WW3.0

Macron's musings about ground troops send Ukraine's allies running for cover

The French president may have been trying to signal resolve — If so, he failed

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Feb 28, 2024 

French President Emmanuel Macron's comments about sending ground troops into Ukraine triggered low-level panic among NATO allies. What was he thinking? (Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images)

If it were any other time — and if the stakes weren't so high — the swift international slapdown that followed French President Emmanuel Macron's recent comments on Ukraine might have been funny.

On Monday, Macron refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine. The words were barely out of his mouth before startled allies and leaders around the globe started to wind them back, pour cold water on them and even refute them outright.

The speed with which nations lined up to have a crack at Macron was jaw-dropping. It was left to France's defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to reframe what his boss had said by referring to discussions among allies about sending soldiers to carry out demining and military training in Ukraine — well away from the front lines.

"It's not sending troops to wage war against Russia," Lecornu said.

As if that would please Moscow any better.

The idea of dispatching western troops to Ukraine in any capacity has been unthinkable since the onset of major hostilities two years ago. NATO has made it quite clear it means to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Macron's comments were interesting in part because he wasn't talking about an alliance-wide initiative (which would require consensus among all 31 members) but rather an individual bilateral initiative of the sort that's used to help train and arm Ukraine's military.

Even so, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and even the United States swiftly disavowed his idea.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau watches as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes a salute during a ceremony at Hostomel Airport in Kyiv on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Canada's response was a little muddled by comparison. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland avoided directly refuting Macron's suggestion on Tuesday. It was left to a spokesperson for Defence Minister Bill Blair to articulate the country's position.

"We will continue to provide Ukraine with comprehensive military assistance, but as a NATO member, Canada has no plans to deploy combat troops to Ukraine," said Diana Ebadi.

Both Freeland and Ebadi pointed to the security assurance package signed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last weekend. It includes a clause stating that where military training is concerned, Canadian troops would return "to conduct associated activities in Ukraine when conditions permit."

Ukraine has been trying to entice allies to resume troop training within its borders. It's been sending its recruits and soldiers to the United Kingdom and Poland, where the bulk of the instruction has taken place.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and Minister of National Defence Mariusz Blaszczak meet with Polish instructors and Ukrainian soldiers training on Leopard 2 A4 tanks in the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade in Swietoszow, Poland on February 13, 2023. (Kacper Pempel/REUTERS)

It is safe to say that, with Ukraine on the defensive and the Russian army building up for a late spring or early summer theater-wide offensive, "conditions" are not right for the Canadian government to take such a provocative step, even if that was truly France's intention.

The news along the front in eastern Ukraine is growing more concerning by the day, with Russia recently making confirmed advances near Kreminna, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

Zelenskyy said this week that Moscow is preparing a new offensive that will start in late May or June. He said the Ukrainian military has a clear plan to counter that push.

Members of Ukraine's National Guard Omega Special Purpose Unit fire a mortar toward Russian troops in Avdiivka in the Donetsk region on Nov. 8, 2023. (Serhii Nuzhnenko/Radio Free Europe/Reuters)

Andrew Rasiulis, a former senior official at the Department of National Defence (DND) who once ran the department's Directorate of Nuclear and Arms Control Policy, said Macron's comments are a sign of "deep concern" among European leaders about what's coming.

"The war is not going well for the Ukrainians. That's a fact. And so, people are getting nervous," said Rasiulis, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

He described Macron's remarks as nothing more than "musings" that seem to overlook the full consequences — because deploying forces "essentially means going to war."

The Kremlin, in response, was swift to warn that any deployment of western troops would lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.

"In this case, we need to talk not about probability, but about the inevitability (of conflict)," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Matthew Schmidt, a national security and eastern European expert at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, said Macron's remarks could have been an attempt at a display of resolve for Russian President Vladimir Putin's benefit. If so, they appear to have backfired.

Schmidt said it's a remarkable about-face for a French president who, earlier in the war, pushed for negotiations and infamously insisted that Russia deserved security guarantees.

"The question I have is the timing," said Schmidt. "Everybody else in Europe is saying maybe it's time to, you know, look at negotiations, at least by the end of this year. Nobody is really doubling down at this point."

Politically, Schmidt said, it may be that Macron wants to establish France as the leader of the alliance's European side in light of wavering in the U.S. Congress.

"I think Macron saying what he did might be more in the interest of Macron than in the interest of France," he said.

Kremlin Warns of Escalation if NATO Troops Fight in Ukraine

By RFE/RL staff - Feb 27, 2024, 

• French President Macron's comments at a summit in Paris suggest a willingness to support Ukraine with military aid, including the possibility of sending Western troops, prompting a warning from the Kremlin about the risk of war with NATO.
• 
  
• Despite Macron's remarks, several European NATO members, including Germany and Poland, reject the idea of sending troops to Ukraine, emphasizing support through other means such as supplying advanced weaponry and ammunition.
• 
  
• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg reaffirms that there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine, but stresses unprecedented support provided to Ukraine by allies.

The Kremlin has warned Kyiv's European allies that sending troops to fight in Ukraine would lead to the "inevitability" of war between Russia and NATO after France said that, despite a current lack of consensus, "nothing," including sending Western forces to fight on the Ukrainians' side, should be ruled out in terms of preventing a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Speaking after a summit of continental leaders in Paris on February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was a "broad consensus to do more and quicker" for Ukraine as participants agreed to create a coalition to supply Ukraine with medium- and long-range missiles and bombs to back Kyiv's efforts to stave off Russia's invasion.

Macron told a news conference that "no consensus" existed on the sending of European ground troops to Ukraine, but added, "nothing should be excluded to achieve our objective. Russia cannot win that war."

Asked about Macron's remark, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 27 that "the very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element."

"We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of a direct conflict between Russian and NATO]," Peskov said.

Several European NATO members on February 27 rejected the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine.

"What was agreed from the beginning among ourselves and with each other also applies to the future, namely that there will be no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European states or NATO states," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended the Paris gathering, told journalists.

In Prague, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and his visiting Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, said their governments were not contemplating such a move.

"I am convinced that we should develop the paths of support that we embarked on after Russia's aggression," Fiala told a news conference alongside Tusk.

"I believe we don't need to open some other methods or ways," he added.

"Poland does not plan to send its troops to the territory of Ukraine," Tusk said.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the Associated Press on February 27 that “NATO allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have done that since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion. But there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”

The Paris gathering was also attended by Polish President Andrzej Duda, and leaders from the Baltic nations, while the United States was represented by its top diplomat for Europe, James O’Brien, and Britain sent Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

Zelenskiy, who addressed the summit via video link, called on European leaders to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations.”

Ukraine relies heavily on advanced weaponry and ammunition supplies from its Western allies, mainly from the United States, to resist increasingly intense assaults by Russian forces who have superiority in manpower and a large supply of ammunition.

Outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian troops have been recently forced to withdraw from some of their defensive positions in the east as a critical U.S. military aid package worth $61 billion remains blocked in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

Europe will help Ukraine "to take the initiative and act together at a time when there is uncertainty on the part of the United States regarding aid," Macron said

Participants to the gathering said there was increasing support from European countries, including France, for a Czech initiative to buy ammunition and shells outside the EU and send them to Ukraine.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands was willing to provide more than 100 million euros for that purpose.

By RFE/RL 

Germany, NATO rule out sending troops to Ukraine as Russia rebukes Macron

Rebuttal of Macron’s remarks comes as Kremlin warns of conflict if West puts boots on ground in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the end of a conference in support of Ukraine with European leaders and government representatives, held at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on February 26, 2024

 [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters]

Published On 27 Feb 2024

Germany, Poland and NATO have ruled out sending ground troops to Ukraine, as the Kremlin warned such a move would mark a major escalation and result in direct conflict between Russia and the Western security alliance.

The statements on Tuesday came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron raised the prospect following a European leaders’ meeting on boosting support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said participants of the conference in Paris discussed the matter but had agreed “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil who are sent there by European states or NATO states”.

Scholz said there was also consensus “that soldiers operating in our countries also are not participating actively in the war themselves”.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala – two of Kyiv’s strongest supporters – meanwhile said they too were not considering sending troops.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press news agency that while members of the alliance had provided “unprecedented support” to Ukraine, “there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine”.

The idea of sending troops has been taboo, particularly as NATO seeks to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. Nothing prevents NATO members from joining such an undertaking individually or in groups, but the organisation would get involved only if all 31 members agreed.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, warned that a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sent combat troops.

“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on Macron’s remarks.

It is “absolutely not in the interests” of European members of NATO, Peskov said. “In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of direct conflict].\

With Macron increasingly looking isolated, his government subsequently sought to clarify his comments.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Tuesday the president had in mind sending troops for specific tasks such as helping with mine clearance, production of weapons on site, and cyber-defence.

“[This] could require a [military] presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting,” Sejourne told French lawmakers.


“It’s not sending troops to wage war against Russia,” the minister said.

The conference in Paris was held just after France, Germany and the UK each signed 10-year bilateral security agreements with Ukraine as its government works to shore up Western support.

Biden wins Michigan primary but sheds support over Gaza

Campaign to vote ‘uncommitted’ in protest of Biden’s support of Israel shows Arab American and young voters’ fury in swing state

Michigan primary 2024: track live results
Alice Herman in Madison, Wisconsin

 and Oliver Laughland in Dearborn, Michigan

THE GUARDIAN

Wed 28 Feb 2024 04.40 GMT


Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Michigan – but a concerted effort by anti-war activists to vote “uncommitted” in the race could overshadow his win.

The US president faced no real primary challenger in the contest. But a campaign that formed just weeks before the primary to vote “uncommitted” in protest of his continued support for Israel’s war in Gaza signaled the fury and betrayal some Arab American and younger voters in the state feel for Biden.



Michigan primary a test for Biden as key voters turn away over Gaza war

The group pushing for voters to choose “uncommitted” – called Listen to Michigan – set the goal of 10,000 uncommitted votes in the primary. With more than half of the votes tallied Tuesday night, “uncommitted” had received 74,000 votes out of a total of more than 580,000 – almost 13% of the vote.

For context, when the then president, Barack Obama, ran uncontested in the 2012 race, about 21,000 voted “uncommitted” against him in Michigan’s primary, with about 194,000 voting in total - just over 9% of voters.

Trump narrowly won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 and organisers of the “uncommitted” effort wanted to show that they have at least the number of votes that were Trump’s margin of victory in 2016, to demonstrate how influential the bloc can be.

People hug at the Listen to Michigan watch party on Tuesday. 

Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

As results came in after polls closed at 8pm, members of the Listen to Michigan campaign gathered at a banquet hall in Dearborn and declared the results a victory for their campaign.. Attendees embraced and celebrated, many wearing the black and white keffiyeh.

Before handing the microphone off to a series of speakers for the campaign, Abbas Alawieh, a Listen to Michigan spokesperson, held a moment’s silence “for every human life that has been taken from us too soon using US taxpayer funds and bombs”.

“Thank you to our local and national progressive organizations and our voters of conscience, who used our democratic process to vote against war, genocide and the destruction of a people and a land,” said Layla Elabed, who launched the campaign in early February.

The former congressman Andy Levin, an early and prominent local supporter of the push to vote “uncommitted”, called the movement “a child of necessity” and said the turnout so far was “a huge victory”

“There is no hope for security and peace for the Jewish people without security and peace and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people,” said Levin, to cheers.

The Listen to Michigan campaign was intended as a warning for Biden to revise his so far unwavering support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians, ahead of the general election. The campaign is especially significant in Michigan given the state’s large Arab American population, a group that supported Biden strongly in 2020.

But it isn’t clear what share of “uncommitted” voters are prepared to abandon Biden in the general election this November, when he will most likely face Donald Trump – who is campaigning on a pledge to reinstate and expand his Muslim travel ban.

A day before the primary, Biden announced a ceasefire could come as soon as Monday – but both Hamas and Israeli officials denied that negotiations had progressed substantially.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Biden did not address the Listen to Michigan campaign or the growing tally of voters who cast their ballots as “uncommitted”, instead touting his record on labor and warning that Trump is “threatening to drag us even further into the past as he pursues revenge and retribution”.

Biden wins Michigan primary despite Gaza protest vote

By Brandon Drenon in Dearborn, Michigan 

& Madeline Halpert

BBC News

Activists celebrated at an event by Listen to Michigan - which urged voters to tick "uncommitted" on their ballot papers

President Joe Biden is projected to win Michigan's Democratic presidential primary comfortably, despite a significant protest vote over his stance towards the war in Gaza.

Activists have spent recent weeks urging Democrats to vote "uncommitted", and tens of thousands chose to do so.

That exceeded many expectations, though the latest CBS News projection suggests Mr Biden won 80% of the vote overall.

He thanked "every Michigander who made their voice heard today".

The US is an ally of Israel, providing it with billions of dollars in military aid. Earlier this month the US vetoed a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while proposing a draft of its own, urging a temporary ceasefire.

The US position has angered many, including in Biden's own party, who want the president to take a stronger stance against Israel's military campaign.

In a statement that did not reference the protest vote against him, he hailed the achievements of his administration in the state and launched an attack against his rival Donald Trump.

Mr Trump is also projected to easily win Tuesday's Republican primary in the state, after what he called a "great day". "We're going to win big," he told a campaign celebration event.Trump projected to win Michigan primary over Haley

Results so far from the primary contests - which the US political parties use to select their presidential candidate - indicate that the two men are on course to face off in November's general election, in a rematch of 2020.

Michigan is considered a critical swing state, which picked the winning president in the last two contests. It has the largest proportion of Arab-Americans in the country, but Mr Biden's support for Israel during its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza appears to have cost him support among that demographic.

Activists from the group Listen to Michigan hailed the size of the "uncommitted" vote as a victory. People were in tears at the organisation's watch party as tallies were periodically updated.

Congressman Andy Levin, who supports the "uncommitted" vote, told the crowd: "I take no joy in being here tonight. This moment is a child of necessity because people are dying by the thousands."

Tuesday does not mark the first time a significant portion of Michiganders opted to cast votes as "uncommitted". Around 19,000 residents did so in 2020's primary and more than 21,601 in 2016. In 2008 it was 238,000 - after Barack Obama's campaign encouraged them to do so, because he chose not to be on the ballot due to party squabbles.

But campaigners in Michigan have been organising for months to send Mr Biden a message of "no ceasefire, no vote" over the war in Gaza.

At Salina Intermediate School in Dearborn - across the railroad tracks from a sprawling Ford factory - the BBC spoke to Hala, 32, who said she voted "uncommitted".

She did not "want to vote for Genocide Joe", she explained - alluding to allegations made against the Israeli military during its campaign in Gaza, which Israel strongly denies.

Hala - who declined to share her last name for privacy reasons - said she voted for Mr Biden last time, but was not sure she would do so again when the presidential election came round. "Maybe, if he calls for an immediate ceasefire, but he's not going to do that," she said.

Speaking earlier this week, Mr Biden said he hoped there would be a pause in fighting in Gaza by Monday - following reports of some progress in indirect negotiations involving Israeli and Hamas officials.

Other Democrats told the BBC on polling day that they remained supportive of Mr Biden, including Kim Murdough, an office manager at a church in the city of Flint.

Kim Murdough said she was sticking by Mr Biden

"I voted Democrat. I personally don't have an issue with anything that the administration has done," she said.

She added that separate concerns about Mr Biden's age - 81 - were not a deal-breaker for her. "I'd rather have someone in office that forgets a few things than a criminal," she said, referencing Mr Trump, who faces federal and state criminal charges.

Margaret Won voted for Mr Biden, too. She is mostly happy with the work the president has done, though said he had been blocked in some of his aims by Republicans in Congress.

She said she wished the frontrunner presidential candidates were younger and said if Nikki Haley beat Mr Trump to the Republican nomination, she might get her vote.

Ms Haley, however, is yet to win any primary contest against Mr Trump - a trend that continued on Tuesday.

Like dozens of other states, Michigan has open primary elections - which means Democrats, Republicans and independents were all able to cast votes, though they had to ask for a specific party's ballot when casting their vote.

The state's remaining Republican delegates - who must be secured for a candidate to win their party's nomination - will be formally awarded later at a convention this weekend.

Samraa Luqman wants voters to oust the president

During the present conflict between Israel and Hamas, the "uncommitted" movement gained endorsements from at least 39 state and local elected officials, including congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud.

Ms Tlaib's sister was the campaign manager for Listen to Michigan campaign, which aimed to score 10,000 "uncommitted" votes - a number that was exceeded many times over.

Samraa Luqman, an activist with the Abandon Biden campaign, said her goal was to "oust somebody from office for having this many lives lost without calling for a ceasefire".

Another woman, who did not want to be named, told the BBC she had even switched party to Republican over the Middle Eastern conflict.

Senator Gary Peters, from Michigan, told reporters at a meeting arranged by the Biden campaign on Monday that the president understood voters' concerns about Gaza.


However, the White House has been reluctant to row back its support, sending billions of dollars in military aid to Israel and three times blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Instead the US has called for a pause in fighting and defended Israel's right to hunt down the Hamas gunmen who killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October. Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza is nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-led health ministry.

Young Voters Say Their Discontent Goes Deeper Than Israel and Gaza

“If you’re a Democratic incumbent running for re-election, young voters are an essential part of your coalition,” an independent pollster said, pointing to concerns for Democrats come November.

A polling site at the University of Michigan on Tuesday. Many students across the state were on spring break and not on campus.Credit...Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

By Anjali Huynh
Reporting from across Michigan
Feb. 27, 2024

The energy on Michigan college campuses ahead of the 2022 midterms, students said, was electric.

Armed with promises to protect abortion rights, Democratic candidates held large campus rallies, drawing crowds who came prepared to cheer, rather than protest. On Election Day, students showed up in droves — resulting in the highest youth turnout of any state, helping Democrats take full control of Michigan’s government for the first time in decades.

But before the Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, the energy seems to have morphed into apathy or anger. Young activists have been at the forefront of sustained backlash to President Biden’s staunch support of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Protest of U.S. policy culminated in an effort encouraging residents to vote “uncommitted” to send a message to Mr. Biden in the pivotal general election state.

Interviews with more than two dozen students across the state indicated a deeper well of dissatisfaction, not just with the incumbent president, but with the prospect of once again having to choose between two candidates — Mr. Biden and former President Donald J. Trump — decades older than them.

“It’s been a tense atmosphere on campus,” said Adam Lacasse, a co-chairman of the College Democrats at the University of Michigan. “A lot of people, if they’re not upset with what’s going on, with the administration’s handling of that conflict, they’re turned off from politics because they don’t want to get engaged in it.”

National polls have for months reflected a similar sentiment: Voters under 30, who backed Mr. Biden by more than 20 points in 2020, are unenthusiastic about a rematch between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, who is heavily favored in the Republican primary on Tuesday.

But for some young people in Michigan and elsewhere, Mr. Biden’s alignment with Israel has presented a new concern. Voters under 30 overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to the conflict in a December New York Times/Siena College poll, saying that Israel hadn’t done enough to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and that the military campaign should stop.

Many college students in Michigan, regardless of where they stood on the foreign policy issue, described the conflict as nearly inescapable. Campus protests have become commonplace, and coverage of the war has dominated their social media feeds.

Hussein Bazzi, 24, a student at Wayne State University, said he would vote “uncommitted” to send a message to Mr. Biden: “that we want an immediate cease-fire.” Mr. Bazzi supported Mr. Biden in 2020 but is unsure whether he will again in November. “If that doesn’t send a clear message to him,” he said, “then I don’t know what does.”

The strength of the “uncommitted” vote in Michigan will be watched for signs of President Biden’s strength for November in a key battleground state.

Credit...Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Mr. Biden is still expected to easily win Tuesday’s primary. But the strength of his opposition will be closely watched as a signal about his support heading into November.

A poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV in January found that 15.6 percent of Michigan voters 18 to 29 had a favorable view of Mr. Biden.

“If you’re a Democratic incumbent running for re-election, young voters are an essential part of your coalition, and that is why the numbers we’re finding in Michigan show Joe Biden really has kind of a perilous path right now,” said Richard Czuba, an independent pollster in Lansing, Mich., who said Mr. Biden’s age was the primary driver of dissatisfaction.

Several Michigan leaders of College Democrats said they were concerned that young people were simply not excited about 2024. Even a small slip in Mr. Biden’s coalition, with voters staying home, could hurt his chances.

Our politics reporters. Times journalists are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. That includes participating in rallies and donating money to a candidate or cause.

“I’m definitely not going to sugarcoat it: I personally am nervous,” said Liam Richichi, the vice president of College Democrats at Michigan State University. He added that students appeared “bored with the prospects that we have.”

“I’ve talked to a lot of people in the club, and something that we are actively trying to work against is the potential for low voter turnout,” he added, suggesting that the group might emphasize down-ballot races like the Senate election in November.

The Biden campaign deployed a few surrogates to reach young people before Tuesday: Representative Sara Jacobs of California held a discussion at the University of Michigan, and Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland led a virtual rally with students.

Alyssa Bradley, the Michigan communications director for the Biden campaign, said Mr. Biden “has taken historic action to support young Americans,” pointing to his passage of climate policy, millions in student loan forgiveness, and his backing of abortion access, which she said was a “stark contrast” from Mr. Trump.

“Our rights, our future and our democracy are on the line this election, and we’ll continue to engage young people to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House, just like we did in 2020,” she said.

But some young people indicated in interviews that they were not aware of the president’s accomplishments on issues they cared about, part of a messaging challenge the campaign has sought to remedy by expanding its digital presence. (Mr. Biden made his first TikTok post this month.)

“I acknowledge the American right to vote, but we also have the right to not do so, especially if you don’t agree with any of the candidates,” said Aiden Duong, a 19-year-old student at Michigan State who is not part of the “uncommitted” effort. He said he did not plan to support Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden in November, citing their ages and what he perceived as inaction on climate change, a key issue for him.

Listen to Michigan, the group of primarily young organizers pushing for the “uncommitted” protest vote, has tried to capitalize on Democratic dissatisfaction by appearing on campuses, but has at times struggled reach that audience. The primary is taking place during a week when many Michigan students are on spring break, and many students still on campus weren’t aware of the election.

Around 100 people eventually showed up to an “uncommitted” rally on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus last week. Organizers encouraged attendees to stand in a large circle to take up more space. A march to the polls organized by Listen to Michigan at Kalamazoo College drew around 15 students on Saturday.

A rally for “uncommitted” last week in Ann Arbor. Organizers encouraged people to form a larger circle so the protest would take up more space.

Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York Times

Mr. Biden said on Monday that he was hopeful for a cease-fire within the next week. But some students supporting the effort say that nothing will change their mind on Mr. Biden. Salma Hamamy, a student at the University of Michigan who has organized pro-Palestinian protests there, said that despite supporting Mr. Biden in 2020, she would not do so again.

“For me, he is beyond redemption — he has lost my vote because voting for him is basically me saying that I am OK with his actions,” said Ms. Hamamy, 22. “If that means Trump is elected, I blame the Democratic Party for allowing that to happen.”

Students backing Mr. Biden, however, argue that even as their peers remain skeptical, closely comparing the two candidates will be enough to win over young people as November draws nearer.

Immaculata James, a co-chair of the College Democrats at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., pointed to the Biden administration’s work in areas such as college debt relief and health care costs in encouraging students to ask, “Even though it’s not a very exciting election, at the end of the day, what’s your future like under Trump versus under Biden?”

Donovan Greene, a senior at Kalamazoo College who attended the Listen to Michigan walk to the polls, said she supported Mr. Biden in 2020, calling him the “lesser of two evils,” but was voting “uncommitted” in the primary because of his Israel policy.

But Ms. Greene said that in her “last desperate moments,” she would consider backing him again in November, saying, “The changes that happened in the U.S. socially and economically under Donald Trump’s presidency were unequivocally what I don’t want to see.”

Anjali Huynh, a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class based in New York, covers national politics, the 2024 presidential campaign and other elections. 

Autoport workers go on strike in Halifax

Replacement workers  SCABS on site at processing facility in Eastern Passage, N.S.

CBC News · Posted: Feb 27, 2024 

  Almost 240 workers at a vehicle processing facility in Eastern Passage, N.S., have gone on strike after negotiations between the union and the company failed to reach an agreement. Paul Palmeter has the story.

Almost 240 workers at a vehicle processing facility in Eastern Passage, N.S., have gone on strike after negotiations between the union and the company failed to reach an agreement.

Unifor Local 100 workers at Autoport started strike action at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. Union members rejected a tentative agreement earlier this month and provided a notice to strike on Friday. 

Autoport has brought in replacement labour. 

"What we're seeing here is scab labour," said Jennifer Murray, Unifor Atlantic regional director. "It's incredibly disrespectful to the employees, our members, who go to work every day." 

Murray said the preparation of replacement labour is evidence Autoport had no intention of reaching a deal on Monday. 

The use of replacement labour highlights the need for the federal government to pass legislation on the issue, according to a news release from Unifor. 

Contingency plan 

Autoport, a subsidiary of CN, processes and ships close to 185,000 vehicles annually, according to the union.

"Today, Autoport enacted its contingency plan at its Eastern Passage facility to protect the continuity of the supply chain. Activities will continue uninterrupted as long as necessary," said Tom Bateman, a spokesperson for CN, on behalf of Autoport. 

Unifor said negotiations with the employer began in September and were ongoing up until the strike deadline

"Here we are on the picket lines while people are performing our work," said Cory Will, president of Unifor Local 100. "People just want a fair reasonable wage to be able to provide for their families." 

Workers at the facility earn between $22.30 and $33.06 an hour after probation, according to a collective bargaining agreement for the Eastern Passage facility that expired in December 2023. The union turned down an eight per cent wage increase over three years. 

A replacement worker at Autoport in Eastern Passage, N.S., drives a vehicle past Unifor members on strike Tuesday. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)

"We are always open to going back to the table as long as the company understands that our members, their employees, deserve a fair wage and a fair and equitable deal," said Sean Warnell, a 27-year Autoport worker. 

"It's a nervous way to be. Everybody has bills, mortgages, kids are in university. People are just trying to make ends meet," Warnell said. 

The road to Bolshevism: the Narodnik labour movement

13 February, 2024 

Author: Sean Matgamna


Third in a series around the anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) in 1924

Franco Venturi (in his book Roots of Revolution) quotes a police report on the state of things in the St Petersburg working class after the impact of the populists (Narodniks.

“The gross, vulgar methods employed by factory employers are becoming intolerable to the workers. They have obviously realised that a factory is not conceivable without their labour... Without workers [the employers] can do nothing.

“A realisation of this has now given rise to that spirit of solidarity among the workers which has so often been noted these days.

“Two or three years ago the employers’ affairs were no better than they are at present. Then, too, it often happened that the workers did not receive their wages on time. Yet then everything went smoothly. The cunning employer flattered his workers and said good-naturedly that he could not pay them at the right time, and they withdrew in silence, and next day turned up quite normally for work.

“But now as soon as even the most popular employer holds back wages for only three or four days, the crowd begins to murmur and curse, and strikes often break out. Even in the workshops where money for wages can never be lacking — as this is a State industry — the spirit of opposition to be found among the workmen has appeared on a scale utterly unknown before. There have been cases of work stopping because the men were not satisfied with an insufficient wage or because of oppression exercised by the management of the workshops.

“All this, taken as a whole, clearly betrays the influence of the propagandists, who have been able to sow among the workers hatred for their employers and the belief that the forces of labour are being exploited”.

The first

It was not in St Petersburg but in Odessa, in the south, on the Black Sea, that the first distinct working-class organisation in the Russian empire emerged. 30,000 of Odessa’s 200,000 population were proletarians. The story began with the work of a populist, E Zaslavsky, which lasted nine months (in 1875) before he was arrested.

He was a noble, but not rich. In 1872-3 he had anticipated the mass movement of 1874 from the towns to the peasants, and gone out to “the people” on his own. He came back disabused and convinced that the “people” to work with were the urban proletariat. He moved in the opposite direction to the majority of the populists at that time.

Zaslavsky was a believer in Lavrov’s policy of long-term work through propaganda, and not the Bakuninist one of trying to foment immediate revolt. He circulated Lavrov’s émigré paper, Vpered (Forward). In 1873 he became a teacher in an existing small group of populists who worked around the Bellino-Vendrich factory, which had about 500 workers.

He tried to teach political economy and working-class history, but abandoned that for simply reading aloud Chernyshevsky’s didactic novel What Is To Be Done? (Vladimir Ulyanov, Lenin, would later appropriate the title for his 1902 pamphlet).

The group printed and distributed illegal leaflets, and helped workers form a library and start a communal bath.

350 workers in the factory set up a credit union. The activity of organising the workers in this mutual-aid bank eventually led to the creation of a workers’ organisation of 200 members. They had a structured leadership, an entrance fee, a subscription, and regular meetings. This was the nucleus of the Union of Workers of Southern Russia (as it was called, “Southern Russia” then being taken to include Ukraine). It spread to other factories across Odessa.

What was the “Union of Workers of Southern Russia”? A trade union? A political party? A mutual aid society? It was all of them!

Venturi: “It emphasised its distinctive working-class nature. This led to moves to exclude non-workers, and soon there was internal war between Bakuninists and others that led to a split. But the organisation survived.”

What did it do? It made propaganda, held classes, fought the working-class struggle on wages and conditions. It supported strikes, for example at the Bellino-Vendrich factory and at the Gullier-Blanchard factory. It published a manifesto on those struggles that was distributed in the towns along the Black Sea coast. Virtually everything the union did was, of course, still illegal. In late 1875 it was virtually destroyed by police action. Some of its organisers got ten years hard labour. Zaslavsky got ten years. He went half-mad in jail, and died there of TB in 1878.

From then on the Bakuninists predominated in attempts to revive the Union.

Pavel Axelrod, one of the future consistent Marxists, was still a Zemlya i Volya Bakuninist, but already working-class oriented and heavily influenced by the workers’ movement in the West. He desired, as he put it, to “let the voice of the working classes be heard”. He had been working in Kiev since 1872, and there, in 1879, he started the “Workers’ Union of South Russia”, deliberately reviving the name of the Odessa organisation of 1875.

That union soon disintegrated when Axelrod, who after the June 1879 split in Zemlya i Volya was now with Plekhanov in Black Redistribution, went to St Petersburg. In terms of the history of the Russian working-class movement, it was however very important. Its programme was an eclectic hybrid of Bakuninist and Western social-democratic approaches.

Axelrod was in transition to West European style social democratic politics in which the proletariat, not, as in populist socialism, the peasantry, was central. The union’s goal was to be an anarchist stateless society, but it advocated immediate democratic freedom in Russia. It advocated palliatives and reforms, such as the reduction of hours of work. It had a variant of the minimum-maximum programme, split between short-term reform objectives and longer-term aims, such as was typical of the Western Social Democrats at that time, with an anarchist rather than a Marxian socialist “maximum” programme and eventual goal.

The Workers’ Union was restarted in Kiev in 1880 by two young populists of a different political bent, Nikolai Shchedrin and Elizaveta Kovalskaya, who believed in vigorous economic terrorism — the use in the towns of the sort of violence against exploiters and officials which Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom) had advocated and used in the countryside.

Shchedrin took work in a railway centre, and soon a dozen railworkers formed the nucleus of the revived organisation. And it spread. The Ukrainians in the organisation objected to recruiting Jewish workers — “they killed Christ”. The organisers had to fight such attitudes, and they did.

The following year an anti-Jewish pogrom was started — Jewish quarters were attacked, people maimed and killed, and women raped, with the police and soldiers looking on or participating. Shchedrin was already in jail, but the workers he had educated, whose antisemitism he had confronted, put out a leaflet urging the people to fight their exploiters and not the “poor Jews”.

Narodnaya Volya would back the paper that started the widespread pogroms from 1881 — it was a genuine popular movement of the people, wasn’t it? — but that was in the future.

The Workers’ Union had 600 members and held mass meetings in the open air, outside the town. The methods of the Union were a mix of elite terror against the exploiters, the Bakuninist Zemlya i Volya policy of calls for immediate revolt, and working-class mass action. The workers were still feeling their way, enshrouded still in the integument of populism and populist methods. Many of them still retained the mentality of peasants, looking for help to their “little father”, the Tsar.

The organisation was strong in the Kiev Arsenal, but they fought there not by mass working-class action but by publishing a manifesto threatening the director of the Arsenal with death if he did not give the workers what they wanted. He did as he was told! The working day was reduced by two hours.

The Union saw it as a central task to create for the workers their own “fighting organisation” — that is, an organisation to wage terrorist guerrilla war as a weapon of the working-class struggle against exploitation.

Theirs was a working-class terrorism. Venturi quotes Axelrod’s memoirs to the effect that Narodnaya Volya (the People’s Will, the majority of Zemlya i Volya after the 1879 split, the minority in which became Plekhanov’s group), with its concentration on killing the Tsar and on winning the support of the upper layers of society, objected to this economic terrorism against the capitalists because it would alienate the bourgeoisie when they sought its support and money. This, Narodnaya Volya, was the organisation that would become defined by its notionally short-term and tactical aim shared with the liberals, of seeking for a constitution.

Jail

By late 1880 the leaders of the Southern Workers’ Union were in jail. Shchedrin paid for his brief activity with a sentence of death, commuted by the Tsar to hard labour for life. He continued to fight in jail, and was again sentenced to death for striking an army officer. Again the sentence was commuted. He went mad and spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum, dying there in 1919. Elizaveta Kovalskaya eventually escaped from jail.

The work of building the Russian labour movement did not come cheap in human cost. Up to the revolution, the typical career of those who built the movement would be to spend a few months or a year at liberty working underground and then to spend years in jail or Siberian exile. The road to the October Revolution would be paved with the bones and skulls of many thousands of such people.

As Trotsky recounted it, even in a later period: “The movement was as yet utterly devoid of careerism, lived on its faith in the future and on its spirit of self-sacrifice. There were as yet no routine, no set formulae, no theatrical gestures, no ready-made oratorical tricks... Whoever joined an organisation knew that prison followed by exile awaited him within the next few months.

“The measure of ambition was to last as long as possible on the job prior to arrest; to hold oneself steadfast when facing the gendarmes; to ease, as far as possible, the plight of one’s comrades; to read, while in prison, as many books as possible; to escape as soon as possible from exile abroad; to acquire wisdom there; and then return to revolutionary activity in Russia”.

Timeline

1861: Abolition of serfdom. Alexander Herzen, from exile, calls on intellectuals to “go to the people”. First major populist (Narodnik) group, Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom), 1861-4.

1872-3: The “Chaikovists” build the first populist workers’ groups in Petersburg.

1874-5: First and second waves of young radicals “going to the people”.

1875: Union of Workers of Southern Russia formed.

1876: Second Zemlya i Volya group: “Bakuninist”, aims to spark immediate mass rebellion for socialism.

1878-80: North Russian Workers’ Union formed.

1879: Zemlya i Volya splits. Majority, called Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), goes for “terrorism” (assassination of top officials) with first aim of winning a constitution. Minority, Chornyi Peredel (Black Redistribution), upholds old approach.

1879-81: A second Workers’ Union of South Russia formed; again crushed.

March 1881: Narodnaya Volya people kill the Tsar. They are hanged. Intense repression crushes Narodnaya Volya.

April 1881: First of a wave of pogroms.

1883: Plekhanov, Axelrod, and other former leaders of Chornyi Peredel, now in exile in Switzerland, form Group for the Emancipation of Labour, with a new perspective.

Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot praises ‘unprecedented solidarity’ movement in Britain

He attacked Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak for supporting Israel

Husam Zomlot marching for Palestine in London on 13 January demo

By Thomas Foster
SOCIALIST WORKER
Tuesday 27 February 2024

The Palestinian ambassador to Britain has slammed British politicians for their torrent of Islamophobia.

Husam Zomlot told a press conference on Tuesday, “The last few months have seen the worst of Britain with the government’s inconsistent policies and what you saw in parliament last week.”

But Zomlot contrasted that with the response from ordinary people. “For five months, you’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating,” he said. “That is commendable.”

Lee Anderson MP told the right wing GB News last weekend that London mayor Sadiq Khan has “given our capital city away” to Islamists.

Zomlot said, “To paint the most moving act of the British people, the act that shows people have principles, to paint them as Islamists is in my opinion Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian and anti-British.

“I was on the marches. I didn’t see Islamists, I saw people. I saw grandmothers, brothers, sisters, mothers with pushchairs, diversity, unity and passion. Some frame these people as ‘Islamists’ but they are the British people—with a sense of solidarity and support for humanity.”

“We must fight Islamophobia as much as we fight antisemitism. If you only fight one form of racism you are not anti-racist, you are racist.”

He added, “The attempt to divide is a serious business that has gone on for a long time.

“Islamophobia has risen by 335 percent. It is Palestinians and Muslims who have been violently attacked in recent months.”

Politicians are ramping up Islamophobia because they’ve been terrified by the Palestine solidarity movement.

When asked about the mass demonstrations in Britain, Zomlot said, “People are focusing on the demonstrations because it’s a physical act of solidarity.


Full coverage of the struggle in Palestine

“But it’s not just the demonstrations, there are thousands of acts across Britain. There is unprecedented solidarity. It goes beyond marching and demonstrations.

“Last week 80,000 Britons lobbied MPs for an immediate ceasefire. This is a serious movement. It is sustained.

“Given the historic responsibility of Britain, it could not be more relevant that the anti-colonisation movement emanates from Britain. It might not grow in numbers, but it will grow in diversification, impact and influence.”

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” has rung out on the mass demonstrations in London.

Protesters projected the slogan onto the Houses of Parliament during the ceasefire vote last week—and Sunak condemned it. One pundit parroted Sunak’s line at the press conference, suggesting the slogan was antisemitic.

“Israel exists from the river to the sea. That is in the manifesto of Israel’s ruling party,” responded Zomlot.

“The slogan is a call to justice. They want to eradicate the system of apartheid built from the river to the sea, the colonial expansion, the theft of land and the besiegement of millions of people over the years.”

He blasted Sunak, “Israel uses ‘from the river to the sea’. Israel is calling for the eradication of the Palestinian people.

“Why didn’t we hear the British prime minister say this is against international law and anti-Palestine? No one is eradicating Israel. Israel is eradicating Palestine.”

It’s crucial to build the workplace and student day of action called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop The War and others on 8 March—and the national demonstration the following day.Go to https://www.stopwar.org.uk/ for more info

Ground invasion of Rafah is ‘push for mass expulsion’

“A ground invasion of Rafah will bring untold suffering,” said Zomlot. “There are 1.5 million in a very small piece of land—6,000 people per one kilometre.

“Can you imagine Israel’s terror? They will kill tens of thousands. The final push in Rafah is the final push for mass expulsion.

“With any talk of possible agreements, Netanyahu is just buying time. He plays the game of time and blame, blaming everyone else.


‘Things are completely out of control here’—voice from Rafah

“Netanyahu is personally invested in the continued aggression and the worst aspects of his government are interested in ethnic cleansing. They want to finish what they started 75 years ago. They have a plan.”

Zomlot called out the US and Britain for backing Israel’s genocide. “Israel won’t accept a ceasefire unless it’s forced to,” he said. “Britain and the US need to threaten to stop sending weapons to Israel.

“I blame Biden. Biden could have ended this long ago. It is US that provides Israel with the toys to carry out a genocide.”

 

Ukraine's Hard-Won Grain Corridor May Shut Without More U.S. Support

WFP/USAID

PUBLISHED FEB 27, 2024 8:34 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

Despite Ukraine's success in striking back against the Russian Navy, the progress it has made in securing the western Black Sea could be reversed if the United States does not provide more arms soon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a new interview. 

Ukraine's maritime trade has gone through severe ups and downs since the start of the Russian invasion two years ago. In the first months of the war, a Russian naval blockade shut down all merchant traffic to Ukraine's busy Black Sea ports, which historically handled the vast majority of the country's grain exports. Over the summer of 2022, the UN and Turkey negotiated a deal with Russia to partially lift that blockade, but only for approved ships, and only for grain export cargoes. 

Russia abandoned this Black Sea grain deal in July 2023, suspended its security guarantees, and attacked Ukrainian grain terminals with long-range missiles and drones. Undeterred, Ukraine hit back at the Russian Navy with a wave of missile and suicide drone attacks, destroying or sinking multiple vessels in a matter of months. 

This defense strategy has effectively forced the Russian surface fleet out of the western reaches of the Black Sea, according to UK intelligence. In September 2023, with war risk reduced by Ukraine's defenses, bulkers returned to Odesa to load grain - this time, without Russia's permission. 

This unilateral security corridor has allowed Ukraine to export about 30 million tonnes of grain so far, and exporters should be able to ship the entirety of the 2023 crop - a sea change from the situation in 2022. But the corridor depends upon deterring the Russian threat to commercial shipping, and that requires a regular flow of Western armament. 

After two years of funding Ukraine's defense, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is blocking a $60 billion aid package for Kyiv, aligning with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The interruption in funding is already affecting the front lines in Ukraine, and in an interview with CNN, Zelensky said that the maritime corridor will also be at risk if aid is not restored soon. 

"I think the route will be closed," he said. "To defend it, it's also about some ammunition, some air defense, and some other systems."

Engineers’ union throws support behind Norfolk Southern, criticizes activist investor proposals

By Bill Stephens | February 27, 2024

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen cites safety improvements under CEO Alan Shaw

A Norfolk Southern train pauses for a crew change. Norfolk Southern

---

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen today said it will “vigorously oppose” an activist investor’s attempt to gain control of the Norfolk Southern board and oust CEO Alan Shaw and Chief Operating Officer Paul Duncan.

Cleveland-based Ancora Holdings is waging a proxy battle and has proposed a slate of eight directors and is touting former UPS President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Barber as its CEO candidate and former CSX operations chief Jamie Boychuk for the NS chief operating officer position.

“From our vantage point and from what we’ve learned from our union brothers and sisters at CSX, Boychuk was reckless and ran CSX operations into the ground before he was run out by CSX’s management team,” said BLET General Chairman Scott R. Bunten, one of the union’s officers representing members at Norfolk Southern. “Ancora wants to turn back the clock and return to the failed Precision Scheduled Railroading business model with Boychuk’s help that the other Class I railroads are now abandoning.”

Like other rail unions, BLET lost membership as the big three U.S. railroads deeply cut their workforces while adopting PSR operating models since 2017.

Ancora has been highly critical of Norfolk Southern’s financial and operational results, and has blamed the February 2023 hazardous materials derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on a poor safety culture at the railroad. The National Transportation Safety Board says the catastrophic failure of a wheel bearing likely caused the wreck.

The engineers’ union praised moves Shaw has made to improve safety. “Since the derailment last year, NS’ CEO has risen to the occasion and, through his leadership, NS has become a safer, more efficient and customer focused company again,” said Jerry G. Sturdivant, another BLET General Chairman at Norfolk Southern.

The union praised, among other things, Norfolk Southern’s decision to become the first Class I railroad to participate in the confidential close call reporting system.

“Having a CEO like Barber with zero railroad experience and a chief operating officer such as Boychuk wedded to the worst aspects of PSR would likely lead to more, not fewer costly train wrecks,” Sturdivant said.

The union was critical of Ancora’s proposal to add former Ohio Gov. John Kasich to the NS board.

“It’s disappointing to see former Ohio Governor Kasich involved with this effort to make a quick buck at the expense of rail safety,” said BLET Vice President Rick Gibbons. “His involvement with an effort to reinstitute PSR at Norfolk Southern and push back against safety efforts is shameful.”

The union pledged to back NS in the proxy contest. “I can assure you I will be voting all shares in favor of Alan Shaw and his team. The leaders of our union and our members see the potential for increased revenue for Norfolk Southern with him at the wheel. In contrast, Ancora would be bad for investors. It’s easy to imagine a train wreck under their proposed plans, both literally and figuratively speaking,” BLET General Chairman Dewayne Dehart said.

The BLET said this may be the first time in its 161-year history that the union has taken a side in a proxy contest at a Class I railroad. SMART-TD, which represents conductors, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen also have expressed support for NS.

Ancora said its plans for NS have “no emphasis on cost cutting, headcount reductions, or short-sighted tactics.”

“Policymakers and labor leaders should be able to take comfort in our slate’s commitments to honoring union agreements, leveraging the company’s existing workforce and investing in a network strategy that drives growth,” Ancora said in a statement.

Note: Updated at 9:40 a.m. Central with comment from Ancora.