Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

Just one year after opening within the space of the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, the Ford Foundation Gallery shuttered its doors in March of 2020 as the coronavirus forced world-wide lockdowns. Marking its return after a two-year hiatus is everything slackens in a wreck, a group show curated by Trinidadian scholar and artist Andile Gosine that features an intergenerational dialogue between artists Margaret Chen, Wendy Nanan, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, and Andrea Chung. The four women share heritage in that their Asian ancestors were brought to work in the Americas after the abolition of slavery. The exhibition title, taken from a poem by Mauritian author Khal Torabully, evokes the destructive aftermath of colonialism, as well as its creative growth. Reflecting on the complex consequences of indentureship, the show explores how these four artists respond to their shared diasporic heritage.

While each artist brings her personal stories to the show, their shared histories and experiences come through in common themes and materials, in particular organic materials. Suspended from the gallery ceiling is House of the Historians (2022), a sculpture in the form of a giant birds nest by Chung. Made on site out of sugarcane scraps, Chung was inspired by weaver birds she saw in Mauritius that build communities of nests in former cane fields. The artist used sugarcane from Trinidad, a nod to her mothers heritage, which often features in her work.

Writing in the exhibition catalog, Chung compares the shape of her nest sculpture with the story of immigration. A member of the younger generation at age forty-four along with Sinnapah Mary, forty-two, Chung saw her family build their lives in the US, a country her grandfather thought he was bound for when he left China only to find himself in Jamaica. All links to his family severed, he was forced to create a new life. Made from castoffs of the sugar industry, Chungs nest takes something laden with gruesome history and creates a home, just as her grandfather and indentured migrants built homes out of situations that were painful.

Also made of repurposed, organic materials is Cross-Section of Labyrinth (1993), a 20-foot-wide sculpture by Chinese Jamaican artist Chen, seventy-one, that takes the form of a leaf spread across the gallery floor. Made of wood from the scraps of the artists family furniture business, the work tells a personal story of Chens family and the rich heritage of carpentry. At the center of the leaf is a series of circles that form a spiral. Four petals surround the maze-like spiral, each one representing the four directions (north, south, east, west).

The sculpture is covered in shells collected from mangroves. Speaking about her work at the exhibition opening, Chen reflected on her sculpture as a vessel for the shells and explained how looking at each shell recalls memories of watching people eat the contents, slurping whatever seafood they once held and casting the rest aside. Her shells are rough, broken, and mismatched, as if the whole piece was once underwater, a nod to the passage her ancestors took to reach Jamaica.

Chens work is layered with history. Wood scraps and shells, once serving different purposes in their previous roles, are given a second life. The history of the work itself is continually evolving as it is displayed. Inevitably, the shells fall off and are replaced, and the acrylic paint is retouched over time. The work also tells a broader environmental story of the relationship between man and nature with the former consuming and discarding the latter.

Shells also appear in a set of papier-mch, pod-shaped sculptures hanging along the wall. Painted in different hues of pink, purple, blue, and gold, the pods are by Indo-Trinidadian artist Nanan, sixty seven, and made from fallen palm branches. Whereas Chen underscored the organic quality of shells and chose a range of shapes and colors to create a natural appearance, Nanan selected pristine shells that she meticulously arranges on each work.

A film by Gosine shows how the artist creates her pods. The camera pans over waves crashing and shells waiting to be collected as Nanan shares memories of visiting Manzanillas beaches with her mother, making art from a young agethe only one in her family to do soand being teased in grade school for her Indian heritage, racism she continued to experience later in life. You learned how to survive, she says in the film. You just had to turn inward and get on with your work. You learned how to make a space for yourself.Nanans shells are arranged inside of and bursting from the pods slightly parted lips. Her sculptures resemble both natural and human elements and can be seen as plant pods or representations of female anatomy.

A similar blending of nature and the human body appears in the large-scale, figurative paintings by Indo-Guadeloupean Kelly Sinnapah Mary, the only artist contributing two-dimensional works to the show. In a monumental triptych, each panel measuring over eight feet tall and six feet wide, she has painted a young woman with curly, dark hair. Set in a dense field of green snake plants, the woman wears a white wedding dress and a gold necklace and earrings as she looks out into the distance with bloodshot eyes. Her dark skin is covered with green plants and palm trees. On her neck and chest are a small house and an ominous scene of a lion confronting a child. Sinnapah Marys entire body of work is titled Notebook of No Return, with additional information following a colon, Memories (2022) in the case of the triptych. Her oeuvre title is a play on the seminal work of Aim Csaire, the Martinican author credited as a founder of the Ngritude literary theory that promoted Black consciousness and African culture.

Supporting the exhibition are several noteworthy features and design elements. Just outside the gallery space is a blue, beaded exhibition banner by Antiguan artist Amber Williams-King. Welcoming visitors along with the banner is a soundscape produced by Gosine and the New York-based organization Jahajee Sisters. The score, which flows through the Foundations indoor garden, features twenty-five women in the organization who respond in sounds to the questions: What brings you joy? What brings you comfort? Inside the gallery is a thoughtfully chosen selection of books for visitors to browse, as well as a take-home bibliography for further reading.

The exhibition presents a relatively small sample of the four artists work, however, the show felt as far from small as possible. Each work could be the subject of a review. Visually captivating and culturally, historically, and emotionally complex, all four artists addresscomplicated shared histories. The exhibition is a powerful reminder of the possibility for beauty to come from darkness and pain, as well as the endless creative capacity of the human spirit.

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everything slackens in a wreck The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail

To understand how the United States of America became a country without the constitutional right to abortion, look to the history of Black womens long fight for reproductive autonomy.

The reproductive coercion of Black women is a thread running through American history, one that predated and presaged the Supreme Courts recent decision in Dobbs that overturned Roe v. Wade. Enslaved Black women were forced into pregnancy to help build Americas budding economy. Pregnant Black moms are criminalized or excluded from abortion on the basis of poverty. The state takes away Black children from Black mothers at a disproportionate rate.

Legal scholar Dorothy Roberts chronicled this history in her seminal book Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. Roberts defines reproductive justice as the human right not to have a child; the right to have a child; and the right to parent your child in a supportive, humane, and just society. Her latest book is Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.

For Roberts, reproductive rights and the fight for abortion access shouldnt just be about the existence of a choice, but about the right to live in a society that allows for the freedom to make it. Just having a legal choice that you dont have the means to effectuate is not true freedom, Roberts told me.

I reached out to Roberts to talk about the key moments throughout history, like the passage of the Hyde Amendment barring federal funds from paying for abortions that suggested abortion rights were never fully secure. We talk about why adoption is not and has never been a solution to inequality, why Black women have historically used abortion as resistance, and why American history is a better source of analogies than The Handmaids Tale. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

As someone who has studied the historic fight for reproductive justice, particularly through what Black women have experienced, what was your reaction when you saw the leaked draft opinion in May and then when the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe in June?

I cant tell you how many panels Ive been on over the last couple of decades where the issue was what to do in the post-Roe world. So there was a lot of preparation for it, but I was still shaken by it. I happened to be with my daughter and her two best friends theyre all in their 30s and my thought was, My goodness, they have fewer rights to autonomy over their bodies than I did at their age. When I was their age, I thought that I had good control over my body.

At the same time, though, theres a reproductive justice movement thats so much stronger than it was when I was their age. We are in a contradictory time because with the fight for justice, it seems like were going backward while at the same time building movements that are so much further than we were when we were growing up.

You had more autonomy over your body in the past than your daughters do now. But was there something you observed back then that suggested that reproductive rights were not actually secure?

I could see that even though we were legally protected from government laws that barred abortion, there was no legal right to demand government support for abortions due to the Hyde Amendment. So we had the legal right to an abortion, but it excluded funding for women who were poor. This was all happening while there was a bipartisan effort to end the federal entitlement to welfare. Plus, in the late 1980s, I watched the prosecutions of Black women for being pregnant and using drugs.

Those two aspects of reproductive regulation, which disproportionately affected Black women, made me think the fight wasnt over.

The advocacy around abortion was focused mostly on the framework of being able to make a choice, without taking into account these structural impediments to having reproductive freedom.

It also didnt take into full account the devaluation of Black womens childbearing and the punitive policies surrounding it. I was an advocate for abortion rights, but I was more concerned about the failure to advocate with the same force for the human rights of impoverished people, or Black people and other people of color in the United States. Once I started thinking about the Hyde Amendment and the prosecutions of Black women who were pregnant and using drugs, I began to see a whole host of reproductive violations that werent at the forefront of the mainstream reproductive rights movement. That really changed the narrative about progress toward reproductive freedom in America.

I can see today how those infringements of human rights are coming together to create the moment were in now, where pregnancy is criminalized and where we are going to see the arrests and incarceration of people who manage their pregnancies, have miscarriages, or have stillbirths. Theyre all going to be punished under one agenda of controlling womens autonomy over their bodies and participation in society, and also punishing anyone whos capable of being pregnant.

Id like to back up then. It sounds like theres almost a straight line from the 17th century to now that has long told us that these rights were never fully secure. And it sounds like it is specifically bound up in a struggle that Black women have faced for reproductive freedom. Can you walk me through some key historical moments that you think speak directly to the Supreme Courts decision and the ensuing trigger bans?

Id first go back to the institution of slavery to look at the connection between reproduction and bondage. The experiences of the enslaved Black woman and the exploitation of Black womens labor were foundational to the state regulation of reproduction in America.

It still is staggering to me when I think about the very first laws in the colonies that were so directed at regulating Black womens sexuality and reproduction, and how that reverberates today.

Black women, during the slavery era, resisted control of their bodies, including by having abortions. Abortion has been a means of resistance for Black women in the same way that exploiting Black womens reproductive labor has been a form of racial and gender oppression from the very founding of this nation.

That was an aspect of the history of reproductive policy and rights in the United States that I didnt think was getting enough attention. I dont think you can understand where we are today without taking into account the historic regulation of Black womens childbearing, which has its roots in enslavement.

And what would you highlight next?

After the Civil War, white supremacists who wanted to take back control of the South, enforce white domination, and effectively re-enslave Black people used the apprenticeship system to violently capture and take control of Black children again by exploiting their labor against the will of their parents. In many of the narratives about this, Black mothers describe how they fought to get their children back. To me, that system is the root of our current child welfare system, or what I call a family policing system, that also disproportionately tears apart Black families and is especially punitive to Black mothers.

I would also highlight the activism of Black women, demanding welfare rights and government funding for their childbearing decisions and for the care of their children. Because Black women were successful at being included in welfare programs, the state reacted by making those programs more punitive and vilifying, eventually leading up to the abolition of the federal entitlement to welfare. This was fueled by the myth of the Black welfare queen. So theres that.

What else stands out to you?

The way in which prosecutors and policymakers turned drug use during pregnancy from a health care issue into a crime, with the prosecutions of Black women who are pregnant and smoked crack cocaine in the 1980s. I see that as the beginning of this latest chapter of the right-wing criminalization of pregnancy.

This is the chapter in which they criminalize pregnant people who dont produce a healthy baby, whether its by abortion or by alleged behaviors during pregnancy that are seen to risk a fetus. That strategy begins with the prosecutions of Black women and also the taking of their newborns. And that is a prelude to what is happening today.

And how have things shifted to what we are seeing today?

One way in which the conditions now are different from when Roe was decided [in 1973] is that we have medication abortion and its easier for people to self-manage their abortions. But on the other hand, we have this buildup of criminalizing pregnancy with fetal protection laws, prosecutors prosecuting and getting convictions of women who have stillbirths. We see the arrest of women who had self-managed abortions prior to the Dobbs decision. That foreshadows a future where women and girls and people who are capable of pregnancy are going to be arrested and incarcerated for pregnancy outcomes. So again, criminalizing pregnancy whether you want to have a child or you want to terminate the pregnancy those prosecutions are a pivotal point in the story of how we got to where we are today, and how Black women were both targeted and fought back again.

During a period in the 1990s, Black feminists got together and developed the framework of reproductive justice. Thats certainly another key moment though, of course, we can also go back to enslaved women who started this work, and the Combahee River Collective of the 1970s that wrote about interlocking systems of oppression and how Black womens position in society is oppositional to white male rule.

So the crafting of reproductive justice analysis is built on that history that recognizes the human right to not have a child but also to have a child, and to parent a child in a nurturing and supportive and just and humane society. That looks beyond the question of whether there is a legal choice to look at the societal conditions that allow people to actually exercise true reproductive freedom and autonomy.

Youve said that forced pregnancy and family separation taking children away from their parents through the child welfare system are connected and that understanding this connection is key to understanding the struggle for reproductive justice. How are they connected?

One way that we can see they are connected forms of state violence is that the right is arguing that adoption is the solution to both of them. And, unfortunately, some liberal people are also arguing for adoption as a solution to the struggles of families who are feeling the brunt of an inequitable society. I dont think its a coincidence that were seeing adoption thrown around as the solution to what really is state violence and state oppression.

Yeah, Ive been seeing what looks like mostly white or foreign couples or white women holding up signs that say, We will adopt your baby. Yet when asked if they actually will, the answer seems to be, No. What is this about?

Compelling pregnancy and taking peoples children away from them are both ways of upholding a system of white male elite rule where you divert attention away from structural inequities that need to be demolished and replaced and point to private mechanisms, which is what adoption is.

In the case of family separation, we have a family policing system that instead of helping families, blames family caregivers especially Black family caregivers and relies on taking children away. To me, that is a neoliberal form of privatizing issues. Instead of a society that supports families needs, it turns to private citizens taking children and claiming them for their own. That is exactly the same response of a regime that now wants to force people to carry pregnancies to term. They turn to this private response of adoption in place of facing the fact that one of the main reasons that people have abortions is because they dont have the means at that time to take care of children.

For state legislators and the Supreme Court justices to pretend that adoption is going to take care of it is just blatant mendacity.

Every aspect of that is just false theres not going to be enough people to adopt all of the children whose needs cannot be met because of poverty in this nation, because of the structural racism, because of discrimination against women. Children will either grow up in families that dont have the means to meet all of their needs on their own, or theyre going to go into a dangerous and harmful foster system.

Its all about blaming people who are unable to meet childrens needs. Its about denying them freedom to make decisions for themselves and then punishing them for whatever outcomes befall their children. Under this regime, they include the fetuses where there isnt a healthy baby.

This also sounds connected to the idea that abortion for Black women is a form of genocide, an idea thats been repeated for a long time. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has even cited this idea.

Yes, this is also related to the false accusation that abortion is a form of genocide that Black mothers are complicit in. Abortion hasnt been used historically as a form of controlling Black reproduction. Sterilization has. Theres a big difference between forcible sterilization and upholding the human rights to control your body and not be compelled to be pregnant. Those are two radically different things. One is about compulsion and unfreedom. The other is about freedom and resisting compulsion. Those arent the same thing.

Clarence Thomas is just wrong. And so are others like him who say that abortion is a tool of Black genocide and that Black women are participating in the destruction of the Black community when they have abortions. And they refer to the eugenics era as a historical reference. Thats just false.

The historical reference is compelled sterilization of Black women, which is akin to compelled pregnancy. Theyve got the references all screwed up when they make that argument. The billboards that went up [10 years ago] to shame Black women for abortion that said, The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb that message supports sterilizing Black women, as well as compelling pregnancies. Its a message about reproductive control. Its a false message that isnt about any kind of liberation for Black people.

And is this another reason why some people claim that abortion still feels like a white woman issue?

Ive heard that, too, believe me. At the time when the Webster decision was being considered and we thought that Roe might be overturned, I was speaking about it at a church and a Black man came up to me and said, Thats a white womans issue. Why are you talking about it? And there is a history of some Black nationalists chiding Black women for any kind of family planning, contraceptives, or abortion. Its just ridiculous to say its a white womans issue when Black women are more likely to seek and have abortions.

Black women have been advocating for reproductive freedom for just as long as white women have been. We have included the right to abortion in our fight, but its just that we havent focused on it since we recognize that sterilization, abuse, and being prosecuted for having babies, and Black maternal mortality, and so many other issues involving our reproductive lives are equally as important.

Theres a long history of Black women advocating for abortion rights. Loretta Ross has been advocating for abortion rights for decades. Shirley Chisholm, in her autobiography and advocacy, championed abortion rights and spoke out against Black men who said that it was a white womans issue. Black women use abortion as a form of resistance against slavery.

Its wrong to say that its a white womans issue. And its also wrong to say that it is a form of Black genocide. Those are false in terms of politics, history, in terms of what Black women have been advocating for for centuries. Theyre anti-freedom. Theyre anti-freedom, and they are inconsistent with the history of Black rebellion and abolition activism.

I also want to get your thoughts on The Handmaids Tale references and memes and the people who declared, Welcome to The Handmaids Tale! when the Supreme Courts decision came down. This is the reference that seems to be the most widespread whenever womens rights are on the line.

But lately some people have been pushing back, arguing that the meme erases the realities that marginalized groups of women have faced for centuries in America America has already been a Gilead for Black women, for example. Why do you think The Handmaids Tale meme is still prevalent?

Mainstream US society has never taken full account of Black womens lives and autonomy and imagination and vision. So the response to any current trend is often to look to white people as the victims and as the visionaries. But as Ive been saying, Black women have been at the forefront of movements to both contest oppression and also reimagine a society that is more just and humane and caring and equal. I think thats just one reason why we would get The Handmaids Tale before we get the very real history of Black womens reproductive labor being exploited or Black women being compelled to be pregnant for the profit of white enslavers. Its not an imagined story. Its an actual history that continues to shape policy today.

Theres a big difference between saying this fictional dystopia is a metaphor for our reality and saying, lets look at the real history of the reproductive violence against Black women and how it actually has shaped policy in the United States since the time of slavery until today.

Its also prevalent because white people dont have to grapple with the reality of how we got to the overturning of Roe. It is a result of the dehumanization of Black people, and it is a white backlash against every advance for liberation that Black people have made. It is a result of policies that have put Black women at the center.

Its mind-boggling but so important to recognize that we can name all these moments of history where thereve been these regressions in freedom, where stereotypes about Black women and policies geared at controlling Black womens sexuality and childbearing have been at the center over and over again. One of the reasons for ignoring this is that its a way to skirt radical social change. Its a way of pretending that America is built on principles of equality and liberty when you ignore the deep roots of inhumanity and slavery and coercion and punishment that are still critical to understanding where we are today.

As someone whos examined and been a part of this fight for a long time, what gives you hope right now?

What gives me hope today that we can continue with a reproductive justice framework is fighting back against these assaults on our freedoms while building a radically different society that doesnt rely on carceral approaches to meeting human needs. This means it doesnt police people or force people into compelled pregnancy. It doesnt take peoples children away from them as a way of meeting childrens needs. I see all of these carceral, punitive, inhumane approaches as part of a white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist approach to meeting human needs. Theyre all interconnected.

I find hope in the fact that we have a reproductive justice movement that has been active and flourishing. Im also finding a lot of hope in the very quick action by abortion funds that are taking immediate steps to help people who need abortions.

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Reproductive rights have never been secure. Ask Black women. - Vox.com

The Human Rights Council this morning held an interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic and began an interactive dialogue with the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya.

Yao Agbetse, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, said thatsince March, some positive developments had been recorded, including the new Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the Central African Republic taking office, as well as the adoption of the law on the abolition of the death penalty, among other initiatives. However, the human rights situation in the Central African Republic remained worrying. He invited the Council to consider adapting the resolution to be adopted in September during its fifty-first session to the evolution of the situation.

Arnaud Djoubaye Abazene, Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Central African Republic, said the rule of law, good governance and combatting sexual and gender-based violence remained at the heart of the Governments priorities. Efforts had led to the law on military proclamation, increasing the number of soldiers and deploying the army to protect the territory of the Central African Republic. The extension of the States authority had facilitated investigations of violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law. The Central African Republic continued to work for peace and stability and to consolidate its progress, despite the lingering armed groups present in certain areas.

In the ensuing discussion on the Central African Republic, speakers thanked the Independent Expert for his work and congratulated the Reconciliation Commission for its work. The Banjari court investigations were encouraging signs in the fight against impunity and needed to be continued to restore confidence in the peacebuilding process. Some speakers welcomed the recent steps taken to abolish the death penalty, which was a vital step towards human rights for all, and encouraged the Government to finalise this process. Some speakers expressed concern at the persistent human rights violations, including gender-based and sexual violence committed by armed groups. They called on the Government of the Central African Republic to open an independent investigation into the allegations of violations of international humanitarian law.

The Council then started an interactive dialogue with the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya.

Mohamed Auajjar, Chair of the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya, said the investigation team had conducted four investigative missions to Libya throughout its mandate. Some of the violations identified included direct attacks on civilians during the conduct of hostilities; arbitrary detention; enforced disappearances: sexual and gender-based violence; torture; violations of fundamental freedoms; persecution of and violations against journalists, human rights defenders, civil society, minorities, and internally displaced persons; and violations of the rights of women and children. Now, more than ever, the Libyan people deserved a strong commitment, from within and also from the international community, to bring justice and a sustainable peace to their country.

Lamia Abusedra, Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said the report highlighted the serious challenges facing Libya, including the political division, insecurity, the proliferation of weapons and the increasing phenomenon of irregular migration and external intervention. Libya would rely heavily on the final recommendations of the work of the Fact-finding Mission to draw up a clear road map to promote human rights and fight impunity, under Libyas national project of reconciliation and justice. Libya had decided to submit a draft resolution through the African Group to extend the Mission's mandate for an additional and final term, ending within nine months.

In the ensuing discussion, several speakers said the human rights situation in Libya remained deeply concerning. It was unacceptable that reports of torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and sexual and gender-based violence remained largely unaddressed. Several speakers called for the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission to be extended, saying the renewal of this important mandate enabled strengthened cooperation between the international community, the Fact-Finding Mission and Libyan institutions. It also provided the opportunity to strengthen capacity building and technical assistance to advance the protection of human rights and accountability processes across the country. The Mission should abide by its mandate and complete its work on schedule, whilst focusing on the needs of Libya, a speaker stressed.

Speaking in the interactive discussion on the Central African Republic were European Union, Senegal, France, United Nations Childrens Fund, Venezuela, Russian Federation, Sudan, Egypt, China, Portugal, Angola, Mali, United Kingdom, Ireland, Gabon, and United States.

Also speaking were the following non-governmental organizations: Ensemble contre la Peine de Mort, Penal Reform International, World Evangelical Alliance, Defence for Children International, Elizka Relief Foundation, and Rencontre Africaine pour la defense des droits de l'homme.

Speaking in the interactive discussion on Libya were Iceland (on behalf of a group of countries), European Union, Jordan (on behalf of the Group of Arab States), Saudi Arabia (on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council), Cte dIvoire (on behalf of the African Group), Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, United Nations Women, Sierra Leone, Spain, Senegal, Iraq, Morocco, Luxembourg, Venezuela, Bahrain, Sudan, Egypt, China, Algeria, Greece, Trkiye, Malta, Yemen, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States of America, Jordan, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Mauritania, South Sudan, Tunisia, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Qatar and France.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Councils fiftieth regular session can be found here.

The Council will next meet at 3 p.m. this afternoon to conclude the interactive dialogue with the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya, and hear an oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Georgia.

Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Central African Republic

Presentation

YAO AGBETSE, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, highlighted the good cooperation of the Government of the Central African Republic with his mandate in facilitating his visit. Since March, some positive developments had been recorded, including the new Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the Central African Republic taking office, as well as the adoption of the law on the abolition of the death penalty, among other initiatives. However, the human rights situation in the Central African Republic remained worrying. In the first half of 2022, 436 incidents of human rights violations, abuses and breaches of international humanitarian law were documented.

The three main technical and financial partners of the Central African Republic - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Union - based the non-disbursement of budget support on non-compliance with the agreed criteria, as well as the lack of transparency in security-related expenditures. Mr. Agbetse urgently appealed to the Council and the other organizations to find practical solutions as soon as possible with the Central African authorities, who needed to show committed leadership, including the rapid adoption of the anti-corruption law. After consultations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Agbetse was concerned that if the current critical situation continued, the Central African Republic ran the risk of collapse, and the situation of instability would give new impetus to armed groups. He called on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to integrate the human rights dimension into their macroeconomic analyses and to refrain from imposing the burden of financial and economic sanctions.

It was important that the Government followed up on the findings of the investigations conducted by its Special Commission of Inquiry, established in May 2021, into allegations of abuses by the Central African armed forces and their Russian allies. Mr. Agbetse said that the recovery of the Central African Republic would not happen without its youth, and it was urgent to prioritise education, especially technical, agricultural and vocational training. Mr. Agbetse said he was very concerned about hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation and misinformation in the media and on social networks. He invited the Council to consider adapting the resolution to be adopted in September during its fifty-first session to the evolution of the situation. There was an urgent need to accelerate justice and security reforms, and to find ways to put an end to armed groups. He also noted the need to strengthen the capacities of Central African institutions, whose mandate was to fight impunity, promote the rule of law and good governance, and inspect cases of deprivation of liberty.

Statement by Country Concerned

ARNAUD DJOUBAYE ABAZENE, Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Central African Republic, said the rule of law, good governance and combatting sexual and gender-based violence remained at the heart of the Governments priorities. Efforts had led to the law on military proclamation, increasing the number of soldiers and deploying the army to protect the territory of the Central African Republic. The reform of the security system had allowed this to guarantee peace, social cohesion and a harmonious life. The extension of the States authority had facilitated investigations of violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law. A Permanent dialogue must be at the heart of the political vision of the Head of State, who was working in harmony with the entirety of the international community.

The Government had undertaken actions to quieten the political climate and reduce tensions. The improvement of the social climate through permanent dialogue with social partners was visible. The extension of the National Plan for the Consolidation of Peace would run until 2023. The teams from the Government, with the support of the United Nations Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic, had targeted combatants attached to political movements in two provinces, and continued to work with partners in these provinces. The fight against impunity was the backbone of the Governments actions. The African Union was contributing to capacity building through providing training.

The Central African Republic had a national action plan to combat trafficking in children, aiming to prevent the recruitment of children into the armed conflict. The law on the abolition of the death penalty had been adopted, as had been a national plan to reduce gender and domestic violence. There was a national mechanism for the prevention of torture. Awareness raising missions on issues of human rights had also been carried out, including among the Armed Forces, on such topics as child soldiers and the repression of sexual violence against women and children; the justice sector was receiving training in order to combat these phenomena. The Central African Republic continued to work for peace and stability and to consolidate its progress, despite the lingering armed groups present in certain areas. A holistic and global response was needed to consolidate the peace beyond question.

Discussion

Some speakers thanked the Independent Expert for his work and congratulated the Reconciliation Commission for its work. The Banjari court investigations were encouraging signs in the fight against impunity and needed to be continued to restore confidence in the peacebuilding process. The Central African Republic had cooperated with the Council and its mechanisms and had made significant progress in the promotion and protection of human rights. Some speakers commended the efforts deployed by the Government to build peace, while protecting the most vulnerable groups.

The Central African Republic had made significant progress in the areas of disarmament, and in the repatriation of refugees to the country, some speakers said. Authorities in the Central African Region were encouraged to implement the Rwanda Joint Roadmap for Peace, to lift the arms embargo, and to strengthen the judicial system. Some speakers welcomed the recent steps taken to abolish the death penalty, which was a vital step towards human rights for all, and encouraged the Government to finalise this process. The Office of the Hight Commissioner of Human Rights was urged to provide technical assistance and capacity building to enable the Central African Region to continue to ensure human rights for its population.

Some speakers said that the human rights challenges in the Central African Republic were engendered by many years of civil conflict in the country, which had prevented an economic take-off. They expressed concern at the persistent human rights violations, including gender-based and sexual violence committed by armed groups. The violations of childrens rights, including the recruitment of child soldiers, needed to cease immediately; 70 cases of child recruitment had been verified in the first quarter of this year alone.

Some speakers were concerned about the operation of armed groups in the country and the reports that these groups were targeting Muslim communities. The continued targeting of humanitarian personnel and the killing of civilians was unacceptable and needed to stop. Disinformation campaigns were of particular concern. Speakers called on the Government of the Central African Republic to open an independent investigation into the allegations of violations of international humanitarian law. This included allegations of abuses committed by the Central African Armed Forces and the private Russian mercenary group, Wagner, which was worsening the humanitarian situation and undermining the work of the United Nations.

Concluding Remarks

YAO AGBETSE, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, said he remained open for dialogue with all actors and partners. It was clear that there must be effective respect of the ceasefire by all sides, Government forces, allies, and armed groups, and for this, the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme must be respected by all sides. Some elements such as the Union for Peace in Central Africa were still carrying out attacks throughout the territory, preventing the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration process from evolving in a normal manner. There was a need to make sure that neighbouring countries were in a position to cooperate, as in the north-east of the country there was concern for the population, as the Coalition of Patriots for Change was receiving supplies from Sudan. Neighbouring countries must ensure that armed groups did not use them as base camps for their combat.

There needed to be a restoration of the States authority throughout the country, and there should be a discipline charter for all. To combat impunity, it was vital for this to happen to find a way out of the crisis: justice needed to be given to all victims, including victims of sexual violence. For the restoration of the States authority, there was a need for training of the defence and security forces. Major efforts had been made in this regard, but they were insufficient.

On the contribution of the international community to ensure that international commitments were respected, first, it was vital for technical and financial assistance to be provided by all United Nations mechanisms that had made recommendations. The international community must provide further assistance so that mechanisms could be established. Second, there was a need for the adoption of a national human rights policy, and this would allow for all challenges to be addressed at the national level. Third, on cooperation, it was important that the Central African Republic cooperate further with the United Nations human rights mechanisms and the Universal Periodic Review mechanism in particular.

Mr. Agbetse said that on combatting impunity, it was important to support the activities of the International Criminal Court. Another aspect of combatting impunity was the need to support the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and for this, it was vital that the Commission be supported by the international community, the United Nations country team, and all technical and financial partners. There must be substantive reform of the national court system so that it could address corruption. The upcoming local elections were vital for the country to hold these in a free and transparent manner, and measures should be adopted now to ensure the participation of women, young persons, displaced persons and refugees.

Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya

Report

The Council has before it the report on the Situation of human rights in Libya by the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (A/HRC/50/63).

Presentation of Report

MOHAMED AUAJJAR, Chair of the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya, presenting the report, said at present, the culture of impunity continued to prevail in Libya and posed a great obstacle towards achieving national reconciliation, as well as justice, truth and reparations for victims and their families. The Fact-finding Missions efforts continued to be directed towards human rights violations and abuses as well as international crimes - these posed a challenge to Libyas transition to peace, democracy and the rule of law. The investigation team had conducted four investigative missions to Libya throughout its mandate, holding high-level exchanges with Libyan authorities, both political and judicial and representatives of civil society organizations. Some of the violations identified included direct attacks on civilians during the conduct of hostilities; arbitrary detention; enforced disappearances: sexual and gender-based violence; torture; violations of fundamental freedoms; persecution of and violations against journalists, human rights defenders, civil society, minorities, and internally displaced persons; and violations of the rights of women and children.

Civilians had suffered from the throes of war in violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Enforced disappearances had left families in the dark about the fate of their loved ones. Patterns of torture and inhumane treatment of detainees were prevalent in several prisons. Extrajudicial killings were routinely used as a means of punishment. Children had been recruited and used to take a direct part in hostilities. Thousands of internally displaced persons were still unable to return to their homes. Migrants, refugees and asylums seekers found themselves caught in patterns of violence, at sea, in detention centres and in the hands of traffickers. And violence had had a dramatic impact on Libyans economic, social and cultural rights.

The human rights situation in Libya called for urgent action, to stop immediately human rights violations and abuses, to ensure that the rights of victims were restored and that they obtained reparations, and to ensure that all those who had violated human rights and committed international crimes were held to account, in Libya and abroad, with no exception. Now, more than ever, the Libyan people deserved a strong commitment, from within and also from the international community, to bring justice and a sustainable peace to their country. This could not be achieved without strong political will and unwavering support for a democratic transition towards a State based on the rule of law and human rights. Free and fair elections were essential to achieving this end.

Statement by Country Concerned

LAMIA ABUSEDRA, Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations Office at Geneva, commended the progress made by the Independent Fact-finding Mission on Libya on its specific mandate. The report highlighted the serious challenges facing Libya, including the political division, insecurity, the proliferation of weapons and the increasing phenomenon of irregular migration and external intervention. Despite these circumstances, Libya was moving forward on the path of protecting and promoting human rights. This commitment had been reflected in many political, legal, and practical initiatives, most recently by the Cabinets creation of a permanent national authority to coordinate the Government's preparation of reports to human rights mechanisms. This body would also take advantage of the recommendations of the Fact-finding Mission and put them into practice. Libya would rely heavily on the final recommendations of the work of the Fact-finding Mission to draw up a clear road map to promote human rights and fight impunity, under Libyas national project of reconciliation and justice. Ms. Abusedra stressed the need for the Mission to complete its work within its time limits because any delay would have a negative impact on the national track.

Libya had dealt positively with the members of the Council, particularly in cooperation with the Fact-finding Mission. Libya had decided to submit a draft resolution through the African Group to extend the Mission's mandate for an additional and final term, ending within nine months. Ms. Abusedra stressed that the Mission must adhere to its mandate, within the framework of Libyas religious and cultural specificities. The road to promoting human rights was an arduous and long path, and Libya emphasised the need for the Council, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to continue and intensify technical support and capacity building to national institutions.

Discussion

In the ensuing discussion, some speakers said the human rights situation in Libya remained deeply concerning. It was unacceptable that reports of torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and sexual and gender-based violence remained largely unaddressed. The resurgence of politically motivated violence was condemned. All actors should work towards a peaceful political transition in Libya and adopt a holistic national human rights plan of action to ensure full respect for human rights and a sustainable transition to peace and democracy through fair elections. The conditions in which asylum seekers, migrants and refugees were detained in Libya were deeply alarming. All political actors in Libya should refrain from taking actions that would deepen divisions and undermine the hard-won stability achieved since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in October 2020.

Several speakers called for the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission to be extended, saying the renewal of this important mandate enabled strengthened cooperation between the international community, the Fact-finding Mission and Libyan institutions. It also provided the opportunity to strengthen capacity building and technical assistance to advance the protection of human rights and accountability processes across the country. The Mission should, however, abide by its mandate and complete its work on schedule, whilst focusing on the needs of Libya, a speaker stressed. Libya should continue to cooperate with the Mission to ensure that a useful rapport could be the foundation for further progress.

The fight against impunity was vital for transitional justice to be effective. The shrinking of civil society was an issue that could restrict grassroots actions, and could affect the lifting of any repression of freedoms of expression and association. All prisoners arbitrarily detained should be freed immediately. Libyas long-term stabilisation was supported, and all parties should contribute towards this progress. It was important to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that had taken place since 2014. Ensuring accountability would provide a stable foundation for the future protection of human rights.

Libya was to be commended for its work on human rights, a speaker said, including establishing a national human rights plan, and follow up on recommendations made by the Universal Periodic Review and treaty bodies. The international community, the United Nations and the Human Rights Council should provide assistance to ensure that transitional justice was provided, including capacity building and technical assistance in order to strengthen the rule of law and respect for human rights. The progress made so far should be built on, and a progressive solution to the situation should be created without bowing to pressures from afar.

___________

Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the information media;not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

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Human Rights Council Holds Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Central African Republic and...

The Atlantic, founded in 1857 to advance the cause of abolition and to explore the American idea through art, politics, and literature, has as of today published its full archive online: offering unprecedented access to its journalism, stretching across 165 years, on its website for the first time. Tens of thousands of never-before-digitized stories are now available to read, many from famous writers and historic figures. The archive previously existed primarily in physical copy, with less than 6 percent published online until now.

The Atlantic archive contains the complete print-magazine collection: all monthly issues, starting with its first edition in November 1857; it includes nearly 30,000 articles, essays, original fiction, and poetry; writings from thousands of prestigious authors; and every cover in the magazines history. The archive is fully searchable by topicreaders can seek historical context on whats happening today, or read early short stories and poetry by writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Louisa May Alcott, Sylvia Plath, and James Baldwinand subscribers have unlimited access to the full collection.

As one of the longest continuously published magazines in the United States, The Atlantic has an archive of enormous historical significanceoffering a rare glimpse into what history felt like as it was happening, and the stories that the foremost voices in literature, politics, philosophy, and culture told about their country at its most crucial moments. In an introduction to the archive, Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg draws out a handful of such gems now widely available, including: the first publication of Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken; a rolling argument between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois on the methodology of Black liberation; Rachel Carsons initial foray into nature writing; Mark Twains first impression of the telephone; and a memoir by Anna Leonowens, who taught the Siamese King Mongkuts 82 children, which was the origin of the famed musical The King and I.

One of my great joys as a journalist here is to spelunk into our physical archive in search of treasures, Goldberg writes. The world is all gates, all opportunities, Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of our founders, said, and the gates to our magazines rich past are now open.

The archive launches today with The Atlantic Writers Project, in which our current writers reflect on the work of 25 of their most influential counterparts from the past. Just as The Atlantics daily reporting draws from history to inform the present, The Atlantic Writers Project provides a clear link from past voices to our present journalists. Staff writer Clint Smith remembers the work of Charlotte Forten Grimk, who was also a poet and teacher; staff writer Robinson Meyer, whose contemporary work focuses on the interaction between humans and nature, reflects on the tradition that Henry David Thoreau started in these pages more than a century ago; both staff writer Elizabeth Bruenig and her biography subject, Harriet Beecher Stowe, write with clarity about the highest-stakes moral crises of their time.

Goldbergs introduction acknowledges that publishing the full archive means its all hereas he writes, the good, the bad, the brilliant, the offensive, the ridiculous. We knew from the start that we would engage in no censorship, trimming, or dodging As journalists, we felt it important to share our archive in full, for reasons of transparency and historical accuracy.

On July 1, the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery and The Atlantic also launched a related multi-platform collaboration titled Perspectives: The Atlantics Writers at the National Portrait Gallery, available to tour in person at the gallery and online. Perspectives features Atlantic co-founders and distinguished contributors whose portraits are on view at the museum, such as Louisa May Alcott, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis. New companion wall texts, written by The Atlantics journalists, draw connections between the magazines historic focus on abolition, its current engagement with social justice and civil rights, and the museums many portraits of diverse activists. Also included are the likenesses of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, three of the founders who established The Atlantic in Boston in 1857.

Ancestry is the exclusive sponsor of The Atlantics archive launch. The sponsorship is providing unlimited access to all magazine issues from the 1950s for the next several months, in conjunction with Ancestry indexing the 1950 U.S. Census this year to make the records fully searchable for everyone for free.

Press Contact: Anna Bross, press@theatlantic.com

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The Atlantic Releases Its Complete Archive Online - The Atlantic

Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 11 to July 31, 2022.

All artwork in the exhibition can be viewed here.

American painter Winslow Homer (18361910) has long been known for his dramatic seascapes of the rocky Maine coast, as well as his paintings of Civil War scenes. His oil paintings and watercolors such as Breezing Up(A Fair Wind) (1876) of boys setting out to sea in a small sloop or children playing Snap the Whip (1872) communicate something of the optimism of the post-Civil War period when America was a rising power and there was a general sense of progress, of growth, and hopes that the democratic promise of the Civil War would be realized.

Organized around The Gulf Stream (1899), Homers powerful painting of a lone black man adrift on a stormy sea beset with sharks, the aptly titled exhibition Crosscurrents at the Metropolitan Museum in New York underscores the centrality of racial and class relations during and in the aftermath of the Civil War in Homers work.

Likewise the impact of developing industrial capitalism on rural and maritime life is evident when his images of American rural life in the 1870s-80s are carefully examined. His stunning watercolors of the West Indies indicate not just natural beauty, but the exploitation of this tropical paradise first by European colonial masters and then by US imperialism. Finally, his most persistent theme, the human struggle with the forces of nature, is at once existential but also grounded in a particular time and place.

To the extent that direct observation of the everyday was the basis of his work, Homers images seem straightforward. Barbarously simple, to the mind of contemporary and fellow Bostonian, writer Henry James. He (Homer) has chosen the least pictorial features of the least pictorial range of scenery and civilization as if they were every inch as good as Capri or Tangier; and, to reward his audacity, he has incontestably succeeded.

But Homers images, whether pictorial by James standards or not, were carefully composed to suggest narratives that are more ambiguous than they first appear; and though largely self-taught, he was not an unsophisticated provincial. Through his associations with fellow artists in New York City, where he lived and maintained a studio from the early 1860s till he relocated to the coast of Maine in the 1880s, and particularly his travel on two significant occasionsthe first to Paris, France, in 1867 and the second to the English coastal village of Cullercoats for two years (18811882)his work was deeply informed by that of the best European painters, such as his forerunner in dramatic seascapes, English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and the Realist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), with whom his unvarnished pictures of rural labor share a particular affinity.

The organization of the exhibition draws connections between what otherwise might seem like discrete bodies of Homers work, centering it in the historic developments of the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction period. It opens with The Sharpshooter (1863), a small canvas showing a single Union soldier perched up in a tree. At first it is hard to even distinguish the soldier from the tree branches, were it not for the telling detail of the red badge on his cap and the highlight on his ear and visor. Once noticed, however, the imminently bloody consequences of his focus are chilling. At a later time, Homer described his experienceand made a sketch oflooking through one such sharp-shooters scope as the closest thing he could imagine to murder.

In Defiance, Inviting a Shot before Petersburg (1864), a larger painting which effectively serves as a counterpart, we see what the soldier might have been aiming ata Confederate soldier dances atop a trench before a decimated field inviting Union fire with a doomed bravado. A supporter of the Union and the abolition of slavery, Homer nonetheless saw the war as an internecine conflict that left deep scars on both sides. On at least two occasions he sketched behind Confederate lines, and the aforementioned scene in Petersburg might have been witnessed on one such.

Homers direct experience of the war came through his assignment by Harpers Weekly to sketch camp life of Union troops under Major General George B. McClellan in 1861. At the age of 25, he already made his living producing wood-block illustrations for the popular press. The second son in a Boston mercantile family of fluctuating means, Homer had been apprenticed as a teenager to John Henry Bufford, a prominent Boston printer in whose shop he mastered the relatively new and labor-intensive process of lithography.

Introduced to the United States by Louis Prang in 1825, lithography, literally stone (litho) drawing (graphy), was a means of reproducing images in print media. Many political cartoons, like those of French satirist Honor Daumier (1808-1890) were lithographs. But much of the work at Buffords was the more mundane production of handbills and advertisements. Homer left the sweatshop-like conditions of the litho shop by his early 20s in favor of work in wood-engraving for Harpers. While never a cartoonist of the stature of Daumier, Homers illustrations often carry a pointed, if understated irony. And his strength as a draftsman, as well as his narrative compositions owed an enduring debt to this training. Even after becoming established as an artist, he would continue to earn a part of his living as an illustrator well into his career.

Painted upon his return to his New York studio, likely from sketches made on the scene, Prisoners from the Front (1866) established Homers artistic reputation as a painter, not a mere illustrator. Featured at the annual exhibition of New Yorks National Academy of Design, it was shown to further critical acclaim at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, which Homer visited on his trip of that year.

The painting captures both the commonalityall of the figures are the same height and occupy the same picture planeas well as the divide between the North and South. The capturing Union officer, Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow on the right may be the victor, but the cocky Confederate officer is the center of the composition. The other prisoners, one aged and the others in ragged clothes that hardly count as uniforms, clearly indicate the social divisions between the Southern planter class and the farmers and woodsmen of the hill country that made up the bulk of the Confederate troops. All of them look poor in comparison to Barlow with his glossy boots and sword; even the Confederate officer, for all his swagger, has buttons missing from his jacket and breeches.

Through such seemingly minor details, Homers pictures invite the viewer to ask questions, but only suggest answers. In The Veteran in a New Field and The Brush Harrow (both 1865) In the tradition of countless paintings of agricultural life from Breughel down to Millet, the images suggest humanitys place in the earths seasonal cycles. But on further examination, the human toll of the recent conflict is encapsulated in the images of a solitary man harvesting with a scythe suggestive of the Grim Reaper and two children at work with a primitive tool in fields without adult assistance.

Homer was one of the few visual artists of his time to observantly and sympathetically portray formerly enslaved African Americans in paintings that pose questions about the newly established social relations immediately after the Civil War. In Near Andersonville (1865-66) and A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876), these questions are posed sharply. Two other stunningly beautiful paintings, The Cotton Pickers (1876) and Dressing for the Carnival (1877) depict aspects of African-American life as it was being established during the period of Reconstruction (1867-1877).

Also in the 1870s, Homer began to spend summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a New England fishing community where everyone, including children, was involved in hauling their daily livelihood from the sea. It was there he first began painting in watercolors, a medium that did not then have the stature of oil, being associated with amateurs, mostly women. But it was perfectly suited to capturing the crystalline light of Cape Ann, and Homers mastery of the medium gave it tremendous expressive power. More rapidly produced than oil paintings, Homer was also able to earn a better living, consigning more than a hundred watercolors to his gallery for sale one season.

Even here however, the picturesque in Homer is grounded in specific events. Waiting for Dad (Longing) (1873), for example, might seem to be a sentimental image, till one learns that a particularly devastating Nor-easter had drowned a good portion of the male population at sea that year, leaving many households without fathers, and families without their main breadwinners.

The power of the sea, and our relation to it, would become an increasingly dominant theme of Homers work by the 1880s. In 1881, he made his second trip to Europe, this time staying almost two years in Cullercoats, a northern English coastal village with a fishing economy much like Gloucester. There he painted primarily the fishwives he observedtheir husbands being likely at work out at seastanding tenaciously against the forces of nature in Perils of the Sea (1881) Inside the Bar (1883), and The Gale (1883-1893).

He also witnessed, and painted, several extraordinary rescues from sinking vessels. The Life Line (1884) in particular is exceptional not only for the power of its compositionthe nearly drowned woman and her rescuer hang suspended in the center of the composition of crashing wavesbut it demonstrated the use of a new technology, the breech buoy, which made such hazardous rescues possible. The importance of technology in mastering the forces of nature is also apparent in Eight Bells (1886) as two fishermen use a sextant and chronometer to determine their ships position in rough seas.

Homer examined the same fundamental relationships between human labor and the forces of the sea in the very different environment of the tropics in the watercolors he painted on his two stays in the Caribbean in 1885 and in 1898. Partly commissioned by The Century Magazine to advertise the natural beauty of the islands as tourist destinations for well-to-do Northerners, Homers dazzling watercolors again show a social as much as a natural environment. Here young black fishermen haul turtle and sponges from the iridescent waves, instead of herring and halibut, but the hazards of earning a living in such a way were much the same, though different in critical respects.

The watercolors Rest and A Garden in Nassau (both 1885) are powerful images of exclusion and inequality. A young black woman resting her burden of fruits and a black child respectively stand outside high stucco walls behind which all that we, like they, can see are verdant palms and vibrant flowers suggesting that a tropical paradise for some was based on the distinctly un-paradisiacal disenfranchisement and exploitation of the labor of others.

Homers characteristically blunt depiction of a carefully observed social reality is implicitly critical. His approach had much in common with, and was likely informed, by that of Courbet, a generation older than Homer, whose Realist manifesto proclaimed:

'To be able to translate the customs, ideas, the appearances of my epoch according to my own appreciation of it [to be not only a painter but a man,] in a word to create living art, that is my goal.' (On Realism, 1855.)

There are similarities between the two painters, not only in approach but in their attention to class relations and rural labor in a period of social and political transition. Each lived through titanic eventsCourbet, the 1848 revolution and the Paris Commune of 1871; Homer, the Civil War and the rise of American industrial society. Each adopted an uncompromising realism. It is difficult not to see the influence of Courbet and others in a work like Homers Prisoners from the Front.

At the same time, there are considerable dissimilarities, rooted, above all, in differing social conditions. The social struggle in France in the mid-19th century was at a considerably more advanced state. French workers revolted in 1830 and rose up as independent force in June 1848, at a time when the American Civil War, which would usher in a period of explosive economic development and growth of the working class, was only being prepared.

The differences find expression, for example, in the depiction of rural labor in Courbets The Stone Breakers (1849), as opposed to Homers Old Mill (The Morning Bell) (1871). Nor did the explosive struggles of the working class in America of the 1880s and later ever become Homers subject. He had matured and found his social-artistic orientation in a different era in a different context.

Nevertheless, Homers final paintings of the surf pounding the rocks in Prouts Neck, Maine, such as Northeaster (1895) or Driftwood (1909), for all that they convey the restless movement of water, are surprisingly rooted in concrete actuality. With Homers characteristically keen powers of observation, they are informed by his understanding that human beings, through their labor, are inexorably engaged in unrelenting struggle with this tumult and clash of elements.

(Winslow Homer: American Passage by William R. Cross, published 2022, has served as a reference for this review.)

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Winslow Homer: CrosscurrentsExhibition of the great 19th century American painter at the Metropolitan Museum - WSWS

THE GREAT MAN THEORY, by Teddy Wayne

Paul, the protagonist of Teddy Waynes new novel, The Great Man Theory, is an aggrieved Everyman who finds contemporary life unsatisfying. He eschews screens and seeks to preserve his capacity for deep, sustained thought about the things that matter to him the environment, politics, history and the fight against the tyranny of the ready-made that orders so much of life today. Put another way, hes the kind of annoying man you sometimes encounter out in the world: overserious, tiresomely enraged and boring at parties.

I loved him immediately. Cranky characters often make for interesting novels, after all. Consider Saul Bellows splenetic heroes: Moses Herzog, Augie March and Artur Sammler. Paul most closely resembles the first of those men, and The Great Man Theory itself resembles Herzog (1964), a novel of complaint directed at various people and institutions in the protagonists life. Like Moses Herzog, Paul is hyperliterate and his mind races with irritation and juvenile glee. There is a sneering charm to his narration. Also like Herzog, Paul experiences a series of semi-comic but escalating mishaps that get much less funny as the novel goes on.

The Great Man Theory opens with Paul being demoted from senior lecturer to adjunct instructor after eight years at a Manhattan college. More work for less money? Paul says when his department chair breaks the news. Sign me up! Because untenured academia, with all of its late-capitalist humiliations, is one of the few avenues of consistent work for writers, its no wonder that we are now amid a resurgence of whats been called adjunct lit. In this subset of bildungsroman (one of the first, best examples of which is Bernard Malamuds A New Life), the cold realities of academic labor production thwart the nave academics ideals. But here, Wayne tweaks the genre: Paul, a veteran of academia, is humiliated because his low expectations were still too high.

Broke and without subsidized health insurance, Paul gives up his apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and goes to live with his mother in the Bronx. He drives ride-shares to earn extra income, which means he needs a smartphone. He also has to figure out how to continue being a present and dutiful father to his daughter, Mabel, whom he shares with his ex-wife (now remarried to a very wealthy tech investor). All of this while working on a nonfiction book hes calling The Luddite Manifesto, an examination of the ways that technology has corrupted and ruined not only democracy, but the world.

Wayne handles the dissolution of Pauls life with a wry irony. When Paul goes to a friends dinner party and says something scathing about progressives protesting on the weekends (Its sort of like bringing toothpicks to a tank fight. And then putting pictures of your toothpicks on Instagram), the comedy is in the fact that Paul is probably right, but hes too myopic, too bitter, to see that a gathering of Park Slope academics is not the place.

When he goes on a first date, Paul has a hard time not talking about the president, who is unnamed but is most certainly modeled on Trump. After his date asks if they can avoid mentioning the presidents name, Wayne lets us know how wrongheaded Paul thinks this is: Sidestepping discussion of the cancer was exactly what the tumorous president and his cronies wanted.

Yet Paul is capable of self-reflection. He is all too aware of the hazards of his writing and how it chipped away at his marriage:

It was that his experience of writing had grown more rancorous, the essays becoming polemical cudgels rather than fine-point tools of inquiry. His open curiosity in his 20s and early 30s had curdled shed claimed into a wallowing, fanged righteousness that admitted no private smiles. Some women might be attracted to a curmudgeonly crank at first, willing themselves to see a brooding charisma in any chronic malcontent. But no one liked being married to one.

At the core of The Great Man Theory are twin conversion narratives. Pauls mother is gently red-pilled by the right-wing media, a transformation he discerns only after he moves back in with her. Suddenly, his mother is dating a conservative widower and watching a show called Mackey Live. This conflict boils over after a politician is murdered seemingly at the behest of the president and the shows host.

They didnt shoot her, his mother argues, repeating the presidents talking points. A crazy person did.

When Paul calls her stupid, his mother snaps:

Youve always looked down on me. With your degree your father and I paid for. You think I wouldnt have liked to go to college? I had to work from the time I finished high school. So did your father. After he almost got killed in Korea. Whatve you had to deal with? Never had to serve, no Great Depression, no World War II, no nothing. And all you do is mope around.

Running parallel to his mothers conversion is Pauls own. The smartphone that this professed Luddite acquires to drive ride-shares is a cursed object that tethers him to the internet. But before long, hes leaving lengthy comments on articles and browsing the web late at night: The news no longer merely infuriates him; now, he licked his verbal chops at the opportunity to weigh in with a clever put-down or persuasive analysis.

The macabre transformation hits overdrive when he receives that most tantalizing of dark blessings engagement. One essayistic comment in particular takes off: His phone overheated with notifications, and he had to disable them. By that evening it had pride of place as the sites most endorsed comment of the day, that designation itself leading to more approvals, with a satisfying 6.4K next to it, its numerical popularity so vast it required a letter of abbreviation.

Its in such moments that Wayne turns the smug woundedness of the contemporary liberal into an amusing social comedy that is, at its finest, a worthy successor to those seriocomic novels of Bellow.

The most convincing and interesting part of The Great Man Theory is the way it captures a troubling transformation happening in schools, homes, offices, comment sections and Twitter threads around the world. I dont mean the insidious ascendancy of the alt-right or the manosphere. I mean the conversion of seemingly enlightened liberals and leftish centrists into hectoring paranoiacs plagued by a shadowy legion of bad actors.

Such people have what social progressives might consider the right politics. They believe in the welfare state and redistribution of wealth and sometimes even police abolition. And yet, to watch or listen to them is to witness people deep in the grips of a conspiracy theory. Its all Russia! And collusion! QAnon is scary, but Wayne manages to reveal that the left has its own room full of red string. He captures both the pitiful and the amusing and the painfully poignant nature of this transformation, how it can hollow out a person.

I wish I could end things here. But I have to say a word or two about the ending of The Great Man Theory. Teddy Waynes previous book, Apartment, revealed itself at the last minute to be a work of melodrama, which added a necessary level of extremity to the seemingly mundane stakes of trying to become a writer. The mundane and melodrama often make for excellent companions.

In the case of The Great Man Theory, the final turn to melodrama merely feels contrived and false. It renders the novel less smart, less engaging, less human. Wayne had the option to write a real novel about frustrated contemporary masculinity and the ways that white liberal men are also being corrupted by the internet and their lingering sense of entitlement. Instead, what readers will find at the conclusion of The Great Man Theory is that its author has been laughing at them and his characters the entire time. An enraging end to an almost great but ultimately crude novel.

Brandon Taylor is the author of Real Life and Filthy Animals.

THE GREAT MAN THEORY, by Teddy Wayne | 303 pp. | Bloomsbury Publishing | $27

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Review: The Great Man Theory, by Teddy Wayne - The New York Times

Anti-abortion groups are focusing their efforts on state legislatures in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

March for Life, a group that organizes a yearly national march in Washington, D.C., against abortion, will start to focus its activism more on the state level, Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, told The Hill.

In the next year, the group wants to double the number of state marches they have and over the course of the next five to six years aggressively and quickly grow our state marches program to be in all 50 states, Mancini said.

Mallory Carroll,vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America,told The Hill the organization plans to focus their efforts in states where they believe they could see progress with anti-abortion legislation.

Weve prioritized plans in states that we believed and are indeed are being most ambitious right away to protect unborn human life and thereby limiting abortion so women are needing more services, she said. The status quo is unlikely to change for women in states like California, Illinois, New York and Maryland.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a huge victory for the anti-abortion movement. The 1973 landmark decision previouslyhindered activists ability to see progress on advocacy for anti-abortion laws atthe state level.

Now, our abortion abolition work, which is to ensure complete legal protections for preborn children, has even more significance because we can actually achieve that in a number of states, Lila Rose, CEO of Live Action, said.

Democratic-led states will likely keep abortion access legal after the ruling, and some made moves before the overturning of Roe v. Wade to expand access to abortion. But,more than 10 states have already banned or heavily restricted abortion in the weeks since the courts ruling.

Along with targeted state efforts, anti-abortion groups say the need for education is a crucial tocombat misinformation they say emerged afterRoe was overturned.

The groups say that they are looking to push back against the claim thatlaws that restrict abortion would criminalize miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies a pregnancy where the fertilized egg cannot live outside the mothers womb and could cause serious health risks for the mother.

Elective abortion is not treating an ectopic pregnancy. Elective abortion is not treating a miscarriage. Theres a huge need for education what what an elective abortion is, Donna Harrison, chief executive officer at the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said.

She said a vast majority of OBGYNs do not perform abortions, but they will still be taking care of miscarriages and be taking care of ectopics like we all do.

When asked how to reach women and individuals who were against the overturning of Roe, anti-abortion groups believe combating misinformation is key.

Theres a lot of misunderstanding now, a lot of fear, Rose said. Our job is to go out there with the facts, with powerful stories and connect people to resources to bring truth and light to the situation.

Anti-abortion groups say they will also continue to provide resources and support to women going through unplanned pregnancies, particularly targeting states passing anti-abortion laws like Mississippi and Georgia.

Were working to build up connections between the pregnancy centers and other existing private and public resources that are available along a spectrum of care that women may need to help them choose life, Carroll said.

The groups would like to provide women with a list of items including: state investment in child care, help in an abusive relationship, transportation, diapers and strollers.

But amid a refocused push for anti-abortion legislation at the state level, advocates say their word isnt done on the national front.

Rose said each state should not have the right to make their own abortion laws, further stating that a constitutional amendment needs to enshrine anti-abortion law for the country.

We have the 14th Amendment, but its a matter the Supreme Court does need to acknowledge, in the future, that the right to life is not something to be decided onby democracies in different states, its an absolute right, Rose said.

This week, President Biden unveiled an executive order aimed at preserving some access abortion services, but added that Congress has the ultimate power to effect change on the issue now.

If you want to change the circumstance for women, and even little girls in this country, please go out and vote, Biden said.

Mancini says March for Life will continue to have their national march yearly as she anticipates that our legislative battles at the federal level will be many.

More:

Post Roe, anti-abortion groups focus efforts on the state level - The Hill

Sir Jony Ive signs off the website of his creative collective, LoveFrom, with two startling, contradictory words: Love and Fury, connecting them with a meticulously drawn ampersand. They suggest a more complicated and surprising designer than the purist who gave the enigmatic first-generation iPhone its Dieter Rams-inspired calculator interface.

Ive is unfailingly polite, solicitous and considerate in conversation, and yet every so often he uses the word fury or furious, or angry. It makes him sound a bit like William Morris, who gave up design to campaign for socialism, complaining within the hearing of his clients of spending his life ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich. Ive certainly isnt giving up design, but he suggests that, when discussing work in his studio, he is sometimes arguing with himself: mostly it is an internal monologue. He belongs to a generation of designers who grew up reading Victor Papaneks Design for the Real World, which made the notorious claim that there are professions more dangerous than industrial design, but not many.

His career to date has been inextricably associated with the giant company that has done more than most to define modern industrial production, and perhaps even modern life. Though he stepped down from the chief design officer role in 2019, he continued to work with Apple until this year. His current clients include Ferrari and Airbnb.

The Terra Carta Seal by LoveFrom

Alongside his work for industry behemoths, Ive recently designed a seal for the Prince of Wales Terra Carta campaign, with the words For Nature, People and Planet around the edge rendered in the specially drawn serif font, derived from the work of the 18th-century printer John Baskerville, that Ive reserves for his personal projects. The seal has an elegance and emotional punch that somehow hints at the sensibility of both William Blake and Damien Hirst.

Terra Carta, named in a conscious echo of the 13th-century Magna Carta, is a document designed to guide business in averting climate catastrophe. Magna Carta, which promised trial by jury and the abolition of cruel and unusual punishment, was written with considerable elegance by the Archbishop of Canterbury of the time. The new Terra Carta, which aims to show that capitalism and enlightened self-interest are compatible with saving the planet, may have a Latin name, but its vocabulary is unsurprisingly accented by the language of modern management theory. With its frequent references to road maps, value chains and game changers, Terra Carta aims to identify 13 fruitful areas for investment, including biomimicry, electric flight propulsion, carbon-neutral construction, nuclear fission, and green infrastructure.

Its an approach that has drawn the attention of Greenwash.Earth, an Extinction Rebellion-backing activist group that calls out organisations that claim to care about the natural world while knowingly destroying it. They call Terra Carta a great idea and say we dont think Terra Carta is greenwashing. But they have expressed scepticism about some of the 450 organisations, which include HSBC and BP, that have signed up to support the document.

As chancellor of the Royal College of Art (RCA), Ive does not confine himself to dressing in a colourful cod-medieval outfit once a year to officiate at the degree ceremony. He has worked with the Prince to kick-start what he calls a design lab at the college, to support the aims of Terra Carta, and perhaps to prove Papanek was wrong, even if he shares some of the latters concerns.

Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the Zero Emissions Livestock Project (Zelp) has designed a wearable device for cattle to neutralise methane emissions and improve animal welfare

The Prince and Ive were at the college at the end of April to announce which four projects, chosen from 125 submissions made by RCA students and recent alumni, would share 200,000 from the Princes Sustainable Markets Initiative, and benefit from time with Ive and other advisors to find ways to use that money to take their ideas to market.

The successful entrants range from a group of designers working on methods of dealing with the microplastic pollutant released from vehicle tyres, which, it turns out, is almost as damaging as single-use plastic, to a muffler device that can convert methane emissions from cows into comparatively less threatening CO2, as well as a waterproof textile that does not bleed harmful chemicals into the water table, and an idea for low-tech aerofoil-assisted reseeding projects for degraded natural environments. The four, plus two runners-up, have been chosen for their ability to make a visible difference, and how close they are to being realised. For example, the Zelp methane capture project set up by Francisco Norris, an RCA graduate from 2017, has already secured substantial investment and has 26 employees.

The design lab idea came from a conversation between Jony and the Prince, says RCA vice chancellor Paul Thompson. Its had a powerful impact on the whole RCA, bringing everybody together.

Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the first totally recyclable outdoor performance textile, Amphitex by Amphibio will be made from recycled and plant-based feedstock

As Charles shook hands with the winners, he told his audience how proud he was to be associated with such remarkable ideas. He spoke of the urgency of the crisis that confronts us in all directions, and of the need to find solutions rapidly, through the combination of art, science and technology, that together have a better chance of winning this battle.

Ive first met Charles more than a decade ago when he and Steve Jobs went to Highgrove, the Princes private residence in Gloucestershire. He admires the Princes command of the issues confronting us on climate change, and even more the way in which he addresses them. Its easy to say the threat is too profound and too existential to do anything but retreat. With the certainty of knowledge that comes from looking at the issues for a long time, the Prince has described the problem, but his engagement does not come from fear.

Ive confesses that he is an anxious person. As the reference to Love and Fury on LoveFroms website suggests, his strategy for dealing with that anxiety is to convert fear into fury. Fear seems passive. I am more angry than I am fearful, he says. Its dangerous when you feel powerless in the face of a challenge. The thing about fear is that it is passive, corrosive and deeply unhealthy. It encourages you to retreat, because you dont think you can effect change.

Terra Carta Design Lab winner: Bike Ayaskan and Begum Ayaskans Aerseeds are pods that are designed to be carried by the wind to deliver nutrients and seeds to regenerate soils

When Ive talks about design, his language is fiercely moralistic. I am angry that most of what is made seems so thoughtless. So many products do not deserve to exist. The minimum that they should do to justify themselves and consume all that material is that their designers should care about them.

Ive is heartened both by the young designers whose work is the basis of the Terra Carta project, and by their ideas. He sees their work as a wonderful antidote to dodging and retreating. He is equally impressed by how articulate they are. I used to struggle to speak, and to have heard every one of them talk with passion and knowledge, with fire in their bellies, but with no arrogance, was tremendously encouraging.

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Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the Tyre Collectives device attaches to a wheel to capture the unseen synthetic rubber particles expelled by tyre wear, a major source of pollution

Ive is an optimist about what designers have to offer. As he sees it, design is still in flux. We have lost sight of how recent industrialisation is. Unlike architecture, design is still a new profession. It developed by putting a design office on top of a manufacturing plant, then discovered authorship, and is still trying to find how to make sense of the equation.

I am struck by the conspicuous lack of a completely identifiable movement, continues Ive. Perhaps the last one was Ettore Sottsass and Memphis. Perhaps because its easier to identify a movement that can be summarised by appearance.

Terra Carta Design Lab runner-up:Shellworks uses bacteria to produce sustainable packaging for the beauty and personal care industry that is truly compostable, cost-competitive, aesthetic and effective

If Ive has his way, the future of design is to combine the care of makers with the potential of contemporary industrial manufacturing. In the 1980s, when manufacturing started to be outsourced from North America, it was not because of the rate for labour, it was because of skills that could not be found in other places. The narrative is that it was cheaper. That was not the case, it was to find capability. When you design, you must have a thorough understanding of materials, otherwise you get a fractured development of form. You often hear people apologising that things are not made the way that they wanted. I understand that excuse, but at Apple, I spent months at manufacturing sites, and my apology would have had no currency.

Makers never say, its not been made quite the way that I wanted. If its designed and made with care, a mass-produced object can have the resonances of a batch production. It comes down to motivation and the sacrifices you make for the exercise.

Terra Carta Design Lab runner-up:Or:Bital Bloom is a data-driven artwork that blooms in response to corporate and organisational adherence to sustainability targets and carbon emission reductions

For Ive, design is about care, something that he once discussed with Jobs. It was a conversation from which his other sign-off word came. He told me, When you make something with care, even though you dont know who the people using it will be, they will sense it. Care is a way to express our love for the species.

Continued here:

HRH Prince Charles and Sir Jony Ive on designing for a better world - Wallpaper*

NewsCorey ConnellyTuesday 21 June 2022Former NAR assemblyman Max James speaks at a Labour Day march, from Gulf City Mall, Lowlands, to Scarborough, on Sunday. Photo by David Reid

Former NAR assemblyman Max James has called for the abolition of contract work in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

James made the call on Sunday at Gulf City Mall, Lowlands, Tobago, before a march to commemorate Labour Day. The event was hosted by the National Trade Union Centre.

Speaking on behalf of workers at the Tobago Agri-Business Development Company (TADCO), James claimed that 75 employees who had worked at the Tobago Cold Storage and Warehouse Facility, which was subsumed by TADCO, were promised that their services would be retained.

Lo and behold, they gave them offer letters and then they decided to give them contracts, James said.

He claimed a company official did not want the disgruntled workers to attend the Labour Day march.

He wants to discipline the workers for holding a meeting on the compound. And he wants them to sign a contract in front of him without them even seeing the contract.

But I want to ask all of the workers here today, If a man comes into your kitchen to take away your lunch and your food, what you going to do?

James added, The issues today are bread-and-butter issues from the four per cent to terms and conditions of employment and all workers must say a resounding no to the four per cent and the wickedness of this government in Tobago and in Trinidad.

He said the workers must tell the THA to end contract employment.

Contract employment must be abolished. What they need to do is to approach the central government and ensure that the workers be put into what is called contract of service. No more contracts.

James, who said he was once actively involved in the Public Services Association and National Union of Government and Federated Workers Union, claimed TADCO employees with 25 years of service are being given job letters marked temporary.

So you cant go to the bank. They cant go to the credit union because based on the merger of the companies, the workers are temporary after 25 years.

He argued it was not the workers decision to tell the former PNM-led THA to merge the entities.

If you give them a letter of offer saying to the workers your service is retained, then this thing that they call temporary on your job letter is really atrocious and cannot be accepted.

James called on THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Deputy Chief Secretary Watson Duke and Secretary of Food Security, Natural Resources, The Environment and Sustainable Development Nathisha Charles-Pantin to look into the issue.

He said the Chief Personnel Officer Dr Daryl Dindials latest four per cent wage increase offer to public sector workers for the period 2014-2019, must be rejected.

How do they expect workers to live on four per cent when things going up in the market on a daily.

More:

Ex-assemblyman: End contract work in THA - TT Newsday

During the federal election campaign, Labor promised to future-proof Australias water resources. Now, new Water Minister Tanya Plibersek must deliver on the policy one vital to securing Australias future.

Australia is already challenged by extremes of intense drought and severe floods, and these will be exacerbated as climate change progresses. Amid this, we must continue to feed a growing population and support important export industries, while leaving enough water for people to drink and for rivers to flow.

Many of the nations water policies are outdated and, in some cases, clearly ineffective. Over the past nine years of Coalition government, commitment to fix the problems has been sorely lacking.

Labor says it will right these wrongs. Its a massive job. Here, I outline six actions the new government should prioritise.

The Productivity Commission last year warned Australias water policy needs modernising and reform to meet future challenges.

One of Labors key promises was to establish a new National Water Commission a body the Abbott Coalition government abolished in 2015.

Labor says the commission will drive water reform. One of its key functions will be to support renewal of the National Water Initiative.

That initiative was an agreement struck in 2004 between the Commonwealth and the states and territories on fundamental principles for sustainable water management.Water is principally a state responsibility, so the initiative articulated a nationally shared vision as a first step.

The Howard Coalition government negotiated the initiative and established the National Water Commission to oversee it. The Rudd and Gillard Labor governments maintained this focus.

But the commissions abolition killed this momentum for water reform. With no dedicated body overseeing implementation, government commitment to the agreed principles has waned.

Read more: Grape growers are adapting to climate shifts early and their knowledge can help other farmers

For example, the initiative requires that infrastructure proposals are found to be economically viable and ecologically sustainable before they proceed.

Despite this, state and federal funding was dedicated to the proposed Dungowan Dam in New South Wales, and federal funding to the Hells Gates Dam in Queensland, before a detailed business case or environmental impact assessment had been completed for either.

Labor will renew the National Water Initiative. This should involve a refreshed commitment between the Commonwealth and the states and territories, after several important updates to the agreement:

1. Consider climate

Australia desperately needs a water management strategy that responds to a changing climate. Current water sharing plans are based on past climate variability. But as climate change progresses, this historical experience will be less useful.

2. Secure the water interests of Indigenous people

Indigenous Australians must be more involved in water planning and granted much greater access to water for Indigenous cultural purposes. More attention must also be paid to Indigenous ownership of water resources.

3. Reform urban water management

Cities and towns need greater resilience to drought, bushfire and floods. An overhaul of drinking water safety, and wastewater and stormwater management, are also required to better protect public health and the environment.

In particular, water quality and reliability in some remote and Indigenous communities needs urgent attention.

Read more: Terra nullius has been overturned. Now we must reverse aqua nullius and return water rights to First Nations people

The Murray Darling Basin Plan is due for full implementation by June 2024. Plibersek has much work to do if that deadline is to be met.

That brings us to the final three steps Labor should prioritise:

4. Complete water resource plans

Labor must work with the Murray Darling Basin Authority to ensure so-called water resource plans are completed and accredited. These plans, devised by the states, outline how water is to be shared between users and the environment.

NSWs plans are three years late and holding back progress. The federal government must rectify this including using step in powers to intervene if needed.

5. Prepare for two big reviews

A five-yearly review of the basins environmental watering plan is due in 2025. It will assess whether environmental water is being best used to benefit dependent ecosystems. The review is a major undertaking, and will require federal consultation with state governments, state and federal agencies, scientists, community and business groups and Indigenous people.

The federal government should also review the basin plan from 2026, with a view to adapting it to more frequent dry periods predicted under climate change.

6. Overhaul water markets

Water markets are central to the basin plan. Farmers are allocated water from the river system, and can choose to use it or sell it on water markets.

These markets need reform. A review last year by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found greater scrutiny and transparency was needed to ensure their effectiveness and improve community trust.

The ACCC recommended a new agency to oversee and regulate the water market. Labor could establish this agency or give such responsibilities to a new National Water Commission.

The water sector can contribute to meeting important goals across many policy areas including the transition to net-zero emissions.

For example, wastewater treatment produces emissions including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. But wastewater can also be a source of energy, such as producing biogases.

Water is essential to Australias emerging hydrogen industry. And in the shift to a circular economy, resources such as phosphorous, and clean water itself, will be increasingly recovered from wastewaters.

In all this, federal policy will be required. Labor must also overcome skills shortages especially in engineering and invest in research and development to ensure Australias water management is world-class.

All eyes are now on Tanya Plibersek at this crucial juncture. Lets hope shes the visionary and effective federal water minister Australia needs.

Read more: Our flood predictions are getting worse as the climate changes. We have to understand how hills shape floods

Continue reading here:

Labor promised to fix Australia's big water problem. These 6 things must top the to-do list - The Conversation Indonesia