FRENEMIES
Viruses: an intimate 'enemy', yet essential for life on EarthBy Patrick Forterre, Morgan Gaïa, Rafa Cereceda • last updated: 20/04/2020

Fire festival in Yunnan, China, where live the species of bat at the origin of the new coronavirus - Copyright AP

As heads of state from around the world wage war against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, defending viruses seems rather like swimming against the tide.

However, understanding viruses may prove essential to deciphering this COVID-19 pandemic, stopping it, and possibly avoiding future epidemics.

Science is just beginning to discover the essential role of viruses for biodiversity, the evolution of species - starting with our own- and even on climate regulation.

The lack of knowledge about viruses is closely related to the history of medical research.

The definition of viruses as we know them, i.e. as agents responsible of infectious diseases, began to emerge in the 19th century, while research focused mainly on their pathogenic aspect. It was not until the end of the 20th century that scientists began to take a closer look at the other roles they might play in life on Earth.

Just as we now accept the presence of "good" bacteria that we can even buy as dietary supplements, viruses act on many (if not all) processes that scientists are only beginning to discover.

What is a virus?

The definition of viruses evolves with technological advances and scientific discoveries. Traditionally, a virus is described as a molecule of genetic information, coated with a shell (the capsid) that protects it.

Some viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, also have a lipid envelope surrounding their capsid, which explains its sensitivity to handwashing with soap.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and its envelope.AFP / National Institutes of Health HANDOUT

Viruses can only replicate by infecting a host cell that they reprogram to their own advantage. This lack of autonomy is often at the centre of the still raging debate about whether viruses are living or not.

Long considered as particles smaller than 0.2 µm (micrometer), the discovery of giant viruses in 2003 undermined this certainty.

Viruses are present almost everywhere on Earth and are far more abundant than bacteria. It is estimated that there are at least 10^31 viral particles on our planet at any given time, compared to 10^23 stars in our observable universe.

Viruses can also be infected by other viruses. In 2008, scientists discovered virophages, which can only replicate in cells that are already infected by giant viruses. The replication of these virophages hampers that of the giant virus.
Viruses as regulators of biodiversity

Of course some viruses can, like some bacteria, cause disease in humans, as exemplified by the new coronavirus.

But there are also viruses that target pathogenic bacteria. These can be used to treat diseases of bacterial origin: this is the phagotherapy, a particularly interesting approach at a time when antibiotic resistance is increasing. Commonly used in Georgia, it is the subject of many research projects around the world.

The role of viruses in biodiversity is still largely unknown, despite their omnipresence. The scientific community is just beginning to realise the extent of our ignorance in this area.

Bloom of Emiliana huxleyi algae in the Barents SeaJeff Schmaltz/ NASA Earth Observatory

Take the case of a marine microalga, Emiliania huxleyi. It stores carbon taken from the air by forming a calcareous shell, and episodically multiplies in large quantities.

This massive bloom is then controlled by a virus that kills the algae. The calcite released in this process forms white tides over hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, visible from space.

The calcite containing the carbon then sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Researchers have tried to replicate this phenomenon by killing the algae artificially but found that without the "help" of the virus, this carbon-storing phenomenon is reduced with the algae expelling a larger portion of carbon back into the atmosphere.
A key role in the evolution of species

Beyond their role as predators, viruses also appear to have played a major role in the evolution of many species, including our own.

Indeed, the evolution of mammals has been possible thanks to syncytin, a protein of viral origin derived from an ancient retrovirus (of the same family as HIV) and incorporated into our genetic code. These proteins have evolved to evade our immune system, preventing the mother from rejecting the foetus. So it's a virus that spares us from having to lay eggs!

Another protein of retroviral origin seems to have played a key role in the formation of the nervous system in vertebrates.

The role of viruses in the evolution of living things could go further, as it has been suggested that they may even be behind the appearance of DNA!
The invasion and destruction of ecosystems, key to the emergence of new viruses

If we all cohabit with viruses at all times - to the point of having some of them ‘embedded’ into our genetic code - how can we explain the emergence of an epidemic that is taking the world's health systems by storm and causing the most powerful economies to tilt?

The rapid expansion of this new coronavirus, its effectiveness and its dangerousness, is surprising, leading some to raise conspiracy theories. But, for science, microbiological diversity is broad enough to explain the genesis of such a virus.

Let's draw a rather simplistic parallel with the hypothetical invasion of a new species of dangerous feline in a city centre: rather than imagining a Machiavellian zoo practising genetic manipulation, the most credible lead would be to think that the never-observed-before tawny has gained access to the city centre because of changes that deprive it of feeding and evolving in its natural habitat. The same goes for viruses.

Viruses all have a certain degree of specificity and affinity for a cell type: this will limit viruses to one or more species. But when its environment is modified, the virus can evolve to adapt to new species.

With the reduction of natural spaces (through urbanization, deforestation, etc.), it is not surprising that some viruses end up adapting and infecting humans.

This has already happened several times: it was notably the case for the SARS and MERS epidemics and for the current COVID-19 pandemic. The reservoir species - for which the virus is naturally adapted - appears to be a particular species of bat and this new coronavirus seems to have been transmitted to humans by pangolin.

Will this new coronavirus be eradicated?

It is technically possible to imagine the eradication of SARS-CoV-2, which affects humans, but it is only one type of coronavirus. More generally, therefore, it seems unlikely. COVID-19 disease can be contained, treated and even defeated, but on the scale of the 7 billion humans and animal species in which coronaviruses circulate, it would be better to rely on health systems and societies that are better prepared to deal with this type of pandemic.

Patrick Forterre is a French biology researcher, university professor and scientific writer. He has been Head of Unit and Professor at the Pasteur Institute.

Morgan Gaïa is a researcher on co-evolution between viruses and cells, currently at Génoscope - CEA

Germany needs to do more to tackle the climate crisis. It has a chance now to take the lead

05/06/2020 By Colombe Cahen-Salvador and Andrea Venzon Co-founders of Now!

Today is World Environment Day, and countries like Germany are still battling with huge environmental issues caused by decades of disregarding the global crisis that is climate change. In Germany, decades of open-cast mining have led to environmental pollution causing health issues, and our agricultural policy has led to a dramatic loss of biodiversity in our forests and fields. On top of that, Germany opened a new coal-fired power plant last week.

The pandemic has brought many countries to their knees and shifted people’s attention away from another global crisis that will impact billions of people. Climate change has already started destroying not only our planet but our lives, too; more than 22.5 million people per year are forcibly displaced due to extreme weather disasters. By 2050, 140 million more will be added to that figure. Climate change is a ticking bomb that can only be disarmed if we work as one. This sword of Damocles is putting human existence into question.

Following months of lockdown, the future suddenly looks less gloomy. Over the first quarter of 2020, global emissions were down by 5% and global energy demand has declined by 3.8%. This could be one of the biggest reductions in CO2 emissions on record.

The clock is ticking. In less than a month, the world will be watching as Germany chairs the most important intergovernmental organisation on earth. The world will be watching whether Chancellor Merkel's previously strongly-worded declarations on the climate crisis are met with equally powerful actions

However, this is far from being enough. As we speak, governments around the world have prioritised the fight against the virus, and - intentionally or not - abandoned several of their commitments to the climate. In some countries, the situation is worse as passivity leaves room for damaging actions that will put our planet further at risk. It is the case of Canada, where Alberta's energy minister, Sonya Savage said that a ban on public protests due to coronavirus meant that now is a "great time" to build a pipeline. In Germany, Uniper, a company owned by a Finnish state-owned enterprise, opened a coal power station on the edge of Datteln to protests.

Times of crisis are often times of change. The key question is whether Germany will step up to the challenge, whether it will be the progressive force leading the world out of darkness? As the popular saying goes, there is no better time than the present, especially due to Germany’s upcoming role on the international scene. Indeed, July will mark the start of Germany’s semester as the EU Council president, but most importantly, although admittedly more often overlooked, Germany will also chair the United Nations Security Council that month.

While the UN has often been paralysed in recent crises because of its deep divisions and outdated governance structure, the Security Council still holds huge power when the world faces threats to peace or security. As defined by Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a threat to peace (such as climate change) would oblige the UN to make recommendations, or decide which measures to take to counter it. Those decisions would be binding on all member states.

While this treaty article has been largely utilised for war and humanitarian crises, it should now be used to deal with the climate crisis. There is a large consensus that the deterioration of our environment will cause a sharp increase in displacement, famine, and conflicts. As UN Secretary-General, António Guterres has stated: “Today peace faces a new danger: the climate emergency, which threatens our security, our livelihoods and our lives.”

As such, Germany can have a pivotal role in declaring a Global Climate Emergency, which would push the world to acknowledge the existence of this threat, and take necessary steps to counter it. For example, the UN Security Council could demand that all countries stick to the Paris Agreement, or otherwise face sanctions.

The clock is ticking. In less than a month, the world will be watching as Germany chairs the most important intergovernmental organisation on earth. The world will be watching whether Chancellor Merkel's previously strongly-worded declarations on the climate crisis are met with equally powerful actions. Tackling climate change is indeed a matter of survival.

_Colombe Cahen-Salvador and Andrea Venzon are co-founders of Now!, a global movement pushing for humanity to work as one to solve the biggest challenges of our time_

THE OTHER 1%
UN: 1% of all humanity on the move as refugee numbers rise
AP • last updated: 18/06/2020 -

Refugees and migrants wearing masks arrive at the port of Piraeus, near Athens. 11 June 2020. - Copyright Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo

The UN refugee agency says the number of asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and refugees worldwide shot up by nearly nine million people last year - the biggest rise in its records.

In its annual "Global Trends" report released on Thursday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that the 79.5 million people account for 1% of all humanity amid conflict, repression and upheaval.


UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi points out that of the 79.5 million people forcibly displaced, 68% come from only five countries: Myanmar, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.

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"Which proves the point that if crisis and conflicts were resolved in these countries, most or a big part of the forced displacement problem would be, would be finished, would be resolved", Grandi told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The surge was chalked up in part to a new way of counting people displaced from Venezuela and "worrying" new displacement in the persistent trouble spots of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel region of Africa, Yemen and Syria.
Syria

War-torn Syria alone accounted for more than 13 million of those people on the move.

While the total figure of people facing forced displacement rose from 70.8 million at the end of 2018, some 11 million people were "newly displaced" last year, with poorer countries among those most affected.

Grandi said that the global pandemic had had a major impact on refugees and the displaced, as 164 countries either partially or totally closed their borders to fight the new coronavirus.

He explained that many relied on the "informal economy" often involving day work - activities at risk as governments ratchet up lockdowns.

He especially expressed concern about the impact of the new coronavirus in Latin America, where millions of Venezuelans have fled upheaval at home and could face hardship abroad among lockdowns and other restrictive measures to fight the pandemic.

Coronavirus: 657 new cases in German slaughterhouse

GERMANY, AMERICA, ALBERTA MEAT PACKERS ARE SUPER SPREADERS

By Alessio Dellanna & Natalie Huet with AP • last updated: 18/06/2020 - 

A woman walks past a vending machine that offers washable face masks in a station of the subway in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 27, 2020 - Copyright AP Photo/Michael Sohn

Germany has been hailed as a European success story in the fight against coronavirus, but two new major clusters have put authorities on high alert.

Hundreds of new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded among workers at a slaughterhouse near the western city of Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Regional officials said on Wednesday that the number of new COVID-19 cases linked to the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck had risen to 657.

Meanwhile, in the capital Berlin, 369 households are back under lockdown after dozens of people tested positive for the virus in the southern district of Neukölln.

"We see from these outbreaks that the virus isn't gone," Chancellor Angela Merkel said as she met with Germany's 16 state governors to discuss progress in tackling the pandemic.

Company officials at Tönnies said the outbreak at the slaughterhouse may have been linked to workers taking the opportunity to visit their families in eastern European countries as border controls were relaxed.

Officials ordered the closure of the slaughterhouse, as well as isolation and tests for everyone else who had worked at the site – putting about 7,000 people under quarantine.

Dozens of people tested positive for COVID-19 in the Berlin outbreak, which involves at least six apartment buildings.

"The special thing here is that it went so incredibly fast," said Mayor Martin Hikel. "We realised quite soon that entire apartment blocks were concerned and that we had to put them under quarantine.

"What's also new and what is special is that the housing conditions are extremely tight, and that it is not easy with eight people in a two-room-apartment to stay out of each other's way or to be locked in for two weeks.

"These are now the very special and difficult challenges we have to face. And that makes the work here very difficult and it is a huge challenge to defuse and pacify the situation on site."

As of Wednesday, Berlin had recorded 7,474 cases of COVID-19 and 210 deaths, according to official figures.

The rise in infections in the city came just days after another cluster, accounting for 112 infections and one death, was reported in the north German city of Bremerhaven, according to Deutsche Welle.

On Tuesday, Germany launched its coronavirus tracking app in an effort to track new infections.

Experts say finding new cases quickly is key to clamping down on fresh clusters, especially at a time when European countries are lifting lockdown restrictions and reopening their borders.

On Monday, Germany opened its borders to travellers from the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and the UK.

Destruction of nature is 'driver of pandemics', says WWF
By Euronews • last updated: 18/06/2020 -

In this Nov. 23, 2019 photo, a burned area of the Amazon rainforest is seen in Prainha, Para state, Brazil. - Copyright AP Photo/Leo Correa

Environmental factors including deforestation and the trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife are driving the emergence of pandemics, WWF International warned on Wednesday.

"We must urgently recognise the links between the destruction of nature and human health, or we will soon see the next pandemic," Marco Lambertini, director-general of WWF International said in a statement.

A new report from the environmental NGO lists the trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife, land-use change leading to deforestation and conversion, the expansion of agriculture and unsustainable intensification and animal production as key drivers behind the emergence of zoonotic diseases.

Zoonotic diseases are caused by germs that spread between animals and people. The current COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 445,000 people worldwide, is believed to have been transmitted to humans by bats and pangolins.

China, where the virus originated and spread through markets, has since announced a comprehensive ban on the consumption of wild animals.

Viruses: an intimate 'enemy', yet essential for life on Earth

But WWF warned that much more needs to be done.

"Our unsustainable global food system is driving large-scale conversion of natural spaces for agriculture, fragmenting natural ecosystems and increasing interactions between wildlife, livestock and humans," it said.

Its report estimates that between 60% and 70% of the new diseases that emerged in humans over the past 30 years had a zoonotic origin.

During that period, 178 million hectares of forest — equivalent to the size of Libya, the 18th largest country no the world — has been cleared and converted for food or livestock production.

Land conversion for agricultural activities has caused 70% of planetary biodiversity loss and half the loss of tree cover globally to date, the WWF report states.

The NGO is calling on governments to agree on a "New Deal for Nature and People" that would see them take credible action to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and set nature on a path to recovery by 2030.

Lambertini described COVID-19 as a "tragedy" but stressed that also provides "an opportunity to heal our relationship with nature and mitigate risks of future pandemics".

"But a better future starts with decisions governments, companies and people around the world take today," he said.

UK companies with historic slave ties fund minority programs

By Danica Kirka The Associated Press
Thu., June 18, 2020

LONDON - Two of Britain’s largest companies have promised to financially support projects assisting minorities as Britain continues to reckon with its role in the slave trade.

Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London and the pub chain Greene King made the pledges after they were included in a University College database of companies with ties to the slave trade.

“Lloyd’s has a long and rich history dating back over 330 years, but there are some aspects of our history that we are not proud of,’’ Lloyd’s said in a prepared statement. “In particular, we are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd’s market in the eighteenth and nineteenth Century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.’’

The pub chain was founded in 1799 by Benjamin Greene. He was among the 47,000 people who received compensation intended for slave owners when the British Empire abolished slavery in 1833. Greene surrendered three plantations in the West Indies for the equivalent of 500,000 pounds ($628,000) in today’s currency.

The database showed that Simon Fraser, a founder subscriber member to Lloyds, was given 400,000 pounds ($502,00) in today’s currency, to surrender an estate in Dominica.

The companies have taken action in the wake of the May 25th death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. A video surfaced of a white police officer pressing a knee to Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. U.S. racial equality protests have spread overseas.

Protesters in the English city of Bristol hauled down a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader and philanthropist, and dumped in the city’s harbour.


There are revived calls for Oxford University to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed Oxford University’s Rhodes scholarships.

Greene King’s chief executive Nick Mackenzie told the Daily Telegraph that the company would update its website to mention past connections to slavery. He also offered an apology.

“It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s,” he told the newspaper. “We don’t have all the answers, so that is why we are taking time to listen and learn from all the voices, including our team members and charity partners, as we strengthen our diversity and inclusion work.“

Slavery, colonialism, the industrial revolution – and why Britain really became rich

400 years of British economic history have been reduced to crass Marxist caricature

TYPICAL BRITISH CONSERVATIVE CLAIMING THE MANTLE OF JS MILL'S LIBERALISM

AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD
17 June 2020 •

The slave trade was already deemed unconscionable by the Puritans in the English Revolution

By emotional linkage, the crime of slavery and the larger story of colonialism have been fused into one immense atrocity. From there the indictment has jumped categories into a broader repudiation of four centuries of European and British achievement.

Much of this is unhistorical and corrosive, and has gone unchallenged in Europe itself. It is taken for granted that the collision of world civilisations has been inherently destructive. Many Asians, paradoxically, are more forgiving.

“You shared with the world your beautiful advantages. You shared the gift of reasoning and we learnt from you,” says Kishore Mahbubani, the prophet of Eastern ascendancy and the author of Has the West Lost It?

“If the West had not succeeded, we would not have succeeded. We would still be in extreme poverty.”

The British have long had a collective blind-spot about the industrial scale of the slave trade and the activities of the Royal African Company, as if the subsequent redemption of Wilberforce and Pitt closes the matter, or as if slavery was somehow an ‘American’ saga.

The slave trade was already deemed unconscionable by the Puritans in the English Revolution. A ruling by Cromwell’s state council in 1650 prohibited shipments from the African coast. It was the absolutist Stuarts who brought this curse into our national life – and pursued it systematically – to gain a revenue free from dependence on Parliament.

We should have created a national slavery museum years ago on the site of Elephant & Castle, which happens to be the coat of arms of the Royal African Company, and that is where the Bristol statue of Edward Colston ought to stand.

What is not true is the broader narrative that the Great Enrichment of Europe and Britain in particular was a function of plunder, essentially the zero-sum transfer of wealth from exploited peoples by means of violence from the 16th Century onwards.

This version of events has the causality backwards. Europe achieved supremacy because it had reached technological and economic take-off in a way that no other civilization had ever done before. The roots of this lie in what we can loosely call the Baconian Method, the interrogation of nature to “discover its secrets”, or plain science.

Israeli historian Joel Mokyr argues in The Culture of Growth that there have been many “flourishings” of technology over time but they were mostly incremental forms of know-how – better water mills, or horse collars – and never reached the threshold of ignition. Flirtations with free thought ran into autocratic suppression. 

Protesters throw a statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally CREDIT: Ben Birchall /PA

These flourishings were of a different character to the Age of Reason in Europe, where a pluralistic market for ideas undermined the suffocating orthodoxies of the unitary Thomist system. This bubbling competition – and an irreverent willingness to challenge settled practice – was itself made possible only by the fractured mosaic of states, all vying to get ahead, and none with sufficient ascendancy to stamp out dissent. The ideological priesthood lost control.

Britain had a peculiar variant. The Origins of English Individualism by anthropologist Alan MacFarlane digs deep into parish records of the 15th-17th Centuries to find a modern society that was largely free of immobile castes – not to be confused with fluid classes – and was quite different even then from most of Continental Europe.

It was governed by political contract and constraint, with remarkable equality between men and women. It had broadly shared values from near top to near bottom. The rule of law generally prevailed.

England had already freed itself from the developmental curse of “amoral familism”, the Cosa Nostra mindset that society is hostile and treacherous, and therefore that moral obligation ends with your own kin. It was a country where people mostly assumed that others were decent and they acted on that basis.

It was this bedrock national character – turbocharged by the parallel advances of Europe’s intelligentsia – that in my view explains why Britain exploded on the world scene in the late Elizabethan age, went on to Bacon and Newton, and from there to the spinning jenny, the steam engine, and Faraday’s electricity.

“The British Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century unleashed a phenomenon never before even remotely experienced by any society,” says Prof Mokyr. It was not a foreordained advance. It was the result of a rare cultural alchemy. 

YOUR CHOICE HISTORICAL MATERIALISM OR CONSERVATIVE METAPHYSICS
I'LL TAKE DIALECTICS THANKS

Behind the great leap forward was the Common Law, the sanctity of contract, the respect of patents, and that unsung hero, the joint stock company, which distributed risk and allowed for creative failure. The trade doctrines of Adam Smith opened minds to the concept of expandable wealth and liberated us from the extractive and inert psychology of mercantilism.

Fractional reserve banking made possible an unprecedented expansion of credit. Deep bond markets vastly increased the ability of the state to sustain long endeavours. The Bank of England regulated the liquidity of commerce with modern sophistication even in the 1690s. These were the springs of British prosperity.

The history of imperialism is taught today as a catalogue of outrages but such a narrow focus is not illuminating. There were too many variants to reach any sweeping conclusion. I learned my version at the feet of the Indian historian Anil Seal at Cambridge, and the story he taught was that the British empire in India took over the existing Mughal administration lock, stock, and barrel, one set of foreigners displacing another.

It rested on alliances with ruling princes. It evolved through many iterations – each starkly different – and the core objective was trade and captive markets, not the same as extraction, nota bene. It is for Indians to judge the moral quality of the Raj in all its aspects with the distance of time. I doubt that hard-Left agitators bent on tearing down every vestige of colonialism in London have much grasp of the subject.

All great protests have a specific objective: Catholic emancipation; the vote for suffragettes; or the US civil rights movement, targeting the legal architecture of racial segregation that still existed in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Black Lives Matter movement – and especially its sympathy protests in Europe – is rich in emotion but frustratingly unfocussed by comparison. 

THEY SHOULD HAVE AN OBJECT TO ACHIEVE, ACHIEVEMENT BEING THE HIGHEST ORDER OF A BOURGEOIS MERITOCRACY SAME THING DROVE THE MEDIA COO COO WITH OCCUPY

America has been striving for half a century to overcome the legacy of racial injustice and the sort of reflexes that led to the police killing of George Floyd. That is what Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was all about. Failure is not entirely for lack of trying. That is what makes this case so doubly sad.

But at the risk of sounding old-fashioned: all lives matter. British society should be wary of entering too deeply into this sort of race politics. 

OH FUCK OFF YOU TWAT

A colour-blind social and political system – all equal in the eyes of the law and the state institutions – took a long time coming and is a shining feature of modern liberal democracies. I reject the fashionable argument that defence of this ideal is implicitly racist, supposedly because it justifies a status quo of exploitation, to borrow from Marxist diction.

MARX LIVED IN BRITAIN HE KNEW IT QUITE WELL AT ITS TIME THANKS

We have moved through the gears from the goal of equal opportunity, to the goal of equal outcomes, and from there to the jurisprudence of hate crimes, with different prison tariffs depending on racial motive, arriving at a point where everything is filtered through the prism of race and sectoral interests.

Whether they know it or not, proponents of our “re-racialised” society are drawing on the toolkit of empires through the ages. Imperial systems manage their ethnic and religious cauldrons with a panoply of special codes, protections, laws, and classifications.

Such a method of governance is inimical to liberal values. We risk coming full circle.

IMPERIALISM WAS NOT A COMMONPLACE TERM ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO UNTIL ENGLISH HISTORIAN HOBSON WROTE ON IT AND LENIN EXPANDED ON THAT

Exclusive: Top British firms to pay compensation over founders' slavery links

Greene King and Lloyd's of London among the companies to apologise and pledge payments to BAME groups

By Christopher Hope, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT ;

Dominic Gilbert and Patrick Scott, DATA JOURNALISTS

17 June 2020 • 10:44pm

Two of the UK's biggest companies have pledged to pay large sums to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities after their roles in the slave trade were highlighted in a major academic database.

Greene King, one of the UK's largest pub chains, and Lloyd's of London, one of the world's biggest insurance firms, both said they would make payments.

The payments mark the first time the controversy over the UK's past involvement with slavery, which has led to statues being torn down, has impacted the corporate sector.

Greene King was founded in the early 19th century by Benjamin Greene, one of 47,000 people who benefited from the UK Government's decision to compensate Britons when slavery was abolished in 1833.

Greene received nearly £500,000 in today's money when he surrendered rights to three plantations in the West Indies.

Details of the sums are set out in a comprehensive database held by University College London (UCL).

However, Greene King does not mention its past links to slavery on its company website, although they were set out in a 1983 book about the Suffolk firm's history.

The Greene King brewery in Suffolk CREDIT: Tony Buckingham
LOOK UNITED CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

On Wednesday night, Nick Mackenzie, Greene King's chief executive, told The Telegraph the company would update the website on Thursday and offered an unqualified apology.

He said: "It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s. We don’t have all the answers, so that is why we are taking time to listen and learn from all the voices, including our team members and charity partners, as we strengthen our diversity and inclusion work."

He added that Greene King would make a "substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support our race diversity in the business as we increase our focus on targeted work in this area."


The interior of the Lloyd's of London building CREDIT: Reuters
THE MODERN CLOCK IS A PRODUCT OF CAPITALISM

The database showed that Simon Fraser, a founder subscriber member of insurer Lloyd's of London, was paid nearly £400,000 in today's money to surrender an estate in Dominica.

A Lloyd's spokesman said on Wednesday: "We are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd's market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.

"We will provide financial support to charities and organisations promoting opportunity and inclusion for black and minority ethnic groups."

Lloyd's also said it would now review its "organisational artefacts, to ensure that they are explicitly non-racist".

Greene King and Lloyd's were two of nine UK businesses – several of them high street banks – that benefited directly or indirectly from the compensation, according to the UCL database.

On Wednesday night, pressure was growing on the other companies shown to have links to slavery in the database to make some form of payment to BAME groups.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group were among a number found to have benefited directly or indirectly from the slavery payments.

In the case of RBS, it conceded in a report in 2009 that individuals "who were partners or directors of RBSG [Royal Bank of Scotland Group] predecessors may have owned slaves themselves or been otherwise directly connected to slave enterprises in the British West Indies.

"There is also evidence that other partners of RBSG predecessors may have been part owners of ships involved in slave trading voyages during the 18th and 19th centuries."

RBS hinted on Wednesday night that it would make a similar donation, telling The Telegraph it would "look at what more we can do as a bank and this includes looking at making contributions to BAME groups".

Layla Moran, a challenger for the Liberal Democrat leadership, said she would be writing to the bosses of companies highlighted in the UCL database, urging them to make donations to BAME causes.

She said: "No one can change the past – but these businesses can step up now and help to build a better, more inclusive future.

"I'm pleased to see some companies acknowledging this and responding to donation calls. I urge others to follow suit." 

The companies in Britain linked to the slave trade – and what they say today

Greene King

How Greene King is linked to the slave trade:

Brewery founder Benjamin Greene is listed on the UCL database as the sole claimant over three estates, one in Montserrat and two in St Kitts, both in the Caribbean. He was awarded compensation worth £483,308 in today's money when forced by Parliament to surrender them.

What Greene King says today:

Nick Mackenzie, the Greene King chief executive, said: "It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s. We plan to make a substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support race diversity in the business as we increase our focus on targeted work in this area."

Company connection

President

Trustee

Founder Subscriber

Member of Provisional Committee

Director

Partner

Senior partner

Other partner

Name partner

Firm Investment

Agent then Manager

Manager

General Manager

SUCCESSOR

COMPANY

CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY

RBS

Abel Smith

George Robert Smith

Samuel George Smith

Smith, Payne & Smith

John Smith

Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington

Abraham Wildey Robarts

Robarts, Lubbock & Co.

Russell Ellice

Archibald Paull

National Provincial Bank

Charles Selkrig

John Gladstone

Royal Bank of Scotland

Charles Selkrig

Hugh Duncan Baillie

Bristol Old Bank

James Evan Baillie

Isaac Currie

Raikes & Co.

Isaac Currie

Curries & Co.

James Auchinleck Cheyne

National Bank of Scotland

James Hughes Anderdon

Bank of London

John Atholl Hammet

William Esdaile

Sir James Esdaile & Co.

Pascoe St Leger Grenfell

Rees Goring Thomas

Thomas Scott

John Drummond

Drummonds

John Mello

Dorrien, Magens, Mello

Thomas Dorrien

John Stewart

London and Westminster Joint Stock Bank

John Vere

Vere & Ward

Milham Hartley

Hartleys & Co.

Thomas Hartley III

Richard Bright of Ham Green

Cave, Ames & Cave

Thomas Daniel

Sir Gerard Noel Noel 2nd Bart.

Davison, Noel, Templer,

Middleton & Wedgwood

Thomas Alers Hankey

Thomas Hankey II

Hankey & Co.

William Alers Hankey formerly Alers

Company connection

President

Trustee

Founder Subscriber

Member of Provisional Committee

Director

Partner

Senior partner

Other partner

Name partner

Firm Investment

Agent then Manager

Manager

General Manager

SUCCESSOR

COMPANY

CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY

RBS

Abel Smith

George Robert Smith

Samuel George Smith

Smith, Payne & Smith

John Smith

Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington

Abraham Wildey Robarts

Robarts, Lubbock & Co.

Russell Ellice

Archibald Paull

National Provincial Bank

Charles Selkrig

John Gladstone

Royal Bank of Scotland

Charles Selkrig

Hugh Duncan Baillie

Bristol Old Bank

James Evan Baillie

Isaac Currie

Raikes & Co.

Isaac Currie

Curries & Co.

James Auchinleck Cheyne

National Bank of Scotland

James Hughes Anderdon

Bank of London

John Atholl Hammet

William Esdaile

Sir James Esdaile & Co.

Pascoe St Leger Grenfell

Rees Goring Thomas

Thomas Scott

John Drummond

Drummonds

John Mello

Dorrien, Magens, Mello

Thomas Dorrien

John Stewart

London and Westminster Joint Stock Bank

John Vere

Vere & Ward

Milham Hartley

Hartleys & Co.

Thomas Hartley III

Richard Bright of Ham Green

Cave, Ames & Cave

Thomas Daniel

Sir Gerard Noel Noel 2nd Bart.

Davison, Noel, Templer,

Middleton & Wedgwood

Thomas Alers Hankey

Thomas Hankey II

Hankey & Co.

William Alers Hankey formerly Alers

RB


How RBS is linked to the slave trade:

An internal company report by RBS in 2009 found evidence that individuals "who were partners or directors of RBSG predecessors may have owned slaves themselves or been otherwise directly connected to slave enterprises in the British West Indies". In all, a total of 18 former companies associated with RBS have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

Two partners in Smith, Payne and Smith, which later became part of RBS, are listed as being claimants or beneficiaries from the fund. The 2009 RBS report says that in 1836 "the bank received its share (three-eighths) of the compensation for the 406 slaves" on a plantation.

What RBS says today:

A spokesman said: "As an organisation with a history stretching back more than 300 years, it is inevitable that these important and painful issues have a place in our history. We recognise our responsibility to engage with that.

"Over the past 15 years, RBS Group has been aware of these issues and has looked into its past links with slavery very extensively and thoroughly, using both its own archives and the growing body of research materials available externally to understand and document the connections. We have a substantial role to play in tackling those inequalities, and have recently set up a taskforce which will look at what more we can do as a bank."
Lloyds Banking Group



How Lloyds Banking Group is linked to the slave trade:

John White Cater, a president of London and Brazilian Bank, which later became part of Lloyds Banking Group, received compensation for five claims relating to estates in Jamaica. A total of eight former companies associated with Lloyds have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

What Lloyds Banking Group says today:

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: "A lot has changed during the 300-year history of our brands and, while we have much within our heritage to be proud of, we can't be proud of it all. Like any institution that is so interwoven with our country's history, we must acknowledge and learn from our past.

"We stand against racism, slavery and discrimination in all its forms and truly believe that, by reflecting, understanding, promoting and valuing the diversity of our colleagues, we will deliver better results for our colleagues and customers."
RSA Insurance



How RSA Insurance is linked to the slave trade:

Five company directors and a governor of London Assurance, which was merged into Sun Insurance in 1959 and eventually RSA Insurance in 2008, are named as claimants or beneficiaries. In total, five former companies associated with RSA have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

What RSA Insurance says today:

A spokesman said: "RSA's origins in insurance date back well over 300 years, with many parts of our business founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. While this has brought positive things that have shaped us, there are aspects of that history that don't reflect the values we hold today.

"We will continue to work with our employees to tackle racism and other injustices wherever we encounter them through our actions."
Lloyd's of London

How Lloyd's of London is linked to the slave trade:

One founder subscriber and one former chairman of Lloyd's of London are listed as claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database, and four others are listed as having links to estates. They include founder subscriber Simon Fraser, who was the former owner of the Castle Bruce estate in Dominica, which was handed compensation totalling £397,451 in today's money.

What Lloyd's of London says today:

A spokesman said: "We are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd's market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.

"We will provide financial support to charities and organisations promoting opportunity and inclusion for black and minority ethnic groups."
P&O

How P&O is linked to the slave trade:

Joseph Christopher Ewart, who later became a director of P&O Steam Navigation Co, along with others was awarded compensation for Long Lane Delap's estate in Antigua as mortgagees-in-trust. The total compensation in today's money was £334,336.

What P&O owner DP World says today:

A spokesperson for P&O said: "We believe that these records relate to a time before P&O was incorporated. Also, P&O ships did not trade on the Atlantic in this era and first went to the West Indies almost 100 years later, in 1932."
Danske Bank

How Danske Bank is linked to the slave trade:

Frederick Hervey Garraway was awarded compensation for eight claims over estates in Dominica, at the equivalent sum today of £905,150. Garraway made an investment in Belfast Banking Company, which became Northern Bank and was then acquired by Danske Bank.

What Danske Bank says today:

Stefan Singh Kailay, head of Media relations, said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of discrimination, disrespectful behaviour, bullying, and harassment of any kind towards employees, customers, business partners, or any other persons connected to Danske Bank."
Barclays



How Barclays is linked to the slave trade:

A manager, one founder subscriber and three directors of the Colonial Bank – merged with Barclays in 1917 – are listed as claimants or beneficiaries by UCL. They include founder subscriber William Tetlow Hibbert, who was awarded compensation over nine claims relations to estates in Jamaica totalling £4.5 million in today's money.

What Barclays says today:

A spokesman said: "The history of Barclays, like other institutions, is being examined following recent events. We can't change what's gone before us, only how we go forward. We are committed as a bank to do more to further foster our culture of inclusiveness, equality and diversity, for our colleagues and the customers and clients we serve."
HSBC

How HSBC is linked to the slave trade:

George Pollard was first manager of London Joint Stock Bank, which was later absorbed by Midland Bank and eventually merged into HSBC. Pollard was trustee over a claim regarding Colhoun's estate in Nevis, for which compensation was paid totalling £289,586 in today's money.

What HSBC says today:

A spokesman had not commented at the time of going to press.


CHARTS WITH THE ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND HERE 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/17/companies-britain-linked-slave-trade-say-today/

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Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave ... - UCL

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Legacies of British Slave-ownership. The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership has been established at UCL with the generous support of the Hutchins Center at Harvard.