In 1932, Ambalal Chokshi was contemplating if he should join his fathers jewellery business or start one of his own. The Vadodara-based man, realising he had a penchant for Indian jewellery, decided to put his knowledge to maximum use and launch a business.

With just Rs 51 in his pocket, Ambalal started a wholesale jewellery business under his name. In 1940, he transitioned to a retail model to sell directly to customers.

Ketan Chokshi, coowner, Narayan Jewellers

Today, the family business is a success, adorning the likes of Olivia Wilde, Sonam Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Shilpa Shetty, etc., with its jewellery on red carpet occasions. It has also collaborated with Forevermark to design jewellery for celebrity attendees at the Academy Awards (the Oscars) for seven years.

Narayan Jewellers has a 5,200 square foot flagship store in Vadodara, Gujarat, showcasing gold, polki, diamond, and jadau jewellery. It also has 35 employees on its payroll.

In an exclusive interview with SMBStory, Ketan describes how Narayan Jewellers became a success and explains its business model.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

SMBStory [SMBS]: How did Ambalals business grow into a large, family-run jewellery company?

Ketan Chokshi [KC]: Being young and new in the business, my grandfather had limited resources and no help or assistance. Right from sourcing raw material at the best price to identifying the right logistics for transport, he had to do it all by himself. His sincerity, hard work, and honesty paved the path towards becoming a trustworthy name in the business.

Between 1997 and 1999, my brother Jatin and I joined the business and brought in our design intellect and management expertise. We grew it into a leading designer jewellery brand, won numerous awards, and launched our flagship store.

SMBS: Where does manufacturing happen? Do you own the manufacturing units?

KC: We deal with a variety of products and jewellery designs, and so, sourcing from one unit does not happen. Further, the jewellery industry in India is skills and talent-based. We need a Marwari kaarigar (worker) for jadau jewellery, and a Bengali kaarigar for diamonds and gold jewellery. The industry is skill-driven rather than volume-driven. Every skill has a particular style and strength of workmanship, hence the idea of having everything in-house does not work.

Our designs are our strength, and we get the jewellery articles manufactured from the best craftsmen of Bikaner and Jaipur in Central India, Chandigarh and Delhi in North India, Kolkata in East India, and Mumbai, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara in Western India.

About 30 to 33 percent of these facilities are controlled by us, and the rest is outsourced. The model depends on the manufacturers capacity this is the standard business arrangement in the jewellery industry so far in India.

Bridal Earrings by Narayan Jewellers

SMBS: What is your business model?

KC: A systematic and engineered approach to design, as well as the USP of not creating a second piece of the same design, has made us a preferred brand. A brand with a lineage of 80 years, we have been conducting continuous research and working on innovative designs to meet global standards and trends.

Besides our flagship store, we are working towards being present globally, and are going omnichannel with the launch of our online store this year.

Narayan targets a varied audience, as we cater to everyone, right from the niche and high-end customers to the masses. We have jewellery that starts from a few thousand rupees and goes up to crores.

SMBS: How is the company raising brand awareness and handling its marketing?

Narayan Jewellers has been a part of celebrity weddings such as of Harbhajan Singh and Geeta Basra. Weve also styled Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities. Our collection has been showcased at the New York Fashion Week for five seasons, including February 2020, in association with Forevermark and Bibhu Mohapatra.

We are active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and WhatsApp, where we interact with our customers and understand their needs regularly. We will also be launching our ecommerce website soon.

SMBS: What are the toughest moments the company has faced?

KC: Before the abolition of the Gold (Control) Act in 1990, no one was allowed to keep 24 carats of gold in their home, and it was not easy to do business during the time. We faced it with a strong attitude until it was abolished.

We became the first family jewellery brand to get the BIS Hallmarking License in Vadodara when it was introduced in India in 2000. Other tough periods included the global recession in 2008, demonetisation, implementation of GST, and now, the COVID-19 pandemic. We have stuck with a positive attitude through the tough times, and come out as a winner.

Two-finger diamond ring by Narayan Jewellers

SMBS: How has COVID-19 affected the business, and what is being done to address it?

KC: COVID-19 has put the entire world on pause. People are still scared to go out of their house. Footfalls are limited. The jewellery that has been ordered is not getting picked up right now. Everyone is taking their own time to settle with this new scenario that has been created around us.

Usually, April to mid-July is the lowest quarter of the year, and COVID hit us exactly then. It resulted in business going down by 30 to 40 percent. By Diwali, we should be in a better situation.

Our store resumed operations just 20 days ago, and I believe people will slowly come back to the jewellery sector. I am sure that the future holds good things for us. The wedding season has also been postponed by three to six months, so there are challenges in that aspect.

But being in a high-end, niche designer jewellery segment, we will definitely sail through this. Lifestyle customers for whom jewellery is a part of their lives are our biggest strength.

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Started with Rs 51, this Indian jewellery brand now designs for Oscars, is worn by Olivia Wilde, Sonam Kapoor, - YourStory

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Jacqueline Luqm: This is Jacqueline Luqman with the Real News Network. The school officials in Denver, Colorado, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon have announced that theyre severing ties with their police departments. And now the school board in Madison, Wisconsin has voted to do the same.

Wisconsin public radio noted that, The vote followed years of activism by the Social Justice Organization, Freedom, Inc., and reverses course from last year when Madison Metropolitan School Districts Board narrowly voted to keep police officers in schools. Now obviously, were living through an historic moment, maybe even a watershed moment in terms of racial justice and the relationship to policing and almost overnight, the conversation has shifted completely, but this work has been going on in communities on the ground, outside of the national media spotlight four years. And now its time has come. Here to talk about the culmination of that work in Madison, Wisconsin, is Mahnker Dahnweih, director of civic engagement with Freedom, Inc. Mahnker, thank you so much for joining me.

Mahnker Dahnwei: Thank you so much for having me, Jacqueline.

Jacqueline Luqm: So first, can you tell us about the decision to end the contract with the police in Madison schools? And whats changed between last year when this motion to remove police from schools was narrowly defeated and today, when it passed unanimously? What has changed to influence that change in the boards vote this time around?

Mahnker Dahnwei: So first I want to say, we are so happy, overjoyed, and excited to have this great victory under our belts. It has been years of organizing from young, queer, trans, black youth here in Madison, Wisconsin who have had intimate experience and knowledge of the violence that comes to black youth when there are police present in the schools. And so its those years of research, public testimony, conducting research, and just really engaging with community and changing hearts and minds that has actually led to this victory. I also want to recognize the moment that were in. We are in a time of global uprising and the riots and the rebellion in the streets have actually put immense pressure on elected officials and local leaders to the point where they have to take action and not just performative action, not just reform, but they have to actually start defunding the police, which will eventually lead to the abolition of punitive punishment within our communities, and the whole policing structure as a whole.

Jacqueline Luqm: Im so glad that you mentioned that this is a student-led, and particularly in trans and queer student-led movement. So can you give us a little bit of the historical context within that struggle for those communities, specifically, and led to the larger struggle to get police out of schools and Madison?

Mahnker Dahnwei: So this all started about four years ago and Freedom, Inc.s tagline is, Our community is our campaign. And we believe the folks at the center of violence that are actually experiencing it are the ones who are best positioned to actually fight and dismantle the systems that are perpetrating that violence. So when our young people came to us, weve always had youth programming here at Freedom, Inc., but when our young, black, queer and trans youth are coming to us saying, Were getting criminalized for the way that we dress or for not dressing the right ways, or, The police officers that are in those schools are actually body slamming us and apprehending us for things that other students dont get singled out for.

Were like, This is a serious problem. And so they organized and they went and they testified at the school board meeting at the time. And the response of the district was actually to create a committee. That sounds like really familiar because thats what they try to tell us this time around. Well make a committee. And our youth were not having that. They said, This needs to go beyond a committee. You need to take direct action. So its been four years of them getting disrespected, of them getting pretty much shut down when they come up and tell their stories, when they come up and share their research, when they engage community. They have really been the deciding factor in actually the last two school board elections, because candidates were not able to make it even past the primaries without answering the question, Cops or no cops in schools.

And so theyve done a lot of work. Theyve done a lot of work on the [inaudible 00:05:17]. Theyve done a lot of meetings, a lot of research. And Ill say the fact that weve been in the streets, mobilizing thousands during this current uprising is what actually kept pressure on the school board members and the school board president, specifically Gloria Reyes so that it could no longer be about her former ties as a former police officer. It could no longer be about what the school board members were afraid of, like whos going to take care of those bad black kids. It had to be about how are we going to move forward and actually invest in a black youth that has nothing to do with punishment and cages and police officers.

Jacqueline Luqm: I think its an excellent point that you just made that it was the students who have embarked upon a four-year campaign to do the research, to attend the meetings, to call these politicians out on their insufficient responses to their issues and the information that they were given. And they were present at every school board meeting. And they demanded that the question, Cops or no cops, be answered before anything could move on. So I think that speaks to the importance of highlighting grassroots organization and that were really not in a moment where suddenly overnight, peoples ideas and ideologies were changed. This was the result of a long campaign of people impacted by these policies, doing the research, engaging with the people who are implementing these policies and seizing a moment that arose that they were able to capitalize on. So ultimately, Mahnker, it was the students who got to know the ins and outs of school policy, and who organized more than 50 events in support of police-free schools over this four year period of time, who mobilized Madison to make the unanimous vote possible. Isnt that right?

Mahnker Dahnwei: Yes. It definitely is. And theyve had to have some really hard conversations with folks on the doors, because one big pushback that we have when they first started from our community was, What are you going to do with all the bad kids? And so it really was hosting teachings for the community, doing political education sessions online, going door to door. It was all that time that they put in and having those conversations ultimately about abolition. We who believe in freedom Its not going to be easy. Well still have to fight for it. Well still have to come together and use our collective imagination to actually rethink what community safety is.

What we do know is that putting people in cages does not help. What we do know is that giving someone permission to use deadly force against children does not work. Children who have conflict, which is age-appropriate behavior to have conflict amongst their peers in schools or wherever that may be when youre that age, adding more guns to the equation does not help. And so I think they have been very masterful in the way that theyve been able to engage and actually convince the public that we are capable of doing something different. But if we actually believe in ourselves, that we can keep us safe. Its not just the [inaudible 00:08:53] who keeps us safe. We keep us safe. We deeply believe in that. And now most of Madison does too.

Jacqueline Luqm: I think its very interesting that were supposed to be allowing our youth to develop their brains and understand conflict resolution and to learn how to deal with other people and different people and be diplomatic and mature during these formative years. And somehow one of the ways we think we can deal with we, Im saying adults now, one of the ways we have convinced ourselves that we need to keep our youth safe is to introduce, as you said, armed law enforcement into the various situations where we want our children to develop these critical thinking and problem solving skills, not realizing that were just introducing another problem into the matrix for our kids, which just produces trauma. But Mahnker, you brought up the issue of who keeps us safe? We keep us safe. And thats something I personally believe in, but many people are questioning what would taking police officers, or as theyre called to try to make them sound more benign, school resource officers out of schools, what does that look like in terms of discipline and disciplinary issues? So what is Freedom, Inc.s vision for student safety?

Mahnker Dahnwei: Thats a great question, Jacqueline. So over the past four years, we have proposed over 11 programs and emergency funds to the district that cover academic fulfillment, healing and mental wellness, that cover legal decriminalization of students. Because we understand that taking police out of schools, thats the first demand. And yet we have to be holistic in our approach to actually keeping our students safe. A lot of that actually looks like providing emergency services to folks because one of the main things that students at MSD are ticketed for is truancy. So if folks actually have reliable transportation and they have the things that they need to get to school on time, then thats one less thing to criminalize them about. And so we understand the need for a holistic approach to that. In terms of safety policies and practices, we proposed localized community control boards with any school thats actually reflective of the racial makeup of that school.

And then its comprised of mainly students, their parents and trusted adults who have been trained in restorative and transformative justice. So that means that they will be able to negotiate a set of safety policies that are not punitive, that do not lead to the push out of black youth, trans and queer youth as well. And that actually focus on restoration and really like looking at the environment that causes conflict within these schools. A lot of times its not just the police. But you have school administrators here in Madison, jumping on 11 year old black girls and punching them in the face and ripping their hair out. You have school security guards who are sexualizing young black girls. So you have a whole And then of course, the make up of our teachers is mostly white women and they have their own set of racial biases and get over right and get through.

So you have a whole entire environment that really has set our students up to fail, has set black students up to fail. And were not done yet until schools are safe for every black child. So theres a lot of work to be done. The district must put money and resources into actually addressing this problem holistically. They must actually own up to the harm that theyve done to black youth over the years, because what weve seen is not an uptick in graduation rates, not an uptick in academic fulfillment when those students are surveyed, its an uptake in youth who are in prison. In our County, actually just invested in a new youth prison.

So I will question what are their intentions. If they actually want you to be safe, removing the cops out of the schools, having actual accountability processes for adults who use law enforcement against students, actually investing money and time in school leadership, wellness, and creativity of black youth, making sure that theres transformative justice in those schools and having community control is the way forward. Honestly, its the only way to see a sustainable change thatll actually positively impact black students and keep them safe.

Jacqueline Luqm: Mahnker, I do deeply appreciate the intersection between trans and queer students and black students advocating for their safety that will ultimately impact every student in the district. And what were hoping is that what youve done in Madison will be a blueprint for people who are pushing to remove school resource officers, or cops, from schools and terminating their contracts across the country. Were hoping that this will be the foundation that people can use for that fight. And we understand that this fight is just the beginning because now what you want to see is that the money thats paid to officers in schools and in Madison, its around $380,000 per year. According to the contract that was passed last year, could be reinvested, or should be reinvested, in those other forms of transformative justice, training, housing, transportation, and other things that you mentioned. So we understand that the fight for transforming the relationship between schools and the police, and indeed severing that relationship severely to perhaps stem the flow of the school to prison pipeline is just beginning.

We are so glad for the work that you have done with Freedom, Inc. in Madison. And again, we just hope that it is a blueprint for how others around the country can embark on that fight nationwide. So Mahnker, thank you so much for joining me and telling us tell us your story about this fight and your continued efforts in Madison.

Mahnker Dahnwei: Thank you so much for having me, Jacqueline. And if anyone wants to get in contact with us, you can find us on Facebook, @FreedomInc on Facebook, on Instagram. Were still out here in these streets. This week starts our gender justice week of action, because we know that defunding the police is a gender justice issue. And so well be out on the streets all throughout those two weeks. So come and join us. The fight isnt over yet. Peace and love to everyone.

Jacqueline Luqm: And thank you for watching. This is Jacquelyn Luqman with the Real News Network in Washington, D.C. The fight for justice for all of us continues.

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Activists Push Police Out Of Schools In Madison - The Real News Network

A post circulating on social media claims that the U.S. was the only country to abolish slavery, and that Black and white populations were equally involved in the institution of slavery worldwide.This fact check will focus on the primary claim made in these posts whether the U.S. was the only country to abolish slavery, which is false.Other claims are outside the scope of this check.

Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

Theprimaryclaim is as follows: Slavery used to be normal throughout the world. America was the ONLY country that ended it! The postis visible here .This fact check willview theending of slavery asthe abolitionwithin a given countryand its territories, and notof theslave trade.

The claim comes amid protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The wave of demonstrations has exposed deep grievances over strained race relations worldwide ( here ).

A Reuters chronology of slavery abolition around the world is visible here .

The United States was not the only or even first country to end slavery. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring all persons held as slaves shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free,effectiveJanuary 1, 1863.It was not until the ratification of the 13thAmendment to the Constitution, in 1865, that slavery was formally abolished ( here ).

EffectiveAugust 1, 1834, in 1833Britain passed theSlavery AbolitionActgranting freedom to enslaved people inmost of the British Empire. The Act freed over 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada.( here )

In Mexico, the institutionof slaverywas abolished in 1829 ( here ).

Colonial Haiti, then called Saint-Domingue, the uprising known as the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)was the only instance of a successful slave rebellion in world history and the founding event of the first modern black republic, according to Time. Led by Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian revolution constitutes a landmark in the history of abolition ( here ). This decision was confirmed by the French government in 1794 ( here ). Further reading and commentary on this revolt, the impact of which reverberated around the region, can be found here , here and here .

Modern day slavery and illegal people trafficking are out of the scope of this fact check.

Partly false.The primaryclaim in these posts thatU.S. was the only country to abolish the institution of slaveryis false.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .

Excerpt from:

Fact check: U.S. was not the only (or first) country to abolish slavery - Reuters

Over the past month, mass protests calling for the abolition of police and a national reckoning with anti-Blackness have spread across the country. In that time, various volunteers and organizations have risen to the challenge of feeding those on the frontlines, like the Sikh gurdwaras serving dal to hospital workers and protesters, or the good samaritans, unaffiliated with any organization, handing out snacks at marches. And then theres the Peoples Bodega, a mutual aid organization that considers the needs of the community and packs them into a van.

The Peoples Bodega is, essentially, a traveling food and necessities pantry. In New York and LA, it caters to protests, its vans driving to different parts of a march to make sure everyone is served. Though the Peoples Bodega began in LA, the word bodega has a distinctly New York (specifically Nuyorican) feel. The bodega is your neighborhood spot where you know the person behind the counter; its the center of your community, even if that community is just your block. You can be fed there, yes, but also pick up first-aid supplies, housewares, phone cards, or any other small things you need to live your day-to-day life. The Peoples Bodega takes that concept and brings it to the protests, supplying water, sports drinks, and snacks alongside hand sanitizer, sunscreen, condoms, and tampons (plus, if you feel like hopping in the back of the van, a place to change your tampon). But unlike your neighborhood convenience store, everything is free.

On June 28, the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, I rode with the Peoples Bodega to serve New Yorks Queer Liberation March. Organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition, the march was for Black lives and against police brutality. Thousands gathered in glitter, leather, and shirts reading BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER. The Peoples Bodega set up two tables in Manhattans Foley Square, where the march began. It was 1 p.m. and people were hungry and thirsty, everyone aware of the fact that theyd need to be full and hydrated as they marched in the 88-degree heat. The provisions the Peoples Bodega supplies are calibrated for a marchers needs enough food and water to keep you going, but never too much to slow you down.

Making its way to Washington Square Park, the march took a slightly circuitous route to avoid police presence. The Peoples Bodega volunteers packed into two vans and tracked the movement on their phones, weaving through the streets of downtown Manhattan to meet up with the march halfway through its route. In the back of the van, towers of water shifted and teetered with each turn. Chloe, one of the organizers, emphasized to me that all the supplies have been donated: Even though the volunteers put out calls for specific staples on Instagram, theyre not always in control of what they get.

That day, they estimated theyd give out about 1,600 bottles of water, as well as plenty of Nature Valley and Nutrigrain bars, but also fruit snacks, lollipops, a box of store-brand Graham crackers, and some coveted packets of Oreos and Nutter Butters. There were a few cases of day-camp favorite Little Hug, those neon-colored fruit drinks that come in barrel-shaped bottles. Sometimes, people drop off homemade sandwiches or whole pizzas, though thats rare. Some items are always around: Kind bars, Chloe says, are the food of the revolution.

It was hard to convince people that the supplies were free. But on a sweltering day when people had already marched for a mile, the organizers at the Peoples Bodega pushed cold water and sports drinks, granola bars and clementines and fruit snacks, repeating again and again that these items cost nothing until people were convinced. Yes, at least in this instance, these basic human needs cost nothing.

Once the confusion over cost (or lack thereof) is settled, the demonstrators are typically thrilled and grateful. Once the march caught up with us, the Peoples Bodega volunteers ran in a constant loop from van to table, carrying pallets of water and Costco-brand sports drinks, which went so fast they never even made it into the cooler. Cries of Thank you! and Oh my god, youre angels! emanated from the crowd, the humidity outside building to a storm that would erupt later that night. Everyone was drained, but at the sight of snacks, they turned giddy. Sugar and salt would keep them going.

Providing these essentials for free, whether its a single granola bar or dozens of breakfast sandwiches for the people occupying City Hall, is what Chloe believes mutual aid is all about: using what we have to make sure everyone gets what they need. The point is avoiding the direct exchange of money for goods, she said. When I ask if any of the food has come from restaurants or grocery stores to support the mission, she shakes her head. All our donations come from people. Sometimes the donations are food, and other times theyre in the form of monetary donations through PayPal.

The question hovering over the protests currently is: How long is this going to last? Right now, were in a perfect storm for public actions mass unemployment and remote work allow more time for political organizing. The pandemic has kept people from most other social engagements while exposing many of the cracks in our society, from racism to the lack of a social safety net to the severe underfunding of public health and public education. But protest momentum is a hard thing to sustain, especially as states keep pushing the reopening of the economy. Will the Peoples Bodega still be needed in a month?

Chloe emphasizes that it will remain in the struggle until full abolition is achieved. Currently, the group is planning for other forms of longevity as a mobile community center and food pantry. But part of their mission is to do everything they can to keep that protest momentum going. By providing food, water, and other necessities, the Peoples Bodega is making the bar of entry to protesting as low as it can possibly be you can show up without a mask, without sun protection, and hungry, and someone will take care of you. The food is fuel to keep you fighting.

Food media largely avoids the concept of food as fuel. I mean, is there anything so dreary? It evokes the unseasoned chicken breasts and steamed broccoli of gym rats, the calorie counting of diet culture, Soylent. In food media and foodie culture, food can and should be anything but fuel. Its culture, its history, its a way to share tradition and heritage, its something to bond over, its a lens through which well, you know the rest.

But for the Peoples Bodega, food is fuel. Thats precisely its glory.

After the march passed, the van made its way to Washington Square Park. Later that day, police pepper-sprayed the crowd just as Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that the city celebrates the Black, trans activists who built the movement and continue to lead today. But before that, as the van arrived at the park, the marchers were still exuberant, many of them fortified by the sustenance provided by the Peoples Bodega. A volunteer ran out for ice. Another offered to cart water around the park to those who may have missed the table. They apologized to marchers for running out of sports drinks, but displayed every Kind bar and box of raisins they had left. I watched as people bonded, sucking on Fruit by the Foot, comparing Dum Dum flavors, and feeding their friends and partners nuts and candy. The food may be fuel, but by the act of giving it away and the power of mutual aid, it is transformed. Here, a pack of peanuts is love. A Gatorade is solidarity. A free Kind bar is the sign that were all in this fight together.

In the following days, the Peoples Bodega organizers restock and replan, coordinating donation pickups and Costco runs. They will be at the next march, electrolytes in hand, to fuel the revolution.

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How the Peoples Bodega Provides Free Food to Protesters - Eater

CASSILS The urgency of In Plain Sight has become paramount as people began to die from Covid-19 in detention camps. We had initially planned for this project to occur without any press, but when the pandemic hit, we launched our Instagram page that features short interviews with our artists and calls to action. Its been a great opportunity to take action. In recent months, Ive had 11 exhibitions canceled or paused. Almost every artist I know has, too.

There is a rich history of artists looking toward the sky for inspiration. Yves Klein used it as inspiration for his conceptual blue paintings. Recently, the artist Jammie Holmes flew George Floyds final words above five cities across the country. What other works have inspired your skytyping project?

ESPARZA Repellent Fence (2015) by the art collective Postcommodity was particularly important for us. They created a metaphorical suture along the migration path between the United States and Mexico with tethered balloons to speak about land art in relation to permanence and shifting landscapes. In the same way that they used the land to talk about the divisive power of colonial structures, we are hoping to index the sky as a symbol of inspiration and hope. And the sky is able to migrate messages across borders. When our message is skytyped above San Diego, the words will likely drift into Tijuana. And when our words are written above Los Angeles, they will have a shared orbital path, allowing phrases like Abolition Now and Stop Crimigration Now to coalesce into a circular message.

CASSILS We are also thinking of artists who have used the language of advertisement to get their points across. Artists like Lynda Benglis and Barbara Hammer. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was another important reference because it demonstrates how people can come together through a patchwork of activism.

Many artists involved with the project are also queer, which may or may not be a coincidence. We are thinking about the words of Jos Esteban Muoz, who wrote in 2009 that queerness exists for us as an ideality that can be distilled from the past and used to imagine a future. We see a liberation for queer, migrant and Black communities as deeply bound together because they are all rooted in the issues of white supremacy and colonization. Our jobs as queer artists is to imagine the future.

ESPARZA And we are putting the proposal of care, which is central to many queer communities, at the forefront of this project. We want to imagine what care looks like for people who are impacted by migrant detention and Covid-19.

CASSILS Bringing the skytypers into the fold has also been a unique experience. And with some messages being written in Cree, Farsi and Urdu, this will likely be the first time many people will see their own languages in the sky. There has also been a challenge to imagine how to write languages in the sky that dont use the Roman alphabet. Skytypers usually work in fleets of five planes each, so any image or letter must exist along a five-point matrix. For artists on the project, that means experimenting with the grid and drawing out words like freedom in Farsi or Urdu. Its interesting to note the challenges of what we can put into the sky, and how we might overcome those barriers.

In Plain Sight

Find out how to see the art at: instagram.com/inplainsightmap/

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Protesting U.S. Immigration Policies, Artists Aim for the Sky - The New York Times

With over 24 trillion in assets globally, an increase of 34 per centin just two years, it is unsurprising that Environmental, Social and Governance-linked (ESG) investment strategies continue to dominate financial headlines.

However, there remains a lack of clarity around how investors can benefit from more conscientious investing.

Key terms

ESG is a set of standards seeking to reduce negligent corporate behaviour that may lead to environmental degradation, armament sales, human rights violations, racial or sexual discrimination, harmful substances production, worker exploitation and corruption, though this list is by no means exhaustive and remains disputed.

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) generally focuses on excluding sin-stocks from the investment pool based on negative screening guidelines.

This results in the selection of companies with strong SRI characteristics, such as those that have a positive influence on society or the environment.

One of the objectives of the screening process is to positively influence corporate behaviour and drive change.

Thematic investing is unconstrained by traditional geographic and sector demarcations focusing instead on top-down systemic shifts.

By this definition, within ESG, investors can apply capital to a variety of niche themes however broad or niche.

Impact investing positively screens candidates on their ability to generate favourable influence on society and the environment, minimise any detriment and generate positive returns.

A combination of public awareness, regulation and the imminent generational transfer of wealth are factors explaining the increase in demand.

Reasons for investing responsibly

Many investors recognise that long-term stable and sustainable investment returns depend on well governed social and environmental systems.

Companies that incorporate ESG risk management are better long-term custodians of investor capital, offer greater downside protection and can generate better long-term risk adjusted returns.

Initiatives and organisations looking todriving change

The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principles.

Corporate sustainability creates long-term stakeholder value by means of a principles-based approach to business.

Commercial operations, at the very least, should meet fundamental standards in key areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Effective integration of the UN's 10 Global Compact Principles, in addition to a culture of integrity, paves the way for long-term success.

The 10 Global Compact Principles are:

Human rights

1)Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and;

2) Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Labour

3) Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

4) The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

5) The effective abolition of child labour; and

6) The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

7) Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

8) Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

9) Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption

10) Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 2: Zero hunger

Goal 3: Good heath andwell being

Goal 4: Quality education

Goal 5: Gender equality

Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation

Goal 7: Affordable andclean energy

Goal 8: Decent work andeconomic growth

Goal 9: Industry, innovation andinfrastructure

Goal 10: Reduced inequalities

Goal 11: Sustainable cities andcommunities

Goal 12: Responsible consumption andproduction

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 14: Life below water

Goal 15: Life on land

Goal 16: Peace, justice andstrong institutions

Goal 17: Partnerships

The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the global challenges humanity faces and are a blueprint to a better future.

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What clients need to know about ESG investing - FT Adviser

DAVENPORT, Iowa Iowas Catholic bishops are taking a prominent stand on three pressing federal issues, one involving the imminent execution of four federal death-row inmates, another on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and the third on the asylum system.

In a July 1 letter to President Donald Trump, the bishops of Iowas four dioceses requested clemency for Dustin Lee Honken and three other men facing capital punishment in the coming weeks. Honken, of Iowa, was convicted in 2004 of the horrific acts of killing five people, including two children and is scheduled to be executed July 17.

The bishops ask Trump to commute Mr. Honkens sentence, as well as the sentences of others to be executed this summer from death to life without the possibility of parole. It is a duty of the state to punish offenders and defend the common good and this would still be accomplished by commuting his sentence.

RELATED: Faith leaders urge president, attorney general to halt federal executions

Honkens conviction stemmed from his efforts to eliminate witnesses in his federal drug case, according to court records. Two of the five victims were men who planned to testify against Honken. The other three victims were a single, working mother and her 10-year-old and 6-year-old daughters.

A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa found Honken guilty of numerous offenses, including five counts of murder during the course of a continuing criminal enterprise, according to a June 15 U.S. Department of Justice news release.

The other men facing execution are:

Daniel Lewis Lee, a member of a white supremacist group convicted of murder in 1999 by an Arkansas district court jury.

Wesley Ira Purkey, who was convicted of murder in 2003 by a Missouri district court jury.

Keith Dwayne Nelson, who pleaded guilty in 2001 in a Missouri district court to charges related to the murder of a child.

Iowas bishops affirm a special need to offer sympathy and support for the victims of violent crime and their families.

We sincerely hope and pray for their consolation and healing. We also pray for the condemned and his family and friends, the bishops said. They are surely harmed by the choices he has made and they too suffer and will likely grieve his death. Even those who have committed great harm retain their human dignity and the capacity to reform, to love, and to be loved.

RELATED: Victims family asks for delay of federal inmates execution

It is our concern that the death penalty contributes to a growing disrespect for the sacredness of all human life, they continued. We believe that state-sanctioned killing would not deter or end violence, but instead perpetuate a cycle of violence. We oppose the death penalty to follow the example of Jesus, who both taught and practiced the forgiveness of injustice.

The letter is signed by Archbishop Michael O. Jackels of Dubuque and Bishops Thomas R. Zinkula of Davenport, R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City and William M. Joensen of Des Moines.

The Catholic Church teaches that capital punishment is inadmissible in all cases because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person (CCC 2267), Bishop Zinkula told The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the Diocese of Davenport.

In his address to Congress during his apostolic visit to the U.S., Pope Francis called for the global abolition of the death penalty,' the bishop said. As our country struggles with systemic racism, it is important to note that it also exists in our criminal legal system in the unfair and biased application of the death penalty.

We cannot build a culture of life when the federal government puts people to death. We should be focused on protecting and preserving life, not carrying out executions.

In a statement released July 6, Iowas bishops expressed concern on many issues, but focused on two specifically, DACA and the U.S. asylum system.

Regarding DACA, they said, Since 2012, hundreds of thousands of young people have come forward, passed background checks, paid a fee, and received permission to live and work in America. These young people arrived in the U.S. as children, with their parents, and know America as their only home, the bishops said.

I know a number of Dreamers in our diocese, Bishop Zinkula said. They are fine young people who are woven into the fabric of our country and of our church. Dreamers are mothers and fathers, doctors and nurses, veterans of our military, hard-working college students, and parish leaders.

I cant imagine being brought to the U.S. by ones parents, being totally assimilated here, having no or minimal association with ones home country, living with the uncertainty and fear of ones life being completely uprooted by deportation.

He said the U.S. bishops have long supported Dreamers and their families. DACA recipients are called Dreamers after the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, which would grant temporary conditional residency to these young people. It was first introduced in Congress in 2001 and has yet to pass.

The Iowa bishops called on the House and Senate and Trump to continue the DACA program and encourage Catholics to send comments to senators at https://justiceforimmigrants.org/category/action-alerts.

The Iowa bishops also opposed the administrations effort to essentially abolish the current asylum system. Under that system, individuals who successfully apply for asylum meet the definition of persons fleeing persecution in U.S. law. Such status allows them to remain in the country and receive services, if they are eligible.

A new, proposed law would violate domestic and international law, the bishops said. It also would violate asylum-seekers due process rights, foreclose asylum for those fleeing gender- and gang-based violence, and give asylum adjudicators unfettered discretion to deny asylum applications, the bishops said. They encourage the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw the proposed rules in their entirety.

Asylum is a lifeline for tens of thousands of vulnerable individuals, the bishops said. These rules, which would make accessing asylum extremely difficult if not nearly impossible for the vast majority of asylum-seekers, are morally wrong. If enacted, the United States will no longer be a leader in protecting the most vulnerable.

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Capital punishment, immigration issues compel Iowa bishops to speak up - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

George Floyds murder has changed many things, especially the world of law enforcement.

But it would be wise to reflect on desires to modify or improve law enforcement policies and efforts before letting those in favor of defunding the policy take control of the criminal justice reform agenda.

Developments in Seattle, Atlanta and elsewhere where violence, arson and vandalism occurred in response to high-profile police use of deadly force spurred the demands for defunding.

Defunding may actually be more of a wish than reality given complex webs of municipal, state and federal law in addition to civil service and police union regulations to be untangled before what is an obviously dangerous goal can be attained. But significant funding cuts for law enforcement are a real concern.

Thats why we appreciate the perspective of individuals like Nadra Enzi, who is a member of the Project 21 Black leadership network in New Orleans. The security consultant refers to himself as a safety citizen an individual who values his community and wants to work with authorities to keep them crime-free.

Safety citizens need to make it clear we support fully funded and empowered police departments. Period, he recently wrote. And they need to know that we also support punishing rogue officers.

Both safety citizens and police critics hoped earlier community policing policies would be the solution to long-term tensions between law enforcement and urban communities. Its focus on relationship-building at all levels, however, seems to have fallen short of the mark. In fact, it appears that relationship-building between police and the public gave way to calls for diminished police powers and even abolishing the profession altogether.

Defunding proposals couldnt come at a worse time. Culturally, American law enforcement became increasingly unpopular since the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

This tipping point birthed de-policing where officers who feel they are under too much scrutiny cease being proactive for fear of termination or even prosecution by state and federal authorities, Mr. Enzi wrote.

A bitter irony emerges with the rise of Black Lives Matter activism. Less empowered and underfunded police departments will effectively be set up to fail in underserved low-income, high-crime communities.

Regardless of whether defunding demands are wishful thinking or determined steps toward an abolition of the police profession, one inescapable conclusion remains: Defunding police is defeating public safety. This defeat will be acutely felt in the very communities that are screaming that Black lives matter.

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'Safety citizen' makes point that defunding police will fail those most in need of crime fighting - Norfolk Daily News

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to look at the uprising against police brutality and racism, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. The protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism, as defund the police becomes a rallying cry of the movement.

Well, for more on this historic moment, we turn to the legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis, professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For half a century, Angela Davis has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States and an icon of the Black liberation movement. I interviewed her in early June and asked her if she thought this moment is truly a turning point.

ANGELA DAVIS: This is an extraordinary moment. I have never experienced anything like the conditions we are currently experiencing, the conjuncture created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recognition of the systemic racism that has been rendered visible under these conditions because of the disproportionate deaths in Black and Latinx communities. And this is a moment I dont know whether I ever expected to experience.

When the protests began, of course, around the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade and many others who have lost their lives to racist state violence and vigilante violence when these protests erupted, I remembered something that Ive said many times to encourage activists, who often feel that the work that they do is not leading to tangible results. I often ask them to consider the very long trajectory of Black struggles. And what has been most important is the forging of legacies, the new arenas of struggle that can be handed down to younger generations.

But Ive often said one never knows when conditions may give rise to a conjuncture such as the current one that rapidly shifts popular consciousness and suddenly allows us to move in the direction of radical change. If one does not engage in the ongoing work when such a moment arises, we cannot take advantage of the opportunities to change. And, of course, this moment will pass. The intensity of the current demonstrations cannot be sustained over time, but we will have to be ready to shift gears and address these issues in different arenas, including, of course, the electoral arena.

AMY GOODMAN: Angela Davis, you have long been a leader of the critical resistance movement, the abolition movement. And Im wondering if you can explain the demand, as you see it, what you feel needs to be done, around defunding the police, and then around prison abolition.

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, the call to defund the police is, I think, an abolitionist demand, but it reflects only one aspect of the process represented by the demand. Defunding the police is not simply about withdrawing funding for law enforcement and doing nothing else. And it appears as if this is the rather superficial understanding that has caused Biden to move in the direction hes moving in.

Its about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions mental health counselors, who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. Its about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. Its about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety.

And I would say that abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. Its not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but its about reenvisioning. Its about building anew. And I would argue that abolition is a feminist strategy. And one sees in these abolitionist demands that are emerging the pivotal influence of feminist theories and practices.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain that further.

ANGELA DAVIS: I want us to see feminism not only as addressing issues of gender, but rather as a methodological approach of understanding the intersectionality of struggles and issues. Abolition feminism counters carceral feminism, which has unfortunately assumed that issues such as violence against women can be effectively addressed by using police force, by using imprisonment as a solution. And of course we know that Joseph Biden, in 1994, who claims that the Violence Against Women Act was such an important moment in his career the Violence Against Women Act was couched within the 1994 Crime Act, the Clinton Crime Act.

And what were calling for is a process of decriminalization, not recognizing that threats to safety, threats to security, come not primarily from what is defined as crime, but rather from the failure of institutions in our country to address issues of health, issues of violence, education, etc. So, abolition is really about rethinking the kind of future we want, the social future, the economic future, the political future. Its about revolution, I would argue.

AMY GOODMAN: You write in Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, Neoliberal ideology drives us to focus on individuals, ourselves, individual victims, individual perpetrators. But how is it possible to solve the massive problem of racist state violence by calling upon individual police officers to bear the burden of that history and to assume that by prosecuting them, by exacting our revenge on them, we would have somehow made progress in eradicating racism? So, explain what exactly youre demanding.

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, neoliberal logic assumes that the fundamental unit of society is the individual, and I would say the abstract individual. According to that logic, Black people can combat racism by pulling themselves up by their own individual bootstraps. That logic recognizes or fails, rather, to recognize that there are institutional barriers that cannot be brought down by individual determination. If a Black person is materially unable to attend the university, the solution is not affirmative action, they argue, but rather the person simply needs to work harder, get good grades and do what is necessary in order to acquire the funds to pay for tuition. Neoliberal logic deters us from thinking about the simpler solution, which is free education.

Im thinking about the fact that we have been aware of the need for these institutional strategies at least since 1935 but of course before, but Im choosing 1935 because that was the year when W.E.B. Du Bois published his germinal Black Reconstruction in America. And the question was not what should individual Black people do, but rather how to reorganize and restructure post-slavery society in order to guarantee the incorporation of those who had been formerly enslaved. The society could not remain the same or should not have remained the same. Neoliberalism resists change at the individual level. It asks the individual to adapt to conditions of capitalism, to conditions of racism.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you, Angela Davis, about the monuments to racists, colonizers, Confederates, that are continuing to fall across the United States and around the world. Did you think you would ever see this? You think about Bree Newsome after the horror at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, who shimmied up that flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina Legislature and took down the Confederate flag, and they put it right on back up. What about what were seeing today?

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, of course, Bree Newsome was a wonderful pioneer. And I think its important to link this trend to the campaign in South Africa, Rhodes Must Fall. And, of course, I think this reflects the extent to which we are being called upon to deeply reflect on the role of historical racisms that have brought us to the point where we are today.

You know, racism should have been immediately confronted in the aftermath of the end of slavery. This is what Dr. Du Boiss analysis was all about, not so much in terms of, Well, what we were going to do about these poor people who have been enslaved so many generations? but, rather, How can we reorganize our society in order to guarantee the incorporation of previously enslaved people?

Now attention is being turned towards the symbols of slavery, the symbols of colonialism. And, of course, any campaigns against racism in this country have to address, in the very first place, the conditions of Indigenous people. I think its important that were seeing these demonstrations, but I think at the same time we have to recognize that we cannot simply get rid of the history. We have to recognize the devastatingly negative role that that history has played in charting the trajectory of the United States of America. And so, I think that these assaults on statues represent an attempt to begin to think through what we have to do to bring down institutions and reenvision them, reorganize them, create new institutions that can attend to the needs of all people.

AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think should be done with statues, for example, to, oh, slaveholding Founding Fathers, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, you know, museums can play an important educational role. And I dont think we should get rid of all of the vestiges of the past, but we need to figure out context within which people can understand the nature of U.S. history and the role that racism and capitalism and heteropatriarchy have played in forging that history.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about racism and capitalism? You often write and speak about how they are intimately connected. And talk about a world that you envision.

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah, racism is integrally linked to capitalism. And I think its a mistake to assume that we can combat racism by leaving capitalism in place. As Cedric Robinson pointed out in his book Black Marxism, capitalism is racial capitalism. And, of course, to just say for a moment, that Marx pointed out that what he called primitive accumulation, capital doesnt just appear from nowhere. The original capital was provided by the labor of slaves. The Industrial Revolution, which pivoted around the production of capital, was enabled by slave labor in the U.S. So, I am convinced that the ultimate eradication of racism is going to require us to move toward a more socialist organization of our economies, of our other institutions. I think we have a long way to go before we can begin to talk about an economic system that is not based on exploitation and on the super-exploitation of Black people, Latinx people and other racialized populations.

But I do think that we now have the conceptual means to engage in discussions, popular discussions, about capitalism. Occupy gave us new language. The notion of the prison-industrial complex requires us to understand the globalization of capitalism. Anti-capitalist consciousness helps us to understand the predicament of immigrants, who are barred from the U.S. by the wall that has been created by the current occupant. These conditions have been created by global capitalism. And I think this is a period during which we need to begin that process of popular education, which will allow people to understand the interconnections of racism, heteropatriarchy, capitalism.

AMY GOODMAN: Angela, do you think we need a truth and reconciliation commission here in this country?

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, that might be one way to begin, but I know were going to need a lot more than truth and reconciliation. But certainly we need truth. Im not sure how soon reconciliation is going to emerge. But I think that the whole notion of truth and reconciliation allows us to think differently about the criminal legal system. It allows us to imagine a form of justice that is not based on revenge, a form of justice that is not retributive. So I think that those ideas can help us begin to imagine new ways of structuring our institutions, such as well, not structuring the prison, because the whole point is that we have to abolish that institution in order to begin to envision new ways of addressing the conditions that lead to mass incarceration, that lead to such horrendous tragedies as the murder of George Floyd.

AMY GOODMAN: The legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis. When we come back, well talk about the 2020 election and more.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! democracynow.org. Im Amy Goodman. Were spending the hour looking at the ongoing uprisings against police brutality and racism, following the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day. Later in the program, well hear from professors Cornel West, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Tamika Mallory, but first we continue our discussion with the legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis. I spoke to her in early June, a week before she received the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The institute made international headlines last year when the institute initially rescinded the award due to Angela Daviss support for Palestinians and the BDS movement. Thats Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. After outcry, the institute reversed its decision. Angela Davis formally received the award on Juneteenth thats June 19th this year. I asked her about the significance of what happened.

ANGELA DAVIS: A lot has happened over the last period, including within the context of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. They have completely reorganized. They have reorganized their board. They have been involved in conversations with the community. Of course, as you know, the mayor of Birmingham was threatening to withdraw funding from the institute. There was a generalized uprising in the Black community.

And, you know, while at first it was a total shock to me that they offered this award to me, and then they rescinded it, Im realizing now that that was an important moment, because it encouraged people to think about the meaning of human rights and why is it that Palestinians could be excluded from the process of working toward human rights. Palestinian activists have long supported Black peoples struggle against racism. When I was in jail, solidarity coming from Palestine was a major source of courage for me. In Ferguson, Palestinians were the first to express international solidarity. And there has been this very important connection between the two struggles for many decades, so that Im going to be really happy to receive the award, which now represents a rethinking of the rather backward position that the institute assumed, that Palestinians could be excluded from the circle of those working toward a future of justice, equality and human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: Speaking about whats going on in the West Bank right now and about the whole issue of international solidarity, the global response to the killing of George Floyd. In the occupied West Bank, protesters denounced Floyds murder and the recent killing of Iyad el-Hallak, a 32-year-old Palestinian special needs student who was shot to death by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem. He was reportedly chanting Black lives matter and Palestinian lives matter, when Israeli police gunned him down, claiming he was armed. These links that youre seeing, not only in Palestine and the United States, but around the world, the kind of global response, the tens of thousands of people who marched in Spain, who marched in England, in Berlin, in Munich, all over the world, as this touches a chord and they make demands in their own countries, not only in solidarity with whats happening in the United States? And then I want to ask you about the U.S. election thats coming up in November.

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, yes, Palestinian activists have long supported Black peoples struggle against racism, as I pointed out. And Im hoping that todays young activists recognize how important Palestinian solidarity has been to the Black cause, and that they recognize that we have a profound responsibility to support Palestinian struggles, as well.

I think its also important for us to look in the direction of Brazil, whose current political leader competes with our current political leader in many dangerous ways, I would say. Brazil if we think we have a problem with racist police violence in the United States of America, look at Brazil. Marielle Franco was assassinated because she was challenging the militarization of the police and the racist violence unleashed there. I think 4,000 people were killed last year alone by the police in Brazil. So, Im saying this because

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, the president of Brazil, a close ally of President Trump. We only have two minutes, and I want to get to the election. When I interviewed you in 2016, you said you wouldnt support either main-party candidate at the time. What are your thoughts today for 2020?

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, my position really hasnt changed. Im not going to actually support either of the major candidates. But I do think we have to participate in the election. I mean, that isnt to say that I wont vote for the Democratic candidate. What Im saying is that in our electoral system as it exists, neither party represents the future that we need in this country. Both parties remain connected to corporate capitalism. But the election will not so much be about who gets to lead the country to a better future, but rather how we can support ourselves and our own ability to continue to organize and place pressure on those in power. And I dont think theres a question about which candidate would allow that process to unfold.

So I think that were going to have to translate some of the passion that has characterized these demonstrations into work within the electoral arena, recognizing that the electoral arena is not the best place for the expression of radical politics. But if we want to continue this work, we certainly need a person in office who will be more amenable to our mass pressure. And to me, that is the only thing that someone like a Joe Biden represents. But we have to persuade people to go out and vote to guarantee that the current occupant of the White House is forever ousted.

AMY GOODMAN: The legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis.

When we come back, well speak to Cornel West, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and well hear from Tamika Mallory. Stay with us.

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Angela Davis on Abolition, Calls to Defund Police, Toppled Racist Statues & Voting in 2020 Election - Democracy Now!

Gov. Steve Sisolak is calling for a special session starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday to address the states pandemic-driven budget shortfall, but says he may issue another proclamation authorizing the Legislature to take up other issues if there are additional policy matters that deserve immediate consideration.

The governor issued the proclamation on Tuesday evening, after announcing last week that July 8 would be the tentative start date depending on safety and health conditions related to COVID-19. The session will be closed to the public, with only legislators, essential staff and a limited number of reporters allowed in the legislative building in Carson City.

I am eager to work with our Nevada lawmakers on this difficult undertaking, and finalize the necessary reductions while prioritizing resources to protect Nevadas residents as much as possible, Sisolak said in a statement. I understand that the COVID-19 public health crisis has put us in the position to make very painful decisions on the State budget, but I am confident we will be able to overcome this challenge together and forge a new path forward.

The proclamation comes a day after Sisolaks office released a 40-page outline of his budget cut proposal, which addresses the $1.2 billion budget shortfall through a half billion dollar cut in agency budgets, transfers of other funds and furloughs of state employees.

In a press release, Democratic Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson said lawmakers must make some painful cuts to get through this period but wanted to protect vital services. He called on Congress to pass legislation giving state and municipal governments direct financial aid to help deal with fallout of the pandemic, something Democratic leaders in the Legislature and Sisolak have publicly asked for.

Beyond the budget cuts, Sisolak said the Legislature may authorize the Clark County School District to use unspent school-level funds to address its financial needs, and may authorize the Board of Regents to change eligibility requirements for Millennium Scholarship recipients adversely affected by the pandemic.

In a press release, a spokeswoman for the governor said Sisolak will issue a subsequent proclamation for the Legislature once the budget shortfall is addressed to consider policy items that rise to the extraordinary occasion of a special session.

Members of the Legislature are required to deal only with matters listed in the governors proclamation calling for the special session. Such sessions are limited by the state Constitution to not exceed more than 20 calendar days.

That hasnt stopped a variety of advocacy groups from calling in recent days for more items on the agenda, including the expansion of in-person and mail voting, law enforcement reforms including the abolition of police unions, the increase of taxes and the repeal of the death penalty.

Bracing for cuts

As lawmakers prepare for the budget-cutting, advocates have called on them to spare health and human services spending and school funding.

Before the governor unveiled his budget proposal Monday, eight education organizations sent him and legislative leaders a cosigned letter calling for no K-12 spending cuts. The diverse group behind the letter included CCSD Parents, Charter School Association of Nevada, Clark County Education Association, HOPE for Nevada, Nevada Parent Teacher Association, Nevada School Choice Coalition, Power2Parent and Rise Up Nevada Education.

While we do have differences on the method and the delivery choices in education, we really felt this was the time to come together and say Nevada has to make a choice: Are we going to ever prioritize education? said Rebecca Garcia, president of the Nevada PTA. That was the message.

Sisolaks budget proposal falls short of that goal. While it safeguards the basic per-pupil support districts receive from the Distributive School Account the states main funding pot for K-12 education it recommends cuts to categorical revenue streams, including the Read by Grade 3 and SB178 grant programs. The SB178 money, also known as the New Nevada Education Funding Plan, gave certain schools an extra $1,200 per child to support low-achieving students.

During a special school board meeting Monday night, Clark County Superintendent Jesus Jara and the districts chief financial officer, Jason Goudie, said it was too soon to say what changes might be needed to the reopening plan. District leaders planned to evaluate the governors budget plan Tuesday and present an update to the school board Thursday.

Even so, Trustee Chris Garvey summed up the likely outcome this way: This is going to be really, really painful no matter how we look at it.

The pandemic and related economic fallout has thrown a wrench in years-long efforts to bolster Nevadas K-12 education funding. State lawmakers approved a new K-12 funding formula in the 2019 session and, in early March, education advocates filed a lawsuit challenging Nevadas school finance system. The legal action was seen as an accelerated push to dramatically increase education spending in a state that consistently ranks near the bottom in that metric as well as in student achievement.

But the coronavirus shuttered schools and nonessential businesses less than two weeks later, drying up tax revenue across the state. At the same time, the school closures highlighted existing inequities as districts struggled to ensure technology and learning access for students without Chromebooks or reliable internet at home.

Now, districts are engulfed in discussions about how to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 academic year amid a pandemic that has shown little sign of abating. District leaders have lamented the fiscal situation, saying it has been difficult to plan without knowing firm budget numbers from the state.

All of those factors signal a special legislative session steeped in an education debate. Garcia said punting investing in education has become an endless loop that needs to finally stop.

We all feel like this is a really critical juncture because we still havent recovered from the last recession when it comes to education funding, she said.

Although the session is closed to the public over COVID-19 health concerns, some groups are nonetheless planning public demonstrations in Carson City protesting aspects of the planned cuts. The Nevada State Education Association will hold a protest outside of the Legislative Building at noon tomorrow, and members of the Nevada Police Union the collective bargaining body for the state-employed police officers has mounted a public information campaign asking to be exempt from planned across-the-board state worker furloughs, saying the cost of overtime would exceed any savings from furloughs.

Gov Sisolak Special Session Proclamation July 7, 2020 by Michelle Rindels on Scribd

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Sisolak issues formal call for special session focused on budget cuts; may address other issues later - The Nevada Independent

This is a slightly edited version of a talk given during the What Road To Socialism? webinar held by Workers World Party on May 16.

Abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore lays out in her book, Golden Gulag, the political climate in the state of California that gave rise to prison expansion. California had an incredibly huge and diverse economy preceding its prison boom, in which the number of people behind bars increased 450 percent between the 1980s and early 2000s.

Prior to this prison boom, California in the 1970s saw heavy policing and the end of the Vietnam war. There was high unemployment and high inflation. The series of crises coming out of this period produced all kinds of surpluses of workers, land, finance capital, as well as a surplus of state capacity that was rapidly shifting from social welfare to domestic warfare.

Even as crime began to slow, societal production was being arranged around prison expansion. Republicans and Democrats alike were being elected on the false premise that they could keep people safe by locking up criminals. But we know that just exacerbates existing inequalities, disappears people and destroys communities.

According to the Sentencing Project, 70 million people in the U.S. are living with criminal convictions. Simply because theyve been convicted of a crime, the majority of these people are barred from holding most jobs. Added to this are the 10 million workers, estimated by Pew Research, who are not documented to work in the U.S. because they are migrants. The sum total, 80 million people, is nearly half of the U.S. labor force, mostly people of color, but also one-third white, who are criminalized in ways that are detrimental to all working people.

New Orleans: historic strike

In New Orleans, sanitation workers are now on a historic strike asking for hazard pay and protective gear. Instead of having their demands met, they have been replaced by incarcerated workers who will be paid at most 13 percent of the sanitation workers hourly pay of $10.25, or $1.33 per hour under state law, and will likely not receive adequate protection either. (Payday Report, May 9) This effectively pits already exploited sectors of our class against one another.

Wilson Gilmore describes the structure of racism as vulnerability to premature death, which we see so starkly in this period of the global pandemic. Those with access to centuries of stolen resources are generally able to skirt spaces where they would come into contact with the virus and other life-shortening mechanisms like lack of access to health care.

In our organizing as the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, one of the only groups in our state that opposes the use of capital punishment on the political grounds that its use is structurally both racist and anti-poor, this phrase often comes up: Those who dont have the capital, get the punishment!

In places like Texas, the killing capital of the country, which leads in the number of legal lynchings, we feel the afterlives of enslavement embedded into the social order of control known as mass criminalization. From the plantations during slavery to convict leasing of labor to modern-day prisons, this oppression has existed.

While we acknowledge that people of color are disproportionately affected by these institutions, Wilson Gilmore said, [A]nti-criminalization and effects of perpetual punishment have to be central to any kind of political, economic change that benefits working people and their communities, or benefits poor people, whether or not theyre working, and their communities. (Prisons and Class Warfare, interview, historicalmaterialism.org, Aug. 2, 2018)

What has happened in California is different from what has occurred in Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere. And in the 38 countries where the U.S. has had its hand in shaping policing and prisons. These differences mean local assessments are needed.

Revolution and abolition are ongoing processes. We must not stop remaking ourselves and the world. Otherwise, we risk shifting or mutating the means of colonial and capitalist world-making further into the future. Abolition of these institutions is about presence and the connections and structures we build with one another along the way. Abolition is a theory of social change; it is a strategy, and its about making things.

Abolitionists use tactics like divestment campaigns, prison moratoriums and building a caring community, by shifting the fruits of our labor to address the root causes of harm and suffering.

United struggle blocks new prisons

One of the many ways California abolitionists were able to halt the states self-described biggest [prison system] in the history of the world was by aligning against powerful governors and prison guard unions and by organizing the California State Employees Association, which is part of an enormous public sector union in the state.

Together abolitionists and workers slowed down a state that had opened a prison every year for 23 years almost to a halt where it only opened one prison between 1999 and 2011. They made it impossible for new jails and prisons to be constructed.

All the different sectors of our collective class are bound to one another. Our liberation lives on in our ability to use all levers and all tactics to work across and with the things that make us different. Our liberation is bound to unemployed people, undocumented workers, incarcerated workers and to each other.

A broad understanding of class and the myriad interlocking oppressions working against us is necessary in our fight to resist mass criminalization and the further categorizing of people into more easily conquerable sectors. An injury to one is an injury to all.

As Audre Lorde said, Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses; for instance, it is learning to address each others differences with respect. (Learning from the 60s, speech, Malcolm X commemoration weekend, Harvard University, February 1982)

Crissman (they/them) is a member of the WWP Houston branch and a co-editor of Tear Down the Walls, the prisoner page of WW newspaper. They write and organize around prison abolition, anti-imperialism and the environment.

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Prisons and class war - Workers World

The Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi has initiated discussions on a strictly personal basis with the leading princes who are being called to Delhi one by one to meet her on the abolition of their purses and privileges. She has already met more than 20 top ranking princes and the Maharaja of Mysore will be seeing her to-morrow [May 19]. The Nizam also is expected to be summoned after she has done the necessary spade work for coming to grips with the question of compensation.

In her talks, Mrs. Gandhi has been taking the line that the princes should appreciate the compelling political circumstances that led to the decision to abolish their privy purses. She has also been trying to impress upon them that in their own interest they should fully co-operate with her in ensuring that there was a strong Government at the Centre which was capable of taking a generous attitude on the question of compensation in the face of political opposition.

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From the Archives (May 19, 1970): Keep pace with the times, says PM - The Hindu

LUCKNOW: Back to their native state in Uttar Pradesh, migrant workers from different parts of the country stare at an uncertain future. At the Charbagh railway station in Lucknow, where hundreds of workers had just de-boarded trains running from Maharashtra and Gujarat, most said they would stay put in their villages at least till the pandemic is not reined in even though the lockdown is easing and industries are allowed to resume work selectively. Others, who had been ill-treated in the states they worked in, swore to never go back even if they earn less in UP.

Returning to their home state after a long time, they were also open to new employment opportunities that perhaps did not exist when they had left their villages for a better future in western states. Their decisions would also be affected by whether they had a security net at home a farm land they owned or any other small business that their family was engaged in and their respective prospects. What tied the experiences of everyone together, however, was an obvious drying up of resources that pushed them to head home.

Sohan, hailing originally from Kannauj, worked at the Maruti Suzuki factory at Mehsana in Gujarat. For him, the two months of lockdown spelt an ordeal that has made him decide not to go back, ever. After 60 days of hunger and no help from the government, I have decided I will not go back ever to Gujarat. If I have to go I may go to nearby cities like Delhi but never to Gujarat, he said.

Sohams family comprises his parents, wife, kids and a brother, and the family owns 3 bigha land where they grow potatoes and wheat. After making Rs 12,000 a month on average, he would send Rs 8,000-9,000 every month home. But the lack of help from contractors affected him and the final nail was struck by the government which charged him and others Rs 800 for their ticket back. I had two cheap phones I managed to sell one as nobody was even willing to buy and sold other utensils that I had to a kabadi wala to arrange for the tickets, he said.

Others who did not own any land or farm, like Rohit Kumar from Fatehpur, who worked as a fabrication worker in Pune, now look upon the UP government to provide some work. If the UP chief minister gives us work, we would never want to go back, Kumar said, even as he kept the door open to return if things normalise. Manoj Kumar , who had a tea stall in Pune for last 6 years said even if they earn 10 in UP instead of 15 elsewhere it would be nice to stay in their own state and work. Rohit also particularly mentioned that while the Maharashtra government did not charge them for tickets, all the food packets distributed on their journey would get exhausted at the doors of the compartments and would rarely reach the middle of the train coach where they sat.

Squeezed of the last of their little savings, returning would also require building some buffer they can dip into to pay rent, especially for cities in Maharashtra.

Mahaveer Varma, who hails from Unnao and has been working in Mumbai since 1981 in a private firm, said in a matter of fact way that at least for the next four-six months there is no sign of returning. He said there is a reason why people flocked to these cities and if there is no option one would have to head to those towns again but not before one can earn some money in their native states that would take care of the rent there when they go back. Varma said apart from 5 kg of rice that was given only once in two months, there had been no help forthcoming from the government.

Meanwhile, the UP government, which has received more than 16,00,000 workers since March 1, is preparing to employ them in large numbers, for which abolition of labour laws has been one step, besides measures such as work under MGNREGA, boosting micro, small and medium enterprises to employ more and encouraging women self-help groups.

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Keeping options open, UP migrants hope CM gives them jobs at home - Economic Times

Australian university union agrees to unprecedented pay and job cuts By Mike Head 13 May 2020

After weeks of backroom negotiations with the employers, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) today released a heads of agreement that allows university managements to cut wages by up to 15 percent and destroy thousands of jobs, including by forced redundancies.

The agreement shatters the NTEUs claim that it volunteered sacrifices of wages and conditions to protect jobs from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In giving carte blanche to the employers, the deal goes far beyond anything previously suggested to NTEU members.

The outrage of university workers, already shocked by the NTEU rushing in to these talks, behind their backs, will intensify as the full details of the unions deal become known and as individual universities and their NTEU branches move to inflict its terms, institution by institution.

In a media release, the NTEU claimed a great victory: Landmark agreement preserves 12,000 jobs and hard won university conditions.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Wages can be cut by up to 15 percent, even exceeding the 10 percent cuts previously mentioned at an NTEU national council meeting. So-called Category B universities only have to claim a 10 percent reduction in revenue to inflict a 15 percent cut, while Category A institutions that claim a 5 percent fall can cut wages by 10 percent. Only $30,000 of a wage is exempt from these reductions.

In an email to NTEU members this morning, national president Alison Barnes claimed that the Jobs Protection Framework will: Save at least 12,000 jobs nationally, Limit redundancies and prevent stand-downs without pay and Help casual and fixed-term staff to regain and retain their work.

These are all patent lies. According to point 2 of the National Memorandum of Understanding: The Parties estimate that this package will save in the vicinity of 10,000 to 12,000 jobs of university employees if implemented in full across the Australian university sector.

That is, if the union foists on its members all the cost-cutting measures permitted by the deal, perhaps in the vicinity of 10,000 jobs might be savedout of an estimated 30,000 being eliminated.

The same goes for mass sackings. By paragraph 44 of the heads of agreement, forced redundancies are permitted due to a reduction in work. This can include where a university is permanently abolishing a substantial work function (such as the abolition of a discipline) or closing a campus, or where there is a surplus of employees due to insufficiency of work in a particular work unit or function.

Likewise with the axing of casuals and contract workers, thousands of whom have already had their jobs eliminated over the past six weeks. Paragraphs 33 and 34 of the agreement say that where their work has reduced as a result of the impact of COVID-19, they will have first order of preference to resume that work. Yet, many of these jobs will never resume because of the long-term impact of the global pandemic and because universities are pressuring full-time employees to work overload, in violation of workplace agreements, in order to replace casuals and contract workers.

Contrary to Barness email, large-scale stand-downs are also permitted. Paragraph 36 accepts the use of section 524 of the Fair Work Act to stand down employees due to an alleged stoppage of work, and allows managements to cut their pay by up to 50 percent for the duration of the stand-down, as long as the university has supposedly exhausted all options for other work to be performed.

Many similar clauses exist, for example, allowing universities to increase workloads and force the taking of annual and long service leave.

The NTEU, which has collaborated with university managements for decades, will become fully integrated at all levels as a formal partner in policing this agreement against its members. Both parties will nominate three people to form a National Expert Panel to oversee the deals implementation. Local NTEU branches will join COVID-19 Temporary Measures Committees to approve change management processes, that is, wholesale cuts.

The NTEU claims that these concessions are time-limited, with an end date of June 30 next year, but the crisis triggered by the pandemic and the response of governments will last far longer. Universities Australia has predicted losses totalling $19 billion over the next three years alone. This is primarily due to the loss of income from international students, whom universities have exploited as cash cows for years to offset punishing cuts in funding by Labor-Greens and Liberal-National governments alike.

For weeks, the NTEU has blocked all action by university workers to fight this onslaught, including by invoking the threat of huge fines under the Fair Work Act, while holding out the prospect of a job protection framework.

This fraud is now fully exposed. Universities are already moving to exploit the heads of agreement. La Trobe University vice chancellor, John Dewar, one of the signatories to the deal with the NTEU, sent an email to staff declaring that up to 800 jobs, or nearly a quarter of the workforce, will go, depending on how the management saves by pay cuts, voluntary redundancies and restructuring.

Having spent two years locking university workers into the latest round of enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs)which the NTEU also hailed as victoriesthe union is working hand-in-glove with individual managements to tear up anything in these EBAs that stands in the way of the unprecedented attack on pay and conditions.

While variations to EBAs must go to ballots under the Fair Work Act, there is nothing democratic about this process. University workers and students are being presented with a fait accompli.

This is not an aberration. The NTEUs agreement fulfills the pledge offered last month by Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus that the unions would give employers everything they want in response to the pandemic. These are not working class organisations but thoroughly pro-capitalist apparatuses enforcing the requirements of the corporate elite.

Barnes told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Our union intervened to prevent the collapse of tertiary education in Australia and secure the livelihoods of 12,000 university workers. Far from the livelihoods of workers, the NTEUs concern is to prop up the tertiary education industry, which is one of Australian capitalisms biggest money-spinners, worth more than $30 billion a year in revenues.

Even before todays announcement, there was widespread opposition to the unions betrayal, partially reflected in several NTEU branch resolutions opposing concessions. Pseudo-left groups are trying to head off a revolt against the union by circulating petitions and calls for an NTEU day of action. They are peddling illusions that this same union will lead a fight against the federal governments funding cuts.

These groups are trying desperately to prop up the NTEU and keep workers trapped in the pro-capitalist framework of the trade unions. Their petition advises the NTEU to at least put up a show of resistance. The union cannot be seen to be bargaining away our pay and conditions, it has to fight for them, it states.

In order to defeat this wholesale assault, Committee for Public Education (CFPE) and Socialist Equality Party members have spoken at union branch meetings to expose the role of the NTEU, oppose all concessions and outline the necessity for a totally opposed perspective: The struggle to completely reorganise society along socialist lines, including the allocation of billions of dollars to public education, instead of big business and the wealthy elite being bailed out by huge rescue packages.

This means breaking from the NTEUs pro-capitalist straitjacket and forming new rank-and-file committees of workers and students. To take forward this discussion and organise a fight against the NTEU sellout, the CFPE is holding an online forum this Sunday, May 17, at 4 pm: The COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in the universities.

To participate contact the CFPE Facebook page or email the SEP at sep@sep.org.au, or click on this Zoom link just before 4 pm on Sunday: https://zoom.us/j/94447278547

The author also recommends:

Australian university union continues sellout talks despite members anger [27 April 2020]

Australian university union in backroom talks to slash jobs and conditions amid COVID-19 pandemic [14 April 2020]

A socialist program needed to halt assault on university students and staff [14 May 2019]

We need you to help the WSWS and ICFI make 2020 the year of international socialist revival. We must expand our work and our influence in the international working class. If you agree, donate today. Thank you.

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Australian university union agrees to unprecedented pay and job cuts - World Socialist Web Site

Each week we ask small businesses key questions. Here we speak to Fraser Campbell, founder and managing director of Drumnadrochit company Cobbs.

After working as a kitchen porter at Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness I followed my parents into hotel management, going on to buy Glenavon Hotel in Craigellachie and then a business in Perthshire.

My old friend Willie Cameron, aka Mr Loch Ness, then pointed me in the direction of the Drumnadrochit Hotel and a small bakery business in the village. I started supplying Urquhart Castle visitor centre and Cobbs Cakes was born.

By focusing on quality and value for money, giving my all to my work and seizing great opportunities that come my way, even if it means diversifying away from the core business. Diversification has never been more important than now.

Over the years we have transformed Cobbs Cakes into the Cobbs Group and, in addition to the bakery, we now own four hotels, 20 coffee shops and seven tourist retail businesses.

Everything was growing and developing smoothly until Covid-19, when a business that had taken 25 years to build crashed overnight, with turnover hitting zero almost instantly.

It quickly became apparent to the executive chef and general manager at our Loch Ness House Hotel that while foodservice companies supplying tourism and hospitality businesses were being left with massive stocks of unsold food on the one hand, supermarkets were selling out of key items on the other.

Also, many people especially the elderly and infirm were having difficulty shopping safely.

We quickly set up home-cooked meal and affordable hamper delivery services and now sell meat, fish and fruit packed and ready for safe collection at agreed times and for less than customers would pay in supermarkets.

This week, we are also launching both our new Spar grocery store in Loch Ness Clansman Hotel and very proudly our new online shop, allowing people to buy our hampers, takeaway meals and vouchers to be used with us next year once everything has opened up again.

This will keep the business afloat and some staff in employment, while serving the community and supporting local businesses and producers.

Out of crisis comes innovation and the creation of a business that benefits all.

Our new mantra is a few small steps every day.

My family and fellow directors are extremely supportive and Cobbs is very much a family affair, with my wife Jackie and son Daniel both heavily involved.

Federation of Small Businesses membership has given me the opportunity to share and learn from the experiences of other self-employed people and I am proud to have some great older, highly experienced hotel managers as mentors.

There is no doubt that our biggest crisis is Covid-19 and the biggest mistake imaginable would be to sit back and fail to adapt to changing circumstances.

In Ireland on business, I overheard the couple in front of me in a coffee shop queue ordering afternoon tea and asking the server for a portion of Cobbs Date Slice by name. That recognition was a tremendous achievement and made me very proud.

I would not relish being in government right now but, if I was, my immediate priorities would be: The abolition of the 51,000 ceiling for grant assistance; a reimbursement of last years rates to all businesses; the establishment of a landlord fund; the abolition of VAT and rates for 12 months; councils being obliged to work more closely with private enterprise in the running of their commercial facilities; and insurance companies being obliged to give payment holidays during lockdown.

To survive the current crisis, changed but in good heart and ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.

Enjoy quality time with my family.

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Fraser adapts to new reality as innovation is born from crisis - Press and Journal

New Delhi: The International Labour Organisation (ILO), responding to the sweeping changes in labour laws proposed by state governments, has asked the authorities to ensure that all such relaxations adhere to global standards and are effected after proper consultation.

Certain states in India are moving towards relaxing labour laws with a view to revitalise the economy from the impact of COVID-19. Such amendments should emanate from tripartite consultation involving the government, the workers and the employers organisations and be compliant with the international labour standards, including the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW), the ILO said in statement released on Wednesday, in response to a set of questions sent by Business Standard.

The ILO added that labour laws protect the well-being of both employers and workers and called for collective efforts and solidarity between the government, employers and workers. They (labour laws) are an important means to advance social justice and promote decent work for all, it said.

The ILO had in April estimated that around 400 million workers were at a risk of slipping into poverty because of a stringent nationwide lockdown implemented to control the spread of coronavirus.

Subsequently, some states announced relaxing or doing away with major labour laws to attract investment. The Uttar Pradesh government has proposed an Ordinance exempting firms from almost all labour laws for the next three years. The Gujarat government has announced that it will follow in UPs footsteps and allow new companies setting up shops over the next 1,200 days to be exempt from major labour laws.

Also read: Crushing Labour Laws Amidst Successive Industrial Accidents Is Serious Insult to Injury

The Madhya Pradesh government has notified changes in labour laws to do away with the need to avail multiple licences for hiring contract workers and setting up factories. It has exempted firms from various welfare provisions under the Factories Act, 1948, along with replacing inspections with third-party certification and giving exemptions from industrial relations laws.

India is one of the founding members of the ILO, which came into existence in 1919. The Indian parliament has ratified 47 conventions of the ILO, some of which relate to working hours, labour inspections, equal remuneration, and compensation in case of injuries, among others.

Central trade unions in India had termed states changes an inhuman crime, which they said was in gross violation of the ILOs conventions, including that on holding tripartite dialogues. The unions said that they were seriously considering lodging a complaint with the ILO. Trade union leaders have said the ILO has the power to impose sanctions on a country for violation of its conventions.

COVID-19 has jeopardised the health and safety of millions of people across India, and put immense pressure on businesses, jobs, and livelihoods. The country is making efforts to flatten the upward curve of infection. National and state-level measures to provide income and social security support to workers, and to revitalise businesses and the economy have been advanced on priority, the ILOs statement said.

The ILOs declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was adopted by India in 1998. All members of the ILO have to respect and promote the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced or compulsory labour, the abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Watch: UP Labour Law Ordinance: An Attempt at Labour Exploitation, India Pushed Back to 19th Century

The ILO advised that any policy response should ensure recovery through fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, support to enterprises, jobs and income through social protection, retention and financial relief to companies along with ensuring that workers needs be protected by strengthening occupational safety and health measures. It further said the most important element was to strengthen the social dialogue, collective bargaining, labour relation institutions and process for implementing solutions.

In UP, provisions related to minimum wages, timely payment of wages and safety provisions under the Factories Act, 1948 and Building (and Other Construction Workers) Act, 1996 will continue to apply to all firms, according to the draft ordinance, which is pending approval from the president.

By arrangement with Business Standard.

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Ensure That Changes to Indian Labour Laws Adhere to Global Standards: ILO - The Wire

Large areas of London are to be closed to cars and vans to allow people to walk and cycle safely as the coronavirus lockdown is eased, Sadiq Khan has announced.

In one of the biggest car-free initiatives of any city in the world, the capitals mayor announced on Friday that main streets between between London Bridge and Shoreditch, Euston and Waterloo, and Old Street and Holborn, will be limited to buses, pedestrians and cyclists.

Officials said they were working with boroughs to implement similar restrictions on the minor roads they manage within the area. Cars and lorries may also be banned from Waterloo Bridge and London Bridge.

Experts say it is crucial to encourage walking and cycling as people return to work because physical distancing is impossible on crowded transport and a surge in car use would cause gridlock and an increase in air pollution.

Khan said Covid-19 posed the biggest challenge to Londons public transport network in Transport for Londons history.

He added: It will take a monumental effort from all Londoners to maintain safe social distancing on public transport as lockdown restrictions are gradually eased.

That means we have to keep the number of people using public transport as low as possible. And we cant see journeys formerly taken on public transport replaced with car usage because our roads would immediately become unusably blocked and toxic air pollution would soar.

Work on the road closures will begin immediately and officials say it should be completed within six weeks.

As part of the plans to limit car use, Khan has also reintroduced the congestion charge, which will go up from 11.50 to 15, and Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Emission Zone. To support NHS staff, the congestion charge reimbursement scheme is being extended and will also be open to care home workers.

Transport for London is also to temporarily stop free travel for children and charge over-60s to travel at peak times as well as increase fares as part of a deal to secure a 1.6bn bailout from the government.

Angus Satow from Labour for a Green New Deal warned this would have a big impact on some of Londons most vulnerable residents.

Its great to see parts of London going car-free. But the Tories are forcing a TfL bailout which hikes fares, removes travel for under 18s and reduces the rights of disabled and elderly people ... The demand should be for full public funding of TfL and lowering or even the abolition of fares.

Khan warned people the changes would be disruptive. If we want to make transport in London safe, and keep London globally competitive, then we have no choice but to rapidly repurpose Londons streets for people.

By ensuring our citys recovery is green, we will also tackle our toxic air, which is vital to make sure we dont replace one public health crisis with another. I urge all boroughs to work with us to make this possible.

He said he fully appreciated the difficulties the move may cause for some Londoners. It will mean a fundamental reimagining how we live our lives in this city. And this transformation will not be smooth. But I promise to be as clear and upfront with Londoners as possible about what we are doing, why and exactly what we need from you in order to keep us safe.

Many cities have already announced measures to improve walking and cycling and support a low-carbon, sustainable recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

Milan has introduced one of Europes most ambitious cycling and walking schemes, with 22 miles of streets to be transformed over the summer. In Paris, the mayor has allocated 300m for a network of cycle lanes, many of which will follow existing metro lines, to offer an alternative to public transport.

In Bogot, the Colombian capital, a 75-mile network of streets usually turned over to bicycles one day a week will now be traffic-free all week, and a further 47 miles of bike lanes are being opened to reduce crowding on public transport and improve air quality.

In the UK, the Scottish government has announced 10m to create pop-up walking and cycling routes, and Manchester has unveiled plans to pedestrianise part of Deansgate in the city centre.

But David Miller, from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership group, which has been coordinating much of the response, said Khans plans stood out.

Congratulations to Khan for showing the world what is possible when we reimagine our cities for the benefit and health of everyone, he said.

These measures announced in London today, including major car-free zones, will clean the air that Londoners breathe, improve public health both during the Covid-19 pandemic and long into the future, while also helping to avert the climate crisis. This is the future we want.

Doug Parr, from Greenpeace, welcomed what he said was an ambitious project.

Not only will transforming our streets in a way that prioritises pedestrians and cyclists, and makes it safer for people to move about as lockdown restrictions are eased, but by permanently restricting car use we can keep toxic pollution from filling our air once again, he said.

Theo Highland from Sustrans said the initiative was a potential game-changer in efforts to encourage walking and cycling. He called on boroughs across the capital to follow suit. All boroughs must now make the changes our streets need to give Londoners space to move around safely and build our spirited citys resilience as we begin to bounce back from this pandemic.

Air pollution campaigners also welcomed the initiative. Jemima Hartshorn, founder of Mums for Lungs, said she was delighted. We need pollution levels to stay reduced because pre-corona levels, caused primarily by traffic, stunt lung growth and are linked to many illnesses, from cancer to diabetes.

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Large areas of London to be made car-free as lockdown eased - The Guardian

Will things ever be the same again? Do we want them to be? When the pandemic passes and the wind has blown away the last discarded streamer and speck of confetti from the street parties, do we return to the way it was? Has death and our brush with it changed anything and do we even want it to?

The world as it is came about through a long process of thinking, of ideas, often competing ones, and the only way it will change is by thinking a different one. As someone said, a new world is possible.

Political animals, like the feline one, dont willingly change their spots or colours. But some new truths have been rammed into the ruling ideology, that there are essential workers without whom the masters of the universe would plummet to the Earth, the captains of industry would run aground. Its the nurses, the doctors, the cleansing workers and cleaners, the drivers, the transport and agricultural workers, those on minimum wage and below who make it all work. This much is now a given. They wont put up with being overlooked again.

Another truth to emerge is that state intervention, much derided and abjured in the past, is crucial to any economy. Trillions of dollars poured into businesses and pockets in the US, the crucible of capitalism, billions of pounds here, the absence of which would have made the Great Recession, or Black Monday seem like VE Day. Massive public investment is keeping people alive and, without it, it is very probable there would be open revolt.

In the last few days the UK Government has suggested there will have to be a new austerity, that the same people who always pay those same ones who make it work will have to do so again. That surely would be a grave miscalculation. Boris Johnson will be reminded that hes only here because of those people although the promised 350 million a week for the NHS emblazoned on that red bus he sprang from will be parked somewhere.

There are historical precedents for pandemics and the changes they brought. The Black Death in the 14th century swept through Britain, Europe and Asia, killing around 60% of the population. Because of our climate and sparse population we werent badly hit by comparison with the rest of the UK. We were quick to take advantage of it, however, raiding Durham in 1349 and perhaps bringing the disease back with the booty.

But the decimation of the population gave agricultural workers strong bargaining powers, enhancing their rights and leading to the abolition of feudalism. Workers wages rocketed even as GDP fell.

The influenza epidemic of 1918, in the wake of the First World War, may have killed 100 million worldwide but again the shortages of labour led to wage hikes, a baby boom and a jump in life expectancy. It also heralded the creation of the National Health Service. A new Ministry of Health in Britain after the war commissioned a report from Lord Dawson which, in 1920, recommended a single health system, which was to take almost 30 years and a Labour government to come to pass.

As the Canadian historian Susan Smith has said about the present one: A crisis like this is a reminder of why a universal healthcare system is so essential.

There was a different kind of pandemic in 2007-08, a global financial one. Again states pumped massively into financial institutions, leading to increased government borrowing. This was a political stick the Conservatives used to beat the then Labour government and win power. In the unlikely event that is tried again it will turn out to be a rubber one.

It led to nearly a decade of austerity which, in the last few days, the UK Government has hinted may be reintroduced, so far without committing to tax increases on the wealthy. It is difficult to believe that the ones who bore the brunt of it before, the poorest, will accept it again.

The crisis has also shown the weakness, the unpreparedness and the lamentable lack of action by the EU in helping its member states. It was only two days ago that an agreement was reached for a 100 billion loan fund to keep workers in their jobs. National borders have gone up as countries have dealt with their own internal traumas and who can say how that will play out politically? Whatever your view on Brexit, the EU now appears a less desirable destination.

So what now? The SNP, in what will surely be a plank in any forthcoming referendum campaign, are working on a universal basic income for all an idea that might have been ridiculed in December but now looks of its time.

An influential group of almost 200 Dutch economists have also proposed a new, and radical, economic model, with five main strands. Instead of GDP growth they propose a model which distinguishes between sectors, with the beneficial and public clean energy, care, education and so on to be allowed to grow with direct investment and the unsustainable (oil and gas, mining etc) shrunk.

They also call for an economic policy based on redistribution, a universal basic income, taxes on income, profit and wealth, the bolstering of health and care services, and education. Agriculture would embrace biodiversity and sustainability, trade would be reduced and debt cancelled, not just for employees but to debt-laden developing countries.

Blue sky, or just wishful thinking? Interestingly, and perhaps a faint signal of change, the arch-capitalist investment group, Macquarie Wealth, told its investors: Conventional capitalism is dying, or at least mutating into something closer to a version of Communism.

Well, probably not. What are some safer predictions about our post-virus world (at least until the next one emerges)?

There will certainly be considerably more working from home, which will slightly mitigate transport pollution, as well as a boost in online education. The pace of the introduction of robots in industry will also surge, and we will become even more tech-dependent in the home.

The high street will take further blows as more shopping is done online. Jeff Bezos and Amazon arent going to suffer any time soon.

Airline travel will decrease, certainly in the medium term, and several airlines may go under. Checks at airports will be even lengthier and more involved which will also be a disincentive. Prices, too, will probably rise.

The lockdown on industry, with less travelling, has reduced the levels of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere, and if anything advances the case for a carbon-free future this is the evidence. However, there are powerful vested interests, particularly in the States, who will fight this to the last gasping breath, aided by Donald Trump. Greta Thunberg will be dipping out of school again soon.

Global trade will survive but companies will try to shorten their supply lines as much as they can. Trade could shrink by up to one-third and whether it bounces back is complicated by Brexit, if a trade deal is struck with the EU, and with the United States.

Notwithstanding the physical casualties of Covid-19 it hasnt killed off global tensions. The US administration is becoming even more belligerent to China, Venezuela is in the firing line, as is Iran, and the Middle East could erupt once more.

When the present crisis is over we might simply be back in the old one.

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Coronavirus spotlight: has Britain (and the world) really learned anything from this crisis? - HeraldScotland

Venice geared up to receive tourists, Milans pizzerias prepared for hungry customers and Australians went out to eat for the first time in weeks Saturday, but the reopening of restaurants, pubs and cafes came with a warning: Dont overdo it.

Public health experts urged caution as governments eased restrictions on eateries, shops and parks in many countries and rolled out measures to restart dormant factories. The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide, has slowed in many places but could pick up again if precautions are not taken or officials move too quickly to get people back to work.

The message is, yes, appreciate all the efforts, appreciate the opportunity to release some of those measures, but lets not have a party, lets not go to town, said Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association.

Most restaurants are limited to 10 customers at a time, and Bartone said people must maintain social distance, follow coughing etiquette, wash their hands regularly and stay away from others if they are ill.

In New Zealand, even Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her fiance, Clarke Gayford, were initially turned away for Saturday brunch by a restaurant in the capital city, Wellington, because it was too full under coronavirus guidelines.

There was a happy ending: A spot freed up, and staff chased down the street to call the couple back.

Italys tourism industry is focused firmly on June 3, when both regional and international borders reopen, allowing the first prospect of tourists since Europes first lockdown went into place in early March. In tourist-reliant Venice, occupancy of the citys 50,000 hotel beds has hovered around zero ever since.

Venice lives on tourism, period, said Claudio Scarpa, head of the citys hotel association. All the economic structures that operate in the city, including the port, are tied to tourism.

While Venice hopes for some kind of restart, it may have to wait a while yet. Germany its border about a four-hour drive from Venice is instructing citizens not to travel abroad for tourism until at least June 15.

France was also being cautious, calling for a coordinated European effort on opening. At the same time, French officials could make decisions that protect the French regarding countries where the virus is still active, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Saturday.

As hundreds of French beaches reopened, Castaner warned that the government would not hesitate to close them again if rules are not respected, including a ban on sunbathing.

Local authorities were charged with deciding which beaches would reopen as part of a staggered plan to end a strict two-month lockdown that began March 17. Under the rules, beachgoers can take a dip but cannot lay in the sun or picnic in the sand. Social distancing rules must be maintained, and groups must be limited to 10 people.

The virus is still there, Castaner said. It moves around with our movements

In Milan, Italys financial capital, 3,400 restaurants planned to open Monday, along with 4,800 bars, 2,900 hairdressers, 2,200 clothing stores and 700 shoe shops.

After a long period at home, we will all want to go out and have a good coffee in a bar, eat a pizza in a pizzeria, buy a pair of jeans, or go to the hairdressers, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said Saturday in a Facebook video.

Many restaurant owners complained that the new rules for reopening were unclear and that the entire sector including suppliers and food producers was suffering. Dozens protested outside Milans main train station and called for an abolition of taxes and more help.

In Britain, officials and tourism boards discouraged people from visiting popular tourist spots like beaches or country parks on the first weekend since lockdown rules were eased in England. Stricter rules remain place in other parts of the U.K., and English daytrippers have been warned against crossing into Scotland or Wales.

Hungarys government said stores, restaurants, parks and other venues in Budapest can reopen on Monday, though the use of face coverings will be mandatory in stores and on public transportation. and restaurants must serve customers outdoors. The capitals reopening lagged behind the rest of the country because it had more infections.

Pakistan on Saturday reopened its two key border crossings with Afghanistan to allow for trade and movement of people between the two countries, though no decision has been made about reopening the border with hard-hit Iran.

In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Snchez said he would ask Parliament for what he hopes will be the last extension of the countrys state of emergency to battle the coronavirus pandemic, until around late June.

Spain is slowly scaling back confinement measures, but the tourism industry, which accounts for 12% of GDP, looks set to lose its critical summer season.

Spain needs tourism, but tourism needs security. It needs health guarantees, Snchez said Saturday.

In the U.S., New Orleans took its first steps Saturday to loosen restrictions that have been in place for two months.

The rest of Louisiana took that step Friday as many businesses and houses of worship were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity. New Orleans is slightly more restrictive. In addition to the 25% capacity restrictions, restaurants and certain other businesses such as nail salons are required to take reservations. The city has also imposed caps designed to keep houses of worship and movie theaters at fewer than 100 people. Casinos, video poker, live entertainment and bars are still closed.

Some restaurateurs in the city famous for its cuisine decided to try reopening. Others planned to stick to takeout or stay closed all together.

Kirk Estopinal, one of the owners of Cane & Table in the French Quarter, said the restaurant will open Saturday. Guests can order their food when they make a reservation online and are asked to wear masks. Cleaning will be stepped up, and bathrooms cleaned after every use.

Were going to trial run what it is to operate in the new normal, he said. Were looking at a restaurant experience that is almost touch-less for our guests.

In South Korea, which has one of the highest levels of virus testing, a Health Ministry spokesman said Saturday that the country may have dodged a major outbreak after finding 162 cases linked to nightclubs in Seoul, the densely populated capital.

Son Young-rae said 46,000 people have been tested in the club-related outbreak.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis government was due to announce this weekend a decision whether to extend the 54-day-old lockdown.

China planned to shorten its annual legislative session next week in Beijing as small clusters of infections pop up elsewhere in the country. The spread of the disease has largely stopped in the country where the pandemic started, but Jilin province in the northeast has reported 28 cases over nine days, the latest two on Friday.

(This story has been published from a wire agency without modifications to the text)

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Pizzas and haircuts back on the menu, but with warnings - Hindustan Times

VENICE, ITALY >> The Italian government announced today that it will throw open its borders next month, effectively ending Europes longest and strictest coronavirus lockdown just as the summer tourism season gets under way.

Both regional and international borders will open June 3, with the government eliminating a 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving from abroad. Many hope the move will revive a decimated tourist industry, which is worth 13% of Italys gross domestic product.

Such an opening is exactly what tourism operators have been waiting for even if European neighbors so far appeared be wary of the unilateral Italian announcement.

We hope to work with the neighboring countries, those who can travel by car, said Gianni Serandrei, the owner of the 4-star Hotel Saturnia near St. Marks Square.

The hotels last guest a determined couple of honeymooners from Argentina checked out around March 11, days after Italys lockdown. And when phones have rung in recent months, it has been with cancellations, with only a few reservations for 2021 trickling in.

Serandrei said that Saturnias clients are overwhelmingly foreign, making open borders and an eventual resumption of air traffic key to a successful season. With no clear indication of when more regular air traffic will resume, he is looking forward to further signals before committing to a June 3 opening. The caution may be merited.

Germany whose border is about a 4-hour drive from Venice through Austria is instructing citizens not to travel abroad for tourism until at least June 15. And officials in neighboring France made clear that they had sought a coordinated European effort on border openings, indicating Italy had jumped the gun.

During a visit to a Normandy beach, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Saturday that European countries should work together in solidarity and held out the possibility of France acting to protect its citizens.

Italys national hotel federation said that by April the sector had already shed 106,000 jobs, with occupancy dropping by 99% for foreigners and 96% for Italians. Another half a million jobs are at risk if the summer season does not take off, according to the association.

Judged by last years turnover, the virus lockdown and suspension of touristic activities cost the country 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion), the amount spent by foreigners in Italy from March to May 2019, according to a study by the national statistics agency ISTAT.

To illustrate the importance of arrivals from nearby countries, Eurostat figures show that French overnight stays in Italy hit 14 million last year, while those from Germany came in at 13.6 million, edging Italians themselves at 13.5 million. Spaniards were the top with 14.6 million.

Italy is hoping also to encourage domestic tourism, offering vouchers to lower income families to spend in Italian hotels, campgrounds and other establishments before the end of the year.

Not everyone is satisfied with the guidelines set out overnight by the government, which foresees the opening Monday of bars, restaurants, shops, hairdressers and beauticians.

Restaurant owners in Milan protested in front of the main train station Saturday, saying that the rules remain unclear and that the entire sector needs more concrete help, including an abolition of taxes. Many worry they will reopen only to have to close again because of lack of business.

And the head of the hotel federation in Florence said Saturday that mask requirements in open spaces seemed redundant if keeping a physical distance.

We dont understand why a tourist would have to stay on the terrace or in the garden of a hotel with a mask, Francesco Bechi said. We are very attentive to health and prevention. Clear and precise rules can guarantee services to guests.

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Italy plans to reopen its borders June 3 with no travel restrictions - Honolulu Star-Advertiser