OPINION - One in five Brits is neither in work nor looking for work—it’s chronic

Opinion by Anna van Praagh •

EVENING STANDARD-BUSINESS

The word “permacrisis” has been added to the dictionary as a term that defines 2022 and now, to top it all, we’re officially in a recession. The bizarrely good news is, however, that unemployment, at 3.6 per cent, is at its lowest level for nearly half a century and experts predict that unlike the recession in the Eighties when unemployment soared to double digits, this time it won’t exceed five per cent.


anna-van-praagh.jpg© Matt Writtle

But even this isn’t really good news. In fact, this low unemployment figure actually hides something deeply troubling. One in five Britons aged 16 to 64 now describes themselves as neither in work or looking for work. More than five million of us are completely economically inactive and claiming out-of-work benefits.

Even more worryingly, this figure is constantly rising. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast a rise of 13.4 per cent in health and disability spending by 2026, which will cost the Government £7.5 billion.

The OBR said that the increase in the number and length of claims could be driven by mental illness and long Covid. A backlog of seven million people waiting for NHS treatments is certainly unhelpful. But is there something more concerning at play about people simply checking out of life, preferring never to leave the house since the pandemic? I was struck by a recent study published by French centre-Left think-tank the Jean-Jaures Foundation, which revealed a similar malaise.

French people, according to the authors, particularly the young, are struggling to find the energy to leave the house, for work or for pleasure, and can’t even be bothered to go to restaurants or the cinema. A poll they conducted found that 45 per cent of those surveyed “regularly cannot be bothered to go out”.

Respondents were asked whether certain words inspired positive or negative sentiments. “‘Rest”’ was viewed more positively than “‘effort”’ or “‘work”’ and “‘bed”’ more than “‘career”’. Back in the UK, you might think it’s mainly over-50s dropping out of the workforce, but ONS analysis showed the biggest increase in inactivity from long-term sickness was among younger people, with a staggering 42 per cent rise in the 25-34 age group and 29 per cent for the 16 to 24-year-olds.

In 2023, it’s predicted that the UK will be the only big economy in which employment is lower than before the pandemic because of all these people who have left the labour market. As they are so young, the ramifications could last for decades.

It’s bad for productivity, disastrous for the welfare budget, and this workless life isn’t even making anyone happier — use of anti-depressants has never been higher, up 22 per cent since 2015.

It’s terrible to read of so many people checking out of their own lives and all that wasted talent. Of all the lasting impacts of the pandemic, I find this one to be the saddest.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for RIGHT TO BE LAZY 

I’m gripped by Jamie Fiore Higgins memoir Bully Market

I am gripped by Bully Market, the memoir by Jamie Fiore Higgins, about the toxic boys’ club of Goldman Sachs and am cheering her from the sidelines for improving workplace culture for women.

A friend of mine, who is very senior at a so-called Magic Circle law firm, says her colleagues can’t bear the “woke” new intake who set boundaries at work and won’t tolerate certain toxic male behaviour, while she is full of admiration for them.

When I started my career I often came into the office to find a male colleague engrossed in porn — I wouldn’t have dreamt of mentioning it to anyone. When male colleagues asked me to pose naked straddling a chair, Christine Keeler-style, for the paper I actually did it.

My generation was taught to be grateful to have jobs that men wanted. If a male colleague made a pass you just removed their hand and — with a smile — told them to f*** off.

This generation wants to move the needle. I salute them.

ES IS A RIGHT WING UK TABLOID

Voices: Why are politicians unwilling to acknowledge the truth about migration?

Opinion by Jonathan Portes • Yesterday 

Today’s immigration figures show the highest levels of net migration since records began, at about half a million over the year to June. Overwhelmingly, this reflects rising inflows from outside the EU. Unsurprisingly, this has already generated some hysterical reactions from the usual suspects. However, given trends in visas over the period analysed, it’s not a great surprise.


LIBYA-MIGRANTS© AFP via Getty Images

Record immigration is driven by special factors, not least the reopening of travel and the economy post-pandemic, and inflows from Ukraine (and to some extent Hong Kong). Moreover, the ONS has also changed its mind about what happened during the pandemic, revising down its provisional estimates by several hundred thousand.

So, today’s statistics are not as dramatic as they look. Over the three years to June 2022, net migration averaged about 250,000 annually, of which a bit over 200,000 was from outside the EU. This is not that different from the general post-referendum trend.

Nevertheless, the statistics do confirm my earlier analysis that predicted that the new, post-Brexit system would result in a reorientation of UK migration patterns from the EU to the rest of the world, with workers and students from South Asia and Africa substituting those from the EU.

But the public debate about what this means for the UK economy and labour market is confusing and contradictory, to say the least. Some in the government – including the home secretary – appear to believe that the new system is far too liberal, and was “created to increase” work-related migration.

Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, is particularly exercised that too many people are coming from “poor countries”. Meanwhile, there is a clear consensus among business groups that the new system, and in particular the end of free movement, is leading to labour shortages, which are inhibiting growth.

In fact, the data suggests both are wrong (or right). There are indeed “labour shortages” in some sectors that were heavily dependent on EU-origin workers, especially accommodation and hospitality. But work-related migration flows overall have not declined: there has been a sharp increase in those coming to work under the new health and care visa, more than offsetting falls in EU migration; while other sectors such as ICT and professional and business services have seen more modest rises.

This readjustment, from EU to non-EU migrants is broadly what the new system was designed to achieve: it’s a feature, not a bug. Indeed, in sharp contrast to trade, where it is almost universally acknowledged that Brexit has, as predicted, damaged the UK’s economic performance, the UK’s post-Brexit migration is delivering more or less what Vote Leave promised (even if not necessarily what all Brexit voters wanted). As the Office of Budget Responsibility has pointedly observed, immigration is about the only area where policy is contributing to higher economic growth.

Politicians seem to be unwilling to acknowledge this. Indeed, when asked directly about labour shortages, the prime minister waffled hopelessly about small boats, while Keir Starmer seems to believe that businesses prefer skilled workers from abroad and simultaneously depend on “low pay and cheap labour”. But the longer-term impacts on the UK economy of this shift will be profound.

Will the shift towards higher-skilled occupations and sectors help increase (as intended, and as most economists would expect) not just the size of the economy, but GDP per capita and productivity? Or will the UK, stuck in a post-Brexit low growth rut, become less attractive to the “brightest and best”; who of course have other options?

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Meanwhile, how will other sectors adjust – by reducing employment and output, or by increasing productivity through investment and training, and perhaps increasing wages? So far, at least, there’s little sign of the latter. Not only are real wages falling for almost everybody, but pay in the most affected sectors doesn’t appear to have performed any better. As economists have long argued, the idea that ending free movement would magically boost the wages of low-paid workers was never very realistic.

Nevertheless, amid the general doom and gloom over the UK economy, the figures are good news. The end of free movement doesn’t mean the UK is closed to migrants; it’s just open in a different way. The long-term effects will be profound.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and author of ‘What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Immigration?’

UK

Compostable bags can’t be composted, minister admits

Story by Samuel Webb • Yesterday

Colombia Japan Pet Beetles

© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

A minister has admitted that most plastic bags and packaging labelled ‘compostable’ can’t actually be composted.

Green peer Natalie Bennett pressed Lord Benyon, a minister for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, on whether this type of plastic is a green “con”.

Lord Benyon told peers: "Compostable plastics must be treated in industrial composting facilities to be broken down and, when processed incorrectly, can be a source of microplastics and contaminate recycling streams.”

Lord Benyon added the government’s focus would be on “reducing unnecessary consumption”, and creating a circular economy, reports the Mirror.

Baroness Bennett said: “The government talks about reducing single-use plastics, but Brits only have to look around them to see masses of the stuff in shops and cafes - and all too often, littering our streets.”

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She also said most people would be shocked to learn they can’t compost the majority of compostable-branded plastic and called the compostable plastic debacle “just one more area of Tory policy chaos.”

Friends of the Earth campaigner, Camilla Zerr, said: “These are encouraging words from the minister. The focus should be on reducing plastic in the first place, not false solutions like compostable plastic.

“Replacing one single-use material by another doesn’t tackle the systemic problems of the overproduction and overconsumption of single-use products.

“The government now needs to match its words with action by doing far more to cut the amount of plastic waste produced in the first place and developing comprehensive policies that encourage widespread reuse and refill.”

According to the Big Compost Experiment, compostable plastics are a subset of biodegradable plastics that are designed to break down under controlled environmental conditions into water, biomass, and gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

But most plastics marketed as compostable are anything but, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research from the University College London’s Plastic Waste Innovation Hub.

Prof Mark Miodownik, an author of the paper, said: “The bottom line is that home compostable plastics don’t work.”

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JUST SAY NO, JOE
Joe Biden Could 'Follow Trump's Lead' and Ignore Republican House Subpoena

Story by Darragh Roche • Yesterday 

President Joe Biden may soon be facing a subpoena from the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives as the GOP has pledged to launch investigations into his administration.


U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on developing infrastructure jobs in the East Room of the White House on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden could soon be facing a subpoena from the Republican-led House of Representatives.© Oliver Contreras/Getty Images

Republicans will control key committees once the new Congress meets on January 3 and they will have the power to seek documents and compel testimony, and political scientists have told Newsweek thatBiden will likely be a target.

A subpoena could be issued to the president as part of a probe of his son, Hunter Biden, and his foreign business dealings. Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans accused Biden of lying about his involvement in his son's business affairs in a 31-page interim report last week.

Biden has always denied playing a role in Hunter Biden's business dealings, but Oversight Republicans made clear their investigation was about the president, alleging he "has misused his public positions to further his family's financial interests."

Experts on U.S. politics told Newsweek that Biden could potentially ignore a subpoena and cited the example set by former President Donald Trump.

Ignoring a Subpoena

Republicans are likely to try and tie Hunter Biden's business affairs to his father as part of any investigation into the matter, but the president may have a case for ignoring any subpoena, according to David A. Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University.

"You can't just subpoena and expect compliance because you have decided that something stinks: for it to be remotely likely to work, politically or in getting the president to comply, there would need to be something to back it up," Bateman told Newsweek.

"The president could ignore the subpoena, and unless there was some threat of judicial action or Democrats were defecting then he probably would ignore it," he said.

Bateman added that judicial action and Democratic defections would require "a pretty compelling case" that Hunter Biden had done something wrong, but also "that the wrong he has done substantively implicates the president."

Following Trump's Lead

Former President Trump may provide an example of how Biden could deal with GOP probes, though it's not clear if the administration will embrace his tactics.

The House Select Committee investigating January 6, 2021, accused Trump earlier this month of defying a subpoena they'd issued to him that required him to sit for a deposition on or about November 14 and to provide documents.

The former president has sued to avoid giving testimony or providing documents to the committee, which may also be an option open to Biden.

"The big question generally is whether Biden will cooperate with Republican-led investigations," Thomas Gift, founding director of University College London's Centre on U.S. Politics, told Newsweek.

"Trump repeatedly shattered norms of executive transparency by refusing to hand over documents, to offer testimony, and to comply with subpoenas in the course of investigations into his own conduct," he said.

"With that new standard established, it's unclear whether the White House will revert to the status quo ante by working with Congress to provide relevant information - or whether it will follow Trump's lead by stymieing probes at every turn. My guess is that we'll see a bit of both," Gift added.

Paul Quirk, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Newsweek: "Attempting to quash the subpoena will look like Trump-style stonewalling initially, but not for long if the attempt succeeds and the courts deliver a rebuke to the investigators."

"Biden may want to evaluate the legal and constitutional rationale for the subpoena carefully, and if it is strong, testify; but if it is weak, challenge it," he said.

Embarrassing Moments

If President Biden does receive a subpoena from Republicans and chooses to testify, that would carry risks of its own.

"Biden will have a difficult decision whether to comply with the subpoena or go to court and attempt to quash it," Quirk said.

"Even if the investigation turns up no credible evidence of wrongdoing, the president's appearance before an investigating committee would likely produce some embarrassing moments for both him and his son," he said.

"The Republicans would take the opportunity to hurl insults and make scurrilous accusations, directly to the president's face," Quirk went on.

Quirk said that in the absence of major revelations "the investigation will probably play poorly with moderates, swing voters, and mainstream media, and may backfire against the Republicans."

"But even if so, Biden's image will suffer some inevitable harm," he said.

Serious Evidence

Republicans may risk an unfavorable contrast between their probe of the Bidens and ongoing investigations of former President Trump, while Biden could make things more difficult for the GOP by fighting any subpoena.

"The president does have a short-term interest in public officials complying with congressional subpoenas - but even that is pretty thin," Bateman told Newsweek.

"After all, Biden has no say over whether Trump is subpoenaed by the House, the Senate, or even really the Department of Justice," he said. "He has an interest in making sure that justice is done, but that's delegated to the attorney general and now the special counsel, who can do it as well as Congress -and since the judiciary has weakened Congress' own authority, maybe they can do it even better."

"Last, and most important, the sitting president would have a very easy case to make for ignoring a subpoena: Hunter Biden is just a private individual, not even a Billy Carter in the grand scheme of things," Bateman went on.

Billy Carter was the younger brother of former President Jimmy Carter, whose relationship with the government of Libya was subject to a Senate hearing that some in the pressed dubbed "Billygate."

"Absent some serious evidence of impropriety on the president's part, subpoenaing him would look like a clear effort to make political gain," Bateman said.

"By contrast, the investigation into Donald Trump is an investigation into a former public official for whom credible evidence of wrongdoing was widespread. Republicans could try to pretend this is hypocrisy, but that wouldn't be a serious or good faith argument," he said.

Something Hellish Might Lurk Under One of Jupiter’s Moons

Story by David Axe • Yesterday 

There are more than 200 moons in the solar system, but none quite like Io, the third largest of Jupiter’s 80 moons. Io is really, really volcanic. In fact, it’s peppered with so many hundreds of powerful active volcanoes that there must be something unusual beneath its crust.


Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images© Provided by The Daily Beast

That something could be a thick moonwide layer of molten rock—or a “subsurface magma ocean,” according to a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal on Nov. 16 from Yoshinori Miyazaki and David Stevenson, planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology.

That possible super-hot sea of melted rock—which is unique in the solar system—could harbor secrets, weird mechanisms for forming moons and planets, and even recipes for exotic alien life. Only further scrutiny of the 2,200-mile-diameter moon will tell.

Miyazaki and Stevenson aren’t the first scientists to make an educated guess at what lies beneath Io’s potentially 20-mile-thick rocky crust. It’s been the subject of heated debate for years. But their new peer-reviewed study of the moon’s mantle might be the most thorough yet.


A volcanic explosion on Io, Jupiter's third largest moon, as captured by NASA's New Horizon spacecraft. 

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona© Provided by The Daily Beast

To peer beneath Io’s surface, Miyazaki and Stevenson revisited reams of data from NASA’s Galileo probe, which orbited Jupiter for eight years starting in 1995. Initial analysis of the probe’s magnetic data led to a loose consensus that Io’s mantle—the layer under the moon’s crust—includes a 30-mile thick top layer that should be “molten or partially molten,” according to NASA.

Compare this to Earth’s own mantle, as well as the mantles of every other planetary body in the solar system, which are mostly solid and consist largely of ice or superheated rocks. Broadly speaking, planetary scientists reading the Galileo data assumed Io either has an underground magma ocean or a kind of sponge-like rocky outer mantle soaked in magma.

A fresh look at the data led Miyazaki and Stevenson concludes it’s the molten sea. They based their conclusion on estimates of the mantle’s temperature via analysis of Io’s volcanoes, which can spew magma hundreds of miles into the moon’s sulfur dioxide atmosphere. The top of the mantle might register as hot as 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

That’s hot. But not hot enough to sustain a spongy interior. The analysis is complicated, but it boils down to this: Like a pot of gravy on a stovetop, Io would need a lot of heat to stay consistently spongy in its upper mantle. Without enough heat, the gravy—er, the spongy rock—would separate: rock on bottom, magma on top.

Miyazaki and Stevenson crunched the numbers, calculating the heat from Io’s core as well as the effects of its weird, highly-elliptical orbit, which sloshes the mantle, spreads heat around, and keeps Io from ever permanently cooling.

They concluded that the gravy would separate. “The amount of internal heating is insufficient to maintain a high degree of melting,” they wrote. Hence what they believe could be a topmost magma ocean.

Luckily, we’ll know more soon. NASA’s Juno probe, which arrived around Jupiter in 2016, is scheduled to take readings of Io in 2023 and 2024—specifically measuring the “Love number,” a gauge of a planet’s rigidity or lack thereof. “If a large Love number is found, we can say with more certainty that a magma ocean exists beneath Io’s surface,” Miyazaki told The Daily Beast.

We already knew Io is weird. It’s possible it’s even weirder—and that weirdness could have implications across the space sciences. “I don’t think it greatly changes understanding of planetary formation, but it does change how we view the internal structure and thermal evolution of tidally heated bodies like Io,” David Grinspoon, a senior scientist with the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute, told The Daily Beast.


Io and Europa, Jupiter's two largest moons, captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft. 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko© Provided by The Daily Beast

Lurking in the academic shadows are the astrobiologists. The experts in how and where life could evolve in the universe. If there’s extraterrestrial life out there somewhere and it looks like Earth life, we should expect to find it—or evidence of its extinction—on planets and moons that have, or had, Earthlike environments. Mars. Venus. A moon of Saturn called Enceladus.

But volcanoes with their extreme transfers of energy are widely considered key components of a living ecosystem. So planets and moons with lots of volcanoes are great places to look for E.T. In theory, that should include Io.

However, Io might have too many volcanoes. So if there’s life evolving there, it’s probably very strange life that really likes heat. “Lava tubes could be creating a condition favorable for microbes,” Miyazaki said.

The question, for astrobiologists, is whether a magma ocean would create more or fewer lava tubes than a magma sponge. “I don’t have an explicit answer,” Miyazaki said. “But it’s interesting to think about such implications.”

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at the Technical University Berlin, has long advocated a thorough search for life on Io. A magma ocean would only spoil that search if it were really close to the surface. A nice thick crust should insulate the outermost regions of the planet from scouring heat, and preserve the potential for evolution. “There seems to be quite a bit of crust,” Schulze-Makuch told The Daily Beast.

If anything, the possibility of a magma ocean on Io just underscores how interesting and exciting the moon is—and why it should be a top target for future space probes, Schulze-Makuch said. “Io is a unique kind of moon, very dynamic, and we should not dismiss it altogether.”

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Airbus says reached settlement with French prosecutor on Libya, Kazakhstan bribery probe

PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus has reached a settlement with the French financial prosecutor (PNF) concerning judicial investigations related to Libya and Kazakhstan, an Airbus spokesperson said on Thursday, confirming a report by news agency AFP.


FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A logo of Airbus is seen at the entrance of its factory in Blagnac near Toulouse© Thomson Reuters

It said the agreement is now subject to court approval.

Last month, Airbus confirmed it was negotiating a new bribery settlement with French authorities over past dealings in Libya and Kazakhstan as an extension to a settlement struck in 2020 which included record fines against the planemaker.

The initial agreement followed a four-year probe which originated in Britain and later expanded to France and the United States, shedding light on a network of middlemen and disguised payments.

Twitter, others slip on removing hate speech, EU review says

LONDON (AP) — Twitter took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to European Union data released Thursday.

The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms' compliance with the 27-nation bloc's code of conduct on disinformation.

Twitter wasn't alone — most other tech companies signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse. But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU's tough new online rules after owner Elon Musk fired many of the platform's 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.

The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021.

In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64%, Instagram slipped to 56.9% and YouTube dipped to 83.3%. TikTok came in at 92%, the only company to improve.

The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4% from 49.8% the year before. TikTok's removal rate fell by a quarter to 60%, while Facebook and Instagram only saw minor declines. Only YouTube's takedown rate increased, surging to 90%

Related video: Twitter halts Blue subscription service after users apparently abuse feature
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“It’s worrying to see a downward trend in reviewing notifications related to illegal hate speech by social media platforms,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova tweeted. “Online hate speech is a scourge of a digital age and platforms need to live up to their commitments.”

Twitter didn't respond to a request for comment. Emails to several staff on the company's European communications team bounced back as undeliverable.

Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site. The billionaire Tesla CEO, who has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too restrictive, has been reinstating suspended accounts, including former President Donald Trump's.

Twitter faces more scrutiny in Europe by the middle of next year, when new EU rules aimed at protecting internet users’ online safety will start applying to the biggest online platforms. Violations could result in huge fines of up to 6% of a company's annual global revenue.

France's online regulator Arcom said it received a reply from Twitter after writing to the company earlier this week to say it was concerned about the effect that staff departures would have on Twitter's “ability maintain a safe environment for its users."

Arcom also asked the company to confirm it can meet its “legal obligations" in fighting online hate speech and that it is committed to implementing the new EU online rules. Arcom said it received a response from Twitter and that it will “study their response,” without giving more details.

Tech companies that signed up to the EU's disinformation code agree to commit to measures aimed at reducing disinformation and file regular reports on whether they’re living up to their promises, though there’s little in the way of punishment.

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press

Irish Senate recognizes Ukrainian genocide in the 1930s

The Upper House of the Irish Parliament on Thursday approved the recognition of the Holodomor as the Ukrainian extermination and genocide of millions of people during the 1930s in the era of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

 Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky at the Holodomor commemoration in Ukraine. - Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images via ZU / DPA

"I thank the Irish Senate, Seanad Éireann, for recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Having survived the Great Famine in the past, Ireland knows the horror of famine and shares our pain. We will always remember this friendly move," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba reacted to the decision on his Twitter profile.

The Ukrainian Embassy in the country, for its part, has called the move "historic". "Ireland is one of our closest friends who is not afraid to call a spade a spade," it has indicated on the same social network.

With this decision, Ireland joins other countries, such as Romania, that have recognized the Holodomor, whose commemoration is celebrated next November 28, as a genocide of the Ukrainian people, a great famine between 1932 and 1933 that caused the death of several million people, as reported by the UNIAN news agency.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HOLODOMOR 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for STALIN 

Nikolai Vavilov in the years of Stalin's ‘Revolution from Above’ (1929–1932)

Abstract

This paper examines new evidence from Russian archives to argue that Soviet geneticist and plant breeder, Nikolai I. Vavilov's fate was sealed during the ‘Cultural Revolution’ (‘Revolution from Above’) (1929–1932). This was several years before Trofim D. Lysenko, the Soviet agronomist and widely portrayed archenemy and destroyer of Vavilov, became a major force in Soviet science. During the ‘Cultural Revolution’ the Soviet leadership wanted to subordinate science and research to the task of socialist reconstruction. Vavilov, who was head of the Institute of Plant Breeding (VIR) and the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL), came under attack from the younger generation of researchers who were keen to transform biology into a proletarian science. The new evidence shows that it was during this period that Vavilov lost his independence to determine research strategies and manage personnel within his own institute. These changes meant that Lysenko, who had won Stalin's support, was able to gain influence and eventually exert authority over Vavilov. Based on the new evidence, Vavilov's arrest in 1940 after he criticized Lysenko's conception of Non-Mendelian genetics was just the final challenge to his authority. He had already experienced years of harassment that began before Lysenko gained a position of influence. Vavilov died in prison in 1943.

Politics of Perseverance: Ukrainian Memories of “Them” and the “Other” in Holodomor Survivor Testimony,

 1986-1988

 Johnathon K. Vsetecka,
.Unpublished Master of Arts thesis,
 University of Northern Colorado, May 2014.

ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine, now known as the Holodomor, from a survivor’s point of view. The Commission on the Ukraine Famine, beginning work in 1986, conducted an investigation of the famine and collected testimony from Holodomor survivors in the United States. This large collection of survivor testimonies sat quietly for many years, even though the Holodomor is now a recognized field of study in history, among other disciplines. A great deal of scholarship focuses on the political, genocidal, and ideological aspects of the famine, but few works explore the roles of everyday Ukrainian people. This thesis utilizes the testimonies to examine how everyday survivors construct memories based on their famine experiences. Survivors often share memories of themselves, but they also elaborate on the roles of others, which included Soviets, German villagers, and even other Ukrainians. These testimonies transcend the common victim and genocide narratives, showing that not all Ukrainians suffered equally. In fact, some survivors note that the famine did not disrupt their everyday lives at all. Collectively, these testimonies present a more complex narrative of everyday events in Ukraine and elucidate on the ways that survivors remember, interpret, and construct memories related to the Holodomor.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/01/famine-subjugation-and-nuclear-fallout.html

A CARBON TAX BY ANY OTHER NAME

Saskatchewan government deciding what to do with new revenue from carbon pricing

BENEFITS ANTI CARBON TAX REGIME

Yesterday 

REGINA — Saskatchewan is to soon gain control of the carbon pricing charge that shows up on residents' power bills.


Saskatchewan government deciding what to do with new revenue from carbon pricing© Provided by The Canadian Press

However,Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government are still mulling over how that new revenue should be spent.

Since 2019, a carbon backstop has been placed on Saskatchewan Power Corporation bills to account for its greenhouse gas emissions.

The money has been going to the federal government, but starting in January the money will be staying in the province.

This comes after Saskatchewan successfully applied to have natural gas pipelines and power plants regulated through its own carbon-pricing system, and will take full regulatory control over all large greenhouse gas emitters in the province.

Under the program, Saskatchewan will still have to comply with the federal carbon pricing schedule.

Moe has said his government hasn't made a decision whether it will return some of that money collected through power bills back to residents.

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Saskatchewan seeks more provincial autonomy in new bill

"It's fair to say we haven't made that decision yet," Moe said Wednesday.

He said a priority for the government is to invest in Saskatchewan's transition to cleaner power generation.

Moe said he'd like to see some money go toward producing nuclear energy.

Federal government policy aims to reach a net-zero grid by 2035. This is putting pressure on Saskatchewan to transition away from coal and natural gas — power generation it mainly relies on to keep the lights on in the province.

To support a transition to cleaner energy, the modernization of Saskatchewan's electrical grid will be essential, SaskPower, the province's Crown electrical utility, said in its 2021-22 report.

"We need to make responsible decisions of how we are making those investments, but we also want to do everything we can to keep power affordable for Saskatchewan residents," Moe said.

The Opposition New Democrats have taken a similar viewpoint.

NDP Leader Carla Beck said Thursday that she wants to see a plan for the money that involves reliable energy that reduces emissions and doesn't stick Saskatchewan people with power sources they can't afford.

"These are huge investments, huge considerations for the future of this province," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2022.

The US is still on the path to becoming a 'fascist country': sociologist

Cheryl Teh
Nov 24, 2022, 

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Sociologist and activist Frances Fox Piven warned the US about getting complacent after the midterms.

"I don't think this fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means," Piven told the Guardian.

She added that there is still a chance that the US could become a "fascist country."

A veteran sociologist and activist has warned that the US is still on the path to becoming a fascist country.

In an interview with The Guardian published on Thursday, Frances Fox Piven — an academic once targeted and threatened by far-right figures — warned that Americans should not get complacent after the midterms, where a widely-anticipated red wave for the Republican Party failed to materialize. The GOP, though, did take control of the House.

"I don't think this fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means," Piven told The Guardian. "The United States was well on the road to becoming a fascist country – and it still can become a fascist country."

The idea that America could come under fascist rule has been discussed, sometimes with reference to former President Donald Trump. For instance, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen warned in October that Trump is a standard bearer for corrupt dictator wannabes" and a "poster boy for fascism."

Piven is not the only academic who has predicted a fascist tilt to American politics in the future.

In January, noted political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon warned that American democracy could collapse if Trump wins in 2024. In an op-ed in The Globe and Mail, Homer-Dixon, who describes himself as a "scholar of violent conflict," warned that the US is becoming "increasingly ungovernable." He also predicted that the US could "descend into civil war" if it continues on its current path.

While the 2022 election results mean the Democratic Party retains control of the Senate, Piven cautioned that there are many things still in place that might lead America down the path to fascism.

"There is the crazy mob, MAGA; an elite that is oblivious to what is required for political stability; and a grab-it-and-run mentality that is very strong, very dangerous," Piven told The Guardian.

"I was very frightened about what would happen in the election, and it could still happen," she added.

Piven added that in the years to come, there will be "vengeance politics" and attacks on President Joe Biden from the right wing — particularly in a Republican-controlled Congress.

"The MAGA mob is not a majority of the American population by any stretch of the imagination, but the fascist mob don't have to be the majority to set in motion the kinds of policies that crush democracy," she added.

‘The US can still become a fascist country’: Frances Fox Piven’s midterms postmortem

Interview
Ed Pilkington
Thu 24 Nov 2022 

Frances Fox Piven with fellow sociologist Fred Block in Boston in 1987. 

Photograph: Boston Globe/Getty Images

The 90-year-old sociologist on ‘vengeance politics’, cruelty and climate change as she looks back on half a century of activism

Frances Fox Piven has a warning for America. Don’t get too relaxed, there could be worse to come.

“I don’t think this fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means,” she said. “The United States was well on the road to becoming a fascist country – and it still can become a fascist country.”

The revered sociologist and battle-tested activist – an inspirational figure to those on the left, a bogeywoman for the hard right – is sharing with the Guardian her postmortem of the 2022 midterm elections and Donald Trump’s announcement of a 2024 presidential run. While many observers have breathed a sigh of relief over the rout of extreme election deniers endorsed by Trump, and his seemingly deflated campaign launch, Piven has a more sombre analysis.


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All the main elements are now in place, she said, for America to take a turn to the dark side. “There is the crazy mob, Maga; an elite that is oblivious to what is required for political stability; and a grab-it-and-run mentality that is very strong, very dangerous. I was very frightened about what would happen in the election, and it could still happen.”

That Piven is cautioning against a false sense of security in the wake of the midterms would not surprise her many students and admirers. The co-author, with her late husband Richard Cloward, of the progressive bible, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, has for decades sounded the alarm.

She has raised red flags over the vulnerabilities of the country’s democracy, the inequalities baked into its electoral and judicial systems, and how poor Americans, especially those of colour, are forced to resort to defiance and disruption to get their voices heard. Now, with the Republicans having taken the House of Representatives, she foresees ugly times ahead.

“There’s going to be a lot of vengeance politics, a lot of efforts to get back at Joe Biden, idiot stuff. And that will rile up a lot of people. The Maga mob is not a majority of the American population by any stretch of the imagination, but the fascist mob don’t have to be the majority to set in motion the kinds of policies that crush democracy.”

To say that Piven has come to such a perspective through years of experience as a sociologist and anti-poverty warrior would be an understatement. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday, and her earliest political memories go back to the 1930s.

Her first is from 1939. It was prompted by the Russo-Finnish war which, though thousands of miles away, spilled out on to the streets of her neighbourhood. She was brought up in the New York borough of Queens by Jewish immigrant parents from Uzliany, in what is now Belarus.

“I was seven, so perfectly equipped to have a position on this issue,” she recalls. “Tutored by my father, I took the side of the Russians and fought with all the kids on the block.”

Her next vivid recollection relates to the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945. “When FDR died, the whole street was bereft, almost sobbing. And these were people who didn’t talk much about politics, immigrants whose perspective was very narrow, getting by for another day, another week.

Piven said she thought a lot about that communal mourning for FDR in the aftermath of the midterms with all their discord and rancour. “The thing about FDR was much bigger than partisan politics, anywhere,” she said.

That shared grief over FDR’s death seems worlds apart from the acrimony of today’s politics – all the more so after Trump’s declaration that he is running for the White House again. She talked about the former president’s “performative politics”, and the way it incorporates what she called “the human capacity for cruelty”.

Asked to point to an example of such cruelty, Piven referenced the attack last month on Paul Pelosi, husband of the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. “This crazy man broke into the Pelosi home and attacked an 82-year-old man with a hammer, broke his skull. And there were actually politicians speaking to a mass audience and laughing at it.

“As thinking people, we don’t pay enough attention to the human lust for cruelty. We are at a point in American politics where those aspects of our nature are being brought to the fore; Trump has been doing that for a very long time, and we have to stop it or else it will continue to grow.”
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What distinguishes Piven is not only her razor-sharp dissection of how American society fails its poor citizens, but also her determination to do something about it through activism. With Cloward, who died in 2001, she spearheaded rent strikes in New York’s Lower East Side through a group known as Mobilization for Youth, which she joined in 1962 and which became a prototype for Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty.

More recently she helped to spawn in 2014 the progressive training program for movement organizers, Momentum. That in turn has seeded powerful grassroots networks such as the climate crisis disrupters the Sunrise Movement.

Piven scaled the side of the maths building at Columbia University to join student protesters in 1968. Photograph: Society for US Intellectual History

The lengths to which she has been prepared to go in her own activism is captured in a photograph from 1968. It shows Piven scaling up the side of the maths building at Columbia University in order to join student protesters occupying the premises.

“I was a fairly new assistant professor in the school of social work,” she explained. “An issue was bubbling among students and younger faculty about Columbia’s immoral, noxious policies with regard to the Vietnam war and participation in research for the defense department.”

So up she clambered to join the occupation. No matter that in a couple of weeks she was due to face a crucial faculty vote on whether or not she would be granted tenure.

The photo was published by Life Magazine and shortly after that, her troublemaking notwithstanding, she did get tenure. Being Frances Piven, however, she promptly quit the Ivy League university and transferred to Boston University, and from there to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she remains a distinguished professor emerita.

That leaning towards agitation – what she calls the power of “dissensus” as opposed to “consensus” – still burns strongly in her. In her academic writings, as in her on-the-ground organizing, she sees movement politics and seeking change through the ballot box as essential partners.

“I don’t think any large-scale progress has ever been made in the United States without the kind of trouble and disruption that a movement can cause by encouraging large numbers of people to refuse to cooperate,” she said. “But movements need the protection of electoral allies – they need legislative chaperoning.”

She sees that dual model applying to today’s struggle to confront global heating. “The action on the climate crisis has to defeat the fossil fuel industry which in turn is closely connected to many politicians. You have got to break that, and the only way I think in American history that kind of power has been overcome is by just shutting things down.”


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Her championing of such acts of defiance have made her a popular hate figure for the far right. Security guards were posted outside her university office after the demagogue broadcaster Glenn Beck published a photoshopped image of her with her hair on fire on the front page of his website TheBlaze.

“Beck blamed everything on Richard and me,” she recalled. “Are you kidding! I wish I could claim that credit.”

It’s been a long, rich life of political thought and action. I ask her to stand back a little, take in the big sweep. How does America look today perceived through the lens of her years?

“It’s a very strange time in history,” she said. “It’s not only the strangeness of our politics, it’s global warming, the seas are rising. I just had yet another booster shot. It’s very weird – I do not make predictions.”

It sounded like her answer was completed. But after a pause she started up again.

“I do think that the only way to live is to live in politics. To me, it’s an almost life-transforming experience – to be part of the local struggle. Even a dangerous struggle. You make friends that never go away. You see people in their nobility, and you find your own nobility as well. I would not trade my life for anything.”

This article was amended on 24 November 2022. It was 1968, not 1967, when Piven scaled the maths building at Columbia University to join student protesters occupying the premises.