The Unremarkable Death of Migrants in Sahara Desert

A report on the latest IOM report on migrant deaths and the under-reported deaths of migrants crossing the Sahara.


Sahara Desert of Fezzan, Libya. Photo: Luca Galuzzi / Wikimedia Commons

Vijay Prashad | 06 Apr 2024

Sabah, Libya, is an oasis town at the northern edge of the Sahara Desert. To stand at the edge of the town and look southward into the desert toward Niger is forbidding. The sand stretches past infinity, and if there is a wind, it lifts the sand to cover the sky. Cars come down the road past the al-Baraka Mosque into the town. Some of these cars come from Algeria (although the border is often closed) or from Djebel al-Akakus, the mountains that run along the western edge of Libya. Occasionally, a white Toyota truck filled with men from the Sahel region of Africa and from western Africa makes its way into Sabah. Miraculously, these men have made it across the desert, which is why many of them clamber out of their truck and fall to the ground in desperate prayer. Sabah means “morning” or “promise” in Arabic, which is a fitting word for this town that grips the edge of the massive, growing, and dangerous Sahara.

For the past decade, the United Nations International Organization of Migration (IOM) has collected data on the deaths of migrants. This Missing Migrants Project publishes its numbers each year, and so this April, it has released its latest figures. For the past ten years, the IOM says that 64,371 women, men, and children have died while on the move (half of them have died in the Mediterranean Sea). On average, each year since 2014, 4,000 people have died. However, in 2023, the number rose to 8,000. One in three migrants who flee a conflict zone die on the way to safety. These numbers, however, are grossly deflated, since the IOM simply cannot keep track of what they call “irregular migration.” For instance, the IOM admits, “[S]ome experts believe that more migrants die while crossing the Sahara Desert than in the Mediterranean Sea.”
Sandstorms and gunmen

Abdel Salam, who runs a small business in the town, pointed out into the distance and said, “In that direction is Toummo,” the Libyan border town with Niger. He sweeps his hands across the landscape and says that in the region between Niger and Algeria is the Salvador Pass, and it is through that gap that drugs, migrants, and weapons move back and forth, a trade that enriches many of the small towns in the area, such as Ubari. With the erosion of the Libyan state since the NATO war in 2011, the border is largely porous and dangerous. It was from here that the al-Qaeda leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar moved his troops from northern Mali into the Fezzan region of Libya in 2013 (he was said to have been killed in Libya in 2015). It is also the area dominated by the al-Qaeda cigarette smugglers, who cart millions of Albanian-made Cleopatra cigarettes across the Sahara into the Sahel (Belmokhtar, for instance, was known as the “Marlboro Man” for his role in this trade). An occasional Toyota truck makes its way toward the city. But many of them vanish into the desert, a victim of the terrifying sandstorms or of kidnappers and thieves. No one can keep track of these disappearances, since no one even knows that they have happened.

Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated Io Capitano (2023) tells the story of two Senegalese boys—Seydou and Moussa—who go from Senegal to Italy through Mali, Niger, and then Libya, where they are incarcerated before they flee across the Mediterranean to Italy in an old boat. Garrone built the story around the accounts of several migrants, including Kouassi Pli Adama Mamadou (from Côte d’Ivoire, now an activist who lives in Caserta, Italy). The film does not shy away from the harsh beauty of the Sahara, which claims the lives of migrants who are not yet seen as migrants by Europe. The focus of the film is on the journey to Europe, although most Africans migrate within the continent (21 million Africans live in countries in which they were not born). Io Capitano ends with a helicopter flying above the ship as it nears the Italian coastline; it has already been pointed out that the film does not acknowledge racist policies that will greet Seydou and Moussa. What is not shown in the film is how European countries have tried to build a fortress in the Sahel region to prevent migration northwards.
Open-air tomb

More and more migrants have sought the Niger-Libya route after the fall of the Libyan state in 2011 and the crackdown on the Moroccan-Spanish border at Melilla and Ceuta. A decade ago, the European states turned their attention to this route, trying to build a European “wall” in the Sahara against the migrants. The point was to stop the migrants before they get to the Mediterranean Sea, where they become an embarrassment to Europe. France, leading the way, brought together five of the Sahel states (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) in 2014 to create the G5 Sahel. In 2015, under French pressure, the government of Niger passed Law 2015-36 that criminalized migration through the country. G5 Sahel and the law in Niger came alongside European Union funding to provide surveillance technologies—illegal in Europe—to be used in this band of countries against migrants. In 2016, the United States built the world’s largest drone base in Agadez, Niger, as part of this anti-migrant program. In May 2023, Border Forensics studied the paths of the migrants and found that due to the law in Niger and these other mechanisms the Sahara had become an “open-air tomb.”

Over the past few years, however, all of this has begun to unravel. The coup d’états in Guinea (2021), Mali (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), and Niger (2023) have resulted in the dismantling of G5 Sahel as well as the demand for the removal of French and US troops. In November 2023, the government of Niger revoked Law 2015-36 and freed those who had been accused of being smugglers.

Abdourahamane, a local grandee, stood beside the Grand Mosque in Agadez and talked about the migrants. “The people who come here are our brothers and sisters,” he said. “They come. They rest. They leave. They do not bring us problems.” The mosque, built of clay, bears within it the marks of the desert, but it is not transient. Abdourahamane told me that it goes back to the 16th century, long before modern Europe was born. Many of the migrants come here to get their blessings before they buy sunglasses and head across the desert, hoping that they make it through the sands and find their destiny somewhere across the horizon.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

 

Cost of Living Crisis Worsens in Egypt Soon After IMF Loan Deal

• 
  

Egyptians, already reeling under a cost of living crisis amid recd-high inflation, are suffering a further erosion of purchasing power.

Hassan Abdalla, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, addressing the IMF's annual meeting in October 2022. Photo: World Bank

Pavan Kulkarni | 27 Mar 2024

Egyptians are being hit with another round of price increases less than three weeks after their government implemented further economic “reforms” to satisfy the conditions attached to the additional bailout loan it secured from IMF earlier this month.

Effective from March 22, the government has imposed a hike of over 33% on the price of butane gas cylinders, on which millions—especially poorer households—depend for cooking, as the supply of natural gas is limited to just over half of all Egyptian households.

Another price hike of almost 18% on diesel, which fuels most of the transportation of people and goods, will exert further upward pressure on the prices of commodities, including essentials like food. As of February, Egyptians were already suffering a food price rise of more than 50% over the last year.

On March 6, Egypt secured a deal with the IMF, which agreed to cough up another USD 5 billion, increasing its bailout program ongoing since 2022 from a loan of three billion to eight billion dollars.

“The objective under the Fund-supported program is” to get the government to stop exercising controls over its currency’s exchange rate and “shift to a flexible exchange rate regime whereby the value of the Egyptian pound would be determined freely against other currencies.” the IMF explained.

The government’s fulfillment of this “objective” of the IMF immediately brought the Egyptian pound crashing down in value by 55%, plunging it to a record low of 48 pounds per US dollar. Being a net energy importer, this has meant a major loss in the country’s buying power.

Through this fuel price hike, the government has passed on this loss to its people, almost 30% of whom are in poverty, which has been on the rise under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

While agreeing to let the market determine the value of its currency, the Egyptian central bank’s governor Hassan Abdalla added the proviso that “the central banks in any country have the right to intervene if there are illogical movements.”

Nevertheless, it seems an additional erosion of the purchasing power of a people already suffering a cost of living crisis amid a record high inflation is not an “illogical movement”, but very much a part of the logic of the “reforms” underway.

IMF set to destroy Egypt’s public sector

“The authorities are showing strong commitment to act promptly on all critical aspects” of the “economic reform program” imposed with this loan, the IMF said in a statement on March 6 after striking the deal, commending Sisi’s government.

This is likely to mean that the crisis will be further compounded with upward pressure on unemployment and downward pressure on wages as these other “critical aspects” include the expedited elimination of Egypt’s public sector.

Despite a privatization drive underway since 1990, Egypt’s public sector still provides almost a quarter of all employment in the country and offers better terms than the private sector which is predominantly informal.

The IMF, however, commended the “accelerated pace” at which this public sector is shrinking, especially since mid-2023 when Egypt’s government announced the sale of USD 1.9 billion of stakes in state-owned entities, including in petrochemicals, telecom and banking.

The IMF had enthusiastically welcomed this move on the day after the announcement of this sale in July 2023, explaining that “the gradual withdrawal of the state from economic activity”, i.e. the elimination of the public sector, is a “critical component” of its “program”.

As a condition for securing an additional bailout loan on March 6, the Egyptian government has agreed to use “a substantial part” of the proceeds from this sale of the public sector to pay old debts, the IMF added in its statement on March 6 as it sanctioned additional debt. Egypt has also agreed to “limit the total amount of public investment from all sources”.

In its own words, the IMF has prescribed “a new framework to slow down infrastructure spending” by the government as one of the “pillars” of this reform program attached to the bailout agreed on March 6.

Are refugees from Gaza a part of the quid pro quo?

Despite IMF’s denial, developments preceding this loan have led many observers to question if an unwritten condition of this bailout also requires Egypt to take in the Palestinians from Gaza, effectively helping Israel to ethnically cleanse the strip of land it has besieged since the late 2000s.

Soon after Israel started this war in October, the prospect of debt relief was reportedly dangled before the Egyptian government by Israel as well as by the US in exchange for allowing Israel to drive the Palestinians of Gaza across the border into Egypt’s Sinai desert.

Denying these reports, Egypt had categorically said in a statement from its presidency that it was “rejecting and deploring the policy of displacement or attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause at the expense of neighboring countries” as a “red line that will not be compromised”.

Nevertheless, attempts to convince Egypt appeared to persist. Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, over which the US effectively has a veto power, had said last November that the IMF was “seriously considering” this additional bailout agreed upon on March 6, to help Egypt cope with “economic difficulties posed by the Israel–Gaza war.”

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told a press conference late last month, “With respect to the question on the potential impact pressures from refugees from Gaza, what we do see in Egypt is that there is a need to have a very comprehensive support package”.

Only a week earlier, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights had reported that Egypt was constructing “an isolated security zone” in the desert on “the border with the Gaza Strip, with the aim of receiving refugees from Gaza.” Several critics have described it as a “concentration camp”.

The agreement with the IMF increasing its loan to USD 8 billion was secured soon after. On the heels of this agreement, the European Union (EU) also agreed to fund Egypt another USD 8 billion on March 17, followed by the World Bank which committed USD 6 billion on March 18.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

Kenyan Health Workers Prepare for New Round of Industrial Actio

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

The workers’ demands include stable working conditions and aligning incomes with living expenses. They are mobilising at a time when the government is preparing to implement a highly unpopular round of healthcare reform.

Kenyan medical workers stage a protest. Image credit: Dr. Ayub ( ýobo on dà flag)/X

Peoples Dispatch | 14 Mar 2024\

William Ruto’s government in Kenya has missed another opportunity to address the grievances raised by doctors and other health workers from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU). Unless there are major changes by the end of Wednesday, March 13, members of the trade union across the health sector plan to walk off their jobs in the early hours of the following day. They are demanding that the government ensure stable employment conditions for health workers, fulfill its obligation to place medical interns in public hospitals across the country, and align incomes with living expenses.

The actions of the workers are unfolding against a backdrop of healthcare reform, which health activists have criticized as an erosion of hard-won rights to meet the requirements imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This includes replacing the national health insurance scheme with the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), a move the government enforced despite widespread opposition and legal challenges.

Dan Owala, from the People’s Health Movement (PHM) Kenya, told People’s Health Dispatch that although the national insurance model was not perfect —favoring private providers without expanding coverage to the entire population — the SHIF goes a step further by imposing taxes upfront on everyone, regardless of their overall economic status. Even those living in rural areas or working in the informal sector, living on less than USD 1 per day, will be taxed.

To collect the tax, the government is extending its reach beyond salaried workers to include others, using phone records to determine income status based on mobile money transactions, including remittances from family members abroad. The practice is dubious at least.

There is also concern that the latest healthcare reform package, which introduces two additional funds—the Primary Healthcare Fund and the Emergency, Chronic, and Critical Illness Fund—could lead to further opportunities for manipulation and corruption without actually increasing coverage.

“It’s like the World Bank and the IMF themselves have written those laws,” says Owala.

The consequences of the IMF’s loan conditions in Kenya have been chilling, with the country’s debt to the IMF reaching $3.5 billion, including over $940 million USD granted in January 2024 alone. The policies associated with these loans have disproportionately affected poor and working-class communities, with significant increases in the prices of staple foods, fuel, and other materials, leaving 73% of Kenyans in severe financial distress.

This financial strain has also impacted public services, including healthcare, leading to a back-and-forth between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance. The responsibility for placing medical interns, one of the KMPDU’s main demands, falls on the Ministry of Health, but this can only be accomplished with adequate funding from the treasury, which has not been provided.

The situation is exacerbated by the decentralization of healthcare, with county governments responsible for many health programs but receiving only around 35% of the overall central health budget. They are expected to raise the remaining funds through different donors interested in specific health issues: like tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS.

“The treasury thinks there’s a lot of money coming from donors, but donors don’t fund the health workforce,” Owala points out. In practice, that means money for the health workforce is not coming from any source at all: most donors do not find this heading important enough to fund, while the central government expects hospitals and health centers will find the resources elsewhere.

Donors are also prone to disappear as their interest shifts elsewhere, leaving health services in an extremely precarious position — one that can only be avoided by allocating enough central funding to the overall health system. Contrary to that, health services in Kenya are currently resembling project implementation, where county health providers are expected to submit reports in order to get a new tranche of funding.

The lack of central funding and regressive health reform has had a detrimental effect on health programs, such as Linda Mama. The program was originally introduced in 2016/2017, building upon efforts to strengthen maternity care dating back to the early 2010s. The main aim of Linda Mama was to improve maternal health, including through making maternity services more accessible to those who were left uncovered by the National Health Insurance Fund. The program helped achieve some progress in this field but also, as Owala points out, to somewhat reduce the number of informal abortions.

The SHIF is supposed to take over the purview of Linda Mama and EduAfya, the health benefit package for students, yet doubts remain about how this will be implemented. “We are reversing all the gains we have made,” says Owala.

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

Bengal: Underage Marriage a Crisis in Jangal Mahal Areas

Adolescent girls, both in school and those who have dropped out, are particularly vulnerable in this scenario. They are often seen as burdens by their families and are consequently married off at a young age.

A woman who was married when she was below 18.

Madhu Sudan Chatterjee | 15 Mar 2024

Amidst the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022 and the halt in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) work in rural areas, families in Bengal's Jangal Mahal areas are facing exacerbated financial strains.

Adolescent girls, both in school and those who have dropped out, are particularly vulnerable in this scenario. They are often seen as burdens by their families and are consequently married off at a young age. The widespread use of smartphones further compounds their plight, as unrestricted access to social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram exposes them to various dangers. Many underage girls, driven by illusion or coercion, run away from home to get married. Subsequently, they face extreme physical and mental crises due to financial pressures and unforeseen social hazards.

Despite initiatives like the Kanyashree Prokolpo, aimed at incentivising education for teenage girls, underage marriages continue unabated, particularly in Bankura and Purulia Districts of Bengal's Jangal Mahal. Local panchayats' failure to take effective action despite being aware of these incidents raises questions about their role. Moreover, the concerned state government department often remains uninformed about underage marriages, rendering them virtually helpless in addressing the issue.



A girl who has dropped out of school grazing her field

Marriage at an underage, below 18 years, exposes adolescent girls to health risks, including premature maternal deaths and increased infant mortality rates. Surviving mothers and children suffer from severe malnutrition and anaemia due to inadequate nutrition. With families lacking stable incomes in both paternal and in-law households, the tragic consequences of underage marriages are spreading across vast areas of the two districts.

Over time, this phenomenon is rapidly worsening, becoming an accepted norm in these areas. Urgent intervention is necessary to address the root causes of underage marriages and protect the rights and well-being of adolescent girls.
What Circumstances Lead Girls to Underage Marriages?

"Last year, I passed the Madhyamik (secondary education) exam with 412 marks. I studied at Bandowan Girls High School in Purulia District. In 2022, while I was studying in the 10th standard, my father married me and my younger sister simultaneously. My sister was in the ninth grade at the same school. We are four sisters, and our father is a migrant labourer. We were married into a family where my sister and I now have two sons. Unfortunately, we struggle to provide sufficient breast milk for both children. Additionally, my husband and brother-in-law lack stable employment," says Mithu Shabar (name changed), reflecting on her situation.

The marriage took place in Sayerberia village of Hatogram Panchayat under the Indpur Block of Bankura District. She recalled, "Our paternal house is in Bandudoba village of Bandowan Block, Purulia, where many girls from my paternal home village were married off while still in school."

Sayer Beria village, located 203 kilometres from Kolkata under the Indpur Block, Bankura, is home to 32 families belonging to the Shabor primitive tribal community. Despite holding government job cards, most families are deprived of work under the MGNREGA scheme and struggle with extreme malnutrition.

Shisu Sabar, a resident of this village, alleges that Panchayat members affiliated with the Trinamool Congress seldom visit the village. The villagers subsist on whatever they can gather, including snakes and field mice, as they live in dilapidated houses. Despite repeated attempts to seek assistance from the panchayat, they have yet to receive any housing assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Kalpana Sabar reveals that girls in her village are married off between the ages of 14-15. Similarly, brides coming from outside the village are also below the age of 18. Several housewives, including Mithu, Sakuntola, and Puja Sabar (name changed), reveal that they venture into the forest every morning to collect white stones, which they sell for Rs 12/basket. Due to their weakened health, they can only lift a maximum of five baskets, often leaving their children unattended in the fields. Most women in the village age prematurely, and their vitality diminishes with each passing day.

According to the National Health Survey 5, the prevalence of women aged 20-24 years marrying at 18 years old remains high in Bengal at 41.6%, compared to the national figure of 23.3%. This statistic is even higher in the Jangal Mahal area. In most cases, underage marriages go unreported and unaddressed, leading to dire consequences when they come to light.

Currently, residents in these areas face limited opportunities for education and decent work. Despite the enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006), the practice of marrying off young girls persists, fuelled by a socio-economic spectrum rife with structural inequalities and regressive social norms. Several student hostels and Madhyamik Shiksha Kendras (grades 5-8) have shuttered in the Jangal Mahal area, where girls once pursued their education.

Previously, hostel grants were credited directly to school accounts, but now they are deposited into the beneficiaries' accounts, often delayed. Many students fail to transfer these funds to their schools upon leaving, leading to financial crises and subsequent closures of several hostels. Some hostels now operate at reduced capacity, accommodating only 5-15 students to maintain government register records, while others have ceased operation altogether.

Sarbani Mahato, 16 (name changed), shared her story.

"I attended Ranibandh Girls' School until eighth grade, but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and schools closed, I ceased my studies. Within three years, many of my female classmates were married off. When schools reopened two years ago, my migrant labourer father insisted I no longer needed an education. I was then engaged in tending to cows and goats on a farm, and I am set to marry within two months, arrangements finalised with the groom's family."

A few months ago, a migrant worker returned to his native village of Kulyam under Rudra Gram Panchayat in Ranibandh Block, Bankura, seeking to arrange a marriage for his 15-year-old daughter. Intervention from the childcare unit of Bankura prevented the marriage. The worker, residing elsewhere, expressed concern for his three adolescent daughters left unprotected at home. Despite this, numerous young girls in the village are already married, often overlooked by the community.

The root cause of this resurgence in underage marriage lies in the lack of local employment opportunities, predating the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven many residents of Bankura and Purulia districts to seek migrant work across the country. As MGNREGA work has ceased, many are forced to migrate again, including a significant number of school dropouts. Trains departing from Purulia to Chennai weekly are primarily filled with migrant workers.



Campaigning by MANT against underage marriage at a fair in Bankura Aketswar

Chandidas Mukherjee, Secretary of Mallabhum Ananda Ashram Nityananda Trust (MANT), emphasised that the resurgence of underage marriages stems from poverty and financial insecurity. He noted a loss of common sense in the face of extreme poverty, burdening families with daughters, sentiments echoed by Janhobi Majhi, a schoolteacher at Bishnupur High School.

She observed, "At 13 years old, families begin seeking grooms for their daughters. Poverty, coupled with societal expectations, dictates these decisions, irrespective of caste or income. Unfortunately, the autonomy of the girl's choice is often disregarded in these matters."

In 2009, the world became familiar with the name Jhalda, located in the Purulia District, when a 13-year-old girl named Rekhe Kalindi bravely spoke out against underage marriage. Her courage earned her the prestigious bravery award from the then President of India, Pratibha Patil. Kalindi was hailed as a messenger of social change, and Jhalda became a beacon of hope. However, in the last five years, the incidence of underage marriage has surged in the Kotshila and Joypur areas of the Jhalda subdivision.

The West Bengal state government launched the Kanyashree Prokalpo in 2013 to counteract this troubling trend. This initiative aims to incentivise the education of teenage girls aged 13-18 while simultaneously discouraging underage marriage.

According to the state budget, the scheme has benefitted 81 lakh female students and garnered international recognition with the United Public Service Award in 2017. Under this project, girls from standard eight receive Rs 1000/year. If they remain unmarried until the age of 18, they receive Rs 25,000. Additionally, upon reaching 18 years of age, if they marry, they are entitled to another Rs 25,000 under the 'Ruposhree' project.

Despite these efforts, many schoolgirls in the Jangal Mahal areas of Bankura and Purulia are getting married while still studying in ninth or tenth standards, below the legal age of 18. They obtain unmarried certificates from the local panchayat to claim the Rs 25,000 incentive meant for remaining unmarried until they are 18. Even when their marriages are known, there is little recourse, as the pressure from parents and panchayat compels authorities to disburse the funds. Allegations suggest that political motivations influence these decisions, particularly by the TMC and BJP-run panchayats.

The unchecked use of smartphones poses additional risks, as many students engage in love relationships through social media and may marry without informing their families, sometimes even resorting to elopement. Those who marry and move to their in-laws' homes often face disillusionment if their husbands are unable to provide financially, forcing them into labour. In many cases, the parents of these girls sever ties, leaving them to suffer from immense mental anguish.

Sukumar Paine, the State Secretary of the All Bengal Teacher Association, noted the cessation of the 'Jibon Shoyli' (lifestyle) subject during the Trinamool government's tenure. This subject previously taught students how to maintain mental and physical well-being during adolescence.

The state government's initiative to provide Rs 10,000 for purchasing smartphones to students who have passed class 11 during the COVID-19 lockdown raises questions about the efficacy of these devices for educational purposes.

Underage marriage often leads to tragic consequences, with many young mothers and their children losing their lives due to complications during childbirth.

Dr Srimanta De, a gynaecologist in Bankura, highlighted the risks associated with childbirth in underage mothers. Additionally, Sajal Shing, an officer of the Child Care Unit in Bankura District, emphasised the importance of prompt intervention and legal action in cases of attempted underage marriage. Organisations like MANT Bankura actively engage in awareness campaigns to prevent such marriages.

The writer covers the Jangal Mahal region for ‘Ganashakti’ newspaper in West Bengal

App-based drivers boycott Chevron for complicity in Israel’s genocidal crimes

The 100,000-strong International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers has expressed its solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation

Protest outside Chevron’s Richmond Refinery in California, US 

March 19, 2024 

by Tanupriya Singh

The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) announced a boycott of all gas stations linked to US fossil fuel giant Chevron for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

The IAATW represents over 100,000 drivers and couriers across six continents in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina, the US, the UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Australia and France.

“Inspired by the 1987 oil embargo against Shell for its role in South African apartheid, we, the app-based passenger transport sector for companies such as Uber, Deliveroo, JustEat, Free Now, Glovo, Lyft, Grab, DoorDash, Grubhub, Amazon, Ola, Gojek, Didi, Bolt, Careems, reiterate Palestinians’ calls for action and pledge to boycott the thousands of Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex [Chevron subsidiaries] gas and petrol stations worldwide,” the IAATW said in a statement.

The Alliance stated that the decision, approved unanimously at its bi-annual conference in Colombo on February 25, was in line with its commitment to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the “unprecedented call from more than 30 Palestinian trade unions.”

On October 16 2023, weeks into Israel’s genocidal bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, Palestinian unions had raised a call for their “counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as funding and military research.”

They called upon trade unions to take action including to refuse to build and transport weapons destined for Israel, to take action against companies complicit in the Zionist Occupation’s illegal siege of Gaza, and to pass motions within their unions to this effect, Trade unions and workers in different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and Europe have since heeded these calls and expressed solidarity with their Palestinian counterparts.

According to the BDS Movement, “Chevron has been the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean” since it acquired Noble Energy in 2020, “helping to fund the ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza,” the IAATW noted.

Natural gas extracted and supplied by Chevron from the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields has generated billions of shekels in revenue for Israel, boosting the occupation’s “energy security”.

While colonizing and pillaging Palestine’s resources, including land and water, Israel has also sabotaged the ability of Palestinians to develop the oil and gas fields by enforcing its brutal and illegal land, air, and naval siege on Gaza for the past 17 years.

The ongoing assault on Gaza has in fact given Israel a further opportunity to perpetuate its looting of Palestinian resources, with Israel granting national and foreign companies gas exploration licenses for areas internationally-recognized to be within Palestinian maritime boundaries.

“Chevron is directly involved in Israel’s policy and practice of depriving the Palestinian people of their right to sovereignty over their natural resources,” the IAATW emphasized. This complicity extends to Israel’s illegal transfer of extracted gas through a Palestinian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Chevron’s involvement goes beyond benefiting from Palestinian resources, to an active involvement in quite literally fueling the Israeli war machine. Research from Data Desk, commissioned by Oil Change International, has found that companies including Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total Energies, and Eni have facilitated the supply of crude oil to Israel, which is used by its refineries to provide diesel and gasoline to the occupation’s military.

Chevron has also been the target of protests by Palestinian solidarity and climate action groups in the US, condemning its role in enabling the genocide in Gaza.

“IAATW stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian labor movement and their struggle for national liberation”, the Alliance stated. “We reiterate calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israeli apartheid and military occupation and call on other labor unions to do the same.”

The IAATW has also pledged to investigate and take action against app companies that have utilized Israeli technology that is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian people, and to organize an international day of action to raise awareness and combat propaganda about the Palestinian struggle.

ICYMI AUSTERITY SUCKS

French Public Sector Employees Protest Cuts in State Spending

On top of the cuts already made in the 2024 budget, the French government also decreed a $10.85 billion cut in state spending for 2024.

CGT strike on March 19, 2024. Photo: CGT

Peoples Dispatch | 23 Mar 2024

Public sector employees in France led massive protests on Tuesday March 19, demanding an increase in wages to compensate for cuts in their real wages indexed with the inflation. They also participated in a general strike on Tuesday called for by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), Solidaires, Force Ouvrière (FO), the CFE-CGC, the Autonomous Federation, the SNES-FSU and the UNSA. Major rallies were held in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, and Toulouse.

The trade unions denounced French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s February 22 decree, stipulating a reduction of €10 billion (USD 10.85 billion) in state spending for 2024, on top of €16 billion (USD 17. 38 billion) in cuts already made in the 2024 budget.

Emmanuel Macron-led French government has enacted harsh austerity measures in the country since his rise to power, making massive cuts in social spending, and reforming pension schemes in the country, which have courted widespread protests. To mend the fiscal deficit and budgetary holes as directed by the European Union (EU), the government made cuts worth billions in public spending including social welfare and real wages. Public sector hospitals and schools have been reeling under decades-long divestment and cuts. The COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing cost of living crisis marked by high inflation in France and across Europe have also put the French working class in distress.

In response to the new cuts pushed by the finance minister, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) has stated that “rather than reducing the massive and unconditional public aid paid to private companies, rather than taxing the richest, the government continues to make households, employees, pensioners, young people, and the unemployed pay.”

The CGT has warned that the new cuts will impact ecology, labor, education and research, public housing, international aid, and other crucial areas of social spending.

“Finally, it should be noted that this package of austerity measures is being implemented by decree, thus once again circumventing the democratic control of Parliament,” added the CGT.

On March 19, Paul Vannier MP, from La France Insoumise (LFI), told the media “For the past 15 years, the purchasing power of civil servants has been steadily decreasing! This year again, revaluations remain below inflation. There is an impoverishment of those who keep our daily public services alive, close to home. There is, basically, a dimension of general interest in today’s strike.”