DENTING MODI’S 1000-YEAR REICH

Has Indian democracy been pulled back from the brink, or will this humiliation lead to Modi digging in his heels?



Siddharth Varadarajan 

DAWN

Published June 16, 2024

Voters in India have done for Indian democracy what the country’s election commission and judiciary failed to do: discipline and rebuke Prime Minister Narendra Modi for seeking to pit Hindus and Muslims against each other, and for his cosy nexus with big business — whose dubious donations have fuelled government policies that have increased inequality and distress.

After 10 years in power, Modi has lost the parliamentary majority his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoyed, and will now run a minority government with the backing of coalition partners, some of whom are notoriously fickle.

It does not help that he himself has never run an actual — rather than a notional — coalition. Three years ago, when the Shiromani Akali Dal challenged him over his controversial farm laws, he remained unmoved and it was the Akalis who had to exit. But the allies India’s voters have now dealt him will not quietly pick up their jhola and walk away. They will have the ability to topple his government.

Putting on a brave face, Modi hailed the fact that he has returned to power for the third time as a “historic feat.” The truth is that the result represents a stunning personal setback for a man so convinced of his invincibility that he had begun to claim divine origins.

The politics of hate and division and stark economic inequality championed by Narendra Modi and the BJP has been dealt a chastening blow by the Indian electorate, which returned a verdict for the ruling coalition far short of its hoped-for landslide. Has Indian democracy been pulled back from the brink, or will this humiliation lead to Modi digging in his heels?

“As long as my mother was alive,” he told an interviewer in the midst of the election campaign, “I used to feel that perhaps I have been born biologically. But after her death, looking at all my experiences, I have become convinced… that God has sent me. The energy [I have] has not come from a biological body.” The electorate has brought this self-proclaimed messenger of God down to earth with a thud.

THE MUSLIM SCAPEGOAT

Modi’s claim to divinity came, incidentally, in the same interview where he lied about an election speech he had made at the start of the campaign. At Banswara, he had unambiguously referred to India’s Muslims as “infiltrators” and as people who have “more children.

Modi was not simply abusing Muslims but attempting to stoke irrational anxieties in India’s Hindu voters, about how he was the only leader capable of stopping the opposition from seizing their property and assets and handing them over to the Muslims.

Modi went on to repeat this accusation, with minor variations, at rally after rally. His party created nasty animated videos, aimed at scaring Hindus into believing this absurd claim. In another interview, he distorted the dubious findings of a widely publicised study by researchers in his own office — released to coincide with the anti-Muslim election narrative he was pushing — in order to convince Hindus that India’s Muslim population is growing so fast that they would soon be swamped.

Why is Modi so obsessed with Muslims?

For one, it is part of his political DNA. His career began in the BJP’s parent organisation — the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — and has been built around the RSS’s belief that India is a Hindu nation which was enslaved by Muslims for 800 years. Modi believes that Indian Muslims today — statistically one of the poorest cohorts in the country — are actually ‘privileged’ and enjoy more rights and benefits than Hindus, and that India cannot attain true glory as long as the ‘appeasement’ of Muslims continues.

But there is a second reason for the recent uptick in his anti-Muslim pronouncements. When you go into an election with nothing much to show by way of actual accomplishments — unemployment and rural despair are widespread and 800 million Indians subsist on free grain provided to them by the government — it helps to divert the attention of voters with large doses of Muslim bashing. This is what Modi and his party did.


Rahul Gandhi attends a Congress Party event in New Delhi: hardly anyone foresaw the extent to which voters would back Congress and its allies in this election | Reuters



STACKING THE BENCH BUT STILL LOSING

It is an open secret that campaigning for votes on the basis of direct or indirect appeals to religion is illegal under our election law and can get a politician banned from contesting for six years. However, Modi correctly calculated that the three election commissioners who are meant to enforce this law (and whom he handpicked for the job) would not say anything.

When some citizens approached the Delhi High Court, requesting that the Election Commission be told to file a case against Modi for his hate speeches, they were sent packing with the advice that they must have faith in the Election Commission. The latter, of course, did nothing and, when the Chief Election Commissioner was asked (after voting had ended) why he had not acted, his answer was that the courts had rejected petitions that had asked for the Election Commission to take action.






The courts and the Election Commission may have passed the buck between them and done nothing but, unfortunately for Modi, enough Hindu voters saw through his game and decided they were not going to trade their concerns about the here and now for the civil strife that the prime minister was clearly pushing for.

In Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the BJP’s vote share collapsed. Even Ayodhya — which was assigned a special place in Modi’s chauvinist politics — decided to dump him. In Rajasthan and Haryana, rural voters angry at Modi’s anti-farmer policies, backed the opposition. Across India, as many as 22 sitting ministers — roughly around a quarter of his ministerial council — lost their seats.

Thanks to an electoral battlefield skewed by the BJP’s money power, the partisanship of big media and his own willingness to use state coercion against the opposition, however, Modi has managed to limit his losses and limp across the finishing line with the help of a coalition.

On Sunday, June 9, he was sworn into office for a third time. The fact that he has been weakened is good news for India’s democracy but, to the extent to which he remains unchastened, it is fair to ask what his priorities will be this time around.

WHERE DOES MODI GO NOW?

Do his electoral losses mean he will no longer be able to pursue his Hindu chauvinist agenda? Will he now have to ease off on his attempts to stifle dissent and undermine press freedom? Will he decide it is time to be less indulgent towards big business? Or might he actually double down on his current agenda?

A Turkish friend reminds me that things can get especially dangerous when a strongman feels weaker. This has been the experience with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and there is no reason to expect Modi to be any different.

In his second term, Modi had begun to tighten the screws on India’s feisty digital media — which has so far managed to function and reach millions of readers and viewers despite the threats and blandishments that have turned India’s legacy media into a national embarrassment.

In his third term, Modi is likely to be more aggressive in his use of law fare against the media. Similarly, he will attempt to once again use the government’s enforcement agencies to stymie the opposition by going after individual leaders.






If Modi continues on the path he has taken so far, it will be up to his coalition partners and the judiciary to intervene. The fact that Modi is numerically vulnerable increases the likelihood that he will face some resistance from these quarters, but there is no guarantee that this will be so.

In his first two terms, Modi used the support and goodwill of foreign powers, especially the United States and in Europe, as a force multiplier to strengthen himself politically. That too is not necessarily going to change. Back in power, he is sure to leverage the bait of lucrative business opportunities for Western companies and the sharpening rift between the United States and China to allay any squeamishness generated by his open Islamophobia and authoritarian tendencies.

Indians are breathing easier today, confident that they have managed to pull Indian democracy back from the brink. They also know it will not take long for Modi to return to his divinely programmed factory settings. Support for the BJP’s anti-Muslim politics may have peaked in the north and the west of India, but he is keen to extend its reach in the south and east.

This is a man who boasts of having a 1000-year plan for India — a techno-corporate variant of the RSS’s destructive vision — and he is not going to abandon it so easily. The last world leader who dreamt of a millennium for his Reich ended up destroying his country and much more. India’s voters have delivered a body blow to Modi’s ‘vision’, but the truth is that he’s back.

Indians who love and value their constitution — their rights, their civilisation and their fraternity — will have to steel themselves for a more decisive round, which is sure to be just around the corner.

“Chalay chalo,” as Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote about the search for a new dawn, “ke woh manzil abhi nahin aayi”. A safe harbour is still some distance away.

The writer is a founding editor of The Wire. He was earlier the editor of The Hindu and is a recipient of the Shorenstein Journalism Award and the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year.

By arrangement with The Wire

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 16th, 2024

CASTEISM

Indignity, disease, death: The life of a sewerage worker in Pakistan

84 sewage workers have died in 19 districts of Pakistan over the past five years, according to advocacy group.

 According to WaterAid Pakistan, 80 per cent of sanitation workers in Pakistan are Christians, despite them making up just 2pc of the general population according to the 2023 census.

Zofeen T. Ebrahim 

Published June 14, 2024

DAWN

A dark head emerges, followed by the torso. The balding man heaves himself up, hands on the sides of the manhole, as he is helped by two men. Gasping for breath, the man, who seems to be in his late 40s, sits on the edge, wearing just a pair of dark pants, the same color as the putrid swirling water he comes out from.

This is an all-too-familiar sight in Karachi, with its over 20 million residents producing 475 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater going into decades-old crumbling sewerage-systems.

After over a hundred dives into the sewers in the last two years, Adil Masih, 22, says, “I have proved to my seniors, I can do the job well.” He hopes to be upgraded from a kachha (not formally employed) to a pucca (permanent) employee at Karachi’s government-owned Karachi Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC), formerly known as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and is commonly referred to as the water board, in the next six months.

Earning Rs25,000 (USD 90) a month, which Adil gets as a lump sum of Rs75,000 (USD 269) every three months, the pay will rise to Rs32,000 (USD 115), which is the minimum wages in Sindh province set by the government once he becomes pucca.


Sewer work is dirty but essential work in a busy city like Karachi. A worker popularly known as Mithoo rests after unblocking sewage. — credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS



“The first time is always the most terrifying experience,” recalls Amjad Masih, 48, sporting a metallic earring in his left lobe. Among the 2,300 sewer cleaners under the employment of the KWSC, to do manual scavenging to unclog the drains, he claims to have taught Adil the dos and donts of diving into the slush. “You have to be smart to outdo death, which is our companion as we go down,” he says.

It is not the army of cockroaches and the stink that greets you when you open the manhole lid to get in, or the rats swimming in filthy water, but the blades and used syringes floating that are a cause for concern for many as they go down to bring up the rocks and the buckets of filthy silt.

But getting into the sewers is a last resort. “We first try to unclog the line using a long bamboo shaft to prod and loosen the waste, when that fails, we climb down into the gutters and clean them with our hands,” explains Amjad, employed with the water and sanitation company since 2014, and becoming permanent in 2017.
Toxic cauldron

Although the civic agency claims the workers are provided personal protective equipment to shield them from chemical, physical and microbial hazards, many, like Amjad, refuse to wear it.

“I need to feel the rocks and stones with my feet to be able to bring them up,” he says. “Nothing happens,” adds Adil. “We go to the doctor for treatment and are back at work.”

A former KWSC official, speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity, said there have been several deaths and injuries. “It is up to the supervisors to ensure they only send men down the manhole who comply with safety regulations.” He said the protective gear must include gas masks, ladders, and gloves as the “bare minimum,” as there are definite health risks as well as the risk of losing your life.

More than the physical hazards, it is the invisible danger stalking these men, in the form of gases like methane, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide — produced when wastewater contains chlorine bleaches, industrial solvents and gasoline — when mixed with concrete in drainpipes — that have taken the lives of these cleaners.

Earlier in March, two young sanitation workers, Arif Moon Masih, 25, and Shan Masih, 23, died after inhaling toxic fumes in Faisalabad, in the Punjab province. In January, two workers in Karachi met with a similar fate while cleaning sewerage lines.

According to Sweepers Are Superheroes, an advocacy campaign group, around 84 sewage workers have died in 19 districts of Pakistan over the past five years. In neighboring India, one sewer worker dies every five days, according to a 2018 report by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis.

“I had almost died once,” recalls Amjad, of how he got “gassed” and passed out. “Luckily for me, I did the job and came up and then collapsed.”

But there have been quite a few of his colleagues, he says, who have died due to inhalation while still inside.

Adil said he has inhaled gases quite a few times too. “My eyes burn, and when I come out, I vomit and drink a bottle of cold fizzy drink and am set again,” he said. But the last time it happened, he had to be hospitalized as he had passed out.

With time, says Amjad, they have learned to take precautions.

“We open the manhole lid to let the gases escape before going in,” he says. A dead rat floating on the surface is a giveaway that there are gases, he adds.

The KWSC cleaners work as a team of four. One is sent down wearing a harness tied to a rope. If something is not right or he’s done the job, he tugs at the rope, and the three men waiting outside immediately pull him out. But the man is pulled out after three to four minutes have elapsed without waiting for the tug “in case he has become unconscious,” explains Amjad. He claims to be able to hold his breath for as long as five minutes because “I have to sometimes go as deep as 30 feet.”

Adil is only able to do a maximum of seven feet and hold his breath for no more than two minutes, but the gases are found in shallower drains. Along with buckets of silt, the drains are often clogged with stones and boulders that need to be brought up, to allow the water to flow freely.

Amjad and Adil also take on private work, like the rest of the KWSC sanitation workers. The agency knows but looks the other way. “If they can earn a little extra, it is ok,” says the officer.

“We are called to open up blocked drains by residents and restaurant management and for a couple hours of work, we are able to earn well,” says Adil.

Adil Masih and Amjad Masih work in the sewers of Karachi, a dangerous and low-paying occupation. — credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS


Janitorial work reserved for Christians

Adil and Amjad are unrelated but carry the same surname — Masih — which points to their religion — both are Christians. According to WaterAid Pakistan, 80 per cent of sanitation workers in Pakistan are Christians, despite them making up just 2pc of the general population according to the 2023 census. The report Shame and Stigma in Sanitation, published by the Center for Law & Justice (CLJ) in 2021, connects sanitation work to the age-old caste system prevalent in the Indian sub-continent that attached birth to occupations.

“This ruthless practice has died down to a large extent in Pakistan, but sanitation is probably the only occupation where this traditional caste structure continues,” it points out.

The CLJ’s report carries a survey of the employees of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), which provides drinking water and ensures the smooth working of the sewerage systems, and the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), which is tasked with collecting and disposing of solid waste from households, industries and hospitals in Lahore city, in the Punjab province. Wasa has 2,240 sanitation workers, out of which 1,609 are Christians. The LWMC has 9,000 workers and all of them are Christians. 87pc of the employees in both organisations believed “janitorial work is only for Christians,” while 72pc of Christian workers said their Muslim coworkers “believe that this work is not for them.”

The same is true for Karachi as well. Till about five years ago, the KWSC would advertise for the job of sewer cleaners, specifically asking for non-Muslims but stopped after receiving criticism from rights groups.

“We removed this condition and started hiring Muslims for the cleaning of sewers, but they refuse to go down the sewers,” said the KWSC official. In Punjab province, the discriminatory policy of employing only non-Muslims belonging to minorities for janitorial work was struck down in 2016.

With half of Karachi being dug and new drainage lines being laid, much of the work is being carried out by Pathans (Muslims belonging to an ethnic group) and, until last year, by Afghans too. “They are wading in the same filthy water,” says Amjad.

He got a much more lucrative job—working as a sweeper in an apartment building and earning more.

“Being a permanent employee with a government department means lifelong security; the job is for keeps,” he explains. “And on a day-to-day basis too, life is slightly easier. You are not harassed by the police, get sick leave and free healthcare, and there are retirement benefits too, and you cannot be kicked out on any one person’s whim.”
Way forward

But Amjad and Adil’s work and how they are treated by their employers are in complete contrast to what the Pakistani government has signed under the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 8 — of improving the working conditions of sanitation workers. It also seems unlikely that targets 8.5 “full employment and decent work with equal pay” and 8.8 “protect labour rights and promote safe working environments” will be met by 2030.

Farah Zia, the director of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, talking to IPS, pointed out that Pakistan had made little progress in meeting the criteria for decent work for sanitation workers, considered amongst the most “marginalised labour groups in Pakistan’s workforce.”

Not being “paid a living wage or to live in an environment free of social stigma,” Zia said they were not even provided ample safety equipment and training to protect themselves from occupational hazards. In addition, she pointed out that the 2006 National Sanitation Policy was outdated and fell “short of addressing these concerns.”

The same was observed in Sindh province, where Amjad and Adil live. “Although the Sindh government had adopted a provincial sanitation policy in 2017, it did not address the concerns related to the working and living conditions of these workers in the province,” Zia pointed out

In 2021, in line with SDG 8, WaterAid Pakistan (WAP) worked with the local government in the Punjab province’s Muzaffargarh district to ensure the safety of sanitation workers. Apart from provision of safety equipment and access to clean drinking water, the organization advocated that these “essential workers receive the respect and dignity they deserve,” said Muhammad Fazal, heading the Strategy and Policy Programme of the WAP.

Naeem Sadiq, a Karachi-based industrial engineer and a social activist who has long been fighting for the rights of these men has calculated the highest and lowest salaries in the public sector.

“The ratio of the salary of a janitor to the senior most bureaucrat in the UK is 1:8, while in Pakistan it is 1:80. The ratio of the salary of a janitor to the senior-most judge in the UK is 1:11, while in Pakistan it is 1:115. The ratio between the salary of a janitor and the heads of the highest-paid public sector organizations in the UK is 1:20, while in Pakistan it is 1:250,” he told IPS.

Sadiq wants a complete ban on manual scavenging. “I don’t know how we let our fellow men enter a sewer bubbling with human waste and poisonous gases,” he tells IPS, adding, “We need machines to do this dirty, dangerous work.”

The KWSC has 128 mobile tanker-like contraptions equipped with suctional jetting machines that remove the water from the sewers so that cleaners can go down a 30-foot manhole without having to dive into it to remove silt, timber and stones that cannot be sucked out and have to be brought up manually,’’ said the KWSC official.

That is not good enough for Sadiq. A year ago, he and a group of philanthropists came up with a prototype of a simple gutter-cleaning machine (using the motorbike’s skeleton), which he claims is the cheapest one in the world, costing Rs1.5 million (USD 5,382).

“It can be sent deep into the sewer to bring up stones, rocks, sludge and silt, and a high-pressure jetting contraption to unclog the lines.”

It is now up to the government to use the design and start manufacturing the contraption called Bhalai (kindness, benefit). “We are absolutely willing to share the design,” said Sadiq.

Header image: A sewerage worker who is popularly known as Mithoo emerges from the sewer — credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

This article was originally published in Inter Press Service and has been reproduced here with permission.

DAWN

Aljazeera.comwww.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/15/it-is-time-to-talk-about-caste-in-pakistan-and-pakistani-diaspora

It is time to talk about caste in Pakistan and Pakistani diaspora

Dec 15, 2020 ... While there are Dalit Muslims in Pakistan, because of the belief that there are no caste hierarchies among Muslims, the castes mentioned as ...

Seismic perils

Masood Lohar 

Published June 17, 2024 

ON June 3, 2024, Karachi experienced a 3.2 magnitude earthquake, a stark reminder of the city’s persistent and potentially increasing seismic hazards. Earlier, on April 24, a quake of similar magnitude struck the area of Malir in Karachi.

The city is situated on one major seismic fault line and close to four minor faults. The Allah Bund fault, the major fault, runs parallel to Sindh’s coastal belt, extending to Gujarat, India, and passing through the area around Pakistan Steel Mills and the area in District East. Another fault lies in the Rann of Kutch; the Pubb fault is located near the Makran coast west of the city; and a fourth fault runs through Dadu district on Karachi’s northern boundary. Additionally, the triple junction of the Indian, Arabian, and Eurasian tectonic plates is only 150 nautical miles northwest, making the entire Makran coast, including Gwadar, vulnerable.

The history of earthquakes along Sindh’s coastal belts, including Karachi and the Makran coast, is marked by significant seismic events that have caused extensive damage and loss of life. Historical records and scientific sources show that a massive earthquake, measuring 7.5, struck the Debal port east of Karachi in the ninth century, killing thousands. The jolt caused the Indus river to change its course.

In 1668, a quake of 7.6 magnitude hit the Auranga port near present-day Shah Bundar, submerging a large portion of the area. Due to increased trade thanks to the activities of the East India Company, the Portuguese, and the Dutch, Mughal Prince Aurangzeb Alamgir, who was then the governor of Multan, had commissioned this additional port to complement the primary Lahari port. This port had started working from 1652.


Recent tremors in Karachi are a reminder of seismic risks.

On June 16, 1819, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Sindhri port on the Pakistan-India border in present-day Badin district, killing over 1,500 people and raising a 90-kilometre stretch of land by 4.3 metres. The tremor was strongly felt in Hyderabad in Sindh. In November 1945, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Makran coast, killing over 4,000 people. The epicentre was 408 km west of Karachi. The tsunami generated high waves of up to 12m, destroying a fishing village and causing the waters to rise up to 2m in Karachi. A tsunami also hit Mumbai, washing away 15 people.

The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, which claimed thousands of lives in India, was also strongly felt in Karachi and Hyderabad. Karachi, located just 378 km from the quake’s epicentre, experienced significant tremors. Since 1900, Karachi has been directly hit by 24 earthquakes with magnitudes above 3.0 and up to 5.2 on the Richter scale.

Moreover, Karachi’s capacity to absorb seismic shocks has diminished due to extensive and haphazard urban development. Gizri Creek, once one of the main creeks, has become a housing settlement, leaving Korangi Creek as the only remaining waterway. Sub-creeks of Korangi Creek have been converted into golf clubs and DHAs, ignoring the hazards of disrupting the marine ecosystem. Obhayo, once Karachi’s largest lagoon starting from what was then Kemari Island, has been overtaken by housing settlements and installations like Hijrat Colony, Shireen Jinnah Colony, the Mai Kolachi Bridge, and the areas of Do Talwar and Teen Talwar. It is now reduced to a polluted pond known as Boat Basin.

The construction of the Mai Kolachi Bridge severed the lagoon from the open sea, disrupting a vital marine function. Similarly, the disconnection of the Nai Naar lagoon at Sandspit in the 1950s ended the natural tide cycle that once cleansed Kemari harbour. The flash flood thrust during monsoon in the city’s narrowing two rivers can also create a local seismic activity because of chocked outflows to the sea.

Karachi’s population has skyrocketed from four million in 1980 to over 20m now, leading to unplanned expansion and the proliferation of poorly constructed buildings. Urgent measures are needed to restore Karachi’s marine ecosystem and improve disaster resilience. Undoing the damage is a herculean, near impossible task but that does not mean the whole city should continue to be at risk. The rapidly growing trend of high-rise buildings, and many on reclaimed land facing the open sea calls for serious government intervention. Failure to address these issues could endanger the lives of millions of people and disrupt a vital commercial hub as both ports are exposed and one of them lies right on the Allah Bund fault.

The writer is an expert on climate change and sustainable development and founder of the Clifton Urban Forest.
mlohar@gmail.com
X: masoodlohar

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2024

Climate debt trap

Jamil Ahmad 

Published June 15, 2024 

DAWN

HEAVY and rising debt has emerged as one of the toughest hurdles for developing nations to address climate change, alleviate poverty, and seek economic development. The total external debt of 118 low- and middle-income countries doubled to $3.1 trillion in 2022 from $1.5tr in 2010, rising to about 15 per cent of their GDP.

The amount of finance required to meet their debt payments has also increased. In 2022, developing countries spent $443 billion to service their public debts, according to the World Bank’s International Debt Report. This number will be overtaken soon, as 2024 is projected to be the costliest debt service year yet this century, according to the Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery, which focuses on the linkages between debt distress and climate change.

Fuelled by inflation, high interest rates, energy crisis, and economic uncertainty after Covid-19, the implications of all-time high debt service payments are alarming, shrinking the fiscal space for developing countries to scale up investments in climate and sustainable development. About 50 developing countries are sliding towards default as a major chunk of their income is eaten up by debt, leaving little for basic services.

This liquidity crunch is forcing a situation where climate and environment are relegated to the back-burner even though inaction in these two areas poses risks. The inability of developing countries to protect themselves against the vagaries of global warming due to fiscal constraints has ramifications beyond national and regional boundaries. It is risking sustainable development and compounding the global crises of poverty, climate, food insecurity, water, clean air, energy, and health. The world cannot afford this.


What will constitute a lasting solution?

Can there be a quick fix? What will constitute a lasting solution?

Immediate debt relief is one option, which frees fiscal space for climate and development. Lowering the costs of borrowing and extending long-term loans provide relief.

Debt swaps for climate and nature are also considered a win-win, where creditors are expected to forgo existing debt in return for climate- or nature-related actions and policies. Invoking the ‘polluters pay’ principle, the V20, a group of 68 climate-vulnerable countries, has proposed imposing carbon tax on major economies to mobilise finances for sustainable investments in their regions.

However, any long-term solution will not be forthcoming without a comprehensive review of the existing sovereign debt mechanisms. Established some 80 years ago, the international financial system is confronted today by challenges posed by climate change; its strict conditionalities make access to funds difficult for those who need it most, and its old mechanisms are struggling to come to the rescue of emerging and developing economies.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has called for a complete overhaul of the global financial architecture, which he describes as morally bankrupt for its failure to respond to new challenges. The Bridgetown Initiative has also tabled a number of proposals to revamp the global financial system.

While the reform process will take time to unfold, the secretary general has suggested the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) stimulus package of $500bn a year in three priority areas: tackling the high cost of debt and rising risks of debt distress, massively scaling up long-term financing for development through public development banks, including multilateral development banks, and expanding contingency financing for countries in need.

These proposals have generated momentum for discussion in political and technical fora. The UN climate change conferences also deliberate this issue. This year’s spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF focused on how to assist countries address climate change and help the most indebted nations. Last year’s Africa Climate Summit and the Asean meetings discussed how to address the financial challenges of climate-vulnerable nations. Additionally, a group of 100 prominent individuals, including former heads of state and government and industrialists, sent an open letter to the G20 leaders in April during the IMF/ World Bank spring meetings calling for urgent reforms to the international financial system and actions to address the burden of debt hindering progress on climate and SDGs.

While climate action is now part of economic policymaking nationally, international financial mechanisms are yet to effectively respond to developing nations’ funding needs. Removing the burdensome debt, as the letter says, will allow countries to invest in their people and their future. This must be done without delay. Anything less will blow the climate debt trap into a climate death trap for the world’s poor.

The writer is director of intergovernmental affairs, United Nations Environment Programme.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2024

Our digital liberty

Samia Liaquat Ali Khan 

Published June 15, 2024 

DAWN

THE latest GSMA Mobile Gender Gap report (using 2023 data) shows some positive global developments with regards to women’s access to mobile phones and internet usage through these phones. According to the survey (conducted annually) 66 per cent of women from low and middle-income countries now use mobile internet compared to 78pc of men. However, it is key to note that mobile internet users do not necessarily own a phone — any person who has used mobile internet (on their own or someone else’s mobile) within the past three months is included. In Pakistan, 86pc of men own a mobile phone compared to 53pc of women, while with regard to mobile internet adoption 53pc of men as compared to 33pc of women have such access. In both cases, the differential between male and female access comes to 38pc (refer to GSMA’s report for details on methodology).

A total of 12 low- and middle-income countries were surveyed for this report — six from Sub-Saharan Africa, four from South Asia and two from Latin America. Pakistan ranks the lowest with regard to the gender divide in mobile phone ownership; 88pc of women own a mobile phone in Nigeria, 75pc in India, and 87pc in Mexico. Ethiopia comes closest to, but still beats Pakistan, with 57pc of women there owning mobiles. Gender gaps in smartphone ownership also vary across survey countries and once again Pakistan’s gender gap is the widest at 49pc. But possibly, the most worrying part of the survey is the response to a question based on perception. Respondents were asked whether mobile internet is more important for men or women. In 11 out of 12 countries, a majority (70pc or more) believed it to be of equal importance. In Pakistan, however, 42pc of men and 28pc of women believed it is more important for men.

The digital divide in gender is a reflection of the society we live in. While there appear to be many voices calling for gender inclusion, as a society, we seem to be keeping the brakes on. Recently, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority unveiled its digital gender inclusion strategy. Developed with the support of Unesco and private sector actors, the strategy which should have been cutting edge in its approach fumbled badly. Problem identification was not an issue — it referred to the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement survey, which reveals that women from marginalised communities face severe barriers to digital technology access, stemming from factors such as limited education, financial constraints, cultural and social restrictions, and a lack of awareness about the advantages of digital technology. It also referred to earlier GSMA surveys which identify the top barriers for women in Pakistan to be difficulties in reading and writing, family disapproval, perception that the internet is not relevant for women, handset cost, safety and security concerns.


The digital divide in gender is a reflection of the society we live in.

Where the strategy revealed a disconnect with reality was in its responses to the said challenges. The approach to and process of resolving the issues are alarmingly blinkered. While the rhetoric speaks of enhancing digital literacy, improving affordability, investing in relevant content and services, ensuring online safety, improving access, and challenging prevailing social norms, the ways of doing so reflect entrenched patriarchal beliefs. How can one tell? Proposed solutions entail forming a number of committees that are linked to and managed by government ministries, to address challenges. It speaks of getting civil society organisations to communicate messages at the grassroots level to change social norms.

This told me the authors of these solutions were mired in the pre-digital top-down and siloed way of thinking which still governs 99pc of Pakistan. Solutions and approaches referred to have been around for 30 years, and have yet to show impact. Transferring these same old solutions to address the gender digital divide means that we continue with business as usual. Women’s digital access and digital freedom remain under attack, on par with their physical freedom.

Most readers will have seen the recent news where the DG of Immigration and Passports had the audacity to state that divorced women need to have their ex-husband’s names on their passports to prove parentage. That blew me away. I am a citizen of this country and an adult — but heaven forbid — because I am a woman I still need to be told how to think, what to think, what to do, how to act and how to dress. As long as the mentality of controlling women guides everything we do (and in Pakistan I have realised that the single-most important priority remains the control of women), then such strategies are in themselves anathema to the values they espouse of inclusion and equality.

So where do we go from here. We have to persevere and there are silver linings. The first being that we have a woman as IT minister, who is young and a potential powerhouse, and who can surround herself with the right kinds of minds that can break the mould. A variety of industry experts and think tanks have already given some guiding thoughts on what needs to be done. This includes mapping the digital ecosystem to understand where other policies or practices are harming women and as a first step to remove these stumbling blocks. It also includes developing programmes for women who may already have some access to mobiles but are hesitant to use them — so digital literacy skills and online safety and security advisory services are critical.

But how to change family disapproval, male control and perceptions of lack of relevance? This requires evolved leadership that can build alliances between public and private sectors, and between men and women to address the male mindset. Whether it is the creation of the Pakistan Single Window, or the Pakistan Digital Stack, one thing is for certain — those responsible for designing and managing such platforms, and use cases, will set the tone for women’s digital liberties in the future.

The writer is an independent development professional and impact adviser with over 25 years of experience on designing and managing programmesto improve people’s lives.
samialakhan21@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2024

Indian suspect in plot to kill Sikh separatist extradited to US

Reuters

Published June 17, 2024 

An Indian man suspected by the US of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil has been extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website and a source familiar with the matter.

Nikhil Gupta has been accused by US federal prosecutors of plotting with an Indian government official to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

Gupta travelled to Prague from India last June and was arrested by Czech authorities. Last month, a Czech court rejected his petition to avoid being sent to the US, clearing the way for the Czech justice minister to extradite him

An inmate search by name on the Bureau of Prisons website showed on Sunday that Gupta, 52, is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, a federal administrative detention facility. A source familiar with the matter, who did not want to be identified, separately confirmed Gupta’s extradition and his detention in Brooklyn.


A US Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. Gupta’s US-based lawyer, attorney Jeffrey Chabrowe, had no immediate comment. There was also no immediate comment from Czech authorities.

The discovery of assassination plots against Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has tested relations with India, seen by Western nations as a counter to China’s rising global influence. India’s government denies involvement in the plots.

Canada said in September its intelligence agencies were pursuing allegations linking India’s government to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 in Canada.

In November, US authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Pannun, who is a US and Canadian citizen. Gupta is accused of involvement in that plot.

Pannun told Reuters on Sunday that while the extradition was a welcome step, “Nikhil Gupta is just a foot soldier.”

He alleged that those who hired Gupta were senior members of the Indian government who acted on the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India’s government has dissociated itself from the plot against Pannun, saying it was against government policy. It has said it would formally investigate security concerns raised by Washington.

New Delhi has long complained about Sikh separatist groups outside India, viewing them as security threats. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.

Last month, Washington said it was satisfied so far with India’s moves to ensure accountability in the alleged plots, but added that many steps still needed to be taken.

Low snow on the Himalayas threatens water security: study

AFP

Published June 17, 2024 

Snowmelt is the source of about a quarter of the total water flow of 12 major river basins that originate high in the Himalayan region. — AFP

Millions of people dependent on Himalayan snowmelt for water face a “very serious” risk of shortages this year after one of the lowest rates of snowfall, scientists warned on Monday.

Snowmelt is the source of about a quarter of the total water flow of 12 major river basins that originate high in the region, a report said.

“This is a wake-up call for researchers, policymakers, and downstream communities,” said report author Sher Muhammad, from the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

“Lower accumulation of snow and fluctuating levels of snow pose a very serious increased risk of water shortages, particularly this year.”


Snow and ice on the Himalayas are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the river valleys below, according to ICIMOD.

While snow levels fluctuate each year, scientists say climate change is driving erratic rainfall and shifting weather patterns.

The report measured “snow persistence” — the time snow remains on the ground — with levels dropping almost a fifth below normal this year across the wider Hindu Kush and Himalaya region.

“This year’s snow persistence (18.5 per cent below normal) is the second-lowest in the past 22 years, narrowly trailing the record low of 19pc set in 2018,” Muhammad told AFP.

As well as Nepal, the inter-governmental ICIMOD organisation includes member countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.

The report warned that ICIMOD “observations and projections indicate significant changes in the timing and intensity of stream flows”, with snow a key part.

“Snow plays a particularly important role in ensuring seasonal water availability,” it added.

The organisation has been monitoring snow in the region for over two decades, noting that 2024 marked a “significant anomaly”.

The Ganges river basin, which flows through India, had the “lowest snow persistence” that ICIMOD has recorded, 17pc below average, worse than the 15pc in 2018.

The Helmand River basin in Afghanistan recorded its second-lowest snow persistence levels, 32pc below normal.

The Indus River basin was down 23pc below normal levels, while the Brahmaputra River basin, which ends in Bangladesh, had snow persistence “notably below normal” at 15pc.

Miriam Jackson, the senior cryosphere specialist at ICIMOD, urged authorities to “take proactive measures to address possible drought situations”.

Palestine’s plight

Editorial 

Published June 17, 2024

DAWN

AS pilgrims wrap up the Haj rituals, and other Muslims celebrate Eidul Azha, the continuing massacre in Gaza demands that believers across the world — in fact, all people of conscience — remember the brutalised inhabitants of Palestine in these times of festivity.

While the faithful across the world are celebrating with their families, thousands of Palestinian children have either been orphaned, or themselves been killed by the Israeli aggressors. For Gaza’s orphans, this would have been a depressing Eid like no other. On Saturday, at the climax of Haj, the Saudi cleric delivering the khutba in Arafat did manage to make a mention of Palestine, asking Muslims to “pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine who have been afflicted with harm”. For the faithful, prayers are, of course, essential; yet the Muslim world has done little else to help end the atrocious Israeli campaign of death in Gaza.

The Muslim world is not without agency. A number of Muslim countries have fabulous wealth, thanks to their hydrocarbon deposits, while others have standing armies respected around the world. Yet none of this economic and geopolitical clout has been used to end the eight-month-old slaughter in Gaza. The OIC has issued statements laden with strong adjectives, as has the Arab League. But other than that, the Muslim world’s response to the Palestine crisis has been marked by feebleness.

The masses in various Muslim-majority states, as well as populations in non-Muslim countries, may have boycotted brands perceived to be sympathetic to Israel, but little else of consequence has been done in the lands of Islam.

Iran and its allied armed groups have targeted Israel, but these actions have had limited effect in ending the Gaza massacre, though skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to expand into a full-blown war. When the history of this horrific conflict is written, it is the role of countries such as South Africa, Brazil and Colombia that will be remembered with respect; these states — in the spirit of humanity — confronted Israel and expressed exemplary solidarity with Palestine.

Tel Aviv is not interested in a ceasefire, nor will lukewarm resolutions make it stop its blood-soaked campaign. Concrete steps are needed, such as an arms embargo and trade blockade. Along with praying for Palestine, Muslim states must take more worldly actions to restrain Israel.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2024

US student socialists assess ‘explosive’ Gaza solidarity encampment movement

16 June, 2024

In the month and a half since the first student Palestine solidarity encampment was set up, more than 140 encampments have been established across the United States and internationally.

To get an update on the situation, Isaac Nellist, Chloe DS and Jacob Andrewartha spoke to Cyn Huang (University of California Berkeley), Daniil Sapunkov (The City University of New York) and Amey (San Francisco State University). Huang and Sapunkov are also members of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and the Bread & Roses caucus with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

The three also discuss how the student movement in solidarity with Palestine plans to progress over the summer break and its impact on labour struggles, the left and the 2024 presidential elections. This is a follow-up interview to one that was conducted about a month ago and can be viewed here.

It has been about a month and a half since the first encampments were set up. Could you talk us through some of the major developments over this period and where the movement is at currently?

Cyn: Last we talked we were in the most explosive period of the movement, within the first two weeks or so. Since then more than 140 encampments have been set up, not just in the United States but in Britain, Canada, Brazil, France and, of course, Australia.

We have seen divergent responses from university administrations. At the start of the movement the major headline was the immense repression seen at schools, particularly on the East Coast. It has ranged from that to radio silence from schools hoping that the protest movement would fizzle out.

In some places there have been negotiations, often not approached in good faith by the administration. The administration’s strategy has been to channel the energy of the activists into backdoor meetings, where they hope to confuse and demobilise us. But other negotiations have taken place that have won more potent concessions and empowering terms that don’t necessarily require students to demobilise or give up their right to free speech and protest. It really depends on the local context.

One obstacle that people anticipated early on was the end of semester. We have hit that for most schools. People were uncertain about the longevity of the movement and had different analyses about how to approach the end of the semester. For example, do we have enough power to risk a sweep and stand up to the police?

Some people felt that major wins around divestment had to be won before the end of the semester or the movement would fizzle out. This encouraged people to have final confrontational battles with the police and the administration. We can debate whether we had enough power to do that or whether the student movement has to go through multiple iterations before we win divestment demands and how we relate to things in the long term.

Around the end of the semester there were actions related to Commencement or Graduation ceremonies, ranging from individual acts of resistance to more coordinated actions like banner drops and mass walkouts.

The People’s Conference for Palestine was also held over May 24–26 organised by the Palestinian Youth Movement and sponsored by many other organisations. It was the first attempt to bring together Palestine solidarity activists from across the country, including students who participated in the encampments, into one room to debate how the movement should progress. It was very impressive and heartening and got the ball rolling by making connections between activists and creating more focus on upcoming strategy.

Now that the encampment upsurge has for the most part ended, the task is to consolidate all the amazing activists we have met and who have been activated by this process and encourage them to get involved in more permanent organisation. We need to clarify what victories we have had and what lessons we have learned and make plans for the next semester.

Daniil: So much has happened since we last spoke: there have been many victories and losses and different outcomes on different campuses. It has been heartening to see comrades across the country winning divestment, disclosure and pressuring university boards and administrations, showing the power of students and turning them into organisers and activists in real time. There have been inspiring wins at San Francisco State University, the University of Oregon, Brown University and many others. The biggest question is how these student protesters can turn the wheels of the labour movement and spark different political dynamics beyond campuses.

Something that was very exciting was the levels of political discussion we were able to have as it was happening and now that we are past the peak of the movement. But this is not over, the atrocities in Rafah and Gaza are still ongoing, so we need to discuss what else we can do. This discussion has been really productive within YDSA and the Bread & Roses caucus. We can then share what comes out of these discussions in the broader movement: things like internal democracy, mass movement orientation and class struggle. Our biggest task is to keep the energy going and motivate the newly activated layer of politicised students to continue.

Here in Australia, students have won disclosure agreements at some campuses. What are some examples of wins achieved by the encampments in the US? Have any campuses won full divestment?

Cyn: We have already seen significant movement towards disclosure and divestment at many universities. Other wins have been scholarships for Palestinian students and commitments to stop anti-Palestinian racism on campuses. A lot of these universities [where gains have been made] have a rich history of organising around Palestine.

The California State University (CSU) system in particular is really interesting because it is a large university system and the strategy of the administration has been to pursue campus-level negotiations and picking off camps one-by-one. They know campus-level negotiations can’t impact the investment portfolio as much because the campus administration can claim they are sympathetic to the students but also say they can’t do much about the issue because it ultimately rests with the regional board.

Mostly where there have been negotiations, however, things have been more in the middle. The administrations have attempted to corner students into a backroom where they can make things more legalistic and confusing, or they will set-up a taskforce or a committee to delay meaningful change. Most schools that have entered negotiations are in this grey area where some deals are more empowering and some more demobilising.

In addition to the victories and progress around the main demands of the movement we have also had immense internal organisational and political victories for the movement in relation to the politicisation and organisation. One example is at SFSU, where students demanded and won the practice of open bargaining, which is historically the practice of some of the most powerful and democratic labour unions.

The idea behind open bargaining is that every member of the movement and the broader community should be engaged in the bargaining process. Not just because it is morally good, but because it is strategic for building power. Open bargaining allows people to witness negotiations, but also crucially having meetings beforehand, caucus meetings during negotiations and debrief meetings to develop a strategy so that the bargaining team doesn’t get cornered. It allows people to make decisions themselves about the best way to handle the negotiations and carry the movement forward.

This has been important because a lot of the challenges we have seen could be mitigated by open bargaining. For example, at some of the camps which don’t have open bargaining, political disagreements become super personalised. People who don’t get to see the negotiations will just start blaming their camp leaders and creating vitriol in the movement instead of directing the anger towards the administration. Open bargaining helps build unity in the ranks and, crucially, democracy is power. The more people you can engage in critical thinking and expose these processes too, the more ideas will be generated.

Amey: SFSU won open bargaining early in the process, which allowed us to put a lot of pressure on the campus administration. The fact that it is all happening in public means that our campus president was held accountable in front of everyone, not just people involved in the Palestine solidarity movement. That affected our strategy a lot and through open bargaining we were able to get the university to listen to us.

We have won three of our four demands; those being disclose, divest and defend. The fourth one — our demand for the campus to declare what is happening in Gaza a genocide — we have not been able to achieve at this point.

Now we are focussed on making sure the campus administration follows through. This means creating a website disclosing what investments and deals the university has that are connected to the genocide of the Palestinian people. Divesting directly follows that. The ‘defend’ demand is specifically about defending the Arab and Muslim student body from Islamophobia, hate and anti-Palestinian vitriol on campus. It is up to us to ensure that the administration follows up on what they have promised.

After the success SFSU had with open bargaining, other campuses across the country engaged in open bargaining with their administrations.

Daniil: Observing from the East Coast, SFSU has been a trailblazing model for all of us in the student movement. The situation in New York City in comparison seems very grim and dire with a lot of police violence, brutality and repression. We have not been able to pursue open bargaining and open organising models, and have been forced to resort to a more secretive culture and a lack of democracy in the movement. Decisions are made by a shadow leadership who are not accountable to the movement and bargaining has been done behind closed doors.

We are trying to reconvene our strengths and learn lessons from other parts of the country.

More than 2900 students have been arrested or detained for taking a stand at their universities against Israel’s genocidal assault, many others have experienced police harassment or violence. How has this impacted the movement?

Cyn: The repression was the factor that made the movement explode initially and helped it gain space in public consciousness. Obviously it is a tiny fraction of the violence Palestinians have been facing for decades but we would be wrong to discount how potent it has been for people’s radicalisation. For better or for worse, seeing your friends, other students or even yourself get brutalised can have uniquely radicalising effects.

The repression has forced many people to question the supposedly liberal institutions and ask why they are going to such great lengths to clamp down on free speech and suppress the pro-Palestine movement. That leads to looking at the material interests that are at play, including the Zionist lobby, US imperialism and the donor class that stands behind the university administrations.

Social media has also played a really influential role. Many commentators have called this the first “livestreamed genocide”. Capitalists control most of the world's media apparatus but through social media platforms the spread of dissident opinions has never been easier. Many social conscious and curious college students probably find it impossible to avoid sympathetic coverage of the movement. For many of us, the first thing we see in the morning is this repression. Social media has closed the distance between the institutions we interact with on a day-to-day basis and their effects out in the world.

A lot of people have been comparing this movement with movements of the past, such as the anti-Vietnam War movement, and asking “Why is this movement so powerful and so radicalising when we are not directly implicated in a draft”. I think social media and the intense repression has a lot to do with that. When you see images of mutilated bodies every day, hospitals and schools bombed to oblivion, every kind of mass suffering possible, these consequences are not as abstract anymore. We are seeing what our university administrations fund, what the liberal media and political elites are running cover for.

The repression has also brought a lot of strategic complications. On the one hand, we don’t want to be silenced or give the impression that we are embarrassed or intimidated from speaking up. But if you look at most of the encampments, we haven’t saturated or built a majority on campus. We aren’t sure if we can withstand police assaults and have to work out whether we fight them head on, disperse and regroup or pack up and come back tomorrow.

This is why we need to look at strategic questions and have a concrete analysis of our power right now and our ability to win demands such as divestment. Without clarity on these questions it makes it hard to decide how we deal with police repression.

Daniil: In New York, the encampment movement ended in a very violent, yet cathartic and radicalising moment for many. At the time it seemed like the “strategicness” of the encampments wasn’t even in question, it felt like a movement across the country that then sparked an international movement, both in solidarity but also with specific demands at different universities.

Now, in this “post-encampment” period, we need to think about other ways to use this relatively quiet moment through the summer break to reassess where our power lies and think of strategic focal points to organise around. We need to assess the economic power we have as students, who contribute to the university through tuition and labour in many instances, but also academically through academic boycotts, etc. Preferably it won’t syphon itself to individual campus campaigns, but maintain the mass movement character which was one of the strengths of the movement.

In New York City it feels like more autonomous groups are throwing themselves into action in an attempt to keep up the pressure. For example some are attempting occupations, replicating elements of the encampments on a smaller scale. But we also need to think about what is strategic and what pinpoints we can press.

We also need to organise more students into the movement and yield even more power. Building the numbers and strength of the movement will allow it to become more open and more democratic because it will be able to hold its own, and concerns about security and secrecy will become less relevant. YDSA are using this period to train people on how to lodge freedom of information requests, how to research divestment, how to analyse power on campuses and other practical skills.

We have seen some inspiring union action supporting students, including your union Cyn, the United Auto Workers Local 4811. What actions have unions taken and what was the effect?

Cyn: UAW 4811, which represents academic workers at the University of California system, is waging a political strike for Palestine and free speech. It is a huge learning curve, as it is the first time that many people in my generation are waging a political strike on such a large scale. We know the challenges that come with that. Taking stances on social justice issues affects other aspects of union work, for example, how do we start relating to our co-workers on this basis? We have the benefit of operating in a more politicised union but this is not necessarily the case across the country.

The other significance is that, depending on the level of collaboration of workers and student campers, it can be one of the most meaningful demonstrations of the combined force of the student and labour movements in US history.

The specific actions that UAW 4811 are taking is striking both teaching and grading labour. We have taken cues from the UAW “stand up” strike strategy waged by autoworkers last year, which means workers at certain campuses are called to withhold their labour while other campuses are not. This means universities don’t know who is going to be hit first, but it is also a way for us to plan around the uneven organisation of our union.

One challenge has been developing coordination. This was already a challenge in the encampments themselves: we work in a huge university system and these camps were often operating on the campus level and we needed to develop coordination between all the different camps.

Then there is the added factor of building coordination between the camps and the union. One example of this was when one campus was given what they were told was their final offer a couple of days before we knew the results of the strike authorisation vote. There was a high possibility that they were going to get raided, and students and workers had to decide whether they withstand that and risk getting swept, hurt and demoralised, or pack up and come back when the strike is authorised. These are the kinds of questions that people are facing. But it is a privilege to face them because no other camp has been able to escalate alongside the prospect of a strike.

These decisions should be coordinated between the camps and the union. A lot of coordination is happening at an individual level, but by and large the student and labour movements are operating autonomously from one another at this stage.

Other examples of union actions include day-long “sick-outs” and walk-outs, including at the University of Austin, in Texas, where there have been professors and other workers forming human pickets around the camps. These represent both individual union members taking action and formal union actions.

Daniil: There was a clear connection between labour and student movements from the get-go because faculty and staff, including unionised professors, adjunct, full-time, part-time workers were in the encampment. They represented a more radical layer of rank-and-file union members and leftist academics, as well as mobilising broader layers of workers and union members. We are seeing the fruits of previous reform efforts to make the union more militant and democratic. Rank-and-file organising and socialist and leftist activists taking jobs in these strategic industries is a core part of that reform.

However at City College and CUNY, where the union is more stagnant and less militant, we see an organised core of members butting heads with the leadership because the leadership didn’t want to endorse the encampment movement. We have strived to make connections between labour and the encampment movement but the union leadership rejected that, not denouncing it openly but not standing with the movement.

This meant they failed to meet a political moment that would have clearly benefited the labour movement. This speaks to how much more union reform is needed and how far there is to go for the labour movement in the US. But the UAW 4811 strike gives us hope that our strategy of entrenching ourselves in the labour movement is working and will pay off.

Cyn: We have to recognise that the strike is possible because our union has a more politicised base. When we look at the membership of left and socialist organisations in the country, it largely reflects grad workers and other professional workers and not necessarily blue collar workers. It is important to recognise our distance from these sectors because they are largely more central to the process in many ways.

None of this discounts the importance of an academic strike — the UAW strike has been immensely inspiring and politicising. But if you want to have a more direct role in stopping the genocide, we have to target those logistics and shipping companies. The workers who deliver the arms have to be unionised too, and that is not a process that is going to happen overnight.

The left has to develop a more sophisticated plan around that, which is why many socialist organisations are pursuing the rank-and-file strategy, including radicals joining these strategic sectors. You can’t stand from the outside and tell workers to withhold their labour around certain issues — you have to build trust for your ideas.

What impact has this moment had on student organising going forward, and what role is the organised left playing?

Amey: At SFSU, there is a long history of the student left organising around key issues such as civil rights, anti-war movements and others. That student organising has continued but plateaued several decades ago and haven’t been able to grow further. There are a range of student organisations at our campus organising around LGBTIQ issues and anti-racism.

However, during and after the encampment started here, more explicitly political student organisations started popping up. Palestine has rapidly politicised people in a way I haven’t seen before. The severity of the issue, and how easy it is to see what is happening, has made people aware and driven them to take action.

Cyn: The influence of this process on students is hard to overstate. It has been so impactful on so many different angles. Firstly, it is much more diverse than any other movement I have been involved in. It is also a movement that is very distrustful of politics as it exists and the two-party status quo; it is very distrustful of the Democrats and Republicans.

It is still a live debate what the orientation of this movement is towards the state, but it is very positive that a lot of people have the instinct that we are not going to get what we want by playing nice, asking nicely or lobbying. A lot of people are thinking we need to overhaul the system, even if they haven’t participated in socialist politics before.

This movement also has almost zero mainstream political representation. We have a champion in [Palestinian American Democratic congressperson] Rashida Tlaib and to a lesser extent other people in “the Squad”. But this is going to require more than a handful of these individuals or personalities, we need a party.

This is the movement that has been most politicised in that direction in my lifetime. The quality of political experiences people are having is also unparalleled. We are starting from a low baseline. In the last interview I talked about how certain recent developments have transformed the left and the student movement, but the fact of the matter is that most people in society and on our campuses have very little experience in taking collective action. Even those who have been involved in political organising haven’t worked in a movement that is as ideologically broad and dynamic as this one.

Most encampments involved a huge array of organisations and so many people with varying levels of political experiences and ideas about how the world works and how to change it. Working with these people, debating with them and figuring out next steps has been an immensely rich process. The rhythm of these protest movements is different from the labour or electoral campaigns that a lot of us have had experience with before. The organising principles may be the same but there is no definitive election date or deadline to build up to.

Many of the tactics we are using are really novel. For the first time a lot of us have confronted questions about how to build movement democracy with so many elements at play. Democracy within an organisation like YDSA is easier to build because you are in a room of people who already agree with you to a very large extent. But now we are in this movement with people who don’t agree with you and these are exactly the people we need to win over to socialist politics. We are thinking about questions like how do we make certain interventions make sense to people with no organisational background whatsoever.

There is a long list of challenges, but the most important thing is that this movement has provided us a real meaningful context to grapple with these challenges instead of just abstractly.

Daniil: One lesson is that we need to reject sectarianism and security culture. There have been bizarre cases at some of the encampments where people have been unable to use their real names or there were hidden secret structures that brought down many encampments.

But this movement is not something we have done before and we need to dare to struggle and dare to win. It is OK to fail and we learn just as much from mistakes as we learn from victories. We need to be open minded and experimental.

In the past, we would have a YDSA chapter at a campus and they would run a campaign called “YDSA for issue X”. Through that we would talk to students, do some coalition building and work with other student clubs. It remained housed within YDSA and we aimed to bring people into the organisation.

But through the encampments something changed and we are really opening up and working with other groups who don’t always agree with us. I think we need to move towards building bigger movements of organised students that incorporates many other groups and clubs and gives the movement a mass character.

Our role as the organised left at this time is to be movement builders who are entrenched in the struggle, that talk to people, get to know people, utilise organisational skills learnt from the labour movement and really put in the work. Sometimes that means doing an extra shift at the security tent or spending time organising inventory, just like anyone else; that’s what makes you a trusted leader and allows you to explain your political ideas more efficiently.

We also need to think about recruiting people, sharing our politics and not shying away from our political vision. How do we take this moment and funnel it into the labour movement? How do we take these student activists who have been radicalised by this moment and want to change the system and prevent them from being funnelled into the world of NGOs or ceding them to the Democratic Party? How can we turn these student activists into lifelong socialist organisers who wield real structural power within the labour movement? How do we transform society out of this movement in the coming years?

We can be bold and we can be aspirational.

Is President Joe Biden feeling the pressure of the Palestine solidarity movement? What impact will Israel’s genocide in Gaza have on the 2024 presidential election?

Amey: I have voted “blue” in the past, particularly during the Bernie Sanders campaign, but I am not alone in seeing the Democratic Party as completely alienating and distant from the principles I hold dear, particularly in relation to Palestine. Biden has supported the genocide, he has materially and politically supported Israel and should be held responsible. That has really impacted people on the left. Even people who are more liberal-minded are feeling quite disillusioned and disagree with the US’s position on Palestine.

However, I do feel if Donald Trump wins the election and becomes president it would be worse for the Palestinian people, both within the US and in Palestine. He has been extremely pro-Israel, including during his previous term when he moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has claimed he would expel pro-Palestine protesters from the country.

It feels disingenuous to tell people to vote one way or the other. Particularly as people’s basic freedoms are at risk in the US: for example, in some states people are losing their reproductive rights because of Republican-stacked courts, so it is understandable that they would vote for Biden despite his position on Palestine. But the level of dissent towards Biden is stratospheric and is only going to get worse as the genocide continues.

Daniil: A lot of the left, including the DSA, have been pushing voters to vote “uncommitted” as a show of anger and dissent against the establishment support for Israel’s genocide. However I would not be surprised if a lot of the less politicised general public do come out and vote for Biden.

There has been clear disillusionment on the left. Before the encampment movement, people had a clear analysis of Biden’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, but still feared Trump’s re-election, his proto-fascist agenda, the impact on labour, issues of bodily autonomy, trans rights and education. But after the encampments — and the clear violence against students — it has become a more defined “no” to Biden. It was a shocking wake up call and has made the situation for the Democrats much much worse.

It brings up the need for an independent party. We need to continue to fight for electoral reform and other ways to push for an independent identity away from the Democrats, even if we may still have to run under the Democratic ticket for the time being, as we do in NYC. This independent identity is critical for the left’s success on the electoral front. However this is more of a question for local campaigns than presidential campaigns at the moment.

There is a need for a new independent voice that must come out of DSA and the labour movement to become a fighting alternative and real representation for the working class.

Cyn: The movement for Palestine has become a decisive factor in the upcoming election, though not decisive enough to stop the genocide, which is very unfortunate. We have seen very damning results from the “Uncommitted” movement, which is a campaign to fill out your ballot saying “I am not committed to vote for Joe Biden” or simply write “uncommitted”, which, especially in Michigan, blew past its goals.

Then there is the encampment movement. While we have not won a majority on campus, we have flipped a lot of staunch Democrat supporters, which will make a difference. There are people who have always voted blue but are now refusing to because Democratic mayors stuck the police on their children.

There are many examples of how the Palestine movement has drawn out the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, but the more interesting question is what do we do about it? I will lay out some considerations for you. There are short term considerations which are in contradiction with long term, and medium-term goals.

The first is that we recognise the dangers of a Trump presidency, especially on the ability of workers to organise and defend our rights. Meanwhile in the medium to long term, this huge movement has a base in young radicals, many of them people of colour — exactly the type of people we want to be bringing into socialist organisation — and most of them don’t want to touch Biden with a 1 million foot pole. Endorsing Biden, even on a tactical level, even with a hundred qualifications or statements saying we do not endorse his foreign policy, would be non-negotiable for a lot of activists, which is valid.

So how do we bring this new layer into organisation but also thwart the prospect of a Trump presidency. In my mind there is not a satisfying way to “square the circle”. Moreover, even if we did have a program that could harmonise both these goals, the left is not a decisive factor in national politics and is still quite marginal.

This marginality is coming out in interesting ways in discussion of who to endorse and what conditions we should hold. We have to think about how people like [federal Democratic representative and DSA member] Jamaal Bowman and other federal-level elected representatives are not disciplined to our organisations and are actually more accountable to liberal and contradictory political groups. On the other hand, they are the best known tribunes of the broad left and progressives.

Some people say we just have to endorse them, hold our nose and gain a base. But that might come at the expense of politics and principles and these people might — and have in the past — vote for regressive policies such as more Iron Dome funding. Others say we should set our principles and expectations and not endorse them unless they are committed to upholding them. I am sympathetic to this view but, at the same time, we are still very marginal and might lose an opportunity to reach more people.

The bigger question is how to break out of this cycle. One thing we have been debating is how to build a broader political organisation. Coming out of this movement it is clear we need some political representation or broader catch-all movement organisations. It is clear that not everyone is ready to enter socialist organisations, as our goals and politics might seem lofty or disconnected. For example we have reading groups about historical topics such as the Russian Revolution, but some people just want to focus on Palestine or other current issues.

There has to be a way for people to commit to these politics long term and we need to find an organisational form for that and a political program for that. This Palestine movement has been a really great place to start figuring out how that might look.

Partido Lakas ng Masa (The Philippines): Enough false climate solutions, it’s time for an ecosocialist alternative!

Partido Lakas ng Masa
8 June, 2024

[Editor’s note: Aaron Pedrosa, from the Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM), will be speaking at Ecosocialism 2024, June 28–30, Boorloo/Perth, Australia. For more information on the conference visit ecosocialism.org.au.]

On June 5, Partido Lakas ng Masa (Party of the Labouring Masses, PLM) joined climate justice advocacy groups and other people’s organizations in mobilizing against the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Asian Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) being held from June 3-7, to raise the alarm on the need for immediate action on the ongoing climate crisis, as well as putting public pressure for a more rapid, equitable, and just transition into renewable energy (RE) in the Philippines and Asia more broadly.

At first glance, the forum’s intentions seem progressive in its emphasis on increased financing for renewable energy projects in partner countries participating in the ACEF. However, this “green” forum remains stuck within the trappings of neoliberal private sector technocrats and fossil fuel industry magnates disguising themselves as “champions” of renewable energy.

PLM believes that the path towards a rapid, equitable, and just transition to renewable energy cannot be found in the false solutions promoted by domestic and foreign capitalists from the fossil fuels industry. Only people’s movements and the grassroots can hold the ACEF partner countries accountable to their purported mission statement.

Furthermore, as long as the current Philippine government remains in the hands of a dynastic and oligarchic elite ruling class, it will remain too deeply invested into neoliberal false solutions that are in reality mere “greenwashing” that undermine communities’ climate resilience by perpetuating prolonged reliance on dirty energy sources, such as coal and other fossil fuels.

PLM asserts that only a Gobyerno ng Masa composed of workers, farmers, youth, women, and other basic sectors at the forefront of combatting the worst effects of the climate crisis at the grassroots level is capable of exercising the political will necessary to pave the way towards a full transition to renewable energy.

For our ruling classes, the climate crisis is spoken of in future tense, as if it were a mere theoretical distant threat. But for the broad masses of the Filipino people, the climate crisis has long been a visceral reality for many years, through such frequent tragedies as the Typhoons Ondoy in 2009, Yolanda in 2013, Rolly in 2020, seasonal droughts during El Niño and the record-breaking heat waves just this summer. This reality will only intensify further as the years pass by, destroying communities, undermining our local agriculture, and risking the lives of millions of citizens living in the most vulnerable and far-flung areas of the nation.

The more than three centuries old capitalist system has wrought unparalleled destruction of the environment since its inception. Ever since the First Industrial Revolution in the 18th century; up to the period of colonial exploitation in the 19th and early 20th centuries; and finally the present stage of capitalist imperialism that began in the 20th century and continues on into the 21st century, the ruling classes that dominate the present political-economic order have polluted rivers, the air we breathe, melted glaciers, created deadly heatwaves and droughts, brought monstrous seasonal typhoons, decimated our wildlife, destroyed our communities, and have profoundly alienated humankind from the natural world itself in pursuit of endless profits and growth for growth’s sake.

PLM believes it is high time for progressives, anti-imperialists, and climate justice advocates to forward a vision of a more socially just and ecologically sound political-economic system. An ecosocialist alternative is the only possible answer for the Filipino toiling masses and the world’s working classes and oppressed peoples to combat the climate crisis and the moribund capitalist-imperialist system.