In  Cape Town, South Africa,  two warehouses have been converted into a number of airlocked sterile rooms where young scientists are assembling and calibrating the equipment needed to create a coronavirus vaccine. Over the objections of the original developers, The Cape Town initiative is intended to expand access to the novel messenger RNA technology that Moderna, as well as Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, used in their vaccines. If the team in South Africa succeeds in making a version of Moderna’s vaccine, the information will be publicly released for use by others.

 Dr. Tom Frieden, the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has described the world as “being held hostage” by Moderna and Pfizer, whose vaccines are considered the most effective against COVID-19. The novel mRNA process uses the genetic code for the spike protein of the coronavirus and is thought to trigger a better immune response than traditional vaccines.

It’s a last-resort effort to make vaccine doses available for people going without because of the refusal of Big Pharma and the World Trade Organization to temporary rescind intellectual property laws.

 “We are doing this for Africa at this moment, and that drives us,” said Emile Hendricks, a 22-year-old biotechnologist for Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, the company trying to reproduce the Moderna shot. “We can no longer rely on these big superpowers to come in and save us.”

With the approval and assistance of the World Health Organization, he and his colleagues are applying reverse engineering — recreating vaccines from fragments of publicly available information — as one of the few remaining ways to redress the power imbalances of the pandemic.

 Only 0.7% of vaccines have gone to low-income countries so far, while nearly half have gone to wealthy countries. The U.N.-backed effort to equitably allot vaccines globally, known as COVAX, has failed to alleviate severe shortages in poor countries. Donated doses are coming in at a fraction of what is needed to fill the gap. Meanwhile, pressure for drug companies to share vaccines has led nowhere.

 After pleading with drugmakers to share their formulas,  raw materials and technological know-how, some poorer countries are done waiting.

Afrigen Managing Director Petro Terblanche said the Cape Town company is aiming to have a version of the Moderna vaccine ready for testing in people within a year and scaled up for commercial production not long after.“We have a lot of competition coming from Big Pharma. They don’t want to see us succeed.”

Moderna has not offered to help outside companies to make its mRNA shot.  The Medicines Patent Pool repeatedly tried but failed to convince Pfizer and BioNTech to even discuss sharing their formulas.

Zoltan Kis, an expert in messenger RNA vaccines at the University of Sheffield, said reproducing Moderna’s vaccine is “doable” but the task would be far easier if the company shared its expertise. Kis estimated the process involves fewer than a dozen major steps. But certain procedures are tricky, such as sealing the fragile messenger RNA in lipid nanoparticles, he said. “It’s like a very complicated cooking recipe,” he said. “Having the recipe would be very, very helpful, and it would also help if someone could show you how to do it.”

“The enemy to these corporations is losing their potential profit down the line,” Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer of the global health nonprofit Partners in Health, said.

Africa tries to end vaccine inequity by replicating its own (apnews.com)

Burnley has one of the largest proportions of adults on universal credit in the country. About one in five adults of working age in Burnley depend on universal credit Burnley had registered the highest rate of infection in England, something partly traced to its high levels of poverty and overcrowded housing. Two years ago the town elected its first Conservative MP in more than 100 years. 

Pastor Mick Fleming who runs the Church on the Street that operates a food bank, advice on benefits plus help with homelessness and addiction, explains,  “There’s still the need for food, but the big issue is people’s mental health. That’s spiralled out of control. The lack of resource, and the lack of hope because of that – you get more suicides.” He has also seen an increase in alcoholism. “That’s due to the pandemic. Many, many people have lost money and relationships and businesses because of Covid. And the timeframe between when help’s needed and when people might get it – in that gap, people die. That’s something we see more of.”

In regard to the cuts in the Universal Credit, Pastor Fleming pointed out, “I’ve seen an increase in fear. People are like: ‘How am I going to manage without this money?’ Again, it’s to do with mental health. Anxiety. It’s real, real stuff. It’s not just taking 20 quid off somebody. And 40% of the people getting the money taken away are working. So it’s people who work as carers asking me for food parcels. Paid workers who are looking after people, needing access to food.”

‘We’ve been hammered’: on the breadline in Burnley | Poverty | The Guardian

When it comes to addressing the climate crises, many politicians are talking the talk but few are actually walking the walk.

 Biden is just one of several politicians who have promised to deliver policies to slow the advance of global warming. There has been no Green New Deal. Biden may say he listens to climate activists such as the Sunrise Movement but he is long overdue in meeting their demands. Biden’s government has little to show other than lip-service rhetoric.  If Biden is indeed a climate champion and the planet’s great hope, he appears to be punch-drunk and bout to be counted out. 

His administration is on track to approve the most drilling permits on federal land since George W. Bush was in office. The U.S. is currently the world’s largest producer and consumer of oil and gas.

 Biden could declare climate change a national emergency which would open up vast federal resources and capabilities. He could revoke the permits for pipeline constructions (Line 3, Line 5, and Mountain Valley.)

Many official members of the administration have ties to the oil and gas industry.

Amos Hochstein was a marketing executive for the fossil fuel company Tellurian. Now, Hochstein is essentially promoting American gas internationally as the State Department’s senior adviser for energy security. Susan Rice, Obama’s director of the Domestic Policy Council has had strong financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, holding stock in Enbridge (the Canadian oil and gas company). Rice has been ordered by federal ethics regulators, aware of the conflict of interest, to divest her holdings. Biden also nominated Neil MacBride to be general counsel of the Treasury Department. MacBride formerly worked at the corporate law firm Davis Polk, where he sued the Treasury Department on behalf of Exxon. Biden is hiring a lot of people who have lobbied or they worked for big law firms that represented oil and gas firms. Biden has given government positions to lawyers from the law firm currently used by Chevron, Gibson Dunn, to executive positions. These include Jose Fernandez (under-secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment), Stuart Delery (deputy White House counsel) and Avi Garbow (senior counsellor to the Environmental Protection Agency administrator — a job Garbow has since left).

A matter of employing a fox to catch a fox? We think not, but suggest simply another instance of the revolving door practice where corporations acquire political influence. 

Biden holds tremendous influence on the global economic stage, with veto power in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and an outsized role in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. So far the U.S. has been reluctant to use it to drive action on climate change. Biden could start by acting decisively on a technology transfer and waiving intellectual property rights for green technologies. Biden could use his weight to reduce, at least, if not outright cancel the sovereign debt that is an oppressive financial burden on so many Global South governments in introducing infrastructure measures to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Biden holds as much credibility as Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil when it comes to keeping true to environmental pledges. Truth is found in action, not words. 

Adapted from here

Joe Biden is in no position to lecture the world on climate change | openDemocracy

 Polish mothers protested held under the banner “Mothers at the Border,” against migrant pushbacks at the border with Belarus and demanded they get humanitarian help. Protesters carrying signs like “Border of Death” and chanting “shame” and “no one is illegal” called on the Polish government to lift a three-month state of emergency so that aid workers could help migrants.

The Polish government built a barbed-wire fence along the Belarus border and declared a state of emergency that stopped journalists and charities from accessing the area. Migrants trying to cross the border into the EU have been forced back by thousands of extra border guards drafted in by Poland. Belarusian forces have also blocked the way back, leaving the migrants with nowhere to go. Exhausted and suffering from the cold, the migrants try nightly to reach Poland but are often attacked and pushed back.

“We can’t stand idly by when children are spending weeks in cold, wet, dark forests on Polish territory — without food, drink and access to shelter,” the organizers said.

Former Polish first lady Anna Komorowska explained, “We particularly reject the inhumane treatment of children.”

Danuta Walesa, wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa also supported the appeal.

Polish mothers rally in solidarity with migrants at Belarus border | News | DW | 23.10.2021

 Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned global security and stability could break down, with migration crises and food shortages bringing conflict and chaos, if countries fail to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. 

The UN’s top climate official explained, “We’re really talking about preserving the stability of countries, preserving the institutions that we have built over so many years, preserving the best goals that our countries have put together. The catastrophic scenario would indicate that we would have massive flows of displaced people,” adding, “It would mean less food, so probably a crisis in food security. It would leave a lot more people vulnerable to terrible situations, terrorist groups and violent groups. It would mean a lot of sources of instability.”

In an interview, she said,  “It doesn’t only speak to the environmental side. It is also about the whole system we have built. We know what migration crises have provoked in the past. If we were to see that in even higher numbers – not only international migration, but also internal migration – it would provoke very serious problems.”

 Espinosa said: “What we need to get at Glasgow are messages from leaders that they are determined to drive this transformation, to make these changes, to look at ways of increasing their ambition…It is probably not the most attractive idea to government representatives – when you have finished the plan, come back and tell all those involved, ‘OK, now you have to continue revising your plan’’,” she said. “But this is the biggest challenge humanity is facing, so we really don’t have an option. And we know that situations change, technologies change, processes change, so there’s always room for improvement.”

‘World conflict and chaos’ could be the result of a summit failure | Climate crisis | The Guardian

We in the World Socialist Movement understand political leaders apocalyptic prophecies, that are echoed by many catastrophist climate activists and it is a reason why we hold that the only answer is not to gamble that governments and corporations will act for the first time in humanity’s history against their mercenary self-interest and place the well-being of the people and the planet before profits. 

Worker militancy and strikes has recently occurred in the USA as workers went on the offensive to demand more. Workers – after working so hard and risking their lives during the pandemic – say they deserve substantial raises along with lots of gratitude. With this in mind and with myriad employers complaining of a labor shortage, many workers believe it’s an opportune time to demand more and go on strike. 

Robert Bruno, a labor relations professor at the University of Illinois, said workers have built up a lot of grievances and anger during the pandemic, after years of seeing scant improvement in pay and benefits. Bruno pointed to a big reason for the growing worker frustration: “You can definitely see that American capitalism has reigned supreme over workers, and as a result, the incentive for companies is to continue to do what’s been working for them. It’s likely that an arrogance sets in where companies think that’s going to last for ever, and maybe they don’t read the times properly.”

Professor Bruno said that in light of today’s increased worker militancy, unionized employers would have to rethink their approach to bargaining “and take the rank and file pretty seriously”. They can no longer expect workers to roll over or to strong-arm them into swallowing concessions, often by threatening to move operations overseas.

Thomas Kochan, an MIT professor of industrial relations, agreed that it was a favorable time for workers – many corporations have substantially increased pay in response to the labor shortage. “It’s clear that workers are much more empowered,” he said. “They’re empowered because of the labor shortage.” Kochan added: “These strikes could easily trigger more strike activity if several are successful or perceived to be successful.”

Some corporations are acting as if nothing has changed and they can continue corporate America’s decades-long practice of squeezing workers and demanding concessions, even after corporate profits have soared.

Deere anticipates a record $5.7bn in profits this year, more than double last year’s earnings. Deere workers complain that the company offered only a 12% raise over six years, which they say won’t keep pace with inflation, even as the CEO’s pay rose 160% last year to $16m and dividends were raised 17%.  

Ten thousand John Deere workers have gone on strikeDeere’s workers voted down the company’s offer by 90% before they went on strike at 14 factories on 14 October, their first walkout in 35 years. 

Kevin Bradshaw, a striker at Kellogg’s factory in Memphis, said the cereal maker was being arrogant and unappreciative. During the pandemic, he said, Kellogg employees often worked 30 days in a row, often in 12-hour or 16-hour shifts. In light of this hard work, he derided Kellogg’s contract offer, which calls for a far lower scale for new hires. “Kellogg is offering a $13 cut in top pay for new workers,” Bradshaw said. “They want a permanent two-tier. New employees will no longer receive the same amount of money and benefits we do.” That, he said, is bad for the next generation of workers. Bradshaw, vice-president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union local, noted that it made painful concessions to Kellogg in 2015. “We gave so many concessions, and now they’re saying they need more,” he said. “This is a real smack in the face during the pandemic. Everyone knows that they’re greedy and not needy.”

1,400 Kellogg workers have walked out.

More than 400 workers at the Heaven Hill bourbon distillery in Kentucky have been on strike for six weeks, while roughly 1,000 Warrior Met coalminers in Alabama have been on strike since April. Hundreds of nurses at Mercy hospital in Buffalo went on strike on 1 October, and 450 steelworkers at Special Metals in Huntington, West Virginia, also walked out that day. 

More than 30,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals at Kaiser Permanente on the west coast have voted to authorize a strike. Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit, had amassed $45bn in reserves and its management has proposed hiring new nurses at 26% less pay than current ones earn – which she said would ensure a shortage of nurses. 

Belinda Redding, a Kaiser nurse in Woodland Hills, California, said, “We’ve been going all out during the pandemic. We’ve been working extra shifts. Our lives have been turned upside down. The signs were up all over saying, ‘Heroes Work Here’. And the pandemic isn’t even over for us, and then for them to offer us a 1% raise, it’s almost a slap in the face.” She added, “It’s hard to imagine a nurse giving her all when she’s paid far less than other nurses.” 

Many non-union workers – frequently dismayed with low pay, volatile schedules and poor treatment – have quit their jobs or refused to return to their old ones after being laid off during the pandemic. In August, 4.2 million workers quit their jobs, part of what has been called the Great Resignation. Some economists have suggested this is a quiet general strike with workers demanding better pay and conditions. “People are using exit from their jobs as a source of power,” Kochan said.

‘Striketober’ is showing workers’ rising power – but will it lead to lasting change? | US unions | The Guardian

 Because of a massive shortfall in farmworkers an “unprecedented” amount of food to be thrown into landfills in 2021.

Growers say they have been forced to throw away millions of pounds of produce, including blueberries, raspberries, apples, salad leaves and tomatoes.

One British salad grower reported that around £1m of premium salad leaves – a third of their annual crop – had been used to make “very expensive manure” because food processing plants do not have enough staff.

The food industry as a whole is now estimated to need an additional half a million workers to plant and harvest food, pack it, process it and deliver it to retailers, restaurants and peoples’ homes.

Fruit and vegetable growers had 34 per cent fewer workers than they needed at the peak of the harvesting season in July and August.

According to Ali Capper, an apple grower and chair of the NFU’s horticulture board,  “Businesses are reporting worker shortages of between 15 and 40 per cent. When it’s 15 per cent everyone rolls up their sleeves and works harder. When it’s 40, you simply have to walk by and have to let produce rot in the fields. You have no choice.”

Shoppers are being advised to brace for more empty shelves and significant food price inflation as UK production falls and more goods are imported, increasing the country’s carbon footprint.

Fruit-picking robots are far less efficient and more expensive than human beings and, even with significant investment, it is likely to be around five to seven years until they are a viable alternative. 

Farmers to slash food production after worker shortage causes ‘unprecedented’ waste | The Independent

A government is as Marx described it, the executive committee of the capitalist class and as such it acts in the “national” interest which happens to always be the vested interest of the nation’s ruling class. 

 The Israeli defence ministry outlawed six prominent Palestinian human rights groups, Al-Haq, a human rights group founded in 1979, Addameer, Defence for Children International – Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees,  alleging that they are linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular political movement with an armed wing.

 Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, said the move was an attempt to stifle criticism. “They may be able to close us down. They can seize our funding. They can arrest us. But they cannot stop our firm and unshakeable belief that this occupation must be held accountable for its crimes.”

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called the government’s declaration “an act characteristic of totalitarian regimes, with the clear purpose of shutting down these organisations”. It added: “B’Tselem stands in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues, is proud of our joint work over the years and is steadfast to continue so.”

Human Rights Watch and London-based Amnesty International released a joint statement condemning the move as an “attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement. For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians,” they said. “This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations.”

The Palestinian Authority said, “This fallacious and libelous slander is a strategic assault on Palestinian civil society and the Palestinian people’s fundamental right to oppose Israel’s illegal occupation and expose its continuing crimes.” 

The groups, well known for their human rights work, have received funding from EU member states, the United Nations and other donors.

The European Union delegation to the Palestinian territories said past allegations of the misuse of EU funds by partners “have not been substantiated” but that it takes the matter seriously and is looking into it.The local office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said that in making the declaration, Israel had listed “extremely vague or irrelevant reasons, including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities.” It called on Israel to “fully respect the rights to freedom of association and expression, without any interference or harassment against the organizations or their staff,” adding that it considers some of the Palestinian organizations to be “key partners.”

The U.S. State Department said it would seek more information from Israel on the designation and had not been given advance warning about it.

Israel labels Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organisations | Israel | The Guardian

Israel outlaws Palestinian rights groups, alleging terrorism (apnews.com)

 Friends of the Earth U.K. explain that businesses and the fossil fuel industry are engaging in “a dangerous distraction” by advocating a scheme known as carbon offsetting while continuing activities that are worsening the climate emergency.

Its report A dangerous distraction—the offsetting con takes issue with both the more commonly known practice of carbon offsetting as well as biodiversity offsetting. FOE explains:

“Carbon offsetting is touted as a way to compensate for continuing fossil fuel emissions by reducing emissions elsewhere or drawing them down using trees, etc. As well as carbon offsetting, businesses and governments are also promoting biodiversity offsetting. This is where harming nature in one place is in theory compensated by restoring nature elsewhere.”

“The real and credible solutions to the environmental emergencies we face are clear,” the report states. “We must rapidly stop using fossil fuels. And we must fund the proper protection, conservation, and restoration of nature.” It continues, ” The best way to prevent the heating of our planet is to end the use of fossil fuels for good. Yet offsetting is being used as an excuse to continue using these climate-wrecking fuels.”

Carbon offsets are relatively cheap, the report says, and “will remain cheaper than cutting carbon emissions in the decade the world needs to reduce emissions to stay within safe limits,” even if projects’ ability to lock up carbon over the long term is not guaranteed.

To try and square the circle of selling fossil fuels and being carbon neutral, BP has bought a major carbon offset company, Finite Carbon, which it claims “has the potential to build a global platform for managing and financing natural climate solutions.” Finite Carbon already specializes in forest carbon offsets in the USA, where forests are now increasingly ravaged by wildfires and pests, in a real-life demonstration of how temporarily carbon may be locked up in trees.

The overall offsetting scheme leads to a situation that corporations can delay real action to change their planet-heating practices. Simply put, offsetting lets “politicians and business leaders avoid confronting the reality of climate breakdown and nature decline, and continue with business as usual and the latest kind of greenwashing instead,” the report states.

Destroying one tract of nature cannot simply be remedied by restoring or creating another.

An example is mining giant Rio Tinto’s activities in Madagascar.

“Rio Tinto’s QMM ilmenite mine is destroying 6,000 hectares of littoral forest along the southeast coastline, while claiming it will leave a net-positive impact on biodiversity. To do this, its offsetting programme has acquired three forest areas in what has been considered a double land grab. Some of the area is already protected under a national conservation program, and in Antsotso the offset has resulted in loss of forest access, traditional livelihoods, and food security. Villagers living on less than a dollar a day are criminalized if they cut a tree to replace a dug-out canoe for fishing. Mineral extraction accounts for most of the forest loss in the region, and some of the poorest people on the planet are carrying the cost of greening Rio Tinto’ mine”

Carbon Offsets Are Nothing But a ‘Dangerous’ Con Job, Warns Climate Group (commondreams.org)

As with all their business practices, capitalists seek options without cost to them and invent solutions to suit their balance sheets.