Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

Usually when Im talking to Jaida Grey Eagle, our photojournalist and a Report for America corps member, its because I need her to photograph a source for a story or resize a photo for our website at the last minute.

Our readers see another side to this scene: photographs of protesters, Olympic champions, changemakers, and more. After working with her for a year, I can confidently say that Jaida isnt your typical photojournalist.

In fact, most of her work is informed by her fine arts photography background. And vice versa, her work for Sahan Journal has led her to pursue other interestingand bigprojects.

If youve driven past Hennepin Ave and Sixth Street in Minneapolis recently, you may have noticed a large billboard with five people dancing against a black background:

Gayatri Narayanan: Gayatri is a dancer with the Ananya Dance Theatre and organizer. She is committed to serving abolition and anti-caste movements.

Atquetzali Quiroz: Atquetzali was born and raised in Saint Paul, Mni Sota (Minnesota), homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. She is a co-founder of Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, a traditional Mexica dance group.

Malgaren Mekonen: Malgaren is an Oromo dancer. Jaida met Malgaren while reporting on a meal program that serves mostly Oromo, Somali, and Hmong children.

Nina Rose Berglund: Nina is a jingle dress dancer, Indigenous youth leader, public speaker, and climate activist. Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Nina believes in utilizing traditional values and methods to solve urgent world problems.

Lue Finisher Thao: Lue, also known as Bboy Finisher, is a professional dancer who teaches, travels and competes around the United States. In 2017, Lue founded Cypher Side Dance School and Studio. He is currently a member of Optimistic Crew.

One thing they have in commonbesides danceis their connection to Jaida. Jaida, who is Oglala Lakota, has known Atquetzali and Nina since they were teenagers. She met Gayatri through mutual friends, and Malgaren and Lue through her work at Sahan Journal.

I feel like in my role as a photojournalist that I should try to take up as much space as possible for the communities I cover, Jaida told me. I go between this world of being a fine arts photographer and photojournalist, and this was the perfect way I could tie those two together.

As part of the Its the People project, the Hennepin Theatre Trust put out a call for projects that answer the question: Whose stories belong here? As one of the selected photographers, Jaida got to feature her work on a billboard.

Hennepin Avenue is historically this theater avenue. It houses most of the theaters in the Twin Cities, Jaida said. Theres always stories being told here. But growing up, those stories Id seen were always The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carolvery white, eurocentric stories.

Jaida has been building relationships with people of different cultural and professional backgrounds for more than just this last year. Through those relationships, shes been able to tell stories in a more accurate and sensitive way. Jaidas coverage for Sahan Journal, as well as her other projects, have changed the way Ive looked at my own storytelling abilities.

For example, while reporting at protests and community events for the last year, Jaida noticed a pattern that I had mostly missed. Dancers have always shown up.

Rarely has there been a time where I had been covering an event where there hasnt been some form of dance, Jaida said. Its so representative of community. Being an Indigenous woman, one of our strongest representations of community coming together is powwows, and thats all centered around dance.

Im not sure if its typical for an immigration and politics reporter like myself to drive past a billboard and think, My coworker made that. But thats the sort of photojournalist Jaida is. When we go to assignments together, shes always telling me about her (multiple) other projects. Early on in our time working together, I asked her how shes able to find the time. She simply told me that if shes passionate about something, shell make time for it.

Im still trying to figure out what being a photojournalist means, and Im also kind of making it up for myself too, Jaida said. I dont think I fit into that traditional role of what a photojournalist is supposed to be. Im just doing what I find my passion in.

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If youve noticed the big billboard at Hennepin and Sixth Street, you should get to know Jaida Grey Eagle - Sahan Journal

Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy

and Recent articles on Capital Star, State Senator Dan Laughlin, R-Erie) and Pat Browne, R-Lehighs legislation will increase the proposed change to Pennsylvanias minimum wage to $ 10 per hour under the bill. Was scrutinized for.

Most notably, the bill will link future wage increases to inflation. I agree with the overall tone of the article and its stance of raising the minimum wage, but it omits an important aspect: ending wage preemption.

Most lawmakers believe this is the solution to a long-standing problem, but research shows that linking rising wages to inflation does not really solve the bigger problem at hand. in fact, Since 1968, the federal minimum wage has been in step with worker productivityThe inflation-adjusted minimum wage is about $ 24 per hour. Thats far from $ 7.25 and even $ 10.

Dean Baker, Senior Economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research, by 2025 Increased productivity will actually bring the minimum wage closer to $ 30 per how.NS.

and Local wagesI am encouraging municipalities to set their own minimum wages, but I believe that the abolition of wage preemption will allow municipalities and their members to work together to determine the prestigious wages they have lived in. We know.

Already, we see the Pennsylvania labor market trying to modify the purchasing power of the minimum wage and offer higher wages to people.

If we raise wages without ending preemption, we are in the unfortunate position of getting stuck. No one refuses to raise wages, but ending preemption allows the labor market and employers to adjust in a higher way to the needs of the community. State-wide wages do not. Living costs in Pennsylvania vary greatly, and it makes no difference if you live in a big city for $ 10 an hour.

Here at Wage Local, its time for Pennsylvania to look to the future and stop tying up cities and municipalities, so the bill to change the minimum wage is working to eliminate wage preemption.

Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy is the Managing Director of Pennsylvania United, an advocacy group based in western Pennsylvania.

Source link Pa.Dont neglect wages in the fight to raise the minimum wage | Opinion

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Pa.Don't neglect wages in the fight to raise the minimum wage | Opinion - Pennsylvanianewstoday.com

Condemnation of quotas for women, vilification of a short-haired Olympic gold medallist, and calls to abolish the gender ministry itself: a backlash against feminism is on the rise in South Korea -- with even presidential candidates joining in.

While South Korea is the world's 12th-largest economy and a leading technological power, it remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women's rights.

That has been challenged in recent years, with young women fighting to legalise abortion and organising a widespread #MeToo and anti-spycam movement that led to the largest women's rights demonstrations in Korean history.

Anti-feminists are demanding that short-haired Olympic champion An San hand back her medals Photo: AFP / ADEK BERRY

At their most militant some campaigners have vowed to never marry, have children, or even have sex with men, while others have gone viral smashing up their make-up products on video in protest against the country's demanding beauty standards.

Now a fierce reaction is spreading online.

Women shave their heads at a protest against spycam crime Photo: AFP / Jung Hawon

Members of anti-feminist groups, often right-wing, have even bullied triple Olympic champion An San during the Tokyo Games for having short hair, and demanded she hand back her medals and apologise.

One such group's YouTube channel has drawn more than 300,000 subscribers since its foundation in February, and their online campaigns can be ferocious.

They have extracted apologies from companies -- and even a government ministry -- for using images of pinching fingers in advertising, which they claim "extreme, misandrist feminists" use as a symbol for small penises.

And leading mainstream conservative politicians -- including two presidential contenders -- have seized on the wider anti-feminist sentiment with pledges to abolish the gender ministry.

Conservative politician Lee Jun-seok has been compared to Donald Trump Photo: POOL / KIM Min-Hee

Critics accuse the department of "deepening" the country's social tensions, with young men claiming equality policies fail to address issues that affect men.

They say it is especially unreasonable that only South Korean men have to perform near two-year compulsory military service, delaying their career starts in a highly competitive society, while women are exempt.

Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung, who is seeking presidential nomination by the conservative opposition People's Power Party (PPP), says the ministry is obsolete and told AFP that it needed to be disbanded to reduce the "enormous social cost caused by conflict over gender issues".

In an earlier television appearance, he told broadcaster MBC: "It's like a zombie -- the ministry's still around although it's already dead, and that's why it's only creating adverse effects."

South Korea has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries Photo: AFP / Jung Yeon-je

Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies professor at University of Notre Dame in the US, said: "What we are seeing now is a very powerful backlash to all of the progress that feminist movements in Korea have made in the past few years."

Lee Jun-seok, the PPP's 36-year-old leader, has established himself as one of the most popular politicians among the country's young men.

South Korean women have protested against spycam and revenge porn crimes Photo: AFP / Ed JONES

He has repeatedly said he is against gender quotas and "radical feminism", and that the gender equality and family ministry needs to be scrapped.

Lee, who has been compared by some to former US president Donald Trump for his at times divisive rhetoric, insists the country's young women no longer face discrimination in education, nor in the early career job market.

"Through novels and movies women in their 20s and 30s have developed an unfounded victim mentality that they are being discriminated against," Lee told the Korea Economic Daily.

Jinsook Kim, a University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral fellow, said politicians were exploiting the resentments of frustrated men to try to secure their votes.

Nowadays, she added, "some of these men see themselves as victims of feminism", for example because of affirmative action.

The reaction comes against a backdrop of stuttering economic growth, rising inequality and soaring housing prices leaving many Koreans despairing of ever buying a home of their own.

Oh Jae-ho of Gyeonggi Research Institute pointed out that female participation in the workforce -- and hence competition -- had risen over recent decades while military service remained men-only.

"Young men feel that they are being unfairly asked to compensate for the sexist privileges enjoyed by men in the older generation."

Those privileges are longstanding: the South has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries, while women do 2.6 times as much unpaid domestic work as men. Only 5.2 percent of Korean conglomerates' board members are female.

The country has also witnessed a disturbing rise in spycam and revenge porn crimes.

But women's activist Ahn So-jung said that politicians were "denying institutional discrimination exists against women".

"And they are dismissing women who voice concerns about women's rights as a source of gender conflict," she added.

Founded in 2001, the gender ministry has played a role in the abolition of the South's discriminatory hoju system, which saw children registered exclusively under the patriarchal line.

It has also set up an agency to help single mothers collect child support, and implemented programmes for working mothers and immigrant wives.

Minister Chung Young-ai pleaded for it to continue: "The improvement of women's rights so far has been possible because our ministry existed."

Here is the original post:

Anti-feminism Backlash On The Rise In South Korea - International Business Times

CONDEMNATION of quotas for women, vilification of a short-haired Olympic gold medallist, and calls to abolish the gender ministry itself: a backlash against feminism is on the rise in South Korea - with even presidential candidates joining in.

While South Korea is the world's 12th largest economy and a leading technological power, it remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women's rights.

That has been challenged in recent years, with young women fighting to legalize abortion and organizing a widespread #MeToo and anti-spycam movement that led to the largest women's rights demonstrations in Korean history.

At their most militant some campaigners have vowed to never marry, have children or even have sex with men, while others have gone viral smashing up their make-up products on video in protest of the country's demanding beauty standards.

Ferocious online campaigns

Now a fierce reaction is spreading online.

Members of anti-feminist groups, often right-wing, have even bullied triple Olympic champion An San during the Tokyo Games for having short hair, and demanded she hand back her medals and apologize.

One such group's YouTube channel has drawn more than 300,000 subscribers since its foundation in February, and their online campaigns can be ferocious.

They have extracted apologies from companies - and even a government ministry - for using images of pinching fingers in advertising, which they claim "extreme, misandrist feminists" use as a symbol for small penises.

And leading mainstream conservative politicians - including two presidential contenders - have seized on the wider anti-feminist sentiment with pledges to abolish the gender ministry.

Critics accuse the department of "deepening" the country's social tensions, with young men claiming equality policies fail to address issues that affect men.

They say it is especially unreasonable that only South Korean men must perform near two-year compulsory military service, delaying their career starts in a highly competitive society, while women are exempt.

Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung, who is seeking presidential nomination by the conservative opposition People's Power Party (PPP), says the ministry is obsolete and told Agence France-Presse that it needed to be disbanded to reduce the "enormous social cost caused by conflict over gender issues."

In an earlier television appearance, he told broadcaster MBC: "It's like a zombie - the ministry's still around although it's already dead, and that's why it's only creating adverse effects."

'Backlash to progress'

Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies professor at University of Notre Dame in the US, said: "What we are seeing now is a very powerful backlash to all of the progress that feminist movements in Korea have made in the past few years."

Lee Jun-seok, the PPP's 36-year-old leader, has established himself as one of the most popular politicians among the country's young men.

He has repeatedly said he is against gender quotas and "radical feminism" and that the gender equality and family ministry need to be scrapped.

Lee, who has been compared by some to former US president Donald Trump for his at times divisive rhetoric, insists the country's young women no longer face discrimination in education nor in the early career job market.

"Through novels and movies women in their 20s and 30s have developed an unfounded victim mentality that they are being discriminated against," Lee told the Korea Economic Daily.

Jinsook Kim, a University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral fellow, said politicians were exploiting the resentments of frustrated men to try to secure their votes.

Nowadays, she added, "some of these men see themselves as victims of feminism," for example, because of affirmative action.

Loss of privileges

The reaction comes against a backdrop of stuttering economic growth, rising inequality and soaring housing prices that leave many South Koreans despairing of ever buying a home of their own.

Oh Jae-ho of Gyeonggi Research Institute pointed out that female participation in the workforce - and hence competition - had risen over recent decades while military service remained men-only.

"Young men feel that they are being unfairly asked to compensate for the sexist privileges enjoyed by men in the older generation."

Those privileges are longstanding: the South has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries, while women do 2.6 times as much unpaid domestic work as men. Only 5.2 percent of South Korean conglomerates' board members are female.

Spycams, revenge porn

The country has also witnessed a disturbing rise in spycam and revenge porn crimes.

But women's activist Ahn So-jung said politicians were "denying institutional discrimination exists against women."

"And they are dismissing women who voice concerns about women's rights as a source of gender conflict," she added.

Founded in 2001, the gender ministry has played a role in the abolition of the South's discriminatory hoju system, which saw children registered exclusively under the patriarchal line.

It has also set up an agency to help single mothers collect child support and implemented programs for working mothers and immigrant wives.

Minister Chung Young-ai pleaded for it to continue: "The improvement of women's rights so far has been possible because our ministry existed."

See original here:

Anti-feminism backlash on the rise in SKorea - The Manila Times

In an interview, the President of the State Audit Office of Hungary (SZ), suggested that personal income taxes should be abolished from the Hungarian tax system. The idea is quite startling, as PIT is the third most important source of state revenue, and its abolition would mean an immense loss to Hungarys budget. Unsurprisingly, several economists consider the proposal of the President of SZ to be a bad idea.

The President of the State Audit Office of Hungary shared a rather surprising idea in a recent interview. Lszl Domokos said that ideally personal income tax should be scrapped altogether in Hungary, arguing that it is a burden on work and generally perceived as a punishment.

Related article

PIT is a burden on work and generally perceived as a "punishment," Domokos said.Continue reading

The proposal has left many people baffled, as the share of public taxes collected on labor income today in Hungary is 43.6 percent, one of the highest in the EU, according to OECD data.

Currently, an employee in Hungary pays 15% personal income tax, and an 18.5% social security contribution on labor income. Meanwhile, an employer pays 15.5 percent social contribution tax, and an additional 1.5 percent vocational training contribution (the latter will be completely scrapped in 2022).

If Hungary were to get rid of the current 15% PIT, it would suddenly become the EU country with the third-lowest tax and contribution burden on labor. But this would in turn result in a loss of revenue to the budget so high that it would be very difficult to compensate for. A recent summary by the Finance Ministry shows that for the entire year of 2021, the government expects to receive HUF 2,717 billion from private income taxes, making it the third most important source of revenue for the treasury after the VAT and social security contributions.

The idea of lowering personal income tax is not a new one in Hungary, as the second Orbn government had already promised to target a single-digit PIT shortly after taking power in 2010.

This goal has not yet been reached, with the personal income tax only being reduced from its all-time high of 18% (in 2009) to todays 15%.

As hvg.hu notes in its article on the subject, the Orbn government has long had the goal of gradually reducing taxes on labor year by year. Until 2016, this meant cutting the social contribution tax, and since then the reduction of social contribution taxes has been the solution, while next year the vocational training contribution will be phased out completely (which is paid by employers, not employees). But as hvg.hu notes, this comes at a serious price, as in Hungary, to make up for the lost revenue, the 27% VAT rate is by far the highest in the European Union.

Related article

In January, Prime Minister Viktor Orbn announced that from 2022 onwards, young Hungarians under the age of 25 will not have to pay personal income tax. According to the Central Statistical Office (KSH), in next January, around 270,000 youngsters will be affected by the policy. However, new research reveals that the number is closer to []Continue reading

Government-critical conservative news site Magyar Hang asked several economists about the proposal of abolishing the personal income tax, but none of them seemed impressed with the idea.

According to economist Pter Rna, the idea of the President of the State Audit Office remains at the level of a simple idea, as do several previous measures of the government. The impact of abolishing the tax on the Hungarian economy, budget and society is not presented in detail.

Rna believes that it is worth considering what an immediate 15% increase in wages would mean. It would leave much more in peoples pockets, in turn increasing consumption and consequently the revenue of sales and other taxes. But extra consumption would also have an inflationary impact, which would reach the housing market as well as banks lending practices.

Pter Virovcz, senior analyst at ING Bank, also thinks that a move to a zero personal income tax rate is not a good idea.

According to the analyst, the Hungarian budget would be unable to handle such a huge loss right now. This would only be viable if there were a fundamental overhaul of labor taxes for example, an increase in the social contribution tax to compensate for the loss of PIT.

The expert added that he was unaware of any attempts anywhere in the world to completely abolish taxes on labor.

In the featured photo illustration: Lszl Domokos, President of the State Audit Office. Photo by Tams Kovcs/MTI

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Economists Criticize Audit Office Head's Suggestion of Scrapping PIT In an interview, the President of the - Hungary Today

In Joseph Mendolasrecent My Turn (The falsehoods of the 1619 Project, Monitor, 8/6), he gave Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times journalist who wrote the introductory essay for the 1619 Project that was published in The New York Times Magazine in September 2019, an F for failing to use footnotes. Then he calls out the falsehoods in Hannah-Jonesessay and provides footnotes for his version of the truth.

After TheNew York Times Magazine published the 1619 Project, conservative-leaning historians raised a hue and cry about the essays falsehoods and lies. On December 20, 2019, five historians wrote a letter that was published in the magazine. Sean Wilentz from Princeton, one of the five historians, wrote a separate article in The Atlantic on Jan. 22, 2020, titled A Matter of Fact, which Mendola cites in his essay.

A careful reading of Wilentzs article reveals that he applauded the 1619 Projects stated aim to raise public awareness and understanding of slaverys central importance in our history. Wilentz went on to write, The opportunity seized by the 1619 Project is as urgent as it is enormous. For more than two generations, historians have deepened and transformed the study of the centrality of slavery and race to American history and generated a wealth of facts and interpretations. Yet the subject, which connects the past to our current troubled times, remains too little understood by the general public. The 1619 Project proposed to fill that gap with its own interpretation.

Wilentz wrote his article to help make sure any inaccuracies would not give ammunition to those who might be opposed to the mission of grappling with the legacy of slavery.

The bottom line is that for centuries historians have differed on how facts are interpreted and now is no different. Doris Kearns Goodwin (Team of Rivals) also writes about this phenomenon, sayingIn the nearly two hundred years since his birth, countless historians and writers have uncovered new documents, provided fresh insights, and developed an ever-deepening understanding of our sixteenth president.

Unfortunately, Mendolas essay has propagated falsehoods thatI feel obligated to expose and correct. He accuses Hannah-Jones of calling Abraham Lincoln a racist, which she never explicitly did. What she did was tell a story about a meeting in August 1862 Lincoln had at the White House with five Black freedmen to discuss his idea about colonizing the freed slaves to South America (not Africa). She clearly stated that Lincoln opposed slavery, a position he held most of his life, but she also pointed out that he opposed Black equality.

When I read Team of Rivals, I learned about this meeting for the first time and was astonished to learn that Lincoln wanted to colonize the slaves. At least he was not in favor of forced colonization, a fact that neither Hannah-Jones nor Mendola write about (which is an example of historians cherry-picking facts to suit their purpose).

I learned so much more than Id ever known about Lincoln when I read Team of Rivals. The sad truth is that for most of his life, Lincoln did not believe in Black equality. It took a lifetime of experience for him to get close to Black equality and he died before he could prove that he was fully for it.

Even Wilentz acknowledges, like the majority of white Americans of his time, including many radical abolitionists, Lincoln harbored the belief that white people were socially superior to Black people. When Mendola complains that Hannah-Jones failed to mention white abolitionists in her essay, Im not sure if he was aware that a large number of abolitionists were white supremacists. Im not suggesting John Hale or John Hay were white supremacists, but one cannot assume that everyone who believed in abolition also believed in full citizenship and equality for Black slaves.

Mendola also gets the story of John Hay completely wrong in his essay. He claims Hay was at the White House meeting where colonization was discussed and was so taken aback by the conversation, he called the idea hideous & barbarous humbug. Mendola then goes on to write, Lincoln was a good listener. He sloughed off that idea and he never brought it up again. This is patently untrue.

Lincoln did pursue the policy of voluntary colonization for nearly two years after that meeting. Phillip Shaw Paludan writes that Lincoln encouraged a project in Chirique (a venture which a sponsor said had enlisted nearly 5,000 freedmen) and then moved in behalf of the Ile de Vache effort. Both failed, but Lincoln still seems to have retained hopes for gradual process until sometime around July 1, 1864. (Lincoln and Colonization: Policy or Propaganda? 2004)

His proof for that was a journal entry written by John Hay on July 1, 1864, in which Hay wrote,I am glad the President has sloughed off that idea of colonization. I have always thought it as a hideous and barbarous humbug. Paludan concludes that Lincoln then seems to have abandoned the idea as much because of the complications and corruption that attended the enterprise as out of a belief that he should now become more liberal.

It is true that six months after Lincoln finally abandoned colonization, Congress passed the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, but his life was tragically ended before he clearly outlined his policies on reconstruction. That is why so much has been left to speculation and why historians have been parsing his lifes work, writings, speeches and actions ever since.

While Lincoln was a major player in ending slavery, the whole history of slavery is so much bigger than him. It would be my hope that all the disparate groups of historians could get together and agree upon a set of facts that will result in raising public awareness and understanding of slaverys central importance in our history, so we can move forward and end racial inequality and create a more equitable world to live in.

I give the 1619 Project an A and believe it should be included as one of the teaching tools. But dont just take my word for it.Hannah-Jonesessay also won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2020 for her sweeping, provocative and personal essay . . . prompting public conversation about the nations founding and evolution.

(Susannah Colt lives in Whitefield and can be reached at susannahbcolt@gmail.com)

Continue reading here:

My Turn: The truth about the 1619 Project - Concord Monitor

Condemnation of quotas for women, vilification of a short-haired Olympic gold medallist, and calls to abolish the gender ministry itself: a backlash against feminism is on the rise in South Korea with even presidential candidates joining in.

While South Korea is the world's 12th-largest economy and a leading technological power, it remains a male-dominated society with a poor record of women's rights.

That has been challenged in recent years, with young women fighting to legalise abortion and organising a widespread #MeToo and anti-spycam movement that led to the largest women's rights demonstrations in Korean history.

At their most militant, some campaigners have vowed to never marry, have children, while others have gone viral smashing up their make-up products on video in protest against the country's demanding beauty standards.

Now a fierce reaction is spreading online.

Members of anti-feminist groups, often right-wing, have even bullied triple Olympic champion An San during the Tokyo Games for having short hair and demanded she hands back her medals and apologises.

One such group's YouTube channel has drawn more than 300,000 subscribers since its foundation in February, and their online campaigns can be ferocious.

Leading mainstream conservative politicians including two presidential contenders have seized on the wider anti-feminist sentiment with pledges to abolish the gender ministry.

Critics accuse the department of "deepening" the country's social tensions, with young men claiming equality policies fail to address issues that affect men.

They say it is especially unreasonable that only South Korean men have to perform near two-year compulsory military services, delaying their career starts in a highly competitive society, while women are exempt.

Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung, who is seeking presidential nomination by the conservative opposition People's Power Party (PPP), says the ministry is obsolete and told AFP that it needed to be disbanded to reduce the "enormous social cost caused by conflict over gender issues".

In an earlier television appearance, he told broadcaster MBC: "It's like a zombie the ministry's still around although it's already dead, and that's why it's only creating adverse effects."

Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies professor at the University of Notre Dame in the US, said: "What we are seeing now is a very powerful backlash to all of the progress that feminist movements in Korea have made in the past few years."

Lee Jun-seok, the PPP's 36-year-old leader, has established himself as one of the most popular politicians among the country's young men.

He has repeatedly said he is against gender quotas and "radical feminism", and that gender equality and family ministry need to be scrapped.

Lee, who has been compared by some to former US president Donald Trump for his at times divisive rhetoric, insists the country's young women no longer face discrimination in education, nor in the early career job market.

"Through novels and movies, women in their 20s and 30s have developed an unfounded victim mentality that they are being discriminated against," Lee told the Korea Economic Daily.

Jinsook Kim, a University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral fellow, said politicians were exploiting the resentments of frustrated men to try to secure their votes.

Nowadays, she added, "some of these men see themselves as victims of feminism", for example, because of affirmative action.

The reaction comes against a backdrop of stuttering economic growth, rising inequality and soaring housing prices leaving many Koreans despairing of ever buying a home of their own.

Oh Jae-ho of Gyeonggi Research Institute pointed out that female participation in the workforce and hence competition had risen over recent decades while military service remained men-only.

"Young men feel that they are being unfairly asked to compensate for the sexist privileges enjoyed by men in the older generation."

Those privileges are longstanding: the South has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries, while women do 2.6 times as much unpaid domestic work as men. Only 5.2%of Korean conglomerates' board members are female.

The country has also witnessed a disturbing rise in spycam and revenge porn crimes.

But women's activist Ahn So-jung said that politicians were "denying institutional discrimination exists against women".

"And they are dismissing women who voice concerns about women's rights as a source of gender conflict," she added.

Founded in 2001, the gender ministry has played a role in the abolition of the Souths discriminatory hoju system, which saw children registered exclusively under the patriarchal line.

It has also set up an agency to help single mothers collect child support, and implemented programmes for working mothers and immigrant wives.

Minister Chung Young-ai pleaded for it to continue: "The improvement of women's rights so far has been possible because our ministry existed."

See the original post:

South Korea sees anti-feminism backlash on the rise - Geo News

News Britney Spears father has agreed to step down from her conservatorship might have you wondering how equivalent laws work in Australia.

Australia doesnt have conservatorships but rather guardianship and financial management laws for each state and territory.

Traditionally, there have been three legal options for appointing other people to manage your money and your affairs.

One is through the Supreme Court, which is a very formal process out of reach for many. A second option is through state-based mental health laws for temporary financial management while an individual is detained in a mental health facility.

A third option is via state-based guardianship tribunals. Exactly how it works varies from state to state, so check the links below for details:

In most cases, financial management and guardianship laws relate to people who have been deemed incapable of managing their affairs, or who are considered in need of a financial manager or guardian, because of a disability.

That might include a person with a mental health condition, an intellectual disability, dementia or a disability affecting their ability to communicate their decisions.

Since the 1980s, state-based tribunals (made up of people with different expertise) have been able to make decisions to appoint someone to be a financial manager and someone to be a personal guardian.

In general, financial managers (sometimes called administrators) take care of the money side of things while a personal guardian makes decisions around their health and lifestyle.

Guardians can also play a major role in decisions about restrictive practices that normally involved limitations being placed on a persons ability to move around (sometimes via physical or chemical restraints). Guardians might also be given power to make decisions regarding special medical treatments for example, whether to put a person on long-acting contraception.

To have a financial manager or guardian appointed, a person has to make an application to the court or a guardianship tribunal. The applicant might be a government employee, a family member, a service provider or a medical professional who forms the view the individual in question doesnt have the capacity to make their own decisions.

Read more: Freeing Britney requires reconsidering how society thinks about decision-making capacity

Australia has recently seen two trends in relation to financial managers and guardians.

Firstly, we are seeing more people living with dementia having financial managers appointed. This can be to prevent financial abuse or it can be a form of financial abuse in itself.

The second trend relates to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The creation of the NDIS has resulted in people who previously had their affairs managed informally by friends or family now needing to get financial managers and guardians appointed. For some, that has resulted in less control over their affairs.

When someone applies to a tribunal to have a financial manager appointed, the tribunal will consider factors such as

how capable the person with disability is and what might in in their best interests

what family support they have around them

what might occur if a financial manager was not appointed.

In most jurisdictions, guardianship and financial management orders are subject to routine reviews. Under the legislation, the welfare and interests of the person whose affairs are being managed are meant to be given paramount consideration. In practice, however, once a financial manager or personal guardian is appointed, it can be difficult to get them removed.

It can also be difficult to prove that circumstances have changed and that the financial manager or guardian is no longer needed. This is especially the case if the person is still contending with poverty and/or social isolation, or doesnt have access to social networks or resources to support them to make decisions, or has not been provided with opportunities to develop their skills.

According to the Intellectual Disability Rights Service (IDRS):

Many of the people contacting IDRS about financial management orders find the restrictions very distressing, frustrating and detrimental to their lives. They are often limited in the social activities they can enjoy. Moreover, most are frustrated and angry with their financial managers (especially where the financial manager is a government agency).

Read more: Britney Spears's conservatorship alludes to an older story of controlling women artists

Financial management and guardianship laws involve what experts in this field call substituted decision-making, because someone else is making decisions on behalf of an individual with disability.

United Nations bodies and Australian Disabled Peoples Organisations have long argued for the abolition of substituted decision-making laws and the introduction of supported decision-making systems based on a person with disabilitys will and preferences. The latter aims to provide access to support and resources for people to make their own decisions about their finances and other aspects of their lives.

The United Nations Committee overseeing the Disability Convention in 2019 expressed concern Australia has made little progress to abolish substituted decision-making regimes, and replace it with supported decision-making systems. The same UN committee also urged the Australian government to eliminate restrictive practices.

Only Victoria has changed its laws to formally incorporate the UN Convention into its Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 and even this law still employs mechanisms for substituted decision-making in many cases.

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability is currently exploring guardianship and financial management laws, so the discussion regarding guardianship laws and the role of the will and preferences of people with disability is not going away.

Excerpt from:

#FreeBritney has many of us wondering: do we have conservatorships in Australia? - The Conversation AU

Motions are currently being submitted for Labours conference. The annual gathering, the first physical one since Keir Starmer became leader, will take place in Brighton between September 25th and 29th. Groups within the party are urging members to propose their preferred motions at local meetings.

Each Constituency Labour Party, affiliated trade union and socialist society can make one submission to the conference either a policy motion or a constitutional amendment. The deadline for constitutional amendments, also known as rule changes, has passed, but CLPs still have until 5pm on September 13th to submit motions.

Below is a summary of each of the model motions being put forward by Labour to Win (the umbrella group comprising Labour First and Progressive Britain), Momentum and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.

LabourList understands that the main focus of soft left group Open Labourat conference will be to support Labour for a New Democracys motion, which would commit the party to changing the UK general election voting system to proportional representation. The motion is also backed by Momentum.

Labour to Win has circulated 16 model motions that it is urging members to put forward.

1. Social care

This motion would mean conference noting that 11 years of Tory government have failed to put forward plans for social care reform and that the gathering of delegates believes its time for a new deal for care workers.

It calls for Labour to set out a vision that empowers users of social care, improves pay, terms and conditions for staff, prioritises a home-first approach, improves support for unpaid carers such as with increased rights, flexibility and financial security, and is needs-based and publicly funded.

2. NHS

The motion begins by having conference note that Tory government has left NHS waiting lists at the highest on record and says the Conservatives have particularly let down those needing mental health support while NHS staff have gone above and beyond to keep people safe over the past year.

It would commit Labour to rejecting the governments health and care bill and any plan from ministers to increase privatisation in the NHS, calling instead for an NHS rescue plan to bring down waiting lists, modernise hospitals and give healthcare staff a pay rise.

3. Clean Air Act

Calling on Labour to introduce a Clean Air Act, which establishes a legal right to breathe clean air and requires ministers to provide a binding clean air plan across government, the motion stresses that air pollution represented a national health emergency before Covid causing an estimated 40,000 early deaths each year.

4. Immigration

Here, the authors recognise that the system under the Conservatives is devoid of compassion and competence, highlighting the closure of the Dubs scheme to receive unaccompanied children coming to the UK. It would also mean conference noting that the abolition of the Department for International Development removes the key vehicle for tackling the forces that drive people from the homes in the first place.

The motion would commit Labour to campaigning for the re-establishment of safe and legal routes, including reopening the Dubs scheme, for reestablishing DfID and for the government to work with international partners to do more to tackle human trafficking and modern slavery. It adds that the points-based immigration system is unfair and Labour would oversee a fairer, more compassionate system.

5. Safer communities: preventing crime and securing communities

The motion states: Labour believes that a renewal of neighbourhood policing is needed, to provide communities with the officers and police staff they need to be safe. This must come with a more diverse and representative police service and this must be accompanied with proper funding for youth, and preventative, services across the country.

It highlights Labours green paper on tackling violence against women and girls and says a national strategy is also urgently needed to address the rise of far-right extremism, as well as national coordination to address the criminal exploitation of children.

6. Childrens recovery

Recognising the lost disruption to learning experienced by children throughout the pandemic, growth in mental health issues and other Covid-related problems, the motion highlights that the governments recovery package is ten times less than their expert advisor said was needed. It would commit Labour to campaigning for the policies outlined in the partys childrens recovery plan.

7. Racial equality

The motion begins by saying that Black Lives Matter and Covid have exposed the longstanding inequalities in society, and pointing out the findings of the Doreen Lawrence review of the disproportionate impact of Covid on BAME communities. It calls for Labour to to implement a Race Equality Act to tackle the structural racial inequalities that led to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic.

8. Nature positive

It states that our natural heritage should be restored and enhanced as part of Labours green economic recovery and that British farmers should be backed through the agricultural transition to net zero and nature-positive farming.

It commits the party to a number of measures, including: a nature positive target; a massive increase in tree planting; ending the badger cull; restoration of all peatlands and wetlands; ending sewage discharges and clean up our river waters; and ending the UKs contribution to marine plastic pollution.

9. Social security

Relatively short, this motion would mean conference noting the need for a compassionate, fair social security system that supports people both in and out of work and resolving that Labour should replace Universal Credit with a proper safety net, which gives everyone a decent standard of living; which has respect and dignity at its heart; and which is not punitive.

10. Tax

The motion asks conference to note Keir Starmers leadership pledge to ensure a progressive income tax system and to clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly by large multinational corporations. It calls on Labour to build upon Joe Bidens proposals for an international tax agreement, create a level playing field for high street and online businesses, address the inequality in taxation between wealth and income, tackle tax avoidance and create a genuinely progressive tax system.

11. Workers rights; working hours; minimum wage

This would commit Labour to campaigning for an employment bill providing day-one rights for all workers and repealing anti-trade union laws, the prohibition of fire and rehire tactics, a legal right to flexible working and a right to switch off, proper sick pay and an ambitious minimum wage.

12. Two-state solution

The authors here write: Conference reiterates Labours position that the only way to create peace in the Middle East and end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the negotiated creation of two states for two peoples.

Conference recognises the right to national self-determination and liberation of both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples and recognises the legitimacy of both Zionism and the Palestinian national movement, the model motion adds.

It also means conference would condemn all acts of terrorism, call for free and fair elections in the Palestinian Authority, restoration of its control over Gaza, and for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to be removed from power in Gaza and disarmed.

The motion says conference rejects negative and one-sided tactics such as boycotts, divestment and sanctions and commits to supporting practical schemes that build peace and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

13. Mineworkers pension scheme

The motion sets out that the mineworkers pension scheme has around 152,000 members with 135,000 eligible to receive their pension, and that the current average for former miners is just 84 a week. It says that it is scandalous, immoral and wrong on every level that ministers have raided the pension pot of retired miners.

The motion commits Labour to ensuring that miners get the pensions to which they are entitled, immediately returning 1.2bn surplus money and changing the surplus sharing agreement to give more to pensioners.

14. NATO

This motion reaffirms Labours support for continuing the UKs membership of NATO. It would have conference note the importance of NATO as a global alliance and Britains role in ensuring peace and the rule of law across the international sphere and that it is essential to guaranteeing the security of the new democracies in Eastern Europe.

It asks conference to reaffirm the Labour Partys belief that NATO membership plays a vital role in confronting the biggest security challenges in our generation and that the UKs membership to NATO is committed to collective defence founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, human rights and the rule of law.

15. Multilateral nuclear disarmament

This motion would reconfirm Labours commitment to multilateral nuclear disarmament, while saying that the UK should maintain a strategic nuclear deterrent as other major powers retain them. It backs the renewal of Trident, asking conference to note that just 22% of Britons think we should scrap our Trident Submarines and missiles altogether and citing financial reasons for renewing the programme.

16. Solidarity with the Uyghurs

This motion asks conference to note that the Chinese state is inflicting industrial-scale racist oppression on the Uyghur people along with other ethnic and national minority groups in north-west China. The motion would also have conference express solidarity with the Uyghur people and other minority groups and call upon the Chinese government to close the concentration camps and release all those detained; stop the state harassment and intrusive surveillance of the day-to-day lives of the Uyghurs and other minority peoples in Xinjiang; release Uyghur children to their families; stop the torture and abuse.

Momentum members voted on 33 motions submitted by local Momentum groups, affiliated trade unions and others in its policy primary process this year. After a ballot, the left-wing organisation agreed the following eight:

Its national coordinating group has subsequently added a further three reflecting recent political developments:

1. 15 minimum wage and dignity in work

This motion, submitted by party-affiliated Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) to Momentums policy primary, calls on Labour to campaign for a minimum wage of 15 per hour, minimum contracts of 16 hours a week for those who want them, a statutory sick pay rate equivalent to a living wage, stronger workers protections, fair treatment and equal pay, more support for BAME workers and collective bargaining.

2. Time for proportional representation

Labour for a New Democracy and a number of local Momentum branches submitted this one. It seeks to commit Labour to changing the voting system for general elections to a form of proportional representation and for the party to convene an open and inclusive process to decide which specific voting system to endorse in its manifesto. (This motion is also supported by Open Labour.)

3. Global climate justice

The motion says Labour should make the case for rapid decarbonisation by 2030 and that the cost of this must be borne by the rich, while debt cancellation is essential to achieving climate justice. It notes that we must keep global temperatures below 1.5C, communities hit hardest by climate change have contributed least to the problem and the UK is still spending billions on fossil fuel subsidies.

The motion commits the party to moves including: cancelling the debts of low-income countries; halting all fossil fuel subsidies; introducing sanctions on big polluters; phasing out high-carbon industries; bringing the banking and financial system into public control; and legally recognising the right to asylum of climate refugees.

4. Build council housing and end homelessness

Submitted by the Labour Campaign for Council Housing, Labour Homelessness Campaign and a number of Momentum groups to the process, this motion calls on Labour to restate the 2019 manifesto commitments on housing, such as building 150,000 social rent homes each year including 100,000 council homes and ending Right to Buy.

It states that in government Labour should: give councils the power to requisition the 250,000 long-term empty homes; fund retrofitting of homes; repeal the 2012 anti-squatting legislation and the Vagrancy Act; reverse cuts and outsourcing of homelessness services.

5. Green jobs revolution

This Labour for a Green New Deal motion says the country can solve unemployment crisis and rapidly decarbonise with a socialist green new deal that has public ownership of industries including energy, water, transport, mail, telecommunications.

It supports measures including: the expansion and electrification of public transport; retrofitting all homes by 2030; universal basic services; a just transition away from polluting industries, with training and a green job guarantee on union rates for affected workers; repealing anti-trade union laws and using public procurement to promote decarbonisation; environmental protections; and international justice in global supply chains.

6. Build back fairer: attack poverty and inequality

This motion would commit Labour to building back fairer and campaigning for targeted action to increase racial, ethnic, gender, class and economic equality. It specifies the following measures among others: Universal Credit of 260 per week; a minimum wage of 12 per hour; sick pay of 100% of wages and the same for Covid isolation pay; the repeal of anti-trade union laws; a ban on zero-hours contracts; the reversal of outsourcing and privatisation; and the reversal of all cuts since 2010.

7. Reject integrated care systems, renationalise Englands NHS and social care

The motion begins by setting out the government plan to reorganise the NHS into 42 regional integrated care systems under the the health and care bill 2021-22, which will be strengthening the role of private companies, including US health insurance corporations.

If resolves that Labour demand an immediate halt to the plan, repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and reinstate a universal, comprehensive, and publicly-provided NHS, reverse outsourcing and privatisation in the NHS, and commit to a fully-funded public care service, run by local authorities, free at the point of use.

8. A four-day week for a society in which we work to live, not live to work

The motion calls on Labour to adopt as party policy a four-day working week with no loss of pay, to campaign for a four-day working week, and for transitional policies including shorter working time subsidies, the public sector as pioneers and strengthened sectoral bargaining powers.

9. Racial justice and migrant rights

This motion, agreed by the national coordinating group, states that structural racism exists. It supports: an ethical foreign policy that acts against imperialism and violence; the repeal of no recourse to public funds; campaigning against legislation to criminalise Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities way of life; scrapping citizenship fees and extending voting rights to all UK residents; overturning medical and pharmaceutical patents that deprive people in the Global South of essential life-saving medications.

10. Defend democracy, trade unions and the right to protest

This motion has been put forward in the context of Tory legislation notably the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill and the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act which it says pose an existential threat to the UKs democracy, and our fundamental civil and human rights.

It calls on Labour to campaign against both and to commit to repealing them in government. It also instructs the party to oppose any attempts to scrap or curb the Human Rights Act and to actively drive union membership amongst party members by pledging to repeal all anti-union laws.

11. Drug policy reform

This motion notes that the war on drugs has failed and points to polling showing the public favours a health-based approach to drugs. If passed, conference would be supporting: the decriminalisation of the possession and use of drugs; legislation aimed at a regulated and publicly run drugs market; investment in harm reduction measures to reduce drug-related deaths and in treatment services. It also backs expunging non-violent drugs convictions, where there is no other criminal history.

Left-wing group Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) has put forward 11 model motions that it is encouraging party members to consider sending to conference this year.

1. Labour should be neutral in any referendum on Northern Ireland

Noting the possibility in the future of a referendum on Northern Irelands constitutional status under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and that Labour has not take any position on a potential outcome to such a vote since then, it highlights Keir Starmers recent comment that he would want to make the case for a United Kingdom strongly if a border poll were held. The motion says Labour should continue to be neutral about the outcome of any referendum in Northern Ireland on its future constitutional status.

2. Green new deal Labour will oppose the Tories and fight for action on climate change

The motion notes that humanity has at most nine years to stop catastrophic climate change by keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C, through cutting emissions by 7.6% a year. It would commit Labour to campaigning for the immediate investment of 85bn for a green new deal.

It also supports more specific measures including: upgrading homes to the highest standard of energy efficiency; powering Britain with renewable energy; ending fossil fuel subsidies; banning fracking; organising a just transition with trade unions and communities; and financially assisting the transition in developing countries.

3. Zero Covid Labour should oppose the Tories and campaign for a Covid elimination strategy

Stating that the government handling of the pandemic has resulted in one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world, as well as noting the economic pressures facing the country, this motion says the party should campaign for a zero Covid strategy, oppose Tory Covid policies and give no further support to their reactionary framework.

4. First-past-the-post delivers majority Labour governments

This motion states that conference recognises that our party was originally formed to achieve majority Labour governments and that that must continue to be its main purpose. It says proportional representation would make this nigh impossible to ever achieve and far-right parties would gain MPs and legitimacy, adding: Conference reaffirms our partys commitment to achieving majority Labour governments and thus to FPTP. (This is in opposition to the pro-PR motion backed by Momentum, Open Labour and Labour for a New Democracy.)

5. Now is not the time to change the voting system

The motion outlines that, since 2000, the party has won two general elections and lost four and that in 2017 Labour achieved a 9.6% increase in vote share. It says: Conference should not rush into changing our partys policy on this fundamental issue. Instead we should reflect on our policies and work out an appealing platform that aims to solve the problems that are being inflicted on the population by the Tory government.

6. Labour must oppose Tory austerity

This highlights that the Conservatives are carrying forward their decade of austerity policies which only benefit the richest, that women, BAME and disabled people have been worst affected and the popularity of socialist policies to address the crisis.

It would commit Labour to holding the government to account and opposing all aspects of its reactionary economic agenda, and to putting forward a radical vision of the future.

7. Palestine (Labour and Palestine)

The motion asks conference to condemn Israels militarised violence attacking the Al Aqsa mosque, the forced displacements from Sheikh Jarrah and the deadly assault on Gaza.

It resolves that action is needed now due to Israels continuing illegal actions and that Labour should adhere to an ethical policy on all UK trade with Israel, including stopping any arms trade used to violate Palestinian human rights.

8. Workers rights

The motion stresses that the pandemic has amplified the need for workers to be in unions. It asks that conference commits to repeal all Tory anti-union laws, including anti-strike laws, and to replacing them with a progressive code of labour rights, using proposals outlined in Labours 2017 and 2019 general election manifestos.

9. Labour needs to robustly oppose the Tories racism

This motion states that the Tories attempted to distract the public from Covid by whipping up racism and promoting cultural wars, on a wide range of issues. It says conference regrets to also note our own failures to take a clear stand against racism, including: leadership statements made in relation to Black Lives Matter; anti-Traveller election literature; and an Islamophobic press briefing by senior Labour staff.

10. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Labour CND)

This motion supports a world without nuclear weapons and welcomes the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which became international law earlier this year. It calls on the Labour Party leadership to make a commitment that the next Labour government will sign and ratify the treaty.

View post:

Which policy motions are being backed by groups for Labour conference 2021? - LabourList

This week, we mourn the hundreds of thousands who died as a result of the making, testing, and dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We do so amid an ever-increasing arms race among the nine nuclear nations. Our own country has committed 1.7 trillion to upgrading our nuclear stockpiles.

In 1977, six years after releasing the Pentagon Papers, when he was part of a Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, Daniel Ellsberg wrote: "At this moment, the likelihood that our life will long survive on this planet seems less than that it will not. Yet it is not less it could hardly be than the likelihood, billions of years ago, that we would be here today, that there would ever be on this particular planet any human life to be risked, to be lived and used."

Forty-four years later, the likelihood of our survival is certainly less. We cannot coexist with nuclear weapons. We must get rid of them before they get rid of us. As Ellsberg suggests, it took a miracle to get us here and will take another one to keep us here.

Work for the miracle. Work for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Patrick Henry

Walla Walla

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Work for the abolition of nuclear weapons | Letters To Editor | union-bulletin.com - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin