions of the Diba deposit. Analysis of previous results derived from drilling completed by Etruscan Resources in 2009 suggests that additional resources remain to be discovered on-strike from the known mineralization, along a 2 km long soil auger geochemistry anomaly to the northwest. Several lines of RC and core holes drilled by Etruscan Resources about 1.5 km to the NNW of Diba yielded multiple mineralized intervals which warrant follow up drilling.

French Forces in Mali

Preliminary results of a ground gravity survey on the Lankalfa project area suggest that areas that have been drilled previously warrant additional exploration. New and upgraded targets revealed by the final interpretation of the gravity survey will also be included in the 2,000 m of RC drilling planned for Lankafla.

In southern Mali, exploration by Legend Gold on the Mougnina exploration license, some twenty kilometers north of the Syama mine, has mapped a series of ancient artisanal workings which are coincident with soil auger gold anomalies. The ancient workings appear to be on splays off the same fault system that controls mineralization at the Syama mine. At least 5,000 m of AC drilling are planned to test the soil auger gold anomalies and artisanal workings.

The drill program is expected to commence in early February 2014.

Douglas Perkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Legend Gold stated, “The data review and project ranking that took place over the past three months is now complete and the technical team has chosen their priorities for the current drilling season. Given the current state of the exploration business, Legend Gold was able to obtain some very competitive quotes for meters. We look forward to announcing the results as soon as they are available.” 

On December 18th, 2013 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it would financially assist Mali in a press release ‘IMF Executive Board Approves New Extended Credit Facility Arrangement for Mali and US$9.2 Million Disbursement’ regarding Mali’s economic potential with help from external financial resources. The institution which is based in Washington DC announced what the new arraignments will provide to the war torn country:

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a new arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Mali for an amount equivalent to SDR 30 million (about US$ 46.2 million or 32 percent of quota). The approval enables the immediate disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 6 million (about US$9.2 million).

The authorities’ program is designed to reduce balance-of-payments vulnerabilities and lay foundations for stronger, more inclusive growth. Reform efforts are focused on tax policy and revenue administration, public financial management and improving the business environment.

The IMF imposes debts on nations and forces its governments to cut back on social services such as education and medical care in order to pay back the debt. An article written by Arthur MacEwan which was published on Third World Network titled ‘Economic debacle in Argentina: The IMF strikes again’ describes how IMF policies affected Argentina’s economy:

During 2001 the Argentine recession grew rapidly deeper. Although the IMF pumped in additional funds, it provided these funds on the condition that the Argentine government would entirely eliminate its budget deficit. With the economy in a nose-dive and tax revenues plummeting, the only way to balance the budget was to drastically cut government spending. Yet, in doing so, the government was both eviscerating social programmes and reducing overall demand. In mid-December, the government announced that it would cut the salaries of public employees by 20% and reduce pension payments. At the same time, as the worsening crisis raised fears that the peso would be devalued, the government moved to prevent people from trading their pesos for dollars; it promulgated a regulation limiting bank withdrawals. These steps were the final straws, and in the week before Christmas, all hell broke loose.

According to www.allafrica.com an online African news source admits an increase in foreign investments and believes that Mali will experience growth “Mali is expected to benefit from relatively stable external conditions in the near term. The region’s prospects are favorable. Sub-Saharan Africa is set to enjoy continued robust growth driven by strong investment in infrastructure and productive capacity, and by rising inflows of foreign direct investment and other financing opportunities” which is further from the truth. RT News reported on June 10th, 2013 what does foreign investment in the gold industry mean for Malian citizens and especially for those who work in the gold mines:

War-worn Mali has tripled its gold exports over the last decade, though the rising profits are being funneled outside what is one of the world’s poorest countries: Foreign corporations appear to be taking over one of Mali’s few thriving industries. Mali, Africa’s third-largest gold producer, has just announced it expects to double annual gold output over the next five years to 100 tons.

Gold

Malian officials claim the gold-abundant south has been untouched by the military conflict between government troops and Tuareg insurgents in the north, which prompted an intervention by France in January. The promise of gold has lured investors into one of Mali’s most profitable industries.

However, residents have decried the news, as they feel they will benefit little from the country’s newfound riches. Thousands are employed as ‘traditional miners’ in the town of Yanfolila in southern Mali, the epicenter of the country’s gold rush. Traditional mining is a near-medieval process in which Malian workers dig holes approximately the size of their own bodies using only primitive picks – their gold mines. Without a proper geological survey, workers are essentially hoping to get lucky. The narrow shafts go as deep down as 60 meters, the equivalent of a 15- to 20-story building French intervention in Mali had nothing to do with the welfare of the Malian people. It was about the natural resources it has including gold, uranium and oil. With gold demand increasing among nations throughout the world, it is no surprise that the Western powers would intervene in any internal conflict in a resource rich country in the African continent. The French government has interests in Mali. That interest is in natural resources as Katrin Sold of the German Council on Foreign Relations stated in 2013“In the long term, France has interests in securing resources in the Sahel – particularly oil and uranium, which the French energy company Areva has been extracting for decades in neighboring Niger”. Mali has abundant natural resources. The civil war intensified through a western backed military coup with Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo who was trained by the United States lead a coup against democratically-elected government of Amadou Toumani Touré after the Tuareg Rebellion in Northern Mali. Western Institutions and corporations wasted no time in acquiring natural resources during Mali’s crises. Divide and conquer and then accumulate the resources was the was the Western government’s intentions. During a speech by French President Francois Hollande on February 2nd, 2013 after France intervened in Mali, hypocrisy took hold when he said:

France stands alongside you, not to serve any particular interest – we have none –, to protect this or that faction, or in favour of this or that Malian party… No, we stand alongside you for the sake of the whole of Mali and for West Africa. We’re fighting here to ensure Mali lives in peace and democracy. And you’ve presented the best image today, through your warmth and fervour, after your pain throughout those months when fanaticism held sway in northern Mali.

We’re fighting as brothers – Malians, French, Africans – because I haven’t forgotten that when France herself was attacked, when she was seeking support and allies, when her territorial integrity was threatened, who came along? It was Africa; it was Mali. Thank you, thank you, Mali. Today we’re repaying our debt to you Mali is the country that has to repay its debts to the IMF and its western powers through its natural resources, not France. A loan from the IMF  is guaranteed to create more debt for the Malian people.  As Western powers such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and France continue to intervene in third world countries for their own interests, it seems like Mali is under their control for the long term pushing China out as a potential business partner with the Malian government. France and AFRICOM are expanding its intervention policies throughout Africa because it is about the resources, besides; the West has been intervening in Africa for the past 500 +years that only resulted in more wars and extreme poverty for the African people.

Opening our eyes to how capitalism began

Karl Marx

By Systemic Disorder

All systems of inequality and exploitation require violence. When we peer into the past, such a statement is not controversial; it is only when we turn our attention to the present that selectivity is applied.

Capitalism, however, has weaved a vast web of mythology about itself. If we are talking about ancient enough history — say the nineteenth century in the context of the Industrial Revolution — some acknowledgement of brutality is accepted. Inconsistently, the beginnings of capitalism are shrouded in mists of rose-colored haze despite lying further back in time.

But think about it: Does the idea that peasants, used to self-sufficiency albeit under often difficult circumstances, would willingly take subservient jobs in inhuman sweatshops make any more sense than today’s apologists who claim that people in developing countries wish to work back-breaking hours for pitiful wages? Horrific, state-directed violence in massive doses enabled capitalism to slowly establish itself, then methodically expand from its northwestern European beginnings.

Peasant uprisings repeatedly broke out across medieval Western and Central Europe, sometimes with explicit demands for equality and sometimes in the form of religious movements challenging the feudal order and, therefore, the Roman Catholic Church that provided the local ideological glue. In response, the church stepped up its Inquisition and its burning of non-conforming women as “witches” as part of the effort to subjugate peasants and town-dwelling working people and to foster divisions within those large groups.*

Entering the new factories at gunpoint

English feudal lords began throwing peasants off their land in the sixteenth century, a process put in motion, in part, by continuing peasant resistance. The rise of Flemish wool manufacturing — wool had become a desirable luxury item — and a corresponding rise in the price of wool in England induced the wholesale removal of peasants from the land. Lords wanted to transform arable land into sheep meadows, and began razing peasant cottages to clear the land. These actions became known as the “enclosure movement.”

This process received further fuel from the Reformation — the Roman Catholic Church had owned huge estates throughout England, and when these church lands were confiscated, the masses of peasants who were hereditary tenants on these lands were thrown off when the confiscated church lands were sold on the cheap to royal favorites or to speculators.

Forced off the land they had farmed and barred from the “commons” (cleared land on which they grazed cattle and forests in which they foraged), peasants could either become beggars, risking draconian punishment for doing so, or become laborers in the new factories at pitifully low wages and enduring inhuman conditions and working hours.

Force was the indispensable factor in creating the first modern working class. Late feudalism was hardly a paradise for small farmers, but Western European peasants, some of whom were independent smallholders, had wrested better conditions for themselves. They had no reason to enter willingly the new workplaces and the Dickensian conditions they would endure there.

The historian Michael Perelman, in his appropriately titled book The Invention of Capitalism, wrote:

“Simple dispossession from the commons was a necessary, but not always sufficient, condition to harness rural people to the labor market. A series of cruel laws accompanied the dispossession of the peasants’ rights, including the period before capitalism had become a significant economic force.

For example, beginning with the Tudors, England created a series of stern measures to prevent peasants from drifting into vagrancy or falling back onto welfare systems.

According to a 1572 statute, beggars over the age of fourteen were to be severely flogged and branded with a red-hot iron on the left ear unless someone was willing to take them into service for two years. Repeat offenders over the age of eighteen were to be executed unless someone would take them into service. Third offenses automatically resulted in execution. … Similar statutes appeared almost simultaneously in England, the Low Countries, and Zurich. … Eventually, the majority of workers, lacking any alternative, had little choice but to work for wages at something close to subsistence level.”

Supplementing these laws were displays of military power. A widely quoted document claims that 72,000 were hanged during the early sixteenth century reign of King Henry VIII, throughout which England experienced a series of peasant uprisings. Regardless of what the true number may have been, Henry, who reigned as the enclosures reached their peak, did have large numbers of people executed for being “vagabonds” or “thieves” — in reality for not working.

Force of the state backs the powerful

Systematic state force enabled factory owners to steadily gain the upper hand against artisans, although those nascent capitalists possessed no production innovations at the time. Economist Herbert Gintis wrote:

“Early factories employed the same techniques of production as putting-out [assemblers of finished products working from home] and craft organization, and there were no technological barriers to applying them to these more traditional forms. The superior position of the capitalist factory system in this period seems to derive not from its efficiency sense, but its ability to control the workforce: costs were reduced by drawing on child and female labor, minimizing theft, increasing the pace of work, and lengthening the workweek.”

A process of intensifying exploitation enabled early factory owners to accumulate capital, thereby allowing them to expand and amass fortunes at the expense of their workforces; they were also able to force artisans out of business, forcing artisans to sell off or abandon the ownership of their means of production and become wage laborers. Greater efficiencies can be wrung out through economies of scale, which in turn leads to the ability to introduce new production techniques because the accumulation of capital also provides funds for investment. Such efficiency, in turn, is necessary for the capitalist to take advantage of opportunities for trade.

The gathering pressures of competition eventually ignited the Industrial Revolution and fueled the rise of the factory system. A flurry of inventions useful for production shaped the Industrial Revolution that took root in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century. The Industrial Revolution emerged not only due to technological and economic factors, but also as a result of capitalist class relations that had already become established. The introduction of machinery was a tool for factory owners to bring workers under control — technological innovation required fewer employees be kept on and deskilled many of the remaining workers by automating processes.

As industrial resistance gathered steam in the early nineteenth century, the British government employed 12,000 troops to repress craft workers, artisans, factory workers and small farmers who were resisting the introduction of machinery by capitalists, seeing these machines as threats to their freedom and dignity — more troops than Britain was using in its simultaneous fight against Napoleon’s armies in Spain.

This period coincided with a “moral” crusade promoted by owners of factories and agricultural estates in which the tiny fraction of commons that had survived were taken away by Parliament; the measure of independence rights to the use of commons provided wage laborers was denounced for fostering “laziness” and “indolence” — defects that could be cured only by forcing full dependence on wage work. Organizing, in the forms of unions and other coordinated activity, soon supplanted machine-breaking, reinforcing capitalists’ desire to use technical innovation to make their workforces docile.

Fortunes built on slavery, colonialism

The process of accumulation by European capitalists was greatly accelerated by slavery and colonialism.

Gold and silver were the mediums of exchange in Europe, Asia and Africa, and currencies were based on these metals. Indigenous peoples in Mexico and the Andes were skilled at mining, creating a supply of both metals that they themselves used for ornamental purposes. Silver shipped to Spain from Latin America by 1660 totaled three times more than the entire pre-existing supply in all of Europe. During this period, silver production in the Americas was an estimated ten times that of the rest of the world combined, all of which was shipped to Spain.

This vast wealth enriched the empires and monarchies of Europe, except for Spain — the metals it imported mostly were delivered to foreign creditors, and the rest spent on the Crusades, the Inquisition and importing manufactured items. Spain imported everything it needed while other countries threw up trade barriers and developed their industries.

The brutality with which this extraction of wealth was carried out led to the reduction of Indigenous populations by an estimated 95 percent. The imperial solution to this genocide was to import slaves from Africa. A steadily increasing number of slaves were shipped from the early sixteenth century as plantations grew in size. During the seventeenth century, Caribbean sugar supplanted mainland precious metals as the mainstay of wealth extraction; for three centuries the European powers would engage in continual struggle for possession of these islands. This sugar economy was based on the slave labor of kidnapped Africans; conditions were so horrific that one-third of the slaves who made it to the Caribbean died within three years — it was more profitable to work slaves to death and buy replacements than to keep them alive.

The slave trade, until the end of the seventeenth century, was conducted by government monopolies. European economies grew on the “triangular trade” in which European manufactured goods were shipped to the coast of western Africa in exchange for slaves, who were shipped to the Americas, which in turn sent sugar and other commodities back to Europe. Britain and other European powers earned far more from the plantations of their Caribbean colonies than from North American possessions; much Caribbean produce could not be grown in Europe, while North American colonies tended to produce what Europe could already provide for itself.

Britain profited enormously from the triangular trade, both in the slave trade itself and the surpluses generated from plantation crops produced with slave labor. Proceeds from the slave trade were large enough to lift the prosperity of the British economy as a whole, provide the investment funds to build the infrastructure necessary to support industry and the scale of trade resulting from a growing industrial economy, and ease credit problems — early industrialists had extremely large needs for investment capital and commercial credit because of long delays in returns on investment due to the slow pace of trade transport.

Profits from the slave trade and from colonial plantations were critical to bootstrapping the takeoff of British industry and modern capitalism in the second half of the eighteenth century into the early nineteenth century.

Wealth for colonial masters, poverty for the colonies

The sociologist Robin Blackburn, in his comprehensive study The Making of New World Slavery, wrote:

“Britain undertook a major series of investment programmes: in the merchant marine, in harbours and docks, in canals, in agricultural improvements and in developing new industrial machinery. The profits of empire and slavery helped to make this possible, enlarging the resources at the command of public authorities, [land-]improving landlords, enterprising merchants and innovating manufacturers. Because of the prior transformation in agriculture, and in British society as a whole, colonial and mercantile wealth could be transmuted into capital employing wage labour.”

This extraction process had opposite effects in those colonies undergoing the most intensive exploitation. The Caribbean countries were reduced to monoculture production, forbidden to manufacture anything, because their agricultural products were so profitable. The mainland colonies that would one day become the United States, by contrast, were allowed to develop the industry and varied agriculture that would in the future enable rapid growth of their economy. African development also was stunted because rulers of coastal kingdoms could buy goods and weapons from Europe while profiting by enslaving Africans from other kingdoms; wealth there was used to buy from imperial powers and thus did not stay in Africa.

The widespread use of slave labor also necessitated that further social divisions be instituted, while institutionalizing global trade. Marxist feminist theorist Silvia Federici, in her book Caliban and the Witch, wrote:

“With its immense concentration of workers and its captive labor force uprooted from its homeland, unable to rely on local support, the [Caribbean and Latin American] plantation prefigured not only the factory but also the later use of immigration and globalization to cut the cost of labor. In particular, the plantation was a key step in the formation of an international division of labor that (through the production of ‘consumer goods’) integrated the work of slaves into the reproduction of the European workforce, while keeping enslaved and waged workers geographically and socially divided.”

On such roots is modern inequality built.

* The remainder of this article consists of extracts from the “Explorations in theories of transition to and from capitalism” section of my forthcoming book It’s Not Over: Lessons from the Socialist Experiment (still seeking a publisher). Footnotes omitted. In addition to the works directly quoted, sources include Karl Marx,“Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land”; David Dickson, The Politics of Alternative Technology; Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean; Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent; John C. Mohawk, Utopian Legacies: A History of Conquest and Oppression in the Western World; and David McNally, Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique.

Cuban School Children

Equality in cuba, Will there ever be a man's day?
Conversation with Dr. Julio César González Pagés, general coordinator of the Ibero-American and African Masculinities Network

By Yenia Silva Correa

Despite huge efforts and legislation approved by the Revolution to create gender equality in society, men and women believe that equality is still something quite distant.

With the aim of reducing this distance, Cuba is working intensively not only to put women at the fore —a task that started with the founding of the Federation of Cuban Women— but also to include men in the task of adopting attitudes and opinions which contribute to equality.

Dr. Julio César González Pagés, general coordinator of the Ibero-American and African Masculinities Network (RIAM) states, "All the transformations of the 1960's, female empowerment, the fact that women in Cuba have rights that are still being considered in other parts of Latin America, mean that, in the social context, men are assuming new ways of relating to women and thus helping women in wanting men to change."

While the network initially included only a few countries, its remit has spread to various regions and is bearing fruit within Cuba, including the Masculinities Study Conference in November, which will examine the topic of Masculinities and Old Age; and the creation of an Athletes for Nonviolence Network.

"In 2006 we took on the task of creating this website and joined another network at the University of Barcelona. At first there were six or seven countries, and now there are 32 of us from Ibero-America, eight from Africa and 93 universities and organizations in the network," he says.

Although RIAM has no physical headquarters, through its virtual location (www.redmasculinidades.com), it has always presented good practices which can be applied in different parts of the region, as well as exploring current problems.

"One of the issues most sought on the website is nonviolence. How, from diverse backgrounds, can we design programs for men on nonviolence? We have seen the possibility of transformation in two major areas: music and sport," González Pagés noted.

In just seven years since it was established, the RIAM network has entered the sphere of serious academic study and has drawn together millions of men.

"The network has offered Cuba the opportunity to become a center and a leader on the issue at a continental level, and on account of what we are achieving, we have become internationally known.

ADVANTAGES OF A HIGH LEVEL OF EDUCATION

Starting out from a very simple definition of masculinity —the socio-cultural perception of a series of characteristics and attributes generally believed to come with being a man—González Pagés prefers to speak of masculinities in the plural, not only because of the different ways these are manifested within one individual, but also in Cuba and other countries of the region.

On account of a shared historical and cultural background, both in Latin America and in Cuba, masculinity — and its hyperbolic form of machismo— manifests itself in a similar way in these countries, with certain differences.

"In Latin America there are many places where it is impossible to remove machismo from discourse and behavior," he states. "We have the huge advantage of being a country where people are highly educated and it is easier to modify the discourse because there are more ways of unlearning machismo."

DOES LEGISLATION HELP?

"In Cuba, all the most important laws providing equality between men and women have been adopted. We have succeeded in legislating for equality, but in a cultural context we laugh at these differences.

Cuba revolutionized the whole of Latin America with its Family Code in 1976. It is currently being revised, but the problem has been putting it into practice.

"The change we are hoping for is that the solidarity proposed as a challenge in the 1970s in the family and workplace context, should be extended in the 21st century to culture and education and that men should play a more active role."

Although research on masculinity in Cuba still has many areas to cover and go hand-in-hand with the Federation of Cuban Women, Dr. González Pagés, an expert who sits on various United Nations bodies related to gender violence, is convinced that women’s social emancipation in Cuba has helped to modify male behavior.

"Masculinity has been changing since the 1960’s, a time when in reality men and women were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Such extreme attitudes no longer exist.

"All positive statistics relating to women in Cuba lead to men having more respect for women. While we cannot as yet sing siren songs, or believe we have reached our goal, it doubtless helps that women want to see a change in men.

"We need to recognize that all these years of transformation for women have had a positive influence on what we are doing now.

"What we hope for in social terms is to break down the cultural barriers which either remove or give opportunities based on biological facts.

"When that time arrives, every day can be as much hers as his. Meanwhile, we need to know what citizens we want: men and women who assume their masculinity and femininity with the awareness that their rights must be the same." 

Poor sleep damages body health

A new study conducted by the British researchers indicates that bad sleep patterns can have a dramatic effect on the activity levels of hundreds of genes.

According to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the internal workings of the human body are threatened when the sleep program is cut to less than six hours a day for a week.

Researchers studied the blood of 26 people who had plenty of sleep, over10 hours each night for a week then they compared the results with the analysis of the samples of those ones with the sleep of fewer than six hours a night during a week.

The results show that the people with sleep deprivation are at a higher risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and depression.

The analysis, conducted at the University of Surrey, unraveled that more than 700 genes were altered after substandard sleep while each of them contains the instructions for building a sort of protein.

"There was quite a dramatic change in activity in many different kinds of genes," said Professor Colin Smith from the University of Surrey.

"Clearly sleep is critical to rebuilding the body and maintaining a functional state, all kinds of damage appear to occur - hinting at what may lead to ill health and if we do not actually replenish and replace new cells, then that is going to lead to degenerative diseases,” he explained.

The study also demonstrated that when the participants did not get enough sleep they suffered more lapses in attention than when they had an adequate amount of rest, according to their performance assessment while they were awake.

Researchers also made clear that the body’s stress levels and the immune system were the most affected areas by bad sleep patterns.

Scientists currently believe most adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep each night.