California governor signs bill to keep last reactors running


 One of Pacific Gas & Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant's nuclear reactors in Avila Beach, Calif., is viewed Nov. 3, 2008. California legislators and Gov. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a group of legislators reached a late-hour compromise bill released late Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, to extend the lifespan of the state's last operating nuclear plant by up to five years, but the proposal faces an uncertain future even if it manages to clear the Legislature in the final days of a two-year session. 

(AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Fri, September 2, 2022

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday intended to open the way for the state’s last operating nuclear power plant to run an additional five years, a move that he said was needed to ward off possible blackouts as the state transitions to solar and other renewable sources.

His endorsement came one day after the plan was approved in a lopsided vote in the state Assembly and Senate, and despite criticism from environmentalists that the plant was dangerous and should be shut down as scheduled by 2025.

Newsom has no direct authority over the twin-domed plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. PG&E must obtain approval for a longer run from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees plant safety, as well as a string of state agencies.

There are other questions, including whether PG&E will qualify for a share of $6 billion the Biden administration set aside to rescue nuclear plants at risk of closing. The state could back out of the deal if the reactors don’t qualify for federal dollars.


PG&E officials have said they are eager for certainty about the plant’s future because of the difficulty of reversing course on a plant that was headed for permanent retirement, but now needs to prepare for a potentially longer lifespan. Among the challenges: Ordering sufficient nuclear fuel and casks to store spent fuel, which can take up to two years to obtain.

Newsom's plan also restarted a long-running debate over seismic safety at the site. Construction at Diablo Canyon began in the 1960s. Critics say potential shaking from nearby earthquake faults not recognized when the design was first approved — one nearby fault was not discovered until 2008 — could damage equipment and release radiation. PG&E has long said the plant is safe, an assessment that the NRC has supported.

Also unknown is how much it will cost to update the plant for a longer run. PG&E has been deferring maintenance because the plant was expected to close by 2025.

Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Are Going Mainstream

Steven Lubet
Sat, September 3, 2022 

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty

What is the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism?

When are fiercely delivered rhetorical attacks on Israel an acceptable part of intense political discourse, and when do they amount to anti-Jewish invective?

It is crucial, although challenging, to distinguish between the two—given the passions understandably aroused by every aspect of the Israel-Palestine dispute—especially when the speakers seem otherwise credible and accomplished. The controversial recent comments by the director of Middle East Studies at Denver University provide a good opportunity to identify the line between criticism of Israeli policies and allusions to age-old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

Does Anti-Zionism Equal Anti-Semitism?

Shortly after the vicious stabbing of Indian-British-American author Salman Rushdie, Prof. Nader Hashemi, a specialist on Islam-West Relations, opined on the Iran Podcast that Israel was probably behind the life-threatening attack, as an attempt to derail renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Hashemi’s claim was quickly condemned by Jewish organizations, and it drew a tepid response from a Denver University official, who said that “his comments do not reflect the point of view of the university.” Otherwise, however, Hashemi’s unsupported accusation drew little attention from the mainstream media, perhaps because similarly conspiratorial charges have become almost commonplace in recent years.

Because of the perceived blasphemous nature of his novel The Satanic Verses, Rushdie has been living under a clerical death sentence for decades, due to a fatwa issued by Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. At least 45 people were later killed in riots in Mumbai, Kashmir, and Islamabad. Rushdie’s Japanese translator was murdered, his Italian translator was stabbed, and his Norwegian publisher was shot. In 2005, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence remained valid. As recently as 2019, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei announced that the verdict against Rushdie is “solid and irrevocable.”

Demonstrators in Tehran call for the death of Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie after a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemning him to death for blasphemy after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, February 1989.
Kaveh Kazemi/Getty ImagesMore

Although Rushdie’s alleged assailant, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American named Hadi Matar, was said to have made social media posts sympathetic to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (and carried a phony driver’s license with the name of a Hezbollah commander), Hashemi opined on the Iran Podcast that it was “much more likely” that Matar had been “lured” into attacking Rushdie by a “Mossad operative” who deviously claimed “to be affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The supposed false flag operation, according to Hashemi, could have been part of an Israeli scheme to prevent renewed U.S. negotiations with Iran. “Israel has taken a very strong position against reviving the Iran nuclear agreement,” he said, which “could explain the timing of this at this moment during these sensitive political discussions related to Iran’s nuclear program.”

Hashemi told the Denver Post that he also condemned the attack on Rushdie, which he described as “heinous.” But, he added, “My training is in political theory… I get paid to theorize.” He also called his employer’s very mild distancing of itself to his statements “deeply offensive, false and defamatory.”

In fact, there is precisely zero evidence that Israel had anything to do with the vicious attack on Rushdie, or that Mossad agents have made a practice of luring young Muslims into terrorism. Hashemi’s assignment of likely blame is about a half-step away from the enduring accusation that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. Apart from the non-existent technology, it is not too far from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s belief that California’s 2018 wildfires were caused by the Rothschilds’ space lasers.

Hashemi’s claim was obviously unfounded and irresponsible. But was it antisemitic, or merely ridiculous?

Two widely circulated definitions of antisemitism provide a useful answer.

In 2016 the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) issued a “working definition” of antisemitism that has been adopted or endorsed by 37 countries, including the U.S.,and many non-governmental organizations.

One of the IHRA’s illustrative examples is “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism… to characterize Israel or Israelis.” In 2021, a group of over 200 scholars of Jewish and Holocaust Studies issued the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) in response to the IHRA definition, which they considered too ambiguous—and potentially open to misuse—regarding the relationship between Israel and antisemitism. But even the more permissive JDA definition provides that “applying the symbols, images and negative stereotypes of classical antisemitism… to the State of Israel” is antisemitic “on the face of it.”

Hashemi’s image of a conniving Israeli operative, exercising nefarious control over an apparent act of Islamic terrorism, is a classic conspiracy theory that could have been lifted, with only a few vocabulary changes from a contemporary introduction to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion—the notorious forgery, originating in early 20th-century Russia, that claims to be proof of an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination.

Experts on Iranian politics have pointed out that the Islamic Republic often attempts to shift blame to Israel, only occasionally saying the “antisemitic parts out loud.”

It is certainly possible to be critical and even hostile toward Israel without drifting into antisemitism, as was demonstrated by law students at the University of California, Berkeley. Nine student groups (of over 100) adopted bylaws pledging never to invite “speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views… in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine,” and calling on other organizations to do the same. These resolutions are immature, counter-productive, and contrary to academic freedom, but they are squarely aimed at Israel’s actions, and are not by themselves antisemitic.

Call it What You Want, "Post-Zionism" is Anti-Zionism—David Frum

Hashemi, I’m sure, is a person of good will, with no ill intentions. But that makes it even more troubling that he would reflexively turn to an anti-Jewish stereotype without recognizing its bigoted implications (even when pointed out to him). Instead, he has doubled down. Rather than admit a mistake, which would probably have ended the controversy, Hashemi claims that he has become a “political target” for refusing to fall in line with Israeli-friendly policies. He described his Mossad attribution as part of a “nuanced and critical discussion of world politics.” Criticism of the theory, he complained, was “an attempt to silence public debate,” presumably over whether Rushdie’s stabbing had indeed been part of a cunning Israeli plot.

The term “antisemitism” itself was originally almost a euphemism, conceived by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr in 1879. Anti-Jewish hatred, of course, dates back to Antiquity, but Marr sought to modernize it by reframing the basis of discrimination from religion—which was out of fashion following the Enlightenment —to racialism. In an essay titled “The Way to Victory of Germanism over Judaism,” Marr laid the groundwork for the theory that Jews sought to dominate Aryans and other Europeans through control of finance and industry. “Jewish spirit and Jewish consciousness,” he warned, “have overpowered the world.” Antisemitism was substituted for Judenhass (Jew hatred) because it was secular and therefore more “scientific,” but it meant the same thing.

We increasingly see a similar phenomenon today, as in Hashemi’s remarks, when classically anti-Jewish themes are recast in the “nuanced” language of anti-Zionism, as though that was sufficient to cleanse the comments of their ancient implications.

That is the beauty of a conspiracy theory. It is all nuance and no proof.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ANTI-ZIONISM 

In Basel, the Zionist movement looks to Israel’s future

 

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.

 Michael Buholzer/Keystone

“We must reclaim the term Zionism for ourselves,” the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, declared in Basel. During events in the Swiss city last week marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, ideas flowed as to how this should be done. But many of them are hard to reconcile.

This content was published on September 9, 2022 

Benjamin von Wyl

To access the congress centre, guests first had to get past military and police forces from all across Switzerland. After that, however, Swiss German was scarcely to be heard. Over 1,000 delegates and guests, including entrepreneurs and philanthropists, had travelled to the gathering from almost all corners of the globe. In addition to Hebrew, English was the lingua franca. Two words in particular resounded from the podiums, mainly as exclamations: “Dreamer! Visionary!”

The terms sometimes referred to all the early Zionists, but mostly to Theodor Herzl. On August 29, 1897, he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel. Herzl was the initiator and later the founding president of the World Zionist Organisation. “If you will it, it is no dream,” he wrote afterwards in reference to a Jewish state that would protect Jewish people from anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination.

On August 29, 2022, the words “If you will it, it is no dream” were omnipresent on posters and in projections. Yet the country has long been real. Next year, the State of Israel will celebrate its 75th birthday. The country has also long had to face all the ups and downs and contradictions of everyday life. However, Herzl’s dream did not end with the founding of the state.

Two participants embrace during the celebrations. 

Michael Buholzer/Keystone


Switzerland’s delicate stances on Israel

This content was published on May 15, 2018

Switzerland, one of the first countries to recognize the state of Israel,

 is alarmed by the level of violence in Gaza Strip.

What does the Zionism of the future look like?

“Remembering the past and building a vision for the future” was the moderator’s slogan as she greeted the audience on Sunday. The two-day conference at times resembled a TED Talk event. There were accomplished speeches that combined a personal story with big ideas. But even during the panel discussions, there was no scope for questions from the audience. As a result, any potential contradictions were not discussed, at least not in the plenary. The remembrance, though, was unanimous: 2,000 years of exile that ended with the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Many speakers also shared their alarm at the rise in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide and stressed the need for decisive action.

Differences arose, however, when it came to people’s vision for the future. Thus, Yaakov Hagoel, chairperson of the World Zionist Organisation, declared that, within ten years the majority of the world’s Jews should be living in Israel – begging the question whether this was what the Jewish diaspora also wanted. Of the world’s 15 million Jews, by far the greatest number living outside Israel are in the United States. Meanwhile, in Basel, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Nachman Shai, placed the focus on involvement and engagement. He outlined a plan for Israel to give Jews around the world the possibility of participating politically in Israel.

 

Rabbi Azman, Ukraine’s chief rabbi, spoke about

 the significance of the right of Jews to immigrate to Israel. swissinfo.ch

Rabbi Azman travelled to Basel by train, as there are currently no flights from Ukraine. “For Jews who have nothing, Israel means everything,” Ukraine’s chief rabbi told the audience. For those who are now fleeing, “aliyah” – the possibility for all Jews to immigrate to Israel – is significant. Azman illustrated this with his own experience. Over 30 years ago, he and his wife left the Soviet Union, which was then collapsing. While they waited for their connecting flight in Vienna, a well-wisher gave his heavily pregnant wife a pineapple, which she had been craving.

“Aliyah” is older than political Zionism, but it is crucial to it. Zionists are convinced that political and social emancipation without a Jewish state cannot guarantee security. As best-selling Israeli author Micah Goodman said at the start of his speech: “In the 19th century, optimistic Jewish thinkers believed that the ‘Jewish question’, anti-Semitism, and discrimination would disappear through emancipation”. At the time, with the influence of the ideals of Enlightenment, many people thought that persecution had been overcome. Herzl countered this promise of emancipation with the conviction that anti-Semitic hatred in Western Europe had merely been suppressed. “So if emancipation is not the solution – what is the solution? Zionism succeeds where emancipation is doomed to fail,” said Goodman, adding that this was at the heart of Herzl’s first work, The Jewish State.

But in the future, the author continued, Israel and the Jewish diaspora should lean further on Herzl’s second influential work, The Old New Land (Altneuland). This could contain the seeds for the next generation of Zionism – a Zionism that finds “Jewish solutions to universal problems”. As examples, Goodman cited global warming and political polarisation, the latter of which he sees as the “social counterpart to global warming”. This statement aroused frenetic applause.

 

A patriotic moment to wrap up the closing gala. 

swissinfo.ch

The elephant in the room

Altneuland, published in 1902, tells the story of an ideal Jewish society in Palestine founded on democracy, solidarity and equality – and for Arabs too. So did Goodman broach the issue of the Middle East conflict in code? The question remains open and constantly rears its head. For as long as the occupation continues, the Zionist idea can hardly become exemplary beyond the Jewish world. The Middle East conflict was thus both absent and present throughout much of the conference.

It was the elephant in the room, but not taboo, Yves Kugelmann, editor-in-chief of the Jewish weekly magazine tachles, said in an interview. Speaking to SWI swissinfo.ch, Israeli parliamentarians Moshe Tur-Paz of the liberal ruling party, and Shirly Pinto of the right-wing ruling party openly shared their views on the subject.

Tur-Paz lives in a West Bank settlement that predates the State of Israel but that the United Nations says violates international law.

 

Theodor Herzl, on the balcony of the Basel hotel where

 he stayed during the First Zionist Congress in 1897. 

Keystone

“I believe that all of Israel was promised to my ancestors,” he said. “However, I’m not blind.” He sees the Arab population living in the area – some with Israeli passports, some without – and counts some of them as his friends. “Like most people in Israel, I long for some kind of solution that lies somewhere between autonomy and a country of their own.”

Pinto, meanwhile, stressed the need to “develop the Palestinian economy and improve the lives of Palestinians.” With regard to the Arab Israelis, the state should ensure “that they have everything that other people have,” she said.

Elections are coming up in Israel in two months’ time. Pinto and Tur-Paz are still members of the same government. Both emphasised the significance of the fact that, for the first time, an Arab-Islamic party is represented in their ruling coalition. Israel is a Jewish state, but this goes hand in hand with equal rights for all citizens.

Israeli parliamentarian Shirly Pinto. swissinfo.ch

When asked about their understanding of Zionism, the words “visionary” and “dreamer” came up again. In Tur-Paz’s view, “Zionism is the story of the people of Israel – the Israeli nation – dreaming about the land of Zion and now making the best of it after 2,000 years of exile. And now, ever since the creation of the state, this means that Jews from all over the world can look to Israel.”

According to Pinto, every contribution to coexistence in Israel is a contribution to Zionism. “Be it educational work or military service – everything is part of Herzl’s vision,” she said.

The speech by former Mossad director Yossi Cohen garnered the most enthusiastic response from the audience. The Israeli secret service is an integral part of Zionism as achieved in Israel, he asserted. He then explained how the Mossad had helped to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb from being produced.


How Christian Europe created anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages
This content was published on Aug 23, 2022

 The Covid pandemic has once again shown that nearly all conspiracy theories blame the Jews for the evils of the world.

Reclaiming the term Zionism

The closing gala featured a light show, special-effects fog and pop music. At this point, the interpretation of Herzl’s work took on some perplexing features. For example, he was compared to the CEO of a start-up who used crowdfunding to help Israel succeed.

The Swiss speakers at the gala were Beat Jans, president of the Basel city government and Economics Minister Guy Parmelin. They both addressed the Middle East conflict. Parmelin sparked spontaneous applause when he spoke in favour of a two-state solution.

The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, also talked about Herzl, the pioneer of Zionism, who turned “Jewish identity into an effective political doctrine”. One year earlier, he explained, a “leading social media platform” had discussed whether the word Zionism should be treated as an insult, as it was being misused as anti-Semitic code. At the gala evening in Basel, Herzog declared: “We must reclaim the term Zionism for ourselves” – that is, regain the sovereignty of interpretation and translate it positively.

The entire anniversary event was infused with a great commitment to understanding Zionism in an idealistic, even utopian light. But just how the ideal society of Herzl’s Altneuland can be transformed into realpolitik remains to be seen. Unlike Herzl the dreamer, today’s Zionists are not starting with a clean slate.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger; translated from German by Julia Bassam/gw

An anti-Jewish revolt in an enlightened country
This content was published on Aug 30, 2022

For centuries, Jewish life in what is now Switzerland was marked by discrimination.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ANTI-ZIONISM 

The Führer’s forgotten poet

 

Anacker (centre) in SA uniform during a Nazi Party meeting; 

the photo is probably from 1939. 

Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

History has not looked kindly on the legacy of Swiss poet Heinrich Anacker, whose books became best-sellers in Nazi Germany. A look at a controversial man of letters who the Nazi Party called “a singer of our times”.

This content was published on September 7, 2022 

Alexander Thoele

The life of Heinrich Anacker, Switzerland’s most-read poet of the 20th century, came to a tragic end on January 14, 1971, when he tripped on an icy road while out for a walk in Wasserburg on Lake Constance. He hit his head on the asphalt and suffered a stroke.

Upon his death, not a single obituary appeared in the newspapers. The world seemed almost relieved at his passing. His name sank into oblivion, as did his poems, many of which he wrote in honour of Adolf Hitler.

Anacker had certainly worked hard for his fame. He was known as the “Poet of the Movement”, “Lyricist of the Brown Front” or even “Poet of the Storm Troopers”. He was a productive writer. By the end of the Second World War, he had published 22 poetry volumes in Germany and sold 180,000 copies of them.

Several of his poems were used in military marches, such as From Finland to the Black Sea, which glorified Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941.

Anacker was born on January 29, 1901, in the village of Buchs in canton Aargau. His parents owned a printing business and a packaging factory. His father, Georg Anacker, was originally from the German town of Leipzig but took on Swiss citizenship in 1917, which he transferred to his son.

In 1921, one year before graduating from high school, Anacker published his first poem, Klinge, kleines Frühlingslied, through a small local publishing house. That year, he met the local baker’s daughter Emmy, who later became his wife.

 

Anacker and his wife in their newly-built house in Wannsee, near Berlin, 1937-1938. Arquivo pessoal de Charles Linsmayer

First contact with Nazis

In an interview with the Swiss literature critic and journalist Charles Linsmayer in 1984, Emmy said that she had fallen in love with a young poet who was passionate about nature and beautiful feelings and came from “a decent family”.

After he graduated from high school, Anacker enrolled at the University of Zurich to study literature and philosophy. But in 1923 he interrupted his studies to move to Vienna, where he continued his education and joined a conservative student fraternity. That’s when Anacker first came into contact with the Nazis.

Two years later, he returned to Zurich and reunited with his wife, but the National Socialists did not cease to fascinate him. He was so enthralled with them that in 1927 he travelled to Germany to attend the Nuremberg Rallies, the national event of the Nazi Party.

“When he heard Hitler speak for the first time, he was very impressed,” Emmy told Linsmayer. “He said to me: ‘This is the man who will save Germany’.” Emmy had studied drama and found a job in Döbeln in the German state of Saxony, where she relocated in 1928. Anacker then abandoned his studies and followed his wife to Germany.

Later that year, he joined the Nazi Party’s local group with the assigned membership number 105,290, and soon afterwards enlisted with the Storm Troopers. His poems were not yet tainted by National Socialism and were not unsuccessful.

In 1932, Anacker’s first volume of political poetry, The Drum, was published by the Storm Troopers’ own publishing house. In this collection, Anacker switched gears, writing about the changes the country was going through.

“The fascist revolution had found its way to Germany assisted by the rhythm of Anacker’s songs and lyrics, which were a skillfull mix of political indoctrination, aggression and praise for nature,” said Linsmayer. “They brainwashed the minds of the Germans.”

During his years in the German army, Anacker visited various parts of the front and recited poetry to the soldiers, such as here in Norway, 1942. 

Acervo privado de Charles Linsmayer

‘A singer of our times’

In Germany, Anacker rubbed shoulders with Nazi writers and intellectuals, among them high-ranking officials such as Julius Streicher, the regional leader of the Nazi Party and founder and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer. He became reasonably well-known through these contacts, and when he met Hitler in a railway carriage in 1933, the Führer allegedly said to him: “Ah, you are Anacker.”

It did not take long for the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to arrange meetings with Anacker so they could discuss literature and ways his lyrics could be used in military marches.

During the Nuremberg Rallies in 1936, Anacker received the National Prize for Art and Science, handed to him by Hitler’s chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg. “For many years, Storm Trooper Anacker’s poetry has accompanied our movement,” the Nazi Party stated in awarding him the prize. “As a singer of our times, he lifted our spirits and wrote powerful but sad songs that described our yearnings.”

At the start of the Second World War, Anacker decided to give up his Swiss citizenship. “I was born German but lost my German nationality through my father’s naturalisation in Switzerland,” he wrote to the German authorities after the war. “This was against my will. I have always been German at heart.”

The war did not blight Anacker’s passion for poetry. From 1938 to 1945, he published a spate of poetry volumes, such as Ein Volk - ein Reich - ein Führer (One People, One Realm, One Leader, 1938), Wir wachsen in das Reich hinein (We Grow into the Realm, 1938) and Marsch durch den Osten (March Through the East, 1943). All of these works were printed by the Nazi Party's central publishing house whose biggest success was the publication of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

 

Anacker, in German military attire, pictured in occupied Norway in September 1944. Arquivo pessoal de Charles Linsmayer

A poet in uniform

In 1941, Anacker was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s unified forces. But despite the lack of soldiers due to difficulties on the various fronts, the armed forces allowed Anacker to continue his paid duty as the party’s poet. In his corporal uniform, he recited his poetry before the troops, visiting them in France, Russia and occupied Norway in 1944. He then wrote about these experiences. When it became clear that the war would soon be lost, Anacker was transferred to a military hospital, where he looked after the wounded.

On April 23, 1945, the American army arrested Anacker in Bavaria and imprisoned him there until the end of that year. When he was released, he could not return to his house in Berlin as it was occupied by the Russians. He moved in with relatives in Salach, a village in southern Germany.

Denazification did not affect Anacker. In 1948 the district court in the German town of Göppingen sentenced him to six months in prison for his role as a collaborator. However, one year later, the higher regional court of the state of Baden-Württemberg cut his sentence and classified him as a passive follower or, to use the German term, a Mitläufer.

During the hearings, Anacker testified that he had had no clue about the horrors committed by the Nazis.

In 1955, Heinrich and Emmy Anacker moved to Wasserburg on the shores of Lake Constance where they had a view of Switzerland. Since he had given up Swiss citizenship, Anacker no longer had any connections with his old homeland, and not even with the Nazi movement in Switzerland.

Persona non grata

This disconnection was not voluntary. Official documents show that Anacker applied for several entry visas, stating that he had to visit his sick parents or parents-in-law or to deal with inheritance matters. Most of his applications were rejected.

In 1951, Anacker printed a few copies of his final book, Goldener Herbst (Golden Autumn). He did not publish it to make money as he had become financially independent thanks to an inheritance from his parents. He could even afford a secretary, who typed and archived his work. He continued to write until his death. Thousands of poems were carefully kept in wooden boxes that are now stored in the German Literature Archive in Marbach, following a long legal battle with a right-wing extremist association. Most of his works were never read or published.

Translated from German by Billi Bierling/gw

Pensions vote: ‘the reform comes at the expense of women’
 

Vania Alleva, president of the Unia trade union.

 Anthony Anex

Vania Alleva, the boss of Switzerland’s largest trade union, says wage discrimination should be eliminated before women are made to work longer. She wants voters to say ‘no’ to a reform of the old-age pension system on September 25.

This content was published on September 8, 2022 - 

Katy Romy

After two previous reform efforts failed at the ballot box in 2004 and 2017, the Swiss are set to vote again on a proposal to revamp the pension system to ensure its financial viability.

Women’s retirement age to be voted on again
Jul 29, 2022 Raising the retirement age for women remains a stumbling block.

The central plank of the reform is an increase in the retirement age for women from 64 to 65, putting them on an equal footing with men. Government, parliament, and parties from the right and centre all say this is a necessary measure. But the change provoked an outcry from the left and trade unions, who collected 150,000 signatures to force a referendum.

For Vania Alleva, the president of Switzerland’s largest trade union Unia, the reform is unacceptable.

SWI swissinfo.ch: Two attempts to reform the pension system have already failed. Can Switzerland afford to say ‘no’ again?

Vania Alleva: The pension system has no structural problems. It is solid, it has no liquidity issues. The latest results show this: last year, it made a profit of CHF2.6 billion ($2.64 billion). There is no need for this reform, which is at the expense of women.

SWI: But without reform the system will be in deficit from 2029 onwards, according to projections by the Federal Social Insurance Office. How would we continue to finance pensions?

V.A.: The authorities’ forecasts are too pessimistic. Every ten years, the government makes a mistake in its predictions, leaving it out by several billion francs. The system will certainly have to shoulder the retirement of the baby boomer generation. However, we can find other ways to solve this transitional problem, if we have to. It is a question of political will.

SWI: What solutions do the left and the unions propose to deal with this problem?

V.A.: First of all, existing wage discrimination must be eliminated. Beyond that, there are various ways of strengthening the first pillar [the state pension scheme], because in any case we need to increase pensions, which are currently too low. We have proposed a very concrete solution to achieve this: the Swiss National Bank initiative, a proposal to use the central bank’s billions of profits to boost the pension system.


Is it necessary to raise the retirement age for women, or are there other ways to secure pensions?
On September 25, Swiss citizens will decide whether to raise the retirement age for women from 64 to 65.

SWI: Most OECD countries have already increased the retirement age and eliminated the gender gap. Can Switzerland afford not to follow the international trend?

V.A.: We have to take into account the reality of the Swiss labour market, which is not rosy for older workers. People between the ages of 55 and 64 have the highest unemployment rates. And a report published at the end of 2021 by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed that the number of 55 to 64-year-olds forced to leave the labour market altogether – due to disability, illness or lack of opportunity – increased between 2010 and 2020.

The situation is even more difficult in female-dominated professions like care work. A survey carried out by Unia before the pandemic showed that almost half of care workers think they will not be able to work until they reach retirement age. This shows that we can’t afford to increase the age even further. It would mean more unemployment.

SWI: The women most affected by this reform (born between 1961 and 1969) will benefit from compensation measures, in particular the possibility to retire as young as 62 with a smaller reduction in their pension. Are these measures not enough?

V.A.: This reform means losing a year’s pension, which will cost women CHF26,000, even though their pensions are already a third lower than men’s. The compensation measures are completely inadequate. We should also be aware that this dismantling of the pension system is just the first step towards raising the retirement age to 67 for everyone.

SWI: Pension inequality is mainly due to the second pillar (occupational pensions), not so much the first pillar (state-backed old-age pensions). Isn’t the left fighting the wrong battle?

V.A.: Not at all! It’s essential not to weaken the first pillar, which is the fairest and most balanced of the [three-pillar] system. It should rather be strengthened, because one in three women has no second pillar coverage and has to get by on the first. Of course, we also have to find solutions to slow down the decline in second-pillar payouts. Representatives of employees, employers and the government actually reached a compromise to reform the occupational pension scheme, but it was thrown out in parliament. That’s our next battle.



Switzerland mulls raising the retirement age for women
Mar 19, 2021 Like in many industrialised countries, Switzerland is trying to align the age of retirement between men and women.

SWI: A differentiated retirement age is the remnant of a patriarchal system, with the argument of the government in the last century being that women had a “physiological disadvantage” compared to men. Why should we preserve this old-fashioned model?

V.A.: What’s old-fashioned and unconstitutional is the fact that women continue to suffer big wage discriminations. They earn on average 19% less than men. Equal pay is enshrined in law, in the constitution, but we continue to avoid the problem. If these inequalities were ended, the money this reform wants to gain at the expense of women would flow naturally into the coffers of the pension system. It would be more profitable.

SWI: Still, many women support the reform. Isn’t it misleading for the left and the unions to use this as an argument for equality?

V.A.: Maybe the right-wing women who launched the campaign for reform have high salaries and no financial worries. Lawyers or university professors will be able to take a pension cut of CHF26,000. But women with low incomes and limited means will feel the full impact. Pensions for couples will also suffer.

SWI: Backers of the reform believe that allowing women to retire earlier is not a way to eliminate wage discrimination. Wouldn't it be better to increase their income and improve childcare, for example?

V.A.: We have been fighting discrimination and inequality for decades and will continue to do so. We did not have the support of women reform activists when it came to revising the Gender Equality Act or fighting for pay rises in professions where women are predominantly employed. These professions continue to be poorly paid, even though the pandemic has highlighted how important they are. All this has implications for old-age pensions. One in nine women has to claim supplementary benefits to get by in retirement. This problem must be solved first, rather than asking them to work longer to earn less.

SWI: The left and the unions also oppose the second part of the reform, an increase in value-added tax from 7.7% to 8.1%. But the measure would bring in around CHF1.4 billion per year to strengthen the pension system. Can we really do without this windfall?

V.A.: People already face rising prices, and a steep increase in health insurance premiums is expected in September. Against this backdrop, a VAT hike would be too heavy a burden on households. We are expected to pay more while our pensions are cut. It’s not acceptable.

Below: an opposing viewpoint from Brenda Duruz McEvoy, pensions expert at the employers’ association in canton Vaud.

Pensions vote: a yes would ‘help to eliminate inequalities’
Sep 8, 2022 The revamp of the pension system would boost the financial situation of retired women, says Brenda Duruz McEvoy.

Translated from French by Catherine Hickley/dos

Switzerland tops UN Human Development Index for first time
 

Girl jumping by the river Rhine, Basel © Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Switzerland topped the UN country ranking of human development with incomes and life expectancy rising in 2021.

This content was published on September 8, 2022 

Virginie Mangin

Switzerland has ranked first in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index in 2021, mainly due to a rise in life expectancy and a rebound of its income per capita, following the end of all Covid-19 restrictions in the country.

This is a first for Switzerland, which ranked third in 2020.

Life expectancy reached 84 years in 2021, up from 83.1 years in 2020. The country’s income per capita hit $93,457 (CHF91,246) in 2021, a sharp rise from 2020, when it was $86,850. This follows global trends, with the pandemic knocking more than a year and a half off global life expectancy and plunging the global economy into recession.

“In 2021, Switzerland has a nice rebound in the life expectancy indicator. This was not the case for all countries, some of which saw their life expectancy continue to fall in 2021,” said Yanchun Zhang, chief statistician for the UNDP, in an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch.

The Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the UNDP, measures a nation’s health, education, and standard of living. The index overall has fallen for the last two years – the first time since the index was launched 32 years ago – due to the pandemic, stalling global economic growth and the effects of climate change.

“This drop is almost universal but also deepening. If you track the historical HDI, every year some countries see a decline but no more than 10%, so less than 20 countries, but this year decline is a global shock. More than 40% of these countries have two consecutive years of decline, ” the report published on Thursday said.

Data from 191 countries show 90% failed to achieve a better, healthier, more secure life for their population over the past two years, setting the index back five years.

“Human development has fallen back to its 2016 levels, reversing much of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Without a sharp change of course, we may be heading towards even more deprivations and injustice,” the report warned.

South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with countries such as the Philippines still imposing partial lockdowns on much of the country. These regions have also suffered record drought and floods in 2021, the hottest year on record. Pakistan is currently struggling with heavy monsoon rains that have inundated swathes of the country. Floods have so far affected some 33 million people and caused at least 1,343 deaths over the past weeks.

“The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises. We have seen with the cost of living and energy crises that, while it is tempting to focus on quick fixes like subsidising fossil fuels, immediate relief tactics are delaying the long-term systemic changes we must make,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.
Swiss exception

Switzerland was part of a cluster of countries that includes Norway and Iceland, which rebounded in 2021.

Nonetheless, a breakdown of Switzerland’s scores on the index points to certain disparities in the country, notably in gender development.

“Concerning the gender development index, which tracks human development of women compared to men, Switzerland has room to improve. Switzerland is in Group 2, the second-best performance group, which means female human development needs to catch up with male development to achieve gender parity,” said Zhang from the UNDP.

Between 1990 and 2021, Switzerland's HDI value rose by 13%.

‘We must reduce our meat consumption’
 

The initiative is an opportunity for Swiss farmers because the market will no longer be flooded with cheap competing  products from abroad, says Meret Schneider.

 © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

On September 25, Swiss citizens will vote on a ban on intensive livestock farming. The initiative aims to eradicate factory farming and calls for stricter import regulations for animal products.

 This content was published on September 6, 2022 -  

“We should have fewer animals but keep them in a more dignified way,” says Zurich’s Green Party parliamentarian Meret Schneider. She is a leading advocate for veganism and is also the co-manager of Sentience Politics, the animal rights organisation that launched the initiative. In an interview with swissinfo.ch, she explains why she supports the cause.



Animal welfare: people’s initiative takes aim at factory farming

This content was published on Sep 5, 2022

 Swiss voters are deciding on a proposed ban on factory farming, a sensitive issue in a country that already has strict animal welfare laws.
SWI swissinfo.ch

Switzerland has some of the strictest animal protection laws and animal husbandry is comparatively small. Do we need more regulations?

Meret Schneider: Of course, Switzerland is well positioned when it comes to animal protection legislation, and we have fewer animals than other countries. However, farmers are still allowed to keep 27,000 broiler chickens in one single barn with 14 chickens packed per square metre. That’s certainly overcrowding.

There is no point in wondering if the situation is worse elsewhere or what other countries are doing. We should rather ask ourselves whether the way we manage our animals ensures their welfare. Do we protect their dignity? There is certainly a lot of room for improvement.

SWI: Does this mean that animals are not sufficiently protected in Switzerland?

M.S.: I’ll leave it to the readers to decide. In Switzerland, a conventional broiler chicken is allowed to live for 30 days during which it is fattened to such an extent that it is unable to stand up on its own two feet. The chickens are then slaughtered on a piecework basis. Laying hens are gassed after ten months because they lose their productivity even though they can live to be 14 years old. They often suffer from breastbone fractures which is due to their selective breeding for increased egg laying. Pigs live on one square metre of concrete without bedding which gives them joint pain. In my view we are far from protecting animal welfare.

SWI: Opponents argue that if accepted, the initiative could lead to a massive fall in Swiss animal products and a price rise of 20% to 40%. Wouldn’t that be a problem for you?

M.S.: This number is far too high because it was calculated based on prices for organic products. It doesn’t make sense. The initiative will not oblige farmers to meet the envisaged organic standards but use them as guidelines of how to protect animal welfare. There will be fewer animal products on the marker which is in line with consumers’ dietary habits. Meat consumption has been continuously on the decline for a while.

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We must severely reduce the consumption of animal products anyway due to climate change and resource depletion. Of course, prices will increase but not as much as the initiative’s opponents claim. At the end of the day, a price hike would be appropriate. Animal products are luxury items that require a great deal of resources. And as long as the Swiss throw away a third of the food they buy, it is hard to understand why anything would be too expensive.


Swiss factory farming ban to be decided at the ballot box
This content was published on Jul 29, 2022

 On September 25, Swiss citizens will vote on a ban on intensive livestock farming.

SWI: Farmers will certainly face higher costs if they, let’s say, are required to convert their stables. Does the initiative take this into account?

M.S.: Absolutely. According to our proposal, the government will support the farmers. We demand subsidies which is something we emphasise again and again. At the same time, we must not forget that the transition period is 25 years, which is a whole generation. We certainly have enough time.

SWI: Opponents of the initiative claim that farmers would have to adopt the requirements for organic certification. This would curb the consumers’ freedom of choice. Is there any truth in it?

M.S.: As I mentioned before, farmers will not be obliged to adopt organic standards and consumers’ freedom of choice is already limited. For example, keeping hens in battery cages is banned in Switzerland. This was a political decision which was supported by the people. We do not want to keep our hens in a way that is against animal welfare. Animal dignity is enshrined in the Swiss Constitution. The same applies to other animal products.

SWI: Swiss resources are not sufficient to feed the whole population. Wouldn’t the initiative reduce our self-sufficiency rate even further?

M.S.: We are far from being self-sufficient. Swiss farms rely on hybrid laying hens for egg production or broiler chickens for meat. These hybrid animals were not bred in Switzerland and their parent stock were imported. When we talk about self-sufficiency, we must bear in mind that we import parent stock, as well as over one million tonnes of fodder every year.




If we cut back on the number of animals and rely more on grazing animals - such as cattle, cows, sheep and goats - which are adapted to our pastures, we will be more self-sufficient. Switzerland has the right topography for grazing animals.

SWI: Isn’t there a risk that the initiative will boost imports from countries where animal welfare is less respected than in Switzerland?

M.S.: This initiative would prevent exactly that. Imported products would have to meet Swiss standards. It would be a great opportunity for Swiss farmers as the market would not be flooded with cheap products such as poultry from Brazil or beef from Argentina. Animals in these countries are often kept according to standards that would be banned under our initiative.

SWI: Critics claim that if accepted, the initiative would violate Switzerland’s obligations towards the World Trade Organisation (WTO). What do you think about that?

M.S.: That’s not a problem. There are already WTO regulations according to which import restrictions are justified and possible if products contradict public morals of the respective society. We have seen this with the import ban on seal products or eggs from caged hens. Accepting the initiative would send a very strong signal that says: “We don't want this as a society.” This would even be compliant with the WTO.

Opposing viewpoint: Swiss People’s Party’s parliamentarian Marcel Dettling explains in an interview why he is against the initiative on the ban on intensive livestock farming

‘The Swiss love their meat’

This content was published on Sep 6, 2022 Animal welfare: Marcel Dettling urges a “no” vote to help keep prices down and avoid a surge in imports.


Swiss Politics

GIANNIS MAVRIS

Are you prepared to pay more for animal products if it means keeping animals in a more species-appropriate manner?
The factory farming initiative wants to anchor the protection of the dignity of farm animals and the ban on factory farming in the constitution.

Adapted from German by Billi Bierling

Steel mill applies for reduced working hours due to energy costs

High energy prices have forced a steel mill in Switzerland to prepare for short-time working to avoid layoffs. 

 

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

 This content was published on September 4, 2022 -

The Stahl Gerlafingen steel plant in the canton of Solothurn has been granted permission to resort to short-time working from October to December as a preventive measure. The mill consumes as much electricity as 70,000 households and is expecting a bill of CHF45 million for October, writes the NZZ am Sonntag.

This is more than the annual electricity cost, said company director Alain Creteur. The factory, owned by Italian Beltrame Group, produces around 2,600 tonnes of steel every day.

In Switzerland, when a company finds itself in difficulty, it can temporarily reduce the working hours of its staff (known as short-time working). The employees then work at a lower percentage and the employer pays a lower salary. The unemployment insurance compensates 80% of the loss of income of the employee on short-time work.

The measure was used by many Swiss companies in recent years as a result of restrictions related to the Covid pandemic. This is one of the first cases of a company using short-time working to deal with the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

Switzerland ranks among worst European states for gender income gap

 In 2018, Switzerland was ranked third out of 30 European countries – behind the Netherlands and Austria - with the largest overall wage gap between women and men

Women in Switzerland earn 43.2% less than men and draw less pension due to higher rates of part-time work.

This content was published on September 8, 2022 
Keystone-SDA/Reuters/SRF/sb

The Gender Overall Earnings Gap (GOEG) study, requested by parliament in 2019, showed Switzerland performed relatively poorly compared to other European countries.

“In 2018, the GOEG for Switzerland was 43.2%. This means that women’s earnings are 43.2% lower than men’s for all hours worked between the ages of 15 and 64,” the Federal Statistical Office said in a statementExternal link on Wednesday.

In 2018, Switzerland was rankedExternal link third out of 30 European countries – behind the Netherlands and Austria - with the largest overall wage gap between women and men.

The report said this big difference between the sexes in Switzerland is mainly due to the “high proportion of women who work part-time”. Women make up half of the highly skilled workforce, but work fewer hours. While 63% of all employed women aged 25 to 54 work part-time in the Alpine country, the figure is only 28% in the European Union.

In 2020, the gender pension gap was 34.6%, the report stated. The average total annual pension for women was CHF35,840 ($36,456), CHF18,924 lower than that for men. This reflected differences in employment participation, the effects of family and life models, and wage inequality between the sexes over time.

The data come ahead of a nationwide vote on September 25 whether to reform the state pension system by raising women’s retirement age by a year to 65 – the same as that for men – and increasing value-added tax rates to help fund the system.