Socialism

Thomas Sankara remains a global icon

His vision of a socialist, pan-Africanist model of development⁠ was not buried with him

This file photograph shows Thomas Sankara as he reviews troops in a street of Ouagadougou, during celebrations of the second anniversary of the Burkina Faso’s revolution. Photo by Daniel Lane/AP.

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“We encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid,” asserted Thomas Sankara, president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. “But in general welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us, thus beguiling us and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political and cultural affairs.”

In order to restore that sense of responsibility, Sankara implemented a socialist, anti-imperialist agenda aimed at cultivating a self-sufficient economy run by the Burkinabè people, for the Burkinabè people. His agenda included, among other things, refusal to pay Burkina Faso’s debts to Western-run institutions on the grounds that, one, it was illegitimately accrued, and two, constant debt serving was anathema to African development.

As ideologically void military coups rock Burkina Faso and the debt crisis across the African continent grows more urgent by the year, the Burkinabè people are readying to commemorate Sankara on the thirty-fifth anniversary of his assassination. Sankara’s four years in power proved that alternative development models that do not subscribe to the imported precepts of neocolonial institutions are not only possible, but necessary if underdeveloped nations want to develop in endogenous and sustainable ways.

When Sankara seized power in 1983, his government represented a radical break from the past. Named “Upper Volta” by the French and underdeveloped in a classic colonial fashion, formal independence brought little material change to the country. A series of puppet rulers kept the country in France’s neocolonial dominion, while the majority of Upper Volta’s population remained undereducated and undernourished. When Sankara, a military captain who espoused the tenets of Marxism-Leninism, took power in a coup, continent-wide hopes for African socialism were reinvigorated. The Zanzibarian socialist A.M. Babu summed up the hopeful feeling:

Captain Thomas Sankara… can be instrumental in reviving that post-colonial enthusiasm which most people had hoped would be rekindled by [Mugabe’s] Zimbabwe but was not; the enthusiasm that cleared bushes, built thousands of miles of modern roads, that dug canals on the basis of free labour and the spirit of nation-building.

A man of informal style and modest values, Sankara nevertheless espoused an ambitious development program for the African continent. Firstly, he renamed his country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso⁠—“the land of upright people”⁠—and nationalized the majority of its resources, most importantly the farmland and mineral reserves. He launched a series of “commando” operations to build a nation-spanning railroad (the people constructed almost 100 kilometres of railway in two years), increase literacy in the countryside (tens of thousands were taught to read), and vaccinate children against measles, meningitis, and yellow fever (two million children were vaccinated in two weeks, saving 18,000 to 50,000 kids who usually died in the yearly epidemics). All these initiatives were undertaken without accepting funds from international financial institutions or encouraging foreign investment.

“We don’t want anything from anyone,” said Foreign Minister Basile Guissou. “No one will come to develop Burkina Faso in place of its own people.” At a time when Africa’s debt was around $200 billion and 40 percent of the continent’s export earnings were going toward debt payments, this was a brave stance to take. Sankara went one step further when, in 1987, he urged the rest of Africa to reject its foreign debt and follow Burkina Faso’s successful model of self-sufficiency.

Sankara’s goal was to ensure the population’s access to food and clean drinking water, a basic but demanding ambition on a continent where hunger and thirst were enforced on whole peoples through the financial institutions and foreign policy agendas of the “civilized” Western world. “Our economic ambition,” he said, “is to use the strength of the people of Burkina Faso to provide, for all, two meals a day and drinking water.”

His policies bore fruit. Between 1983 and 1986, cereal production rose 75 percent and the new Ministry of Water helped many communities dig wells and water reservoirs. Journalist Ernest Harsch recalls: “Ordinary Burkinabè seemed to readily embrace Sankara’s approach, as they mobilized in their local communities to quickly build new schools, health clinics, and other facilities that had once seemed but a remote fantasy.”

Sankara’s independent development policies, combined with a non-aligned foreign policy that saw him enjoy good relations with Cuba, Libya, and the Soviet Union, led the Europeans (and particularly the French) to turn against the revolutionary government. Much like other revolutionary processes in Cuba and Venezuela, Sankara’s government was successfully implementing a new development strategy that spurned the racist paternalism and interventionist austerity of Western financial institutions in favour of a model of self-sufficiency rooted in popular mobilization. Moreover, Sankara demanded respect from the Global North, and especially from Burkina Faso’s former colonizer. “What is essential,” he stated, “is to develop a relationship of equals, mutually beneficial, without paternalism on one side or an inferiority complex on the other.”

The French government’s attitude toward Sankara grew increasingly negative during his time in power. For example, during a brief border war between Mali and Burkina Faso in 1985, France sold weapons to Mali. Overall, Sankara had deprived France of influence in West Africa, and the success of his alternative path portended an even greater diminishment of French influence as other peoples in the region would likely realize that self-sufficiency was possible. As such, the French retained close ties with conservative governments in neighbouring Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, especially the Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, whose country was home to many Burkinabè exiles who opposed the Burkinabè revolution.

When Sankara traveled to Côte d’Ivoire in May 1984, he was initially banned from visiting Abidjan, the largest city, because Ivorian authorities were worried he would be welcomed more enthusiastically than the country’s own president.

Everything fell apart on October 15, 1987, when former Sankara compatriot Blaise Compaoré launched a coup of his own. His soldiers murdered Sankara and his closest allies and unceremoniously buried their bodies in a mass grave. Harsch reported that, when word of Sankara’s death spread, mourners flocked to the mound to lay flowers and weep.

Compaoré ruled until 2014. Some of his earliest actions included reversing the state monopoly on the mining industry and allowing the International Monetary Fund and the World to return to the country. “Without shame, we must appeal to private investors,” he announced in a clear break from Sankara. “We need to develop capitalism… We have never considered socialism.”

In further contrast to his predecessor, Compaoré built an opulent presidential palace and purchased a luxury jet once owned by Michael Jackson. The West’s immediate embrace of Compaoré and the new leader’s closeness to France (and particularly French ally Félix Houphouët-Boigny) have fed theories that the coup was launched at the behest of Burkina Faso’s former colonizer. To this day, the French government refuses to open its archives on Sankara.

By the late 1990s, foreign exploration teams had discovered huge gold reserves in Burkina Faso. Canada, with its growing investments in gold, was especially interested. By 2003, the following Canadian companies were exploring or developing mines in Burkina Faso: Axmin, Orezone Resources, Etruscan Resources, St. Jude Resources, SEMAFO, and High River Gold. Within fewer than twenty years, Canadian interests would own the majority of gold operations in the country, dominating Burkina Faso’s most profitable export.

In 2014, a popular uprising overthrew Compaoré, bringing an end to decades of openly neocolonial rule. However, the political process that followed failed to break with the past as Sankara would have advised. Canadian pressure was instrumental in preventing substantial reform. As Business Monitor Online explained, “Burkina Faso is heavily dependent on foreign aid, much of it from Canada, the home jurisdiction of most of the miners that would be hurt by significant review.” Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper further protected Canadian investments by finalizing a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), negotiated with the Compaoré regime, while the unelected transition government was in power.

A 2015 meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré revealed the continuing prevalence of Canadian capital in the country today. As Canadian mining investments in Burkina Faso and all West Africa continued to rise, Kaboré shook hands with Trudeau and “underscored the importance of Canadian investments to Burkina Faso’s economy.”

This year, Burkina Faso has been the site of two military coups. The first, on January 24, overthrew Kaboré and brought officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba to power, and the second, on September 30, dislodged Damiba and elevated officer Ibrahim Traore to the head of the military regime. Neither of these coups impacted Canadian investment in the country. An October 3 article in Canadian Mining Journal notes that operations owned by Canada’s Endeavor Mining and IAMGOLD “have not been affected by spreading social unrest following an internal coup d’état.”

Sankara’s vision of an independent, socialist, pan-Africanist model of development⁠—one in which wealth produced in Africa remains in Africa to develop the majority of the population⁠—was not buried with him. He remains an inspiring symbol for people in Africa and beyond. In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Aziz Fall, coordinator for the International Campaign Justice for Sankara, explained that Sankara “symbolized for most African youths the hope of a sovereign Africa. He actually gave his life for that… And so he’s an icon, I think.”

Owen Schalk is a writer based in Winnipeg. He is primarily interested in applying theories of imperialism, neocolonialism, and underdevelopment to global capitalism and Canada’s role therein. Visit his website at www.owenschalk.com.

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Alice in national healthcare land

by Evelyn LazareOctober 19, 2022

Alice was right: “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”

A sculpture of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, New York, NY. Credit: Vallue / Wikimedia Commons

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a strange world full of confusion and rife with obfuscation.

The book contains many well-known quotes that are particularly appropriate to the crisis in healthcare in Canada. One describes the response of various governments. 

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” 

Surely provincial, territorial and the federal governments must be tiring of the pace of denial of the problems in healthcare. Isn’t it time to slow down and choose another path?

Governments might admit that there are problems such as the lack of family physicians, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants. They might decry the shortage of nurses and other healthcare practitioners, such as nursing aides, EMTs, pharmacists. 

They might be joined by a professional association for various healthcare practitioners. Or other associations for hospitals, clinics and medical and allied healthcare education providers. 

But what are they doing about any of the problems? 

Almost daily, provincial governments announce new fixes. Increases in medical class sizes are popular, but they are small to begin with and will take years to make a difference. 

These fanfare announcements ignore demographics that demonstrate increases in population, particularly in the number and percentage of older Canadians. A few more doctors down the road will not be enough.

Some jurisdictions promise quicker accreditation of foreign-trained medical professionals. This is an old remedy that has not been successful in at least 20 years. What specifically is being done to make this happen now?

Other jurisdictions pledge to increase the scope of practice of various healthcare providers. See the last sentence of the previous paragraph.

The overall issue reflects several realities. First, governments are in power for specified periods and rarely think beyond that timeframe. Second, inter-governmental discussions frequently dissolve into squabbles over funding. As has been said many times, including in this column, more money is not the answer. Finally, it is less costly for governments to conduct further studies than to institute change.

So what is the answer? 

Another quote from Alice explains that after falling down the rabbit hole, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The Cheshire Cat responds: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

Alice replies to the cat: “I don’t much care where.”

The Cheshire Cat has the last word: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

This exchange has been summarized innumerable times. It makes it clear that if you don’t know where you want to go, you can’t know which road might get you there. Governments should learn from this.

The word “stakeholder” was popularized in the late 20th century to include a wide range of individuals and institutions with concerns about particular topics. It gained popularity as “stakeholder engagement.”  Discussions about big issue topics brought together representatives of the public, professionals and policy-makers to give equal voice to decisions.

Where is stakeholder engagement today?

The beginnings of the Canada Health Act date back to 1966. By 1972, all provinces had instituted government-funded health care under the financing arrangement of 50/50 federal/provincial.

By 1979, funding contributions had changed. Problems were evident and Emmet Hall completed his Health Status Review. This was followed by the National Forum on Health, then the Kirby and Romanow commissions, as well as A 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care prepared by provincial and territorial first ministers.

In 2000, the Canadian Institute for Health Research was founded. It was the first of many groups tasked with tracking both Canada’s progress in health status and its accomplishment of the many recommendations from the previous reports. 

This organization has since been joined by the Health Council of Canada, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and formal groups on Wait Times and on Mental Health. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer was also founded.

Surely these groups should participate in defining the problems and the potential solutions. 

Health Canada has a timeline of the country’s approach to national health insurance dating back to 1947. It includes many national, provincial and territorial studies. 

The reviews have all come to variations of the same conclusions. 

1. Canadians want their healthcare closer to home. Home care could help people age in place, keeping them out of institutions and out of hospitals except for urgent and acute care.
2. Canadians want preventive and palliative care, which are extremely hard to find. 
3. Canadians want dental and pharmaceutical coverage.
4. Canadians want mental health, chronic health, rehabilitation, and geriatric health recognized as essential components of the healthcare system.
5. Canadians want their healthcare providers to treat them with concern and compassion, not just as time blocks for billing purposes.
6. Canadians want their healthcare providers linked to each other, respecting their privacy.
7. Canadians want governments to be less siloed, by recognizing housing, education and food security as healthcare determinants.

In other words, it is no longer good enough to repeat the mantra that Canada has an excellent healthcare system. It doesn’t.

Outside Canada, various organizations have tried to evaluate the Canadian healthcare system. Not all reports are complimentary. 

With the arrival of COVID-19, many of the cracks in the Canadian healthcare system became serious chasms. Hospitals were overwhelmed, inadequately equipped and frequently unable to provide appropriate services. 

Long-term care and other congregate care facilities were exposed as the last place to protect the frail elderly. 

Emergency rooms were overcrowded and understaffed, bearing the burden of the lack of availability of primary care and community-based services.

Healthcare staff were stressed to previously unknown levels. Many resigned or retired early.

Patients who had been waiting for cancer care, for surgery, for dialysis and for other medically-required treatments were made to wait even longer.

The Prime Minister, the provincial and territorial Premiers, the Public Health Agency of Canada (at federal, provincial and municipal levels) and various science councils convened to address COVID frequently offered conflicting advice about vaccines, mask-wearing and other preventive measures.

Alice was right: “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”

https://rabble.ca/columnists/alice-in-national-healthcare-land/

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Canada must choose a side in the wage war

by Tom SandbornNovember 28, 2022

Canada must stand on the side of workers as they struggle for living wages and safe working conditions, not just at home, but around the world.

A Canadian Tire store in Markham, ON. Canadian Tire was accused of profiting off of impoverished workers in Bangladesh.

Class war is not just a metaphor. It is real war, being murderously waged against workers around the world. We cannot, in good conscience, pretend we are neutral. It is far past time to choose a side and get involved.

“What we desire for ourselves we desire for all” is one of the cherished mottoes of the workers’ movement. This is a ringing endorsement of human solidarity, and it is also an expression of enlightened self-interest. Human liberty is indivisible. So long as any workers anywhere are denied basic human rights, those of us who silently enjoy those protections are complicit in the exploitation of our sisters and brothers around the world if we do not speak out and demand equal protection for all. And our own ongoing struggles in Canada are undermined by global exploitation.

This is one of those cases where doing the right thing in terms of ethics is also in our own best interests. Until all workers have basic human rights protections, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, employers will take advantage of our divisions and weaken us in our struggles. It’s the tired old “divide and conquer” tactic that has seen racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other structures of bias used to weaken our solidarity and divide our movements for too long.

Canadian workers, many of whom have seen their unionized jobs disappear while production shifts to low wage, union-hostile jurisdictions, have good reason to embrace international solidarity. Until workers around the world all have the right to organize and improve their conditions, their low wage labour competes unfairly with workers making decent union salaries in the developed world.

As this column is being prepared in late November, two examples of solidarity in action are in the news. We should all be paying attention.

On November 22, 2022, the Canadian Labour Congress and the United Steelworkers union (USW) filed a complaint with the recently created Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). CORE describes itself on its website as “…a human rights ombudsperson or ‘ombud.’ We review complaints about possible human rights abuses by Canadian companies when those companies work outside Canada in the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors.”

The complaint says that factories in Bangladesh supplying garments to Canada Tire and Marks retail outlets are paying their workers far below a living wage and calls on Canadian businesses to take action to compensate workers for past harm, increase transparency about its supply chain and immediately negotiate with Bangladeshi unions to ensure that all workers in supplier factories are paid living wages.

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“In the first part of this year, in the areas where Mark’s sources its merchandise, average monthly wages for women garment workers were only 12,673 taka – that’s $173 per month, or less than $1 per hour in current Canadian dollars. It’s not enough for a decent life,” said Marty Warren, USW National Director for Canada. “This is a shameful and long-standing violation of workers’ human rights.”

Canadian Tire told CBC news that  it works to ensure that its suppliers comply with all local laws, including compensation.

“As part of our activities to ensure compliance, [Canadian Tire] regularly tracks wage rates and works with reputable third parties to audit factories that manufacture our owned brand products,” the CBC story reads.

This polished public relations language will provide little comfort to exploited workers in the Bangladeshi factories that supply Canadian Tire and its subsidiary, Marks.

Meanwhile, a private member’s bill (C-262), which would address some of the human rights abuses imposed on workers around the world by Canadian firms, has passed first reading and stalled at that level. We should all be in touch with our MPs and remind them that this is an issue important to many Canadian voters and urge them to increase their efforts to pass this bill. At least one labour rights advocate in Bangladesh thinks this bill would represent significant progress.

“If Bill C-262 were in place, Canadian Tire would be forced to proactively address issues of human rights and poverty wages in its supply chain,” said Kalpona Akter, Executive Director, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity. Call your MP and tell them Kalpona sent you!

Meanwhile, on another solidarity front, Amnesty International is currently circulating a petition that calls for justice for the brutally exploited workers who suffered and died while building the infrastructure for the current World Cup extravaganza in Qatar. The contrast between the pain and squalor that haunts exploited workers in Qatar and the sumptuous display of luxury and conspicuous consumption attending the FIFA gala is sharp, and makes the argument for our solidarity. I urge every reader to sign and circulate the Amnesty International petition. And if you are an active union member, please consider urging your union to actively support this initiative.

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