Monthly Archives: March 2020

(Cooking Vinyl) UK release date: 27 March 2020

Alex Paterson and his merry band are back with a new record, this time with a vaguely colonial theme. The album is ostensibly about the British royal familys involvement in the opium trade, although this is not something one would pick up on by actually listening to it.

The whole sonic approach on Abolition Of The Royal Familia is at once a lot more coherent than The Orbs previous record, the transitions between different genres and moods more methodical and well-paced.

The album opens with Daze (Missing & Messed Up Mix), which is reminiscent of DJ Koze with its laidback disco groove, before picking up the pace and heading for house territory. Hawk Kings (Oseberg Buddhas Buttonhole) is the best track in this first section: dramatic strings trilling on top of an incessant bassline, a snaking melody lurking underneath and the titular Stephen Hawking quotes bookending the song.

The second section is ambient, Pervitin (Empire Culling & The Hemlock Stone Version) dominated by orchestral swells and a French monologue while Afros, Afghans And Angels (Helgo Treasure Chest) makes its mark with Vangelis-style synth work.

As the record moves from this to reggae, then to drum n bass the dreamy vibe of The Queen Of Hearts (Princess Of Clubs Mix) is a particular highlight then back to ambient for its final two tracks, the sound design remains inventive and the journey, while long at 78 minutes, is enthralling and a lot of fun.

Slave Till U Die No Matter What U Buy (Lanse Aux Meadows Mix) brings the record to a close, and while the soundscape is blissful enough with its vapour trail chords, the spoken word sample hits harder than was perhaps intended: stay in your homes no more than two people may gather anywhere without permission.

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The Orb Abolition Of The Royal Familia - musicOMH.com

Khwaja Saad, Salman released, demand abolition of NAB

LAHORE: Veteran politician and central leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Khwaja Saad Rafiq has demanded abolition of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) immediately to put the country back on development track.

NAB and Pakistan cannot go together, he said while talking to the media on Thursday after getting released from Camp Jail Lahore where he was incarcerated, along with his brother, Khwaja Salman Rafiq, in a NAB case pertaining to Paragon Housing Society scam. Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and other party leaders were also present.

We have suffered 16-month imprisonment in a dark, constricted cell, as the rulers had lodged us there in their pursuit of political victimisation. Nothing was proved against us during that long period of imprisonment, added the former federal minister. Despite severe victimisation, our spirits are high as ever and we are still standing with Nawaz Sharif like before, Saad said.

Saad reminded that the country was dismembered in the past when a minority was imposed on the majority. He regretted that the country was being ruled by incompetent and self-centred people currently. He said his companions and noted politicians were tortured, but declared that we have no desire to take revenge for our political victimisation, as Pakistan cannot afford such victimisation anymore. He said it was up to those people who conspired against their political opponents whether to tell the nation if the country had progressed or regressed during their government. They must tell [the nation] if people of Pakistan have suffered due to their conspiracies or not. National security was compromised and exposed to dangers as a result of stealing of elections, the PML-N leader said.

He said levelling of baseless accusation against political opponents and using state force against them would not work any more. He advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to learn bearing with his opponents. He criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government overarrest of Jang Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. What was the fault of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, asked the PML-N leader adding that his only fault was that his media group criticised all incompetent rulers. He told the premier that an independent media was not his enemy.

He reiterated that the PTI government was not elected. I contested polls against Imran Khan. I won the polls, but the vote recount was not allowed with the connivance of Justice Saqib Nisar. The nation suffered due to his illegal actions, though he is history now, he added. Saad said he wished his party could have changed the black NAB law, adding that there was no political prisoner during the past regimes of PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He said political victimisation began with the inception of the PTI government, and political leaders were still languishing in jails. NAB will have to be closed down to let the country progress. Pakistan cannot go together with NAB. A black law designed by a military dictator is still imposed in the so-called democratic regime. It has always been used to crush political opponents, he added.

He said NAB had always been used to suppress fundamental rights of political opponents. He noted that Rana Sanaullah, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Hanif Abbasi, Ahad Cheema, Khursheed Shah, Sharjeel Memon, etc., were jailed without establishing charges against them. Ahad Cheema, who worked to develop the city, was still being humiliated in jail, instead of given respect. He noted that honourable judges of Supreme Court had been saying that NAB lacked sincerity and was used against the opponents. He said we dont want the PTI to suffer what the PML-N and PPP leaderships had undergone. We were accused of being terrorists and traitors. Whenever masses will be given a chance, they will stand with us.

The struggle for supremacy of Constitution and democracy will succeed at the end. We will not victimise anyone and level baseless allegations, he added.

Saad said he had only challenged political opponents, and not any institution, when he stated that the PML-N leaders would prove to be lohay ke chanay (iron pellets). He said as to who gave Justice Saqib Nisar the right to humiliate political leaders, and make the nation damn fool in the name of a dam. Movement for judiciarys supremacy was launched by the PML-N and it will reach its logical end.

He said Imran Khan had no desire to save the country from coronavirus, as his intentions were not sincere. Had Imran been sincere, he should have called all opposition parties and asked them to work collectively to protect masses from the virus, the PML-N leader added.

Former railways minister regretted that various train accidents had been taking place. The way of stealing votes in Pakistan must be blocked; otherwise, the nation would continue to suffer and progress will remain a dream, he added.

Saad Rafiq said the rulers had pushed the country to such a disastrous situation that it would take a long time to put the country back on track. He said the PTI leaders could put their names on the PML-N development schemes, but at least they should complete them on time. He expressed confidence that the democracy taken hostage in Pakistan would be liberated soon, and the supporters of the liar prime minister would have to repent. Khwaja Salman Rafiq said his party did not want to do politics on coronavirus, adding that if Taftan border was sealed off timely, situation would have been much different in the country today. He recalled that the PML-N government had eliminated polio in Punjab and federal capital areas, besides controlling the dengue virus. But when dengue resurfaced last year, he felt sorrow over the nullification of Shahbaz governments efforts.

Earlier, when Khwaja brothers were released from camp jail, a large number of party workers, led by Pervaiz Rasheed, Imran Nazir and others welcomed them and took them away in the form of a rally, chanting slogans and showering flower petals on them.

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Khwaja Saad, Salman released, demand abolition of NAB - The News International

2.49pm EDT14:49

Thats all from us for today on the UK side and what a day its been.

But the global coverage of the pandemic continues over on our worldwide coronavirus blog, which you can continue to follow here.

Updatedat 3.07pm EDT

2.45pm EDT14:45

What are the symptoms of Covid-19, what treatments are available and how do I protect myself and the people around me from infection?

Our health editor, Sarah Boseley, answers some key questions as coronavirus spreads across the globe in this video explainer.

2.44pm EDT14:44

Following the governments announcement that pubs, clubs, cinemas and theatres are to close from tonight, the Guardians data team have found this will affect some 1.4 million workers across the country.

There are some 39,000 pubs and bars across the UK employing 450,000 between them, all of which will be forced to close their doors from this evening while a further 75,000 people working in 7,600 clubs will be affected.

There are 63,000 licenced and unlicenced restaurants and cafes, employing some 820,000 people. Restaurants will still be able to offer take out services so it does not follow that all of these people will be affected but it is impossible to know right now how many will continue to go to work.

There are 840 cinemas in the UK, according to the UK Cinema association, and this industry employs more than 21,000 people.

The details of the governments announcement that it will protect workers, by paying up to 80% of their wages with a cap of 2500 per month, is not yet clear but will likely include many of these employees.

The median earnings of affected workers include bar staff whose median earnings stand at 7,553 in 2019 and waiters and waitresses who earned 8,091 on average. Around 75% of workers in both groups are part-time. Bar managers median wage is 19,691.

People working in gyms earn a median of 11,927 rising to 29,982 for managers.

The median wage for all full- and part-time employees stood at 24,897 last year.

Updatedat 3.09pm EDT

2.35pm EDT14:35

Torsten Bell, head of the Resolution Foundation think tank, has also found a couple of problems with the chancellors plan - including limited support for the self-employed or low paid workers.

Resolution are broadly supportive of Sunaks announcement, saying:

The Chancellors hugely welcome and unprecedented pledge to pay 80 per cent of the wages of employees without work to do in struggling firms is a crucial step change in the governments economic response to the current crisis

However....

The big gaps that remain in support are for two million low earners that are not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay and for the self-employed seeing work dry up because of the crisis, beyond those benefitting from the abolition of the Minimum Income Floor in Universal Credit.

Updatedat 2.39pm EDT

2.33pm EDT14:33

Labours shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has given Rishi Sunaks announcement a lukewarm response.

He says the chancellor has moved in the right direction, but not far enough or fast enough.

McDonnell is disappointed that the government hasnt boosted statutory sick pay, or providing more help for carers. Hes also worried that the wage guarantee scheme wont be up and running fast enough to save jobs:

2.21pm EDT14:21

Libby Brooks

Speaking from Bute House this evening, Nicola Sturgeon has repeated the UK governments call for restaurants, cafes, pubs, gyms and cinemas across Scotland to close, telling the public that staying at home will save lives.

Sturgeon said that people working in the NHS and care services will be tested like never before, and also promised unprecedented support from the Scottish government for the economy,

Speaking directly to particular groups, the first minister began with older people:

Were asking you to stay away from your grandkids, from the people you love. Thats hard, but its so you can stay around to see them grow up.

To children: I know this is a strange time, youre away from school and wont be able to spend as much time with friends. The adults around you are probably feeling a bit anxious too. So help them, follow their advice, study and do your homework, but dont forget to have fun, and wash your hands.

Describing modern technology as a lifeline, she urged people to call, text and Skype loved ones and neighbours:

At times of crisis we need each other more, but we are boing told to stay apart, but we can still communicate and offer comfort.

Asking the public once again to follow health advice, she concluded:

This crisis is reminding us just how fragile our world is but also reminding us what really matters, health, love, solidarity. With compassion and kindness and with the dedication and expertise of our NHS we can and we will get through this.

2.19pm EDT14:19

Fire and rescue service personnel must receive priority testing and vaccination for coronavirus, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said after some brigades reported losing hundreds of staff to self-isolation.

In a letter to ministers, the FBU has said that without testing, firefighters and control staff could be self-isolating unnecessarily, when they could be on hand to protect the public.

The union also says that testing could help reduce the risk of frontline staff transmitting the infection to vulnerable members of the public.

London Fire Brigade has at least 280 personnel in isolation, 5% of its overall staff; West Midlands Fire Service, which covers Birmingham, has 105 staff in self-isolation, 5.5%; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has 285 staff in isolation, 3.75%; Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has 61 staff in isolation or 4%.

Fire and rescue services across the UK are operating with 11,500 fewer firefighters than in 2010, and, unless services are able to test their employees, they could face dangerous shortages.

2.19pm EDT14:19

Business leaders and unions have both welcomed the governments new economic emergency plan, as they brace for Britain to slump into a deep recession.

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, believes the coronavirus job retention scheme could be the start of the economic fightback.

This is a landmark package of measures for business, people and jobs. The Chancellors offer of substantial payroll support, fast access to cash and tax deferral will support the livelihoods of millions. Firms and employees will respond with relief and determination.

It marks the start of the UKs economic fightback - an unparalleled joint effort by enterprise and government to help our country emerge from this crisis with the minimum possible damage. An important day for our country.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the UNISON union, believes Rishi Sunaks plan will protect jobs:

People concerned about their jobs and livelihoods will feel hugely reassured today that the chancellor has acted swiftly.

The whole country is understandably anxious about the spread of the virus, being unable to see their loved ones or buy the food they need in the shops.

Now at least the fear of being laid off and having no income shouldnt be one of them.

UNISON will continue to work with employers and businesses providing our public services to make sure the money gets to people as a matter of urgency.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady is also impressed, saying Sunak is showing real leadership:

Updatedat 2.20pm EDT

2.11pm EDT14:11

Following Boris Johnsons press conference, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has asked all restaurants, cafes, pubs and cinemas in Scotland to close.

Speaking in a televised address from Bute House in Edinburgh, she said the number of cases of Covid-19 are set to rise sharply.

She said everyone must act now to slow the spread of the virus, adding that we must also reduce the number of people we meet and come into contact with.

2.07pm EDT14:07

The Wetherspoons in Leytonstone, east London seemed to be filling up in the moments following the prime ministers announcement, whereas the nearby Bird pub was not as busy as it normally would be on a Friday evening.

The publicans were not shocked by the news pubs would be closed at the end of the night and felt it was about time.

Andrew Rose, a study abroad administrator is returning to Sydney, Australia tomorrow. Pubs are not as packed as they usually would be and theyre the only hubs we have. Ive been practicing self isolation all week.

I think the uk has had adequate restrictions, people have been practicing social distancing. Its the same in Australia.

Closing pubs now is fine, they said people shouldnt go but had no protections for them. The pub today only has about 20 people in it so people are practicing social distancing.

Caitlin Morgan and her colleague Nick Slotnick are both from Woodford, and work in a local college. Its sad but inevitable. It had to happen.

They went to the Red Lion pub on the high road closed earlier in the week.

Brid Fitzgerald said: Im surprised they werent shut sooner. I needed a break because Im working from home.

A group of three teachers who did not want to be named said they felt expendable.

If were gonna catch something it will be from the tube, which is packed, rather than from the pub.

Updatedat 2.18pm EDT

2.02pm EDT14:02

The word unprecedented can be bandied about too easily, but tonights package from Rishi Sunak absolutely deserves it.

Its an absolutely gigantic package of stimulus and the unheard-of step of the UK government paying a large slice of the nations pay cheques, to hopefully prevent unemployment on a scale not seen since the great depression.

Handily, the chancellor has tweeted the key points:

Updatedat 2.07pm EDT

1.58pm EDT13:58

Morrisons is to take on staff from Marie Curie and CLIC Sargent charity shops whose doors may need to close because of the coronavirus.

Morrisons will take on up to 500 colleagues to help the elderly and vulnerable in stores across Great Britain.

They will be working alongside Morrisons staff who currently work with local charities and community groups.

Their role will focus on:

Continue reading here:

UK coronavirus: restaurants, pubs and gyms to close; government to pay 80% of wages of those not working as it happened - The Guardian

Thousands of staff at easyJet have signed a petition to the government not to grant the airline its expected bailout until they rescind draconian curbs to staffs terms and conditions.

The Government is planning a multi-billion pound bailout of the industry and has reportedly hired Rothschild to scrutinise airlines accounts to work out how it should be done.

But easyJet staff have reacted furiously to chief operating officer Peter Bellews proposals for three months unpaid leave and what they called a complete retraction of benefits and collective agreements through to November 2021.

The staff petition filed to Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, describes removal of staff benefits, crew food, agreed roster patterns and a complete decimation of current working conditions agreed by trade unions over many years.

So far, 17,490 have signed the online petition. Although it is impossible to tell how many of those are easyJet staff, a large proportion are thought to be.

The airline looks set to be in the frontline of companies bracing for difficult negotiations with its workforce as they attempt to slash overheads to keep themselves alive during unprecedented collapse in revenues.

Easyjet And British Airways Scale Back Flights Due To Coronavirus Travel Restrictions

An EasyJet spokeswoman said: easyJet continues to consult with its employee representatives in the UK to discuss how they can help the airline navigate through these unprecedented times.Like all airlines,we are taking every action to remove cost and non-critical expenditure from the business at every level to help mitigate the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sky News reported airlines met Shapps this week to demand measures including a state-backed credit facility to tide them over, a freeze on air traffic control charges totalling hundreds of millions of pounds and abolition of air passenger duty.

Read the rest here:

EasyJets staff oppose bailout if curbs on terms are to stay - Evening Standard

Mount Vernon Historian Mary V. Thompson is the author ofThe Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon(University of Virginia Press, 2019).

Robin Lindley is a Seattle-based writer and attorney. He is features editor for the History News Network (hnn.us), and his work also has appeared in Writers Chronicle, Crosscut, Documentary, NW Lawyer, Real Change, Huffington Post, Bill Moyers.com, Salon.com, and more. He has a special interest in the history of human rights and conflict. He can be reached by email: robinlindley@gmail.com.

Drawing on years of extensive research and a wide variety of sources from financial and property records to letters and diaries, Ms. Thompson recounts the back-breaking work and everyday activities of those held in bondage. Without sentimentality she describes oppressive working conditions; the confinement; the diet and food shortages; the illness; the drafty housing; the ragged clothes; the spasms of cruel punishment; the solace in religion and customs; and the episodic resistance.

Ms. Thompson also illuminates the lives of George and Martha Washington through their relationships with black slaves. Washington was a strict disciplinarian with high expectations of himself and his slaves. As a young man, he callously bought and sold slaves like cattle. However, as Ms. Thompson explores, his attitudes toward slavery and race changed with the American Revolution when he saw black men fight valiantly beside white troops. Although not a vocal abolitionist, his postwar statements reveal that he found slavery hypocritical and incompatible with the ideals of democracy and freedom for which he had fought. He was the only Founding Father who freed his slaves in his will.

Ms. Thompson brings to life this complicated history of enslaved people and their legendary owner. Her careful explication of the many aspects of life at Mount Vernon offers a vivid microcosm for readers to better understand the institution of slavery and its human consequences during colonial period and early decades of the republic.

Since 1980, Mary V. Thompson has worked at George Washington's Mount Vernon in several capacities, and currently serves as Research Historian who supports programs in all departments at Mount Vernon, with a primary focus on everyday life on the estate, including domestic routines, foodways, religious practices, slavery, and the slave community. She has lectured on many subjects, ranging from family life and private enterprise among the slaves, to slave resistance,to religious practices and funerary customs in George Washington's family. Her other books includeIn the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, andA Short Biography of Martha Washington.Ms. Thompson also has written chapters for several books, entries in encyclopedias, and numerous articles. She earned an M.A. in History from theUniversity ofVirginia.

Ms. Thompson generously responded by email to a series of questions on her work and her new book on the slave community at Mount Vernon.

Robin Lindley: Congratulations Ms. Thompson on your recent book on George Washington and enslavement at Mount Vernon. Before getting to your book, I wanted to ask about your background. How did you decide on a career as a historian?

Mary V. Thompson: My father was a major influence on that.He served for 32 years as an Army Chaplain and, through quite a few moves, would drag us to nearby museums and historic sites and encourage us to read about the next place we were going and all the exciting things that happened there, so we were pretty psyched by the time we got there.He was also the first curator of the Army Chaplains Museum, when it was in Brooklyn, during the Bicentennial of the Revolutionary War.As part of that job, he also edited a 5-volume history of the Chaplains Corps, while writing the first volume, which covered the American Revolution.So, as I went through high school, I helped in the museum with some of the exhibits, helped with acquisitions, and with research.I loved all of it.

Robin Lindley: I understand that youve spent most of your professional career as a historian at Mount Vernon. How did you come to work at this historic plantation and what is your role?

Mary V. Thompson: This was definitely a result of serendipity---or providence, depending on your world view.I was getting ready to finish a masters degree at the University of Virginia, while working as a volunteer for the Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and sending out what felt like bazillions of resumes for jobs all over the country.I started out part-time [at Mount Vernon] as an historic interpreter (giving tours to about 8,000 visitors per day).From there, I moved on to doing special projects for the Curator, then to assisting full-time in the Curatorial Department.I moved up to being the Registrar in the Curatorial Department, which involved cataloguing new objects as they came into the collection, keeping track of where everything was, doing inventories, working with insurance companies, etc.

To keep me from going nuts, they gave me one day per week to do research on a specific, agreed-upon topic, the first of which dealt with foodways.After a few years, my boss asked me to switch to studying slavery and slave life at Mount Vernon.In the late 1990s, as the 200thanniversary of George Washingtons death was rapidly approaching, I worked on three major projects:a travelling exhibition entitled, Treasures from Mount Vernon:George Washington Revealed, which opened in late 1998 and travelled to five cities around the country; redoing the furnishings in the mansion, with special exhibitions to make the house look as though the Washingtons had just walked out of the room; and the recreation/reenactment of George Washingtons funeral, a three-hour event on C-Span.

I was then moved to the Library, where I worked as the Research Specialist and then as Research Historian.This involved dealing with questions from people all over the country, generally dealing with domestic life here at Mount Vernon; helping authors, illustrators, and publishers by vetting publications; helping pretty much every department on the estate with helpful quotes and deciding whether we had enough information on a particular subject to do a special exhibit or program built around it.Best of all was the opportunity to give talks on and publish my own research.

Robin Lindley: What sparked your recent book on enslavement at Mount Vernon?

Mary V. Thompson: I actually started working on the topic in the late 1980s, because Mount Vernon really needed to be able to teach its staff and visitors about this issue, but it was probably about seven or eight years after that before it knew it wanted to be a book.It was in the early 1960s that I first learned about slavery, as a result of the Civil War centennial, which was going on when I was an elementary school student, at the same time that the Civil Rights movement was playing out on the news every night during dinner.Then in graduate school at the University of Virginia in the late 1970s, slavery was the subject of much of our reading and classroom discussions.

Robin Lindley: Your book has been praised for its impressive detail and extensive research. What was your research process?

Mary V. Thompson: Thankfully, I was able to start with some of the sources compiled by prior members of our Library staff.One of the Librarians had put together a bound volume of statements by George Washington on the topic of slavery, which shed typed up back in the 1940s.I went through that, page by page, listing the topics covered on each and then photocopied the pages and put them into loose-leaf binders for each of those topics.

I also went through bound volumes of photostats of the Weekly Work Reports that Washington required from his overseers, as well as photostats of his financial records.The Weekly Reports provided detailed information on the work being done on each of the five farms that made up the Mount Vernon estate, as well as information on the food being delivered to each, the weather on each day, food delivered to each farm, the number of people working on each farm, and explanations for why certain people were not working each week.This last category was really interesting, because it provides information on illnesses, injuries, childbirth, and how long women were out of work because they were recovering from giving birth.

Another great source was correspondence by family members other than George Washington, as well as descriptions of Mount Vernon by visitors to the plantation, that often mention those enslaved there.In order to understand where Mount Vernon fit in the overall picture of plantations in Virginia, it was also necessary to learn about life at Monticello, Montpelier, Sabine Hall, and elsewhere in the colony/state.

Robin Lindley: You reconstruct and put a human face on the lives of slaves at Mount Vernondespite the virtual lack of any contemporary documents by slaves from that period. How did you deal with that challenge?

Mary V. Thompson:Getting at the enslaved community was one of my favorite parts of this project.I started by taking the two fullest slave lists, from 1786 and 1799, and used them to try to reconstruct families.Thankfully, these two lists enumerated the people on each of the five farms and what their work was, with the 1786 list linking mothers and their children who were too young to work, and the ages of those children.The 1799 list did the same, but also linked women and their husbands and told where those husbands lived (whether they were on the same farm with their wives and children, lived on another of Washingtons farms, or belonged to another owner altogether, or were free men).

Comparing the two lists made it possible to start reconstructing extended, multigenerational families.I put together a document for each of the farms, organized by family, and then, as people would be named in the work reports, the financial records, or correspondence, would put those references in the individual records, if I was as sure as I could be that Id found the right person.

For most of the people, I was keeping track of such things as information about what work they were doing; references to their health; children; ways they might have made extra money; rations of food and clothing; instances of resistance; etc.

Robin Lindley: I was impressed by your description of the massive size of Mount Vernon and the number of slaves who worked there. How would you briefly describe the Mount Vernon plantation in Washingtons era in terms of area, farming, crops, forests, and number of slaves?

Mary V. Thompson:Mount Vernon reached an ultimate size of 8,000 acres during Washingtons lifetime.While Washington, like many plantation owners prior to the American Revolution, started out as a tobacco grower, by the late 1760s, he was making the switch from tobacco to grain and from markets in Europe to American and West Indian markets.Much of the land was still forested after switching in crops and markets. As I understand it, in order to keep fireplaces running on a daily basis for heating, cooking, and washing, it takes ten acres of forest to get enough trees and branches dying naturally to do those things, without the need to cut any more trees.The largest number of enslaved people on the plantation was 317 in 1799, the last year of George Washingtons life.

Robin Lindley: What are a few salient things you learned about Washingtons treatment of slaves?

Mary V. Thompson: Washington was a stickler for detail and a strict disciplinarian.He was also approachable when his enslaved workers had problems with their overseers, needed to borrow something, or someone was interested in moving from one plantation job to another that required more responsibility.They even talked to him to clarify things, when he didnt understand a particular problem.

Robin Lindley: How did Washingtons military background affect his treatment of slaves and other workers?

Mary V. Thompson: Washington used the same methods to keep an eye on his army as he did on the plantation with his slaves.He directed that both officers and overseers spend time with his soldiers and slaves, respectively; he expected regular reports from them so that he had a very good idea about how things were going and would also travel daily through his military camps and farms to catch problems before they became major issues.He also insisted on proper medical care for both soldiers and slaves and was a strict disciplinarian in both situations.

Robin Lindley: How did Martha Washington see and treat slaves? It seems she was more dismissive and derogatory than her husband concerning black people.

Mary V. Thompson:Like her husband, Martha Washington tended to doubt the trustworthiness of the enslaved people at Mount Vernon.Upon learning of the death of an enslaved child with whom her niece was close, she wrote that the younger woman should not find in him much loss, because the Blacks are so bad in th[e]ir nature that they have not the least grat[i]tude for the kindness that may be sh[o]wed them.

The Washingtons never seemed to realize that they only knew Africans and African-Americans as people who were enslaved, which meant that they were not interacting as equals and any ideas they may have had about innate qualities of this different culture were tainted by the institution of slavery.

Robin Lindley: I realize that direct evidence from slaves is limited, but what did you learn about how slaves viewed George Washington?

Mary V. Thompson:Because Washington was so admired by his contemporaries, many of whom came to Mount Vernon to see his homeand especially his tombthose visitors often talked with the slaves and formerly enslaved people on the plantation in order to learn snippets about what the private George Washington was like.

Extended members of the Washington family, former neighbors, official guests, and journalists, often wrote about their experiences at Mount Vernon and what they learned about Washington from those enslaved by him.Some people were still angry about how they were treated, while others were grateful for having been freed by him.

Robin Lindley: In his early years as a plantation owner, Washingtonlike most slave ownerssaw his slaves as his property and he bought and sold slaves with seeming indifference to the cruelty and unfairness of this institution. He broke up slave marriages and families, and he considered black people indolent and intellectually inferior. However, as you detail, his views evolved. How do you see the arc of Washingtons life in terms of how he viewed his slaves and slavery?

Mary V. Thompson: That change primarily happened during the American Revolution.Washington took command of the American Army in mid-1775.Within three years, he was confiding to a cousin, who was managing Mount Vernon for him, that he no longer wanted to be a slave owner.In those years, Washington was spending long periods of time in parts of the country where agriculture was successfully practiced without slave labor and he saw black soldiers fighting alongside white ones.He also could see the hypocrisy of fighting for liberty and freedom, while keeping others enslaved.There were even younger officers on his staff who supported abolition.

While he came to believe that slavery was something he wanted nothing more to do with, it was one thing to think that slavery was wrong, and something else again to figure out what to do to remedy the situation.For example, it was not until 1782 that Virginia made it possible for individual slave owners to manumit their slaves without going through the state legislature.After an 8-year absence from home, during which he took no salary, Washington also faced legal and financial issues that would also hamper his ability to free the Mount Vernon slaves.

Robin Lindley: Many readers are familiar with the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Did you find any evidence that George Washington had intimate relationships with any of his slaves or any free blacks?

Mary V. Thompson:Not really.As a young officer on the frontier during the French and Indian War, one of his brother officers wrote a letter, teasing him about his relationship with a woman described as Ms Nel.The wording suggests several possibilities:she might have been a barmaid working for a tavern owner or pimp, whose first initial was M; another possibility is that she was the mistress of a brother officer; or perhaps that she was enslaved to another person.With the minimal evidence that survives, there are many unanswered questions about this mystery woman.

The oral history of an enslaved family at Bushfield, the home of Washingtons younger brother, John Augustine Washington, alleges that George Washington was the father of a young male slave named West Ford, who was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, roughly 95 miles from Mount Vernon, about a year or two after the American Revolution.Here, the surviving documentary evidence contradicts the oral history, indicating that Fords father was someone in the Bushfield branch of the family.

Robin Lindley: What struck you particularly about the working conditions for slaves at Mount Vernon and how did they compare to conditions at other plantations?

Mary V. Thompson:As was true on other Virginia plantations in the eighteenth century, the enslaved labor force at Mount Vernon worked from dawn to dusk six days per week, with the exception of four days off for Christmas, two days each off for Easter and Pentecost, and every Sunday throughout the year,Because Easter and Pentecost took place on Sunday, which was already a day off, the slaves were given an additional day off on the Monday following the religious holiday.If they were required to work on a holiday, there is considerable evidence that they were paid for their time on those days.

Robin Lindley: What are a few things youd like readers to know about the living conditions of slaves at Mount Vernon?

Mary V. Thompson:Most of the enslaved residents at Mount Vernon lived in wooden cabinsthe smaller ones served as homes for one family, while the larger duplexes housed two families, separated by a fireplace wall.

The majority of Americans at this period, free and enslaved, lived in very small quarters.In comparing the sizes of cabins used by enslaved overseers and their families at two of the farms at Mount Vernon with those of the overseer on a plantation in Richmond County, the two at Mount Vernon had a total living space of 640 square feet, while the other had 480 square feet.

The homes of 75% of middle-class white farmers in the southwestern part of Virginia in 1785 were wooden cabins ranging from 640 square feet to 394 square feet.Our visitors tend to be very surprised to learn that the entire average Virginia home for middle class or poor families in the eighteenth century would fit easily into just the New Room, the first room they enter in the Mount Vernon mansion.In other words, pretty much everyone was on the poor end of the scale, unless they were like the Washingtons, the Custises, or the Carters.

Robin Lindley: I was surprised that some of the Mount Vernon slaves were literate. I had thought that education of slaves was illegal then.

Mary V. Thompson: There were no restrictions on teaching slaves to read in eighteenth century Virginia, and, in fact, it might have been a useful skill, especially for slaves working in more of a business capacity, than in agricultural labor.It was not until after a slave revolt known as Gabriels Rebellion (1800), that the state passed a law forbidding enslaved people to gather together in order to learn to read.At least one historian has suggested that between 15 and 20 percent of slaves could read in the 18thcentury.

Robin Lindley: You found evidence that many slaves were aware of African lore and practicesat times from stories passed down through generations and at times from black people more recently arrived from Africa. What are some things you learned about African influences?

Mary V. Thompson:African influence can be seen in everything from naming practices within families, to family lore and folk tales told to children, the languages spoken in the quarters, religious beliefs and practices, and even some of the food and cooking traditions.

Robin Lindley: You note that slaves were punished physically at Mount Vernon and that even Washington at times applied the lash. What did you find about forms of punishment at the plantation?

Mary V. Thompson:One of the changes on the plantation after the war, recorded by Washingtons secretary Tobias Lear, was that his employer was trying to put limits on the physical punishment doled out to the slaved.According to Lear, Washington wrote that no one was to be punished unless there was an investigation into the case and the defendant found guilty of some bad deed.After the war, Washington also tried to use more positive reinforcement, instead of punishment, in order to get the sort of behavior he wanted.Those positive reinforcements included such things as the chance to get a better job, earning monetary rewards, or even better quality clothing.

Robin Lindley: What happened to slaves at Mount Vernon who escaped and were recaptured?

Mary V. Thompson: It would depend on the circumstances and how difficult it was to get them back.Some people might run away briefly because of a conflict with someone else in the quarters, or with an overseer and needed a breather to let the situation cool off.Others might have left to visit relatives on another plantation.If they were not gone long and came back on their own, there might be little punishment.In other cases, if someone continually ran away or was involved in petty crimes, they might be punished physically or even sold away.

We know of at least one slave, who was sold to another plantation in Virginia, after running away four times in five years; three times when George Washington sold a person to the West Indies, something many people today consider akin to a death sentence; and one case where a young man at Mount Vernonand his parentswere told that he would be sold there, as well, if he didnt start exhibiting better behavior.

Robin Lindley: Did you find examples of slave resistance?

Mary V. Thompson:Yes, many.When people today think of resistance, most probably are thinking of things like running away, or physically fighting back with an overseer, stealing something to eat, or poisoning someone in the big house. Not everyone was brave enough or desperate enough to do something so easily detectable.They might well have tried something less obvious, like slowing down the pace of work, procrastinating on finishing a particular job, or even pretending to be sick or pregnant.

Robin Lindley: Oney Judge Staines was a Mount Vernon slave who escaped to New Hampshire a few years before Washington died. He was angry and vigorously sought her return, but was unsuccessful. Did you find new information on this fascinating case?

Mary V. Thompson:It wasnt exactly new information, but the fact that this young woman was one of the dower slaves from the estate of Martha Washingtons first husband, meant that Martha did not own her or any of the others, but only had the use of them (and any offspring they had) until her death.George Washington would lose access to those slaves upon Marthas death, when the dower slaves would be divided among the heirs of her first husband, who in this case were her four Custis grandchildren.

According to a Virginia law at the time, if any dower slave from that state was taken to another state, without the permission of the heirsor presumably the guardian of those heirs if they were minorsthen the heirs or the guardian acting on their behalf would be entitled to take the entire estate immediately, without having to wait for the death of either the husband or wife.Oneys escape may well have threatened the entire Custis estate.

Robin Lindley: You note that Washington was the only slave-owning Founder who freed all of his slaves in his will. You also note that he seemed circumspect and perhaps ashamed about owning slaves later in his life. Did he ever speak out publicly for the abolition of slavery in his lifetime?

Mary V. Thompson:It depends on what a person means by publicly.Washington corresponded with quite a few abolitionists, both British and American, after the Revolution.In response to those people who were pushing him to emancipate those he held in bondage, Washington typically responded that he thought the only legitimate way to do that was through a gradual process of manumission, much like the northern states were setting up.He noted that he would always vote to forward such a plan, however, he never stood in front of a legislative body as a proponent of a plan like that.

Robin Lindley: What do you hope readers take from your groundbreaking book?

Mary V. Thompson:I would like people to understand that slavery in eighteenth-century Virginia differed from the same institution in both the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and that it was a complex institution.For example, there were people at Mount Vernon who were free, hired, indentured, and enslaved.They came from many countries and cultures on two continents, represented a variety of both European and African religious traditions, and began their relationships speaking many different languages.

Robin Lindley: Its a complicated story. Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments Ms. Thompson, and congratulations on your illuminating book on the Father of the Country and enslavement on his plantation.

See the original post here:

An Interview with Mary V. Thompson on the Lives of the Enslaved Residents of Mount Vernon - History News Network

As was mentioned last week, during the deliberations of the 1836 Royal Commission, the Catholic Church in Malta was not against freedom of the press as such. However, the Church feared the consequences that a completely free press, such as that then existing in England, would have on the Catholic religion in Malta. What the Church did not want was a freedom extending also to religious matters.

Local clergymen were of three different opinions with regard to the proposed abolition of press censorship. The majority was pleased with it; some were too timid or bigoted to take a decision, with the rest being against the proposition because they feared that their defects would be exposed and made public.

The majority, who favoured a free press, differed in opinion as to the extent of the new law. Some wanted a law that would protect the Catholic Church from invective and insults, while others wanted the Church to be protected even from argumentative attacks.

However, the commissioners pointed out that the law of libel, included in their draft ordinances, prohibited every attack in way of vituperation, ridicule or other insult, either on the doctrines common to all Christians, or on the peculiar doctrines of any of the Christian Churches both in writings printed in Malta or imported from abroad, while as things stood at that time, the Catholic Church could be attacked in imported writings, without impediment and with perfect impunity, either by argument or by vituperation or ridicule.

At the time of the arrival of the commissioners in Malta, the local clergy had elected a committee of eight members to consider the affairs of their order. The committee approved the introduction of printing and publishing, but qualified their approbation by the following resolution: That every printed attack, direct or indirect, upon the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Religion, as determined by the sacred canons of the Church, ought to be prohibited under the severest penalties.

The commissioners, however, explained to the clergy that protection from argumentative attacks could not be given and that, since spiritual and temporal censorships were in no way connected, the abolition of the latter did not involve the abolition of the former. The result was a declaration, signed by 314 clergymen, stating the following resolution:

We, the undersigned, are perfectly unanimous in the opinion that since the English have been in Malta there was no hindrance to the introduction of books containing attacks, insults, ridicule and indecent offences against the Catholic religion; that their sale and circulation have not been prohibited; and that the introducers, sellers and circulators have never been punished.

The fears of the Catholic Church were proved to have been well-founded

We are moreover unanimous in declaring that several presses in Malta have been employed in the printing of books of this nature; and that those who printed, sold and circulated them were not punished.

In consequence of which, we also agree in the opinion that if, in Malta, the liberty of the press were granted by the government, or, to express ourselves more clearly, if the existing prohibition maintained by the local government were abolished, and this grant were accompanied by law, that whoever indecently offended or insulted our dominant religion with books or writings should be punished, this last system would be far preferable to the first, and much more useful and advantageous to the Roman Catholic religion.

At the same time, it is also our unanimous opinion, that Catholic Christians will not, by the abolition of the civil censorship by His Majestys government, be dispensed from the spiritual censorship imposed upon them by canon laws; and in this sense must be understood any opinion heretofore expressed by us, or any of us. November 17, 1836.

The report of the commissioners was sent to Lord Glenelg, together with draft ordinances, in a despatch dated March 10, 1837. In a despatch sent to the Governor of Malta, Major-General Sir Henry F. Bouverie, dated November 27, 1837, Lord Glenelg communicated to the commissioners that their report had been accepted in principle. The way was now open for the introduction of freedom of the press in Malta.

However, over a year had to pass before the new law was proclaimed, one of the reasons being the protracted illness of one of the commissioners, John Austin, which compelled him to return to England in June 1838 before he could finish revising the two ordinances on printing and publishing. Austin took them with him to conclude his revision in England but the process of bringing the law into effect in the shortest possible time was thus delayed.

Although the new law was not proclaimed till March 1839, permits for the setting up of private presses were granted over a year before then. The first was set up in January 1838 by Ph. Izzo, followed in March 1838 by another by Luigi Tonna.

The year 1838 witnessed the publication of Maltas first independent periodical newspaper called Lo Spettatore Imparziale. This newspaper was followed by Il Portafoglio Maltese, The Harlequin, Il Mediterraneo and Il Kaulata Maltia.

In 1838, the Florence Gazette remarked that the protests of the Italian governments against the introduction of the liberty of the press at Malta have had no effect on London. The law establishing this freedom has been proclaimed in the island, and a prospectus of a new journal to be published at Malta is in circulation at Rome. This report was unfounded but it afforded the local government in Malta the opportunity to state that it was only a matter of time before the new law would be proclaimed, since work on its details were still going on.

On March 15, 1839, the law abolishing press censorship and including the law of libel was proclaimed. Offenders were to be tried by a court composed of three judges, without a jury. 15 years later, in 1854, all offences against the press law were to be tried in court by a judge and a jury.

What now remained to be tested was whether the law of libel was effective enough to check abuses, especially in religious questions. Within less than a week, just six days actually, the fears of the Catholic Church were proved to have been well-founded.

On March 21, 1839, in the Protestant newspaper The Harlequin (first published on July 14, 1838), the editor James Richardson wrote that the Catholic religion was a system of religion the most detestable the world ever saw! a system which leaves the mind at a loss to determine whether it be better than any religion at all.

Richardson was prosecuted, found guilty and condemned to either a fine of 250 scudi or six months imprisonment. Richardsons guilt was based on Chapter III, Section VI of the press law, which prohibited the publication of any writing reviling, ridiculing or insulting the fundamental tenets of any religion. It is worth noting that Section VII extended this prohibition to the publication of obscene writings.

In the House of Lords in London, there was a movement to obtain a pardon for Richardson but it came to nothing, since a pardon would have made a mockery of the commissioners assurances and promises.

Moreover, it must also be borne in mind that a few years earlier, in 1829, the Catholic religion had been legally emancipated in England through the Roman Catholic Relief Act that received the kings assent on April 13, 1839, through which Catholics could henceforth become Members of Parliament.

Richardson went to prison and was set free after a month but only after he had paid a fine proportional to the remaining five months he was to serve.

The Catholic Churchs fears had indeed proved to be genuine but the new law had shown itself to be an effective instrument in the checking of abuses.

Joseph F. Grima is retired casual lecturer of history and assistant director of education

Independent journalism costs money. Support Times of Malta for the price of a coffee.

Read the original:

The first real liberty of the press in Malta 1839 (Part 2) - Times of Malta

the President of Federation of hockey of Russia (FHR) Vladislav Tretyak commented the decision of the International ice hockey Federation (IIHF) to cancel due to the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 world championship.

Given the unfavorable epidemiological situation in the world, this decision was not a surprise, quotes the words of Tretyak, the press service of the FHR. Termination of a season the teams no reason to postpone our business. Preparing for the next season has already begun.

Also head of the Russian hockey Federation thanked the fans for their support and the players, coaches and all who work with the teams for their hard work. In this case, Tretiak said that the hockey season isnt over.

We hope the Championships of Russia, childrens and youth competitions will be played out. The championship KHL, VHL, MHL must be brought to its logical end to determine the Champions, concluded the triple Olympic champion.

Recall, the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a coronavirus, a new type was recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. To date, the virus has spread to 188 countries and territories. Cases it is already about 308 thousand people, of which 13 thousand died.

Read the original post:

Vladislav Tretiak the abolition of the world Cup: this decision was not a surprise - The KXAN 36 News

We cannot allow the capitalist ruling class to turn a blind eye to the plight of the incarcerated population not in general, nor in the particular circumstance of the global pandemic of Covid-19. In the U.S., there are 2.3 million human beings in state, federal, and county jails and more than 52,000 in immigrant detainment camps. Around the country, organizations and coalitions are calling for the immediate release of incarcerated people who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and La Riva/Peltier election campaign raise these demands as well.

Corona virus and prisons, jails, and ICE detention

It is impossible to quarantine in the context of incarceration. Every prison, jail, juvenile facility, and immigrant detention center will become an incubator of the deadly corona virus. Social distancing is physically impossible in lower security facilities. Inmates are in gate group cells usually made up of four to five 50-person cells. Even as big as 100-person dormitories exist in other facilities. In higher-security prisons, a facility-wide lock-down entails a 24-hour confinement in ones cell. This of course would mitigate recreation time in the yard as well as congregating in the prison cafeteria. Yet serving meals to locked-up inmates could still spread the virus. All regular cell searches put inmates in contact with correctional officers who are already bringing the virus into work from outside contacts.

Jails are already compromised in dozens of counties. Jails hold all people who are either awaiting trial or for transfer to a prison. Since jails are filled and overcrowded with people abducted from their communities, there are almost certainly more people carrying the virus than the few cases documented. Few COVID-19 test kits are available to gauge the real numbers.

Similarly, immigrant detention centers are group encampments already suffering from heap-like conditions, and detainees cannot be given adequate physical distance. Because of overcrowding and a lack of physical institutions, immigrant detainees are regularly rerouted to jails where many infections have already been documented. Immigrants are denied due-process rights and are jailed for coming to the U.S. seeking work or refuge.

Size and scope of the problem

In some cases, such as the infamous Rikers Island Jail in New York City, as many as 21 inmates and 17 correctional officers have already tested positive for the corona virus as of March 20, with already one death of an investigator. Urgent action is necessary. Presumably, every incarcerated person will be transferred to upstate New York prison facilities pending trial, compromising state prisons more pervasively. This is true everywhere people are bused en mass from the jails to the prisons.

In all cases, prisons, jails, and immigrant detention camps suffer the same inhumane and unsanitary conditions. Incarcerated people often lack access to regular running water, hot water, regular shower privileges, hand sanitizer (because they contain alcohol), and hand soap. An observation from formerly incarcerated people on the depictions of prisons in movies and TV shows is that they are shown to be clean. The reality is that mold is a common occurrence, and rodents, roaches and grime accompany the crumbling infrastructure of the countrys repressive apparatus.

Already across New Jersey, hunger strikes have cropped up in three facilities holding immigrant detainees, for lack of cleaning measures and a shortage of soap.

Similarly, the food served in these facilities is criminally insufficient. Prisons tip-toe on the minimum threshold for legally required calories provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Incarcerated people often depend on family support for funds to buy candy, ramen noodles, and chips from commissary at massive markups. This plays no small part in the prevalence of chronic health conditions in prisons.

Most studies conclude that the incarcerated population is many more times likely to be victim to chronic health conditions such as asthma, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, sexually transmitted diseases, cancer or myocardial infarction.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 73 percent of prison inmates and 77 percent of jail inmates report chronic conditions at admission, and only 44 percent claim to be satisfied with the medical care compared to the care they received prior to incarceration: Nearly half (48 percent) of prisoners and 43 percent of jail inmates reported that the health care received while incarcerated was better than or about the same as the care they received in the 12 months prior to admission.

One can conclude that the latter response is because the inmates were not previously receiving health care outside.

Wardens and correctional officers in a pigpen scramble

Around the country, health care workers, lawyers, prisoner rights activists, abolition groups, and even some corrections boards have called for the urgent release of inmates considered high risk.

Earlier this week Los Angeles County began releasing hundreds of low-level inmates to reduce the possibility of infection, and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said his city was considering similar measures. A decisive factor in this decision is not so much the moral uprightness of the authorities in control. Rather, corrections officers are calling in sick at much higher rates, and medical wings of the facilities are understaffed, under-resourced and over-burdened. Ohio corrections initiated a similar pressure-valve type of release. The United States repressive apparatus is cracking at the seams with this contradiction. Corrections associations and inmates alike are citing the inevitability of rebellion as the times get tougher.

The real possibility of losing control of the prisons looms over the heads of prison administrations everywhere. Robert Hood, a former warden of Colorados Supermax federal penitentiary, told ABC news: All of the sudden the guys that are the best inmates, the 50% to 60% who are in for drug-related, non-violent offenses, the guys in the dormitories not the lockdown guys all of a sudden theyre at the most risk. What would I do if I was an inmate in a dormitory? Id go smack someone in the head and I mean that. Id want to go on lockdown, because then Id be a little better off.

The call for release of at-risk prisoners is not consistent across the country. In fact, there may be a monetary incentive to keep them incarcerated. New York Governor Cuomo boasted that prisoner-made hand sanitizer was a superior product to anything else on the market. At a press conference, Cuomo gleefully announced, Open the curtain please! to show a line of New York State hand sanitizers created by CorCraft, which uses prison labor at 16 cents to $1.14 an hour. He then applied the CorCraft company hand sanitizer to describe it having the scent of a floral bouquet. In short, Cuomo sees the crisis as an opportunity to extract super profits from prison labor.

What is more, the Pandemic Influenza Surge Plan for Managing In- and out-of-Hospital Deaths, published by the New York City Chief Medical Examiners Office in 2008, explains that the citys Department of Corrections manages a mass grave site on Hart Island for people unable to afford burials. This grave site is currently worked by prisoners, and has been for the last 150 years. Thus, instead of a compassionate release on a massive scale of incarcerated human beings, the city plans to force prisoners to bury potentially massive numbers of people, including their own imprisoned brothers and sisters, in the event of mass deaths due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Crisis always comes to the prison; prisons are the crisis

A major contradiction has become clear one week into the corona virus pandemic: Capitalism is not capable of handling a global crisis. In the United States, this is particularly acute. The lack of access to health care, the 40 percent of the U.S. population that has only an average of $400 in personal savings, the millions who face layoffs and shutdowns, the massive homeless population amid the glut of empty houses and luxury condos, the vast food deserts, and the lack of a sufficient social safety net are now everywhere on display in their most brutal forms. Seldom remembered are the lives of 2.3 million people brutally incarcerated in Americas prisons and their families who also suffer from the imprisonment.

Every experienced prisoner-rights and abolition organizer knows that each time a hurricane approaches the United States the race is on to urge wardens and corrections boards to evacuate the prisons. In one particularly terrifying case, the inmates of Orleans Parish Prison were left to drown as Katrina swept in and guards abandoned the prison without opening the cells. Inmates were stranded neck deep in sewage water without food or drinking water for nearly a week. Some 517 of these incarcerated people are still unaccounted for.

How many hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, influenza, and pandemics will have to devastate the incarcerated population before decisive action towards a better future is taken? Some theories refer to the U.S. government as a carceral state, a state that funnels its problems into incarceration measures. Crime rates in this country dont match incarceration rates nearly as much as with unemployment, homelessness, and poverty rates. In short, the carceral state is the capitalist state, which exists to manage the affairs of a shrinking but wealthier ownership class amid a colossal working class (employed, unemployed, homeless, or incarcerated) scrounging to get by. One of the capitalist states greatest weapons in its racist class war has been the prisons.

The urgent action of early and compassionate release of prisoners with the COVID-19 crisis has already taken place in other parts of the world: Iran released one-third of its total prison population in response to the exigencies produced by the virus, some 85,000 temporarily freed people.

In the name of humanity

The 10-point program of the Gloria La Riva and Leonard Peltier presidential campaign addresses economic and social crises with radical solutions. Three points of the 10-point program are here especially relevant:

3| End racism, police brutality, mass incarceration Pay reparations to the African American and Native communities.

Mass incarceration and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. and the genocide committed against the Native nations. Reparations must be paid to the African American and Native communities! More than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the largest prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of oppressed and working-class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners!

Adding to this demand in light of COVID-19, we call for the compassionate release of all elderly prisoners and those with chronic health conditions. The population of prisoners age 55 over has increased 400 percent in the last 20 years. For those who remain in the prison system, we demand radical reforms focused on humanizing the conditions, including paying prisoners at least minimum wage for their labor, stopping punitive punishment like isolation cells and extraction teams, and expanding educational and rehabilitation programs.

The immediate release of all pre-trial detainees, who can return to court after theyre reopened after the crises, and immediate freeing of those with release dates in 2020 and 2021. There are as many as 612,000 people in local jails who are not convicted that is, they are legally innocent. Only 32,000 of this population are considered violent, yet many deemed violent by the capitalist state only have enhanced statuses because of poor representation in the courts and, for many African American inmates, wrongful convictions. There are of course exceptions to the issue of general release, but they can be reviewed by peer boards not traditionally in the hands of the repressive state apparatus.

The immediate release of all youth prisoners (46,000) to return to their families or safe homes with guidance counselors to help in true rehabilitation.

At a federal level the majority of incarcerated people are in for public order (the preferred term to victimless crime) and property crimes. In almost all cases, these people could now be released from their 40- to 50-year sentences.

State Prisons make up the majority of incarcerated people, and similar to the other categories: public order, DUI, (racist) drug crimes, property crimes make up the vast majority. Almost 100 percent of these inmates should be freed.

Freedom for all people incarcerated on parole or probation violation (often failures to check in), for petty marijuana or alcohol consumption, police contact, or failure to pay for ankle monitors or restitution. In addition, freed prisoners need sufficient funds to be able to find housing and income until they are employed. Free education should also be offered as well as job training.

4| Full rights for all immigrants

Abolish all anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and deportations and demonization of immigrants. Shut down ICE and the concentration camps and reunite families. The governments war on immigrants must end. The border wall must be dismantled. Amnesty and citizenship for those without documents. Full rights for all!

All 61,000 immigrant detainees should be free. As the immigrant detainees have said in the New Jersey hunger strike, If we have to die, we would rather die out there than in here! This would entail not only closing all ICE camps and disbanding ICE but also releasing immigrant detainees who have been placed in local jails as overflow.

10| Take over the stolen wealth of the giant banks and corporations Jail Wall Street criminals

The vast wealth of the giant banks and corporations is created by workers labor and the exploitation of the worlds diminishing natural resources. The billionaires looted and destroyed the economy. It is time to seize their assets and use those resources in the interests of the vast majority. Power must be taken out of the hands of the super rich, and Wall Street criminals must be jailed.

Point 10 in the La Riva Program stands out in the context of $1.5 trillion stock market bailouts in response to the crisis. The billionaires have certainly shown solidarity with their own class. So much pain and death could be avoided if they were not the ruling class. If anyone belongs in jail, it is the bankers and the gangsters in the Pentagon and the White House.

Prisoner self-determination

We cannot hope to divine a new society on the basis of our imaginations alone. We can, however, say that the rest of the world operates with a fraction of our prison population. While the freedom of say 80 percent of the U.S. prison population would seem magical in its scope, it would still leave 500,000. That would place the U.S. fourth in total people incarcerated. The U.S. would still be in the running for the highest incarceration rate per capita.

Because the media pounds away at the population with such negative coverage of prisoners diverting attention from the real capitalist criminals the idea of many people being freed from the prisons, jails, and immigrant detainment centers could cause a negative reaction. But liberation is nothing to fear. What is truly scary is the idea that this racist mass incarceration system could be one large mass grave in the context of a global pandemic.

See more here:

Arrest the virus, free the prisoners! - Liberation

PUBLISHED: 14:20 19 March 2020 | UPDATED: 18:01 19 March 2020

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during a campaign stop at Driving Park Community Center in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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The leader of the free world dismisses it as a hoax. Then he blames it on foreigners. Then he declares a national emergency two very big words. Then he tries to bribe the Germans to give him exclusive access to antibody research. Over the past four years the world has got used to the dangerous buffoonery of Donald Trump. Will coronavirus bring to an end this ugly era of populists and rehabilitate the less colourful but more thoughtful type technocrat?

The Americans have that choice shortly before them with the presidential election in November, assuming everything takes place on schedule. Until the outbreak of the current emergency it had become axiomatic to assume that voters would continue to embrace irrational emotion over common sense and give Trump a second term.He talked a good talk if brash nationalism is your thing. The stock market was high. Jobs were in plentiful supply, even if many were in the gig economy. America First was making his base, and just enough floating voters, feel better about themselves.

Meantime, the Democrats were tearing strips off each other. None of the candidates was cutting through until the choice was whittled down to two septuagenarian men (three if you add Trump) the radical socialist in Bernie Sanders and the centrist Joe Biden.

With enough swing states coalescing around Biden in the primaries, the assumption was that he would win the nomination and then would stumble to a debilitating defeat.

Wherever you looked around the world there appeared to be little counter-narrative to the autocrat or his (and they are all male) nationalist-populist friend in the West.

Viktor Orban was doing nicely in Hungary. The Law and Justice party was enjoying continued power in Poland. Jair Bolsonaro was doing fine in Brazil we all know the list.

At the same time, the few beacons of reason Jacinda Arden in New Zealand, Justin Trudeau in Canada and Germanys Angela Merkel were stumbling from one crisis to another.

And what of the UK? Last Decembers general election gave voters an unenviable choice between two hapless figures.

Boris Johnsons victory was far less a vote of faith than a vote with gritted teeth.

But win he did, resoundingly, suggesting that the party-that-loves-to-lose, Labour, was in for another 10 years in the wilderness.

With Johnsons handling of coronavirus coming under intense scrutiny, and with polls predicting that Keir Starmer will be voted in as leader of the opposition, could Johnsons foppish manner be misplaced?

Are character and solidity set for a return? When the pandemic eventually ends and nobody can predict how deeply or how long it will affect each nation will priorities have changed?

Johnson is trying already to make that transition to statesmanship rather than joker, reinforced by surrounding himself with two experts in the chief medical officer and chief scientific officer.

But any discerning observer knows that he doesnt look the part or sound the part.

In the US, the mismatch is considerably starker. Of all the people you might want to guide you through a crisis such as this, the loud-mouthed Trump would not feature highly on your list.

The White House has felt no need to pull together other countries for a coordinated global response.

Nowhere was that more obvious than in Trumps out-of-the-blue announcement banning all travellers from the Schengen Area except the plucky Brits before adding the UK a few days later.

As Gordon Brown wrote recently, contrasting the present situation with the coordinated response from global leaders during the 2008 financial crash: This us-versus-them nationalism has spawned a blame culture, with under-pressure governments holding everyone but themselves responsible for anything that goes wrong. And yet an ideology of everyone for himself will not work when the health of each of us depends so unavoidably on the health of all of us.

Bidens responses to the pandemic have deliberately highlighted a difference in tone. His message to voters has been that he is the man with experience; he may not be the most charismatic person in the world, he may stumble a bit, as he is getting on.

But he can lead America back into normality post-virus and post-Trump.

Biden would as virtually all US presidents, Republican or Democrat, have done work closely with other countries.

A traditionalist on foreign policy, as on much else, he believes that close friendships with Europe and elsewhere are vital for US security.

If, as I suspect they will, voters will, post-virus, want less of the macho and more of the reasoned, then Biden and Starmer will get a better reception.

The one lesson they, and others like them, will have to learn from the populists is to be more tenacious.

Tony Blairs government in 1997 had such a majority it could have been truly transformative. It did, of course, make some changes, but they were a fraction of what could have been achieved.

Barack Obama made some progress in his first two years, but not nearly enough. Then he was effectively blocked when the Republicans took back Congress and blockaded major legislation.

In other words, more centrist governments should abandon caution. On paper, even though not as revolutionary as Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn promised to be (Labours 2019 election manifesto was an extraordinary wish-list), Biden and Starmer are promising radical reform.

Biden is promising $750 billion to accelerate Obamas health care changes, a staggering $17 trillion in clean energy investment and tighter regulation to bring emissions to zero by 2050; a combined $2 trillion in new spending on early education, post-secondary education and housing, a $1.3 trillion infrastructure plan, and a $15 minimum wage.

To pay for it, to raise $4 trillion over a decade, he would increase taxes on the rich, making it if enacted one of the largest wealth transfers in American history. Yet even then, the 1% richest would see their annual income drop by only 10-15%. As for gun control, he promises stricter measures but that always seems to be the toughest nut to crack in US politics.

Starmers 10 pledges have been criticised by some as a variant of Corbyns list. He has recommitted Labour to public ownership of rail, mail, energy and water, outlined plans to abolish universal credit, pledged the abolition of tuition fees and promised to introduce the partys Green New Deal.

He would raise revenue in part by increasing income tax for people earning over 80,000, alongside reversing cuts in corporation tax and clamping down on tax avoidance (something all governments promise but seldom follow through).

In among all the uncertainty with Covid-19, some broad predictions do not seem misplaced. Health systems will not have to fight as hard as they have done for better funding.

The role of the state will not be so disparaged as it has been during the three-decade hegemony of the ultra-free marketeers.

Alongside that, will society really become more community spirited and less selfish?

Perhaps it will, but only in part. What it will prize is no-nonsense reliability. It is time for the technocrats to show their colours, radical but rational. The message from voters will be: dont hold back.

Defy your detractors and show more courage than the likes of Blair and Obama did.

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The centrists are fighting back - politics during the coronavirus outbreak | Latest Brexit news and top stories - The New European