Uzbekistan draft law addresses sextortion
Young people are falling prey to new scams that their parents’ generation could never have imagined.

Niginakhon Saida

Feb 14, 2023

With expanding access to the internet, courtship rituals have changed radically in this socially conservative country. (Shutterstock)

The young woman must have thought she had met someone special. As their casual chats on the Telegram messaging app grew more intimate, she sent Ghiyas, as he called himself, nude photos and videos.

But he wasn’t looking for love. Instead, Ghiyas demanded 5 million sum (about $450) to keep her secrets.

Stories like this, released by the Interior Ministry in Tashkent, are growing more common and prompting the Justice Ministry to propose criminalizing sextortion – extorting money or favors from someone by threatening to reveal their sexual activity.

Ghiyas was arrested in a December 2022 sting. Police found compromising photos of another 10 women on his phone.

Internet penetration in Uzbekistan has jumped in recent years, from 16 percent in 2010 to an estimated 70 percent last year. With expanding access to the internet, courtship rituals have changed radically in this socially conservative country. Whereas members of older generations often had their marriages arranged by their families, and even chaste dating was uncommon, today social media networks, especially Telegram messenger (with over 18 million active users in Uzbekistan), give young people the space to meet and talk.

For some, it’s a chance to explore in secret what traditionalists call shameful and even sinful behavior before marriage.

Though cyberspace has transformed habits, it has not reformed patriarchal mores. Girls still carry their family nomus (honor) between their legs. Many families insist the bride’s virginity be medically examined before the wedding; rape victims are considered sullied.

Such attitudes make women more vulnerable for targeted sexual extortion. And based on press and police reports, the victims are often young women. Dreading the judgement and disapproval of parents and police, they are the most reluctant to seek help.

When an underaged Nigina met Jalil (their names have been changed) on Telegram and naively shared intimate photo and videos, Jalil threatened to send copies to her family. To buy his silence, she gave him a $350 gold ring, probably part of her future dowry. After receiving the ring, Jalil reportedly went on to sextort money from four other young women before returning to Nigina, this time demanding $450. She finally filed a complaint with the police. When the story was published on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by a district judge, he heaped blame on the victims: girls “who are not ashamed to send naked pictures and videos by their own choice.”

Under Article 165 of Uzbekistan’s current Criminal Code, defendants charged with extortion face three to five years in prison (up to 10 for repeat offenders). The proposed law defines leaking nude photos as a crime, adding language about disclosing personal secrets and humiliation. In addition to jail time, the accused would face a fine up to $15,800. More severe punishment is envisioned for repeat offenders or if the victim is under age 16.

Official statistics are not available for sextortion verdicts; were they, the numbers would almost certainly be undercounts, since shame likely prevents many people from reporting the crime. But Statistics Committee figures for extortion more generally show a 250 percent increase in cases with women as defendants between 2007 and 2021; where men stand accused, the figures, though several times higher, rose 25 percent.

Female sextortion generally targets married men, sometimes after an affair.

Police in Samarkand last month arrested a woman who had successfully extorted money from a man while promising to delete his nude photos from internet.

Such police reports are part of a government effort to educate the public about the risks to sharing personal information online amid growing cases of cybertheft and online fraud.

“Cybercrime is on the rise in terms of phishing messages and stealing money from people's debit cards,” said Rashid Gabdulhakov, an assistant professor at the Research Center for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “What is unknown is how much people are being blackmailed for other things. For instance, since homosexuality is still criminalized and there is no state support, this creates a fruitful environment for police to blackmail people.”

A 2022 law charged the State Security Service, the KGB successor agency, with policing cybersecurity in Uzbekistan and raising awareness of online dangers. So far, the draft law remains the only specific measure to address sexual extortion. There are few public awareness campaigns that would reach broad segments of society. “Whether they are effective or not is too premature to say,” Gabdulhakov said. “We need time as these are rather recent measures. It is refreshing to see that something is finally being done here.”

Scholar nominated to follow Kuroda as BOJ chief

February 15, 2023

TOKYO (AP) – An economist was nominated yesterday to head Japan’s central bank and take on the daunting task of guiding the world’s third-largest economy to stronger, stable growth.

The government’s choice of Kazuo Ueda (AP; pic below), who earlier served on the central bank’s policy board, to succeed Haruhiko Kuroda came as a surprise to many when it was leaked to Japanese media last week. Most Bank of Japan (BOJ) governors have hailed from the Finance Ministry or the bank itself.

Kuroda will be stepping down on April 8 after serving two five-year terms, during which he pushed an unprecedented ultra-easy credit strategy meant to vanquish deflation, or chronically falling prices. While other major central banks have aggressively raised interest rates to cool decades-high inflation, the BOJ has stuck to monetary easing. Its key interest rate remains at minus 0.1 per cent.

Some observers see choosing Ueda, 71, as a way for Kishida to differentiate his policies from the “Abenomics” strategy of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, mainly centred around near-zero interest rates and massive asset purchases by the central bank meant to combat stagnation.

Much of the burden for trying to jolt Japan out of its doldrums has fallen to the central bank.

The Abenomics strategy also involved heavy government spending, but it made limited headway in enacting sweeping reforms to help Japan raise productivity and streamline bottlenecks in the economy.

The economy continued to meander between spells of modest growth and recession and then the pandemic and slowdowns in other major economies hobbled growth.

The government reported yesterday that the economy grew at an annual pace of 0.6 per cent in October-December, after contracting 0.3 per cent in previous quarter.

Disruptions from the pandemic, a shortage of imported parts from China and rising prices – especially for energy – have weighed on Japan’s recovery even after Tokyo loosened precautions meant to keep COVID-19 outbreaks under control, allowing foreign tourists to enter after more than two years of stringent controls. The economy grew at a 1.1 per cent pace for full-year 2022.

The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose support ratings have sagged, presented Ueda and other nominees for top BOJ posts to Parliament yesterday.

Ueda will face questioning by lawmakers, but approval of his nomination is likely given that both Houses of Parliament are controlled by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

“I plan to do my best to properly answer all the questioning in Parliament,” Ueda said on nationally televised news.

Ueda is a graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo and holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has taught at Japanese and foreign universities and has connections in international academic circles. Ueda was on the BOJ’s board of governors from 1998-2005.

Opposition parties raised objections, saying Ueda will likely stick to the Abenomics approach.

“What needs to be confronted instead is that Abenomics was a big mistake,” opposition lawmaker Akira Nagatsuma said on public broadcaster NHK TV.

DOTTY SENATOR MAKES OVERDUE MOVE

Veteran California Senator Dianne Feinstein says she won't seek re-election

With concerns about her cognitive health, she will serve two more years after three decades as senator

Senator Dianne Feinstein in the Capitol Building on February 13. 

Getty / AFP

The National
Feb 14, 2023

US Senator Dianne Feinstein said on Tuesday that she would not seek re-election at the end of her term in 2024, ending a groundbreaking political career spanning six decades.

It also clears the path for a hotly contested race among California Democrats for her seat.

The announcement was widely expected as Ms Feinstein, who turns 90 in June, is the oldest member of Congress.

In recent years, questions have been raised about her cognitive ability and memory, although she has defended her effectiveness in representing a state that is home to nearly 40 million people.

Ms Feinstein said she intended to remain in Congress until the end of her term.

“Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives," she said. "Each of us was sent here to solve problems.

"That’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that’s what I plan to do for the next two years."

Ms Feinstein is a trailblazer in US politics. She was the first female mayor of San Francisco, first woman to serve on the Senate judiciary committee and is now the longest-serving female senator.

She was expected to serve this year as president pro tempore, the ceremonial head of the Senate and third in line to the presidency, a position typically given to a senior senator of the majority party.

But she declined to seek election for the position, months after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow Democrat, would not say whether he had confidence in her ability to serve.

Instead, Senator Patty Murray, 72, was installed in the job.

Last year, media outlets reported that Ms Feinstein's memory was rapidly deteriorating.

California reliably votes Democratic and the state is home to many up-and-coming politicians who will be looking at her seat.

Several Democrats had already announced or hinted at runs even before her announcement, including Representatives Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.

California will hold its primary elections on March 5, 2024.

Russian businessman guilty in hacking, insider trade scheme


By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

 This image provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows the Russian passport of Vladislav Klyushin, part of the U.S. government's evidence entered into the record during Klyushin's trial. Klyushin, a Russian millionaire with ties to the Kremlin was convicted Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, of participating in an elaborate $90 million insider trading scheme using secret earnings information from companies such as Microsoft that was stolen from U.S. computer networks. (U.S. Attorney’s Office via AP, File)

BOSTON (AP) — A Russian millionaire with ties to the Kremlin was convicted Tuesday of participating in an elaborate $90 million insider trading scheme using secret earnings information from companies such as Microsoft that was stolen from U.S. computer networks.

Vladislav Klyushin, who ran a Moscow-based information technology company associated with the Russian government, was found guilty on all charges against him, including wire fraud and securities fraud, after a two-week trial in federal court in Boston.

He was arrested in 2021 in Switzerland after he arrived on a private jet and just before he and his party were about to board a helicopter to whisk them to a nearby ski resort. Four alleged co-conspirators — including a Russian military intelligence officer who’s also been charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election — remain at large.

An email seeking comment was sent to Klyushin’s attorney on Tuesday.

Klyushin was owner of a Moscow-based information technology company that purported to provide services to detect vulnerabilities in computer systems. It counted among its clients the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other government entities, according to prosecutors.

Tesla workers in NY launch campaign to organize a union

Klyushin was also close friends with a Russian military officer who was among 12 Russians charged in 2018 with hacking into key Democratic email accounts, including those belonging to Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Ivan Ermakov, who worked for Klyushin’s company, was a hacker in the alleged insider trading scheme, alleged prosecutors. They haven’t alleged that Klyushin was involved in the election interference.

Prosecutors say hackers stole employees’ usernames and passwords for two U.S.-based vendors that publicly traded companies use to make filings through the Securities and Exchange Commission. They then broke into the vendors’ computer systems to get financial disclosures for hundreds of companies — including Microsoft, Tesla and Kohls, Ulta Beauty and Sketchers — before the were filed to the SEC and became public, prosecutors said.

Armed with this insider information, they were able to cheat the stock market, alleged prosecutors, who said Klyushin personally turned a $2 million investment into nearly $21 million, and altogether, the group turned about $9 million into nearly $90 million.

Klyushin’s attorney denied that his client was involved in the scheme, telling jurors in his opening statement that the government’s case was filled with “gaping holes” and “inferences.”

Kremlin-Linked Leader Of Wagner Mercenary Group Acknowledges Ownership Of 'Troll Factory'

Yevgeny Prigozhin (file photo)

The leader and co-founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known to have close ties to President Vladimir Putin, has acknowledged for the first time that he owns the Internet Research Agency -- a so-called "troll factory" in St. Petersburg specialized in creating fake social-media accounts and spreading disinformation and propaganda.

In February 2018, the Justice Department indicted the Internet Research Agency and two other companies controlled by Prigozhin -- Concord Management and Concord Catering -- as well as Prigozhin himself and 15 other Russian individuals for alleged fraud "for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."

In a written response to a group of Western journalists' questions, Prigozhin said on February 14 that "I planned it, I created it, and I used to direct it for a long time," adding that the agency was created "to defend Russian information space from the blatantly aggressive propaganda of anti-Russia slogans of [the] West."

Prigozhin also acknowledged that he provided premises for another troll factory, Cyberfront Z, that was created right after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Answering a question about his possibly being the owner of the Lobaye Invest company that operates gold and diamond mines in the Central African Republic, Prigozhin said the company was liquidated three years ago, but added that it was led by Dmitry Syty and had been involved in geological research in Africa, not mining.

Prigozhin noted that Syty, who is officially the head of the Russian House culture center in the Central African Republic, had spent some time in hospital in December after a parcel he received by mail exploded.

Prigozhin called on the Western journalists to offer apologies to Syty for "the terrorist activities of the Western countries."

Prigozhin is known for his vocal condemnation of the West over sanctions imposed on Russia over its full-scale aggression against Ukraine and for accusing the United States and European Union of supporting what he called the "neo-Nazi" government of Ukraine.

Koh-i-noor diamond not part of King Charles III’s coronation

The Koh-i-noor diamond won’t be used during King Charles III’s coronation, allowing Buckingham Palace to sidestep the controversy surrounding a gem acquired during the age of Empire

By DANICA KIRKA 

Associated Press
February 14, 2023, 

LONDON -- The Koh-i-noor diamond won’t be used during King Charles III’s coronation, allowing Buckingham Palace to sidestep the controversy surrounding a gem acquired during the age of Empire.

Camilla, the queen consort, will not to use the diamond in her coronation crown. Rather than commission a new crown, as is customary, Camilla will modify Queen Mary’s crown using diamonds from Queen Elizabeth II’s personal collection, the palace said in a statement Tuesday.

Some observers had speculated that Camilla would be crowned with the crown made for Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, in 1937, which had the Koh-i-noor diamond as its centerpiece.

That reportedly sparked concern from some people in India, who said using the Koh-i-noor in the coronation could be an uncomfortable reminder of Britain’s oppressive past.

Seized by the East India Company after its victory in the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1849, the gem was given to Queen Victoria and has remained part of the Crown Jewels ever since. But countries including India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all claimed ownership.

Queen Consort Camilla to reuse Mary crown without insetting Kohinoor diamond at coronation

The palace says the use of the Mary crown is "in the interests of sustainability and efficiency".

(Reuters: Toby Melville)
Queen Consort Camilla will break from tradition and refashion an old crown for the coronation, notably avoiding the use of the Kohinoor diamond that is clouded by colonialist controversy.
Rather than commissioning a new crown, Buckingham Palace said Camilla would wear a modified version of Queen Mary's crown for the coronation of King Charles III in May.
Key points:It will be the first time in modern history that a consort has not had a new crown commissioned for the coronation
Camilla's crown will be modified to include some of Queen Elizabeth II's personal diamonds

The Indian government has repeatedly requests the Kohinoor diamond be returned
The Queen Mary crown was commissioned for the 1911 coronation of King George V.
It will be the first time since the 18th century that an existing crown will be used in a coronation.
The choice to reuse a crown was made "in the interests of sustainability and efficiency", the palace said.
Some changes will be made to the Mary crown to reflect Camilla's personal style and to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, the palace said.
Notably, the Kohinoor diamond at the centre of a dispute with India will be removed from the crown.

The coronation will be on May 6.(AP: Carl Court)
The Cullinan III, IV and V diamonds, which were previously part of Queen Elizabeth's personal jewellery collection, and were frequently worn by the late monarch as brooches, will be inset into the crown.
The Cullinan diamonds have been set into Queen Mary's crown on previous occasions.
Cullinan III and IV were set temporarily in the crown for the 1911 coronation, and the Cullinan V was inserted when the crown was worn as a regal circlet at King George VI's coronation in 1937.

Kohinoor was set in the front middle cross-pattee of Queen Mary's crown

.(Wikimedia Commons: Cyril Davenport )

Four of the crown's eight detachable arches will also be removed, the palace said.
The crown was taken off display at the Tower of London for the modification work to be carried out.
Controversy over Kohinoor diamond
The decision against the Queen consort wearing the Kohinoor diamond, worn by Queen Mary in 1911 and the queen mother in 1937, comes amid rumblings about the jewel.
The Kohinoor is among the largest cut diamonds in the world, worth $591 million, and has a long history with the royal family, having been worn on crowns by generations of queens.
It is believed the diamond was taken from India by the East India Company during the colonial era and presented to Queen Victoria in 1850.
The precious diamond has been fought over for centuries, so much so that British royal legend says the diamond will bring bad luck to any man who wears it.
It currently is set in a crown last worn by Charles's grandmother during her coronation alongside King George VI in 1937.
The diamond India wants the royal family to return
The world's most expensive diamond, the "Kohinoor" is set in the crown made for the Queen Mother. With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Indians are asking for its return.

That the diamond remains in the possession of the British royals is, according to the Indian government, a mark of continuing colonialism more than 75 years after India declared independence from British rule.
Since 2000, India's government has repeatedly requested Britain return the Kohinoor.
The royal family claims the diamond is its property, though it acknowledges it "probably" originated in India.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that any plans for the Queen Consort to wear the Kohinoor at the coronation would bring back "painful memories of the colonial past".
As is tradition, King Charles will wear St Edward's Crown, which has now returned to public display at the Tower of London following the completion of minor modification work.
ABC/Reuters

BDS 

European allies condemn Israel's plan to build more housing units in the West Bank

February 14, 2023
DANIEL ESTRIN

NPR

A picture taken from the Palestinian village of Aqraba shows the Israeli settlement outpost of Gevat Arnon, near Nablus city in the southern occupied West Bank.

Jaafar Ashitiyeh/AFP via Getty Images

In a rare move, key European allies — France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom — joined the U.S. on Tuesday in condemning Israel's plans to build 10,000 more housing units in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's right-wing government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also set to legalize nine smaller Jewish outposts on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem in a war in 1967 and has since build more than 100 settlements there — which much of the international community opposes. The U.N. Security Council has called settlements a violation of international law, which Israel denies.

The joint U.S. and European statement said the countries "strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution."

"We were not surprised by the U.S. position," a senior Israeli official said in a statement to reporters. "We have disagreements for tens of years about these issues ... these disagreements did not and will not harm the strong bond between Israel and the U.S."

Some Arab states also condemned the decision. Qatar, which has no formal ties with Israel, called it a flagrant violation of U.N. resolutions and an assault on the rights of Palestinians. Egypt, the first Arab country to establish ties with Israel, said these measures will inflame tensions and violence already spiking in the West Bank.

Turkiye Doesn’t Need F-16s.  It Needs Humanitarian Aid.

BY JACOB BATINGA

Less than a week after two earthquakes killed 35,000 people, the Turkish government has resumed bombing Kurdish forces in Syria. Now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is spending $20 billion on F-16 jets — money that would be better spent on earthquake aid.

Turkish soldiers stand next to collapsed buildings on February 13, 2023, as rescue teams continue to search for victims and survivors of the earthquake on the border region of Turkey and Syria. (Ozan Kose / AFP via Getty Images)

The earthquake in Turkey and Syria is one of the worst natural disasters of this century. The death toll has now risen to a staggering thirty-five thousand people — though that number is expected to rise significantly. Tens of thousands more have been injured, overwhelming the already-strained hospitals in Syria and Turkey. Large swaths of Northern Syria and Southern Turkey have been reduced to rubble, and millions are in desperate need of humanitarian relief.

Yet even in the immediate aftermath of this humanitarian crisis, at a time when resources, personnel, and state assistance is gravely needed, Turkey continues to attack the Kurds. According to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and statements from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on February 12 (less than one week after the earthquake), Turkey bombed an SDF vehicle in Kobanî, a Kurdish-majority city in Northern Syria, and bombed Kurdish forces in Tel Rifaat, north of Aleppo. There is no indication that these bombings are going to stop.

In sharp contrast to Turkey’s abysmal, dysfunctional initial response to the earthquake, Turkish militarism seems as functional as ever.

Though these recent attacks highlight the particular brutality of bombing communities suffering and grieving in the wake of a natural disaster, Turkish attacks on the Kurds are by no means new. Turkey’s record of atrocities against the Kurds is long and well-documented. Though ostensibly fighting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — a militant organization pushing for greater autonomy and civil rights for Kurds — Turkey has killed scores of Kurdish civilians in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In the 1990s, Turkish forces killed tens of thousands of Kurds in Southern Turkey and in recent years has bombed Northern Iraq hundreds of times.

In Northern Syria, Turkish treatment of Kurds has been particularly brutal. Turkey frequently bombs Kurdish communities in Syria, targeting the PKK-linked People’s Protection Units (YPG) and SDF, Western allies largely responsible for the defeat of ISIS in Syria. In a single weeks-long bombing campaign in January of 2018, Turkey killed over a thousand Kurds in the city of Afrin alone. Over the course of repeated invasions over the last seven years, Turkey has occupied extensive territory in Northern Syria, and Turkish forces have committed widespread and systematic war crimes against the Kurdish population, including ethnic cleansing.

Crucially, a map of Turkish air strikes in Syria produced by Airwars, an organization that tracks explosive weapon use in conflicts around the world, shows that the area most affected by the earthquake is also the area most frequently bombed by the Turkish Air Force in recent years.

Given that Turkey has demonstrated its refusal to terminate its attacks on the Kurds even in the midst of one of the worst natural disasters of this century, should the United States continue supplying the very equipment used to carry out this aggression?

The United States — and other Western countries — have a long history of arming Turkey with weapons subsequently used directly on the Kurds. Currently, the Biden administration is attempting to advance a massive arms transfer to Turkey. This arms package includes a new fleet of F-16s as well as upgrades to Turkey’s existing F-16s — the same jets used to conduct air raids on Kurdish cities.

Some members of Congress are objecting to this sale. Notably, Senator Bob Menendez has declared that he intends to block the arms transfer to Turkey due to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s continued efforts to “undermine international law, disregard human rights and democratic norms and engage in alarming and destabilizing behavior in Turkey and against neighboring NATO allies,” namely Greece. Other members of the Senate, however, are less adamant in their opposition to the sale. In a letter to President Joe Biden, a bipartisan group of twenty-nine senators have conditioned the arms transfer, stating that they would not support the deal unless Turkey agrees to approve Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO. Even if Congress decided to block the arms sale, however, a two-thirds supermajority is necessary to overcome a presidential veto.

But in light of the earthquake, the Biden administration should consider whether they want to support and supply further Turkish aggression in the aftermath of a natural disaster, or use this moment to encourage reconstruction and diplomacy.

The United Nations estimates that over five million people became homeless as a result of the earthquake, and millions more are in dire need of humanitarian assistance — including several million children. According to experts at the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society, it could take years — or even a decade — to rebuild the infrastructure and houses destroyed by the earthquake. This F-16s arms package is estimated to cost an astonishing twenty billion dollars, money which should be diverted toward humanitarian relief and reconstruction.

Furthermore, this moment can be used to support diplomacy, rather than aggression. In light of the earthquake, the PKK issued a unilateral cease-fire, stating that since “thousands of our people are under the rubble,” they would terminate all operations “as long as the Turkish state does not attack.” Instead, the PKK spokesperson stated, “[e]veryone should mobilize to save our people from the rubble.” The Turkish government has not responded.

During a time of unimaginable death, destruction, and suffering, it is unconscionable for the Turkish state to divert critically needed resources away from humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, and toward funding its continued militarism. The United States should use this moment to encourage Turkey to accept the olive branch offered by the PKK, rather than send it advanced weaponry that will be used on a population already suffering from the devastating consequences of a natural disaster. This earthquake should be the final nail in the coffin of the Biden administration’s proposed F-16 arms sale. The United States has betrayed the Kurds many times before — this time should be different.

CONTRIBUTORS
Jacob Batinga is a writer, human rights activist, and JD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, concentrating on issues related to economic coercion, the arms trade, and international law.

Noam Chomsky: Right-Wing Insurrection in Brazil Held Strong Echoes of January 6

Both cases reveal how fragile representative democracies have become — and we may not have seen the last of such events.

By Noam Chomsky, CJ Polychroniou 

February 5, 2023
Source: TruthOut


The right-wing riot and insurrection led on January 8 by followers of Brazil’s incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro had strong echoes of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters. Like Trump supporters’ mob attack on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., the January 8, 2023, insurrection in the capital city of Brasília grew out of weeks of protests by supporters of an incumbent president who refused to accept electoral defeat in a fall election. Both cases reveal how fragile liberal representative democracies have become in the neoliberal era, argues Noam Chomsky in the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows, adding that we may not have seen the last of such events either in the U.S. or in Latin America.

Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and laureate professor of linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. One of the world’s most-cited scholars and a public intellectual regarded by millions of people as a national and international treasure, Chomsky has published more than 150 books in linguistics, political and social thought, political economy, media studies, U.S. foreign policy and world affairs. His latest books are Illegitimate Authority: Facing the Challenges of Our Time (forthcoming; with C.J. Polychroniou); The Secrets of Words (with Andrea Moro; MIT Press, 2022); The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power (with Vijay Prashad; The New Press, 2022); and The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change (with C.J. Polychroniou; Haymarket Books, 2021).

C. J. Polychroniou: Noam, on January 8, 2023, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings because they wouldn’t accept the defeat of their fascist leader — an event, incidentally, that you strongly feared might take place almost from the moment that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the presidential election. The insurrection of course has raised a lot of questions inside Brazil, as well as abroad, about the role of the Brazilian police, the failure of the intelligence services to warn Lula about what was going to happen and who orchestrated the riots. This was undoubtedly an attempted coup, just like the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and should serve as yet another reminder of how fragile liberal democracies have become in the neoliberal era. Can you comment on these matters?

Noam Chomsky: Fragile indeed. The January 6 attempted coup could have succeeded if a few people had made different decisions and if Trump had succeeded in replacing the top military command, as he was apparently trying to do in his last days in office.

January 6 was unplanned, and the leader was so consumed by narcissistic rage that he couldn’t direct what was happening. January 8, clearly modelled on its predecessor, was well-planned and financed. Early inquiries suggest that it may have been financed by small businesses and perhaps by agricultural interests concerned that their free rein to destroy the Amazon would be infringed. It was well-advertised in advance. It’s impossible that the security services were not aware of the plans. In Brasília itself — pro-Bolsonaro territory — they pretty much cooperated with the marauders. The army watched the coup being well organized and supplied in encampments outside military installations nearby.

With impressive unity that was lacking in the U.S., Brazilian officials and elites condemned the Bolsonarist uprising and supported newly elected president Lula’s decisive actions to suppress it. There is nothing like the U.S. denialist movement in high places. The uprising itself was savage and indiscriminate, as amply portrayed in the extensive TV coverage. The apparent intention was to create sufficient chaos so that the military would have a pretext for taking over and reestablishing the brutal dictatorship that Bolsonaro greatly admired.

International opposition to the insurrection was also immediate and forceful, most importantly of course, that of Washington. According to the well-informed Brazilian political analyst Liszt Vieira, who shared his thoughts with Fórum 21 on January 16, President Biden, while no admirer of Lula, “sent 4 diplomats to defend the Brazilian electoral system and send a message to the military: No coup!” His report is confirmed by John Lee Anderson in a judicious account of the unfolding events.

If the January 6 coup attempt had succeeded, or if its copy had taken place during a Republican administration, Brazil might have returned to the grim years of military dictatorship.

I doubt that we’ve seen the end of this in the U.S. or in “our little region over here” as Latin America was called by Secretary of War Henry Stimson when explaining why all regional systems should be dismantled in the new era of post-war U.S. hegemony, except our own.

The fragility of democracies through the neoliberal era is apparent enough, beginning with the oldest and best-established of them, England and the U.S. It is also no surprise. Neoliberalism, pretensions and rhetoric aside, is basically class war. That goes back to the roots of neoliberalism and its close cousin austerity after World War I, a topic discussed in very illuminating recent work by Clara Mattei.

As such, a core principle is to insulate economic policy from public influence and pressure, either by placing it in the hands of professional experts (as in the liberal democracies) or by violence (as under fascism). The modalities are not sharply distinguished. Organized labor must be eliminated because it interferes with the “sound economics” that transfers wealth to the very rich and corporate sector. Investor rights agreements masked as “free trade” made their own contribution. A range of policies, legislative and judicial, left the political systems even more in the hands of concentrated private capital than the norm, while wages stagnated, benefits declined and much of the workforce drifted to precarity, living from paycheck to paycheck with little in reserve.

Of course, respect for institutions declines — rightly — and formal democracy erodes, exactly as neoliberal class war dictates.

Brazil, just like the U.S., is a deeply divided nation, virtually on the verge of a civil war. Having said that, I believe Lula has a very difficult task ahead of him in terms of uniting the nation and pushing forth a new policy agenda based on progressive values. Should we be surprised therefore if his government falls short of carrying out radical reforms, as many seem to expect a leftist president to do?

I don’t see any prospect of radical reforms, either in Brazil or in the neighboring countries where there has recently been a new “pink tide” of left political victories. The elected leadership is not committed to radical institutional change, and if they were, they would face the powerful opposition of internal concentrations of economic power and conservative cultural forces, often shaped by the evangelical churches, along with hostile international power — economic, subversive, military — that has not abandoned its traditional vocation of maintaining order and subordination in “our little region over here.”

What can realistically be hoped for in Brazil is carrying forward the projects of President Lula’s first terms, which the World Bank in a study of Brazil called its “golden decade,” with sharp reduction in poverty and significant expansion of inclusiveness in a dramatically unequal society. Lula’s Brazil may also recover the international standing it achieved during his first terms, when Brazil became of the most respected countries in the world and an effective voice for the Global South, all lost during the Bolsonaro regression.

Some knowledgeable analysts are still more optimistic. Jeffrey Sachs, after intense discussions with the new government, concluded that growth and development prospects are favorable and that Brazil’s development and international role could “help reform the global architecture — including finance and foreign policy — for the benefit of sustainable development.”

Of paramount importance, not just for Brazil but for the whole world, would be resuming and extending the protection of the Amazon that was a highlight of Lula’s first terms, and that was reversed by Bolsonaro’s lethal policies of enabling mining and agribusiness destruction that were already beginning to turn parts of the forest to savannah, an irreversible process that will turn one of the world’s greatest carbon sinks into a carbon producer. With the dedicated environmentalist Marina Silva now in charge of environmental issues, there is some hope of saving this precious resource from destruction, with awesome global consequences.

There is also some hope of rescuing the Indigenous inhabitants of the forests. Some of Lula’s first actions on regaining the presidency were to visit Indigenous communities that had been subjected to the terror unleashed by Bolsonaro’s assault on the Amazon and its inhabitants. The scenes of misery, of children reduced to virtual skeletons, of disease and destruction, are beyond words to describe, at least mine. Perhaps these hideous crimes will come to an end.

These would be no slight achievements. They might help lay a firmer basis for the more radical institutional change that Brazilians need and deserve — and not Brazil alone. A basis is already there. Brazil is the home of the world’s largest left popular movement, the Landless Workers Movement (MST), which takes over unused lands to form productive communities, often with flourishing cooperatives — to be sure, not without bitter struggle. The MST is establishing links with a major urban left popular movement, the Landless Worker’s Movement. Its most prominent figure, Guilherme Boulos, is close to Lula, representing tendencies that might be able to forge a path beyond the incremental improvements that are desperately needed in themselves.

The left, no matter where it comes to power, seems to fall short of expectations. In fact, often enough, it ends up carrying out the very neoliberal policy agenda that it challenges while in opposition. Is it because neoliberalism is such a formidable foe, or because today’s left lacks both a strategy and a vision beyond capitalism?

There has long been a lively left culture in Latin America, which the northern colossus can learn from. The internal and external barriers, which are formidable quite beyond their neoliberal incarnation, have sufficed to constrain hopes and expectations. Latin America has often seemed on the verge of breaking free from these constraints. It might do so now. That could help propel the developments towards multipolarity that are apparent today and that might, just might, open the way to a much better world. Entrenched power, however, does not just melt away.

We speak of political crises, economic crises and an ecological and climate crisis, among others, but it seems to me that we should also be talking of a humanity crisis. By that, I mean we may be on the verge of the dawn of an anti-Enlightenment era, with capitalism and irrationality having gone berserk and being at the root of a widespread ontological transition. Do you have any thoughts to share on this matter? Are we confronted with the possibility of the rise of an anti-Enlightenment era?

We should bear in mind that the Enlightenment was not exactly a bed of roses for most of the world. It was accompanied by the unleashing of what Adam Smith called “the savage injustice of the Europeans,” a horrific onslaught against most the world. The most advanced societies, India and China, were devastated by European savagery, in its latter stages the world’s most awesome narcotrafficking racket, which ravaged India to raise the opium that was rammed down the throats of China by barbarians led by England, with its North American offshoot not far behind, and other imperial powers joining in what China calls the century of humiliation. In the Americas and Africa, the criminal destruction was far worse, in ways too well-known to recount.

There were lofty ideals, with limited though significant reach. And it is true that they have been under severe attack.

The fact that unrestrained capitalism is a death sentence for humanity can no longer be concealed with soothing words. Imperial violence, religious nationalism and accompanying pathologies are running rampant. What is evolving before our eyes raises in ever starker form the question that should have struck all of us with blinding fury 77 years ago: Can humans close the gap between their technological capacity to destroy and their moral capacity to control this impulse?

It is not just a question, but the ultimate question, in that if it does not receive a positive answer, and soon, no one will long care about any others.

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Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky (born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historical essayist, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books. He has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, and particularly international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. Chomsky has been a writer for Z projects since their earliest inception, and is a tireless supporter of our operations.

How Worker Ownership Builds Community Wealth And A More Just Society

Community wealth building initiatives are taking hold in cities across the world, strengthening worker pay, local economies and democracy.

By Pamela Haines

February 4, 2023

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

An Evergreen laundry worker. (Evergreen Cooperatives)

A recent help-wanted ad for a laundry worker in Cleveland contained some unusual language, asking prospective candidates: “Have you ever wanted to work for a company that is 90 percent employee-owned? What about a company that offers a program to help you become a homeowner?” The ad went on to identify Evergreen Cooperative Laundry as the only employee-owned commercial laundry firm in the country, citing a commitment to building the wealth and careers of its employees.

Founded in Cleveland in 2009, Evergreen laundry lies at the heart of a movement that has now spread around the world. This attention to community wealth building is providing a 21st century model for Gandhi’s “constructive program,” which — along with nonviolent direct action — powered his overall campaign to overcome the political and economic oppression of colonialism.

The cooperative movement in the Rust Belt city of Cleveland has deep roots in community struggle for shared wealth. Its earliest origins are in the Mondragon co-op movement of the Basque Country in northern Spain, where tens of thousands of workers are organized into a vast co-op network that has flourished since the 1950s. Here in the U.S., when steel companies were closing down throughout the Ohio Valley in the 1970s — and moving to non-union, lower-wage regions in the south, and then overseas — a small band of activists promoted the idea of worker ownership.

Gar Alperovitz, a key player in that campaign, traces its origins to the 1977 shuttering of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube steel mill, which threw 5,000 steelworkers onto the streets, with little retraining help and no other jobs available. A plan by an ecumenical religious coalition for community-worker ownership of the giant mill captured widespread media attention, significant bipartisan support and an initial $200 million in loan guarantees from the Carter administration.

According to Alperovitz, “Corporate and other political maneuvering in the end undercut the Youngstown initiative. Nonetheless, the effort had ongoing impact, especially in Ohio, where the idea of worker-ownership became widespread … because of all the publicity and the depth of policy failures in response to deindustrialization throughout the state.”

Now, nearly half a century later, the Evergreen laundry and its sister solar and greenhouse coops are at the heart of the model around which the theory and practice of community wealth building have grown. Developed by the new economy research center Democracy Collaborative, the model is a simple one: First, identify anchor institutions — hospitals, universities, seats of government — that are not going to relocate in search of higher profits and incentivize them to do their procurement of supplies and services locally, so that those dollars stay at home. Then, make regulatory, financing and policy changes that support the growth of cooperatives to supply their needs, so that the business profits stay with the workers. This model has been quietly gaining attention and putting down roots in other places — starting with a jump across the Atlantic Ocean.

Community wealth building in the UK

In 2012, it seemed like the run-down industrial city of Preston, in northern England, had come to the end of the road. Its economic base had been bleeding away for years, and the last gasp attempt — a deal to lure in a mall developer — had fallen through. Fortunately, a deep-thinking member of the Preston City Council, Matthew Brown, had heard of an innovative model of community wealth building based in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Crucially, we need to have more democracy in Preston’s economy — we can’t be at the whims of outside investors who’ll want to extract as much wealth from our community as possible,” Brown told the Lancashire Post. He reached out to Ted Howard from the Democracy Collaborative and, looking back on the last 10 years, the resulting collaboration can be seen as transformative.

Preston City Council started by working with its own anchor institutions, getting them to prioritize contracting with local companies. It began creating worker cooperatives and paying a real living wage. The city’s government pension fund is now investing locally. Plans for a community bank are in the works. Employment and affordable housing rates are up; child poverty is down.

Procurement dollars that stayed within the city have risen from $46.8 million to $138.4 million; anchor institutions are more connected to the local economy; and its residents and experience in supporting the development of new businesses and cooperatives have grown. According to Ted Howard of the Democracy Collaborative, the impact and potential of these combined efforts is “creating an ecosystem of change that will be the engine for a new, fairer economy.”

In a stunning turnaround, Preston was named the most improved city in the U.K. in 2018, and the “Preston Model” has become a household word. The Centre for Local Economic Strategies, or CLES, which was active in Preston, is now working with dozens of local authorities, anchor institutions, and U.K. nations to develop community wealth building approaches that are appropriate to the context of their place. At the same time, it is also supporting similar efforts across Europe and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.

Keeping small businesses alive in Denver

Back in the U.S., where similar models are spreading, Denver’s Center for Community Wealth Building, or CCWB, has just received a $360,000 economic development grant for a three-year initiative to launch six to nine new cooperatives in Denver and neighboring Aurora. Such worker cooperatives can stabilize jobs and income for those who might otherwise be displaced by gentrification, while also help to keep small businesses — the heart of these communities — alive.

CCWB Executive Director Yessica Holguin was first hired as a fellow to work on building opportunity in low-income neighborhoods. Coming from a community organizing background, her first step was to go out and talk to the community. “I wanted to understand the experience of gentrification from the perspective of the residents. And I wanted to hear what solutions resonated with them,” Holguin explained in a press release. “When people own their jobs, when they own their businesses, own their lives, the ripple effects are felt throughout the community.”

Worker co-ops clearly resonated, and she jumped in to help launch two of them — both of which remain successful today: Mujeres Emprendadores, a catering service started by immigrant women, and Satya Yoga Cooperative, a yoga school run by and for people of color.

CCWB’s three-pronged strategy is modeled on the Evergreen co-ops: democratize ownership through worker co-ops, strengthen entrepreneurial opportunities for people of color and encourage anchor institutions to become local economic engines. To help the University of Denver shift its spending on catering from national chains, for example, CCWB organized a tasting event where over a hundred university event planners met and began building relationships with 11 community caterers.

To ensure that cooperatives can flourish, CCWB has developed a roadmap to guide various city departments to support awareness, skills and access. “It’s not just potential worker-owners who need to see the benefits of cooperative businesses” Holguin said. “We want the community to understand how widespread democratic ownership will benefit everyone.”

An economy like a little stream

This approach is proving flexible, resilient and effective. It is putting down roots and beginning to have an impact not only in Cleveland, Preston and Denver, but in an ever-growing number of cities around the world. It consistently supports both political and economic democracy, while also addressing the needs for better pay and a sharing of our common wealth.

We can use the analogy of water to think about how money moves in an economy. One model is like a storm water system, efficiently gathering water from many small sources, with the goal of consolidation and steady movement toward a central location. A very different model is like a little stream meandering through a wetland, cleansing and nourishing everything it touches — an integral part of the ecosystem, not trying to get anywhere else.

In our current economic system, money functions like the former, steadily being siphoned from the hands of individuals and communities into those of great financial interests. Community wealth building is all about the latter — circulating and recirculating money in the local economy, in no hurry, allowing its benefits to serve all.

By offering a powerful framework and lever for moving toward greater local control over wealth, community wealth building is simply another way of getting to the roots. It provides an alternative to moneyed interests being in control and their bottom line trumping the common welfare.

Reflecting on the role of the Evergreen Laundry — established in a neighborhood of Cleveland where the average income is lower than 93.4 percent of U.S. communities — Howard told The Guardian: “A job is not enough. For people to stay out of poverty they need to be able to acquire assets.” Along with a job, the co-op offers pension payments and profit sharing, and has brought the possibility of home-ownership within reach.

From a new homeowner in Cleveland, to growing connections between university staff in Colorado and local catering co-ops, to the turnaround of a struggling city in northern England and beyond, the promise of community wealth building appears boundless. Bringing together Gandhi’s strategy of nonviolent direct action to confront injustice with a constructive program of steadily diverting resources from the powers-that-be back to the people, this model offers a powerful framework for reclaiming our democracy and our economy.

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