that could get interesting since the US has been supplying/backing the Kurds.
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Eltitoguay
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Spanish Labor Minister and unions sign agreement to reduce working hours to 37.5 hours: "People are waiting for it"
20/12/2024 13:23 hours
- The pact establishes that companies must adapt before December 31, 2025
- Yolanda Díaz celebrates a "civilizing advance" that will benefit 12 million workers, especially the most vulnerable
ByRTVE.es
01.20 min
Labor and unions sign agreement to reduce working hours to 37.5 hours
The Spanish Government and the unions signed this Friday the agreement to reduce the working week to 37.5 hours without reducing salaries, which will have to come into force before December 31, 2025. The text was signed by the Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, the General Secretary of CC.OO., Unai Sordo, and the Secretary General of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, but not the employers' association, which has withdrawn from the negotiations after almost a year of arduous talks.
This is a "civilizing advance that makes our country progress" , a "great labor achievement" that "will be studied in all the universities of the world", claimed Díaz in a press conference after signing this agreement at the headquarters of the Ministry. It is the first reduction in working hours in 40 years , a period in which productivity per hour worked has increased by more than 50%, so "the time has come to share it".
Keys, deadlines and doubts about the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours agreed between Labour and unionsALVARO CABALLERO
The unions have also welcomed this measure. For Sordo it is a "complete and extremely ambitious agreement, not a minimum agreement" and according to Álvarez it is "a good agreement". According to the leader of UGT, the 37.5 hours are a "stop" to reach 32 hours a week, the 4-day workweek.
The measure comes after months of deadlock at the negotiating table with the employers' association and also, in recent days, with disagreements between the social-democratic (PSOE) part of the Government - with the Ministry of Economy at the head - and that of Sumar (socialist-communist coalition, where the Communist Party of Spain-PCE is, of which the minister is a member)) on which Labour depends.
Work: This is how the 40-hour work week was agreed in 1983
It will benefit 12 million employees, the most "vulnerable"
The reform will benefit some 12 million employees, especially the "most vulnerable people" , such as cleaning workers, shop assistants or supermarket cashiers, Yolanda Díaz argued. "We are done with having first-class and second-class workers," she added, explaining that until now those who benefit from working less than 40 hours are public employees or those in sectors such as banking or consulting.
The agreement is "the result of a social consensus that is unstoppable today," since "two out of three Spaniards want to reduce the working day, regardless of what they vote for," according to the minister. "The social consensus is that of the street, and it is what the people are waiting for."
"Today is a very important day, but it is not the end of anything," Sordo said, since " the parliamentary process is still to be implemented." This reform will have to be approved by Congress to come into force, a process that does not yet have a date - although Díaz has hoped that it will be "as soon as possible" - nor has parliamentary support been guaranteed.
Both the head of unions of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the head of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) have warned that they do not rule out "mobilisations" if the agreement to implement the reduction of working hours does not go ahead as planned or if there are proposals that are "regressive for the interests of the working class", according to Sordo.
Workers' Commissions - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Unión General de Trabajadores - Wikipedia
Productivity, work-life balance and fewer emissions: the keys to a four-day work weekALVARO CABALLERO
Signing without the employer and after a "tedious" negotiation
The signing will take place without representatives of the employers ' association , who after 11 months of negotiations were left out of the agreement. The tripartite table of social dialogue has thus been replaced by a bilateral table, only between the Government and the workers' representatives, who have reached this agreement.
These months "have not been easy" and the meetings and interruptions have been "tedious" , according to Díaz, who nevertheless thanked the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organizations)o for having participated in the meetings.
Díaz on the reduction of the working day: "It is the result of a social consensus"
"I would have liked to have had two more lecterns here today. It is an agreement with CEOE and CEPYME [Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises] that would have had more value, we are aware of this, but it has been a long time coming," lamented the Secretary General of UGT, an idea that Unai Sordo also stressed.
According to Álvarez, the CEOE still has time to join the negotiations, which it has also invited all parties to support in its parliamentary process, since "two out of three people support reducing working hours" and Congress must reflect this "popular sovereignty". "In the last 100 years, the working day has only been touched on four occasions, nobody should miss the celebration that an agreement of this nature will represent for the workers of our country," he said.
CEOE rejects Labour's latest proposal to reduce working hours
Government disagreements over deadlines and aid
Companies and unions will have until December 31, 2025 to negotiate collective agreements and make the necessary adjustments so that the working day is reduced to 37.5 hours. The clock will start ticking when the regulations are approved and come into force upon publication in the Official State Gazette. This is the deadline agreed by PSOE and Sumar in the coalition agreement approved after last year's general elections.
The Government is determined to take the reform to the Congress of Deputies despite the fact that there are discrepancies between the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, and Díaz regarding the deadlines and aid to small and medium-sized companies .
In contrast to Sumar's position, reflected in the agreement with the unions, Cuerpo defends a "gradual" application , opening the door to extending it until 2026 to gather the necessary parliamentary support, and has also spoken of "accompanying companies" in their adaptation.
Carlos Cuerpo avoids a clash with Díaz but asks to "support companies" in reducing the working day
For its part, the employers' association considers that the reduction of the working day by law is an "intrusion into the autonomy of collective bargaining , enshrined in article 37.1 of the Constitution", and a negative measure for employment and social welfare because it is "absolutely inefficient", according to the vice president of the CEOE, Íñigo Fernández de Mesa, in an interview on 24 horas de RNE on the day the negotiations ended.
Measures on digital disconnection and recording of working hours
Although the reduction in working hours has grabbed all the headlines, the agreement also includes measures on the right to digital disconnection and improves the conditions for recording working hours towards a digital, transparent, reliable and interoperable one with the Labour Inspectorate, which "will know in real time what the working hours are that the workers do", according to Díaz. The sanctioning regime for non-compliance is also toughened, with "individual" sanctions for each affected worker and not unique to each company, which was "quite cheap" for these companies.
On the first point, the right to rest outside of working hours, Díaz stressed that "it will be of no use to reduce working hours if your boss calls you at night or you receive a message while we are having Christmas dinner ."
"This is not the end of any path, but the beginning of a transformation to democratize time , which is the fundamental part of our lives," the vice president stressed.
Trabajo y sindicatos suscriben el acuerdo para reducir la jornada laboral a 37,5 horas: "Lo está esperando la gente"
Trabajo y sindicatos suscriben el acuerdo para reducir la jornada laboral a 37,5 horas: "Lo está esperando la gente"www.rtve.es
No progress is achieved without prior struggle:
PCE resolution in support of the mobilizations of September 26 for the reduction of the working day
For the reduction of working time to 37.5 hours per week without salary reduction
· 26/09/2024 ·
The Communist Party of Spain ( PCE) calls for participation in the demonstrations calling for the reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours without a reduction in pay, called by workers unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and Unión General de Trabajadores ( UGT) tomorrow, Thursday 26 September at 11:30 in front of the employers' headquarters.
Faced with the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organizations (CEOE) blockage in social dialogue and collective bargaining, the resistance of the PSOE in government (1), and the opposition of the PP and VOX, in addition to the fact that the favourable vote of the Catalan and Basque nationalist right is not guaranteed, a strong social mobilisation will be essential for this measure to be approved in Parliament and implemented in all sectors and companies, in the terms set out in the agreement of the government programme at the initiative of the Sumar coalition (38.5 hours per week in 2025 and 37.5 hours in 2026).
(1): The current Spanish government and in recent years is a coalition between the social democratic PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, majority in the coalition) and Sumar (minority in the coalition);
Likewise, Sumar is a coalition of parties (social democrats further to the left of the PSOE , democratic Marxist socialists and democratic communists) where the PCE, to which the Minister of Labor and Vice President belongs, is located.
The reduction of working hours without reducing wages is an anti-capitalist measure that is contrary to the business logic of increasing profit margins by increasing productivity, with the introduction of new technologies and forms of work in production, at the expense of the health of the working class, employment and the devaluation of wages.
The reduction of working hours without reducing wages is one of the main demands of the labour and trade union movement since its birth, as it is a demand that unites the entire working class, because it creates more employment and distributes work in a supportive manner, increases wages and allows more time for leisure, training, conciliation and rest for the working class.
The impact of this measure will be very positive for the working class, as it will directly benefit more than 12 million workers (70%) and will also have an impact on wages, increasing the value of the hour of work, especially in the most precarious and feminized sectors, less unionized and with less strength in collective bargaining, such as people who work part-time.
The last reduction in working hours in Spain was more than thirty years ago, when the weekly working day was reduced from 48 hours to the current 40 hours. In the best tradition of the labour movement with the “La Canadiense” strike, which achieved the establishment by law of the 8-hour workday in 1919 (the second country after the Soviet Union), the reduction to 37.5 hours per week must be a very important milestone towards the general establishment of the 35-hour workweek by law.
For the reduction of working time!
Long live the struggle of the working class!!
Por la reducción del tiempo de trabajo a 37,5 horas semanales sin reducción salarial
El Partido Comunista de España hace un llamamiento a la participación en las concentraciones por la reducción de jornada a 37,5 horas semanales sin reducción salarial, convocadas por Comisiones Obreras y UGT de mañana jueves 26 de septiembre a las 11:30 frente a las sedes de la patronal. Frente...
mundoobrero.es
Last edited:
Eltitoguay
Well-known member
that could get interesting since the US has been supplying/backing the Kurds.
Well, in this regard, I'm going to reproduce three news/articles from the US press (Voz de América/Voice of America and The New York Times en español) , in which the "spirit" of the first two could sound "somewhat contradictory" with that of the third. But let us remember that the United States is the main ally and partner that Turkey has in the world: the current divergence/conflict on the specific issue of Syria, I believe, is the result of the fact that Turkish security and territorial interests are opposed there, with security and energy USA's interests...
First:
Crisis in Syria
The United States will continue to support its Kurdish allies in Syria
December 09, 2024- Jeff Seldin
A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of the YPG (People's Protection Units) near Qamishli airport in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2024, after the fall of the capital Damascus to anti-government fighters.
Following the fall of Damascus, the US insists there are no plans to alter its military presence in Syria, which includes some 900 troops, most of them working in the northeast of the country with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Washington —
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria will not affect U.S. support, at least for now, for one of Washington's staunchest allies in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, according to senior U.S. officials.
Speaking just hours after Russian officials confirmed that former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad had fled Damascus and taken refuge in Moscow, and a day after rebel forces entered the Syrian capital, US officials insisted there are no plans to alter the US military presence in Syria, which includes some 900 troops, most of them working in the northeast of the country with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
There is also
Syrian rebels overthrow president after more than 13 years of war, Assad arrives in Russia with "humanitarian asylum"
Maintaining U.S. positions in eastern Syria "is something we will continue to do," a senior U.S. administration official said Sunday, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
“We believe that presence is vitally important for the stability of those areas and to counter ISIS resurgence attempts, and also for the integrity of the SDF and the groups we work with in the east to maintain stability there,” the official said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, also known as IS or Daesh.
The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias formed in 2015, has a force of 30,000 to 40,000 fighters who have played a key role in eroding IS control over large swaths of territory, including the terror group's self-proclaimed Syrian capital, Raqqa.
Four years after its creation, in March 2019, the SDF announced the fall of the city of Baghouz, the last IS stronghold in Syria.
But the defeat of ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria came at a cost. SDF officials estimated that some 11,000 fighters were killed in the years-long campaign. And fighting with remnants of the terror group has persisted.
Intelligence shared by both the United States and United Nations member states earlier this year indicated an uptick in IS activity, especially by small cells in Syria's central desert, describing it as a growing logistical hub for the terrorist group.
Various estimates warn that the number of IS fighters in Syria and Iraq has risen to between 2,500 and 5,000.
Last July, the US Central Command, which oversees US forces in Syria and Iraq, warned that IS was on track to "more than double the total number of attacks they claimed in 2023".
IS has repeatedly sought to free some 9,000 of its fighters held in some 20 SDF-run prisons in northeast Syria, described by a senior US official as "the largest concentration of terrorist fighters in the world."
In addition, the SDF has been tasked with overseeing security in displacement camps such as Al Hol and Al Roj, which host some 30,000 people, most of them children under the age of 12, and many of them from families loyal to IS.
There is also
Biden says US will work with allies to manage transition in Syria
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Washington has no intention of leaving Syria, or the SDF, to face such challenges alone.
"Our mission against ISIS will continue, including securing the detention centers where ISIS fighters are held as prisoners," the president said.
"We are clear that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish its capabilities, to create a safe haven," Biden added. "We will not allow that to happen."
Underscoring the US commitment, Biden said US forces carried out dozens of airstrikes on Sunday targeting IS camps and operatives.
The US Central Command said the operation involved attacking more than 75 targets using a combination of long-range bombers, fighter jets and close air support.
“We were targeting a significant concentration of ISIS fighters and leaders,” the senior administration official said, adding that U.S. warplanes dropped about 140 munitions during the strikes, which were authorized Sunday morning.
“It’s a significant attack, I think, given the number of ISIS individuals in that area and the size of the area,” the official added.
But US concerns about instability extend beyond the threat from IS itself.
There are fears that the current tensions between the SDF and Türkiye could also bring additional instability and danger.
There have already been reports of clashes between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF in northern Syria.
Turkey has also long voiced objections to the US alliance with the Kurdish-led SDF, arguing that many of the fighters are also People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Syria-based offshoot of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), labeled by both Ankara and Washington as a terrorist organization.
There is also
Reactions from Latin America to the political crisis in Syria
And although the United States considers the SDF and the YPG to be different entities, in Türkiye's view, they are one and the same.
U.S. officials said Sunday that there have already been high-level talks between Pentagon and State Department officials with their Turkish counterparts, describing the calls as "constructive."
"Additional conflicts, additional fronts opening up, are not in anyone's interest," the official said.
But some analysts fear tensions between Turkey and the Kurds may not be so easily resolved, pointing in part to Biden's failure to mention Turkey on Sunday when he discussed U.S. outreach to Syria's other neighbors.
“This indicates that behind the scenes, there are ongoing machinations between US diplomats and Turkish officials over their goals of occupying parts of northern and eastern Syria and thereby endangering the Syrian Democratic Forces and civilians living under the [Kurdish-led] Autonomous Administration,” said Myles Caggins, a nonresident fellow at the New Lines Institute and a former spokesman for the US-led anti-IS coalition in Syria and Iraq.
“President Biden made it very clear that U.S. forces will remain in northern and eastern Syria for the foreseeable future to continue the anti-ISIS mission,” Caggins told VOA. “The U.S. government has an opportunity to show and highlight its strong support for the Syrian Democratic Forces and the people of northeast Syria.”
Estados Unidos seguirá apoyando a sus aliados kurdos en Siria
Tras la caída de Damasco, EEUU insiste en que no hay planes para alterar su presencia militar en Siria, que incluye unos 900 soldados, la mayoría de ellos trabajando en el noreste del país con las Fuerzas Democráticas Sirias lideradas por los kurdos.
www.vozdeamerica.com
Last edited:
Eltitoguay
Well-known member
Second:
Destroying a statue of Bassel al-Assad, the ousted president’s brother, on Sunday in Qamishli, Syria, on the border with Turkey.Credit...Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Eve Sampson
Read in English
The Turkish military fired on U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria this weekend, a war monitoring group and a spokesman for the Kurdish group said on Sunday, illuminating the tangle of competing interests and alliances in Syria in the wake of the government’s collapse.
Fighting erupted on Saturday in Manbij, a Kurdish-controlled city near Syria’s border with Turkey, between rebel groups, one backed by the United States and the other by Turkey. At least 22 members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in and around Manbij, and 40 others were wounded, according to the Kurdish group.
The clashes preceded a call on Sunday between Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and his Turkish counterpart, Defense Minister Yasar Guler.
The other fighters, the Syrian National Army, were supported in their assault of Manbij by Turkish air power, including warplanes, according to a spokesmen for the Syrian Democratic Forces. And a Turkish “kamikaze drone” exploded at a Kurdish military base on Saturday, according to the monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkey and the United States are allies, sworn to protect each other as members of the NATO alliance. Though both countries celebrated Sunday’s ouster of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, their interests diverge over support for the Kurds in northern Syria, far from Damascus, the capital.
In their call on Sunday, Mr. Austin and Mr. Guler agreed that coordination was necessary “to prevent further escalation of an already volatile situation, as well as to avoid any risk to U.S. forces and partners,” according a readout of the conversation released by the Pentagon. The United States also acknowledged Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns.”
The Kurds have been instrumental partners for the United States in fighting the Islamic State, an Islamist terrorist group that rose to power early in Syria’s civil war, more than a decade ago.
The Kurds now control much of Syria’s northeast under an autonomous civil administration. About 900 U.S. troops are deployed to Syria to support the Kurdish forces. American forces have patrolled around Manbij with Turkey in the past, but it was not immediately clear if any U.S. troops were in the city this weekend during the Turkish bombardment.
On Sunday, the United States announced it had conducted one of the largest strikes against Islamic State targets in months.
Turkey views armed Kurds so close to its border as a threat. For decades Turkey has fought Kurdish separatists, who seek to carve out an independent country.
Turkey has backed several rebel groups in Syria, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group of seemingly reformed Al Qaeda members whose lightning-fast push to Damascus toppled the authoritarian government on Sunday. Turkey also has backed the Syrian National Army, a ragtag force made up of mercenaries and criminals, to help maintain a buffer zone along its border with Syria to guard against the activities of Kurdish militants.
Turkey and its proxies in the S.N.A. “are looking to utilize the current chaos to rewrite the map in Turkey’s favor,” said Devorah Margolin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They are using the distraction of Damascus to continue to grab power during this time of chaos and to undermine the S.D.F., ensuring its negotiating power is weakened.”
The power vacuum created by the fall of Damascus presents an opportunity for Turkey to increase its power and influence in Syria generally but particularly along its border, said Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The weekend’s fighting was condemned by the Kurdish-run civil administration of northern Syria.
“The other part of Syria is liberated from the tyranny of Assad,” said Sinam Mohamad, who represents the Kurdish autonomous region in its dealings with the United States.
Turkey and its proxies, she said, “want to create another conflict,” adding, “We don’t want to have conflict in the region.”
Eve Sampson is a reporter covering international news and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Eve Sampson
With Syria in Flux, Turkish Forces Attack U.S.-Backed Forces
Rebels supported by Turkish air power fired on a Kurdish-controlled city in northern Syria, pitting proxies of the U.S. and Turkey — NATO allies — against each other.
Destroying a statue of Bassel al-Assad, the ousted president’s brother, on Sunday in Qamishli, Syria, on the border with Turkey.Credit...Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Eve Sampson
- Dec. 8, 2024
Read in English
The Turkish military fired on U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria this weekend, a war monitoring group and a spokesman for the Kurdish group said on Sunday, illuminating the tangle of competing interests and alliances in Syria in the wake of the government’s collapse.
Fighting erupted on Saturday in Manbij, a Kurdish-controlled city near Syria’s border with Turkey, between rebel groups, one backed by the United States and the other by Turkey. At least 22 members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in and around Manbij, and 40 others were wounded, according to the Kurdish group.
The clashes preceded a call on Sunday between Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and his Turkish counterpart, Defense Minister Yasar Guler.
The other fighters, the Syrian National Army, were supported in their assault of Manbij by Turkish air power, including warplanes, according to a spokesmen for the Syrian Democratic Forces. And a Turkish “kamikaze drone” exploded at a Kurdish military base on Saturday, according to the monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkey and the United States are allies, sworn to protect each other as members of the NATO alliance. Though both countries celebrated Sunday’s ouster of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, their interests diverge over support for the Kurds in northern Syria, far from Damascus, the capital.
In their call on Sunday, Mr. Austin and Mr. Guler agreed that coordination was necessary “to prevent further escalation of an already volatile situation, as well as to avoid any risk to U.S. forces and partners,” according a readout of the conversation released by the Pentagon. The United States also acknowledged Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns.”
The Kurds have been instrumental partners for the United States in fighting the Islamic State, an Islamist terrorist group that rose to power early in Syria’s civil war, more than a decade ago.
The Kurds now control much of Syria’s northeast under an autonomous civil administration. About 900 U.S. troops are deployed to Syria to support the Kurdish forces. American forces have patrolled around Manbij with Turkey in the past, but it was not immediately clear if any U.S. troops were in the city this weekend during the Turkish bombardment.
On Sunday, the United States announced it had conducted one of the largest strikes against Islamic State targets in months.
Turkey views armed Kurds so close to its border as a threat. For decades Turkey has fought Kurdish separatists, who seek to carve out an independent country.
Turkey has backed several rebel groups in Syria, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group of seemingly reformed Al Qaeda members whose lightning-fast push to Damascus toppled the authoritarian government on Sunday. Turkey also has backed the Syrian National Army, a ragtag force made up of mercenaries and criminals, to help maintain a buffer zone along its border with Syria to guard against the activities of Kurdish militants.
Turkey and its proxies in the S.N.A. “are looking to utilize the current chaos to rewrite the map in Turkey’s favor,” said Devorah Margolin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They are using the distraction of Damascus to continue to grab power during this time of chaos and to undermine the S.D.F., ensuring its negotiating power is weakened.”
The power vacuum created by the fall of Damascus presents an opportunity for Turkey to increase its power and influence in Syria generally but particularly along its border, said Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The weekend’s fighting was condemned by the Kurdish-run civil administration of northern Syria.
“The other part of Syria is liberated from the tyranny of Assad,” said Sinam Mohamad, who represents the Kurdish autonomous region in its dealings with the United States.
Turkey and its proxies, she said, “want to create another conflict,” adding, “We don’t want to have conflict in the region.”
Eve Sampson is a reporter covering international news and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Eve Sampson
Eltitoguay
Well-known member
Third:
Crisis in Syria
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan during a visit to Ankara, where both agreed on the need for an "inclusive and non-sectarian" Syrian government that protects minorities and women.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the United States and Turkey share broad consensus on what they would like to see in the new Syrian government, following talks with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara.
During a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken said both nations want an interim Syrian government that is “inclusive and non-sectarian, that protects the rights of minorities and women, that preserves state institutions and provides services to the population.”
Blinken said both countries are looking to the Syrian interim government to properly locate and destroy any remaining chemical weapons from the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He added that they do not want Syria to pose a threat to its neighbors and want the rebel leadership to reject any alliance with extremist groups.
In particular, both Blinken and Fidan stressed the importance of continuing efforts to contain the Islamic State terrorist group.
“Our countries worked very hard and sacrificed much over the years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate,” Blinken said. He added that there is “a foundation to ensure that that threat does not re-emerge. It is imperative that we continue those efforts.”
Blinken met Fidan on the second leg of his Middle East tour, prompted by the ouster of the Assad regime in a lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels HTS, ending 54 years of repressive rule by the Assad family.
On Thursday, the Secretary of State met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. U.S. State Department spokesman Mathew Miller said Blinken and Erdogan discussed “U.S.-Turkey regional cooperation and our shared interest in supporting a Syrian-led and managed political transition to an accountable and inclusive government.”
Also on Thursday, Blinken was in Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi.
Following those talks in Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken told reporters that the sides were working to coordinate regional efforts “to support the Syrian people as they move toward ending the brutal Assad dictatorship.”
Also read
Blinken also spoke about Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old American who turned up in Syria on Thursday after having been missing. Timmerman was among thousands of people released by rebels from Syria's notorious prisons over the weekend as rebels advanced toward Damascus and toppled Assad.
Timmerman was initially mistaken for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria 12 years ago and has not been found since the rebel takeover and Assad's flight to Russia.
In one video, Timmerman appears lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private home. A group of men in the video said he was being well treated and would be returned home safely. It was not immediately clear where he had been held.
Blinken told reporters that U.S. officials were working to confirm Timmerman’s identity and provide him with support. He said the White House was “working to bring him home and get him out of Syria,” but declined to comment further for privacy reasons.
“I can’t give you details about what exactly will happen,” he said.
In a later interview with Al-Arabiya, Timmerman said he had crossed illegally into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle before being detained and held alone in a cell.
Timmerman, who said he was trying to make a Christian pilgrimage, said he had been treated well, although he heard other young men being tortured.
“It was fine. They gave me food and water. The only difficulty was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom whenever I wanted,” said Timmerman, who added that he was only allowed to go three times a day.
“I was not beaten and the guards treated me decently,” he added.
[With information from Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters]
Also read
www.vozdeamerica.com
Crisis in Syria
US and Türkiye share 'broad consensus' on Syria
December 13, 2024
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan during a visit to Ankara, where both agreed on the need for an "inclusive and non-sectarian" Syrian government that protects minorities and women.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the United States and Turkey share broad consensus on what they would like to see in the new Syrian government, following talks with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara.
During a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken said both nations want an interim Syrian government that is “inclusive and non-sectarian, that protects the rights of minorities and women, that preserves state institutions and provides services to the population.”
Blinken said both countries are looking to the Syrian interim government to properly locate and destroy any remaining chemical weapons from the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He added that they do not want Syria to pose a threat to its neighbors and want the rebel leadership to reject any alliance with extremist groups.
In particular, both Blinken and Fidan stressed the importance of continuing efforts to contain the Islamic State terrorist group.
“Our countries worked very hard and sacrificed much over the years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate,” Blinken said. He added that there is “a foundation to ensure that that threat does not re-emerge. It is imperative that we continue those efforts.”
Blinken met Fidan on the second leg of his Middle East tour, prompted by the ouster of the Assad regime in a lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels HTS, ending 54 years of repressive rule by the Assad family.
On Thursday, the Secretary of State met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. U.S. State Department spokesman Mathew Miller said Blinken and Erdogan discussed “U.S.-Turkey regional cooperation and our shared interest in supporting a Syrian-led and managed political transition to an accountable and inclusive government.”
Also on Thursday, Blinken was in Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi.
Following those talks in Aqaba, Jordan, Blinken told reporters that the sides were working to coordinate regional efforts “to support the Syrian people as they move toward ending the brutal Assad dictatorship.”
Also read
American who crossed into Syria on foot is released after 7 months in detention
Blinken also spoke about Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old American who turned up in Syria on Thursday after having been missing. Timmerman was among thousands of people released by rebels from Syria's notorious prisons over the weekend as rebels advanced toward Damascus and toppled Assad.
Timmerman was initially mistaken for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria 12 years ago and has not been found since the rebel takeover and Assad's flight to Russia.
In one video, Timmerman appears lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private home. A group of men in the video said he was being well treated and would be returned home safely. It was not immediately clear where he had been held.
Blinken told reporters that U.S. officials were working to confirm Timmerman’s identity and provide him with support. He said the White House was “working to bring him home and get him out of Syria,” but declined to comment further for privacy reasons.
“I can’t give you details about what exactly will happen,” he said.
In a later interview with Al-Arabiya, Timmerman said he had crossed illegally into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle before being detained and held alone in a cell.
Timmerman, who said he was trying to make a Christian pilgrimage, said he had been treated well, although he heard other young men being tortured.
“It was fine. They gave me food and water. The only difficulty was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom whenever I wanted,” said Timmerman, who added that he was only allowed to go three times a day.
“I was not beaten and the guards treated me decently,” he added.
[With information from Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters]
Also read
As Syria's prison doors open, tens of thousands remain missing
EEUU y Turquía comparten un “amplio consenso” sobre Siria
El secretario de Estado estadounidense Anthony Blinken se reunió con su homólogo turco Hakan Fidan durante una visita a Ankara, en la que ambos coincidieron en la necesidad de un gobierno sirio "inclusivo y no sectario" que proteja a las minorías y mujeres.
www.vozdeamerica.com
Thank you for that FLASHBAK, @Elitoguay.
George Orwell's 1944 Letter Revealing Why He Wrote 1984 - Flashbak
George Orwell's 1944 Letter Revealing Why He Wrote 1984flashbak.com
Eltitoguay
Well-known member
Thanx to Gry, who showed me the web page:
How The CIA Tricked Orwell and Produced The Animated Film of Animal Farm, 1955 - Flashbak
The FBI dossier on British writer George Orwell shows is that his books Animal Farm and 1984 was coopted by the US and the Soviets to push their own world views. In the 1950s, the US pitched 1984 was a warning about the dangers of Soviet totalitarianism. In the 1960s, the Soviets told the …...
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Eltitoguay
Well-known member
The electoral rise in the East, in the shadow of the repetition of History?
AfD :
The return of the far right in Germany
Germany is a highly developed country, but in clear decline and with a very compact ideological institutional policy.
· 14/10/2024 ·
By the end of 2024, the most obvious candidate, both ideologically, rhetorically, and aesthetically, for the role of Hitler 2.0 is Björn (“Bernd”) Höcke.
So much so that the analogy was part of a marketing campaign by the tabloid Bild , the country’s largest-circulation newspaper.
This immaculately dressed history professor (without a moustache), who was convicted for using Nazi slogans, leads the most extremist wing of the Alternative for Germany party. On 1 September 2024, he won the regional elections in Thuringia as the head of the list with 32.8% of the vote. It is the first time since 1933 that the far right has won a regional victory.
In Thuringia, the NSDAP had its first participation in a government in 1930. It is tempting to think that history is repeating itself.
And we already know that in the last century it ended in tragedy.
Thuringia is a seemingly unrepresentative state: it is said that 80% of it is forest… and the rest is trees. It has a population of 2 million people (in a country of 80 million), one of the lowest population densities in Germany (fourth from the bottom, ahead of three eastern states) and the lowest GDP per capita in the country. It is the only region presided over by a politician to the left of the Social Democrats (Bodo Ramelow, from the reformist wing of Die Linke).
In other words, Thuringia is an exception. But one that proves the rule. On the same day, the AfD achieved its best result in the neighbouring state of Saxony (coming second with 30.6% behind the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). Three weeks later, it came second behind the SPD in Brandenburg with more than 29%. This continues the trend of the European elections, where the AfD achieved second place for the first time in a federal election (15.9%).
The German context: a brief overview
In a republic that encompasses two very different societies, one in the East and one in the West, it is easy to get lost in local particularities. The most important question is: where exactly is Germany and how did it get here? Perhaps the second, while well-known, is the least interesting: the decline of the “welfare state” following the neoliberal phase that began in the 1980s and 1990s has one of its exemplary cases in Germany. In the East, we should speak of a “turbo-neoliberalism”, which, as in the rest of the former socialist European countries (with the exception of Belarus), was responsible for the collective trauma associated with the 1990s: the collapse of the social order in the GDR, deindustrialisation, depopulation, as well as resentment towards the West, seen as both exploitative and “paternalistic” for its role in establishing the institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany in the former Democratic Republic of Germany.
It would be a mistake, however, to imagine the East as a place in ruins. Since the 1990s, the region has undergone many changes, including huge public investments to cushion the dismantling of socialism. Today, for example, the state of Saxony maintains a high degree of industrialisation, and in particular, thanks to the foundations laid during the 1970s and 1980s, the country's semiconductor industry. Towns and cities are visibly rehabilitated and modernised, there is little unemployment and rents are, except in some large cities, among the most affordable in Germany. The main sign of decline is not in the economy or in the facades: there is a lack of people. With an ageing population, little migration, and many young people heading west or to the big cities, East Germany is the big loser from the demographic development of the last decades.
The situation in the former GDR is compounded by the situation in the country as a whole. There is a widespread perception of decline. The administration and government are seen as ineffective, public infrastructure projects are being extended indefinitely, and employers have been claiming for years that German industry is in crisis. The pandemic and sanctions against Russia since 2022 and the resulting rise in energy costs have aggravated the situation, and a new deindustrialisation is advancing, even affecting the automotive sector.
The political system is parallel to the socio-economic dynamics, and is based on coalition governments with a parliamentary majority at both the regional and federal level, with very rare cases of minority governments (again, the exception: Bodo Ramelow's government in Thuringia during the last legislative period with the Greens and SPD). Apart from the famous "Grand Coalition" of SPD and CDU in the Merkel era, all parties with parliamentary representation except two have had federal government responsibilities: Die Linke and AfD. In the case of Die Linke, it has at least formed coalitions with the SPD and Greens in regional governments.
All this has two consequences: the dynamic of “all against all” coalitions of the neoliberal parties (CDU and Greens, SPD and Liberals, SPD and CDU, Liberals and Greens, etc.) has forced all these parties to make concessions to stay in government and has disappointed their electorates. They all share political responsibility for the decline in which the country finds itself. On the other hand, the cordon sanitaire around AfD, far from weakening it, has allowed it to emerge as the only party with the strength to frontally oppose the governments. AfD uses the term “cartel parties” to refer to the block formed by the rest.
This is the current situation: a highly developed country, but clearly in decline, and an ideologically very compact institutional policy. Of course, there are innumerable currents, contradictions, internal struggles, etc., both within the hegemonic bloc and within the AfD, but including them in the analysis would make it impossible to complete. Only the dominant tendencies are presented here.
AfD: Broad Front of the Far Right
Having outlined the general outline, it remains to define the AfD itself in more detail. Founded in 2013 by right-wing members of the CDU and right-wing liberal academics, it has veered from an exclusively neoliberal and Eurosceptic party to an agglomeration of all sensibilities to the right of the CDU, from neoliberals to Christians, and of course, fascists . Nothing better defines its heterogeneity than its two co-chairs: Alice Weidel, a lesbian doctor of economics, living in Switzerland with her Sri Lankan partner and their two children, and Tino Chrupalla, a painter from Sachsen with a small business.
It is primarily an anti-immigration, anti-Islam and traditionalist party. Although somewhat ambiguous (partly due to not having governed), its economic policy is predominantly neoliberal. Internationally, it is tending to be pro-Russian (the majority position in the East, although there is also an Atlantic current) and, above all, it is frontally opposed to the European Union.
Socially, its main supporters are working-class voters, as well as self-employed and small business owners. Peripheral and rural, its electoral base is in the East, to such an extent that its electoral results on the map clearly mark the outline of the former GDR. Despite being founded by West Germans, the party has been able to establish itself as the main voice of East Germans, defending their interests against a Berlin and Brussels far from their reality and their problems. There it has established itself as the second political force (behind the CDU or SPD depending on the region) with stable values around 30% of the votes.
The identity discourse (Western traditionalism, East Germany) is the optimal tool for a broad interclass front capable of accumulating support from classes with opposing interests. Of course, the AfD promotes a pro-market, anti-union policy in favour of continuing to dismantle the welfare state. Despite this, it manages to mobilise workers by presenting unions as just another part of the institutions responsible for their decline.
The question of migration, as in the right-wing of other Western countries, allows for materiality and concrete objectives (deportations, border closures) to be given to a discontent that is otherwise very abstract. This discourse creates paradoxes such as the fact that the regions that are most vehement against immigrants (the East) are not only those that have received and continue to receive the least immigrants, but those that are most in need of them to stay afloat, given the omnipresent lack of workers.
Conclusions
Despite its particularities, the AfD is part of the reactionary wave that is taking place in most Western countries (including Iberian America) and shares features with the far right in its surroundings, both in the east and west. In Germany, the weakness of the left is highlighted: although Die Linke played an important role in the East during the 1990s and 2000s, today it is mostly perceived as an urban party, closer to the activist and identity-based left than to the problems of the periphery.
As for the prospects for success, the AfD has not yet reached the critical mass to move from being a noisy minority to a majority. Not only is a large part of society aware of the risk of a repeat of Nazism, even under a watered-down version of the NSDAP, but big business and employers have so far remained openly opposed to the AfD. The representatives of capital know that they are dependent on the free movement of goods and merchandise, and they believe that an AfD victory would further destabilize the country's economic policy without giving them anything in return. With Die Linke extremely weakened, they see no risk of disorder "on the left." At the same time, the main candidate to break the cordon sanitaire, the CDU, has so far shown no signs of trying. If it dares, it would risk its chances of governing with the other parties and the stability of the entire political system.
In the coming months and years, two aspects will be decisive: as long as the AfD does not achieve an absolute majority, the division of roles between institutional parties (CDU, SPD, Greens, FDP) and protest party (AfD) can be maintained to the benefit of both parties. One will maintain its power, the other its legitimacy as the voice of the opposition. Despite being far from governing, the AfD has enough weight to tilt the entire political spectrum to the right, as is already happening, for example, with migration policy. The second aspect will be the evolution of the new party BSW (Sahra Wagenkenct Alliance), founded by the former leader of Die Linke Sahra Wagenknecht to recover the electoral weight that the left-wing party once had. Its proposal combines the demand for the Welfare State with criticism of support for the war in Ukraine and for “open borders” [1] . Following the strong results in the European elections as well as in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, the party will hold the key to forming regional governments. Its success or failure will determine the shape of Germany's political landscape.
- The criticism of “open borders” (literally, the absence of border controls, as all of Germany’s neighbouring countries are within the Schengen area) involves controlling the Schengen borders against “irregular migration”, deporting rejected asylum seekers and having refugees wait in countries outside the EU while their asylum application is being processed. This is the dominant position across the German political spectrum, except for Die Linke. ↩︎
AfD: La vuelta de la extrema derecha en Alemania
A finales de 2024, el candidato más obvio, tanto ideológica, retórica, como estéticamente, para el papel de Hitler 2.0, es Björn (“Bernd”) Höcke. Tanto es así, que la analogía fue parte de una campaña de marketing del periódico sensacionalista Bild, el de mayor tirada del país. Este profesor de...
mundoobrero.es
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