New Trump executive order tightens noose on free speech at American universities

Eric London

Police in riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York City [AP Photo/Mary Altaffer]

Late Wednesday, the Trump administration announced an executive order aimed at transforming American universities into a surveillance and enforcement arm of the military-intelligence-immigration enforcement apparatus.

Titled “Additional measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” the order declares the administration’s goal of “using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.” Trump and his fascist advisers have falsely equated all criticism of Israel as antisemitic and “terroristic.”

The latest order contains a section aimed at chilling all speech critical of Israel among students and faculty. Section 3(e) reads:

In addition to identifying relevant authorities to curb or combat anti-Semitism generally required by this section, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with each other, shall include in their reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) [security and terrorist grounds] so that such institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.

There is hardly a clause of this paragraph that does not bristle with hostility to free speech and democratic rights. Employing threatening language, it notes that universities must be “familiarized” with the most draconian part of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertaining to terrorism and “unlawful activity.” Section 1182(a)(3) renders a non-citizen inadmissible to enter the US if they engage in “terrorist activity,” “any other unlawful activity” or “any activity a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means.”

In a fact sheet published Thursday accompanying the latest executive order, Trump made clear that the order is aimed at chilling speech across all campuses: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

The fact sheet continues: “Immediate action will be taken by the Department of Justice to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

By pressuring universities to “monitor” and “report” students and staff to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation, the Trump administration’s order is directed not only against the speech of non-citizens (including green card holders), it also targets citizens by eviscerating the First Amendment right to listen to and discuss the left-wing views of non-citizens—a right recognized by the 1972 Supreme Court case Kleindienst v. Ernest Mandel.

Moreover, section 2 of the latest order calls for criminally prosecuting “perpetrators” without language limiting its application to non-citizens. Its reference to “otherwise holding to account” pro-Palestinian and left-wing students and staff has concerning and extra-legal undertones.

The order was praised by war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who posted on X: “On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I thank President Trump for his executive order to fight antisemitism and support for terrorism on American campuses.”

Students have begun to denounce the orders, noting that the attack on democratic rights has been prepared by university administrations in the 16 months of protest against the Gaza genocide since Israel’s response to the events of October 7, 2023.

Momodou Taal, a Cornell student who overcame the university administration’s threat to report him to DHS for protest activity last year, told the World Socialist Web Site: “Cornell’s heavy-handed approach to peaceful protest has paved the way for this executive order. If it wants to salvage its reputation as a harbor of free expression, Cornell must act now and forcefully defend its students.”

Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT engineering student who has faced discipline for allegedly making Lockheed Martin representatives “feel unwelcomed” at a career fair event, told the WSWS:

Deportation for international students who stand for Palestine is a pretext to open the door for all critique of American empire. Most importantly it’s an attempt to flood the news narrative in order to obscure their true goal: if you don’t fit Trump’s right-wing vision of “America” you will be deported, attacked, or threatened regardless of citizenship. It’s rule by force and not by justice and dignity. These attempts to intimidate our movement by creating artificial divides which target international and undocumented community members will not deter us. We will continue to agitate for Palestine and for global liberation, and we will take care of our own. Our demands are popular, and supported by the supermajority of the MIT community, the Boston and Cambridge community, and the entire world. We are on the right side of history.

This is the second order since Trump’s inauguration targeting freedom of speech. On January 20, Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence to:

recommend any actions necessary to protect the American people from the actions of foreign nationals who have undermined or seek to undermine the fundamental constitutional rights of the American people, including, but not limited to, our Citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment, who preach or call for sectarian violence, the overthrow or replacement of the culture on which our constitutional Republic stands, or who provide aid, advocacy, or support for foreign terrorists. (Emphasis added)

DR Congo breaks relations with Rwanda as Rwandan-backed M23 militia seizes Goma

Alejandro López

M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 [AP Photo/Brian Inganga]

On Monday, Goma, the largest city in the mineral-rich northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire), fell to the Rwandan-backed M23 militia. Situated near the Rwandan border, Goma serves as a key transport hub within a critical mining region.

According to AFP, between 500 and 1,000 Rwandan special forces reinforced M23 near Goma, while other sources estimate up to 4,000 troops. Despite support from mercenaries, Burundian troops, 12,000 UN peacekeepers who have reportedly avoided joining in the fighting, and a military mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the DRC has been unable to halt the M23 offensive. Congolese forces are retreating, and AFP stated that 'more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined to the [UN base] at the airport” in Goma.

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing Goma, home to approximately 1 million people. Earlier this month, about 400,000 people fled fighting elsewhere in the region and headed toward Goma, joining about 7 million internally displaced people across DRC. Goma hospitals are overwhelmed by hundreds of casualties, and bodies lay on the streets. The Red Cross has warned that the unrest in Goma could lead to the spread of diseases, including the deadly Ebola virus.

The conflict between Rwanda and the DRC risks spiraling into full-scale war. Kinshasa has broken relations with Kigali, and DRC Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner accused Rwanda of 'frontal aggression, a declaration of war” at Sunday’s UN Security Council meeting. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has already threatened to go to war with Kigali, with Rwandan President Kagame responding: “We are ready to fight.”

Rwanda and the M23 militia now control nearly all of North Kivu province, a region rich in strategic minerals such as coltan, cassiterite (tin ore), gold, and wolframite, which are essential for manufacturing mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicle batteries, and advanced weaponry. The economic and strategic stakes are very high, particularly after Donald Trump’s re-election as US president, amid surging US-China competition for access to key raw materials and for strategic influence, particularly in Africa, and growing displeasure in Washington at China’s ties with the DRC.

Kagame has framed Rwandan actions in DRC as protecting Congolese Tutsis from the Democratic Liberation Front of Rwanda (FDLR), which emerged in the eastern DRC from remnants of forces that committed the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. However, the International Crisis Group states: “the goal appears less to root out the FDLR than long-term territorial expansion including grabbing mineral-rich regions. The M23 and Rwandan troops have remade areas under their de facto control by embedding their own administrations and pushing out local civilian leaders who oppose them.”

Rwanda has illicitly benefited from the plundering of DRC mineral wealth for decades, particularly coltan and gold, via smuggling. Analysts estimate that Rwanda's mineral exports, which surpass $1 billion annually, include a significant portion of resources illicitly sourced from the DRC. M23 is facilitating the smuggling of coltan and gold into Rwanda, where these minerals are then exported as Rwandan products. Jason Stearns, a DRC expert told Reuters that Rwanda's mineral exports had doubled over the past two years, saying “a fair chunk of that is from the DRC.”

The fighting today threatens to ignite a Third Congo War. The First Congo War (1996–1997) began when US-backed Rwanda and Uganda supported Laurent-Désiré Kabila in toppling the French-backed dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu had provided refuge to former Hutu-extremist Rwandan officials, ex-Rwandan army soldiers, and members of the Interahamwe militia responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which claimed 900,000 lives. After a brief truce, a Second Congo War (1998-2003) erupted, drawing in African nations including Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

These two Congo wars, sometimes dubbed “Africa’s World War,” left over 5 million dead, mostly through starvation and disease.

Two decades later, these conflicts are not developing as a proxy war between US and French imperialism, but as the imperialist powers seek to counter the growing commercial and industrial weight of China in Africa. This context makes the conflict particularly explosive, as it comes together with rising US-China rivalry and the threats of military aggression from the second Trump administration. Trump has called to annex the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada and demanded Europe double its military spending in exchange for continued US “protection.”

Over the past decade, China has deepened its economic ties with the DRC, primarily through extensive investment in mining, particularly cobalt and copper. Chinese companies, such as CMOC Group and Zijin Mining, have major stakes in Congolese mines. The 2008 Sino-Congolese infrastructure-for-minerals deal, renegotiated in 2023, remains a cornerstone of the relationship, involving Chinese-built roads, hospitals, and other infrastructure in exchange for mining rights. China remains DRC’s largest trading partner and a key financier of infrastructure projects.

Influential voices within the US establishment are calling on Trump to crush Chinese influence in Africa and specifically in the DRC, using military force. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the influential American Enterprise Institute think-tank penned an article titled “If Trump Is Serious About China, He Can’t Ignore Africa.” Rubin wrote:

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt will be to the economy of the coming decades what Saudi Arabia’s oil was to the late 20th century. Cobalt is essential for the lithium-ion batteries that power the technology upon which the modern, industrialized world depends. The DRC also has tantalum necessary for everything from mobile phones and televisions to inkjet printers, digital cameras, and medical devices, and the germanium essential for the semiconductor industry. Add rare earths, such as copper, gold, diamonds, and uranium, into the mix, and the true possible wealth of the DRC becomes obvious. The DRC is home to almost $24 trillion in resources, much of it untapped.

Nor is the DRC alone. Somaliland, the Western-oriented democracy seeking international recognition of its statehood, has gas, oil, and rare earths. Mozambique’s liquefied natural gas discovery catapults the southern African country above Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, and the Republic of Congo are also resource rich.

Simply put, the defeat of China on the continent begins with wresting away the DRC. While the State Department praised DRC President Felix Tshisekedi as a democrat during Trump’s first term, he is a dictator and a stooge for China.

The European imperialist powers are also being drawn into war. Last year, the European Union signed the Critical Raw Materials Partnership with Kigali, a strategic agreement aimed at securing Rwanda’s supply of critical minerals—such as tantalum, tin, tungsten, and rare earth elements—many plundered from DRC, for the EU’s green and digital transition. The agreement explicitly aims to reduce dependence on China for critical raw materials.

China’s DeepSeek model is a major advance in AI technology

Bill Shaw

The logo for the app DeepSeek [AP Photo/Jon Elswick]

Last week, DeepSeek, a startup company based in Hongzhou, China, released its newest artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek R1. Within days, the chatbot became the most-downloaded app in Apple’s App Store.

DeepSeek’s performance meets or exceeds that of state-of-the-art AI models from American companies such as Meta and Open AI, surpassing all open-source models previously available and many closed models on most standard benchmarks.

The achievement sent shockwaves through Wall Street, wiping out approximately $1 trillion in market value for corporations in one day. It also represents a major blow to US plans for sustaining AI dominance as part of its objective to prevent China from usurping the US as the top economic and military power in the world.

In addition, DeepSeek’s phone app connected to R1 quickly topped the charts on the Apple Store, surpassing the ChatGPT app. On the Google Play Store, it has already been downloaded 10 million times.

Model performance gains

Academia and industry measure how “good” an AI model is using standard benchmarks. These benchmarks are predefined tasks for which the answers are known. The model is applied to the tasks, and its outputs are compared to the known answers. Generally speaking, the greater the number of correct answers on the tasks, the better the model performs. A shared set of standard benchmarks enables comparing models against one another.

The DeepSeek team tested its R1 model on 21 benchmarks and compared the results to those achieved by industry-leading AI models from Meta, Open AI and others. The benchmarks included English-language, Chinese-language, software-programming and mathematics tasks.

They compared R1 to four industry-leading AI models as well as their previous version of DeepSeek. These models included Claude-3.5-Sonnet-1022 from Anthropic; three Open AI models—GPT-4o, o1-mini, and o1-1217; and R1’s predecessor DeepSeek-V3.

DeepSeek R1 outperformed the other models on 12 of the 21 benchmarks. For the remaining nine benchmarks, it placed second on eight and fourth on one.

It should be noted that o1-1217, given its purpose and design, was applicable to only 11 of the benchmarks. For those 11 benchmarks, R1 was the best model for four tasks, whereas o1-1217 was the best model for six tasks and Claude was the best model for one task. R1 bested o1-mini on 20 of 21 benchmarks.

Dramatic reduction in computation

What makes the DeepSeek achievement particularly dramatic is the massive reduction in the computational resources needed to build R1. DeepSeek used far fewer computational resources than required for the creation of its competitors.

Building R1 required approximately 2.8 million compute hours on a graphics card from NVIDIA called an H800. Such graphical processing unit or GPU cards are used to build AI models because they efficiently execute the complex mathematical computations required. DeepSeek used a computing infrastructure with 2,048 H800 cards.

By contrast, Meta required 30.8 million GPU hours to build its popular Llama-3.1 model, meaning the DeepSeek R1 model took only 9% as long. Because DeepSeek R1 is a larger model than Llama-3.1, the speedup is even greater than a 91% reduction.

Model size is typically given as the number of numerical parameters that comprise the model. DeepSeek R1 is 671 billion parameters compared to Llama-3.1’s 405 billion, or 66% larger.

The speedup in model construction is made even more impressive by the fact that the H800 GPU is a stripped-down version of NVIDIA’s H100 GPU to comply with United States export control restrictions to China. Meta’s estimate of 30.8 million GPU hours to construct Llama-3.1 405B is based on the faster H100 GPU card. Tests of the performance difference between the cards show that the H800 is approximately 11.5% slower than the H100.

Open source

The fact that DeepSeek R1 is open source means that the full set of 671 billion parameters and the software used to operate the model are freely available to download, inspect and modify. Open-source models are often preferred by software developers and AI engineers because they are easier to modify and adapt to various purposes.

Despite its name, Open AI’s leading models are not open source. AI engineers cannot inspect or modify Open AI’s leading o1 model, for example, or its immediate predecessor GPT-4o.

Additionally, R1 implements a “chain of thought” procedure, a technique originally developed by Open AI for its o1 model. Whereas o1 and other Open AI models hide the “reasoning” steps in the chain of thought, R1 lets the user see all the steps it takes to reach an answer.

Because open-source models can be used and modified by anyone, an industry of companies that host models has risen. For example, Meta’s open-source Llama-3.1 model is hosted by several different companies that compete on the cost of using the model.

Observers quickly noted that queries to the DeepSeek-hosted version of R1 refused to answer queries such as “what happened at Tiananmen Square?”. The open nature of the model does not imply that China is becoming less authoritarian. However, it does enable anyone outside China to host the model themselves without such restrictions and censorship.

Furthermore, the criticism also applies to Open AI models, which refuse to answer questions about the Gaza genocide when prompted. Censorship of closed models is much more difficult to overcome than with open-source models.

Low cost to use

DeepSeek also charges far less for the usage of R1 than its competitors. The largest models are too computationally expensive to run on personal computers or even most servers. The same large GPU infrastructure that is used to build the models is also typically used to run these models.

The result is that AI companies stage the models on their large GPU clusters and accept requests—known as prompts—over the Internet, input the prompts into the model and then return the model’s output back to the user.

Running R1 via such application programming interface or API calls over the internet is far cheaper than for other leading AI models. DeepSeek is currently charging for R1 less than 4% of what Open AI charges to run its o1-1217 model. Specifically, o1 costs are $15 per million tokens (MT) input and $60 per MT output, whereas R1 costs $0.55 per MT input and $2.19 per MT output, a reduction of 27 times. A token is approximately equivalent to a word.

To achieve the lower costs to operate R1, DeepSeek uses an architecture called “Mixture of Experts.” This means that for each token generated, only a fraction of the model (37B parameters of the 671B, i.e. an “expert”) is activated. This reduces the computing power required for model output, resulting in the lower costs.

In addition, modifications to models through a process known as quantization can dramatically reduce the computational resources necessary to run a model. Although quantization does reduce model performance, various quantization schemes can dramatically lower computational requirements while only decreasing model performance somewhat.

Already two researchers, taking advantage of the open-source nature of R1, created multiple quantized versions of it. One version can run on a desktop or laptop computer with as little as 20GB of RAM, albeit slowly. These researchers published their modified versions of R1 as open source on an AI model repository known as Hugging Face.

Implications for US dominance in AI

The week prior to the DeepSeek news, President Trump announced a planned $500 billion initiative called StarGate to invest in technology to ensure United States dominance in AI. Stargate LLC, a company with investments from Open AI, Oracle, SoftBank and the investment firm MGX, seeks to build multiple AI data centers across the country, beginning with 10 centers in Texas. Trump also announced he would eliminate regulations on generating the massive quantities of electricity required to run the data centers.

In addition, Open AI announced on January 21 the pending release of its next AI model, o3-mini, in “a couple of weeks.”

The DeepSeek achievement immediately eclipsed the StarGate initiative and Open AI’s plans for o3-mini, turning the AI industry in general on its head. The perception that the US has a long lead in AI—whether previously justified or not—has vanished practically overnight, raising questions about the ability of the US to create or maintain dominance in AI. DeepSeek and its R1 model have become the central topic of conversation, shifting the work focus of vast swathes of the AI industry.

The Biden administration had not only put in place the export controls that resulted in the DeepSeek team using H800 instead of H100 GPUs, but it also expanded those restrictions in its final days in office. President Trump was already expected to ramp up economic and military confrontation with China further, but the DeepSeek achievement is likely to accelerate and intensify the planned escalation.

Dozens of civilians killed in Nigeria in government airstrikes against armed gangs

Alice Summers

Dozens of civilians have been killed by the Nigerian government in air raids on alleged armed gangs in recent weeks.

Over the weekend of January 11–12, around 20 civilians were killed in the village of Tungar Kara in the northwestern state of Zamfara, after local self-defense groups set up to protect residents from armed gangs were reportedly misidentified as gang members and targeted by the Nigerian Air Force. The incident follows another airstrike on a village in nearby Sokoto State on Christmas Day, in which 10 civilians were killed.

A Nigerian JF-17 [Photo by Wikimedia / SimTheSynonym / CC BY-SA 4.0]

These attacks are the latest in a series of aerial bombardments carried out as part of a protracted campaign against armed groups and insurgents in the north of the country, much of which is effectively outside of federal government control. Since 2021, the Nigerian government has intensified its military campaigns across the country, with armed forces now deployed in two-thirds of its 36 states.

Government airstrikes have regularly killed civilians. In September last year, an attack in the northern state of Kaduna killed 24 people, while in December 2023, more than 120 civilians were killed and another 66 injured after a drone strike targeted a religious gathering, also in Kaduna. According to research firm SBM Intelligence, based in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, military air raids have killed at least 400 civilians since 2017.

A report by Human Rights Watch also found that Nigerian security forces had committed various human rights violations during such “counter-terrorism” operations. This includes extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention and mass trials against suspected militants, primarily from Islamist group Boko Haram or its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Since 2009, Boko Haram and ISWAP (since 2015) have been conducting a violent insurgency in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno and in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali. Abductions, suicide bombings, torture, rape, forced marriages and the recruitment of child soldiers have become widespread, tens of thousands have been killed and at least 2 million displaced.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s northwest and central regions have for years been plagued by waves of kidnappings, as armed gangs, known locally as “bandits”, raid schools and villages seizing students and local residents for ransom, as well as looting, burning homes and stealing livestock. Ransom demands have forced many families and even entire communities to sell property and take on debt. According to the Centre for Democracy and Development, a think-tank based in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, approximately 30,000 bandits organised in over 100 gangs operate in northwestern Nigeria.

In December, dozens of villagers were abducted in Zamfara State by armed groups. Eyewitnesses and local news sites claimed that between 40 and 50 women were taken from the village of Kafin Dawa as gunmen went door to door seizing local residents. And in late February, suspected Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped more than 200 internally displaced people from Ngala local government area, Borno State, while 287 students were abducted from a secondary school in the town of Kuriga, Kaduna State by bandits only a couple of weeks later.

The mass kidnappings in 2024 come 10 years after the internationally publicised abductions of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014. This attack was used to justify military interventions by the imperialist countries, with Britain and the United States both sending security forces and “advisors” to Nigeria in May that year.

This was part of a broader “pivot to Africa” by the imperialist powers aimed at securing control of the continent’s huge mineral and energy resources, including oil, natural gas, cobalt, rare earth elements and uranium, which are critical to industries such as electronics and weaponry. Nigeria in particular holds immense oil reserves, at around 37 billion barrels, and is Africa’s largest oil producer. Oil accounts for 80 percent of the country’s export earnings.

The UK and US have continued to provide funding and training to Nigeria’s armed forces. Between 2000 and 2024, the US provided, facilitated or approved over $2 billion in military aid to Abuja, according to a report by Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and Washington-based think tank the Center for International Policy. This included the supply of 12 Super Tucano warplanes in 2017, as part of a $593-million package that also comprised bombs and rockets.

In October 2024, the UK government provided £450,000 of military materiel to the Nigerian armed forces, including counter–improvised explosive device equipment. Britain currently has 20 military personnel stationed in the northeastern city of Maiduguri providing training to the Nigerian Army.

Neither the military aid from the imperialist powers nor the Nigerian government’s campaign of terror have succeeded in quelling the violence, which has worsened since 2014. According to estimates from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which based its figures on online surveys conducted among a sample of Nigerian households, a staggering 2.2 million people were kidnapped across the country between May 2023 and April 2024.

Around three-quarters of these kidnappings took place in rural areas and more than half in the northwestern states, which have been the hardest hit by armed violence. Around 80 percent of victims were released, 13 percent were killed and 3 percent remain in captivity. Among households that had experienced an abduction, 65 percent paid a ransom to secure the hostage’s release, with an enormous 2.23 trillion naira (roughly $1.4 billion) paid out in total. Based on these estimates, if kidnapping in Nigeria were a single company, it would be the country’s eighth largest by revenue.

In the same period, over 600,000 Nigerians were also estimated to have been murdered across the country by insurgents, armed gangs or by other perpetrators known to the victim, with seven in ten households having reported a murder to the police.

These already horrific figures may in fact be a decline on previous years, with most available data indicating a peak in violence between 2021 and 2023, after sustained annual increases since 2018. According to data collected by US-based non-profit organisation Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), armed violence involving bandits in Kaduna State, by far the worst affected, rose from around 50 incidents a year in 2018 to more than 400 in 2021, before falling to about 200 by 2023.

However, the ACLED report also noted that the decrease in violent incidents does not indicate a lower level of coercion of local communities. In many cases, bandit groups have consolidated control over swathes of territory, allowing them to use alternative tactics to collect revenue, including imposing informal taxation on industries such as farming and artisanal gold mining, under threat of reprisals if payments are not made.

While armed banditry has a long history in northern Nigeria, it has surged in recent decades partly due to intense competition between Hausa farmers and nomadic Fulani herders over scarce land resources. Climate change has exacerbated conflict, forcing pastoralists from their traditional grazing lands and encroaching on farmland, leading to violence and ethnic tensions.

Banditry, abductions and ethnic tensions have also escalated as social conditions have deteriorated in Nigeria. Recessions in 2016 and 2020, followed by the government’s introduction of a raft of pro-market “reforms” since the election of Bola Tinubu as president in May 2023, have led to mass unemployment and triggered a severe cost-of-living crisis, pushing millions into poverty and forcing Nigerians to seek alternative forms of income.

In 2023, the NBS estimated that 33 percent of under-30s in Nigeria, who make up 60 percent of the country’s population, are unemployed. Around 40 percent of the country’s population live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank—some 93 million people. And between October and December 2024, 25.1 million Nigerians were estimated to be acutely food insecure by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), a figure which is predicted to rise to 33 million this year.

Turkish Erdoğan government crackdown on political opposition and journalists escalates

Barış Demir & Hasan Yıldırım

Pro-opposition Halk TV journalist Barış Pehlivan, anchor Seda Selek, presenter Seda Selek and the channel’s managing director Serhan Asker were detained on Tuesday in Turkey, while programme coordinator Kürşat Oğuz and editor-in-chief Suat Toktaş were detained on Wednesday over a programme broadcast by Halk.

Selek and Asker were released on judicial control conditions, while Pehlivan, Oğuz and Toktaş were requested to be arrested.

Journalist Barış Pehlivan participating in the panel "Freedom of the Press is for All of Us" organised by Manisa Municipality as part of the Working Journalists' Day on 10 January 2025. [Photo: X / @manisabsb]

The journalists are accused of influencing the judiciary by broadcasting their interview with an expert appointed for investigations related to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and made public by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu (CHP).

İmamoğlu is seen as the favourite candidate against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a possible presidential election. New investigations have recently been opened against İmamoğlu, who is currently facing the risk of being banned from politics due to an indefinite judgement.

Ten professional organisations, including the Association of Journalists, issued a statement condemning the detention of the journalists. “This month alone, 14 journalists have been arrested... Today, instead of standing up for freedom of the press and freedom of expression, the political establishment, the government and, unfortunately, the judiciary are acting as an instrument of threat and a mechanism of intimidation against journalists,” the statement said.

The latest crackdown on journalists comes as the Erdoğan government steps up operations against the CHP as well as the Kurdish nationalist Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), and left-wing parties such as the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and the Socialist Labourers Party. On Wednesday, a trustee was appointed to the DEM Party-run Siirt municipality, while 34 members of the ESP, including its leader, were arrested last week. This brings to eight the number of DEM Party’s municipalities where unconstitutional trustees have been appointed since the March 2024 elections.

The increasing repression of the Erdoğan government is part of a worldwide tendency of the ruling classes to turn to authoritarian regimes under conditions of imperialist war and growing social inequality. Ankara faces growing opposition from the working class at home as it fights for a share in the war of plunder in the Middle East, deepened by the genocide in Gaza and regime change in Syria.

After winning every election since 2002, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came second to the CHP for the first time in the local elections in March last year and is still trailing in the polls. While the CHP did not campaign on workers’ social grievances, including the rising cost of living, or on Israel’s NATO-backed genocide in Gaza, it was an undeserving beneficiary of the growing anger against the government on these issues.

As government repression escalated after the local elections, CHP leader Özgür Özel initiated a process of “détente” and “normalization” with Erdoğan. The DEM party then became part of a new “peace process” with Erdoğan on the Kurdish question, amid a growing crackdown on elected mayors. The negotiations, in which Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), plays an important role, aim, as in previous attempts, to ensure the reactionary alliance of the Turkish and Kurdish bourgeoisies in the reshaping of the Middle East under the leadership of US imperialism.

The latest wave of repression by the government shows the bankruptcy of all perspectives that attribute a progressive role to this or that faction of the bourgeoisie. Already last May, the Socialist Equality Group declared that the claims of the bourgeois opposition that “peace and democracy” would be developed on the basis of reconciliation with the Erdoğan government are a fraud, stating:

At the heart of this ruling class consensus, of which the trade union bureaucracy is a part, is the need to intensify the social offensive against the working class and to suppress social opposition from below. In conditions where, on the one hand, NATO-backed Israel is intensifying the genocide in Gaza and provoking a Middle East-wide war against Iran, and, on the other hand, NATO-backed Ukraine’s war with Russia is raising the danger of a nuclear conflict, war abroad is everywhere accompanied by class war and the elimination of democratic rights at home.

Perspectives based on an orientation towards and alliance with this or that political faction of the Turkish and Kurdish bourgeoisie and the upper middle class, which are deeply linked to NATO and imperialism, and which put forward false nationalist solutions under capitalism, are bankrupt.

The increasing pressure and investigations against CHP started at the end of October with the arrest of Istanbul Esenyurt Mayor Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özer, on charges of “being a member of PKK/KCK armed terrorist organisation”, and the appointment of a trustee in his place. Two weeks ago, Istanbul Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat was arrested on corruption charges. At the same time, following Erdoğan’s order, some CHP municipality accounts have been levied on the pretext of paying social security premium debts.

CHP leader Özgür Özel announced on Tuesday his party’s roadmap against these developments. Özel’s statement was in preparation for early elections to be held in 2025. He announced the CHP’s presidential candidates would be İmamoğlu and Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş.

The repression of political opposition and journalists is increasing in the context of the deepening social offensive of the bourgeoisie against the working class. The government’s fiscal policy and attacks on wages and social rights have brought the social anger within the working class to the point of explosion.

Despite the rising cost of living, in July the government refused to raise the minimum wage, which determines the wages of the majority of the working class. In December, the minimum wage was raised by only 30 percent, below the official inflation rate. In December, Turkey’s official annual inflation rate was 44 percent, while ENAG, an independent research organisation, calculated annual inflation at 83 percent.

For the working class, the fall in real wages is accompanied by rising taxes. According to the November budget implementation report of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the tax collected from companies in the period January-November this year increased by 13.5 percent compared to the same period last year, while the tax collected from workers increased by 119.8 percent.

In these conditions of explosive class and political tensions, the government’s wave of politically motivated arrests has extended to the film industry. Actress manager Ayşe Barım, who was recently detained on charges of “monopolising the sector”, was arrested on Monday.

Barım is accused of “aiding and abetting an attempt to overthrow the government or prevent it from carrying out its duties” by organising artists and actors during the anti-government Gezi Park protests in 2013, which attracted millions of people across the country. The charges against Barım also include “influence campaigning”, which is on the government’s agenda to implement but does not yet exist in law.

The resurrection of the Gezi Park trial and the recent increase in police state repression is a sign that any democratic opposition to the government and mass protests will be criminalised and violently suppressed. This is above all a threat to the working class, which is seen as the main threat by the ruling class.

The leader of the fascist Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahçeli, clearly expressed this threat in his speech on Tuesday with the following words: “We are aware that the calls to take to the streets, the provocations for resistance are invitations to either a coup or a rebellion... If you have the courage, take to the streets and we’ll see. If you have the curiosity to play with fire, try it and we’ll see how you fare.”

Information Controls Fellowship Program

Application Deadline:

The application deadline is February 28, 2025.

Tell Me About The Information Controls Fellowship Program For Researchers:

The Information Controls Fellowship Program (ICFP) supports researchers investigating the restrictions governments impose on the free flow of information, cutting access to the open internet, and implementing censorship mechanisms that threaten basic human rights and democracy. The program also supports work focused on mitigating these threats. Fellows work full-time with a host organization of their choosing for a period of 3 to 12 months, conducting research, producing outputs, and collaborating on creative solutions to address internet censorship and surveillance.

Which Fields are Eligible?

The fellowship is open to a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to:

• Computer science
• Engineering
• Information security research
• Software development
• Social sciences
• Law
• Data visualization

Type:

Fellowship 

Who can Apply for the Information Controls Fellowship Program For Researchers?

The eligibility criteria include:

• Applicants of all ages, irrespective of nationality, residency, creed, gender, or other factors, with the exception of individuals from countries with U.S. trade restrictions or export sanctions.
• Individuals must demonstrate the ability to assist in overcoming information controls and a desire to grow their knowledge through a collaborative, cross-discipline approach.
• A commitment to reaching audiences outside of the research community is required.

How are Applicants Selected?

• The proposed project must be relevant to internet freedom and censorship, with an emphasis on addressing issues in the world’s most repressive environments.
• Applicants should have a track record of expertise in the field, demonstrated ability to execute the proposed project, and an interest in engaging with a diverse, global community.
• Preference is given to applicants from or with experience in repressive censorship environments, particularly in the Global South, or those focusing on underrepresented or targeted minority groups.

Required Documents:

• CV or resume

Which Countries Are Eligible?

All countries 

Where will the Award be Taken?

Fellows will work full-time with their chosen host organization, which may be located anywhere globally. Remote work may also be considered.

How Many Awards?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of the Information Controls Fellowship Program For Researchers?

Additionally, the benefits include:

• Monthly stipend of $7,000 USD
• Travel stipend of $1,250 to $5,000 USD, depending on the fellowship length
• Equipment stipend of $1,250 to $5,000 USD, depending on the fellowship length

How Long Will the Award Last?

The fellowship lasts for 3, 6, 9, or 12 months, with the possibility of extensions depending on the project’s progress and funding availability.

How to Apply:

The application process is two-stage:

1. Stage 1: Submit a concept note via the OTF’s online application system.
2. Stage 2: Invited applicants submit a full proposal along with their proposed host organization.

Visit the official application webpage

The Government Of Latvia Scholarship

Application Deadline:

The application deadline is from 1 February to 1 April 1

Tell Me About The Government Of Latvia Scholarship For International Students:

The Latvian government offers state scholarships to citizens of over 30 eligible countries for pursuing higher in Latvian institutions. These scholarships aim to support Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD students in their academic endeavors. In addition to scholarships for full-degree programs, funding is also available for participation in summer schools organized by Latvian higher education institutions.

Which Fields are Eligible?

All fields

Type:

Scholarship 

Who can Apply For The Government Of Latvia Scholarship For International Students?

To be eligible, you must meet the following criteria:

• Bachelor’s applicants must have successfully completed at least one academic year at a higher education institution (HEI).
• Master’s and PhD applicants must be enrolled in a previous HEI.
• Applicants must secure admission to a program at a Latvian HEI and receive confirmation for the chosen study program before applying.
• Applicants already studying in Latvia must provide confirmation of their current or new study program.
• Scholarships are available for up to two terms during a student’s study period.

How are Applicants Selected?

Applications are evaluated based on criteria set by the evaluation committee of VIAA. Only complete and correctly submitted applications are considered. Applicants will receive the scholarship decision by email in June, and it will also be accessible in their online profile.

Required Documents:

Applicants are also to submit the following:

• Completed application form.
• Confirmation letter from a Latvian higher education institution (HEI).
• Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• Motivation letter.
• Study plan.
• Recommendation letter(s).
• Academic transcripts and diplomas.
• Language proficiency certificate (if applicable).
• Passport copy.

Which Countries Are Eligible?

The following countries are eligible:

• Europe: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium (Federation Wallonia-Brussels), Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine
• Asia: Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, South Korea, Tajikistan, The People’s Republic of China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia
• North America: The United States of America, Mexico
• South America: Peru
• Africa: Egypt, Namibia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia
• Oceania: Fiji

Where will the Award be Taken?

Higher Institutions in Latvia

How Many Awards?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of the Government Of Latvia Scholarship For International Students?

Additionally, the government of Latvia scholarship comes with the following benefits:

• €500 per month for Bachelor’s students (and 2nd level professional higher education students in the 1st–3rd study year).
• €600 per month for Master’s students (and 2nd level professional higher education students starting from the 4th study year).
• €700 per month for PhD students.
• Summer school participants benefit from scholarship funds transferred directly to the organizers, though travel, insurance, and visa expenses must be covered personally.

How Long Will the Award Last?

• Up to 10 months for Bachelor’s and Master’s students.
• Up to 11 months for PhD students.

How to Apply:

1. Applicants must register in the electronic application system and create a profile with a unique login and password.
2. Fill out the online application form based on the specified criteria.
3. Attach all necessary application documents (translated into Latvian or English).
4. Submit the application before the deadline (1 February to 1 April).
5. Await the decision, which will be communicated via email and the online profile in June.

Visit the official application page.