Mark Drakeford slams Boris Johnson for 'celebrating' Margaret Thatcher's coal mine closures

Boris Johnson claims former PM Thatcher 'helped climate change'

ByFfion Lewis Reporter
09:30, 6 AUG 2021

Mark Drakeford (Image: Ben Evans/Huw Evans Agency)

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has condemned Boris Johnson's comments on Margaret Thatcher having given the UK a "big early start" in the fight against climate change when she closed coal mines as "crass and offensive".

Speaking on a visit to an offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth, the prime minister said that Margaret Thatcher helped climate change by closing "so many coal mines".

"We're now down to less than 2%, I think it's I% of our energy comes from coal," the prime minister added.

Mr Johnson was being quizzed about preparations for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, in November, during a two-day visit to Scotland.

Pushed on whether he would set a deadline for ending the extraction of fossil fuels, he said the UK had already transitioned away from coal in his lifetime - oweing it to Mrs Thatcher.

He said: "Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether."

He is reported to have laughed and told reporters: "I thought that would get you going."

He said there is a "massive opportunity" to increase the use of more environmentally-friendly technologies."

Reacting to the Prime Minister's comments, Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "I'm afraid that those remarks are both crass and offensive.

"The damage done to Welsh coal mining areas 30 years ago was incalculable and here we are 30 years later the Tories are still celebrating what they did."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also said said the comments were "crass and deeply insensitive" to mining communities.

She tweeted: "Lives and communities in Scotland were utterly devastated by Thatcher's destruction of the coal industry (which had zero to do with any concern she had for the planet)."

Labour said he should apologise for the "shameful" comments. Labour is opposed to the opening of new coal mines, saying they are not compatible with the UK wanting to be a world leader in reducing carbon emissions.

But Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, tweeted that Mr Johnson's comments are "shameful".

He wrote: "Brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people".

In response to the criticism, Boris Johnson recognises the "huge impact and pain" caused by the closure of coal mines, his official spokesman said in response to a backlash over the Prime Minister's comments made in Scotland on Thursday.

In 1984, there were 170 working collieries in Britain, employing more than 190,000 people but by 2015, they had all closed.

Mrs Thatcher's announcement that she planned to close 20 of them, led to the year-long miners' dispute. Millions of people protested against pit closures and throughout the summer of 1984 there were violent clashes between striking miners and police, whose numbers often ran into several hundred at each confrontation.

Boris Johnson has shown 'utter contempt' for colliery communities over Margaret Thatcher comments says North East's mining leader

Comments from Prime Minister Boris Johnson paying “thanks” to Margaret Thatcher for closing down collieries have been slammed by the North East’s mining leader.

By Fiona Thompson
Friday, 6th August 2021, 

He made the comments towards the end of a two-day trip in Scotland which took him to a giant wind farm off the coast after he was pressed on whether he would set a deadline for ending fossil fuel extraction.

The Prime Minister hailed existing action to move to greener forms of power, stating when he was a child 70% to 80% of all electricity had been coal-generated – with this falling to 40% by the time he became London mayor.

Boris Johnson has been slammed for his comments about pit closures, background the former Wearmouth colliery in Sunderland.

“Since then, it’s gone right down to 1%, or sometimes less,” he stated.

Mr Johnson said: “Look at what we’ve done already. We’ve transitioned away from coal in my lifetime.

“Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”

His comments have led him to come under fire from Labour politicians, as well as the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon.

Durham Miners' Association Secretary Alan Mardghum speaking at the 135th Durham Miners Gala in 2019.

Alan Mardghum, is Secretary of the Durham Miners Association, which represents the welfare of former pit workers and support former colliery communities.

The former miner, who worked at Wearmouth Colliery for 16 years from 1977, said: “Johnson has again shown utter contempt for the people of former mining communities.

"The wilful annihilation of the coal industry caused social and economic devastation in our communities that is still felt to this day.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson onboard the Esvagt Alba during a visit to the Moray Offshore Windfarm East, off the Aberdeenshire coast on Thursday August 5. 

Photo by PA.

"It was an ideological assault.

“The Thatcher government increased coal imports to more than 40 million tonnes a year, often mined by child labour in the developing world.

“It is no joke.

“But despite great adversity, our communities survive.

"This is testament to the strength, resilience, and spirit of our people.

"They are proud of our heritage and culture, and our values of decency, respect and honesty."

Labour MP for Easington Grahame Morris said: "Pushing Thatcher as some sort of eco-warrior for closing coal mines is a rewriting of history.

"The truth is she did not express any regrets or have a care about the mining communities or the life chances of our people following the wholesale closure of the industry.

"Any serious commentator can pretty much chart the hardship and deprivation of our mining communities with the loss of the mining and industry and loss of secure employment.

"Closing coal mines had nothing to do with saving the environment, it was an assault on a way of life, on trade unions and on communities that did not fit with Thatcher's free market brand of conservatism that worshipped money, speculation, the City of London and greed over community and society."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: “Boris Johnson’s shameful praising of Margaret Thatcher’s closure of the coal mines, brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people.”

Johnson challenged to visit former
mining villages and repeat his coal pit
closures ‘joke’

BORIS JOHNSON was challenged to visit former mining villages and repeat his “joke” about the devastation of the coal pit closures programme today, following his disastrous visit to Scotland this week.

Speaking to reporters during a wind farm visit on Thursday, the Prime Minister claimed that Margaret Thatcher gave Britain a “big early start” in the fight against climate change when she closed coal mines around the country.

Mr Johnson was heavily criticised for the comment, which came after he was asked whether he would set a deadline for ending fossil fuel extraction as a row continues over a proposed oil and gas development in the North Sea.

Former MSP Neil Findlay, who campaigned for miners’ pardons in Holyrood, told the Morning Star that Mr Johnson would be welcome to repeat his “fucking hilarious” comedy routine in his local miners’ welfare club.

“He would be lucky to get out alive, the cretin,” Mr Findlay said.

“He and his ilk did not give a damn about the disastrous consequences of their vindictive attack on mining communities, with all the appalling consequences that brought.”

Green MSP Gillian Mackay said: “Thatcher’s decimation of the coal industry had absolutely nothing to do with environmentalism and everything to do with her despicable anti-trade union ideology.

“It’s no surprise that Boris Johnson eulogises Thatcher, but we must ensure his government doesn’t repeat her actions as Scotland begins to transition from oil and gas to our renewables future.”

Owen Thompson, SNP MP for Midlothian, has written to the PM asking him to visit Scotland’s National Mining Museum and former miners and their families, so he can apologise in person and see for himself the devastation that was caused by Thatcher’s industrial policies.

Both Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Tory leader should apologise for his “joke.”

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Chris Kitchen issued a furious response.

Mr Kitchen, who took part in the 1984-5 miners’ strike as an 18-year-old mineworker at Kellingley Colliery, said: “Johnson’s comments are an insult to every former mineworker and mining community that suffered as a result of Thatcher’s vindictive vendetta against the industry and against the NUM.

“For us it was a devastating time. Some communities and families have still not recovered — and he makes jokes about it.”

At the time of the miners’ strike there were about 200 deep coal mines and more than 180,000 mineworkers in the UK. Today there are no deep coal mines left, with the last closing in December 2015.

“His comments disgrace the office of Prime Minister,” Mr Kitchen added.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman said he recognises the “huge impact and pain” caused by the closure of coal mines, but did not offer an apology.

BILLIONAIRES HIDE AWAY

Google Founder Gets New Zealand Residency, Raising Questions

Friday, 6 August, 2021 - 09:00

Larry Page, CEO and Co-founder of Alphabet, participates in a conversation with
Fortune editor Alan Murray at the 2015 Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco,
California November 2, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

Asharq Al-Awsat

Google co-founder Larry Page has gained New Zealand residency, officials confirmed Friday, stoking debate over whether extremely wealthy people can essentially buy access to the South Pacific country.

Immigration New Zealand said Page first applied for residency in November under a special visa open to people with at least 10 million New Zealand dollars ($7 million) to invest, reported The Associated Press.

“As he was offshore at the time, his application was not able to be processed because of COVID-19 restrictions,” the agency said in a statement. “Once Mr. Page entered New Zealand, his application was able to be processed and it was approved on 4 February 2021.”

Gaining New Zealand residency would not necessarily affect Page's residency status in the US or any other nations.

New Zealand lawmakers confirmed that Page and his son first arrived in New Zealand in January after the family filed an urgent application for the son to be evacuated from Fiji due to a medical emergency.

“The day after the application was received, a New Zealand air ambulance staffed by a New Zealand ICU nurse-escort medevaced the child and an adult family member from Fiji to New Zealand," Health Minister Andrew Little told lawmakers in Parliament.

Little was responding to questions about how Page had managed to enter the country at a time when New Zealand had shut its borders to non-residents in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Little told lawmakers the family had abided by applicable virus protocols when they arrived.

Page's residency application was approved about three weeks later.

Immigration New Zealand noted that while Page had become a resident, he didn't have permanent residency status and remained subject to certain restrictions.

Still, the agency on its website touts the “Investor Plus” visa as offering a “New Zealand lifestyle,” adding that “you may be able to bring your car, boat and household items to New Zealand, free of customs charges.”

Some local news organizations reported that Page had since left New Zealand.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Forbes on Friday ranked Page as the world’s sixth-wealthiest person, with a fortune of $117 billion. Forbes noted that Page stepped down as chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019 but remained a board member and controlling shareholder.

Opposition lawmakers said the episode raised questions about why Page was approved so quickly at a time when many skilled workers or separated family members who were desperate to enter New Zealand were being turned away.

“The government is sending a message that money is more important than doctors, fruit pickers and families who are separated from their children," ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden said in a statement.

In 2017, it emerged that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel had been able to gain New Zealand citizenship six years earlier, despite never having lived in the country. Thiel was approved after a top lawmaker decided his entrepreneurial skills and philanthropy were valuable to the nation.

Thiel didn’t even have to leave California for the ceremony — he was granted citizenship during a private ceremony held at the New Zealand Consulate in Santa Monica.

A Canadian Art Dealer Has Admitted to Co-Inventing a Fake Indigenous Artist

By Helen Holmes • 07/30/21 12:38pm

Whistler’s Audain Museum unwittingly sold work by ‘Harvey John’ in its shop. Vancouver's Best Places / YouTube

This week, reports emerged that “Harvey John,” supposedly an Nuu-Chah-Nulth Indigenous artist hailing from Vancouver Island, is in fact a fabrication that was perpetuated by the art dealer Steve Hoffmann. “Harvey John’s” creations have been sold all over British Columbia in both galleries and museums, and some institutions, like the Audain Museum in Whistler, are already speaking out about the falsified identity of the artist. According to Hoffmann, the artist who made the carvings was the person who’d misled the dealer into believing he was Indigenous. Hoffmann claims that once he discovered the truth, he decided to perpetuate the lie anyway.

Erin Brillon, a Haida/Cree fashion designer, was the person who managed to detect that John’s work was inauthentic. Perusing an art shop listing that identified John’s work as “original Haida carvings,” Brillon knew immediately that the label was a sham. “I knew instantly it was not done by a Haida person,” Brillon said. “It was not Haida-designed in any way, shape or form. And I know that John is not a Haida last name. A whole lot of people stepped in and recognized that something bigger was going on here. I’m really glad that we actually got to the bottom of the source of fraudulent art.”

Fake and forged Indigenous art has also popped up in recent years in Wyoming and East Texas. Under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (IACA), only the seller of Indigenous artwork can be met with civil or criminal penalties. Hoffmann, the art dealer, has thus far declined to give the real name of the artist who was evidently passing himself off as Indigenous. “One way to look at it is, I was helping somebody make a living,” Hoffmann said. “But another way to look at it was that it was a pseudonym. It was not accurate.”

Why Does Jeff Bezos Want NASA’s Moon Lander Contract So Badly?

Jeff Bezos still hasn't given up fighting for NASA's lunar lander contract.

By Sissi Cao • 08/06/21 


Jeff Bezos speaks near part of an F-1 engine from a Saturn V rocket, on display in the APOLLO exhibit at the Museum of Flight, in Seattle, Washington on May 20, 2017. David Ryder for The Washington Post via Getty Images

In spring 2020, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin began an almost yearlong competition against Elon Musk’s SpaceX over a NASA contract to build a human-landing vehicle on the moon. The race ended in April with the agency selecting SpaceX as the sole contractor under its Human Landing Systems (HLS) program.

Refusing to take no for an answer, Bezos has been pushing back against NASA’s decision in every direction possible in the past three months.

See Also: Should Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Pay for NASA’s 2024 Moon Mission?

Last week, the world’s richest man offered to waive up to $2 billion in future payments from NASA under existing Blue Origin contracts if the agency would award a separate lunar lander contract to his company.

“Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years,” Bezos wrote in an open letter dated July 26 to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This offer provides time for government appropriation actions to catch up.”


Blue Origin also filed a complaint (along with another SpaceX competitor, Dynetics) with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, accusing NASA of violating its procurement strategy by selecting only one HLS contractor. The congressional watchdog denied Blue Origin’s protests on Friday, ruling that NASA had run a fair competition.

NASA originally intended to hire at least two private-sector companies to build the lunar landing system, but eventually decided to select only one contractor, citing cost as a primary factor. SpaceX’s bid was $2.9 billion, while Blue Origin’s was more than double at $5.99 billion.

To address the cost concern, Bezos said in his open letter that Blue Origin would accept “a fixed-priced contract for this work, cover any system development cost overruns, and shield NASA from partner cost escalation concerns” if NASA awarded a second contract.

Aviation policy experts say Bezos is motivated by a grand ambition to reign over the future space industry.

“Jeff Bezos, I believe, sees a vision where Amazon can control the future of the infrastructure of space,” said Bryan Del Monte, a former deputy director at the Department of Defense from 2003 to 2008. “If he can pull it off, he will be the richest man in history since Rockefeller. Because that’s what Rockefeller did—he effectively controlled the infrastructure of everything at his time.”

“Bezos believes that space is the railroads and highways of the future. That’s why he wants the control so badly,” Del Monte told Observer.

SpaceX plans to incorporate the lunar lander into its Starship launch system, which is gearing up for its first orbital test flight. Blue Origin plans to build a lander using some of the technology that flew Bezos and three other civilians to suborbital space last month.

Making a case for its own proposal, Blue Origin said SpaceX’s approach is “immensely complex and high-risk,” according to an infographic published on its website on Wednesday.

“There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments, and operations that have never been done before for Starship to land on the Moon,” Blue Origin said on its website. “NASA ran a flawed acquisition and ignored the significant risks of a one provider model.”

Making technical comparisons, Blue Origin noted that SpaceX’s plan will require more than 10 Starship launches to land once on the moon and needs to be refueled in orbit, while Blue Origin’s lander “only requires three launches” and has “far fewer in-space rendezvous.”

GOT BEEF?
BLUE ORIGIN’S PETTY DRAMA WITH SPACEX EXPOSES ITS OWN GREATEST FLAW, EXPERTS SAY

Blue Origin published an infographic critical of the SpaceX lunar vehicle NASA chose over Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander.

BLUE ORIGIN MAY HAVE lost its appeal contesting NASA’s awarding rival SpaceX the contract to build a lunar lander vehicle. Still, Jeff Bezos’s space company is not taking the defeat lying down.

The space company published an infographic on its website Wednesday arguing that the SpaceX landing vehicle, a modified version of SpaceX’s Starship, is unproven and potentially unsafe for astronauts.

This is not the first time Blue Origin has taken a swing at another billionaire’s space company. The company tweeted a similar infographic on July 9 favorably comparing its New Shepherd vehicle to the SpaceShip Two of Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson, and noting that Virgin’s vehicle does not fly above the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of outer space.


Blue Origin tweeted this chart favorably comparing the company’s New Shepherd vehicle to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two, on July 9. Blue Origin


But whatever the technical merit of Blue Origins' arguments in their new attack on SpaceX, it may be for nothing but spite, given that the Government Accountability Office rejected Blue Origins' appeal. SpaceX and Elon Musk now have the go-ahead to keep working on the lunar Starship for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon.

“There is no chance of SpaceX not proceeding with HLS for Artemis III,” Laura Seward Forczyk, founder of space consulting firm Astralytical, wrote in a tweet on Thursday. “NASA says it won. The GAO says it won. Attacking SpaceX only spreads negativity.”


Loren Elliott/Getty Images News/Getty Images

HERE’S THE BACKGROUND — “Lunar Starship: Immensely Complex and High Risk” is the large font headline of the Blue Origin infographic, which goes on to list the reasons the company believes NASA’s choosing SpaceX to build a lunar lander was a bad decision.
The Super Heavy booster plus Starship — Integral to SpaceX’s design is the reusable first stage booster to launch Starship, which functions as a second stage. If successfully developed, the pair will make up the largest-ever launch vehicle.
Boca Chica — SpaceX plans to launch the Lunar Starship from Boca Chica, in Texas, which has never hosted an orbital launch before.
Orbital refueling — For the massive Starship to reach higher orbits such as the moon, it will need to be refueled — a process known as cryogenic fluid transfer — with “up to 100 metric tons of propellants” from as-yet undeveloped tanker variants of the Starship vehicle.
Multiple launches per mission — Blue Origin argues that to provide the lunar Starship with enough fuel for a single lunar mission, SpaceX will need 10 or more launches from Earth.


And although not detailed in the text on the infographic, Blue Origin also includes a figure comparing the height of the lunar Starship and the Blue Origin’s Blue moon vehicle, noting it’s 32 feet from the vehicle’s hatch to the lunar surface and 126 feet for astronauts descending from Starship.


An infographic published by Blue Origin on Aug. 4 arguing that competitor SpaceX’s lunar landing vehicle is a riskier bet for NASA than Blue Origin’s own Blue Moon vehicle.Blue Origin

The infographic then promotes Blue Origin’s perceived advantages, notably that it can fly on a variety of launch vehicles and would require only three launches to assemble and fly to the moon. “Further,” the infographic reads, “the system is entirely built on heritage systems and proven technologies that are flying today.”


There’s not necessarily anything factually wrong with Blue Origin’s arguments, Forczyk tells Inverse, but “it was quite the argument to make when Blue Origin has not yet launched anything to orbit.” SpaceX, meanwhile, has flown cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, has safely launched and recovered Starship from an altitude of 33,000 feet, and plans to make its first launch of Starship on the Super Heavy booster by the end of the year.

SpaceX’s plans are indeed risky, Forczyk says, but so are Blue Origins. “It is disingenuous to promote a competitor's design as risky when in fact, both of them are complex and risky,” she says. “Spaceflight is fairly risky.”
WHAT’S THE SOURCE OF BLUE ORIGIN’S BEEF?

In April, NASA awarded a single $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX to build the Human Landing System (HLS) component of the Artemis moon program, choosing the lunar Starship variant over Blue Origin’s Blue Moon and a third prototype developed by Dynetics. NASA’s source selection document noted that the SpaceX bid was the lowest of the three by a wide margin.

Blue Origin and Dynetics then filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, leading to a pause in the HLS program until the GAO’s decision in favor of NASA on July 30. It’s a decision that ensures the first crewed lunar landing in more than 50 years will be made by a SpaceX vehicle, not a Blue Origin craft.

But the NASA source selection document also clarified that NASA would have liked to have made two awards and had two lander vehicles available, but did not due to lack of funds.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR BLUE ORIGIN?

While infographics will not supersede a GAO ruling, Blue Origin is not out of the lunar landing game entirely.

The SpaceX contract only runs through the first crewed lunar landing mission, Artemis III, currently scheduled for October 2024. Meanwhile, in April, NASA called for proposals for lander vehicles to be used in routine lunar astronaut transportation, presumably for Artemis IV and beyond.

Bezos and Blue Origin might be making their case for the future, and specifically to Congress, according to Forczyk.

“Blue Origin is pretty much putting this out there to speak to Congress to say, ‘my competitor’s design is riskier than mine,” she says, “‘therefore you should have a second competition to have two providers in case my competitor is too risky and fails.”

Editor’s note, 8/6/21: A previous version of this article stated “Blue Origin has not yet launched anything to space.” This has been corrected to state “anything to orbit.”

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Gemma Chan urges people to ‘stick up for one another’ to stop Asian hate

Ellen Coughlan

Friday 6 Aug 2021
Gemma Chan is a vocal activist for social causes (Picture: Hanna Moon/Vogue)

Gemma Chan has laid down what needs to change in society to stop Asian hate, and how to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

The actress, 38, who has been a vocal activist for social causes throughout the pandemic – which saw a rise in Asian hate – says people need to ‘stick up for one another’ and that it can’t just be down to the ethnic group in question.

‘If only black people care about Black Lives Matter, then nothing’s gonna change,’ she told British Vogue.

‘And if only Asians are talking about Stop Asian Hate, nothing is going to change. And it’s only when we stick up for one another, and we stand side by side, that things will shift.’


Although the star, who is set to appear in upcoming Marvel film Eternals, said she feels like an ‘accidental activist’, speaking up was one of the few things she felt she had to do.


‘Actually, we kind of have a duty to, in a way that our parents perhaps weren’t able to as first-generation immigrants.’

Gemma Chan opens up in the September issue of Vogue (Picture: Hanna Moon)

The Captain Marvel star is working alongside the likes of fashion designer Alexa Chung, fellow Marvel actor Benedict Wong and Vogue editor Edward Enninful to raise awareness of a GoFundMe initiative to support east and south-east Asian communities in the UK.

As part of the national #StopAsianHate campaign, she previously told the Observer: ‘There is an urgent need for increased awareness and support so I am proud to help launch this fund, which will provide grants to grassroots organisations supporting ESEA and broader communities.’

The campaign will distribute money to grassroots community groups including Besea.n, Covid Anti Racism Group, End the Virus of Racism, and Kanlungan UK.

Gemma opened up about what needs to change in society to stop Asian hate (Picture: Hanna Moon)

The Stop Asian Hate movement picked up pace earlier this year when it was reported Asian hate crimes had increased due to Covid, with the likes of actress Olivia Munn speaking out about the issue.

A UN report released last August revealed there were more than 1,800 racist incidents against Asian Americans in the US over an eight-week period from March to May 2020.

Gemma, who is the cover girl for the September issue of the fashion tome, reckons things are changing for Asian females in the entertainment industry, but slowly.

‘It’s only a fairly recent thing that Asian females have been able to be the protagonists of stories,’ she explained.

‘Individual successes are one thing. But structurally, when you look at who can actually get projects green-lit in the UK, who are in those positions of power, those gatekeeping positions – there aren’t that many Asians. There aren’t many people of colour in those positions.’


MORE: RACISM


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British Vogue editor-in-chief Enninful said: ‘Together, through bold changes and brave initiatives from all of us we are closer to where we all need to be: a more inclusive, diverse and renewable industry.’


MORE : Gemma Chan’s podcast about infamous anti-Asian murder pulled after complaints from victim’s family

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Another Socialist Will Be Taking a Seat in the New York City Council

Socialist City Council candidate Kristin Richardson Jordan scored a remarkable upset victory in Harlem, with a campaign combining unabashed radicalism with a commitment to the unglamorous work of constituent services.

BYLIZA FEATHERSTONE

08.05.2021

JACOBIN

Kristin Richardson Jordan faced a well-established incumbent in the June primary for a City Council seat in Harlem’s District 9. (Photo via Kristin Richardson Jordan / Medium)

Kristin Richardson Jordan wasn’t supposed to win.

In her June primary for a City Council seat in Harlem’s District 9, she faced a well-established incumbent. She was a lesbian and a socialist, and she campaigned openly on a “defund the police” platform at a time when an alarming spike in murders in New York and other cities was leading some progressives to back away from such ideas. According to conventional wisdom, the political moment in 2021 belonged to big-city politicians in the mold of Eric Adams, the conservative, pro-cop Democrat who is now the presumptive next mayor of New York, having performed especially well in working-class black neighborhoods where people sometimes demand more cops rather than fewer.

Yet Jordan did win.

In late July, I met Jordan, thirty-four, outdoors at Lenox Coffee Roasters, a relaxed neighborhood spot where people linger, over laptops or deep in conversation. The café advertises its politics through its window signs (not only the ubiquitous “Black Lives Matter” but the more controversial “Free Palestine”) and offers free books. Jordan is a third-generation denizen of Harlem; her father’s parents married at Abyssinian Baptist Church, a legendary neighborhood institution (though Jordan herself is a congregant at Salem United Methodist, on Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard).

Jordan, who identifies as a police abolitionist, won not by avoiding discussion of crime but by having serious conversations with voters on the subject. “Telling people, ‘Well, don’t worry about murder,’” she says, is an obvious nonstarter. “I love my fellow abolitionists, but sometimes we don’t make the full case for our cause, because we’re so busy talking about the police that we don’t talk enough about the presence of the social safety net that is supposed to help us move toward a nonviolent world.”

Before a person is “standing there with a gun killing another person,” she continues, “there were so many points along the way where intervention was needed.” That perpetrator may not have had the chance to attend a well-funded preschool where kids learn social and emotional skills, participate in sports after school and on weekends, get mental health care, find tutoring help to succeed in school, attend college, or find a job. “That is the conversation,” Jordan says, that she and her trained volunteers had with her neighbors.

Jordan says even people who don’t share her vision of a world without prisons or cops — which she admits is a “faith-based vision, since we haven’t seen it” — respond to the argument that crime prevention deserves more resources, and perhaps even agree that it should take priority over punishment. “We validate people’s concerns,” she emphasizes, then discuss “the root causes of violence in our community.” Those “root causes” mostly involve a lack of money — specifically, poverty plus austerity. Jordan’s message, she says, was “not just ‘Defund the Police.’ It’s ‘Fund the People.’”

Asked how she became a socialist, Jordan, who will face a Republican and a third-party candidate in November’s general election, reveals that she is the daytime embodiment of a conservative’s most persistent night terrors. She went to Brown University, where, she says, laughing, that black studies made her a socialist. “It’s not that the books convinced me,” she clarifies. Reading Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis, she recalls, “helped me name things that I already saw and felt. I always felt like it didn’t make sense in our world for there to be a small group of people who had so much money and then have people who are hungry and homeless and without health care. It never made sense. I couldn’t make it make sense even as a small child.”

Jordan sought and did not get NYC-DSA’s endorsement this time, but it’s clear (from her public statements and my conversations with DSA members close to the process) that both sides hope for a future relationship. (An encouraging precedent is Emily Gallagher, who didn’t get DSA’s endorsement for state assembly but went on to win her race and now works closely with the NYC-DSA slate of state elected officials and with the organization itself.)

Now divorced, Jordan experienced domestic violence in her marriage. I tell her I’m sorry to hear that. “I’m sorry, too,” she muses quietly, but it’s a pensive moment that passes quickly, like a small cloud on the sunny day. “What I’m grateful for, coming out of that experience,” she says, “is a new love of myself and a greater perspective on what love looks like and means.” “Radical love” has been a slogan of her campaign. “So when I say ‘radical love,’ I mean it not with love as sacrifice, which is what we often think of love as, and certainly the trap I fell into in my previous relationship. Where, to help you, I’m going to take something away from me. I see [love] as a true alignment and taking someone else as part of yourself. And then you’re one entity.” It’s a political philosophy as well as a guide to life.

Jordan knows public service isn’t just about big ideas. “I am a proud democratic socialist and abolitionist, and there’s a lot of really radical political ideas that I have,” she says. “And I want to give new ways of thinking a shot. At the same time, on a very basic constituent services level, we’re going to have a big change.” Constituent services is the work of helping people in the district get access to the services and resources of the existing government: getting the landlord to fix the toilet, helping people find vaccines or food, fixing potholes. (Jordan is not alone here: this has been a huge emphasis for Brooklyn’s state assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest and other recently elected socialist officials.)

“I am looking at revolutionizing that for this district,” says Jordan. “Because we have not had that level of service, and we deserve it. When I talk to older Harlemites, in my family and in the community, people have been telling me that they don’t feel like there’s been hands-on service in that way since Adam Clayton Powell.” (Elected in 1941, Powell was New York City’s first black City Council member — Ben Davis, a leader of the Communist Party, was the second — and he went on to represent the neighborhood in Congress a few years later.)

Like any New York City socialist, Jordan knows her biggest foe is the real estate industry. Speaking about the displacement of longtime black and brown residents of her district, she emphasizes, “The displacement is unacceptable. And it’s very avoidable. And that’s the piece that I love to bring up as a socialist. It’s not that we need to pit the new against the old or the black against the white. We need to keep our eyes on the true enemy of the people: landlords and developers who have taken advantage of all of us in this community and pitted folks against each other to their own personal financial gain.”

Those elites in her district aren’t thrilled by her ascendancy. “When I say, ‘Disrupt the District’ [one of her campaign slogans], some people do get scared, because even though it’s ‘Disrupt the district with radical love,’ what we are disrupting are these old systems of oppression. And yes, I intend to fight for a different type of Harlem that is really for the people of Harlem, which means that a small group of folks who have had a lot of power and a lot of money will not have either anymore.”

She laughs gently and says, with light irony, “And that’s going to be okay.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza Featherstone is a columnist for Jacobin, a freelance journalist, and the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart.

Sheffield’s statues don't tell the full story about its colonial legacy

A Council report shows Sheffield doesn't have many outwardly colonial statues or monuments — but the legacy of slavery and empire lives just below the surface.

by Shahed Ezaydi
5 AUGUST 2021

Gary Butterfield


In the past week, Sheffield City Council has published a report looking at the city’s history and heritage titled Sheffield: its history and heritage told through its streets, monuments, museums, libraries and archives. It aims to highlights parts of Sheffield that are indicative of a racist and colonial history — and what can be done to tackle this.

The publication is a direct result of last summer’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the US and the subsequent toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Colston was a renowned slave trader and member of the Royal African Company, an organisation that had a monopoly on the West African slave trade in the late 1600s. In June 2020, after years of back and forth with local authorities over the appropriateness of the Colston statue, protesters pulled it down and dragged it into the harbour.

The toppling of the Colston statue reignited a national conversation around the figures and historical moments that the UK has memorialised in statues and monuments. It resulted in the development of a crowdfunded online tool, Topple the Racists, allowing people to input any monument they see as celebrating slavery, racism and colonialism. At the time of writing, no Sheffield statues have been inputted.

This renewed discussion led to Labour councils pledging to conduct reviews in their cities, and that they would “listen to and work with their local communities to review the appropriateness of local monuments and statues on public land and council property”. While Sheffield may not be seen as having any immediately obvious statues of a problematic nature, it was a Labour-run council in 2020, so it conducted a review and has now published the corresponding report.

What is Sheffield’s history and legacy when it comes to slavery?

Many people may be operating under the assumption that Sheffield doesn’t have a history associated with slavery. After all, it's well-known for its anti-slavery activities and abolitionism, in keeping with its identity as a radical, working-class city.

But like most cities, Sheffield does have a history of slavery. And because so much of the focus has been on anti-slavery, the city’s connections to the slave trade have been glossed over and effectively omitted from history.

Dr Rosie J Knight, a lecturer in American History at the University of Sheffield specialising in the history of slavery and lead on the Sheffield, Slavery, and its Legacies project, told me that it’s common to view “Britain’s part in the enslavement of African peoples as confined to the trafficking activities of seaboard cities like Liverpool and Bristol,” but that this is simply not the case.

“Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, Sheffield and the wider region — its manufacturers and businesses, families and individuals — had many different kinds of connections to, and involvement in, the mass enslavement of African peoples in the Americas.”

In fact, manufacturers in Sheffield profited largely from selling their metalware in West Africa as part of the slave trade. These were manufactured goods that were also sold in North America, the Caribbean and Brazil, as well as being used within the slave trade itself.

WITHOUT THE FREE LABOUR OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE WHAT THIS COUNTRY WOULD LOOK LIKE NOW

One example is the hoes used by slaves working on cotton and sugar plantations, made in Sheffield and shipped across to the Americas. The demand and sale of these goods significantly contributed to the industrial economy of Sheffield.

As well as manufacturing, the sugar industry can also be traced back to slavery. As payment for the metal goods being sent across to the Caribbean and Brazil, unrefined sugar grown by enslaved people was sent to Sheffield, which developed and stimulated the sugar refining industry in the city.

Désirée Reynolds, writer-in-residence at Sheffield Archives and a member of the Black Arts Collective, explains how slavery and colonialism is deeply embedded in the city, and just how uncomfortable people are facing these truths.

“Sheffield — priding itself on its sanctuary status and working-class roots — still finds it hard to believe that part of its fabric is woven into this history.


"If a mine owner invested in the trade and made money, he would’ve put that money into the buildings, transport and infrastructure of the city. Without the free labour of millions of people, it's impossible to see what this country would look like now.”

This is why anti-slavery and abolition are only a part of Sheffield’s history. According to Knight, “there’s much more to be learned about these connections, and the different ways the profits materially benefitted Sheffield. But an overly simplistic understanding of Sheffield as an ‘abolitionist’ city overlooks its inhabitants’ part in these historic injustices and the experiences of enslaved African peoples.”

Queen Victoria statue in Endcliffe Park Neil Theasby

The findings of the Council’s cultural holdings report

In the report on Sheffield’s 'cultural holdings' — compiled by Council staff and representatives from Sheffield Museums, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield — a number of findings have been acknowledged.

Firstly, it’s recognised that many street names in the city are rooted in racism and colonialism, with a comprehensive list included in the report. There are street names associated with people who advocated for or were actively involved in slavery, such as:

Canning Street - Named after former Prime Minister, George Canning, who campaigned against the freeing of slaves.

Dundas Road - Named after the former Home Secretary, Henry Dundas, who delayed the abolition of slavery in Britain.

Gladstone Road/Street - Named after former Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, whose father was one of the world’s largest slave owners, receiving £90,000 in compensation on abolition.

Melbourne Avenue - Named after former Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, a strong supporter of slavery who called Britain's abolishment of slavery a "great folly".

Other street names listed in the report have strong associations with violent suppression (Cromwell Street), war and military campaigns (Trafalgar Road/Street) and the colonial empire (Kipling Road, Jamaica Street, Kingston Street). There is only one street, Windrush Way, which highlights an event in the city’s Black history, while there are a number of streets named after abolitionist campaigners (Clarkson Street, Pitt Close).

As for statues and monuments, the report states that “Sheffield does not seem to have any public statues that are overtly connected to slavery”, but that “there are few representations of and few memorials celebrating ethnically diverse figures, presenting an inadequate expression of the city's large and diverse population.” The report acknowledges the colonial roots of the city's Queen Victoria statue, "relegated" from the top of Fargate to Endcliffe Park in the 1930s.

The document also looks at Sheffield’s libraries, archives and public museum collections, noting that our libraries have integrated their previous ‘Black Collection’ into the general system and that they’ve begun to purchase more materials related to anti-racism and inequality.

The history of marginalised and racialised communities in Sheffield is under-represented in the city's archives. The report argues that this is likely due to the archives relying on local donations, and “the collection therefore reflects what has been given rather than a deliberately curated representative view of the city.”

As was to be expected when looking at the public collections in Sheffield’s museums, and similar to other cities, the report found that “Britain’s colonial history, racism and the legacy of slavery are woven throughout Sheffield’s collections.”

A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THINGS LIKE MONUMENTS AND STREET NAMES, OR THE CITY’S HISTORY MORE BROADLY, WON’T TACKLE RACISM

Recommendations of the report

Based on the above findings, the report lists a number of recommendations for the Council over a five-year programme.

Firstly, the authors argue that there needs to be more of a focus on building meaningful relationships with different communities, so that the Council can become “an enabler of communities rather than provider to communities.”

The second recommendation is for the Council to adopt multiple approaches to address issues in the report, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach, even if some of the approaches are “tentative or unproven”.

Thirdly, the report says there’s a need for the development of a policy for how representation and naming of statues, monuments and street names is managed in the future. This is linked to the final recommendation, which is to bring communities in to be an active part of the process of making Sheffield into a more representative and diverse city.

What now?

As Knight points out, “a new understanding of things like monuments and street names, or the city’s history more broadly, won’t tackle racism,” but what it can do is to help challenge prevailing narratives and “encourage white Sheffielders in particular to reconsider the city’s identity and our/their own positionality.”

As mentioned in recent Race Equality Commission hearings, many of these recommendations will require Sheffield City Council to prioritise funding and resources in these areas - which they don’t have a good track record of doing.

Relying on people of colour to take on this work is simply adding to the problem. “It takes money and resources. It seems to me that the Council is happy for communities of colour to pay the blood price of helping fix the Council's wrongs. Our labour should not be the currency,” says Désirée Reynolds.

When asked about what needs to be done to platform the voices of marginalised and racialised communities in Sheffield, Reynolds suggests an annual equity audit and the use of mentor schemes and apprenticeships, so we can “look at what was promised and what was delivered. And what is yet to be delivered. Looking at who's not in the room.”

“One audit and one report doesn't mean we're done. It’s all about legacies and transformative practice.”

by Shahed Ezaydi
5 AUGUST 2021
www.shahedezaydi.co.uk

 TO DISTRACT FROM THEIR DOPING SCANDALS

Russian state TV broadcasts homophobic attacks on Tom Daley during Tokyo Olympics

Comment

Phil HaighFriday 6 Aug 2021 

Tom Daley won gold in the 10m synchro at Tokyo 2020 (Picture: Getty Images)

Tom Daley has been the victim of homophobic insults on Russian state TV, with New Zealand’s transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard branded a ‘psychopath’.

Channel Rossiya 1 aired a number of homophobic slurs targeting Daley, including LGBT people described as an ‘abomination’ by one panellist who is a member of the Russian parliament.

Hubbard’s participation in women’s weightlifting in Tokyo was described as ‘smut and perversion’ by MP Alexei Zhuravlyov, who said he was ‘disgusted’ by LGBT people.

Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, said: ‘I do not think transgender people have any prospects in Russia, because they love men, while Russian men love women.’

The New Zealander was also mocked on Channel One in Russia as a male presenter wore a wig to make fun of her.

Anatoly Kuzichev wore a wig to mock Laurel Hubbard (Picture: Channel One Russia/Ella Millward)

Anatoly Kuzichev also called transgender people ‘psychopaths’ who should be treated by psychiatrists.

Laurel Hubbard was victim to the attacks on Russian TV (Picture: EPA)

The International Olympic Committee has responded, contacting their broadcasting partners in Russia over the shocking comments and stating that ‘discrimination has absolutely no place at the Olympic Games.

In a statement provided to the BBC, the IOC wrote: ‘We have been in contact with our contractual broadcasting partner in Russia in order to get clarity on the situation and to underline the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic Charter and we are following up accordingly.’

They added: ‘Discrimination has absolutely no place at the Olympic Games. We welcome that Tokyo 2020 has embedded diversity and inclusion in the Olympic Games model.’

Northern California wildfire now largest burning in U.S.


BY CHRISTOPHER WEBER AND NOAH BERGER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUGUST 06, 2021 

This photo shows cars and homes destroyed by the Dixie Fire line central Greenville on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, in Plumas County, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) NOAH BERGER AP

GREENVILLE, CALIF.

Officials say Northern California's Dixie Fire grew by 110 square miles (285 square kilometers) between Thursday night and Friday morning, making the blaze the largest wildfire currently raging in the country.

The Dixie Fire has consumed 432,813 acres — an increase of 71,000 acres from the night before. The Bootleg Fire in Oregon had previously been the nation's largest active wildfire, at 413,765 acres.

The Dixie Fire is only 35% contained and is expected to grow. It currently stands as California's third-largest wildfire in history. The Bootleg Fire, which sparked July 6, is 87% contained.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Eva Gorman says the little California mountain town of Greenville was a place of community and strong character, where neighbors volunteered to move furniture, colorful baskets of flowers brightened Main Street, and writers, musicians, mechanics and chicken farmers mingled.

Now, it's ashes.

As hot, bone-dry, gusty weather hit California, the state's largest current wildfire raged through the Gold Rush-era Sierra Nevada community of about 1,000, incinerating much of the downtown that included wooden buildings more than a century old.

The winds were expected to calm and change direction heading into the weekend but that good news came too late for Gorman.

“It’s just completely devastating. We’ve lost our home, my business, our whole downtown area is gone,” said Gorman, who heeded evacuation warnings and left town with her husband a week and-a-half ago as the Dixie Fire approached.

She managed to grab some photos off the wall, her favorite jewelry and important documents but couldn’t help but think of the family treasures left behind

“My grandmother’s dining room chairs, my great-aunt’s bed from Italy. There is a photo I keep visualizing in my mind of my son when he was 2. He’s 37 now,” she said. “At first you think, ‘It’s OK, I have the negatives.’ And then you realize, ‘Oh. No. I don’t.’”

Officials had not yet assessed the number of destroyed buildings, but Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns estimated on Thursday that “well over” 100 homes had burned in and near the town.

“My heart is crushed by what has occurred there,” said Johns, a lifelong Greenville resident.

About a two-hour drive south, officials said some 100 homes and other buildings burned in the fast-moving River Fire that broke out Wednesday near Colfax, a town of about 2,000. There was no containment and about 6,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Placer and Nevada counties, state fire officials said.

The three-week-old Dixie Fire was one of 100 active, large fires burning in 14 states, most in the West where historic drought has left lands parched and ripe for ignition.

The Dixie Fire had consumed about 432,813 acres, according to an estimate released Friday morning. That's 676 square miles (1,751 square kilometers) — moving the blaze from the state's sixth-largest wildfire ever to its third-largest overnight.

The fire's cause was under investigation, but Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of the utility's power lines. No injuries or deaths have been reported.

The blaze exploded on Wednesday and Thursday through timber, grass and brush so dry that one fire official described it as “basically near combustion.” Dozens of homes had already burned before the flames made new runs.

No deaths or injuries were reported but the fire continued to threaten more than 10,000 homes.

On Thursday, the weather and towering smoke clouds produced by the fire's intense, erratic winds kept firefighters struggling to put firefighters at shifting hot spots.

“It’s wreaking havoc. The winds are kind of changing direction on us every few hours,” said Capt. Sergio Arellano, a fire spokesman.

“We're seeing truly frightening fire behavior,” said Chris Carlton, supervisor for Plumas National Forest. “We really are in uncharted territory.”

Heat waves and historic drought tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The blaze hit Greenville from two angles and firefighters already were in the town trying to save it but first they had to risk their lives to save people who had refused to evacuate by loading people into cars to get them out, fire officials said.

“We have firefighters that are getting guns pulled out on them, because people don’t want to evacuate,” said Jake Cagle, an incident management operations section chief.

The flames also reached the town of Chester, northwest of Greenville, but crews managed to protect homes and businesses there, with only minor damage to one or two structures, officials said.

The fire was not far from the town of Paradise, which was largely destroyed in a 2018 wildfire sparked by PG&E equipment that killed 85 people, making it the nation’s deadliest in at least a century.

California's blazes are not the only wildfires scorching vast areas in the world. Thousands of people fled wildfires burning out of control in Greece and Turkey on Friday, including a major blaze just north of the Greek capital of Athens that left one person dead, as a protracted heat wave turned forests into tinderboxes and flames threatened populated areas, electricity installations and historic sites.





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'We lost Greenville': Wildfire decimates California town (apnews.com)
Flames from the Dixie Fire consume a home on Highway 89 south of Greenville on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, in Plumas County, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) NOAH BERGER AP

Photos: Dixie Fire Destroys Homes, Businesses In Greenville – CBS San Francisco (cbslocal.com)