Tanzania's Street Hawkers: An Economic Potential

 Elias Mhegera

Economists have advised the Tanzanian Government to change its attitude towards street hawkers and other petty traders by viewing them as contributors to the economic transformation rather than a public nuisance. The call was made on Monday this week by a senior economist Prof. Alison Brown lecturer in economics, Cardiff University and Department for International Development (DFID) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) Researchers fellow.

She was delivering her speech during the one day workshop that was organized by the Growth Research Programme (GRP)  in collaboration with the Policy Research for Development (REPOA), under the theme “Shaping Economic Transformation in Tanzania: Challenges and Potential Solutions.”

Prof. Brown challenged Tanzania to borrow a leaf from Kenya where the ‘jua kali’ (as petty traders are known) and in so many other places whereby the petty traders have been gradually streamlined into their countries’ economic set up. “Instead of harassing them, they should be streamlined into productive ventures, they can contribute enormously to the country’s economy once there is an appreciation of their contribution,” she defended.

Expounding on how the Government should tackle them, Prof. Brown said that there are a variety of strategies that can be used. For instance, one strategy is to ensure that they are allocated in permanent areas in order to develop clientele relationships. The main areas that she suggested are: to know the urban economic potentials where this population can be properly fit in, knowing the small scale businesses around the urban areas, and the potential dynamics of the contributions of these subsectors.

“They need to be integrated to the realm of microfinance, let them have a choice, allow them to have savings, and make them meet their pertinent demands, with these elements they will start to earn their incomes smoothly,” she commented. She revisited the historical trend where every effort was made to make them go back to their roots in the rural sector, and concluded that this has eventually proved not to be a permanent solution because it is the same Government that is turning into commercial agriculture which to a large extent has reduced land shares to peasant farmers.

“The main questions now are; to know who is using what, and find ways of institutionalizing this group into formal banks, Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOs), and other small productive groups the types of Village Community Bank (VICOBA) and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs)” She suggested.She also added that petty traders can accumulate capital over time and engage themselves in forming small companies; they can as well be trained to produce items like soap or even owning Bajaj, a tricycle motor bike. She also suggested of mobile banks through mobile phone companies like M-Pesa, Airtel Money and Tigo-Pesa.

She therefore called for their legal recognition and proper identifications so that they can access the world of mortgages so that Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) can recognize them.  She revealed that currently petty traders cannot access soft loans because they fear debts and they are not officially recognized in the mainstream production sectors.

Reacting to the presentation Ms. Falecia Masaki, an industrial policy analyst from the Ministry of Industry and Trade appreciated that this was a good food for thought idea, but it depends entirely on political decisions. While she did not dwell much on how politics is linked, but it is a well-known fact that in Tanzania, all areas of accumulations of the petty traders are as well strong political bases of the opposition parties.

Dr Blandina Kilama, contributing to the debate, said that there have been major transformations in the banking sector due to the fact that they have to adjust and regulate themselves to the competitions and nature of financial operations accordingly. She said that her institution REPOA has conducted researches on how these banks operate and found that the classical banks like CRDB, AKIBA and NBC had to adjust themselves in the wake of other key players like the Pension Funds and mobile phone companies.

For his part Msafiri Mgimwa from Pamoja Twajenga Project, said that the Tanzanian Government should create more enabling environment for small producers and give them a space so that they can enhance a country’s economy into robust one.

The question of handling street vendors has been criticized several times by politicians, experts and other stakeholders. It has been argued that they must be empowered in order to reduce the crime rate, but on its part the Tanzanian Government has been responding that preparation are under way but what is lacking is finance for funding their projects.

Happiness in Nigeria: Chasing a Mirage?

 Andrew A. Moemeka

Happiness is not a personal object; it is a universal property. It is large enough for all human beings to share from it satisfactorily, yet it is extremely elusive when the search for it is motivated by strict personal gain or morbid selfishness. True happiness derives from actions and behavior motivated by love, trust, honesty, respect, duty, responsibility and tolerance. These ethical factors do not obtain through convenience but deliberate and conscientious actions dictated by the need for creating understanding and building a harmonious community – a harmonious nation.Both leaders and the public in Nigeria are, by their actions, seeking happiness, which has been described as “the ultimate desire of humans on earth.” But to achieve this ultimate objective, there is need to follow the ‘right’ path, and create harmony in society. It requires people to consciously imbibe the right behavior. Short-cuts or taking the easy way out complicates issues. The political, economic and social fate of Nigeria has shown that selfishness, egocentrism, hatred, false image-building, exploitation and inordinate ambition do not produce harmony, positive development or happiness. As the Nation has bitterly learnt, these anti-social behaviors lead to deceit, disappointment, falsehood, disillusionment, heart-break, insecurity and despair.

The socio-economic campaign now being waged against communalistic principles is a campaign against ethical standards, which the ‘optimists’ consider too strict to allow for personal freedom and rights without responsibilities.  It is a vote for convenience – that is, for doing things the way one feels good doing them. But when freedom is detached from responsibility - from objective truth - it becomes impossible to establish personal rights on a firm rational basis; and the ground is laid for society to be at the mercy of the unscrupulous, the unrestrained will of dubiously selfish individuals and/or the subtle yet oppressive totalitarianism of public authority. 

The utility of anything stands and falls with the values which it embodies and promotes. This is true of convenience as it is of personal freedom. It is also true of ethical standards. What has happened in Nigeria in the past thirty to fifty years, has shown that the ‘values’ of convenience-of-action and of personal freedom (or rights)  have, to the detriment of the Nation, gained widespread acceptance. But as Keith Tester (1997: p. 2) has noted –

A community possessed of rights, which has failed to grow into duties, would be socially imbecile. The rights of the members would be worthless; their liberty, a sham; their government, if they had one, the laughing stock of the world.

The values of the ethical standards embodied in communalistic principles, though often drowned by the euphoric noise of superficial selfish contentment, constantly rear up their wisdom heads, beckoning on society to take a hard look at itself and return to the path of sanity, honesty, justice, self-control, moderation and humane behavior. However, majority of the people in Nigeria are modernity-conscious, restless, and selfish; they are the end-justifies-the-means, and get-rich-quick individuals. They are dead-bent not to listen to the call for a return to cultural moral principles. Any chance of coercing them to do otherwise is seriously negated by the nonchalant, selfish and greedy attitudes of our leaders. But the truth remains that as long as Nigeria continues to ignore the positive controls and restraints of communalistic principles or what American and European social scientists have now called Communitarianism, so long will the nation continue to face serious political, economic, social and cultural/moral problems. 

It is worth noting here that the call for return to authentic and functional communalism as a positive check on the evils of the morbid selfishness and rugged individualism of modernity-conscious Nigerian leaders and citizens, is not a lone voice in the wilderness. The Western world has discovered that there is a widespread misinterpretation of the concepts of freedom, individualism and collectivism; and that much of the social problems facing that continent can be traced to this misconception. Redirecting society back to the true meanings of these concepts does not seem possible or even feasible. In spite of this, a change is seen as very desirable, if not imperative. Hence, a middle-of-the-course social order aimed at creating a happy balance between (or, in fact, replacing) individualism and collectivism has been championed. It is communitarianism (Christians, Ferre, and Fackler, 1993, pp. 44-48; Etzioni, 1993) – a social order whose main goal is the achievement of appropriate and necessary public good without denying the primacy of individual rights. This makes it a comrade-in-arms with communalism for which community welfare is also a primary objective.

It would seem that the world is waking up to the need for placing public good on a pedestal that it deserves – one that ensures that both the community and its individual members work for, and reap the benefits accruing to the community for the benefit of all. This would be recognizing that societal harmony is imperative for sustainable progress and national development. Communalism and/or Communitarianism would appear to be the road to this harmony. All the fundamental principles of communalism point to the need for and provide the ingredients of, social harmony, which paves the way to positive socio-economic and socio-cultural development based on the rationale of public good. 

Harmony as a principle for moral order, says Magesa, 1997, does not mean that people would lose their (authentic) freedom. Harmony is the agent of freedom and is meant to enhance it…Without harmony… greed, selfishness and exploitation – in a word, chaos – set in and triumph over universal moral order.

Angola: The Tale of an African Oil Economy

Flavio G. I. Inocencio

Angola is the 3rd (third) largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa.It is a country endowed with significant oil reserves (being the 2nd largest oil producer in the world) and as such, it is member of OPEC.Angola is also a significant exporter of oil to the West and the largest exporter of oil to China after Saudi Arabia.

The country suffered from a long civil war spurred by the Cold war from its independence in 1975 until 2002. During that period, the ruling Party (MPLA) aided by the Soviet Union adopted a communist regime and a planned economy. The advent of the Peace and the market reforms of the early 1990s did not fully liberalise the economy. The prolongation of the war associated with the lax policies of its Central Bank (to finance Government deficits by printing money) created hyperinflation in the country, an experience remembered by every Angolan.

However, since the end of war in 2002 and fuelled by its oil wealth, Angola enjoyed some of the highest growth rates in the World. Nonetheless, these growth rates were elusive as they were based solely on the oil revenues and did not alter significantly the human development level of its citizens as The Economist stated: “Oil provides few jobs for locals and Angola is horribly unequal. The quality of life of people in rural areas and slums, such as Luanda’s Chicala, has barely improved since 2002. Most Angolans lack running water or electricity.”

This meant that the fluctuations of oil prices have a significant impact on its economy. That was the case after the 2008 economic crisis and it is the case with the current economic crisis in 2015.

For some economists, Angola suffers from the “Dutch disease,” which is the economic effect of having an increase of imports because of the appreciation of its national currency which is sustained by an influx of Dollars which derive from the oil revenues and thus create disincentives for investment in other sectors. Many are unaware that Luanda, the capital city is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates. The price of food is extremely high, because it’s cheaper to import. That is why many call this economic effect a “resource curse.”

One of the main problems in the resource rich countries is the misallocation of resources in the economy. Angola is a good example.  The end of the civil war created huge opportunities for reconstruction of the country; particularly with the resources available, considering that the revenues of oil provide the country with about Forty (40) Billion US Dollars per year.

The Government has pursued a Keynesian approach by assuming that spending alone would necessarily increase the total wealth of the country and increasing the standards of living without reforming profoundly the institutions and bureaucracy inherited from its Communist past. What followed was a crisis in the economy, particularly in the construction sector that was heavily dependent on Government contracts and subsidies when oil prices suddenly dropped in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis. The same events will happen in 2015.

Furthermore, it is important to point out that the recent plunge in oil prices was caused by the strategy of increasing market share of the Gulf Arab Countries led by Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately oil revenues are not being used to spur diversification of the economy, but are used instead as “rents” by politically powerful groups, particularly in the property market by expanding artificially the construction sector through government spending, creating unproductive investments or “mal-investments.”

Furthermore, those investments created huge asset bubbles in the property market, making the cost of housing prohibitively high for most households and businesses. Other distortions were created with the entrenchment of monopolies attributed to certain interest groups, thus damaging competition, particularly for consumers, who now have to pay higher prices for goods and services.

The revenues from oil created an economy dependent on consumption in its entirety and that meant that the incentives to diversify the economy for entrepreneurs and businesses do not exist, considering the problems of market access to international investors and national entrepreneurs. This model will soon run out, particularly with the inflationary pressure from the devaluation of the national currency (the Kwanza) because of the reduction of the Foreign Exchange Reserves, which mostly are denominated in US Dollars.

The requirement to sustain the unsustainable consumption based on crude oil prompted the Angolan Central National Bank (BNA) to embark on the sale of US Dollars through auctions in order to sustain the national currency, the Kwanza through the “Hard Kwanza policy.” However, the demand for the national currency (the Kwanza) is not higher because of the extreme fragility of the Angolan economy and its dependence on imports caused by the Dutch Disease.

The problem of Angola is that its foreign exchange earnings (Dollars) are not being allocated to the most productive uses in the Economy.  For those reasons, Angola offers a cautionary tale, of how powerful interest groups can capture government policy to promote their own interests at expense of everybody else and that sometimes Government policy does the wrong things instead of promoting entrepreneurship and removal of barriers for businesses in general.

The diversification of the economy will occur when those barriers are removed and when economic agents are protected by a stable legal regime that guarantees the protection of property rights, in order to avoid what Bastiat calls “legal plunder.”

Hence, the protection of property rights should be seen as a foundation for development and in a country such as Angola with a deficient court system and Government policies that encourage misallocation of resources, it is difficult to have a solid framework for economic growth without a proper functioning legal framework. As Hayek argues: “An effective competitive system needs an intelligently designed and continuously adjusted legal framework as much as any other.

What Angola needs is a proper legal framework with a capable judiciary, a proper monetary policy and an effective liberalisation of its economy and the elimination of monopolies and privileges to politically connected groups and individuals. The focus should be the creation of a skilled labour force in order to free the entrepreneurial forces of its population, as the Economist wrote about Angola:

Yet Angola remains a difficult place for investors and entrepreneurs. In the World Bank’s latest “ease of doing business” survey, the country ranks 179th out of 189. Enforcing a contract through Angola’s inefficient and sometimes corrupt courts can take years. Getting a visa is a hassle. A dire shortage of electricity means local firms struggle to compete with imported goods.

In Angola, the ghosts of its communist past still remain, and a culture of entitlement looms large. Angola has now a “degenerated capitalism” based on special privileges and a welfare State based on relations of patronage.²⁰

For all of those reasons, when formulating its economic policies, the Government should consider their impact not just to one group but to the society as a whole and not just in the short term but also in the long term. Henry Hazlit made it clear: “the art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

Migration and Trafficking in Ghana: Challenges and Concerns

 Samuel Zan Akologo

Introduction

Whenever we are dealing with people on the move, then they are either immigrants, refugees, internally displaced persons (IPDs) or trafficked persons. Conceptually, migration is essentially the movement of people from one place to another. The reason can either be economic, social, political or environmental. Therefore the difference or distinction is normally deduced from the reason for movement. Sometimes the geographical nature of the movement can also introduce minor distinctions as in Refugees – those who have moved out of their country of origin and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) – those who have been displaced from their original area of settlement within their own country. In recent times there is a push to make further distinctions with regards to levels of vulnerability, as in the movement of children – both accompanied and unaccompanied.

The nature and scope of human movements keep changing with emerging global trends. These dynamics call for frequent examination of the subject matter, sharing of new knowledge and review of our response to the situation. Migration generally has both positive and negative implications for human development which cannot be ignored and should not be handled in an arbitrary manner. In short, migration is a call for both a policy and programme response at all levels of governance; national, regional and global.

Highlights of the Situation of Migration in Ghana

Perhaps the situation of migration in Ghana manifests all the types of human movements that I have outlined above. The emerging dynamics of the field may soon also manifest earlier than we expect in Ghana. The following are key highlights in Ghana:

1. Refugees: Over 20,000 refugees are currently in Ghana from Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d Ivoire, Mali and Niger. There are four settled refugee camps while some from Togo and Liberia have now been integrated into the local community due to cessation arrangements. Children are included and affected by this kind of movement.

2. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): There are no reliable statistics on this type of human movement in Ghana. The main cause for IDPs is seasonal eruptions of inter-ethnic conflicts and violence due to disputes over natural resources (land, territory, inland water bodies etc.) and chieftaincy succession. Notable in this category is the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo conflict in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese. The situation of children on the move applies in this category of migrants.

3. Rural – Urban and North – South Migration: The biggest push factor here is poverty and lack of alternative opportunities, especially for young people. This movement also include children who are used as head- potters, popularly referred to as ‘Kayayee,’ in the cities. There are limited cases of urban-rural drifts mainly for illegal mining activities, also called ‘Galamsey.’

4. Emigration: Many young people are risking their life through the desert or Mediterranean Sea to leave Ghana for perceived well-being and better conditions in Europe. This is well documented and well known to us. However, professionals like Medical doctors and Nurses are also leaving Ghana for Europe or other well-endowed economies in Africa like South Africa and Botswana. They become Immigrants, legal or illegal, in their destinations or transit points.

5. Trafficking: While some of the children leave voluntarily from Northern Ghana to the South, others are actually trafficked there or even beyond Ghana. Even those who move voluntarily to the cities in the South of Ghana later fall into the trap of being trafficked due to the hardships they encounter at their planned intended destination. We have come across ‘Kayayee’ in Accra being trafficked to Nigeria and Benin. Some were actually rescued.

6. Nomads and Herdsmen: Seasonal movements of herdsmen from Mali, Niger and Chad into Northern Ghana have created situations of over-grazing, destruction of farms and crops and occasional skirmishes between them and native inhabitants. Now the movement is going southwards due to reduction of grass cover/fodder in Northern Ghana. The implications of this kind of movement are now regularly being reported in some areas in Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Volta and Eastern Regions, all to the south of Ghana.

Caritas – Ghana Response

1. Direct intervention for protection and provision of well-fare services. This is normally at the level of the Diocesan Caritas or other Church-related organizations. Notable examples are: Navrongo-Bolgatanga Street Children project, Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) in Accra and Kumasi, and the Christian Mothers’ Association projects in the cities.

2. Direct intervention in the provision of habitat and social services for refugees in Ghana. The Migrants, Refugees and Relief Unit of Caritas – Ghana is the official Implementation Partner (IP) of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ghana for this purpose.

3. Public Policy Advocacy: Research work and direct engagement with Government and relevant state agencies, are the responsibility of the national office. Research work is currently limited due to lack of capacity (staff and resources). Policy education is key component of our advocacy work.

4. Networking and Partnerships: At the national level, we deliberately use networking and strategic partnership approach to mitigate limitations of individual organizations. It is also a way of building synergies for multi-dimensional attack on the problems of migration and human trafficking. For instance, the African Development Organization for Migration (AFDOM) which is based in Northern Ghana focuses on reducing illegal cross-border migration yet helps to resettle or re-integrate rescued children from transit points in southern Ghana.The Marshallan Relief and Development Services (MAREDES) have research potential and influence in high-level policy spaces in Ghana. Regional and International networking is limited to the Regional and International structures of CARITAS. So for instance, we are a member of the CI Working Group on Migration and Trafficking.

Some Challenges and Concerns

1. Migration has a very strong international relations dimension. The fact that the African Union has a Common Position on Migration and Development and the Strategic Migration Policy Framework is a very positive move. However, how much of this is known? How is it being implemented? Is there accountability or monitoring systems for these frameworks? Can Caritas – Africa and SECAM prioritize this in their strategic engagement with the Africa Union?

2. Locally, Ghana has no clear cut policy on migration and development. A national policy would have been critical for domesticating the Africa Union Frameworks. Government interest itself in Immigration service and Remittances of Ghanaian emigrants. Occasionally it reacts to embarrassing news arising from migration, without a clear policy articulation on the issue of migration and development.

3. Limited research on this field to expose empirical evidence of the scope, nature and implications is a serious concern. I have indicated earlier in my introduction that the dynamics of the field of migration calls for constant examination and sharing of new knowledge. Our inability to do this is a serious setback.

4. The recent outbreak of the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) has raised new challenges to migration and development. Suddenly the refugee camps in Ghana hosting displaced Liberians and Sierra Leoneans is posing new health challenges for the Government of Ghana than one has hitherto imagined.

5. Powerful economic interests affect our work on migration. For instance, powerful individuals in the cities (both men and women) are benefiting from trafficking and the menial services provided by youth who have migrated from poorer regions; especially as house-helps. Also, our over-crowded local market centres in the cities can hardly function without the migrant head potters who move goods from one point to the other. So economic interest and exploitation of services of migrants combine to perpetuate the situation in the cities.

6. Diminishing livelihood opportunities and lack of social amenities in our rural areas will continue to push the youth out of those places to the cities. Yet their situation is even likely to get worse in the cities because of the absence of social safety nets. The support services provided by our Caritas Organizations at the destinations may only be a mitigating factor but not the solution. How can we therefore re-strategize to tackle the problem from the root?

Conclusion

There are no ready answers to the challenges and concerns. However, this is a good medium and space to share preliminary ideas and provoke further thinking and strategic response. While local actions are important, there is a strong need for international relations for more far-reaching policy response. The on-going Post-2015 Development discourses are a great opportunity to flag migration as a critical development issue.

Honoring the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe for Their Continued Care

 Asia Alsgaard

This past October, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe was one of four other tribes to receive the Honoring Nations award for excellence in the governance, effectiveness, and sustainability for their Child Welfare Program.  Awarded by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe was one of six finalists to receive the award. To continue their line of firsts, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe has also recently become the first tribe to qualify for the Title IV-E waiver, which will allow them more flexibility in how “family” is defined and financial allocation.

The Honoring Nations Award came after having established a direct agreement with the U.S. department of Health and Human Services in 2012. This agreement allows the tribe to have direct control over child welfare services such as adoption and foster care services. Furthermore, the S’klallam tribe has the prerogative to try and place displaced children with close family members or with other tribal families rather than the standard of placing tribally associated children in non-Native homes. This was an important first step for the recognition of tribal rights across the United States and has changed the outcome of foster care situations for the Port Gamble S’klallam tribe. In some states, Aaliyah, a 4-year old with an absentee mother and incarcerated father, might have been placed in a non-Native home without appropriate tribal consultation. However, because of Port Gamble’s direct agreement and foster care system, Aaliyah was able to be placed with her grandmother, Juanita Holtyn instead of a family with whom Aaliyah had no connection.

This outcome is drastically different than those of the past. Jessie Scheibner, a member of the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe born during the 1940s remembers being taken from her family on the reservation at the age of three, spending the next four years being shuffled from foster home to foster home before finally being reunited with her mother and sister at the age of seven. She would not return to the reservation until she was eighteen years old. In an interview with Jullian Sullivan, she recalled her experience, “I just existed. Nobody cuddled me, nobody would play with me. Back then there was a lot of racism.”

In response to cases like Jessie’s, the Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted in 1978, establishing guidelines for dealing with Native child welfare cases. The act was an attempt to recognize the rights of tribal governments in cases dealing with Native children; however, the process was still controlled and operated by the state. Then in 2008, the passage of the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act allowed tribal governments to apply for the ability to directly operate programs covered under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. It would be another four years before the Port Gamble K’lallam Tribe would be the first tribe authorized to direct such a program.

The Port Gamble K’lallam Tribe saw the program authorization as an opportunity to prevent a repeat of the past while claiming control over their children and future. In an interview with Konnie Lemay, Andrea Smith, the attorney for the tribes’ Children and Family Services program commented that “there’s a lot of federal language that’s historically been used against Indian children. Historically, ‘in the best interests of the child’ was used to pull children out of their homes. We don’t use that language in our code.” Since directly operating their own program, the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe has operated tribal child support, Head Start, assistance for families in need, foster care programs and a nurse home visiting program.

Their efforts have provided a model plan for other tribes looking to directly operate programs—they have gone out of their way to provide seminars and webinars discussing the steps necessary to take in order to pursue funding for and how to administer a program. As of January 2014, four other tribes have an approved Title IV-E plan: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana, South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency of Washington, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Michigan, and the Navajo Nation of Arizona.

The Port Gamble S’Kllalam Tribe is an exception to the situations of many other tribes within the United States. There are still many Native children who are being taken off of reservations only to be placed in outside foster homes without the consultation of the tribal government. An NPR report was released in 2011 on the state of Native children Foster Care in South Dakota. The findings were disturbing, recounting the disproportionate number of Native children placed into foster care under the state each year without notifying the tribal government or providing a proper hearing. In an NPR interview with Laura Sullivan, Stephen Pevar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU said, “These were virtually kangaroo courts. There was nothing-nothing- that any of the parents did or could have done. It was a predetermined outcome in every one of these cases.” Equally, the Lakota People’s Project says the state violated Title IV-E, placing caps on funding despite provisions intending to prevent such actions. Some argue the state ignored the rights of Native tribes in order to gain monetary profit. Others say that Native children were taken from their homes in an attempt to remove them from places, such as the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, that are traditionally characterized by alcoholism, depression, and poverty.

Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that Native sovereignty was not recognized and basic provisions outlined in both the Indian Child Welfare Act and Title IV-E were violated. In the same NPR interview, Chase Iron Eyes, a staff attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project stated “It's a crisis. It's a human rights crisis - what's going on.” However, current actions are being taken to rectify the situation. The Lakota People’s Law Project verified the initially contested findings, submitting a report to Congress last year. Currently, the Department of Justice is supporting South Dakota tribes in a class action lawsuit against the state. Not only is this a major step in providing relief for Native families whose rights have been violated by the state, but as stated by Rapid City attorney Dana Hanna in an interview with Andrea Cook, “That’s huge in terms of Indian law. I’m not aware of any other example of a tribe or really any plaintiff taking on the state actors in a class action to vindicate Indian Child Welfare Act rights.” Also this past year, two tribes of the Lakota Sioux nation, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have received Title IV-E planning grants with the goal for the grant to establish foster care services within these tribes. This would allow them more control over the lives of Native children who find themselves in foster care situations.

Even with these advances, much work remains, both within the governmental system, but also within the Pine Ridge Reservation itself. In an interview with Sara Nelson and Metthew Renda, Jesse Taken Alive, the former Chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, stated: “We will be working on our constitutions, our customary laws and traditions, our Court system, our codes, our available buildings, our kinship and foster care networks, our educational access to Master Degrees, our creation of these permanent jobs, and our trauma and parent training based on our own values. This effort will strengthen our families and build tribal capacity across our structures.” Much work remains to be done for the Lakota Sioux Nation; however, the government is beginning to take steps to ensure Native rights are recognized both inside and outside South Dakota. Alongside Lakota Sioux tribes, other Native tribes such as the Ketchikan Indian Community and Aleut Community of Alaska and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community of Arizona received planning grants this past year. For Native tribes, it represents a chance to regain control over their families and sovereignty, but also something much more basic. Without their children, Native tribes have no future.

Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Where Does It Stand?

Kalpana Jha

While truth is a mirror to the past, reconciliation is the road into the future. Uncovering the truth to attain reconciliation is an intrinsic step for all post-conflict societies. In such societies, reconciliation involves an elaborate engagement with those who were directly and indirectly affected by the conflict. It is an extremely cautious process of helping people conquer their past and establish an environment conducive for the nation to move forward. Although reconciliation does not directly translate to delivering justice, the process itself is of utmost importance.

However, there has never been a serious effort towards this end in the Nepalese context. The long awaited Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED) in Nepal were finally formed eight years after signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), but upon shaky grounds. Section 22 gave the TRC powers to mediate between the victims and the perpetrators on the request of either party - the perpetrator or the victim. In addition, Section 26 stipulated that "the Commission shall not recommend for amnesty to the perpetrators involved in rape and other crimes of serious nature in which the Commission follows the investigation and does not find sufficient reasons and grounds for amnesty.” Therefore, the Commission could recommend amnesty for all crimes under its jurisdiction if sufficient reason and ground was found. These provisions have now been annulled by the Supreme Court on 26 February 2015. This is definitely a promising step forward in the delayed process of recognition of the victim’s concerns.

At least three attempts to form a TRC have failed in the past due to the same flaws mentioned above. Despite the court ruling of 2 January 2014, the recommended changes were never incorporated in the previous TRC.

Further, Nepal has not yet criminalised torture. Neither has Nepal defined extrajudicial killings as crimes against humanity, which clearly places the perpetrators at an advantage in any hearing. Adding to this plight are the laws that provide protection to the army and the police which have not yet been re-defined in the interest of the public. The 1959 Army Act had a provision requiring a court of inquiry board and a court martial for any violations of the Act. There are no provisions in the 1959 Act or any other law that stipulate the situations in which the army is obliged to release full and complete details of court-martial proceedings and any judgments, including if a First Information Report (FIR) was filed and if police commenced criminal investigations.

The army has manipulated the provisions calling for army inquiries and courts martials in order to avoid accountability before civilian courts. It has obstructed police investigations into alleged extrajudicial executions and other abuses. This was apparent in the Maina Sunuwar (a 15-year-old girl killed by the Nepalese Army in February 2004) case - the army’s refused to share the results of the court martial with the police and her family, despite a court directive. Similarly, The Public Security Act of 1989 Section 22 provides immunity for any acts committed by State officials in good faith during the course of duty. These protective laws in favour of the police and the army will play a significant role in thwarting the truth and reconciliation process even if the changes are incorporated by the TRC. 

These concerns are heightened in the Nepalese context where the power imbalances between the victim and the perpetrator are apparent. The perpetrators are part of well-established State structures like the army and the third largest political party of Nepal, the Maoists. Importantly, as the process has already been delayed for eight years, finding evidence of the crimes will itself be challenging, thus complicating the very first step of uncovering the truth.

Another major factor complicating the entire truth and reconciliation process is the lack of a fuller understanding of democracy by the citizens as well as the institutions of the nation. There remains a major lacuna in Nepal in this regard as the source of democratic institutions - the constitution - remains in limbo.

Finally, the very definition of the term 'reconciliation' still remains vague. The term has been limited to mean settlement or mediation where the process of engagement has totally been undermined, placing total stress on the end result. This is particularly problematic when the emphasis of the entire process is placed on achieving reconciliation. Therefore, with the deliberately skewed attitude clearly manifesting in faulty laws, the chances of the successful discovery of truth and lasting reconciliation appear bleak. Despite all these ills, even if the Commission comes up with recommendations, the government has not yet formulated the laws required for their implementation.

Engendering a sense of justice in the victims could pave the way for peaceful co-existence between the victims and perpetrators. It could also help in preventing the nation from slipping into another conflict. For this, an honest effort to scrutinise the past and begin a long-term engagement is essential. With all these aspects missing from the Nepalese context, things can only be expected to get worse before they get any better.

Sri Lanka: President Sirisena’s First One Hundred Days

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

51 days have passed, and 49 remain to fulfill the election promises of the 100-day reform introduced by the newly elected regime in Sri Lanka. People are questioning the delay in implementing certain key promises, and the public is concerned that this may be another unfulfilled election promise. According to a top constitutional lawyer, Dr Wickramaratne, the proposed simultaneous implementation of both constitutional and electoral reforms lacks practicality. Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha, a leading supporter of the President’s coalition, has also expressed his dissatisfaction at the delay in the implementation process. He especially notes the delays in the re-establishment of the 17th Amendment, abolishing the executive Presidency, and the new electoral system.

The remainder of the hundred days will see the implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI). The successful implementation of this Act will strengthen individual citizens to question political authority and enhance transparency. According to some media reports, its implementation is postponed. An important Act such as the RTI should ideally go through a process of taking into account citizen input and discussions with the public before being presented to parliament. India went through such a process and certain areas are still under improvement.

The 100-day reform promises a lot of good, but the practicality of this being implemented in so short a span of time is a concern that has been flagged by this author in previous columns. Of the social media groups that are monitoring the daily progress of these reforms,www.100days.lk indicates that only 9 promises have so far been fulfilled out of 25.

What people would like to see is a better political and economic environment than what existed during the previous administration’s tenure. This is the underlying reason they voted for a change. If the 100-day promise is not fulfilled it will lead to serious political issues arising from public dissatisfaction. What the new government should focus on is the essential list of priorities within the 100-day reform promise. A focus on flying around the world with themes such as “around the world in 100 days” is not a priority for the people.

In Sri Lanka, the construction of the lotus tower which aims to be the highest tower in South Asia is a symbol of wasteful expenditure initiated by the previous Government, and at the risk of neglecting priorities such as poverty alleviation. The contractual commitments from China and India remain a serious decision and challenge for the new Government in deciding its continuation or discontinuation. The Colombo Port City project called in a massive Chinese investment of US$15 billion to build a construction similar to the Palm City of Dubai. The housing project by the Indian TATA group of US$450 million is still under the new Government’s evaluation. These important decisions will be made by the new Government which will eventually face a general election in a few months.

Whether former President Rajapaksa will stand for elections and how the coalition will contest are among the vital election questions. The massive rally organised recently by the supporters of the former President Rajapaksa indicate his return to politics. Speaking to the local press, former President Rajapaksa said, “See, the US, Europe, the West, they are not our friends, Pakistan helped us, especially Musharraf. What happened in my country and the insurgency happening in your country, RAW [India's Research and Analysis Wing] is behind it." This is a serious statement that reveals that he wishes to project his defeat as an international conspiracy. Creating speculation about India’s involvement in regime change could affect Sri Lanka’s relations with them in the future. It could also stir negative sentiment among the Sri Lankan public.

Sri Lanka lost its freedom to the British Empire two centuries ago because of the lack of unity. The local Chiefs got rid of the local King with the support of the British and handed over to the British assuming the Chiefs could play a larger ensuring the country’s safety. Unfortunately, only too late were the brutalities of being a colony under the British realised. Sri Lanka lost its independence due to internal weaknesses, at the heart of which was the lack of unity. If united as one, Sri Lankans can focus their energy to empower the people, and with the right skill sets, achieve great heights.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe made an important remark on the 67th Independence Day: “We have now, once again arrived at a period, during which we could realise that objective. Groups that represent diverse communities, following different religions, political parties, civil organisations and various groups came together onto one platform, shedding their differences to achieve a common objective for the benefit of the nation.”

To create a common unity among the different ethnic groups and reconciliation should remain a top priority.

Workers Struggles: The Americas

Latin America

Police attack, arrest protesting Mexican teachers

Protests in the Mexican state of Guerrero were met with police violence last week, with scores of arrests, police brutality and one death. The demonstrations were organized mainly by the CETEG teachers union.

The first protest, on February 24, was held on a road to the Acapulco airport. Among the issues that the educators and their supporters were demonstrating about were unpaid wages, the educational “reforms” promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto, continuing gang violence against teachers and the September disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala, about 100 miles to the north.

When protesters blocked the road to the airport, police arrested over 100. Later that night, a bus drove into a crowd of police and protesters, and police brutally attacked the demonstrators. Photos from the scene show bloodied teachers being manhandled by the police.

The Interior Ministry accused the protesters of using the bus to attack police, a charge that CETEG denies. CETEG charges that over 500 teachers and students were injured by police, and that police had sexually assaulted four women. Eleven teachers were reported missing as well.

One 65-year-old retired teacher, Claudio Castillo Peña, died of injuries to the head inflicted early in the morning of February 25. Witnesses said that the police had beaten Castillo Peña to death. An autopsy reported that his thorax and abdomen had been crushed as well. Federal authorities now claim that a vehicle struck him.

The next day, about 1,000 teachers marched and held a rally in front of the office of the Federal Police to demand an investigation into Castillo Peña’s death and to denounce the police violence.

Brazilian truckers’ strike over fuel tax hike, freight rates continues

Strikes and blockades by truckers in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul continue, despite the signing of an agreement, court injunctions and police repression.

The truckers began their strike on February 18 to protest a diesel fuel tax increase imposed on February 1 that they say will drive some of them out of business. They are also demanding higher payments for freight deliveries.

Truckers set up blockades on major highways used to transport soybeans, corn and other agricultural products to Santos, a port in São Paulo. By February 25, the protests had spread to 10 states, delaying shipments to ports as well as deliveries of fuel and supplies to farmers, resulting in interruptions of harvests and slowing of soybean and corn exports.

One protester in Rio Grande do Sul, where protesters torched a tire truck, was killed on February 25 when he was struck by a truck that ran a blockade.

Later that day, the government and representatives of some of the truckers signed an agreement that would extend the time that truckers pay off their loans and would freeze diesel prices. However, the agreement only covered members of the Brazilian Autonomous Truckers Confederation, and those not covered continued their action.

By February 28, there were 46 blockades still in effect. In nine states, prosecutors obtained court injunctions against the truckers. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Federal highway police and the National Security Force used tear gas and batons to break up blockades and arrested at least eight people on March 1. The number of blockades decreased, with most of the remaining ones in three states: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana.

The government has announced that it will send more police to break up the blockades, and steep fines will be levied against owners of blockading vehicles.

Brazilian auto workers return to work after company modifies layoff schedule

Workers at southeastern Brazil’s General Motors auto plant in São Jose dos Campos ended their protest strike over the planned layoffs of almost 800 workers. The February 26 assembly vote followed an agreement between the Steelworkers Union and the company to change the timetable for the layoffs.

Instead of laying off the 794 workers with no guarantees of being rehired, GM promised to furlough 650 workers for five months with full pay, and rehire them for another three months. Reporting did not provide details on the workers’ fate after the three-month reinstatement.

Disunity among Argentine teachers unions over parity talk offers

Last week, parity talks across Argentina between provincial governments and teachers unions took place. Some unions accepted government salary proposals, while others rejected them.

In Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Province Education Workers Union (Suteba), the Argentine Private Teachers Union (Sadop), the Argentine Teachers Union (Uda) and the Technical Education Teachers Union (Amet) voted to accept the government’s offer in time to begin the new school year on Monday. However, members of the Buenos Aires Educators Federation (FEB) and the Buenos Aires Province Teachers Union (UDOCBA) voted against the offer.

Suteba leader Roberto Baradel claimed that the increase would put teachers’ base monthly salary at 7,000 pesos (US$802), a 40.56 percent raise in 2015 and an average of 36 percent for “all positions, from grade school teacher, professors, directors.” He also asserted that retired teachers would be included in the raise, and that 300 million pesos (US$34 million) would be invested in infrastructure improvements.

FEB head Mirta Petrocini, explaining her members’ rejection of the offer, said that “there is flattening of the salary scale and we cannot accept the period for the raise,” specifically, the payment in two stages. FEB and UDOCBA called for 48-hour strikes on Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Santa Fe province, Sadop, Amet and Uda provincial branches called a two-day strike for Monday and Tuesday despite their national federations’ agreement to a 27 percent base salary raise. Amsafe, a provincial union, also called for a two-day walkout.

In both cases, the provincial Labor Ministries decreed a 15-day cooling-off period, ordered “obligatory conciliation” talks and threatened to dock pay for time spent on strike.

Belize: Sickout by air traffic controllers highlights dispute over pay, working conditions

Air traffic controllers at Belize’s Phillip Goldson International Airport, or PGIA, held a sickout on February 21 to protest long working hours, decaying infrastructure, low wages and cronyism. At least six flights were canceled and others diverted to Honduras and Guatemala. The action lasted twelve hours, accounting for two six-hour shifts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The next day, an organization called Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) issued a press release stating that the PGIA sickout “has for us raised awareness of the value and importance of a thankless job.”

The COLA statement pointed out that some controllers work “for as many as 18 hours in a 24-hour day,” that municipal flights are uncontrolled and outside the purview of air traffic controllers, resulting in some near-collisions with major aircraft, that there is seriously insufficient staff in the control tower and radar room, and that equipment is poor.

Another complaint is that the Department of Civil Aviation hires political cronies instead of “individuals who are enthusiastic and aggressive so that within 2-to-3 years they can reach the requirement to work in the control tower and eventually the radar room.” At the same time, a recent salary raise for public officers has not reached the controllers.

In 2009, the government approved the Essential Services Amendment Bill, making it illegal for essential service employees to stage strikes, sickouts or slowdowns. The CEO of the Ministry of Tourism, Tracy Taegar-Panton, said that “there are repercussions for such actions to be taken and we will have to address the matter as soon as we are able to ascertain really what has caused this event.” The Industrial Relations Officer for the Public Service, Ray Davis, called the action an “unhappy convergence of circumstances.” He claimed that the controllers were “not boycotting or doing anything like that to call attention to anything.”

United States

Part-time professors hold nationwide actions to call attention to exploitation

Adjunct professors at a number of university campuses across the US held activities February 25, including walkouts, to highlight the plight of the super-exploited part-time professors that now comprise the majority of faculty on campuses. Adjunct faculty, who perform the same tasks as full-time, tenured faculty, now comprise 75 percent of the 1.8 million instructors at colleges and universities.

Many work without any benefits and are essentially temp workers working from semester to semester without a contract and subject to termination at management whim. The median salary per three-credit course is $2,700. For an adjunct professor who teaches four classes per semester, the projected annual salary is $21,600—a figure below the federal poverty line.

At Seattle University, where 55 percent of the faculty are adjunct professors, hundreds of professors and students walked out of classes. Louisa Edgerly, who teaches part-time at Seattle University, told Democracy Now!, “[A]cross the board, we are paid less than our tenure-track colleagues. We have few, sometimes no, benefits, sometimes no office space, very little time to meet with students. Many of us end up having to work multiple jobs at different campuses just in order to make ends meet.”

In New York, where state law bans adjunct professor strikes, professors held a variety of events to raise awareness of their plight. Karen Hildebrand at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, said, “I have been a temp for 20 years… Adjunct instructors, in case you are unaware, are part-time instructors in colleges and universities. (Trust academia to give a fancy name to a temp.) Adjuncts are paid by the course and hired by the semester. But they’re an entrenched part of the system. The trend of hiring adjuncts has grown. They now comprise over half of instructors in higher education.”

Canada

Air Canada maneuvers for early lockout

Continuing an offensive against transport workers that saw the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper move to table anti-strike legislation last month against striking locomotive engineers at Canadian Pacific Railways, Air Canada—in an unprecedented move—has rushed an application to the government for contract conciliation in talks with 4,100 customer sales and service agents organized by Unifor.

With contract discussions opened just two weeks ago, Air Canada management is seeking to move forward the date for a lockout or strike even though no impasse has been reached in the early stages of collective bargaining. By applying so early for conciliation, the company can be in a position to lock out its workers by late May. Buoyed by the government’s record of forcing workers into binding arbitration and the refusal of Canadian unions to fight back-to-work legislation, Air Canada management has strategized that moving a lockout date forward will bring labour negotiations to a head before the beginning of its lucrative summer flying season.

Air Canada has over the past several years depended on government interventions and the acquiescence of union leaders to force contracts through that are favourable to the company. In March 2012, the government issued a cease-and-desist order against a wildcat strike by baggage handlers. Earlier that same month, it illegalized job actions by 8,600 Air Canada ground crew workers and 3,000 pilots through a spurious request to the industrial relations board to rule on whether a strike or lockout would endanger the “health and safety” of Canadians.

Soon after, the Conservatives rammed legislation through parliament suspending the workers’ right to strike. The anti-strike law included language that made it inevitable that concessions would be imposed on workers. It stipulated that the new contracts must “ensure the short and long-term viability and competitiveness” of the company and guarantee “the sustainability of the employer’s pension plan,” a euphemism for pension cuts, increased worker contributions, and the introduction of a defined-contribution scheme for low-seniority workers.

The government made similar pro-company interventions against Air Canada Customer Sales and Service Agents in 2011, using the threat of a government-imposed settlement to push the CAW (predecessor to Unifor) into yet another concessions deal. This was the same tactic used against flight attendants when they threatened to strike in October 2011.

South African finance minister raises income tax, fuel and electricity levies

Thabo Seseane Jr.

In his first full Budget speech since taking office last year, South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) raised the top personal income tax rate by one percentage point, to 41 percent, together with fuel and electricity levies.

South Africans earning above R181,900 (US$15,634) a year are affected by the income tax hike. Fuel levies are to rise by 80.5 cents per litre, with 30.5 cents of that attributable to the general fuel levy, and 50 cents per litre going towards the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy.

The increase in fuel levies means consumers will no longer benefit from the drop in the international oil price over seven consecutive months. Barring any increase in the international price, the retail cost of a litre of petrol is now projected to rise some 10 percent in March.

Nene admitted that the 50 cents per litre rise in the RAF levy was a substantial increase from the present level of R1.04 per litre. “It is required in order to finance the progress made by the RAF administration in clearing the claims backlog,” he said. “But it also reflects the unsustainability of the current compensation system, which has accumulated a R98 billion unfunded liability.”

Regarding funding for the state-owned power utility ESKOM, Nene announced an increase in the electricity levy from 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 5.5 cents per kWh. “This additional 2 cents a kWh will be withdrawn when the electricity shortage is over,” he said.

Rolling blackouts are expected to last until 2018, amid ESKOM’s delays in bringing its new Medupi and Kusile plants online. The utility is also grappling with the maintenance of a fleet of other power stations, whose average age is 35 years.

Nene cynically claimed the increased electricity levy would “promote energy efficiency and encourage lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Treasury is also set to help recover the costs of upgrades to electronically-tolled sections (e-tolls) of the Gauteng province highway network under the management of the South African National Roads Agency Limited. “Concerns regarding the social-economic impact of toll tariffs have been heard and revised monthly [toll payment] ceilings will shortly be proposed,” Nene announced.

The provocative issue of e-tolls saw Gauteng Premier David Makhura making a populist, anti-e-toll turn in 2014, along with Gauteng ANC Provincial Chairman Paul Mashatile and other members of a faction opposed to the increasingly unpopular President Jacob Zuma. Makhura then quashed all hope that he was a “people’s premier” when he gave his state-of-the-province address in the Gauteng Legislature on February 23. In that speech he said a “new” e-toll system, with details to be announced later, would provide what he described as a “major relief” for Gauteng road users, “while simplifying the payment system to make it easy… to pay.”

Road expansion and maintenance were originally meant to be paid for out of the fuel levy Nene has just raised by 80.5 cents a litre. But instead of being ring-fenced, the amount goes into a central account, from which it is disbursed for expenses unrelated to road transport.

Nene left the rate of value-added tax (VAT) unchanged at 14 percent, where it has been set since 1993. As a tax on consumption that affects even the poor and unemployed, a hike in the VAT rate had been opposed by activists and trade unionists. However, changes may still be afoot later this year, depending on the recommendations of the Davis Committee on Tax that is tasked with a review of South African tax law.

The fastest-growing expense in the budget is interest on sovereign debt. This amount is projected to increase from R115 billion in the 2014/15 fiscal year to R153.4 billion in 2017/18. Net debt has grown from 21.8 percent of gross domestic product, at the beginning of the global recession in 2009, when the ANC government ramped up spending, to 40.8 percent in the current year.

The purpose of this year’s budget was to increase revenue, partly by reducing government spending by R25 billion. This is necessary if Nene is to satisfy the demands of rich creditors, while fending off pressure from the poor by maintaining the ANC’s social spending.

Publications like Business Day indicate that, from the point of view of the rich, he has not done enough. Writing in the daily, Leon Louw of the Free Market Foundation criticised Nene for not having further loosened exchange controls. For other wealthy upper-middle class commentators, there was also not a clear enough commitment to privatising state-owned assets, including ESKOM and South African Airways. However, Nene has, like Pravin Gordhan before him, consistently referred to the need to dispose of “non-core assets.”

According to Standard Bank chief economist Goolam Ballim, Nene must be “mindful that another sovereign credit downgrade hangs over him like a sword of Damocles.”

The constant threat of downgrades by the international credit rating agencies—with more reluctant creditors and higher borrowing costs as a consequence—is ever present. It is one of the tools used by finance capital to keep all governments in thrall to their diktats, always at the expense of the basic social needs of the working class.

Bipartisan support for anti-democratic data retention bill in Australia

Mike Head

Australia’s opposition Labor Party will help push the Abbott government’s metadata retention bill through parliament, virtually ensuring its passage, probably by the end of the month.

Labor’s representatives on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security joined their Liberal-National Coalition colleagues last Friday in issuing a unanimous report endorsing the bill, while recommending 38 minor changes.

None of the changes will alter the police-state powers of mass surveillance that will be handed to the government and its spy and police services. The legislation will force Internet and phone companies to keep all their data for two years so that the security agencies can trawl through the records. This will permit them to compile a detailed picture of the lives of millions of people, including their political views, friends and associates, geographical locations and even spending habits.

Attorney-General George Brandis, who is jointly responsible for the bill with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, immediately issued a press release welcoming the report and acknowledging “the bipartisanship of the Labor party.” According to media reports, the government is moving swiftly to incorporate the 38 recommendations into the bill and push it through the Senate this month.

Labor’s support for the bill is hardly surprising, given that the previous Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard first advanced the data retention plan, only to put it on hold until after the 2013 election because of widespread public opposition to it. Nonetheless, Labor’s embrace of the bill underscores the bipartisan consensus within the political establishment on boosting the powers of the police-intelligence apparatus.

The committee’s report was released just days after Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered a televised “national security” statement, designed to further politically exploit the December 15–16 Martin Place café siege in central Sydney. The siege involved a single deranged hostage-taker, but Abbott’s government elevated it into a major terrorist emergency. In his speech, Abbott demanded the rapid passage of the data retention bill and outlined a new barrage of draconian “counter-terrorism” laws.

Labor’s vote for the bill will mark the fourth time in months that it has backed the passage of so-called counter-terrorism laws that shred basic legal and democratic rights. This is occurring amid constant “terrorist” scare campaigns and the escalation of Australia’s involvement in the renewed US-war in Iraq and Syria. As with the Abbott government’s first three tranches of legislation, this bill goes far beyond the purported aim of combating terrorism.

In fact, by targeting the communications of millions of people, the bill demonstrates the underlying agenda behind the “anti-terrorism” laws. On the pretext of protecting ordinary people from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other Islamic extremists, these laws show that the real “enemy,” as far as the ruling elite is concerned, is the population itself.

A submission to the parliamentary committee by the Law Institute of Victoria, which represents lawyers in that state, gave some idea of the bill’s vast scope. The “retained data will tell your story—places you frequent, who you vote for, what health conditions you have or have had in the past, or even something as intimate as your sexual orientation,” it stated. “Knowing who calls or emails you, and who you email or call, reveals where you shop, invest or holiday.”

Originally, the bill did not even define “metadata,” making a mockery of the government’s claims that the actual contents of messages will not be accessed, only such details as their senders and recipients, locations and length and frequency. As a sop to that concern, the parliamentary committee recommended that a definition be inserted in the bill, but that “to provide for emergency circumstances,” the attorney-general be given the power to expand the list of data that can be accessed. That typifies the committee’s 38 token adjustments.

In another revealing recommendation, the report rejected calls for exemptions to protect journalists’ confidential sources. This means that call logs of journalists can easily be requested by the security agencies, permitting them to identify the whistle-blowers and other sources of “leaks” that may politically damage the government or the security apparatus. The committee proposed to conduct a separate three-month review of that issue, but with the bill to become law in the meantime.

The bill will facilitate what is already widespread surveillance. According to official statistics, police and other law enforcement agencies made more than 580,000 telecommunications intercepts during 2013–14—in a country with less than 24 million people. This tally did not even include intercepts by the domestic political spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which, according to the parliamentary report, cannot be divulged “on national security grounds.” None of these intercepts require judicial warrants, simply “self-authorisation” by the agencies involved—a regime that will continue.

Compelling telecommunication providers to store their data for two years will give all these agencies far greater capacity to mine through the data to identify targets for their operations. This will feed into the information supplied to the global mass surveillance network headed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). As documented in detail by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Australian Signals Directorate, Australia’s electronic eavesdropping service, is an integral part of this network, which is also critical to US military operations and war planning.

Snowden’s exposure of this global apparatus received no mention in the parliamentary report. But to support its recommendations, the committee cited a recent report by the US National Research Council, an official academic think tank, designed to counter the impact of Snowden’s revelations. Entitled, Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence: Technical Options, the report insisted that no technological alternatives existed to “bulk collection of signals intelligence” (telecommunications) by US intelligence agencies.

While emphasising their underlying support for the security agencies, and the US military alliance, the Greens have sought to tap into the popular opposition to the metadata bill by criticizing aspects of it.

The Greens spokesman, Senator Scott Ludlam, feigned outrage at Labor’s support for the bill, saying it was “absolutely beyond belief,” when in fact the Greens were in a de-facto coalition with the minority Gillard government when it proposed the scheme in 2012-13.

Ludlam called for the bill to be rejected, but also foreshadowed an amendment to exempt journalists and their sources from the storage scheme. The Greens have a long record of posturing as opponents of police-state laws, while voting for key measures to strengthen and/or camouflage them.

This buildup of surveillance is occurring amid rapidly worsening economic conditions, which are fueling social discontent and political disaffection with the ruling elite’s agenda of war, austerity, widening inequality and abrogation of basic legal and democratic rights.