ADWOA SAFO’S JUSTIFICATION: Oti Bless Also Didn’t Do His National Service

Adwoa Safo

By Marian Ansah

Vice Chairperson of Parliament’s Appointment Committee, Adwoa Safo, has criticized the Minority for boycotting Gender and Social Protection Minister Nominee, Otiko Afisa Djaba’s approval, because she confessed she hasn’t done her national service.

The Minority on Friday, boycotted Otiko Djaba’s approval after raising concerns about her failure to undertake her one-year mandatory national service, among other things.

But the NPP Dome Kwabenya Legislator on Eyewitness  News, said the Minority has no moral right challenging Otiko Djaba’s approval on that basis since some NDC Ministers including the former Deputy Minister for Local Government, Oti Bless, equally failed to meet that criteria but was approved, when the party was in power.

“Oti Bless was passed by majority decision, although he had also not done national service and even in his case, he was not serious. I am not doing equalization, but if you push to that level that is what we have to refer to. In Oti Bless’ case, he even went to the Board and the Board gave him a waiver and it is not at the time that you are going into public office that you go and constitute a board to give you a waiver so you can appear before the Appointments Committee.”

“He that wants equity must come with clean hands. If they are crying out loud now, why were they not crying in Oti Bless’ era?. If the need be, we all have to move forward together but you cant come to equity when your hands are always soiled…”

In Adwoa Safo’s view, the Minority failed “to give themselves an opportunity to check” and only jumped into conclusions.

“They have drawn into conclusions that by hook or crook we are not going to reach a consensus on Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba,” she stated.

Editorial

TASK FORCE

The announcement that the Government has set up a Special Task Force to receive complaints and to retrieve stolen or hidden government property must be welcome news.

Perhaps if this had been done much earlier, it would have prevented the situation in which hooligans claiming to be loyal to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) went on the rampage.

The actions of the hooligans have already done considerable damage to the Government and created the impression that Ghana is sliding towards the status of a banana republic.

There can be nothing wrong with an in-coming government wanting to retrieve all government assets in the wrong hands and at the wrong places.

 The Insight however insists that whatever is done ought to be done according to the dictates of the law.

When Government and its supporters violate the law with impunity, then we are surely heading into the gutters.

The rights of all Ghanaians need to be protected. 

Disclose identity of ‘asset task force’ members – Aning

Dr. Kwesi Anning

By Kwame Acheampong

The head of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KIPKTC) Dr. Kwesi Aning has urged government to disclose the identity of the membership of the task force established to retrieve state assets from individuals.

He said the task force must also have an identifiable office where individuals seeking to volunteer information can walk in.

According to him, such a move will bring transparency and decency to the work of the task force.

Government has set up a task force to retrieve state properties, which they believe, are in private hands.

It follows the seizure of some vehicles belonging to NDC national organiser Kofi Adams by some state security officials.

Speaking to Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr Monday, the security expert however noted that the state must have appropriate measures in retrieving the supposed assets in private hands.

“We should know who they report to, which laws back them in their operations and many more. It will be better if the Task force is recognised and made visible to the general public,” he said.

He added:  “If the state suspects that its properties have been misappropriated, they must have procedures to retrieve them. Asking neighbours and ordinary people to help in providing information on the assets is a ‘no no’, because there are professionally trained state institutions who are capable of doing these things. Those who have in their Possession State properties should return them”.

NDC mocks gov't task force

Johnson Asiedu Nketsia

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has warned it would “fiercely resist” any further unlawful seizures of assets it claims rightfully belong to its executives and members.

The party has issued a strongly worded statement in reaction to the Chief of Staff who earlier today issued a statement announcing the setting up of a task force to retrieve state assets unlawfully possessed by individuals who served in the previous administration.

The statement in part said "Persons with state properties unlawfully in their possession should endeavour to contact the task force and make arrangements to surrender same with immediate effect.

"The general public is also, hereby, encouraged to provide information on any properties believed to be within the above-mentioned category to the task force...."

The statement follows the invasion of the residence of the NDC National Organiser by persons said to military personnel. The invaders were alleged to have seized cars belonging to the NDC executive.

However, the National Security Minister Kan Dapaah apologised for the conduct of the officials and instructed the return of the vehicles.

Subsequently, the Chief of Staff Frema Osei Opare announced the formation of the task force to collect state assets including landed properties said to be in the hands of the private citizens. 

The NDC is, however, unhappy with the statement issued by the Chief of Staff.

In a counter statement signed by the General Secretary of the NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketia described the action by the government as an "implausible cover-up for the state sponsored and violation of the human rights of innocent Ghanaians over the last four weeks."

"Let it be known to government that the quest to justify the criminal activities of the party hoodlums who have gone about wreaking havoc on innocent citizens, destroying government properties, beating up hard working civil and public servants and attempting to seize properties of former government officials and leading functionaries of the NDC can destabilize the peace and stability of this country," he stated further.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia also posited that it cannot be the case that officials of previous government are still holding on to public assets.

He stated that officials of the previous government have religiously complied with the dictates of the Transition Act as far as the handing over of state assets are concerned.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia challenged government to publish the assets it claims are missing and vowed to assist it in securing and reconciling the national assets.

REBECCA LAUNCHES FPSO IN SINGAPORE

Rebecca Akufo Addo, The First Lady

Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady, on Friday launched the Floating Production and-Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel John Agyekum Kufuor, at the Keppel shipyard in Singapore.

The vessel named after John Agyekum Kufuor, a Former President of Ghana, would operate in the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) oilfields in the Western Region. It is the largest of the three FPSOs in Ghana and the first equipped to convert both gas and oil on the same platform. 

Mrs Akufo-Addo commended the former President for his foresight in restructuring the oil sector during his administration, which led to the finding of oil in commercial quantities, for the first time in Ghana, about a decade ago.

This was contained in a statement signed by Frank Agyekum, the First Lady’s spokesperson, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday.

She noted that naming the vessel after Former President Kufuor was well-deserved as it showed the appreciation of Ghanaians for his good deeds which turned Ghana around from a Highly Indebted and Poor Country (HIPC) to a lower middle income-earning country in a record time of about six years.

Mr Agyekum Kufuor expressed his appreciation and commended the current NPP government led by President Nana Akufo-Addo, for carrying through with the proposal.

He pointed out that Ghanaians have not yet fully realised the benefits of the find: “Although Ghana is now counted among the ‘oil-producing countries in the world, our country is yet to become the ‘land of milk and honey’ that many pray for.

“We still grapple with a lot of economic and social difficulties in our bid to make our oil find a ‘blessing and not a curse,’” he said.

He encouraged the efficient management of the FPSO with capacity to process 58,000 barrels of oil and 98 million standard cubic feet of Gas a day, will help to turn things around for the country.

He expressed optimism that the new government under Akufo-Addo: “will expand the enabling atmosphere with best practices and policies for the concept of Public-Private-Partnership to be realised to achieve the social and economic transformation for all citizens of our nation in the shortest possible time.” 

FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor, expected to sail into Ghanaian waters by April 2017, is operated by ENI Petroleum, Ghana, Limited, Vitol Upstream, Ghana Limited and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

It was built by Keppel Offshore and Marine Shipyard Company of Singapore.

GNA

Pelpuo Damns Vigilantes

Rashid Pelpuo

By Mohammed Awal

The Member of Parliament for Wa Central, Rashid Pelpuo, has described as wrong the continuous harassment of ex-government officials believed to have in their possession state properties.

The home of the National Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, was raided on February 1 by men believed to be operatives of the National Security and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) making away with vehicles belonging to him.

The vehicles had since been returned, according to the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah.

Commenting on the issue on Monday, February 6, 2017, Mr. Pelpuo said there is nothing wrong with the State trying to retrieve assets that belong to it, but it should be done within the frames of the Constitution.

“If the state feels very strongly that there are State assets that [it knows] are missing and finds the need to retrieve them then there will be no problem with that,” he told Nii Arday Clegg on Monday on Morning Starr.

Nonetheless, the challenge he warned is when secret operatives are deployed to harass members of the erstwhile Mahama administration on the mere believe that they have in their possession State properties.

“In that speculation, they may be hurting individuals who are completely innocent and that is where the concern is,” said the former Minister of State.

He added: “If you take over the administration of a country, you take over the assets and the liabilities. There is a handing over process. There was a transition process. There was a transition team [and] if you have any question about State property, it is better to ask all the question so they tell you everything.

“I don’t know whether they have reason…enough reason to say that well, we’ve asked the transition team of the government side…the outgoing government side and they have told us about ABC properties and we can’t find them so we are looking for them. In that sense there will be logic and there will be direction and reason for what they are doing.

“But if there is no such a thing at all and they have just a thing that somebody may have stolen property so let’s imagine that they are kept outside our reach so let’s take a task force and search for them. It is going to be….it is going to look like a situation where they are going to harass individuals as if you took power not by democratic means but some other means and you are exerting your authority.”

Gov’t sets up Task Force to retrieve state assets

Meanwhile the government had set up a special task force to track and retrieve all State assets with certain individuals including ex government officials who are yet to return those assets.

The task force includes members from the Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National Investigations, the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs Division), the Driver Vehicle Lisensing Authority and Office of the President.

A statement signed by the Chief of Staff Frema Osei-Opare stated that various State assets including landed properties and vehicles are yet to be handed over to government by individuals contrary to law.

The statement added that “persons with state properties unlawfully in their possession should endeavor to contact the task force and make arrangements to surrender same with immediate effect.”

Source:StarrFMonline

….Of Patriotism and Poverty: The Hypocrisy of Ghana

The non-performing and over pampered Ghana Black Stars

By Albert Welle Ali and Eugene B.G Bawelle

In 1982, long before I was born, The Black Stars of Ghana did the nation proud by winning its fourth AFCON title, much to the excitement and pride of the Nation, I would imagine; since personally I cannot wait for the Black Stars to lift the trophy again soon! What a day it would be. If the joy and pride I felt when AC Milan last won the UEFA Champions League title is anything to go by, then to say I would be ecstatic will be the understatement of the century.

I would not even pretend to be an astute follower of football, I barely remember the facts and the figures as displayed by many other people. I barely even remember the names of the players who played in the last AFCON for Ghana in 2015, yes, I remember the usual suspects, but that’s as far as it goes. So before going ahead to read this article, take this to be my disclaimer.

In the year 2014, the Black Stars of Ghana, took on the task of representing the Nation at the World Cup, and on the back of their astounding performances in South Africa, 4 years back, I was filled with childish glee and optimism, the Black Stars (B.S) were going to win the tournament! As fate or rather, misfortune will have it, the team put up a woeful performance, which in part stemmed from monetary disagreements and failed promises of the government of the day.

Again, I must exercise responsibility and caution here, and state that, this claim, is based mainly from commentary and snippets of information picked up in the heat of the moment and during the Dzamefe Commission hearing. From this moment on, seeds of discord and animosity towards the B.S. were sown in the hearts of Ghanaians. Why did they put their blood-thirst for money before patriotism?

A question I asked myself, a question, I am still looking forward to asking any of the leaders of the team. Like the many millions of Ghanaians, I have been left heartbroken and downtrodden because I expected the B.S to have placed more premium on making the nation proud. Let me make a confession, the urge to burn the two Black Stars jerseys I bought from the Puma Shop in the Accra Mall (trust me, they are not cheap! They are still worn anyway) was mooted, a sign of my personal detest for the team, however, I have since moved on from this point.

In 2015, the Black Stars were again in action, two penalties, would prove to be the hindrance from our history making quest, but did people care? No! Why? Because of the abhorrence they have for the Ghana Black Stars. Why? Because the general impression is that the players are overpaid and not patriotic. Now, I’ve deeply pondered on this, “Are the Black Stars Players unpatriotic because they demanded their due or typically as Ghanaians we’re just being hypocritical?”

As mentioned, the last time the Black Stars annexed the trophy was in 1982, which would beg the question, where are the players of the 82 squad? In fact, scratch that, the most important question to ask is: WHO are the members of the 82 squad? They are but distant memories in the minds of majority of Ghanaians, and non-existent in the minds of the younger generation. Yet say the name: Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Zidane and you would see the gleam in their eyes! Their tales have been told severally, their praises has been sung so many times, you would think they have paid payola. Even the autocorrect feature in Microsoft Word will correct you if you make an error in the spelling of their names! These people are “gods” idolized by their fellow countrymen! These are people whose exploits will forever remain, etched into the hearts and minds of people who love football! Even on the African continent, the name George Oppong Weah still resonates till this day. I was not born early enough to watch Mohammed Polo but videos of the exploits of Polo and oral history of his dribbling and mesmerizing abilities of opponents on the pitch can easily be compared to the likes of Lionel Messi in contemporary times.  The likes of Willie Klutse, Awuley Quaye (Snr), Samson Lamptey, Peter Akwei Maclean and Rev. Osei Kofi were as good as the current Black Stars players, in some cases even better. Where are they today? What is their economic and financial state today? The 1963 Black Stars team was promised a house each by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a promise which has not been honored up till date.

Avram Grant, The Most laziest Coach in Africa's sporting history

Is it to say, these players were not patriotic enough? Why aren’t their names resonating as much as it should? Where are the streets and statues erected for them (Lord Zlatan has a statue in Sweden)? What have we as a people done for our “Heroes”? The people who fought and risked life and limb to win us the glorious titles as the Champions of Africa. Or perhaps, they are living in so much comfort, an appropriate compensation for their valour. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but many of these players live in abject poverty or died paupers.

In fact, let me stretch this a little. One of the vivid memories of a match involving Ghana in my childhood was Ali Jarrah, a goalie very well admired! In 1993, he got injured whilst keeping posts for Ghana and his career ended. Last year, he said “Day in and out, I am heading towards my grave. They will wait till I die before they remember me. If I got paralyzed at 17 dying for my nation, what does the nation expect me to do now after 23 years? 

I leave this to the world to judge. You can share my little story amongst friends and brothers so they know. When I die, I died because of pain”. (culled from http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/I-am-dying-slowly-Ali-Jarrah-402652) and this is the fate of a young man who was on the verge of signing a deal with German club side Cologne. If he had opted not to keep during that tournament, perhaps, he would have made a truckload of money to last generations, yet for his love for Ghana, that failed to materialize.

Twice, Michael Essien suffered potentially career ending injuries whilst playing for the national team. Again, his patriotism nearly cost him his career! Yet when he dodged a few games for Ghana, we labelled him a traitor, an ungrateful brat. Now his career has taken a nosedive, (resulting from his injuries suffered whilst playing for Ghana), all of a sudden, no one cares about Michael Essien anymore! The one time hailed hero of Ghana.

Let me not even talk of Jones Atequayefio of blessed memory, lest my hearts break even more.

Previously the complaint was the players do not play for national pride! Where is the pride in living and dying as a pauper! Where is the pride in having to beg for sympathizers to come to your aid so you can feed or pay your medical bills? Someone explain to me where the pride is. Yet, we want them to risk it all and risk suffering the same fate as the so called “Heroes”?

We are victims of our own hypocrisies. If I say, lets name a street after Asamoah Gyan, if one is not slapped, someone will ask, “ah didn’t we pay him winning bonus and appearance fees?” Or say let’s build a statue in Gyan’s honour you would be told, “after that useless penalty he took against Uruguay?” Yet we forget that even though Zidane cost France the 2006 World Cup trophy over his moment of madness, he is still adored in his country and hailed a Hero.

Now the Black Stars have agreed to have their bonuses slashed and still Ghanaians are unwilling to get behind the team and support them, to the point where people actually jubilate when the Stars lose a match. All we are doing is cutting our noses to spite our faces. Wherein lies our patriotism when we want the people who are representing the country to lose? We want the players to die for Ghana, yet as Ghanaians are we prepared to do same?

In a Facebook post, one Nathan Gadugah put more succinctly;

“It is only when Black Stars plays that we hear the lessons on patriotism and the need for our players to be patriotic.

Surprisingly the lessons are coming from the politicians who steal and misappropriate our scarce national resources; from journalists who take monies from politicians and bury the truth; from commercial drivers who have never in their lives respected our road traffic regulations and have killed people as a result; from business men who connive with politicians AND fleece our resources; from students who cheat in exams and head masters and mistresses who collect bribes before admitting qualified students to school; from police men who collect bribes from people, drivers and look on when the wrong things are done; from voters who elect people into office not because they genuinely believe these people are able to develop our country but because of what they will benefit directly when these people go into office. All these people believe in self-interest but pontificate about patriotism.

Our Black Stars players are Ghanaians, not Europeans or Americans. They grew up learning that self-interest is more important than love for a country. And to be blunt the country which they are supposed to die for has done nothing for their predecessors who ‘died’ serving this country. I will not pretend to be more patriotic than these players and I pray no one does. These players cannot unlearn the bad practice of self-interest only because citizens have decided to withdraw their national support. It will take some time. But more importantly it will take those who are riding on horses and standing on roof tops preaching patriotism to live by what they preach. Let’s all be patriotic if we want our black stars to be patriotic.” (culled from https://web.facebook.com/ngadugah/posts/10211282553489235)

TRUST ME, IT IS BETTER TO RATHER BE UNPATRIOTIC AND COMFORTABLE, THAN BE HAILED A NATIONAL HERO, WHO WILL DIE A PAUPER AND WHOSE NAME WILL NOT BE REMEMBERED.

As Ghanaians, till we stop being hypocritical, we will not make any significant headway in any field.

I unreservedly support the Ghana Black Stars, they have their issues, but I will not be a hypocrite!

Pro-NPP Group Justifies Justifies Actions in Tamale

By Delali Adogla-Bessa

Pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) group, Kandahar  Boys, whose members locked up offices of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in Tamale, has justified its actions.

The Secretary of the group, Idris Abdul, said they were only following in the stead of some National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters, who he said did same after 2008 when their party assumed office.

In an interview with Citi News, he said, “we were taught that by the NDC; that if your people are in power and people are not in your favour, you have to sack them because they are in opposition and they will try to do whatever they can do to sabotage your government.”

Mr. Abdul, however, stressed that the youth did not steal anything from the offices or assault any of the staff.

“We went to the office and asked the staff to come out for us to lock the gates. So we locked the gates, but we did not steal anything. Everything that was in the office before is still in it, and no one was beaten and nothing was taken from the office.”

“We are not happy with the way the offices are being handled, and we think it is going that way because those there were given the chance to get in office by the NDC government, so with the NPP in power, they are trying to do whatever they can do to sabotage the government.”

“…So we want the government to put someone there who will do justice… We want someone who will serve us all, who will serve the whole region, not because of their political affiliation,” he stated.

The Police in the Northern Region has since removed the padlocks that were used to lock up the offices.

MASS ACTION OR INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION

By Edgar Hardcastle

They say that God is on the side of the big battalions. This contains an element of truth, but it is not true merely because the battalions are big. If they happen to be composed of raw recruits who don’t know the business end of a gun; don’t know why they are fighting, and wish they weren’t; and if the battalions are officered by men who not only think, like the Duke of Wellington, that their rank and file are "scum," but are also hoping to be decorated by the enemy for services rendered, then God will have his work cut out, however big the battalions are.

Of course few people now believe that God has any say in the matter. Lord Devonport was not really disturbed when Ben Tillett invited God to strike him dead. He knew he had the dockers cornered and could starve them into surrender, and Tillett plus God was no more formidable than Tillett alone. Anyway, Ben never meant Devonport any harm.

Again, when during the war Lord Roberts saw that the Allied armies were not delivering the goods, and that the geniuses of the General Staff didn’t know what to do next, the country was placarded, with appeals for prayer signed by that old hypocrite. The prayer was, however, wisely accompanied by a campaign for increasing the output of shells, to strengthen God’s hands in the slaughter of His other children.

The consistent application of the God-Idea would be fatal to any human activity, and what is almost as dangerous in working-class organisations is a notion that they will win because they are big in numbers. This takes a variety of, but its general result is a disregard of the actual facts of the present situation and of the necessity for solid preparatory work before the workers can take effective action.

Thirdly, that the overwhelming mass of the workers, although discontented with their condition, have not yet traced their suffering to its origin in the social structure itself, and are therefore not only unwilling to attack the capitalist system, but are prepared, as during the war, to fight for it, and, as shown at subsequent, elections, to vote for it. Now, we want Socialism and we want it immediately, but unfortunately the majority of the workers are opposed to us, and while they stand behind the State in defence of the capitalist system we are helpless. While, materially, society has long been ripe for Socialism, we are forced to recognise that we must work and wait until the majority see that fact as we see it.

However, among those who want to abolish capitalism, who call themselves revolutionary, there are many who are not convinced that the relatively slow process outlined above is necessary. It need hardly be said that if there could be found a method of reaching the same result in a shorter time we would be only too pleased to hear of it. There is no question of sentimental attachment to particular means; any means are good enough for us provided they will serve the purpose; I do not propose to discuss in detail whether, and to what extent, the means and the end can be separated, although it will readily be seen that granted the overcoming of preliminary obstacles such as the conquest of power, the attempt at building a new society will be a failure if it makes exacting demands which the people are unable to meet. Socialist society can only be run by Socialists, and it will not be the work of a mentally enslaved people who have merely exchanged the blinkers of the capitalist politician for those of the professional revolutionary.

Let us, however, deal with the question of the moment, the conquest of power.

We have seen that the capitalists (or their agents the politicians), depending immediately on the support of the House of Commons and ultimately on the backing of the mass of the people, are able to decide what shall be done in any problem which arises. The Cabinet decides on policies which, if approved by the House of Commons, become law and are enforced through the Legal machinery. Taxes are levied for the up-keep of the State and its various departments. And all the time the law, the police, the army and navy are at hand to protect the private property of the capitalist class. Although they talked of disarming Germany, it is significant that the allied Governments never prevented their German "enemy" from maintaining the forces without which private ownership by the German capitalists could not have been protected.

It follows that the ruling class do only those things which they think are in their immediate interest or which circumstances force them to do to guard the stability of their system. For an instance of the first kind of action, it is plainly in the interests of the capitalist class to keep down the expenses of the administration, because it is they who have to pay; as instances of the second kind, it is necessary that the capitalists should spend money on the technical education of the workers in order to promote the prosperity of their industries and to enable to compete with foreign rivals; and it is also necessary for the capitalists to spend millions of pounds, as they are now doing, on relief for the unemployed.

If the unemployed received no support at all they would in desperation make organised attacks on private property, and their unrelieved discontent would endanger capitalist candidates at elections. Obviously, to leave men in utter starvation would be to force on them proof that existing society had nothing to offer them and could not reasonably demand their allegiance. That could but lead to rioting and disorder, which would make normal trading and commercial activities impossible. The capitalists give doles because it pays them to do so; it is for them a form of insurance, and a cheap one.

Various impatient people observing this, but failing to appreciate it correctly, have conceived the notion that at certain times of "crisis," when discontent is rife and feeling runs high, and when the minds of many workers are in a condition of ferment, it should be possible by concentrated propaganda, daring leadership, and inspiring example, for a comparatively few revolutionaries so to leaven the mass as to turn its energies to an attack on the system.

It is a plausible theory and an attractive one for those of us for whom the capitalist present is an intolerable burden in comparison with the possibilities of the Socialist future; but will it stand examination?

Is it true that at these moments of crisis the ruling class lose their grip on the situation? Is it, then, any more difficult for the politicians and the Press to keep the workers in hand as regards fundamentals? And have the revolutionaries greater hope of getting into the saddle than at ordinary times? To go no further back than 1914, were the workers any less ready to accept capitalism at war than to accept capitalism at peace? As Mrs. Asquith states in the second volume of her diary, one Cabinet Minister (apparently Lloyd George) was "intriguing with the pacifists" and would have led an anti-war campaign if he could have found support for it, but he saw that the war-makers had been fully successful and he discreetly decided to go with them (Manchester Guardian Weekly, Nov. 24, 1922).

There were strikes during the war, and the Government was able to depend on the great majority, including the Trade Union officials, when it threatened, and took, drastic measures. There was a railway strike in 1919, and troops were used to run the trains, again without any notable outcry from the workers in general. The Labour leaders called off the threatened "Triple Alliance" strike on "Black Friday," and not only did the mass actionists fail in their agitation, but J. H. Thomas and others denounced as traitors are now as popular as ever with their members.

Why did the Communists fail to make use of these opportunities when they offered? It was not for lack of will, certainly not for lack of screaming headlines and stunt propaganda. They failed because they could not compete with the capitalist Press and because they never succeeded in getting the workers interested in vital questions outside the scope of the immediate movement: On any such occasion the workers may be induced, or forced, quietly to accept less than they ask, but is there ever any possibility of their standing out for something more?

The railwaymen returned to work after a short strike because they were promised a part of their demands. Could one expect anything else? ‘The workers are always robbed, but not understanding this they will not consciously fight the robbers. Why then, if they are driven to resist a reduction in wages, should they be expected to fight for larger aims against a condition of things they accept as inevitable?

As for the immediate aim, the capitalist class can, if they wish, yield and remove the ground of the dispute. In short, if the workers are only asking for some reform of the present system, the capitalists can always grant it or fight it, as they choose. In neither case do the minority get a chance worth mentioning. During the mining dispute some 60 or 70 Communists were jailed, yet no serious effort was made by the workers to get them out. They did not gain the leadership, and the miners did not get any concession.

If, on the other hand, we have to admit that the workers must want Socialism before they can be induced to fight for it, we are back where we started, considering how we can make the workers understand Socialism. But this is the method the minority revolutionaries have rejected.

During the last two years an old issue has been revived, in the agitation for the better treatment of the unemployed. Attempts have been made to organise the unemployed, and have been fairly successful on the whole, but the old futilities have again been practiced.

The organisers of the movement had to choose between organising a few revolutionaries for a revolutionary purpose or a mass of non-revolutionaries for a programme of minor reforms in the amount and method of unemployment relief. They took the latter, and have succeeded in winning some points from the Boards of Guardians. But have they achieved anything lasting commensurate with their efforts ? They have added to the difficulties of the authorities, which was all to the good, but to assert, as some people have, that they seriously upset the Government is absurd. A writer in the Worker (20th. Jan., 1923), signing himself "Hobo," gives an interesting account of unemployed organisation in Liverpool, for instance.

It began in 1921 with a gathering of 20,000 strong, and a committee "comprised for the most part of Communists." There was a baton charge in September, most of the committee were arrested, and the unemployed turned a picture gallery "into a shambles." "From then onwards the number declined, due to the fact that a scale of relief had been granted and that the spineless ones had got the wind up and left. We managed to keep a crowd of 10,000."

They again came into conflict with the police, and "this gave us another setback in point of numbers, and the people left began to show signs of class consciousness. . . . They began, to flock to the Communist Party. Very few stayed in, but those who left were inoculated with germs of the class struggle. Due to another agitation we were granted the use of another hall. Again, after another couple of months, we got notice to quit. From. then onwards until about April or May, 1922, the apathy became terrible. . .

"‘The Guardians or the rich,’ seeing this, began to get brave by daring to cut the relief down. A few hundred returned and wanted to know what we were going to do . . . try as we would we could not get them. to kick. . . . In September (1922). they returned again; . . . The Guardians had brought in a system of test work. . .The agitation became strong . . . the test work suddenly stopped, so did the demonstrations of our organisation. The immediate wrongs of Henry being satisfied, he drifted away again.. Thus the movement has declined, and hardly exists today outside of a small committee."

So much for mass action. Are these the big battalions that will strike fear into the hearts of the ruling class? We are often reminded that Socialist propaganda makes but slow progress. True, but that is the nature of things; and is the method illustrated above any quicker? If it produces anything useful at all, could the same or a greater result not have been achieved by a better direction of the energies that were thus largely wasted?

W. Hannington, Organising Secretary of the National Unemployed Movement, admits the actual impotence of that organisation outside of a strictly limited sphere, when he says in reply to a question as to the possibility of disturbances this winter: "The Government is straining the patience of these men, and they must not be surprised if there are outbreaks and disorders." (Manchester Guardian Weekly,12th Jan.) I suggest that the Government won’t be surprised.

The people who will be surprised are the unemployed when they learn how amazingly easy it is for a few police, or if need be, soldiers, to deal effectively with large masses of ill-disciplined and unarmed men. They will get cracked heads for their pains, some of them will possibly, in the words of "Hobo," be infected with "germs of class consciousness." But when it is all done, are we any nearer Socialism? When the long delayed trade recovery arrives, short though it may be, will anything be left to show for all the time spent on organising the unemployed? Might these efforts not have been more fruitfully devoted to giving them a real understanding of their class position?

It is true the Socialist Party has not succeeded in organising large numbers, but have the actionists done any better? We have at least assisted materially in giving a correct understanding of Socialism to a by no means insignificant body of workers, and we are still awaiting from our numerous critics information as to the means whereby men who have been brought together to "demand the use of the Town Hall" or for any other fiddling question of the moment, can be induced to fight for Socialism without understanding it.

If they could show that they had succeeded or were likely to succeed, something might be said for the idea; but according to a Communist Committee’s report, a copy of which fell into the hands of the Morning Post and was:quoted by the Star (2nd Jan., 1923) the Party during the two years of its existence "has made no real progress, either numerically or in terms of influence. . . We are still only scattered individuals straggling up and down the country without a responsible hold on the working class movement." (I must apologise for quoting from the Morning Post, but I, like the members of the Communist Party, have no other means of learning what new piece of buffoonery has been devised from time to time by the Communist dictators to disguise from their members the Party’s futility.)

Again, the Communists who have been responsible for misleading the workers by the blind-alley policy of the unemployed organisations now confess, after the harm has been done, that it was all a waste of effort.

"The unemployed have done all they can, and the Government know it. They have tramped through the rain in endless processions. They have gone in mass deputations to the Guardians. They have attended innumerable meetings and have been told to be ‘solid’ They have marched to London, enduring terrible hardships. . . All this has led nowhere. None of the marchers believe that seeing Bonar Law in the flesh will make any difference. Willing for any sacrifice, there seems no outlet, no next step. In weariness and bitter disillusionment the unemployed movement is turning in upon itself. There is sporadic action, local rioting, but not central direction. The Government has signified its exact appreciation of the confusion by arresting Hannington.

"The plain truth is that the unemployed can only be organised for agitation, not for action. Effective action is the job of the working-class as a whole. The Government is not afraid of starving men so long as the mass of the workers look on and keep the ring. —(Workers’ Weekly, C.P.G.B., 10th February, 1923.)

Brought up against one plain truth at home the Communists turn to agitation about another side-tracking question abroad with similar failure.

While they and the other mass actionists, the Labour Parties, are both opposing the French invasion of the Ruhr and issuing clarion calls to the workers to occupy themselves in the purely Capitalists’ dispute over the ownership of that territory, they both admit their inability to interfere effectively to stop it.

"Edo Fimmen, Secretary of the International Federation of Trade Unions, in a speech to the old Confederation of Labour Congress in Paris . . . confessed . . . the impotence of the international working class in regard to the Ruhr invasion. It must be recognised that we have not been able to do what we said we would do." —(Daily Herald, 3rd February, 1923.)

"The duty of the Communists is proportionately heavier. We are the minority of the working class. Alone we shall perhaps not be able to prevent war. But we must do everything in our power, so that when the masses are dragged into the war, they will have a rallying centre in the Communist Party . . . " —(R. Fuchs, International Press Correspondence, 1st February, 1923, an official Communist publication.)

There is another aspect, too. These people always end by calling the workers apathetic. It is pertinent to ask who have done more to make them so than those, whether right-wing privy councillors, or left wing mass actionists, who make the accusation. They bring members into an organisation under false pretences, add nothing to their knowledge, take their contributions, and then abuse them because they leave in disgust when they find that their leaders cannot fulfil the promises which were the bait dangled to catch them.

It is not that the leaders necessarily intend to harm their victims. Usually, at the outset at least, they are sincerely of the opinion that the end having been achieved the means will be thereby justified. Our reply is that the end never is achieved. A little knowledge of the history of the workers’ movement might save many such mistakes, it might also save some enthusiasts from wasting valuable energies trying "to get Socialism quickly" by this method. They should remember that the S.D.F., the Clarion Scouts, the I.L.P., the B.S.P. have each in turn beaten this particular big drum with varying degrees of failure before their present counterparts took it up.

They might also remember that apathy for the rank and file mean apathy for the leaders, and that with the passing of the conditions which temporarily gave the illusion of rapid progress the men who used to bellow blood and fire from the platforms of those organisations recovered from their intoxication. They became cynical and quite a number can now be found talking with their tongues in their cheeks, for the Conservative Party.

HOW TO BE A REVOLUTIONARY

Ernesto Che Guevara

By Matthew Culbert 

Worried about the state of the planet and what capitalism is doing to it? Want to do something about it? But what?

- Burn down a bank, maybe?

You could do, but there's a lot of banks, and even if you burned them all, they'd just build them again.

- Kick a copper, perhaps?

Maybe, but they can kick harder than you can, every time.

- Bring down the government?

And get a different government in? Or get martial law?

Start a revolution then?

Now you're talking. But what kind of revolution? That is the question....

Opponents of capitalism are used to having their names dragged through the mud by the state but we don't need to help the bastards do it in practice. Anybody who kicks in the window of a bank or a fast food joint is handing the state a propaganda victory on a plate.

You can't bring down capitalism in the street. At best you can temporarily annoy it. Is that worth getting busted, or busted up, for? Don't kid yourself that mayhem and rioting is a real threat to capitalism. Modern states have massive coercive power, and they can stand a lot more heat than you can deliver, and they can dish out a lot more heat than you can take.

To be dangerous to capitalism,we have to win the war of ideas, in the newspapers, on TV, amongst our friends and co-workers, in our groups, in our own head. And we have to be united about what we want after capitalism, and united about how to get it. Otherwise, the grim truth is that we really won't get past Go.

For a revolution to be any good, you have to be for something, besides being against capitalism. Some people are just against big capitalism (WTO, IMF, World Bank, multinationals, etc) as if somehow 'small' national capitalism is a completely different thing, and perfectly nice. It's not. They're the same. Let's have a definition: capitalism is production for sale on a market with a view to profit.

Instead of that we could have: cooperative production for use and free distribution on the basis of need. This would involve: no markets, no money, no commodities, no private property, no rich class and poor class, no Third World and First World, no profit-led profligacy of any description, no ecological destruction, no famine, and no war.

Think that's unlikely? It isn't. Capitalism has taken us as far as it can go, but there's a lot further we can go without it. It doesn't really matter whether you call it post-capitalism, world socialism, or post-scarcity anarchism, it is feasible and desirable. And given that some scientists are talking about a point of no-return for environmental destruction being reached, the word 'urgent' springs to mind too.