Jamaicaobserver Editorial:
Mr Edwin Carrington, the secretary general of Caricom, has signalled he will be stepping down after 18 or so years in the job. The appropriate tribute will be paid to him when he does so.
But as the Caribbean Community looks for a new secretary general, the search, we suggest, must be guided by certain criteria in order to find the person with the necessary qualities. Let's start with the 'don'ts'.
First, the person cannot be a Jamaican because Jamaicans now head several regional institutions, such as the Office of Trade Negotiations, the Caribbean Development Fund and Caribbean Export. A Jamaican is also the financial controller (effectively number two) at the Caribbean Development Bank. Let's avoid the appearance of a Jamaican take-over.
No one from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has been secretary general and they are now the governments with the least commitment to Caricom. A woman has never had the post and this should not be ruled out nor made a requirement. The person should not be a naturalised citizen of the OECS as they would not have support in the sub-region.
Second, the person must be a genuine leader with proven political acumen and experience and have a stature which commands respect -- ideally, a former minister or prime minister.
Technocrats and bureaucrats from regional and international organisations should, under no circumstances, be considered.
Third, the person must be in his or her mental and physical prime, given the stamina required to maintain the arduous travel schedule and the tedium of the perpetual round of meetings. The new SG must be able to serve for 10 years and this should be the enforced term limit.
The region must not entertain the delusion that anyone in their 70s can properly execute the duties of SG. Ideally the person should be in the 40s, like United States President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The heads of nearly all Fortune 500 companies are below 55 years old. There is good reason why 60 is the normal mandatory retirement age for diplomats.
Fourth, nobody currently in the Caricom Secretariat or retired from it has the ability or credibility to become SG because of their culpability for the failures of the outgoing administration.
Recruiting someone from outside is necessary, both to inject new management and to send a clear signal that there is a new beginning. An outsider needs to be unencumbered by loyalties to existing senior staff since they will have to be quickly replaced. This is often a healthy practice when there is a new CEO.
Fifth, it is essential that the person should have some exposure to and understanding of Caricom affairs. The vice chancellor of UWI can vouch for the difficulties and disadvantages entailed in the steep learning curve of Caribbean politics when you do not have that background.
In short, the new SG must be a non-Jamaican in his or her prime (under 55 years old) who has a track record of leadership, management skills and political savvy. Under no circumstances should the new SG be a former diplomat, bureaucrat in an international organisation, academic (generally out of touch with reality) and current member of staff of the Caricom Secretariat.
The Caribbean has an embarrassment of riches in human resources. The region has more than enough well-qualified and talented people to find a very able individual to be SG of Caricom as it struggles to survive.
August 08, 2010
jamaicaobserver editorial
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Jamaica: Not much to show after 50 years of independence
Not much to show after 50 years of independence
By Keeble McFarlane
As Jamaicans everywhere pause to acknowledge 48 years of independence, we should reflect that we joined a bandwagon which had been gathering momentum since the end of one of history's most tumultuous events, the Second World War. With the exception of a strip along the Mediterranean Sea, Africa - the second-largest land mass on earth - remained largely unknown to outsiders until the voyages by European explorers between the 15th and 17th centuries. Egypt, of course, was one of the earliest centres of civilisation and the other countries running west towards the Atlantic had been under European influence since classical times. Two countries escaped the European scramble for Africa in the late 19th century - Ethiopia, which had always been independent, except for a few years of occupation by Italy starting in the 1930s, and Liberia, established by freed slaves from the United States in 1847.
The Europeans came mainly in search of the continent's vast mineral treasures. To this day, about one-third of the world's minerals, including more than half of its diamonds and almost half its gold, are mined in Africa. Other minerals, now highly sought after by the insatiable maw of the electronic factories which churn out cellphones, flat-screen TVs and the like, are now ruthlessly exploited from the continent. At the same time, the birthplace of mankind is ravaged by diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, while poverty and underdevelopment have kept its teeming millions shackled in a never-ending struggle for mere survival.
Fifty years ago, 17 nations in sub-Saharan Africa gained independence from their European colonists. Fourteen of them were former French colonies and the largest African nation, Nigeria, severed itself from British rule. I recall the excitement some of us felt when as teenagers attending high school we learned about Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to break away from Whitehall's clutches. We looked up to Kwame Nkrumah, who led a non-violent struggle for the independence of the Gold Coast, as the colony was known, achieving that aim in 1957. He was prime minister for the first three years and then declared Ghana a republic in 1960, just as that other large bunch of countries gained their sovereignty.
The new crop of leaders included some worthy contenders - Patrice Lumumba in what was known as the French Congo, Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast, Léopold Senghor in Sénégal and Nnamdi Azikiwe in Nigeria. The new leaders and those who were to come later - like Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Julius Nyerere in Tankanyika (which became Tanzania after merging with the nearby island of Zanzibar), Milton Obote of Uganda and Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Nyasaland, which became Malawi - were all fired up about building a new future for their countries now that they had severed themselves from the suffocating strictures of colonialism.
Resentment of colonialism and resistance against it had begun early in the century in several parts of the world. But the colonial powers held all the cards, controlling the world's industry, banking, methods and means of trade right down to the ships in which the raw materials and manufactured goods moved around. The big powers also spent a lot of time and effort squabbling with one another, and the cataclysm we know as World War II soaked up all the available manpower, raw materials and attention of country after country, including the colonies, which now had to feed bodies into the giant meat-grinding machine that war constitutes.
The war left the colonial powers exhausted, both in spirit and in treasure, and they consequently lost the stomach to fight to continue control of the colonies. One of the weakest of the colonial powers, The Netherlands, never regained its prize colony, the Dutch Indies, which became Indonesia, while the much smaller and far less important holdings in the Caribbean lingered on until relatively recently when they detached themselves while retaining a fairly strong connection to the old colonial centre.
Britain was forced to give up its prized holding, India, which had proved most difficult to handle. But the Africans, who had their own complicated social, linguistic, religious and tribal make-up, were a bit easier to hold on to by the classic methods of divide and conquer. Even here, though, the inexorable forces of enlightenment brought about a trickle of changes after the war. Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Morocco led the pack in the 1950s before Ghana in 1957 and Guinea, under Ahmed Sékou Touré, in 1958.
Curiously the earliest global empire was the longest lived - at almost six centuries - and the last to quit Africa. Portuguese seafarers were in the front line of European explorers, poking around the coasts of Africa from the early 1400s. After World War II, Portugal's Fascist strongman, António Salazar, conducted a long and bloody armed effort to hold on to the remnants of his empire. The rebels who overthrew him in 1974 immediately recognised the independence of all Portuguese colonies except Macau, a small enclave on the south coast of China. It eventually went in 1999, by agreement with the government in Beijing.
The African dominoes began falling at an unfortunate time - this was the Cold War, when the United States, together with its supporters and clients were locked in a deadly earnest conflict with the Soviet Union and its satellites and clients. Both big countries were not only arming themselves with the latest diabolical weaponry their scientists could devise, but threw vast amounts of money, arms and threats (veiled and otherwise), at the new countries which emerged from under the cruel yoke of colonialism.
So Africa became a battleground for the two camps, and its newly emergent states paid dearly in lives, stillborn development possibilities and distorted governance. Promising leaders like Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo were eliminated and replaced by corrupt figures such as Joseph Mobutu, who morphed himself into Mobutu Sese Seko, renamed his country Zaïre, siphoned vast sums of money meant to help develop his country, and presided over decades of disaster.
Promising leaders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Houphouët-Boigny and Robert Mugabe in Southern Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe after a long and nasty struggle, turned into self-aggrandising tyrants interested only in holding on to power. Instead of building and nurturing vigorous and vibrant democratic political structures, they instead surrounded themselves with sycophants and toadies and eliminated opponents either by intimidation or brutality.
The Cold War eventually ended and outsiders lost interest, except as a place ripe for exploitation. Some countries are engaged in the arduous and painful task of building something in keeping with the aspirations of the early independence figures. A few have managed to remain stable and relatively prosperous. Now there is a new external contender - China - but it is motivated primarily by economic rather than political concerns.
At this half-century mark, there is little to celebrate. Much of the continent's difficulties can be attributed to its colonial heritage. But by the same token, many of Africa's problems are self-inflicted. So instead of celebrating, Africa's extraordinarily complex, complicated and differentiated societies need to examine where they went wrong and generate new ideas on how to tackle the enormous problems they face. They need only take a look across the Atlantic at South America, whose long-battered nations are dynamically devising new political and economic solutions to the demands of the 21st century.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca
August 07, 2010
jamaicaobserver
By Keeble McFarlane
As Jamaicans everywhere pause to acknowledge 48 years of independence, we should reflect that we joined a bandwagon which had been gathering momentum since the end of one of history's most tumultuous events, the Second World War. With the exception of a strip along the Mediterranean Sea, Africa - the second-largest land mass on earth - remained largely unknown to outsiders until the voyages by European explorers between the 15th and 17th centuries. Egypt, of course, was one of the earliest centres of civilisation and the other countries running west towards the Atlantic had been under European influence since classical times. Two countries escaped the European scramble for Africa in the late 19th century - Ethiopia, which had always been independent, except for a few years of occupation by Italy starting in the 1930s, and Liberia, established by freed slaves from the United States in 1847.
The Europeans came mainly in search of the continent's vast mineral treasures. To this day, about one-third of the world's minerals, including more than half of its diamonds and almost half its gold, are mined in Africa. Other minerals, now highly sought after by the insatiable maw of the electronic factories which churn out cellphones, flat-screen TVs and the like, are now ruthlessly exploited from the continent. At the same time, the birthplace of mankind is ravaged by diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, while poverty and underdevelopment have kept its teeming millions shackled in a never-ending struggle for mere survival.
Fifty years ago, 17 nations in sub-Saharan Africa gained independence from their European colonists. Fourteen of them were former French colonies and the largest African nation, Nigeria, severed itself from British rule. I recall the excitement some of us felt when as teenagers attending high school we learned about Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to break away from Whitehall's clutches. We looked up to Kwame Nkrumah, who led a non-violent struggle for the independence of the Gold Coast, as the colony was known, achieving that aim in 1957. He was prime minister for the first three years and then declared Ghana a republic in 1960, just as that other large bunch of countries gained their sovereignty.
The new crop of leaders included some worthy contenders - Patrice Lumumba in what was known as the French Congo, Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast, Léopold Senghor in Sénégal and Nnamdi Azikiwe in Nigeria. The new leaders and those who were to come later - like Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Julius Nyerere in Tankanyika (which became Tanzania after merging with the nearby island of Zanzibar), Milton Obote of Uganda and Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Nyasaland, which became Malawi - were all fired up about building a new future for their countries now that they had severed themselves from the suffocating strictures of colonialism.
Resentment of colonialism and resistance against it had begun early in the century in several parts of the world. But the colonial powers held all the cards, controlling the world's industry, banking, methods and means of trade right down to the ships in which the raw materials and manufactured goods moved around. The big powers also spent a lot of time and effort squabbling with one another, and the cataclysm we know as World War II soaked up all the available manpower, raw materials and attention of country after country, including the colonies, which now had to feed bodies into the giant meat-grinding machine that war constitutes.
The war left the colonial powers exhausted, both in spirit and in treasure, and they consequently lost the stomach to fight to continue control of the colonies. One of the weakest of the colonial powers, The Netherlands, never regained its prize colony, the Dutch Indies, which became Indonesia, while the much smaller and far less important holdings in the Caribbean lingered on until relatively recently when they detached themselves while retaining a fairly strong connection to the old colonial centre.
Britain was forced to give up its prized holding, India, which had proved most difficult to handle. But the Africans, who had their own complicated social, linguistic, religious and tribal make-up, were a bit easier to hold on to by the classic methods of divide and conquer. Even here, though, the inexorable forces of enlightenment brought about a trickle of changes after the war. Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Morocco led the pack in the 1950s before Ghana in 1957 and Guinea, under Ahmed Sékou Touré, in 1958.
Curiously the earliest global empire was the longest lived - at almost six centuries - and the last to quit Africa. Portuguese seafarers were in the front line of European explorers, poking around the coasts of Africa from the early 1400s. After World War II, Portugal's Fascist strongman, António Salazar, conducted a long and bloody armed effort to hold on to the remnants of his empire. The rebels who overthrew him in 1974 immediately recognised the independence of all Portuguese colonies except Macau, a small enclave on the south coast of China. It eventually went in 1999, by agreement with the government in Beijing.
The African dominoes began falling at an unfortunate time - this was the Cold War, when the United States, together with its supporters and clients were locked in a deadly earnest conflict with the Soviet Union and its satellites and clients. Both big countries were not only arming themselves with the latest diabolical weaponry their scientists could devise, but threw vast amounts of money, arms and threats (veiled and otherwise), at the new countries which emerged from under the cruel yoke of colonialism.
So Africa became a battleground for the two camps, and its newly emergent states paid dearly in lives, stillborn development possibilities and distorted governance. Promising leaders like Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo were eliminated and replaced by corrupt figures such as Joseph Mobutu, who morphed himself into Mobutu Sese Seko, renamed his country Zaïre, siphoned vast sums of money meant to help develop his country, and presided over decades of disaster.
Promising leaders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Houphouët-Boigny and Robert Mugabe in Southern Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe after a long and nasty struggle, turned into self-aggrandising tyrants interested only in holding on to power. Instead of building and nurturing vigorous and vibrant democratic political structures, they instead surrounded themselves with sycophants and toadies and eliminated opponents either by intimidation or brutality.
The Cold War eventually ended and outsiders lost interest, except as a place ripe for exploitation. Some countries are engaged in the arduous and painful task of building something in keeping with the aspirations of the early independence figures. A few have managed to remain stable and relatively prosperous. Now there is a new external contender - China - but it is motivated primarily by economic rather than political concerns.
At this half-century mark, there is little to celebrate. Much of the continent's difficulties can be attributed to its colonial heritage. But by the same token, many of Africa's problems are self-inflicted. So instead of celebrating, Africa's extraordinarily complex, complicated and differentiated societies need to examine where they went wrong and generate new ideas on how to tackle the enormous problems they face. They need only take a look across the Atlantic at South America, whose long-battered nations are dynamically devising new political and economic solutions to the demands of the 21st century.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca
August 07, 2010
jamaicaobserver
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 2
By D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands:
This regional body has served the Eastern Caribbean in the eradication of illegal drugs in the OECS, especially in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where that problem is prominent. Hitherto, the RSS has assisted with security in the 1983 Grenada uprising and the attempted coup d’état in 1990 by the Muslimeen leader, Yasin Abu Bakr in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
This regional force has proven to be effective, although this organization does not have all the necessary equipment. I strongly encourage the leaders of the More Developed Countries to take note.
The Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico have advanced law enforcement equipment and personnel, which should aid the rest of the regional in its pursuit of a regional security system.
Moreover, the Caribbean is experiencing an increase number of criminal activities. Again most of these criminal activities are evident in the More Developed Countries of the region -- Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados, to some extent. In Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica criminal activities range from kidnapping, murder and other drug related crimes.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are in a crime zone by themselves. Crimes in the Bahamas are also escalating to a point never imagined.
In my honest opinion, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force is in no way effectively controlling and dealing with crimes in that state. The same can be said about Trinidad and Tobago -- the same reason the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP assisted that country with its crime rate in 2006. It is also evident that the crimes associated with the More Developed Countries indirectly influence and affect the OECS nations.
Furthermore, it won’t be much longer before terrorism spreads its operation within our region. The big questions to ask here are, if terror strikes the Caribbean, is any single nation equipped to deal with this problem? And if not, are we going to wait on the US or other global armed forces for months before they respond? So where do we go from here?
In light of this, terrorism in the region is inevitable; it is just a matter of time before it strikes. Millions of American citizens visit our shores on a yearly basis and the trend shows that terrorists target Americans in unexpected places. We should not forget the hotel bombings in India and Indonesia, which targeted American citizens.
Global trends also indicate that countries are forming alliances and integrating their efforts in order to achieve shared responsibilities, shared resources, shared costs, and creating diversity in both their ideas and personnel. The European Union, the economic giant, has formed NATO, the intergovernmental military alliance, which constitutes a system of collective defence. The United States, another economic giant, has solicited the assistance of NATO and UN to fight the war of terror in Afghanistan.
It is safe to conclude that we need a regional force to police our nations -- land, sea and air. With the enormous drug trade, disasters, political unrests, peacekeeping missions, attempted coups d’état, other criminal activities and the advent of terrorism, the region must be prepared. We need a police force that would be readily available for deployment at any time and place.
If a regional organization existed, Haiti would be a better place today. World leaders allowed Haiti’s issues to escalate before they could intervene.
I realise that this mission would be a long painstaking one, which demands enormous energy, finance, political disputes, and months, if not years of planning amongst other underlying challenges; therefore, we must communicate the change early enough and understand the benefits of the integration process. We could only make it happen if we unite our efforts and support the change.
August 5, 2010
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 3
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 1
caribbeannetnews
Turks and Caicos Islands:
The past leaders of the OECS members’ states should be applauded for their vision, which our present leaders are failing to conceptualize. The world over will soon become a single unit, where every region is forming alliances in all aspects, including that of security and safety. In this sense, it is necessary that the Caribbean introduces and implements a regional police force.
The Eastern Caribbean has always faceted integrated, but their efforts were crippled and discouraged by the so-called More Developed Countries, especially Jamaica and Barbados that have economic difference and disputes. The Regional Security System - the RSS that was created by the OECS is closest the Csribbean region has come to creating oneness for our security and safety.
This regional body has served the Eastern Caribbean in the eradication of illegal drugs in the OECS, especially in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where that problem is prominent. Hitherto, the RSS has assisted with security in the 1983 Grenada uprising and the attempted coup d’état in 1990 by the Muslimeen leader, Yasin Abu Bakr in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
This regional force has proven to be effective, although this organization does not have all the necessary equipment. I strongly encourage the leaders of the More Developed Countries to take note.
The Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico have advanced law enforcement equipment and personnel, which should aid the rest of the regional in its pursuit of a regional security system.
Moreover, the Caribbean is experiencing an increase number of criminal activities. Again most of these criminal activities are evident in the More Developed Countries of the region -- Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados, to some extent. In Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica criminal activities range from kidnapping, murder and other drug related crimes.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are in a crime zone by themselves. Crimes in the Bahamas are also escalating to a point never imagined.
In my honest opinion, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force is in no way effectively controlling and dealing with crimes in that state. The same can be said about Trinidad and Tobago -- the same reason the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP assisted that country with its crime rate in 2006. It is also evident that the crimes associated with the More Developed Countries indirectly influence and affect the OECS nations.
Furthermore, it won’t be much longer before terrorism spreads its operation within our region. The big questions to ask here are, if terror strikes the Caribbean, is any single nation equipped to deal with this problem? And if not, are we going to wait on the US or other global armed forces for months before they respond? So where do we go from here?
In light of this, terrorism in the region is inevitable; it is just a matter of time before it strikes. Millions of American citizens visit our shores on a yearly basis and the trend shows that terrorists target Americans in unexpected places. We should not forget the hotel bombings in India and Indonesia, which targeted American citizens.
Global trends also indicate that countries are forming alliances and integrating their efforts in order to achieve shared responsibilities, shared resources, shared costs, and creating diversity in both their ideas and personnel. The European Union, the economic giant, has formed NATO, the intergovernmental military alliance, which constitutes a system of collective defence. The United States, another economic giant, has solicited the assistance of NATO and UN to fight the war of terror in Afghanistan.
It is safe to conclude that we need a regional force to police our nations -- land, sea and air. With the enormous drug trade, disasters, political unrests, peacekeeping missions, attempted coups d’état, other criminal activities and the advent of terrorism, the region must be prepared. We need a police force that would be readily available for deployment at any time and place.
If a regional organization existed, Haiti would be a better place today. World leaders allowed Haiti’s issues to escalate before they could intervene.
I realise that this mission would be a long painstaking one, which demands enormous energy, finance, political disputes, and months, if not years of planning amongst other underlying challenges; therefore, we must communicate the change early enough and understand the benefits of the integration process. We could only make it happen if we unite our efforts and support the change.
August 5, 2010
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 3
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 1
caribbeannetnews
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The social crisis in Appalachia Part 5: The assault on Blair Mountain and the legacy of struggle
By Hiram Lee:
This article is the fifth and final part of a series on the economy, social and environmental conditions, and history in the Appalachian region of the United States. Part 1: Deprivation and inequality in the coalfields was published on July 22, Part 2: An epidemic of ill health among the poor on July 24, Part 3: Environmental disaster and private profit on July 27, and Part 4: Youth prospects on July 30.
World Socialist Web Site reporters recently visited the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia and interviewed residents on their conditions of life. Accompanying interviews and material are published in five parts here: Harlan, Kentucky resident speaks to the WSWS; Homeless in Harlan, Kentucky; Williamson, West Virginia, residents speak to the WSWS; Matewan, West Virginia, residents speak on dearth of services; Economic transformation of Welch, West Virginia: From mines to prisons.
Blair Mountain is a site of great historical importance. In 1921, this mountain range in southwestern West Virginia was the scene of an enormous battle between an army of miners who sought to unionize the state’s coalfields and an army of law enforcement officials funded by the local coal companies. It is one of the most significant events in the history of labor struggles in the United States and was the largest insurrectionary battle fought on US soil since the Civil War.
The mountain contains numerous artifacts from the battle and is rich with opportunities for archaeologists and historians to better understand the fight that took place there. But it is now threatened with destruction from mountaintop removal mining operations by the billion-dollar coal giants Arch Coal and Massey Energy.
Blair Mountain was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the spring of 2009, having been nominated for the list by Appalachian State University Professor of Anthropology Harvard Ayers and his colleagues. Ayers and a research team studied the mountain in 2006, after two archaeological surveys of the area carried out by Arch Coal revealed little evidence of the historic battle. Ayers’ team found far different results. They were able to map out 15 separate battlefields and uncovered thousands of artifacts dating back to the struggle at Blair Mountain.
The researchers’ victory in placing the battlefield on the historic registry was short-lived, however. One week later, Randall Reid-Smith, West Virginia’s state historic preservation officer (SHPO), had the battlefield removed from the list. Reid-Smith, who was appointed to his position by Governor Joe Manchin, a steadfast ally of the coal industry, cited protests by local property owners.
Harvard Ayers hired attorney John Bailey to examine the list of protesters. National Geographic reported his findings in June: “The list of objectors, Bailey discovered, included two dead men—one of whom had perished nearly three decades earlier—as well as a property owner who had sold her land years before the nomination process. In addition, Bailey identified 13 property owners who did not appear on the SHPO list at all. ‘The final count we reached was 63 landowners and only 25 objectors,’ Ayers said.”
“It’s like they’re trying to destroy anything that the union had to do with,” a retired West Virginia coal miner, Paul Nelson, told National Geographic. “I think they want to destroy Blair Mountain and all memory of it.”
In spite of the fraudulent character of the objector’s list, the removal of the site from the historic registry was not reversed. As mountaintop is no longer protected by its historical status; subsidiaries of Arch Coal and Massey Energy now have permits to mine there.
The Friends of Blair Mountain, a group including Harvard Ayers, Kenny King—whose ancestors fought in the historic battle—and members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club have released a report documenting the destruction that has already occurred on the mountain.
The report states that five locations in the Blair Gap area, which have shown evidence of having been the site of heavy fighting in the 1921 battle, “have been impacted by bulldozing activity, including one previously documented site (46LG205) on file at the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office, one previously unsurveyed site that shows evidence of being part of the 1921 defensive front, and two undocumented sites that have not been surveyed but which have great potential for being significant elements in the defensive line and overall battle.”
Analysis of the fourth disturbed site investigated by the researchers found “the whole top of this knoll bulldozed in a 3-4 meter-wide swath. Again, the disturbance involved the removal of topsoil, and therefore any archaeological remains from the battle have also been eradicated.”
The fifth disturbed site suffered the worst damage, according to the report. “From the gravel road, an access road has been cut leading to the top of the knoll. The disturbance on top runs roughly 100 meters along the knoll ridge, and is 3-10 meters in width at different points. One large extension runs to the east, extending approximately 25 meters with a width of 18 meters at its widest. Below the hill, an extensive area has been logged, with access roads running roughly 30 meters or so down the hill. Unlike the previous four sites discussed, this site is within an existing mining permit.”
Should mountaintop removal mining operations commence on the Blair Mountain Battlefield itself, an enormous archaeological and historical opportunity would be lost. Mountaintop removal mining is an incredibly destructive process in which hundreds of feet of a mountain’s summit are blasted away with dynamite in order to expose deep-running coal seams. The waste from this process is then dumped into neighboring valleys where it often buries streams and contaminates the region’s water supplies. The environmental calamity cause by such destructive mining operations is explored more fully in an earlier article in this series (See “Environmental disaster and private profit”).
The Battle of Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest insurrection on US soil since the Civil War. An organized army of miners went to war with an army funded by the coal operators and led by the anti-union sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin. By the end of the battle, President Warren Harding ordered the US Army in to assist in suppressing the revolt.
The events of Blair Mountain were ignited by the murder of Sid Hatfield. On August 1, 1921, Hatfield, the pro-union sheriff of Matewan, West Virginia, and his friend Ed Chambers were assassinated by C.E. Lively, an employee of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, on the McDowell County courthouse steps in Welch. Lively was arrested but acquitted of all charges; even though the murders had occurred in full view of the crowd gathered at the courthouse that day, no one would testify against the Baldwin-Felts assassin.
The assassination was an act of revenge carried out by the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. In 1920, in an event dubbed the “Matewan Massacre,” Hatfield, with the support of armed miners, confronted 11 Baldwin-Felts gun thugs who had been hired by the Stone Mountain Coal Company to evict union miners from their company-owned homes. Hatfield attempted to arrest the Baldwin-Felts agents as they prepared to leave town by train. The confrontation escalated into one of the deadliest gunfights in US history. Sid Hatfield would later testify before the US Congress that between “fifty or seventy-five” shots had been fired during the encounter. Seven of the Baldwin-Felts thugs were killed in the fight, including Albert and Lee Felts, the brothers of the agency’s founder Thomas Felts.
While the Hatfield assassination was the spark that ignited the Blair Mountain insurrection, it was ultimately prepared by the absolutely devastating conditions facing the miners and the struggles they had endured for decades.
The decade preceding the Battle of Blair Mountain had seen a surge in labor struggles in the coalfields of West Virginia. Among them was the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913. During that strike, miners clashed with hundreds of so-called mine guards who were in reality little more than a band of gun thugs and strikebreakers organized by the Baldwin-Felts agency.
During this time, the West Virginia Coal mines had become the deadliest in the nation. In his book Life, Work and Rebellion in the Coal Fields, David Corbin writes, “[D]uring World War I the southern West Virginia coal diggers had a higher proportional death rate than the American Expeditionary Force.”
Miners’ lives were completely dominated by the coal companies. They lived in company towns in homes the company owned. Wages were paid in the form of “mine scrip,” which could only be used in company stores.
From the West Virginia state government, to its representatives in the US Congress, including Senators Clarence Watson and Howard Southerland, both of whom had longstanding ties to the coal industry, the miners faced a political establishment which gave its full support to the profit interests of the coal operators.
Thousands from the West Virginia coalfields went to fight in the First World War. Those soldiers from West Virginia who escaped with their lives returned to poverty and slave-labor conditions in the mines.
After the war, tensions increased dramatically in the coalfields. Corbin writes in his book, “Between 1919 and 1921, the southern West Virginia coal fields exploded in wildcat strikes. In one coal field alone, sixty-three work stoppages occurred within eleven months. At one time seventeen wildcat strikes were in progress simultaneously.”
In response to the growing socialist influence in the wake of the Russian Revolution, the West Virginia legislature imposed a so-called Red Flag law in 1919 aimed at curbing free speech and demonstrations in the coalfields.
Historian Robert Shogan in his 2004 study, The Battle of Blair Mountain, cites a resolution adopted by a union local in the Coal River region after the law was introduced, warning “the ruling class of this state” that “As a final arbiter of the rights of public assembly, free speech and a free and uncensored press, we will not for a single moment hesitate to meet our enemies upon the battle fields. And there amid the roar of the cannon and the groans of the dying and the crash of systems purchase again our birthright of blood bought freedom.” The UMW leadership immediately sought to have the resolution revoked and to distance itself from what came to be known as the “Red Bandanna army” in the region.
The eruption of these social tensions was all but inevitable. On August 7, just days after Hatfield’s murder, at least 5,000 coal miners went to the state capital of Charleston to present demands to the governor. There they attended a mass meeting at which labor organizers Mother Jones and Frank Keeney spoke. Keeney told the workers if they wanted to secure their rights they would have to do so with “a high-powered rifle.”
On August 20, thousands of miners began assembling at Lens Creek in Kanawha County, near Charleston, for the purpose of forming an army. The aims of the miners went far beyond demands for higher wages and better living conditions. So explosive was the anger of this army, that they prepared themselves to march to Logan County and kill Sheriff Chafin before moving on to Mingo County, where they fully intended to take over the entire county, release all pro-union activists from the prisons there, and bring an end to martial law and the so-called “mine guard” system.
While an accurate number of those involved in the battle may be impossible to obtain, it is believed the miners’ ranks had swelled to 4,000 by the time they began their march to Logan County. Estimates of the number of workers who ultimately joined the fight on Blair Mountain range from 10,000 to as many as 20,000. At least 2,000 of these were veterans of the First World War.
Members of Chafin’s army fire on minersThe march had supporters and sympathizers throughout the region. Contemporary articles in the New York Times, which described the miners as an “army of malcontents,” reported “two thousand more armed union men” making their way from Pike County, Kentucky to take part in the battle.
The so-called “army of malcontents” assembled by the miners was, in fact, highly organized. Those among the miners who had served in the First World War schooled the rest in military discipline and tactics. Field hospitals were established by sympathetic doctors and nurses as well as mess halls in which three meals per day were served.
The militant, mass character of the miners’ uprising, coming only four years after the seizure of power of the Bolsheviks in Russia, terrified the political establishment. From the perspective of President Harding and West Virginia Governor Ephraim Morgan, the government could not afford to spare the most severe methods in order to suppress the insurgency.
The battle began August 26, 1921 as the miners’ regiments clashed with an army led by Sheriff Chafin and composed of police, the National Guard, Baldwin-Felts agents and what amounted to a volunteer militia on the Blair Mountain ridge at the Logan County border. Fighting lasted for one week, with an estimated one million rounds fired. As many as 30 men from Chafin’s army were killed, while between 50 and 100 miners died. Hundreds were wounded.
Learning of the battle, Governor Morgan sent a request to the Harding administration for the assistance of federal troops. An official statement released by the governor’s office read, “The Governor’s office is fully aware of the gravity of the situation. Two men were killed in the district while numerous stores on Cabin and Paint Creeks, along Kanawha River and Coal River have been entered by armed men and robbed of arms, ammunition and supplies. Trains have been stopped and forced by men with drawn guns to haul them to their destination.”
The Governor added that “every available resource will be utilized to restore law and order and trusts that it can be accomplished without bloodshed.” In fact, the most brutal efforts were mobilized to crush the miners’ uprising. Private planes hired by coal operators in Logan sent bombs raining down on the miners’ encampments.
Miners with an unexploded bombThe Harding administration sent in federal troops, including three companies from the 40th United States Infantry, who arrived in Logan County on September 3. The president’s orders had called for the use of more than 2,000 troops, machine guns, gas and more than a dozen bombers.
The rebellion was ultimately suppressed by September 5. Nearly 1,000 miners were arrested for their part in the battle. Hundreds were charged with insurrection, and dozens were tried in West Virginia for treason and murder. The defeat served to spearhead a counteroffensive by the coal industry.
Mine operators, pointing to the fall in demand for coal following the end of the war, attacked the miners’ already miserable wages and conditions, rescinding a $1.50-a-day raise they had previously won. The UMWA agreed to this claw-back without a fight, in the interest of “the perpetuation of the union.” In West Virginia, the UMWA signed off on an especially sharp drop in tonnage rates for the miners, and membership collapsed in the state, from 50,000 to only a few hundred. Nationwide, UMWA membership fell from 600,000 to under 100,000 over the course of the decade.
The Battle of Blair Mountain exposed to the world the brutality and exploitation in the coalfields of Appalachia. It also revealed the enormous strength of the working class. The social conditions in Appalachia drove tens of thousands of workers in that region into conflict. There was no shortage of courageousness, self-sacrifice and class solidarity to be found among them. The defeats and setbacks suffered were not due to any lack of willingness by the workers to fight and even sacrifice their lives to free themselves from exploitation. Ultimately, the subordination of labor struggles to the Democratic Party through the UMWA and the failure to adopt a consciously socialist program were decisive. For all the miners’ militancy and eagerness to fight, a “high powered rifle” was never a substitute for a revolutionary party and program.
The remarkable history of Blair Mountain and the struggles of miners throughout Appalachia provide rich lessons for the working class. Thousands upon thousands of workers fought to free themselves from the exploitation of the corrupt coal industry barons. A critical study of this period in US history is of enormous importance for working people today, both within the coalfields region and internationally, as we prepare for great and explosive struggles in the coming period.
Concluded
3 August 2010
The social crisis in Appalachia Part 4: Youth prospects
wsws
Khaalis Rolle - Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president says: It’s extremely frightening to do business in The Bahamas now
Bahamas ‘far beyond Wild Wild West’
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:
The Bahamas will be “in major trouble within five years” if it fails to take immediate action to control its ever-expanding crime problem, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s president warning that last week’s Supreme Court break-in and armed robbery at FirstCaribbean’s Sandyport branch showed this nation was “far beyond being the Wild Wild West”.
Telling Tribune Business that the level of crime in the Bahamas, especially violent offences and armed robberies, was now the highest in his lifetime, Khaalis Rolle said many Bahamian businesses were now afraid to conduct commerce at night, as criminals seemed to have no fear of the law.
Arguing that guns were seemingly as commonplace as cars in the Bahamas, Mr Rolle said the FirstCaribbean armed robbery and high speed chase/shoot-out between the crooks and the police showed just what a lawless, dangerous society this nation had become.
“It’s extremely frightening to do business in this country now,” Mr Rolle said. “When you get to the point where the criminals have equal or better ammunition than the police, and have absolutely no fear of the law, what’s the alternative? What do we do?”
Recalling a reggae song that described Jamaica as a ‘Cowboy town’, the Chamber president added: “The Bahamas is far beyond a Cowboy town, the Wild Wild West. Every single day there is a report of some armed robbery or attempted armed robbery. The criminals just don’t have any fear of the law.
“I think about 10 years ago I spoke at a Toastmasters meeting, and I had a conversation with a politician. I said the Bahamas was becoming an increasingly dangerous society and something had to be done. His response was as if there was no concern, and we’re at the point now where businesspeople are extremely afraid to do business after dark.”
Pointing to the Supreme Court break-in at Justice Jon Isaacs’ office, Mr Rolle said this showed that “no place is off limits”.
“The criminals are so daring that they do what they want to do during the day, and the one entity where you’d have thought they would be off limits is no longer. The fellow broke into the courts. This is extremely serious,” the Chamber president added, pointing out that the implications went beyond just the immediate negative impact on business and the Bahamian economy.
Warning that it would “not be long” before travel advisories and media reports declared the Bahamas an unsafe destination, Mr Rolle added: “Everyone seemingly has a gun. Guns seem to be as ubiquitous as vehicles. Guns are everywhere; cars are everywhere. Gun crime is fare more pervasive than it has ever been in my life.
“The mindset has degenerated to the point where people do not believe there is a penalty attached to their actions, and if there is some penalty attached, people don’t care.”
Acknowledging that it was “easy to point the finger” of blame at the Government or Royal Bahamas Police Force for this nation’s crime problems, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: “There’s a huge implication for society as a whole.
“I believe this problem goes far deeper, and if we do not resolve it now, or at least start taking preparatory steps to, we’re going to be in significant trouble in five years. In five years’ time, the Bahamas will not be the same Bahamas we see now.
“We’ve got some issues that are going to impact this country, and even though I speak on behalf of the business community, the implications far beyond. It goes back to deficiencies in the education system, deficiencies in the social system, and we have to address these deficiencies and do it proactively.”
August 03, 2010
tribune242
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:
The Bahamas will be “in major trouble within five years” if it fails to take immediate action to control its ever-expanding crime problem, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s president warning that last week’s Supreme Court break-in and armed robbery at FirstCaribbean’s Sandyport branch showed this nation was “far beyond being the Wild Wild West”.
Telling Tribune Business that the level of crime in the Bahamas, especially violent offences and armed robberies, was now the highest in his lifetime, Khaalis Rolle said many Bahamian businesses were now afraid to conduct commerce at night, as criminals seemed to have no fear of the law.
Arguing that guns were seemingly as commonplace as cars in the Bahamas, Mr Rolle said the FirstCaribbean armed robbery and high speed chase/shoot-out between the crooks and the police showed just what a lawless, dangerous society this nation had become.
“It’s extremely frightening to do business in this country now,” Mr Rolle said. “When you get to the point where the criminals have equal or better ammunition than the police, and have absolutely no fear of the law, what’s the alternative? What do we do?”
Recalling a reggae song that described Jamaica as a ‘Cowboy town’, the Chamber president added: “The Bahamas is far beyond a Cowboy town, the Wild Wild West. Every single day there is a report of some armed robbery or attempted armed robbery. The criminals just don’t have any fear of the law.
“I think about 10 years ago I spoke at a Toastmasters meeting, and I had a conversation with a politician. I said the Bahamas was becoming an increasingly dangerous society and something had to be done. His response was as if there was no concern, and we’re at the point now where businesspeople are extremely afraid to do business after dark.”
Pointing to the Supreme Court break-in at Justice Jon Isaacs’ office, Mr Rolle said this showed that “no place is off limits”.
“The criminals are so daring that they do what they want to do during the day, and the one entity where you’d have thought they would be off limits is no longer. The fellow broke into the courts. This is extremely serious,” the Chamber president added, pointing out that the implications went beyond just the immediate negative impact on business and the Bahamian economy.
Warning that it would “not be long” before travel advisories and media reports declared the Bahamas an unsafe destination, Mr Rolle added: “Everyone seemingly has a gun. Guns seem to be as ubiquitous as vehicles. Guns are everywhere; cars are everywhere. Gun crime is fare more pervasive than it has ever been in my life.
“The mindset has degenerated to the point where people do not believe there is a penalty attached to their actions, and if there is some penalty attached, people don’t care.”
Acknowledging that it was “easy to point the finger” of blame at the Government or Royal Bahamas Police Force for this nation’s crime problems, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: “There’s a huge implication for society as a whole.
“I believe this problem goes far deeper, and if we do not resolve it now, or at least start taking preparatory steps to, we’re going to be in significant trouble in five years. In five years’ time, the Bahamas will not be the same Bahamas we see now.
“We’ve got some issues that are going to impact this country, and even though I speak on behalf of the business community, the implications far beyond. It goes back to deficiencies in the education system, deficiencies in the social system, and we have to address these deficiencies and do it proactively.”
August 03, 2010
tribune242
Monday, August 2, 2010
Emancipation
By Dennis A. Dames:
Escaped from the wicked shackles of foreign force and enslavement…
Man’s brutal inhumanity and bondage now below my feet
Alive and free… overjoyed spirit dance to the sacred beat…
Never a slave again… but a man with the divine motivation to succeed triumphantly
Clothed in inner peace and freedom…
In lasting independence – so profoundly welcomed
Pleased in doing the soul’s wondrous desires…
All the way to enduring pleasure and satisfaction
Trusting in the gifted will; songs of inspiration fill my heart…
Ideas and dreams that are exclusively mine to follow
Opening the gates of unlimited and bountifully useful prospects…
No more master but God is mine
Daily Delivery of private choice and deliverance…
Always in accountable control of my personal liberation and destiny
Yes, the Lord is my sole light in all things graciously pursued and well done.
©2010 Dennis A. Dames
Nassau, Bahamas
Bahamas Blog International
Escaped from the wicked shackles of foreign force and enslavement…
Man’s brutal inhumanity and bondage now below my feet
Alive and free… overjoyed spirit dance to the sacred beat…
Never a slave again… but a man with the divine motivation to succeed triumphantly
Clothed in inner peace and freedom…
In lasting independence – so profoundly welcomed
Pleased in doing the soul’s wondrous desires…
All the way to enduring pleasure and satisfaction
Trusting in the gifted will; songs of inspiration fill my heart…
Ideas and dreams that are exclusively mine to follow
Opening the gates of unlimited and bountifully useful prospects…
No more master but God is mine
Daily Delivery of private choice and deliverance…
Always in accountable control of my personal liberation and destiny
Yes, the Lord is my sole light in all things graciously pursued and well done.
©2010 Dennis A. Dames
Nassau, Bahamas
Bahamas Blog International
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Bolivarian Venezuela at the crossroads, Part 3: The Venezuelan economy: in transition towards socialism
By Eric Toussaint - CADTM:
The capitalist sector is growing faster than the public sector and is still predominant in Venezuela’s economy despite the nationalizations.
The share of the private sector (greatly dominated by the capitalist sector |2|) in Venezuela’s gross domestic product has grown from 64.7% in 1998 (before Hugo Chávez was elected president) to 70.9% in the third quarter of 2008. |3| Although the government has nationalized a significant number of large companies in the electricity, telecommunications, steel, food, cement and banking sectors, the capitalist sector has recorded more rapid growth than the public sector, which explains that its relative share in GDP has increased whereas the share of the public sector has decreased (from 34.8% in 1998 to 29.1% in 2008) |4|
This can be explained by the way the country’s oil income is used. The overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan State’s revenue comes from oil exports. The government massively uses the resources coming from oil to improve the living conditions of the poor majority of the population (as well as of the medium income brackets) in the fields of health (where results are impressive), education (also impressive), supply of low-priced basic products through the distribution and marketing channels Mercal |5| and Pdval |6| (staple food and other basic products for households), housing construction, the building of infrastructure and public transport (subway, train), wage increases in the civil service, increases in a large number of grants and social allowances, not to mention expenses in the field of culture and sports. It grants substantial subsidies for cooperatives, communal councils, etc. The result is clearly positive: the percentage of Venezuelans below the poverty line was reduced by half between 2003 and 2008, from 62.1% to 31.5% of the population. As for the percentage of people in extreme poverty, it was reduced by two-thirds, from 29% in 2003 down to 9.1% in 2008; |7| illiteracy dropped sharply, the level in training improved, access to free healthcare increased greatly, mass consumption rose.
But to a large extent the capitalist sector is also benefiting from government spending because it is still dominant, by a long way, in the banking sector, in trade and in the food industry. The extra money that goes to the people and comes from public spending ends up in the capitalists’ pockets because it is in the capitalist banks that individuals (and also cooperatives, municipal councils, municipalities and many other public entities) deposit their money. It is the capitalist banks that issue consumer credit facilities in the form of credit cards, and support a growing share of the consumption (and charge high interest rates for this). It is the capitalist companies of the food industry that produce or market most of the food products consumed by the masses. It is the capitalist import companies that bring from abroad the many imported products consumed by Venezuelans. The private retail chains still dominate trade even if Mercal and Pdval are significant players in supplying basic products. When the State nationalizes private companies that belong to the national capital, it is the local capitalists that receive buyout compensations from the State.
In brief, the capitalist sector continues siphoning off most of the money spent by the State to help the poor or middle-income sectors of the population.
According to a study |8| by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval that is in fact very favourable to the Chávez government, the private financial sector grew by 37.9% in 2004, by 34.6% in 2005 and by 39.2% in 2006, while the growth of the public sector (all sectors taken together) was only 12.5% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005 and 2.9% in 2006.
As stated by Victor Álvarez : “During the previous mandate of President Chávez (2000-2006), most financial, fiscal, exchange rate incentives, most public spending, most technical assistance, etc., went to the existing production apparatus, fundamentally consisting of commercial companies, which reproduce a capitalist mode of production that is, paradoxically, the very one we want to overtake and transcend.”
We are thus far from the assertions made by the mainstream media, which see in the Chávez administration a rampant imposition of state control over the Venezuelan economy.
Gifts made to the banks
An additional issue, stems from the policy of overvaluation of the Venezuelan currency against the dollar. This question requires some explanation. Since 2003, companies that want to import goods and services have had to buy dollars from a state administration called CADIVI. This is a useful measure taken to fight capital outflow. The problem is that the exchange rate between the bolivar and the dollar overvalued the value of the former. It therefore exacerbated a perverse pattern: for a capitalist who has a large amount of bolivars, it is more profitable to change them for dollars which are sold cheaply by the State and import products from the United States or elsewhere than to produce them in the country. Thus the policy of an overvalued bolivar deterred productive investment and encouraged trade based on the frenetic import of goods |9| and sale of the same through the big private retail networks. These massive imports are in fact subsidized by the State since the State sells the private sector the cheap dollars it has accumulated through its oil exports. Another point also needs to be examined: how this policy of an overvalued bolivar and a high level of imports influenced the inflation rate, which has been particularly high in Venezuela in recent years. This high inflation rate reduces the impact of the pay rises granted by the government.
One vicious example of this policy of an overvalued bolivar and of gifts made by the government to the private banks: the Venezuelan State bought debt bonds issued by Argentina in 2004-2005. The problem is that it sold part of these Argentine debt bonds, drawn up in dollars, to the private banks. These banks bought them with bolivars at the official overvalued exchange rate. What did some (in fact many) of them do with these bonds? They sold these Argentine debt bonds in the United States or elsewhere to obtain dollars. This allowed them to bypass the control imposed by the Venezuelan State over capital movements. Officially, they did not export capital; they only got Argentine debt bonds out of the country.
Since then, the State has kept on making gifts to private banks thanks to similar manoeuvres. PDVSA and other public entities issue public debt bonds drawn up in dollars that are bought in bolivars by Venezuelan banks at the official exchange rate. Then these banks sell part of the bonds on the international market for dollars |10|. In brief, the State policy has two negative consequences: first, it permits capital flight in a circuitous but perfectly legal way; second, it encourages parasitic banking behaviour (buying of debt bonds) to the detriment of productive investment.
The conclusion that can be drawn is that although the State is trying to carry out a policy of endogenous development (i.e. designed to meet the internal demand through greater domestic production), the way the oil money is redistributed, combined with the overvaluation of the bolivar, tends to strengthen the capitalist sector and its importing pattern.
In a speech given during the meeting of intellectuals organized by the CIM, the writer and lawyer Luis Britto aptly summed up the situation: “We live in a dual society, and in a fable I wrote I explained that if one tries to set up a mixed system with hens and foxes in one single henhouse, then the following week, there will only be foxes left, and then they will eat the farmer.” |http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/article_PDF/article_a4492.pdf and Martha (...)" rel="footnote" href="http://www.cadtm.org/The-Venezuelan-economy-in#nb11">11|
Dealing with the thorny question of exchange rates: the January 2010 devaluation
In January 2010, the government carried out a devaluation. What does this devaluation consist of? Two official rates were set: the first one represents a 21 percent devaluation of the bolivar against the dollar (instead of 2.15 bolivars, 2.6 bolivars are needed to obtain one dollar); the second rate represents a 100 percent devaluation (one has to pay 4.3 bolivars for one dollar instead of 2.15 bolivars). The first rate (2.6 bolivars per dollar) is in force for expenses considered to be vital or at least to be a priority: imports of food, medicines, technologies, equipment for industrial or agricultural production, imports made by the public sector, the payment of scholarships to Venezuelan students studying abroad, of pensions to retired people living abroad. The second rate (4.3 bolivars per dollar) is applied to imports of automobiles, beverages, tobacco, cell phones, computers, home appliances, textiles, chemical and metallurgical products, rubber, etc.
In the short term, this devaluation will increase the State’s tax revenues. The dollars that the State gets from oil exports will be sold for a larger amount of bolivars. This is certainly one of the main goals pursued by the government which has seen its tax revenues dwindle due to the impact of the international crisis on the country’s economy. But this does not mean that the Venezuelan State is going to win on all fronts. The repayment of the public debt, 67.8 percent of which is drawn up in dollars, will cost the government more. The Venezuelan bankers and other capitalists who bought debt securities drawn up in dollars will get richer once again.
Obviously there are other consequences: for the workers and all low income earners who receive this income in national currency, the devaluation means lower purchasing power: the cost of the products they consume will be higher because many products are imported or produced in the country with a large imported component. Importers, retailers, producers will pass on the additional costs to the retail price. This loss of purchasing power can only be limited or compensated if wages increase in proportion to the cost of living, which is not the case. On 1 May 2010 Hugo Chávez decreed a 15 percent increase in minimum wages and pensions but inflation reached 25 percent in 2009 and will probably be even higher in 2010.
This devaluation aims at other objectives in the longer term, but it would be risky to say whether they can be reached or not. Among these objectives, the most important one is certainly the promotion of import substitution. Since importing now costs 21 or 100 percent more (depending on the products imported), imports should decline and local producers should be in a better position for selling their production on the national market. Even better: the devaluation should convince them that it is profitable to produce products that were formerly imported. This could create a virtuous circle thanks to which the country could strengthen its industrial and agricultural base by replacing imported products with local ones.
Translated by Stéphanie Jacquemont and Judith Harris, in collaboration with Francesca Denley and Christine Pagnoulle
Next part: Suggested paths to 21st century socialism in Venezuela (Part 4)
Part 1 : “Venezuela. Nationalization, workers’ control: achievements and limitations” Part 2 : “Debate and contradiction in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela)”
Footnotes
|1| The first part of this series ‘Bolivarian Venezuela at the crossroads’ was posted on the CADTM website on 14 April 2010 under the title ‘Venezuela. Nationalization, workers’ control: achievements and limitations’, the second part was posted on 18 June 2010http://www.cadtm.org/Debate-and-con... (see also: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article17417 ) under the title ’ Debate and contradiction in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela)’
|2| For instance, the share of social economy within the private sector is very low: it reached 1.6% of gross domestic product at the end of 2008, up from 0.5% in 1998. Out of a total of 11,692,071 working people at the end of 2008, only 201,773 work in the social economy cooperatives, i.e. barely 1.7%.
|3| See Victor Álvarez “The transformation of the Venezuelan productive model : review of ten years of government”, Revista La Comuna n°0, p. 37 to 55. Victor Álvarez was Minister of Basic Industries in the Chávez government from January 2006 to August 2007.
|4| This statement has to be qualified: until 2002, although a public company, the operation of PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela Sociedad Anónima) had progressively favoured the private sector. A large part of its revenue was declared and taxed in the United States. The measures taken by the Chávez government from 2002 onwards enabled the State to take over the company’s management, which resulted in a strong increase in revenue to be later used to finance social policies.
|5| The Misión Mercal S.A. (MERCado de ALimentos) is one of the social programmes promoted by the Venezuelan government. Officially launched on 24 April, 2003, the Misión Mercal is designed to serve the food sector and comes under the control of the Ministry of Food. The programme involves building shops and supermarkets and supplying them with staples and basic products at low prices that are affordable by the needy. Food products are subsidized and arrive on the shelves without middle-men, so that the prices offered usually represent a discount of 30% to 45%, compared to the prices charged in other distribution channels.http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misi%C3%B3n_Mercal
|6| Productora y Distribuidora Venezolana de Alimentos (Pdval) was created in January 2008http://www.abn.info.ve/go_news5.php?articulo=117377
|7| Quoted by Victor Álvarez.
|8| See Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval, The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, 2007,www.cepr.net
|9| A personal anecdote: in late November-early December 2006 in Caracas, I was utterly astounded to see in the middle-class neighbourhoods that thousands of Christmas trees imported from Canada were being sold. In the shops, they were also selling quantities of devices to spray artificial snow on the trees. It should be added that in Caracas the temperature around Christmas is over 20°C. The massive import of Christmas trees from the Great North is very profitable thanks to the overvalued bolivar. It is true that Chávez criticized this pattern of systematic imports, all the more so as, he said, it was linked to cultural traditions (Santa Claus for instance) that were also imported and unquestioningly adopted to the detriment of local cultures.
|10| The foreign financial papers The Economist and the Financial Times regularly stress that Venezuelan private banks are very pleased with this opportunity given by the State to bypass capital movements control.
|11| See http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/article_PDF/article_a4492.pdf and Martha Harnecker “Selección de las opiniones más destacadas de los intelectuales reunidos en el CIM” (Selection of the most prominent opinions of the intellectuals in the CIM meeting)http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=88131 which takes up extracts from several speeches given during the meeting of intellectuals organized by the CIM in early June 2009.
P.S.
Eric Toussaint, Doctor in Political Science (University of Liege and University of Paris VIII), is president of CADTM Belgium (Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt, www.cadtm.org). He is the author of A diagnosis of emerging global crisis and alternatives, VAK, Mumbai, India, 2009, 139p; The World Bank, A Critical Primer, Pluto Press, Between The Lines, David Philip, London-Toronto-Cape Town 2008; Bank of the South. An Alternative to the IMF-World Bank, VAK, Mumbai, India, 2007; Your Money or Your Life, The Tyranny of Global Finance, Haymarket, Chicago, 2005.
Source: CADTM
July 31st 2010
Bolivarian Venezuela at a Crossroads, Part 2: Debate and Contradiction in the PSUV
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)