17 Jan 2019

Open Society’s Civil Society Scholar Awards 2019 for Doctoral Research Students and Faculties

Application Deadline: 29th March 2019

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: See Below

Type: Research Grants

Eligibility: The awards are open to the following academic populations:
  • doctoral students of eligible fields studying at accredited universities inside or outside of their home country
  • full-time faculty members teaching at universities in their home country
Candidates must be citizens of the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Kosovo, Laos, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, or Yemen.

Selection Criteria: Civil Society Scholars are selected on the basis of their outstanding contributions to research or other engagement with local communities, to furthering debates on challenging societal questions, and to strengthening critical scholarship and academic networks within their fields.
Requests for support for first-year tuition and fees only will be considered on the basis of a clearly demonstrated need from doctoral students who have gained admission to universities outside of their home country.
Selected grantees may be invited by CSSA to attend short-term trainings/summer school, and a participant conference during the grant period. Travel costs and accommodation for these events will be covered by CSSA.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Program: Maximum funding requests: $10,000 for doctoral students; $15,000 for faculty members.

The awards support short-term, international academic projects, such as: fieldwork (data collection); research visits to libraries, archives, or universities; course/curriculum development; and international research collaborations leading to peer-reviewed publication.

Duration of Program: 
  • Project duration: between two and nine months
  • Eligible dates: September 1, 2019–August 31, 2020
How to Apply: Detailed guidelines on the conditions of these awards are available in the Program Webpage link below.
  • Online Applications: Applicants are strongly advised to submit their application online.
  • Paper Applications: For those wishing to submit a paper application, an application form and budget/timeline template can be downloaded from the Download Files section.

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Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards 2019 for African Students in South African Universities

Application Deadline: 1st May 2019

Eligible Countries: African countries

To Be Taken At (Country): South Africa

About the Award: The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa. The ACIP is committed to collaboration between scholars and the makers of culture/history, and to fostering inquiry into the politics of knowledge production, the relationships between the colonial/apartheid and the postcolonial/postapartheid, and the importance of critical pluralism as against nationalist discourse. ACIP is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).
Funding is to be used for on-site dissertation research; research cannot be at the applicant’s home institution unless that institution has necessary site-specific research holdings not otherwise available to the applicant. Applicants who have completed significant funded dissertation research by the start of their proposed ACIP research may be ineligible to apply to extend research time. Eligibility will be at the discretion of the ACIP Selection Committee, depending on completed research time and funding. Please note that the Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards support dissertation research only and may not be used for dissertation write-up, tuition, study at other universities, conference participation, or to reimburse debts or expenses for research already completed. The programme does not accept applications from Ph.D. programmes in Law, Business, Medicine, Nursing, or Journalism, nor does it accept applications in doctoral programmes that do not lead to a Ph.D.

Type: Research

Eligibility:  
  • The Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards are open to African postgraduate students (regardless of citizenship) in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
  • Applicants must be currently registered in a Ph.D. programme in a South African university and be working on topics related to ACIP’s focus.
  • Awards will support doctoral research projects focused on topics such as institutions of public culture, particular aspects of museums and exhibitions, forms and practices of public scholarship, culture and communication, and the theories, histories and systems of thought that shape and illuminate public culture and public scholarship.
  • Applicants must submit a dissertation proposal that has been approved by their institution to confirm the award; this must be completed before they begin ACIP-supported on-site research or by December 2018, whichever comes first.
Selection Criteria: Selection will be based on the merit and strength of the application.
  • Awards are open to proposals working with a range of methodologies in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, including research in archives and collections, fieldwork, interviews, surveys, and quantitative data collection.
  • Applicants are expected to write in clear, intelligible prose for a selection committee that is multi-disciplinary and cross-regional.
  • Proposals should show thorough knowledge of the major concepts, theories, and methods in the applicant’s discipline and in other related fields and include a bibliography relevant to the research.
  • Applicants should specify why an extended period of on-site research is essential to successfully complete the proposed doctoral dissertation.
  • Guidance and advice on how to write a good proposal and budget can be found in the Resources section of the ACIP website (see Links in Program Webpage below)
Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Grant amounts vary depending on research plans, with a maximum award of ZAR 40,000.

How to Apply: To apply, eligible applicants should submit the following as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed:
  • completed cover sheet (form below and online at http://www.gs.emory.edu/about/special/ahtml)
  • abstract of the proposed research project (250 words maximum)
  • research proposal outlining the project’s goals, central questions, significance, and relevance for ACIP’s central concerns. Proposals should include a clearly formulated, realistic research design and plan of work responsive to the project’s theoretical and methodological concerns. Applicants should provide evidence of appropriate training to undertake the proposed research, including the language fluency necessary for the project. Proposals should be no longer than 5 pages; they should be double spaced, with one inch margins and a font no smaller than 11 point. Applications that do not follow this format will not be considered.
  • bibliography of up to two additional pages
  • project budget listing and justifying project expenses to be supported by the award
  • your curriculum vitae
  • current transcript
  • two referee letters; one of these must be from your supervisor. Your referees should comment specifically on your proposed project, its quality and significance, and your qualifications for undertaking it. They might also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your project and how you and your work would benefit from receiving the research award. Referee letters should be submitted directly to the selection committee.
Please submit materials as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed above. Applications should be sent by email with the heading “ACIP 2019 Research Award Application” to lameezlalkhen@gmail.com.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Supported by funding from the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund

Canada: IFCN Education and Research Scholarships 2019 for Young Clinical Neurophysiologists in Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 31st March 2019

Eligible Countries: These scholarships will be split between applicants from economically disadvantaged and developed countries.

To Be Taken At (Country): Canada

About the Award: 
  • Education Scholarship: The IFCN awards THREE scholarships each of $25,000 USD for young clinical neurophysiologists wishing to spend at least 6 months in a neurophysiological laboratory with a national/international reputation. Applicants are expected to advance their training in Clinical Neurophysiology.
  • Research Scholarship: The IFCN awards THREE scholarships each of $25,000 USD for young clinical neurophysiologists wishing to spend at least 6 months in a neurophysiological research laboratory with a national/international reputation. Applicants are expected to participate in a research project.
Type: Training, Research

Eligibility: These scholarships will be split between applicants from economically disadvantaged countries and applicants from developed countries and covers at least 6 months of study (application should stipulate duration of studies). Applicants who are 35 years of age or less will be given preference.

Number of Awards: 6 (3 for each scholarship)

Value of Award: Both the education and research scholarships are for $25,000 USD.

Duration of Program: At least 6 months

How to Apply: 
  • In order to apply for these scholarships, applicants must attach required documents for the scholarship they are applying for (List is in Program Webpage Link below)
  • It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying
Visit the Program Webpage for Details

KAAD Germany Fellowship Programme 2019/2020 (Masters & PhD) for Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 30th June 2019 for the September academic session.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East or Latin America. Countries in Africa include: Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya (with Uganda and Tanzania) and Zimbabwe.

To be taken at (country): Germany.  There is also the possibility for Master-scholarships at local universities.

Eligible Field of Study: There is no specific subject-preference. However, the selection board has often given preference to courses and subjects that they felt to be of significance for the home country of the applicant. This holds true especially for subjects of PhD-theses. There is therefore a certain leaning towards “development oriented” studies – this does however not mean that other fields (cultural, philosophic, linguistic, etc.) can not be of significance for a country and are ruled out.

About the Award: The KAAD Scholarship Program is addressed to post-graduates and to academics living in their home countries who already gained professional experience and who are interested in postgraduate studies (or research stays) in Germany. This program is administered by regional partner committees, staffed by university professors and church representatives. Normally documents are submitted to the committee of the applicant’s home country.

Type: Postgraduate(Masters and PhD) scholarship

Eligibility: To be eligible for the KAAD Fellowship, candidates must:
  • come from a developing or emerging country in Africa, Asia, the Middle East or Latin America and are currently living there
  • have a university degree and professional experience from their home country
  • want to acquire a master’s degree or a PhD at a German university or do a post-doctoral research project (2-6 months for established university lecturers) at a German university
  • be Catholic Christian (or generally belong to a Christian denomination). Candidates from other religions can apply if they are proposed by Catholic partners and can prove their commitment to interreligious dialogue
  • possess German language skills before starting the studies (KAAD can provide a language course of max. 6 months in Germany)
Selection Criteria: 
  • KAAD’s mission is to give scholarships mainly to lay members of the Catholic Church. This means, that – There is a preference for Catholic applicants.
  • However, among the scholars, there is a limited number of: Protestant Christians, Orthodox Christians (especially from Ethiopia)and Muslims.
  • Catholic priests and religious people are eligible only in very rare cases.
Expectations from KAAD: 
  • Above-average performance in studies and research
  • The orientation of your studies or research towards permanent reintegration in your home region (otherwise the scholarship is turned into a loan),
  • Religious and social commitment (activities) and willingness to inter-religious dialogue.
Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship:  Applicants who are awarded scholarships for Germany under S1 are helped by KAAD with their Visa-modalities, paid for the flights to Germany and back, provided with language training in Germany prior to their studies, etc.

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of program

How to Apply: Interested graduates can fill an online questionnaire, which they find on the application webpage www.kaad-application.de. For detailed information about application requirements and procedures, we recommend to read the FAQs.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

China: An Ancient Country, Getting Older

Tom Clifford

Saudi Arabia, rolling dunes, endless desert, little rain. Northern China. Verdant hills, green fields and this time of year, heavy snow. Yet there is less water available in northern China per head of population than in Saudi Arabia.
With a fifth of the world’s population, China has about 7 per cent of the planet’s fresh water.
Even the quality of what is available is poor. Tap water is undrinkable without being filtered heavily. Industrial waste and the flow of pesticides from fields contribute massively to pollution. At least 10, 000 petrochemical plants dot the banks of the Yangtze River. China has about 88,000 reservoirs but at least 40 percent are in a poor condition.
Things are not much cleaner above ground. Massive strides have been taken too combat air pollution in northern China but it is still a cause for concern. The first two weeks of January have seen more polluted days, where levels of particulate matter 2.5 (often referred to as PM 2.5, because their diameter is 2.5 microns), exceed World Health Organization guidelines, than clear ones.  Correct, enough of the science. But PM2.5 levels are a main topic of conversation in Beijing. It is not uncommon for conversations in shops or the train queues to mention PM2.5 levels.
Some context. There are about 25,000 microns in an inch. In other words, they are small, about several thousand could fit on this full stop. They embed themselves in lungs causing a range of lingering respiratory problems that can be fatal.
Air pollution in China claims more lives than smoking. Outdoor air pollution in China causes about 1.2 million premature deaths a year, almost double the 750,000 early deaths caused by smoking.  Up to 200, the air quality index for China goes up in increments of 50 with 0-50 classified as excellent. I am writing this in Beijing with the index at 259, classified as heavily polluted.
China, the globe’s largest emitter, has installed more renewable energy capacity than any other country but it also opens a coal-fired power station every two weeks.
China is an ancient country getting older. The number of people over 60 is currently about 15 percent of the 1.3 billion population. This is expected to grow to nearly 500 million by mid century.
Then we deal with the 1:2:4 issue. Married workers often have to support a child, two parents and four grandparents. This means living with them in small flats but even if the main breadwinner works far from home, he or she, has to provide.
About half of China’s elderly live alone or with grandchildren as the parents have left to seek work. The Spring Festival in February, the largest movement of humans on the planet, will see many return home for their one visit a year.
So concerned are the authorities about the plight of the elderly that a law was passed in 2013 demanding that children visit their parents and not neglect them. That a country that prides itself on filial piety has to pass such a law indicates the seriousness the issue is treated with.
The climbing divorce rate in China means more elderly people are not being cared for by their families.
The rate has seen a marked increase over the last decade, driven largely by working women who feel empowered to start a new life. The government is trying to slow the trend, seeing it as a source of social instability.
Divorces rose rapidly from 1.8 per thousand persons in 2002 to 3.2 per thousand persons in 2017. And marriage rates have plunged. After peaking at 9.9 per thousand persons in 2013, the marriage rate in 2017 was only 7.7 per thousand persons.
“Have you divorced today?” has become a common joke between Chinese people. The issue is compounded by the fact that divorce in China condemns the elderly in-laws to an uncertain future.
Chinese New Year starts on February 5. Ironically, this will be the year of the pig. Pork is the most popular dish and the health of the pig stock is of national strategic significance. But swine fever has cast a shadow.
China has approximately 700 million pigs but authorities have warned the country’s pork industry this month that covering up cases of African swine fever is a crime.
The animal husbandry and veterinary affairs bureau is stepping up investigations and increasing punishment concerning illegal activity in the pig industry, said a statement published on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs website.
Deaths of pigs have to be reported and privately slaughtering and selling sick or dead pigs would be classified as a criminal offence, it said. Compensation of 1,200 yuan ($177) for each pig culled was sufficient incentive for farmers to report the disease, it added.
China is experiencing the worst outbreak of the disease ever, and it has confirmed about 100 cases of swine fever across 23 provinces (out of 34 provincial level administrative units) since August last year. The disease, for which there is no cure or vaccine, is deadly to pigs, although does not harm people.
China is a fascinating, incredible, colorful, safe and often frustrating country to live in. It has enjoyed turbo-charged growth not because it has cheated on trade deals, or pulled the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting West. Its people work hard and are reaping the benefits of their labor. For many who travel home for the Spring Festival it will be the only break from work they have, including weekends.  Its universities are breaking new ground, especially in science and technology. Its streets are safe to walk on. But it does have problems, including pollution, care for the elderly and food safety.

Europe on the Brink of Collapse?

Peter Koenig

The Empire’s European castle of vassals is crumbling. Right in front of our eyes. But Nobody seems to see it. The European Union (EU), the conglomerate of vassals – Trump calls them irrelevant, and he doesn’t care what they think about him, they deserve to be collapsing. They, the ‘vassalic’ EU, a group of 28 countries, some 500 million people, with a combined economy of a projected 19 trillion US-dollar equivalent, about the same as the US, have submitted themselves to the dictate of Washington in just about every important aspect of life.
The EU has accepted on orders by Washington to sanction Russia, Venezuela, Iran – and a myriad of countries that have never done any harm to any of the 28 EU member states. The EU has accepted the humiliation of military impositions by NATO – threatening Russia and China with ever more and ever more advancing military basis towards Moscow and Beijing, to the point that Brussels’ foreign policy is basically led by NATO.
It was clear from the very get-go that the US sanctions regime imposed on Russia and all the countries refusing to submit to the whims and rules of Washington, directly and via the EU, was hurting the EU economically far more than Russia. This is specifically true for some of the southern European countries, whose economy depended more on trading with Russia and Eurasia than it did for other EU countries.
The ‘sanctions’ disaster really hit the fan, when Trump unilaterally decided to abrogate the “Nuclear Deal” with Iran and reimpose heavy sanctions on Iran and on “everybody who would do business with Iran”. European hydrocarbon giants started losing business. That’s when Brussels, led by Germany started mumbling that they would not follow the US and – even – that they would back European corporations, mainly hydrocarbon giants, sticking to their contractual arrangements they had with Iran.
Too late. European business had lost all confidence in Brussels EU Administration’s feeble and generally untrustworthy words. Many breached their longstanding and, after the Nuclear Deal, renewed contracts with Iran, out of fear of punishment by Washington and lack of trust in Brussel’s protection. Case in point is the French-British petrol giant, Total, which shifted its supply source from Iran to Russia – no, not to the US, as was of course, Washington’s intent. The damage is done. The vassals are committing slow suicide.
The people have had it. More than half of the European population wants to get out of the fangs from Brussels. But nobody asks them, nor listens to them – and that in the so-called heartland of ‘democracy’ (sic). That’s why people are now up in arms and protesting everywhere – in one way or another in Germany, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Poland – the list is almost endless. And it can be called generically the ‘Yellow Vests”, after the new French revolution.
The latest in a series of the US attacking Germany and German business – and German integrity, for that matter – are the US Ambassador’s, Richard Grenell, recent threats to German corporations with sanctions if they work on Nord Stream 2, the 1,200 km pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe, to be completed by the end of 2019. It will virtually double the capacity of Russian gas supply to Europe. Instead, Washington wants Europe to buy US shale gas and oil, and especially keeping Europe economically and financially in the US orbit, avoiding in any way a detachment from Washington and preventing the obvious and logical – an alliance with Russia. This attempt will fail bitterly, as various German Ministers, including Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, have loudly and with determination protested against such US hegemonic advances. Well, friends, you have bent over backwards to please your Washington Masters for too long. It’s high time to step out of this lock-step of obedience.
In France, this past weekend of 12 / 13 January, the Yellow Vests went into round 9 of protests against dictator Macron, his austerity program and – not least – his abject arrogance vis-à- vis the working class. A recent public statement of Macron’s is testimony of this below-the-belt arrogance: «Trop de français n’ont pas le sens de l’effort, ce qui explique en partie les ’troubles’ que connait le pays» – Translated: “Too many French don’t know the meaning of ‘effort’ which explains at least partially the trouble this country is in.”
The Yellow Vests and a majority of the French population want nothing less than Macron’s resignation. Protesters are consistently and largely under-reported by Christophe Castaner, the French Interior Minister. This past weekend the official figure was 50,000 demonstrators, countrywide, when in reality the figure was at least three times higher. The official French version would like the public at large, inside and outside of France, to believe that the Yellow Vest’s movement is diminishing. It is not. To the contrary, they are demonstrating all over France, and that despite the Macron regime’s increasing violent repression.
RT reports, on Macron’s orders the police are becoming more violent, using military suppression to control protesting French civilians. Thousands have been arrested, and hundreds injured by police brutality. Nevertheless, the movement is gaining massive public support and the ‘Yellow Vests” idea is spreading throughout Europe. This spread is, of course, hardly reported by the mainstream media.
In fact, 80% of the French back the Yellow Vests and their idea of a Citizen Initiated Referendum (RIC for “Référendum d’initiative citoyenne”), under which citizens could propose their own laws that would then be voted on by the general public. The RIC could effectively bypass the French Parliament, and would be enshrined in the French Constitution. A similar law exists since 1848 in Switzerland and is regularly applied by Swiss citizens. It is a way of Direct Democracy that any country calling itself a “democracy” should incorporate in its Constitution.
The UK is in shambles. Thousands are taking to the streets of London, organized by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity”, calling for general elections to replace the failing Tory Government. They are joined by the French Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), out of solidarity. Many of the UK protesters are also wearing high-visibility yellow vests.
This is in direct correlation with the ever-growing louder debacle over BREXIT – yes, or no and how. At this point nobody knows what Britain’s future is going to be. Propaganda and counter-propaganda is destined to further confuse the people and confused people usually want to stick to the ‘status quo’. There is even a movement of pro “remain” propaganda, organized by some members of the European Parliament. Imagine! – Talking about sovereignty, if Brussels cannot even leave the Brits alone decide whether they want to continue under their dictate or not.
Hélas, the Brits are largely divided, but also past the stage of being swayed by foreign propaganda, especially in this delicate question of leaving the EU – which a majority of Brits clearly decided in June 2016. Prime Minister, Theresa May, has screwed-up the BREXIT process royally, to the point where many Brits feel that what she negotiated is worse than “no deal”. This has likely happened in close connivance with the unelected EU ‘leadership’ which does not want the UK to leave and under strict orders from Washington which needs the UK in its crucial role as a US mole in the European Union.
On 15 January 2019, the UK Parliament will vote on whether they accept the negotiated BREXIT conditions, or whether they prefer a ‘no deal’ BREXIT, or will request an extension for further negotiations under Article 50 of the “Treaty of Lisbon” (which was imposed by the heads of state of the 28 members, without any public vote, and is a false stand-in for a EU Constitution). Other options include a general election – and let the new leadership decide; or a second referendum which after two years is legally possible. The latter would likely cause severe public unrest, followed by atrocious police oppression – as already often witnessed in the UK – in which case, let’s just hope civil war can be avoided.
For weeks, the Yellow Vest movement has spread to Belgium and The Netherlands. For similar reasons – public discontent over austerity, EU dictatorship over Belgian and Dutch sovereignty. Last Friday, one of the Belgian Yellow Vests was overrun by a truck and killed. Authorities reported it as an accident.
Greece – The MS-media report all is ‘donkey-dory’, Greece is recovering, has for the first time in many years a positive growth rate and is able to refinance herself on the open capital market. Greece is no longer dependent on the irate and infamous troika (European Central Bank – ECB, European Commission and IMF). Reality is completely different, as about two thirds of the Greek population are still hovering around or below the survival level – no access to public health care, affordable medication, public schools – umpteen times reduced pensions, most public assets and services privatized for a pittance. Nothing has fundamentally changed in the last years, at least not for the better and for the majority of the people. The troika has allowed the Greek to go to the private capital markets – to boost falsely their, the Greek’s, image among the international public at large, basically telling the brainwashed populace, “It worked, we, the troika, did a good job”.
Nothing worked. People are unhappy; more than unhappy, they are indignant. They demonstrated against Angela Merkel’s recent visit to Athens, and their protests were violently oppressed by police forces. What do you expect – this is what has become of Europe, a highly repressive state of spineless vassals.
On Wednesday, 16 January, the Greek Parliament may hold a Vote of Confidence against or for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The official and make-believe reason is supposedly the controversy over the name of Macedonia, which in fact has long been settled. The real reason is the public’s discontent about the continuous and increasing blood-letting by never-ending austerity, sucking the last pennies from the poor. According to Lancet, the renowned British health journal, the Greek suicide rate is soaring. Nobody talks about it. – Will Tsipras survive a possible Vote of Confidence? -If not – early elections? – Who will follow Tsipras? – Don’t be fooled by the term ‘democracy’. – The elite from within and without Greece will not allow any policy changes. That’s when people à la Gilets Jaunes(Yellow Vests) may come in. Civil unrest. Enough is enough.
In Italy the coalition of the 5-Star Movement and the small right-wing brother, Lega Norte, is pulled to the far right by Lega’s Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister. Mr. Salvini is clearly calling the shots – and his alliance is firing strongly against Brussels and with good reason, as Brussels is attempting to impose rules on Italy’s budget, while the same rules do not apply equally to all EU member states. For example, Macron, France’s Rothschild implant, has special privileges, as far as budget overrun margins are concerned. Mr. Salvini’s anti-Brussels, anti-EU stance is no secret, and he has a lot of Italians behind him. An Italian Yellow Vest movement cannot be excluded.
The empire’s vassal castle is crumbling – and not even silently.
Then there are the former Soviet satellites, Hungary and Poland, turned right wing – don’t appreciate Brussels meddling with Hungary’s anti-immigration policy and in Poland over a controversial overhaul of the Judiciary system. Never mind whether you agree or not with individual country actions, both cases are clear interferences in these nations’ sovereignty. Though upon the European Court of Justice’s strong warning, Poland indeed blinked and reinstated the judges fired in the judiciary reform process. Poland’s love for NATO, and Brussels use of the NATO leverage, may have played a role in Poland’s reversal of decision. Nevertheless, discontent in Poland as in Hungary among the public at large remains strong. Migration and the Judiciary are just the visible pretexts. The legendary tip of the iceberg. Reality is on a deeper level, much deeper. These countries are both reminded of what they considered the Soviet Union’s handcuffs. “Freedom” is not being dictated by Brussels.

The triad of systematic and willful destabilization and destruction of what we know as the Greater Middle East and western world is what we have to be aware of. The east, mostly Russia and China, is a challenge being tackled simultaneously, impressively for the brainwashed westerner, but rather meekly for those who are informed about Russia’s and China’s military might and intelligence capacity.
This drive of destabilization cum destruction comes in three phases. It started with the Middle East which for the most part has become a hopeless hell-hole, a source of indiscriminate killing by the western allies, say, the emperor’s puppets and mercenaries, resulting in millions killed and in an endless flood of refugees destabilizing Europe – which is the second phase of the triad. It’s in full swing. It happens right in front of our eyes – but we don’t see it.
It’s the Yellow Vests, austerity, increasing inequality, unemployment, social sector’s being milked to zilch by the financial system, popular uprisings’ oppression by police and military forces; it’s reflected by the dismal powerlessness of the people – that leads to “enough is enough” in the streets. That’s the way it’s all wanted. The more chaos the better. People in chaos are easily controlled.
Now comes phase three of the triad – Latin America. It has already started three or four years back. Countries that have struggled for decades to eventually break loose with some form of ‘democracy’ from the fangs of empire, are gradually being subdued with fake elections and ‘internal’ parliamentary coups, back into the emperor’s backyard. The Southern Cone – Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay – is ‘gone’, except for Bolivia. Peru, Colombia, Ecuador all the way to Guyana are governed by neoliberal, even neonazi-shaded Lords of Washington. But there is still Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and now also Mexico that have not caved in and will not cave in.
In an extraordinary analysis, Thierry Meyssan describes in “The Terrible Forthcoming Destruction of the Caribbean Basin” – http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50911.htm, how the Pentagon is still pursuing the implementation of the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski plan. This time, aiming at the destruction of the “Caribbean Basin” States. There is no consideration for friends or political enemies, Thierry Meyssan observes. He goes on predicting that after the period of economic destabilization and that of military preparation, the actual operation should begin in the years to come by an attack on Venezuela by Brazil (supported by Israel), Colombia (an ally of the United States) and Guyana (in other words, the United Kingdom). It will be followed by others, beginning with Cuba and Nicaragua, the ‘troika of tyranny’, as per John Bolton.
Only the future will say to what extent this plan will be implemented. At the outset, its ambitions exceed the crumbling empire’s actual capacity.

When it comes all down to one single denominator, it’s the current western financial system that must go. It is private banking gone berserk. We are living in a financial system that has gone wild and running havoc, uncontrolled – a train of endless greed that is loosely speeding ahead and doesn’t know when it will hit an unyielding steel-enforced brick wall – but hit it will. It is a mere question of time. People are sick and tired of being milked no end by a fraudulent pyramid system – constructed by the US and her dollar hegemony and maintained by globalized private banking.
We are living in a private banking system that has nothing to do with economic development, but everything with a greed-driven domination of us, consumers, sold on debt and on money that we don’t control, despite the fact that we earned it with our hard labor; despite the fact that it is our added value to what we call the economy. No – this system is totally disrespectful of the individual, it is even ready to steal our money, if it needs to survive – our banking system. It takes the liberty of “administering” it and basically appropriating it. Once our money is in a private bank, we have lost control over it. And mind you and get it into your brains, private banks do not work for you and me, but for their shareholders. But through hundreds of years of indoctrination, we have become so used to it, that being charged interest for borrowing our own money, through an intermediary who does nothing, absolutely nothing but wait for profit to fall into its lap – has become the ‘normality’.
It isn’t. This system has to be abolished, the faster the better. Private banking needs to be eradicated and replaced by local public banking that works with local currencies, based on local economic output, way removed from globalized concepts that help steel resources, empty local social safety nets – all under the guise of austerity for progress. We should know better by now. There is no austerity for progress – has never been. This fraudulent IMF-World Bank concept has never worked, anywhere.
We have to de-dollarize our money, de-digitize our money and pool it through a public banking system for the purpose of people’s growth, hence a society’s or nation’s growth. There is currently one good example, the Bank of North Dakota. The BND has helped the US State of North Dakota through the 2008 and following years crisis, with economic growth instead of economic decline, with almost full employment, versus skyrocketing unemployment in the rest of the US and the western world. We need to build our common wealth with sovereign money, backed by our sovereign economies.
As the empire and its vassals are crumbling badly, they are shaking in their foundations, it is time to rethink what we have been taking for granted and for ‘normal’ – a fraudulent and deceptive monetary system, backed by nothing, no economy, not even gold – we are living on sheer fiat money, made by private banking by a mouse-click – and by letting us be enslaved by debt.
Enough is enough. The Yellow Vests have understood. They want to get rid of their “Macron” who keeps propagating the fraud. It is time to rethink and restart, as the crumbling is getting louder and louder. Empire’s European vassal state is falling apart and will pull Washington and its hegemonic war and money machine along into the abyss.

Education, jobs and capitalism

 Gerald Coles

American capitalism has a hate-love relationship with the nation’s schools. On the “hate” side is a stream of complaints from business leaders and organizations about the many students, particularly in city schools, who fail achievement tests, are high school dropouts or, if they complete high school, do not have the academic qualifications for college and advanced-skills education. Given these educational failings, they ask, how will the nation’s economic system obtain the workforce needed for the 21st century economy?
On the surface, this corporate complaining seems to have merit. However, if we pose the question “how well are the nation’s schools serving US capitalism?” there is every reason to conclude that business leaders and organizations, despite their complaints, actually very much love the schools. That’s because, overall, the nation’s schools do a first-rate job educating and providing the array of workers capitalism needs. As importantly, the varied academic achievement outcomes provide capitalism’s leaders a major explanation for why vast numbers of Americans either work for wages insufficient to meet individual and family basic needs, have job insecurity, cannot obtain secure work, can only patch together several part-time jobs, have jobs for which they are educationally overqualified, and why so many workers lead financially precarious lives. Who’s to blame? Why, the schools, of course!
Fundamental to the corporate criticism of the schools for failing both businesses and vast numbers of Americans is the view that in the 21st century global economy, the nature of work is dramatically changing. That is, an increasing number of high-skilled jobs now demand more education, which schools have the task of providing. An example of corporate blame-casting is a report, sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Defense Industry Association, and the US Chamber of Commerce, expressing worry that the US would not “sustain [its] economic leadership of the world because the nation’s schools were not providing the highly skilled workers” businesses need to win in the global economic combat.
For businesses’ political surrogates, this perspective has been bipartisan. President Barack Obama maintained: “The source of America’s prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulate wealth, but how well we educate our people. This has never been more true than it is today . . . education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it’s a prerequisite for success.” This prerequisite was the aim of his Common Core State Standards, legislation devised “to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to be globally competitive.”
Despite Donald Trump’s antipathy for all-things-Obama, he echoed his predecessor by expressing support for an educational “agenda . . . that better prepares students to compete in a global economy.” Equipping “America’s young people with the relevant knowledge and skills that will enable them . . . to compete and excel in lucrative and important [high tech] fields.”  Echoing her father’s vision, Ivanka Trump, “senior advisor” to the President, proposed closing the “growing gap between workforce and business needs and workers’ skills” by beginning to teach tech in Kindergarten, thereby putting “our citizens on a pathway to a job.”
Strong support for this vision of “education for the 21st century economy” has come from national teacher organizations. For example, arguing that new business imperatives underscore the need to fully fund schools, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, asserted that “today’s public school teachers are on the front lines of our collective efforts to compete in the global economy.” Providing scholarly evidence for this view has been the work of many leading educational scholars, such as Linda Darling-Hammond, who advocated for schools in which all students, especially those living in poverty, have “access to an equitable, empowering education” that will enable them to “thrive in a technological, knowledge-based economy.”
High-Tech Jobs and the US Economy
To appraise these purported business and employment imperatives, let’s look first at the US economy’s current proportion of high-tech jobs (commonly called STEM – science, technology, engineering, mathematics – jobs). The Bureau of Labor Statistics determined that “depending on the definition, the size of the STEM workforce can range from 5 percent to 20 percent of all US workers.” Looking at the issue historically, we find that in 1850, around the start of the Industrial Revolution, top-skilled jobs made up about 10 percent of all work. Consequently, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ generous calculation, we can conclude that the proportion of STEM jobs has doubled, but it has taken over 160 years to do so, and that these jobs still represent only a significant minority of overall jobs – particularly if the 20 percent estimate is high.
With respect to the workforce the schools educate for these high-level jobs, a study by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that the “United States has more than a sufficient supply of workers available to work in STEM occupations,” thanks to increased student enrollment following forecasts of employment opportunities in these jobs: “For every two students that US colleges graduate with STEM degrees, only one is hired into a STEM job.” In computer and information science and in engineering, “US colleges graduate 50 percent more students than are hired into those fields each year.” The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a “global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy,” concluded that the “skill gap crisis” was “overblown”. Putting the “crisis” in broad employment terms, BCG added, “Trying to hire high-skilled workers at rock-bottom rates is not a skills gap.”
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately two-thirds of today’s occupations do not require post-secondary education; although those jobs will decline in the years ahead, by 2022 they will still comprise more than half of all new jobs that are expected to be created. Furthermore, of the thirty occupations with the largest projected employment increase by 2022, two-thirds will typically not require post-secondary education. These include such jobs as personal health care aides, home health care aides, retail salespersons, food preparation and service workers (including fast-food workers), janitors and cleaners, medical secretaries, insulation workers, and construction assistants.
Another illuminating perspective is to compare STEM jobs in the 1950s with the present. In the 1950s, STEM jobs were about 15 percent of the total, a proportion that continued into the 1960s. Yet despite this relatively modest percentage, those years were a time when good-paying jobs expanded across the economy, and when the long-hailed US “middle class” – defined as those having a good wage, a house, vacation time, some savings, a retirement pension – was built. It was also a period when profits accumulated as well. When Trump demands we “make America great again,” that is the time to which he looks back.
However, given the relatively modest percentages of STEM jobs that persisted over decades and up to the present, why is it that now there is the corporate insistence that if American workers are to survive in the new economy, they must acquire advanced skills (STEM) education? In other words, between the height of the American Dream years – the 1950s and 1960s – and today, the percentage difference in STEM jobs has been about 5 percent, and perhaps less. Is it really possible that with 5 percent fewer STEM jobs, the age of the American Dream was built?  Or, looking at the other side of the equation, how can we explain that the middle class was built with 85 percent non-STEM jobs, yet presently the middle-class is collapsing with about 80 percent non-STEM jobs?
One major answer lies in the difference in organized labor then and now, and in the forbidden phrase: labor’s “class struggle.” Consider manufacturing jobs. Although there are not as many manufacturing jobs now as then – currently, there are slightly more than 12 million such jobs in the United States, compared with about 15-16 million in the 1950s – manufacturing today should demonstrate an area of employment through which, as before, the American Dream could be reached. In other words, shouldn’t the mantra be, “If you get a STEM education or a manufacturing job, life can be good (or, at least somewhat economically secure)?” The answer, unfortunately, is no, because, as a study by the National Employment Law Project illustrates, today’s manufacturers can pay workers deficient wages, so why should they pay them more?
In the 1950s, economist Robert Reich calculates, manufacturing job wages were significantly higher than the average wage: “Fifty years ago, when General Motors was the largest employer in America, the typical GM worker got paid $35 an hour in today’s dollars.” Wages for manufacturing jobs have continued to drop over the decades, however, with many manufacturing jobs now paying less than a living wage. Currently, the median wage in manufacturing is $15.66 an hour, with approximately one-quarter of manufacturing workers earning less than $12/hour, and many earning just $10–$11/hour. For example, General Electric workers in Louisville, Kentucky, earn $13/hour making electric water heaters. Remington, the gun company, pays workers $11/hour in its Alabama manufacturing facilities.
Serving Capitalism Well
Why does corporate America actually love the nation’s schools? Given US capitalism’s control of the American economy, the economic system’s educational needs are best served by ensuring that the nation’s school achievement does not get out of hand; that is, schools cannot become too successful in producing well-educated graduates for the purportedly vast (but actually small) number of STEM jobs. The corporate strategy in this regard is simple:
  • provide just enough funds to maintain the educational system that, overall, currently serves the economy well;
  • ensure that taxpayers fund most of the schooling serving businesses;
  • do not fully fund schooling for those poor or marginally poor American youth whose futures will fit well with the present and future jobs that will be predominant in the economy – fast food, simple service, basic health care, low-skilled factory work;
  • maximize profit by not contributing more to the public good than is absolutely necessary for business needs;
  • pay workers as little as possible, maintaining that the work and wages are commensurate with their educational levels and skills.
Were the schools as a whole not serving the economy well, we can be certain that the nation’s major corporations – Walmart, Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, Chevron, Microsoft, IBM, Apple and others – would be focused on achieving the best educational outcomes in STEM education by providing schools with additional tax funds from the more than $1 trillion these corporations have stashed in offshore tax havens. Similarly, were these corporations concerned that not enough poor children were being properly educated to meet employment needs, we should not doubt that some of these unpaid taxes would have made their way into these children’s lives.
Blaming the victim
Blaming schooling, teachers and students turns the nation’s focus away from the reality of the array of jobs actually available, and away from US capitalism’s numerous ways for extracting ever-greater profits – such as paying the lowest wages here and abroad, reducing or eliminating job benefits, outsourcing work, and creating an ever-growing temporary workforce. While all the blame is foisted on teachers, students, and Americans generally, the “failure of education” ideology is meant to keep the eyes of Americans on one message: YOU are responsible for yourself; getting a decent job and having a decent income depends solely on YOU; and if YOU don’t have a good job and income it’s because YOU haven’t had the right kind of education (for which educators are to blame). Your problem is not a consequence of corporate policy, corporate greed, and corporate attacks on the public good, not a problem of how wealth is acquired and used. YOU and your teachers are the problem, and most of all, YOU are a problem for American business and America because YOU have failed to become part of the skilled workforce these businesses and the nation need.
Teacher organizations, parents and older students must face the fact that they will never obtain the reforms they demand because the schools are actually serving capitalism well. Consequently, it is imperative for teacher organizations and other social justice groups concerned with education to begin creating an opposition that explains how educational achievement is primarily contingent on what the economic system needs, which is far different from what American workers and families need. That is, schools serving capitalism well is not the same as serving all children and young people well.
With respect to the curriculum, these organizations need to take up the very difficult but necessary task – surely a task that will meet strong corporate resistance – of insisting that “education for the 21st century economy” is a legitimate goal, but that “education” must include comprehensive study of the actual working of that economy.
In recent years there has been an increased, critical spotlight on capitalism. “Capitalism” is no longer the word that cannot be uttered. For example, inquiring about American views on capitalism and socialism, Gallup Poll found that a substantial percentage of Democrats/Leaners (57%) had a more positive view of socialism than of capitalism, with the most positive view of socialism expressed by Americans 18 to 29. While Americans overall have a positive view of capitalism, the positive rating has declined over the last eight years, and is now at its lowest level since 2010. Again, most significantly, public conversations about capitalism’s benefits and harms are increasingly in public and political discourse. In August 2018, for example, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced the “Accountable Capitalism Act,” which raises questions about the interests corporations serve. Education activist organizations might do well to push for similar legislation.
The time is overripe for teacher organizations to frame schooling and school reforms within the context of that-which-must-be-named. Only by explaining how schools as a whole serve capitalism will teachers’ organizations begin to acquire a more successful leadership role in improving young people’s education, lives and futures.

Analysis of Congo election data points to “huge fraud” in vote tally

Eddie Haywood 

According to an analysis of election data conducted by the Financial Times(FT), Martin Fayulu was the clear winner of the December 30 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) declared Felix Tshisekedi the victor. The analysis has uncovered widespread irregularities and fraud in the vote tally and could potentially annul the election.
FT conducted analyses of two separate voting data collections it obtained from an anonymous source, representing 86 per cent of the total votes cast, and found that in both cases Martin Fayulu won 59.4 per cent of the total vote, a sweeping victory over that of officially declared winner Felix Tshisekedi, who took 19 per cent of the vote.
Notably, the conclusion reached by the FT’s analysis of the data corresponds almost perfectly to the figures determined by the Episcopal Conference of Bishops in the Congo (CENCO), the Catholic Church group who placed more than 40,000 election observers at polling stations around the country during the election. CENCO’s conclusion, utilizing results gathered from 28,733 polling stations points remarkably close to the conclusion reached by the far more extensive analysis of the official tally studied by the FT.
The extensive set of data that FT studied consists of more than 49,000 records and reveals a clear case of massive electoral fraud. The records, given to FT by an anonymous source with direct knowledge of how the voting data was obtained, contain the true results that were tallied electronically that authorities in the Kabila government sought to conceal.
With the analysis of the true voting records, FT has exposed as fraudulent the results declaring Tshisekedi the victor.
Jason Stearns, director of New York-based think tank, Congo Research Group at the Center on International Cooperation, told FT incredulously, “It is extremely difficult to believe . . . that tens of thousands of lines of data could have been fabricated on short notice to produce these results without signs of tampering. This highlights the need for a full, scrupulous audit of the election tallies.”
Kabila government adviser Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi denied that elections results were fraudulent, stating it would be up to the Constitutional Court to decide the validity of the election. Karubi declined to speak in any detail regarding any potential election fraud exposed by FT.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Martin Fayulu delivered their appeal to Congo’s Constitutional Court, asking the court to order a complete recount of the election tally, telling the nine-judge panel, “We ask for a recount of the votes from all candidates, polling station by polling station.”
Opposing Fayulu’s appeal were lawyers for Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party, who requested the court deny Fayulu’s appeal, stating there was not enough evidence to justify a recount.
For its part, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an organization of southern and central African countries with the aim of promoting economic development across its member states, which includes the Congo, have made plans to convene an emergency meeting today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Last week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, representing the South African SADC delegation, together with President Edgar Lungu of the Zambian delegation, proposed, then withdrew, a deal for a power-sharing agreement between the Tshisekedi and Fayulu factions. In light of the Financial Times’ investigation, the SADC has now called for a recount.
The explosive revelation of electoral fraud committed by the Kabila regime has caused no small amount of worry for Washington and Europe, who fear a social explosion from the Congolese masses and the outbreak of violence that erupts beyond their control, in turn disrupting American and European economic interests in the country.
Anticipating social unrest, the Trump administration deployed 80 troops to nearby Gabon earlier this month to protect US interests in the Congo from political turmoil arising from the disputed election and promised the deployment of more troops if necessary.
With their typical cynicism and hypocrisy, the United Nations Security Council responded to the election dispute by stating that it “welcomed the peaceful holding of the elections,” and urged all sides to “preserve the generally peaceful climate.”
Exposing the hypocritical pretensions to “peace” by the UN Security Council is the fact that the election was conducted amid heavy-handed police repression, with scores of reports of vote buying, ballot box stuffing, and police intimidation and violence. Internet access across Congo was cut on the order of the Kabila government before the poll on December 30, an edict that remains in effect more than three weeks later.
Underscoring the profit interests at stake in the disputed election is the fact that the Congo possesses vast economic resources, including 60 per cent of the world’s cobalt, used in the manufacture of electronic devices, such as batteries for use in smart phones and laptop computers. The country is also home to significant deposits of diamonds and gold and is Africa’s largest copper producer.
The Congo is one of the most socially unequal countries on earth, ruled by a corrupt clique in Kinshasa, who have become obscenely wealthy by carving up the economic spoils of the Congo on behalf of international banks and corporations. This social crime has been carried out at the expense of the Congolese masses, who suffer impoverished conditions and generalized social misery.
For its part, Washington is seeking to offset its declining economic position by utilizing its vast military might. Primary to American aims in Africa is the neutralization of China, and to halt Beijing’s vast economic influence on the continent. To achieve this, the Pentagon has vastly expanded AFRICOM’s reach and influence, with outposts in nearly every corner of the African continent, including the construction of a massive drone base in Agadez, Niger.

Gdańsk mayor and opposition politician Paweł Adamowicz brutally assassinated

Clara Weiss 

On Sunday, the mayor of GdaÅ„sk and well-known opposition politician PaweÅ‚ Adamowicz was stabbed multiple times on the stage of Poland’s largest charity event. He succumbed to his wounds in a hospital on Monday. The assassination, political responsibility for which lies squarely with the ruling right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), has sent shockwaves throughout Poland and has deepened the political crisis in the country.
The attack occurred in plain view before a large audience and was filmed. The assailant, armed with a six-inch knife (15 centimeters), stabbed Adamowicz on stage several times, including in the heart and stomach. After the stabbing, he grabbed the microphone and turned to the crowd, claiming that he had killed Adamowicz because he had been thrown in jail by the Civic Platform party (PO), to which Adamowicz had belonged until 2015. “That’s why I killed Adamowicz,” the assassin shouted. He was able to walk around on stage for about half a minute after the attack.
Eye-witnesses reported that he laughed and that there were no police present. The assailant was eventually detained by security guards and was later identified as 27-year-old Stefan W. According to official reports, he had a history of mental illness and violent assaults, and was just released from prison where he had spent five-and-a-half years for armed robbery.
The political conditions and climate for this brutal assassination by a mentally disturbed individual have been created through the year-long promotion of fascist forces and sentiments, including anti-Semitism, homophobia, racism and extreme nationalism and militarism, by the ruling PiS.
Adamowicz, the mayor of Gdańsk since 1998, had been one of the most prominent targets of the campaign of PiS and openly far-right forces against opposition politicians.
Like most leading bourgeois politicians in contemporary Poland, Adamowicz began his political activities in the Solidarity movement of the 1980s, and was a leader of the student strikes in Gdańsk in 1988/1989. A conservative-leaning politician for most of his life, and member of the liberal PO party until 2015, Adamowicz in recent years became one of the most outspoken critics of the anti-refugee and anti-Semitic sentiments fostered by the PiS government. He participated in an LGBT parade in Gdańsk in 2018 and condemned anti-Semitic attacks on a local synagogue.
Adamowicz was also a prominent supporter of the European Union (EU) investigation into PiS’s reforms of the judicial system, aimed at abolishing the separation of powers. Last year, when he was reelected as mayor, he was subject to a massive government-sponsored campaign that depicted him as corrupt.
In 2017, the far-right All Polish Youth included him on a published kill list of opposition politicians. On his fake “death certificate,” the All-Polish Youth indicated “liberalism, multiculturalism, stupidity” as his “cause of death.” A legal investigation into the death list was dropped by the state attorney. Even after his assassination, the far-right politician Grzegorz Braun, who is close to the fascist Obóz Radikalny Narodowy (ONR), described Adamowicz as a “traitor to the nation.” This kind of terminology has also been used routinely by PiS politicians to denounce the pro-EU opposition.
The call “death to enemies of the fatherland” and “traitors to the nation” featured prominently at the 2017 march of some 60,000 fascists in Warsaw, the largest fascist demonstration in Europe since the end of World War II. Last November, PiS officials and the Polish president Andrzej Duda marched alongside fascist forces, including the ONR and the All-Polish Youth, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish independence.
The liberal Gazeta Wyborcza wrote, “Let’s stop pretending now. PaweÅ‚ Adamowicz was the most hated local politician by right-wing government propaganda. On the right-wing forums they didn’t stop the hatred, even after his death.”
The charity event where the attack occurred has also long been a target of the Polish far-right and PiS media. The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOÅšP) collects donations for medical equipment for Polish hospitals and is perceived by the Polish right as a secular rival organization to the Catholic-funded Caritas. It was founded and headed by Jerzy Owsiak, a popular radio host and critic of the PiS government, who has been attacked as a foreign agent, corrupt, and a German puppet by the right-wing media. Just days before the murder of Adamowicz, state TV broadcast a show that depicted Owskia as a puppet of the Civic Platform and as collecting cash marked with the Star of David. Owsiak stepped down as head of the WOÅšP after the murder of Adamowicz.
Under these conditions, it was only a matter of time before this type of assassination would occur.
The murder of Adamowicz has shocked masses of people in Poland. Thousands have demonstrated in Gdańsk and other cities, and many are expected for the funeral, which is scheduled for this Saturday. His coffin will be on display in Gdańsk starting on Thursday.
While the demonstrations were held under the banners of “love” and against hatred and hate speech in politics, there is an acute awareness of the political responsibility of PiS and the far-right for the assassination. One resident of GdaÅ„sk who participated in a memorial meeting told the Guardian, “If you watched our main government TV, you would see that for months there were programmes about how bad he is, how he lies, how he steals. They created a mood in which weak people, sick people, respond to this kind of atmosphere.”
Most leading Polish news outlets described the assassination as a watershed in political life.
The murder has drawn comparisons with the assassination of the Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz in 1922 by Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a painter and former government official who was close to the far-right National Democratic Party, a predecessor of today’s ONR. He was declared mentally ill, but also was idealized as a martyr by the far-right following Narutowicz’s murder.
The assassination is set to further deepen the political crisis in Poland.
The response of PiS to the murder has been a mixture of desperate attempts to deny any political character to the assassination and calls for “unity,” on the one hand, and open disregard of even pro-forma expressions of sympathy for the victim, on the other. Most notably, JarosÅ‚aw KaczyÅ„ski, the head of PiS, demonstratively stayed away from a minute of silence for Adamowicz in the Polish Sejm (parliament) on Wednesday.
The conservative Rzeczpospolita has warned in a commentary that Adamowicz’s murder has put PiS “in a very difficult situation” and that “emotions in this matter are not on the side of the rulers.”
The murder of Adamowicz in Poland is the result of a dangerous development which poses immediate threats to the working class. The rise of the far-right, which has created the conditions for this assassination, cannot be fought within the framework of bourgeois politics and the pro-EU opposition, led by the PO.
Behind the promotion of fascist forces and racism lies a fundamental reorientation of bourgeois politics amid a historic crisis of capitalism. In Poland, this shift is taking particularly sharp forms, as the bourgeoisie is preparing for a direct military conflict with Russia and an open confrontation with the working class with the full support of US imperialism. But the promotion of the far right and its integration into the state apparatus are not unique to Poland. Similar developments are taking place in neighboring Germany and internationally. This dangerous political climate can only be changed through an independent intervention of the working class in political life in Poland and across Europe on a socialist basis.