SPECIAL REPORT: On the Activities of the Special Operations Unit of the office of the President

An impounded container with flour

By Ekow Mensah

Following public complaints about the work of the special operations Unit of the office of the President, The Insight carried out two weeks of fact finding to determine the justification or otherwise of the complaints.

 In the course of our work, officials of the task force alleged that a deliberate backlog of containers is being created at Tema Ports through connivance between certain Custom Division Officers and Freight and forwarding agents.

They claimed that this is meant to pressurise the commissioner of the Customs Division to reverse a directive that all containers meant for scanning should be scanned.

The unit insists that its operations have in some instances led to an increase of 1,300 per cent in revenue collection.

The full report is published below;

BACKGROUND

The Presidential Revenue Task Force christened the Special Operations Unit (SOU), was established by His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama in November 2012, to identify leakages in the revenue collection system, recommend strategies and take measures to block leakages. These include a focus on revenue paths or regimes across the various sectors of the economy with emphasis on irregularities that result in revenue losses to the state through business and commercial activities.

COMPOSITION

The Unit is composed of senior officers drawn from Security services and the key revenue agencies of government. The Unit however draws specialist personnel from the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Police Service and other agencies to conduct its various operations depending on the nature and focus of operation being conducted.

FOCUS ON REVENUE REGIMES

There are various regimes through which the state collects revenue. These include Customs and Excise duties, Value Added Tax, Income tax as well as other non-tax revenues, such as licence fees and charges administered by various governmentorganisations that collect fees on behalf of the state. Examples of agencies which have come under focus include DVLA.

Seized consignment at James Town

CONCEPT OF THE UNIT

The concept of operations of the Unit is built on the Presidents intention to increase national revenue through the blocking of identifiable leakages in the revenue system. This is to be achieved through a watchdog role where perpetrators of these acts would know someone is watching and actual collections. The main effort is to ensure some increase revenue so that gov't could develop the country and improve the livelihood of the underprivileged.

ACTIVITIES SO FAR

Since its establishment, the Unit has collected information on leakages which lead to losses in government's revenue collection and made various recommendations on policies and steps to be taken to remedy these losses. The Unit has also conducted limited operations to intercept goods which have been un-customed or smuggled, under-declared or mis-described in most cases with the assistance of identifiable government revenue officers from various frontier stations or border areas. The Unit has also intercepted goods which have been improperly processed by revenue and security officers from the Tema Ports which were to result in heavy revenue losses to the state.

Although preparations are underway, the Unit has not yet begun operations in the ports.

SOME AVENUES OF REVENUE LOSSES

A number of avenues exist through which revenue is lost through the Customs Division system. These include:

a.         Undervaluation – Mostly using DICs

b.         Mis-description of goods.

c.         Leaving goods to go into demurrage.

d.         Manipulation of the Auction process by Custom Division Officers.

e.         The local discharge and sale of Goods-in-Transit under ECOWAS Protocol.

f.          The local discharge of goods being re-exported out of country under ECOWAS protocol.

SOME PRELIMINARY ACHIEVEMENTS OBSERVED SINCE START OF THE UNIT'S WORK

1.       The Unit has contributed to national policy with emphasis on areas where massive losses are occurring. Cases include:

a. Excessive tax holiday regimes and the abuse of the facility by expatriate companies. This is being reviewed by parliament at the moment at the behest of the President.

b.         The establishment of the national auctions committee. This initiative of the President, is to coordinate and supervise the auction of confiscated and un-cleared importsin a manner that applies best practices. This is to reduce the abuses hitherto perpetrated by fraudulent Customs Division officials.

2. A significant increase is expected in revenue collection at the various frontier stations due to the following cases. On 23RD May 2013, Yutong Bus intercepted by SOU,fully laden with under-declared goods had paid a total duty GH¢1794 at Aflao.  On 12TH June, 2013 a truck carrying a similar description and volume of goods also intercepted by the Unit had made a total payment of GH¢25,756.  This shows an increase of over 1,300% in per unit collection after only twenty-one days of operation. During a field visit to some frontier stations Customs Division officials have confirmed a progressive increase in revenue since the start of the Unit's work.

3. The Unit has intercepted various consignments of goods which were in the process of evading duty. On Thursday 13TH June, 2013 members of the Special Operations Unit intercepted 2 x trucksladen with 160 drums of Extra Neutral Alcohol declared by Webster Shipping Company Ltd. The consignment which was documented for re-exportation to Togo was being discharged on Spintex Road when the Unit intercepted it. The suspects in the case of defrauding the state including the Customs officer, the forwarding agent and representatives of the owners were arrested and are currently assisting the Police CID in investigations. Those found culpable have been put before a court of competent jurisdiction. This is amongcases where the unit has broughtto book those responsible for the revenue losses to the state.

4. There is also an expected increase in revenue from the ports due the reports of attitudinal change in officers. The Unit promises to continue to follow up on cases in the ports.

5. The leadership of Customs Division is currently looking intensely at approvals and procedures for premises inspection which has been a subject of recent cases where officers have aided businesses and importers in evading duty through mis-description and under-declaration. The case involving 5 x 20' containers imported by Wiafe K Agency and represented by Efa Company Ltd. The containers which were impounded by unit on Saturday 8TH June 2013 are the subject of an on-going police investigation. The consignment which was approved for premises examination were impounded whiles the containers were being unstuffed at dawn into a warehouse at Dome Telecom. Contrary to the regulations the containers seals were broken without the presence of the requisite Customs Division Examination Officer, and representatives of National Security, Joint Revenue Surveillance Task Force and Narcotics Control Board as is required for flour which was the actual item of themis-described goods.

6. Lately, the Unit is investigating the case of over 200 containers of rice consigned to Yuletech Company Ltd and cleared by Teamwork freight company Ltd which arrived in the country in January, 2013. The items were left since arrival to accrue demurrage but following policy changes which take away the Customs Divisions power to conduct auctions at own time and within own controls, there is a sudden rush to clear these excessively overstayed containers. So far 60 containers have been entered for warehousing. 11 of these containers have been released upon payment of duty. The SOU has intercepted three of these. Preliminary investigation reveals that the rice which was described to be 25% broken Vietnamese rice is actually 5% broken thereby under-declaring its value and duty. The goods were released without standard board certification and chemist's clearance. The goods were also released without physical examination conducted at the bonded warehouse thus compromising security and the entire revenue process.

The content of a Yutong Bus Arrested last month

SOME MISCONCEPTIONS

1. The information that the Unit collected GH¢60000 in its first 2 weeks was poorly delivered. The amount was the output of the Unit's preliminary random vehicle checks over its first three days of a warm up exercise only on the Aflao road. A single short-collection of an intercepted consignment of flour was GH¢30000. The case of 240 drums alcohol still under investigation is expected to yield more.

2.         There is a misconception that the Unit harasses importers who are going about their normal business activities and in the process waste their time causing them to lose money. These delays are however caused by the failure of importers to provide required documentation contrary to commissioners order number 2 of 2003 on movement of goods. This order requires that “ALL CONSIGNMENTS OF GOODS LEAVING THE PORTS AND STATIONS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED AT ALL TIMES WITH THE RELEVANT CUSTOMS DOCUMENTS”.

Many opponents of this presidential initiative seem to be painting a picture of the contrary.

3.  A deliberate backlog of containers is being created at the Tema Port through a connivance between certain Customs Division Officers and Freight and Forwarding agents. This is to pressurize the Commissioner of the Customs Division to reverse a directive that all containers meant for scanning should be scanned. The discovery of this Unit is that in 2012 out of 3000 containers meant for scanning only 80 were scanned.

Editorial

CONGRATULATIONS

Ghana’s under 20 football team, the Black Satellites ended up as the third best team at the world cup last week.

At a certain stage of the competition, the team was not given even a dog’s chance of snatching the cup but it progressed into the semi-finals.

The young boys worked very hard and pushed their way to the top in extremely difficult circumstances.

Indeed, if all public officials were to demonstrate the same measure of commitment and zeal in the discharge of their duties, Ghana could very easily become a paradise.

The Insight congratulates the Black Satellites for their performance which inspired the entire nation.

They did not bring the world cup home but they did their best for Ghana.

Congratulations!

Food Sovereignty Again: A Statement On An Invitation From US Embassy

US Ambassador Gene Cretz

Following our call for a ban on the importation, cultivation, consumption, and sale of genetically modified foods and crops in Ghana, until the people of Ghana are satisfied that such an important and irrevocable decision is a sound and proper one to make, Food Sovereignty Ghana has received an invitation from the US Embassy in Accra to a CLOSED DOOR “Roundtable Discussion and an Interdisciplinary Presentation on biotechnology at the US Embassy on July 10”. After a careful deliberation we have decided to turn down the invitation because it does nothing to advance our cause for a public debate on the issue. We believe that it is of primary importance for the general public to know and evaluate the arguments for and against the introduction of GMOs into our food chain. We have decided to issue this statement to call on the US Embassy to join us in our call for openness and transparency in this very important national conversation by engaging us PUBLICLY. We hereby announce our readiness to critically examine every single claim in favour of GM technology.

Meanwhile, we reiterate our call for a moratorium on GM crops in Ghana. This call has even become more poignant as a result of comments coming from Members of Parliament indicating the level of the ignorance of our Parliamentarians who passed the Ghana Biosafety Act. For example, Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, the Honourable Member of Parliament for Asokwa categorically stated during the Morning Show on Adom FM, hosted by Adakabre Frimpong Manso, on Thursday, 4th July 2013, that "Members of Parliament had no knowledge of biosafety, so on what grounds did they pass the Biosafety Act?" We need to listen to reliable experts on the subject. 

We stress that since the first ever International Assessment of Agricultural knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), the UN Report which was co-sponsored by FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank, and approved by 58 governments, in 2008, despite intense opposition from the powerful GM lobby, backed by the US government, the G8, among others, the claims that GM technology could play any role in feeding the world or alleviating poverty have consistently failed to stand any independent scrutiny.

For the avoidance of any doubts, we are not in opposition to science. We insist that Ghana needs to listen more to experts such as the 400 independent scientists assembled by the United Nations that recommended that there are indeed, a number of very sensible, responsible uses of biotechnology agriculture. These come under the general umbrella of “Gene Mapping Augmented Plant Breeding”, or "Marker Assisted Selection". This has been recommended as a powerful technology which even the industry is embracing. This is cheaper, effective, and not subject to the monopoly of multinational corporations. They are also not subject to the exclusive patents that require farmers to eternally pay royalties to these multinational corporations.

We must not forget that the biotech propaganda is not only about biosafety. It is also about getting us dependent on their hybrid seeds, crops, fertilizers, markets, etc. It is about creating inroads for American agribusiness into our agriculture for the sake of their corporations and not necessarily for the sake of our farmers or the Ghanaian consumer. The fundamental importance of this, especially with the claims that we need GM in order to make plants tolerant to drought, and saline-tolerant, and flood tolerant and all the rest of it in the face of Climate Change, is that all these desirable properties are multi-gene. It is not just one gene that confers these properties unto a plant, but multi-gene families, working in a very co-ordinated way.

Our position is that GMO technology is a failed technology and cannot deliver these, as it is simply beyond what it can do. Independent experts are telling us for example, 'What we can do with biotechnology is map the genes within the DNA of the plant, of one variety of plant that says "drought-tolerant", and another variety of the plant that says "high yielding... we can breed them naturally, and then use gene mapping methods, to identify the plant offspring which combines the genes, the multi-gene families that confer high yield and drought tolerance.” We believe this is where we should be putting our money, not in GMOs! We hereby call upon the US Embassy and their “experts” to respond PUBLICLY in order to open the discussion and share their views with all Ghanaians.

……………......................

Ali-Masmadi Jehu-Appiah

Chairperson

AKUFO ADDO COMPARES BUSIA TO NKRUMAH

Nana Akufo Addo

Ghana's opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, says one of the forebears of his New Patriotic Party, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia provided a better alternative vision to that of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. 

He said Prof. Busia and his ally, J. B Danquah, despite being tagged as “agents of imperialism and stooges of neo-colonialism”, had the moral courage to promote the ideas of “free governments, representative governments, multiparty democracy, the rule of law [and] principles of democratic accountability” which, in his view, would have provided a “better context for the development of our nation”.

Speaking at a memorial lecture to celebrate the centenary anniversary of Ghana’s only Prime Minister in the Second Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo said because Busia’s ideas “ran counter to the prevailing orthodoxies” of his time, his critics, rained “a great deal of invectives and abuse” on the UP tradition as “neo-colonialists” and puppets of Western “imperialism”.

He believes history will ultimately bear witness that: “Busia’s greatest contribution to our lives [and] our history was his determination to provide Ghana with an alternative vision to that of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and that it was important for our country that there should be that alternative vision that one man could never be the repository of all wisdom, and it was important that that alternative vision of Ghana be kept before the Ghanaian people at all times”.

According to him, the ideas that Busia and J. B. Danquah espoused in the 1950s and 60s, “were very much against the current of what was happening on our Continent at that time”.

Extolling Prof. Busia’s “democratic” credentials, at the lecture which was organised by the Busia Foundation on Thursday July 11, 2013, Nana Akufo-Addo said posterity will be the better judge of Prof. Busia and the ideas he espoused together with his contemporaries of the UP tradition.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Rapist or raped?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

By Sergei Vasilenkov

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is surrounded by rumors. The influential head of no less influential IMF has been accused of raping a maid in a hotel in the U.S. followed by the accusations of organizing an underground network of sex services. But the charges were later dropped. So who is he, Dominique Strauss-Kahn - a dangerous offender or a victim of foreign intelligence agencies?

The investigation of the case against the former head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be finished for lack of evidence. Prosecutors of Lille city on June 4^th 2013 in a draft document drawn up on the basis of the investigation recommended acquitting the suspect of all the charges.

This document was submitted to the Prosecutor General of Douai leading the investigation. In the coming days, he is to examine the arguments of Lille prosecutor's office and decide the fate of the case. The final conclusions will be expected next week.

The scandal involving prostitution in Lille upscale hotel "Carlton" broke out late last year. French police intercepted correspondence between Mr. Strauss-Kahn and an arrested pimp. The former French presidential candidate was accused of using the services of prostitutes and being a regular participant in scandalous parties in Lille, Paris, Washington and other major cities. The investigators suspected that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was involved in the organization of the underground network of sexual services.

 Dominique Strauss-Kahn fully denied the allegations. Several businessmen, government officials and high-ranking police officer were arrested under the "Carleton case." The women were taken from Lille to Paris, where they took part in orgies that allegedly were visited by Strauss-Kahn. This crime is punishable by a prison term of up to seven years and a large fine. However, the investigation did not produce evidence against the former head of the IMF.

A year earlier, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was involved in another high-profile case that also fell apart. However, the main objectives were achieved, and he withdrew his candidacy from the presidential elections and stepped down as head of the IMF. 

In 2011, Strauss-Kahn was going to participate in the presidential elections in France. The head of the IMF was considered the main favorite in the race for the presidential seat. The position of Nicolas Sarkozy was weak at the time. However, Dominique Strauss-Kahn did not get a chance to win. In May of 2011, he was accused of raping a maid at Sofitel New York, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea Nafissatu Diallo. A scandal broke out. Strauss-Kahn had to resign as head of the IMF, and withdraw from the election.

However, investigators were unable to prove that the official was guilty. Perhaps, this was not even necessary. Most importantly, the court showdown buried the political career of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, and he was caught up in unnecessary litigation. Later, a French writer Tristan Banon also accused the former head of the IMF of rape, but did not succeed in proving his fault. 

Numerous questions remain in the case of rape, but it is worthy of note that security services around the world consider an attempted rape to be the easiest way to discredit a person.

Details of the rape story look rather strange. This fact leaves only one feeling - Dominique Strauss-Kahn was framed. But by whom? Let us analyze.

A report prepared by the American police described that the accused rushed to the room where the maid was cleaning, dragged her into the bedroom, and threw her on the bed. She escaped, but he caught her in the bathroom, locked the door with a key and forced her to perform oral sex. This sounds like a scene from a low-grade movie and not an excerpt from a police report describing the attack by the head of IMF on a dark-skinned maid of Sofitel.

It sounds bizarre, but the police said that after satisfying his needs, the official left the hotel, leaving his cell phone in the room. He called the hotel from the airport and asked whether they found his phone. Would he do it if he indeed committed a crime? After all, had Strauss-Kahn not told the hotel security that he was in the airport he would have quietly flown to France where he would be inaccessible to the American police. A couple of minutes before take-off Strauss-Kahn was removed from the flight and sent to jail, where he was treated like a notorious criminal.

These events occurred a month before Strauss-Kahn was supposed to announce his intention to run for presidency. The socialist was considered the main favorite of the race and had all the chances to become the master of the Elysee Palace. However, this did not happen. He was released on bail only after he refused to run for presidency. Many experts immediately realized that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a victim of a well-planned political conspiracy. According to the polls held at the time, 67 percent of the French thought so. But who planned it all?

The French still remember an incident that took place in 2009 at the summit of G20 in Pittsburgh. Then, Strauss-Kahn faced Sarkozy in the bathroom and said that he was sick and tired of his shameless interference in his private life and various threats to publish compromising documents and photos. He added that he knew who initiated the dirty campaign against him and urged Sarkozy to stop.

According to experts, Dominique Strauss-Kahn broke his tacit agreement with Sarkozy who nominated his candidacy for the head of the IMF, hoping that out of gratitude he would not take part in French politics. Then it was a beautiful and clever move on Sarkozy's part as he got rid of a serious opponent.

Therefore, the fact that Sarkozy took part in the farce against Strauss-Kahn causes no doubt. He always had the ability to eliminate political opponents. However, could Sarkozy handle the task on his own?

On April 3^rd, 2011 Strauss-Kahn stated that "Washington consensus" favorable for the U.S. economic system has collapsed. The head of the IMF called on the world to abandon the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Of course, such statements could not please the American establishment. A month later, the American police accused Strauss-Kahn of rape and detained him. Sex scandals are a favorite weapon of the Americans in the political struggle. Such scandals are treated with scrutiny in the United States. Their organization is easy, as secret services agents are taught this in the first classes of intelligence schools.

The United States also did not like the forecasts of the then head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn. According to him, in 2016 China's GDP would reach 18.2 trillion dollars, while the U.S. GDP will be only 18.06 trillion. Simply put, Strauss-Kahn predicted that China would move the United States and will become the economic leader not in 2040, as promised earlier, but 24 years earlier.

Such statements on the backdrop of the Chinese-American confrontation and the ever-increasing U.S. debt have turned out to be very painful. The United States had to show Dominique Strauss-Kahn his place and shut him up. Blaming a loving Frenchman of rape was easy. Moreover, in France, the idea was readily supported by President Sarkozy. In addition, Washington was not interested in the change of the French leadership. After all, Sarkozy was nicknamed "Sarko-American" for his pronounced Atlantic course. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was not that agreeable, and it was decided to eliminate the uncomfortable politician for a while. U.S. intelligence agencies have done their job well.

Senior officials are not accused of mortal sins without reason. One should always try to answer who benefits from it.

The Left’s Catastrophic Logic

Karl Marx

By Michael Schauerte 

‘Radical leftists’ cling to the belief that capitalism will collapse, thereby ushering in a new society—an illusion that suits their hazy understanding of socialism.

Back in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Socialist Party of Great Britain went out on a limb, or so it may have seemed to many leftists of the time, by insisting that capitalism would certainly not self-destruct. In a pamphlet titled ‘Why Capitalism Will Not Collapse,’ it rejected the ‘wrong and lazy idea’ that capitalism would ‘collapse under the weight of its own problems’ and criticised the ‘fatalistic attitude of waiting for the system to end itself.’

‘The lesson to be learned,’ the pamphlet concluded, ‘is that there is no simple way out of capitalism by leaving the system to collapse of its own accord. Until a sufficient number of workers are prepared to organise politically for the conscious purpose of ending capitalism, that system will stagger on indefinitely.’

It would have been nice if the prediction had been wrong: if capitalism had done us the great service of ending its own life or if the calamity of economic crisis (or war) could have automatically converted the bulk of the working class to socialism. But in fact, over the eight decades since then, capitalism has managed to stagger or even strut along, defying the hope (or fear) that it would self-destruct or bump up against some absolute limit to growth.

Despite all the examples history has provided us of how capitalism can weather a crisis and how a social cataclysm is no guarantee that workers will be ‘radicalised,’ many leftists still cling to the hope that economic crisis, war, or environmental catastrophe could topple capitalism or suddenly transform the consciousness of workers.

This unfounded belief came to the fore again in late 2008 amidst an intense financial crisis, as even mainstream economists were toying with words like ‘collapse’ and ‘meltdown’ to describe the condition of capitalism. The crisis still continues today, of course, but then again so does capitalism.

Yet one can hope that some of these misconceptions will be reconsidered in light of how these five crisis-filled years have not shaken capitalism at its roots, and that ‘radical leftists’ will rethink the process of fundamental social change. One sign that this reflection on a failed outlook and strategy may already be underway is the recent publication ofCatastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth (PM Press).

The book is a collection of four articles by ‘partisans of the radical left,’ critiquing those on both the left and the right who believe society is headed for some sort of total collapse that will either usher in a new age or ‘awaken the masses from their long slumber.’ The authors label this apocalyptic outlook ‘catastrophism’.

The article of most interest to socialists in the book is, ‘Great Chaos Under Heaven: Catastrophism and the Left,’ written by Sasha Lilley, the co-host of the radio programme, Against the Grain, on KPFA (Berkeley, California).

Lilley identifies the two sides of the left catastrophism that has ‘shaped the radical tradition for well over a century’—namely, the expectation that capitalism will collapse and ‘predestined forces [will] transform society for the better,’ on the one hand, and the ‘idea that the worse things get, the more auspicious they become for radical prospects.’ She also quite astutely points out how these mistaken assumptions are connected to ‘the twin dangers of adventurism (the ill-conceived actions of the few) and political quietism (the inaction that flows from awaiting the inexorable laws of history to put an end to capitalism).

The idea among leftists that capitalism would collapse is typically based on a one-dimensional reading of Marx, Lilley observes. She notes that, even though Marx had ‘argued that crises are essential to capitalism, he did not equate such crises with the collapse of the system;’ and that ‘those who believe the system will crumble from crises and disasters lose sight of the ways that capitalism uses crises for its own regeneration and expansion.’ Unfortunately, the misinterpretation of Marx’s theory of crisis took root within the German Social Democratic Party and other supposedly Marxist organisations, exercising a powerful influence throughout the twentieth century.  

Intertwined with the belief that capitalism will collapse is the idea that the worse things get, the better the prospects for revolution. Even though Lilley accepts that ‘social context’ obviously ‘shapes how people see their own situation and the forces at play around them,’ she emphasises that ‘there is no alignment of the stars that leads to collective, rather than atomised, resistance.’

The German Communist Party in the early 1930s provides the best example of where the ‘worse-is-better’ logic of the left can lead, encapsulated in their cheerful slogan, ‘After Hitler, our turn!’ Their turn to be rounded up and sent to the concentration camps, the Communists soon discovered.

The attitude of waiting for things to get worse (so that they can get better) is bad enough, but some leftists take it a further step, Lilley explains, by following the logic that ‘if worsening conditions are more propitious for radical change, then radicals should do what they can to make things worse.’ This is the asinine logic of the radical terrorists of the late 1960s and early 1970s who tried to ‘heighten the contradictions’ through violent or spectacular actions and bring down the state repression that could ‘mobilise the unmobilised.’

This strategy is riddled with problems, Lilley explains, ‘not the least of which is bringing repression down on others for their own good.’ Above all, it is a strategy that simply doesn’t work, she concludes: ‘radical mass movements typically grow because they offer hope for positive change,’ whereas ‘fear is corrosive’ and ‘demobilises.’

The lack of hope is at the heart of the politics of ‘left-wing catastrophism,’ Lilley argues, reflecting ‘a deep-seated pessimism about mass collective action and radical social transformation.’ This is certainly true, but socialists would add that this sense of despair is connected to the basic inability of leftists to envisage a true alternative to capitalism. In short, they are (at best) anti-capitalist but not pro-anything, really—at least nothing that isn’t upon closer inspection a variation of capitalism.

Lilley sidesteps this issue of what she and other radical partisans are for by inserting a sort of disclaimer in the introduction to the book and at the beginning of her article, stating that the aim will not be to ‘furnish prescriptions for mass action and revolt’ but to point out ‘what does not, and will not, work.’ She adds that a ‘militant radicalism with any prospects of success embraces catastrophism at its peril.’

Pointing out what does not work is certainly welcome, but one has the impression that Lilley limits the scope of her argument in part because, like the leftists she criticises, she has no clear idea of what a post-capitalist society would be like.

This muddled outlook is apparent from her attachment to words and expressions that sound revolutionary but are exceedingly vague, such as ‘militant radicalism,’ ‘radical collective politics,’ ‘mass action and revolt,’ ‘radical mass movements,’ ‘a broad anti-capitalist project,’ ‘mass collective action,’ and ‘radical social transformation.’

What does any of this mean, really? How can you advocate a ‘mass’ or ‘radical ’or ‘militant ’movement without saying even a word about what the aim of that movement is? Isn’t this lack of clarity among anti-capitalists precisely why they are so strongly attracted to the outlook of ‘catastrophism’ in the first place? Without a clear notion of a new society to replace capitalism, or of how workers could democratically bring it about, (anti-capitalist) leftists can only hope that a collapse will usher in a new age.

Instead of offering any source of real hope regarding the sort of society that could take the place of capitalism, Lilley concludes her essay with a sort of pep talk, reminding the reader that ‘navigating away from the stormy shoals of catastrophism ... requires a commitment to mass radical collective politics, in inauspicious times as well as auspicious ones.’ But some readers might wish to understand what ‘mass radical collective politics’ means, exactly, before deciding on their commitment.

Still, even recognising the limited scope of the book (whether intentional or inevitable), it is a valuable and timely contribution to those who are frustrated by the limitations of the left. And, in addition to Lilley’s critique of the left, the book contains interesting essays dealing with the right-wing version of catastrophism and the Malthusian outlook prevalent among environmentalists.