Mette Frederiksen, Boris Johnson: Reject Industry PR, Ban Glyphosate, Protect Public Health!

Colin Todhunter

On 9 April 2021, retired physician and health and environmental campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason wrote to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA). She wanted to draw the agency’s attention to the findings that indicate the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup causes high levels of mortality following contact exposure in bumblebees (glyphosate-formulated herbicides are the most widely used weedicides in agriculture across the globe).

This, Mason argued, has led to a decline of bumblebees in Denmark. She asked the agency why it had used “fraudulent science” on glyphosate from the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency, which in turn take their ‘science’ from Monsanto/Bayer, rather than from the direct observations of The Danish Nature Agency.

Mason’s correspondence focused not only on the destructive environmental impacts of glyphosate but also on the devastating human health aspects.

In relation to sanctioning the continued use of glyphosate in Europe, Mason has previously noted that it was totally unacceptable, possibly negligent or even criminal, for the European Union to have allowed a group of plant scientists on the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) – whose knowledge of human physiology was so lacking that they did not recognise that glyphosate has effects on humans – to make decisions that affect human health.

PAFF’s role was pivotal in the decision to re-licence the use of glyphosate in the EU in 2017.

To date, aside from the DEPA acknowledging receipt of Mason’s letter, there has been no response to the issues raised.

As a follow up, Mason has sent the latest insights to DEPA on the Monsanto-Bayer lawsuits in the US. Three cases brought by Lee Johnson, Edwin Hardeman and Alva and Alberta Pilliod have already gone to trial. In each case, the courts found that Roundup caused their cancers and that Monsanto hid the risks of its product.

Mason also forwarded information to Magnus Hennicke, the health minister, indicating the role glyphosate plays in fueling cancers and other diseases in Denmark. Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fishery Rasmus Prehn and Special Adviser Casper Steen Petersen also received copies of this information.

Their attention was drawn to the Institute for Responsible Technology claims that cancers caused by Roundup include non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bone cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, pancreatic cancer and thyroid cancer.

Mason also quoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the renowned environmental attorney, who in 2018 talked of:

“… cascading scientific evidence linking glyphosate to a constellation of other injuries that have become prevalent since its introduction, including obesity, depression, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, kidney disease, and inflammatory bowel disease, brain, breast and prostate cancer, miscarriage, birth defects and declining sperm counts. Strong science suggests glyphosate is the culprit in the exploding epidemics of celiac disease, colitis, gluten sensitivities, diabetes and non-alcoholic liver cancer which, for the first time, is attacking children as young as 10.”

Mason concluded her correspondence by saying:

“I will leave Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (to whom I have also sent a copy) and other ministers to demand answers from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. Are they or their relatives suffering from any of these diseases – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, etc? Until Roundup is eliminated from food and from drinking water, these conditions will continue to afflict us all. That means that farmers must stop using Roundup.”

Rosemary Mason has been writing to officials in the UK and Europe about the effects of Roundup and other agrochemicals for over a decade, documenting the health and environmental impacts as well as the institutional corruption that has led to their continued use. Her many reports are littered with peer reviewed scientific literature to support her claims and can be accessed on the academia.edu website.

New study

It seems that not a month goes by until some new paper or study appears and supports what Mason has been saying for a long time. For example, according to the recent multiple author paper ‘In-depth comparative toxicogenomics and Roundup herbicides’, glyphosate and Roundup changes gene function and causes DNA damage.

The research found that glyphosate and glyphosate-formulated herbicides activate mechanisms involved in cancer development, including DNA damage – and these effects occur at doses assumed by regulators to have no adverse effects. The study found that DNA damage was caused by oxidative stress, a destructive imbalance in the body that can cause a long list of diseases.

Writing on the GMWatch website, Claire Robinson summarises the findings and the policy implications. She states that the findings, according to the EU’s pesticide law, should result in a ban on glyphosate and all its formulations.

The study was led by Dr Michael Antoniou and Dr Robin Mesnage at King’s College London. It builds on the findings of a previous study by the same authors. In that study, the findings showed that glyphosate and Roundup, given at doses that regulators say are safe, result in gut microbiome disturbances and oxidative stress, with indications that the liver is affected and possibly damaged.

In the new follow-up study, the researchers carried out some of the standard tests that regulators require the pesticide industry to conduct to gain market authorisation for their products – namely blood biochemistry and kidney and liver histopathology (microscopic examination of tissue).

They also carried out in-depth tests (molecular profiling) that are not demanded by regulators or typically carried out by the industry. In addition, the researchers undertook tests that can detect direct damage to DNA.

Robinson notes that, worryingly for public health, it was the non-standard molecular profiling tests that are not required by pesticide regulators that were most revealing.

Roundup was found to alter the expression of 96 genes in the liver specifically linked to DNA damage and oxidative stress as well as disruption of circadian rhythms or ‘body clocks’. The findings strongly suggest that the key changes in gene function reflective of oxidative stress and DNA damage was due to glyphosate and not the additional substances (adjuvants) present in the Roundup formulation. Direct DNA damage to the liver was found to increase with glyphosate exposure.

Protect public health

Claire Robinson says that these findings potentially constitute a bombshell that could end the authorisation of glyphosate in the EU because the EU pesticide regulation (1107/2009) has what is known as hazard-based cut-off criteria.

She states:

“This means that if a pesticide active ingredient is shown to cause a certain type of harm to health at whatever dose, it must be banned. One of the named types of harm is damage to DNA. The discovery that glyphosate alone damages DNA in a living animal should, if regulators follow the law, result in a ban on glyphosate.”

The study indicated that both glyphosate and its commercial formulation Roundup activate mechanisms involved in cancer development, causing gene expression changes reflecting oxidative stress and DNA damage.

The UK is currently pushing for the deregulation of genetically engineered crops and products and the non-regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) derived from newer techniques like gene-editing. This in itself is worrying given the scientific evidence pointing to the health and ecological dangers associated with this technology.

At the same time, however, the government’s proposed strategy would only further serve the bottom line of the agrochemical companies while contributing to the ongoing public health crisis brought about by their products.

For instance, the recent paper ‘Herbicide Resistance: Another Hot Agronomic Trait for Plant Genome Editing’ (in the peer reviewed journal ‘Plants’) says that, in spite of claims from GMO promoters that gene editing will reduce pesticide use, what we can expect is just more of the same – GMO herbicide-tolerant crops and increased herbicide use.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated that he wants to “liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti-genetic modification rules”. The type of ‘liberation’ Johnson really means is the UK adopting unassessed GM crops and food and a continuation of the chemical bombardment of our food, environment and bodies.

It is time for Johnson to serve the public not the bottom line of the government’s corporate masters.

It is time for the EU to ‘follow the science’ and side-line industry influence.

How Hindutva socio-psychopaths rule India

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The Hindutva socio- psychopaths are neither nationalists nor patriotic people. These medieval reactionary forces don’t understand the idea of citizenship, justice, liberty, equality and humanism. Indian democracy is merely an electoral transaction for the Hindutva forces. Hindutva forces neither follow science nor understand the sufferings of fellow human beings. These core qualities are common among the Hindutva forces in India. Historically, fraudulent myth making is the foundation of Hindutva ideology shaped by the RSS. The Hindutva propaganda machine detests reason and promotes imagined past and glory to reshape Indian consciousness and reorder Indian society based on Brahminical caste hierarchy. These forces portray religious minorities, women, rationalists and human rights activists are the enemies of India. In reality, Hindutva forces are a threat to unity and integrity of India. The state power makes them a formidable force to dominate India and Indians into a dark abyss of deaths and destitutions.

From demonetisation to the management of Coronavirus pandemic, the pestilence of Hindutva virus is revealing itself as an arrogant and ignorant force promoted by the Brahminical and market forces in India. The Hindutva protagonist, Mr Narendra Modi lacks human conscience. His journeying from being the Gujarat CM to the PM of India post proves that he lacks compassion as a human being. His ruthless leadership is based on mass manipulation, propaganda and threats. His leadership lacks exposer to the world of ideas. His Hindutva training in the RSS camps make him unfit to rule modern and progressive India based on science and reason.

Hindutva socio- psychopaths look at crisis and human distress in India today as someone else’s problem. These forces externalise everyday problems to avoid responsibilities and accountabilities of their actions. It is impossible to expect normal human reactions from the Hindutva forces to human tragedies. They neither feel nor fear consequences of their own political, social, cultural and religious actions that promote conflicts and crisis in India. The growing number of deaths and destitutions are Hindutva shock therapies to consolidate their reactionary ideological base by continuously capturing state power with the help of electoral democracy. The idea of citizenship and democracy means absolutely nothing to Hindutva fascists. The threats of various forms of violence are an integral to Hindutva ideology. This is the core governing principles of narcissist Hindutva dominance over majority of Indian population.

The organic love cum arrange marriage between capitalist market forces and Hindutva politics cares less about human lives and dignity. The profit of Indian millionaires and billionaires are surging faster than the spread of Coronavirus. The Modi government ensures the empowerment of rich and disenfranchisement of poor. The social, economic and humanitarian crisis does not matter to the Hindutva socio- psychopaths. Crisis makes people subservient and creates a foundation for society devoid of protection for human lives. Such a condition is fertile ground for the projects of Hindutva. The neoliberal Hindutva and its voices in media helps in convincing people that Modi is the only alternative for our collective liberation with the help of economic growth. In reality, the wealth of the billionaires grow, and poor people lost their sources of livelihood during Modi regime in Gujarat and Delhi.

Hindutva forces promote a specific Indian and Hindutva variety of capitalism, which is organised around politically connected entitlements based on primitive processes of profit making at the cost of human lives, freedom and dignity. Hindutva capitalism does not believe in free market and egalitarian terms of trade with free flow of free information. Such a variant of capitalism is concomitant with global capitalism. They are fraternal twins. The rise of Hindutva capitalism promotes fear, vulnerability and ignorance to exploit the masses. It is an onslaught on science and reason. Hindutva forces are organised to promote socialisation of capitalism in India to consolidate renegade capitalist society. The uncritical liberal support to Hindutva capitalism helps in these processes. The present predicaments of Indians are not products of individual Karma but an organised principles of Hindutva governance. It is not a Hindutva failure but modes of reorganising Indian society and make it concomitant with requirements of capitalist market forces.

Hindutva capitalism is not ill-defined as it looks. It intends to destroy all potentials of people for their creative development based on science and reason. The toxicity of neoliberal Hindutva capitalism and its narratives are socio-psychopathic dystopia. It is neither a liberation movement to uphold national glory nor a political project of collective empowerment. It is a well organised economic project of global, regional and national capitalist classes.

The annihilating power of Hindutva project is clearly visible. Indians experience the Hindutva myopia in their everyday lives. Hindutva governance means dominance over people and freedom for the capitalist classes in India. It is time to reverse these political and economic trends by defeating Hindutva forces permanently. It is inevitable and possible with the growth and unity of various resistance movements. The everyday resistance to Hindutva is important to break away from Hindutva capitalism. India and Indians need a sustainable mass movement to end the rule of Hindutva socio-psychopaths, who are working overtime for their capitalist brethren.  This is both short term and alternative available for Indians to safeguard their present and future.

French officers back far-right generals’ letter threatening military coup

Will Morrow

The political crisis is mounting in France since the April 21 publication of a letter by more than 20 retired generals, since signed by over 7,000 military personnel, threatening a coup d’état.

The political and media establishment has attempted to cover up the significance of the letter and conceal from the population the existence of fascist networks at the highest levels of the state and military apparatus, and their preparations for dictatorship.

The most widely read daily, Le Monde, has written almost nothing on the letter , after having maintained silence on it for days. Its first article, published on April 26 on page 10 of its print edition, focused on the reply by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, hailing the letter and calling on the generals to support her election campaign in 2022. Since then, Le Monde has devoted a further two articles to the subject.

The political establishment is consciously working to downplay what has taken place. Socialist Party (PS) senator Hélène Conway-Mouret, a member of the Senate commission on foreign affairs, set the tone, claiming that the letter was a “storm in a teacup. It’s important to put things into relation to one another, in a world where every little change is seen as an upheaval. There is no coup d’état being prepared in France.”

Jean-Marc Todeschini, the PS Senator from Moselle and a former state secretary for veterans, complained that the letter “poses a problem, above all for the image that it sends about the military forces.”

President Emmanuel Macron has maintained a total silence on the letter, choosing to instead allow ministers to respond to it. No member of the government has suggested that the authors should be criminally charged for threatening a coup, or that there should be an investigation of what networks already exist and what preparations they have already made.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to army generals prior to his New Year's speech to the French Armed Forces at Brest naval training center, western France, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. (Stephane Mahe/Pool Photo via AP)

Florence Parly was the first representative to address the issue on Sunday night, four days after its publication and more than a day after Marine Le Pen’s public appeal. Her comments were largely an attack on Le Pen from the right, for undermining the military apparatus and its ability to function as an instrument for the defense of French imperialist interests around the world.

“Madame Le Pen’s words reflect a serious misunderstanding of the military institution, which is worrying for someone who wants to become head of the armed forces,” she wrote. “The politicisation of the armed forces suggested by Madame Le Pen would weaken our military tool and therefore France.”

Parly has repeatedly emphasized the fact that the signatories of the letter are retired, to emphasize its political insignificance. Yet it is well known that “retired” generals and high-level military officials maintain close ties with their active-duty counterparts and act as the public face for them in precisely such overtly political declarations. In a further comment on Monday to France Info, Parly announced that there would be sanctions against any actively serving military officers who had signed the letter.

The Place Armes website, maintained by letter’s publicly identified editor, former Captain Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, includes a list of the first 1,500 signatories of the letter. It claims that the number of signatories has since increased to more than 7,000 in the days since it was published.

The letter, an overt threat to launch a military coup, combines hatred of Muslims with working class neighbourhoods, warning that “Islamism and the hordes of the banlieues [working class suburbs], [are] leading to numerous schisms in the nation, transforming it into territories with ideologies contrary to our constitution.”

Military representatives, it states, as “servants of the nation, who have always been ready to put our skin on the line for our actions, as was required by our military status, cannot be passive spectators before such actions.”

If nothing is done by the government, “complacency will continue to spread inexorably throughout society, provoking in the end an explosion and the intervention of our active-duty comrades in a perilous mission to protect our civilisation’s values and safeguard our compatriots on the national territory.

“We see that there is no more time to procrastinate, or else tomorrow civil war will put an end to the growing chaos, and the deaths, that you will be responsible for, will number in the thousands.”

If such overt threats of a military coup are circulating, it is because preparations for a coup are being discussed, and made, at high levels in the state machine. In neighboring Germany, it has already been revealed that fascist networks in the military have made far-reaching preparations for a “day X,” compiling lists of left-wing politicians to be assassinated and stockpiling arms and supplies.

The Macron government is far more fearful of a movement of the working class than it is of a fascistic coup d’état. That is why it is determined to cover up the significance of the generals’ letter. Moreover, the fascist letter largely bases itself on the anti-Muslim campaign waged by the Macron administration. Its argument denouncing the supposed danger of a Muslim “separatist” movement in France mirrors the thrust of Macron’s “anti-separatist” law, which is directed against the more than five million Muslims in France.

Amid the pandemic, Macron’s anti-Muslim campaign is aimed at dividing the working class and diverting attention from its homicidal policy of permitting the virus to spread throughout the population unchecked, in order to prevent any restriction on corporate profit-making.

Macron himself is rapidly moving to build up the forces of a police state. The government recently passed its “global security” law, which opens up the possibility of criminally persecuting civilians who film and publish acts of police brutality. Throughout 2018, riot police used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and attack dogs to repress the “yellow vest” protests against social inequality. Macron himself infamously hailed the wartime fascist dictator Pétain as a “great soldier.”

There is no progressive faction of the political establishment opposed to the turn toward dictatorship. Capitalist democracy, riven by historically unprecedented levels of social inequality, is breaking down around the world. In the United States, former President Trump sought to launch a coup d’état on January 6 and overturn the results of the presidential elections. In Spain, retired generals openly call for a military government and the massacre of “26 million” left-wing voters and their families.

Russian foreign minister warns of a new “cold war”

Andrea Peters

Tensions between the United States, its NATO allies and the Russian government continue, despite the Kremlin’s pull back of troops last week from the border with US-ally Ukraine and the announcement by the right-wing oppositionist Alexei Navalny—clearly acting on cue from the White House—that he was ending his hunger strike. Against the backdrop of a possible meeting between the American and Russian presidents in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Wednesday of the start of a new “cold war.”

Sergey Lavrov Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia delivers speech at the Conference on Disarmament (UN Photo / Emmanuel Hungrecker)

After canceling the deployment of navy warships to the Black Sea in mid-April, the US is now sending a Coast Guard vessel into the waters, which Moscow considers key to its geopolitical survival. Russia’s fleet is starting military combat exercises there this week, including live-fire drills with helicopters.

A diplomatic conflict between Russia and US-allied states in eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans is also ratcheting up, with Moscow adding embassy staff from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia to a list of individuals instructed to leave the country. Already a total of sixteen American, Czech, Polish, and Bulgarian diplomats have been expelled, with the prospect of dozens more. Russian government representatives have also been kicked out of these countries.

Following on the heels of the Czech government’s accusation that Russia was involved in an explosion at a munitions depot in 2014—a charge that the Kremlin denies—Bulgaria is now claiming Russian involvement in similar incidents on its territory in 2011 and 2012.

Several days ago, Russia’s foreign ministry announced it is drawing up a formal list of “unfriendly states.” In addition, the Kremlin declared that it has proof of a plot to assassinate Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his family and American involvement in that plot. It has yet to reveal any details, a fact which is also true of recent allegations by the US security services that Moscow sought to influence the 2020 elections.

Even as the United States ceaselessly denounces Russia for “meddling” in US affairs, the American press continues its nauseating promotion of Navalny as President Vladimir Putin’s noble opponent, with the clear aim of building a movement that will toss out the current Kremlin leader. These very same forces have long brayed for the blood of Julian Assange, who has been detained and mercilessly tortured for years because of his opposition to imperialism.

On Tuesday, the New York Times featured an opinion piece by the Russian journalist Oleg Kashin titled, “Aleksei Navalny Is Russia’s True Leader” that spins a fantastical tale of the immigrant-hating, right-wing politician, declaring him a “brave, proud, unbroken man standing up to an inhumane system” and the “profound” leader of a movement of “thousands.” According to Kashin, an operative in the opposition milieu who was recently denounced by Navalny himself as a “liar and scoundrel,” Putin wakes up every morning, asks his magic “mirror who Russia’s true leader is” and it “answers: Aleksei Navalny.”

The little that is truthful in Kashin’s commentary is when he notes—clearly not recognizing the implications of his observation—that Navalny realized in 2007 that “criticizing corruption was more convincing than slogans advocating democracy.”

The supposed “human rights” defender Navalny, who was, in fact, recently stripped by Amnesty International of his “prisoner of conscience” status because of “hate speech” in videos in which he advocated the murder of ethnic minorities and round-up of immigrants, came to understand that “anti-corruption” was the best vehicle through which to cover-up his reactionary political and economic program. Easy and cheap and capable of being filled with virtually any political content, it is the slogan traditionally seized by right-wing politicians.

In reality, Navalny has little support within the broader population. But in addition to the patronage of the US and NATO, he has the backing of sections of the Russian oligarchy who seek a greater share of the spoils of the Russian economy and to benefit from a closer relationship with American imperialism. It is noteworthy that the media arm of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, owns the country’s major liberal, pro-Navalny news outlet—Ekho Moskvy.

Leading figures in the Stalinist Russian Communist Party (KPRF), including the party’s parliamentary representative from Moscow and the former governor of Irkutsk, have also recently argued that the KPRF should get behind the oppositionist. A few days ago, Gennady Zyguvanov, head of the KPRF, announced he would not expel the two for their pro-Navalny positions, pulling back from provoking a major split in his organization.

In this Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021 file photo, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at photographers standing in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he is ending his hunger strike after getting medical attention and being warned by his doctors that continuing it would put his life at risk. In an Instagram post on Friday, Photo from April 23 the 24th day of his hunger strike, Navalny said he will continue to demand a visit from his doctor to address a loss of sensation in his legs and arms – the main demand the politician announced when launched his hunger strike. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

President Putin fears that, backed by the US, layers of the Russian political and economic elite, and sections of the upper-middle class in major cities, Navalny will be able to challenge his government. Leonid Volkov, a top adviser to Navalny, recently stated on Twitter, the Kremlin is vulnerable to “pressure from inside and outside.”

On Wednesday, a Russian court banned Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) from publishing on the internet, organizing and leading protests, participating in elections, and using bank deposits. The court is also considering whether the FBK should be designated an “extremist organization,” akin to outfits like ISIS. It ordered the closure of the FBK’s regional offices until that determination is made. The pro-US media outlet Meduza has now also been labeled a “foreign agent.”

The relentless efforts of Washington to bring down the Putin government in Moscow and break apart Russia unfold alongside the escalating US confrontation with Beijing. The fact that both governments face an intransigent foe in the US is driving them towards each other.

When asked on Tuesday to respond to Putin’s recent comment that Russia would draw “red lines” that, if anyone should cross, would have dire consequences, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin expressed his agreement and stated that the two countries “continue to understand and support each other in safeguarding our respective sovereignty, security and development interests.” He described the latest round of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Washington as “power politics and hegemonic bullying.”

Thousands of migrant workers labouring on Canada’s farms in unsafe conditions amid deadly COVID-19 third wave

Talia Brown

With the spring planting season well underway, tens of thousands of migrant workers have arrived on Canadian farms amid the coronavirus pandemic’s raging third wave. Last year, some 2,000 farmworkers caught COVID-19 and at least three died. The situation was so alarming that Mexico had to temporarily suspend travel for migrant workers to Canada.

Migrant workers, mainly from Mexico and the Caribbean, constitute a major part of Canada's farm workforce. (Credit: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change)

One year later, nothing has fundamentally changed in terms of protection for migrant workers. The meagre investment of $59 million announced last July by Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal government served primarily to modestly increase inspections. In most cases, these result in no action against unscrupulous employers, and in a slap on the wrist for a handful of particularly egregious bad apples. Meanwhile, thousands of workers will still be crammed into overcrowded bunkhouses, and with the additional risk of catching new, more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus, which are striking down workers in the prime of their life.

As Migrant Workers Alliance for Change executive director Syed Hussan noted, the Liberals’ investment “is not something that protects migrants … It simply ensures that people will show up to work.”

Over 760 migrant workers have already been infected with COVID-19 in Ontario this year.

On Tuesday, a report prepared by Ontario’s deputy chief coroner into last year’s COVID-19 deaths of Mexican migrant farmworkers Bonifacio Romero, Rogelio Santos, and Juan Chapparo was released. It stated the obvious— migrant farmworkers are at a higher risk of catching COVID-19 and other infectious diseases than the general population—and made a few timid recommendations aimed at perpetuating Canada’s highly exploitative migrant farmworker system. The recommendations include setting up an information hotline, randomized asymptomatic testing, and the establishment of isolation rooms on farms.

The Ontario government, which callously ordered migrant farmworkers to continue working last year even when infected, is hardly likely to adopt even these token and inadequate proposals.

Showing that the federal and provincial governments have no real intention of improving safety for workers, Ottawa announced last month a new system that authorizes workers arriving from abroad to make the federally mandated three-day quarantine at their employer's farm instead of in designated hotels. This measure is entirely in the interests of farm owners, who won’t have to pay the hotel costs. In addition, it will facilitate the spread of the virus as potentially asymptomatic workers will quarantine in crowded dormitories.

The pandemic has laid bare the barbaric conditions under which migrants have been systematically forced to work and live for the benefit of agri-business. Roughly 60,000 migrant workers, mostly from Mexico and the Caribbean, are annually employed by Canadian agriculture, including 25,000 for the spring planting season in the first quarter of the year. A third of these workers are employed in Ontario farms.

Agricultural migrant workers spend an average of 17 to 20 weeks in Canada each year, between January 1 and December 15. They perform manual work on some 1,800 farms in nine provinces, nearly 1,600 of them in Ontario. Collectively, these farms produce a significant share of the fruits and vegetables, flowers, tobacco, honey, nursery tree products, shrubs and sod produced in Canada. Some migrants also work in canneries, processing and packing plants.

As seasonal work makes up 53 percent of Canada’s paid agricultural workforce, the recruitment of international cheap labor, sometimes referred to as “Canada’s dirty little secret,” is essential and highly lucrative for the country’s agricultural sector. According to the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, Canada is the fifth largest exporter of agricultural products and agri-foods in the world, with total exports amounting to an estimated $56 billion annually.

As hundreds of farmworkers were being infected with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020, some media outlets carried reports that exposed how the squalid and cramped dormitories in which many farmworkers live contributed to the spread of the virus. Reports also detailed how some workers had to work for 12 to 14 hours a day, sometimes in the pouring rain, to compensate for labour shortages.

Even before the pandemic, farmworkers struggled with many structural barriers such as language (French and English), limited to no access to proper health care and social services, precarious migration status, ineligibility for social benefits, and exposure to abusive work practices and conditions. Even though they perform back-breaking labour, they do not receive adequate pay for themselves and their families back home.

Seasonal farm work positions are increasingly difficult to fill due to precarious and unsafe working conditions. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) was created in 1966 and revised in 1974 to help Canadian seasonal producers address chronic labor shortages. Workers’ rights, however, were constantly sidelined. Under SAWP, migrant workers are not eligible for public health care (even during the pandemic) and are not allowed to apply for permanent residency.

Canada’s violation of migrant workers’ rights, one of the most exploited sections of the working class, explodes the myth of the country as a champion of human rights. With the full support of federal and provincial governments of every political stripe, big agriculture corporations violate the rights of migrants, taking advantage of workers from difficult and poor backgrounds, lacking in education and skills.

The brutal working conditions facing migrant workers, whose precarious immigration status is tied to their pleasing their employer, are in line with Canadian imperialism’s participation in US-led wars of aggression around the globe and the treatment of workers in lesser-developed countries by Canadian multinational corporations. When their seasonal contracts are done, temporary migrant workers return to their home countries where they encounter the inhumane consequences of capitalism: poverty, unemployment, drug cartels, violence, and other socio-economic ills produced by the US, Canada and other imperialist countries.

The union apparatuses such as the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) are complicit in the exploitation of these workers. They essentially act as a staffing agency for the farm owners and stooges of the agriculture profiteers. Like for the rest of the working class, the unions enforce the demands of the governments and the companies and suppress any opposition among workers. In a telling example, in 2016 some workers complained that the UFCW negotiated a $0.15 an hour raise but charged them $4 a week in union dues.

Coronavirus crisis in India drives global COVID-19 surge

Benjamin Mateus

COVID-19 is surging out of control in India. Crematoriums have been running at capacity while bodies pile up. As a resident of Delhi told the Time s of India, “I have lived here all my life and pass through this area twice a day. I have never seen so many bodies burning together.”

Official figures indicate that the country saw another record one-day high with almost 380,000 cases of COVID-19 and 3,647 deaths yesterday. There were an unprecedented 5 million cases in less than three weeks. The country just surpassed 200,000 COVID-19–related deaths.

Travelers register themselves with health workers before getting tested for COVID-19 outside a train station in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 28, 2021. India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, Wednesday became the fourth to cross 200,000 deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Experts insist that the crisis in India is far more massive than official reports indicated. The actual caseload may be 10 to 30 times higher than official statistics. Based on the unprecedented number of funerals taking place, some have placed the death toll at 10 times the figures cited by state epidemiologists and political representatives.

India’s reporting system for all-cause mortality is woefully inadequate. One in seven deaths is never registered. Of those that are, barely one in four is certified by a physician. The pandemic has further exacerbated this situation, as a death attributed to COVID-19 requires a recent positive test result. Despite the massive surge in cases, testing outside major urban centers remains very limited.

According to the Economist, “Even with more than 1.5 million Indians now getting tested each day, the rate of testing relative to population is still less than a tenth of that in Britain. And because of the surge in cases, labs, even in Delhi, India’s capital, are overwhelmed. They now take days to deliver results; many die without knowing they are positive, or after getting a false negative.” The positivity rate in Delhi is above 30 percent, implying that one in three tests results in a confirmed infection.

Social media apps are being flooded with panicked requests by people and pleas for oxygen, medicines, and basic medical supplies to care for their families at home because hospitals can no longer admit patients. According to Becker ’ s Health IT, Aanchal Agrawal, a 29-year-old “content creator,” is working with 200 volunteers combing through her 42,000 Twitter followers to source oxygen, beds, antivirals for residents infected with the coronavirus.

They wrote, “Along with Twitter and Tinder, Instagram, Facebook, and Google Docs have been used by ordinary citizens in India to crowdsource financial help and medical equipment. Experts have criticized the country’s government for allowing massive gatherings and not ordering enough of the vaccines needed to meet its inoculation targets.” India, with its status as the “world’s pharmacy,” the largest producer of generic drugs, has been unable to meet the health demands of the population.

Friends and families, overwrought to find life-saving oxygen and medicines, turn to the black markets and “profit gougers” for these supplies. Pharmacists tell their customers that the only place left to purchase the antiviral agent, Remdesivir, is on the black market for 100,000 Rupees ($1,340 US dollars), or over 30 times its regular price. The average monthly salary of a worker in India ranges from around 12,000 (mechanic) to 23,000 (Business development manager) Rupees.

With many public hospitals having exhausted their supplies of medicinal oxygen, desperate families begin the frantic search for another facility that can render medical treatment. Empty beds at private hospitals are now available through bidding wars. A 46-liter oxygen cylinder is up to 10 times the regular price. Many who can scrounge the money have to pay in advance and hope to get it the next day.

Heart-wrenching have been the scenes of loved ones carting their parents, siblings, or children from one medical center to another only to be shunned. A recent grim account on Twitter from Dr. Eric Ding recounted, “A desperate mother pleaded at the front steps of a hospital for someone to save her 16-month-old with COVID-19. The toddler died at the doorstep of the hospital soon after.”

Meanwhile, according to Business Insider, India’s “uber-rich” are escaping in droves, fleeing in private jets as the pandemic crashes through the country. The wealthy Indian families pay tens of thousands of dollars to catch last-minute flights before travel restrictions are imposed, flying to popular destinations such as the United Arab Emirates. A spokesman for charter company Air Charter Services India told the Economic Times that interest in private jets has been “absolutely crazy.”

As reports of horrific asphyxiation from exhausted oxygen supplies become familiar news headlines, “oxygen express” trains are being rerouted throughout India, attempting to supply medical grade oxygen to areas depleted of the life-saving gas. One report cited in New Scientist said that demand for medicinal oxygen in the intensive care units has jumped 600 percent in recent days.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, told the Guardian on Tuesday that the tragic development in India was a product of failure of wealthier nations to provide equitable access to health care worldwide. “The only way that you’re going to adequately respond to a global pandemic,” he said, “is by having a global response, and a global response means equity throughout the world. … We’re all in this together, It’s an interconnected world. And there are responsibilities that countries have to each other, particularly if you’re a wealthy country and you’re dealing with countries that don’t have the resources or capabilities that you have.”

Meanwhile, neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka face their challenges as the virus is now rapidly disseminating throughout their communities. The pandemic’s global toll continues to rise, with more than 150 million cases worldwide. Today, over 865,000 infections were confirmed, and close to 15,000 people died.

Sri Lankan government detains Muslim parliamentarian and bans burqa

K. Ratnayake

Sri Lankan police announced on Tuesday that they were extending the detention of Muslim MP Rishad Bathiudeen and his younger brother Riyaj Bathiudeen for 90 more days under the country’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The men were arrested on April 24 under the draconian law.

President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s cabinet also decided on Tuesday to ban the burqa and the niqab, traditional attire worn by some Muslim women.

Rishad Bathiudeen (Source: Twitter/rbathiudeen)

Both actions constitute an intensification of anti-Muslim communalism by the Rajapakse government and its racist allies, amid an increasing social and political crisis accelerated by the global pandemic.

Police claim the arrests were in response to the Easter Sunday 2019 terrorist attack by a local Islamic fundamentalist group and backed by ISIS. The terrorist attackers bombed three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 274 people and injuring more than 570 others.

Bathiudeen leads the All-Ceylon Makkal Congress, a partner of the main parliamentary opposition party, the Samgi Jana Balawegaya, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of former presidents Mahinda Rajapakse and Maithripala Sirisena.

Police spokesman, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ajith Rohana told the media that the arrest of the MP and his brother was “based on circumstantial and scientific evidence that they had connections with the suicide bombers who carried out the [Easter Sunday] attacks.”

These claims are spurious. A media statement by Rushdie Habeeb, the Bathiudeens’ lawyer, said that the Presidential Commission investigating the Easter Sunday attack “found no evidence that any one of the Bathiudeens aided or abetted the suicide bombers in the Easter Sunday bombings.” The Commission’s report, which was presented to President Rajapakse on February 1, is only available to a limited audience, including parliamentarians.

Riyaj Bathiudeen was arrested by police in April 2020 on “suspicion” of alleged connections with the terror attack. He was released in October, however, after police admitted that they had been unable to “gather sufficient evidence” to substantiate any association with the attack.

DIG Rohana told a media conference last weekend that the police have so far arrested 702 people in connection with the Easter Sunday attack. He said 202 of these have been remanded, 83 are being investigated by the terrorist investigation division, and around 80 are being held under the PTA.

On March 16, police detained Azath Salley, another Muslim political leader, claiming that he committed offences under the PTA and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Police said he was also being investigated for links to the Easter Sunday attack.

In April last year, Hejaaz Hisbullah, a prominent human rights lawyer, was arrested on “terrorism” charges and held for 10 months before being brought before a court. On March 12, amid widespread demands for his release from international and Sri Lankan human rights groups, the attorney general filed charges against Hisbullah for allegedly making “extremist speeches” to Muslim students.

Ahnaf Jazeem, a 25-year-old Sri Lankan poet, was arrested on May 16 last year. He remains in jail without charge after being falsely accused of promoting Muslim extremism.

Apart from the vague charges against Hisbullah, none of the others arrested in the two years since the April 2019 terror bombings has been charged.

Under the repressive PTA, which was passed in 1979, police can detain anyone for months, extract confessions under torture and use this as evidence. The law has been widely used to detain Tamil youth and political opponents, particularly during the 30-year bloody communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In line with its escalating anti-Muslim campaign, the government on April 14 banned 11 Muslim organisations, including ISIS and Al Qaeda and nine local Muslim groups. The gazette notification issued by the president declares that anyone linked to these organisations can be jailed for up to 20 years.

The government claimed that the ban was in response to recommendations from the Presidential Commission on the Easter Sunday attack. The Rajapakse regime, however, did not ban Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a fascistic Buddhist group, even though this was recommended by the Commission. BBS was one of the extreme-right Buddhist formations that helped the Rajapakse government come to power.

As previously noted, Rajapakse’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal by Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera to ban the burqa, niqab and “all face-coverings.”

Weerasekera, a former rear admiral, originally called for the ban in early March. This was put aside as Colombo attempted to win support from Muslim countries to oppose a March 23 UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Sri Lankan war crimes and attacks on democratic rights.

The resolution, which was sponsored by the US and its allies, had nothing to do with defending democratic rights but was to pressure the Rajapakse regime to break its relations with Beijing and fully embrace Washington’s preparations for war against China.

The Sri Lankan and international media are claiming that the government’s anti-Muslim actions are a response to pressure from the Catholic Church hierarchy, particularly demands by Cardinal Malcom Ranjith that Colombo punish those responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks. The Rajapakse government’s anti-Muslim actions, however, are in line with a broader turn to authoritarian rule.

The Easter Sunday 2019 terror attack occurred under conditions of rising social opposition against the government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. According to media reports, Indian intelligence warned senior leaders of the government and the parliamentary opposition, as well as the military and police hierarchy, of the planned terrorist bombings.

The ruling elite allowed the terror attack to go ahead and then used it to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment, mobilise extreme-right elements and justify increased state repression. Rajapakse and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna seized on the bombings to promise a strong government to defend “national security.”

After 18 months in power, the Rajapakse regime faces an unprecedented crisis. Hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the economy is in a shambles with mounting debts, falling exports and negative economic growth. Social opposition is rising against job and wage cuts, inflation, intolerable living conditions and worsening poverty.

Nervous about the rising social unrest, extreme-right elements around Rajapakse are demanding more aggressive dictatorial methods. State Minister Dilum Amunugama gave voice to this on April 12, calling on President Rajapakse to “act like Hitler.”

Last week, Rajapakse’s cabinet approved a paper calling for greater control over the internet and insisting on new laws to curb “false information” against the government.

On April 22, Rajapakse also issued a gazette to mobilise the armed forces in 25 Sri Lankan districts and in international waters near coastal districts for the “maintenance of public order.”

The supposed purpose is to combat a new wave of COVID-19 infections. The real reason is to further prepare the military to take on the rising social resistance of the working class.

Grow with Google Professional Certificate Scholarships 2021

Application Deadline: 1st June, 2021

Eligible Countries: Kenya / Nigeria 

To be taken at (country): Online

Field/Level of Study: Professional Certificate (no prior experience required) 

About the Award:

Grow with Google, African Coding Network and Unicef have partnered to see more women enter tech related learning to earning opportunities 

There are 400 scholarship opportunities available, consisting of a 6 month professional certificate with Grow with Google, including learner support offered by the African Coding Network.

These courses include: 

• IT Support 
• Automation with Python
• Project Management
• Data Analytics 
• UX (user experience) Design 

This forms part of a broader Unicef project, yoma, aiming to build an ecosystem of learning to earning opportunities for African Youth.  

To apply for this opportunity, Women interested in a career in tech must complete an aptitude test.  No prior experience is needed to take the test.  The test takes 40min to complete on average. Youth who complete the application process will be eligible for other opportunities with yoma and African Coding Network, including full-time tech bootcamps, internships and job opportunities. 

Eligibility Criteria: African women in Nigeria and Kenya, Aged 18-35

Number of Awardees: 400

Value of Scholarship: ±$300

Duration of Scholarship: Max 6 months, part-time, or fewer, full time. 

How to Apply: Apply here

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Name of Award Provider: African Coding Network / Grow with Google

Canadian Government Permanent Residency Programme for essential temporary workers and international graduates

Application Deadline: The streams will remain open until November 5, 2021, or until they have reached their limit.

About the Programme: These special public policies will grant permanent status to temporary workers and international graduates who are already in Canada and who possess the skills and experience we need to fight the pandemic and accelerate our economic recovery.

Effective May 6, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will begin accepting applications under the following 3 streams:

• 20,000 applications for temporary workers in health care
• 30,000 applications for temporary workers in other selected essential occupations
• 40,000 applications for international students who graduated from a Canadian institution

To promote Canada’s official languages, 3 additional streams with no intake caps have also been launched for French-speaking or bilingual candidates. Communities across Canada benefit from French-speaking and bilingual newcomers, and this pathway will contribute to the vitality of these Francophone minority communities.

A detailed explanation of all eligibility requirements is available within the public policies.

As we continue the fight against the pandemic, immigration will remain critical to our economic recovery by addressing labour shortages and adding growth to our workforce.

With an accelerated pathway to permanent residency, these special public policies will encourage essential temporary workers and international graduates to put down roots in Canada and help us retain the talented workers we need, particularly in our health-care system.

Today’s announcement will help us achieve our 2021 Immigration Levels Plan, which will see Canada welcome 401,000 new permanent residents. The skilled newcomers and international graduates welcomed under our plan will help create jobs and drive long-term growth in Canada. 

Eligibility: To be eligible, workers must have at least 1 year of Canadian work experience in a health-care profession or another pre-approved essential occupation. International graduates must have completed an eligible Canadian post-secondary program within the last 4 years, and no earlier than January 2017.

Selection Criteria: The focus of this new pathway will be on temporary workers employed in our hospitals and long-term care homes and on the frontlines of other essential sectors, as well as international graduates who are driving the economy of tomorrow.

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): Canada

Number of Awards: Up to 90,000 new permanent residents will be admitted under these 3 streams.    

Duration & Value of Program: Permanent Residency Status

How to Apply: A detailed explanation of all eligibility requirements is available within the public policies.

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

Visit Program Webpage for Details

L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 (€100,000 Prize)

Application Deadline: 31st May 2021

About the Award: Created in 1998, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards recognize and support eminent women in science throughout the world. Each year, five Laureates are recognized
for their contributions to the advancement of science, in Life Sciences or Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science in alternating years.

Eligible Field(s): Life and Environmental sciences

Type: Award

Eligibility: The candidate must:

• Be recognized for her scientific excellence by the international scientific community,
• Be actively involved in scientific research,
• Work in any field of the Life and Environmental sciences mentioned in appendix 1
  For your information, there is no age constraint regarding the candidate.

Selection Criteria: The selection criteria of the candidates are the following:

• The candidate’s outstanding contribution to the general advancement of science,
• The impact of the candidate’s research on the current state of the relevant scientific field (number, quality and impact of publications, conference presentations, patents),
• The recognition of the candidate by peers within her discipline through publications, -The recognition of the candidate’s commitments to education, teaching activities, mentoring and/or to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals more broadly.
• The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards are non-renewable.

Eligible Countries: Candidates working in the following regions:

• Africa & the Arab States
• Asia and the Pacific
• Europe
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• North America

Number of Awards: One candidate will be selected for each of the five regions, the determining factor being the place of work for at least 5 years, not the nationality of the candidate.

Value of Award: Each of the five Laureates will receive an award of €100,000.

How to Apply: To be considered eligible for an award, it is necessary to be nominated in writing by an eminent scientist. Self-nominations are not eligible, nor nominations from immediate family members.
Teams are not eligible for nomination.

Qualified nominators may be :

• Heads of University or Scientific Institutions,
• Members of Academies of Science,
• Holders of Research Chairs,
• Full professors
• Past For Women in Science Award Laureates,
• or at a minimum holders of a PhD in Science.

Nominations can only be submitted electronically through the online dedicated platform here
https://www.forwomeninscience.com/en/awards and have to be written in English.
If new to the system, the nominator will need to create a user ID and password.
An application is considered complete only if it includes all of the following documents below

RULES AND REGULATIONS: 2022 International Awards in Life and Environmental sciences

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details