Ghana: workers ask Rawlings to commit 'suicide'
"The national situation has been described as 'grave and critical. But the TUC wanted to persuade the government to provide the appropriate channel for mobilisation. ." A correspondent analyses the role of the TUC in the on-going economic struggle to improve the lot of workers.While the international scene is confident that Ghana would become the newest IMF baby' and a model for neo- colonialism in Africa, and is applauding the regime for its 'bold' implementation of the IMF stabilisation programme, a whirlwind gathers momentum within the Ghana labour movement. There is some unease about the direction of the Rawlings regime and where he seems to be leading the workers who, for a long time, have been his main source of support.
Since the December 31st coup, there has been a sort of cat and mouse game between the labour movement (Trades Union Congress) and the PNDC. The appointment of a union activist, Mr Amartey Kwei, did little to heal the breach. In April 1982, militant workers, mainly from leading activists and defence committees, invaded the TUC head- quarters leading to the resignation of the secretary-general and many other officials.
Some were also sacked. Interim man- agement committees were set up by the TUC and its component unions to oversee the activities of the unions pending 'democratic' elections. This action sparked off a spate of protests from the International Labour Organisation and other unions worldwide who saw it as a dangerous precedent.
Internally, many militant workers flocked to join the defence committees and in some establishments, there was a serious split in the ranks of the workers between the old trade union members and the workers defence committees (WDCs), thus weakening the labour movement. But as the December process progressed steadily, there were serious moves to bridge the yawning gap between the WDCs and the trade unions. The acceptance of the IMF stabilisation measures, the attack on the "genuine left" and some WDCs obviously had debilitat- ing effects on the political process.
Implementing the IMF package called for political control of mass working class and farmers' organisations and other powerful groupings like the TUC and the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS). Some selected WDCs were used by the regime to accomplish this task and also gave the defence committees time to blossom, but this also proved to be one of the many deceitful moves of Rawlings. For no sooner had the left wing groups, students and other mass movements been silenced than the government started moves to banish the WDCs and strip them of any serious political power.
The National Defence Committee (NDC) which, according to PNDC Law 42, was responsible for "developing, promoting and executing through the PDCs a programme of national education on the objectives of the 'revolution'," has been dissolved.
The election of Mr A.K. Yankey as secretary general of the TUC in 1983 was received with mixed feelings. Prior to the election, the chairman of the TUC interim management committee, Mr Aboagye, whom the regime probably preferred, was losing popularity partly because of his ment..." close association with the government. This was also reflected in the fact that some old TUC leaders were being re- elected by the workers, rejecting their new leaders.
The ascendancy of Mr Yankey was therefore not surprising in the least, but the regime must have preferred him to another contestant, Mr Opare Ababio of the Public Utility Workers Union who is considered close to the left and probably far more radical than Mr Yankey.
Mr Yankey took office at a time of immense national uncertainties. The economic recovery programme had been launched, the IMF was on the rampage, Rawlings was busy swinging to the 'right' and the PDCs/WDCs were on the retreat due to attacks from Rawlings. But the mood of the TUC leadership was deter- mined by the effect of the IMF policies on the objective conditions of the working people, and the threat of unorganised, and uncoordinated mass unrest and clashes between government supporters and suffering workers.
After a period of uncertainties and vacillation the TUC seems to have regained its lost inertia and is brazing itself for a serious protest at some aspects of government policy. For some time now the TUC has been asking one question which is on the minds of most Ghanaians: "Where are we heading for?"
It was the Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapu Kuti who said that if you didn't know where you are coming from, you would never know where you are going. In the case of the Ghanaian workers, they know where they are coming from but not where they are going. But what is more worrying to them and many other people is the big question "WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE NOBLE OBJECTIVES OF THE 31st DECEMBER REVOLUTION"?"
In an 11-page document addressed to the chairman of the PNDC, the executive board of the TUC complained that the "mass of workers are openly questioning the direction and intentions, or are growing demoralised and despondent, crushed by the sheer weight of economic and social hardship and stress...many- workers cannot see their way clear with the direction and policies of the government
The national situation has been described as "grave and critical". But the TUC wanted to persuade the government to provide the appropriate channel for mobilisation as opposed to the "non-recognition of the crucial role of the masses in... social transformation... What to my mind has pushed the TUC to take this position is its inability to "justify the present national situation" vis a vis the reality.
The TUC has claimed that its moral source of authority could be found in PNDC proclamation Law 42, Law 6 and the three year recovery programme. But I believe that their greatest source of authority which is more powerful than the laws mentioned is their citizenship rights and the fundamental laws governing all human beings.
The existence of the laws quoted by the TUC hasn't prevented Rawlings and Botchway from prostituting themselves on the market of international finance or from making their sharp 'U-turn', and workers have an inalienable right to question the actions of the rulers if they strike at the very roots of their existence.
The present statement is by no means the first letter of protest. In November 1984 the TUC expressed their dissatisfac- tion at the performance of the economy and noted that "as a result of the IMF and World Bank conditionalities, working people...now face unbearable conditions of life expressed in poor nutrition, high prices of goods and services, inadequate housing, continuing deterioration of social services and growing unemploy- ment and crime" and called on the gov- ernment to take steps to wrest the economy from the grips of the World Bank and the IMF and cautioned the gov- ernment not to make any more "commit- ment to the IMF and World Bank without regard for its own proclamations of con- sultation with the people in decision making."
Even though the TUC said it would not countenance further devaluations, the 1985 budget saw yet another massive devaluation of the cedi.
The November statement was the first open, bold denunciation of the PNDC's economic programme to have emanated from the labour movement and raised serious questions about government claims that the labour movement was privy to its flirtation with the IMF.
Prior to this statement, there had been isolated but serious clashes between the government and some multinational companies on one hand and the workers on the other about compulsory lay-offs. Factory occupations by demonstrating workers became a daily occurrence. The most serious of these occurred at the Ghana Textile Printing, Allied Foods Limited, Pioneer Food Cannery, and Volta Aluminium Company.
The TUC asks one question that has been asked by all generations: what revolution is it that does not give priority attention to the education and health of people? The answer to me is simple.
In almost all cases the regime sided with the companies involved against the workers, but it was careful not to do this openly. It was partly to prevent such isolated acts of protests from building up into a mass resistance movement that the WDCs were attacked. Attempts to woo the TUC leadership and prevent it from coming out openly against the regime seem to have failed.
Now the virtual dissolution of the defence committees has affected the unions, Militant workers who can no longer use the WDCs are turning back to the unions. The threat of massive lay-offs has created a lot of insecurity and fear in the minds of many workers and there is a great deal of concern. The TUC's reaction is an expression of the mood of the workers. This cannot be dismissed simply as "ultra leftist" as the regime has described in several cases.
The fear in the minds of workers is real. The three year recovery programme is in its final stages but the workers are yet to see the benefits. As the TUC pointed out, the "government has shied away from implementing bold measures that may constitute some challenges to foreign capital and unfettered exploitation. It has on the other hand submitted national economic policies to the dictates of the IMF and World Bank monetarist and fiscal measures. We see the notorious hand of the IMF in what is today passing as government policy with regards to the threat of mass retrenchment of workers trade liberalisation, massive devaluation, etc."
The figures involved in the lay-offs are staggering and are of a magnitude never witnessed before in Ghana's history. The Cocoa Board alone has been told to push out 20,000 workers; Black Star Line 1,000; the Ghana National Trading Corp- oration has to push out about 2,000; 500 from the Civil Aviation Department. Other areas affected are the State Fishing Corporation, Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation, Post and Telecommunications, etc. About 15,000 civil servants are to be redeployed. "What," the TUC asks, "is going to be the fate of these thousands of dismissed...workers?"
These dismissals are being carried out in conjunction with a liberalisation of the economy which the TUC says is "similar to those adopted under the Busia and Limann regimes. Many people seem fascinated by the appearance of commodi- ties on the market but the TUC is not we must comment here that even though some Ghanaians appear to be fascinated by the presence of so many assorted goods on the market...because of the very high prices of these goods, they are beyond the reach of workers.
State concerns threatened with privatisation include part of the State Hotels Corporation, Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation, some parastatal agricultural establishments and the State Farms. In the view of the TUC, "while private investment may be efficient on many occasions, a development policy. that places a lot of faith in the efficiency of private capitalist enterprise may not necessarily serve the interest of the people." The answer to an efficient state enterprise lies in the institution of measures to ensure discipline and initiative on the part of management, and also allowing for popular control and supervision by workers organised in their various committees.
Many regimes in Africa with loud claims to 'revolution' have always been responsible for the erosion of social amenities such as education and health. Ghana under Dr Kwame Nkrumah had the best welfare system ever known free education, free health and a host of entertainment centres throughout Ghana. But come 1966, come the IMF, and all these were thrown out of the window. In several ways, Rawlings is continuing from where his ideological mentor, General E.K. Kotoka, left off. No doubt therefore that his liberalisation policies deeply reflect the thinking of that era.
The TUC asks one question that has been asked by all generations: "WHAT REVOLUTION IS IT THAT DOES NOT GIVE PRIORITY ATTENTION TO THE EDUCATION AND HEALTH OF PEOPLE?" The answer to me is simple. It was never intended to be one. But the truth of the whole drama is the unseen hand of foreign colonising institutions in all this. Fortunately the TUC sees the phenomenon "as a further testimony to the IMF-style economic and social policies...
Perhaps the most serious charge ever to be levelled against the regime is that of the "growing trend towards arbitrariness and lack of respect for trade union rights." Of all post-independence regimes, the Progress Party government was considered guilty of this offence. The PP was also pursuing 'monetarist' policies dictated by the IMF.
In 1983 when workers protested against price increases, Rawlings went on the air to insult and intimidate them. He de- scribed their demands for wage increases as unrealistic, actions which he said resulted from "ignorance and narrow mindedness", and warned that he would not tolerate their "populist nonsense".
