alanjjohnstone
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Building a wall to halt desperate, poverty-stricken migrants and deporting much needed undocumented workers yet political opportunism means USA is considering letting people who no longer “feel comfortable” in Hong Kong move to the US, secretary of state Mike Pompeo has suggested.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government are gleefully indicating that the USA have lost the moral high ground in the repressive treatment of African-American dissent
The French media view
https://www.france24.com/en/20200601-once-a-radical-idea-universal-basic-income-is-gaining-support
70 percent of Europeans support the concept of a basic universal income
“In the crisis we’re in, I don’t see how a government would embark on a universal income, with the pressure of financial markets, banks and international financial organisations on countries’ budgets,” said Joan Cortinas-Munoz, a researcher at the Centre for Sociology of Organizations at Sciences Po Paris and a specialist in social policies in Spain.
Some on the left warn it could be something of a Trojan horse, leading to less protections in the labour market as employers seek to take advantage of the income already provided by governments to pay workers lower wages.
“In its neo-liberal conception, the universal income is supposed to replace social welfare protections (health coverage, housing allowance…). But the latter is essential as a safety net to avoid falling into extreme poverty,” notes ATD Fourth World, a social justice advocacy group based in France.“The loose attachments that investors feel towards this or that nation will grow even looser as capital becomes more mobile, and a sorting process will separate the productive few nations from the malingering many. States that don’t fall in line with the demands of this investor class will be starved by the voluntary expatriation of the wealthy, with their assets and abilities in tow.
If you assume this is merely a pessimistic vision, you’d be wrong. In fact it accords with a long-cultivated ideology that Srinivasan shares with a group of like-minded venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who subscribe to variations of the radical libertarian philosophy known as “anarcho-capitalism”. The idea at its root is that a wealthy class of investors and entrepreneurs should be free to exit nation states and form new communities whose members can choose which rules (and tax laws) they’re governed by – as if those rules were products on a store shelf.”Concerning the article ‘One World or Many States’
A reminder that the blog last year posted about West Papua
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/08/papuans-protests.html
It has also posted about the paradox of Indonesian nationalism.
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/04/indonesia-country-created-by-colonialism.html
I know it is not the predominant response of law enforcement but once more an incident that questions Ozy’s assumptions that they cannot be brought over to our side.
“in Flint, Michigan that played out Saturday evening offered an alternative to aggressive police tactics as a local sheriff and his fellow officers laid down their riot gear and joined with those members of the community who came out to voice their outrage and sorrow.”
Minneapolis grocery store owner Mohammad Abdi knew he had a critical business decision to make. Either go out into the street and confront the dangerous vandals and looters who were preparing to torch his Tawakal Halal Grocery or standby and watch them destroy his livelihood.
“I told them this is my business, this is my building, please don’t do it,” he said late on Saturday morning, pointing to the alcove in the front of his building where footprints remained from the looters, who were armed with accelerant. “I didn’t yell, I stayed calm. I told them that I didn’t do anything to them. And they left,” he added.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/minneapolis-rioters-set-buildings-ablaze-003729366.html
Further to Ozy’s point I noticed this article
In an open letter to the Minnesota National Guard published Friday morning, members of About Face: Veterans Against the War (formerly called Iraq Veterans Against the War), declared, “We urge you to have the courage to do the right thing. Refuse activation orders. No amount of property is worth a single human life. Are you really prepared to carry out the violence President Trump threatened against fellow Minnesotans? We ask that you stand up for Black lives by standing down.”
The letter comes amid reports that union bus drivers are refusing to transport protesters to jail.[which Matt has already highlighted]
Pope Francis called on Saturday for a “more just and equitable society” in the post-coronavirus world, and for people to act to “end the pandemic of poverty”.
“Once we emerge from this pandemic, we will not be able to keep doing what we were doing, and as we were doing it. No, everything will be different,” he said.
People needed to open their minds and hearts to learn the central lesson from this crisis: “We are one humanity,” said the pope.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200530-pope-calls-for-end-to-pandemic-of-poverty-after-virus
Meanwhile, he appealed to the supernatural
He prayed that the Madonna would “touch (leaders’) consciences so that enormous sums spent to possess more armaments and to perfect them be instead destined to the promotion of sufficient research to prevent such catastrophes in the future”.
Another article on Finland’s experiments
https://www.dw.com/en/does-finland-show-the-way-to-universal-basic-income/a-53595886
While recent coverage of the long-term study, released earlier this month, has been more nuanced, much has focused on the minimal effect on employment prospects. The “flop” tag is something Minne Ylikanno, senior researcher at Finland’s Social Insurance Institution (Kela), which carried out the study, rejects. “I would say the experiment was a success,” she says. “No other country in any part of the world has implemented a national basic income based on a law…It’s fair to say that the result is that we can’t see a very big employment effect, that’s true. But the comment that it’s a failure, I would say that’s not fair.”
The findings were based on comparing the 2,000 unemployed participants who had received the €560 a month from January 2017 to December 2018 with a control group of 173,000 who did not. There was only a small statistical difference between the study group and the control group in the number of people who found work after two years.
Where was the success?
Where there was a significant statistical difference, however, was in how happy each of the two groups felt. The people who received €560 a month reported much lower levels of insecurity and stress.
As you said in an earlier comment, people are happier because they don’t have all the bureaucratic hurdles to jump. As a participant confirmed
“It was a great relief because I got rid of all the bureaucracy,” he recalls. “I didn’t need to fill in any forms or attend any classes where they teach you how to make a CV and these kinds of things…”
The Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis…Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called upon
https://apnews.com/cf9947a3ca9f3225f9645fd330403eae
I recall America’s indignation when China threatened to deploy army units to assist Hong Kong police to suppress the protests that also included acts of vandalism and arson.
Pot calling kettle black, comes to mind…as does, do as i say not as i do.
Perhaps the UK should be offering passports to African-Americans?
Spain has introduced a basic monthly income for struggling families amid the growing hardship caused by the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
It will guarantee an income of 462 euros ($512) a month for an adult living alone, while for families, there would be an additional 139 euros ($154) per person, whether adult or child, up to a monthly maximum of 1,015 euros ($1,126) for every home. The funds will be allocated in line with other income, so anyone with a low-paid job would have their salary topped up to meet the threshold outlined. It would mean “that every home would have a guaranteed average annual income of 10,070 euros ($11,180)”.
The government said the measure was expected to benefit about 850,000 homes, affecting a total of 2.3 million people – 30 percent of whom are minors.
And is that an impossibility, Ozy?
Perhaps right now it can be seen as improbable, but circumstances change and situations become different.
One of my objections to violent protests (although I can sometimes understand and sympathise with the anger and fury) is that polarises the contending forces. One of our best weapons is peaceful civil disobedience, not bricks and bottles.
The tactics of nonviolence can be a frustrating but, nevertheless, popular, peaceful protests have the best chance of winning. Once enough people and organizations within a society (trade unions, community groups) are engaging in civil disobedience and withholding their cooperation, the power will gradually wither from political starvation.
Non-violent means will increase our chances of the police and the National Guard refusing to obey orders. But if you go over to violence, they will remain loyal to one another, perceiving a physical threat against themselves.
I saw that, Marcos, but I was really meaning the mainstream media is ignoring her…the likes of CNN, CBS and MSNBC. The BBC website has not used her for comment.
She has proposed a resolution asking the House of Representatives to condemn “police brutality, racial profiling and the excessive use of force”
From Fox News – “Our anger is just. Our anger is warranted,” she said of the feelings many are feeling over Floyd’s death. “And our priority right now must be protecting one another.” She added: “We should and must protest peacefully. But let us end the cycle of violence now.”
One thing I have noticed is a news black-out on Ilhan Omar, who is the districts House of Representative member.
I would have expected the media to seek her out for her views but it has been very limited whereas her comments should be given blanket coverage. I don’t think it is because she is refusing interviews. I would guess that the media do not wish to give her any political exposure.
