DELHI NEWS

'Anarchy can't be tolerated': Delhi High Court on sanitation workers’ strike

New Delhi: MCD sanitation workers shout slogans during a protest against AAP government, demanding to clear their outstanding remuneration, outside Delhi CM's residence in New Delhi, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI18-12-2020_000079A)(PTI)

The strike by sanitation workers of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), which began on January 15 demanding the payments of salaries pending since December 2020, was called off on Thursday, after the EDMC cleared all dues.

By Richa banka, New Delhi

PUBLISHED ON FEB 06, 2021 02:36 AM IST

The Delhi high court on Friday came down heavily on sanitation worker unions that were on a strike, and said their “anarchy” of obstructing the regular work of cleaning and dumping garbage on streets cannot be allowed to prevail in a civilised society.

The strike by sanitation workers of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), which began on January 15 demanding the payments of salaries pending since December 2020, was called off on Thursday, after the EDMC cleared all dues.

EDMC mayor Nirmal Jain confirmed the development and said the civic body has been in talks with the sanitation workers’ union for the past one week.

“I’m yet to go through the detailed court order, but sanitation workers are like a family and no action would be taken against them,” he said.

A bench of justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Rekha Palli said the strike by sanitation workers is “being fuelled and driven by political consideration”. “Political leaders do not understand that they should have a commonality in their thinking. That has been breached and we are not naming any one party. This is very dangerous and has to be stopped. We will direct the police commissioner to take action,” the court said.

The bench was hearing a plea by EDMC, seeking action against “miscreants” who were “illegally waylaying garbage removal trucks, threatening drivers and dumping garbage openly on the roads and streets”.

It also cautioned the sanitation worker unions against taking law into their hands and directed the commissioner of the civic body to take disciplinary action against erring workers.

EDMC, through its standing counsel Manu Chaturvedi, told the court that unions were protesting despite their salaries being cleared till December 2020. He said salaries for January 2021 are being processed.

Two unions—MCD Swacchta Karamchaari Union and All Municipal Corporations Staff Union—represented by advocate Jivesh Kumar Tiwari, told the court that all nine unions are ending their strike and want their grievances to be heard.

“We have withdrawn our strike and our nine unions are getting back to work tomorrow (Saturday). Our petition has been allowed just five minutes ago when this matter is being heard and we are ready to sort out our differences,” Tiwari said.

The court replied, “We are happy to hear this…However, we are observing that if the MCD employees have any grievance and resort to a legal strike, that does not entitle them to take law into their hands and create anarchy”.

Bitcoin, once the domain of geeks and anarchists, now backstopped by central banks' easy-money policies

The profile of people entering into Bitcoin has definitely changed

Financial Times
Eva Szalay
Publishing date:Feb 04, 2021 •

Bitcoin briefly wobbled after reaching a high in early January, but has so far avoided a repeat of the brutal crash in 2017. 

PHOTO BY DADO RUVIC/REUTERS ILLUSTRATION

A flood of central bank stimulus and widening interest among retail and institutional investors has sustained the rally in cryptocurrencies, analysts say, even as skeptics warn that the market is in the midst of a bubble.

Bitcoin kicked off February at just above US$36,000, about US$5,000 beneath the all-time peak it hit last month.


The digital currency briefly wobbled after reaching the high in early January, but has so far avoided a repeat of the brutal crash in 2017. Some investors put that down to a deluge of central bank stimulus, which has inflated the price of assets globally and triggered a frantic hunt for returns.

“The amount of liquidity that has been injected in the system has found its way into a lot of different assets, including alternatives such as Bitcoin,” said Francesca Fornasari, a fund manager at Insight Investment.

At the same time, professional and amateur investors are beginning to play a more active role in the crypto market.

The amount of liquidity that has been injected in the system has found its way into a lot of different assets, including alternatives such as Bitcoin

FRANCESCA FORNASARI, FUND MANAGER, INSIGHT INVESTMENT

“In 2012 it was mostly geeks, anarchists and libertarians in crypto,” said Marc Bernegger, a Zurich-based board member of Crypto Finance Group, a broker and asset manager. “The profile of people entering into Bitcoin has definitely changed.”

Many remain skeptical, however, and worry that the sharp price rises reflect increasingly frothy market conditions. For them, Bitcoin’s gains echo the recent volatility in share prices of companies like GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings, as well as a sudden surge this week in the price of silver.

The moves in all three markets involved an influx of retail traders, armed with increasingly sophisticated tools and often stuck at home because of coronavirus lockdowns. Some brokerages such as Robinhood allow traders to bet both on the price of stocks and cryptocurrencies.

Since a sharp fall during the broad market ructions last March, Bitcoin’s value has increased by nine times. The boom has caused parts of the traditional financial community to take notice, with some banks beginning to cover the market as part of their research offerings.

San Francisco-based Coinbase is preparing for a direct listing that would give investors their first chance to buy shares in a big U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange.

Coinbase’s offices in San Francisco, California. 

PHOTO BY MICHAEL SHORT/BLOOMBERG FILES

The planned debut comes as investors are already chasing other proxies for investing in digital tokens without having to hold them outright. Last year, investors poured US$5.7-billion into cryptocurrency trusts managed by Grayscale, the favoured investment channel of many traditional traders dipping their toes into Bitcoin. The figure amounted to more than four times the total net inflows between 2013 and 2019. Most of Grayscale’s inflows come from institutional investors.

Data from Chainalysis, a specialist cryptocurrency analytics company, also show an increase in institutions’ purchases of Bitcoin, and a rise in average transaction sizes since November.

Joshua Younger, a strategist at JPMorgan, said the size of the Bitcoin market had grown to equal about a fifth of gold held for investment and trading purposes, with a market capitalization for the cryptocurrency of US$750-billion at its peak earlier this year, meaning it “is far from a niche asset class.”

The lure of the high-risk space is increasingly difficult to ignore. “You’re not buying Bitcoin to make 20 per cent, you’re buying it to make exponential returns,” said Brett Messing, a partner and chief operating officer of cryptocurrency specialist hedge fund SkyBridge Capital.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Quebec’s Bitfarms rallies as Bitcoin soars, but concerns grow over cryptominers’ massive electricity needs

Analysts at Canadian insurance company Manulife said in late January that the expansion in central banks’ balance sheets and rising public debt would push investors further into alternative asset classes, which could turn cryptocurrencies into “a solution to investor fears that ongoing extraordinary policy support could lead to resource misallocation.”

“This doesn’t necessarily imply that investments in cryptocurrencies are appropriate, but it does suggest that cryptoassets such as Bitcoin will increasingly become a standard point of reference for investors and policymakers alike,” Manulife said.

But scams and hacks also remain rife, with a recent report from data company Xangle showing that investors have lost more than US$16 billion to fraud since 2012. Regulators are also increasingly concerned about the size of the market and the unchecked activity taking place every day.

Agustín Carstens, the head of the Bank for International Settlements said last week that “it is clear that Bitcoin is more of a speculative asset than money.”

Michael Bolliger, chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management, added that the history of bubbles showed that they could stay inflated for longer than most expected, sometimes without bursting.

“Changes in the way assets are perceived can also mean that bubbles may never fully deflate, and this could hold true for cryptocurrencies, too,” Bolliger said.

© 2021 The Financial Times Ltd

An olympian leap of faith


As he plunges into the world of the biggest sporting stage, the Olympics, designer Suket Dhir’s latest collection, Leap, stays true to his surrealist roots.

Published: 07th February 2021 

By Medha Dutta Yadav
Express News Service

Eclectic is the word that comes to mind when you think of designer Suket Dhir. He, of the whimsical colour palette, the zany bomber jackets and the unique dhoti-bandhgala combo (created for Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee). Keeping true to his oeuvre, Dhir’s latest collection—showcased at Ogaan—is as evocative as ever. Where earlier, he drew from Mughal and Pahadi miniatures to come up with a line that had rajas playing golf and ranis taking selfies, the present collection, Leap, is an ode to the Olympics—the games, the city of Gods, the players, the spectators, et al. “The concept of this collection is ‘forever young’ and named Leap, it’s like leaping into a new year, after a kind of a blip of a year,” laughs Dhir.

Versatile and effortless, the collection is inspired by comic prints. So, you have the trademark bomber jacket with swimmers and divers. There are the javelin throwers, cyclists, discus throwers. Not to mention, sumo wrestlers and gymnasts. There is a surreal mish-mash as all jostle for space on the canvas that Dhir creates. While the outer side filled with this vibrant graffiti-of-sorts catches your eye, turn the lapel and you find the quintessential Dhir stamp—the lining is equally attractive, making it possible to wear the bomber jacket inside out. While this theme runs through almost all his collection—even the earlier ones have a brighter lining letting the wearer own a secretive world from the inside—it’s only the bomber jackets that are reversible.

Suket Dhir

Going through his recent collections—especially those inspired by Mughal and Pahadi miniatures and now Leap—one can almost notice a thread of surrealism connecting them. It’s like looking at a Salvadore Dali canvas, but maybe not that macabre. Dhir doesn’t deny it. Highly influenced by surrealism, he counts among his major influences Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte and his most famous work, the Son of Man, which makes its own presence felt in every creation in a completely metamorphosed avatar.

Celebrated for his ability to put together a vast palette of colours, it was not very long ago that Dhir was more at home with muted shades—think indigo, blues and greys. “I thought putting too much colour together would not work. But look at the collection now. I’m confident that I can put in almost everything and still make it look great,” he says with a tinge of pride.

Immensely influenced by the impeccable style of his grandfather—from whom he inherited some heirloom jackets—it was natural for him to be drawn exclusively to men’s fashion. Women’s fashion was not on the agenda and came much later. Even his line for women is uncharacteristically named, He for She—clothes for women with a distinct masculine silhouette.

“My wife would keep stealing clothes out of my wardrobe. Finally, one day I just woke up and thought let me design a collection for her, and so the collection for women came about,” says the designer, who believes that clothes should be designed in a way so as to transform a person according to their mood. “It’s the wearer who should define how the garment looks,” says Dhir, who pushes for slow fashion and owning the timeless look.

This International Woolmark Prize-winner, who developed a supple and breathable wool ikat fabric with the help of weavers in Telangana and West Bengal, believes that every fashion era—good, bad, ugly—leaves behind its own imprint and learnings. “I would not want the 80s fashion scene to return. But then again, I don’t want to wish that away either. After all, had that not happened, what would you laugh at? What would you know not to do?” Indeed.

Salvador Dalí exhibit to reopen by reservation Feb. 10

Biggs Museum of American Art announced there is still time to see the exhibition Stairway to Heaven: Life and Death in the Visions of Salvador Dalí, featuring illustrations for “Les Chants de Maldoror” and “The Divine Comedy.”

Doors will be open for reservations from the general public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday, starting Wednesday, Feb. 10. Due to high demand, the Dalí exhibition has been extended through Saturday, Feb. 20.

Salvador Dalí (1904-89) is among the most recognized and eccentric artists of the 20th century. Created for two publications, “Les Chants de Maldoror” and “The Divine Comedy,” the artworks in this exhibition signal two distinct periods in Dalí’s career: the hedonism of his youth and the redemption he sought later in life. These two sets of artworks also signal his transition from surrealism to mysticism, which can be seen in this exhibition through his unwavering technical mastery in printmaking and draftsmanship.

With nearly 150 individual artworks on view, this exhibition provides an expansive selection to interpret Dalí‘s dreamlike subjects.

For those who cannot visit in person, free walk-through tours of the exhibition are available online at biggsmuseum.org.

Internet users are the new surrealists, 

and they keep changing the world

5 February 2021

As 2021 continues to progress at a dizzying rate, one of the recurring social phenomenon we’re seeing is the surreal eruption of online activism in the real world. From the recent explosion of GameStop share prices – hiked up by amateur investors co-ordinating online – to the large-scale protests and riots in Washington following the 2020 Presidential election, the communities in cyberspace continue to spill out into the real world. The question is: why are these kinds of actions becoming an increasingly unsettling occurrence in the usual running of society?


In the lexicon of web-design, the term UX, user experience, is often used to describe how an individual may interact with a product, specifically a webpage. Its principle idea is that how we use any webpage is guided by the impetus of its designer, expressed in the shapes and details of the virtual space. When extrapolated to the internet as a whole, there is of course no single designer, certain principles and codes might organise the webpages present into certain general categories, but every website has a different way of connecting to the user. This apparent individuality can be considered the over-arching trend across these different spaces. Each forum, blog, Twitter feed and YouTube channel provides users with the ability to culture their own perfect information eco-system.

We’ve all heard of ‘echo-chambers’ by now, blaming the algorithms behind social-media sites for creating bubbles of like-minded people and limiting their contact with a wider reality, but this isn’t what a generalised UX is getting at. Rather, this problem of social cohesion – brought about by people bringing their outlandish internet-nourished ideas about the world back into it – stems from an endemic property to the experience of the world wide web. The internet has democratised the consumption of information, giving users an almost complete control over how the world appears to them and what parts of it they can interact with; an emergent philosophy that finds its historical roots in a 20th century artistic movement.


The reclusive artist Joseph Cornell produced the majority of his work in the 1940s through to the 60s, though has since been regularly identified with the surrealists. Taking the free-form approach to art adopted by those involved, Cornell built small wooden boxes, which he would decorate and fill with objects collected from antiques stalls around New York. The works were obsessive, and meticulously constructed, with each material picked out of a large hoard that Cornell kept in his mother’s house, which he had affectionately nicknamed ‘Utopia Pathway’. The term ‘sur-real’ was coined by the poet Apollinaire in 1917, as a portmanteau of the French for ‘beyond’ and ‘reality’, and distinctly embodies Cornell’s work. He exercised complete, borderline neurotic, control of his boxes, as bracketed realities he had made for himself; famously shy, he was also known for rarely leaving his home, and choosing instead to tinker at his superior worlds from the basement.

To the modern reader, his lifestyle might not appear so different from those endlessly scanning forums dedicated to conspiracy theories and alternate narratives about the world; picking out specific facts and details to build a virtual iteration of Cornell’s boxes. Even the plastic edges of the computer display resemble the wooden frames that Cornell used to emphasise the difference between his assemblages and wider reality. Using the internet is then a process of constant collage, of information and data, shaped by the eccentric whims of the person behind the keyboard.

This is the almost theological component to the endeavour, of exercising choice over what the world appears as. Perhaps the world isn’t good enough for you; the internet can provide the alternative. Morality means nothing in this space, as neither it did to the surrealists. Dali’s sadistic cookbook is testament enough to this notion, tantamount to the overflowing cultivation of violence that can be found online, in its gruesome overlapping between butchered sea-life and sexualised female figures – or what’s left of them. In other words, it is a complete retreat from social and physical reality, where the individual can believe themselves as powerful as a lucid dreamer, and where political authority cannot penetrate. It may perhaps be no wonder that when these ‘dreamers’ return to the world their behaviour often collapses into violence.

In the transition from the power found online to the political impotence of the physical world, feelings of frustration are entirely predictable. Returning to reality from the internet is a constraint on an individual’s freedom to control the information they encounter, unlike when they’re grasping at the mouse. Suddenly, actions have measurable consequences. On a basic level, we can even equate this to the nominal costs for information online and the price of a newspaper in the local corner-shop; when desire is concerned, the physical world is the place of total frustration to the internet’s surreal freedom.

All of this is not to suggest that these frustrated users returning from online space are totally determined by such interactions. Indeed, culpability ultimately rests on their shoulders for how they behave once they return to the world, but it also seems well worth interrogating the way the internet encourages political frustration. This has been the standard establishment response, who have attempted to control media to limit individual desires. The surreal element of our experience with the internet is forcing a continual conflict between social management under the guise of morality, with the idealistic impulses of individual actors. As to who should be the victor, that can only be decided by how we respond.

WRITTEN BY Jasper Spires

Apocalypse Then

Pandemics and labour: COVID-19 isn't the first time there's been upheaval at work

COVID-19 is not the first time the labour market has undergone dramatic change


Ainsley Hawthorn · For CBC N.L. · Posted: Feb 06, 2021 

A medieval illustration from the Queen Mary Psalter (ca. 1310-20) shows three men harvesting grain while an overseer stands behind them with a rod. (Public domain)

Over the past year, COVID-19 has unexpectedly sparked a public conversation about labour, working conditions and fair pay.

The designation of "essential workers" during lockdowns made it clear how reliant we are as a society not only on first responders and health professionals, but on often-undervalued workers, like retail clerks and cleaning staff.

Temporary pay increases for front-line employees during lockdown periods, instead of creating widespread goodwill for the grocery stores and other companies that instituted them, have drawn attention to how inadequate the income of most front-line workers really is.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, this rollback of "hero pay" preceded Dominion grocery store staff going on strike for 12 weeks. The strike ended with a collective agreement that contained only marginal pay increases.

Pandemics often change labour conditions and affect the way societies value their workers.

From 1347, when it infiltrated the Crimea, until it burnt itself out in 1353, the Black Death killed at least a third of Europe's population. In cities like London, bodies were piled five deep in mass graves.

Despite the devastation, most places returned to a type of normalcy relatively quickly. The plague did its worst damage within a few months, and life typically resumed its usual routine by the following year.
Forging ahead, somehow

What choice did survivors have but to forge ahead? Crops had to be sown and harvested, livestock had to be tended, clothing had to be made and mended, and city infrastructure had to be maintained.

All of a sudden, though, the number of people available to work had plummeted, a fact that would irrevocably change Europe's economic landscape.

The radical cleric John Ball, on horseback, fires up a group of rebels during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. From an illustrated manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles. (Public domain)

Before the Black Death, peasants and labourers had very little bargaining power. After centuries of population increase, there was intense competition for what work was available.

Many lower-class people were bound to a landholder as serfs. In exchange for cultivating the land they occupied, serfs owed services or rent to their landlord. They often had no right to leave the land they lived on and could sometimes be sold along with the land itself.

As is the case with most pandemics, the lower classes were most severely affected by the Black Death. The mortality rate for English peasants seems to have been more than 50 per cent, while the death toll for landowners was closer to 27 per cent.

The peasants who survived the ravages of the plague soon realized they had the upper hand in the post-plague economy. The high mortality in their ranks had created an extreme labour shortage. Villages had emptied out, fields were overgrown, and livestock roamed the countryside.

Migrating for the best work conditions

Labourers could now set their own terms, and they began moving from place to place in search of the most lucrative offers.

Wages for lower-class workers rose drastically. In Oxfordshire; a plowman who had earned two shillings per week before the plague could command 10 shillings per week afterward. Pay rates for artisans increased, too. In Paris, wages for masons quadrupled between 1351 and 1355.

Peasants reap and rake hay in an illumination by the Limbourg brothers from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, circa 1412-16. (Public domain)

The new mobility and clout of the peasantry was terrifying for the upper classes, since most aristocrats were reliant on cheap labour. They made their money from the cultivation of the land they owned, and the wage hikes cut into their income.

To satisfy the unhappy elites, governments enacted legislation aimed at controlling wages. England passed an Ordinance of Labourers in 1349 and a Statute of Labourers in 1351, designed to cap wages at pre-plague levels and prevent peasants from moving around in search of better working conditions.

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Places like France, Castille, and Florence also announced wage freezes, limiting remuneration for everyone from stable boys and wet nurses to soldiers and notaries.

'Malice of employees'

The wording of some of these laws reveals how much the aristocracy resented the newfound economic power of the lower classes. The Statute of Labourers rails against "the malice of employees, who were idle and were not willing to take employment after the pestilence unless for outrageous wages."

Ultimately, these regulations had little effect. Labour was in such short supply that landlords and other employers couldn't afford to ignore market conditions.

French peasants wielding farm implements revolt in an illustration from a manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles. (Public domain)

In fact, as workers became more independent and financially stable, they began to agitate for even more rights, culminating in popular rebellions at the end of the century.

In the 1378 Ciompi Revolt in Florence, artisans pressed for greater guild protections and political representation, while, in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, protesters demanded lower taxes and an end to serfdom.

In the end, the 150 years after the Black Death were a golden age for medieval workers.

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More people bought their own land, labourers earned higher incomes, and the feudal system that had kept peasants under the thumb of wealthy landowners for centuries declined and eventually vanished.

We're not facing the same astronomical mortality and precipitous population decline that medieval Europeans did during the Black Death.

Still, COVID-19 may put a premium on jobs that are now considered more dangerous or more essential than they were before the pandemic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ainsley Hawthorn, PhD, is a cultural historian and author who lives in St. John’s. Follow Ainsley on Facebook

The Peasant War in Germany by Frederick Engels 1850

www.marxists.org › archive › marx › works › peasant-...

Jul. 15, 2020 — Proofed and Corrected: Mark Harris (2010), Dave Allinson (2016), Alvaro Miranda (2020). Also available in these formats: azw epub mobi pdf ...

The Peasants War in Germany, 1525-1526 - Libcom.org

libcom.org › files › peasants war

PDF

THE PEASANTS WAR. - was proving itself too strong for the power of jhe emperor, the recognised representative of. "tentralised authority for the whole German-.

Einstein versus Hitler

One photograph taken before World War II shows what was at stake

Kent Stolt

Dec 13, 2020·

Albert Einstein under guard at Cromer, England in 1933 — Bettmann/Getty Images

It’s the stuff of cloak and dagger cliffhangers and bestseller suspense novels. It’s also part of the historical record of the twentieth century, a snapshot from a perilous time that carries with it to this day some unsettling ‘what if?’ ramifications.

The year is 1933 and the setting is a primitive-looking vacation lodge, or “holiday hut” as they were known in England, near the quiet seaside town of Cromer. The man at the center of the photograph is, of course, Albert Einstein, still today one of the most famous faces on the planet. As for the woman and two men also captured in the picture, no one would call them famous. They were private bodyguards hired by a wealthy British aristocrat to protect the world-renowned physicist from possible Nazi assassins.

(Interesting in its own right is the fact that two women were included in the security detail. Little else is known about them, but whatever their story, Professor Einstein wasn’t complaining. “The beauty of my bodyguards,” he told a visitor, “would disarm a conspirator sooner than their shotguns.”1)

Yes, the man who helped unlock the mystery of atomic energy and other secrets of the universe — and initiated the United States’ building of the first atomic bomb — was, for a time, thought to be a priority target of Nazi killers as a result of his fleeing Germany and voicing opposition to Adolf Hitler.

The beginning of World War II was still six years away. But in January of 1933 Hitler and the Nazis took control of the German Parliament and it wasn’t long before the first menacing shadows of a fascist dictatorship were creeping out from Berlin. The first concentration camp was built that March outside the town of Dachau. So-called ‘enemies of the state’ started disappearing overnight. As Einstein rose to prominence in academic circles he became openly critical of the Nazis, and tensions between the scientist and the Third Reich quickly escalated.

In April Nazi leaders passed a law prohibiting Jews from holding official positions at universities. The next month Einstein’s published books were among those burned in street protests by Nazi thugs and sympathizers. Finally, the government seized his personal bank accounts, and with that enough was enough. Einstein announced to the world that he was renouncing his German citizenship and would be leaving forever his native country. Being Jewish, it would prove to be a prudent move.

The war of words continued. Responding to one scientist’s plea to tone down his harsh anti-Jewish policies, Hitler said in no uncertain terms:

“Our national policies will not be revoked or modified, even for scientists. If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years.” 2

And the more Einstein publicly attacked Hitler, the more the Nazi press fought back, writing slanderous articles about the physicist, going so far as publishing a picture of him with the grotesque caption: “NOT YET HANGED.”

(On August 30, 1933, a Jewish philosopher and associate of Einstein named Theodor Lessing was murdered by unknown assailants in Czechoslovakia days after a picture of Lessing had been circulated carrying the same NOT YET HANGED caption.)

By September rumors were spreading throughout England that Nazi agents were operating in country with a list of assassination targets. Einstein was said to be at the top of the hit list.

Upon hearing one story that there was a $5,000 bounty on his head, Einstein reportedly touched his head and joked, “I didn’t know it was worth that much.” 3

But it was no laughing matter when he accepted the invitation of Oliver Locker-Lampson, a Member of British Parliament and World War I aviator, to stay at his rustic holiday hut on the coast of England for a few weeks under armed guard. Locker-Lampson was already warning his countrymen about the dangers of Nazi Germany, and in the case of this particular guest his attitude was: better safe than sorry.

While no evidence has ever surfaced that Nazi agents actually were stalking the windswept barrens of Cromer looking for Einstein in September of 1933, there is no questioning the extremes Nazis were willing to go to silence their enemies. Had they the chance, they would have taken the shot.

The following month Einstein, by now estranged from his first wife, sailed for America. He eventually settled down in Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked and studied safe from harm for the rest of his life. He never set foot in Europe again.

Still today the mind reels at the thought of what would have happened to world history — what would have been lost — had the Nazis somehow succeeded in killing one of the most profound thinkers of this or any other age.

That Einstein escaped Hitler’s fascist control in the first place, along with other visionary scientists like Edward Teller, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, was something of a miracle — one on which much of the fate of World War II would ultimately rest. Of course, such divine intervention — and the defeat of Adolf Hitler — would not come easily.

In September of 1933 the storm was not yet at hand. But, as the poet might say, there was rumbling off in the distance.

Consider all this the complex backstory of a simple photograph. Of a man sitting and reading in front of a seaside shack as though nothing in the world around him was wrong.

1 Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007) page 422.

2 ibid., page 408.

3 ibid., page 410

Kent Stolt

Wisconsin-based writer, storyteller and history buff. Keep it simple. Make it real.

https://kstolt.medium.com/ 

Canadian National Union welcomes right-wing groups' inclusion on terror list

The CLC is applauding the federal government’s designation of four far-right extremist groups as terrorist organizations.

Groups 'are a direct threat to the safety and well-being of workers of all backgrounds'

By Mark Rosanes
Feb 04, 2021

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is applauding the federal government’s designation of four far-right extremist groups as terrorist organizations.

These groups ― the Proud Boys, the Base, Atomwaffen and the Russian Imperial Movement ― “are a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of workers of all backgrounds and specifically to those who are Indigenous, Black, Jewish, Muslim or who represent other minority communities,” says Hassan Yussuff, president of the CLC.

“We have seen a drastic resurgence in far-right extremist behaviour over the past several years. Letting these groups operate unchecked is dangerous and poses a real threat to our democracy and to the wellbeing of our communities. Today’s announcement is a welcome step in addressing this scourge.”



The four groups have been listed as terrorist entities which means they can no longer raise money or organize.

The designations also mean that any crimes committed by group members can now be treated as a terrorist activity. However, officials point out that being included the list will not necessarily result in the arrest of group members

“Violent acts of terrorism have no place in Canadian society or abroad,” says Bill Blair, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness. “Today's additions to the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities are an important step in our effort to combat violent extremism in all forms. Canadians expect their government to keep them safe and to keep pace with evolving threats and global trends, such as the growing threat of ideologically motivated violent extremism.”
Unions fight back

Labour unions have long been organizing against racism through various advocacy and educational programs, but far-right groups have “thrived online,” using social media to spread misinformation, recruit new members and mobilize, says the CLC.

“The reality is that white supremacist groups have not faced the same scrutiny as other racialized groups and that has allowed them to mobilize with relative freedom and impunity,” says Yussuff. “Furthermore, under anti-terror legislation, stereotypes and guilt by association have led to the over-surveillance of Muslim and Arab communities.



The climate of hatred these groups foster puts workers’ health and safety at risk, says Larry Rousseau, executive vice-president of the CLC.

“Attacks by white supremacists tend to be targeted and do not happen in isolation,” he says. “[These incidents] must stop. Everyone deserves to live free from violence and harassment.”

Experts say that employers play a vital role in fighting racism in the workplace, which has been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.

But to do this, some experts believe that major changes in office culture and organizational policies need to be implemented.

Recharge for Rights! Call on Canada
to Power a Just Energy Future


Artisanal extraction of salt in Salinas Grandes, Argentina 

(Photo by Diego Leanza/Amnesty International, 2018)



The global climate crisis is an unprecedented human rights crisis. The scale and urgency of this crisis require governments to drive the shift from fossil fuel dependency to a renewable, accessible and just energy future as quickly as possible.

Rechargeable batteries are key to this transition. Unfortunately, batteries currently on the market, like lithium-ion batteries, carry a hefty price tag: people in countries where battery minerals are mined and processed report human rights abuses and environmental harms.

Governments and companies are at a crossroads: will our energy transition repeat harmful practices that have defined decades of mineral extraction, or will climate solutions respect human rights?

Right now, we have an opportunity to get this right. We can choose an energy revolution that does not come at the expense of human rights.

You can demand a better future right now. Call on Canada’s Ministers of Innovation, Science and Technology and Environment and Climate Change to ensure that clean energy innovations respect human rights.



The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power our cars, computers and smartphones contain mined materials, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. The demand for these materials is projected to grow exponentially within the next decade.

Currently, companies that manufacture rechargeable batteries do not know if people’s human rights have been abused to make their products. Governments and businesses in the supply chain too often cut corners by undermining human rights standards, safety regulations, and environmental precautions, in the pursuit of profits.

Previous Amnesty research exposed how cobalt mined by children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be entering the supply chains of some of the world’s biggest electronic and electric vehicle brands, while in South America, evidence points to lithium extraction posing risks to Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty, water resources and fragile ecosystems.



Canada is a world leader in lithium exploration and mining. Canadian companies have a clear responsibility to ensure their operations don’t harm human rights, including the rights of Indigenous peoples whose traditional territories they wish to exploit.

That’s why we’re launching our Recharge for Rights campaign, to call on Canada to be a leader in ensuring that our future power needs are not fuelled by human rights abuse or environmental destruction.

Please urge Canada to act boldly for a just energy transition – by enforcing environmental protection laws, investigating allegations of abuses, and making human rights due diligence a legal requirement.



Putting corporate interests above protecting human rights and the environment has been the status quo for too long. The result is shocking global inequality, devastating climate change, and a seemingly endless stream of bad news about the future.

It doesn’t have to be this way. This is a critical moment to rethink the way our economies and industries operate. As we move towards post-pandemic recovery, we have a chance to build a fairer and more sustainable future.

Thank you for adding your voice to the call for Canada to show leadership by supporting investments and lasting energy solutions that sacrifice neither people nor the planet.

In solidarity and hope,



Tara Scurr
Business & Human Rights Campaigner
Amnesty International Canada


P.S. Yesterday, Amnesty International and more than 50 organizations from around the world published Powering Change, recommendations for how businesses and governments can ensure clean, green and ethical battery supply chains. Please call on the Canadian government to endorse these principles and act now to ensure a just energy transition.