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Ghana’s political landscape is set to feel a quake thanks to the entry of new player, Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG).
SMG, being the aggregation of fertile minds and public spirited people building on the tremendous work of the Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) which served as an active hotspot commemorating Nkrumah’s anniversaries, helping stage protest marches and setting records straight when dust is thrown in the eye of the Ghanaian and African regarding the country’s independence journey and Nkrumah’s sterling governance record.
The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) thus outdoored itself to the masses by staging its first national congress spanning July 30 to August 1 in Winneba, Central Region.
The congress had 130 delegates from Ghana and 27 observers from fraternal organisations in other African, European, Asian, South and North American countries.
The delegates adopted a constitution and the decision to rename the organisation from a Forum to a Movement.
The birth of the SFG was captured on theinsightnewsonline.com, “Sometime in 1993, shortly after the return to constitutionalism, after 12 years of PNDC rule, four comrades met in Accra to discuss the state of socialist organisation in Ghana and how best to respond to the challenges that faced working people and ordinary citizens in Ghana. The struggles of the working people, the adoption of the 1992 Fourth Republican constitution and, paradoxically, the triumph of interventionist neo-liberalism globally created a window for the resumption of open and socialist political activity in Ghana.”
The climate where the Rawlings’ administration, had rolled out a massive programme of retrenchment in the public services, devalued the national currency by more than 20,000 per cent, reversed Nkrumaist socialisation of health, education, housing and other social protection programmes and the accelerated privatisation of state enterprises as well as the sale or destruction of more than 300 State enterprises by the PNDC amid muzzling of free speech; called for defiance and public discourse on socialism, pan-Africanism, as well as the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah.
The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) over the decades – through its media organisations, study groups, cultural spaces and bookshops energised the minds of the people to add value to self and lead an ethical minded life drawing on the inspiration of African greats like Nkrumah, Lumumba, Garvey, Sankara and others.
Finding solutions to the crisis of unemployment, sale of farmlands to corporations, displacement of subsistence farmers leading to large-scale migration of youth from rural areas to the cities are things which occupy the minds of the SMG leadership.
The movement has Kwesi Pratt Jr., as General Secretary, Kyeretwie Opoku and Kofi Henaku as Convener and the International Affairs Secretary respectively.
On why the forum had to morph into a movement, seasoned journalist Pratt Jr., submitted:
Under the circumstances, “socialist struggle requires an advanced political organization – in size, breadth, networks, mobilizing power, and strategic and tactical capacity – beyond what SFG could provide.” Thus the need to reorganize the Forum into a Movement arose, which is “a larger, more diverse and more pro-activist organization.”
Under their leadership, the SMG will work “with socialist and progressive political and social organizations in Ghana and defeat Imperialist efforts.”
by michael eli dokosi/www.blakkpepper.com/ghana
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