Access Bank Udacity Advance Africa Scholarship Program (Cohort 2) 2021

Application Deadline:

29th December 2021

About the Access Bank Udacity Advance Africa Scholarship Program:

Udacity is collaborating with Access Bank, a multinational commercial bank, to empower people in Africa who are interested in learning tech-forward skills to kick-start careers in the banking industry in 2021.

We are proud to provide hands-on learning opportunities in fields such as Business Analytics, Programming, Data Science, Product Management and Digital Marketing. Scholarship recipients will complete a portfolio of real-world projects that demonstrate mastery of highly sought-after tech skills.

Access Bank’s Corporate Philosophy:

Our vision
To be the world’s most respected African Bank.

Our mission
Setting standards for sustainable business practices that deliver superior value to our customers and provide innovative solutions for the markets and communities we serve.

Our core values

• Leadership
• Excellence
• Empowered employees
• Passion for customers
• Professionalism
• Innovation

Our solution

Udacity and Access Bank are committed to closing the divide between the number of tech jobs available and the number of Africans working in tech by providing opportunities to those who would not otherwise have them. That starts with ensuring a robust pipeline of trained, talented tech professionals. Together, we are offering:

• 1,000 Nanodegree program scholarships for Africans to build practical, in-demand, cutting-edge tech skills.
• Engagement with classmates in a robust, actively managed, student community.
• Subject matter experts and on-demand tutors.

The scholarship will create upskilling opportunities for individuals and give them the skills needed in the digital world. In fact, the tech industry comprises some of the highest growth, most in-demand careers today.

Eligible Field(s):

Take a look at some of our Nanodegree Programs, designed to be the fastest, most flexible way to get employable, practitioner-level skills.

• Business Analytics
• Intro to Programming
• Programming for Data Science with Python
• Product Manager
• Digital Marketing

Type of Award: Training

Eligibility:

Anyone 20 years of age and above is encouraged to apply. Scholarship recipients should be prepared to invest about 5–10 hours per week during the Nanodegree programs.

What are the prerequisites?

Business Analytics:
This is an introductory program and has no prerequisites. In order to succeed, we recommend having experience using a computer and being able to download and install applications.

Introduction to Programming:
In order to succeed, we recommend having experience using the web, being able to perform a search on Google, and (most importantly) the determination to keep pushing forward.

Programming for Data Science with Python:
There are no prerequisites for this program, aside from basic computer skills. You should feel comfortable performing basic operations on your computer (e.g., opening files, folders, and applications, copying and pasting).

Product Manager:
No prior experience with Product Management is required. You will need to be comfortable with basic computer skills, such as managing files, using third-party online programs, and navigating the Internet through an online browser. You will also need access to a video camera on a computer.

Digital Marketing:
Students should have basic computer skills and be comfortable navigating online.

Eligible Countries:

African countries

Number of Awards:

1000

Value of Access Bank Udacity Advance Africa Scholarship Program:

• Nanodegree program scholarships for Africans to build practical, in-demand, cutting-edge tech skills.
• Engagement with classmates in a robust, actively managed, student community.
• Subject matter experts and on-demand tutors.

Timeline of Award:

Cohort 2 applications for the Advance Africa Scholarship Program are open!

• Applications Accepted: December 1, 2021 – December 29, 2021
• Challenge Winners Announced: January 7, 2022
• Challenge Course: January 11, 2022 – February 16, 2022
• Scholarship Winners Announced: February 25, 2022
• Scholarship: March 1, 2022 – April 30, 2022

How to Apply for the Access Bank Udacity Advance Africa Scholarship Program:

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Access Bank Udacity Advance Africa Scholarship Program Webpage for Details

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the “Access Bank Scholarship Program”? Access Bank and Udacity will provide 1,000 Nanodegree program scholarships for people in Africa to build practical, in-demand, cutting-edge tech skills. The scholarship will create upskilling opportunities for scholarship recipients and give them the skills needed by many tech companies today.

• Where does the program take place? The program takes place 100% online. Students can work from wherever they want to, as long as they have a working internet connection.

• How does this scholarship program work?
  • Phase 1: Challenge Course
    
    10,000 Access Bank Scholarship applicants in the form of 4 rolling cohorts, will be selected to participate in a Challenge Course, with the first cohort beginning in September 2021. Each cohort will consist of 2,500 participants. During this first phase of the scholarship, students work through one of the five initial Challenge Courses that comprise of course text, content and quizzes (no projects) for Business Analytics, Intro to Programming, Programming for Data Science with Python, Product Management, or Digital Marketing over the course of 5 weeks. Learners should be prepared to invest about 3–5 hours per week during this period. Challenge course recipients participating in this initial phase of the program will also engage with classmates in a robust, actively managed, student community.
    
    
    Phase 2: Nanodegree program
    
    1,000 students in the form of 4 rolling cohorts will be awarded a scholarship to Business Analytics, Intro to Programming, Programming for Data Science with Python, Product Management or Digital Marketing. Each cohort will consist of 250 full scholarships, and the first cohort of winners will begin in October 2021. Access to these Nanodegree programs includes expert project reviews provided by human project reviewers. Applicants should be prepared to invest about 5–10 hours per week for 2 months.

Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat) 2022

Application Deadline:

Letter of Intent Deadline: 15th December 2021 5:00 PM (UTC)

Application Deadline: 29th March 2022 5:00 PM (UTC)

Tell Me About Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat):

Cancer is becoming a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that cancer deaths in Africa will double by 2040. This trend poses major challenges for public health activities in Africa. Among the many needs, there is a need to generate local evidence and knowledge upon which appropriate clinical, public health, and policy guidelines can be built. Historically, the pool of cancer researchers in Africa has been limited, in part because early-career funding mechanisms to help launch junior investigators into research careers are very limited. In order to address the growing cancer health crisis, a pipeline of talented and creative early-career African investigators must be fostered to generate knowledge that can be used to address cancer needs in Africa and beyond. Furthermore, the development of academic and research pursuits in Africa will provide opportunities to advance the continent’s need for biomedical, economic, academic, and social development on a variety of levels. The  Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat) represents a joint effort to address this need by promoting and supporting early-career investigators in Africa to establish a successful career path in cancer research, thereby increasing and sustaining a cadre of talented cancer researchers in Africa.

BIG Cat is a premier initiative by the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) to build capacity for cancer research in Africa. The  goal of BIG Cat program is to aid the next generation of African cancer researchers to base their careers in their home countries and institutions, and to contribute to the overall expansion of capacity for research and training in Africa by generating evidence that will guide practice and policy. BIG Cat was initiated in 2010 by the US National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health (NCI/CGH), and it is now a collaborative effort of AORTIC, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and NCI/CGH, with funding support from Partners including academic, industrial and scientific organizations.

The research proposed for funding may be in any area of cancer research, including basic research, clinical research, population-based research and translational research across the cancer care continuum (prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment , supportive and palliative care, and survivorship). These grants are intended to catalyze subsequent application for funding from other funding sources, not to support longer term research. Each grant will provide US$55,000 over two years for expenses related to the research project, which may include salary and benefits of the grant recipient and any collaborator, postdoctoral or clinical research fellows, graduate students (including tuition costs), and/or research assistants, research/laboratory supplies, equipment, publication charges for manuscripts that pertain directly to the funded project, and other research expenses. Indirect costs is limited to no more than 10% of the total grant amount. Up to US$10,000 may be allocated from the grant to support travel applicable to the research project and relevant scientific meetings, including mandatory attendance at the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting and biennial AORTIC conference. The grants are not intended for principal investigators outside of Africa, although collaborative research projects are encouraged. All funds provided must be spent in Africa with the exception of limited support for travel to international scientific meetings and conferences.

Which Fields are Eligible?

Research projects may be in any area of cancer research, including basic research, clinical research, population-based research and translational research across the cancer care continuum (prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship). Applicants are encouraged to be innovative in their research proposals and demonstrate local relevance of their proposed research.

What Type of Scholarship is this?

Grants

Who can apply for Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat)?

At the start of the grant term on July 1, 2022, the Principal investigator (PI) must:

• Be a beginning investigator, defined as a clinician or scientist who received his or her highest degree of study within the past ten years. An earned academic (or research) doctorate [such as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)], or medical degree [such as a Doctor of Medicine (MD),Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) or Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB, MB BS, BM MCh, etc.)] which is considered the highest degree of study in most African countries. When an investigator has received multiple terminal degrees, the calculation will be based on the date of award of the most recent degree.
• Be a current member with AORTIC. Note: AORTIC membership is also mandatory at LOI stage.
• Reside in and be conducting research in Africa with particular relevance to the African cancer burden on the continent. Proof of residency is required.
• Have legal residency status in Africa.
• Not have received a BIG CAT award in prior years.

AACR is obligated to comply with U.S. laws and regulations regarding research and related transactions in countries subject to US Government enforcement of economic and trade sanctions for particular foreign policy and national security reasons.  If your proposed project involves US Government sanctioned countries subject to restrictions, please contact the AACR’s Scientific Review and Grants Administration (the AACR’s SRGA) at grants@aacr.org.

Which Countries are Eligible?

Applicants must have legal residency status in Africa. A list of eligible countries can be found in the Competitive Letter of Intent Program Guidelines and Application Instructions. Proof of residency is required.

How Many Scholarships will be Given?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat)?

$55,000 USD

How Long will the Program Last?

2 Years

How to Apply for Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat):

• Competitive Letter of Intent Program Guidelines and Application Instructions are available for download here.
• The BIG Cat program requires applicants to complete an online Letter of Intent submission by 5:00 p.m. UTC (1:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, using the ProposalCentral website at https://proposalcentral.com/.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Facing the Facts About Gun Violence in the U.S.

Laura Finley

A day after yet another tragic school shooting, I just finished teaching a criminology class about gun violence and how to reduce it in the U.S. I found that my students have many misconceptions about the scope and nature of the problem. I believe they are not alone, and that these misconceptions that many others may hold work against the development of thoughtful and effective policy. Although whole volumes can and have been written about this, I share here just a few observations.

First, many have no idea how many people are injured or killed by gun violence in the U.S. annually. According to the CDC, more than 45,000 people were killed by gun violence in the U.S. in 2020, an increase in recent decades. This is an average of more than 120 gun-related deaths per day. It includes a 30 percent increase in homicides from the previous year. Between 2015 and 2019 there were 2,606 gun deaths by law enforcement alone. These numbers should be shocking, with U.S. gun-related homicide rates 25 times greater than other wealthy nations.

Second, most are unaware that the biggest percentage of gun-related fatalities come from suicide. Nearly two-thirds of deaths by gun are suicides, an average of approximately 64 per day. Likewise, accidental injuries and deaths are far more frequent in the U.S. than in other wealthy countries. A study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University found that between 2009 and 2017, there was an annual average of 85,700 ER visits for non-fatal gun injuries. ABC Newsdeveloped a Gun Violence Tracker and found that for the week of November 19 to 25, 2021, there 345 deaths and 623 injuries due to firearms in the U.S.

Third, the cost of gun violence is astronomical. The U.S. spends nearly one billion dollars annually on immediate healthcare costs alone, according to the U.S. General Accountability Office. The costs are far greater when you factor in long-term physical and mental health care, as well as criminal justice and other costs.

Fourth, while mass shootings typically dominate the conversation about gun control, they represent less than three percent of annual gun-related deaths. Further, the primary reason for mass shootings in the U.S. is domestic violence. Similarly, much attention has been paid to active shooter situations, with some potentially problematic policy implications, yet these represent just one percent of gun deaths.

Fifth, while many emphasize gun deaths in big cities like Chicago, approximately half of homicides by gun occur in suburban and rural areas. In addition, gun injuries are widespread and not exclusive to big cities. While Black males are disproportionately victims of intentional shootings, White males in rural communities are overrepresented in suicide by gun.

This is not an exhaustive list of misconceptions, nor does it offer solutions. My hope in teaching and writing about this is that, if we all discuss real data, perhaps then we can identify more appropriate policies and practices, which might include gun control, educational programs, mental health assistance and more.

Censorship, the Myth of Free Data and the False Solutions on the Table

Kenn Orphan

There is a line I keep seeing repeated on social media. It goes something like this: “They are allowed to decide what is acceptable to post and what is not. It’s free, after all.” Things like that may make snappy and snarky comebacks to people complaining about internet censorship. Only it isn’t true. Not by a long shot.

Facebook, Twitter, and virtually every other social media company make billions of dollars off our personal information. Some of that information is freely given by us, most is not. Carefully crafted algorithms capture and bundle our mundane or most intimate details and sell them to advertising agencies and political public relations firms, who then attempt to manipulate our fears, desires, pleasures and prejudices to sell us a product or influence our way of thinking about an issue.

These social media giants hold a monopoly on what has become the commons for humanity. A place traditionally available to everyone in the community. They have privatized these commons and operate them without any oversight, no requirement for hearing and responding to complaints, and no democratic process.

This may sound like I am plugging for the supposed Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. I am not. I believe that Haugen is advocating for the exact opposite of what is needed. In addition to this, her access to power should be suspect. She has been given exclusive interviews by Big Media and her testimony has been welcomed before government bodies in the US, UK, and EU. She enjoys bipartisan support at a time when we are told such collaboration does not exist. Compare this with how Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning have been treated.

Haugen is celebrated by the powerful because she is no threat to them. On the contrary, she made her career from the very algorithms that filter out dissent on search platforms like Google. She also worked in counterespionage in her time at Facebook, advocating for greater “protections” in the name of American “national security.”

If one reads between the lines it becomes obvious that Haugen’s “solution” to the problem of social media tyranny is to put even more control into the hands of despotic intelligence agencies and the ruling class. If she is successful, the new social media landscape will not only see the censorship of racist, white supremacy and violent nationalism, it will effectively silence the left in its analysis, criticism and resistance to the predations of late capitalism, war and ecological destruction and all of its mechanisms of oppression.

The hard truth is that none of this will be solved under the existing structures and arrangements of power. We live in an era of expansive, technological mass surveillance, by both corporations and the corporate state. The ruling class has always used this in order to quash dissent and control thought and resistance. That much has never changed. But its scope is greater than at any other time in human history. And it will use meaningless slogans like “protecting children” or “preserving democracy” to distract the public from its increasing authoritarian overreach. Therefore, putting more tools of censorship into the hands of the few and the powerful will only ensure less democracy, not more.

But we can use our own agency to resist both corporate censorship as well as data mining. We should oppose draconian legislative actions that curtail freedom of expression and speech, or put more control into the hands of corporations or intelligence agencies and the politicians who are in their service. And we can stop repeating the lie I stated at the beginning of this essay. Social media has never been a free service for any of us. But it has certainly given a lot of advertisers, wealthy investors, intelligence agents and politicians a free ride.

Sri Lankan public sector workers hold nationwide protests to demand higher wages

W.A. Sunil

Tens of thousands of public sector employees demonstrated across Sri Lanka this week for wage rises and to protest against government attacks on their democratic rights. The island-wide actions, held on consecutive days beginning Monday, are another indication of the mounting working-class opposition to the Rajapakse government’s austerity measures and escalating authoritarianism.

Colombo National Hospital health workers protesting on December 1 (WSWS media)

• On November 29, state employees, including development, agriculture research and village officers, and office ancillary staff, as well as postal and inland revenue department workers, protested outside their respective workplaces. Demonstrations occurred at the Colombo postal exchange office, the education ministry in Kandy and the inland revenue office in Galle Town.
  
  The workers are calling for a 10,000-rupee ($US50) monthly pay rise and for Colombo to withdraw budget plans to lift the retirement age from 55 to 65 years. They are also demanding an end to bans on public sector employees criticising government policies.
  
  The protest was organised by the Sri Lanka Public Officers Trade Union Federation (SLPOTUF), an alliance of 35 unions that includes the All Ceylon Development Officers Union, the Agriculture Research and Production Assistants Union and the Sri Lanka Village Officers Union. Some inland revenue and postal department unions also participated.
• The next day, about 1,000 health employees held a motorcade procession in Colombo to the health ministry office, calling for a wage increase and other demands. Health workers held a two-day strike last month on the same issues. On Wednesday, about 50 ancillary health workers protested in front of the health ministry in Colombo.
• Yesterday, hundreds of non-academic staff protested outside their respective universities, including in Colombo, Moratuwa, Jaffna, Peradeniya and Matara. Sri Lanka has 15 state-funded universities.

Non academic university staff from Matara university protesting on December 2 (WSWS media)

Earlier last month—on November 8 and 9—over 100,000 health employees, teachers, development officers and other sections of the working class, including railway workshop employees and private sector workers, held strikes and mass demonstrations.

Rising inflation and the government’s removal of almost all price controls has opened the way for sharp increases in the price of essentials and has fueled the rising wave of strikes and protests.

In November, Sri Lanka’s annualised inflation rate rose to 9.9 percent, measured on a year-on-year basis, the highest recorded in 12 years. Food inflation increased that month to 17. 5 percent—up from 12.8 percent in October—while non-food inflation climbed to 6.4 percent, up from 5.4 percent, in the same period.

In the lead-up to last month’s budget, the trade unions, in an attempt to dissipate workers’ anger, falsely claimed that mass protests and limited walkouts would force the government to grant wage increases.

These myths were shattered by Rajapakse’s brutal austerity budget that aims to make the working class bear the burden of Sri Lanka’s long-running economic crisis which has been dramatically worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse declared on November 12, after presenting his budget: “There is absolutely no way [for at least one more year] we can spend public money on government sector employees.”

Non academic workers demonstrate at Jaffna University (WSWS Media)

The SLPOTUF leadership responded with a letter to President Rajapakse, appealing for an 18,000-rupee monthly wage increase for its members.

The union federation, however, later reduced its wage demand to 10,000 rupees “considering the crisis of the government,” and slavishly told Rajapakse, “We are eagerly looking for your concerns and commitment.”

While SLPOTUF national organiser Pradeep Basnayake later admitted to the WSWS that the federation did not even receive a reply to its letter, it has issued a pathetic appeal to the finance minister to withdraw his statement that “the public sector is an unbearable burden” on the Sri Lankan economy.

Finance Minister Rajapakse’s “unbearable burden” comment is a clear indication that the government will unleash a brutal job-destruction and privatisation assault on public sector workers. This attack will not be combated by pathetic union appeals but the preparation of a political and industrial mobilisation of Sri Lankan workers against the Rajapakse government, something the SLPOTUF virulently opposes. Like their union counterparts across the island, the federation aims to divert workers into fruitless protests and then negotiate a rotten deal with the government, which it will then impose.

The government has also imposed an anti-democratic ban and harsh punishments on any public sector worker who dares to oppose its policies. Late last month, the public administration ministry sent a circular to all district secretaries threatening “disciplinary action” against public officers who “criticise the government and its policies.”

On Wednesday, Health Professional Collective co-secretary Ravi Kumudesh told a press conference that his alliance was ready to “join unconditionally any force that stands for public employees’ rights and dignity.”

Peradeniya university non academic staff on December 2 (WSWS media)

Kumudesh did not name who those forces might be but going on the union collective’s past record, it will treacherously push health workers into a dead-end alliance with parliamentary bourgeois opposition parties, such as Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

Yesterday, the University Non-academic Trade Union Collective did everything it could to limit its actions, holding what it described as a “silent protest” and failing to mobilise its members.

Addressing a lunch-hour demonstration at Peradeniya University, one of the union collective’s co-presidents said that the action was just to indicate that there had been an injustice. “It is surprising that many are participating in the demonstration. We did not inform the majority of members,” he said, adding, “We have no need for political ideologies.”

The unions, which function as an industrial police force for Sri Lankan capitalism, are becoming increasingly nervous about workers’ rising militancy and are desperately seeking to suppress it.

ECDC warns Omicron variant to become dominant in Europe in a “few months”

Alex Lantier & Johannes Stern

Yesterday, the European Centers for Disease Control (ECDC) warned that the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 will rapidly become dominant in the European Union (EU). It noted that the Omicron variant of concern (VOC) is more transmissible than the Delta variant, which currently causes most cases in Europe.

People wearing face masks against coronavirus arrive at Saint Lazare train station in Paris, Tuesday Nov. 30, 2021. The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries on Saturday, just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

The ECDC noted that “preliminary data from South Africa suggest that it may have a substantial growth advantage over the Delta VOC. If this is the case, mathematical modelling indicates that the Omicron VOC is expected to cause over half of all SARS-CoV-2 infections in the EU/EEA within the next few months. The greater Omicron’s growth advantage over the Delta VOC and the greater its circulation in the EU/EEA, the shorter the expected time until the Omicron VOC causes the majority of all SARS-CoV-2 infections.”

This announcement has far-reaching implications, as genetic studies of the Omicron variant show it is likely substantially resistant to existing COVID-19 vaccines. “The presence of multiple mutations in the spike protein of the Omicron VOC indicates a high likelihood of reduction of neutralising activity by antibodies induced by infection or vaccination,” the ECDC declared.

The ECDC’s statement followed similar warnings from Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of the Moderna pharmaceutical firm, to the Financial Times. “There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level ... we had with Delta,” Bancel said. Speaking of vaccines’ effectiveness against the Omicron variant, he said, “I think it’s going to be a material drop,” adding that “all the scientists I’ve talked to ... are like, ‘this is not going to be good.’”

Governments across Europe are, however, relying almost exclusively on vaccinations, rejecting critical social distancing measures needed to eliminate viral transmission, even as the Delta variant devastates the continent. This has led to a disaster, as there are hundreds of millions of unvaccinated people in Europe, and the Delta variant is more resistant to vaccines than the initial strain of the virus. Already, Europe sees nearly 3 million infections and 30,000 deaths of COVID-19 each week.

Infections are at record or near-record levels, with Germany yesterday reporting 73,486, Britain 53,945, France 49,610, the Netherlands 23,043, Czechia 21,126 and Belgium 20,409. Moreover, infections are rising rapidly in parts of Southern Europe which had seen lower infection rates this autumn, with Italy reporting 16,806 cases and Spain 14,500. Deaths are at near-record levels in Russia (1,221), and Germany saw over 400 daily deaths several days this week.

There are already dozens of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant across Western Europe, however, threatening an even more drastic escalation of the pandemic. There are at least 16 confirmed cases in the Netherlands, 9 in Britain, 8 in France, 4 in Denmark and Germany, 2 in Spain, and one each in Sweden, Norway, Czechia, Austria, Belgium and Italy.

In the Danish city of Aalborg, a man at a packed Martin Jensen concert with 1,600 people tested positive for the Omicron variant, leading to fears of a superspreader event. Danish authorities are asking people who attended the concert to immediately get tested.

Nick Holm, the director of the Aalborg Congress and Culture Centre, where the concert took place, insisted his staff had strictly followed health procedures. “We follow the guidelines to the letter. In this regard, no one has come in without having a valid corona pass,” Holm said. This again underscores the likelihood that the Omicron variant can evade existing COVID-19 vaccines.

Even before the emergence of the Omicron variant, the World Health Organization (WHO) was warning that over 700,000 could die of COVID-19 in Europe by March. With the new variant, the number of COVID-19 deaths this winter in Europe could reach into the millions.

Despite this dramatic situation, however, governments across Europe refuse to take the necessary measures to contain the virus. On the contrary, they are continuing the “profits before lives” policy that has already led to more than 1.5 million deaths on the continent.

“Despite the Omicron variant, our current strategy remains unchanged,” French Health Minister Olivier Véran told the Sud Ouest newspaper on Tuesday. He ruled out lockdown measures such as closing schools and nonessential businesses that would be necessary to eliminate transmission of the virus. All that is necessary, he claimed, is “vaccination, both initial and booster, social distancing and wearing masks.”

Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government has published a “message of tranquility” to the Spanish people, insisting that no measures besides masking and vaccines are necessary. It declared, “We must do what we have been doing throughout this pandemic: responsibility and solidarity in vaccinating ourselves, to use masks and so defend our health and those of our compatriots.”

The aim of this policy of social murder is to avoid any shelter-at-home orders that would slow the flow of corporate profits to the banks and avoid any broader, internationally coordinated social mobilization of the population to halt transmission of the virus.

The reaction of the ruling class in Germany is no less criminal. Even though over 73,000 people were infected yesterday and nearly 400 died of COVID-19 in Germany, and intensive care patients from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands must be transferred to other European countries as hospitals in many regions are overloaded, there is no serious action.

The decisions taken yesterday at the Conference of German state presidents were totally inadequate. At the meeting, acting Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the different state presidents agreed only on some additional contact restrictions for the unvaccinated, the introduction of a 2G rule (vaccinated or recovered) in retail and the reintroduction of mandatory masks in schools. Private fireworks on New Year’s Eve are prohibited.

Large events such as soccer matches or concerts, on the other hand, will still be allowed. There is to be only a cap: a maximum of 5,000 (!) people inside and 15,000 (!) outside.

All parties in the Bundestag—from the far-right AfD to the Left Party—vehemently reject the closure of schools and nonessential production. Last week, the soon governing “traffic light” coalition parties (SPD, Greens and FDP), ended the “epidemic situation of national scope,” thus eliminating the legal basis for strict nationwide protective measures.

They are supported in this by the unions, which have opposed lockdowns and called to keep businesses and schools open since the pandemic began. “The fact that mass events are taking place while schools are being closed, that’s not on. Everything must be done to ensure that educational institutions remain open,” the Education and Science Union (GEW) wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

The pandemic reveals the deep class divide that separates workers from the unions and all pseudo-left parties of the upper middle classes. While the latter push opening policies in the interests of finance capital, the vast majority of the population favors strict lockdown measures. According to the “Trendbarometer” of RTL and ntv published on Tuesday, 65 percent of German citizens—a noticeable increase over the previous week (61 percent)—are in favor of a general “lockdown.” This data was moreover collected before the Omicron variant became widely known.

Canadian Armed Forces providing military training to Ukrainian neo-Nazis

James Clayton

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has been training and collaborating with neo-Nazi groups active in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National Guard, with the knowledge and tacit approval of successive Canadian governments.

On November 8, the Ottawa Citizen reported that military and Defence Department officials attempted to conceal a 2018 meeting between a group of Canadian “officers and diplomats” and members of the Azov Battalion, an openly fascist group with members embedded in the Ukrainian National Guard. Fully briefed in 2017 on its Nazi ideology, Canadian officials were concerned only that the meeting remain secret. It was exposed when Azov boasted about it via social media.

The damaging revelation comes at an inopportune time for Canada’s ruling elite, which is currently considering an expansion of its military deployment to Ukraine as part of a massive NATO-coordinated build-up against Russia. The Trudeau Liberal government is reportedly deliberating on sending a warship to the Black Sea, deploying CF-18 fighter jets currently stationed in Romania to Ukraine, and expanding the current 200-strong contingent of CAF personnel in Ukraine.

The revelations about Canada’s alliance with far-right Ukrainian nationalist fighters underscores how the NATO powers are prepared to collaborate with the most reactionary political forces in their aggressive military build-up against Russia. The US-led military-strategic offensive against Russia, which has seen NATO deploy forces along much of Russia’s western borders, is aimed at bringing Ukraine and other former Soviet republics under Western domination and opening up Russia itself to neocolonial-style exploitation by the imperialist powers.

Photo credit: George Washington University, Institute for European Russian and Eurasian Studies

A study from the Institute for European Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University recently exposed Canadian military forces training students at Ukraine’s National Army Academy (NAA) belonging to a neo-Nazi organization called “Centuria.” The NAA is Ukraine’s version of Canada’s Royal Military College, where future officers and military commanders are educated. Canadian, American and other NATO military advisers shape the curriculum at the NAA.

Centuria functions as a wing of the Azov Battalion within the NAA, seeking to cultivate an “elite corps” of officers wedded to neo-Nazi ideology. The Azov Battalion, which celebrates the Ukrainian nationalist fascists who collaborated with the Nazis in their “war of extermination” against the USSR, has been branded a terrorist organization by the US State Department; this despite Washington itself having made use of Azov and other far-right Ukrainian nationalist groups to overthrow the Ukrainian government in the February 2014 “Maidan” coup.

In 2019, Centuria was part of a fascist demonstration which attacked the Kiev LGBTQ Pride event, calling upon “right patriots, nationalists, conservatives and Christians” to “defend the streets from perverts.” In April 2021, Centuria’s leaders boasted on Ukrainian social media that they “actively cooperate with foreign colleagues... participating in military exercises with France, Great Britain, Canada, the USA, Germany and Poland…” The same month, the group participated in a march glorifying the exploits of the 14th Division of the Nazi Waffen-SS, the “Galicia Division,” which was comprised of Ukrainian fascists. It honors this Nazi division because it “beat the Bolshevik contagion…”

Centuria social media post boasting about their receiving military training from the Canadian Armed Forces, the US military and those of other NATO countries. (Photo credit: Institute for European Russian and Eurasian Studies)

The 14th Division of the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organization during the Nuremberg trials. Its top leadership was drawn from the ranks of seasoned Nazi mass-murderers.

The April 2021 neo-Nazi march caused a political uproar in Ukraine, where Nazi forces murdered millions during World War II. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian state openly deploys fascist fighters, such as those who comprise Azov, in its civil war in Donbass, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was forced to issue an extraordinary statement on April 30, declaring, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has already condemned any manifestations of glorification of the Waffen-SS troops and reminds that the propaganda of totalitarian regimes is prohibited in Ukraine. Our state partners have already been informed that violations of the relevant legislation in Ukraine will have logical consequences for any person who is guilty of it.”

Why would the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warn its “state partners”—a diplomatic euphemism for NATO—about “glorifying the Waffen-SS”?

Because the Canadian government does exactly that. In the early 1950s, the Canadian government provided haven to more 2,000 veterans of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, and continues to defend them. The far-right Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which openly defends these Nazi veterans and glorifies the fascist World War II Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera, wields considerable influence in Ottawa. The Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, has been an activist within the right-wing Ukrainian diaspora her entire life. She is the granddaughter of one of the Waffen-SS Galicia division’s principal promoters, Mihailo Chomiak, the editor of a pro-Nazi newspaper in occupied Poland. Chomiak and the Ukrainian Central Committee, the organization for which the newspaper spoke, used it to whip up hatred of “Jewish Bolsheviks” and to appeal to Ukrainians to join the Waffen-SS.

Both Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau were accompanied by leaders of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, such as Paul Grod, on past visits to Ukraine. Grod praised the Waffen-SS Division on Remembrance Day in 2010, remarking that they “fought for the independence of Ukraine.” Liberal and Tory politicians have paid tribute to Ukrainian fascists at commemorations organized around public monuments that have been erected by Ukrainian veterans of the 14th Division of the Waffen SS and of the OUN(B), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a fascist army which fought alongside the Nazis against the Soviet Union.

The Canadian Armed Forces claims that Canada bears no responsibility if neo-Nazis have received Canadian military training. In a statement, it asserted that “it was up to Ukraine to vet its own security forces,” adding that “Canadian military personnel could refuse to train soldiers” suspected of neo-Nazi ties. The reality is that no such refusals have taken place, both because they would be viewed as a threat to the CAF training mission and because the officer corps has increasingly pronounced right-wing sympathies. Even the head of the Canadian military, Lt. General Wayne Eyre, has admitted that “we have a problem with far-right activity across the army.”

Concerns about Canada’s military potentially providing military training to Ukrainian neo-Nazis have been raised repeatedly since 2015, when then Conservative Defense Minister Jason Kenney sent 200 CAF personnel to Kiev under Operation UNIFIER. This decision followed shortly after the fascist-spearheaded Maidan coup, which was politically sponsored by the US and Canadian governments and their European allies. The Operation UNIFIER training mission is ongoing.

Kenney feebly claimed that restricting training to the Ukrainian National Guard and military would prevent Nazi sympathizers from learning Canadian military techniques. But such assurances were known to be fraudulent, as Ukraine’s National Guard was already integrating various fascist groups, including the Azov Battalion, into its ranks.

In fact, the Centuria revelations point not so much to the “accidental training of Nazis,” but rather to the conscious cultivation of far-right ideology within the Canadian Armed Forces, and the armed forces of its NATO partners. Far-right forces are being mobilized across Europe as the ruling class abandons bourgeois democratic norms, and as the capitalist system sinks ever deeper into the crisis accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Far-right forces are also becoming more emboldened in Canada, as evidenced by their aggressive protests targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and healthcare workers during the recent federal election campaign. In July 2020, right-wing activist and Canadian army reservist Cory Hurren attempted to assassinate Trudeau, under the delusion he is a “communist.”

In fact, Trudeau is a right-wing capitalist politician, who defends the interests of Canadian imperialism at home and around the world. In addition to supporting the US-led military-strategic offensives against Russia and China, the Trudeau government, with Freeland very much at the centre of these events, backed the far-right coup attempt fronted by Juan Guaido in Venezuela and the overthrow of the Bolivian government of Evo Morales in a far-right coup d’etat in 2019.

Under previous governments, the CAF has collaborated with far-right forces in its wars and military interventions. In 2004, Washington and Ottawa used remnants of the Tontons Macoutes, the thugs of the former Duvalier dictatorship, to pave the way for their occupation of Haiti and the ouster of the country’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. So intimate was the collaboration between Canada’s military and far-right Islamists in the 2011 NATO regime-change war in Libya, CAF officers themselves joked they were “al-Qaeda’s airforce.”

Canadian imperialism relies on the services of such far-right forces abroad to enhance its strategic position and keep markets open to penetration by Canadian capital and the cost of labour low, in order to maximize capitalist profits.

SS Commander (Oberfurer) Fritz Freitag (left) takes the Nazi salute from the 14th SS Division Galicia. (Photo Credit: Esprit de Corps.)

At least one prominent apologist for the Ukrainian far-right teaches at the Royal Canadian Military College. Lubomyr Luciuk, a Ukrainian Canadian Congress donor is a professor of Political Science at the Royal Military College, while being a life-long apologist for the OUN(B). Luciuk has called upon the Canadian government to “investigate Soviet ‘war crimes’,” while minimizing or denying outright the crimes committed by the Nazis’ Ukrainian collaborators. In 2001, Luciuk wrote, “No member of the Ukrainian Division ‘Galicia’ (sic) can be prosecuted for a war crime or a crime against humanity since no evidence of such crimes exist.” Luciuk has campaigned against the Holocaust exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. A fervent anti-communist, Luciuk is deeply involved in “educating” the future Canadian military leadership on subjects such as history and geostrategy.

If students at the Royal Military College are being taught that the Ukrainian Nazis in WWII were fighting a “just cause,” will they be prepared to suppress strikes, or put down an insurgency of the Canadian working class? How is the Canadian army dealing with its “far-right problem” if the instructors at its premier military academy laud Ukrainian fascists and Nazi collaborators implicated in the Nazi regime’s most horrific crimes?

US and NATO ramp up anti-Russia war drive

Andrea Peters

While the US and NATO continue their military build-up on Russia’s borders, their representatives are pressing ahead with hysterical anti-Russian rhetoric and threats of war. Insisting that Moscow has massed troops and equipment on the Ukrainian border and escalated its anti-Ukrainian campaign on social media tenfold in preparation for invading its western neighbor, the secretary of the transatlantic alliance Jens Stoltenberg declared Tuesday that Russia would pay a “high price” for such an action. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed his words on Wednesday, warning of “severe consequences.” Both have reiterated their support for “Ukrainian sovereignty.”

In this photo taken on Nov. 19, 2021, Attache of the Land Forces at the US Embassy in Ukraine Colonel Brandon Presley looks at the map during the visit by a delegation of the US Embassy in Ukraine to the Joint Forces operation area in the war-hit Donetsk region, Ukraine(Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Press Service via AP)

Moscow insists that it has every right to move troops on its territory. There has been no evidence presented that the forces positioned in Russia’s west, the size of which is entirely based on Washington’s claims, are preparing to invade Ukraine. While admitting that it is unclear whether Putin had determined whether or not to go ahead with an “incursion,” Blinken claimed that the Kremlin is “putting in place the capacity to do so in short order.”

In reality, NATO, working in alliance with the Kiev government, has been carrying out endless anti-Russian provocations, including naval exercises in the Black Sea, bomber flights within miles of Russian airspace, massive military training operations along Russia’s entire western border, and troop deployments to the Baltic states.

In June, a UK warship provocatively entered Black Sea waters claimed by Russia. Over just the past month alone, the US has sent three warships to that region. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that the Kremlin was “witnessing a considerable increase in the US strategic bombers’ activity near the Russian borders.” They were practicing, he added, how to employ “nuclear weapons against Russia simultaneously from the western and eastern directions.”

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak over the phone about “ways to enhance deterrence along NATO’s Eastern Flank.” The US and the EU are also escalating denunciations of Russia for allegedly engaging in “hybrid warfare” on the Belarusian-Polish border. Washington just imposed new sanctions on the German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. The British Guardian reported that the current crisis might result in the pipeline project, which is of major economic and geopolitical significance to the Kremlin, ending entirely.

Last Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Kiev had uncovered a plot by Moscow, allegedly in cahoots with Ukraine’s richest oligarch, to overthrow his government this week. The Kremlin denies these claims. Western officials have also repeated unsubstantiated charges that the Kremlin, in the words of Blinken, is working “to destabilize Ukraine from within.” There are continual references from both quarters about Russia’s supposed “prior invasion of Ukraine in 2014”—a conscious distortion of events that followed the installation of a far-right, anti-Russian government in Kiev in a coup that was funded by Washington and Brussels.

The western media, in an effort to prepare the public for a possible mass slaughter instigated by Washington, is flooding the airwaves with reports of Moscow’s allegedly demonic aims. The groundwork is being laid for the justification of war against Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelensky, who presides over a country in the midst of a disastrous COVID-19 wave, continues to demand that his country be admitted to NATO and that the transatlantic alliance immediately step up military cooperation with his government as part of a “deterrence package” that would also include economic sanctions against Moscow.

This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the deployment by NATO of offensive capabilities on Ukrainian soil is a “red line” that cannot be crossed and proposed that an agreement be reached that precluded that possibility as well the admission of Ukraine to NATO. On Thursday, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Maria Zakharova reiterated this position and warned that any deepening of the NATO-Ukraine relationship would provoke the “destabilization of the military-political situation in Europe.”

In response, NATO head Stoltenberg, speaking in Latvia early this week, said, “It’s only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join NATO. Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence trying to control their neighbors.”

Speaking in Stockholm on Thursday after a meeting with Blinken in which the latter demanded that Russia drawdown its troops on the Ukrainian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made an impotent appeal on this very question. Russia, he insisted, does “not want any conflicts” with NATO over Ukraine, but it has the “right to choose ways to ensure its legitimate security interests.”

“Let’s not forget,” he went on, “the proclaimed principle of indivisibility and security, including in the OSCE, in the NATO Council of Russia, which says that no one has the right to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others. And the further advance of NATO to the East will definitely affect the fundamental interests of our security.”

He added, “… if NATO still refuses to discuss this theme or the guarantees or ideas put forward by the president of Russia Vladimir Putin, of course we will take measures to ensure that our security, our sovereignty and our territorial integrity does not depend on anyone else.”

On Thursday, Lavrov and Blinken indicated that there would be a forthcoming summit meeting between their countries’ leaders.

The reckless provocations by US imperialism are in no small part driven by a profound domestic crisis. American capitalism, whose current survival is based on an overinflated stock market kept alive by the massive printing of money and forcing people to work in the face of a deadly virus so that surplus value can be pumped out of them, must rely on military violence to secure its world domination. It sees the Russian ruling class’ control over more than 6.6 million square miles of the world’s resources and markets to be an intolerable limit on its appetites. For this, the occupants of the Kremlin and Russia’s oligarchs, whose wealth and power are entirely bound up with the global capitalist system, have no answer.