Karl Marx: Five Reasons Why The Thinker Was Ahead of His Time

How modern was Karl Marx? An exhibition in Berlin's Deutsches Historisches Museum explores why the German philosopher remains relevant to this day.

1. HE MARRIED A PARTNER WHO WAS HIS EQUAL

Without his wife Jenny Marx (1814-1881), Marx's accomplishments would not have been possible. Born Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von Westphalen, Marx's better half was not only a journalist but also his first critical reader. She debated with him and the publicist and philosopher Friedrich Engels and collaborated on the creation of the "Communist Manifesto." In the only handwritten version of the booklet that has survived the years, the first lines are written by her.

As a journalist, she wrote texts about the 1848 March Revolution in Germany and reviews of William Shakespeare for the renowned Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper, negotiated with publishers and spoke a number of foreign languages — better than her husband. Her skills came in handy, since the Marx family was forced to spend most of their lives in exile. Friedrich Engels called her and her husband the two "highly gifted natures" and said of Jenny after her death that "her bold and wise counsel" would be bitterly missed.


Karl Marx's success would not have been possible without his wife Jenny

2. HE HELPED TO MAKE THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY A REALITY

In 1866, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels helped make the eight-hour day an official demand of the International Workers Association. As early as the 1810s, Welshman Robert Owen is said to have coined the slogan in Britain: "Eight hours work, eight hours sleep, and eight hours leisure and recreation."

The eight-hour day was introduced by law in Germany, for the first time in 1918. Since then, however, the law is changing: Six-hour days are now being tested in several European countries.


An exhibition at Berlin's Deutsches Historisches Museum explores the legacy of Marx

3. HE INSPIRED THE 'OCCUPY' MOVEMENT

On September 17, 2011, demonstrators brandishing the slogan "Occupy Wall Street" occupied Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district. They protested against an economic system in which a privileged few are getting richer, while the vast majority are becoming poorer. Protesters demanded greater political regulation of the banking and financial sector. The "Occupy" movement soon expanded around the globe. Protesters used a portrait of Karl Marx and, equipped with the catchy slogan "I told you I was right," made him into a modern icon.


Marx became something of an icon in the Occupy Wall Street movement

Particularly since the financial crisis, Karl Marx's writings are once again receiving worldwide attention. He is still considered one of the most important critics of capitalism. Some may consider his legacy ambivalent: Socialist dictatorships such as the Soviet Union or former East Germany repeatedly appropriated the philosopher to legitimize their unjust state. His attitude towards Jewish citizens is also controversial. His essay "On the Jewish Question" (first published in 1844) was used as anti-Semitic propaganda, by the Communist Party in Germany in the 1920s, for example.

4. HE WAS A HIGH-LEVEL RESEARCHER

Many economists around the world still draw on the writings of Karl Marx. For example, in 2013, French economist Thomas Piketty published his book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," with direct reference to Karl Marx's seminal study "Das Kapital"(1867).

In "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," Piketty draws on Marx's analyses and concludes that since the mid-20th century, an increasingly small number of people in industrialized nations own the majority of the world's wealth. He concludes that an increase in inequality is part and parcel of capitalism and that this increase threatens democracy. The book sparked debates around the world about the future of capitalism.


Karl Marx worked together with Friedrich Engels

The first original edition of "Das Kapital," which belonged to Marx and contains his handwritten notes, has been part of UNESCO's World Document Heritage since 2013, following a joint proposal by the Dutch and German governments.

5. HIS WORK INFLUENCED MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD

Marx influenced the political debate in many countries. In the 20th century, communist thinking inspired by his texts swept through many parts of the world, triggering revolutions and installing political systems based on Marxist thought in countries like Russia, China and Cuba, among others.

However, the mastermind of the "proletarian revolution" spent almost his entire life in exile as a stateless person. After his marriage, he and his wife Jenny moved to Paris. There, he began to collaborate with Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy factory owner.


A copy of 'Das Kapital' with Marx's handwriting is part of the exhibition

When the Prussian government demanded his expulsion, Jenny and Karl Marx moved to Brussels, with Friedrich Engels following them. There, they began work on a pamphlet that would become the Communist Manifesto. It ends with the now world-famous call, "Workers of the world, unite!" The Marx family was also expelled from Belgium and finally found refuge in London in 1849 where Jenny and Karl Marx lived until their deaths. Jenny died on December 2, 1881, Karl on March 14, 1883. Nearly 200 years after his death, his work is still selling well.

The exhibition "Karl Marx and Capitalism" at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin runs from February 10, 2022 to August 21, 2022.

This article was originally written in German.

Christine Lehnen
12 Feb 2022

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

'Brazilian Escobar' and a Turkish Jet Filled With Cocaine

A jet full of cocaine in Brazil shows Turkey's increasing role in global drug trafficking. The UN drugs agency says the cocaine is sent via Turkey to EU countries, as well as Eastern European and Middle Eastern nations.

Pelin Ünker, Serdar Vardar
13 Apr 2022

The seized Turkish jet belonging to Istanbul-based ACM Air charter company

On August 4, 2021, Brazilian federal police boarded a jet registered with the Istanbul-based ACM Air charter company in the northern city of Fortaleza. The private jet, which bore the tail code TC-GVA, was carrying one Belgian-Spanish passenger, four Turkish crew members and, police discovered, 1.3 tons of cocaine in 24 suitcases, with a market value of €45.6 million.

According to documents seen by DW, the jet had begun its journey in Malaga, Spain, and, after clearing inbound customs in Fortaleza, Brazil, flew to Ribeirao Preto, where it was scheduled to pick up four passengers bound for Brussels with a stop in Portugal. But, when it was raided by Brazilian police in Fortaleza, the only passenger was a man named Angel Gonzalez Valdez.

Footage of the raid was broadcast by media across Brazil and Latin America, as well as in Spain, Belgium and Turkey, and shared on social media by Turkish opposition politicians and prominent Brazilians abroad.

By the end of the year, Valdez would die of cancer in custody, the pilot would be sent back to Turkey, where he was charged for his role in the suspected cocaine trafficking, and the Turkish press would be asking how a formerly state-owned jet — indeed, the plane that had carried President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to safety during the 2016 coup — had ended up stuffed with drugs and impounded in Brazil.

TRAFFICKING VIA TURKEY

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Turkey is increasingly becoming a transit point for global cocaine trafficking. From 2014 to 2020, the amount of cocaine seized in the country rose almost fivefold, according to the UNODC. In 2020, about 2 tons were captured.

Antoine Vella, a researcher with UNODC, told DW that Turkish traffickers are acquiring a greater share of the European cocaine market, with Turkey mostly used as a transit country for cocaine destined for southeastern and eastern Europe. "Large quantities have been seized in individual cases, both in Turkey and in Latin American countries en route to Turkey in 2020 and 2021," Vella said.

Cocaine is trafficked to Turkey both via air couriers and maritime shipments. "Air couriers often use Istanbul airport to land and may travel from South America as well as Africa," Vella said. "The recent increase is likely driven by the maritime shipments."

'BRAZILIAN PABLO ESCOBAR'

Documents and information obtained by DW suggest that a former Brazilian military police officer named Sergio Roberto de Carvalho may have been behind the Turkish plane that was seized in Fortaleza. According to media reports, Brazilian police also suspect's Carvalho's involvement. Malaga, the point of departure for the Turkish airplane's flight to Brazil, is known to be a base that he has used previously.

Carvalho, aka "the Brazilian Pablo Escobar," is one of the world's principal drug barons and purportedly trafficked nearly 50 tons of cocaine to Europe from 2018 through 2021. According to Spanish media, he was living in Spain with a fake Surinamese passport in the name of "Paul Wouter." Carvalho was detained as Wouter when the Spanish police confiscated a cargo of 1.7 tons of cocaine — in Paul Wouter's name — on a ship inbound from Suriname.

Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, known as the "Brazilian Pablo Escobar"

Because "Wouter" had a clean record, Carvalho made bail after four months, paying a fee of €200,000 while the case went through court. After almost two years and just before the court was to present its final judgment in August 2020, Carvalho's lawyer presented the judge with a death certificate declaring that "Wouter" had died and been cremated. The case was put on hold.

Months later, according to media reports, the Brazilian police informed Spanish authorities and Interpol that Paul Wouter was, in fact, Carvalho, and that he had left Spain with a different passport after having plastic surgery. Interpol initiated simultaneous operations targeting Carvalho's organization in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and Colombia. Carvalho himself, however, escaped.

Police found passports for multiple identities at his home in Portugal, as well as a van filled with €12 million in cash. Portuguese police believe that the van was intended as an exit plan.

A source told DW that the three passengers missing from the plane in Fortaleza were relatives of Carvalho's who had decided not to board at the last minute. The source said the Brazilian Escobar was known to have used companies in Dubai, Brazil, Portugal and elsewhere to launder billions of dollars. Sources also said Carvalho was using business connections in Turkey to launder money.

SUSPICIONS IN FORTALEZA

Employees with ground handlers Lider Aviacao at the airport in Fortaleza testified that ACM Air had insisted on paying in cash for the ground services, which, for security reasons, is an uncommon practice in the aviation industry. The employees also testified that the jet had taxied to a hangar other than the one designated.

A Turkish-language bill shows the fee and departure for the ACM Flight

Contacted by DW, ACM Air employees did not reveal who had paid the €160,000 to charter the jet, which the company had bought from the Turkish state in 2017.

Angel Gonzalez Valdez, the lone passenger, was arrested, along with the Turkish pilot, Veli D. — whose full name is not being used as he has not been convicted of a crime — and the Turkish crew was interrogated. Valdez's attorney told DW that Valdez said that the pilot bore primary responsibility for the drugs onboard.

"At the hospital, Angel admitted he didn't know much about the operation and he just followed the pilot's orders," said the attorney, Maria das Dores Goncalvez Cavalcante.

The €160,000 would have been a hefty bill for a solo flight for the 61-year-old Valdez, an engineer who, according to documents examined by DW, had twice declared bankruptcy. On top of that, his attorney said, Valdez, who died in custody of terminal cancer on October 24, told her in September that he would leave €500,000, paid by a third party, to his family.

Retired Turkish Air Force pilot Veli D. flew the jet seized in Brazil with 1.3 tons of cocaine

After almost four months in custody in Brazil, the pilot, a retired Turkish Air Force officer, was released for lack of evidence — only to be detained when he arrived back in Turkey on December 26, 2021, and charged four days later. One day after the pilot's arrest, Seyhmus Ozkan, the owner of ACM Air, was arrested in Turkey.

That week, leaked pictures of Ozkan with the Turkish interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, and Ethem Sancak, a businessman with close ties to Erdogan, triggered a nationwide scandal. Ozkan's sister, Cigdem Ozkan, was also a parliamentary candidate for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party in 2015.
COCAINE'S LONG JOURNEY

The most recently reported seizure of cocaine en route to Turkey from Latin America came in February, when approximately 44 kilograms (97 pounds) of pure cocaine were seized in a banana container during inspections carried out at the port in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In fact, Ecuador is a name that comes up frequently in reports of cocaine shipments to Turkey.

A leaked document describes Valdez's health while jailed on suspicion of trafficking

In June, 1.3 tons, also from Ecuador, were seized in Turkey's southern province of Mersin — the largest single haul of cocaine ever seized on Turkish soil. That would have been eclipsed had a shipment of 4.9 tons en route to Turkey not been seized at Colombia's Buenaventura Port in 2020.

Ecuador's biggest port, Puerto Bolivar, is managed by the Turkish company Yilport, which is owned by the Erdogan associate Yuksel Yildirim. According to Yilport's website, the agreement to modernize and run the port was signed during Erdogan's 2016 official visit to Ecuador, with then President Rafael Correa also looking on.

Most cocaine seized in or en route to Turkey is destined for distribution within other countries in Europe and the Middle East, but the domestic market is also growing, though it still pales with sales in EU countries such as Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. The Turkish Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (TUBIM), a unit attached to the Turkish National Police, would not give specifics about the amount of cocaine passing through Turkey annually, or how it is then distributed abroad.

Ozkan (right) was close to prominent Turkish politicians, including the interior minister

As of 2018, according to the UNODC, the prevalence of Turks aged 15-64 who used cocaine was about five in 10,000. Nevertheless, the number of cocaine seizures rose almost fivefold from 2014 to 2017, from about 700 per year to nearly 4,000. Turkish authorities arrested almost 4,500 people in connection with cocaine-related offenses in 2020.

"It cannot be excluded that demand from an emerging domestic market may be contributing to increasing flows towards Turkey," the UNODC's Vella said. "These developments appear to form part of a broader pattern of expansion of the cocaine market and diversification of routes and actors observed in recent years."


Investigations continue in Brazil and Turkey into who was behind the suitcases of cocaine seized from the ACM jet in Fortaleza. The extent of Brazilian Escobar Carvalho's network within Turkey remains murky. And the pilot, Veli D., and ACM owner Ozkan remain in jail.

The jet itself, used by Turkish prime ministers and presidents from 1988 until it was sold to ACM, has returned to official duty — in the fleet of the Brazilian federal police.

Edited by: Aydın Üstünel, Jülide Danisman and Milan Gagnon

DW

Brazil Dams: 1 Million Live Close to Danger

Data analysis by DW reveals many Brazilians live near dams that, without proper maintenance and governmental oversight, could be deadly in the case of failure.

Rodrigo Menegat Schuinski
30 Apr 2022



A boy looks at the mud that reached the city of Brumadinho, in Brazil, after a dam at an iron-ore mine collapsed in January 2019. Hundreds were killed in the disaster.


Around 1 million people in Brazil live near a dangerous dam, according to a DW analysis. The situation raises alarm bells about the possible consequences of yet another accident in the country, which has seen three large-scale dam disasters since 2009.

The finding includes all those living in populated areas no more than a kilometer away from one of the 1220 dams that combine "high risk" and "high potential damage" classifications in Brazil's National Dam Safety Information System (SNISB).

A high-risk classification means that a dam has structural damage, design flaws or is not properly maintained, putting it at greater risk of organizational mishaps and safety incidents that could lead to a rupture. A high potential damage classification, in turn, means that such a failure would have major environmental, human or economic costs.


The issue is being exacerbated by flawed governance. Despite legal requirements, many dams don't have safety and emergency plans that outline what should be done in the event of a disaster.

According to SNISB data collected in February 2022, 39 of the dams classified as "high risk" and "high potential damage" hold mining waste, which is considered particularly unstable. The recent disasters in the cities of Mariana in 2015 and Brumadinho in 2019 involved such dams.

Most of the risky structures, however, are water storage and irrigation dams. They're mainly located in the Northeast, a comparatively poor region that historically has suffered from water shortages.

Many of the reservoirs in the area were built to offset drought. Without proper maintenance, they pose a danger to around 600,000 people in that region alone.
DAMS — A SIGN OF INFRASTRUCTURE NEGLECT

Located in a semi-arid region, Riacho da Cruz is a town of around 3,000 people. Rain is scarce and rivers often run low there.

In this town, almost everyone lives just downstream of a dangerous dam. Built in 1957 to help keep water flowing during frequent droughts, the dam is a good example of the kind of structures found scattered across most of Brazil's Northeast.


"In the 1960s and 70s, the federal government tried to promote water security in this region," says Mariano Andrade da Silva, a health and disasters researcher at Fiocruz, a major Brazilian academic institution. The construction of water reservoirs in areas of frequent drought was part of those efforts.

"Without proper maintenance, those structures have turned into a risk for the population," adds da Silva.

In addition to neglected state infrastructure, da Silva describes "orphan" dams. The person or organization responsible for these dams is either unknown or is no longer actively maintaining the structures.

As a result, 10 people for every 1,000 in the Northeast live close to a dangerous dam. That's the highest figure in all of Brazil's regions. In the Southeast, home to wealthier states such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, about three out of every 1,000 live in a similar situation.
LACK OF RESOURCES AGGRAVATES THE SITUATION

A lack of resources in the areas where these dams are located is an aggravating factor. According to a recent survey by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), twenty percent of northeastern cities with at least one dangerous dam nearby don't have functioning local civil defense services.

Civil defense services are supposed to implement risk mitigation programs, including identifying vulnerable areas and establishing contingency plans. If disaster strikes, they are also responsible for coordinating rescue efforts.

"A disaster is an unlikely event. But if it occurs, it can lead not only to deaths, but to the destruction of these communities as a whole," says da Silva, adding that reservoirs are vital water sources for both human consumption and agriculture. A dam failure, he explains, also endangers local food and water security.

A look back at recent history shows the consequences of such events. In 2009, an anti-drought dam failed in Cocal, a city with 25,000 inhabitants in the northeastern state of Piaui. The event killed nine people, displaced hundreds and jeopardized the local agricultural economy.

In January 2020, a year after the disaster, a man pays tribute to the victims of the Brumadinho dam accident. PREVENTABLE INCIDENT

Since then, major dam tragedies have occurred frequently in Brazil. The 2015 Mariana and 2019 Brumadinho disasters were two of the country's largest dam accidents and are still raw in the national consciousness. Together, they were responsible for nearly 300 deaths.

The structures that failed in these mining towns, however, were very different to those in the Northeast. They were tailing dams used to store mining waste.

HALF OF THE DISASTERS HAPPENED IN A MINING STATE

Although tailing dams are significantly fewer in number, they are responsible for a disproportionate number of tragedies.

Out of the 18 large-scale dam accidents recorded in Brazil between 1986 and 2019, nine were connected to mining operations. Eight of those — including the catastrophes in Brumadinho and Mariana — occurred in the state of Minas Gerais, which has been Brazil's main mining hub since the 1700s.


"Tailing dams don't simply hold water, like the others. It's very different. The waste contains elements such as sand, clay, starch, iron... It's much more dangerous, more unstable," says Evandro Moraes da Gama, a professor at the mining engineering department at the State University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). "There's no technique, in Brazil or elsewhere in the world, that can hold this with 100% safety."

Rafaela Baldi, a geotechnical engineer with a Ph.D. in dam safety at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), says most failures can be traced back to poor management practices.

According to Baldi, mining companies are responsible for the lack of proper care, as they seek to increase extraction levels while reducing costs. Blame also lies with institutions meant to monitor mining activities, she adds.

Brumadinho, Brazil's most lethal dam failure, serves as an example.

Executives at mine operator Vale and auditors from German company TÜV Süd, who attested to the collapsed dam's stability, are answering to charges of ignoring structural problems.

"Unfortunately, this is not unique to that disaster. This is a common practice in Brazil. Mining companies put pressure on consultants, and they end up writing what is most convenient in the moment," says Baldí.
TURNING A BLIND EYE TO DANGER

When the Brumadinho and Mariana dams collapsed, they weren't publicly classified as high-risk structures. This illustrates another aspect of Brazil's dam problem — namely a lack of information. The country remains unaware of how many dams exist on its territory and of their state of repair.

Since 2010, information about all dams in the country is meant to be centralized in the National Dam Safety Information System, maintained by the National Water Agency (ANA).

However, the data is far from complete, as highlighted in ANA's own annual reports. Some 22,000 dams are currently recorded in the database. But the agency estimates that around 170,000 artificial water reservoirs exist in the country.

For 57% of the dams in the system, no information exists to determine whether they are subject to legislation that outlines safety standards for structures above a certain size, risk level, or potential damage classification.

Most of the 6000 dams that are recorded as subject to national safety protocols are uncompliant. Some 73% don't have the required safety or emergency plans in place. In other words, they do not provide basic guidance on what to do if a disaster occurs.


According to Fernanda Laus, dam safety coordinator at the water agency ANA, information gaps are to be expected when implementing a new public policy. The safety monitoring database was created 12 years ago.

She adds that gaps can be partially attributed to the regulatory system's patchwork nature. Ultimately, data is collected by 44 governmental organizations with varying levels of funding and staff.

"Resources are limited. It's natural to start with larger dams and leave smaller ones for later," says Laus, adding that some regulators are moving swiftly to gather missing data. "But this is not a reality for all the agencies. Some of them just don't have the capacity to do that for now."

Edited by: Gianna Grün and Jennifer Collins

DW

10 Reasons Why Hydropower Dams Are a False Climate Solution

Not only does hydro power fail to prevent catastrophic climate change, but it also renders countries more vulnerable to climate change while emitting significant amounts of methane.

Josh Klemm, Eugene Simonov
07 Apr 2022


A river is a spectacular living corridor that feeds forests, fisheries, coastal ecosystems, and farmlands; transports life-sustaining organic matter and nutrients; provides drinking water; fosters cultural connection; and prevents carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. A river supports staggeringly rich biodiversity. One major way we negate rivers’ many benefits is by building dams.

Once considered a renewable way to harness the power of rivers, hydroelectric dams are now better known for their adverse impacts: They destroy a river’s biodiverse ecosystems, decimate the food security and livelihoods of local communities, and produce harmful methane that exacerbates climate change. Dams are costly to build, difficult to maintain, and aren’t climate-resilient or competitive against proven clean energy alternatives like solar and wind power.

In 2000, following publication of the seminal World Commission on Dams (WCD) report, many countries and financiers stopped proposing and funding dams, but a remaining few are now using climate change as a pretext to save the declining industry, and calling for scarce climate dollars to be used to keep the industry afloat. Projects are now being pushed in arguably the worst places to build a dam: on rivers flowing through biodiversity hotspots and protected areas in the tropics. With vested interests calling for the doubling of existing hydropower capacity in the coming decades, here are 10 key reasons why dams are a false solution to the climate crisis.

1. Climate Change Is Making Dams Unreliable and Risky

Large hydropower projects are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Droughts have crippled hydropower generation all over the world, leading to energy rationing and blackouts from the U.S. to China, and from Brazil to southern Africa. This trend is only expected to increase in the current changing climate scenario being witnessed globally. Meanwhile, increasingly common extreme weather events make large dams dangerous for people living downstream, as they become vulnerable to dam failures.

2. Dams Produce Significant Amounts of Methane

At least 25% of today’s global warming is caused by methane emissions, which have “more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere,” according to a press release from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2021 showed, cutting methane emissions is the most urgent step we must take to immediately slow the rate of global warming, an observation also made in Nature. Dams generate methane and carbon dioxide when vegetation and organic matter are flooded in the reservoirs and start to decay underwater, as well as when areas are deforested to make way for building the project. Dam reservoirs represent a significant source of methane globally, equivalent to the greenhouse gas footprint of Canada, and scientists have found in some cases that dam reservoirs can cause more warming than coal-fired power plants.

3. Hydropower Climate Calculation Doesn’t Add Up

The dam sector’s industry group, the International Hydropower Association (IHA), along with other vested interests are pushing to more than double the entire amount (850 gigawatts) of hydropower installed in the past 100 years in a bid to mitigate climate change.

The IPCC report is a reminder to all of us that we have less than 10 years to drastically cut emissions if we’re to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Let’s look at the numbers: The average time it takes to build a dam is approximately 10 years, and dam construction itself causes serious emissions (for example, cement production).

Even if a dam was built in less time, a new dam reservoir actually adds to the climate crisis by emitting most of its methane and CO2 emissions in the first decade after its commissioning. For example, in Brazil, researchers discovered that the Belo Monte Dam caused a threefold increase in greenhouse gas emissions after only two years of operation. Building a vast new fleet of dams as IHA calls for would spike methane emissions at precisely the time we need to reduce them.

4. Hydropower Dams Are Falsely Marketed as a ‘Sustainable’ Climate Solution

The IHA continues to propagate the falsehood of hydropower projects being a viable solution to mitigate the climate crisis, which fails to consider the facts or latest scientific evidence to the contrary. In September 2021, IHA made its pitch for scarce climate dollars to subsidize the hydropower industry, pledging that all new hydropower projects must meet its own “Hydropower Sustainability Standard.”

This commitment to ensuring sustainability for hydropower dam projects, however, falls flat on its face when one considers the fact that all ‘sustainable’ hydropower projects pushed by the IHA members in 2020 did not even meet their definition of sustainability. A report called “Water Yearbook” for 2020 stated that “most of [the] hydropower development in the world is unsustainable and proceeds at the expense of key sustainable development objectives.”

5. Dam Projects Often Violate Human Rights

Large hydropower projects have serious impacts on local communities’ rights. According to the 2000 WCD report, dams had displaced at least 40-80 million people and have negatively affected an estimated 472 million people living downstream over the years. Hydropower companies often violate the rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands, territories, resources, governance, cultural integrity and right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Last year’s guilty verdict in the assassination of Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres by the former head of a dam company in Honduras highlights the danger faced by people opposing hydropower dams. The impact of dams on Indigenous populations continues unimpeded despite the key role that Indigenous peoples play in protecting 80 percent of global biodiversity and leading the world in preventing carbon emissions in their territories.

6. New Hydropower Is Expensive and Ill-Suited to Deliver Energy Access

Another considerable mark against large hydropower projects is their enormous expense. Due to planning errors, technical problems and corruption, dams experience average delays of 44 percent and cost overruns of 96 percent. Sooner or later, silt tends to build up in reservoirs over the years, and the cost of maintaining dams far outweighs their benefits. Meanwhile, the energy produced by large dams is generally inaccessible to local communities, either because it is too expensive, monopolized by the industry, or exported to distant cities or neighboring countries.

7. Free-Flowing Rivers Help Mitigate the Climate, Biodiversity and Water Crises—Dams Do Not

Rivers, when unfettered and healthy, help regulate an increasingly volatile global carbon cycle by drawing an estimated 200 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year. This is just one of the dozens of essential services provided by free-flowing freshwater ecosystems, which range from provision of food to flood mitigation and access to water supply. Dams do a poor job of storing water; “it’s estimated at least 7 percent of the total amount of fresh water needed for human activities evaporates from the world’s reservoirs every year,” according to an article in Deutsche Welle.

8. Alternatives Are More Affordable and Driving the Energy Revolution

Truly renewable, clean energy sources are readily available and financially competitive and have overtaken large hydropower projects as the preferred choice for energy generation and access. Utility-scale renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, and geothermal have the potential to provide environmentally and socially sustainable energy and are also increasingly cost-effective for consumers.

Given the plunging costs of alternative energy sources and improved storage technologies—as well as significant advances in energy efficiency and grid management—it is now possible to expand energy generation while drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving our free-flowing rivers.

9. Expanding Hydropower Is Incompatible With Efforts to Address the Looming Biodiversity Crisis

While they account for less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, freshwater ecosystems are home to more than 10% of all species. Hydropower dams are a key culprit in the rapid 84% decline in the populations of freshwater species experienced since 1970.

This year, the second phase of the 15th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is expected to begin in August, and the participants of the convention will discuss and agree on the UN biodiversity framework, and with freshwater ecosystems being the “most degraded ecosystems in the world,” urgent global action is required to turn this around.

10. The Destruction of Nature Is at the Root Cause of Multiple Crises

We’re facing multiple challenges: climate change, massive biodiversity loss, and a global pandemic, among other challenges of human rights, equity, and poverty. We must tackle the root systems and drivers of our major global challenges. The future depends on us to make the right decisions at this critical moment.

Hydropower dams are a false climate solution and should not be prioritized in future energy or climate plans. A new paradigm in river stewardship and protections is critical, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, to safeguard the water sources that are indispensable to life and public health, help prevent countries from taking on calamitous new debt, ensure a just energy transition that centres people and human rights, and effectively confront our climate and water crises and biodiversity loss.

We have less than 10 years to halve our greenhouse gas emissions to stave off catastrophic climate change, and we must also address the interlinked water and biodiversity crises. As Bob Watson, former chair of the IPCC and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, said, “If we fail to act now, future generations will ask, why did we not act to save the Earth given all of the scientific evidence we have?” It is past time to put to rest these false notions of hydropower being a sustainable climate solution and instead invest in energy pathways that can both address climate change and deliver electricity to those who lack it.



Josh Klemm is the co-executive director of International Rivers, a non-profit at the heart of the global struggle to protect rivers and the rights of communities that depend on them. He previously led the Africa Program at the Bank Information Center. Find him on Twitter @JoshKlemm.

Eugene Simonov is the international coordinator of the Rivers without Boundaries Coalition (RwB), which unites local communities and activists to protect transboundary rivers of the Eurasian continent.

This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine
Global warfare has always accompanied the globalisation of capitalism and its profit motive.

Richard D. Wolff
13 Apr 2022

Image Courtesy: NDTV

To the motives for war in human history, capitalism added another: profit. That motive drove technological advancement and created a genuine world economy. It also built new capitalist empires, such as the Spanish, Dutch, British, French, Belgian, Russian, German, Japanese, and American empires. Each of these countries built its empire by various means including wars against prior systems operating on their own territories, in their colonies, and in foreign “spheres of influence.”

Wars likewise characterised interactions among empires. Global warfare (“world wars”) accompanied the globalisation of capitalism and its profit motive. The war in Ukraine is the latest chapter in the history of capitalism, empire, and war.

Capitalism means enterprises run by small groups of people—employers—who preside over large groups—hired employees. Employers are driven to maximise profits: the excess of the value added by hired workers over the wages paid to them. Employers are likewise driven to sell outputs at the highest price the market will bear and buy inputs (including workers’ time) at the lowest possible market price.

Competition among capitalist enterprises pressures all employers to plow profits as much as possible back into the business to help it grow and to gain market share as means to maximise profits. They each must do this in order to survive because competition’s winners tend to destroy and then absorb the losers. The social result of this competition among enterprises is that capitalism as a system is inherently driven to expand quickly.

That expansion, inside every capitalist nation, inevitably overflows its boundaries. Capitalist enterprises seek, find, and develop foreign sources of food, raw materials, workers, and markets. As competition becomes global, competing capitalist enterprises seek help from their nations’ governments to expand.

Politicians quickly learn that companies in their nations that lose in global competition will blame those politicians for insufficient support. Meanwhile, companies that win in the global competition will reward such politicians for their help. The social result of this is that capitalism entails national competition alongside enterprise competition. Wars often punctuate capitalism’s national competition. The winners in those competitions thereby often tended to build empires, historically.

For example, in the 17th and 18th centuries, wars helped British capitalism to build a global empire. In the 19th century, more wars punctuated the completion and consolidation of that empire. Empire growth had itself stimulated all manner of challenges and competition, eventuating in more wars.

For example, as capitalism took root and grew in Britain’s American colony, colonial enterprises eventually encountered obstacles (limited markets, taxes, and limited access to inputs). These obstacles eventually grew into a conflict between them and their colony’s leaders, on one side, and Britain’s capitalists and King George III, on the other. The war of independence resulted. Later, British leaders went to war against the United States in 1812 and also considered siding with the enslavers in the South against the capitalist North in the American Civil War.

The 19th century saw countless efforts by other nations to compete with, challenge, undermine, or reduce Britain’s empire. Competitive capitalist enterprises engendered competitive colonialism and many wars. The United States and Germany grew into the major national competitors for Britain.

Wars punctuated the growth of capitalism across the 19th century, within the United States and Germany, as well as elsewhere across the globe. As capitalist enterprises combined, centralised, and grew—resulting from the competition among them—so too did many nations consolidate into fewer numbers of nations. Wars became larger too, culminating in the devastating first of the two World Wars.

The British Empire fought the German Empire in World War I. That destroyed them both as contenders for global dominance. Having been far less damaged by World War I, US capitalism grew fast in replacing the global capitalist positions that Britain and Germany had lost because of the war. World War I also established capitalism’s responsibility for the tens of millions who died, were injured, and were made refugees in what was then considered the worst war ever.

Germany tried to regain its global dominance a few years later, allied with the newest capitalist empire, Japan, to undo the results of World War I. It failed, as the United States defeated Germany and Japan to demonstrate its economic and military (nuclear) superiority. A consolidated US global empire prevailed from 1945 until recent years.

The United States then learned what the British had discovered earlier. Building and consolidating a capitalist empire provokes an endless succession of challengers. Among capitalist enterprises, competition’s losers’ employees move to work for the winners; the winners’ enterprises grow, and the loser’s decline. Winners’ growth often entails still greater profits and more competitive victories. That growth invites and promotes new competitors. Fended off for a while, eventually one or more new competitors discover how seriously to challenge the older dominant firm and displace it.

Capitalist empires and their challengers exhibit parallel histories. As the competitive new enterprise destroys the old, the same happens with empires. That has been capitalism’s history, and that is what is now being seen in Ukraine.

Britain, after the end of the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, won a century of global dominance. The United States after World War I did so too. Both empires provoked endless challenges. Nations large and small developed enterprises, industries, and political leaders who wanted to make changes or move in directions that differed from/challenged the US global capitalist hegemony after World War I. For example, across Latin America, references to “manifest destiny” resulted in small wars to remove competing challenges in the region.

Likewise, when Iran’s prime minister in the early 1950s, Mohammad Mosaddegh, or Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, showed signs of breaking away from the US empire’s control, both were removed.

The one repression attempt by the US that failed was in Cuba. The United States then isolated and economically hobbled Cuba via sanctions and embargoes. Warfare could be economic as well as military. Ukraine is another example, but with a peculiarity: US support for Ukraine is an effort to repress another country that challenges US hegemony, namely Russia. And repressing Russia too is a peculiar indirect way to get at the greatest threat to the US capitalist empire, namely China.

The USSR’s survival after 1917, its World War II victories, and its development of nuclear weapons after 1945 created a potential challenger for the US capitalist empire that had to be confronted. Former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill had accommodated the USSR’s control in Eastern Europe after 1945, but that represented a “loss” for U.S. global dominance. Thus, Eastern Europe quickly became the site of an ideological or “cold” war that pitted freedom and democracy against communism and totalitarianism in the USSR and its “satellite states.” It had to be a “cold” war because the consequences of a nuclear war would have been extreme.

Before World War II, US wars against other communist challengers of its empire had not demonised them as “evil communists.” During World War II, the United States even allied with the USSR to jointly defeat the immediate challengers (Germany and Japan). But after 1945, that was the preferred ideological terminology used for the USSR to justify protecting the US empire. Then, when the USSR and its hold on Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989/1990, the old terminology faded in favour of a new terminology, used to begin a new war on a new challenger: Islamic terrorism.

The 30-plus years since 1989/1990 have changed both the US empire and its challenges. Russia proved too weak to hold on to most of Eastern Europe. The United States reintegrated much of that region into Western capitalism via EU and NATO memberships, trade agreements, and Western investments.Slowly, over the last 20 years, Russia overcame some of its post-1989 weaknesses.

The meteoric rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) brought new challenges for the US empire, including a Russia-China alliance. Russia is now a capitalist economic system allied with the PRC (whose economy has a larger private capitalist sector than at any time since the Chinese Revolution of 1949). These two powerful capitalist economies are the largest globally by geography (Russia) and by population (China). They present a major problem for the US global empire.

Russia evidently felt finally strong enough and allied with a much larger economic entity so it could hope to challenge and stop further “losses” in Eastern Europe. Thus, it invaded Crimea, Georgia, and now Ukraine.

In stark contrast, the US empire’s ability to suppress challenges to its global dominance shrank. It lost wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, as well as its intervention in Syria’s civil war. Its global economic footprint decreased in relation to that of the PRC. It proved unable to bring nations like Venezuela and Iran to heel despite trying hard for many years.

In Ukraine, on one side is an effort led by nationalists who would bring another nation further back into the US-led global capitalist empire. On the other side is Russia and its allies determined to challenge the US empire’s growth project in Ukraine and pursue their own competitive agenda for part or all of Ukraine. China stays with Russia because its leaders see the world and history in much the same way: They both share a common competitor in the United States.

Ukraine, per se, is not the issue. It is tragically a war-ravaged pawn in a much larger conflict. Nor is the issue about either Russian President Vladimir Putin or US President Joe Biden as leaders. The same history and confrontation would prevail upon their successors.

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump’s effort to force change on the PRC by imposing the biggest sanctions action in history (i.e., a trade war and a tariff war) utterly failed. Trump was caught up in the same history as Biden, even if each focused on attacking the Russian-Chinese alliance differently.

Eventually, some compromise will end the Ukraine war. Both sides will likely declare victory and blame the war on the other among propaganda blizzards. The Russian side will stress demilitarisation, denazification, and protection of Russians in eastern Ukraine. The Ukraine side will stress freedom, independence, and national self-determination.

Meanwhile, the tragedy goes beyond Ukraine’s suffering. The entire world is caught up in the decline of one capitalist empire and the rise of yet another. Conflicts between the capitalist empires can occur anywhere where differences between them flare up.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy lies in not recognising the responsibility of the capitalist system with its markets of competing enterprises run/dominated by the minorities we call employers. That system lies at the root of these historic repetitions. The minority employer class controls or is the leadership of the nations that have absorbed and reproduced the competition that capitalism entails. The majority employee class pays most of the costs on both sides (in dead, wounded, destroyed properties, refugee lives, and taxes).

A different economic system not driven by a profit motive offers a deeper solution than any on offer at present. Perhaps the war in Ukraine can awaken an awareness of its capitalist roots and teach people to explore alternative systemic solutions. If so, this war and the resulting devastation from it could lead to an important turning point that eventually results in some positive outcomes in the future.

Richard D. Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, in New York.

Source: Independent Media Institute

Credit Line: This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

West-Led Globalisation May End, New One Might Have Eastern Face

As US widens its net to sanction more and more countries, these countries seek to build up trade mechanisms that are not reliant upon Western institutions anymore.

E. Ahmet Tonak, Vijay Prashad
20 Apr 2022



An article written by authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge for Bloomberg on March 24 sounded the alarm to announce the end of “the second great age of globalization.” The Western trade war and sanctions against China that predated the pandemic have now been joined by the stiff Western sanctions imposed against Russia after it invaded Ukraine. These sanctions are like an iron curtain being built by the United States and its allies around Eurasia. But, according to Micklethwait and Wooldridge, this iron curtain will not only descend around China and Russia but will also have far-reaching consequences across the world.

Australia and many countries in Asia, including India and Japan—which are otherwise reliable allies of the United States—are unwilling to break their economic and political ties with China and Russia. The 38 countries that did not vote at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on March 24 to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine included China and India; both of these countries “account for the majority of the world’s population,” Micklethwait and Wooldridge observe in their Bloomberg article. If the world bifurcates, “the second great age of globalization… [will come] to a catastrophic close,” the article states.

In 2000, Micklethwait and Wooldridge published the manual on this wave of globalisation called A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization. That book cheered on the liberalisation of trade and finance, although its authors acknowledged that in this free market society that they championed, “businesspeople are the most obvious beneficiaries.”

The inequalities generated by globalisation would be lessened, they suggested, by the greater choices afforded to the consumers (although, as social inequality increased during the 2000s, consumers simply did not have the money to exercise their choices). When Micklethwait and Wooldridge wrote A Future Perfect, they both worked for the Economist, which has been one of the cheerleaders of Western-shaped globalisation. Both Micklethwait and Wooldridge are now at Bloomberg, another significant voice of the business elites.

In an article for the International Monetary Fund, Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University, warns of the risk of deglobalisation. Such an unravelling, he notes, “would surely be a huge negative shock for the world economy.” Rogoff, like Micklethwait and Wooldridge, uses the word “catastrophic” to describe the impact of deglobalisation.

Unlike Micklethwait and Wooldridge, however, Rogoff’s article seems to imply that deglobalisation is the production of Russia’s war on Ukraine and that it could be “temporary.” Russia, he states, “looks set to be isolated for an extended period.” In his article, Rogoff does not delve very much into concerns about what this means to the people in many parts of the world (such as Central Asia and Europe). “The real hit to globalization,” he worries, “will happen if trade between advanced economies and China also drops.” If that happens, then deglobalisation would not be temporary since countries such as China and Russia will seek other pathways for trade and development.

Longer Histories

None of these writers acknowledges in these recent articles that deglobalisation, which is a retreat from Western-designed globalisation, did not begin during the pandemic or during the Russian war on Ukraine. This process has its origins in the Great Recession of 2007-2009. With the faltering of the Western economies, both China and Russia, as well as other major economic powers, began to seek alternative ways to globalise.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was announced in 2013, is a signal of this gradual shift, with China developing its own linkages first in Central and South Asia and then beyond Asia and toward Africa, Europe and Latin America. It is telling that the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a backwater event founded in 1997, has become a meeting place for Asian and European business and political leaders who see this meeting as much more significant than the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting held in Davos, Switzerland.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, countries such as China began to de-dollarise their currency reserves. They moved from a largely dollar-based reserve to one that was more diversified. It is this move toward diversification that led to the drop in the dollar’s share in global currency reserves from 70% in 2000 to 59% in 2020.

According to author Tony Norfield, the share of dollars in Russian foreign exchange reserves was 23.6% in 2019 and dropped to 10.9% by 2021. Deprived of dollars due to the sanctions imposed by the West, the Central Bank of Russia has attempted various manoeuvres to de-dollarise its currency reserves as well, including by anchoring the rouble to gold, by preventing the outward flow of dollars and by demanding that its buyers of fuel and food pay in roubles rather than in dollars.

As the United States widens its net to sanction more and more countries, these countries—such as China and Russia—seek to build up trade mechanisms that are not reliant upon Western institutions anymore.

Deglobalisation Leads to a Different Globalisation

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)—the world’s largest free trade pact—went into effect. Two years ago, 15 countries met virtually in Hanoi, Vietnam, to sign this treaty. These countries include close allies of the United States, such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, as well as countries that face U.S. sanctions, such as China and Myanmar. A third of humanity is included in RCEP, which accounts for a third of global gross domestic product. The Asian Development Bank is hopeful that RCEP will provide relief to countries struggling to emerge from the negative economic impact of the pandemic.

Blocs such as RCEP and projects like the BRI are not antithetical to the internationalisation of trade and development. Economists at the HKUST Business School in Hong Kong show that the BRI “significantly increases bilateral trade flows between BRI countries.”

China’s purchases from BRI countries have increased, although much of this is in the realm of energy and minerals rather than in high-value goods; exports from China to the BRI countries, on the other hand, remain steady. The Asian Development Bank estimates that the BRI project would require $1.7 trillion annually for infrastructural development in Asia, including climate-related investments.

The pandemic has certainly stalled the progress of the BRI project, with debt problems affecting a range of countries due to lower than capacity use of their BRI-funded infrastructure. The economic and political crises in Pakistan and Sri Lanka are partly related to the global slowdown of trade. These countries are integral to the BRI project. Rising food and fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine will further complicate matters for countries in the Global South.

The appetite in many parts of the world has already increased for an alternative to Western-shaped globalisation, but this does not necessarily mean deglobalisation. It could mean a globalisation platform that no longer has its epicentre located in Washington or Brussels.

E. Ahmet Tonak is an economist who works at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

INDIA
AIUFWP Urges UP Governor to Act Against Hate Politics

The union points out the violence in April, specifically against Muslims and Dalits, and says must be investigated

Sabrang India
29 Apr 2022



Noting as many as six attacks on minorities in recent weeks, the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) appealed to the Uttar Pradesh Governor to investigate such matters within the state.

The AIUFWP intends to send a letter to Governor Anandiben Patel on May 1, 2022 Labour Day to highlight the recent violent incidents of attacks on Muslim and Dalit communities. The organisations demanded that Patel highlight such incidents in the state and countrywide to prevent the violation of human rights.

“Our country is one that celebrates religious festivals. It is India’s culture to celebrate all festivals together equally. However, the last few days have shown how certain anti-social elements are using these occasions as opportunities to create a communal sentiment. They abuse the Muslim community, insult their women, religious places and symbols to create a sense of fear,” said AIUFWP in the letter.

Members pointed out that governments at the union and state-level are failing the Muslim community by treating them as second-class citizens and ignoring their rights. In some instances, the Union claimed that violent groups even violated international human rights laws.

Yet, it cited the Ram Navami attacks and especially the Khargone violence wherein the police allegedly charged Muslims for the damages. According to the AIUFWP, some of the people named in the chargesheet are already in jails or admitted in hospitals. Further, residents alleged that police invaded their houses at midnight, assaulted people, arrested men and misbehaved with the women, completely dismissing the community’s human rights.

Similarly, Muslim residents of Jahangirpuri suffered violence at the hands of an aggressive group celebrating Hanuman Jayanti. After this they were charge-sheeted. In both instances, communities also suffered the demolition of their houses by bulldozers.
ATTACKS ON DALITS

Sadly, Muslims were not the only ones to face oppression in April. In Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, some savarna extremists assaulted a Dalit labour youth for demanding his wages. The person was made to lick the accused’s feet. This is the same state where a Dalit man has to seek police assistance to ride a horse for his wedding.

During Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14, Odisha’s Bajrang Dal attacked a local Dalit procession. Many participants were injured. Similarly, Covid health worker Jitendra Meghwal, a Dalit man, was killed for sporting a moustache in Rajasthan.

“In all these instances, the aggrieved are minority groups, labouring for their livelihoods. This is a planned attack on people who after the global pandemic are struggling with poverty and unemployment. Such incidents are destroying the democratic values of India,” said AIUFWP.

It warned that this is a bad omen for a country based on the values of equality, freedom and brotherhood.

THE ENTIRE LETTER MAY BE READ HERE:

MAY DIWAS ज्ञापन 2022.pdf from sabrangsabrang

Courtesy: Sabrang India

 

INDIA

Gujarat: Dalit Groups to Hold Massive Demonstrations Demanding Mevani's Release on May 1

Dalits from more than 1,000 villages are expected to join the demonstrations on May 1- Gujarat Day.

Newsclick Report
29 Apr 2022

Image Courtesy: PTI

Protests against the arrest of Vadgam (Gujarat) MLA Jignesh Mevani have intensified, with dalit groups announcing a huge demonstration against Assam police's action on May 1, Gujarat Day.

Mevani was arrested by Assam police from Palanpur circuit house in Gujarat's Banasakantha district on April 20 and was flown to Assam the next day.

The arrest was made after a complaint by Arup Dey, an executive member of the Bodoland Territorial Council and Member of the Council Legislative Assembly (MCLA) in Bodoland Territorial Council. The complaint was regarding a tweet by Mevani on April 18 ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to his home state Gujarat.

Mevani had tweeted: "Godse ko apna aradhya manne wale pradhanmantri Narendra Modi 20 tarikh se Gujarat daure pe hai, unse appeal hai ki Gujarat me Himmatnagar, Khambat aur Veraval me jo kaumi hadse huye hai uske khilaf shanti aur aman ka appeal kare. Mahatma mandir ke nirmata se itni ummid to banti hai. (PM Modi, who idealises Godse, is set to commence his Gujarat tour on April 20. I appeal to him to appeal for peace and brotherhood in Himmatnagar, Khambat and Veraval, which recently witnessed communal tension. I hope this much can be expected of someone who built Mahatma Mandir)."

Mevani's arrest saw immediate reactions in Gujarat and Assam. On April 21, dalit women led by Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) protested across Gujarat and held 'Rasta Roko' demonstrations in Ahmedabad, Kutch, Godhra, Bhavnagar and other districts. Yash Makwana, a member of RDAM, told NewsClick that the dalit community in Gujarat is disappointed over Mevani's brazen arrest, adding that "Mevani is more than an MLA for us; he is our fellow activist."

In Assam, Congress workers have been protesting since April 21. Assam police detained senior Congress leaders in the state following a protest demonstration in the Barpeta district on April 26.

Following the arrest, Mevani had received bail in the case from a chief judicial magistrate in the Kokrajhar district but was re-arrested moments later in another FIR filed in Assam's Barpeta district. The second arrest under Sections 294, 323, and 354 of the Indian Penal Code was made in a case involving an assault on a woman officer and obstructing a public servant from discharging their duty.

Dalit rights activist Martin Macwan said that "dalits from over 1,000 villages in Gujarat will switch off the lights in their homes and light a lamp in front of the Constitution" on May 1.

Macwan further said that while one can question Mevani's choice of words in his tweet, he only appealed for communal harmony, adding that "in all probability dalits from more than 1,000 villages will join the protest."

Dalit groups also wrote to Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, seeking an apology for the action against Mevani. They also demanded that Mevani "be brought back to Gujarat with all due respect." On May 1, dalit groups in Gujarat will organise state-wide programmes, further intensifying their protest demanding Mevani's release and withdrawal of cases against all other dalits.

Finally, Dalit Leader Jignesh Mevani Gets Bail by Assam Court in Second Case

The Vadgam MLA from Gujarat had been arrested by the Assam Police for a tweet seen as critical of PM Modi. He was given bail and then rearrested.


PTI
29 Apr 2022


Barpeta (Assam): Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was granted bail by a court in Assam's Barpeta district on Friday in a case related to the alleged assault of a woman police officer.

Barpeta District and Sessions judge Paresh Chakraborty granted bail to Mevani on a Personal Recognisance (PR) bond of Rs 1,000 in the case filed at the Barpeta Road police station.

The court had heard Mevani's lawyer and the public prosecutor on Thursday on the bail application and reserved the order for Friday.

The dalit leader was arrested in this case on Monday soon after he was released on bail in another case in Kokrajhar district.

Mevani, an Independent MLA backed by the Congress, was first arrested on April 19 from Palanpur town in Gujarat, and was brought to Kokrajhar for tweeting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It is alleged that he assaulted the woman officer when she was accompanying him from Guwahati airport to Kokrajhar along with senior police officials.

In this case, he was booked under IPC Sections 294 (uttering obscene words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assaulting a public servant in the execution of duty) and 354 (using criminal force to a woman intending to outrage her modesty).

The court had Tuesday sent him to five days in police custody.

Assam Congress MP Abdul Khaleque Wednesday had demanded the immediate release of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and a judicial inquiry into the case filed against him for alleged assault of a woman police officer in Barpeta for which he was rearrested after being granted bail in a case related to a tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said Mevani's arrest was a ''full fledged conspiracy" and expressed scepticism over the incident which had reportedly taken place when he was in police custody after being brought to Kokrajhar in Assam from Gujarat for his tweet.

''An independent judicial inquiry must be instituted into the fabricated case immediately as the police is not independent in Assam and is acting under political pressure. He should be released immediately," said Khaleque, who is an MP from Barpeta, where the alleged assault of the woman police officer took place.

He said Mevani had tweeted in Gujarat. "Then why was a case filed in Assam? It is obvious that the Assam chief minister wants to please the prime minister. It is shameful for a chief minister to behave in such a manner''.

Khaleque claimed that he had filed a case against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma but the police did not register it despite a local court's direction to do so.

FEMICIDE; TEA WORKERS ARE WOMEN
Tripura: Tea Garden Workers Struggling due to Violence From Biker Gangs, Meagre Wages

Wages have not been revised since BJP came to power in the state. The collusion between biker gangs and garden planters is making things worse.

Sandip Chakraborty
28 Apr 2022


Kolkata/Agartala: For Badal Karmakar of Narendrapur tea estate or Naresh Chaki of Mekhlipara tea estate, there is an unofficial gag on speaking to reporters about their struggles. They fear they will be physically attacked if they do so.

There are around 55,000 tea garden workers spread across 56 tea gardens of Tripura, which produces the orthodox CTC tea. The condition of these workers with wages as low as Rs 105/day is beyond contemplation. Their houses have not been repaired in the last five years, especially since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in the state.

Speaking with NewsClick, Kanu Ghosh, vice-president of Tripura Tea Workers' Union, alleged that biker gangs currently control every aspect of tea gardens.

"During the Left government's rule, tea garden managers controlled the administration. Their position has been made redundant now. Biker gangs control everything, including the transportation of tea leaves to factories. The conditions are especially dire in small tea gardens, which do not have own factories. They are forbidden from purchasing coal from the lowest bidders and are forced to purchase it from these gangs," Ghosh alleged.

NewsClick learnt that tea workers in the state are paid the lowest wages in the country among all plantation workers. In Kerala, tea garden workers make around Rs 412/day, whereas in Assam, the daily wage is Rs 330. In comparison, the minimum wage in Tripura ranges from Rs 105-130/day.

Just before the last Assembly elections, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) government had increased the minimum wage to Rs 176, which couldn't go through due to orders from the Election Commission.

Wages have not been revised since BJP came to power. As the time for the second revision approaches, the government is trying to persuade workers to accept Rs 176/day as minimum wage. Ghosh said tea garden workers are migrating to other states due to low wages.

"Only those who don't have their houses here or are mandatorily required to stay are currently working despite the crumbling state of their accommodation."

Jia-ul Alam, general secretary of All India Plantation Workers' Federation, the nodal organisation of plantation workers of the country with a strength of over 2.5 lakh members, told NewsClick that the dismal condition of tea workers in Tripura was reported in the last general body meeting of his organisation in Guwahati.

"After rubber, tea plantations are the second-largest organised industry in Tripura. The BJP government is responsible for the dire conditions of these marginalised workers. The absence of democracy in Tripura is hurting tea workers the most. Since the BJP government came to office, goonda raj in Tripura has increased, hurting the workers' interests," he alleged.

On the condition of anonymity, a tea plantation worker told NewsClick that the state government has banned trade unions in tea gardens.

"Earlier, labour inspectors used to visit gardens, which has stopped now. The biker gangs collude with the planters to wreak havoc on the workers. The rice/wheat ratio is an important component of our wage calculation. The whole thing is facing uncertainty because planters decide the ratio now. The medical infrastructure in tea gardens is crumbling. They don't have any medicines," the worker said.

In this context, the Tripura Tea Workers' Union recently held a conference in Bhanu Ghosh Smriti Bhawan in Agartala, where Manik Sarkar, Opposition leader in Tripura Assembly and CPIM polit bureau member, was the main speaker. Around 200 delegates attended the conference.

Addressing the gathering, Sarkar said that the situation in the state is changing fast. "Tormentors won't have the last laugh," he said. He called upon tea garden workers to resist the goonda raj of the biker gangs.

"There's no way to evade this situation. Tackling the situation head-on is the only answer."

Do Humans Have Nutritional Wisdom?

A new study with a novel approach has shed fresh light on this field of research. It suggests that our food choices are even more sophisticated than was thought previously, and this choice is influenced by nutrients and not only calories, as thought earlier.

Sandipan Talukdar
26 Apr 2022


Previously, it was thought that humans evolved to have food preferences which were dependent on calories needed to fulfil the energy requirement of the body. In other words, humans evolved to prefer calorie intense foods and the balance in the diet is maintained by the consumption of a variety of foods. The main notion was that animals possess an inbuilt quality of selecting optimal diets for good health. This age-old dogma, however, was outrightly dismissed by many.

In the 1930s, an American paediatrician Dr Clara Davis conducted a research where a group of 15 babies was put on a diet. The group members were allowed to select their choice of foods among 33 different food items available there. The researcher found that no child chose an exact combination of foods, but with their choices, each one of them achieved a good state of health and could maintain it. This famous experiment was considered evidence of human nutritional wisdom, which led to a variety of diet preferences.

Expectedly, Davis's findings were scrutinised and criticised later by many other researchers. But replication of the experiment would be considered unethical, which involves experimentation on babies. And as a result, even almost a century later, no scientists have attempted to find evidence about the nutritional wisdom of humans. Interestingly, nutritional wisdom is not limited to humans, but other animals, including primates, manifest this behaviour in their food choice.

In this regard, a new study with a novel approach has shed fresh light on this field of research. The research published in the journal Appetite recently suggests that our food choices are even more sophisticated than was thought previously, and this choice is influenced by nutrients and not only calories, as thought earlier. The nutritional wisdom of humans leads to selecting foods as per the requirement of the micronutrients, including minerals, and vitamins.

Jeff Brunstrom of Bristol University's Nutrition and Behavior Unit, School of Psychological Science and the lead author of the study commented on the findings—“The results of our studies are hugely significant and rather surprising. For the first time in almost a century, we've shown humans are more sophisticated in their food choices and appear to select based on specific micronutrients rather than simply eating everything and getting what they need by default.”

Brunstrom's team devised a novel technique for exploring the topic. They opted for a typical behavioural study methodology and showed participants the pictures of pairs of food items and asked for their preferences. The team then analysed their choices. In this approach, the participants were not liable to eat anything in reality, so there arose no health issues

The research consisted of 128 adults in total who participated in two experiments. The first experiment showed that people prefer to have certain food combinations more than others. For example, the researchers found that apples and bananas were preferred more than apples and blackberries. The remarkable aspect was that the preferences appear to be predicted by the amounts of micronutrients in a pair.

The researchers cross-checked these findings and carried out the second experiment. They studied the UK's National Diet and Nutrition Survey, where real-world meal combinations are reported. These data also revealed that people prefer diets that provide exposure to micronutrients.

Mark Schatzker, the co-author of the study and a journalist and author and the writer-in-residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, Yale University, commenting on the research and its findings, said—“The research throws up important questions, especially in the modern food environment. For example, does our cultural fixation with fad diets, which limit or forbid the consumption of certain types of foods, disrupt or disturb this dietary intelligence in ways we do not understand?"

"Studies have shown animals use flavour to guide the vitamins and minerals they require. If flavour serves a similar role for humans, we may be imbuing junk foods such as potato chips and fizzy drinks with a false 'sheen' of nutrition by adding flavourings. In other words, the food industry may be turning our nutritional wisdom against us, making us eat food we would normally avoid and thus contributing to the obesity epidemic,"—Mark added further.