PETROL: Prices Will Continue to Rise if Cedi Falls Continues

Ghanaians have been warned to brace up to pay more for fuel if the local currency, the cedi, continues to depreciate against the dollar.

For the last three months, fuel prices have been reviewed upwards pushing consumers to squeeze additional monies for fuel purchases.

Even though the price of crude oil at the international market is still hovering at 55 dollars a barrel, the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar means Ghanaians have to pay more for fuel.

The price build for fuel in Ghana is largely influenced by currency performance, prices of oil on the international market as well taxes imposed or abolished.

A change in each of these could either lead to an increase or decrease in prices of fuel in Ghana, even though the prices have barely been reviewed downwards.

With the cedi still on a free fall against the major currencies, fuel prices on the local market is set to experience another upward review.

Under the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector the OMCs review prices of petroleum products every two weeks. However since the January, 2017, prices have been reviewed every week.

The petroleum products have increased between 8 and 11 percent within the first week of January. This was also followed by an increase of between 4 and 10 percent last week. Consumers have been protesting the rampant increases.

Speaking to Joy News, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Duncan Amoah painted a rather gloomy scenario.

"We are saying that the government should, through the Bank of Ghana, work to stabilize the cedi in order to be able to curtail the rampant increases we are seeing.

In the absence of that, these things are likely to continue and we are likely to have much further increases at pump prices going forward," he suggested.

As a result of the increases the prices of kerosene, diesel and super are ranging from 3 cedis to 5 cedis per litre and it could increase further with the fall of the cedi.

Duncan said not only should government stabilize the cedi, it must give some minimum dispensation to petroleum importers in the country to allow more competitiveness  in the sector.

Editorial

OSAFO MARFO’S ASSURANCE

Honourable Yaw Osafo Maafo, is a very senior and influential part of Nana Akufo Addo administration and we ought to take what he says seriously.

The problem is that his promise that the rampant fall in the value of the cedi would end in a month does not appear to be realistic.

As a fact the cedi has been dropping in value from 1983 and has now been cumulatively devalued by more than 30,000 per cent.

Even a secondary school form one economics student knows that the main factor in the devaluation of the cedi is that Ghana has become an import-dependent nation.

For as long as we remain dependant on imports for the satisfaction of all our basic needs, the cedi will continue to fall.

So when Honourable Yaw Osafo Maafo, promises that this trend will change in a month, we dare ask how?

Yes, the trend can change but not within a month.

What can change the trend is industrialisation, an increase in exports and a reduction in imports.

Ghana must move towards self- reliance for the cedi to really appreciate.

Anything short of this is cosmetic!

Cedi will stabilise within a month - Osafo Maafo

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has predicted that the Ghana cedi will stablise within a month after foreign investors have properly studied the 2017 budget.

He said investors have withheld dollars because they are waking up to the reality that the economic performance in last quarter of 2016 was poor.

"When it turned out that your growth was 3.6 percent and you deficit was 10.35 percent what do you expect your external investors to do? [they] will de-invest" he explained to Joy News' Joseph Gakpo. 

In 2016, the cedi depreciated by 9.5 percent and 5.4 percent against the dollar and the euro, respectively.

But in the last three months after the New Patriotic Party took reins of government, the cedi has lost value to the dollar by 6 percent. A dollar is going for GHC4.70. It was about GHC4 in December 2016.

The cedi depreciates in two ways, a demand route which means more businesses are looking for dollars or the supply route which means investors are not releasing dollars into the system.

The former Finance Minister Osafo Maafo believes there was a 'cover-up' of 'the true economic situation' which encouraged investors to keep on pushing dollars into the system resulting in some stability.

But the final 2016 economic data released in December showed economic growth was finally 3.6 percent against a revised target of 4.1percent.

The overall budget deficit on a commitment basis, the fiscal deficit was 10.3 percent of GDP against a target of 5.3 percent.

These indices have deflated investor confidence in the short-term, he suggested.

But after government released its 2017 economic direction, the confidence of the investor community is expected to return.

This is because the budget contains targets aimed at bridging the deficit and improving foreign reserves which should assure investors the government is working to turn the economy around.

Government has set an overall fiscal deficit of 6.5 percent of GDP and Gross Foreign Assets to cover at least three months of imports of goods and services.

"It takes about three weeks to a one month for people to respond", he said.

"People take the time to make a decision and [foreign investors] have to study the budget see our direction and I assure you that the cedi will begin to stabilise", he said.

Expect 'more' suicide if Economy is not Fixed

Dr Akwasi Ose

By Austin Brako-Powers

The Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority (MHA) has warned suicide incidents in the country might continue if the difficulties in the economy are not fixed.

Dr. Akwasi Osei said a key underlying factor that pushes people to take their own lives is the hardship they face especially in the economy.

Speaking to Gifty Andoh-Appiah on The Pulse on JOYNEWS channel on MultiTV Thursday, he said government has to do all it can to fix the economy.

“If the economy is not booming and people are having hardship you will have this [suicide] happening.”

Ghana has recorded four suicide incidents within the last four weeks, a development the Health Ministry has described as worrying.

The incidents which rapidity has confounded health officials started with a first year Chemical Engineering student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology taking her life on February 24.

Adwoa Agyarka Anyimadu-Antwi, 18, was reported to have taken a concoction identified as hazardous after which she hanged herself with a rope in her hostel room.

This was followed by the discovery of a lifeless body of a 16-year-old girl at New Tafo in the Eastern Region.

The teenager whose name has not been identified is said to have been discovered by her mother in their kitchen on March 8, with a rope tied around her neck.

Although it is unclear what might have driven a junior high school student to take her own life, her colleagues say she was unwell.

On the same day, a final year student of the University of Ghana was found lying in a pool of blood after allegedly jumping from the 4th floor of the Akuafo hall.

Jennifer Nyarko a resident of Akuafo Hall Annex A in room 407 is said to have been battling with high fever, but it has not been established if she deliberately fell over.

Also, on Thursday, a lifeless body of a man said to be in his mid-twenties was discovered hanging on a tree at Old Achimota, a suburb of Accra.

Tesano District Police Commander, DSP Edward Tetteh, said their preliminary investigations revealed the deceased was at a betting house hours before the incident happened.

Dr. Osei who has been on the heels of government to prioritise mental health issues in the country said the rising rate of suicide is an “unpleasant situation.”

He attributed the development to mental health problems which he accuses government of ignoring to the detriment of the country.

Although he lauded the passage of the Mental Health Act, he said the Legislative Instrument (L.I) that is required to put the law into action has not been passed.

“If you have this [L.I] there will be massive public education, employee assistance programmes to schools that will give counseling opportunities to people to identify the underlying problems,” he said.

Nonetheless, Dr Osei said the important work is in making the economy less difficult for the citizens to conduct their activities.

Suicide rate in the country will go down if the economy creates opportunities and improves the livelihood of Ghanaians, he said.

Free SHS implementation won't be smooth and easy

Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Education Minister

By Abubakar Ibrahim

The Education Minister says the implementation of the President Nana Akufo-Addo's flagship campaign promise of free senior high school (SHS) which begins this September won't be smooth and easy.

Mathew Opoku Prempeh also added that technical and vocational education would be given the priority it deserves at the secondary level under the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration.

The Member of Parliament for Manhyia North said this when he addressed recipients of the 2017 Independence Day awards at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra.

He advised the award recipients to be consistent with the achievements in order to become role models among their fellow students.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says government would fund the cost of public senior high schools (SHS) for all those who qualify for entry from the 2017/2018 academic year onwards.

He explained that by free SHS there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees and no utility fees.

Spelling out the details of the policy “so that no one in Ghana is left in any doubts”, President Akufo-Addo added that in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free.”

“Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level.  I also want to state clearly again that we have a well-thought-out plan that involves the building of new public Senior High Schools and cluster public Senior High Schools,” he added.

Since the President’s declaration, there has been a lot of public discourse about the feasibility of the programme.

In an interview with Joy News, Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo suggested government might use the Heritage fund to cater for the project that is expected to cost the nation GHC3.6 billion yearly.

Civil society organisations and political opponents slammed government for considering the use of the Heritage Fund to finance the programme.

But New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP on Parliament’s Finance Committee came out to say government has not taken any definite decision to use the Heritage Fund to finance the policy and urged all to wait for the budget.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, had the final word when he said Thursday that the policy would be financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA)

Presenting the maiden Budget Statement and Economic Policy he disclosed that it would cost government GH¢400 million to implement the free SHS programme for the 2017/2018 academic year.

                   Western Sahara: Self-determination delayed

By Radhi Bachir

Western Sahara stands out today as Africa’s last colony, occupied illegally and forcefully by Morocco with the backing of France. Everyday Saharawi people suffer horrendous human rights violations by the occupying power. This is one of the world’s forgotten conflicts. The only peaceful solution is for Morocco to accept the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination.

[Radhi Bachir, the Ambassador to South Africa of Western Sahara, or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), delivered this speech on 27 February 2017 during a panel discussion at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. The panel included Ambassador Ghulam Asmal, Director NEPAD and Partnerships in the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation and José Nascimento, an international law expert.]

First let me thank Pretoria University and the Human Rights Department for keeping an eye on this issue.

I would like to thank the Dean for opening this discussion, which we are sure is a contribution that will promote peace and respect for human rights in our corner of Africa.

For years the University has contributed to enlightening on the complexities that seem to characterize the Western Sahara question. Complexities because geographically we are called Western and this area is called South of the same continent and distances can be overcome only by travelling or by information and understanding. This meeting is thus auspicious, especially when lack of clarity is fueled by full speed propaganda and contradicting information spread by Morocco and its Western allies’ machines of misinformation.

If we start by situating the theme of the day, let us say, the Sahrawi Republic is located in northern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean (1200 km), Mauritania to the South (over 2000 km) and the Kingdom of Morocco in the North (400 km). With Algeria, the territory has a border of only 50 km.

For more that five decades, the question of Western Sahara, its people’s struggle for independence, has remained unanswered, and the conflict that opposed for years the Sahrawis and Spain (1970-1975) then the Sahrawis and Morocco and Mauritania, (1975-1979) and the Sahrawis and Morocco (ever since) has become a forgotten and neglected international crisis. Still, it is a conflict that cannot and will not go away so long as injustice is committed against a people that do not want to give up despite the complexities and the means used to subdue them. Freedom is indivisible; if one part of African suffers injustice then all of African is enduring the same pain and anguish.

The question of Western Sahara was since 1963 a simple question of decolonization: a people, the Sahrawi people, who live in the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro, have been colonized by a declining European power, the Kingdom of Spain. Ever since, the United Nations, which registered the territory, some 110 000 square miles as a Non-self- governing territory, to which the right to self-determination, a God-given right, should apply which has been enforced into law, during long debates, in 1960, nevertheless adopted in Resolution 1514 (XV) of the United Nations General Assembly.

The right to self-determination provides for a people to determine freely their destiny at a time when the colonizer prepares for its withdrawal for the territory it occupies. The colonial power has nevertheless the responsibility to prepare the people to be able to exercise that right in a "civilized" manner, which means that the colonizer should invest time and funds for the setting up of a reliable administration and infrastructure as well as education for the colonized people to enjoy that inalienable right without coercion.

This did not happen in Spanish Sahara. Spain was, as I said, a declining power associated with the worst of regime, Hitler’s nationalism, and suffering from a long civil war that left the country depleted of its potentialities. No civilized manners, customs or administration was introduced in our homeland. To the contrary, Islam was targeted because it provided a very strong alternative to colonialism and exploitation.

All along the past century, the Spanish Sahara went through several uprisings and organized intermittent resistance against colonialists in West Africa. In early 1900s, a long war was launched from the "Land of saints" against the new colonial attempts. The Sahrawi resistance against the French colonial army is very well known and French tombs could be found today from Saguia el Hamra to the river of Senegal and within today Mali. They are the cemeteries witnessing the battles between the Sahrawi Gazia and the French colonial army.

Western Sahara was occupied and "pacified" only thanks to French intervention at the turn of last century. Under Spanish colonial presence the territory was managed by the ejercito the Spanish foreign legion, i.e. a military administration, for that matter, the same military administration was operating in metropolitan Spain, under the command of Generalissimo Franco.

Madrid was poor and provided very little and was doing very little and spending very little "to modernize" the colony. Education was a luxury. The Sahrawis created their own Koranic schools, where most of the leadership of the Polisario Front got its first education. The infrastructure was non-existent. Whatever Spain built in the territory was a long conveyer belt to exploit the huge deposit of phosphate of Bucraa. Asphalt roads were limited to the capital EL Aiun, and the population movements were limited to the colony, for fear that the wind of liberty could blow into the colony. The borders were strictly controlled by the tropas nomadas and visiting the neighboring states was prohibited for nationals.

All this exposes the reality on the ground at the time Spanish Sahara became known as the Western Sahara in 1975. Recent history will tell you that the Sahrawis continued their struggle for national liberation and fought a violent war against the Moroccan army, which has enjoyed the backing of France, and the United States when their army was pushed way beyond their borders. The war from 1975 to 1991 resulted in dozens of thousands of deaths, perpetration by Morocco of genocide against the Sahrawi people who fled to neighboring countries (close to half of the population are refugees today in Algeria, where five refugee camps are installed in a barren land; other thousands fled to Mauritanian northern towns, and to Spain).

The Sahrawi government administers 40 per cent of the Western Sahara, liberated areas where some 20, 000 families live almost permanently and provides basic food, education and health care for the refugees, some 170 000 people. The refugee camps even though they represent a permanent challenge to the organization because of the lack of resources and the insufficient international humanitarian assistance, have been recognized as the best organized refugee camps by the United Nations High commission for refugees.

The situation in the camps contrasts with that of the Sahrawi living under Morocco's control. The Moroccan illegal administration comprises over 120, 000 troops, 20, 000 gendarmes, 20, 000 civil servants, including police, and over 120, 000 settlers who are the eyes and ears of the oppressor. The Sahrawis living in the occupied territories are outnumbered and are estimated to be less than two hundred thousand.

The colonial policy of Morocco in Western Sahara seeks to integrate at any cost and by any mean the Sahrawis to Moroccan society: prohibiting Sahrawi culture, limiting their freedom of movement, prohibiting peaceful demonstrations, and prohibiting contacts with foreign visitors. Visitors to Western Sahara must have a special permit, which can be obtained only after a long scrutiny. Media and NGOs are seen as enemy number one of the Moroccan administration and authorities. If they are permitted to visit, they will have to follow a fixed itinerary and be accompanied by plainclothes police from the point of entry to the territory to their exit. The United Nations personnel has complained several times and documented Morocco's vigilance in Western Sahara. The territory is also under a constant media blackout even though the United Nations has been deploying both components of international civilian and military to prepare and organize a referendum on self- determination.

No change. While the UN is present, just as before, the Moroccan colonial administration oppresses, tortures and jails at will any Sahrawi suspected of presenting even the least challenge to Moroccan policy. Morocco rejected any human rights monitoring by the UN mission in Western Sahara. France provided the defense of Morocco's colonialism in Western Sahara. France worked to defeat the UN referendum and it has succeeded so far. Since 1975 hundreds of civilians have disappeared and may have died in detention. Even today

Morocco's colonial laws of arbitrary detention and life-long prison for peaceful activists are common practice.

The territory of Western Sahara stands out today as, ostensibly, Africa's last colony. Colonialism is a mode of submission and exploitation of a people and their land. When the land is super-rich, phosphates, uranium, gold, fish, beaches, etc and when the people are rebellious and ungovernable, the repression becomes quite similar to the Apartheid regime during its heyday.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other European and African human rights non-governmental organizations have documented Morocco's persistent violation of rights in occupied Western Sahara. This typical colonial aggressiveness and savagery are reported by any delegation that will visit the area.

Any discussion on the question of Western Sahara will lead to another. What about a peaceful resolution of the conflict? And since early this month because the Kingdom of Morocco has accepted to sit with the Sahrawi Republic within the African Unity one may think that the parties to the conflict are getting closer to settling their dispute peacefully.

Conflicting signals are emerging from Moroccan officials as to the existence of a real political will to be awaked from their long colonial dreams and face reality and accept the principles guiding African unity and work through decolonization practices and democratic methods to resolve this conflict peacefully.

On the one hand King Mohamed V of Morocco has limited experience in world politics but inherited tremendous centralized powers. By lobbying to be admitted in the AU, he seems to be willing to correct mistakes his father made when the Sahrawi Republic was admitted to the Organization of African Unity but His Majesty seems to be making other mistakes that could be judged as even worse - by expelling the United Nations mission from the Western Sahara, deployed to keep a badly needed ceasefire Morocco's Hassan II strove for and was a witness of his army defeat. The UN mission was invited to help Morocco out of its quagmire to organize a referendum, as a face-saving formula, a formula

Morocco can only fear because its outcome is clear and will lead ineluctably to a confirmation of the Sahrawi independence.

On the other hand at Gergarat, an illegal aperture, the only land passage in the entire Moroccan land borders, in the Moroccan Chinese-type wall built in the heart of the Western Sahara, is used to unload tones of dissimulated dagga into Africa. In the last few months, and as reported today in the Pretoria News, tension has gone a notch higher; the UN peacekeepers have been deployed to keep the two armies at distance and prevent a spark that would unleash the resumption of the war. Yes, but the escalation is only the consequence of Morocco’s stubbornness and rejection of its previous commitment to a peaceful resolution and signing of many agreements negotiated officially with the Sahrawi side under UN supervision.

It is the result of recent refusal to receive the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and his Personal Envoy and UN mediator, Christopher Ross. Morocco has created "a dangerous situation" according to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General.

Morocco boycotted the ongoing peaceful negotiations to which the Sahrawi side has always adhered and continues to welcome. The talks represented the only glimmer of hope for a peaceful resolution. The deadlock is the result of Morocco’s attempt to dictate the outcome of any referendum and reject any internationally supervised but also organized referendum in the territory.

Because of their own colonial endurance, the majority of African countries have only witnessed and understood the colonial policy exercised on daily basis on the Sahrawi people. Whether through the African Unity approach to welcome both the Sahrawi Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco in its fold or through the advanced position of the United Nations and the European community, the framework of a final solution entailing the exercise of the right of self-determination by the sole people of Western Sahara remains the wise course for a peaceful resolution of this African dispute.

Never forget that expansionist Morocco sat for over six long years with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in the Organization of the African Unity without recognizing its independence. We hope that this time

Morocco would have learnt from its own colonial experience and shorten the time of the normalization of bilateral relations with the Sahrawi Republic.

The efforts the African states and peoples will make to bring that day closer will benefit Africa and speed up the huge task of unity and development our peoples have sacrificed for.

Thank you very much.

Remembering Lynne Stewart. A People’s Lawyer

Lynne Stewart

By Stephen Lendman

On Wednesday evening, humanity lost redoubtable civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart. Cancer and complications from a massive stroke days days earlier, followed by mini-strokes, took her at age 77.

I and many others who knew and loved her mourn her passing. She now belongs to the ages. I first met Lynne at a National Lawyers Guild gathering in Chicago to honor her dedicated human and civil rights work.

I was the only non-lawyer there. I spotted her instantly when she arrived, spoke to her briefly, thanked her for extraordinary work, embraced her, then entered an area where others were seated.

Everyone stood and applauded, including some notable Chicago attorneys. It was a riveting moment I’ll never forget.

Lynne was a people’s lawyer, a human and civil rights champion, a justice warrior, targeted by the Bush/Cheney administration for defending a client they wanted imprisoned - Sheik Abdel Rahman, framed for seditious conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing he had nothing to do with.

Lynne served as a member of a court-appointed defense team at the request of former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

She was unjustly charged under the 1996 Antiterrorism Act with with four counts of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, along with violating Special Administrative Measures (SAMS) imposed by the US Bureau of Prisons.

She was never one to back off from or shun controversy. For 30 years, she championed the rights of the poor, underprivileged and others rarely afforded due process unless lucky to have an advocate like her.

Where other attorneys feared to tread, she honorably defended Weather Underground’s David Gilbert, Richard Williams of the United Freedom Front, Sekou Odinga and Nasser Ahmed of the Black Liberation Army, and many others like them.

She knew the personal risks and courageously took them. On April 9, 2002, her ordeal began when FBI agents unjustly arrested her, searched her office, removing her case files and other materials.

Her show-trial was a travesty of justice. Prosecutors demonized her to pressure jurors to convict. It was part of an orchestrated witch-hunt process inside and outside court to intimidate other attorneys not to defend clients the DOJ wanted convicted.

At the time, then-National Lawyers Guild President Michael Avery said the Justice Department “was resolute from day one in making a symbol out of Lynne Stewart in support of its campaign to deny people charged with crimes of effective legal representation.”

In pronouncing sentence Judge John Koeltl said “(s)he has represented the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular (and she had) enormous skill and dedication (earning little money for it). It is no exaggeration to say that Ms. Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to the nation.”

Her case was precedent-setting, chilling, and according to former Center for Constitutional Rights President Michael Ratner, sent “a message to lawyers who represent alleged terrorists that it’s dangerous to do so.”

Her attorney Michael Tigar called her conviction and imprisonment “an attack on a gallant, charismatic and effective fighter for justice,” adding: “I have never seen such an abuse of government power.”

At a news conference preceding her November 2009 imprisonment, Lynne said “I’m too old to cry, but it hurts too much not to.”

She criticized the ruling against her, occurring “on the eve of the arrival of the tortured men from offshore prison in Guantanamo,” adding:

“If you’re going to lawyer for these people, you’d better toe very close to the line that the government has set out (because they’ll) be watching you every inch of the way, (so those who don’t) will end up like Lynne Stewart.”

“This is a case that is bigger than just me personally.” She vowed she’d “go on fighting.”

On December 31, 2013, she was freed by a compassionate release order because of her terminal breast cancer diagnosis, at the time given months to live.

On New Year’s day 2014, she returned home to loved ones, friends and supporters. “It’s just really wonderful. I’m very grateful to be free. We’ve been waiting months and months and months,” she said, explaining she’d work to help other political prisoners.

America punishes its best, honors its worst, revealing its merciless dark side at home and abroad.

Lynne is survived by her human rights champion husband Ralph Poynter, daughters Zenobia Brown, Brenna Stewart, son Geoffrey, sister Laurel Freedman, brother Donald Feltham and six grandchildren.

Once asked why she became a lawyer, she said “I wanted to change things.”

Her “love struggle” continues!

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

The original source of this article is Global Research

To the People of Cuba: Is Washington Preparing a “Soft Coup”? The Co-optation of Cuban Intellectuals

Forever Living Commandante Fidel Castro

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

To the People of Cuba,

The Cuban Revolution constitutes a fundamental landmark in the history of humanity, which challenges the legitimacy of global capitalism. In all major regions of the World, the Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration in the relentless struggle against neo-colonial domination and US imperialism.

The World is at a critical crossroads. At this juncture of our history, most “real” progressive movements towards socialism have been destroyed and defeated through US-NATO led wars, military interventions, destabilization campaigns, regime change, coups d’etat, “soft coups”.

Progressive movements as well as “The Left” in Western Europe and the U.S. have largely been coopted, often financed by elite corporate foundations. 

The socialist project in Cuba nonetheless prevails despite the US economic blockade, CIA intelligence ops and dirty politics.

While the legacy of Fidel Castro lives, let us be under no illusions, Washington’s intent not only consists in destroying the Cuban Revolution, it also seeks to erase the history of socialism.

Washington’s Diabolical Design

There are indications that a “regime change” in Cuba is currently contemplated by Washington policy makers.  The Trump administration has been categorical in this regard. The repercussions will be felt throughout Latin America.

During the election campaign “he committed himself to reversing Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive titled “United States-Cuba Normalization,”(a 12-page directive—referred to officially as “PPD-43”). (The Nation, October 2017). No subsequent statement following Trump’s inauguration has as yet been forthcoming.

Of significance is Trump’s appointment of Dr. Judy Shelton to head the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a think tank and funding agency geared towards regime change. As a former Vice-President of the NED, Shelton was  ”directly involved in lending legitimacy to US-backed subversion in Cuba as part of a decades-long attempt to overthrow the government in Havana and expand US hegemony over the Caribbean.”

Whatever US- Cuba “normalization” is contemplated by the Trump Administration, it would be geared towards the restoration of capitalism through acts of sedition, infiltration, etc. combined with the imposition of neoliberal economic reforms, including the IMF’s “strong economic medicine”. The fundamental question is how Cuba and the Cuban people will, in the current context, respond to these ongoing threats.

How does Washington plan to carry out this plan. Fundamentally through:

1) Measures which contribute to destabilizing the Cuban economy and its monetary system.

2) Procedures which are conducive to the eventual integration of the Cuban economy into the nexus of the IMF-World Bank-WTO, including the imposition of policy conditionalities  geared towards dismantling Cuba’s social programs, its rationing of essential consumer goods, etc.

3) To reach their objectives, Washington and its European allies have over the years devised various covert mechanisms of infiltration and cooptation with a view to influencing government policy makers, managers of public sector enterprises as well as intellectuals. In this regard Washington has also relied on its European partners which have established bilateral relations with Cuba.

This article will largely concentrate on the activities of right wing European foundations involved in funding Cuban think tanks and research centers.

The objective is the cooptation of researchers, scholars and intellectuals. The purpose is to build a “new normal”  which will pave the way towards the insertion of Cuban socialism into the logic of World capitalism. While retaining the socialist narrative, this process is ultimately intended to undermine the Cuban revolution, opening the door to economic deregulation, foreign investment and privatization. The “acceptance” by Cuban intellectuals of this “new normal” is essential to reaching the goal of capitalist restoration.

Background: US Interventionism

In recent years, the modalities of US interventionism have changed dramatically:  The thrust of U.S. foreign policy largely consists in destabilizing sovereign countries through a process of “regime change” (color revolution). The latter consists in  destabilizing the national economy, manipulating national elections, co-opting leftist intellectuals, bribing politicians, financing opposition parties, engineering violence and protest movements.

In Latin America, pro-US military dictatorships have largely been replaced by pro-US “democracies”. In turn, neoliberal economic reforms under the guidance of the IMF-World Bank have served to impoverish the population, thereby creating conditions which favor protest as well as social and political strife.

The rigging of elections in Latin America is coupled with engineered protests and the co-optation of Left intellectuals funded both by US and European foundations and NGOs, with links to US intelligence.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) created in 1983 alongside a number of other US based foundations has taken the lead. The NED’s mandate is to promote democracy and human rights in developing countries.

The NED is an unofficial arm of the CIA. According to former NED president Carl Gershman:

“It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. … We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”

In the words of the NED’s first president Alan Weinstein: ” A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA” (Washington Post, September 22, 1991).

The NED Project in Cuba. Entry through the “Back Door”

While the NED is banned in Cuba, it nonetheless finances indirectly –through partner foundations and proxy NGOs based in Florida —  a large number of so-called “democracy projects”.  Many of these partner (US based) organizations including the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio), the Instituto Cubano por la Libertad de Expresion y Prensa,  the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos have links to US intelligence. Historically, the NED has functioned through partners in the European Union which have formal bilateral links with Cuba.

With regard to Germany, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (linked to the Social Democratic Party), the Hans Böll Stiftung (Green Party) and the Hanns Seidel Stiftung (linked to the right wing Bavarian Christian Democratic Party (CSU)) have agreements with Cuba.

America’s Proxy: The Hanns Seidel Foundation, Instrument of the Right Wing CSU Party of Bavaria

In this essay I will focus primarily on the role of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, with specific reference to its role in Cuba and Venezuela.

The Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS), via the right wing Bavaria CSU, has a direct relationship to the government of Angela Merkel, who, in many regards is considered a US proxy  Historically, the activities of the HSS have been supportive of right wing political interventionism.

Many of HSS’ activities in developing countries as well as in Eastern Europe are carried out in partnership with US foundations including the NED and, the Open Society Foundation. HSS also has links with various think tanks including Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) and the American Enterprise Institute. It hosts speaking events as well as training programs in collaboration with NATO, the EU and the German government.

The Hanns Seidel Stiftung (NSS) has intervened in many countries, often in liaison with the NED and the US State Department. In the early 1990s it was involved in the so-called “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, which resulted in mass poverty and the destabilization of the Ukrainian economy.

More recently, Hanns Seidel (HSS) has maintained links with the current Kiev regime, largely with a view to confronting Moscow and destabilizing Donbass.

HSS through its Washington office has routine consultations with the US government, Congress, think tanks, including major partner foundations

HSS is also in liaison with US based foundations including the NED, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation.

HSS continues to maintain close ties to the Kiev regime which is integrated by two Neo-Nazi parties. The CSU and the HSS have informal ties to German intelligence, the Bundes Nachrichtendienst (BND).

One of the main activities of the Hanns Seidel Foundation has been the co-optation of Leftist intellectuals and scholars. This has been carried out by financing key policy-oriented think tanks and research institutes.

Hanns Seidel in Venezuela

Of significance, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS) was actively involved in financing the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski in Venezuela in the 2012 elections. Its activities extended far beyond its endorsement of  Caprile’s candidacy. In its quarterly report, the HSS openly acknowledges its dislike of the Bolivarian process.  In this regard, the HSS was involved in organizing a number of anti-government conferences, largely with a view to upholding free market capitalism (neoliberalism) and smearing the Chavez government.  The HSS was also used to create links with right wing parties including Copei and Primera Justicia.

It is worth noting that more than forty years ago, the CDU and CSU parties (to which the Hanns Seidel foundation is affiliated) were involved in providing financial support to the protagonists of the military coup against president Salvador Allende. And in the wake of the coup, they provided economic aid to  the military government of Augusto Pinochet.

HSS is still involved in Venezuela, financing a number of projects. Their unspoken objective is the destabilization of the Bolivarian government.

Hanns Seidel representing the CSU of Bavaria is also involved in the politics of several Latin American countries including Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia. In Ecuador the CSU through Hanns Seidel is cooperating with the Corporación Autogobierno y Democracia, Fundación Acción y Desarrollo Comunitario (ACDECOM) and various other organizations.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation in Cuba

Now let me turn my attention to Cuba, focussing on a specific activity of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in which I was personally involved.

In October 2015, I was invited to participate in an international venue of the Centro de Investigaciones de Politica Internacional (CIPI), a research centre and think tank affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The theme of the conference was to analyze the process of geopolitical transition opened up by the resumption of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US.

Transicion geopolitica del poder global: entre la cooperacion y el conflicto

The event was funded by the Hanns Seidel Stiftung. Scholars were invited from Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, the US and Canada.

A few weeks following my acceptance to participate in the venue addressed to CIPI, I received a message from the Hanns Seidel Stiftung informing me that the event was supported by them and that the HSS would be funding all my expenses including an honorarium. The message stated that they would be in contact with me regarding issues pertaining to a contract. They also requested that I submit a so-called “propuesta de servicios” (offer of services).

I was fully aware of the track record of the HSS, specifically on how they had intervened in the Venezuelan 2012 presidential elections in support of Capriles Radonski, with a view to ultimately undermining Hugo Chavez.

I was shocked by the fact that CIPI had requested funding from HSS. The intent of HSS (acting on behalf of Bavaria’s CSU, a right wing party) in liaison with its partner organizations in Washington was to undermine socialism in Cuba. It also consisted in  co-opting Cuban scholars and intellectuals in anticipation of a broad process of political change.

I responded to the HSS invitation indicating both to them and to the CIPI organizers that I would be funding my travel and accommodation expenses and did not see the need to receive funding from the HSS. This decision created confusion in the processing of my participation in the conference.

The October 2015 Conference

What happened: some very good contributions by prominent Cuban and Latin American scholars and scientists on a variety of important topics. But there were several black holes in the program no doubt related to the fact that the HSS linked to Bavaria’s CSU was funding the venue and had imposed its conditions.

1. A key session of the conference was on Venezuela, focussing on the future of the Bolivarian government and its historical relationship to Cuba.

Not a single participant from Venezuela had been invited to the Conference, thereby foreclosing a dialogue and discussion between Cuban and Venezuelan intellectuals.

All the presentations on Venezuela were by Cuban scholars.

No doubt the HSS had blocked the invitation of progressive Venezuelan intellectuals aligned with the Bolivarian revolution.  The topic of the conference (i.e. transition and normalization with the US) is of crucial significance to both Cuba and Venezuela.

It should be understood that in the present context, the future of Cuban socialism largely hinges upon maintaining and building Cuba-Venezuela relations within the context of the Bolivarian revolution. The HSS was intent upon denying a political dialogue and debate between Cuban and Venezuelan intellectuals. The objective of the HSS was to undermine and weaken the longstanding relationship between Cuba and the Bolivarian government of Venezuela. Ironically, nobody among the Cuban organizers and participants was aware of Hanns Seidel’s dirty politics in Venezuela.

In contrast, the session on Mexico included four distinguished scholars from Mexico. There was a large delegation of Mexicans as well as from other Latin American countries.  Not a single Venezuelan was invited.

2. A session on US Foreign Policy included Israeli academic Yossi Mekelberg associated with Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs (UK), an arch-reactionary British think tank, with links to the Washington based Council on Foreign Relations.

The presentation by the Israeli academic provided a biased interpretation of what was happening in Syria and Palestine.  The US led terrorist insurgency in Syria was  casually described as a “civil war”, Palestinians were tagged as terrorists,  and President Bashar al Assad was accused of killing his own people, much in the same way as the US-UK corporate media.

According to Mekelberg, quoted by Newsweek, the ISIS “emulates” the Palestinians:

The Cuban scholars who were participating in this event did not take the trouble to react or express their disdain.

The question is why would such an individual (affiliated to Chatham House, supportive of the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv) be invited to socialist Cuba by a research centre associated with Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs?  

Cuba has historically expressed solidarity with Palestine as well as with the struggle of the people of Syria and Iraq, who are currently the object of acts of military aggression by US-NATO.

Why did they not invite a committed socialist scholar from Palestine to debate US foreign policy? Was it a condition set by the Right Wing CSU of Bavaria via the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS)?

3. Another session focussed on Ukraine. Among the participants was the President of the Vienna based International Institute for Peace Prof. Hannes Swoboda, who is a (former) member of the European Parliament. Swoboda outlined his support for US-NATO in Eastern Europe directed against Russia as well as his endorsement of Ukraine’s Maidan Kiev regime (which is integrated by two Neo-Nazi parties). No reaction by the Cuban intellectuals participating in this venue was forthcoming.

Lest we forget, the Cuban government has expressed its solidarity with the people of Donbass and Crimea. In turn, the people of Donbass acknowledged their solidarity with Cuba and the teachings of Fidel Castro (see below). But this was not an issue of debate at the CIPI Conference.

In the words of Fidel Castro:

Cuba, which has always stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and in the difficult days of the Chernobyl tragedy provided medical care to the many children affected by the accident’s harmful radiation, and is always willing to continue doing so, cannot refrain from expressing our repudiation of the action of the anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist [Kiev] government. (July 14, 2014)

Hannes Swoboda invited to Cuba by CIPI  (to quote Fidel Castro) was “anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist”.  As MEP, he initiated (together with several other MEPs) the anti-Russian pro-NATO procedure at the European parliament, calling for support of the illegitimate Kiev regime, integrated by two Neo-Nazi parties. (see below)

Concluding Remarks, The Legacy of Fidel Castro

It is my sincere hope that what I have presented in this article will be the object of debate and discussion in Cuba.

The Cuban government is committed to protecting the achievements of the Cuban revolution. In the current context, this is no easy task. As  outlined in the Introduction, Washington is intent not only upon destroying the Cuban Revolution, it also seeks to erase the history of socialism.

The intent of Western foundations –operating directly or indirectly on behalf of Washington– is to trigger divisions within Cuban society, through infiltration and  co-optation, the ultimate objective of which is the restoration of capitalism. 

These mechanisms of co-optation are also facilitated by the dual currency system in Cuba, which has allowed Hanns Seidel and other European foundations to make payments to Cuban think tanks and research institutes in convertible currency (CUC).

Increased “dollarization” of retail consumer prices (expressed in CUC) is conducive to impoverishment and social inequalities.

Cubans are well aware of this evolving crisis: people who earn income in CUC convertible pesos have acquired purchasing power. In contrast, those whose earnings are largely in nonconvertible Cuban pesos are excluded from the CUC consumer economy.

Washington’s broader intent is to implement measures which contribute to destabilizing the Cuban economy and its monetary system, namely to reintegrate Cuba into a dollarized World economy.

Procedures are also envisaged by Washington to eventually reintegrate the Cuban economy into the nexus of the IMF-World Bank-WTO, including the imposition of policy conditionalities  geared towards dismantling Cuba’s social programs, its rationing of essential consumer goods, etc.

It is essential to block these initiatives. Debate and discussion on the mechanics of “capitalist normalization” are crucial, both within Cuba and internationally.

A revolutionary narrative per se will not sustain Fidel’s legacy, unless it is backed by concrete actions and carefully designed policies.

The mechanics of capitalist restoration and the various modes of political interference and social engineering must be forcefully addressed.

The battle against war and neoliberalism prevails. 

For the concurrent demise of neoliberalism and militarization which destroy people’s lives,

For the outright criminalization of America’s imperial wars,

For a World of Social Justice with a true “responsibility to protect” our fellow human beings,

Long Live Fidel Castro Ruz

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2017