Hundreds rally in Warsaw in support of Palestine, denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza

Protesters raise their voices against violence and call for swift resolution to crisis

Murat Temizer |30.10.2023 -

Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Poland

WARSAW

Hundreds of protesters gathered in the Polish capital Warsaw's Old Town Square on Sunday in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people and to strongly denounce Israel's attacks on Gaza

Amid the square’s historical cobblestone streets and centuries-old architecture, demonstrators from diverse backgrounds and affiliations came together to express their support for Palestine.

They raised their voices against the ongoing violence and called for a swift resolution to the crisis.

Throughout the protest, the atmosphere was charged with passionate chants, with banners and placards bearing slogans such as "Freedom for Palestine," "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," and "Stop the genocide in Gaza."

"There is torture and death in Palestine. A solution should be found as soon as possible," Rafal, a Polish citizen who took part in the protest, told Anadolu.

Malgorzata, another protester, said: "Stop the genocide. Take swift action. Enough is enough."

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Oct. 7, when the Palestinian group Hamas carried out a cross-border attack.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 8,005, including 3,342 children, 2,062 women and 460 elderly people, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed in the conflict.

Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced Saturday that Israeli forces were expanding their operations and moving to the "next phase of our war against Hamas," which includes ground operations.

Gaza's 2.3 million residents are meanwhile grappling with shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave.

Crowd storms Dagestan airport in Russia after arrival of Israel flight

About 20 people injured after hundreds search for Israeli passengers


Hundreds of protesters stormed the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region to protest against the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv. AP


The National

Oct 29, 2023

Russian authorities said the main airport in the Dagestan region is “provisionally closed” until November 6 after it was stormed by hundreds of people following reports that a flight from Israel had arrived.

Footage showed a large crowd of people inside the airport, with some holding Palestinian flags.

Other videos showed protesters storming one plane with at least one jumping on the wing looking for passengers, Russian media reported.

People were also heard searching shouting anti-Semitic phrases and examining the passengers' passports, AP reported.

The plane's identification number showed that the Russian carrier Red Wings had arrived from Tel Aviv at 7.17pm, according to flight-tracker FlightRadar24.

The incident occurred at an airport in Makhachkala, the capital city of the predominantly Muslim Caucasus.

Rosaviatsia, Russia's aviation authority, said the group had been removed from the airport by 10.20pm local time. Russia's Investigative Committee says it has ordered a criminal investigation into the incident.

About 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition, the Dagestan Ministry of Health said. Police and protesters were among those injured.

The Dagestani government urged its citizens to react to “the current situation in the world with understanding”.

“Federal authorities and international organisations are making every effort to bring about a ceasefire against Gaza civilians … we urge residents of the republic not to succumb to the provocations of destructive groups and not to create panic in society,” it wrote on Telegram.

READ MORE

Palestinian students evacuated from Israeli dormitories as crowds chant 'Death to Arabs'

Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov said the storming of the airport was a “gross violation of the law” and that those found responsible will face consequences.

“All Dagestanis empathise with the suffering of victims of the actions of unrighteous people and politicians pray for peace in Palestine,” he wrote on Telegram.

“But what happened at our airport is outrageous and should receive an appropriate assessment from law enforcement agencies. And this will definitely be done.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the country's ambassador is working with Russian authorities to protect the well-being of Jewish people and Israeli citizens.

“The State of Israel views with utmost gravity attempts to harm Israeli citizens and Jews anywhere,” Mr Netanyahu's office said on X.

Dagestani demonstrators storm Dagestan's airport, attack plane coming from Tel Aviv

Dagestani demonstrators storm Dagestan's airport, attack plane coming from Tel Aviv

[30/October/2023]

MAKHACHKALA October 30. 2023 (Saba) - Demonstrators have stormed an airport in Dagestan after a plane coming from Tel Aviv in protest against the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Agence France-Presse said on Sunday “The authorities in Makhachkala, the capital of the republic of Dagestan which is a Muslim majority, closed the airport to air traffic, after dozens of demonstrators stormed the airport following reports of the landing of a plane coming from Israel.”

The demonstrators who denounced the Zionist attacks on Gaza entered the passenger building, reached the airport runway, and crossed the barriers in hopes that searching departing cars in search of Zionist passengers, according to video clips broadcast by the Russian Izvestia agency and RT channel and circulated on social media.

The Russian Aviation Agency announced that “following the raid by unidentified persons into the navigation area at Makhachkala Airport, the decision was taken to temporarily close it to arrival and take-off flights,” confirming that security forces had arrived at the location.

In turn, Reuters news agency quoted the aviation agency as saying all planes heading to Makhachkala in Dagestan were diverted to other airports.

Several Arab and international cities and capitals have witnessed demonstrations and marches for 23 days denouncing the brutal Zionist attack on the Gaza Strip.
H.H

resource : Saba

Myanmar Ethnic Armies Launch Major Offensive in Shan State


The Three Brotherhood Alliance has launched coordinated attacks aimed at dislodging the junta and its allies from strategically important regions of Shan State bordering China.

By Sebastian Strangio
October 30, 2023

Credit: Depositphotos

LONG READ

On Friday morning, an alliance of ethnic rebel groups launched a coordinated offensive against the military junta and its allies in northeastern Myanmar, potentially opening a major new front in the country’s civil war.

In a joint statement, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – which includes the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) – stated they had begun “Operation 1027,” aimed at dislodging pro-regime forces across the northern part of Shan State.

Pro-military Telegram channels stated Friday that Alliance forces were attacking 12 towns and settlements across a front of around 100 kilometers, the AFP news agency reported.

In its statement (an unofficial translation of which is available here), the Alliance said that the operation was “driven by our collective desire to safeguard the lives of civilians, assert our right of self-defense, maintain control of our territory, and respond resolutely to ongoing artillery attacks and airstrikes” from the Myanmar military.

“Furthermore,” it stated, “we are dedicated to eradicating the oppressive military dictatorship, a shared aspiration of the entire Myanmar populace.”

The specific targets of the operation are pro-junta militias and the junta-aligned Border Guard Force (BGF) that runs the Kokang Special Administrative Zone (SAZ), which has become a hub of criminal activity. The groups said that they intended to crackdown on the cyber scam operations that are currently flourishing in the Kokang SAZ, an issue that “has plagued Myanmar, particularly along the China-Myanmar border.”

According to Frontier Myanmar, the operation seems to have been spearheaded by the MNDAA, which launched a series of predawn raids on regime positions on Friday morning. Battles were reported in the townships of Kyaukme, Kutkai, Lashio, Laukkaing, Muse, and Namhkan in northern Shan State.

The group has since claimed that it has seized a number of “important strategic positions,” including military outposts on the outskirts of Lashio, a major town on the highway between Mandalay and the Chinese border.

The MNDAA says that it has seized control of the Myanmar-China border crossing at Chinshwehaw in Laukkaing township, while fighting also was ongoing at Mong Ko in Muse township, another town on the Chinese border. There are also reports that resistance forces have seized an important tollgate along the main Mandalay-Muse highway – the country’s main artery of trade with China. In response, the junta military resorted to air strikes and heavy artillery attacks in a bid to beat back the offensive.

Two days after the commencement of Operation 1027, an observer noted that food prices are skyrocketing in the Kokang SAZ, prompting the well-heeled to seek sanctuary across the Chinese border.

Operation 1027 could be the harbinger of an upswing of conflict across the country. The Ministry of Defense of the National Unity Government (NUG), which is spearheading the national anti-junta resistance, said in a statement that it welcomed the offensive and that it would “join forces with the Brotherhood Alliance” to defeat the military regime.

“The moment has arrived for all revolutionary organizations, the forces of the Spring Revolution, and the people to fully engage in the elimination of the military dictatorship and wholeheartedly commit to the establishment of a Federal Democratic Union,” it stated. According to The Irrawaddy, the Alliance offensive has been accompanied by smaller resistance attacks in other parts of the country. The Bamar People’s Liberation Army, which was established after the coup, has also taken part in the operation.

While the Three Brotherhood Alliance is not formally allied with the NUG, it has been broadly supportive of its revolutionary goal of toppling the military dictatorship and extirpating the armed forces from the country’s political and economic life.

The Kokang BGF and its affiliated crime syndicates have responded to the offensive by accusing the MNDAA of destabilizing the China-Myanmar border region, and calling on the people of the Kokang SAZ to come together and defeat the MNDAA. It claimed that the MNDAA would soon enter the “dustbin of history.”

While the battle in northern Shan State has significant implications for the struggle against the military junta, it dates back nearly 15 years. Kokang, a small territory in northern Shan State with a large ethnic Chinese population, was under the MNDAA’s control until 2009, when its leader, the late Peng Jiasheng, refused to convert his forces into a Border Guard Force (BGF) under Naypyidaw’s control. The Myanmar military responded by launching attacks on the MNDAA and drove Peng into exile in China.

As detailed in a 2021 report from the United States Institute of Peace, the Myanmar military subsequently cut a deal with the MNDAA’s former deputy commander, Bai Suocheng, to set up a Kokang BGF under the military’s control. The territory was renamed the Kokang SAZ, and has since become a hub of criminality that has helped fund the BGF and strengthen its control over the region.

In 2015, Peng reassembled the MNDAA and attempted to retake Kokang, along with the AA and TNLAA. (The three groups would announce their Three Brotherhood Alliance the following year.) While the Tatmadaw held onto the region, the MNDAA has been fighting the Myanmar armed forces intermittently ever since; according to a report by Frontier Myanmar, Peng’s forces have “remained a constant threat to stability, frequently attacking the casinos and homes of senior Kokang officials, particularly those linked to the faction that ousted Peng in 2009.” This offensive seems like an attempt finally to finish the job that the MNDAA began in 2015.

Things have only intensified since the 2021 coup, which has inflamed opposition to the military regime across most of the country, even in ethnic Bamar majority areas of central Myanmar that had previously been relatively peaceful.

During this period, the Kokang SAZ has emerged as one of the country’s major concentrations of cyber scam operations, part of a regional archipelago of digital fraud that has led to the trafficking of thousands of people, and which the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime believes has generated billions annually.

While most of Myanmar’s scam compounds have been identified in BGF-controlled areas of Karen State and in areas of Shan State under the control of the United Wa State Army, the UNODC claims that “other scam compounds have been identified in Laukkaing Township, Kokang.”

Given the degradation that these operations have wrought, and their importance as a source of funds for the Kokang BGF, an important component of the military’s rickety regime of control in Shan State, it is no surprise that they have been a target. The loss of these areas and the closure would potentially deal a significant blow to the junta in northern Shan State, as would the severing of the major arteries of trade with China.

While the situation is fluid, and the ultimate outcome of Operation 1027 is uncertain, the Alliance’s offensive shapes as one of the most significant to have taken place since the military coup of February 2021. Whether they can hold these areas in the face of the junta’s use of heavy artillery and air strikes remains unclear.

The one thing that is certain is that the fighting will have a significant humanitarian impact. The MNDAA offensives in 2015 drove tens of thousands of refugees into China, as did the military’s attacks in 2009. As one observer stated yesterday, “Large scale displacements in Northern Shan are likely imminent.”

STAFF AUTHOR
Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat. 

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Myanmar Has Had Anti-Junta Uprisings Before. The Spring Revolution Is Different.

The current resistance is led by tech-savvy middle-class youth who have tasted democracy and will not rest till it is restored.

By Rajeev Bhattacharyya
October 27, 2023


A protest march at Kalay in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region a week after the military coup on February 1, 2021

Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta for most of the years since it emerged independent from British colonial rule in 1948. The country’s journey as a parliamentary democracy ended in 1962 when General Ne Win toppled the government and held power for the next 26 years. He stepped down after the protests in 1988 but the situation hardly changed in the country. Myanmar remained under military rule and suffered misgovernance and widespread poverty.

A process of democratization was initiated in 2011. President U Thein Sein put in place a civilian-military administration model that was followed by the release of political prisoners, Aung San Suu Kyi’s return to politics after the by-election in 2012, and finally, the multi-party general elections three years later. The economy was opened, freedom of the press promoted, access to the internet allowed, and ceasefire agreements firmed up with ethnic insurgent outfits.

Then on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup and ousted the elected government. Hopes generated by a few years of quasi-democratic rule were dashed. Anti-coup protests erupted demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters and the restoration of parliament. The trajectory of the movement was soon transformed, with the protesters demanding the abolition of the 2008 constitution, the establishment of a federal democratic polity, and a new military under civilian control.

Functionaries of resistance groups and the civil disobedience movement (CDM) whom I spoke to during my travels in Chin State and Sagaing Region between January and March this year said that the current Spring Revolution in Myanmar is quite different from the anti-junta uprisings of 1988 and 2007, which were led largely by students and monks respectively.

In an interview on February 6 at Camp Victoria, the military headquarters of the Chin National Front (CNF), Vice Chairman Dr. Sui Khar identified two fundamental aspects that were unique to the Spring Revolution in Myanmar. “Earlier, only the ethnic minorities had been engaged in conflict with the junta. Now the mainland [majority Bamar-inhabited territories] has also taken up arms against the regime, which is evident from the emergence of so many resistance groups,” said Sui Khar.

The CNF vice chairman pointed out that the primary goal of the Spring Revolution was toppling the military regime. “The EAOs [ethnic armed organizations] had been fighting to defend their respective territories over the past many decades. The target is the capital [Naypyidaw] now, not defending territories. The fighting will stop only after the military-appointed State Administration Council is abolished,” he said.

Incidentally, some Bamar-inhabited regions (such as Sagaing Region) have been among the worst affected zones in Myanmar after the coup in 2021. This is similar to the situation in Kachin, Chin, and Karen states.

In addition to joining the resistance groups as combatants, a section of Bamar expatriates is also actively engaged in raising funds abroad for the revolution in Myanmar. Resistance leaders said that a large number of teachers and doctors who joined the CDM and are now teaching in schools and healthcare facilities established by the opposition National Unity Government are Bamar. In the Indian border state of Manipur, Spring Schools have been set up by teachers from Tamu for the children of refugees who fled their homes after their villages were raided by the military.

“The Taste of Democracy Is a Game-changer”

The quasi-civilian governments in Myanmar between 2011-21 had a decisive impact on the mindset of the people. When the country embarked upon the path of democracy and reforms in 2011, there was exposure to the outside world. It enabled people to compare their own situation with that in other countries and understand how policies adopted by successive military regimes had been detrimental to Myanmar.

“This period brought a vast change in the outlook of the people. They were convinced that the military should not rule the country again,” said Salai Mang Hre Lian, program manager of Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO). Digital technology has played a role too. “More information has created a new consciousness, which in turn has triggered new aspirations,” he said, adding that “the taste of democracy is a game-changer.”

Research scholars from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore have highlighted how the conditions during the democratic interlude produced civil society activists who organized agitations on issues of social justice. They cited examples of many protests in the country during the period, including those against copper mining at Letpadaung and the strikes in the garment sector. They explained how these protests, coupled with the efforts by NGOs and community-based organizations to address poverty and related issues, represented “a broad base of mostly invisible reform that was quietly restructuring politics at the grassroots.”

Simply put, after giving Myanmar’s people a taste of freedom, however limited, the military is now finding it impossible to put the genie back in the bottle and return to its previous style of direct rule.

Gen Z in Aggressive Action



Young fighters of the Chin National Army at Camp Victoria in Myanmar’s Chin State. Photo by Rajeev Bhattacharyya.

Among the many consequences of the coup has been the lead role of the tech-savvy Gen Z in the resistance movement. Most of the people active in resistance groups and the CDM I interacted with were 20 to 35 years old. Only two leaders whom I interviewed – Dr. Sui Khar and founding member of the Kalay People’s Defense Force (PDF) Pu Vela – were in their 60s.

Research conducted by different institutes revealed that Gen Z comprises around one-quarter of Myanmar’s population. They attained adulthood in the 10 years after 2011, as the country underwent political liberalization. An estimated 4.8 million members of Gen Z voted for the first time in the November 2020 election. In their eyes, the military regime is synonymous with poverty and repression. And they are determined not to return to the gloomy past.

Unlike the previous generations, Gen Z has grown up with the internet, providing them with unhindered access to diverse sources of information. Incidentally, internet penetration had been rapid in Myanmar, with the number of users increasing by 3.5 million between 2019-21, bringing the total to 23.65 million users at the time of the coup.

“The internet and social media have contributed to a nationwide movement. It has helped in forging linkages, mobilization, and discussion of the goals among a large audience. The impact was certainly multiplied,” said a resistance fighter in the Indian border town of Moreh in Manipur, who did not wish to be named.

The internet has had a particularly significant impact on the local weapons manufacturing units in Sagaing Region. Two technicians engaged in manufacturing weapons at Kalay admitted that they acquired the know-how online.

Additionally, it was through online endeavors that the expatriate community was able to raise funds from across several countries in the world and devise a network for remittances to the rebel groups. Such transnational efforts were not discernible in previous uprisings, especially in 1988 when rebels were reportedly dependent upon the supply of weapons and funds from foreign countries.

Middle Class-led Revolution

Almost all the leadership and commanders of the rebel groups I met in Myanmar hailed from middle- or lower-middle-class backgrounds. An apt illustration is the commander of Chin Rifles, who is known by his nom de guerre Black Cat. He attended school in New Delhi and was employed in a firm in India before he decided to return to Kalay to join the resistance movement. Senior functionaries of other organizations such as the Mountain Eagle Defense Force, Chin National Defense Force, Chinland Defense Force Thantlang, and the PDFs active in the border district of Tamu are also from a similar social background.

Sir John, a leader of the Pa Ka Pha in Kalay, claimed that “leaders and functionaries of the resistance groups [in Kalay] are mostly from the middle class. A large number of them were semi-employed when the movement started, without any permanent occupation.”

Resistance fighters have stressed other unique aspects of the social profile of functionaries engaged in the conflict. Many among them are of the firm opinion that the “educated classes” have abstained from participating in the resistance. “But there are also exceptions,” said Victor, who is associated with a resistance battalion in Tamu. “There are participants in Mandalay and Yangon, who are highly educated and they belong to the upper middle classes. Many have also relocated to the Karen region.”

Engagement of people from a strictly rural background in the armed groups appears to be more common in Chin State than in Sagaing Region, where more PDFs have emerged. A middle-rung officer of the Chin National Army (CNA) claimed that functionaries in his organization belonged to all income groups, since it was “a revolution of the people against the military regime.” Almost all the senior functionaries I met in Chin State, including a few who lived abroad, were from the middle class.

NUG, NCGUB, and New Challenges

The uprising and the crackdown in 1988 triggered the formation of the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB) and the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) two years later by members of the newly elected legislature, who had fled to Thailand. Subsequently, another front called the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) was formed by members of the NCGUB and the ethnic armed groups.

However, as eminent journalist and author Bertil Lintner said, the NCGUB never became more than an “acronym.” The DAB fizzled out after some of its members firmed up ceasefire agreements with the military.


A school established by the Pa Ka Pha (Local Defense Force) at Kalay in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region. Photo by Rajeev Bhattacharyya

The NUG, which was formed two months after the coup in 2021, is much more than either the DAB or NCGUB in terms of its roadmap, reach, efforts to forge a united front against the military, and the success achieved so far. The Federal Democracy Charter is designed to replace the 2008 constitution and forbids gender discrimination, with several provisions for gender equality. Twenty percent of the NUG Cabinet comprises women while representatives from ethnic minorities make up more than 50 percent of its members.

On May 5, within a few weeks of the NUG’s emergence, the PDFs were formed, which was followed by the declaration of the “people’s defensive war” against the junta on September 7, 2021.

Not surprisingly, the challenges faced by the NUG have also been markedly different from those encountered by the DAB or NCGUB.

The NUG is engaging in serious efforts in Sagaing Region and Chin State to unite the older and experienced EAOs and the newly formed PDFs and the Chinland Defense Force (CDF). While a great deal of success has been achieved in Chin State under the leadership of CNF, much remains to be done in Sagaing Region, where many groups have reportedly prefer to function independently. If some resistance fighters in Tamu are to be believed, then the situation is not very different in some other regions such as Magwe and Bago, where the outfits lack coordination and unity.

The NUG’s lack of control over all the groups means that the guidelines that it promulgates are not strictly followed across the country. Although the groups are barred from recruiting children and engaging them as combatants, I saw children in combat and non-combat roles in the camps of some outfits in Chin State and Sagaing Region.

Instances of killings on mere suspicion have surfaced intermittently since the war began more than two years ago. Last year in August, seven residents at Chaung-U in Sagaing Region were arrested by the head of Ngar Shan village people’s security team on suspicion of being dalans (junta informants). They were allegedly killed by the group without being interrogated.

The NUG has found it challenging to provide weapons to the PDFs and smaller squads combatting the military regime. A majority of the resistance leaders interviewed in Kalay and Tamu voiced serious concerns over the lack of funds and weapons. Political analyst Ye Myo Hein said the NUG and EAOs have managed to procure only 20-25 percent of all the weapons needed by anti-junta groups. Homemade rifles comprise 30-40 percent of PDF weaponry. The NUG has admitted that the supply of weapons to the rebel groups is a “weakness” even though 95 percent of its budget is spent on arming the PDFs.

Resistance functionaries are critical of the “huge gap” between the NUG leadership and the ground workers of the Spring Revolution. In particular, they are troubled over the NUG’s conduct of the war.

“This is not a complaint but a suggestion to the NUG that people at the higher level, who have been tasked with coordinating with PDFs and EAOs should be experienced people who are aware of the ground realities,” said Demo Htoo, former police sergeant at Tamu and head of a resistance squad.

The military never expected the Spring Revolution to endure for so long. Neither did the military expect the resistance to spread so far and wide that it is now nearing its doorstep in Naypyidaw.

The opposition has survived and it appears to have developed unique characteristics in different regions as evidenced by the dissimilar situations in Chin State and Sagaing Region. With the movement exhibiting so many novel features, the consequences are also bound to be different from the previous rebellions in Myanmar.

Many resistance leaders believe that the Spring Revolution will also be the last in the country.


CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Rajeev Bhattacharyya is a senior journalist in Assam in India’s northeast. VIEW PROFILETAGS

Major influx of Chinese migrants cross US-Mexico border

Associated Press

(30 Oct 2023) Large numbers of Chinese migrants are making the perilous journey to the United States through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle to the California desert, filling a makeshift encampment as they wait to make their asylum claims. 

(AP Video: Eugene Garcia) 

Reuters: War in Ukraine boosting US defense industry

Nate Ostiller
Sat, October 28, 2023 

The U.S. defense industry has seen increased profits as Washington seeks new contracts to refill depleted domestic stockpiles and European countries, wary of Russia, have placed new weapons orders, a Reuters report on Oct. 27 detailed.

Some of the biggest U.S. defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, reported a surge in revenue as governments around the world, including the U.S, increased their demand for weapons and ammunition.

The U.S. has sent Ukraine a significant amount of military equipment from its stockpile, and now that must be replaced with new orders.

This need to backfill the U.S.'s stocks has buoyed the domestic defense industry, which has also supplied Ukraine directly.

The trend is not limited to the U.S.- European defense contractors have also seen increased demand and higher revenue as a result.

Characterizing the U.S.'s aid for Ukraine as a boost for the American economy has been considered as a potential way to help revive the flagging support among the population of the U.S., especially in the Republican party.

Many of the factors used by U.S. defense contractors are located in typically Republican-leaning states, and as demand increases, so too does the need for more workers.

An opinion article released by the German Marshall Fund on Sept. 25 argued that the U.S.'s sustained military aid to Ukraine has been, in effect, "reinvested" at home.

Lockheed Martin, which makes the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), announced in September that it was planning to increase the workforce of its plant in Camden, Arkansas, by 20%.

General Dynamics, which also makes military equipment used by Ukraine, will open a new factory in Mesquite, Texas, that will employ more than 125 people and boost the local economy.

Ukraine has also seen a significant increase in its own domestic defense industry. More than 200 Ukrainian companies have begun developing drones, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Oct. 7.

Ukraine may soon be able to produce tens of thousands of drones per month, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin said on Oct. 25.

Read also: Deadly drone arms race intensifies as Ukraine, Russia embrace the future of war

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Bring your own: What’s behind the chronic lack of toilet paper in Italian schools?

By Giulia Carbonaro

Published on 30/10/2023 - 

From toilet paper to soap, Italian schools often fail to provide basic supplies to their students. Instead, parents are often for significant contributions to help with funding.

In many schools across Italy, students heading to the toilets know there’s one thing they should not forget to bring: their own toilet paper, because they likely won't find any when they get to the cubicles.

On TikTok, Italian high schoolers joke about the widespread lack of toilet paper in many schools, celebrating the appearance of a solitary roll as a “once in a blue moon” event.

Other pupils speak of having to ask the janitor for toilet paper every time they head to the toilets and being allocated just a few sheets, instead of the entire roll.

In a video on the app, two high school students are asked about what’s wrong with the country’s school system. “The infrastructure is old and falling apart, there’s often no soap in the toilets, there’s no toilet paper,” one girl says. “That’s always the case,” the high schooler who’s interviewing her replies.

Another Italian TikToker shares with his peers the rights of students schools often fail to respect, including having the right to find soap and toilet paper in the toilets and having heating in the classrooms in winter. Radiators are often switched off or broken in Italian schools, leading to the occasional student strike during winter.

“Are there really people with toilet paper and soap in the toilets? I didn’t even have it in primary school,” one user said. “In my school soap is a legend,” another responds.

There was a brief moment, in 2016, when this decades-long problem was revealed to the rest of the world as outraged British newspapers wrote that an Italian primary school had asked children to bring their own toilet roll due to a lack of funding.

In Italy, this revelation wasn’t headline news at all, but a problem that has affected generations of students.

In 2017, Cittadinanzattiva - a nonprofit promoting citizens’ rights in Italy - reported that 47% of schools across the country lacked toilet paper, and 64% lacked soap.

The problem has not gone away since. Earlier this year, 277 parents in the city of Ferrara signed a petition asking the local school management to provide toilet paper in the city’s primary schools.

Why are Italy’s schools lacking bare essentials?

“Italy doesn’t invest much in education, in fact, it spends much less on it than other European countries,” Adriana Bizzarri of Cittadinanzattiva told Euronews.

“This year the country’s spending on the public education sector was €7,000 per student in kindergarten and primary school and up to €9,000 per student in high school. In other European countries the average expense is €10,000 per student,” she added.

The country is now expected to spend part of the huge €191.5 billion EU COVID recovery fund on the education sector. 

“But we’ll only see these results in 2026,” said Bizzarri, “and part of this money is going to be spent fixing maintenance work on old infrastructure.”

Not all schools are the same

While the Italian education sector is generally underfunded, there are schools that are not struggling as much as others, and can easily provide the bare essentials to their students.

That’s because the Italian school system promotes the autonomy of each institute and its management, with the state granting funds according to how many students, professors, and staff members each school has.

While this autonomy can be good, Bizzarri said, it also allows for situations where struggling schools have to resort to asking parents for help to fund the school.

At the beginning of the school year, in September or October, schools can ask for a voluntary contribution from parents, a one-time payment whose sum can vary from school to school and is not regulated at a state level.

This money should help schools offer better services to their students. While it’s not mandatory, there’s often a lot of social pressure on parents to help out.

“There’s not an official price list,” Bizzarri said. “There are primary schools who ask for €30, while middle schools can ask between €50 and €50. In high school this voluntary contribution can be between €100 and €180,” she continued.

“These contributions can be significant, especially considering that in Italy school is free for students up to 16 years old.” 

But the result of this “voluntary contribution” system is a deepening divide between wealthier and poorer schools, with the first benefitting from the more generous contributions of higher-income parents.

While schools don’t ask parents for money to buy toilet paper, in primary school they ask for funds to buy textbooks, pencils, drawing books, and so on.”

A primary school teacher in Sardinia told Euronews that teachers often spend their own money to buy supplies for their students. Italian school teachers are among the lowest paid in the EU. 

A glimmer of hope

Adriana Bizzarri of Cittadinanzattiva said that the situation has appeared to improve after the COVID pandemic, with schools across the country putting more focus on hygiene - cleaning more, and even regularly buying toilet paper.

“For years our organisation has fought for schools to have soap and toilet paper,” she said. “And what we’ve found after the pandemic is that schools are paying more attention and are no longer asking families to buy toilet paper.” 

“Now we wait and see how long this will last."

COP28 chief, groups, urge tripling renewable capacity by 2030

Renewable energy capacity needs “to reach more than 11,000 GW” by 2030, according to a joint report. 

ABU DHABI - The presidency of next month’s COP28 climate summit and two renewable energy organisations on Monday urged governments to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of efforts to stop global warming exceeding 1.5 deg C.

Countries hope to strike a deal on the increase in capacity at the latest round of global climate negotiations set to get under way in Dubai in late November, which will focus on the gaps in the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement that established the 1.5 deg C ceiling.

Renewable energy capacity needs “to reach more than 11,000 GW” by 2030, the United Arab Emirates’ COP28 presidency, the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and the Global Renewables Alliance said in a joint report.


Most major economies are already on board with that goal. Group of 20 nations, among them China, the United States and India, agreed in September to pursue efforts to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Without rapid action to cut CO2 emissions, scientists say Earth will cross the 1.5 deg C threshold in the coming decade, unleashing far more severe climate change effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems.

However, striking a deal among the nearly 200 countries that attend COP28 meetings will not be easy. European nations and climate-vulnerable states argue that it is not enough to agree to scale up clean energy, if countries do not also agree to quit the polluting energy that is causing climate change.

They say a renewable energy deal at COP28 must be paired with a commitment to phase out CO2-emitting fossil fuels - a pledge that has faced resistance from Saudi Arabia, Russia and other fossil fuel-reliant economies.

“You cannot just have the renewables goal and then call the COP a success,” European Union climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra told an event in Brussels on Friday.

Guiding the COP28 talks will be the UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber, a choice that has drawn criticism from some US and EU lawmakers as well as campaigners as he is the boss of state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and the UAE’s climate envoy.

The report also called for doubling energy efficiency, urging targets with specific time frames, strong regulatory frameworks, financial incentives and awareness campaigns. .

 REUTERS

UK

WORKERS CAPITAL
County pension fund invests tens of millions of pounds in fossil fuel companies


Oxford Mail
Fri, 27 October 2023 

Pension plan pic (Image: RADAR)

Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund has invested tens of millions of pounds in fossil fuel companies, a new investigation has found.

Research from environmental campaign groups has revealed billions are being invested in the oil and gas industries by local government pension funds across the UK.

These are normally administered by a local authority, but other public bodies can also sign up to them.

The investigation, by Friends of the Earth and Platform London, shows Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund had around £88.4 million invested in fossil fuel companies in the 2021-22 financial year.

The true figure may be higher, as the researchers were only able to screen 62% of investments by the pension scheme.

In total, the pension fund is worth £3.3 billion.

Jamie Peters, climate coordinator at Friends of the Earth, said: "From insulating heat-leaking homes to facilitating mass public transport, councils are key to effective climate action, but this is undermined if local authority pension funds continue to fund fossil fuels.

"It’s time to ditch financially risky holdings in gas, coal and oil, and invest in accelerating the transformation to a carbon-free future."

The investigation covered 75 per cent of assets managed by the Local Government Pension Scheme in the 2021-22 financial year.

Across the UK, it found at least £12.2 billion invested in fossil fuels – £10.4 billion in England, £1.4 billion in Scotland, £227 million in Wales and £28 million in Northern Ireland.

Rob Noyes, divestment campaigner and researcher at Platform London, said: "Investments in dirty fossil fuels turn public sector savings into fossil fuel playthings, pumping billions of pounds through the pensions pipeline into climate-wrecking fossil fuels."

Jo Donnelly, board secretary to the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board, said: "Investment decisions relating to LGPS funds are made at a local level by a pensions committee made up of elected councillors, they consider their fiduciary duty to members and taxpayers when making decisions, along with other relevant considerations.

"All investment decisions are a matter for individual funds to reflect on, and balancing considerations around risk to investment portfolios caused by climate-related factors, as well as the other elements of ESG, are part of being responsible investors and asset owners.

"Many funds have set net-zero targets or goals and this is something that funds should review at regular intervals, allowing them to prepare for and navigate the transition in as smooth a fashion as possible."

"Naturally funds will have different approaches to holding fossil fuel-related investments, and they may wish to consider looking to their pools to assist them to assess and achieve their net-zero targets," she added.

Some striking autoworkers carried family legacies, Black middle-class future along with picket signs

Associated Press

(30 Oct 2023) 

 

Some UAW members carried more than a picket sign during the strikes against Detroit’s carmakers. They also carried a legacy of work that afforded them and their families a place in the Black middle class 

(AP video: Mike Householder)

Canadian workers reach deal to end strike that shut down Great Lakes shipping artery

October 30, 2023

By 

The Associated Press

Striking St. Lawrence Seaway workers picket outside the St. Lambert Lock in St. Lambert, Quebec, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.

Graham Hughes/AP

MINNEAPOLIS — A deal was reached Sunday to end a week-long strike that had shut down a major shipping artery in the Great Lakes, halting the flow of grain and other goods from the U.S. and Canada.

Around 360 workers in Ontario and Quebec with Unifor, Canada's largest private-sector union, walked out Oct. 22 in a dispute over wages with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.

Seaway Management said ships will start moving again when employees return to work at 7 a.m. Monday.

"We have in hand an agreement that's fair for workers and secures a strong and stable future for the Seaway," CEO Terence Bowles said in a statement Sunday.

Unifor said a vote to ratify the deal will be scheduled in the coming days.

"Details of the tentative agreement will first be shared with members and will be made public once an agreement is ratified," said a union statement.

The strike shut down 13 locks on the seaway between Lake Erie and Montreal, bottling up ships in the Great Lakes and preventing more ships from coming in.

The St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes are part of a system of locks, canals, rivers and lakes that stretches more than 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from the Atlantic Ocean to the western tip of Lake Superior in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It carried over $12 billion (nearly $17 billion Canadian) worth of cargo last year. Ships that travel it include oceangoing "salties" and "lakers" that stick to the lakes.

It's the first time that a strike has shut down the vital shipping artery since 1968.

The Chamber of Marine Commerce estimated that the strike, which took place during one of the busiest times of the year for the seaway, caused the loss of up to $100 million per day in economic activity across Canada and the U.S.

"We are pleased that this interruption in vital Seaway traffic has come to an end, and we can focus once more on meeting the needs of consumers around the world," chamber president Bruce Burrows said in a statement Sunday.