LABOUR'S LOVE LOST

Gen Z does not dream of labor

On TikTok and online, the youngest workers are rejecting work as we know it. How will that play out IRL?

By Terry Nguyen  Updated Apr 22, 2022, 

Illustration by Bea Hayward for Vox

Bea Hayward for Vox

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“I don’t have goals. I don’t have ambition. I only want to be attractive.” This apathetic declaration is the start of a TikTok rant that went viral for its blatant message: to reject hard work and indulge in leisure. Thousands of young people have since remixed the sound on the app, providing commentary about their post-college plans, dream jobs, or ideal lifestyles as stay-at-home spouses.

Over the past two years, young millennials and members of Gen Z have created an abundance of memes and pithy commentary about their generational disillusionment toward work. The jokes, which correspond with the rise of anti-work ideology online, range from shallow and shameless (“Rich housewife is the goal”) to candid and pessimistic.

“I don’t want to be a girlboss. I don’t want to hustle,” declaimed another TikTok user. “I simply want to live my life slowly and lay down in a bed of moss with my lover and enjoy the rest of my existence reading books, creating art, and loving myself and the people in my life.”

Many have taken to declaring how they don’t have dream jobs since they “don’t dream of labor.” This buzzy phrase, popularized on social media in the pandemic, rejects work as a basis for identity, framing it instead as an act to pursue out of financial necessity. To quote the billionaire Kim Kardashian, it does seem like nobody wants to work these days. Nobody wants to work in jobs where they are underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked — especially not young people.

The reality is much more complicated. American workers across various ages, industries, and income brackets have experienced heightened levels of fatigue, burnout, and general dissatisfaction toward their jobs since the pandemic’s start. The difference is, more young people are airing these indignations and jaded attitudes on the internet, often to viral acclaim.

Today’s young people are not the first to experience economic hardship, but they are the first to broadcast their struggles in ways that, just a decade ago, might alienate potential employers or be deemed too radical. Such attitudes might abate with age, but the Great Resignation has inspired a generation of workers to speak critically — and cynically — about the role of labor in their lives. As a result, zoomers (and millennials, to an extent) have been touted, perhaps undeservedly, as beacons of anti-capitalism and pivotal figures in the nationwide quitting spree.

Activists are hopeful that the current pro-worker momentum can be harnessed into legislative or union-based gains. Still, it’s too early to tell whether this brazen anti-work ethos can effectively support and fuel labor organizing. America’s youngest workers, who have a lifetime’s worth of labor ahead of them, are not afraid to publicly quit their jobs or put employers on blast. But will these virtual acts of employee resistance culminate in lasting systemic change?

BusinessBusiness Insider recently cited data claiming that emboldened Gen Z workers were more “likely to change jobs more often than any other generation,” and a recent Bloomberg poll found that millennials, followed by zoomers, are the most likely to leave their current position for a higher salary.

Generational stereotypes and categorizations, for better or for worse, have pervaded our perception of American work culture and the workplace. These age-based categorizations are usually reductive, and exclude key factors like education level, social class, race, and gender in their analyses. Still, they do offer a revealing read into the ambitions and aspirations of the country’s youngest workers, regardless of whether they’re actively leaving their jobs.

While it’s certainly easy to group workers by age, more emphasis should be placed on when people enter the workforce, the coinciding state of the economy, and the various safety net programs in place, said Sarah Damaske, an associate professor of sociology and labor and employment relations at Penn State University.

“It’s not necessarily that different generations hold different attitudes about work,” Damaske argued. “For millennials and for some members of Gen Z, they’ve witnessed two recessions, back-to-back. This is a very different labor market experience than what their parents and grandparents encountered.”

Many zoomers entered the workforce during the pandemic-affected economy, amid years of stagnant wages and, more recently, rising inflation. “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make.”

MANY ZOOMERS ENTERED THE WORKFORCE DURING THE PANDEMIC-AFFECTED ECONOMY. NATURALLY, THIS HAS MAJOR CONSEQUENCES FOR SOCIAL ATTITUDES ABOUT WORK.

Naturally, this has major consequences for social attitudes about work — and the viability of performing labor in times of crisis. What sets zoomers apart, according to common narratives, is their determination to be fulfilled and defined by other aspects of life. They expect employers to recognize that and promote policies and benefits that encourage work-life balance.

For decades, if not centuries, this was not the case. Work has been — and continues to be — a major aspect of the American identity. “Most people identify themselves as workers,” said Damaske. “It’s an identity that adults willingly take on.”

The pandemic changed that for everyone, not just the youngest workers. In addition to reassessing their relationship to work, people are reflecting upon their greater life purpose. One human resources manager called it the “Great Reflection,” wherein people are “taking stock of what they want out of a job, what they want out of employment, and what they want out of their life.” More often than not, workers are not content with labor that is unsatisfying, low-paying, and potentially harmful. And Gen Z has not been shy about detailing these expectations to employers and on social media.

“I think people are realizing that we just want better for ourselves,” said Jade Carson, 22, a content creator who shares career advice for Gen Z. “I want to be in a role where I can grow professionally and personally. I don’t want to be stressed, depressed, or always waiting to clock out.”

On TikTok, Carson has shared tips on negotiating salary, potential employer red flags to be wary of, and her workplace non-negotiables. Her goal is to help job applicants realize that they should not be afraid to ask for what they deserve, even if most of her audience is currently at the bottom of the career ladder. “Even with internships, I only promote paid opportunities,” Carson said. “There’s so much valuable free knowledge out there. More people are realizing that they can make career moves or requests they otherwise didn’t think they could.”

In some cases, workers are quitting without anything lined up. It’s a common rallying cry on #QuitTok, where users endorse and applaud those who’ve left demoralizing jobs.

“I’m here to tell you that you also have permission to quit a job that makes you miserable,” said one 28-year-old TikToker, who recently left teaching.

This was the case for Nikki Phillips, 27, who resigned from her role in warehousing and fulfillment services in October, after months of dealing with “a toxic work environment.” Though some of her work can be done remotely, Phillips was required to be in the office full time, and eventually she contracted Covid-19 (she was fully vaccinated). The final straw, she said, was when her boss made her feel guilty for being out sick. “Life is about so much more than working yourself to death,” Phillips said. “I don’t want to keep working 40 hours a week, coming home only to have four hours a night to spend with my kids and boyfriend, and do it all again the next day.”

Phillips, a self-described “struggling zillennial,” is a single mother of two who dropped out of community college to start working in her early 20s. She didn’t expect to leave her old job with nothing lined up, but the experience took “such a drastic toll on [her] happiness” that she felt better walking away: “My mental health and my happiness matters more than my salary, but at the same time, I can’t afford to not have a job because I’ve got bills to pay and two kids to support.” And it empowered her to know that so many workers seemed to be doing the same.

Phillips’s predicament is reflective of most working-class employees, according to Damaske, who don’t have the financial means to stop working for a protracted period of time. As a job seeker without a college degree, Phillips said she struggles to be considered for well-paying opportunities, even in roles she has experience in. Still, she’d rather take a lesser-paying job that allows her to work from home with respectful managers over a well-paid position with little flexibility and a poor work culture. “I want to work with people who understand that I’m a human being and don’t expect me to be a corporate slave,” Phillips said.

While younger workers have developed a reputation for “job hopping,” Damaske believes employers are also to blame. “We really have seen an erosion in the employer-employee contract over the last 40 years,” she said. “Why are young people being asked to make commitments to employers who no longer uphold their end of the bargain? Young workers don’t get to work for a company until they retire. Those kinds of practices don’t happen anymore.”

Employers have grown increasingly comfortable laying off employees as a cost-cutting measure, while simultaneously relying more on temporary workers and contractors. Many culled their ranks during the pandemic, so remaining employees often have to take on more job responsibilities and hours. That hadn’t always been the case, according to Damaske. This varies by company, but junior workers are often the easiest to let go. (Research has also found that ethnic minorities and older employees are at higher risk of layoffs, compared to younger, white workers.)

Regardless, many young employees, especially those who’ve entered the workforce during the past two recessions, have internalized this job insecurity and might be more eager to jump ship if a better offer arises. According to a 2019 Harris poll, workers under 35 expressed more “layoff anxiety” than their older counterparts. Many, as a result, don’t develop a work identity that is tied to their employer or their current field of work. In fact, more Americans than ever are looking to start their own businesses, and low-paying workers are trying to pivot to higher-paying industries.

“A lot of young people are looking out for themselves, whether that means building a personal brand or finding a job that works best for their lifestyle,” said Carson. “There are so many online resources on social media, even LinkedIn, with people providing so much free career knowledge, like offering to look over resumés and even providing personal referrals.”

Carson doesn’t think that most zoomers are actually anti-work, at least from a political perspective. In fact, she said, she thinks it’s the opposite: She has noticed more young people publicly committing to quit an undesirable job so that they can devote more time to learning new skills, in the hopes of entering a field like tech, which boasts high salaries and good benefits. Many have also left behind corporate roles to work as full-time content creators or freelancers.

“I see a lot of content about people leaving their retail job to try and break into tech,” Carson said. “They’re quitting their job so they can prepare to find a better job.”

WhatWhat comes after #QuitTok, though, is mostly still work. There is work in figuring out how to pay next month’s rent and qualify for health insurance. Some users make retrospective videos, detailing how their lives have changed since quitting a toxic or unsatisfying job. Others document their attempts to switch into an ideal role or industry, which can veer into hustle culture. Instead of emphasizing leisure and personal fulfillment outside of work, these videos lean into a different kind of work identity. The #breakintotech TikTok trend, for example, has been criticized for romanticizing the benefits of a tech job without diving into its realities: long hours, heavy workload, and how developing certain skills, qualifications, and connections can’t be done overnight.

 

WHAT COMES AFTER #QUITTOK, THOUGH, IS MOSTLY STILL WORK

“There are more people who are not laboring in a traditional sense, but the way I see it, they’re still working for their dollar,” Phillips said of content creators and independent entrepreneurs. “My dream job is to be a pastry chef. Still, the average pay for a cake decorator is $16 an hour, and I’d rather baking be a hobby that brings me joy.”

Most of us won’t ever stop working, although it is healthy to detach from an employer-oriented identity. “What people miss is that the dream isn’t labor,” argued F.D. Signifier in a YouTube video critiquing the buzzy, anti-capitalist phrase. “It’s the idea that [people’s] work and effort will create new opportunities for them, their families, and their children … If I don’t labor, how will my children eat?”

Young people understand that they have to labor for their livelihoods, but many, like Phillips and Dakota, believe the existing system has set them up to fail. Bleak economic circumstances — exacerbated by crushing student loan debt, growing wealth inequality, and wage stagnation — have soured their perceptions of capitalism. As a result, the generation has adopted more anti-capitalist language to express these discontents.

There is a dissonance, however, between these aggrieved attitudes and the political action necessary to implement change.

The country’s youngest workers might be the most zealously vocal online about how labor can be soul-crushingly exploitative and mentally taxing, but they are, after all, only newcomers to the workforce. They might have greater sway in some corporate environments by being upfront about health benefits and remote work flexibility, but these individualized wins have yet to fully diffuse across the workforce — to affect change offline.

American workers currently have significant leverage to demand better conditions and benefits. Employers might still hold a lot of power, but swaths of employees are organizing through unions to better the terms and conditions of their employment. Across the country, workers at Amazon, Chipotle, McDonald’s, and Starbucks have petitioned to unionize.

Zoomers are a part of this pro-labor wave, but so far, the age cohort’s official participation appears modest. Workers between the ages of 16 and 24 have the lowest union membership rate, according to a 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. It’s likely that fewer young people are being hired into unionized roles, given how union membership has significantly declined since the 1980s.

“Most people my age don’t have a clear idea of what a union is and don’t often ask about it when we’re hired,” said Dakota, the 21-year-old Asheville receptionist.

Many believe the internet is a useful tool in shifting public opinion, and digital spaces are where young people are first introduced to more progressive ideas. The nonprofit Gen-Z For Change, for example, has over 500 young creators consistently producing progressive content, some of which have highlighted the various unionization efforts across the country. The organization relies on grassroots tactics to draw attention to causes through public-facing creators, who each have their own independent base of followers. Most aren’t afraid to engage with comments (and critics) directly, and their videos often highlight digital organizing strategies that viewers can participate in. For example, members of Gen-Z For Change created a website and tool that can send fake job applications to union-busting Starbucks locations.

Some creators have claimed that explicitly political or pro-labor TikToks are often placed under review, which means they’re likely to receive less traction than more apolitical QuitToks. Still, this content is often a scroll or a click away, and digital organizers are hopeful that social media can be harnessed to affect real change.

Dakota felt like she was initially misinformed about why people didn’t want to work, until she spent more time reading up on labor unions and worker testimonies. “It’s not about people not working,” she said. “It’s about not settling for a job that diminishes their quality of life. I’m lucky to have realized that early on.”

Terry Nguyen is a reporter for Vox covering consumer and internet trends, and technology that influences people’s online lives.

Malawi solar mini-grid shows promise as way of electrifying rural Africa

BY REUTERS -22 April 2022 - 11:37

In Malawi, more than three quarters of the country's roughly 20 million population does not have access to electricity — a higher proportion than the continental average of roughly half.
Image: 123RF/PETKOV

A solar mini-grid in rural Malawi is powering maize mills, a sunflower oil facility and will help a welder in a nearby village expand his business, showing that centralised grid systems are not Africa's only route towards low-carbon power.

Development experts say village-level solar power is a more promising way of bringing electricity to Africa's remotest areas than conventional grids, which often do not reach them, tend to prioritise more privileged neighbourhoods and are often powered by polluting fossil-fuel generation.

“I see myself prospering with this electricity project,” welder Bartholomew Soko told Reuters TV in the village of Ndawambe. He plans to start making door frames, television stands and drying racks for plates, as well as the bicycles he already repairs.

“If electricity is extended to other rural areas, it would help people with disabilities be self-reliant,” Soko, who was injured in a car accident and uses a wheelchair, added.

In Malawi, more than three quarters of the country's roughly 20 million population does not have access to electricity — a higher proportion than the continental average of roughly half.

The cost of solar power has fallen by more than three quarters globally over the past decade.

The Sitolo project connects more than 700 people across three villages, and local farmers no longer have to trek long distances to get their maize milled or sunflower seeds pressed.

Brenda Limbikani, a sunflower farmer, said local people never used to grow sunflowers. “But with this oil-pressing machine, more people have planted the crop,” she said. “This year the number of farmers growing sunflowers is more than ever.”

Weekend Read: New Book Examines The Narratives and Myths Behind Decades-Long US and Iranian Enmity

APRIL 22, 2022

by The Archive

By Claire Harvey

Nuclear negotiations between the United States, world partners, and Iran are stalled, and the question of how to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran remains as important today as it was decades ago. A new book, “Republics of Myth: National Narratives and US-Iran Conflict” by Malcolm Byrne (National Security Archive), Hussein Banai (Hamilton Lugar School, Indiana University), and John Tirman (Center of International Studies, MIT), explores this question and the role that national narratives, alongside concrete grievances and opposing interests, have had in the complex US-Iran relationship. The Archive posted “Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US- Iran Conflict” on April 14, 2022, to celebrate the new book. The posting features the book’s introduction and a selection of key declassified documents related to US and Iranian national perceptions. 

The April 14 posting introduces readers to the dominant narratives that Byrne, Banai, and Tirman identify across decades of Iranian and US relations and relevant archival documents. The posting includes the book’s full introduction, which sets up the often under-recognized personal component to bilateral diplomacy, and the remarkable challenge that “sharply different understandings of geostrategic reality” posed to negotiations leading up to the 2015 nuclear deal. These “different understandings of geostrategic reality”, the book argues, are partially informed and reinforced by each country’s deeply ingrained national narrative. The posting includes a selection of documents that illustrate the dominant narratives shaping American and Iranian relations, respectively. One such example is a declassified January 12, 1944, memorandum from President Franklin Roosevelt to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, wherein Roosevelt expresses excitement at employing an “unselfish American policy” to transform Iran, “definitely a very, very backward nation”; this is a rationale that Byrne recognizes as an important blueprint for US policy in developing countries following World War II. Another example is an April 1, 1979, address to the nation by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, wherein Khomeini depicts Iranian history as the victim of foriegn interference and states that Iran is “neither East nor West ”. The posting also includes documents reflective of each country’s narrative leading up to President Trump’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018.

The book’s focus on Iranian and American narratives is a novel perspective on a historically complex relationship, distinct from traditional international relations theory. Malcolm Byrne, Deputy Director and Director of Research at the National Security Archive and co-author of the book alongside Banai and Tirman, stated: “This is not a book about international relations theory. It’s the result of our assessment of a lot of documentary and testimonial evidence that we’ve gathered over several years in an attempt to help explain how leaders of these two governments have not only persistently seen each other as adversaries but have been unable to get over that obstacle even when it’s blocked them from reaching agreements and outcomes each side wants.” Byrne continued that what the authors have focused on in this case “are the narratives both nations have developed about themselves over time – plus the narrative that has grown up around their bilateral relationship. Narratives (which we describe in the Introduction and Chapter 1) are separate from events, interests, and ideas – the concepts international relations theorists study – but they often act in tandem with those factors, as in the U.S.-Iran case, to help drive each government’s policy making toward the other.” The book’s examination of narratives gives a further depth of understanding to past and present US and Iranian enmity.

The book is the result of an ongoing multinational archival research project on the US-Iran relationship, including “critical oral history” conferences involving past policymakers and government experts from the US, Iran, and Europe, and individual expert interviews. Further material is available on the Archive US-Iran Project page, including postings on the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis Recalled, Documenting Iran-U.S. Relations, 1978-2015, and a media library of videos from key interviews and historical moments. 

Interested readers can also explore archival documents through the subscription service Digital National Security Archive, which includes collections on U.S Policy toward Iran, From the Revolution to the Nuclear Accord, 1978-2015, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977-1980, and The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983-1988.

Till relatives seek accuser's prosecution in 1955 kidnapping

In this Sept. 22. 1955 photo, Carolyn Bryant rests her head on her husband Roy Bryant's shoulder after she testified in Emmett Till murder court case in Sumner, Miss. Stymied in their calls for a renewed investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, relatives and activists are advocating another possible path toward accountability in Mississippi: They want authorities to launch a kidnapping prosecution against the woman who set off the lynching by accusing the Chicago teen of improper advances in 1955. 

(AP Photo, File) | Photo: AP


By JAY REEVES
Updated: April 22, 2022 

Stymied in their calls for a renewed investigation into the killing of Emmett Till, relatives and activists are advocating another possible path toward accountability in Mississippi: They want authorities to launch a kidnapping prosecution against the woman who set off the lynching by accusing the Black Chicago teen of improper advances in 1955.

Carolyn Bryant Donham was named nearly 67 years ago in a warrant that accused her in Till's abduction, even before his mangled body was found in a river, FBI records show, yet she was never arrested or brought to trial in a case that shocked the world for its brutality.

Authorities at the time said the woman had two young children and they did not want to bother her. Donham's then-husband and another man were acquitted of murder.

Make no mistake: Relatives of Till still prefer a murder prosecution. But there is no evidence the kidnapping warrant was ever dismissed, so it could be used to arrest Donham and finally get her before a criminal court, said Jaribu Hill, an attorney working with the Till family.

"This warrant is a stepping stone toward that," she said. "Because warrants do not expire, we want to see that warrant served on her."

There are plenty of roadblocks. Witnesses have died in the decades since Till was lynched, and it's unclear what happened to evidence collected by investigators. Even the location of the original warrant is a mystery. It could be in boxes of old courthouse records in Leflore County, Mississippi, where the abduction occurred.

A relative of Till said it's long past time for someone to arrest Donham in Till's kidnapping, if not for the slaying itself.

"Mississippi is not the Mississippi of 1955, but it seems to still carry some of that era of protecting the white woman," said Deborah Watts, a distant cousin of Till who runs the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation.

Now in her late 80s and most recently living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Donham has not commented publicly on calls for her prosecution. She did not seem to know she had been named in an arrest warrant in Till's abduction until decades later, said Dale Killinger, a retired FBI agent who questioned her more than 15 years ago.

"I think she didn't recall it," he said. "She acted surprised."

The Justice Department closed its most recent investigation of the killing in December, when the agency said Donham had denied an author's claim that she had recanted her claims about Till doing something improper to her in the store where she worked in the town of Money. The writer could not produce any recordings or transcripts to back up the allegation, authorities said.

Till relatives met in March with officials including District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, the lead prosecutor in Leflore County, but left unsatisfied, Watts said. "There doesn't seem to be the determination or courage to do what needs to be done," she said.

Richardson has been in office for about 15 years and was the first Black person to serve as president of the Mississippi Prosecutors Association. He did not return phone messages or emails seeking comment about a potential kidnapping case.

Keith Beauchamp, a filmmaker whose documentary "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" preceded a renewed Justice Department probe that ended without charges in 2007, said there's enough evidence to prosecute Donham.

"If we're saying we are a country of truth and justice, we must get truth and justice �?� no matter the age or gender of the person involved,'" said Beauchamp.

Stories about the events that led to Till's killing have varied through the years, but the woman known at the time as Carolyn Bryant was always at the center of it, said author Devery Anderson, who obtained original FBI files on the case while researching his 2015 book "Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement."

Till was a 14-year-old from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi when he entered the store on Aug. 24, 1955; Donham, then 21, was working inside. A Till relative who was there at the time, Wheeler Parker, told The Associated Press that Till whistled at the woman. Donham testified that Till grabbed her.

Two nights later, Donham's then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, showed up armed at the rural home of Till's great-uncle, Mose Wright, looking for the youth.

Wright testified in 1955 that a person with a voice "lighter" than a man's identified Till from inside a pickup truck and the abductors took him away. Other evidence in FBI files indicates that earlier that night, Donham told her husband that at least two other Black men were not the right person.

Authorities already had obtained warrants charging the two men and Donham with kidnapping before Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River, FBI files show, but police never arrested Donham.

"We aren't going to bother the woman," Leflore County Sheriff George Smith told reporters, "she's got two small boys to take care of."

Roy Bryant and Milam were quickly indicted on murder charges and they were acquitted by an all-white jury in Tallahatchie County about two weeks later.

Grand jurors in neighboring Leflore County refused to indict the men on kidnapping charges afterward, effectively ending the threat of prosecution for Roy Bryant and Milam. Both men have been dead for decades, leaving Donham as the lone survivor who was directly involved.

Killinger, the retired federal agent, said he saw neither the original warrant during his investigation nor any indication that it was ever canceled by a court, and it's unclear whether it could be used today to arrest or try Donham. Even if authorities located the original paperwork with sworn statements detailing evidence, he said, courts need witnesses to testify.

"And it's my understanding that all those people are dead," Killinger said.

___

Reeves is a member of AP's Race and Ethnicity team.


(Copyright 2022 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The United States’ Shameful Nuclear Legacy in the Marshall Islands

After decades of interfering in the island nation with nuclear testing, disposal of radioactive waste, and human experimentation, U.S. leaders are considering a formal apology.

BY EDWARD HUNT
APRIL 19, 2022

Creative Commons
U.S. nuclear waste dome (L) in the Marshall Islands.

Some U.S. officials are considering whether to issue a formal apology to the Marshall Islands, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean that the United States subjected to years of nuclear testing and human experimentation during the Cold War.

Last month, several members of Congress introduced resolutions that, if approved, would offer an apology to the people of the Marshall Islands who suffered from nuclear testing and the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste.

From 1946 to 1958, the United States detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands, destroying entire islands and causing serious health problems for local residents, including cancer.

“Our government used the Marshallese as guinea pigs to study the effects of radiation and turned ancestral islands into dumping grounds for nuclear waste,” said U.S. Representative Katie Porter, Democrat of California, who introduced one of the resolutions into Congress.

The Marshall Islands, home to about 50,000 people, are located 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. The nation consists of two island chains that include several small islands and low-lying atolls. Its total landmass, which is threatened by rising sea levels, is around seventy square miles.

From 1947 to 1986, the Marshall Islands were part of the U.N. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Since then, the nation has remained under indirect U.S. control through a compact of free association, in which the United States is the dominant military power in the region in exchange for providing economic assistance to the islands.

With these economic provisions set to expire at the end of 2023, U.S. officials have been trying to renegotiate the compact, which provides about 21 percent of the islands’ expenditures. As Marshallese leaders have been pressing their concerns about the ongoing effects of past nuclear testing, U.S. officials have been struggling to arrange formal negotiations.

“We made clear through our ambassador there that we’re ready for formal negotiations,” State Department official Mark Lambert told Congress last month. “We have not received a response back.”

From 1946 to 1958, the United States detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands, destroying entire islands and causing serious health problems for local residents, including cancer. The United States also conducted experiments on the Marshallese people, transported soil from a nuclear testing site in Nevada to the islands, and experimented with lethal biological weapons, all without the knowledge and consent of the Marshallese people.

“A formal apology is long overdue to the Republic of the Marshall Islands for the harmful legacy of U.S. nuclear testing,” Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a March 1 statement.

This legacy includes Runit Dome, a dumping ground for radioactive soil and debris built by the United States in the 1970s. Although the site is capped by a concrete dome, its interior has been leaking, raising concerns about its effects on the surrounding environment.

At a Congressional hearing last October, Biden Administration officials offered contradictory accounts of U.S. responsibility for the leaking site. Energy Department official Matthew Moury claimed the Marshallese government is fully responsible for the dome, but Interior Department official Nikolao Pula disagreed, saying that the United States bears “some appearance of responsibility” to work with the Marshallese government.

Frustrated by the Biden Administration’s lack of transparency, Porter accused the State Department of spending “a considerable amount of time” coaching the witnesses “on what not to say.” She said an apology to the people of the Marshall Islands from the United States would be a necessary first step toward repairing the relationship.

“It’s very hard for me to understand how we have recognized what we have done with this testing, and how we have accepted and acted on responsibility if we haven’t even issued an apology,” Porter said.

Many U.S. leaders insist that the United States has already taken full responsibility for its years of nuclear testing, citing an agreement with the Marshall Islands that refers to a “full settlement” for all claims related to this testing. The settlement included a payment of $150 million.

But what these U.S. officials fail to acknowledge is that the agreement leaves open the possibility of additional compensation, particularly for changed circumstances, such as new information about the nuclear programs.

“It said that if new information came to light or the $150 million proved inadequate, the Marshallese could ask to reconsider the deal,” Porter noted.

With negotiations over the compact stalled, several Congressional leaders are growing increasingly concerned about the implications for the U.S. military presence in the region. Without some kind of settlement, they fear that the United States could lose access to a strategically important part of the Pacific Ocean.

The islands are home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, one of the military’s most important missile ranges. It is used by the U.S. military to test offensive and defensive ballistic missiles, including hypersonic missiles that fly several times faster than the speed of sound.

“The Ronald Reagan test site is vitally important for our ballistic missile testing,” Defense Department official Siddharth Mohandas told Congress last month. “We test hypersonics there.”

For this reason, some Senate leaders are giving more serious consideration to the idea of issuing a formal apology to the Marshallese people. At a hearing last month, U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, pressed three officials from the Biden Administration on the recently introduced resolutions. “It is very important to the peoples of these nations that we formally apologize,” Hirono said.

The administration officials claimed to have no knowledge of the White House’s position on the matter, leaving Congress with questions about whether the officials would prioritize the issue.

“I would very much like all of you to get back to me as to why we cannot support a formal apology,” Hirono said. “I’d say that it’s long past time.”

What’s Needed to Fight Climate Crisis Is Clear. The Powerful Are Preventing It.

Environmental activists hold a sign that says "NO PLANET B" during an Earth Day rally on April 22, 2022, in Bangkok, Thailand

.LAUREN DECICCA / GETTY IMAGES

BY William Rivers Pitt,

Truthout

April 22, 2022

This may be the most frustrating Earth Day in the 50-year history of the celebration. At no other time have we been faced with such acute peril from anthropogenic climate disruption. At no other time have more people been personally invested in making the changes necessary to create a sustainable world. At no other time has actually making those changes in the halls of power seemed more challenging.

This is the agony of the paradigm shift, of the great change that must happen even in the implacable face of vast, entrenched wealth. Those who believed Big Oil, Big War, and all the other pillars of this presently collapsing pillage-and-plunder system were going to see all the fires, floods and storms, and say, “Wow, this sucks and might make it harder for us to make money in 20 years, something must be done!” were badly fooling themselves. Today’s system is about MONEY NOW, about wringing the last few coppers from the bones of the laboring class while there is still time on the clock.

The recent summer-to-spring legislative fiasco over President Biden’s signature policy initiatives is instructive. Biden’s bills — the large Build Back Better Act and a smaller infrastructure bill — were the result of a progressive eruption within the ranks of the Democratic Caucus. Progressive legislators, led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, filled the bill with vital climate action policies that would be paid for by taxing wealthy people and corporations their fair share. Right there, you can see how the effort was all but doomed from the start.

A one-vote majority in the Senate elevated Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of Arizona (who received 270,510 votes when reelected in 2018, compared to Biden’s 81,000,000 vote haul in 2020) to the status of kingmaker… or planet-breaker, depending upon where you stand. Like a vampire stooped over pliable prey, Manchin supped on the blood of these bills for months, until one was passed in skeletal form. The other remains in rewrite limbo. He did this for coal and campaign contributions from coal interests, and no other reasons besides.

Manchin’s partner in this effort, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (665,000 votes collected in her own 2018 race), likewise poured sand and ground glass into the gears of both pieces of legislation. She didn’t want rich people and huge pharmaceutical companies to pay for it by way of equitable taxation and drug price stabilization, and refused to budge despite multiple good-faith efforts to gain her support. In the end, the Democratic Caucus was left fighting amongst itself, Mitch McConnell and the GOP hardly had to break a sweat, and measures to save the planet from our destruction and extraction once again fell to dust.

The recent war in Ukraine also underscores the long slog between necessity and accomplishment. When Russia, one of the world’s top producers of fossil fuels, charged toward Kyiv behind a wall of tanks, Russian President Vladimir Putin was suddenly confronted with a raft of sanctions levied by an appalled world.This is the agony of the paradigm shift, of the great change that must happen even in the implacable face of vast, entrenched wealth.

These sanctions have had only a dubious effect on that nation’s war-makers, and have inflicted further devastation on Russian civilians. Another impact: They have forced NATO nations and others to go looking for their fossil fuels elsewhere. Biden, in defiance of a campaign pledge to ban new drilling on public lands, is now undertaking a massive, wildly pollutive campaign of oil and gas production in order to make up for the coming shortfall.

“The department’s plans are the latest example of the political tightrope the president is trying to walk,” reports The Washington Post. “Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices soaring, Biden has faced pressure to alleviate the pain Americans feel at the pump. He has urged U.S. oil companies to boost production and has released millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to compensate for the loss of Russian oil from global markets.”

Thus does war hurl back even mediocre progress on attacking the environmental crisis that hedges closer to us by the day. Thus does greed and lust for power eviscerate all but the slimmest chance for meaningful climate repair, precisely in this tipping-point moment historians will revel in, if there are any left with the patience to pile through the paperwork.

The mood this Earth Day is one of deep frustration and fear. If there can be said to be a bright spot, it is this: We know what we have to do, and now we know who stands against us. All pretense is cast aside. What to do with this information is entirely up to you.

Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

William Rivers Pitt  is a senior editor and lead columnist at Truthout. He is also a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of three books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know, The Greatest Sedition Is Silence and House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America’s Ravaged Reputation. His fourth book, The Mass Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible, co-written with Dahr Jamail, is available now on Amazon. He lives and works in New Hampshire.

PAKISTAN

Imran Khan says NSC meeting confirmed he wasn’t lying

PTI chief demands, open SC hearing, CEC resignation

SAMAA | Samaa Web Desk - Posted: Apr 23, 2022 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan has demanded an “open hearing” in the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the “threat” he was allegedly issued by the United States, claiming that the National Security Committee statement issued on Friday had confirmed the ‘conspiracy’ against him.

Addressing a press conference at his Bani Gala residence in Islamabad on Saturday, the PTI chief also demanded resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

His demand came as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) poised to give a ruling in the foreign funding case involving PTI.

Imran Khan also announced that he had told his workers to prepare for a march on Islamabad.

The NSC on Friday dismissed Khan’s claims about a ‘foreign conspiracy’ to topple his government.

However, at the press conference Imran Khan said that the NSC statement had confirmed what he was saying and it proved he was not lying. The meeting has confirmed that the communique was a fact, he said.

Imran Khan said he wanted the Supreme Court to take up the issue of communique, which, he said, the court should have taken up when the National Assembly deputy speaker disallowed the no-confidence motion against Khan.

He said he wanted an open hearing in the Supreme Court because if the court fails to investigate the issue no prime minister in Pakistan will be able to resist foreign pressure.

Imran Khan claimed that Pervez Musharraf’s decision to side with the US in its ‘war on terror’ was also an example of foreign pressure.

Khan said the former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had brought the PML-N and PPP closer when she was in office (2005-2009) and this too was foreign intervention.

“The second thing I want that when the Supreme Court investigates,” it would be revealed who was visiting foreign diplomatic missions Pakistan, he said.

Imran Khan said journalists had started to report beforehand on his government’s end.

“If our institutions does not stand with our nation’s self-respect” it would amount to putting our children’s future at risk, he said.

The PTI chief said that the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were not showing any “urgency” over the issues, including the interpretation of Article 63-A.

Imran Khan then demanded that the chief election commissioner must step down because for an umpire to be neutral both parties must accept it.

The PTI chief revealed that he had already instructed his party’s district level organisations to organise a march on Islamabad for which he would give a date later.

When asked the word ‘conspiracy’ was not in either of the NSC statement, Khan said that it was wrong to claim that the communication was not an unusual development.

Any one saying this is a “liar” because such language is not used in diplomatic communications, he said.

Imran Khan said that the “threat” issued to him was conspiracy and it was rare because in the past only Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Musharraf had received such threats.

When asked about the new government reversing his government’s decision, Imran Khan, instead of answering the question, said that the conspiracy had been proven and now Shehbaz Sharif must apologise to him.

The PTI has been accusing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of partiality as the body hears the funding case and has been instructed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to hand down a ruling within 30 days.

The PTI has filed a petition before the IHC challenging the order. It has also urged that ECP be directed to probe accounts of all the political parties in Pakistan and conclude the proceedings within 30 days.

The PTI has been accused of receiving funding from illegal foreign sources in a case that was filed in 2014 by PTI’s founding member Akbar S. Babar.

The party has stalled a ruling for seven years through petitions before courts.

On April 14, when the IHC ordered the ECP to give a ruling in 30 days, it also dismissed a PTI petition to remove Babar from the case.

Ilhan Omar not Biden’s secret message (SIC) to Imran: State Dept

She is in Pakistan on four-day visit

SAMAA | Samaa Web Desk - Posted: Apr 22, 2022 

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar met former PM Imran Khan

 on April 20, 2022. Photo: Twitter/IlhanMN

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, known for her stance on Islamophobia and Kashmir cause, arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday on a four-day visit.

During her stay in Pakistan she met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Arif Alvi as well as former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan.

On Thursday, she along with a delegation comprising with Timothy Mynett, Nicholas Lampson and Tahir Javed visited Line of Control in Azad Kashmir.

After her an hour-long meeting with Imran Khan, there were speculations that she was carrying secret message from US President Joe Biden for Imran Khan. The former prime minister has been accusing the US for his ouster. Imran Khan claimed that the no-confidence motion against him was sponsored by the US.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price was asked by ARY News reporter to confirm Thursday if it’s true that Ilhan Omar is representing Biden government in Islamabad and the US is trying to clear the air with Imran Khan as claimed by his close associates.

“Well, as I understand it, Representative Omar is not visiting Pakistan on U.S. Government-sponsored travel,” said Price. He referred the report to Omar’s office for questions on her travel.

Who is Ilhan Omar?

The 39-year-old Omar belongs to the Democrats and represents the State of Minnesota in Congress. She is the first Somali-American legislator and one of the two Muslim women elected to the US Congress in 2018. Omar was sworn into office in January 2019.

Born in Somalia, Omar’s family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in the 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.

Stance on Kashmir

Omar has stalwartly supported Kashmiris and has been vocal against the Indian atrocities in the valley.

In 2019, Omar had called for an immediate restoration of communication, respect for human rights, and religious freedom when the Indian government unilaterally scrapped the law that grants special status to Indian occupied Kashmir, saying that the international organisations should be allowed to fully document what is happening on the ground.

‘Islamophobia pervades our culture’

In 2021, Omar had tabled legislation to create a special envoy combatting Islamophobia following anti-Muslim comments by her colleague calling the Minnesota Democrat a terrorist.

She highlighted that Islamophobia pervades the US’ culture, politics and even policy decisions suggesting that Muslim women are all oppressed, or that Muslims hate other religions.

‘Omar not allowed to enter Israel’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned the two Democratic U.S. congresswomen from visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories over their remarks on the Israeli government and Trump’s unwavering support of suppressing Palestinians.

The two representatives also had voted against a nonbinding resolution condemning a Palestinian-led movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions in Israel, which they have repeatedly defended.

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Spain Expects Olive Growers to Get Relief Soon From U.S. Tariffs

Thomas Gualtieri and Alonso Soto, Bloomberg News

Manuel Sanchez, a field worker, prunes an olive tree in an olive grove near Moron Air Base in Arahal, Spain, on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. The relationship between Washington and Madrid is being put to the test after Trump slapped a 35% tariff on black Spanish table olives, following complaints by American growers that Madrid unfairly subsidizes its industry. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Spain is confident the U.S. will remove additional custom duties on olive imports in coming months if a court in Washington rules again in favor of Spanish growers.

The U.S. Court of International Trade is set to issue its third decision on the matter by the end of July, after the previous rulings favorable to Spanish companies were appealed by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Spain is the world’s largest olive producer, and its exports to the U.S. plunged after the Trump administration imposed import taxes on products it deemed to be subsidized with trade-distorting aid from the European Union. 

Spain’s Secretary of State for Trade Xiana Mendez said her government expects the court to again favor Agro Sevilla Aceitunas SCA and Angel Camacho Alimentacion SL, strengthening Madrid’s position that the duties are unfair.

A World Trade Organization panel backed Spain in November, saying that U.S. did not apply the measures correctly. The U.S. declined to appeal that ruling.

So far the U.S. has cut the additional duties to 7.3% following an internal revision. The Spanish government is now waiting to negotiate the deadline for the U.S. to abide by the WTO’s decision.

As the legal overhaul could take time, the Spanish government has asked Washington to scrap the duties in the meantime, “being aware of the unfair damage Spanish olive maker are suffering,” Mendez said in an interview. “The two things aren’t incompatible, it’s just a matter of political will,” she said.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

AGRICULTURE

Concerns about War Increase Efforts to Mine Potash in Michigan, Worrying Some Locals

The war in Ukraine has the U.S. looking for fertilizer at home. A mine in Central Michigan would use 2 million gallons of groundwater a day for its operations.

by Lina Tran / Grist

April 22, 2022

The Michigan Potash & Salt Company, based in Denver, has surface mining rights in the central Michigan counties of Mecosta and Osceola.

This story was originally published by Grist.

A mile and a half below Doug Miller’s backyard in central Michigan lie the remnants of an ancient salty sea. When the waters receded around 350 million years ago, they left behind thick deposits of potash, a commonly used fertilizer. For Miller, a retired engineer, the stuff is out of sight, but top of mind, as the company Michigan Potash & Salt has sought to build a mining facility next door.

The facility would pull vast amounts of groundwater from the same aquifer as Miller’s. “I highly expect if they actually do this, my well would run dry,” he said.

The mine in the rural township of Evart has been in the works since 2012, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised the stakes. With its close ally Belarus, the two countries produce 40% of the world’s potash, which is rich in potassium, one of three essential plant nutrients. Prices were already on the rise, and shutting off major providers from global markets is expected to keep pushing them up. So the U.S., which imports nearly all of its potash, is looking to support domestic sources, like the planned mine next to Miller’s property.

For the Denver-based Michigan Potash & Salt, with 15,000 acres of mineral rights across Osceola and Mecosta counties, the Russian conflict is the latest reason why it needs to get its operations up and running ASAP. “Michigan Potash stands ready to support American farmers by replacing one-to-one all the potash imported from Russia,” said Theodore Pagano, the company’s founder and CEO, in a statement. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $250 million investment to support all-American fertilizer companies like Pagano’s. Once it’s operating, Michigan Potash’s site is expected to be the largest source in the country by far.

To Miller and others in the area, the risks of mining and pumping out all that groundwater to extract the potash simply aren’t worth it. They worry about the potential damage to sensitive wetlands as well as their drinking water. They question whether the U.S. really needs potash from central Michigan when there’s plenty at well-established facilities just across the U.S.-Canada border.

“All of a sudden you get a war overseas, and he’s fanning the flames that we have to have domestic production,” said Ken Ford, a forester in Osceola County, referring to Pagano.

While the U.S. relies heavily on international potash — importing 94% of its annual use — 83% of it comes from Canada, home to the largest mines in the world and directly connected by rail to the Corn Belt. (In March, a union strike shut down the railway for two days, stoking concerns about the tenuous supply chain.) Russia and Belarus each represent 6%.

In December, Michigan Potash obtained the last of the permits it needs to begin construction. The company would use solution mining to free the potash from the deep earth, valued at $65 billion. That involves injecting pressurized streams of hot saltwater, or brine, underground to dissolve the salt beds. Then, that brine would be pumped back to the surface, where it’s dried at high heat to extract the crystallized potash. Table salt is a byproduct of the process, which the company would sell, too.

This form of mining requires a lot of water: The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, or EGLE, has already granted permission for Michigan Potash to extract 725 million gallons of groundwater each year. That amounts to some 2 million gallons a day — far exceeding the withdrawal allotted to the Nestlé bottled water plant just a few miles away.

Michigan Potash says it would recycle as much water as possible, calling its system a “closed loop.” Their production would capture the hot steam from boiling the potash out of the brine, which would supplement their water use. But only so much can be recycled. When the brine can’t be reused anymore, they’d inject the wastewater back underground into deep wells. Overall, the company has proposed boring 11 wells: eight for mining and three for waste.

Ford, who’s on the board for the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, said the site is unsuitable for mining. It slopes on all sides. And it’s in the middle of four creeks that wander through a large freshwater marsh before flowing into the Muskegon River. “They literally could not have picked a worse location for this,” Ford said.