India’s Agricultural Uprising
December 4, 2020
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“The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.” —Thomas Donahue
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” — Elie Wiesel
India’s Agricultural Uprising
(Sunil Ghosh via Getty Images)
On September 20th, India’s Parliament passed three new bills aiming to deregulate the country’s agricultural industry and make it easier for farmers to sell directly to big institutional and retail buyers, like Walmart. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new legislation will reform antiquated laws and remove middlemen from the agriculture trade, thereby providing farmers with more autonomy over choosing prices and making the sector more efficient.
Farmers aren’t buying it. Government policies have long protected them from the ravages of the open market, and although the government has said it won’t drop its policy of guaranteed minimum price supports for essential crops like grain, farmers worry that support will disappear. They argue their inability to compete with financially powerful agricultural corporations — that will pay extremely low prices for essential crops — will plunge them into debt and ultimately financial ruin.
To protest the new rules, more than 200,000 farmers and their supporters have been occupying the streets of New Delhi for days; they’re blocking major highways into the capital city, and vowing to remain encamped until the laws are repealed. Abhimanyu Kohar is the coordinator of the National Farmers Alliance, a federation of more than 180 nonpolitical farm organizations across India. He said “Farmers have so much passion because they know that these three laws are like death warrants for them. [They’re] doing this movement for our future, for our very survival.”
He’s not just being hyperbolic. A 2018 study by India’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development found that over 50 percent of the country’s farmers are in debt. Additionally, between 2018 and 2019, more than 20,000 farmers committed suicide, and there is evidence suggesting indebtedness was a major factor. “In Western countries agriculture is a source of business, but in India, agriculture is a source of livelihood,” Kohar said. “In India, crops support their living.”
And therein lies the problem. Nearly 60 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people depend on farming for their livelihoods. But the farming sector is also incredibly unproductive, accounting for only about 15 percent of the country’s GDP. One expert says what Modi is trying to do is a tough call, but a necessary one that probably “should’ve been done 20 years ago.” The problem is that there are simply too many farmers in India. He and others have argued the country should make the transition away from farming to manufacturing, like China did.
Unfortunately, India hasn’t been able to generate the kind of manufacturing growth needed to support millions of farmers as they transition to new work. In 2020, manufacturing only accounted for about 17 percent of India’s GDP. Job creation was borderline weak, even before COVID-19 dealt the economy its smackdown.
Additional Reads
- Indian police use violence as a shortcut to justice. It’s the poorest who bear the scars (CNN)
- “This Is a Revolution, Sir” (Jacobin)
- Police in India Make First Arrest Under New Interfaith Marriage Law (NYT, $)
- Dramatic disconnect – Despite a weak economy, India’s stockmarket is at record highs (The Economist, $)
The Pinkertons Are Back… And This Time Their Working For Bezos
- Allan Pinkerton was a nineteenth-century Scottish immigrant and former deputy sheriff of Cook County, Illinois who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850. Pinkerton was a Union spy during the Civil War; afterward he used his government skills and contacts to profit in the private sector. His agency became known for its conspiracy theories, diabolical plots, and often violent union-busting activities. Wealthy businessmen hired the agency to infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep strikers, and suspected unionists out of factories — and recruit goon squads to intimidate workers.
- 150 years later, the Pinkerton Agency became a division of the global security-providing Swedish company, Securitas AB. Two decades after that it’s still being hired by wealthy businessmen to mess with their workers — this time by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Dozens of leaked internal documents obtained by Motherboard reveal Amazon’s reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers, and its obsessive monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements throughout Europe.
- The internal reports were written in 2019 by Amazon intelligence analysts who work for the Global Security Operations Center, the company’s security division tasked with protecting Amazon employees, vendors, and assets at company facilities around the world. The documents detail the close scrutiny paid to individuals involved in labor organizing activities at warehouses; they offer an unprecedented look at the internal security and surveillance apparatus of a company that has vigorously attempted to tamp down employee dissent, and has previously been caught smearing employees who attempted to organize their colleagues.
- Critics warn that Amazon’s approach to dealing with its own workforce, labor unions, and social and environmental movements as a threat has grave implications for its workers’ privacy and ability to join labor unions and collectively bargain — and not just in Europe. They believe it should concern both customers and workers in the US, Canada, and elsewhere around the world as the company expands into Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and India. (Vice)
Brazil Besieged By Bank Robberies
- Brazil has some of the highest crime rates in the world, including hundreds of bank robberies in just the last couple of years. Local media are calling the latest string of robberies “New Cangaço,” referencing the widespread banditry that plagued Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Small and medium-sized cities have been the preferred targets in the current crime wave.
- Just before midnight on Monday, armed and masked gangsters attacked the Southern Brazilian city of Criciúma (population 217,000), in Santa Catarina state. About 24 hours later and 2,000 miles away, at least 20 gangsters descended on Cametá (population 140,000), a remote river town in the Amazon rainforest in Pará state.
- The gang wielded high-caliber weapons and explosives in the Cametá attack, while grabbing hostages to use as human shields. One of the hostages was killed and another injured. Videos on social media show locals fleeing to the sound of gunfire. The criminals also attacked a military police station to prevent officers from responding. (NPR)
Additional World News
- U.S. Tightens Visa Rules for Chinese Communist Party Members (NYT, $)
- Taking a rain check: China plans rapid expansion of ‘weather modification’ efforts (Guardian)
- Why some Asian countries keep building coal plants (Axios)
- U.S. Cyberforce Was Deployed to Estonia to Hunt for Russian Hackers (NYT, $). An international battle to protect the ballot box.
- Hackers try to penetrate the vital ‘cold chain’ for coronavirus vaccines, security team reports (WaPo, $)
- Fast friends: The UAE and Israel’s whirlwind honeymoon has gone beyond normalization (CNN)
- Dr Fauci: The UK ‘was not as careful’ as US in vaccine approval (BBC)
- Brexit talks falter as UK claims EU is hardening negotiating stance (Guardian)
- Colombia Is Considering Legalizing Its Massive Cocaine Industry (Vice). They must be done with sniffing out trouble.
- The Search For The Disappeared Points To Mexico’s Darkest Secrets (WaPo, $)
COVID-19
- Vaccination cards will be issued to everyone getting COVID-19 vaccine, health officials say (CNN)
- The CDC’s new COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, explained (Vox)
- NIH Director Tells Churches To Do The “Altruistic, Loving Thing” And Stay Closed (NPR)
- Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing (Atlantic, $)
- If you’re confused about which way of eating is right for you, then check out GenoPalate’s DNA kit! Did you know that just one variant in your genes can lead to drastic differences in the way your body processes food?
- The DNA kit will show you which foods your body needs; down to nutrient breakdowns and how sensitive your body is to gluten, lactose, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and everything in between.
- GenoPalate’s biggest sale of the year is happening right now, so get your kit today and start feeling like the new you!
The Wrong Type Of Google Search
- The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint claiming that Google unlawfully monitored and questioned its employees about their union activity, and unlawfully fired a number of staff for attempting to organize a union last year. Google denies the charges and said it fired the employees for violating data security rules, but the NLRB said the rules were only applied to those engaging in union activity.
- Known as the “Thanksgiving Four,” the four staff members fired in November 2019 were officially let go for breaking security and safety rules. But the workers alleged they were fired for “speaking out” about Google’s policies. One of the employees named in the complaint said: “Employees who speak out on ethical issues, harassment, discrimination, and all these matters are no longer really welcome at Google in the way they used to be. I think it is part of a shift in culture there.”
- The NLRB news came on the same day another Google employee, Timnit Gebru, said she was fired for an internal email she sent to members of the Brain Women and Allies group. Gebru is a respected researcher and a leading figure in AI ethics; her dismissal prompted a backlash among software engineers and AI ethics watchers. (BBC)
High-Ranking Hypocrites
- Watch what they do, not what they say. Following a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases across the country, State Department leadership sent out a notice to subordinates one week ago saying that “any non-mission critical events” should be changed to “virtual events as opposed to in-person gatherings.” However, that same week US event planners were told the warning did not apply to several upcoming functions they were working on: large indoor holiday parties hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan, to be held on the eighth floor of the State Department, and involving hundreds of guests, food and drinks.
- In one instance, invitations were sent to 900 guests for a December 15th event entitled “Diplomacy at Home for the Holidays,” to be held in the department’s flagship reception space featuring cut-glass chandeliers and towering Corinthian columns. The director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University was flabbergasted. “An indoor event of this kind is dangerous on so many levels,” he said.
- A State Department spokesman offered an explanation: “we plan to fully enforce social distancing measures at this reception, and face coverings are mandatory for admittance.” But he had no response when asked how he could expect attendees to keep masks on at a reception that includes food and drinks, or how the department would enforce social distancing, if even a fraction of the 900 guests show up. (WaPo)
Additional USA News
- We’re getting the gang back together! Obama, Clinton and Bush pledge to take Covid vaccine on TV to show its safety (Guardian)
- Trump Sets Up Sale Of Oil Drilling Rights In Arctic Wildlife Refuge (NPR)
- When foreign policy wonks make money (WaPo, $). A consulting firm has infiltrated the Cabinet.
- How the Supreme Court Champions ‘Religious Liberty’ (Atlantic, $)
- Not so peachy: ‘One of the nuttier things I’ve seen’: MAGA civil war erupts in Georgia (Politico)
- Mark Kelly sworn in as US senator, flipping Arizona seat from red to blue (CNN)
- House Dems pick openly gay lawmaker to lead campaign arm (NBC)
- Federal watchdog sees likely “wrongdoing” at Agency for Global Media broadcaster (Vox)
- Giving the shirt off his back? A Corrections Officer Trainee Says He Was Fired for Wearing a Black Lives Matter Shirt (Vice)
- Louisville Is Clamoring for Police Reform. Can an Interim Chief Deliver? (NYT, $)
- Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses (New Yorker, $)
Every Dog Has His Day, Unless He’s On A Plane
(David McNew via Getty Images)
- Arguably, there may never have been a more useful time than in upcoming days for airline passengers to be allowed to take their emotional support animals with them on the flight. Regardless, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said Wednesday it will no longer require airlines to make the same accommodations for emotional support animals as they do for trained service dogs. Bottom line: no more guaranteed free flights for comfort cats, calming Capuchins, or mellowing out miniature horses.
- The DOT reasoned that a service dog is trained to do work or perform a task to benefit an individual with a disability, but emotional support and psychiatric service animals function therapeutically. So starting in 2021, it will be up to individual airlines to decide whether or not to treat the two the same. Miniature horses and Capuchin monkeys are legitimate service animals, and the DOT said it considered permitting them, but ultimately decided against it.
- Obviously the decision had nothing to do with size. All Capuchin monkeys and tons of minis are smaller than say, a Great Dane, which is huge, but still a dog, so it can’t be discriminated against based on breed. No, according to the new rule, a service dog can only be denied passage if it poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others, causes a significant disruption in the cabin (or at the airport), or the animal’s disabled human fails to provide the necessary paperwork. Something that would never happen with a precious little miniature horse. (NPR)
Additional Reads
- Why We Forget How Early It Gets Dark Every Year (Vice). For those who can’t get over those unsettling sunsets.
- Do Diverse Corporate Boards Lead to a Fairer Workplace? (Wired)
- Why a giant fictional penguin could be the cure for millennial burnout (Guardian)
- Monkey see! A critical human sense could be restored after positive tests on monkeys (Inverse)
- What Henry Adams Understood About History’s Breaking Points (New Yorker, $)
- AI has cracked a problem that stumped biologists for 50 years. It’s a huge deal. (Vox)
- What’s mined is yours: A dollar can’t buy you a cup of coffee but that’s what NASA intends to pay for some moon rocks (WaPo, $)
- Is the Earth an organism? (Aeon)
- Warner Bros. Says All 2021 Films Will be Streamed Right Away (NYT, $)
- Game recognize game: Tired Of The Social Media Rat Race, Journalists Move To Writing Substack Newsletters (NPR)