Daily Archives: December 17, 2021

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The National Football League's "Inspire Change" partners, which receive financial backing from the multibillion-dollar league, include multiple groups that have openly advocated for defunding the police, a Fox News Digital review of the program found.

Groups who have received funds as part of "Inspire Change," the NFL's social justice initiative, include the Vera Institute of Justice, the Oregon Justice Resource Center and the Community Justice Exchange. All three of those groups support defunding or abolishing the police, a review of their public statements shows.

While the NFL's general support of social justice causes is widely known, the fact that the league is propping up groups trying to defund police departments has not been previously reported.

The NFL's "Inspire Change" program includes funding for groups trying to defund or abolish police departments. A banner promoting the "Inspire Change" initiative is seen at an October 2020 game between the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Football Tea (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The NFL gave $300,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC), the group disclosed to local media. It's unclear how much the NFL gave to the Vera Institute of Justice and Community Justice Exchange, though the NFL has donated tens of millions of dollars as part of the "Inspire Change" program, according to the league.

Vera and the Community Justice Exchange have been NFL grantees since 2020, while the OJRC first received funding from the NFL this year, according to the league.

The Community Justice Exchange, which didn't provide a comment by press time, aims to get rid of not only policing and prisons, but also immigration enforcement, according to its public statements.

"The Community Justice Exchange is working towards a world without prisons, policing, prosecution, surveillance or any form of detention or supervision," the group states on its website. Its work includes publishing a roadmap to "prison abolition."

The group also runs the National Bail Fund Network, whose chapters include the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a group that gained notoriety for bailing out rioters and alleged domestic abusers, among others, during the summer 2020 riots. Vice President Kamala Harris was among the high-profile figures who promoted the Minnesota Freedom Fund last year.

The NFL's support for the group includes supporting "75+ local community-based bail and bond funds, working to end money bail and pre-trial detention at the local level and immigration detention at the national level," according to the NFL's "Inspire Change" website.

WAUKESHA PARADE MASSACRE MADE POSSIBLE BY LEFT-WING DISTRICT ATTORNEYS' ATTEMPTS AT BAIL REFORM, CRITICS SAY

The OJRC is similarly open in its support for defunding the police.

"The brutality of LE [law enforcement] & cruelty of our prisons are connected by the same malignant tumor: white supremacy," the OJRC tweeted in June 2020. "We must dismantle/defund it all."

In August, when Portland's mayor called for restoring previously slashed police funding amid a crime spike, the OJRC criticized the move.

"Portland leaders from the Mayor down or anyone else advocating for more $ for police either don't get it or don't want to get it," the group tweeted. It added: "We need to defund the police and build up communities."

A demonstrator holds a "Defund the police" sign in Brooklyn, New York. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The NFL's funding of the OJRC supports its Women's Justice Project, Youth Justice Project and "[s]ustaining current capacity and enabling the OJRC to expand," according to the league. The OJRC declined to comment.

Like the OJRC, the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice is unapologetic in its support for defunding the police.

"Vera is committed to dismantling the current culture of policing and working toward solutions that defund police and shift power to communities," the group's president, Nicholas Turner, wrote in June 2020. He also touted Minneapolis leaders' pledge to "dismantle" the city's police department a move ultimately rejected by voters in a ballot measure last month as one of several "victories" notched by activists.

Vera's backing of the defund the police movement came amid nationwide protests many of which devolved into riots that caused nearly $2 billion in damage following the death of George Floyd.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell before the Las Vegas Raiders-Los Angeles Chargers game at SoFi Stadium on Oct. 4, 2021. (Harry How/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The NFL's funding of the group supports "Vera's In Our Backyards initiative and its work to end the catastrophic rise of incarceration in small cities and rural counties, advance racial equity, and reinvest in supports and resources that build truly healthy and vibrant communities through policy advocacy, narrative-changing campaigns and research in partnership with community members and system stakeholders," according to the league.

The NFL's money also supports "Vera's Policing Program and its work to advance crisis response programs, policies, and resources that connect people experiencing behavioral health crises to community-based services while minimizing involvement with police and the criminal justice system."

The NFL declined to specifically answer several questions from Fox News Digital but provided a statement from a spokesperson defending the program.

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"Our 33 social justice grant partners have been selected based on the critical work that they have done surrounding Inspire Changes four pillars - education, economic advancement, criminal justice reform, and police & community relations - to break down barriers to opportunity, end systemic racism, and bridge the gap between members of law enforcement and the communities they serve," the spokesperson said.

"We stand by the work our grant partners have done and the lasting positive impact made in communities across the country."

Continue reading here:

NFL funding 'defund the police' groups through 'Inspire Change' program - Fox Business

Press Release | National Newspaper Awards

A pioneering Black journalist of the 19th century is being honored by having a National Newspaper Award named after her.

The Mary Ann Shadd Cary Award for Columns will be presented for the first time when 2021 winners are announced on May 6, 2022. This is the eighth National Newspaper Award to be named after an important journalist of the past. The awards were established by the Toronto Press Club in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in daily newspaper work in Canada.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1823, Mary Ann Shadd Cary was raised by free Black parents who were active in the fight to abolish slavery. After the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, bolstering slave owners' ability to recapture formerly enslaved individuals, she relocated to southwestern Ontario in the early 1850s, and began working to provide education and support to the growing population of freedom seekers.

Three years later, she founded the Provincial Freeman, a newspaper advocating the abolition of slavery and full freedom for those who had been enslaved. The paper's motto was "Self-reliance is the true road to independence." Black citizens were advised to insist on fair treatment, and to take legal action if other efforts failed.

Shadd Cary, who died in 1893, was not afraid to attack institutions or individuals she believed were engaged in wrongdoing, particularly against the Black community, historical scholar Jane Rhodes wrote in 1998.

The Freeman circulated in southern Ontario, and Shadd Cary personally sold some copies across the border before the newspaper became financially unsustainable and ceased publication by 1860.

The award named after Shadd Cary is among 22 that will be presented May 6 to honor the best Canadian journalism of 2021.

This is the latest in a number of initiatives undertaken by the board of governors of the National Newspaper Awards aimed at making the competition more diverse and inclusive. These changes, which flow from a commitment announced during the awards ceremony last May, include:

The National Newspaper Awards are open to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites. The awards program has been owned and operated by the Canadian Daily Newspaper Awards Programme Administration Corp. since 1989.

Read more:

National Newspaper Awards to name an award after pioneering Black journalist Mary Ann Shadd Cary - Editor And Publisher Magazine

Striking Turkish health care workers (Twitter/@CICOMOCANCA)

The one-day warning strike across the country organized by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the main organization of physicians in Turkey, and various health care workers unions yesterday raises critical issues for Turkish and the international working class.

The Sosyalist Eitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group, SEG) supports this strike movement, and calls on all workers and youth to draw the necessary lessons for the development of an independent political and social movement of the international working class.

The strike, triggered by the refusal of President Recep Tayyip Erdoans government to improve the economic and social conditions of all health care workers through a regulation in the parliament, drew wide participation. Medical students also supported the strike by boycotting classes.

Providing care only for emergency patients, dialysis patients, pregnant women, pediatric emergencies, cancer patients and intensive care patients, and at COVID-19 clinics, the health care workers marched and issued press statements in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Diyarbakir and many other cities, declaring, We have run out of patience for health policies that favor business, not science, life and labor.

Health care workers, who are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, are demanding increased salaries, the elimination of staff shortages and improvements in their social rights in the face of the unprecedented rise in the cost of living and worsening working conditions. They are protesting the privatization of the health care system in the interests of profit. They also state that their actions and protests will continue if these demands are not met.

This national strike, which followed last weeks limited work stoppages in hospitals, is part of an upsurge in the class struggle internationally amid a deepening global capitalist crisis and the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The working class all over the world is beginning to resist the social onslaught by the ruling class, which has continued for decades with the support of the unions and is now exacerbated with the pandemic. A workers counteroffensive is building up. The struggle of health care workers in Turkey reflects growing opposition among all sections of the working class and inspires tens of millions of workers around the world, who are in very similar conditions.

This strike movement is developing under conditions where the pandemic rages and the Omicron variant spreads, while the government has taken no public health measures. The human cost of keeping non-essential businesses open and pursuing a herd immunity policy in the profit interests of the ruling class has been 80,000 deaths in Turkey, including at least 500 health care workers. While the actual death toll is estimated at over 200,000, officially nearly 10 million people have been infected of COVID-19.

Moreover, mass infections and deaths, which the government is trying to normalize, continue. Approximately 20,000 cases are detected and 180 people die of COVID-19 every day. This murderous policy is being implemented without any objections from the bourgeois opposition and the trade unions.

The failure to take necessary scientific public health measures to end the COVID-19 pandemic and the intensifying exploitation of the working class stem from the same root cause: the unhindered drive of the capitalist ruling class to accumulate private wealth. The fact that billionaires worldwide increased their wealth by US$3.6 trillion as millions died from the pandemic epitomizes the criminal character of the capitalist system.

The anger created by this colossal social crime, combined with the unprecedented cost of living, is radicalizing millions of workers and young people and pushing them onto the path of struggle.

While annual official inflation in Turkey reached 21.31 percent in November, the independent Inflation Research Group (ENAgroup) announced that real annual inflation reached 58.65 percent. The Turkish lira (TL) continues to fall against foreign currencies. The US dollar has risen from 7TL to nearly 15TL today. The monthly minimum wage, at 2,825 TL (less than US$200), is currently the lowest in Europe on a US dollar or euro basis.

This is fueling demands for a substantial increase in minimum wage negotiations directly affecting millions of workers and their families. In addition, the contract negotiations involving nearly 150,000 metal and auto workers ended in disagreement. The 12 percent raise offered by MESS, the organization of metal and automotive companies, represents the bourgeoisies declaration of war on the working class. The demand for a strike is rising among the metal workers, who want an upward revision in their proposed contracts from the pro-company trade unions.

Workers forced to go to factories and workplaces to create profits for the corporate and financial elite during a deadly pandemic and educators forced to go to unsafe schools are protesting the government and the decline in their living standards on social media, demanding a dramatic increase in wages. Hundreds of thousands of young people are calling for remote learning as the Omicron variant is spreading across the country.

The conditions for a massive social explosion are ripening. The ruling class and all its political representatives fear and are preparing for the eruption of this social anger, which is brewing among millions of workers and youth, in the form of a mass working-class movement independent of the unions.

President Erdoans government, whose popular support has been declining steadily in the latest polls, has no other solution but to combine totally inadequate measures and police-state violence against this developing movement.

Reflecting the growing social opposition among the population, several street interviewers were placed under house arrest in the recent days, while police attacked a forum on the economic crisis at Ankara University on Tuesday, detaining at least 30 students.

A pro-government law professors statement, Due to the severe economic depression that seems inevitable, we need to be prepared as a society for a declaration of the state of emergency, makes clear the governments determination to suppress the developing social movement by force. It also creates a danger that if Erdoan is certain to lose a possible national election, he may take a step similar to former President Donald Trumps January 6 coup attempt in the United States.

In response, the bourgeois opposition led by the Kemalist Republican Peoples Party (CHP) is trying to channel the rising social opposition behind itself and into the channels of the capitalist order by calling for early elections.

The Sosyalist Eitlik Grubu warns millions of workers and youth who hope to change their unbearable living conditions that a new government led by the bourgeois opposition is not a solution.

The common problems facing the working class in Turkey and internationally (a preventable pandemic, high cost of living and growing social inequality, abolition of democratic rights, the drive toward dictatorship and the danger of world war) stem from the capitalist system and bourgeois rule. The only way forward is through the establishment of workers power as part of the struggle for international socialism.

The CHP-led opposition (Nation Alliance), which is at least as pro-imperialist and hostile to the working class as Erdoans Justice and Development Party (AKP), will form a pro-European Union (EU) and pro-NATO government, if it comes to power, and will seek to violently suppress the mobilizing working class.

The opposition parties follow the same criminal policy against the pandemic in the municipalities they govern, respond to strikes in the same way as the government, and maintain close relations with the EU, NATO and the main organizations of Turkish bourgeoisie. These facts confirm the warning of the SEG.

A possible government formed by the bourgeois opposition will not be an alternative but a continuation of the Erdoan regime. It would include the far-right Good Party, which broke away from Erdoans fascistic ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and DEVA and the Future Party, which broke away from the AKP.

The trade unions and pseudo-left organizations such as the Workers Party of Turkey (TP), the Labour Party (EMEP) and the Left Party play an extremely reactionary role with their support of the bourgeois opposition, which is as afraid of a social explosion as the government.

While the pro-opposition DSK union confederation seeks to control the growing opposition among the workers by organizing rallies in several cities, the pseudo-left organizations are directing the workers to support the unions and the bourgeois opposition.

Far from fighting to end the pandemic, pseudo-left organizations no longer speak about COVID-19, while making plans to come to power with the CHP and the Kurdish bourgeois-nationalist HDP (Peoples Democratic Party), with whom they work in close cooperation in various unions and municipalities.

The pseudo-left organizations are attempting to establish a so-called third front under the leadership of the HDP and, through this alliance, to direct the masses of workers and youth, who have begun to mobilize and turn toward the left, behind the bourgeois opposition led by the CHP.

Their open orientation to the Nation Alliance is revealed in a recent statement by TP leader Erkan Ba, who announced, We can finish this job [i.e., defeat Erdoan] by voting for a candidate in the first round for whom we can vote in the second round [of the presidential election].

This right-wing lesser evil policy will only bring disappointment and destruction for the working class. One of the most recent examples of this fraud was the pseudo-left forces support for Democrat Joe Biden against Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 US elections. Continuing with Trumps murderous response to the pandemic at home, Biden escalates aggression against China and Russia, raising the danger of a nuclear world war.

The only social force that can stop the pandemic and put an end to the high cost of living, social inequality, dictatorship and the danger of war is the international working class. There are no shortcuts to saving lives and improving living standards. These steps require a frontal assault on the wealth and power of the bourgeoisie.

On May 1, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) called for the formation of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). It recently launched the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic to develop such a movement globally, calling upon scientists, health care workers, working people and youth to support and join the IWA-RFC and the Inquest.

The inevitable social explosion of the working class needs to be equipped with a revolutionary political perspective and organization independent of all pro-capitalist parties and unions. This means building the Socialist Equality Party as the Turkish section of the ICFI within the working class.

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The issues in the Turkish health care workers national strike - WSWS

BIC JOINS THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) GLOBAL COMPACT

A further step in BIC's Transformative Sustainable Development Journey and Corporate Responsibility Pledge

Joining thousands of companies committed to building a responsible and sustainable future for all Aligned with BIC's Horizon plan for Sustainable Growth and Value Creation for all stakeholders Reinforces BIC's 2025 Writing The Future Together Program

Clichy, France, December 17, 2021 - BIC announces today it has joined the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. By adopting the UN Global Compact's ten principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, BIC reaffirms the critical role that Sustainability has played in helping shape the Company's long-term success.

With over 12,000 companies based in over 160 countries, the UN Global Compact aims to mobilize companies and stakeholders to conduct business responsibly and take action on societal issues through collaboration and innovation. BIC will report on its commitment to the UN Global Compact's ten principles through an annual Communication on the progress report.

BIC's commitment to Sustainability and contribution to the fight against Climate Change was recently rewarded by its confirmed A- leadership 2021 CDP score on Climate Change, which attests to the Company's environmental stewardship and its positive impact on the planet.

BIC will take its Sustainable Development journey to the next level and unveil its CO2 emission reduction roadmap at its next Annual Shareholder Meeting on May 18, 2022.

"BIC's participation in the UN Global Compact is a true point of pride for me personally and for the entire BIC team. Our brand was founded on the desire to make essential products that were accessible to all and created with simplicity and Sustainability in mind. While these products are what we are best known for, our people and values make us who we are today. Advocacy of human rights and the advancement of education for all is part of our DNA and will continue to be in the future. In this way, I am proud to stand with other companies as a member of the UN Global Compact." said

Gonzalve Bich, BIC's Chief Executive Officer.

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The UN Global Compact 10 principles are embodied through BIC's Writing the Future, Together Sustainable Developmentprogram, which shapes our everyday business to build a sustainable future for all.

Writing the

Future, TogetherUN Global Compact 10 principles commitments

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges

Principle 8: Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility

Principle 9: Businesses should encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Principle 8: Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

Principle 2: Businesses should make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining

Principle 4: Businesses should uphold the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor

Principle 5: Businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labor

Principle 6: Businesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

Principle 2: Businesses should make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining

Principle 4: Businesses should uphold the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor

Principle 5: Businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labor

Principle 6: Businesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all forms, including extortion and bribery

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

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Contact

Sophie Palliez-Capian

Albane de La Tour d'Artaise

VP, Corporate Stakeholder Engagement

Senior Manager, Institutional Press Relations

+33 1 45 19 55 28

+ 33 1 45 19 51 51

+ 33 87 89 3351

+ 33 7 85 88 19 48

Sophie.palliez@bicworld.com

Albane.DeLaTourDArtaise@bicworld.com

Michle Ventura

Isabelle de Segonzac

Senior Manager, Investor Relations

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+ 33 1 45 19 52 98

+ 33 6 89 87 61 39

Michele.ventura@bicworld.com

isegonzac@image7.fr

ABOUT BIC

A world leader in stationery, lighters and shavers, BIC brings simplicity and joy to everyday life. For more than 75 years, the Company has honored the tradition of providing high-quality, affordable, essential products to consumers everywhere. Through this unwavering dedication, BIC has become one of the most recognized brands and is a trademark registered worldwide. Today, BIC products are sold in more than 160 countries around the world and feature iconic brands such as Cello,

BIC FlexTM, Lucky Stationery, Us. TM, Soleil, Tipp-Ex,Wite-Out, Djeep, Rocketbook and more. In 2020, BIC Net Sales were 1,627.9 million euros. The Company is listed on "Euronext Paris," is part of the SBF120 and CAC Mid 60 indexes and is recognized for its commitment to sustainable development and education. It received an A- Leadership score from CDP. For more,

visit about.bic.comor follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

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BIC : JOINS THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) GLOBAL COMPACT - marketscreener.com

INCESSANT strikes by doctors and other health workers working in Federal Government-run hospitals in Nigeria resulted in loss of about 300 working days between 2013 and 2021, The ICIR reports.

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) ordered 61 per cent of the strikes, findings showed.

The NARD was responsible for 11 of the 19 industrial actions recorded by the government within the period.

The association went on strike for 154 days out of the total 252 days of strike recorded by the government.

While it is easy to compute the number of days affected by the strikes, it is unlikely that the government can have data for the lives lost during such actions.

Strikes by health professionals usually come with preventable deathsfor households and loss of revenues for the government.

It further weakens the nations frail health system, denies the poor access to care, and promotes medical tourism and brain drain.

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Whenever healthcare providers embark on strike, private hospitals usually charge exorbitant fees and are congested.

The rate of self-medication surges, leading to complications of ailments and rising deaths.

Strikes leave patients stranded at hospitals as only skeletal services are rendered, sometimes through support staff such as corps members, cleaners and the like.

The ICIRobtained the data on strikes in the sector from a response to aFreedom of Information Actrequest sent by the newspaper to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, headed by Chris Ngige, in August.

The request followed incessant industrial actions by workers in the nations public hospitals.

The ICIR sought to know the workers strike frequency from 2011 to 2021 and the reasons for such actions.

However, rather than comply with the seven-day window provided by the Act for organisations answerable to the law, it took the ministry almost four months to respond to the requestthe delay conflicts with the FOI Act.

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Section Four of the Act demands that affected organisations respond to requests within seven days.

The law, however, set out conditions for delaying response to any requests made under the Act, that is if the information requested is at the disposal of another organisation that could better make it available.

Section six of the Act provides a seven-day extension notice to the applicant if the organisation cannot provide the information but has to transfer the request to another institution to make it available.

The ministry had no communication withThe ICIRuntil it responded in its letter dated December 15.

Nigeria has 20 teaching hospitals, 22 federal medical centres, and 13 speciality hospitals where the workers covered by this report work.

The hospitals are distinct from hundreds of others owned and managed by state and local governments, where workers also go on strike at will.

According to the government, as of March 2020, there were nearly 75,000 registered doctors in the country.

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They were among those working in public and private health facilities, including others who do not work in hospitals.

Other health workers, namely pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists, nurses, radiographers, dietitians, therapists, health record and information management workers, form the majority of hospital workers.

Why strikes succeed

Professionals working in the sector group themselves into different unions through which they seek their members welfare and professional development.

For instance, the health workers group consists of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Association of Medical Scientists Laboratory of Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Assembly ofHealthcare Professional Associations, Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Care Professionals (NUAHP) among others.

The doctors groups include the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) and other associations.

Once the national leaders of the groups decide on strike, members usually obey them.

Workers complain of poor infrastructures in hospitals and poor working conditions.

Funding for the sector is inadequate as less than five per cent of the national budget goes into the sector.

The ICIRreportedhow salaries, cost of running offices gulp 73 per cent of the countrys budget for health in 2022.

The workers often accuse the government of insincerity with its promises. They also accuse the government of dragging feet before implementing the agreements reached with its workers.

In an attempt to compel striking workers back to work, the government usually threatens to sack them. But the parties always end up reaching a truce.

A significant feature in strikes among the workers is that doctors and other workers alternate the action. Whenever the government meets the demand of a group, the other will protest and make similar requests from the government.

Health workers often object to the leadership of the sector by doctors. They claim that only doctors head most hospitals, the Federal Ministry of Health and virtually its agencies and departments.

History of strikes since 2013

The NUAHP proceeded on strike on August 16, 2013. The group sought the abolition of the office of Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee introduced by the government. The strike lasted for seven days.

On October 21, the same year, NARD went on strike over non-payment of July-October salaries and other allowances owed its members. The action lasted for ten days.

JOHESU embarked on strike three months after on January 20, 2014. The group based its action on the non-promotion of its members on CONHESS 14-15 as directors. The strike lasted for three days.

The NUAHP resumed the strike it suspended earlier, on October 16, over the failure of the government to implement the Memorandum-of-Understanding signed with the association on August 20, 2013. It took the government and the association 16 days to resolve the impasse.

The JOHESU, again, went on strike on November 12, 2014. The group demanded the adjustment of salaries for its members as the government did for the Nigerian Medical Association earlier that year. The ministry did not provide the number of days the strike lasted.

The group yet embarked on another strike that month, demanding the skipping of arrears and other issues. The strike lasted for seven days.

The NARD embarked on another strike on June 1, 2015. The association protested skipping arrears, other benefits for its members, and other issues. The strike lasted for 25 days.

On June 15, the same year, NMA scaled-down services to ask for full implementation of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for its members. The time the strike lasted is not available.

Just a week after NMA made its demand, JOHESU suspended services over non-payment of skipping salary arrears to its members in Federal Tertiary Institution, among other demands. It took the government and the group seven days to resolve the crisis.

After its ultimatum on inclusion into the IPPIS expired on July 27, 2016, NARD proceeded on strike. The action lasted for seven days.

Meanwhile, MHWUN protested the delay in releasing its members 2015 promotion interview results and consequently downed tools on October 19, 2016. The group called off the strike after two weeks.

Again, NMA and NARD jointly scaled-down services on September 4, 2017, following the failure of the government to meet NARDs demand on skipping. The strike lasted for nine days.

Between April and May 2018, JOHESU members suspended work over a trade dispute on the upward adjustment of CONHESS. The action lasted for 44 days.

On May 15, 2020, NARD embarked on a five-day strike over the universal implementation of the Medical Residency Training Act in all federal and state hospitals. The action also sought to ensure pay parity among doctors of equal cadre.

The association, again, embarked on a 10-day industrial action in September 2020 over the non-implementation of agreements it had with the government.

The NARD again scaled-down work for nine days between March 31 and April 8 this year over the failure of the government to pay house officers.

The association resumed its strike on April 12 over the government failure to pay hazard allowances to its members at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group said it embarked on the strike also to protest the dismissal and reduction of wages of its members by the Kaduna State government. The strike lasted for ten days.

The longest of all the strikes within the period under study was the action by NARD on August 2. It lasted for 62 days. The association declared the strike over government failure to pay house officers salaries and the non-recruitment of house officers.

Unions embark on fewer strikes under Buhari

But for NARD, the sector witnessed fewer industrial crises under President Muhammadu Buhari than his predecessor.

In 2014, the then Minister of Labour and Productivity Emeka Wogu said health care providers embarked on strike more than 40 timesin the first nine months of that year.

The health sector has witnessed a lot of unrest and strikes in the past few months. The sector has had no fewer than 40 strikes this year. It is worthy to note that the health sector is of the essential services and vital to the whole economy. It is the engine on which economic growth and development is built, he said.

President, others seek care abroad; health care providers opt for greener pastures during strikes

Many officials of government and health care providers often travel abroad for treatment, whether hospitals function or not.

In May 2018,The ICIRreported how President Muhammadu Buharibeat the record setby the late former President Umar YarAdua in medical tourism.

He has sought care abroad after the report was published.

In October,The ICIRreported how the countrylost nearly 9,000 doctorsto the United Kingdom and other nations within two years.

In August, this newspaper also reported howhundreds of doctors thronged a recruitment venuein Abuja, hoping to work in Saudi Arabia. The firm needed only seven doctors.

Challenges in Nigerias health sector have remained as the country parades some of the worst health indices globally.

More here:

How Nigeria lost nearly 300 working days to hospital strikes in eight years - International Centre For Investigative Reporting

THE Nationality and Borders Bill allows the government to strip, without notice, the nationality of nearly sixmillion British citizens, including two in every five black people, even if this makes those people stateless.

The Bill, now heading for the House of Lords after the Tories voted it through the Commons last week, also criminalises anyone helping an asylum-seeker to arrive in Britain with a penalty of up to life imprisonment.

When one sees these measures alongside this governments deeply draconian measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to curb non-violent protest, everyone should be incandescent with rage but realise these are not new proposals.

These and other measures, such as the slashing of overseas aid, delivers much of the agenda spewed out by the National Front in the 1970s. An agenda that so many of us fought hard against with them and their successors. The Tories know full well what they are doing.

The targets of these political manoeuvrings are real people who left the former colonies or fled wars instigated by the colonisers to seek safety and a better life. It seems convenientfor some to forget that we are here because you were there.

My parents came to England from Jamaica in the early 1960s. They were, like many others, invited to help to build the economy of this country and to do the jobs that white people did not want to do.

The enslavement of Africans, such as my ancestors, to work on the plantations of the Caribbean, should never be forgotten in these political debates. And neither should the brutal colonialism that went with it even after the abolition of the, very legal at the time, institution of slavery.

My dad worked on the railways for thirty years mostly stuck on night shifts that meant we didnt get to enjoy his company in the same way that many of our white friends got to with their dads.

My mum, as well as looking after us kids, worked, amongst other things, cleaning up after office workers who rarely saw her as she was either in there before they were even awake or there after they were in the pub enjoying a drink. A working life that had serious consequences for her health and wellbeing in her later years.

This was, of course, not just the experience of my parents. Countless immigrants to these islands can tell similar stories of long unsociable hours and hard work for low pay. Working conditions often, sadly, too inconvenient for trade unions to consider a priority for organising.

Many immigrants can tell their stories of racial harassment at work, in the streets or even attacks on their homes.

My dad never talked to me about the racism that he experienced but my mum did. I remember her asking my brother and I to meet her after work to walk her home because the National Front were active where we lived and she was afraid of being attacked.

She often told us the story of when in the early 60s she was attacked by racists when she was pregnant and had to fight them off single-handedly.

Again nothing special to our family. Thousands, if not millions of immigrants to this country could tell similar stories.

They could tell of racist graffiti on their homes, being ordered by racists to go back where they came from, getting ill, partly because of the low-paid hazardous jobs they were doing, and having the audacity to use the National Health Service that they too were contributing towards.

To now be told that having enslaved you, colonised you, started wars in your countries, got you to come over to to clean our toilets, we are now going to strip you of your citizenship at will and without warning, would be surprising if many hadnt seen this coming for years.

Stories abound of people of African and Asian descent keeping a packed suitcases handy on top of the wardrobe or how the big clothes trunk was always ready because they knew that whatever was given could easily be taken away and indeed, often was.

This was, after all, the experience in many workplaces and the impact of the plethora of nationality and immigration laws that have been passed over the last 40years or so.

We have always been a political target whether they call us immigrants, migrants or refugees or just benefits scroungers. Take your pick.

What many people of African or Asian descent have also known, whether because of enslavement, colonisation, indentureship or the colour bar and racism experienced in this country, is that while we have allies or even sometimes active collaborators against racism, we have to organise ourselves.

Whenever unjust laws have been introduced we have always found a way to resist. We can lament the draconian and racist laws that the Tories pass as much as we want but we must create what the legendary poet and activist June Jordan once called a place of rage. Not some uncontrolled anger but rather a thought out organised rage of resistance in the same way that we have always done. We have a history of black resistance to racism that must guide us once more.

Roger McKenzie is general secretary of Liberation.

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Black people will resist the Borders Bill - Morning Star Online

On April 16, 2021, thousands of protesters rallied and marched to honor 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was killed by the Chicago police in the city's Little Village neighborhood.Love & Struggle Photos

At the close of 2021, the right is poised to treat the pandemic as a political portal, and the left is not. Thats a disturbing reality, but it is not a fixed condition, says Kelly Hayes. In this year-end episode of Movement Memos, Kelly reflects on what were up against and what we need to build in the new year.

Music by Son Monarcas and Jon Bjrk

Note: This a rush transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity. Copy may not be in its final form.

Kelly Hayes: Welcome to Movement Memos, a Truthout podcast about things you should know if you want to change the world. Im your host, writer and organizer, Kelly Hayes. On this show, we talk about building the relationships and analysis that we need to create movements that can win. Today, as we wrap up our third season of Movement Memos, I wanted to share some final thoughts on 2021 and our experience of outrage in the COVID era. Because the last two years have been a remarkably dystopian ride and most of us still have a lot of emotional baggage that we havent unpacked yet. So I wanted to close the season with some thoughts for the activists who are tired and feeling discouraged. This is not a pep talk. But it is a check-in about where we are, where were headed, and how we can get right with ourselves on this journey.

We are almost two years deep into a pandemic that has transformed our experience of the world. In some cases, it has changed the way we see other people, and deepened ideological divides. We began the year by watching Trumpian rioters attack the Capitol as part of a failed right-wing coup. Since then, we have watched right-wing anti-vaxxers worsen the pandemic amid an ongoing global crisis. Researchers estimate that 163,000 COVID deaths could have been prevented by vaccination in the U.S. since June 2021. We have a confirmed death toll of over 800,000 in the United States, and yet we see proud op-eds from conservatives with titles like, Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID.

When it comes to protecting their constituents from COVID, Republican officials have failed miserably, but as an authoritarian project, the Republican Party has made significant gains during this era of crisis. Emboldened by the same stolen election narrative that launched an insurrection, Republicans have introduced at least 400 voter suppression bills in 49 states. According to Voting Rights Lab, seven states have enacted tougher voter ID laws and 14 states have created or expanded election-related crimes in a manner that could potentially suppress votes. About 55 million people live in states that enacted more restrictive voting laws this year.

Meanwhile legal abortion access hangs in the balance, and right-wing attacks on the mere discussion of racism in public schools are illustrative of whats at stake in our pandemic era culture wars. Historically speaking, pandemics are eras of factionalization and political extremity. For the right wing, the pressure cooker of the pandemic has been incredibly fruitful. With so many people at home, googling for answers, fixated on social media, the pandemic further popularized conspiracy theories and conspiracy-obsessed groups. Thanks to a whistleblower, we now know that Facebooks own research has confirmed that the platforms algorithm pushes new conservative users into rabbit holes of radicalizing content, including QAnon conspiracies, in as little as two days.

Left of center, we have witnessed some hard-fought battles, and some important victories, such as the recent unionization of a Starbucks in Buffalo, but also, a great deal of exhaustion and resignation. While there are people organizing relentlessly in defense of abortion access and voting rights at the local level, we have not yet seen a national response commensurate with these threats. Normally, I would expect the pending demise of Roe or the resurrection of Jim Crow to generate a robust response from liberals and leftists alike. And yet, while Republican outrage causes havoc and potentially rewrites the rules of political ascension, the outrage of liberals and leftists often comes in reactive fits and bursts. I often find myself looking back on comments some officials in Washington made to Axios, after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. The officials said that with the guilty verdict, they were confident that outrage over police violence would now play out in the same manner as liberal outrage about gun violence after a major shooting, there are a few days of intense clamour, and then people are reliably distracted by the next big story.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about outrage, how we express it, and what it means to us. Recently, I read an article in Politico in which the author argued that Republican moves against abortion will not rally pro-choice voters at the polls, as some liberal pundits have predicted. In the piece, Julie Roginsky, a former top adviser to New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, said:

I wish we lived in a world where outrage mattered. But I think we live in a post-outrage world, and voters today are affected only by that which directly affects them, which is why the economy, affordability and cost of living is such a major issue for so many people. While a lot of people will express sympathy for that 12-year-old girl in Texas who got raped but no longer can terminate her pregnancy, its not what motivates them to go to the polls, sadly.

Could the jolting reality of a post-Roe world re-energize enthusiasm around abortion rights at the polls? I honestly dont know. But I did find myself rattled by the words post-outrage world, because those words touch on possibilities that are both real and frightening.

Outrage is obviously part of our daily lives. For some, its a matter of routine. If youre on Twitter, you may learn who the so-called main character of the day is someone whose offensive words have gone viral such that we all get to take turns throwing metaphorical rotten fruit at them, once we figure out what the hell everyone is talking about. So we make our joke, or fire off our rageful critique, and if were being honest, the satisfaction is usually short-lived. I have indulged in that kind of discourse plenty of times, and to say it usually isnt generative would be the understatement of 2021. Because these conflicts avail us nothing and do nothing to address our pain. And we are carrying a lot of pain.

Our biosphere is being killed, and it is killing us in turn. The Biden administration recently held the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexicos history, while claiming that it was legally required to do so. That turned out to be a lie, and its a lie that feels representative of the Biden experience. A campaign promise of no more drilling, including offshore gave way to the administration auctioning off an area of the gulf twice the size of Florida.

Even among people who did not expect much from this administration, the abandonment of issues that were the subject of popular alarm under Trump can stir pain and resentment. Many of us are aching for each other, for millions of lives lost to COVID, and for the Earth. We are hurting. And we have to honor that hurt in real ways.

I am determined, in the new year, to develop very intentional practices and rituals around outrage, grief and trauma. We absorb so much horrific imagery and terrible news, and most of us are not adopting personal practices, or group practices, that provide the emotional outlets we need. Whether we want to or not, we are going to spend the coming years engaging with the traumas, resentments and unprocessed grief of the pandemic in our movement spaces either in intentional ways that help us heal and grow, or in messy, unintentional ways that cause derision and disrupt our work.

Our movements could make gains by offering people a place to connect over our pandemic-related hurt and dysfunction in collectivity. This society is not offering us any popular reckoning with the events of the last two years because the people that govern this society do not want a reckoning. They want us to cosplay normalcy. We have to build movements that offer an alternative to the consumerist zombie approach to mass trauma.

Most groups and organizations I have talked to this year have agreed on the need to incorporate grief work into their organizing, but almost none of them have actually adopted new practices or routines to help their members cope with grief. Some simply dont know where to begin. The scale of loss weve experienced is staggering, and the denialism of some people in the face of so much death, can be difficult to reconcile. But I think its important to remember that anger is one of the ways grief manifests itself, and that some of us lean on it because its easier to be angry than it is to feel sadness. You can get into a debate on social media with a stranger and feel like youre winning when youre angry. Its hard to feel like youre winning when youre sad.

Some people have told me they are feeling sad or weary because they feel like the transformative potential of the pandemic was not realized, or was squandered on electoralism. But the transformative power of the pandemic is not behind us. Some researchers have pointed out that a pandemic can actually suppress unrest in its early stages. Concerns about spreading the illness and exploitation of emergency powers by repressive governments can mean fewer protests. International Monetary Fund (IMF) researchers claim that, during the pandemic, the number of major unrest events worldwide has fallen to its lowest level in almost five years. Their study also found that, historically, the risk of upheaval increases with time. I found the following observation, which was published in the IMFBlog in February of this year particularly interesting:

Looking beyond the immediate aftermath, the risk of social unrest spikes in the longer term. Using information on the types of unrest, the IMF staff study focuses on the form that unrest typically takes after an epidemic. This analysis shows that, over time, the risk of riots and anti-government demonstrations rises. Furthermore, the study finds evidence of heightened risk of a major government crisis an event that threatens to bring down the government and that typically occurs in the two years following a severe epidemic.

Im not saying we should let the IMF be our guide, but based on this analysis, all of the political extremity we have already experienced in the United States during the pandemic has happened during the tamest days of the COVID era.

Right now, many of us are angrily grieving the loss of factory and warehouse workers including Amazon workers who died last week because they were ordered to remain in the path of a winter tornado, so that they could keep working. As we reflect on how drastic those storms were, and how workers experienced those events, we also need to remember that, in other parts of the world, more heavily impacted by climate change, this kind of grief and rage has been building since long before the hardships of the pandemic. I believe a game-changing era of global political upheaval is looming.

Unfortunately, in the United States, its the right that seems poised to change the shape of the system, and topple any semblance of democracy. Their gains are discouraging, but there are many ways to organize against them, and many ways in which they must be fought. One of the great narrative battles of our time will be waged between those who depict migrants and refugees as an invasive threat, and those who would build global solidarity with displaced and oppressed people. The organizing of prison and police abolitionists, and activists working to end surveillance, is also of critical importance right now.

We have to ask ourselves who we want to be in relation to this moment. What does our outrage mean to us? What shapes should it be taking? As we enter the new year, I hope we will opt out of unworthy conflicts more often. When confronted with the outrageous, I hope we will take constructive actions, and I hope that when our feelings run to extremes, that we can manifest that extremity in powerful ways, including the kind of broad-scale direct action and mutual aid efforts we are going to need in the years ahead. I also hope we can shake off any remaining illusions people may have had about the Biden administration and neoliberalism as a path to salvation. We have delayed the onset of right-wing authoritarianism, but those forces are still on course, and the nature of neoliberalism will continually deliver us to the same destructive ends: organized abandonment, the mass manufacture of premature death and a natural world strip-mined for resources. To reject those ends, we have to do more than fend off right-wing advances. We have to play offense with a bold vision for the future. Without world-changing demands, we are practicing a politics of surrender in apocalyptic times.

In 2022, our organizing must be visionary and courageous, but also welcoming. We must be willing to grapple with the imperfections and contradictions of building communities and coalitions. We must remember, as grassroots strategist Ejeris Dixon has told us, that we dont always get to choose who helps us survive. We also need to prepare ourselves for an increasingly catastrophic future, and to understand, as Chicago organizer Monica Cosby suggested on the show last week, that when we cant yet see or envision a light at the end of the tunnel, we sometimes have to work with those around us, to make our own light.

At the close of 2021, the right is poised to treat the pandemic as a political portal, and the left is not. Thats a disturbing reality, but it is not a fixed condition. We have a great deal of power, but what passes for democracy in the United States is about to crash into the wall, and hollow rituals of self-expression will not save us. We need to deepen our commitments and our relationships in the new year, and to strap in for whats bound to be a rough ride. We need a bold vision for an unstable world and it must be a vision we are willing to fight for in collectivity. There are countless storms ahead, and to survive, we will have to anchor ourselves to one another.

As we end this year, I think a lot of you are probably feeling the same love, rage and grief that Im feeling. I think the question for 2022 is what we plan to do about those feelings beyond merely expressing them. What will we contribute to? What will we build? Who will we get to know or deepen our relationships with? What is the world worth to us? And what are we worth to each other?

I know a lot of people like to get down on New Years resolutions, but Im a big fan of making commitments. So I encourage people to make at least one commitment, as we head into the new year, with regard to how we spend our time and how we vent our outrage into the world. If you spend a lot of time taking shots at people on social media, and its not helping you feel any better, could you redirect a little of that time? If theres an issue youre passionate about, like voting rights, climate justice or prison abolition, and you are not actively engaged with that work, will you re-budget some time toward that issue? Or create a ritual that gives you a more meaningful outlet for your anger or your hurt?

Maybe thats something we can work on together.

I want to thank our listeners for joining us today and throughout this third season of the show. Movement Memos began just before COVID turned our worlds upside down, and we have done our best to create something useful for the moment were living in. Building a plane in flight is tricky as hell, so I am more grateful than I can say to everyone whos on this journey with me. Were going to take a break for a few weeks, but we will be back in January to talk about prison abolition, organizing, mutual aid and how we can fight the continued rise of right-wing power. I am honored that I get to engage in these conversations, and that there are people out there who find them useful. I am inspired by your messages and by your efforts. So please take care of yourselves, and remember, our best defense against cynicism is to do good, and to remember that the good we do matters. Until next time, Ill see you in the streets.

Show Notes

Previous episodes you may want to revisit:

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What Will We Do With Our Rage in 2022? - Truthout

Other senators who have previously been reluctant to alter filibuster rules including Senators Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, and Angus King, independent of Maine have become more open to the idea of doing so to enact new voting rights laws. Along with Mr. Kaine, they have talked repeatedly this week with Mr. Manchin about how to get over the filibuster hurdle, including a meeting on Wednesday with Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. Participants say the talks have been productive and they are pleased that Mr. Manchin remains engaged, but no breakthrough has emerged that would allow Democrats to approve the measures over near-unanimous Republican opposition.

Still, some expressed optimism.

I think we will get something, I really do, Mr. Tester said.

Republicans say that Democrats are only seeking to tilt the election playing field to their own advantage and federalize what has traditionally been a state and local role in overseeing elections. They say that if state voting restrictions are considered discriminatory, it is up to the Justice Department to challenge them.

Under the Freedom to Vote Act, Congress would set minimum standards for early and mail-in voting, make Election Day a national holiday and allow requirements that voters produce identification, though the I.D. provision would be less restrictive than those Republicans have imposed. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act seeks to restore elements of the landmark Voting Rights Act weakened by two Supreme Court decisions.

In a joint interview, the Kings portrayed the filibuster which Southern senators used for decades to block civil rights measures as a Jim Crow relic employed throughout history to deny rights to minorities, and called for its abolition. They noted that they still had to work to protect voting rights for coming generations represented by their 13-year-old daughter, Yolanda Renee King, decades after her grandfather helped secure passage of the Voting Rights Act.

I learned from my mother that every generation has to earn its freedom, Mr. King said. Freedom is not permanently given.

Among the groups organizing and participating in the marches are the National Action Network, National Urban League, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Service Employees International Union, MoveOn, Demos, the Center for Popular Democracy, Voto Latino, Sierra Club, Coalition for Peace, Faith in Public Life, When We All Vote, March For Our Lives, Bend the Arc and the African American Christian Clergy Coalition.

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King Family and Activists Plan Marches to Pressure Democrats on Voting Rights - The New York Times

Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya warns that reforms recently adopted by the State Duma to further the centralization of power in Russias federal government could endanger the entire political system by pinning too much on the presidency and the Kremlins subjective and closed insider logic. Constitutional Putinism is supposed to weed out remnants of the destabilizing opportunism elevated in Russias Yeltsin Constitution, Stanovaya argues in a recent essay for the Carnegie Moscow Center, but Putinism could prove to be even more prone to opportunism if it is incapable of accommodating the multiple power centers that would emerge in a serious political crisis (for example, the loss of United Russias parliamentary monopoly or a severe decline in the presidents popularity).

In redesigning much of the relationship between Russias central and regional governments, many of the Kremlins latest political reforms are more meaningful even than last years constitutional amendments, argues political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya. The public administration draft law, she says, isnt just a declaration of the presidents supremacy; it significantly expands presidential prerogatives relative to both governors and regional parliaments, allowing the president to interfere directly in their work more than is formally possible now.

In democratic terms, this effectively gives the Kremlin a veto on voters choices in regional politics. After all, when governors need the central governments approval for their own cabinet appointments, what really is the point of direct gubernatorial elections? The new reforms will expand Moscows command over regional legislatures, as well, requiring the consent of the State Council (which the presidential administration controls) for revisions to a long and classified list of issues designated as the joint jurisdiction of Russias central and regional governments.

The public administration legislation does make some inconsequential concessions on legislative review procedures, and it grants a few new powers to governors, but these reforms come at the expense of Russias municipal authorities, duplicating at the gubernatorial level some of the executive vertical prerogatives granted to the president. This consolidation of the power vertical will also reduce the possibilities for political opposition within the system and tie up mayors and town councils in Moscows deadlock. Stanovaya calls this the executive branchs blitzkrieg against local government.

Federal lawmakers did not compromise on the abolition of the presidential titles in regional governments, continuing Moscows conflict with Tatarstan, where Russias last regional president still holds office. Stanovaya points out that the new public administration law would empower Tatarstans attorney general to initiate a constitutional review within the republic to change the regional leaders title, though abolishing the presidency even in name would require a popular referendum that is doomed to fail among local voters, says Stanovaya.

The justifications for these changes to Russian federalism are based on the same rationale that fueled constitutional reforms to allow Vladimir Putin to seek another two presidential terms: political stability. Ever the Kremlins guiding star, the pursuit of stability motivated the introduction of gubernatorial term limits in 2015. In six years, however, the Putin administration has replaced Russias governor-politicians with governor-technocrats, obviating the need to treat regional heads as potential rivals, and term limits have become a burden on the Kremlin.

For all its apparent vigor, this more centralized federal government is strong and unified today, says Stanovaya, but it becomes a monstrously dangerous system, the moment Russia has a politically weak head of state.

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As the year comes to a close, I cant help but think about what seemed like a never-ending 87th Legislative Session. The regular session ended in May and was, without a doubt, an interesting one. The Session didnt officially conclude; however, until the third Special Session was adjourned in mid-October.

Regular sessions are 140 days and are convened every other year, from mid-January through May. Those with something to advocate, show up in January and leave in late May. Not this time. The 87th began with many unknowns because of the pandemic. The usual bustle of the State Capitol was replaced with empty hallways, elected officials in quarantine, committee hearings conducted via Zoom, mandatory Covid-19 testing prior to entering the building, and other unfamiliar rituals. The clock kept ticking as always and time was running out.

Then suddenly, around mid-March, the activity began to pick up and the Capitol was bustling again. Everyone was trying to make sure their bills got heard despite knowing the Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, and Governor all had a list of priorities they wanted to pass. Your bill had to either align with leaderships priorities or fight its way to the Governors deskone hearing, one chamber vote at a time. With the first half of the session taking place via Zoom, there was no time to waste.

One such entity who advocated for change this session was, Texas Regional Bank (TRB). With the help of State Rep. Eddie Lucio III (Brownsville), who filed HB 654, and Sen. Nathan Johnson (Dallas), with co-sponsor Sen. Chuy Hinojosa (McAllen) who filed SB 1377, a companion bill to HB 654, the TRB team was determined to amend the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP).

TRB, together with the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT), the incredible team at the Texas Bankers Association (TBA), and many other community banks worked tirelessly together to change the very outdated lawa law that for the past 10 sessions has seen several banks step up to modify it.

So, what is the RAP and why is this change important to community banks? The TBA put it best in a letter sent to Governor Abbott late this Session, in which it asked for his support. The Rule Against Perpetuities is an antiquated legal principal based on English feudal law that defines a permissible duration for certain trusts, it read in part. Texas current RAP statute generally requires that an interest in a trust be settled no later than 21 years after some life in being at the time of the creation of the trust. The restrictive nature of Texas RAP statute not only limits Texans choices as they develop estate and gift plans, but it also puts the state at an economic disadvantage because the estate plans of Texans are being developed in one of the numerous other states that have already extended their RAP statutes, it continues. These dollars leave the state for generations.

In other words, a trust in the state of Texas has an expiration date of roughly 121 years, whereas in other states, a trust can exist for 300 years. When someone wants to open a trust in Texas at their local community bank, the financial advisor must make them aware of the trusts short life span; thus, risk losing the opportunity to gain a new client and their investment to a bigger bank with branches in states with a longer trust life. Basically, this statute was making Texas less competitive, and as a result, billions of dollars were leaving Texas.

In fact, a studyconducted in 2003 and featured in the Yale Law Journal, found that a states abolition of the RAP increased its average reported trust assets by $6 billion and its average trust account size by $200,000. In addition, approximately $100 billion in trust funds have moved to take advantage of states where RAP has been abolished.

Although this study is very outdated, one can only speculate that the average reported trust assets are now in the double digits. However, assuming they are not, an increase of $6 billion in trust assets with a 1% annual management fee would equate to $60 million in revenues staying in Texas.

These additional fees and resources by your local bank would contribute to significant growth in the states economy, producing new jobs to support the additional and growing accounts. HB 654 not only supports trust asset growth in Texas but it allows community banks to remain competitive.

Fortunately for Texas, as the legislative session progressed, Texas Regional Bank quickly learned it wasnt the only one who understood a change in this law made economic development sense. With the help of Rep. Lucio III, his Chief of Staff, Sergio Cavazos, Sen. Johnson, his Chief of Staff, Deisy James, Sen. Hinojosa, his Chief of Staff, Luis Moreno, Sen. Lucio, his Chief of Staff, Ruben OBell, IBAT and TBA, HB 654 was approved by both the House and Senate where it was then sent to the governors office for signature.

House Bill 654 was signed into law on June 16, 2021. It became effective September 1, 2021. As a result, the life of a trust in the state of Texas was extended to 300 years.

It is not by coincidence that I often compare community banks to economic development corporations. EDCs, simply put, are tasked with improving the economic well-being and quality of life of a community. Similarly, community banks work strategically to create meaningful economic impact in the communities they serve.

Community banks are in the business of providing solutions. They must be proactive and take bold action to keep investments from leaving their community. They do all they can to retain and serve clients to help grow their community. Whether its providing the right type of checking account, loan, financial guidance, or enduring a never-ending Legislative Session to help change state law, providing solutions that contribute to the growth of communities is what local banks do best.

Editors Note: The above guest column was penned by Alex Meade, executive vice president for economic development and public finance at Texas Regional Bank. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Meade can be reached by email via: [emailprotected]

Producing quality journalism is not cheap. The coronavirus has resulted in falling revenues across the newsrooms of the United States. However, The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service is committed to producing quality news reporting on the issues that matter to border residents. The support of our members is vital in ensuring our mission gets fulfilled.

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Meade: Community Banks Are in the Business of Providing Solutions - Rio Grande Guardian