ALL POWER TO THE WORKERS
Tight job market rebalances power between US business and labor

By AFP
October 28, 2023

A lengthy strike by Hollywood actors is among the labor unrest that has hit the US economy this year. — © AFP STRINGER
Elodie MAZEIN

The US economy is contending with a wave of union activism unseen in decades as organized labor seizes a rare opportunity to play hardball in a tight employment market.

Sectors experiencing unrest include automobiles, health care, restaurants, defense, airlines, technology and the performing arts.

In some cases, employees have threatened to walk out, but didn’t actually strike.

“Workers haven’t had much leverage for decades, and certainly not in the aftermath of the 2008-2008 recession,” said Susan Schurman, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University.

Schurman considers the current dynamic the most advantageous for unions since the 1930s, a rupture from a long period in which employers had the upper hand.

“Wages have been stagnant for decades,” Schurman said. “The pandemic changed all that,” with the low unemployment bolstering worker leverage.

Such a backdrop has given momentum to organizing campaigns at more companies, although establishing a union shop remains difficult.


Starbucks workers, including Will Westlake (4R), in December 2021 as the first cafes voted to unionize – Copyright AFP/File JULIEN DE ROSA

In some cases such as Starbucks and Amazon, workers have voted in favor of representation, but struggled to seal a contract with the employer.

The activism can feed on itself as workers in different sectors observe each other fighting for more, sometime spurring concessions from employers who are trying to stay union-free, said Schurman.

This can mean higher wages, better working conditions, increased job security or other conditions.

– Inflation –

Higher consumer prices have been another catalyst for workers, adding credibility to workers claims that they need higher pay just to break even.

Data released this week showed a 3.7 percent increase over September 2022, down from the 9.1 percent surge in June 2022.

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times since March 2022 in an effort to return inflation to a two percent target.

In August the United States lost 4.1 million days of work due to strikes, the highest level in 23 years, according to the Labor Department.

One of the most prominent strikes has been the United Auto Workers’ unprecedented stoppage of Detroit’s “Big Three,” Ford, Stellantis and General Motors, the first time the union has walked out of all three companies at once.

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain appeared with US President Joe Biden last month at a picket in front of a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Michigan – Copyright AFP/File Jim WATSON

Pointing to soaring CEO pay at the companies, UAW President Shawn Fain has called out the automakers to boost pay and restore benefits following union concessions after the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing auto industry bankruptcies.

“Another record quarter, another record year. As we’ve said for months: record profits equal record contracts,” Fain said Tuesday as he announced the latest expansion of the strike at GM.

“It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share,” said Fain, who has seen gradually improved company offers as evidence the “stand up” strike is working

With this week’s most recent walkouts, UAW auto employees on strike numbered around 45,000.

Schurman said she was “surprised” by Fain’s strategy, “but it appears to be working,” she said. “They all have more on the table now than they did a month ago.”

On Wednesday night, the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Ford applauded as “an historic accord” by the President Joe Biden.

The agreement, which includes a 25 percent wage hike, still must be ratified by Ford workers.

– Health care, airlines, etc. –

Biden also cheered an agreement between the Teamsters and UPS in July that averted a potentially calamitous strike.

Defense group General Dynamics also sealed a deal with the UAW that could avert a walkout.

The big US airlines Delta,

United Airlines scored a tripling of quarterly profits in the second quarter of 2023 as international capacity surged – Copyright AFP/File Ed JONES

and American have reached agreements with pilots unions for about a 40 percent pay boost.

However, negotiations are continuing with flight attendant unions at United and American, with a holiday-season walkout not out of the question at this point.

Health care has also seen plenty of activity, with insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan still on the picket line after launching a strike in mid-September.

Health network Kaiser Permanente agreed to hefty wage hikes after some 75,000 of its 85,000 employees walked out for three days in early October and threatened another stoppage next month.

Workers at pharmacy chain Walgreens have had walkouts.

In Hollywood, actors have been on the pickets since July, while the Writers Guild of America ratified its contract earlier this month after a 148-day stoppage.

Stellantis, striking US auto union reach tentative deal

UAW members and workers at Mopar Parts Center Line, a Stellantis parts distribution center in Center Line, Michigan, hold signs after walking off their jobs on September 22, 2023 - 

Copyright AFP/File Matthew Hatcher

Nicholas ROLL
By AFP

 October 28, 2023

Stellantis and the striking United Auto Workers union have reached a preliminary deal similar to the one struck earlier this week with Ford, the union said Saturday — allowing members to go back to work at grounded factories.

The tentative agreement, reached after 44 days of strike action that simultaneously targeted Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers, includes a 25 percent raise in base wages by 2028, the union said in a statement.

Cost of living adjustments will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33 percent, to over $42 an hour.

Like the Ford deal, any preliminary agreement with European auto giant Stellantis would need to be ratified via a vote from UAW members.

But in the meantime, striking Stellantis workers, like those at Ford, “will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process,” the UAW said.

The wage increase in the tentative agreement is lower than the 40 percent sought by UAW President Shawn Fain when the union launched the strike on September 15, in the first ever simultaneous stoppage at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

However, it is far above the nine percent increase that Ford, for example, initially proposed in August.

President Joe Biden hailed the agreement.

“I applaud the UAW and Stellantis for coming together after hard fought, good faith negotiations to reach a historic agreement that will guarantee workers the pay, benefits, dignity and respect they deserve,” he said in a statement.

“Once again, we have achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible,” Fain said, adding that “we have begun to turn the tide in the war on the American working class.”

Some 5,000 jobs will be added by Stellantis over the course of the contract, Fain said, a turnaround from job cuts the automaker was pursuing before the negotiations.

After reaching the tentative agreement with Ford on Wednesday, the UAW had said it would encourage employees to return to their jobs at the plants it targeted with its strike, in order to put pressure on General Motors and Stellantis.

More than 45,000 workers were on strike prior to the Ford deal, as part of a strategy where the UAW has gradually ratcheted up the number of factories targeted by stoppages as it sought better terms.

GM now remains the only automaker without a tentative deal.

A strike was called at its factory in Arlington, Texas, earlier this week.

Mouse embryos grown in space for first time: Japan researchers

Tokyo (AFP) – Mouse embryos have been grown on the International Space Station and developed normally in the first study indicating it could be possible for humans to reproduce in space, a group of Japanese scientists said.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 - 

The mice embryos were thawed and grown on the International Space Station 

© HANDOUT / NASA/AFP/File

The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, professor of University of Yamanashi's Advanced Biotechnology Centre, and a team from the Japan Aerospace Space Agency (JAXA), sent frozen mouse embryos on board a rocket to the ISS in August 2021.

Astronauts thawed the early-stage embryos using a special device designed for this purpose and grew them on the station for four days.

"The embryos cultured under microgravity conditions developed" normally into blastocysts, cells that develop into the foetus and placenta, the scientists said.

The experiment "clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect," the researchers said in a study that was published online in the scientific journal iScience on Saturday.

They also said there were no significant changes in condition of the DNA and genes, after they analysed the blastocysts that were sent back to their laboratories on Earth.

This is "the first-ever study that shows mammals may be able to thrive in space," University of Yamanashi and national research institute Riken said in a joint statement on Saturday.

It is "the world's first experiment that cultured early-stage mammalian embryos under complete microgravity of ISS," the statement said.

"In the future, it will be necessary to transplant the blastocysts that were cultured in ISS's microgravity into mice to see if mice can give birth" to confirm that the blastocysts are normal, it added.

Such research could be important for future space exploration and colonisation missions.

Under its Artemis programme, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon in order to learn how to live there long-term to help prepare a trip to Mars, sometime towards the end of the 2030s.

© 2023 AFP

What is a COP?

 The crunch climate talks being held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12 will be the 28th such gathering of world leaders under UN auspices known as COPs.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 -

Countries will aim to thrash out a new agreement as accelerating climate change threatens the world 

AFP unpacks the workings of the high-level summit, where countries will aim to thrash out a new agreement as accelerating climate change threatens the world with costly and destructive consequences.

What is a COP?

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, referring to the 198 parties including the European Union that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, originally adopted in Brazil in 1992.

COPs have been held every year in different cities since 1995, with the exception of COP26 in Glasgow, which was delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They are numbered in chronological order, with the United Arab Emirates welcoming the world's movers and shakers at COP28 after taking over the presidency from COP27 hosts Egypt.

COPs also exist for other UN conventions and treaties on issues including desertification and biodiversity.

What are the outcomes?

The long, complex and occasionally acrimonious negotiations between world leaders are supposed to end with a final text, which is often hammered out well past the official deadline.

Numerous lobbyists, NGOs, international organisations and other observers gather on the sidelines of the talks.

The agreement must be reached by consensus, meaning different positions and interests have to be reconciled, all while aiming for progress in the fight against climate change.

Outcomes of little substance have emerged from some COPs, in stark contrast with the acceleration of climate change and its increasingly destructive consequences.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has dismissed COPs as "greenwashing machines", summing up the result of a recent summit as "bla, bla, bla".

In 2009, COP15 in Copenhagen was widely viewed as a failure as no global deal was reached, despite a last-minute text involving the world's two largest economies, the United States and China.

But other editions have a more favourable place in history, notably COP21 in 2015, which gave birth to the historic Paris Agreement that 195 parties have ratified.

The accord was the first to unite the international community behind the goal of keeping global temperature rises "well below" two degrees Celsius compared with industrial levels, and to 1.5C if possible.

In a first, COP26 in 2021 designated fossil fuels as the primary cause of global warming, but under pressure from China and India the final text only called for a "phasedown" of coal rather than a "phaseout".

What to expect this year?

COP28 is due to host a record 80,000 people, according to the Emirati presidency.

The choice of Sultan Al Jaber -- head of the UAE's national oil company ADNOC -- as COP president has sparked fury among environmental campaigners.

But Jaber and others see it as an opportunity for a business leader from the fossil fuel industry to discuss the energy transition, which will once again be a key topic of discussion.

The COP presidency has set concrete goals for 2030: tripling global renewable energy capacity as well as doubling energy efficiency and hydrogen production.

COP28 will also see a first "global stocktake" of the world's progress in achieving the Paris goals.

A technical report released in September concluded -- unsurprisingly -- that the world was well off course and that "much more is needed now on all fronts".

As always, money will be at the centre of bitter debate.

Rich countries have pledged financial support for developing nations to help them adapt to and mitigate the havoc wrought by climate change.

A historic "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries was agreed at COP27, but its governance, location and funding mechanisms remain up in the air.

© 2023 AFP

Parents of Liverpool winger Diaz kidnapped in Colombia

The mother of Liverpool's Colombian winger Luis Diaz was rescued from kidnappers on Saturday but a search remains on for his father, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 

The mother of Colombian footballer Luis Diaz, who plays for Liverpool of England, was rescued on October 28, 2023, after the authorities reported the kidnapping of his parents in the department of Guajira (north), said President Gustavo Petro. (FILES) Fans of England's Liverpool football star Colombian Luis Diaz look at a mural depicting him, in Barrancas, Guajira province, Colombia, on May 22, 2022. 

© DANIEL MUNOZ / AFP/File
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Petro posted on X, formerly known as twitter, that Diaz's mother was rescued in Barrancas in the northern part of the country.

"We continue in the search for the father," added Petro.

Colombia's Attorney General's Office said they had been working intensely on the case.

"From the moment the Attorney General's Office learned of the kidnapping of the parents of the Colombian player Luis Díaz, in the Barrancas sector of La Guajira, a specialised team of prosecutors, police and military personnel have been working to find "the location of these people, clarify the facts and find those responsible," the office said on X.

Local media reports said that Luis Manuel Diaz and Cilenis Marulanda were at a service station in the La Guajira area when armed men on motorbikes took them.

The director of the police, General William Salamanca, said he deployed intelligence agents and other police departments in the area to deal with the case.

The police are "already involved, right now, in carrying out checkpoints, identifying people on motorbikes, private public service vehicles (...) for the recovery of the two kidnapped people, the father and mother of the footballer Luis Díaz," Salamanca told Colombian media earlier on Saturday.

The governor of La Guajira, Diala Wilches, condemned the kidnapping and appealed for their return.

"To the kidnappers, we demand that they return them immediately, safe and sound," she said.

The 26-year-old Liverpool and Colombia winger has not commented on the matter.

Diaz has played 43 times for Colombia and joined Liverpool last year from Porto.

Liverpool are due to play Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Sunday.

© 2023 AFP

Bangladesh opposition chief held after anti-PM protests

Bangladesh's main opposition leader was detained for questioning on Sunday, as clashes raged for a second day between police and protesters demonstrating against the prime minister ahead of upcoming elections.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has led the BNP since its chairwoman and two-time former premier Khaleda Zia was arrested and jailed 

Police also made a series of raids on the homes of senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders, party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan said, adding that nearly 3,000 party activists and supporters had been detained in the past week.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman said BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had been "detained for interrogation".

Rahman told AFP that Alamgir would be questioned over Saturday's violence in which a police officer and a protester were killed, and at least 26 police ambulances were torched or damaged.

Alamgir, 75, the BNP's secretary-general, has led the party since BNP chairwoman and two-time former premier Khaleda Zia was arrested and jailed, and her son went into exile in Britain.

The resurgent opposition has been mounting protests for months, despite their ailing leader Zia being effectively under house arrest after a conviction on corruption charges.

Protesters in Bangladesh have been demonstrating against the prime minister ahead of upcoming elections due before the end of January 

© Munir UZ ZAMAN / AFP

Saturday's protests by BNP and the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, were among the biggest this year, and marked a new phase in their campaigning with a general election due before the end of January.

Rubber bullets, tear gas

More than 100,000 supporters of the two major opposition parties rallied on Saturday to demand Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down to allow a free and fair vote under a neutral government.

Protests descended into several hours of violent clashes in central Dhaka, and both the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami called for a nationwide strike on Sunday to protest the violence.

Security on Sunday was tight in the capital with thousands of members of security forces patrolling the streets.

But police in the northern district of Lalmonirhat said a youth leader in the ruling party was killed and several others injured during violent clashes between hundreds of opposition and ruling party supporters.

"He was rushed to a hospital where he died," local police chief Ershadul Alam told AFP.

Police accused protesters of setting fire to a bus in Dhaka in the early hours of Sunday morning, after a blaze in which one person was killed and another badly burned.

Violence between Bangladesh's police and opposition protesters has sparked international concern

 

Opposition activists and police clashed in several rural districts as well as the industrial city of Narayanganj, police said.

Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protesters after they burned tyres on a road and tried to vandalise vehicles, district police chief Golan Mostofa Russell told AFP.

One officer was injured, police said, while local media reported two BNP protesters were also injured.

Violence has sparked international concern, with the United States on Saturday calling for "calm and restraint on all sides".

The European Union on Sunday said it was "vital that a peaceful way forward for participatory and peaceful elections is found", it posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Hasina -- the daughter of the country's founding leader -- has been in power for 15 years and overseen rapid economic growth. Bangladesh has overtaken neighbouring India in GDP per capita, but its inflation has risen and Hasina's government is accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh, where Hasina's ruling Awami League dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.

Her security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.

© 2023 AFP

More than 100,000 protest to demand Bangladesh PM step down

By AFP
October 28, 2023

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters rally in Dhaka, demanding the prime minister step down to allow a free and fair vote under a neutral government 

- Copyright AFP Munir uz ZAMAN

Over 100,000 supporters of two major Bangladesh opposition parties rallied in the capital Dhaka on Saturday, police said, demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down to allow a free and fair vote under a neutral government.

Saturday’s rallies by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, were the biggest so far this year, AFP journalists on site said, and marked a new phase in their protests with a general election due within three months.

Hasina — daughter of the country’s founding leader — has been in power for 15 years and has overseen rapid economic growth with Bangladesh overtaking neighbouring India in GDP per capita, but inflation has risen and her government is accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

The resurgent opposition has been mounting protests to press their demands for months, despite the BNP’s ailing leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time premier and old foe of Hasina’s, being effectively under house arrest after a conviction on corruption charges.

Her supporters poured into Dhaka on Saturday, crammed into buses despite checkpoints on the road into the capital, and even rode on top of packed trains.

“Vote thief, vote thief, Sheikh Hasina vote thief,” chanted the crowd at the BNP demonstration in front of the party headquarters.

Student activist Sekandar Badsha, 24, from Chittagong, said: “We demand the immediate resignation of the Hasina government, release of our leader Khaleda Zia and establishing the people’s right to vote.”

At least 10,000 police had been deployed to prevent violence, officials said, but officers clashed with hundreds of protestors in the Kakrail neighbourhood in front of the city’s largest Catholic church, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

“Some police officers were injured,” deputy police commissioner Akterul Islam told AFP.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain said that at least 100,000 people had joined the BNP rally, while up to 25,000 were at the Jamaat protest near the city’s main commercial district.

That event had been banned by police and hundreds of officers in riot gear blocked off a key intersection, but about 3,000 protesters broke through the cordon, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw.

– ‘Final call’ –

Police arrested at least 200 BNP supporters near the party headquarters after they were accused of hurling Molotov cocktails, Faruk said, adding at least 600 had been detained over the previous week.

BNP spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan told AFP that there were more than one million people at its rally, which he described as its “final call” for Hasina to resign, and at least 2,900 of its activists and supporters had been held over the past week.

If Hasina does not step down voluntarily — widely seen as inconceivable — the party has threatened to call more aggressive protests such as strikes and blockades.

Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh, where Hasina’s ruling Awami League dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.

Her security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.

Myanmar ex-information minister arrested: junta

Bangkok (AFP) – Myanmar's former information minister has been arrested and charged with encouraging dissent against the military, the junta said Sunday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 -

Ye Htut (pictured in 2015) was information minister under the military government of Thein Sein, which ceded power to Aung San Suu Kyi following 2015's landmark polls 

© Soe Than WIN / AFP/File

In recent months the military, who have faced armed resistance since seizing power in a 2021 coup, have detained a number of trade and commerce officials as the civil conflict batters Myanmar's already struggling economy.

Ye Htut was information minister and presidential spokesperson under the military government of Thein Sein, which ceded power to Aung San Suu Kyi following 2015's landmark elections.

In a statement, the junta information team said the 64-year-old had been detained on Saturday evening in connection with "spreading wrong information on social media".

"U Ye Htut was arrested last night and charged under section 505 (a)," a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity and without giving further detail.

Section 505 outlaws any action deemed to undermine the military. The law carries a maximum jail term of three years.

His arrest comes a week after pro-junta Telegram channels accused him of exposing the address of a retired military officer on social media.

Thein Sein's administration permitted some economic and social liberalisation -- including granting Suu Kyi's opposition party access to mainstream politics -- but also oversaw waves of deadly religious violence.

Ye Htut earned the moniker "the Facebook Minister" at the time for his frequent posting on the social media network, which was among the country's most popular.

Following his retirement he remained active on the platform, sharing details about his travels.

He last posted on October 27 during a trip to Inle Lake, a popular spot for tourists.

© 2023 AFP

Ethnic rebels launch attacks across northern Myanmar


By AFP
October 27, 2023

This photo taken by the Kokang Information Network shows Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) Major General Peng Deqi (centre R) commanding operations against Myanmar's ruling military near Lashio township in Shan State - Copyright Kokang Information Network/AFP Handout

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar launched coordinated attacks on the military across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The military’s 2021 putsch sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a “military operation”, they said in a statement.

Pro-military Telegram channels said the rebels were attacking 12 towns or settlements across a swathe of Shan state around 100 kilometres (62 miles) across.

The three rebel groups — which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them — did not immediately provide details on casualties or whether they had taken territory.

A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The MNDAA said its fighters had closed the roads from the trade hub of Lashio to Chinshwehaw and Muse on the China border ahead of a “major offensive”.

Footage shared on its media channel showed fighters in what appeared to be an abandoned camp, with weapons and boxes of ammunition scattered across the ground. It did not say where the footage was taken.

Fighting around Lashio — home to the military’s northeast command — and near the towns of Muse, Chinshwehaw and Laukkai was ongoing, local media and residents said.

Laukkai is about five kilometres from the border with China.

“All shops are closed and no one is going out,” a resident of Hopang township, around 10 kilometres from Chinshwehaw, told AFP.

“We can hear the sounds of aircraft and gunfire constantly,” they said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

A Muse resident told AFP that locals were staying indoors as soldiers patrolled the streets and that the road from the town to the city of Mandalay — a major trade route — had been closed.

A rescue worker in Lashio who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP that rebels had begun shelling the military base near the town from 4:00 am (2130 GMT Thursday) and that the military had responded with artillery fire.

All flights to and from Lashio airport had been cancelled on Friday “because of the situation”, an airline ticketing agency told AFP.

China’s foreign affairs ministry said it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

– Northern clashes –

In 2017, months of fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic insurgents in the Kokang border region claimed dozens of lives and sent thousands fleeing from their homes — many to China.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have trained and equipped newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up since the 2021 coup and the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent.

Earlier this month nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic rebel group that controls the area, blamed the junta for the attack.

Last week the junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover outposts it had lost in subsequent fighting with the KIA, the military and rebels said.

A KIA spokesman told AFP he was not sure if its fighters had joined Friday’s attacks.

Russians remember Stalin's victims amid crackdown on dissent

THEY WERE BERIA'S VICTIMS ACTUALLY

Moscow (AFP) – Russians commemorated the victims of Stalinist terror on Sunday, more than 20 months into Moscow's Ukraine offensive that has been accompanied at home by a major crackdown on dissent.

AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 

Foreign envoys including US Ambassador Lynne Tracy lays flowers in memory of the victims of the vicitms of Stalin's terror outside FSB (former KGB) headquarters in Moscow 

© Alexander NEMENOV / AFP
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The Kremlin has doubled down on its version of history as troops fight in Ukraine, which often glosses over Stalinist crimes, with public commemoration of Soviet-era repression seen as unpatriotic.

Many Russians took part in the "Returning of the Names" event organised by Nobel Prize winning Memorial -- a rights and historical memory group shut down weeks before Moscow launched its 2022 military campaign.

Every year, the event sees people taking turns to read out the names of people executed during Stalin's Terror between 1936 and 1938.

In Moscow, it is traditionally held at the Solovetsky Stone memorial to victims, sited opposite the Lubyanka headquarters of the KGB, now occupied by its modern successor FSB.

Oleg Orlov, Memorial's co-chair recently fined for denouncing the Ukraine campaign, attended the ceremony

 © Alexander NEMENOV / AFP

AFP reporters said the square was encircled by metal barriers with a heavy police presence.

Oleg Orlov, Memorial's co-chair recently fined for denouncing the Ukraine campaign, attended the ceremony.

Several Western ambassadors, including the US envoy, laid flowers there.

Memorial staged a live feed of the reading of the names from Moscow and other Russian cities such as Volgograd and Siberia's Novosibirsk as well as from abroad.

© 2023 AFP

En.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria
Lavrentiy Beria - Wikipedia
Beria was the longest-serving and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after the war. Following ...


Britannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lavrenty-Beria
Lavrenty Beria | Biography, Facts, & Execution - Britann...
Oct 16, 2023 ... Lavrenty Beria, director of the Soviet secret police who played a major role in the purges of Joseph Stalin's opponents.


Historytoday.com
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/lavrenti-beria-executed
Lavrenti Beria Executed | History Today
Dec 12, 2003 ... Stalin's security chief Lavrenti Beria was executed on December 23rd, 1953.

History.co.uk
https://www.history.co.uk/article/historys-forgotten-people-lavrentiy-beria
HISTORY's Forgotten People: Lavrentiy Beria
HISTORY's Forgotten People: Lavrentiy Beria · His executioner's wife later told the media that, just before being shot dead, Beria had “implored him for mercy, ...

BERIA WITH STALINS DAUGHTER, SVETLANA STALIN AT TABLE

Ahf.nuclearmuseum.org
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/lavrentiy-p-beria
Lavrentiy P. Beria - Nuclear Museum - Atomic Heritage Founda...
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) was the administrative political director of the Soviet atomic bomb project and chief of the USSR's secret police.


Pbs.org
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bomb-russian-officials
Russian Politicians, Officials and Administrators - PBS
Beria was tried in secret and found guilty. A Soviet general executed him in his underground cell, and according to a witness Beria crawled on his knees begging ...


Pbs.org
https://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_bios_detail.htm
KGB Deep Background: Biographies - PBS
Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953) One of the most dreaded and odious figures of the Stalin era, he headed the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD ...


Theatlantic.com
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/grappling-with-historys-greatest-gangsters/283083
Grappling With History's Greatest Gangsters - The Atlant...
Jan 15, 2014 ... The author of this policy was Lavrentiy Beria, chief of the Soviet secret police. Beria was not simply a detached administrator of death, he ...

Quora.com
https://www.quora.com/Who-was-Lavrenti-Beria-and-why-was-he-executed
Who was Lavrenti Beria and why was he executed? - Quora
Lawrentiy Beria was Chief executioner. He was to Stalin what Himmler was to Hitler. There are unconfirmed rumours that he poisoned Stalin with rat poison.


Nsarchive2.gwu.edu
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/coldwar/beria.html
beria - The National Security Archive
The only thing he hadn't expected was that our forces on the borders were superior in numbers, aviation, tanks and ground forces were all greater in number than ...

George Orwell Library' shines a light in Russia

Ivanovo (Russia) (AFP) – The librarian scans the shelves and quickly picks out a few works -- Orwell, Sorokin, Dostoevsky -- the authors she thinks can best help cast some light in a dark time for Russia.


AFP
Issued on: 29/10/2023 

The simple library includes books about the Soviet prison system, as well as works of contemporary writers critical of the Kremlin 

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

The scene is in Ivanovo, an industrial city five hours' drive from Moscow, where the "George Orwell Library" was set up last year in an effort to counter growing propaganda and censorship.

The simple library housed in the ground floor of a run-down building has a computer, a few hundred books and a lingering smell of the perfume used by the librarian, Alexandra Karaseva.

"Books help to see what is human, even in an enemy, and reject any form of dehumanisation," the 67-year-old said as she handles the tomes.

The library was opened by Dmitry Silin, a local businessman and opponent of the conflict in Ukraine who has since fled Russia fearing he could be imprisoned for his outspoken views.

Karaseva showed off the collection of books about dystopias, the Soviet prison system, the works of contemporary writers critical of the Kremlin as well as some lighter novels to "lift spirits".

"The more you read about dystopias, the more freedom you have. They show the dangers, as well as ways of avoiding them and of resisting," Karaseva said.

One visitor says some authors' works help in her view to pierce the darkness of contemporary Russia 

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

The books are not banned and can therefore be loaned to readers just like a normal library.

Among them are works by authors now classified as "foreign agents" under Russian law which in bookshops have to be sold with their covers hidden.
'Forget fear'

The librarian, with her turtleneck and thick glasses, is a wellspring of knowledge. Only her pronunciation is uneven because of her damaged teeth.

With a blond fringe falling over her eyes, she talks about Orwell's masterpiece "1984" which describes an ultimately futile attempt at resistence in a highly effective dictatorship.

She talks about the revolutionary self-destruction in Dostoevsky's "Demons" and the explosive dystopias in Vladimir Sorokin's works, as well as the maverick works of Harper Lee and Erich Maria Remarque.

Karaseva is a retired historian of ancient Rome, specialising in "the transition from the Republic to the dictatorship".

Lawyer Anastasia Rudenko sees parallels today with Orwell's "1984"

 © Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

She does not only deal in high-brow and even shares her thinking on the blockbuster film "Barbie" which she said was "deeper than it seems".

The film was recently shown in the library meeting room.

Dmitry Shestopalov, 18, an activist for the opposition party Yabloko, attended the screening and regularly visits the library to watch films and meet other young people.

"You can develop yourself here despite everything that is happening in our country. You can forget fear, feel free, feel comfort, feel that you are not alone in the enormous system that is devouring us," he said.

Lawyer Anastasya Rudenko, 41, a co-founder of the library, said she sees in modern Russia "signs" of the same totalitarianism described in "1984".

The library's shelves include a South Korean edition of Orwell's "1984", with a portrait of Stalin on the cover 

© NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

Above all, she feels a sense of "fear that shackles".

She is also struck by the contemporary relevance of the slogan from the book "Ignorance Is Strength".

In Russia "people who try not to understand what is going on live very well," she said.
'What would you have done?'

In Ivanovo's central square, near a plaque for those killed by Tsarist Russia during an anti-war demonstration in 1915, Rudenko reflects on her own "personal tragedy" as an icy wind lashes her face.

Her brother and her husband are both Russian army officers serving in the "special military operation" -- the euphemism used by the Kremlin to classify Russia's offensive against Ukraine.

Librarian Alexandra Karaseva observes that "the more you read about dystopias, the more freedom you have." 

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

She cannot speak openly about the topic.

The slightest sensitive comment could mean a sanction or even a prison sentence. Being a lawyer or the wife of an officer would not protect her.

In June 2023, Rudenko was sentenced to pay a fine for "discrediting" the Russian army for some Telegram posts where she said she had watched a documentary by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Her husband came to the court hearing to support her.

A normally smiling, energetic woman with a Ukrainian father, she breaks down when she talks about the "great pain" of being powerless confronted by the conflict.

But she said she loves her husband "without a doubt even more" since he left to fight.

To anyone who might question the contradiction and ask why they are still together, she replies: "And you? What would you have done?"

© 2023 AFP

Media reporting on Israel-Hamas war face singular challenges


An Israeli officer inspects a burnt house on October 17, 2023 in

 Kibbutz Beeri near the border with Gaza. — © AFP

By AFP
October 28, 2023
Paul RICARD, Anne Pascale REBOUL

Global media outlets are facing near-unprecedented challenges in their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war as conflicting propaganda, social media pressure and charged public opinion require them to exercise extreme caution.

Lack of foreign media access to Gaza, with both the Israeli and Egyptian access points closed, is adding to reporting difficulties the likes of which journalists say they have rarely seen before.

“This war is one of the most complex and polarising stories we have ever had to cover,” Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News, said in an online post this week.

Palestinian reporters in Gaza provide global media outlets with images and information, but their work is hampered by the bombing of the territory, power cuts and petrol shortages.

Their union says 22 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the day militants belonging to the Islamist Hamas movement attacked Israel.

“In previous conflicts we were always able to send special envoys, but this time our teams in Gaza are cut off from the rest of the world,” said Phil Chetwynd, Global News Director at AFP.

Lack of access to Gaza forces most media to cover the conflict from a distance – Copyright AFP JOEL SAGET

AFP, whose permanent bureau in Gaza employs around 10 journalists, has had to move them out of Gaza City to the south of the territory where they are living in precarious conditions, with some sleeping in tents.

A total of 2,050 journalists have come to Israel to cover the war, according to the government.

The biggest contingent, 358, is from US media. British media are second with 281, followed by French outlets with 221.

Media in Ukraine, which is itself fighting a war at home, have sent two journalists to Israel.

– ‘Suffocating journalism’ –

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a nonprofit organisation defending press freedom, has accused Israel of “suffocating journalism in Gaza”.

For the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), this has forced reporters to rely heavily on “official” sources, without being able to verify their claims.

“Confusing haste with speed, many media have published false information and images that have not been contextualised, verified or presented as reliable,” the IFJ said.

One notable example was the claim that Hamas militants had beheaded babies, which got widely picked up in media, including in a live report on CNN, without having been confirmed.

“I needed to be more careful with my words and I am sorry,” CNN anchor Sara Sidner later posted on X after reporting the claim live on air.

Another example is the high-profile case of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.

On October 17, several media, including AFP, reported on a statement by the Hamas health ministry that 200 to 300 people had been killed in a strike on the hospital, for which it blamed Israel.

Israel later denied the claim, saying a “misfired rocket” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had caused the damage.

Several media have since leaned towards Israel’s version, based on intelligence reports and video analysis.

But extensive checks of footage, and interviews with analysts and weapons experts, do not allow ruling out either scenario, or determining the number of victims.

– ‘Lacked caution’ –

The New York Times and French paper Le Monde have since acknowledged that initial reporting fell short of their usual standards.

“The early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified,” The New York Times said Monday.

“We lacked caution,” Le Monde said a day later.

AFP’s Chetwynd said that “we should have been more careful in our wording, and given more context on what we did not know”.

“It is easy to say this with hindsight, but less obvious in a real-time news situation,” he added.

Adding to the pressure on news organisations is the growing role of social media, where any statement or image can go viral and spark angry accusations of bias in the media.

“We need to remind ourselves in every conflict that knowing with certainty takes time,” said Douglas Jehl, International Editor at The Washington Post.

“It’s particularly difficult in this case, given the passions on both sides, the often opposite viewpoints that each side brings to the conflict and scrutiny that everyone brings to our coverage,” he told the Recode Media podcast.

Global media have also been giving priority to scrutiny of which terms to use — or avoid — in their coverage of the war.

“Terrorism” and “terrorist” are often top of the list.

The BBC, sometimes called out for avoiding either term when describing Hamas, has said it will use “terrorist” only in quotes, but not in its own reporting.

AFP has adopted a similar policy.