#virtual office in central warsaw

[newstfionline]

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Foreign observers shocked by chaos over U.S. election (Washington Post) These are challenging times for foreigners whose job it is to interpret American politics for people in other countries. As President Trump has used a string of maneuvers to attack the election he lost as fraudulent and illegitimate, many observers are perplexed as they watch the country they have known and admired floundering in a constitutional crisis and growing mistrust of democratic institutions. For many, it is a struggle to maintain confidence that America’s principles and ideals will prevail. “People who know the U.S. are shocked it’s going on so long,” said Michal Baranowski, the German Marshall Fund director of the office in Warsaw, of the post-election uncertainty and Trump’s refusal to concede. “We still say it will work out, because of the strength of U.S. institutions. But, man, it’s taking a long time, and I’m beginning to worry.” Some foreign observers are also struggling to explain the U.S. political drama to their baffled friends and colleagues.

California unemployment aid to inmates (AP) California’s system for paying unemployment benefits is so dysfunctional that the state approved more than $140 million for at least 20,000 prisoners, local and federal prosecutors said Tuesday, detailing a scheme that resulted in claims filed in the names of well-known convicted murderers. At least 158 claims were filed for 133 death-row inmates, resulting in more than $420,000 in benefits paid. Prosecutors said they learned of the scheme from listening in on recorded prison phone calls, where inmates would talk about how easy it was for everyone to get paid. They said the scheme always involved someone on the outside—usually friends or family members of the inmates, who would then receive the benefits. In some cases, inmates used their real names. In others, they used fake names and even fake Social Security numbers. In one instance, an inmate used the name: “poopy britches,” a district attorney said.

Failing grades spike in Virginia’s largest school system as online learning gap emerges nationwide (Washington Post) A report on student grades from one of the nation’s largest school districts offers some of the first concrete evidence that online learning is forcing a striking drop in students’ academic performance, and that the most vulnerable students—children with disabilities and English-language learners—are suffering the most. Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, which has been mostly online since March, published an internal analysis this week showing that, between the last academic year and this one, the percentage of middle school and high school students earning F’s in at least two classes jumped by 83 percent: from 6 percent to 11 percent. By the end of the first quarter of 2020-2021, nearly 10,000 Fairfax students had scored F’s in two or more classes—an increase of more than 4,300 students as compared with the group who received F’s by the same time last year. Experts have warned since the beginning of the pandemic, and the unexpected national experiment in online learning, that remote schooling would take a serious academic toll on children. Now, evidence of poor achievement in virtual classrooms is beginning to emerge nationwide: In the Independent School District in Houston, more than 40 percent of students are earning failing grades in at least two of their classes, according to data reported by the Houston Chronicle. Likewise in St. Paul, Minn., where the superintendent recently reported that nearly 40 percent of St. Paul Public Schools high-schoolers have failing marks, local TV station KARE reported.

White House considers lifting European travel restrictions (Reuters) The White House is considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S. citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries, five U.S. and airline officials told Reuters. The plan has won the backing of White House coronavirus task-force members, public health and other federal agencies, the people briefed on the matter said, but President Donald Trump has not made a final decision and the timing remains uncertain.

Punishing hurricanes to spur more Central American migration SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP)—At a shelter in this northern Honduran city, Lilian Gabriela Santos Sarmiento says back-to-back hurricanes that hit with devastating fury this month have overturned her life. Her home in what was once a pretty neighborhood in nearby La Lima was destroyed by flooding. The 29-year-old woman who never finished middle school had managed to build a life for herself, most recently cleaning COVID-19 wards at a local hospital. Now, having lost everything, she says she sees no future in Honduras at her age and with her level of education. So her plan is to leave for the United States. Inside shelters and improvised camps across Central America, families who lost everything in the severe flooding set off by the two major hurricanes are arriving at the same conclusion. The hurricanes’ destruction comes on top of the economic paralysis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the persistent violence and lack of jobs that have driven families north from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in great numbers during recent years. Add an element of hope from the incoming government of President-elect Joe Biden, and experts predict the region is on the verge of another mass migration. “This is going to be much bigger than what we have been seeing,” said Jenny Arguello, a sociologist in San Pedro Sula who studies migration flows. “I believe entire communities are going to leave.”

Swiss poll (Foreign Policy) Swiss citizens will vote on Sunday in a landmark referendum on whether to ban the country’s central bank and pension funds from holding shares in companies that make more than 5 percent of sales from weapons components. The initiative would also ban Swiss banks from lending to weapons companies. The Swiss central bank is against the measure, as are the major Swiss banks. Despite industry pushback, a recent poll showed 50 percent of respondents supported the ban, while 45 percent were opposed.

U.S.-Russia naval confrontation (Foreign Policy) The United States and Russia are offering competing explanations after a Russian warship confronted a U.S. destroyer on Russia’s eastern coast. Russia accuses the United States of overstepping its maritime border in Peter the Great Gulf by 1.2 miles, and allegedly threatened to ram the U.S. ship in order to get it to leave its waters. The United States asserts its ship was in international waters and was conducting a freedom of navigation operation in assertion of its right to travel through the area.

Coronavirus is roaring back in parts of Asia (Washington Post) Compared with the United States and Europe, countries in East Asia have been held up as success stories in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. But in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, governments are reimposing restrictions this week, as public complacency, policy blunders and colder weather fuel a new surge in virus cases. Japan is scaling back a contentious subsidy program designed to encourage domestic tourism and dining out, after it became clear the enticements were helping to fuel a third wave that has resulted in record new infections. In Seoul, officials ordered bars and nightclubs to close and limited dine-in service at cafes and restaurants this week, after an earlier easing of restrictions allowed the virus to roar back. Hong Kong also closed bars and nightclubs, days after officials postponed the launch of a travel bubble with Singapore—a highly anticipated experiment that was set to herald a reopening of quarantine-free travel in Asia—after the virus found gaps in the territory’s defenses to stage a comeback. The numbers of new infections here are a fraction of those in West, with Japan recently reporting more than 2,000 new cases a day, South Korea more than 300 a day, and Hong Kong recording 73 new confirmed cases on Monday—compared with more than 150,000 a day in the United States. Yet the infection rates are still high enough to ring alarm bells, especially given the high proportion of elderly people in places like Japan, as winter approaches and doors and windows close against the chill.

China mulls new rules on foreigners to ‘prohibit religious extremism’ (CNN) Foreign religious groups and worshipers could be the latest targets of a growing crackdown on organized religion in China under President Xi Jinping. Draft rules published this week by the Ministry of Justice call for new restrictions on how foreign worshipers operate in order to prevent the spreading of “religious extremism,” or use of religion “to undermine China’s national or ethnic unity.” The rules, currently open to public feedback but unlikely to change significantly from their current form, are just the latest move to control religious practice under Xi, who has repeatedly called for the “sinicization” of religion. Though the draft rules affirm China’s commitment to respecting “the freedom of religious belief of foreigners,” the list of potential new restrictions and requirements could make practicing that belief far more difficult. In particular, the draft rules include a list of activities that foreigners should not conduct within China, such as “interfering with or dominating the affairs of Chinese religious groups,” advocating “extremist religious thoughts,” using religion to conduct terrorist activities, or “interfering with the appointment or management of Chinese clergy members.”

Ethiopian leader rejects international ‘interference’ in war (AP) Ethiopia’s prime minister is rejecting growing international consensus for dialogue and a halt to deadly fighting in the Tigray region as “unwelcome,” saying his country will handle the conflict on its own as a 72-hour surrender ultimatum runs out on Wednesday. “We respectfully urge the international community to refrain from any unwelcome and unlawful acts of interference,” the statement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said as government forces encircled the Tigray capital, Mekele, with tanks. “The international community should stand by until the government of Ethiopia submits its requests for assistance to the community of nations.” The government led by Abiy has warned Mekele’s half-million residents to move away from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front leaders or there will be “no mercy”—language that the United Nations human rights chief and others have warned could lead to “further violations of international humanitarian law.” But communications remain almost completely severed to the Tigray region of some 6 million people, and is not clear how many people in Mekele are aware of the warnings and the threat of artillery fire.

Terrorism in Africa (Times of London) Islamic State terrorism is surging in Africa while in the western world the threat from far-right extremists has overtaken that from jihadists. The 2020 Global Terrorism Index found that despite a fall in the global terrorism death toll for the fifth year running, Africa was suffering a dramatic increase in jihadist violence linked to Islamic State. “The center of gravity for Isis has now shifted to sub-Saharan Africa,” said Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute of Economic and Peace which produces the annual index. “Seven of the ten countries with the largest increases in terrorism all reside in sub-Saharan Africa.”

[phroyd]

In the explosive whistleblower complaint released this week, in which an intelligence official sounds the alarm over Donald Trump’s effort to solicit the help of Ukraine in his bid for re-election, one name is repeated: Rudy Giuliani.

The former New York mayor appears in flashing lights at the top of the document. In the second paragraph, the anonymous whistleblower says: “The president’s personal lawyer, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort.”

The author goes on to refer to Giuliani 31 times, painting a picture of a lawyer who in the service of his old friend and now personal client, Trump, set himself up as a virtual state within a state. Giuliani is accused of circumventing national security protocols as he scurried between Washington and Kyiv carrying private orders from the president, many of dubious legality.

That the man who was hailed as a national hero, “America’s mayor”, in the wake of 9/11 should now find himself accused of undermining national security amid a billowing impeachment scandal is extraordinary in itself. Even more astonishing is that so many of the details of the Ukraine connection have been put into the public domain by Giuliani himself.

He has been so willing to speak openly on cable TV and social media about his dealings with top Ukrainian officials seeking dirt on the leading Democratic presidential candidate, former vice-president Joe Biden, that he has deepened Trump’s legal peril almost on a daily basis.

On Thursday, Giuliani posted a tweet that extended the crisis from the White House to the state department. In the tweet, he reproduced a July text message from Kurt Volker, then US special representative to Ukraine, introducing Giuliani to a key adviser of the Ukrainian president.

The chilling undertone of the tweet was unmistakable: if I’m going down, you’re going down with me.

Giuliani’s overseas consulting work in eastern Europe stretches back to the mid-2000s. But his prominence in Ukraine grew after Trump’s 2016 victory, when he parlayed his close relationship with the president into security contracts and speaking appearances.

By his own account, Giuliani’s fixation with the country began last November when, he told Fox News, he was approached by a “very significant distinguished investigator”. He has not named the investigator, though the whistleblower’s complaint and other sources have illuminated close ties between the former mayor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who until last month was Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, and Lutsenko’s predecessor, Viktor Shokin.

As the complaint sets out, Giuliani met Lutsenko at least twice: in New York in January and in Warsaw the following month. The timing of those encounters could be important in the rapidly unfolding impeachment inquiry in Washington, as they came at a key moment for Lutsenko.

The prosecutor was facing growing criticism in Kyiv over stalled investigations into corruption. In November 2018, when Giuliani says he began to focus on the country, Lutsenko offered to resign after a young anti-corruption activist, Kateryna Handziuk, died from a sulphuric acid attack.

Lutsenko stayed in office. But the Guardian has learned that he began seeking a lifeline to the US, in the hope it might save him as difficulties back home intensified.

That lifeline was Giuliani.

“[Lutsenko] strongly needed some political ally, he believed that Giuliani could convey specific messages to Trump, and he created this message to become more interesting to the American establishment,” said a law enforcement source familiar with the Giuliani-Lutsenko connection.

That Giuliani might have been fed information by Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor that was adulterated to make it more appealing to Trump is a startling potential twist in the developing scandal.

According to the Guardian’s source, Lutsenko appeared in conversation with Giuliani to have invented a “don’t prosecute” list he claimed was given to him by the then US ambassador to Kyiv, Marie Yovanovitch – news of which apparently made its way up to Trump.

Yovanovitch was abruptly removed in May after Giuliani pressed for changes in the embassy. Giuliani has since claimed without evidence that the “don’t prosecute” list was part of a liberal anti-Trump conspiracy that included Yovanovitch and was bankrolled by the philanthropist George Soros.

The US state department has dismissed the claim as an “outright fabrication”.

‘Very helpful to my client’

Ukraine’s main attraction for Giuliani was the hope it might provide valuable damaging intelligence on Biden, who launched his presidential bid in April. Both Giuliani and Trump have grown increasingly excited by a conspiracy theory that in 2016 Biden pressurized Ukraine to fire its then chief prosecutor, Shokin.

Under this theory, Biden wanted Shokin out because he was investigating the vice-president’s son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a major Ukrainian gas company, Burisma. Several attempts to fact check the story that Biden acted corruptly to protect his son have found it to be false.

Here too, there is a suggestion that Lutsenko may have intentionally misrepresented the Burisma investigation to Giuliani, raising doubts about Hunter Biden’s activities, as a ruse to catch the attention of Trump.

“Mr Biden and his son were never the subjects of this investigation,” the Guardian was told by the source with knowledge of Lutsenko’s ties to the New York lawyer.

Lutsenko later changed his tune, and told the Washington Post this week Hunter Biden had done nothing wrong.

“From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” the former prosecutor said.

As the Ukraine affair has deepened, the extent of Guiliani’s efforts to put flesh on the bones of his anti-Biden conspiracy theory has become clear. In addition to his meetings with Lutsenko, he made contact with a further four former Ukrainian prosecutors, including a Skype call to Shokin.

Those efforts reached fever pitch in May when Giuliani laid plans to visit the president-elect, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Serhiy Leshchenko, a journalist and former member of parliament who advised Zelenskiy during his campaign, said he believed Giuliani was urgently trying to meet the president-elect before his 20 May inauguration, after which their interaction could be restricted by protocol.

We know what Giuliani wanted to talk to Zelenskiy about because Giuliani, true to form, told us. In an interview with the New York Times on 9 May, he said he wanted to encourage the new government to investigate the Bidens, saying “that information will be very, very helpful to my client”.

The backlash to his announced plan to engage with Ukraine for Trump’s political benefit was so intense that he cancelled the May visit. He diverted instead to Spain, where he met Andriy Yermak – he now claims at the instigation of the state department.

What did Giuliani say to Yermak, a top adviser to the new Ukrainian government?

“Just investigate the darn things,” he said, referring to the Bidens and other matters beneficial to Trump’s re-election hopes.

It is a sign of Giuliani’s imperviousness to public condemnation – some would say to reason – that he continues to dig himself and his client deeper into a hole. It could have serious consequences for them both.

Leshchenko believes Giuliani is in peril too.

“He was involved in international politics and trying to blackmail the Ukrainian government,” he said. “It should be a cause for an investigation.”

Phroyd

[crimethinc]

Taking a Global View of Repression: The Prison Strike and the Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners

In the United States, a practically unprecedented prison strike is underway, setting new precedents for coordination between struggles in prisons and detention centers and for solidarity from those not behind bars. Meanwhile, August 23-30 is also the sixth annual week of global solidarity with anarchist prisoners, when anarchists around the world coordinate solidarity struggles between different countries and continents. We strongly believe that every prisoner is a political prisoner, and that the best way to support anarchist prisoners is to build a movement against the prison-industrial complex itself. At the same time, the week of global solidarity is an excellent opportunity to get context from our comrades in other parts of the world about the different strategies of repression that various governments are employing today and how to counter them.

In the following text, we’ll explore contemporary patterns of repression targeting anarchists around the world and some of the ways that movements have responded. Looking at this as a microcosm of the way that repression functions in relation to the broader population can give us a way to understand prisoner solidarity as one part of wider struggles against prisons and towards freedom for all people. As anarchists, we aim to analyze state tactics of repression in order to develop better security practices, build international connections, and become more skilled at supporting and caring for each other.

Graffiti from Khabarovsk, Russia in support of the week of solidarity, reading “”Freedom to political prisoners. #ABC. No torture!”

Waves of Repression, 2017-2018

The first two decades of the 21st century have seen steadily intensifying repression directed towards anarchists and their comrades. Some of the most widely known examples of the past few years include the Tarnac case in France, an investigation of “terrorism” that started in 2008 and concluded this year with the defendants completely exonerated; Operations Pandora, Piñata, and Pandora 2 in Spain, which began in December 2014 and concluded this year; Scripta Manent in Italy, since 2017; Operation Fenix in the Czech Republic, since spring 2015; the raids the police have been carrying out across Europe since the battle of Hamburg in summer 2017; the Warsaw Three arson case in Poland, 2016-2017; and mass repression in the United States resulting from the occupation of Standing Rock and the resistance to Trump’s inauguration, the latter case finally having concluded this past July. We are also witnessing ongoing repression in Belarus dictatorship and Russia, most recently with the “Network” case.

All around the world, states and their police forces choose from the same assortment of tactics to achieve the same ends. The specific choices they make vary according to their context, but the toolbox and the fundamental objectives are the same.

For example, the same computer programs are used in many different countries to carry out online censorship. In some countries, they are only used to shut down a few websites, while elsewhere, they block a vast array of content; but the same principle is at work in both cases, and all it would take for the former situation to become the latter would be for the authorities to check a few more boxes in their repression software. The same goes for other forms of police repression. This shows how the difference between a supposedly permissive liberal democracy and an autocratic dictatorship is quantitative, not qualitative.

When police in one part of the world develop a new strategy or begin to employ a specific tactic more often, that often spreads to other police agencies around the world. For example, we can draw a line between the various entrapment cases in the United States—Eric McDavid, David McKay, Bradley Crowder, Matthew DePalma, the NATO 3, the Cleveland 5—and the subsequent Operation Fenix case in the Czech Republic, in which agents provocateurs attempted to seduce people into planning an attack on a military train and attacking a police eviction squad with Molotov cocktails. In the beginning, Operation Fenix was framed as a campaign against the Network of Revolutionary Cells, a network that had claimed responsibility for various arsons against police and capitalists; at the end, it concluded as an unsuccessful attempt to stigmatize anarchists and restore the legitimacy of the Czech police in the eyes of the public.

Likewise, we can also understand Operation Fenix in the context of decades of efforts from police in Italy, the US, France, Spain, and elsewhere to set a precedent for fabricating terrorist conspiracy cases with which to discredit and imprison anarchists. Viewed individually, the Marini trial in Italy, the Tarnac 9 case, Operations Pandora and Piñata, and Operation Fenix are nothing more than perplexing examples of prosecutorial overreach. But when we consider them as part of a global pattern in which the repressive forces of the state have been seeking a new method via which to neutralize the networks that connect popular social movements, we can recognize what they all have in common. In this context, it also becomes clear how the Russian tactic of torturing arrestees into signing false confessions could spread to other countries, if we don’t take steps immediately to publicize it. This is why it is important to take a global approach to studying state strategies of repression.

Growing International Police Cooperation

Across the globe, police forces are cooperating more than ever before. Continent-wide repression in Europe shows international police collaboration and the extremist and terrorist laws in action.

The recent Aachen bank robbery case in Germany illustrates this: a European arrest warrant, the sharing of intelligence between police forces, and the intensification of cooperation between various legal authorities following two bank expropriations in 2013 and 2014. Spanish and German police cooperated in obtaining the DNA of the alleged expropriators, who were convicted of robbing the Pax Bank, the bank of the Catholic Church.

We can also see evidence of this trend in the last case connected to the SHAC campaign (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty), which targeted current animal liberation prisoner, Sven van Hasselt. Six European states collaborated in his arrest.

We are also seeing police in different countries exchanging education and experience on a more organized basis. For example, the College of European Police (CEPOL) held a seminar about terrorism in Greece in July 2012, at which the Italian authorities offered an in-depth overview of the repressive measures they have used against the insurrectionary anarchist movement. The European Police Office (EUROPAL) publishes an annual report, the Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT), in which you can find a chapter dedicated to supposed left-wing and anarchist “terrorism.” This kind of collaboration has gained momentum in other venues, such as the European Union Intelligence and Situation Center (SitCen); European Union Member States also cooperate on the legal level through institutions like Eurojust.

Governments in the Global North routinely equip and train states in the Global South to employ their technology and repression strategies. For example, Germany and Israel made a fortune equipping Brazil ahead of the 2014 World Cup. In an extreme example of this Great Britain is now looking to outsource imprisonment to Africa, building a new prison wing in Nigeria. All of these are good reasons to interlink our struggles.

Terrorism Discourse and Legislation

Laws and rhetoric against “extremism” and “terrorism” are some of the most powerful contemporary tools to criminalize and delegitimize social struggles. Many states developed anti-terrorist laws as a result of the previous generation of political movements, such as the Basque independence groups in the Spanish State or the Red Army Faction (RAF) in Germany in the 1970s. In a way, this can make the framework of “terrorism” somewhat outdated when it comes to contemporary social movements, which usually lack formal hierarchies like the RAF.

The chief function of the “terrorism” framework is to legitimize the suspension of legal rights, in order to empower police to employ unlimited surveillance, indefinite detention without charges or trial, total isolation in prison, torture—all the tactics that were once used to maintain colonial regimes, monarchies, and dictatorships. Since September 11, 2001 and the declaration of the so-called “war on terror,” anti-terrorist laws have been upgraded all around the world to make these tactics available to repress anyone who might be able to threaten the stability of the reigning order.

This is why the most liberal European democracy can concur with the authorities of a virtual dictatorship like Putin’s Russia that the same legal framework should be used against both anarchists who defend the public against police violence and fundamentalists who carry out attacks on random civilians for the Islamic State. These two cases have nothing in common in terms of tactics or values or goals; the one thing that connects them is that they both contest the centralized power of the prevailing government.

Repression: An International Language with Local Dialects

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”

-Frederick Douglass

There are some new developments in the field of state repression. For example, we see an rapid development in repression tactics in Russia with the example of the “Network” case, in which many activists have been kidnapped, threatened, beaten, and tortured via electroshocks, hanging upside down, and other methods. Using these tactics, the officers of the Russian Security Forces (FSB, the successor to the KGB) have forced arrestees to sign false confessions corroborating the existence of an invented group called “the Network” which was allegedly planning to carry out the terrorist attacks during the presidential elections in March 2018 and the FIFA World Cup. These tactics created an atmosphere of fear, isolation and uncertainty in Russia, making it very difficult to mobilize solidarity.

The innovation here is using torture to confirm the existence of a “terrorist network” invented by the state. Torture itself is not a new thing to anarchists and other prisoners in post-Soviet countries; it remains one of the most powerful tools in the context of a penal system that is notoriously corrupt and permissive towards the police, giving them even less legal oversight than police experience in places like the United States. The Russian and Belarusian contexts are distinct in that in both cases, the state is openly authoritarian, not hesitating to crack down violently even on basic forms of expression such as banner drops.

Currently, this strategy seems to be working in Russia and Belarus, but in the long run heavy-handed oppression makes the authorities vulnerable to sudden outbursts of pent-up anger. In Belarus, for example, despite tremendous pressure from the totalitarian government, anarchists were at the forefront of one of the most powerful social movements of 2017.

By contrast, in the “Western” countries, we see more legalistic strategies of repression, such as extreme bail and release conditions that function to isolate and pacify individuals via attrition. This presents subtler forms of repression that are more socially acceptable to those who like to think of themselves as the citizens of a democracy. One police research report described the repression of the SHAC campaign as a process of “leadership decapitation” achieved through lengthy prison sentences and extreme bail and post-prison conditions aimed at absolutely isolating people from their movements.

Police cooperation between different European states does not always take the same form. For example, while Greek, Italian and German conferences take place regarding anarchist “terrorism” and “extremism,” countries that have experienced fewer militant actions and less popular unrest employ different approaches. Many states carry out intelligence gathering in the guise of academic research in “extremism and terrorism studies,” in order to monitor the presence of particular ideas or tactics. This was clear in the Czech Republic, where such studies were used to analyze the local anarchist movement. For example, despite lacking any demonstrable links to the FAI/FRI or Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, recent anarchist actions in Czech Republic from the aforementioned Network of Revolutionary Cells were described and charged mostly via academic and police research that presented them as a manifestation of the former groups.

More art from Russia promoting the Anarchist Black Cross: “Support political prisoners. #ABC.”

Learning from Successful Support Campaigns

“We learn a thousand times more from defeat than we do from a victory”

-Ed Mead, member of George Jackson Brigade and Men against Sexism, long-term anarchist prisoner and gay liberationist

It’s not easy to measure the effectiveness of repression. A campaign of repression could be said to succeed if the targets receive prison sentences—or if the movement they are associated with is effectively divided, pacified, or destroyed—or if the social struggle that the movement is engaged in becomes co-opted.

So, for example, you could say that Operation Fenix was unsuccessful because the legal charges that were pressed did not succeed. However, Czech police were able to collect an enormous data on the anarchist movement in the Czech Republic—and despite failing to win the case against the defendants, they succeeded in implanting anti-terrorist rhetoric and “anti-extremism” sentiment in the public discourse. Yet, despite this, Czech anarchists gained a lot of support from all around the world, which was very important for the people who were behind bars, isolated and charged with extremism.

One the most inspiring recent support campaigns was the defense of the J20 arrestees in the US, a case that ended in almost complete defeat for the state. We can see another inspiring example under much less favorable conditions in the campaign against the ongoing “Network” terrorist case in Russia, where defendants’ parents have created a “Parents’ Network” supporting their children and opposing the totalitarian regime.

Undertaking Movement Defense

Repression often imposes isolation and other hardships. Everyone is unique, but in general, those on the receiving end of repression need some of the same things: financial support, emotional support, support for the family and friends of defendants, secure or at least reliable channels of communication, publicity about the case, and—most importantly—continuing the struggle.

Different groups can play different roles in the fight against repression. There are groups that form in order to react when repression hits, such as the campaign to support the J20 defendants, or Solidarat Rebel, which spreads information about the Aachen bank robbing case, or the Antifenix initiative, which promotes analysis and resistance against Operation Fenix in the Czech Republic. These projects are very important in that they respond to an immediate and urgent need for support. There are also groups that maintain consistent long-term anti-repression organizing, such as the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC). The Anarchist Black Cross is an international network of anarchist groups engaged in practical solidarity with prisoners that is now a century old.

We can work to counter repression on several levels. We can raise awareness about the usefulness of security culture and the different tactics of repression so as to prepare for the inevitable response of the state to our efforts to create a better world. We can also build up material resources—raising money to pay legal fees and related expenses such as travel costs and to support prisoners during their sentences and when they are released. This can involve organizing fundraising events or seeking donations in other ways. Most importantly, we have to provide care and emotional support to the targets of oppression and to others who support them.

Finally, we can spread information about legal cases and prisoners and how to do support work through various media channels including websites, pamphlets, podcasts, books, speaking tours, and social networks both virtual and real. For example, this zine composed by various ABC groups around Europe introduces the basics of Anarchist Black Cross organizing.

We have to understand our efforts to support specific prisoners as part of a much broader struggle against prisons themselves. If we are already organizing in solidarity with prisoners in general, anarchist prisoners will be in a much better position. That means supporting prisoner organizing, sending reading material and resources to prisoners, acting in solidarity outside the prisons when prisoners revolt, and spreading a popular discourse that identifies what everyone stands to gain from dismantling the prison-industrial complex.

From a Week of Solidarity to Prison Abolition

Anarchists are fighting on the front lines of the struggle against prison society alongside other poor people, people of color, indigenous people, and everyone else who is targeted by the prison system worldwide.

The sixth annual week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners is one of many opportunities to connect all these different struggles, seeking to set an example of what long-term coordinated anti-repression work might look like. The date of the beginning of the week is the anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American anarchists, in 1927. They were convicted with very little evidence, punished above all for their anarchist views.

Anarchists are not always the chief targets of the state, which often prioritizes attacks on people of African heritage, migrants, Muslims, and other ethnic groups on the receiving end of colonial violence. Nevertheless, we are almost always somewhere on the list of targets because our values and our actions threaten the hegemony of the state. Prison is the glue that holds capitalism, patriarchy, and racism together. As we strive for a society based on cooperation, mutual aid, freedom, and equality, we inevitably come into conflict with the police and the prison system. Let’s build a broad movement against them.

So long as there are prisons, the most courageous, sensitive, and beautiful among us will end up inside them, and the most courageous, sensitive, and beautiful parts of the rest of us will be inaccessible to us. Every one of us can become a prisoner. No one is truly free until all of us are free.

A prison van burned in the riots of “Angry Friday” on January 28, 2011 during the Egyptian Revolution.

Further Reading

Till All Are Free—the hub organizing the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners

Repression Patterns in Europe

[officevirtual45]

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All of you know about the importance of SEO these days that can contribute significantly to the property of an online business. If your office address has geotagging, it will be easier to reach out to niche clients to a great extent.

Your service can now benefit from the “near me” feature of the search engines.

Prospective clients can seek out the business even on sorting on the basis of the popularity of the location.

With the help of the virtual office space, you can now shop your presence in the central commercial areas where you have many potential clients around.

3. Maintaining privacy:-

Who would like to share the residential address with business relations? The last thing you want is the clients referring to your residential address to contact you. The virtual office address in Warsaw will help keep the residential address private.

Also, you will be able to enjoy a separate phone number instead of providing a personal number to the business contacts. Of course, you can avail of the service of a receptionist along with the virtual office space.

4. Hosting official meetings:-

The virtual office amenities and the space will be good for organizing seminars and meetings. The virtual office address in Warsaw will provide you with access to the elegant conference rooms and meeting rooms where you can arrange for the meeting including

Client pitching

Training programs

Seminars

Business development meetings with potential partners.

Overall, the virtual office concept is ideal for prospering online businesses. Without much investment, you can now work from an official address. It will also motivate the employees and bind everyone in a space to ensure that the business development happens in leaps and bounds. The demand is, thus, very high for virtual shared resources.

[architectnews]

Clariant Shared Service Center Łódź Monopolis

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Building, Polish Offices Design

Clariant Shared Service Center in Łódź Monopolis

13 Nov 2020

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Award

Design: The Design Group, Architects – TDG

The Design Group’s success in the prestigious International Property Awards

The Design Group has won an award in the “Office Design” category in the prestigious International Property Awards 2020-2021!

In this year’s edition of the International Property Awards, the title of the Polish “Award Winner” is awarded to the Warsaw-based studio The Design Group led by Konrad Krusiewicz. It is their interior design for the Clariant Shared Service Centre office in the Lodz Monopolis that has been recognized by the numerous IPA jury in the “Office Interior Design” category. This is not only an amazing distinction, but also a confirmation of the capacity to design unique, functional and safe workplaces by architects and designers from The Design Group.

Already on December 11, The Design Group will be awarded during the online broadcast of the virtual European Property Awards 2020-2021 award ceremony, which is part of the international IPA competition, for the interior design for Clariant’s branch office. This design will then compete with the best industry professionals from across Europe for recognition in the category of “Office Interior” on the European level.

“The ideal combination” within the walls of the Lodz Monopolis

The awarded interior design by The Design Group was developed for the Polish office of the Swiss company Clariant. The office of the Polish branch of Clariant is located in the historical premises of the former factory of the Vodka Monopoly; the Monopolis. It is a place where Łódź’s entrepreneurial spirit and historical heritage combine with the modernist spirit; this being precisely what the Swiss company sought whilst seeking the ideal space for its new office. Clariant has opened a Shared Service Centre on the area of ca. 4,317.5 m²; the Centre services the company’s branches operating in Europe and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

“In the design of Clariant’s office interiors, we prioritised the integration of contemporary architecture with the history of the Monopolis, Clariant’s DNA and state-of-the-art technological solutions. The building, which is over a hundred years old, houses plenty of brick walls that we put on display and, yet, we wished to arrange for a specific leitmotif – art closer to people – presented on 79 large-format seamless photo wallpapers”. – says architect Konrad Krusiewicz, founder and CEO of The Design Group.

Art closer to people

“We believe that a common passion and art are the links that unite people; thus we chose the art closer to people theme to be the leitmotif. It fits in with Clariant’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and also corresponds with more and more atomized society that has less and less time for other human beings and contemplation of surrounding world.

It is even more important now when the ongoing situation that has affected us all since the beginning of 2020; the times when people are distant from each other bring in the need for a dash of abstract beauty. We chose to make use of the chance to arrange large walls with references to art, masterpieces and trends presented on 79 large-format seamless photo wallpapers selected under the direction of a specialist engaged by Clariant. This treatment additionally allowed us to weave in the corporate values of the Client.” – reports Konrad Krusiewicz, founder and CEO of The Design Group.

The completed design combines the industrial style, a touch of elegance, yet also a highland, Swiss flair. The ambience of the Clariant office in Łódź is literally and figuratively open. The Monopolis building concept prioritizes people; consequently, the office has been arranged so that every employee feels at ease. The open spaces, multiple conference rooms, offices separated by glass walls, chill zones and coffee points are available in the building to this effect. The large shared kitchen draws directly on the Swiss vibe and alpine huts with extensive wooden fittings. The room provides access to outdoor terraces available to staff in spring and summer.

Wide-scale prestige

International Property Awards is one of the most prestigious and largest annual architectural competitions in the world, which has been running continuously for 27 years. Candidates from different countries submit their designs in several dozen categories. Entries are evaluated by a jury consisting of over 80 industry experts. The judges focus on design, quality, service, innovation, originality and commitment to sustainable development. These designs, which received the most points in the country, have a chance to win on a regional level. They then move on to the final stage, where the best projects in the world are selected.

Thanks to winning an award in the “Office Interior” category at the national stage, The Design Group has a chance to win further distinctions during a gala of the competition broadcast online, which will take place on December 11. Official website of the competition: www.propertyawards.net.

The Design Group is an architecture studio established by architect Konrad Krusiewicz in 2015. The team comprises designers and architects with years of experience in office interior design and architectural consulting for commercial projects and investments, in particular those relating to office buildings. TDG is a winner of various prestigious competitions, e.g. World Design Awards, CBRE Official Superstar, Oracle, etc., and to date, they have performed design activities for over 400,000 sq.m.

The Design Group – contact details: +48 501 082 022 kontakt@thedesigngroup.pl www.thedesigngroup.pl

Previously on e-architect:

1 July 2020

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Building

Design: The Design Group, Architects – TDG

Swiss Precision with a Dash of History, in Lódz

Location: former Łódź Vodka Monopoly, central Poland

This is going to be a story about a little part of Switzerland in the center of Poland. Precisely, in Łódź. In this very place, the office of the Swiss chemical concern Clariant came into being within the walls of the former Łódź Vodka Monopoly.

In the Łódź Monopolis, as that is where the Clariant Shared Service Center is seated, people from different parts of the world find employment. The center provides services to customers from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Overall, the center employs over 300 persons from 20 countries. This inspiring office interior was designed for them by The Design Group designers, and it is a smart combination of the antique fabric of Monopolis, Clariant’s values, and the latest technological solutions.

Industrial climate

The Clariant office occupies two floors, totaling over 4.3 thousand m2. The office is spacious and, first and foremost, functional. Original, cast-iron stairs lead to the company’s seat, featuring preserved embossing, which still recalls the beginnings of the Vodka Manufactory.

They accentuate the atmosphere of this place and lend it a classy feeling. Similarly, The Design Group architects did not avoid references to post-industrial aesthetics in the office interiors.

The brick, which you can see on many walls, is an original part of this over 100-year-old building. Its display was a deliberate design effort. Besides, there are mirrors concealed in various parts of the office (from the height of 2.7 m to the ceiling, i.e. up to about 4 m), which create the effect of never-ending masonry and incredible depth.

The ceiling, which resembles a barrel vault, is loaded with illuminating reflectors, along with acoustic systems as acoustic islands and sheets (acoustic beams) tailored to this area.

Three key features

The industrial atmosphere of the office, with its aesthetics dominated by the said bricks, soft colors, and wooden veneer, is interrupted by a number of distinctive architectural interventions. The first one, which is extremely representative for those interiors, are the photo wallpapers, featuring for instance reproductions of pieces by prominent painters. Altogether, there are nearly 80 of such reproductions.

Each of them refers to one of Clariant’s six main values. The print ideas presented by Clariant have been tested by TDG in terms of aesthetics and integration into the building structure. The greenery is another design element making these interiors stand out, introduced there as a so-called living wall. Not only is its function to decorate, but above all to purify the air.

“When discussing the Clariant office in Łódź, you cannot overlook interior design elements that go straight to the roots of the brand. For this reason, the kitchen resembles somewhat an alpine village hut. Plenty of wood and intriguing detail. We set our heart on making the project allude to the Swiss style, even in such settings as lighting and luminaires,” says Emilia Wójcicka, a designer from The Design Group, who is in charge of the interior concept for the Clariant office.

“For this reason, for example, there are lamps in the kitchen; we designed them in n such a way as to resemble massive shepherd’s bells. On the other hand, some of the luminaires are made of recycled materials. Those are post-industrial lamps made of thick, artisan glass. Following the definiteion of recycling, we wanted to give them a new life, “play” with their customization and combine them with the industrial style of the interiors,” explains Ewelina Mężyńska, a designer from The Design Group.

Functional and safe

The ambience of the Clariant office in Łódź is literally and figuratively open. Employees predominantly occupy the open space, and individual offices are separated by glass walls. There are also numerous conference rooms, leisure areas, and coffee points. The company has also minded providing silent rooms, i.e. small, glazed “telephone booths.”

The good, but most importantly, safe office experience is fostered by advanced health and safety solutions, such as projectors with information about low ceilings, or a safe door handle system that warns with color signals when a bathroom door opens onto the hallway.

The Clariant Shared Service Center is undoubtedly a metonym for modernity and for the highest standards of architecture for this type of space. Yet, it does not lose its entrepreneurial spirit; indeed, the said spirit is shaped by the history of Monopolis, and by the value of this Swiss brand. These aspects were emphasized by Konrad Krusiewicz’s design team – The Design Group. The end result is bound to receive recognition.

Lead architects/designers: Konrad Krusiewicz, Marta Konarska, Ewelina Mężyńska, Emilia Wójcicka, Paulina Senejko, Łukasz Miśkiewicz Gross floor area: 4300 m2 Location: Dr. Stefana Kopcińskiego 62 – Monopolis building, 90-032 Łódź (Poland)

The Design Group

The Design Group is an architecture studio established by architect Konrad Krusiewicz in 2015. The team comprises designers and architects with years of experience in office interior design and architectural consulting for commercial projects and investments, in particular those relating to office buildings. TDG is a winner of various prestigious competitions, e.g. World Design Awards, CBRE Official Superstar, Oracle, etc., and to date, they have performed design activities for over 400,000 sq.m.

The Design Group representative – contact details: Mega Czarniecka phone: +48 794 549 239 mega.czarniecka@thedesigngroup.pl

TDG website: https://en.thedesigngroup.pl/

Clariant Global Service Operations Monopolis building images / information from The Design Group

Location: Lodz, Poland, eastern Europe

New Polish Architecture

Contemporary Polish Architecture

Polish Architectural Designs – chronological list

Architectural News Poland

Polish Architect – design firm listings on e-architect

Architecture Walking Tours Poland

Lodz Buildings

Fabryczna offices Design: MVRDV, Architects with Piotr Bilinski Architects image courtesy of architects office Fabryczna Offices Lódz by MVRDV

Bidfood Farutex Culinary Academy Architects: mode:lina photography : Marcin Ratajczak Bidfood Farutex Culinary Academy in Lodz

Andel’s Hotel Lódz Architect: OP ARCHITEKTEN Andel’s Hotel Lodz

Andel’s Hotel Lodz Building

Polish Architecture

Zlota 44 Poland

British Embassy Poland

Comments / photos for the Clariant Shared Service Center Łódź Monopolis Polish Architecture page welcome

Website: Lódz

The post Clariant Shared Service Center Łódź Monopolis appeared first on e-architect.

[vsplusonline]

Small biz, big trouble: Covid-19 disruption might prove fatal for many of India’s MSME units

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/small-biz-big-trouble-covid-19-disruption-might-prove-fatal-for-many-of-indias-msme-units/

Small biz, big trouble: Covid-19 disruption might prove fatal for many of India’s MSME units

In the afternoon of April 23, Thursday, more than 100 small businessmen around Mumbai and Thane met through a conference call over the online conferencing software Zoom, to discuss the reopening of businesses after the lockdown. There was a quick consensus in the meeting that went on for nearly two hours — no one is ready to restart immediately. The supply chains for raw material simply do not exist at this point, even though some units have permissions to operate and others are expecting it in early May.

The meeting, organised by the Mumbai-based IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had businessmen seeing May-end as a plausible date for reopening. But there was another, more startling, consensus emerging at the meeting organised to discuss a reopening playbook — at least 25-30% of the businesses would not survive the crisis created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

ET Magazine spoke to a dozen businessmen from across India — owners of businesses that fit into the category of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) — and found that this feeling of staring at an abyss was pervasive. The biggest worry is, of course, a liquidity crunch, followed by a disrupted supply chain and labour availability. The sector employs almost 12 crore people, making a large number of the country’s households dependent on the 63 million MSME units. It also accounts for a third of India’s manufacturing output and 45% of exports.

Many units have paid their workers wages for March in full and are prepared for April payments. While there are no revenues now, there is a government mandate to keep paying salaries and wages. There are other bills like electricity and water that also have to be paid. But without revenues or substantial government support, there is no way they can carry on in May and beyond. “Wages and salaries are the biggest issue, and everyone is sweeping it under the carpet,” says Ashish Vaid, president of the IMC that is also a federation of 170 industry associations from western India.

Labour Lost Vaid, himself a realtor with annual sales of Rs 200 crore, says all MSMEs should be eligible for bank loans equivalent to three months wages at repo rates. Multiple industry associations, including the Confederation of Indian Industry, have petitioned the government for a bailout package for the MSME sector (essentially all businesses with capital investments up to a maximum of Rs 10 crore).

Apart from loans to cover wages, there are othercommon requests like suspension of contributions to employee’s provident fund and Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for six months. Some demand that there should be a clawback of GST that has already been paid. Easier access to bank loans, especially at low rates, with help from the state and central governments, is another common theme, as is a moratorium on repayments for six months and a 25% increase in working capital loans. Seeking more loans and a simultaneous moratorium on repayments are also a sign of underlying desperation in the sector.

Take first-generation entrepreneur Raja Shanmugam of Tiruppur. His 31-year-old knitted T-shirts manufacturing unit Warsaw International employs 650-800 workers. At least 150 workers are currently lodged in the company’s hostels at Tiruppur. It is a labour-intensive industry and the annual wages bill is almost 30% of sales. Payment from his Indian as well as European buyers stopped in March, and Shanmugam has not been able to ship completed orders either. He wants the government to use ESIC money to take care of the workers’ wages from April onwards.

DK Aggarwal, president of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an association of MSME organisations across states, says restarting units won’t be easy because of the liquidity crunch that the sector is facing. “Cash flow has stopped.

After paying April salaries, all MSMEs will be hand-to mouth.

Plus, there will be no demand, and workers would have also left for their villages.”

Reopening plants in May could lead to revenue flows restarting. But things won’t be so smooth. While there is general consensus that businesses should pay their workers through the lockdown, there are several restrictions on the use of the same workforce once a factory reopens.

Strict rules for social distancing while reopening are not viable for manufacturing units, especially MSME units that have small premises. Nayan Patel, a former president of IMC, explained that his own business, which makes motion control devices, needs a 150-member shift, with multiple processes, that cannot operate with fewer people.

The layout and configuration of machinery and workstations are such that it cannot be done. Many from across the country echo Patel’s view. For Jaipur-based switchgear maker Anil Saboo, the biggest worry is labour shortage, as many employees have left for their states in eastern India.

“There are 15 men living inside my factory today, but the moment the lockdown is lifted, they want to leave for home,” Saboo says.

Gurgaon-based Dev Goel, who runs a package substations and switchboard plant from Manesar, sees a big worry in maintaining social distance inside the factory while labourers work as welders, or lift large items. There was a fear of police action and FIRs being registered against factory owners if these norms were not followed and negligence led to Covid-19 infections in workers. The central government clarified last week that no businessperson will be arrested for workers getting infected with Covid-19 after reopening. However, restrictions have created impediments. Goel said almost 95% of the members of the Manesar Industries Welfare Association have decided to wait and watch and not rush into reopening their plants, in spite of having permission to restart.

Or, take the case of Chetanbhai Makwana, who runs a medicated soap manufacturing unit at Gheekanta, Ahmedabad. Makwana had started his soap unit as an essential service, with 20% staff, but had to shut it down on Friday as only one worker turned up for work.

Broken Chains Apart from cash crunches and labour dislocation, there are serious supply chain and regulatory issues that have affected the MSME sector.

For instance, permissions to restart operations do not come easily, even if you are deemed as an essential service. Amit Seksaria, managing director of RRL Steels Group in Kolkata, says he received a letter from Coal India on April 8, asking him to restart operations. His unit makes ground engaging tools for coal mining and hence is deemed to be an essential service linked to the power sector. However, his application for restarting, filed with the state government, is yet to elicit a reply. While one of his units is in a Covid-19 hotspot, the other one is in a rural area. Seksaria also exports to the Netherlands and Spain and export consignments have been loaded on containers at his factory near Kolkata for orders from these countries. “I am receiving urgent missives from my European buyers but I am not able to send these containers to the Haldia port, which I am told is operating,” Seksaria says.

An injection-moulding unit owner in Daman said he is in a similar predicament, as he manufactures packaging material for the pharmaceuticals industry, but his application for restarting his unit has been stuck at the collector’s office, while some of the larger plants have got permission. Unwilling to be quoted, he says that as a buyer of polypropylene from very large petrochemical companies and a supplier of bottle caps to big pharmaceutical companies, his cash flow is usually squeezed as he has to buy with cash and supply on credit. The crisis has aggravated his problem.

In large parts of Uttar Pradesh, while there is no ban, the non-vegetarian food chain has virtually shut down. Eggs, though, are selling. Mukul Tandon, president of the Merchant’s Chamber of Uttar Pradesh, owns a poultry business, with 75,000 eggs per day. “The retail channels have collapsed and we do not know how to sell the eggs. The industry as a whole in the state produces almost 6 lakh eggs per day. While costs are Rs 3.75 per egg, I am forced to sell them at Rs 2-2.5,” Tandon told ET Magazine.

Nitin Gadkari’s interview by Prerna Katiyar Various MSME chambers have sought relief measures. Is the government thinking of a package for MSMEs? To mitigate the impact on MSME sector, the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has announced a set of relief measures on March 27. A second set of measures was announced on April 17. These measures were primarily meant to maintain adequate liquidity in the system, facilitate and incentivise bank credit flows, ease financial stress and enable the normal functioning of the sector.

The road ahead is not easy. As a nation, we need to fight this together. Industry associations have highlighted their demands in my interactions. Some suggestions require total government support, while others require policy changes and facilitation. We can’t be guided only by the response of other countries. Our economy has its own unique features and hence its own requirements for a return to normalcy. I can assure you that PM Modiji is fully aware of the situation and under his leadership we will be able to chalk a way forward for supporting MSMEs in the best possible way.

Is there any plan to help MSME units with wage payment if lockdown continues beyond May 3? The government on March 26 announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore relief package under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) for the poor to help them fight the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the said package, the Centre proposes to pay the EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund) contribution for next three months of certain categories of employees.

Our objective is to get the best impact of government support not only for MSMEs but also for the poor. There has to be a balance and the result should be the highest impact of government support on society.

The threat of an FIR in case a new infection is detected at a factory has scared many MSME owners. Would you like to reassure them? Social distancing is a reality. The Home Ministry has issued several orders and guidelines, which provide the framework for economic activity to resume, respecting norms of social distancing and personal hygiene. Industrial units and business establishments need to reinvent their workspaces to comply with the guidelines for their own safety as well as the safety of the workers. The Home Ministry has also clarified that the lockdown guidelines should not be misused to harass the management of manufacturing and commercial establishments. That should help in addressing any fears. We are proactively dealing with such issues.

Once business is disrupted, it is difficult for smaller players to recoup and restart. Seksaria says that unless there is an opportunity to start production in May, businesses will start crumbling. Goel of Manesar adds, the lockdown may be followed by lockouts.

Not every MSME business owner is pessimistic.

Bhopal-based entrepreneur Kunal Giani says his motto of constantly focusing on cash flows and staying debt free has held him in good stead today. Giani started his business in rebonded foam, a raw material for mattresses, in 2011, straight out of college. Giani’s father, a banker, had taken voluntary retirement in 2006 to start the business. Bad luck struck and he died in an accident before he could start.

Young Kunal completed his engineering education and took on the mantle.

No one was ready to lend to a young man selling mattress foam on a bike. The company is a debt-free operation today.

With sales of Rs 110-135 crore and two plants, one in Bhopal and another in Uttar Pradesh’s Secunderabad, Giani says he is in a good position to pay salaries for April. The raw material stock, chemicals imported from Southeast Asia, can also last a few months. The lockdown has, of course, impacted his plans to start a new factory in Colombo to supply the south Indian markets. It has also affected the launch of a new product, a mattress that comes in a box, priced at Rs 1,000.

Giani’s firm Sarva Foam Industries is an exception.

But he, too, wants to borrow today and is seeking easier access to credit. However, most small businesses in India are not built like that, points out Nayan Patel. “MSME businesses are usually a month-to-month operation, with little reserves for the future. A disruption like this might just mean restarting everything,” Patel says.

Therefore, a lot of hope is now pinned on moves by the government of India and state governments. Various MSME bodies have even sought income-tax sops. Many MSMEs operate as sole proprietorship firms or partnerships, and are not eligible for the lower corporate tax rates, announced by the finance minister in mid-2019. The US has announced a $484 billion stimulus package for small businesses. The MSME entrepreneurs are hoping that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will draw some inspiration from it and announce a package for Indian small businesses too. After all, her first package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore also drew inspiration from US action. Others, knowing the Indian government has little leeway, have set their eyes on social security funds like the EPF or the ESIC. For a large and critically important sector that generates a large number of jobs and supplies components for nearly every product that we use, no easy solutions are in sight.

In a Fix Over Accommodation by Prerna Katiyar It is 6 am when a bus pulls into Bhangel in Noida. A handful of employees of Medico Electrodes International Limited form a queue to board the vehicle provided by their employer. But first, an attender checks if they are wearing masks properly and sprays sanitisers on their hands. The bus is filled from the back — one in each seat, every other row. Except for the occasional ringing of mobile phones, the ride to office is eerily silent.

Medico, which makes disposable ECG electrodes, picks up its workers from multiple locations in a 3-4 km radius around its factory in Noida special economic zone (SEZ). It takes adequate precautions. “The buses are disinfected after every trip,” says company’s CMD Amit Mehra. “So is the factory after every shift.”

Before they enter the factory, workers also go through a thermal screening and hand washing-sanitising routine. They also get fresh masks are head caps.

In the shop floor, they work on alternate machines to ensure social distancing.

Employees maintain social distancing on the work floor

Medico, classified as an essential service unit, has been working at 50% staff capacity with 300 workers across three shifts since the lockdown. CMD Mehra has been busier than ever, juggling between video-conferencing with staff working from home and domestic and foreign clients. He visits the production floor regularly to check social distancing and other sanitation arrangements. “We give free ration to all workers every fortnight, provided additional Rs 3 lakh Covid-19 insurance cover and are providing transportation services,” he says. Regular counselling is also provided to help workers.

But Mehra, who managed to run his operations through the severe lockdown, faces a serious problem as the government partly opens economic activities.

An order issued on April 22 by the deputy commissioner of the district industries centre, Gautam Buddh Nagar, to provide accommodation to workers within or nearby factory has put him in a bind. “We have three days to comply with the order or shut shop. How can we make such arrangements for 250 people so fast? Besides, will the families of our 60-odd women workers allow them to stay at factories? We are a healthcare unit. Do we shut down now?” says Mehra.

As such, the operations at Medico had slowed due to social distancing. During lunchtime, only one worker is allowed to sit in a table. So it takes almost three hours for the entire team to finish their meals and return to work after a round of sanitisation.

Medico employees undergo a temperature check before boarding the company buses

The situation is almost same at the 13 essential sector units among the 250 factories operational at Noida SEZ now. As the morning shift comes to an end at Medico, workers toss the used head caps and masks in a bin, wash and sanitise their hands and wear fresh face covers. Soon they line up a metre apart to board the buses for a ride back home. All in a day’s work now.

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[touristicplaces]

10 Top Tourist Attractions in Warsaw 2020/2021

10 Top Tourist Attractions in Warsaw 2020/2021

Over the centuries, the national capital has been pillaged and invaded again and again by forces from the Scandinavian nation

and France to Russia.

It suffered serious harm from German bombs in war II.

Yet, national capital these days may be a new, spirited town that has been for the most part remodeled to its pre-World

War II.

Among the traveler attractions in the national capital, Old Town, with its palace, churches, and castles,

is not to be incomprehensible.

Visitors additionally can need to require advantage of the city’s spectacular cultural activities.

Here’s a glance at the highest traveler attractions in Warsaw:

1-Krakowskie Przedmiescie.

A walk down Krakowskie Przedmiescie may be a good way to expertise Warsaw’s history.

Situated at the top of the Royal Route, strollers can realize the Presidential Palace and national capital

University similarly to Baroque churches.

The one-mile long street, one among Warsaw’s oldest, links the previous city and therefore the Royal Castle.

Travelers ought to get on the lookout for a seventeenth-century sculpture of a Madonna and kid that

commemorates a Polish triumph over Turkish forces in the national capital.

2-Copernicus Science Centre.

Copernicus, United Nations agency lived from 1473 to 1543, is one among the foremost known scientists and mathematicians

to come out of Poland.

It was the United Nations agency developed the speculation that the planet revolves around the sun, and not the

other means around.

It is fitting, therefore, that Poland honors him with the Copernicus Science Centre, with

a planetarium exhibit dedicated to the area and the way it impacts our lives.

3-Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Opening on the seventieth day of remembrance of the national capital Ghetto conflict, the repository honors one,000 years

of Jews in Poland.

It is designed to coach folks regarding someone religion and culture through exhibits

in eight galleries that specify such things as however, the Jews came to Poland; at just once

more Jews lived in Poland than anyplace within the world.

The history of the Jews in Poland is told through oral histories of Jews from rabbis

to housewives in multimedia system narratives.

4-Palace of Culture and Science.

The Palace of Culture and Science may be a multi-functional building that homes everything from corporations

to amusement venues.

Built-in the Fifties, the high-rise building – the tallest in Poland — options a steeple

that reaches into the sky.

It was originally named for Stalin, however, modified once the Soviet leader fell out

of favor.

As a concert venue, it’s hosted several international teams, together with the Rolling Stones back

in 1967.

5-Wilanow Palace.

Wilanow Palace is one among the foremost necessary monuments in Poland, representing what Poland

was like before the eighteenth century.

The palace was designed as a home for King of England III Sobieski.

After his death the palace was closely-held by personal families, all dynamic the means the palace

looked.

Unlike the remainder of the national capital, the royal palace survived WWII virtually unhurt, and most of

its furnishings and art were reinstalled when the war.

Today, it's a repository that's home to the country’s inventive and royal heritage.

The seventeenth-century royal palace hosts many music festivals, together with the summer concerts

in the garden.

6-Nowy Swiat.

At first look, Nowy Swiat seems to be misnamed.

Nowy Swiat interprets as New World Street, nevertheless, it's one among the foremost historic streets

in Warsaw.

It runs north from 3 Crosses sq. to the Royal Castle, taking part of the Royal

Route on its journey.

By the twentieth century, it was one among Warsaw’s primary industrial streets, lined with neoclassic

buildings it was virtually fully destroyed throughout war II’s national capital conflict.

It was remodeled as a paving stone street following the war.

7-Warsaw conflict repository.

Warsaw was known for withstanding the Nazis throughout war II.

The someone ghetto, wherever Jews were confined by the Nazis, was the most important in Europe.

The conflict, however, wasn't restricted to Jews alone.

The national capital conflict repository opened in 2004 on the sixtieth day of remembrance of the conflict.

Visitors can realize a day-by-day account of the conflict that began on Lammas and terminated

on Oct two.

8-Royal Castle.

The Royal Castle served because of the home and officers of Polish rulers for hundreds of years.

It is set on Castle sq. at the doorway to the previous city.

The castle dates back to the fourteenth century once it was the official residence of the

Dukes of Masovia.

It was conquered again and again by invaders from afar, however, bounced back to be the place wherever

the first constitution in Europe was written in 1791.

This spectacular structure, with a tower within the middle, maybe a repository these days, tho' official

state conferences are generally commanding here.

9-Lazienki Park.

Lazienki Park additionally referred to as Royal Baths Park is the largest park in the national capital.

Designed as a park within the seventeenth century, it eventually was changed into an area for villas,

monuments and palaces.

The Palace on the islet is that the foremost building within the park, set on the Royal Route in

central national capital.

This palace these days may be a treasure hoarded wealth of paintings collected by Polish royalty and statues of

the country’s greatest rulers.

Also set on the islet may be a Greco-Roman amphitheater that dates back to 1793.

More palaces associate degreed an eighteenth-century orangery will be found within the park.

10-Old city open-air market.

Located within the oldest a part of the previous city, the sq. dates back to the late thirteenth century.

It was wholly destroyed by bombs in war II.

Most of the buildings were restored starting in 1948, and appearance very similar to the first seventeenth

century structures.

A drawing purpose of the sq. these days is that the several restaurants that surround this beautiful

square, that creates it an honest place to sample Polish specialties.

The open-air market options a bronze sculpture of the national capital imaginary creature, the image of Poland’s

capital.

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[architectnews]

Clariant Shared Service Center Łódź Monopolis

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Building, Polish Offices Design

Clariant Shared Service Center in Łódź Monopolis

13 Nov 2020

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Award

Design: The Design Group, Architects – TDG

The Design Group’s success in the prestigious International Property Awards

The Design Group has won an award in the “Office Design” category in the prestigious International Property Awards 2020-2021!

In this year’s edition of the International Property Awards, the title of the Polish “Award Winner” is awarded to the Warsaw-based studio The Design Group led by Konrad Krusiewicz. It is their interior design for the Clariant Shared Service Centre office in the Lodz Monopolis that has been recognized by the numerous IPA jury in the “Office Interior Design” category. This is not only an amazing distinction, but also a confirmation of the capacity to design unique, functional and safe workplaces by architects and designers from The Design Group.

Already on December 11, The Design Group will be awarded during the online broadcast of the virtual European Property Awards 2020-2021 award ceremony, which is part of the international IPA competition, for the interior design for Clariant’s branch office. This design will then compete with the best industry professionals from across Europe for recognition in the category of “Office Interior” on the European level.

“The ideal combination” within the walls of the Lodz Monopolis

The awarded interior design by The Design Group was developed for the Polish office of the Swiss company Clariant. The office of the Polish branch of Clariant is located in the historical premises of the former factory of the Vodka Monopoly; the Monopolis. It is a place where Łódź’s entrepreneurial spirit and historical heritage combine with the modernist spirit; this being precisely what the Swiss company sought whilst seeking the ideal space for its new office. Clariant has opened a Shared Service Centre on the area of ca. 4,317.5 m²; the Centre services the company’s branches operating in Europe and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

“In the design of Clariant’s office interiors, we prioritised the integration of contemporary architecture with the history of the Monopolis, Clariant’s DNA and state-of-the-art technological solutions. The building, which is over a hundred years old, houses plenty of brick walls that we put on display and, yet, we wished to arrange for a specific leitmotif – art closer to people – presented on 79 large-format seamless photo wallpapers”. – says architect Konrad Krusiewicz, founder and CEO of The Design Group.

Art closer to people

“We believe that a common passion and art are the links that unite people; thus we chose the art closer to people theme to be the leitmotif. It fits in with Clariant’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and also corresponds with more and more atomized society that has less and less time for other human beings and contemplation of surrounding world.

It is even more important now when the ongoing situation that has affected us all since the beginning of 2020; the times when people are distant from each other bring in the need for a dash of abstract beauty. We chose to make use of the chance to arrange large walls with references to art, masterpieces and trends presented on 79 large-format seamless photo wallpapers selected under the direction of a specialist engaged by Clariant. This treatment additionally allowed us to weave in the corporate values of the Client.” – reports Konrad Krusiewicz, founder and CEO of The Design Group.

The completed design combines the industrial style, a touch of elegance, yet also a highland, Swiss flair. The ambience of the Clariant office in Łódź is literally and figuratively open. The Monopolis building concept prioritizes people; consequently, the office has been arranged so that every employee feels at ease. The open spaces, multiple conference rooms, offices separated by glass walls, chill zones and coffee points are available in the building to this effect. The large shared kitchen draws directly on the Swiss vibe and alpine huts with extensive wooden fittings. The room provides access to outdoor terraces available to staff in spring and summer.

Wide-scale prestige

International Property Awards is one of the most prestigious and largest annual architectural competitions in the world, which has been running continuously for 27 years. Candidates from different countries submit their designs in several dozen categories. Entries are evaluated by a jury consisting of over 80 industry experts. The judges focus on design, quality, service, innovation, originality and commitment to sustainable development. These designs, which received the most points in the country, have a chance to win on a regional level. They then move on to the final stage, where the best projects in the world are selected.

Thanks to winning an award in the “Office Interior” category at the national stage, The Design Group has a chance to win further distinctions during a gala of the competition broadcast online, which will take place on December 11. Official website of the competition: www.propertyawards.net.

The Design Group is an architecture studio established by architect Konrad Krusiewicz in 2015. The team comprises designers and architects with years of experience in office interior design and architectural consulting for commercial projects and investments, in particular those relating to office buildings. TDG is a winner of various prestigious competitions, e.g. World Design Awards, CBRE Official Superstar, Oracle, etc., and to date, they have performed design activities for over 400,000 sq.m.

The Design Group – contact details: +48 501 082 022 kontakt@thedesigngroup.pl www.thedesigngroup.pl

Previously on e-architect:

1 July 2020

Łódź Monopolis, Clariant Shared Service Center Building

Design: The Design Group, Architects – TDG

Swiss Precision with a Dash of History, in Lódz

Location: former Łódź Vodka Monopoly, central Poland

This is going to be a story about a little part of Switzerland in the center of Poland. Precisely, in Łódź. In this very place, the office of the Swiss chemical concern Clariant came into being within the walls of the former Łódź Vodka Monopoly.

In the Łódź Monopolis, as that is where the Clariant Shared Service Center is seated, people from different parts of the world find employment. The center provides services to customers from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Overall, the center employs over 300 persons from 20 countries. This inspiring office interior was designed for them by The Design Group designers, and it is a smart combination of the antique fabric of Monopolis, Clariant’s values, and the latest technological solutions.

Industrial climate

The Clariant office occupies two floors, totaling over 4.3 thousand m2. The office is spacious and, first and foremost, functional. Original, cast-iron stairs lead to the company’s seat, featuring preserved embossing, which still recalls the beginnings of the Vodka Manufactory.

They accentuate the atmosphere of this place and lend it a classy feeling. Similarly, The Design Group architects did not avoid references to post-industrial aesthetics in the office interiors.

The brick, which you can see on many walls, is an original part of this over 100-year-old building. Its display was a deliberate design effort. Besides, there are mirrors concealed in various parts of the office (from the height of 2.7 m to the ceiling, i.e. up to about 4 m), which create the effect of never-ending masonry and incredible depth.

The ceiling, which resembles a barrel vault, is loaded with illuminating reflectors, along with acoustic systems as acoustic islands and sheets (acoustic beams) tailored to this area.

Three key features

The industrial atmosphere of the office, with its aesthetics dominated by the said bricks, soft colors, and wooden veneer, is interrupted by a number of distinctive architectural interventions. The first one, which is extremely representative for those interiors, are the photo wallpapers, featuring for instance reproductions of pieces by prominent painters. Altogether, there are nearly 80 of such reproductions.

Each of them refers to one of Clariant’s six main values. The print ideas presented by Clariant have been tested by TDG in terms of aesthetics and integration into the building structure. The greenery is another design element making these interiors stand out, introduced there as a so-called living wall. Not only is its function to decorate, but above all to purify the air.

“When discussing the Clariant office in Łódź, you cannot overlook interior design elements that go straight to the roots of the brand. For this reason, the kitchen resembles somewhat an alpine village hut. Plenty of wood and intriguing detail. We set our heart on making the project allude to the Swiss style, even in such settings as lighting and luminaires,” says Emilia Wójcicka, a designer from The Design Group, who is in charge of the interior concept for the Clariant office.

“For this reason, for example, there are lamps in the kitchen; we designed them in n such a way as to resemble massive shepherd’s bells. On the other hand, some of the luminaires are made of recycled materials. Those are post-industrial lamps made of thick, artisan glass. Following the definiteion of recycling, we wanted to give them a new life, “play” with their customization and combine them with the industrial style of the interiors,” explains Ewelina Mężyńska, a designer from The Design Group.

Functional and safe

The ambience of the Clariant office in Łódź is literally and figuratively open. Employees predominantly occupy the open space, and individual offices are separated by glass walls. There are also numerous conference rooms, leisure areas, and coffee points. The company has also minded providing silent rooms, i.e. small, glazed “telephone booths.”

The good, but most importantly, safe office experience is fostered by advanced health and safety solutions, such as projectors with information about low ceilings, or a safe door handle system that warns with color signals when a bathroom door opens onto the hallway.

The Clariant Shared Service Center is undoubtedly a metonym for modernity and for the highest standards of architecture for this type of space. Yet, it does not lose its entrepreneurial spirit; indeed, the said spirit is shaped by the history of Monopolis, and by the value of this Swiss brand. These aspects were emphasized by Konrad Krusiewicz’s design team – The Design Group. The end result is bound to receive recognition.

Lead architects/designers: Konrad Krusiewicz, Marta Konarska, Ewelina Mężyńska, Emilia Wójcicka, Paulina Senejko, Łukasz Miśkiewicz Gross floor area: 4300 m2 Location: Dr. Stefana Kopcińskiego 62 – Monopolis building, 90-032 Łódź (Poland)

The Design Group

The Design Group is an architecture studio established by architect Konrad Krusiewicz in 2015. The team comprises designers and architects with years of experience in office interior design and architectural consulting for commercial projects and investments, in particular those relating to office buildings. TDG is a winner of various prestigious competitions, e.g. World Design Awards, CBRE Official Superstar, Oracle, etc., and to date, they have performed design activities for over 400,000 sq.m.

The Design Group representative – contact details: Mega Czarniecka phone: +48 794 549 239 mega.czarniecka@thedesigngroup.pl

TDG website: https://en.thedesigngroup.pl/

Clariant Global Service Operations Monopolis building images / information from The Design Group

Location: Lodz, Poland, eastern Europe

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