Contents
- Student leader in Swaziland granted bail after protesters threaten to render kingdom “ungovernable”
- Swazis based in South Africa protest in front of Netcare hospital treating eSwatini Queen.
- R50 million for soldiers welfare, renovations of Army Barracks disappears.
- Prince Sicalo secretly lobbying for R100million to buy more guns, spying equipment.
- Mozambique Shifts Gear With Its New Strategy for the North
- Zimbabwe: War of Words Erupts Between Govt, Teachers Over Strike
- Israel threatens to continue assassinations
- Israel injures dozens of Palestinians in West Bank
- The healthcare crisis in Gaza demands immediate action to alleviate unnecessary suffering
- California Healthcare Bill Fails: No, Not All Paths to Universal Healthcare Are Equal
- Workers at Three Amazon Warehouses Wage Unionization Battle
- Cuban FM: US Persecutes Fuel Supplies to the Island
- The Anti-Imperialist Rebellion Square Honors Chavez Legacy
Student leader in Swaziland granted bail after protesters threaten to render kingdom “ungovernable”
The arrest of Colani Maseko and subsequent torture of student leaders coincided with a fresh wave of anti-monarchist protests
February 04, 2022 by Pavan Kulkarni
Colani Maseko's bail came a day after the SNUS marched to the Manzini regional police headquarters and held a demonstration on February 3 (Photo via: @CPSwaziland on Twitter)
A court in the city of Manzini granted bail to Colani Maseko, the president of Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) on Friday, February 4. The student leader had been arrested on January 31 and charged with sedition.
His bail came a day after the SNUS marched to the Manzini regional police headquarters and held a demonstration on February 3. A cross section of Swaziland’s pro-democracy forces, including the banned political parties, trade unions, and youth organizations, attended the action.
Outside the police headquarters, protesters at the demonstration openly threatened to render the kingdom “ungovernable” until the release of Maseko and all other political prisoners of Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Students reiterated the call for the overthrow of King Mswati III to make way for multi-party elections.
This long-standing demand has led to several cycles of political upheavals in the small, landlocked southern African country, especially over the last year when, for the first time, anti-monarchist protests swept across the rural areas.
After the state violently cracked down on these peaceful protests, an uprising erupted in the industrial areas. As the king’s properties came under attack mid-last year, he fled the country in late-June 2021. He returned by mid-July only after the army had violently repressed the uprising by killing 70 people and injuring hundreds.
The suppression, however, did not succeed in demobilizing the pro-democracy movement. The arrest of Colani and the subsequent custodial torture of several student leaders comes in the context of a fresh wave of anti-monarchist protests that have been on the surge in several universities since late October. Students in campuses across Swaziland took down and burnt portraits of the king in protest.
Students who have been demanding scholarships and the refunding of fees paid for hostel facilities which were unused during the lockdown, are not convinced by the government’s excuse of poverty, as the king continues to divert millions from the economy for his own luxuries.
King Mswati III – who indulges in royal palaces, a fleet of Rolls Royce cars, private jets, and decadent celebrations – owns and controls most of the country’s economy and runs it for the profit of himself and his cronies. Meanwhile, 70% of the country’s population languishes in poverty.
Vowing to be the “the last generation to live under the monarchy”, students in campuses across the country have begun vandalizing the king’s portraits, declaring that they no longer recognize his authority, as Simphiwe Dlamini, former SNUS Secretary General and national organizer of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), told Peoples Dispatch.
While on his way to his campus on Monday, January 31, Colani was “abducted” by plain-clothed security officials, in connection with such a protest action in Manzini on November 29, 2021 at the Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU).
SNUS Campaign officer, Sibusiso Nkwanyana, who was caught recording this abduction on phone, was also whisked away by these officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) who drove him to Mliba police station. Here he was “tortured and throttled”, before being released without any charges, SNUS said in a statement.
In another part of the city, the police also arrested Simphiwe Gamedze, a leader of the SNUS branch at Luyengo campus of the University of Swaziland, known officially as the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) since the king renamed the country. After being interrogated and tortured, Gamedze was also released without charges.
University management refutes charges against Colani
Times of Eswatini reported the following day, on February 1, that Colani has been accused of having “committed an act of with seditious intention by removing and vandalizing Their Majesties’ portrait pictures and encouraging people to disobey the lawfully placed head of State portrait in a public institution.”
He was further charged with two counts of malicious property damage to the portraits “valued at E8,000” and to “a gate and two padlocks.. valued at E3,000.” Police also claimed that damage to said properties was caused by Colani “with intent…to injure…Thandokuhle Mdziniso,” who was identified to be in their “lawful possession”.
Following this report, SANU’s management met with the Manzini Police to discuss the charges and inform them “that some information in the charge sheet was incorrect,” stated a memorandum to students and staff of SANU by its registrar on Tuesday, February 1.
The “person/persons from the group of students responsible for this damage was/were not identified,” the report states. “The University wishes to point out further that no intent to injure Mr. Thandokuhle Mdzinisi was committed by the student Colani Maseko as presented in the charges”.
It is unclear at this point based on whose complaint or testimony the police are pursuing these charges against Colani, despite the refutation officially provided by the university management.
“Who’s next? We live in fear of the Eswatini Government. Anyone can be arrested with trumped-up charges laid on him. Leaders of unions and progressives aren’t safe under the dictatorship,” the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) said. “Until when are we going to live like this?”
Another student leader tortured with electric shocks
The morning of February 1, Awuviva Sakhile Nxumali, SNUS political educator and the Manzini regional chairperson of Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), met Colani at the city’s remand center where those awaiting trial are held.
“I was delivering his food. We have asked him to not eat anything given by the prison authorities because they can poison him,” he told Peoples Dispatch. According to Awuviva, Colani was “very calm and composed. The only thing he said was that the struggle must continue, and we should not back down.”
Heading to the campus sports ground where the students were demonstrating in solidarity with Colani, Awuviva addressed the demonstration, delivering to them the president’s message and informing them about his condition in prison.
Right after his address, the police attacked the demonstration, dispersing the students. Awuviva managed to get away from the spot, but the plain-clothed police followed him and kidnapped him from a privately owned van before driving to the basement police post under the Riverstone Mall.
“Here, for around ten minutes, I was beaten by the CIDs. Then they left, and eight men from the semi-military police wing called the Operational Service Unit came in. They pushed me down to the ground, poured water all over me and shocked me repeatedly with multiple taser guns that are used for riot-control,” he said. After he fell unconscious, he was woken up, asked to wash up and given another round of beatings and electric shocks.
When his condition became critical after an hour of torture, he was dropped off at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial hospital. Awuviva is left with internal injuries to ligaments around his neck and rib cage.
“These young people are at the forefront of the call for the fall of King Mswati’s government…The arrest and persecution of people calling for democracy in the country will not deter the peoples’ call for change. We call upon all our ground forces to the battlefront and render…(the kingdom) ungovernable,” People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), which is one of the largest banned political parties in the country, said in a statement.
Condemning the practice of “abducting people, assaulting them and then releasing them without taking them through.. courts” as “criminal conduct”, SWAYOCO declared, “It is high time we realize that the police has done too much damage to the nation for us to sit and watch them kill us like flies, torture and do as it pleases them.”
“Let us fight,” SWAYOCO added, “for the immediate release of Cde Colani Khulekani Maseko…and all other political prisoners.” The other political prisoners include Amos Mbhedzi, a South African Communist Party (SACP) member imprisoned in Swaziland for over a decade, and two members of the monarchy-controlled parliament, Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.
The MPs were imprisoned for siding with the people’s demand for multiparty election last year, when all the 59 constituencies in Swaziland unprecedentedly witnessed rallies to the offices of MPs in June 2021.
This country-wide movement, which was followed by an uprising in industrial areas, came on the heels of the protests against police brutality, which had been led by SNUS after the killing of a student from UNESWA in May 2021. Amidst this protest, SNUS’s then secretary general, Bafanabakhe Sacolo, had also been arrested, and subsequently released on bail.
Banned political parties in Swaziland and several unions abroad express solidarity
Addressing the demonstration by SNUS outside Manzini regional police HQ on February 3 demanding Colani’s release, Bafanabakhe, now a Central Committee member of the CPS, reiterated the party’s full support for the student movement, which has been on the forefront of Swaziland’s struggle for democracy
We must start from tonight to demonstrate that we want democracy,” said PUDEMO’s President, Mlungisi Makhanya, in his address to the demonstration. Pleading “Awuviva Nxumalo to show us the images of the people who tortured him,” he went on to say “there is no democracy without heroes,” recognizing the courage exhibited by the students under torture.
Protesters carried placards with the slogan: “mobilize during the day and fight at night,” a phrase reminiscent of attacks on the king’s properties, amidst which he had fled the country last year. The demonstration was also attended by several other banned political parties.
These include the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), Swazi Democratic Party (SWADEPA), the Swaziland Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland (EFFSwa).
Several unions of teachers and students from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar and from the Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) expressed their solidarity ahead of this demonstration, before Colani was granted bail.
Swazis based in South Africa protest in front of Netcare hospital treating eSwatini Queen.
7 February 2022
Swazis based in South Africa organized a protest in front of NetCare Hospital after receiving information that eSwatini Queen Ntombi Tfwala was being treated in that hospital.
This comes after this Swaziland News investigative unit published a story exposing how the Queen was secretly airlifted to South Africa in a critical condition.
Speaking to this Swaziland News, Bongani ‘IB’Dlamini, the Conveyor of the United Eswatini Diaspora said they decided protest against the Queen being treated in South African after destroying the health system in eSwatini.
“Gogo must die, don’t treat Gogo”, said the United Eswatini Diaspora Conveyor when sending a message to the doctors during the protest.
Efforts to reach the Management of the NetCare hospital proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.
Reached for comments, Mayibongwe Masangwane, the Secretary General of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union(SWADNU) confirmed that hospitals across the country were still struggling with medication
https://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=2039
R50 million for soldiers welfare, renovations of Army Barracks disappears.
8 February, 2022
The Executive Command of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defense Force(UEDF) allegedly ‘looted’ over R50million from public funds promising to renovate army barracks and improve the welfare of soldiers in the country.
Documents in our possession suggest that the R50million was an annual budget for the renovation of the army barracks, however the money was then diverted and looted allegedly by royalty and other officials in the army.
As reported by this Swaziland News, on Monday at the Happy Valley Hotel, Prince Sicalo, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defense and Security held a meeting with Acting Army Commander Mashikilisane Fakudze, National Defense Officer Prince Sihlangsemphi and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee to lobby for another R31million supplementary budget meant for the “procurement of special equipment and additional user licenses”.
It has been disclosed that the annual budget of R50million that was meant to improve the welfare of soldiers had been disappearing over the years, however, the insider said the army authorities now want to use it to buy guns.
“That R50million has been an annual allocation meant to renovate army barracks and improve the welfare of soldiers but that didn’t happen, they now want another R50million to buy guns”, said for insider within the Ministry of Finance.
It has been disclosed that apart from the plot to buy guns while soldiers were financially struggling, the Government opted for another budget to purchase spying equipment to monitor pro-democracy activists and independent journalists.
“As you can see in the documents, that money is requested by bo-Sicalo, they want to pay an Israel company contracted to provide spying equipment and monitor those who are against the State”, said the insider within the Ministry of Finance.
Reached for comments, Prince Kusa denied that he was part of the meeting at the Happy Valley.
“I was not part of that meeting”, he said briefly.
But Manzini North MP Macford Sibandze did not deny nor confirm to be part of the meeting, instead he asked this journalist to call him later saying he was sick.
“I am aware of the meeting you are talking about, is it possible for you to call me later ? I’m sick”, said the Manzini North MP.
When this publication reached Prince Sicalo for a comment, his phone was answered by his PA who promised that the Prince would call back.
“He is currently busy with his friends, I will tell him that you called”, said the man who answered the phone.
A questionnaire was then sent to the Prince, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Another questionnaire was then sent to Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo, the Spokesperson of the Army who denied any knowledge of meeting.
“Your questionnaire is highly appreciated.
The Office of the UEDF Public Affairs is not aware of the alleged meeting in question. Thank you”, said the Army Spokesperson.
Reached for comments, Mandla Hlatshwayo, the Chairperson of Letfu Sonkhe Institute for Strategic Thinking and Development said it was clear that the King wanted to rule the country through the barrel of a gun.
“It is clear that these people are not looking for solutions, they want to fight the people and rule the country through the barrel of a gun. Now as the information emerges suggesting that they are preparing to buy spying equipment and monitor us, it means SADC must understand that the King is not prepared for a dialogue.Vele lena ayisayiyo yekuncengwa sekumele sikhwice singeMaswati. Tsine-ke siyifuna ngekuthula ngoba site letikhali bona banato.(meaning:) We must stop massaging this regime and intensify the pressure. However, we are still hoping for a peaceful engagement to democratize the country because they have guns and we don’t have them", said the Letfu Sonkhe Chairperson.
Eswatini is in the midst of a political crisis after King Mswati unleashed soldiers and the police to shoot and kill dozens of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.
https://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=2042
Prince Sicalo secretly lobbying for R100million to buy more guns, spying equipment.
7 February 2022
Prince Sicalo Nkopolo Dlamini, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defense and Security is allegedly lobbying Members of Parliament(MPs) to approve about R100million to buy guns and spying equipment.
An independent investigation by this Swaziland News uncovered State documents suggesting that the Ministry of Defense requested R31,443,317.00 under the supplementary budget 2021/22 from the Ministry of Finance for “procurement of special equipment and additional user licenses”.
Insiders within the Ministry of Finance told this publication that the money was actually meant to pay an Israel company contracted by government to spy on pro-democracy activists and independent journalists.
“As you can see in the documents, that money is requested by bo-Sicalo, they want to pay an Israel company contracted to provide spying equipment and monitor those who are against the State”, said the insider within the Ministry.
Information in our possession suggests that on Monday(07 February 2022) at or near the Happy Valley Hotel, Ezulwini at around 11am, Prince Sicalo, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defense allegedly met with Acting Army Commander Mashikilisane Fakudze, National Defense Officer Prince Sihlangusemphi, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee in the Ministry of Defense Prince Kusa, Motshane MP Robert Magongo, Manzini North MP Macford Sibandze and Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo.
The purpose of the meeting was to lobby the MPs to approve the R31million budget meant to buy the spying equipment and an additional R50million for buying guns to be used in the ongoing shooting and killing of civilians.
Reached for comments, Prince Kusa denied that he was part of the meeting at the Happy Valley.
“I was not part of that meeting”, he said briefly.
But Manzini North MP Macford Sibandze did not deny nor confirm to be part of the meeting, instead he asked this journalist to call him later saying he was sick.
“I am aware of the meeting you are talking about, is it possible for you to call me later, I’m sick”, said the Manzini North MP.
When this publication reached Prince Sicalo for a comment, his phone was answered by his PA who promised that the Prince would call back.
“He is currently busy with his friends, I will tell him that you called”, said the man who answered the phone.
A questionnaire was then sent to the Prince, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Another questionnaire was then sent to Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo, the Spokesperson of the Army who denied any knowledge of meeting.
“ Your questionnaire is highly appreciated.
The Office of the UEDF Public Affairs is not aware of the alleged meeting in question. Thank you”, said the Army Spokesperson.
Reached for comments,Mandla Hlatshwayo, the Chairperson of Letfu Sonkhe Institute for Strategic Thinking and Development said it was clear that the King wanted to rule the country through the barrel of a gun.
“It is clear that these people are not looking for solutions, they want to fight the people and rule the country through the barrel of a gun. Now as the information emerge suggesting that they are preparing to buy spying equipment and monitor us, it means SADC must understand that the King is not prepared for a dialogue.Vele lena ayisayiyo yekuncengwa sekumele sikhwice singeMaswati. Tsine-ke siyifuna ngekuthula ngoba site letikhali bona banato.(meaning:) We must stop massaging this regime and intensify the pressure. However, we are still hoping for a peaceful engagement to democratize the country because they have guns and we don’t have guns”, said the Letfu Sonkhe Chairperson.
Eswatini is in the midst of a political crisis after King Mswati unleashed soldiers and the police to shoot and kill dozens of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.
https://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=2041
Mozambique Shifts Gear With Its New Strategy for the North
8 February 2022
But can FRELIMO's elites accept responsibility for youth frustrations and agree to share the country's riches?
Five years after violent extremists began attacking Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province, the country is developing its first counter-terrorism strategy. This Resilience and Development Strategy for the North is expected to be funded by donors to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Written by the government with input from donors, it is scheduled to be approved by the cabinet in the first half of 2022. The strategy is the first official document to recognise the role of internal factors in creating the conflict. It cites socio-economic inequalities, frustration related to the exploitation of natural resources, especially among youth in the north, political and economic exclusion, and perceived marginalisation by the local population.
But is this mere rhetoric to solicit funding? And funding for what - or who? Or does the new strategy show a genuine change in attitude by Mozambique's government?
On paper, the strategy represents a major change in the government's approach to the insurgency, which it initially called an 'external aggression perpetrated by terrorists.' As recently as December 2021, President Filipe Nyusi told lawmakers that 'what we are facing is pure banditry driven by others' greed against a nation that is about to make [a] qualitative and quantitative leap.'
Through the strategy, Maputo intends to mobilise funding to prevent and counter violent extremism in Cabo Delgado and its neighbouring provinces of Niassa and Nampula, which share the same social and economic structure. Donors already 'shortlisted' include the African Development Bank, World Bank, United Nations and European Union - all of whom made inputs into the strategy. The final budget is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, to be disbursed in three phases over five years.
Other donors might also be forthcoming. At the Southern African Development Community's 12 January heads of state extraordinary summit in Lilongwe, leaders welcomed the idea of an international conference to support Cabo Delgado's economic and social reconstruction. They called on international partners to back the initiative.
The Resilience and Development Strategy for the North has three pillars: support for the construction of peace, security and social cohesion; reconstruction of the social contract between the state and the population; and recovery economics and resilience. These will be carried out by a government agency.
The first pillar aims to strengthen social cohesion, including between displaced people and host communities. It intends to develop state and community capacity to build peace and reconciliation through participatory dialogue and actions to prevent violent extremism and radicalism. It also aims to support inclusive justice and community security, and facilitate cross-border cooperation to strengthen citizenship and business.
The second pillar covers fair access to public services, and strengthening inclusive governance and citizen participation. It also intends to fight corruption, and ensure redistribution and fiscal transparency. It aims to promote sustainable and participatory management of land and natural resources, and support social housing, particularly for young people.
The third pillar deals with repairing the damage caused to livelihoods, especially in the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors. It promotes economic recovery through supporting the private sector, including the tourism industry, and fixing and maintaining infrastructure. The focus is on improving the role of extractive activities in the socio-economic integration of Niassa, Cabo Delgado and Nampula's people. Better access to financial services and capacity building is also included.
The strategy is a step forward as it proposes solutions to local problems that are driving the insurgency. But the country's political leaders will need to commit to resolving socio-economic inequalities, social frustrations among the youth, political exclusion and perceptions of marginalisation. Will this happen - or has the strategy been drafted for the purpose of bringing in funds more than anything else?
The country's leadership and influential members of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) still don't accept that there are internal grievances behind the Cabo Delgado conflict. For example Jacinto Veloso, a Mozambican liberation struggle veteran and National Defence and Security Council member, believes the attacks are funded by overseas competitors bent on sabotaging Mozambique's gas projects. Nyusi has said something similar - that Mozambicans are killing each other because of the gas issue.
By recognising internal grievances as a driver of the Cabo Delgado conflict, FRELIMO - which has governed the country since independence in 1975 - would be acknowledging that its governance has failed. It would be admitting that instead of wealth and cohesion, it has generated socio-economic inequity, youth frustration and political and economic exclusion.
Most importantly, FRELIMO would need to convince its comrades that the current style of government must change. This would mean an end to party elites benefitting from business opportunities, jobs and the country's most fertile lands.
A commitment to change is vital for the poor communities of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula - and the entire country - to also benefit from the country's riches, such as the Montepuez rubies, or the fertile lands of Macomia. Without this, the Resilience and Development Strategy for the North will fail and donor money will have enriched the elite rather than addressing internal grievances.
In fact, says Jakkie Cilliers, Head of the Institute for Security Studies' African Futures and Innovation programme, Mozambique's government should commit to ring-fencing some gas revenues for the funding of social grants. And, he says, external donations shouldn't exceed the contribution from Mozambique's government itself.
The counter-terrorism strategy also needs to be implemented by credible bodies that have the trust of local populations - rather than those responsible for applying public policies that exclude the poor. For the strategy to succeed, there must be zero corruption, zero nepotism, and zero political patronage.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202202090002.html
Zimbabwe: War of Words Erupts Between Govt, Teachers Over Strike
9 February 2022
Government has threatened to fire teachers who failed to report for duty on Monday and Tuesday, triggering an angry backlash from union leaders.
Teachers unions declared their members were incapacitated and could only go back to work after their salaries were increased to an equivalent of US$540.
Other unions are advocating for salaries to be paid in the real greenback.
On both Monday and Tuesday, leaners were turned away by security guards and clerks after the majority of teachers failed to turn up.
This prompted Primary and Secondary Education secretary Tumisang Thabela to issue a strongly worded statement warning that teachers who did not report for duty when schools opened on Monday would be charged and suspended from work.
"It has come to the attention of the permanent secretary of Primary and Secondary Education that some officials did not report for duty when schools opened on 7 February 2022 as the 2022 school calendar. This unwarranted conduct deprived learners of their right to education as enshrined in Section 75 and 81 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe," the statement reads.
"Accordingly, heads of offices should take urgent disciplinary action against any of their members who obstructed the opening of schools and deprived learners of their constitutional right. Where necessary, heads of offices should charge and suspend such members at the school, district, provincial or national level and ensure that all due processes are followed as per Public Service Regulations 2000 as amended. Officials are reminded that the principle of "no work, no pay" shall apply where members failed to render their services."
Thabela directed provincial education directors to provide a daily update on progress in handling the disciplinary cases in their respective provinces.
Teachers' unions however remained adamant, dismissing the threats as "desperate attempts to get them back to work".
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said teachers are not disciplinary cases but are victims of an economy which is making it difficult for them to work.
"Any sane employer will then not desperately resort to picking up a stick and weeping the teachers hoping that the results will be positive. That is the wrong approach they are applying, and it is bound to bring about a more intense environment and therefore, heighten the situation into an industrial conflict. Nobody declared an industrial action. We merely expressed the state of the teachers' economy," Ndlovu said.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe weighed in saying: "We made our point very clear that no teacher is on strike or was on strike. What teachers did was to communicate a very clear message to the government that they are totally incapacitated to turn up or report for duty as of the seventh."
"The truth of the matter is, what the government is doing is that they are purely shooting themselves in the foot and technically they are proving to us that they are not keen on solving the problems that the teachers have submitted to them. Teachers are suffering. They can't pay school fees for their children, feed themselves," Majongwe said.
The strongest condemnation however came from the Zimbabwe National Union of School Heads (ZNUSH) which expressed dismay at government's threats.
the union said in a statement headmasters would not cooperate with government's directive to report teachers who are failing to report for duty.
"Members do not have the means to take them to work and neither do they have the capacity to to carry out duties expected of them, knowing fully well that their own biological children cannot attend classes because of lack of fees," ZNUSH said.
"We are appalled to learn that the ministry will take us to the gallows just for asking for the same salary that we got when the economy was not as good as it is now. Heads and deputy heads shall not comply with the illegal order of of submitting names of incapacitated teachers for victimisation," it added.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202202090368.html
Israel threatens to continue assassinations
10 February 2022
Israeli officials threatened on Wednesday to continue assassinating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Al-Resalah newspaper has reported. The remarks came a day after three Palestinians were killed in broad daylight by Israeli Special Forces in Nablus.
Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel told public broadcaster Kan that the Oslo Accords do not give any immunity to any Palestinians. He insisted upon Israel's "right", as stipulated in the accords, to enter PA-controlled areas and carry out operations there.
Hendel alleged that the three Palestinians killed in Nablus were planning to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. He reiterated that security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority "has been and is still an Israeli interest."
Many Palestinians believe that the Israeli assassination of the three Palestinians in the PA-controlled area was carried out in cooperation with the PA security services.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220210-israel-threatens-to-continue-assassinations/
Israel injures dozens of Palestinians in West Bank
10 February 2022
Israeli occupation forces yesterday shot and wounded several Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.
Local Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces shot and wounded two Palestinian youths during a demonstration in Ein El-Sultan Refugee Camp in Jericho city. They were then transported to hospital where their condition was said to be moderate.
According to the sources, the demonstration was staged in protest against Israeli occupation forces stationed near a Jewish synagogue in Ein El Sultan Camp to provide protection for settlers to visit the site.
Occupation forces fired live rounds, tear gas canisters and stun grenades at the Palestinian protesters, who responded by burning tyres.
Several protesters were treated at the scene from tear-gas suffocation, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
The PRCS said its crew dealt with seven injuries, including one by rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli army during the protests.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220210-israel-injures-dozens-of-palestinians-in-west-bank/The healthcare crisis in Gaza demands immediate action to alleviate unnecessary suffering
9 February 2022
Eleven-year-old Amal Lubbad was deep in thought when I met her in what has become her second home, Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. It was her third hospital visit this week. Five years ago, Amal was diagnosed with kidney failure, which requires her to have dialysis. A kidney transplant would save her life.She greeted me with a smile that masked the considerable pain which defines her past, present and future. The dialysis machine that she is usually connected to for hours on end has broken down. The parts needed to maintain it are not available in the besieged Gaza Strip. The Israeli occupation authorities won't allow the necessary spare parts and equipment to be imported, so Amal's health has worsened considerably. The kidney transplant is now needed as a matter of urgency; she can no longer afford to wait.
Broken dialysis machines and shortages of medicines and suitable treatment threaten the lives of nearly 600 Palestinian kidney patients in the Gaza Strip. Amal is not alone in waiting for a transplant; sitting next to her was Abu Ali, 70, who could barely speak. He too was sitting on a dialysis chair, his hands trembling. The nurse watched the dialysis machine anxiously, fearing that it would malfunction and stop working. An hour passed and it was still running, but everyone's stress level continued to rise: Abu Ali requires three hours of dialysis a day. His eldest son Ibrahim accompanies him to his sessions at Al-Shifa, sometimes offering food or conversation to try to distract his father. Ibrahim told me about a day when the dialysis machine did break down mid-session, causing them to have to wait for a full day until the machine was serviced and repaired. All the dialysis machines are old, Ibrahim told me, which makes the treatment more painful for the patients, but there is no other option in Gaza.
The Israeli-led blockade of Gaza affects all aspects of life at the hospital: from medicines to medical disposables; from spare parts to electricity to keep machines working; from fuel for the emergency generators during power cuts to spare parts for the generators themselves, which also break down frequently. Kidney patients continue to suffer from all of this, including the shortage of syringes filled with blood-thinning medication, which are also frequently unavailable due to the blockade. The exceptionally high unemployment rate in Gaza makes it very difficult for families to afford costly treatment, such as thrice-weekly dialysis.
If patients are deemed to be beyond the limited resources of Al-Shifa and the rest of the healthcare system in Gaza, they are unlikely to get permission for the Israeli occupation authorities to leave the besieged territory for treatment elsewhere, assuming, of course, that they can afford to go in any case. Those fortunate enough to get a travel permit from the Israelis are often the most ill, so the journey itself is often life-threatening.
It's not only dialysis machines which require maintenance and spare parts banned by the blockade; a lot of other medical equipment is in a similar precarious position in both government and private hospitals and medical facilities. Requests for spare parts submitted by the Palestinian Ministry of Health are usually rejected by Israel.
Ibrahim Abbas is the director of the medical imaging unit at Al-Shifa Hospital. He said that Israel's import and travel bans are well documented and must be submitted to the World Health Organisation and human rights groups. He explained that the medical crisis in Gaza is created by the occupation state's deliberate intention to paralyse the health sector in the coastal enclave.
The Director General of Al-Shifa Hospital, Medhat Abbas, told a recent press conference about the difficult healthcare situation and emphasised the urgent need to introduce new medical devices in Gaza's hospitals in the face of the spread of the latest coronavirus mutation. Intensive care rooms lack ventilators and are limited in how they can treat patients with serious illnesses and diseases. The lives of patients are at risk all the time. Physical and psychological dangers surround them on all sides.
In the hospital's lung ward, I was stopped by an old man lying on a bed in the corner. He could barely breathe. He also suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. "My treatment does not exist," he said bitterly. "That's what the specialist told me."
Many doctors struggle to diagnose their patients accurately due to the failure of appropriate diagnostic equipment. Despite the presence of specialised medical professionals in Gaza, the prolonged and increased use of the devices available increases the chance of failure from overuse, making it even more difficult to diagnose patients and prescribe treatment. It is a vicious and deadly circle.
According to Dr Abdel Nasser Sobh, the health sector coordinator of the World Health Organisation, the spread of the latest Covid-19 mutation has led to the already overstretched and worn-out healthcare system in Gaza deteriorating even further. Immediate and urgent intervention by the international community as well as humanitarian and medical institutions is required. Coordination with the Israelis over the crossings and entry of medical supplies takes a long time and comes with the very real risk that they may simply refuse to allow desperately-needed supplies into Gaza, with the inevitably dire consequences which that entails. The healthcare crisis in Gaza is critical and, much like little Amal, demands immediate and lifesaving action to alleviate unnecessary suffering and death.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220209-the-healthcare-crisis-in-gaza-demands-immediate-action-to-alleviate-unnecessary-suffering/California Healthcare Bill Fails: No, Not All Paths to Universal Healthcare Are Equal
8 February 2022
As a bill to pass single-payer healthcare fails for the second time in the last five years, the question remains: What path should activists pursue to finally win universal healthcare in the U.S.?
Another effort to change the healthcare system in a U.S. state is dead in the water. This time, last week, lawmakers in California declined to vote on a measure whose proponents say would lead to a single-payer system in the state. Monday’s nonvote in California provides yet another instance in which a state cannot move forward with a proposal for single payer. But while supporters may argue that there just needs to be more political will, in reality, it is not impossible to achieve a true single-payer healthcare system on a state level. On a larger scale, the recent results in California show the futility of the current reformist strategy to win universal healthcare in the U.S. State-backed efforts for healthcare reform like those in California — or the push to pass the New York Health Act — have been touted by many on the Left as a path to winning universal healthcare on a national level, but they are actually counterproductive. The only true path to winning a single-payer program is by creating a movement for the federal government to enact universal healthcare on a national scale.
It is no secret to most that the U.S. healthcare system is a disaster. Per capita, the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country, and one in every 10 adults delays healthcare in the U.S. because of cost. Medical debt is the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., and even with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which was touted by Democratic politicians to help solve the problems of healthcare in the U.S., health insurance is less affordable now than in 2015. Things have gotten no better during the Covid-19 pandemic, now that “50 percent of those who were infected with Covid-19 or who lost income due to the pandemic are now struggling with medical debt.”
Contrary to what we read in the bourgeois press, there is mass support for healthcare reform in the U.S. A majority of adults in the U.S. believe that the government is obligated to provide healthcare for all. While the majority generally agrees on the need for universal healthcare, there remains debate, even among sectors of the left, on how to actually achieve it. In this debate there are two main camps, both of which want universal healthcare but differ on strategy. One camp believes the path to winning universal healthcare is by creating a mass movement to pass reform on a national scale. A second camp also wants universal healthcare, but believes the best path is through winning reform in various states. Those in this camp argue that local efforts are easier for people to activate around, and once state-backed plans prove successful, it will be easier to extend coverage nationally.
The recent push is California could be said to fall into the second camp: part of an effort to win universal healthcare by achieving a “single payer” system in a state. According to the LA Times, California’s recently proposed bill
AB 1400 would have created a publicly financed healthcare system called CalCare, which could cost between $314 billion and $391 billion in state and federal funds, according to a legislative analysis. But supporters said residents in the state would ultimately have saved money when compared with paying for insurance, co-pays and deductibles.
This is the second time in the last five years that a single-payer bill has died in the California Assembly. Even though California Democrats say they want single payer, they did not even bring a vote on the recent bill, even though they have a supermajority. Why? Perhaps because Democrats want to prevent a vote on single payer so they can instead focus on expanding Medi-Cal, which would be more beneficial to various private for-profit entities. But while there is a debate to be had on why the bill hasn’t been able to pass the legislature, we should really question whether such efforts, regardless of corporate Democrat obstruction, have been helpful in the effort to establish a universal healthcare system.
This question has been written about extensively (see here, here, here, and here to start), but the fact is, if we truly want to win the healthcare system we want and need, we need to accept that it will not be possible to achieve on a state level. There are many reasons for this. For example, there are huge hurdles legally. As physician, public health advocate, and activist Margaret Flowers discusses in a piece for Health Over Profit:
A state would have to succeed in obtaining multiple waivers from the federal government and changes to federal laws to enact a state-based program. One federal law, the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which prohibits states from regulating employee benefits, is a major obstacle. States also face the hurdle of being required to balance their budgets, a barrier that doesn’t exist at the national level.
In fact, though California politicians continue their efforts to push a vote on a state system, a 2018 report out of the same state found that a state cannot create a single payer system on its own. Yet politicians continue to focus on trying to promote state-based plans. As a healthcare worker and advocate for universal healthcare in the U.S., I have interacted with many well-meaning activists flyering or presenting in support of state-based measures, such as those advocating for passage of the New York Health Act in NYC. I have been part of various email exchanges in which proponents of such efforts say, “State action anywhere builds support at the federal level, and vice versa.” These efforts dissipate energy that could be better used to build a movement for universal healthcare on a national level, the only level it can actually be realized. As activists are drawn toward wasting time advocating for these state-backed plans, it leads to a less robust movement for winning universal healthcare nationally. In turn, there is more space given for corporate healthcare forces to go on offensive, for example looking for ways to privatize Medicare by expanding marketing for Medicare Advantage plans.
As Flowers notes,
I argue that organizers need to be honest with the people they are organizing. Calling state systems “single payer” or “Medicare for All” when the state will still include multiple payers is misleading. When activists understand that a state cannot implement these systems through its own actions but requires Congress to change federal laws, they will feel betrayed.
The issue has been further studied by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Flowers discusses the conclusions of Public Citizen’s “Roadmap to Single Payer” as follows:
A state can potentially make its healthcare system more efficient, but it cannot achieve a pure single payer system; thus, it can’t attain the bulk of savings that a single payer system would have. Within their budget constraints, states would be forced to raise the costs to individuals and businesses or lower coverage if they are not able to meet their needs for care.
So any attempts made at state-based reforms and called “single payer” could not benefit patients the way a national plan could, leading the effort to fail. As these systems fail, it only further discourages the movement. As Flowers notes, “This has happened in every past attempt by states to achieve universal coverage, as Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein document in ‘State Health Reform Flatlines.’” This dynamic only ends up giving additional propagandistic “ammo” for those who oppose universal healthcare on the basis that it “doesn’t work.”
Undoubtedly, those who support a state-based road to universal healthcare coverage and those who support a national approach both generally want the same outcome: a universal healthcare system in the U.S. And while we can always have debates between comrades, the recent example in California, along with the countless examples from the past, show us that we should be working together to build a movement for universal healthcare at a national level. As the late activist Kevin Zeese wrote, “Some will continue to deny this fact — and it is a fact — but hopefully more will accept the reality that in order to create a single payer program the only path is for the federal government to enact National Improved Medicare for All.”
As Zeese noted, universal health care must be fought for on a national scale in order to win, period. But, after winning, the fight should not stop there. To be clear, we must build a movement for Medicare for All on a national scale as only a starting point. To eliminate a healthcare system that always prioritizes profit over life, beyond winning National Improved Medicare for All, we need the entire healthcare system nationalized under worker control.
https://www.leftvoice.org/california-healthcare-bill-fails-no-not-all-paths-to-universal-healthcare-are-equal/Workers at Three Amazon Warehouses Wage Unionization Battle
6 February 2022
Despite Amazon’s union busting, workers at three warehouses are fighting to unionize. If successful, they could help create fighting forces for the working class.
#Striketober may be over, but the struggles to organize at Amazon have not been not defeated — in fact, they’re spreading. Three Amazon locations are currently attempting to unionize: two in Staten Island, and one in Bessemer, Alabama.
Ballots went out yesterday to over 6,100 workers at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse for a mail-in election with a March 25 deadline. You may remember the Bessemer unionization effort from March of 2021. Last year, that effort failed in no small part due to Amazon’s union-busting tactics including anti-union text messages and bribes. While forcing their workers to attend mandatory anti-union lectures, they pressured the city into changing the timing of a traffic light in order to disrupt organizing efforts, and even strong-armed the USPS into installing a mailbox that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had explicitly barred, in an Amazon-branded ballot-collecting tent. As a result, the NLRB determined that Amazon used union-busting tactics, and ordered a new union vote.
In Staten Island, New York, two Amazon warehouses are now seeking to unionize. JFK8 workers attempted to unionize last year but withdrew their petition in November, only to refile in December. As the NLRB was forced to admit, the workers have enough signatures for a hearing to be held in mid-February. This meeting will decide how many workers are eligible to vote, as well as the timing of the vote.
Within the past week, workers at the Staten Island warehouse LDJ5 submitted petitions to the NLRB to request a union vote. These two New York City warehouses are not unionizing through an existing union, but filing under a new one, called Amazon Labor Union. Among the leaders of the effort is Chris Smalls, who was fired for protesting Amazon’s lack of safety measures at the height of the pandemic.
Amazon is the country’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, and is notorious for its horrendous working conditions. In the words of Francis Wallace, a worker interviewed by Left Voice in Bessemer last year: “It is extremely tiring, I will agree with that. Of course, there’s bending and standing up all the time. There’s a ladder inside my area, ’cause I do stowing. I’m climbing up and down the ladder, bending up and down, picking up the boxes. When you do that for 10 hours straight and you only have three, maybe 15 minute breaks, it gets really tiring.” Another worker reported extremely hot warehouses, without ventilation.
Multiple workers have died on the job at Amazon warehouses over the past year. Six died during a tornado that struck the midwest in December, and two died at the Bessemer location. One worker suffered a stroke after being told by management that he couldn’t leave work. Hours later, another worker died. “There is no shutdown. There is no moment of silence. There is no time to sit and have a prayer,” Perry Connelly explained. “A couple of people that worked directly with him were badly shaken up and wanted to go home and were not allowed to go home.”
These three unionization efforts come on the heels of the important strikes in October and November, popularly known as #Striketober, with stoppages at large employers like Kellogg, John Deere, Columbia University, and hundreds of smaller workplaces. Only a few miles from Bessemer, Alabama miners at Warrior Met Coal have been on strike for nearly ten months. Recently, dozens of Starbucks stores have also filed for union elections. This all comes amidst the so-called “Great Resignation,” with workers quitting their jobs in droves. The pandemic has shifted the spotlight to the working class.
At Amazon, the discontent among the working class is also expressing itself in more direct ways, through mobilization and action. In December, workers at Amazon warehouses in Chicago walked off the job, demanding a wage increase and better working conditions, organized by Amazonians United, a labor network that organizes at Amazon throughout the country.
A success at Amazon may unleash a wave of unionization filings, just as the first successful Starbucks union in Buffalo has inspired similar drives at dozens of other locations.
As expected, Amazon is again engaging in union busting, revealing just how frightened they are of the growing awareness of their workers’ collective power. Anti-union signs, as well as paid union busters, were spotted at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island. Managers have held mandatory anti-union meetings. Amazon has brought in union buster David Acosta — a self-described “Union Avoidance Consultant,” who earned over $400,000 in 2017 — who has reportedly illegally threatened workers against voting to unionize. Employee Daequan Smith was illegally fired for trying to unionize. This is nothing new for Amazon, as previous unionization attempts show.
Amazon is hell bent on making sure no union emerges at their workplaces and they are well aware of the domino effect that one union may create. That is why they will throw everything they have at defeating these efforts.
As the first Bessemer Amazon unionization drive showed, to win a union, it is not enough to rely on Democratic Party politicians and celebrity endorsements. Much criticism has been leveled at the RWDSU for their lack of worker participation, from our own pages as well as from authors like Jane Mcalevey. The Staten Island warehouses must also learn from this.
There is no substitute for the rank and file. If these unions have any chance of winning, they must be organized by and for workers. And these unions should not only be for the purpose of winning a union, but to create a fighting force for the working class. And as the Great Resignation highlights, it’s not enough to be unionized; after all teachers and healthcare workers who are struggling under horrendous work conditions are leaving in droves. Workers must reject top down business unionism and organize fighting unions, organized by and for the rank and file — a union is not an end in itself, but a step in building a fighting working class. https://www.leftvoice.org/workers-at-three-amazon-warehouses-wage-unionization-battle/
Cuban FM: US Persecutes Fuel Supplies to the Island
8 February 2022
The persecution is part of the restrictive provisions imposed by Washington’s blockade on Cuba, a policy of suffocation enforced for more than six decades by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Tuesday condemned the persecution of ships, shipping companies and insurance companies to deprive the Caribbean island of fuel, and described it as a criminal action by the Government of the United States.
On his official Twitter account, the foreign minister explained that in 2019, 53 vessels and 27 companies were blacklisted.
He pointed out that the measure persists with a sensitive impact for the country in a context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the crisis it generated in healthcare systems and economies.
The persecution is part of the restrictive provisions imposed by Washington’s blockade on Cuba, a policy of suffocation enforced for more than six decades by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
According to the general director of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX), Vivian Herrera Cid, in 2021 there was an exodus of the shipping companies MCC and Zim, which expressed that they would not continue to work with Cuba to avoid problems due to the U.S. reprisals.
According to official figures, the losses of Cuba due to this unilateral policy in the last five years, were up to 17 billion dollars, and the accumulated damage in six decades reaches 147 billion.
The General Assembly of the United Nations Organization (UN) reaffirmed in June 2021 its support for the resolution to end the blockade, with 184 votes in favor, two against and three abstentions.
The longest and most comprehensive economic, commercial and financial blockade against any nation was reinforced during the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021), with 243 unilateral coercive measures that are still in force 12 months after Joe Biden occupied the White House.
The Anti-Imperialist Rebellion Square Honors Chavez Legacy
4 February 2022"In the early hours of February 4, 1992, Venezuela experienced the greatest political and spiritual upheaval that has been known since the time of Independence," President Maduro said.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro inaugurated the Anti-Imperialist Rebellion Square in Caracas City on Thursday, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the revolt led by Colonel Hugo Chavez.
"In the early hours of February 4, 1992, Venezuela experienced the greatest political and spiritual upheaval that has been known since the time of Independence," Maduro said, recalling that that revolt marked the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution.
At that time, a group of young soldiers led by Colonel Hugo Chavez disregarded the authority of President Carlos Andres Perez, who was implementing an agenda of neoliberal policies that rapidly deteriorated the living conditions of the population.
“That youth understood that it was at that time or it was never. That morning, not only did Venezuela feel the tremor of a corrupt political regime given over to imperialism,” Maduro explained.
During the inauguration of the square, Caracas Mayor Carmen Melendez stressed that "we have to build a historical route to show the traces of the battle that our country has waged for 500 years, to teach to the world where we come from, and to highlight the values and spiritual strength that build us.”
Referring to the anniversary of the revolt against President Carlos Andres Perez (1989-1993), the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) pointed out that its militants are committed to following the anti-imperialist path that Commander Chavez opened.
“We reaffirm our absolute and inalienable commitment to the flags of that historical event that illuminated the project of consolidating a truly independent, free, sovereign and democratic homeland like the one we are promoting today together with a people absolutely determined to build its development without neocolonial impositions,” the PSUV said.
Issued by NEHAWU International Service Centre
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