Party of Communists USA Salutes International Working Women’s Day: March 8, 2015

http://nymetrocommunistparty.org/?p=879

  The PCUSA honors the contributions working women have made internationally to our society; not just as white or blue collar workers, but also as agricultural workers, homemakers and mothers. We use this day to affirm our commitment to fighting capitalist exploitation. From the dawn of the industrial revolution, women were forced to work longer hours for less pay just because they were women. In many cases, locked inside the factories they worked in with little to no safety regulations. In fact, March 25th commemorates the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, where 146 garment workers, nearly all women died because they were locked inside the building, which was then common. As early as 1857, women in the garment industry were demanding shorter work hours, equal pay, and safer and better work conditions. Today in 2015, little has changed. Women still are not paid equally for equal work and many women around the world still work in factories with little or no safety regulations. For example, the 2012 on the sweatshop fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, over 111 female garment workers died from being locked in an unsafe factory. Although many important and crucial gains were made during the late 1960’s and 1970’s in the US because of the militancy of the women’s rights movement, such as the right to enter the workforce, the rights of women to control their bodies and reproduction; the movement did not completely liberate women. Everyone has heard the expression: “A woman’s work is never done”. This statement is true in the US now more than ever. Whereas before women had one job, now they were saddled with two. One paid outside the home and the other unpaid inside the home after and before work; taking care of housework, the children, and often also their elderly parents.

Many American households consist of single women with children who receive no child support, so issues of low pay, long hours, chronic under and unemployment and lack of social services, such as child care are especially critical. To this day, women only earn 77 cents for every $1 a man makes. Although children are tomorrow’s wage slaves in a capitalist society, Capitalism does everything possible to make the labor behind childcare and housework invisible in order to get this labor for free. It does the same when it extracts labor from workers when they take care of sick relatives and parents, which should be a burden to the government. Women, rather than being respected and assisted, are heavily penalized in our society. They generally are delegated to what are considered “women’s work”: jobs in such fields as domestic work, home healthcare, as cashiers, store clerks, etc. These jobs usually pay little more than minimum wage.

Even when they do work in jobs that are not considered “women’s jobs”, they earn less than men for the same work and therefore receive less social security when they retire because they earned less. They are also doubly exploited because, unlike most men, women tend to be the primary caregivers in our society. If they did not work, because they were tending to sick children or parents, they are disqualified from receiving social security. If they did work, they receive less social security, because of the time they may have taken time off working on these unpaid jobs. Women also tend to be discriminated against by the lack of legislation requiring paid sick days in order to take care of sick children or relatives. Women should not be penalized for being mothers or caregivers. Moreover, there should be nothing more dignified in any society than being a caregiver or helping others. This has always been a primordial instinct in man. There is no reason why being a home healthcare aide should be a woman’s job, except that women are paid less than men, so women are hired instead of men for these jobs. There is also no reason why men should not take paternity leave or sick days to take care of children, except that they will be fired later for doing so. There is also no reason why war is glorified rather than taking care of your sick neighbor, except that capitalism profits from war, but not from taking of the elderly or disabled. We need to fight not only for equal pay for equal work; but most importantly for Socialism. Only under Socialism will everyone be entitled to a job, equal pay, and most importantly be respected for taking care of the family as a social function.

http://slavyangrad.org/2015/03/05/attack-of-the-doomed/#more-5046

AfricaFocus Bulletin
March 3, 2015 (150303)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

Lake Turkana, in the far northwest of Kenya and extending over the
border into Ethiopia, is the world’s largest desert lake, in a
region that is central to archaeological investigation into the
origin of humanity. It is now also central to two different projects
for expanding renewable energy due to come on-line in the next three
years, one based on hydropower and the other on wind. While both
will significantly expand the input to the East African power grid,
critics charge that expansion of hydropower on Ethiopia’s Omo River
also poses serious threats to the livelihood of local people both
around Lake Turkana and upstream along the Omo River.

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/turk1503.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/turk1503.php

The hydropower project, the Gilgel Gibe III dam, is expected to
generate its first power in June 2015 and grow to a capacity of
1,870 MW. It would also serve Kenya as well as Ethiopia through a
transmission line to be completed in 2018. The Lake Turkana Wind
Power project, which completed a complex financing package in late
2014, is expected to begin production of power in a little more than
two years, with an eventual capacity of 300 MW, increasing Kenya’s
electricity capacity by about 20% from current levels.

While the Turkana wind project has minimal environmental impact, the
Gibe III, like other such large hydropower projects, has a much
larger environmental footprint, raising multiple questions about the
impact on downstream populations of the dam and of large-scale
irrigated agricultural projects displacing local populations. The
Ethiopian government has rejected such criticism as uninformed. But
both the World Bank and the African Development Bank declined to
support the Gibe III project, which subsequently gained significant
Chinese backing. In contrast, the African Development Bank is the
lead financing partner for the Turkana wind project.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a press release and project
profile from the Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium responsible for
the project, and excerpts from two critical documents on the
potential impact of the Gilgel Gibe III dam on Lake Turkana, from
International Rivers and from Dr. Sean Avery, a consultant who
prepared impact reports for the African Development Bank and for the
University of Oxford African Studies Center.

Other relevant sources of interest include:

On Lake Turkana Wind Power:

Carlos Van Wageningen (Chairman of Lake Turkana Wind Power, talks
about Lake Turkana, the largest wind power plant in Africa. 10-
minute video interview, November 15, 2013,
http://tinyurl.com/kbkgagp

On the Gilgel Gibe III dam and its impact:

Official site for project, including page responding to issues
raised by critics
http://www.gibe3.com.et/issues.html

World Bank, “The Eastern Electricity Highway Project under the First
Phase of the Eastern Africa Power Integration Program,”
http://tinyurl.com/88bw6vq (on the Ethiopia-Kenya transmission line
to be constructed)

Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: Land, Water Grabs Devastate
Communities,” Feb. 18, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/q6q4oue

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on the environment and climate
change, visit http://www.africafocus.org/envexp.php

Ebola Perspectives

[AfricaFocus is regularly monitoring and posting links on
Ebola on social media. For
additional links, see http://www.facebook.com/AfricaFocus]

New and of particular interest:

“Renewed spread in Freetown, Sierra Leone – how easily virus can
take off again”
New York Times, March 1, 2015  http://tinyurl.com/ntojzqb

“Overview of economic impact & enormous difficulties of recovery,
particularly in Sierra Leone & Liberia”
Reuters, Feb. 27, 2015 http://tinyurl.com/l39qz9x

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Africa’s Largest Wind Power Project Achieves Full Financial Close

Lake Turkana Wind Power receives first disbursements of funds

Nairobi, Kenya, 19 December 2014

Following the financial close of Lake Turkana Wind Power Project
(LTWP) on 11 December 2014, LTWP has received the first disbursement
of funds pursuant to financing agreements signed in March 2014.

“Reaching this important milestone today caps a year of major
achievements by LTWP,” said Mugo Kibati, LTWP’s Chairman of the
Board. “This includes signing the financing agreements in March,
issuing notice to proceed by KETRACO to the transmission line
construction contractor in August, financial close of the LTWP
equity partners in September, as well as notices to proceed to
LTWP’s contractors in October.”

The LTWP project, Kenya Shillings 70 billion (623 million Euros), is
the largest single wind power project to be constructed in Africa
and is, to date, the largest private investment in the history of
Kenya and arguably one of the most complex and challenging project
financing undertaken in the renewable energy space in sub-Saharan
Africa. The project is a key deliverable under the Government’s
commitment to scaling up electricity generation to 5,000MW and is a
flagship project within the Vision 2030 program. The LTWP project
will provide cost effective renewable power to the Kenyan consumer
and will comprise approximately 20% of Kenya’s currently installed
generating capacity.

The LTWP consortium is comprised of KP&P Africa B.V. and Aldwych
International as co-developers and investors, and Finnish Fund for
Industrial Cooperation Ltd (Finn Fund), Industrial Fund for
Developing Countries (IFU), KLP Norfund Investments, Vestas Eastern
Africa (VEAL) and Sandpiper as investors. Aldwych Turkana Ltd, an
affiliate of Aldwych International, will oversee construction and
operations of the project on behalf of LTWP.

The support, interaction and uplifting of local communities is a
high priority for LTWP. As such, LTWP adopted a Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) Program which will be implemented by the Winds
of Change Foundation (a wholly owned subsidiary of LTWP). This
foundation aims to uplift local communities through programs such as
the CHAT HIV awareness campaign, water, sanitation, electrification,
sustainable development of agriculture as well as the education of
boys and girls.

Initially, activities will be concentrated around the wind farm
communities (Loyangalani, Korr and Laisamis divisions, with South
Horr). CSR activities will gradually expand to the wider project
area.

The financing agreements were signed in March 2014 with the African
Development Bank (AfDB), European Investment Bank (EIB), Nederlandse
Financierings Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (FMO),
Société De Promotion Et De Participation Pour La Coopération
Economique (Proparco), Eastern And Southern African Trade And
Development Bank (PTA Bank), Nedbank Capital, The Standard Bank of
South Africa, Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF), Deg — Deutsche
Investitions – Und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Mbh, East African
Development Bank and Triodos.

After eight years of development with the full support of the
Government of Kenya, Kenya Power, the Energy Regulation Committee
(ERC) and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO),
utilization of the funds signifies the completion of the project’s
financing stage, which will allow the project to move towards
implementation and to commence producing electricity in 2017.

– Ends –

For further press information please contact: Mary E O’Reilly, Phone
: + 254 733 751 799 or +254 711 667 670, Email: media@ltwp.co.ke

Please also visit http://www.ltwp.co.ke for further information.

Notes to Editor:

The wind farm site, covering 40,000 acres (162km2), is located in
Loyangalani District, Marsabit West County, in north-eastern Kenya,
approximately 50km north of South Horr Township. The project will
comprise 365 wind turbines (each with a capacity of 850 kW), the
associated overhead electric grid collection system and a high
voltage substation. The project also includes upgrading of the
existing road from Laisamis to the wind farm site, which is partly
financed by the Dutch Government and is a distance of approximately
204km. In addition, the project will build an access road network in
and around the site for construction, operations and maintenance.
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco), with
concessional funding from the Spanish Government, is constructing a
double circuit 400kV, 428km transmission line to deliver the LTWP
electricity along with power from other future plants to the
national grid.

*************************************************************

Lake Turkana Wind Power

Project Profile, August 2014

http://ltwp.co.ke/the-project/project-profile

[Excerpts]

1. The Project Profile

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) aims to provide 300MW of
reliable, low cost wind power to the Kenya national grid, equivalent
to approximately 20% of the current installed electricity generating
capacity. The Project is of significant strategic benefit to Kenya,
and at Ksh76 billion (Euro 623 million) will be the largest single
private investment in Kenya’s history. The wind farm site, covering
40,000 acres (162km2), is located in Loyangalani District, Marsabit
West County approximately 50km north of South HorrTownship.

Transmission line and access roads in relation to the wind farm

The Project will comprise 365 wind turbines (each with a capacity of
850 kW), the associated overhead electric grid collection system and
a high voltage substation. The Project also includes upgrading of
the existing road from Laisamis to the wind farm site, a distance of
approximately 204km, as well as an access road network in and around
the site for construction, operations and maintenance. The Kenya
Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco), with concessional
funding from the Spanish Government, is constructing a double
circuit 400kv, 428km transmission line to deliver the LTWP
electricity along with power from other future plants to the
national grid.

The Project proponent is the LTWP consortium comprising KP&P Africa
B.V. and Aldwych International as co-developers, Industrial Fund for
Developing Countries (IFU), Wind Power A.S. (Vestas), Finnish Fund
for Industrial Cooperation Ltd (Finnfund),and Norwegian Investment
Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund). LTWP is solely responsible
for the financing, construction and operation of the wind farm.
Aldwych, an experienced power company focused on Africa, will
oversee the construction and operations of the power plant on behalf
of LTWP. Vestas will provide the maintenance of the plant in
contract with LTWP. The power produced will be bought at a fixed
price by Kenya Power (KPLC) over a 20-year period in accordance with
the signed Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

2. Background

Several sites in Marsabit County were explored for suitability of
wind power generation. The proposed site was selected following an
extensive survey of the region focusing on environmental, social and
sustainability, technology and commercial considerations, including
the remoteness of the area, the strength and stability of the winds,
proven technology, benign environmental setting, low population
density, security of the area, fresh water availability and road
accessibility. In addition, in order to avoid possible bird contact
with the turbines, the proposed wind farm is sited at least 9 km
from the shore of Lake Turkana. A 12 month ornithological study has
been concluded and annual environmental audits will be done for the
entire wind farm during the 20 year operations period.

…

3. Who is LTWP?

Joint Development Parties

1. KP&P BV Africa
2. Aldwych International Limited
3. Wind Power A.S. (Vestas)
4. Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund)
5. Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU)
6. Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd (Finnfund)

Lenders

The lead arranger of the debt financing is the African Development
Bank with Standard Bank of South Africa and Nedbank Capital of South
Africa as co-arrangers.

4.Project Benefits

4.1 Reliable Power

* Largest single wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa

* Optimal site location: According to the National Wind Resource
Atlas, as compiled by the Ministry of Energy, MarsabitWestCounty is
generally gifted with exceptional wind resources.

* Reliable wind: The site lies between 450m at the shore of Lake
Turkana and 2,300m above sea level at the top of Mt.Kulal. The area
around the site has a unique geographical phenomenon whereby daily
temperature fluctuations generate strong predictable wind streams
between Lake Turkana (with relatively constant temperature) and the
desert hinterland (with steep temperature fluctuations) and as the
wind streams pass through the valley between the Mt. Kulal and Mt.
Nyiru ranges (2,750m above sea level) which effectively act as a
funnel causing the wind streams to accelerate (known as the Turkana
Corridor low level jet stream). The Turkana wind phenomenon stems
from the East African jet stream which stretches from the ocean
through the Ethiopian highlands and valleys to the deserts in Sudan
in a south-east direction all year round.

* Data collected and analysed since 2007 indicate that site has some
of the best wind resources in Africa, with consistent wind speeds
averaging 11 meters/second and from the same direction year round.

4.2 Renewable Energy

* LTWP has registered with the UNFCCC and approved at the Gold
Standard rating; the income from the carbon credits will be given to
with the government and invested in the community (see below).

* The Project reduces the need to depend on unreliable hydro and on
expensive, unpredictably priced fossil fuel based power generation
and insulates Kenya’s power tariff by providing a low and consistent
power price.

* If the wind is less than predicted then only LTWP suffers as Kenya
Power only pays for the power produced at a fixed price per kWh.

4.3 Low Cost Power

* The Government of Kenya’s Least Cost Development Power Plan shows
that LTWP wind power will be the least cost power generation option
available in the country along with geothermal power and at even
less cost than the feed in tariff for other wind projects set at
US$11 cents/kWh.

* The LTWP tariff will be approximately 60% cheaper than thermal
power plants

4.4 Community Development and Environmental Impact

* MarsabitWestCounty is among the poorest counties in Kenya;
Loyangalani is one of the poorest districts in Marsabit.

* LTWP has all the required environmental and social approvals in
line with the IFC Performance Standards

* A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme is being
finalised based on extensive input from the communities in order to
ensure that livelihoods are improved; LTWP will use a combination of
revenue from carbon credits and profit to form and fund a trust,
which will ensure a well targeted plan over the 20 years of the
investment.

4.5 Macroeconomic Impact

* Largest single private investment in Kenya

* Will replace need for Kenya to spend approximately Ksh13.7 billion
(Euro 120 million) per year on importing fuel

* The LTWP tax contribution to Kenya will be approximately Ksh2.7
billion (Euro 22.7 million) per year and Ksh58.6 billion (Euro 450
million) over the life of the investment

* Jobs

…

*************************************************************

Turkana’s “Forgotten People” Call for Halt to Ethiopia’s Imminent
Water Grabs

International Rivers, Press Release, January 8, 2015

http://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/8489

Berkeley, US: International Rivers is today publishing a report and
video with voices from Lake Turkana, which tell an emotional story
of a people facing a major crisis.

Media contacts: Peter Bosshard, Policy Director, +1 (510) 848-1155
ext. 320, peter@internationalrivers.org, @PeterBosshard

The world’s largest desert lake — Lake Turkana in Kenya — is at
imminent risk from upstream water grabs that will dramatically
reduce the lake’s main water supply, shrink the lake, and kill off
ecosystems and productive fisheries. Some 300,000 of the world’s
poorest people depend on the lake for their survival. The imminent
filling of Ethiopia’s Gibe III Dam and other water grabs on the Omo
River will mean the difference between marginal livelihoods and
famine for most. International Rivers calls on the Ethiopian
government and its donors to ensure sufficient downstream water
flows before closing the Gibe III Dam gates.

Ethiopia is building huge dams and plantations in the Omo River
Valley, displacing its own people in addition to causing lost
livelihoods in Kenya. Gibe III Dam (now nearing completion) is one
of Africa’s largest hydropower projects. The filling of its
reservoir will take an estimated three years and reduce water flows
by up to 70% in the Omo River.

The associated expansion of water-intensive sugar and cotton
plantations poses an even greater threat: if current plans described
by the Ethiopian government move forward, hydrologists estimate the
lake level could drop between 16 and 22 meters. The average depth of
the lake is just 31 meters. “These water grabs will disrupt
fisheries and destroy other ecosystems upon which local people
depend,” comments Lori Pottinger, International Rivers’ Africa
Campaigner. “Local people have not been consulted about the project
nor informed about its impacts on their lives.”

The new International Rivers report — called Come and Count Our
Bones: Community Voices from Lake Turkana on the Impacts of Gibe III
Dam — is based on interviews with more than 100 people in
communities around Lake Turkana. “Once the dam is operating,
everything people feed on will disappear. Starvation will take
over,” said pastorialist Rebecca Arot.

Kenya is planning to purchase electricity from Gibe III, and the
World Bank is supporting the transmission line from the dam to
Kenya. In spite of losing livelihoods and food security, the
downstream victims of the Omo River water grabs are unlikely to
receive any benefits from the power production. “We cannot eat
electricity. What we require is food and income for the Turkana
community,” said Christopher Eporon Ekuwom of the Turkana County
Government’s Ministry of Pastoral Economy & Fisheries.

“The lake is like our farm,” one pastoralist told International
Rivers. “The life of this place is fish . . . if this lake was not
there, the fish would not be there, and life in this place would
almost be impossible,” said a local businessman.

The Ethiopian government has thus far failed to acknowledge the
impacts of its Omo developments on Lake Turkana. The Kenyan
government has not publicly requested protection for the lake from
water diversions. Turkana residents who were interviewed had many
messages for these two governments.

The Ethiopian government and its infrastructure development plans
are highly dependent on aid from Western governments, China, the
World Bank, and other international institutions. International
Rivers calls on Ethiopia and its donors to avert this human-made
humanitarian disaster, stop water grabs from the Omo River and make
sure the Gibe III Dam is only operated with sufficient downstream
flows to sustain ecosystems and livelihoods in the Lower Omo Valley
and around Lake Turkana.

[Additional sources, including reports and video, available at link
above]

*************************************************************

Lake Turkana and the Lower Omo: hydrological impacts of major dam
and irrigation developments

University of Oxford, Africa Studies Centre, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/nzb26xu

This study, by the Nairobi-based consultant hydrologist and civil
engineer, Dr Sean Avery, is one of the outcomes of the AHRC (Arts &
Humanities Research Council) funded project, ‘Landscape people and
parks: environmental change in the Lower Omo Valley, southwestern
Ethiopia’, run by Professor David Anderson and Dr David Turton
between 2007 and 2010. As work on this project proceeded, it became
clear that the landscape of the lower Omo would soon undergo one of
the biggest transformations in its history, thanks to the Gibe III
hydropower dam which had just begun construction in the middle basin
of the Omo, about 600 kilometres upstream from Lake Turkana. Due for
completion in 2014, Gibe III will regulate the flow of the Omo and
permanently modify the annual flood regime upon which the agro-
pastoralists of the lower Omo depend for their livelihoods.
Furthermore, by uplifting the natural low flows in the river, the
dam will make possible reliable large-scale irrigation development
in the lower basin.

Since the Omo supplies 90 per cent of the water entering Kenya’s
Lake Turkana, the regulation of the Omo flows and the abstraction of
Omo water for large-scale irrigation will alter the hydrological
inflow patterns to Lake Turkana. This will directly impact the
ecology of the lake, which is Kenya’s largest, and the world’s
largest desert lake. The consequences of large irrigation
abstractions were not mentioned in any of the environmental impact
assessments commissioned by the Gibe III dam builders. An assessment
was made, however, by Dr Avery in a report commissioned by the
African Development Bank (AFDB) and submitted in 2010. This was
before any official announcement had been made of the extent of
planned irrigation in the lower Omo. Nevertheless, by using
irrigation water demand forecasts from the Omo Basin Master Plan and
a future hypothetical scenario, it was shown that the lake could
drop by 20 metres or more, causing, amongst other things, a
significant reduction in the productivity of its fisheries. The AFDB
report also warned of the cumulative impacts of other associated
developments and recommended that these be evaluated.

A few months after the AFDB report was submitted, the full extent of
planned irrigation development in the lower Omo became clearer, with
the announcement that the state-run Ethiopian Sugar Corporation
would soon begin developing 150,000 hectares of irrigated sugar
plantations. This was on land largely taken from existing protected
areas and was additional to other land in the lower Omo that had
already been allocated to, or earmarked for development by, private
investors. It appeared that the lower Omo was set to become by far
the largest irrigation complex in Ethiopia. We therefore asked Dr
Avery to undertake a second study, on behalf of the ‘Landscape,
people and parks’ project, updating and consolidating his earlier
findings on the hydrological impacts on the lower Omo and Lake
Turkana. This report, which can be downloaded below, constitutes the
most complete, detailed and authoritative assessment yet made of the
impact of river basin development in the Omo Valley on the Lake
Turkana Basin.

[full report available at link above]

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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http://www.africafocus.org

You can view the videos of the Rally against Republicans held on 2/28/2015 in Houston which was organized by the Houston Socialist Movement at the following links:

http://youtu.be/eH5gteUx_HQ

http://youtu.be/dQZmH5LH-ug

http://youtu.be/55MI956srIc

http://youtu.be/SugVZPSzoJE

http://youtu.be/NeqoRM8X2d4

http://youtu.be/HekqSmY0QHw

http://youtu.be/CKpvEzZOm-Q

http://www.wftucentral.org/present-struggles-mitsos-paparigas-greece/