Anoushka Shankar Launches New Film To Highlight Indigenous Resistance To Coal Mining In India

Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Press Release: Survival International

Award-winning musician Anoushka Shankar has narrated a new campaigning film highlighting Indigenous opposition to coal mining in the Hasdeo Forest, India.

Shankar, a seven-time Grammy nominee and multi-award winner, is lending her voice to the growing Adivasi (Indigenous) campaign in India to prevent further coal mining in the unique Hasdeo Forest, Chhattisgarh, home to 20,000 Adivasi people.

At least two enormous open-pit coal mines are already established in the Forest, but there are plans for three new mining projects there.

The Adivasi communities in Hasdeo have resisted the mines for 10 years, during which time their leaders have faced threats and false charges and their demands have been ignored, despite the community marching 300km to the state capital, and having sat in continuous protest in the Forest for over 100 days.

Recently Rahul Gandhi, a senior figure in the opposition Congress Party, said that the Adivasi protests are “justified; that he “has a problem” with mining the Forest; and that he “does not defend” it.

The three proposed new mines were recently put on “indefinite hold” in a major victory for the Adivasi campaign. However, they have not been cancelled, and the rights of Indigenous peoples, enshrined in Indian law, to withhold their consent for mining have still not been recognized by the authorities.

Anoushka Shankar said today: “The people of Hasdeo Forest are an inspiration to us all to stand firm and to defend that which is most precious. Their land is everything to them – it is their Mother, their god and their life, and they are utterly determined to protect it.

“The Adivasi women of Hasdeo are placing their bodies in front of the trees they love. I’m honoured to use my voice to help amplify their bravery in standing against the destruction of their forest and the desecration of their sacred sites. The government’s plan to sacrifice these people and their Forest for coal must be permanently stopped.”

Jo Woodman of Survival International said today: “The strength and determination of the Adivasi resistance movement in Hasdeo Forest has not wavered for a decade, and they remain united and committed to saving their Forest, getting their rights recognized and stopping any further coal mining. Until these mines are totally cancelled, and the community’s rights are fully recognized, their peaceful and just fight for Hasdeo continues – and history will be on their side.”

© Scoop Media

On the street and online: social media becomes key to protest in Kenya

As elections near amid soaring debt and a cost-of-living crisis, grassroots activists are turning to social media to propel change

Members of the Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance learn how to spread their message online during a meeting in Nairobi.

 Photograph: Courtesy of Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance


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About this content

Caroline Kimeu

Tue 12 Jul 2022 

When 1,700 Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa last week, they had one main demand of the government: to bring down the skyrocketing cost of living. Commemorating Saba Saba Day (“seven seven” in Swahili, when protesters on 7 July 1990 called for democracy under President Daniel arap Moi), the demonstrators brandished placards that read #nofoodnoelections and #lowerfoodprices.

Crucially, they also took to social media with their demands. “There is an escalation in how online space is being used,” says Sungu Oyoo, a community organiser with grassroots political movement, Kongamano la Mapinduzi (which roughly translates as conference of the revolution).

“We are realising that we may not always get coverage in traditional media or may face media blackouts,” he says. “So many activists are using social media like an independent media outlet – where they can push the conversations and reach more people.”

Oyoo says online activism is even more powerful in the hands of disenfranchised communities. “On social media, we are all starting from the same point.”

Online social justice movements are gathering momentum in Kenya’s informal settlements. In Mukuru, one of Africa’s biggest slums, residents meet for bimonthly meetings, known as barazas, which have become a vital space for political debate among young people as the country’s elections on 9 August approach. In this election, they are using social media to press presidential candidates on two big-ticket issues affecting their daily lives: the rising cost of living and the country’s soaring debt.

Young people from low-income areas such as Mukuru have long been sidelined from national policy debates that disproportionately affect their communities. “Kenyan media is run by the highest class of society. The economic interests of those people and the ones of the street are divergent, and the patterns of coverage reflect that,” says Oyoo.

Young Kenyan activists meeting to debate issues such as debt cancellation. 

Photograph: Courtesy of Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance

Collaborating with activist organisations such as the Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance, people from poorer areas are now coordinating “Twitterstorms” to air concerns. “They feel they get the attention of their representatives better that way,” says Winny Chepkemoi, national coordinator of Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance.

The alliance supports activists organised in community-led social justice centres across the country as they launch online campaigns. In May, they successfully pushed MPs to reject an increase in the tax on staples such as maize flour, which had been planned even as 69% of Kenyans reported struggling to feed their families. The justice centres organised a peaceful protest at parliament and ran a #NjaaRevolution (hunger revolution) campaign on Twitter, which trended for days.
The government is raising debt but it’s not being used to improve our lives. Our grandchildren will be paying for thisKimani Nyoike, Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance

Many of the young people turning to online campaigns say it is their way of taking power back and getting issues on the agenda. “We can’t all go out and demonstrate,” says Felix Kiamboi, a Mukuru resident, “but we can marshal [people] and send a message to those in power.”

Young people from poor areas often bear the brunt of police violence during street protests, so the online movements have created a safe space for activism. According to Solomon Josephat, a 22-year-old Mukuru resident, street protests are often divided along class lines. Inequality is rife in Kenya, and the issues that propel the middle classes on to the streets contrast with those that mobilise lower-income communities.

Josephat says building a more united front on social and economic issues would make police brutality less likely. “If the middle class showed up more for protests, it would be harder for the police to get violent because they wouldn’t know who they were shooting at,” he says.

Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance wants young people to make their voice heard on debt cancellation with the hashtag #CancelDebtKE. 

Photograph: Courtesy of Kenya Fight Inequality Alliance

Class divides allow poor policy decisions to go unchallenged, say Mukuru residents. “As Kenyans, we are to blame because as long as we can afford to get by, we have a ‘we-shall-cope’ attitude – until we’re affected directly,” says Frederick Okwafubwa, 22, who lives in the settlement.

The cost of a 2kg bag of maize meal has nearly doubled since last year, placing the country’s staple food, ugali (boiled maize flour), out of reach for many. Some have had to make drastic changes to get by. Joyce Mwikali, an unemployed 33-year old Mukuru resident, has cut back to one meal a day. “If things are like this now, how will they be for my daughter?” she asks.
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Collins Mageto, who works on branding for companies, says his wife had to return to her parents’ home with their child because her family was better off. “We were struggling. Things went up, and the money I used to leave for their daily needs was no longer enough,” says the 24-year-old.

Reflecting on previous election choices, Nicholas Mutinda, a 30-year old businessman, says: “Our first mistake was electing a president who doesn’t know the price of bread,” referring to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the son of the country’s independence leader and founding father, Jomo Kenyatta. Mutinda says he wants to elect a leader who knows how people feel.

Experts say the country’s high debt is contributing to the cost of living crisis through highly taxed goods. In a new campaign launched last month, the Mukuru Youth Initiative used the hashtag #CancelDebtKe to push presidential candidates to make detailed commitments on how they would tackle Kenya’s rising debt.

Activists from Kenya’s Social Justice Centres Working Group demonstrate with empty pots and cooking oil containers – to represent the high cost of living – during a protest on Saba Saba Day last week. 

Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EPA

“The government is raising debt but it’s not being used to improve the lives of Kenyans,” says Kimani Nyoike, a member of the Fight Inequality Alliance. “Our grandchildren will be paying for this.”

Kenya’s soaring public debt stands at more than 8tn Kenyan shillings (about £56bn), and earlier this month, parliament increased its debt ceiling to KES10tn.

From this month, for the first time in Kenya, the government’s debt repayments have overtaken current spending. This will place a significant strain on Kenya’s growth, says Ken Gichinga, chief economist at Mentoria Economics.


Pressure points: threat of unrest looms as Kenya’s elections approach

With mounting public pressure to address the debt burden, the veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga has promised to restructure debt and negotiate debt relief. George Wajackoyah, an underdog in the race, has suggested clearing Kenya’s debt by legalising cannabis and selling it abroad. William Ruto, the deputy president and a leading contender, has also vowed to bring an end to excessive borrowing, but was vague on details.

“The election period may not be enough to get these issues fully addressed, but pushing our leaders lets them know Kenyans are watching them,” says Nyoike.

Primatologist Jane Goodall gets Barbie doll in her likeness 

By Reuters  •  Updated: 12/07/2022 - 

Primatologist Jane Goodall gets Barbie doll in her likeness   -   Copyright  Thomson Reuters 2022

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By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

LONDON – British primatologist Jane Goodall has got a Barbie in her likeness, fulfilling a longtime wish of having her own doll to inspire young girls.

Mattel Inc unveiled the new Barbie, which the toymaker says is made from recycled plastic, as part of its Inspiring Women Series, nodding to Goodall’s groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees and conservation efforts.

Dressed in a khaki shirt and shorts and holding a notebook, Goodall’s doll has a pair of binoculars around her neck and David Greybeard by her side, a replica of the first chimpanzee to trust the primatologist as she conducted her research at Gombe National Park, in what is now Tanzania in east Africa.

“I wanted a doll to be me even before this idea came up. I’ve seen…little girls playing with Barbie dolls and certainly at the beginning, they were all very girly girly and I thought little girls need…some choice,” Goodall told Reuters.

“Mattel has changed its range of dolls and there’s all kinds of astronauts and doctors and things like that. So many children learn about me at school. They’ll be thrilled to have the Barbie doll.”

Goodall, 88, began her research in east Africa in 1960, observing that chimpanzees make tools, hunt and eat meat and show compassion among other traits.

“When I got to Gombe, it was beautiful, my dream had come true,” she said. “But for four months the chimps ran away from me…so although the forest was wonderful, I couldn’t enjoy it until this David Greybeard lost his fear and helped the others to lose their fear too.”

Mattel said it would also partner with the Jane Goodall Institute and her youth service movement Roots & Shoots to help teach children about their environmental impact.

“I see us at the mouth of a very long, very dark tunnel with a little shining star at the end and it’s no good sitting at the mouth of the tunnel and saying ‘Oh, I hope that star comes to us.’ Hope is about action,” Goodall said.

“We… work around all these obstacles between us and the star, which is climate change, loss of biodiversity, poverty, unsustainable lifestyles, pollution, you name it. And as we go along the tunnel, we reach out to others because there are people working on each one of these problems but so often they’re working in silos.”

A handout picture shows a Jane Goodall Barbie doll and David Greybeard Chimpanzee along with the accessory products, in Los Angeles, U.S., April 2022. Jane Goodall Institute/Handout via REUTERS

A handout picture shows primatologist Jane Goodall holding the new Eco-leadership team Barbie dolls, in Los Angeles, U.S., April 2022. Jane Goodall Institute/Handout via REUTERS

 

Class And Racist Security In A Liberal Democratic Order – OpEd

 July 12, 2022  Timothy Hopper  0 Comments

By Timothy Hopper

There is an African proverb with the theme that when you see a lion, a bear, a fox, a hyena, and a deer running together at the same time, the forest is on fire and an exceptional situation has been created. An exceptional situation basically occurs when the law is suspended and the ruler’s decision replaces the law. Then, previous legal clauses and regimes and legal and international conventions become an appendage that can only occasionally be used behind the podium to declare that “The forest is on fire and any fire is condemned”. The same situation is going on in the United Nations as without any practical action, the organization only declares its concern about the war in Ukraine.

However, in the Ukraine war, the exceptional situation in the international order will not only affect the Americans or the Ukrainians. These exceptional circumstances are the product of the current situation due to the arrangement of world powers and the tension between them. Nearly 800 US military bases in more than 70 countries have turned the world into something like a US barracks, or rather a hostage of American order. Britain, France, and Russia also have a total of 30 military bases around the world. In addition, China established its first overseas military base in Djibouti in 2017 and is now not much far away from establishing the second one in the Solomon Islands near Australia- However, USA and Australia announced in the AUKUS Pact that this establishment is a red line for them.

 It is estimated that the United States alone spends about $ 200 billion to maintain these bases; a price that is obviously paid from the pockets of American taxpayers. It is a pity that these bases have not been much successful in maintaining global efficacy and deterrence. The strategic question is “What is the purpose of creating this number of bases?” If the new liberal order is based on the continuation of peace, what is the justification for this militarization of the world? The only thing that the other power actors can do in the current situation, especially after the nightmare of the emergence of the enduring paradigm of Trumpism in the United States, is to side with the commander of this invading military order and endless wars.

Another important question is whether countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba which are encircled by US bases, or even China and Russia, as military powers, are allowed to set red lines to maintain their security against the United States or not? The fundamental question is “Why the right to draw red lines is not considered for other countries that do not have close ties to the United States?” History will not forget that John F. Kennedy, then President of the United States, was ready to even wage a nuclear war to push back the Soviets from their borders. 

What does security mean in a situation that the United States defines as a zero-sum game for others? In the current conceptualization of security, it is nothing but the security of the United States and its allies, who define themselves as the rulers of the world order and the guarantor of security. In other words, the security of independent countries or even the actor’s attempt to gain strategic independence from the global hegemony of this order is defined as the insecurity of the international order or American security, which has emerged as an international commander. In the current conceptualization, security is nothing but the security of the United States and its allies, who define themselves as the rulers of the world order and the guarantor of security. 

America considers itself rightful to determine its interests by defining new wars, new rivals, or endless wars so that no country or international organization will ever dare to speak about dismantling these bases.  International organizations and conventions must act according to what is acceptable in Bush and Trump’s governing paradigm of US foreign and security policy. This means that any country could face a threat or war as soon as it violates the unilateral interests of the United States. In this exceptional situation, the international regimes and conventions that constitute the international order have practically become something that is subject to the decision of the ruling hegemon. Another necessity for maintaining this exceptional status for the White House, as the imperial power of the new order, is to maintain and continue the strategy of endless wars. For decades, war has been the most essential part of the Washington order. In other words, the ” war of all against all” under the supervision of the White House has gained legitimacy for years. In the strategy of endless wars, not only should the wars in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan not end, but also the provocation of China in Taiwan should be maintained and Russia should be constantly encouraged to pursue geo-strategic expansionism.

It is said that when a government is in danger of falling, the only thing that can save it might be war. From a larger perspective, if we consider that the United States of America is the ruler of the liberal world order and actors like Europe, as former allies seek strategic independence and countries like China fight for authoritarian rule, what can help the US to maintain its dominance once again? In addition to suspending the law and stabilizing the exceptional situation, the war also preserves the ruling order.

In America’s grand strategy, war is the code name that has kept the state of exception stable for American interests. In the war of all against all strategy, Afghanistan was offered to terrorist Islamist jihadists, and now it’s time to provoke Russia into war in Ukraine and possibly mobilize allies who are afraid of Russia in case of future China aggression. Ukraine and Russia will also have to fight until the threat draws closer to Europe until the continent becomes more dependent on the USA. Iran, too, must be isolated with the strategy of keeping the option of war on the table of US presidents. 

Let’s return to the image of a large garrison with 800 military bases around the world. What will 800 military bases do if they have not been able to prevent the war? Isn’t it time for the demand for being released from the prison guard who has turned the world into a great garrison? Isn’t it time that the world is no longer a laboratory of occupation, military operations, and military campaigns? Isn’t it time for US taxpayers to ask why $ 200 billion of their hard-earned money should be spent on inefficient US military barracks around the world? Perhaps now is the time for strategic independence and the preservation of the lost prestige of the Charter of Nations, regimes, and international conventions to become a global and international demand to prevent another country from falling victim to this so-called order.

Timothy Hopper is an international relations graduate of American University.

 

Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Did Little To Affect Executive Pay, Counter To What Congress Intended

 July 12, 2022  Eurasia Review  0 Comments

By Eurasia Review

Through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Congress attempted to curb CEO pay by repealing a long-standing exemption that allowed companies to deduct large amounts of qualified performance-based pay. New research finds the change has had little effect, with CEO pay either staying the same or growing after the law made it more costly to award executives with high levels of compensation.

The intention of the legislation was to move top-executive compensation away from stock-based compensation and performance pay that can lead to a myopic emphasis on short-term results and toward cash-based fixed compensation.

Professors at Indiana University, the University of Texas and the Chicago Booth School of Business examined CEO pay packages before and after the tax policy change and found no evidence that companies affected by the law changed total compensation, compensation mix or pay-performance sensitivity.

“It’s very politically amenable right now to say they’re going to tax these corporations and these executives and it’s going to reduce income inequality, but our research — and that of others — suggests that taxes are just not a big enough stick to change the structure or the magnitude of executive compensation,” said Bridget Stomberg, associate professor of accounting and a Weimer Faculty Fellow at the IU Kelley School of Business. “We found no statistical effects, which is counter to what Congress intended. We looked very hard and see no evidence of a reduction in CEO pay.”

The article, “Examining the Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Executive Compensation,” has been published online by the journal Contemporary Accounting Research. The other authors are Lisa De Simone, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business; and Charles McClure, an assistant professor of accounting at Booth. Stomberg and De Simone are co-hosts of the podcast “Taxes for the Masses.”

Since 1994, publicly traded companies were generally subject to a $1 million-a-year cap on the amount of top-executive compensation that they could deduct from corporate taxable income. But there was an exemption, allowing them to deduct more if the pay was linked to the company’s performance. In 2017, Congress reduced the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and eliminated the exemption, limiting the deductibility of certain highly compensated employees to only $1 million.

In the paper, Stomberg and her colleagues used a battery of over 40 tests to examine changes in executive compensation from fiscal years 2017 to 2018, when the tax rules took effect. They used a control sample of companies operating under fiscal years, which were affected later than companies operating under calendar years. They then looked at compensation in 2019 and 2020.

“Even three full years after the law took effect, we didn’t see any evidence of a reduction in CEO pay,” she said.

The results broadly suggest that taxes are not a first-order determinant of executive pay and that tax regulation could be relatively ineffective at curbing executive compensation in response to growing income inequality. This finding has policy implications as some in Congress propose a federal corporate tax surcharge linked to the CEO pay ratio. The cities of Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco have implemented business taxes tied to CEO pay ratios, which also has been proposed by at least eight states.

“If Congress’ fundamental assumption about the relative importance of taxes in the design of executive compensation is overstated, its ability to shift current compensation practices through changes in tax policy is also likely overstated,” the authors said. “Our results and those from prior studies suggest increases in firms’ cost of executive compensation do little to reduce its amount.

“As a consequence, policymakers should reconsider whether changes to the taxation of executive compensation are a viable path towards addressing the perceived issues of excessive executive pay and inequality. Although our results speak only to the effects of the TCJA, we believe our results can inform the broader debate on the efficacy of tax regulation to influence executive compensation.”

Britain to toughen accuracy safeguards of company statements
By Huw Jones  

People walk across Millennium Bridge with the City of London financial district seen behind, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Starting in January 2024, company directors will have to give investors stronger reassurance that annual reports are free of fraud after collapses at retailer BHS and builder Carillion, Britain's accounting watchdog said on Tuesday.

The British government said in May it will legislate to introduce a more powerful audit and company governance regulator, and change how auditors are hired.

But with no timetable for legislation, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) set out on Tuesday changes it will propose which do not need a new law, such as amending Britain's "comply or explain" Corporate Governance Code, and introducing standards which are voluntary until legislation is brought in to make them mandatory.

"These long-awaited reforms are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure corporate Britain upholds the highest standards of governance and protects those stakeholders who rely on high-quality reporting," FRC's chief executive Jon Thompson said in a statement.

After a public consultation early next year, the FRC said it will change the code from January 2024 so that companies have effective internal controls to ensure the accuracy of annual reports and other reports.

The change comes after Britain decided not to introduce into law a version of the stringent U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley rules which force company directors to personally attest to the accuracy of their financial statements or risk imprisonment for breaches.

The FRC will also write guidance for directors on reporting fraud, distributable profits, and resilience, meaning the company's ability to stay in business.

The FRC will also change the code to reflect a board's wider responsibilities for sustainability, and environment, social and governance reporting (ESG) as new disclosure requirements are rolled out.

There would be a provision for companies to take into account the need for "diversity" when tendering for a new auditor to dilute the dominance of EY, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte.

The code will be updated to strengthen reporting on when arrangements are triggered to reclaim a bonus, the FRC said.

There will be a pilot on how companies could report on remuneration, a topic increasingly under the investor spotlight.

Pacific nuclear victims paying the price for actions decades ago


Runit Island, Marshall Islands 14 August 2018

.Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

By Sanjeshni Kumar
12 July 2022 
Pacific nuclear victims seek an apology for actions decades ago. “…..we are still angry that we are not recognised as nuclear victims.”

Lest we forget, it has been 24 years since the last nuclear test in Mururoa, French Polynesia and 76 years since the first at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It’s easy to forget that they ever happened unless if you are living with its consequences and paying the price dearly daily.

For Marshall Islands Student Association representative, Danity Laukon, she really did not know the history of the nuclear tests on her country until a few years ago.

They did not teach this history in school and so generations after the 97 nuclear tests didn’t know their own history, a deliberate erasure of a period in history.

But there are daily reminders, such as the lady she met at the airport in Majuro, suffering from thyroid cancer and who cannot be compensated because she was from an atoll that was not one of the four – Bikini, Enewetak, Ronelap and Ulro- identified for compensation.

It was an ‘omission’ to acknowledge that the radioactive fallout downwind as well as the current’s spread the radioactive material.

“Go tell my story, our story, that we are still angry, we are still angry that we are not recognised as nuclear victims,” the lady pleaded with Danity.

Lena Nomand of French Polynesia’s Association 193 says there are inconsistencies in the compensation of nuclear victims and adds that it was important that France also apologizes for her actions decades ago.

“We do need France to ask for forgiveness. “It is not the riches – for us asking for forgiveness is important before the reparation. Two months after President Macron came to French Polynesia, he asked for forgiveness from the people in Algeria. So… just to say that it is possible,” Nomand said.

Tahiti, above, was exposed to 500 times the accepted maximum radiation level from nuclear tests in the 20th century, reports Le Parisien.

Nomand and Laukon were in Vienna last month to attend the first meeting of state parties since the Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear weapons came into effect in January last year.

Kiribati’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Teburoro Tito urged the international community to listen to the voices of youth and of those whose families have suffered from nuclear testing.

“The international community cannot forget how the former colonial powers treated innocent Pacific Islanders in their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “Nuclear weapons undermine the core tenets of international humanitarian law, and it is unacceptable that a small group of states are spending billions in modernising and maintaining their nuclear arsenals. These weapons are on hair-trigger alert and are ready to annihilate the world. We cannot allow these immoral weapons to continue to threaten humanity.”

The meeting ended with a Declaration by state parties and a 50-point Action Plan., which includes actions on universalization; victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation and assistance; scientific and technical advice in support of implementation; supporting the wider nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime; inclusion; and implementation of the treaty’s gender provisions.

“From the adoption earlier today of our rules of procedure to the creation of an intersessional structure and Scientific Advisory Group, to agreement on a comprehensive action plan, you can count on New Zealand as a steadfast supporter and active participant in our Treaty’s future,” New Zealand Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control, Phil Twyford.

“Let us focus now on our immediate tasks and have confidence that the message we will send from our first meeting is one of commitment to – and resolute belief in – the necessary and urgent elimination of nuclear weapons. A message we will carry also to the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nuclear weapons are never the answer. But our Treaty can be,” Twyford said.

Nuclear testing in the Pacific.

At the Vienna meeting, Pacific Islands Forum chairperson and Fijian Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama called on world leaders to consider the long-term consequences of the displacement of communities from their traditional lands due to ever-encroaching nuclear waste.

“The terrible legacy of those tests wasn’t only the waste that was created, it was the weapons that were perfected. Thousands of missiles and trillions of dollars later, every person on earth is hostage to arsenals that threaten our existence. It’s time we do away with these trillion-dollar relics and get serious about securing our future,” he said.

Fiji also declared it would work closely with New Zealand to eliminate nuclear weapons, including joint advocacy efforts with partners.

Meanwhile, State parties also declared to “move forward with its (TPNW) implementation, with the aim of further stigmatising and de-legitimising nuclear weapons” and work in partnership with the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, other international and regional organisations, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and other non-governmental organisations, religious leaders, parliamentarians, academics, indigenous peoples, victims of the use of nuclear weapons (hibakusha), as well as those affected by nuclear testing and youth groups.

They also pledged to “work with affected communities to provide age and gender-sensitive assistance without discrimination to survivors of use or testing of nuclear weapons, and to remediate environmental contamination.”

CHINA
Another protest erupts over the billion-dollar bank fraud in Henan

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Zhengzhou branch of China’s central bank to demand access to their savings, which have been frozen for months in a banking fraud worth billions.

Nadya Yeh

Published July 11, 2022

Eyepress News via Reuters Connect.

Hundreds of people gathered before dawn on Sunday on the steps outside the People’s Bank of China building in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, in the latest clash over a banking scandal that sparked national outrage earlier this year.

“Henan Bank, return my savings!” chanted some of the protesters, with some calling on China’s No. 2 official and economic leader, Lǐ Kèqiáng 李克强, as they held up banners to demand the return of their frozen deposits worth up to tens of billions of yuan.Within hours, swathes of local security forces showed up to disperse the protesters, warning them that they were an illegal assembly, and would be detained if they refused to leave.
Later videos posted on social media showed the scene turning violent: One video showed an unidentified team of men in plain black or white clothes — who many have speculated were part of security forces — being pelted with water bottles and other objects as they charged into the crowd.

Another video showed individuals being shoved and dragged down the steps by the same plain-clothed men, with some protesters left with broken bones and eye injuries, according to the Financial Times.

The desperate customers have been locked in a months-long dispute with local lenders, after four small banks in Henan suddenly suspended online cash withdrawals in April, sparking panic among hundreds of their customers who feared they had lost their savings.Just three weeks earlier, authorities in Zhengzhou punished five officials for changing the health codes of more than 1,300 customers of the banks to red, a move that restricted their public movements and that many have called an abuse of the nationwide health code app that tracks users’ data.

​​Later that day, Henan banking authorities posted a short notice saying that authorities are speeding up the verification of customer funds in the four banks, and have since ordered payments of smaller amounts starting on July 15 with bigger payments to be made later.“​​On the surface, it looks like good news, but it is actually a frog in boiling water. If someone gets a part of it back, they will not fight for it anymore,” said one user on Weibo.

“I am happy for the depositors, but at the same time I want to ask: Where do the advanced payments come from? If the funds cannot be recovered, who will pay for the 40 billion yuan?” said another.

Though authorities have so far accused Henan Xincaifu Group, a stakeholder in the four lenders, of colluding with bank employees to illegally attract depositors through third-party platforms, the case has highlighted the vulnerability of lenders in China’s less-developed areas amid growing financial risks in the world’s second-largest economy.“The central government needs to worry more now about the property sector issue spilling over into the regional banks,” said a Hong Kong–based trader in developer debt. “Regional banks have a lot more exposure to property than they would like to admit.”


Nadya Yeh is a Staff Writer and Editorial Associate at SupChina. Nadya has previously done research at the China Institute and got her Master’s degree at the Global Thought program at Columbia University. Read more

Sri Lanka: Opposition leader ready to run for presidency

By Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News, Colombo

Sajith Premadasa says he is ready to take part in an all-party interim government

Sri Lanka's main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has told the BBC he intends to run for president, once Gotabaya Rajapaksa steps down.

This comes after his Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party held talks with allies to get support for the move.

Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis which has brought thousands to the streets since March.

The country has run out of cash and is struggling to import basic items like food, fuel and medicine.

President Rajapaksa announced that he plans to resign this week, and the speaker of parliament has said lawmakers will choose the next president on 20 July.

Mr Premadasa told the BBC that his party and allies agreed he should be "putting my nomination for the position of presidency, if a vacancy occurs".

He lost the presidential election in 2019, and would need the support of the governing alliance MPs to win.

He is banking on getting it due to the popular discontent against Mr Rajapaksa and his family, who have dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than two decades.

The country's inflation rate reached a whopping 55% in June, and millions of people are struggling to make a living.

Mr Premadasa said he was ready to take part in an all-party interim government.

The SJB leader has been criticised for refusing to take the post of prime minister when it was offered to him in April. His rival Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed - but has also indicated he would resign to make way for a unity government.

Mr Premadasa described the current situation in Sri Lanka as "confused, uncertainty and total anarchy", saying it needs "consensus, consultation, compromise and coming togetherness".

Sajith Premadasa said the nation needed consensus and compromise

The country's usable reserves have dropped to around $250m (£210m), according to local media reports.

The crippling shortage of fuel has devastated public transport. There are rolling power cuts as power plants lack enough fuel to function. Schools are closed this week as well due to the fuel crisis. Many people are trying to leave the country.

Mr Premadasa has conceded that there are no quick fixes.

To return the economy to 2019 levels would take approximately four to five years, he said, adding that his party had an economic plan to overcome the crisis.

"We are not going to hoodwink the people. We are going to be frank and present a plan to get rid of Sri Lanka's economic ills," Mr Premadasa said.

But the protesters at the Galle Face site in Colombo say that all 225 members of parliament are responsible for the current situation, and they want a new beginning with fresh and energetic people in politics.

One Year After July 11, 2021: Washington Carries On It’s Economic War Against Cuba Despite Political Isolation

by Ike Nahem / July 11th, 2022

[T]he heroism of normality in Cuba does not generate headlines.
— Cuban revolutionary journalist Rosa Miriam Elizalde

July 11, 2021 in Cuba quickly went from legitimate, valid, peaceful street protests to violent provocations and destructive acts directed by US clients in Cuba. Thousands of people in many cities, towns, and working-class neighborhoods took to the streets in response to harsh, deteriorating conditions — the worst of the Covid Delta infections, hospitalizations, and deaths on the island before the application of the Cuban-vaccines; the electricity blackouts in the scorching Cuban summer; on top of the existing shortages of food, gasoline, and medicines — and perceived shortcomings in government measures and action. This was accompanied by the highly orchestrated, parallel activation of longstanding counter-revolutionary networks, catalyzed and coordinated by US “social media” platforms with clear, documented threads leading to Washington and its minions. Of course, these counter-revolutionary networks are financially sustained and politically directed by US government agencies.

While most of the protests remained peaceful, there were significant levels of violence in numerous neighborhoods, including assaults on police and other citizens; the destruction and looting of public and private homes, properties, and businesses; and overturning cars and dumping garbage in the streets. Some 1300 Cuban citizens were initially arrested and detained, with most subsequently released. Hundreds have been charged and tried over recent months in judicial proceedings that are ongoing, around 70 on relatively minor charges. Heavy sentences have been handed down for those convicted so far – based on documented evidence with the right to defense council and due process – of the violent crimes referred above.

Fizzle and Collapse

As the July 11 anniversary comes and goes, its ephemeral character became apparent within days — if not hours — as the “unprecedented uprising against communist tyranny” and for “freedom” fizzled out and collapsed.

The first line of defense for the Cuban revolutionary socialist government, under the leadership of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, was not “repression” (of course, the violent riots perpetrated directly and indirectly by US clients had to be quickly contained and stopped by force) but was political, on two intertwined levels, in the historic traditions of the Cuban Revolution and the undefeated legacy of Fidel Castro and his extraordinary leadership team in defense of Cuban sovereignty and socialism.

Within hours and days of the July 11 protests and subsequent counter-revolutionary violence, the Cuban revolutionaries and working class vanguard took to the streets in mass counter-mobilizations which made crystal clear what the actual political and social relationship of forces on the island is.

Part of this revolutionary mobilization was the initiatives of the Diaz-Canel government to directly go to neighborhoods and communities and cities where protests erupted. President Diaz-Canel was continually present on the ground, not behind legions of heavily armed police and military, not before a staged, hand-picked audience, but rather to listen to grievances and project advances and solutions within the limitations of the asphyxiating blockade.

The political tone taken by the Cuban president and government was not to castigate and demonize those who took to the streets on July 11 as participants, but to differentiate between legitimate and valid grievances and demands and the US-directed counterrevolutionary subversion and violence. This was complemented and intertwined with the actions of the mass organizations – the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR); Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and the mass organizations of small farmers, students, artists and intellectuals, and more — that are the grass-roots mass expressions of Cuba’s participatory, socialist “democracy,” which is, of course, distinct from the forms and practice of capitalist parliamentary “democracy,” a subject of great theoretical and practical-political importance (and for a different essay I would like to take up in the future.)

A July 10, 2022 NBC News piece grudgingly states that:

Since the protests a year ago, Cuba has taken steps to try to address discontent relating to conditions in the island, including renovating about 1,000 impoverished neighborhoods. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has also stressed the ‘urgent effort’ of addressing ‘opportunity’ — rather than ‘assistance’— aimed at the country’s youth, including tackling issues of employment, training and housing.

(See attached speech by Miguel Diaz-Canel.

From Trump to Biden

After July 11, 2021 bipartisan Washington and the capitalist media oligopolies unleashed a propaganda blitzkrieg against the Cuban government. This campaign unrealistically (wildly so!) raised expectations and illusions across the board in Washington; this was especially the case with right-wing Cuban-Americans energized under the Donald Trump Administration. (President Joseph Biden’s policies and broken campaign promises to alleviate or reverse Trump’s deepening of the blockade also accelerated the growth of Puentes de Amor-Bridges of Love and the inspiring Caravan movement of Cuban-Americans against the blockade, which have spread across the US, Canada, and worldwide.)

The Biden Administration instead shamelessly used the July 11, 2021 events as a cover for continuing and deepening the very same Trump measures. From Trump to Biden there was a seamless transition in these stepped-up “regime change” programs and economic asphyxiation.

Perhaps most critical in this further imperialist turning-of-the-screws under Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was their decision to keep Cuba on the US State Department list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” reinstated in the last days of the Trump Administration. This obscenity is a stunningly bogus and two-faced fabrication that reversed the Barack Obama-Biden Administration’s removal of Cuba from the notorious list in May 2015. Revolutionary Cuba has been a historic and contemporary recipient of terrorism, mostly US-based, including directly and indirectly, from the US government. Inclusion on the lists makes state and private economic entities wary of economic exchanges with Cuba in fear of extraterritorial US sanctions.

“Repression”

Faced with the political debris from the post-7-11 failure of what had been the most concerted and coordinated stab at “regime change” in decades, Washington politicians and the capitalist media are settling on a common “explanation” for the actual course of events. The “explanation” comes down to the “exceptional” efficacy of Cuban government and state “repression.” That is, the ability of Cuba’s government and mobilized majority to defend itself and their sovereign workers state from the US blockade and US subversive projects, policies, and programs which are longstanding and well-funded. This is bipartisan Washington’s political line and rationalization for the collapse and routing of their client base and agencies…and they’re sticking to it!

A typical account in the NBC News online piece cited above quotes Juan Pappier, a “senior Americas researcher” at “Human Rights Watch”: “Over decades, the Cuban government has been able to develop a machinery of repression, which is unique in its sophistication in the Western Hemisphere,” said Pappier. What Human Rights Watch means by “unique in its sophistication” is that the Cuban Revolution and its revolutionary Marxist leadership has been particularly effective in defending itself against ongoing US bellicosity over many decades. That is fairly unique in the contemporary history of Latin American, Central American, and Caribbean revolutionary processes which necessarily come up against US subversion and intervention.

(See my article for a description of this notoriously anti-Cuban, Washington-echoing Human Rights Watch outfit.)

It is an illusion and a diversion to frame the failure of Washington and its clients inside Cuba to gain serious political traction and political momentum as the result of “repression.” It is, of course, the duty and obligation of the revolutionary socialist Cuban government to counter and defeat Washington’s permanent, subversive, “regime change” schemes. And the Cuban revolutionaries are damn good at it from experience! After all, necessity is the mother of invention.

What does not exist in Cuba for the counter-revolutionary forces under the direction of Washington is a mass base with a united organization and program. Their base is in Washington and part of the polarized Cuban-American community in Miami and elsewhere. Otherwise, inside Cuba what these forces have left are just various networks and money-laundering operations with threads that all lead to Washington. These groups do not exist to lead a mass counter-revolutionary movement for which they have no significant mass base, but to be points of support for any potential direct US military intervention and invasion under the “right” conditions of economic and social collapse from the US economic and political war.

Anyone with the slightest familiarity with Cuba’s mass participatory decision-making political forms and electoral processes – certainly distinct from the parliamentary democratic forms of many capitalist states — knows that freewheeling debate and contention within the Revolution is a norm that exists alongside necessary and voluntary revolutionary unity under the conditions of permanent economic, financial, and political siege by the US imperialist superpower. Within that crucible – not at all what any revolutionary Marxist would consider ideal – “socialist democracy” advances and flourishes. A stunning example today is the rich and sometimes contentious, nationwide debates, within a mass deliberative process, over modernization and updating of Cuba’s renamed Families Code that includes issues of same-sex marriage, the rights of children, and much more.

The caricature of a cowed and tyrannized Cuban population anxious to be “liberated” by a benevolent Uncle Sam is nonsense that has gained little political traction beyond the Washington and Miami policymaker’s bubble. Do most of them even believe it themselves?

Cracks in the Blockade’s Armor?

It is never easy for a bully to back down. Under some pressure to avoid a united boycott of the June 2022 US-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles Summit from numerous countries – including perhaps the entire bloc of Caribbean states constituting CARICOM – the Biden Administration made some limited concessions – easing family remittances (although mechanisms have yet to be established; loosening travel restrictions and allowing new airline routes; and liberalizing “people-to-people” exchanges (although normal tourist travel remains banned and hotel access for US citizens and legal residents is severely restricted) – that cushioned the Summit from a humiliating debacle. CARICOM, with the honorable exception of PM Ralph Gonsalves of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines – ended up in the room – although, once there, the remarks of CARICOM members blasted the exclusions of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and US anti-Cuba policies from the floor.

At the same time the Biden Administration is under mounting pressure from the growing numbers of Cubans who are emigrating under the accumulating harshness of economic conditions that Biden’s blockade has maintained in continuity with Donald Trump’s policies. This is an inevitable consequence of the US economic war against Cuba. These numbers are up to over 140,000 leaving Cuba aiming to enter the US, the largest numbers since the so-called Mariel boat lift of 1980 that reached 125,000.

The Primary Contradiction

The triumph of the mobilized Cuban people and revolutionary socialist government over the Washington-directed “soft coup” was already apparent in the immediate aftermath of the July 11, 2021 events. This political triumph was intertwined with the successful development and production of Cuban vaccines against COVID-19 and the highly successful mass vaccination efforts, including for children two-years and up. November 15, 2021—the announced day that Cuban schools, tourism and much else officially reopened — was touted by Washington and its counter-revolutionary networks to be a day of renewed protests, with the banging of pots in the streets and from home windows, with all the hyperbole they could muster. But the “heroism of normality” triumphed on that day and the retreat and isolation of the US-directed counter-revolutionary network again fell flat.

We should add the incredible mobilizations – 6.5 million in the streets across the country, some one million in Havana – for the May Day celebrations which brought out the organized Cuban working class and fighting people as a whole. This was the first May Day held for two years because of COVID and the enthusiasm and determination of the marchers was evident to anyone there (as I was privileged to be).

May Day 2022 in Havana

All of this has also led to negative political consequences for the bipartisan US anti-Cuba aggressive policy implemented by Biden and Blinken in their first 18 months in the White House and “Foggy Bottom.” Their policy has failed to gain traction and remains isolated in the Americas, as registered at the Los Angeles Summit.  This will be further registered worldwide in the annual Fall vote in the UN General Assembly – this will be the 30th such vote since 1992! – to overwhelmingly oppose the US extraterritorial commercial, financial, and economic embargo, the blockade. (Washington, of course, has appealed for the UN General Assembly to condemn the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation government of Vladimir Putin but has tried to put its head in the sand over 30 consecutive UN condemnations!) But for now bipartisan Washington is carrying on amidst the growing political wreckage.

At the same time, the economic (and thereby social) crisis in Cuba continues to deepen with a horrific, devastating impact. The US blockade is a sadistic policy, insofar as its authors are conscious of the human consequences of the tightening of the US asphyxiation policies under Trump and Biden.

In summary, we can say that the primary contradiction at this conjuncture in the fight for the normalization of US-Cuba relations is between the political isolation of bipartisan Washington and the political defeat – after such raised expectations and the anti-Cuba, anti-communist propaganda blitzkrieg – from July 11 to November 15, 2021 on one hand and the continuing and deepening material pounding from the blockade on the Cuban economy and people on the other.

It is clear from eyewitness reports from recent visitors to Cuba from the US solidarity movement that we are approaching a reality where Cuban people are going to die from shortages in medicines such as insulin and many other life-saving medications and medical equipment that the blockade prevents Cuba from purchasing. (And let us never forget – or forgive – that the blockade was deepened by the Trump and Biden Administrations during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.)

Everything in the next period flows from this primary contradiction which is also the primary political dynamic. There is no question that the resistance of the Cuban workers state, elected government, and fighting people will continue on every front. Biden and Blinken are going into a period where their anti-Cuba policy is more, not less, isolated. The October 2022 parliamentary elections in Brazil seem set for the ignominious ouster of the Jair Bolsonaro regime and the election of Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva. Lula da Silva, like President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico, is an historic friend of Cuba and a strong opponent of the US anti-Cuba blockade.

If elected, Lula, like other newly elected left-wing governments in Honduras, Chile, and Colombia, may or may not be able to effectively counter the resistance of the capitalists and large landowners, backed by the capitalist states (military, police, courts, prisons) they will be governing, to any progressive reforms in the interests of the working class, landless peasants, oppressed nationalities, women, and youth or anti-imperialist policies they aim to carry out to significantly diminish the neoliberal capitalist order in the current, mounting world capitalist economic crisis with its permanent political volatility and instability.

Nevertheless, none of these governments, even Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, who has tossed out some anti-Cuba boilerplate while also speaking out against the blockade, will be an ally to Biden and bipartisan Washington, in pursuing the criminal blockade.

The remaining months of 2022 will see the UN vote, the Brazilian presidential and parliamentary elections, and the mid-term Congressional elections in the United States.

The Cuba solidarity and anti-blockade movement must build on our significant advances in the next period to step up our solidarity aid and our political work against the blockade. Out of many fronts of struggle let us unite in one fist against the blockade. Let us support the many solidarity caravans and brigades traveling to Cuba in the coming days, weeks, and months. Support and donate to the Saving Lives Campaign for US-Cuba-Canada Collaboration and the Global Health Partners Campaign to send critically needed anesthesia machines and sutures to the Calixto Garcia Hospital main surgical trauma center in Havana. Let us unite in mass actions in New York City, across the US, Canada, and worldwide to mark the Fall UN vote!

We Are With the World!

Cuba Si, Bloqueo No!Facebook

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Ike Nahem is a retired Amtrak Locomotive Engineer and Teamsters Union member. A longtime anti-imperialist, socialist, and Cuba solidarity activist and leader, Ike is a founder and organizer for the New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, a member of the US National Network on Cuba, and a central organizer of the forthcoming March 18-20 International US-Cuba Normalization Conference in New York City. He is the author of many published, widely circulated essays online including The Life of Fidel Castro: A Marxist Appreciation and To the Memory of Malcolm X: Tribute to a Revolutionary. Contact Ike at ikenahem@gmail.com. Read other articles by Ike.