Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities and towns across Greece on March 17 to protest the government’s handling of last month’s Tempi railway disaster and the capitalist system that puts profits before people, reports Brett Wilkins.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The degradation of women’s labor and social standing is a global feature of capitalism. In Barcelona, Catalonia, 60,000 women took to the streets for a one-day general strike called by Spanish union CGT on International Women’s Day, March 8. Women workers united across sectors to demand fair pay, an end to workplace discrimination, and migrant justice—particularly for the case of Spain’s domestic workers, more than half of whom are migrant women. In the latest installment of Workers of the World, Sato Díaz and María Artigas report from the streets of Barcelona. This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.
Producers: Sato Díaz and María Artigas
Videographer and editor: María Artigas
Translator and narrator: Marina Céspedes
This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.
Protesters: “Jails, CIES, raids and borders, this is how European wealth is built!”
Reporter: Tens of thousands of women across Catalonia took to the streets on International Women’s Day. The Spanish CGT union called for a general strike on this day that celebrates and honors the struggle of women around the world. Picket lines, marches and protests of all kinds took place throughout the day. One of the companies that manages social services for the Barcelona City Council saw its offices occupied by a group of its female workers.
María Muñoz: We are on strike today, because we are several services here. To begin with, some companies, such as Grupo Cinco, are paying salaries under the collective labor agreement to our female colleagues. Others are here because, for example, during our pregnancies, we have to work on the streets, at night, in dangerous places, and we have to be on the streets until we are 30 weeks pregnant. When we asked for family reconciliation we have received coercive calls from the company. We are also fighting for the municipalization of these services. This is to demand better conditions and to be more recognized as women. About 70% of the managers of these services are men and the majority of the workforce, the technicians, are women. So that is why we are here today.
Reporter: Schools, colleges and universities also called for an education strike by students and teachers taking to the streets in a march that took place at noon. Demands included coeducation under equality principles the end of discrimination based on sex, gender or identities in schools, as well as equality in access to management positions and university chairs. Women represent the majority 55% of the university population. However, that percentage decreases when it comes to chairs of which only 21% are women. In Spain’s 50 public universities, there are only 11 women at the head of these institutions.
Ingrid Chavarría: The education sector is the most precarious because its services are privatized, for example, the lunchroom monitors, the special needs students’ caregivers are all privatized. This is very precarious and has consequences in the quality of the service. That is why we are on strike. Also because we have a regulation called the Staffing Decree, which allows the public administration to handpick the teachers. So pregnant and lactating women are discriminated against. Also because we had a co-education program in different schools called COEDUCA’T and due to pressure from the far right, who asked for the withdrawal of these materials, the Department of Education has withdrawn the materials on sexual affective education.
Mercedes Márquez: The university world is also a very precarious world at the level of the teaching staff, 60% of the staff is precarious, they have precarious, temporary contracts, with very low salaries and then when it comes to students, of course, they find that the teaching staff is unmotivated, in addition to the abusive fees. We really don’t have a public university in this country, and it is very expensive. Also in the case of universities, since it is a very hierarchical system, we find abuses of power by some professors or against female students, especially in PhD programs, and there are cases of sexual and workplace harassment that are being covered up by the universities. They are well known situations where charges have been filed, and the university drags out the process. Dragging it out makes it look like there will be a resolution. That resolution never comes. And in the meantime, the faculty is free to do as they please.
Reporter: At the CGT strike, protesters demanded their repeal of the Labor Reform and Immigration Law, as well as the end of privatization, discrimination and employment, layoffs and difficulties in work and family life conciliation. According to a report prepared by LinkedIn and the World Economic Forum, women in Spain are 65% less likely to be promoted in the labor market than men. According to the same study. Only six out of every hundred CEOs in Spain are women.
Nuria Gil Ruiz: We have called for a general strike because women are in charge of paid and unpaid care and despite the progress made in recent times, we continue to suffer from precariousness in a more crude way and inequalities continue to exist that make it difficult for us to have the same opportunities. We demand a dignified life, free of wage gap, gender violence, harassment of any kind, especially gender-based, human trafficking, exploitation of other people’s bodies and demand recognition for care work which is of crucial importance in our society. We demand conciliation policies against the firing of pregnant women and nursing mothers, decent and adapted working hours and a distribution of wealth to reduce the disparity which also affects women, who make up 70% of people under the poverty threshold. It is important for women to join a union because we have been taught to stand alone, to be able to handle everything and not to raise our voices. Affiliation allows us to defend our rights together with the union structure behind us and through mutual support, lose our fear and feel that we are not alone.
Reporter: Female pensioners are among those most affected by gender inequality, as many of them never worked paid jobs and devoted themselves to their families and household care. In Spain, the gender gap in pensions currently stands at 33%, with men receiving an average of €1,439 compared to the €966 received by women.
Rosalía Molina: We talk about energy poverty because there are many women pensioners or retired women who had never worked in their lives because they had dedicated themselves to taking care of their families, who find themselves in a situation of helplessness, earning very little, who cannot even have electricity or be able to pay the minimum expenses. In other words, a total wage gap. Women who are left alone, women who are widowed, have a miserable pension that they cannot even live on. So, today and every day of the year, we must continue to take to the streets and fight for the whole issue of the pension plan and for dignity in life. And young people, especially women, it continues to be the women who are responsible for all the care work in society in general, not only for our children, but also for the elderly and dependents. All jobs related to family independent care fall on women.
Reporter: The special system for domestic employees is a largely feminized sector in Spain, 95.5% of the more than 376,000 members as of January 31st, 2022, are women. Despite being covered under Convention 189 of the International Labor Organization, domestic workers in Spain are not allowed to pay unemployment contributions. According to data collected by Oxfam Intermon in 2021, 56% of all domestic and care workers in Spain are migrant women. It is estimated that 70,000 of these women are in an irregular situation. The independent unions Sindillar-Sindihogar was created in Barcelona to combat this situation.
Áurea Ayón: Sindillar-Sindihogar is a union of domestic and care workers. Our pillars are to seek better conditions for domestic and care workers, the repeal of the Immigration Law, which keeps us in a precarious situation and which also affects our lives as soon as we arrive as migrant women. Our banner says “No 8M without 30M” because March 30th is the International Day of Domestic and Care Workers. There is no feminism if it is not a feminism that is anti-capitalist, anti-racist, decolonial, etc. This year the Congress was supposed to ratify ILO Convention 189, but it turns out that the Spanish Constitution does not allow domestic and care workers to be included in the general regime until 2024. We are now in a special regime in which we are not allowed to take maternity leave, we are not allowed to have a pension, we are not allowed to take sick leave. So our main demands are the repeal of the Immigration Law, the ratification of ILO Convention 189, but a real one. They are not going to make laws to harm their own economy, their economy is much larger than ours, because sometimes they want to pay €3 per hour, sometimes they want to pay €600 per month for a person who is working as an intern, because they say “ah, since you live here, then I discount your housing, I discount your food and then with that it would be about €1,100” But they do not take into account that the workers, especially those who are interns, work 24 hours a day. We are an independent union because we do not receive government help. We weave this network together, we build together, we support each other, most of us are migrant women with and without legal papers, with or without regular administrative status, but the most important thing is that we are fighting for a dignified life so that all women can have a dignified life here and wherever we are.
Reporter: After the massive march that brought more than 60,000 people together in Barcelona this day of general strike in Catalonia came to an end. Although no other strikes were called for in other regions of Spain, thousands of women took to the streets to fight for their rights.
Protesters: “Long live the transfeminist fight!”
It should only take two minutes, and all answers are confidential.
French president Emmanuel Macron’s government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion on March 20 over his decree enforcing the attack on pensions, reports John Mullen. But the people’s revolt against it is escalating.
Britain’s Illegal Migration Bill is bankrupt, unprincipled and modelled on Australia’s cruel refugee policy, writes Binoy Kampmark.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Mary Lou McDonald, A Republican Riddle is no hagiography, nor is it a glib hatchet-job, writes Bill Nevins.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Near the end of this month, from March 27 to 28, the European Gas Conference (EGC) organized by Energy Council takes place in Vienna. This conference brings together Europe’s main gas suppliers to discuss “the security of supply and the new role for LNG on the continent” and how to “diversify supply and decarbonize supply chains to future-proof gas’ role in the energy mix.”
Total, Equinor, BP, BlackRock, and RWE are just some of the companies who will be represented in Vienna. These are also some of the companies who have registered record profits over the last year, mostly due to skyrocketing gas and oil prices. These are some of the companies whose conscious actions have pushed millions into energy poverty this winter, while pushing us all to climate collapse.
After their windfall profits, both Shell and BP have announced that they are slowing their energy transition. British Petroleum (BP) for example, is planning to invest $8 billion of their profits in fossil fuels, while also reducing their carbon reduction targets from 40% to 20% by 2030.
While announcing new investments in fossil fuels to secure the interests of profit-eager shareholders, these companies are smart enough to understand that they also need to secure their control over the renewable sector, and take advantage of the funding opportunities for the energy transition. This demands some social and greenwashing from their side.
That is why they organize conferences like the one I attended last January. I will try to give you a glimpse of the narratives and discourses that they are putting forward that expose greenwashing for what it is.
The conference in January—titled “Just Transition for the Gas Sector and its Workers”—organized by EuroGas saw the expression “social dialogue” repeated over and over throughout. As an activist with the Climate Jobs campaign, I acknowledge that an urgent phase-out of fossil fuels (including “natural” gas) cannot be conducted without a concrete just transition plan for the workers of this sector. This phrase apparently held distinct meanings for different people at the conference.
When they talk about the transition not happening without “the workers,” they mean they need the right “skilled workforce,” implying the need of the sector to anticipate the challenges in employment, jobs, skills, and plans for the future.
On the one hand, the need for a “skilled workforce” does not translate into current workers being ensured requalification or income and job guarantees in the transition. We saw many situations of fossil infrastructure closing down due to loss of profitability, companies moving on to new projects–often both in renewables but also in fossils, relocating fossil industry elsewhere—and the workers being left behind with no compensation, jobs, or income guarantee.
On the other hand, when it comes to planning and preparing for a world beyond fossil fuels, a disproportionate emphasis was placed on the challenges of doing so in small and medium companies, compared to big enterprises being better equipped for this task. In other words, some of the speakers interpreted the transition as a way for big companies to consolidate their power over the energy sector.
First, a just energy transition to stop climate change requires economic planning and preparation. This process should have started decades ago but has been constantly postponed due to intense investment by fossil companies to deny the climate change crisis or offer false solutions under greenwashing schemes.
The much-needed economic planning cannot be left to profit-driven mechanisms. On the contrary, it must be conducted with great public scrutiny and accountability towards civil society, especially workers.
Second, an energy transition to stop further damage on the climate and ecosystems requires a shift from extraction-intense and endless-growth economic and energy systems, to an economy based on people’s needs and planetary boundaries. Private companies have, of course, a different view on this, resulting in an energy expansion—a growth in investment of both renewables and fossils—with greenhouse gas emissions still on the rise.
That is exactly why the Secretary General of Eurogas opened the conference by saying that “this is the beginning, not at all the end” and later said that “this is not a sunset sector.” They do have plans to keep the sun shining for themselves. As it was explained in the conference, “the technologies to decarbonize the gas sector have been identified” and they are: 1) hydrogen and 2) biogas (mainly bio methane).
The strategy to add value to the existing infrastructure, while having an excuse to expand it, is to use it for biogas, as it can be transported and distributed via existing gas grids. Currently, bio methane accounts for only 1% of the gas production in Europe. Hydrogen, which is more complicated to transport and store, is their plan to expand energy infrastructure and energy production, while also being able to get their hands on the renewable energy production. Keeping in mind that an overwhelming majority of hydrogen is today produced using gas, we understand that both of these strategies came hand-in-hand with the prospects of extending the use of “natural” fossil gas as far out as possible.
Third, there was a common agreement that this transition is not possible without public subsidies and workers. When it comes to the subsidies, RePowerEU, the Resilience and Recovery Funds and the Just Transition Funds are the major subsidy packages of the European Union. The Just Transition funds are a good example of how European public funding has been been used as a way for companies to close fossil infrastructure that is no longer profitable instead of the money being used to ensure a social plan for workers, and to guarantee and plan their access to jobs in the new sectors. As for the RePowerEU, there are plans for large sums being used to support gas production and distribution, using the energy crisis as an excuse to delay the phase-out of fossil fuels.
A way out of the energy crisis and toward energy security won’t be achieved, now nor in the long term, by investing in new “natural” gas infrastructure. There is no energy security in a world of climate chaos.
I would like to challenge the logic behind the mainstream discourse of public subsidies to support private investments, which then put workers in the hands of private companies’ profit-oriented decisions, and thus the social dialogue becomes a way to avoid social unrest rather than a condition for fund allocation.
When it comes to key sectors for the transition and sectors providing essential services and goods—with the energy sector playing both roles—their future and of its workforce should never be left in the hands of private investments. Public funding should be channeled to public services and creation of good jobs in the public sector.
Just Transition Plans should be designed by putting the workers and communities at the forefront of the discussions, and should never be based on the interests of the companies who have for decades prolonged and benefited with the burning of fossil fuels, while well aware of their impacts on climate and livelihoods. This demands a shift towards renewable energy systems that are publicly owned, democratically managed, and freed from the imperatives of profit and economic growth.
Lastly, the conference I attended was closed by the Secretary General of Eurogas, expressing that “there is no gas sector, there are gas people” and wondering “what is the best way forward for gas people.” Very well framed. I dare to suggest that the best way forward to the gas people is a planned phase-out of gas that guarantees 2024 is the last winter of gas. This plan should include massive public investment on the renewable sector, ensuring requalification and income guarantee for workers, and creating millions of Climate Jobs.
This is the plan to avoid cold houses in the winter and a burning planet in the future.
All of this proves why the climate justice movement needs to come together with other social movements—and specifically the labor movement—to create real social plans for a just energy transition. We need a strong program and a strong movement fighting for it, to make these industry conferences meaningless. That is also why we ought to come together from March 24 to 26 in Vienna, in the counter conference “Power to the People”—because we need to talk about how to make this the last winter of gas, and after that, blockade the European Gas Conference.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Twelve-year sentences for the women condemned as president’s ‘revenge’ while UN report accuses country of possible crimes against humanity
Belarus has handed long jail terms to senior staff at the country’s largest independent news site, which was forced to close after historic demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko over two years ago.
The verdicts are the latest in a crackdown on journalists, opposition figures and activists who challenged Lukashenko’s claim that he won a sixth presidential term in 2020.
After a highly acclaimed run in North America, Roger Waters will take his “This Is Not a Drill” tour across Europe. The final concert in Gemrany, originally planned to take place in Frankfurt on May 28, has now been cancelled, reports Vijay Prashad and Katie Halper.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
So far, after weeks of targeted strikes by workers opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the national retirement age and reform the country’s beloved pension system, the French government has refused to change course. That is why unions across different industries raised the ante last week, launching an indefinite strike until workers’ demands are met. As Eric Challal of the Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) Railway Union put it, “We have no choice, we must make Macron back down, make the employers back down. There is no lack of money in this society… Wages are too low, prices are exploding, the high cost of living, the threat of war… We have this opportunity to fight, all the workers together.” TRNN contributor and video journalist Brandon Jourdan reports from the streets of Paris on the latest escalation of strike actions in France.
This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.
Producer, Videographer, Editor: Brandon Jourdan
Associate Producer, Translation: Nicolas Lee
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Ruptly
This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.
Brandon Jourdan (narrator): On March 7th, 2023, the ongoing French strike wave against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms entered a new phase of struggle. It was the largest single day of action in decades, with the unions estimating that 3.5 million people participated,
while the government claimed 1.28 million took part in strikes. With either estimate, the sixth day of national strikes within two months was the largest so far. Since the national strikes have thus far failed to prevent pension reforms from moving forward, tactics have escalated towards continuous strikes in many key sectors after the main day of action.
Eric Sellini, General Confederation of Labor (CGT), TotalEnergies: It is clear that the government continues to implement its plan. There was the presentation in the National Assembly, now it’s in the Senate. We feel that anyway, he’s [Macron] not ready to give up just like that. So, that’s why all the unions, and in particular the CGT, we decided to take the mobilization up a notch and today to mark the beginning of an important phase in terms of mobilization which is the beginning of the continuous strike in many companies across the country.
Brandon Jourdan (narrator): Before the main rally in Paris, railway workers at Gare du Nord held a general assembly to decide whether to continue their strike beyond March 7th.
Eric Challal, SUD Railway Union (speaking before assembly): It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the strength of workers on this scale. We also know, we have all seen it, what happened in Parliament, now in the Senate, we have seen all the parliamentary cinema, we have nothing to expect from it. This is the beginning of a new stage of the movement, the strike, the continuous strike.
What I propose, is therefore that we renew the strike. This is what we did by meeting here at 11:00 am for a general assembly. So tomorrow, the 8th, to continue the strike, until tomorrow 11:00 am and reconvene the general assembly.
Who votes yes?
One, two, three, four…
Comrades, the strike is unanimously renewed!
See you tomorrow at 11:00 am at the general assembly.
Eric Challal, SUD Railway Union (interview): It has been quite some time since we have seen so many people in the streets, millions of people in the provinces, in small and medium-sized cities. For the moment, they [the government] fear this mobilization. But the mobilization has not yet been strong enough to make them back down. That’s why we’re going on continuous strikes.
Brandon Jourdan (narrator): The railway workers joined others who decided to strike beyond a single day, including workers at oil refineries, fuel depots, waste management sites, public transit, ports, transport, and power plants.
Eric Sellini, General Confederation of Labor (CGT), TotalEnergies: Today, there are six refineries in France that refine oil. Three of them are TotalEnergies refineries. All three are at a standstill. There are two ExxonMobil refineries that are also shut down, who stopped their shipments. And there is a PetroChina refinery that has also stopped its shipments, which is in the south of France. So, all the refineries, that are still refining oil in France today, are at a standstill.
The objective is to last as long as possible to put sufficient pressure on the government to back down on this reform and so that we can put forward our solutions to positively reform our retirement system.
Brandon Jourdan (narrator): Electricity production was reduced and workers reportedly engaged in “Robin Hood” actions, pledging to provide free power to schools, universities, and low-income homes. The strikes have public support, with polls showing a broad majority opposing the reforms and 60% of the public supporting bringing France to a standstill.
The Paris march was the largest mobilization of the 2023 strike wave so far, with the union official stating 700,000 attended the protests. Police estimated 81,000 people.
Anne Chatain, President, French Confederation of Christian Workers, (CFTC) Media+: We are here in the street to try to influence the government that is trying to pass a very brutal pension reform law.
Awawou Yenou, Hotel Ibis Batignolle CGT: We don’t agree with the state. The citizens do not agree, employees, especially those working in the difficult jobs. So, we don’t agree in relation to the age decided for retirement.
Anne Jamet, CFDT Thales Metal Workers: The government does not react, for the moment, to the mobilizations. There have been several mobilizations with huge numbers of people. There is no answer. So today, a new day of mobilization. As the law is under review in the Senate, we still have to show that we are mobilized and that we do not want this unfair reform to pass.
Today, for the first time in my life, I am on strike. It’s still a strong commitment to go on strike, in support of all workers.
Student protesters chanting: We are here! We are here!
Even if Macron doesn’t like it, we are here!
For the honor of the workers, for a better world
Even if Macron doesn’t like it, we are here!
We are here! We are here!
Even if Macron doesn’t like it, we are here!
For the honor of the workers, for a better world
Even if Macron doesn’t like it, we are here!
Brandon Jourdan (narrator): There was a large black bloc, who clashed with police and engaged in targeted property destruction. In the melee, police made 22 arrests.
If the pension reforms are approved, popular anger could boil over again, as it did with the yellow vest movement a few years ago. Whatever happens, March 2023 will prove to be a historic month that can either resurrects the French trade union movement, which has seen its numbers in decline, or give Macron another bitterly contested victory.
Eric Challal, SUD Railway Union (interview): We have no choice, we must make Macron back down, make the employers back down. There is no lack of money in this society.
Record profits, they were announced not long ago, and the state’s coffers would be short 10 to 20 million to finance pensions?
No one believes it.
So, this battle against the pension reform, there are many things behind it. Wages are too low, prices are exploding, the high cost of living, the threat of war. We have this opportunity to fight, all the workers together, and to lead the arm wrestling with continuous strikes. We must seize this opportunity.
It should only take two minutes, and all answers are confidential.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
See original post here.
The idea of a European universal basic income bears potential as a palpable way of delivering on the promise of ‘social Europe’. However, many proposals remain vague. We outline a concrete policy design for an EU-wide basic income to foster debates on how such a policy could look like in practice.
By Dominic Afscharian, Viktoriia Muliavka, Marius S. Ostrowski, Lukáš Siegel
Whenever Europe is hit by a crisis with obvious social implications, one idea pops up in public debates with clockwork regularity: Paying everyone a regular amount of money in the form of a universal basic income (UBI) to remedy the social repercussions of the crisis. Since Europe has certainly had no shortage of such shocks in recent decades, UBI debates have become a staple feature of the discourse on European social policy. However, these debates are characterised by a number of misconceptions, which we aim to tackle head-on through our policy proposal for a progressive European UBI (EUBI). At a glance, they are as follows:
We argue that such misconceptions lead to a number of overgeneralisations, which ignore the fact that UBI is not fundamentally different from many other policies: its implications hinge on the concrete shape it takes. Policy design can make the difference between an EUBI being a tool of market-making or a disruptive mechanism of redistribution across the European Union. It can make an EUBI foster progressive ideas or cement conservative models of society. It can make the difference between a revolutionary utopia or a marginal reform. In short, policy design matters.
Therefore, we attempt to provide a proposal of how to make the rather ambiguous idea of an EUBI concrete. We build on our in-depth 2021 open-access study ‘The European Basic Income – Delivering on Social Europe’ published by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. It contains more background information on our theory, reasoning, and calculations. Throughout the following sections, we outline the key pillars of our proposal following some guiding questions: Who should receive a UBI? How much should a UBI provide? How should a UBI be distributed? And how is such a UBI to be funded?
In answering these questions, we aim to be pragmatic as well as nuanced. Although our proposal might potentially upset those who favour more revolutionary, fully emancipatory UBI designs, it should nevertheless illustrate mechanisms whereby the general idea of a UBI can be moved a few steps closer to becoming feasible by doing away with some of the misconceptions mentioned above.
One of the main reasons UBI is often considered a ‘simple policy’ is the idea that it would be paid to everyone – after all, it is universal. However, defining the borders within which it is universal can dramatically change policy implications: Is UBI implemented locally, regionally, nationally, EU-wide, or perhaps even globally? Is it universal to all citizens or everyone who currently resides within the territory in question?
Our proposal aims for a UBI across the whole EU. Thus, we opt for introducing an EUBI directly at the EU level, co-administered by the Commission and Parliament. This is crucial for our proposal as it would maximise the scheme’s ability to contribute to a palpable ‘social Europe’. As this implies, our proposal is in large parts motivated by considerations around EU integration. On top of this, past experiences with Eurosceptic narratives indicate that if a UBI were to be introduced solely at the national level within an EU that continues to embrace free movement, this might – rightly or wrongly – spark debates about welfare chauvinism.
Furthermore, we propose paying the EUBI out directly to every adult long-term EU resident, albeit with adjustments regarding whether they are to receive this payout automatically. Starting at the respective national median income, the amount of EUBI paid out by default would be increasingly tapered off. Anyone would still have the right to claim their full EUBI, but the need for the wealthier to make such claims actively instead of receiving automated payments should act as a nudge to increase the scheme’s feasibility and address some concerns over justice. For minors, we further propose paying out a share of the full monthly basic income to their caregivers, with the rest being paid into a sovereign wealth fund. Acting as a starting capital, the accrued amount of money would then be paid out to the individuals in whose name it has been saved upon turning 18 years old. For adults dependent on care, we suggest that their EUBI be administered on trust by their caregivers – as is already the case under current ‘power of attorney’ arrangements.
But how much exactly should the EUBI provide? Here, we propose a combination of modest beginnings and ambitious goals. We believe that one of the biggest hurdles to introducing any UBI consists in first establishing its basic principle. On that basis, we propose introducing the scheme at very low levels. To avoid disturbing labour markets or causing unexpected externalities, the EUBI would be first introduced at only a few euros per month which would slowly be raised under close supervision by interdisciplinary research groups. Eventually, the EUBI should cover the national at-risk-of-poverty thresholds at 60% of the national median, or 50% of the national mean income, whichever is higher. By implication, UBI levels would vary between EU member states.
In order to take account of income differences between member states, we further propose what we call an ‘EUBI corridor’. Once fully implemented, no member state’s UBI level would fall below 20% of the EU-wide median income, and none would exceed 60%. This should ensure a combination of sufficiency, redistribution, and incentives for richer member states to encourage income growth in poorer member states. What is of fundamental importance is that an EUBI must not be used as cover to abolish national welfare states. Only purely monetary schemes that are in sum entirely covered by the EUBI might optionally be replaced. Otherwise, the scheme would risk increasing social hardship, and would rapidly be overburdened by unreasonable expectations about the level of redress for social problems it is capable of providing. It goes without saying that this condition is vital for progressive political actors to consider a UBI a viable social policy option.
While levels of payments are important, the impact of an EUBI further depends on how distribution is carried out. As alluded to before, we emphasise the importance of paying out UBI directly in monetary form to individuals over the course of their entire lives, with the exception of children and people fundamentally dependent on care by others. This is intended to maximise the scheme’s emancipatory potential. We further opt for a regular interval of payments, preferably monthly, to allow for some flexibility in spending patterns while avoiding the risk that the EUBI’s security component becomes lost through high one-off payments.
In order to increase the potential effect of the scheme on the palpable social dimension of the EU that citizens actually associate with European integration, payments should be explicitly marked as coming from the EU. However, this obviously does not rule out leveraging existing national welfare infrastructures in order to reach citizens with a minimum of extra bureaucratic hassle.
Another important component of designing an EUBI is funding. While this dimension usually dominates UBI debates through questions around the feasibility of the scheme, we argue that funding is central to an EUBI far beyond this consideration. In fact, funding is at least as important as output, as it can become a direct lever to control the impacts of the policy. A UBI funded entirely by taxes on labour income would have entirely different implications regarding redistribution, incentives, and economic effects than one fully funded from taxes on land value.
To balance the many considerations at play, we propose spreading the funding of the scheme across many shoulders. Thus, a mix of revenue sources should be introduced gradually. At a first stage, the EU needs its own financial resources, introduced through an expanded fiscal capacity at the EU level. These would include a financial transaction tax, a CO2 tax, a green border tax, an extension of emission trading schemes, and a sovereign wealth fund. Following this, a diverse portfolio of further taxes could be added, consisting of an EU-level digital services tax, an EU-wide VAT, and contributions from national corporate taxation. At a final stage, EU-level taxes on luxury goods, high incomes, inheritances, wealth, and land value, along with a ‘robot tax’ could institutionalise direct solidarity and redistribution between EU citizens. Just as with the introduction of the scheme itself, we propose introducing revenue sources gradually. Linking both elements of the policy design, EUBI levels could be fully tied to increasing revenue sources at the beginning.
These are the most basic elements of our complete proposal, which hint at an underlying conflict within UBI debates. While the idea itself is often praised as a revolutionary, emancipatory concept, it runs into problems regarding its perceived feasibility. Thus, our proposal embraces gradualism: We acknowledge that a slow and careful introduction comes at the cost of immediate decommodification. However, we argue that looming conflicts over justice, feasibility, impacts, and the value of empirical trials can hardly be resolved by insisting on introducing a high-level, disruptive UBI right away. Implementing the most basic elements of the policy mechanism first would likely make it easier to reliably monitor the large-scale effects of a policy that remains associated with empirical uncertainties. Furthermore, this approach might make it easier to overcome procedural hurdles such as partisan opposition and institutional resistance within the EU. Crucially, the option of expanding the scheme in the long run remains in place.
What should have become clear from our proposal is that there are countless ways to tweak the design of a UBI, and that a UBI is neither the simple policy nor the silver bullet some believe it to be. That said, we believe that our proposal represents a solid basis for moving the debate over UBI in the EU forward and making it more concrete, while pairing traditional elements of UBI proposals with some innovative tweaks in policy design.
This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.
Legal experts say Brussels has right to take retaliatory action, making cross-border law enforcement harder
The UK’s trade agreement with the EU could be immediately terminated if the British government quits the European convention on human rights (EHCR) over the issue of stopping small boat crossings across the Channel, legal experts have said.
Under the 2020 trade and cooperation agreement (TCA), the EU has the right to take retaliatory action including the ending of the hard-fought agreements on extradition and access to the database of biometric data including fingerprints and DNA, said Steve Peers, a professor of EU and human rights law.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
In 2011, workers at the Vio.Me factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, stopped receiving wages. Management and owners abandoned the facility shortly afterward. Instead of dispersing, the workers of Vio.Me held an assembly and voted to take over management of the factory themselves. Over the past decade, they’ve kept the factory running, jointly determining production decisions through democratic procedures, and sharing in the profits. Although their former bosses and the Greek state have attempted to auction off the land and evict them, the workers have held on with the power of solidarity from their community, and workers across Greece and the wider world. TRNN speaks directly to the worker-managers of Vio.Me about their ongoing struggle and the powerful example they’ve set for workers around the world. This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.
Producer: Christos Avramidis
Videography: Calliope Panagiotidou Terzopoulou
Video editor: Leo Erhardt
Translation: Danai Maltezou
This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.
Reporter: This is the only occupied factory in Europe to still produce. In February 2013, more than 70 factory workers occupied the construction materials factory of VIOME in Thessaloniki, Greece and took the wealth they produced for themselves.
Dimitris Koumatsioulis: The bosses chose to leave. To leave us alone. Τhey took the money and they left. It’s very simple when they saw that they didn’t earn anything anymore, they gave up and left the workers unpaid.
Makis Anagnostou: In the general assembly, it was proposed that VIOME should continue to operate, whether the boss wanted it or not. And by an overwhelming 97.5% of votes, the workers agreed on it.
Dimitris Koumatsioulis: We are in a factory in Greece, which is the only one operating without bosses.
Reporter: Τhe workers changed the production from construction materials to ecological cleaning products.
Dimitris Koumatsioulis: Once the bosses left, we were given this opportunity, which was a gift for us at that time, to take advantage of the situation and do something different from what we were doing. That is, we would come in, get the production, clock out and leave. We took the work in our own hands and made what we made. A natural, ecological product. For us and to offer to the people.
Makis Anagnostou: Initially we were basically ecological in a sense, today we have reached the point where we don’t let anything from the packaging of raw materials go to waste, everything gets recycled and we even gain a small income from this process. Of course, as for the organic waste, we make sure to compost them, to also ensure that our vegetable garden is as effective as possible.
Reporter: In 2013 Greece had the highest unemployment rate in the EU. It was more than 27%. 4 million Greeks were below the poverty limit. Within three years, the GDP had fallen more than 21%, because of the neoliberal memorandum agreements’ measures implemented by the IMF and the EU. Suicide rates in 2013 were 40% more than in 2010, mainly due to unemployment.
Makis Anagnostou: The memorandum agreements were coming and going. There were too many problems, too many people jumping off balconies. Suicide rates had increased drastically.
Dimitris Koumatsioulis: Things were terrible. A lot of people were sitting in their homes, not wanting to go out, as they were ashamed because they didn’t have any money, while we were trying to persuade them to come out together, because that’s the only way we can fight, to show that we are here and we can change the world and do something different.
Reporter: For 10 years now, the workers have not been obeying the orders of the employer and managers. They organize everything through their daily general assembly and there is no inequality between blue- and white-collar workers.
Dimitris Koumatsioulis: Every day in the morning we come in, we discuss what we are going to produce, what problems we can solve in the factory, where we work. Then we start the production. We don’t have a boss, we all discuss our problems together and we all solve them together.
Makis Anagnostou: There are even bigger assemblies, consisting of us, colleagues from Athens and members of the society, the Initiative of Solidarity where we discuss greater issues, such as strategic issues, such as how we will go on and how we will resist.
Reporter: Α great movement of solidarity developed along with the workers, both inside and outside Greece. International media, even all the way to Japan, have broadcasted extensive reports and well-known writers and activists have expressed their support. A solidarity assembly has been taking place for 10 consecutive years through which hundreds of people have participated. 60% of the income comes from trade unions and political organizations all over the word.
Naomi Klein: This intertwining of resistances and alternatives is something that I think, all of our movements need to learn from.
Reporter: VIOME workers have even received a message of support from the Zapatistas. We also received a message of solidarity from the Zapatistas, which was the best thing to happen.
Makis Anagnostou: People who fight hard overseas because in their case, you don’t just go on strikes, your life is at stake every day, there. They sent us a message of solidarity, they are by our side and they support us.
Reporter: However, the factory is not just about production. People associated with social movements use the factory’s space often, while theatre performances, concerts, political debates, bazaars without middlemen, book presentations and film shootings by self-organized productions take place in the factory’s premises.
Makis Anagnostou: Through this process, we have changed as people. What we tried to do is to open it up to society. For example, when the migrants and the refugees were facing problems, the factory was filled with products and clothing to meet the needs of these people. In 2016 there was a global conference on the labor economy, where innumerable people came, from the other side of the world, from Argentina or Chile and from everywhere. From Mexico and from all over Europe of course. Other actions that we have taken to open it up even more and to open ourselves so that the LGBT community can get in here and take action.
Reporter: They created various events and they even started the self-managed-Pride here. In these 10 years of occupying the factory, the workers of VIOME, have been attacked many times. The company had been attempting to auction the property for 8 years.
Makis Anagnostou: Next time, there will be even more of us and we’ll be shouting, so that they will not be able to do anything.
Chanting: Cops, judges listen well, VIOME will remain in workers’ hands.
Makis Anagnostou: Most of the repression occurred during the auctions, in the courts when we were trying to enter the courts and it was forbidden to do so. On the spur of the moment, we managed to get some people in. So, if anything, we were ready to react. The state did not allow them to get a license and did even cut off their electricity. We resisted and we stopped them. However, early in the morning, during the COVID pandemic curfew, to bring the special police force [MAT] at 5 o’clock in the morning, and they made it. From that point onwards, we had our own solutions to keep producing, even after they cut the electricity after three years.
Reporter: The VIOME workers resisted the police violence and they organized a caravan to the Ministry of Labor to demand their legalization.
Makis Anagnostou: What they did was to delay time to tire us out. Then we said we would answer, even for a short period of time, that we are patient and we will wait. We tried to set up tents so that we could stay there for as many days as possible to get the answer. That’s when the police reacted, they tried to take the tents away. There was a beating, we did get hit, but we resisted. There was a beating, we did get hit, but we resisted. And we managed to impose our will and set up the tents.
Reporter: But even there, in Athens in the middle of a hot summer, they were not alone.
Makis Anagnostou: We were supported by many people passing by, there were many events Spyros Grammenos came by, Manu Chao came by and sang. These things gave us the courage to stay and even to heal the wounds that had caused us pain in the previous days. Because you take courage, you become a different person.
Reporter: Of course the Greek state has never let them alone either.
Makis Anagnostou: They let various accusations hang over the workers’ heads. Τhey came here one or two times to hand out documents about an interrogation or a trial which was imminent in the future, so that we would go to the police department and “have a discussion”. It’s intimidation in essence.
Reporter: In February, after many years of disrupted auctions, the state and the corporation managed to auction the property that the biggest part of VIOME belongs to. A foreign fund acquired the property. The workers held a general assembly to organize their resistance and the factory got full of people.
Participant of the General Assembly: It belongs to the workers that have given their soul here, it belongs to the workers that remained without a wage for many years, who were on work stoppage and we won’t give our lives away to any investor.
Reporter: The assembly decided to call for action by organizing a big demonstration in the center of the city.
Melina Azoudi: VIOME is not a utopia. VIOME is a self-managed factory that has been functioning for many, many years. The only self-managed factory in the country. We have formed struggle committees, we will defend the factory, until the end, until victory. We will not give in to the threats of the capitalists, we will not give in to the filthy methods of the state. We will defend the workers of VIOME, we will defend the symbol of VIOME. We will defend it because VIOME belongs to its workers. VIOME belongs to all the people, belongs to us who live there, to us who take action there.
Reporter: A question is raised for the workers again and again. Will they survive? Will they manage to keep being alone in producing without capitalists inside a capitalist world? But are they really alone?
Makis Anagnostou: Our message to the worldwide proletariat is clear. We are shouting: “Workers, you can do without bosses.” We do not only shout it. We put it into practice. Every day we are here and we put it into practice.
It should only take two minutes, and all answers are confidential.
After a three-week period of relative calm, all trade union federations in France called on workers “to bring France to a standstill” on March 7. Key workers’ sectors promised ongoing strikes, reports John Mullen.
Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet on Friday with the UK’s new bill high on the agenda
Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet in Paris on Friday for the first bilateral summit between France and Britain since 2018. High on the agenda will be the longstanding row over small boats crossing the Channel, given new impetus by the plan to tackle the issue announced by the UK on Tuesday.
What’s the state of Anglo-French relations?
Ukrainian president’s comments come after video appears to show killing of unarmed combatant
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to “find the murderers” of an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war apparently shot dead by Russian troops as the Ukrainian military named the man it said was in the footage that spread rapidly across social media on Monday.
In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram and was widely shared on Twitter, a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette. The soldier, in uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm, says “Glory to Ukraine” and is then apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Ahead of a significant day of industrial action across Britain planned for March 15 – Budget day – Green Left’s Susan Price asked Anti-capitalist Resistance (A*CR) member Terry Conway to talk about the significance of the strikewave and what it will take to force the government’s hand.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The biggest European anti-war protest marking one year since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine was held in Berlin on February 25, where according to Tariq Ali, some 50,000 people turned out in freezing conditions, reports Susan Price.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Graphic clip shows detained combatant standing in a shallow trench before being apparently shot
Ukraine has urged the international criminal court to investigate footage circulating on social media that appeared to show Russian fighters killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
In the graphic clip that first circulated on Telegram, a detained combatant is seen standing in a shallow trench and smoking a cigarette. The soldier says “Glory to Ukraine” and is then apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Last weekend, at least 67 people drowned when a wooden boat carrying about 150 people ran into trouble on rocks off the coast of Calabria, Italy. There were 20 children, including a newborn baby, among the dead. It is an appalling reminder of the risks some people are willing to take to flee desperate circumstances – often including conflict and torture – in their home countries.
This movement of people across borders is age old and governments have never been able to fully control it despite developments in border enforcement and technology. It is driven primarily by patterns of conflict and economic deprivation and will increasingly be shaped by the climate crisis. It is a relatively small issue for the west: because the majority of refugees prefer to stay close to their home country to maximise their chances of returning, three-quarters of the world’s refugees live in low- and middle-income countries and seven in 10 in countries that neighbour their country of origin.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
Pro-democracy activist sentenced to 10 years as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents
Belarus has sentenced the Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents after the 2020 pro-democracy protests against his rule.
Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist, is the founder of Viasna, the authoritarian country’s most prominent human rights group. He was detained in July last year and charged with smuggling cash into Belarus to fund his group’s activities, but is widely recognised as being persecuted for his opposition to Lukashenko.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
On Feb. 7, France’s eight largest unions turned out for the third strike of the year against Emanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular pension reforms. The fight to prevent a rise in the retirement age from 62 to 64 has galvanized French workers. On March 7, French unions have vowed to mobilize for the country’s sixth strike so far this year. This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.
Producer, Videographer, Editor: Brandon Jourdan
Associate Producer, Translation: Nicolas Lee
Audio Post-Production: Tommy Harron
This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Anger has exploded onto the French streets as President Emmanuel Macron vows to push through pension reforms despite popular opinion and a new nationwide strike wave.
Daniel Ferté, Ticket Inspector, FO Cheminot (Federation of Railway Workers): Today, we are in a situation where the government governs against its population, because the vast majority of the population is opposed to the reform, especially workers. According to surveys, 9 people (workers) out of 10 are opposed to the implementation of this reform.
Gaëlle Cavelier, Confédération Paysanne (Confederation of Farmers): This reform is very unpopular, we see it everywhere in France. French women and men are all against this pension [reform]. It seems to me the government is completely alone. They decided to push through the pension reform like a bulldozer, without listening to anyone.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: On February 7th, 2023, the eight largest trade unions in France engaged in the third mass nationwide strike within a month. It was the first of two national strikes happening during the week with a second that occurred on February 11th. The strikes oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s plans, which include raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increasing the total amount of years that people need to make social contributions in order to receive a full pension. On February 7th, there were mobilizations in over 200 French cities and towns. The General Confederation of Labor, or CGT, claimed close to 2 million people took to the streets, while the French Interior Ministry put the number at over 750,000 people.
Daniel Ferté, Ticket Inspector, FO Cheminot (Federation of Railway Workers): Today, in the demonstration, we will find absolutely all professional sectors that exist among workers, from steel workers to the road transporters, the railway workers, the teachers.
Maud Valegeas, Teacher, SUD Education union (Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques: All the existing professions are present today. There was a very big mobilization on January 19, and on January 31 as well, which had never gathered so many people in the streets. The mobilization we are experiencing today is historic because there is a union unity that is very large, where all the organizations call for mobilization against the pension reform project. This had not happened for 25 years, to have so many unions calling for mobilization. We have both private and public sector unions.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Public transit and railways were disrupted, fuel refineries slowed production, electricity production was decreased, and airline traffic was affected by the strikes.
Laurent Dahyot, Secretary General, CGT Air France: And today, we see that the population is coming togetherto say no to this reform.
We are fighting against this reform, but we are also fighting against harsh work conditions since we all face harsh work conditions, whether it’s on the ground or in the form of shifted hours, night work, carrying loads. For cabin crew, jet lag, toxicity in airplanes. In fact, harsh work conditions are a very important issue at Air France and working longer, it’s just not possible for all airport employees.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Farmers also joined the mass protest in Paris.
Gaëlle Cavelier, Confédération Paysanne (Confederation of Farmers): We want a retiree status for farmworkers in order to have a decent pension. Currently, the minister promises a gross pension of 1,200€, but it is only for people who contribute to the pension fund during their whole career without interruption. Few farmworkers are in that situation. There are many women farmworkers who have interrupted careers for maternity leave. There are women farmworkers who have a status of collaborating spouse, who never contribute to their retirement, who have no social status, therefore no pension. They will have zero euros.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Many school teachers also walked off the job to join the protests.
Maud Valegeas, Teacher, SUD Education union (Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques): I’m Maud Valegeas. I am a French teacher in a secondary school in Seine-Saint-Denis and I am a member of SUD Education union.
In the education sector, we were very mobilized on the 31st. There are two mobilizations this week, so it will probably be split between the two dates. But in fact, there are more and more general assemblies, meetings and there is the idea of preparing a big re-occurring strike in the education sector in the coming weeks. The private sector is also on strike, like our colleagues from PSA in Aulnay-sous-Bois.
So, the mobilization, it is very massive and there is no one sector more mobilized than another. We can see today that all the sectors are there.
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Along with the mass of workers, there was a large youth contingent. Teenagers blocked high schools and at times clashed with riot police.
Teenagers blocking school chant:
Everyone hates the police! Everyone hates the police! Everyone hates the police!
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: The large march in Paris marched from the Opera Garnierto the Place de la Bastille.All major unions were present, along with a vibrant youth contingent, and even retired workers attending in solidarity.
Jiménez, Retired Taxi Driver: My name is Jiménez, I have been retired for a few years now and I am here to defend retirement at 60 for my children and grandchildren. Listen, the context is very simple. If the people do not mobilize, the retirement age won’t be at 64 years old, it will be pushed to 67 or even 70 maybe.
Crowd chants:
Retirement! It is ours!
We fought to win it!
We will fight to keep it!
Retirement! It is ours!
We fought to win it!
We will fight to keep it!
Brandon Jourdan [Narrator]: Small groups of people using Black Bloc tactics, committed acts of targeted property destruction against banks, corporate chains and insurance companies. Tear gas and police charges followed, often targeting anyone that happened to be in the way. Despite police aggression, the large protest pushed ahead to Bastille. As night fell, music rang out through the square, chants roared and colored flares lit up the night sky.
The nationwide strike was followed by another massive mobilization on February 11th.
The next month will prove to be a decisive battle in the ongoing fight to preserve France’s social safety net. A general strike involving all major unions is planned for March 7th, where unions are threatening ‘to bring France to a standstill’.
Daniel Ferté, Ticket Inspector, FO Cheminot (Federation of Railway Workers): And if we have to block the economy of the country, we will block it. If necessary, we will block all transportation.
Gaëlle Cavelier, Confédération Paysanne (Confederation of Farmers): A hardening of the protest would be to reach a general strike and completely block the country.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Listen to a reading of this article:
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In a new article titled “European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO’s Ukraine proxy war escalates,” The Grayzone’s Stavroula Pabst and Max Blumenthal document the many large demonstrations that have been occurring in France, the UK, Germany, Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium and elsewhere opposing the western empire’s brinkmanship with Russia and proxy warfare in Ukraine.
Pabst and Blumenthal conclude their report with a denouncement of the way the western media have either been ignoring or sneering at these protests while actively cheerleading smaller demonstrations in support of arming Ukraine.
“When Western media has not ignored Europe’s antiwar protest wave altogether, its coverage has alternated between dismissive and contemptuous,” they write. “German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle sneeringly characterized the February 25 demonstration in Berlin as ‘naive’ while providing glowing coverage to smaller shows of support for the war by the Ukrainian diaspora. The New York Times, for its part, mentioned the European protests in just a single generic line buried in an article on minuscule anti-Putin protests held by Russian emigres.”
This bias is of course blatantly propagandistic, which won’t surprise anyone who understands that the mainstream western media exist first and foremost to administer propaganda on behalf of the US-centralized empire. And chief among their propaganda duties is to suppress the emergence of a genuine peace movement.
class=”twitter-tweet” data-width=”550″>European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO’s Ukraine proxy war escalates@stavroulapabst and @MaxBlumenthal cover the surge of antiwar activity across the continent over the past year, from Athens to Prague to London to Berlin to Paris and beyondhttps://t.co/At63ggS8M4
— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) February 27, 2023
As we’ve discussed previously, it has never in human history been more urgent to have a massive, forceful protest movement in opposition to the empire’s rapidly accelerating trajectory toward a global conflict against Russia and China. Other peace movements have arisen in the past in response to horrific wars which would go on to claim millions of lives, but a world war in the Atomic Age could easily wind up killing billions, and must never be allowed to happen.
And yet the public is not treating this unparalleled threat with the urgency it deserves. A few protests here and there is great, but it’s not nearly enough. And the reason the people have not answered the call is because the mass media have been successfully propagandizing them into accepting the continuous escalations toward world war that we’ve been seeing.
People aren’t going to protest what their government is doing if they believe that what their government is doing is appropriate, and the only reason so many people believe what their government is doing with regard to Russia and China is appropriate is because they have been propagandized into thinking so.
The mass media are not telling the public about the many well-documented western provocations which led to the war in Ukraine and sabotaged peace at every turn; they’re just telling everyone that Putin invaded because he’s an evil Hitler sequel who loves killing and hates freedom. The mass media are not telling the public about the way the US empire has been encircling China with war machinery in ways it would never permit itself to be encircled while deliberately staging incendiary provocations in Taiwan; they’re just telling everyone that China is run by evil warmongering tyrants. The mass media are not reminding the public that after the fall of the Soviet Union the US empire espoused a doctrine asserting that the rise of any foreign superpower must be prevented at all cost; they’re letting that agenda fade into the memory hole.
Because people believe Russia and China are the sole aggressors and the US and its allies are only responding defensively to those unprovoked aggressions, they don’t see the need for a mass protest movement against their own governments. If you tell the average coastal American liberal that you’re holding a protest about the war in Ukraine, they’re going to assume you mean you’re protesting against Putin, and they’ll look at you strangely if you tell them you’re actually protesting your own government’s aggressions.
class=”twitter-tweet” data-width=”550″>There Has Never In History Been A Greater Need For A Large Anti-War Movement
"The wars in Vietnam and Iraq killed millions; we're talking about a conflict that can kill billions."https://t.co/eMXpSNBuLH
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 27, 2023
The narrative that Russia and China are acting with unprovoked aggression actually prevents peace, because if your government isn’t doing anything to make things worse, then there’s nothing it can change about its own behavior to make things better. But of course there is a massive, massive amount that the western power alliance can change about its own behavior with regard to Russia and China that would greatly improve matters. Instead of working to subordinate the entire planet to the will of Washington and its drivers, they can work toward de-escalation, diplomacy and detente.
We’re not going to get de-escalation, diplomacy and detente unless the people use the power of their numbers to demand those things, and the people are not going to use the power of their numbers to demand those things as long as they are successfully propagandized not to. This means propaganda is the ultimate problem that needs to be addressed. Ordinary people can only address it by waking the public up to the fact that the political/media class are lying to them about what’s happening with Russia and China, using whatever means we have access to.
So that’s what we need to do. We need to fight the imperial disinformation campaign using information. Tell people the truth using every medium available to us to sow distrust in the imperial propaganda machine, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you.
Our rulers are always babbling about how they’re fighting an “information war” against enemy nations, but in reality they’re fighting an information war against normal westerners like us. So we must fight back. We need to cripple public trust in the propaganda machine and begin awakening one another from our propaganda-induced sleep, so that we can begin organizing against the horrific end they are driving us toward.
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What began as an overblown diplomatic response by Washington to a Chinese surveillance balloon that drifted across the continental United States, before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, has morphed into a major confrontation, writes Barry Sheppard.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
British Labour MP John McDonnell argues that to force a negotiated settlement to Russia’s war on Ukraine, the left should support Ukrainians’ right to defend themselves.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The UK is gearing up to host the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of 2022 winner Ukraine. On 25 February, the UK announced that it will allocate 3,000 tickets to displaced Ukrainians, as well as ensuring that the event “truly showcases Ukrainian culture” with millions of pounds in funding.
Culture secretary Liz Frazer said:
Today’s announcement means that thousands of tickets will be offered to those displaced by war, so that they can take part in a show honouring their homeland, their culture and their music.
As always, we stand together with the Ukrainian people and their fight for freedom.
The UK government is adept at gaslighting the British public. It tries to persuade us that it stands for “freedom” and supports those “displaced by war”. However, this is while the UK is instrumental in curtailing freedoms around the world and displacing millions through its support of multiple wars.
It suits the Tories to show their allegiance to those escaping Russia’s bombs. After all, it can then rally the British population to unite in hatred against a common enemy – Russia – which is always good for a government’s popularity which might otherwise be waning. It’s also very convenient that Russia’s victims are mostly white. After all, racist Britain won’t just open its doors to anyone. If you’re Black or brown, the government will leave you to die – either in our very own English Channel or in our detention centres. And if those things don’t kill you, you’ll be faced with racist attacks from white supremacists.
Of course, it isn’t just the UK that will be flying its racist flag on Eurovision night. In fact, other European nations – which are just as culpable – will be taking part in the entire, hypocritical charade.
Europe has blood on its hands, whether at its land borders or its sea borders.
Let’s take the Poland-Belarus border, for example. Millions of Ukrainians have crossed the border into Poland. The EU has freely welcomed them into the Schengen area, as has the UK government into our country. Thousands of other refugees, from countries such as Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iran, have also tried to cross the border to Poland. However, they have experienced the most appalling conditions, and Europe has treated them with contempt.
People hate these refugees so much that Poland even completed its own sinister border wall to keep them out. Security forces have raped, beaten, stolen from, extorted, and suffered inhuman treatment upon refugees on the Poland/Belarus border, while a number of them have died.
Now, let’s take Europe’s Mediterranean sea borders. Since 2014, more than 25,000 people have died after trying to reach Europe in dinghies unfit for the perilous journey. And what has the EU done? Pushed back refugees and actively strengthened laws to ensure that people drown.
And in the wake of the Turkey earthquake which killed thousands, Greece has fortified both its sea and land borders to prevent Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian refugees from crossing into Europe. Greece, too, has its own racist border wall to prevent people from seeking refuge, which it seeks to enlarge.
Of course, it’s vital to remind ourselves just who is to blame for the largest ever worldwide displacement of people. No, it’s not just Russia. The UK was an instrumental force in the military coalition which wrecked Afghanistan. The Canary‘s Joe Glenton has previously reported on:
the legacy of human rights abuses carried out in Afghanistan by the West and its allies… the bombings, the night raids, the drone attacks or the Western-trained death squads…
It was also our government that lied about so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to begin an illegal war. Ex-prime minister Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes, yet he received a knighthood instead. He remains untouched and unaccountable for the untold number of Iraqi deaths he’s caused and the trauma and deaths of the British soldiers who were forced to fight.
Then there’s Yemen. The UK has been a crucial ally for the Saudi-led coalition in its annihilation of the country. The war has killed hundreds of thousands, while millions are suffering from extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition. A United Nations (UN) 2021 report stated that 1.3 million people would die by 2030.
Meanwhile, British arms companies have made billions in profits as the government grants them export licences to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. The UK – and the private arms companies around the country creating the weapons – are complicit in every Yemeni death since.
Finally, let’s talk about the people of Palestine. Their lives have been torn apart by the UK’s staunch ally, Israel, since Zionist forces ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their land in 1948. Eurovision fans across Europe showed either their apathy or their contempt for Palestinian lives when they voted for Israel to win the contest in 2018. Palestinians and their supporters called for an international boycott of Eurovision when Israel hosted it in 2019. However, Palestinian lives were not deemed worthy enough by white Europeans, of course.
Since 1973 – the year that Israel joined the contest – there has never been an all-out ban on the country participating. Not even after Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2008, in which it murdered around 1,400 Palestinians. And not after 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defense, which saw tens of thousands fleeing their homes. In fact, Israel hosted Eurovision 2019 at the same time as its depraved snipers were gunning down Palestinians who were protesting in the Great March of Return.
Once again, it’s British arms companies that are profiting from the never-ending cruelty that Israel inflicts on Palestinian people.
So if, like me, you’re white, and you’re planning to enjoy Eurovision, please take some time to reflect on the possible racism inside of you. Why, as the British public, do we see nothing wrong with locking up Black and brown people, yet condone war when it displaces white people? Let’s ask ourselves: what is the difference between Ukrainian refugees and the people left to rot on the Poland-Belarus border, or in our own Manston detention centre? Why do we show our compassion for people fleeing from one country, yet show contempt for others? The answer is, of course, because of the skin colour and religion of those we’re choosing to either support or leave to die.
The Canary‘s Maryam Jameela previously summed up the mentality of people in Britain when she wrote:
It’s almost as though people in the UK don’t value and respect the lives of Black and brown people. They merely tolerate us. They don’t value us as human beings; they see us as cockroaches to keep out of the way. Ukrainian people are considered as a whole – their culture, their traditions, their communities. Black and brown people don’t get that luxury. This is because white people only consider fellow white people to have inalienable rights.
Of course, the Canary isn’t against the housing of Ukrainian refugees, nor are we against the celebration of Ukrainian culture. But these levels of hypocrisy among the British public can’t go on. If we stand with the Ukrainian people, then we need to stand with every single person who is displaced by war – no matter what their skin colour or religion.
Featured image via YouTube
By Eliza Egret
Calling her victory “a clear mandate for real change,” left-wing Italian politician Elly Schlein on Sunday was named the new leader of her country’s Democratic Party after winning against a centrist supported by the political establishment.
Schlein, a member of Parliament who temporarily defected from the Democratic Party (PD) in 2015 due to her opposition to a jobs act that made it easier for employers to fire workers and give them less job security, won with 54% of the vote to become the party’s new secretary.
Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, won just 46% of the vote after being projected to win easily. His support was mainly concentrated in the conservative southern regions of the country.
Schlein will now lead the PD in opposing the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neofascist roots and who has been condemned for pushing discriminatory education policies and penalizing humanitarian groups that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.
The new PD leader addressed the latter issue on Sunday, as her victory came the same day dozens of refugees, including 20 children, died when their overcrowded boat capsized in the sea—days after Italy’s parliament passed a new law imposing restrictions on rescue boats, making it more difficult for charities to save asylum-seekers.
The refugees’ deaths weigh “on the conscience of those who only weeks ago approved a decree whose only goal is to hinder rescues at sea,” said Schlein on Sunday, calling for migrants to be permitted to legally apply for entry into all European nations and for the E.U.’s government to strengthen search-and-rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.
Schlein promised that under her leadership, the PD “will be a problem” for Meloni’s government.
“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” said journalist Andrea Carlo. “I imagine Meloni & Co. won’t be sleeping too well tonight.”
\u201cItaly\u2019s opposition party will now be led by its first woman and LGBTQ leader.\n\nElly Schlein is young and dynamic, with an unabashedly anti-fascist, feminist, left-wing platform.\n\nShe\u2019s a force to be reckoned with. I imagine Meloni & co. won\u2019t be sleeping too well tonight\u201d— Andrea Carlo (@Andrea Carlo) 1677451874
The 37-year-old former member of European Parliament has been called “Italy’s AOC” by some news outlets—referring to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—for her support for a minimum wage law and a Green New Deal to create jobs and help the country drastically reduce its fossil fuel emissions.
Last year, she announced her campaign to lead the PD as one that would be “progressive, environmentalist, and feminist.”
Schlein’s victory represents “a genuine moment of hope in the fight against the far right in Italy, and across Europe,” said socialist activist Michael Chessum.
At one point Schlein was polling 18 points behind Bonaccini. Her surprising margin of victory was secured largely thanks to the support of women and young voters, according to the Associated Press.
“The Democratic Party is alive and ready to stand up,” said Schlein. “We did it, together we made a small big revolution, even this time they didn’t see us coming.”
Schlein’s victory came as trade unions across Italy demanded better safety protections and job security for port workers, holding a nationwide maritime port strike Saturday. In December, the PD and unions organized street protests over Meloni’s proposed budget, which they said targeted the poor by cutting the country’s “citizen’s wage” for unemployed people and not addressing rising costs of essentials.
“We will put the battle against every type of inequality and precariousness center-stage,” said Schlein on Sunday.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Two controversial German figures, Sarah Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer, released a Peace Manifesto on change.org on February 10, which gathered close to half a million of signatures in less than a week, reports Sibylle Kaczorek.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Seymour Hersch’s allegations of United States Navy involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines has been denied by US officialdom, but questions still remain, writes Binoy Kampmark.
This post was originally published on Green Left.