csmonitor--2020-05-11--Polish Grannies vs. the right-wing: Europe's unlikely democracy defenders

“ I lived most of my adult life under communism , ” Krystyna Piotrowska , a great-grandmother , says .
“ In 1989 , I started to breathe like a human being .
I could travel freely .
... And now I feel like someone wants to take this away from me.
” Unlike some other activists , their passion is rooted in the hard history that they ’ ve witnessed – notably the toll that German occupation in World War II and later Soviet rule took on their nation .
They see worrisome echoes in the fear-mongering rhetoric and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( PiS ) , the populist right-wing government that came to power here in 2015 and immediately began introducing controversial judiciary reforms , as well as the swelling ranks of far-right nationalists .
Until the onset of COVID-19 , they had been meeting on the streets of Warsaw every week under the protective gaze of two police officers .
The women believe that consistency is key to getting their message out .
The Polish Grannies may sound innocuous from their name , but they are a disparate crew of retired professionals , all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and nationalist demonstrators for more than a year .
The group – most of them grandmothers – have handed out leaflets and hoisted placards to protest against a poisonous kind of patriotism that they see afflicting modern Poland .
Every Thursday Krystyna Piotrowska , in her puffy parka , has gathered with a handful of other activists near the Charles de Gaulle statue at a busy intersection in central Warsaw .
There , until recently , the demonstrators – most of them grandmothers , or in her case a great-grandmother – have handed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against a poisonous kind of patriotism that they see afflicting modern Poland .
Their signs have been made of plastic foam so they are easy to carry .
Their slogans : “ Stop Hate Speech , ” “ Nationalism is not Patriotism , ” “ Stop Neofascists.
” The disparate crew of retired professionals , some in tennis shoes , all impassioned , has been confronting authorities and nationalist demonstrators for more than a year .
While the protesters have stopped amid the coronavirus outbreak , they vow to take up their curbside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Being grandmothers , the protesters say , decreases their chances of being manhandled by police on the streets as has been the fate of other groups standing in the way of nationalist marches .
But their activism is not without risk .
Far-right youths have hurled abuse and even flammable projectiles at the intrepid demonstrators .
“ Young people have this freedom and they think that by definition they deserve it , ” says Ms. Piotrowska .
“ Unfortunately , freedom is not given once and for all .
You have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , just like love.
” The Polish Grannies , as the protesters are called , symbolize a grassroots movement across parts of Europe that is trying to blunt the most extreme versions of far-right nationalism .
Often led by women , these groups are fighting for gender-specific causes such as reproductive rights but also broader issues ranging from democratic freedoms to preserving the rule of law .
From Austria to Germany to rural and urban Poland , they are alarmed by the mainstreaming of hate speech toward migrants , the LGBTQ community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups are not officially linked , many of them share the same goals – to stop modern day fascism .
A wide range of female activists has championed the cause of women ’ s rights but also turned out in the streets to defend the constitution .
“ In recent years we have observed in Poland , and also in other countries , a tendency for women to mobilize in progressive movements opposing fascism or right-wing populism , ” says Elżbieta Korolczuk , a sociologist at Södertörn University in Stockholm and the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is a conflict around who is really ‘ the people.
’ Right-wing populists often use rhetoric to claim that they are ‘ the people ’ and that they have the right to decide how the state should act and what rights the individual groups should have .
Women in Poland , Argentina , or Spain oppose this .
They say we are ‘ the people.
’ ” The newest star in the protest movement has been the Polish Grannies .
They are shattering the stereotype often held here of the quiet , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 , they had been meeting on the streets of Warsaw every week under the protective gaze of two police officers .
The women believe that consistency is key to getting their message out .
Unlike some other activists , their passion is rooted in the hard history that they ’ ve witnessed – notably the toll that German occupation in World War II and later Soviet rule took on their nation .
They see worrisome echoes in the fear-mongering rhetoric and policies of the Law and Justice party ( PiS ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power here in 2015 and immediately began introducing controversial judiciary reforms , as well as the swelling ranks of far-right nationalists .
“ I lived most of my adult life under communism , ” Ms. Piotrowska says .
“ In 1989 , I started to breathe like a human being .
I could travel freely .
... And now I feel like someone wants to take this away from me.
” Can she and her fellow matriarchs help change the face of Polish society ?
Ms. Piotrowska is not the eldest member of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she is definitely the youngest great-grandmother .
Over tea in her small Warsaw flat , where floral motifs and pictures of grandchildren dominate the living room decor , she talks about being a “ soft ” feminist .
But her list of grievances with the current government extends beyond women ’ s rights .
She is equally concerned about the environment in a coal-producing nation resistant to change .
She worries that high social spending will translate into unpayable debt and frets over the mainstreaming of hate speech and growing polarization of Polish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the young people who , she says , behave like soccer hooligans and have embraced far-right slogans such as “ Death to the enemies of the motherland ” and “ Poland only for Poles.
” Ms. Piotrowska recalls her first encounter with the throngs of young men , during a massive nationalist march on Independence Day in November 2017 .
The youth threw red flares as they coursed through the streets of Warsaw .
“ What is their definition of the enemy ?
” she asks agitatedly .
“ What they say is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of fascism .
Poland experienced fascism .
Fascism divides people into good and bad .
They are going in that direction.
” Ms. Piotrowska has installed a safety app on her phone at the request of her son , who wants to be able to find her should she end up at a police station .
She says the name of her group tends to pique the interest of young people and even elicits good responses from police .
“ Everyone has or had a grandma , ” she notes .
“ People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ name is also a type of protection against attack.
” Like Ms. Piotrowska , Anna Irena Łabuś works the streets with zeal .
One of the oldest members of the protesting grannies , she grew up in a small lumber town in central Poland but as an adult worked in a bank in the capital .
When demonstrating , the widow wields a rainbow flag like a lance and glares at passersby who fail to pick up a leaflet .
Her indomitable personality has earned her the nickname “ Mother Superior , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and quick to denounce the Roman Catholic Church , which has been a bastion of support for the ruling government .
She reveres the Polish Constitution and keeps a copy , which was signed by the president of the supreme court , in a red Victoria ’ s Secret handbag .
Her necklace and bracelet spell out konstytucja ( “ constitution ” ) .
The Polish Grannies staged their first protest on March 1 , 2019 , when they were counteracting a demonstration in Warsaw by a group of nationalists .
Yet the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years before .
Ms. Łabuś recalls an encounter on Dec. 3 , 2015 , when crowds gathered outside the constitutional court in protest of PiS-led government legal reforms that changed the character of the Constitutional Tribunal , the country ’ s highest constitutional court .
The reforms were deemed by many in Poland , as well as the European Commission , as a threat to the rule of law .
“ In 2015 , my world collapsed , ” says Ms. Łabuś .
“ Since then , I have been saying openly what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agree with breaking the constitution.
” Ms. Łabuś has focused much of her energy on directly confronting conservative activists .
In February 2018 , for instance , she joined a rally that aimed to block a nationalist march in the northeastern town of Hajnówka , on the fringes of the primeval Białowieża Forest .
Far-right groups were staging what they call the “ March of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers ” – a reference to Polish partisans who resisted the introduction of communism but some of whom also took part in war crimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ The government allows nationalism to grow , and it goes together with [ fascism ] , ” says Ms. Łabuś , one of many counterdemonstrators to have been arrested for allegedly disrupting that nationalist march , which was officially authorized .
“ Nationalists feel more and more confident .
Nationalists want to subjugate women to live the way they want them to and that is why women are the first to protest against them.
” Iwonna Kowalska , another grandmother , thought she was done demonstrating and was focusing instead on building @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pride in having worked in the past for an anticommunist underground publishing house , Nowa ( New ) .
Now she uses her printing expertise to help the Polish Grannies .
Her apartment doubles as the group ’ s headquarters for planning meetings , a place to craft banners and brainstorm slogans .
Ms. Kowalska was showing up at the weekly protests in platform sneakers .
She bounded around blasting oppositional songs through a bullhorn .
The grannies are anything but stationary : They ’ ve marched in front of a branch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the guarded gates of the presidential palace .
“ I didn ’ t expect that I would have to go out on the streets again , ” says Ms. Kowalska , who had printed more than 10,000 leaflets against President Andrzej Duda ahead of elections that were scheduled for May 10 but were not held due the coronavirus pandemic .
“ It ’ s our job to signal the dangers to the younger generation , ” says Ms. Kowalska .
“ They have passports , mobile phones , cars , easy access to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so they don ’ t care .
They don ’ t realize that all this can lead to such bad things .
It is our fault .
... We spoiled them.
” The idea that grandmothers have the responsibility to alert the next generation to avoid the mistakes of the past has also gained momentum in Austria and Germany .
Grannies Against the Right took shape in 2017 when the far-right Freedom Party of Austria joined the country ’ s coalition government .
In Germany , the grannies movement ( known as Omas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rise of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party ( AfD ) .
The Polish grandmothers is a distinct group .
In fact , the members here were unaware of their European counterparts .
The grannies share many ideals with , and draw inspiration from , other women fighting the right-wing government in Poland .
Zuzanna Hertzberg , for instance , is pursuing her activism with the bristles of a paintbrush .
She had an exhibit at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews that paid tribute to women who formed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ World War II .
The museum , a cubic glass structure , lies in a district of the capital city where the Jewish community thrived before occupying German forces fenced it off and created the largest ghetto of its kind in Europe .
The war and , in particular , the Holocaust have today become flashpoints for Poland ’ s right-wing government .
“ If you take the definition that fascism is a social practice connected with oppression , then you can see this on a daily basis in Poland , ” says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is on a big scale : fake historical narratives , restaurants [ that refuse to admit ] Roma people , LGBT-free zones.
” She points out that the museum ’ s director , Dariusz Stola , was recently pushed out of office because PiS blocked his reappointment .
Government meddling has also sparked a legal conflict with historians at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk .
PiS believes Poland is unfairly blamed for Nazi atrocities .
Critics counter that the government is trying to rewrite Holocaust history and downplay the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worried enough by such historical conflicts that she now devotes more time to political activism than artistic creation .
She has reconciled the two through her efforts in support of the “ anti-fascist year , ” an initiative bringing together public institutions , nongovernmental organizations , and social movements to celebrate those who fought authoritarianism in the past and encourage opposition to it today .
She is a member of the leftist antifa coalition and a co-founder of the anti-fascist Jewish Bloc .
The latter made its debut by reading the poem “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Day celebrations in 2018 , when more than 200,000 people gathered in Warsaw .
The Independence Day rally , organized by Polish nationalist and far-right groups with the blessing of the president , featured fascist flags and symbols .
“ You have openly fascist people in the Polish government , ” says the artist , who takes pride in being the granddaughter of a man who fought fascism in Spain but whose artwork often focuses on the untold stories of women .
“ There ’ s not enough people to sit on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we do , police pull us out of the streets.
” Author Klementyna Suchanow is a street warrior , too .
She got her first taste of protests in 2016 , when the government announced plans to ban abortion in almost all cases and punish women who broke the law .
Poland already has some of the strictest laws on abortion in Europe .
All terminations are banned unless the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape , puts the health of the mother at risk , or if the fetus is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrowed the right to abortion further – to only when a woman ’ s life is in danger .
Ms. Suchanow says she could not imagine her daughter growing up with fewer reproductive rights than those enjoyed by Polish women under communism .
Large-scale , women-led demonstrations are widely credited with halting the legislation .
“ It was just an eruption of women ’ s voices , ” says Ms. Suchanow , member of a movement called Women ’ s Strike .
Since 2016 , Ms. Suchanow and her sisters in arms have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an increasingly bold far-right nationalist movement that now has members in parliament .
A newly formed alliance , Konfederacja , won 6 % of the vote and earned 11 parliamentary seats in October legislative elections .
“ We allowed fascists to enter the public debate and run in elections , ” says Gabriela Lazarek , a former hair dresser who is now a women ’ s rights activist and who unsuccessfully ran for office in the town of Cieszyn , near the Czech border .
“ They ’ re not just street fighters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One test of how much influence the women activists have will come in the presidential elections .
While some of the groups , such as the grannies , aren ’ t backing a presidential candidate , they are making their views felt on issues .
Women ’ s Strike , for instance , has been waging a campaign to pressure candidates to clarify where they stand on abortion rights .
The group has put up billboards in 14 cities .
The Polish Grannies support that cause .
Yet there is no doubt the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election .
All candidates were forced to cancel their campaigns because of the pandemic .
Public gatherings were banned .
People are prohibited from protesting in the streets .
Members of PiS and their supporters argue the women activists wouldn ’ t have much influence in the elections whether the country was in lockdown or not .
Witold Waszczykowski , a party member and former foreign minister who now holds a seat in the European Parliament , says more people show up to an average football match than to the largest anti-government protests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , nobody underestimates these protests , but the protests are marginal , ” he says , downplaying the influence of both ultra-nationalists to the right of his party and of women and LGBTQ rights activists .
The Polish Grannies aren ’ t even on his radar , he says .
Yet the women activists , and some outside analysts , believe they are leaving a mark nonetheless .
They point , for instance , to their help in defeating the restrictive abortion law in 2016 .
Indeed , women say their advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcome of the legislation but triggered a national discussion on what it means to have a right to abortion and ultimately softened the public ’ s attitude toward it .
Similarly , in 2019 political pressure from women helped prevent Poland from following Russia ’ s example and limiting domestic violence cases to only those in which a woman is beaten repeatedly .
Women also say there is value in simply confronting nationalists when they are out in the streets holding demonstrations .
They believe it shows there is an alternative voice in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that grab placards and bullhorns , the better .
“ We regard ourselves as street feminists , ” says Ms. Suchanow .
“ The movement isn ’ t based on academic theories .
...
It is built on action , street action .
That ’ s why it is so dynamic and diverse.
” For the grannies , there are other incentives to taking to the streets , too .
They believe they are not only elevating public discourse on issues but smashing a stereotype about themselves .
“ The positive thing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights , ” says Ms. Piotrowska taking stock of the gains made by Polish women since 1989 .
“ They don ’ t want to be stuck in the kitchen or at church .
They want to be an equal part of society .
”

“I lived most of my adult life under communism,” Krystyna Piotrowska, a great-grandmother, says. “In 1989, I started to breathe like a human being. I could travel freely. ... And now I feel like someone wants to take this away from me.”
Unlike some other activists, their passion is rooted in the hard history that they’ve witnessed – notably the toll that German occupation in World War II and later Soviet rule took on their nation. They see worrisome echoes in the fear-mongering rhetoric and policies of the Law and Justice party (PiS), the populist right-wing government that came to power here in 2015 and immediately began introducing controversial judiciary reforms, as well as the swelling ranks of far-right nationalists.
A group of grandmothers in Poland, many of whom lived through German occupation and later Soviet rule, are challenging nationalists and the right-wing government to protect freedoms and push for a more inclusive society.
Until the onset of COVID-19, they had been meeting on the streets of Warsaw every week under the protective gaze of two police officers. The women believe that consistency is key to getting their message out.
The Polish Grannies may sound innocuous from their name, but they are a disparate crew of retired professionals, all impassioned, that has been confronting authorities and nationalist demonstrators for more than a year. The group – most of them grandmothers – have handed out leaflets and hoisted placards to protest against a poisonous kind of patriotism that they see afflicting modern Poland.
Every Thursday Krystyna Piotrowska, in her puffy parka, has gathered with a handful of other activists near the Charles de Gaulle statue at a busy intersection in central Warsaw. There, until recently, the demonstrators – most of them grandmothers, or in her case a great-grandmother – have handed out leaflets and hoisted placards to protest against a poisonous kind of patriotism that they see afflicting modern Poland. Their signs have been made of plastic foam so they are easy to carry. Their slogans: “Stop Hate Speech,” “Nationalism is not Patriotism,” “Stop Neofascists.”
The disparate crew of retired professionals, some in tennis shoes, all impassioned, has been confronting authorities and nationalist demonstrators for more than a year. While the protesters have stopped amid the coronavirus outbreak, they vow to take up their curbside activism again once the lockdown here ends.
Being grandmothers, the protesters say, decreases their chances of being manhandled by police on the streets as has been the fate of other groups standing in the way of nationalist marches. But their activism is not without risk. Far-right youths have hurled abuse and even flammable projectiles at the intrepid demonstrators.
Why We Wrote This A group of grandmothers in Poland, many of whom lived through German occupation and later Soviet rule, are challenging nationalists and the right-wing government to protect freedoms and push for a more inclusive society.
“Young people have this freedom and they think that by definition they deserve it,” says Ms. Piotrowska. “Unfortunately, freedom is not given once and for all. You have to take care of it and fight for it, just like love.”
The Polish Grannies, as the protesters are called, symbolize a grassroots movement across parts of Europe that is trying to blunt the most extreme versions of far-right nationalism. Often led by women, these groups are fighting for gender-specific causes such as reproductive rights but also broader issues ranging from democratic freedoms to preserving the rule of law.
From Austria to Germany to rural and urban Poland, they are alarmed by the mainstreaming of hate speech toward migrants, the LGBTQ community, and other minorities.
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption “Freedom is not given once and for all. You have to take care of it and fight for it, just like love.” – Krystyna Piotrowska, a member of the Polish Grannies
While the groups are not officially linked, many of them share the same goals – to stop modern day fascism. A wide range of female activists has championed the cause of women’s rights but also turned out in the streets to defend the constitution.
“In recent years we have observed in Poland, and also in other countries, a tendency for women to mobilize in progressive movements opposing fascism or right-wing populism,” says Elżbieta Korolczuk, a sociologist at Södertörn University in Stockholm and the American Studies Center of Warsaw University. “This is a conflict around who is really ‘the people.’ Right-wing populists often use rhetoric to claim that they are ‘the people’ and that they have the right to decide how the state should act and what rights the individual groups should have. Women in Poland, Argentina, or Spain oppose this. They say we are ‘the people.’”
The newest star in the protest movement has been the Polish Grannies. They are shattering the stereotype often held here of the quiet, church-going grandmother. Until the onset of COVID-19, they had been meeting on the streets of Warsaw every week under the protective gaze of two police officers. The women believe that consistency is key to getting their message out.
Unlike some other activists, their passion is rooted in the hard history that they’ve witnessed – notably the toll that German occupation in World War II and later Soviet rule took on their nation. They see worrisome echoes in the fear-mongering rhetoric and policies of the Law and Justice party (PiS), the populist right-wing government that came to power here in 2015 and immediately began introducing controversial judiciary reforms, as well as the swelling ranks of far-right nationalists.
“I lived most of my adult life under communism,” Ms. Piotrowska says. “In 1989, I started to breathe like a human being. I could travel freely. ... And now I feel like someone wants to take this away from me.”
Can she and her fellow matriarchs help change the face of Polish society?
***
Ms. Piotrowska is not the eldest member of the group but, at 68, she is definitely the youngest great-grandmother. Over tea in her small Warsaw flat, where floral motifs and pictures of grandchildren dominate the living room decor, she talks about being a “soft” feminist.
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption Young men listen to far-right leaders at a gathering of the Konfederacja political party in the port city of Gdańsk, Poland.
But her list of grievances with the current government extends beyond women’s rights. She is equally concerned about the environment in a coal-producing nation resistant to change. She worries that high social spending will translate into unpayable debt and frets over the mainstreaming of hate speech and growing polarization of Polish society.
What worries her most are the young people who, she says, behave like soccer hooligans and have embraced far-right slogans such as “Death to the enemies of the motherland” and “Poland only for Poles.” Ms. Piotrowska recalls her first encounter with the throngs of young men, during a massive nationalist march on Independence Day in November 2017. The youth threw red flares as they coursed through the streets of Warsaw.
“What is their definition of the enemy?” she asks agitatedly. “What they say is hatred. ... I remember the ruins of fascism. Poland experienced fascism. Fascism divides people into good and bad. They are going in that direction.”
Ms. Piotrowska has installed a safety app on her phone at the request of her son, who wants to be able to find her should she end up at a police station. She says the name of her group tends to pique the interest of young people and even elicits good responses from police.
“Everyone has or had a grandma,” she notes. “People usually think positively about them. Our name is also a type of protection against attack.”
Like Ms. Piotrowska, Anna Irena Łabuś works the streets with zeal. One of the oldest members of the protesting grannies, she grew up in a small lumber town in central Poland but as an adult worked in a bank in the capital. When demonstrating, the widow wields a rainbow flag like a lance and glares at passersby who fail to pick up a leaflet.
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption Anna Irena Łabuś, who has two grandchildren, is a member of the Polish Grannies advocacy group. She says they are fighting "for the young people, for their future."
Her indomitable personality has earned her the nickname “Mother Superior,” but the septuagenarian is actually an atheist and quick to denounce the Roman Catholic Church, which has been a bastion of support for the ruling government. She reveres the Polish Constitution and keeps a copy, which was signed by the president of the supreme court, in a red Victoria’s Secret handbag. Her necklace and bracelet spell out konstytucja (“constitution”).
***
The Polish Grannies staged their first protest on March 1, 2019, when they were counteracting a demonstration in Warsaw by a group of nationalists. Yet the founding members met and found common cause years before.
Ms. Łabuś recalls an encounter on Dec. 3, 2015, when crowds gathered outside the constitutional court in protest of PiS-led government legal reforms that changed the character of the Constitutional Tribunal, the country’s highest constitutional court. The reforms were deemed by many in Poland, as well as the European Commission, as a threat to the rule of law.
“In 2015, my world collapsed,” says Ms. Łabuś. “Since then, I have been saying openly what hurts me. I don’t agree with breaking the constitution.”
Ms. Łabuś has focused much of her energy on directly confronting conservative activists. In February 2018, for instance, she joined a rally that aimed to block a nationalist march in the northeastern town of Hajnówka, on the fringes of the primeval Białowieża Forest. Far-right groups were staging what they call the “March of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers” – a reference to Polish partisans who resisted the introduction of communism but some of whom also took part in war crimes against Belarusian communities in the region.
“The government allows nationalism to grow, and it goes together with [fascism],” says Ms. Łabuś, one of many counterdemonstrators to have been arrested for allegedly disrupting that nationalist march, which was officially authorized. “Nationalists feel more and more confident. Nationalists want to subjugate women to live the way they want them to and that is why women are the first to protest against them.”
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption Iwonna Kowalska uses her background in printing to help the Polish Grannies create banners and leaflets.
Iwonna Kowalska, another grandmother, thought she was done demonstrating and was focusing instead on building her business after 1989. She takes pride in having worked in the past for an anticommunist underground publishing house, Nowa (New). Now she uses her printing expertise to help the Polish Grannies. Her apartment doubles as the group’s headquarters for planning meetings, a place to craft banners and brainstorm slogans.
Ms. Kowalska was showing up at the weekly protests in platform sneakers. She bounded around blasting oppositional songs through a bullhorn. The grannies are anything but stationary: They’ve marched in front of a branch of the state television channel as well as the guarded gates of the presidential palace.
“I didn’t expect that I would have to go out on the streets again,” says Ms. Kowalska, who had printed more than 10,000 leaflets against President Andrzej Duda ahead of elections that were scheduled for May 10 but were not held due the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s our job to signal the dangers to the younger generation,” says Ms. Kowalska. “They have passports, mobile phones, cars, easy access to credit to buy cars and flats, so they don’t care. They don’t realize that all this can lead to such bad things. It is our fault. ... We spoiled them.”
The idea that grandmothers have the responsibility to alert the next generation to avoid the mistakes of the past has also gained momentum in Austria and Germany. Grannies Against the Right took shape in 2017 when the far-right Freedom Party of Austria joined the country’s coalition government. In Germany, the grannies movement (known as Omas Gegen Rechts) spread in response to the rise of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD). The Polish grandmothers is a distinct group. In fact, the members here were unaware of their European counterparts.
***
The grannies share many ideals with, and draw inspiration from, other women fighting the right-wing government in Poland. Zuzanna Hertzberg, for instance, is pursuing her activism with the bristles of a paintbrush.
CZAREK SOKOLOWSKI/AP View caption Hide caption People stroll past the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in War- saw. A stalemate over the independence of the institution has pit- ted the museum’s former director against the populist government.
She had an exhibit at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews that paid tribute to women who formed part of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance in World War II. The museum, a cubic glass structure, lies in a district of the capital city where the Jewish community thrived before occupying German forces fenced it off and created the largest ghetto of its kind in Europe. The war and, in particular, the Holocaust have today become flashpoints for Poland’s right-wing government.
“If you take the definition that fascism is a social practice connected with oppression, then you can see this on a daily basis in Poland,” says Ms. Hertzberg. “In Poland it is on a big scale: fake historical narratives, restaurants [that refuse to admit] Roma people, LGBT-free zones.”
She points out that the museum’s director, Dariusz Stola, was recently pushed out of office because PiS blocked his reappointment. Government meddling has also sparked a legal conflict with historians at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. PiS believes Poland is unfairly blamed for Nazi atrocities. Critics counter that the government is trying to rewrite Holocaust history and downplay the role of Poles.
Ms. Hertzberg is worried enough by such historical conflicts that she now devotes more time to political activism than artistic creation. She has reconciled the two through her efforts in support of the “anti-fascist year,” an initiative bringing together public institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and social movements to celebrate those who fought authoritarianism in the past and encourage opposition to it today.
She is a member of the leftist antifa coalition and a co-founder of the anti-fascist Jewish Bloc. The latter made its debut by reading the poem “We, Polish Jews” during Independence Day celebrations in 2018, when more than 200,000 people gathered in Warsaw. The Independence Day rally, organized by Polish nationalist and far-right groups with the blessing of the president, featured fascist flags and symbols.
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption Artist Zuzanna Hertzberg has an exhibit at a museum that pays tribute to women who were part of the War Ghetto resistance in World War II.
“You have openly fascist people in the Polish government,” says the artist, who takes pride in being the granddaughter of a man who fought fascism in Spain but whose artwork often focuses on the untold stories of women. “There’s not enough people to sit on the street to block them, and if we do, police pull us out of the streets.”
Author Klementyna Suchanow is a street warrior, too. She got her first taste of protests in 2016, when the government announced plans to ban abortion in almost all cases and punish women who broke the law. Poland already has some of the strictest laws on abortion in Europe. All terminations are banned unless the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, puts the health of the mother at risk, or if the fetus is severely deformed. The bill would have narrowed the right to abortion further – to only when a woman’s life is in danger.
Ms. Suchanow says she could not imagine her daughter growing up with fewer reproductive rights than those enjoyed by Polish women under communism. Large-scale, women-led demonstrations are widely credited with halting the legislation.
“It was just an eruption of women’s voices,” says Ms. Suchanow, member of a movement called Women’s Strike.
Since 2016, Ms. Suchanow and her sisters in arms have regularly found themselves on the streets confronting an increasingly bold far-right nationalist movement that now has members in parliament. A newly formed alliance, Konfederacja, won 6% of the vote and earned 11 parliamentary seats in October legislative elections.
“We allowed fascists to enter the public debate and run in elections,” says Gabriela Lazarek, a former hair dresser who is now a women’s rights activist and who unsuccessfully ran for office in the town of Cieszyn, near the Czech border. “They’re not just street fighters anymore, but men in suits.”
***
One test of how much influence the women activists have will come in the presidential elections.
While some of the groups, such as the grannies, aren’t backing a presidential candidate, they are making their views felt on issues. Women’s Strike, for instance, has been waging a campaign to pressure candidates to clarify where they stand on abortion rights. The group has put up billboards in 14 cities. The Polish Grannies support that cause.
Yet there is no doubt the coronavirus has changed the dynamic of the election. All candidates were forced to cancel their campaigns because of the pandemic. Public gatherings were banned. People are prohibited from protesting in the streets.
Dominique Soguel View caption Hide caption Klementyna Suchanow is a member of the protest group called Women’s Strike.
Members of PiS and their supporters argue the women activists wouldn’t have much influence in the elections whether the country was in lockdown or not. Witold Waszczykowski, a party member and former foreign minister who now holds a seat in the European Parliament, says more people show up to an average football match than to the largest anti-government protests witnessed in recent years.
“Of course, nobody underestimates these protests, but the protests are marginal,” he says, downplaying the influence of both ultra-nationalists to the right of his party and of women and LGBTQ rights activists. The Polish Grannies aren’t even on his radar, he says.
Yet the women activists, and some outside analysts, believe they are leaving a mark nonetheless. They point, for instance, to their help in defeating the restrictive abortion law in 2016. Indeed, women say their advocacy on the issue not only affected the outcome of the legislation but triggered a national discussion on what it means to have a right to abortion and ultimately softened the public’s attitude toward it.
Similarly, in 2019 political pressure from women helped prevent Poland from following Russia’s example and limiting domestic violence cases to only those in which a woman is beaten repeatedly.
Women also say there is value in simply confronting nationalists when they are out in the streets holding demonstrations. They believe it shows there is an alternative voice in the country – and the more women that grab placards and bullhorns, the better.
“We regard ourselves as street feminists,” says Ms. Suchanow. “The movement isn’t based on academic theories. ... It is built on action, street action. That’s why it is so dynamic and diverse.”
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For the grannies, there are other incentives to taking to the streets, too. They believe they are not only elevating public discourse on issues but smashing a stereotype about themselves.
“The positive thing is that women are more aware of their rights,” says Ms. Piotrowska taking stock of the gains made by Polish women since 1989. “They don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen or at church. They want to be an equal part of society.”


csmonitor--2020-03-31--Why disease boosts discrimination, and what that costs society (video)

As COVID-19 continues to spread in the United States and around the world , another kind of malady has also emerged : discrimination .
The fact that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan , China , has placed a target on people of Chinese and Asian heritage .
Across the globe , reports have spiked of Asians being verbally attacked , denied service , or actively avoided on public transit and on the street – even though there ’ s no evidence to suggest that Asians are more likely to spread the disease .
Chinatowns have been especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even before social distancing policies forced restaurants and other businesses to suspend operations .
Some public officials continue to refer to COVID-19 as the “ Chinese ” or “ Wuhan ” virus .
Unfortunately , we ’ ve been here before .
For centuries , diseases have been used as an excuse to ostracize groups of people who are either perceived to be prone to infection , or from places where the illnesses are thought to have originated .
But associating a disease with a specific minority group can put the whole population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a medical anthropologist at Johns Hopkins University ’ s Center for Health Security .
Members of the stigmatized group may avoid seeking care , she says , while the rest of the community may lower their guard .
Still , while the past shows us where we went wrong , it also provides examples of what people did right .
This episode asks : What can we learn from the consequences of this attitude around past pandemics ?
And how can we do better ?

As COVID-19 continues to spread in the United States and around the world, another kind of malady has also emerged: discrimination.
The fact that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, has placed a target on people of Chinese and Asian heritage. Across the globe, reports have spiked of Asians being verbally attacked, denied service, or actively avoided on public transit and on the street – even though there’s no evidence to suggest that Asians are more likely to spread the disease. Chinatowns have been especially hard hit, with the fallout beginning even before social distancing policies forced restaurants and other businesses to suspend operations. Some public officials continue to refer to COVID-19 as the “Chinese” or “Wuhan” virus.
Unfortunately, we’ve been here before. For centuries, diseases have been used as an excuse to ostracize groups of people who are either perceived to be prone to infection, or from places where the illnesses are thought to have originated. But associating a disease with a specific minority group can put the whole population at risk, says Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. Members of the stigmatized group may avoid seeking care, she says, while the rest of the community may lower their guard.
Why We Wrote This These days, the speed at which events unfold can leave us feeling as though every situation is unprecedented and beyond our control. But the past can inform the present. In this new video series, we turn to history to help us understand, and face, today’s biggest issues. Our first episode explores why the spread of disease often brings with it discrimination – and how we might find ways to do better.
Still, while the past shows us where we went wrong, it also provides examples of what people did right.
This episode asks: What can we learn from the consequences of this attitude around past pandemics? And how can we do better?


csmonitor--2020-02-14--First a trade war. Now coronavirus. The roller coaster life of a US farmer.

“ We don ’ t want to continually rely on government support , ” says Mr. Stickel .
“ The constant thoughts were : trade , not aid .
[ But ] we can not control Mother Nature .
[ And ] we ’ ve seen more variability over the last few years .
...
Protecting our food supply is important.
” Yet farm subsidies reflect a longstanding conservative paradox : While Republicans dislike government aid , they have defended for decades agricultural handouts , which primarily go to rural areas where the party is strongest .
And farmers say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , special subsidies meant to shield farmers from the effects of Chinese tariffs are phasing out .
This aid from the Trump administration actually overcompensated farmers , according to six separate studies .
Uncertainty is high due to the coronavirus outbreak , a separate swine flu that ’ s reducing demand for soybeans to feed Chinese pigs , and questions about the size of the rebound in farm sales due to the recent U.S.-China trade deal .
A common narrative is that last year was a tough one for U.S. farmers due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China , and now markets are normalizing again .
But that ’ s not how soybean and cattle farmer Andy Stickel in Ohio sees it .
Sitting at Andy Stickel ’ s kitchen table , a soggy field neatly framed by the picture window , it seems almost laughable to ask about his farm ’ s prospects for 2020 .
It could be a wet year again , which seriously delayed planting in 2019 , or a dry one .
Growing conditions in Brazil or Argentina could send prices soaring or plunging .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead to $ 40 billion of new sales of U.S. agricultural products – or not , given the sudden appearance of the coronavirus , which is disrupting imports into China .
About the only thing that is clear is that the common narrative surrounding American agriculture and trade is wrong .
It turns out farmers were not devastated by last year ’ s tariffs by China on grain and other products .
In fact , studies suggest that overall they did better , reaping more in subsidies than they lost in sales .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that looks wildly uncertain , even with a trade deal with Beijing in place .
“ The trade deal ?
It was welcome , don ’ t get me wrong .
It was a weight off the shoulders , ” says Mr. Stickel , who raises cattle , soybeans , corn , and other crops here in northwest Ohio .
But the outlook for 2020 remains as cloudy as the weather outside : “ 2019 could potentially be better than 2020 , ” he adds .
The reason involves politics , bureaucracy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans dislike government subsidies , they have defended for decades agricultural handouts , which primarily go to rural areas in red states , where the GOP is strongest .
Democrats generally have gone along because farm bills also provide money for food stamp recipients , many of whom live in Democratically controlled urban areas .
The Trump administration has run roughshod over this tacit bipartisan agreement in Congress .
It is moving forward on the first of three proposals that in all would cut about 10 % of the 36 million people now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Program , or SNAP .
At the same time , it pushed through a $ 28 billion subsidy program to shield farmers from the plunge in sales after China imposed farm-good tariffs in the middle of the trade war .
And the administration did it by circumventing Congress , using an obscure rule that it said allowed the White House to implement its program unilaterally .
The subsidies , known as the Market Facilitation Program ( MFP ) , worked too well .
The U.S. Department of Agriculture , partly for bureaucratic reasons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy , based the subsidies on losses from Chinese tariffs without taking into account offsetting gains .
For example : When Beijing bought more soybeans from Brazil last year , U.S. farmers were able to fill the soybean needs of other Brazilian customers , which the country could no longer satisfy .
The result : Farmers got more in MFP payments than they lost in Chinese sales , according to a half dozen recent studies .
They may have gotten twice or perhaps four times as much as they lost , the studies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Working Group have criticized MFP because the bulk of the subsidies went to the biggest farms .
That ’ s a common occurrence for all farm subsidies .
The EWG found that the top 1 % of farmers getting MFP payments received an average $ 183,000 while the bottom 80 % averaged less than $ 5,000 .
But some of the fiercest criticism comes from Vincent Smith , an economist at Montana State University and a visiting scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute .
“ The Market Facilitation payments were clearly all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up support among rural voters in states like Iowa and Illinois and Indiana , ” he says .
“ This is literally Donald Trump buying votes.
” “ We don ’ t want to continually rely on government support , ” says Mr. Stickel .
“ The constant thoughts were : trade , not aid .
[ But ] we can not control Mother Nature .
[ And ] we ’ ve seen more variability over the last few years .
...
Protecting our food supply is important.
” More trade – in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – might not prove to be the panacea for farmers that the Trump administration touted it to be .
“ The markets and a lot of economists have not been quite convinced yet that it will get us back to where we were , ” says Scott Gerlt , an agricultural economist at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri at Columbia .
Even Trump officials now concede Beijing might not buy the $ 40 billion in extra U.S. agriculture products that it promised to buy in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The epidemic has not only slowed China ’ s growth , perhaps dramatically , but the resulting restrictions on travel have also caused imports of food and other products to back up in ports , Mr. Gerlt points out .
And with MFP payments ending after this month , the prospects for farm income are up in the air .
The USDA last week forecast that farmers ’ net cash income would fall 9 % this year from 2019 levels ( although with depreciation and other noncash factors , overall farm income @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caution for soybean farmers like Mr. Stickel is that a swine flu has decimated perhaps a third of the Chinese hog population , substantially reducing Beijing ’ s need to import soybeans .
“ I never thought that [ big boost in soybean sales ] was going to happen , ” he says .
“ What we are going to see is , the $ 40 billion addition is in protein ” – sales of U.S. pork to China .
So the biggest change this year might not come in soybeans at all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And farm income ?
“ The optimist in me says ‘ up .
’ ”

“We don’t want to continually rely on government support,” says Mr. Stickel. “The constant thoughts were: trade, not aid. [But] we cannot control Mother Nature. [And] we’ve seen more variability over the last few years. ... Protecting our food supply is important.”
Yet farm subsidies reflect a longstanding conservative paradox: While Republicans dislike government aid, they have defended for decades agricultural handouts, which primarily go to rural areas where the party is strongest. And farmers say government assistance has substantive merit.
Also, special subsidies meant to shield farmers from the effects of Chinese tariffs are phasing out. This aid from the Trump administration actually overcompensated farmers, according to six separate studies.
Farmers are known to embody independence, resilience, and often conservatism. Yet as new China-related uncertainty over exports arises, we’re reminded why they also favor government support for agriculture.
Uncertainty is high due to the coronavirus outbreak, a separate swine flu that’s reducing demand for soybeans to feed Chinese pigs, and questions about the size of the rebound in farm sales due to the recent U.S.-China trade deal.
A common narrative is that last year was a tough one for U.S. farmers due to the effects of a trade war with China, and now markets are normalizing again. But that’s not how soybean and cattle farmer Andy Stickel in Ohio sees it.
Sitting at Andy Stickel’s kitchen table, a soggy field neatly framed by the picture window, it seems almost laughable to ask about his farm’s prospects for 2020.
It could be a wet year again, which seriously delayed planting in 2019, or a dry one. Growing conditions in Brazil or Argentina could send prices soaring or plunging. The new trade deal with Beijing might lead to $40 billion of new sales of U.S. agricultural products – or not, given the sudden appearance of the coronavirus, which is disrupting imports into China.
About the only thing that is clear is that the common narrative surrounding American agriculture and trade is wrong. It turns out farmers were not devastated by last year’s tariffs by China on grain and other products. In fact, studies suggest that overall they did better, reaping more in subsidies than they lost in sales.
Why We Wrote This Farmers are known to embody independence, resilience, and often conservatism. Yet as new China-related uncertainty over exports arises, we’re reminded why they also favor government support for agriculture.
Instead, it’s this year that looks wildly uncertain, even with a trade deal with Beijing in place.
“The trade deal? It was welcome, don’t get me wrong. It was a weight off the shoulders,” says Mr. Stickel, who raises cattle, soybeans, corn, and other crops here in northwest Ohio. But the outlook for 2020 remains as cloudy as the weather outside: “2019 could potentially be better than 2020,” he adds.
The reason involves politics, bureaucracy, and a longstanding conservative paradox: While Republicans dislike government subsidies, they have defended for decades agricultural handouts, which primarily go to rural areas in red states, where the GOP is strongest. Democrats generally have gone along because farm bills also provide money for food stamp recipients, many of whom live in Democratically controlled urban areas.
Laurent Belsie/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Andy Stickel, a diversified farmer in Bowling Green, Ohio, standing in front of a cornfield he plans to plant to soybeans this spring.
The Trump administration has run roughshod over this tacit bipartisan agreement in Congress. It is moving forward on the first of three proposals that in all would cut about 10% of the 36 million people now helped by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. At the same time, it pushed through a $28 billion subsidy program to shield farmers from the plunge in sales after China imposed farm-good tariffs in the middle of the trade war. And the administration did it by circumventing Congress, using an obscure rule that it said allowed the White House to implement its program unilaterally.
The subsidies, known as the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), worked too well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, partly for bureaucratic reasons of consistency among crops and with trade policy, based the subsidies on losses from Chinese tariffs without taking into account offsetting gains. For example: When Beijing bought more soybeans from Brazil last year, U.S. farmers were able to fill the soybean needs of other Brazilian customers, which the country could no longer satisfy.
The result: Farmers got more in MFP payments than they lost in Chinese sales, according to a half dozen recent studies. They may have gotten twice or perhaps four times as much as they lost, the studies found.
Senate Democrats and the Environmental Working Group have criticized MFP because the bulk of the subsidies went to the biggest farms. That’s a common occurrence for all farm subsidies. The EWG found that the top 1% of farmers getting MFP payments received an average $183,000 while the bottom 80% averaged less than $5,000.
But some of the fiercest criticism comes from Vincent Smith, an economist at Montana State University and a visiting scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “The Market Facilitation payments were clearly all about the current president attempting to shore up support among rural voters in states like Iowa and Illinois and Indiana,” he says. “This is literally Donald Trump buying votes.”
Farmers acknowledge the paradox.
“We don’t want to continually rely on government support,” says Mr. Stickel. “The constant thoughts were: trade, not aid. [But] we cannot control Mother Nature. [And] we’ve seen more variability over the last few years. ... Protecting our food supply is important.”
More trade – in the form of the new Chinese deal – might not prove to be the panacea for farmers that the Trump administration touted it to be.
“The markets and a lot of economists have not been quite convinced yet that it will get us back to where we were,” says Scott Gerlt, an agricultural economist at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Even Trump officials now concede Beijing might not buy the $40 billion in extra U.S. agriculture products that it promised to buy in the trade agreement, because of the coronavirus. The epidemic has not only slowed China’s growth, perhaps dramatically, but the resulting restrictions on travel have also caused imports of food and other products to back up in ports, Mr. Gerlt points out.
And with MFP payments ending after this month, the prospects for farm income are up in the air. The USDA last week forecast that farmers’ net cash income would fall 9% this year from 2019 levels (although with depreciation and other noncash factors, overall farm income might rise).
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empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Another reason for caution for soybean farmers like Mr. Stickel is that a swine flu has decimated perhaps a third of the Chinese hog population, substantially reducing Beijing’s need to import soybeans.
“I never thought that [big boost in soybean sales] was going to happen,” he says. “What we are going to see is, the $40 billion addition is in protein” – sales of U.S. pork to China. So the biggest change this year might not come in soybeans at all, but in corn, he adds. And farm income? “The optimist in me says ‘up.’”


csmonitor--2020-01-31--Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing’s control

“ Real restraints on hard news and investigative reporting , when combined with [ a ] push for positivity , are a toxic combination , ” writes David Bandurski , co-director of the China Media Project .
“ They risk creating a society that has essentially no immune system.
” But cracks have appeared amid the crisis .
With the cat out of the bag , anger is rampant .
The situation raises fundamental questions about China ’ s government , as Mr. Xi faces his widest domestic challenge .
It ’ s that slow , centralized decision-making , some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down the country ’ s response to the coronavirus outbreak , which now logs over 10,000 cases .
That , and a system that allows little room for criticism or transparency , with little national media mention of the outbreak until several weeks in .
And the top of the stairs , of course , is China ’ s leader Xi Jinping – the country ’ s most powerful in decades .
“ If it ’ s political , ” he says , “ I would think first about how it will reflect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ball upstairs .
I just keep kicking it upstairs , and wait for decision-making.
” When Chinese officials are confronted with a problem , says Professor Minxin Pei , they decide which type of challenge it is : technical or political .
A man in Wuhan , clutching a mask across his face , described his emotions from inside the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak .
He posted the video to YouTube .
China ’ s leadership has escaped to an island , he claimed , his face reddening with anger , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We have no power , ” he said , begging the public to spread the word .
“ I want to create some public pressure so the Chinese government doesn ’ t escape their responsibilities.
” In Shanghai , an infectious-disease doctor proclaimed he ’ d switch out his front-line doctors with Communist Party officials .
“ Didn ’ t they all pledge an oath when they joined the party ?
” he asked , his sarcasm apparent despite his level voice .
In a political and social environment that typically allows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , cracks have begun to appear in Beijing ’ s control of its populace .
The coronavirus outbreak , now logging over 10,000 cases , with more than 200 deaths and an infection spreading worldwide , raises fundamental questions about China ’ s style of government .
Will “ 2019-nCoV ” be the thing that most tests the limits of Beijing ’ s authoritarian , centralized style of governance ?
Would greater transparency in the early days of the virus , back when only a few dozen were sick in an interior Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Is this the first big political test for Xi Jinping – China ’ s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong ?
In Wuhan , a city of 11 million in Hubei province , the first patients showed symptoms of a mysterious new virus in early December , linked to a wholesale market selling seafood along with wild animals .
Thus began what Minxin Pei calls the critical period .
“ Mid-December through mid-January , ” says Dr. Pei , a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont , California .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s roughly a month when they could have issued a general alert .
At least , people would have been screened , they wouldn ’ t be going places.
” The first evidence the central government was aware of the situation came on Dec. 31 , when Beijing dispatched a team of medical experts to Wuhan .
From there , the situation progressed rapidly .
On the first day of 2020 , authorities interrogated eight Wuhan doctors and accused them of “ rumormongering ” for simply posting about the virus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jan. 20 , when the number of cases seemingly doubled overnight .
Finally , the central government sprang to action .
The system ’ s opacity may have prevented a rapid early response , explains Professor Pei , an expert on Chinese governance .
When Chinese government officials are confronted with a problem , “ they usually perform what I call triage , dividing the issue into technical or political.
” A technical problem they might handle on their own .
“ If it ’ s political , ” Professor Pei says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will reflect upon me , then I just kick the ball upstairs .
I just keep kicking it upstairs , and wait for decision-making.
” At the top of the stairs , of course , is Mr. Xi , who has further consolidated Beijing ’ s power .
Therein lies the problem , says Professor Pei .
“ Decision-making is a lot slower when there ’ s excessive centralization.
” Meanwhile , an analysis from the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong shows state-owned papers made little mention of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of January .
In the lead-up to the Chinese New Year – the largest annual migration of people in the world – the papers trumpeted reports of the party ’ s success in eradicating poverty , convening top leaders in a show of solidarity , and strengthening Mr. Xi ’ s connection with the people .
On Jan. 23 , the world learned of Beijing ’ s order to quarantine Wuhan .
But inside China , the papers were still relatively mum ; only two days later did two reports appear on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Daily ’ s front page , hardly reflective of the panic developing on the ground at that point , with more than 2,000 sick in China and 40 infected overseas .
Today , with the cat out of the bag , anger is rampant .
“ Everyone ’ s on WeChat , everyone ’ s on Weibo , and the amount of messages going back and forth is in the billions , ” says Elanah Uretsky , an anthropologist of China at Brandeis University in Massachusetts .
“ It ’ s spreading panic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anyone well.
” Ultimately , in her estimation , Beijing simply wasn ’ t prepared to handle an outbreak of this size .
Though decision-making has been centralized , the health care system is still largely local or provincial , Professor Uretsky says .
When the SARS epidemic emerged in November 2002 , the World Health Organization ( WHO ) wasn ’ t informed or fully involved for three months , until about 300 people had already died .
David Bandurski , co-director of the China Media Project , says there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China handles major crises since then – and he ’ s not surprised .
“ Real restraints on hard news and investigative reporting , when combined with [ a ] push for positivity , are a toxic combination , ” Mr. Bandurski writes in an email .
“ They risk creating a society that has essentially no immune system.
” Yet the power of the Chinese state has now been brought to bear .
The central government announced that new multistory hospitals would be built in a matter of days .
More than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wuhan , according to Professor Pei , and the production of masks has certainly been cranked up .
“ This is what I call the militarization of government , ” he says .
“ They treat such a task as war.
” In a country of 1.4 billion people , the government has also managed to quarantine entire cities totaling around 50 million people – with no rioting .
“ With SARS , the same thing happened , ” says Brandeis ’ Professor Uretsky .
“ As soon as they ’ ve acknowledged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the problem , despite all the justified criticisms of that style of governance.
” Wuhan also has a BSL-4 laboratory , the highest possible rating for handling dangerous agents .
WHO has now declared coronavirus a public health emergency , the United States has given its diplomats in China a choice to leave , and many airlines are halting flights .
On Thursday , the U.S. State Department warned Americans against traveling to China .
The Chinese economy is bound to take a hit , as will countries whose economies are closely intertwined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , China ’ s economy was just a whisper of the global behemoth it is now .
Which brings up the question : What does this all mean for Mr. Xi ?
The Hong Kong protests don ’ t register for most mainland Chinese , meaning the coronavirus is really the first significant domestic challenge to Mr. Xi ’ s authority .
Indeed , with all provinces showing disease outbreak , no one is untouched by the crisis .
For years , China watchers had posited any number of events as “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s political thinking , says Jeremy Wallace , a China expert at Cornell University – including SARS , the global financial crisis , and the Bo Xilai political scandal .
In communist regimes , “ turning points are few , ” argues Professor Pei .
“ But – this could be part of a constant erosion.
” Back in Wuhan , the young man in the mask concludes his 10-minute video imploring the world to care about ordinary people like him .
He asks for “ international pressure and awareness.
” “ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , inflation , ” he says .
“ We , too , want to live with democracy and freedom ... but we can ’ t .
We are helpless .
”

“Real restraints on hard news and investigative reporting, when combined with [a] push for positivity, are a toxic combination,” writes David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project. “They risk creating a society that has essentially no immune system.”
But cracks have appeared amid the crisis. With the cat out of the bag, anger is rampant. The situation raises fundamental questions about China’s government, as Mr. Xi faces his widest domestic challenge.
It’s that slow, centralized decision-making, some China observers argue, that has slowed down the country’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, which now logs over 10,000 cases. That, and a system that allows little room for criticism or transparency, with little national media mention of the outbreak until several weeks in.
And the top of the stairs, of course, is China’s leader Xi Jinping – the country’s most powerful in decades.
China has mobilized to forcefully fight the coronavirus outbreak. But the crisis has highlighted cracks in its rigid governance – and raised key questions about its top-down system that could linger long afterward.
“If it’s political,” he says, “I would think first about how it will reflect upon me, then I just kick the ball upstairs. I just keep kicking it upstairs, and wait for decision-making.”
When Chinese officials are confronted with a problem, says Professor Minxin Pei, they decide which type of challenge it is: technical or political.
A man in Wuhan, clutching a mask across his face, described his emotions from inside the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. He posted the video to YouTube.
China’s leadership has escaped to an island, he claimed, his face reddening with anger, while ordinary Chinese were left trapped. “We have no power,” he said, begging the public to spread the word. “I want to create some public pressure so the Chinese government doesn’t escape their responsibilities.”
In Shanghai, an infectious-disease doctor proclaimed he’d switch out his front-line doctors with Communist Party officials. “Didn’t they all pledge an oath when they joined the party?” he asked, his sarcasm apparent despite his level voice.
Why We Wrote This China has mobilized to forcefully fight the coronavirus outbreak. But the crisis has highlighted cracks in its rigid governance – and raised key questions about its top-down system that could linger long afterward.
In a political and social environment that typically allows little room for criticism of Chinese leadership, cracks have begun to appear in Beijing’s control of its populace. The coronavirus outbreak, now logging over 10,000 cases, with more than 200 deaths and an infection spreading worldwide, raises fundamental questions about China’s style of government.
Will “2019-nCoV” be the thing that most tests the limits of Beijing’s authoritarian, centralized style of governance? Would greater transparency in the early days of the virus, back when only a few dozen were sick in an interior Chinese city, have prevented a global spread? Is this the first big political test for Xi Jinping – China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong?
A “golden window,” gone
In Wuhan, a city of 11 million in Hubei province, the first patients showed symptoms of a mysterious new virus in early December, linked to a wholesale market selling seafood along with wild animals.
Thus began what Minxin Pei calls the critical period.
“Mid-December through mid-January,” says Dr. Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. “They lost the golden window – that’s roughly a month when they could have issued a general alert. At least, people would have been screened, they wouldn’t be going places.”
The first evidence the central government was aware of the situation came on Dec. 31, when Beijing dispatched a team of medical experts to Wuhan. From there, the situation progressed rapidly. On the first day of 2020, authorities interrogated eight Wuhan doctors and accused them of “rumormongering” for simply posting about the virus. Another few weeks of inaction passed until Jan. 20, when the number of cases seemingly doubled overnight. Finally, the central government sprang to action.
The system’s opacity may have prevented a rapid early response, explains Professor Pei, an expert on Chinese governance. When Chinese government officials are confronted with a problem, “they usually perform what I call triage, dividing the issue into technical or political.”
A technical problem they might handle on their own. “If it’s political,” Professor Pei says, “I would think first about how it will reflect upon me, then I just kick the ball upstairs. I just keep kicking it upstairs, and wait for decision-making.”
At the top of the stairs, of course, is Mr. Xi, who has further consolidated Beijing’s power.
Therein lies the problem, says Professor Pei. “Decision-making is a lot slower when there’s excessive centralization.”
Missing headlines
Meanwhile, an analysis from the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong shows state-owned papers made little mention of the virus in the first 20 days of January. In the lead-up to the Chinese New Year – the largest annual migration of people in the world – the papers trumpeted reports of the party’s success in eradicating poverty, convening top leaders in a show of solidarity, and strengthening Mr. Xi’s connection with the people.
On Jan. 23, the world learned of Beijing’s order to quarantine Wuhan. But inside China, the papers were still relatively mum; only two days later did two reports appear on the right-hand side of the People’s Daily’s front page, hardly reflective of the panic developing on the ground at that point, with more than 2,000 sick in China and 40 infected overseas.
Today, with the cat out of the bag, anger is rampant.
“Everyone’s on WeChat, everyone’s on Weibo, and the amount of messages going back and forth is in the billions,” says Elanah Uretsky, an anthropologist of China at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. “It’s spreading panic, and it isn’t serving anyone well.”
Ultimately, in her estimation, Beijing simply wasn’t prepared to handle an outbreak of this size. Though decision-making has been centralized, the health care system is still largely local or provincial, Professor Uretsky says.
When the SARS epidemic emerged in November 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) wasn’t informed or fully involved for three months, until about 300 people had already died.
David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, says there’s been no real transformation in the way China handles major crises since then – and he’s not surprised.
“Real restraints on hard news and investigative reporting, when combined with [a] push for positivity, are a toxic combination,” Mr. Bandurski writes in an email. “They risk creating a society that has essentially no immune system.”
“War” mode
Yet the power of the Chinese state has now been brought to bear. The central government announced that new multistory hospitals would be built in a matter of days. More than a thousand doctors have been dispatched to Wuhan, according to Professor Pei, and the production of masks has certainly been cranked up. “This is what I call the militarization of government,” he says. “They treat such a task as war.”
In a country of 1.4 billion people, the government has also managed to quarantine entire cities totaling around 50 million people – with no rioting.
“With SARS, the same thing happened,” says Brandeis’ Professor Uretsky. “As soon as they’ve acknowledged the problem, they’re solving the problem, despite all the justified criticisms of that style of governance.” Wuhan also has a BSL-4 laboratory, the highest possible rating for handling dangerous agents.
WHO has now declared coronavirus a public health emergency, the United States has given its diplomats in China a choice to leave, and many airlines are halting flights. On Thursday, the U.S. State Department warned Americans against traveling to China.
The Chinese economy is bound to take a hit, as will countries whose economies are closely intertwined with China’s. During SARS, China’s economy was just a whisper of the global behemoth it is now.
Which brings up the question: What does this all mean for Mr. Xi?
The Hong Kong protests don’t register for most mainland Chinese, meaning the coronavirus is really the first significant domestic challenge to Mr. Xi’s authority. Indeed, with all provinces showing disease outbreak, no one is untouched by the crisis.
For years, China watchers had posited any number of events as “the event” that might shift China’s political thinking, says Jeremy Wallace, a China expert at Cornell University – including SARS, the global financial crisis, and the Bo Xilai political scandal.
In communist regimes, “turning points are few,” argues Professor Pei. “But – this could be part of a constant erosion.”
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Back in Wuhan, the young man in the mask concludes his 10-minute video imploring the world to care about ordinary people like him. He asks for “international pressure and awareness.”
“We have high housing costs, living costs, inflation,” he says. “We, too, want to live with democracy and freedom ... but we can’t. We are helpless.”


csmonitor--2020-02-03--Why virus travel bans can undermine the global economy

Travel restrictions and business closures aimed at stopping the spread of a new virus that originated in China could end up causing ripple effects that harm the global economy , experts say .
“ When you stop planes and ships , trains and and motor vehicles from moving , it starts to shut down the economy – and that can have a cascading effect throughout society , ” Dr. Eric Toner , senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security , said Saturday , after multiple airlines announced that they would suspend or cut back on flights to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including the U.S. , imposed travel restrictions .
“ And it 's not just airline pilots who get out of work , I mean , it 's you know , it 's everybody that they depend on.
” The Shanghai Composite index tumbled nearly 8 % on Monday as Chinese regulators moved to stabilize markets .
Chinese officials say that they will pump 150 billion yuan ( $ 22 billion ) into its economy on Monday to help protect it from the affects of the coronavirus outbreak .
China 's central bank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was enough liquidity in the banking system and help provide a stable currency market , reported Reuters .
On Wall Street on Friday , the Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded more than 600 points ( 2.2 percent ) .
The U.S. market , which had calmly been setting record after record , suffered its worst January since 2016 and its first monthly loss since August .
It 's not just airlines that have cut back on business in China .
Apple Inc. announced Saturday that it would temporarily close all of its offices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Google , Amazon and Microsoft previously announced plans to temporarily shutter offices , and Starbucks and McDonald 's have closed some chains .
Apple said it was acting “ out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts . ''
Its stores will be closed until Feb. 9 .
Mr. Toner said Apple 's decision could also be harmful to the economy and Apple itself , though he noted that many companies , including airlines , are trying to protect their employees .
Mr. Toner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the negative impacts of trade and travel restrictions during a pandemic .
In a paper that came out of that meeting , the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security concluded that “ fear and uncertainty experienced during past outbreaks , even those limited to a national or regional level , have sometimes led to unjustified border measures . ''
The U.S. , Australia , Singapore and Japan have imposed travel restrictions , and Vietnam suspended all flights to China .
U.S. officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread around the globe as justification , although world health officials have warned against such measures .
At least 24 countries have reported cases of the new virus , which is from the coronavirus family .
“ Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing , medical supply chains and harming economies , ” World Health Organization Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said .
Mr. Toner said governments are ultimately `` trying to do something that has very little benefit but very real harm.
” “ It 's been shown over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to travel does n't stop contagious infectious diseases , ” he said , pointing to past outbreaks of Ebola , Zika and even influenza .
Instead , he said , governments should educate people about the virus and urge people who may have been exposed to isolate themselves .
The first death outside China from the new coronavirus was recorded Sunday in the Philippines , as countries around the world evacuated hundreds of their citizens from the infection zone and Chinese authorities completed a new , rapidly constructed 1,000-bed hospital for victims of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ center of Wenzhou , China , with nearly 10 million people in coastal Zhejiang province , confined people to their homes , allowing only one family member to venture out every other day to buy necessary supplies .
Huanggang , home to 7 million people , imposed similar measures on Saturday .
Chinese authorities also delayed the reopening of schools in the hardest-hit province .
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte approved a ban on the entry of all non-citizens from China , despite criticism from China and an assessment from the World Health Organization @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and travel .
The death toll in China climbed to 361 on Monday , and the number of cases worldwide surged past 17,000 , according to China 's National Health Commission and other nations .
The vast majority of those infected are in China ; about 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries .
The U.S. has recorded eight cases .
Despite its own drastic travel restrictions , China has chafed at those imposed by foreign governments , criticizing Washington ’ s order barring entry to most non-citizens who visited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apart from damaging China 's international reputation , such steps could worsen a domestic economy already growing at its lowest rate in decades .
Over the weekend , South Korea and India flew hundreds of their citizens out of Wuhan .
A Turkish military transport plane carrying 42 people arrived in Ankara on Saturday night .
A French-chartered plane made its way toward France on Sunday with 300 evacuees from a multitude of European and African countries .
And Morocco flew home 167 of its people , mostly students .
Indonesia flew back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quarantined them on the remote Natuna Islands for two weeks .
Several hundred residents protested the move .
The Trump administration 's national security adviser , Robert O ’ Brien , said on CBS ’ “ Face the Nation ” that the Chinese so far “ have been more transparent certainly than in past crises and we appreciate that and we continue to offer assistance to the Chinese.
” “ Right now , there ’ s no reason for Americans to panic , ” he added .
`` This is something that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. ’ ’ This story was reported by The Associated Press .

Travel restrictions and business closures aimed at stopping the spread of a new virus that originated in China could end up causing ripple effects that harm the global economy, experts say.
“When you stop planes and ships, trains and and motor vehicles from moving, it starts to shut down the economy – and that can have a cascading effect throughout society,” Dr. Eric Toner, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said Saturday, after multiple airlines announced that they would suspend or cut back on flights to and from China, and several countries, including the U.S., imposed travel restrictions. “And it's not just airline pilots who get out of work, I mean, it's you know, it's everybody that they depend on.”
The Shanghai Composite index tumbled nearly 8% on Monday as Chinese regulators moved to stabilize markets. Chinese officials say that they will pump 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) into its economy on Monday to help protect it from the affects of the coronavirus outbreak. China's central bank said Sunday the move would ensure there was enough liquidity in the banking system and help provide a stable currency market, reported Reuters.
On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded more than 600 points (2.2 percent). The U.S. market, which had calmly been setting record after record, suffered its worst January since 2016 and its first monthly loss since August.
It's not just airlines that have cut back on business in China. Apple Inc. announced Saturday that it would temporarily close all of its offices and its 42 stores in mainland China. Google, Amazon and Microsoft previously announced plans to temporarily shutter offices, and Starbucks and McDonald's have closed some chains.
Apple said it was acting “out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts." Its stores will be closed until Feb. 9.
Mr. Toner said Apple's decision could also be harmful to the economy and Apple itself, though he noted that many companies, including airlines, are trying to protect their employees.
Mr. Toner led a summit in October with World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the negative impacts of trade and travel restrictions during a pandemic. In a paper that came out of that meeting, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security concluded that “fear and uncertainty experienced during past outbreaks, even those limited to a national or regional level, have sometimes led to unjustified border measures."
The U.S., Australia, Singapore and Japan have imposed travel restrictions, and Vietnam suspended all flights to China. U.S. officials pointed to how quickly the virus has spread around the globe as justification, although world health officials have warned against such measures.
At least 24 countries have reported cases of the new virus, which is from the coronavirus family.
“Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” World Health Organization Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Mr. Toner said governments are ultimately "trying to do something that has very little benefit but very real harm.”
“It's been shown over and over again that putting up barriers to travel doesn't stop contagious infectious diseases,” he said, pointing to past outbreaks of Ebola, Zika and even influenza.
Instead, he said, governments should educate people about the virus and urge people who may have been exposed to isolate themselves.
The first death outside China from the new coronavirus was recorded Sunday in the Philippines, as countries around the world evacuated hundreds of their citizens from the infection zone and Chinese authorities completed a new, rapidly constructed 1,000-bed hospital for victims of the outbreak.
The trading and manufacturing center of Wenzhou, China, with nearly 10 million people in coastal Zhejiang province, confined people to their homes, allowing only one family member to venture out every other day to buy necessary supplies. Huanggang, home to 7 million people, imposed similar measures on Saturday. Chinese authorities also delayed the reopening of schools in the hardest-hit province.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte approved a ban on the entry of all non-citizens from China, despite criticism from China and an assessment from the World Health Organization that such measures were unnecessarily hurting trade and travel.
The death toll in China climbed to 361 on Monday, and the number of cases worldwide surged past 17,000, according to China's National Health Commission and other nations. The vast majority of those infected are in China; about 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries. The U.S. has recorded eight cases.
Despite its own drastic travel restrictions, China has chafed at those imposed by foreign governments, criticizing Washington’s order barring entry to most non-citizens who visited China in the past two weeks. Apart from damaging China's international reputation, such steps could worsen a domestic economy already growing at its lowest rate in decades.
Over the weekend, South Korea and India flew hundreds of their citizens out of Wuhan. A Turkish military transport plane carrying 42 people arrived in Ankara on Saturday night. A French-chartered plane made its way toward France on Sunday with 300 evacuees from a multitude of European and African countries. And Morocco flew home 167 of its people, mostly students.
Indonesia flew back 241 citizens from Wuhan on Sunday and quarantined them on the remote Natuna Islands for two weeks. Several hundred residents protested the move.
The Trump administration's national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the Chinese so far “have been more transparent certainly than in past crises and we appreciate that and we continue to offer assistance to the Chinese.”
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empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
“Right now, there’s no reason for Americans to panic,” he added. "This is something that is a low risk we think in the U.S.’’
This story was reported by The Associated Press.