Grieving & defiance in Bangladesh

This is a portrait of grief & not just grief, but resistance to exploitation. These are people who lost beloved family members when Rana Plaza collapsed one year ago killing 1,138 garment workers. They did not gather yesterday at the site of the collapse just to mourn but to demand change.

Many think they’re fighting a losing battle against superior political & social forces including the Bangladesh government, international retailers like Walmart, & trigger-happy riot cops. Many think they’d better stick to weeping since opposing sweatshop capitalism is a utopian pipe dream. Color those many clueless!

Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” How much more so then can these men, women, & children joined in international solidarity numbering in the millions? Together we can not just end sweatshop manufacturing but we can make this world suitable for human beings to live & love in.

(Photo by A.M. Ahad/AP)

Filipino antiwar movement a beacon for antiwar activists around the world

Filipino antiwar activists are now holding almost daily protests against Obama’s visit starting next Monday & against the military agreement between the US & Philippine governments that would turn their country into a launching pad for war.

Once again, those who claim there’s no purpose to antiwar protest because the movement is too small & too weak need to imitate the intrepid spirit of these activists who don’t let size get in the way of commitment.

(Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP)

Alarming pattern of Roma persecution in Europe

There is a distinct & alarming pattern emerging throughout Europe of extreme persecution of Roma. In one European country after another, including Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, France, England, Denmark, Spain, Romania, & Serbia, riot cops have been breaking up Roma caravan sites & settlements, forcibly evicting residents, & bulldozing homes many have occupied for decades. There has long been considerable discrimination against Romani in every sphere of life including housing, segregated education, denial of social services & health care, massive unemployment; they endure racist harassment (including by the cops), racially motivated crimes, & attitudes which consider them lazy, thieving, dirty freeloaders. But something new is emerging & it is directly related to neoliberal policies, particularly urban development projects bankrolled by European banks, & enforced by the European Union (EU) & IMF austerity programs. It is the same ruthless gentrification process as that displacing people in Manila, Rio de Janeiro, Dhaka, Mumbai, Los Angeles.

Roma often established settlements on public lands, making them formally illegal. But they have lived there for decades, often without sewage, plumbing, or electric power, & were never required by officials to regularize tenancy or the buildings they constructed. Neoliberalism is changing all that. In the last decade, municipalities began transferring title of the land to private investors for urban development projects which prioritize infrastructure projects over housing. The European Investment Bank (EIB) imposing the IMF austerity programs bankrolls multi-million dollar urban development projects like luxury malls & roads & bridges to facilitate plunder & when an EIB project comes up against a Roma community, they bulldoze it.

Roma political & rights groups denounce forcible evictions for violating human rights & international law, even calling them ethnic cleansing since thousands are made homeless, including elderly, infirm, disabled, & children. In a recent case of eviction in Eforie, Romania, Roma were offered temporary asylum in a filthy abandoned school house; in Serbia & Romania, they’ve been offered shipping containers as housing, as if they were nothing but dry goods & hardware. Mostly, they’re just bounced to the street.

Undocumented immigrants & Roma have long been used as political scapegoats, with racism the common denominator. Governments orchestrate injustice & blame it on those who own & control nothing. Under fascism, this led to the persecution & murder of one million Roma, six million Jews, & an unestimated number of people with disabilities, homosexuals, socialists, communists, liberals.

The persecution of Roma under the banner of urban development is a call to arms. The ass you save will be your own.

This is a photo of Roma in Eforie, Romania at the abandoned schoolhouse they occupied after the city recently bulldozed their settlement.

(Photo by Antonin Kratochvil/Wall Street Journal)

Shell Petroleum plunder in the Niger Delta

Earth Day in Nigeria 2014: Even the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (from April to July 2010) pales in comparison to the destruction Shell Petroleum has wrought in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. And not just massive environmental destruction, but neoliberal plunder & political corruption so colossal it is nothing less than a dystopic hell. It requires a revolution. There is no other possible amelioration.

Nigeria is a major oil producer & 80% of government revenues come from oil exports. But after 58 years of oil exploration in Nigeria, the government neither meters nor monitors the volume of oil production by Shell & other oil companies, has no functioning regulatory agencies, & doesn’t have a clue what is produced & loaded on to oil tankers. After greasing the palms of corrupt government officials, the oil companies simply loot thousands of barrels a day. That would explain why Nigeria has to import most of its fuel, ostensibly due to lack of refining facilities. In one of the barbarities of neoliberal plunder, the IMF insisted in 2012, despite massive popular resistance, that the government reduce the fuel subsidy to Nigerians–70% of whom live on $2.00 a day.

Shell blames the massive environmental blight of farm lands & rivers in the area on illegal siphoning & sabotage of crude oil bunkers by Nigerian pirates, militant groups, & criminal groups. Surprisingly, they haven’t yet accused al-Qaeda. Shell officials claim that their flyovers have spotted unknown persons tapping pipelines & installing valves to waiting barges & trucks. An always compliant media denounces these unidentified pirates for killing their own economy, sabotaging their government, threatening the very foundations of Nigeria’s petroleum industry. Beware such screeching & howling in the media.

Shell has a long history of collaboration with the Nigerian government in employing deadly force & repression against opposition to their presence in the Niger Delta. In a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Nigerian politicians & military officials are exposed as the culprits in the of majority of oil thefts. They commandeer & control access to barges & tankers to help oil companies loot. The diplomatic cable reads: “The military wants to remain in the Niger Delta because they profit enormously from money charged for escorting illegally bunkered crude & from money extorted in the name of providing security on the roads.”

Many belief socialism is utopian & only works on paper, but capitalism doesn’t even work on paper. And in real life, it’s becoming a living hell. The immense natural resources of Nigeria which could provide a decent life for all are instead ruthlessly plundered, leaving the population impoverished. Neoliberalism is the barbaric phase of capitalism & exploitation & plunder is the name of its game.

This photo is by noted Nigerian photographer, George Osodi, who comes from the Niger Delta region & has long documented the unspeakable environmental destruction.

Child labor in Bangladesh sweatshops

This iconic photo is from a sweatshop worker’s strike in Dhaka, Bangladesh in June 2010. Police used tear gas, truncheons, & water cannons against mostly women & child workers demanding back pay & an immediate increase in monthly wages. At that time, garment workers had no minimum wage standard & were paid below the World Bank poverty standard of $1.25 a day–when they were paid. In US dollars they received $21.45 a month; in Bangladesh taka that is 1662.50 & in Euros about €17. No matter which currency you use it all comes out to chump change.

There had been labor conflict for several weeks prior to this strike but on this day workers erected barricades, pelted cops with rocks, & attacked cars. Police described the fighting as the worst yet seen & may explain why riot cops now show up at labor protests with rubber bullets. They might want to brace themselves for the labor tsunami erupting among sweatshop workers in Bangladesh & elsewhere.

This photo is posted for those apologists who want to let the Bangladesh government off the hook for it’s culpability protecting sweatshop manufacturing. May the struggles of sweatshop workers around the world inspire us in the historic task of socially transforming labor & ridding this beautiful planet of all exploitation. May these child workers of Dhaka lead the way in ending the abomination of child labor.

(Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)

Sweatshop workers commemorate first anniversary of Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This is the face of sweatshop capitalism. This woman is grieving today on the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh which killed 1,138 garment workers & injured 2,515, including dismemberment & permanent disability (though not the severe psychological trauma). The over 300 bodies that could not be identified were simply dumped in mass graves by the government & are no longer even mentioned in crime statistics.

The building collapse, coming amidst a wave of garment factory fires which killed hundreds of workers, set off massive labor protests in Bangladesh. Some of these were attacked by riot cops using rubber bullets.

In many retrospectives on the disaster, commentators eschew political analysis & resort to homiletics saying the factory owners, retailers, & Bangladesh government can’t be held to account because the real culprit is consumer demand for cheap clothing. Such commentators should abandon political journalism & join the ministry; this kind of pathetic analysis does nothing but alibi sweatshop capitalism. There is no moral culpability whatsoever in wanting affordable clothes but there is every culpability in hiring children & young women at chicken-feed wages to work in hazardous conditions to pump out clothes at breakneck speed for retailers raking in estimated annual revenues of between $500 million & $2 trillion.

After an initial PR flurry of retailer concern, all US retailers & most other international brands completely turned their backs on families who had lost family members (often the only breadwinners for extended families), on those now permanently disabled & unable to work, & on those still unable to claim the remains of their deceased family members. Meetings were called, safety agreements were flaunted for the media, promises for compensation were made, human rights groups stood chiding in a chorus. Nothing was done.

At one point, a $40 million compensation fund was announced to aid the hundreds of families now financially adrift. This was proclaimed a landmark in terms of the amount to be paid families & the sophistication of the arrangements. The problem is retailers refuse to contribute to the fund so it still falls far short of $40 million. The figure floated for compensation to each family is $25,000. To make this appear largesse rather than a slap in the face, media reports are quick to point out that per capita income in Bangladesh is $1,900 a year. They omit to mention that for garment workers, per capita income is less than $500 a year. As for those sophisticated arrangements, it means families will be paid in installments “to ensure families will have a steady source of income for years to come.” Are they too stupid to handle their own money? Is $25,000 the value of human life in Bangladesh? Because no matter how you shake that compensation out, it’s all a slap in the face to those who lost their beloved & isn’t enough to pull a single family out of poverty.

To date, one year after the criminal catastrophe, almost no compensation has been paid out, not a single retailer has been charged with a crime, working conditions have not improved for garment workers, & the sweatshop industry is on a media PR blitz to recover its reputation. But sweatshop workers in Bangladesh & Cambodia are leading the campaign against sweatshop manufacturing & we must do everything in our power to render solidarity & support for their campaigns. This grieving woman is among thousands of people affected by the Rana collapse protesting today, some attired in funeral shrouds, at the site of the now-infamous Rana Plaza factory complex.

We offer our deepest sympathies to those who lost their beloved in Rana Plaza & in all the other factory fires & pledge to do our utmost to support them by exposing & putting pressure on retailers. No human life is worth a paltry $25,000 bucks; there is no amount worthy but only achieving justice & the end of sweatshop manufacturing.

(Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP)

Filipino antiwar movement protests Obama’s visit & US plans to militarize the Philippines

Obama is touring Asian countries this week as part of military negotiations over what US politicians & media call a US “pivot” toward Asia. This so-called pivot is a strategic military shift involving a massive build-up in the region with land troops, air bases, & ship docking facilities. Obama will be visiting Japan, South Korea, Malaysia on this trip but Australia & other countries are also implicated in this pivot to a more bellicose stance in the region. He isn’t scheduled to arrive in Manila, Philippines until next Monday to negotiate an agreement allowing extensive access for US troops, ships, & planes but the Filipino antiwar movement wanted to give him an early bum’s rush.

A rally today at the US embassy in Manila by the Filipino antiwar movement is making headlines as part of several protests against Obama’s visit & against US military presence in their country. Media reports try to downplay the importance of these protests by saying it was only about 100 left-wing activists. That doesn’t explain why riot cops showed up full force with truncheons, shields, & water hoses to back down a mere 100 people–that is, if they count left-wingers as people.

Many in the US claim there is no antiwar movement here. Certainly compared to previous wars, it is a weak & paltry one; that can’t be argued. But that is no reason to sit on our asses, rueing the failure of people to mobilize against the war. There are small actions all over the country by committed activists who stand their ground even if it’s with just a handful of others. Stop the rueing, grab a placard, & join them. Bellyaching doesn’t change the world; action does.

We laud our Filipino counterparts & express our deepest respect & solidarity. And hats off to their wonderful placards demanding no US military presence in their country.

(Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP)

Earth Day 2014 looks more like Armageddon

Earth Day 2014 is looking more like Armageddon. This scene in Gauhati, India is repeated in every country around the world where tons & entire mountains of dead animals, decaying food, animal & human poop, rotting unmentionables like diapers & sanitary napkins, & heavens knows what else, is dumped in the vicinity of slums. Not only are residents expected to pick through this crap for recyclables to sell but they are subject to all sorts of respiratory, infectious, & dermatological diseases. It’s called neoliberal waste management. For those who like to call a spade a spade, it’s called barbarism.

The Greater Adjutant Stork flying overhead & competing with the woman scavenging for recyclables was once common all over Asia but is now endangered. Some speculate that’s due to greater sanitation since they favor dead things & excreta. That’s the least likely explanation since they could well be the mascots of neoliberal waste management. Unless we do something quick to rid this planet of plunder, these storks are likely to outlive the human race.

(Photo by Anupam Nath/AP)

The Girl Effect & the eugenics movement

In the abortion rights movement of the 1960s & 1970s, feminists needed to disassociate from population control organizations with a eugenics agenda. This issue was particularly important because forced sterilization of Black, Latino, & Native American women was so rampant a problem & included population control programs in US colonies & other countries. As an example, it was determined at that time that over 30% of Puerto Rican women had been sterilized without their knowledge or consent. The original demand put forward by the feminist movement was for abortion rights & an end to forced sterilization–a demand which cleaved any possible entente cordiale between feminists & eugenics proponents.

The women’s movement was soon corraled into the Democratic Party by leaders like Betty Friedan & Gloria Steinem but the well-financed population control/eugenics groups continued to thrive without the pedagogical & political impediments of women’s rights. These groups, however, learned something from their accidental association with feminism & that is to mask their racist, ethnic cleansing agenda in the political rhetoric of feminism–in the same way the US masks its colonial wars of plunder in the rhetoric of Islamophobia & feminism.

One of the best examples of this fraudulent political posturing is the group called The Girl Effect, an organization that has roped in many under the guise of championing the political interests of young women. The Girl Effect is funded primarily by the Nike Foundation, NoVo Foundation (Warren Buffett’s family foundation), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Rescue Committee (Kissinger’s foundation), & all of the major organizational players in the eugenics movement. The financial & political forces behind The Girl Effect are a regular “Who’s Who” in eugenics today.

Nike, the chief promoter of The Girl Effect, is also one of the oldest operators in sweatshop capitalism, leading the way in exploiting female & child labor. It would not be over the top to state that the foundation is funded by the super-exploitation of young girls & children & that their vested interest in getting them sterilized is to have a more controllable workforce not requiring pregnancy leaves.

Those who support reproductive rights but oppose racist ethnic cleansing need to vet the groups that promote racist eugenics under the guise of feminism & disassociate from their nefarious & repugnant agenda.

(Photo is logo of The Girl Effect)