South Africa: Post “Post-Apartheid”?

AfricaFocus Bulletin
September 7, 2016 (160907)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

The “post-apartheid” period is now over, it seems. Whether one dates
the change from the massacre of miners at Marikana in 2012, the
death of Nelson Mandela in 2013, student protests in 2015, or the
municipal elections last month, a generation has now passed since
the high hopes of the first democratic elections in 1994. South
Africans, particularly the generation known as the “born-frees,” are
coping with the realization that that political victory was only the
beginning, not the achievement of the  hopes for social and economic
transformation so many had hoped and died for.

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/sa1609a.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

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As in other African countries a generation after the achievement of
political independence, and in the United States a generation after
the dramatic gains for political rights in the 1950s and 1960s, it
is clear that centuries of history of oppression are still deeply
embedded in current stubborn structures of inequality, as well as in
the dominant culture. The number of years counted in a generation
are generally taken as somewhere from 20 to 30. But changes in
consciousness are uneven, and sharply marked by transformative
events.

Those experiences differ, of course, from country to country and
continent to continent. But in the age of hashtags such as
#BlackLivesMatter and #FeesMustFall, there are also striking
convergences and linkages across continental boundaries. Yet the
unequal balance in global media (including social media) means that
the outside world is far less aware of the changes in South Africa
than of the highly publicized events in the United States.

Today’s series of two AfricaFocus Bulletins, therefore, focuses
particularly on South Africa.

Another AfricaFocus Bulletin, not sent out by email but available on
the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/sa1609b.php, contains
excerpts from a forthcoming chapter by Patrick Bond, focusing on the
link between student protest in South Africa and the current heated
debates about the government budget and economic priorities in South
Africa.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin includes, as is our normal format, several
articles and additional links related to selected topics: recent
protests by black girls against racist hair codes at elite private
schools, analysis of the aftermath of the municipal elections, and
the planned launch of a new progressive trade union federation.

A new feature this week, however, consists of links  to a Youtube
playlist of highly recommended videos available for free watching,
including two acclaimed feature films on the Marikana Massacre of
2012 (Miners Shot Down) and on the student protests of 2015 (The
People Versus the Rainbow Nation) as well as shorter videos and
interviews, such as the explosive speech by ANC veteran Sipho
Pityana at the funeral of ANC leader Makhenkhesi Stofile in last
August. You can find the listing below, with links to each video.
But, if your time right now is limited, I suggest you save this
email for later reading and go directly to Youtube to pick what to
watch and save any you are interested in to “watch later.” See
“South Africa in the 21st Century in Video: A Youtube Playlist,”
available at http://tinyurl.com/hqpr255.

Watching these videos and preparing the playlist has been both
enjoyable and highly informative for me, but it is also much more
time-consuming than selecting written material from email and web.
So I would much appreciate feedback on whether readers find any of
the videos useful, and whether you would like similar playlists to
be an ongoing feature for AfricaFocus.

To provide feedback, after you have watched a video, please fill out
this form: https://goo.gl/forms/skDu3L9MxgfpJIJj2

If you prefer audio to video, and have time to listen (a bit less
than an hour), note that KPFA radio host Walter Turner interviewed
me about South Africa after the municipal elections on his program
Africa Today. For the discussion with Walter, focused on trying to
understand South Africa’s present situation in comparison to the
parallels in the United States, visit the KPFA site at
https://kpfa.org/program/africa-today/, and scroll down to the
program for August 15, 2016. I’m not doing a form on this one, but
if you listen, any feedback (email to africafocus@igc.org) would be
welcome.

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on South Africa, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/southafrica.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Zulaikha Patel: How we all wish we were you

by Azad Essa

Daily Vox, August 30, 2016

http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/zulaikha-patel-wish-we-were-you/

[For regular progressive coverage of South Africa, follow The Daily
Vox on Facebook or subscribe to the weekly “Top of the Vox” at
http://tinyurl.com/z5fvnpm]

I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it.

The little girl – now known to all as Zulaikha Patel – standing in
front of a row of three white males, refusing to back down, calling
on them to follow through with their threats to arrest them – for
their hair.

“Take us all,” she said, for half a dozen girls at the school. “They
want to take us prison … take us all.”

It was an act of extraordinary courage that left us tingling. Who
were these brave girls and how had they secured such resilience
against authority?

I watched the video on a loop on Instagram. Stolen moments from a
protest that left me breathless. I think it was five times before I
dared to blink. And still, there was an artistry in the execution of
their defiance. A calmness that betrayed possible consequence.

For Zulaikha – her resolve was as natural as the curls on her head
and the light creases on her young face. It was earnest, determined
and uncomplicated.

Their actions were undeterred by mortgage payments and outstanding
car loans. Unconcerned about the impact of her actions on “her
career” or “that promotion”.

A free spirit, asking only for the right to be herself.

The photo of her standing tall with steely eyes, arms outstretched
and fists folded above her irresistible afro in a defiance of an
antiquated, warped and racist policy will be studied and fluttered
over for years to come.

We learnt later that Zulaikha had been previously put in detention
for her hair. That she had to leave three schools because her hair
challenged the system. Her sister said she was continually mocked,
her hair described as “exotic” and looking like a “cabbage”. She
would come home in tears.  It is remarkable then that she didn’t
look for ways to mend the “problem”.

I know I would have. I know I turned a blind eye to any whispers or
condescension from teachers or classmates at both primary and
secondary school reserved for the few brown and black faces in the
former Model-C schools I attended. I know I put on a purported
civilised face each morning I entered that school and showed my true
colours each afternoon back home or with fellow brown savages at the
local madrassa.

Then, as profiling at airports or certain cities continue to
proliferate, so many of us are shifting our behaviours,
assimilating, changing the way we curl our tongues so we fit in, or
draw attention to ourselves. And if we protest, it will be decided
after a cost-benefit assessment: based on time and place, potential
to win and lose, energy levels and interest to take on the prejudice
or let it slip. We are all in awe of Zulaikha, because we wish to
hell we could have all been her, growing up. We wish we could be
her, as a grown up.

While so many of us were trying as children, and then as adults, to
make the world work for us, we forgot that world already belonged to
each and every one of us. We’ve been left so insecure and desperate
to “make it”, we’ve been wired to forgo anything, including
ourselves.

I wondered after watching the clip another five times: what if there
hadn’t been a video to record the sublime protest initiated by the
girls of the school? The reported narrative would have never gone
viral. It would not have brought the school to its knees, its
policies into the spotlight. It might not have brought politicians
and policymakers into the discussion. Zulaikha might have found
herself immediately suspended, or expelled, maybe jailed. It might
have all been in vain.

We don’t know, as per her sister’s admission, how all of this
attention will impact on Zulaikha. She is just a 13-year-old after
all, acting on her own accord. And this is not a fight she was ever
meant to fight.

But she has provided a most memorable lesson.

Justice, it turns out, simply needs people to speak out against
injustice.

And it’s apt, that it would take a child to make us remember that.

—————

See also, for a description of the protest and its background,
“Pretoria Girls High:  A protest against sacrificed cultures and
identities,” by Greg Nicolson, Daily Maverick, August 30, 2016 (
http://tinyurl.com/hjqpzek).

***********************************************************

The Sun Also Rises: And the Darkest Hour is just before the Dawn

John Matisonn

Daily Maverick, 29 August 2016

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za – direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/grp9h3a

[John Matisonn is the author of God, Spies and Lies, Finding South
Africa’s future through its past, and host of Cape Town TV’s Between
the Lines, a series of half-hour programs each featuring an
interview with a key South African newsmaker or analyst.]

[For a Youtube playlist of Between the Lines beginning in June 2016,
visit http://tinyurl.com/jsotek5 – For links to selected interviews,
see “South Africa in the 21st Century” below]

I guess I’m cursed to be a contrarian. By late 1996 I could see that
this democratic government so many had risked life and limb for
would not be strong against corruption. I saw it first-hand when it
sided against the honest in the first big corruption scandal of the
ANC era, at the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Everyone else
was optimistic, and I, an IBA councillor, was out of step.

Now, as President Jacob Zuma’s rank disdain for the people he
governs has seen in some a spiral of despair, I feel positive. Why?
Because August 2016 will go down in this country’s history as a
turning point. Zuma is not finished yet, but my crystal ball tells
me that whatever damage he does before he goes, and there will be
damage, politically speaking he is a dead man walking. The South
African voter has awoken. And you can take that to the bank.

Of course this may not be the end of the ANC. If good leadership,
leadership with vision and integrity, takes the helm, the ANC
obviously can rebuild. Too many people care about it to abandon it
if given new reasons for hope. But every day Zuma remains in charge
is a blessing to Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema. For them, the
president is the gift that keeps on giving. And from the day after
Zuma goes, he will be like apartheid: Support Zuma? Who, me? Never
happened!

The cascade of good people coming out against Zuma and for Gordhan
should bring tears of relief to the patriotic eye. Let’s be blunt
for a moment, like we know South Africans are at home: a lifelong
Communist of Indian descent has the hopes and admiration of a
grateful nation. His courage, smarts and sensibleness have brought
out the best in leaders in every field and of every ethnicity.

Not a day goes past without an icon of the struggle, or a gaggle of
academics or a billionaire business leader, scathingly attacking the
president. And Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally lifted
his skirt. After a seemingly endless period of the unseemly
grovelling necessary to stay in his job, he’s given a limited idea
of what we are asked to believe is the real Cyril: he backed Pravin
Gordhan unequivocally at an ANC funeral.

Don’t bet the farm that Cyril will not cover those ankles again.
Zuma retains the majority in the decision-making National Executive
Committee, and Ramaphosa knows how to count. But for ordinary South
Africans, either the ANC throws out Zuma, or voters continue to
nibble away at the ANC’s eviscerated credibility and votes.

It will be a long time before all of us — commentators,
politicians, businesspeople, academics and the jobless — digest the
news of August 2016. Around 10 percent of the national budget, and
hundreds of thousands of jobs, are no longer controlled by the ANC.
Even in the unlikely event of a 2019 ANC recovery from these local
election results, further losses will accrue in provincial and
national legislatures.

The ANC lacks the tools for opposition politics, except perhaps in
Johannesburg, where the outgoing mayor, Parks Tau, retains his
skills and moral compass.

If Herman Mashaba messes up as mayor of Johannesburg, Tau’s people
will be back in 2021. That’s in the future. For the rest of this
decade, the defeated will have to adjust.

The new metro governments have something going for them. That hunger
and lack of entitlement, the feeling they have no God-given right to
govern and everything to prove, may serve them well.

Do not underestimate the prize: even if they do not get the ANC
below 50% in 2019, think about the thousands of town councillors who
lost their jobs this month, and the MPs and MPLs who know they will
be unemployed in 2019. Think about the tens (hundreds?) of thousands
of cadres whose guarantees of deployed positions just evaporated.
They must prove themselves competent, or they’re next. Those old
enough will remember that apartheid slugger John Vorster’s famous
phrase: adapt or die.

The adaptations to come will boggle the pre-August 2016 mind. Zuma
seems determined to take out Paul Mashatile as ANC Gauteng
provincial leader. He, Tau, and Gauteng premier David Makhuru
represent the best in the ANC. Urban, urbane, modern and honourable.
What will they do?

The answer follows logic: some will stay ANC to the bitter end. But
others will switch parties. It may still seem impossible to imagine,
but when they are out in the cold, their choice will be fairly
simple: DA or EFF. Perhaps COPE or the UDM will attract a few, but
they lack the infrastructure or heft to make it on their own. The
future is with three parties. Only in KwaZulu-Natal will the fourth,
the Inkatha Freedom Party, remain in the running, though the age of
its leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and his failure to prepare
for succession mean it too is on borrowed time. As in the white
politics days of the United Party’s Douglas Mitchell and before that
the British imperialist Dominion Party, the languid politics of our
tropical province will be slow to catch up.

The country needs to move to debate that’s more concrete. Probably
nothing is more critical or central and essential to debate than
reprioritising the national budget. That requires a public argument
tied to what the government is actually doing as opposed to what it
says it’s doing.

To give but two examples: Every government leader says we are
prioritising infrastructure, but the companies that would be
building infrastructure — construction companies — are staving off
collapse because so little is being commissioned. Infrastructure
brings jobs and growth, both short-term and long-term.

Second, the government wants a zero fees increase because it is
scared of students. But it hasn’t offered a way to pay for it.
Universities are a top priority. They provide the job creators (as
opposed to the claim especially by the American right that cutting
already low taxes on the 1% creates jobs).

Where should the money come from? That is what the debate must be
about. But first, a major step must be to cut the public sector
payroll. If we don’t we will be Zimbabwe — where Robert Mugabe has
stayed in power for 36 years by protecting public sector salaries at
the expense of the economy. In 2016 that chicken (his party symbol
is the rooster) has finally come to roost. This week, after he
proved unable to meet the payroll yet again, he finally agreed to
the cuts. That is the worst possible way to do it — to cut when you
have no money to redirect productively.

What happened on August 3 may be the best possible outcome for a
number of reasons besides giving the ANC a well deserved bloody
nose. The fact that the transfer of power occurred largely
peacefully is a good sign. That makes it more likely that the ANC
will accept the next round of losses.

As important, this slow easing of power away from the ANC is better
than an overnight landslide, for this reason: South Africa is
extremely hard to govern. Its complexity, managing unruly and
compromised trade unions and increasingly confident traditional
leaders, remain substantially the ANC’s problem.

So keep your chin up. Take the long view. The wheels of democracy
grind slow but sure. The majesty of democracy is a wonderful thing
to behold. South Africa will be back. China won’t bring it back.
America and Europe won’t bring it back. Only we, South Africans, can
and must. DM

See also Sahra Ryklief, “South Africa’s 2016 municipal elections –
why the excitement?,” GroundUp, August 23, 2016 (
http://tinyurl.com/jvbx4aw)

************************************************************

“Zwelinzima Vavi’s address to the FAWU [Food and Allied Workers
Union] National Congress”
22 August 2016

[Brief excerpts from beginning of speech by the former general
secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and
convenor of the Steering Committee for a New Trade Union Federation.
Full text available at http://tinyurl.com/j8b6roc]

It is also a time of extreme hardship for millions of workers and
thousands of your own members, particularly on the farms, where far
too many employers still act as if apartheid had never ended.

Poverty pay, casualisation, exploitation and racism are widespread
and even getting worse, as the job-loss bloodbath continues. Entire
industries are in danger of disappearing. Unemployment at 36% is
among the highest in the world, and employers have been quick to
exploit the desperation of the unemployed to find or keep jobs at
any cost in order to drive down wages and working conditions.

As well as outsourcing, casualisation of work and using labour
brokers, the bosses are now waging a concerted campaign to sabotage
collective bargaining structures and weaken the power of organised
labour. Some, like Uber taxis, want to redefine all their workers as
self-employed so-called ‘partners’, with no benefits or union
rights.

Inequality is widening globally, but South Africa remains the worst
in the world, and it is still blatantly racial as the gap gets wider
between the white, super-rich capitalist elite and the black working
class majority, women in particular, who remain even more firmly
mired in poverty, hunger and squalid living conditions. Wealth is
shifting further into the pockets of the white capitalists.

This widening inequality fosters a mood of growing anger and despair
as the problems which the ANC keep promising to solve remain as bad
as ever or get even worse. Community protests against the lack of
basic services, corruption and unaccountable local officials have
become so frequent that they rarely make the news headlines, except
in traffic reports when they disrupt motorists travel plans!

This is all aggravated by the unchecked explosion of
maladministration, corruption and theft of our wealth not just by a
few rogue families but the entire capitalist class and their
political allies in the ANC, DA and other political parties. It is
not just President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas who are plundering the
wealth created by our labour, but the entire corrupt capitalist
system of which they are part.

More and more reports are leaking out revealing systematic tax
evasion and money-laundering by big business. Millions of rands are
disappearing from the country as investors put their cash where they
will make the quickest and biggest profits, with no regard for the
welfare of the people, the environmental price and least of all the
conditions of their workers who produce the wealth in the first
place. Big business is sitting on R1, 5 trillion in the banks and it
blames this investment strike on ‘uncertainty’.

These are all the real reasons for the decline in the ANC vote and
the record high number of abstentions on 3 August. Although it is
still the biggest party, the ANC’s vote dropped from 62.9% in 2011
to 54.4%.

…

********************************************

South Africa in the 21st Century in Video: A Youtube Playlist

Videos selected by AfricaFocus Bulletin (http://www.africafocus.org)
as key resources for understanding South Africa today. The full
playlist is available at http://tinyurl.com/hqpr255

Miners shot down [Full documentary]
Award-winning 2014 film on the 2012 Marikana Massacre.
1 hour, 26 minutes

Shutting Down the Rainbow Nation: #FeesMustFall
by Africa is a Country
Short film on #FeesMustFall student protests. October 2015.
11 minutes

The People Versus The Rainbow Nation
by MTV Base Africa
Feature film. May 2016. Inside look at students and the issues
behind the protests.
1 hour, 2 minutes

Between The Lines Episode 1
by Cape Town TV
Interview with Sylvia Vollenhoven, June 2016. From rediscovery of
history of the Khoisan to corruption and illicit financial flows in
the mid-1990s.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 3
by Cape Town TV
Interview with Andrew Feinstein. June 2016. Corruption in the South
African arms deal & the global arms trade.
24 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 6
by Cape Town TV
Interview with leading university educator Jonathan Jansen. July
2016. The state of South African higher education. Financial &
policy neglect.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 8
by Cape Town TV
Interview with #FeesMustFall activist Akosua Korenteng at University
of Cape Town. August 2016.
26 minutes

Between the Lines Episode 11
by Cape Town TV
Interview with election analyst Bob Mattes. August 2016. Data-based
analysis of municipal election results.
24 minutes

Full Speech: Sipho Pityana Attacks Jacob Zuma at Makhenkhesi Stofile
funeral
by Tribe2Tribes
Devastating critique of regime corruption at funeral of respected
ANC leader. August 25, 2016.
30 minutes

“Sipho Pityana speech at Stofile funeral,” News24,
2016-08-26. Background and partial transcript at
http://tinyurl.com/glhkhgx

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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by James Thompson

People of conscience around the world have been horrified by the mass murders committed in Orlando, Florida over the weekend. Many people have questioned how such a horrific event could occur.

News reports have indicated that a lone gunman born in the United States of Afghan dissent slaughtered 49 innocent people at a nightclub and gravely wounded 5 people while wounding at least 53 others.

Some may maintain that the gunman was deranged. This cannot be argued. However, let’s examine the facts as we know them. A working class gunman of Afghan dissent slaughtered 49 mostly Latino and African-American people in a nightclub that serves primarily LGBT clients.

The perversion of thinking lies in the fact that once again the bourgeoisie have pulled a fast one on the working class. In this case, one working class gunman took the lives of at least 49 working-class people.

As the bourgeoisie squeals with glee over this split in which one sector of the working class brutally assaulted another sector of the working class, the bourgeois media pontificates and attempts to exploit this tragedy to further the interests of the bourgeoisie.

This unending splitting of the working class only serves the interests of the bourgeoisie. Until all sectors of the working class are able to recognize their brothers and sisters in other sectors of the working class and thereby unify in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, these tragedies will continue.

The splitting of the working class perpetuates the perversion of thinking among working class people. The splitting renders the working class powerless against the cancerous bourgeoisie. Unity is the only answer to the oppression of the working class by the bourgeoisie.

(A response to Sue Webb opinion in People’s World on January 4, 2016)

Dear Editor:

In Sue Webb’s opinion piece which appeared in the January 4, 2016 edition she implies that all that is needed in the USA is for us to change the word “capitalism” to “socialism” and everything will fall into place. Of course, this is pure fantasy, the words of a person who is satisfied with the capitalist system of greed and corporate control, what we used to refer to as the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” Ms. Webb is, indeed, bourgeois and her oversimplifications show that.

Her slanders of the USSR and socialism are particularly disturbing. She writes “[socialism] – has been tainted by much of what happened in the Soviet Union and some other countries. But there’s nothing in socialism that equates to dictatorship, political repression, bureaucracy, over-centralization and commandism, and so on. Those features of Soviet society arose out of particular circumstances and personalities. But they were not “socialist.”

Ms. Webb never objected the to the USSR when, in an act of great proletarian internationalism, the Soviet Union and the socialist community of nations led an international movement to save the life of Angela Y. Davis. Now that there is no more USSR thanks to the counter-revolutionary activities of Mikhail Gorbachev and those around him that promoted the concept of socialist “markets” and private enterprise, Ms. Webb all of a sudden finds fault with the socialism of the 20^th Century, calling it dictatorial, politically repressive, bureaucratic, and over-centralized, with a command style structure. And what dare I ask, was the USSR when they supported the CPUSA and its fight against racism and its political anti-monopoly program? So soon she forgets! Ms. Webb never objected when the Soviet Union supported the Cuban economy and the development of Cuba. She never objected when the USSR supported the national liberation movements in Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Congo. All during the existence of the Soviet Union, the world witnessed the greatest fighter for world peace and socialism. Real socialism. To deny that is the worst kind of right opportunism.

As her alternative to scientifically planned economic socialism, Ms. Webb describes how we in the USA have many publicly owned electric utilities. That’s nice. We also have private utilities Sempra Energy, Pacific Gas, and Electric (PG&E), and Edison International for example, that endanger our environment and public health, cause great disasters like the natural gas explosion in San Bruno, California, the natural gas leak in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the financial manipulation of energy prices by companies like Enron. What is the plan of the social-democrats to deal with these privately owned conglomerates in a socialist economy?

Ms. Webb says that Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist because he rejects the idea of a planned economy. Great! So we should continue living with the chaos we live in now, where material goods are produced not for the benefit of the people, but to continue the system of private profits and exploitation at any cost? She speaks like a typical believer in American exceptionalism. As long as we have markets for goods everything will be OK. She even says it would be OK to operate private businesses that continue to exploit workers, a kind of touchy, feeley, nice capitalism!

Gus Hall, the great American Communist leader, said many times that there is no “socialist model but that there are general concepts and economic laws of socialism that cannot be ignored. When they are cast aside as Sue Webb suggests we should, the result is counter-revolution and an increase in anti-worker activity. As long as there is a bourgeois class and that class holds the levers of power, it makes no difference who is President of the United States. We have two Americas. A capitalist America, and a working class America. The class war intensifies more every day. We will never have socialism unless and until the workers themselves take power and own the means of production and write their own ticket. They don’t need a Democratic Party messiah to do that. They need a real trade union federation like the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), another contribution to humanity from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

So what is socialism? In any country, in any language, socialism is the intermediary step toward a communist society. Socialism is defined as follows: “The social order which, through revolutionary action by the working class and its allies, replaces capitalism. It is “the first phase of Communist society, as it is when it has just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society” (Marx). It is the social order in which the exploitation of man by man has ended because the toiling masses own the means of production. In contrast with the higher phase of Communist society, where “each gives according to his need,” in Socialist society “each gives according to his ability, and receives according to the amount of work performed”.

Contrast this with Democratic Socialism, *which is the general term for reformist and opportunist parties in their “theory” and practice in the Labor Movement [in sharp contrast with class conscious, anti-imperialist trade unionism of the WFTU]. Social-Democracy’s history is marked by timidity, legalism, “respectability,” capitulation to the influence of the capitalists, and consistent betrayal, of the working class.

Time to ask yourselves, which side are you on?

*Marxist Glossary, L. Harry Gould, Sydney. Australia 1948

Joe Hancock

PCUSA, Los Angeles

AfricaFocus Bulletin
December 1, 2015 (151201)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“I’ve thought a lot about the outrage over unequal media coverage
when it comes to attacks in the Western world vs death in ‘other’
black and brown countries. I cringed when Barack Obama called the
Paris attacks an attack on ‘all humanity’–as if brutal attacks in
Pakistan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia and Mexico are not
quite up to that benchmark. I agree that we in the media need to do
a better job … [but] I can’t help but think that the ‘Why didn’t
the media care about _____’ stories will come, generate outrage
clicks and shares, and pass, without people really taking the time
to examine their own media consumption habits. … the stories were
written, you just didn’t click.” – Karen Attiah, Nov. 17, 2015

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/clik1512.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/clik152.php

As Washington Post digital editor Karen Attiah notes, there are
solid grounds for outrage at unequal media coverage of deaths in
different parts of the world. But the outrage often comes without a
differentiated analysis of “the media,” and failure to recognize
that each of us can have some effects on changing that coverage.
Granted that those who can make the most difference are the media
gatekeepers and editors who decide priorities for coverage on a
daily basis. But “the media” most of us have access to today include
not only the so-called “mainstream media,” but also many other forms
of media less restricted by gatekeepers, such as blogs, Facebook,
Youtube, and many more.

Readers and viewers can affect the reach of both mainstream and
other media by clicking, sharing, and other forms of multiplier
actions. In this digital age, mainstream editors must also pay
attention to click counts, and you can have influence by “boosting”
good articles by good journalists, not just complaining about the
bad ones.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from an outstanding set
of articles on the attack in Bamako, Mali, from one prominent
mainstream media outlet, The Washington Post, in the weeks following
Karen Attiah’s Facebook post cited above. So if you care about
Bamako as well as Paris, read these excerpts and also click to read
the full articles on The Washington Post website.

For previous articles by Karen Attiah in the Washington Post, visit
http://tinyurl.com/gqqy8ox

See in particular for related comment on the media:

“How Western media would cover Baltimore if it happened elsewhere,”
by Karen Attiah, April 30, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/zpm7vge

“Stop being angry at Western media for ‘ignoring’ Boko Haram,”
by Karen Attiah, Jan. 16, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/hq8fzc5

Another related article on Mali appeared in the Washington Post on
Nov. 30. “After this month’s attack in Bamako, what do we know about
fundamentalist Islam in Mali?,” by Sebastian Elischer
http://tinyurl.com/gry4399

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on peace and conflict issues,
visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-peace.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Facebook post by Karen Attiah, Nov. 17, 2015

http://www.facebook.com/KarenAttiah

I’ve thought a lot about the outrage over unequal media coverage
when it comes to attacks in the Western world vs death in “other”
black and brown countries. I cringed when Barack Obama called the
Paris attacks an attack on “all humanity”–as if brutal attacks in
Pakistan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia and Mexico are not
quite up to that benchmark. I agree that we in the media need to do
a better job capturing that humanity in our stories on a regular
basis, not just when an act of mass violence rips lives apart. We
need to care about LIFE in countries and cultures other than our
own.

I can’t help but think that the “Why didn’t the media care about
_____” stories will come, generate outrage clicks and shares, and
pass, without people really taking the time to examine their own
media consumption habits. We didn’t Ignore Garissa. We didn’t ignore
Nigeria. Let me echo my colleagues and say, that the stories were
written, you just didn’t click.

I suggest that for all who are upset at what is perceived as a lack
of coverage of places like Kenya, Nigeria, and Lebanon, now would be
a good time to find, follow, subscribe to, click on, share the
stories of the many journalists who are reporting and writing these
stories in the places you are concerned about and who sometimes risk
life and limb to do so.
The clicks, the shares, the likes, on stories from Africa, from
Latin America, the Middle East–it makes a difference. It tells us
in the media that YOU care about these stories.

**************************************************************

“Extremists stormed the Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital, and at
least 20 people are dead. These resources can help you learn more.”
by Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne

Monkey Cage, Washington Post, Nov. 21

http://tinyurl.com/hb7nqqn

[article includes introduction and an extensive list of resources,
with links]

**************************************************************

“Mali’s president declares state of emergency after deadly hotel
attack, National mourning in Mali after gunmen storm luxury hotel,”
by Pamela Constable

Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/oz4622y

[Kevin Sieff in Nairobi contributed to this report.]

Bamako, Mali — On most weekends, every table at the Canoe Club, a
stylish riverside bistro and bar, is reserved long in advance.
Western diplomats and United Nations staffers rub elbows with Malian
officials and business travelers late into the evening, noshing on
paella or pizza and enjoying French wine and champagne.

On Saturday, a day after terrorists invaded the luxury Radisson Blu
hotel in this poor West African capital, taking 130 people hostage
and leaving 21 dead, the Canoe Club was deserted. Idle waiters
repolished glasses or refolded linen napkins. Patrick Aleine, the
chef and co-owner, sat at the empty bar in a despondent funk.

“This is a disaster,” he said, speaking in French. “We have always
tried to make foreigners feel at ease and secure here, and we are
always full. Today, there is not a single customer. Tomorrow, there
is not a single table reserved. I am staying open for now, but if
the foreigners don’t start coming back, the Malians won’t come
either. Then we will be finished.”

On the surface, the crowded, hardscrabble city of nearly 2 million
people appeared to return to normal with astonishing speed so soon
after a horrific terrorist attack.

Motorbike traffic clogged the narrow streets and red-dirt alleys.
Fishermen poled canoes on the Niger River, which divides the
capital. Women with babies on their backs hung laundry outside tin
shanties, sold baskets of fruit or ladled out rice and stew at lunch
stands. Every few hours, the Muslim call to prayer echoed from
mosques scattered across the city.

In the morning, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a 10-day
state of emergency, giving security officials extra powers to enter
homes without a warrant and to ban public rallies or marches. He
also declared three days of national mourning, acting to tamp down
public reaction to the violence. Police and army troops were
stationed on many corners, and armored pickup trucks full of combat
troops circled the Radisson Blu and other sensitive areas of the
city.

Later, the president visited some victims of the hotel attack in a
local hospital and toured the hotel, accompanied by Prime Minister
Modibo Keita and surrounded by bodyguards. Camera crews, blocked
from following them inside, peered at glass and debris strewn across
the lobby floor. Amid the scrum, a group of grim-faced Western
guests emerged with loads of baggage and were hustled into waiting
SUVs by armed escorts, headed out of the country.

From behind a police barricade, a crowd of young men watched the
scene. Most said they were Muslim, as are 95 percent of Malians.
They expressed anger and consternation at the attack, saying it was
the act of terrorists who did not represent their religion. One
violent regional jihadist group, the Mourabitounes, has claimed
responsibility, and witnesses said that the attackers freed hostages
who could recite the Koran.

“This is not good for us or for our country,” said Mainanto Mamdu,
21, a mechanic. “There is no meaning to what these terrorists are
doing, but it seems they can do whatever they want.”

Nafila Dao, 23, who sells cellphones, said the threat of Islamist
extremism is “everywhere now, and we cannot stop it. We were taught
that Islam is tolerant of all religions and people. These people are
just murderers.”

There was a jittery tone to every conversation and encounter, an
uneasy chill beneath the routine commotion. Many people walked away
nervously when asked about the hotel attack. Despite the new
security measures, many people seemed to feel that their government
was helpless to stop terrorism. Some worried that the close
relationship Mali has long enjoyed with its European allies,
especially France and Belgium, was at stake.

… [article continues at http://tinyurl.com/oz4622y]

A senior police official, whose squad was among the first to reach
the besieged hotel Friday, said Mali and its international allies
must work together to fight extremists. “We are facing a menace to
all countries and all colors,” he said. “I have brave men and they
stopped the guests from panicking, but we cannot defeat these groups
with force. We have to go deeply into their mentality and their
psyche.”

**************************************************************

“Five things you should know about Friday’s terrorist attack in
Mali,” by Susanna D. Wing

Monkey Cage, The Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/nqsnro2

[Susanna D. Wing is associate professor and chair of political
science at Haverford College. She is also the author of the award-
winning book, “Constructing Democracy in Africa: Mali in
Transition.”]

The Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, hosted a gathering of first
ladies of West Africa when I was staying there in October 2011. The
regal, powerful women and their attendants dominated the upscale
lobby. The hotel was known for being safe and secure — a
requirement for its diplomatic and business clientele.

In the early morning of Nov. 20, the hotel was the target of a
brazen attack in which gunmen breached the security perimeter of the
hotel, shot a security guard and then took more than 100 people
hostage. Thankfully, most of those hostages escaped. Sadly, many did
not. What are the five things you should know about the Mali and the
attack on the Radisson Blu?

1. The Bamako and Paris attacks are connected, but analysis should
focus less on global terror trends and more on the complicated
history of Mali politics. In the wake of the tragic Paris attacks,
it is tempting to frame the most recent Bamako attack as connected.
While the terrible events in Paris and Bamako are linked because
terrorists in both instances crave the attention that such high-
profile attacks bring to their project, the Malian attack is part of
a more complicated history of insecurity linked to local politics.

Certainly, the Radisson Blu hotel was targeted precisely because it
is a favorite among expatriates. Moreover, a video released this
past October by Iyad Ag Ghali, leader of Mali-based jihadist
organization Ansar Dine, explicitly connects dissatisfaction with
Mali’s political settlement to attacking Mali’s former colonial
master, France. In the video, Ag Ghali claimed those who signed the
Algiers peace accord — a recently brokered peace agreement that
offered partial autonomy to northern Mali — had sold out. Ag Ghali
also praised the January attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris and called
for continued attacks on France.

In recent months, Amadou Koufa, an ally of Ag Ghali, created the
Macina Liberation Front (MLF) and has led attacks against the United
Nations Mission in Mali. In conjunction with Al Mouraboutin, an al-
Qaeda affiliate led by Moktar Belmoktar, it claimed responsibility
for the attack on the Hotel Byblos in Sevaré in central Mali
occupied primarily by peacekeepers. The week prior to the attack at
the Radisson, embassies called for increased vigilance in Bamako and
the capital was placed on a heightened terror alert. Al-Mouraboutin
has claimed responsibility for the attack.

2. The French intervention in January 2013 was only effective in the
short term. Following the 2012 coup d’état in Mali, the French were
able to rapidly retake Northern territory occupied by extremist
groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in
West Africa (MUJAO), and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM). Many
Malians applauded the French intervention, and a former French
diplomat claimed that it was a courageous act on the part of
President Francois Hollande. The same diplomat also pointed out that
the intervention ignored the root causes of terrorism and “denied
the troubling reality of Malian politics.” The military response
only temporarily dispersed adherents to the rebel groups who then
splintered and formed new alliances.

The French Operation Serval and subsequent Operation Barkhane did
not include a long-term mandate for achieving stability in Mali. The
French left those tricky issues to be sorted out and moved on to
focus on regional counter-terrorism. However, the political crisis
in Mali is intimately linked to the rise in terrorist activities in
the country.

3. Counter-terrorism campaigns in the Sahel prioritize security and
not politics. The U.S. State Department, in partnership with USAID
and the Department of Defense, has led the Trans-Sahara Counter
Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP). The program has suffered from poor
management, a lack of coordination and slow disbursement of funds.
Some argue that the U.S. program has been a complete failure and,
sadly, the French counterterrorism program in the Sahel is modeled
on the U.S. war on terror.

Mali President Amadou Toumani Touré promoted the flagship Special
Program for Peace, Security and Development in Northern Mali
(PSPSDN) to address insecurity in the North. The program focused
primarily on bolstering security forces at a time when local
populations in the North complained about discrimination by security
personnel and a lack of development funding reaching the region. The
program was rife with corruption and only served to stir up
animosity across the region.

4. The 2015 Algiers Peace Accord was fragile from the start. In June
2015 rebel factions in Mali signed The Algiers Accord with pro-
government groups. Few people had much faith that the accords would
actually bring peace and be fully implemented. Mali has a long
history of peace accords with the Tuareg that have not been fully
implemented. These suspicions were proven warranted when a ceasefire
was broken nearly immediately. Since the accords were signed,
violence has spread southward.

5. Mali’s fragile democracy remains rife with tensions. The conflict
in Mali today is part of ongoing tensions that go back decades
despite the country’s democratic reputation. Mali was considered a
model democracy prior to the March 2012 coup d’état. Since
independence, various Tuareg groups pushed for autonomy and the
creation of an independent state of Azawad. The Tuareg are not the
only ethnic group living in northern Mali, in fact, they are a
minority, which complicates the creation of Azawad.

Even before the crisis in 2012, tensions in the capital had been
increasing between those promoting a secular state and those
challenging those ideals. The High Islamic Council of Mali gained
political legitimacy as President Amadou Toumani Touré became
increasingly unpopular. The calls for an Islamic State of Mali, led
by Ansar Dine and others, were an extreme version of this
complicated tension. In response to the attack on the Radisson Blu,
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita declared three days of national
mourning and a 10-day state of emergency. Commenting on the
terrorist attack, a cellphone merchant in Bamako, Nafila Dao,
proclaimed “We were taught that Islam is tolerant of all religions
and people. These people are just murderers.”

**************************************************************

“Malians defy the threat of terror,” by Pamela Constable

Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/jdpvd6e

[Pamela Constable covers immigration issues and immigrant
communities. A former foreign correspondent for the Post based in
Kabul and New Delhi, she also reports periodically from Afghanistan
and other trouble spots overseas.]

Bamako, Mali — Church bells pealed and wedding music blared across
this West African capital Sunday, as Malians dressed in their vivid
holiday best defied the threat of terror and skirted a state of
emergency to celebrate the rituals of life.

After visiting the luxury hotel where two gunmen shot and killed 19
people after taking about 130 hostage Friday, Senegal’s president
Macky Sall said at a news conference Sunday that a meeting of a West
African regional organization would be held soon to discuss regional
security concerns.

A coalition of separatist groups in northern Mali claimed that the
attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel had been aimed at sabotaging peace
talks they are holding with the Malian government of President
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. A critical peace meeting was scheduled to be
held at the hotel soon. The group’s leader said jihadist groups are
trying to destroy the country.

The attack has been claimed by al-Mourabitoun, a violent jihadist
group affiliated with al-Qaeda that seeks to drive Western influence
from Mali and has been responsible for a number of other deadly
assaults in the past several years. But experts said the gunmen, who
also died, could be linked to other extremist Islamist groups in the
region, a confusing array of shifting leaders and allegiances.

The social and religious outings held across the capital Sunday were
congenial but not fully carefree, and the hotel siege was still on
everyone’s mind. Some foreign church-goers were accompanied by
bodyguards, and male wedding guests sat and watched with extra
attentiveness as their wives and daughters danced in outdoor tents.

But despite the jolting reminder Friday that Mali and its capital
remain vulnerable to a variety of violent groups — and the
announcements Saturday of a 10-day reduction of civil liberties and
three days of national mourning — thousands of people decided not
to let grief or anxiety ruin their plans.

From mid-morning on, people streamed into churches to sing and pray,
then mingled in the shade afterward to chat. Many women were clad in
brilliant patterned gowns and turbans; some men sported loose tunics
called fokia, printed with colorful drawings of Jesus and Mary or
with phrases from the Bible.

In interviews, some worshipers confined themselves to cautious
platitudes about the future being in God’s hands. But others offered
concerned comments about Islamist violence, which has spread from
the country’s arid north, threatening the social peace that both
minority Christians and majority Muslims have long known in the more
developed south.

“It’s true that we Christians are especially exposed, but so are
moderate Muslims,” said Edmund, 60, a retired airline worker wearing
a tunic with “Glory, hallelujah” written across it. He asked that
his last name not be used. “These terrorists do not speak for God.
It is easy for them to indoctrinate young people in our precarious
societies, with so much poverty and lack of work, but it is a
perversion to promise them a better world through force.”

… [article continues at http://tinyurl.com/jdpvd6e]

Some of the [wedding] celebrations went on for hours, with women in
elaborate party costumes singing and dancing traditional welcomes to
the groom while the bride was hidden nearby, being attended by
friends. At one wedding, an uncle of the bride, dressed in a
ceremonial white cap and robe, watched the festivities with a
satisfied smile and a close eye on the street.

“We are all troubled by this attack, and we know people are dead,
but we must still celebrate the living,” said the uncle, a 56-year-
old office administrator named Sidib Boubacar. “We are a little
limited by the current circumstances,” he added, referring to the
new security restrictions, “but if we stop what we are doing, it
will show we are afraid.”

**************************************************************

France’s war in Mali has not been able to end extremist violence

By Pamela Constable

The Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/obfexxp

Bamako, Mali — Two years after French troops drove jihadist forces
from northern Mali, a deadly attack on a luxury hotel has raised
concerns that Islamist extremists are gaining ground again in this
volatile country, despite a new peace accord among domestic rebel
groups.

While Malian and U.N. officials point to the peace agreement as a
potential milestone in pacifying the lawless, Arab-dominated north,
they also worry that violence could surge again. The weak central
government is struggling with a host of challenges: entrenched
poverty, drug smuggling, and a mix of growing competition and
collaboration among Islamist factions in the West African region.

“Mali today is as fragile as it was before the coup in 2012,” said
Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in
Washington, referring to the military power grab that occurred as a
rebellion in the north gained strength. France intervened the
following year, after Islamist fighters seized control of a large
chunk of territory.

“The French may have prevented an Islamist takeover, but you can’t
rebuild a hollowed-out state in two years,” Pham said. “The borders
are fictional, and there is a fluid and permeable dynamic among
jihadist, rebel and criminal groups in the region. We are still
playing Whac-A-Mole.”

Few people predict that this nation of 17 million people will become
an Islamist beachhead again. But both Malian and foreign observers
worry that extremist groups based in surrounding countries could
still create turmoil, by capitalizing on domestic discontent here
and on the momentum from recent terrorist attacks in Paris and
elsewhere.

Two jihadist groups have asserted responsibility for last week’s
attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel, which left at least 20 people dead
in the bustling capital, hundreds of miles from the vast desert
region where Islamist militias normally operate. Experts differ on
the possible motive, with U.N. officials insisting the attack was an
effort to derail the peace talks and others suggesting it was part
of a new muscle-flexing rivalry between pro-al-Qaeda and pro-
Islamic-State groups in the region.

There also are conflicting opinions about the best way to contain
the possible comeback of Islamist extremism after two years of rule
by the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, which is
widely described as democratic but sluggish and corrupt.

Some look to the 8,000-member Malian army to enforce security,
although it is thinly spread and in dire need of reform and training
as well as equipment and funding, analysts say. Others say the key
lies in quickly bringing development, services and jobs to the long-
abandoned north, calling this the only way to prevent large numbers
of unemployed young Muslim men — as well as older ex-rebels from
various tribal separatist groups — from being recruited by well-
financed jihadist groups.

“It is a great achievement that the combatant groups have been
brought together and speak with one voice, but we need to bring
peace dividends — water, electricity, roads, schools — so the
population sees peace making a difference in their lives,” Mongi
Hamdi, the U.N. special representative for Mali, said in an
interview. “That is the glue that will keep people attached to
peace.”

Mali is heavily dependent on the international community for
security and economic survival. A U.N. peacekeeping force with more
than 10,000 troops is stationed here, and a smaller French
counterterrorism force has been based here since 2013. Large amounts
of development aid have come from the United States, France and
other countries. Some critics say the funding has been partly wasted
through corruption, but Hamdi and others argue that even more is
needed to reinforce the writ of the state in conflict areas.

Until now, Mali has been viewed largely as suffering from the
predations of extremist groups spawned in neighboring countries.
Libyan militants thronged into northern Mali after dictator Moammar
Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, and a notorious Algerian jihadist
leader named Mokhtar Belmokhtar formed the group al-Mourabitoun that
most experts believe planned the Nov. 20 hotel attack.

… [article continues at http://tinyurl.com/obfexxp]

“There is still a positive peace dynamic, but the state is weak and
corrupt, and we have only had a democratic government for two
years,” said Mahamadou Camara, a magazine editor and former press
official in the Keïta administration. “The greatest risk we face
today is that the positive momentum will reverse into a new spiral
of violence.”

**************************************************************

“This is what citizens say is needed to end Mali’s insecurity,” by
Jaimie Bleck, Abdoulaye Dembele and Guindo Sidiki

Monkey Cage, The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/qx9pcq3

Jaimie Bleck is an assistant professor of political science at the
University of Notre Dame. She is also an American Council of Learned
Societies fellow currently conducting research in Mali. Her book
“Education and Empowered Citizenship in Mali” was published earlier
this year.

Abdoulaye Dembele is the national coordinator for the Farafina
Institute in Mali.

Sidiki Guindo is the director of the GISSE Institute for Public
Opinion Polling in Mali and a professor at ENSAE (l’Ecole Nationale
de la Statistique et l’Analyse Economique) in Dakar, Senegal.

On Nov. 20, the world’s eyes turned to Mali once again as 21 people
were killed during an attack at the Radisson hotel in Bamako, the
country’s capital. Many more were trapped in the building until
Malian Special Forces led a joint raid and killed two assailants.
Two different groups have claimed credit for the attack and two
arrests were made Thursday, but at the time of writing there is
still speculation as to which actors were responsible and an
unspecified number of accomplices are still at large.

The siege of the Radisson was only the most recent attack against
civilians in a wave of instability that has struck the country since
an insurgency began in northern Mali in early 2012. Mali continues
to face widespread insecurity despite a French intervention (in
2013), the restoration of presidential and legislative elections
(also 2013), the ongoing presence of more than 12,000 international
troops, and the recent signing of peace accords in June 2015. An
increase in attacks in Mali against U.N. forces over the last two
years has earned the peacekeeping mission there the dubious
distinction of being the “world’s most dangerous.”

In trying to understand the crisis, we return to the summer of 2013
— before the elections that ushered Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) in
as president — and ended more than a year of junta rule. At that
time, more than 500,000 citizens had fled Northern Mali. We surveyed
nearly 900 internally displaced persons who fled to Bamako as well
as Sévaré and Mopti, twin cities that acted as an unofficial
dividing line between the government-controlled south and the north
at the height of its rebel occupation. We note that our study
population is not representative of all who fled; for instance, they
are typically more pro-government than those who fled to camps in
Mauritania.

When asked to name solutions to the crisis in Mali, the largest
percentage of displaced people — over 40 percent — referenced the
importance of improving governance and reducing corruption. In other
words, the most popular idea to resolve the crisis pointed not to a
security response but to government reform.

… [article continues at http://tinyurl.com/qx9pcq3]

As the Malian government and international donors seek to understand
what led to the attack and how to prevent other similar tragedies in
the future, the testimony of ordinary citizens suggests the need for
a broader reflection on the strength and evolution of state
institutions. While even the strongest states are vulnerable to
these acts of terror, forgetting the importance of a capable and
well-governed state risks trapping Mali in a cycle of crisis.

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

AfricaFocus Bulletin
November 11, 2015 (151111)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“New research from the Tax Justice Network shows that the gap
between where companies pay tax and where they really do their
business is huge … even developed countries with state-of-the-art
tax legislation and well-equipped tax authorities cannot stop
multinationals dodging their tax without a thorough reform of the
global tax system. … [these practices have] a relatively greater
impact on developing countries, whose public revenues are more
dependent on the taxation of large businesses.”

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/iff1511.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/iff1511.php

Two new reports, briefly excerpted in this AfricaFocus Bulletin,
shed light on the complex global systems of tax evasion and tax
avoidance which are draining resources from public needs in both
rich and poor countries. While giant companies and the super-rich
move their money around the world in secrecy, the system is obscured
both by secrecy and by deceptive language.

Thus, according to the highly regarded and well-publicized
Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International,
Switzerland, Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore, Luxembourg,
Germany, and the United Kingdom are all among the 20 “least corrupt
countries” in the world. Yet the less-well-known Financial Secrecy
Index, from Tax Justice Network, also places them among the top 15
“secrecy jurisdictions” (also known as “tax havens”) which serve as
the essential “enablers” of corruption and of illicit financial
flows by multinational corporations.

Similarly, there is no doubt that Africa and other developing
regions are hardest hit by this global tax abuse, while they have
the most urgent needs for investment in public goods. But a new
report by the Global Tax Justice Network and other civil society
groups shows that rich countries themselves are also major losers,
as corporations shift profits from one rich country to another (as
well as to smaller smaller jurisdictions fitting the stereotype of
“tax havens”). In 2012 U.S. multinationals alone shifted between
$500-$700 billion dollars out of the country, or roughly 25 percent
of their annual profits.

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on tax justice and related
issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Financial Secrecy Index 2015 reveals improving global financial
transparency, but USA threatens progress

Tax Justice Network

Press Release

http://www.taxjustice.net/

Nov 2, 2015

European Union moves furthest with reforms; USA causes great
concern; and developing countries are (as usual) reaping few
benefits.

Today the Tax Justice Network launches the 2015 Financial Secrecy
Index, the biggest ever survey of global financial secrecy. This
unique index combines a secrecy score with a weighting to create a
ranking of the secrecy jurisdictions and countries that most
actively promote secrecy in global finance.

Most countries’ secrecy scores have improved. Real action is being
taken to curb financial secrecy, as the OECD rolls out a system of
automatic information exchange (AIE) where countries share relevant
information to tackle tax evasion. The EU is starting to crack open
shell companies by creating central registers of beneficial owners
and making that information available to anyone with a legitimate
interest. The EU is also requiring multinationals to provide
country-by-country financial data.

But these global and regional initiatives are flawed and face
sabotage by lobbies that have already weakened them. Secrecy-related
financial activity risks being shifted to other areas such as the
all-important trusts sector, where no serious action is being taken
despite promises made by the G8 in 2013, and shell companies, where
many secrecy jurisdictions such as Dubai, the British Virgin Islands
or Nevada in the U.S. are refusing to open up.

The FSI Top 10

1. Switzerland
2. Hong Kong
3. USA
4. Singapore
5. Cayman
6. Luxembourg
7. Lebanon
8. Germany
9. Bahrain
10. Dubai / UAE

[Note from AfricaFocus Editor: African countries on the list rank as
follows: Mauritius 23; Liberia 33; Ghana 48; South Africa 61;
Botswana 62; Seychelles 72]

Crucially, even in those areas where there has been progress,
developing countries are largely being sidelined: OECD countries are
the main beneficiaries.

Our analysis also reveals that the United States is the jurisdiction
of greatest concern, having made few concessions and posing serious
threats to emerging transparency initiatives. Rising from sixth to
third place in our index, the US is one of the few whose secrecy
score worsened after 2013. Switzerland stays at the top of the index
and for good reason: despite what you may have heard, Swiss banking
secrecy is far from dead, though it has curbed its secrecy somewhat.
The United Kingdom also remains a huge concern. While its own
secrecy is moderate, its global network of secrecy jurisdictions –
the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories – still operate in
deep secrecy and have, for instance, not co-operated in creating
public registers of beneficial ownership. The UK has failed to
address this effectively, though it has the power to do so.

The progress: a scorecard

Since the global financial crisis emerged in 2008, governments have
sought to curb budget deficits by cracking down on offshore
corporate and individual tax cheating and financial crimes by the
world’s wealthiest citizens. Campaigners have shown them the way and
the sea change in the political climate has been remarkable.
Progress has come in three main areas.

* Twelve years ago the tax justice movement created country-by-
country reporting (CbCR), a measure that can shine a light  country
where they operate, including tax havens. They told us CbCR would
never happen: it is now endorsed at G20 level and the first schemes
to implement it are in place. However, we are concerned that CbCR
cannot work unless the information is made publicly available.

* Just four years ago they laughed at us for pushing the concept of
automatic information exchange (AIE), where countries routinely
share information about each others’ taxpayers so they can be taxed
appropriately. AIE is now being rolled out worldwide.

* They said we at TJN were crazy to contemplate public registries of
beneficial ownership (BO), to crack open shell companies and ensure
that businesses, governments and the public know who they are
dealing with, and to provide the basis for effective AIE. Beneficial
ownership registries are now endorsed at G20 level: we now need a
big political push to make them a reality and bring this information
into the public domain.

Of these areas most progress has been made on AIE, with several
schemes emerging. Though the G20 had mandated the OECD to create a
country-by-country reporting standard, what it came up with has
fallen well short, victim of heavy lobbying behind the scenes by
U.S. multinationals in particular. Finally, the UK has passed
legislation to create a public register of company beneficial
ownership information, and the EU has required all member states to
make beneficial ownership information available to anyone with a
legitimate interest. However, little progress has been made towards
creating an effective form of public registry for offshore trusts.

These broad changes are welcome, and we are pleased to see the EU
leading the way: even some of Europe’s historically worst secrecy
jurisdictions, such as Luxembourg and Austria, are engaging.

The EU’s leadership role, however, is called into question by recent
resistance, spearheaded by Germany, to block public access to CbCR
data and prevent expansion of CbC reporting beyond the banking and
extractives sectors. (Read more about the current EU-level
negotiations here.)

Almost all of the progress to date has arisen from public pressure.
To counter the lobbies that constantly seek to undermine progress,
sustained political grass roots pressure is indispensable.

The backsliding

Yet huge problems remain.

None of these initiatives take the interests of developing countries
sufficiently into account. They haven’t been centrally involved in
setting the rules, and most will see little if any benefit. (Note,
too, that secrecy is just part of a wider charge sheet against tax
havens, as the box above explains.)

Meanwhile, even progress to date is under threat:

* Private sector ‘enablers’ and recalcitrant jurisdictions like
Dubai and the Bahamas are beavering away finding exclusions and
loopholes, being picky about which countries they’ll exchange
information with, and simply disregarding the rules.

* The United States’ hypocritical stance of seeking to protect
itself against foreign tax havens while preserving itself as a tax
haven for residents of other countries needs to be countered. The
European Union must take the lead here by imposing a 35 percent
withholding tax on EU-sourced payments to U.S. and other non-
compliant financial institutions, in the same way as the U.S. FATCA
scheme does; and this should become global standard practice.

* The UK has been playing a powerful blocking role to protect its
huge, slippery and dangerous trusts sector, probably the biggest
hole in the entire global transparency agenda. See below for more
details.

The next section gives a brief description of the biggest players in
the secrecy world today.

FSI 2015: the big players

[See full press release for more details on each country

* Switzerland (first place)

* United States (3rd place)

* United Kingdom [not in top ten, but “supports a network of secrecy
jurisdictions around the world.” If counted together, would be first
place]

* Hong Kong [2nd place]

* Singapore [4th place]

* Cayman Islands [5th place]

* Luxembourg [6th place]

* Lebanon [7th place]

* Germany [8th place]

* Bahrain [9th place]

* Dubai [10th place]

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About the Financial Secrecy Index

http://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/

The Financial Secrecy Index ranks jurisdictions according to their
secrecy and the scale of their offshore financial activities. A
politically neutral ranking, it is a tool for understanding global
financial secrecy, tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions, and illicit
financial flows or capital flight. The index was launched on
November 2, 2015.

Shining light into dark places

An estimated $21 to $32 trillion of private financial wealth is
located, untaxed or lightly taxed, in secrecy jurisdictions around
the world. Secrecy jurisdictions – a term we often use as an
alternative to the more widely used term tax havens – use secrecy to
attract illicit and illegitimate or abusive financial flows.

Illicit cross-border financial flows have been estimated at $1-1.6
trillion per year: dwarfing the US$135 billion or so in global
foreign aid. Since the 1970s African countries alone have lost over
$1 trillion in capital flight, while combined external debts are
less than $200 billion. So Africa is a major net creditor to the
world Рbut its assets are in the hands of a wealthy ̩lites,
protected by offshore secrecy; while the debts are shouldered by
broad African populations.

Yet all rich countries suffer too. For example, European countries
like Greece, Italy and Portugal have been brought to their partly
knees by decades of tax evasion and state looting via offshore
secrecy.

A global industry has developed involving the world’s biggest banks,
law practices, accounting firms and specialist providers who design
and market secretive offshore structures for their tax- and law-
dodging clients. ‘Competition’ between jurisdictions to provide
secrecy facilities has, particularly since the era of financial
globalisation really took off in the 1980s, become a central feature
of global financial markets.

The problems go far beyond tax. In providing secrecy, the offshore
world corrupts and distorts markets and investments, shaping them in
ways that have nothing to do with efficiency. The secrecy world
creates a criminogenic hothouse for multiple evils including fraud,
tax cheating, escape from financial regulations, embezzlement,
insider dealing, bribery, money laundering, and plenty more. It
provides multiple ways for insiders to extract wealth at the expense
of societies, creating political impunity and undermining the
healthy ‘no taxation without representation’ bargain that has
underpinned the growth of accountable modern nation states. Many
poorer countries, deprived of tax and haemorrhaging capital into
secrecy jurisdictions, rely on foreign aid handouts.

This hurts citizens of rich and poor countries alike.

What is the significance of this index?

In identifying the most important providers of international
financial secrecy, the Financial Secrecy Index reveals that
traditional stereotypes of tax havens are misconceived. The world’s
most important providers of financial secrecy harbouring looted
assets are mostly not small, palm-fringed islands as many suppose,
but some of the world’s biggest and wealthiest countries Rich OECD
member countries and their satellites are the main recipients of or
conduits for these illicit flows.

The implications for global power politics are clearly enormous, and
help explain why for so many years international efforts to crack
down on tax havens and financial secrecy were so ineffective, it is
the recipients of these gigantic inflows that set the rules of the
game.

Yet our analysis also reveals that recently things have genuinely
started to improve. The global financial crisis and ensuing economic
crisis, combined with recent activism and exposure of these problems
by civil society actors and the media, and rising concerns about
inequality in many countries, have created a set of political
conditions unparalleled in history. The world’s politicians have
been forced to take notice of tax havens. For the first time since
we first created our index in 2009, we can say that something of a
sea change is underway.

World leaders are now routinely talking about the scourges of
financial secrecy and tax havens, and putting into place new
mechanisms to tackle the problem. For the first time the G20
countries have mandated the OECD to put together a new global system
of automatic information exchange to help countries find out about
the cross-border holdings of their taxpayers and criminals. This
scheme is now being rolled out, with first information due to be
exchanged in 2017.

Yet of course these schemes are full of loopholes and shortcomings:
many countries are planning to pay only lip service to them, if that
— and many are actively seeking ways to undermine progress, with
the help of a professional infrastructure of secrecy enablers. The
edifice of global financial secrecy has been weakened – but it
remains fully alive and hugely destructive. Despite what you may
have read in the media, Swiss banking secrecy is far from dead.
Without sustained political pressure from millions of people, the
momentum could be lost.

The only realistic way to address these problems comprehensively is
to tackle them at root: by directly confronting offshore secrecy and
the global infrastructure that creates it. A first step towards this
goal is to identify as accurately as possible the jurisdictions that
make it their business to provide offshore secrecy.

This is what the FSI does. It is the product of years of detailed
research by a dedicated team, and there is nothing else like it out
there. We also have a set of unique reports outlining detailed
offshore histories of the biggest players in the game.

************************************************

Global Alliance for Tax Justice

G20 among biggest losers in large-scale tax abuse – but poor
countries relatively hardest hit

Press Release

[Excerpt. Full press release & related reports available at
http://www.globaltaxjustice.org | direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/pcbgoyw]

November 10, 2015

G20 countries are among the biggest losers when US multinationals
avoid paying taxes where they do business. This is the main finding
of ‘Still Broken’ a new report on the global tax system released by
the Tax Justice Network, Oxfam, Global Alliance for Tax Justice and
Public Services International in advance of the G20 leaders’ meeting
in Turkey.

Overall it is estimated that, in order to reduce their tax bills, US
multinationals shifted between $500 and 700 billion—a quarter of
their annual profits—out of the United States, Germany, the United
Kingdom and elsewhere to a handful of countries including the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland and Bermuda in 2012.
In the same year, US multinational companies reported US$ 80 billion
of profits in Bermuda – more than their profits reported in Japan,
China, Germany and France combined.

Claire Godfrey, head of policy for Oxfam’s Even it Up Campaign said:
“Rich and poor countries alike are haemorrhaging money because
multinational companies are not required to pay their fair share of
taxes where they make their money. Ultimately the cost is being
borne by ordinary people – particularly the poorest who rely on
public services and who are suffering because of budget cuts.”

Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of Public Services International
said: “Public anger will grow if the G20 leaders allow the world’s
largest corporations to continue dodging billions in tax while
inequality rises, austerity bites and public services are cut.”

The G20 Heads of State are expected to consider a package of
measures they claim will address corporate tax avoidance at their
annual meeting in Turkey on 15 and 16 November.

Alex Cobham, director of research at Tax Justice Network, said: “The
corporate tax measures being adopted by the G20 this week are not
enough. They will not stop the race to the bottom in corporate
taxation, and they will not provide the transparency that’s needed
to hold companies and tax authorities accountable. It’s in the G20’s
own interest to support deeper reforms to the global tax system.”

Twelve countries – the United States, Germany, Canada, China,
Brazil, France, Mexico, India, UK, Italy, Spain and Australia –
account for roughly 90 percent of all missing profits from US
multinationals. For example, US multinationals make 65 percent of
their sales, employ 66 percent of their staff and hold 71 percent of
their assets in America but declare only 50 percent of their profits
in the country.

While G20 countries lose the largest amount of money, low income
developing countries such as Honduras, the Philippines and Ecuador
are hardest hit because corporate tax revenues comprise a higher
proportion of their national income. It is estimated, for example,
that Honduras could increase healthcare or education spending by
10-15 percent if the practice of profit shifting by US
multinationals was stopped.

Dereje Alemayehu, chair of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice said:
“If big G20 economies with well-developed tax legislation and well-
supported tax authorities cannot put a stop to corporate tax abuse,
what hope have poor countries with less well-resourced tax
administrations? Poor countries need a seat at the table in
negotiations on future tax reforms to ensure that they can claim tax
revenues which are desperately needed to tackle poverty and
inequality.”

The Tax Justice Network, Oxfam, Global Alliance for Tax Justice and
Public Services International are calling on the G20 to support
further reforms to the global tax system that involve all countries
on an equal footing. These reforms should effectively tackle harmful
tax practices such as profit shifting and the use of corporate tax
havens and should halt the race to the bottom in general corporate
tax rates.

Summary of report

In 2013 the OECD, supported by the G20, promised to bring an end to
international corporate tax avoidance which costs countries around
the world billions in tax revenues each year. However, with the
recently announced actions against corporate tax dodging, G20 and
OECD countries have failed to live up to their promise. Despite some
meaningful actions, they have left the fundamentals of a broken tax
system intact and failed to curb tax competition and harmful tax
practices.

It is often assumed that the richest and largest economies, home to
most of the world’s multinationals, defend the current system
because it is in their interests.

However, new research from the Tax Justice Network1 shows that the
gap between where companies pay tax and where they really do their
business is huge and that among the biggest losers are G20 countries
themselves, including the US, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Mexico,
India, and Spain. This shows that even developed countries with
state-of-the-art tax legislation and well-equipped tax authorities
cannot stop multinationals dodging their tax without a thorough
reform of the global tax system.

Profit shifting to reduce taxes is happening on a massive scale. In
2012, US multinationals alone shifted $500–700bn, or roughly 25
percent of their annual profits, mostly to countries where these
profits are not taxed, or taxed at very low rates. In other words,
$1 out of every $4 of profits generated by these multinationals is
not aligned with real economic activity.

Large corporations and wealthy elites exploit the rigged
international tax system to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
This practice has a relatively greater impact on developing
countries, whose public revenues are more dependent on the taxation
of large businesses. Recent IMF research indicates that revenue loss
to developing countries is 30 percent higher than for OECD countries
as a result of the base erosion and profit shifting activities of
multinational companies.

Tax avoidance is a key factor in the rapid rise in extreme
inequality seen in recent years. As governments are losing tax
revenues, ordinary people end up paying the price: schools and
hospitals lose funding and vital public services are cut. Fair
taxation of profitable businesses and rich people is central to
addressing poverty and inequality through the redistribution of
income. Instead, the current global system of tax avoidance
redistributes wealth upwards to the richest in society.

That is why civil society organizations, united in the C20 group,
together with trade unions, are calling for the actions announced by
the OECD to be regarded only as the beginning of a longer and more
inclusive process to re-write global tax rules and to ensure that
multinationals pay their fair share, in the interest of developed
and developing countries around the world.

Considering the enormous losses that countries around the world
incur, it is alarming that the G20 seems fairly satisfied with the
current agenda. Governments and citizens of G20 countries should
wake up, face the facts and take additional action immediately.

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AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

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