Category Archives: Government Oppression

How can the International Labor Organisation promote social justice while cozying up to political forces?

By Li-chuan Liuhuang for The Diplomat

June 01, 2017

The people in Taiwan have just witnessed how the World Health Organization (WHO) chose to be a vassal of Beijingsone China policy. The WHO denied Taiwans Ministry of Health and Welfare officials the right to observe this years World Health Assembly (WHA), which runs contrary to the WHOs constitutional decree that enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. Coming up next, on June 5, is the International Labor Conference, which claims to be the United Nations social conscience.

Established in 1919, the mandate of the International Labor Organization (ILO) is to defend social justice, to emphasize that labor is not a commodity, and to oppose unfair globalization. Based on the principle of voluntary ratification by member states, the ILO formulates International Labor Conventions and policies by collaborating with tripartite representatives from the government, labor groups, and employer groups. Applying a social dialogue mechanism based on equal participation and democracy, the governments, laborers, and employers work together to draw up Conventions and monitor how the Conventions are implemented in each member nation. Through technical cooperation, the ILO offers member states consulting service and assistance, both to develop labor and social policies and to provide labor rights education to labor groups and employers alike. In recent years the ILO has adopted decent work for all as its principal policy, and offers advice to employer groups aboutsustainable enterprises and social economic development as well as social protection.

Several unions in Taiwan belong to the Global Unions Federations, including the Taiwan Petroleum Workers Union, the Chunghwa Postal Workers Union, the Taiwan Power Labor Union, the Taiwan Railway Labor Union, and the National Chinese Seamens Union. There is also the Chinese National Federation of Industries, which belongs to the International Organization of Employers (IOE). As social partners, all unions mentioned above have the right to participate in all types of international labor conferences and meetings based on the unique tripartism enshrined in the ILO constitution almost a century ago. The situation has changed drastically this year, however, due to Chinas influence on the United Nations and the UNs specialized agencies. The ILO, a Nobel peace prize award winner which touts itself as a social justice promoter, has buckled under the UNsillogical and discriminatory requirement for conference participant status.

In the past, Taiwan union representatives have served as observers at the International Labor Conference. Recently, in response to a routine inquiry by the Taiwan Petroleum Workers Union regarding the identification documents needed to obtain observers status, the ILOs legal office replied as follows:

The United Nations have informed that, in accordance with a policy that has been in effect already for a number of years, it will not permit access to the UN premises for persons who hold only an identity document issued by an entity not recognized by the United Nations. Reinforced identity controls will be in place this year at the entrance of the Palais des Nations. For reasons of coherence, the ILO will apply the same principles in regulating access to ILO premises. Therefore, persons who only hold a passport issued by the authorities of Taiwan, China, may not be able to gain access to the meetings of the International Labor Conference this year.

The reply clearly violates the ILOs constitution, which speaks of its core values and Conventions for freedom of association and the right to organize.The statement also raises several questions.

First, if this is a policy that has been in place for many years, why the sudden announcement to implement it this year? And why does the policy only target passports issued by the Republic of China government in Taiwan? Is the ILO yielding to pressure from the Chinese government?

Second, the use of an obscure legal policy claimed by the United Nations will damage the ILOs constitutional tripartite governance structure and operational mechanism, which includes not only governmentsbut alsolaborers and employers. The measure is not only a serious departure from the ILOs spiritof ensuring fair participation by worker and employer groups in the pursuit of social justice, it is also against the ILOs Convention of freedom of association and the right to organize. According to the regulation cite above, Taiwans worker and employer groups will lose all opportunities in the future to participate fairly in any ILO meetings.

The ILOs universal values should be extended and the ILOs annual conference should welcome more participation from non-member nations or political entities. Due to the ILOs tripartite structure and purpose, crafted especially to protect labor movements from government oppression and to defend equal labor rights and freedom from discrimination, in the past the ILO has won the applause of many for its actions. The group has now been afraid to stand up to political pressure in the past. For example, the South African government once withdrew from the ILO after it was condemned by theorganization for its apartheid policies. TheILO also defended the basic labor rights of people in the occupied Palestinian territories. The United States and Israel became infuriated and the United States withdrew from the ILO as a warning.

In fact, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is not a United Nations member any more than Taiwan is. However, to highlight the plight of persecuted PLO workers, the ILO promoted its policy of decent work for all through its regional officeand conducted a report on the Palestinian occupation area via its tripartite commission. The ILO also offers an occupation zone labor report annually, to demand justice for Palestinians. The move has won applause around the globe.

Asimilar example was the initiative during the Kosovo civil war between 1998 and 1999, when the ILO proactively helped the region develop decent work and social dialogue. At the time, Kosovo had not reached independence, and was not a United Nations member. Based on the spirit of the ILO Constitution, however, the ILO proactively offered assistance to the government, unions, and employer groups. Every year during the ILO annual conference, Kosovo workers and employers were able to join the assembly as observers and enter the ILO conference hall; they were also permitted to speak during the conference. Such actionscalled on everyone to value the importance of labor rights for people in occupied regions. That was the true spirit of the ILO: when it defied the powerful in pursuit of social justice.

In 2019, the ILO is expected to celebrate its 100thanniversary and create a plan for future work, ablueprint to emphasize its determination to defend international labor standards in pursuit of social justice. Before then, please retrieve the ILO spirit and honor the ILOs values and principles. Open the doors wide to welcome all the worlds oppressed, so that they can enjoy the protections granted by the ILO constitution and international labor standards regardless of UN status, all people around the world deserve sincere support from the ILO.

Li-chuan Liuhuang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Labor Relations, National Chung Cheng Universityand an advisor to the Taiwan Petroleum Labor Union.

Read more from the original source:

The International Labor Conference Turns Its Back on Taiwan and Its Own Principles - The Diplomat

Out of approximately 50,000 total evening news stories on ABC, CBS and NBC combined in the last four years, just 25 have covered the ongoing crisisin socialist Venezuela, according to a Media Research Center study published Tuesday.

After Venezuelas former socialist president, Hugo Chvez, passed away in March 2013, the country has spiraled into economic disaster and civil chaos. So far in 2017, more than 50 Venezuelans have been killed during protests againstcurrent Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his socialist policies. Many Venezuelansare starving due toshortages of food and other essentials. The countrys inflation rate is set to surpass 700 percent and 25 percent of Venezuelans will be unemployed.

The few times they have managed to cover the widespread poverty, starvation, and government oppression they somehow find ways to do that without [saying]the word socialism.'

Yet the Big Three evening newscasts have tried to pretend this crisis does not exist, offering virtually no coverage as the situation has deteriorated over the past four years, MRC Research Analyst Mike Ciandella wrote.

The networks have also been reluctant to attach the socialist label to Venezuelas government, and have utterly failed to criticize liberal politicians and celebrities who have praised the Chvez and Maduro regimes, Ciandella added.

Indeed, out of the 50,000 total evening news stories on the three networks, just 25 covered Venezuela, and only seven mentioned socialism. In addition, NBC Nightly News only broadcast 13 stories spanning 16 minutes and 54 seconds, ABCs World News only covered 8minutes and 34 seconds over sevenstories, and CBS Evening News only offered 3 minutes and 11 seconds over five stories.

The network evening news programs seem allergic to reporting on the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, Ciandella told LifeZette in an email. Even worse, the few times they have managed to cover the widespread poverty, starvation and government oppression in that country, they somehow find ways to do that withoutmentioning the word socialism.'

Ciandella noted that the three networks aired no stories when Maduro took advantage of a countrywide power outage to stamp out as much opposition as he could in September 2013. When Maduro used the powers he gave himself to rule the country in a state of emergency that superseded the National Assemblys voice, the media networks were silent.

After the anti-socialists elected a majority to the National Assembly in December 2015 and Maduros loyalist Supreme Court decided to strip the Assembly of its power on May 18, the media yawned.

On occasion, one of the three major news networks will drop a rare mention of the word socialism in connection with the Venezuela crisis in its coverage. As MRC noted, one of those exceptions wascorrespondent Jacob Rascon on April 20s NBC Nightly News.

The Venezuelan economy has been in freefall for years protesters blamed President Nicolas Maduro and his socialist government, Rascon said.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley offered another exception on May 4, when he said, Running battles continue in Venezuelas capital. They broke out a month ago when the socialist president tried to grab more power. At least 37have been killed.

But all too often, the media turn a blind eye to the atrocities and tragedies that fester in Venezuela, along with the root causes underlyingthem.

"In fact, ABC's 'World News Tonight' hasn't mentioned the words 'socialism' or 'socialist' in connection with Venezuela even once since Chvez's death in 2013," Ciandella told LifeZette. "This is completely inexcusable. The networks seem intent on distancing the socialism of the Chvez and Maduro regimes with the idealistic socialism of Bernie Sanders and liberal academia."

The socialism that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and many Hollywood celebrities champion appeals in theory to many U.S. college students and struggling young adults.

"I often say only half-jokingly to students on college campuses who are all in with Bernie Sanders that if they think socialism is such a wonderful economic model: How about a one-way ticket to Caracas?" Stephen Moore, an economic policy analyst and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, wrote of Venezuela's capitol in a Washington Times op-ed published May 21.

"You'd be a fool to go there today. Venezuela is a human-rights crisis of epic proportions, with mass hunger, mass poverty, despair, ghetto upon ghetto, and a mass exodus of private businesses and anyone with money," Moore added.

"The burgeoning resistance throws Molotov cocktails, rocks, and even human feces at the security forces during the nonstop rioting. 'I don't fear death because this life is crap,' one protester told the WSJ," Moore added. "It turns out that 'share the wealth' eventually means there is no wealth, and the egalitarian dream means everyone becomes equally poor. Venezuela is on its way to becoming the next North Korea."

More:

Media Yawn at Venezuela's Spiraling, Socialist Nightmare - LifeZette

POLITICS Women are not weak Minister, our government is weak Denise Robinson

Denise Robinson |

01 June 2017

DA says women should not have to live in fear, yet this has become the reality for every woman in South Africa

Women are not weak, Minister. Our government is weak

1 June 2017

Honourable Speaker,

Today we are united inmourning the tragic loss of life of many women and children through brutal rape, violence and murder in this country.

On behalf of the DA, I wish to express my sincere condolences to all who have suffered loss.

We as parliamentarians and particularly the Executive should be taking the lead in trying to find solutions to this tragic situation where the sanctity of life seems to mean nothing.

In the words of Professor Amanda Gouws, a former commissioner of the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE),more political will is needed to transform the justice and policing system so that the horror of abuse can end.

Members, let us today get the political will to address violence against women.

Throughout the ages in our tumultuous history, South African women have been seen as brave and strong - supporting the struggle for freedom and independence. From the riveting account of a Zulu family set in 1879, Eyes in the night by Nomavenda Mathiane tells of the battle for survival during the Zulu conflicts; to the women who bravely marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 demanding their rights, to those who penned the Womens charter in 1994, and wrote:

We, Women of South Africa, claim our rights to full and equal participation in the creation of a non-sexist, non-racist democratic society.

Yet, womens subordination and oppression has taken many forms under patriarchy, custom, tradition and racism. Oppression has continued unabated as today we have to face the fact that women are brutally murdered and raped on a daily basis.

Women should not have to live in fear, yet this has become the reality for every woman in South Africa.

Now those braveactivists who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 , chanting wa thinta abafazi wa thint imbokodohave been reduced to a tame ANC Womens League which now tows subserviently to the patriarchal attitudes of the BIG MAN defending him before and during his rape trial when Kwezi, the daughter of his friend, had to submit to his sexual demands.

Instead of standing up forthe rights of the victim Kwezi, the ANCWL mocked and derided others who supported her and eventually drove her out of the country.

The once proud ANCWL has been reduced to the ANC JZDL, the ANCs Jacob Zuma Defence League, instead of being defenders of the victims of abuse. Tragic indeed!

Last week our current minister, Susan Shabangu made the shocking statement after the murder of Karabo Mokoena, saying that she was weak and hence became the victim of violence.

How dare she say that to the grieving family when Karabo had been strong in reporting previous abuse, and assisting in shelters to help other victims?

Iwas at the court, I spoke to Karabos broken and traumatised family.

No parent should have to go through that anguish and then have an unsympathetic comment like the one made by the Minister for Women, who is supposed to champion the cause of women.

What about providing solutions, Minister?

What about helping children to be prepared for life to be able to discern psychological abuse?

What about encouraging everyone to speak out and not remain silent when there is gender violence and abuse taking place within the home?

Women are not weak, Minister- our government is weak.

We urge government to support programmes from organisations like Family South Africa (FAMSA), The Parent Centre and Sonke Gender Justice and to make them accessible to all so that our hurting families and society can be healed.

Unfortunately, our government has reduced the funding for many non-governmental organisations (NGO) that are doing valuable work, due to financial constraints.

How about cutting down on your frequent visits to the very expensive Oyster Box Hotel,Minister Dlamini and making more money available for NGOs or SASSA grants.

One also has to ask, what are the police and government going to do to prioritise the safety of women?

In many occasions, there are no J88 forms and rape kits available at Police Stations or Clinics.

At 189 Police Stations, there are no Victim Friendly Units for interrogation.

Under a DA Government, we will go back to the basics. We will increase the visibility of SAPS with more patrols on the streets.

We will encourage women to speak out and we will ensure that women are no longer victimised when they approach police officers for help.

The Victims Charter needs to be prominently displayed at police stations.

Government needs to increase the number of Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units so that the areas of operation are reduced in size, with decent vehicles, thus promoting greater efficiency.

More Thuthuzela Centres and shelters should be built throughout the country, especially in rural areas where they currently arent accessible.

The DA envisions a country built on the values of freedom, fairness and opportunity.

A country where girls are seen as being equal to boys in every aspect of life.

A country where women will yet again feel safe and no longer fear for their lives.

We urge every South African to vote for the country we envision in 2019 which will be a turning point, with safety and security of persons uppermost, protected by the rule of law and our constitution.

I thank you

Issued byDenise Robinson,DA Shadow Minister of Women, 1 June 2017

Link:

Women are not weak Minister, our government is weak Denise Robinson - Politicsweb

Yogi Adityanath

New Delhi, June 1: The BJP central leadership is concerned that the Saharanpur clashes have led to the Yogi Adityanath government being portrayed as anti-Dalit, and has asked the chief minister to take corrective measures to salvage the party's image, sources said.

The nudge to Adityanath comes at a time scores of Dalit families in Saharanpur have begun converting to Buddhism in protest at oppression by the upper caste Thakurs, undermining the BJP's hopes of expanding its base among the community. The Dalits have alleged collusion between Adityanath, a Thakur, and his caste brethren.

A BJP insider said the central leadership realised that Adityanath's government had "mishandled" the Saharanpur violence, letting the Thakur-Dalit clashes spread, but attributed it to his administrative inexperience.

"The Yogi government has been told to ensure the clashes don't spread to other districts," a BJP source said.

He expressed satisfaction that the violence had remained confined to a part of Saharanpur district.

Saharanpur has witnessed several small and big clashes since the May 5 violence in Shabbirpur village, which left a Thakur dead and dozens of Dalit homes and crop fields burnt down.

A Dalit protest had turned violent in Saharanpur city on May 9, and an attack on people returning from Mayawati's May 23 meeting at Shabbirpur killed a Dalit and injured many.

With police raiding the homes of supporters of the Bhim Army, an avowedly non-violent group formed to unite Dalits against oppression, the community has been alleging that the government is targeting the victims rather than the attackers.

BJP sources said that Adityanath had been asked try and win the Dalits' trust by showing himself as an even-handed administrator, and thus prevent rival political parties and Dalit activists from "taking advantage of the situation".

It's partly for this reason that the Adityanath government has so far refrained from arresting Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad despite there being two FIRs against him, accusing him of fomenting violence and defaming the chief minister on the social media.

Sources said the BJP was trying to reach out to Chandrashekhar, 29, through various channels. They said that Chandrashekhar had once been associated with Sangh student wing ABVP and this made them hopeful of winning him over.

"Reaching out to the Dalits and bringing them under the Hindutva umbrella is a priority for us. All Sangh parivar outfits have been asked to work in concert towards the target," a BJP senior said.

However, Adityanath suffered a public relations disaster during his recent Dalit outreach efforts. Reports said that ahead of the chief minister's visit to a Musahar Dalit village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the local administration had distributed soap and shampoo among the villagers so they could "clean themselves" before the meeting.

The reports underscored the stereotype that upper caste members like Adityanath consider the Dalits "dirty".

"Mistakes have been committed but we won't allow Adityanath to be identified as a Thakur leader," a BJP leader said.

Adityanath had been picked to head the Uttar Pradesh government against caste logic - the chief minister of neighbouring Uttarakhand is a Thakur too - solely to promote the Hindutva agenda in the heartland state. At that time, the party had argued that a monk like Adityanath would not be seen as belonging to any caste.

With that belief in tatters now, the BJP is scrambling to control the damage.

The state government today posted revenue secretary Dipak Agarwal as the new divisional commissioner of Saharanpur amid a state-wide shuffle of 20 IAS officers, a PTI report said.

On May 24, the government had suspended Saharanpur senior superintendent of police Subhash Chandra Dubey and district magistrate N.P. Singh while transferring then divisional commissioner M.P Agarwal and deputy inspector-general of police J.K. Shahi.

Read more:

BJP prods Yogi for Dalit salve - Calcutta Telegraph

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the unusual step Sunday of convening his Cabinet at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, spurring howls of protest by Palestinians who claim the area where it is located for the capital of a future state.

The special session marking the 50th anniversary of Israels capture of East Jerusalem was held in a tunnel near the giant limestone blocks of the Western Wall, a place of reverence for Jews because of its proximity to where two ancient temples stood in biblical times the holiest site in Judaism.

Palestinians saw the meeting as a provocation. Muslims consider the Western Wall part of the Noble Sanctuary, an esplanade that includes Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel annexed the Old City site along with all of East Jerusalem, a move that was never recognized by the international community.

The area is flashpoint for both sides. Netanyahus decision in 1996 to open a new tunnel entrance spurred days of violence in the West Bank that left about 100 Palestinians and more than a dozen Israelis dead.

Todays meeting in occupied East Jerusalem is an attempt by the Israeli government to normalize occupation, oppression and colonization over the land and people of Palestine, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.

The Cabinet session was the latest example of posturing by Netanyahu, who is under pressure from religious nationalist politicians to be more proactive in asserting Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Netanyahu pledged Sunday to plow more resources into developing the area around Jerusalems Old City and to build a cable car to improve access to the Western Wall.

Following the destruction of the Second Temple, this spot was the focus of the longings of our people for generations, Netanyahu said. Thousands of years have passed, the Jewish people returned to their land, established a state and are now building its unified capital.

If carried out, Israels plans could upset a delicate status quo in the Old City, said Ofer Zalzberg, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Netanyahu is trying to respond to pressure from the religious right, which is asking, Fifty years after capturing Jerusalem, whats next?'' he said. Palestinians see this as the entire Israeli government saying, Now we are just below the wall, but we want to push ahead.

Israeli celebrations of the reunification of Jerusalem kicked off a week ago, with Netanyahu vowing at a festive ceremony that Israel would never relinquish control over the Old City.

The following day, President Trump became the first sitting U.S. president in more than a century to visit the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to mark the site of Jesus' crucifixion.

Israelis viewed the gesture as tacit recognition of their control over East Jerusalem, even though the White House declined a request for Netanyahu to join the president, in keeping with U.S. policy that the status of the Old City is a subject for peace negotiations.

Mitnick is a special correspondent.

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Israel's government angers Palestinians by meeting near Jerusalem holy site - Los Angeles Times

The Hindu

Dalits face oppression across India, says Rahul The Hindu The State government has failed on the law and order front. The national government is spreading fear in every section. The poor, Dalits, minorities, farmers are being oppressed through fear. This government listens to only the rich. And this is not ... and more »

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Dalits face oppression across India, says Rahul - The Hindu

The Hindu

Dalits face oppression across India, says Rahul Gandhi The Hindu The State government has failed on the law and order front. The national government is spreading fear in every section. The poor, Dalits, minorities, farmers are being oppressed through fear. This government listens to only the rich. And this is not ... No place for poor in country, says Rahul GandhiEconomic Times all 206 news articles »

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Dalits face oppression across India, says Rahul Gandhi - The Hindu

In the early 2000s, South America was a beacon of hope for developing nations. In country after country Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and more leftist or at least left-of-center governments came into power, supported by social movements of poor and indigenous groups.

Fifteen years later, Venezuelas Bolivarian Revolution is in deep trouble. Brazils and Paraguays leftist presidents were removed through constitutional coups. A right-winger president was elected in Argentina. Leftist governments in Ecuador and Bolivia are still in power, but are having significant conflicts with the social movements that elected them.

Was the swing to the right inevitable? Not at all, says Jeffery Webber, in spite of the title of his book, taken from an Ecuadorian saying that is roughly the equivalent of The Whos famous lyric, Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Webbers thesis is that the leftist governments in South America alienated their base and opened the door to the right by failing to challenge capitalism at its root.

Although specifics differ from country to country, similar patterns emerged: Governments in the 1980s and 1990s inflicted economic hardship with neoliberal free-market policies and social movements organized to bring those governments down. In countries with dictatorships, democracy was restored. Free elections allowed left-leaning governments to come to power. Once in power, the new governments used revenues from oil, minerals and agriculture to fund social programs to start to eliminate poverty and give poor people a greater voice. This approach worked to a point mainly because commodity prices were high, fueled particularly by Chinas rapid industrialization. But part of the reason it worked was that the rich elite were still able to make substantial profits, while government programs reduced social unrest. In most countries, the rich elite eventually made their peace with the new governments; those governments, in turn, incorporated portions of the upper class into their ruling coalition.

This approach to development had its downsides. Little was done to reduce these countries dependence on the world market by developing their own industrial base, leaving them at a disadvantage in the global division of labor. The dependence on oil, mining and export-oriented agriculture for government revenue pushed ostensibly progressive governments to expand corporate farming and large-scale mining into rain forests, leading to conflict with indigenous supporters and creating new entrepreneurs with an economic stake in an extractivist economy. Then, as Chinas industrialization slowed down and the 2008 recession hit, revenues fell, reducing the amount of surplus available for social programs, which threatened the leftist parties base and brought them into conflict with the rich elite.

Webbers chapters are semi-independent essays, some having to do with analyzing a specific country, some more focused on theoretical issues of development and social revolution. His detailed analysis of the economic program of Evo Morales government in Bolivia one of the most promising of the leftist tide in South America convincingly demonstrates the divergence between the rhetoric of social change and what really happened on the ground.

Most of the other chapters are more abstruse; the book is mostly written in academic Marxist terminology, barely understandable to anybody outside that theoretical framework. Apparently Webbers intended audience is other academicians, rather than people in the social movements, or even the governments, he describes. This is a pity, because the lessons from South America seem applicable to countries across the globe, shedding light, for example, on the failure of the left in Greece to find a solution to their economic crisis. Unlike some Marxists, Webber works to incorporate the dynamics of race and gender into his analysis, though the discussion is often quite abstract.

Many radical discussions of developments in Latin America focus mainly on the culpability of the U.S. and corporations in disrupting democratic processes and preserving inequality and corporate profits. Webbers focus on the internal dynamics in these countries is helpful in understanding why this outside intervention is inevitably successful. Webber also distinguishes himself from radical commentators who suggest that the state is inherently corrupt and that social movements should organize only outside it, rather than trying to take power. He agrees with Daniel Bensad, who said that, You can pretend to ignore power, but it will not ignore you.

What does Webber think leftists in power should do? Some of that is implicit in his analysis: transform government to give social movements control; deepen democracy; avoid co-optation, corruption and bureaucratization; build an industrial base independent of international capital. The likely outcome, however, is not defined very well. Webber finds promise in Peruvian Marxist Jose Carlos Mariategui, who looked to indigenous methods of organization as forerunners of socialist transformation. But one suspects that Webber, like many of his Marxist colleagues, doesnt believe that single countries, or even regions of the world, can successfully extract themselves from exploitation without a world revolution. Even if theyre right, there needs to be a vision for what countries such as Bolivia or Brazil can do in the meantime.

View previous book reviews. Read the full May 24 issue.

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Book Review: "The Last Day of Oppression, and the First Day of the Same: The Politics and Economics of the New ... - Real Change News

Some 17,000 mainland Chinese Catholics were baptized on Easter Sunday alone. These striking numbers emerged during a symposium on the conditions of Chinese believersheld in Rome on Wednesday under the auspices of the Holy Sees Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and AsiaNews, a Catholic news agency based in Italy. So despite all the restrictions and limitations imposed by the Chinese government, the Catholic Church is showing strong resilience coupled with the capacity to spread across the country.

In his greeting message, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said the Holy See is working for the Roman Church in China. A dialogue between Beijing and the Vatican is indeed under way, but negotiations have so far been slow to make headway.

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Guests at the event pointed out that the major problem for Chinese Catholics remained the suppression of religious freedom. As evidence of this situation, AsiaNews reported that Monsignor Peter Shao Zhumin, bishop of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, had been heldunder arrest by Chinese authorities since May 22, the latest episode in a long history of persecution against Catholic prelates.

Shao is an underground bishop, which meanshe is loyal to the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church but is not recognized by the government-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) and Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference (CCBC).

The appointments of bishops, which both the CPCA and the Holy See lay claim to, is the real sticking point in the current Sino-Vatican engagement. Communist China and the CatholicChurch cut diplomatic ties in 1951. Since then, the Vatican has been lamenting the stifling control of the Chinese government over the local Catholic Church.

In a 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics, then-Pope Benedict XVI clearly demanded autonomy in the spiritual sphere for the Church in China as opposed to the power exerted by Beijing through the CPCA and the CCBC.

Benedicts words went unheeded, however. The symposiums organizers read testimonies by official and underground priests from different provinces of China who were prevented from participating bya ban levied by the authorities in Beijing. They provided a grim picture of the religious situation in the country, with both the official and unofficial churches being forced to submit to the political leadership and compete with one another to secure economic support from the state.

Through the meeting, Richard Madsen, an American sociologist of religion from the University of San Diego, said China was experiencing a religious renaissance. In his opinion, however, this trend is slowed by the Chinese leaderships efforts to create a unified culture across the country (including in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), which, in contrast, has always been characterized by different social ecologies.

For Monsignor Savio Hon Tai Fai, secretary of the Holy Sees Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Chinas religious renaissance is also endangered by what he described as gray pragmatism, the notion of growth at all costs that permeates a large part of Chinese society and, by extension, portions of the Chinese Church. Savio Hon stressedthat this gray pragmatism in China had grown along with economic reforms and megaprojects like Belt and Road, Beijings initiative to improve transport infrastructure across Eurasia and beyond.

In the face of state-managed persecution, social unification and the promotion of consumerist materialism in China, it is improbable that a diplomatic compromise between the Vatican and Beijing over episcopal ordinations will be sufficient to generate real improvements for Chinese Catholics, unless it is matched by the recognition of freedom of speech, movement, association and assembly.

According to Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, diplomatic relations and arrangements are not so important when the oppression of Catholic believers by the Chinese government continues unabated. In his view, Beijing will make no overture ahead of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress this autumn, all the more so when divisions within the Communist ruling nomenklatura on how to cope with the Catholic Church start to surface.

But rifts are also visible in the Vatican ranks between those who want to move forward with incremental gains in the relationship with China and thoseready to question excessive concessions to the Chinese government a contrast that further contributes to the stall in the negotiating process.

Emanuele Scimia is a journalist and foreign policy analyst. He is a contributing writer to the South China Morning Post and the Jamestown Foundations Eurasia Daily Monitor. In the past, his articles have also appeared in The National Interest, Deutsche Welle, World Politics Review, The Jerusalem Post and the EUobserver, among others. He has written for Asia Times since 2011.

Read more:

As numbers grow, Catholics in China still face oppression - Asia Times

I want to thank Amanda Blaine for her thoughtful article and the entire Racial Equity Committee for their work with the Vashon Island School District (Addressing universal racial equity problem in schools requires engagement, honesty, May 10).

Blaine states: Leading with race helps us create equitable schools for all. When we focus on institutional racism, all students benefit. The classic argument regarding how to achieve a more equitable society is: Start with classism and that will solve racism its all about economics. For me, a long-time feminist, institutional patriarchy is at the core of oppression. Given all the factors impacting childrens success, the idea of leading with race intrigued me.

According to The City of Seattles Office for Civil Rights Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI), there is good reason to lead with race when it comes to fighting all forms of oppression. America is unique in that we, as a nation, are founded on the attempted genocide of native peoples and the enslavement of Africans. Our national narrative is a story we constructed to rationalize a legacy of government-sponsored racial oppression and segregation.

According to research cited by RSJI, race is consistently a primary indicator of a persons success and wellness in society.

Most of us would agree that ranking the different oppressions is not useful. Leading with race would seem to contradict that, but seen in the context of our history and the resulting institutional racism that exists to this day, I feel that leading with race is a useful strategy. It is not a belief that racism is worse than other forms of oppression. It is a way to bring diverse communities together, including white people, to organize and work together in the pursuit of equity.

Jessica Lisovsky

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