‘An empty seat at the table’: Christmas without Shireen Abu Akleh

She was a renowned journalist, but to her niece, Shireen was a Christmas-loving aunt and the ‘backbone’ of the family.

Shireen Abu Akleh loved Christmas, says her niece Lina [Al Jazeera]
By Annette Ekin
Published On 24 Dec 2022

Each year, as Christmas approached, Lina Abu Akleh would look forward to spending time with her aunt.

Lina and her siblings – an older brother and a younger sister – would get together with their parents and their father’s younger sister at the family home in occupied East Jerusalem, where they’d enjoy a big Christmas lunch.

But this year, it is a day 27-year-old Lina is dreading.

That is because on May 11, Lina’s aunt, the 51-year-old veteran television correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead by Israeli forces. She and other journalists – all dressed in protective helmets and blue flak jackets marked “Press” – were fired upon as they walked down a road in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

Her killing sent shockwaves around the world. The Palestinian-American correspondent, who worked with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was known to be a careful, dedicated journalist whose compassionate reporting centred on the voices and stories of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

That morning in May, Lina, who is campaigning for justice for Abu Akleh, did not only lose a beloved aunt but a “second mother” to her and her siblings. Abu Akleh was always there, “a backbone to our family,” she says.

“It was just my parents, my siblings and Shireen,” Lina adds.

“Not having her around, especially during Christmas will be very difficult … There will be an empty seat around the table.”

Abu Akleh’s family gathered for Christmas in 2019 

[Courtesy of the Abu Akleh family]

‘Enjoyed Christmas’

It is a Sunday evening in early December, and Lina is sitting in the ground-floor café of a hotel in the Dutch city of The Hague on the North Sea. The space is filled with the low chatter of diners and the tinkling of cutlery and glasses. A screen behind Lina displays a crackling log fire and a large Christmas tree stands by the hotel entrance.

December was traditionally a “happy month” when Abu Akleh could take a break from her busy job to spend time with Lina and her siblings who were often studying or working abroad during the year.

“She really enjoyed Christmas,” says Lina. They would often put up the family tree together and Abu Akleh loved the Ramallah Christmas markets, whose local vendors she liked to support.

Abu Akleh always thought of gifts for everyone, even her small fluffy white dog Filfel, named so in Arabic because like pepper he was “spicey” and always moving. One Christmas, Abu Akleh wrapped a crocodile-shaped squeaky toy and placed it under the tree. “He knew that it was his,” Lina recalls laughing. “And I remember we were laughing about it so much because she was just amazed. She’s like, ‘How did he know that it was his gift?’”

Shireen Abu Akleh holds Filfel in 2019 [Courtesy of the Abu Akleh family]

‘These were our traditions’

Many of Lina’s memories of Christmases with Abu Akleh are connected to food – something “Shireen loved”. On Christmas Eve, the family would have dinner at a restaurant in Ramallah with carols or some other festive entertainment, and then the next morning Lina’s mother would start to prepare lunch – a “feast”.

There would be warak dawali – stuffed grape leaves – and Lina’s mother, who is Armenian and whose parents once had a bakery specialising in lahmajoun (a flatbread with meat) in Jerusalem’s Armenian quarter, would make dishes like soubeureg – a time-consuming layered pastry made with homemade boiled dough “filled with cheese, parsley, and a lot of butter”.

“She always loved Armenian foods, especially my mom’s,” Lina explains.

Abu Akleh would come to the kitchen to help out. “But she would also be nibbling here and there, tasting the food. Like I can just picture her now walking around the kitchen,” recalls Lina smiling, before adding that her aunt would make a gesture of rubbing her hands together to show she was “excited to eat”.

“These were our traditions – nothing fancy – but it was still something we looked forward to,” says Lina of the family meals and pictures taken in front of the tree.

Lina shows a photo on her phone of a smiling Abu Akleh standing in front of the Christmas tree one year as she holds Filfel who is dressed in a green and red jumper with “Merry Christmas” and a candy cane on it.


“I’m dreading it because I will not be waking up to her Merry Christmas wishes,” says Lina, before repeating those words in Arabic in the melodic way that her aunt would say them – with a big smile on her face and her head tilted to one side.

Christmas lunch at home included some of Abu Akleh’s favourite dishes such as her sister-in-law’s pudding, left, made from amardeen, an apricot paste [Courtesy of the Abu Akleh family]

‘Find the silver lining’

Lina smiles often when she talks about her aunt, with whom she would speak or message daily. “We had a very close connection,” she says.

Abu Akleh was a household name in the Arab world in which many grew up hearing her legendary sign-off. “It was the iconic sign-off that I think generations grew up trying to imitate,” explains Lina. As a child, she would take her aunt’s notebooks and run to sit at her Lego table and “report”, signing off with her Barbie phone: “Lina Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera, Palestine.”

For Lina, her aunt was accomplished, poised and brave. “I wanted to be like Shireen. To me, she was my role model.”

Despite her serious on-camera persona, Lina says her aunt was funny – and “fun to be around.”

Abu Akleh always had stories to share and even after a whole day of reporting and speaking to people, she was always interested in hearing what Lina and her siblings had been up to.


Lina rarely saw her aunt tense or angry and remembers her as “always smiling” and down-to-earth. “She would always find the silver lining in every situation and try to be optimistic.”

Still, Lina and her family worried about Abu Akleh – when she was pushed by Israeli forces last year while covering forced expulsions of Palestinians and the crackdowns on protesters at Al-Aqsa Mosque, endured tear gas or was harassed by settlers.

But she always reassured them, “’No, we are journalists, don’t worry,’ even though she knew deep down that at some point they are targets,” recounts Lina.

During tense periods of the Israel-Palestine conflict, seeing her aunt live on television would reassure Lina that she was safe.

“I never thought that she would get killed,” she says.

On the morning of May 11, Lina’s father called to tell her Abu Akleh had been injured. She called her colleagues to get more information and learned she had been shot. Still, Lina didn’t think it was anything too serious. “My mom was like, pray, pray. And she started lighting all these candles around the house.” Then, a couple of minutes later, Lina called Abu Akleh’s colleague back to hear them sobbing and screaming. “That’s when I knew,” she says.

Speaking nearly seven months after Abu Akleh’s death, the shock is still raw. “I still feel like I’m in this nightmare. And it’s just not ending,” she acknowledges.

“She was so present in our lives that for us to lose her in this sudden and heinous way makes it so difficult to comprehend.”

Fighting for justice

Israel has changed its narrative on the killing of Abu Akleh, initially blaming a Palestinian gunman, before months later saying there is a “high possibility” the journalist was “accidentally hit” by Israeli fire. The Israeli authorities have said they will not launch a criminal investigation.

In September, Abu Akleh’s family submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), while Lina and her father along with former colleagues came to The Hague in December for Al Jazeera’s submission of a formal request to the ICC to investigate the killing.

But Lina, who has become the face of this campaign for accountability, is still learning how to navigate a public fight alongside her personal grief. “It hasn’t been easy to fully sit with my feelings and reflect back on the past six months and understand how this tragedy has shaped our lives,” she reflects.


What keeps her going is knowing that had it been another family member, friend or colleague, Abu Akleh would have tirelessly fought for justice. “She was optimistic, always, that justice will prevail.”

Lina also wants to constantly remind the world who Abu Akleh was and “make sure her legacy continues to be remembered, her name is remembered, her memory’s alive.”

Lina carries her aunt’s small gold hoop earrings wherever she goes. Wearing Abu Akleh’s earrings makes Lina ‘feel like I’m close to her’ [Olivier Douliery/AFP]

‘Enjoy life’

For Lina, keeping her aunt’s memory alive is also about remembering her optimism.

Even now, she believes her aunt would want her to be enjoying her life – something Lina has struggled with. “I would feel guilty if I’m doing something fun,” she admits. Lina wore black as a sign of mourning for six months and still often does. “It’s very difficult. But I try to always remember her words telling me … enjoy life.”

“Everything I do in life now reminds me of her,” she says, explaining how her aunt would have been the first person to text her after she arrived in The Hague. She loved turning on her phone after a flight to find texts from Abu Akleh, who was always excited to hear what she was doing and tell her to send pictures. “She’s no longer part of my journey,” Lina says.

“Regardless of how difficult and demanding her job was, she was there, for every occasion, every milestone, every birthday, every celebration – she was present.”

 

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

KEEP READING

The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

The Voice of Palestine: When a journalist becomes the story

Justice for Shireen: The Israeli investigation – Part 1

Justice for Shireen: The American investigation – Part 2

Balochistan Quagmire: Is Pakistan Army A Solution Or Part Of The Problem As Pak’s Biggest Province Left ‘High & Dry’

EXPERT REVIEWS
ByGuest Author
December 27, 2022

On Sunday, an Improvised Explosive Device [IED] attack against Pakistan Army personnel in the Kahan area of Balochistan claimed one officer’s and four soldiers’ lives.

In its statement on this incident, the Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations [ISPR], asserted that “Such cowardly acts by inimical elements cannot sabotage the hard-earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan.”

Rawalpindi’s concern for safeguarding “the hard-earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan” makes sense since the Pakistan Army claims to have done much to “bring Balochistan into the mainstream.”

Readers may recall that while speaking at a seminar on “Economic development through new Silk Route via Khuzdar: way forward to national integration” in January 2017, the then Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had said, “Balochistan, unfortunately, had been neglected in the past for host of reasons, but not anymore. The military has contributed significantly to bring Balochistan into the mainstream.”

Gen Bajwa seemed sanguine that locals were alienated solely because Balochistan had been long “neglected.” He also projected the Pakistan Army [which is actively involved in what it calls ‘anti-terrorist’ operations] as the region’s leading harbinger of peace and prosperity.

Hence, it’s but natural that Rawalpindi would be concerned about any attempt to “sabotage” peace in Balochistan.

While there can be no two views that Balochistan has been neglected all along, Gen Bajwa’s assessment of this being the only reason for widespread unrest in the region may not be entirely correct. This was evident from what Prime Minister Shehbaz revealed during his visit to Balochistan’s capital Quetta in April this year.

Enforced Disappearances In Balochistan

Express Tribune quoted Sharif saying, “I held meetings with the leaders here [Quetta] today, and all of them said the same thing. They said that development projects are important, but the other problems must be solved first, predominantly the missing persons.” Thus, it’s not neglect but enforced disappearances that are the real tipping point for the violent unrest in Balochistan.

Enforced disappearances in Balochistan occur during so-called anti-terrorist operations conducted by the Pakistan Army and various paramilitaries, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies under its command.

Hence, Gen Bajwa’s attempts to shift the entire onus of public outrage on the government and bureaucracy by overplaying the ‘neglect’ part while conveniently brushing the more menacing “missing persons” issue under the carpet is understandable.

To avoid getting on the wrong side of Rawalpindi, Pakistani media rarely carries reports about enforced disappearances or the Pakistan Army’s “kill and dump” policy in Balochistan.

However, just Google search “Land of enforced disappearances,” and you’ll find that at least four out of the top 10 results pertain to Balochistan. Similarly, Google search “dump and kill policy,” and don’t be surprised to find that all the top ten results are about Balochistan!

Thus, Gen Bajwa’s declaration that the Pakistan Army has gone the extra mile to bring Balochistan into the “mainstream” is devoid of substance.

It’s gross human rights violations and unspeakable atrocities being committed by the military upon the Baloch people pushing the oppressed locals into picking up arms against the state.

Pakistan Army A Part Of The Baloch Problem?

In 2020, two Baloch activists who were particularly critical of the Pakistan Army and were threatened by bodily harm fled the country and died under mysterious circumstances seven months apart.

In 2012, Sajid Hussain authored a series of reports on “enforced disappearances and human rights violations in Balochistan” that enraged the Pakistan Army. Forced to flee Pakistan, Hussain sought asylum in Sweden and started an online newspaper, ‘Balochistan Times.’

Hussain went missing in March 2020, and his body was fished out from a river three weeks later. Daniel Bastard, who heads the Asia-Pacific desk of Reporters sans frontières [RSF], opined that “everything indicates that this is an enforced disappearance.”

He said, “if you ask yourself who would have an interest in silencing a dissident journalist, the first response would have to be the Pakistani intelligence services [ISI].”

In December 2020, the dead body of Karima Baloch, a Balochi activist, was found on a lakeside in Canada, where she was living in self-imposed exile.

In her 2016 video message addressed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karima said, “We appeal to you that as our brother, you speak about the genocide and war crimes in Baloch on international forums and become the voice of the sisters of Baloch,” adding that “We will fight this on our own, we just want you to become the voice of our struggle.”

Though the police in Sweden and Canada have ruled out foul play in both these cases, the chances of these deaths being accidental or suicides are incredibly remote.

And if one were to follow the RSF Asia-Pacific Chief’s instruction of pondering who would be interested in silencing dissident Balochi journalists or activists at home or abroad, all fingers would point at the Pakistan Army, the paramilitary, police, and intelligence agencies.

So, no prize for establishing whether the Pakistan Army is the solution to the Balochistan problem or a part of it!

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir & the North East. He is a prominent military analyst and writes for many newspapers, journals, and think tanks. 

VIEWS ARE OF THE AUTHOR

China Puts Japan In The Midst Of ‘Most Severe’ Security Environment Since WW2; Canada Too Bothered By Dragon

EXPERT REVIEWS
By KN Pandita
December 26, 2022

For a long while, the world has been aware of the commercial importance of the Indo-Pacific region. Ships carrying merchandise from one part to another through the sea channels of the area carried their long voyages in an atmosphere of security and confidence.

However, the region’s endangered security and water channels became a concern for regional countries, especially when an authoritarian power threatened the right to free navigation.

This necessitated that democratic countries in general, and those with direct stakes in the Indian Ocean or the South Sea region, in particular, should think of collective action aimed at securing peace and normalcy in the Indo-Pacific region so that trade and commerce flowed unhindered.

This necessity resulted in the formation of Quad-4, meaning four major democracies of the region (India, Australia, and Japan) plus the United States of America with extensive stakes in the Indo-Pacific.

Although the Quad-4 started with a modest beginning, its programs were not finely defined — even debatable at one point in time – gradually, many cobwebs of confusion were cleared, and the importance of the alliance became an established reality.

Security

Quad-4 members meet annually, as per the schedule drawn by the secretariat, to deliberate on the current security situation in the concerned region (s).

Though the security of the region and its navigational channels are the primary concern of the alliance, the alliance is not opposed to cooperation among the member countries in other fields of development and economic stability.

The importance of Quad-4 comes into the limelight when we find China behaving in an aggressive and belligerent manner, particularly in the case of small island states. In the last two decades, China has emerged as a big economic power that has gained influence in the Asian and African continents.

It is also casting its authoritarian shadow on the South East Asian countries, particularly Japan and Australia.

Chinese Navy, called PLA Navy, has been roaming the Indian Ocean threateningly. Recently, a Chinese vessel anchored close to the Bay of Bengal for nearly a month, spying on the ships and their contents as they moved across the waters.

The security situation along the India-China border across the Himalayan line is way normal. From the India-China war of 1962 to the present, the entire Sino-Indian border extending to thousands of kilometers has remained hot and restive.

Only recently, skirmishes in the Tawang Arunachal border have taken place. This results from China’s expansionist policy, whether in India, Taiwan, Japan, or Australia. China wants to establish its dominance either through money or muscle power.

Japan and Australia, the two strong democracies, are situated in the southeastern neighborhood of China. They have been trying to trade and have normal relations with China for a long time. But the Chinese response has never been encouraging.

Response

Today we find two democratic countries, Japan and Canada, given open expressions of their disappointment with how China wants to treat them. Though Canada is not a member of the Quad-4 but its interests are closely linked with those of the other four democracies in the world.

Japan and Canada both have recently passed their annual budget. It is interesting to know the global perception of the two countries with particular reference to China.

First, we take up Japan. In an analysis, The Diplomat on December 17 wrote that Japan had marked a critical milestone in efforts to reshape its defense strategy, increase the national defense spending, and allow Tokyo to acquire a counterstrike missile capability.

On December 16, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s cabinet approved the nation’s three key security documents, which will mark a significant turning point in Japan’s post-war policy of maintaining an exclusively defense-oriented policy if realized.

Japan is in the process of returning to “a normal nation” in the long run by allowing the nation’s possession – and the possible use – of offensive capabilities to strike against enemy missile bases in the event of an armed attack on Tokyo.”

The paper wrote, “Tokyo is in the midst of the most severe and complex security environment since World War II,” pointing out the new National Security Strategy (NSS), positioned at the top of the three documents.

On December 16, the Japanese cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kishida passed three papers titled National Security Strategy (NSS), National, National Defense Strategy (NDS), and Defense Build Up Program (DBP).

In the preamble to NSS — which by far is the most important policy paper — it said, “under the vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), it is vitally important for Japan’s security to cooperate with allies and like-minded countries to ensure peace and stability in the region.”

Those countries mentioned in the NSS are the United States, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, and Southeast Asian nations, among others.File Image: QUAD Nations Meet

The DBP document will see Japan increase defense spending to 43 trillion yen ($314 billion) from the fiscal year 2023 to 2027. This is a 56.5% increase from the 27.47 trillion yen in the current five-year plan, which covers the fiscal year 2019 to 2023.

This will increase Japan’s defense spending to the NATO standard of 2% of the national GDP in 2027 − following Kishida’s instructions to his defense and finance ministers to do so in late November.

The biggest focus of the three security documents is how to deal with a rising China. How will Japan defend itself in the face of China’s rapid military rise? How much defense capability and defense budget will Japan need to confront China?

Those are the fundamental questions behind the documents, although never explicitly stated there.

The updated language of the NSS describes China as “the biggest strategic challenge” for Japan, while the 2013 version of the NSS only called China’s actions an “issue of concern to the international community.”

Canada

Let us now examine the Canadian perceptions of China as disclosed by discussing relations with China, the budget document of Canada states:

“The strategy calls for domestic measures to strengthen cybersecurity and protect against the theft of intellectual property, and, internationally, to work more closely with the Five Eyes, NATO, and international institutions to monitor and push back against Chinese assertiveness.”

Departing from the earlier approach — coexistence, cooperation, competition, and challenge — the new strategy claim that Ottawa will “compete with China when we ought and cooperate when we must.”File Image: Justin Trudeau and Xi Jinping

The stark wording on China varies substantially from the engagement vocabulary of the past 50 years. Today’s China is labeled assertive and repressive, an “increasingly disruptive global power” that erodes the existing rules-based international order, threatening Canadian interests and values.

It builds on specific actions already taken, including the Huawei 5G ban, the rejection of Chinese investments in strategic minerals, the Uyghur genocide resolution in the House of Commons, public criticism of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and the recent announcement of consultations about a possible Foreign Agent Registry.

Finally, the budgetary allocations passed by the Canadian lawmakers also show the seriousness of the state in providing grants that are needed to offset the provocation or belligerence of China.

A brief summation of the budget sanctions is as this: The big ticket items are C$750 million (US$549 million) for infrastructure projects filtered through a new US-led G7 arrangement, C$550 million (US$40.3 million) for an enhanced military presence, including a third frigate in the Indian Ocean and expanded participation in regional military exercises, and C$225 million (US$165 million) for strengthening public safety and cyber security at home and in Southeast.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, it is heartening to know that a serious realization is dawning on leading democracies of the world that the threats and challenges from autocratic and aggressive forces have to be faced and defeated collectively.

Each unit of the collective forum has to maximize its defense-offense capacity in all three land, air, and sea areas. However, the world expects China to understand its perceptions and rebuild its strategies that help preserve peace and improve life in developing countries.

Padma Shri KN Pandita is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University. Views expressed here are of the author’s.

Roger Waters releases new versions of antiwar tracks on The Lockdown Sessions EP

Kevin Reed
WSWS.ORG

Rogers Waters has released an extended play (EP) record entitled The Lockdown Sessions that contains remakes of six popular tracks from his five decades of songwriting, studio recording and live performances.

Waters was a founding member and the primary creative force behind the internationally acclaimed rock music group Pink Floyd and, since leaving the band in 1985, has established a global following as a solo artist.

The Lockdown Sessions, Roger Waters

Released through multiple music streaming services on December 9, five of the recordings were made in Waters’ home studio during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The black-and-white music videos shared on YouTube—dated between May 2020 and April 2021—show members of the band performing separately from one another and presumably also in their home studios.

Since the original 2020 start of his “This is Not a Drill” world tour was postponed by the COVID-19 crisis, Waters decided to record some of the tracks with the band that had previously been performed as encore numbers at the end of previous live shows.

In a brief statement about the EP, Waters explained that he had considered making a studio record of these encore songs. He said, “I started thinking, ‘It could make an interesting album, all those encores … The Encores.’ Yeah, has a nice ring to it!” Waters said the pandemic brought everything to an abrupt halt on March 13, 2020, including for the moment the concept that would eventually become The Lockdown Sessions.

The tracks selected for the EP bring together some of Waters’ most powerful antiwar creations. There is no doubt that the reinterpretations are recorded with an eye to contemporary events. At that time, there were ongoing illegal imperialist military operations—including drone assassination strikes and other secret killing campaigns by the US government—in the Middle East and Africa, as well as a growing threat of nuclear world war between the US and either Russia or China.

The US-NATO instigated war against Russia in Ukraine that began in February 2022 certainly also played a role in the decision by Waters to release the EP, investing the themes with an even higher level of urgency.

Some of the songs are very close recreations of the originals, while others dramatically depart from the sounds, rhythms and keys of the music from three or four decades ago. The collaborating musicians on the record are the members of his touring band: Dave Kilminster and Jonathan Wilson on guitars, Joey Waronker on drums, Lucius-Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig on backing vocals, Gus Seyffert on bass, Jon Carin on piano and keys, Bo Koster on Hammond and Ian Ritchie on sax.

The EP starts with “Mother” from the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall, which has the iconic opening line, “Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?” The song transitions from a light vocal melody with acoustic guitar accompaniment—performed by Waters—into a heavier rock and roll anthem by the band, including a grinding electric guitar solo, and then back again.

The second and fourth tracks, “Two Suns in the Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” are from the 1983 Pink Floyd album The Final Cut, one of the most powerful antiwar rock music albums ever produced. The first of these contemplates the end of the world with a sunset in the west while another fire ball is illuminating the sky in the east, as Waters sings, “Two suns in the sunset / Could be the human race is run.”

The second of these two numbers has Waters playing piano and telling the story of the thoughts of a World War II airman gunner as he is falling to his death after having been shot down. Like Martin Luther King Jr., the gunner repeats “I had a dream, I had a dream,” and then he offers a vision of the possible future of society:

A place to stay, enough to eat
Somewhere, old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears
And what’s more, no one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no one kills the children anymore
No one kills the children anymore

Writing about the original recording on the 30th anniversary of The Final Cut’s release in 2013, Rachel Mann of The Quietus commented that “The Gunner’s Dream” was the “centrepiece of the album.” Mann observed that the track “tenderly imagines the lost hopes and expectations of a bomber gunner shot down and falling to his death over Berlin” and that “Waters’ voice is beautifully matched to words whose understatement adds to the power.” This “beautiful match” is even more pronounced on the new version.

The third track is “Vera” from The Wall, which is a reference to Vera Lynn, an English singer who was very popular during World War II, especially among the British soldiers, and who sang the legendary “We’ll Meet Again.” Waters asks, “Vera, Vera, what has become of you?” and then goes into the chorus—with Wolfe and Laessig singing along—to repeat, “Bring the boys back home,” and adding to the new version, “Don’t leave the children on their own, no, no.”

Waters wraps up the five tracks with “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” from his 1992 solo album Amused to Death. It addresses the use of laser guided missiles to launch strikes on the enemies of US imperialism “from 3,000 miles away.”

Roger Waters performing in 2018 [AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo]

The music video begins with a portion of the farewell presidential speech by Ronald Reagan in January 1989. Waters says in the liner notes that the first verse of the song is about Reagan who “is still revered by many, even though he is a mass war criminal who, among his many other crimes, knowingly supported the genocide of the Mayan people of Guatemala when he was president of the United States.”

Waters slows down the tempo and adds a new verse to the three-decade-old song:

Thirty years later it’s the same old tune
No closer to peace than the man in the moon
The president’s still just as crazy as a loon
Still picking fights in some foreign saloon
Bombs still falling out of the sky
The band’s still playing Miss American Pie
The Gunner still sleeps in some foreign field
And the boys are still coming home on a shield
But nothing is real

The last track is a remake of the hugely popular “Comfortably Numb” from The Wall. It was not recorded during the lockdowns, but in studios across North America during the world tour in 2022 and is intended as a warning about the catastrophic consequences of a world war with nuclear weapons.

As Waters explains in the notes included with the music video, “Before lockdown I had been working on a demo of a new version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ as an opener to our new show ‘This Is Not A Drill.’ I pitched it a whole step down, in A Minor, to make it darker and arranged it with no solos, except over the outro, where there is a heartrendingly beautiful vocal solo from one of our new sisters Shanay Johnson. It’s intended as a wakeup call, and a bridge towards a kinder future with more talking to strangers, either in ‘The Bar’ or just ‘Passing in the Street’ and less slaughter ‘In Some Foreign Field.’”

Longtime listeners and fans of Pink Floyd and Waters will welcome these new interpretations, and those who are just now becoming familiar with the important artist will have an opportunity to learn about his principled stance against imperialism and war. The second leg of Waters’ “This is Not a Drill” concert tour resumes in March with dates across Europe and the UK.

PERSPECTIVE

Lenin’s last struggle

TROTSKYISTS USE THIS TO CLAIM LENNINISM DOES NOT LEAD TO STALINISM

David North@davidnorthwsws
a day ago

One hundred years ago, on December 23, 1922, Lenin began writing one of the most politically significant documents in the history of the Soviet Union. It consisted of a series of notes that were to be published as a letter to the upcoming Twelfth Congress of the Communist Party. The Bolshevik leader, who had not fully recovered from the stroke he had suffered earlier in the year, was fully aware that the state of his health might prevent him from participating in the Congress.

These notes, which were to go down in history as Lenin’s Testament, included an assessment of the principal leaders of the Bolshevik Party. It was not the intention of Lenin, who viewed leadership as a collective process rooted in relationships that reflected political tendencies within the party, to propose a formal successor. Lenin’s relationship to the Bolshevik Party was of such a politically and historically unique character that it could not, in any case, be duplicated by any other individual. He was, however, deeply concerned that tensions within the party, under conditions of objective economic and social crisis and differences over policies, could lead to dangerous factional conflicts within the central leadership.

Vladimir Lenin in 1920

Intending to prevent destructive conflicts, Lenin evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of leading members of the Central Committee.

In the note of December 24, Lenin wrote:


Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution.

This assessment was followed by the following appraisal of Trotsky:


Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, as his struggle against the C.C. on the question of the People's Commissariat of Communications has already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C., but he has displayed excessive self-assurance and shown excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work.

Lenin then warned:

These two qualities of the two outstanding leaders of the present C.C., can inadvertently lead to a split, and if our Party does not take steps to avert this, the split may come unexpectedly.

Lenin continued to add to these notes during the days that followed.

Among the most critical issues with which Lenin grappled as he wrote his notes concerned the relationship of socialist republics within the Soviet state established in 1922. Lenin, fearful of the revival of Great-Russian dominance within the USSR, had insisted upon the right of socialist republics, such as Ukraine and Georgia, to secede from the union.

In notes dated December 30, 1922, Lenin expressed the concern that the Soviet government might fail to provide sufficient protection against Great-Russian oppression. Within this context, Lenin’s comments on Stalin—especially as he examined the latter’s abusive conduct to representatives of national minorities in Georgia—became increasingly harsh. Clearly referring to Stalin’s behavior, Lenin warned against “the Great-Russian chauvinist, in substance a rascal and a tyrant, such as the typical Russian bureaucrat is.”

Lenin continued, “I think that Stalin’s haste and his infatuation with pure administration, together with his spite against the notorious ‘nationalist-socialism’, played a fatal role here. In politics spite generally plays the basest of roles.”

On January 4, 1923, Lenin added the following paragraph to his note of December 24:

Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc. This circumstance may appear to be a negligible detail.

But I think that from the standpoint of safeguards against a split and from the standpoint of what I wrote above about the relationship between Stalin and Trotsky, it is not a [minor] detail, but it is a detail which can assume decisive importance.

In the weeks that followed, Lenin’s political hostility toward and personal contempt for Stalin increased. The Bolshevik leader turned to Trotsky for support in the struggle that he planned to wage against Stalin at the scheduled Party congress. On March 5, 1923, he wrote:


Top secret
Personal

Dear Comrade Trotsky: It is my earnest request that you should undertake the defence of the Georgian case in the Party C.C. This case is now under ‘persecution’ by Stalin and Dzerzhinsky, and I cannot rely on their impartiality. Quite to the contrary.

I would feel at ease if you agreed to undertake its defence. If you should refuse to do so for any reason, return the whole case to me. I shall consider it a sign that you do not accept.

Lenin then sent the following letter to Stalin:


You have been so rude as to summon my wife to the telephone and use bad language. Although she had told you that she was prepared to forget this, the fact nevertheless became known through her to Zinoviev and Kamenev.

I have no intention of forgetting so easily what has been done against me, and it goes without saying that what has been done against my wife I consider having been done against me as well.

I ask you, therefore, to think it over whether you are prepared to withdraw what you have said and to make your apologies, or whether you prefer that relations between us should be broken off.

Four days later, on March 9, 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke that brought his political career to an end. He died on January 21, 1924. In the aftermath of Lenin’s death, unprincipled maneuvering by Stalin and his factional supporters blocked the reading of the Testament at the Thirteenth Party Congress in 1924. It was to be concealed from the Soviet public for 40 years. Not until 1964 did the Soviet government—11 years after Stalin’s death—allow the inclusion of Lenin’s Testament into a new edition of his Collected Works.

When Lenin wrote the Testament, the extent and significance of the divisions that were developing within the Bolshevik Party were not yet known. Lenin’s Testament and the accompanying notes and memos were an anticipation of the unfolding conflict. In the months that followed, Trotsky continued and developed, in real political time, Lenin’s anticipatory critique of bureaucratism and national chauvinism.

In October 1923, 10 months after Lenin had written his Testament, the Left Opposition was founded. The emergence of the Trotskyist movement marked the continuation of Lenin’s last great struggle.

Lenin’s Last Struggle

Moshe Lewin
Monthly Review Press, 1978 - History - 193 pages

"Re-reading Lenin's Last Struggle after many years is a poignant experience. The story of Lenin's efforts in the last year of his active life to overcome the isolation of revolutionary Russia and the near isolation of the Communist Party within the country is told here with tremendous skill and sensitivity." -Lewis Siegelbaum, Michigan State University ". . . one of the most important books on Soviet history" -Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Chicago One of the great political strategists of his era, V. I. Lenin continues to attract historical interest, yet his complex personality eludes full understanding. This new edition of Moshe Lewin's classic political biography, including an afterword by the author, suggests new approaches for studying the Mrxist visionary and founder of the Soviet state. Lenin's Last Struggle offers invaluable insights into the rise of the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union, a saga complicated by complex strategic battles among the leaders of Lenin's generation: leaders whose names are universally known, but whose personalities and motivations are even now not sufficiently understood.

Lenin's Last Struggle | The Russian Revolution | History & Theory (marxist.com)

https://www.pathfinderpress.com/products/lenins-final-fight-speeches-and-writings_1922-23

Lenin's Final Fight | Pathfinder Press 

In 1922 and 1923, V.I. Lenin, central leader of the world's first socialist revolution, waged what was to be his last political battle.

https://archive.org/details/LEWINMoshe.LeninsLastStruggle2005

LEWIN, Moshe. Lenin's Last Struggle ( 2005) - Internet Archive 

Jul 20, 2017 ... Lenin's Last Struggle ( 2005). Topics: Russian Revolution, GEP-Trotski. Collection: opensource. Language: Tswana. GEP-Trotski.

https://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv21n2/lewin.htm

'Our Reply' to Moshe Lewin - Revolutionary Democracy 

Sameeksha recently brought out a Telugu translation of Moshe Lewin's book 'Lenin's last struggle'. While we seriously differ with the opinions expressed by ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Lewin

Moshe Lewin - Wikipedia 

2.1 Russian Peasants and Soviet Power (1968) · 2.2 Lenin's Last Struggle (1968) · 2.3 Political Undercurrents in Soviet Economic Debates (1974) · 2.4 The M...

Germany: Children’s clinics on the brink of collapse while the government procures nuclear bombers

Tino Jacobson, Gregor Link
WSWS.ORG


Germany is currently experiencing a wave of COVID-19 deaths and other severe respiratory illnesses, pushing the country’s children’s hospitals to the brink of collapse. Just before Christmas, the German parliament decided it was better to spend taxpayers’ money on procuring nuclear bombers. The decision throws a spotlight on the criminal policies of the ruling class.

On December 14, the Bundestag budget committee approved the purchase of 35 F-35 II fighter jets at a cost of €10 billion. On the same day, Europe’s largest university hospital, the Charité, announced it would go into emergency operation. The children’s wards were so overloaded that “for weeks doctors and nursing staff had to be withdrawn from normal wards to work the children’s wards,” according to the news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW). Despite “24/7 operation in all paediatric rescue units,” “care could no longer be guaranteed,” declared one Charité paediatrician.

According to a survey by the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), every second hospital in Germany has already had to turn down children for paediatric intensive care. In normal children’s wards, 43 of 110 paediatric clinics did not have a single bed available and ventilators are also in short supply. In addition, the children’s clinics are plagued by a devastating shortage of staff, which means that almost 40 percent of paediatric intensive care beds cannot be operated. DW quotes a senior consultant in paediatric intensive care in Hanover saying, “Children are dying because we can no longer care for them.”

The war-like conditions at German children’s hospitals are the result of the government’s policy of waging war against Russia in Ukraine and its conduct of a class war against its own people at home to finance the bloodshed.

Hospital Diakovere Henriettenstift in Hanover, Germany

 [Photo by Michał Beim / CC BY 4.0]

Every single one of the 35 stealth bombers—explicitly intended to drop US nuclear weapons already stored in Germany—could finance the complete rebuilding of a state-of-the-art children’s clinic. Instead, the ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the neo-liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), with the consent of all the opposition parties sitting in the Bundestag, have decided to cut the health budget by €40 billion compared to last year—despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The parliament also agreed to purchase an additional 118,000 Heckler & Koch assault rifles.

The renowned Robert Koch Institute reports on its online resource “GrippeWeb” that the number of respiratory infections in Germany is already far above the seasonal level and threatens to rise further. The proportion of people with an acute respiratory illness (ARI) currently exceeds 11 percent, with a “clear upward trend.” This means that about one in nine people in Germany is currently suffering from a respiratory infection. In 2021, the proportion of people with ARI was just under 4 percent. The increase is the result of lifting the most minimal of COVID-19 protection measures.

The RKI assesses the situation as follows: “The current very high value even exceeds the maximum values reached in previous major waves of flu.” The main causes of respiratory infections are influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which mainly affects infants and young children.

DIVI President Christian Karagiannidis is also very concerned about the current situation, declaring, “I have never experienced anything like this before.” The chronic shortage of nurses is currently compounded by the high level of sick leave among health workers.

Gerald Gass, head of the board of the German Hospital Association commented on the absences, “We now have around 9 to 10 percent absenteeism among staff.” That is 30 to 40 percent more than normal at this time of year. The precarious staffing situation means that beds in clinics cannot be used or that even entire wards must be closed.

The Charité Clinic in Berlin, for example, has been operating in emergency mode in the run-up to the Christmas holiday. All scheduled operations have been postponed. The children’s clinics are severely affected by staff shortages, where employees are already working at limit. Children sometimes have to spend the night in hospital corridors with their parents forced to wait for hours—or parents must spend hours looking for another children’s hospital with a free intensive care bed.

This situation causes despair not only for children, but also, and especially, for their parents. Staff at the Charité’s Virchow Clinic told WSWS reporters that the children’s clinic was full to capacity. They are angry and desperate about the situation.

“Cases of threats or the actual exercise of psychological and physical violence against health personnel are increasing,” related Gerda Hasselfeldt, president of the German Red Cross.

Heinz Hilgers, president of the Child Protection League, concluded that “it was an indictment of current official policy that there are not even enough medicines and fever-reducing agents for children.”

There are currently considerable supply shortages of certain medicines for children, such as fever-reducing medicines and suppositories, together with a shortage of anticancer drugs and antibiotics for adults. This is due to the high number of respiratory infections in children.

In addition, drug manufacturers are pulling out of the production of less profitable drugs—as is currently the case with 1A Pharma, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which had a market share of 30 percent in fever-reducing medicines. In 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, Novartis recorded a profit of US$24 billion worldwide.

“The current bottlenecks are the result of years of pressure on prices and manufacturing costs for generics,” complained the manufacturers’ association Pro Generika. Consequently, more and more generic drug manufacturers are withdrawing from the production of key drugs.

In response, the German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced before Christmas, a bill to “overcome supply bottlenecks.” According to the minister, an erroneous pricing policy was responsible for the supply bottlenecks. “Price has played the sole role, availability of medicines has played too small a role. We want to undo that,” Lauterbach said. In other words, the profits of the pharmaceutical companies are to take precedence and prices for medicines will rise further, although this will put an even greater burden on the health system.

For many years now, Germany’s main political parties have been cutting the health system to the bone in order to maximise profits. Currently, the federal budget for health is being cut from €64.3 billion to €24.5 billion. Military spending, on the other hand, is to rise from just under €50 billion to €58.6 billion. In addition, the government announced at the start of the Ukraine war that it intended to invest an extra €100 billion in the Bundeswehr.

The WSWS spoke to workers in front of the Charité. One worker said, “I find this intolerable. This is where the money should go. Everything is being closed down here, and it’s the military that is being funded to finance the war. I agree with you.”

Sabine opposed the purchase of nuclear bombers: “The government finds the money for that, but they don’t have any money for children. There is money made available for so many things. ... I’m lucky, my children are still healthy. But now the teachers are sick! Everyone wins in a war, except the little ones—the little ones have to pay extra. I was a patient in the nephrology department. I noticed that the children’s wards were full—and that’s not just the situation in Berlin, it’s like that everywhere.”

Many others also declared it was “unbelievable” that money was being “wasted” on the nuclear bombers. Instead, one could “hire a lot more people” with that money. In Germany, there is an enormous need for nursing staff. According to conservative estimates, the country lacks a total of 200,000 nurses.

“It’s terrible,” said one nurse in the children’s ward. “I am generally against weapons and arms supplies. The money should be invested in the health system. So many people have to be sent home at the moment, including teachers and ambulance staff.”

“As trainees, we try to help where we can,” related Rani, who works in an interdisciplinary paediatric ward. “The health insurance companies say they made a loss in the pandemic, but I don’t believe it. So many old people have died.”

Natasha from paediatric surgery added, “There are no beds left. There are hardly any nursing services left because staff shortages are so severe and nurses themselves are increasingly sick.” Instead of €100 billion for the military and billions more for imperialist wars, this money should go towards health and education.

US life expectancy drops to lowest level since 1996

Emma Arceneaux
WSWS.ORG

Life expectancy in the United States decreased for the second year in a row in 2021, according to final mortality data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The death rate for the population increased by 5.3 percent above 2020, leading to a decline in life expectancy from 77 years to 76.4 years, the lowest level since 1996.

 

Emergency medical technician Thomas Hoang, left, of Emergency Ambulance Service, and paramedic Trenton Amaro prepare to unload a COVID-19 patient from an ambulance in Placentia, Calif., Jan. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

The progress of a quarter-century of medical advances has essentially been wiped out in just two years.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the US has fallen by 2.4 years total. The decrease of a .6 year in 2021 mounts on top of the loss of 1.8 years recorded in 2020.

As the World Socialist Web Site noted when the CDC’s preliminary mortality report was issued in August, the figures constitute “a damning indictment of the homicidal response to the pandemic that has characterized the Trump and Biden administrations. Biden—who was elected in large part because of popular revulsion at Trump’s callous and anti-scientific response to COVID-19 and who was armed with effective vaccines from the beginning of his term—stands thoroughly exposed.”

Indeed, despite the availability of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and Democratic control of the White House and Congress, 2021 was far deadlier than 2020. According to CDC data, total US deaths increased by 80,502 compared to 2020, above all, due to the continuing pandemic.

Citing CDC statistician Kenneth Kochanek, NPR notes that COVID-19 accounted for nearly 60 percent of the decline in life expectancy in 2021. The total number of deaths in which COVID-19 was the underlying cause increased by 18.8 percent, from 350,831 in 2020 to 416,893 in 2021. It remained the third leading cause of death in 2021 following heart disease and cancer.

In addition to COVID-19, death rates also increased for eight of the 10 leading causes of death. These include unintentional injuries (which increased 12.3 percent), a category which includes the soaring rates of drug overdose; chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (which increased 9.0 percent); kidney disease (which increased 7.1 percent) and stroke (which increased 5.9 percent).

Both influenza and pneumonia dropped from the top 10 causes of death in 2021, likely due to the limited mitigation measures that were still in place last year but which have since been abandoned. As the WSWS correctly warned, with the ending of remaining COVID-19 mitigations, viruses such as influenza would be able to freely circulate and deaths from these illnesses could easily climb again.

Data suggests this is exactly what is taking place. The CDC currently estimates there have been between 12,000 and 35,000 influenza deaths so far this season, compared to an estimated 5,000 deaths last flu season. In late November, weekly influenza cases reached the highest level on record.

One of the most alarming aspects of the report is the fact that death rates are increasing in every age group above one year old. Among ages 1-4, the death rate increased by 10.1 percent. Adults aged 35-44 experienced the largest increase in the death rate at 16.1 percent.

Should these trends continue, a child born in the US today is expected to live a shorter life than his or her grandparents. The CDC report estimates that the average 65 year old in America will live another 18.4 years, bringing them to age 83.4 years old, compared to the 76.4 years now expected at birth.

According to a study published this October in the journal Nature Human Behavior, increasing mortality among the younger population is the leading cause of the US’s declining life expectancy. The study examined life expectancy in 29 countries throughout the pandemic. Speaking to the USA Today, the authors noted that the US was the only country that had continued life expectancy losses in 2021 attributed to increasing mortality in people under 60. They found that “more than half of the loss in U.S. life expectancy since the start of the pandemic” was due to increasing mortality in this age group.

While COVID-19 has greatly accelerated this regressive trend in one of the most significant indices of population health, the process predated the pandemic, beginning nearly a decade ago. A report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released earlier this month notes that US life expectancy steadily increased until 2014, peaking at 78.9 years, then stagnated between 2015-2019 before turning sharply down in 2020.

A major factor driving down life expectancy before the pandemic was the staggering rise in “deaths of despair,” driven mainly by rising social inequality. These include fatal drug overdoses, which doubled between 2014 and 2021 and killed over 106,000 people last year. During this same period, gun-related homicides and suicides rose by 44 percent, and alcohol-related liver disease rose by 63 percent. Teen suicides (ages 13-19) rose by 29 percent.

As was true in the preliminary CDC report in August, absent from the final report is any analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic status and life expectancy. Data are presented for race and gender but not class. However, multiple studies during the pandemic have strongly associated income and socioeconomic status with life expectancy, with the gap between the economic elite and the working class widening dramatically in the last three years across racial and gender groups.

Adding to this, the CDC data refutes the notion that the pandemic’s impact is primarily driven by race. After non-Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native females, the largest increase in death rates in 2021 occurred in non-Hispanic white males, followed by non-Hispanic white females. Death rates decreased last year among Hispanic males and non-Hispanic black males.

Though the United States saw a decline in COVID-19 deaths in 2022 compared to the two previous years of the pandemic, over 250,000 Americans have needlessly died so far this year, according to Our World in Data, while cases and hospitalizations have been rising since November. Globally, The Economist’s excess death estimate indicates that around 5 million people died from COVID-19 in 2022.

Since the beginning of 2022, the Biden administration has overseen the systematic dismantling of testing, reporting and what else remained of the mitigation measures that were in place during the first two years of the pandemic. The CDC played a central role in this, including with the agency’s guidelines released in August that recommended quarantine, isolation and testing be discontinued in most settings, including schools. This agenda has been justified under the false claim that the population must “learn to live with” COVID-19 forever.

Now, the third year of the pandemic is drawing to a close with one of the most horrific developments to date—the abandonment of Zero-COVID by the Chinese Communist Party government and its rapid embrace of “herd immunity.” In addition to the immediate catastrophe that is unfolding in China, one-sixth of the world’s population is being exposed to the virus for the first time, creating conditions for the virus to mutate into even more transmissible, and potentially more virulent, variants which will spread quickly around the world. As the WSWS commented in a recent perspective, a whole new stage in the pandemic is now beginning.

The decline in life expectancy signifies that a terrible social regression is occurring in the United States. Despite continuous advances in scientific and medical knowledge and tools, society in the wealthiest country is moving backward. The capitalist system, under which human life is subordinated to private profit, can neither answer this indictment nor reverse course. On the contrary, capitalist governments worldwide have consciously adopted policies that they know will kill masses of their own citizens in the pursuit of profit.

It is the international working class which has the power to reverse this regression, end the pandemic and eradicate social inequality. This requires not pleas to the capitalists but a revolutionary struggle to abolish the capitalist profit system and rebuild the world on socialist foundations, with a globally planned economy and public health system whose primary goal is to protect and improve human life.

Alberta NDP will focus on policy not personalities in 2023 provincial election campaign, says Notley

Story by Michelle Bellefontaine • CBC


Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says her party plans to campaign differently against the United Conservatives in next May's provincial election and make it about policy and not the UCP leader like they did against Jason Kenney in 2019.

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says her candidates will focus on policies to solve what Albertans are concerned about in the spring election.© Dave Bajer/CBC

Danielle Smith became party leader and premier in October after winning the campaign to replace Kenney, who resigned after receiving 51 per cent support in a spring leadership review.

Like Kenney, Smith has a record of public statements thank her time as a radio host, newspaper columnist, Wildrose leader and school board trustee.

In a year-end interview with CBC News, Notley says her candidates will propose fully developed policy ideas and highlight the record of the UCP government.

"We're going to try not to make it personal," she said.

"We're going to try to talk about their vision for the future of Alberta and our vision for the future of Alberta and … which one reflects the mainstream aspirations of Albertans."

The vow not to make it personal is a change from 2019 election when the NDP focused its messaging on how they felt Kenney, then opposition leader, was unsuitable to be premier.

The NDP created websites devoted to Kenney's past views on abortion and same-sex marriage and the party jumped on the fact several UCP candidates shared racist and anti-LGBTQ views in the past.

Then there was the news that Kenney's 2017 leadership campaign had provided materials to Jeff Callaway's campaign in the so-called kamikaze effort against his rival Brian Jean.

In contrast, the UCP defined its campaign with the simple catchphrase: "Jobs, Economy, Pipelines" and it presented Albertans with a campaign document with detailed, specific actions they would take if they formed government.

The message clearly resonated with voters. Kenney and the UCP won 63 of 87 seats in the April 2019 election.

The change in strategy from four years ago is due in part to that result, Notley said.

Notley said the focus will be on the internal conflict and chaos of the UCP's time in government and how the party has failed to listen to the Albertans' concerns about affordability, the economy and health care.

They will propose solutions to those issues that polls suggest are more top-of-mind with voters.

Notley believes the UCP under Smith still isn't in tune with the concerns of Alberta voters by devoting much of her attention on asserting Alberta's place in Confederation through the Alberta Sovereignty Act and retooling the structure of Alberta Health Services.

"It is not rocket science what Albertans want to see from their government," Notley said.

"Even Danielle Smith talks about those things even though she's entirely focused on other issues.

"We'll be focused on the policies and the record. We'll be focusing on how we'll be different."

Policy focused

The NDP has spent its time in opposition crafting detailed policy proposals, Notley said. They enlisted the help of former ATB chief economist Todd Hirsch who will advise the campaign on issues, which include how to best use the province's current surplus.

The NDP has compiled its policies on a website that Notley and her MLAs relentlessly promote in speeches, news conferences and news releases.

Notley pointed to the Public Health Care Delivery Standards Act, a private members bill on health-care she introduced in December, as an example of how the party is trying to come up with thoughtful solutions to problems. The bill was defeated in second reading by the UCP in the legislature.

"We have been more propositional than probably any opposition party has been certainly in Alberta and I would argue across pretty much the whole country," she said.

The NDP has also pushed to get candidates nominated. Unlike 2015 and 2019, the party is seeing competitive nomination races even in rural areas.

The win in 2015 marked the first time the Alberta NDP formed a majority government and many of Notley's new MLAs had never run for public office and likely didn't expect to win.

Notley admits they made some mistakes.

If the NDP wins in the spring, Notley, the first premier since Ralph Klein to serve an entire term in in office, says she would return as an experienced leader.

Many candidate nominations have been competitive and the people stepping up are experienced and come from a wide range of backgrounds, Notley said.

She said a second NDP government would have the confidence that was lacking in the early days of the first one.

"We have the confidence that comes from understanding how the system works internally and how to make it work faster," she said.

"At the same time we also know now the importance of ensuring that our team as a whole our elected team spends as much time as it can engaging with Albertans."

Why the head of Canada biggest union sees shorter labour contracts in the future

Story by Denise Paglinawan • Financial Post

Mark Hancock, president of CUPE, which has around 715,000 members across the country.

The national head of Canada’s largest union thinks shorter collective agreements will be one of the tools organized labour turns to in the coming year to protect against high inflation, which has left contact negotiators scrambling for ways to ensure wages keep up with a rising cost of living.

Mark Hancock said he’s already recommending shorter-term agreements to local units of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), as a means of preventing workers from being locked into years-old contracts while prices skyrocket.

“When the cost of rent, vegetables and their housing goes up, and by virtue they’re taking home less money comparative to what they’re spending, that’s a real challenge — and I think it’s going to play out in bargaining tables,” Hancock said in an interview.

Wages rose significantly in 2022, but the gains in most sectors have not kept up with changes in the consumer price index. The year-over-year growth in employees’ average hourly wages was 5.6 per cent in both October and November, marking six consecutive months above the five per cent level, according to Statistics Canada. By comparison, the CPI rose 6.8 per cent year-over-year in November and 6.9 per cent in October.

“On average, prices rose faster than wages,” the agency said in its October report . “Although Canadians experienced a decline in purchasing power, the gap was smaller than in September.”

High job vacancy numbers in recent months have brought attention to how unmet labour demand correlates with higher wages, Statistics Canada said. Despite struggling to fill positions, employers were still offering wage increases that were lower than the rate of inflation.

“There’s a lot of frustrations that people who were viewed as being heroes during COVID are being expected to get by with very low wage increases when you compare it to inflation,” Hancock said.

Another solution the union has been looking into is the negotiation of cost-of-living clauses in collective agreements. The union leader said workers “don’t expect to fall behind” when the cost of living goes up and that there was “a real change” at bargaining tables when Canadians saw a spike in inflation this year.

CUPE, which has around 715,000 members across the country, had an eventful year. Its notable actions included a battle with Ontario Premier Doug Ford that led to a strike by more than 50,000 education workers in Ontario, resulting in hundreds of schools closing for two days.

The walkout ended after the provincial government promised to repeal a law that imposed contracts on CUPE members, banned them from striking and used the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to allow the override of certain charter rights. Union leaders have called the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause by the government of Ontario Premier Doug Ford as “an attack on the rights of all Canadians.”

“We’ve seen a trend across the country with some very difficult rounds of bargaining, especially here in Ontario with our education workers,” Hancock said. He added that he foresees a lot of “difficult bargaining” in many public sectors and in the private sector as well in the next year.

Hancock said about 1,200 to 1,500 contracts expire or need to be renewed in any given year. He said that while the Ontario education workers recently reached an agreement, there are other large groups in the province and across the country that they’re keeping an eye on.

Hancock, who’s been a CUPE member since 1984, was elected as the union’s national president in November 2015 after leading its British Columbia chapter. He served as president of CUPE B.C. for two terms and as its secretary-general for four terms. Prior to that, he led Local 498 representing Port Coquitlam, B.C. municipal employees for 15 years.

Like many unions, CUPE took a big hit during the COVID-19 pandemic but its membership numbers increased over the past year and are now above pre-pandemic levels, Hancock said. He expects the momentum will keep going in 2023.

“Workers are recognizing that there’s real value in joining a union,” he said.

• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com | Twitter: denisepglnwn:

GLOBALIZATION IS OUTSOURCING
Singapore goes from zero to 5 vaccine plants as pharma firms seek flexibility

MSD's latest expansion in Tuas will enable it to produce more innovative medicines and vaccines to meet the region’s needs.

 PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Salma Khalik
Senior Health Correspondent

SINGAPORE – Prior to Covid-19, Singapore did not have a single facility producing finished vaccines. Over the past two years, however, five pharmaceutical companies have committed to set up plants here, which will, at steady state, churn out over a billion doses annually.

The products range from traditional types such as live-attenuated and recombinant vaccines to the latest mRNA ones, with the first output set to be rolled out as early as 2023.

The sudden influx of investments can largely be attributed to lessons learnt during the pandemic. Pharmaceutical firms discovered that when there is a critical need for vaccines, there is no such thing as business as normal. Several countries even blocked exports until domestic demand was met.

Not surprisingly, the companies looked to expand globally, seeking greater flexibility when the next pandemic hits.

BioNTech, one of the companies setting up a vaccine plant here, said this will provide a “rapid response production capability for South-east Asia to address potential pandemic threats”.

The pandemic also focused attention on the benefits of vaccination, so demand for all vaccines is expected to be high in coming years.


Professor Benjamin Seet, a deputy group chief executive at the National Healthcare Group who led Singapore’s efforts to secure Covid-19 vaccines, said the nation’s small population is an advantage as “our domestic needs are readily met and manufacturing capacity (can be) quickly directed to address regional demands and beyond”.

There is no risk that the Republic will block the export of vaccines in a pandemic.

The Economic Development Board (EDB), too, was scouting for companies that were willing to develop and manufacture vaccines here, since this could make it easier for Singapore to acquire vaccines in a pandemic.

Its efforts have paid off. Between October 2020 and October 2022, five pharmaceutical firms committed to making vaccines here.

Ms Goh Wan Yee, EDB’s senior vice-president in charge of healthcare, said: “The decision by several leading global pharmaceutical companies to locate their vaccine manufacturing facilities in Singapore is in line with our efforts to anchor more such activities here, to strengthen our pandemic resilience.”

She added that the new facilities will “enhance our access to and cooperation with the producers of vaccines and therapeutics. In the event of future pandemics, these efforts will stand us in good stead to acquire vaccines for national needs while also supplying countries in the region.”

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Countries in region teaming up for next pandemic, breaking ‘cycle of panic and neglect’

BioNTech to set up mRNA plant in S’pore, offering more than 100 jobs

Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong told The Straits Times: “The past two years have seen us welcome significant investments from pharmaceutical players, which now include the manufacturing of vaccines.

“This is a good development for Singapore and will further strengthen our healthcare ecosystem and enhance the pandemic resilience of Singapore and the region by providing faster access to vaccines and therapeutics.

“Coupled with continued efforts to build up our capabilities and talent pipeline in this space, these investments will enable us to enhance our position as a leading pharmaceutical hub in Asia and help us better deal with future pandemics.”

Here are the companies that have or will set up vaccine plants, in order of announcement date:

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Oct 14, 2020)

The American firm will be doing contract manufacturing of fill and finish for any type of vaccine, including the mRNA ones, with clients providing the active ingredients.

It has built Singapore’s first large-scale high-speed sterile line for live virus vaccines in Joo Koon. Once operational in 2023, it will have the capacity to produce up to 30 million vaccine doses a month.

Sanofi (April 12, 2021)

The French giant, which is among the top 10 pharmaceutical firms in the world with sales of US$39 billion (S$53 billion) in 2021, will build a digitally enabled plant that can produce three to four different vaccines simultaneously.

Located at the Tuas Biomedical Park, the $638 million evolutive vaccine facility (EVF) will have the flexibility to make different types of vaccines on a large scale. This is one of two EVFs Sanofi is building, with the other in France.

“The EVF will also be able to quickly switch its configuration towards one vaccine process to boost supply levels and adapt quickly to evolving public health emergencies, such as during a pandemic,” the company said.

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BioNTech (May 10, 2021)

The German company, which shot to prominence when it joined Pfizer in producing the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, has taken over Novartis’ plant at the Tuas Biomedical Park, which it is converting into a fully integrated mRNA manufacturing facility.

It expects to start producing a range of novel mRNA vaccines and drugs for infectious diseases and cancer from 2023. The highly automated plant will have the capacity to churn out several hundred million doses of mRNA-based vaccines each year. These may include its Covid-19 vaccine.

Its chief executive officer, Dr Ugur Sahin, said opening a plant here is an “important strategic step in building out our global footprint and capabilities” and expanding its ability to deliver its vaccines and therapies around the world.

Hilleman Laboratories (Dec 6, 2021)

The company, a joint venture set up in India in 2009 by pharmaceutical company MSD and charitable foundation Wellcome Trust, is setting up facilities for research and development as well as production of vaccines and biologics at the Biopolis.

Its chief executive officer here, Dr Raman Rao, said: “Singapore is an important base for Hilleman Laboratories to expand in the region and beyond, as we ramp up efforts to develop timely, novel and affordable vaccines and biologics for infectious diseases.”

He added that the company will lend “our expertise in vaccines and biologics to build local capabilities to address urgent public health challenges caused by vaccine-preventable diseases, some of which have pandemic potential.”

MSD or Merck & Co (Oct 5, 2022)

MSD, which came to Singapore in 1994, said its latest expansion within its 29ha multi-product manufacturing hub in Tuas will enable it to produce more innovative medicines and vaccines to meet the region’s needs.

The American company, which was set up in 1891 and is the world’s oldest still active pharmaceutical firm, is among the top 10 globally with a revenue of US$48.7 billion in 2021. It plans to produce its cervical cancer vaccine at the new plant.