Saturday, August 8, 2020
ANTI-OCCUPATION ACTIVISTS FIND THEIR PLACE IN ISRAELI PROTESTS
By Oren Ziv, +972 Magazine.
August 7, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/anti-occupation-activists-find-their-place-in-israeli-protests/
‘No Longer Outcasts.’
Left-wingers tried to insert their messages into mainstream Israeli protests for years, only to be rejected. Today’s anti-Netanyahu protests are very different.
The growing presence of Israeli anti-occupation protesters has been one of the most notable aspects of the wave of demonstrations that started on July 14 outside the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street, Jerusalem. Among other things, this bloc of protesters have demanded justice for Iyad al-Hallaq, a Palestinian with autism whom Israeli police shot dead in the Old City of Jerusalem in late May.
The anti-occupation bloc, comprising several hundred protesters, are not on the margins of the demonstrations. Last Saturday night, for example, it was possible to hear them chanting “Justice for Iyad” at the Prime Minister’s residence, even as Israeli riot police were forcefully dispersing the crowd.
In contrast to countless instances over the past decade, in which left-wing protesters have tried to insert radical messaging into mainstream demonstrations and been met with rejection or violence, this time, the response was very different.
The current protests did not start out this way. Back in May, a few dozen radical leftists tried to join in one of the “Black Flag” protests against Netanyahu’s anti-democratic maneuvers. The left-wingers brought banners reading “Israel is not a democracy — Apartheid;” the other protesters, mostly older participants, asked the police to push the group back to the edges of the demonstration.
‘No Longer Seen As An Outcast’
Dozens of anti-occupation activists taking part in recent demonstrations say the picture has greatly changed. Everyone that +972 spoke with said there have hardly been any hostile reactions to their presence, and certainly no attempts to ostracize or censor them.
Some say this is because the protests are decentralized; others say it is because the radical leftists are there in solidarity with the protests, and are not trying to overshadow them. Still others claim that government incitement has turned everyone in the demonstrations into “leftists,” thereby legitimizing the word.
What is more, the anti-occupation bloc has gradually become more integrated into the main demonstration. While at the start they stood separately, at Thursday’s and Saturday’s protests, different anti-occupation groups were dispersed throughout the crowd.
“People are simply joining in, and the messaging of the protests no longer scares them if they don’t agree with them,” says Sahar Vardi, a Jerusalem-based activist who was arrested in the first week that she took part in the protests. “Someone with a sign reading ‘Not right or left’ joined our group and chanted ‘Justice for Iyad,’ then continued on.”.
Vardi, like others whom +972 spoke with, believes the decentralized nature of the demonstrations has opened up a space for anti-occupation messaging within the broader movement. “Everyone is bringing their own message,” she explains. “People are coming out to protest because they’re desperate, but some of them agree with us. Anyone standing next to a leftist shouting about the occupation is no longer seen as an outcast.”
“There’s no unifying factor other than wanting to topple Bibi,” says activist Uri Givati. “Everyone will give a different reason as to why they’re coming [to protest]. So people can’t say, ‘anti-occupation protests — no; my protest — yes.’
“I haven’t encountered any attempts to silence us,” Givati adds. “It’s because people are having financial difficulties, and are saying to themselves: ‘Anyone who can stand with us should join in.’”
Givati was arrested at last Thursday’s protest. Police claimed he was interfering with officers in the line of duty, and at the police station he was asked to sign a restraining order barring him from Jerusalem. He refused, and at a court hearing to extend his arrest, Givati’s own film of his arrest led the judge to release him without conditions.
During his arrest, Givati says, he and fellow activists helped other protestors who were being arrested for the first time, telling them what to expect until their release. Givati rejoined the protests on Saturday.
‘It’s Leading People To Think Freely’
Other leftists say that the tolerance toward anti-occupation protesters is because they have been showing up since the first demonstration, and so subsequent newcomers have become accustomed to anti-occupation slogans being an established part of the proceedings.
Government incitement against the protesters has also played a role, some say. “The right has called the protest ‘left-wing’ and ‘anarchist,’” says Adi Winter, a protester who was arrested last Thursday and ordered to stay away from the Prime Minister’s Residence for 10 days. “That has actually allowed us to be leftists,” she adds.
“If they call us anarchists, then let’s be anarchists,” says Vardi. “People on the ground, who know how complicated the protests are, aren’t going along with these labels. They’re not snatching our signs, and a number of people come up to ask us questions. Some do say that [our message] is not connected, but not aggressively — they’re starting a conversation.”
“Trying to shamelessly slander [protesters] might actually have the opposite effect,” says Ariel Bernstein, an activist who was arrested at a demonstration last week. “It’s leading people to think freely and not censor others. These protests are allowing people to express their opposition to the government’s behavior, and they can see there are others ready to fight alongside them.
“It’s infuriating for the police and for the Public Security Minister [Amir Ohana, who has been trying to find different ways of shutting down the protests], because all of a sudden there’s a group of people who don’t really care about being called leftists,” Bernstein adds.
‘We’re Starting To Change, Too’
Anti-occupation protesters have also been trying to connect their message to the demonstration’s central theme.
“Our goal is, as far as possible, to reach a broad common denominator,” a young activist told +972 last Thursday. “If we had a sign reading ‘Free Palestine,’ it would have been seen as a provocation.”
The fact that most anti-occupation protesters also identify with the “Bibi out” message is helping bridge the divide between the different protesters. They are also united in their messaging around corruption, anti-democratic trends, and the state of the economy. Anti-occupation protesters also note a shift in their own approach.
“We want to make these connections, because people are waking up,” says Vardi. “It’s not just ‘anyone but Bibi,’ it’s also about the government and the occupation.”
“We’re not here to exploit the demonstration — we’re starting to change, too,” says Winter. “We shouldn’t be thinking that we’re better [than others]. We need to understand that in order to radicalize [others], we need to be part [of the protests].”
Some protesters have contrasted the current demonstrations with the 2011 social protests, during which most participants were outraged at efforts to draw attention to the Nakba. This is, Winter says, part of a broader understanding that more groups need to join the fold — “haredim, Ethiopians, Palestinians.” At the demonstrations last Thursday, many protesters encouraged ultra-Orthodox Jews to join in — which didn’t happen in 2011, according to Winter.
“We’re obviously also protesting against corruption,” says Givati. “Corruption is one of the causes of the occupation. We want to talk about the occupation because many people don’t understand how deep the corruption goes.” He, too, is noticing a change in his outlook: he is becoming more tolerant about protesting alongside people with whom he would, in ordinary circumstances, strongly disagree with.
‘Easy To Draw The Connection To The Occupation’
Many anti-occupation protesters believe that the murder of Iyad al-Hallaq helped open people up to their message.
“People told me this protest was the most important of all,” says Itai, an activist carrying a placard about al-Hallaq at a demonstration last week. “[The shooting] was shocking, an autistic person who was murdered. The only time someone remarked on my sign was not over its contents, but over the fact that I was standing opposite the police with it — they said we hadn’t come to protest the police.”
Some trace the birth of the “anti-occupation bloc” to the protest that took place after al-Hallaq’s murder, when hundreds of people demonstrated in Jerusalem and blocked the light rail. Those protests, people say, brought the left back out onto the streets.
Ariel Bernstein, who was arrested at last Tuesday’s protest while also holding a sign mentioning al-Hallaq, says he is “surprised” at the amount of support the message has received. “We tried protesting before the current demonstrations, but people didn’t really join.”
Now, however, he sees young and old people alike — not necessarily that politically active — going out to protest, even in the face of death threats and verbal and physical abuse from right-wingers.
“We’re there for them,” Bernstein adds. “They know they have support. And when La Familia [the far-right ‘ultras’ of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club] come to protect Netanyahu, we’re clearly talking about a war against fascism.”
Beyond the murder of al-Hallaq, some protesters also believe that the annexation affair — which brought thousands of people out to demonstrate in the run-up to July 1 — has also helped bring different groups together.
“People are saying that Bibi is focusing on annexation instead of worrying about us,” says Givati. “They can see that the government is dealing with that instead of the economy, and from there it’s easy to draw the connection to the occupation.”
A group of three protesters drew a fair amount of attention for dressing up in the colors of the Palestinian flag and carrying signs that read, “A corrupt leader for a corrupt people.” Aside from two people who brought Palestinian flags, this group had the greatest potential to cause friction.
“There’s pushback,” says one of the protesters, Uri. “but also a willingness on the part of the protesters to receive some internal criticism. With the loss of trust in the government, people are feeling less need to maintain their faith in the state and what it represents… you can’t separate the government from the occupation and the state of constant war.”
‘Palestinians Will Not Come Without Their Identity’
Most of the protests so far have not included speeches, yet dancing, songs, and impromptu performances have been an integral part of the events. At a demonstration on July 14, before protesters began marching downtown and confronting police, hip hop group Pe L’Ozen performed with messages against occupation, racism, and police violence. Even when the word “occupation” was uttered in one of the songs, the audience did not stop dancing.
This was even more pronounced during the protest last Thursday. The organizers set up a stage outside Netanyahu’s home, where Neta Wiener and Samira Saraya, two members of the Israeli-Palestinian hip hop troupe System Ali, performed in front of thousands. “The pain is the same, the voice of Iyad al-Hallaq is the voice of George Floyd,” sang Saria, “I haven’t been able to breathe for 72 years, tell me how much more is possible?” The crowd cheered and applauded.
“The truth is that I was surprised, I expected them to boo us,” Saraya said after the show. “There were some people who said [our performance] was unrelated and the protest was apolitical. If we did not have a clear statement to make, we would not have gone onstage. We would not come here to make people happy, but rather to convey political messages that connect police violence that has existed here since the founding of the state to what is happening now.”
Saraya notes that there is a gap between the treatment of the Balfour protesters and the treatment of Palestinian demonstrations in Israel. “Public Security Minister Ohana is trying to persuade the police commissioner to use more violence,” says Saria. “He wants the police to use the same amount of violence against everyone. He’s right. Ohana has admitted that the police treat Arabs and Blacks differently [than the anti-Netanyahu protests].”
Saraya is also well aware that Palestinian citizens of Israel have mostly refrained from attending the demonstrations. Despite the fact that the political messages have been received positively, she wonders whether a Palestinian flag at the protests would be similarly welcomed. “Palestinians will not come without their identity,” she said. “The problem is not the flag, but how you react to the flag that I am flying.”
“A LOT OF PEOPLE REALLY DON’T THINK WE SHOULD BE WORKING RIGHT NOW”
By James Tatsch, WSWS.August 7, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/a-lot-of-people-really-dont-think-we-should-be-working-right-now/
GM Fairfax Worker Speaks Out On Spread Of COVID-19.
The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with a worker at the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, about conditions at the facility that are leading to the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease.
Last week saw the highest number of new recorded cases for the Kansas City metro area since the start of the pandemic. The ever-increasing level of confirmed cases takes place as infection levels are soaring across both Kansas and Missouri, which have been recording record-breaking highs on a near-daily basis.
The GM Fairfax Assembly Plant is a sprawling 4,900,000-square-foot facility located in the Fairfax Industrial District along the Missouri River. Beginning production in 1988, on the grounds of the former Fairfax Airport, the plant now employees 2,385 workers in the production of the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4 models.
Following the two-month shutdown of the auto industry forced by workers through a series of wildcat strikes earlier this year, production at the Fairfax Plant officially resumed on June 1, with the reinstitution of two full-time shifts. A third shift at the plant was previously cut and roughly 1,000 laid off in 2017, with the company’s move encountering no opposition from the United Auto Workers.
Prior to restarting production this summer, GM and the UAW trumpeted safety protocols such as hand washing, sanitizing, temperature screening and physical distancing, claiming they were adequate to protect workers from infection. All of these would-be preventative measures have amounted to little more than empty talk as demonstrated by the expanding outbreaks of infections across the auto industry since its reopening.
Following the June 1 restart of the Fairfax plant, a GM spokesman was forced to release a statement acknowledging that an employee at the plant had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 11. In the statement, GM claimed that the employee was infected outside work, while providing no evidence to support this claim.
“They always say it’s outside of work,” commented Sam, a Fairfax worker, in response to the GM statement (Sam’s real name has not been used as protection against retaliation). Asked if he thought that was the only case at the plant since reopening, he said, “I have a hard time buying that. I’ve heard of a lot more than one person who had COVID.”
The worker continued, “I heard someone had the COVID who works near the main door, the main entrance. Someone who was in the Cleanroom. Someone else on the Tech Team, and they’re all over, they go to several areas in the plant throughout the day.” He noted the high volume of workers calling off work every day. “What happens to those that were around that person? If they were exposed why weren’t they quarantined?”
“I think they’re trying to hide as much as they can, and the true impact on the plant. I believe the UAW and GM are in cahoots with each other. There’s no doubt in my mind. Both sides are withholding the truth.”
The cleaning and safety protocols that GM has outlined publicly have largely been ignored inside the plant. “The only thing I know of is that they’re cleaning the bathrooms more frequently. Cleaning ladies wiping down the rails. But that’s about all I see.” He added, “We’re given an additional five minutes to disinfect our work area before the line starts. They give us a spray bottle of something, we don’t know what it is. But now management is starting to complain that it’s damaging the equiptment and surfaces.”
“People are wearing masks, social distancing, but it’s getting worse because you really can’t distance, there’s a lot of jobs side-by-side where it’s impossible to control. People on the line are working two to three feet from each other, you’re right on top of each other sometimes.”
Commenting on the temperature in the plant, he recalled, “Prior to the July shutdown, they did cool some areas down. But since we returned it’s been hot. It was hot enough I was glazing in sweat.” He added, “One of the complaints for me is when you wear safety glasses and the mask, it causes the glasses to fog up, and makes it a lot harder to see. They said to rub some Joy [dish soap] on it, which helped a little bit, but not that much and you end up with soap on your face.”
Another factor he found seriously concerning was the potential for the transmission through the environmental system. “I think no matter what you do, whether manufacturing or in the schools, the heating and ventilation systems are going to spread it. If the virus gets in that system, it’s going to blow it right on you.”
Prior to the pandemic, GM laid off a number of temporary workers before they were to become full-time, Sam said. Such actions render all but meaningless the so-called “pathway” to full-time employment touted by the UAW in the 2019 national contract. “They had a lot of temp workers who were waiting to become permanent, and GM let them all go.” Since then, many of the temps hired to fill in the gaps from absenteeism have quit. “I was told there were about 170 people hired, and after a few days, there were just about 50 people left. It’s very demanding work. The turnaround is huge.”
There is an immense danger that workers may be unknowingly infected on the job and not yet showing symptoms. “A lot of people are very concerned for their families, or their children—afraid of giving it to their grandpas or grandmas, bringing the COVID home and infecting their loved ones.” He added, “We know there is no cure for it, and without a cure, that puts a lot of lives in jeopardy. That’s a lot of lives to put at risk. At what point do lives matter?”
Voicing concerns to management or the UAW or raising safety issues have time and again proved to be a dead end for workers at the plant. The UAW safety reps “don’t do anything,” he said. “They always have some kind of stupid story to help GM out.
“I see retaliation in this plant, I see the union working together with management and people are recognizing that.”
Faced with the intransigent refusal of management and the union to ensure safety, workers at Detroit-area Fiat Chrysler plants and the Ford Dearborn Truck plant have established rank-and-file safety committees independent of the UAW and management to fight for a healthy and safe workplace. These committees have demanded full disclosure of COVID-19 cases; for production to be halted for cleaning when infections occur; and regular, universal testing.
Asked what he thought about workers organizing independently, Sam responded, “We don’t feel like the UAW protects us anymore. We feel like we’re sold out. A lot of people are very angry. The world is changing, and we need to change too.
“We’re starting to break down and get tired of it. It’s just a matter of time before we organize and go after what’s right. That’s where our power is, in numbers.”
A Pandemic Side Effect: Permanent Job Losses
More jobs are disappearing for good, dashing hopes of a rapid economic rebound.
August 7, 2020 Megan Cassella POLITICO
https://portside.org/2020-08-07/pandemic-side-effect-permanent-job-losses
Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs in the coronavirus recession, but for many of them the news is getting even worse: Their positions are going away forever.
Permanent losses have so far made up only a fraction of the jobs that have vanished since states began shutting down their economies in March, with the vast majority of unemployed workers classified as on temporary layoff. But those numbers are steadily increasing — reaching 2.9 million in June — as companies start to move from temporary layoffs to permanent cuts. The number is widely expected to rise further when the Labor Department reports July data on Friday.
Workers themselves are growing increasingly pessimistic as the permanent losses spread beyond the service industry to occupations like paralegals and financial analysts who weren’t initially affected by the shutdowns. Nearly half of American families whose households have seen a layoff now believe that job is probably or definitely not coming back, an AP-NORC poll found late last month. That marks a steep drop from the April survey, which showed nearly four in five respondents expecting their job loss to be temporary.
The rise in permanent job loss is the latest signal that the economic damage from the coronavirus is likely to be long-lasting, and that the Trump administration’s dream of a quick, V-shaped recovery is at odds with what workers are seeing across the country. That could create the need for even more government spending and long-term solutions beyond the temporary fixes that Congress has been debating.
“This recession has been really confused, because what we had was really a suppression where we told everybody to stay home — and that wasn’t really job loss,” said Betsey Stevenson, a former chief economist at the Labor Department and a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration. “The real question is, when you end the suppression, how many jobs are left? And boy, it sure looks like we lost a whole lot of jobs.”
Permanent layoffs have already begun spreading beyond industries directly affected by the pandemic. Nick Bunker, the director of economic research with the Indeed Hiring Lab, found that while permanent losses were concentrated in April in service-sector occupations that have been the hardest hit — waiters and retail salespersons, for example — they had spread by June throughout the labor market.
The trend appears poised to get worse. The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid has risen in recent weeks after months of steady decline, as the coronavirus surges across much of the country and a majority of states have either paused or reversed reopening plans. Another 1.2 million workers filed a new unemployment claim last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, marking the 20th consecutive week that applications have risen above 1 million. More than 32 million people are receiving either state or federal unemployment benefits, according to the most recent data.
Layoffs taking place now are more likely to be permanent rather than a temporary furlough. A Goldman Sachs analysis from July 31 found that 83 percent of job losses since February had been deemed temporary. But of all new layoffs in July in California, which it used as an example, only 35 percent were temporary.
“What’s happening now is more companies that thought they could survive are giving up,” said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford. “The most painful time to lose your job may well be coming up.”
The permanent losses hold greater weight than temporary layoffs, economists say, because they are far more likely to lead to long-term unemployment that would prolong any economic recovery. While a furloughed worker is likely to get his or her job back as soon as consumer behavior returns to normal, a permanently laid-off worker has to wait for an employer to create a new job, then apply and get matched with the right one.
“That’s what recessions are made of — that’s why they are so costly. That’s why they take so long to clean up,” said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork, a platform that connects businesses with freelancers.
Workers who remain unemployed over the long term end up increasingly less likely to return to the labor market for a number of reasons: Their skills may erode; they may lose motivation or employers may discriminate against them, Bloom said. Even after returning to the labor market, they could see effects like lower pay that linger throughout their careers.
“The reason that’s important from a macro perspective is, if you have this army of long-term unemployed, it becomes almost impossible to have a rapid rebound,” said Bloom, who co-authored a study in May that found that 42 percent of recent layoffs were likely to become permanent.
Economists argue the growing trend toward permanent job losses highlights a need for further federal spending to support laid-off workers, to keep consumer spending close to normal levels and to help small- and medium-size firms in particular weather the shutdowns.
Without more aid, business closures are likely only to increase, in turn keeping unemployment high. A recent Goldman Sachs survey found that 84 percent of business owners who had received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program said they would exhaust the funding by this week. And only one in six reported being “very confident” they would be able to maintain their payroll without further aid.
As more businesses close, it also becomes harder to restart the economy once consumer demand does start to return because there are fewer places for people to spend their money.
Even when consumers want to go out to eat or travel again, “That’s going to take a long time to turn into job benefits if you’ve had massive amounts of small business closures there,” Ozimek said.
Regardless of whether the July data shows the headline unemployment rate rising or falling for the month, the share of permanently unemployed workers is likely to continue to rise, complicating the administration’s touting of what President Donald Trump has previously called a “rocket-ship” economic recovery. And it underscores that even if states begin to reopen their doors in the near future, any return to normal for the labor market is likely years away.
“So are we moving in the right direction? I think not,” said Stevenson, now a professor at the University of Michigan. “I think most people went home from work in March, April or May and thought, ‘Surely they’re going to bring me back to work.’ And what’s happened is fewer of them were brought back than were expecting it.”
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