Civil War in Russia was ‘a War for the Return of Colonies that had Separated from Russia in 1917-1918,’ Yudanin Says

Civil War in Russia was ‘a War for the Return of Colonies that had Separated from Russia in 1917-1918,’ Yudanin Says

Friday, April 19, 2024

            Staunton, Apr. 18 – “Besides everything else,” US-based Russian historian Mikhail Yudanin says, “the civil war in Russia was a war for the recovery of colonies which had separated from Russia in 1917-1918” and the Bolshevik victory in it allowed the Kremlin to continue the imperial tradition of the past.

            Failure to recognize that continuity, one that lies behind what Putin is trying to do in Ukraine now, gets in the way of understanding that Russia remains an empire and is why, Yudanin says, he created the first academic online course about Russian decolonization (sibreal.org/a/filosof-mihail-yudanin-o-perspektivah-dekolonizatsii-rossii/32906492.html).

            (That course is described in detail at https://decolonisation-ru.com/ and features more than 20 lectures by academic specialists about colonialism and decolonialization as well as by avariety of ethnic and regional activists from the various parts of the Russian Federation is available on YouTube at youtube.com/@decolonisation-ru).

            Yudanin, a native of Siberia who now teaches in the US, shares some of the ideas that he and other speakers in the course presented in an interview he gave to SibReal’s Sergey Chernyshov. Among the most important are the following:

·       The Russian empire in all of its guises is “a completely typical empire” and not a unique one as many of its defenders try to suggest.

·       It is based on force by the metropolitan center over the periphery, but as in all empires, both the center and the periphery suffer although in different ways, with the center suffering because its residents come to believe in hierarchies of peoples and the periphery suffering from that as well as from direct oppression.

·       “One of the clearest signs” of the continuity of colonialism is when Moscow or Russians living abroad assume that they have the right to speak for the periphery. The latter must insist on the principle of “nothing about us without us.”

·       The decolonization of the Russian Federation like that of the USSR faces the problem of borders that were artificially created by Moscow to spark conflict and make it easier for the center to engage in divide-and-rule tactics.

·       But borders need not trigger wars in the course of decolonization because borders now are not what they were a century or more ago.

·       The number of variants of decolonization in Russia is extremely large and it is a mistake to assume that the future will be the product of only one of them or that anything is irreversible.

Will growing public opinion force Germany to suspend arms sales to Israel?

Europe’s largest economy has been Israel's second-biggest weapons supplier for the last 20 years, with Berlin-supplied weapons accounting for 47 percent of all Israeli arms imports, closely behind the 53 percent from the US.

SALMAN AHMED

TRT


AFP

A five-page statement signed by nearly 600 German civil servants and sent to Chancellor Olaf Schulz demanded that the country “cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect”. Photo: AFP

Israel's brutal military offensive in Gaza, open disregard for international law and brazen genocidal statements of its leaders are pushing Germany's long-standing “special responsibility” towards the country to the very edge.

In recent weeks, Berlin has come under intense domestic and international pressure to curtail its unrelenting support for Tel Aviv and suspend arms sales to the Israeli state, which has killed nearly 34,000 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza in just under seven months.

Human rights lawyers in Berlin filed an urgent appeal against the German government's weapons exports to Israel, saying that German weapons were being used to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza – which has been turned into a dystopian wasteland by Israel’s bombs and bullets.

Buoyed by a court in the Netherlands blocking all Dutch exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, Armaghan Naghipour, a lawyer representing the Berlin group said, "We are of the legal opinion that there is reason to believe that Germany‘s granting of war weapons to Israel violates or at least endangers the fulfilment of Germany’s international legal obligations".

Adding to the pressure, Nicaragua took Germany to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “facilitating genocide in Gaza” and pleading with the global court to stop Germany from selling weapons to Israel.

Nicaragua has requested the ICJ to issue five provisional measures, including that Germany “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance, including military equipment”.

On the domestic front, a five-page statement signed by nearly 600 German civil servants and sent to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior ministers demanded that the country “cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect”.

Public opinion in Germany is also shifting. In a recent survey, nearly 69 percent said they do not consider Israel's action in Gaza as “justified”.

"This level of pressure is unprecedented…the electorate, the civil servants’ letter and the ICJ case, but Germany is stuck within its own reason to exist,” says Dr. Amro Ali, professor of Sociology and an analyst specialising on the Middle East.

“Which means that they believe they are on the right course and that they are doing the right thing. Changing course now would mean a major foreign policy reassessment,” he tells TRT World.

‘Germany is complicit’

According to the leading conflict think tank SIPRI, German weapons accounted for 47 percent of all Israeli weapons imports, closely behind the US with 53 percent. Germany has been Israel's second-largest weapons supplier for the last 20 years.

The more recent imports include two Saar 6-class warships, as well as missiles and tank engines. Last year alone, the total value of arms exports rose sharply to $349M, nearly ten times higher than in 2022.

German Saar corvettes are being used in the naval blockade of Gaza, while German-made diesel engines are being used in Israeli Merkava-4 tanks, which are also being used in Gaza.

But this open-ended support has now come back to bite Germany’s ruling class, experts say.

Associate Professor at Kings College London and Director of MENA Analytica, Dr. Andres Krieg, says Germany is complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza.

"Germany has been complicit through its arms sales in this war in Gaza quite directly, and it bears a degree of responsibility for what Israel is doing in the enclave,” Krieg tells TRT World.

“Germany is so deeply involved, trapped in its own 'raison de'tat', blindly supporting Israel no matter what, no matter if Israel is committing war crimes or potential genocide, Germany will stand by its side. Germany's support for Israel following the Holocaust could go as far as Germany abandoning international law."

He is also of the view that despite growing pressure, Germany is unlikely to change course due to a lack of domestic pressure from the media and the political class. Any voice of dissent has been suppressed by the mainstream.

"There isn't any broad or critical discourse in Germany on the matter of Israel. Any critical discourse has been suppressed, there’s been a lot of coercion against academics, coercion against journalists who want to write a different story. So the German mainstream on this whole discourse is very one-sided, very pro-Israel. Therefore, it’s not surprising the German government doesn't feel that much pressure," he adds.

Smoke screen

However, when met with criticism of its policies of blindingly supporting Israel, Dr. Ali says, Germany engages in a bit of diplomacy on social media to off-set this notion.

"They'll condemn Israeli settlers, but the empirical reality is that a huge percentage of Israeli arms imports come from Germany. There is a high probability that a lot of the deaths and injuries in Gaza are caused by German arms."

He, however, adds that the weight and intensity of the pressure on the German government is dividing it internally.

"This letter (by civil servants) holds up a mirror to German officialdom. The German government's policy towards Israel is dividing institutions within it, German officials do not sound unified, there is a clear distinction between the foreign office and the bureaucracy in the foreign office."

Dr. Ali adds that Germany's insistence on continuing to sell weapons to Israel has also left it isolated among other EU countries.

"Many EU member countries don't see eye to eye with Germany on this issue, countries such as Ireland, Belgium and Spain have all voiced concerns about continued weapons sales to Israel."

While collectively, these tactics have applied unprecedented pressure on the German government, Dr. Ali also feels it’s difficult to say if Germany will change course.

"Especially now that (Israeli premier Benjamin) Netanyahu has been given a new lease of life after Iran's symbolic attack on Israel, the German government is busy trying to build a victim narrative around Israel, so it looks difficult that the German government will stop selling arms to Israel."

SOURCE: TRT WORLD

Salman Ahmed is a journalist and a political analyst covering European affairs for various international news organisations

OBITUARY

Frenchman 'with three faces' Jérôme Hamon dies aged 49

Jérôme Hamon, the first man in the world to have undergone two face transplants – in 2010 and 2018 – and who thus had three different faces during his life, has died at the age of 49.


Issued on: 19/04/2024

French face transplant patient Jérôme Hamon has died aged 49. 

© LP / ARNAUD DUMONTIER
By: RFI

"He was exhausted at the end," Franck Zal, a close family friend and doctor of the Frenchman, told Brittany daily Le Télégramme.

"A week ago I was exchanging text messages with him."

Zal's company developed the technology that made the 2018 transplant possible.

"I want to testify to Jérôme's strength. I was always asking him how he managed to manage it all," he added.

Hamon, who passed away on 16 April, will be laid to rest on Friday in Saint-Thégonnec, Finistère, the region in Brittany where he is from.

Genetic disorder

The 2018 transplant was performed by a team lead by plastic surgeon Laurent Lantieri at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris.

Lantieri had also performed Hamon's first total face transplant in 2010.

Hamon suffered from neurofibromatosis type 1 – also known as Von Recklinghausen disease – a genetic disorder that deformed his face.

The first transplant had been a success, as he recounted in the book T'as Vu le Monsieur ? (Have You Seen This Man?) published in April 2015.Second face transplant for Frenchman in world-first

But that same year, when he came down with a common cold, Hamon was treated with an antibiotic that was incompatible with his immunosuppression treatment.

By 2016 he began to show signs of chronic rejection, and his face deteriorated.

In the summer of 2017 Hamon was hospitalised, and by November his transplanted face, which showed areas of necrosis, had to be removed.

Hamon remained "faceless" for two months in intensive care at the Pompidou Hospital until France's biomedical agency found a compatible donor.

The eventual donor was a 22-year-old man who died several hundred kilometres from Paris.

"His dream was to work again. He was a book lover, but he was tired. He couldn't work again [after his 2018 transplant]," Zal said.

My father refused to bow to Kais Saied's tyranny in Tunisia

Weighing in on Tunisia's authoritarian slide under Kais Saied, Yusra Ghannouchi reflects on the first anniversary of her father Rached Ghannouchi's arrest.



Yusra Ghannouchi
19 Apr, 2024

Tunisians remain committed to defending democracy and the hard-won freedoms of the revolution, writes Yusra Ghannouchi 

[photo credit: Getty Images]

Exactly a year ago, my father Rached Ghannouchi, the speaker of Tunisia's elected parliament, was arrested at our home in Tunis, just as he was sitting down to break the Ramadan fast.

The rule of law had already been eroded over the preceding year and a half since President Kais Saied's coup on July 25, 2021, when he unilaterally dissolved parliament, dismissed the government and gave himself near-absolute powers.

After then suspending most of the constitution and ruling by decree, all that remained for Saied to do was to crush the opposition parties that refused to stand by while he dismantled Tunisia's hard-won freedoms and democratic institutions.

"After a decade of democracy in which Tunisians enjoyed unprecedented levels of freedom, we had hopes that the era of arbitrary detentions and political trials was behind us"

The authoritarian backsliding that Tunisians have witnessed since Saied's coup followed a familiar path laid by autocrats in other countries: a new constitution with unchecked executive powers approved in a dubious referendum; draconian new laws restricting freedom of speech; the takeover of the judiciary for use against political rivals; and targeting any critics and opponents with travel bans, house arrest and imprisonment.

My father was summoned countless times for interrogation on fabricated charges following Saied's takeover. Every time that he was interrogated, often for more than ten hours at a time, we anxiously waited, breathing a sigh of relief when he eventually walked out free, with a victory sign, the judges having found no evidence for the various preposterous allegations.

But after a year and a half of trying to hijack the judiciary, dismissing judges who refused to follow his orders, Tunisia's new dictator was able to get the arrest and verdict that he wanted.

After more than 100 security agents surrounded our family home on the evening of April 17, the 27th night of Ramadan, my father was taken to an unknown location and denied access to a lawyer for 48 hours.

Since then, he has remained in prison, and two sentences have been issued against him on trumped-up charges —first, of "incitement" and "conspiring against the security of the state," and then of accepting foreign funding — that violates the most basic requirements of the right to a fair trial. Now 82, he faces three more years in prison.

This isn't my father's first such ordeal. Last week, when another Eid passed with my father still in prison, I remembered the other ten times that my father spent Eid in jail in the 1980s, in different prisons under different Tunisian dictators.

One of the tragedies of Tunisia's authoritarian regression under Saied is having to relive past cycles of repression. After a decade of democracy in which Tunisians enjoyed unprecedented levels of freedom, we had hopes that the era of arbitrary detentions and political trials was behind us. Now, we find ourselves back to the same climate of fear, impunity and injustice.

But like other democracy activists around the world, Tunisians know that the struggle against dictatorship is a long one. We take heart and strength from seeing the determination of individuals and movements fighting for human dignity and justice under other authoritarian regimes. We also follow, with horror, the images of the ongoing massacres in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. It feels as if the world has never been more filled with injustice, in many forms.

"Following Saied's coup, my father took heart in the early signs of resistance to this new authoritarianism"

In a time of such pain and despair, I miss my father's ever-calm and reassuring voice, and his unwavering optimism, whatever the situation and challenges. I know that he would have shed many tears at the sight of so much loss and pain, but he would have refused to give in to hopelessness. He would rejoice at the global wave of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and see it as confirmation of his belief in a shared humanity and the universal recognition of the right to freedom and justice.

Unlike dictators throughout the region, he would have remained committed to the validity and necessity of universal rights and laws, having spent his life defending and promoting human rights not as a foreign import, but as shared human achievements that are not only compatible with, but required by, his understanding of Islam.

He would have reiterated his firm conviction that freedom and democracy are necessary for our region, just as they are necessary for justice for Palestinians, and that dictatorship could never be a route to liberation, rather the contrary.

As the complicity of dictatorships in the region with Israel's genocide in Gaza exposes the inextricable link between occupation and dictatorship, he would have argued that the struggle for freedom, which has been my father's lifelong quest, is part and parcel of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Despite the many setbacks in Tunisia and across the Arab world, the same desire for dignity, justice and freedom that sparked the Tunisian revolution and the other uprisings of the Arab Spring remains and cannot be fully repressed. Hope can still defy despair, with the belief that the accumulated sacrifices of so many will give birth to a brighter future.

The coup against Tunisia's democracy by Saied and his enablers may reveal how fragile democratic gains are. But Tunisians have remained steadfast in defending the ideals of our revolution against dictatorship.

Following Saied's coup, my father took heart in the early signs of resistance to this new authoritarianism from an increasing number of political parties, judges, lawyers, journalists and civil society organisations.

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Saied may have been acting like Tunisians autocrats before him, but he also soon faced more organised opposition than both Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Habib Bourguiba had. My father saw this as a "fruit of the post-revolution decade" and a sign that once people "tasted freedom," it would be difficult to force them to return to living under dictatorship.

To adopt my father's optimism, his imprisonment and that of so many other political prisoners from across the Tunisian political spectrum are proof of their refusal to bow down to tyranny. Tunisians are determined to achieve their freedom, once again.

Yusra Ghannouchi is the daughter of Rached Ghannouchi, the co-founder and leader of Ennahda, Tunisia’s largest political party.

This article originally appeared in Dawn's 'Democracy in Exile' journal. Read the original here.

Gambia: Bill Threatens Female Genital Mutilation Ban

Reject Proposed Law That Would Reverse Critical Gains for Women’s, Girls’ Rights

Click to expand Image
Protesters against female genital mutilation (FGM) demonstrate outside the National Assembly in Banjul, Gambia, on March 18, 2024.

 © 2024 Muhamadou Bittaye/AFP via Getty Images

(Abuja) – A bill before Gambia’s National Assembly to reverse a groundbreaking 2015 ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) jeopardizes the rights of women and girls in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest levels of FGM. In addition to the 2015 ban, which made all acts of FGM a criminal offense, the Gambian government adopted a national strategy and policy for 2022–2026 to end the practice in the country by 2030. If the National Assembly adopts the Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2024 at its June session, Gambia would become the first country to overturn a FGM ban.

“The Gambian government’s consideration of a bill reversing the ban on FGM is deeply troubling for women’s rights,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The proposed law would legitimize FGM in the country and could encourage similar measures elsewhere on the continent, undermining the progress made in protecting girls and women from this harmful practice.”

Female genital mutilation refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons,” according to the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It has lasting physical, psychological, and emotional consequences. It is also a serious public health issue and can lead to complications during childbirth, including maternal and infant mortality.

FGM violates girls’ and women’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, rights to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, rights to life, and rights to sexual and reproductive health.

The UN reported that over 230 million girls and women worldwide have survived FGM and live with its lasting effects. UNICEF found that approximately 73 percent of girls and women in Gambia ages 15 to 49 years reported surviving FGM, with more than 80 percent of those ages 10 to 19 having been cut before age 5. More than 20 percent of them were infibulated, meaning the genital area is cut and sown shut.

Traditional practitioners, many of them women, perform most cases of FGM in Gambia, leading to deaths in some cases as well as short-term and long-term morbidity in many more instances. While medicalization of FGM or reinfibulation, meaning the genital area is cut back open after previously being sown shut, performed by any category of healthcare provider, might slightly mitigate immediate complications, FGM is never “safe.” Girls and women face a high risk of health consequences immediately and later in life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no medical justification for the practice.

The 2019-2020 Gambia Demographic and Health Survey data showed a slight decrease in FGM, 73 percent of girls and women ages 15 to 49 having survived FGM compared with 75 percent in 2013. The survey also reflected a shift in the attitudes and behaviors of many practicing communities. However, over the last 30 years, the percentage of girls and women ages 10 to 19 who reported experiencing FGM has not changed significantly.

Most communities in Gambia use religion or tradition to justify the practice. However, there is no requirement in Sharia (Islamic law) for FGM, or female circumcision, nor is it a part of the Sunna (Prophetic traditions) or considered an honorable act. It contradicts the prophetic hadith, Muhammad’s words, “Do not harm yourself or others.” The common definition that circumcision is the cutting or removal of “extra skin” is not applicable because there is no unnecessary part of a female’s external genitalia that could be useless or harmful.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights defines harmful practices as “practices which constitute a denial of the dignity and/or the integrity of an individual, result in physical, psychological, economic and social harm and/or violence and limit women’s and girl’s capacity to participate fully in society.” It says that such practices, including those based on tradition, custom, or religion, are a violation of human rights.

FGM is addressed in a number of international conventions and regional agreements and is prohibited by national legislation in many countries. The international community and UN member countries have committed to eliminating all harmful practices, including FGM, by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality. With Gambia’s current FGM trends, reversing the ban would inevitably maintain and possibly increase its high levels of FGM, endangering the lives and well-being of Gambian girls and women now and in the future.

The Gambian government should prioritize the protection of girls’ and women’s rights and adopt all measures to eliminate this harmful practice by 2030, Human Rights Watch said. The government should heed calls from civil society organizations and African and UN human rights bodies to discourage legislative efforts to lift the ban.

It should urgently invest in comprehensive education and awareness-raising programs to promote understanding of the harmful effects of FGM, encourage community-led efforts to end the practice, strengthen enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance, and provide survivor-responsive medical, legal, and psychosocial support. International donors should immediately coordinate with national and local efforts to advocate for upholding the FGM ban.

“The Gambian government should fiercely protect the rights of Gambian girls and women and reject any proposal to reverse or weaken the 2015 FGM ban,” Segun said. “The government should take concrete steps to end the harmful practice of FGM once and for all.”

 

USA: Historic union victory at Volkswagen factory an “inspiration for democracy at work”

photo: UAW

The ITUC congratulates the workers at the Volkswagen car plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA for their historic vote to join the United Auto Workers (UAW).

20-04-2024

It is the first successful vote for unionisation at an auto factory in the southern USA since the 1940s. Nearly 75 per cent of workers voted for union representation.

The UAW has been expanding its efforts to organise auto factories in the south, which has been traditionally resistant to unionisation. As part of the plan to organise around 150,000 workers in car plants that have no union representation, elections are planned next month at the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facilities in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “This victory at Volkswagen is not just a win for the workers there; it is an inspiration to create more democratic workplaces across the USA, the Americas and the whole world. As our campaign For Democracy makes clear, the workplace is the forge for democracy, from where it spreads to enrich society, and then builds the legitimacy to demand greater accountability at global institutions.

“This vote will empower the workers in Chattanooga to demand the fair conditions and respect they deserve through collective bargaining. I congratulate them on this history victory and the global trade union movement stands with them.

“Working people across the world and the USA can take courage and inspiration from this vote. It is possible to overcome long-standing barriers and benefit from the clear advantages of democratic, unionised workplaces. We stand with working people as they use the momentum from this historic win to gain democratic rights and representation at work.”

 

ITUC report: Trade unions demand reform to address global sovereign debt crisis

photo: ILO

To coincide with a series of major global financial meetings, the ITUC has released a key report recommending immediate action, comprehensive reform and deeper trade union involvement in sovereign debt policy across all levels.

17-04-2024

This month sees the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors and the UN Financing for Development Forum. The ITUC report, Sovereign Debt, the Sustainable Development Goals and Trade Union Responses, offers these financial leaders bold solutions for dealing with the long-ignored global debt crisis.

At the launch of the For Democracy campaign, the ITUC noted that “more than 70 countries are on the brink of collapsing under the weight of a debt crisis foreseen yet neglected for years.” Nearly 2,000 people have already signed a petition calling on the World Bank to “change course and support worker demands for a new social contract.”

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle added: “With hundreds of millions of workers living in countries that are either already in deep debt distress or close to it, budget cuts are affecting employment, public services and social protection, while demand and essential investments are stifled. This threatens to plunge affected countries into a ‘lost decade’ at a time when resilience is critically low.

“The trade union movement calls for immediate reforms to address this crisis that threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, undermines the legitimacy of the world’s development finance system and destabilises democracy in these countries. We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. We demand comprehensive, democratic and sustainable solutions. Our message is simple: in real democracies, development must deliver for workers.”

The ITUC report is accompanied by five detailed country studies from Argentina, Mongolia, Senegal, Tunisia and Zambia, illustrating the specific impacts of the sovereign debt crisis on workers and outlining how trade unions can contribute to sustainable solutions.

These studies are intended to inform the discussions at the upcoming global financial forums, as well as ongoing efforts to reform the international financial system.

 

Argentina: ITUC condemns IMF’s praise of Milei’s disastrous economic policies

photo: Luis ROBAYO / AFP

The ITUC strongly criticises the IMF’s endorsement of the austerity measures taken by Argentine President Javier Milei, which have led to widespread social turmoil.

19-04-2024

Despite an inflation rate of nearly 150 per cent since Milei took office pushing many people into poverty and hunger, savage budget cuts threatening the future of schools, universities and public services, and a predicted drop of 2.8% in GDP this year, the IMF said that “progress so far has been really impressive.”

In a striking contrast to these economic challenges, Milei’s close aides, and the board of the public oil company, have recently received salary increases above the inflation rate. As an example, Senators voted by a show of hands to raise their own salaries by 170%, a decision made while half of their compatriots live in poverty.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “The IMF is celebrating the budget surplus in Argentina, but it’s indefensible to ignore the human cost of this economic shock therapy. Pensions have been slashed, thousands of public sector workers fired, public services are on the verge of collapse, unemployment is growing and food poverty spreading.

“These kinds of misguided, far-right economic measures deepen inequality and erode democratic foundations. It is no surprise that Milei also wants to bypass Congress and repress civil liberties – this is the anti-democratic ideology at the centre of his regime. Austerity is not the answer when people’s lives and their democratic rights are at stake.

“This situation should not be praised, but condemned and opposed. That is why the global trade movement is in solidarity with the CGT, the CTA-T and the CTA-A as they defend justice and democracy, call for a general strike on 9 May, and protest on 23 April in support of public education, research and scientific development in Argentina.

IMF reform

Luc Triangle continued: "The IMF and the other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) must reform their approach. They must support policies that strengthen, rather than undermine, democracy and social justice. As the ITUC For Democracy campaign makes clear, democracy means workers’ rights in the workplace, civil liberties in society and global institutions that prioritise human and trade union rights.”

As the IFIs hold their Spring Meetings, the ITUC and the Global Unions have released key demands for democratic reform of the international financial architecture. Thousands of people have signed this global petition demanding that the IFIs change course and support democracy in societies so that governments can deliver a New Social Contract for working people.

 

IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings: Time for a democratic reform of global institutions

The ITUC calls for a major democratic reform of the international financial architecture as a key demand in its For Democracy campaign, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their spring meetings.

11-04-2024

The ITUC calls for a major democratic reform of the international financial architecture as a key demand in its For Democracy campaign, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their spring meetings.

Across the world this month, trade unions focus on the fight For Democracy in societies, which means much more than free-and-fair elections. Central to the For Democracy campaign is the New Social Contract which will guarantee workers climate-friendly, decent jobs, rights for all, minimum living wages, universal social protection, equality and inclusion. In support of the drive to rebuild democracy for the benefit of all, working people are signing this global petition demanding that International Financial Institutions (IFIs) change course and support governments to deliver a New Social Contract to workers.

The IFIs can also play a constructive role in the fight For Democracy at a global level by prioritising human rights, a just global financial system centred on a New Social Contract, equitable cooperation among nations and peaceful common security.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “Democracy starts in the workplace with fundamental trade union rights and continues in our societies with respect for basic freedoms, but these principles can be undermined at the highest levels of international governance when austerity and neoliberal policy dominate.

“The IFIs must also introduce democratic reforms to their structures to effectively address the growing crises of countries struggling under unpayable debts, the climate emergency and a precarious global economy that is rigged to benefit the rich.

“Despite talk within the IFI of new directions and new approaches, we see frustratingly similar results. In practice, their policy advice frequently undermines decent work, social protection, good governance and democracy.”

In a pivotal year for the democratic legitimacy of global governance, the Global Unions have published a statement calling for reform of the IFIs, including:

•  A shift away from policies that undermine job quality to address major transformations such as climate change and the digital transition. Without reform, the statement says, “these transformations will further divide the world between those who benefit from new technologies and greater productivity and those that see their livelihoods destroyed with no replacement nor hope on the horizon.”
•  Resolution of, and relief from, the worsening debt crisis. Workers continue to be harmed by the international financial system’s failure to resolve the debt crisis, as countries must submit to austerity measures, including social spending cuts and privatisation in exchange for bailout loans. The statement describes existing policy as a “punitive approach [that] risks a lost decade, jeopardising the Sustainable Development Goals and democratic legitimacy of development finance.”

However, there is still opportunity to change course. The upcoming IDA21 replenishment and the review of the International Finance Corporation’s sustainability framework offers the World Bank a chance to promote decent work, uphold and implement labour standards and provide vital concessional financing.

Luc Triangle concluded: “In a time of underinvestment, conflict and rising anti-democratic extremism, we urge the IFIs to genuinely engage with the global labour movement as the world’s largest democratic force, and support workers’ call for a New Social Contract.

“As leaders in the international financial system with resources and a global development mandate, the IMF and the World Bank must change to fulfil their commitment to equitable and sustainable development through decent work.”

 

ILO agreement on living wage definition “a leap forward for social justice”

photo: UN Global Compact

The ILO has formally agreed on a definition for a living wage – an essential part of the New Social Contract – to reshape the global economy to serve the interests of working people.

25-03-2024

• ILO 
• A New Social Contract
 
• Wages

The agreement, reached in February during a tripartite meeting of experts on wage policies, was endorsed by the ILO’s Governing Body at its session on 13 March.

The new definition states that a living wage is "the wage level necessary to afford a decent standard of living for workers and their families, taking into account country circumstances and calculated for work performed during normal hours.”

The ILO agreement stresses the critical roles to be played by empowered wage-setting institutions and instruments, particularly social dialogue and collective bargaining, and stresses that governments and social partners should “ensure the incremental progression from minimum wages to living wages.”

It also sets out several basic principles for estimating living wages, including:

•  Use of evidence-based methodologies and robust data that are transparent and publicly available.
•  Consultation with social partners.
•  Regular adjustments to reflect cost of living changes, considering regional and socio-economic realities.

In addition, the ILO is required to assist governments and social partners in evidence-based wage setting. This involves aiding data collection for wage discussions, offering technical support to determine living wage needs and assessing relevant economic conditions upon request.

The agreement is expected to foster greater coherence with ongoing national and international initiatives aimed at defining, estimating and delivering living wages.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle welcomed the agreement: “Achieving this agreement at the ILO, after 80 years of neglecting the importance of living wages, is a major victory for working people.

“Right now, for too many workers, wages are insufficient to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, let alone secure a dignified livelihood.

“This agreement marks an important step towards international action to deliver living wages and marks a leap forward in social justice.”