Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government arms Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion

Alice Summers

Weapons sent to Ukraine by Spain’s “progressive” Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government are being used by a neo-Nazi militia, the Azov Battalion.

In a March 15 video posted on YouTube by the National Corps, the political wing of the Azov Battalion, a militia member can be seen unwrapping and demonstrating how to use weapons. The video explains that these anti-tank missiles are Instalaza C90 grenade launchers from Spain, RPG-75 grenades from Czechia and Pansarskott m/86 portable missiles from Sweden.

The description of the video reads: “Azov video instructions on how to use disposable rocket-propelled anti-tank grenade launchers to destroy light armoured vehicles and enemy tanks.”

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (PSOE), second left, walks next to Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, second right, and First Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo, left, at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 14 2020 [Credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez]

The arming of neo-Nazi groups gives the lie to the absurd claims made by Spain and the other imperialist powers that they are defending “democracy and freedom” in Ukraine against the dictatorial and expansionist ambitions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was desperate and reactionary, but it is a response to decades of imperialist encirclement, threats and provocations. NATO is waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, with far-right paramilitary units like Azov acting as imperialism’s shock troops.

The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014 by the anti-Semite Andriy Biletsky. It incorporated many members of Biletsky’s former ultra-nationalist, white-supremacist organisations, Patriot of Ukraine and the Social-National Assembly. These tendencies traced their political roots back to the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, headed by Nazi-collaborationist Stepan Bandera, and its affiliated Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Azov, which uses Nazi insignia and openly glorifies Ukrainian Nazi collaborationists, was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard in November 2014, months after a far-right coup in Kyiv toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, in which Azov had played a key role. Since then, it has received arms and training from the government.

It is only one of the more prominent of around 80 far-right militias in Ukraine built and equipped to fight Russian-speaking separatists in the east of the country. Many of these organisations are now fully integrated into the Ukrainian army.

Another of these groups is the neo-Nazi C14, lead by Yevhen Karas. In a speech at the start of February at a seminar named after the Nazi-collaborationist Bandera, Karas gloated of having received large quantities of weaponry from “the West.” He said they were being armed because of their eagerness to kill Russians.

“We are now being given so much weaponry,” Karas declared, “not because as some say ‘the West is helping us’, not because they want the best for us, but because we perform the tasks set by the West, because we are the only ones who are ready to do them. Because we have fun: we have fun killing and we have fun fighting … That is the reason for the new alliance [with] Turkey, Poland, Britain and Ukraine.”

The NATO powers’ arming of neo-Nazi groups is not an unfortunate and unforeseen side-effect of a supposed defense of the Ukrainian people, but a deliberate policy choice. These forces are being armed and emboldened because of their rabid Russophobia and willingness to act as pawns for imperialism.

Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government has fully involved itself in the imperialist war drive against Russia. There are around 800 Spanish troops deployed in Eastern Europe against Russia, including a detachment of 130 airmen and four Eurofighter jets that regularly mount provocative missions from Bulgaria into the Black Sea near the Russian coast. There are also three Spanish warships patrolling the waters of the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea with NATO naval groups.

According to a communication from Spain’s Defence Ministry at the start of March, Madrid has sent 1,370 C90 grenade launchers, 700,000 rounds of ammunition and an unspecified number of machine guns and light machine guns. Many of these arms will have ended up in the hands of the neo-fascist militias.

“It is a very important delivery because it allows a very individualised defence and can be used even by people who don’t have much experience in using weapons,” Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said in a television interview in early March. “Ukraine is a country which is being attacked and Ukrainians are carrying out a legitimate defence of their lives, which are the most important things we have,” she added.

Asked last week about whether Spain will send more weapons to Ukraine, Robles refused to rule this out. During a visit to the Albacete-Los Llanos air base in the east of Spain, she stated: “In principle it is a possibility, as long as Ukraine needs them and asks us for them.”

“When these deliveries are carried out,” she continued, “it will be done in the same way as last time, with much carefulness and discretion, because there is a great risk for the people that make these transfers and for the countries which received this material.”

No “care” or “discretion” was exercised to prevent weapons from being funneled to neo-Nazis.

According to right-wing newspaper Okdiario, dozens of former Spanish soldiers have also travelled to Ukraine to join in the war against Russia. Figures from the Ukrainian government’s ‘International Brigades’ website, which encourages foreigners to come to Ukraine to fight, indicated that more than 12,000 Spaniards had searched for information on how to enlist.

The PSOE-Podemos government has tacitly encouraged civilians and retired soldiers to travel to Ukraine. Asked about the consequences of fighting in Ukraine, Spain’s Justice Minister Pilar Llop replied, “It is possible that people from different nationalities can go. … Our justice system does not prohibit this possibility.” Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) is reportedly monitoring the activity of Spaniards fighting in Ukraine in case they become “radicalised.”

Pablo Iglesias, the founder and former leader of “left populist” Podemos party has responded to revelations of his party’s arming of Ukrainian neo-Nazis with mealy-mouthed criticism.

Taking to Twitter on 16 March, Iglesias declared, “It is very serious that arms sent to Ukraine by our government have ended up in the hands of a neo-Nazi group. If this is true, the poor argument that these Nazis only had British arms falls to pieces. Condemning the invasion of Russia does not justify arming Nazis.”

Iglesias did not draw broader conclusions from the fact that the party he led is arming neo-Nazis. His empty criticisms notwithstanding, Podemos parliamentary spokesperson Jaume Asens said this month that it is “legitimate for the international community to provide aid to the [Ukrainian] state under attack.”

Spain’s own armed forces are riddled with fascists. In December 2020, WhatsApp messages from top retired air force officers were leaked in which they threatened mass murder and called for a coup. “As a good fascist,” one declares, “[I believe] there is no choice but to start shooting 26 million sons of b*tches,” their estimate of how many left-wing voters there are in Spain.

A few weeks later, a WhatsApp chat of 121 active-duty soldiers was released in which they denounced communism and voiced their support for the fascist retired officers. At the same time, numerous videos emerged of Spanish soldiers singing fascist songs while making the fascist salute.

Iglesias downplayed the issue at the time, responding to the fascistic coup threats by saying: “What these gentlemen say, at their age and already retired, in a chat with a few too many drinks, does not pose any threat.”

Podemos is a pro-war party tied to all Spanish imperialism’s recent crimes. Before taking power with the PSOE, it recruited leading officers, including former Air Force General and Chief of the Defence Staff Julio Rodríguez, who led the Spanish army’s participation in the US-led neo-colonial wars in Libya. Rodríguez is now a leading member of Podemos and Podemos Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz’s chief of staff.

Rutte government lifts COVID-19 measures in Netherlands as infections surge

Daniel Woreck

Over two years of the pandemic, the pseudo-scientific policy of herd immunity coupled with the impact of three decades of austerity have devastated the chronically underfunded and understaffed Dutch public health care system.

Health care workers wait for the arrival of an ambulance at Bernhoven hospital in Uden, southern Netherlands, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government relaxed public health measures on February 25, though the official count of daily COVID-19 infections was fluctuating between 35,000 and 50,000 with thousands of hospitalisations each day. In two years, in a country of 17.6 million, 7.6 million people were officially infected with COVID-19. There were well over 32,000 deaths between March 2020 and September 2021 alone, according to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS).

Besides the rise of COVID-19 hospitalisations, the public health system is straining to “catch up with the more than 110,000 operations that were postponed due to the pandemic,” De Telegraaf writes. It adds that “the largest backlog of postponed operations is in orthopaedics: 50,000 Dutch people await hip or knee replacements. Before the pandemic, this number was 10,000. In addition, thoracic surgeons said a total of 2,300 heart patients are waiting, 1,300 more than before the pandemic. There are also backlogs in urology, plastic surgery and gynaecology.”

Beyond mounting numbers of COVID-19 patients and the backlog of other patients, the RIVM (Dutch public health and environment institute) estimates that around 238,000 health care workers (of a total of 592,000) have been infected by the coronavirus. Thousands of them report burnout, PTSD or Long COVID symptoms; many of them have lost or left their jobs, while those remaining suffer from the continuing impact of the pandemic and unprecedented workloads.

At the beginning of March, staff shortages in the Dutch health care system reached a peak. Hospitals in Noord-Brabant told their staff that tested positive for COVID-19 to remain at work. Thus, “they are trying to prevent surgeries and other treatments from having to be postponed due to staff shortages,” Bart Berden of the province’s acute care consultation (ROAZ) told Omroep Brabant.

Berden continued, “[W]e see an enormous amount of coronavirus infections, without people having many symptoms. It now looks more like the flu than the coronavirus, as we knew it two years ago. To ensure that we as hospitals can continue to provide good care, we will now also approach it more like the flu.”

This is pseudo-scientific call to “work with COVID” and thus spread the virus to coworkers must be opposed. This brings infected hospital staff into contact with uninfected staff and with patients with underlying critical conditions, creating the conditions for massive contagion ending in a public health disaster.

This continues the politically criminal policies of the previous Rutte government at the beginning of the pandemic. On February 24, NOS.nl reported that thanks to an Open Government Act request, thousands of emails between RIVM’s management team and the previous Rutte government in 2020 had been revealed. These show that the RIVM alerted the government, which nonetheless downplayed the significance of the pandemic in its public statements.

According to now available information, by February 9, 2020 alarm bells had rung at the RIVM. A “response team” had reportedly been set up to estimate the number of casualties and consequences of the pandemic in the Netherlands. It classified a nCoV (new coronavirus) “epidemic” as “a serious to a catastrophic” threat to public safety. One researcher emailed to his superiors, warning them of a “catastrophic” scenario with well over 10,000 deaths and “a disruption to society.”

Nonetheless, the Dutch government was among the most obstinate in Europe in opposing public health measures to halt the spread of the virus.

In this context, the case of 52-year-old ambulance nurse, Lenny Wagemans, has attracted media coverage. On February 19, Lenny told RTL Nieuws that she was exposed to COVID-19 in March 2020 during an ambulance ride along with two of her colleagues. She helped a man struggling with shortness of breath, not even wearing a face mask because it was “not yet” standard procedure at that point in the pandemic, she explained. The Netherlands was one of the last European countries to introduce mitigation measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Now, at least five more Dutch health care workers are suing to hold their employers accountable for emotional and financial damage caused by infection at the workplace and the effects of Long COVID. This comes as tens of thousands of public health care workers internationally are walking out and striking, most recently in Turkey, Sri Lanka and Australia.

In New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state, nurses and midwives are opposing longstanding staff shortages, declining pay and intolerable working conditions worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. In New Zealand, after 10,000 allied public health care workers voted overwhelmingly for a two-day, 24-hour strike, an “extraordinary” last-minute ruling by the New Zealand’s Employment Court banned the strike, declaring any strike activity to be illegal.

In Turkey, doctors held a nationwide strike this month after a national health care strike in February, as inflation has slashed their salaries, and official indifference to mass infection claims hundreds of thousands of lives in Turkey.

In Sri Lanka, nurses, paramedics, public health inspectors, medical laboratory technologists and pharmacists are waging a national strike with urgent demands, despite its government’s strike ban. Their demands include the rectification of salary anomalies, higher transport and on-call duty allowances, increased overtime rates and improved promotion procedures.

Around the world, union bureaucracies that have played a key role in enforcing state policies and block working class opposition to the politically criminal policies of capitalist governments that are now moving to derail and sabotage health strikes.

In the Netherlands, the largest trade union confederation, the Federation of Dutch Unions (FNV), is working hand in hand with the Dutch ruling class and political establishment in imposing austerity, downplaying the risk and human cost of the pandemic and selling out health strikes. These strikes have attracted growing attention since the first ever nationwide strike in 2019.

According to FNV sources themselves, by January 2022 alone, over 500 health care workers were facing the loss of their jobs due to Long COVID. According to another union source, at least 1,850 health care workers have contacted an FNV hotline for this issue that was opened in December 2021.

The union has claimed that health care workers are suing the state and criticizing top officials “to point out their role and responsibility.”

In reality, workers in health care and other industries aim to hold state officials implicated in right-wing herd immunity policies legally, financially and politically accountable. The policy of “living and working with the virus,” which has claimed nearly 2 million lives across Europe, has hit no part of the working class harder than health care workers.

US escalates arms transfers to Ukraine

Andre Damon

Despite ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine that has killed thousands and led millions to flee, the United States is continuing and escalating its arms transfers to Kiev.

On Wednesday, the White House announced it would provide an additional $500 million in “budget aid” to Ukraine—money that Bloomberg reported could be used for military purposes—amid ongoing discussions on intensifying arms shipments to the country.

A Ukrainian soldier fires an NLAW anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, February 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

This funding comes in addition to the $1 billion in military aid announced by Biden earlier this month. According to the Washington Post, since January 2021 alone, the US has provided Ukraine with $2 billion of assistance, including Stinger and Javelin missiles.

In a phone call between Biden and Zelensky on Wednesday, “The leaders discussed how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine, the critical effects those weapons have had on the conflict, and continued efforts by the United States with allies and partners to identify additional capabilities to help the Ukrainian military defend its country,” the White House said.

Responding to the announcement, members of Congress pressed for further arms shipments. “Dithering needs to end. We need to flip the script and make Putin afraid of escalating against the West,” said Republican Representative Mike Rogers at a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services Wednesday. That means, he said, “Giving the Ukrainians the resources to drive out every last Russian on Ukrainian soil.”

General Tod Wolters, the U.S. European Command Chief, told a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services, “We can’t rest for one second. We’ve got a lot of work to do out in front of us to make sure that the Ukrainian armed forces are getting the right gear at the right time.”

Speaking for the United States European Command, Wolters demanded, “should deterrence fail—we remain ready to respond with lethal and resilient force in all domains.”

Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, told the hearing that the US should be prepared to send weapons to Ukraine for a long-term fight.

“Not just days and weeks, but months of sustainment, perhaps longer for the Ukrainian military and Ukrainian people,” Wallander said.

At the hearing, Wallander reported that the United States is delivering 100 “kamikaze drones” to Ukraine.

“We have committed 100 Switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems to be delivered in the most recent package of presidential drawdown,” Wallander said.

The calls for further arms shipments came as Ukraine, Russia and the United States poured cold water on press reports of a diplomatic breakthrough in negotiations.

There is “no sign of a breakthrough” yet in ongoing peace talks, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated Wednesday.

“No one said that the sides have made headway,” he said. “We can’t point to anything particularly promising.”

On Tuesday, Moscow’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, had described proposals from Kiev in the negotiations as a step forward. He announced that Russia would limit its military operations around Kiev.

Just 24 hours later, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close confidante of Putin, said, “[W]e are not making any kind of retreat, Mr. Medinsky is somehow mistaken.”

Speaking Wednesday, Zelensky referred to Russian troop movements away from Kiev and said that was not a withdrawal but rather 'the consequence of our defenders’ work.”

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken also played down any talk of a peace agreement. “There is what Russia says and there is what Russia does: We’re focused on the latter,” adding, “we have not seen signs of real seriousness” from Russia.

The United States, for its part, is committed to prolonging the conflict as long as possible. As Edward Luce wrote earlier this week in the Financial Times, “domestic US pressure is tilting towards escalation. In marked contrast to US post-Vietnam history, America’s liberal consensus is today at least as gung-ho as on the conservative right.”

Rather, all factions of the US political establishment are intent on using the crisis that has erupted in Ukraine to massively expand US military spending.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced a $813 billion budget proposal, up from $782 billion in 2022.

Commenting in Newsweek, Lindsay Koshgarian of the Institute for Policy Studies noted that Biden’s military budget is “$42 billion higher than where former President Donald Trump left it, and nearly 30 percent larger than under former President Barack Obama.”

She added that “Over the past 10 years, more than half of the military budget has gone to for-profit contractors. In 2020, the U.S. already spent more on one military contractor, Lockheed Martin, than Russia spent on its entire military.”

Koshgarian noted, “The U.S. alone already spends 12 times more on its military than Russia. When combined with Europe’s biggest military spenders, the U.S. and its allies on the continent outspend Russia by at least 15 to 1.”

She added, “The U.S. spends more by far on defense than any other country, with watchdogs such as the Project on Government Oversight estimating an annual budget of over $1 trillion on national security. That estimate includes the Department of Veterans Affairs and the cost of servicing debt from previous defense spending.”

Yet despite this massive budget proposal, there is every indication that defense spending for the new year will only grow as the budget proceeds through Congress.

Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declared that there was “need for real growth in the defense budget and a sense of urgency and willingness to take risks both at the Pentagon and here in Congress.”

Inhofe declared, “We just received the President’s FY23 budget, and it does not request the real growth we need. We’ll do our due diligence and our constitutional duty, as we did last year.”

These themes were echoed in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which complained that “Defense spending will still be about 3.1% of the economy” under Biden’s budget.

The Journal complained, “To this end, the 298-ship U.S. Navy would buy only nine ships next year while retiring 24. The fleet would shrink to 280 ships in 2027, even as the Navy says it needs a fleet of 500 to defeat China in a conflict. That trend won’t impress Xi Jinping as he eyes Taiwan.”

Worse, the Journal wrote, “The Administration appears to have canceled a program to develop a nuclear sea-launched cruise missile, precisely the kind of weapon designed to deter Mr. Putin from using tactical nukes in Europe.”

The newspaper declared, “Congress can do a lot to improve the Pentagon request, which should be a baseline. Republicans are suggesting the military budget needs to grow 5% in real terms. Congress should set a goal of returning the U.S. to its deterrent strength of the Cold War years, when defense spending was 5% or more of the economy.”

In other words, under conditions in which funding is on the verge of running out for basic measures to fight COVID-19, powerful sections of the US political establishment are demanding a 70 percent increase in military spending.

Toyota Ventures Grants 2022

Application Deadline:

31st May 2022

Tell Me About Toyota Ventures Grants :

Are you the founder of an early-stage company that is developing solutions to modernize manufacturing and advance sustainable production?

Help make the factory of the future a reality sooner, and jump-start your startup by getting your product or service in front of the Toyota Ventures team. We’re looking to invest in promising companies that are creating technologies to enable smarter, flexible, connected factories that will amplify people and improve efficiency and sustainability.

If that sounds like your startup, the 2022 call for innovation is an opportunity to receive between $500,000 and $2 million in venture capital funding from Toyota Ventures through our Frontier Fund or Climate Fund. In addition, we’re partnering with Toyota’s Manufacturing Project Innovation Center (MPIC) and Toyota Research Institute, and selected startups might also get a chance to collaborate with Toyota on a proof-of-concept project.

Which Fields are Eligible for Toyota Ventures Grants ?

Software and/or hardware solutions are welcome, and some of the areas we’re exploring include:

• 3D simulation
• Artificial intelligence and computer vision
• Augmented reality
• Additive manufacturing
• Robotics software and/or hardware (adaptive robots; collaborative robots; autonomous mobile robots)
• Solutions to improve energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint in factories
• Technologies to advance electrification and battery manufacturing
• Cybersecurity and data analytics
• Worker training and safety tools

What Type of Scholarship is this?

Entrepreneurship

Who can apply for Toyota Ventures Grants?

The call for innovation is open to startups around the world that meet the following criteria:*

• Your company has raised less than $10 million USD in funding
• You have a working prototype to demonstrate your solution
• Your business model solves a market need and delivers value to customers

How are Applicants Selected?

We are actively reviewing applications on a rolling basis, now through May 31, 2022. Since this is not a contest or competition, all applications will be subject to our usual rigorous review standards. Therefore, we cannot guarantee we will make an investment.

Which Countries are Eligible?

Any

How Many Grants will be Given?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of Toyota Ventures Grants?

• Qualified startups that apply for the call will receive priority screening, so it’s a way to get your solution in front of our team knowing that we are actively looking to invest between $500K-$2M USD.

How to Apply for Toyota Ventures Grants:

If your company fits our investment thesis, you have a working prototype and viable business model, and haven’t raised more than $10 million in outside funding, we encourage you to apply to the call.

It is important to go through all application requirements before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

DAAD Development-Related Postgraduate Scholarships 2023/2024

Application Deadline: Each chosen course has its deadline (Sept-Dec).  Please consult scholarship brochure for more information (See link below).

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Germany

Fields of Study: Individual scholarships exclusively for Postgraduate courses in Germany that are listed on the “List of all Postgraduate courses with application deadlines (link below)”.

About the DAAD Development-Related Postgraduate Scholarships: With its development-oriented postgraduate study programmes, the DAAD promotes the training of specialists from development and newly industrialised countries. Well-trained local experts, who are networked with international partners, play an important part in the sustainable development of their countries. They are the best guarantee for a better future with less poverty, more education and health for all.

Type: Master’s, PhD

Eligibility for DAAD Development-Related Postgraduate Scholarships: 

• Candidates fulfil the necessary academic requirements and can be expected to successfully complete a study programme in Germany (above-average result for first academic exam – top performance third, language skills)
• Candidates have a Bachelor degree (usually a four-year course) in an appropriate subject
• Candidates have at least two years’ professional experience
• Candidates can prove their motivation is development-related and be expected to take on social responsibility and initiate and support processes of change in their personal and professional environment after their training/scholarship

Selection Criteria: 

• The last academic degree (usually a Bachelor’s degree) should have been completed no longer than six years previously
• At least two years’ relevant professional experience
• Language skills: Depending on chosen study programme; please check scholarship brochure or the website of your chosen study programme.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of DAAD Development-Related Postgraduate Scholarships: 

• Depending on academic level, monthly payments of 750 euros for graduates or 1,000 euros for doctoral candidates
• Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover
• Travel allowance, unless these expenses are covered by the home country or another source of funding

Duration of Program: 12 to 36 months (dependent on study programme)

How to DAAD Development-Related Postgraduate Scholarships: It is important to check for your desired course HERE and go through the Program Webpage before applying.

Visit Program Webpage for details

Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program (PAYLP) 2022

Application Deadline: 5th April 2022

To Be Taken At (Country): USA

About the Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program: PAYLP is an intensive academic program offered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)’s Youth Programs Division. Through three-week intensive exchanges in the United States, participants engage in workshops on leadership and service, community site visits related to the program themes and subthemes, interactive training in conflict resolution, presentations, visits to high schools, local cultural activities, and homestays with local American families.  A key component of the program is for participants to develop follow-on community-based projects in their home communities to effect positive change after their return home.

Type: Short courses

Eligibility for Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program: 

• Youth participants should be high school students aged between 15 to 18 years at the start of the exchange who have demonstrated leadership potential through academic work, community involvement, and extracurricular activities.
• Each exchange delegation will also include adult participants who are teachers, trainers or community leaders who work with youth.  They will fill the roles of exchange participant, chaperone, and post-exchange mentor.
• All Candidates should have sufficient proficiency in English to allow them to participate in an academic program.

A Successful candidate for this program will have the following characteristics:

1   Student candidates:

• be a high school student who is 15, 16, 17, or 18 years of age by the start of the exchange
• be proficient in English
• attend at least one semester of high school in his/her home country following completion of the program;
• indicate a serious interest in learning about the United States
• demonstrate strong leadership qualities and potential in his/her school or community
• have a high level of academic achievement, as indicated by academic grades, awards, and teacher recommendations
• demonstrate a commitment to community service and extracurricular activities
• have had little or no prior study or travel experience in the United States or elsewhere outside of their home country
• be mature, responsible, independent, confident, open-minded, tolerant, thoughtful and inquisitive; and
• be willing and able to fully participate in an intensive program, community service, and active educational travel program during the exchange, as well as in follow-on activities afterward in their home countries.

2   Adult candidates:

• be a teacher, trainer, volunteer, or community leader who works with youth
• be proficient in English
• have a commitment to remain in teaching positions or other positions of influence on young leaders after the program
• indicate a serious interest in learning about the United States
• demonstrate an interest in developing professional skills
• be supportive of the teenage participants and assist them to become productive and responsible members of society
• exhibit maturity and open-mindedness, and
• be willing and able to fully participate in an intensive program, community service, and active educational travel program during the exchange, as well as to mentor youth in their follow-on activities afterward in their home countries.

Number of Awards: Approximately 50 youth and adult participants will travel to the United States

Value of Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program: The Department of State will cover travel and ground transportation, as well as book, cultural, housing, subsistence, mailing, incidental allowances and health benefits for all participants.

Duration of Program: 

How to Apply for Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program:

Sample Application forms: –

1. PAYLP Youth/Student Application Form Application: https://www.civic264.org.na/images/pdf/2022/3/PAYLP_English_Application_-_YOUTH_Sample.docx
2. PAYLP Adult Mentor Application Form Application: https://www.civic264.org.na/images/pdf/2022/3/PAYLP_English_Application_-_YOUTH_Sample.docx

Please email completed applications to Mr George M Beukes at  by 5 April 2022 (- latest by 11 April 2022).

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

US Congress and the Armed Conflict in Ethiopia

Jon Abbink

The HR 6600 Bill submitted in the US Congress addressing the armed conflicts in Ethiopia is imbalanced in targeting only the Ethiopian (and Eritrean) governments and not the initiator and perpetrator of the violence: the TPLF (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front). The Bill has not considered the facts on the ground and will, in its proposal for unprecedented sanctions, do lasting damage to Ethiopian-American relations, reinforce Ethiopia’s drift towards China, and have a crippling effect on Ethiopia’s working people and economy.

The unfolding Russian assault on Ukraine is pushing other global conflicts into the shadows, but the latter keep festering nonetheless. Some of these will also have important geostrategic consequences. One of them is the still ongoing armed conflict in Ethiopia, initiated by the TPLF (Tigray Peoples Liberation Movement) with a massive and unprovoked attack (in the night of 3-4 November 2020) and kept alive by it. The USA has not played an enlightening role in the conflict, primarily blaming the federal government for the violence. Politically, the US efforts over the past 1,5 year were even marked by undue interference and sanctimoniousness. US policy circles have not shown honest understanding of the war, of its context, and of the means to help end it. The State Department as well as USAID (which is self-admittedly an arm of US foreign policy) have rarely sided with Ethiopian government efforts to bring this conflict to an end and seem to have condoned the TPLF – incorrectly equating it with the Tigrayan people.

But the US Congress has not stayed far behind. The latest gaffe about to be produced by the USA is discussion and voting on the HR6600 Bill, proposed in Congress on 4 February 2022 by a Democratic Party representative (T. Malinowski, of New Jersey) and a Republican Party representative (Ms. Young Kim, of California). It is up for consideration in Congress tomorrow. The initiative is surrealistically called the ‘Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy’ bill. In practice, it will produce more of the opposite: destabilization, hindering peace, and undermining democracy in Ethiopia. Here is why.

The Bill says that

1. the State Department is required to develop a plan for supporting democracy and human rights in Ethiopia, including plans “to combat hate speech online, support accountability measures for atrocities and efforts to buttress a national dialogue”;

2. the President must impose sanctions on individuals “who undermine negotiations to end the conflict, commit human rights abuses, exacerbate corruption, or provide weapons to any hostile party”;

3. security assistance to the government of Ethiopia should be suspended “until it ceases offensive operations, takes steps towards a national dialogue, improves protection of human rights, allows unfettered humanitarian access to conflict areas, and investigates allegations of war crimes”;

4. the Administration must “oppose loans or other financial assistance from international agencies like the World Bank and IMF to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea unless for humanitarian purposes until they take steps to end the war and restore respect for human rights”; and

5. a determination from the State Department is required “concerning allegations of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Ethiopia”.

This is a programme of unprecedented interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopia, based on ignorance and bias. Many of the conflict issues and food aid efforts are under the brief of the Ethiopian government and are being addressed already. And nowhere the Bill mentions the TPLF and its war actions. This is surprising if not laughable. It looks like TPLF people were co-drafters of the Bill. The target of the sanctions and strictures in the Bill are Ethiopian and Eritrean government people. Again, no one denies that the humanitarian problems in Tigray Region are serious and painful: there is a huge lack of food supplies, fuel, medical facilities, etc. There have been unlawful killings and expulsions by federal army soldiers, Eritrean soldiers and militias in the early stage of the war – in a spiral of TPLF-induced violence. Ethiopian federal force excesses were and are being tackled via the courts. TPLF violence and abuse not – impunity reigns, as the TPLF does not call any of its forces to account – on the contrary. Their violence was dramatically expanded in the course of 2021 by the movement in Amhara and Afar Regions – in a spirit of revenge and destruction. The onus of initiating, perpetrating and sustaining the crass violence lies with the TPLF. And there has been no more ground fighting in the Tigray Region since June 2021: all of it occurs in the Afar and Amhara regions, still partly occupied. Any serious analysis would reveal that the damage, the number of victims, and the abhorrent nature of the violence (as a war policy) was on the TPLF side. The problems were compounded by hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Amhara and Afar Regions, made IDPs by the TPLF – they are still waiting in camps, with nothing but their bare clothes as possession. In addition, areas mainly in western Ethiopia are still terrorized by the ‘Oromo Liberation Army’, allied to the insurgent TPLF and engaged in massive ‘ethnic cleansing’ operations – not mentioned in the Bill either. The same for Gumuz rebels in the west, who appear to get support in Sudan, probably with Egyptian backing. Unfortunately, the TPLF does not show interest in stability or cessation of conflict – neither in Ethiopia as a whole nor in “its own” region Tigray: it needs tension and conflict to stay in power. This in contrast to the Ethiopian government which has three times offered a ceasefire: none was responded to. The HR6600 Bill ignores this as well, again showing the Bill’s very poor quality.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Mr. Dina Mufti said: “The [HR6600] bill doesn’t measure up to the level of historic relationship between Ethiopia and the United States”. That is putting it in an admirably mild way. The Bill would be an unprecedented and an unjustifiably mean blow to an elected government and it will jeopardize a long and dynamic relationship between two countries. It would alienate not only the Ethiopian government but also the Ethiopian people from the USA – and regrettably so, because most Ethiopians value a good relation with the USA. Millions of Ethiopians have family and friends living there; thousands have studied there, and economic relations are important. To jeopardize this growing and often mutually beneficial relationship is irresponsible. The HR6600 Bill and its aggressive and arrogant tone would add extra damage to the situation, after the already absurd delisting of Ethiopia from the AGOA, that is only hurting the ordinary workers and not the government – and for quite unacceptable reasons. As law, HR6600 would even be imperialist: the Biden Administration could wield control over Ethiopia in social media, traveling, domestic politics, economic affairs, international loans, etc. under a 10-year sanctions regime. While humanitarian aid would still be provided, Ethiopia’s right to economic development would in fact be denied; as it says in Section 6 (c) of the Bill, Ethiopians would only benefit from support for projects on ‘basic services’… The economic impact would also lead Ethiopia to intensify relations with China.

If the US Congress wants to see stabilization, peace and democracy efforts in Ethiopia, it will do well to start developing a more balanced approach to the Ethiopian conundrum. That would include no longer taking donations from TPLF supporters (Sponsors of the Bill, e.g. senators Malinowski, Menendez or Sherman received what look like political bribes) A better approach should be based on an analysis of what in fact happened: an armed insurgency by a rogue party that aimed to overthrow the federal government and went on to destabilize the country by war, mass killings, destruction and economic sabotage. The Biden Administration is now massively losing support among Ethio-Americans and is also increasingly criticized in Africa as a whole. HR6600 would accelerate this. While the Ethiopian government can be urged to do more, it is time for the US to put heavy pressure on the TPLF and call them to abandon insurgency and be accountable under the law. The severe sanctions approach in HR6600 smacks of the sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine war. But Ethiopia is not Russia. If US Members of Congress feel the need to make the parallel, then the facts on the ground in the past 1,5 years will tell them that the TPLF regime in Meqele is equivalent to Russia, and Ethiopia to Ukraine. HR6600 – like its predecessor the S.3199 Act of 4 November 2021- is entirely unhelpful and should go where it belongs: to the dustbin.

AT&T Fumbles: the Tyranny of Big Telecom

David Rosen

In February 2022, AT&T completed the spinoff of its holdings in WarnerMedia to Discovery, a $43 billion transaction creating Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.  In 2016, AT&T announced its intention to acquire Time Warner and the deal was completed in 2018.  AT&T promoted the spinoff as a way to ensure that WarnerMedia would be in a better position to compete with Netflix and Disney, the top video streaming services.  However, a different story was at play.

Postmodern America is a telecom enabled nation.  In the U.S., there are more telecom subscribers — 518 million subscriber to wireless, wirelines and cable services – than people; for 2021, the Census Bureau estimates the U.S. population at 332 million.

Tele-connectivity mediates, electronically facilitates, nearly every aspect of contemporary communications — whether private, education, business, health or government; whether voice, internet, social media or streaming; whether online retail, distant learning or Zoom meeting; and whatever the content, be it the latest news headline, a presidential address, a promotional offering, a dating service listing or a porn flick.  And telecommunications make nearly every place and person on the globe nearly instantaneously accessible.

Big Telecom consists of four conglomerates with total 2020 revenues at nearly $430 billion. The individual telecom’s 2020 revenues were: AT&T ($181.2 billion), Comcast ($108.9 billion), Charter Communications ($45.8 billion) and Verizon ($131.9 billion). Their combined “market value” was nearly $1 trillion.

For a decade, Big Telecom has sought to combine its core business of content distribution with content ownership. Except for Comcast, the efforts of AT&T and Verizon have failed; Charter/Spectrum has not sought to acquire media companies.

AT&T acquires DirecTV for $67.1 billion in 2015; it bought Time Warner for $85 billion in 2018; and acquired AppNexus, a digital ad exchange that competes with Google and Facebook, for between $1.6 and $2 billion in 2018. Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and Yahoo! in 2017 for $4.8 billion; in May 2021, Verizon sold its media assets.

Comcast succeeded in building a diverse combination of media holdings that include AT&T Broadband; Sky Broadcasting; NBCUniversal (Telemundo, TeleXitos, and Cozi TV), cable services (MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Bravo, G4 and E!); Universal Pictures; Peacock; animation studios (DreamWorks, Illumination and Universal Animation); and XUMO.  It also controls Universal Parks and Resorts.

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A century ago, the United States brought the world the first nationwide telephone system. A century later, the U.S. is a second-tier telecom country, falling behind advanced industrial countries in Europe and Asia providing high-quality and affordable fiber-based telecom services.  And in the U.S., “digital inequality” – between those having affordable broadband internet services and those who do not – is deepening. Why did this happen and what role did AT&T play in the decline of American telecom services?

AT&T was founded in 1887 and for decades it operated as a legal – if moderately regulated — monopoly.  In 1984, AT&T was the largest corporation in the U.S. and the largest company in the world with over 1 million employees.  Yet, after years of legal and political wrangling, it was broken up by Judge Harold H. Greene.  In what formally known as the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) that broke-up AT&T’s 22 local and operating companies — i.e., Regional Holding Companies (RHC or RBOCs) — into seven separate companies. “What the Bell System did was illegal,” Greene noted. “It abused its monopoly in local service to keep out competitors in other areas. Competition will give this country the most advanced, best, cheapest telephone network.”

The rechristened AT&T consisted of Western Electric, Bell Labs and long-line services; however, Western Electric exclusive supply contracts with the RBOCs were terminated.  The seven RBOCs could not provide Title II “information services” (e.g., cable television) or manufacture equipment; but they got the Yellow Pages and had to provide equal access to their networks for all interexchange carriers (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.) who wished to connect to them.

A decade after the MFJ, Pres. Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that was envisioned bringing telecom service into the 21^st century.  Clinton argued that it would “promote competition as the key to opening new markets and new opportunities.”  He insisted, deregulation “will protect consumers by regulating the remaining monopolies for a time and by providing a roadmap for deregulation in the future.” Well, that future never arrived.

The Act “deregulated” innovate telecom service (e.g., internet, video streaming) and fostered a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) leading to the restructuring of the telecom industry.  Over the following few decades, the telecom industry was recast and four corporations – two telco (AT&T and Verizon) and two cable (Comcast and Charter) — came to dominate, controlling wireline and wireless services as well as internet and streaming services, and moving to acquire media/content businesses and theme parks. In the wake of the break-up of AT&T and deregulation, the U.S. has become a second-tier telecom nation.

Two further developments contributed to the reshaping of the telecom marketplace.  First, the establishment of AT&T Wireless (1987) and Verizon Wireless (2000) used wireline utility construction budgets and staff to build out the wireless networks and not pay market prices to use the networks.

Second, AT&T rolled out U-Verse and told the public it was a fiber-optic service; however, it was a copper-to-the-home service, using the existing state utility wires, with a fiber optic “node” within a half-mile from the premises.  And Verizon rolled out FiOS, a fiber optic service, but it would be done as a “Title II” or “common carrier” service and part of the state utility to be charged to phone customers as an upgrade; Verizon finished less than half the territories and left many cities not upgraded.

Today, two mega telecoms, AT&T and Verizon, have operational control over America’s telecommunications network of wireline and wireless services.  However, their efforts to control over media content failed.  Even though AT&T and Verizon “guaranteed” that each would compete for wireline, broadband, Internet and cable television, competition has been replaced by a “gentleman’s agreement” that simply splits up America into fiefdoms.

The traditional telecom duopoly of phone and cable companies is giving way to integrated voice, video, internet and wireless telecom trusts.  AT&T and Verizon dominate the nation’s wireless and wireline networks; Comcast and Charter/Spectrum cable MSOs control the full-screen, full-length video signal.  Following merger after merger over the last two decades, the trust came to not only control wireless services and broadband, internet and telephone (local and long-distance) service – and the U.S. became a second-tier telecom nation.