Malaysian government strengthens economic ties with China

Kurt Brown

On a four-day visit to Beijing from March 29 to April 1, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim secured promises of record levels of Chinese investment. His tour continued a balancing act between China and the US as Washington escalates its military and economic offensive against China throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, left, with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, March 31, 2023. [AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf/Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia]

In China, Anwar signed 19 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the government pledging investments in the petrochemical, automotive, finance and other sectors of Malaysia. At the same time, Anwar anxiously stated that his country remained neutral in the mounting conflict between the US and China.

While the MOUs referred only to commitments and not actual investments, the total promise of RM170 billion ($US38.5 billion) from the Chinese government and corporations was the biggest so far for Malaysia, equaling about 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). As a result of the MOUs, Chinese investment into Malaysia is expected to double in coming years.

Simultaneously, Anwar indicated a willingness to discuss or resolve contested South China Sea territorial claims with the Chinese government without escalating disputes. That is significant in the context of increasingly provocative moves by the Biden administration to goad China into war over various flashpoints, including the South China Sea and Taiwan.

Anwar led a high-level delegation to China. He was joined by International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Foreign Affairs Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir, four other ministers and various government and private sector trade representatives.

Key events included a roundtable meeting between Anwar and 36 senior Chinese executives and the Malaysia-China Business Forum attended by over 1,000 business representatives from both countries.

China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner since 2009, with total trade of $110.6 billion in 2022. China was also the biggest foreign direct investor in Malaysia in 2022, with investments amounting to $12.5 billion. Yet, according to the US State Department website, the US is still Malaysia’s third-largest trading partner, after China and Singapore.

Out of the RM170 billion investment commitment, the single largest is for a RM80 billion petrochemical refinery in the southern state of Johor, adjacent to Singapore, by Rongsheng Petrochemical.

The second biggest pledge, tallying RM32 billion, is by Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely, for an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in the state of Perak. Geely committed an initial investment of RM2 billion this year.

Anwar’s unstable coalition government, in office since November, is desperate to attract investment amid a social crisis fueled by inflation, growing food prices in particular, poor wages and unaffordable housing.

Anwar and his government have heavily promoted the investment commitments. Undoubtedly, this is in part to signal to global financial markets that the government is attempting to address concerns about the ballooning level of government debt, which stands at about $US346 billion.

In February, only three days after the government tabled its annual budget, the Fitch credit rating company noted the high level of government debt relative to other “BBB”-rated governments. Fitch warned that “a risk remains that further shocks to GDP growth or fiscal slippages could result in debt/GDP continuing to increase.”

Senior Malaysian government figures have drawn parallels between the high level of government debt and the situation in Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its debt obligations in 2022, resulting in political turmoil as workers and the poor fought crushing austerity measures.

In his introductory remarks before a closed-door 45-minute meeting with President Xi Jinping, Anwar went out of his way to praise Xi.  He was a “visionary” who had “not only changed the course of China but also given a ray of hope to the world and mankind, with the visions that extend beyond China, into the region and the world.”

Speaking at the Bo’ao Forum for Asia, Anwar also lauded China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the global infrastructure program intended to encompass more than 150 countries, as “translating lofty ideals into practical reality, solidarity and cooperation.” The BRI is a direct challenge to the economic might of the US.

Responding to a question on the rising US-China conflict during a public lecture at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Anwar pleaded neutrality, saying Malaysia would not allow any power to “dictate” its decisions, while adding that his country did not view China as a competitor or threat.

Anwar sought to tread a similar line on Malaysia’s South China Sea dispute with China. He noted that the Chinese government had expressed concerns over a gas field developed by Petronas, the Malaysian government energy company, off the coast of Sarawak.

The field is expected to produce 900 million cubic feet of gas per day from this year but is in a part of the South China Sea also claimed by China. Anwar said the Malaysian government was “ready to negotiate.”

On April 8, Malaysian opposition leader Muhyiddin Yassin accused Anwar of ceding sovereignty over this disputed territory. In response, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the charge, while stating that “issues relating to the South China Sea should be discussed or resolved in a peaceful manner… to avoid any escalation of disputes and the threat or use of force.”

These moves are certain to provoke hostile responses in Washington. A key US threat could be to block access by Malaysian banks to the US dollar-denominated banking system.

Anwar said he had raised with Xi a proposal to conduct investment transactions using Malaysian ringgit and Chinese yuan. Anwar later told parliament that China was open to talks about setting up an “Asian Monetary Fund” with Malaysia, in order to reduce Asia’s dependence on the US dollar.

In an effort to placate the Biden administration, Trade Minister Zafrul told CNBC on April 6 that Malaysia was determined to work with both the US and China, amid the rising geostrategic tensions between the two powers.

Nevertheless, commentators have expressed concerns. US sanctions against China could potentially affect some Malaysian companies that form part of China’s supply chain, Ngeow Chow Bing, the director of Universiti Malaya’s Institute of China Studies, told Al Jazeera.

Hoo Chiew Ping, an international relations lecturer at the National University of Malaysia, told Al Jazeera that if Malaysia wished to boost cooperation with China, especially in the tech sector, it would need to consider the possibility of US pressure. It needed to work out how to “navigate the delicate line of advancing technological cooperation for national interests while still being able to convince both US and China that such cooperation will not affect bilateral relations politically.”

That balancing act will become ever-more difficult as Washington ramps up its confrontation with China, which it has designated the existential threat to American global power.

Silicosis hits thousands of Australian workers

John Mackay

Some 10 years after the first reports of stonemasons developing lung disease during kitchen benchtop manufacturing, workers in Australia are suffering an epidemic of diseases from exposure to silica dust.

Worker cutting engineered stone products. [Photo: Alireza Naseri on Unsplash]

From the estimated half a million workers who could be exposed to silica dust in the workplace, approximately 100,000 could develop silicosis, with an additional 10,000 developing lung cancer. The current number of deaths is unclear. A study from 2012 estimated that silicosis contributes to 10,400 deaths per year.

Unlike many occupational lung diseases that see illness develop later in life, with silica exposure from the “engineered stone” used for kitchen benchtops, those workers succumbing to silicosis are often in their 20s and 30s.

Unlike exposure to asbestos which may take many years to present, “acute” silicosis can occur within three years of exposure. Accelerated and chronic silicosis is slower but still rapid, occurring before or following 10 years of exposure, respectively. While it remains a preventable disease by avoiding inhaling the dust, there are currently no treatments for silicosis, other than a lung transplant.

Silica is a natural product in sandstone. When aerosolised from cutting or drilling, this can then be inhaled to cause lung disease. Silica comes in different forms, however more recently engineered stone has high concentrations of silica (>90 percent) which can lead to greater exposure and more rapid onset of lung diseases. Natural alternatives can still be harmful, but the silica content is significantly lower (2–30 percent).

Silicosis is a fibrosing or stiffening of lung tissue that results from an inflammatory or immune response to combat the inhaled silica dust. Other diseases are also known to occur, including lung cancer and autoimmune diseases that mainly develop as a condition known as scleroderma.

The “dry cutting” of benchtops leads to potentially higher-than-normal exposures of ultrafine dust particles. The particles, as small as one hundredth the size of a grain of sand cannot be seen, but can be inhaled and deposited deep in the lung.

The most recent indication of the potential numbers of workers exposed in Australia came from a report last April from researchers at Curtin University. Modelling the risk of disease to “respirable crystalline silica,” using data from sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the study found that around 584,050 workers are currently exposed.

This included workers who were working on any products containing silica, such as stone, rocks, concrete and bricks processed by cutting, drilling or grinding. The findings suggest that between 83,090 and 103,860 silicosis cases are expected to result from current silica exposure, and around 10,390 workers will develop lung cancer.

Fibrothorax and pleural effusion caused by silicosis. [Photo by Salih M, Aljarod T, Ayan M, Jeffrey M, Shah BH / CC BY-SA 3.0]

Silica has been called the “new asbestos.” In reality, silica exposure among workers has existed for well over a century, yet the diseases were less common. The earliest and largest manufacturer of engineered stone was Caesarstone in Israel in the early 2000s. Dr Mordicai Kramer, a cardiothoracic surgeon was the first to observe an increase in silicosis and made the link to the cutting of the stone. Israeli stonemason Yigal Rosman, who was suffering from silicosis, noticed Australia was a large customer of Caesarstone. In 2014 he wrote to Australian Employment Minister Eric Abetz to sound the alarm.

It was not until 2015, however, that the first case of silicosis associated with artificial stone was reported in Australia. This was followed in 2017 by a small study describing the disease in eight patients. This study associated the disease with a failure to enforce adequate safety measures, such as dust control to limit inhalation.

Only in 2018 did the Queensland state government department Workcover screen 10 workplaces involved with cutting stone. The initial review was later expanded to include all stonemasons in that state. By May 2019, Workcover had accepted 141 silicosis claims.

Nationally, since 2015 almost 580 stonemasons have been diagnosed with silicosis out of an estimated workforce of 4,000. The first fatality caused by silicosis from engineered stone was 36-year-old Queensland stonemason Anthony White, who was diagnosed in 2017 and died in March 2019.

At the time of White’s death, his brother Shane White told Nine News: “Everyone was talking about how great it [engineered stone] was. It’s a cheap product, easy to handle, and they could make more money off it in the long run. But why wasn’t there a lot more thought put into the hazards of it?

“In the whole time I was in the industry there was only a handful of companies that I know of that you would get fired from for not wearing your mask. Any other ones it would be a slap on the wrist and put your mask on.”

The White family demanded the products be banned and blamed governments for failing to police workplace standards. Anthony’s mother Di White told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): “Personally, I have not had a response from any of them. This has been out in the media since my son passed away. Not one government official has sent us a letter of condolences. I know to them that’s one individual, but that’s my son.”

The former Liberal-National federal government eventually established a National Dust Disease Taskforce, which operated from 2019 to 2021. The taskforce’s main finding was that approximately one-quarter of engineered stone workers prior to 2018 suffered from silicosis or other silica dust-related diseases.

The taskforce acknowledged: “The risk of asbestos dust was first recognised in the 1930s, however, a complete ban on the use of asbestos was only implemented on 31 December 2003, after tens of thousands of individuals had been exposed, and many thousands of Australians dead from mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. We do not want a repeat of this experience in relation to silica dust.”

Nevertheless, the report postponed banning the substance, possibly to be considered in 2024, and instead recommended a registry to track cases of silicosis. All the federal and state governments accepted the report, but even the registry has been delayed. Last month, it was reported that draft legislation would be tabled later this year to require doctors to hand over information within 30 days about workers who have developed these diseases.

Dr Graeme Edwards, a former member of the taskforce, has labelled the combined inaction of governments as “tantamount to industrial manslaughter.” He told the Sydney Morning Herald: “It’s about time they actually insisted on action, [and] create the legislative framework that enables it to happen—which is a political responsibility—and protect the workers of Australia.”

Dr Edwards said the proposed legislation was essentially “draconian,” fining doctors up to $8,000 for not reporting silicosis related diseases. That could potentially undermine the registry’s integrity and delay diagnosis for fear of being fined.

The manufactured product is cheaper than marble or other more expensive products. This has seen its use surge over the past 20 years, during which a housing and renovation boom has generated massive profits for the building industry, which has strong ties to the major parties and the trade unions.

Occupational exposure-related illnesses have a long history of companies going to great lengths to minimise payouts to workers. James Hardie, one of the largest producers of asbestos in building materials, spent many years, with government assistance, fighting workers and their families to avoiding paying out compensation for life-threatening diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

The history of the corporate and government response to the silicosis epidemic is no different. In February, the Albanese government’s Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke convened a meeting of state and territory ministers to discuss the issue. He called for a coordinated national response but insisted that would take “a good 12 months or more.”

It is likewise with the trade unions. While the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) commissioned the Curtin University report, it backed that further delay in banning engineered stone. The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union said its members would refuse to work with silica-containing products if no ban was implemented on engineered stone by July 2024. But many more workers could be scarred for life or die painfully before then.

At the time of the ACTU announcement, stonemason Duane Calvey, who has been diagnosed with silicosis, told the ABC: “I don’t believe there’s any safe way to work with it, where dust isn’t going to be taken with somebody on their clothes or on their skin.”

Thousands of Brazilian teachers stage national strike against low wages, pro-corporate high school reform

Guilherme Ferreira

As part of a global teachers’ movement against rising inflation and attacks on public education, thousands of teachers in Brazil’s 26 states and the Federal District participated on Wednesday in a one-day national strike for compliance with the national minimum wage for teachers and against pro-corporate high school reform.

Federal District teachers gathered in an April 26 assembly that voted for strike action [Photo: Facebook/SINPRO]

Street protests were also held throughout Brazil. In the largest of them, 10,000 teachers gathered on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo.

It was the second national strike this year called by the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE), affiliated with the Workers Party (PT)-controlled CUT union federation, to let off steam among Brazilian teachers after an uninterrupted series of attacks on public education, stretching from the previous PT administrations through the ultra-right government of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Educators from numerous municipal and state education systems also approved indefinite strikes this week, continuing a strike movement since the new PT administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared a 14.94 percent raise to the teachers’ national minimum wage that has yet to be implemented by state and municipal governments across Brazil. Only a third of the local administrations comply with the minimum wage, which now stands at 4,420 reais (US$ 888) per month.

On Monday, teachers in the municipal system of Guarulhos, the second largest city in Brazil’s richest state, São Paulo, went on strike. A day later, dozens of teachers occupied the Citizen’s Service Center for several hours in protest against the mayor’s refusal to negotiate. In defiance of a court decision that ruled the strike illegal, the teachers in Guarulhos gathered in an assembly on Thursday and decided to continue the strike.

On Wednesday, teachers in the Federal District (FD) held a massive assembly and decided to go on strike starting May 4. They are demanding a raise in their wages, which have remained at the same level since 2015. On the same day, teachers in Amapá decided to resume a strike that had been started earlier this month, demanding a 40 percent raise after 11 years without a wage increase.

Several other education strikes have occurred in Brazil since the beginning of the year. Municipal teacher strikes broke out in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, in early February, and in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, in early April. Teachers in São Bernardo do Campo, an industrial city on the outskirts of São Paulo, and the political cradle of the PT. In Ribeirão Preto, one of the largest cities of São Paulo state’s countryside, teachers staged strikes in late March and early April alongside other municipal employees for better pay and working conditions.

In the states of Maranhão and Rio Grande do Norte, teachers stayed on strike throughout the last month against governments allied with Lula. Maranhão is ruled by Carlos Brandão of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), the same party as Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, while in Rio Grande do Norte, the PT’s Fátima Bezerra has been in power since 2019.

Despite the objectively national character of this growing movement, the CNTE union federation has worked insistently to isolate the struggles from each other, even when they happen in the same city among teachers in the municipal and state networks. With the help of the bureaucratic student organizations controlled by the PT and its satellites, the unions are also preventing the education workers’ struggles from merging with youth protests against a reactionary reform of school curriculums known as “New High School.”

This treacherous script repeats the sabotage by the CNTE of a previous wave of teacher strikes last year, which the union bureaucracy sought to channel behind the election of a new PT administration. Now that Lula is back in power, the union bureaucrats are attempting to neutralize the workers’ revolt by limiting its aims to applying pressure on the bourgeois state.

Expressing that idea, CNTE president Heleno Araújo, himself a member of the PT, declared on Sunday: “The return of President Lula opens the perspective for a debate to advance these discussions and put our demands into practice.”

That claim is a complete fraud. The PT government has a reactionary bourgeois character, and it came to power with the open aim of representing a “broad front” of the Brazilian political establishment ruled by the financial oligarchy. Lula’s new administration continues and develops his two previous terms (2003-2010), in which he proved himself as an implacable defender of the Brazilian and imperialist capitalist elites.

The anti-working class character of the Lula government is embodied in the Ministry of Education itself, led by the PT’s former governor of Ceará, Camilo Santana. During his eight years as governor, Santana implemented pro-corporate policies in education in close collaboration with educational NGOs controlled by Brazil’s largest banks and corporations such as the Lemann Foundation and Todos pela Educação (All for Education). Once appointed as minister of Education, he filled his cabinet with representatives of those capitalist foundations, who are behind the formulation of the reactionary “New High School” reform that excludes working class youth from learning subjects such as art, philosophy and science.

After being approved in early 2017 in the Brazilian Congress amid university and school occupations, protests and strikes, “New High School” changes began to be implemented last year. To alleviate the growing opposition among teachers and youth, the PT government announced on April 4 that it would suspend its implementation for 60 days to “publicly debate” the issue. Even though Lula himself admitted that “We are not going to repeal [the reform],” the corrupted unions and student organizations celebrated the announced “suspension” as a victory for their “pressure” on the government.

The bankruptcy of this maneuver was further exposed on Monday, when the government launched its public consultation. Fernando Cássio, a professor at the Federal University of ABC who has been denouncing the pro-capitalist character of the PT government’s educational policies, wrote on Twitter: “The 11 items in the [Ministry of Education] questionnaire basically presents what the corporate foundations/institutes are fighting to keep in the reform, along with some aspects that they had already given up (because they were absolutely unacceptable).”

The irrevocable support given by the CNTE and the trade unions in general to the PT administration and its pro-capitalist policies is explained by the fact that these organizations do not genuinely represent the working class, but rather constitute a privileged bureaucracy dependent on the bourgeois national state and hostile to the workers’ interests.

This perspective will be openly manifested, once again, in the fraudulent May Day rally that will be held by the CUT and other trade union federations. This year, the unions have invited to their festival President Lula, the House and Senate presidents, and São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a loyal ally of Bolsonaro.

Biden steps up attack on asylum seekers in advance of Title 42 expiration

Kevin Reed

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced changes to immigration rules that significantly escalate the assault on the rights of migrants seeking to enter the US at the southern border.

The changes, which are being prepared before the May 11 expiration of Title 42 rules put in place in 2020 by the Trump administration and continued by Biden to carry out mass deportations, involve declaring nearly all migrants crossing the border “illegal” and deportable to Mexico or their home countries.

A centerpiece of the policy is the establishment of “regional processing centers” in Latin American countries, where immigration officials will attempt to block migrants from beginning their journey to the US by declaring them ineligible for asylum.

Federal officers remove handcuffs from men before releasing them through a gate in a border wall to Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, March 15, 2023, in San Diego. [AP Photo/Gregory Bull]

Additionally, the White House plan says that those who still attempt to cross the US border and seek asylum without applying in another country first will be immediately deported without access to a proper hearing.

In a joint press conference at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas explained that the measures were being taken to stem an expected surge of migrants at the southern border when Title 42 is lifted in two weeks.

Title 42 rules had allowed the US government to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants on grounds that they posed a public health risk during the coronavirus pandemic. The xenophobic policy was put in place in March 2020 by then-president Trump while his administration simultaneously denied that COVID-19 posed any threat whatsoever within the US.

In his remarks on Thursday, Mayorkas made it clear that the new policy is an extension and intensification of Trump’s anti-immigrant program. He said: “Beginning on May 12th, we will be—we will place eligible individuals who arrive at our southern border in expedited removal proceedings.”

Mayorkas went on to explain that the new rules will be more severe and migrants will be banned for five years and prosecuted for attempting to enter the US. “Unlike the Title 42 public health authority,” he said, “the penalty for being removed from the United States under Title 8 through expedited removal and other immigration laws we will be enforcing is not just removal. An individual who is removed is subject to at least a five-year ban on admission to the United States and can face criminal prosecution for any subsequent attempt to cross the border illegally.”

Mayorkas said that advanced technologies and expanded facilities will be used to carry out the deportations quickly and send the migrants back to their home countries. He hypocritically tried to claim that the Biden administration was sympathetic to the plight of migrants who go through the traumatic experience of making the journey to the US and are frequently taken advantage of by smugglers.

The processing center program will begin first in Colombia and Guatemala and be expanded to other countries with which the US has diplomatic relations. They will be staffed by international organizations that are partnering with the Biden administration. Mayorkas said those seeking entry into the US must schedule appointments at the centers.

Migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua—countries where the US is either unable or unwilling to deport directly—will be sent back to Mexico under the terms of an agreement with the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

While Mayorkas said that US border officials have “no plans to detain families” at the border, it is known that the Biden administration considered reviving the program that was used by the Trump White House.

For his part, Secretary of State Blinken focused on the global considerations behind the new policies. He said it was important to “step back” and look at the fact that, “there are more than 100 million people on the move today, compelled to leave their homes in search of security and better lives.”

Blinken spoke of the “long-term drivers” of the migrant crisis, explaining that “violence, corruption, lack of economic opportunity continue to push people from their homes—problems that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, crises of governance, extreme weather events caused by the changing climate.”

Of course, Blinken did not note that the factors he cited are the result of the policies of US imperialism and successive Democratic and Republican administrations over many decades. The plunder of “America’s back yard,” the herd-immunity COVID policy and the refusal and inability to address climate change are all directly tied to the drive for global domination by US corporate and financial interests.

Most corporate media outlets are straining to bolster the claims of the Biden administration that the new immigration rules are aimed at significantly raising admissions for refugee resettlement programs and other “pathways to US residency.” However, the White House did not provide any details about this and focused instead on the workings of the deportation program.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has pledged to file a lawsuit against the asylum ban on migrants who cross the southern border. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in Title 42-related lawsuits, told Politico, “We successfully sued to stop the Trump asylum bans and will sue again if the Biden administration enacts these anti-asylum rules.”

The International Refugee Assistance Project said in a statement that it “strongly opposes” the new measures “as a trade-off for limiting the legal rights of people seeking asylum in the United States.” The organization said the administration was pursuing an “asylum ban.”

Lacy Broemel, a project policy analyst, told the Washington Post that the organization is concerned with the lack of details in the Biden plan, and said, “We have more questions than answers.”

The timing of the immigration press conference, coming two days after Joe Biden announced his 2024 reelection campaign, is clearly an effort to respond to pressure from Republicans and extreme-right and fascist political forces in Congress.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “House Republicans, who have sharply criticized Mr. Biden’s handling of the border, are expected to unveil a sweeping immigration and border security bill on Thursday after months of internal disagreements over how to approach asylum seekers. Some Republicans have suggested the bill, which will likely be a nonstarter with Democrats and the White House, could be brought to the House floor on May 11 to coincide with the ending of Title 42.”

US jobs massacre accelerates, as ruling class confronts growing upsurge of class struggle

Marcus Day

The ongoing jobs massacre in the US accelerated over the past week, as the corporate and financial oligarchy intensify their efforts to suppress a growing movement in the working class for higher wages. On Thursday alone, thousands more mass layoffs were announced:

• Gap, the clothing retailer, reported that it was laying off 1,800 employees, targeting staff at the company’s headquarters and those with regional leadership roles. Interim CEO Bob Martin stated the mass sackings were aimed at saving the company $300 million a year and claimed they would release “untapped potential” at the company’s brands, which include Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta.
• Lyft, the ride-sharing company, stated that it was cutting 1,072 jobs, over a quarter of its workforce, and was eliminating 250 job openings. In addition, the firm’s new CEO, David Risher, told the remaining employees Friday that they would be required to return to offices at least three days a week, ending the company’s flexible remote work policy.
• Dropbox, the file-hosting service, said that it was laying off 500 workers, or 16 percent of its staff.

The announcements on Thursday were just the latest in an unfolding jobs bloodbath in the US. Layoffs of tens of thousands of workers have been revealed or gotten underway in recent weeks, including at Amazon (9,000), Facebook parent Meta (10,000, in addition to an earlier announced 11,000), Disney (7,000), 3M (6,000), Walmart’s online fulfillment centers (2,000), and at electric vehicle startups Lucid (1,300) and Rivian (840). It was also revealed this week that Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker, is aiming to slash 3,500 hourly jobs via buyouts and early retirement incentives.

Job cuts for the first three months of the year totaled 270,416, nearly four times higher than the same period in 2022, according to a report released in early April by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The figure has no doubt increased substantially since then.

The consequences for millions of workers and their families will be devastating. It will mean greater hunger and homelessness, alcoholism and drug addiction, and early deaths brought on by the extreme stress of poverty.

In the eyes of the ruling class, however, these savage attacks on jobs are only the opening salvos of a much larger offensive against the working class.

On Friday, the major media outlets carried prominent reports on the latest wage data from the Department of Labor, declaring that “elevated” and “rapid” wage growth would increase pressure on the US Federal Reserve to maintain high interest rates for longer.

A typical article in the New York Times, “Wages and Prices Slow Unevenly, Reflecting ‘Rocky and Bumpy’ Economy,” cited Labor Department data showing a 5.1 percent increase in compensation for private-sector workers in March compared to a year earlier. The Times stated, “Faster pay gains have helped workers, particularly those at the bottom of the earnings ladder, keep up with rapidly rising prices.”

What the Times and other outlets did not report, however, is that relatively higher wage increases have been more than eaten up by inflation, a deliberate sleight of hand on the Times’ part. In fact, the same Labor Department report Friday showed that private-sector compensation declined 0.2 percent year-over-year in constant (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars. Earlier in April, the Labor Department reported that real average hourly earnings in March were down 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

This did not stop the Times, as well as similar articles in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, from continuing to spin the false narrative that wages are the source of inflation, justifying further monetary tightening by the Fed. “Wage data is a particular focus for Fed officials, who believe that the labor market, in which there are far more available jobs than workers to fill them, is pushing up pay at an unsustainable rate, contributing to inflation,” the Times wrote.

But the Times knows full well that it is profit-gouging, not wage hikes, that is the primary driver of inflation. In another article Friday, “Higher Food Prices Bring Bigger Profits, but Consumers Start to Resist,” the Times reported how giant food conglomerates have sharply raised prices and reaped higher profits. PepsiCo raised prices 16 percent and saw an 18 percent increase in profits last quarter. Nestlé raised prices 9.8 percent, growing its revenue 5.6 percent to $26.48 billion. Coca-Cola also raised prices, boosting its profits to $3.1 billion, a 12 percent rise.

Beyond the food industry, one major corporation after another released earnings reports this week beating analysts’ estimates, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, Amazon and Caterpillar.

The attacks on workers’ jobs and living standards in the US are part of an international process. In an interview Friday with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares stated that the jobs of autoworkers throughout Europe were threatened if they do not accept demands for greater “efficiency” and cost cuts.

“Can you tell me anything that is safe in this world today? From my point of view, the entire European car industry is currently at risk,” Tavares said. “We need even more focus and we have to be even stricter on ourselves, demanding even more from ourselves.”

Tavares—who flies from country to country to crack the whip over workers and demand “strictness”—had a pay package of nearly $25 million in 2022, a rise of 22 percent from the year before.

The underlying aims and policies of the capitalist ruling class are being expressed ever more nakedly. Around the world, the bourgeoisie feels besieged and terrified by a rising tide of class struggle. Strikes by millions of workers have taken place against the impact of inflation and eroding wages, including in France, the UK and other European countries. Mass anti-government protests continue to take place in Sri Lanka, and over 100,000 civil service workers have been striking in Canada. In the US and Canada, opposition is building among more than 160,000 autoworkers at Ford, GM and Stellantis, whose contracts expire in mid-September.

Interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other central banks, which have been carried out at the fastest rate since the 1980s, are aimed not at fighting “inflation” as such, as the claim goes, but rather at increasing unemployment and combating the ability of workers to fight for higher wages and against corporate exploitation.

In reversing the supply of free money, however, upon which vast sections of the capitalist economy have come to rely, the Fed and other central banks are risking triggering an even greater economic meltdown, as evidenced in the ongoing instability in the banking sector. On Friday, it was reported that plans were underway by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to place First Republic under receivership, after the failure of efforts to rescue the bank with private funding. Should it be taken over, First Republic would be the third US bank collapse in the past two months.

The ruling class is determined to offload the cost of its economic crisis onto the working class, and make it pay for the gargantuan sums being expended on the war in Ukraine and preparations for war against China.

Brain Drain Exacerbates Health Care Crisis in Africa

Cesar Chelala

The emigration of professionals and young people from “source” countries to “destination” countries abundant in resources and modern technology has been called “brain drain,” and has been happening for the last several decades. The emigration of professionals from Africa, while considerably benefitting “destination” countries, has had a deleterious effect on the health situation and economies of African countries.

Since 1990, Africa has been losing 20,000 professionals annually; over 300,000 professionals reside outside of Africa; there are more African scientists and engineers in the U.S. than in the entire African continent. According to the United Nations, “emigration of African professionals to the West is one of the greatest obstacles to Africa’s development.”

In the health area, although considerable progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, other challenges remain. It is estimated that more than two million children under five are HIV-positive and there are more than 12 million AIDS orphans, placing social services under enormous stress. The coronavirus pandemic underscored the shortage of doctors and the weakness of the health infrastructure in several of the affected countries.

South Africa has the highest tuberculosis death rate per capita worldwide, followed by Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The situation is worsened by the high number of cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in several countries. In addition, diarrheal and respiratory infections, malaria, measles, and malnutrition represent big threats to children’s health. Malaria is the leading cause of death among children under five.

Malnutrition, particularly in children, is widespread. On April 17, United Nations officials warned that as many as 48 million people across West and Central Africa will probably go hungry soon due to food insecurity provoked by armed conflict, Covid-19, inflation, and the worsening climate emergency. This confirms previous estimates that the number of hungry people in West and Central Africa will reach record high numbers in 2023 if effective solutions are not implemented soon. But food prices continue to increase as a result of the war in Ukraine, which is driving up the costs of fuel and fertilizer, and trade restrictions across the continent.

The continuing exodus of physicians and nurses to industrialized countries exacerbates the health problems Africans experience. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 23,000 health care workers leave Africa annually. Malawi, a country of 19.89 million people, has a severe shortage of doctors and nurses. All African countries are currently afflicted by a dearth of surgeons, a problem exacerbated by the emigration of African surgeons and the limited training capacity of some that remain.

WHO estimates that 23 health care workers per 10,000 people is the minimum ratio needed to maintain a health system working properly. Most African countries fall short of this threshold. According to WHO data, there is only one doctor for every 40,000 people in Malawi. Liberia has 51 doctors for 4.5 million people and Sierra Leone has 136 doctors for 6 million people.

A most concerning aspect of medical brain drain is its impact on already deficient health care systems: as a health care system worsens, experienced physicians and health care workers tend to leave, and as more of them leave, the more weakened the health system becomes.

A 2011 study conducted by a group of Canadian scientists led by Edward Mills, chair of global health at the University of Ottawa, found that the lost investment of domestically-educated doctors migrating from sub-Saharan countries to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States was of around $2.1 billion. They also estimated that the financial benefit to the UK was of $2.7 billion, to the U.S. 846 million, $621 million to Australia, and $384 million to Canada.

WHO estimates that of the 57 countries with critical shortages of health care workers, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Some African countries have lost more than fifty percent of doctors they have educated. In addition to doctors, however, a wide array of professionals and technicians have left their countries of origin.

Dr. Lalla Ben Barka, from the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said, “In 25 years, Africa will be empty of brains.” By working together with “source” countries, particularly conducting relevant local training of professionals, industrialized countries can promote policies that encourage medical providers to stay in Africa and share their talents and skills to benefit its citizens.

UK: University of Sheffield paid private investigators £40,000 to spy on anti-war students

Simon Whelan

A freedom of information request obtained by the University of Sheffield (UoS) student newspaper, The Tab, reveals that the university spent just under £40,000 hiring private investigators to spy on students. The students were allegedly involved in occupations of university facilities to protest its links with the arms industry.

From September 2022 until January 16, 2023, the UoS paid £39,615 to Intersol Global to snoop into the lives of two students.

In February 2022, the Sheffield Action Group (SHAG) occupied three buildings to protest the university’s wanton vandalism in closing its world-renowned Archeology department. The occupations took place while university lecturers and staff members of the University and College Union (UCU) were holding nationwide strikes for improved pay and conditions.

The Diamond, an Engineering building of the University of Sheffield [Photo by Chemical Engineer / CC BY-SA 4.0]

During October last year, a group of SHAG activists occupied the UoS’s Diamond building to protest the university’s partnership with Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems. The students’ Twitter account dated October 24 called for “no war criminals on campus or in careers fairs.”

Last month the Guardian revealed that two students received letters on November 9 last year informing them an independent investigator had been hired by Sheffield University due to the “serious nature” of the event and that “a report of alleged misconduct by you is the subject of an investigation in line with the university’s regulations relating to the discipline of students”.

An accompanying document said the regulations broken related to “the improper interference, in the broadest sense, with the proper functioning or activities of the university”, and that the students could face suspension or expulsion, fines of up to £750 and bills of up to £1,000 for any damage to property.

One of the students, Martha, told the Guardian the pending investigation during her final year of university had induced “suicidal thoughts”.

“I became quite unwell in January and found it really distressing that there was this process happening, and I didn’t know what I’d even been alleged to have done, or know how long it was going to last. It left me in quite a suicidal position because I felt there was no way out. It feels like, how have they got my name? There can be no evidence that I was there.”

The other student being investigated by Intersol Global, who requested anonymity but uses the name Erin, received the letter while on a gap year abroad in the Netherlands. Once Erin replied, it took three weeks for Intersol Global to respond. “They haven’t provided any evidence of their allegation, nor have they outlined what it was or what regulation the allegation breaches,” the accused student said.

Bank statements since provided confirm Erin was not in Sheffield, as well as statements from witnesses the university said it would contact. “They have consistently worked from the assumption that I am guilty,” Erin said.

Erin’s parents have written to the vice-chancellor of Sheffield saying they believe the university has neglected its duty of care. Erin added, “At the end of all this I have to go back to Sheffield and do another year and write my dissertation and that leaves me quite uncomfortable and distressed.”

Eve Spiekermann, a spokesperson for student campaign group People and Planet, told the Guardian, “Sheffield University’s response to student protest by hiring a private investigator to spy on their own students is alarming and clearly demonstrates the upside down priorities of the university: instead of scrutinising their own institutions’ ties with arms companies that are making a profit of war and destruction, the university more readily invests funds and capacity to profile and police the student body.”

Spiekermann added, “Leaving the investigation and allegations against the two student activists hanging for months certainly impacts on the students’ ability to study, participate in student life and continue campaigning for a more equitable and just university system.”

Approached by The Tab for comment, the UoS justified their methods saying universities across the UK are hiring third party companies to carry out investigations. People and Planet have reported underhand tactics by private contractors and collusion between universities and corporations at other universities, including Warwick University collaborating with British Petroleum to survey a student climate activist involved with People and Planet.

A UoS spokesperson defended the university’s relations with the arms industry saying, “For many years the University has undertaken research with a wide range of global manufacturing companies, including Boeing and Rolls-Royce. Our connections with industrial partners mean we can help to influence positive change and accelerate more sustainable manufacturing practices.”

The UoS launched their Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with support from aerospace corporation Boeing, with AMRC now boasting partnerships with BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. Numerous doctoral researchers and engineering students at the AMRC work on projects such as using robotics to improve the manufacturing capacities of BAE Systems, the London-based corporation for which military arms account for 97 percent of their total sales. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe and ranked the world’s seventh largest.

University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre [Photo by Chemical Engineer / CC BY-SA 4.0]

A report issued in February by Demilitarise Education found that military and defence partnerships on UK university campuses are worth over £1 billion.

The report notes, “In our findings so far, research partnerships account for £576m, or roughly 55% of the total figure. This is university research funded by weapons-producing companies and/or government bodies for military technology, aeronautics or other arms-related projects. 

“It often involves arms companies like BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce or QinetiQ directly as ‘industry partners’. 

“Accounting for £495m, or roughly 45% of the total, are monetary investments. These are made by universities either directly in arms companies themselves, or indirectly through third-party investments or fund managers like Barclays, Lloyds or BlackRock holding shares in arms companies.”

Demilitarise Education notes, “In a commercialised, marketised context, universities have become increasingly driven by profit motives, by their bottom line. The deep pockets of the arms industry give ample opportunity for them to exploit universities for weapons research and development.”

According to Demilitarise Education the universities with the most significant involvement in the arms trade are Bristol and Birmingham, with partnerships valued above £50 million. King’s College London, the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and the University of Sheffield have partnerships valued at around £40 million, with the universities of Nottingham, Glasgow, Cambridge and University College London just behind.

As NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine escalates, Britain’s ruling class is stepping up the militarisation of higher education and research institutions, already deeply integrated with the armed forces and private military contractors. Military funding is concentrated in institutions and departments, predominantly engineering, where the armed forces and arms dealers have special authority. Such funding is considered a prestigious source of investment, from which other grants and opportunities will flow. Military contracts are fiercely competed for and proudly advertised by higher education institutions.

Chinese youth and workers face jobs crisis as US sanctions hit

Jerry Zhang

The high level of youth joblessness has again generated a great deal of attention and renewed discontent in China.

A delivery worker transfers a refrigerator for his customer on a street in Beijing, Thursday, April 27, 2023. [AP Photo/Andy Wong]

After the Chinese government’s complete abandonment of the “zero COVID” policy, and the huge social disaster that has caused, gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to official reports. This has not overcome the problem of unemployment, however.

According to the government’s statistics, the urban unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, while the unemployment rate of the urban population aged 16 to 24 rose to 19.6 percent, up by 3 percentage points from the December to March quarter.

That is second only to the 19.9 percent recorded in July 2022. Official reports also admitted that the unemployment rate of migrant workers remains high.

This means there are about 30 million jobless young people even before the annual graduation season in June and July. Media reports estimate that the number of university graduates is expected to reach 11.58 million in 2023, up from 10.76 million in 2022.

More and more young people are looking at obtaining postgraduate degrees, such as PhDs, as a way of temporarily escaping the pressure of unemployment. But that situation is also dire. The number of applicants for China’s postgraduate examinations has continued to rise from 3.77 million to 4.74 million, and it is estimated that less than a quarter of them will be successful in gaining admission.

This is producing open disaffection on social media. One Weibo user commented: “What other way out is there for young people nowadays? Regardless of the comprehensiveness of this data, it is true that there are many young people around who cannot find jobs, and some statistics say that more than one million graduates are already working as food delivery riders and other temporary jobs.”

Another user noted: “The number of people applying for civil service exams has also skyrocketed in recent years to levels previously unimaginable. Why is it that ‘Kong Yiji’ is receiving attention again? Because the problems of society have become increasingly serious for young people and students.”

This year, the meme known as “Kong Yiji literature” has appeared on several major internet communities, with university graduates seemingly making fun of themselves. Kong Yiji is a famous literary image created by the twentieth century Chinese writer Lu Xun in his short stories. The stories portray a humiliated traditional intellectual deprived of the ability to earn a living by the rigid social system and his Confucian education.

According to Lu Xun’s own interpretation, Kong Yiji is undoubtedly a man of misery, representing the plight of a feudal intellectual who cannot find his place in society. He represents “society’s indifference to the suffering people.”

The internet meme is based on a parody of a well-known passage in the Kong Yiji stories, in which young people suggest that their situation corresponds in some way to the tragedy of Kong Yiji. The popularity of this meme is mixed with dissatisfaction with the mass unemployment in society.

In response to this discontent, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League posted an article on its social media account criticising “negative young people.” It accused young graduates of refusing to engage in manual labour and exhorted them to “take off their suits and enter the factories and farmlands.”

This caused a huge outcry on the internet. Critics accused the officials of hypocrisy, ignoring the huge social inequalities and the lack of security for manual workers.

Two comments received thousands of likes. One comment asked rhetorically: “Would the author of this article be willing to give up his current job to become a street cleaner or factory worker?”

Another asked: “Did you think about ‘Xiangzi’ when you suggested that Kong Yiji take off his suit?” Xiangzi is a literary figure created by another writer, Lao She, to tell the story of a mentally devastated labourer.

As Chinese officials have to admit, the structural pressures on the country’s economic situation are coming to the fore. Youth unemployment is only one side of the current social tensions.

The unemployment of industrial workers, involving a large number of internal migrants, is also a growing concern. Technology bans imposed by the US have led to firms relocating out of the country, and factory owners are cutting jobs and reducing wages by as much as a third, according to media reports.

Recent information that Foxconn, which assembles Apple products, is shifting some of its production out of China has provoked discussion. Although there has been no official acknowledgement from Foxconn, the current state of its factories in a number of locations has raised concerns.

Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, Apple’s biggest overseas supplier, has drastically cut its staff as Apple shifts its industrial chain. According to a report by Yicai, the kilometre-long commercial pedestrian street that previously mainly served Foxconn’s factory area is empty, with almost no one in sight. Nearly all the shops on both sides were closed and out of business, with some simply hanging up information on rentals and transfers.

A worker who said he had worked at Foxconn for 10 years stated in an interview that at the peak of Foxconn’s employment, nearly 100,000 people used to live in the vicinity. A number of Foxconn employees said the number of people still on the job is much smaller than last year, let alone the more than 300,000 employees at the peak. “The number of workers is now less than half of what it once was,” one said.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, Foxconn has reduced the wages of workers on the production lines of its main factories. Hourly wages for assembly line workers at the Shenzhen factory have been reduced to RMB19 or RMB20 (about $US2.75), from RMB22 to RMB26 at the same time last year.

Last April, Foxconn Zhengzhou offered a subsidy of RMB6,500 to newly recruited workers, while the latest job advertisement for the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory at the beginning of April this year showed that this subsidy had been reduced to RMB2,500.

Most of the surrounding factories and companies also have reduced their wages as a result of Foxconn’s pay cut. A labour agent said “compared to last year, the wages are all very low this year. Many factories were paying RMB20 to RMB30 per hour last year, and this year they have all dropped to RMB17 or RMB18.”

According to Bloomberg and other media reports, Foxconn will invest $US700 million in India to continue the expansion of its factories, which are expected to create more than 100,000 jobs in that country. This is certainly in line with the preferences of Apple, Wall Street, the Biden administration and US imperialism as a whole.

The Economist has reported that a dozen countries and regions, including Taiwan, will come together to form what is known as the Altasia (alternative Asian supply chain), a supply chain designed to replace Chinese production.

President Xi Jinping’s regime is confronting a potential social explosion in the 400 million-strong Chinese working-class as jobs and wages are slashed.

This pressure is only going to intensify as the Biden administration ramps up its military and economic offensive against China. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week insisted, in a speech on US-China relations, that US “national security” considerations must dominate. On that pretext, Washington has imposed a range of sanctions aimed at crippling high-tech development in China.