New round of attacks across Spain’s auto industry

Alejandro López & Gabriel Labarthe

Autoworkers in Spain, like their counterparts in the US, Mexico, Romania and around the world, are confronting an unprecedented assault on their jobs, wages and rights.

Spain is the second largest manufacturer of automobiles in Europe and the eighth worldwide, and the premier European manufacturer of industrial vehicles. It represents 10 percent of GDP (including distribution and associated activities) and 19 percent of total Spanish exports. The industry generates 300,000 direct jobs and 2 million indirect jobs.

Vehicle manufacturing has been growing for the last four years, coinciding with two major labour union-agreed reforms approved after the 2008 economic crisis—in 2010 by the Socialist Party (PSOE) government and 2012 passed by the Popular Party (PP) government.

These reforms made it easier for companies to sack workers on permanent contracts and slash severance pay, allowing them to opt out of collective bargaining agreements and adjust working conditions such as schedules, workplace tasks and wages depending on the performance of the economy and the company. In the period between 2012 and 2016, production was up 45 percent, representing 906,728 additional units, and approaching the industry target of 3 million.

The auto industry in Spain is utilising the full conversion of plants to produce electric cars, claims of lower expectations of profits last year—combined with threats to move production offshore—to impose attacks on wages and work conditions. In Zaragoza, in the region of Aragon, Opel announced that it was considering cutting further investment in its plant at Figueruelas and threatened to cut production of the next Corsa model. The plant, operating since 1982, employs 5,300 people and generates thousands of indirect jobs. In 2017, it made 382,250 vehicles.

PSA, which acquired Opel from General Motors last year, said the plant was less competitive than its other two plants in Spain—Vigo and Madrid—due to higher wages, lower hours and less flexibility. The firm has announced that operating profits have turned from a loss of €389 million in 2013 to a profit of €3.4 billion, but it wants to save €1.1 billion annually by 2020, rising to €1.7 billion by 2026, and to take €700 off the production cost of each car.

According to El Confidencial, PSA never intended to stop investing in Figueruelas. The announcement was intended to “sow fear among workers.” Opel management went from a January 25 statement “considering cutting further investment” to three weeks later announcing Opel will produce the next-generation Corsa exclusively in Zaragoza. Decisions of this magnitude are not taken by automakers in three weeks.

The CCOO, UGT and Acumagme unions never intended to fight and went into negotiations with Opel accepting wage freezes or wage increases below inflation. Pepe Álvarez, the UGT’s general secretary, said, “The negotiations have to end with agreement and with success. We do not understand it in any other way”.

CCOO leader, Unai Sordo, added that its commitment is to reach an agreement that would ensure the company’s investment in the plant with job preservation. With the urging of the pseudo-left Podemos, the PSOE’s regional premier, Javier Lambán, volunteered to mediate in the conflict.

Sold as a victory, the unions claimed that they had achieved a one-year wage freeze—instead of the three intended by the company—a salary increase of 50 percent of the Consumer Price Index (in other words, losing out due to inflation) for three years and 60 percent for the fourth (2022). This was compared to the 6 percent wage slash initially proposed by the company and a 5 percent cut, instead of the 10 percent demanded by the firm, in holidays and night-shifts.

José Carlos Jimeno, of the UGT in Figueruelas, in a statement that could have been made by a company spokesperson, said, “It’s not nice to ask for sacrifices from workers, [but] you have to tell them the truth, whether we like it or not, and to have a job you have to make small sacrifices.”

Even with massive pressure to accept, 2,008 workers out of 4,959 voted against the deal.

This was taking place while 9,000 workers in Ford’s plant in Almussafes, Valencia, were struggling against Ford’s announcement that they would invest €750 million in the plant, to produce its Kuga medium sized sports car, in exchange for workers accepting a “new competitive plan.” Ford demanded cuts in medical leave pay, the closure of the apprenticeship school, freezing bonuses for working in the paint booth, and special and overnight shifts.

The CCOO and UGT were quick to strike a deal. The agreement included pathetic salary increases of between 0.5 percent and 2.5 percent in the years between 2019 and 2021, under conditions where the predicted Consumer Price Index averages 1.5 to 2 percent over the next three years.

The anarcho-syndicalist union CGT, which exploits hostility to the larger unions, rejected the agreement because the workers “were left” out of the company’s “profits.” The statement went on to say that the CCOO and UGT had agreed over the past eight years “elimination of the retirement plan for new hires, the reduction of the pause of food from 30 to 15 minutes and the elimination of dining rooms for more than half of the staff, the increase of the working day for the night shift, and the employment of new workers with 20 percent less than the old ones.”

However, rather than calling for the development of an international strategy to wage the class struggle to defend their interests to counter the international strategy of the corporations, the CGT promotes the same nationalist divisions as the other unions. Its statement claimed that while between 2010 and 2017 the accumulated Consumer Price Index was 10.30 percent, salary increases amounted to 12.30 percent in the same period, contrasting this “with the fact that in the same period (2010/2017) Ford workers in the USA have received a total of $61,000 in pay and benefits.”

The CGT omitted any mention of the 1,000-strong walkout by Ford workers in the Craiova plant in Romania last December. There, workers took wildcat strike action after the Ford Craiova Automobile Union signed a sell-out deal with Ford Romania, which included pay freezes of senior workers and reduces new-hire wages to below the minimum salary or as little as €300 a month, while cutting payments for overtime work and introducing “flexible” schedules whenever “operational demands require it.”

Autoworkers’ experience over the years underscores that the unions, irrespective of their radical phraseology, cannot be pressured into defending workers’ interests. The experience of workers in Ford and Opel is the same as at Seat-Audi in Martorell (Barcelona), Renault (Valladolid), Mercedes (Vitoria), Volkswagen (Navarre), Nissan (Barcelona and Ávila), and Iveco (Valladolid). In each instance, new production plans have come at the expense of wages and conditions.

Macron launches campaign to privatise French railways

Kumaran Ira

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has begun a first series of talks on the French National Railways (SNCF) with management and the trade unions, a few days after Jean-Cyril Spinetta, a former CEO of Air France-KLM, delivered his report on the SNCF. The content and negotiating calendar are reportedly to be announced on February 26.

Macron is moving to privatise the SNCF, citing a European directive mandating the opening of the French railways to private competition. It aims to destroy railworkers’ social rights—including a standard salary schedule, a retirement age of 52 for train drivers and 57 for other workers, and guaranteed lifetime employment—established after World War II.

Spinetta submitted his 127-page report, commissioned by the government in October, on Thursday. While it claims to be modernising the SNCF in the interests of travelers, the report in fact calls for liberalising railway transport and transforming the SNCF into a private company ( soci é t é anonyme ), which has had disastrous consequences elsewhere in Europe. It would also allow the SNCF to hire large numbers of short-term contract or temporary labour. The report defends the decision to dismantle the public enterprise by claiming this is the only way to deal with the SNCF’s debts.

It declares, “Within the framework of the law, it could be possible to end the hiring of workers with the [railworkers’] statute, while strictly preserving the individual rights of staff who still benefit from it. The new recruits could be hired…on the basis of contracts whose contents is still to be fully determined.” The report also proposes that the SNCF could “make use for two years of plans for voluntary departures.” The number of workers who would be expected to take a “voluntary” departure could be around 5,000.

The report proposes to “concentrate rail transport on the areas where it is pertinent” and declares, “The decision to maintain lines inherited from a time when rail transport was the only means of transportation must be reconsidered.” To speak plainly, the state plans to shut down smaller, less profitable lines as well as many smaller train stations.

This policy, which aims to free up vast sums of money for the banks and the state, is a reactionary absurdity. During the 2008 Wall Street crash, the French state found from one day to the next the cash to make a €360 billion guarantee to the banks, whic had crashed the financial system. But it denounces the living standards of railway workers making €1,800 a month as an intolerable burden. Everything indicates that privatising the SNCF would lead to a collapse in working conditions and the quality of travelers’ experience.

Le Monde, which supports privatising the SNCF, compares it to the privatised British railways and writes: “faster, cheaper, the superiority of the French railway network is well established.” It admits that British regional private franchises are “far from being a systematic success” and even that calls for renationalising the British railways to improve their performance are “very popular.” But it nonetheless endorses privatisation, peddling illusions that it might improve service on French regional lines—even though the Spinetta report plans to eliminate them outright.

According to the Spinetta report, the state would acquire the SNCF’s debt to free up the privatised entity to make profits for its new owners. “The treatment of the debt is a necessary prior condition for a return to financial equilibrium of the entity overseeing rail infrastructure,” the report states.

The media and the political establishment will no doubt cite this report to try to divide the workers, attacking train drivers’ right to retire at 52, when the retirement age in the private sector is 62.

Workers in the public and private sector should reject such attacks on the rail workers, and all the other socially regressive measures Macron is negotiating with the trade unions.

The immediate target may be the rail workers, but all workers in France and across Europe are targeted by the political forces arrayed behind Macron. Having imposed labour decrees allowing bosses and unions to negotiate contracts that contain “exceptions,” that is, violate the Labour Code, facilitating mass sackings and the imposition of salaries less than the minimum wage, Macron aims to smash the public service. He aims to crush all the social rights established by the workers in the twentieth century and return it to the conditions it knew prior to the October 1917 revolution in Russia.

The goal of this policy, which has no democratic legitimacy whatsoever, is to finance a massive military build-up and the development of the Berlin-Paris axis as a militarist power capable of mounting aggressive interventions around the world.

Macron wants to spend €300 billion on the French armed forces by 2024. Draconian cuts in living standards and social services would be required to finance the construction of a military machine on such a scale. According to the French Observatory of the Economic Conjuncture (OFCE), the wealthiest 2 percent of French society would obtain 42 percent of the gains linked to Macron’s social policies, while the poorest households would see their living standards collapse.

Deep opposition exists among workers to the attack on the SNCF and Macron’s broader austerity drive. Le Monde points to the “memory of the major [railworkers’] strikes of 1995, which have continued to haunt all the governments over the past two decades.”

The Stalinist General Confederation of Labour (CGT) has called railworkers to protest on March 22, together with public sector workers protesting Macron’s calls to end the statute of the public sector. “If we’re attacked, we defend ourselves,” CGT chief Philippe Martinez told France Inter.

But workers’ opposition cannot find meaningful expression in the straitjacket of symbolic trade union protests, directed by bureaucracies that are, at the same time, negotiating austerity policies with Macron. Today, they are sitting down with SNCF management, while at the same time admitting that the SNCF has issued a “declaration of war” to the workers.

To oppose the draconian measures being prepared at the SNCF and elsewhere, the struggle has to be taken out of the hands of the trade unions, and be waged as conscious political fight against Macron and the European Union. Workers need rank-and-file organisations of struggle, created and run independently of the trade unions, on a European scale. These organisations would oppose the drive to war and austerity and coordinate opposition to the repression of strike activity being prepared under the terms of the state of emergency and the anti-terror law.

It is critical to draw the lessons of previous struggles—above all, the need for a revolutionary perspective and leadership. When, in November 1995, Juppé announced his planned cuts to pensions, railworkers had to take strike action independently of the unions in order to begin the struggle. Over 1 million people joined strikes and protests, bringing France largely to a halt, for the first time since the May-June 1968 general strike.

Petty-bourgeois groups like the Workers Struggle (LO) party and the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), terrified by the strike, went into strike assemblies to shut them down. Refusing a struggle for power, they saved the Chirac presidency and much of Juppé’s reactionary agenda.

A confrontation between the working class and these old political machines is being prepared. In this, the Parti de l’égalité socialiste fights to connect growing militancy in the working class to a socialist, internationalist and anti-war political movement to take state power and reorganise economic life across Europe on the basis of socialist policies.

Israel mounts fresh military assault on Gaza

Jean Shaoul

Israeli forces attacked 18 targets in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, which controls the besieged enclave, in the second such action over the weekend.

The strikes followed an explosion during a demonstration of Palestinians on the southern border with Israel Saturday that injured four Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers in response. It was the worst such border incident since Israel’s war against Gaza in 2014 and portends a broader offensive.

None of the militant groups in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the smaller armed groups in Gaza, of detonating the bomb. Nevertheless, as always Israel holds Hamas, the Islamist national bourgeois party that controls Gaza, responsible for the attack.

For months, there have been almost weekly demonstrations against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the deteriorating economic conditions. Last December, tensions rose after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Earlier this year, Gaza’s traders closed in protest over the deteriorating situation.

Israel’s Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot warned the cabinet recently that tensions were rising due to the worsening humanitarian crisis, that demonstrations were increasing in size and that an incident along the fence could spark an escalation of hostilities. His purpose was to get cabinet approval for harsh measures to deal with the crisis in the face of Gaza’s economic collapse.

Conditions in Gaza, a narrow coastal strip on the Egyptian-Israeli border, after 11 years of living under a land, sea and air blockade, are hellish.

Last year, a United Nations report stated that the living conditions for two million Palestinians had deteriorated “further and faster” than the prediction made in 2012 that the enclave would become “unlivable” by 2020. Large numbers of people are destitute. Forty-six percent of the population are without work. Sixty five percent live on $1.90 or less a day. This collapse in purchasing power has led to a huge drop in the number of trucks entering Gaza with food and equipment—from 800-1,200 a day to just 300.

Power shortages mean that most Palestinians are lucky if they get four hours of electricity a day. There is not enough power to pump sewage, so 95 percent of Gaza’s drinking water is not fit to drink. The coastal aquifer is almost unusable and will soon be irreversibly-depleted unless remedial action is taken.

The health system is collapsing, medical supplies are dwindling and clinics are closing, causing untold suffering and unnecessary deaths. Unable to get treatment in Gaza for complicated or chronic medical problems, many seek treatment in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank or Jordan. Yet last year, Israel granted just 54 percent of 25,000 applications for travel permits in time for patients to attend their scheduled appointments, down from 92 percent in 2012. As a result, at least 54 people died in 2017 waiting for visas.

Children are in school for just four hours a day.

There is no escape from this open-air prison. Israel has surrounded the Gaza Strip with a high-tech barrier and spent almost $1 billion building an underground-barrier project to seal its border to the attack tunnels into Israel. It controls two of the three exit points, while Egypt controls the third. Last year, Israel issued one-third of the number of exit visas issued two years earlier and just one percent of the number in early 2000. Movement between the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, in either direction is all but impossible.

The economic and social plight of the two million Palestinians living in the tiny enclave has been dire ever since Israel, with the full support of the US, European Union and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA)—particularly since 2013—imposed a blockade on Gaza. Jordan, by imposing strict transit conditions on Gazans, and Egypt, which controls the Rafah crossing, have played a key role in the siege.

The siege of Gaza was mounted following the unexpected victory of Hamas over Fatah in the January 2006 elections which the major powers had intended as a means of strengthening the hand of Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah leader and PA President. Winning 44 percent of the vote in the West Bank and Gaza, compared to Fatah’s 41 percent, Hamas took 74 of the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council.

Hamas’ election victory was the result of widespread disgust at Fatah’s corruption and subservience to Israel. The Oslo Accords, which Hamas had earlier opposed, had brought wealth for a few and unemployment, poverty and military oppression for the majority, while the Israeli settlements on land to be included in any future state had increased.

Despite Hamas’ willingness to accept some form of a “two state solution” and take a minority role in a coalition with Fatah, Israel and the US rejected this. They demanded Hamas abandon its three core tenets and renounce the use of arms, recognise Israel and sign up to the Oslo Accords in return for international recognition of a Hamas-controlled PA, or face an international boycott. The other members of the Quartet, the UN, European Union and Russia, soon fell in line with Washington’s demands, and the EU too cut its aid to the PA.

The US and Israel were determined to prevent any attempts by Fatah and Hamas to reach an agreement, deepening the split between the two factions in order to divide and rule, while increasing Hamas’ economic dependence on Qatar and Iran.

In June 2006, Israel launched an attack on Gaza, knocking out its power station, making Gaza increasingly dependent on Israel for its electricity and precipitating daily power cuts lasting for hours at a time. Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after Hamas forestalled and defeated an attempted coup by Fatah in a brief but brutal civil war in June 2007. Three military assaults on Gaza in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014 killed 1,417, 147 and 2,250 Palestinians respectively, and destroyed much of Gaza’s basic infrastructure together with tens of thousands of homes. Around 90,000 of the 500,000 people displaced by the 2014 assault remain displaced or homeless.

The blockade worsened after the military coup in Egypt that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohammed Morsi and the clampdown on the Brotherhood and Hamas—a Brotherhood affiliate—by the military junta of Abdul Fattah el-Sisi.

El-Sisi closed Egypt’s border crossing at Rafah and forced Hamas to close the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that had provided a means of circumventing Israel’s blockade and a source of income, by taxing the goods brought in, for Hamas.

Last year, Abbas imposed further hardship on Gaza. He stopped paying Israel for fuel for Gaza’s power station and electrical transmission into the Gaza Strip and ended or cut salary payments to thousands of public sector workers. This was to force Hamas into “reconciliation” talks with Fatah that culminated in a Cairo-brokered agreement in October. But the talks have stalled and the promised relief has failed to materialise.

In October, the World Food Programme announced a cutback in its food voucher programme in Gaza due to a budget shortfall.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration withheld $65 million in funding for the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), which supports some 1.2 million in Gaza, as well as $45 million in food aid in the West Bank and Gaza that it had promised for an emergency UNRWA appeal.

UNRWA has for decades provided key social services as well as a vital lifeline for the poorest Palestinians. Now that too has gone and the viability of the agency itself is in question.

Washington delivers new ultimatum on Iran

Bill Van Auken

The US State Department has issued a fresh ultimatum on the Iran nuclear deal to Washington’s ostensible major allies in Europe, demanding that Germany, Britain and France commit themselves to altering the agreement along the lines demanded by President Donald Trump or face its unilateral abrogation by the US.

A secret State Department cable obtained by Reuters presents what are essentially the same demands made by Trump last January. At that time, he announced that he was prepared to relaunch all-out US economic warfare against Iran unless the European powers joined Washington in imposing a rewritten nuclear accord on Tehran, including provisions that the Iranian government cannot and will not accept.

The occasion for Trump’s threat was his reluctant announcement on January 12 that he had decided to waive the reimposition of US sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He vowed that this would be the last time he issued such a waiver, unless his conditions were met. The next deadline for waiving the sanctions is May 12.

The message from the State Department to the European powers asks for their “commitment that we should work together to seek a supplemental or follow-on agreement that addresses Iran’s development or testing long-range missiles, ensures strong IAEA inspections, and fixes the flaws of the ‘sunset clause.’”

Washington has demanded that Iran grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors immediate and unlimited access to any site in the country, including military bases; the elimination of “sunset clauses” in the JCPOA, making time-limited restrictions on aspects of Iran’s civil nuclear program permanent; and drastically limiting, if not outlawing, Iran’s ballistic missile program.

While presented by Reuters and other media as a softening of the position outlined by Trump in January, the cable makes it clear that the US is continuing to present its nominal allies in Europe with an ultimatum.

“In the absence of a clear commitment from your side to address these issues, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. If at any time the President judges that such commitment is not within reach, the President indicated he would end US participation in the deal.”

The cable’s “talking points” for US diplomats to advance Washington’s agenda in Europe stress “the Trump administration’s strategy to counter the Iranian regime’s reckless aggression,” which “addresses the full range of Iranian threats, of which Iran’s nuclear program is only one element.”

The clear implication is that Washington is embarked on a trajectory of war with Iran, either with or without the collaboration of its NATO allies in Berlin, London and Paris. Should they join with the US in ripping up the nuclear accord, it will set them on a collision course not only with Iran, but also with Russia and China, the two other signatories to the JCPOA.

The US has spelled out its own intentions in the Trump administration’s recent National Security Strategy, lumping Iran together with North Korea under the category of “rogue states” that represent a threat to US “national interests” and are to be confronted and defeated.

None of the European powers responded directly to the US cable, which the State Department itself refused to discuss. Asked about the US demands in an online media briefing, the French Foreign Ministry declared: “The French position on the Iran nuclear deal is known. As the President of the Republic [Emmanuel Macron] has said, we reaffirm our full attachment to the global action plan and its strict implementation.” It added that Paris would “continue to talk about the Iran nuclear program with our European and American partners.”

The European powers are pursuing their own imperialist interests in the Middle East and are increasingly at odds with US interests and strategies. The lifting of sanctions against Iran was greeted by European corporations as an opportunity to generate a fresh stream of profits through billions of dollars in new investments and trade deals. Many of these plans remain unfulfilled because of concerns that the US will target companies with unilateral sanctions, and that their investments could go up in smoke in the event of a new and catastrophic US war in the Middle East.

While hostile to Iran’s growing influence in the region, the European powers are increasingly alarmed at the prospect that Washington’s strategy of forging a regional anti-Iranian alliance with Israel and Saudi Arabia, together with the other Sunni Gulf oil sheikdoms, will produce a military confrontation that could cut off oil supplies upon which Europe depends and unleash a political and refugee crisis that will spill onto the continent.

Washington has issued its latest ultimatum in the midst of an explosive escalation of regional tensions, driven in the main by US and Israeli aggression. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spelled out Tel Aviv’s aggressive stance against Iran in a bellicose speech to the Munich Security Conference on Sunday. Holding up what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down over Israeli-occupied Syrian territory in the Golan Heights, he denounced Iran as “the greatest threat to the world,” equating it with Nazi Germany.

“We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves, and we will act if necessary not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself,” said Netanyahu, in a clear threat to attack Iran, an action that his government would undertake only with US backing.

Israel responded to the alleged overflight of the drone, which Tehran insists was launched by independent Syrian militia elements in Syria, by targeting Iranian personnel in Syria with air strikes. Syrian air defense units succeeded in shooting down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet, the first such loss for the Israeli Air Force since the early 1980s.

Speaking in response to Netanyahu at the Munich conference, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, attributed the frenzied tone of Netanyahu’s speech to the downing of the warplane. “The so-called invincibility of [Israel] has crumbled,” he said.

The US military and intelligence apparatus and its loyal stenographers in the US corporate media are churning out continuous war propaganda against Iran.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, US national security advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster declared it was necessary to “act against Iran,” which he accused of arming a “network of proxies” that is “becoming more and more capable as Iran seeds more and more...destructive weapons into these networks.”

The New York Times published a lengthy piece Monday based on interviews with Israeli military officers and government officials along with representatives of US, Israeli and Saudi-funded think tanks alleging that Iran is “creating an infrastructure [in Syria] to threaten Israel.” Needless to say, the article made no mention of Israel’s own funding and aid for Sunni Islamist militias attacking the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The same issue of the Times carried an opinion piece by US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claiming, falsely, that a report issued by the United Nations proved that Iran has shipped missiles to the Houthi rebels in Yemen to fire at Saudi Arabia. The actual report found that “remnants” of the missiles were of Iranian origin, while providing no evidence as to how they got there.

Haley insists that the world must “act before a missile hits a school or a hospital and leads to a dangerous military escalation that provokes a Saudi military response.”

The column echoes the “big lie” methods pioneered by Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. That Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemeni schools, hospitals, neighborhoods and infrastructure for nearly three years, killing some 13,000 Yemeni civilians and plunging the country’s population into the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, goes unmentioned.

Haley is also silent on the fact that the US has provided the vast majority of the bombs and missiles dropped on the Yemeni people, while mounting logistical and refueling operations that make the mass slaughter possible.

RNTC Fully-funded Media & Journalism Scholarships for African & Developing Countries 2018/2019 – Netherlands

Application Deadline:15th March 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligibility Subject Areas: As of today you can apply with a scholarship for the following courses:

• Investigative journalism
• Media campaigns
• Producing media to counter radicalisation
• Using media for development

About Scholarship: The RNTC Netherlands training centre provides training for media professionals from all over the world: from journalists and programme-makers to social activists and communications professionals from non-governmental organisations. Whether you are a journalist, a blogger or a media manager, there are courses to fit your needs.

The most commonly used scholarship for RNTC courses are the NFP and MSP (MENA) scholarships. NFP stands for Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP), MSP stands for MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Scholarship Programme


Offered Since: 2012

Type: Short courses


Selection Criteria: The scholarships will be awarded on academic and professional merit.

Eligibility: RNTC Netherland Fellowships are available for professional journalists, programme-makers, broadcast trainers and managers coming from the countries listed below (a combined NFP list and low-middle-income countries according to the World Bank criteria).

Scholarship Benefits: An NFP or MSP scholarship will cover the full cost of your travel and visa (if required), accommodation and meals, insurance, and the course fee. The NFP and the MSP scholarship programmes are funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and administered by Nuffic, the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

Duration: scholarships are available for courses of two weeks or longer.

Eligible African Countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Other Countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Autonomous Palestinian Territories, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Fiji, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Laos, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Moldova, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Syria, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen

To be taken at (country): The Netherlands

How to Apply: If you want apply for a scholarship to cover the costs of the course, you need to apply to both RNTC (for your course application) and OKP (for a fellowship).
You can apply twice a year during an ‘application window’ to see if you are eligible for a OKP or MSP scholarship. There are many more applications than there are scholarships available. Therefore, it is important that you meet all of the RNTC criteria (see individual course pages) as well as the Nuffic criteria, which you can find at the bottom of this page. If you meet all the RNTC ánd Nuffic criteria, and you would like to apply, then please follow all the steps in our
 How to apply page.
It is important to visit the Scholarship Webpage (see Link below) for more information on how to apply.

Visit the Scholarship Webpage for details


Sponsors: The scholarships are administered by Nuffic, the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

Chevron Nigeria July – December 2018 Internship Program for Undergraduates

Application Deadline: Ongoing

Eligible Countries: Nigeria

To Be Taken At (Country): Nigeria

About the Award: Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) provides temporary employment to university, polytechnic and high school students required to participate in mandatory learning programs to gain work experience in their chosen career and also provides opportunity for interns to learn about the company’s business, culture and core values.

Type: Internship

Eligibility: 

• Candidate must be a Nigerian
• Internship must be mandatory to complete the school’s program leading to Bachelors, Masters’ Degree or Diploma as applicable
• Demonstrated high level of academic performance
• Good communication, leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills
• Strong work ethic with internal drive to succeed

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Chevron provides:

• An innovative workplace where we apply the latest technologies to exploration, production, reservoir managment and the entire value chain group.
• Opportunities to enable you use what you have learned, expand your knowledge and benefit from invaluable on-the-job experience.
• Hands-on technical exposure which will expand your knowledge of the industry and accelerate your professional development.
• An effective environment where integrity and ingenuity is valued.

Duration of Program: July – December 2018

How to Apply:

• Click the Apply button
• Create an account
• Upload your current resume
• Upload your Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) letter or support letter from your institution using the “cover letter” tab

If possible the letter from your institution should state
–  your Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)
–  expected start date and duration of internship

• otherwise upload a separate statment from your institution showing the CGPA and any additional document on the “additional document” tab
• Provide responses to all the fields on your Profile
• Type NIL in the “previous employment” box, if you have no experience otherwise state your previous internship details
• Select the field related to your course of study in the “preferred type of work” box
• Respond to all the questions as required
• Click the apply button to complete your application
• You will receive a confirmation e-mail

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Chevron Nigeria

Important Notes: The following fields are mandatory and must be fully completed. Not completing them may disqualify your application.

1. Email
2. Mobile Number
3. Institution
4. Academic Discipline
5. Degree
6. State your Internship start and end dates

Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition BCFN YES! (Young Earth Solutions) Research Grants for Food and Nutrition Researchers 2018 – Italy

Application Deadline: 14th June 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Global

To be taken at (country): Italy

Fields of Research: The BCFN YES! Research Grant Competition offers the opportunity to put into action concrete proposals that will have the objective of making more sustainable one or more themes of the agri-food system (in terms of environmental, social, health and/or economic aspects). Among others, the following areas of particular interest are considered:

• Sustainable and healthy dietary patterns;
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Food Security

About the Award:The BCFN Foundation is strongly committed to addressing the future challenges of food. The Foundation is focused on reducing hunger, fighting food waste, and promoting healthy lifestyles and sustainable agriculture.
The BCFN wants to support studies that are innovative, have a promise of major impact, are result-oriented and look at food systems and food value chains with a systemic approach, preferably, where relevant, blending scientific knowledge with local knowledge. Country case studies and identification of best practice are strongly encouraged. The funding shall be applied to a one-year investigation.
The competition encourages research ideas that might be considered groundbreaking with potential to be of high impact for the sustainability of the agri-food system and the implementation of the SDGs, and the review will be weighted to this innovation factor.
BCFN encourages submission of:

• Either new or ongoing research projects;
• Either unfunded proposals projects that are co-financed by a research institute, trust, foundation, university, private companies, venture capital funds, angel investors. Details of research timeline and supplemental sources of financial
  support should be specified in the application form.

Type: Research/Grants

Eligibility: 

• The 2018 BCFN YES! is designed for individual or multidisciplinary and cross-national research teams of a maximum of three components. The Competition encourages the participation of teams from different disciplines and countries who wish to combine their expertise in innovative approaches.
• Applicants who are currently pursuing doctoral degrees are eligible, as well as researchers with a completed PhD. All applicants must be/have enrolled after January 1^st, 2012, included.
• All participants must be under the age of 35 at the date of November 28, 2018.

Selection Criteria: The BCFN YES! Research Grant Competition Evaluation Committee will evaluate the proposals with the assistance of additional members (experts in specific sectors) in those cases where the methodology warrants. The proposals will be judged on:

1. Consistency with the topic areas and the BCFN Foundation’s mission;
2. Significance of the problem;
3. Design of the study;
4. The investigator’s qualifications (possession of the requisite skills);
5. The appropriateness of the schedule and the likelihood that the work will be accomplished on time;
6. Completeness of the application.

Submissions will be disqualified if they exhibit one or more of the following: – Lack of adherence to submission requirements; – Poor quality in the writing; – Poor organization of material; – Lack of specificity on required elements; – Lack of appropriate instrument samples; – Lack of appropriate theoretical framework

Number of Awardees: Three (3) teams

Value of Award: The award is a 20.000 € research grant applied to a one-year investigation. BCFN Foundation will pay the grant in two periodic installments as the research progresses:

• The first tranche (10,000 €) after the winning ceremony – December 2018;
• The second tranche (10,000 €) after BCFN Advisory Board meeting – July 2019

How to Apply: Applications can be submitted via the BCFN website starting from the end of February
Visit Award Webpage for details

Award Provider: Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN)

IMD MBA Scholarships for Women (and Men) in Africa and Other Developing Nations 2018/2019

Application Deadline: The deadline for applying for all of these IMD MBA scholarships is 30th September 2018. Course starts January 2019


Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Field of Study: Masters in Business Administration

About IMD Scholarships IMD – International Institute for Management Development is a nonprofit Business School located in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is widely considered one of the world’s pioneers in Business education and consistently ranked as the top and very business school worldwide.
The scholarships are as follows:

• Nestle Scholarship for Women (Need-Based)
• Emerging Market Scholarships CHF 20-60K
• Diversity Scholarships Africa, Asia, South America CHF 30K
• IMD MBA Class of 1976 Merit Scholarship CHF 50K
• Merit Scholarships CHF 20K

The IMD MBA scholarships aim to help you finance your year at IMD. You need to have already submitted your admissions application to the full-time IMD MBA program to be considered for one of the scholarships, and will only be awarded a scholarship if you are accepted into the program.
Nestlé Scholarship for Women (CHF 25,000 scholarship)
The Nestlé Scholarship for Women first awarded in 1997, was initiated by a group of IMD MBA participants who wanted to encourage women to take the MBA. The need-based scholarships aim to help women from developing countries finance your year at IMD.
Essay Topic

• Demonstrate financial need by completing our Financial Aid Application and submit a 750 word essay on:
  “Many have argued that greater diversity in the Top Management team of an organization is good for profits and customers. What would you recommend as ways to achieve greater diversity?”

Emerging Market Scholarships CHF 20-60K:
For citizens of developing countries to enable young leaders who meet the following criteria to earn the IMD MBA degree.

• Submit Financial Aid Form at time of admissions application.
• Recipients confirmed at time of admissions offer.
• Criteria: citizen of a developing country, good academic results and GMAT score, strong reference letters, steady career progression.

IMD Diversity Scholarships Africa, Asia, South America CHF 30K: 

• Submit Financial Aid Form and essay by June 15th.
• One scholarship awarded to a citizen of each area by July 15th.
• Criteria: apply to one of first three application deadlines.
• Essay: 500 words on “The role diversity and globalisation will play in my future career”.

IMD MBA Class of 1976 Merit Scholarship CHF 50K:

• Awarded to the best all-round applicant from the April deadline.
• Recipient confirmed at time of admissions offer.
• No scholarship application required

Merit Scholarships CHF 20K:

• Awarded to applicants who demonstrate exceptional qualities throughout the admissions process.
• Recipient confirmed at time of admissions offer.
• No scholarship application required.

Type: MBA

Selection Criteria: Candidates must have been accepted into the IMD MBA program prior to their application for scholarship.
The scholarship applications are essay based, with winning essays typically including the following features:

• Relevance to the essay title
• Organization and structure
• Fully developed arguments
• Persuasiveness
• Personal element and/or passion

Number of Scholarships: Several

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of the programme

To be taken at (country): Switzerland

How can I Apply?
Visit the Scholarship Webpage for details

Sponsors: Scholarships are sponsored by different organization in collaboration with IMD

Important Notes: Scholarship essays, or questions, should be sent to mbafinance@imd.ch

Jane M Klausman Women in Business Scholarships for International Students 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 

• Applications must be completed and presented to Zonta clubs according to the club’s assigned deadline.
• A club recipient is selected, and the application is presented to the governor/regional representative by 1st July, 2018.
• The district/region recipient is selected, and the application is presented to Zonta International Headquarters by 1st September 2018.
• International recipients will be contacted by their Zonta club leader by November 2018.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Any country where Zonta international club has presence.

Eligible African Countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Mongolia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo. Also see the Important Notes (below).

Eligible Field of Study: Buisness related courses

About Scholarship: Because Zonta International believes in gender equality, the Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship program helps women pursue undergraduate and master’s degrees in business management and overcome gender barriers from the classroom to the boardroom. The Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship was established in 1998 from a generous bequest by Jane M. Klausman, a member of the Zonta Club of Syracuse, New York, USA, and the 1990-1995 Zonta International Parliamentarian. Since the program’s inception, Zonta has awarded 399 Scholarships to women from 50 countries.

Offered Since: 1998

Type: MBA, Training, Masters, Undergraduate, PhD.

Selection Criteria and Eligibility: 

• Women pursuing a business or business-related degree who demonstrate outstanding potential in the field are eligible.
• Online students are also eligible.
• Members and employees of Zonta International or the Zonta International Foundation are NOT eligible to apply for the Scholarships.

Number of Scholarships: Up to 32 scholarships

Value of Scholarship:

• Zonta International awards scholarships of US$2,000 each at the district/region level and six international scholarships in the amount of US$8,000 each.
• The Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarships are awarded annually and may be used for tuition, books or living expenses at any university, college or institution offering accredited business courses and degrees.

Duration of Scholarship: Onetime financial grant

To be taken at (country): Any country

How to Apply: The Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship program operates at the club, district/region and international levels of Zonta International. To download the 2018 JMK Women in Business Scholarship application, click here.
It is important to go through the Application process and more information on the Scholarship Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Sponsors: Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarships are made possible through investment income generated by the Klausman bequest, and by generous contributions from Zontians, Zonta clubs and friends of Zonta.

Important Notes: Applicants from geographic areas where no Zonta clubs are located will be considered and are eligible to apply for the district/region scholarship. Online students are also eligible to apply if enrolled at an accredited university/college/institute.

Türkiye Government Second Round Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Scholarships for International Students 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 5th March 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: See List below.

To be taken at (Universities): Turkish Universities

Fields of Study: Courses offered at the universities

About Scholarship: Türkiye Scholarships include both scholarship and university placement at the same time. Applicants will be placed in a university and programme among their preferences specified in the online application form. Candidates can apply only one scholarship programme in accordance with their educational background and academic goals.

Type: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD

Eligibility: To be eligible for Turkiye scholarship, applicants must;

• be a citizen of a country other than Turkey (Anyone holding or ever held Turkish citizenship before cannot apply)
• Candidates must not be older than 21 years of age for undergraduate degree
• not be a registered student in Turkish universities at the level of study they are applying.
• be a bachelor’s or master’s degree holder by 30th of July 2017 at the latest
• There is also age condition candidates are required to meet:• For applicants applying to Undergraduate Degree: Those who were born no earlier than 01.01.1997,
  • For applicants applying to Master’s Degree: Those who were born no earlier than 01.01.1988,
  • For applicants applying to Ph.D Degree: Those who were born no earlier than 01.01.1983,
  • For applicants applying to Research Program: Those who were born no earlier than 01.01.1973,
  • Applicants shouldn’t have any health problems barrier to education.
• have at least 75 % cumulative grade point average or diploma grade over their maximum graduation grade or have at least 75 % success in any accepted national or international graduate admissions test.
• be in good health

Required Documents

• Online application
• A copy of a bachelor or master’s diploma or document indicating that the candidate is bachelor or master’s senior student
• A certified bachelor and/or master’s transcript (indicating courses taken and relevant grades of the candidate)
• A copy of a valid ID card (passport, national ID, birth certificate etc.)
• Passport photo

Number of Scholarships: several

Value of Scholarship: The Scholarship Covers:

• Monthly stipend (600 TL for undergraduate, 850 TL for master and 1.200 TL for PhD )
• Full tuition fee
• 1-year Turkish language course
• Free accommodation
• Round-trip air ticket
• Health insurance

Duration of Scholarship: for the period of study

Eligible Countries:

• The list of countries open for undergraduate and postgraduate applications in the second round are as follows:

Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Burundi, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau (SAR), Malta, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, San Marino, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

• The list of countries open only for postgraduate applications in the second round are as follows:

Algeria, Andora, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Belarus, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Grenada, Guyana, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan,  Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Lebanon, Madagascar, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Montenegro, Mongolia, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Taiwan, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen

How to Apply: Applications can only be made through www.turkiyeburslari.gov.tr. Applicants are required to submit and upload the necessary documents to the application system.
Applications delivered by post, courier, or by hand will not be accepted.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Scholarship Provider: Turkish Government

Important Notes: Most programmes in Turkish universities are instructed in Turkish. However, some departments and universities offer programmes in English, French or Arabic. The candidates who want to study in these languages need to have an internationally recognized certificate to prove their language proficiency.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme for Developing Countries 2018

Application Deadline: 11th March 2018

Eligible Countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Candidates from any OTHER country are NOT ELIGIBLE

About the Award: The UN JPO Programme at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)/ Capacity Development Office recruits and administers JPOs for the UN Secretariat (all UN departments and offices) and its entities.
The JPO programme is open to applicants from participating countries. Candidates from developing countries may apply for positions in the framework of the Dutch and Italian JPO Programme.
The following 3 positions are addressed to candidates from developing countries.

•  JPO in Human Rights UN OHCHR NY (pdf) [VA#17P211]
  United Nations Secretariat, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN operations and Crisis Centre/ The Situation Centre, New York
  
•  JPO in Political Affairs UN DPA NY  (pdf) [VA#18P004]
  United Nations Secretariat, Department of Political Affairs, Policy and Mediation Division, Guidance and Learning Unit, New York
• JPO in Political Affairs UN DPA NY (pdf) [VA#18P023]
  United Nations Secretariat, Department of Political Affairs, Africa I Division, Great Lakes and Eastern Africa team, New York

Type: Jobs/Internship

Eligibility: 

• Candidates Must be nationals of a developing country that a[[ears on the list of eligible countries. 
  
• Part of the academic training MUST have taken place in one of the above listed countries to be eligible.
• Candidates should possess a Master’s degree and a MINIMUM of 2 and a MAXIMUM of 4 years of relevant work experience.
  • – Please note that candidates with more than the maximum amount of work experience can not be considered.
  • – Candidates who only hold a BA may be considered if in possession of 2 additional years of work experience.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Duration of Program: Appointment is for a period of one year, with a possibility of an extension, depending on the performance and available funding from donor countries.

How to Apply: Please SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION for the above-mentioned 3 positions via this online application system
Guidance to the Online Application System can be found here (pdf). Also go through the FAQs

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Donor countries The Netherlands and Italy, through the UN.

BHW Group Women in STEM Academic Scholarship for Study in USA 2018

Application Deadline: 15th April 2018
Winner will be announced on May 15th.

Eligible Countries: All

To Be Taken At (Country): USA

Type: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD

Eligibility: Women who are pursuing an undergraduate or master’s degree and are majoring in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics during the 2018 school year.

Number of Awards: Not specifid

Value of Award: $3000

How to Apply: Interested candidates can apply on the Program Webpage (link below)

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Merck 350th Anniversary Research Grants for International Researchers 2018

Application Deadline: 15th August 2018

Eligible Countries: Any

About the Award: In celebrating its 350th anniversary, Merck offers a series of research grants to stimulate innovative research in challenging areas of future importance. Merck intends to provide several research grants of up to EUR 350,000 per year for 3 years in various research areas with the option of extension or expansion. 

Fields of Research: 

• Healthy Lives / Drug Discovery
• Life Reimagined / Synthetic Biology
• Materials & Solutions
• Digitalization / Computing

Type: Research/Grants

Eligibility: Researchers from around the world may apply for the grants.

The research proposed for the grant must not: 

• involve interventional clinical research
• involve the testing of competitors’ products

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• Merck intends to provide research grants of up to EUR 350,000 per year for 3 years in several topic areas.
• Top submitters will be invited to a Deep Dive workshop to further advance the proposals together with Merck scientists.
• The deep dive workshop will include decision on grant recipients.
• Merck will cover all travel and accommodation costs.
• Furthermore, grant winners may gain access to meaningful collaborations within Merck and all the resources and connections that this allows.

How to Apply: Fill out the Application Form using only non-confidential information & send it via email to: 350researchgrants@merckgroup.com

• Please make sure you have read and accepted the terms and conditions before you submit the application form.
• All selected applicants will be invited to a three day workshop after signature of a confidential disclosure and workshop participation agreement to discuss and optimize a more detailed confidential research proposal further together with Merck scientists.
• At the end of the workshop participants will present their optimized research proposal and the winning applicants will be selected by Merck. Merck will then enter into bilateral collaboration agreements with the winning recipients to enable pay-out of the research grant and project start in 2019.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Merck