RAWLINGS: Kofi Adams Says Communicators who Attack Him will be sanctioned

Jerry Rawlings and wife, Nana Konadu

By George Nyavor

As the National Democratic Congress (NDC) works towards reconciliation, National Organiser of the party, Kofi Adams, has warned against verbal attacks on the party’s founder, Jerry John Rawlings.

Mr Adams said former President Rawlings remains “a huge tower “ and “the fountain of knowledge” in the party and urged the rank and file of the party to see him as a key factor in efforts to reorganise the party.

“I believe that those who have had verbal diarrhoea and gone on all kinds of attacks and talking anyhow [against Mr Rawlings]; such persons will have to be advised to cease or will not have to speak on behalf of the party...we are not going to tolerate such things,” he said.

Kofi Adams made the remark on current affairs programme PM Express on the Joy News channel (Multi TV) Tuesday evening.

The current leadership of the main opposition party has been seeking to mend a broken relationship with the founder of the party, following scathing criticism he made against the party leadership before and during the 2016 general elections.

Former President Rawlings had, among other things, advocated for the current leaders of the party to be replaced, accusing them of lacking integrity.

His wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, could not stand what she has described as indiscipline and corruption in the party and has formed her own party, the National Democratic Party.

Kofi Adams

Some NDC communicators have sought to hit back at the Rawlingses with scalding remarks.

Mr Rawlings revealed on June 4 that he once contemplated leaving the party because of "very cruel insults and humiliations" against him.

However, recommendations of a committee that was tasked to unravel the cause of NDC's defeat in the 2016 general election have mentioned peace-building as central to the party's efforts to reorganise itself.

The Kwesi Botchwey Committee report said the party's leadership must embark on a healing tour, an endeavour Kofi Adams has revealed Mr Rawlings will play a crucial part in.

Kofi Adams explained that those who have attacked the party’s founder have done so out of ignorance, adding “many of them either don’t understand where we have come from or need to realise that sometimes you need to go back and ask yourself what exactly he [Mr Rawlings] is saying.”

“This is someone [Rawlings] who will stand by you any day and any time insofar as you are not offending the truth,” Kofi Adams, a former aide of Mr Rawlings, said.

Editorial

KUFUOR IS WRONG

We recall the period in which Mr J. A. Kufuor was struggling to become the President of Ghana.

In those days he had no qualms about forging an alliance with Nkrumaists and even agreeing that former Vice President Kow Arkaah should be his running mate.

Those were the days former President Kufuor praised Nkrumah to the high heavens for his vision and deeds aimed at uniting Africa and accelerating the pace of the continent’s development.

The Kufuor campaign even went to the extent of faking photographs of the former President sitting with Nkrumah.

These photographs were printed on billboards and placed at vantage positions in Accra and elsewhere.

Now, the same J.A Kufuor says that Nkrumah was a dictator who destroyed the foundations of democracy in Ghana and the Ghanaian economy.

Mr Kufuor says that Nkrumah even built a prison, 22 kilometers from Accra to detain his opponents.

The Insight completely disagrees with former President Kufuor.

Those who were detained at the Medium Security Prison in Nsawam were mainly terrorists responsible for bomb explosions and assassination attempts. They were the very scum of our politics.

As for the state of the economy, it must be placed on record that the reckless neo-liberal agenda pursued by Rawlings and Kufuor brought us here.

Local News:

Let’s protect natural resources - EPA

By Afedzi Abdullah

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for an increased stakeholder collaborations towards the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources.

It said the management of the natural resources in the country was a shared responsibility, which required that individuals and relevant stakeholders played their respective roles while the EPA took a lead role.

Mr Ebenezer Pinkrah, Central Regional Director of EPA who made the call noted that the country’s natural resources had been carelessly handled and recklessly over exploited to the extent that they had become polluted and drastically reduced to extinction.

Mr Pinkrah was speaking at a news conference as part of activities to mark this year’s World Environmental Day celebration in Cape Coast.

The global theme for this year is “Connecting people to nature in the city and on land from the pole to the equator” whilst the national theme is “Connecting Ghanaians to nature from north to south”.

He noted that the Agency’s capacity to perform its mandated roles had reduced drastically as a result of the mismanagement of the resources in question, causing serious health problems for humans.

The EPA has in this regard implored all Ghanaians to change their habits and adopt efficient and sustainable natural resource management practices to safeguard the environment for posterity.

Mr Pinkrah said natural resources depended on humans for their habitats and livelihood and therefore behoved on them to protect, conserve and enhance the natural systems.

He said the EPA sought to use the celebration to connect Ghanaians to nature and sensitise them on effective ways of utilising natural resources to minimise the adverse effects of illegal mining on water bodies.

Another issue of great concern was the springing up of illegal structures, mostly as bars and eateries along the beaches of Cape Coast in recent times, a situation which experts said could have health implications for nearby communities.

Responding to questions as to what the EPA was doing about the development, Mr Pinkrah said a definite decision had been reached by stakeholders to stop the operations at the beach to protect the beach front.

GNA

Free SHS will drive Ghana’s development - President Akufo-Addo

Nana Akufo Addo

By Ken Sackey

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that education and skills training are the catalyst to empower and provide opportunities to the youth to help drive Ghana’s development.

He noted that the countries that had done well, even without natural resources, were those that had invested in education and skills training, and it was for the reason that his government had found and committed resources to begin the Free Senior High School policy in September, 2017.

“So as from September this year, anybody entering the public Senior High School system is going to get their education free. The burden is being taken on by the State. We are doing so because we believe that having access to education, empowering our human capital, is our biggest challenge,” he said when addressing the Ghanaian community resident in Belgium, ahead of the conduct of the meetings of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates Group of Eminent Personalities.

“If we are able to do that, within the shortest possible time, and expose our young people to education, especially to new digital technology, it becomes the fastest way to bridge the gap and pull ourselves out from the poverty in which we are in today,” he stated.

He reiterated that “the commitment for Free SHS was not a political gimmick. I kept saying it in my campaign, but my opponents will not agree with me. It was not a political gimmick. It is a development tool for our country, so that we put the country onto the path of progress and prosperity.”

On the revival of the National Health Insurance Scheme, President Akufo-Addo noted that his government has found it necessary to find the money to starve the scheme off collapse.

“The scheme has been threatened by mismanagement and by huge indebtedness. We are now having to liquidate systematically the arrears so that the service providers can be encouraged to provide services for NHIS card holders. I am hoping that within 18 months, all the arrears of the NHIS would have been settled, so that we can have a secure future for the scheme,” he said.

Speaking on the vexed issue of illegal mining, the President acknowledged that Ghana, for many centuries, had been a country of mineral deposits and the exploitation of minerals.

“We are not trying to ban mining in Ghana. We cannot do that. The mineral deposits in our country are part of our heritage, and are meant to be exploited for the benefit of this and future generations,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo stated that his government would not permit “is to allow the mining to compromise the future of our country, compromise our environment and destroy and pollute our water bodies. We cannot do that. If we do that, we will wake up tomorrow with no country to live in. I am not going to be part of any such arrangement.”

He continued, “So, we have identified illegal small-scale mining as the target for the fight against galamsey. We want to make sure that not only do we stop it, but the people who are involved in it find alternative employment.”

With the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, heading a Cabinet Committee which is identifying alternative sources of livelihood for persons involved in illegal mining activities, President Akufo-Addo noted that the proposals which were in the pipeline include using “galamseyers” to reclaim the lands, as well as offering them incentives to go into farming.

“Having begun it, we are not turning back until we make sure that our future is protected,” he stressed.

There is need for sex education for adolescence - Lecturer

By Comfort Sena Fetrie/Rosemary Wayo

Professor Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme, a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast on Tuesday called for a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education to ensure healthy sexual and reproductive lives of adolescents.

He said sex education must include accurate information on a range of age-appropriate topics that should be participatory to foster knowledge, attitudes, values and practical skills to enable adolescents to develop positive views of their sexuality.

Prof Kumi-Kyereme made the call in Tamale during the dissemination of a study on Sexual and Reproductive Health Education forum organised by Guttmacher Institute in collaboration with the University of Cape Coast.

He said about 50 per cent of adolescents still engage in early sex across the country despite education.

He stated that 27 per cent of males and 23 per cent of females from 15 to 17 years have already had sex before the time of survey. 

The forum held in Tamale was to inform policy and practice on the teaching of topics on sexual reproductive health in senior high schools (SHS) in selected regions in the country which includes: Greater Accra, Northern and Brong- Ahafo.

He said some of the adolescents likely started having sex before they were taught the skills and knowledge they need to practice safe sex and also lead on healthy sexual and reproductive lives in their schools.

He recommended that stakeholders need to provide the adolescents with accurate information on SRH early in the schools to reduce sexual initiation.

Prof Kumi-Kyereme said in the SHS, SRH education topics should be put in core subjects or made as stand-alone topics in schools to early sex among the adolescents.  

Madam Joana Nerquaye-Tetteh, Private Consultant to Guttmacher Institute called on NGOs, parents, school heads, community leaders and religious leaders to assist stakeholders by explaining and sensationalising sexuality among adolescents in their community.

She said there was need to improve training and support for teachers to a comprehensive education on sexuality.

Guttmacher Institute is an American based NGO that researches on Reproductive Health Policy globally.

GNA

Ghana recognises the benefits and risks associated with chemicals - Minister

Prof. Frimpong Boateng

By Morkporkpor Anku

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, says Ghana recognises the benefits of chemicals as well as the risks associated with the product throughout their lifecycles.

He said as a developing country: “We depend on chemicals from agriculture, extractive industries, service and manufacturing industries.”

Professor Frimpong-Boateng was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop on ‘Sustainable Chemistry: Stocktaking and Potential in Ghana’ in Accra.

The workshop organised by the Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety will introduce and examine the concept of sustainable chemistry and explore international good practices evolving among the concept.

It will also investigate existing approaches to sustainable chemistry in various sectors from the public sector to the private industry to research and academia.

“We import most of the chemicals we need and use, also older near-end-of-life electrical and electronic gadgets are imported into our country,” he added.

He said compounding these issues was the limited capacity for training, awareness creation and education on the sound management of chemicals and waste in poorer and vulnerable populations.

He said these and other emerging issues happen because the country’s growing economy did not have internal controls and external surveillance systems.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng said: “Our peasant farmers and other end-users of chemicals, most of the time, ignore the use of appropriate personal protective equipment and fails to observe instructions for the use as prescribed on the label.

The Minister said the emergence of cancers and other diseases, which were hitherto foreign to the societies, were mainly due to lack of awareness and education on handling and safe use of chemicals and pesticides.

He said the use of traditional or indigenous knowledge was important in the development and promotion of the concept of sustainable chemistry.

Ms Cornelia Leuschner, Representative of the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection, Construction and Nuclear Safety, Germany said the workshop was intended to support key stakeholders in Ghana in raising awareness of the concept of sustainable chemistry and identify best practices.

She said Germany and Ghana were already important partners in international chemicals management and sustainable chemistry activities and would continue this good cooperation.

“We need to conserve our natural resources and biodiversity, secure our energy supply and combat climate change,” she added.

She said they needed sustainable chemistry that connected ambitious environmental and health protection with economic and social development.

She said Ghana had made much progress in capacity building, for instance setting up a National Pesticides Quality Control Laboratory and “we welcome this commitment and will like to discuss a cooperation on this and other projects as part of our future activities”.

Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Vice-Chancellor, University of Ghana called for the establishment of a chemical fund for the EPA to enable the authority task chemical importers, producers and also use for research.

He urged the Minister of Environment to use his office to push for the establishment of the fund.

“We must look at the contamination of our water bodies, leading to the loss of aquatic lives in the process,” he said.

Winnie Mandela – All We Fought For Have Been Ruined

By Nedu

Thus saith the ex-wife of South Africa’s greatest son, late Nelson Mandela: South Africa is in crisis and, what the freedom fighters fought for, has been messed up.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandel shared the sentiment above when she spoke about Ahmed Kathrada commemoration ceremony at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg.

Ahmed Kathrade, one of the prominent struggle icons in South Africa passed away aged 87. Affirming that Ahmed Kathrada will always be remembered as a symbol of freedom and hope, Winnie expressed that South Africa is troubled and in crisis. She said: “This is not just another loss of a struggle stalwart, this was a rehash of Madiba’s passing and it is very, very emotional.

I just saw all over again what I saw on that day, the 5th of December 2013, when Madiba left us. “(Kathrade’s) departing brings finality to the chapter on the history of our struggle. One, of course, has fears for our country. I wish he hadn’t left at this particular time. I can imagine how pained he was that he left at this particular time.

“All what we fought for is not what is going on right now. It is a tragedy that he lived and saw what was happening. “We cannot pretend like South Africa is not in crisis, our country is in crisis and anyone who cannot see that is just bluffing themselves.”

Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters said that they are immensely saddened by the passing of the struggle stalwart. EFF charged South Africans to emulate the selflessness of Uncle Kathy saying: “As a country, we must all learn from the selflessness of Uncle Kathy, always prioritizing the marginalized and ensuring that their voices are heard and respected. “We must adopt an uncompromising posture at all times in the fight against corruption as he did.

We must be prepared, as he did, to pay even with our lives and imprisonment if needs be as he did.” “We call on all South Africans to unite as we bid Ahmed Kathrada a final goodbye,” stated the Fighters.

DON’T KILL MOSQUITOES- Professor

A professor has called for an end to the killing of mosquitoes, stating that they are friends and allies to humans and we could learn a lot from them.

Adeolu Ande, a Professor of Entomology at the University of Ilorin, made this known in a paper he presented at a public seminar organised by University of Ilorin.

He said that, rather than kill mosquitoes, man should discover ways to manage them because they would exist whether we like them or not and will continue to source blood from humans.

He called on zoologists to fulfill their role of being foster parents of animals in the Zoo because that's what's expected of them, adding that they should be familiar with the needs and health status of animals, insects included.

In his paper titled, 'Consider the ways of Ants and be Wise', the entomologist described insects as the “most successful and influential group’’ of organisms in the biosphere.

He said that humans have a lot to learn from insects in order to be wise. He said that insects make positive influence such as; pollination of flowers, sustenance of the ecosystem, serve as a source of silk, act as biological control agents and food source, but lamented that these impacts made by the insects are underplayed and not appreciated, instead we focus on their negative influences which he said are minimal.

He said:

 “Human life is beset with inevitable associations with insects that have over the years influenced human destiny positively and negatively. Negative influences, such a disease transmission, crop losses, food spoilage, economic losses and nuisance value caused by less than 5 per cent of insect species have been exaggerated by man."

Ande said that man deliberately misunderstood the role of mosquitoes and frequently described them as causing the diseases they transmit.

He said:

 “In the actual sense, mosquitoes are equally sick but inadvertently and unwillingly convey pathogens that are the real causal agents of these diseases. The female mosquito could be described as an example of a true mother who is forced to undertake suicide mission in its bid to provide for its unborn children. The adult female mosquitoes have exceptional value for child raising hence the level of commitment and risk they take on the mission that entails decision between life and death. The after effect of this commitment is a well thought out plan that forestalls most of the factors that may stand in the way of raising good children. 

"I am sure most human females will not take comparable decision in the face of similar attendant risks. It is however certain that children born after well thought-out and risky conditions are better posited for quality living than those produced carelessly."

The professor called for improvement in Zoology curriculum in the country to ensure better focus on organisms that feature prominently around man.

Africa:

Africa-Cuba Solidarity Reaffirmed at Namibia Conference

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Close bonds between the people of the African continent and the Caribbean island-nation of Cuba have been centuries in the making.

Africans caught in the Atlantic Slave Trade were taken to Cuba where their presence made an indelible mark on the character of the political, economic and cultural fabric of the country.

Since the 1960s, in the early aftermath of the 1959 seizure of power by revolutionary forces led by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others, African independence and transformative struggles have constituted a major factor in Cuban foreign policy. President Castro noted in 1976 that socialist Cuba was populated by a Latin African people opposed to colonialism, racism and imperialism.

This historical tradition was reinforced at a recent conference held in Windhoek, Republic of Namibia which brought together African leaders and Cuban governmental officials to renew ties among the geo-political regions and to chart a way forward in the current period. The Fifth Continental African Conference of Solidarity with Cuba was convened June 6-8 and brought together over 200 delegates from 26 African states under the theme of “Intensifying Solidarity and Continuing the Legacy of Fidel and Che.”

The first of these conferences was held in South Africa in 1995 just one year after the demise of the racist-apartheid system that brought President Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to power. Subsequent gatherings took place in Ghana during 1997, Angola in 2010 and Ethiopia, the headquarters of the African Union (AU), in 2012.

1967 marks the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Che Guevara in Bolivia while he was in the South American country assisting revolutionary forces fighting against the neo-colonial regime which was supported by the United States. The Cuban Revolution from its inception posed a challenge to American imperialist dominance over the Caribbean, South America and other colonial and neo-colonial territories around the world.

In November 2016, 90-year old former President Fidel Castro passed away in Havana. His funeral was attended by many African leaders including Namibian President Hage Geingob who paid tribute to the revolutionary leader in an address to the mourners.

In a statement to the Conference, Namibian deputy Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwahemphasized that:

“The holding of this conference is all the more timely because it is taking place when retrogressive forces are bent on reversing the gains made recently to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.”

Under the previous U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba after a breach of over 50 years raised expectations of a possible lifting of the economic blockade imposed by Washington in October 1960.

Without the abolition of the blockade relations cannot be fully normalized despite the exchange of diplomats and the reopening of embassies. The U.S. Congress would have to approve the liquidation of the blockade and there are political elements within the legislature which categorically opposes full economic and trade relations with Havana.

Nonetheless, the Fifth Continental African Conference supported the address by Namibian President Hage Geingob who said:

“We applaud the positive development in this respect and we commend the U.S. government and Cuba for their efforts towards normalizing of ties. However, there is still much ground left to cover to ensure the complete lifting of the blockage against Cuba.”

Geingob emphasized the urgency of the conference to develop a unified African strategy in regard to supporting Cuba. In addition, the delegates passed resolutions demanding the return of Guantanamo Bay, which remains over a century later after the so-called Spanish-American war under U.S. control, to the Cuban people.

A co-founder of the ruling Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) Party, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, who passed away just days after the conference, noted that:

“Historically, Cuba assisted African countries in the fight against foreign domination. Through this patriotic support, Cuban people have shown us the meaning of solidarity, hence (we should show) our support for Cuba.”

Final Declaration Calls for Continuing Solidarity 

African leaders viewed the current situation involving the status of U.S.-Cuban relations as being critical in light of the political character of the administration in Washington. President Donald Trumpdoes have the prerogative of reversing the reforms instituted by his predecessor.

Therefore, the Conference stressed as a mandate for future actions to

“continue developing and strengthening the Cuba solidarity movement in each one of our countries, struggling for unity and truth …. We demand that Cuba’s right to self-determination and sovereignty, as well as its right to decide the political system of its choice, be respected.”(Granma International, June 7)

Moreover, the struggle to maintain and enhance the independence and sovereignty of Cuba is linked with other countries within the region. In recognizing this reality the conference expanded its scope to encompass other states which have also been under pressure from successive U.S. administrations.

Therefore, the final declaration pledged support to “the causes of all sister countries struggling for a better world. In particular, we pledge our support to Puerto Rico in its struggle for self-determination, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and the people of Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina, and all peoples of the continent defending their sovereignty.”

In attendance as well from Cuba were Fernado González, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and Cuban Ambassador in Namibia, Giraldo Mazola.

Historical Tradition of Solidarity and Cooperation

In 1961 in the aftermath of the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, Cuban Minister of Economic Planning Che Guevara spoke out strongly in condemnation of the murderous act which was carried out by the U.S., Belgium and other imperialist states utilizing local surrogates. Che during 1965 toured Africa in an effort to build solidarity and make preparations for Cuban internationalists intervention in Congo aimed at supporting the revolutionary forces fighting for the ideals of Lumumba.

Although this mission was not successful, the experience taught profound lessons which laid the foundation for the deployment of Cuban military units a decade later in Angola in defense of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) beginning in October 1975. President Fidel Castro was requested to send support by Angolan President Agostino Neto in the face of an invasion by the South African Defense Forces (SADF), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the surrogate U.S.-backed UNITA and FNLA rebel groups designed to derail the genuine independence of the oil-rich former Portuguese colony.

Cuban Internationalists spent another 13 years in Angola where they assisted in defeating the SADF in a series of battles around Cuito Cuanavale in 1988. After the humiliating losses by the SADF, negotiations began which resulted in the liberation of Namibia, the release of South African political prisoners in 1990 and the transition to non-racial democratic rule in the citadel of apartheid settler-colonialism by 1994.

In recent years, Cuba has educated thousands of African students in universities in the Caribbean socialist state. These students are provided with free tuition and lodging.

During the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) pandemic of 2014, Cuba deployed hundreds of physicians and other healthcare workers to Liberia and Sierra Leone, two of the hardest hit West African states, which was instrumental in turning the tide in efforts to halt and eradicate the crisis. The U.S. was forced to recognize the role of Cuba in the battle against EVD which paved the way for the reopening of diplomatic relations.

Outside of the conference deliberations in Windhoek, the delegates visited historic sites including Heroes Acre and the Museum of Independence on June 7. The participants decided in its conclusion that the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be the venue of the next Continental African Conference in Solidarity with Cuba.

Foreign News:

Why the British Establishment Wants Jeremy Corbyn Buried

Jeremy Corbyn

By Graham Vanbergen

The term “the establishment” refers to leading politicians, senior civil servants, senior barristers and judges, aristocrats, Oxbridge academics, senior clergy, the most important financiers and industrialists, governors of the BBC, members of and top aides to the royal family to mention most, but not all.

The term in this sense is sometimes mistakenly believed to have been coined by the British journalist Henry Fairlie, who in September 1955 in the London magazine ‘The Spectator’ defined that network of prominent, well-connected people as “the Establishment”, explaining: “By the Establishment, I do not only mean the centres of official power—though they are certainly part of it—but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised”.

Following that, the term, the Establishment, was quickly picked up in newspapers and magazines all over London, making Fairlie famous.  Today, the term ‘the establishment’ is used generally in a negative sense and it’s easy to understand why.

“The British public has become deeply cynical about the political class at Westminster”, states a recent Financial Times editorial.

“Bankers feel they have an ethical duty to steal from taxpayers” – another reads

“Why are we subsidising the royal family at a time of gross inequality” says another headline.

There has been a rising tide of contempt and anger towards bankers, property speculators, hedge fund bosses, politicians and even religious leaders and the royal family.

For instance, membership of Britain’s unelected upper house, the House of Lords has soared from 666 peers in 1999 to nearly 850 today, well in excess of the House of Commons. The Lords is now the second largest parliamentary chamber in the world behind only the Chinese Peoples Congress. Whilst their chamber is 3.5 times larger, it’s population is 18 times the size of ours. The House of Lords is clearly an expanding repository of political patronage for the prime minister and is no longer fit for purpose or for a modern democracy.

It appears that those who lecture the working and middle classes about financial and moral belt-tightening are the very ones up to their necks in corruption and scandals of all kinds, including sex and paedophile rings to name but a few. The Establishment is now under fire.

In the past, these scandals were kept under wraps. They closed ranks to protect themselves. Top judges and police chiefs covered up for wealthy and powerful friends, including politicians. After all, they were from the same social class, shared the same clubs and sent their children to the same private schools, a grotesque example highlighted recently with David Cameron and Lord Ashcroft’s ‘Piggate‘ revelations.

In recent times, the rich have become much wealthier and everyone else poorer. Tories, Liberal Democrats and New Labour fell over themselves to please their friends in the City of London, a gang of speculators who stripped the nation of its prosperity and then paid themselves huge bonuses for having got away with it.

David Cameron is currently at the centre of this group, financed by the rich and super rich who was described in the commons “a dodgy prime minister surrounded by dodgy donors”, who turned a blind eye to tax avoidance by the rich and big business.

In order to keep the reigns of power, the establishment is frightened of one thing and one thing only – Democracy.

Extending real voting options to the poor would obviously present risks to their position. For instance, Conservative statesman Lord Salisbury told parliament in 1866, Giving working-class people the vote would, he stated, tempt them to pass “laws with respect to taxation and property especially favourable to them, and therefore dangerous to all other classes”. Today, you can hear exactly the same narrative against the new labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a scathing attack by media barons and corporate executives along with politicians and even military generals.

The establishment is characterised by those with ideas that legitimise and protect the concentration of wealth and power in very few hands. The establishment do not want democracy at all but a veneer of democracy must be provided.

It is because the establishment is made up of politicians who devise our laws, police to enforce those laws, corporate entities who are increasingly dominating economic performance (unpaid taxes for instance) and a smaller band of media barons who also set the terms of debate and the result of that debate that we see a closed shop network construct itself.

A conflict of interest of epic proportions. It is here that we find a common psychology and shared understanding.

The scandal surrounding the money laundering and tax evasion operations at HSBC exposes the links between a corrupt banking elite and a rotten political establishment. Lord Green, former head of HSBC, was at the centre of this tax dodgers’ row. He chaired HSBC until December 2010, when he became a Conservative trade minister and was given a peerage by David Cameron. You can see a major conflict of interest here unless afflicted with total sensory deprivation.

Lord Green was then given staunch backing by the Church of England. Needless to say, these preachers of great moral fortitude have a long tradition in protecting their own. Lord Green, a millionaire banker is a devout Christian and ordained Anglican priest. The archbishops of Canterbury and York said they were grateful to the former HSBC boss for his “contribution and expertise”. One could easily assume this to be a clan of hypocrites that have attacked politicians for failing to provide a “fresh moral vision”, but then act no differently.

Another religious entity, The Vatican, has large investments with the Rothschilds of Britain, France and America, with Credit Suisse in London and Zurich with Morgan Bank and Chase-Manhattan Bank and others in the US and UK. All of these organisations have been involved in global, anti-social criminality adopting fraud as the basis of its profit centres, especially in London.

The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches (such as property and gold bullion) than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. With covering up sex crimes, inappropriate behaviour among prelates, political infighting and the existence of a clandestine gay cabal at the highest levels, the Catholic Church has a long shameful history and is the epitome of the establishment.

The crimes of the establishment are racking up at an alarming rate. However, if you get caught without paying your TV licence fee, laws designed to catch terrorists are used by the BBC to ensure your good behaviour.

In the meantime, one can take the example of how the establishment works when it blames society for all it’s troubles as a diversionary tactic. The media have managed to make the British population believe that 27% of social security money has been fraudulently gained when the figure is actually 0.7%. The media barons, and there are only five of them in Britain who own 80% of printed media outlets, don’t live in Britain and none pay tax in Britain but they want to continue pillaging Britain and get away with it.

This same tactic provides cover for the government to impose austerity that has caused the biggest transfer of wealth from the vulnerable, the poor, working class and middle classes directly in a route north.

The establishment are largely responsible for a neoliberal ideology that is so damaging to society as a whole – It’s the business model that fits. They use the term ‘economic freedom’ as if this is to somehow benefit us all, which it rarely does. For example, almost universally, this philosophy is used to transfer state assets to profit driven business (privatisation) that has enriched the few and made everyone else pay.

If the political system remains committed to the type of capitalism that exists in Britain today, it will always end up justifying a system that produces a mega-rich and privileged elite. Hence, why Jeremy Corbyn is such a threat to the establishment.

Jeremy Corbyn looks like the first senior politician who will not be corrupted by the establishment. Bankers will not be funding the party. He will not support war. He doesn’t support Israel, He is not religious and doesn’t believe in the monarchy. He will be the first prime minister (if elected) for decades that does not, and probably will not support the establishment.

So frightened of Corbyn, the establishment is now mobilising their entire resourcefullness at him, evidenced by a threatened military coup – not quite akin to Chile in the 1970’s but an extreme tactic to say the least, one spawned from desperation for sure.

The crisis of extreme, out of control ‘capitalism’ simply exposes the rottenness of the system. British capitalism has become casino capitalism, based upon property speculation, banking and financial services. In fact, the services sector now provides 80% of business activity in Britain leaving millions without meaningful work or income.

Extreme capitalism means a concentration of wealth at one pole, and poverty and degradation at the other with the bit in the middle being eviscerated. This is where the establishment languish. Jeremy Corbyn does not fit in. The stakes are very high.

The original source of this article is TruePublica

NDC WON’T DIE-Koku Anyidoho

Koku Anyidoho

By Ekow Biney

Mr Koku Anyidoho, Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says emphatically that the party will not die.

He told an interviewer on Radio Gold that the NDC will rebound and win the 2020 elections.

In his first public comment on the 455 paged Kwesi Botchway report, Mr Anyidoho said the Committee did an excellent job and the party would study its recommendations for implementation.

“Everything in the report confirms my own analysis of the defeat of the party and how we can rebounce”, he said.

Mr Anyidoho was emphatic that all groups which operated outside the party’s formal framework need to be discarded.

He said it was important for the NDC to rely on party structures for organizing its election campaigns.

He was hopeful that the national leadership of the party would work hard to unite the rank and file behind the agenda of winning the 2020 elections.

According to him the reorganization of the party will start from the polling station level through the constituencies to the national level.

He cleverly refused to endorse any of the self-proclaimed presidential aspirants emphasizing the point that the most important thing now is the reorganization of the NDC.

Editorial

TROUBLE AHEAD

The warning by Russia that it would treat US and allied aircraft which fly over its bases in Syria as enemy aircraft must be taken seriously.

It could worsen the escalation which was started by the United States of America and plunge the Middle East and the Gulf into a huge global conflict.

Of course, the Russians have a point because the US has already bombed a Syria Air force base and shot down a Syrian aircraft.

It is clear that the US’s actions in Syria have been particularly reckless and in defiance of international law.

The main objective of the US in Syria is to topple the Government of President Assad.

The Insight rejects US adventurism in Syria but still urges Russia and her allies to remain calm.

A major conflagration in Syria could have serious consequences for the whole world.

Local Stories:

Army worms attack 706-acre farms

By Yussif Ibrahim

A total of 706 acres of maize and rice farms in the Asante-Akim South District have come under invasion by the fall army worms.

Dr. David Anambam, the District Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), who confirmed this to the GNA, said about 95 per cent of the affected farms had been cultivated with maize and the remaining five per cent, rice.

He complained about inadequate chemicals to fight the worms and contain the spread of invasion.

He indicated that chemicals supplied to the district could only spray 162 acres of farms, leaving a shortfall of about 544 acres.

Dr. Anambam spoke of the urgent need to send more of the chemicals to the area to save the crops from being ravaged, something that could have serious implications for food security.

He stated that the extension officers were on the field, working hard to educate and help farmers to correctly apply the chemicals to neutralize the worms.

The District MOFA Director, touched on the ‘planting for food and jobs’ programme, and said in excess of 1,200 farmers had been registered to participate in the programme.

He announced that, they had taken delivery of 186 bags of maize, 60 bags of rice and 3000 bags of fertilizer, alongside tomato and pepper seeds, for distribution to the farmers.

Dr. Anambam noted that in spite of the huge subsidies on the inputs, many of the farmers were finding it difficult to pay for these.

He said this had been the only challenge – a barrier to participation in the programme by otherwise many a farmer eager to be part of the programme.

Parliament Queries Ghana’s Readiness for Terrorist Attacks

Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

By Benjamin Mensah

Parliament on Wednesday threw the searchlight on the threat of global terrorism, querying how prepared the nation was to deal adequately with the phenomenon should it strike in the wake of recent attacks in some neighbouring countries.

Members queried the level of the security of the House itself, the hotels, the shopping malls, the universities and the beaches among others and citing the reason for terrorist attacks in some East African countries, pointed out that the nation was not safe because it also contributed to peace-keeping missions across the world, for which some of those countries had been attacked.

The issue took centre-stage following a statement by Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu and Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs.

He said: “Right Honourable Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to make this statement which seeks to denounce terrorism, solidarise with sister nations affected in these horrific times and share some perspectives on the global fight against terror.

“Mr Speaker, depraved terrorists are determined to make 2017 another year of senseless terror.

“Only last week, the Parliament and Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran were attacked killing 17 people and leaving 52 injured. Before this, Britain came under another attack in as many months when terrorists armed with a van and knives inflicted mindless horror on pedestrians on London Bridge and the Borough Market leaving eight dead and 48 injured.

“This happened at a time Britain and the world were yet to recover from the shock of the Manchester Arena bombing that claimed the lives of 22 persons and injuring 116 concert goers most of whom were teenagers. Preceding this was the vehicle and stabbing attack at Westminster that left five dead and 49 injured.

Earlier in April, Russia was at the mercy of a suicide bomber who blew up Saint Petersburg Metro on the day Vladimir Putin was due to visit the city, killing 16 people and injuring 64.

“Mr Speaker, other nations such as the United States of America, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, India, Australia, Colombia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt, Mali and Libya have not been spared this evil visitation.

“Indeed, thus far, in 2017 alone, Wikipedia's tracking of terrorists attacks on its Lists of Terrorist Incidents concludes as follows: January recorded a total of 156 incidents, February recorded a total of 117 incidents, March recorded a total of 106 incidents, April recorded a total of 99 incidents, May recorded a total of 152 incidents with June so far recording 47 incidents.

“In essence, 2017 has so far recorded a scaringly mind boggling 677 terrorists incidents and we are only in the middle of the year.

Without a scintilla of doubt, the global fight against terror must engage the attention and effort of all of mankind including this Parliament.

Mr Ablakwa reminded the House that “an attack on any citizen of the world and on any nation must equally be an attack on us, and “we share a common humanity and these incidents diminish humanity in its universality,” and it ought not to be lost on Ghanaians that “the effects of this terror jamboree even when we are not directly victims impacts adversely on our daily lives.”

“The downright humiliation we go through at airport checkpoints when travelling since 9/11 is a clear example. The invasion of our privacy by Governments and the global intelligence community has left all of us virtually naked in the current scheme of things.

The North Tongu Legislator cautioned against the temptation to assume that because Ghana has so far escaped unscathed, it may not be a target of terrorist organisations, which might make the nation opt for a business as usual approach.

“The reality is that modern terrorism is a messy free for all without boundaries and limitations and no country or nationality stands immuned, “Mr Ablaka said, and urged the House to ensure that it offered all the assistance Members could marshal to support all three arms of Government in protecting the nation’s territorial integrity and guaranteeing safety of all Ghanaian lives.

Rt. Hon. Mike Ocquaye Junior

“Mr Speaker, in this fight against global terror, we must begin to make some honest admissions. We must concede that we have not been that successful in this fight because we are not confronting certain hard truths.

“Though there can be no justification for terrorism, all nations must commit to building a fair and just world. We cannot continue to actively fund and resource terrorist groups to fight our enemies on our behalf in myopic suicidal proxy wars in Syria, Libya and Iraq and still expect to achieve positive results in the war against terror.

He commended the nine Arab countries who last week cut diplomatic ties with Qatar demanding that Qatar stops funding terrorist groups, and called for more of this to happen even to the greatest of nations who stand implicated in tacitly supporting terrorist organisations and their warped ideologies when it suits these nations.

He said: “When we pretend publicly we do not negotiate with terrorists but succumb to their ransom demands behind the scenes, we resource them and by so doing sustain their reign of senseless cowardice,” and “ that weapon manufacturers and the wealthy Chief Executives of Cyberspace must stop abdicating.

“We cannot continue to allow these companies to go scot-free as they enjoy their blood-stained profits. Likewise, sanctions must apply to social media owners who allow their mediums to be used to radicalise the youth and recruit terrorists,” Mr Ablakwa said.

While condemning the appalling media reportage of some terrorist attacks, Mr Ablakwa called for a total media blackout of the terrorist attacks and rather Highlight “bravery and emphasise how these attacks do not affect the foundations of our great human values.

“It also serves no useful purpose for the statements of terrorists taking responsibility after these attacks to be given media coverage.

I contend that there's no need publishing the identities of terrorist groups responsible for any attack. This information is only useful to the intelligence community and should be left with them.

“The media should aim at achieving total blackout of terrorist organisations and starve them of the cheap pleasurable publicity they currently enjoy and use as trophies. The only time the media should focus attention on them should be when they are being defeated and retreating.  The media can decide to be a more useful ally in defeating global terror and undermining the recruitment drive of these psychopaths from hell or they may decide to continue to offer pleasure.”

However, Mr Ablakwa’s commendation of Saudi Arabia and a number of Arab countries including Egypt and Bahrain for cutting ties with Qatar for funding terrorist groups drew reactions from Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul and former chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Patrick Yaw Boamah, who asked that Ghana stays neutral in the tussle between the Arab countries so as not to draw attention to the country.

The Defence Minister assured the nation that the Ghana Armed Forces are ready to defend the nation at all times.

Deputy Majority Leader Ms Sarah Adwoa Safo queried why some youth engaged in violent acts on the grounds of unemployment, advising that there was hope to secure a decent job one day. “Is it a decent job to go and kill people?” she queried.

Minority Chief Whip Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, Mr Alhassan Suhyini MP for Tamale North, and Mr Alex Afenyo-Markin, MP for Efutu Constituencies stressed that Islam is a religion of peace and people should not hide behind religion to engage in terrorist attacks.

GNA

News from Africa:

How to Tackle Youth Unemployment in Africa

By Yves Niyiragira

Why do African governments seem unable to create jobs for their teeming throngs of young people, who are then forced to make dangerous journeys abroad in search of a better life?

Wrong economic models. In addition, nations waste resources through corruption and investing in huge militaries and police forces often deployed against dissidents. Crooked leaders collude with the West to steal Africa’s resources to develop Europe. So, what would stop young people from following African stolen resources to the West?

On 14 September 2016 evening, I was at Bole International Airport, Ethiopia, going back to Kenya after attending a conference on migration that was co-organised by the Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union (CCP-AU) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)’s African Union (AU) Cooperation office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

That conference, which brought together officials from the AU, the European Union (EU), representatives of international organisations and of the African and European civil society, was an opportunity to reflect on, among other things, the status of the implementation of various commitments made at the Valletta Summit on Migration that took place in Valletta, Malta, in November 2015.

As a reminder, the EU called for the Valletta Summit after numerous tragic events of migrants dying while crossing the Mediterranean Sea including more than 800 refugees who died in a single day in April 2015 when their boat capsized. The Valletta Summit was supposed to encourage political co-operation between Europe and Africa in addressing causes of dangerous migration and to combat human smuggling and trafficking.

At that CCPAU-FES conference, participants reflected on what has been done so far almost one year after the Valletta Summit. Some of the participants deplored the fact that many policymakers, especially those in Europe, avoid addressing the root causes of migration including youth unemployment, political instability and dictatorial regimes—that might have the support of European countries—among other causes in a number of developing countries. Many migrants do not leave their countries because they just want to settle in Europe or North America; they do so because they are forced to leave or because they do not see any future for them and their families in their home countries. That absence of a promising future can be a result of many causes including those mentioned above.

What is, most of the times, avoided is to acknowledge the fact that some of the root causes of migration to the West might be a result of structural socio-economic and political policies that are promoted and reinforced by some of the same European countries that only focus their analysis on African migrants as the “problem” threatening the “wellbeing and security” of Europe.  That is obviously a very shallow way of looking at the complex issue of migration. It would also be a naïve assumption to say that problems that force Africans to leave their countries to the West are all a result of foreign interference. Africans and their leaders do largely contribute to forcing their fellow Africans into exile.

Going back to Bole International Airport, it was as if I were participating in a practical session of the migration conference that I was attending just a few hours earlier. I experienced firsthand one of the main causes of migration of Africans to other continents—youth unemployment. At Bole International Airport, I was queuing with hundreds of young Ethiopian women, barely 20 years old, and all looking more or less lost and in need of some helping hand to get around. Almost all of them were carrying new passports ready to be used for the first time.

I looked around and tried my luck to find out more about where those innocent young women were heading. I asked one of them, “Where are you going?” “Beirut”. She replied. “Oh, to Lebanon!” I added. “Are you going to Beirut too?” She asked me. I said I was going to Nairobi, Kenya. When I wanted to find out if all of them were going to Beirut, she was not sure about that, but I later on learnt that the whole group was going to Beirut.

I immediately reflected on the meeting I was attending a few hours earlier, especially on various proposals that were shared – and not just in that particular conference, but also in many such conferences—to deal with the crisis of African young people who risk their lives going to Europe and other continents in search for better opportunities. Finding jobs for these young people is what many commentators and analysts propose as a solution to tackling illegal migration.

However, when people say, “creating jobs for the youth” or “tackling youth unemployment in Africa”, it is not clear if everyone who says that knows what they really mean or if they know how it can be achieved. I bet it is not an easy endeavour to create jobs for all African young people using the current economic models we see in Africa.

It was not my first time to see hundreds of young Ethiopian women at the waiting hall of Bole International Airport, just a few minutes away from taking their first flights to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon in search for employment. All these young Ethiopian women leave their country with high hopes of better living conditions and a bright future for them and their families. For a country like Ethiopia that is the second most populous in Africa, it can be a challenging endeavour to find employment for its population that some estimates place at more than 100 million people; most of them being young people as it is the case in the rest of Africa. However, I wonder if it can still be difficult to employ all African people if the whole African continent approached the issue of youth unemployment as a first priority.

One of the reasons why African countries are not able to provide employment for their young people is that they employ economic models that they neither understand nor control. Africa needs its own economic models to tackle its economic issues including the need to create jobs for its people, especially the youth. Some economic activities done in Africa are designed to satisfy needs of other continents and not to serve the wellbeing of African people.

Young people who are tempted to leave Africa to other continents are not just leaving their continent in search of employment; they are also hoping to be able to easily access, in Asia, Europe, North America and in the Middle East, basic needs such as food, education, decent shelter and housing. African countries should design their economic models in such a way that economic services are able to provide these basic needs so that “no one is left behind” in the journey to prosperity.

What is worth stressing, though, is that Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East are not the first destination of African people leaving their own countries. Most Africans, especially young people, leave their countries to other African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Senegal and Ghana that are perceived to offer more opportunities compared to their neighbours in their respective regions. These young African women and men moving from one African country to another could be fleeing persecution at home, running away from political environments that do not offer any hopes for the future or simply in search for better opportunities.

Another important reason that forces them to leave their countries is that in many African countries, political leaders are preoccupied with “putting in place enabling environments for investors” rather than meeting basic needs of their people. As such, ordinary African people do not feel part of that “enabling environment” and have not choice, but to leave. For Africa to be competitive at the global level, it has to channel its resources into economic activities that are able to provide food, shelter, health care and education to for all African people. Other economic models are serving the interests of other people, not ordinary Africans.

Going back to the case of those Ethiopian young women, could we say that Ethiopia is really unable to provide employment for them? Or the country has prioritised other sectors including the military and intelligence to the expense of funding sectors such as agriculture, health, education and housing? That is not a particular challenge of Ethiopia alone; many African countries put a considerable amount of their resources in sectors that do not add real value to the wellbeing of their citizens. If an African government wants to repress a certain category of its own citizens, they will invest in their military, police and intelligence rather than provide social services to respond to demands from that category of their citizens. In many cases, these demands are about opportunities to access basic needs that were mentioned early.

As such, one would argue that apart from using inadequate economic models, many African leaders also waste their countries’ resources in suppressing their own citizens through strengthening their military and police. They also collude with Western countries to steal African resources to develop Europe. As a consequence, some African young people think that the solution is to follow African resources where they are in West.

While this article acknowledges that there is no single solution to resolving youth unemployment in Africa, it argues that African leaders need to start from somewhere. They need to abandon Western economic models that do not serve their people. They need to stop wasting African resources in the so-called “defence strengthening” activities to the expense of vital sectors such as health, education, agriculture and housing. African leaders also need to strop colluding with Western countries in stealing Africa’s wealth. Finally, Western countries need to stop supporting African dictators who are only in power to serve their interests and those of their Western backers.

In other words, African young people are the ones who would create employment for themselves by saying “no” to African leaders who are unable and unwilling to put African resources in the vital sectors mentioned above. This is also where global solidarity plays its role; ordinary citizens in Europe, Africa, North America and the rest of the world should to say “no” to our leaders and their corporate clients that the 21st century is a century for humanity and not for multinational corporations. An economic model that puts humanity first is the only one that can survive the test of time. That economic model is what Africa needs to be able to employ its young people; it is what humanity needs.

* Yves Niyiragira is Executive Director of Fahamu, publisher of Pambazuka News.

Source: Pambazuka

“Zuma Must Fall” and the Left: Lessons from Zimbabwe

By Munyaradzi Gwisai

Faced with a growing crisis, President Zuma has raised the prospect of a radical reorientation of the ANC and the possibility of radical economic transformation. Alarmed, another faction of the South Africa’s capitalist class has thrown its support behind the Zuma Must Fall movement. In this article Zimbabwean socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai unpicks the situation in South Africa. He explains that the working class and poor must avoid the dangers of both Zuma’s ‘fake left-turn’ and the Zuma Must Fall protests. What are the lessons, Gwisai asks, for South Africa from the movement that rose-up against Mugabe in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s?

South Africa is at a crossroads, facing its biggest upheavals since independence in 1994. Globally, since the 2008 Great Recession there are growing explosive class and social conflicts due to the deepening crisis of capitalism.

Economic apartheid remains a stark reality today. According to OXFAM South Africa is the most unequal country in the world where a 10 per cent minority, largely white, controls 65% of the wealth; 3 white male billionaires own as much wealth as half the population, 28 million people. Blacks control only 3% of companies listed on the JSE. Over 85% of the land is owned by 20000 white farmers, or 0.03% of the population. Whilst only 4.1% of white workers earn less than the living wage of R6880, about 71% of blacks earn less than this with over 50% of black youths unemployed. According to Forbes Index, one third of Africa’s richest billionaires live in South Africa. A few blacks have been co-opted like Cyril Ramaphosa, the former trade union leader, who is worth an estimated $450million.

The central theme of South Africa in the last decade is the growing revolts of the poor and workers. From the township social service delivery protests, the great Marikana Strike, the five months’ platinum miners strike, the Cape farm strike, to the 2015-6 Fees Must Fall protests. Long before Zuma’s recent condemnation of the concentration of wealth in the country, leading figures of big white capital were raising the issue. Johann Rupert, until recently the richest person in South Africa, said ‘we cannot have 0.1 percent taking all the spoils’, and that the nightmare that kept him awake was the coming class warfare, unless the ‘glaring inequalities in this country’ were fixed. [2] Similarly, in 2014 billionaire Nick Hanauer denounced ‘the idiotic trickle-down policies’ as not working and that ‘No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out… Or an uprising… It’s not if, it’s when.’

So, the worsening poverty, an unreformed Apartheid economy, a global neoliberal offensive and the escalating revolt of the poor is the central issue in South Africa today. It is in this context that we have to view the rapid rise of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), articulating such anger, even if opportunistically and increasingly erratically.

The ruling classes are tearing each other part. The traditional wing sees the solution as increasing the neoliberal austerity offensive against the working classes. But a growing minority is calling for a partial retreat from the neoliberal policies towards economic nationalism.  We saw this with Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe after 1997. Desperate after losing key towns in the 2016 local authority elections, Zuma is attempting the same with a threatened radical economic transformation. In early April he dismissed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who was supported by big white capitalists. This has touched off the Zuma Must Fall protests of tens of thousands by the opposition, supported by some of South Africa’s biggest capitalists.     

                      

This article considers the way forward and argues that the popular classes must not repeat the mistake of the Zimbabwean working class whose uprisings in 1997-2002 were eventually co-opted by their class enemies. I look briefly at the experience of Zimbabwe from the late 1990s, then examine in detail the situation in South Africa. What can South Africa’s popular movements learn from their northern neighbour?  

Revisiting Zimbabwe

In 1999 the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was formed. The MDC—initially founded as a pro-poor coalition with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)—swore to unseat the ruling party. Activists who had participated in the mass poor and working-class struggles of the mid-1990s set up branches across the country. One leader, who later became finance minister of the discredited Government of National Unity in 2008, Tendai Biti, described the period of revolt: ‘This was a momentous occasion in the history of this country because it brought confidence—you could smell working-class power in the air.’

This was not an exaggeration. Between 1996 and 1998 Zimbabwe saw national public-private sector strikes, the first general strike since 1948, a shutdown of the national university in the capital, and a nationwide student revolt—which politicized war veterans. Ex-fighters from the 1970s liberation war supported by poor peasants seized farmland in a widening arch of protest that challenged the ruling party’s power. Yet the opposition became increasingly cautious, facing repression that claimed the lives of hundreds of activists. The MDC moved right. As the party grew in influence it attracted a markedly mixed crowd of supporters. Unreconstructed “Rhodesians”—remnants of the white settlers, who had kept their land and farms after independence—business owners, and the Zimbabwean 1 percent, all disillusioned by ZANU-PF, which they had supported for years, flocked to the new party.

President Robert Mugabe

ZANU-PF saw its opportunity. It started to champion the war veterans and encourage their occupation of white farms after it was defeated in a referendum in 2000. ZANU-PF became the representatives of land-poor Zimbabweans. In simultaneously bizarre and disheartening circumstances, the MDC— now under the influence of white interests, business owners, and the middle class— promised to return the farms to white landholders in the interest of “legality.” ZANU-PF outflanked the MDC from the left and presented itself as a party of a radical African renaissance. Zimbabwe, the party said, was undergoing its third Chimurenga (uprising).

Mugabe presented himself as the champion of a renewed fight against colonialism. He was often taken at his word—his redistribution of land as well as his promises to nationalize businesses and introduce price controls on basic foodstuffs seemed to testify to his sincerity. But the reality was dramatically different. As the Zimbabwean socialist, Tafadzwa Choto, has recently commented: ‘For all of its black empowerment bombast, [ZANU has failed] to make any serious efforts at controlling the country’s riches for itself. Zimbabwe is endowed with vast mineral wealth with only a minority, approximately 1 percent, enjoying access to enormous wealth in kick-backs from deals with multinational corporations. At the same time more than 90 percent of the population struggle to afford to send their children to school.’

Having briefly inspired the struggle against the ZANU-PF state—the high point of popular resistance across the continent—the opposition entered a protracted period of meltdown. It fractured into different groups led by various politicians and NGOs, which funneled activists in other directions. Ultimately the political opposition, now operating in non-profits or mobilized by contaminated political parties, disarmed the movement from below and shifted the public’s attention from the actual struggle to other arenas—paid workshops, foreign scholarships, and political stunts.

What is happening in South Africa, and how can its radical movements and parties learn from Zimbabwe?

Radical economic transformation

The radical socialist trade union, NUMSA, is correct to point out that both elements of the capitalist class, those pushing for further and deeper neoliberalism, and those wanting a partial retreat, are the enemies of the working classes and should not be supported. But the working classes must strategically intervene in the unfolding struggles and debates, to take advantage of the splits amongst our rulers and push a radical agenda.  

The popular classes should strategically support the call for radical economic transformation, even if called by a corrupt and desperate Zuma. Yet they must not join the opposition-led and big capital supported Zuma Must Fall marches and instead accelerate the struggles for the immediate implementation of anti-neoliberal and pro-poor policies to end the apartheid economy.

Such a radical reformist narrative goes to the root of the unfinished business of 1994, where the ANC–SACP (South African Communist Party) elites, in return for a few crumbs, betrayed the Freedom Charter demand of nationalization of the mines, banks and redistribution of land. Instead they agreed to a rotten deal which ended political apartheid but left the economy in the hands of a tiny elite of white and international capitalists who grow fatter on the super-exploitation of the black working classes.

The Zuma Must Fall campaign seeks to change the central narrative in society, from the rising struggles against the unreformed apartheid economy, to that of Zuma’s corruption. While important, this is not the central issue, instead it seeks to disguise, co-opt and neutralize the rising struggles.

General Secretary, Jim Irvin of NUMSA, noted on 5 April that it would not join the anti-Zuma marches for ‘NUMSA cannot allow the working class to be used for advancing the interests of its enemy classes once again, to endorse a narrow neoliberal agenda.’

As an alternative, NUMSA called for mass protests for the implementation of the Freedom Charter and radical demands, including full employment, a national minimum living wage, fully paid maternity leave, universal medical cover, decent housing for all, expropriation of land without compensation, industrialization, free quality and decolonized education, and that the mines, banks and monopoly industry be placed under democratic worker control. After some hesitation and confusion, the leadership of COSATU, likely under pressure from its rank and file, took the same position, declaring, ‘We will never march with the agents of monopoly capital to remove a democratically elected government… our strategic enemy is still monopoly capital and white monopoly capital in particular… We refuse to be useful idiots of those who want to … protect their ill-gotten wealth and inherited privileges.’

Marching with the Democratic Alliance and Big Capital

Joining the Zuma Must Fall campaigns, as done by ex-COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and much of the left, is very dangerous. The forces that have coalesced around these campaigns are huge, with the biggest war chest of any movement on this continent, desperate to avoid another ‘Zimbabwe situation’ in South Africa.

Comparison with what the left did in Zimbabwe in 1997- 2002, joining the MDC, is wrong. Zimbabwe is a highly authoritarian regime, unlike South Africa which has the most advanced bourgeois democracy in Africa. The left was tiny in Zimbabwe. Yet as we have seen there was a rising working class movement, and the MDC was contested terrain. This is not the case with the anti-Zuma campaign, which is entirely submerged under big neoliberal white capital, whilst organized labour has stayed away. Participation of the left merely gives legitimacy to a campaign whose essential objective is to defend the status quo of the apartheid neoliberal economy and co-opt and roll back the rising revolts.

The focus must be regroupement of the small, fragmented left groups, and the hundreds of thousands of cadres in radical unions and youths, into an ideologically, organizationally and politically independent united front of the left. The launch of a radical labour federation, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) provides a huge impetus. Especially with the growing exposure of the SACP leaders. In December 2016, the SACP called for unity against ‘the imperialist supported regime change agenda of the Zuma Must Fall agenda.’ Barely four months later the SACP supported the same marches, likely in defense of their fat ministerial salaries, which they felt threatened after the firing of Gordhan.  

Analyzing Mugabe’s landslide victory in 2013, former South African President Thabo Mbeki argued that after Mugabe had, in the face of the Southern African Development Corporation (SADC) and western resistance, delivered land to 300,000 peasants, quite simply the MDC couldn’t win the rural vote, 70% of the voters: ‘they couldn’t …because they were identified by that rural population to have opposed land reform.’ MDC had dismissed Mugabe’s land reform as fake.

Mbeki said this was why Zimbabwe, an otherwise small and unimportant country, became of ‘such enormous, global, geo-strategic importance,’ and hammered by an imperialist onslaught. He said Africa must defy this onslaught because ‘it’s about the future of our continent (and) Zimbabweans have been in the frontline in terms of defending our right as Africans to determine our future, and are paying a price for it… it is our responsibility as African intellectuals to join them, the Zimbabweans, to say, No!’

In the coming 2018 elections in Zimbabwe, after the most successful agricultural season since 2000 and with thousands of artisanal miners gold panning in previous no-go white farms plus thousands of people given stands in the towns, together with a still regimented and intimidated rural populace from the 2008 horrors, the MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whether alone or in grand coalition with the other neoliberal opposition, face certain annihilation. Even a fractured ZANU-PF, whether under a doddering 94 years old Mugabe or whoever is his heir, will likely emerge a landslide winner.

Similarly, if the working class and left in South Africa join the regime change agenda and Zuma delivers on radical economic transformation, the poor will not forget who stood for them and who betrayed them. It will allow Zuma, like Mugabe with the MDC, to outflank them on the left, and create the basis for the long-term renewal of the bourgeois anti-poor ANC and set back by decades the building of a radical, socialist agenda in South Africa.

Dangerous to underestimate Zuma and the black capitalists

It is equally dangerous to underestimate how far Zuma and the black capitalists may go, as the NUMSA statement seems to, dismissing them as con-men ‘fighting for their own personal radical economic transformation’ and that of their families and friends.

The deepening crisis of capitalism is radicalizing sections of the beleaguered black capitalists, which desperately need state tenders and protection for survival. Cornered, this class is being pushed to play its last card – abandon its previous role as defenders for the neoliberal economy moving swiftly to economic nationalism.

Their objectives are not just personal. One objective is to wring concessions from frightened white capital. As well as win back their historical leadership of the black masses, ahead of both the ANC 2017 presidential elections and the 2019 national general elections. The 2016 local authority elections were a wake-up call just as Mugabe’s defeat in the February 2000 referendum made him take a radical shift to the left.

With their backs to the wall, especially Zuma who faces possible jail time if he loses, the black capitalists, supported by the Gupta family [wealthy South African businessmen who had banked-rolled Zuma in exchange for government tenders and contracts], may go far. They have shown serious intent by breaking the unwritten rule of 1994, that the Finance Ministry/Reserve Bank are controlled by a person approved by big capital. Zuma fired big capital’s man at the Finance Ministry in April this year, and is threatening to open the doors of the dining room to the hungry, black hordes outside. The leadership of the ANC have looked down and scorned on the junk down-grades by the global rating agencies. Internally they have dared the neoliberal wing to fight an open civil war, heckling its leaders at the Chris Hani rally. Desperate, they sense radical economic transformation as their only hope of survival, learning not only from Mugabe but they have been emboldened by renewed economic nationalism in the west. Bolstered with the resources of the Guptas and ideologically radical left Africanists led by Andile Mngxitama, they are feeling confident.

Without serious concessions to the working class, the black nationalists will not survive the unfolding tsunami from big white capital, imperialism and the pro-Ramaphosa wing of the COSATU labour bureaucracy. Preventing Zuma from addressing the COSATU May Day rally after booing from the crowd foretells this. Ironically it is Thabo Mbeki, ousted from power by Zuma who is the philosophical father of the turn to radical economic transformation by the black nationalists of South Africa, as reflected in his seminal lecture on Zimbabwe.

The junk down-grades, the mini-run on the Rand and the unprecedented demonstrations in Cape Town, Tshwane, Johannesburg, and the splits in the ANC Alliance show that big white capital is taking the threat of radical Black Nationalism seriously. It had long seen this coming.

Don’t trust Zuma and the black capitalists

It would be a mistake to dismiss the threatened radical economic transformation by Zuma as a mere con trick. Instead the central strategy must be to put Zuma to the test through mass united demonstrations and strikes in support of the demands put forward by NUMSA and COSATU, adding a strong anti-xenophobic stance to unite the multi-national South African working class. Key is a massive campaign for the state to drop Ramaphosa’s R3500 minimum wage for a minimum equivalent to a living wage. Other important campaigns being for an increase of social grants; free university education; expropriation of land without compensation, with a mass house building project from funds taken from the big banks.

The key strategy for achieving this is mass action. No less than Mbeki has vindicated this as the right strategy. He said when the farm occupations started in Zimbabwe, the leaders of SADC tried very hard to discourage Mugabe ‘from the manner in which they were handling the issue of land reform. We were saying to them, ‘Yes indeed we agree, the land reform is necessary, but the way in which you are handling it is wrong.’ We tried very hard, ‘No, no you see all of these things about the occupation of the farms by the war veterans, this and that and the other, all of this is wrong”… But fortunately, the Zimbabweans didn’t listen to us, they went ahead.’

Zuma and the black capitalists must not be trusted. If they refuse or fail to deliver, they must be exposed to the masses as fakes and liars and put to the cross, but by a working-class sword.

On their own the black capitalists are incapable of real radical economic transformation. The key reason why the Zimbabwe land reform went so far, eventually taking 13 of 15 million hectares of white land, when Mugabe had initially aimed for only 5 million, is that there was a class of radicalizing peasants led by war veterans pushing for the redistribution. But when it came to indigenization of the banks, mines, and factories, there was no such radical class, as the working class had been co-opted, or simply ‘declassed’ by deindustrialization. Not surprisingly, Mugabe faltered, and indigenization was frozen, and after 2013 agreed to a new Constitution which has the most conservative provisions on the protection of private property in the region. Big capital now seeks to turn the 30,000 new black capitalist farmers into capitalism’s long-term bedrock in Zimbabwe. Today the dominant faction in ZANU-PF and the state is an IMF-British supported neo-liberal cabal around Vice-President Mnangagwa, Finance Minister Chinamasa and the generals.

Presently there is no similar anchor for the Zuma programme, other than the black capitalists.  But as Zimbabwe shows, the national bourgeoisie are not a reliable fighter against big capital. They are petty, individualistic, notoriously timorous, inconsistent, and half-hearted.  As a component of capitalism they will compromise and back down before big capital, once political survival is assured. Ultimately their fear of the potential of the working classes revolt is much greater than their fear of their rival capitalist bedmates, big white capital. It will thus ultimately seek accommodation rather than the overthrow of capitalism.

For now, South Africa is not yet at the decisive Zimbabwe moment of 2000. Rather it is similar to November 1997 when Mugabe conceded to the demand for pensions and land by war veterans and designated over 1400 white farms for acquisition. Big capital’s warning shot was a run on the Zimbabwe dollar, 72% of whose value was wiped off on Black Friday. Mugabe held back and only decisively moved after February 2000, after losing the referendum.

South Africa is at a crossroads and can go either way. Either Zuma and the black capitalists are frightened into a retreat by the robust response of big capital, the middle-class demonstrations and the ANC right-wing, or they radicalize. Whether Zuma will indeed proceed to appropriate  Malema and the EFF’s radical rhetoric as he threatened to when calling on the ANC MPs to back the motion for expropriation of land without compensation; whether Malusi Gigaba, the new finance minister, will be what Mugabe called “amadhoda sibili” (a real man) remains to be seen. What will be critical is the working class and if it moves to take advantage of the space opened-up by Zuma’s opportunistic call for radical economic transformation. Independent mass actions in the workplace, communities and rural areas must be accelerated. Unlike Zimbabwe, peasants in South Africa are only 35%, meaning it is only the working class that can provide a sustained basis for the above radical action.

Without such mass action from the working class, Zuma and the black capitalists will likely try and give as little as possible, and minimize the backlash from big white capital and imperialism. Their fundamental objective is to buy breathing space, and political survival and not a full scale radical transformation programme that could either go beyond their control or provoke an offensive of capital and imperialism.

The fundamental contradiction of capitalism today remains the advanced and globalised productive forces and relations of production imprisoned in private ownership and the nation-state for private gain and profit instead of human need. This is shown in the obscene fact that nine male capitalists own more wealth than half of the world, or 3.5 billion people!

This contradiction can only be resolved by the socialization of the means of production at the global level under the democratic control of the main producing class, the working class – that is what we understand by socialism. A process that was pioneered a hundred years ago by the workers and peasants of Russia. Today we must continue in the path they pioneered. To succeed the fundamental lesson from the Bolsheviks, the party who led the 1917 Russian revolution, is the urgent need to build mass socialist parties to spearhead the struggles of the working classes and the poor. Today it is the turn of the South African working class to pick-up the baton! They have much to learn from the failures of the popular and working class struggles in Zimbabwe.

* Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parliamentarian, is a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and coordinator of the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe.

News from the Left:

Prostitution, Cuts and the Bourgeois Feministsr.

Jeremy Corbyn

By Niklas Albin Svensson

Jeremy Corbyn’s statement in favour of decriminalisation of prostitution once brought the wrath of the Parliamentary Labour Party against him. The right-wing majority amongst female Labour MPs saw their opportunity to hypocritically strike a blow against Corbyn. The evidence is clear that these MPs have supported and continue to support policies directly in contradiction with the interests of working class women.

The issue itself gives rises to a lot of heated statements, but amounts to little in practice. It is clear that the issue of prostitution will not be resolved either by decriminalisation or by banning. It is an issue that stems from inequality, poverty and deprivation, not from this or that government policy. Prostitution stems from class society, and will only be abolished with the overthrow of capitalist society.

Bourgeois politicians, always pretending to be the paragons of virtue and morality, are some of the best customers of sex workers. Male and female, adult and child, all kinds of prostitution is practiced semi-openly in Parliaments. The scandals surrounding paedophilia in the Tory Party is hardly an exception. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal included both Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, the son of the British Queen. Chancellor George Osborn has been pictured taking cocaine with a sex worker and the Swedish King has been involved in multiple scandals involving prostitutes, including one where the Swedish Foreign Office complained about being tasked with supplying prostitutes for his trips. Strasbourg has become known as a hub of prostitution because of the presence of the European Parliament in the city, the same Parliament that recently voted overwhelmingly in favour of criminalising the buying of sex. The pious speeches of politicians against prostitution and the social ills therefrom are nothing but rank hypocrisy meant to rally votes. These politicians know full well that they will never be subject to the laws they introduce.

Similarly, the so-called “Swedish model”, which made buying of sex illegal, as opposed to selling sex, only served to get rid of “curb-crawling”. Although the change in the law undoubtedly has reduced publicly visible prostitution and reduced the number of men admitting to having seen prostitutes (who would expect otherwise), there is no reliable evidence that it has actually had any significant impact on the level of prostitution in general.

Corbyn’s critics were led by a group of right-wing female MPs, including the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman, who supports the “Swedish” or “Nordic model”. These women are always very keen to put themselves forward as champions of women and even claim to be wanting to help sex workers. But in reality the policies they advocate drive women into prostitution, not the other way around.

The British Parliamentary Labour Party has over the past few decades increased the number of women in its ranks significantly. The percentage of Labour MPs that are women has risen from 9% in the late 80s to 29% today. However, this was done partly on the basis of all-women shortlists, imposing right-wing female careerists on constituencies. The New Labour clique co-opted the right-wing of the women’s movement with promises of careers and positions in the party. This top-down candidate selection created a situation in which the female Labour MPs were significantly to the right of their male counterparts.

One of the first, and most controversial, measures that the Blair government introduced was a cut in single parent benefit, which obviously disproportionately affects women. This policy was fronted by no other than Harriet Harman, ironically as the first ever “Minister for Women”. In the vote, only 9 female Labour MPs voted against, which was 9% of the total, whereas among the male labour MPs 38, or 12%, voted against.

Once the policy was passed, Harman was sacked, although she returned to the government in 2001. In government, she supported the introduction of tuition fees, the war in Iraq, privatisation programmes etc. As acting leader of the Labour Party, she attempted to cajole the party into supporting the draconian Welfare Reform Bill in June 2015. She was defeated and had to settle for an abstention. Corbyn and his supporters voted against.

In the same mould was Labour MP Jess Philips, who openly declares that she only became a local councillor in order to become an MP, and makes no secret of the fact that she’s aiming for the top. She’s an unashamedly careerist politician, who has been part of carrying out some of the most draconian local government cuts in Britain, reducing the Birmingham Council workforce from 20,000 to 7,000. Here is another fine champion of women. Like Harman, she abstained on the Welfare Reform Bill.

The outcome of the all-women shortlist was a Labour group in Parliament where women were more likely to vote for attacks on women than men were. No wonder that the past decades has seen a fall of 18% in women’s participation in general elections (1992-2010), particularly among young women.

One can only wonder what these so-called feminists would have said to the mother on the BBC’s “Question Time” who tearfully demanded answers from the Tory minister Amber Rudd, another “feminist”, about the cuts to her tax credits.

A large number of women in prostitution are either single mothers or students (1 in 20 students), precisely the groups that have been driven into poverty by successive attacks, first from New Labour and then the Tories and LibDems. If one was serious about fighting prostitution, this is where one would start: social housing, cheap student accommodation, scrapping tuition fees and reversing privatisation and cuts in the public sector. In the last analysis, however, as long as class society remains, so will prostitution, only a socialist transformation of society can remove finally resolve the situation for working class women.

The so-called feminism of these politicians amounts to nothing more than simply more jobs for their female peers. Their demands are for more (right-wing) women MPs, more women local councillors, more women in business, more women in boardrooms etc. These MPs faithfully represent a layer of bourgeois women, but have nothing but scorn for working class women.

In the Labour leadership election, women, and particularly young women, were far more likely to support Corbyn than any of the women candidates. Clearly, they understand that working class women are best served by socialist policies, not bourgeois careerism.

Jeremy Corbyn: Empty homes owned by rich should be 'requisitioned' for Grenfell Tower residents

Greenfell tower on fire

By Steven Swinford, deputy political editor

Jeremy Corbyn has called for the empty homes of rich people in Kensington to be seized for Grenfell Tower residents who have been made homeless by the fire.

The Labour leader said that the London Borough was a "tale of two cities" between a wealthy south and a rich north.

He suggested that "requisitioning" expensive vacant properties could help ensure that residents are housed locally.

The Government has committed to rehousing all those who lost their homes in the fire in the local area.

However Mr Corbyn said: “Kensington is a tale of two cities. The south part of Kensington is incredibly wealthy, it’s the wealthiest part of the whole country.

Sadiq Khan confronted by residents at Grenfell Tower

 “The ward where this fire took place is, I think, the poorest ward in the whole country and properties must be found - requisitioned if necessary - to make sure those residents do get re-housed locally.

“It can’t be acceptable that in London we have luxury buildings and luxury flats left empty as land banking for the future while the homeless and the poor look for somewhere to live. We have to address these issues.”

It came as Theresa May announced a public inquiry into the blaze but faced questions over why she did not meet with residents, in contrast with Mr Cobryn.

Asked why she had not met survivors and those who lost loved ones, Mrs May replied: "Well, I visited the scene of this terrible fire this morning.

"I wanted a briefing from the emergency services. They've been working tirelessly in horrific conditions and I have been overwhelmed by their professionalism and their bravery.

"I heard stories of firefighters running into the building being protected from the falling debris by police officers using their riot shields. And we thank all our emergency services for the incredible work that they have done."

Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, faced an angry crowd as he visited the scene of the fire.

He was confronted by a young boy who asked "how many children have died?" as he talked to an angry crowd at Grenfell Tower today.

The boy added: "What are you going to do about it?" The Mayor replied: "People are justifiably angry and I share their anger and I share their demand for answers."

He was also heckled by a supporter of Mr Corbyn about his failure to back the Labour leader and there were suggestions that a bottle was thrown at him. More than 20 police officers rushed in to calm the crowd. 

Nick Hurd, the fire minister, said that the fire was a "national tragedy" and no moment for "cool plodding democracy" as he vowed to leave "no stone unturned".

It came as a new poll found that Theresa May's poll ratings are now lower than Jeremy Corbyn's were before the General Election.

A survey by Yougov found that the Prime Minister's "favourability score" has fallen from plus 10 to minus 34. In the meantime Mr Corbyn's popularity rating has climbed by 42 points.

It came as John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, urged the unions to mobilise more than a million people to protest in London on July 1 in a bid to pressure Mrs May into standing down.