ISRAEL; A MURDEROUS STATE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli fire in West Bank, say authorities

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed a teenager during an operation in a town near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

AP | Jerusalem Last Updated at May 28, 2022 

Representative Image

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed a teenager on Friday during an operation in a town near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

The ministry identified the slain teen as Zaid Ghunaim, 15. It said he was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the neck and back and that doctors failed to save his life.

The death raises to five the number of Palestinian teenagers killed during Israeli military operations in the West Bank in the past month.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has intensified in recent weeks with near-daily arrest raids in Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank and tensions around a Jerusalem holy site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited witnesses as saying Ghunaim came upon the soldiers in al-Khader and tried to run away but the troops fired at him. Online videos purportedly of the shooting's aftermath show bloodstains near a white car parked in a passageway.

The Israeli military, which has stepped up its operations in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, said soldiers opened fire at Palestinians who threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, endangering the troops.

The soldiers provided an injured suspect with initial treatment at the scene before transferring him to Palestinian medics, the military said in a statement.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israeli forces deliberately shot at Ghunaim with the intention to kill him.

On Sunday, Israeli ultranationalists plan to march through the main Muslim thoroughfare of the Old City of Jerusalem. The compound houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop site is also the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

The march is meant to celebrate Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel subsequently annexed the area in a step that is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

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ARMED STRUGGLE IS NOT TERRORISM

‘Empress of terror’: Japanese Red Army founder released from prison

Fusako Shigenobu, who served 20 years for French embassy siege, believed to have masterminded deadly Tel Aviv attack

Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu leaves jail in Tokyo after spending 20 years behind bars. 

Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-Presse in Tokyo

Sat 28 May 2022 

The founder of one of the most feared terrorist organisations of the 1970s has walked free from a Japanese prison after completing a 20-year sentence for the siege of the French embassy in the Netherlands.

Once described as “the empress of terror”, Fusako Shigenobu founded the Japanese Red Army, a radical leftist group that carried out armed attacks worldwide in support of the Palestinian cause.

On Saturday, 76-year-old Shigenobu left the prison in Tokyo with her daughter as several supporters held a banner saying “We love Fusako”.

“I apologise for the inconvenience my arrest has caused to so many people,” Shigenobu said after the release. “It’s half a century ago ... but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritising our battle, such as by hostage-taking.”

Fusako Shigenobu during her arrest in 2000.

 Photograph: Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters

She is believed to have masterminded the 1972 machine gun and grenade attack on Tel Aviv’s Lod airport, which left 26 people dead and injured about 80.

Shigenobu had lived as a fugitive in the Middle East for around 30 years but was arrested in Osaka in November 2000 after secretly returning to Japan using a false passport and checking into a hotel disguised as a man.

The former soy sauce company worker was sentenced to two decades behind bars six years later for her part in the 1974 siege of the embassy in the Hague.

Shigenobu maintained her innocence over the siege, in which three Red Army militants stormed into the embassy, taking the ambassador and 10 other staff hostage for 100 hours.

Two police officers were shot and seriously wounded. France ended the standoff by freeing a jailed Red Army guerrilla, who flew off with the hostage-takers in a plane to Syria. Shigenobu did not take part in the attack personally but the court said she coordinated the operation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Born into poverty in post-war Tokyo, Shigenobu’s odyssey into Middle Eastern extremism began by accident when she passed a sit-in protest at a Tokyo university when she was 20. Shigenobu quickly became involved in the leftist movement and decided to leave Japan aged 25.

Founder of Japan’s Red Army in final appeal for freedom

She announced the Red Army’s disbanding from prison in April 2001, and in 2008 was diagnosed with colon and intestinal cancer, undergoing several operations.

Shigenobu said on Saturday she will first focus on her treatment and explained she will not be able to “contribute to the society” given her frail condition. But she told reporters: “I want to continue to reflect [on my past] and live more and more with curiosity.”

In a letter to a Japan Times reporter in 2017 she admitted the group had failed in its aims. “Our hopes were not fulfilled and it came to an ugly end,” she wrote.

Reign of terror

February 1971: Shigenobu founds the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon

May 1972: Group kills 26 people and injures 80 in an attack at Lod airport in Tel Aviv

September 1974: French embassy stormed in The Hague. Ambassador and 10 others freed in exchange for release of jailed member

August 1975: More than 50 hostages taken at embassy in Kuala Lumpur

September 1977: Japan Airlines plane hijacked and forced to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Japanese government releases six members and pays $6m ransom

April 1988: Five killed in Red Army bombing of US military social club in Naples

November 2000: Shigenobu arrested in Osaka

Palestinian NGOs laud release of Japan terror head with Lod massacre role
By MICHAEL STARR - Yesterday 
The Jerusalem Post

Palestinian NGOs and activists celebrated the end of the prison term of "empress of terror" Fusako Shigenobu on Saturday, the co-founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorist organization who coordinated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to commit the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre which killed 26 and injured dozens.

"Human rights" groups praise arch-terrorist

"Fusako Shigenobu is finally free!" wrote the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the celebration coming just a day before the Lod terrorist attack's anniversary. "Palestinians everywhere salute and celebrate Fusako Shigenobu for her extraordinary dedication to our national struggle, and her friendship with our people."

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized a livestream to celebrate her release with Shigenobu's daughter May. The NGO said in a press release that it saluted her, describing her as a "revolutionary" and "political prisoner" who had been unjustly imprisoned. Brighton BDS called her story "amazing."

Upon her release, Shigenobu and her daughter dressed in Palestinian keffiyehs, as can be seen in a video published by May Shigenobu. She had been involved with Palestinian terrorist groups for decades and was the founder of the JRA group that carried out the Lod attack.

"Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest support and solidarity to Fusako Shigenobu, internationalist prisoner of the Palestinian liberation struggle. She has been jailed in Japan for over 21 years as a political prisoner for her role as a founder of the revolutionary organization the Japanese Red Army (JRA), which struggled for a revolutionary future for Japan as well as working hand in hand with Palestinian revolutionaries in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for a liberated Palestine."Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Lod Airpot massacre

"It's amazing seeing the amount of cognitive dissonance and apologism for literal terrorism from far-left activists," tweeted Oliver Jia, a Kyoto-based researcher on Japan-DPRK relations. "I know it's a radical stance to take, but maybe we shouldn't glorify violent mass murderers. Just throwing that out there."


Three Japanese members of the Trotskyite communist JRA, trained by the Marxist-Leninist PFLP, launched an attack at Lod International Airport in 1972, throwing grenades and firing with automatic rifles, according to Yoshihiro Kuriyama and Patricia Steinhoff in the scholarly journal Asian Survey. Eight Israelis, 17 Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims, and a Canadian citizen were killed. Among the dead included prominent scientist Aharon Katzir.

Katzir was the elder brother of Ephraim Katzir, who became the President of Israel a year later. Samidoun claimed that Katzir was the target of the attack, and asserted that civilians were killed in crossfire with Israeli security forces — Shifting blame to Israel for their deaths.

Two terrorists died in the attack, the sole surviving JRA member being Kozo Okamoto. For Asian Survey, Steinhoff interviewed Okamoto, who said that while there was a personal concern for the Palestinian movement, the operation was conducted primarily for the Trosksyite notion of world revolution. He said in his trial that the intent was to target passengers, visitors, and police.

He served over a decade in prison before being released in a prisoner exchange. According to the Associated Press, he is reportedly still in Lebanon and wanted by Japanese authorities.

Fusako Shigenobu

Shigenobu fought alongside the PFLP, spending time in Lebanon and the Middle East for decades, eventually founding her Red Army offshoot.

Shigenobu went into hiding after the Lod massacre and was arrested in 2000. A year after she was arrested, she dissolved the JRA, the AP reported.

"When Shigenobu was arrested for her revolutionary work, she told onlooking crowds, 'I’ll fight on!' Even when on trial, she never wavered in her principled commitment to anti-imperialism and the Palestinian struggle," said PYM,

However, Shigenobu has expressed remorse for her terrorism, according to the AP saying when she was released, “I have hurt innocent people I did not know by putting our struggles first. Although those were different times, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize deeply.”

Leon Trotsky: Terrorism and Communism (1920) - Marxists Internet ... 

https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1920/terrcomm/index.htm

Dec 27, 2006 ... Terrorism and. Communism. [Dictatorship versus Democracy]. A Reply to Karl Kautsky. Proofread by Chris Clayton in 2006 for the Leon Trotsky ...

Russian Communist deputy makes statement of opposition to war in Ukraine

A Communist Party legislative deputy in Russia’s far east has demanded an end to the war and withdrawal of Russian forces, breaking with the party line in a rare show of opposition to his country’s war in Ukraine (Alexei Alexandrov/AP)

TOO BAD THE CANADIAN CP DRANK PUTIN'S KOOL AID

SAT, 28 MAY, 2022 - 
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTERS

A Communist Party legislative deputy in Russia’s far east has demanded an end to the war and withdrawal of Russian forces, breaking with the party line in a rare show of opposition to his country’s war in Ukraine.

“We understand that if our country doesn’t stop the military operation, we’ll have more orphans in our country,” Leonid Vasyukevich said at a meeting of the Primorsk regional Legislative Assembly in the Pacific port of Vladivostok on Friday.

His comments, which he addressed to President Vladimir Putin, were shown in a video posted on a Telegram channel emanating from the region. Another deputy followed to support Mr Vasyukevich’s views but the legislative assembly’s chairman issued a statement afterward calling the remarks a “political provocation” not supported by the majority of lawmakers.

Earlier this month, a Russian diplomat based in Geneva resigned, saying he was “ashamed” of the war. Russia has imposed severe penalties for publicly challenging the Kremlin’s narrative on the military operation in Ukraine.

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke defiantly on Friday in two speeches about his country’s ultimate victory over Russian forces in both the most pressing battle in eastern Ukraine and the war, generally.

“Ukraine is a country that has destroyed the myth about the extraordinary power of the Russian army – an army that supposedly, in a few days, could conquer anyone it wants,” he told Stanford University students by video. “Now Russia is trying to occupy the entire state but we feel strong enough to think about the future of Ukraine, which will be open to the world.”

Later, in his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky reacted to Russians’ capture of the eastern city of Lyman, the Donetsk region’s large railway hub north of two more key cities still under Ukrainian control, and its attempt to encircle and seize the city of Sievierodonetsk, one of the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk.

“If the occupiers think that Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong,” the Ukrainian president said.

“Donbas will be Ukrainian.”

UPDATE

UK
Protest at Downing Street over treatment of low-paid workers after Gray report

The protest followed the publication of Sue Gray’s report into parties in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Cleaners stage a protest outside Downing Street in London, following revelations in Sue Gray’s report into parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown 

(Jonathan Brady/PA) / PA Wire

By Danielle Desouza

Demonstrators have gathered outside Downing Street to protest against the treatment of low-paid workers such as cleaners and security guards in government buildings across London.

The protest followed the publication of Sue Gray’s report into parties in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns, which found multiple examples of “unacceptable” treatment of security and cleaning staff in Number 10.

The demonstrators also called for “justice” for a Ministry of Justice cleaner, Emanuel Gomes, who died during the pandemic in April 2020 after working for five days with suspected Covid symptoms.

According to reports, a coroner recorded his official cause of death as hypertension of the heart

.

Pictures of Emanuel Gomes at the protest (Jonathan Brady/PA) / PA Wire

United Voices of the World (UVW) – the union Mr Gomes was part of, which represents cleaners and security guards in government buildings – organised the demonstration and called for better treatment of staff.

Chants including “justice for Emanuel” and “one rule for them and another rule for us” were shouted, while others banged drums to make enough noise for those in Downing Street to hear.

Vicente Mendez, a friend of Mr Gomes, attended the protest and said he was “very grateful” to everyone who had turned out to show their support.

Tea light candles, flowers and A4 posters with Mr Gomes’s face on them were laid along the road.

In her report into partygate, published on Wednesday, Ms Gray wrote: “I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly.

“I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable.”

The report also said staff members “drank excessively” at the Downing Street Christmas party on December 18 2020, and a cleaner found red wine was spilled on one wall the next morning

.

Cleaners stage a protest outside Downing Street in London, following revelations in Sue Gray’s report into parties in Whitehall 

(Jonathan Brady/PA) / PA Wire

Petros Elia, UVW general secretary, said: “We’re not in the least bit surprised by the revelations in the Sue Gray report. We have thousands of members who work as cleaners and security guards and these workers face disrespect and discrimination on a daily basis in offices and government buildings across London, not just in Downing Street.

“It is outrageous to have rowdy and illegal parties during the pandemic but to then expect cleaners to mop up after you and to pay them, as well as porters and security guards, poverty wages and deny them full sick pay is abhorrent.

“Most of the cleaners and security guards out there are ethnic minority workers, black, brown and migrant people, who are disproportionately impacted by poor working conditions and racialised inequalities.

“We represent cleaners at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) who had to walk off the job during the pandemic because they were not given adequate PPE and were denied full sick pay, which they eventually won for Covid-19 absences.

“One of our members who worked as a cleaner at the MoJ tragically died an untimely and avoidable death. That’s how far the levels of disrespect and mistreatment went and goes towards low-paid workers.”

Zack Polanski, a member of the Green Party and the London Assembly, spoke at the protest to show his solidarity.

He told the PA news agency: “Like anyone, whether they’re a politician or a member of the public, I made lots of sacrifices during Covid and there were lots of times when I couldn’t see friends or family.

“But we all knew those were the rules and we knew we were doing it for the good of the country, which makes it even more egregious that the people in power are breaking the rules.”

A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has been appalled by the findings in Sue Gray’s report around behaviour towards treatment of security and cleaning staff.

“He has personally apologised to these dedicated members of staff, expects anyone who behaved in that way to apologise, and we are committed to addressing the full findings and recommendations in the report.”

FROM YESTERDAY

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/cleaners-and-security-staff-to-protest.html

Vulnerable pink coral will push up UK coastline as climate warms – research

The pink sea fan is likely to be a short-term beneficiary of global warming, researchers found, as the water around the British Isles heats up.

Pink sea fans will become more abundant as coastal waters warm, scientists predict (Jamie Stevens/PA)

By Tess de La Mare

vulnerable species of coral will become more common in UK waters by the end of the century as global warming drives up temperatures, according to new research.

The pink sea fan is found in shallow waters from the western Mediterranean stretching up to the north-west of Ireland, south-west England and Wales.

Researchers at the University of Exeter modelled which coastlines might become more hospitable to the coral as waters warm, based on greenhouse gas emissions at the high end of current predictions.


In a rapidly changing mosaic of habitats, some species – typically those favouring warmer conditions – may come out as short-term ‘winners’

They found that by the last two decades of this century, the pink sea fan is likely to push northwards into new sites in the British Isles making it a short term “winner” of the climate crisis.

The modelling covered the Bay of Biscay, northern Spain, the British Isles and southern Norway.

In future it could be used to identify waters in need of extra environmental protection, the researchers said.

The soft coral is classified as “vulnerable” worldwide by the Internal Union for Conservation on Nature, and is at particular risk from scallop dredging.

Its slow growth rate means it also struggles to recover from physical disturbance.

The pink sea fan is listed as a species of principal importance in England and Wales under the Natural England and the Commission for Rural Communities Act 2006.

It was given the listing because of its rarity, and the fact the corals can form dense “forests” – boosting biodiversity by providing valuable habitat for other creatures living close to the sea bed.

The health of pink sea fan forests can also be a useful indicator of the wider health of the marine ecosystem, the researchers said.

Dr Jamie Stevens, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Exeter, said: “This research highlights the complex effects of climate change on marine ecosystems, in which the ranges of some species respond to warming by shifting pole-wards.

“In a rapidly changing mosaic of habitats, some species – typically those favouring warmer conditions – may come out as short-term ‘winners’.

“How long these species can continue to expand and benefit in the face of accelerated warming remains to be seen.”

Dr Tom Jenkins, also of the University of Exeter, said it was not yet clear why pink sea fans have not yet colonised greater areas of the coast.

“Possible barriers include insufficient dispersal of their larvae and high competition between species for space and resources,” he said.

He added: “We also found that existing habitat across south-west Britain, the Channel Islands and north-west France is predicted to remain suitable for this species over the next 60-80 years.”

The paper, Predicting habitat suitability and range shifts under projected climate change for two octocorals in the north-east Atlantic, is published in the journal PeerJ.

Winnipegger attending 1st Pride festival after realizing during pandemic she's a lesbian

CBC/Radio-Canada - 

It took the forced isolation of the pandemic to help Lauren Toews come to the realization that she was a lesbian.

"I think like a lot of people, the pandemic was one of the first times I was just forced to stop," she said in an interview with Faith Fundal on CBC Manitoba's morning show, Information Radio.

"I didn't really have a lot else to do, but think about my life and re-evaluate and kind of come to the conclusion that I hadn't really been doing things the way I wanted to. I just had been kind of following a predetermined script that I didn't realize at the time."

Now in her 30s, the Winnipeg massage therapist will be attending the Pride festival for the first time.

The festival kicked off Friday with the raising of the Pride flag at Winnipeg City Hall.

For Carolyn Welsh, the raising of the flag represents hope.

"I'm a grandmother. I'm a great-grandmother. I would want my children, my grandchild, my great-grandchildren to be accepted for who they are," said Welsh, who attended the ceremony on Friday.

Toews says there were moments when she felt attraction to women, but she dismissed those feelings. Once she started to accept them, everything changed, she said.

"Immediately I was like, 'This is how it's supposed to be.' This excitement to date, rather than terrified of going on dates and just completely different."

The flag-raising ceremony is now an annual tradition attended by Mayor Brian Bowman and other city officials, but it wasn't always so.

"The first Pride, I think, back in 1987, was attended by people who wore paper bags on their heads, because they were afraid of losing their jobs, of losing their careers, of being outed to their families and being ostracized," said Trevor Doner.

"And really, 1987 is not that long ago."

This year marks 35 years since the first Pride march in Winnipeg.

Although there has been progress in the decades since, the struggle is not over, Doner said.

"There's still a lot of rights and recognition to be won for lots of different members of our community."


© Randall McKenzie/CBC

Members of Winnipeg city council and volunteers with Pride Winnipeg raise the Pride flag in a ceremony at city hall on Friday.

Welsh came out as a lesbian when she was in her 40s. She was outed to her employer in 1999, who told her that had it been known when they hired her, they might not have given her the job, she said.

"We think we've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go," she said.

This will be the last Pride festival of Bowman's time as mayor of Winnipeg, he said in a speech at the ceremony.

He spoke about the work the city has done to create a culture of inclusivity, such as the creation of a human rights committee of council and an LGBTQ employee resource group.

"The hospitality and the generosity that many of you have provided to myself and to our family has really made me feel welcomed, and I just hope that each of you feel that same warmth and sense of belonging in our community and the city that we all call home each and every day," Bowman said.

The festival has more than 50 events throughout the week, culminating in the annual Pride parade on June 5.

CANADA IS BILINGUAL QUEBEC IS UNILINGUAL

English school board says it will file legal challenge of Quebec language law reform


MONTREAL — The English Montreal School Board says it will launch a legal challenge of Quebec's recently adopted language law reform.

The board said in a news release today that it believes the law, commonly known as Bill 96, violates English-speaking Quebecers' constitutional right to manage and control their own educational institutions.

The language law, adopted on Tuesday, caps enrolment at English-language junior colleges and requires students at those colleges to take three additional classes in French.

The English school board was one of several groups to challenge Quebec's secularism law, which bans teachers, police officers and certain other public sector employees from wearing religious symbols.

Both laws invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to shield them from court challenges.

In April 2021, a Superior Court judge struck down provisions of the religious symbols ban that applied to English school boards but upheld the bulk of it due to the use of the notwithstanding clause.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Mexican judge suspends bullfights in world's largest ring

French bullfighter Sebastian Castella is seen here in 2016 at the Plaza de Toros -- a Mexican judge has ordered a suspension of bullfighting in the arena, the world's largest bullring 

(AFP/AGV PLAZA DE ARMAS) 

Fri, May 27, 2022,

A Mexican judge on Friday ordered a suspension of bullfighting in Mexico City's Plaza de Toros, the world's largest bullring, after activists filed a lawsuit against the centuries-old practice.

Organizers "must immediately suspend bullfighting shows... as well as the granting of permits," the federal court ruled in response to a petition by the group Justicia Justa.

Another hearing is due to be held on Thursday to consider arguments and evidence from the two sides, ahead of the next scheduled event at the Plaza de Toros on July 2.

It is the first time that a court has ordered such a suspension, following years of legal action by civil organizations seeking a ban.

Mexico is a bastion of bullfighting but the tradition -- and the 50,000-capacity Plaza de Toros -- face an uncertain future.

In December, an animal welfare commission in Mexico City's legislature approved a proposal to prohibit the tradition in the capital.

Lawmakers have yet to vote on the plan, which dismayed supporters of bullfighting as well as the multimillion-dollar industry surrounding it.

So far, only a handful of Mexico's 32 states have banned the practice, which was brought by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

sem/dr/sst

Monkeypox may have been spreading in UK for year

This is one hypothesis to explain the monkeypox strain currently spreading.

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Monkeypox belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus, which also includes variola virus (which causes smallpox), vaccinia virus (used in the smallpox vaccine) and cowpox virus. (Image credit: dotted zebra / Alamy)

The monkeypox virus may have been spreading at low levels in the United Kingdom for years now, only becoming detectable in the last month, according to health officials.

This is the first time the smallpox-related virus has spread locally outside of West and Central Africa, where it is endemic, as all known past cases outside Africa were related to foreign travel. As of May 25, more than 200 people across 20 countries are confirmed to have monkeypox, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control(opens in new tab) (ECDC) reported. Currently, about 106 cases are people in the U.K., according to the U.K. Health Security Agency(opens in new tab) (UKHSA). The majority of cases worldwide have been identified in men who have sex in men, and officials have tentatively traced the origin of the current outbreak to two raves, one in Spain and the other in Belgium, according to news reports. 

Officials are now suggesting the possibility that local transmission of monkeypox has been occurring in the U.K. for two to three years. For instance, four monkeypox cases were reported in the U.K. between 2018 and 2019 in individuals who had traveled to Nigeria; another three cases from similar travel were confirmed there in 2021, The Guardian reported(opens in new tab).

By Jeanna Bryner  LIVESCIENCE

‘Transformative’ effects of mass gatherings like Burning Man are lasting

By Bill Hathaway

may 27, 2022

(Photo by Curtis Simmons, Flickr: simmons_tx)

Throughout history, mass gatherings such as collective rituals, ceremonies, and pilgrimages have created intense social bonds and feelings of unity in human societies. But Yale psychologists wondered if modern day secular gatherings that emphasize creativity and community serve an even broader purpose.

The research team studied people’s subjective experiences and social behavior at secular mass gatherings, such as the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They found that people who reported transformative experiences at the gatherings felt more connected with all of humanity and were more willing to help distant strangers, the researchers report May 27 in the journal Nature Communications.

“We’ve long known that festivals, pilgrimages, and ceremonies make people feel more bonded with their own group,” said Daniel Yudkin, a postdoctoral researcher and first author of the paper. “Here we show that experiences at secular mass gatherings also have the potential to expand the boundaries of moral concern beyond one’s own group.”

The research team, led by M.J. Crockett, an associate professor of psychology at Yale, conducted field studies of more than 1,200 people attending multi-day mass gatherings in the United States and United Kingdom: Burning Man, Burning Nest, Lightning in a Bottle, Dirty Bird, and Latitude, all events that feature art, music, and self-expression.

The researchers set up booths at the events inviting passersby to “Play Games for Science.” Those who agreed to participate were asked about their experiences at the events along with their willingness to share resources with friends and strangers.

Overall, 63.2% of participants reported having transformative experiences so profound that they left the events feeling radically changed, including a substantial number of people who did not expect or desire to be transformed. (And yes, transformative experiences were more intense among the 28% of subjects who reported taking psychedelic substances.)

People who reported transformative experiences also reported feeling more socially connected with all human beings, and with every passing day they spent at these events, participants expanded their circle of generosity beyond family and friends towards including distant strangers. They recontacted some of the original attendees and also 2,000 people who had attended the event but were not originally interviewed.  The researchers found that transformative experiences and their prosocial feelings persisted at least six months.

“The findings are an important reminder of what we’ve missed in years of pandemic isolation: powerful social experiences, or what the sociologist Emile Durkheim called ‘collective effervescence,’” Yudkin said.

Crockett concluded, “Transformative experiences help people transcend the borders of the self and connect with all of humanity — crucial qualities to cultivate as we work to end this pandemic and prevent future ones.”

The research was conducted as part of The Experience Project funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Denver and University of Bath in the United Kingdom contributed to the study.