Slain Journalist's Funeral Held in Ramallah

Thu, May 12, 2022

The funeral of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was held in front of a huge crowd at the presidential palace in Ramallah on Thursday, May 12, with President Mahmoud Abbas speaking.

Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in Jenin the previous day, May 11.

Speaking at the event, Abbas said, “We hold the Israeli occupation authorities completely responsible for her killing, and they cannot, with this crime of theirs, remove the truth.” He added, “This crime must not pass without punishment. We indicate that we have refused, and still refuse, a joint investigation with the Israeli authorities, because it committed the crime.”

Abu Akleh’s burial was due to take place in Jerusalem on Friday.

The Israel Defense Forces said they were investigating the shooting death. IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Aviv Kohavi said it was “at this point not possible to determine the source of the gunfire which hit [Abu Akleh]”.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet tweeted that Palestinian gunmen had opened “inaccurate, uncontrolled, and indistinguishable” fire in Jenin.

Speaking from his hospital bed, fellow Al Jazeera journalist Ali Samoudi, who was injured in the shooting, said, “We were not armed, we did not pose a threat to Israeli security, and they did not ask us to leave the area.” He added, “They shot at us when we were right in front of them, as they saw and watched us, and are sure that we are journalists, because we were, five, six, wearing press vests and helmets, and carrying cameras.” 

Palestinians honour slain journalist, reject joint investigation with Israel

Palestinians planned a memorial service Thursday for journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank, but have rejected US-led calls for a joint investigation into her death. 

© AFP

Palestinian-American Abu Akleh, 51, a veteran of Qatar-based Al Jazeera's Arabic TV service, was shot in the head during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp, a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel's Defence Minister Benny Gantz conceded late Wednesday that it could have been "the Palestinians who shot her" or fire from "our side" – appearing to walk back Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's remarks that she was "likely" killed by stray Palestinian gunfire.

"We are not certain how she was killed but we want to get to the bottom of this incident and to uncover the truth as much as we can," Gantz told reporters.

Al Jazeera, Palestinian officials and witnesses said Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces, and the network insisted she was targeted "deliberately" and "in cold blood".

School girls visit the site where veteran Al Jazeera Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank, in Jenin on May 12, 2022 

(AFP/JAAFAR ASHTIYEH)

Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation into the killing and asked Palestinian authorities to hand over the bullet that struck Abu Akleh for forensic examination.

An Israeli security source told AFP that Israel was prepared to examine the projectile in front of Palestinian and US officials, "out of transparency".

Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian during a protest condemning the death of Shireen Abu Akleh in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Hanina in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 11, 2022

 (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)

'High transparency'

The European Union has urged an "independent" probe while the United States demanded the killing be "transparently investigated", calls echoed by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

An initial autopsy and forensic examination were conducted in Nablus in the Israel-occupied West Bank hours after her death, but no final conclusions have been disclosed.

Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein Al-Sheikh, a close confident of president Mahmoud Abbas, has ruled out a joint probe.

"Israel has requested a joint investigation and to be handed over the bullet that assassinated the journalist Shireen. We refused that, and we affirmed that our investigation would be completed independently," Al-Sheikh said on Twitter.

"We will inform her family, #USA, #Qatar and all official authorities and the public of the results of the investigation with high transparency. All of the indicators , the evidence and the witnesses confirm her assassination by #Israeli special units."

A Palestinian woman holds a photograph of slain veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as her body is carried toward the offices of the news channel in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on May 11, 2022

 (AFP/RONALDO SCHEMIDT)

'Sister of all Palestinians'

Abu Akleh rose to prominence for Arabic audiences after joining Al Jazeera in 1997 and through her coverage of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005.

"She was the sister of all Palestinians," her brother Antoun told AFP at the family home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

"What happened cannot be silence ... She will not be forgotten."

A woman lights a candle in front of a poster depicting veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at the the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank biblical city of Bethlehem on May 11, 2022

(AFP/HAZEM BADER

In a sign of her status among Palestinians, she was set to receive what the Palestinians labelled a full state memorial at the presidential compound in Ramallah on Thursday morning.

Her death came nearly a year after an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gaza building that housed the offices of Al Jazeera and news agency AP.

Tensions have again risen in recent months as Israel has grappled with a wave of attacks which have killed at least 18 people since March 22, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.

A total of 31 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have died during the same period, according to an AFP tally, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.

(AFP)

 

 

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/shireen-abu-akleh-outrage-grows-over-al.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/rest-in-power-shireen-abu-aqla.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/al-jazeera-reporter-killed-during.html

Why Russia's air force failed to dominate Ukraine

Niamh Cavanagh
·Producer
Tue, May 10, 2022

LONDON — Many observers expected Russia’s air force to blow away Ukraine’s forces in the opening days of the Kremlin’s invasion. Ukraine’s military would be left completely vulnerable as Russian warplanes could pick off targets at whim.

But that hasn’t happened.

More than two months later, Russia has still not established air supremacy over large swaths of Ukraine, despite having the world’s second-largest air force — and a highly advanced one at that. The New York Times reported Monday that, according to the U.S. Defense Department, Ukraine “continues to fly its own fighters and attack jets against Russian troops.”

A pair of Russian Su-35 fighter jets in the sky in Russia in November 2021.

 (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia’s air force has even been timid as Ukraine’s relatively scrappy anti-air defenses remain a formidable threat. NATO countries have done their best to flood Ukraine with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS, like the U.S.-made Stinger missile. The Stinger system can be fired by a single operator, whose missile locks onto aircraft with infrared guidance.

“The Western supplies of MANPAD and other types of air defense systems allowed Ukraine to increase and to improve its capabilities,” said Pavel Luzin, a Russian armed forces expert and contributor at the Jamestown Foundation.

William Alberque, the director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Yahoo News that Ukraine was able to effectively distribute these air defenses so it became too dangerous for Russian combat flights.

U.S. Marine gunners provide surface-to-air defense using the FIM-92 Stinger during an exercise on Okinawa, Japan, in March 2021.

(Lance Cpl. Ujian Gosun/U.S. Marine Corps)

NATO countries have also been providing Ukraine with increasingly advanced military hardware as Russia’s war drags on. Slovakia announced last month that it had donated its Soviet-era S-300 long-range air defense system to Ukraine.

Russia has been further hampered by its combat aircrafts’ lackluster weapons systems. U.S. officials say Russian pilots are “unable to quickly locate and engage targets on the ground,” and missiles launched into Ukraine “often miss their targets — if they work at all,” according to the Times.

Alberque said Russian stocks of precision-guided munitions are significantly smaller than NATO’s. This observation was backed by security analyst Oliver Alexander, who said on Twitter that with Russia’s lack of precision-guided munitions, “they are forced to use dumb munitions [unguided bombs] to operate at scale.”

A MiG-31 fighter of the Russian air force takes off at an air base during a military drill in Tver region, Russia, in February. 

(Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

But technology alone does not fully explain Russia’s failure to establish air superiority. Experts say Russia’s air doctrine has been poorly thought out and haphazardly executed from the opening days of the war.

“They thought it would be all over very quickly, with a complete Ukrainian collapse at first contact and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky either captured or fleeing,” Alberque said. If the Kremlin had predicted Ukrainian resilience, the Russian military would have “done a lot differently and their air power would be far more devastating now,” he said.

And because Moscow believed it would capture Ukraine the first few days, Russian military command was keen not to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure it wanted to keep for controlling the country after the war, Alberque said.

Russian air force Sukhoi Su-25SM jets leave trails of smoke in colors of the national flag during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow in 2021. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

Phillips Payson O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and Edward Stringer, a retired Royal Air Force air marshal, published a Monday essay in the Atlantic delving into the Russian air force’s failures. They argued1 that the Russian military struggles to creatively use air doctrine because it is philosophically wedded to being a traditional land power with massive reserves of soldiers at its disposal.

“When the invasion started, the Russian air force was incapable of running a well-thought-out, complex campaign,” they wrote. “Instead of working to control the skies, Russia’s air force has mostly provided air support to ground troops or bombed Ukrainian cities. In this it has followed the traditional tactics of a continental power that privileges land forces.”

BJP BUILDING A THEOCRATIC STATE

India's Supreme Court suspends controversial sedition law

India's top court suspended authorities from charging people with sedition under a controversial colonial-era law. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of misusing the law to silence critics.



The constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right to all citizens, but critics say some of India's limitations to this are outdated and becoming overused

India's Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended a controversial colonial-era sedition law.

India's top court said federal and state authorities couldn't levy new charges of sedition against individuals until it completed a review of the law.

It also suspended pending trials, appeals and proceedings related to sedition charges and added that people charged under the law could seek bail from courts.

India's government said on Monday that it had decided to "re-examine and reconsider" the law but that it remained in force.

Several journalists, politicians and others filed a series of petitions challenging the law in the Supreme Court.

Watch video 02:39 Press freedom in India in serious decline

What the Supreme Court said

"The rigors of Section 124A [are] not in tune with the current social milieu, and [were] intended for a time when this country was under the colonial regime," India's Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, part of a three-judge bench hearing a petition against the law, said.

"It will be appropriate not to use this provision of law till further reexamination is over," Ramana said.

India's sedition law, or Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, came into force in 1860. It was mainly used to punish Indian leaders seeking independence from the British during the 19th and early 20th century.

Section 124A defines sedition as: “Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government estab­lished by law shall be punished with im­prisonment for life, to which fine may be added."

The British 17th century Sedition Act from which the law stemmed became obsolete in the 1960s and was formally repealed in 2009, though parts of it do endure in other laws concerning treason.

Sedition cases climb during BJP rule

After India's independence in 1947, the law was used by successive Indian governments to silence dissenters, but the number of people charged with sedition steadily went up during the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rule after 2014.

There were 30 cases of sedition in 2015 and 236 cases of sedition between 2018 and 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, told the Supreme Court 13,000 people were in jail as a result of the law.

Watch video 04:22 Is the media crackdown in Kashmir escalating?

BJP accused of misusing sedition law

Experts have accused India's ruling party of weaponizing the law to intimidate and silence critics.

Perhaps most notoriously, a young climate activist was detained on sedition charges in February 2021 for creating a toolkit showing people how they could help India's protesting farmers.

In October 2021, three Kashmiri students were detained on sedition charges for celebrating Pakistan's cricket team's victory over India in a T20 World Cup game.

India's press freedom ranking fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 this year, according to a report compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), placing it just below Turkey and Hong Kong and just above Sudan and Tajikistan.

rm/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)

DW RECOMMENDS

Sedition law under fire

The debate over India's sedition law was triggered after the Supreme Court granted bail to jailed rights activist Binayak Sen. The court observed that no case of sedition had been made against Sen.

Yemen: $33 million pledged to prevent 'catastrophic' oil spill

The funding is needed to drain a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The UN has warned the vessel could spill four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.

The UN says the cleanup costs for a potential spill will cost around $20 billion

Donor countries have offered $33 million (€31.3 million) in funding to prevent a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen from spilling oil.

The FSO Safer, which is in a state of decay, had been used as a floating storage platform. But according to the UN, it is now at risk of breaking up and potentially causing a catastrophic oil spill.

Officials warn the tanker is carrying four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Alaskan waters in 1989.

More funding needed

The amount gathered on Wednesday fell well short of the $80 million needed to fund an emergency operation to drain the vessel of its 1.1 million barrels of oil.

Netherlands pledged nearly $8 million, with other contributions coming from Britain, Germany, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union.

"We need to work quickly to get the remaining funds to start the four-month operation in the weather window we have ahead of us," UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said in a statement.

"We need to finish this operation by the end of September to avoid the turbulent winds and currents that start in the latter part of the year ... increasing the risk of a breakup and, also, increasing the risk in conducting any operation."

Greenpeace called for countries to swiftly raise the money needed. "Enough delays: time to step up and fully fund US $80million to transfer the oil to safety, swiftly and securely," the organization said in a tweet. 

Before the donor conference, Gressly warned that there was an "imminent threat of a major oil spill from the Safer," adding that a spill "would unleash a massive ecological and humanitarian catastrophe centered on a country already decimated by more than seven years of war."

It's feared a potential spill would hit fishing communities hard which could impact millions of lives. Other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia would also be at risk.

According to the UN, the cleanup costs for a spill of this magnitude are estimated at around $20 billion.

kb/nm (AFP, Reuters)

Erdogan opponents allege Greek border pushbacks


Pushback: Greece has denied illegally sending back refugees likes these at the Turkish border in 2020

 (AFP/Sakis MITROLIDIS) 

Marina RAFENBERG
Wed, May 11, 2022, 

For years Greece has been accused of illegally pushing asylum-seekers back to Turkey, a practice it strenuously denies.

But according to witnesses and rights groups, the summary deportations are also hitting vulnerable opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kurdish writer Meral Simsek, 42, is one of several people who told AFP they were sent back to Turkey to face imprisonment and possible torture after already making a perilous crossing of the border on the River Evros.

Simsek said her experience was harrowing. She claimed Greek police forcibly strip-searched her and another woman from Syria, and that she nearly died on the journey back.

"They took our phones and all our documents. They told us to undress and strip searched us. They even put hands on my vagina," she said.

The two women were then put into an unmarked van and driven back to the river.

- 'Blood and urine' -

"The vehicle smelled of blood and urine, indicating that other people had been abused in there," the writer said.

Simsek was then forced onto a dinghy piloted by two migrant men who "intended to drown" her, she claimed.

"I jumped into the water and swam to the other bank," she said.

Last month Human Rights Watch said Greece was using men of apparent Middle Eastern or South Asian origin as "proxies" to facilitate illegal deportations at its land border with Turkey.

When she got back to the Turkish side, Simsek was locked up in the nearby city of Edirne.

She was fortunate to avoid a 22-year prison sentence for belonging to a terrorist organisation thanks to help from Amnesty International and other rights groups.

But she still faces a 15-month sentence for spreading propaganda against the Turkish government.

"This experience at the Greek-Turkish border revived the trauma of my past," said the writer, who was jailed and tortured in Turkey in the 1990s.

"I wanted to rebuild my life in Europe, be protected. Instead of that, I lived a nightmare," she said.

- Change of attitude -

Greece has traditionally been sympathetic to the plight of Kurds, some of whom have been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

But according to the Kurdistan Cultural Centre in Athens which assists fugitive Kurds, the policy appears to have changed last summer and many are now sent back to Turkey before being given a chance to apply for asylum in Greece.

Hundreds of non-Kurdish Turkish citizens have also sought protection in Greece following the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016.

Mehmet, a former police officer accused of being loyal to Fethullah Gulen -- a preacher and former Erdogan supporter accused of plotting the coup -- claimed Greece pushed him back three times last year.

He avoided a fourth expulsion thanks to a Greek lawyer, who helped him lodge an asylum request.

Meryem, a 32-year-old with dual Franco-Turkish nationality, said she was turned back in October even after showing Greek police her French identity card and a copy of her passport.

She was jailed in Turkey after being sentenced for being part of Gulen's organisation, which is now illegal. Her case is pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

Athens has always denied that its security forces engage in illegal pushbacks.

In March, Greece's national transparency authority said a four-month investigation found no evidence of such practices.

EU border agency Frontex has also repeatedly been accused by rights groups of illegally returning migrants across EU borders.

Its chief Fabrice Leggeri quit last month amid an investigation by the European anti-fraud office OLAF, reportedly into alleged mismanagement.

Alkistis Agrafioti, a lawyer with the Greek Council for Refugees, said the time has come for the EU to mount a "serious" inquiry into pushbacks.

"Pushbacks not only run contrary to international law, but they are also accompanied by criminal acts -- stealing, violence, abuse" and lives being put in danger, she added.

AFP did not receive a reply to a request for comment from the Turkish authorities.

burs-mr/chv/jph/fg

ENVIRONMENT
Wildfires in Russia: Will war in Ukraine limit firefighting response?

The fire season has started early in Siberia, as drought and strong winds fuel blazes in its carbon-rich peat forests. But with Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, this year's emergency response could suffer.


Firefighters have been battling blazes across southwestern Siberia in recent weeks

Fires have broken out across Russia's vast forests and steppes in recent weeks, with blazes flaring up in several regions across southwestern Siberia. Several villages have already been destroyed by the flames, and local authorities have reported at least 10 dead in recent days.

The Siberian Times, an English-language newspaper that covers the area, has been posting videos showing dramatic scenes of the fires on Twitter since mid-April. DW has not independently verified the videos.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told regional officials to get the forest fires under control, saying they were posing a threat to life, the environment and the economy.

"We cannot allow a repeat of last year's situation, when forest fires were the most long-lasting and intensive of recent years," he said, in comments broadcast on state TV. In 2021, a record-breaking 18.8 million hectares (72,600 square miles) of forest, steppe and peatland were burned, according to a Greenpeace Russia statement — an area roughly the size of Syria.

Burning of boreal forest peatland is a "climate bomb," said the environmental group. Carbon-rich peat contains organic matter that has collected for thousands of years, so emissions from each square meter of peat fire are "many times higher than from the most powerful forest fires."

Around half of the world's carbon that is stored in peatland lies along the Arctic Circle, including Siberia — that's billions of tons. Peat fires are particularly hard to extinguish.
War, sanctions may hamper response

Russia's Federal Forestry Agency told a news conference in late April that it was on high alert, ready to deploy helicopters, drones and other equipment. In previous years, Russian troops have also been sent in to help extinguish the flames.

But with a significant number of Russian soldiers and resources tied up fighting in Ukraine, some analysts have pointed out that this year's firefighting response might not be up to the task.

"It's inevitable that the allocation of resources to war is going to detract from the firefighting effort," said Thomas Smith, associate professor in environmental geography at the London School of Economics, in an email. He has been monitoring the recent fires using satellite imagery.

Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told DW that Russia probably still had the necessary reserve manpower to fight forest fires. But he pointed out that the ongoing war and international sanctions are likely putting a strain on other resources, including the budget and logistics.

"One of the challenges that Russia may face, with export controls and sanctions, is maintaining some of the helicopters and other advanced military equipment" with parts generally sourced from abroad, he said.

With the few parts that do make it into the country, he said, the challenge will be whether to "prioritize maintaining and repairing the firefighting fleet or the fleet used against Ukraine, […] one of the guns versus butter questions that Putin is going to have to juggle going forward."

Entire communities have been destroyed by the recent fires, including in the town of Uyar, in the Krasnoyarsk region

Wildfires are more frequent, more destructive

According to Russia's Emergencies Ministry, around 4,000 forest fires covering some 270,000 hectares (around 1,040 square miles) have been reported on Russian territory since early this year. Most have been concentrated in a handful of regions, including Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Kurgan, Omsk and Tyumen.

Wildfires, sparked by lightning or spontaneous combustion, are a part of the natural cycle in Siberia's relatively fireproof ecosystem saturated with lakes, rivers and swamps. But climate change is making things warmer and drier, increasing the fire risk. Siberia, known for its long, icy Arctic winters, is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet — around twice as fast as the global average. And as the ice caps recede and the darker open water absorbs more of the sun's rays, it only makes things worse.

Watch video 03:30 Living with wildfires in the Siberian taiga

"It's too soon to tell whether these early fires [in the south] are an indicator of what may happen further north later in the season," said Smith of the London School of Economics, adding that weather systems and other conditions will all play a factor. "It's important to note though, that climate change in the Arctic is now making extreme fire seasons more likely, so in the event of the right weather, the fire seasons are likely to be increasingly destructive on average."

Smith said the fires across Siberia would likely pose a challenge even if Russian troops weren't busy elsewhere. "It has been clear in recent years that the scale of the fires in Siberia has been beyond the capacity of Russia's firefighting resources, even in peacetime," he said, adding that many remote fires are simply left to burn. He added, however, that there was the possibility this year of "greater socioeconomic losses as a result of the reduced civil protection."

Peat fires can smolder for months, releasing 10 to 100 times more carbon than a burning tree

And while Russia is unlikely to divert its attention from Ukraine to firefighting any time soon, Bergmann said it's possible that another devastating fire season could force the Kremlin to reconsider its priorities.

"Putin is juggling two competing objectives," said Bergmann. "One is his geopolitical goals in Ukraine, and one is domestic stability. If fighting fires is critical to the survival of his regime, that will be something he prioritizes."

Greenpeace Russia is calling for longer term solutions to stop forest fires from raging to this extent in the first place, such as implementing sustainable forestry practices and increasing funding for fire protection.

THE WORLD IS BURNING
Russia: No sign of relief
Many regions in Russia have been burning for weeks, with the area around Yakutia in the far northeast having been hit particularly hard. The authorities have counted more than 250 fires currently burning across Russia, covering a total area of more than 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres).
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Edited by: Jennifer Collins

First Nations emergency professionals gather in Thunder Bay, Ont., ahead of wildfire season

Mon, May 9, 2022

A water bomber battles a fire in Red Lake, Ont., as smoke from several forest fires forced evacuations of several First Nations in northern Ontario last year. Emergency management professionals from those First Nations gathered to discuss their experiences, and prepare for the upcoming wildfire season. 

(Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry/Twitter - image credit)

While much of northern Ontario is pre-occupied with high water levels and flooding risks, First Nations emergency management professionals and organizations gathered in Thunder Bay, Ont., to prepare for the upcoming wildfire season.

It was the inaugural "After Action Responders Forum," hosted by the Northern Ontario Emergency Management Working Group, and was designed to give First Nations and people working in emergency management a chance to share experiences, challenges and best practices from previous years.

"We wanted to provide the communities a voice, to give them a platform where they could tell their stories … and how it is that their experiences can assist us in going forward and providing community support," said Darrin Spence, the chair of the emergency management working group.

It was an important opportunity for different communities, Spence said, especially as climate change is expected to result in more intense and more frequent weather events that will disproportionately affect northern First Nations and communities.

The conference also came on the heels of a record wildfire season — with more hectares of land burned in Ontario in 2021 that in any other year in history, and more than 3,000 people forced to flee their homes, many of them from remote First Nations in the northwest.

"It's always a traumatic event to be displaced from the community. There are always social issues, dealing with places that are not known to them, places that are culturally unfamiliar to them … so it's something that we want to help communities with," said Spence.

It's also why the working group is looking at a model that will see First Nations hosting other First Nations in the event of an emergency, he said, something that is a priority for many chiefs and community leaders in the region.

"Where we have a familiar face, we have people who speak the language, who know the culture, who understand where they're coming from and who they are. That's important," Spence added.

Logan Turner/CBC

That was something Greg Meeches was able to help secure for some residents of Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Treaty 3, which was forced to carry out a partial evacuation due to heavy smoke from nearby forest fires.

Meeches, who works in Wabaseemoong, reached out to his home community Long Plain First Nation in Treaty 1, about 110 kilometres west of Winnipeg, and arranged to have rooms prepared for some of the evacuees.

"We had chief and council meet the evacuees and assured them that they were safe there, and that they would be treated like their own," said Meeches, adding there is now an established relationship between the two communities in case they need to evacuate again.

It is also important for First Nations to be prepared to host evacuees after an emergency, said Derek Maud, a former chief and now the community emergency management coordinator for Lac Seul First Nation, which hosted dozens of evacuees during the 2021 wildfire season.

He said the First Nation at times received just 24 to 48 hours notice prior to people arriving in Lac Seul, so it was important they had volunteers trained and preparations made for food and shelter. It's something the First Nation has incorporated into their emergency preparedness plan.

Logan Turner/CBC

While the conference was helpful to talk about the upcoming wildfire season, Maud added it was an important networking opportunity, given that the position of community emergency management coordinator is a relatively new one for First Nations.

"Seeing what other people are doing, and what I can incorporate into my community — because we all share the same daily situations, so we're not really reinventing the wheel — that's why I came here," Maud said.

One of those future projects, he added, is improving emergency response in the community, including bolstering their fire department and creating a full-time EMS first responder program.

"A lot of First Nations, [their] goal is to be self-governing and self-sufficient, and being prepared in any emergency is important."

PEI

No incidents, but tension simmering as Lennox Island launches treaty fishery


Mon, May 9, 2022

No incidents, but tension simmering as Lennox Island launches treaty fishery


The first lobsters caught under the treaty fishery on P.E.I. came ashore on Lennox Island Monday morning without incident — but with some simmering tension.

The fishery is not authorized by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans after negotiations to reach an agreement were unsuccessful. Without an agreement, DFO calls this an "unauthorized" fishery, which means it could be subject to enforcement, including trap seizures or fines.

The band says none of the traps set on Saturday have been seized or disturbed by fisheries officers.

"Everything went smooth and no trouble and it was a great day," said Kyle Sark, captain of the lobster boat Way Point.

The treaty fishers were able to set about 240 traps on Saturday, but plan to set 1,000 in what they say represents the "moderate livelihood" to which they are entitled.

They said they have had trouble launching boats, because local boat-moving companies say non-Indigenous fishermen have threatened to boycott them.

And with no understanding with DFO in place, it is raising tensions in the fishing community.

"Good for them but not everyone's going to like it or appreciate it," said Janet Banks, one of about 30 Lennox Island fishers with a commercial licence.

Good for them but not everyone's going to like it or appreciate it. 

— Lennox Island commercial fisher Janet Banks

"Usually the licenses cost, are $1.2 million to purchase ... Other people are going to have a hard time with it because they're not paying nothing for them."

Cecil Banks, who fishes with Janet Banks, said DFO should buy out non-Indigenous licences and allow the band to expand its existing commercial fleet.

At a wharf a few kilometres away, none of the non-Indigenous fishermen CBC News spoke with would agree to a taped interview.

But the crews on three boats said fishing without a licence has the potential to damage lobster stocks, and if DFO does not take action, some commercial fishermen might choose to do so, which is what happened last year in Nova Scotia.

DFO patrolling area

In an interview Monday with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin, Lennox Island Chief Darlene Bernard said she hopes commercial fishers speak with her first before taking any action.

She said it was good to see DFO patrolling the area on Saturday.

Tony Davis/CBC

'We want them out there doing their patrols."

But she also wants DFO to accept the band's proposal for the treaty fishery.

"Change, good or bad, is always hard. I think this is a good change. I think it's progress, it's moving forward."

Fishermen's association urges peace

In an email statement to CBC News, the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association said while the safety of all lobster harvesters on the water and wharf is a primary goal, it also expects "any enforcement issues related to the fishery are administered in an appropriate, fair and consistent manner" by DFO.

Kirk Pennell

"There remains many differing opinions and unresolved issues around the Lennox Island Treaty Based fishery, as according to DFO this is an unauthorized fishery," the statement reads.

"The PEIFA strongly advocates for peace on the water leaving any enforcement related to this unauthorized fishery to DFO and other authorities. The PEIFA remains committed to working with our First Nations and governments in seeking viable long term solutions that are equitable to all harvesters and protect our valuable ocean resources."

Role of First Nations in marine rescues highlighted in docuseries currently being filmed in B.C.

Tue, May 10, 2022, 

Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary members during a training exercise near Bamfield, B.C., in 2021. (Supplied by Helen Yagi - image credit)

Filming is underway on Vancouver Island for a new television series documenting the lives of First Nations people who put their lives on the line when someone is in trouble in the water.

Creator Steve Sxwithul'txw said after years of watching these communities respond to dangerous situations, he wanted to share their stories with the rest of the country.

"It's something that I thought was important to highlight, to bring home to people, everyday Canadians, who might want to be enlightened by the good nature of our people, where incidences occur and First Nations are able to respond accordingly," he told All Points West host Robyn Burns.

The series, Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready, will follow four of the eight nations that are part of the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary, which was established in 2018.

Supplied by Helen Yagi

Ahousaht First Nation Chief Greg Louie says he's proud to see his people being featured.

"Our people are very humble in what they do. They don't do it for the glory or to glorify the event they were involved in," he said.

For years, Coastal First Nations have been involved in rescue efforts during marine incidents. Indigenous people were among the first to respond to the 2006 fatal sinking of the Queen of the North ferry near Gil Island, and the capsizing of a whale-watching boat near Tofino that claimed the lives of six people in 2015.

"It's embedded in us," Louie said. "It's instilled in us. That's why it's been happening for generation after generation, our people just have this innate skill that they're going to go out there and save others."

The Quatsino, 'Namgis, and Heiltsuk First Nations will also be featured in the series.

Photo by Jordan Wilson

Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready will air on APTN and CHEK TV, and Sxwithul'txw expects it will launch sometime next spring.

Right now, he's focusing on gathering interviews and material to bring the 13-episode series to life.

"Again, these aren't people who like to toot their own horn. But when you sit down and look at them and see in their eyes, in their heart, what they represent … it's quite simply this unabated will to go out there in sleet, rain or snow, wind, fog," he said.

"It doesn't matter what it is — they're there."

 

Take Back the Unions for Their Members

LABOUR  •  May 10, 2022  •  Amandla

What we are witnessing in the labour movement today is quite simply a tragedy. At a time when the working class is suffering as never before, leaders of South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) are tearing the young federation to pieces.

The working class needs this federation to strengthen and grow. It is the only potentially militant, independent grouping of trade unions in South Africa. And it is not just a question of the labour movement needing such a leading force. It is the working class movement as a whole.

Community organisations are weakened if they are unable to get the active support of organised workers. Abahlali baseMjondolo (the people of the shacks) needs the active support and resources of organised workers. The Xolobeni struggle for the “Right to say No” is strengthened by the support of a federation of workers. The loss and the setback to the working class movement will be huge.

What Lies Behind the Dispute

The heart of the dispute inside Saftu comes down to a strategic difference over how to build the working class movement politically. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) argues that the correct way is to build what it calls a Marxist-Leninist Vanguard Mass Party. The Saftu General Secretary and a number of affiliates favour the building of a mass working class party or Movement for Socialism. Numsa established its “vanguard party,” the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP). It now wants Saftu to throw its weight behind the SRWP. It views as a class enemy anyone who stands in the way of that project.

And here is the first error, which can be traced back to the degeneration of the Bolshevik Party after the 1917 revolution. The Bolshevik Party regarded itself as indispensable to the working class. Without the Bolshevik Party, the revolution would fail. And it was not just the Bolshevik Party, it was its leadership. And not just its leadership, it was the General Secretary. So the interests of the working class become reduced to the interests of the Party and thereafter to the infallible leader.

Defence of the Party becomes synonymous with defence of the working class. Perhaps it was more understandable at a time when the Bolshevik Party had just successfully played a leading role in a revolution. It is rather less understandable when the party we are talking about is a largely dysfunctional, factionalised, small grouping of mainly Numsa worker leaders and staff. It is an organisation that was able to secure only 24,439 votes nationally in the last election. It is support for this organisation that Numsa appears to be willing to shatter Saftu, a federation of 600,000 members.

What an irony. The famous Numsa Special Congress in 2013 led to Numsa’s expulsion from Cosatu because the affiliates of Cosatu required allegiance to the ANC. Numsa is now ready to break Saftu apart because it requires allegiance to SRWP. Is there no learning from history?

Whence the Factionalism?

Factional politics are narrow politics. Politics which fetishises a tactic or strategy at the expense of having a perspective of the interests of the working class and the poor as a whole. Numsa fetishists a particular form of political party. Only a Marxist-Leninist Vanguard party will retain a revolutionary perspective. Only a Marxist-Leninist Vanguard party can be relied on to not sell out. Look at Syriza; Podemos: living proof.

Era of Investment Companies

And then there is the other aspect of this tragedy – the sell-out to a lifestyle for union leaders funded by a union investment company. In Numsa’s case it has been a particularly insidious process because of the business that the investment company engages in. The main customers of the Numsa Investment Company (NIC) are the union’s members. This has become clear as the sordid story of 3Sixty Life (the main subsidiary of NIC) has unravelled through amaBhungane and GroundUp.

3Sixty makes its money by selling insurance policies to workers. Numsa organises 350,000 workers. A perfect synergy you might think. The benign view of this model is that Numsa’s company makes money by selling policies to members and then ploughs that money back into the union for the members’ benefit. It must have looked like a pretty model on someone’s computer 15 years ago.

But what of the consequences of turning your members into customers? What of the consequences of turning your shop stewards and staff into sales people? What of the consequences of giving the union leadership a source of income separate from the subscriptions of its members?

It might look like a clever financial model. But when looked at politically and organisationally it is a nightmare. So the less kind view of the model sees a membership delivered as customers to an industry that has always been known as exploitative. It wants to sell policies. Selling of policies works on commission. The more you sell the better everybody does. So workers are persuaded one way or another to spend some of the little they earn on policies, often with no clear idea of their real value. And Numsa opens its doors to this industry. Numsa becomes part of this industry. And the membership becomes its prey.

And the problems grow. Once the investment company is so deeply entangled with the union, it starts to have an interest in how that union is run and by whom it is run. The doors to its customers must remain open. The tail starts to wag the dog as the interests of the company become more important than the interests of the union’s members. The results are plain to see in Numsa now. Bitter struggles for leadership positions have ended up in court cases around elections. Stories about money flowing in the election process abound. Compared to ordinary workers, the investment company has plenty of money. It has the means to buy people.

And if you think we exaggerate, listen to Khandani Msibi, the CEO of the investment company, himself. In recent court proceedings he was challenged – why did he spend money on the birthday party of the Numsa General Secretary? Why did he buy his daughter a laptop? What was the value for the company in these expenditures? They could not be valid expenditures if there was no benefit to the company. And what was his answer? It came straight out of the Bosasa playbook – these expenditures were “marketing initiatives”; they “allowed 3Sixty Life access to Numsa events where it could further its brand and strengthen relationships. When he said this, he jumped right out of a frying pan and straight into the fire. He was proudly proclaiming to the world that by sweetening the Numsa GS, he gained access to the union. What’s the difference between that and Gwede Mantashe’s security system? Or Malusi Gigaba’s bags full of cash? All of it is about access – access to the state as a market. Access to Numsa as a market. Looks very much the same.

And Now?

So where does the trade union movement go from here? It seems clear that we have now reached a point where the interests of the leadership have become separated from those of the membership of many unions. A leadership layer enjoys a lifestyle very far from that of the members. They develop an interest in making sure they remain the leadership. This happens at all levels. Which full-time shop steward, after four years working in an office, with access to a computer and a car, wants to go back to being a worker on the production line? Which General Secretary, who lives in a modern, middle-class housing estate and drives a Mercedes Benz or a BMW to work, with a bodyguard to boot, wants to go back to the ranks of the union again?

A new vision and practice for the labour movement is needed. The only direction when dealing with such a bureaucratised leadership is to organise workers again from the ground up. To build the capacity of members to challenge the vested interests of the leadership. To take back the union for its members.

Such organising is often called a rank-and-file approach. It’s a foot soldiers approach. In fact, of course, it’s where unions started in the 1970s and 80s in this country. There is a task to rebuild our trade union movement where the interests of members prevail and where to lead is to serve. We have to break the pattern where union leadership is about escaping your class position and status. In fact, we have an article in this issue (No. 81) about one such successful rank-and-file struggle in the United States.

It is time to begin the arduous task of building democratic organisation again from the grassroots. To struggle to wrest control of unions from those who currently mislead them. It won’t be a rapid process. There may be victories but there will certainly also be defeats along the way. But on this, there really is no alternative. •

This article first published as an editorial in Amandla No. 81, and reposted on AIDC website.

Amandla is a left wing media project built around a magazine that publishes six editions per year. It was initiated in 2006/7 by activists coming from different political traditions on the left.