‘We don’t feel safe’: Serbians lash out after fatal roof collapse


By AFP
November 6, 2024

Thousands have protested following last week's accident 

 - Copyright AFP Jim WATSON
Ognjen ZORIC

For years, Serbia’s leaders boasted of launching a building spree across the country that had touched off a new era of prosperity in the Balkan country.

But following the deaths of 14 people after a roof collapsed at a train last week, a new tide of anger has been unleashed at authorities. That public ire has largely focused on reports of alleged short cuts made with building projects, reports that have left many with a new sense of vulnerability.

On Tuesday evening, more than 20,000 protestors rallied in the city of Novi Sad outside the train station where the fatal incident occurred. Many in the crowd chanted “Prison, prison!” while waving signs that read: “How many more dead children?”

“We’ve been unhappy as a people for a very long time,” Djordje Mitrovic, 30, told AFP at the rally. “We don’t live well. We don’t feel well… And now we don’t feel safe either.”

Amid mounting public pressure, the country’s Construction Minister Goran Vesic resigned Tuesday, citing his ministry’s oversight of development projects.

Vesic refused, however, to “accept the guilt for the deaths of 14 people”.

The central railway station in Novi Sad underwent three years of renovation that was completed in July, though Serbia Railways said the collapsed outdoor roof had not been part of that work.

The construction was handled by a Chinese consortium comprising China Railway International Co. Ltd and China Communications Construction Company Ltd.

The authorities have vowed to investigate.



– ‘Land of cranes’ –



After years of war in 1990s followed by attempts to kickstart Serbia’s economy, the Serbian Progressive Party led by President Aleksandar Vucic was elected into office more than a decade ago, promising a new era of stability in the country.

In the decade that followed, the promised renewal was most visible in the string of projects Vucic and the party launched across the country — including bridges, roads and a massive waterfront development in the capital Belgrade.

Vucic often boasted of transforming Serbia into “a land of cranes”.

But following the fatal accident in Novi Sad, analysts have warned that Vucic’s political trump card is now at risk of turning into a liability.

“When a part of a building that stood for 50 years collapses shortly after renovations, the safety of newly constructed, extended, and restored public structures becomes a matter of common sense,” sociologist Dario Hajric told AFP.

After the roof’s collapse, people have taken to both streets and social media questioning the safety of several new projects set to open in the coming years — including an underground metro network and bridge in Belgrade.

“Today, as we walk around the city, we have to consider whether something might fall on our heads,” opposition figure Stevan Babic told reporters.

“It is a direct result of corruption, rigged tenders, and crony connections,” added Ana Oreg, a member of parliament and Novi Sad resident.

– ‘Accountability’ –

Vucic visited Novi Sad late Tuesday shortly after the protest, insisting that the government has taken all necessary steps to punish those responsible for the railway station tragedy.

“No one will escape accountability if they made a mistake,” Vucic vowed.

Since the accident, prosecutors in Novi Sad have questioned over 50 individuals, including Vesic and officials from Serbian Railways.

The prosecutor’s office has also gathered documents as part of its investigation into what caused the disaster and who might be responsible.

Ultimately however, the transparency of the probe may serve as the true litmus test when it comes to regaining public trust.

In findings published earlier this year, Transparency International warned that Serbia was “witnessing a democratic decline, with its autocratic government using special laws to limit transparency in large-scale projects”.

Many observers are worried that officials will now duck responsiblity for the train station accident.

“The authorities don’t need the truth but rather a version of reality in which they bear no blame,” said the sociologist, Hajric.

Keir Starmer and David Lammy build special relationship with Donald Trump

Labour is cosying up to the global far right figurehead

Keir Starmer and David Lammy are cosying up to Donald Trump to keep in with US imperialism (Picture: Keir Starmer on Flickr)

By Tomáš Tengely-Evans
Wednesday 06 November 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue

Labour prime minister Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy fell over themselves to congratulate Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Starmer congratulated Trump on an “historic election victory”—and said he was looking forward to working with the president-elect in the coming years. “As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise,” he said.

Lammy posted on X, “Congratulations to Donald Trump on your victory. The UK has no greater friend than the US, with the special relationship being cherished on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 80 years.

“We look forward to working with you and JD Vance in the years ahead.”

Number 10 briefed journalists that Starmer would welcome Trump visit to Britain.

Lammy has previously praised vice president-elect JD Vance. “We share a similar working class background with addiction issues—and we’re both Christian,” he said in the summer.

Those remarks came just after far right Vance said Britain could be “the first truly Islamist country that will get nuclear weapons”.

When Lammy was trying to get on under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, he knew how to make the right noises to appeal to grassroots members. He had called Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and “a tyrant in a toupee”.

What’s behind Starmer, Lammy and Labour cosying up to Trump, a figurehead for the global far right?

It stems from the Labour Party’s commitment to the British state—and its role as a junior partner to the US since the end of the Second World War.

The right and left of the Labour Party is committed to “Labourism”, the idea that what happens in parliament is most important to winning changes rather than working class struggles.

While the party may articulate working class people’s aspirations, it aims to take the reins of the British state and rule in the “national interest”. There is no such thing as a national interest between bankers, bosses, landlords and working class people.

But if you want to deliver reforms through the capitalist state, you have to prove that you’re a “responsible” manager of the system. It’s the politics of “nation” over class, which infects that Labourite tradition and trade union bureaucracy.

This means cosying up to the British state and bosses’ interests—and to the US.

It’s why Labour backs Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. It’s why the Labour Party has always supported Zionism even before Israel’s creation in 1948, in the hope that it would be an outpost in the Middle East.

And it’s why Lammy shook hands with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving Israel the green light to escalate its slaughter in Gaza.

As Lammy said, “The truth of our relationship is that it is a special relationship. We saw how special it was over the skies of Israel and Jordan where our militaries came together to stop those missiles falling on those two countries.”

What Lammy refers to was dangerous escalation in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, not some finest hour. And, more to the point, why does the US have a base in Jordan? Why does Britain have bases in Cyprus which allow it to fly missions over the Middle East?

Lammy’s only worry is that Trump wants too much of a “go it alone” strategy, which focuses on China at the expense of the Middle East and Ukraine.

But he’s hopeful that, by sucking up to the far right bigot, he can influence him. “There is a lot of rhetoric from Trump, but look at the action,” he says. “He was the first to give javelin missiles to Ukraine after 2015. He talked about withdrawing from Nato, but he actually increased troops to Nato.

“In a grown up world, in the national interests of this country, we will work as closely with him as we can and we will seek to influence him where we disagree.”

That’s what Labour’s grown up politics means—slaughter abroad and making working class people pay for it at home.

Let’s build working class struggles and the Palestine and anti-war movements where our strength lies—we can expect more war from Labour.
Labour’s special relationship with the US

Here are just a few examples of Labour governments backing murder for the sake of the “special relationship” with the US:

1949: The Labour government allows the US to set up permanent military bases in Britain and was key in setting up the warmongers’ alliance Nato.

1950: The Labour government sends British troops to fight in Korea, a proxy war between US imperialism and Russian imperialism.

Over 1,000 British soldiers—and three million Koreans—died. As the historian John Newsinger writes, “The only reason for this military commitment was to maintain the ‘special relationship’ with the US.”

1951: US Democratic president Harry Truman and Clement Attlee’s Labour government overthrow the democratically-elected Iranian government. The CIA and MI5 toppled the liberal Mohammed Mosaddeq, who’d nationalised British oil interests, and installed the Shah as an absolute monarch.

1964-70: There’s a myth that Harold Wilson, the then Labour prime minister, is the “man who kept us out of Vietnam”.

The Labour government didn’t send troops to Vietnam. But that was only due to the strength of the left and the Vietnam solidarity movement in Britain, which mobilised mass demonstrations in 1968.

Wilson said as much to US president Lyndon B Johnson in a telegram in 1967. “I would like you to understand our political situation here,” he said. “For two years, whether with a majority of three or a majority of a hundred, I have been able to hold my party.

“On the Thursday before (Soviet premier) Alexei Kosygin’s visit I had a hostile vote of 68 on a resolution specifically demanding that Her Majesty’s Government should associate itself with (a UN) appeal to you to stop the bombing unconditionally.

“The vote would have been much larger if I had not made a short personal appeal not to rock the boat.”

1999: In the 1990s the West intervened in the bloody civil wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Nato—led by Labour’s Tony Blair—launched a vicious bombing campaign lasting 78 days against Serbia.

General Joseph W Ralston, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was pleased with the policy. He said in September 1999, “Despite the weight of bombs dropped, Serbian civilian casualties were amazingly light, estimated at less than 1,500 dead.”

2001: The US’s real chance to assert its might came after the terror attacks of 9/11, when the US, Britain and Nato launched an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban.

After 20 years, at least a ­quarter of a million killings and trillions of pounds spent on military assaults, the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government.

2003: Tony Blair lied to make sure Britain joined the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that murdered over a million people.

The Western invasion was an attempt by the US to send a signal to rival powers, such as China, that it was still top dog in the world.

Iraq was the only time a substantial number of Labour MPs rebelled against war—138 voted to delay the invasion, 84 voted against war.

Once again, that was due to the mass movement against the war organised through the Stop The War Coalition.

Police fire tear gas at protest over deadly canopy collapse in Serbia


Protesters broke windows and sprayed red paint on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on Tuesday in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people

A protester attempts to throw a flare into the City Hall building during a protest in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

A flare burns in front of the City Hall building during a protest in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)


A protester paints grafitti on the City Hall building during a protest in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

 November 5, 2024S


NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Protesters on Tuesday threw flares and red paint on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters.

The protesters surrounded the building in the city center, broke windows and threw stones and other objects despite calls by organizers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building.

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said police were “showing restraint,” while warning that “horrific, violent protests are underway.”

“People of Serbia, please do not think violence is allowed,” he said on X. “All those taking part in the incidents will be punished.”

Miran Pogacar, an opposition activist, said “one glass window can be mended but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia won’t stand for this.”
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Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the City Hall building and submit their demands, including that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice.

Some of the protesters trying to get inside the building wore masks and were believed to be soccer hooligans who are close to the populist government.


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Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed violence was being stoked by provocateurs, a tactic used before in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and paint the opposition protesters as enemies of the nation.

Earlier, thousands of demonstrators had marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic.

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “arrest the gang” and “thieves.”

The protest started peacefully but some demonstrators later hurled plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and smeared red paint on posters of the Serbian president and the prime minister — a message that they have blood on their hands.

The protesters removed most of the Serbian national red, blue and white national flags that were apparently hung on the headquarters to prevent it from an attack. That triggered an angry reaction from the president.

“Our Serbian tri-color has been destroyed, hidden and removed by all those who do not love Serbia,” Vucic wrote on X. “Tonight, in Novi Sad, this is being done by those who tell us that they love Serbia more than us, the decent citizens of this country.”

As protests wound down later in the evening, Vucic made a surprise trip to Novi Sad and made a brief appearance before his several hundred supporters gathered outside the party headquarters.

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during renovation work on the station building which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies.

The accident happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out.

Officials have promised full accountability and, faced with pressure, Serbia’s construction minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.

Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they are also demanding the resignation of Vucevic and that documentation be made public listing all the companies and individuals involved.

The victims included a 6-year-old girl. Those injured in the roof collapse remained inserious condition on Tuesday.

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included.

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.

Thousands protest in Serbian city over fatal roof collapse

a train station roof collapsed last week killing 14 people 

By AFP
November 5, 2024


Protesters lift up red painted hands to symbolise what they say is government neglect and mismanagement 

- Copyright AFP I-Hwa CHENG

Ognjen ZORIC

Thousands of protesters, red paint and smashed windows at the city hall: The Serbian city where a train station roof collapsed last week killing 14 people was at boiling point Tuesday evening.

The deadly accident in Novi Sad struck just months after the station completed a years-long renovation.

It sparked outrage in Serbia where people have taken to the streets and social media users are demanding the resignation of government officials for what they allege is weak oversight on construction and development projects.

“I’m here because one six-year-old girl will never blow out seven candles on her birthday cake,” protester Maja Gledic told AFP.

“This little girl had a nine-year-old sister who won’t be blowing (her) ten (birthday) candles either,” the 50-year-old saleswoman said, referring to two little sisters who were among the victims.

“How many (dead) children we still have to count for this to be over?”, Gledic said barely holding back tears.

Three people, aged between 18 and 24, were seriously injured in the accident, and they were still in critical condition on Tuesday.

So far 48 people have been questioned in an investigation into the accident, according to the authorities.

Construction Minister Goran Vesic resigned earlier Tuesday, saying he made the move “as a responsible man who wants to show by personal example that in today’s Serbia there is moral responsibility due to the terrible tragedy”.

The minister said on X he was quitting with a “clear conscience”.

But, for the protesters in Novi Sad, who first gathered in font of the train station and observed a minute of silence for the victims, it was not enough.

“You are guilty!” one of the organisers told the authorities, speaking from an improvised stage.

Many held banners that read: “Crime”, with their hands painted red.

The protesters chanted: “Prison, prison!” and “Arrest the criminals”.



– ‘Victims of regime’ –



“These fourteen dead and three wounded are, above all, victims of this regime and of everything that is happening in Serbia over the last twelve years”, protester Vladimir Gvozdenovic, a 60-year-old economist, told AFP.

“This accident did not come by itself. It is the product of arrogance, impudence and thievery of this country and these authorities. Eventually, their criminal manner of running the country results in the death of people.”

For Gvozdenovic and fellow protesters, the ruling nationalist SNS party is guilty of negligence in overseeing public infrastructure construction projects that are proliferating across the country.

From the train station the protesters marched to the city hall where dozens of them threw red paint, stones, bottles and flares at the building, smashing its windows.

Police inside the building responded with pepper spray, while other protesters tried to intervene, shouting “don’t destroy our city,” in a very tense atmosphere, according to an AFP reporter.

Meanwhile, President Aleksandar Vucic pledged to punish those responsible for the violence.

“My message to them (protesters) is that the police are very restrained tonight, not only because of them, but also because of the reverence we show for the victims of the terrible tragedy,” he said in a video posted on Instagram.

Vucic pledged that “everyone who participated in this will be punished”.

The central railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, underwent three years of renovation that was completed in July, though Serbia Railways said the collapsed outdoor roof had not been part of the renovations.

Serbia train station tragedy: How Serbians are demanding accountability | DW News

Serbian protesters demand arrests after railway station canopy collapse killed 14

Authoritarian movements depend on political religions — not least in America

(RNS) — On Election Day 2024, one is on offer.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Rocky Mount Event Center, Oct. 30, 2024, in Rocky Mount, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Mark Silk
October 31, 2024


(RNS) — From Russia and Hungary to Turkey and India to the U.S. of A., actual and wannabe authoritarians make a practice of imbuing their movements with religious significance, in a way that identifies them with the sacred dimension of their nations.

All nation-states sacralize themselves to some degree. In the U.S., texts from the Declaration of Independence to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” are treated as holy, and Washington is littered with temples and shrines, from the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the U.S. Supreme Court to the various war memorials. Not to mention our military sites — the battlefield at Gettysburg, the Valley Forge camp and above all the burial grounds for those who served in the armed forces such as Arlington National Cemetery.

We have come to call this civil religion, defined by the Italian scholar Emilio Gentile as “the conceptual category that contains the forms of sacralization of a political system that guarantee a plurality of ideas, free competition in the exercise of power, and the ability of the governed to dismiss their governments through peaceful and constitutional methods.” In Gentile’s view, “civil religion respects individual freedom, coexists with other ideologies, and does not impose obligatory and unconditional support for its commandments.”


This civil religious inclusivity helps explain why we ban partisan political activity in U.S. military cemeteries — a ban Donald Trump was widely regarded as having violated in August, when he visited Arlington with family members of military personnel killed in the United States’ 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The headline on a column by USA Today’s Marla Bautista read, “Trump’s appalling desecration of Arlington National Cemetery shows he still can’t be trusted.”

Only something sacred can be desecrated.

The opposite of civil religion is what Gentile calls “political religion”: “the sacralization of a political system founded on an unchallengeable monopoly of power, ideological monism, and the obligatory and unconditional subordination of the individual and the collectivity to its code of commandments.” Political religion is therefore “intolerant, invasive, and fundamentalist, and it wishes to permeate every aspect of an individual’s life and of a society’s collective life.”

A historian of fascist Italy, Gentile is above all interested in the expressly secular totalitarianisms of the mid-20th century. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, he argues, constructed fascism, Nazism and communism as national political religions to some extent modeled on familiar religious beliefs and forms.

Civil religion and political religion à la Gentile are, to be sure, ideal types. A civil religion can have aspects of a political religion, and a political religion may likewise incorporate civil religious forms.

Thus, with the onset of the Cold War, American civil religion was expressed so as to exclude atheistic communists. The addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 was explicitly intended to differentiate the U.S. from the Soviet Union and its godless supporters, as was the designation of “In God We Trust” as the national motto two years later.

The Air Force Academy chapel in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

(Photo by Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

A quintessential expression of that moment is the Air Force cadet chapel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, built in 1959. It is, in form, a militarized version of a Christian church — an apparent expression of political religion. But it is very much an expression of the civil religion of the times in featuring separate Protestant, Catholic and Jewish chapels inside.

Contrast this with the cathedral of the Russian military, consecrated in 2020: a Russian Orthodox church with no nod to religious inclusion in a country that is only 40% Russian Orthodox and where fewer than half the citizens consider themselves Christians of any sort. It perfectly expresses the alliance Russian President Vladimir Putin has made with Russian Patriarch Kirill, harking all the way back to the linkage of church and state in the Byzantine Empire.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, at the consecration of the Cathedral of Russian Armed Forces outside Moscow, June 14, 2020. (Oleg Varov, Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP)

A mini-me version of Putin’s political religion has been cooked up by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who governs with the idea of “illiberal democracy” — a nice term for populist authoritarianism. Presenting Orbán with the “gold degree” of the Order of St. Sava, Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije praised him for “defending Christianity.” Orbán “fights for the soul of Europe,” the patriarch said. Replied the prime minister, “We are peaceful people, we want peace, but there is indeed a war for the soul of Europe, and without Christian unity – including Orthodoxy – we cannot win this battle.”

Such use of religion can look like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s incorporation of Islam into his own authoritarian regime. The difference is that where Erdogan’s Islamism serves to appeal to Turkey’s sizable conservative Muslim population, the Christianism (to put it that way) of Putin and Orbán has no significant religious grassroots constituency, but seems all about rebuilding a postcommunist authoritarian ideology. In the case of Hungary, it resists at once immigration (from Muslim countries) and the pluralistic liberal culture of Western Europe.

How religious constituencies function under authoritarian regimes depends, of course, on how they view those regimes, and vice versa. A half-century ago, Shiite Muslims protested against the authoritarian Shah of Iran, who sought a connection to the glory days of the pre-Islamic Persian Empire. In 1979, these turned into parades supporting the authoritarian regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which promoted Islamic legal authority as the basis for a theocratic political religion.

A different kind of switching sides occurred in Myanmar, where religious power resides in the community of Buddhist monks. In 2007, the monks denied legitimacy to the military regime by refusing to accept its alms — symbolically represented by “turning over” their begging bowls. The regime yielded but reestablished its power via a genocidal campaign to rid the country of the Muslim minority Rohingya, in which anti-Muslim monks played an ideological role.

Meanwhile, hostility to Islam has been at the center of the Hindu nationalism successfully advanced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Its ideology of Hindutva has generated a postsecular political religion that builds on hostility to Muslims in India dating to the Moghuls.

In America, meanwhile, Donald Trump’s incorporation of a form of Christianity into his MAGA movement is personified by his principal spiritual adviser Paula White, a Pentecostal pastor who has praised Trump as “chosen by God to protect religious values.”

White has been strongly influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation, a politically ambitious collection of charismatic Christians who are the subject of “The Violent Take It by Force,” an important new book by Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. Credited with providing Christian nationalists with their marching orders, the NAR should be understood as promoting a political religion based on Christian supremacy summed up in the so-called Seven Mountains Mandate.

The mandate holds that Christians should ascend to dominion over the “mountains” of contemporary culture: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government. As Taylor puts it in describing one of the movement’s leaders, while he “speaks the language of democracy and justice and constitutional rights, his ultimate vision is a retrenchment from democracy in the church and society.”

I don’t want to suggest that the MAGA movement is all about establishing the NAR political religion. But there’s no question that NAR ideas have spread through MAGA world.

As for Trump himself, it’s anything but clear that he knows or grasps the Seven Mountains Mandate. But like other authoritarian leaders, he is driven inexorably toward the exclusivism of a political religion. And it’s the NAR’s political religion that’s on offer from the Republican Party this Election Day.\\

Opinion

The ‘Courage Tour’ is attempting to get Christians to vote for Trump − and focused on defeating ‘demons’

(The Conversation) — The ‘Courage Tour,’ a religio-political rally, is going around battleground states. It is focused on defeating Democrats, but also on defeating ‘demonic forces.’

Michael E. Heyes
October 30, 2024

(The Conversation) — As a scholar of religion, I attended the “Courage Tour,” a series of religious-political rallies, when it made a stop in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, from Sept. 27-28, 2024.

From what I observed, the various speakers on the tour used conservative talking points – such as the threat of communism and LGBTQ+ “ideologies” taking over education – and gave them a demonic twist. They told people that diabolical forces had overtaken America, and they needed to expel them by ensuring Donald Trump was elected.

The tour is attempting to get those Christians to vote for Trump. The tour has moved through several battleground states such as Arizona, Michigan and Georgia, drawing several thousand people at every site.

The tour is not only focused on defeating Democrats but also on defeating demons. The idea that demons exert a hold over the material world is a key feature of the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, worldview. The NAR is a loose group of like-minded charismatic Christian churches and religious leaders – sometimes termed “prophets” – who want to see Christians dominate all walks of life.

As someone who recently finished a book on the intersection of demons and politics, “Demons in the USA: From the Anti-Spiritualists to QAnon,” I was eager to see this combination for myself. I believe it would be a mistake to think that the New Apostolic Reformation is a fringe group with no real influence.
The influence and reach

The group has an associated nonprofit organization known as Ziklag – named for a town in the Hebrew Bible that is an important site associated with David’s kingship – with deep pockets for the movement’s goals. A ProPublica investigation found that the group had already spent US$12 million “to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the New Apostolic Reformation “the greatest threat to U.S. democracy that you have never heard of.”

The diffuse nature of NAR membership and its rapid growth make it difficult to gauge followers: Estimates have placed the number of NAR adherents between 3 million and 33 million, but individuals who may not label themselves as part of the NAR might nevertheless agree with the group’s theology.

Moreover, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s presence at the meeting I attended is also a tacit and significant endorsement for this group.


The ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’

According to NAR’s theology, there are “seven mountains” that govern areas of worldly influence, and Christians are destined to occupy all of them. These mountains are religion, government, family, education, media, entertainment and business.

Known as the “Seven Mountain Mandate,” this “prophecy” first rose to prominence in 2013 with the publication of “Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate,” written by Bill Johnson, lead pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and member of the NAR, and Lance Wallnau, NAR prophet and one of the founders of the Courage Tour. In the book, the Seven Mountain Mandate is trumpeted as a message received directly from God.

The NAR perceives the majority of these mountains as currently occupied by diabolical spiritual forces. To counter these forces, the NAR engages in “spiritual warfare,” which are acts of Christian prayer that are used to defeat or drive out demons.

As religion scholar Sean McCloud writes, these prayers can be taken from “handbooks, workshops and hands-on participation in deliverance sessions.” Deliverance sessions involve diagnosing and expelling demons from an individual.

Alternatively, it is not uncommon for pastors to incorporate spiritual warfare into church services. For example, in a much-reported sermon, Paula White-Cain, the former spiritual adviser to Trump, commanded all “satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” In the sermon’s context, satanic pregnancies were not literal pregnancies. Instead, White-Cain was praying for the failure of satanic plots “conceived” by the devil.

In NAR theology, all Christians are embattled by demons, and spiritual warfare is a necessary part of life. As scholar of religion André Gagné writes, the NAR sees spiritual warfare as happening on three “levels.”


The ground level occurs in a case of individual exorcism or deliverance, a kind of “one-on-one” battle with demons. The second level is the occult level, in which believers seek to counter what they believe to be demonic movements such as shamanism and New Age thought. Finally, there is the strategic level in which the movement does battle with powerful spirits whom they believe control geographic areas at the behest of Satan.


Friday night on the Courage Tour.

The Courage Tour

The Courage Tour is part of a strategic-level act of spiritual warfare: Stumping for Trump is really about exerting Christian influence over the “government mountain” that followers of the NAR believe to be occupied by the devil.

According to the speakers on the tour, America is in trouble: It is currently being run by “the Left,” or Democrats, a group that is slowly pushing the U.S. toward communism, a system of government in which private property ceases to exist and the means of production are communally owned.

It claims that the Left wants to see this shift occur because it is populated by “cultural Marxists.” This is part of a far-right conspiracy theory that suggests all progressive political movements are indebted to the ideas of Karl Marx, whose Communist Manifesto is most closely associated with communism.

In more extreme forms of communism, nation-states disappear – an idea reflected in speakers’ frequent criticism of “globalism,” which was generally defined as a single, worldwide governmental structure. The group rejects globalism on the grounds that God instituted nation-states as a divinely ordained form of government.

Wallnau described globalism as a sign of the beast and the end of days, and claimed that “the intent of that Marxist element in our country is to collapse our borders.”




Promotional sign on the Courage Tour for My Faith Votes, an organization that encourages voters to vote biblically.
Michael E. Heyes, CC BY

Demonizing queerness

The speakers further claimed that this demonic Marxism was perverting the educational system in the United States. For example, numerous speakers criticized schools for supposedly indoctrinating or “evangelizing” children with “LGBTQ ideologies.”

Wallnau even suggested that the “trans movement” began “in the days of Noah” when the fallen angels of Genesis 6 married human women and had hybrid children. This echoes a discussion Wallnau and Rick Renner had on the “Lance Wallnau Show,” linking such “ideologies” to fallen angels and the Apocalypse.

This negative view of nontraditional gender and sexual orientations is a long-lived feature of the group. John Weaver, a scholar of religion, notes in his book “The New Apostolic Reformation” that the group’s ideas are indebted to conservative theologian Rousas John Rushdoony, who supported the death penalty for homosexuals.

Likewise, religion scholar Damon T. Berry writes that members of the movement believe that “demonic spirits” are “acting to subvert the will of God through aspects of culture like the toleration of homosexuality, abortion, addiction, poverty and political correctness.”

Wallnau encouraged the audience on the Courage Tour to “fight for your families because I don’t want to leave behind a demonic train wreck for my children.”

As hard as it is to believe, one of the most important questions of the election might well be – how many Americans believe in demons?

(Michael E. Heyes, Associate Professor and Chair of Religion, Lycoming College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)


The Conversation religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Conversation is solely responsible for this content.

Georgia's jailed ex-president says Putin's Russia is not ready for a new 'hot' war

DAVID BRENNAN
Sat, October 26, 2024 a

Georgia's Saturday parliamentary elections have been cast by all parties as an era-defining moment for the country's 3.8 million people.

For one of the country's best known men, the results of the election could mean the difference between incarceration and freedom.

Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, 56, has been jailed since 2021 on charges of abuse of power and organizing an assault on an opposition lawmaker -- charges he contends are politically motivated.

"My imprisonment is purely political and everyone knows that," Saakashvili told ABC News in an interview conducted from his prison cell via intermediaries. "Once the politics changes, it will be finished."

PHOTO: In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili addresses the 63rd annual United Nations General Assembly meeting at UN headquarters in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images, FILE)More

MORE: War or peace? Russia’s wrath hangs over Georgia elections

Saturday's election will pit the Moscow-leaning Georgian Dream government against several pro-Western opposition parties, among them the United National Movement party founded by Saakashvili in 2001.

Among the UNM's priorities, if it wins power as part of a pro-Western coalition, will be to free Saakashvili.

The campaign has been fraught with allegations of meddling and political violence on behalf of GD. The opposition is hoping to mobilize a historic turnout to defeat what they say are GD efforts to undermine the contest.

"The only recipe for tackling election meddling is erecting the wall of mass turnout at the ballot box," Saakashvili said.

People power has proved a serious problem for GD in recent years. Mass protests defeated the government's first effort to introduce a foreign agents registration law -- which critics say was modeled on Russian legislation used to criminalize Western-leaning politicians, activists and academics -- in 2023.

The government pushed the legislation through again in 2024 despite renewed and intense demonstrations.

Opponents credit GD founder, former prime minister and Georgia's richest man -- Bidzina Ivanishvili -- as the mastermind behind what they say is the government's authoritarian and pro-Moscow pivot, though the billionaire does not hold an official position.

Saakashvili said Ivanishvili -- who made his fortune in Russia after the Soviet collapse -- and the GD party "will go as far as it takes" to retain power this weekend, "but the question will be once they lose the elections if the government structures follow the orders from the oligarch," he added, referring to Ivanishvili.

PHOTO: Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili attends the final campaign rally of the ruling Georgian Dream party in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Oct. 23, 2024. (Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP via Getty Images)

Ivanishvili and his party are framing the vote as a choice between war and peace. A new Western-led government, they say, will put Tbilisi back on the path to conflict with Russia, reviving the bloodshed of the 2008 war that saw Moscow cement its occupation of 20% of Georgian territory.

"It is straight from the Russian playbook," Saakashvili said of the GD warnings. "Blaming victims for aggression against them. As far as we are concerned, real security and peace is associated with being part of Euro-Atlantic structures, and European Union membership is within reach." Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023.

The latest polls suggest that GD will emerge as the largest party, but will fall significantly short of a parliamentary majority. A grand alliance of pro-EU and pro-NATO opposition parties, though, could get past the 50% threshold to form a new governing coalition.

"Polls are a very treacherous thing in authoritarian systems," Saakashvili said. "Moldova's recent example shows that polls get compromised by mass vote buying, and surely that will be the case in Georgia."

"On the other hand, those that say to pollsters that they are voting for the government very often don't say the truth," he added.

PHOTO: A man holds a Georgian flag during an opposition rally ahead of the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Oct. 20, 2024. (Shakh Aivazov/AP)

Saakashvili's 2021 imprisonment marked the nadir of a 20-year political rollercoaster. Saakashvili went from the much-loved leader of Georgia's pro-Western Rose Revolution in 2003 to being vanquished by President Vladimir Putin's Russian military machine by 2008.

By 2011, Saakashvili's government was itself accused of violently suppressing protests, with the president soon also embroiled in human rights and corruption scandals.

Constitutionally barred from serving three consecutive terms, Saakashvili left Georgia after the 2013 presidential election and in 2018 was convicted in absentia on abuse of power and other charges.

A Ukrainian citizen -- his citizenship was revoked by President Petro Poroshenko in 2017 before being restored by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 -- Saakashvili went on to serve as governor of the Odessa region from 2015 to 2016. Zelenskyy appointed Saakashvili as the head of the executive committee of the National Council of Reforms in 2020.

Saakashvili returned to Georgia in October 2021 as the country prepared for local elections. He was arrested and detained by police.

His domestic and international allies have repeatedly condemned his imprisonment, raising concerns of his ill treatment and subsequent ill health. U.S. and European Union officials have also urged Tbilisi to do more to ensure Saakashvili's fair treatment.

PHOTO: Former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili appears in court in Tbilisi, Georgia on Nov. 29, 2021. (Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters/Pool/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, FILE)

He has been hospitalized while in prison -- once due to a hunger strike -- and his gaunt appearance during a 2023 video conference court hearing prompted Zelenskyy to summon the Georgian ambassador in Kyiv to complain.

Saakashvili broadly blames Putin for his current situation. But he believes Moscow is not necessarily in a position to prevent a pro-Western pivot in Tbilisi.

"In 2008, the war happened after the West had sent a clear sign of weakness by refusing the NATO accession for Georgia and Ukraine," Saakashvili said.

"If there is no hesitation this time, Russia is so stuck in Ukraine that it has no motivation to create a new hot war elsewhere."

"We have no other choice," he responded, when asked about the risks of perturbing the Kremlin. "The only other alternative is going back," he said, "living in the Russian sphere of influence."

As to his own plans if indeed he is freed, Saakashvili described himself as "a regional rather than purely Georgian leader."

"I will help any next non-oligarch government with transition by advice," he added, but said he will not seek any official position of power.

"And of course, I am a Ukrainian national and it is my duty to stand by Ukraine."

PHOTO: Supporters of Georgia's pro-Western and pro-European Union opposition groups hold a rally ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Oct. 20, 2024. (Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters)

EU leader denounces Russia's 'hybrid war' aiming to destabilize Western Balkan democracies

Associated Press
Updated Sat, October 26, 2024


European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listens to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during a news conference at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)ASSOCIATED PRESS

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference after talks with Montenegro's Prime Minister Milojko Spajic in Podgorica, Montenegro, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Montenegro's Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, right, shakes hands with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Podgorica, Montenegro, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday denounced Russia's hybrid attacks against democracies, saying the European Union is fighting daily to debunk misinformation.

Von der Leyen was in Kosovo as part of a trip this week to aspiring EU member states in the Western Balkans to assure them that enlargement remains a priority for the 27-nation bloc.

Von der Leyen denounced Russia's efforts “to destabilize these democracies,” adding that Brussels works to unveil propaganda “to the benefit of a whole region.”

“It is possible for us to stand up with the truth and with transparency and with very clear messaging. So here we are really countering a hybrid attack that Russia is leading against democracies,” she said at a news conference in the capital, Pristina.

Von der Leyen came to Kosovo from neighboring Serbia, which has close ties to Russia and has refused to join international sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

She did not mention the 13-year-old EU-led dialogue to normalize ties between Serbia and its former province, Kosovo, instead focusing on EU efforts to develop the region's economy.

Kosovo-Serbia ties remain tense, even 25 years after NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 that ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 people dead, mainly ethnic Albanians. Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, which Belgrade has not recognized.



Last year EU officials offered a 6-billion-euro (about $6.5 billion) growth plan to the Western Balkan countries in an effort to double the region’s economy over the next decade and accelerate their efforts to join the bloc. That aid is contingent on reforms that would bring their economies in line with EU rules.

The Western Balkan countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for EU membership. The countries have been frustrated by the slow pace of the process, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has propelled European leaders to push the six to join the bloc.

The Commission on Wednesday approved the reform agendas of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia following a green light from EU member states. That was a key step to allow payments under the growth plan upon completion of agreed reform steps.

Von der Leyen's trip concluded with a visit to small Montenegro, a NATO member state which is seen as the first in line for EU membership. Von der Leyen praised Montenegro's effortson the EU path, saying “we are now closing one chapter after another.”



Montenegro's government is a cohabitation between pro-EU and pro-Russian factions. Von der Leyen urged unity in the divided nation to achieve progress toward EU membership.

“I want to assure you that, like in my first mandate, enlargement will be at the top of the political agenda for the next five years," said von der Leyen. “We have now all the necessary tools, all the necessary instruments in place, so let’s make it happen, let’s make it a reality, and work towards this common goal.”

___

AP writer Predrag Milic contributed from Podgorica, Montenegro.

EU leader praises Serbia for its advances in EU membership bid despite growing Russian influence

DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Updated Fri, October 25, 2024

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, shakes hands with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic after a news conference at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday praised the Serbian president for meeting her and other European Union leaders instead of attending a Russia-organized summit of developing economies held earlier this week.

Serbia has close ties to Russia and has refused to join international sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. In a telephone conversation Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said EU candidate Serbia would maintain its stance on sanctions, notwithstanding EU and other Western pressure.

However, despite Putin's invitation, Vucic did not attend a three-day summit of the BRICS group of nations, led by Russia and China, which took place in the Russian city of Kazan earlier this week. Leaders or representatives of 36 countries took part in the summit, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

Vucic sent a high-level delegation to the meeting, but said he could not attend himself because he had scheduled meetings with von der Leyen and Polish and Greek leaders. There are fears in the West that Putin is plotting trouble in the volatile Balkans in part to shift some of the attention from its invasion of Ukraine.

“What I see is that the president of the Republic of Serbia is hosting me here today and just has hosted the prime minister of Greece and the prime minister of Poland. That speaks for itself, I think," von der Leyen said at a joint press conference with Vucic.

“And for my part, I want to say that my presence here today, in the context of my now fourth trip to the Balkan region since I took office, is a very clear sign that I believe that Serbia’s future is in the European Union," she said.

Vucic said he knows what the EU is demanding for eventual membership — including compliance with foreign policy goals — but did not pledge further coordination.



“Of course, Ursula asked for much greater compliance with EU’s foreign policy declaration," he said. “We clearly know what the demands are, what the expectations are.”

Von der Leyen was in Serbia as part of a trip this week to aspiring EU member states in the Western Balkans to assure them that EU enlargement remains a priority for the 27-nation bloc. From Serbia, von der Leyen will travel to neighboring Kosovo and Montenegro.

Serbian media reported that von der Leyen refused to meet with Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic because of his talks Friday with a high-level Russian economic delegation, which was in Belgrade to discuss deepening ties with Serbia. Vucic will meet the Russian officials on Saturday.

In Bosnia on Friday, von der Leyen promised support for the deeply split Balkan country which is struggling with the reforms needed to advance toward EU membership.

The Western Balkan countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for EU membership. The countries have been frustrated by the slow pace of the process, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has propelled European leaders to push the six to join the bloc.

Bosnia gained candidate status in 2022. EU leaders in March agreed in principle to open membership negotiations, though Bosnia must still do a lot of work.

“We share the same vision for the future, a future where Bosnia-Herzegovina is a full-fledged member of the European Union,” said von der Leyen at a joint press conference with Bosnian Prime Minister Bojana Kristo. “So, I would say, let’s continue working on that. We’ve gone a long way already, we still have a way ahead of us, but I am confident that you’ll make it.”

Last year EU officials offered a 6-billion-euro (about $6.5 billion) growth plan to the Western Balkan countries in an effort to double the region’s economy over the next decade and accelerate their efforts to join the bloc. That aid is contingent on reforms that would bring their economies in line with EU rules.


The Commission on Wednesday approved the reform agendas of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia following a green light from EU member states. That was a key step to allow payments under the growth plan upon completion of agreed reform steps.

However, Bosnia's reform agenda has still not been signed off by the Commission.

“The accession process is, as you know, merit-based … we do not look at a rigid data but we look at the merits, the progress that a country is making,” said von der Leyen. "The important thing is that we have an ambitious reform agenda, like the other five Western Balkan countries also have. We stand ready to help you to move forward.”

Long after a 1992-95 ethnic war that killed more than 100,000 people and left millions homeless, Bosnia remains ethnically divided and politically deadlocked. An ethnic Serb entity — one of Bosnia's two equal parts joined by a common government — has sought to gain as much independence as possible.

Upon arrival in Bosnia, von der Leyen on Thursday first went to Donja Jablanica, a village in central Bosnia that was devastated in recent floods and landslides. The disaster in early October claimed 27 lives and the small village was virtually buried in rocks from a quarry located on a hill above.

Von der Leyen said the EU is sending an immediate aid package of 20 million euros ($21 million) and will also provide support for reconstruction later on.

—-

AP writer Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade.

'We will do our best to accelerate our European path,' Serbia's Vučić says

Euronews
Fri, October 25, 2024 at 10:44 AM MDT



European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on Friday to discuss Serbia's path toward the European Union.

“Europe remains strongly committed to the European future of Serbia,” von der Leyen said after meeting with Vučić.

"In times of conflicts and wars and turmoil, being a member of the European Union is a promise of peace and prosperity, and it is a promise that we can deliver together," she added.



The Commission President was in Serbia as part of a trip this week to aspiring EU member states in the Western Balkans, aiming to reassure them that EU enlargement remains a priority for the 27-nation bloc.

Earlier on Friday she visited Bosnia where she promised support for the troubled Balkan nation as it struggles with reform needed to advance toward membership in the European Union.

The Western Balkans countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for EU membership.

The countries have expressed frustration over the slow pace of the process; however, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has prompted European leaders to encourage the six nations to join the bloc.

Related
'Without Serbia EU is not complete,' Polish PM Donald Tusk says

Last year EU officials offered a €6 billion growth plan to the Western Balkan countries in an effort to double the region’s economy over the next decade and accelerate their efforts to join the bloc.

That aid is contingent on reforms that would bring their economies in line with EU rules.

Vučić on Friday said Serbia would "give our best" to "accelerate" its path to joining the EU. Serbia became an EU candidate country in 2012.

The Commission on Wednesday approved the reform agendas of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia following a green light from EU member states. It was a key step to allow payments under the growth plan upon completion of agreed reform steps.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reviews the honor guard with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during a welcome ceremony at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)ASSOCIATED PRESS

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen smiles during a joint news conference with the President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Kristo in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik attend a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint news conference with the President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Kristo in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Members of the Bosnian Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic, left, Denis Becirovic, center and Zeljko Komsic, right, pose for a photo with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, prior to the start of their meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)ASSOCIATED PRESS

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference after talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)ASSOCIATED PRESS

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives at a news conference after talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Left and Right unite against Rio Tinto lithium project in Serbia

Colin McClelland - The Northern Miner | October 18, 2024 | 

Protesters in Serbian capital Belgrade in August. 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons photo by Emilija Knezevic

Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) faces a crucial test this month in Serbia as leaders of a small town vote on whether to allow Europe’s largest lithium project, the $2.4 billion capex Jadar.


The council of Loznica, population around 20,000 about 100 km west of Belgrade, is deciding whether to amend its official plan to allow the 250-hectare development. The hard-rock lithium project has sparked massive protests while see-sawing between official support and rejection for years.

Slated to start in 2028, it would produce 58,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, about 17% of European demand and enough for one million electric vehicles. The mine might last 40 years. Rio, the world’s second largest miner by stock market value, and the government faced mass rallies again this week, swollen by an unlikely combination of causes.

“Rio Tinto is the hottest issue in the country right now,” Vuk Vuksanovic, an associate at the London School of Economics’ Ideas foreign policy think tank, said by email on Friday.

“The anti-lithium protests and environmentalism are the only things that at least temporarily unite left and right in Serbia. The left perceives it as a resistance against the arbitrary and illiberal governance of the incumbent coalition. The right perceives it as a struggle against Western dominance.”

Court ruling

Loznica council hasn’t set date for its vote, but local Balkan Insights media said on X it’s due this month. In August, Serbia’s Constitutional Court sided with Rio in overturning a 2022 government decision to block the project. Pundits note Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić might have cancelled the project’s permit in January 2022 in a ploy to win re-election that April.

But analysts view Vučić as pro-mining. He said in June he would revive the project, then signed a partnership with the European Union (it’s not a member) in July to supply critical minerals. His administration defeated an opposition-led motion on Oct. 10 to ban lithium exploration.

Vučić’s critics say he’s tightened control over media and rewarded supporters with government jobs. Whether he would allow a local council-level vote to derail the Jadar Valley project remains to be seen. But miners have often benefitted from authoritarian governments’ willingness to push through projects.

And Rio is no stranger to difficult ventures. It’s advancing the Simandou high-grade iron ore deposit in Guinea where it’s helping build a 600-km rail line and port. It’s considered Africa’s largest mining and related infrastructure project. In Arizona, the company is facing opposition to its Resolution copper project from the Apache Stronghold coalition of tribes.

Big M&A

Rio has little experience in lithium, with most of its production in iron ore, aluminum and copper. However, this month it announced the $6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium (ASX: LTM; NYSE: ALTM) to become the third-largest lithium miner. It has also been developing the Rincon lithium brine project in Argentina. It expects first lithium from a pilot plant, and a feasibility study and final investment decision on the wider project this quarter.

At Jadar, Rio plans to apply in December for a permit allowing geotechnical work while prepping an environmental impact assessment that could take two years to complete. In third-quarter production results this week, Rio repeated comments about the project:

“We continue to believe that the Jadar project has the potential to be a world-class lithium-borates asset that could act as a catalyst for the development of other industries and thousands of jobs for current and future generations in Serbia.”

Last month, Rio CEO Jakob Stausholm flew to Serbia to participate in public information meetings that were broadcast on television. He was combatting what the company and Serbia’s mining and energy ministry have called disinformation campaigns. Media have reported the spread of online conspiracy theories like the project will trigger sulphuric acid rain, pollute drinking water or even secretly mine uranium.

Even so, Stausholm said locals have pertinent concerns about air quality and soil contamination that he and the company are working to allay. Rio seeks “to encourage an open, fact-based dialogue” in legally mandated public consultations, it said this week.

Environmental opposition

The project, which began after Rio geologists discovered the hard rock deposit in 2004, has fostered strong opposition throughout its history, said Teresa Kramarz, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment. Some studies after exploration showed elevated boron, arsenic, and lithium in nearby rivers, she said.

“These protests and environmental costs highlight the need for wider conversations about trade-offs,” Teresa Kramarz, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment, said by email.

“The idea that there’s only one way to decarbonize, and people will inevitably accept transfers of risk from one population to another or trade one type of risk for another is not going to work – particularly for those who experience disproportionate disadvantages and inequitable outcomes.”

Some analysts cited by The Wall St. Journal say the current opposition since the project’s revival is remarkable for its intensity. The US State Department has said the disinformation resembles Russian campaigns, like those to discourage shale-gas drilling to maintain Russian energy dominance in Europe. Others said it’s an attempt to dissuade Belgrade’s drift to the West and potential EU membership.

Cynical left

Vuksanovic disagreed, while still noting the impact on the West.

“The Russians are not behind it, but they take pleasure in the fact that the nationalist element of this protest is getting stronger,” he told The Northern Miner.

“Moreover, even the left, civic, pro-EU segments of Serbian society are getting increasingly cynical that the West and Europe are willing to engage the incumbent government and tolerate its domestic transgressions for the sake of lithium exploitation, weakening the EU and the US’s prestige in the country even further.”

Mikhail Korostikov, a visiting fellow at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, said vast numbers of Serbians oppose the project because they don’t believe the government is capable of enforcing environmental regulations. Even if they could, the rules aren’t strong enough, Korostikov said in a report last month for the centre.

He suggested importing EU environmental structure to oversee the project and trying to create as many jobs linked to the mine as possible in areas of procurement and mineral processing. Defeating the opposition requires making the project’s benefits more significant than any environmental consequences, he said.

“This will require serious courage and strategic vision on the part of all those involved in the political process, but it is essential,” Korostikov said. “There may not be another opportunity like this to integrate into the new economy and gain a bargaining leverage with the EU in the coming decades.”

UN Troops in Lebanon Can Shoot Back at Israel

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon are permitted to use force in several circumstances, including self-defense and prevention of hostile action in its area of deployment

By Joe Lauria

October 16, 2024

Source: Consortium News

UNIFIL logistical convoy departed Naqoura to visit the Nepalese, Indian and Serbian positions crossing entire UNIFIL area of operations. South Lebanon, July 2, 2024. (Pasqual Gorrizz/UN Photo)

United Nations peacekeepers who have been fired upon by Israel can fire back at them according to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution.

Paragraph 12 of Resolution 1701, which helped bring about an end of fighting in the 33-day Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006, says that the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):


“Acting in support of a request from the Government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, authorizes UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment … ” [Emphasis added.]

Repeated attacks by Israel Defense Force (IDF) beginning last week and continuing until at least Sunday, accurately fit the description of “hostile activities” in UNIFIL’s “areas of deployment.”

While the unanimous resolution was not passed under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter allowing U.N. troops to use force to impose its mandate — including in this case to disarm combatants, including Hezbollah — all U.N. peacekeeping operations retain the right to use force in self-defense.

“UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind,” UNIFIL said in a statement at the time of Resolution 1701’s adoption.

IDF Begins Attacks

After IDF troops threatened Irish U.N. peacekeepers last week Irish President Michael D. Higgins stood up to Israel and the Israelis backed down. However there were more incidents later in the week, with the Israelis injuring U.N. soldiers from Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Neither UNIFIL nor U.N. Headquarters in New York have publicly reiterated that the peacekeepers can shoot back at the Israelis if they are attacked.

At the daily noon briefing in New York on Friday, a U.N. spokesman was only asked if the U.N. was considering withdrawing peacekeepers given the danger Israel is putting them in.

On Sunday, the secretary-general’s spokesman put out this statement:


“Against the backdrop of the ongoing hostilities in southern Lebanon and despite attacks that have hit United Nations positions, injuring a number of peacekeepers in the past several days, UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly. The Secretary-General pays tribute to the dedicated personnel of UNIFIL.

The Secretary-General reiterates that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of UN premises must be respected at all times without qualification. In a deeply worrying incident that occurred today, the entrance door of a UN position was deliberately breached by IDF armored vehicles.

UNIFIL continuously assesses and reviews all factors to determine its posture and presence. The mission is taking all possible measures to ensure the protection of its peacekeepers. UNIFIL’s role and its presence in southern Lebanon is mandated by the UN Security Council. In this context, UNIFIL is committed to preserving its capacity to support a diplomatic solution based on resolution 1701, which is the only possible way forward.

The Secretary-General reiterates that UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime.

He calls on all parties, including the IDF, to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk. The Secretary-General takes the opportunity to reiterate the call for a cessation of hostilities and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.”

The statement says “UNIFIL is committed to preserving its capacity to support a diplomatic solution based on resolution 1701, which is the only possible way forward.”

So far the U.N. is standing its ground and refusing Israeli demands to redeploy, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday essentially ordering the peacekeepers to evacuate the region “immediately.” Netanyahu told UNIFIL in a video to get its soldiers “out of harm’s way,” calling them “hostages of Hezbollah.”

While saying the Israeli attacks might constitute war crimes, so far the U.N. has not issued a warning to Israel that the U.N. is within its rights to shoot back.

What would happen if U.N. troops fired back at Israel? One possibility, depending on the circumstances, is that the IDF would back off. But another is that they would engage the peacekeepers in a firefight.

Would anyone be surprised if Israel brought heavier arms to bear and killed U.N. soldiers given what it has gotten away with so far in the past year, namely a “plausible” case of genocide in Gaza, according to the International Court of Justice, as well as expanding attacks on the West Bank and invading and bombing Lebanon?

International Alarm

So far, Israel’s actions against UNIFIL have brought some measure of international condemnation. Sri Lanka “strongly condemned” the attack by Israel that wounded two of its peacekeeper on Friday. This followed an Israeli attack on a U.N. observation tower on Thursday, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers.

“An observer tower with a round from a tank directly into it, which is a very small target, has to be very deliberate,” Lt. Gen. Seán Clancy, chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act. It’s a direct act,” he said. “Whether its indiscipline or directed, either way it is not conscionable or allowable.”

The BBC reported that, “The leaders of France, Italy, and Spain have also condemned Israel’s actions, saying in a joint statement that they were unjustifiable and should immediately end.”

China expressed “grave concern and strong condemnation,” as India did about the “deteriorating security situation along the Blue Line.”

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said: “Inviolability of UN premises must be respected by all and appropriate measures taken to ensure the safety of UN peacekeepers and the sanctity of their mandate.”

President Joe Biden said Friday he was “absolutely, positively” urging Israel to stop targeting U.N. peacekeepers, Politico reported, as he has called for a ceasefire in Gaza without cutting off aid or munitions.

Forty of the 50 nations whose soldiers make up UNIFIL also issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s attacks.

Dire Scenarios

If the U.N. publicly warned Israel it had the mandate to return fire and then did nothing when attacked, or if it withdrew, it would bring humiliation on the U.N.

If UNIFIL continues to stand its ground and returns fire, inviting a severe Israeli response leading to the deaths of U.N. peacekeepers, would Israel get away with it after an initial outcry?

There have been zero red lines drawn by Western nations in exchange for supporting Israel with arms, money and political cover.

If a plausible case of genocide won’t stop them from backing Israel, would dead U.N. peacekeepers? Is the inviolability of U.N. troops as expendable as scores of thousands of Palestinian lives?