by JOAN NIMARKOH
Introduction
After years of being hailed as a beacon for neo-liberal economic reform, Ghana’s Black Star appears to be on the descent following months of disappointing growth and plummeting foreign investment. The country has been hit by a spiralling economic crisis, marked by a perfect storm of high inflation, high unemployment and endemic political corruption.
Coordinated national strike action this July brought the country to a standstill as thousands of public sector workers came out on the streets in protest. Their demands for economic change resonated with a disaffected electorate struggling to deal with the rising cost of living amidst escalating fuel and food prices, exacerbated by the rapid fall of the cedi.
Ghana’s experience holds valuable lessons for other African countries following the same neo-liberal economic trajectory spearheaded by the laissez faire policies of the World Bank and the IMF. As Ghana’s labour movement challenges the validity of its government’s conservative economic framework, their capacity to build a political alliance for an economic alternative is paramount not only for the future of Africa’s left, but as a turning point in exposing the paucity of the Washington consensus as an instrument for social justice.
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