Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

A play exposing the little-known history of the Indian migrant labourers indentured to work on plantations around the world following the abolition of slavery is coming to the stage in the new year.

The Great Experiment comes to audiences at the Tara Theatre on February 11-15.

This new work recounts the moment in history when more than two million Indians were indentured to replace slave labour in Mauritius, Malaysia, the Caribbean and mainland Africa as part of The Great Experiment.

Carefully devised by performers from various backgrounds in a process led by those of Mauritian heritage, The Great Experiment, directed by Michael Walling, tells two parallel stories that of the labourers and that of the actors themselves grappling with their own relationships to this difficult history and its enduring effects that are still felt today.

Having worked with expert historians and the communities descended from indentured workers, the production also makes use of multimedia and archive footage that the audience are encouraged to explore and interact with before each performance.

Director Michael Walling said: Most of Border Crossings previous work has been very contemporary but the current moment seems to call for a new look at our histories, and particularly the untold histories of the British Empire.

The story of the indentured migrations feels incredibly resonant at a time when people are travelling the world in search of a better life not just because these Indian labourers also migrated for work, but also because their work laid the foundations for the very inequalities which make Europe and America so rich and the global South so poor today.

Our confrontation with this history has brought into the open some incredibly powerful questions about who we are in the UK today: how our multicultural space came into being and why it contains so many unresolved divisions. The past is not past.

Deviser and performer Nisha Dassyne said: Working on The Great Experiment, Ive had to visit the ghosts and memories in my family. They have become more concrete, more human, more accessible.

The connection to my ancestors isnt just something to talk about anymore its a real connection.

Read the original post:

Theatre: The Great Experiment, Tara Theatre - London News Online

"And down in city hall, I've heard the council say, We'll change the name of the Severn Bridge, To the Geraint Thomas Way," sang Max Boyce in 2018 as part of his tribute to the Welshman who won the Tour De France.

Prophetically, and somewhat ironically, a bike as well as Thomas' famed Olympian cycling prowess is probably the one thing you now need for your daily commute since the bridge's tolls were abolished on December 17 last year.

That's particularly true if you live in Chepstow, which has seen a huge spike in traffic travelling both in and out of it since motorists were no longer required to stop and pay to enter Wales via the M48 Severn Bridge and the Second Severn Crossing, now renamed the Prince of Wales bridge.

A financial barrier as much as they were a physical one it seems at its priciest it cost 6.70 to cross the tolls' removal has seen a 16% increase in westbound journeys on the Prince of Wales bridge while the M48 crossing witnessed a spike of around 32%.

Eastbound journeys on the Prince of Wales saw an increase of 8.9%, bringing the average number of crossings a day to almost 40,400.

Moreover a UK government study earlier this year suggested that more than 24m vehicles every year would use the crossings westbound by 2022, compared with 18m had the tolls had stayed in place.

Already used to congestion and delays, Chepstow was plunged into gridlock chaos after decommissioning work began, its out-of-date road network clogged and unable to cope with sheer amount of traffic.

Taking to social media to vent, some overheated drivers claimed it was taking them two and a half hours to do three miles through the town during morning rush hour.

Shaun Thomas, who's worked at the same tile outlet on the nearby Bulwark industrial estate for 19 years, is one of those people whose daily journey has become interminable.

"I drive down the A48 from the Forest of Dean to get in each morning and what used to take me 45 minutes is now almost double that because of the sheer back log of traffic," says the 35-year-old dad-of-three.

"It's got progressively worse over last year in particular. If someone has a bump en route then you've no chance of getting round it you just have to sit there or turn back home."

And it's also affecting business, he adds. "I've had a few roastings for being late but it's also putting customers off in some cases. People wanting to pop in after work have no chance of getting here before we close because the traffic's so silly.

"Personally it would put me off coming to Chepstow to shop altogether."

Once past the pinchpoint that is the Tesco traffic lights in the middle of town, Shaun then faces a long steep crawl up the residential Hardwick Hill, the town's busiest drag, to make it to his workplace.

Dotted on either side with well-heeled Georgian properties, it feels ill-suited to cope with the sheer volume of vehicles many of which are coming from English towns like Lydney en route to Bristol via the M48 and the old Severn Bridge.

Its narrow pavements can also make it difficult for pedestrians with the slipstream from the constant succession of lorries, buses and cars barrelling past at elbow's length often rocking them on their feet.

And poor air quality is another big factor and has been for a long time. Indeed it's regarded as one of the most polluted stretches in the UK.

The World Health Organisation even previously positioned Chepstow above the likes of Birmingham and Bristol on a list of places exceeding the limits for fine-particle pollution levels.

Someone who knows all about this is Tim Melville, coordinator of the Transition Chepstow Transport Group and board member of the Chepstow Air Quality Monitoring Group.

"I lived on Hardwick Hill for over 10 years but moved a long time ago," says the 55-year old, who's helped formulate many of the plans to alleviate congestion and air pollution in the area.

"My daughter Martha had asthma that got so bad it kept her in hospital on a couple of occasions.

"She was about six at the time but the amount of pollution from the traffic affected her really badly - so much so that, despite loving the house we had to relocate."

Upping sticks for a quieter back road a mere 400 yards away, Tim soon found his daughter's condition improved considerably.

"In fact she's been fine ever since," he adds, pointing out that there's been no improvements made to the road system there for 30 years.

Also the air quality monitors situated at various points along the A48 have seen significant increases in nitrogen dioxide levels since the tolls' demise.

"The average for NO2 emissions in 2019 has gone up by more than 10% while, in other areas of Wales, it has been going down as combustion engines become cleaner," says Tim.

"NO2 has gone up by the Chepstow School on Welsh Street by 25% and this could be reduced by more children walking to school and less cars on the road come the morning rush hour.

"We as a group have also been talking about having new commuter buses run from Chepstow to Bristol as well as 'park and share'-type car pool facilities situated outside of the town."

But the long-mooted solution of a 100m plus bypass road, bandied around by Gwent County Council as far back as the '80s and '90s, is too simplistic an idea, he adds.

If built the road would run through border towns like Sedbury and Beachley, providing a direct link between the A48 to the east of Chepstow and theM48.

"The problem is, though, we've not got another 20 years to wait," says Tim. "Things need to be done now because sitting in queueing traffic as early as 6am and journey times of 90 minutes to go just 15 miles is ludicrous."

Meanwhile the Welsh Government has awarded 50,000 to Monmouthshire council to look at how to improve transport in and around Chepstow town centre while funding has also been allocated to support road safety improvements and encourage active travel.

But a steep hike in the population of Chepstow and its surrounding areas in recent times not to mention an increase in house prices is also contributing to the problem.

Monmouthshire and Newport, the closest local authorities to the Severn bridges, are two of the fastest-growing property markets in the UK both having experienced recent rises of 14% and 13.7% respectively.

Gwent-based estate agents Moon & Co reported a boost in sales of property ranging from 350,000 to 400,000 while another from Newport remarked about hearing "more Bristol accents than Welsh" when it came to those calling to enquire about viewings, indicating a steady climb in the numbers coming from over the English border in search of cheaper accomodation.

Many have also pointed the finger at property developers on the other side of the England/Wales divide for taking advantage of the tolls' abolition to build more homes than the local infrastructure can cope with.

"They have been sitting on the land waiting for the tolls to go and now look whats happening," says Sue Dutson of Tutshill, the English village just a short walk from Chepstow across its cast iron, Regency-built Old Wye Bridge.

"They say it's because people need houses but these aren't affordable homes for local people."

She's talking about an application for a new 185 unit housing development on nearby land south of the A48, while more than 1,000 extra homes are also planned for the Chepstow and Severnside areas of Monmouthshire.

In addition a further 1,800 homes earmarked for Lydney can only cause further headaches for those affected.

Indeed, for everyone who's sick of spending each day bumper-to-bumper in grindingly slow traffic, it may already be a bridge too far.

See the article here:

How scrapping the Severn Bridge tolls has affected one Welsh town - Wales Online

Express News Service

Former Odisha-cadre IAS officer turned entrepreneur Ashwini Vaishnaws election to Rajya Sabha from BJP with a seat gifted by BJD took everyone by surprise. Handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and backed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Vaishnaw, though, has donned the new role with aplomb. He speaks toSN Agragami on his journey, the state of economy and Odishas growth and development.

Bureaucrat, technocrat, private secretary to former PM AB Vajpayee, corporate head to entrepreneur, and now a politician quite a career journey it has been. How would you describe it?I think the variety of experience has given me humility to recognise the complexities of modern world. This journey has helped me understand how countries like China, Japan and South Korea transformed themselves from third world to first world within a short span of time. Wharton MBA transformed the way of thinking. Working with Vajpayeeji gave me the privilege of understanding the world view of a great statesman. Working in industry has given me the satisfaction of creating meaningful employment.

We all remember in 1999, when internet was nascent in Odisha, how you used it to follow US Navy website for tracking the Super Cyclone. You saved many lives and your work was commended by National Human Rights Commission. Dont you miss public service?The satisfaction that ones hard work and enterprise is supporting fellow human beings is immense. I like the focus of working on one subject, but sometimes I do miss the opportunity to serve people on a much larger scale. Handling the Super Cyclone of 1999 in Balasore was a team effort. Every section of society, be it lawyers, politicians, journalists, businessmen or the common man, everybody supported the district administration. Almighty was kind that he made my team as the medium for saving thousands of lives.

Ashwini Vaishnaw was elected to Rajya Sabha as BJP candidate from Odisha with the ruling BJD giving up a seat despite having a brute majority. An unlikely candidate and an equally surprising gift by a political party to a bitter rival of the just concluded polls. Please, throw some light on it.I think this was amply clarified by the senior leaders of BJP and BJD. Rajya Sabha has many apolitical members, now as well as in the past. The not so common combination of public life and industry experience is considered useful for contributing to Indias growth story.

As a first time Parliamentarian, how has the experience in Rajya Sabha been?Rajya Sabha is a very welcoming place. Senior members are always eager to guide and mentor. While both sides debate vociferously within the House, the camaraderie outside, cutting across party lines, is a thing to experience. I think we have a mature democracy, and that is undoubtedly the biggest strength of our country.

You have been actively taking part in debates on the state of Indian economy. With the economy gripped by a great slowdown and stuttering on all fronts, how do you view the scenario and the road ahead?I think Indian economy will come out of this slowdown far stronger than ever. Bank balance sheets have purged the toxic NPAs. GST has simplified life for industries. Culture of ever-greening bank loans is over. Corporate tax rationalisation will help in de-leveraging and creating capital for next cycle of growth.

Yes, there is a significant contraction in demand. But, this can be reasonably improved by the proposed annual investment of 10 trillion rupees in infrastructure.Indias nominal GDP is 200-210 trillion rupees. Inflation is benign at 4-6%. For real growth of 8%, nominal growth required is 12-14%. That means about 26-30 trillion rupees additional output.

Investment in infrastructure has a multiplier of three to four times. Therefore, with 10 trillion rupee infrastructure investment programme, we can aim at 8-10% real growth rate. Yes, it will take a couple of years to reach that level, but it is definitely doable. I think we need to work more on our ability to execute projects by removing the archaic tender processes, giving much more freedom to operating teams, and by having a robust contract enforcement regime.

I think the infrastructure investment cycle has started picking up and it will start showing the results by Q4 of FY19-20. Some sections of politicians and academics are proposing greater transfer of money directly to people by way of increased spending in MGNREGA, etc. In my view, that kind of short-term solution will only lead to inflationary pressures without increasing long term productivity of economy.

There is a growing sense that the Modi Government is not doing enough to pull the economy out of the slump. The much-touted 5 trillion dollar economy target by 2024-25 now seems an unapproachable target.I do not agree. Government is continually listening to the needs of all sections of society. Look at the frequency and speed at which Union Finance Minister Nirmalaji has responded to every situation. We must realise that the structural changes of cleaner banking, GST, and greater transparency do take time to be digested by the system. I think that process has matured by now.

There is one more thing that we definitely need to do to attract manufacturing industries. We need more manufacturing to create employment for our teeming millions. I think if we abolish the Dividend Distribution Tax, then a large number of manufacturing businesses will come to India. This distortionary tax is a big deterrent. The effective tax rate on returns on equity is still 40 per cent despite the historic Corporate tax cut. In my opinion, the abolition of DDT and foregoing `41,000 crore revenue would have had greater impact on attracting manufacturing businesses than the `1,45,000 crore revenue foregone by Corporate tax rate cut.

You began your IAS career from Odisha with stints as Collector of Balasore and Cuttack. As an entrepreneur too, you are still connected to the State. As MP representing Odisha, what is your vision for development and progress of the State?Odisha is my karma-bhoomi. Lord Jagannath is kind to give me opportunity to serve this holy land and its people. Odisha has the highest potential to be 1 trillion-dollar economy. A combination of coastline, steel, power and aluminum industries can lead to humungous industrial growth in ship building, heavy engineering, automobile, fabrication, petrochemicals, and host of other heavy industries that can generate multiple downstream and upstream ancillaries and generate huge employment.

Tourism, handicrafts, traditional handlooms, food processing, marine, and spices industries can provide the bridge between the old and the new. In my view, Odisha has the complete spectrum of industrial activity combined with the cultural strength that can lead to economic growth with stable society.

Read more:

'Economy will come out of the slump far stronger' - The New Indian Express

The shock hung Parliament at the 2017 General Election was attributed in large part to aRentquake: private renters voted in greater numbers and favoured Labour.

This time around, a similar pattern is harder to detect. Looking at the 47 marginal seats with a large private renter population, Labour lost Leave-voting Ipswich and Peterborough, but increased their majorities in seats like Reading East and Portsmouth South.

Exactly how private renters voted on Thursday will take some further analysis. But in the two and a half years since the renters movement announced itself as a political force, the Conservatives, worried about alienating a fifth of the population, have made some efforts to neutralise housing as an electoral issue.

The partys manifesto contained two policies that Generation Rent has been campaigning for: reform of the deposit protection system to passport tenants cash between tenancies, and the abolition of unfair Section 21 evictions. The latter policy, which was adopted by all parties, will give tenants more security in their homes and prevent homelessness.

But without limits on rent increases, as advocated by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, unscrupulous landlords could still bully tenants who ask for repairs. When pressed on thisin an interview, housing secretary Robert Jenrick rejected old fashioned rent controls and suggested mere guidance on rent increases would be considered as part of reforms.

The Tories also diverged from their opponents on building more social housing. They didnt match the other parties commitments to 100,000 or more new social homes a year, only promising a White Paper to support their continued supply.

Instead, the focus of the housing elements of the partys manifesto was home ownership. To help more people buy their own home, it has promised longer term mortgages and discounted starter homes. But if delivered and not one of the 200,000 starter homes announced by David Cameron has been these policies will only benefit those who can save in the first place. Two thirds of private renters have no savings at all let alone enough for a 5 per cent deposit.

To really make a difference, the new government must invest in substantial numbers of new social homes. These would take the worst-off tenants out of the unaffordable private sector, in turn reducing demand in the wider market, bringing rents down for everyone. Only then would private renters enjoy more cash at the end of the month to put aside for the future or put food on the table.

The size of the Conservatives victory presents Boris Johnson with two options: ignore the housing crisis and pay lip service to home ownership and house building; or use his political capital to do the right thing. Controversial but necessary decisions are needed on the green belt and property tax if we want a housing system that allows people to live near their work, and rewards them more for going to work than for owning property. These issues have been ducked by previous governments with shakier mandates and rebellious banckbenchers. But Johnson has more ability to ignore the partys allies of landlords and take action if he wants to.

Johnsons speech on Friday morning suggested that we were getting more than just a traditional Conservative programme of government. He highlighted the trust that first-time Conservative voters placed in him and his party and the need not to let them down.

For many of these voters, they, their children and their grandchildren see no prospect of a stable home.Our polling showsthat protection from eviction and rent control is popular, and with cross-party support, an effective package of tenancy reform would be a quick win for the new Parliament.

But democracy does not end at the ballot box and governments of any stripe must be held to their promises. Generation Rent will keep making renters voices heard, making the case for reform and keeping the pressure on until we have a fair housing system.

Dan Wilson Craw is director ofGeneration Rent.

Continued here:

Boris Johnson now has the majority to fix the housing crisis if he wants to - CityMetric

We wish you a headless robot/ We wish you a headless robot/ We wish you a headless robot/ and an alpha zero. If that ditty lacked a certain something, you should be going Da da da doom! about the festive piece in Saturdays Post about a computer saying Roll Over Beethoven and finishing his fragmentary 10th Symphony for him, possibly as a weirdly soulless funeral march.

Evidently this most ambitious project of its type ever attempted will see AI replicate creative genius ending in a public performance by a symphony orchestra in Bonn, Beethovens birthplace part of celebrations to mark the 250th anniversary of the composers birth. Why its not being performed by flawless machines synthesizing perfect tones is unclear.

What is clear is that its one of those plans with only two obvious pitfalls. It might fail. Or it might work.

Its one of those plans with only two obvious pitfalls. It might fail. Or it might work

A bad computer symphony would be awful, like early chess programs beneath contempt in their non-human weakness. But now their non-human strength is above contempt, as they dispatch the strongest grandmasters without emotion.

So my main concern here isnt with the headless Beethoven thing failing. Its with it succeeding. I know theres no stopping progress, that from mustard gas we had to go on to nuclear weapons then autonomous killer bots. But must we whistle so cheerfully as we design heartless successors who will even whistle better than us?

Its strange how many people yearn for the abolition of man. From New Soviet Man to Walden II, radicals cant wait to reinvent everything, including getting rid of dumb old languages where bridges have gender, and dumb old Adam and Eve into the bargain. Our ancestors stank. And we stink. The founder of behaviourist B.F. Skinners utopian Walden II chortles that when his perfect successors arrive the rest of us will pass on to a well-deserved oblivion.

So who are these successors? In That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewiss demented scientist Filostrato proclaims that In us organic life has produced Mind. It has done its work. After that we want no more of it. We do not want the world any longer furred over with organic life, like what you call the blue mould What if were nearly there?

Freed of the boring necessities of life we might be paddocked in a digital, this-worldly Garden of Eden. But unless we are remade, we shall be more than just restless there. Without purpose we would go insane, as in Logans Run or the planet Miranda.

Ah, but we shall be remade. Mondays Post profiled Jennifer Doudna, inventor of the Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technique so simple and powerful theres an app for it. Scientists can now dial up better genes on their smartphones and leave all the messy calculating to the machines. But if the machines can outcompose Beethoven, why would they leave the creative redesign of humans to us?

If the machines can outcompose Beethoven, why would they leave the redesign of humans to us?

To her credit, Prof. Doudna has nightmares about Hitler welcoming her invention. But forget Hitler. Here comes Leela to edit us away. And if Walden IIs eagerly anticipated design of personalities and control of temperament are within reach, and desirable, why should the new ones look anything like our current wretched ones? Is there anything to cherish in fallible man? If not, what sleep shall come?

So as we ponder Christmas, if we do, let us remember that 2,000 years ago the world was turned upside down by a God made Man because he loved weakness not strength. As a baby, then in the hideous humiliation of crucifixion, Christ gave a dignity to the helpless and downtrodden you find nowhere else including operating systems. Is it all rubbish, from the theology to the morality?

Years ago I argued for genetic modifications to restore the normal human template. But not to improve it, from eagle eyes to three legs to eight feet tall. But what will the computers think, and why should they? If nature is an obstacle to transcendence, where will they get their standards? Not from us. Nor will they want a bunch of meat around, sweating, bruising, rotting. Say goodnight, HAL.

Already algorithmic pop music is not just worse but in some important way less human. Where is Greensleeves or Good King Wenceslas in this Brave New World? And where should it be?

Shall the digital future burst forth from our abdomens and laser away the mess? Or is there something precious about us frail, vain, petty and, yes, smelly mortals? If so, what?

Many people love Christmas without being Christian. But many do not. And I think it comes down to your ability, or inability, to love humans as we are, which the Bible says God did but which supercomputers have no obvious reason to do.

So sing a carol for fallen man while the machines work on a funeral march.

View post:

John Robson: Why is man so keen to make man obsolete? - National Post

An unpublished GAA-commissioned report aimed at outlining the organisations future towards its 150th anniversary in 2034 proposed the removal of the provincial championships.

Having been done at the behest of former GAA president Aogn Farrell, the GAA Towards 2034 committee produced the wide-ranging document in January of last year. However, it never saw the light of day.

Seen by the Irish Examiner, the report is a fascinating piece of work completed by a committee chaired by former general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation John Carr and involving individuals such as current playing rules group chair David Hassan and Connacht secretary John Prenty, who recently sat on the fixtures review taskforce.

However, that fixtures review body did not take into consideration the 2034 document, which as well as calling for the replacement of the provincial championships with a tiered championship also proposed the club and county seasons be separated entirely.

As well as calling for an overhaul of the GAAs provincial and national administrative structure and the revolutionary idea of replacing the current mileage expenses with an allowance structure for inter-county players and managers only, the 2034 committee described the provincial championships as unfair and unsustainable.

The report read: While the committee recognised the allegiance that county boards have towards the provincial championships, it deems the current imbalance structure to be unfair and unsustainable on players, coaches, and officials in many counties.

Turning a blind eye to this issue is not an option if the GAA is to thrive and prosper in the future.

"The committee is of the view that the structure imbalances within the inter-county game must be addressed by the Association and suggests that provincial championships be replaced by inter-county championship competition, which will be tiered, with an overarching committee managing all national fixtures across the Gaelic games family.

The report explained the provincial championships were no longer viable considering the growing polarisation of counties in a myriad of areas. The GAA inter-county championships are based on county structures whose boundaries do not change, thus creating major disparities between counties in terms of demographics, population distribution, fundraising capacity, and geographical factors.

"For example, Connacht consists of five counties, Munster six, Ulster nine and Leinster 12.

A major demographic disparity exists between County Dublin with a population of approximately 1.3 million and less than 33,000 living in County Leitrim and 40,000 in Longford. Ten other counties have populations of less than 100,000 people (2016 Census).

In addition, the larger, more successful counties have been able to attract significant sums of money through sponsorship whereas the less populated areas are struggling to make ends meet.

It is no wonder a gulf exists between competitive andnon-competitive county teams with fewer county teams being able to realistically compete in order to win championship titles. In some provinces, the gap in standards between county teams has so widened that only two or three teams have any chance of being successful in provincial championships (The weakness of formerly strong counties is an issue that requires further consideration and is beyond the scope of this committee).

The current imbalance between counties, both nationally and within provinces, is already having a detrimental effect on inter-county championship competitions in terms of aspirations and the morale of officials, mentors, and players.

"It could be argued that the provincial, as presently constituted, is an impediment towards progress and, in effect, could be counter-productive to the development of Gaelic games in less competitive counties.

There have already been changes made to the provincial structure especially in hurling with positive effects on the game itself. Overseas structures have also been devised to enable teams from abroad to play in provincial championships.

The fixtures review taskforce ruled out removing the provincial championships on the basis that there will still enough support for the competitions. They also rejected the idea of making a clear distinction between the club and county seasons for a number of reasons including separating players entirely from their clubs for over half the year would not be desirable.

However, the 2034 body backed the split season idea on the basis of championship only.

The report read: In order to enhance the playing experiences of club players, it is imperative the Association creates separate and distinct playing seasons for inter-county and club championships in order to provide a regular and meaningful schedule of games for all players and, in turn, recognises the important ongoing work taking place in this regard at the time of writing (November 2017).

The report added: The overlap of inter-county and club fixtures makes it impossible to have proper club and inter-county seasons. One outcome is that the majority of club games are fixed in the early or late months of the year where weather conditions are more likely to be adverse, leading to match cancellations, damage to pitches through overuse and increased difficulty attracting spectators and indeed, for that matter, players.

The inescapable conclusion is that there is a pressing need to restore equilibrium between the club and inter-county games.

Read more here:

Unpublished report proposed abolition of provincial championships - Irish Examiner

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In February 1980, Herman Baca, a Chicano activist from San Diego, wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter demanding he put an end to border madness. In the letter Baca detailed how officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were detaining Mexican migrant children in local jails and immigration facilities. In particular, he denounced the detention of a 12-month-old baby as barbaric and inhumane. While Baca urged Carter to enter into discussion with policymakers, he believed that ultimately the detention of migrant children would only end with the abolition of the INS.

Continuing this activism, in 1981, Baca organized the first community-based call for the abolition of the INS. The call cited the detention of migrant children as an example of the abuse the organization would never cease committing. Such abolition advocacy, which is captured in Bacas papers held at the University of California San Diego Special Collections and Archives, shows that the movement to abolish institutions of immigration policing did not emerge recently in the face of the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy. While scholars have grounded the movement to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the ideological history of abolitionism, most have focused on prison abolitionism, overlooking previous movements to eliminate immigration policing. A closer look at Chicano activism in the late 1970s and early 1980s shows that immigration police have long targeted migrant children and that activists have been denouncing related violence for decades. Recognizing that the fight to abolish immigration policing is not new helps to better imagine a just world without immigration policing.

In 1979 Bacas organization, the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR), began to speak out against the detention of migrant children. Baca and friends formed the CCR in 1971 to fight violence Chicano and migrant youth faced as the era of undocumented immigration led to increased policing. As members of the Chicano Movement, these activists viewed open borders as an end goal. We didnt cross the border, the border crossed us, student activist Salvador Reza told me, reflecting on the borders connection to Mexicos loss of land to the U.S. in 1848. Basically, we had the right, somos un pueblo sin fronteras. Believing individuals of Mexican descent to be a people without borders, activists like Reza and Baca protested and advocated forpolicy change as part of a campaign to denounce immigration policing and its inherent denial of the communitys right to move freely in the borderlands.

Baca began to raise awareness about the detention of migrant children in 1979 to inspire resistance to the policing of Chicanos and migrants. While Baca had been fighting immigration policing for several years at this point, the communitys particular concern for migrant youth played a crucial role in his ability to drum up mass support for abolitionism. Baca presented information about migrant detention at the CCRs Chicano National Immigration Tribunal held in April 1981.Designed to put policies of immigration policing on trial, the Tribunal gave victims the opportunity to act as prosecutors: Individuals presented testimony in over 50 cases of violence committed by local police and the INS.Activists from the CCR listened to this testimony with the intention of using it to construct policy demands in the form of a Chicano position paper.

At the Tribunal, Baca highlighted how the detention of migrant children connected to the racist criminalization of non-white youth. Bacas testimony, coupled with local newspaper reporting, revealed that as immigration policing militarized the border throughout the 1970s, it became common for undocumented migrants, especially children, to hire smugglers to help them cross the border. While in 1965 only 40 percent of migrants used a smuggler, by 1975 over 70 percent of migrants did. However, traveling with a smuggler did not ensure successful settlement in the US. The Border Patrol, the enforcement arm of the INS, working to stop both human and narcotic smuggling, often apprehended migrants during their crossing.

In the 1970s, the U.S. government intensified its prosecution of smugglers.While at this time the INS quickly deported undocumented migrants, the agency treated smuggling as a criminal act that merited a trial. As part of this prosecution, officials detained migrants who crossed the border with a smuggler and forced them to serve as material witnesses in the cases.Migrants being held until giving their witness testimony formed a substantial portion of the tens of thousands of migrants the INS detained annually in San Diego. In 1979, 14,346 migrants served as witnesses in cases against smugglers in San Diego, around 600 of whom were children.

The children waited for the trial of their smuggler at three detention centers in San Diego. The INS held some children at their two facilities in the region: El Centro and San Ysidro. However, they sent most to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) which had a relationship with the U.S. Marshalls, an agency with a history of facilitating the detention of migrants. The MCC opened in 1974 as part of the ongoing war on crime. In revealing that police held material witnesses at the MCC alongside individuals charged with criminal offenses, Baca demonstrated how immigration officials criminalized migrant children who had an ancestral right to exist in the borderlands.

Although designed as an adult facility, the INS used the MCC to hold children like 15-year-old Jose, who came to California from Durango, Mexico. While police incarcerated some children with their mothers, they separated most, including Jose, from their parents. At 15, Jose was one of the oldest children in the facility. The INS imprisoned Rosa Rivass 6- and 1-year-old children without her. When the INS brought a mother back into custody after giving birth, they even incarcerated a newborn.

While Baca previously criticized perceived links between Mexican teenagers and criminality, he made a strategic decision to turn his attention to younger children in his letter to Carter and at the Tribunal. Baca believed that focusing on young children would dramatize immigration policing and demonstrate how it criminalized innocent youth. Baca, like other activists past and present, trusted that no one could dispute the cruelty of incarcerating a newborn and that this common sympathy would garner criticism of immigration policing as a whole.

Abolition Advocacy

Bacas was correct: The Chicano community agreed with him about the brutality of incarcerating children. In spearheading mass outrage over the detention of migrant youth, Baca connected his work to protect migrant children with his ideological emphasis on open borders.

Baca first proposed the abolition of the INS to fellow activists at a conference in 1980. The resolutions passed at the end of the gathering stated: That this conference go on record in calling for the abolishment of the INS/Border Patrol. A year later, at the Tribunal, Baca fostered more unified Chicano support for this demand. As Baca recalled, by the end of the Tribunal, Everybody was on the same page of the INS/Border Patrol have got to go...Its an agency that was placed there to make sure we stay in our place. And thats what were fighting against.Having learned about the INS detaining children, community members concluded that the organization existed to impede the right of Mexican youth to live and migrate safely. As a result, the documents produced at the Tribunal affirmed the need for the abolishment of the INS/Border Patrol in order to end the detention of migrant children, among other practices.

By this point, support for the idea of abolition was spreading. For the first time, a large portion of the Chicano and migrant community in San Diego expressed the need for the complete elimination of the INS. As a journalist from La Prensa San Diego reported in 1981, when Baca announced his demand for the disestablishment of the INS, the audience of 800 individuals roared with approval.By that year, CCR leaders and community members together concluded that the INS needed to be completely and permanently abolished to allow free and safe movement in the borderlands.

Noting this mass support for the abolition of the INS, Baca vowed from then on to not deal with anyone who doesnt call for the abolishment of the Border Patrol, the INS.While Baca remained steadfast in his dedication to abolition, and today is outspoken against ICE, after the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 many former allies shifted their focus to assisting undocumented migrants in applying for amnesty.

In 2003, the U.S. government dissolved the INS, which had been part of the Department of Justice, and replaced it with ICE, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security. Today, as people speak out against ICEs detention of migrant children, who now mostly come from Central America, this country has once again seen a rise in calls for the elimination of institutions of immigration policing as they currently exist.

The history of pro-migrant activism that began in the Chicano community in the 1970s and 1980s helps position todays abolition advocacy as grounded in traditions of Chicano activism. Besides valorizing a long-ignored historical actor, exploring Bacas work urges a recognition of the principles that guided nascent pro-migrant abolition advocacy. It is imperative that present-day Abolish ICE supporters contemplate the desire for open borders that underpinned the first calls for the abolition of ICEs predecessor, the INS. For instance, returning immigration policing to the Department of Justice, as Bernie Sanders recently proposed, fails to recognize Bacas belief that the mere existence of immigration policing is a threat to the borderlands community. Only by embracing these historical antecedents can we build bold and inclusive resistance to the policing of migrant youth.

Erin Mysogland is the Program Coordinator of the Center for Community Action and Research at Pace University where she works with undergraduates to connect academia and activism. She has a MA/MSc in International and World History from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. She researches and writes on themes of migration, race, and gender in U.S. and Latin American history.

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Fighting Border Madness, from 1980s Chicano Activism to the Abolish ICE Movement - NACLA

December 10 is Human Rights Day, when we honor the incredible work of human rights advocates around the world. It is also a time when we should demand the abolition of nuclear weapons.

When people think of human rights, nuclear weapons might not immediately come to mind. But these weapons violate our human rights by threatening our health and even survival. With about 14,000 nuclear weapons remaining in the worlds arsenals, the potential for a catastrophic nuclear war is an omnipresent threat.

On this Human Rights Day, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the national advocacy organization for which I work, is calling on decision-makers to acknowledge this threat to our human rights and respond appropriately.

How?

For starters, President Donald Trump should respond positively to Russian President Vladimir Putins request to immediately extend the New START arms control treaty. Then the United States should actively pursue an agreement among all the nuclear-armed countries to totally eliminate their arsenals.

And all of the countries on earth should join the 122 nations that in July 2017 adopted the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and bring that treaty into force.

A nuclear war would create one of the worst humanitarian crises imaginable, one for which no nation would have an adequate emergency or health response. And climate modeling has shown that a nuclear war involving less than 1 percentof the worlds arsenalstargeted on citiescould trigger global climate disruptions for ten years, degrading agricultural production and putting up to two billion people at risk of starvation.

The right to health and the right to clean air and water are human rights, not privileges reserved for the most fortunate members of society.

Physicians for Social Responsibility was founded in 1961 in order to draw attention to the grave health and humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons. Its motto is: Prevention is the only cure.

Even if we manage to prevent a nuclear war, the arsenals are still a major health hazard. The processes of mining and refining uranium, building and testing nuclear weapons, and transporting and handling the radioactive waste byproducts have jeopardized the health and safety of communities in the United States and around the world for decades.

These activities have disproportionately impacted indiginous peoples, low-income communities and communities of color, whose families experience the harmful inheritance of multi-generational toxic nuclear legacies. Between 1946 and 1958, the residents of the Marshall Islands were forced to endure 67 atmospheric nuclear test explosions in their homeland.

These communities have called for accountability and for justice, but they havent been heard. This is a social justice issue, a health issue, and a human rights issue. The right to health and the right to clean air and water are human rights, not privileges reserved for the most fortunate members of society.

Those who stockpile and threaten to use nuclear weapons are violating our human rights. On this Human Rights Day, lets make them stop. Its time to ban nuclear weapons, for good.

This column was produced for the Progressive Media Project, which is run by The Progressive magazine, and distributed by the Tribune News Service.

December 9, 2019

11:59 AM

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On Human Rights Day, Let's Abolish Nuclear Weapons - Progressive.org

The National Landlords Association says the Conservative government must start a new housing court and reform Section 8 fault-based evictions to end the logjam of repossession cases that will follow the abolition of Section 21 no fault evictions

The new Boris Johnson-led Conservative government must take urgent action to deliver on its pre-election promise to strengthen landlords rights of possession by reforming the law courts if it is to stave off a crisis in the private rented sector, the National Landlords Association warns today.

In the wake of the Conservative Partys victory in the General Election, the NLA, which represents 42,000 landlords, calls on Mr Johnson to introduce a new dedicated housing court and to redefine the terms of Section 8 fault-based evictions.

If this doesnt happen, the NLA predicts there will be a big reduction in the number of houses available for rent and a disproportionately negative impact on the supply of housing for people receiving state benefits. NLA-commissioned analysis carried out recently by Capital Economics using our most recent members survey found that if the government abolishes Section 21 without additional reforms:

In its manifesto, the Conservative Party confirmed that if it won the election, it would press ahead with plans to abolish Section 21 which allows landlords to pursue fast-track no fault evictions. But it also said that it would strengthen[landlords] rights of possession. The NLA urged the Conservative government to strengthen landlords rights in two ways:

Richard Lambert, the NLAs chief executive, said: We congratulate Boris Johnson on his return to No. 10 Downing Street as prime minister of a new Conservative government. We now stand ready to work with him and his team on the reform of housing regulations in a way that does not do long term damage to the supply of private rented housing.

No-one should be in any doubt about the dire consequences for the supply of private rented housing in this country if the government abolishes Section 21 without any effort to reform the law courts and strengthen landlords rights of possession. There would be nearly 1 million fewer houses available for rent and the people who would be hardest hit would be some of the most vulnerable in our society: those in receipt of state benefits.

ENDS

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Victorious Johnson Urged to Strengthen Landlords' Rights of Repossession To Avert A Looming Crisis in the Rented Sector - NLA News

The mother of the 2012 Delhi gangrape-murder victim, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, on Friday moved the Supreme Court to oppose a review plea by one of the four men sentenced to death in the case.

Akshay Kumar's plea, seeking a review of the apex court's 2017 verdict giving him capital punishment, is scheduled to be heard by a three-judge bench on December 17.

The counsel appearing for the victim's mother mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and said they are opposing the convict's review plea.

The bench said the lawyer for the victim's mother will be heard on December 17 when the review petition comes up for hearing.

On July 9 last year, the apex court dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts -- Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) -- in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

The top court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case.

Akshay's review plea, filed through advocate A P Singh, referred to the health risks due to the rising pollution level in Delhi and said, "Life is going short to short, then why death penalty".

"The state must not simply execute people to prove that it is attacking terror or violence against women. It must persistently work towards systematic reforms to bring about change. Executions only kill the criminal, not the crime...," the review plea said.

Akshay, lodged in a jail here, has said in his review plea that death penalty entails "cold blooded killing" and does not provide convicts the chance to reform themselves.

The plea referred to the moral reasons for abolition of the death penalty and said there was no evidence to show that such a punishment has got a deterrent value.

The three convicts, except Akshay, can still file curative pleas in the top court against their conviction and death penalty in the case.

After exhausting the remedy of filing curative pleas, the convicts can move the president with their mercy pleas. In case their mercy pleas are dismissed, the authorities can seek death warrants from a local court to execute them.

Also Read | Nirbhaya case: Drama in Delhi court as lawyers press for death warrant, delay adjournmentAlso Read | Nirbhaya rape-murder convicts to be hanged soon? Whispers grow louderAlso Read | Tihar Jail asks UP for two hangmen, speculation over Nirbhaya killers' executionAlso Watch | Nirbhaya rape case: SC to hear convict's review plea on December 17

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Nirbhaya's mother moves SC opposing review plea of convict, to be heard on December 17 - India Today