COP26: Greta Thunberg joins boisterous London protest

The Swedish teen joined protesters ahead of the COP26 climate conference to rail against banks profiting off environmental destruction. Organizers say similar protests were being staged in 26 countries around the world.

    

Thunberg and other young protesters are calling on banks to 'stop funding our destruction'

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg joined a small yet boisterous group of a couple dozen young people protesting in front of Standard Chartered bank in London's City financial district on Friday.

What happened during the protests?

Demonstrators had protested in front of other banks in the district before being joined by Thunberg. They are scheduled to hold a vigil in front of the Bank of England later in the evening.

Organizers said similar protests were being held in 26 other countries around the world in an attempt to focus attention on the fact that banks are profiting off of environmental destruction by funding the fossil fuel industry as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday for the COP26 climate summit.

Protesters say they are calling on financial institutions to finally stop the extraction of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.

"We've come here today as a part of this week of action because ... the UK and corporations in the UK have been funding climate chaos and the destruction of our islands for decades," said Joseph Sikuli, an activist from the South Pacific island nation of Tonga.

"Today we're outside @StanChart asking them to stop funding our destruction," Thunberg tweeted Friday.

'Climate justice' march also expected in Glasgow

Thunberg and other young activists from various corners of the globe will be traveling to Scotland for the 12-day United Nations COP26 climate change summit. Thunberg has also announced plans to attend a November 5 "climate justice" march in Glasgow.

A leader in the "Fridays for Future" climate protest movement that she is largely credited with starting back in 2018, the 18-year-old Swede was not optimistic that the 26th incarnation of the climate summit would bring about the dramatic changes needed to stop global warming.

"As it is now, this COP will not lead to any big changes, we're going to have to continue pushing," Thunberg told reporters at a climate concert in Stockholm last week.

Greta Thunberg joins London climate protest ahead of COP26

Issued on: 29/10/2021 - 

Thunberg joined a protest outside the London headquarters of Standard Chartered bank, tweeting they were "asking them to stop funding our destruction" Tolga Akmen AFP

London (AFP)

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg attended a small protest in London on Friday against global banks' role in the fossil fuel industry, ahead of travelling to the upcoming COP26 summit in Scotland.

The 18-year-old environmental icon joined a few dozen young protesters demanding banks stop financing polluting projects, such as fossil fuel extraction, outside the headquarters of Standard Chartered bank.

After being thronged by the hordes of waiting cameras, she briefly rallied with other young activists at the site in London's financial district before leaving without making a speech.

The group posed for picture behind a banner reading "defund climate chaos! Stop funding our destruction!" while others held aloft placards with similar slogans.

"Today we're outside @StanChart asking them to stop funding our destruction," Thunberg tweeted soon after.

"Banks still pour fantasy amounts into fossil fuels, destabilising the planet and putting many people's lives at risk."

The demonstrators had earlier protested at several other sites in the City of London finance hub and were due to hold a vigil later Friday outside the Bank of England.

A banner reading "defund climate chaos! Stop funding our destruction!" Tolga Akmen AFP

"We've come here today as a part of this week of action because... the UK and corporations in the UK have been funding climate chaos and the destruction of our islands for decades," Joseph Sikuli, an activist from Tonga in the South Pacific, told AFP.

Organisers say similar protests are being held in 26 countries worldwide ahead of COP26.

The 12-day gathering of world leaders and environmental policy delegates kicks off Sunday in the Scottish city Glasgow.

Thunberg, whose Fridays For Future movement has inspired massive street protests around the world since 2018, has confirmed she plans to join a November 5 march for "climate justice" there.

Earlier this month, she voiced concern the summit would not achieve the landmark agreements needed to combat catastrophic climate change.

"As it is now, this COP will not lead to any big changes, we're going to have to continue pushing," she told AFP on the sidelines of a climate concert organised in Stockholm.

© 2021 AFP

Greta Thunberg joins climate protest in London ahead of Cop26

Swedish activist says she has not officially been invited to Glasgow climate summit

Greta Thunberg, centre, joins protesters outside Standard Chartered in the City of London on Friday. Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Fri 29 Oct 2021 
Greta Thunberg has joined protesters at a “climate justice memorial” in the City of London to protest against the financing of fossil fuel industries ahead of the Cop26 summit.

Activists from environmental groups including Pacific Climate Warriors, Coal Action Network and Extinction Rebellion laid wreaths and flowers at the entrance of the Lloyd’s headquarters.

The Swedish climate campaigner joined activists outside Standard Chartered chanting: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible” and: “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now.”

Thunberg also said she had “not officially” been invited to Cop26. In a preview clip for an interview with Andrew Marr for his BBC One show, she said: “I don’t know. It’s very unclear. Not officially … I think that many people might be scared that if they invite too many radical young people, then that might make them look bad.”

When asked by Marr whether more young people should have been invited to attend the climate convention, she said: “Not necessarily radical young voices, but we need more representation from the so-called global south, from the most affected people and areas.

“It’s not fair, when for example one country sends lots and lots of delegates, and then another country is very under-represented. That already creates an imbalance and climate justice is at the very heart of this crisis. As long as we keep ignoring the historical responsibility of the countries of the global north and as long as we continue to ignore it, the negotiations will not have a successful outcome.”

Friday’s demonstrations were part of global action targeting the financial centres of the largest economies around the world the weekend before the UN’s Cop26 climate summit. Activists aim to draw attention to the disadvantaged communities most affected by the climate crisis in what they hope will be the largest financial climate protest in history.

“We want to commemorate and commiserate the homes and lives lost to the climate crisis,” one Extinction Rebellion member said on Friday.

“We want to call on Lloyd’s as Pacific Islanders to move the money away from fossil fuel industry so we can put an end to an era which is exporting harm directly to our islands,” said Brianna Fruean, who came to the UK to participate in Cop26.

Lloyd’s is an insurance market which Coal Action Network, one of the protest’s organisers, claims “underwrites the majority of the world’s most climate-wrecking projects”.

The demonstrations have also targeted Macquarie Group, an investment bank that the protesters have said is financing the Silvertown tunnel in London, which is planned to link the borough of Newham and the Greenwich peninsula. Extinction Rebellion activists say the tunnel will bring more traffic and pollution to Newham, which is one of the city’s most deprived and polluted boroughs, though the mayor’s office has said it does not expect it to worsen pollution.

Protests took place in 26 countries on Friday, and are also targeting JP Morgan Chase in the US and Deutsche Bank in Germany.

PIRACY

'Just give us our money': Taliban push to unlock Afghan billions abroad

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Afghanistan’s Taliban government is pressing for the release of billions of dollars of central bank reserves as the drought-stricken nation faces a cash crunch, mass starvation and a new migration crisis.

Afghanistan parked billions of dollars in assets overseas with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe, but that money has been frozen since the Islamist Taliban ousted the Western-backed government in August.

A spokesman for the finance ministry said the government would respect human rights, including the education of women, as he sought fresh funds on top of humanitarian aid that he said offered only “small relief”.

Under Taliban rule from 1996-2001, women were largely shut out of paid employment and education and normally had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative when they left home.

“The money belongs to the Afghan nation. Just give us our own money,” ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal told Reuters. “Freezing this money is unethical and is against all international laws and values.”

One top central bank official called on European countries including Germany to release their share of the reserves to avoid an economic collapse that could trigger mass migration towards Europe.

“The situation is desperate and the amount of cash is dwindling,” Shah Mehrabi, a board member of the Afghan Central Bank, told Reuters. “There is enough right now ... to keep Afghanistan going until the end of the year.

“Europe is going to be affected most severely, if Afghanistan does not get access to this money,” said Mehrabi.

“You will have a double whammy of not being able to find bread and not being able to afford it. People will be desperate. They are going to go to Europe,” he said.

The call for assistance comes as Afghanistan faces a collapse of its fragile economy. The departure of U.S.-led forces and many international donors left the country without grants that financed three quarters of public spending.

The finance ministry said it had a daily tax take of roughly 400 million Afghanis ($4.4 million).

Although Western powers want to avert a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, they have refused to officially recognise the Taliban government.

Haqmal said Afghanistan would allow women an education, although not in the same classrooms as men.

Human rights, he said, would be respected but within the framework of Islamic law, which would not include gay rights.

“LGBT... That’s against our Sharia law,” he said.

Mehrabi hopes that while the United States has recently said it will not release its lion’s share of roughly $9 billion of funds, European countries might.

He said Germany held half a billion dollars of Afghan money and that it and other European countries should release those funds.

Mehrabi said that Afghanistan needed $150 million each month to “prevent imminent crisis”, keeping the local currency and prices stable, adding that any transfer could be monitored by an auditor.

“If reserves remain frozen, Afghan importers will not be able to pay for their shipments, banks will start to collapse, food will be become scarce, grocery stores will be empty,” Mehrabi said.

He said that about $431 million of central bank reserves were held with German lender Commerzbank, as well as a further roughly $94 million with Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank.

The Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella group for global central banks in Switzerland, holds a further approximately $660 million. All three declined to comment.

The Taliban took back power in Afghanistan in August after the United States pulled out its troops, almost 20 years after the Islamists were ousted by U.S.-led forces following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London and James MacKenzie in Islamabad; writing by John O’Donnell; Editing by Nick Macfie

Afghanistan: Taliban ‘Vice’ Handbook Abusive

Discriminatory Rules, Ignored Protections

(New York) – Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s provinces are using a manual that imposes rules harsher than the abusive policies announced by their leaders in Kabul. And Taliban authorities often do not comply with the rights protections that the manual, from the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue, sets out.

The Taliban issued the “By-Law of the Commission for Preaching and Guidance, Recruitment and Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” in 2020, and a revised version in February 2021 when it was controlling growing areas of the country. The ministry has used it in a number of provinces since the Taliban took over Kabul on August 15.

“The Taliban have tried to reassure the world that they respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls,” said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “But the rules instructing their officials are a patchwork of abusive policies enforcing gender and LGBT discrimination, and harsh repression of autonomy and free expression.”

The Ministry of Vice and Virtue was included in the interim government that the Taliban announced on September 7, with a cleric appointed minister. It took over the building of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which was eliminated. During previous Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, the Vice and Virtue Ministry became a notorious symbol of abuse, particularly against women and girls.

It barred women from educating girls in home-based schools, from working, and from begging. It enforced draconian restrictions on women and men through public beatings and detention. Ministry officials beat women publicly for dress deemed “immodest”; showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being accompanied by a close male relative. The officials beat men for trimming their beards.

The manual is largely devoted to enforcing rules against “vice,” but its final chapters set out guidelines for all Afghans and for Taliban members, including tough restrictions on the conduct of women and girls. It instructs religious leaders to teach people about which male family members can act as a mahram (a chaperone) for women and older girls and states that women “shall be commanded to put on a veil when faced with non-mahrams.” Another provision states: “Women shall be prohibited from not wearing hijab and veil in public and against non-mahrams,” but adds that these mandates should be enforced in “an easy and kind way.”

The manual also imposes abusive restrictions on personal autonomy and other liberties. It prohibits sex outside of marriage – which the penal code adopted by the previous government also prohibited – along with adultery, same-sex relations, and “immorality and vice.” “Strong allegations” of adultery or homosexuality must be reported to the ministry’s district manager for further action, presumably punishment. When the Taliban were previously in power, there were reports that they executed some men found to have engaged in same-sex relations.

In the manual, the Taliban discourages people from “helping, befriending…infidels” and instructs religious leaders to advise men on growing their beards. Those who fail to pray or fast as required by religious obligations are to be reported. It prohibits parties and listening to music audible outside a home, cinemas, gambling, and “inappropriate use of tape cassettes, dish antenna, computer and mobile.”

The Taliban also condone abusive responses to so-called “vice.” The manual sets out five stages for people to respond to prohibited acts, beginning with educating the person and graduating to guidance, then prohibiting the vice in “an aggressive, angry and scary manner,” prohibiting the action “physically,” and finally reporting it to the district manager for action.

Some provisions set out rules that would protect human rights and rein in Taliban abuses. For example, Taliban fighters are instructed not to engage in kidnapping for ransom or “amputation such as removing the eyes, cutting ears and noses of the people” and to await a court’s judgment before punishing prisoners. Several provisions ban authorities from entering people’s homes and from destroying their property.

Other provisions would also be positive steps, if Taliban officials complied with them. They prohibit harassing women and girls as they collect water or attend school. Human Rights Watch and others have documented widespread harassment of women and adolescent girls on the streets by Taliban members who arbitrarily enforce requirements to be accompanied by a mahram and to wear clothing they deem sufficiently modest.

The manual also says that everyone should respect the rights of women, including the right not to be forced into marriage. But the Taliban, by closing girls’ secondary schools and imposing tough new restrictions on women attending universities, have greatly heightened the risk of forced marriage. Research from around the world identifies lack of access to education for girls as one of the major risk factors driving child marriage. Another driver of child marriage is poverty: Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy has toppled as donors have withheld funds for reasons including the Taliban’s closure of girls’ secondary schools.

The manual states: “The people shall be commanded [by the imams] to treat their children equally.” But o September 18, the Taliban issued an order for students and teachers to return to boys’ secondary schools but not to girls’ secondary schools, creating a de facto ban on girls’ secondary education. In the weeks since, some girls’ schools have reopened in a few provinces, apparently in response to pressure from community members who want girls to study. But the majority of girls’ secondary schools across the country remain shuttered, with millions of girls deprived of education and falling further behind in their studies every day.

The manual also bans Taliban members from recruiting child soldiers. But the United Nations has verified hundreds of individual cases in recent years in which the Taliban have recruited and used children, including a sharp spike in 2020, and noted that the true figures are most likely much higher.

“The Taliban’s world view and abusive practices have been relatively consistent, as this manual demonstrates,” Barr said. “Countries that spent the last 20 years promoting human rights in Afghanistan need to negotiate with the Taliban to try to end worsening rights violations, including against women and girls.”

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan registers in the United States as foreign agent

10:30, today

Author: Asia-Plus

National Resistance Front filed paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on October 26; photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images.

The United States’ news website Axios reported yesterday that the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has registered to lobby U.S. policymakers, signaling it recognizes the need to win over key officials in Washington.

A newly formed U.S. nonprofit arm, incorporated in D.C. last week, reportedly filed paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on October 26.

It told the Justice Department it anticipates "lobbying the government, international organizations and other political entities."

The National Resistance Front reportedly seeks to be "the protector of America's 20-year investment in Afghanistan and the force to rid the country of intolerance and terrorism."

The registration comes about six weeks after the National Resistance Front enlisted the Sonoran Policy Group to "provide strategic advisory services."

Axios notes that U.S. financial and military aid could be crucial to efforts to oppose Taliban rule in Afghanistan. But opposition forces must convince the Biden administration to stay engaged to some degree in a conflict from which the president is determined to extricate the United States, the website says.

According to Axios, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) had earlier called on President Biden to recognize Ahmad Massoud, as well as fellow National Resistance Front co-founder Amrullah Saleh, as "the legitimate government representatives of Afghanistan."

The Biden administration has shown no signs it will do so.

Anti-Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan reportedly opens its office in Dushanbe
15:01, october 29

Author: Asia-Plus

Afghanistan NRFleader Ahmad assoud; photo / TOLONews.

Some Tajik experts have confirmed that the Anti-Taliban National Resistance Front of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan opened its office in Dushanbe. Meanwhile, Tajik Foreign Ministry says it does not have such information.

Several local experts told Asia-Plus that the National Resistance Front of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan opened its office in Dushanbe.

Director of the Analytical Center at the Russian Political Scientists’ Society, Andrey Serenko, noted in his telegram-Channel on October 23 that the Anti-Taliban National Resistance Front of Afghanistan “has opened its official representation in Tajikistan (Dushanbe).”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan says it does not have such information

Recall, the United States’ news website Axios reported on October 28 that the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has registered to lobby U.S. policymakers, signaling it recognizes the need to win over key officials in Washington.

A newly formed U.S. nonprofit arm reportedly filed paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on October 26.

It told the Justice Department it anticipates "lobbying the government, international organizations and other political entities."

The National Resistance Front reportedly seeks to be "the protector of America's 20-year investment in Afghanistan and the force to rid the country of intolerance and terrorism."

The registration comes about six weeks after the National Resistance Front enlisted the Sonoran Policy Group to "provide strategic advisory services."

Biden Admin Makes 2nd Attempt to End Trump-Era ‘Remain-In-Mexico' Asylum Policy

By Annika Kim Constantino, CNBC

Jose Torres | Reuters
Migrants, mostly Haitians, wait for asylum processing by Mexico’s Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) outside a soccer stadium, in Tapachula, Mexico October 12, 2021.

The Biden administration announced its second attempt to terminate a Trump-era border policy that forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date.
It comes to weeks after the administration complied with a Texas federal judge's order to reinstate the policy, known as "Remain in Mexico," by mid-November.
The termination of the policy will only go into effect if the the order is lifted by the federal judge who issued it or an appellate court.

The Biden administration on Friday announced its second attempt to terminate a Trump-era border policy that forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date.

This comes two weeks after the administration complied with a Texas federal judge's order to reinstate the policy, known as "Remain in Mexico," by mid-November.

While the administration is carrying out the order to reimplement the policy, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced his intentions to end "Remain in Mexico" if the order is lifted by the federal judge who issued it or an appellate court.

He issued a first memo in June that terminated the program until the federal judge's order thwarted his plan.

The "Remain in Mexico" policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, was first implemented in 2019 by former President Donald Trump amid an increase of Central American families crossing the southwest border.

In the memo, Mayorkas conceded that MPP likely reduced unauthorized migration to the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration. But he said it imposed "substantial and unjustifiable human costs" on the thousands of migrants who waited in Mexico, which demonstrates a need to end the program.

"The benefits of MPP are far outweighed by the costs of continuing to use the program on a programmatic basis, in whatever form," Mayorkas said in the new, four-page memo.

"MPP not only undercuts the Administration's ability to implement critically needed and foundational changes to the immigration system, but it also fails to provide the fair process and humanitarian protections that all persons deserve," he said.

President Joe Biden suspended MPP on his first day in office, calling it inhumane due to the violence migrants faced while waiting in Mexico.

This prompted the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri to sue the Biden administration in April over ending the policy. In August, a federal judge for the Northern District of Texas sided with the states and ordered the administration to reinstate the policy pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

The Supreme Court also declined the administration's request to block the judge's order in August.

In the Friday memo, Mayorkas outlined the Biden administration's justification for ending MPP in an effort to address the federal judge's concerns.

For instance, he noted that the Mexican government said it will not accept migrants that return to Mexico under MPP unless "substantial improvements" are made to the program.

But such improvements would pull resources and personnel away from other "productive efforts" to address the root causes of migration and fight transnational criminal and smuggling networks, according to Mayorkas.

"I have concluded that there are inherent problems with the program that no amount of resources can sufficiently fix," he said in the memo.

Mayorkas also noted that migrants sent to Mexico under MPP were subject to "extreme violence and insecurity" at the hands of transnational criminal organizations.

An estimated 70,000 migrants were returned to Mexico under MPP since 2019, according to the American Immigration Council. Migrants subject to the policy often waited months, if not years, to see an immigration judge.

While waiting in Mexico, they also faced threats of extortion, sexual assault and kidnapping, according to Human Rights First. There have been at least 1,544 reported cases of rape, kidnapping and assault, among other crimes, committed against migrants sent back under the Trump-era policy through February 2021.

Mayorkas said the Biden administration can decrease migration to the southern border and provide protection to migrants who qualify for asylum through other policies being developed. This includes a fast-tracked immigration court program and a proposed rule that would allow asylums officers to "produce timely and fair decision-making" about asylums claims.

"Once fully implemented, these policies will address migratory flows more effectively than MPP, while holding true to our nation's values," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The Biden administration's latest attempt to end the policy was supported by some Democrats, who have argued against reinstating it.

"The Remain in Mexico policy is one of the most destructive vestiges of Trump's anti-immigrant legacy, and should be permanently discarded along with the many other remaining Trump admin policies willfully designed to punish & deter refugees from legally seeking safety in the US," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a Twitter post.

The problem with the Halloween ‘hag’ witch – and what you need to know about real-life witchcraft

October 29, 2021 7.05am EDT

For many witches, the internet offers a community and the opportunity to practice with like-minded people. Pexels/mikhail nilov


Halloween is here once again with supermarkets displaying devil and monster costumes. In my neighbourhood, I will see a mob of wart-ridden, green-faced witch children, terrorising neighbours with the threat of a trick if they are not treated with sweets.

Witches are synonymous with this time of year and most often they are presented as old, ugly and evil – and as something to avoid.

Erdman Palmore, a medical sociologist, has previously written about how the older, more forthright and more outspoken a woman is, the more she is considered a threat. In this way, the caricature of the witch, which stereotypes women as evil and dangerous, helps to silence a woman’s power. It also manipulates and controls societies’ perception of older women, by presenting them as being untrustworthy or mad.

Read more: Hag, temptress or feminist icon? The witch in popular culture

And in this sense, the hag-witch identity has what sociologists refer to as symbolic violence, which is an unconscious mode of cultural or social domination. In other words, the hag witch stereotype, which is imposed upon women, is a form of non-physical violence.

So it’s important to understand that beyond the fairy tales, mythical stories and stereotypes, there are many different ways to be a witch.
The modern witch

As part of my PHD research I interviewed 13 UK based self-identified witches and analysed hundreds of different witch identities on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I have seen how people use social media as a platform to teach, learn and practice witchcraft and as a space to promote their witch-selves.

Many of the witches I interviewed and came across on social media spoke about the importance of online spaces because of the lack of local Pagan communities. They also said that the internet offers a community and the opportunity to practice with like-minded people.

Modern-day witches are reclaiming witchcraft’s dark history.

  YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock

It seems being a witch is not something people tend to be initiated into, as with Christianity. More they become a witch (often as a teenager) after realising that the philosophies of witchcraft – such as goddess worship, the moon cycle and positive affirmations – resonate. I’ve seen witches describe how they “came out of the broom closet” and started to present themselves as a witch via the use of memes and images on social media.

I have found though that the stereotypical image of a witch – as an evil, angry woman or an ugly wart-ridden hag – is used often by these groups as a way of reclaiming power. People use the hag or evil witch stereotype to fight the patriarchy. Often using the meme: “We are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn’t burn”.


In this way, the modern witch identity is not about creating fear. It’s about sharing wisdom with the next generation. And my research has found that the modern witch identity is empowering women to stand loud and proud within a patriarchal society.
Halloween or Samhain?

Many trick or treaters may also not be aware that Halloween originates from Samhain, a three-day ancient Celtic pagan festival. Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker-half” of the year and it’s significant to witches.

It falls on the 31 of October – the same day as Halloween – and is one of the eight festivals (Sabbats) within the witch’s year. Samhain is marked with candles, music, bonfires and food. Historically it marked the change of the season but more recently it’s also a time to celebrate life and remember those who’ve died.

The stereotypical Halloween hag. Ian Good/Shutterstock

For many witches, 31 October is a spiritual festival. It celebrates harvest bounty and an opportunity to provide offerings of thanks to the god of the Sun and others. It is not about creating mischief or evil or eating children, as the stereotype would have us believe. So while Halloween may seem like just a bit of fun, it’s also problematic in that it reinforces stereotypes that cause confusion.

This is why I would like Samhain to be acknowledged and respected as a faith-based autumn festival similar to Diwali in Hinduism that celebrates how light and good overcame darkness and evil, or the same way Harvest is in Christianity.

Indeed, by painting the witch as evil, devil-worshipping and harmful, it limits the exploration of the various identities of the witch. Witch is also not a gender-specific term, it’s an empowering faith identity and it should be presented as such.

So this Halloween, rather than taking on the hag witch persona, why not explore the identity of the Samhain witch in an alternative Halloween celebration – you could take a nature walk, light a bonfire or candles, cook a nice meal and give thanks for the things you are grateful for.

Author

Maggie Webster

Senior Lecturer in Education, Edge Hill University
Disclosure statement

Maggie Webster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners

West Australian Shipwreck Reveals Secrets Of 17th-Century Dutch Seafaring Domination


Aoife Daly extracting a tree-ring sample from the Batavia ship’s hull planking in strake 14 CREDIT: (Photo: W. van Duivenvoorde).

October 30, 2021 
By Eurasia Review

Many Dutch ships passed the West Australian coast while enroute to Southeast Asia in the 1600s – and the national heritage listed shipwreck, Batavia, has revealed through its timbers the history of the shipbuilding materials that enabled Dutch East India Company (VOC) to flourish against major European rivals for the first time.

Built in Amsterdam in 1626-1628 and wrecked on its maiden voyage in June 1629 on Morning Reef off Beacon Island (Houtman Abrolhos Archipelago), Batavia epitomises Dutch East India (VOC) shipbuilding at its finest in a Golden Age, experts reveal in a study led by Flinders University archaeologist Associate Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde with co-authors, Associate Professor and ERC grantee Aoife Daly at the University of Copenhagen and Marta Domínguez-Delmás, Research Associate and VENI Fellow at the University of Amsterdam.

“The use of wind-powered sawmills became common place in the Dutch republic towards the mid-17th century, allowing the Dutch to produce unprecedented numbers of ocean-going ships for long-distance voyaging and interregional trade in Asia, but how did they organise the supply of such an intensive shipbuilding activity? The Dutch Republic and its hinterland certainly lacked domestic resources” says Wendy van Duivenvoorde.

In-depth sampling of Batavia’s hull timbers for dendrochronological research, published in open-access journal PLOS ONE, offers a piece of the puzzle of early Dutch 17th century shipbuilding and global seafaring that was still missing.

In the 17th century, the VOC grew to become the first multinational trading enterprise, prompting the rise of the stock market and modern capitalism. During this century, a total of 706 ships were built on the VOC shipyards in the Dutch Republic and 75 of these were shipwrecked and 23 captured by enemy forces or pirates.

However, little is understood about the timber materials that enabled the Dutch to build their ocean-going vessels and dominate international trade against competitors in France, Portugal, and continental Europe.

“Oak was the preferred material for shipbuilding in northern and western Europe, and maritime nations struggled to ensure sufficient supplies to meet their needs and sustain their ever-growing fleets. Our results demonstrate that the VOC successfully coped with timber shortages in the early 17th century through diversification of timber sources” explains Marta Domínguez Delmás.”

Fortunately, the Batavia ship remains were raised in the 1970s and are on display at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle.

This allowed archaeologists and dendrochronologists from Flinders University, the University of Amsterdam, and University of Copenhagen to undertake the sampling and analysis of the hull timbers.

“The preference for specific timber products from selected regions demonstrates that the choice of timber was far from arbitrary. Our results illustrate the variety of timber sources supplying the VOC Amsterdam shipyard in the 1620s and demonstrate the builders’ careful timber selection and skilled craftsmanship” says Aoife Daly.

“Our results contribute to the collective knowledge about north European timber trade and illustrate the geographical extent of areas supplying timber for shipbuilding in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century” concludes Wendy van Duivenvoorde.

 

US Supreme Court to review lower court’s dismissal of Trump-era power plant GHG rule

29 October 2021 Amena Saiyid

The US Supreme Court agreed on 29 October to review a lower court ruling earlier in 2021 that rejected a signature Trump administration regulation that curbed power plant releases of GHGs.

The review was sought in April by a 19-state coalition led by West Virginia, which challenged the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's decision in January to vacate and remand the 2019 Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE) for a rewrite.

The appeals court said the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Donald Trump misconstrued a provision of the Clean Air Act, the nation's key air pollution law, thereby illegally restricting the measures that could be imposed to curb power plant GHGs.

In their 29 April petition, the states argued the circuit court, through its ruling, gave EPA, the federal agency charged with regulating GHGs and other air pollutants, "unbridled power" to decarbonize any sector of the economy including factories and power plants, as well as the millions of homes and small businesses that use natural gas for heating.

In petitioning the highest court in the land, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey contended that the lower court "inappropriately" interpreted Section 111 of the Clean Air Act as "authorizing EPA to sidestep Congress to exercise broad regulatory power that would radically transform the nation's energy grid and force states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from coal-fired generation."

Morrissey said the Supreme Court's decision to accept the case marks the "most consequential victory" since he was able to persuade the court to stay the Obama-era Clean Power Plan in February 2016 before it even took effect.

EPA has yet to rewrite ACE since it was remanded to the agency. EPA Administrator Michael Regan has stated publicly that the court ruling allowed the agency to take a fresh look at the regulation. Following the Supreme Court's action, Regan tweeted out that power plant carbon pollution hurts families and communities, and threatens businesses and workers, while noting that "the courts have repeatedly upheld EPA's authority to regulate dangerous power plant carbon pollution."

Released in 2019, ACE replaced the Obama administration's more stringent 2015 Clean Power Plan—which set the first CO2 limits for existing coal-fired power plants—with standards based on a list of technologies that EPA identified for upgrading plant equipment and improving operations. The ACE rule did not set a numerical standard for power plants.

In contrast, the Clean Power Plan imposed a numerical limit on carbon emissions for coal-fired plants, while offering flexibility to meet this limit through energy efficiency improvements as well as by trading carbon offsets and fuel switching.

The West Virginia petition was backed by the National Mining Association and a trade group by the name of America Power that represents plants generating electricity from coal. The cities of Boulder, Chicago, Denver, New York, South Miami, Philadelphia, and the District of Columbia joined a 22-state coalition led by New York state that opposed the petition.

New York University School of Law Professor Richard Revesz, who directs the Institute for Policy Integrity, said the West Virginia-led petition lacks merit because it claims the EPA lacks authority to employ emissions trading when regulating power plant carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.

"That argument is at odds with decades of regulatory practice under administrations of both parties," Revesz said in a statement. "EPA has repeatedly employed flexible techniques like emissions trading in Clean Air Act rules and should be able to continue to do so as it works to decarbonize the power sector."

Posted 29 October 2021 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate & Energy Research Analyst, IHS Markit

Nearly 300 Scientists Ask WTO To Ban Harmful Fisheries Subsidies


Fishing boats. Photo Credit: Ivan Khmelyuk from Pixabay

October 30, 2021

By Eurasia Review

Two hundred and ninety scientific researchers from 46 countries, and 6 continents, are asking members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to take the bold step and pass a motion to ban harmful fisheries subsidies at their 12th Ministerial Conference that will take place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2021, in Geneva.

In an open letter, published in Science, and spearheaded by Dr. Rashid Sumaila, professor in the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics, the scientists stated that the WTO is in the unique position to pass an effective international agreement that could eliminate subsidies for fuel, distant-water and destructive fishing fleets, and ille­gal and unregulated vessels.

Citing a comprehensive body of research, the signatories stated that government payments that lower the cost of fuel and vessel construction; provide price support to keep market prices artificially high, and back fleets that plunder the high seas, only incentivize overcapacity and lead to over­fishing. This, the scientists said, actively contravenes the aims of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14, which is to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

In their view, the 164 states represented at the WTO could use their upcoming meeting to sign an agreement that forbids such harmful practices, while allowing special and differential treatments for small-scale, sustainably managed wild fisheries that sup­port food and nutritional security, liveli­hoods, and cultures, particularly in low-income countries.

Further, the researchers said that such a deal should support low-income countries’ efforts to meet their commitments and transition to sustainable management. Finally, the agreement should require transparent data documentation and enforcement measures.

COP26 Conference in Glasgow takes place amid escalating class conflict

Tony Robson
WSWS.ORG

The United Nations COP26 conference, opening in Glasgow on Sunday for two weeks, was to take place amid planned strikes of thousands of key workers both in the city and around Scotland. This did not happen thanks to the utterly rotten character of the trade unions.

As with other such global events, widespread protests are expected. Climate change activists will gather alongside world leaders and political dignitaries, opposing the tidal wave of empty pledges over carbon emissions reductions by those upholding the interests of the chief despoilers of the planet, the corporate oligarchy.

This time, however, protests were accompanied by threats of workers taking strike action over their plummeting living standards during the pandemic, testifying to the growth of the class struggle internationally. The task for the trade union bureaucracy was to prevent this at all costs.

A two-week strike during the entire proceedings of the COP26 conference by over 2,000 rail workers on ScotRail threatened to bring the entire rail system across Scotland to a standstill. ScotRail, owned by Dutch transnational Abellio, runs 95 percent of rail services in Scotland. This was averted by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) calling off the strike voted for on an 84 percent mandate and accepting a below-inflation pay deal on Wednesday.

ScotRail trains (Credit: Creative Commons)

Rail workers in the RMT on the Caledonian Sleeper service which runs between London and Inverness, operated by Serco, are still scheduled to conduct two separate 48-hour strikes, the first starting on November 1 and the second from November 11.

Around 1,500 Glasgow City Council workers were also due to walk out for seven days of strike action from November 1. Those involved include refuse workers and school cleaners, catering staff and janitors. From November 8, thousands of local government workers in similar roles were to take five days of strike action across half of all local authorities in Scotland.

These strikes were both also suspended Friday, after local authority body Cosla proposed a pay rise of 5.8 percent, but only for the lowest paid staff, within a £1,062 increase for all staff earning below £25,000. Unison suspended five days of strike action across Scotland while its members are consulted.

The strike action had been billed by the trade unions concerned as an escalation of long-running disputes based on the claim that the Scottish National Party (SNP) government would be obliged to meet the demands of workers to spare its political embarrassment during COP26.

The example of the RMT at ScotRail shows that the only climbdown is by the trade unions. Its agreed-to pay deal for this year of 2.5 percent with a one-off £300 payment is a de facto pay cut with inflation running at 4.9 percent. The RMT has not even balloted its membership over acceptance.

In a clear indication that the deal contains an agreement on cost-cutting measures, a joint RMT-ScotRail press release states: “Our talks acknowledged the pressures on Scotland’s railway, and we agreed that by working together and exploring future productivity initiatives we will be able to build a sustainable future for ScotRail.” It declares an end to all disputes at ScotRail and concludes by stating, “As the disputes are resolved strike action has been cancelled and RMT members have been advised to work normally.”

The pay disputes in Scotland provide a snapshot of how the union bureaucracy is holding back a tidal wave of working-class opposition. In the name of national unity, the trade unions have enabled the ruling class to dictate its homicidal response to the pandemic of placing profits before the protection of life.

The RMT has attempted to bask in the reflected glory of the strike action over pay at ScotRail and on the Caledonian Sleeper since spring this year, while making sure the disputes remained isolated.

The grounds for national strike action exist across the UK network after the Johnson government announced in January a two-year pay freeze for 62,000 rail workers across 22 operating companies. But the RMT has not lifted a finger to oppose this attack. It has taken its place alongside the other trade unions in the Rail Industry Recovery Group (RIRG) based on a framework agreement for imposing £2 billion of cuts. That the RMT is touting the sellout deal it has reached with ScotRail as an example for pay dispute resolution means that a similar fate awaits Caledonian Sleeper workers if their struggle against a pay freeze is left in the hands of the union bureaucracy.

As for the deal agreed for local government workers, according to Unison over 55 percent of earn less than £25,000 per year and most have worked through the pandemic without a pay rise. The trade unions have delayed strike action until now, having submitted their pay claim for 200,000 workers 10 months ago, and presided over a pay freeze two years into a pandemic.

The strike action by rail and local government workers would also have been joined by hundreds of bus workers at Stagecoach across Scotland. The UK’s largest private bus and coach operator is owned by Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, with a combined wealth of £650 million, the fourteenth-largest fortune in Scotland. Unite and the RMT has blocked the 20 or more pay disputes across the UK at Stagecoach from becoming national strike action and ended individual disputes based on below-inflation agreements.

The trade unions, led by Unite, claim to have adopted a “leverage strategy”, intelligently using external factors to strengthen workers engaged in struggle. If that were truly the case, the ability of rail and council workers to paralyse the activities of the world’s most prominent political event would have been the ultimate opportunity to put this into practice. Instead, the various appeals to the SNP government in Holyrood have been used to disarm workers and pave the way to a sellout. The “leverage strategy” is revealed as the utilisation of the bureaucracy’s organisational dominance of key sections of workers to suppress the class struggle and preserve its own lucrative relations with governments and corporations across the UK.

Mounting social conflict surrounding the COP26 conference is evidence that the pre-conditions for a general strike are building up. But to take this fight forward means breaking the stranglehold of the labour and trade union bureaucracy, without which even getting to the point of a strike, let alone winning one, is proving increasingly impossible.

We urge rail, bus, and local government workers, including teachers working in unsafe schools, to form rank-and-file committees, unifying the struggle for health measures to end the pandemic and the fight against deepening social inequality, low pay and exploitation.

Read and share the statement of the International Workers Alliance for Rank-and- File Committees (IAW-RFC) which states:

“The IWA-RFC will work to develop the framework for new forms of independent, democratic and militant rank-and-file organizations of workers in factories, schools and workplaces on an international scale. The working class is ready to fight. But it is shackled by reactionary bureaucratic organizations that suppress every expression of resistance.”