Meet the new boss

 It is fervently hoped that bloodshed will have been avoided in the Gambia with the departure of the rogue who has been facilitating the exploitation of its citizens for the past 20 years.
 
 The Gambia’s new president has declared that the “rule of fear” is over in the country, as it appeared that a deal had been reached for his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, to relinquish power and go into exile.

 After 12 hours of talks, Mauritania’s president, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, confirmed to the Guardian that an agreement had been reached. “There is a deal,” he said. Asked if Jammeh would be leaving the country, he said: “The outgoing president will travel very soon.”
“The outgoing president is going to leave as soon as the conditions are met – very soon, certainly.” Abdel Aziz did not say what these conditions were.
Later, Jammeh appeared on Gambian state TV. “I believe in the importance of dialogue … I have decided today in good conscience to relinquish the mantle of this great nation,” he waffled.
“All the issues we currently face can be resolved peacefully. I believe in the capacity of Africans to decide for themselves all the issues on the way to democracy, social and economic development.
“My prayer and desire [is] that peace and security continue to reign in The Gambia.” The country “must jealously guard and defend” peace, he said.

 Addressing members of the Gambian diaspora in the capital of Senegal on Friday night, the new president Barrow said: “The rule of fear has been vanished from the Gambia for good.”

Time will tell if even a modicum of that aspiration will apply.

 It is clear that much needs to be done just to ensure normal bargaining activity can take place in a country where Sheriff Diba, of the Gambian National Transport Control Association (GNTCA), died at the notorious Mile 2 Prison in Banjul on 21 February 2016, after he and other GNTCA leaders were detained by authorities. The leaders had been calling for a reduction in the price of fuel after a fall in wholesale prices, and were protesting a breakdown in negotiations with the government.

But while the climate may improve a bit workers in The Gambia, as well as workers elsewhere in the world, require a much more fundamental change in ownership and control of resources and the means of producing and distributing wealth than that afforded by capitalist mechanisms.

 This will require an understanding which allows them to perceive the real possibility of dissolving all governments over themselves and electing themselves to administer a production for use, free access, post-capitalist society of social equals. This is not on the cards presently and any freedom will be seriously constrained by the compulsion of waged slavery for the majority to produce riches for the minority.