Keeping Track Of U.S. Special Ops In Africa

Nick Turse

Sometimes the real news is in the details — or even in the discrepancies. Take, for instance, missions by America’s most elite troops in Africa.

It was September 2014. The sky was bright and clear and ice blue as the camouflage-clad men walked to the open door and tumbled out into nothing. One moment members of the U.S. 19th Special Forces Group and Moroccan paratroopers were flying high above North Africa in a rumbling C-130 aircraft; the next, they were silhouetted against the cloudless sky, translucent green parachutes filling with air, as they began to drift back to earth.

Those soldiers were taking part in a Joint Combined Exchange Training, or JCET mission, conducted under the auspices of Special Operations Command Forward-West Africa out of Camp Ram Ram, Morocco. It was the first time in several years that American and Moroccan troops had engaged in airborne training together, but just one of many JCET missions in 2014 that allowed America’s best-equipped, best-trained forces to hone their skills while forging ties with African allies.

A key way the U.S. military has deepened its involvement on the continent, JCETs have been carried out in an increasing number of African countries in recent years, according to documents recently obtained by TomDispatch via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).   When it comes to U.S. troops involved, foreign forces taking part, and U.S. tax dollars spent, the numbers have all been on the rise.  From 2013 to 2014, as those recently released files reveal, the price tag almost doubled, from $3.3 million to $6.2 million.

These increases offer a window into the rising importance of such missions by U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) around the world, including their increasingly conspicuous roles in conflicts from Iraq and Syria to Yemen and Afghanistan.  On any given day, 10,000 special operators are “deployed” or “forward stationed” conducting overseas missions “from behind-the-scenes information-gathering and partner-building to high-end dynamic strike operations” — so General Joseph Votel, at the time chief of Special Operations Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March.

Through such figures, the growing importance of the U.S. military’s pivot to Africa becomes apparent.  The number of elite forces deployed there, for example, has been steadily on the rise.  In 2006, the percentage of forward-stationed special operators on the continent hovered at 1%.  In 2014, that number hit 10% — a jump of 900% in less than a decade.  While JCETs make up only a small fraction of the hundreds of military-to-military engagements carried out by U.S. forces in Africa each year, they play an outsized role in the pivot there, allowing U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) to deepen its ties with a variety of African partners through the efforts of America’s most secretive and least scrutinized troops.

Exactly how many JCETs have been conducted in Africa is, however, murky at best.  The documents obtained from U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) via FOIA present one number; AFRICOM offers another.  It’s possible that no one actually knows the true figure.  One thing is certain, however, according to a study by RAND, America’s premier think tank for evaluating the military: the program consistently produces poor results.

The Gray Zone

According to SOCOM, Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) is, on average, “routinely engaged” in about half of Africa’s 54 countries, “working with and through our African counterparts.”  For his part, SOCAFRICA commander Brigadier General Donald Bolduc has said that his team of 1,700 personnel is “busy year-round in 22 partner nations.”

The 2014 SOCOM documents TomDispatch obtained note that, in addition to conducting JCETs, U.S. Special Operations forces took part in the annual Flintlock training exercise, involving 22 nations, and four named operations: Juniper Shield, a wide-ranging effort, formerly known as Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara, aimed at Northwest Africa; Juniper Micron, a U.S.-backed French and African mission to stabilize Mali (following a coup there by a U.S.-trained officer) that has been grinding on since 2013; Octave Shield, an even longer-suffering mission against militants in East Africa; and Observant Compass, a similarly long-running effort aimed at Joseph Kony’s murderous Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa (that recently retired AFRICOM chief General David Rodriguez derided as an expensive and strategically unimportant burden).

America’s most elite forces in Africa operate in what Bolduc calls “the gray zone, between traditional war and peace.”  In layman’s terms, its missions are expanding in the shadows on a continent the United States sees as increasingly insecure, unstable, and riven by terror groups.

“Operating in the Gray Zone requires SOCAFRICA to act in a supporting role to a host of other organizations,” he told the CTC Sentinel, the publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.  “One must understand, in Africa we are not the kinetic solution. If required, partner nations should do those sorts of operations. We do, however, build this capability, share information, provide advice and assistance, and accompany and support with enablers.”

Officially, the Joint Combined Exchange Training program isn’t so much about advice and assistance, support, or training partners, as it is about providing Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and other special operators with unique opportunities to hone their craft — specifically, unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense — overseas.  “The purpose of JCETs is to foster the training of U.S. SOF in mission-critical skills by training with partner-nation forces in their home countries,” according to SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw.  “The program enables U.S. SOF to build their capability to conduct operations with partner-nation military forces in an unfamiliar environment while developing their language skills, and familiarity with local geography and culture.”

Authorization for the JCET program does, however, allow for “incidental-training benefits” to “accrue to the foreign friendly forces at no cost.”  In reality, say experts, this is an overarching goal of JCETs.

Mission Impossible

U.S. Special Operations forces conducted 20 JCETs in Africa during 2014, according to the documents obtained from SOCOM.  These missions were carried out in 10 countries, up from eight a year earlier.  Four took place in both Kenya and Uganda; three in Chad; two in both Morocco and Tunisia; and one each in Djibouti, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.  “These events were invaluable training platforms that allowed U.S. SOF to train and sustain in both core and specialized skills, while working hand-in-hand with host nation forces,” say the files.  African forces involved numbered 2,770, up from 2,017 in 2013.  The number of U.S. special operators increased from 308 to 417.

Impressive as these figures are, the actual numbers may prove higher still.  AFRICOM claims it carried out not 20 but 26 JCETs in 2014, according to figures provided last year by spokesman Chuck Prichard.  Similar discrepancies can be found in official figures for previous years as well.  According to Prichard, special operators conducted “approximately nine JCETs across Africa in Fiscal Year 2012” and 18 in 2013.  Documents obtained by TomDispatch through the Freedom of Information Act from the office of the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs indicate, however, that there were 19 JCETs in 2012 and 20 in 2013.

AFRICOM ignored repeated requests for clarification about the discrepancies among these figures.  Multiple emails with subject lines indicating questions about JCETs sent to spokesperson Anthony Falvo, were “deleted without being read,” according to automatic return receipts.  Asked for an explanation of why AFRICOM and SOCOM can’t agree on the number of JCETs on the continent or if anyone actually knows the real number, Ken McGraw of Special Operations Command demurred.  “I don’t know the source of AFRICOM’s information,” he told TomDispatch.  “To the best of my knowledge, the information our office provided you was from official reporting.”

In fact, effective oversight of even some relatively pedestrian training efforts is often hard to come by, thanks to the military’s general lack of transparency and the opaque nature of assistance programs, says Colby Goodman, the director of the Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International Policy.  “And for JCETs and other Special Operations programs,” he says, “it’s even more difficult.”

Given that the two commands involved with the JCET program can’t even come to a consensus on the number of missions involved raises a simple but sweeping question: Does anyone really know what America’s most elite forces are doing in Africa?

Under the circumstances, it should surprise no one that a military that can’t keep a simple count of one type of mission on one continent would encounter difficulties with larger, more difficult tasks.

More Missions, More Problems

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March, the incoming commander of SOCOM, General Raymond Thomas III, laid out a sweeping vision of the “U.S. strategy in Africa.” It included “neutralizing Al-Shabaab in East Africa” and empowering Somalia’s government to do the same; “working with our African partners in North and West Africa to ensure they are willing and capable of containing the instability in Libya, degrading VEOs [Violent Extremist Organizations] in the Sahel-Maghreb region, and interdicting the flow of illicit material,” as well as working with African allies to contain Boko Haram and empowering Nigeria to suppress the terror group.

“SOF implements this strategy by being a part of [a] global team of national and international partners that conduct persistent, networked, and distributed full spectrum special operations in support of AFRICOM to promote stability and prosperity in Africa,” said Thomas.  “The SOCAFRICA end states are to neutralize Al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda Affiliates and Adherents in East Africa, contain Libyan instability and Violent Extremist Organizations and other Terrorist organizations in North and West Africa, and degrade Boko Haram.”

Bolduc, SOCAFRICA’s commander, suggested that the U.S. is well on its way toward achieving those goals.  “Our security assistance and advise-and-assist efforts in Africa have been effective as we continue to see gradual improvements in the overall security capabilities of African partner nations across the continent,” he said earlier this year.  “Clearly, there’s been more progress in certain areas versus others, but the trends I see with these forces are positive.”

Independent assessments suggest just the opposite.  Data from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland show, for example, that terror attacks have spiked over the last decade, roughly coinciding with AFRICOM’s establishment.  Before it became an independent command in 2007, there were fewer than 400 such incidents annually in sub-Saharan Africa.  Last year, the number reached nearly 2,000.

Similarly, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which uses media reports to monitor violence, shows that “conflict events” have jumped precipitously, from less than 4,000 to more than 15,000 per year, over the same span.

Earlier this year, the Defense Department’s own Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a research institution dedicated to the analysis of security issues on that continent, drew attention to skyrocketing terrorism fatalities there in recent years.  It also published a map of “Africa’s Active Militant Islamist Groups” that showed 22 organizations menacing the continent.  Bolduc himself has repeatedly cited the far higher figure of nearly 50 terrorist and “malign groups” now operating in Africa, up from just one major threat cited by AFRICOM commander Carter Ham in 2010.

In addition to troubling overall trends in Africa since the U.S. pivot there, JCETs have come under special criticism.  A 2013 report by the RAND Corporation on “building partner capacity” (BPC) cited several limitations of the program.  “U.S. forces cannot provide support to partner equipment under JCETs and cannot conduct dedicated training in advanced CT [counterterrorism] techniques (and hence cannot conduct planning for BPC),” it noted.  Ultimately the RAND study, which was prepared for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, found “moderately low” effectiveness for JCETs conducted in Africa.

In an email, SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw said he didn’t have the time to review the results of the RAND study and refused to offer comment on it.

Mum’s the Word

The U.S. military either can’t or won’t come to a consensus on how many missions have been carried out by its most elite troops in Africa.  Incredible as it might seem, given that we’re talking about an organization that notoriously can’t keep track of the money it spends or the weapons it sends to allied forces or even audit itself, it’s entirely possible that no one actually knows how many JCETs — and as a result how many special operations missions — have been carried out on the continent, where they occurred, or what transpired during them.

What is known is that a Pentagon-commissioned study by RAND, the largest American think tank and the military’s go-to source for analysis, found that the JCET program had yielded poor results.  The command whose troops carried out the training, however, may not even have been aware of the years-old study and won’t offer comment on it.  At the same time, the command responsible for the continent where the training takes place won’t even acknowledge questions about the program, let alone offer answers.

With independent analyses showing armed violence and terror attacks on the rise in Africa, the Pentagon’s center for the study of the continent showing terrorism fatalities spiking, and the commander of America’s most elite forces in Africa acknowledging a proliferation of terrorist groups there, perhaps it’s no surprise that the U.S. military isn’t interested in looking too closely at its efforts over the last decade.  Experts, however, say that keeping the American people in the dark is both dangerous for democracy and a threat to effective overseas U.S. military engagement.

“There is a serious lack of transparency on this type of training and that inhibits efforts for Congressional staff and the public to provide oversight,” says Colby Goodman of the Center for International Policy.  Repeatedly asked about Goodman’s assertion, AFRICOM’s Anthony Falvo offered his typical non-response: Emails to the spokesman seeking comment were “deleted without being read.”

The Himalayan Victims Of Climate Change

Zeenat Masoodi


On the second anniversary of the 2014 Kashmir flood – dubbed by some as the worst in a century – I write this short piece as a victim of climate change. I was in New Delhi when the flooding began. Having spoken to my parents on the very morning of the flood, I was told that the muddied Jhelum waters had slowly started entering the house. My parents had expected a few feet of the ground floor to be flooded. But the water continued to gush and stopped only after it had swallowed half of the first floor – more than twenty feet from the ground up. Fortunately, the house was sturdily built and able to withstand the deluge. Others were not so lucky. My mother later recalled how she saw the first house in the neighbourhood, barely a hundred metres away, collapse. Miraculously, the family survived by crouching on a small outcrop of concrete plinth. Several other families got buried in a watery grave when their houses gave way. A few days later, I flew to Srinagar and rescued my stranded parents in a boat from the still inundated house. It took a month for the water to recede completely. But parched brown layers remained in many nooks and crannies of the house for nearly a year afterwards. Gaping at my devastated house that September afternoon, realisation dawned that climate change was actually upon us and not some abstract horror of the distant future.

The Kashmir flood is symptomatic of debilitating changes in the wider Himalayan region. Extreme weather events are an increasingly recurrent phenomenon in the rich and diverse but ecologically fragile mountain belt. In another north Indian Himalayan state, Uttarakhand, heavy rains are now the norm rather than the exception. Droughts and floods with increased severity have become a yearly occurrence in other parts of South Asia as well. Sunita Narain, the highly respected Indian environmentalist, pins the blame of the extreme weather events on the globally warming climate. A 2010 report commissioned by the Government of India from the Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment predicts that rainfall in the Himalayas may increase by  50 % by 2030’s.

Coupled with erratic and increased rainfall, there is also evidence of melting glaciers and declining annual snowfall resulting in a lack of replenishment to the glaciers. Large glaciers such as Siachen and Kolahoi in Jammu & Kashmir and Gangotri in Uttarakhand are retreating much faster than that in the past. Overall the Himalayas have lost an estimated 13 % of glaciers in the past four decades and there are credible fears that most of the glaciers may melt away by the end of this century.

Scientists have exhorted the absolute need to cap temperature rise at 1.5 °C. This figure has been brought down from the earlier suggested cap of 2 °C. While the 0.5 °C difference might not be directly perceptible, it is likely to have an effect on agriculture, economy, food security, land use patterns, wildlife, the general quality of life and even gender equality. Restricting the temperature rise to 1.5 °C is crucial for sustaining the Himalayas. The Himalayan snow cover acts as a water reservoir for present and future generations. Its rivers are a major source of freshwater for millions of people. A changing Himalayan eco-system spells disaster for South Asia.

Sadly, the effects of global warming are already been felt. Glacial streams that have sustained generations of people in some remote villages in the Ladakh region have begun drying up forcing people to relocate. And surprisingly, fruit trees planted in hitherto cold deserts have borne fruit in the high Himalayan valley of Zanskar.

A significant chunk of population in several Indian Himalayan states in engaged in agriculture and horticulture. Floods, untimely or heavy rainfall and changes in seasonal duration interfere with crop cycles and yield. Apple production, a key economic activity in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, has also suffered year after year. Declined, diseased or failed yield in the traditionally cultivated lower hill ranges has forced cultivation to move to the upper reaches threatening deforestation of the natural forest cover.

For centuries, nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwal tribes have migrated through the many passes of the Himalayan range, both in summer and winter, in search of pastures for their goats and sheep. Warming temperatures have led to change in precipitation patterns and consequent disruption in the cycle of birth and rearing of new livestock as well as the migration months.

As the world’s fourth largest emitter, India must demonstrate its commitment to mitigate climate change by ratifying the Paris climate agreement as soon as possible. For people living in the Himalayan region, climate change is palpable. And if the Himalayas are threatened by catastrophic and irreversible change, the Indo-Gangetic plains below cannot remain immune.

An Honest And Simple Test For Racism And Casteism

Subramani Mani

I thought of giving the more provocative title of—Are you a racist or casteist, here is a simple test for you—but decided to go with the more sober title that you see. Most of us do not want to be painted with a racist or a casteist paint brush and would not express such brash opinions even if we harbor subtle traits in our inner minds. The problem is sometimes we might carry these ideas subconsciously which might suddenly find an outlet in casual conversations. Of course these feelings form a continuum or a spectrum and we cannot simply categorize someone as racist unless they blatantly express themselves proclaiming the intellectual superiority of one race over another.

A few years ago while I was a graduate student, to be more precise in 2002, I was watching the World Cup soccer game between Saudi Arabia and Germany. Coming from the southern part of India and specifically the state of Kerala I found that many of the Saudi players almost looked like folks from Kerala and I naturally developed some soft corner for the team and started rooting for them. Never mind that they got thrashed at the hands of the mighty Germans eight zero. Three of us in the class were interested in soccer—one was from Turkey, the other from South Korea and I was from India. Turkey and South Korea were playing in the Cup and India wasn’t. It is doubtful whether my country will play in a soccer World Cup during my life time, but that is another story. I told my Turkish friend that I was supporting the Saudi Team possibly because I found that many of the players resembled folks from my state in India. He thought for a few seconds and commented that it smacks of a racist approach—identifying with people who resemble you. I tried to rationalize my action by saying I was just being a cheer leader for a team in a game and that he should not read much into it. But when I ponder more over it I have to concede he has a point.

Much more recently, during the last month I was in San Francisco to celebrate the 90th birthday of my mom in the company of extended family and friends. As is typical in these types of gatherings I was chatting with a few of my friends when one of them brought up the marriage of his son who just started graduate study in US. This friend is a physician from India currently working in one of the Middle East countries. I interjected and said that chances are his son will find somebody from here and asked my friend to relax and take it easy. Suddenly my friend took off like this—a marriage is just not between two individuals, it is between two families. I said I am not so sure. And he continued along these lines—“born to an upper caste family I want him to marry from the community and that too from India. As a community we have superior intellect and we have evolved in a Darwinian way with higher intelligence.” I was literally shocked to hear this. I told him that there is no scientific basis for any claim of intellectual superiority for a race or caste. And I added that if any such differences were indeed found there could be two rational explanations—one, the test wasn’t fair and two, centuries of subjugation and denial of opportunities to advance have perhaps taken a toll. And I told him that whether he realizes it or not this was the exact argument that Nazis put forth in support of exterminating the Jewish people. My friend probably realized the inherent danger in his arguments when I pointed out that these types of ideas of intellectual superiority of one group of people actually led to genocides and history is replete with many examples. He became defensive and said that everybody should be considered equal before law and not discriminated against and that will solve all problems. He just wanted his son to marry a woman from his community!I then told him that as far I am concerned the choice of my son’s marriage is his to make and I will appreciate my son’s decision.

Nobody disputes that there should be laws against all sorts of discrimination. But that is just a start and there are two problems here—the laws are applied by people and if they hold views inimical to another group of people it will tend to be reflected in their actions, that is, the enforcement of laws will be biased and prejudiced. Secondly knowledge of the laws or education in general is no guarantee against harboring dangerous opinions and viewpoints and the best current example turns out to be this friend we encountered earlier.Yes, formal learning can teach us skills, make us scholars or somewhat broaden our horizon. But it also leaves large gaps, gaping deficiencies and black holes in our understanding of the world. These are most palpable in areas that can be broadly grouped under the wide umbrella of civil rights, human rights, democratic rights, sense of justice and injustice, sense of right and wrong and man’s role in society. This is precisely the reason for our incredulous look when we are confronted with appalling and abhorrent opinions, comments, observations or statements from folks we consider highly educated in a technical sense with advanced degrees from reputed universities. Yes, they can be racist, casteist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-minority in general and anti-progress. It is clear from this that all the courses, all the lectures, all the interactions with teachers and friendships with fellow students fail to provide a critical understanding of the world or the society we live in, fail to bridge the knowledgegap and fail to inculcate a value system based on higher ethical and moral principles.

As Nicholas Mirzoeff, a professor of media, culture and communication at New York University nicely put it recently, in the end it all boils down to this kernel, this essence: “When we see another person, do we see them as another human being, not just equal to us in law, but someone that we can listen to, learn from and fall in love with? Or not?”That is the real test of humanity. And I would add for starters—at least let our sons and daughters fall in love with whomever they choose; let us grow up and broaden our horizon to concede that and sleep well over that. It is not too late to chart that course and the world will be a better place if we can do it. ©

Why Brazil Under President Michel Temer Risks Becoming ‘Lebanized’

Andre Vltchek


Btaaboura is a tiny village in the mountains of northern Lebanon. It is connected to the main motorway by a narrow winding road. It could be just anywhere in the Christian part of this country: white stone houses, olive groves, wine grapes, bare hills.

Like elsewhere, the wealth is hardly backed by hard work. It is mainly sustained by remittances flowing from abroad. There are grotesquely luxurious cars everywhere – Audis, BMWs. And there is Western Union office on the main street. All doors are closed; nothing moves.

But this village is actually ‘unique’; different from all others in the area. At the entrance, there is a new park that shows the Brazilian and Lebanese flag fluttering side-by-side.

And across the street, a blue and white sign announces in Portuguese and Arabic: RUA MICHEL TAMER PRESIDENTE DO BRAZIL.

In front of the word PRESIDENTE, there is a patch of blue spray paint. Later, I am told that just a few months ago it read,VICE-PRESIDENTE, but when Michel Temer ousted the legitimate President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, the Mayor of Btaaboura personally covered what he considered to be ‘outdated’ – the word VICE (Temer took office on August 31, 2016 after Rousseff’s impeachment and removal).

We inquired at a small grocery store, and soon we found the ancestral home of Michel Temer, “Presidente do Brazil’. Nizar Tamer (the local spelling), his cousin, was sitting in the garden, waving at us, inviting us in.

“Come, sit down and rest. Have some figs and grapes: all local produce. You want to talk about Michel? But of course; why not?”

Soon, the seating area begins to fill with other relatives and friends. Fruits are served. Everybody is smiling, joking, happy.

My head is heavy. I hardly slept the night before, shooting endless Tweets, denouncing the coup, ending my long chain of messages with words of unconditional support for Dilma, and with one Tweet depicting a battered Brazilian flag, accompanied by the text: “Here is lesson one in essential Portuguese: FORA TEMER! = TEMER, GET OUT!”

“If only they knew,” I am thinking. And involuntarily, a bitter smile appears on my face.

Nizar Temer (L) © Andre Vltchek

“Yes, we are cousins,” Nizar, a civil engineer, grins. “His father left for Brazil, my father stayed in Lebanon…”

I am shown another house, right next door, where Michel Temer’s father was born. The house is around 200 years old, and it is totally dilapidated. But there are rumors now that it could soon be converted into a museum in honor of the ‘Presidente’.

“People in Lebanon are very proud of Michel,” explain his relatives. “When he came here last time, it was in 2011 or 2012, it was a huge event: some 100 security people, Brazilian embassy employees… Michel told us that he would raise economy in both Brazil and here.”

When Temer ‘became President’, the village organized a huge party, with fireworks, belly dancing, traditional music…

And what about the coup, the corruption? Do people here realize how he came to power?

“Here, nobody cares about politics. He is now perhaps facing some problems, but these are his problems. We support him no matter what, because we are Lebanese, and because his roots are in Lebanon.”

We eat figs and grapes. Then coffee is served.

Several women, miserable-looking Syrian refugees, are walking down the street, humble, scared, looking down at the road.

It is just two days before Dilma Rousseff addresses the Senate.

I could stay much longer, listening to slow-flowing stories about the man who is now helping the West to demolish socialist South America. But suddenly I feel nauseated; I want to vomit. Obviously, I had reached the limit, and we have to leave.

Will Brazil get ‘Lebanized’?

Lebanon is a total mess – a collapsed country with nothing social or socialist whatsoever. Money, ‘business’, flashing wealth is all that matters here.

While Maserati and Porsche sports cars navigate around the potholes of Beirut, misery and filth are swallowing suburban areas. Garbage collection periodically collapses, the country is burning diesel to generate electricity (blackouts and water shortages are endemic). Less than 40 percent of children attend public (state) schools. Medical care is mostly abandoned to the market. There is virtually no public transportation, no city planning, hardly any parks or green areas.

Those who have money throw it around, proudly and vulgarly. There are obnoxiously rich marinas, while the restaurants in the capital are at least twice more expensive than in Paris.

And there is plenty of cash here: from filthy mining and other investments that are plundering West Africa, from drugs being grown in the Bekaa Valley, from those billions of dollars in remittances, and of course from banking (money laundering). Lebanon produces very little. It consumes excessively.

Its reputation in the Middle East is terrible, mainly thanks to the racism and arrogance of many of its citizens.

Paradoxically, the only social force that stands above all religious and sectarian divides, is Hezbollah. But Hezbollah is closely linked to Syria and Iran’s government, and it fights ISIS in the mountains and across the border, as well as the several Israeli invasions and incursions into Lebanon. Predictably, the West put it on the terrorist list.

I keep imagining Brazil being governed by Mr. Temer and those like him. And I am frightened! What would happen to the majority of the people? Would they again become fully irrelevant and forgotten, like here in Lebanon?

Would the country function only in order to serve big business, the elites? Would the success of the entire nation be judged by the size of marinas and by the size of luxury cars in the parking lots of grossly overpriced restaurants and clubs?

Instead of being an example to the world, would Brazil get brutally Lebanized? The West would definitely like that, as it worked so hard to make it happen in the first place.

But in the name of Brazilian people, the rot, this deadly destruction has to be stopped.

Before leaving Btaaboura village, I stop my car for a few moments. And suddenly I see it: the beautiful and dear Brazilian flag is not waving in the wind. It is torn, dirty and looks like a rag. And there in front of the entrance to the park garbage lies strewn everywhere.

Fossil Fuels: At What Price?

John Avery

We often read comparisons between the prices of solar energy or wind energy with the prices of fossil fuels. It is encouraging to see that renewables are rapidly becoming competitive, and are often cheaper than coal or oil. In fact, if coal, oil and natural gas were given their correct prices renewables would be recognized as being incomparably cheaper than fossil fuels.

Externalities in pricing

The concept of externalities in pricing was first put forward by two British economists, Henry Sidgwick  (1838-1900) and Arthur C. Pigou (1877-1959). In his book “The Economics of Welfare!, published in 1920, Pigou further developed the concept of externalities in pricing which had earlier been introduced by Sidgwick. He proposed that a tax be introduced to correct pricing for the effect of externalities.

An externality is the cost or benefit of some unintended consequence of an economic action. For example, tobacco companies do not really wish for their customers to die from cancer, but a large percentage of them do, and the social costs of this slaughter ought to be reflected in the price of tobacco.

The true environmental costs of fossil fuel use are much greater than those of smoking. Unless we stop burning fossil fuels within one or two decades, we risk a situation where uncontrollable feedback loops will lead to catastrophic climate change regardless of human efforts to prevent the disaster. If we do not act very quickly to replace fossil fuels by renewables, we risk initiating a 6th geological extinction event. This might even be comparable to the Permian-Triasic extinction, during which 96% of all marine species and 70% of all vertebrates were lost forever.

http://eruditio.worldacademy.org/files/issue-5/reprints/ej-i5-need-for-renewable-energy-javery-reprint.pdf

Subsidies to fossil fuel companies

Far from being penalized for destroying the global environment and threatening the future of all life on earth, fossil fuel companies currently receive approximately $500,000,000,000 per year in subsidies (as estimated by the IEA). They use part of this vast sum to conduct advertising campaigns to convince the public that anthropogenic climate change is not real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_subsidies

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37231-evidence-suggests-big-oil-didn-t-just-borrow-big-tobacco-s-playbook-to-lie-about-climate-change-they-wrote-it

Betrayal by the mainstream media

If we turn on our television sets, almost nothing that we see informs us of the true predicament of human society and the biosphere. Programs like “Top Gear” promote automobile use. Programs depicting ordinary life show omnipresent motor cars and holiday air travel. There is nothing to remind us that we must rapidly renounce the use of fossil fuels.

A further betrayal by the mainstream media can be seen in their massive free coverage of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is an infamous climate change denier.

Despite the misinformation that we receive from the mainstream media, we must remember our urgent duty to leave fossil fuels in the ground. If threats to the future are taken into account, their price is prohibitive.

Some suggestions for further reading

https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2016/03/15/peace/

http://eruditio.worldacademy.org/issue-6/article/institutional-and-cultural-inertia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Cecil_Pigou

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigovian_tax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2015/08/24/the-need-for-a-new-economic-system-part-ix-a-new-society-a-new-social-contract-a-new-way-life/

Relentless Racism Never End

Maanvender Singh

The Indian e-commerce company Flipkart which was ridiculed last year for sending a sexist email to female customers has done it again, this time with an offensive advertisement that reinforces the stereotype of Gorkha/Chowkidar. The advertisements designed to promote the recently launched “Flipkart Assured” customer loyalty service had insensitively characterized Gorkhas in the role of security guard.  Though it is true that the advertisements in question were tailored to remove the objectionable content (khukri sign from the Nepali Topi and suitably changed the voices of character) after a court case was filed against the company by Gorkha Youth and Students Association (GYSA) and Hamro Swabhiman trust. But the way Indian company has chosen to put their defense is highly questionable. Responding “In a note to our Gorkha brother and sisters” the company has argued that it has unintentionally hurt the sentiment of Gorkhas and the creation of such character was based on the fact that some of the Gorkhas are employed as the security guard. Here is what they have to say:

 “A security guard is someone we trust with our life, Every day. We trust our security guards to let the right people into our homes. We trust them with our children’s safety when they’re outdoors. We trust them to ensure that we sleep safe every night. The campaign drew from these codes of assurance to drive the key proposition of Flipkart Assured. It is with this intent that the character which the child portrayed was chosen to play the part”.

Now, where it has been written that while charting out a security guard character it has always to be a Gorkha? Also when more acceptable alternatives are present why the creators of commercial chose to reinstall the same stereotype? Perhaps there is no real reason whatsoever (there was never one) except for the fact that people who have made this offensive advertisement could see the humor in this when there is none.  The company would have done better had they not utilized their knowledge about Gorkhas, which is based on narrow and frequently incorrect assumptions picked up from the Indian cinema.

More importantly, the company should not apologise for the fact that Gorkha community was offended by the advertisements- apologies for doing it in first place by acknowledging that such portrayal was unacceptable.

However, Flipkart advertisement is not the first to stereotype Gorkhas as baton- wielding watchmen, look at this other advertisement ‘Nepali Watchmen’ by Carwale.com that came out in 2015. It uses the same set of stereotype – a guard with slanted eyes in his incorrect Hindi saying Kyun dar gaya na Shabzee. Then, who can forget Amir Khan’s popular “Coca-Cola ad” that came in 2003, where the Indian actor pulled off one of the worst stereotypes of Gorkhas ever done in the industry. Clearly, these highly unimaginative ads represent a dull reproduction of approaches which have now become a common feature of Indian advertisement.

In this whole episode what is most ironic is that when Coldplay made a music video ‘Hym for the Weekend’, many in India took to social media and accused the British rock band of reinforcing stereotype; rightly so. For days the narrative of victimhood was played over the various media portals. But in this case, when an Indian company has produced an objectionable advertisement mainstream media has failed to raise any questions, showing no interest in reporting about the issue.

Isn’t portraying Nepali people like this a form of racism and needs to be ridiculed. So much for sensitivity to the centuries of oppression.

Nepali Restricted to Clichéd Occupations

The Nepalese much like any other community makes living in a wide array of professions, but thanks to popular culture their portrayal is restricted to some clichéd occupation such as watchmen, domestic help, Gorkha Army and sex workers. Their presence in other spheres has been never seen and acknowledged.

The Indian cinema is the biggest culprit which has portrayed Nepalese/Gorkhali as either the Khukri- wielding Gorkha soldiers or the Baton- wielding guards. To start with the movie Kasauti (1974), where Pran played the role of dumb- witted Gorkha to Paresh Rawal’s portrayal of a loyal and suspicious guard in Haseena Maan Jayegi (1999) and an ignoramus Chunkey Pandey from Apna Sapna Money Money (2007). In all these movies, mentioned above Indian cinema creates a largely imaginary picture of witless Gorkha, used as a prop to evoke humor. They speak in an unrealistic Hindi accent and there vocabulary to address other people is limited to two words- Memsaab andSahabzee. Then there are another set of movies like Tango Charlie (2005) and LOC Kargil (2003), where Gorkhas are portrayed as savage, merciless and loyal officers. In fact, in LOC Kargil there is a scene where the commanding officer is giving a speech before the Kargil war and makes a reference to Hitler’s statement about Gorkhas that “I can have the Gurkha troops… I can conquer the entire world.” This personification of Gorkhas as the lethal, loyal and obedient race is a colonial construct and some Nepalese/Gorkhali themselves propagate this gullibly and walk into the trap of colonial stereotypes about the martial recruits.

In this highly restrictive portrayal of Gorkhas in Indian cinema, there are only two narratives- Gorkhas as the loyal guard or brave soldiers that exalt obedience as the highest virtue of Gorkha community. Further, there is a common thread in all these characters that is the presentation of Nepali community stitched around their nationality.  So Nepalese of Nepal and Nepali-speaking people of India are lumped together in one nationality with no clue that there is an identity of Indian Nepalese that is separate from the Nepalese of Nepal.

The mainstream media is not too far behind in installing such stereotypes. To get a perspective, look at some of these stories that appeared in leading Indian dailies. DNA carried a story in 2013 From ‘Bahadur’ to Security Private Limited about a Nepali man who started his career as watchmen but now owns a security agency. Likewise in June 2016, New Indian Express carried a story How Nepalis came to be the world’s security guard. It makes an extremely stereotypic effort to tell you the various reasons why Gorkhas are preferred all over the world for the job of security guard.

The most offensive of all them is the article that appeared on April 2016 in The Hindu with the headline The Gorkha and his Whistle . The writer, who is totally ignorant about the life of a watchman, makes an attempt to understand why that the Gorkha who works as a night watchman in her locality is almost invisible. She writes:

Where does he (Gorkha) live? Does he go into hibernation for the rest of the month? What does he do? Is it the same gurkha who goes to houses at the other end of the city or are there many gurkhas? Do they all live in a secluded colony, far from the disease of modern life and people’s prying eyes, like Matthew Arnold’s Scholar Gypsy ?

The fact is that stereotypes are so internalized that they go well beyond the confines of media, television, and cinema. Not to be surprised if they are officially sanctioned and state-adopted. For instance in 2014 Tamil Nadu state government notifications shamelessly advertised for the post of Gorkha- Watchman. So does the state of Andhra Pradesh which has enlisted various categories for the post of guards such as watchmen, chowkidar, gatekeeper, Night Guard, and Gorkha Watchmen.

But who is to blame when even the Indian Prime Minister portrayed Gorkhas as the loyal security guards of India. This is what he has said in 2014 while campaigning for the party candidate S.S Ahluwalia (currently BJP MP from Darjeeling district) in Siliguri:

 “Gorkha work as security guards across the country, people may not trust the police, but they trust the Gorkhalis, it is not a small job, it is huge respect, when someone can go off to sleep with crores of goods lying around, just because a Gorkhali is guarding it, this is not a small respect, this is huge honour, to be trusted, you have earned this trust, you have earned this respect”..

These limited and unbalanced portrayals of Nepali as a loyal subject is constructed by the people who have little understanding of Nepalese/Gorkhali themselves- and little foresight how such images impact the Nepali-speaking population in India.

Warming of Earth proceeding at unprecedented pace

Bryan Dyne

Temperature records from ice cores and sediments analyzed by NASA show that the current rate of global warming is increasing and is more rapid than at any point in the past millennium. This trend makes it “very unlikely” that the average global temperature will stay within 2 degrees Celsius above the 19th century average.

One of the main reasons global warming is accelerating is that the whole system suffers from positive feedback—for example, as warming occurs, Arctic ice melts, causing more sunlight and heat to be absorbed by the Arctic ocean, since water is less reflective than ice, meaning more warming, ad infinitum.

Source: Goddard Insititue for Space Studies

Another potential positive feedback mechanism is the melting of permafrost (ground frozen throughout the year) in places like Siberia, where it is estimated that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius could release 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere over a span of years, something which takes industrial activity decades to do.

Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of its leading climate scientists, commented, “In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory. It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination” (of temperatures).

One can also compare the last few decades of global warming to the most recent years. When the first indications of global warming were detected in 1977, it was predicted that average global temperatures would rise 2 degrees Celsius per century. In the past five years, the rate of global warming has been about five times that amount.

These rates are also much higher than what has occurred in Earth’s past when the planet has moved out of ice ages. During those periods, average temperatures typically rose 4-7 degrees Celsius over a span of 5,000 years. The past century’s rise in global temperatures has been 10 times faster than the most recent exit from an ice age. Current data suggests that the coming century’s rate of warming will be at least 20 times this rate.

A comparison of measured temperature data over the past 136 years and temperature estimates for the past 1500. CREDIT: NASA Earth Observatory

Such estimates are in line with the latest month-by-month temperature data from both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The thousands of worldwide meteorological stations, ship- and buoy-based instruments and Antarctic research stations all show that July 2016 was the hottest month ever in the 136 years of modern temperature recordings. It is also the tenth consecutive month of monthly high-temperature records (i.e., the hottest January ever, followed by the hottest February, etc.), the first of which was October 2015. If this trend continues, which it likely will, 2016 will be the hottest year yet recorded.

Some of these measurements are the effect of an abnormally long “El Niño,” a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that has taken place for at least 100,000 years. However, climate models of the most recent El Niño, which ended in May, show that even without the increase of temperatures caused, 2015 and 2016 would still be among the hottest years ever recorded.

Other metrics are available to provide insight into what Earth will look like if global temperatures continue current trends. Research done by the National Science Foundation from 2012 looked at the late Pliocene epoch, 2.7 million to 3.2 million years ago, the last time the carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures were as high as they will soon be. It was an attempt to understand the sensitivity of Earth’s glaciers to even small changes in global temperatures.

The research found that over the course of that period, sea levels were raised by 12 to 21 meters as a result of melted land ice from areas such as Antarctica. That is, Earth’s natural state with carbon dioxide at modern levels is one with sea levels possibly 21 meters higher than they are now and we are living through the process of the ecosystem approaching that state.

A world map highlighting areas (in red) that will be underwater if sea levels rise only 6 meters. CREDIT: NASA

A primary difference, however, is the rate of change of temperatures between the two periods. The Pilocene epoch was one that lasted half a million years. The current era of increasing global temperatures and carbon dioxide levels has lasted half a century, raising the probability of a much quicker, more major shift in the world’s ecosystem.

Most of these potential shifts are potentially catastrophic: oceanic acidification leading to the mass death of coral and plankton, the basis of the Earth’s food chain; the total collapse of the tropical rainforests; an ice sheet the size of Greenland or Antarctica falling into the ocean, causing a near instantaneous rise in worldwide sea levels of at least five meters and flooding one third of the world’s population.

Coral reefs are already suffering the longest global die-off on record, which has so far lasted 28 months and is not expected to end until at least 2017. It is estimated that at least 16 percent of the world’s reefs will die as a result.

Short-term effects of climate change have already been felt. Droughts in 1982 and 1997 were more intense than they would have been without climate change. Dry, hot weather in 1998, 2005 and 2007 almost set fire to the Amazon rainforests on a massive scale. This year, global warming has contributed to record flooding in South America, flooding and fatal landslides in Ethiopia, wildfires in Canada, droughts in Africa, Thailand and Venezuela, and a general increase in the intensity and destructiveness of this year’s Pacific tropical cyclones and Atlantic hurricanes. These are only a handful of the challenges to human well-being and even survival that have occurred in the past several years, attributable to global warming.

Colombian peace deal paves way for fiscal austerity

Neil Hardt

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced Friday that the government and the FARC guerrilla group would formally sign a peace treaty on September 26. The deal was agreed upon in principle at the end of August and will be the subject of a national plebiscite scheduled for October 2. If approved, the treaty will formally bring to a close a 52-year civil war that has left over 200,000 dead and millions displaced.

Polls show the treaty will likely be approved by voters, who are justifiably eager for an end to the conflict. However, if ever approved and implemented, the peace deal will solve none of the problems plaguing Colombian society. Under the deal, the FARC will transform itself into a new bourgeois political party, while it and the government agree to forgive one another for the crimes they have committed against impoverished Colombian workers and peasants. It has been heralded by international banks and corporations as necessary to pave the way for further attacks on the Colombian masses.

The armed resistance of the FARC began in the aftermath of the Colombian Civil War of 1948-54. In the decades that followed, broad sections of the Colombian countryside were transformed into war zones as pro-government death squads terrorized the impoverished peasants with impunity. The Colombian government, with the support of US imperialism, has continued to cover up its role in carrying out mass murder, despite the fact that up to 80 percent of those killed in the conflict are victims of the government and its paramilitaries.

By the 1980s, the FARC had developed into a criminal syndicate whose right-wing political character found expression in its involvement in the drug trade and in its killing and extorting of innocent workers and peasants.

According to the terms of the deal, both the government and the FARC will be granted near-blanket amnesty for decades of extortion, kidnapping, murder, and torture. The FARC will be guaranteed a minimum of ten seats in the legislature if it turns in its weapons at a series of UN-monitored drop-off sites. Child soldiers will also be allowed to return from rural areas held by the FARC, and the government has promised a subsidy program aimed at reducing cocaine production.

President Santos has declared that the peace agreement represents the opening of a “new era” for Colombia. The head of the FARC negotiating team described the talks that led to the deal as “the most beautiful of all the battles” fought by the guerrilla movement.

In reality, the purpose of the deal is to pave the way for renewed attacks on the Colombian working class by international finance capital. According to an August 26 press release by the Fitch Ratings agency, “the agreement highlights the importance of rebuilding Colombia’s revenue base in order to accommodate required investment without jeopardizing fiscal consolidation.”

Fitch explained that transnational corporations are hopeful because “investment and growth could increase over the medium term, as areas that were formerly in conflict zones attract investment in mining and agriculture.” But most importantly, international finance capital views the agreement as necessary to cut government spending and impose a new tax reform plan aimed at reducing the deficit.

In July, Fitch reduced Colombia’s rating outlook to negative, “reflecting a large current account deficit, rising external indebtedness and a high government debt burden relative to rating peers.” The rating cut followed a similar move by Standard & Poor’s in February, which cited the drop in the price of oil as a major contributor to the government deficit.

Colombia’s creditors view the finalization of the peace treaty as necessary to minimize social opposition to the fiscal reform program. The Fitch statement made it clear: “Gathering support for the peace process and tax reform, while complementary, present political challenges for the government, especially given the tight legislative schedule.”

The most cynical role in this process has been played by the FARC. Founded in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1948-54 by a popular front of Stalinists and left-liberals, the FARC was idolized for decades by Maoists, Pabloites, Guevarists, and Chavistas as a “revolutionary” and “socialist” armed force.

“Today we bring to the Colombian people the transformative power that we have constructed in more than a half-century of rebellion,” FARC chief negotiator Ivan Marquez told the press on August 24, after news of the deal was announced.

In reality, the FARC’s right-wing character is exemplified in its signing a deal with the government that paves the way for renewed austerity in exchange for a government-guaranteed legislative presence.

Thousands of teachers strike as Costa Rican unions suppress struggle

Andrea Lobo

Last Thursday in San José, Costa Rica, about 5,000 workers and youth marched to the Legislative Assembly as part of a strike convoked by the Association of Teachers of Secondary Schools (APSE) union against wage stagnation, regressive taxes and legislative bills threatening to cut their pensions and other benefits that Congress began discussing that same day.

APSE has been the most active union protesting these historic attacks against workers, having brought relatively large contingents out on strikes in recent years, as well as in April and June of this year. The union was excluded from a collective agreement with the Ministry of Education (MEP) as reprisal for the strike in June.

The diminishing participation of workers in these demonstrations reflects their growing conviction that neither the union leaderships nor the political parties working with them are defending their interests, but are instead working behind their backs towards a deal with the government.

This policy has been developed through decades of betrayals against workers, which have led to a sharp fall in membership for APSE and other unions. While in 1984 the unionization rate reached a peak of 15 percent, today it has fallen to about 9 percent.

Carlos, a retired electrician who worked 40 years for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), joined the demonstration to oppose the attacks of the government. He complained that “unions just take money from workers”. The union that he was part of, the National Association of Workers in Energy, Telecommunications and Related Sectors (ANTTEA) of the Patria Justa union coalition, allowed his pension to be reduced to less than half of his salary, while it “has taken money [bribes] from more than one.”

Speaking about the cost of his sons’ and daughters’ education, Carlos commented, “sometimes we don’t eat meat to buy books.”

Yamileth and Santiago

Yamileth, a school custodian for 21 years and a member of APSE, marched with her grandson Santiago. “We can only defend our work benefits out here on the street, not with negotiations. We are sending an ultimatum [to the government] today,” she said.

She was angry “that they want to increase our retirement age and now they are pushing through dual education, which will turn 14-year-old students into free labor for companies.” She also expressed how outrageous it was that public employees will only receive a 10 colones increase for every 100,000 colones (about $US180) in their salaries, or 0.01 percent.

The current historic assault is directed against not only public sector workers, but also the social conditions of all workers and youth. The increase in the regressive sales tax from 10 to 13 percent and the austerity measures in health and education during the Rafael Ángel Calderón PUSC (Social Christian Unity Party) administration (1990-1994) and the unity government of José María Figueres and Calderón (1994-1998)—comparable to the 15 percent added-value tax and social cuts being prepared today—led to massive growth in unemployment, poverty and the informal sector, as well as rising school desertion and the reappearance of formerly eradicated illnesses like dengue.

The Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) administration of incumbent President Luis Guillermo Solís and the Costa Rican ruling class as a whole are preparing for an intensification of the class struggle as the breakdown of social conditions intensifies. Already, the employment rate has fallen sharply for the past two years, reaching an abysmal 51.8 percent in the second trimester of 2016, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), making it the lowest in Latin America by a significant margin, according to Economic Commission for Latin America data.

Fewer people are seeking jobs, thus keeping the unemployment rate steady at around 9.5 percent, still one of the highest in the region, while real wages have fallen 3 percent and the poverty rate and informality have climbed steadily since 2010.

According to the central government budget for 2017, 44 percent of the budgetary increase from 2016 will be for debt payments. Accumulated debt is expected to climb to 49 percent of GDP next year. This vast accumulation of public debt with currently low interest rates represents a deliberately reckless situation that could make social services collapse. An estimated 67 percent of the 2017 education budget will be financed through debt.

The Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration are holding up on further financing until the value-added tax gets implemented, placing further stress on state expenditures.

If the new tax doesn’t get approved, President Solís insisted on Thursday, “we are going to make the Police Force compete for the resources of public education, public health, housing, and everything else.”

Another measure by the ruling elite is to tighten up the “tripartite agreement” between employers, the State and the unions, as stressed by the new minister of labor, Carlos Quesada, appointed in May.

In June 2015, the Patria Justa union coalition signed an agreement with the leaderships of pseudo-left Frente Amplio party and the ruling PAC, called “Patriotic Agenda for the Common Good,” which explicitly supports the current reactionary agenda of the government: “To carry out the political and civic control needed to guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness in the execution of public institution budgets, without any surplus,” the statement declares.

Ottón Solís, the founder of the ruling PAC, and Oscar Arias, the former PLN (National Liberation Party) president, have been working together to form a “national unity government” for the 2018 elections, which, according to Solís in an interview on Saturday with the far-right newspaper La Nación, enjoys the support “of a majority of the PLN directory. Weeks ago, Frente Ampio [and] the PUSC responded positively.” This project would count on either the explicit support or implicit obedience of the union bureaucracies.

Frente Amplio also agreed to negotiate with Arias for this partnership, something which would have been unheard of last year, when the party still opposed the right-wing agenda that they now support in Congress.

The WSWS also spoke to Félix, a music high school teacher, who insisted that voting for Frente Amplio and its presidential candidate, José María Villalta, “is not going to solve anything, just like [the current president] Luis Guillermo, they are just taking advantage of us.” When asked whether the unions were doing what was necessary to defend their interests, he replied that they are not and commented on how the situation is getting direr for workers. He added, “But watch out for some Comandante Zero [the Sandinista militia leader], a Castro or another guerrilla. They won’t help either.”

While one of the other two large teacher unions, the Education Workers Union (SEC), participated in the strike last week, the National Association of Teachers (ANDE), which participates in the Costa Rican Social and Union Block (BUSSCO), did not support this week’s strike nor the one in June.

The divisions between the unions, Félix explained, are due to the fact that all other unions focus on negotiating with the government officials, but at least APSE is “still more interested in supporting workers.”

However, APSE is financially and historically tied to the government and to the less active ANDE. Financially, the Ministry of Education (MEP) is the one responsible for extracting the 1 percent fee from teachers’ salaries that go to the education unions, and the pension and life insurance funds are administered by ANDE. Historically, APSE split from ANDE in 1955 as an “apolitical” union and was given access to MEP buildings and vehicles in its initial stages. Ultimately, the APSE leaders’ main interest is to continue having the support of the government so as to secure administrative posts, including a seat in the Superior Education Council, the commission on salaries, and others.

Both members of APSE, Yamileth and Félix, responded that there had not been any real efforts by APSE to make the struggle international, fighting for democratic rights and better living conditions internationally and appealing for the support of teachers and other workers abroad. The leaderships of both APSE and ANDE only make empty statements of support for broad groups like the teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, or, in the case of ANDE, support for “left-turn” governments in Latin America.

The union leadership, including the reformist currents within the unions led by smaller nominally left parties, are aware of the implication of the intensification of the class struggle.

Martha Rodriguez, secretary general of the National Union of Workers of the Social Security Department (UNDECA) a leading member of BUSSCO, recently explained, “We are talking about a reduction in income for public workers that will affect unemployment, generate a reduction in the ability to acquire goods and services.” She concluded, “Services will deteriorate and that is how privatization would get justified.”

In spite of this grave warning, the UNDECA, ANDE and other leaderships in BUSSCO have insisted on helplessly appealing to the deaf ears of the parties in Congress. On July 21, they interrupted a session of the Legislative Assembly to yell from the visitors’ gallery and show placards with personal insults aimed at the politicians. These are the sort of actions that Gilberto Cascante, the president of ANDE, has been trying to pass off as the realization of the “indefinite strike” that workers are demanding, which he said “had already begun” back in June.

The only way for teachers and other workers in Costa Rica to protect themselves is to seek political independence from bourgeois parties and union bureaucracies, whose class composition has been predominantly petty bourgeois and which have historically defended bourgeois rule and capitalist exploitation. These forces’ “left” statements are aimed at politically disarming the most militant workers in order to suppress the class struggle and facilitate the assault against the living standards and democratic rights of all workers and youth in the service of the Costa Rican ruling elite and US imperialism.