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On Nurses Day, Struggles Continue for Better Conditions Amid Unfulfilled Promises

International Nurses Day was celebrated on May 12, yet despite commitments made during the pandemic, there has been no notable improvement in workers’ rights and working conditions in public health systems.

Today, there is a global shortage of 6 million nurses, with almost 90 percent of this shortage concentrated in low- and middle-income countries. Paradoxically, in the same countries facing the worst shortages, there are also hundreds of unemployed nurses unable to find decent jobs with decent pay, according to the union Public Services International.

These countries also passed new fiscal rules, meaning that they will have to cut their budgets by €100 billion a year starting from 2025.

“These measures mean that many countries will potentially have to cut nurses and other care workers, further contributing to workforce shortages in the sector,” the European Public Services Union stated.

Poor working conditions are also leading to high rates of leaving the profession and burnout.

In 2021/2022, nurses in Canada accumulated 26 million hours of overtime. According to a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions this year, 16 percent did not use any vacation time. This translated into high reported levels of burnout—as many as nine out of 10 nurses said they were experiencing some degree of burnout—and a decline in the quality of care. Reflecting on the previous year, 56 percent of nurses observed a decline of this sort.

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University of California Workers Could Launch Strike to Reject Repression of Student Protests

From May 13 to May 15, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811 will be holding a strike authorization vote for a potential strike in response to the University of California’s crackdown on peaceful pro-Palestine student protesters.

On May 3, the union local filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against the University of California (UC) system, in response to various UC campuses sending police officers to brutalize student protesters staging Gaza Solidarity encampments.

Last week, the administration at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) sent in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to clear out the Gaza Solidarity encampment staged by student protesters peacefully demanding that their university divest from Israel. The encampment had been under several rounds of attack from violent Zionist counter-protesters, who released bags of mice and cockroaches near the encampment and deployed fireworks and pepper spray against students. University officials did not respond to these attacks; instead, in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, LAPD armed with riot gear swept into the camp, deploying rubber bullets and flashbang grenades against the pro-Palestine student protesters.

UCLA student organizers reported that at least five people were shot in the head with rubber bullets, landing students in the hospital with serious injuries. Over 130 arrests were made and LAPD demolished the encampment.

Similar repression also occurred by police against students at the University of California San Diego encampment on Monday, May 13, with hundreds of police officers invading the camp in riot gear and arresting 64 protester

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The State of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

The United States has recently taken the position that it opposes the invasion of Rafah and is pushing for a ceasefire agreement. However, though the White House has paused a shipment of some 3,500 munitions, causing some dismay among the would-be recipient, it continues to provide security assistance. This announcement does not affect the $26 billion aid package signed last month, and the pause is couched with the reassurances that their overall support remains firm.

The families of the Israeli hostages released a statement demanding that Netanyahu accept the ceasefire agreement in order for their family members to be released and threatened to burn the country down if it didn’t happen. Israel has still backtracked on the negotiations and proceeded with attacking Rafah, risking the stability it enjoyed in its relationship with the United States and claiming it is ready to fight alone.

Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other actors across the region have only intensified their attacks against the occupation. Some weeks ago, Iran successfully launched an attack against Israel in response to Israel’s strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria.

The Palestinian people are preparing the evacuated cities, such as Khan Younis and other parts of the North, for the return of their people. The occupation has started assassinating the organizers of the emergency committees.

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India’s BJP Defends the Super Rich by Giving Wealth Redistribution Policy a Sectarian Color During General Elections

Voting for the first three phases in India’s general elections has concluded. A center-left coalition of parties and the right-wing incumbent coalition are vying for votes and clashing over the issues of wealth and income redistribution in the country.

The Congress Party, leading the center-left INDIA alliance, has accused the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central government of failing to take appropriate policy decisions to curb inequality. However, instead of acknowledging the need to address inequality, the BJP has twisted the claims and accused Congress of planning to rob people’s “hard-earned wealth.”

During election speeches, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that Congress is planning to take wealth away from the people of the religious majority community (Hindus) to give it to minority Muslims. He said the latter are “infiltrators and produce more children.”

In its manifesto, Congress has promised to conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste census and take measures to “address the growing inequality of wealth and income through suitable changes in policies.” Its leaders have also loosely talked about redirecting billions of dollars of tax benefits given to the corporate houses under the current government to the country’s marginalized sections.

However, though it defended the need for social and economic justice, fearing polarization on religious lines following Modi’s explicit allegations, Congress appeared reluctant to articulate how it plans to achieve that agenda. It outrightly denied it had ever planned to impose wealth or inheritance tax on the country’s super-rich.