Latest news with #economicjustice
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Rachel Reeves should end national insurance loophole for law firms
The chancellor and prime minister are wringing their hands at the painful choices they must make to balance the country's finances now they're quite rightly unable to make the most vulnerable disabled people shoulder the burden (How to balance the UK books: six options open to Rachel Reeves, 4 July). Perhaps it is time to resurrect an idea circulating before last autumn's budget: change the rules on national insurance (NI) contribution rates for LLP (limited liability partnership) partners to bring them into line with company employees. As reported in the Law Society Gazette in November last year, closing this NI 'loophole' could have raised £4bn from just the four 'magic circle' LLP law firms. This would seem compatible with Labour's manifesto pledge not to raise tax or NI on workers, but maybe this would upset too many of Keir Starmer's rich lawyer cronies? The change seems to have been widely expected last year, but quietly dropped without trace. Unless there's a very good reason why this shouldn't be implemented (in which case, let's hear it), I would strongly urge Starmer and Rachel Reeves to reconsider this decision. This strikes at the heart of economic justice. The current system favours the wealthy and well-advised – including former colleagues of Starmer in elite legal firms – while ordinary working people are asked to carry more of the burden. If Labour's economic credibility hinges on fairness and responsibility, then this is exactly where Reeves should be looking – not at further cuts at the expense of the majority of taxpayers and those in most ReedTaunton, Somerset
Malay Mail
09-07-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
Lifelong learning for economic justice by building knowledge hubs in low-income areas — Ahmad Ibrahim
JULY 9 — We live in a competitive world. Nations, businesses, and individuals compete. Nations compete to sustain the economy. Businesses compete to sustain profits. Individuals compete to secure the best jobs and live well. In a world driven by knowledge and innovation, those with the most knowledge benefit the most. The only way to acquire knowledge is through learning. That is why education is so strategic. It is not enough being educated only up to the tertiary higher education level. Learning is a life-long affair. This is because knowledge is never static. Old knowledge becomes obsolete fast as new knowledge emerges through research. Keeping up with the latest knowledge can be a struggle. Unless one embraces lifelong learning. A significant contributor to the non-equitable world is the differences in knowledge power. The rich are able to accumulate more knowledge than the poor. This inevitably leads to much economic injustice. The rich poor gap continues to widen. We see such phenomenon in literally all countries, especially those which practise capitalism. Many believe lifelong learning can contribute to economic justice. The Merdeka 118 Tower, also known as Menara 118, is a skyscraper located in Kuala Lumpur. According to the author, lifelong learning is a powerful tool for economic justice, but systemic inequities must be addressed to ensure it benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. — Unsplash pic This refers to the fair access to resources, opportunities, and wealth distribution, enabling individuals to thrive regardless of their socioeconomic background. Lifelong learning, the continuous pursuit of knowledge and skills throughout one's life, plays a crucial role in advancing economic justice. Automation and AI are now seen displacing traditional jobs. Lifelong learning helps workers adapt, ensuring they remain competitive in the evolving labor markets. Digital literacy programmes enable marginalised groups to access remote work, freelancing, and tech-driven industries. Education and training provide pathways for low-income individuals to secure higher-paying jobs. Business training and financial literacy empower people to start their own enterprises, fostering wealth creation. Online courses such as MOOCs, micro-credentials, and community-based programmes make education more affordable and accessible. Validating skills gained through work experience helps non-traditional learners compete fairly. Programmes for formerly incarcerated individuals, refugees, and school dropouts help reintegrate them into the economy. Older workers stay employable longer, reducing age-based discrimination. Governments and corporations investing in free or subsidised training reduce education disparities. Unions and advocacy groups use lifelong learning to prepare workers for green jobs and fair wage negotiations. Despite its benefits, systemic barriers prevent lifelong learning from fully advancing economic justice. Many cannot afford tuition, certification fees, or even internet access for online learning. Low-wage workers may lack time or resources to study while working multiple jobs. Even with new skills, marginalised groups face discrimination in the job markets. Poor-quality schools in disadvantaged areas limit foundational learning. Rural and low-income communities may not have reliable internet or devices for e-learning. AI-driven hiring and upskilling platforms may reinforce biases. Training programmes sometimes do not align with employer demands. Employers may undervalue self-taught or informal skills. Juggling work, family, and education can be overwhelming. Older adults or low-skilled workers may feel discouraged from re-entering education. Need to work to remove such stigma. To maximise lifelong learning's role in economic justice, solutions include subsidised and free learning through government-funded programmes, employer-sponsored upskilling where tax incentives are given for companies investing in worker training, and community learning hubs in the form of local libraries and NGOs offering free courses. We need policy reforms which include stronger labour protections, universal broadband, and anti-discrimination laws. Lifelong learning is a powerful tool for economic justice, but systemic inequities must be addressed to ensure it benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. A combination of policy reforms, corporate responsibility, and grassroots education initiatives can help bridge the gap. When everyone has the chance to continuously learn, it stimulates broader economic participation. This means more people contributing productively to the economy, more diversity in entrepreneurship and innovation, a wider tax base and reduced dependency on welfare systems. This benefits not just individuals, but entire communities and national economies. Parents who engage in lifelong learning tend to value and encourage education in their children, creating a culture of self-improvement and upward mobility. Over time, this reduces poverty traps and enhances social equity. In volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments, continuous learning prepares people to handle crises, whether economic downturns, technological disruptions, or pandemics. Communities that value learning can adapt faster, recover quicker, and innovate new livelihoods. Lifelong learning is not a luxury, it's a social justice tool. By investing in accessible, inclusive, and relevant education for all ages, societies can promote economic justice, enabling fair chances for everyone to prosper in a rapidly changing world. *The author is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an associate fellow at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya. He can be reached at [email protected]. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sheraton Vancouver Guildford workers on strike for fair wages
SURREY, BC, July 5, 2025 /CNW/ - More than 140 hotel workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford hotel began strike action today after failing to reach a fair collective agreement with their employer. "Our members deserve better and are trying to catch up," said Unifor National President Lana Payne. "These workers kept the doors open during some of the most challenging years in hospitality. Now, they're standing together to demand better wages in the face of a skyrocketing cost of living in the Lower Mainland. This strike is about fairness, respect, and economic justice." Unifor Local 3000 members at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford have been without a contract since April 2024. After more than a year of bargaining, workers voted to reject a tentative agreement and began legal strike action at 5:30 p.m. Pacific on July 5,2025. "This hotel runs because of our members—and they're done waiting for a fair deal," said Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle. "They're taking a stand not just for themselves, but for all hospitality workers who deserve better pay and respect on the job." The Sheraton Vancouver Guildford is owned by Pacific Reach Properties, a Vancouver-based investment firm with holdings in real estate, hospitality, healthcare, and tech. The company outsources its labour negotiations to Hospitality Industrial Relations (HIR), a third-party group that bargains on behalf of hotel operators across the province. "Wages at this hotel have flatlined while rent, groceries, and gas have soared," said Adrian Burnett, President of Unifor Local 3000. "Our members are scraping by while a wealthy ownership group tries to nickel-and-dime them. This strike is the direct result of that imbalance." Unifor Local 3000 represents 120 full-time and 24 part-time workers at the hotel, including room attendants, front desk staff, banquet servers, kitchen workers, and maintenance workers. The union says it remains open to productive talks but warns the strike will continue until a fair deal is on the table. Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 320,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future. SOURCE Unifor View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
News24
02-07-2025
- Politics
- News24
Unfinished Freedom: Africa's Long Walk beyond 1884 Berlin Conference
Archive Our continent needs economic justice, not charity or IMF loans. Africa is not poor; it is impoverished. Today, African countries spend more repaying interest on borrowed money than they do investing in education or healthcare. It is time to complete the freedom that Walter Sisulu and his generation began. On 12 June 2025, we gathered at Vaal University of Technology (VUT) not just to honour the towering legacy of Walter Sisulu, whose birthday was on the 18th of May 1912 – a revolutionary, a father of our democracy, and a quiet architect of freedom – but the day was also used to reflect on the deeper, historical roots of the struggles that continue to shape our continent. Walter Sisulu believed, above all else, in the unity, dignity and potential of African people, and he understood that true liberation would not come with the lowering of colonial flags, but with the dismantling of colonial logic – embedded in institutions, economies and minds. It is for that reason that, partially, the fulcrum of his inaugural memorial lecture looked back –not to dwell – but to understand, so that we may act differently going forward. In emulating Sisulu by looking back at our history, I want to argue that our problems as the African continent date back to the ill-fated Berlin Conference of 1884. In 1884-85, in cold, chandelier-lit halls of imperial Europe, 14 European powers convened what is now known as the Berlin Conference – also called the Congo Conference. Not a single African was present. Yet the lives of millions would be irrevocably changed by the discussions and decisions taken at that conference. At that conference, the continent was carved up like a pie. Arbitrary borders were drawn across the land, tearing apart ethnic groups, kingdoms and ecological zones and disrupting ancient trade routes. Entire civilisations were dismembered. Africa was not seen as a place of peoples' cultures or sovereignty – but as territory to be occupied, extracted from and exploited. This process was legitimised by the so-called principle of 'effective occupation,' which required European powers to demonstrate control over African territories to claim them. In truth, it was a license for conquest, enslavement and cultural erasure. As Frantz Fanon warned us: 'Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot, which we must clinically detect and remove not only from our land but from our minds as well.' The mid-20th century brought political decolonisation. Flags were changed, anthems composed and parliaments erected. But what did we really inherit? We inherited a map not made by us. States that were, in many cases, artificially constructed with no national consensus. We inherited economies wired to feed Europe's factories, not Africa's people, and tragically, we inherited elite classes – many of whom became, in the words of Amílcar Cabral, 'the transmission belt of foreign interests.' Yes, we achieved formal independence, which some were celebrating recently. But the substance of freedom remains unfinished. The promise of decolonisation has produced mixed results. We have seen moments of triumph and excellence—indigenous innovation, Pan-African solidarity, democratic progress—but also the painful betrayal of liberation ideals, especially here at home in South Africa. The post-colonial African states have too often been caught between external manipulation and internal misleadership. Between structural adjustment and military coups. Between IMF dictates and elite capture. Today, we see new waves of defiance. The people of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – nations in the Sahel – are attempting to reimagine sovereignty in a world still structured against African independence. Their struggle is fraught. Attempts to build new political and economic models are met with sanctions, destabilisation and even covert efforts at regime change. Often, external forces act not alone but in collaboration with internal elites who fear change. I call these collaborators 'committed and helpless or hopeless slaves, who mistakenly believe that Africa's total liberation will come from a coloniser and our former oppressors.' The Sahel defiance is inspiring the youth – the majority of our continent – understandably so because these young Sahel leaders represent our real African liberation aspirations. These young people, born in the ashes of neoliberal broken promises, are reclaiming the right to shape their future. As Thomas Sankara once declared: 'We must dare to invent the future.' Our continent is in need of economic justice, not charity or IMF loans. Africa is not poor; it is impoverished. Through stolen resources, unjust trade, climate injustice and debt traps, we are made to kneel before the same powers that once colonised us. A case in point is the recent Oval Office meeting in the US, where our rare earth minerals as a country were voluntarily offered and donated without a request, with an apologetic anatomical posture to the Groot Baas. Today, African countries spend more repaying interest than investing in education or healthcare. They made us believe that development meant becoming more like them. But development should mean becoming more like ourselves. Julius Nyerere, the former president of Tanzania We must now demand not aid, but restitution. Not charity, but economic justice in memory of Walter Sisulu. Walter Sisulu understood that liberation is a process, not a moment. He lived through a century of struggle – from the pass laws to the Robben Island cell, from exile to the birth of democracy, leading his family, which conservatively accounts for 59 years in prison combined, for committing no crime, but demanding equality and justice. Such a sacrifice must not be sacrificed for immediacy and silver or short-term myopic pliability. Walter Sisulu's life teaches us that freedom requires integrity, vigilance, sacrifice and, above all, solidarity across borders, ideologies and generations. This calls for ethical leadership. As the Foundation that bears his and Mama Albertina's names, we recommit ourselves today to that Pan-African vision – a continent of self-reliant nations, accountable ethical leadership, educated citizens and just economies. We invite African thinkers, students, workers, women, elders, the downtrodden and especially the youth to carry forward this (Walter Sisulu's) legacy. To free the continent not only from external domination but also from internal betrayal, as this is a serious hazard towards the gains of our liberation. Let us look beyond Berlin, towards African rebirth and reawakening. Let Walter Sisulu serve as more than remembrance. Let it be a moment of reckoning and renewal. Once again, we must look beyond Berlin, beyond the maps we did not draw, beyond the narratives we did not write. It is time for a new African imagination. It is time to complete the freedom that Walter Sisulu and his generation began. As Africans Let us rise. Let us remember. Let us rebuild.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Zohran Mamdani says billionaires shouldn't exist, touts economic agenda
Presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor Zohran Mamdani declared he doesn't believe billionaires should exist during a wide-ranging interview Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press'. 'I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality,' he told interviewer Kristen Welker. 'Ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.' Fresh off his stunning defeat of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary, Mamdani credited his victory to his economic agenda, in which he pitched various plans to lower the notoriously high cost of living. 'What we've seen is that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day,' Mamdani said. 'Our focus was on exactly that.' Mamdani's left-wing proposals and open identification as a democratic socialist have drawn skepticism from several members of the Democratic Party establishment. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, have declined to immediately endorse Mamdani in the general election for mayor. 'This [primary] is an election that went against so much of the analysis that had been told about our party and where we needed to head to,' Mamdani said in the interview. 'And ultimately what we're showing is that by putting working people first, by returning to the roots of the Democratic Party, we actually have a path out of this moment where we're facing authoritarianism in Washington, D.C.' Mamdani's top challenger in the November election is expected to be Mayor Adams, who is running as an independent. Mamdani wasted no time criticizing the incumbent in Sunday's interview, noting that Adams' administration has hiked rents in NYC's rent stabilized housing by 9% over three years. 'The median household income of those tenants is $60,000 a year,' Mamdani said. 'The landlords of those units have seen their profits increase by 12%. It's time for release for working-class New Yorkers.'
