Pix Credit: Data is giving rise to a new economy

[("From subway trains and wind turbines to toilet seats and toasters—all sorts of devices are becoming sources of data. The world will bristle with connected sensors, so that people will leave a digital trail wherever they go, even if they are not connected to the internet. As Paul Sonderegger, a big-data strategist at Oracle, a software-maker, puts it: “Data will be the ultimate externality: we will generate them whatever we do.”")Data is giving rise to a new economy]

[("The data-driven system would help meet market objectives by effectively extending financing options to the country’s large unbanked population, and ideological objectives by addressing rampant corruption, profiteering, and mistrust in the country—or as early documents promised, to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”") China's Great Social Credit Leap Forward; ("Today, social credit is once again a reality. Everything from the information that we are shown to the prices and opportunities we’re offered are wrapped up in the byzantine way the digital world curates identity. We have easy access to our credit scores, and know the way to improve them. When it comes to the online world, this isn’t nearly so straightforward. Who is gathering data about us, how is it used and what does this mean for the way that we perceive the digital world around us; all of these questions are far from clear.") We’re closer to China’s disturbing ‘Social Credit System’ than you realize; Next Generation Law: Data Driven Governance and Accountability Based Regulatory Systems in the West, and Social Credit Regimes in China]

[("‘ White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the stunning move from the White House briefing room podium as the building was engulfed in controversy over the new tell-all book penned by former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman. . . . . John Brennan is a stain on the Country, we deserve better than this,' Bongino said. Trump told him, 'Thank you Dan, and good luck with the book!' Sanders was the face of the clearance dispute on Wednesday after making the announcement about Brennan at a briefing where she withstood repeated questioning about why each of the officials targeted for review has been a prominent Trump critic or otherwise features in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.. . . . "I know some things that the Russians were involved in, but I certainly don’t know all the things that Mr. Trump has been involved in over the years, and I do not pretend to have that knowledge,’ he continued. ‘He is the one, but clearly his actions are those of somebody who is seeking to prevent the full light of day being shown upon his past,’ Brennan said, clearly linking the decision on his clearance to Mueller’s probe.") 'Trying to silence me is a pointless abuse of power:' John Brennan condemns Trump for stripping him of security clearance and calling him 'frenzied'– as attempt to muzzle critics appears timed to distract from Omarosa debacle]

[(The leaders of the Cuban State, like many other leading groups around the world in comparable circumstances, have announced its commitment to encourage popular review and commentary of its project of constitutional revision for the Cuban Republic. Such review and commentary is to be broadly encouraged not just from Cubans living within Cuba but also those resident abroad. It is with that in mind that I will make available popular commentary submitted to the state organs or otherwise published during the course of the public commentary around the debates in Cuba (and elsewhere among Cubans abroad) to the 2018 draft Constitution.) Recursos del constitucionalismo cubano/Cuban Constitutionalism Resources: Primeros Commentarios del Pueblo/Initial Popular Commentaries; CubaConstitution 

[("Youths torched and vandalized scores of cars in the Swedish city of Gothenburg and surrounding towns and Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Tuesday the disturbances looked organized “almost like a military operation. . .  It was unclear what triggered Monday night’s unrest but Sweden has seen a rise in violence in areas with high unemployment and other social problems and the incident echoed rioting in the capital Stockholm in 2013”)  Youths in Swedish towns burn and vandalize scores of cars; ()

4.  If everything is white privilege, then at last the color element of hierarchy is again put in its place;and again color is eviscerated form analysis. 

[("It remains that the key difference between the French Guiana protesters of 2017 and their metropolitan counterparts of 2018 is of course one of status. For most of its history, French Guiana was a distant colony, whose indigenous population was cobbled together from Amazonian tribes, marooned slaves and convicts. On the other hand, historians will note that since the French Revolution, rural France has been the backbone of the République — always rebellious but also fiercely republican and egalitarian. That France does not take lightly to be administered like a distant colony by the government. Some might even call that republican, if not white, privilege.") To understand the Paris ‘yellow vests’ riots, look to French Guiana]

5.  There are other states which serve as a dress rehearsal for the American conversation about citizenship and residence; but it appears only the American conversation has significance.

[("India has effectively stripped four million people in Assam of citizenship, sparking fears of mass deportations of Muslims from the northeastern state. But authorities assured that those who could not make it to the draft list will not face "immediate deportation or be arrested". People will be given time to file for corrections, Indian officials said. . . . The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power on the promise to expel the so-called "illegal foreigners" and protect the rights of indigenous groups.") What's next for the 4 million stripped of citizenship in India?].

6.  Society has again sought to construct its gods in its own image; but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to control their gods this time around.

[("In a sense, a curious transformation emerges from the efforts to use law and conventional administrative regulation as a means of constraining and shaping AI, and AI related systems of management. Law, in this context, becomes much more remote--it is transformed from a first to as second order regulatory device.  That is, law becomes most useful (and the administrative regulations through which it is amplified and made enforceable) as a means of constructing operational systems, rather than as the basis for the set of direct command that its objects must obey.  Law increasingly is best used to constitute systems rather than to serve as the means for operationalizing systems once constituted through meta-legal documents (constitutions, etc.).") Eckpunkte der Bundesregierung für eine Strategie Künstliche Intelligenz/Key points of the Federal Government for an Artificial Intelligence strategy As of 18 July 2018]

7. Territoriality based regionalism is an artifact of the 20th century; but there is much that connects states caught between global giants and their new era initiatives; thus is born new era economic regionalism. 

[("The other countries in the deal were undeterred by the US’s withdrawal. Even without the US, the new pact will be among the largest multilateral trade deals ever enacted . The CPTPP countries include 14% of world GDP. Beyond just lowering trade barriers between the countries, the deal also includes greater protection of intellectual property rights—a part of the deal the US fought for—and provisions to increase minimum labor standards for workers in participating countries") The huge new Pacific trade deal has gone into effect without the US]

 8.  Statues are at their most influential at the time they are erected and at the time they are torn down or removed; it is only at those moments that they serve as the hand puppets of others.

[("The removal of Mr. Nagy’s statue is part of a broader push by Mr. Orban to resurrect Hungary’s right-wing authoritarian past, said Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital, a Budapest-based political think tank and consultancy. “It’s the re-establishment of the symbolic politics of the Horthy era,” Mr. Kreko said, adding that the restoration of public areas around Parliament to reflect their appearance between the two world wars was a sign that the country’s political leadership was seeking to build on Admiral Horthy’s heritage.") Hungarians Fume as Statue of Former Leader Is Downgraded]

9. The 20th century was one in which the world renounced "unequal treaties" and imperialism; the 21st Century will have to confront the meaning of equality within global production chains.

[("And then the port became China’s. Mr. Rajapaksa was voted out of office in 2015, but Sri Lanka’s new government struggled to make payments on the debt he had taken on. Under heavy pressure and after months of negotiations with the Chinese, the government handed over the port and 15,000 acres of land around it for 99 years in December.");  How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port].

10.  Even states have learned to make the masses laugh despite themselveswhen they substitute agit-prop for politics.

[("Bravo. One has here at least a marvelous piece of agit prop that serves the interests of all of those invested in it. But does it do anything else? For that we must wait and see. But what is clear is that even the most compelling bit of agit prop can be turned on itself. Visual agitprop is an invitation to engage with image the way one used to engage with words. In both cases ideas may be produced. But the marvelous image that the Germans produced can take on a life of its own from the moment it is liberated. In this case, some of these interpretations may actually do the Germans more harm than good--not with one's allies, but precisely with those who need to be influenced. ") Picture and Communique: Agit Prop at the G7]

  

(Pix CiberCuba Jan 1, 2019)

Adelanto de la Letra del Año, de la Sociedad Cultural Yoruba de Cuba

Signo Regente: Oshe Ogunda
1er. Testigo: Ika Ogunda
2do Testigo: Osa Kuleya

Oración Profética: Osorbo Iku Intori Ogu.

Orula Onire: Adimu (Un ñame, un coco partido en 2 mitades, todo se embarra con manteca de corojo, su coco y sus velas.

Otan Onishe Ara: Sarayeye con un pollo y se le da a Oggun, con los demás ingredientes y darse un baño con hierbas de Paraldo.

Otan Deidad que Gobierna: Oshún
Deidad Acompañante: Oggun Otan

Bandera: Amarilla con Ribetes verdes

Ebbo: 1 chivo (para Elegba) 5 güiritos, a los cuales se les echan añil, miel, manteca de corojo, palo rompe hueso y sangre el chivo y se cuelgan en la puerta, y los demás ingredientes.

__________

The now official divination for 2019 takes a different turn.  It is founded on two very specific manifestations of the divine--Oshun and Oggun Otan. The first manifests love and accumulation, wealth and the world of the senses.  The second represents industry and weaponry. The patakis for Oshun and Ogun are particularly interesting. And they point to the way that the ruling manifestations of the divine in this reading will strongly affect the approach to the oddus that make up the core of the reading.

When Ogun, the fierce and hard-working blacksmith, withdrew from the creation of the world and retreated into the forest, Oshun brought him out. With the departure of Ogun's force and labor, creation stopped. No new fields were cleared for planting and no new inventions appeared to help the Orishas and human beings. Ogun took to the bush, and the process of creation came grinding to a halt. Several orishas tried to draw him out of the forest but failed. Finally Oshun went into the woods with her five scarves and her gourd of honey. She did not call to Ogun. Instead she found a clearing and began to dance. Her beauty and her sensual movements caught Ogun's attention. As he watched her dance, he was drawn to her. Slowly he approached her, and when he drew close, Oshun smeared his lips with her honey. As she danced, Ogun followed her back to civilization and resumed his work. (Depths of Oshun)

This combination of creation, exile and seduction suggests the context in which the relevant oddus ought to be approached. Ogun is creation, the driving force of accumulation, of the development of productive forces, but also of the development of destructive forces as well.  He is at once connected to the world but also quick to be distressed by the failings of humans, and willing to retreat.  Oshun is the amplification of the seduction of plenty, of love and of connection, in the face of a powerful orisha's intent to withdraw form the world and his communities. She is the manifestation of life forces, of passion. As such, she manifests the amplified irrationality of both the decision to withdraw and the decision to allow oneself to be led back. That s the structure within which it is possible to read the oddus--of the pulsing relations between the development of productive and destructive forces, and of the seduction of passion for its object.  That arc of interaciton describes the animating pattern of events in 2019.

While the full letter will likely include the usually amplification in the context of Cuba and Cuban affairs, I will leave that for later--and others. In any case, those will be based on the way that the driving oddus are encountered by the religious community.  I provide here my own brief observation of the directions to which those point within the ordering context of the Oshun-Ogun connection.

The oddus (reflections based on the translations and oddus in The Sacred Ifá Oracle (Afolabi A. Epega and Philip Neimark, Brooklyn NY: Athelia Henrietta Press, 1995)

1. Signo Regente: (Oshe Ogunda (The Sacred Ifá Oracle no. 2).  Ogunda speaks generally of fighting, of conflicts and disputes.  It speaks to the need for sacrifice--that is for action directed to the right place.  It is the essence of Ogun--the tool maker, builder, warrior. One speaks here of industry, of production, and of conflict intimately tied to that production. In contrast Ose speaks to the need for action to ensure long life and health. But it also infers that sacrifice is needed to extend life in the face of enemies that might otherwise shorten it. Ose is sometimes tied to Shango and Orunmila. It is about identifying and overcoming enemies. Taken together Ose Ogunda is a double warning about conflict that can affect not just production but life. These are amplified by the two supporting oddu.But it is not just conflict among strangers; it is a conflict between parents and children, what is coming and what is going.

2. 1er. Testigo: Ika Ogunda (The Sacred Ifá Oracle no. 204). Speaks to the courage to face conflict.  If  Oshe Ogunda portends conflict in the midst of good fortune, then Ika Ogunda speaks to the lack of will to protect oneself.  It signals that the yar will see the mighty fall for failure of a will to fight.  They will flee but not sacrifice.  Expect to see strategic retreats among the mighty throughout the year.  And expect as well that this fearful retreat will be undertaken in the spirit of Ogun leaving the world of humans to live alone in the forest.  In the long term the results will not be propitious. Ika Ogunda speaks of the coward's son who was half dead from fright in the face of conflict. He was advised to sacrifice and did not (A daafún Adetutu, Omo-Ojokof'okan-balemi (eemi), Akúde' dajikijatoode. Won niki ó rú: Ajá kan, emu, esun-isu ati epo. O gbó ko rúbo). The problem did not disappear.  But it is Oshun who drives the oddus for this letter fo the year.  And this is the sort of Oddu that suggests that it will not be the Oshun who danced and enticed Ogun back from the forest that will be intermeshed with the coward's son.  It will likely be the Oshun enraged  by the negation of passion that the cowartd's son suggests.  And that will not bode well for those who seek to avoid conflict thrust upon them.

3. 2do Testigo: Osa Kuleya (or Osa Ogunda, OSA Guleya; The Sacred Ifá Oracle no. 202). Osa Ogunda speaks to the importance of sacrifice in human activity.  that can be understood literally or metaphorically in the sense that the sacrifice must be made by the person but its form and direction are not necessarily always bound by a specific set of ritual expectations. Sacrifice is the quid pro quo of interaction and of movement forward to or away from particular courses of events that otherwise would have followed a particular course.

Ossa Ogunda speaks to the need for action to assure good fortune, that is good fortune requires action and sacrifice. It is an oddu of the ability (and need) to fight (Osa Gubda le ja) and of the effect of sacrifice in that context. It tells of the divinaiton for Olibara.  He sacrified  for good fortune; he sacrifiec for fecundity.  And he was granted both. But when war was divined he refused to sacrifice. He made no effort to thwart or meet war.  War came and he fled, with no fortune or children. Aija-gogorogo awo ilké Olibara, o ni ogun li oun ri, O niki Olibara rúbo; Agbo, egbaa metalelogbon owó. O ni bu Olibara ka ba rúbo, O ni ogun yoo de ni ojo mòkànlá. Olobara ko rúbo. Ojo mókànlá pe, Ogun de. Olibara sa'gun kuro ni ilu.    The sacrifices of fortune and fecundity will bring war--those who chose to do nothing will find all that is theirs taken away.  But it also suggests the imminense of conflict, and the need to prepare.

Osa Ogunda  also speaks to the irony of desire.  It tells the stroy of the weed and the farmer who both sought to avoid death.  Both were told to sacrifice. The weed was told that it would not die but would be placed in a higher place.  The farner was told he would avoid death.  With that the farner finished howing the furrows of his field and gathered up the weed with his tools, which he then placed high on a stump.  The weed only saw that it had been made notable.   "Therefore the last words usually spoken by the weed are: 'May the farmer not die. May I too not die, so that we both remain forever'" (Emi joyè orí aga o, nitorinaa, oro ikehin ti Aikujegunre nso niipe: Ki Oloko ma kú o, ki emi ma kú, ki a njo fi aiko j'egbo s'ara).  Rioots do not die, and the farmner lives on what he harvests; a reating cycle of life.

In both aspects, it is action and inaction that produces good or ill fortune.  It is inaction that drives people from their community (Ogun in the forest withdrawn from society), and it is the desire for life, a relentless life force, that drives relationships of consumption--sacrifice. But in both cases the person must trust herself to act.  And here one sees the focus of the oddu in the context of the coming year--one in which good fortune, fecundity and conflict are tied together.; one in which cycles of cinsumption will require a sacrifice by those who are unable to see the extent of what they have given. This will be a year of action and inaction bringing bad fortune; its will be a year of consumption--the world in all aspects will be consuming itself in conflict and interaction that will shift fortune and fecundity. 

This oddu speaks to the nature of sacrifice.  It brings together the passion of Oshun with that of Oya. It tells the story of Oya who to save her children gave up her favorite food and gave herself to Shango. It speaks to the unpalatable. And this is the oddu that speaks to the burden of responsibility of the way that Oshun brought Ogun out of the forest and tied him (his sacrifice) to the maintenance of the world. That eternal burden suggests a fundamental sacrifice of self--of abstract and concrete, for a greater objective.  It ties together nicely the warnings of conflict from fecundity, and of the perils of shirking duty, or cowardice.  Yet at the same time it hints that htis is precisely what may come to pass for many (not all) with the resulting disaster for individuals, families, enterprises, entities, and states. This is not the year to avoid conflict; this is not the year to avoid sacrifice for a greater objective; but it is also not a year to go looking for a fight.





The Full Version of the Letter of the Year has its own interpretaiton of these oddus with specific reference to the condition of Cuba and Cuban society. They are very general in character.  But it is possible to come to a better understanding of specific application by a careful study of the Oddu in light of the driving divine manifestations: Oshun-Ogun. That follows here:

Enfermedades que aumentan su índice:

- Enfermedades del estómago y los intestinos.
- Incremento del índice de Enfermedades de trasmisión sexual.
- Impotencia a temprana edad, como consecuencia de problemas en la próstata en los hombres.
- Afecciones malignas en colon, y recto.

Acontecimientos de Interés Social

- Continuarán problemas en el sector agrícola fundamentalmente en la producción de viandas, hortalizas y vegetales como consecuencia de la poca fertilización de los suelos.
- Penetraciones del mar que pueden producir inundaciones y derrumbes.
- Incremento de conflictos migratorios.
-Continuará el peligro y las amenazas a catástrofes naturales de todo tipo.

Recomendaciones:

- Signo que advierte sobre el peligro que puede generar el despilfarro.
- Se recomienda evitar la mala utilización de productos químicos en las producciones agrícolas.
- Cuidado con epidemias y enfermedades.
- Evitar enfrentamientos y reyertas.
- Se recomienda mantener una ética religiosa adecuada.
- Hay que buscar concurso y ayuda entre todos para lograr los objetivos trazados.
- Respetar a los mayores y buscar orientación religiosa.
- Evitar problemas con la justicia.
- Aumento de las enfermedades venéreas producto al desenfreno sexual.
- Dar mejor uso a los recursos agrícolas.
- Se recomienda un equilibrio en todos los órdenes.
- Se recomienda reforzar a oggun. (ver a los padrinos para esto).
- Hay que tener cuidado con el consentimiento excesivo de los padres para con los hijos.
- Los padres deben prestar esmerada atención al cuidado y la educación de los hijos.
- Se prohíbe auto medicamentarse.

and yet another version HERE

__________

A. The "Other" Version

What follows is the other version of the Letter of the Year that appeared on line, plus my own reflections.  Both become more interesting when read in conjunction with the official version. 

 __________

Letra de Año para 2019

Signo regente: Ojuani Iwori
Primer testigo: Okana Ogunda
Segundo testigo: Ogunda Oddi

Sentencia profética: Ire san bodi elese Orisha intori ota ole Orunmila lorugbo.

Predice: El bien de mejoría viene a través del Orisha la divinidad de la tierra entre mas comida le de mas bienes obtendrá y recibirá el amparo ante las desgracias otorgado por la deidad, Orunmila todo lo resuelve y lo hace verdadero.

Divinidad regente: Oshosi
Divinidad Asistente: Oshun

Ebbo: Aunko, Akuko meyi, addie meyi dun dun, Eyele fun merin, gio gio, Eñi addie, ewe ikoko, epo pupua, asho ara, oka, ou, owo merin, opolopo owo, ewereniye merin, agwado merin, atare merin, eku, eya, oñi, oti, bobo omi, bogbo ere, oyouro oshu sere, ile atitan, ori, ofun, itana seun, bele awan, akofan, lowo re.

Onishe Ara: Ebbo misi flores frescas, miel, leche, oti, eku ella agwado, 3 hierbas de olor, perfume.

Onishe Ile: baldear entrada y salida. Ewe aberikunlo, zazafras, ewe ayo, ewe dun dun, escoba amarga, Ori, ofun, omi tutu.

Mantener la puerta de su casa o negocio libre de basura y obstáculos.

Bandera de la puerta: Azul y ribete amarillo

Obras:

– Obori Eleri

– Darle de comer a la tierra

– Hacer Ebbo y obras a los Orisha especialmente a su Orisha regente

– Hacer las obras correspondientes a la atención firme y oportuna a sus guerreros de IFA y eggun’s así también a bogbo ara onu.

– Estudiar y aprender lo mas que pueda y ser eficiente cada dia mas.

– Colgar 1 saco con ministras detrás de la puerta de su casa o negocio.

– Botar comida a la puerta para mejorar la economía.

Refranes:

– Las raíces de IFA son amargas y el fruto es dulce.

– Oye a todos y de ninguno te fies, ten a todos como amigos y cuidate de todos como enemigos.

– Si no puedes cumplir no prometas.

– No es sabio seguir lo que no asegura triunfo.

– No cualquiera termina un año bien y espera otro mejor.

Predicciones de Interés Social:

– Situaciones de violencia extrema, por mala crianza y malas compañías

– Mejoras y cambios en el gobierno traerán nuevas inversiones y estabilidad económica.

– Fenómenos naturales de gran magnitud, sismos, maremotos y deslaves de tierra.

– Huracanes, ciclones y trombas asi como tornados devastadores es un IFA de llamado de la tierra a sus huéspedes.

– Cambios climáticos por crecimiento de la tierra a raíz de la sobre población y muerte de especies en el planeta.

– Uso indiscriminado de medicamentos recetados producirá enfermedades incurables y muerte inevitable por corrupción entre gobierno, médicos y laboratorios, saldrá a la luz pública aunque será demasiado tarde para algunos.

– Epidemias y virus que pondrán en riesgo la vida de muchos por negligencia y avaricia.

– Contaminación de alimentos por virus salmonella derivado del mal tratamiento de aguas y contaminación de manantiales con pesticidas y desechos químicos provocaran muerte innecesaria de flora y fauna todo un desperdicio de recursos por mal manejo.

– Disputas y confrontaciones por rivalidades intelectuales y por falta de organización

Exploración espacial tendrá resultados positivos.

Caída de dictador dará al pueblo un respiro y una preocupación a otros.

Seguirán las enfermedades cardiovasculares congénitas, enfermedades pulmonares, enfermedades circulatorias y estomacales producidas por alto consumo de grasas, sales, azucares artificiales, comida chatarra y mala calidad de agua.

Daño renal irreparable por el alto consumo de bebidas endulzadas con azúcar artificial de importación.

Funcionarios caerán presos por desfalcos en el gobierno.

Confrontación peligrosa entre naciones por caprichos de los gobernantes.

Calentamiento de los mares provoca la muerte de algunas especies marinas lo que puede generar un alza en los costos de esos productos.

Fraudes cibernéticos pondrán en jaque a las autoridades.

Recomendaciones:

– Se recomienda a los gobiernos mejorar la legislación en materia de seguridad para dar castigo ejemplar a criminales.

– Fomentar el respeto y honradez entre las personas mantener el orden y la preservación de valores a los hijos tarea importe para sus tutores.

– Se recomienda a las mujeres cuidar de su dignidad y respeto, a las que son madres educar conscientemente a sus hijos para que asuman en el futuro una responsable paternidad basada en valores de honor y respeto.

– Se recomienda a los religiosos retomar su compromiso de humildad y respeto entre los mismos, recuerden que el más chico puede resolver al más grande que un Babalawo no tiene la cura para sí mismo y que somos la única religión y practica que los religiosos deben demostrar la humildad ante Orunmila visitándose entre sí para ayudarse y consultarse.

– Se recomienda a los padres que den mas tiempo de calidad a sus hijos conviviendo y conversando, el tiempo que malgastan en plataformas digitales cobrara caro la desatención a sus hijos.

– Se recomienda a los médicos trabajar mas por la salud de sus pacientes y dejar de hacer menos caso a las ganancias de los laboratorios medicinales y poner mas atención en sus pacientes y en vez de experimentar con medicamentos deben estudiar la medicina tradicional y herbolaria que es lo que ha hecho posible que la humanidad llegue hasta estos tiempos.

– Se recomienda al gobierno activar el campo, la agricultura y ganadería, asi como apoyo al campesino y sus familias.

– Se recomienda a los maestros en las escuelas apliquen mejor criterio en la enseñanza traten de organizar sus grupos como una familia donde se vea definido el papel cívico de respeto, disciplina y moral.

– Se recomienda a los representantes de los derechos humanos que vean mas por las personas que son víctimas y no por sus victimarios es tiempo que la sociedad se reacomode en la fomentación de mejores valores sociales y eviten su auto destrucción por excesos de libertinaje.

– Se recomienda al gobierno que detenga la producción de productos elaborados con azúcar sintética como sucraloza y demás productos que elevan los niveles de glucosa causando problemas físicos daños renales y otras enfermedades congénitas.

– Se recomienda la revisión y planificación de asentamientos humanos para evitar pérdidas y tragedias así como también revisar periódicamente edificios para evitar accidentes y derrumbes.

– Se recomienda a las personas en general no importa su religión ni estatus social, que deben conocer a los miembros de su comunidad y apoyarse en la tarea de vigilancia tanto de sus hijos como de sus bienes para mantener la seguridad y armonía entre vecinos de una comunidad o colonia.

– Se recomienda mantenerse lejos de los problemas ajenos y revueltas siempre protejan a sus hijos no exponiéndolos a la ira de otras personas al usarlos como escudos humanos.

Dice IFA:

– Dice IFA uno no es ninguno, hay que ayudarse y conocerse para poder vivir en armonía. Los religiosos se visitan para ser conocidos y para poder ayudarse entre si ya sea para actualizarse o para apoyarse.

– Dice IFA para crecer en la vida se tiene que superar muchas vivencias y adversidades la manera que se resuelvan esas etapas definirán la grandeza o la tristeza.

– Dice IFA solo aquellos que definidas sus prioridades y objetivos son los que actúan con prudencia no se dejan seducir por todo lo que les rodee y no les conviene. Es decir si una persona decide tomar el rumbo equivocado de la vida no puede culpar a nadie más que así mismo por su perdida o su error.

– Dice IFA resistirse al mal camino y educarse al buen sendero da la fuerza moral para realizar metas y cumplir compromisos de una buena vida.

– Dice IFA ningún camino es largo si se disfruta el paseo pues el trayecto o el proceso es lo que hace importante la vida, la meta es satisfacción para la muerte.

– Dice IFA quien abandona el calor pronto sentirá el frio, quien abandona lo bueno ya se abandono a si mismo.

– Dice IFA la muerte de otros siempre deja ejemplos de lo que no se debe de hacer.

– Dice IFA no hay satisfacción si el resultado no es el optimo.

– Dice IFA uno no es ninguno, la unión hace la fuerza, entre más unida una estructura es mas solida y menos impenetrable.

– Dice IFA la fortaleza se adquiere con el resultado satisfactoria después de varios intentos fallidos, no todos aciertan a la primera.

__________

The divination for 2018 pointed to fairly significant ruptures and also to fairly significant disclosures in the sense that what was hidden will be revealed. The emphasis was on the crossroads--communication, movement, luck, and starts, true or false--and on symbols that has traditionally been gendered female--the sea, the moon, intuition, fecundity, and protectiveness of  family. As it turned out, 2018 was indeed a year of revelations with significant ruptures; it was a year for revelations of spying, of corruption, and of sexual impropriety.  It was a year in which careers and states were upended by reason of revelation and communication. 

The divination for 2019 takes a different turn.  It is founded on two very specific manifestations of the divine--Ochossíand Oshun.  The first manifests justice, the other love. The justice manifested in Ochossí is both relentless and strict.  The common pataki (sacred story) of the manifestation of Ochossí (there are variaitons):

Ochosi was an expert hunter and he found the bird without a problem. He took it home and put it in a cage, and then went to tell Orula that he had the bird.  While Olofi was out, his mother came home and found the bird in the cage. She thought it was meant for their dinner, so she killed and dressed the bird, and then she went to the market to buy some of the condiments she needed to cook it.  Ochosi came home and saw the bird was dead, and he was very upset. He didn't know who had killed it, but he decided that he needed to go get another bird right away, so Orula would be able to give it to Olofi.  Ochosi hunted and trapped a second bird and gave it to Orula and, together, they went to present the bird to Olofi.  Olofi was so happy with the gift that he wanted to reward Ochosi, so he gave him a crown and made him an Oricha on the spot.  He asked Ochosi if there was anything else he wanted, and the hunter replied, yes, he wanted to shoot an arrow into the air and have it pierce the heart of the person who killed the other bird.  Olofi, all knowing, understood what Ochosi's words meant, so he asked if Ochosi was sure that's what he wanted.  Yes, said Ochosi, I want justice, and Olofi granted his wish.  Ochosi released an arrow and almost at once he heard his own mother cry out. The arrow had pierced her heart and killed her.  Ochosi was terribly sad when he realized what he had done, but he also knew that justice had been done.

Oshun, on the other hand, is love and sensuality in all of its aspects, both physical and conceptual. She speaks to what is sweet, and beautiful, but also what is precious and valuable.  She is intimately connected to the female, but she does not limit her followers to women. She is beauty, love, prosperity, wealth, fecundity, but also vanity, whim, seduction, and a quick temper and inflexible when crossed.  She is life force in all its force, even as Ochossí is the force of justice without constraint. She amplifies both the positive and negative passion of love and accumulation, of attraction and wealth.  

This combination of blind justice and love suggests that context within which the oddus might be approaches.  That is, they might be read usefully as sitting within a complex web of blind justice that is relentless exposed, but tempered by love, or augmented by love's rejection.  Thus the context is not the usual one in the West--justice tempered by mercy, and its variation.  Instead, it appears to speak to justice whose "arrow" will not miss its mark but the intensity of feeling will augment or diminish the intensity of that arrow. Both point to inflexibility though of different kinds.  Both are bound by their character--justice (not truth) or love and accumulation (not lust or avarice)--and inflexible when challenged. Thus, the context is not the usual 0-1 binary but rather a sense of two aspects of intensification for 2019--one focused on justice and the other on material things and human relations.

I will not speak to the specific advice given in the letter of the year, nor to its suggestions for sacrifice.  I note though that the interpretation of the oddus in light of the guiding manifestations of the divine are interesting, and quite pointed for states. But all touch more specifically on the guiding principles that will shape the year and that are embedded in the oddus. These suggest quite specific recommendations for Cuba and the Cuban state (with respect to its governance, its economic policies and the like).   

My focus in the reflections that follow go to the general indications of the oddus themselves and their potential broader implications. The oddus (reflections based on the translations and oddus in The Sacred Ifá Oracle (Afolabi A. Epega and Philip Neimark, Brooklyn NY: Athelia Henrietta Press, 1995)

1. Owonrin 'Wori (The Sacred Ifá Oracleno. 80). Within the intensities of Ochossí and Oshun, the oddu Owonrin wori acquires a peculiar cast. It speaks generally to the need for great effort to alleviate the lack of material, and spiritual wealth, and likely, as well, a poverty of justice.  It suggests that 2019 will likely see either create laziness or great effort devoted to the attainment or avoidance of justice, of material or emotional wealth. One starts 20'19 in a world in which there is great fear of the loss of material wealth as love ebbs. Isu wón, epo wón, ohungbogbo ti enu nje li o wón (Yams were dear, palm oil was dear, corn and other foods were dear). A sacrifice was required  so that these items would become less expensive (Won ni ohungbogbo to wón fún wón l'ode Iwori yi, ki wón wa rubo ki opo le de fun wón).

That sacrifice was focused on the tools through which the expensive could be made inexpensive--tools, weapons, fish, animals and money.  These, of course, point to those tools necessary to overcome the problem--but not immediately nor through the work of others. Both justice and accumulation will require a substantial investment of effort by those seeking either.  Babalawo niki gbogbo okunrin ko okó ati adá kiwon maa re oko lo sise ki opo le de(The Babalwo said all the men should take up their hoes and cutlasses and go to work on the farm so that food would become less expensive).

Expect there to be substantial investment in investigations, in investment, in the accumulation of objects that point to justice, wealth and love.  But also do not expect a straight line between investment and a targeted outcome.  Ochossí shot his arrow into the air; it was guided by the intensity of spirit that had it find its mark; but that mark was both unexpected and quite dear to him (his mother).  There will be justice and accumulation for those working towards them, but the results will be both unexpected and will require a sacrifice.  Justice will see vindication but at great cost. That cost will substantially affect the fundamental organization of the community within which justice is sought.  And it will fall on those whose intentions were good, and indeed, essential to the well being of those seeking justice. The resulting satisfaction at rendering justice will have profound long term effects on the constitution of the community (the family, the society, the enterprise, the state). 

But where is Oshun's influence in this oddu? That comes next.  For the oddu also speaks to passion and madness.  In divining Ifá for Ojúogbebikan, he was advised to sacrifice to prevent his spouse from becoming mad, or if mad already, to regain her sanity (a niki ó wa rúbo ki aya re ma di wèrè, biobati do wèrè ki lo le sàn). The scaricie: snails, coweries and Ifá medicine.  This points again to the costs of justice, and its result.  That madness will also require sacrifice, in turn.  But will the sacrifice be justice?  Now one of the oracular sayings of the 2019 letter may be clearer: "Las raíces de IFA son amargas y el fruto es dulce" ("the roots of Ifá are bitter but its fruits sweet") The others are interesting in that light as well, though to a lesser degree (Oye a todos y de ninguno te fies, ten a todos como amigos y cuidate de todos como enemigos; Si no puedes cumplir no prometas; No es sabio seguir lo que no asegura triunfo; No cualquiera termina un año bien y espera otro mejor). All suggest caution (but then most oracles tend to do that) but also carry warnings about intimacy and relations among actors.  These suggest as well a caution against reliance in a context the primary focus of which is on self helñp, but in the pursuit of quite specifically underlined goals--justice and accumulation.

2. Ogunda Oddi (The Sacred Ifá Oracle no. 110). In contrast to Owonrin 'Wori, the oddu Ògunda 'di speaks to journeys.  And not just journeys or travel by anyone, but by Oggun--the personificaiton of industry, and perhaps economy.  This is the oddu for globalization, but also of investigations, of investments, and of processes that are meant to lead to some objective.  And it suggests disorders.  Ogun was intent on travel and packed his bags. Orunmila said the journey would be pleasant and he would return safely (Ogun nre ajo o di erù kale, Orunmila I'ònà ajo Ogun a dára. Ogun a bowa ba ilé ni ire). The sacrifice required--animals, oil, nuts, and coweries.

But on the journey there might be internal disorder. It speaks to diving leakages of newly prepared kalabash (a form of gourd). The leakage could be blocked but with an appropriate sacrifice of putty, thorns, coweries and the application of Ifá medicine (Wón ni: Ìdí akeregbe a maa jo. A niki o wa sebo ki edidi le di ibiti o njo fún un). This suggests both that the framework within which important materials will be kept and moved about is imperfect and will lose its contents.  It can be fixed, at soem cost, but also by ignoring its imperfection in the form, of the patch.  What emerghes is a gourd that is not perfect but patched, at some expense.  And yet the Ifá does not suggest a wholly happy solution: Àrun idí tabi Iyagbe yoo maa ba eniti a da Ifá yi fún je, bee ni Ifá wi (Ifá notes that if this oddu is divined then the object of divinaiton suffers from dysentery).  Now the dysentery image points back to the first part of the oddu--just as the gourd may leak, so may its bearer.  Both will require patching, and in the process will not be the same again.

It is interesting to note this supporting supporting oddu in the context of the principal focus on  the need for self help within the context of justice and passion of Owonrin 'Wori.  It emphasizes the warning of the principal oddu of the flaws even in the most well intentioned and well constructed journey or objective or investigation.  That which will produce intensity and justice will itself be flawed; it will leak, and it will be undertaken by  those (individuals, institutions, communities) that themselves are "leaking" in the sense of their own internal failings.  The result will intensify the consequences of even the most well intentioned (and flaws) undertaking.  We will likely see this in both large and small matters in 2019.  

3. Okana Ogunda (The Sacred Ifá Oracle no. ). It is interesting that both supporting oddu touch on Ogunda--that is the oddu that tends to speak to disputes, contestants, the bitterness that is generally referenced at the root of Ifá. Ogunda also is closely linked with Ogun--of industry and conflict. This tends to shift the emphasis  of the Letter of the Year oddus from justice and accumulation that is peaceful to that which is contested. Yet it might be remembered that some patakis (stories) note the close relations between Ochossí and Oggun (Ochossí could hunt but not get to prey in the dense forest; Ogun could make weapons to cut through the underbrush but could not hunt; together they made a stronger team). There will be little peace in the processes of justice whose arrows will likely cause more dispute).  This last supporting oddu speaks to self preservation.  It speaks to the avoidance of confrontation but also a warning that things are never as they seem.  From the outside one is seen to treat everyone well; from inside one divides friends from enemies.

The central purpose of forest certification programs is to verify for interested outsiders that the management activities of certified enterprises are acceptable and appropriate. In doing so certification programs take on important public roles. First, they define what kind of behavior is acceptable and appropriate. They do this in various ways. Some programs include considerable public input and participation, others very little. Some stress multi-stakeholder decision-making while others rely entirely on industry associations or firms. No major certification program, however, relies primarily on the policy formation processes of government. Second, certification programs establish mechanisms to enforce their policies, and to provide public assurances that they are being met. Again, most do not rely on existing governmental enforcement programs. Rather, they devise their own organizational monitoring, auditing, and adjudication systems, and seek to establish credibility independent of government agencies. Products from certified forestry enterprises are generally entitled to display a logo that is meant to signify their social propriety. (Forest Certification as a Global Civil Society Regulatory Institution, pp. 265-266).

§ 1º Nos termos do disposto na Lei Complementar nº 123, de 14 de dezembro de 2006, as microempresas e as empresas de pequeno porte poderão, na medida de suas capacidades, cumprir as Diretrizes de que trata este Decreto, observado o disposto no art. 179 da Constituição.

§ 2º As Diretrizes serão implementadas voluntariamente pelas empresas.

§ 3º Ato do Ministro de Estado dos Direitos Humanos instituirá o Selo “Empresa e Direitos Humanos”, destinado às empresas que voluntariamente implementarem as Diretrizes de que trata este Decreto.

I - a obrigação do Estado com a proteção dos direitos humanos em atividades empresariais;

II - a responsabilidade das empresas com o respeito aos direitos humanos;

III - o acesso aos mecanismos de reparação e remediação para aqueles que, nesse âmbito, tenham seus direitos afetados; e

IV - a implementação, o monitoramento e a avaliação das Diretrizes.

I - capacitação de servidores públicos sobre a temática de direitos humanos e empresas, com foco nas responsabilidades da administração pública e das empresas, de acordo com os Princípios Orientadores sobre Empresas e Direitos Humanos da Organização das Nações Unidas, principalmente ações de:

a) sensibilização e promoção da educação contínua dos recursos humanos da administração pública para o fortalecimento da cultura em direitos humanos; e

b) capacitação dos recursos humanos da administração pública para o tratamento das violações aos direitos humanos em contexto empresarial, de seus riscos e de seus impactos;

II - fortalecimento da consonância entre políticas públicas e proteção dos direitos humanos;

III - aperfeiçoamento dos mecanismos de transparência e de participação social;

IV - implementação de políticas, normas e incentivos à conduta das empresas quanto aos direitos humanos, por meio de:

a) exigência de compromisso público de respeito aos direitos humanos e publicação de relatório anual das empresas;

b) estímulo à prestação de contas sobre os riscos de sua operação aos direitos humanos e exigência de adoção de medidas de prevenção, controle e reparação; e

c) estímulo ao estabelecimento de canais de denúncia para os colaboradores, os fornecedores e a comunidade;

V - prioridade de setores com alto potencial de impacto em direitos humanos, tais como os setores extrativo, de varejo e bens de consumo, de infraestrutura, químico e farmacêutico, entre outros;


VI - desenvolvimento de políticas públicas e realização de alterações no ordenamento jurídico, a fim de:

a) considerar, além dos impactos diretamente gerados pela empresa, os impactos indiretamente gerados pela cadeia de fornecimento;

b) estimular a criação de medidas adicionais de proteção e a elaboração de matriz de priorização de reparações e indenizações para grupos em situação de vulnerabilidade;

VII - estímulo à adoção, por grandes empresas, de procedimentos adequados de dever de vigilância (due diligence) em direitos humanos;


VIII - orientação da incorporação dos direitos humanos à gestão de riscos de negócios e de parcerias que venha a estabelecer, de modo a subsidiar processos decisórios;


IX - criação de plataformas e fortalecimento de mecanismos de diálogo entre a administração pública, as empresas e a sociedade civil;


X - integração dos direitos humanos ao investimento social, aos projetos de desenvolvimento sustentável para as comunidades impactadas e às políticas de patrocínio;


XI - garantia de condições de trabalho dignas para seus recursos humanos, por meio de ambiente produtivo, com remuneração adequada e em condições de liberdade, equidade e segurança, com estímulo à observância desse objetivo pelas empresas;


XII - combate à discriminação nas relações de trabalho e promoção da valorização da diversidade;


XIII - promoção e apoio às medidas de inclusão e de não discriminação, com criação de programas de incentivos para contratação de grupos vulneráveis;


XIV - estímulo à negociação permanente sobre as condições de trabalho e a resolução de conflitos, a fim de evitar litígios;


XV - aperfeiçoamento dos programas e das políticas públicas de combate ao trabalho infantil e ao trabalho análogo à escravidão;


XVI - estímulo à adoção de códigos de condutas em direitos humanos pelas empresas com as quais estabeleça negócios ou atue em parceria, com estímulo do respeito aos direitos humanos nas relações comerciais e de investimentos estatais;


XVII - garantia de posição de negociação equilibrada com a empresa para os grupos em situação de vulnerabilidade, com garantia de suporte técnico e, sempre que possível, apoio da Defensoria Pública do Distrito Federal, dos Estados e da União;


XVIII - priorização de medidas para grupos em situação de vulnerabilidade e situações severas;


XIX - estímulo à criação de comitês permanentes para combate a desastres em contextos empresariais, o qual regulamentará questões sobre:

a) protocolo de emergência e sistemas de alerta;

b) monitoramento de riscos;

c) parâmetros para a resposta e critérios para a reparação de danos, considerado o processo de consulta como condição para a legitimidade da solução; e

XX - monitoramento da recuperação do território impactado por desastre a partir de indicadores capazes de aferir a reparação dos danos nos direitos humanos.

I - aos direitos humanos protegidos nos tratados internacionais dos quais o seu Estado de incorporação ou de controle sejam signatários; e

II - aos direitos e às garantias fundamentais previstos na Constituição.

I - monitorar o respeito aos direitos humanos na cadeia produtiva vinculada à empresa;

II - divulgar internamente os instrumentos internacionais de responsabilidade social e de direitos humanos, tais como:

a) os Princípios Orientadores sobre Empresas e Direitos Humanos da Organização das Nações Unidas;

b) as Diretrizes para Multinacionais da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico; e

c) as Convenções da Organização Internacional do Trabalho;

III - implementar atividades educativas em direitos humanos para seus recursos humanos e seus colaboradores, com disseminação da legislação nacional e dos parâmetros internacionais, com foco nas normas relevantes para a prática dos indivíduos e os riscos para os direitos humanos;

IV - utilizar mecanismos de educação, de conscientização e de treinamento, tais como cursos, palestras e avaliações de aprendizagem, para que seus dirigentes, empregados, colaboradores, distribuidores, parceiros comerciais e terceiros conheçam os valores, as normas e as políticas da empresa e conheçam seu papel para o sucesso dos programas; e

V - redigir código de conduta publicamente acessível, aprovado pela alta administração da empresa, que conterá os seus engajamentos e as suas políticas de implementação dos direitos humanos na atividade empresarial.

I - agir de forma cautelosa e preventiva, nos seus ramos de atuação, inclusive em relação às atividades de suas subsidiárias, de entidades sob seu controle direito ou indireto, a fim de não infringir os direitos humanos de seus funcionários, colaboradores, terceiros, clientes, comunidade onde atuam e população em geral;

II - evitar que suas atividades causem, contribuam ou estejam diretamente relacionadas aos impactos negativos sobre direitos humanos e aos danos ambientais e sociais,

III - evitar impactos e danos decorrentes das atividades de suas subsidiárias e de entidades sob seu controle ou vinculação direta ou indireta;

IV - adotar compromisso de respeito aos direitos humanos, aprovado pela alta administração da empresa, no qual trará as ações que realizará, para evitar qualquer grau de envolvimento com danos, para controlar e monitorar riscos a direitos humanos, assim como as expectativas da empresa em relação aos seus parceiros comerciais e funcionários;

V - garantir que suas políticas, seus códigos de ética e conduta e seus procedimentos operacionais reflitam o compromisso com o respeito aos direitos humanos;

VI - implementar o compromisso político assumido nas áreas da empresa, publicá-lo e mantê-lo atualizado, com destaque, nos sítios eletrônicos e nos canais públicos da empresa e constituir área ou pessoa responsável para acompanhar o seu cumprimento;

VII - promover a consulta livre, prévia e informada das comunidades impactadas pela atividade empresarial;

VIII - criar políticas e incentivos para que seus parceiros comerciais respeitem os direitos humanos, tais como a adoção de critérios e de padrões sociais e ambientais internacionalmente reconhecidos para a seleção e a execução de contratos com terceiros, correspondentes ao tamanho da empresa, à complexidade das operações e aos riscos aos direitos humanos;

IX - comunicar internamente que seus colaboradores estão proibidos de adotarem práticas que violem os direitos humanos, sob pena de sanções internas;

X - orientar os colaboradores, os empregados e as pessoas vinculadas à sociedade empresária a adotarem postura respeitosa, amistosa e em observância aos direitos humanos;

XI - estimular entre fornecedores e terceiros um convívio inclusivo e favorável à diversidade;

XII - dispor de estrutura de governança para assegurar a implementação efetiva dos compromissos e das políticas relativas aos direitos humanos;


XIII - incorporar os direitos humanos na gestão corporativa de risco a fim de subsidiar processos decisórios;

XIV - adotar indicadores específicos para monitorar suas ações em relação aos direitos humanos; e

XV - adotar iniciativas públicas e acessíveis de transparência e divulgação das políticas, do código de conduta e dos mecanismos de governança.

I - manter ambientes e locais de trabalho acessíveis às pessoas com deficiência, mesmo em áreas ou atividades onde não há atendimento ao público, a fim de que tais pessoas encontrem, no ambiente de trabalho, as condições de acessibilidade necessárias ao desenvolvimento pleno de suas atividades;

II - observar os direitos de seus colaboradores de:

a) se associar livremente;

b) afiliar-se a sindicatos de trabalhadores;

c) participar dos conselhos de trabalho;

d) envolver-se em negociações coletivas;

e) receber os benefícios previstos em lei, incluídos os repousos legais; e

f) não exceder a jornada de trabalho legal;

III - manter compromisso com as políticas de erradicação do trabalho análogo à escravidão e garantir ambiente de trabalho saudável e seguro;

IV - não manter relações comerciais ou relações de investimentos, seja de subcontratação, seja de aquisição de bens e serviços, com empresas ou pessoas que violem os direitos humanos;

V - respeitar os direitos de crianças e adolescentes, de forma a incluir, em seus planos de trabalho, assim como exigir de seus fornecedores, empresas coligadas, controladas, subsidiárias e parceiras, ações preventivas e reparatórias para evitar riscos, impactos e violações a direitos de crianças e adolescentes, especialmente as de enfrentamento, erradicação do trabalho infantil e exploração sexual de crianças e adolescentes;

VI - avaliar e monitorar os contratos firmados com seus fornecedores de bens e serviços, parceiros e clientes que contenham cláusulas de direitos humanos que impeçam o trabalho infantil ou o trabalho análogo à escravidão;

VII - adotar medidas de prevenção e precaução, para evitar ou minimizar os impactos adversos que as suas atividades podem causar direta ou indiretamente sobre os direitos humanos, a saúde e a segurança de seus empregados; e

VIII - assegurar a aplicação vertical de medidas de prevenção a violações de direitos humanos.

I - resguardar a igualdade de salários e de benefícios para cargos e funções com atribuições semelhantes, independentemente de critério de gênero, orientação sexual, étnico-racial, de origem, geracional, religiosa, de aparência física e de deficiência;

II - adotar políticas de metas percentuais crescentes de preenchimento de vagas e de promoção hierárquica para essas pessoas, contempladas a diversidade e a pluralidade, ainda que para o preenchimento dessas vagas seja necessário proporcionar cursos e treinamentos específicos;

III - promover o acesso da juventude à formação para o trabalho em condições adequadas;

IV - respeitar e promover os direitos das pessoas idosas e promover a sua empregabilidade;

V - respeitar e promover os direitos das pessoas com deficiência e garantir a acessibilidade igualitária, a ascensão hierárquica, a sua empregabilidade e a realização da política de cotas;

VI - respeitar e promover o direito de grupos populacionais que tiveram dificuldades de acesso ao emprego em função de práticas discriminatórias;

VII - respeitar e promover os direitos das mulheres para sua plena cidadania, empregabilidade e ascensão hierárquica,

VIII - buscar a erradicação de todas as formas de desigualdade e discriminação;

IX - respeitar a livre orientação sexual, a identidade de gênero e a igualdade de direitos da população de lésbicas, gays, bissexuais, travestis, transexuais ou transgêneros em âmbito empresarial; e

X - efetivar os direitos sociais, econômicos e culturais das comunidades locais e dos povos tradicionais, respeitadas a sua identidade social e cultural e a sua fonte de subsistência e promover consulta prévia e diálogo constante com a comunidade.

I - realizar periodicamente procedimentos efetivos de reavaliação em matéria de direitos humanos, para identificar, prevenir, mitigar e prestar contas do risco, do impacto e da violação decorrentes de suas atividades, de suas operações e de suas relações comerciais;

II - desenvolver e aperfeiçoar permanentemente os procedimentos de controle e monitoramento de riscos, impactos e violações e reparar as consequências negativas sobre os direitos humanos que provoquem ou tenham contribuído para provocar;

III - adotar procedimentos para avaliar o respeito aos direitos humanos na cadeia produtiva;

IV - prestar contas com clareza, transparência e lealdade sobre os riscos da operação nos direitos humanos e as medidas adotadas para preveni-los, além dos impactos negativos e dos danos aos direitos humanos que tenham sido causados ou que tenham relação direta com suas operações, seus produtos ou os serviços prestados por meio de suas relações comerciais e das ações de reparação adotadas;

V - informar publicamente as medidas que adotaram no último ciclo para evitar riscos, mitigar impactos negativos aos direitos humanos e prevenir violações, com base em compromisso assumido pela empresa, consideradas as características do negócio e dos territórios impactados por suas operações;

VI - divulgar e identificar publicamente aos seus fornecedores as normas de direitos humanos às quais estejam sujeitos, de modo a possibilitar o controle por parte dos trabalhadores e da sociedade civil, ressalvado o sigilo comercial; e

VII - garantir, sempre que possível a participação das partes interessadas, sobretudo dos indivíduos e das comunidades potencialmente atingidas pelas atividades, no processo de diligência, desde a avaliação de impactos até a prestação de contas das medidas que são adotadas, incluído o processo decisório sobre quais são essas medidas e como elas serão executadas.

I - instituir mecanismos de denúncia, apuração e medidas corretivas, assegurados o sigilo e o anonimato aos denunciantes de boa-fé, de modo que tais instrumentos estejam acessíveis a colaboradores, fornecedores, parceiros e comunidade de entorno e sejam transparentes, imparciais e aptos a tratar de questões que envolvam ameaças aos direitos humanos, além de terem fluxos e prazos para a resposta previamente estabelecidos e amplamente divulgados;

II - implementar sistema de gerenciamento de riscos de abusos de direitos humanos, incluídos o gerenciamento de riscos sobre a saúde e a segurança dos empregados, com a identificação dos impactos negativos sobre os direitos humanos, direta ou indiretamente relacionados com a sua atividade;

III - adotar política de comunicação, fiscalização e sanção direcionada aos seus colaboradores e buscar a promoção do respeito aos direitos humanos e à prevenção de riscos e violações;

IV - divulgar os canais internos de denúncia e os canais públicos de denúncias de ofensas a direitos humanos, tais como o Disque 100 e a Central de Atendimento à Mulher - Ligue 180, entre outros;

V - adequar a empresa e suas coligadas, controladas, suas subsidiárias, suas parceiras e seus fornecedores às exigências e às proibições legais em relação ao combate à corrupção, aos comportamentos antiéticos e ao assédio moral, dentre outros;

VI - fomentar cultura de ética e de respeito às leis, notadamente aquelas que dizem respeito à lisura do processo de contratação pública, por meio de declarações documentadas da alta administração da empresa aos seus empregados, colaboradores e parceiros e esclarecer os padrões éticos da empresa;

VII - criar e manter:

a) programa de integridade na empresa; e

b) instância responsável pelo programa de integridade a que se refere a alíne “a”, dotada de autonomia, imparcialidade, recursos materiais, humanos e financeiros, com possibilidade de acesso direto ao maior nível decisório da empresa e com a atribuição de rever o programa periodicamente;

VIII - estabelecer procedimentos de controle interno e de verificação de aplicabilidade do programa de integridade, inclusive com a apresentação de relatórios frequentes e a publicação de demonstrações financeiras;

IX - instituir processos internos que permitam investigações para atender prontamente às denúncias de comportamentos antiéticos, de forma a garantir que os fatos sejam identificados e averiguados com credibilidade, de forma rigorosa, independente e analítica e que os culpados sejam devidamente responsabilizados, admitidas a advertência e a demissão; e

X - publicar anualmente as ações realizadas para promoção da integridade e controle de corrupção.

I - divulgação suplementar periódicas de informações, por meio de informativos anuais que destaquem as ações empresariais realizadas, especialmente quanto:

a) ao sistema de auditoria interna;

b) ao sistema de gestão de risco; e

c) ao cumprimento das normas de proteção de direitos humanos, das normas de prevenção e reparação de possíveis violações de direitos humanos;

II - conscientização dos funcionários acerca das políticas empresariais, por meio de divulgação adequada de informação e de programas de formação contínua, de modo a garantir o acesso à informação e promover a atuação completa no processo produtivo e sem falhas, que resulte em violações aos direitos humanos; e

III - quando solicitado, fornecimento aos consumidores, por meio de acesso rápido e eficaz, sem custos ou encargos desnecessários, de informações referentes à compatibilidade das atividades empresariais, do processo de produção ou do fornecimento de serviços com os direitos humanos.

I - ter conhecimento dos aspectos e dos impactos ambientais causados por suas atividades, seus produtos e seus serviços;

II - desenvolver programas com objetivos, metas e ações de controle necessárias, vinculadas aos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Organização das Nações Unidas, suficientes para evitar danos e causar menor impacto sobre recursos naturais como flora, fauna, ar, solo, água e utilizar, de forma sustentável, os recursos materiais;

III - divulgar as informações de que trata o inciso I do caput de forma transparente, especialmente para grupos diretamente impactados;

IV - utilizar bens e serviços que não gerem resíduos, poluição ou contaminação ou que gerem a menor quantidade de resíduos e efluentes possível;

V - estabelecer programa de gestão de resíduos sólidos que seja socialmente inclusivo e participativo, que vise a não geração, à redução, à reutilização, à reciclagem, ao tratamento e à disposição final;

VI - considerar a substituição de materiais que resultem em resíduos mais agressivos por materiais ambientalmente mais adequados;

VII - adotar medidas para conferir mais eficiência às operações, a fim de reduzir emissões de gases de efeito estufa, de modo a contribuir com o combate às mudanças climáticas;

VIII - priorizar fontes de energia limpa e controlar e reduzir o consumo de energia elétrica;

IX - priorizar materiais, tecnologias e matérias-primas biossustentáveis de origem local;

X - utilizar produtos recicláveis ou que tenham maior vida útil e menor custo de manutenção do bem ou da obra;

XI - respeitar as singularidades de cada território e o aproveitamento sustentável das potencialidades e recursos locais e regionais; e

XII - incentivar fornecedores, trabalhadores e colaboradores a estabelecer diálogo permanente com as comunidades locais, baseados em uma agenda comum positiva, destinada ao desenvolvimento local sustentável.

I - elaborar, junto ao Poder Judiciário e a outros atores, levantamento dos mecanismos judiciais e não judiciais existentes e dos entraves existentes em sua realização e realizar levantamento, sistematização e análise de jurisprudência sobre o tema;

II - propor soluções concretas para tornar o sistema estatal de reparação legítimo, acessível, previsível, equitativo, transparente e participativo;

III - incentivar as empresas a desenvolverem mecanismos internos de escuta e denúncia que tenham fluxo e prazo para resposta preestabelecidos e amplamente divulgados;

IV - capacitar sobre a temática de empresas e direitos humanos, juntamente com o Poder Judiciário e os órgãos competentes, os operadores de direitos e os funcionários responsáveis por temas como direitos dos defensores, dos povos indígenas, das minorias étnicas e dos demais grupos vulneráveis, temas ambientais e licenciamento ambiental, demarcação de terras e conflitos agrários e fundiários, entre outros;

V - capacitar recursos humanos e prover assistência e informações, em linguagem clara, para as pessoas que queiram exigir seus direitos a partir do acesso e do uso de mecanismos de denúncia e reparação judiciais e extrajudiciais;

VI - dar conhecimento dos mecanismos de denúncia existentes, tais como o Disque 100, o Ligue 180 e outros, aprimorar tais mecanismos para acolhimento de denúncias relacionadas às violações de direitos humanos em contexto empresarial, que sejam encaminhadas aos órgãos competentes pela apuração e reparação, além de serem sistematizadas, para formação de banco de dados específico sobre violação aos direitos humanos por empresas, que poderá ser acessado para fins de aprimoramento de políticas destinadas à proteção dos direitos humanos;

VII - incentivar a adoção por parte das empresas e a utilização por parte das vítimas, de medidas de reparação como:

a) compensações pecuniárias e não pecuniárias;

b) desculpas públicas;

c) restituição de direitos; e

d) garantias de não repetição;

VIII - promover o desenvolvimento de mecanismos de mediação e de resolução de conflitos entre a administração pública, as comunidades, os cidadãos e as empresas e garantir a transparência, a informação e o apoio técnico necessários, a fim de reduzir a assimetria que possa existir entre a empresa e a vítima de violação ou o cidadão impactado;


IX - estimular amplamente o uso de mecanismos de mediação, de resolução ou de outros processos extrajudiciais e compatíveis com os direitos humanos;


X - aprimorar os mecanismos de fiscalização, por meio da aplicação de critérios de priorização como vulnerabilidade territorial, que abordem aspectos institucionais e geográficos, e denúncias, que considerem a quantidade de denúncias recebidas;


XI - estimular o aprimoramento de mecanismos de priorização de tramitação de processos judiciais que envolvam desastres ambientais e sociais decorrentes da atividade empresarial, em atenção às orientações e aos instrumentos do Escritório para Redução do Risco de Desastre da Organização das Nações Unidas; e


XII - fortalecer as ações de fiscalização na hipótese de infração de direitos trabalhistas e ambientais.

I - disponibilizar mecanismos para o monitoramento e a solução de controvérsias de impactos e violações decorrentes de suas atividades ou suas operações, por meio de canais de denúncia à disposição das pessoas e comunidades afetadas;

II - disponibilizar canal de denúncias direto para que as pessoas e as comunidades possam expressar suas preocupações em relação ao impacto adverso dos negócios em seus direitos;

III - facilitar o pedido de informações e o acesso por parte das comunidades atingidas e do entorno e:

a) comprometer-se com o combate aos entraves para produção de provas por parte das vítimas e dos atingidos e contribuir com as investigações;

b) dar clareza e visibilidade à sua estrutura interna e à estrutura do grupo econômico do qual faça parte; e

c) adotar compromissos públicos de não retaliação de comunidades e de pessoas que denunciem violações ou risco de violações de direitos humanos relacionadas com a empresa, considerada a sua dependência econômica;

IV - reparar, de modo integral, as pessoas e as comunidades atingidas.

I - pedido público de desculpas;

II - restituição;

III - reabilitação;

IV - compensações econômicas ou não econômicas;

V - sanções punitivas, como multas, sanções penais ou sanções administrativas; e

VI - medidas de prevenção de novos danos como liminares ou garantias de não repetição.

I - elaborar plano de ação anual, com vistas a concretizar as Diretrizes, que será editado em ato do Ministro de Estado dos Direitos Humanos;


II - elaborar estudos com a participação da sociedade civil, das instituições acadêmicas e de outros atores, com vistas ao aprimoramento das políticas públicas e da legislação e à adoção de planos destinados à proteção e à promoção do respeito aos direitos humanos pelas empresas;


III - conduzir os processos de consulta pública para aprimoramento das Diretrizes e formalização dos planos de trabalho;


IV - propor ações referenciais em direitos humanos para subsidiar a atuação das empresas estatais e privadas;


V - promover a articulação entre os órgãos e as entidades da administração pública, o setor privado, as instituições acadêmicas e as organizações da sociedade civil para a implementação das Diretrizes;


VI - propor ao Ministro de Estado dos Direitos Humanos as regulamentações necessárias à execução do disposto nas Diretrizes;


VII - estabelecer indicadores quantitativos e qualitativos para o acompanhamento, o monitoramento e a avaliação periódicos das Diretrizes; e


VIII - receber reclamações, denúncias e propostas da sociedade civil.

I - Ministério dos Direitos Humanos, que o coordenará;

II - Casa Civil da Presidência da República;

III - Ministério da Justiça;

IV - Ministério das Relações Exteriores;

V - Ministério do Trabalho;

VI - Ministério da Indústria, Comércio Exterior e Serviços;

VII - Ministério de Minas e Energia;

VIII - Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações; e

IX - Ministério do Meio Ambiente.

I - terceiro setor;

II - instituições acadêmicas; e

III - setor privado e sindicatos.

 

Full text: Donald Trump's immigration address

By POLITICO STAFF

01/08/2019 09:17 PM EST

President Donald Trump's address on immigration, as delivered from the Oval Office

My fellow Americans,

Tonight, I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. Every day customs and border patrol agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country. We are out of space to hold them and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country. America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation. But, all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans. Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Every week 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War.

In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now. This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.

Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the united States, a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims by far of our broken system. This is the tragic reality of illegal immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that I am determined to end.
 
My administration has presented Congress with a detailed proposal to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs, drug smugglers and human traffickers. It's a tremendous problem. Our proposal was developed by law enforcement professionals and border agents at the department of homeland security. These are the resources they have requested to properly perform their mission and keep America safe. In fact, safer than ever before. The proposal from Homeland Security includes cutting-edge technology for detecting drugs, weapons, illegal contraband and many other things. We have requested more agents, immigration judges, and bed space to process the sharp rise in unlawful migration fueled by our very strong economy. Our plan also contains an urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support. Furthermore, we have asked Congress to close border security loopholes so that illegal immigrant children can be safely and humanely returned back home. Finally, as part of an overall approach to border security, law enforcement professionals have requested $5.7 billion for a physical barrier. At the request of Democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall.

This barrier is absolutely critical to border security. It's also what our professionals at the border want and need. This is just common sense. The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year. Vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress. The wall will always be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who you will be hearing from later tonight, has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other Democrats. They changed their mind only after I was elected president. Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave border agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation. The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only because Democrats will not fund border security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted by the situation. But the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends our borders and reopens the government. This situation could be solved in a 45-minute meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow to get this done. Hopefully, we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security.

Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes? They don't build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing that is immoral is for the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized. America's heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien who just came across the border. The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country.

Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have violated our borders. In California, an Air Force veteran was raped, murdered and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading and dismembering his neighbor. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl. Over the last several years, I have met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I've held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible. I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices and the sadness gripping their souls. How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?

For those who refuse to compromise in the name of in the name of border security, I would ask, imagine if it was your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken. To every member of Congress, pass a bill that ends this crisis. To every citizen, call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades, secure our border. This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfill our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve. When I took the oath of office, I swore to protect our country. And that is what I will always do so help me God. Thank you and good night.

__________

Full text: Pelosi and Schumer respond to Trump's immigration speech

By POLITICO STAFF

01/08/2019 09:25 PM EST

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's response to President Donald Trump's immigration speech, as delivered on Capitol Hill

Speaker Pelosi: Good evening.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American people tonight about how we can end this shutdown and meet the needs of the American people. Sadly, much of what we have heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice. The President has chosen fear. We want to start with the facts.

The fact is: On the very first day of this Congress, House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to re-open government and fund smart, effective border security solutions. But the President is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would re-open government – over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall – a wall he always promised Mexico would pay for! The fact is: President Trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services for the health, safety and well-being of the American people and withhold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation – many of them veterans. He promised to keep government shutdown for ‘months or years’ – no matter whom it hurts. That’s just plain wrong.

The fact is: We all agree that we need to secure our borders, while honoring our values: we can build the infrastructure and roads at our ports of entry; we can install new technology to scan cars and trucks for drugs coming into our nation; we can hire the personnel we need to facilitate trade and immigration at the border; and we can fund more innovation to detect unauthorized crossings.

The fact is: the women and children at the border are not a security threat, they are a humanitarian challenge – a challenge that President Trump’s own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened. And the fact is: President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must re-open the government.

Thank you.

Senator Schumer: Thank you, Speaker Pelosi.

My fellow Americans, we address you tonight for one reason only: the President of the United States – having failed to get Mexico to pay for his ineffective, unnecessary border wall, and unable to convince the Congress or the American people to foot the bill – has shut down the government. American democracy doesn’t work that way. We don’t govern by temper tantrum. No president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down, hurting millions of Americans who are treated as leverage. Tonight – and throughout this debate and his presidency – President Trump has appealed to fear, not facts. Division, not unity. Make no mistake: Democrats and the President both want stronger border security. However, we sharply disagree with the President about the most effective way to do it. So, how do we untangle this mess? There is an obvious solution: separate the shutdown from the arguments over border security. There is bipartisan legislation – supported by Democrats and Republicans – to re-open government while allowing debate over border security to continue.

There is no excuse for hurting millions of Americans over a policy difference. Federal workers are about to miss a paycheck. Some families can’t get a mortgage to buy a new home. Farmers and small businesses won’t get loans they desperately need. Most presidents have used Oval Office addresses for noble purposes. This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear, and divert attention from the turmoil in his Administration.

My fellow Americans, there is no challenge so great that our nation cannot rise to meet it. We can re-open the government and continue to work through disagreements about policy. We can secure our border without an expensive, ineffective wall. And we can welcome legal immigrants and refugees without compromising safety and security. The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a thirty-foot wall. So our suggestion is a simple one: Mr. President: re-open the government and we can work to resolve our differences over border security. But end this shutdown now.

Thank you.

These are quite dynamic times for democracy--as theory, institution, and system.  What had once been a term whose contours and applications appeared  to converge around global certainties has encountered, in this new era of national and international relations, challenges from a number of quite distinct sources.  Though much attention has been paid to the specific challenges within the structures of Western liberal democracies, Marxist Leninist political  communities have also encountered the challenges of democracy within their own political systems.

It is with that in mind that we have organized an event hosted at Penn State University on 12 February 2019 that may be of interest to those who study democracy in action and the theories around which those actions are grounded.

The event, Popular Participation, Representation, and Constitutional Reform in Cuba,  brings together scholars from Europe, the United States, and China to consider recent developments in Cuban democratic theory and practice from a national and comparative perspective. Speakers will present the results of their study of popular participation in Cuban constitutional reform: The Democratic Constitution of Illiberal States—An Empirical Approach to Theorizing Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba.The core object of participants will be to seek to extract the fundamental theory and characteristics that emerges from the exercise in constitutional reform that began in Cuba in 2016 and ends with a national plebiscite in February 2019. The possibilities of democratic consultation in an illiberal  democracy suggests consequences not just for Marxist Leninist states but also for liberal democratic systems.

Marxist-Leninism 2.0: Theory  and Practice of Emerging Socialist Democracy in China and Cuba

Pennsylvania State University

12 February 2018

Lewis Katz Building

University Park

Sponsored by the Coalition for Peace & Ethics, the Foundation for Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law and School of International Affairs.  Funding provided in part by the Penn State University Park Allocation Committee.

 

Marxist-Leninism 2.0: Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba

Concept Note

Popular participation and representation are the great antipodes of contemporary democratic theory. The former embodies the principle that political power resides in the individual; the latter that in the exercise of political authority such power must be delegated and exercised in a fiduciary capacity for the community of individuals. Yet representative delegation dilutes popular authority and requires regimes of accountability beyond elections; but popular control produces majoritarian tyranny if unconstrained.

In the construction of mediating institutions—governments and vanguard institutions mostly—political communities have drawn on a variety of theories that have sought to reconcile these core principles in the construction of government that is accepted as legitimate and thus whose authority over the polity may be asserted even without individual consent. Liberal democracies have moved from the concept of the embodiment of political self-constitution as incarnated in the body of a person (the Greek monos arkhein) to its incarnation within the body (res) of the people (publicus). But that incarnation, as well, has been situated within vanguard organizations—aristos kratia—the characteristics of which have undergone tremendous ideological transformation since the time of the Roman Republic—with its most powerful current expressions as liberal republican, Marxist Leninist vanguardist, transnational multilateralist organization. 

This panel brings together scholars and commentators from Europe, China and the United States  to consider the issues of the emergence of the markers of democratic self-constitution in illiberal states.  To that end Panelists will focus on the current process of constitutional revision in Cuba, a traditional Marxist-Leninist State in the process of self-transformation. For the last several years Cuba has been in the midst of a quite public national effort at reform. To that end it has revised its core political and economic principles through a complex process under the leadership of its Communist Party (PCC).  Those reforms to the organizing political and economic theory of the state then produced a move to reform the national constitution to reflect these reforms.  In both cases, the PCC and the state apparatus attempted to invoke the core mechanics of popular participation even as it sought to manage that participation under the leadership of the PCC and popular representatives in national institutions. 

What makes this process particularly interesting, with ramifications both for liberal democratic systems and multilateralist supra-national organizations with deep commitment to democratic principles, is the way in which the process of popular participation used multiple spaces. In particular, the emergence of social media platforms as novel ‘constitutive spaces’ pose a conundrum for constitutional theory.  Through the use of qualitative and quantitative measures this paper seeks to better understand both the changing character of popular participation in representative institutions, and its consequences for democratic theory.

Panelists will first present the preliminary results of their study,  The Democratic Constitution of Illiberal States—An Empirical Approach to Theorizing Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba.  After an introduction to the study and its methodology, the panelists will discuss the findings based on analysis from government web sites, the official reports, and social media sites to examine the contours of participation, its constitution, and its limitations. Four data sets were used to seek to produce a more nuanced and complex ecology of participation.  The data sets included popular unofficial commentary on government web sites providing information about the constitutional process, commentary produced on a web site organized by elite civil society members. The third drew from comments on a facebook discussion site.  The fourth drew from official summaries of the results of formal public popular consultation organized by the PCC and state officials.  The last drew on the summaries of the intervention of Cuban legislators as they discussed the popular commentary and revised the draft proposed constitution. From these panelists will seek to draw a clearer understanding of the nature of popular participation, and consider consequences and applications both within Cuba and beyond.  Other commentators will then respond and comment on this work and suggest its implications for other states.

Judge rejects citizenship question for 2020 U.S. census
Nick Brown, Jonathan Stempel


5 Min Read

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross concealed his true motives in adding the question last March.

Ross had said the question - which has not appeared on the decennial census since 1950 - was necessary to enforce federal laws protecting eligible voters.

Furman’s decision will almost certainly be appealed, and could wind up before the Supreme Court this year.

The plaintiffs - 18 U.S. states, 15 cities and various civil rights groups - said that asking census respondents whether they are U.S. citizens will frighten immigrants and Latinos into abstaining from the count.

That could cost their mostly Democratic-leaning communities representation in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as their share of some $800 billion a year in federal funding.

The plaintiffs alleged that was Ross’ plan all along, while he insisted the government needed citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects eligible voters from discrimination. Only American citizens can vote in federal elections.

Dale Ho, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the plaintiffs’ case, called Furman’s ruling “a forceful rebuke of the Trump administration’s attempt to weaponize the census.”

Kelly Laco, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said the administration was “disappointed,” adding that the “government is legally entitled to include a citizenship question on the census, and people in the United States have a legal obligation to answer.”

In a 277-page opinion, Furman called Ross’ Voting Rights Act rationale “pretextual.”

“He announced his decision in a manner that concealed its true basis rather than explaining it,” Furman said.

Ross said he added the question at the request of the Justice Department, but evidence at trial showed he independently pushed for it much earlier.

Ross also chose not to heed recommendations from experts - including from within the Census Bureau itself - who said adding the question would lead to an undercount and hurt data quality.

During a two-week trial in November, Justice Department lawyers argued Ross need not reveal every motivating factor, as long as his stated rationale was sound.

They also said he was under no obligation to take advice from experts. Ross “doesn’t have to choose the best option” as long as he considers all evidence in good faith, Justice Department lawyer Brett Shumate said at trial.

But Furman said Ross and his aides behaved “like people with something to hide,” leading to the “inescapable” conclusion that they “did have something to hide.”
NEXT STEPS

The ruling means the Trump administration will have to keep litigating if it wants to preserve what has become one of the most controversial of its hawkish immigration policies.

Furman’s ruling bars Ross from re-adding the question unless he “cures the legal defects” in his rationale.

The case is thought likely to wind up before the Supreme Court, but time is short: the Census Bureau must print census forms sometime this spring.

Congress could also ban the question, which would eliminate the need for litigation. Democratic lawmakers have said they plan to use their newfound majority in the House to investigate the question.

Census consultant Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee, said “lawmakers should overturn Secretary Ross’ decision, which the court correctly ruled was made in violation of legal requirements.”

Furman’s ruling muddies a census that is already among the most complicated and expensive in U.S. history.

The first-ever online census, set for April 2020, has been plagued by delays, missed deadlines and the cancellation of key tests, partly from legacy underfunding from Congress.

At least five other lawsuits seeking to quash the citizenship question remain pending.

Some advocates worry it may be too late to assuage the fears of immigrants in a climate of heightened immigration rhetoric.

“Hopefully a lot of damage hasn’t already been done, and immigrant communities ... will still come to the door when the census takers come,” said Doug Rand, a former Obama White House official who worked on immigration issues.

Reporting by Nick Brown and Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Pix: Texwinca Holdings Ltd

Summary

The Council on Ethics recommends that Texwinca Holdings Ltd be excluded from investment by the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) due to an unacceptable risk that the company is responsible for systematic human rights violations.
Texwinca is a Chinese company that produces yarn, knitted fabrics and garments, and has its own retail division in China. Texwinca owns 50 per cent of the shares in Megawell Industrial Ltd (Megawell), making it that company’s largest shareholder. Megawell owns the garment factories Hugo Knit and Kollan in Vietnam as wholly owned subsidiaries. Texwinca states that it does not have a controlling influence over Megawell and that the company’s strategy is to remain a passive shareholder.
The Council on Ethics has assessed the risk that Texwinca contributes to or is itself responsible for systematic violations of internationally recognised human rights and labour rights. The company’s corporate ownership structure has led the Council to conclude that norm violations at Kollan and Hugo Knit constitute norm violations in Texwinca’s own operations. The Council’s assessment rests on investigations into working conditions at Megawell’s factories in Vietnam.
To qualify as systematic, the human rights violations must be substantial in scope, ie that they are numerous in quantity, that different types of rights are infringed or that abuses take place in many entities within the company. The Council takes the position that “systematic” requires an accumulation of such violations and not merely isolated incidents; in other words that they constitute a pattern of behaviour. Furthermore, in its capacity as employer, each company has an individual and direct responsibility for its workforce and for preventing their employees’ labour rights from being infringed. The Council takes the position that, with respect to norm violations perpetrated within a company’s own operations, the threshold for what can be accepted must be lower than when a company contributes to norm violations perpetrated by a third party.
In its assessment of the risk of future human rights violations, the Council attaches importance to how a company has responded when norm violations have been uncovered, and what it has done to prevent their reoccurrence.
The Council’s investigations point to a working environment at Kollan and Hugo Knit that may be harmful to employees’ health. Employees at both factories have reported substantial overtime, high production quotas, high indoor temperatures and widespread harassment and abuse by supervisory staff, which, at Kollan, is said to have contributed to employees fainting at their posts. Employees also report violations of fire safety regulations and restrictions on bathroom breaks, and say that legitimate sick leave is penalised through wage deductions and that the company, in practice, forces people to work overtime. Other norm violations relate to discrimination, in that female workers do not have their contracts renewed if they become pregnant, and restrictions on freedom of association, since management representatives run the trade unions at the factories. The Council finds it substantiated that the company’s practices in many areas contravene both internationally recognised labour rights and national legislation.
The Council attaches importance to the fact that Texwinca has not helped to clarify this matter. The company has provided limited information about its relationship with Megawell, has not allowed the factory to be inspected and has failed to make any comment on draft recommendations to exclude the company from the GPFG. Texwinca argues that conditions at the factories of which it is the principal shareholder are none of its business. The Council therefore has access to less information in this case than in other similar cases it has assessed.

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The information deficit also relates to the scale of norm violations and what the company is doing to prevent them. In accordance with the wording of Report No. 20 (2008–2009) to the Norwegian Storting (parliament), the Council on Ethics has concluded that a lack of information on the company’s conduct and, not least, a lack of willingness on the part of the company to provide information may, in and of itself, add to the risk of contributing to unethical behaviour being deemed unacceptably high.
Texwinca has had the same position as Megawell’s major shareholder for more than 20 years and presents Megawell as part of its corporate structure. Texwinca’s dominant shareholding, combined with the fact that several individuals have been members of the boards and managements of both companies for many years, causes the Council to presume that Texwinca’s management is aware of and has accepted the working conditions at Megawell’s factories in Vietnam. Neither Texwinca nor Megawell have disclosed what the companies are doing to improve those working conditions, nor have they indicated any commitment to preventing labour rights violations at the factories in Vietnam. When Texwinca claims that it has no influence over manufacturing operations in Vietnam, and Megawell does not publish any information about its business, it is natural for the Council to draw the conclusion that neither Texwinca nor Megawell are taking any responsibility for the prevention of human rights violations at the factories in Vietnam. The Council on Ethics considers that when a company in this way disclaims responsibility for preventing norm violation and fails to provide information about conditions or its own initiatives in its operations, the risk of systematic labour rights violations becomes unacceptably high.

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Table of contents

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Matters considered by the Council 1 1.2 Sources 3

2. 2  Texwinca and Megawell in brief 3
   
3. 3  Investigations into working conditions at Kollan and Hugo Knit 4
   
   1. 3.1  Forced overtime 4
      
   2. 3.2  No wage increases, wage deductions and restrictions on sick leave 5
      
   3. 3.3  Occupational health and safety 6
      
   4. 3.4  Discrimination 7
      
   5. 3.5  Freedom of association 8
      
4. 4  Information provided by the company 8
   
   1. 4.1  The Council’s contacts with Texwinca 8
      
   2. 4.2  Texwinca’s policies at its factories in China 9
      
5. 5  The Council on Ethics’ assessment 9
   
6. 6  Recommendation 11
   

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1 Introduction
After numerous serious accidents and reports of poor working conditions in certain countries’ textiles industries, the Council on Ethics began a series of investigations into working conditions at textiles factories in countries where the incidence of labour rights violations is presumed to be particularly large. Texwinca Holdings Ltd (Texwinca) 1 is one of the companies that has been investigated.
Texwinca produces yarn, knitted fabrics and garments, and has its own retail division in China. Texwinca has around 15,000 employees in China and produces for fashion brands in the USA, Europe and Asia.2 Texwinca has a 50 per cent stake in Megawell Industrial Ltd (Megawell), making it the company’s largest shareholder. Megawell owns garment factories in Vietnam (Hugo Knit and Kollan Vietnam) and China. Hugo Knit and Kollan are wholly owned subsidiaries of Megawell. 3
Texwinca is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the close of 2017, the GPFG owned 1.01 per cent of the company’s shares, with a market value of just over NOK 63 million.
1.1 Matters considered by the Council
The Council on Ethics has considered whether there is an unacceptable risk that Texwinca may “contribute to or are responsible for serious or systematic human rights violations” as set out in the Guidelines for Observation and Exclusion from the Government Pension Fund Global (ethical guidelines).4 The Council’s assessment builds largely on the result of investigations into working conditions at Megawell’s factories in Vietnam.
The Council bases its assessment of what constitutes serious or systematic violations on internationally recognised conventions and authoritative interpretations thereof. Of particular relevance in this case are the labour rights encompassed by articles 23 and 24 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and set out in article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), whose provisions include the right to a fair wage, safe and healthy working conditions, the reasonable limitation of working hours, periodic holidays with pay and equal opportunities. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has elaborated on how article 7 should be interpreted, and has made it clear that health, safety and the environment are fundamental elements in the right to safe and healthy working conditions.5 Article 8 of the ICESCR encompasses the right to form trades unions and join the trades union of one’s choice, and the right to strike. In addition, the ILO’s core conventions lay down minimum standards for several areas of working life,

1 Issuer Id: 116568
2 Texwinca Holdings Ltd. “Group History,” http://www.texwinca.com/hist.asp
3 Texwinca Holdings Ltd. “Group Structure” http://www.texwinca.com/struct.asp.
4 Guidelines for Observation and Exclusion from the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG),
https://lovdata.no/dokument/INS/forskrift/2014-12-18-1793?q=retningslinjer+++pensjonsfond+++utland. 5 The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is an independent committee of experts, which monitors states’ implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CESCR/Pages/CESCRIntro.aspx. In April 2016, the committee published “General comment No. 23 (2016) on the right to just and favourable conditions of work (article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)”, in which it elaborated in more detail how article 7 should be interpreted, see https://documents-dds- ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/087/51/PDF/G1608751.pdf?OpenElement

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including freedom of association6 and equal pay.7 Conventions covering occupational safety and health are also relevant.8
Although international human rights conventions bind states not companies, companies can be said to contribute to human rights violations. The Council on Ethics takes no position on the extent to which the state is responsible for any human rights violations that may occur. It is sufficient to establish that the company in question acts in a way that contributes to serious or systematic violation of internationally recognised human rights.9 This applies irrespective of whether the state in which the violations take place has signed the conventions against which the actions are assessed.
When assessing the violation of human and labour rights in a company’s own operations, the Council takes the position that employers have a direct responsibility for their workforce and for preventing the infringement of their employees’ labour rights. In this case, Texwinca’s ownership structure has led the Council to consider the norm violations to be norm violations at the company’s own operations. The Council has considered whether conditions at Texwinca’s factories must be deemed to constitute systematic human rights violations pursuant to the GPFG’s guidelines. The Council has previously taken the position that a small number of human rights violations may be sufficient for a company to be excluded from the GPFG if the abuses are of a serious nature. On the other hand, individual violations do not need to be as serious if the abuse is systematic.10
To qualify as systematic, the human rights violations must be substantial in scope. This could mean that they are numerous in quantity, that different types of rights are infringed or that abuses take place in many entities within the company. The Council takes the position that “systematic” requires an accumulation of such violations and not merely isolated incidents; in other words that they constitute a pattern of behaviour. In previous recommendations, the Council has attached importance to the existence of a “systematic and planned practice on the part of the company to operate at, or beyond, the boundaries of what are accepted standards for the working environment”.11
With regard to assessing the risk of new human rights violations occurring in a company’s own operations, the Council holds the view that previous norm violations could provide an indication of future patterns of behaviour. The Council attaches importance to how a company has responded when norm violations have been uncovered, and what it has done to prevent their reoccurrence. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights articulates an expectation that companies will respect human rights, prevent the risk of their abuse and take action to remedy any human rights violations that do occur.12 The company has a duty to comply with national legislation and norms even when these are not enforced by the authorities. It is expected that a company assess the actual and potential negative impacts that its operations have on those affected by them, and demonstrate that it has strategies and procedures in place that help to prevent human rights violations. Companies must also consider whether the measures implemented are effective, and make whatever changes are necessary to prevent violations happening again. The company must also publish details of

6 ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
7 ILO Conventions 100 and 111.
8 Inter alia, ILO Convention 155 on Occupational Safety and Health.
9 This is discussed in more detail in the Council on Ethics’ recommendation to exclude Wal-Mart Stores Inc,
section 3.2, 15 November 2005, see www.etikkradet.no
10 Council on Ethics recommendation to exclude Total SA, section 3.1
11 Council on Ethics recommendation to exclude Wal-Mart Stores Inc, p. 21. 12 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights:

http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf

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what it is doing to prevent human rights violations in its own operations. The Council on Ethics takes the position that it is up to the company concerned to substantiate that it is working adequately to prevent human rights violations.
Furthermore, any assessment of future risk may be affected by the availability of information on the company’s conduct. In Report (white paper) No. 20 (2008–2009) to the Norwegian Storting (parliament), the Ministry of Finance underlines that “a lack of information may affect any assessment of the extent to which there is an unacceptable risk of complicity.13 If it is, in reality, not possible to obtain sufficient information to assess the risk of norm violations, this could, given the circumstances, be perceived in and of itself as taking an unacceptable risk.” In cases where there are clear indications that a company is responsible for or contributes to serious or systematic human rights violations, the Council on Ethics will, in compliance with this report to the Storting, consider that inadequate information about a company’s conduct could contribute to the risk of complicity in unethical conduct being deemed unacceptably high. A lack of willingness on the part of the company to provide information will be a material factor in any such assessment.
1.2 Sources
The Council on Ethics has looked at two of Megawell’s factories in Vietnam. Hugo Knit was investigated in the spring of 2016 and Kollan in the summer of 2017. The investigations were carried out with the help of consultants and are based on interviews with factory employees outside their place of work.
Texwinca declined the Council’s request for permission to inspect Hugo Knit in November 2015. Texwinca has declined to comment on two draft recommendations issued by the Council and the company has failed to provide any information about working conditions at the factories in Vietnam.
2 Texwinca and Megawell in brief
Texwinca’s founder, chairman and now executive director bought Megawell in 1989.14 In 1997, a wholly owned subsidiary of Texwinca bought 50 per cent of the shares in Megawell. Two people own shareholdings in Megawell of 25 per cent each.15
Texwinca’s chairman is also a director of Megawell, a position he has held since 1989.16 He describes himself as: “supreme authority in and ultimate control of the companies and the Texwinca Group”.17 Other members of his family, including his brother, have been members of Texwinca’s executive management and board of directors18 while also being directors at

13 Report (white paper) No. 20 (2008-2009) to the Storting On management of the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) in 2008.
14 Texwinca’s founder and chairman was also the company’s CEO until 2013. After 2013, he became an executive director.
15 Email from Texwinca to the Council on Ethics, 1.11.2015 and Li Tin Sang V. Poon Bun Chak, Poon Kit Ho and Perfection Inc in the High Court of Hong Kong, https://www.hongkongcaselaw.com/li-tin-sang-v-poon- bun-chak-and-others-2/.
16 Megawell’s report to the companies register in Hong Kong 1989-2017, https://www.cr.gov.hk/en/home/index.htm.
17 Li Tin Sang V. Poon Bun Chak, Poon Kit Ho and Perfection Inc in the High Court of Hong Kong, para 56. 18 Texwinca’s annual reports 1998-2017.

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Megawell.19 One of his sons, who has been a director at Megawell since 2015,20 was also appointed Executive Director and made a member of Texwinca’s board in 2017.21
Texwinca’s 1998 annual report describes Megawell as “the Group's garment manufacturing operations”.22 Subsequent annual reports describe Megawell as a “material associate and strategic partner”.23 Texwinca’s shareholding has remained unchanged since 1997. According to an overview of Texwinca’s corporate structure published on its website, Megawell is included as a unit within the group.24 Texwinca is both Megawell’s most important customer and most important supplier.25

3 Investigations into working conditions at Kollan and Hugo Knit
The garment factories Kollan and Hugo Knit are both located in the Linh Trung Export Processing Zone, in the Thu Duc district on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. In October 2015, Kollan had around 2,000 employees, while Hugo Knit had a workforce of 1,350.26
Vietnam’s Labour Code from 2012 and associated statutory instruments,27 including the Labour Hygiene Standards from 2012)28 regulate working conditions and labour rights in accordance with international covenants and conventions. The law contains detailed provisions relating to employers’ obligations to their workers, including those covering occupational health, safety and the environment (HSE).

3.1 Involuntary overtime
The right to rest, leisure time and a reasonable limit to working hours is set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 7d). This is further defined in a number of ILO conventions,29 including convention no. 1, which sets out the principle of an eight-hour working day and a 48-hour working week as the maximum permitted working time. Working hours are similarly regulated in Vietnam’s Labour Code, though this caps permitted overtime at 300 hours per year, 30 hours per month and 12 hours per week.30 Under Vietnam’s Labour Code, all overtime must be voluntary.31   

 Employees at Kollan reported that they normally worked a 60-hour week, of which 12 hours was overtime. Over the course of a month, this adds up to 48 hours; and over a year to more

19 See footnote 16.
20 See footnote 16.
21 Texwinca Holdings Ltd, Appointment of Executive Director 29.9.2017. Announcement to the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange.
22 Texwinca Annual Report 1998, http://www.irasia.com/listco/hk/texwinca/annual/index.htm 23 Texwinca Annual Report 2017, http://www.irasia.com/listco/hk/texwinca/annual/ar177798-
e00321_ar_0705_0340.pdf
24 Texwinca Group Structure, http://www.texwinca.com/struct.asp
25 Factset: Texwinca Holdings Ltd
26 Social Insurance Bureau, Social Insurance payment summary for Kollan and Hugo Knit. Newer figures have
not been made available to the Council on Ethics.
27 Labour Code of June 18, 2012, Law 10-2012-QH13 (“Labour Code”), for the English translation, see
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/MONOGRAPH/91650/114939/F224084256/VNM91650.pdf.
28 Ministry of Health, Labour Hygiene Standards (Oct. 10, 2012).
29 A total of 22 ILO conventions have been adopted, 18 recommendations and a protocol on working hours.
These include ILO conventions no. 1 on working hours, no. 14 on a weekly day of rest and no. 132 on paid
holidays.
30 Labour Code, Article 69, Decree 109/2002/NĐ-CP, Article 1 (C) 3 Circular 15/2003/TTBLĐTBXH, § II (1.2) 31 Labour Code, Article 106 re Overtime work (2).

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than 500 hours of overtime. The employees’ payslips showed that some employees had

worked 55 hours overtime during a month. At Hugo Knit, too, employers reported a lot ofovertime, saying that they normally worked 13.5 hours of overtime per week. Over the course of a month this adds up to 65 hours, corresponding to 775 hours of overtime per year. The use of overtime at both factories is higher than permitted.

Employees at both factories said it could be difficult to refuse to work overtime. Kollan

employees said they had to get permission from a supervisor to avoid overtime. While somesaid it was easy to avoid, others said they were pressured into working overtime. Employees also said that the factory had no system for recording whether overtime was voluntary. At Hugo Knit, employees said that they risked being shouted at if they refused to work overtime, and that factory management had demanded they sign a statement declaring that they had chosen to work overtime voluntarily.

Employees at both factories said that they were often pressured into working through part of their meal breaks if it was necessary to meet production quotas. No overtime supplement was paid for this work, as employees are entitled to receive under Vietnam’s Labour Code.32
3.2 No wage increases, wage deductions and restrictions on sick leave

 Under Vietnamese law, employers must establish a pay scale, rising in increments of at least 5per cent from one pay grade to the next.33 

According to employees at Kollan, they do receive wage increases from time to time, for

example in connection with changes in their employment contracts. The last wage increasewas less than 0.5 per cent (the equivalent of USD 0.9 per month). Payslips showed that employees who had worked at the factory for many years were paid only a marginally higher rate than the new recruits who were interviewed. Employees at both Kollan and Hugo Knit reported wage deductions if they took sick leave. According to workers at Kollan, the company docked the entire month’s housing, food, and position allowance, corresponding to USD 22.50) if an employee took more than two days’sick leave, even if they had a doctor’s medical certificate. This constitutes legitimate sickness absence which, by law, the company has a duty to accept.34

Similarly, employees at Hugo Knit said that up to half of their attendance bonus was docked if they took one day of lawful sick leave (corresponding to USD 2), and that the entire bonus was docked for two days’ sickness absence (USD 4.5). If an employee took any further sick leave, the rent and food allowance (approx. USD 27.50) was also docked, even if the employee had a doctor’s medical certificate.
Employees are entitled to paid sick leave through the country’s social security system.35 Vietnam’s Labour Code does not permit the use of wage deductions to penalise employees.36

32 Labour Code, Article 97 (1a).
33 Decree 49/2013/ND-CP, Article, available at http://staffing.vn/en/r600/Decree-492013NDCP--on-wages-of-
labor-code.html .
34 Law on Social Insurance, Article 25, https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/99775/126463/F-
1921723198/VNM99775%20Eng.pdf
35 Law on Social Insurance, Article 25. 36 Labour Code, Article 128.

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3.3 Occupational health and safety
The right to a safe and healthy working environment is laid down in international norms and further defined by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) thus: “Preventing occupational accidents and disease is a fundamental aspect of the right to just and favourable conditions of work, and is closely related to other Covenant rights, in particular the right to the highest attainable level of physical and mental health.”37 The committee also says that freedom from harassment is part of a safe and healthy working environment.
Harassment
Harassment, including public humiliation and the punishment of employees, is forbidden under Vietnamese law.38
Workers at both factories reported widespread verbal abuse, such as telling off, swearing and insults from supervisors. This happened particularly when employees did not meet their production targets, asked not to work overtime or returned from sick leave or holiday.
Employees at Kollan also reported that some managers punished employees returning to work after lawful absence by demanding that they stand in front of the production line for an hour. They also said that if anyone argued with their supervisors, they would be punished – either by being given other tasks which would make it difficult for them to meet their production targets or, in extreme cases, by being pressured into quitting their jobs.
Fire safety
Both the Kollan and Hugo Knit factories are two-storey buildings. Kollan employees said that the only way down from the first floor to the ground floor is via an open staircase at either end of the building. In the event of a fire on the ground floor, there is a danger that the stairwells will fill with smoke, making them unusable for evacuation purposes. According to the workers, there are no other emergency exits.
At Hugo Knit, each floor has two exit doors. Employees said that one of the exit doors on the first floor was kept locked during working hours. In the event of a fire, this could mean that employees have no escape route from the first floor.
Vietnam’s Labour Code contains many provisions relating to fire safety, including access to safe emergency exits.39 Several of the workers who had been at Hugo Knit since 2012 reported that no fire drills were held at the factory. The law requires fire drills to be held at least once a year. 40
Fainting and high indoor temperatures
The Vietnamese authorities require that the indoor temperature not exceed 34C for light work, 32C for normal work and 30C for heavy work during the hot season. 41 Better Work has set 32C as the maximum indoor temperature in the textiles industry.42

37 CESCR General Comment No. 23 (2016) on the right to just and favourable conditions of work, section 1. 38 Labour Code, Article 8 (2).
39 Better Work Vietnam 2017: Guide to Vietnamese Labour Law for the Garment Industry, Section 9.11.5,
available at https://betterwork.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BWV_LLG-update_English_March-
2017.pdf
40 Better Work Vietnam 2017: Guide to Vietnamese Labour Law for the Garment Industry, Section 9.11.1. 41 Ministry of Health, Labour Hygiene Standards (Oct. 10, 2012)
42 Better Work, Guide to Vietnamese Labour Law for the Garment Industry 2016, Section 9.7, http://betterwork.org/vietnam/wp-content/uploads/BWV_LLG-update_English_280316.pdf .

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Workers at Kollan reported high temperatures inside the building. Since measured data is unavailable, it is not possible to state exactly how hot it is inside the premises. Several employees said that they had seen co-workers faint while at their posts. High temperatures are considered a contributory factor to fainting in textiles factories.
Employees at Hugo Knit also reported high temperatures inside the factory. They explained that the factory does have a cooling system, but that it is turned on for only one hour a day because factory management believes the increased humidity it causes damages the products.
Inadequate protective equipment
Vietnam’s Labour Code requires employers to ensure that those employees who work in an environment hazardous to their health are provided with adequate protective equipment. 43
Employees at Kollan described a dusty working environment, with a lot of noise. Nevertheless, they were not given dust masks or ear plugs. At Hugo Knit, employees are given dust masks and earplugs, but these are not replaced often enough. As a result, staff buy their own masks to reduce the amount of dust they inhale. Earplugs are replaced every other month, which is too infrequently to provide adequate protection. 44
Restrictions on bathroom breaks
According to employees at Kollan, the only toilets are on the building’s ground floor. For employees working on the first floor, who have further to go to reach the toilets, factory management is said to have put a limit of two bathroom breaks per day in order to reduce the amount of time employees are away from their posts.
Employees at Hugo Knit said that factory management requires them to record in writing the exact time they enter and exit the toilets, and that they receive a written warning if they exceed the allotted time.

3.4 Discrimination
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights contain explicit provisions (in Articles 2 and 3) prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender, birth or other status. The ban on discriminating against women is elaborated in further detail in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. ILO convention no. 100 on equal pay for men and women also establishes this same principle. Under Vietnamese law, it is not permitted to dismiss a woman from her job because she has become pregnant.45
Employees at Kollan said that it was normal practice for the company not to renew the employment contracts of women workers who fell pregnant. This applied particularly to workers on short-term contracts.

43 Labour Code, Article 149.
44 For example, see the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Interpretive Letter
concerning Employer Obligation to Provide Hearing Protectors, Oct. 2, 2000,
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=25014. 45 Labour Code Article 155 (3).

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3.5 Freedom of association
The right to freedom of association and the right to organise are laid down in the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the ILO’s convention no. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (one of the ILO’s core conventions) and the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
Under Vietnamese law, all trade unions must be affiliated to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), which is controlled by the country’s Communist Party.46 The formation of free and independent trade unions is therefore not permitted. Nevertheless, the law does not prevent employees from nominating and electing their own trade union representatives.
Employees at both Kollan and Hugo Knit reported that there was a trade union at each of the factories, but that they functioned solely as social welfare organisations which did not represent employees in disputes with factory management.
The trade union leader at Kollan was said to work in the factory management’s office. Those interviewed did not know of any other members of the trade union leadership. Nor were they aware of any collective bargaining agreement. Employees also said that there was no functioning complaints mechanism at the factory and that they had no opportunity to submit complaints in the event of any disagreement with a supervisor or if they wished to raise other work-related issues.
Employees at Hugo Knit reported that they could contact the trade union only through their supervisors, who are representatives of factory management. As a result, the workers did not contact the trade union about working conditions for fear of being dismissed. They did not know the identities of the people running the trade union.

4 Information provided by the company 4.1 The Council’s contacts with Texwinca
The Council contacted Texwinca for the first time in June 2015 to request information about working conditions at the company’s factories in Vietnam. Texwinca replied by referring the Council to the company’s annual report and its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which can be found on the company’s website. However, Texwinca’s operations in Vietnam are not mentioned in the report.
Furthermore, Texwinca did not permit any inspection of Hugo Knit. In October 2016, the company was sent a draft recommendation to exclude it from the GPFG that had been prepared on the basis of the Council’s investigations. Texwinca replied that the company did not wish to comment on the recommendation.
To obtain a broader basis for assessing the company, Kollan was investigated in May–July 2017. Texwinca was sent a new draft recommendation to exclude the company in February 2018. Once again, the company said it did not wish to comment on working conditions at the factories.

46 VGCL, Statutes of the Vietnamese Trade Unions (Nov. 5, 2008), http://ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=94503&p_country=VNM&p_count=532

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In its communications with the Council on Ethics, Texwinca has commented solely on its corporate structure, but has otherwise provided no information about the matter at hand. According to Texwinca:
“We have no comment on the enclosed draft recommendation. As explained in our previous communication, it is the Group’s strategy to remain as a passive investor in the Megawell business. To allow maximum appropriate authority to the managers of Megawell Group to operate and expand the business, it was agreed that we would impose the minimum intervention in the business of Megawell. Though we hold 50% equity interest in Megawell Group, the other two active investors, acting in concert and collectively own the remaining equity interest, also maintain 50% controlling interest in Megawell Group. Thus, we have no legal right to exercise full control on Megawell.” 47

4.2 Texwinca’s policies at its factories in China
There is no available information about what Texwinca or Megawell is doing to safeguard good working conditions at the factories in Vietnam.
With respect to Texwinca’s factories in China, the company writes:
“Specific to our textile operations, employees are offered a range of allowances and bonuses such as compensation for working in high temperature environments, night shift allowance as well as performance and end of year bonuses.”48
With respect to occupational health and safety, the company writes:
“Safety is a core tenet of our operations and embedded into the very fabric of the way in which we do business. The health and safety of our employees as well all those within reach of our operations is of utmost concern to us.”49
The company writes that it carries out frequent inspections at its production facilities in China and that employees who perform hazardous work are offered free annual health checks.
With respect to its suppliers, Texwinca states: “Our suppliers are expected to adhere to our high standards, demonstrating continuous development in a variety of operational, economic, social and environmental areas.” And further: “Our responsible departments also closely monitor suppliers at regular intervals to ensure compliance with social and environmental standards.”50

5 The Council on Ethics’ assessment
The Council on Ethics has assessed whether there is an unacceptable risk that Texwinca is contributing to or is itself responsible for systematic violations of internationally recognised labour rights norms in connection with Megawell’s production of fabrics and garments. Texwinca owns 50 per cent of the shares in Megawell, making it the company’s largest shareholder. The Council has looked into conditions at Megawell’s garment factories in Vietnam.

47 Email from Texwinca to the Council on Ethics, 11 April 2018.
48 Texwinca Holdings Ltd., Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2017,
http://www.irasia.com/listco/hk/texwinca/annual/esr182339-e00321_esg_1006_1530.pdf
49 See footnote 48, p 33. 50 See footnote 48, p 35.

9

Texwinca has had the same shareholding in Megawell for more than 20 years. Texwinca presents Megawell as part of its corporate structure. Nevertheless, Texwinca asserts that it does not have a controlling influence over Megawell, that the company’s strategy is to remain a passive shareholder and that it has been agreed that Texwinca will exert minimal influence over Megawell. The Council does not know which agreements in law have been entered into between the companies, but considers that Texwinca’s dominant shareholding, combined with the fact that Texwinca’s top managers have held senior positions at Megawell for more than 20 years, indicates that Texwinca does indeed have a significant influence over Megawell.
Because of the company’s ownership structure, the Council considers norm violations at Kollan and Hugo Knit to be norm violations in Texwinca’s own operations. The Council takes the position that, with respect to norm violations perpetrated within a company’s own operations, the threshold for what can be accepted must be lower than when a company contributes to norm violations perpetrated by a third party.
The Council on Ethics has based its assessment on its own investigations that were carried out in 2016 and 2017. These investigations point to a working environment that may be harmful to the employees’ health. Workers at both factories have reported substantial overtime, high production quotas, high indoor temperatures and widespread harassment and abuse by supervisors. At Kollan, this has contributed to employees fainting at their posts. The Council has, moreover, noted employees’ statements about violations of the fire safety regulations and restrictions on bathroom breaks, as well as claims that legitimate sick leave is penalised through wage deductions and that the company, in practice, forces employees to work overtime. In the Council’s opinion, this constitutes a clear violation of the right to a safe and healthy working environment. The company’s practice also seems to contravene national laws whose precise purpose is to ensure good working conditions in factories.
Other norm violations relate to discrimination and interference in the workers’ freedom of association. The Council notes employees’ reports that female workers do not have their contracts renewed when they fall pregnant. Although freedom of association in general is limited in Vietnam, it appears to the Council that the company imposes further restrictions, in that the unions are run by management representatives. The right to form trade unions and to organise is considered fundamental for the ability to improve working conditions, engage in collective bargaining and prevent other labour rights from being infringed. The Council notes that there does not seem to be any complaints mechanisms at the factories, through which employees can raise issues concerning the violation of labour rights with management.
The Council finds it substantiated that the company’s practices in many areas contravene both internationally recognised labour rights and national legislation.
The Council attaches importance to the fact that Texwinca has not contributed to the clarification of matters in this case. The company has provided limited information about its relationship to Megawell, has not permitted the factory to be inspected and has not submitted comments on draft recommendations to exclude the company from the GPFG. Texwinca argues that conditions at factories of which it is the principal shareholder are none of its business. Consequently, the Council has had access to less information in this case than in other similar cases it has assessed. The information deficit applies to the scale of norm violations and what the company is doing to prevent them. In accordance with the wording of Report No. 20 (2008–2009) to the Norwegian Storting, the Council has concluded that a lack of information on the company’s conduct and, not least, a lack of willingness on the part of the company to provide information may, in and of itself, add to the risk of contributing to unethical behaviour being deemed unacceptably high.

10

Marxist-Leninism2.0: Theory  and Practice of Emerging SocialistDemocracy in China and Cuba

Pennsylvania State University

12 February 2018

Lewis Katz Building

University Park

Sponsored by the Coalition for Peace & Ethics, the Foundation for Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law and School of International Affairs.  Funding provided in part by the Penn State University Park Allocation Committee.

Conference Concept Note

These are turbulent times for democratic theory. In the West, intellectuals worry about the continued viability of democratic republican systems in their current form. These worries have been augmented as the strategic behaviors of important actors have begun to push against the borders of democratic structures as well as by a perceived popular malaise expressed through the ordinary channels of democratic participation. The stresses affect democratic governance in a variety of ways. Populism is one label that Western influence leaders use to identify stresses on the processes of mass participation in government, principally through elections. Deep state is what others reference as the portion of the government of states that appear insulated from mass politics. Legalism is what is referenced as the diversion of political discourse within domestic legal orders and their resolution by judicial rather than political bodies. The response to these stresses remains tentative and in the earliest stages of development. The political order is being remade according to rules that are still emerging and not clear, or as yet easy to understand. At its core, these discussions touch on the continued development of stable structures that maintain robust and legitimate relations between individuals and the government that serves them, while elaborating systems of accountability and monitoring to suit the times.

And yet it is clear that what will emerge from these sometimes tumultuous conversations will produce new approaches both to the theory and practice of democratic governance in the West. These new approaches will vary to suit the new era of Western development in its many forms, but will remain faithful to the core premises of devolution of government authority from the people to representatives, popular accountability, through elections, and popular engagement through new mechanisms of mass participation in governance. This Liberal Democracy 2.0 will likely balance the competing principles of popular participation and representative government with reference to changing normative conceptions of the individual in relation to the state, now perhaps mediated more expressly by concepts of status and identity.

The global conversation about the essence, theory and practice of democracy has also come to the great Marxist Leninist states. Cuba and China, in particular have sought to recognize the challenges of the emerging new era in their respective national contexts. Each has recognized the central relevance of democracy to their respective normative systems, and have recognized the challenges to past practice that their respective stages of development has revealed. Each has sought to align emerging practice with these new era principles of democracy.

Has the response to these challenges resulted in the development of as Marxist Leninism 2.0 system of Socialist Democracy? That is the question that a diverse group of individuals drawn from Europe, China and the United States will consider.

The Conference is organized in two panels. The first will consider the issues of emerging Socialist Democracy and its expression in the development of the character of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and of the role and operation of the state apparatus and related organizations. China has focused with increasing intensity of the core ideological and practical issues of developing socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics. Socialist democracy has become an umbrella concept that intermesh a number of important structures that constitute the framework within which democracy with both socialist and Chinese characteristics is defined and implemented. But socialist democracy also integrates what is referenced as “socialist consultative democracy.”

The First panel will consider issues related to the building of contemporary Chinese Socialist Democracy in the shadow of global debates and of the core national challenges as China moves to the next stage of its development. Panelists will examine the issue from a variety of perspectives. These include the examination of the development of democratic theory, in general, and the emergence of deep structures of Socialist Democracy in China in the New Era. To that end, we will briefly touch on the conjoining of two theoretical trajectories that, in the West, are rarely conjoined. To that end, panelists will explore the extent to which conventional exogenous democratic theory has opened the possibilities to theories of endogenous democracy. Panelists will also consider issues of accountability within developing conceptions of Socialist Democracy. To that end they will explore the emerging contours of Chinese consultative democracy. Aspects will include the role of the United Front and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Others will explore topics related to emergence of New Era constitutionalism from out of the 19th CPC Congress and expressed in the contemporary transformations of CPC and State Constitutions.

The second panel will consider the quite distinctive approach to emerging notions of democratic theory and practice in Cuba. To that end, panelists will examine the current multi-year reform of the core political and economic model of governance by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and the related reform of the Cuban state constitution to align with these evolving core premises. For the last several years Cuba has been in the midst of a quite public national effort at reform. The PCC and the state apparatus attempted to invoke the core mechanics of popular participation even as it sought to manage that participation under the leadership of the PCC and popular representatives in national institutions.

Through the use of qualitative and quantitative measures panelists will seek to better understand both the changing character of popular participation in representative institutions, and its consequences for democratic theory. Panelists will focus specifically on the relationship between changes to political ideology under the leadership of the PCC, and the management of popular participation in the formation of a key element of national self constitution. Panelists will report on the findings of an empirical study of the character and consequences of popular participation and suggests its consequences not just for the constitution of democratic practice in illiberal societies, but also its value in enhancing democratic engagement in liberal democracies as well.

 

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2018 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus
NEW PRIME INC. v. OLIVEIRA
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE FIRST CIRCUIT
No. 17–340. Argued October 3, 2018—Decided January 15, 2019

Petitioner New Prime Inc. is an interstate trucking company, and respondent Dominic Oliveira is one of its drivers. Mr. Oliveira works under an operating agreement that calls him an independent con- tractor and contains a mandatory arbitration provision. When Mr. Oliveira filed a class action alleging that New Prime denies its drivers lawful wages, New Prime asked the court to invoke its statutory authority under the Federal Arbitration Act to compel arbitration. Mr. Oliveira countered that the court lacked authority because §1 of the Act excepts from coverage disputes involving “contracts of employment” of certain transportation workers. New Prime insisted that any question regarding §1’s applicability belonged to the arbitrator alone to resolve, or, assuming the court could address the ques- tion, that “contracts of employment” referred only to contracts that establish an employer-employee relationship and not to contracts with independent contractors. The District Court and First Circuit agreed with Mr. Oliveira.

Held:
1. A court should determine whether a §1 exclusion applies before ordering arbitration. A court’s authority to compel arbitration under the Act does not extend to all private contracts, no matter how emphatically they may express a preference for arbitration. Instead, antecedent statutory provisions limit the scope of a court’s §§3 and 4 powers to stay litigation and compel arbitration “accord[ing to] the terms” of the parties’ agreement. Section 2 provides that the Act applies only when the agreement is set forth as “a written provision in any maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce.” And §1 helps define §2’s terms, warning, as relevant here, that “nothing” in the Act “shall apply” to “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” For a court to invoke its statutory authority under §§3 and 4, it must first know if the parties’ agreement is excluded from the Act’s coverage by the terms of §§1 and 2. This sequencing is significant. See, e.g., Bernhardt v. Polygraphic Co. of America, 350 U. S. 198, 201–202. New Prime notes that the parties’ contract contains a “delegation clause,” giving the arbitrator authority to decide threshold questions of arbitrability, and that the “severability principle” requires that both sides take all their disputes to arbitration. But a delegation clause is merely a specialized type of arbitration agreement and is enforceable under §§3 and 4 only if it appears in a contract consistent with §2 that does not trigger §1’s exception. And, the Act’s severability principle applies only if the parties’ arbitration agreement appears in a contract that falls within the field §§1 and 2 describe. Pp. 3–6. 

2. Because the Act’s term “contract of employment” refers to any agreement to perform work, Mr. Oliveira’s agreement with New Prime falls within §1’s exception. Pp. 6–15. 

(a) “[I]t’s a ‘fundamental canon of statutory construction’ that words generally should be ‘interpreted as taking their ordinary . . . meaning . . . at the time Congress enacted the statute.’ ” Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. United States, 585 U. S. ___, ___ (quoting Perrin v. United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42). After all, if judges could freely in- vest old statutory terms with new meanings, this Court would risk amending legislation outside the “single, finely wrought and exhaustively considered, procedure” the Constitution commands. INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 951. The Court would risk, too, upsetting reliance interests by subjecting people today to different rules than they enjoyed when the statute was passed. At the time of the Act’s adoption in 1925, the phrase “contract of employment” was not a term of art, and dictionaries tended to treat “employment” more or less as a synonym for “work.” Contemporaneous legal authorities provide no evidence that a “contract of employment” necessarily signaled a formal employer-employee relationship. Evidence that Con- gress used the term “contracts of employment” broadly can be found in its choice of the neighboring term “workers,” a term that easily embraces independent contractors. Pp. 6–10. 

(b) New Prime argues that by 1925, the words “employee” and “independent contractor” had already assumed distinct meanings. But while the words “employee” and “employment” may share a common root and intertwined history, they also developed at different times and in at least some different ways. The evidence remains that, as dominantly understood in 1925, a “contract of employment” did not necessarily imply the existence of an employer-employee relationship. New Prime’s argument that early 20th-century courts sometimes used the phrase “contracts of employment” to describe what are recognized today as agreements between employers and employees does nothing to negate the possibility that the term also embraced agreements by independent contractors to perform work. And its effort to explain away the statute’s suggestive use of the term “worker” by noting that the neighboring terms “seamen” and “rail- road employees” included only employees in 1925 rests on a precarious premise. The evidence suggests that even “seamen” and “railroad employees” could be independent contractors at the time the Arbitration Act passed. Left to appeal to the Act’s policy, New Prime suggests that this Court order arbitration to abide Congress’ effort to counteract judicial hostility to arbitration and establish a favorable federal policy toward arbitration agreements. Courts, however, are not free to pave over bumpy statutory texts in the name of more expeditiously advancing a policy goal. Rather, the Court should respect “the limits up to which Congress was prepared” to go when adopting the Arbitration Act. United States v. Sisson, 399 U. S. 267, 298. This Court also declines to address New Prime’s suggestion that it order arbitration anyway under its inherent authority to stay litigation in favor of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism of the parties’ choosing. Pp. 10–15.

857 F. 3d 7, affirmed.

GORSUCH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all other Members joined, except KAVANAUGH, J., who took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. GINSBURG, J., filed a concurring opinion.

Cite as: 586 U. S. ____ (2019) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash- ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 17–340 _________________
NEW PRIME INC., PETITIONER v. DOMINIC OLIVEIRA
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
[January 15, 2019]

JUSTICE GORSUCH delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to enforce private arbitration agreements. But like most laws, this one bears its qualifications. Among other things, §1 says that “nothing herein” may be used to compel arbitration in disputes involving the “contracts of employment” of certain transportation workers. 9 U. S. C. §1. And that qualification has sparked these questions: When a contract delegates questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator, must a court leave disputes over the application of §1’s exception for the arbitrator to resolve? And does the term “contracts of employment” refer only to contracts between employers and employees, or does it also reach contracts with independent contractors? Because courts across the country have disagreed on the answers to these questions, we took this case to resolve them.

I 

New Prime is an interstate trucking company and Dominic Oliveira works as one of its drivers. But, at least on paper, Mr. Oliveira isn’t an employee; the parties’ contracts label him an independent contractor. Those agreements also instruct that any disputes arising out of the parties’ relationship should be resolved by an arbitrator— even disputes over the scope of the arbitrator’s authority. 

Eventually, of course, a dispute did arise. In a class action lawsuit in federal court, Mr. Oliveira argued that New Prime denies its drivers lawful wages. The company may call its drivers independent contractors. But, Mr. Oliveira alleged, in reality New Prime treats them as employees and fails to pay the statutorily due minimum wage. In response to Mr. Oliveira’s complaint, New Prime asked the court to invoke its statutory authority under the Act and compel arbitration according to the terms found in the parties’ agreements.

That request led to more than a little litigation of its own. Even when the parties’ contracts mandate arbitration, Mr. Oliveira observed, the Act doesn’t always authorize a court to enter an order compelling it. In particular, §1 carves out from the Act’s coverage “contracts of em- ployment of . . . workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” And at least for purposes of this collateral dispute, Mr. Oliveira submitted, it doesn’t matter whether you view him as an employee or independent contractor. Either way, his agreement to drive trucks for New Prime qualifies as a “contract[ ] of employment of . . . [a] worker[ ] engaged in . . . interstate commerce.” Accordingly, Mr. Oliveira argued, the Act supplied the district court with no authority to compel arbitration in this case. 

Naturally, New Prime disagreed. Given the extraordinary breadth of the parties’ arbitration agreement, the company insisted that any question about §1’s application belonged for the arbitrator alone to resolve. Alternatively and assuming a court could address the question, New Prime contended that the term “contracts of employment” refers only to contracts that establish an employer- employee relationship. And because Mr. Oliveira is, in fact as well as form, an independent contractor, the company argued, §1’s exception doesn’t apply; the rest of the statute does; and the district court was (once again) required to order arbitration.

Ultimately, the district court and the First Circuit sided with Mr. Oliveira. 857 F. 3d 7 (2017). The court of appeals held, first, that in disputes like this a court should resolve whether the parties’ contract falls within the Act’s ambit or §1’s exclusion before invoking the statute’s authority to order arbitration. Second, the court of appeals held that §1’s exclusion of certain “contracts of employment” removes from the Act’s coverage not only employer- employee contracts but also contracts involving independent contractors. So under any account of the parties’ agreement in this case, the court held, it lacked authority under the Act to order arbitration. 

II 

In approaching the first question for ourselves, one thing becomes clear immediately. While a court’s authority under the Arbitration Act to compel arbitration may be considerable, it isn’t unconditional. If two parties agree to arbitrate future disputes between them and one side later seeks to evade the deal, §§3 and 4 of the Act often require a court to stay litigation and compel arbitration “accord[ing to] the terms” of the parties’ agreement. But this authority doesn’t extend to all private contracts, no matter how emphatically they may express a preference for arbitration. 

Instead, antecedent statutory provisions limit the scope of the court’s powers under §§3 and 4. Section 2 provides that the Act applies only when the parties’ agreement to arbitrate is set forth as a “written provision in any maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce.” And §1 helps define §2’s terms. Most relevant for our purposes, §1 warns that “nothing” in the Act “shall apply” to “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Why this very particular qualification? By the time it adopted the Arbitration Act in 1925, Congress had already prescribed alternative employment dispute resolution regimes for many transportation workers. And it seems Congress “did not wish to unsettle” those arrangements in favor of what- ever arbitration procedures the parties’ private contracts might happen to contemplate. Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U. S. 105, 121 (2001). 

Given the statute’s terms and sequencing, we agree with the First Circuit that a court should decide for itself whether §1’s “contracts of employment” exclusion applies before ordering arbitration. After all, to invoke its statutory powers under §§3 and 4 to stay litigation and compel arbitration according to a contract’s terms, a court must first know whether the contract itself falls within or beyond the boundaries of §§1 and 2. The parties’ private agreement may be crystal clear and require arbitration of every question under the sun, but that does not necessarily mean the Act authorizes a court to stay litigation and send the parties to an arbitral forum.

Nothing in our holding on this score should come as a surprise. We’ve long stressed the significance of the statute’s sequencing. In Bernhardt v. Polygraphic Co. of America, 350 U. S. 198, 201–202 (1956), we recognized that “Sections 1, 2, and 3 [and 4] are integral parts of a whole. . . . [Sections] 1 and 2 define the field in which Congress was legislating,” and §§3 and 4 apply only to contracts covered by those provisions. In Circuit City, we acknowledged that “Section 1 exempts from the [Act] . . . contracts of employment of transportation workers.” 532 U. S., at 119. And in Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U. S. 1, 10–11, and n. 5 (1984), we noted that “the enforceability of arbitration provisions” under §§3 and 4 depends on whether those provisions are “part of a written maritime contract or a contract ‘evidencing a transaction involving commerce’” under §2—which, in turn, depends on the application of §1’s exception for certain “contracts of employment.” 

To be sure, New Prime resists this straightforward understanding. The company argues that an arbitrator should resolve any dispute over §1’s application because of the “delegation clause” in the parties’ contract and what is sometimes called the “severability principle.” A delegation clause gives an arbitrator authority to decide even the initial question whether the parties’ dispute is subject to arbitration. Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson, 561 U. S. 63, 68–69 (2010). And under the severability principle, we treat a challenge to the validity of an arbitration agreement (or a delegation clause) separately from a challenge to the validity of the entire contract in which it appears. Id., at 70–71. Unless a party specifically challenges the validity of the agreement to arbitrate, both sides may be required to take all their disputes—including disputes about the validity of their broader contract—to arbitration. Ibid. Applying these principles to this case, New Prime notes that Mr. Oliveira has not specifically challenged the parties’ delegation clause and submits that any controversy should therefore proceed only and immediately before an arbitrator. 

But all this overlooks the necessarily antecedent statutory inquiry we’ve just discussed. A delegation clause is merely a specialized type of arbitration agreement, and the Act “operates on this additional arbitration agreement just as it does on any other.” Id., at 70. So a court may use §§3 and 4 to enforce a delegation clause only if the clause appears in a “written provision in . . . a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce” consistent with §2. And only if the contract in which the clause appears doesn’t trigger §1’s “contracts of employment” exception. In exactly the same way, the Act’s severability principle applies only if the parties’ arbitration agreement appears in a contract that falls within the field §§1 and 2 describe. We acknowledged as much some time ago, explaining that, before invoking the severability principle, a court should “determine[] that the contract in question is within the coverage of the Arbitration Act.” Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., 388 U. S. 395, 402 (1967). 

III 

That takes us to the second question: Did the First Circuit correctly resolve the merits of the §1 challenge in this case? Recall that §1 excludes from the Act’s compass “contracts of employment of . . . workers engaged in . . . interstate commerce.” Happily, everyone before us agrees that Mr. Oliveira qualifies as a “worker[ ] engaged in . . . interstate commerce.” For purposes of this appeal, too, Mr. Oliveira is willing to assume (but not grant) that his contracts with New Prime establish only an independent contractor relationship. 

With that, the disputed question comes into clear view: What does the term “contracts of employment” mean? If it refers only to contracts that reflect an employer-employee relationship, then §1’s exception is irrelevant and a court is free to order arbitration, just as New Prime urges. But if the term also encompasses contracts that require an independent contractor to perform work, then the exception takes hold and a court lacks authority under the Act to order arbitration, exactly as Mr. Oliveira argues.

A 

In taking up this question, we bear an important caution in mind. “[I]t’s a ‘fundamental canon of statutory construction’ that words generally should be ‘interpreted as taking their ordinary . . . meaning . . . at the time Congress enacted the statute.’” Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. United States, 585 U. S. ___, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 9) (quoting Perrin v. United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42 (1979)). See also Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp., 571 U. S. 220, 227 (2014). After all, if judges could freely invest old statutory terms with new meanings, we would risk amending legislation outside the “single, finely wrought and exhaustively considered, procedure” the Constitution commands. INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 951 (1983). We would risk, too, upsetting reliance interests in the settled meaning of a statute. Cf. 2B N. Singer & J. Singer, Suth- erland on Statutes and Statutory Construction §56A:3 (rev. 7th ed. 2012). Of course, statutes may sometimes refer to an external source of law and fairly warn readers that they must abide that external source of law, later amendments and modifications included. Id., §51:8 (discussing the reference canon). But nothing like that exists here. Nor has anyone suggested any other appropriate reason that might allow us to depart from the original meaning of the statute at hand. 

That, we think, holds the key to the case. To many lawyerly ears today, the term “contracts of employment” might call to mind only agreements between employers and employees (or what the common law sometimes called masters and servants). Suggestively, at least one recently published law dictionary defines the word “employment” to mean “the relationship between master and servant.” Black’s Law Dictionary 641 (10th ed. 2014). But this modern intuition isn’t easily squared with evidence of the term’s meaning at the time of the Act’s adoption in 1925. At that time, a “contract of employment” usually meant nothing more than an agreement to perform work. As a result, most people then would have understood §1 to exclude not only agreements between employers and employees but also agreements that require independent contractors to perform work. 

What’s the evidence to support this conclusion? It turns out that in 1925 the term “contract of employment” wasn’t defined in any of the (many) popular or legal dictionaries the parties cite to us. And surely that’s a first hint the phrase wasn’t then a term of art bearing some specialized meaning. It turns out, too, that the dictionaries of the era consistently afforded the word “employment” a broad construction, broader than may be often found in dictionaries today. Back then, dictionaries tended to treat “employment” more or less as a synonym for “work.” Nor did they distinguish between different kinds of work or workers: All work was treated as employment, whether or not the common law criteria for a master-servant relationship happened to be satisfied.1 

What the dictionaries suggest, legal authorities confirm. This Court’s early 20th-century cases used the phrase “contract of employment” to describe work agreements involving independent contractors.2 Many state court cases did the same.3 So did a variety of federal statutes.4 And state stat-

——————
1See, e.g., 3 J. Murray, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles 130 (1891) (defining “employment” as, among other things, “[t]he action or process of employing; the state of being employed. The service (of a person). That on which (one) is employed; business; occupation; a special errand or commission. A person’s regular occupation or business; a trade or profession”); 3 The Century Dic- tionary and Cyclopedia 1904 (1914) (defining “employment” as “[w]ork or business of any kind”); W. Harris, Webster’s New International Dictionary 718 (1st ed. 1909) (listing “work” as a synonym for “em- ployment”); Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 329 (3d ed. 1916) (same); Black’s Law Dictionary 422 (2d ed. 1910) (“an engagement or render- ing services” for oneself or another); 3 Oxford English Dictionary 130 (1933) (“[t]hat on which (one) is employed; business; occupation; a special errand or commission”).
2 See, e.g., Watkins v. Sedberry, 261 U. S. 571, 575 (1923) (agree- ment between trustee and attorney to recover bankrupt’s property); Owen v. Dudley & Michener, 217 U. S. 488, 494 (1910) (agreement between Indian tribe and attorneys to pursue claims).
3 See, e.g., Lindsay v. McCaslin (Two Cases), 123 Me. 197, 200, 122 A. 412, 413 (1923) (“When the contract of employment has been reduced to writing, the question whether the person employed was an independent contractor or merely a servant is determined by the court as a matter of law”); Tankersley v. Webster, 116 Okla. 208, 210, 243 P.

utes too.5 We see here no evidence that a “contract of employment” necessarily signaled a formal employer-employee or master-servant relationship.

More confirmation yet comes from a neighboring term in the statutory text. Recall that the Act excludes from its coverage “contracts of employment of . . . any . . . class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” 9 U. S. C. §1 (emphasis added). Notice Congress didn’t use the word “employees” or “servants,” the natural choices if  

——————
745, 747 (1925) (“[T]he contract of employment between Tankersley and Casey was admitted in evidence without objections, and we think conclusively shows that Casey was an independent contractor”); Waldron v. Garland Pocahontas Coal Co., 89 W. Va. 426, 427, 109 S. E. 729 (1921) (syllabus) (“Whether a person performing work for another is an independent contractor depends upon a consideration of the contract of employment, the nature of the business, the circum- stances under which the contract was made and the work was done”); see also App. to Brief for Respondent 1a–12a (citing additional examples).
4See, e.g., Act of Mar. 19, 1924, ch. 70, §5, 43 Stat. 28 (limiting payment of fees to attorneys “employed” by the Cherokee Tribe to litigate claims against the United States to those “stipulated in the contract of employment”); Act of June 7, 1924, ch. 300, §§2, 5, 43 Stat. 537–538 (providing same for Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes); Act of Aug. 24, 1921, ch. 89, 42 Stat. 192 (providing that no funds may be used to compensate “any attorney, regular or special, for the United States Shipping Board or the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation unless the contract of employment has been approved by the Attorney General of the United States”). See also App. to Brief for Respondent 13a (citing additional examples).
5 See, e.g., Act of Mar. 10, 1909, ch. 70, §1, 1909 Kan. Sess. Laws p. 121 (referring to “contracts of employment of auditors, accountants, engineers, attorneys, counselors and architects for any special pur- pose”); Act of Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 4, §4, 1909 Okla. Sess. Laws p. 118 (“Should the amount of the attorney’s fee be agreed upon in the contract of employment, then such attorney’s lien and cause of action against such adverse party shall be for the amount so agreed upon”); Act of Mar. 4, 1924, ch. 88, §1, 1924 Va. Acts ch. 91 (allowing extension of “contracts of employment” between the state and contractors with respect to the labor of prisoners); App. to Brief for Respondent 14a–15a (citing additional examples).

the term “contracts of employment” addressed them alone. Instead, Congress spoke of “workers,” a term that everyone agrees easily embraces independent contractors. That word choice may not mean everything, but it does supply further evidence still that Congress used the term “contracts of employment” in a broad sense to capture any contract for the performance of work by workers.

B 

What does New Prime have to say about the case building against it? Mainly, it seeks to shift the debate from the term “contracts of employment” to the word “employee.” Today, the company emphasizes, the law often distinguishes between employees and independent contractors. Employees are generally understood as those who work “in the service of another person (the employer) under an express or implied contract of hire, under which the employer has the right to control the details of work performance.” Black’s Law Dictionary, at 639. Meanwhile, independent contractors are sometimes described as those “entrusted to undertake a specific project but who [are] left free to do the assigned work and to choose the method for accomplishing it.” Id., at 888. New Prime argues that, by 1925, the words “employee” and “independent contractor” had already assumed these distinct meanings.6 And given that, the company contends, the phrase “contracts of employment” should be understood to refer only to relationships between employers and employees.