UK universities use coronavirus crisis to make hundreds of temporary staff redundant

Simon Whelan

Many UK university staff on fixed-term contracts, visiting lecturers and student support workers have been laid off or informed their contracts will not be renewed.

In recent weeks, three British universities have announced hundreds of temporary contract redundancies in order to make financial savings. The University of Sussex and two from the prestigious Russell Group—the University of Bristol and the University of Newcastle—have cited the coronavirus pandemic as necessitating severe expenditure cuts.

With higher education largely suspended or going online during the pandemic, fear is mounting of precipitous falls in the numbers of international students coming to the UK. This, along with cuts in research grants next year, will cost universities hundreds of millions of pounds.

Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Sussex (Wikipedia Commons)

University budgets are expected to be cut by up to £800 million by autumn 2020, due to lost income from conferences, student accommodation, catering and other associated income streams.

The business model of the British higher education sector is dependent upon highly educated staff who are denied secure employment and must eke out their employment on temporary and zero-hour contracts, where they are paid hourly. More than 50 percent of UK university staff are on temporary and part-time contracts.

Sussex University has issued a document, “Financial Review from Sussex.” The Research Professional News website drew attention to a section on temporary staff, which states: “Non-business critical posts currently held by temporary or agency staff will need to be reviewed and terminated as soon as possible.” The document advises, “Where possible, the tasks should be reassigned to other members of your team or non-critical tasks may need to be temporarily suspended in order to focus on core business activity.”

This means that the workloads of those who remain employed after departmental staffing levels are reduced will grow exponentially.

The guidance adds that “posts currently held by tutors [and] work carried out by other casual staff, will need to be reviewed in light of forthcoming scheduled teaching and where possible, terminated as soon as possible.” Where tutors are employed on an “open-ended rather than a fixed-term basis,” managers should “discuss with [HR] the process which should be followed.”

Kathryn Telling, a lecturer in sociology at Sussex School of Law, Politics and Sociology, tweeted that she was “genuinely sickened” by the document.

Once the pandemic emerged in the UK, Sussex Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell wasted no time e-mailing the respective heads of departments demanding that finances require “immediate action.” He told departments that cost-cutting in progress prior to the emergence of the pandemic was being accelerated and demanded strict adherence.

Tickell’s e-mail contained a missive from Sussex Director of Finance Allan Spencer to terminate with immediate effect all educators on fixed-term contracts and those hired from employment agencies. All recruitment at Sussex is to be frozen indefinitely. Spencer recommended the immediate inclusion of those job offers made by Sussex’s recruitment, but which had not yet been formally accepted. Such a move is not only callous in the extreme but potentially leaves many educators in limbo.

The University of Bristol have dismissed 84 staff on temporary and short-term contracts. In an e-mail to affected workers, the temporary staffing service manager said their contracts would end early on April 9, due to the pandemic.

A spokesperson for Bristol university said callously, “These staff were given two weeks’ notice instead of the usual one week.”

Prostrating themselves before the employers, the University and College Union (UCU) threatened only to write to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to politely ask that rather than laying the staff off, universities include them in the job furlough scheme whereby the government picks up 80 percent of their wages.

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady said, “Furlough arrangements should apply to all staff—including those on insecure contracts—and the government should extend the one-year visa extension for NHS staff to cover people working in our colleges and universities.”

Taking their lead from the suggestions made by the UCU, the Bristol spokesperson subsequently informed Cable, a public interest journalism website, “Where we can show as a result of COVID-19 we have had to lay staff off because the work no longer exists we hope to be able to apply for the furlough scheme. Universities have a complex set of arrangements and we require clarification from government about our eligibility to furlough individuals.”

Helen Rokliff is one of the workers who had her employment contract terminated early. She started work in the Bristol Maths Department in November 2019 on a temporary, zero-hour contract, which was due to end on April 30. She told Cable, “They [Bristol Temporary Staffing Service] gave assurance that they would pay until the end of the contract.

“That was about two or three weeks ago, and then about a week later, management told me they were so sorry, but they’ve retracted that and said they are only going to pay until April 9.”

Rockliff contacted the university requesting enrollment in the furlough scheme. “As far as I can see, it is applicable,” Rockliff added. “When I queried them about why they decided not to use it, they responded by saying that they could terminate my contract in a week and that the government guidelines weren’t very clear. I assume they just thought that’s the easiest course of action.”

Ashley Scott was employed on a temporary contract at Bristol for the last four years as a receptionist and administrator through the Temporary Staffing Service. “My contract came to its end just as the lockdown came into place,” Scott told Cable. “It had been rolled over in the past, but that wasn’t to be because of coronavirus. I’m now having to apply for universal credit and that’s proving to be really difficult. I feel like I’m stuck in limbo.”

An internal Bristol University e-mail seen by Cable explains to staff, “As a worker, your assignments are of a temporary nature, which can be ended earlier than anticipated by giving you one week’s notice. In the circumstances, we have made the difficult decision to review all of our temporary arrangements.”

In another email to faculties at Bristol, Deputy Vice Chancellor Guy Orpen celebrated their efforts in fighting coronavirus. “We can all be proud of the contribution the University community is making to the local, national and global effort; as a leadership team, we will continue to ask what more the University can and should be doing.” A former Bristol university employee responded, “I was wondering about sending them an email saying I’m trying to get you to extend your care for the community to your own staff!”

Bristol’s top brass will not be facing the loss of their privileged status. Vice Chancellor Hugh Brady enjoyed a salary increase of £9,000 last year, from £373,000 to £382,000. Half a dozen UK university vice chancellors are paid in excess of £500,000, and more than half earn at least £300,000 per year.

The UCU has a long record of suppressing the fight of its members against attacks on their jobs, terms, conditions and pensions. Opposed to rallying educators and university staff against the redundancies and accelerating casualisation of the Higher Education sector, Grady claimed, “Short-term reactions will have long-term consequences and any moves to reduce hours or make staff redundant are premature, unacceptable” as they were “counter to the government’s key aim of retaining jobs.”

This refers to the same Tory government that, in alliance with the universities, is seeking to slash the pay, pensions and livelihoods of university staff. Not opposed in principle to the cuts, Grady pleaded, “Universities should suspend any dismissals for at least the period of the crisis and then review staff needs. Staff dismissed at this time will find it almost impossible to secure alternative employment whilst the crisis continues.”

European states demand return to work as COVID-19 cases top 1 million

Johannes Stern & Alex Lantier

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Europe surged to more than one million yesterday, rising 40,612 to 1,011,369, as governments across the continent intensified pressure on workers to end confinement measures and return to work.

While shelter-at-home orders and school and plant closures in Europe have limited COVID-19’s spread, the pandemic is raging. After the number of new cases in Spain fell several days running to 3,961 on April 14, it suddenly nearly doubled to 6,599 the following day—Spain’s ongoing return to work will accelerate the contagion.

France announced 753 deaths yesterday and a record number of new cases, rising 17,164 to 165,027. It was Britain, however, that recorded the most deaths, 861, as 4,617 new cases brought the UK total to 103,093, the sixth country to pass the 100,000 case mark.

Police officers and soldiers check passengers leaving from Milan main train station, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2020. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

This underscores the politically criminal character of repeated calls from European governments for a return to work in coming days and weeks. With Spain having already ended shelter-at home orders for industrial workers on Monday, Italian workers are gradually returning to work with a final target date of May 4, and Germany and France have announced a return to work on May 4 and May 11, respectively.

Testifying before the French Senate, the president of France’s Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy, predicted that a return to normalcy would rapidly lead to an explosion of new daily cases, which typically ranged from 2,000 to 4,000 during the lockdown, to 10,000 to 15,000.

This week, a report from France’s National Institutes of Health and Research (INSERM) warned of the dangers posed by return to work orders. “Ending shelter-at-home orders without an exit strategy would lead to a second wave of the pandemic that would completely swamp the hospital sector,” they wrote, adding: “The maximum number of intensive care beds is estimated at over 40 times capacity if there is not a clear strategy after the end of the lockdown.” While French President Emmanuel Macron called for reopening schools next month, experts urge waiting until September.

“We do not yet have a clear vision of how the epidemic will develop in coming weeks,” commented Professor Renaud Piarroux of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, who said Macron’s call for a return to work on May 11 was “a sort of bet.”

Britain announced a three-week extension of its lockdown put in place on March 23 as public health workers continue to contract and die from COVID-19. Last Sunday, a pregnant 28-year-old nurse, Mary Agyeiwaa Anyapong, died after giving birth by caesarean section. The Nursing Notes organization also refuted government claims that 27 UK medical staff have died, whereas the true figure is 56: “We believe the difference stems from an omission of unregistered staff, locums/agency workers, allied health professionals, and social care.”

In Germany, after a video conference on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime ministers of the different German states agreed on a package of measures to gradually reduce the restrictions that have been in place until now to contain the spread of the pandemic.

According to the German government’s decision paper, the “decrees issued so far” such as social distancing regulations and contact restrictions will be “extended until May 3,” but schools are to be gradually reopened from May 4 at the latest. Initially, everyday school life is to begin in the highest elementary school classes, graduating classes and classes that will take exams next year. Also, at universities, examinations are to be held and libraries and archives opened.

In the German retail sector, shops with sales areas of up to 800 square meters will be able to reopen as early as next week, “as well as car dealers, bicycle dealers, bookstores, regardless of the sales area.” Among service providers “where physical proximity is essential, hairdressers should first prepare themselves to resume operations from May 4.”

The Germany government’s central goal, however, is to boost the economy and resume production, especially in the auto industry. The paper complains that in many cases “production problems and production stoppages have occurred in recent weeks independently of ordered closures because essential components were no longer supplied.”

Germany’s federal and state governments are now primarily tasked with supporting the economy by “restoring disrupted international supply chains.”

In order to lull the population into a false sense of security, the paper emphasizes that the restoration of “public life” and “disrupted value chains” must be “well prepared” and “accompanied in each individual case by protective measures in such a way that the emergence of new infection chains is avoided as far as possible.” The aim is “to ensure that health care facilities and nursing staff are fully supplied with medical masks that protect the wearers from infection.”

In other words, federal and state governments are preparing to ramp up the economy and public life and produce an explosion of new cases, even though there is not even a sufficient supply of medically adequate protective masks in the health care system! In fact, more and more hospitals are becoming hotspots of the COVID-19 epidemic. Due to the dramatic lack of protective equipment, more than 2,300 doctors and nurses have already become infected in German hospitals alone, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

“We must secure the successes we have achieved,” Merkel demanded at a joint press conference with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party—SPD), Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (Christian Social Union—CSU) and Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD). One wonders what the Chancellor is talking about? Germany recorded over 300 deaths on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday another 248 deaths were reported bringing the death toll to 4,052, far more than the 3,342 recorded in China, the original epicenter of the pandemic.

The policies of European banks and governments are setting them on a collision course with the working class. It was a wave of wildcat strikes and spontaneous walkouts by workers in Italy that forced the initial adoption of quarantine and shelter-at-home orders in Italy that then expanded across Europe. The European Union’s (EU) decades-long record of austerity and health care cuts stands utterly discredited. Nevertheless, banks and major corporations are working closely with the trade unions to plot a return to work to boost profits at the expense of workers’ lives.

While polls in France, Spain and Germany have all shown 80 percent of the population supporting shelter-at-home orders, there is little doubt that the bourgeoisie across Europe would prefer to order masses of workers back to work, and for many to their deaths, as soon as possible.

Merkel is calling for reopening international supply chains, however, under conditions where restarting production depends on reopening plants across southern Europe that were shut down by mass walkouts or strikes.

Last month, the French financial consultancy Rexecode warned of the international impact of “COVID-19 confinement of parts of northern Italy accounting for 55 percent of the country’s industrial production.” It noted, “The weight of Italy in European industrial supply chains far surpasses that of China, and certain countries are especially dependent. In France, textiles and machine tools are the most affected.”

European automakers are among the most exposed to disruptions in European and international supply chains. Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, cited “falling sales and supply chain uncertainty” as the reasons for interrupting production at its plants, while PSA and Renault cited supply disruptions in Spain in their statements reporting their decision to mothball plants.

Workers cannot afford to leave the decision on a return to work in the hands of governments and union bureaucracies whose utter contempt for the lives of the population is an open secret. The resources in the trillion-euro bank bailouts must be impounded and used to finance scientific research, a vast emergency expansion of health care, and full and direct financial support for workers and small businesses impacted by the catastrophe, regardless of nationality or ethnic origins. This requires the unification of the struggles of the working class across Europe on a socialist program.

Coronavirus-driven slump has wiped out 22 million jobs in the US

Niles Niemuth

The US Labor Department reported Thursday that 5.2 million more workers had filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of claims in the last four weeks to an unprecedented 22 million. This marks the sharpest rise in unemployment ever recorded in the country and equivalent to all jobs created since mid-2009, the beginning of the official recovery from the Great Recession.

The unprecedented job losses come amid a wave of economic figures showing the shattering impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the American and world economy. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported the biggest monthly decline in retail sales since the figures were first compiled 30 years ago, 8.7 percent, more than double the previous monthly record, set during the 2008 Wall Street crash. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve reported the biggest decline in industrial production since the shutdown that followed the end of the Second World War in 1946.

Industries hit with full force by the coronavirus lockdowns suffered the worst. The US airline industry has collapsed, with just 4 percent of the typical number of daily passengers when compared to last year, as interstate and international travel has largely come to a halt. Big retailers are going out of business. Best Buy said it would lay off 51,000 store workers, 40 percent of the total, beginning Sunday. J. C. Penney failed to make a $12 million interest payment on debts Wednesday, putting it 30 days from outright default.

People wait in line at The Campaign Against Hunger food pantry, Thursday, April 16, 2020, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The mass layoffs come as factories, restaurants, theaters, and most small businesses have been ordered closed by state governors to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which has already infected over 670,000 in the US and killed more than 34,000.

While the states that remain epicenters of the disease—New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Louisiana—are beginning to see some signs that social distancing has eased the growth in the number of cases, there are reports that COVID-19 is now beginning to hit other states as well as small cities and rural areas of the country, resulting in the closure of slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.

One month into criminally belated government initiatives to contain COVID-19, millions of people are desperate for money, missing payments on their rent, mortgages, and auto loans as well as credit card and student loan debt. Thousands have been lining up for hours in every city and community to receive much needed food aid, including members of the middle class who have never before had to rely on such support.

Economists project that the US and the world economy will suffer the worst contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Retail sales and industrial output in the US have already collapsed by record amounts and are expected to fall further even if social distancing measures are lifted.

Even though the unemployment figures reported so far are unprecedented, suggesting a current unemployment rate of 17 percent, they still do not capture the scope of the crisis facing the working class and small business owners. The weekly filings were limited by the Easter holiday weekend and many workers still report that they are unable to file a claim due to overloaded call centers, crashing websites and archaic application systems. Contractors and workers in the “gig economy” face long delays in gaining access to unemployment payments, while millions of undocumented workers have no hope of any sort of government assistance.

People who are fired from their jobs are ineligible for any unemployment and those who have recently moved from one state to another are having great difficulty filing. Every hurdle is placed in the way of workers to jump over in order to receive a few hundred dollars every week. It is estimated that as many as 35 million people could lose employer-paid health insurance due to the mounting layoffs. Nothing is being done for anyone who is not already rich.

The $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which was ostensibly aimed at helping small business owners keep their employees on the payroll, has already been exhausted, leaving tens of thousands of business owners and their employees in the lurch. Meanwhile among the “small businesses” which have received multimillion-dollar loans through the program are giant conglomerates including Potbelly Corporation, which employs 6,000 people and operates 474 sandwich shops in the US and internationally, and Ruth’s Hospitality Group, which operates a chain of more than 100 steakhouses across North America and Asia.

Under these conditions millions are being given the option of staying home and starving or going to work and risking illness and death.

President Donald Trump, who yesterday released his plan for reopening the American economy, is seeking to use the desperation of workers and the middle class to his advantage to force open the economy after funneling trillions of dollars to the big banks and corporations, a move that will lead to tens of thousands more deaths from COVID-19. Protests organized by Trump supporters against Democratic governors in Michigan, Kentucky and North Carolina and other states demanding an end to the lockdowns are a particularly backward expression of the very real desperation millions now confront.

Workers should reject with contempt this framework and fight for the democratic distribution of trillions of dollars in social aid to every section of society which is being devastated by the pandemic.

What is required to meet the interests of workers without sacrificing their lives and the lives of their families to the profits of Wall Street?

1. Nationalize the banks and large corporations, redirecting the trillions which are being funneled to the rich to fully support workers and small businesses for the duration of the pandemic.

The $6 trillion bailout authorized by the misnamed CARES Act, most of which has been funneled immediately to Wall Street, would be enough to provide every man, woman and child in America with a check of roughly $18,000. Instead, workers have had to wait weeks for a mere $1,200 stimulus, with many more left to wait months for any sort of cash aid. Thanks to a tax provision of the act, the average multimillionaire who owns a pass-through company will receive $1.6 million in stimulus. Billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has cashed in on the pandemic, increasing his net worth by $23.6 billion, enough to give every Amazon worker a bonus of $31,000. The claim that there is no money for the needs of the working class has never been more of a lie.

2. No return to work for nonessential businesses, and safe working conditions guaranteed for all those who work in essential jobs until the pandemic is over.

If the lives of hundreds of thousands around the world are to be saved the coronavirus must be contained, until a vaccine is developed people have to maintain social distancing measures, which means keeping most businesses closed. Workers in hospitals, grocery stores, food processing, transportation and logistics must be given every possible protection from the coronavirus and provided full pay and have all health care costs covered if they get sick.

3. Full funding for testing, tracing and quarantine.

Testing for COVID-19 and efforts to control its spread are still criminally lacking in the United States. Hundreds of billions must be spent on developing, distributing and carrying out tests and subsequently tracing contacts of those who test positive and provide them with safe quarantine conditions. The answer to the historic economic crisis sweeping across the globe is not an immediate return to “normalcy” but a mass independent movement of the working class, leading behind it the best elements of the middle class, fighting for a reorganization of society to meet human need, not the rapacious and murderous needs of the profit system.

Women PeaceMakers Fellowship Program 2020 for Women Building Peace (Funded to USA)

Application Deadline: 1st May 2020 at 11.59pm (-7 GMT).

Eligible Countries: International

To Be Taken At (Country): Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies, USA.

About the Award: Four Women PeaceMakers and four individuals, who represent international non-governmental organizations, will be selected as a cohort to build mutual learning and stronger partnerships between women peacebuilders and international organizations who are working to end cycles of violence.
During the 12-month Fellowship, the program will focus on Pillar II of the Kroc IPJ’s Peace Partnership Compact: Equitable Funding Partnerships, to strengthen and build more effective partnerships between local and global peacebuilders.

For 2019, the focus of the Program is on strengthening Funding Partnerships Between Local Women Peacebuilders and International Funders

Type: Fellowship (Professional), Training.

Eligibility: Applicants for the Women PeaceMakers fellowship must:

1. Have worked for 5-10+ years as a peacebuilder and have worked directly in their local peacebuilding contexts;
2. Demonstrates peacebuilding/peacemaking skills and attitudes;
3. Be in a position to participate in all activities during the 12-month fellowship and apply what is learned at the conclusion of the residency program;
4. Has worked directly with an international or national funder;
5. Demonstrate local credibility and a strong social network within her country/community of practice;
6. Speak sufficient English to relate personal experiences;
7. This year we are looking to bring on an American (from the United States) Women PeaceMaker – such applicants are highly encouraged to apply.

Selection Criteria: International partners will likewise be selected based on their work in and support of more inclusive peace processes.

Value of Award:

• There is no cost to participate in the Women PeaceMakers Program. Selected peacemakers will receive a per diem to cover basic living costs during the residency. This funding is to be used for meals and incidentals, and any local transportation needs apart from residency activities.
• The program provides all funding related to securing a visa, travel and airfare to and from San Diego at the beginning and end of the residency, and lodging throughout the seven weeks.
• The program encourages applicants to seek supplemental funding from other sources if needed, although the funding provided by the IPJ for those selected will be sufficient for the full seven weeks.
• Housing will be provided at La Casa de la Paz, ​”The House of Peace,” on the campus of the University of San Diego in California

Duration of Program: 12 months

• Fellowship dates: October 2020 – October 2021
• San Diego Residency dates: November 7 – December 11, 2020

How to Apply: Apply Now
Please see the Program Webpage (Link is below) for information on Application.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Schwarzman Scholars 2021/2022 (Fully-funded Masters Scholarship) for International Students

Application Deadlines: 22nd September 2020 at 11:59 PM, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Eligible Countries: All (except Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao)

To be taken at (country): Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (students live and study together on the campus of Schwarzman College, a newly-built, state-of-the-art facility, where all classes will be taught in English.)

Fields of Study:  Masters degree programmes in one of these three disciplines:

• Public Policy
• Economics and Business
• International Studies

What will be taught: Business, Social sciences, Leadership skills

About the Award: The Schwarzman Scholars program will give the world’s best and brightest students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and professional networks through a one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing – one of China’s most prestigious universities.
With a $350 million endowment, Schwarzman Scholars will be the single largest philanthropic effort ever undertaken in China by largely international donors. The extraordinary students selected to become Schwarzman Scholars will receive a comprehensive scholarship.
Schwarzman Scholars was inspired by the Rhodes Scholarship, which was founded in 1902 to promote international understanding and peace, and is designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. Blackstone Co-Founder Stephen A. Schwarzman personally contributed $100 million to the program and is leading a fundraising campaign to raise an additional $350 million from private sources to endow the program in perpetuity. The $450 million endowment will support up to 200 scholars annually from the U.S., China and around the world for a one-year Master’s Degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of China’s most prestigious universities and an indispensable base for the country’s scientific and technological research. Scholars chosen for this highly selective program will live in Beijing for a year of study and cultural immersion, attending lectures, traveling, and developing a better understanding of China.

Type: Masters Degree

Offered Since: 2015

Eligibility: The following criteria must be met by all candidates:

• Undergraduate degree or first degree from an accredited college or university or its equivalent. Applicants who are currently enrolled in undergraduate degree programs must be on track to successfully complete all degree requirements before orientation begins in 1 August 2021. There are no requirements for a specific field of undergraduate study; all fields are welcome, but it will be important for applicants, regardless of undergraduate major, to articulate how participating in Schwarzman Scholars will help develop their leadership potential within their field.
• Age. Applicants must be at least 18 but not yet 29 years of age as of 1 August 2021
• Citizenship. There are no citizenship or nationality requirements
• English language proficiency. Applicants must demonstrate strong English Language skills, as all teaching will be conducted in English. If the applicant’s native language is not English, official English proficiency test scores must be submitted with the application. Acceptable test options are:
  • Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL PBT)
  • Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT)
  • International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
  This requirement is waived for applicants who graduated from an undergraduate institution where the primary language of instruction was English for at least three years of the applicant’s academic program.

Number of Awardees: Up to 200 exceptional men and women will be accepted into the program each year.

Value of Scholarship: 

• Semi-finalist interview expenses, such as economy class air or train travel, group meals and one night in a hotel if needed, will be arranged and covered by the program.
• Expenses for successful Schwarzman Scholars are also FULLY covered by the program.
• It will include Tuition and fees, Room and board, Travel to and from Beijing at the beginning and end of the academic year, An in-country study tour,
• Required course books and supplies, Lenovo laptop and smartphone, Health insurance, and
• A modest personal stipend.

Duration of Scholarship: 1 year

How to Apply: There is no fee associated with applying to the Schwarzman Scholars program. To apply, you will need to complete and successfully submit an online application form, including all required documents and essays before the deadline date.
Visit the official website (link below) for complete information on how to apply to this scholarship programme.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Google Journalism Emergency Relief Fund 2020 for Small & Medium News Organisations

Application Deadline:  29th April 2020 at 11:59 p.m. PT

About the Award: The Fund’s aim is to support the production of original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating globally, it will provide an easily-accessible route to financial assistance at this critical time.

Type:  Grants

Eligibility:  

• Small and medium-sized news organizations producing original news for local communities during this time of crisis.
• Eligible applicants must have a digital presence and have been in operation for at least 12 months.
• The Fund is targeted at newsrooms employing between 2 – 100 full-time employee (FTE) journalists.
  • Local publishers employing more than 100 FTE journalists can still apply and will be considered subject to Google’s discretion, based mainly on differing needs in different countries/regions.
• Organizations must be incorporated or registered in one of the eligible geographies. Unincorporated organizations must be based in one of the eligible geographies.
• Eligible applicants need to have a focus on core news provision, i.e. not lifestyle, sports, business-to-business.
• Eligible applicants can include for-profit or nonprofit traditional news organizations, digital natives, radio and/or TV broadcasters.
• Government-owned entities and individuals are not eligible to apply.

Selection:  Initial selection of proposals will be done by teams of Google staff who have knowledge and experience in digital publishing and journalism in the regions detailed above. Applicants will then be contacted by email and offered funding before being asked to sign a funding agreement with Google. Selected applicants will then be required to enroll as a Google partner (if they are not already) in order to receive the funding.

Number of Awards:  Not specified

Value of Award:  Funds will be disbursed in one installment, in US dollars or Euros depending on region. Funding amounts will range from the low thousands for small hyper-local newsrooms to low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms, with variations per region.

How to Apply: Apply
You will be asked via our online application form above to provide basic information about your publication and overall organization (if applicable) and inform us of how the funds will be spent. By submitting an application, you accept and agree to the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund Terms and Conditions. Submissions will be reviewed and funded on a rolling basis. All applicants will be notified of the status of their application by email as soon as possible. Please note we expect a high volume of applications so we cannot guarantee a specific response time but will guide you as best we can along the way. It is our intention to provide funding as quickly as possible.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Important Notes: Please note that certain eligible geographies may have specific laws that apply to the receipt of funding from the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund and you are responsible for your compliance with any such laws, including, for example, by obtaining all necessary permissions from relevant authorities prior to receiving funding.

Homeless, Hungry, Waiting for Government Help

Eve Ottenberg

A rent moratorium is knocking on Washington’s door. By early April almost 17 million people lost their jobs and 31 percent of renters did not pay. How could they? They have no income. A deadly pandemic has shut down businesses. People are afraid to go to the grocery store because of infection – the grocery store! That is, those who have money for groceries and aren’t lining up at the local food bank.

How are these 17 million supposed to pay rent, when before Covid-19 struck, a high percentage of them had barely $400 for an emergency? The idea that the $1200 from the feds will see them through more than one month’s rent and living is laughable. The unemployed either need a monthly universal basic income or a rent moratorium for the duration of the plague. Otherwise the U.S. will see tens of millions of people booted out on the streets.

A government that can bail out a fatally cost-cutting and incompetent corporation like Boeing – which was headed for bankruptcy before the pestilence, due to its negligent homicide of hundreds in two plane crashes – to the tune of billions of dollars, such a government can bail out its citizens, the innocent victims of an economic collapse they did nothing to cause.

Some states and localities have stepped up. They have instituted rent moratoriums. But these are mostly for a mere month or two, and this patchwork safety net has lots of holes. Some states have only stopped evictions for a few weeks; as of late March, many of these moratoriums ended after April 1. Just recently the New York City mayor called for a pause of rent increases on rent stabilized apartments. While this is helpful, it just doesn’t cut it. People have lost their jobs, can’t afford food and line up for miles at food banks. Rents, not just increases, need to be suspended.

Surprisingly in Florida, where the governor has been otherwise very behind-hand, a 45-day suspension of evictions and foreclosures went into effect on April 2. But California shrank from such a statewide eviction ban. Instead, the governor empowered local governments to do so. Some have, some haven’t. Meanwhile landlords want that $1200 the feds are handing out. But food and medicine come first. Nationally, evictions should be halted. A federal policy is needed.

Along with rent, people can’t pay for water and utilities. Almost 90 cities and states in the U.S. have stopped water shutoffs. The seven states are: Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But few water departments will reconnect those they’ve already shut off; people in those impoverished households will have to find another way to wash their hands. For utilities, suspensions of cutoffs have been ordered in 23 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. In other words and not surprisingly, utilities have zoomed ahead of landlords in recognizing their customers’ dire circumstances during a plague-caused lockdown. Or maybe real estate developers just have more clout in statehouses.

Even if the lockdown comes off soon, and some people can return to work in a month, they will still have unaffordable, outstanding bills. If these are not forgiven, it is hard to see how there will be any recovery. Landlords will evict millions, and millions will lose water and electricity. But so far, the Trump administration seems far more concerned with bailing out rich corporations that bet wrong in the stock market, or with bailing out the stock market itself. The message is clear: if you’re not wealthy, expect crumbs from the federal government, namely a one-time payout – two times, if we’re lucky – and an extension of unemployment benefits.

These actions are better than nothing, but the prospect of real help for the tens of millions who need it is not good. Republican senators begrudge a measly $600 unemployment increase, fretting that it will incentivize workers to stay home. These Scrooges have never had to scrimp by on a nearly empty checking account. In fact, several senators dumped stock after a classified briefing on coronavirus, violating a 2012 law. Nothing could make their priorities clearer: their stock portfolios come first, their constituents’ desperate need for food, shelter, water, heat and electricity – a distant last.

With the collapse of health care system, Ecuador is the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in Latin America

Tomas Castanheira

The coronavirus pandemic in Latin America has had its most devastating impact in Ecuador. According to data released by the government on Wednesday, April 15, there were 7,858 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country and 369 deaths. The focus of the pandemic is the port city of Guayaquil, capital of Guaya province, which accounts for over 70 percent of the cases.

According to the official data, Ecuador is the second in terms of the absolute number of deaths from the disease on the continent, trailing only Brazil—with 1,736 confirmed deaths—which has a population that is 12 times larger.

However, as President Lenín Moreno himself admits, due to the general lack of tests, the official figures are a gross underestimate. Cynthia Viteri, the mayor of Guayaquil, from the Christian Social Party, said that mathematical projections made by experts point to more than 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in her city alone.

Jorge Wated, the leader of the task force organized by the government to collect bodies after the collapse of the funeral system, made a terrifying statement last Sunday. According to him, in recent weeks, 771 bodies have been removed by his team from residences in Guayaquil and another 631 dead from overcrowded hospital morgues. In some areas, bodies have been left in the street.

Although the task force has collected and buried many bodies, there are reports that at cemetery gates there are still rows of family cars carrying the bodies of their relatives inside sealed cardboard coffins.

Other families are condemned to endless searches to find the bodies of their loved ones. In a report to Agencia EFE, Liliam Larrea said that her father died on March 31 and she only was informed of the location of his body 10 days later. She was waiting for the weekend so she could remove him from an improvised morgue and transport him to the cemetery in her car.

She also reported that she had gone to three private clinics that refused to admit her father, who had respiratory problems, before being accepted by a specialized hospital. The doctor on duty at the hospital warned her to prepare herself, as her father “would not overcome this one,” although he arrived walking and conscious.

Health care professionals represent a considerable portion of coronavirus cases. The Ministry of Health reported about 10 days ago that more than 1,600 doctors, nurses and technologists were infected. More recently, the minister regretted that many doctors summoned on an emergency basis were deserting after discovering they would be sent to Guayaquil.

There is a total collapse of the health care system. Hospitals report a massive staff shortage, as many have taken medical leave after becoming infected. The Teodoro Maldonado Carbo hospital of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) reported that it is operating with half the regular number of nurses in the ICU. “There is a nurse for every 16 critical patients, this is a difficult fight, we are not supplied,” the hospital staff told El Universo .

Nurses from the IESS hospital and other hospitals have protested on social media over the lack of basic equipment. “They send us to war without weapons. We don’t have the protective materials, especially the N95 masks, the disposable materials, and the clothes they give us are the disposable aprons, one for each shift, there is no disinfectant to wash our hands well ... and if we take sick days off, they start giving us white cards (dismissals),” reported a nurse from the Francisco de Ycaza Bustamente Hospital.

The immense social crisis faced by the Ecuadorian population is a result of the criminal negligence of the ruling class and Lenín Moreno’s government, which, following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) austerity agenda, has annihilated funding for health care.

At the end of March, as he tried to stifle the explosion of the pandemic in the country and the collapse of the health system, Moreno accelerated payment of US$320 million in debt, declaring that the government’s priority is “to bring credibility.” “That is why we have already received the support of the International Monetary Fund,” he said.

Last Sunday, the president made a new nationally televised statement, announcing a series of emergency measures to supposedly combat the coronavirus crisis in the country. In fact, through these measures, Moreno is taking advantage of the situation to advance his policies of attacks on the working class.

The government plans to create a so-called National Humanitarian Emergency Account, aimed at rescuing companies and providing basic aid to the poorer sectors of the population. To this end, it will tax for three months the profits of companies with an income larger than US$1 million, by 5 percent.

However, most of this fund will be financed by working class wages. Those who earn more than $500 a month will be required to make progressive contributions for nine months. Salaries of civil servants above $1,000 will also be taxed, at 10 percent.

Trying to cover up this attack with grotesque populism, Moreno announced that he will cut his own salary and that of other government officials by 50 percent. Even after these cuts, everyone will still receive over $2,000 a month, while they plan to allocate $60 in aid to the most impoverished for just two months.

At the same time, the government is preparing legislation for the urgent consideration of the national legislature. In the name of halting layoffs, it will propose “free negotiation between the parties” on the reduction of working hours and wages, as well as payment dates, in agreements valid for up to two years and with the option of renewal for two more! The content of this proposal is exactly the same as the labor reform that Moreno has been trying to approve since last year and was blocked by massive strikes and protests.

Instead of protecting workers, this measure will only give employers more freedom to continue the destruction of jobs. In the midst of the pandemic, a number of companies have invoked “force majeure,” using a clause in the Ecuadorian Labor Code to carry out mass layoffs without paying any compensation.

Moreno has attempted to shift the responsibility for these onto his predecessor, Rafael Correa, whom he served as vice president. About a week ago, Correa was sentenced for corruption to eight years in prison, together with a 25-year suspension of his political rights. He was accused of receiving illegal financing from companies. Referring to him, Moreno said: “The pandemic hit us at a critical moment, when we were trying to surpass a very tough economic crisis. A crisis caused by the irresponsible debts we inherited and the robberies of those who were just convicted.”

Moreno’s greatest fear, however, is not of his bourgeois political rivals, but rather the masses of workers and indigenous peasants. In his speech last Sunday, he launched an abstract threat, but one that must be understood as directed against the latent social opposition. “Be very careful,” said Moreno, “those who want to commit abuses, or who want to benefit from this serious, very serious situation. Personally, I will make sure that the law punishes these abuses with all its weight!”

In protest against the measures announced by Moreno, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), along with unions and other organizations that claim to be of a “popular” character, called a “cacerolazo” (beating pans in protest) this past Sunday.

CONAIE, just as its opponent Moreno, addresses itself to Washington to resolve the political crisis in Ecuador. On April 7, it sent a letter denouncing the government and making a series of demands to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), administered by the Organization of American States (OAS)—the same US-dominated body that recently legitimized a military coup in Bolivia. The letter concludes: “We trust in the intervention of the Inter-American Human Rights System, as well as in its objectivity.”

The opposition to the government led by CONAIE has the same political character that was seen in the mass uprising of October of last year: it works to demoralize the Ecuadorian masses of the city and the countryside and in order to politically subordinate them to the bourgeoisie.

The working class and the peasant population cannot overcome the deep social and economic crisis, extremely aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, without confronting the country’s subordination to the profit interest of international capital and the national bourgeoisie. In this struggle, all sectors of the Ecuadorian ruling class are mortal enemies and are inextricably bound with imperialism.

The workers need to establish an independent political movement for a socialist government in alliance with the international proletariat, especially the working class of the rest of Latin America and the United States.

Pakistan “reopening” much of its economy as COVID-19 cases and deaths spike

Sampath Perera

Pakistan is among a growing list of countries whose governments, at the urging of big business, are willfully flouting the World Health Organization’s warnings against a premature return to work.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan’s three-week coronavirus lockdown, which was effectively imposed on the Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) government by the provinces and the country’s powerful military establishment, is being extended until April 30. But Khan emphasized that this will only be a “partial lockdown,” adding that the “construction industry and other sectors will be opened from today in phases.”

Subsequently, the government announced that more than a dozen economic sectors are being allowed to resume at least partial operations, including mines, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, and most manufacturing. The government is especially keen to have major exporters like the garment industry back in production.

Claims that the government will ensure that workers’ safety will be protected are a cynical fraud. The authorities’ true attitude to workers’ health and safety was exemplified by their ordering police last week to viciously attack medical staff in Quetta, Balochistan who were protesting the government’s failure to provide them with masks and other safety equipment.

A 2019 report found that seven years after the Ali Enterprises factory fire in Karachi that killed almost 300 people, Pakistan’s garment workers continue to face “unsafe” working conditions, with whatever safety regulations exist on paper flouted by employers and un-enforced by the state.

Pakistan’s precipitous return to work threatens to greatly amplify the COVID-19 pandemic in a densely-populated, impoverished country of more than 200 million, with a public health system in ruins.

As it is, the novel coronavirus pandemic is anything but under control. The official figures show that since the beginning of the month the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have almost tripled, from 2,291 to 6,383. Deaths, meanwhile, have risen from 31 to 111.

But these figures are in all likelihood reflective of the lack of testing more than anything else. To date, just 73,349 tests have been administered.

Last Saturday, Sindh province reported a 20 percent positive rate from the approximately 500 COVID-19 tests it had been able to perform over a 24-hour period. Most of these came from Karachi, the country’s commercial capital and home to over 20 million people living in squalid and extremely crowded conditions.

An adviser to the Khan government for commerce and investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, told Bloomberg late last week that companies with export orders will resume work, albeit with “precautionary measures including calling in only essential employees and ensuring regular disinfection.” Bloomberg reporters failed to ask who would be considered “non- essential workers” in factories producing for the world market under a regime of super exploitation.

Dawood’s comments were corroborated by Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, who stated last Friday, “We are going to resume key sectors that employ millions.”

Even before Khan’s Tuesday announcement that the “lockdown” is being lifted for much of industry, factories that supply such global brands as Nike and Puma had resumed production. Last week, the PTI-led Punjab provincial government gave the green light for the reopening of 117 factories engaged in food processing, textiles, leather and auto parts manufacturing.

The PTI government’s rallying behind business’ call for the “reopening” of construction, manufacturing and other industries comes amidst mounting fears in ruling circles over the impact of declining exports on Pakistan’s ability to pay for imports or service its external debt.

With its foreign reserves rapidly depleting, the government has already appealed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an emergency $1.4 billion bailout. This is apart from a $6 billion loan already in place.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Khan has been outspoken in his opposition to taking urgent action to stop the spread of COVID-19, callously prioritizing business profit over the lives of the country’s workers and toilers.

Feigning concern for the tens of millions of urban and rural poor, he has repeatedly proclaimed that a lockdown will condemn them to “die from hunger.”

But it is Khan’s government that has been waging a ruthless class war against Pakistan’s workers and toilers, imposing brutal IMF-dictated austerity measures and pro-investor “reforms.” Even before the pandemic, the poverty rate was projected to rise to 40 percent by July from 31.3 percent a year earlier, due to low economic growth, double-digit inflation and the impact of the IMF-measures.

Throughout the pandemic, the real concern of Khan and his PTI government has been the impact that the measures needed to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 will have on business profits and the wealth and investments of the capitalist elite.

According to figures presented by the Pakistan-based Business Recorder, the country’s external debt is $110 billion and growing, with $13.5 billion in loan payments to be paid in 2020. Foreign portfolio investments that the government was banking on to ease the pressure are “no more the case,” the report highlighted. The IMF emergency loan, if approved, would prop up foreign reserves only temporarily.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was quick to remark that the Khan government “reaffirmed their commitment to the reform policies included in the current arrangement,” as soon as Pakistan requested emergency financing from the IMF’s COVID-19 fund. Her remarks refer to a spate of highly unpopular pro-investor measures, including privatization, regressive tax increases and the scaling back or elimination of price subsidies.

COVID-19 pandemic hits Lebanon, piling health crisis onto political and economic meltdown

Jean Shaoul

The coronavirus has hit Lebanon amid a spiraling political, economic and social crisis and causing widespread panic, food shortages and hardship.

While the number of confirmed cases and deaths is still relatively low, with some 658 cases and 21 deaths, according to official figures, Lebanon—one of the most heavily indebted countries in the world—faces meltdown.

Its corrupt political system, manipulated for decades by regional powers and French and US imperialism, has been paralysed for years. As a result of one of the earliest “experiments” in neo-liberalism, its venal bourgeoisie provides little in the way of health care for any but the elite.

Over 80 percent of the hospitals are private. Successive governments have slashed spending and failed to reimburse hospitals for their expenditure, so that now, with a severe US dollar shortage, there is an acute lack of life-saving medicines and key equipment. Those afflicted with the most severe form of the virus face almost certain death.

Last autumn, weeks of protest over the country’s deteriorating economic and social conditions led to the fall of the government headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a political stooge of Saudi Arabia. On March 9, Hassan Diab, his successor, defaulted on a $1.2 billion eurobond amid the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, later extending the default to all overseas debt. According to plans leaked to Al-Jazeera, he is seeking $10 billion-$15 billion in external financing in return for further privatisation, slashing of public salaries, tax hikes and an official devaluation of the Lebanese currency which has already fallen on the black market by 50 percent since September.

On March 15, Diab declared a state of emergency and introduced lockdown measures, bans on public transportation and night curfews, which served to close down both the economy and the ongoing protests—with security forces clearing protest camps in downtown Beirut. At the same time, Lebanon’s crowded inter-generational households provide the ideal conditions for the rapid transmission of the virus.

Lebanon’s impoverished people, having lost their meagre income, now face hunger. Last November, well before the pandemic, the World Bank estimated that 45 percent of Lebanon’s 6 million people lived below the poverty line, up from 33 percent before September, and predicted the country’s bankruptcy would lead to a further rise to 50 percent in 2020. A massive 22 percent already live in extreme poverty.

Amid soaring inflation in food prices due to the de facto devaluation of the Lebanese pound and an expected shortage of wheat and other essential items, the government has announced it is to import 80,000 tonnes of wheat for the first time since 2014 and give some of the poorest families a one-off payment of $150. But it is unclear how this small sum is to be distributed. A further $12 million has been allocated to provide food and medicine for 100,000 vulnerable families, a tiny fraction of those in need.

The corruption and patronage networks of the major political parties have deeply discredited them, as witnessed by the popular slogan during the protests, “When we say all of you (should leave), we mean all of you.” They are now seeking to rally support by funding aid distribution and sanitising. Hezbollah and Amal, for example, have mobilised a team of 24,000 medical workers at a cost of $1.75 million.

Facing destitution, some workers are starting to defy the lockdown. Last month, a taxi driver set fire to his car after being fined for flouting lockdown orders. A vendor in Tripoli threw his produce on the streets after the police ordered him to close. Drivers of shared taxis blocked the main Tripoli-Beirut highway several times after a ban on their operation.

Protests and riots have broken out in Lebanon’s prisons and detention centres as prisoners demanded to be released before they die in conditions that constitute a petri dish for the virus. Last week, security forces fired rubber bullets, injuring at least four prisoners when a riot broke out in Tripoli’s Qoubbeh prison. It came a day after an escape tunnel several metres in length was discovered at Zahle Prison in the eastern Bekaa Valley. While the government had earlier announced the release of up to a third of its 9,000 inmates—those with fewer than six months left in their sentences—none have yet been released.

Lebanon hosts the largest number of forcibly displaced people per capita in the world, some 1.5 to 2 million Syrian and 475,000 Palestinian refugees, who have been badly affected by recent discriminatory measures. Samir Geagea, leader of the far-right Lebanese Forces Party, has led efforts to target refugees as spreaders of the virus, poisoning the atmosphere to divide the working class as part of a broader alignment of Christian and Sunni politicians, backed by the US and Saudi Arabia, against Hezbollah, backed by Iran.

His xenophobic diatribe has been taken up by at least 21 municipalities that have imposed discriminatory restrictions on Syrian refugees. Eight municipalities have imposed longer curfews on Syrian refugees than Lebanese citizens, threatening Syrians with legal action and confiscation of their documentation if they violate the curfew. Undocumented people are ineligible for free testing for COVID-19 and have been ordered to pay as much as 750,000 Lebanese lira (approximately $498) to cover the cost.

Lebanon has carried out few tests and is unable to obtain test kits due to the high international demand.

Many of the 250,000 migrants from Africa and Asia, employed mainly as domestic workers, are trapped in Lebanon by border closures, or are unable to afford a flight home. Others are effectively enslaved to employers who take away their passports. Al-Arabiya reported activist Zeina Ammar saying of domestic workers, “We’ve seen an increase in [suicide] cases, particularly emergency cases and requests for shelter and repatriation, during and caused by the economic crisis.”

These terrible social conditions are replicated across the region, where the pandemic’s human toll is likely to be catastrophic. The UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), covering 18 Arab countries with a total population of 411 million, expects 8.3 million people to fall into poverty.

A further 2 million will become “undernourished.” With the closure of schools, children’s access to free school meal programmes has ended what was often the one nutritious meal of the day. This would bring the official number of people classified as poor to 101.4 million, a quarter of the population, and the “undernourished” to 52 million, likely a gross underestimate.

Mid-March, the agency was predicting job losses approaching 2 million, a figure likely exceeded already, given the impact of plummeting oil prices and the closure of non-essential businesses, with the services sector, the region’s main employment provider, particularly hard hit.

With little opportunity to earn a living outside the “informal” economy, which pays slave labour rates on a day-to-day basis, and without social insurance, the most vulnerable will be left without any means to survive, especially given the drastically curtailed remittances from family members overseas.

Some 26 million people in need are forcibly displaced—refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)—one-third of the 71 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, thanks to decades of wars and conflicts sponsored by the major imperialist powers and their regional allies. Nearly 16 million of these are moderately to severely food insecure.

At least 12 million refugees and IDPs live in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, including 1 million people who have fled the recent fighting in Idlib. They join hundreds of thousands already displaced by the US-led war in Iraq, and refugees from conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. Many are trying to leave the camps that are nothing but death traps, with some even returning home.

The region also hosts millions of Palestinians displaced by the establishment of the State of Israel and the wars in 1948-49 and 1967, as well as Israel’s repeated conflicts with Lebanon and Gaza.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has warned that the virus will “devastate these communities” as it hits millions of conflict-afflicted people living in overcrowded and unsanitary camps and settlements with little in the way of health care.