German interior minister announces tightening of security and asylum laws

Dietmar Henning

The German government is extending state powers at lightning speed. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a nine-point plan for domestic security in late July. On Wednesday, the Christian Democratic state interior ministers tabled a catalogue of demands and, on Thursday, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière made several concrete announcements.

The measures include more money and staff for the security authorities, closer cooperation between the European and international secret services, joint exercises of the police and armed forces, increased monitoring of the Internet and the accelerated expulsion of asylum seekers.

These far-reaching attacks on democratic rights are linked with a racist campaign against foreigners. In Berlin, de Maizière announced a tightening up of the right of residence. Immigrants that have committed a crime and so-called “troublemakers” are to be held in custody until the date of their deportation. To this end, a new ground for arrest is to be introduced. This will remove the strict separation of detention prior to deportation and criminal imprisonment. In their paper, the Christian Democratic state interior ministers called for the rapid expulsion of “hate preachers” who call for violence.

De Maizière also wants to intensify the cuts in benefits for foreigners. The sanctions would not only continue for people who, for example, have provided a false identity, in future, these sanctions would also apply to those who commit a crime “or who otherwise endanger public safety.” With this, de Maizière has increasingly spoken in tones that have not been heard since the diatribes against the “insolence of the Jews” by Goebbels and the Nazis. The minister said, “In all these cases, it must not be that through impudence and awkward behaviour [their] stay in Germany is extended.”

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens support this course. Together with the SPD-Green Party state government in North Rhine-Westphalia, a pilot project has been agreed to more quickly “process” the deportation procedures of those who have committed a crime and foreign “attackers,” de Maizière said.

The monitoring of refugees is to be generally expanded. The federal interior minister will examine whether the social media of refugees should be accessed “in individual cases” as “a precaution.”

The list of demands from the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) state interior ministers went even further. They called for a general ban of the burqa, and the abolition of dual citizenship. This was demanded in particular by the interior ministers of Berlin, Frank Henkel, and Mecklenburg Pomerania, Lorenz Caffier, who are currently conducting election campaigns.

De Maizière made it clear that he supports the demands but currently regards them as not able to be implemented. On the call for a burqa ban, he said, “You cannot ban everything you reject. And I reject the wearing of burqas.”

He did not want to “reopen the discussion” on dual citizenship. The paper from the Christian Democratic interior ministers called dual citizenship “a massive obstacle to integration.” Such a “divided loyalty” should be rejected. “Those who want to get involved in the politics of foreign governments, we suggest leave Germany,” the paper threatens.

The campaign against dual citizenship is being waged on a broad front, from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Bavarian CSU and wide sections of the CDU, up to Spiegel Online columnist Jakob Augstein.

The intensive campaign calling for the stepping up of the powers of the state, under the auspices of a so-called “security debate” following the attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach, and the shooting spree in Munich, is part of an international development. In France, it is clear that the state of emergency introduced by the Hollande government, following the terrorist attacks of last November, is directed against the working class. The restriction of the right to assembly and demonstration, as well as the increased police powers, have been turned against the strike movement directed at the reactionary labour market reforms.

The measures announced by de Maizière have a clear direction. They serve the strengthening of the state, the dismantling of democratic rights and the mobilization of right-wing mobs. They are directed against the vast majority of the population. The measures which today are directed against “criminal foreigners,” “attackers” and all those who “endanger public safety” (in de Maizière’s words), will tomorrow be turned against those who oppose war, racism, poverty and the destruction of jobs.

The planned expansion of the police and preparations for comprehensive monitoring leave no doubt about this.

The police and intelligence services are to be expanded and their powers greatly enhanced. By 2020, some 15,000 additional police officers are to be employed at the federal and state level. The interior minister announced that the federal police, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the secret service will receive additional staff “averaging in the four figures.”

The intelligence services should also have access to retained internet service provider (ISP) and telecoms data. The CDU/CSU and SPD had agreed this last year. Without any suspicion, all data is being stored: when, how long you talk on the phone and with whom, as well as which web sites you visit. Previously, such data could only be viewed by the police when it involved concrete, serious crimes. In future, the secret services will also gain access to this data.

Bavaria is the first state to lift the separation of the intelligence agencies and the police, which were introduced following the terrible experiences with the Nazis. Since July, the Bavarian state secret service agency can use telephone connection data. The CSU state government has bypassed the principle of the separation of police and secret service by defining the latter as an “emergency management authority.”

According to the demands of the CDU/CSU interior ministers, the secret services should also be given the opportunity to investigate 14-year-olds.

At the Federal Criminal Police Office, a “Cyber Defence Centre” is also to be set up, according to de Maizière. In future, the use of cyber investigators in the so-called “darknet” would be stepped up, whereby the definition of the “darknet” is used flexibly to cover virtually the entire Internet.

Surveillance will not only be conducted virtually, but universally. Both de Maizière and his party colleagues want to expand video surveillance in public places and at railway stations.

In particular, the demand for the lifting of confidentiality for doctors was combined with dangerous accusations against them. In the Bild newspaper, CSU interior policy expert Hans-Peter Uhl had accused doctors of hindering the fight against terrorism. “It is professional snobbery to say the physician must always be silent,” says Uhl. “According to current legislation, this is even a clear breach of the law.” Doctors should warn the authorities “if they have reason to believe that one of their patients poses a danger to others, and plans an attack or similar crimes.”

This is not far from alleging support for terrorism. The president of the German Medical Association (BÄK), Frank Ulrich Montgomery, immediately rejected this accusation and stated that there was no reason to change the current legislation. Doctors were clearly regulated. Even today, if a doctor had “concrete evidence about a threat to the life and limb of others, he or she would inform the authorities.”

De Maizière and his state colleagues want to agree on a joint list of demands next week. De Maizière will then see this package is adopted in the current legislative period.

The SPD supports this course and was clearly informed about it in advance. SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, “The SPD is ready to talk about everything that helps increase security.” As an emergency measure, he demanded an extra 3,000 f ederal police posts be created.

Tax return places Clintons in the top 0.02 percent of Americans

Patrick Martin

Bill and Hillary Clinton made $10.6 million in income in 2015, according to tax returns released by the Democratic presidential campaign Friday. This placed the Clintons in the top 0.02 percent of US families.

Fewer than 30,000 US families made as much as the Clintons last year, a further demonstration of how far the former “first family” has advanced since Bill Clinton left the White House in January 2001.

In the nearly 16 years since then, the Clintons have netted at least $200 million in income, most of it from making speeches to corporations, Wall Street firms, universities, Washington lobbyists, trade unions, and anyone else willing to fork over $200,000 or more to hear the former president or his wife.

Hillary Clinton’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is by reputation a billionaire, placing him in the top 2,000 US households for income, although he has refused to release any tax returns that could verify his income level and tax payments.

The Clinton campaign released the family’s tax return as part of a political effort to put more pressure on the Trump campaign to do likewise. This was coordinated with a prominent article in the New York Times suggesting that Trump was unwilling to release his tax return because he had used many lucrative deductions available to real estate speculators, cutting his tax liability to zero.

Other possibilities suggested by the Times are that Trump’s personal fortune is far less than the $9-10 billion he has claimed publicly, or that his tax returns would document income from investments with Russian oligarchs. The latter charge is part of a persistent McCarthy-style campaign spearheaded by the Times, suggesting Trump’s candidacy represents Russian government interference in the US elections.

The Clinton tax return demonstrates the vast social gulf that separates the Democratic presidential candidate from the working people whose votes she seeks in the 2016 election. The November 8 election represents a “choice” between two candidates from the financial aristocracy, both of whom uphold the interests of the super-rich against working people.

The $10.6 million raked in during 2015 actually represented a significant decline for the Clintons, whose combined income reached $27.9 million in 2014, their largest ever, thanks to $23 million in speaking fees divided roughly equally between the former president and the former secretary of state.

In 2015, by contrast, Bill Clinton earned the lion’s share of the speaker’s fees, some $4.4 million, while Hillary Clinton netted “only” $1.1 million, since she stopped taking money for appearances before corporate audiences after declaring her candidacy for president. Hillary Clinton also reported $3 million in revenue from her book Hard Choices, a memoir of her four years as secretary of state.

The current year 2016 is likely to mark a low point in the Clinton buck-raising, since neither Clinton has been able to make paid appearances because of the requirements of the election campaign.

Not to worry, however. From 2007 through 2015, the Clintons reported making a total of $149 million over nine years, out of which they paid taxes totaling $48 million, and gave $16 million to charity (most of it to their own charitable entity, the Clinton Family Foundation).

That means they enjoyed after-tax income of some $85 million, the bulk of which they would have put into investment accounts. A fortune of, say, $75 million would place the Clintons in the top 20,000 US families in terms of total assets.

During this period 2007-2015, which includes six years when Hillary Clinton was on a federal salary, as US senator for New York and then secretary of state, Bill Clinton made the bulk of the income, including $105 million from delivering more than 540 speeches.

The average annual Clinton family income over this nine-year period, $16.3 million, is 300 times the median US household income, $53,482. In other words, Bill and Hillary Clinton typically earned every day about what the typical US working-class family made in a year.

The Clintons paid tax rates close to the 35 percent due from top income earners over that nine-year period, as they did not make use of special tax evasion vehicles, most likely to avoid the negative political repercussions.

The bulk of their income was routed through what are called “pass-through” vehicles, standard for wealthy individuals whose income does not come from salaries. The Clinton campaign pointed out that under the tax plan advocated by Donald Trump, the Clinton’s own taxes would have been cut in half, since such “pass-through” vehicles would receive a 50 percent tax break.

The Democratic campaign also released ten years of tax returns for Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, and his wife Anne Holton, daughter of former Virginia governor Linwood Holton. In 2015, the couple reported income of $313,441, which represents Kaine’s salary as a US senator and his wife’s as secretary of education for the state of Virginia.

The combined family income of Kaine and Holton in 2015 is less than the $315,000 that Hillary Clinton was paid for a single speech delivered to a corporate audience at eBay last year.

Signs of slowdown in US auto industry

Shannon Jones

A spate of recent reports points to a slowdown in US auto sales, which had been steadily increasing in recent years boosted by relatively low gas prices, pent-up demand and low interest rates.

Shares of Ford fell sharply after reports that its year over year sales fell 3 percent in the second quarter of 2016. The fall included a 1 percent decline in pickup trucks, one of Ford’s best selling and most profitable product sectors.

General Motors, the largest US automaker, recorded a 2 percent sales decline in July, with overall sales down 4 percent for the first seven months of the year. While Fiat Chrysler (FCA) posted a 0.3 percent gain in July, that was fueled by a 22 percent increase in fleet sales, an indication that the company is struggling to move its product. Fleet sales usually carry a large discount and are less profitable than sales to individual consumers.

FCA sales fell 14 percent in Canada for the month of July.

Japanese-based Toyota saw its sales fall 1.4 percent, while German-based Volkswagen saw an 8 percent drop and BMW posted a 5 percent decline. Smaller rivals Honda and Nissan saw a 4.4 percent and 1.2 percent gain, respectively. However, these increases were not enough to offset the overall downward drift.

In the wake of its disappointing Second Quarter profit figures, $2 billion, Ford issued a warning of increasing economic pressures on the auto industry. It pointed in particular to the June vote by Britain to leave the European Union (Brexit).

Ford Chief Financial Officer Bo Shanks declared, “We’re seeing elevated economic risk for the most part globally, and particularly what is happening with Brexit.” He continued, “We see next year’s industry [sales] will be weaker than this year. We don’t see growth at least in the near term.”

GM for its part said it expected that the impact of Brexit could reach $400 million due to currency issues and slowing sales.

Ford is spending more on sales incentives than last year. It said it was prepared to cut factory output and accelerate a “cost-attack” to maintain its profit levels. Despite this, shares of Ford’s stock slumped sharply in the wake of its second quarter profit results, which were down 9 percent from the same period last year.

Talk of production cuts by Ford is a warning that job cuts may be in the offing. It comes as auto parts supplier Martinrea Hot Stamping said it plans to close its Detroit plant permanently and lay off up to 122 workers. The facility does hot stamping and assembly work for Fiat Chrysler, including the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200, which FCA is in the process of phasing out. The United Auto Workers called the closure “not unexpected,” signaling its support for the cuts.

The closure follows the announcement by Fiat Chrysler that it is ending passenger car production in the United States. It is looking for a third party supplier, possibly in Mexico, to continue production of the Chrysler 200 and the Dart. Last month FCA laid off a full shift at its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), cutting some 1,420 jobs. They were the first permanent layoffs since FCA’s 2009 emergence from bankruptcy.

Sterling Heights Assembly builds the Chrysler 200, which has suffered sharp sales declines. FCA said that all US production of the 200 will end by December. Meanwhile, it is halting production of the Dodge Dart at its Belvidere, Illinois facility in September.

Fiat Chrysler recently restated its sales results after the exposure of a scheme to artificially boost its sales figures. A lawsuit by dealers alleges FCA offered them money to report vehicles as sold in a particular month and then later revise those reports.

Due to sagging sales of the 200, SHAP is currently on shutdown and is expected to only be in operation intermittently until the facility is closed for retooling in December. SHAP is slated to build the new version of the Dodge Ram, currently built at the nearby Warren Truck Plant.

Kate, a veteran worker at SHAP, told the WSWS that workers at the plant would be back at work on August 29 and then be on layoff again for six more weeks. She said, “On our local union web site it said high seniority people could go to another plant to work.

“Some of the newer people from our plant went to Jefferson North Assembly and got fired because the work was too hard for hem. When you get bumped to another plant you don’t know what kind of job you will get. They were used to easier jobs.

“If I go to a new plant, because it is not my home plant, they will have seniority over me. I can’t carry over my seniority.”

The shift of the Dodge Ram to SHAP puts the fate of the giant Warren Truck Assembly plant into question. There were reports that FCA plans to build the Jeep Wagoneer at Warren Truck, but it is not clear how many jobs that will create. The facility currently employs some 4,100 hourly workers.

The United Auto Workers is supporting the FCA restructuring plan. UAW President Dennis Williams said the retooling of SHAP is “great for all of our members and all of the employees at FCA and for the local communities.”

Kate said that according to the UAW contract the workers at Warren Truck could follow the Dodge Ram to SHAP, giving them first preference for the jobs over the current SHAP workers.

“I don’t see how they can send the Chrysler 200 to Mexico, and we can’t go to Mexico,” she said. “I don’t understand why the union would allow them to move production out. Fiat Chrysler looks at the money they are saving, not the people. I feel the union is lying down.”

Record US share prices amid economic slump and social decay

Barry Grey

US stock indexes were mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closing slightly lower and the Nasdaq Composite index rising marginally, following their record-breaking performance the day before when all three major indexes hit new all-time highs on the same day.

The banner day on Wall Street, the first record day for all three indexes since December 31, 1999, reflected the enthusiastic response of the financial parasites who dominate the US and world capitalist economy to the news that Macy’s, the biggest US department store chain, was closing 100 more stores and laying off thousands more employees.

Macy’s stock shot up by 17 percent, despite the firm’s report of declining revenues and slowing sales growth. Other major chains, including Kohl’s, JC Penney and Nordstrom, also recorded sharp stock rises despite similarly grim economic news, as investors anticipated more store closings by them as well.

Hundreds of retail stores have been shut over the past two years as the impact of relentless cuts in wages and pensions and the permanent destruction of decent-paying jobs, combined with sweeping cuts in social programs, have thrown tens of millions of working class families into poverty or near-poverty. The bankers and speculators have placed relentless pressure on the chains to cut costs and increase profit margins at the expense of their employees and the general public.

The surge in stock and bond prices both in the US and internationally, which has further enriched the capitalist elite, has come amid mounting indications of stagnation and slump in the real economy and a worsening social crisis. Economic growth in the US, Europe, Japan and China has slowed to a crawl. New figures released Friday pointed to a slowdown across the entire Chinese economy, with factory output, business investment and retail sales all failing to meet economists’ projections.

The euro zone economy grew by a paltry 0.3 percent in the second quarter, with Italy failing to register any growth and the German economy expanding at a reduced rate.

Gross domestic product in the US is barely increasing, rising only 0.8 percent in the first quarter and 1.2 percent in the second. Both labor productivity and business investment are falling sharply, reflecting the systematic diversion of resources from productive investment to financial speculation and parasitic activities such as stock buybacks, dividend increases and mergers and acquisitions.

US corporations, flush with cash extorted through the slashing of wages and benefits and the imposition of speedup, are hoarding $1.9 trillion. They refuse to invest in new plants and equipment that could provide decent jobs and address the decay of the country’s bridges, roads, schools and housing because the profit margins are too low, preferring instead to speculate on the market and buy back their own stock to increase the take of big investors and inflate the bonuses of top executives.

More negative news on the state of the US economy released Friday barely impacted the stock market. US retail sales for July were unchanged on the month, falling short of the 0.4 percent rise predicted by analysts. In addition, producer prices fell by 0.4 percent from June, the biggest monthly decrease in ten months, reflecting the mounting deflationary pressures in the US and globally.

The markets for the most part brushed off the new indices of slump, even welcoming them for decreasing the likelihood of an increase in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve or other major central banks. Ever since the Wall Street crash of 2008, triggered by the recklessness and outright criminality of the banks and hedge funds, the central banks in the US, Britain, Europe and Japan have been pumping trillions of virtually free money into the financial markets to rescue the financial aristocracy and increase its monopoly on income and wealth.

This has fueled the massive rise in stock and bond prices and the further shift in wealth from the bottom to the very top. Since hitting its lowest level of the year last February, the S&P 500 has gained 20 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, the consensus among financial analysts is that the Dow will hit 20,000 within the next year.

But despite the talk of “recovery,” the policies of record low interest rates and “quantitative easing” have failed to effect a recovery in the real economy. Instead, the central banks and capitalist governments, led by the Obama administration in the US, have overseen a class war offensive to wipe out all of the previous social gains of the working class.

Large sections of the American people are living in “third world” conditions. The indices of social decay are shocking. Earlier this week, the journalObstetrics & Gynecology published a study showing that between 2000 and 2014, the maternal death rate in the US rose by 27 percent. The US is the only advanced country to record a rise in maternal deaths. Since 1987, the maternal mortality rate in the US has more than doubled.

This study follows reports released over the past several months documenting rising mortality rates among US workers due to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant mortality, an overall leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap between the life expectancy of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those at the top.

These are not temporary regressions that will be reversed within the framework of the existing diseased social and economic system. Even leading financial officials are now acknowledging that the slump ushered in by the crash of 2008 shows no signs of lifting. In recent months, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen has spoken of slow economic growth as the “new normal,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Legarde has warned of the “new mediocre,” and former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has characterized the world economy as suffering from chronic and systemic “secular stagnation.”

What has been called the “financialization” of the US economy, which has come to characterize the world economy, is the outcome of a protracted process of decline and decay at the very center of global capitalism, the United States. From 1985 to the present, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than four-and-a-half times, from approximately 4,000 to over 18,500. Over this very period, there has been a dramatic decline in industrial and manufacturing jobs, a sharp slowdown in economic growth, and a steady decline in the wages and living standards of US workers. The same period has seen a massive growth of social inequality, with income and wealth concentrated at the very top of American society to an extent not seen since the 1920s.

This crisis, and the malignant social conditions it has brought, are barely referred to in the US presidential election campaign. Neither party or candidate can offer any policies to address the critical needs of working people and youth. That is because they are both totally controlled by the corporate-financial aristocracy and do its bidding. Their focus is on seeking to overcome growing popular opposition to austerity and war in order to prepare for a vast escalation of military violence abroad, including against nuclear-armed Russia and China, and a further assault on the democratic rights and social conditions of the working class at home.

This past week, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton delivered speeches on their economic policies in Detroit, the symbol of the social carnage created by decades of factory closures, wage cuts and austerity. They spoke within blocks of the ruins of shuttered auto plants and vacant fields where stable working class communities once stood. They said nothing about the bankruptcy of the city, which was used to impose a bankers’ dictatorship and destroy city workers’ pensions and health benefits. They had virtually nothing to say about the pervasive poverty in the city or the destruction of its public school system—which they both support.

Trump laid out a nakedly pro-corporate agenda, calling for massive cuts in income taxes for the wealthy, a more than 50 percent reduction in corporate taxes, the total elimination of the estate tax, and the removal of all remaining regulations on business. Clinton, in the guise of a “jobs” and “infrastructure” program, promoted yet another scheme to hand out tax cuts and other incentives for companies to hire workers at poverty-level wages, with the trade unions brought in to keep the workers in line in return for a cut in the spoils.

The two competed with one another in promoting economic nationalism and trade war policies to pit American workers against their class brothers and sisters in Mexico, China and elsewhere and promote patriotism and militarism.

There is no solution to social inequality, poverty and austerity outside of a united working class assault on the capitalist system itself. The financial parasites and their political stooges must be driven from power, their corporations and banks turned into publicly owned and democratically controlled institutions, and the wealth produced by the working class marshaled in a planned and rational way, not only in the US but internationally, to meet social need, not private greed.

The provocation in Crimea and the threat of world war

Bill Van Auken

The abortive terrorist attack launched against Crimea by elements of the Ukrainian secret services, undoubtedly with the full backing of Washington, has plunged Europe into one of its most serious crises since the end of the Second World War.

The US-backed government in Kiev has placed Ukrainian military forces on the highest state of combat alert, while the Russian military has launched a series of military exercises in the area. Russia reported Friday that it had deployed its advanced S-400 air defense missile system to Crimea, and the country’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, indicated that Moscow might break diplomatic relations with Kiev. For its part, the US has indicated it is preparing further economic sanctions against Russia.

The Financial Times of London bluntly characterized the situation in an editorial, declaring, “Ukraine and Russia stand once again on the brink of open war.” The newspaper added that “the Ukraine situation remains the biggest threat to European peace since 1945.” In keeping with the bellicose policies of both the Obama administration and the British Tory government of Prime Minister Theresa May, the newspaper advocated a further escalation of threats against Russia.

The evidence presented by Moscow points to an utterly criminal operation staged by the US-backed regime in Kiev. Special operations squads made two attempts to cross into Crimea between August 6 and August 8, backed by supporting fire from Ukrainian regular forces. One member of the Russian security services and a Russian soldier were killed in the attacks.

The Ukrainian commandos carried improvised explosives, land mines, grenades and assault weapons. Russian state television broadcast part of the confession given by one of the operatives, who said they had aimed to blow up a ferry, an oil refinery and a chemical factory, as well as other targets.

For the past two-and-a-half years, the US and its NATO allies have invoked the fate of Crimea as the pretext for a steady buildup of military forces on Russia’s borders, supposedly to counter Moscow’s “aggression” and “expansion.” NATO battle groups consisting of 1,000 troops each are being deployed to Poland and the three Baltic Republics. They are backed by a newly created Rapid Reaction Force, which is capable of deploying 40,000 troops to the region in a matter of days. Continuous military exercises are being staged on Russia’s western flank.

The crisis in Ukraine and the developments in Crimea are the direct outcome not of Russian aggression, but of the US- and German-orchestrated coup to topple the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. Spearheaded by fascist militias, this operation, funded and directed by Washington and Berlin, brought to power an extreme right-wing, anti-Russian regime under the oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Mired in corruption and under constant threat from the neo-Nazi thugs who were the coup’s shock troops, it has presided over a deepening economic crisis and an ongoing war against the civilian population in the predominantly Russian-speaking Donbass region.

In the immediate wake of the coup, Crimea, whose population is predominantly Russian-speaking, voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to break with Ukraine and become part of Russia. Under the Soviet Union, the peninsula had been part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and was transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic only in 1954 in an administrative action meant to promote Soviet development as a whole.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union transformed the significance of this territorial transfer. The city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula had been the base for the Russian and then Soviet Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century. For Russia, the fate of Crimea is an existential question, bound up with its access to the Black Sea as well as the Mediterranean.

The present crisis is, in the final analysis, part of the terrible price being paid for the Stalinist bureaucracy’s final betrayal of the October 1917 Revolution, which established the workers’ state. The bureaucracy in 1991 liquidated the USSR and launched the process of capitalist restoration.

In seeking to draw Russia into an armed conflict over Crimea, US imperialism is carrying out a policy that is breathtaking in its recklessness. But then, this has been the nature of US foreign policy over the past quarter-century of unending and ever-expanding wars throughout the Middle East.

The confrontation being provoked over Crimea is not separate from these wars. It is bound up with US frustrations over the debacle of its regime-change operation in Syria, where Russian backing for the government of President Bashar al-Assad has succeeded in driving back the Al Qaeda-linked militias that served as Washington’s proxy forces on the ground. This crisis of American policy has been compounded by the failure of last month’s US-backed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the subsequent deepening of rapprochement between Ankara and Moscow.

The Russian government, representing a layer of criminal oligarchs who enriched themselves through the theft of state property following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, has no coherent policy to confront the escalating crisis. Elements within the government of Vladimir Putin want to avoid a confrontation and reach a deal with the West at all costs. But appeals to the US for reason fall on deaf ears.

Others invoke Great Russian chauvinism and the military force, including the stockpile of nuclear weapons, left over from the Soviet Union as the country’s defense against the Western drive to militarily encircle it and reduce it to the status of a semi-colony. Without any clear and integrated strategic orientation, much less the ability to appeal to the antiwar sentiment of the world’s peoples, the Putin regime stumbles from crisis to crisis, intensifying the war danger.

The profoundly dangerous developments in Crimea make clear the significance of the anti-Putin hysteria that has been whipped up in both the US election campaign, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s neo-McCarthyite attacks branding the Republicans’ fascistic candidate Donald Trump as a virtual Russian agent, and the hypocritical crusade to ban Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics. Both of these campaigns are designed to prepare public opinion for a military confrontation with Russia.

The US is gearing up to go to war with a nuclear-armed country, yet the issue is debated neither in the election campaign nor in Congress or the corporate media. No information is offered as to what the casualties would be in a war between Ukraine and Russia, much less the catastrophic implications of such a war drawing the US and NATO into a nuclear exchange with Moscow.

While the American ruling establishment has traditionally sought to hold off the initiation of new wars until after elections, to prevent the question of militarism from becoming an issue of national debate, given recent developments, it is far from clear that the war being prepared will wait until after November.

If there is a postponement of a new eruption of American militarism, it will be of only a short duration. The crisis of world capitalism and the irresolvable contradictions of the nation-state system are threatening to drag humanity into another world war. It can be halted only through the unification of the international working class in the struggle against war and for socialism.

Commonwealth Academic Fellowships for Developing Countries 2017

Brief Description: The UK Department for International Development (DFID) funds the 2017 Commonwealth Academic Fellowships for mid-career academics from developing countries to spend between three and ten months at a UK academic institution.

Application Deadline: 23.59 (GMT) on 15th November 2016

About the Award: These fellowships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.
You can apply for a Commonwealth Academic Fellowship to spend between three and ten months at any approved UK university or higher education institution. Applications must include a justification for the length of award requested.

The purpose of this fellowship is to provide early career academics with the opportunity to plan, conduct, or write research, to encourage applications from universities where capacity building is a priority, and to enhance knowledge, skills and contacts in Fellows’ given disciplines.

Eligibility: Early career academics (with no less than two years’ and no more than ten years’ postdoctoral academic experience) working in universities in developing Commonwealth countries.

To apply for these fellowships, you must:

• Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
• Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country
• Be employed by a university in a developing Commonwealth country
• Be available to start your fellowship in the UK on 1 October 2017. Any other start date will be permitted only in exceptional circumstances
• Have been awarded your PhD between two and ten years prior to October 2017
• Not have previously held a Commonwealth Academic Fellowship within five years

AND

• Have been awarded your PhD by a UK university while on a Commonwealth Scholarship

OR

• Be in the employment of your nominating university

Selection Criteria: Once received by the CSC, each candidate’s application is first considered by a member of the CSC’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned, and then by the CSC’s selection committee in competition with other candidates.

Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:

• Academic merit of the candidate
• Quality of the proposal
• Likely impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

Duration of Fellowship: You can apply for a Commonwealth Academic Fellowship to spend between three and ten months at any approved UK university or higher education institution. Applications must include a justification for the length of award requested.

Value of Fellowship: Each fellowship provides:

• Approved airfare from your home country to the UK and return at the end of your award (the CSC will not reimburse the cost of fares for dependants, nor usually the cost of journeys made before your award is finally confirmed)
• Research support grant, at a fixed rate according to your subject, payable to your host university
• Stipend (living allowance) at the rate of £1,594 per month, or £1,977 per month for those at universities in the London metropolitan area (rates quoted at 2016-2017 levels)
• Grant towards the cost of preparing reports and other written work
• Arrival allowance
• Study travel grant towards the costs of approved travel within the UK or overseas
• If you are widowed, divorced, or a single parent, child allowance of £448 per month for the first child, and £110 per month for the second and third child under the age of 16, if you are accompanied by your children and solely legally responsible for them. The level of financial support provided through family allowances is under review and subject to change in both eligibility and rate

How to apply: If you have previously held a Commonwealth PhD Scholarship funded by the CSC and meet the eligibility criteria for these fellowships, you can apply directly to the CSC.

Selected universities are also invited to nominate their own academic staff. If you are employed by one of these universities, you must apply via that institution in the first instance. You must check with your nominating university for their specific advice and rules for applying, and for their own closing date for applications. The deadline for nominating universities to submit nominations to the CSC is 13 December 2016.

You must make your application using the CSC’s Electronic Application System (EAS).

Your application must be endorsed by the Vice-Chancellor or Executive Head of the university that employs you. Unless you previously held a Commonwealth PhD Scholarship funded by the CSC, the CSC will not accept any applications that are not submitted via a nominating university.

All applications must be submitted via the EAS by 23.59 (GMT) on 15 November 2016 at the latest.

You are advised to complete and submit your application as soon as possible, as the EAS will be very busy in the days leading up to the application deadline.

You must provide the following supporting documentation to be received by the CSC by 6 January 2017 in order for your application to be eligible for consideration:

• References from at least two individuals (one should be from your PhD supervisor, except in exceptional circumstances)
• Certificate confirming the award of your PhD
• Supporting statement from your proposed supervisor in the UK

Visit the Fellowship Webpage for More Details

Sponsors: Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) and UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Commonwealth Medical Fellowships 2017 for Developing Countries

Brief description: The UK Department for International Development (DFID) funds the 2017 Commonwealth Medical Fellowships for mid-career medical staff from developing countries to spend between three and six months at an approved UK university hospital, learning or improving a specific clinical skill.

Application Deadline: 15th November, 2016

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): UK

About the Award: Commonwealth Medical Fellowships (Enhancing Clinical Skills) are offered for mid-career medical staff from developing Commonwealth countries. These fellowships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.

The purpose of this fellowship is to provide mid-career medics with the opportunity to enhance their clinical skills, and to have catalytic effects on their workplaces.

Offered Since: 1959

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Mid-career medics working in universities or affiliated teaching hospitals in developing Commonwealth countries.

To apply for these fellowships, candidate must:

• Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
• Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country
• Be employed by a hospital affiliated to a university
• Be nominated to the CSC by an eligible institution
• Be available to start your fellowship in the UK on 1 October 2017
• Have qualified as a doctor between 1 October 2007 and 30 September 2010, or before 1 October 2002
• Have met the English language requirements of the General Medical Council (GMC) by 15 May 2017

Selection Criteria: Each year, the CSC invites selected nominating bodies to submit a specific number of nominations. The deadline for nominating bodies to submit nominations to the CSC is 13 December 2016.

The CSC invites around three times more nominations than fellowships available – therefore, nominated candidates are not guaranteed to be awarded a fellowship.

Each nominated candidate’s application is first considered by a member of the CSC’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned, and then by the CSC’s selection committee in competition with other candidates.

Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:

• Academic merit of the candidate
• Quality of the plan of study
• Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

Duration of Fellowship:  Between three and six months

Value of Fellowship: Each fellowship provides:

• Approved airfare from your home country to the UK and return at the end of your award (the CSC will not reimburse the cost of fares for dependants, nor usually the cost of journeys made before your award is finally confirmed)
• Research support grant, payable to your host university hospital
• Stipend (living allowance) at the rate of £1,594 per month, or £1,977 per month for those at universities in the London metropolitan area (rates quoted at 2016-2017 levels)
• Reimbursement of the fee for a single English language test and the fee for General Medical Council (GMC) registration
• Arrival allowance  Study travel grant towards the costs of approved travel within the UK or overseas
• If you are widowed, divorced, or a single parent, child allowance of £448 per month for the first child, and £110 per month for the second and third child under the age of 16, if you are accompanied by your children and solely legally responsible for them. The level of financial support provided through family allowances is under review and subject to change in both eligibility and rate

How to Apply: You must apply to a nominating body in the first instance – the CSC does not accept direct applications for these fellowships.

Selected universities/medical colleges/university bodies are invited to nominate members of staff at affiliated hospitals. Click here for a list of nominating universities/medical colleges/university bodies

All applications must be made through your nominating body in your home country. Each nominating body is responsible for its own selection process. You must check with your nominating body for their specific advice and rules for applying, and for their own closing date for applications.

You must make your application using the CSC’s Electronic Application System (EAS).

Your application must be submitted to and endorsed by one of the approved nominating bodies listed above. The CSC will not accept any applications that are not submitted via the EAS to a nominating body in your home country.

All applications must be submitted by 23.59 (GMT) on 15 November 2016 at the latest.

You are advised to complete and submit your application as soon as possible, as the EAS will be very busy in the days leading up to the application deadline.

You must send the following supporting documentation to be received by the CSC by 6 January 2017 in order for your application to be eligible for consideration:

• References from at least two individuals

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) and UK Department for International Development (DFID).

105 Fully-funded UNODA Women Scholarship for Peace 2017

Brief description: The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at Vienna in partnership with 26 organisations is organising virtual and in-person training on Peace for women and is offering these women from the Global South limited scholarships to attend the in-person training.

Application Deadline: 31st August, 2016

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Group: Early career women from various fields from the Global South (Asia/Pacific, Africa and Middle East). It is not required to have previous knowledge of the issues of disarmament, non-proliferation and development.

To be taken at (country): Cairo, Egypt for African countries; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the Middle East.

Field of Study: This on-line and in-person course introduces participants to key conceptual and practical aspects of disarmament, non-proliferation and development-related issues, such as:

• Weapons of mass destruction
• Conventional weapons
• Disarmament and development
• Gender and disarmament
• Peace and development-related technologies
• Induction courses about entities contributing to disarmament, non-proliferation and development, such as the IAEA, CTBTO, OPCW, etc.

About the Award: The Women Scholarship for Peace: Global South is an initiative coordinated by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at Vienna in partnership with 26 organisations whose work contribute to disarmament, non-proliferation and development-related issues. A total of 140 scholarships are made available to facilitate participation of women from the Global South at the training courses.

• A Women Scholarship for Peace entails financial support for an early career woman from the Global South to take training courses about peace and development-related areas.
• A total of 140 scholarships are available, covering all costs of registration and participation at the training courses.
• Applications now open for: Asia/Pacific, Africa and Middle East (105 scholarships)

Type: Short courses/Training

What do participants need to follow the training courses?

On-line:

• a computer or mobile device, with audio
• reliable internet connection
• no special software is required

In-person:

• travel to the in-person location for 5 working days to attend workshops and training sessions

Eligibility: 

• 22-32 years at the time of application
• Only candidates residing in their country of eligible nationality at the time of application will be considered.
• Nationals of Africa, Asia/Pacific and Middle East countries and territories are eligible
• Candidate must be Female
• The training courses will be conducted in English only.
• A university degree or equivalent qualifications (which could for example be constituted of a degree obtained with minimum 2 years of higher education, combined with relevant professional experience).

Selection process: All applicants are required to fill in the online application form. Further information will be required at a later stage by the Selection Committee. Priority will be given to nationals from Official Development Assistance recipient countries and territories, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. Selected participants will be informed at the end of September 2016 and will be requested to confirm their participation within 2 working days.

Number of Awardees: 105 for women from Africa, Asia/Pacific and Middle East. 4o out of this number to come from Africa alone.

Value of Scholarship:

1. Dual learning modality: both in-person and on-line training.

2.  Participants will obtain a certificate from the UN mandated University for Peace (UPEACE). They have the possibility to with possibility to obtain a diploma carrying university credits.

3.  The training courses are developed directly by the DNP Education partners, delivering to students first-hand information from some major international organisations, under the coordination of the UNODA Office at Vienna and will be administered by UPEACE.

4.  140 fully funded scholarships available to cover the costs of tuition and travel, room and board to the in-person training location for 1 week

Duration of Scholarship: The scholarship is for 1 week in-person training. However, the duration for the entire programme is outlined thus:

• 1 month introductory on-line training (about 20 hours)
• 1 week in-person training (about 40 hours)
• 1 month advanced on-line training (about 20 hours)
• Optional: 1 final examination essay to obtain university credits (about 40 hours)

How to Apply: Visit Scholarship Webpage to apply

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)

Get 3 million naira for your Business – Apply for Diamond Bank’s Building Entrepreneurs 2016 (BET6) Business Grant

Do you have an innovative business that needs funding?

BET – Building Entrepreneurs Today – marks another great opportunity for entrepreneurs all over Nigeria in education, health and agriculture to present their businesses and innovation and have the opportunity of being selected as one of the top 50 businesses that will be provided with extensive training, mentoring and advisory by the Enterprise Development Centre with the top 5 businesses winning 3 Million naira each.

The first phase of the BET programme commenced in 2010 with Diamond Bank empowering 5 entrepreneur with growth capital of N3 million each after they emerged the top 5 from rigorous business training at the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan African University.

Selection Criteria

• Applicant must have a fully functional business (at least 3months in operations)
• Applicant MUST not have attended any entrepreneurial Management program at EDC.
• The business must have high growth potential.

How to Apply:

Create and upload your 60 secs video
Fill your BET online application and include your YouTube link
Once you have successfully submitted your entry, get all your friends to vote.
The top 300 entries will be contacted.

This year’s edition has been streamlined to 3 key sectors;

• Education,
• Healthcare and
• Agriculture.
• These three sectors are important for any growing economy and providing capacity training and financial support for entrepreneurs in these sectors will impact the economy significantly especially as the country takes significant steps to diversify the economy and grow the non-oil sector.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should Click Here to Apply

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details