Some Comments on Psychedelic Research
Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D.
 MAY 1, 2020
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY 
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030272

The review in this issue by Reiff and colleagues (1) on psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy from the American Psychiatric Association’s Council of Research is to be commended for its thorough review of studies in the past 12 years in the area. 
The authors nicely lay out the rationale for reviewing the literature, which is in part based on the recent resurgence of interest and the potential to gain regulatory approval to make these treatments available to patients. Proposed industry studies are likely to yield informative data on the efficacy and safety of these compounds that will ultimately guide their clinical use. In the meantime, a detailed review of the entire area from its historical perspectives through pharmacology/mechanisms of action to clinical benefits and risk of abuse is extremely helpful for the field. This effort is to be lauded and will be of great benefit in informing patients, providers, and researchers, as there are a number of issues relevant to studying and ultimately using these agents.

Lessons We Can Learn from Mandatory Vaccine Policies in Europe
Lewis First, MD, MS, Editor in Chief, Pediatrics
January 16, 2020


We focus a lot of attention on articles that deal with ways to increase vaccination rates in the United States. We do so because our vaccine rates are suboptimal for a variety of reasons, many of which are related to unsubstantiated risk. What can we do to improve vaccination rates? Europe may offer us an answer. Did you know for example that there are 7 countries in Europe that mandate vaccination and only 2 of these allow nonmedical exemptions? In addition, 6 of these 7 countries will inflict financial penalties to families who do not immunize their children. So what are the vaccination rates in these countries and what about the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis and measles?

Vaz et al (10.1542/peds.2019-0620) evaluated these questions in new study being early released in our journal. The authors used data from the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to look at European countries that do and do not mandate vaccine administration to children in regard to vaccination against measles and pertussis, as well as the annual incidence of these two diseases in these countries. The results are interesting and perhaps not exactly what you might expect. On the good side, mandatory vaccinations did result in statistically significant increases in childhood vaccination against pertussis and measles. The interesting news is that only when a country did not allow nonmedical exemptions did the mandatory vaccine policy result in a significant decrease in measles, but not for pertussis. Why?

We asked Drs. Sean O’Leary (University of Colorado) and Yvonne Maldonado (Stanford) (10.1542/peds.2019-2436) to weigh in with an accompanying commentary. They draw some interesting lessons about vaccination mandates and changes in disease burden and bring to light other important considerations related to financial penalties and vaccination mandates. One important takeaway is that vaccine policies are uniform across each specific European country instead of the patchwork that exists across states. There is a lot of great information injected into the pages of this important study—so take a shot at reading both this study and commentary and then share with parents who will hopefully be even more convinced about why vaccination should be mandatory for their child. If state legislators read this study and commentary, perhaps vaccination policy, including mandates, will be made stronger.


Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Pediatrics

Mandatory Vaccination in Europe and Epidemiology of Vaccine Preventable Diseases 
 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/145/2/e20190620?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=TrendMD&utm_campaign=Pediatrics_TrendMD_0

VIDEO
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030272

Vaccination Policies and Disease Incidence Across the Pond: Implications for the United State

Sean T. O’Leary and Yvonne A. Maldonado
Pediatrics February 2020, 145 (2) e20192436; 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-

2436https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/145/2/e20192436.full.pdf

Abbreviation:CI — confidence interval

In this issue of Pediatrics, Vaz et al report the results of their study, “Mandatory Vaccination in Europe."1 Although this study analyzed vaccination and vaccine-preventable disease trends in Europe, the policy implications are timely and relevant to US vaccination practices given the ongoing measles outbreaks in the United States and the legislative responses playing out in state capitols across the United States.

In this study, the authors examined the associations between vaccination mandate policies and subsequent vaccination coverage and measles and pertussis incidence in 29 European countries. Stated another way, the authors wanted to know if having a stricter vaccination policy resulted in higher vaccination rates and a lower incidence of 2 highly contagious vaccine-preventable diseases.

We already know that in the United States, a stricter state-based vaccination policy leads to lower rates of nonmedical exemptions2,3 and lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases,4,5 but before the study by Vaz et al,1 these questions had not been examined among European countries. We can think of 3 main reasons this study is highly relevant to US vaccine policy: First, it demonstrates that the impact of such policies is not country specific, offering guidance to countries throughout the world on strategies to increase or maintain high vaccination rates. Second, some of the policies used in Europe are strategies that have not been tried previously in the United States and may offer US policy makers strategies to consider. Third, and most important, vaccine-preventable diseases are a worldwide problem; they know no borders, and therefore, it is in the interest of all of us to study and understand how to best achieve high vaccination coverage throughout the world. Indeed, many US measles outbreaks in the last decade have been a result of cases imported from Europe, (most recently and visibly, the Clark County outbreak in Washington state).6

To examine these questions, the authors used data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization to examine the relationship between country-level vaccination policies and measles and pertussis vaccination coverage and the annual incidence of these diseases in 29 European countries. To try to assess the specific impact of the vaccination policies, the authors used regression models to examine these associations, adjusting for numerous country-level covariates likely to have an impact on vaccination coverage or disease incidence, such as education, urbanicity, income, and age of the population.

The authors found that mandatory vaccination was associated with 3.00 percentage points higher prevalence of measles vaccination (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35–5.64) and 2.14 percentage points higher prevalence of pertussis vaccination (95% CI, 0.13–4.15) compared with countries that did not have mandatory vaccination. Mandatory vaccination was associated with decreased measles incidence in countries that did not allow nonmedical exemptions (adjusted incident rate ratio = 0.14; 95% CI, 0.05–0.36), although there was no significant association between mandatory vaccination and pertussis incidence. The authors also found that incorporating financial penalties for not vaccinating increased vaccination uptake. In countries with such policies, every €500 increase in the maximum possible penalty was associated with an increase of 0.8 percentage points for measles vaccination coverage (95% CI, 0.50–1.15; P ≤ .0001) and an increase of 1.1 percentage points for pertussis vaccination coverage (95% CI, 0.95–1.30; P ≤ .0001).

In Europe and other parts of the world, policy makers have (to varying degrees) employed financial penalties for parents who choose not to vaccinate. Policy makers in the United States have for the most part shied away from such policies. This study should make us reconsider this approach because it appears to be effective. In Hungary, for example, parents could face a financial penalty of up to ∼€1600 (∼$1800) if they fail to comply with vaccination requirements; this has resulted in high vaccination coverage and essentially no measles or pertussis cases. Importantly, these types of financial penalties may also be fair because it is clear that persons unvaccinated by parental choice place an unneeded financial burden on our health care system.7–9

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Europe Will Not Tolerate an ‘America First’ VaccineCOMMENTARY By Peter Liese May 15, 2020 BARRONS

Photograph by Pedro Vilela/Getty Images

The novel coronavirus has the world firmly in its grip. Images from northern Italy, Madrid, and New York City have shown that the threat of the virus should not be underestimated. Tens of thousands of people have died because of it. Most countries now face a dilemma: If drastic shutdowns continue, serious economic and social problems will arise, but going back to normal life is very dangerous and will risk tens of thousands of additional deaths. The final return to normalcy will be possible only if there is a vaccine or an effective medicine against Covid-19.

The European Union is on the front line of developing this vaccine. Some companies and laboratories that cooperate with experts from other parts of the world are already conducting human clinical trials. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led a worldwide virtual summit on cooperation in this area.

While public and private stakeholders from all over the world—including Israel, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and China—pledged more than $8 billion, unfortunately no United States government official participated.

We are grateful that private stakeholders, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, indicated that U.S. citizens are ready to cooperate with the rest of the world. Even though the United Kingdom has left the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rightly said, “We are in this together.” I hope that the absence of the U.S. government wasn’t an indication that President Donald Trump thinks he should not cooperate.

I was born in an economically prosperous and free West Germany. I have experienced firsthand how the world can change for the better due to strong cooperation by the free world. I really hope that cooperation and solidarity will lead to the development and distribution of a vaccine or a therapy. The U.S. administration must join this international effort.

If Europe is first in developing a vaccine, we are ready to share our knowledge with the rest of the world and to make the vaccine available to all those in need, as soon as possible. We expect the same from the United States. If, however, Trump applies his “America first” principle and excludes non-U.S. citizens from the benefits of a drug or a vaccine, Europe is not unprepared.

Under the legislation of most European countries, compulsory licensing is possible. That means that European companies can produce pharmaceuticals even without approval of the owner or its government. In trade issues, Europe has shown that we are not ready to accept unfair practices. When Trump threatened the EU with excessive taxes on European cars, then–European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker went to the White House with a list of products that we could tax, most of them produced in swing states in which Trump had a narrow majority in the 2016 election. That led to an immediate agreement between the U.S. and the EU.

Nobody in the current administration should think that the health of our citizens and the possibility of overcoming the major economic problem linked to the coronavirus are less important to Europe than the European car industry. We are for cooperation and dialogue, but we also have a plan B.

Peter Liese is a German physician and member of the European Parliament. He is the health spokesperson for the European People’s Party.


Coronavirus Sanofi: French drug giant rows back after vaccine storm

BBC 14 May 2020

REUTERS

Sanofi's HQ is in Paris and the firm has received French state tax breaks

The French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has rowed back on an apparent promise to prioritise the US market with any potential Covid-19 vaccine.

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson sparked a row by saying the US government had "the right to the largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk".

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe responded by saying access for all was "non-negotiable".

Sanofi's chairman has now vowed equal access for everyone.

"I am going to be extremely clear: there will be no particular advance for any country," Serge Weinberg told France 2 TV.

He said Mr Hudson's words had been distorted.

Prime Minister Philippe said he had spoken to Mr Weinberg and received "all the necessary assurance regarding the distribution of an eventual Sanofi vaccine".

President Emmanuel Macron said that recent efforts had proved a vaccine should not be subject to market forces and he is due to meet top Sanofi officials next week.

The EU insisted that all countries should get equal access to a vaccine. "The vaccine against Covid-19 should be a global public good and its access needs to be equitable and universal," said European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker, quoted by AFP news agency.

Why is the issue so delicate for Sanofi?

The deadly coronavirus pandemic has made the search for a Covid-19 vaccine the top priority for labs worldwide, with intense pressure to speed up a process that usually take years to develop.

Earlier this month the EU chaired a global online summit to boost coronavirus research, and secured pledges of $8bn (£6.5bn) from some 40 countries and donors. The funding is aimed at developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.

The UK co-hosted the summit but the US and Russia did not take part.

Sanofi's Covid-19 vaccine research is partly funded by the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda) but in recent years Sanofi received tens of millions of euros in tax credits from the French government to help its research.

Mr Hudson's remarks in a Bloomberg interview provoked uproar among politicians on the right and left in France. The Socialists estimated that Sanofi had received some €150m (£133m; $162m) in research tax credit and millions more in other tax credit.

Sanofi's chief in France, Olivier Bogillot, said the goal was to have a vaccine "available to the US as well as France and Europe at the same time".

But speaking on French news channel BFMTV, he said this would only be possible "if Europeans work as quickly as the Americans", and added that the US government had pledged to spend "several hundreds of millions of euros".

The row was reminiscent of reports in March of a US attempt to buy German biotech firm CureVac, which has also been researching a possible vaccine. CureVac insisted there had been no US attempt to buy the firm or its manufacturing capacity.

Last month Sanofi also teamed up with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to work on a vaccine, though trials have not yet started.

INDIA
Under Pandemic Garb and Modi Sanction, States Unleash War on Workers
After some states extended working day to 12 hours, UP and MP have relaxed all labour laws to the delight of the corporate sector.

Subodh Varma 09 May 2020

Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Scroll.in

The working class in India is facing a lethal crisis that promises to push their lives back a century, and turn them into modern day slaves. As Newsclick had warned earlier, a savage attack is being unleashed on the workers through wholesale changes in protective laws, patronised and sanctioned by the Narendra Modi-led Central government, and implemented by diverse state governments, mainly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Thursday, it was reported that the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government had passed an ordinance to keep all labour laws in abeyance, barring four. Another BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, formed by a coup d’etat recently, has exempted new businesses from labour laws for a thousand days.

These legislative changes follow the extension of working days to 12-hours in five states, three of them BJP-led while two are Congress-run.

This is happening at a time when workers and employees across the country have already been pushed to the brink by the ongoing lockdown that started about 40 days ago. Unemployment is at a staggering 27%, according to Centre of Monitoring Indian Economy or CMIE’s latest estimates, wages have been denied to lakhs of employed workers despite government advisories to the contrary, and millions of small businesses are closed, perhaps permanently.

As if this mountain of misery was not enough, death continues to stalk hapless migrant workers with over 15 of them mowed down by a train as they fell asleep with exhaustion after walking 65 kilometers in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, while many poor villagers and workers died in a chemical gas leak from a polymer factory in Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh, which was reopening after the lockdown.

WHAT DOES EXEMPTION FROM LABOUR LAWS MEAN?

Of all the possible measures a government could undertake to revive the economy and boost productive activity, why this single-minded focus on labour laws? Will it really help in increasing employment and production?

Have a look at the reported changes in UP: only laws related to bonded labourers, construction workers, and for compensation for injuries or death will be exempted, as also Section 5 of the Payment of Wages, which says that wages should be paid by the seventh day of the next month. This means that all other laws about working hours, shifts, wage scales, overtime, benefits of diverse kinds (like a canteen) are no longer applicable. Also, industrial disputes will be kept in abeyance, enabling employers to, say, hire and fire at will. And, finally, trade union rights, collective bargaining and the right to protest will be gone.

This is the kind of situation that existed last in the 18th and 19th Centuries in the capitalist world, and has since existed as fantasies of the corporate class.

But, why this obsession with labour laws? The answer is that this is the only way corporate profits can be kept afloat in conditions where demand has virtually disappeared due to the lockdown.

Although the chief secretary of UP was quoted as saying that these measures are being taken to deal with influx of migrant labour and need to maintain employment, the reasoning is faulty, if not delusional.

“Unless there is demand for products, no amount of tinkering with labour laws will help. Who will buy the products?” asks Surajit Mazumdar, economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

“The only way to increase employment – and revive the economy – is to increase public expenditure in a big way. The private sector cannot do this. And in any case, the segment covered by labour laws is only a fraction of the economy. So, these changes in labour laws will have no impact on employment,” he added.

In fact, it is possible that these changes will lead to increased anger and discontent among workers, and production will suffer as a result. The increase in work day to 12 hours is a measure to achieve the same production levels with fewer workers. So, there is no question of any employment increase!

These muddled policies are all a fig leaf for the real intention of labour law changes – which is to boost corporate profits that are flagging in the current tailspin, Mazumdar argues.
LARGER VISION

The recent changes in labour laws must be seen in the context of the BJP government’s overall approach to labour or the working people in general. Since last year, the Modi government has been pushing for labour law changes. It proposed four Codes to replace 44 separate laws and in the process diluted all of them, providing for immense power of the government to notify changes on any aspect, including wages, working hours, dispute resolution and trade union formation. Two of these Codes are already cleared and the other two are in the pipeline.

The Modi government has also been launching an economic attack by refusing to increase minimum wages. Trade unions have been demanding Rs.18,000 as a minimum level, based on a well-known and accepted formula. The government has refused to even talk about it, while groping around with other fixes, like setting up a committee (then rejecting its recommendations). Unable to contain unemployment, the Modi government has contributed to keeping wage levels low by having such a large army of unemployed at the factory gates.

“The problem in India is that wages are too low. Real wages have declined over the past 25 years, according to the Annual Survey of Industries data. This prevents demand from growing and keeps the economy in perpetual crisis. Labour law relaxation can never increase wages – it is ludicrous to think so,” Mazumdar says.

As part of this hostile vision towards labour – something that has its roots in the RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology – the Modi government has been chafing at the reins to remove all protection for this class. It has found a golden opportunity in the current pandemic, or rather in the sudden lockdown that it imposed in such an ill-thought out manner. It is using it to push through all that was otherwise difficult in normal times. For the corporate class in India, yesterday’s dreams are today’s reality. For the working people, it’s a nightmare come true.

India 

Maharashtra Govt Increases Daily Working Hours to 12, Workers’ Unions Object
Companies will have to pay double to the workers for this extra work; the weekly work hours can not exceed 60, and a shift longer than 13 hours at a stretch can not be assigned to the workers, said the government.

Amey Tirodkar 11 May 2020

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: The Hindu

In the backdrop of scarcity of labour in the state amid the nationwide lockdown, the Maharashtra government has allowed employer companies to increase working hours of the workers from eight to 12 per day till June 30. The labour unions are perceiving this as an attempt at “undermining the workers’ rights”.

However, the companies will have to pay double to the workers for this extra work; the weekly work hours can not exceed 60, and a shift longer than 13 hours at a stretch can not be assigned to the workers, said the government. These guidelines were reportedly brought in after the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Maratha Chambers of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture submitted a memorandum to the state government reporting reduced labour force.

Maharashtra government has also asked the industries to take all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, to provide sanitisers and masks, etc. and to keep safe distance between two workers as per health guidelines.

However, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Maharashtra secretary Vivek Montero said, “It was absolutely unnecessary. Labour laws have a history. They have helped workers as well as industries grow. These changes undermine the rights of labours. This has been done without consultation with labourers and it is atrocious. This view that labour law is a hurdle for the growth of industry is fundamentally wrong and we have serious objections to that.”

Sarva Shramik Sanghatna, too, has slammed the state government for allowing these changes. "There is a clause of double payment to workers for those extra four hours. Do you think companies will respect it? No. Central and state government appealed to industries to not cut salaries of employees. Has that happened? Workers will work for extra hours, but there is no surety about whether they will get benefits from it. State government has made this decision without even consultation with labour unions. This is a violation of law in itself," said chairman Uday Bhat.

Bala Hivrale of Thane's Kopri MIDC Worker’ Union told NewsClick: "Ideally, the state should have left these things to unions and industries locally. It could have been done with mutual understanding. Now with this order, the state government has exposed the workers to further exploitation," said Hivrale.

Vishwas Utagi, coordinator of Workers’ Unions Front, appealed to the state government to reconsider the decision. "This will be wrong on so many levels. This situation is unprecedented, but we all are seeing how the poor and labourers are suffering. It was the duty of the state government to protect their rights in such times. Instead of that, it acted on the memorandum from the industry," said Utagi.

INDIA
Stop Dispensing with Progressive Labour Laws: Adopt Gandhi's Trusteeship for Cause of Labour

While rights of labour are being withdrawn, the beautification of Central Vista in New Delhi is being carried forward by spending Rs. 20, 000 crore.

S N Sahu 13 May 2020



The colossal magnitude of the migrant labour was not known to the general public, influential leaders ruling India, and movers and shakers of Indian economy. Only now there is the agonising realisation that without migrant labour, the destiny of India would have been shattered. It is they who provide skilled and unskilled labour, and run the wheels of economy. It is they who build India and provide essential services without any social security and social safety net. Migrating from their home and hearth to far off places of India, and living in clumsy and congested surroundings of cities and towns, they earn bare minimum subsistence amount or even less, for leading a life which in most cases is sub human. Forget about fair or living wages, they even do not get minimum wages for the work they do. Long hours of work in violation of existing labour laws and the indignity they suffer while working explain their daily trials and tribulations.

The sudden imposition of a lockdown, without factoring the concerns of migrant labour, has unfolded before the nation the unimaginable plight which they had to undergo. The so called economic security for which they left their hearth and home in the villages was not assured to them by the ruling leaders of India. Robbed of their paltry income and their shanty dwelling units, they were left to fend for themselves. They were made to realise that the towns and cities where they worked and toiled for earning their livelihood by giving their services have no heart to look after them. In such a situation, these towns and cities had no meaning for them. They desperately wanted to go back to their villages and poor rural settings where they thought they would die in presence of their kith and kin.

Indeed, they deserve all salute for showing such courage to walk hundreds and thousands of kilometres to be in their villages. They displayed stoic courage and walked along roads and railway tracks without food and money and with their children in their arms. Fear of death was not a deterring factor for them even as several hundreds of them lost their lives. However, the death of migrant labour on roads and railway tracks hardly moved the ruling leaders. Unmindful of deat.h the labour marched on. Ruling leaders only tweeted to express anguish over their death.

Also read: Under Pandemic Garb and Modi Sanction, States Unleash War on Workers

The builders of India have real strength. Otherwise they could not have summoned courage to walk hundreds and thousands of kilometres. I recall the words of Gurudeb Rabindranath Tagore who, during the second decade of the 20th century, saw Chinese labourers loading goods in a ship in Hongkong. The movement of their robust limbs and strong legs moved him to say that there was poetry and rhythm in the heavy work they were doing. He then said that if the whole of China would display that rhythm then what a mighty country it would become.

The labour remains at the root of the rise and progress of any society and country. We can ignore labour only at our own peril. Even prior to Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi gave primacy to labour. Before he started his Satyagraha in South Africa, he had drafted a petition to safeguard the rights of Indians and he did so by first consulting the labourers. When he was asked as to why was consulting the labourers to draft the petition he famously said that they had as much right to exercise their brains as any body else. He advocated the idea of trusteeship to ensure that that those who had wealth and knowledge to create wealth would act as trustees of that wealth and after keeping some amount of wealth for their living, should use rest of the wealth for society. He proclaimed that the idea of trusteeship aimed at resolving the contradiction between capital and labour. At a time when labour is getting crushed that idea of trusteeship assumes relevant. It is tragic that now the ruling leaders of India have failed its labouring class and miserably ditched them by not recognising them as equal human beings through their attempts to dispense with labour laws.

Taking advantage of the economic imbroglio caused by COVID-19 pandemic and serious livelihood consequences suffered by labourers due to the unplanned lockdown, now a new architecture for revival of economy is being prepared by dispensing with security and safety guaranteed to labour through statutes. Changing labour law to force workers to work for 12 hours with pay of eight hours of work is like introducing bonded labour system which was abolished by Indira Gandhi during the time of she held the Prime Minister’s office. Only the Odisha Government, while altering the labour law to work for 12 hours, has prescribed over time pay for work rendered beyond eight hours.

Also read: Covid-19 Crisis Exposes India’s Neglect of Informal Workers

Labourers are already worst hit by the pandemic, and the unplanned and abrupt all India lockdown has destroyed their livelihood. Millions of migrant labourers are walking on road and railway tracks without food and money to reach their destinations located thousands of kilometres away and thousands of them are getting killed in the process. The country recently witnessed the tragic incident involving killing of hungry and tired migrant labourers who were mauled by a goods train near Aurangabad when they dozed off because of fatigue and sheer exhaustion due to walking hundreds of kilometres.

The vulnerability of migrant labour to hunger and poverty in their native places, due to absence of social security for them, is well known. In such a tragic situation, the modification of labour laws by taking away all security guaranteed by the Constitution and numerous progressive labour laws enacted after centuries-old struggle would mean heralding the era of unimaginable exploitation of labour reminiscent of the British period. It was Dr. Ambedkar, who, as a Labour Member in the Viceroy's Executive Council, had framed several progressive labour legislations which are being withdrawn in the COVID-19 ridden world. One fails to understand as to how some of the state governments are withdrawing progressive labour legislations for a period three years in violation of many international conventions signed by India to protect the rights of labour.

While rights of labour are being withdrawn, the beautification of Central Vista in New Delhi is being carried forward by spending Rs. 20, 000 crore. Is it justifiable to do so when millions of people have lost livelihood and employment because of mismanagement of economy from 2014 and now, are under the onslaught of global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus? Approval of beautification project in such times marked by a spiraling viral disaster speaks volumes for the lopsided priority of the people ruling India. It is quite evident that these rulers are insensitive to the pain and suffering of people who are now caught in the whirlpool of economic mismanagement and rising levels of COVID-19 infections. We now require the caring governance, at the heart of which remain rights and entitlements of labour and ordinary people of India.

Also read: Maharashtra Govt Increases Daily Working Hours to 12, Workers’ Unions Object

The writer served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to Former President of India, late K R Narayanan. The views are personal.

INDIA
New Dilemmas for the Distressed Workers of the Country
The long march home of workers exhibits the paralysis of India’s politics.
Rashme Sehgal  16 May 2020


Ram Prakash, who used to work as a loader in Khari Baoli in Delhi, started walking the 900 kilometres to his village in Chhapra tehsil of Saran district in Bihar when the first lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March. Prakash is happy to be home, but his relief is tinged with sorrow. “I don’t know how to make ends meet. We migrant labourers are entitled to Rs.1,000 from the state government, which a local organisation is helping me get,” he says.

Some 1,000 km from Saran, in Gafed village of Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand seven workers are presently quarantined at a school. They have volunteered to refurbish the premises, where 100 students attend school. These hotel workers reached their village from Chandigarh and so they know how to cook their supplies, which they are getting from the district authorities.

In a third instance, Vijendra Dhangwal, who returned to Bagyan village in Tehri district, was not allowed to enter his village, where the people feared he would infect them with the Novel Coronavirus. Dhangwal had returned to perform the last rites of his father, but could not even attend the funeral.

These are just three vignettes of the different fates befalling the country’s workers these days. These workers have hit the highways and by-lanes to make their way back to their villages, expecting relative safety from the Covid-19 pandemic, and to escape starvation after the sudden lockdown deprived them of their means of livelihood.

If during their long march they faced trauma unlike ever before, with hundreds dying en route, the return home has made these desperate workers confront a fresh set of problems. There feel relieved to be home, but there is no or little work available in villages. The families of most workers were living on close to subsistence incomes anyway.

Women and young children who trudged home under a hot May sun are also not finding it easy to adjust to their new circumstances, of living with their in-laws in their village homes. Enakshi Ganguly, who heads HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, an NGO, has been in touch with such migrant women and their children. She says, “Women living in urban centres had an income, even if it was very little. In villages their situation is precarious because there is little work.” And for children, things are worse. Ganguly expects the school drop-out ratio to worsen. Plus, the young ones are no longer getting their mid-day meals. “I expect malnutrition levels to rise alarmingly as schools are closed. A majority of workers do not have smart phones, so online learning is out of question,” she says. In addition, pregnant women need special diets, as do lactating mothers.

Migrant workers say that they could complete their journeys home only because volunteer groups helped them. Rajendran N, who teaches at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, and is a member of SWAN, a network to assist stranded workers, says, “We started on 27 March with two people and now we are a 100-volunteer team that contacts organisations which can supply rations or try to ensure government help to the workers.” So far SWAN has assisted around 20,000 people.

Such networks have sprung up across the country, and they often find workers in such dire circumstances as to need small cash transfers, of Rs 1,500 or so, just to tide over some immediate crisis, like a health emergency or lack of food. Seema, another SWAN volunteer, also a teacher at Azim Premji University, says, “The first wave of workers who reached Bihar in mid-April are now telling us that their families need food, money for gas connections and basic medical care.”

Even though SWAN does not help workers once they reach their villages, they are making exceptions for medical emergencies; for instance a worker in Bihar who needs Rs 4,500 every fortnight for a medical procedure. Over 400 workers died of exhaustion and starvation while walking home, the RoadScholarz network of volunteers have estimated.

Grassroots activists are trying to get the Public Distribution System to work for these migrants while trying to get them the money being promised by state governments. The Jharkhand government has assured Rs 1,000 to every migrant worker and the Bihar government Rs 2,000.

The problem is that workers must have smart phones to download the App that leads to this money. And they need a bank account in their own state, other than a password and a good enough internet connectivity. In reality, the situation is different: for instance, SWAN has been contacted by 1,100 women workers who have young children. Of them, only 20 held Jan Dhan accounts in which the government has credited Rs 500.

Workers in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam face a different set of problems. Siddhartha, a volunteer overseeing the migrants returning to these states, is also a member of the Safai Karamchari Monitoring Committee to End Scavenging. He says that West Bengal and Assam are experiencing two simultaneous migrations—thousands are leaving and thousands coming back.

Both these states have industrial clusters which have shut, and for two months workers have not been paid by the contractors who put them to work. “Unable to pay rent and with no food, they turned to us for help,” Siddhartha says. Similarly, West Bengal’s industrial clusters employ people from Jharkhand and Bihar, who now want to return home. “We cannot assist such large numbers so we contact state helplines for migrant workers. Unfortunately, in West Bengal none of them work,” he says.

Jadavpur University has formed an informal group to supply rations, which is helping out. “But ultimately, we have to fall back on governments. As the government machinery in West Bengal is not working, we approach MLAs directly, and if even that does not work, we resort to social media. We asked the chief minister of Jharkhand and West Bengal for help on Twitter,” says Siddhartha.

Besides, attempt to catch a special “workers’ train” has taken a toll on migrants. Seema cites the Karnataka government’s flip-flop. First the state decided to run trains, then it decided to stop running them. As a result, some two hundred construction workers stranded at the Bengaluru railway station decided they would walk home to villages in Bihar. They were stopped on the outskirts of the city by police and sent to a tented facility. “There at least the local authorities are giving them food,” Seema says.

Workers have to register on the railway website before they are given a ticket but the Railway’s website does not provide train departure schedule. It is state governments that are putting up separate websites with those details. Only Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have, so far, consented to accept migrants back. The others are dragging their feet.

Their next dilemma is that a phased withdrawal of the lockdown seems on the horizon which raises the possibility of finding work. This has convinced some, though they are near-starvation, to not leave the cities. Mumbai-based Navmee Goregaonkar, a student of St Xavier’s College, says, “Some workers from Haryana and the NCR region who work here were given part-payments by their employers, who do not want them to leave.” She has been trying to arrange food coupons for these workers, but many have been put, rather shockingly, on a “waiting list”.

“Unfortunately, the site [to apply for coupons] keeps crashing,” Goregaonkar says. The Delhi government has appointed nine nodal officers, but their phones, she finds, are “switched off”. “Over 400 workers from the NCR have sought financial help. Wherever required, we provide Rs 1,500,” she says. Among the women workers from NCR and Haryana who reached out, 50 are pregnant.

Sharanya Das, who works with St Judas Child Care Centre in Mumbai also interacts with migrant labourers from north India. She says, “Ninety per cent of those who contact us have run out of ration. Many do not have Aadhaar cards or other requirements and we are helping facilitate this,” she says.

The pressure to find work is intense among the labouring sections of Indian society. Many are realising that they soon will be forced to return to the cities they had fled because of the Covid-19 “mahamari” or epidemic. Many are also swearing never to return, considering the bleak future they confront if they do...

Hopefully, whenever the workers return, the Centre and states will ensure proper transport facilities and financial support for those who make up the backbone of the country. The plight of Indian workers really shows the paralysis of its politics. It shows the vulnerability of this vast class who received little support from the government.

The author is an independent journalist. The views are personal.

INDIA
Comrade RB More: Bridge Linking Dalit and Communist Movements

The struggle for liberation from untouchability and the class struggle can learn to come together through lessons from his life.

Subhashini Ali 15 May 2020


The month of April is filled with memories of Phule and Babasaheb and narratives of their birth, life, writings and struggles. Then comes May, which brings reminisces of comrade Ramchandra More, who fought for the Dalits in the tradition of Phule and participated in the great revolutionary movements of Babasaheb. He died on 11 May 1970.

Comrade More was born in 1903 in a part of the Konkan which was the birthplace of all the Mahar caste members who, like Babasaheb Ambedkar’s father, were soldiers and freedom fighters. This section of Dalit society, having joined the army in large numbers, had been able to access some education. Permanent jobs, followed by assured post-retirement pensions provided the members of this section considerable strength, and social respect too. Many of them were associated with the social reform movements of their time: they met Jyotiba Phule, they visited Shahuji Maharaj, and they worked to spread both egalitarian literature and ideas.

It was in this society and in this environment that Comrade More was born, with an instinctive desire to struggle for self-respect. This desire, once it arose, very soon became an indelible part of his attitude and demeanour. He was uniquely talented. At a young age, took a three-day walk to Alibaug. It is during this journey that he experienced for the first time the implications of being an “untouchable”. Because he was not allowed to enter the dharamshalas that fell along the way, he had to spend the nights with animals.

In Alibaug, he took the entrance test of the English school at Mahad. He was the only Dalit to appear in that examination, but he scored the highest marks and also earned a stipend. The difficult circumstances in which he took the test included not only the fatigue and humiliation of the journey, but also the misery of having lost his father just a few days ago. Yet he was denied admission in the school, because its landlord said that if an “untouchable” was allowed to enter, he would vacate the entire school altogether. Incidentally, several decades later, during the Mahad Satyagraha, members of the very same landlord’s family also opposed the attempt of the Dalits to drink water from the Mahad Tal under Babasaheb’s leadership.

Comrade More sent a postcard to a newspaper against this injustice. As a result, the school had to admit him, but he had to get his education from outside the class, sitting near the window.

Mahad was also a market hub for all the nearby villages. Comrade More used to interact with the Mahars, the other Dalits and poor agricultural labourers and farmers who came there from far-flung areas. He became well-acquainted with every aspect of their lives. With his efforts, a tea shop operated by a Mahar was opened, where all untouchables got drinking water, which they were earlier denied. This shop became their base. Here he would meet people, write down their requests and get all the information about their problems. After some years, this tea shop took the shape of a small hotel, where people could spend the night.

In 1923, a very important decision was taken at this base. A resolution had been passed in the Bombay Legislative Assembly to make all public places accessible to the “untouchables”. To implement this, on the very next day, Comrade More decided, along with all the people gathered at this base, that a big convention for the rights of untouchables would be organised at Mahad, which would be presided over by Babasaheb. After this, Comrade More went to Bombay and invited Babasaheb, but it took a long time to persuade him. During this time, he became very close to Babasaheb and began assist him with his publication-related work, and got a good hold over the craft of journalism.

Meanwhile, in his own village Dasgaon, Comrade More successfully got hundreds of untouchables together to drink water from the village lake which was always forbidden to them.

In the end, Babasaheb’s program for Mahad was set for March 1927 and Comrade More was its chief organiser. He visited all the villages in the Konkan belt and mobilised thousands to join Babasaheb’s program. On that day, when thousands of Dalits reached Mahad’s Chavdar Tank under Babasaheb’s leadership and people lined up to touch its water, they were fiercely attacked—but they had already touched its water. The Savarnas proved this when they carried out a “purification” ritual of this water.

Nine months later, on 25 December 1927, Comrade More and his comrades announced another Satyagraha. As Babasaheb left for Mahad from Bombay taking the water route, workers of the Samata Sainik Dal saluted him in farewell. It is Comrade More who had founded this historical party. This gives an indication of his position in the Dalit movement of the time. It is this party’s members who confronted the tyranny of the Savarnas in the Dalit colonies. It is believed that the irritation this party caused was one reason why the RSS was established in Nagpur.

After the 25th December session, the crowd marched towards the Mahad Tal again. It was attacked once more. But that day Babasaheb gave the most compelling evidence of his resistance by publicly setting the Manusmriti afire. By holding a religious scripture responsible for a grossly inhumane crime such as untouchability, Babasaheb posed a major challenge to the populist movements of the day. It was now an imperative for the liberation movement in India to accept and acknowledge his movement.

Comrade More spent most of his time in Bombay with Babasaheb, helping him with his work. He used to stay in the workers’ chawls and had many conversations and discussions with those who lived with him—especially the workers in the cotton factories. He had a keen interest in cultural activities and actively participated in them. This strengthened his relations with all the workers’ communities.

At the same time, through members of the left unions, he became acquainted with the leaders of workers as well. He started participating in union activities; distributing pamphlets, writing on the walls, preparing for strikes, and so on. His experiences of class struggle came not from a book but from the lives of people just like him. To transform these experiences into practice and thought, he held long debates and discussions with Marxists such as SV Deshpande, BT Ranadive and RM Jambhekar. The caste oppression which he had knowledge about from the moment he was born now took the form of the flame that emanates from the furnace of class struggle.

Working with Babasaheb, he acquired this new knowledge with full force and, after a deep study of the Communist Manifesto, in 1930, decided to join the Communist Party. He informed Babasaheb about it. Instead of being angry, he encouraged Comrade More to pursue this path, but also told him that he was worried whether the organisation he is joining will give him the respect he deserves. Until the end, Comrade More remained a communist. In 1964, he decided to join the CPI(M). The same year, he sent a letter to the party leadership, in which he mentioned a few things: that Dalit society is the largest, most oppressed and exploited part of the working class. That only by fighting the social exploitation of this section, which is a moral and ethical duty, can the Communist Party attract them to its movements in large numbers.

These words of Comrade More in his letter have become very relevant in a new way today. Now at the Center and in many states there are governments inspired by the RSS, which had announced in 1950 itself that it upholds the Manusmriti as justice and law and not the Constitution written by Babasaheb. In the wake of this misguided thought process, governments, under direction from the RSS, are making all-out attacks on Dalits, labourers, women and the minorities. Bringing those sections and communities that are victimised by these attacks together is the duty of the communist movement, which has always brought about radical changes in society.

To achieve this, the communist movement will have to participate in the social and cultural campaigns striving for Dalit rights and support the organisations that run them. It will have to demonstrate its full vigour, so as to instil the confidence and desire in these movements to join hands with the communist movements. A movement to overcome untouchability and social oppression will require continuous proof of being prepared to suffer and face martyrdom.

That the government is carrying out attacks on the workers and working classes is clearly evident. The concerted attacks against Dalit rights and Dalit self-respect are no less obvious. Behind these attacks stands Manu-wad, the justification of inequality which prescribes terrible punishments for the Dalits and opposes their equal status. Financially too, there are constant attempts to weaken Dalit communities. Manu-wad desires to remove the Dalits from the field of education and deny them employment opportunities. That is why Dalits are being deprived of many rights and entitlements, their judicial protection against atrocities is being neutralised.

To push any segment of society back, it is necessary that its talented heroes are forcefully riven from it. This has also been happening. Rohith Vemula, who had sought to fashion a new path for the liberation of Dalits was institutionally murdered; Anand Teltumbde has vanished from sight, pushed behind bars. Both of them had sought to bring the struggle for liberation from oppression, including untouchability, and the class struggle closer. Both these streams of thought flow at a considerable distance from each other. Yet, somewhere, their goals also cleave to each other today. What is needed is a strong bridge between these two movements. Surely Comrade More’s life struggle and his guidance can become that bridge.

After becoming the closest warrior to Babasaheb, he became a Communist and remained one all his life. He never parted from his struggle against caste oppression, and decided to become a Communist only to fight it effectively. No one can deny the truths of his life. There is a need to learn from them and use them.

Recently, LeftWord Books published the English translation of More’s biography, Memoirs of a Dalit Communist: The Many Worlds of RB More, written by Comrade Satyendra More. It will soon be available in other languages, including Hindi.

The author is a former Member of Parliament and vice president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA).

INDIA WORKING WOMEN OVERBURDENED UNDER LOCK DOWN

                                             WAGES FOR HOUSEWORK
Women in India are engaged in some kind of work, including household work, which is not counted as a job. The lockdown has only multiplied the burden of women. A large percentage of frontline healthcare workers are women. However, there is no concrete data about the number of working women in the country. This is reflected in the relief measures announced by the government, which do not make any special consideration for them. NewsClick presents a report.

Seattle Is Considering an ‘Amazon Tax.’ It’s a Model for Taking Back Fiscal Power

Lenore Palladino May 15, 2020 BARRONS
Photograph by Jason Redmond /AFP via Getty Images

Those trying to figure out how to survive the pandemic-induced economic collapse should look to Seattle. Not to soon-to-be-trillionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but to the local government and its efforts to impose fair taxes on his business. Council member Kshama Sawant of Seattle recently proposed an “Amazon Tax”: a 1.3% tax on corporations with a significant headcount in Seattle to fund ongoing support for laid-off families. It should be a model nationwide.


In the aftermath of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, federal corporate tax collection dropped sharply. In the absence of reform at the federal level, states and cities should fairly tax corporations. In order to avoid catastrophic austerity, which would destroy jobs and prolong economic suffering well after the public health crisis has been resolved.

The contours of the current economic crisis are coming into focus: historic levels of unemployment, declines in state and local revenue, and strain on all social-support systems. In March alone, 40% of American workers in households earning less than $40,000 lost their jobs. It is easy to forget just how profitable corporations have been over the last decade, while typical American workers saw their wages stagnate and household debt rise. This has left families financially fragile.

The statistics of corporate tax are well-known: The enactment of the TCJA lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Accordingly, corporate tax revenue cratered, even as corporate profits were steady as a percentage of GDP. This led, according to one estimate, to a decline of $750 billion in federal revenue over 10 years. Meanwhile, corporations earned $1.9 trillion in profits after tax in the fourth quarter of 2019.



It’s crucial to understand how a period of booming corporate profits left workers of these same corporations vulnerable to a loss of income. Over and over again, major American corporations earning record profits have fought off efforts to raise wages of their lowest-paid workers to a decent salary. The need to make record shareholder payments was a common justification for squeezing employee compensation. Corporations spent $6.3 trillion on the unproductive practice of stock buybacks in the 2010s. This prioritization of increasing shareholder wealth over all other uses of corporate funds is a prime driver behind the increasing concentration of wealth among a very small segment of American households.

All of this explains why fair corporate taxation to support collapsing city and state budgets is a key part of the equation for surviving the pandemic. The Seattle proposal focuses on corporations with a major local employment presence, but the basic lesson can be broadly applied: With federal corporate tax revenue sharply down, policymakers should not worry about complaints that small tax levies will force corporations to shut down and relocate. Thanks to Congress, they are already paying far lower taxes than three years ago.

The alternative is public austerity, which we know had disastrous consequences for states and cities in the Great Recession. When households have stable income, they continue to spend money in their local economy and on consumption from the large corporations facing the tax. When public employment declines and social support craters, households pull back spending or load up on debt. All of this makes it more difficult for the economy to get going again. Fair taxation of large corporations can help shorten the economic crisis.

Naysayers will claim that any increase in corporate taxes is job-destroying. They ignore the basic economics of any tax policy: Apply taxes to those least likely to change their behavior as a result of the tax. Large corporations, which have been incredibly profitable, and, just a few years ago, paid higher federal taxes than they do today, are least likely to stop production if a tax levy is applied. There is still simply too much profit to be made. Others will argue, as critics have for decades about minimum wages, taxes, and a host of other regulations, that any new local or state tax will cause companies to move locations. But profitable companies deeply rooted in a major city are unlikely to pack up and leave due to a 1% tax. The Seattle tax is constructed via headcount, and only applies to about 2% of the city’s corporations—by definition the largest companies with the largest local workforce.


Seattle’s proposal also highlights one of the biggest economic winners in the pandemic: Amazon. The company’s latest public filing, from May 1, shows net product sales of $41 billion in the first quarter of 2020, compared to $34 billion in the first quarter of 2019. The Seattle proposal applied to April 2019-March 2020 would have yielded roughly $300 million, far less than the $5 billion Bezos made in just the last three months of the year.

The Seattle proposal would pay $500 a month to working-class households for four months: hardly a windfall, but an important stabilization in the current crisis. State and municipal policymakers across the country should look to Seattle’s example and require corporations that made record profits in the 2010s to pay their fair share today. As workers and communities nationwide face unprecedented economic insecurity, progressive tax policy at the state and local level can ensure that any gains made during this crisis aren’t hoarded by the corporations that already hold outsized power over our economy.

Lenore Palladino is assistant professor of economics and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a research associate at the Political Economy Research Institute.