| | Introduction The coup of 31 December 1981 which brought Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings to power for the second time, opened the floodgates to the most intense and bitter class struggle witnessed in the post-independence period. The coup was initially hailed as representing a victory for progressive forces and heralding a new dawn in which workers and peasants would play a vanguard role in the process of revolutionary transformation. The subsequent outcome has seen one of the most dramatic 'U-turns' of any government in all post-independent African history. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) has turned its back on its origins, initial objectives, and social base, and invalidated all possibilities of a genuine revolutionary transformation. |
