Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

The UK post-study work visa remains an important pull factor for incoming international students. A recent survey suggests that international students would be more likely to consider studying in the UK if they were allowed to stay and work for three years instead of two.

According to The Guardian, a survey of 100,000 international students by the education analysts QS showed that two-thirds would be more likely to consider studying in the UK if the post-study work visa was extended.

The survey suggested fewer than a fifth of students would plan to stay beyond the three years.

Currently, the Graduate visa gives foreign students permission to stay in the UK for at least two years after successfully completing a course in the UK. Students must be in the UK when applying.

Universities UK International director Vivienne Stern was quoted saying by The Guardian that vice-chancellors wanted the government to review whether the two-year visa forms were a barrier to employing international graduates, and ensure the UK had a competitive post-study work offer.

Former UK home secretary Theresa May had previously revoked the two-year visa to curb immigration.

UK universities, however, warned that removing the post-study work visa in 2012 had harmed international student recruitment. Since its reinstatement, institutions say they have been able to reach a target of recruiting 600,000 international students a year a decade early.

Apart from serving as essential revenue streams for universities, a recent survey estimated international students benefited the UK economy by 26 billion pounds every year.

The report urges the government to review policy and restrictions to help stimulate further growth in the sector after the pandemic and position post-Brexit Britain as an equally welcoming destination for international students as its key competitors.

The number of Indian students choosing to study in the UK plunged after the abolition of the two-year post-study work visa in 2012 and quadrupled when it was reinstated, reported The Guardian. Source: Manpreet Romana/AFP

An extension would be especially appealing to Indian students 73% said three years would make them a lot more likely to consider the UK.

The number of Indian students choosing to study in the UK plunged after the abolition of the two-year post-study work visa in 2012 and quadrupled when it was reinstated, said the report.

A Home Office spokesperson told The Guardian that post-study work offers across countries were not directly comparable and we think ours strikes the right balance.

She said: Those on the graduate route can stay in the UK and look for work at any skill level for a period of two years, or three years for those with a PhD, and switch into skilled work routes if they find a suitable job.

Numerous countries offer international students post-study work visas to continue living and working in the country.

Australias Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), for instance, allows international graduates to work for up to four years, depending on their course and level of study.

New Zealands post-study work visa would allow international graduates to work for any employer for between one and three years and do almost any work, depending on their qualifications and where they studied.

The UK recently launched the High Potential Individual (HPI) route, which aims to attract high skilled overseas talent who have graduated from some of the worlds top universities.

It allows graduates to come to the UK without a job offer. Individuals can apply for the HPI route if they have graduated from an eligible international university in the five years immediately before their application.

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Longer UK post-study work visa could woo more int'l students to the UK: survey - Study International News

We make sense of our lives through the stories we tell ourselves and each other. The dominant ideology functions through the way it occupies or frames those stories. Since we live in an unequal society driven by a system of capitalist exploitation causing class struggle, this occupation and framing are never watertight, never 100 per cent effective. As Leonard Cohen says, there is a crack, a crack in everything, thats where the light gets in. We may despair at the mass immersion in the Jubilee events but there is a growing minority, particularly of young people, who understand the toxic nature of this institution. Wall to wall promotion and coverage of the Jubilee gives no voice to the significant minority who are against the monarchy.

The British monarchy is a national story that is an important cog in the current ideological system. Elizabeth Windsors 70th Jubilee, which has been promoted for some time by the mass media and is celebrated this week in a series of local and national events, is the latest instalment in this story.

Many people really do place their personal life stories within the royal narrative. Just today on BBC breakfast TV the Indian heritage organizers of the Bollywood section of the Pall Mall pageant got quite emotive about the fact that their families were close up to the Queen during the previous jubilee. So we heard that as nine-year-olds they were waving flags at some event the Queen visited in Birmingham and that their Mum had been presented to the Royal entourage. People remember where they were and what they were doing at previous royal events such as weddings or deaths. Rather than measuring out our lives in coffee spoons as T.S. Eliot would have it, people measure out their lives in the royal souvenir mugs and other junk they buy.

Royalist ideology is effective to a degree because it is able to play to a number of social realities that people have an emotional investment in community, national identity and some positive values like service or charity. The state gives some material support for this by graciously granting an extra bank holiday to facilitate all those street parties and organized events. The local government association has estimated that there will be 16,000 street parties this weekend. Millions of people will be going to these parties without being particularly pro-royalist but to have a good time.

A billion-pound Jubilee industry producing endless pre-landfill tat has developed. Such commerce expresses the wastefulness and tastelessness of the consumer spectacle. At the same time, people are having to decide whether to heat or eat and food banks are overwhelmed by demand.

The Royal family makes a big deal of a patrician notion of service so it presides over a vast number of charities. It also takes care to draw certain lines in the sand when it comes to the commercialisation of its brand hence the tensions with Prince Harry and Meghan. One or two commentators have made the point that the utter amorality and lack of ethics of Prime Minister Boris Johnson reinforces a reverence for the Queens seventy years of service. In this way, the royalist ideological system is a very useful compensatory backup for our rulers when politicians are increasingly reviled for their venality and dishonesty. People believe Johnson might make rules that he does not follow but at least the monarchy is clean and is even possibly seen as something to be defended because it is not like Johnson and his cronies. Socialists should not underestimate how this separation from the dirty end of politics means that if there were a very serious crisis for the British state then the monarchy could (would) be used to intervene in a way to defend the capitalist order.

Notions of royalist service to the nation are of course totally exaggerated. Ross Kemp (Grant from the long-running TV soap EastEnders) went so far as to proclaim the Queen our greatest volunteer. Ross is not too clear on the way monarchy works you do not volunteer but are born to it and there is even an element of divine selection in it all. None of the good works supported by the Royalty challenge the way the system makes people poor or disables people through the way it is socially organized. Whilst they may make pious remarks about helping disadvantaged people they are one of the richest capitalist families. They may make noises about the problems of housing for example but the Prince of Wales sits on a land portfolio that if taken into common ownership could provide the basis for a huge expansion of affordable housing for working people. There is a general lack of transparency too about the many tax loopholes that the Royal family benefit from.

The Royals have astutely modernized their brand and opened up more to the TV cameras. So Princes Harry and William talk about their personal traumas and endorse a slightly different profile of masculinity than male royals in the past. However, they know that the mystique of the monarchy with its internal rules and secrecy has to be maintained too. Carrying out the firms day to day work opening things, doing charity or representing the military cannot be sullied by scandalous behaviour that crosses a certain line hence the freezing out of Prince Andrew because of his connection with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. While there can be tension from time to time there now exists a parasitic symbiosis between the Royal Family and the mainstream mass media. The media is exploited as much as possible to keep the Firm looking modern and up to date. Ultimately, even mildly critical TV dramas like the Crown are recuperated to their advantage.

Two other arguments are always rolled out to justify the monarchy. Calculations are made about how much tourism income is generated by the Crown. An increase in numbers visiting London this weekend has been heralded in the press. This argument assumes that all the buildings and artefacts associated with the monarchy would suddenly disappear if it was abolished. Countries which have abolished the monarchy like France or Italy do very well, if not better, with their tourism. The other argument is the supposedly positive attention the monarchy gets in the USA, Europe or elsewhere. But it is hard to distinguish this attention from the organized spectacle of celebrities in films, TV, sports or other walks of life such as entrepreneurs. In any case, the ending of royaltys constitutional role in other countries does not inhibit their place in the spectacle.

Should socialists and republicans despair at working peoples continued love affair with the Monarchy? Certainly only 27% support abolition but this is an increase historically:

According to a recent YouGov poll conducted for the anti-monarchy group Republic, 27% of the population supports the abolition of the monarchy, with considerably higher dissatisfaction among the young (a report, Jubilee Britain, produced by the thinktank British Future shows similar results). Thats a notable jump on the 15% that has been the norm for most of this century. [1]

You have to distinguish the popularity of the Queen and the reverence for the monarchy. Prince Charles is seen three times more negatively than she is. It is a distinct possibility that the reign of King Charles would be less popular and republican opinion may increase. Rising support for Welsh and Scottish independence in recent decades is certainly something that can erode Royalist sentiment. The enthusiastic promotion of the more popular Prince William by the media and the family firm itself is perhaps related to the fears of a post-Elizabethan period.

The old distinctions between short term and long term demands or tactics and strategy are relevant here. In the difficult conditions of today with working people still suffering the long term effects of a series of defeats including the demise of the Corbyn project it would be pretty silly to make republicanism a demand to take up in mass campaigns or struggles. Even at the height of Corbynism, this issue was never really posed. It would have been quite possible to have a left reformist government alongside the monarchy.

In the long term, a socialist strategy is a different question. As outlined above, the Royals ideological role and constitutional responsibilities are obstacles to any radical break with capitalist rule. The Royal Familys role in reproducing a sense of one nation that obliterates any real notion of class exploitation and struggle has to be fundamentally weakened if a socialist alternative can be really built.

On the other hand, Labours social liberal conception of the nation fully aligns itself with the Royals. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer writing this week in the Telegraph has stated it is your patriotic duty to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee. For Labour, the institution and the state fundamentally remain the same but with their policies, they are infused miraculously with some better values of responsibility, progress and respect or whichever other banalities the leaderships advisors come up with.

No real anti-capitalist rupture of the system can be achieved without a solid core of internationalist activists and mass leaders who understand the class nature of the state. You cannot postpone the task of developing that core to some more favourable future, even if today the number of people the left can win to such a perspective is still a minority.

It is often asked what is the point of small radical left groups? In fact, the Jubilee is an occasion when they actually have a clear relevance. The Anti-Capitalist Resistance current, like other groups, will openly talk today about the need to abolish the monarchy and explain its negative impact on working-class consciousness. We will not just write articles on our sites but will produce badges for people to wear and create conversations. Social media memes can also spread the message. In some places, there might even be anti-Jubilee social events. The arc of unanimity can be broken. Very few from even the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs will be putting forward this message. So wear your Stuff the Jubilee or Abolish the Monarchy badges with pride this weekend and enjoy the extra day off unlike the royal family you have earnt it.

Source Anti*Capitalist Resistance.

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Stuff the Jubilee - International Viewpoint

The term social justice has had a fair amount of scrutiny over the past couple of years, and it became a broader local topic in the past few weeks in this county and across the state. This is not a foreign concept for another place or another time.

Image courtesy of Unsplash.

The city of Salida is beginning an overdue move to add an Assistant City Administrator, functioning also as a human resources (HR) manager. The suggestion made by City Council Member Dominique Naccarato in a recent city council meeting to include skills in diversity, equity, and social justice in the position description was supported by the rest of the city council. But there are those who appear to have taken exception to this idea.

Those who would confuse the concepts of democratic equity and social justice reveal that if they have to, theyll obey the law, but perhaps not the spirit of those laws.

Critics of this proposed adjustment to the citys new HR role have brought up the time-worn skill sets most of us understand to be part of the HR role; personnel management, familiarity with labor laws and budgets, and being a team player. Well, of course. But to stop there may remove the very social, human concept of justice that is critical to our multi-ethnic society.

Wikipedia defines social justice as fairness as it manifests in society. That includes fairness in healthcare, employment, housing, and more. Discrimination and social justice are not compatible.

What social justice means in a diverse society is critical to the times in which we live; in a globally-connected world, in changing times, in a politically-polarizing society, faced with growing violence, the impacts of climate change, and a dependence on finite resources.

The difference between equity and social justice

Equity is concerned with fairness; it tends to guarantee fair access to opportunities for everyone to participate effectively in the context of a free market. Social justice focuses on a concern for peoples needs; based on individual or group action.

It would seem that social justice relates to HR. But times have always been changing; the end of the 19th century was rift with robber baron inequities; consider the inequities of the industrial revolution as the country approached 1900; where even children worked 12-hour days, six days a week for pennies a day. Or the mines or sweat shops where our own ancestors toiled without sunlight or hope of improvement to their lives.

Just because that was how it was then doesnt mean it had to stay that way. Perhaps this is where the phrase give the kid a chance, derives from.

Social justice is an increasingly important topic. In fact, Ark Valley Voice has participated for the past several months, as members of the Colorado News Collaborative, in training that expands equity in journalism, that seeks to add to our coverage the voices of minorities and the stories of those for whom justice has been denied.

Contrary to what has been written about them (Social Justice Hiring?) by a competitor editor, diversity, equity and inclusion are not just political talking points. They are the measurements by which the rest of us who are not white, male, rich, privileged, and of a certain age and mindset, have worked together to achieve. They are the three words that represent the melting pot of immigration that has made this country the rich, successful nation it is.

The fact that another editor chooses to make fun of the words social justice shows that he may not understand the concept of justice. In fact words that equate Black Lives Matter marches to smash and grab thieves could be considered both discriminatory and racist. It amounts to written redlining of a race, equating it with a white mans idea of equity.

The question I got from a rich, white, male store owner, as a college graduate fresh back from living in Europe was how long are you going to work before you get pregnant and quit? I told him it was none of his business.

History holds social justice lessons

What social justice is, and why it is important, has apparently been debated since the origin of the term. Social justice is not a recent term cooked up in the bar at The Willard Hotel in D.C., across from the White House.

According to Studymode, during the time period between 1825-1850, ideals of equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness defined democracy and were inoculated into the masses of America through a series of reform movements that emerged in the antebellum era. These reforms were based on the desire to make America a civilized, utopian society.

In the period around 1825, following the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, the concepts of social justice were raised in relation to slavery. Britain abolished it with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, but it took until 1863 and a Civil War in the U.S. to abolish it. Since that time, white supremacists have continually tried to recreate it in other ways.

But this social justice movement also included the first efforts at womens rights in this new representative republic, as well as the 1826 beginning of the temperance movement, as alcohol abuse was become increasingly widespread, affecting the efficiency of the labor and causing societal problems.

Social equity was the integration of the schools in Little Rock Arkansas, and the 1965 Civil Rights bill. Social justice is going beyond the law to what some call real Christian charity to understand and accept other human beings no matter their race, creed, color, sex, or sexual orientation.

Thesarus.com defines social justice as a noun and describes it as the fair treatment of all people in a society, including respect for the rights of minorities and equitable distribution of resources (which also means a chance at advancement) among members of a community.

It goes on to provide examples of the words social justice in sentences, and revealingly, they include some of the bigger names in the corporate world:

The first set relates to increased awareness of how their activities impact external events happening in the world such as climate change and social justice.

The Ford Foundation and Mozilla led a fellowship program to connect technologists, activists, journalists and scientists, and strengthen organizations working at the convergence of technology and social justice.

The rise of the activist developer|Walter Thompson|February 9, 2021|TechCrunch

Repealing the protections might seem relatively easy in Maryland, a state where both legislative chambers have supermajorities of Democrats, who have tended to be sympathetic to calls for police accountability and social justice.

The first state to pass a law protecting police accused of misconduct may also be the first to repeal it.|Ovetta Wiggins|February 9, 2021|Washington Post

A few weeks after the inauguration of a new president, the nation continues to struggle for its footing amid deep polarization, a pandemic, questions about economic and social justice, and declining faith in its institutions. Its not hyperbolic to say that the American experiment as a diverse, multiethnic democratic republic is facing one of its most difficult tests since that distant Philadelphia summer. (1776)

Want Unity For Real? Then America Needs to Get Back to Facts|Samar Ali, Bill Haslam and Jon Meacham|February 8, 2021|Time

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Social Equity Isn't a New Term, Neither is Social Justice - by Jan Wondra - The Ark Valley Voice

The month of June has 30 days and is the sixth month of the year. Juno, the Roman goddess, inspired the name. June's name is thought to stem from the Latin word iuniores, which meaning "younger ones."

1 June World Milk Day

Every year on June 1st, the world commemorates World Milk Day to honour the dairy industry's significant contributions to sustainability, economic development, livelihoods, and nutrition.

1 June - World Parents' Day

Every year on June 1st, the World Day of Parents is commemorated. The United Nations General Assembly declared this day in 2012, honouring parents for their unwavering support, sacrifice, and commitment to their children.

2 June - International Sex Workers'.

This day is observed on June 2nd all across the world, not just in Europe. On June 2nd, 1975, over 100 sex workers occupied the Sant-Nizier Church in Lyon, France, to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with their exploitative living conditions and work ethic. On June 10th, the police conducted a savage raid on the Church. This action has grown into a nationwide movement, and it is now celebrated in Europe and worldwide.

2 June - Telangana Formation Day

Telangana has a long and illustrious history dating back at least two thousand five hundred years. Every year on June 2nd, Telangana State commemorates its formation with pomp and circumstance, hosting a variety of festivals, cultural activities, and other activities. Telangana's attempt to create a new state began in the early 1950s.

3 June - World Bicycle Day

The United Nations General Assembly established June 3rd as International World Bicycle Day to honour the bicycle's distinctiveness, longevity, and versatility as a low-cost, ecologically benign, and long-lasting mode of transportation.

4 June International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

Every year on June 4th, the United Nations (UN) observes the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression to raise awareness of the children who have been victims of physical, mental, and emotional abuse around the world. On this day, the United Nations reaffirms its commitment to preserve children's rights.

5 June- World Environment Day

Every year on June 5th, more than a hundred countries commemorate World Environment Day. The environment is a serious issue that not only impacts people's well-being but also impedes economic development around the world. "Ecosystem Restoration" is the subject of World Environment Day 2021.

7 June World Food Safety Day

On June 7, World Food Safety Day is commemorated to raise awareness about the dangers of polluted food and water to human health. This day also focuses on how to lower the danger of food poisoning. Food safety is essential for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.

8 June- World Brain Tumour Day

Every year on June 8th, it is commemorated to draw international attention to the plight of people suffering from terrible diseases and the urgent need for greater research. Several activities are being held all around the world to raise awareness about brain tumours.World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8th.

8 June World Oceans Day

Every year on June 8, World Oceans Day is commemorated to encourage people of all ages to take charge of their own destiny and stop damaging the oceans and other bodies of water. This day was dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of eliminating single-use plastics and taking the steps necessary to effect genuine change.

12 June - World Day Against Child Labour

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has declared this day to draw attention to the worldwide abolition of child labour, as well as the efforts and actions required to do so. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which contain a commitment to stop child labour, were endorsed by world leaders in 2015.

14 June - World Blood Donor Day

Every year on June 14th, World Blood Donor Day is commemorated to promote awareness about the importance of blood donations around the world and to thank blood donors for their contributions. "Donating blood is an act of solidarity," says this year's slogan. "Join the fight to save lives."

15 June - World Wind Day

Every year on June 15th, the world celebrates World Wind Day to promote clean energy. It's a day to learn about wind energy, its power, and the potential it offers to alter our energy systems, reduce carbon emissions, and boost job creation and growth.

15 June - World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Every year on June 15th, this day is commemorated to raise awareness about the importance of caring for the elderly. Elder abuse is a worldwide social problem that impacts the health and human rights of millions of senior citizens. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day a global holiday.

16 June - Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev

On June 16, 1606 the Mughal Emperor Jahangir ordered the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev to be tortured and sentenced to death. As a result, the Sikhs celebrate Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom every year on June 16th.

17 June - World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

This day has been marked since 1995 to raise awareness about international collaboration to address desertification and drought effects. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly designated June 17 as "World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought." It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remind people that desertification can be effectively addressed, that solutions are feasible, and that involvement and cooperation at all levels are essential. "Restoration. Land. Recovery" is the topic of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought in 2021.

18 June - Autistic Pride Day

It is commemorated every year on June 18 to honour variety and limitless potential. This is a day for autistic people and their families or caretakers to gather together. A day dedicated to raising awareness, acceptance, and self-determination.

18 June - International Picnic Day

Every year, on June 18, International Picnic Day is observed. This is a day to spend with family and friends in the great outdoors.

19 June - World Sickle Cell Awareness Day

Since 2008, World Sickle Cell Awareness Day has been observed every year to increase awareness of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and the challenges that patients and their families experience. The General Assembly of the United Nations declared this day to be a day of commemoration.

19 June - World Sauntering Day

This day is commemorated every year to remind people to slow down and appreciate life as much as possible rather than always running. This day also serves as a reminder to slow down, smell the roses, appreciate the beauty of nature, look up at the sky, and enjoy life.

20 June - World Refugee Day

Every year on June 20th, this day is commemorated to raise awareness about the hardships that refugees endure around the world. World Refugee Day is also an important opportunity for the public to demonstrate their support for families who have been forced to escape their homes.

3rd Sunday of June - World Father's Day

Every year on the third Sunday in June, it is commemorated to honour fatherhood and to thank all fathers for their contribution to society. In 2022 , world father's day falls on 19 june.World Music Day is celebrated on June 21st.

21 June - World Music Day

Every year on June 21, World Music Day is commemorated to promote music on a worldwide scale and to foster global harmony through music.

21 June - World Hydrography Day

Every year on June 21st, World Hydrography Day is held to raise public awareness about hydrography science. This day is commemorated every year by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and its international members.

21 June International Yoga Day

International Yoga Day is observed on June 21st all over the world to create awareness about the importance of yoga in daily life and to inform people about its advantages. The Ministry of AYUSH in India commemorates International Yoga Day.

21 June - Summer Solstice

On June 21, the Summer Solstice is observed. It is India's longest day, with the longest amount of daylight.

23 June - International Olympic Day

Every year on June 23rd, the International Olympic Day is commemorated to raise awareness of the value of games in everyday life. Olympic Day is about much more than sports. It is time for the entire world to become involved.

23 June - United Nations Public Service Day

The United Nations General Assembly has declared June 23rd as Public Service Day. It emphasises the role of public service in development, honours public employees' efforts, and encourages young people to pursue employment in the public sector.

23 June - International Widow's Day

Every year on June 23rd, International Widows Day (international) is commemorated to raise global awareness about the human rights violations that widows face in numerous nations after the loss of their spouses.

26 June - International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

Every year on June 26th, this day is commemorated to raise public awareness about the dangers of drugs and to establish a society free of drug misuse. The United Nations General Assembly formed it in order to strengthen global action and cooperation.

26 June - International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

On 12 December 1997, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 26 as International Day in Support of Torture Victims in order to end torture and ensure the effective implementation of the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

29 June: National Statistics Day

On June 29th, the day is commemorated to promote the use of statistics in everyday life. Prof. P C Mahalanobis' birthday is celebrated on this day. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-2: End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition, and Promote Sustainable Agriculture is the theme of National Statistics Day 2021.

29 June: International Day of the Tropics

Every year on June 29th, it is commemorated to raise awareness about conservation measures and to promote the world's tropical regions.

30 June - World Asteroid Day

On June 30th, Asteroid Day is observed to promote online education on asteroids. This event commemorates the Siberian Tunguska disaster, which occurred on June 30, 1908. It is the most dangerous asteroid-related occurrence in recent history on Earth. A resolution was voted by the United Nations declaring June 30th as Asteroid Day.

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Important National And International Dates Of June 2022 - The Hans India

In 1881 Nie (also known as Nai), a Pacific Islander woman, walked off Virginia plantation, south of Maryborough, in the colony of Queensland.

Crossing through cane fields, she fled in the thick tropical heat to nearby Gootchie plantation to take up work as a domestic servant.

Walking off the plantation was a courageous act. Yet within two weeks, Nie was violently retrieved by her former employer, British planter Theodore Wood.

Wood believed Nie had broken a verbal contract with him. He arrived at Gootchie with another man, Harry, where they found Nie working in the kitchen of the main house alongside Irish servant Annie OLeary.

When Nie refused to go with the men, they took hold of her by force. As Annie looked on in dismay, the men dragged Nie across the floor, tied her hands up, put her into a cart and returned with her to Virginia plantation.

Nie was a ni-Vanuatuan woman. Her age is unknown and so far no images of her can be found. Wood and his wife had hired Nie as a domestic servant and nursemaid for their daughter in Fiji. When the family moved to Queesland, Nie was imported with them to continue this domestic work without any documentation.

It is not clear how Nie had journeyed from Vanuatu to Fiji. She may have travelled voluntarily or been blackbirded (trafficked) in the Pacific labour trade.

After Nie was abducted by Wood and Harry at Gootchie, The Polynesian Inspector (or Government Protector), Mr H. M. Hall, was alerted to the incident. The matter soon went to court, where Wood was charged with assault.

The legal case drew intense public interest. The Bundaberg Star reported on the incident with the sensational headline A Female Slave in Queensland. Nie had not been paid by Wood and was clearly not free to leave Virginia.

The Star invoked both Nies rights and the much broader and sensitive political context around matters of bonded labour, and the spectre of slavery in Queensland at this time.

Read more: Friday essay: beyond 'statue shaming' grappling with Australia's legacies of slavery

Why did Nie walk off the plantation? Was this really a case of slavery? And, who was her master Theodore Wood? Rare moments in the archives like these open vistas on to the hidden histories of Pacific Islander women in Queenslands many plantations and homes in the late 19th century.

As Ive discovered, such cases also prompt new questions around the conditions of consent for workers, womens lives and their legal personhood, on a highly mobile and fluid trans-Pacific labour frontier. All of this occurred in the shadow of the new Pacific slavery, as it was then termed, after planters from Europe and North America moved their capital to Queensland after the American Civil war. Their demands for cheap workers led to the indenture and blackbirding of thousands of Islanders.

These histories also give us pause to think on how the past may shape the present. Today Pacific Islander seasonal workers in Queensland are decrying their conditions, with men and women severely underpaid and housed in squalid and crowded conditions. Over 1000 Pacific Islander workers fled their jobs in 2020-21, from a system which subjected people to abuse and inhumane conditions.

Australias seasonal worker schemes are being likened to modern slavery, and some say that blackbirding has not finished in this country.

In February this year, a federal parliamentary inquiry was held into the treatment of Pacific seasonal workers, where they gave testimony. Nationals senator Matt Canavan likened the then governments controversial Pacific Island seasonal worker program to indentured labour and a cartel, calling the scheme tantamount to slavery.

Remarkably, in 1881 Nie testified about her assault and abduction by her master Wood in the Court of Petty Sessions in the small Queensland town of Tiaro.

Clearly Nie spoke and understood some English and was deemed to have enough religious knowledge that she was able to take an oath, and to speak for herself in the court something an Aboriginal person at that time was not permitted to do.

Nies testimony is therefore extraordinary. We can hear her voice, albeit mediated by the Maryborough Chronicle in December 1881. In court, Nai, being duly sworn said:

[I] Am Polynesian from Star Peak; [I] know defendant; saw him first in Fiji; he was my master and brought me here; had agreement has been finished three months; remember leaving Mr Wood at Virginia and going to Gootchie, he [Mr Wood] said, I tell you straight you come along with me; I said, No; Mr Wood and Harry (a white man) fastened my hands behind me; pulled me along the floor, and put me in a cart; I sang [out]; I held on to leg of table before my hands were fastened, because I did not want to go, was taken in a cart to Virginia.

When Nie was cross-examined, she replied:

When he [Wood] came to Gootchie, told me several times if I did not go he would take me; [I] did not walk to the [cart]; you carried me; after my agreement was finished, I did not promise to stop until after Mrs Wood returned from England.

Clearly Nie was adamant about leaving Virginia; she said no to the prospect of returning to the plantation. She physically fought to stay at Gootchie and did not walk with her own volition to the cart. Importantly, Nie asserted that she did not make any promise that is, she did not make a verbal agreement or contract to stay on. Nor did she consent.

The original Tiaro court records were burned in a fire and no longer exist, but such court reports in the newspapers offer valuable archival traces on womens lives and the long shadow of Pacific slavery.

After the passing of legislation to free the enslaved in British settlements in 1833, British slave owners (but not the enslaved) in the Caribbean, Cape Colony (South Africa), and Mauritius were awarded the equivalent of 17 billion in compensation ($A31 billion). This capital from slave compensation was funnelled into the Australian colonies via these new settlers, who established themselves on Aboriginal lands.

Plantations, slavery and entitlement to be served ran in the blood of Nies employer, Theodore Wood. Born in Sri Lanka, his grandfather had been a plantation owner in Grenada, growing coffee and sugar using many slaves. The Wood family was directly related to the Selbourne and Palmer families, British aristocracy who were deeply involved with empire, the East India company, and with slavery in the Caribbean.

We know from the Legacies of British Slavery projects Slave Compensation Database that Theodores mother, Eleanor Wood (nee Palmer), received an inheritance based on compensation from the British government, as did her brothers, after the abolition of slavery for the loss of the familys Grenada plantations.

The Queensland plantation named Virginia is unsettlingly reminiscent of north American plantation culture. As a plantation owner and young Oxford-trained lawyer, Wood was likely well acquainted with the laws governing the procurement and transport of Pacific Island labourers to Queensland, and accustomed to the privilege and power that came with his station in life.

My aim is to place Nies experience and those who were unfree, coerced or in slave-like conditions at the centre of stories about legacies of slavery in Australia. Unearthing the hidden histories of Pacific Islander women is also important.

Some 4000 Pacific Islander women were brought to Queensland as domestic and field workers, but their voices in the archives are precious and fleeting.

It is estimated that between 62,000 and 65,000 Pacific Islander workers were brought to Queensland to labour in cane, cotton and other plantations, and as domestic servants and farm hands, between around 1860 and 1900.

Read more: From the Caribbean to Queensland: re-examining Australia's 'blackbirding' past and its roots in the global slave trade

These workers, both men and women, came from the nearby Melanesian Islands including Vanuatu, the Solomons, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. They were a cheap labour force whose hard work provided the economic backbone for the development of Queensland. In Vanuatu some refer to the thousands of blackbirded people as Vanuatus stolen generation.

Pacific Islander women, seemingly invisible and yet in plain view, had either migrated voluntarily or were moved by force between various Pacific islands and colonies, and between plantations in Queensland and northern New South Wales.

The bonded and unfree domestic and plantation labour of Pacific Islander and Aboriginal women was used extensively in these colonies. As historian Tracey Banivanua Mar has observed,

only a handful of historians have focused on [] the histories of this labour trade and fewer still have considered the experiences and treatment of [Pacific] women or explored the gendered nature of their work. Theirs is a story that can be painstaking to access in the archives, for if Islanders were a subaltern group written out of colonial memory, Islander women were doubly so.

How did Nie arrive in Queensland? Two years before the court case, Wood and his wife lived in Fiji where he was assessing the Fijian plantation industry. The couple hired Nie there.

Although some newspapers presumed that Nie was Fijian, she stated in court that she was from Star Peak, or Star Island. This is the small volcanic island called Mere Lava near the northern province of Vanuatu (or the New Hebrides as Europeans referred to it then).

It seems that she had already travelled far, leaving her home at Mere Lava, and then perhaps travelling on to the main port of Vanua Lava, Vanuatu, which was the terminal point of the Burns, Philp & Co. steamer line.

Arriving in Queensland without documentation, and imported by Wood, Nie slipped through the cracks of legislation between the British sugar colonies of Fiji and Queensland. Nie was doubly, and perhaps triply, displaced.

When Mrs Wood and her daughter chose to travel back to England, Nie was apparently left to take their place, remaining with Mr Wood without payment.

This status of unpaid domestic and housekeeper, and ersatz wife with its perhaps tacit intimation of other forms of wifely service, was clearly not acceptable to Nie, and, asserting her autonomy, she left the employ of Wood.

I interpret Nies determined departure from Virginia plantation as a potent and sovereign act of refusal. Islander workers were faced with brutal labour conditions, which they were rarely able to fully negotiate, and this led to various forms of resistance.

As historian Kay Saunders has observed, in strategic acts of defiance these troublesome servants resisted violent overseers by refusing to work, damaging the masters property and the plantation itself. Nie must have been in fear or deeply unhappy to seek to leave Virginia plantation. At this time in Queensland, such flight would only expose a Pacific woman to further risk.

When Nie declared I said, No, she spoke out in a court that was a highly unfamiliar space, a legal space that while offering her the opportunity to testify could at the same time reproduce the dynamics of colonisation. Voices such as hers are a crucial part of our postcolonial and cultural history that should not be ignored.

In the court of public opinion, the editor of the Bundaberg Star judged that Nie was a female slave. It is clear that she was trapped in slave-like conditions, unpaid and without a formal contract. To what extent did Nie consent or accept to be imported, if at all, and did she form and then break a verbal labour contract with Wood to remain in his employ?

The Nie case, where a perpetrator was put on trial and a Pacific Islander woman could speak in her own right under oath in a colonial court may appear, at first glance, to be a triumph of the law over the persistence of slavery and the violation of human liberty as suggested by the news headlines.

Yet the conditions in which consent could be freely given by a female Pacific Islander labourer in Queensland at this time were far from simple.

Significantly, whether Woods attempt to reclaim Nie was assault and whether she had consented to go back to Gootchie were not the only questions before the Tiaro Court of Petty Sessions.

The case presented a problem of great legal ambiguity for the court. Was Nie subject to Fijian or Queensland laws? To add to this legal conundrum, Nie existed unattached, since by this time Queensland law only allowed women to be imported and indentured if their husbands accompanied them.

For the editor of the Queenslander, Finally the case was narrowed down to this point: When the first agreement (made in Fiji) ended, was the woman [Nie] a free agent to make an agreement with anyone? The answer seems to be no.

Ultimately, the court fined Wood the sum of 1 16s 4d for assault, but not abduction. The question of slavery was not raised. The court also made a finding by mutual consent yet this consent had little to do with Nie or her bold testimony. Nie was transferred to another plantation to serve up to three years in the colony, in addition to the two or more years she had already served in Fiji.

This mutual consent then was not between Nie and Wood, nor between Nie and Inspector Hall, but between Wood as employer and Inspector Hall as the government representative.

Legally Nie was not a free agent, and under the protective measures of Queenslands new Pacific Labourers Act 1880 her status was akin to a ward of the state. As a mobile labourer, and a colonised ni-Vanuatuan woman, her ability to consent and make her own future agreements was severely limited.

What became of Nie? Did she leave her family or children behind at Star Peak, or in Fiji? Did she ever return home? It is likely that she lived out her life on one of Queenslands large plantations. The trail goes cold, and I have not yet found her in the archives.

Displaced, she was apparently alone in Queensland, although she may have connected with others from Star Peak and Vanuatu, forming new bonds and family.

Nevertheless, Nies determined action to walk off the plantation, to say no and to testify in court, stands as a sovereign act of refusal in a settler state dependent on the exploitation of Pacific labour.

This is part of a series of articles The Conversation is publishing exploring legacies of slavery in Australia.

Read more:

Friday essay: 'I said no' Nie's refusal and the troubling question of Pacific slavery in Australia - The Conversation

University of DelawareNewark, Delaware

10:24 A.M. EDT

AUDIENCE: Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you all. Is this working? There you go.

Before you all sit down completely, the reason why youre here is because of all of those people up in the stands. Stand up and give your parents and your grandparents, and those who got you, an applause. (Applause.) You owe them!

And to all the parents up in the stands, this may be the best day of all. No more tuition! (Laughter and applause.) But probably all of them are going to graduate school, so that probably wont work. (Laughs.)

Dr.Assanis, trustees, faculty, the staff; my good friend and he is my really good friend for a long time Tommy I call him Tommy but Tom Carper Senator Carper. Lisa Blunt Rochester, our congresswoman who can preach this woman can preach. (Applause.) And is really good. Shes a great congresswoman.

And the Class of 2022: Congratulations! (Applause.)

I know theyve been recognized already, but I cant yesterday, I did the commencement at the Naval Academy, and it reminds me today: I want a special cons- special congratulations to the veterans who are graduating today, all those who are being commissioned in the United States military. Would you please stand of the graduating class? Stand up if youre (applause)

And those of you have served as well in this class, stand up. (Applause.)

And for all those of you who are joining the service or about to join the finest group of warriors the world has ever seen and thats not hyperbole; thats literally true. So thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

Jill better known as Dr. Biden I happen to be her husband not only earned her undergraduate degree here,

she also got her doctorate degree here. She got a masters in between, somewhere else. (Laughter.) And the First Lady has continued to work full-time as a professor while being the First Lady.

But, Gerret, you and I have something in common, pal: We both married way above our station. (Applause.)

Not only can she speak five different languages, whatever language shes speaking, you better damn well listen, man. (Laughter.) So, Im telling you, thank you.

And I want to say this is a special day for my sister Valerie and I. Shes my best friend in the world. She graduated here with honors. I graduated. (Laughter.) Oh, thats literally true. (Laughs.) And we took the same damn classes. (Laughter.)

We used to be three years apart, and now Val is 22 years

younger than I am. (Laughter.) But it feels like coming home because it is this is home. This is home.

I once walked this campus as you did. Took the classes in the same classrooms youve taken classes. Walked the graduation ceremony just as youre walking today. Some of the best and most important years of my life were spent here.

And I had the opportunity to be taught by some great professors. Ill bet every one of you already can name one or two professors thats changed your life, thats had an impact on you in a fundamental way. I was lucky I graduated with a dual degree in history and political science. If you add up both my GPAs in each of those, I was probably a 4.0. (Laughter.)

But all kidding aside,Dr. Dolan, from the political science department I think he could picture me here in the endzone, maybe catching a pass over my left shoulder, but I doubt whether ever the hell he thought Id be standing here as President of the United States. (Laughs.) (Applause.)

Although,Dr. Ingersoll is the one you know, professors make a difference. I was asked to seek the nomination by a group of people I wont bore you with, and I thought it was a little off the wall that I was I wasnt even old enough. And I turned it was after a Democratic off-year convention. And I turned to the Chief Justice, who was retired from a family that has more senators than any family in American history: former Justice Tunnell.

And I said, Mr. Justice, Im not old enough. He said, You obviously didnt do well in constitutional law, Joe. (Laughter.) So, the Constitution says you need to be 30 to be sworn in, but you can be elected at any age they want to elect you. So why the hell I did it, I wasnt sure.

But I got in a car in Dover, and I drove straight to the campus. Not a joke. And I looked up Dr. Ingersoll, one of my professors that I admired most; taught political philosophy.

And I told him the dilemma, because I hadnt thought about that at all at the time. I really hadnt. And he looked at me and he said, Joe, remember what Plato said. Im thinking, What the hell did Plato say? (Laughter.)

And he paraphrased it. And he said: The penalty good people pay for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves. (Applause.)

Folks, its what I want to talk to you all about today. Though I think even my professors would be surprised if theres a Biden School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Thank you, Tatiana. (Laughs.)

But no one is more surprised than me. And while I had graduated before I he started teaching, I wanted to acknowledge the respect and the that I had for Dr. James Newton, a trailblazer in Black American studies and the civil rights across our nation. (Applause.)

If theres one messageI hope you take from me today,

its: This is no time to be on the sidelines. Its not hyperbole. I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

We need all of you to get engaged in public life and the life of this nation.

Because heres the simple truth: Youre graduating and entering a world at a momentous and consequential and defining time.

The next 10 years of your life are going to determine what the next 50 years of this nation are going to look like. Were at one of those inflection points in history where things are changing so fundamentally that we have to act.

Like the Americans in the 1850s and 60s we had to decide whether to preserve slavery or become a free nation truly free.

Like Americans in the 30s and 40s President Roosevelt had said they had a rendezvous with destiny, at home and abroad.

Like Americans in the 60s, in my generation when I sat where youre sitting in 1965were bitterly divided over the war in Vietnam.

We watched our heroes two Kennedys and a King gunned down by assassins and, still, we chose to expand the possibilities of America by breaking down unjust barriers

of civil rights and voting rights.

Well, now, its your hour. The challenges are immense foreign and domestic but so are the possibilities.

I spent time more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader has over 76 hours. We traveled 17,000 miles in China and the United States together. We were on the Tibetan Plateau, and he turned to me and said, Can you define America for me? And I said, Yes, I can, in one word: possibilities. Everything is possible in America. Not a joke. (Applause.) Everything.

I believe that with every fiber of my being this is a decisive decade for America, at a time when we can choose the future we want, at a time when we must decide that darkness will not prevail over light.

In the last five years since many of you were in high school, America has faced some of its most difficult tests.

A global pandemic ended a million lives in America alone a million and upended, according to most studies, the lives of personal lives of at least another 9 million children and family members, and many of your lives.

And a crisis of faith in the institutions that have however flawed they may be serve as the infrastructure for the American experiment in liberty and self-government.

Ive defined to my foreign colleagues and heads of state America when I was at the G7. I said America is unique in the world. Were the only nation in the world founded on an idea. Every other nation is founded on ethnicity, religion, geography. But only America is founded on an idea: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all women and men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

We say it so often. Weve never met the goal, but weve never walked away from it ever. (Applause.) And each generation has brought us closer to the goal.

And what youve been through the last four years and Im not being solicitous with you what youve been through the last four years, you could not have imagined when you were graduating from high school: campus shutdowns, classes on Zoom, the world turned upside down.

But you got through it. And it took an extraordinary commitment, determination, and resolve to do it. You should be proud you overcame it all to see this day. Your generation, and this class, can do anything.

I decided to seek the presidency. When I had concluded I was a professor at Penn I was never going to run again. And I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I had just lost my son Beau. And I had no interest whatsoever. And I was teaching at Penn. And then, Charlottesville.

In the United States of America, in the 20th century 21st century people coming out of fields at night carrying torches.

Close your eyes. Remember what you saw. Their veins bulging, preaching the same hate white supremacy; chanting the same Nazi phrases not figuratively, literally that were being chanted in the 30s in Europe. Torches lit again.

You know, when I was a young senator, I was proud to be the senator who actually got Strom Thurmond to vote for the Voting Rights Act. I got it extended 25 years, and I thought, You can bury hate. You can wipe it out. But I learned a lesson: You cant eliminate hate. It only hides when its defeated.

But when the prominent leaders are leader- breathe oxygen under the rocks its hiding in, it takes on a new life. It comes roaring back out in ways, I must tell you, I never thought would happen. Because I got into politics sitting where youre sitting because of civil rights in Delaware.

And then, nearly four years later, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol the very citadel of democracy.

Imagine what youd be thinking today if you had heard this morning, before you got here, that a group of a thousand people broke down the doors of the Parliament in Great Britain, killed two police officers, smashed and ransacked the office of members of the British Parliament, or any other. What would you think? What would you think?

And then, just this month, we thought that white supremacy

was finally being got hold of.

Buffalo, New York: A shopping center in a Black community. I went and met with every one of those parents, every one of those families.

And now, tomorrow, Ill be heli- Ill be heading to Uvalde, Texas, to meet with each of those families.

And as I speak, those parents are literally preparing to bury their children in the United States of America to bury their children. Theres too much violence, too much fear, too much grief.

Lets be clear: Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died.

In the face of such destructive forces, we have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer.

We can finally do what we have to do to protect the lives of the people and of our children.

So I call on all Americans this hour to join hands and make your voices heard and work together to make this nation what it can and should be.

I know we can do this. We have done it before. You and I acted as We the People seeking a more perfect union.

Always remember: Democracy is a human enterprise. We do many things well. Sometimes we fall short. Thats true in our own lives; its true in the life of the nation. And yet democracy makes progress possible.

And progress comes when we begin to see each other again, not as enemies but as neighbors.

When I spoke yesterday at Annapolis, I finished by talking about my friend he was my close friend; on his deathbed, asked me to do his eulogy who would scream at each other and holler like hell at one another: John McCain. Very different views. We still loved one another.

Not as mindless, competing factions, but as fellow citizens. Learned anew, in their own on their own time that democracy is fragile, democracy is precious, but its also precarious.

Truth is truth. Lies are lies. And the truth is: We have a solemn duty to keep the flame of liberty burning. This is not about blue and red, rural and urban. Its about America. The right to govern ourselves. The right to determine our own destinies, to overcome division and despair, and to meet the challenges of our time with grit and, maybe equally important, with some grace. To press ahead determined, resolved, and full of hope.

Its not easy. Its never been. But its who we are people united by a idea by an idea, unbending in the face of adversity, and devoted to creating and sustaining the beloved nation of ours.

You dont have to take my word for it. Frederick Douglass said it better. He said, No soil is better adapted to growth of reform than [the] American soil.

The women of Seneca Falls call for suffrage by writing, We hold these truths to be self-evident that allwomenand men are created equal.

Dr. King said his dream of liberty for all was deeply rooted in the American Dream the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness; the right to rise in the world as far as your talent can take you, unlimited by unfair barriers of privilege and power.

Such are the principles of democracy, and such are the principles of America.

And I dont think Im exercising hyperbole. Ive been around too long. Thats what is at stake today.

The question we face is nothing less than: Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we believe? And maybe more importantly, Who are we going to be?

And while this can feel like a very dark moment in America,

Im optimistic. Ive never been more optimistic in my entire life. And heres why and I mean this, my word as a Biden.

I mean it. Because of you this generation, your generation it makes me more optimistic.

Ive said it many times, as I look at my granddaughters who all graduated from universities and about to enter them Ill say it again today: Your generation is the most generous, the most tolerant, the least prejudiced, the best-educated generation this nation has ever known. And thats a simple fact. (Applause.)

And its your generation, more than anyone else, who will have to answer the question, Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we believe? Who will we be?

Progress in our country has always been met with ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America. Always.

We should not be surprised that these same forces are fighting back again, preying on hopelessness and despair; demonizing people who dont look like them; doing everything, no matter how desperate, to hold on to power.

This was never going to be an easy battle, and it never has been, because its occurred before in America.

The oldest and darkest forces in the past may believe theyll determine Americas future. But I promise you remember I said this, if you remember nothing that I said at this graduation: They are wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. (Applause.)

We will, you will in this moment, in this battle, we will not lose the right to vote, the right to self-determination, the right to choose, the right to be you, and marry the person you love. (Applause.)

We must and will stand together to save the planet and preserve democracy.

When America was literally facing war with itself when Lincoln was President excuse me when Lincoln was President, Lincoln reminded us. He said, Lets have faith that right makes might. (Applause.) Right makes might.

This is an essential principle of the soul of America. I mean it sincerely the soul of America. The principle must guide you and your lives regardless of your politics conservative or liberal but just human decency. The principle that guides me and my administration.

For we can and will and should disagree about the means of governance. Thats what democracy is about as well. But we have to be unified in the purpose of America: to create possibility, prosperity; protect decency and dignity; to be free and fair.

Just think about who we are. The bloodiest civil wars led the abolition of slavery. Generation after generation who stood against totalitarianism and terror.

And while we, the people, have undertaken great enterprises when building interstates, to finding vaccines, to going to the stars in all these moments, we were driven, as we are today, by the most American of principles: that we the people have created the strongest, freest, most prosperous nation the world has ever known. And again, that is not hyperbole, its a fact.

Now, in this moment, we face our own test: to resolve a test of resolve, a test of conscience, a test of history itself.

No generation gets to choose what world they graduate into. None. But a few a few generations enter at a point in history where they have the power to change the trajectory of a nation. And you can.

When I sat where you are, in the mid-60s, I believed we could. And we did, through civil rights, change the trajectory of the nation.

And now I know that may feel like an added burden on top of all youve already been through. Im not saying you have to shoulder the burden on your own. The task at hand and the task ahead is the work of all of us. What I am saying is you represent the best of us. You literally represent the best of us a better America than we are today.

A generation your generation will not be ignored, will not be shunned, and will not be silenced. You have an opportunity to not only reaffirm but to breathe new life into Americas most important values: equality, fairness, justice.

Thats what I felt like all those years ago when I sat where you are sitting today. And I mean that sincerely. I didnt think I was going to be President of the United States. It wasnt like Im going to be President although I loved reading the biographies. Everybody knew I was going to be President when I was in high school. I had no idea of it. (Laughter.)

But for all the uncertainty in the world, this university gave me confidence in myself to engage, to get involved, because I believed I could make a difference.

See the rest here:

Remarks By President Biden at the University of Delaware Commencement Ceremony - The White House

Ben Gowland discusses the impact of the shift from CCGs to integrated care systems

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Ockham

The shift to integrated care systems(ICSs) is going to be a difficult one for general practice.The luxury of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) whatever you might think of them was that they put general practice at the forefront of decision-making. Of course, that is not really how they worked out in practice, but at least their existence ensured a strong presence for general practice in any system-wide decision-making.

That, however, is all about to change.It may well be that the statutory change to integrated care systems, and the formal abolition of CCGs, is not due to take place until July, but these changes are already being made and the new system will be up-and-running sooner rather than later.The statutory representation of general practice will then fall to a solitary GP on the ICS Board and they will have no requirement to be there in a representative capacity for the profession.

In a recentpodcast with Dr Jaweeda Idoo,from Greater Manchester, where devolution has accelerated the ICS agenda, it became clear that there are numerous levels between any individual practice and the ICS Board there.Each practice is in a PCN, and each PCN works together with other PCNs in a place area.The 10 place areas across general practice work together in a general practice board for Greater Manchester.Representatives from the general practice board are on the primary care board (incorporating wider primary care partners such as pharmacists, opticians and dentists).Representatives from the primary care board sit on the provider board.The full ICS board then also includes CCG and local authority representatives.

There are a lot of layers, making the distance between a practice and the ICS seems vast. In Greater Manchester general practice has retained a voice, but this seems to be due to the influence of certain individuals, such as Manchester LMC CEO Dr Tracey Vell, and a seemingly shared belief in the pivotal role general practice plays within the system.

However, ICSs are not being designed to maximise the voice of general practice; instead we have this sense of predatory hospital trusts,encouraged by the secretary of state, considering how they can bring general practice under their wing and keep their needs central within ICS discussions.Practices in areas more dismissive of the role of general practice than Greater Manchester may find themselves even further down the pecking order.

What, then, is general practice to do?There is a school of thought that the only way to increase the influence of general practice is to make the service more relevant to the system discussions; by doing more to impact the system such as taking on outpatient and more minor procedures from the acute environment, or managing cohorts of the unwell at home it then forces the system to listen.

There is another school of thought that general practice has not only to react to proposals put forward by others which appears to be the default system position but must also proactively generate ideas and strategies of its own in order to increase its sway in the discussions; by bringing new things to the table general practice can create its own relevance.

While either of these things may or may not turn out to be true, my sense remains that the starting point has to be the development of a sense of unity, and collective identity, across general practice in any area.At present general practice often feels divided between practice GPs, PCN CDs, federation directors, CCG GPs, LMC GPs, and even CCG primary care teams.In the new system, however general practice chooses to work to generate influence, it has to do it together; there can only be one general practice team, and everyone has to be in it.

For leaders in general practice preparing for the shift to ICSs the most pressing priority right now has to be working to create this unity.Divisions in the service sometimes run deep, but it is in everyones interests to put these to one side, to bring together all the skills and expertise that exist across the service, and work to unite these to give general practice the best possible chance of meaningful influence in the new system.

More:

What influence does general practice have on integrated care systems? - Practice Business

A sign during a June 2020 march in support of a middle school teacher in Milton, Mass., who was placed on leave after making a reference to racism during a lesson. (Blake Nissen / Getty Images)

This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more Student Nation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If youre a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to [emailprotected].

Two summers ago, I was going through old binders when I came across a worksheet from my fifth-grade social studies unit on Christopher Columbus. A chart took up most of the page, dividing it into two sections: one for the pros and one for the cons of Columbuss colonizing voyages. My thick, slanted, 10-year-old writing was clustered on the cons side, where I listed five negatives, including Christopher Columbus put the Tanos into enslavement and if they could not give him gold they were executed. I wrote just one positive: that he discovered most of Central America, which, of course, is not true.

As I read over my answers more than 10 years later, I was deeply disturbed at the implicit judgement that the material and intellectual enrichment of European nations deserved to be considered a pro when it came at the expense of the genocide of Indigenous people. I sat on the floor, surrounded by these worn pages and memories, and felt the hollowness of the lack of ethnic studies in my primary education.

The worksheet became both a tangible and symbolic reminder of my own painful experience with Eurocentric textbooks and curricula as I began organizing with a coalition demanding a mandatory ethnic studies course at my former high school. I went to Menlo-Atherton (M-A), a majority POC high school in Northern California, where we were required to take European history to graduate. No class centered the experiences, perspectives, or histories of people of color. In my high school courses, I began to internalize the notion that my own cultural historiesLatin American and Latinx historieswere not academic.

It wasnt until I took my first ethnic studies course in college that I understood both how intentional the whitewashing of curricula is and how devastatingly universal my experiences were. The more I reflected, the more disappointed I felt that I hadnt had structured conversations about race and ethnicity, structural inequality, and systems of power in the classroom until college. I wanted high school students to learn about anti-racist movements and resistance to discriminatory structures of power. I wanted teenagers to have the language to engage in conversations about police abolition, affirmative action, and myriad other topics that they would undoubtedly confront during and beyond high school. I wanted students of color to see themselves: in their teachers, the authors they read, and the history they studied.

So in May of 2020, at the start of the longest continuous national protest in the United States, amid widespread calls for racial justice and police abolition, M-A alumni vocalized demands for a mandatory ethnic studies class that would have as its key tenets anti-racism, self-determination, and decolonization. A Eurocentric curriculum taught primarily by white teachers serves to reinforce structures of white supremacy. It teaches students to have an uncritical acceptance of the unjust status quo, we wrote in a change.org petition. Within days, the petition amassed more than 2,300 signatures and garnered dozens of positive community comments.

Simultaneously, teachers across the district were organizing. Stephanie Cuff-Alvarado, a history teacher at M-A, recalls conversations about ethnic studies as early as 2018. Back then, anti-racist educators were pushed to the side, by the department, but the people who wanted [ethnic studies] found each other and we started brainstorming about what we could do, she explained. Melissa Daz, now an ethnic studies teacher at Sequoia High School, taught modern European history in 2019 and 2020. She described slowly changing the class within our own classrooms, [by] not just focusing on the French Revolution but focusing on the Haitian Revolution, the Mexican Revolutionby making the course less Eurocentric.

However, it was the collective reckoning with institutional racism embodied by the protests in the spring and summer of 2020 that suddenly made the possibility of structural educational reforms plausible. Daz recalls, As educators, [the protests] ignited us in so many ways and made us a lot more unapologetic in our demands and in what needed to happen at these schools. It really lit a fire for us. Current Issue

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Together, public-facing alumni demands and teachers behind-the-scenes organizing created the foundation for a district-wide coalition in support of ethnic studiesone that brought together teachers, alumni, students, parents, and community members. This dedicated group met consistently over the summer of 2020 to prepare a formal proposal for district department heads, principals, and the school board. Teachers from across the district presented the resulting document, a 32-slide presentation on ethnic studies in the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD), to the board of trustees in a virtual meeting on October 14, 2020.

The presentation and vote came just two weeks after California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 331, a bill mandating a semester of ethnic studies as a statewide graduation requirement, but it also came after three of the largest school districts in the stateSan Diego, Los Angeles, and Fresno had mandated the course. Among organizers, there was hope for the SUHSD, and blossoming at the local level there was hope for the states trajectory, too.

When the board unanimously voted to approve the required ethnic studies course, I jumped up from the Zoom screen and ran to tell my parents, out of breath and in complete shock. I honestly [still] cant believe [that] happened, Cuff-Alvarado recalled. We had done it.

During a current national climate of white supremacist historical erasure, book banning, and silencing of people of color and their histories through statewide legislation, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what made our local organizing for ethnic studies successful. In the summer of 2020, organizers from another high school, in Massachusetts, asked for permission to use the petition we created as a template for their own demand for ethnic studies. This request, paired with frightening developments in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and elsewhere, prompt the questions: Can our local demands and achievements be replicated? If not, what can be learned from these Bay Area high schools? What led to our successful implementation of ethnic studies?

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That the LA, Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sequoia Union High School districts all implemented a mandatory ethnic studies class either prior to or despite the statewide veto of AB 331and that the vetoed bill was eventually passedis a testament to the power of local grassroots organizing. That all five of these districts are majority students of color also importantly locates the fight for ethnic studies in Black and brown communities.

Pressure at the local level from major districts and communities undoubtedly helped the case for ethnic studies at the state level. From social media petition campaigns to administrative statements in support of ethnic studies, this grassroots work was crucial to the realization of anti-racist pedagogy. Further, successful implementation at the district level emphasizes the importance of local and specific experiential knowledge of educational context. As alumni, for instance, we knew what it felt like to be students of color in our schools, and we had specific examples of what our syllabi included and what they erased.

Even as we prioritized demands specific to our district, however, we connected them to a broader movement for anti-racist education. The importance of our organizings contextof national Black Lives Matter protests, marches, and demands for racial justice and abolitioncannot be overstated. Among advocates in the coalition for ethnic studies, there was a sense that our organizing was part of a larger collective movement for equity and anti-racism. We were empowered by protesters around the world, by what we were reading, and by one another.

We were also inspired by the urgency voiced by advocates around us. Bolded in our petition was the demand: We need an actively anti-racist curriculum now. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, wait has almost always meant never. To demand ethnic studies now was to preemptively counter the white moderates of whom King warned.

However, our urgency also manifested in politically expedient strategy choices that catered to those in power. The choice to make the case for ethnic studies using achievement language (i.e., ethnic studies increases standardized test scores and graduation rates), rather than acknowledging that students of color deserve to learn their histories regardless of whether they score better on standardized testsan already problematic measure of achievementis an example. While strategic, in the long run this framing does a disservice to our vision. Diana Nguyen, a current ethnic studies teacher at Sequoia High School who helped develop the curriculum, said, When we were proposing, we had to be political. We had to organize in a way that was palatable. The expectation that ethnic studies is only worthy because of achievement is very hurtful, and it makes me wonder if thats even something we should have said.

Similarly, as much as mainstream media advance the sensationalist notion that ethnic studies is controversial, demanding that a single course prioritize POC histories and anti-racist pedagogy is not really radical. Asking for school-wide de-tracking, for textbooks to be rewritten, or for equitable funding of feeder schools all would have been more complicated, though equally necessary, demands. In response to an education system that for centuries has prioritized whiteness, our ask was limited and reasonable.

As of October 2021, ethnic studies is in full swing at M-A. Last month, I spoke to students from my former high school about their experiences in the class. One of them quickly corrected me: I think of [ethnic studies] as more than just a class, she said. Its a community, and you learn through that community.

Ethnic studies is indeed more than just a class, and more than a community, too. It is a pedagogy; it is advocacyand its future lies in the deepening and widening of its scope. Anti-racist content and teaching methods should be introduced to all subject areas, from history to foreign languages to biology.

I picture the SUHSDs graduating class of 2025 after having taken ethnic studies, how they will engage with their communities, and I have hope that their existence represents a change for the betterand not just symbolic or metaphorical progress. I hope that the histories and strategies they learn compel them to actively work to create a more equitable and just society. Abolitionist scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore said, What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, in experiments and possibilities. From my college ethnic studies classrooms to my former high school district, I see that these futures already exist.

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How We Brought Ethnic Studies to My High School - The Nation

There are, like, 69 trillion people running for 27 billion elected positions this year, half of whom are running for city council seats. There are only 15 people representing about four million people on the city council. They have a wild amount of power, and not a lot of accountability to the public aside from these elections and whatever pressure comes from community and activist groups.

We wont take too much time with this spiel, but it is kind of amazing to see that most of the candidates around the city talk about using political power to house people, protect renters, build more affordable housing, and actually hold the police accountable for their actions, political positions that would seem too radical even a couple of years ago. Its almost as if the constant push of a broad array of local activist groups over the past couple of years has effectively pressured local politicians to use their political power for something besides getting kickbacks from real estate developers

Anyways, heres a rundown of the people that want you to vote for them and why.

District 1:

District 1 includes northeast and northwest communities in the city, including Glassell Park, Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Pico-Union, Koreatown, and Westlake.

Gil Cedillo has been the council member for the district since 2013. Cedillo came up working as a manager for SEIU, the Service Employees International Union. Then he became a state assemblyman, where he introduced and advocated for a series of bills to get drivers licenses for undocumented people. None of those bills passed until Governor Jerry Brown passed a similar bill in 2013. Recently though, Cedillo has been better known for his use of the Department of Sanitation to remove street vendors at both Avenue 26 and the El Salvador Corridor street food market on Vermont Ave, not to mention the years-long issue of tenants at the Hillside Villa apartment complex in Chinatown, who have recently and successfully pressured Cedillo and the city to look into taking over their building to protect its affordable housing units. He also voted for a 150 million dollar reduction in the citys budget for the LAPD in 2020 and then voted for an increase in the departments budget a year later. On his website, Cedillo says he wants to create a better future of an affordable, just, dignified Los Angeles. More recently, hes made the decision to close street vending markets like Ave 26 Night Market and El Salvador Corridor, which fans of tacos and street vending advocates alike argue is detrimental to L.A.s most vulnerable immigrant communities. However, some residents and brick-and-mortar restaurants who live nearby are reported to be relieved (the sweep happened a few days after this op-ed was published by LA Times.

Fun donor facts: The Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County Action Fund, the Fox Corporation, and the California Apartment Association PAC have all donated to Cedillos campaign.

Eunisses Hernandez is running against Cedillo as a progressive candidate for this city council seat. Hernandez is the co-executive director of La Defensa, an anti-incarceration political advocacy group. Hernandez wants to do a lot of things, including protecting affordable housing in District 1, closing down Mens Central Jail, repealing the citys anti-camping law that leads to the harassment unhoused people, expanding city protection of street vendors, ending the criminalization of vehicle code violations, and establishing programs to help people fix their cars, remove cops from schools, cap oil wells in the city, and move money out of the LAPDs budget towards social programs like child care and housing. She is endorsed by the LA Times.

Fun donor facts: Hernandezs donors include comedians Nick Kroll and Kulap Vilaysack, Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Patrisse Cullors, and the Librarians Guild PAC.

District 3:

District 3 covers the far western parts of the city, along with the southwestern San Fernando Valley. Communities such as Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana, and Winnetka.

Bob Blumenfield has been the city council member for the district since 2013. If hes reelected, this will be his last term in office. Blumenfield is the co-author of the citys 41.18 ordinances that makes it illegal to sleep on streets and sidewalks in the city and that has been used to harass unhoused people. On the other hand, he also has been an advocate for building tiny homes to house the houseless in and converting two hotels in Woodland Hills into housing for unhoused families and seniors.

Fun donor facts: The Fox Corporation, Clear Channel Worldwide, and Grubhub have all donated to Blumenfields campaign.

Scott Silverstein, a commercial real estate broker, and Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council member, is Bluemnfields only contender in this race. Silverstein advocates for something he calls M.O.R.E., or mental health over real estate, where private developers would, in theory, develop homeless centers with rehab facilities and then lease them to the city. Another great way for developers to make money. He also thinks that the single-family homes in the Valley are under siege from Sacramento politicians hell-bent on destroying them and he vows to defend them on his website.

Fun donor facts: No fun donors to mention 🙁

District 5:

District 5 includes Westside, the Santa Monica Mountains, and southern San Fernando Valley communities, including Encino, Fairfax, Hollywood, Palms, Pico Robertson, and Westwood. The current city council member for the district, Paul Koretz, is ending his last term on the council by next year, so this race is wide open.

Jimmy Biblarz is a professor at UCLA Law School whos running for this seat. Biblarz says hes a renter in Mid-City West who wants to adopt a real housing-first model in his district, including more rental assistance programs to keep people from being kicked out of their homes, building more housing with lower-cost materials and construction techniques, and developing some sort of funding system for affordable housing. He also wants to invest in more city buses and demilitarize the LAPD. Not to mention, he supports our own independent journalism by being part of L.A. TACOs Membership Program.

Fun donor facts: Writer Gene Stone and Worldcoin CEO Max Novendtern, have both donated to Biblarz.

Scott Epstein is a former Mid-City West Neighborhood Council board chair, the founder of Midtown Los Angeles Homeless Coalition, and a COVID-19 tracer at UCLA, who is also running for this seat. On his website, Epstein states that he wants to repeal the citys anti-camping ordinance that leads to the harassment of unhoused people. He says that housing is a human right, and seeks to reallocate funds from the police, set up independent civilian oversight of the department, and reallocate money from the department to housing and anti-poverty services, and infrastructure projects. He also wants to increase the size of the city council.

Fun donor facts: Writer Justin Halpern, and Richard and Gloria Pink, the owners of Pinks Hot Dogs, all donated to Epsteins campaign.

Sam Yebri is an attorney that wants to hire more LAPD officers, build more mental health facilities, phase out oil drilling in the city, and increase rental assistance programs. On his website, he says that he gave up his car seven years ago and walks or takes public transit, or gets a ride, to get around town instead.

Fun donor facts: Ellen Sandler, the former co-executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, and Tracy Sandler, the CEO of FanGirlSports, both donated to Yebris campaign.

Katy Young Yaroslavsky is an environmental lawyer and the daughter-in-law of former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. Yarolsavsky developed Measure W, which allows the county to capture rainwater and protect creeks and streams, while working as a policy advisor for L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. She says she wants to take her experience in environmental advocacy to the city council and implement policies that help mitigate climate change, including the phasing out of oil drilling in the district, as well as providing green spaces within walking distance of every city resident, and building out the citys bike lanes and Metro system. She does have an odd, somehow neutral stance on the citys anti-camping law.

Fun donor facts: The Los Angeles County Council on Political Education and the Maria Elena Durazo for Senate 2022 committee have both donated to her campaign.

District 7:

District 7 includes the northeastern part of the San Fernando Valley. Communities include Pacoima, Sunland-Tujunga, and Sylmar.

Elisa Avalos is the president of the community activist group Pacoima Beautiful and former president of the Pacoima Neighborhood Council, and the only challenger of incumbent Monica Rodriquez. On her website, Avalos says she wants to address the homeless issue with stringent fiscal responsibility, legislate with consideration for the needs of the homeless AND the needs of local business and residents, and advocate to reestablish our state mental health facilities, plus force companies to comply with the states California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA laws, and save single-family neighborhoods, horse communities, and open space in the district. Shes endorsed by both Defend the LAPD and the Los Angeles Police Officers Association.

Fund donor facts: Visa Aviation Inc, an aviation parts and maintenance business that operates inside of Whiteman Airport a small airport in Pacoima that Pacoima Beautiful has advocated and organized to close donated to Avalos campaign, as did the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association PAC.

Monica Rodriquez has represented the district since 2017. Rodriquez co-introduced the citys anti-camping ordinance, 41.18. On her website, she talks about wanting to strengthen neighborhood policing programs and expand neighborhood and business watch programs, as well as repair sidewalks and take care of neighborhood blight around the district. She also, like Avalos organization, Pacoima Beautiful, advocates for the closure of Whiteman Airport.

Fun donor facts: Southern California Edison, artist Steve Ponce, and Hollywood Hookah have all donated to Rodriquezs campaign.

District 9

District 9 includes a lot of South L.A. and parts of downtown.

Curren Price Jr. has been the city council member for District 9 since 2013. Price has led the push to pass legislation that bans employers from asking potential employees if they have prior criminal convictions. Hes also led the city in creating programs like the Big: Leap basic income program and been involved in some interesting things on possibly the opposite side of the ethical spectrum, like championing a skyscraper complex that blasts digital billboards and arguably speeds up gentrification in South L.A., as well as voting for projects that benefit his wifes consulting company. He was also one of three council members, including Cedillo, that backed an initiative to reduce the LAPDs budget by 150 million dollars in 2020, and then voted to increase the LAPDs budget a year later. If Price wins, this would be the last term he could serve on the council.

Fun donor facts: Movie producer, ex-chair of Disney Studios, co-founder of Dreamworks Animation, and the guy behind Quibi, (remember that?) Jeffrey Katzenberg donated to Prices campaign, as have a lot of realtors and developers (but thats not unique among people donating to local political campaigns), including Gary Safady, whos been looking to build a luxury hotel in Benedict Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Dulce Vasquez is Prices only competitor in this race. Vasquez is a director of strategic partnerships for Arizona State University, which has a satellite campus downtown. She has received some pushback and criticism about how new she is to the district. Shes trying to run as a progressive against Price, but her policy ideas are a little vague. She says on her website that housing is a human right, and she wants more of it and is a fan of public transportation. She also thinks that the LAPD doesnt need any more officers.

Fun donor facts: Raul Porto, the president of Portos Bakery, and Michael Dieden, the CEO of Creative Housing Associates, a neighborhood and transit-oriented building firm, both donated to Vasquezs campaign.

District 11

Mike Bonin, the councils most reliably progressive voice, isnt running this year for personal reasons. So this race is wide open too.

District 11 covers Westside communities like Brentwood, Venice, and Mar Vista.

Erin Darling, is a civil rights lawyer who is running to kind of take the place of Bonin as the staunchly progressive candidate for the district. Darling wants to build more affordable housing, institute a vacancy tax where landlords with vacant homes are taxed for not housing people in them, convert motels and unused commercial spaces into housing, and have people who are being threatened with eviction to have the right to legal counsel to defend them. He also wants to shut down the SoCal Gas Playa Del Rey methane storage facility and get the city to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2035.

Fun donor facts: Real estate developer Thomas Safran gave some money to Darlings campaign.

Greg Good is a commissioner on L.A.s Board of Public Works, and quite a contrast to Bonin. He also served, in the past, in a number of positions in Mayor Garcettis administration. Good wants to expand the citys emergency rental ordinance and other eviction defenses, as well as enforce more of the anti-camping laws and give at least $200,000 out of the districts funds to pay the LAPD to work overtime in specific areas of the district where profligate drug trafficking is making it more difficult for some unsheltered folks to say yes to housing options.

Fun donor facts: BNSF Railway Company, one of the largest freight railroad companies in the country and the owner of Hobart Yard in Commerce, donated to Goods campaign, as did Warner Bros. Discovery.

Alison Holdorff Polhill recently worked as the chief advisor and district director to the vice president of the Los Angeles Unified School District for Westside communities, and she seems to be running to the right of Good. Her ideas are to heavily enforce the citys no camping laws, especially in Centennial Park, and increase the number of LAPD officers by as much as 11,000.

Fun donor facts: Real estate developer Thomas Safran and former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner have donated to her campaign.

Midsanon Soni Lloyd is a history teacher at Venice High School, a United Teachers Los Angeles Co-Chair, and a big anti-COVID vaccine mandate guy. His three most important principles, according to his website, suggest medical freedom, tax the billionaires, invest in the people, which includes opposing COVID vaccine mandates for LAUSD staff. As Yo! Venice! Reports, hes now working outside the district through Zoom as an online teacher after having taken a religious exemption from current classroom instruction.

Fun donor facts: Looks like Lloyd has received no campaign donations, so no fun donor facts 🙁

Jim Murez is the president of the Venice Neighborhood Council who wants to create transitional service centers if elected, which he describes on his website as places where unhoused people can camp away from residential and retail areas where the city would provide restrooms, showers and electricity, and staff to help transition those individuals who want a better standard of living. He also is a big fan of the broken windows theory of policing, and he wants to increase the ranks of the LAPD.

Fun donor facts: Jay Penske, the CEO of Penske Media Corporation, which owns magazines like Variety, Rolling Stone, and Deadline Hollywood, has donated to Murezs campaign.

Mike Newhouse runs his own law firm and wants to be a strong, moderate voice for the district. Not surprising, but that means doing not-so-moderate things like clearing ALL (his emphasis, not mine) tents and encampments in the entire district and directing people to theoretically available shared housing options and even emergency FEMA-type shelters. He does want the city to set up a hotline that people can call if theyre about to become unhoused, to connect them with services like funding, a voucher, a job, immediate child care, transportation, or mental support. He also wants 1,500 more cops, which he says should include civilian LAPD employees.

Fun donor facts: Producer Tony Bill, lots of real estate developers, and the Los Angeles County Business PAC have all donated to Newhouse.

Traci Park is a partner at Burke, Williams, and Sorensen, a law firm where she specializes in employment law, labor relations, and litigation. She started her interest in local politics after standing against the city using a Ramada Inn close to her house for transitional housing for unhoused people through Project Roomkey, and her politics seemed to have evolved from there. She argues that the city violated state environmental laws by housing people in the Ramada Inn and that the building itself should be protected and preserved. On her website, she says she wants to house people in a variety of ways, like shared housing, building more affordable and permanent supportive housing units, and increasing rental assistance to people on the edge of losing their homes. She also thinks that law enforcement agencies are significantly understaffed, and that Sheriff Villanuevas cowboy hat stunt on the Venice Beach Boardwalk last year was a good thing to do.

Fun donor facts: Again, lots of real estate companies and developers have given to her campaign, as well as Tony Antoci, the CEO of Erewhon.

Mat Smith owns a medical delivery business. Hes the only Republican running in the district. Smith says hell back the blue, re-fund the police, and that shelter is a right, while housing is EARNED. His emphasis, not mine.

Fun donor facts: Smith gave himself most of the money for his campaign.

District 13

District 13 includes communities in Central L.A. like Silverlake, Echo Park, Hollywood, and Koreatown.

Albert Corado is a community organizer running for this seat on the city council. In 2018, Corados sister, Melyda Corado, a store manager at a Trader Joes in Silverlake, was killed by the LAPD, who fired recklessly into the crowded store when Gene Elvin Atkins took the store and its patrons hostage after a car chase with the police. Corado is now a prominent figure for the abolition of the police and redistributing their budgets to social services. He also says he wants to establish a vacancy tax for landlords and developers who leave housing empty, and another tax on landlords who use eminent domain to seize vacant property for housing, and also get lawyers for tenets who are about to be evicted to defend themselves, end the citys sweeps of unhoused encampments, and promises to build more public restrooms in his district.

Fun donor facts: Amber Navran of the band Moonchild, and mayoral candidate Gina Viola, have both donated to Corados campaign.

Steve Johnson is an LASD sergeant, whos running on a pretty right-of-center campaign. Johnson says he wants to build more trailers, modular homes, and industrial tents for unhoused people and talks about the need for sending out mental health professionals to respond to calls dealing with individuals having mental health issues. Hes also a big Recall D.A. Gascon guy and wants to hire another 11,000 LAPD officers.

Fun donor facts: No fun donor facts 🙁

Mitch OFarrell, like a lot of current council members already talked about here, has been on the city council since 2013. OFarrell came up with Garcetti through local politics in the early 2000s. As a member of the Wyandotte Nation, hes the first Native American person on the city council. Hes had a contentious run on the council for the past couple of years, first opposing a broader COVID-19 eviction moratorium at the beginning of the pandemic, but most of all, with his involvement in the eviction and displacement of 200 people who camped at Echo Park last year, which preceded the LAPDs violent encounter with peaceful protesters there. A report from the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy found that a year after the sweep of the park, only 17 people have been placed in long term housing, while 84 were either, still waiting in t bureaucracy for housing, disappeared, or back to sleeping on the street, while six others had died. OFarrell says he wants to continue producing affordable housing units, creating policies that mitigate climate change, and reduce homelessness.

Fun donor facts: The L.A. Football Club donated to OFarrells campaign.

Kate Pynoos is a former policy advisor for Mike Bonin. She does not support the citys anti-camping ordinances and she wants to expand affordable housing incentive programs, create new ones, increase rental subsidies for people on the brink of losing their homes, build more affordable housing, and save the affordable housing we already have. She states on her website that housing is a human right. She, along with Corado and Hugo Soto-Martinez, also signed the Peoples Budget Coalitions no new cops pledge to not hire any more police officers.

Fun donor facts: Councilmember Nithya Raman and writer Brian Lynch both donated to Pynoos campaign.

Hugo Soto-Martinez is a union organizer with UNITE HERE Local 11. He has said that he wants to convert vacant and underused spaces like motels and office buildings into housing, implement tenant protections to keep people in their homes, make the Metro free, and establish a public bank for the city. Hes been a little mum about his exact position on abolishing the police, but he signed the no new cops pledge along with Corado and Pynoos, and said that he wants to see more mental health counselors, mediators, and addiction specialists instead of police officers.

Fun donor facts: Councilmember Nithya Raman and comedian and actor John Early both donated to Soto-Martinezs campaign.

District 15

Councilmember Joe Busciano ran, and then conceded, the race for the mayors office, so this city council seat is wide open.

District 15 covers San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, and Watts.

Tim McOsker is the CEO of AltaSea, a public-private partnership that includes ocean-based technology, economy facilities, and research and development at the Port of L.A. Hes a former lobbyist for the L.A. Police Protective League, the LAPD union, and the former chief of staff for former Mayor James Hahn. He wants the city council to embrace creative housing solutions like container construction, tiny homes, and renovation of existing facilities (whether private or publicly owned) while focusing on immediately sheltering people.

Fun donor facts: McOsker himself is his campaigns own main contributor, but BNSF Railway, marina developer Joseph Ueberroth, the Home Depot PAC, the California Apartment Association PAC, and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce PAC also donated to his campaign.

Bryant Odega is an environmental activist and an LAUSD substitute teacher whos running as the progressive candidate in this race. Hes also the only candidate this election cycle, and one of the only candidates in the district ever, to live north of San Pedro. Odega has said that 100 million dollars should be cut from the LAPDs budget and redistributed to social programs like public housing, mental health resources, and public transportation. He has also said that rent for everyone who cant pay their rent because of COVID-19 hardships should be canceled. Hes also talked about first wanting to implement buffer zones between neighborhoods and schools, and then eventually phase out oil drilling in L.A., create more farmers markets in food deserts, and support more public housing as a way to combat environmental racism. He also wants to create a local Medicare For All program and raise the minimum wage to $24.

Fun donor facts: Mayoral candidate Gina Viola donated to Odegas campaign.

Danielle Sandoval is the president of the Harbor City Neighborhood Council, and a former treasurer and president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Federated Auxiliary 8. Sandoval describes herself as pro-union, and interested in creating more green spaces in the district, as well as creating more youth programs and career development programs. She also talks about reducing the number of polluting diesel trucks in the district coming from the port, ensuring that Airbnbs are not consuming all our housing stock, and creating a program that helps renters with paying security positions, first months rent, and other application fees piled on renters.

Fun donor facts: The Ship Scalers & Painters Union ILWU Local 56 and The City Lights Gateway Foundation donated to Sandovals campaign.

Anthony D. Santich used to work in a bunch of different positions at the Port of L.A. Hes got an interesting and seemingly very localized platform that focuses a lot on generating money for the district and protecting the environment while protecting jobs through the profits the port makes. Deploying a system of incentives and penalties he calls the Port Impacts Fund, Santich says he can generate 100 million dollars in five years for improvements in infrastructure, environmental programs, and a program to help the port and port businesses hire locals, and fight against automation and the loss of union jobs. He also wants to increase spending on training for police and outreach workers.

Fun donor facts: No fun donor facts. Santich gave his own campaign a lot of money, but he does seem to be getting a lot of donors from locals and people working in and around the port.

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Voter Guide: Know Your District's City Council Candidate, Including Who Donated to Their Campaign - L.A. TACO

Jarrod ShanahanCaptives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage (Verso Books, 2022)

When Johnny Cash performed for the inmates of San Quentin prison in 1969, he wrote a song especially for the occasion. The first several verses ask why the prison exists and what good it could possibly do for those imprisoned there or society as a whole. Its last verse concludes, to a roar of applause:

At the time, the song was considered nave pandering. This was still the era in which liberal academics and politicians believed in penal welfarism, that Americas carceral institutions could be transformed into something better than the torturous dungeons described by Cash. A notable example was the planned expansion of New Yorks Rikers Island from a small penal work camp to a state-of-the-art facility of human rehabilitation. Jarrod Shanahans Captives, the first history of Rikers written in what may be its final years, explains why the project failed, why renewed progressive efforts to replace facilities like Rikers today will fail again, and why Cash was probably right.

The book opens with an inmate uprising at New York Citys House of Detention for Women (HDW) in 1954one of many riots described with the visceral detail with which Bill Buford depicted soccer-hooligan street brawls in Among the Thugs. The facility-wide chants and miniature arsons alerted Greenwich Village passers-by, and eventually the sympathetic ears of the media, and then-recently-appointed Department of Corrections (DOC) commissioner Anna M. Kross. To her, the conspicuously dangerous and unsanitary conditions of HDW were emblematic of the citys eighteenth-century system of jails she had been tasked to modernize. Declaring that the old jails could not be reformed, Kross announced that a new central jail, designed by humanitarian academics and run by psychologists and social workers, would replace them on Rikers Island. Arriving inmates would be evaluated, categorized, directed to the right sort of expert, and assigned to a program based on whatever type of help they need to leave the facility as a productive member of society. It would be a model for the future of jails that would look more like social emergency rooms than warehouses for surplus population. Once completed, she believed, Rikers would be the pride of New York City.

An early sign of trouble for Krosss plan came a decade later. With a new womens prison under construction on Rikers, HDW was once again rocked by scandal. Peace activist Andrea Dworkin published an expos of the horrors of daily life inside HDW, apparently unabated since the 1954 riot. This time Krosss DOC was less sympathetic, and new voices spoke up to defend her work: the various religious, student, and activist nonprofits and NGOs that Kross had introduced to the facility as part of her plan to wrestle control of the jails away from the cruel and apathetic correction officers. Instead of taking a strong stand against brutality, the religious leaders and representatives of the Womens Prison Association and the Society for Ethical Culture claimed Dworkin was exaggerating or lying.

Despite the important advocacy work these groups often provide for inmates, Shanahan observes, these nonprofits operate at the pleasure of the facilitys administration, and are thus unwilling to challenge effectively the day-to-day cruel and unusual excess of incarceration. Ultimately, he writes, these nonprofits have no choice but to facilitate the perpetuation and expansion of carceral institutions, lending them ideological cover and practical support under the auspices of doing good deeds.

At their highest levels, Shanahan argues, the corporate-funded prison-reform NGOs like the Ford Foundation and Vera Institute for Justice hope to reshape prisons so they can be effective institutions of social engineering: criminals would be transformed into compliant workers for industries experiencing shortages.

But even as their influence within the penal bureaucracy increased, the visions the NGOs shared with Kross were blocked by the paramilitary power of the true authority in city jails: the guards. Bolstered by a new grassroots right-wing movement called Support Your Local Police (SYLP), the guards reimagined themselves as soldiers on the front line of a war against urban riots, street gangs, crime, drug addiction, and revolutionary struggle. Trials for police or guard brutality were met by SYLP activists and swarms of off-duty cops and guards in impressive and often violent shows of solidarity. Eventually police and guard unions merged into a separate Uniformed Forces Coalition, a far-right labor-bargaining group of NYPD, FDNY, housing police, and prison guardswho were often conspicuously armedthat negotiated separately from other city employees.

A final nail in the coffin of the penal welfarist dream came with the fiscal crisis of the seventies. Years before New York City faced bankruptcy, inmates were the first to suffer punishing cuts in wages, services, work programs, food, and basic hygiene. Shells of their original blueprints, the new Brutalist Rikers cellblocks were packed with an increasing number of bunks to keep up with skyrocketing arrests throughout the crumbling city. By the mid-seventies, politicians like Ed Koch ran TV ads showing empty jail beds he promised to fill once in office. In just a few years time, it appeared that it was Kross, not Cash, who was nave.

Victorious against plans to replace them with social workers, the guards treated the expanded Rikers like their island fortress. Subsequent attempts by the DOC or judges to rein in their power with oversight or humanitarian reforms were met with increasingly daring wildcat strikes. Shanahan describes the most dramatic of these actions, the 1990 seizure of the bridge to Rikers by dozens of correction officers, drunk and determined to brutalize anyone who tried to cross, even paramedics. The blockade starved inmates to the point of another desperate riot, which was in turn quickly put down by indiscriminate beatings.

Contradicting a position commonly taken by prison abolitionists, Shanahan argues that cops and guards are indeed workers, but workers with a uniquely reactionary worldview resulting from their profession, in which human lives are treated as raw material. As was often the case with such protests, the central demand of the bridge blockade was the end of any oversight of how and when they meted out violence. The zealotry that terrified New Deal-era bureaucrats like Kross was now a perfect fit for the disciplinary neoliberal economic restructuring of the seventies and eighties. Outcasts of the production process could be treated as antisocial elements driving urban decay instead of the actual culprits, the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) tycoons pushing slash-and-burn austerity.

Shanahan, a former inmate at Rikers, seems to delight in interrupting his account of the gruesome dealings among the city, guards, and judges with gripping tales of prisoner escapes and uprisings. In one, a man with a broken leg leaves his cast behind as a decoy to make it appear as if he is still in bed. In another, the Puerto Rican revolutionary William Morales, his hands and vision destroyed by a faulty explosive, tumbles from a Bellevue Hospital window into the arms of his comrades, who evacuate him to Cuba, where he lives to this day. The uprisings, on the other hand, do not produce such happy results. And yet, every dozen pages or so, they keep happeninga chilling testament to how intolerable daily conditions must be.

Keeping the work historical, there is only a brief mention of the movement against Rikers today. The #CLOSErikers coalition formed in 2016 when the stories of Kalief Browderwho committed suicide at age twenty-two after spending two years in solitary confinement for allegedly stealing a backpackand later, Layleen Polancoa transgender woman who died of a seizure in solitary in 2019renewed condemnation of Rikerss reliance on torture. With Ford Foundation funds, the coalition successfully pushed a plan through city government that would relocate Rikerss inmates to four new community jailsdescribed with all the optimism with which Kross had imagined Rikers.

But a sizable part of that coalition were abolitionists. Calling themselves No New Jails NYC, they broke against the plan with a counterproposal: that the eleven billion dollars for new facilities should be spent instead on social programs that would reduce the underlying causes of crime. They agreed that Rikers should be closed, but insisted that it should be replaced with nothing. Following the Movement for Black Lives, the position that jails simply dont work was approaching grassroots consensus among the progressive left. Nonetheless, it was called nave, even inhumane, by the NGO advocates of the new jails, even those who had adapted the newly popular language of abolition.

The struggle to control Rikers, Shanahan writes, is a struggle for the city itself. If thats the case, it would seem the city is run by a fluid alliance of these NGO leaders, city bureaucrats, police officers, and corporate overlords, bound together, despite their occasionally competing interests, by a belief that prisons should continue in perpetuity. While he does not go so far as to offer an abolitionist program in Captives, his history of Rikers convincingly demonstrates that there is no other logical alternative to the horrors of prisons and jails than to break with the social order they represent.

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Rikers, what good do you think you do? The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail