Australian inflation statistics highlight cost-of-living crisis

Mike Head

Official inflation figures released this week further exposed the Australian Labor government’s claims to be alleviating the soaring cost-of-living being experienced by working-class households.

Striking nurse at Sydney rally on March 31, 2022.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data revealed that inflation jumped to 4 percent in the year to May, from 3.6 percent in the month before. By another ABS measure, trimmed mean inflation accelerated to 4.4 percent, from 4.1 percent.

Prices rose far more sharply than either measure for costs affecting workers’ families. High petrol prices meant fuel costs were 9.3 percent up, power bills rose by 6.5 percent and there was a 5.2 percent jump in housing costs, including a 7.4 percent increase in rents and a 4.9 percent rise in home-building costs.

Among the other items showing the biggest jumps were insurance, up 14 percent, medical and hospital expenses 7.3 percent, and secondary education 6.1 percent.

By contrast, in its recent national minimum wage decision, the Fair Work Commission granted 2.6 million low-paid workers only a 3.75 percent, or $33.10-a-week, rise from July 1.

This government-backed ruling, plus the continued imposition of sub-inflationary pay deals by the trade union bureaucrats, makes a mockery of the government’s pretence that real wages are finally rising after years of falling, let alone Labor’s 2022 election pledge of “a better future.”

The latest figures shattered Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s claims that his government’s cost-of-living measures, outlined in May’s budget, are easing the burden on households. Nevertheless, the day after the statistics were released on Wednesday, he still told a business-backed “State of the Nation” conference hosted in parliament house: “Inflation is down. Annual real wages growth is back.”

The inflation figures also raised the spectre of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) imposing another interest rate hike, on top of 13 since May 2022. Such a rise would intensify the financial stress for the millions of households paying off home mortgages. These rises are supposedly inflicted to fight inflation, but their actual purpose is to induce a slump and drive-up unemployment in order to suppress workers’ wage demands.

After the RBA board’s June meeting, at which it held the cash rate at 4.35 percent, the bank’s government-appointed governor Michele Bullock warned that the board was prepared to “do what is necessary” to get inflation back to its 2.5 percent target by mid-2026. 

Economists at Citi, Deutsche, UBS, Judo Bank and Morgan Stanley now predict a 14th rate hike. Overall, the financial markets priced in a one-in-three chance of the central bank lifting the 4.35 percent cash rate to 4.6 percent at its next monthly meeting in August.

Some other banks delayed their predictions for any mortgage relief by six months to May 2025, which would be after the latest date that the government could hold the next federal election. That increases the possibility of Albanese calling an early election in a bid to scrap back into office, even as a minority government, before the economic and social crisis worsens further.

Although the monthly Consumer Price Index results, such as those released for May, are more limited and volatile than the quarterly ones produced by the ABS, the latest results confirm a trend. Headline inflation is running at its fastest rate since November, and underlying inflation has been higher than predicted by the government and the central bank for five months.

This is by no means just an Australian crisis. From Kenya to Turkey, and across Europe, America and Asia, billions of people worldwide are confronted with soaring prices. These are primarily triggered by the US-NATO war in Ukraine against Russia, the US and allied support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine—part of a broader war to control the resource-rich Middle East—and US-led tariff and other economic warfare measures against China.

The sky-rocketing cost of living, combined with austerity measures demanded by the financial elites and authorities, is creating intense discontent and explosive social and class tensions, as witnessed by the mass opposition and deployment of the military onto the streets of Kenya.

Recent reports in Australia point to rising financial pain in working-class households, compounded by the increasing threat of job losses.

• Last week, a report by finance marketplace Compare Club said four out of five Australians were suffering high levels of bill stress. It reported that more than half of consumers were being forced to cut back on essentials, and the use of buy-now-pay-later products had jumped 28 percent among late bill-payers.

• Reserve Bank figures this month showed that credit card debt attracting interest has climbed for five months in a row to reach $17 billion. Based on the average credit card interest rate of 18.3 percent, that equated to a $3.2 billion annual interest bill.

• The latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) statistics last week showed overdue mortgages have almost doubled in the past 18 months. The value of loans 30–89 days past due climbed to 0.66 percent in the March quarter, and total “non-performing home loans” to 0.95 percent of all mortgages, or nearly 32,000 households.

• Job vacancies are at their lowest level since 2021, dropping by 17.7 percent over the past 12 months, as measured by the ABS. Capital Economics chief Asia-Pacific economist Marcel Thieliant said his firm expected the official unemployment rate to rise from 4 percent to 5 percent by 2026. That would mean some 200,000 job losses over the next 18 months.

In his speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) “State of the Nation” conference in Canberra on Thursday, Albanese again desperately talked up “cost-of-living measures” starting from Monday July 1, including $300 energy bill subsidies, freezing the cost of subsidised medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and “Stage Three” income tax cuts.

For most people these are pittances compared to soaring bills. With the lion’s share of all these schemes going to the wealthiest households, the cost-of-living crisis will only deepen for the working class. Moreover, the cut to tax revenues, on top of massive military spending, will mean harsher cuts to health, education and other essential social services.

The response of the ruling class and its media to the latest inflation figures has been to demand that the federal, state and territory Labor governments, presently in office across mainland Australia, enforce even greater cuts to social spending and real wages, and higher “productivity,” that is, speed up of workers.

Speaking for employers, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said it was “essential that governments help to contain inflation.” An Australian editorial backed RBA governor Bullock’s declaration that average wage growth at around 4 percent “was not consistent with returning inflation back to target without a lift in productivity.”

This was combined with backing for higher interest rates to lift the jobless rate and suppress workers’ struggles. The Australian Financial Review said the RBA board “should not hesitate to do what is needed to maintain its inflation-fighting credibility.”

Kenya’s Ruto withdraws IMF-Finance Bill in attempt to stem social explosion after massacre of anti-austerity protestors

Kipchumba Ochieng

Kenya’s President William Ruto announced the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 Wednesday, terrified of the mass opposition sparked after Bloody Tuesday when police gunned down dozens of austerity protestors on the streets of Nairobi.

The Bill, dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), included severe tax hikes on a population already facing soaring food and fuel prices and high unemployment, amid the ruling classes’ opulence and corruption.

Protests against the Finance Bill have morphed into an insurgency. Demonstrators targeted not only Ruto’s blood-soaked regime, but the entire 60-year-old post-independence edifice backed by the US and NATO imperialist powers.

Millions protested across the country in 37 of the 47 counties, cutting across tribal divides. Led by youth, they chanted “reject” and “Ruto must go”.

The day ended with a massacre.

According to the Police Reforms Working Group, at least 53 deaths were recorded and hundreds injured due to live ammunition. In the Githurai area on the outskirts of Nairobi, 30 were killed when police went on a shooting spree . The other 23 deaths occurred in Nairobi and across the country.

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The repression was brutal. To find a comparable crime committed by security forces in a single day, one would have to look back to the 1969 Kisumu massacre, when President Jomo Kenyatta—Kenya's first post-independence leader—ordered police to open fire on a crowd during his visit, resulting in dozens of deaths.

Tuesday’s slaughter is a warning of the character of the US-funded deployment of Kenyan police in Haiti, the first batch of which landed yesterday in the Caribbean nation tasked with terrorizing the population.

In seventeen hours, Ruto went from threatening anti-protestors with mass violence to making a conciliatory speech and announcing he was withdrawing the bill.

On Tuesday night, he described the protests as “treasonous events” led by “abettors of violence and anarchy,” vowing to deploy the whole state apparatus to “secure the country and restore normalcy”. He announced the deployment of the Kenya Defence Forces to support the police in intensifying the repression.

The following day, he said, “Following the passage of the bill, the country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction with the bill as passed, regrettably resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property and desecration of constitutional institutions.” Sending his condolences to the families of those butchered by his security forces, he said he would “decline to assent to the bill.”

Ruto would instead engage “with young people of our nation to listen to their issues and agree with them on their priority areas of concern.” He proposed “a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder engagement” in the next two weeks to discuss “matters relating to the content of the bill as well as auxiliary issues raised in recent days on the need for austerity measures and strengthening our fight against corruption.”

Kenyan President William Ruto gives an address at the State House in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Despite some sections of the population viewing this as a victory, Ruto intends to work out the best way to impose IMF austerity in collusion with the opposition Azimio la Umoja coalition and the trade union bureaucracy led by the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU).

Ruto announced that Parliament, Judiciary and county governments had been directed to work with the Treasury to undertake the budget cuts and austerity to ensure “We live within our means”. As the bourgeois press reported, rejection of the bill would open a Sh200 billion ($1.5 billion) revenue hole, resulting in cuts of the same magnitude in health, education, and social expenses.

Ruto is following the script of the IMF, which warned in January that, despite “unrest [that] could re-emerge in connection with protests against higher cost of living, need to raise more taxes and electoral processes,” the Kenyan government would have to “remain committed to reforms under the programme.”

Ruto now depends on the loyalty of the opposition and the trade union bureaucracy.

Francis Atwoli, COTU secretary general for two decades, organised a press conference yesterday urging “His Excellency the President to suspend the finance bill, and to appoint a commission of inquiry to examine the demands of Generation Z, Millennial young men, and other Kenyans. I want to tell Kenyans that if the country went down, it would not go down only with Ruto, it would go down with everybody. And as I’ve said before, It’s better to have a bad government than not to have one. Because anarchy is the worst thing that anybody should experience.”

His reaction is another indication that the trade unions function as an industrial police force for the government and big business. They will not oppose Ruto’s deadly violence and austerity. Rather, Atwoli insisted, “Kenya is a hub of economic activities in this region, and we must protect it at all costs. We must support the President and the government to ensure that this country remains peaceful.”

The opposition is led by millionaire Raila Odinga and has no fundamental differences with the Ruto government’s economic programme. Odinga’s concern is that the current government is incapable of implementing the required austerity measures in the face of rising opposition.

Odinga, who has been virtually silent for a week since the protests started, reacted to Ruto’s repression with calls for “a fresh start and dialogue” with the opposition. He has got his wish.

Kalonzo Musyoka—the leader of the Wiper party, which is and part of Odinga’s coalition, and who regularly acts as Azimio la Umoja spokesperson—stated that 'It’s not too late for Ruto to decline the Finance Bill and send it back to Parliament for its withdrawal.'

Ruto, Kalonzo, and Odinga have worked for decades within the Kenyan political establishment, occasionally even within the same party and government. They all reside in the affluent neighborhood of Karen in Nairobi, part of what Oxfam reported as the 0.1 percent of the population (8,300 people) which own more wealth than the bottom 99.9 percent (more than 44 million people).

Odinga has dedicated his career to derailing mass movements of workers, youth and sections of the middle class against the Kenyan establishment. In the 1990s, amid mounting opposition to the hated regime of Western-backed Moi regime, Odinga, despite being tortured by Moi in 1982, chose to support him. He merged his then National Development Party with Moi's hated KANU party and served as his energy minister.

In 2007, after then-President Mwai Kibaki stole the election from him, Odinga called off mass opposition and entered into government as Second Prime Minister, even though his supporters had been gunned down by security forces. Post-election violence resulted in over 1,200 deaths and displaced half a million people. Ruto, then an ally of Odinga, played a criminal role, whipping up ethnic violence for which he was indicted by the International Criminal Court.

In 2017, following another disputed election involving Uhuru Kenyatta, Odinga again made a deal amid widespread anger. Last year, he intermittently mobilised protests against Ruto’s Finance Bill 2023 to defuse opposition, ultimately calling them off when they threatened to intersect with strikes by civil servants, doctors, and teachers.

Kalonzo, like Ruto, started his career under Moi’s police state and was foreign affairs minister (1993-1998), Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (1988-1992) and National Organising Secretary of KANU, the only legal party under Moi, as workers, students and left-wing opponents of the regime were killed and tortured.

Ruto is hoping to deactivate the mass upheaval. Protests, however, are expected on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands of users supported hashtags of #Resign #RejectingFinanceBill2024 #Resignation #RutoMustGo #Roadtostatehouse on Twitter/X.

The Kenyan ruling class is terrified. As the Business Daily noted yesterday, “Demonstrations in Kenya have typically been mobilised by political leaders who have been amenable to negotiated settlements and power-sharing agreements [in reference to Odinga], but the young Kenyans taking part in the current protests have no official leader and have been growing increasingly bold in their demands”.

Yesterday, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua organised a press conference and said “Please I beseech you as you father please my sons and daughter make an announcement and call off the protest.”

Internationally, as former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed of Pakistan, where similar IMF measures are being implemented, stated yesterday, “They don’t know that the film running in Kenya could also be repeated in Pakistan. Prepare for it, the nation will make you accountable… it will not wait for any leader.”

At least 21 dead in terrorist attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent, Russia

Lev Novitsky

Head of Dagestan Republic Sergei Melikov, center, visits the damaged Kele-Numaz synagogue in Derbent on Monday, June 24, 2024. [AP Photo/The Telegram Channel of the head of Dagestan Republic of Russia]

On the evening of June 23, terrorist attacks were carried out in the Russian cities of Makhachkala and Derbent, located in the impoverished North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The population of Dagestan is ethnically diverse but predominantly Muslim.

The attackers targeted two Orthodox churches, two synagogues, one of which was set on fire, and a traffic patrol post (one of the units of the traffic police). The attack took place on Orthodox Holy Trinity Day, one of the main holidays of Orthodox Christians.

According to the latest figures, at least 21 people were killed and 26 others injured. Among those killed were 16 policemen and five civilians, including one Orthodox priest. Five suspected terrorists were killed on the spot.

All media reports indicated that the attacks were well organized and the attackers themselves used foreign-made weapons in the attack, including at least one assault rifle.

Notably, among the attackers were the sons and two nephews of Magomed Omarov, a local official from the ruling United Russia party in Dagestan. Before the terrorist attack, Omarov was the head of one of the districts of the Republic of Dagestan and the secretary of the local branch of United Russia. He has now been arrested. He has already been prosecuted for hooliganism, but it is likely that he will also face a case under the article on aiding and abetting terrorism. 

One of the nephews of Omarov who perpetrated the attack was, until 2021, the head of the district branch of the parliamentary party “Just Russia.”

As of this writing, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Kremlin has only just begun investigating the attack, and has not yet formally charged any state intelligence service or terrorist organization. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 25 that the missile attack on the beach in Sevastopol, which killed four people, and the terrorist attacks in Dagestan were likely synchronized.

Everything indicates that the imperialist powers were involved in the attack which serves their war aims and strategy in several respects. It comes on the eve of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., on July 9-11, and as NATO is preparing a direct entry into the war against Russia in Ukraine. At the end of May, the NATO countries approved strikes with weapons supplied by them far into Russian territory. This directly jeopardizes the civilian population in Russia, especially of the Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions.

The United States and other NATO members have repeatedly claimed that they will not cross certain ”red lines” in order not to turn the conflict in Ukraine into a full-fledged world war, but then each time NATO member states have crossed these very “red lines” that they had drawn themselves. Even in an article before Biden’s decision to authorize U.S. weapons strikes on Russian territory, the New York Times claimed that Biden was unlikely to take such a step, but Biden did just that.

Given all these facts, it is logical to assume that the attack of militants in Dagestan was in the interests of the United States to destabilize the situation in Russia and in particular in the republics of the North Caucasus in order to weaken the Putin regime’s position in the war with Ukraine and disperse its forces on the internal front.

Already, the NATO powers have de facto opened up a second front in the war, within Russia itself. In March, a major terrorist at the popular Moscow City Crocus Concert hall took the lives of at least 145 people. As the WSWS and the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists have documented, the attack had the fingerprints of US imperialism and its proxy, the Ukrainian regime, all over it. The WSWS explained the goals pursued by US imperialism with such attacks as follows:

The aim is three-fold: First, to embolden opposition to the Putin regime within the oligarchy and state apparatus; second, to provoke a military response by the Kremlin that can serve as the pretext for a further escalation of the war by NATO; and third, to foster ethnic and religious tensions within Russia that would destabilize the regime and facilitate the carve-up of the entire region by the imperialist powers.

All these three goals are also met by the terrorist attacks in Dagestan. In targeting Orthodox Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, the attackers clearly sought to inflame religious and ethnic tensions. Nor is the location of the attacks a coincidence. Dagestan is one of the most diverse but also most impoverished regions in Russia and has been afflicted by the impact of the decades-long war waged by the Kremlin against separatists in neighboring Chechnya.

In October 2023, Makhachkala airport was the site of anti-Semitic riots that broke out after the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv. At the time, a statement by the YGBL, condemning the riot, noted: 

Indeed, one cannot rule out that Western special services were involved in inciting the riots, seeking to undermine stability in Russia itself. The instigation of ethnic and nationalist conflicts and tensions, especially among the country’s large Muslim population, has long been part of the imperialist strategy to carve up Russia. The Financial Times reported that a channel previously associated with Ilya Ponomaryov, a leading figure in the pro-NATO opposition in the Russian oligarchy who has coordinated incursions of Russian territory by Ukrainian neo-fascist militias, had helped incite the riot.

Through such incitement and terrorist attacks, the imperialist powers and their proxies in the oligarchy are seeking to take advantage of and intensify the discord in the Russian elite. The ultimate aim is to weaken and eventually topple Putin’s regime, putting a puppet regime in its place.

The fact that local officials with ties to the ruling United Russia party as well as one of the main “loyal” opposition parties, Just Russia, were directly and indirectly involved in the attack, testifies not only to the reactionary character of the ruling class. It also shows that there are violent conflicts within the ranks of the Russian oligarchy. If at the local level there are such extremists and conflicts among officials, what does the situation look like at the highest echelons of power?

The Putin regime has emerged out of the Stalinist destruction of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism as a Bonapartist regime. In order to protect the interests of the oligarchy, it is maneuvering between different factions within the ruling class, between the working class and the oligarchy, and between the national interests of the oligarchy and the interests of imperialism. But both the relentless escalation of the war by imperialism and the growing social tensions within Russia itself increasingly undermine the basis for such maneuvers. In recent weeks, Putin initiated a far-reaching purge of the army, putting much of its leadership under the control of economists loyal to him, as well as the secret FSB special service.

The Putin regime, besieged from all sides, is sitting on a ticking time bomb. The strikes on Sevastopol beach and the terrorist attacks will further exacerbate contradictions among the various factions of the ruling class and among the elites of the national republics. The openly NATO-backed opposition is emboldened by the ever more direct intervention of NATO in the war, and its systematic efforts to destabilize the Putin regime and will, in its turn, intensify the longstanding preparations for a regime change. The ultra-nationalist faction, on the other hand, will become more insistent in demanding that Putin take decisive measures in the war in Ukraine, including and up to the deployment of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, separatist tendencies within republics such as Dagestan and Chechnya will intensify as well.

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To be eligible, applicants must have exceptional academic achievements, be socially and politically involved, and demonstrate a commitment to the values of green policy. The scholarship is designed for talented students who show potential for future academic and professional careers, and who are tomorrow’s experts and leaders. 

The Foundation expects its scholarship recipients to maintain excellent academic records, be socially and politically engaged, and actively pursue the Foundation’s values of ecology and sustainability, democracy and human rights, self-determination, and justice.

Scholarship Benefits

Additionally, the Heinrich Boll Foundation Scholarships in Germany will cover the basic expenses of study in Germany. 

Selection Procedure

The scholarship consists of three stages listed below:

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It is important to note that there is no age limit.

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Bloodbath in Nairobi as millions protest Kenyan President Ruto and parliament is stormed

Kipchumba Ochieng

Kenyan President William Ruto has called out the army after millions protested his mass austerity Finance Bill. Describing protesters as “treasonous” and “dangerous criminals” in a televised address, he said he would “treat every threat as an existential threat to our republic.”

In the early hours of the morning, anti-Finance Bill protesters surrounded the parliament building in the capital, Nairobi, in an attempt to shut down the economy and force Ruto to withdraw plans to raise more than $2 billion in new taxes from workers and the rural poor, as dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Protesters scatter as Kenya police spray water canon at them during a protest over proposed tax hikes in a finance bill in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, June. 25, 2024. [AP Photo/Brian Inganga]

Despite threats of police violence, internet shutdowns, and the arrests of hundreds the previous week, as well as the abductions of at least seven bloggers, activists, and social media political influencers, the mainly young protesters refused to be intimidated.

In a country that saw the Western-backed Daniel Arap Moi dictatorship carry out disappearances of left-wing workers and students by the Special Branch, they were fully aware they were confronting a bloody regime that had gunned down 75 protesters during anti-austerity protests last year.

In the afternoon, protesters stormed parliament and set parts of it ablaze after lawmakers passed the austerity bill now awaiting Ruto’s signature. They also torched a police vehicle. Lawmakers fled using underground tunnels or hid in ambulances.

Outside, police used live ammunition, teargas and truncheons, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 protesters. Police snipers reportedly shot protesters from rooftops.

Protesters carry the body of a man who was shot during a protest over proposed tax hikes in a finance bill in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, June 25, 2024. [Photo: Andrew Kasuku/WSWS]

In Nairobi’s central Kenyatta National Hospital, over 200 people were attended to with gunshot wounds.

Potentially thousands have been injured, and hundreds arrested.

Across the country, mass protests cut across the tribal divides that the Kenyan ruling class systematically cultivates. Protesters paralysed transport services and forced major businesses to close in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kakamega, Nakuru and even Kericho, where residents pulled down Ruto’s party wheelbarrow symbol. The main chants were “Reject” and “Ruto must go.”

In Eldoret, Ruto’s hometown, the county court and police offices were torched.

In Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), most shops remained closed throughout the day. Police attempted to disperse protesters in the morning, hurling teargas canisters. This failed, as tens of thousands marched into the CBD, disrupting traffic along the capital’s major arteries.

Small diaspora-led protests also took place in Los Angeles and Washington D.C in the US and in London, UK.

KTN news and other media said they had received orders from the government to stop covering the protests. Authorities also slowed down the Internet throughout the evening, while social media such as X/Twitter were shut down.

The popular uprising has shaken the government and the entire Kenyan ruling class. It has raised fears in capitals around the African continent and internationally of an eruption of mass opposition driven by a global capitalist crisis that has been compounded first by the COVID-19 pandemic, then the US-NATO war on Russia, and now the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

Small protests centered in Nairobi last Tuesday quickly escalated into a mass movement. By Thursday, demonstrations had spread across major cities and towns as lawmakers passed a second reading of the Finance Bill. The day ended with the gunning down of a 29-year-old protester, which fueled calls for yesterday’s national shutdown. A poster calling for a national strike spread across social media.

Clinical officers striking for over 85 days have joined the protests and volunteered to provide emergency medical teams. Workers at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, one of the largest in Nairobi, have gone on strike over nonpayment of wages.

Despite these limited and isolated actions, the trade union apparatus is the major restraining hand on workers joining the anti-austerity movement with their own demands, despite many members participating.

The trade unions are not instruments for waging class struggle, but appendages of the employers and the government for suppressing it. They have refused to mobilise the tens of thousands employed in the manufacturing, food processing, chemical production, plastics and metal works in the industrial area in Nairobi.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of teachers and healthcare workers, who have repeatedly struck over the past five years against low wages and precarious job contracts, could be mobilised. In the port of Mombasa, six thousand workers could halt Ruto’s privatization plans, bringing the region to a standstill. Thousands of aviation workers, including at Kenya Airways, could block Kenya’s airspace. In rural areas, millions of tea, coffee, and horticulture wage workers could paralyse the countryside, in a country where 60 percent of revenue comes from the agriculture sector.

Instead, Francis Atwoli, secretary general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), has defended the Finance Bill, stating that “people are being taxed everywhere and, indeed, if we pay tax and the money is used properly we will evade the issue of borrowing money.”

COTU consists of 36 trade unions representing more than 1.5 million workers, but these unions have a sordid history of suppressing strikes and protests, including that by 4,000 doctors earlier this year.

Ruto is preparing to impose more police state measures, such as the Assembly and Demonstration Bill, 2024, restricting where protests can take place and imposing draconian fines for “violations” of up to $770, equivalent to half a year’s average wage.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is stoking communalist politics in central Kenya by promoting Kikuyu tribalism to drive a wedge into the working class and oppressed masses.

Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has accused protesters of being manipulated by “foreign hands,” with veiled references to Russia and even the US, which only weeks ago declared Kenya a non-NATO US ally.

“America and Kenya: Divided by distance. United by democratic values,” said President Biden during Ruto’s visit. Yesterday, these “democratic” values were exposed in the blood-covered streets of Nairobi, and as Ruto dispatched 400 police to Haiti to terrorise the population of the Caribbean island in the service of US imperialism.

The developing movement is a challenge not just to Ruto and his government, but to the entire political establishment, including the Azimio coalition opposition led by millionaire Raila Odinga, who has been noticeably absent from the demonstrations.

Last year, Odinga called off mass opposition to Ruto over the Finance Bill 2023, when the movement threatened to intersect with calls for strike action by civil servants. Odinga is part of the 0.1 percent of the Kenyan population (8,300 people) which, according to Oxfam, owns more wealth than the bottom 99.9 percent (more than 48 million people).

Yesterday, in a token gesture of opposition, Azimio lawmakers left parliament to join the protesters, saying that amendments to the Bill would have come to naught.

The movement threatens other authoritarian East African regimes facing similar conditions as Kenya, such as Uganda and Rwanda, run by despotic US allies, Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.

Earlier this month, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, ground to a halt, with electricity cut and major airports closed as workers went on strike at key transmission stations and in aviation to demand salary increases. Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ended fuel subsidies and devalued the naira, leading to inflation surging to a 28-year high.

The movement is also a threat to big business and global capital, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which are seeking to make working people pay for the capitalist crisis. They are imposing similar measures in Argentina, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Germany’s Reichsbürger trials: Terrorist network with deep roots in the state apparatus

Justus Leicht & Peter Schwarz

Three trials have begun in Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich against the right-wing terrorist Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens Movement) network centred around Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, which the federal prosecutor’s office accuses of planning an attack on the Bundestag (parliament) and a violent coup. A total of 26 people have been charged so far.

Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss [Photo by Steffen Löwe / wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Since May, the leading members of the conspiracy have been on trial in a specially constructed hall in Frankfurt’s Sossenheim district.

The so-called Reichsbürger Council was supposed to form a transitional government after a successful coup. According to the indictment, Reuss, a property entrepreneur and scion of an old noble family, was the “ringleader” and chairman of the council.

The trial against the “military arm” of the group has been ongoing in Stuttgart-Stammheim since April, and other leading members have been on trial in Munich since this month.

The president of the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court, Andreas Singer, spoke in advance of one of the largest state protection proceedings in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: five judges, two supplementary judges and 22 defence lawyers will take part in the Stuttgart trial alone. The investigation files comprise 700 Leitz document folders.

The indictment makes clear that this is far from being a radical but harmless group of nutcases, but rather it is a networked organisation with a lot of money, a lot of weapons, the expertise to use them and detailed plans to commit massive, murderous terror. It has close links to the military and other state institutions. Although the ideological ideas of those involved are crude, they are widespread in right-wing extremist milieus.

The group had procured 382 firearms, 347 stabbing weapons and more than 148,000 pieces of ammunition. Its members include dozens of military officers. A group of 20 people was to enter the Reichstag (parliament building) in Berlin with armed forces and arrest the politicians there. The police were to be placed under the control of the military and the government overthrown.

Former Bundestag member for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and judge of the Berlin district court Birgit Malsack-Winkemann is accused, among other things, of providing the military members of the group access to the Reichstag building. Malsack-Winkemann herself possessed several firearms, was a member of the “Council” and was intended to be the future “Minister of Justice” under Reuss.

At the same time, the group pursued the goal of establishing 286 “homeland defence companies” throughout Germany, which, according to the indictment, were to carry out purges after a coup. The military head of the group is said to have been 69-year-old former Bundeswehr (Army) Colonel Rüdiger von Pescatore, commander of a paratrooper battalion of Airborne Brigade 25, a predecessor of the Special Forces Command (KSK) military unit, until the mid-1990s.

Another accused member of the military arm is Maximilian Eder, 65, a former Bundeswehr colonel. He served in Kosovo, Afghanistan, at NATO headquarters in Brussels and with the KSK. The defendants Peter Wörner and Marco van Heukelum are also former KSK soldiers.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the defendants are ideologically united by three main things: most of them are either Reichsbürger followers, coronavirus deniers, QAnon conspiracy supporters—or all of the above.

Members of the Reichsbürger movement do not recognise the post-war Federal Republic of Germany and believe that the German Reich founded in 1871 continues to exist. In their view, the Federal Republic, on the other hand, is merely a limited liability company founded by the Western Allies and externally controlled—not least by “Jewish big capitalists,” as Prince Reuss had fantasised. The “new order” they conceive is to be based on the German Empire of 1871, and rule is not to be democratic.

According to the latest report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (as the Secret Service is called), the Reichsbürger scene comprises up to 25,000 followers, although the Secret Service absurdly claims that only 5 percent of them are right-wing extremists.

In fact, the defendants were not striving to establish a medieval fairytale kingdom, but a brutal military dictatorship whose main task was to work through lists of “enemies” who were to be liquidated.

“Treason was punishable by death—to be pronounced by Prince Reuss and executed by military courts,” reported the Süddeutsche Zeitung at the start of the trial. “And there were precise instructions on how the homeland defence companies were to proceed after the coup. They were to ‘clean up’. They were to ‘neutralise’ ‘counter-revolutionary forces from the left-wing and Islamic milieu’ and focus primarily on the cities. Resistance was suspected there.”

According to the indictment, the group around Prince Reuss emerged at the end of July 2021 with the aim of eliminating the state order of the Federal Republic of Germany by force of arms. At that time, there was an increase in dissident demonstrations against state-imposed coronavirus protection measures. However, it is obvious that there are numerous links to other right-wing terrorist conspiracies that have been uncovered in the past and then quickly covered up again.

This is most clearly demonstrated by the high number of members, or former members, of the KSK who are now standing trial. As we have shown in an earlier, detailed article on this topic, the “elite unit, which comprises just over 1,000 men, has a fascistic trail behind it. Its almost thirty-year history is accompanied by right-wing extremist incidents that have been repeatedly whitewashed and trivialised.”

The secretive combat unit, which is trained to track down and kill opponents, has repeatedly hit the headlines in recent years. In 2021, one of four KSK companies had to be disbanded because Hitler songs were sung at a farewell party. And the so-called “Hannibal” network, which includes commandos, elite police officers, secret service officers, judges and other civil servants from all over Germany, has its centre in the KSK. The similarities between the Hannibal and Reuss networks are obvious.

This is also evident in the three courtrooms. The defendants are celebrated by like-minded people and in many cases defended by well-known lawyers from the far-right scene who share their extremist views and represent them not only legally but politically.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on trial attendees wearing T-shirts with slogans such as “I believe in you” and travelling “like a caravan” from trial to trial. The far-right coronavirus denialist party “Die Basis” (The Base) was particularly well represented.

Several defendants and lawyers are members of this party. For example, the accused Johanna Findeisen-Juskowiak is being defended by Professor Martin Schwab. Both were parliamentary candidates for “Die Basis.” Schwab, who teaches law at the University of Bielefeld, accused the court of “the greatest abuse of the administration of justice.” He claimed that the indictment had been constructed so that the government could declare a state of national defence and then remain in office beyond the 2025 Bundestag elections.

The defence bench includes far-right lawyer Olaf Klemke, who defended the accomplice and neo-Nazi German National Party (NPD) functionary Ralf Wohlleben in the trial of the fascist terrorist group National Socialist Union (NSU). Alongside him sit the QAnon-type activist Markus Haintz and the former front singer of the neo-Nazi band “Noie Werte,” Steffen Hammer. Malsack-Winkemann is being represented by the right-wing Cologne lawyer Jochen Lober.

The plan to establish a dictatorship in Germany under Prince Reuss was not successful. However, the plans for violence and murder by the accused and their circle show how dangerous and advanced the proliferation of ultra-right-wingers in the state apparatus, especially in the military, is. These are closely linked to the revival of German militarism and the associated shift towards authoritarian forms of rule.

The milieu of Reichsbürger, coronavirus deniers and other right-wing extremists that the group around Reuss draws upon is strongly reminiscent of the forces that Donald Trump mobilised to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021. His coup almost succeeded because parts of the military and the security apparatus stood behind it and allowed the attackers to storm the Capitol—and because the Democrats were not going to call on the masses to resist.

Suicides rates among US construction and mine workers at alarming levels

Kevin Reed

Studies published recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have revealed that construction and mine workers in the US are committing suicide at alarming rates.

Construction workers help direct traffic outside a residential and commercial building under construction, Manhattan, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. [AP Photo/Mary Altaffer]

An analysis published last December by the CDC, based on data collected in 2021, reported that the suicide rates in these industries are nearly double the average of all occupations and the highest of 20 industry groups examined.

The CDC analyzed suicide deaths by industry and occupation in 49 states using data from the 2021 National Vital Statistics System. The study noted, “The suicide rate among the US working-age population has increased approximately 33 percent during the last 2 decades.”

The study found that “overall suicide rates by sex in the civilian noninstitutionalized working population were 32.0 per 100,000 among males and 8.0 per 100,000 among females.”

In the construction industry, the suicide rate among male workers was 56 per 100,000 and 10 per 100,000 for women. In the Construction and Extraction occupation group, which includes all building trades as well as mining, oil and gas workers, the rates were more than double the average, reaching 65.6 per 100,000 for men and 25.3 per 100,000 for women.

A similar analysis conducted by the CDC in 2016 from 32 states showed that suicide rates among Construction and Extraction were at 49.4 per 100,000 for men and 25.5 per 100,000 for women. This means that the suicide rate among men in these occupations went up by 33 percent between 2016 and 2021.

Some industry experts attribute the rapid rise in suicides to the intense pressures on these workers during a construction boom and an ongoing shortage of workers.

Much of the media coverage of the suicide rates among construction workers is concentrated on the issues of access to mental health services and combatting the stigma of mental health problems among this layer of workers.

While there is a significant need for mental health services, there are other issues that lie behind the rise in suicides that are part of the intensified exploitation of construction and extraction workers by the capitalist employers.

The first of these is the impact of injuries on workers. According to Dr. Mitchel Rosen, the director of the Center for Public Health Workforce Development at the Rutgers University School of Public Health, industry-related factors, such as injuries that damage muscles and tendons due to repetitive motions and constant use, compound the potential for suicidal ideation.

Rosen told NJ Spotlight News that working through some injuries due to insufficient paid time off or fear of unaffordable healthcare costs are among the contributing causes to suicide. Rosen also pointed out that 15 percent of construction and extraction workers are US military veterans, who also have a high rate of suicide compared to the rest of the population.

According to a report by NBC News on Monday, “A recent surge in construction projects, spurred by billions of federal dollars for infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductor projects have put increasing strain on an already stretched workforce.”

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported in January that the construction industry would need an additional 500,000 workers to meet labor demands in 2024. Chief economist of ABC Anirban Basu said:

There are structural factors, including outsized retirement levels, megaprojects in several private and public construction segments and cultural factors that encourage too few young people to enter the skilled construction trades. …

More than 1 in 5 construction workers are 55 or older, meaning that retirement will continue to contract the industry’s workforce. These are the most experienced workers, and their departures are especially concerning.

NBC News also reported that $450 billion in funding provided by the Biden administration to the semiconductor industry to build 80 new manufacturing facilities in 25 states has led to excessive overtime and the relocation of workers needed for these high-pressure projects.

Intel is building a $20 billion facility in Arizona with financial support from the US government. NBC News reported workers are on the construction site for “two 60-hour weeks followed by a 50-hour week for months at a time in the hot Arizona weather with no paid vacation time.”

Many of these workers are coming from out of state and leaving their friends and families behind to live in temporary housing or hotels for months or years at a time. Josh Vitale, a superintendent for Hoffman Construction, the general contractor overseeing the construction of the Intel computer chip factory, told NBC News, “There’s a lot that goes into how stressful it is, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically … we have to realize that we are legitimately wringing the life out of people.”

Vitale continued, “It would be rare to find someone in the industry who hasn’t known a person that has taken their life within the last year or two. As an industry, we just keep putting more and more pressure on the worker to outperform what they’ve done before, and at some point, it’s just untenable.”

Elizabeth Clemens, the executive director for the New Jersey chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Suicide, told NJ Spotlight News that suicide is a complex issue with many factors contributing to it, including access to lethal means.

Clemens said, “I don’t think that specific occupations in and of themselves have higher rates due to the occupation itself.” She noted that access to physical and mental healthcare, reasonable workloads under safe conditions, and education and awareness can all reduce the risk factors.

While employer associations have referred to wages among construction workers as “skyrocketing” in the past year, average hourly wages increased 3.2 percent in 2023 to $30.73 per hour. Meanwhile, in 2020, the highest paid CEO in the construction industry, David Auld of D.R. Horton Inc., earned a compensation package worth $30 million.