IMF DEAL: It Is Still on Course In spite of Promises

Ken Ofori Atta, Minister of Finance

Bloomberg reports that in spite of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) complaints about the Mahama administration’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not much is likely to change.

A Bloomberg news report quotes Mr Ken Ofori Atta, the new Minister of Finance as saying that the deal with the Mahama government will be “tweaked” to reflect new realities.

The full report is published below;

Ghana’s debt bailout program with the International Monetary Fund may require “tweaking” after the nation’s new administration revealed that 7 billion cedis ($1.6 billion) in expenses were not accounted for by the previous government.

Government is in talks with the IMF and will seek to finalize an audit of the undisclosed spending by Feb. 15, Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Sunday.

Once the financing gap is established, the government will determine how it wants to raise funds for the shortfall, Ofori-Atta said.

“By the end of the IMF visit, the process of discovery and certainty and validation would have gone a long way,” Ofori-Atta said. “The task is a lot more than we anticipated with regards to the arrears.”

Ghana’s new administration under President Nana Akufo-Addo said the country’s budget deficit for 2016 will be close to “double digits” after the discovery of the arrears. The IMF is holding talks with Ghana as part of a $918 million three-year credit deal agreed in 2015 after spending ballooned and revenue from commodities such as oil and gold plunged due to a global slump.

China Talks

The government is in separate talks with China Development Bank Corp. about the country’s financing needs, Ofori-Atta said.

“We’re meeting for a second time with the Chinese Embassy” on Monday, he said. “We’re trying to nail down and look at an enhanced relationship with China to see how they can support the direction in which we’re now going.”

Editorial

AN IMF DEAL?

You can’t believe it but that is politics in Ghana for you.

Only a few months ago, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was busily lashing out at the Mahama administration for doing a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

They claimed that the deal was not in the interest of the people of Ghana because it had imposed a ban on employment in the public sector.

They also said that the deal reflected the rot in the Ghanaian economy.

Interestingly, only three days ago, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the new Minister of Finance said that the Akufo-Addo administration will keep the IMF deal they condemned.

What a country and what a people and their political parties.

Teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortions rising in Jirapa District

Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Health Minister

By Bajin D. Pobia
Teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortions have become a worrying phenomenon in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region.

Teenage pregnancies increased from 251 in 2015 to 340 in 2016 while unsafe abortions moved from 28 in 2015 to 34 in 2016.

Madam Phoebe Balagumyetime, Jirapa District Director of Health Services, who made this known at the 2016 annual performance review meeting in Jirapa, said two meternal deaths were however recorded last year compared to five in 2015.

She said one of the deaths was as a result of unsafe abortion.
Madam Balagumyetime said: “This is really of grave concern and all stakeholders must marshal efforts to curb this growing menace”.

She said there had also been a rising trend in malnutrition from 26.4 per cent in 2015 to 27.7 per cent in 2016.

The Health Directorate had however succeeded in managing those cases and had a cure rate of 100 per cent.

She said the Health Directorate had also put in place innovations including male involvement, community health action plans and community emergency transport systems to facilitate referrals.

Some Community Based Health Planning and Service zones had mobilised their communities to build maternity rooms to facilitate skilled delivery.

On utilisation of facilities, Madam Balagumyetime said total Out-Patient Department (OPD) attendance was 90,187 with an attendance per capita of 0.91 compared to a total of OPD attendance of 80,894 with an attendance per capita of 0.83 in 2015 during the same period.

Malaria continued to be a nagging problem accounting for 25.6 per cent of total OPD attendance in the district.

Dr Richard Wodah-Seme, Medical Director at the Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Jirapa, announced that the hospital had instituted clinical screening for cancers and urged women to patronise the services for early detection and treatment of the disease.

He said the Hospital had also established a lactation centre for nurses to enhance performance and safe babies’ from contaminations and other infectious diseases.

Dr. Wodah-Seme announced that the National Health Insurance Scheme was indebted to the Hospital with 12 months arrears and that had affected operations as basic drugs could not be purchased.
GNA

THE ORIGINS OF PREVENTIVE DETENTION IN GHANA

Krobo Adusei

By Ekow Nelson & Michael Gyamerah

The PDA was introduced in 1958 after many years of what we will today describe as acts of terrorism.

Between 1954 and 1957 violence, murders and bombings orchestrated largely by the National Liberation Movement (NLM), attended much of the political life in the Gold Coast. However, as we explain later in this article, the single incident that triggered the introduction of preventive detention, first proposed by the late Krobo Edusei (after seeing a copy of the Indian Act on preventive detention), whose own sister had been killed in an act of NLM terrorism and whose wife had been the victim of an N.L.M bomb blast, was the planned assassination of the Prime Minister by Modesto Apaloo, R.R. Amponsah and Captain Awhaitey.

There are some on the United Party (U.P.) side of this argument who trace the origins of the violence of that period to the now infamous incident on 9th October 1955 when a quarrel broke out between C.P.P. and N.L.M. supporters in a house in Ashanti New Town, Kumasi.

According to Dennis Austin, the quarrel led to blows and E.Y. Baffoe was stabbed to death by K.A. Twumasi Ankrah who had recently been reinstated as regional propaganda secretary for the C. P.P. Twumasi Ankrah was later charged, tried and hanged for this offence but the N.L.M. put it about that he was acting with the imprimatur of the C.P.P. leadership and used this as justification for much of their acts of terror.

Their claim, however, that the N.L.M. was a peaceful nationalist movement until the infamous incident does not fit with the facts and is an attempt to rewrite history. R. J. Vile, the Assistant Secretary and Head of West Africa Department B at the Colonial Office gave one of the first independent assessments of the N.L.M. after his visit to the Gold Coast in March 1955. In a memorandum "Constitutional developments in the Gold Coast" (Ref: CO 554/805, no 22) - on his visit to the Gold Coast he wrote this (in Paragraph 11):” So little is known about the internal politics of the N.L.M. that it is difficult to know the importance of this core of determined people, or the kind of control exercised by the Asantehene [sic] over them.

It is, however, clear that they have a fair amount of dynamite at their disposal and presumably can easily obtain fresh supplies by theft from the mines. They contain a number of thugs who are prepared to use knives and arms of precision. Reports were current in Kumasi a fortnight ago that the N.L.M. had been smuggling in rifles and machine- guns, and there were other reports that small bands of people were being trained with the object of sending them to Accra to attack, and possibly murder, Gold Coast Ministers. "

In paragraph 12, R.J. Vile writes: "It is possible that Dr. Nkrumah's peaceful approach (described in paragraph 10) may lead to the resolution of the differences between the N.L.M. and the C.P.P. on constitutional matters". Nevertheless he concluded ominously, that "it is quite possible that the core of determined young men will take to the forest and engage in guerrilla warfare from there if other methods fail". The idea then, of a peaceful N.L.M. before the E.Y. Baffoe incident, which took place some six months after R.J. Vile's memorandum is fanciful and pure fiction.

Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah

Prominent amongst the N.L.M's victims were C.E. Osei, Krobo Edusei's wife (Mary Akuamoah) and sister; Archie Caseley-Hayford and Kwame Nkrumah whose houses were targets for bombings at one time or another and the Governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, whose car was pelted with stones when he went to Kumasi to mediate and seek an end to the violence.

The aim of much of this orchestrated violence was to make the country ungovernable so that the Colonial Office would have little choice but to intervene and delay progress towards the granting of independence.

Less than a year after independence, and after three defeats at the polls in 1951, 1954 and 1956, four prominent members of the U.P. were involved in either undermining the stability of the new Ghana or planning a coup to overthrow the C.P.P. government. In November 1957, only eight months after independence, S.G. Antor and Kojo Ayeke two leading U.P supporters, were arrested and charged with complicity in the Alavanyo riots in Trans- Volta Togoland, which took place during the independence ceremonies.

In 1958, Modesto Apaloo and R.R. Amponsah (General Secretary of the N.L.M. and later the combined opposition parties, the U.P.) were implicated in plotting the first coup in the new Ghana with Captain Awhaitey, Commandant of the Giffard Camp (now Burma Camp).

The long-standing and broad basis of the connection between Awhaitey and the Opposition came out clearly during the Court Martial of Captain Awhaitey. For example, according to Geoffrey Bing (in his book "Reap The Whirlwind"), evidence presented at the tribunal showed that in November and December [1958] he [Awhaitey] was using a green Wolseley car which belonged to a then prominent Opposition Member of Parliament.

Victor Owusu, whom after the coup, the National Liberation Council (N.L.C.) appointed as Attorney General. Awhaitey certainly had the car and was involved in an accident with it, after which it was repaired at Amponsah's request. General Paley [the British General then commanding the Ghana Armed Forces] reinforced this connection in his evidence to the tribunal when he confirmed that the car was indeed the one found in front of Awhaitey's house at the time of his arrest.

According to Geoffrey Bing, "In the period immediately preceding Awhaitey's arrest there had been rumours of an army coup d'etat and there was even a Special Branch report in regard to it. Its source was a conversation in a foreign Embassy in Accra which had been allegedly overhead by a non-Ghanaian guest who reported it to the police. According to this report, Dr. J. B. Danquah had been heard assuring a diplomat Known to be not particularly friendly to the C.P.P. Government that everything was planned and that Dr. Nkrumah would be overthrown by Christmas by the Army. In view of the status of the informant, the report was taken seriously enough by the Special Branch and General Paley for there to be a thorough investigation made as to whether there was any possibility of the army planning a coup d’etat.

Needless to say, these Investigations did not uncover anything untoward at the time and Dr. J.B Danquah went on to appear as counsel for Amponsah, Apaloo and Dr. Susie before the Granville Sharp Commission of enquiry set up to investigate matters disclosed at the Court Martial of Captain Awhaitey.

The Granville Sharp Commission produced three reports (see proceedings and report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the matters disclosed at the trial of Captain Benjamin Awhaitey before a Court Martial and the surrounding circumstances):

Majority of the Commission, Sir Tsibu Darku and Mr. Maurice Charles (a West Indian and one of a small number of judges maintained in office by the N.L.C. after the coup) found "that Awhaitey, Mr. Amponsah, Mr. Apaloo and Mr. John Mensah Anthony, were engaged in a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and carry out a coup d’état...".

Mr. Justice Granville Sharp in his minority report found that "there did not exist between Amponsah, Apaloo and Awhaiteya plot to interfere in any way with the life of the Prime Minister on the airport before his departure for India."

The third unanimous Report (by all commission members) found "that Amponsah and Apaloo since June 1958, were engaged in a conspiracy to carry out at some future date in Ghana an act for unlawful purpose, revolutionary in character".

The violence did not, however, end there: numerous attempts were made on Nkrumah's life in the years following the introduction of the PDA, including the infamous Kulungugu bomb outrage, the bomb outrages in late 1961 that preceded the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1962, and the repeated assassination attempts on Nkrumah throughout the' early 1960s and especially in 1962 and 1964. By the fifth assassination attempt on Nkrumah's life, a death toll of 30 Ghanaians, men, women and children, had been recorded with the wounding of some 300 others.

Revisionist historians will have us believe the no member of the opposition was ever involved in the bombing campaigns, yet it is a matter of record that an opposition Member of Parliament, R.B Otchere, and Yaw Manu, an activist, pleaded guilty for their role in the Kulungugu bomb. This is what Dennis Austin wrote (see "Politics in Ghana 1946-1960", published 1964): "That the [Kulungugu bomb] plots had been hatched in Lome and elsewhere by former opposition members" notably Obetsebi Lamptey was clear. And, indeed Otchere [R.B.] pleaded guilty.

But that Tawia Adamafio, Ako Adjei or Coffie Crabbe had anything to do with the Kulungugu attack became increasingly doubtful as the trial continued. And on 9 December all three were acquitted. No one who examined the evidence could have supposed the verdict would be otherwise. Nevertheless, on 11 December, Nkrumah acting within the terms of the constitution- dismissed Arku Korsah as Chief Justice: and on December 25th Nkrumah declared the Judgment null and void.

The consequence of Nkrumah's response to the trial was that the opposition members who had pleaded guilty and were convicted by a court presided over by Van Lare, Akuffo Addo and the Chief Justice, had their death sentences quashed. In the subsequent trial ordered by Nkrumah, those who were acquitted in the original one were convicted. With the passage of time, all honest observers of our history accept that Tawla Adarnafio, Ako Adjei and Coffie Crabbe were treated unjustly.'

But to conclude from their convictions in the retrial, that they were the bomb plotters is not only unfair to their reputations and memory; It is simply dishonest. The number of people arrested under the Act was so exaggerated that the N.L.C. had to release common criminals with PDA detainees after the coup in 1966 to confirm this falsehood.

According to Geoffrey Bing, "of the seven hundred and eighty-eight [788] detained persons that were released [after the coup in 1966]. [some] three hundred and fifty to four hundred [350·400]" were criminal detainees "apparently let loose for the purely propaganda purpose of increasing the total number freed". This led to an embarrassing upsurge in crimes rates in the country after the coup.

How was Ghana to deal with the high levels of Intolerable violence?

Each country in the midst of a terrorist crisis has a set of emergency laws that are similar to the PDA. In operational terms, the concept of preventive detention has been in existence since British rule in India and elsewhere In other colonies. For example, the U.G.C.C leaders (the so-called Big Six) arrested after the 1948 riots in the Gold Coast were technically held In preventive custody and were neither charged nor tried.

After 1947, both India and Pakistan adopted prevention detention statutes to bring this long-standing practice within the purview of their judicial systems and constitutions. In the Indian Constitution, this comes under Article 22 "Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases" specifically denies anyone held In preventive custody the fundamental rights set out In clauses (1) and (2). Article 22 clause (3b) specifically states:

"Nothing in clauses (1) and (2) [I.e. protection from arbitrary arrest and detention, the right to consult and to be defended by, a legal counsel of choice] shall apply to any person who is arrested or detained under any law providing for preventive detention"

J.B Danquah

In the United Kingdom for example, The Prevention of Terrorism Action (PTA) , allowed for detention without trial, charge or access to legal counsel for a period has been in force since the early 19705. Since 9/11 both the US and UK governments have Introduced anti-terrorist legislation, much of which has created a conducive atmosphere for preventive detention and some would argue, encouraged the flagrant breaches of human rights witnessed or alleged in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison In The UK's Anti-Terrorisrn, Crime and Security Act of 2001 allowed non-UK nationals to be detained without charge or trial for an Indefinite period of time, if the Home Secretary believed such a person was a national security risk and a suspected "international terrorist who could not be deported. According to Amnesty International, the only body which [could] review the executive decision is the Special Immigration Appeals Commission which "can hold hearings in secret, can exclude the detainee and their lawyer from parts of the hearings, and can base its decision on secret evidence".

The reason for this, according to the then Home Secretary, is that suspected "terrorists" cannot be easily convicted because of lithe strict rules on the admissibility of evidence in the criminal justice system of the United Kingdom and the high .,standard of proof required". In his view, these high standards of proof have to be set aside in the interest of national security. A view echoed by Geoffrey Bing in his book [Reap the Whirlwind] in which he demonstrates how difficult It was under British law, the basis of much of Ghana's legal system- to get common criminals Into jail after Independence. In fact under J.K. Harley and A.K. Deku (Commissioner and Deputy of Ghana Police under Nkrumah) much of the police force pleaded with the CPP government to extend the PDA to common hardened criminals by 1960.

The UK's Antiterrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 has since replaced Indefinite detention of foreign nationals with a system of "control orders" which can be brought "against any suspected terrorist, whether a UK national or a non-UK national, whatever the nature of the terrorist activity (international or domestic)." Control orders, which can be imposed for as long as 12 months renewable, are, according to the UK Home Office "preventative orders which impose one or more obligations upon an Individual which are designed to prevent, restrict or disrupt his or her involvement in terrorism-related activity. This could, for example, include measures ranging from a ban on the use of communications equipment to a restriction on an individual's movement".

The Australian Antiterrorism Act of 2005 allows a person to be taken into custody and detained for a short period of time in order to:(a) prevent an imminent terrorist act occurring; or (b) preserve evidence of, or relating to, a recent terrorist act. Similar legislations have come into force across OECD countries since September 11.2001.

Arguably the PDA may have fallen into misuse or may have been abused on occasions, as when some people settled local disputes by making serious but false accusations against their opponents; a peculiar problem which still afflicts the Ghanaian body politic and leads some people to use security personnel to settle personal scores or as private debt collectors. But no responsible government can ignore the serious but false accusations some fellow Ghanaians were ready to make against their own kith and kin.

This was the case with some twenty-one people detained under the PDA from the Anlo area. As the DJabanor Committee explained in its "Report of the Committee of "against any suspected terrorist, whether a UK national or a non-UK national, whatever the nature of the terrorist activity (international or domestic)." Control orders, which can be imposed for as long as 12 months renewable, are, according to the UK Home Office "preventative orders which impose one or more obligations upon an individual which are designed to prevent restrict or disrupt his or her involvement in terrorism-related activity. This could, for example, include measures ranging from a ban on the use of communications equipment to a restriction on an individual's movement".

The Australian Anti-Ierrorism Act of 2005 allows a person to be taken into custody and detained for a short period of time in order to:(a) prevent an imminent terrorist act occurring; or (b) preserve evidence of, or relating to, a recent terrorist act. Similar legislations have come Into force across OECD countries since September 11.2001.

Arguably. the PDA may have fallen into misuse or may have been abused on occasions, as when some people settled local disputes by making serious but false accusations against their opponents; a peculiar problem which still afflicts the Ghanaian body politic and leads some people to use security personnel to settle personal scores or as private debt collectors. But no responsible government can ignore the serious but false accusations some fellow Ghanaians were ready to make against their own kith and kin.

This was the ease with some twenty-one people detained under the PDA from the Anlo area. As the DJabanor Committee explained in its "Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Affairs of the Anlo Traditional Area" (1967): "Evidence was given about other exploits and adventures of Kusitor and these led us to have a strong suspicion that Kusitor could have been telling tales about these Anloga people to Ambrose Yankey and his outfit.

After the evidence of Mr Hans Kofi Bonl [it was done in camera] we had no doubt that our suspicions were well founded. In fact Johnny Gbagba Kusitor had much more to do with the detention of his compatriots than he would have us believe. He had land litigation with some people and got them out of the way through Preventive Detention. In conclusion we felt that there is no evidence on which we could reliably hold that Togbi Adeladza was responsible for the detention of his people.

In view of the foregoing and after the numerous attempts on Nkrumah's life and those of his Ministers and the violence of the late 1950s and early 1960s what else was he to do in a legal system ill-equipped to deal with the N.L.M/U.P. Terrorism?

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times observed recently that the length to which terrorists are prepared to go to achieve their aims creates. in extreme form. the classic liberal dilemma - how do people who believe in freedom respond to those who would use that tolerance to threaten it? It is a delicate matter of balancing rights with security. but in the end most fair-minded liberals will accept however reluctantly that there was a powerful argument for preventive detention in the Awhaitey case at least.

The outcome of the Granville Sharp Commission provides a perfect illustration of this argument. As Geoffrey Bing Enquiry into the Affairs of the Anlo Traditional Area" (1967): "Evidence was given about other exploits and adventures of Kusitor and these led us to have a strong suspicion that Kusitor could have been telling tales about these Anloga people to Ambrose Yankey and his outfit.

After the evidence of Mr Hans Kofi Bonl [it was done in camera] we had no doubt that our suspicions were well founded. In fact Johnny Gbagba Kusitor had much more to do with the detention of his compatriots than he would have us believe. He had land litigation with some people and got them out of the way through Preventive Detention. In conclusion we felt that there is no evidence on which we could reliably hold that Togbi Adeladza was responsible for the detention of his people.

In view of the foregoing and after the numerous attempts on Nkrumah's life and those of his Ministers, and the violence of the late 1950s and early 1960s what else was he to do in a legal system ill-equipped to deal with the N.L.M/U.P. Terrorism?

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times observed recently that the length to which terrorists are prepared to go to achieve their aims creates, in extreme form, the classic liberal dilemma - how do people who believe in freedom respond to those who would use that tolerance to threaten it? It is a delicate matter of balancing rights with security, but in the end, most fair-minded liberals will accept, however reluctantly, that there was a powerful argument for preventive detention in the Awhaitey case at least.

The outcome of the Granville Sharp Commission provides a perfect illustration of this argument. As Geoffrey Bing explains (pp. 265, ibid), no Government could be expected to release individuals whom majority of a quasi-Judicial Tribunal had found were engaged in a plot to murder the head of the Government.

On the other hand, it was almost certain that no successful prosecution could be launched against those concerned when a Judge of the Court of Appeal had come to the conclusion that, though they had been involved in the conspiracy, it was impossible to determine what this conspiracy was and that they had abandoned their plans, whatever they were, prior to the date on which they were to be carried out.

Setting aside the fact that majority of the Commission found the accused guilty of conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister, how was a responsible Government expected to react to Justice Sharp's own conclusion that Amponsah and Apaloo had been part of a conspiracy but had withdrawn from it when they suspected the police had knowledge of their plans? Does the Government set them free and wait until the next plot or conspiracy succeeds? Or, is preventive detention in these circumstances the lesser of two evils?

This requires finely balanced legal and political judgments and in our view, the age-old maxim of fiat justitia, ruat caelum - let justice be done though the heavens should fall; that the law should take its course even if the opposition were shaking the very foundations of the state and plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister would have been a wholly irresponsible and inappropriate response for a country that was being plunged into violence and on the verge of breaking-up along tribal lines.

In our view the PDA was a necessary piece of legislation which along with the Avoidance of Discrimination Act might - just might - have helped us avoid some of the more dangerous conflicts that we have seen In other parts of the African continent. It served to quickly isolate potential and real leaders of violent and destabilizing acts and safeguard the security of the nation and people of Ghana.

Ekow Nelson and Dr. Michael Gyamerah

African Migration: What’s Behind It?

Despite high migratory rates toward the North, South-South migration has proliferated in recent years, which in the case of Africa employs routes to the Americas. Photo: El observatorio mundial

By Darcy Borrero Batista 

They ask him, “Have you forgotten something?” and the emigrant responds “I wish!” in the shortest tale in the world. This phrase suffices to express the spirit of migration, a global phenomenon that, according to headlines tinged with red, has cost the lives of at least 18,500 people over the past three years. At the close of 2016, statistics from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported a total of 7,495 victims that year. In other words, 40.5% of the deaths which have occurred over the past three years took place last year, marked from its beginning by migratory waves from, among other places, Africa.

A report by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) indicated that the total number of migrants arriving in Europe by two main sea routes (Eastern Mediterranean route, and across the Western Balkans) in 2016 fell by nearly two-thirds compared to 2015, when more than one million migrants entered the European Union (EU). Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis accounted for the largest share of migrants arriving on the Greek islands; a favored route due to its geographical proximity to the Middle East.

However, the number of migrants arriving via the Central Mediterranean route rose by nearly one-fifth to 181,000, the highest number ever recorded, reflecting a steadily increasing number from the African continent.

The decline in the first two routes, with a total of 364,000 migrant arrivals in 2016, reflects the intensification of border controls, as well as intercontinental agreements to prevent the entry of migrants. Meanwhile, the necessary cooperation among affected nations and international organizations, to directly tackle the causes of what has also become an increasing problem for the recipient countries, is lacking.

The question should be how to address the adverse situations present in the emitting African countries, which are translated into increasing migration, and not how to contain international migratory rates, as the latter almost always results in retrograde measures such as the announcement from the United States of the possible construction of an anti-immigrant wall. A similar measure was adopted by the Hungarian government, which last October announced the building of a high-tech fence along its southern border to attempt to curb irregular migration. This will certainly control one symptom of the phenomenon, but not its multiple causes.

While this absurd wall so far remains in the realm of dangerous utopias, the reality is that many who have obtained refugee status are currently dying from the cold in Greece and other European countries, due to the influx of a polar air mass that almost killed 19 migrants in Bavaria. In these cases, a refugee's status can become that of a corpse. According to the IOM report, most of the deaths and disappearances of the past year took place in the Mediterranean Sea, a route used daily by thousands of people trying to reach Europe to escape violence and poverty in the Middle East, North Africa, and areas of Asia. North Africa was described as the most affected region, considering the use of Libya’s coasts as an important departure point toward Italy and Greece, the main entry points for migrants and refugees to Europe.

While the figures are worrying, the real alarm is triggered at the thought of the bodies that are not counted, disappeared in foreign lands and waters. Numbers aside, basic human logic suggests that migrating is a personal decision that entails rights and duties. International laws and policies, on the other hand, increasingly tilt the balance toward the criminalization of this right, exercised in different ways and for diverse causes.

In the face of these setbacks, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing – an agency integrated with the United Nations system – is advocating measures to ensure safe and legal migration for all, stating, “We are past the time for counting. We must act,” as reported by Prensa Latina on January 6. Likewise, according to the PL report, “the UN insists on the urgency of adopting comprehensive responses to the phenomenon, based on human rights and attention to root causes.”

However, this discourse has been repeated so often, that it has lost its credibility and not resulted in the desired effect, instead forming part of a vicious circle in which it tends to serve only as superficial justification of the migratory phenomenon. Merely stating the fact that economic and political crises, wars, famines, natural disasters, and underdevelopment in general provoke the movement of citizens outside their national borders, is insufficient to addressing the issue. What lies behind all these general causes is the contemporary geopolitical configuration, which has deep roots in the spoils of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

Today the European powers, the former “mother countries” of the African nations, close their doors to those from their former colonies, as if these almost suicidal attempts to “enter” were not to a large extent due to the plundering of this continent, resulting in dysfunctional economies, abysmally unequal resource distribution, or what is the same: the existence of increasingly rich political elites that propel the mounting impoverishment of the rest of the population.

Although this appears another constantly repeated line, specialist studies continue to point to the fact that nothing will stop migration as long as there is underdevelopment and poverty, as long as neoliberal economic policies continue to be imposed on the countries of the South, and not until the current international economic order is transformed.

However, if one digs deeper into the African migratory flow, contrary to common prejudices, certain myths are dismantled: despite the high migration rates to the North, South-South migration has proliferated in recent years, which in the case of Africa employs routes to the Americas. Equally significant is the fact that most African migrants do not opt for a destination outside of the continent, but rather seek solutions in more developed countries of the region itself, such as Angola and South Africa.

On the other hand, according to the book África en movimiento. Migraciones internas y externas (Africa in motion: Internal and External Migration), by selected authors including Mbuyi Kabunda and Godwin O. Ikwuytum, “it has been demonstrated that it is not the poorest who emigrate, but the most fortunate.”

This paradox leads us to question the use of aid by international organizations in the stigmatized continent, when this is not a source of economic growth, with the corresponding effective distribution of resources as, ultimately, the wealth goes abroad. It is not a matter of directly and exclusively associating migration with underdevelopment, but of analyzing the underdevelopment-development relationship and its impact on the movement of thousands of people beyond their homes.

VENEZUELA DELIVERS 1.4 MILLION HOUSING UNITS

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro

By AVN | internet@granma.cu

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced on January 19 that the Great Housing Mission Venezuela (GMVV, Spanish acronym) had reached the goal of delivering 1,400,000 homes throughout the country.

"Today we reach an incredible goal, after so much war: 1,400,000 homes built and delivered to our people. Let's continue winning," Maduro posted to his Twitter account.

In another message, he said that despite the economic war and the drop of over 70% in crude oil prices, the Bolivarian Revolution has not stopped investing in social care policies.

"In 2016, foreign exchange earnings fell by 87% and we built twice as many new homes for our people. Doing more with less. (We are) succeeding " he said.

Since April 2011, the GMVV has changed the lives of almost 1.4 million families, who have claimed their right to a decent, safe and comfortable home that gives them the opportunity to access essential basic services and a more humane habitat.

Late President Hugo Chavez

The construction of these homes has meant a great national effort and the first of this size undertaken in Venezuela, through a socialist vision, in which housing is no longer conceived as a commodity but as a result of a joint work.

This effort included a national registration, granting of land, materials, machinery, supplies and financing for construction, as well as the active participation of the people, which has been responsible for raising 60% of town planning.

The construction of the new homes was achieved in spite of the constant national and international economic attacks aimed at putting an end to the social achievements won by the Venezuelan popular classes in the last 16 years, as well as the 60% slump in crude oil prices since mid-2014.

WAGES

By Matthew Culbert 

Working people live on wages which are obtained in their places of employment. Some workers own government bonds or company shares and derive income from these and from other sources. But all sources other than wages form a very small part of the average workers’ income. Mainly the workers live on wages and any changes that occur in the amount of wages have a definite bearing on their conditions of life.

The wages which they receive represent a portion of the wealth they produce. This portion takes the form of money and is given to them by the owners of the places where they work in return for the use by the owners of their ability to work for specified periods of time.

This is a condition of existence common to all workers, not less to those who wear white collars and receive salaries than to those who wear overalls and receive pay envelopes. The pupil leaving school at the age of 16 or 17 searches at once for an employer if they are not going into further education to equipo them for work. There is nothing else they can do.

Their parent does not own a "place of business". Neither do their relatives nor thei friends. Nor is there any way in which they can start a business of their own. There are exceptions, it is true, but in general the youngster leaves school and works all their useful life for some other person and lives through the years on wages.

 So wages are very important to them and if unemployment causes their wages to stop, or if they become reduced or are not increased in times of rising prices, then they face troublous times.

Yet the worker does not give to wages the thought and consideration which their importance obviously urges. That is because he is subjected to mental conditioning. He picks up his newspaper in the evening to find that world affairs are detailed and analyzed without reference to wages. He turns on the radio or television and gets lengthy periods of sports, popular music, plays and other things but not wages. Perhaps he goes to a movie house, to see a love story, a mystery, a Western or some other type of film, in which the characters all seem to live in some manner that precludes the existence of wages.

On Sunday he takes himself to church to become removed to heights so lofty that the very thought of wages could only be disturbing if not blasphemous. There is a stigma attached to wages. The subject is dull and boring. Wages are not to be discussed except to reveal that they are an incontestable condition of existence for workers, but must be taken in modest sums.

How could the matter of wages be treated otherwise? All the main sources of information and entertainment are owned by the capitalist class, and these gentry are hardly likely to allow them to be used to call sympathetic attention to the wages question or to be critical of the system of wages payment. They like the wages system and they like wages to be low. It is from this state of affairs that their privileges and luxuries emerge. And they know that the more the minds of the workers are directed into channels remote from wages the less attention will they give to wages, and this can react only to the benefit of the employers.

But in spite of these diversionary activities, which attain a great deal of success in keeping them passive, workers do give attention to the question of wages. The pressures resulting from their status as wage workers, particularly the constant readiness of the employers to use every opportunity to lower their level of existence, compels activity in their own interest, even though this activity is all too reluctant and lacking in depth.

 Over the years working people throughout the world have employed a variety of methods in the hope of improving their living conditions. They have petitioned Parliament, supported candidates for office, organized political parties. They have paraded in the streets, erected barricades and fought against police. But, most important, they have organized in trade unions which have provided them with their most effective weapon, the strike.

 The trade union exists to protect and improve wages and working conditions. It engages in a number of other activities most of which are worthless, sometimes harmful. Because its members are not politically informed, it often allows itself to be used as a stepping stone to office by aspiring politicians. Indifference and apathy amongst its members sometimes lead to racketeering, cases of this kind will be played up prominently in the daily press. But when all these things are taken into account, the real worth of the trade union must not be overlooked.

 It seldom happens that a worker by himself can approach an employer and obtain an increase in wages. Workers in certain specialized types of employment may be able to do this, but not the average worker. He would be more likely to find himself on the street searching for another employer. Workers may influence their wages and working conditions only by collective effort and only by being in the position to stop working if their demands are not met. The ability to withhold their services is a weapon in their possession. It is the only final logic known to employers. Without it wages tend to sink below subsistence level. With it a substantial check can often be placed on the encroachments of the employers and improvements both in wages and working conditions can be made.

The strike is not a sure means of victory for workers in dispute with employers. There are many cases on record of workers being compelled to return to work without gains, sometimes with losses. Strikes should not be employed recklessly but should be entered into with caution, particularly during times when production falls off and there are growing numbers of unemployed. And it should not be thought that victory can be gained only by means of the strike. Sometimes more can be gained simply by the threat of a strike. Workers must bear all these things in mind if they are to make the most effective use of the trade union and the power which it gives them.

But, above all, the workers, besides making the greatest possible use of the trade union, must also come to recognize that even at their best the unions cannot bring permanent security or end poverty .These aims cannot be gained within the limits of capitalist society .When the workers have raised their sights high enough to envisage a society where there can be no conflict over wages, and where each will contribute to the production of wealth according to his ability and receive from the produce according to his needs, they are thinking of a goal that can be gained only after they have become organized into a political organization having for its object the introduction of Socialism. Such an organization is the Socialist Party.

“Workers ought not to be exclusively absorbed in these unavoidable guerilla fights incessantly springing up from the never ceasing encroachments of capital or changes of the market. They ought to understand that, with all the miseries it imposes upon them, the present system simultaneously engenders the material conditions and the social forms necessary for an economical reconstruction of society. Instead of the conservative motto, ‘A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!’ they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wages system!’”

Building Workplace Democracy In South Africa

By William Gumede

Greater workplace democracy in South Africa’s companies is both a moral and ethical issue. Employees are often treated as infants. Because Black people are still predominantly low-skilled, low-wage and dominating manual positions – with whites occupying the high-skilled, high-paid and managerial positions - as it were during apartheid, racist perceptions of Black people as being inferior persist in many workplaces.

Greater workplace democracy may make South Africa’s labour market more peaceful, productive and less racially charged.

Generally across the globe companies are mostly run top down, hierarchically. The executives decide and the workers implement unquestioningly. Such top-down management strategies have their origin in the militaries, whether the ancient Roman or Chinese armies, or the first multinational companies during colonial times, such as the Dutch East India Company.

South Africa’s workplaces are among the least participative when it comes to decision-making by ordinary employees. In fact, for large swathes of South African corporates just the idea that ordinary employees should be involved in decision-making is an oxymoron.

Democracy in the workplace does not mean that each and every decision in a company has to be made by all workers. The idea is to allow ordinary workers more of a say in key strategic decisions.

South Africa’s social democratic constitution, with its socio-economic rights, envisaged not only the democratic participation of citizens in government, but in corollary also the democratic participation of citizens at corporate level.

Increasing authoritative research has shown that participatory workplaces are more profitable, because of the potential to increase performance, well-being and ownership.

South Africa’s dominant management culture essentially has three key aspects: one which is no different than in many other countries with the management approach being top-down, hierarchical, with decisions made by top management and employees required to execute at lower end.

But apartheid has left a second aspect to South Africa’s management approach, with Blacks not only mostly the employees that have to follow instructions, receive low-wages and have little rights, but management is mostly white.

The organizational and management culture of companies has also been infused with racial prejudice. Given that racist practices have been outlawed, there is either informal or subtle racism against Blacks, and/or the phenomenon of “whiteness” or “white privilege” where white employees are automatically seen as competent because of their skin colour, and “blackness”, where Black employees are automatically perceived to be less competent and prone to corruption or have to prove themselves harder before they receive recognition.

South African companies, particularly those predating 1994, are steeped in entrenched institutional racism, which is “disguised in standard operating procedures”, policies and organizational culture, whether criteria for appointment or promotion or measuring “competency” or undervaluing Black ideas.  

During apartheid there was a racial hierarchy which reserved professional jobs and skills, top management and boardrooms for whites. The workplaces were segregated from having separate toilets and eating places for whites to lower salaries, less or no benefits and pensions for Black people. Up until 1994 some skills were reserved for whites only; some residential and business properties were closed to Black people.

Official apartheid has formally ended, and with it segregation of facilities, job reservation and enforced racial management hierarchies. Nevertheless, the racial arrangement of the organizational structures of companies, workplaces and management has remained almost intact.

Greater workplace democracy in South Africa’s companies is both a moral and ethical issue.

Employees are often treated as infants. Because Black people are still predominantly low-skilled, low-wage and dominating manual positions – with whites occupying the high-skilled, high-paid and managerial positions - as it were during apartheid; apartheid perceptions of Blacks as inferior by choice in many workplaces still continues.

Furthermore, the version of capitalism subscribed to by many South African corporates is a very narrow one, based on the Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan variant, which argues for unregulated markets, no or very limited role for government and which is often hostile to trade unions or employee representation in decision-making.

Other varieties of capitalism, whether the Northern European one, whether in Germany or Sweden or the Southeast Asian one, in South Korea or Japan, are much more stakeholder and partnership orientated, embracing employee participation, partnerships with trade unions and government.

Continued race-based deprivations and resentments at company level – with the majority of Black employees perceived to be relatively doing worse-off compared to their white peers, combined with the delivery failure of a Black government have kept the apartheid-era distrust between Black labour and white management and owners in the labour market.  Such racial distrust and resentments undermine growth not only at company, but also at national economic level.

Figures from the Council for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) show that many of the labour market conflicts which appear inexplicable are often reactions to racism, although couched in one or other industrial issue. Employees respond to continuous belittling, demeaning tones and attitudes by managers – and strike for what appears often an unrelated issue.

This means millions of Black employees experience nothing but alienation in the workplace every day. Employees do not have a sense of ownership in or allegiance to firms, beyond their pay cheque. The low status of ordinary employees means they suffer from lack of dignity, a low sense of worth and low morale.

Alienated employees are unlikely to enthusiastically implement company strategy, participate in organizational change and lift their performance. Productivity suffers. Yet, for companies to gain the edge in increasing competitive product markets, the quality of their products is crucial.

South Africa’s non-participatory workplaces undermine performance, blunt companies’ competitive edge, and cuts into profits. It is also harmful to society.

Alienation, discrimination and assaults on their dignity at the workplace also undermine employees’ health, cause anxiety and poison the affected employees’ personal relations outside their jobs too.

With their dignity crushed by humiliating daily racism, lack of meaning in their jobs and low pay, and no stake in the company – and the perceived comparable comfort of their white managers - it is not surprising that some Black employees turn violent, burning down the factory or stealing its assets, even if it may harm themselves (employees), as it could lead to their unemployment.

The systemic alienation, anxiety and powerlessness resulting from autocratic workplaces, could push employees to withdraw from participating in political processes outside the workplace also, which again, in turn could undermine broader democracy.

Democracy in the workplace also has the possibility to boost “civic engagement and political democracy” in broader society, especially in new democracies where many people have not experienced the practice of democracy before. For example, the scholar Carole Pateman argues that the workplace is the most important place where citizens can learn the art, the practice and habits of democracy.

The democracy theorist Dahl has shown that increasing workplace democracy could have a transforming impact on individuals in companies, making them more democratically spirited.

Workplace democracy has the ability to reduce social inequalities based on race, class and gender. Black workers, women and ordinary workers are often the worse off in terms of decision-making, participation and having a voice in workplaces. Workplace democracy can empower them.

What would be the elements of workplace democracy? Employees must be treated and valued as human beings. This means that employee input in strategy formulation and implementation must be actively sought – and recognized and rewarded. Employees must be seen as stakeholders helping to solve problems, seeking solutions and developing strategies. Employees will have to be empowered to make decisions in their own sphere at their workstations without having to wait for approval from supervisors.

It is crucial that employers provide employees with relevant training that will not only make them productive in their current jobs, but in the broader economy. South African companies should introduce more job rotation to not only get employees to acquire more skills, but also to make them familiar to all aspects of the firm, and therefore increasing their performance.

Employees must be rewarded for increases in productivity, just like CEOs are being rewarded in the form of bonuses, shares and increasing employee ownership.

  

The current policy of Black economic empowerment (BEE) in which individual political capitalists close to the ANC leadership are given a slice of white-owned companies must be scrapped. Employee economic empowerment (EEE), where employees are empowered with company shareholding, profit-sharing, relevant skills training and asset transfer, such as housing, is a more sustainable option.  

Social pacts at the firm level, between employees, management and trade unions, in which they jointly agree on productivity targets, industrial relations and certain decisions – and return for rewards - has greater potential to deepen workplace democracy.

A big source of resentment of Black people against whites is white assets, social capital and capital accumulated during colonialism and apartheid – and Black deprivation of these resources through official state policy, and the generational cumulative impact of these in a highly competitive age where asset advantage acquired previously in many cases determine current and future prosperity.  Engendering the perception of fair redistribution of assets in South Africa will contribute a great deal to tackling distrust between Black and white citizens.

Distrust between white and Black citizens and between white business and Black workers; and prejudice by whites against Black people, and resentment by Blacks against whites, will be greatly reduced by increasing the assets – housing stock, share-ownership and relevant technical skills - of ordinary black South Africans.  

Of course the other part of the equation is that government will have to deliver public services more effectively, manage public resources and govern more honestly.

* William Gumede is Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand; and Chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation. He is author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times. A shorter version of this article appeared in the Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg.