Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

NEW BEDFORD The sign on the corner ofSpring and Seventh streets declaring that Abolition Row Park was Coming Soon is finally living up to its name as work crews showed up last weekandbegan construction.

Its exciting in many ways, said Lee Blake of the New Bedford Historical Society. In threemonthswell have a lovely little park there.

Abolition Row Park will be a tribute to New Bedfords history as a major stop on the Underground Railroad, the first free home of Frederick Douglass, and a beacon of tolerance and safety for those seeking freedom, said Mayor Jon Mitchell in a statement.

History lesson: Here's what the British Consul General learned about New Bedford's own Frederick Douglass

The project is a joint venture between the historical society and the City of New Bedford.There are two lots involved in the park project one was on city property, the other was not.

Blakeexplained that both lots became city property and that meant any forthcoming construction on theplot needed to go through the bidding process to hire a contractor to do the work.

The bidding process slowed things down and then came the pandemic and the state government stopped all construction, Blake said.

The delay, however, allowed the historical society to finda silver lining, as Blake called it.

We were all hesitant about asking for private donations whenfamilieswere going without because of the pandemic, she said.

It freed up time for the group to research andfindadditionalgrant money to help fund the park project.

Between grants and donations, some $600,000 has been raised, she said.

Additionalplans for the park includeacherrytree border, seasonal flowers, community garden space, a publicgazeboand plaza area, andwalkways and seating. Jam Corporation, based in Worcester, was the winning bidder for the project. Blake said the company has a reputation for working on parks throughout Massachusetts.

Besides the sign announcing the parkscoming soon status, the lot is vacant except for a set of steps that go...well,nowhere.

The was an historic rooming house there that was built in 1843.Afast-moving firedestroyed the building in December 2009. All its residents escaped without injury, however, two dogs died in the fire. The building was sobadly damagedthat it had to be demolished.

The only thing thatstillremainsis the front steps which will be incorporated into the new park.

The dig in 2017 uncovered more than 5,800 artifacts, including the foundation of a small 19th-centuryoutbuilding, buttons, cuff links, a spoon, and fragments of ceramic plates, porcelain, and glass bottles.

The park will be across from the 1822 Friends Meeting House and the Nathan and Polly Johnson House, former home of Frederick Douglass. The neighborhood was home toa number ofprominent abolitionists, both black and white.

Pieces of porcelain plates discoveredduring the dig, headed by New Bedford archeologist Craig Chartier,helped illustrate that Quaker families were not againstacquiringwealth, despite their desire to keep the exterior of their homes and their public appearance modest, according to an article in the Standard-Times.

The park wouldn't be complete without a statue of Douglass who migrated to New Bedford in 1838 through the Underground Railroad after escaping from slavery. In New Bedford, he was helped by Nathan and Polly Johnson, African American abolitionists. He and his wife Anna began their life together, raising their young family here.

The historical commission has so far raised $75,000 toward the expected $200,000 cost of the statue.Richard Blake of Pennsylvania is the sculptor for theDouglass statue.

Blake said fundraising for the project will start up again and members of the public are encouraged to become members of the historical society.

Originally posted here:

Long-awaited work begins on Abolition Row Park in New Bedford - SouthCoastToday.com

Warrior Met coal miners should vote to reject the sellout contract offer accepted by the United Mine Workers and begin mobilizing support now to broaden their fight.

After working under a $6 an hour pay cut since 2016 while the company rakes in massive profits, workers are being asked to accept an insulting wage increase that divides workers by pay grade and will not take full effect until 2026. Meanwhile, the companys brutal disciplinary policy, which has resulted in countless unjust terminations, is being kept in place, only with six strikes before dismissal instead of four.

Miners are in a powerful position to carry forward their struggle and press their demands, including full restoration of all pay cuts, restitution of lost wages and concessions, along with the abolition of the companys draconian attendance policy.

Any claim that there is no money to meet these demands is a lie. Warrior Met made $302 million in 2019, while CEO Walter J. Scheller III has pocketed an annual salary of over $4 million even during the pandemic.

The main obstacle workers face is the United Mine Workers, which is seeking to corral and strangle the strike. On Wednesday, UMW President Cecil Roberts, who earns a salary of $210,000 annually, told Warrior Met miners that a $1 to $2 pay raise was the best the union could get.

While sitting on assets of over $164 million, the union is attempting to starve workers on a strike pay of only $300 a week. Meanwhile, it is keeping the strike isolated from other sections of workers, such as teachers, Amazon workers, steelworkers and autoworkers.

Workers must organize independently of this corrupt organization and build a rank-and-file strike committee to take over negotiations and continue the fight. Instead of ending the strike, Warrior Met miners should expand the struggle, demanding a nationwide miners strike and solidarity action from workers throughout the area. Delegations of striking miners should go to the US Steel and US Pipe mills in nearby Birmingham, the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, the Constellium aluminum plant in Muscle Shoals, the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance and schools in Birmingham, Montgomery and other cities where educators are fighting the deadly back-to-school policy.

Conditions are developing to wage such a fight. After a year of a pandemic in which the government has shoveled literally trillions of dollars into the coffers of the corporations while doing nothing to keep the population safe from COVID, workers are ready to fight back. Already significant struggles are breaking out.

* More than 1,300 steelworkers at Allegheny Technologies Inc. are on strike at nine mills in five states seeking to overturn a pay freeze and restore lost concessions.

* About 700 nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts are entering the fourth week of strike action against Tenet Health Care for safe patient ratios and patient care.

* In New York City, 3,000 graduate student instructors at Columbia University are in rebellion against the United Auto Workers, which is seeking to shut down their strike against poverty-level wages without even achieving a contract. Meanwhile, other graduate student instructors at New York University are preparing to walk out.

In waging their struggle Warrior Met miners must advance demands based on what they need, not on what the company and the UMW says management can afford.

These demands must include:

*Full restoration of all wage and benefit concessions and a large pay increase to make up for what has been sacrificed.

*Ending of all pay tiers. Equal pay for equal work.

*Abolition of the disciplinary system. Rehire with back pay all workers who were unjustly terminated.

*End forced overtime and grueling work schedules. Hire additional miners to ease the workload and give workers time with their families.

*Workers oversight of health and safety conditions. Appropriate social distancing and daily testing for COVID. Workers must have the right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions.

In mobilizing to fight for these demands Warrior Met miners should turn to the militant traditions of class struggle in Alabama going back more than 100 years. Alabama coal miners have waged repeated strikes in the face of company gun thugs and state militia and confronted repeated attempts to divide workers by race.

A rejection of the contract is not enough. New rank-and-file organizations of struggle are needed. The unions long ago turned their backs on the working class for the warm embrace of corporate management. This fact is underscored by the failure of the union drive at the Amazon Bessemer plant. Workers want to fight, but they know the corporatist unions will do nothing to defend them.

As long as the struggle is left in the hands of Cecil Roberts and the UMW, it will be isolated and defeated like the strikes against A.T. Massey and Pittston Coal in the 1980s and 1990s.

Workers must build their own rank-and-file strike committees and democratically decide for themselves their demands and how to conduct their struggle. The strike against Warrior Met is part of a nationwide and global movement of workers against the obscene growth of billionaire wealth amid the deaths caused by the willful negligence of the corporations and their political frontmen, whether it is Trump and the Republicans or Biden and the Democrats.

Workers everywhere are fighting the same global corporations and are increasingly facing identical conditions under a rampaging pandemic. The fight against the sacrifice of workers lives to the drive for profit must be combined with building an international political movement of the working class for socialism, and the reorganization of society so the wealth created by the collective labor of workers goes to them not the wealthy few.

The World Socialist Web Site encourages miners to help circulate this statement.

For more information about building rank-and-file committees and to share your story, contact the WSWS today.

Sign up for the WSWS email newsletter

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Reject UMWA sellout! Spread the Warrior Met strike! - WSWS

By IANS

Looks like when it comes to the film industry, the powers that be believe in making their work and life more miserable by the day. To this end, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) seems to be the tool of choice. Of course, the governments have a tool each for controlling just about every wake of life, but why is it always the film industry?

It would be a tough task to find a single filmmaker who, at some time or the other, has not been at the receiving end of the CBFC's unfair observations and rulings on his film when it comes to certifying a film. The trend was set during the British Raj, which implemented censorship of films with the purpose of checking on anti-Raj or pro freedom content in films.

The British had no other issues. Kissing scenes etc were okay, for it was a normal thing in their way of life. They also knew it as a part of Indian culture, too -- centuries-old caves, temples and other structure depicted intimacy as a way of life. It was the Indians after the freedom which thought kissing on screen was immoral!

The CBFC has its guidelines properly laid down and, if those were followed, few filmmakers would have problems with the process. However, over the period, many of those who occupied the post of Chairman of the Board, made their own interpretations of the guidelines, and some even set their own set of rules.

When Raj Kapoor launched Rishi Kapoor in "Bobby", I think the kissing scene was okayed by the Board after ages. More films followed, and there was little the Board could do since a precedent had been set. But, to some, what good was being the Chairman if he/she had no say in the way things were running smoothly!

Things could not be let out of control of the Board, so a measure for a kiss, a fight or a rape scene and such on the screen was devised, totally illogical and arbitrary at that. It was decided to limit a kissing scene to certain duration (in seconds, too) at a time. So, what the wise filmmakers did was to interrupt a kissing scene with a couple of moments' break, showing surroundings or birds chirping to show their happiness at the happy couple kissing!

The filmmakers were reduced to finding indirect ways of depicting such scenes. For a kiss, two birds would be shown cooing or two flowers touching each other! For a rape scene a boiling vessel of milk overflowing or a water fountain coming to life in some garden somewhere! It was hilarious.

The kissing scenes on screen are usually cursory, just a lip-to-lip touch. There is nothing about them that is can be termed as vulgar.

Of course, there was discrimination when it came to judging foreign films. The same Indian audience saw these films but there the kissing on screen was okay! But then, there was a Chairman of the Board who ruled that the kissing scene in a James Bond film, "Spectre" (2015), be limited to some seven seconds! Now, that was rather ridiculous. All foreign films have a few kissing scenes here or there. And, you can't expect a James Bond film sans kissing and Bond bedding the woman in the last scene of the film! That has been the Bond film formula since "Dr No" in 1962, the first film in the franchise.

Pahlaj Nihalani being a producer of many films, it was strange on his part to impose such impractical rulings as CBFC Chairman. But, then, Nihalani was not the only one to come up with ridiculous snipping of films. Earlier, too, many films have been victims of Censor highhandedness.

Actually, the post of the CBFC Chairman is more honorary than executive. In usual practice, the CEO or the Regional Officer (RO) manage the day-to-day affairs of the Board like planning a screening and shortlisting a committee for the job from the list of the Examining Committee members. It was when some Chairmen assumed power that CBFC affairs made it to the media.

At times, the problem starts right at the onset when Examining Committee members watch a film. These are people and professionals appointed from various walks of life, considered to be well-versed with things around them. May be, it is something to do with what a government-assigned chair does to some. They turn into moral guardians of the people of India and also the encyclopaedia on filmmaking! Instead of doing their duty of watching a film and deciding if the content in any way goes against the guidelines, they start ordering cutting of scenes and dialogue at random.

Don't know what suddenly puts so much wisdom in these otherwise normal people! As a remedy of the whimsical Examining Committee observation, the Board has a Revising Committee (RC), which has a relook at a film the EC finds objectionable.

It may sound strange that though the RC is appointed from the same list of Committee Members on the Board's roaster, here usually, the same film passes without hassles either clearly or with minor cuts!

What could be the reason? May be, the RC members feel more responsible.

Yet, when both the Committees -- Examining as well Revising -- were around, there was a last resort in the set-up for the aggrieved filmmaker. This was the Appellate Tribunal where a producer could take his case. Very rarely has a filmmaker returned unhappy from the Tribunal, which at most times overturned objections raised by the earlier committees.

Now, the government, in its wisdom, has decided to abolish the Appellate Tribunal, leaving filmmakers totally at the mercy of the few wise men and women it deems fit to decide what Indian filmlovers should watch!

The system so far follows the rule that wherever somebody is sitting on a judgement on your issue, if not satisfied, one can take recourse to the next level. This holds true from Income Tax Department to the Courts of Law. The CBFC Tribunal served the same purpose. Why should absolute power be vested in a few and not have the body that can judge the flaws, if any, in their decisions. Especially so, because the Appellate Tribunal also consists of people outside of the EC and includes a retired judge.

Now, if a filmmaker has issues with the Board, he will need to approach the court of law and no producer has even been in favour of this, as it takes a lot of time, uncertainty about the release plans, besides adding to the overburdened courts.

There is a last resort for all, even a killer who may appeal to the President of India. The banks have Ombudsman. The Income Tax department and stock market also have appellate bodies.

The ball is now in the film fraternity's court. Since, the trade fails to find logic in this move, let the government justify it to the courts.

(Vinod Mirani is a veteran film writer and box office analyst. The views expressed are personal)

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Abolition of Film Certification Appellate Tribunal: The last resort - The New Indian Express

As Black Lives Matter protests swept the world last summer, one rallying cry rang louder than the rest: Defund the police. Rising up against the violent, racist, transphobic, homophobic, and misognyistic institution that has abused its authoritative power time and time again, protesters began to challenge the disturbing norm of global mass incarceration, and called for an abolition of the system as we know it.

For journalist and author Victoria Law, this has been her focus for the last two decades. As well as helping women in prison develop their writing skills, Law has written several books, essays, and articles about the dangers of mass incarceration and the ways in which we can resist it. Her new book, Prisons Make Us Safer: And 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration, is no exception. In it, she dismantles 21 of the most persistent myths about prisons many of which have been drilled into us from childhood. These include the myth that prisons offer rehabilitation; that race has nothing to do with mass incarceration; that those in prison dont resist or organise; and that prisons are the only way to address violent crime.

Even though prisons have failed to keep us safe, we as a society have been conditioned to turn to more policing, more prisons, and more punishment as a response to every social and political problem, Law tells Dazed. This shrinks our imagination so that were not thinking about other solutions other than locking people up in some way or another.

Although conversations about police and prison abolition are arguably more widespread than ever before, one group is still left behind. Too often, women are forgotten when it comes to both conversations about mass incarceration, as well as tangible prison reforms. Womens concerns, priorities, and existences are ignored, while their attempts to resist and organise behind bars are dismissed. In her book, Law explores why this is, discusses the ways in which trans women and women of colour are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system, and examines how womens experiences of violence and trauma trap them in a abuse-to-prison pipeline.

Women experience all the same abuses facing incarcerated men, says Law, but their gender allows the prison system and a constellation of other institutions to inflict additional injustices and violence on them.

Here, Law discusses some of the myths that enable mass incarceration, why women are excluded from the conversation, and what police abolition would look like in reality.

Your book centres on the myths that enable mass incarceration. What makes these myths so dangerous?

Victoria Law: These myths emerge over time, and often serve to whip up fear and build support for more spending on policing and prisons (while cutting funds to other needed resources, such as housing, health care, education, and economic opportunities). Everyone wants to feel safe and free from the fear of violence and attack many of the myths that prop up the system of mass incarceration play into these fears. One of the most widespread and enduring myths is that we need prisons to keep us safe(r). In the US, every child has been fed this myth from a young age, and it continues through adulthood via cop and crime shows, mainstream media, and politicians.

These myths justify the continuation of mass incarceration as a catch-all solution to all of societys problems. If we dont debunk these myths, then we end up either continuing down the same path of perpetual punishment (without any real safety), or else fall for proposed reforms that dont address the root causes of problems nor ensure safety.

How can we identify and eradicate them?

Victoria Law: By learning more about mass incarceration and questioning commonly-repeated refrains justifying prisons and prison expansion. I realise that not everyone has the time or inclination to read, watch documentaries, or listen to endless podcasts detailing the history and political machinations behind mass incarceration, so I wanted my book to be an easy primer about mass incarceration and to dispel the myths that I heard again and again.

Even though prisons have failed to keep us safe, we as a society have been conditioned to turn to more policing, prisons, and punishment as a response to every social and political problem Victoria Law

As well as looking at mass incarceration more broadly, your book delves into the experiences of women in prison. Why are women so often excluded from conversations about mass incarceration?

Victoria Law: Women make up approximately 10 per cent of the US prison population. Until recently, their issues and experiences were largely ignored because they comprise such a small percentage of the countrys bloated jail and prison population. But, with approximately 200,000 women behind bars, even 10 per cent is a high number and should not be ignored.

Women experience all the same abuses facing incarcerated men, but their gender allows the prison system and a constellation of other institutions to inflict additional injustices and violence on them. For instance, the majority of people in prison have children. When a father is imprisoned, hes likely to have family members who will care for his children. He may not always see or hear from them, but hes less likely to worry about losing them to foster care. When a mother is incarcerated, her children are five times more likely to end up in the foster care system. Until recently, however, navigating family court and custody issues were not considered prison issues because it wasnt an issue that affected the majority (incarcerated fathers).

Can you tell me a little about the intersections between womens histories of violence and trauma and their imprisonment?

Victoria Law: Among people incarcerated in womens prisons, past abuse family violence, sexual violence, and/or domestic violence is so prevalent that we now have a term for it: the abuse-to-prison pipeline. Until recently, this was a largely ignored pathway.In the US, at least half of all women in prison report having experienced past physical or sexual abuse prior to their arrest and incarceration. We see the same in the UK, where 46 per cent of women in prison report having experienced domestic violence.

For women who have less access to resources including resources to help them cope with and address past trauma, as well as resources that everyone needs, such as safe housing, nutritious food, and health care the combination (of this and trauma or abuse) pushes them further along the pathway towards prison. This might take the form of defending themselves against abusive partners or ex-partners, or engaging in criminalised activities at the coercion of their abusive partners, or self-medicating using illegal drugs to cope with unaddressed trauma, which can lead to arrest and incarceration.

In your book, you talk about women resisting and organising while in prison. To what extent are they more inclined to do this than their male counterparts?

Victoria Law: Women arent more likely to resist and organise while in prison than their male counterparts, but their actions are less likely to be recognised as resistance or organising. For women, organising and resistance might look like helping other mothers navigate the legal paperwork around child custody. In some prisons, its also taken the form of contacting attorneys and organisations that can do know-your-rights training and teach them how to navigate and advocate for themselves in the family court system. In some states, this has led to organising to pass laws that stop the countdown to parental termination simply because a parent is in prison. But because parenting is often not viewed as a prison issue, we tend to overlook those efforts when were talking about prison organising. Instead, ideas about organising often revolve around actions taken by men riots, hunger strikes, and work strikes.

In what ways might the prison system fail women more than men?

Victoria Law: The prison system fails everyone. It throws people into a violent and chaotic atmosphere rife with racism and very little opportunity to do anything meaningful during their time behind bars. That said, there are gendered ways that imprisonment devastates womens lives. Prisons replicate many of the same dynamics of abusive partners; not only do they separate people from their families and support system however flawed those families and support systems might be but in prison, people are told when to get up, when they are allowed to eat, shower, go outside, and see their families. If people misbehave, they are locked in solitary confinement. This kind of ultimate control is a hallmark of domestic violence, but is standard prison practice. Then there are the egregious abuses that occur within prison, including physical and sexual violence by staff and inadequate medical care.

Trans women are more likely to be stopped, harassed, detained, and arrested than their cisgender counterparts. Its a phenomenon so common that its called walking while trans Victoria Law

Victoria Law: Women of colour are disproportionately targeted by the criminal legal system. Trans women of colour are disproportionately targeted by police because of both their race and their gender identity; because they are trans, they are more likely to be stopped, harassed, detained, and arrested than their cisgender counterparts. Its a phenomenon so common that its called walking while trans.

Many prisons are located in predominantly white rural communities. For many of the people who work in prisons, their only personal contact with people of colour is with those who are incarcerated. Many of them come to work with extremely racist ideas about people of colour, which manifests in so many different ways. It can look like staff believing that the person in the midst of a medical or mental health crisis is malingering. It can look like placing people in solitary confinement for minor behaviors. It definitely looks like not believing a woman who reports being sexually assaulted, especially when her assailant is a prison staffer.

The movements to defund or abolish the police have attracted global attention in recent years, particularly following the BLM protests last summer. What would police abolition look like in reality?

Victoria Law: If you want to look at abolition in action, look to your wealthier and whiter neighborhoods. You dont have the police presence thats so prevalent in poorer neighborhoods, (therefore you dont have people) being targeted, harassed, surveilled, and killed by the police. At the same time, you also dont have the young people in those neighborhoods being arrested for petty offenses. We also have to remember that, in the US, over half of all violent crimes are not reported to the police to begin with, so we already live in a society where police are not seen as purveyors of safety or an answer to violence.

I do believe that we can work towards a world where police can be abolished. We can start by demanding a defunding of the police and a redirection of those funds into the resources that communities need. Defunding needs to go hand-in-hand with allocating money to life-giving institutions. Putting our money, resources, and faith in policing and prisons has not kept us safer. What will make us safer is redirecting those resources to build stronger communities, support individuals and families, and create programs that address, rather than hide away from, underlying issues, preferably before they erupt into harm or violence. Its a slow build, but one that is necessary if we want to live in a safer world.

Prisons Make Us Safer: And 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration is out now via Beacon Press

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Busting the myths around mass incarceration and its impact on women - Dazed

Sharmila Tagore served as the chairperson of the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification), the film-certification body of India, for seven years, from 2004 to 2011. During her tenure, the veteran actor actively worked towards expanding FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal) and enhancing its functions and the values it stood for. Yesterday, the sudden abolition of the film body evoked a sense of disappointment among many members of the film fraternity including Tagore.

She explains, I dont know the rationale behind this step but it concerns the film producers most certainly. Even if they come together now and make an application and appeal to the government, they can work it out but the problem is that no one wants to come together.

Sharing her support for the body, she says, In my opinion, FCAT served a very good purpose because it was a recourse for the producers to go to another source to moderate the CBFCs point of view. FCAT was an enabling body and a bridge between the producers on one hand and the civil society on the other.

Describing the role of the legal body headed by a retired judge, Tagore says, When I joined CBFC, there was already an FCAT in place. It was a body where if producers had a difference of opinion with CBFC and were not happy with CBFCs decisions of giving cuts or A-certificates, they could always go to FCAT and sort out their differences. Sometimes, FCAT went against us and sometimes, they upheld our views. So, FCAT had the final say.

Tagore firmly states that FCAT was a kosher and useful body and she would have never abolished it. In her words, During my tenure, I wanted to expand its mandate by referring to all the PILs that were initiated all over the country against films so that they could come under the mandate of FCAT considering it was a film body. The only film that we couldnt give a certificate to and couldnt go to FCAT with was Black Friday because the Bombay blast was sub judice at that time. So, Anurag Kashyap had to wait for the longest time.

So, how would the film industry function without the FCAT? It will be a hassle for a producer to go to the court because it is very expensive and it often leads to a lot of delay. And if a film isnt released on time, it may get dated and cause other problems including actors careers getting ruined for inordinate reasons and the audience losing their interest in the project, the Kashmir Ki Kali (1964) actor signs off.

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I dont know the rationale behind abolition of FCAT: Sharmila Tagore - Hindustan Times

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or onbangordailynews.com.

Dont believe everything you read on the internet. Particularly when it comes to tax policy.

President Joe Biden coupled his infrastructure plan with a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 lowered the top federal statutory rate on corporations to 21 percent, down from 35 percent.

The White House suggests splitting the baby and increasing it to 28 percent.

Biden backed the policy at a press conference by claiming there is no evidence increasing corporate rates has any negative effects on the economy.

Hours later, his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seemingly refuted the president by calling for a global minimum tax. If the U.S. raises its tax rate while other countries stay put, it could have a negative effect on the economy.

This is very complex stuff. But, due to the meme-ification of our political dialogue, simplistic analysis gets a lot more likes. One picture rotating through left-leaning circles shows a line graph that drops from 35 percent, down to 21 percent, and then back up to 28 percent. The point is that 28 percent is less than 35 percent, so Bidens proposed increase cant be a problem.

Stop here.

If the basis of your opinion on corporate income tax rates can be adequately explained by a single line graph meme, you may want to sit out this debate.

Would it surprise you to learn that many right-leaning economists advocate for abolition of corporate taxes altogether? Probably not, right?

But what if I told you some of their colleagues leaning left concurred with the idea? A little more surprising?

On a good day, tax policy is complicated. While individuals are generally mobile within the United States, rarely do they renounce their citizenship and flee the country. They remain subject to Washingtons tax whims, despite the threats made Ill move to Canada if the other guy wins! leading up to an election.

Multinational corporations are different. If Apples California-based managers direct Estonian coders to develop software for iPhones assembled in China for sale in Brazil, how should they be taxed? And by whom?

Apple has an incentive to keep its tax bill as low as possible. So ensuring they earn income in places with lower tax rates is to their benefit. This is the exact problem that Secretary Yellen wants to address with her global tax.

Yet these perverse incentives work against Americans. Some of the opposition to Bidens proposed increase is based on the theory that businesses will merely raise prices to offset the new tax liability. That is not exactly right; prices are sticky and things do not adjust overnight.

But capital is mobile, and, as former Gov. Paul LePage was fond of saying, goes where it is welcome and stays where it is appreciated. Large corporations make new investment decisions based on their expected net financial return, which is greatly impacted by tax policy.

So, when pursuing growth, corporations include their tax bill in the math. And, with the U.S. system, the headline rate of Washington is only a part of the story; there is an additional 6 percent tax levied on average by the states. That 21 percent headline rate is more like 26 percent after deductions.

In 2016, the 35 percent rate was more like 39 percent. Which left us higher than every developed country in the world, save Columbia.

If we want corporations to invest in the United States, we should encourage them to do so. Abolition of the corporate tax can be coupled with eliminating the capital gains tax rate; shareholders will then shoulder a greater share of the tax burden. When individuals receive income in any form wages, gig-work, dividends it should be treated equally.

If Biden really wants an infrastructure bill, it has to be coupled with an increase in economic activity. That activity can, and should, be stimulated by encouraging our largest businesses to invest at home.

Broadband can be a critical piece of that effort, but you still shouldnt believe every meme you see on the internet.

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Want to improve the economy? Lower the corporate tax rate. - Bangor Daily News

by Matt TrinderIndustrial reporter

DELEGATES at the National Education Unions annual conference backed a motion today calling for the abolition of Ofsted and performance-based league tables.

Over threequarters (77 per cent) of the more than 10,000 school staffho responded to the unions State of Education survey, published to coincide with this weeks online event, said that reducing the role of the education inspectoratewas vital to help schools recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Respondents said that reducing the pressure ofaccountability measures such as Ofsted andleague tables that rank schools based on national exam resultswould enable themto focus on helpingstudents catch up on learning after school closures during the pandemic.

Regular full school inspections have been suspended sinceMarch 2020but they are set to resume in September.

NEU joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said that Ofsted was a blunt instrument and a wholly negative presence in schools.

As we emerge from a time of great challenge for the education system and all who work in it, there is no taste for the return of full inspections, she said.

We must focus on the needs of pupils and what schools and their staff judge to be the best approaches to rebuilding on-site learning.

We already knew that Ofsted was not fit for purpose. Inspections are crude snapshot assessments, conducted without much regard for local context.

We need to see a new, fair and reliable system of inspection which works with schools, gives them confidence to make changesand generates meaningful, accurate and reliable information.

Ofsted is a symbol of the dead hand of government, of its lack of trust in the profession, and must be abolished.

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Teachers call for abolition of Ofsted and league tables - Morning Star Online

The three winners of theJames Berry Poetry Prizewill each win 1,000, receive year-long mentoring and their debut book length collection will be published by Bloodaxe Books. The winning poets will be invited to take part in a James Berry Poetry Prize reading as part of theNCLA events series.

Devised by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo with inclusivity specialist Dr Nathalie Teitler, the prize is the first national poetry prize to include both mentoring and book publication. It is named in honour of James Berry, OBE (1927-2017), one of the first black writers in Britain to receive wider recognition. He emigrated from Jamaica in 1948, and took a job with British Telecom, where he spent much of his working life until he was able to support himself from his writing. He rose to prominence in 1981 when he won the National Poetry Competition.

His numerous books included two seminal anthologies of Caribbean-British poetry,Bluefoot Traveller(1976) andNews for Babylon(Chatto & Windus, 1981), andA Story I Am In: Selected Poems(Bloodaxe Books, 2011), drawing on five earlier collections includingWindrush Songs(2007), published to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

James also inspired and helped younger poets who came after him, most notably Raymond Antrobus and Hannah Lowe, who returned the favour by giving him their personal support in his later years.

Newcastle University Chancellor and acclaimed poet Imtiaz Dharker welcomed the prize. I am thrilled with this initiative from Newcastle Universitys Centre for Literary Arts and Bloodaxe Books, she said. The James Berry Poetry Prize opens up a whole new avenue for poets of colour, with the chance of winning a precious year of mentoring and a debut collection published by Bloodaxe.

It just shows what is possible when people are intent on causing change. An idea devised by Bernardine Evaristo and Dr Nathalie Teitler was taken up enthusiastically by NCLA and Bloodaxe, who have always been committed to diversifying UK poetry, and will be carried forward with outstanding judges and mentors. This is a dream project that will rewrite the future for many poets.

Neil Astley, founder and editor ofBloodaxe Booksand a prize judge, said: We are delighted to be working with the NCLA on the James Berry Poetry Prize, the first award which offers both mentoring and first book publication not just to one but three emerging BAME poets. We will also benefit greatly from having experienced poets and educationalists of the calibre of Mona Arshi, Malika Booker, Mimi Khalvati, Theresa Muoz and Jacob Sam-La Rose as mentors or judges.

Award-winning poet and Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University,Sinad Morrissey, is one of the prize judges. The prize builds on the vital partnership already in place between Newcastle University and Bloodaxe Books: one of the most important publishers of poetry in the world, she said.

The shared commitment by NCLA and Bloodaxe to help diversify UK poetry through increased publication and performance opportunities will be greatly strengthened by the James Berry Poetry Prize, which will mentor and support emerging talent from previously underrepresented communities and change the landscape of UK poetry for generations to come.

Prize judgeJacob Sam-La Rose,said: The fact that my copy of James BerrysBluefoot Travellerwas sitting on my desk the day I first received details of the prize, completely coincidentally, felt like an auspicious sign. The investment in a legacy that celebrates and recognises new generations of writers from diverse backgrounds resonates with me, deeply.

Prize mentorMona Arshisaid: It really is a huge honour to be involved in the prize and I am delighted to be mentoring and helping to develop the work of a talented poet who will be chosen by the selection team. The prize provides a wonderful new opportunity for poets whose work is often underrepresented or sidelined and I am so pleased to see it in the world.

Sharing a commitment withBloodaxe Booksto diversify the UK poetry sector,NCLAhas already worked with Bloodaxe on other projects relating to the promotion of BAME writers, such asFreedom City,celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King Jr being awarded an honorary doctorate by Newcastle University, including the publication of a celebratory anthology,The Mighty Stream: poems in celebration of Martin Luther King, andOut of Bounds, a national project promoting the work of BAME poets based around on another anthology co-published by Newcastle University with Bloodaxe.

The James Berry Poetry Prize was inspired by the success of the ten-yearComplete Worksmentoring scheme founded by Bernardine Evaristo and managed by Nathalie Teitler with funding fromArts Council England. This initiative saw the work of 30 new or emerging BAME poets showcased in three anthologies of ten poets co-published with Bloodaxe in 2010, 2014 and 2017. The Complete Works scheme was devised to redress the low proportion of publications by poets of colour in the UK identified in the Arts Councils Free Verse 2005 report on diversity in British poetry publishing which Bernardine Evaristo herself initiated.

Poets from the Complete Works series have gone on to make a big impact on the British poetry scene. They include two recent winners of the T.S. Eliot Prize, Roger Robinson (2019) and Sarah Howe (2016, also Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award); Mona Arshi, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection (2016); Jay Bernard (2016) and Inua Ellams (2017), winners of the Ted Hughes Award; and Warsan Shire, who collaborated with Beyonc on her visual album, Lemonade in 2016, which featured many of Shires poems.

Jacob Sam-La Rose added: Much has been said about the work that needs to be done to broaden the range of voices and perspectives represented in poetry publishing in the UK; the work that both Nathalie Teitler and Bernardine Evaristo have done in this regard has been both essential and brilliant.

Building on the spirit and successes of The Complete Works, alongside Bloodaxes track record and standing, the James Berry Prize promises to be an initiative thats not just about acknowledgement but also transformative, meaningful development. Im looking forward to the whole process from the shortlisting (which will no doubt provide a far-reaching overview of the work thats being produced across the country from poets who are all too often underrepresented) to the work thats finally developed as a result.

The James Berry Poetry Prize is funded by Arts Council England and will also become a pilot for a scheme which Bloodaxe Books plans to develop as part of its Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation funding from 2022 under which three more emerging BAME poets will be mentored and published every two years. The judges for the inaugural prize are Neil Astley, Sinad Morrissey,Theresa Muoz, Jacob Sam-La Rose andDrNathalie Teitler,and the three mentors are Mona Arshi,Malika BookerandMimi Khalvati.

Entries to theJames Berry Poetry Prizeclose on 1 July.

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The James Berry Poetry Prize for emerging poets of colour - India Education Diary

ABOLITION 2021 Abolition Apostles is hosting four concerts across the next four Fridays to raise funds for a hospitality house for families and allies of people incarcerated at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary. Among the participating performers: Kronos Quartet, The War and Treaty, Boots Riley, Brandi Carlile, Sam Amidon, Adrianne Lenker, and Vijay Iyer. April 9-30. Stream via Noonchorus

A.Z. MADONNA

Classical

BOSTON BAROQUE The period instrument orchestra streams live from GBHs Frasier Studio with a special guest, soprano Amanda Forsythe, taking center stage for Handels Gloria and arias from Partenope. Also worth catching is Bachs Concerto for Two Violins, featuring concertmaster Christina Day Martinson and unmissable violinist-about-town Sarah Darling. April 10, 7 p.m. https://baroque.boston

A.Z. MADONNA

ARTS

Theater

BOSTON THEATER MARATHON XXIII: SPECIAL ZOOM EDITION Taking place online for the second year in a row due to the pandemic, this annual event will showcase 50 10-minute plays, all written by New England playwrights and presented by New England theater companies. The readings take place at noon Mondays through Saturdays, with one play per day, with a question-and-answer session after each reading. Presented by Boston Playwrights Theatre. Through May 28. Free, but audiences are encouraged to donate to participating theatre companies and/or to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

UNVEILED A digital presentation of a solo performance piece, written and performed by Rohina Malik and originally presented locally in 2018, in which five Muslim women recount their experiences of bigotry in post-9/11 America. Presented by New Repertory Theatre. Through April 18. Tickets $25. http://www.newrep.org/productions/unveiled-digital

DON AUCOIN

Dance

WHEN WE FELL The next big offering of New York City Ballets digital season is this world premiere by choreographer Kyle Abraham. Created during a three-week COVID-compliant residency, the work was filmed on the stage and Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater and features India Bradley, Jonathan Fahoury, Christopher Grant, Claire Kretzschmar, Lauren Lovette, Taylor Stanley, KJ Takahashi, and Sebastian Villarini-Velez. April 8, 8 p.m. premiere, available on demand through April 22. Free. http://www.nycballet.com and youtube.com/nycballet

KAREN CAMPBELL

Visual Arts

SONJA CLARK: HEAVENLY BOUND and MONUMENTAL CLOTH In 1865, the Confederate Armys ceremonial surrender to the Unionists took the form of a plain white dishrag with two slim red stripes on each end. (It was the only thing on hand, apparently.) It became known as the Confederate Flag of Truce, though its been lost to the ages as the more defiant (and racist) symbol of the Confederate Battle Flag stole the symbolic stage. Clark, who works in textiles bound in history, presents a pair of exhibitions that examine this symbolic schism in the evolution of a country tangled up in its slave-trading past and still very much at war with itself. Through Sept. 12. deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln. thetrustees.org/place/decordova/

MURRAY WHYTE

GREG MENCOFF: MEANINGFUL DUST The Boston-area minimalists sculptures may be spare, but theyre rich in metaphor. End Game (Wailing Wall), a wall-mounted grid of 100 white and black blocks, is influenced by Taoist iconography, sound patterns of non-Western music, and the holy site in Jerusalem. Square tubes in the center of each block refer to the cracks in the wall where worshipers insert their prayers. Through May 1. Howard Yezerski Gallery, 460 Harrison Ave. 617-262-0550, http://www.howardyezerski.com

CATE McQUAID

EVENTS

Comedy

FRIDAYS WITH FARRIS & FRIENDS Kathe Farris hosts this monthly Comedy Studio showcase, still virtual for now, featuring stand-up comedians Steph Dalwin, Kathy Lynch, Erik Escobar, Jules Biedrzycki, and an interview with illustrator Dave Biedrzycki, Juless father. April 9, 8 p.m. Free. http://www.thecomedystudio.com

BOSTONS BEST Laugh Boston continues to showcase homegrown headliners as it ventures into in-person shows again. This weekend, the lineup is Zach Brazao, Tooky Kavanagh, Chris Pennie, and Robbie Printz for two indoor, socially distanced shows. April 9-10, 7:30 p.m. $29. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston. 617-725-2844, http://www.laughboston.com

COREY RODRIGUES The Boston comic has released a comedy special (part of the Unprotected Sets series on Epix) and stars in the new comedy short Rope-A-Dope from Tres Gatos TV. Now he will celebrate his first time headlining Giggles (under the tent) with support from some of the clubs regulars, Tony V (Friday) and Ken Rogerson (Saturday), plus Johnny Pizzi. April 9-10, 8:30 p.m. $25. Giggles Comedy Club, 517 Broadway, Saugus. 781-233-9950, http://www.princerestaurant.com

NICK A. ZAINO III

Family

FAMILY PUPPET COMEDY FESTIVAL At Puppet Showplace Theaters online performance series this weekend, expect fantastical puppets, new takes on old stories, and lots and lots of laughter. From Friday to Sunday, puppeteers from across the country will perform live over Zoom in a series of shows ideal for all ages. April 9-11. Free. http://www.puppetshowplace.org

WINDSOCKS At this Earth Day celebration hosted by The Umbrella Arts Center, participants will learn how to create windsocks colorful hanging triangles which signal important weather changes. This outdoor workshop includes all necessary supplies and an opportunity for participants to hang their windsocks at the center. April 10, 1 p.m. $5-$10. The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow St., Concord. theumbrellaarts.org

NATACHI ONWUAMAEGBU

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Whats happening in the arts world - The Boston Globe

When Maos Red Guards first got to work in China, they defaced statues before they tore them down. It was common to find a statue of Buddha, for example, with new signs saying: Destroy the old world! Establish a new world! Boris Johnsons government isnt keen on statue removal, but it is offering a compromise. Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, has adopted a policy of retain and explain, whereby the statue remains but with a plaque giving more historical context. Explanation, it is assumed, can only be good.

Yet you only have to look at the single case where retain and explain has been deployed to see what we could be in for. Edinburgh City Council has had its planning application approved to attach a plaque to the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square commemorating Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. The contention is whether he delayed the abolition of the slave trade by inserting the word gradual into the 1792 motion on the issue.

A reasonable interpretation of his addition is that it ensured the Acts passage. You might think Dundass record of advocacy for a transported slave, by which he proved Scots law would not uphold the institution, would be worth taking into account. Not according to the wise men of Edinburgh City Council. Their revision says Dundas was instrumental in deferring abolition. It concludes with a gross distortion: In 2020 this was dedicated to the memory of more than half a million Africans whose enslavement was a consequence of Henry Dundass actions.

Given that the council didnt commission a historian to draft the wording, but turned to Sir Geoff Palmer, a scientist and an anti-Dundas human rights activist, the outcome is hardly surprising. The danger of retain and explain, however, is not just the capacity for historical illiteracy. It is the very premise that it is necessary to expose some supposed moral flaw in those depicted in our statues.

The purpose of a statue is to celebrate someone in respect of specific public achievements. Churchills statue in Parliament Square is only there because he defeated European fascism. His character faults, or indeed the rest of his long and exceptional parliamentary career, are irrelevant. Statues have never been testaments of unblemished character, should such a thing exist.

If we are to get into the habit of writing statements of penitence in the name of context, almost no one from history would escape. For example, Haringey Council recently renamed Albert Road Recreation Ground in Muswell Hill after the anti--apartheid revolutionary Oliver Tambo, whose statue already stands in the park. Should there not be a plaque explaining that the African National Congress president authorised the Church Street bombing atrocity, which killed many innocent (black) civilians? Should it not memorialise the victims of uMkhonto we Sizwes practice of neck-lacing, whereby alleged collaborators with the apartheid regime had a car tyre forced over their head and arms, were drenched in petrol and then set ablaze?

I raise these questions not to doubt the legitimacy of the anti-apartheid struggle but to show how difficult it is for retain and explain to fulfil its purpose. We are asking too much of our civic monuments to educate us. Anyone who wishes to learn about slavery should go to a library or Elmina Castle. The base of a statue does not have space for a full historical account. At best, plaques restrict the life of the figure to a narrow frame. At worst, they deliberately mislead.

Britains curatorial class have convinced themselves that the public desires radical change. A survey in Leeds suggests otherwise. Of the 813 people (of a population of 792,525) who bothered to respond to the City Councils statues review, 90 per cent wanted no action at all. Yet Historic England is all for retain and explain. The chairman, Sir Laurie Magnus, who has a touch of Sir Desmond Glazebrook, repeats the mantra on every platform.

I suspect many of our public servants are simply guided by the fear of being accused of defending the indefensible: namely that one supports slavery or racism. I suppose if you are a director or trustee of an older generation, particularly a white male, you must feel like Indiana Jones with the walls closing in. Your own staff might wish to see you squished. Tacituss without anger or zeal approach to history is old hat. Likewise is custodianship in the age of audience management. The culture industry now resembles a political lobby group.

If you think I am overstating the case, look at the museums. Glasgows Hunterian has employed an incredibly titled Curator of Discomfort. Londons Natural History Museum claims Darwins voyage on HMS Beaglewas a colonialist scientific expedition. The folk at Kew Gardens, who appear to have been inhaling their plants, are going to reword their display boards to address any exploitative or racist legacies. The Museums Association itself campaigns for social and climate justice.

Who is all this justice for? The Labour mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has claimed material inequality led to the toppling of Edward Colstons statue last year. I doubt that. To believe artefacts with colonial or slave trade associations reproduce violence today requires subjecting oneself to hours of bad scholarship or workshops. The poor do not have that privilege. Such are the luxuries of an elite mob. And if democracy has any real meaning, it is surely the ability of the majority to laugh at their foolish ideas. But now these fads permeate schools, universities, museums, galleries, civil service, councils; in short, every civic and cultural institution. The joke isnt funny any more.

Dowden is a rare breed of culture secretary who wants institutions to consider their remit. His department is still drawing up the guidelines on retain and explain. A museum curator I spoke to a member of its decolonisation working group and anti-racism taskforce thinks the policy is a compromise that will satisfy nobody. So if Dowden would like to please the majority and wont ditch retain and explain these guidelines should at the very least force institutions to follow an academically robust process to prevent curatorial independence being used as a cover for political activism. If not, taxpayer money should be withheld. Such conditions wouldnt need legislation. Otherwise, retain and explain is doomed to be another Tory policy where to accommodate is to capitulate.

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The misguided plan to 'retain and explain' statues - Spectator.co.uk