US Government Announces Entry Ban on Rafael Correa

Pablo Meriguet | 14 Oct 2024

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The decision also includes the former Ecuadorian vice-president; Jorge Glas, and both their families. According to the former president, the measure has a clear political intention.

Julian Assange with Rafael Correa on October 2, 2024 at the Council of Europe. Photo: Rafael Correa / X

On October 9, the US State Department published a statement declaring former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, as well as his former vice-president Jorge Glas, as ineligible to enter the country. According to the United States, the measure was taken due to the alleged “involvement in significant corruption during their time in public office”.

In 2020, Correa and other politicians close to his party were sentenced to prison in Ecuador for allegedly committing acts of corruption. Correa was not arrested and imprisoned because he was living in Belgium, a country that has, on several occasions, ruled out apprehending and deporting him for the charges he faces in Ecuador. Correa, as well as political leaders in Ecuador and across the globe, have affirmed that the cases against him and Citizen Revolution leaders are politically motivated. Legal experts have also criticized their convictions citing the complete lack of evidence in the case. For example, in lieu of concrete evidence linking Correa to any acts of corruption, the court resorted to sentencing Correa based on having “psychic and cognitive influence” and being able to “control others’ will.”

Perhaps because of the ease with which Correa traveled through several countries without being arrested since his conviction, his ban from the United States surprised some. For others it confirmed the collusion of the US government in the persecution of the progressive leader.

More than four years after Correa and Glas were sentenced for alleged bribery, the State Department declared: “Correa and Glas abused their positions as former president of Ecuador and former vice president of Ecuador, respectively, by accepting bribes, including through political contributions, in exchange for granting favorable government contracts…Anti-corruption provisions, including in government procurement contracts, help ensure the government delivers for its citizens. This designation also reaffirms our commitment to counter global corruption, including at the highest levels of government.”

The 7031(c) designation, which applies to persons that the US government considers to have participated directly or indirectly in acts of corruption or serious human rights violations, also affects the immediate family members of Correa and Glas who are also prohibited from entering the United States.

Correa’s reaction

The former Ecuadorian president categorized the US decision as nonsense. According to Correa’s lawyer, Sonia Vera, the communiqué appears at a time when Correa had not requested to enter the United States, and Jorge Glas, who was kidnapped from the Mexican Embassy in Quito in April, is being held in a maximum-security prison, so it seems that the intention of the communiqué is for extrajudicial reasons.

On his X account, Correa hypothesized that the decision may have to do with his historical support to Julian Assange, specifically because on October 2 the former president published a photo with the Australian journalist during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

He added that it also seems to be a smokescreen to distract public attention from the questionable administration of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, whose government faces a serious crisis. Ecuador is currently in a very serious energy crisis, and the population must endure up to 10 hours of power outages a day, in addition to a wave of violence that the government does not seem to be able to contain. Given this, Noboa’s popularity is at risk, which is why, says Correa, the State Department would seek to discredit the Correista party Citizen Revolution: “In a few months, presidential elections will be held in Ecuador, in which the Citizen Revolution is the favorite and where Daniel Noboa, a US citizen…is collapsing due to [his] ineptitude and corruption.”

Correa also maintains that the State Department document “omits relevant aspects such as the fact that INTERPOL has refused to process the international arrest warrants related to this case because it considers them political, or that the ‘condemned’ have received asylum in countries with a strong rule of law such as Mexico, Canada or Belgium, because they are considered political persecuted.” He added that “nobody in the WORLD has accepted the sentence for ‘psychic influence.’”

Finally, Correa has acknowledged that throughout his life he resisted assuming the anti-imperialist posture that his counterparts in Latin America and progressive movements have maintained over the last century, but that in the face of these facts, he cannot fail to recognize his mistake: “In the decade I was president, when Ecuador and Latin America were boiling with progress and dignity, I tried to moderate certain progressive colleagues because of their deep anti-imperialist sentiment. It is up to me to recognize that I was the wrong one. They will not break us.”

Grupo de Puebla, a grouping of progressive Latin American political leaders, released a statement on his entry ban, calling it a, “clear act of interventionism in the current electoral process, political persecution and revanchism after the recent embrace of Correa and Assange in Europe. Comparing the country left by Correa and the chaos of the current Ecuador, the truth is clear.”

The political implications of the State Department’s communiqué

The truth is that the anti-Correa parties as a whole (including President Noboa’s) have not waited to use the US communiqué to their advantage. Many argue that this was the last piece to confirm that Correa participated in acts of corruption and that therefore his co-ideaties share an alleged corrupt attitude.

Beyond Correa’s interpretations, it is evident that the statement will be used by such political parties to undermine the possibilities of the Citizen Revolution to achieve a presidential victory. Although in Ecuador, Correism is the most loyal and solid political force (it usually reaches 30% of the valid votes in the first electoral round), in the last two elections, it failed to achieve victory in the second round by itself since the anti-Correa positions usually unite political adversaries behind the same goal: to prevent Correism from winning an election again.

In this sense, it remains to be seen how the decision of the United States will affect the internal affairs of Ecuador, a country in which the US Embassy has already played an important political role by making statements on internal affairs through its ambassador on duty or simply withdrawing visas to public figures, many times without giving explanations. These measures have a great media and political impact, so it would not be strange if the same thing happens now.

Correism will have to demonstrate if it can overcome this new adversity and conquer the presidency of the Republic, a golden goal that until today has been elusive after the election of its last winner, Lenin Moreno, who quickly turned his back on Correísmo. On his part, Daniel Noboa could use the decision of the US as a possible escape valve to face the serious energy, economic, and security crisis that is undermining his popularity and putting at risk his re-election as President of Ecuador.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

 

One Year of Israel’s War on Gaza’s Health System

Ana Vračar | 12 Oct 2024

After a year of unrelenting Israeli attacks, Gaza’s healthcare system lies in ruins. Yet, health workers continue their steadfast efforts to provide care.

Al Shifa Hospital after a two-week Israeli siege, April 2024.

After a year of relentless bombardment, Gaza’s healthcare system lies in ruins, and the warnings Palestinians have issued for decades are being confirmed: hospitals, clinics, and health workers are deliberate targets of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). What was once a systematic campaign against healthcare has escalated into an all-out assault, resulting in the decimation of most of the infrastructure. As the one-year anniversary of this ongoing genocide approached, Israeli forces continued their siege on northern Gaza, intensifying their attacks on health facilities.

Three hospitals still barely functioning in the area — including Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan — were just issued so-called “evacuation orders,” which, as pointed out by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), are nothing short of forced removal orders. Kamal Adwan’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, stressed the impossible position the hospital faced soon after the orders were issued. With critically injured children in their care, no means to safely evacuate them, and no other facility able to accept them, health staff are faced with the excruciating decision of either abandoning their patients or staying at the risk of their own lives.

“In between the constant bombardment occurring on the hospital and the surrounding buildings, the healthcare staff have become terrorized to a point where they are struggling to do their jobs,” Abu Safiya stated. Their situation is similar to that faced in other health facilities. Around the same time Abu Safiya recorded his statement, medics in Al-Awda were also issued forced removal orders—for the third time in a year—says Matilde De Cooman from Viva Salud, a Belgian organization partnering with the hospital.

The risks health workers face are all too real. Israeli forces have systematically besieged and destroyed healthcare infrastructure over the past 12 months, including Gaza’s largest hospitals, such as Al-Shifa. Under the pretext of searching for resistance fighters, the IOF raided operating rooms, destroyed medical equipment, and abducted patients and medical staff. In the aftermath of the attacks, civil defense teams discovered seven mass graves containing 520 bodies on hospital grounds.

Over 1,000 health workers have been killed since the genocide began, with hundreds more kidnapped and held in Israeli concentration camps. Those who have been released share harrowing accounts of torture: shackles, electric shocks, broken limbs, and sexual violence. Families of those still missing, like Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, are not granted any official information about prisoners’ conditions. Dr. Muhanna was abducted in December 2023. Since then, no official word has emerged about his mental or physical condition, says De Cooman.

International campaigns to secure the release of Dr. Muhanna and other abducted health workers are ongoing, though disturbing reports of their treatment in Israeli camps have sparked both outrage and fear about what the future holds. Despite these developments, Gaza’s health workers remain resolute, refusing to abandon their patients. Their unwavering commitment, sumud (steadfastness), has been lauded by global health workers since the beginning of the genocide. Operating without pay or essential supplies due to the blockade, they have continued their work tirelessly since last October. “Even with Dr. Muhanna’s fate in mind, Al-Awda’s operating director, Mohammed Salha, never once considered abandoning the hospital,” says De Cooman. “As long as there is even one person left in the area, the hospital will remain open and stand by its people.”

The health suffering in Gaza extends far beyond the hospitals. With more than two million people pushed into poverty by the attacks and the aid blockade, food and clean water are scarce. Recent reports reveal that 35% of children and 40% of pregnant or breastfeeding women in Gaza are surviving on just one type of food. Malnutrition is rampant, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has documented cases of children starving to death as humanitarian aid convoys are blocked at Israeli-controlled checkpoints.

Hunger and disease go hand-in-hand, as the WHO continues to repeat. Gaza is witnessing a hard-to-imagine surge in infectious diseases—respiratory infections, skin diseases, Hepatitis A, and even polio, a virus that had been eradicated decades ago but resurfaced, paralyzing a 10-month-old child. The shortage of basic hygiene products, such as soap and clean water, only adds to the crisis.

The spread of diseases is anything but collateral damage: it is a calculated weapon in Israel’s strategy. As Jewish Voice for Peace remarked, in prisons, “skin diseases are a method of punishment. Prison authorities are allowing scabies to spread by restricting Palestinian inmates’ water supply and depriving them of clean clothes and medical care.”

On top of it all, Gaza’s whole environment is contaminated with asbestos dust raised by the constant bombardment. An estimated 800,000 tonnes of debris in Gaza could contain asbestos particles, as reported by Al Jazeera, raising the prospect of soaring cancer rates in the coming years.

“After a year, the occupying forces continue to practice an unprecedented genocide in modern history. What is particularly painful is the disgusting silence of the international community,” stated Hani Serag, Co-Chair of the People’s Health Movement. “We hope that activists across the world will continue expressing their solidarity to Palestinian people and refuse the barbaric practices of the occupying forces.”

Israeli crimes against healthcare are not confined to Gaza. In less than a month, Israeli forces have killed over 100 health workers in Lebanon and forced the closure of dozens of health centers. The destruction unfolding in Gaza serves as a blueprint for the invasion of Lebanon, raising the question: how long will the West look away while Israel continues its rampage?

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

Colombia: Gustavo Petro Warns CNE Probe is Part of Coup Plot

Zoe Alexandra | 09 Oct 2024

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The Colombian head of state condemned the decision by the CNE as an attempt by the right-wing will attempt to throw him out of office using lawfare.

Gustavo Petro speaking at an event of victims of state crimes in Antioquia on October 8. Photo: Joel González / Presidencia Colombia

Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on Tuesday, October 8, voted to investigate and present charges against the 2022 presidential campaign of Gustavo Petro over alleged irregularities in campaign funds. The CNE announced it would investigate Gustavo Petro, his campaign manager Ricardo Roa, three other members of the campaign, and the political movement Colombia Humana and the party Patriotic Union (UP). The announcement was made by CNE president César Lorduy.

In response to the decision by the CNE, Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on X, “The coup d’état has begun.” He added that, “The CNE can never, nor does it have the power to investigate the President of the Republic. This is the beginning of the Coup d’Etat. The integral presidential jurisdiction has been violated and the rule of law and the respect for the popular vote and democracy have been broken.”

When the announcement was made, Petro himself was in the department of Antioquia attending a public event to recognize the Colombian state’s complicity in the disappearance of people from the La Esperanza town by paramilitaries in collusion with the army. During his address to the public meeting he spoke about the attempt of the right-wing in the country to overthrow his government and violate the will of the people. “They are trying to take away the political right of the people who voted for Petro, 11 and a half million people, no more and no less, and the political right of Petro, because he is different, because he does not shut up, because he tells the truth, even if I am wrong many times; because I try to have justice in this country and so that poor people have a place and can stop being poor and young people have a university and women stop being harassed through macho societies and have equality, and they do not like it, as they did not like Gaitán, as they did not like the free people.”

On X, Petro also called on all popular organizations of Colombia to enter into permanent assembly and mobilization to defend his popular government against the right-wing coup: “The time for the generalized mobilization of the Colombian people has arrived. The constitutional president of Colombia elected by popular vote orders the security forces not to raise a single weapon against the people.”

He added, “I ask the diplomatic corps for a full meeting to explain to the world why what the CNE has done by majority vote is a coup against the full jurisdiction of the president and against the popular vote and the law. I request my lawyers in view of the IACHR sentence in my favor that has been completely violated.”

The CNE alleges that Petro’s campaign went above the established spending ceiling by 5,355 million Colombian pesos during the first and second round of the 2022 presidential elections. The body also repeated prior allegations that the campaign contributions of Federation of Colombian Educators (FECODE) and the Oil Industry Workers Union (USO) were somehow irregular. On January 25, 2024, former right-wing Attorney General Francisco Barbosa ordered a raid of the Bogotá office of FECODE over the same allegations. The raid was widely condemned by social movements and trade unions in the country as being politically motivated.

Tuesday’s vote was long anticipated and Petro himself has been warning for months that the CNE in collusion with the right-wing opposition would attempt to remove him from office through such a maneuver. CNE judges Benjamín Ortiz and Álvaro Prada first presented the accusation against Gustavo Petro and his campaign in May 2024. The CNE itself is an administrative entity made up of nine lawyers who are appointed by different parliamentary groups. Notably Prada is from the far-right party of Álvaro Uribe and authored a book “The Dictatorship of Peace”, which is described as “a manual to understand why it was important to reject the agreements that were voted on in the plebiscite.”

Due to the CNE’s clear partisan composition, the Council of State of Colombia has already clarified that the CNE does not have power to sanction the president but only has power to investigate the charges and present the findings to the Commission of Accusations of the Chamber of Representatives (which serves as the judge of the President of the Republic). In that case, this commission would revise the findings and decide if an impeachment trial should be initiated, which could lead to Petro’s removal from office.

Petro had denounced in early September that the coup was imminent and it would not be a military one, but would resemble Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, where the legislature serves as a “legal” agent to remove the democratically elected president from office under the excuse of supposedly having broken some law.

Following Petro’s announcement, legislators, social movements, and political leaders from across Colombia and Latin America expressed their rejection to the coup plot underway.

The National Unitary Command of trade union confederations CUT, CGT, and the two pensioners confederations CPC and CDP, released a statement “Yes to democracy, no to the coup”. In it they wrote, “The 11.3 million Colombians who voted for President Gustavo Petro represent the will of the people, so he must be allowed to fully comply with the constitutional term for which he was elected and in this sense we cannot hesitate to call on the people’s power to resolutely oppose this decision, which has no precedent in the life of the country. Such a situation is unprecedented and constitutes a blow to democracy.”

They added that their National Unitary Command has declared itself “in a state of alert in response to this perverse attempt to overturn the President of the Republic Gustavo Petro” and it will build broad unity with democratic and progressive forces to jointly oppose the attacks from CNE which aligns with the extreme right and uribista forces.

Spanish political leader Juan Carlos Monedero wrote on X, “Lawfare starts against the President Gustavo Petro. The right, out of government for the first time in 200 years, uses corrupt judges to try to achieve outside the ballot box what it was unable to win in elections. All democrats with Petro.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

Kashmir’s no to BJP

Maleeha Lodhi 

Published October 14, 2024 

DAWN

THE resounding message from occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s recent legislative elections is rejection of India’s Aug 2019 action that robbed the state of even the nominal autonomy it previously had.

The verdict handed a decisive victory to the National Conference (NC) and was a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of securing endorsement for his post-2019 policy.

On Aug 5, 2019, his government had abrogated Article 370 of the Indian constitution which gave the state special status. The state’s bifurcation and absorption into the Indian union was in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and denounced across the occupied territory. This opened another bleak chapter in the disputed state’s tortured history, which involved intensified repression, incarceration of Kashmiri leaders, grave violation of human rights and crackdown on the media.

Many in the Indian media read the outcome of the J&K election as a blow to the BJP and repudiation of its post-2019 actions. Harish Khare wrote in The Wire, “This is a strategic setback, whichever way the Modi apologists may want to slice it.” Another writer called it “an electoral and moral defeat” for BJP. The New York Times acknowledged that “Modi’s heavy manoeuvring to assert BJP ascendance was foiled”.

NC leader Farooq Abdullah said, “The results were a ‘verdict’ against Modi’s government … [they] prove the steps taken on Aug 5 are not acceptable to the people.” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) declared: “By the vote people have rejected the unilateral changes imposed in August 2019, which led to their systematic disempowerment.”

Before assessing the electoral outcome, it is important to consider the backdrop in which the elections took place — after a decade. They occurred in the coercive presence of half a million Indian troops deployed across J&K, with additional forces inducted for the election that patrolled the streets and set up new checkpoints. APHC leaders continued to languish in jail or house detention. Curbs remained on the media with foreign journalists prevented from travelling to the region.


The unmistakable message of the electoral verdict was rejection of Modi’s post-2019 actions.

A series of steps were taken by the BJP government after August 2019, including gerrymandering, aimed at manipulating and shaping the environment for the election. The electoral map was redrawn by carving out new constituencies to disempower the Muslim population. Jammu’s representation was increased to 43 seats leaving Kashmir with 47, despite the fact that the Valley’s population far exceeds Jammu’s.

Demographic changes involved issuing domicile certificates to non-Kashmiri outsiders who became eligible to vote after abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the constitution. Temporary residents were also given voting rights. These measures were roundly denounced in J&K including by pro-India Kashmiri politicians and only deepened the resentment and alienation of the Kashmiri people. Little surprise then that issues of statehood, abrogation of Article 370 and New Delhi’s other measures that disenfranchised Kashmiris, dominated the election campaign.

The final blow came weeks before the election when the BJP government substantially increased the powers of the lieutenant-governor, nominated by New Delhi, to sharply limit the authority of the elected government. The LG, an instrument of direct rule by New Delhi since 2018, was given sweeping administrative and security powers and authority to nominate five members to the 90-member legislative assembly. This was condemned across Kashmir with political leaders describing it as an effort to reduce J&K to a municipality while NC leader Omar Abdullah said the chief minister’s office had been downgraded to “a powerless rubber stamp”. The Congress party called it the “murder of democracy”.

The election result was a reaction to these moves and above all to the state’s truncation and disempowerment. Significantly, there were no boycott calls. This reflected the public’s eagerness to use the ballot box to vent their protest against New Delhi as an act of resistance, especially as the election was seen as a referendum on the BJP government’s policies. The National Conference that won 42 seats out of 90 secured an absolute majority with its ally Congress, which won six seats. The Congress party’s ambiguous stance on Article 370 exacted a political price and eroded its support. All regional parties campaigned on promises to reverse the post-2019 changes.


The much speculated ‘wave’ in favour of independent candidates — a record number contested the election — failed to materialise with only two seats won by them in the Kashmir Valley. The People’s Democratic Party was decimated, winning only three seats with voters punishing it for its opportunistic alliance with the BJP in the past. The BJP failed to win a single seat from the 19 it contested in the Valley but secured 29, all from Jammu’s Hindu-majority districts. This underlined a more pronounced Hindu-Muslim divide in the region.

The National Conference was able to tap into popular anger with New Delhi by its unambiguous stand on statehood and autonomy. In its election manifesto the party pledged to fight for the restoration of Article 370, repeal all post-2019 laws that eroded Kashmir’s autonomy and work for India-Pakistan dialogue. Omar Abdullah, who will be the next chief minister, said after the election that his first order of business would be for the cabinet to adopt a resolution calling for restoration of statehood. He promised to keep “the conversation about Article 370 alive” but acknowledged that its restoration would be impossible under a BJP government. Nevertheless, his party’s victory was clear indication of Kashmiri rejection of New Delhi’s decisions as indeed the BJP’s narrative of bringing ‘development’ to J&K.

Omar Abdullah will head a coalition government with Congress that will have very limited powers but face daunting challenges including a likely tussle with the LG. What is apparent is that BJP’s hopes that the election would end the debate over J&K’s status and enable Modi to ‘legitimise’ his 2019 action have been dashed.

In any case, an election under Indian occupation cannot serve as a substitute for a genuine exercise in self-determination by the Kashmiri people. Nor does the election alter in any way J&K’s disputed nature, embodied in UNSC resolutions. What the election does show is that whenever given a chance to voice their opinion the people of Kashmir always say they want no truck with New Delhi.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024

 

Why BJP’s Loss in J&K is More Problematic Than its Haryana Win

S N Sahu | 09 Oct 2024

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It is likely that BJP’s electoral success in Haryana will drive its leadership to accentuate its communal agenda to seek votes in the upcoming state polls.

J&K elections. (File photo/PTI)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won Haryana Assembly elections for the third time consecutively. The most striking fact is that the party’s campaign in the state never centered around Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his much trumpeted ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’. Therefore, to say that BJP would once again rely on Modi as a vote-catcher in the elections to be held in Maharashtra and Jharkhand this year, and Bihar and Delhi next year, does not sound convincing.

Of course, one gets an impression from Modi’s speech delivered on Tuesday following the victory of BJP in Haryana by defeating Congress, that the party’s triumph is on account of his leadership and that it is he who would take the party forward in registering many more successes in the forthcoming elections.

But, more than the election victory in Haryana, BJP’s defeat in Jammu and Kashmir at the hands of the National Conference (NC) and Congress alliance is more scathing, because people in the Valley have rejected BJP in toto. Its success in winning 29 of 43 seats in the Jammu region looks only a face-saving mechanism.

The much vaunted and unstated objective of the Modi-Shah (Home Minister Amit Shah) duo to usher in the first Hindu Chief Minister of J&K, after they abrogated the state’s special status and reduced it to a Union Territory, without factoring in the wishes of the people of the region, has met with utter failure. The implications of BJP’s defeat in J&K for the party, therefore, are much huger than those of it winning Haryana for the third time.

The manner in which J&K has been harshly treated by the BJP regime led by Modi and the punitive measures adopted by it against media and dissenters there, negates the PM’s claim that India is the ‘mother of democracy’. Modi, Shah and other BJP leaders asked people in the rest of India to vote for BJP on the ground that special status provided in Article 370 to J&K had been repealed. They also claimed that what they did to J&K had ushered in “unprecedented peace and progress” for the people. Yet, BJP did not field candidates in 28 seats in the Valley.

Such an electoral abandonment of the Valley and its people by BJP clearly shows its lingering fear that the party would be rejected by the people. The defeat of BJP in J&K, therefore, is a clear signal that it is not acceptable to people, who, with the power of vote clearly indicted the party and its measures to humiliate them by downgrading the state to a Union Territory and not conducting elections for several years.

It was only on the orders of the Supreme Court that elections were conducted in J&K. Possibly, without explicit directions from the apex court, the elections might not have been organised for a longer period.

 

By rejecting BJP, the people of J&K have sent a signal to the entire nation and the world at large, conveying the crucial point that they suffered immensely by the harsh policies adopted to deal with them, without in any way containing terrorism and addressing their livelihood issues. In addition, more military and police measures were taken, compromising their rights and dignity as citizens.

In an article in The Wire, ‘A Local Victory for BJP in Haryana Can't Compensate Modi for His National-Level Setback in Kashmir,’ columnist Harish Khare observed, “It should be obvious that the outcome in J&K is of much greater consequence than the Haryana vote. In Haryana, the election results are reflective of the dynamics of social cleavages, while the post-‘370 abrogation’ vote in Jammu and Kashmir saw a contestation over continuing national arguments. The Haryana electoral victory for the BJP is mostly a local affair, the re-organized state of Jammu and Kashmir was clearly the electoral theatre for a national and global audience. No one in the BJP or in the larger Sangh parivar is entitled to any kind of satisfaction over the Kashmir vote”.

So, the manner in which BJP’s victory in Haryana is being projected as a “booster dose” for the party after it lost majority in the Lok Sabha elections held in May this year, need to be tempered by the party’s rejection in the Union Territory of J&K.

There is no doubt that the success of the party in Haryana will be used by its top leadership to promote its electoral prospects in Maharashtra and other states going to polls soon. But it is unlikely that voters of those states will be influenced by BJP forming the government for the third time in Haryana.

It is quite likely that BJP’s electoral success in Haryana will drive its leadership to accentuate its communal agenda to seek votes. It is feared that there could be accelerated polarisation on religious lines to consolidate votes. Prime Minister Modi, who spewed venom against Muslims while campaigning for his party during the 18th Lok Sabha elections, is likely to step up the tone and tenor of that toxic campaign following the party’s victory in Haryana. Divisive narratives were integral to the poll strategy and speeches by Modi while appealing for votes.

The Haryana elections was devoid of a Modi-centric campaign. With the BJP’s victory in the state, Modi would like to throw himself into centre of campaign strategy in the forthcoming Assembly elections. It would be instructive to see if such an approach would help BJP in doing well in Maharashtra, where the party and its alliance partners performed poorly in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.  

 

S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan. The views are personal.

 INDIA

Only 2 Out of 11 Ecommerce Platforms Have Minimum Wage Policy for Gig Workers, Finds Report

Newsclick Report | 10 Oct 2024

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None of the 11 platforms were willing to recognise gig workers’ right to collectively bargain or unionise -- a “vital dimension of fairness at work”, the Fairwork India report said.

Image Credit: The Leaflet

New Delhi: The festival season has kicked in for everyone, but not for thousands of gig workers who can be seen zipping across urban India, sometimes not even stopping to eat or rest. Sporting T-shirts as mobile advertisements for their ecommerce platforms, do these workers even get living wages that secures them and their families a decent life?

A study by Fairwork India, which scored 11 top aggregators on a scale of 10 on fair wages, fair contracts, fair working conditions, fair representation, found most of them “not committed” to ensuring a living wage to their workers (who some of them refer to as partners), and none scoring beyond 6.

The platforms studied were Amazon Flex, Bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Ola, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato.

The report found that only Bigbasket and Urban Company have a minimum wage policy that guarantees hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs.

What’s more, none of these platforms were willing to recognise the workers’ right to collectively bargain or unionise, which is a “vital dimension of fairness at work”.

The report said it found it “disconcerting that despite the rise in platform worker collectivisation across the country over the past six years, there was insufficient evidence from any platform to show a willingness to recognise a collective body of workers.”

The report, Fairwork India Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy, was written by researchers from the Centre for IT and Public Policy, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.

The report evaluated the conditions of work across 11 platforms in India at location-based services in sectors, such as domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, and transportation.

“Each company was awarded a score out of 10 according to the Fairwork Principles: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management and fair representation. Each score was determined based on a combination of desk research, worker interviews conducted in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and-when possible-evidence provided by the platforms,” said the report.

“This year witnessed gig workers’ welfare increasingly gain attention in political manifestos and legislative initiatives. But with the implementation of these efforts remaining uncertain, and platforms redefining gig work, research and advocacy to improve the conditions of gig workers are ever more relevant,” said Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, the principal investigators of the team, in a statement.

Among the key findings on ‘fair pay’, the report found that only Bigbasket and Urban Company provided evidence of a “minimum wage” policy.

“No platform was able to evidence that all of their workers earn the local living wage after costs, so none were awarded the second point for Fair Pay,” said the report.

On ‘fair working conditions’, the study found that Amazon Flex, Bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato were able to prove that they provide adequate safety equipment and periodic safety training to workers on their platforms.

Amid a job that is prone to road mishaps, “only Bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato evidenced that their companies provide workers with accident insurance coverage at no additional cost, monetary compensation for income loss in cases they are unable to work for medical reasons other than accidents, and ensuring a worker’s standing is not negatively affected when they return after a break taken with prior notice to the platform.”

 As for “fair” work contracts, six out the 11 --  Bigbasket,
BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato -- provided evidence that they ensure “the accessibility and comprehensibility of their contracts, and have protocols for the protection and management of worker data.”

“Bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Zepto, and Zomato, also evidenced the adoption of a change notification clause in their contracts, reducing asymmetries in liability (such as by a provision to compensate workers for losses due to app malfunctions and outages), the adoption of a Code of Conduct for their subcontractors, and making the variables influencing pricing transparent where dynamic pricing is used,” the report said.

As regards ‘fair management”, Amazon Flex, Bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company and Zomato were awarded the “first point” for evidencing due process in decisions affecting workers and channels for workers to appeal disciplinary actions.

“There was sufficient evidence from BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company and Zomato of regular external audits to check for biases in their work allocation systems, in addition to policies against discrimination,” the report said.

When it comes to the right to collectively bargain or unionise, a “vital dimension of fairness at work”, the report found it “disconcerting that despite the rise in platform worker
collectivisation across the country over the past six years, there was insufficient evidence from any platform to show a willingness to recognise a collective body of workers.”

Fairwork is an international research project that studies the working conditions of platform workers in more than 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. The work is coordinated by Oxford Internet Institute and the Social Science Research Centre Berlin.

 

TN: Samsung Strike Completes One Month Amid Rising State Repression

Samsung has been operating in India since 2007 without any union in either of its plants.

Peoples Dispatch | 11 Oct 20

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Both the Samsung management and government have refused to recognise the Samsung India Workers Union, the primary demand of hundreds of striking workers.

CITU leaders A. Soundararajan and E. Muthukumar being arrested on Thursday in Chennai. (Photo: CPI(M) Tamil Nadu) 

Hundreds of striking workers of the Samsung India’s Chennai plant, including their leaders were arrested, and the venue of strike dismantled by the Tamil Nadu state police on Wednesday, October 9. 

The arrested leaders include A Soundararajan, president of the Tamil Nadu state Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and E Muthu Kumar, president of Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU). The worker leaders were released on bail after a few hours of detention, as the government termed the strike illegal.

Over 1,300 Samsung workers at its Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai have been on strike since September 9, demanding recognition of SIWU, better wages, and working conditions. The strike completed a month on Tuesday without any progress on the workers’ demands as the management has refused to speak to them directly.

The striking workers claim the strike is legal as a proper notice was served to the management more than 14 days prior to the commencement of the strike as required by law.

On Monday, three ministers of the Tamil Nadu government, including the Minister for Industries, Investment Promotions and Commerce T.R.B. Rajaa, announced that the Samsung management and workers have reached a resolution. According to Reuters, the company offered to increase wages by USD 60 per month and to provide better working conditions. 

Workers at Samsung Chennai plant currently receive a monthly wage of around USD 359, not enough to cover basic economic needs. 

The striking workers rejected the so-called agreement, claiming it was an attempt to divide workers. They alleged that the management had placed some of the workers in a so-called “workers committee” and pretended to sign an agreement with them, completely bypassing striking workers.

Speaking to Frontline, Soundararajan claimed that “our main demand is union recognition. If granted, we’ll immediately end the strike. Other issues can be discussed later.”

State is acting as spokesperson of the Samsung management

Claiming that the Samsung Chennai strike is not only about wages but “about workers’ constitutional right to form associations under article 19(1) [of Indian constitution]” and their “collective bargaining rights,” Soundararajan criticized the role of the state government, claiming that it is “blatantly supporting the company.” 

Soundararajan alleged that during Monday’s announcement of an agreement between the management and the workers, the “three ministers behaved like Samsung spokesmen.” 

Samsung has two plants in India: one in Chennai and another in the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) near Delhi. There are around 1,700 workers at its Chennai plant, which mostly produces TVs and other home appliances. The plant at NOIDA largely produces mobile phones. Out of these, nearly 1,300 workers are on strike with SIWU claiming its total membership at around 1,550.

The SIWU is affiliated to the CITU, one of India’s largest trade union federations affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The day the strike completed a month, CPI (M) polit bureau member G Ramakrishnan visited the protest site to extend solidarity to the striking workers. 

The left had joined the protest calls given by the CITU against the state government. Thousands participated in joint state wide protests organized by the CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML) jointly on Saturday, October 5, in support of striking workers and against the state’s failure to recognize the union.

The state government has tried to mediate between workers and management, but failed to recognize the union. It has claimed that it has no problem recognizing the union but has to wait till the court decides on Samsung’s complaint. The Samsung management has filed a complaint regarding the alleged misuse of the company’s name in the name of the union. 

Soundararajan told Frontline that Samsung has a record of infringing on the workers’ rights to form a union. He claimed the company’s complaint about trade mark infringement was just a delaying tactic, as using the name of the company in the name of the union is quite common in India. However, striking workers do not mind changing the name of the union if that is a major issue, he underlined.

Samsung has been operating in India since 2007 without any union in either of its plants.