https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAPsPafCubQ
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Labor MP denounces Australian government’s refusal to defend Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/29/assa-a29.html
By Oscar Grenfell
29 August 2020
In a statement to the House of Representatives on Thursday, Labor Party member of parliament Julian Hill spoke out against the US-led persecution of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and condemned the Australian government for being “too cowardly to defend him.”
A brief video of Hill’s remarks has been shared widely on social media. His comments were among the most strident by an official Australian politician opposing the gross attacks on Assange’s legal and democratic rights. They were, moreover, a minor breach in a wall of silence surrounding the WikiLeaks founder’s plight that has been enforced by the Australian political and media establishment.
Significant political issues, however, were raised by Hill’s statement, which have not been examined by any section of the media, or elsewhere.
The Labor MP, who represents a working-class electorate in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, began by declaring: “Eleven days from now, an Australian citizen will fight for his life in a London court as the United States government seeks his extradition. If this Australian is extradited and manages to escape execution, he will still face an effective death sentence in the US, confined in extreme isolation for 175 years.”
Julian Assange leaving London’s Royal Court of Justice in July, 2011 [Credit: acidpolly]
Assange, Hill said, confronted the prospect in the US of being “trapped in a system that ensures political prisoners like him will be systematically broken, with no hope of a fair trial...This Australian, who exposed American crimes, including international law violations at Guantanamo Bay, will be buried alive in the same oppressive system.”
Hill reviewed some of the attacks on Assange by the British authorities, including his detention in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of a crime, and the denial of adequate access to his lawyers and to legal documents.
The Labor MP stated that Assange was being treated “worse than a war criminal.” In his major court appearances last February, the WikiLeaks founder had been “in a glass box. Even war criminals accused of genocide on trial at the International Criminal Court can sit down and communicate privately with their lawyers.”
Hill declared: “The UK claims to be a rule of law country guaranteeing a fair trial, open justice and due process. What a joke!”
In his most politically-significant comments, Hill stated: “The persecution and treatment of Julian Assange are unconscionable. This is inherently political and our government is too cowardly to defend him, to even demand that he gets a fair trial.”
The Liberal-National Coalition government has largely remained silent on Assange’s persecution. When they have mentioned him, it has been to state that Assange will be provided with token “consular assistance,” like “every other Australian.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously endorsed the frame-up of Assange, declaring that it is time for him to “face the music.” The government has feted senior figures in the Trump administration, which is spearheading the campaign against Assange.
Hill made clear that he was not speaking as an opponent of American imperialism, or the US-Australia military alliance. He warned, rather, that Australia’s complicity in the persecution of Assange “corrupts our alliance with the United States and makes a mockery of the United Kingdom’s justice system and international law.”
These comments reflect fears within sections of the political establishment that the treatment of Assange threatens to provoke major public opposition directed against the entire political set-up. Hill was also, in effect, calling for a more equitable balance in the US-Australia alliance, by which the Australian ruling elite prosecutes its own predatory imperialist interests, especially in the South Pacific.
More significant than this is what Hill did not say. As a representative of Labor, a pro-war party of big business, he was unable and unwilling to indict the political forces responsible for Assange’s predicament, beyond his immediate opponents in the Liberal-National government.
Hill could just as well have declared that “The Labor Party and its leader Anthony Albanese are too cowardly to defend Assange, to even demand that he gets a fair trial.” For obvious reasons, he did not.
Since assuming Labor’s leadership last year, Albanese has not made a single statement in defence of Assange and nor did his predecessor Bill Shorten. This is all the more damning, given the gross abuses of Assange’s rights over that period, ably outlined by Hill himself.
Far more than cowardice, however, is involved. The political establishment’s consistent backing for the attacks on Assange, despite the fact that he is an Australian citizen and journalist, has been a central component of Australia’s ever-greater alignment with US militarism, including the plans for war with China, and a mounting turn to authoritarianism domestically.
In this, Labor has played the central role.
WikiLeaks came under attack from the previous Labor government, while the organisation was still in its infancy. In 2009, WikiLeaks published Labor’s blacklist of websites, blocked from view in Australia. The list refuted claims that only sites hosting illegal content were targeted, exposing significant internet censorship.
Then Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy threatened to refer WikiLeaks to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Assange later stated that he was fearful the organisation would be targeted for police raids and other state attacks.
An even more significant response came in 2010, when WikiLeaks published a series of explosive releases, exposing US war crimes and global diplomatic conspiracies. The Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard falsely stated that some of the publications, for which Assange has now been charged by the Trump administration, constituted a violation of Australian law. Gillard’s slanderous assertion was refuted by the AFP.
Assange, Hill said, confronted the prospect in the US of being “trapped in a system that ensures political prisoners like him will be systematically broken, with no hope of a fair trial...This Australian, who exposed American crimes, including international law violations at Guantanamo Bay, will be buried alive in the same oppressive system.”
Hill reviewed some of the attacks on Assange by the British authorities, including his detention in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of a crime, and the denial of adequate access to his lawyers and to legal documents.
The Labor MP stated that Assange was being treated “worse than a war criminal.” In his major court appearances last February, the WikiLeaks founder had been “in a glass box. Even war criminals accused of genocide on trial at the International Criminal Court can sit down and communicate privately with their lawyers.”
Hill declared: “The UK claims to be a rule of law country guaranteeing a fair trial, open justice and due process. What a joke!”
In his most politically-significant comments, Hill stated: “The persecution and treatment of Julian Assange are unconscionable. This is inherently political and our government is too cowardly to defend him, to even demand that he gets a fair trial.”
The Liberal-National Coalition government has largely remained silent on Assange’s persecution. When they have mentioned him, it has been to state that Assange will be provided with token “consular assistance,” like “every other Australian.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously endorsed the frame-up of Assange, declaring that it is time for him to “face the music.” The government has feted senior figures in the Trump administration, which is spearheading the campaign against Assange.
Hill made clear that he was not speaking as an opponent of American imperialism, or the US-Australia military alliance. He warned, rather, that Australia’s complicity in the persecution of Assange “corrupts our alliance with the United States and makes a mockery of the United Kingdom’s justice system and international law.”
These comments reflect fears within sections of the political establishment that the treatment of Assange threatens to provoke major public opposition directed against the entire political set-up. Hill was also, in effect, calling for a more equitable balance in the US-Australia alliance, by which the Australian ruling elite prosecutes its own predatory imperialist interests, especially in the South Pacific.
More significant than this is what Hill did not say. As a representative of Labor, a pro-war party of big business, he was unable and unwilling to indict the political forces responsible for Assange’s predicament, beyond his immediate opponents in the Liberal-National government.
Hill could just as well have declared that “The Labor Party and its leader Anthony Albanese are too cowardly to defend Assange, to even demand that he gets a fair trial.” For obvious reasons, he did not.
Since assuming Labor’s leadership last year, Albanese has not made a single statement in defence of Assange and nor did his predecessor Bill Shorten. This is all the more damning, given the gross abuses of Assange’s rights over that period, ably outlined by Hill himself.
Far more than cowardice, however, is involved. The political establishment’s consistent backing for the attacks on Assange, despite the fact that he is an Australian citizen and journalist, has been a central component of Australia’s ever-greater alignment with US militarism, including the plans for war with China, and a mounting turn to authoritarianism domestically.
In this, Labor has played the central role.
WikiLeaks came under attack from the previous Labor government, while the organisation was still in its infancy. In 2009, WikiLeaks published Labor’s blacklist of websites, blocked from view in Australia. The list refuted claims that only sites hosting illegal content were targeted, exposing significant internet censorship.
Then Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy threatened to refer WikiLeaks to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Assange later stated that he was fearful the organisation would be targeted for police raids and other state attacks.
An even more significant response came in 2010, when WikiLeaks published a series of explosive releases, exposing US war crimes and global diplomatic conspiracies. The Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard falsely stated that some of the publications, for which Assange has now been charged by the Trump administration, constituted a violation of Australian law. Gillard’s slanderous assertion was refuted by the AFP.
Gillard with then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012
Undeterred, Gillard pledged that her government would work with the US intelligence agencies to destroy WikiLeaks. She threatened to strip Assange of his passport. This occurred as Labor was preparing to support US President Barack Obama’s announcement of a “pivot to Asia,” a vast US military build-up in the region directed against China.
At the time, opposition Liberal-National representatives warned of the anti-democratic implications of Labor’s attacks on Assange, in language not dissimilar to that now used by Hill.
More recently, senior Labor figures responded with glee to Ecuador’s illegal violation of Assange’s political asylum and his brutal arrest by the British police on April 11 last year. Tanya Plibersek, Labor’s former deputy leader, reshared a Tweet denouncing Assange supporters as “cultists.” Penny Wong, the party’s Senate leader, tacitly endorsed the lie that Assange is not a journalist, which plays directly into the attempted US prosecution of him on Espionage Act charges.
The record more than demonstrates that if there is to be a defence of Assange, it will not come from the Labor Party, which has served as one of his chief persecutors.
It is nevertheless noteworthy that Hill’s statement has not been reported in a single corporate publication or by the publicly-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Enjoying the closest ties to the military and intelligence agencies, the official media’s support for “press freedom” does not extend to the only Australian journalist currently behind bars.
The muted response, however, is also an indication of the feckless and for-the-record character of such parliamentary statements if they are unconnected to broader action.
Hill was speaking as a member of the “Bring Assange Home” parliamentary grouping, which he said would be “writing to the UK High Commissioner requesting an urgent meeting to relay our concerns and demand his extradition be blocked as he is not receiving a fair trial in the UK.”
It will come as a surprise to most that the cross-party grouping now includes 24 MPs, given that the majority of them appear never to have mentioned Assange in public.
In addition to Hill, six other Labor MPs are in the grouping. None of them has a substantial public profile or leadership position. They have noted that they are defending Assange in a “personal capacity and not as party representatives.”
The most outspoken supporters of Assange from the grouping have been independent MP Andrew Wilkie, right-wing populist National Party representatives Barnaby Joyce and George Christensen, and Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
Nine other Greens MPs have signed up, but none of them, including party leader Adam Bandt, have done anything more than issue very occasional statements. The party has not mobilised its membership in defence of Assange or initiated a public campaign.
This is because a struggle against imperialist war, for democratic rights and in opposition to the major parties is anathema to the Greens’ upper-middle class constituency. The party has concentrated its last two federal election campaigns on appealing for a coalition with Labor, or even the Liberals, and propped-up the minority Gillard Labor government as it initiated the assault on Assange’s rights.
As the Socialist Equality Party insisted in a recent National Congress resolution: “[T]he only way to block Assange’s extradition to the US and secure his freedom is through the development of a mass international movement, centred in the working class. Millions of workers have entered into explosive struggles over the past years, including in Britain, the US, and, increasingly, in Australia. These will intensify over the coming period.
“The task of all those fighting for Assange’s freedom, including the SEP, is to turn to this movement, and to explain that the fight for the WikiLeaks founder’s liberty must be inscribed on the banner of every struggle in defence of democratic rights, for social equality and against war.”
Undeterred, Gillard pledged that her government would work with the US intelligence agencies to destroy WikiLeaks. She threatened to strip Assange of his passport. This occurred as Labor was preparing to support US President Barack Obama’s announcement of a “pivot to Asia,” a vast US military build-up in the region directed against China.
At the time, opposition Liberal-National representatives warned of the anti-democratic implications of Labor’s attacks on Assange, in language not dissimilar to that now used by Hill.
More recently, senior Labor figures responded with glee to Ecuador’s illegal violation of Assange’s political asylum and his brutal arrest by the British police on April 11 last year. Tanya Plibersek, Labor’s former deputy leader, reshared a Tweet denouncing Assange supporters as “cultists.” Penny Wong, the party’s Senate leader, tacitly endorsed the lie that Assange is not a journalist, which plays directly into the attempted US prosecution of him on Espionage Act charges.
The record more than demonstrates that if there is to be a defence of Assange, it will not come from the Labor Party, which has served as one of his chief persecutors.
It is nevertheless noteworthy that Hill’s statement has not been reported in a single corporate publication or by the publicly-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Enjoying the closest ties to the military and intelligence agencies, the official media’s support for “press freedom” does not extend to the only Australian journalist currently behind bars.
The muted response, however, is also an indication of the feckless and for-the-record character of such parliamentary statements if they are unconnected to broader action.
Hill was speaking as a member of the “Bring Assange Home” parliamentary grouping, which he said would be “writing to the UK High Commissioner requesting an urgent meeting to relay our concerns and demand his extradition be blocked as he is not receiving a fair trial in the UK.”
It will come as a surprise to most that the cross-party grouping now includes 24 MPs, given that the majority of them appear never to have mentioned Assange in public.
In addition to Hill, six other Labor MPs are in the grouping. None of them has a substantial public profile or leadership position. They have noted that they are defending Assange in a “personal capacity and not as party representatives.”
The most outspoken supporters of Assange from the grouping have been independent MP Andrew Wilkie, right-wing populist National Party representatives Barnaby Joyce and George Christensen, and Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
Nine other Greens MPs have signed up, but none of them, including party leader Adam Bandt, have done anything more than issue very occasional statements. The party has not mobilised its membership in defence of Assange or initiated a public campaign.
This is because a struggle against imperialist war, for democratic rights and in opposition to the major parties is anathema to the Greens’ upper-middle class constituency. The party has concentrated its last two federal election campaigns on appealing for a coalition with Labor, or even the Liberals, and propped-up the minority Gillard Labor government as it initiated the assault on Assange’s rights.
As the Socialist Equality Party insisted in a recent National Congress resolution: “[T]he only way to block Assange’s extradition to the US and secure his freedom is through the development of a mass international movement, centred in the working class. Millions of workers have entered into explosive struggles over the past years, including in Britain, the US, and, increasingly, in Australia. These will intensify over the coming period.
“The task of all those fighting for Assange’s freedom, including the SEP, is to turn to this movement, and to explain that the fight for the WikiLeaks founder’s liberty must be inscribed on the banner of every struggle in defence of democratic rights, for social equality and against war.”
China launches missiles into South China Sea in response to US provocations
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/29/scse-a29.html
By Ben McGrath
29 August 2020
China on Wednesday launched at least two ballistic missiles that it described as “aircraft carrier killers” during naval exercises in the South China Sea. The testing of these missiles is a response to military and other provocative measures carried out in the region by the United States and its allies.
The increasing militarization of the region significantly heightens the danger of a global conflagration, which is ultimately driven by US imperialism.
The Chinese military fired its DF-21D and the DF-26B missiles from Zhejiang Province in the southeast and Qinghai Province in the northwest respectively. Both missiles landed in the South China Sea between Hainan and the disputed Paracel Islands. The US military stated that China fired at least four missiles.
The DF-21D has a range of 1,800 kilometers and is the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, according to Beijing. The DF-26B has a longer range of 4,000 kilometers and can carry a nuclear payload. China said it is also capable of striking naval vessels, and could reach the US military base on Guam. It was formally unveiled earlier this month and is an updated variant of a missile first officially displayed at China’s 2015 Victory Day parade marking the end of World War II.
The launches took place a day after Beijing accused the US military of flying a U-2 spy plane over Chinese naval drills in the Bohai Sea, deliberately entering a no-fly zone. China began holding live-fire drills in the sea, located near Beijing, last Monday and plans to continue until September 30.
China’s Defense Ministry demanded the US “stop this kind of provocative behavior and take actual steps to safeguard peace and stability in the region.” It also warned that such flights could trigger misunderstandings or an “unexpected incident,” namely a military exchange.
In response, Washington admitted that it had conducted a U-2 flight in the Indo-Pacific region, but dismissed Beijing’s concerns, saying: “Pacific Air Forces personnel will continue to fly and operate anywhere international law allows, at the time and tempo of our choosing.”
A source close to the Chinese military told the South China Morning Post: “This [the missile launches] is China’s response to the potential risks brought by the increasingly frequent incoming US warplanes and military vessels in the South China Sea.”
In addition to drills in the South China and Bohai Seas, China is conducting exercises in the Yellow Sea and near the Taiwan Strait. The drills in the South China Sea ran from Monday to today. Those in the Yellow Sea and near Taiwan took place from Saturday to Wednesday.
The US Defense Department hypocritically chastised Beijing in a statement Thursday, saying: “Conducting military exercises over disputed territory in the South China Sea is counterproductive to easing tensions and maintaining stability.”
In recent weeks, the US has held its own war games involving two aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, as well as exercises in neighboring waters with India near the Malacca Strait and with Japan and Australia in the Philippine Sea.
In addition, the US is now conducting its biannual Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise near Hawaii alongside nine other nations—the largest naval exercise in the world. It is running from August 17 to 30. China had previously been invited to take part in 2014 and 2016, but had its invitation revoked in 2018 and is again absent this year.
Washington is also applying additional economic pressure to Beijing. On Wednesday, the Trump administration placed sanctions on 24 Chinese companies, supposedly for their roles in constructing artificial islets in the South China Sea. They have been banned from purchasing American goods. It is the first time Chinese companies have been sanctioned for their involvement in the territorial dispute.
For all its denunciations of supposed Chinese aggression, Washington has for decades sought to enforce its hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region. This included the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, brutal wars against Korea and Vietnam, and support for right-wing dictators. Over the past decade, the US has enflamed longstanding but minor territorial disputes and ramped up tensions under the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.” Under the Trump administration, it is now working to further militarily and economically confront China.
This agenda is accelerating as the US ruling class attempts to deflect growing domestic anger over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the developing economic crisis affecting millions of workers and youth. The Trump administration has accused Beijing of responsibility for the pandemic, with no evidence whatsoever, while pressing China over dangerous flashpoints like Taiwan.
In an interview on August 23, Trump issued a thinly-veiled threat that if Beijing attempted to assert control over Taiwan, Washington would launch an attack on China. “I think it’s an inappropriate place to talk about it, but China knows what I’m going to do. China knows,” he stated.
Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and the US still formally adheres to the “One China” policy that does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
Not to be out done, Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden is offering himself as a more belligerent option to Wall Street in dealing with China.
The most recent US military spending bill, which has been passed by both the House and Senate in Congress, contains a clause calling for the navy to conduct port calls in Taiwan with two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy.
China has made clear that if a US military vessel stops in Taiwan, it would trigger a military response. As such, the decision to use medical vessels is a dangerous and calculated flirtation with this red line.
Washington’s provocations throughout the region risk the outbreak of a disastrous war with China that could quickly spiral into a nuclear conflict. The US is seeking to eliminate an economic competitor and return China to a semi-colonial state.
Mississippi bus drivers walkout as schools push ahead with unsafe reopenings
“They should shut everything down again until they get the virus under control”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/29/miss-a29.html
By Emma Arceneaux
29 August 2020
The reopening of schools in Mississippi, as across the United States, has been a disaster for teachers, education workers, parents and students, and has already produced widespread infections across the state. Deplorable working conditions and an immediate reduction of hours and pay impelled 45 percent of school bus drivers in Columbus, Mississippi to walk out on Monday.
As of this writing, there have been outbreaks of COVID-19 reported at 720 schools in 74 of the 82 counties in Mississippi, roughly 90 percent of schools currently in session. On August 21, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs reported that 900 students and educators had tested positive for the virus since schools reopened. Around 8,000 others have been ordered to quarantine. Multiple elementary and secondary schools have had to quarantine entire classes and even switch whole schools to virtual learning due to spreading cases among students and teachers.
As is the case across the country, school districts in Mississippi were given free rein in deciding how to begin the school year, with no unified plan of action. Mississippi Today reported on the details of districts failing to uphold COVID-19 reopening promises: from teachers being provided minimal cleaning and personal protective equipment, to inconsistent or absent enforcement of mask-wearing and social distancing. Already teachers are spending their own money to buy additional cleaning supplies.
To date, Mississippi has recorded 81,294 cases of COVID-19 and 2,413 deaths. As schools reopen, the number of tests being conducted is steadily declining, part of a broader nationwide trend demanded by the Trump administration. On August 5, 14,031 tests were reported in Mississippi; by August 24, only 8,414 tests were reported, a drop of 40 percent. On August 25, the reported seven-day average positive test rate was 33.2 percent.
Despite the surge in outbreaks, Republican Governor Tate Reeves absurdly claimed this week that school reopenings are going well. During a news conference on Tuesday, he said, “These numbers that we are seeing in our schools are not unexpected… I am pleased at the number of isolations we’re seeing, the number of quarantines we’re seeing, and I’m pleased that there are large numbers of Mississippi kids sitting in a classroom today and learning in a safe environment.”
Before reopening schools, Reeves pushed to reopen the Mississippi economy early on in the pandemic. By May 11, restrictions were eased for casinos, restaurants, gyms, barbershops, hair and nail salons and tattoo parlors, leading to a huge upsurge of the virus in the state.
Like their counterparts across the US and internationally, teachers and education workers are taking a stand against the unsafe reopening, using social media to discuss their working conditions, share best practices and disseminate information about outbreaks.
On July 17, teachers held a rally at the state capitol to protest the reckless reopening and “avoid preventable death.” The event was organized by a newly formed group, Mississippi Teachers Unite, which describes itself as a “non-affiliated group of teachers, support staff, parents, students and community members.” Their Facebook page, which has almost 2,000 supporters, states, “Chronically underfunded schools as well as unclear statewide guidelines do not give us the ability to reopen schools safely and will cause preventable long-term illness and death amongst students, teachers, staff, and their families.”
In another Facebook group of educators opposed to the reopening of schools, with over 2,200 members, one teacher noted that in the absence of getting information on positive cases directly from the schools and districts, she has decided to anonymously collect the data herself.
Another teacher voiced anger at the underlying issue of school funding: “A decade of underfunding Mississippi’s education leaves us standing here with our hands in the air! Districts have no money for resources to properly implement virtual learning, laptop shortages are a huge issue in most all districts across the state.”
Educators understand the need to intervene to stop this deadly reopening and the need to link their fight with the struggles of other workers and parents. A post in the same group about a bus drivers’ walkout in Columbus, Mississippi garnered wide support among teachers who asked how they could support the drivers.
The bus drivers of Columbus Municipal School District (CMSD) refused to drive their routes on Monday, August 24 after being informed of an unexpected cut in their hours and, subsequently, pay. The school district previously contracted drivers through the company Ecco Ride but did not renew the contract after closing down during the pandemic last spring. They instead assembled their own system and hired the drivers directly.
Having already resumed work two weeks earlier, the drivers were notified when they arrived to work on Monday that they would be paid for far fewer hours than expected. Instead of the 30 hours per week that the drivers were promised, they were informed they would only be paid for 18 hours. A CMSD bus driver with up to five years’ experience receives an abysmal annual salary of $9,720, which is merely $12 per hour based on the new four-day, 18-hour weekly schedule. With their original 30-hour work week, the starting pay would amount to $9 per hour.
CMSD Board of Trustees President Jason Spears bluntly told the local newspaper, The Dispatch, “there was confusion due to the schools reopening plans; we estimated it would be 6 hours per day, but we realized they only drive 4.5 per day. We can’t pay them for hours they don’t work.”
The World Socialist Website spoke with drivers taking part in the action. Diana Prince said that despite the district’s claim that the drivers are working fewer hours, they actually have had to take on new, additional work in the context of the pandemic. She noted, “Some buses have mildew and mold. They gave us a spray bottle to sanitize the bus between routes.”
Renarda Dent, another driver, confirmed that they are working more than 4.5 hours per day. “When Ecco Ride was in charge,” she said, “they would do major maintenance to the buses over the summer. Since the district took over, nothing was done to the buses; they just sat there all summer. Some windows don’t close properly, so the moisture and heat got in and mildew grew.” She added that, “we don’t even have a proper mechanic or bus shop anymore. We’re trying to put air into the tires ourselves, without any pressure gauge. We’re not mechanics.”
The conditions on the buses are not safe for the drivers or students. Dent said the temperatures reach over 100 degrees in the warmer months; coupled with wearing a mask, it becomes “almost unbearable.” Although on her particular route students were somewhat able to distance on the bus, with a seat in between each student, she knows of other routes with more kids. As far as personal protective equipment, she was given a single face shield and some extra masks for the kids.
Additionally, drivers are not being informed about known positive cases among students. Prince stated, “We don’t know anything. If someone is positive, we’re not notified. We don’t know anything until word of mouth. We thought we’d get paid holidays and stuff, but they let us know we’re not entitled to any of that.”
Dent seconded, “I only learned of a positive case in the high school when it came on the news. They didn’t tell us anything, didn’t tell us that we may have been exposed and that certain children need to quarantine.” She continued, “There has been so little communication and so much miscommunication from our supervisor and the district. We don’t know what’s going on. It seems like they’re all just winging it.”
Despite at least one bus driver having already recovered from COVID-19 over the summer, the district told them that they were required to pick up all children at the bus stop, including visibly sick children. The drivers are not allowed to take the temperature of the children; it’s up to the schools to decide if and when children should be sent home.
Dent herself is a parent of students in the district who ride the bus. She said that she thinks they opened the schools too soon and “they should shut everything down again until they get the virus under control.” The district has pressured parents and students to return for in-person instruction. Her eldest son, a senior in high school, has played in the band since middle school. “They wouldn’t let him participate this year without going to school in person. If you choose virtual instruction, you’re not allowed to participate in anything.”
Emphasizing the importance of the drivers in the whole system of education, Prince said, “We are the first and last person the kids see when they go to school. And they [the district] treat us as if we’re irrelevant. We’re not asking for anything extra, just what we were told we were going to get.” She noted that the drivers still do not know what is happening with their pay, saying, “Everyone’s telling us a different story and they’re playing the blame game.”
About 45 percent of the district’s bus drivers participated in the work stoppage and were ordered to return their keys. Dent said they were informed by a late-night text message that they had been terminated but had not received a letter formally stating so.
Many of the drivers had to file for unemployment after the schools shut down last spring and will have to do so again after being locked out of work until further notice. The maximum state unemployment rate is $235 per week in Mississippi, the lowest in the country. The average is only $213 per week. The $600 federal unemployment payment expired a month ago with no indication that the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working to renew it.
The drivers hope to air their grievances and have a discussion with the local school board on September 8, but there is no guarantee they will be heard. They have to fill out forms to be put on the agenda, but even then the meeting may run out of time before they have spoken.
Although the district claims that it is managing the routes with the loss of nearly half of the drivers, Dent says “there is no way that they can complete all of those routes with the amount of drivers they have left. It’s impossible. They say they have everything covered, but they don’t. Some children get home two hours later than they are supposed to.” With the remaining drivers having to pick up extra routes, social distancing is impossible since they are doubling or tripling the number of kids on board.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2018-2019 school year, the average teacher salary in Mississippi ranked lowest in the country, at $45,574. Mississippi also ranks in the bottom five states for per-student spending for elementary and secondary education, at $8,692 per year in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The struggles of the Mississippi bus drivers over fair pay and safe working conditions must be linked with the broader campaign against the deadly reopening of schools. We call on educators, parents and students to form rank-and-file safety committees in every school and neighborhood. The national Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee will help guide this work. We call for the immediate closure of all opened schools and nonessential production to stop the spread of the pandemic. All nonessential workers and laid-off workers must be provided with full unemployment benefits and access to free health care.
The key task is to unite the broader working class and prepare for a general strike to halt the reopening of schools and the broader back-to-work campaign. All those who wish to take up this fight should contact us today, sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter, and attend the national call-in meeting this Saturday to discuss this perspective.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)