'Release the Dough': Minneapolis Teachers Strike for First Time in More Than 50 Years

"We're on strike for safe and stable schools and systemic change," said the leader of the local teachers union.


Striking Minneapolis teachers and education support professionals hold placards in front of the Justice Page Middle school in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 8, 2022. (Photo: Kerem Yucel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)


KENNY STANCIL

March 9, 2022

The Minneapolis teachers' strike entered a second day Wednesday as union representatives and district officials resumed negotiations over smaller class sizes, improved student supports, and better pay.

"We don't believe we have a budget crisis in Minneapolis Public Schools. We have a values and priorities crisis."

In addition to demanding caps on class sizes and counselors in every school, the union is seeking higher starting salaries for educational support professionals (ESPs) as well as "a 12% salary increase for first-year educators and 5% increase for second-year teachers," the Star Tribune reported.

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Ed Graff, meanwhile, said Tuesday that "the union and district were 'still very far apart' and that while both sides have made concessions—union bargainers initially asked for a 20% salary increase for first-year teachers—the price tag for the union's current ask is about $166 million over the district's budget," according to the newspaper.

However, Shaun Laden, president of the ESP chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), countered district leaders' claims that the union's demands cannot be met due to a growing gap between revenue and expenses caused by decades of underfunding and made worse by rising costs and declining enrollment.

"We don't believe we have a budget crisis in Minneapolis Public Schools," he said Wednesday. "We have a values and priorities crisis."

The Star Tribune reported that "union leaders are also taking aim at the state Legislature, which this year must decide how to spend a historic $9.3 billion surplus."

During a picket in front of the state Capitol, Laden called for lawmakers to "release the dough!"

Progressive economists, as Common Dreams reported last month, have encouraged states to use billions of dollars in available federal Covid-19 relief funds to jumpstart long-term investments in the nation's shrinking education workforce.

Ahead of a 90-minute bargaining session at MPS headquarters, district officials said Wednesday morning that they remained "committed to meeting and negotiating with MFT in order to reach a contract agreement in order to get our students back in their classrooms as quickly as possible."

Classes for the district's 28,700 students are canceled for the duration of the strike.

One MPS parent, whose family joined the picket line in support of "teachers and ESPs striking for the schools our educators and students deserve," said that his kids' teacher is "great" but overburdened with 41 students in her class.


Education Minnesota—a statewide affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and the AFL-CIO that has roughly 90,000 members from 463 local unions—said that MFT Local 59 "won't stop until they get the resources and supports their students need!"


The Minneapolis teachers' strike—the first educational work stoppage in the city since 1970—began Tuesday morning after union leaders and district officials failed to reach a resolution by a Monday night deadline.

"MPS has the resources to make these investments. The question is whether they value Minneapolis students as much as their educators do."

Following 13 months of negotiations, "the district has failed to deliver a contract that makes vital investments in our students, our educators, and our community," MFT said in a statement. A whopping 97% of teachers and 98% of ESPs voted to authorize the strike.

Greta Callahan, president of the teachers' chapter of MFT, told the New York Times on the eve of the strike that MPS continues "to look at our proposals and say, 'These are add-ons that we can't afford.' And we're saying, 'No, you need to rewrite the whole system and do things differently.'"

"We're on strike for safe and stable schools and systemic change," Callahan said at a Tuesday morning news conference outside Justice Page Middle School in south Minneapolis.

"We're ready to get back to the table," she added. "We want this to be the shortest strike possible."

According to MFT Local 59, bargaining priorities include:

 

Paying a living wage for education support professionals to stabilize this critical workforce, because students need the stability of working with one

paraprofessional throughout the school year. For ESPs, this means raising the starting salary from about $24,000 a year to $35,000 through increases in hours and rate of pay;

Making systemic changes to improve the recruitment and retention of educators of color, which benefits all of MPS;

Improving student-to-mental health professional ratios because students shouldn't have to wait weeks for an appointment with a counselor or social worker;

Lowering class sizes because students learn best when their classrooms aren't overcrowded and underfunded; and 

Paying competitive salaries for licensed staff to stop the exodus of teachers from MPS. State data show the average salary of Minneapolis teachers is ranked 28 out of 46 districts in the seven-county metro area.

Callahan was joined at Tuesday morning's news conference by high-profile labor leaders, including AFT president Randi Weingarten and NEA president Becky Pringle.

"The federal government has provided an unprecedented amount of recovery funding to school districts to address problems related to the pandemic, including student recovery, staff shortages, and school safety," Weingarten said in a statement. "There is no excuse for districts to make cuts in light of this historic infusion of funds."

Pringle echoed that sentiment, saying that "with over $250 million in pandemic relief funds, the time is now to invest in the safe and stable schools that Minneapolis students need now more than ever."

"The last two years have demonstrated that the status quo is not good enough," said Pringle. "Minneapolis students and their families have weathered a pandemic, continued police violence, and an economic system that has left students, their families, and educators behind. These students deserve class sizes small enough for one-to-one attention as well as investments in mental health services and social-emotional learning."

"MPS must also invest in systematic changes that improve the recruitment and retention of educators of color as well as a living wage for education support professionals," Pringle continued. "Education support professionals represent a critical workforce in our schools providing essential supports students depend on."

"MPS has the resources to make these investments," she added. "The question is whether they value Minneapolis students as much as their educators do."

"No matter what happens in this struggle, its political impact will certainly reverberate well beyond Minnesota."

Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, said that "nearly 90,000 educators across Minnesota are standing with our union family in Minneapolis because what they're fighting for is what we're all fighting for: Schools that will give every student the chance to pursue their dreams."

"The same issues are being negotiated all over the state, from living wages for ESPs, to more mental health supports for students, to managing the crushing caseload for SpEd teachers, to recruiting and retaining more teachers of color, to creating time for educators to give their students enough individual attention," said Specht. "We're in a rich state with a $9.25 billion surplus. No educator should have to fight this hard for the schools our students deserve, but if that's what it takes, we're with you."

Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics, interviewed Callahan and Laden on Wednesday.

Writing in The Nation, he argued that the stakes of the Minneapolis teachers' strike extend far beyond Minnesota, given that the pandemic "has pushed public education to a breaking point across the country" and put its future in "unprecedented limbo."

"No matter what happens in this struggle, its political impact will certainly reverberate well beyond Minnesota," wrote Blanc. "A demoralizing defeat for teachers and ESPs will embolden pro-privatization, anti-union forces across the country to ramp up their efforts to dismantle public schools."

"A victory, in contrast, will infuse fights against K-12 with a much-needed jolt of hope," he added, "and enable organized educators to reshape the political narrative over the future of our schools."

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Oil Pipeline Canada Bought Will Cost Over $25 Billion and Never Turn Profit

"Guaranteeing another $8.8 billion to complete the project will simply be throwing good money after bad," says a new analysis, "for a total taxpayer loss of $26.1 billion."


Pieces of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline project sit in a storage lot outside of Hope, British Columbia, Canada, on June 6, 2021. 

(Photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)


JESSICA CORBETTMarch 9, 2022

Climate activists on Wednesday reiterated calls to cancel Canada's expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline after a new analysis found that a recent pledge to not put any public money into the project "is a promise that the government can't keep."

"The only solution is to cancel it."

"The only solution is to cancel it," tweeted Wilderness Committee campaigner Peter McCartney in response to new research by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Not long after an updated cost estimate for the Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) was unveiled last month, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that rather than relying on more public money, the government would "secure the funding necessary to complete the project with third-party financing, either in the public debt markets or with financial institutions."

The government—which controversially bought the embattled pipeline from Kinder Morgan in 2018—"does not intend to be the long-term owner" and plans to "launch a divestment process" after completing the long-delayed expansion, added Freeland, who is also the finance minister.


"Freeland's assertion that Canada will invest no more public money in TMX is grossly misleading to the public. Any new money poured into the pipeline will be backed by the Canadian taxpayer," said Tom Sanzillo, IEEFA's director of financial analysis, in a statement. "Private money cannot be raised without a government guarantee."

As the institute's report explains:

IEEFA's analysis finds that the government, which owns the project, would not be able to generate an adequate profit for investors because the tolls it would charge for the completed project's use cannot be raised high enough to support new debt on the pipeline plus operational costs. To do so would raise the cost of exporting oil through TMX to a price that would not be competitive in international oil markets. To compete, the government would have to maintain toll rates so low that it would be operating TMX at a loss for its investors.

To attract private money to complete the TMX project, IEEFA concludes, the Canadian government will have to protect investors by guaranteeing the debt. The investors will be protected. The taxpayers will not.

Between the $4.7 billion purchase price and the reported $12.6 billion construction costs, Canadian taxpayers have already funded $17.3 billion on the project. These funds will never be recovered, and guaranteeing another $8.8 billion to complete the project will simply be throwing good money after bad, for a total taxpayer loss of $26.1 billion.

"Kinder Morgan quit the project because it was a bad bet for investors," said Sanzillo. "On its own, this project is not profitable. No amount of fiscal gimmickry can hide the fact that Canadian taxpayers must stand behind another estimated $8.8 billion. Investors won't finance it without a guarantee."


Omar Mawji, IEEFA's energy finance analyst for Canada, emphasized that "we have carefully reviewed the Trans Mountain project's balance sheet."

"The project is unbankable," he said. "To make a go of it, TMX would need to hike shipping tolls by 100%, raising the price of Canadian oil way beyond the level it needs to compete in the global market. Without substantial governmental support, the pipeline is unsustainable."

The IEEFA analysis comes after Canada's financial watchdog warned last week that the government is "very unlikely" to recoup its investment.

As Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux put it to Canada's National Observer: "Now that we're talking about over $20 billion in construction costs, it is clearly non-profitable."

While warning about the financial impacts of killing TMX now, he said that "it will probably mean losses for Canadian taxpayers whenever the government decides to sell the pipeline to a private-sector entity."

Noting the Observer's report, Torrance Coste of Wilderness Committee tweeted last week that "trampling Indigenous rights and making the climate crisis worse wouldn't be worth it if we got hundreds of billions of dollars in return."

"The fact we might get nothing," he added, "just underscores what a tacky, shameful mistake this is."

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Thousands of Brazilians 'Stand for the Earth' Against Anti-Environment Bills

Legendary musician Caetano Veloso warned the proposed legislation "could facilitate deforestation and mining of Indigenous lands and unprotected the forest against land-grabbing and criminals."

An Indigenous Brazilian man holds a sign reading "Take mining out of the forest urgently" during the March 9, 2022 #AtoPelaTerra (Stand Up for Earth) protest in Brasília, Brazil. 

(Photo: Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images)

BRETT WILKINS

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022


Thousands of Brazilians, including environmental activists and some of the country's most well-known musicians, gathered in the capital Brasília Wednesday afternoon to protest a series of proposed laws that would facilitate mining and deforestation on Indigenous lands.

"We demand that bills that negatively affect the environment, climate, and human rights not be passed."

Rallying under the banner #AtoPelaTerra—Stand for the Earth—the demonstrators decried what they called the "destruction package" of five bills before the National Congress that, if passed, will make Brazil "one of the biggest climate pariahs in the world," according to protest organizers.

"They have the power and the ink of the pen, but we have the ink of urucum and jenipapo," Indigenous activist Célia Xakriabá told demonstrators, referring to fruits used to make traditional decorative dyes.

"We have our bodies and our soul," she continued, "because before the Brazil of the crown, there was Brazil of the headdress."


The bills before the country's Congress are backed by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro—a self-described "Captain Chainsaw" and climate skeptic—and, if passed, would allow mining on Indigenous lands, relax restrictions on the use of pesticides, and, according to opponents, greenlight illegal logging and land seizures.

"Democracy, human rights, the environment, and the health of the Brazilian population... have been under incessant attack since Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency of the republic," Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil Apoie (APIB), a national advocacy coalition, said in a statement. "Today, Brazil is a poorer, more violent, and more unequal country, whose government threatens the lives of its citizens and the country's socio-environmental heritage."

APIB continued:

All indicators show a tragic setback: deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, loss of sociobiodiversity, land-grabbing, degradation of protected areas, invasions of Indigenous and quilombola territories, food poisoning, violence, and criminalization against traditional and peasant populations, especially women and Blacks. The Amazon and other national biomes are being destroyed. All of this stems from the actions and speeches of Bolsonaro and his supporters. But this situation may not only get worse, but also become eternal, if the National Congress decides to definitively ally itself with the president in his crusade against the country and the planet.

"Each of these projects takes away from Brazilians a piece of their future," the statement added. "To reward a handful of criminals, they condemn ecosystems, rural settlements, Indigenous people, and quilombolas. They widen the chasm of inequality. They plunge our economy into backwardness and external disrepute and make Brazil a global climate risk. We demand that bills that negatively affect the environment, climate, and human rights not be passed."

Legendary musician Caetano Veloso, a co-founder of the Tropicalismo movement and longtime political activist, said during a hearing before the National Congress that "this series of bills could make the situation even more serious if approved. They could facilitate deforestation and mining of Indigenous lands and unprotected the forest against land-grabbing and criminals."

At the end of his speech, Veloso led attendees in a sing-along of his 1978 song "Terra."


Other renowned musicians including Daniela Mercury, Seu Jorge, and Duda Beat were present at the hearing and demonstration, where some of them addressed the crowd of protesters.

"We are here to ask for the brakes on these bills," said Mercury. "We want the forest standing... and we are here to say that civil society does not agree that these bills should go forward."

"We are here to ask for the brakes on these bills. We want the forest standing... and we are here to say that civil society does not agree that these bills should go forward."

Outside at the demonstration, Eliete Paraguassu, a shellfisher and activist and from the Afro-Brazilian community of Ilha de Maré in Salvador, Bahia, appealed to all Brazilians to stand up for the Earth.

"The environment is not only the duty of traditional communities to defend," she said, "but of the whole society."

Renato Roseno, a Socialism and Liberty Party state deputy from Ceará, said he was attending the protest because he is "against the destruction package, which will put more poison on the table of Brazilians, legalize land-grabbing on public lands, and authorize mining in Indigenous lands."

The protest comes two days after the publication of a study showing the resiliency of the Amazon rainforest has been declining over the past two decades amid climate-driven droughts and wildfires, and that the crucial ecosystem is heading toward a "tipping point" from which it might not be able to recover.

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After 2 Years, WHO Chief Says Pandemic Not 'Over Anywhere Until It's Over Everywhere'

Global campaigners plan events to mark the anniversary and "demand world leaders stand with people, not Big Pharma, and finally end this pandemic."


The husband of a Covid-19 patient prays at her bedside in the South Seven Intensive Care Unit on December 8, 2021 at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. 

(Photo: Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images)


ANDREA GERMANOS

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022


The head of the World Health Organization stressed Wednesday that the global Covid-19 pandemic is still "far from over" and lamented the ongoing and "major" barriers in getting vaccines and treatments "everywhere they are needed."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' remarks at a press briefing came just days before the two-year anniversary of the global health agency officially declaring the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

In the years since, the virus has killed over six million people worldwide—a death toll estimate that many experts agree in reality is far higher—as public health campaigners have continued to lambast vastly unequal access to lifesaving jabs and technology, including through coronavirus-related intellectual property protections.

While Covid-19 cases and deaths are waning, Tedros said that the pandemic "will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."

He noted for example that currently "many countries in Asia and the Pacific are facing surges of cases and deaths" and also expressed concern over some countries' drastic reduction in testing.

The WHO also announced new self-testing guidance, saying they should be offered alongside lab testing.

Such kits, The Associated Press reported, "have rarely been available in poor countries."

Tedros added that the health agency and its partners are working on procuring additional funding to rapidly get self-tests to those countries requesting them.

Campaigners with the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, meanwhile, are gearing up to mark Friday's anniversary with virtual and in-person events centered on the demand to the monopolies that large pharmaceutical companies have maintained over the ownership of patents and manufacturing of vaccines and other treatments.

"As we enter the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, billions of people worldwide still don't have access to Covid vaccines and treatments," organizers declare. "Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are recording profits of over $1 million per hour and world leaders refuse to stand up to them."

"Join us," they said, "to demand world leaders stand with people, not Big Pharma, and finally end this pandemic."
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Green Groups Cheer as EPA Restores California's Power to Curb Vehicle Emissions

One advocate said that "the Biden administration is taking a critical step to protect public health and combat the climate crisis."


Traffic flows slowly along a Los Angeles freeway on July 14, 2014. (Photo: Luke Jones/Flickr/cc)

BRETT WILKINS

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022

Green groups on Wednesday hailed the Biden administration's reinstatement of California's authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own greenhouse gas emission standards and implement a zero-emission vehicle sales mandate.

"Today's reinstatement of the waiver is an important milestone in the fight to preserve critical environmental regulations undone by the Trump administration."

The Trump administration's 2019 revocation of California's authority to set its own standards sparked outrage—and a lawsuit—in the Golden State, which since the 1960s received over 100 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers allowing it to enact and enforce more stringent emissions rules.

"Today we proudly reaffirm California's long-standing authority to lead in addressing pollution from cars and trucks," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement. "Our partnership with states to confront the climate crisis has never been more important. With today's action, we reinstate an approach that for years has helped advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the U.S. as a whole."

Abigail Dillen, president of the advocacy group Earthjustice, said that "by restoring California's authority to set stronger clean car standards, the Biden administration is taking a critical step to protect public health and combat the climate crisis."


The EPA also withdrew the SAFE-1 interpretation of the Clean Air Act, which barred other states from adopting the California greenhouse gas emission standards. States may now choose to adopt and enforce California's nation-leading standards instead of federal rules. According to Politico, 16 states plus the District of Columbia follow California's standards.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, thanked the Biden administration "for righting the reckless wrongs of the Trump administration and recognizing our decades-old authority to protect Californians and our planet."

"The restoration of our state's Clean Air Act waiver is a major victory for the environment, our economy, and the health of families across the country that comes at a pivotal moment underscoring the need to end our reliance on fossil fuels," he added. "California looks forward to partnering with the Biden administration to make a zero-emission future a reality for all Americans."

Michelle Robinson, director of the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement that "today is an important day for the future of transportation policy. EPA did the right thing by reinstating the waiver, without which California was prevented from enforcing higher greenhouse gas emissions standards and effectively promoting zero-emissions vehicles."

"The previous administration's agency action relied on a deeply flawed understanding of the law and thwarted the ability of states to take important steps toward limiting carbon emissions," she added. "Today's reinstatement of the waiver is an important milestone in the fight to preserve critical environmental regulations undone by the Trump administration."


Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz said that "reinstating California's Clean Air Act waiver to adopt standards stronger than federal standards for new cars and light-duty trucks is vital to California and has a positive ripple effect on states across the country, driving forward climate progress and delivering cleaner air for millions of Americans."

"We are grateful to the Biden administration for restoring this strong policy that will slash transportation emissions, the nation's largest source of climate-disrupting pollution and a significant source of air pollution," he added.

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Redlining's Legacy Endures as 45 Million Americans Breathe Polluted Air: Study

"Racism from the 1930s, and racist actions by people who are no longer alive, are still influencing inequality in air pollution exposure today," the study's lead author noted.


Redlining in St. James Parish, Louisiana has exposed the predominantly Black residents of so-called "Cancer Alley"—an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans containing over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries—to environmental hazards that have made them sick. 

(Photo: Story Center/YouTube)



BRETT WILKINS

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022


More than half a century after the official end of discriminatory redlining, 45 million people across the United States—overwhelmingly in communities of color—are exposed to elevated levels of illness-inducing air pollution, a study published Wednesday affirmed.

"This groundbreaking study builds on the solid empirical evidence that systemic racism is killing and making people of color sick."

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington and published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters found that Black and Latino people living in formerly redlined zones breathe more polluted air than whites who live in nonredlined areas. Breathing smog and particulate matter emitted by motor vehicles, coal plants, and industrial facilities causes wide-ranging health problems from strokes and heart damage to respiratory illnesses including asthma.

"The consistency we found shows us how many of the pollution problems we have today are tied to patterns that were present in cities more than 80 years ago," Haley Lane, a graduate student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at U.C. Berkeley and the study's lead author, told The Washington Post.

Julian Marshall, a U.W. professor of civil and environmental engineering and study co-author, said that "racism from the 1930s, and racist actions by people who are no longer alive, are still influencing inequality in air pollution exposure today."

"Redlining" describes the federally sanctioned discriminatory mortgage evaluation practice in which the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) drew maps of neighborhoods in U.S. cities that ranked their desirability for mortgage lending. Loans were denied to people—predominantly people of color and immigrants—residing in neighborhoods deemed "hazardous" for investment. As a result, most Black and Brown Americans were effectively barred from federal mortgages; between 1945 and 1959, less than 2% of federally insured home loans were issued to Black families.

Although redlining officially ended following passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, studies have shown the policy persists in practice in scores of metropolitan areas across the nation. Additionally, communities that were redlined remain predominantly minority and low-income today. A 2015 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that in Baltimore, race–and not economic status—was the most important factor in mortgage lending. Formerly redlined communities also face greater climate-related risks.

As the new study's researchers have shown, environmental pollution and attendant health problems are some of the most persistent harms of redlining. In neighborhoods the HOLC deemed the most unworthy of mortgages—areas with "infiltration of foreign-born, Negro, or lower grade population"—nitrogen dioxide levels were higher than the citywide average in 80% of the 202 cities analyzed. In contrast, NO2 levels were lower than average in 84% of the cities in the study. Nitrogen dioxide forms smog and other toxic particulate matter that can damage the human respiratory system.

"We've known about redlining and its other unequal impacts, but air pollution is one of the most important environmental health issues in the U.S.," Joshua Apte, an assistant professor at U.C. Berkeley's School of Public Health and a co-author of the study, told the Post. "If you just look at the number of people that get killed by air pollution, it's arguably the most important environmental health issue in the country."

"We've known about redlining and its other unequal impacts, but air pollution is one of the most important environmental health issues in the U.S."

Study co-author and U.C. Berkeley professor of public health and environmental science Rachel Morello-Frosch said the new research goes "a long way toward highlighting the lasting consequences of structural racism on community health."

"These results can point the way toward targeted approaches for regulating emission sources and reducing exposures, as well as longer-term strategies to address discriminatory land-use decision-making that adversely impacts communities of color," she added.

Commenting on the new research, author, professor, and White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council member Robert D. Bullard told the Post that it "makes clear the elevated air pollution disparities we see today between Black Americans and white Americans have their roots in systemic racism endorsed, practiced, and legitimated by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation some eight decades ago."

"This groundbreaking study builds on the solid empirical evidence that systemic racism is killing and making people of color sick," he added, "it's just that simple."
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Uniqlo owner slammed for decision to stay in Russia as #BoycottUNIQLO movement gains steam

BY KANOKO MATSUYAMA AND BLOOMBERG

March 9, 2022 

Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co. faces mounting pressure over its plans to keep operating stores in Russia, even as other global retailers including fast-fashion rivals Hennes & Mauritz AB and Zara’s Inditex SA pause sales in the country over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tadashi Yanai, chief executive officer of Asia’s largest retailer, said in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper earlier this week that clothing was a necessity and that “the people of Russia have the same right to live as we do.” While firms including Apple Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. pull back from Russia, Fast Retailing said last week it is donating clothes and other items to Ukrainians who’ve fled and $10 million to the UN’s refugee agency.

The comments have drawn criticism, with some social media users pushing the hashtag #BoycottUNIQLO. Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, also criticized the retailer on Twitter. In an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday, Korsunsky said “the more companies that withdraw from Russia, the better.”

“Cutting business from Russia is not a loss, it’s an investment,” Korsunsky said. “If you prove some sacrifice of profit for a period of time, you encourage Russia to become a normal member of nations and you’ll get much more profit in the future.”

Fast Retailing, which found global success with its affordable and fashionable Uniqlo clothing, entered the Russian market in 2010. The Tokyo-based retailer operated 50 stores in the country as of Feb. 28, its largest number of outlets outside of Asia, according to its website. The company set up a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corp. in 2017 to further expand in the Russian market.

A spokeswoman at Fast Retailing declined to comment on the ambassador’s remarks, and confirmed that there’s currently no change to their operations in Russia.

While there’s been a rush of U.S. and European companies boycotting sales and operations in Russia, that hasn’t been matched by corporations in Japan and other parts of Asia. For Yanai, Russia’s war against Ukraine comes at a time when he’s seeking to expand Fast Retailing’s presence in Europe and reduce the company’s dependence on Japan, where the population is getting older.

Inditex announced on Saturday the temporary closing of all of its 502 stores in the country, of which 86 are its Zara brand. The company said it “cannot guarantee the continuity of operations and trading conditions.” Swedish clothing retailer H&M also paused sales in Russia, where it operates 155 stores.

Fast Retailing could face growing calls to not only pull out of Russia, but other markets, according to Oshadhi Kumarasiri, an analyst at LightStream Research. He warned in a research note this week that fallout could be seen in North America and Europe, which bolstered Fast Retailing’s business during the latest quarter.

Along with the exodus by companies, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn international condemnation and triggered trade restrictions and financial penalties against Moscow, leading to a dramatic reversal of three decades of Western investment following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After days of criticism on social media, more companies with larger or more entrenched operations in Russia are starting to exit as the death toll rises in Ukraine and millions of refugees flee. McDonald’s, Coca-Cola Co. and Starbucks Corp. are the latest to join mainly American and European global businesses by temporarily halting operations in Russia amid an intensifying backlash since the invasion started almost two weeks ago.

The Japanese government has followed the line of the U.S. and much of Europe in imposing a raft of sanctions, including freezing the assets of a number of Russian officials and oligarchs, as well as those of financial institutions including Russia’s central bank.

Yet so far, Japanese businesses have been more muted. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. said they’re halting vehicle shipments to Russia, mostly citing logistical difficulties, while a business lobby warned trading giants Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. not to rush into exiting from a Russian oil and gas project.

Yanai has a track record of questioning whether companies should be pressured into making political choices.

In April last year, Fast Retailing’s billionaire founder chose not to comment on the issue of sourcing cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, a month before it was revealed the U.S. had earlier blocked a shipment of Uniqlo shirts on concerns about forced labor. Yanai said it was a political issue and that the company was diligent about monitoring its factories to ensure that human rights aren’t violated.

Fast Retailing says it will continue working with the UNHCR. In its statement from Friday, the retailer said that “Ukraine and many neighboring countries experience harsh winters, often with below-freezing temperatures” and that its donations include Uniqlo’s Heattech blankets and innerwear, as well as face masks.

“This seems like a move to please both sides,” Kumarasiri said, adding that the impact on the company’s share price could be significant there’s a wider boycott. Fast Retailing’s stock, which hit a record in February 2021, has lost almost half its value since then.

Coalition Calls on US to Swiftly Ratify Global Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs

The ongoing refusal to join the international agreement, says the Cluster Munitions Coalition, "weakens the impact of United States' criticism about Russia's use of these weapons."


Local resident stands in front of the rubble as a result of Russian shelling on March 5, 2022 in Markhalivka, Ukraine. (Photo: Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022


A coalition of humanitarian groups on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to immediately take steps to make the U.S. a party to the international treaty banning cluster munitions as Russian forces face condemnation for using the devastating and indiscriminate explosives in their assault on Ukraine.

"The U.S., like both Russia and Ukraine, refuses to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions."

While the Biden administration has criticized Russia's use of cluster bombs in Ukraine, the U.S. has joined Russia and a handful of other powerful countries in refusing to sign the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use or stockpiling of the weapons. Long deplored by human rights advocates, cluster bombs can release hundreds of submunitions that maim and kill civilians.

In a new statement, the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and the U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition forcefully denounced Russia for dropping the deadly weapons on Ukraine—as documented last week by Human Rights Watch—but argued that "the failure of the United States to join the international agreement banning cluster munitions weakens the impact of United States' criticism about Russia's use of these weapons."

"Therefore," the groups said, "[we] call upon the Biden administration to rapidly submit the Convention on Cluster Munitions to the United States Senate for advice and consent to accede to the treaty. The time for the United States government to act is now."

The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill argued in a column earlier this week that while the U.S. claim that Russia's use of cluster munitions constitutes a violation of international law is "indisputably true," a fact that "goes virtually unmentioned in much of the reporting on this topic is that the U.S., like both Russia and Ukraine, refuses to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions."

Scahill continued:

The U.S. has repeatedly used cluster bombs, going back to the war in Vietnam and the "secret" bombings of Cambodia. In the modern era, both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used them. President Barack Obama used cluster bombs in a 2009 attack in Yemen that killed some 55 people, the majority of them women and children. Despite the ban, which was finalized in 2008 and went into effect in 2010, the U.S. continued to sell cluster bombs to nations like Saudi Arabia, which regularly used them in its attacks in Yemen.

In 2017, President Donald Trump reversed an internal U.S. policy aimed at limiting the use of certain types of cluster munitions, a move which a Human Rights Watch expert warned "could embolden others to use cluster munitions that have caused so much human suffering."

"None of this exonerates Russia for its unconscionable use of cluster bombs against civilians," Scahill stressed, "but these facts are clearly relevant when assessing the credibility of the U.S."

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Groups Urge Biden to Invoke Defense Production Act to Counter Putin, Accelerate Green Transition

"A renewable energy future," the groups wrote, "is a peaceful and ultimately more prosperous one."

An employee with Ipsun Solar installs solar panels on the roof of the Peace Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia on May 17, 2021. 

(Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

ANDREA GERMANOS

COMMON DREAMS

March 9, 2022

A coalition of over 200 groups on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to leverage his authority under the Defense Production Act to simultaneously "produce alternatives to fossil fuels, fight the climate emergency, combat Putin's stranglehold on the world's energy economy, and support the transition to a renewable and just economy."

"With one fell swoop, you would reduce energy costs and move the world away from fossil fuel markets that are all too easily manipulated by bad actors."

The demand was delivered in a letter to Biden—signed by groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Global Witness, and Stand.earth—and follows the administration's move Tuesday to ban U.S. imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to Russia's ongoing military attack on Ukraine.

The groups thank Biden for that immediate ban and say it must be followed not by "short-sighted policies" like ramping up domestic drilling, as the U.S. fossil fuel lobby and industry supporters like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have called for, because that would worsen the climate emergency and "deepen our dependence on fuels that lead to global instability."

"Oil and gas constitute 40% of Russia's national revenue, meaning Russian exports of oil and gas are literally funding this invasion," the letter states.

Ramping up fossil fuel extraction and use would also worsen the climate crisis, the groups note, referencing the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released last week showing that "natural and human systems" are being driven "beyond their ability to adapt."

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What is needed instead, the letter states, is a massive surge in the deployment of renewable energy.

Biden can lead that effort by utilizing the Defense Production Act (DPA), with specific actions on three fronts, all of which should center communities most impacted by the current fossil fueled-based system. The letter calls on the president to:

Rapidly scale up production, manufacturing, and deployment of renewable energy technologies, heat pumps, storage, and weatherization technologies here and abroad. These green technologies can be exported to Ukraine, the rest of Europe, and the Global South to help wean them off of their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. And they should be simultaneously deployed across the United States to jumpstart the renewable energy revolution and prioritize construction in climate-vulnerable communities. With one fell swoop, you would reduce energy costs and move the world away from fossil fuel markets that are all too easily manipulated by bad actors.
Create millions of long-term, high-paying domestic jobs and position the U.S. to be a global leader in showcasing the economic benefits of the just and renewable energy transition. Investments by the federal government can create high-quality, family-supporting jobs; and build worker power by including high-road labor standards.
Accelerate the transition to zero-emission public transportation, alternatives to car based transportation and related infrastructure domestically, and deploy it nationwide, prioritizing communities who are most vulnerable to the climate emergency. These steps will reduce the burden of higher gas prices at the pump for U.S. residents.

"A renewable energy future," the groups wrote, "is a peaceful and ultimately more prosperous one."

Climate advocates have previously linked Russia's military attack on Ukraine with reliance on fossil fuels.

American author and climate activist Bill McKibben, for example, wrote last month in his newsletter The Crucial Years that "it is a war underwritten by oil and gas" and urged Biden to invoke the DPA to produce "electric heat pumps in quantity, so we can ship them to Europe where they can be installed in time to dramatically lessen Putin's power. "

Fridays for Future youth activists also took to the streets of cities across the globe last week to #StandWithUkraine and heed a call from the Ukrainian arm of the global climate movement.

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In a series of tweets last Thursday, the day of the demonstrations, the global group called this "an eye-opening moment for humanity to see that the world is aflame with new and old wars caused by fossil fuels."

"We want to call out the era of fossil fuel, capitalism, and imperialism that allows these systemic oppressions," they said. "We demand a world where leaders prioritize #PeopleNotProfit."

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Flames fans relentlessly boo Alex Ovechkin on historic night

Thomas Williams

·Writer

Wed., March 9, 2022, 

Alex Ovechkin hit a substantial milestone on Tuesday night, but it was slightly dwarfed by some fans in Calgary.

Ovechkin tied hockey great Jaromir Jagr for third on the NHL's all-time goals list but the Russian Washington Capitals star was treated to a parade of boos and jeers from Flames fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The taunting continued throughout the game, and especially whenever his name was mentioned by the PA announcer.

While it is normal to heckle an opposing player, this is steeped in the fact that Ovechkin has faced some heat amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine for his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Ovechkin has been called out by the hockey world, including by goaltending legend Dominik Hasek, who referred to the 36-year-old as a “chicken sh–” when Ovechkin took an on-the-fence stance on the attack.

Prior to the game against the Flames, the Capitals released a statement about the situation overseas.

In addition to condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine and expressing hope for a peaceful resolution, the Capitals added their support for Russians in their organization.

“The Capitals also stand in full support of our Russian players and their families overseas,” the statement read. “We realize they are being put in a difficult situation and stand by to offer our assistance to them and their families.”

Flames fans were booing Alex Ovechkin all night on Tuesday. (Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports)

In Calgary, the Flames projected a massive Ukrainian flag on their ice during a game against the Montreal Canadiens last week, while the Ukrainian national anthem was performed prior to Monday's Battle of Alberta.

Ovechkin scored twice on Tuesday as his Capitals came back from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 5-4 win over the Flames. With 36 goals this season, Ovechkin now sits with 766 in his career, just 35 behind Gordie Howe for second place all-time.

Washington plays in Alberta again on Wednesday, giving Edmonton Oilers fans a chance to join in on the boos.