alanjjohnstone
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The Biden administration is urging migrants trapped in Mexico to be patient.
The expected protests against the new law in Poland took place.
Modi has seriously politically miscalculated how this privatisation was received. If it has been a nail in the coffin of the RSS/BJP hindutva all the better.
If Modi can be equated with Trump (and in many ways there are similarities) he has lost the Make India Great Again movement who have now come to understand that Modi’s “nationalism” can now be seen as secondary to his “corporatism”.
Our question is do we treat the present farmers struggle as “patriotic” protectionism against globalisation, as a campaign against the dismantling of the Indian welfare State, or a sectional defence of the privileges of the “rich” farmer akin to the EU Common Agricultural Policy, to single out some of the negative “reactionary” features.
Or do we point to the growth of political consciousness in a very conservative culture as revealed in the cross-caste and multi-religion cooperation despite the media focus only on the Punjabi front. There is the urban trade union solidarity seen in the November general strike, and it has an all-India sympathy although blocking the streets of the State capitals of Modi’s rivals is rather like preaching to the converted and doesn’t get the headlines.
This won’t necessarily be the first occasion that a resistance against one particular government policy evolves into wider action. People learn from experience, practice leads to new demands.
Unlike Trump MAGA which has remained loyal despite betrayal, Modi’s supporters have recognised he does not represent their interests anymore and have deserted him.
Will the result be a return to Congress and CPI(M)? Well, we know without real socialist consciousness, this swing-pendulum exists with voters.
But how is a socialist party able to create a presence in anti-establishment movements that express certain progressive ideas but fall very short of being a socialistic movement?
I’d like to hear a few alternative strategies for reaching out to a huge reservoir of possible receptive audience. We shouldn’t dismiss this mass movement too quickly.
To return to Marx, this is a class in itself but not yet a class for itself
My speculative message is simple…we understand your grievances, we know the new laws are not designed for your benefit, but you may prevail at this moment in time but the problem doesn’t disappear. It takes you only back to the position which you were originally in, which was not at all good, and the multinational corporation invasion of India will return, regardless of who holds power, in a different form perhaps but with the same intent. Capitalism is global and eventually the national capital hold-outs are defeated. Britain will soon realize this with Brexit.
How was Robinhood free of commission when it came to buying shares?
Because it sold the details of its users trends to the hedge funds. Users of Robinhood were not customers. They were the product.
Hence when the hedge funds found that the “small guy” was hindering its profit-making it used its power over Robinhood to stop trading from the “ordinary” investor.
Another tech company which sells the users details to others – Google – “revised” negative reviews of Robinhood.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/28/22255245/google-deleting-bad-robinhood-reviews-play-store
Just another example of the myth of “High St” capitalism for the “person-in-the-street.” Threats to the Wall St investment giants are a thwarted.
https://countercurrents.org/2021/01/its-facebook-versus-indias-farmers/
Jio Platforms runs India’s largest mobile network service. Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which was recently allowed to provide online payment services, has an estimated 400 million subscribers in India. They will be targeted as a potential customer base for Jio Mart, a network of grocery stores owned by Jio Platforms, that is already present in over 200 Indian cities and delivers groceries, dairy items, fruits, vegetables. The idea is primarily to dominate India’s rapidly growing e-grocery market. Jio Mart also hopes to use WhatsApp to integrate thousands of mom-and-pop stores into the online retail network.The online commerce market in India is predicted to reach US$ 99 billion by 2024 and US$200 billion by 2026
Facebook invested $5.5 billion dollars last year in Ambani-owned Jio Platforms. Google with US$4.5 billion. Public Investment Fund, which is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, with US$1.5 billion; KKR, a large US investment fund with US$1.5 billion; Mubadala and ADIA, both investment funds based in Abu Dhabi with US$1.2 billion and US$750 million and TPG Capital, a global asset management firm with US$600 million.
All these plans however will come to nought if the three new farm laws are not in place, as they provide the legal basis for entry of large corporates into the highly fragmented and diverse Indian food production, processing and distribution market. The laws create a national framework for contract farming in agriculture, deregulate pricing, purchase and storage of many basic food products and facilitate online sales of agricultural produce. Essentially the laws will allow entities like Jio Platforms to control the entire supply chain for food and related items – procuring at low prices from farmers, stocking and processing for value addition, booking orders online and delivering the final product to either domestic or even overseas consumers as needed.
The Modi government’s insistence on imposing the farm laws despite massive opposition is not just about Indian agriculture either. They are also a way of signaling to all foreign investors that the Indian government is firmly on their side and willing to put down its own people – with bullets if needed- to protect their profits. Government advisors worry that not being ‘tough’ enough with the agitating farmers could result in a fall in ‘confidence’ of investors and stop the flow of big money.
The support network
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/29/volunteers-in-punjab-keep-farmers-protest-in-india-alive
Thousands of men and women are being sustained by huge community kitchens serving food day and night, and other facilities, including makeshift medical camps.
Behind the continuing protests is a well-organised network of volunteers from villages in Punjab and the neighbouring Haryana state, supplying the agitators with “whatever is required”.
Behind the well-managed chain of pooling resources is a decades-old tradition in Punjab villages.
“We did not set up any new structure to support the protests,” 55-year-old Jigrup Singh told Al Jazeera.“In villages, we always have volunteers associated with the gurdwara who keep pooling in resources for different religious and social occasions.”
the concept of community kitchen is central to Sikhism.
Needles and syringes shortage
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-needles/analysis-russian-roulette-in-europe-as-needle-shortages-hamper-covid-19-shots-idUSKBN29Y10C
while output of needles and syringes is sufficient to meet current demand, chaotic ordering means that they often do not get to where they are most urgently needed.Another story about the anti-left Facebook
Perhaps this is the real reactionaries?
a crowd of 200 men, largely made up of members of the Hindu nationalist group Hindu Sena, descended on the farmers, throwing stones at the protesters and tearing up their tents, shouting at them to clear the road. Chaos erupted as police responded with teargas and batons, though the retaliation appeared to be largely against farmers.
Orders from the state government [BJP ruled, ajj] demanded that the farmers vacate the Ghazipur protest site and by Thursday night, hundreds of police in riot gear descended on the area to clear the farmers, and the camp’s water and electricity was cut off.
farmers’ union leader Rakesh Tikait broke down in tears. “This government will destroy farmers, BJP’s goons will come and attack them with the police,” he said.
I am perplexed by the UK’s welcome to political dissenters from Hong Kong to re-locate to Britain yet it puts up every obstacle to ensure those being far more persecuted by other governments and suffering much greater threats to liberty and safety cannot enter the UK.
Is it that they suspect only the wealthy will accept the invitation? But even skilled professionals who are asylum seekers from places other than HK, who can pay for their own airfares and hotels get rebuffed by UK Border Guards.
Is it, as the customary anti-immigration right-wingers say, fair-play Britain “honouring” their commitments and responsibilities but who are very happy to ignore their obligations under international law elsewhere?
Where are the we are too small an island for too many foreigners who thought EU Europeans coming to the UK was too much.
Is it all part of the anti-China expansionism policy? The unavoidable price of demonizing the Chinese dictators.
Singapore-upon-Thames
The internal competition to cut taxes and wages as member states sought to attract investment risked being further fuelled by Brexit, said De Schutter, as the UK sought to find a competitive advantage over the 27 member states of the EU.
The EU’s “constitutional framework” was driving a race to the bottom in corporation and income tax and salary levels.
The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights said the UK’s departure could weaken further the ability to restrain fiscal hawks in EU governments lobbying to attract investment.
Where the shortage of vaccines are
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-countries-delaying-halting-vaccinations-over-delivery-shortages/a-56376344
I recall being in the inenviable position of having to defend Trump on coronavirus by referring to Cuomo’s negligence in the deaths of NY’s elderly at care homes.
It now seems the death rate was even higher than first thought.
At least 12,743 long-term care residents died of the virus as of Jan. 19, far greater than the official tally of 8,505.
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-nursing-home-coronavirus-deaths-a6c214f4467976efdfca9ba75f8adaef
Nevertheless, this report is still perturbing
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/uk-employment-rights-unfair-dismissal-tuc-b1794371.html
7.5 million employees have no protection from unfair dismissal because of the law which says workers must be employed for two years to qualify.
Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), UK’s largest Muslim charity has been exonerated of institutional antisemitism in an independent report. Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general led the independent review.
“We found absolutely no evidence that the reputational issues that have arisen over the conduct of a few individuals has had any link to the way IRW carries out this charitable work,” he said. Grieve said there was no evidence of antisemitism in the organisation. “On the contrary, the charity has made a lot of effort to ensure there isn’t antisemitism, and I saw no evidence of it among staff whatsoever,” he said.
