Typhoons And This Week’s Typhoon of Sex Abuse

Arshad M Khan

Hurricane Florence downgraded to Category 1 but still huge in moisture content will continue to pour rain on Georgia and the Carolinas over the weekend.  At the same time, Typhoon Mangkhut in the Pacific will be ravaging the Philippines, Hong Kong and China.  It is larger and much more powerful, a category 5, and the Philippines, which lacks the infrastructure and resources of the others, is expected to suffer the worst.

Meanwhile another typhoon of sorts is hitting the U.S.   Powerful men topple as women shame them through the #MeToo movement.  The latest is Leslie Moonves the head of CBS one of the major U.S. TV networks.  Apparently, Mr. Moonves had the habit of forcing himself, his attentions and his anatomy on vulnerable young females working for him.

This particular typhoon has now enveloped Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the new Supreme Court nominee who would have shifted the court decisively to the right.  A letter has appeared and forwarded to the FBI for further investigation.  It recalls a high school incident over which the other party wishes to remain anonymous.  Is this the beginning of the end for Mr. Kavanaugh?  One never knows.  Justice Thomas survived some very troubling appalling allegations by Anita Hill.  She has been chosen now to lead the recently formed Hollywood Commission on Harassment.

Ants in the pants or in this case the cassock are in the news once again.  In Germany, some 1670 Catholic priests committed some form of sex abuse on 3677 minors between 1940 and 2014; so finds a study commissioned by the church.  One in six cases involved rape.  The authors noted the figures and the extent of the abuse may be higher as some records had been “destroyed or manipulated”.  The work was extensive enough that three German universities participated in the study, which examined 38,000 documents obtained from 27 German dioceses.

The state of Kerala, home to one of the largest Christian populations in India, has seen protests by nuns and their supporters over the rape of a nun by a bishop.  The nun lodged a formal complaint with the police on June 27 claiming abuse by Bishop Franco Mullackal over two years.  So far no action by the police, who pushed from both sides probably wish the whole issue would disappear.  As she made the complaint after the bishop went to the police claiming she and five other nuns were harassing and blackmailing him, some politicians have questioned her account.

Yet former nuns have previously raised the question of a climate of sexual abuse in the Kerala Catholic Church.  Babies born from such liaisons are often murdered says former Sister Mary who now runs an orphanage.  She saved one such child from the mother, a nun, who was trying to kill the newborn by drowning it in a toilet tank.  “That boy is a student who lives the life of an orphan,” she adds.  She thinks priests should be allowed to marry.  Then there is another former nun, Sister Jesme, who wrote openly about sexual abuse in her book, “Amen:  The Autobiography of a Nun” after she left her Catholic order.  She has severed all ties.

Add the abuse of boys by a charismatic priest in Chile, and we have news stories covering four continents just this week alone.  That the Catholic church needs an overhaul, at least in this respect, must be clear to the pope and his advisers.  Of course medical science now allows chemical castration, a reversible process.  And then there is marriage as the good sister suggests.

 The sexual exploitation of the weak and vulnerable by the powerful transgresses religious and secular boundaries.  Not for nothing is ‘the director’s couch’ a metaphor.  The fault in the end lies with society, and a pervasive ‘wink and nod’ corporate culture that often still prevails.

Egyptian Junta continues mass executions spree

Abdus Sattar Ghazali

The US-client regime of Field Marshal Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi continues mass executions spree as an Egyptian kangaroo court sentences another 75 anti-government people to death.

According to Reuters report, an Egyptian kangaroo court sentenced 75 people to death on Saturday (Sept 8) including prominent opposition leaders Essam al-Erian and Mohamed Beltagi over a 2013 sit-in which ended with killing hundreds of protesters by the Egyptian security force.

The sentencing, which included jail terms for more than 600 others, concluded a mass trial of people accused of murder and inciting violence during the pro-Muslim Brotherhood protest at Rabaa Adawiya square in Cairo in 2013.

Rights groups say more than 800 protesters died in the single most deadly incident during the unrest that followed Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising against longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

Death sentences have been handed down to hundreds of Al-Sisi’s political opponents on charges such as belonging to an illegal organization or planning to carry out an attack.

The protest occurred weeks after General Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi (who later assumed the title of Field Marshal) ousted Egypt’s first freely elected head of state, president Mohamed Mursi.

“We condemn today’s verdict in the strongest terms,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “The fact that not a single police officer has been brought to account.. shows what a mockery of justice this trial was.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both described the situation in Egypt as the worst human rights crisis in the country in decades, with the state systematically using torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to silence political dissent.

Last year, the Egyptian government pledged to take action against Human Rights Watch after it released a damning report on state torture.

Two parliamentary groups in Algeria have called for official national and international action to halt mass executions against activists, human rights workers and political figures in Egypt.

Movement of Society for Peace; the largest political party in Algeria and Union for Development, Justice and Building said in a joint statement that lawmakers “are following with great concern the developments of the human rights situation in the Arab world; the most recent of which was the issuance of mass death sentences against political, human rights and community symbols”.

The signatories described the executions as “a flagrant attack on the right to life”, which is politically motivated “amounting to genocide or mass murder according to international law”.

UN Human Rights chief urges Egypt to overturn mass death sentences

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has urged Egypt’s appeals court to overturn mass death sentences handed down by a lower court after what she said was an “unfair trial”.

The former Chilean president, who took office as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier this month, criticised a law giving immunity from future prosecution to senior military officers.

An Egyptian court on Saturday delivered death sentences to 75 people, including prominent Islamist leaders Essam al-Erian and Mohamed Beltagi, over a 2013 sit-in that ended with security forces killing hundreds of protesters.If carried out, the sentences “would represent a gross and irreversible miscarriage of justice”, Bachelet said in a statement.

Defendants were denied the right to individual lawyers and to present evidence, while “the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to prove individual guilt”, she said.

“I hope that the Egyptian Court of Appeal will review this verdict and ensure that international standards of justice are respected by setting it aside,” Bachelet said.

Bachelet decried the “lethal military crackdown” saying it had led to the killing of “up to 900 mostly unarmed protesters by members of the Egyptian security forces”. The government later claimed that many protesters had been armed and that a number of police were killed, she added.

“Despite the huge death toll, no State security personnel have ever been charged in relation to the so-called ‘Rabaa massacre’,” Bachelet said.

Tellingly, a law was passed in July gives Field Marshal al-Sisi the right to name officers who are eligible for immunity from investigation of offences alleged to have been committed while Egypt’s constitution was suspended between President Mursi’s overthrow on July 3, 2013, and the reconvening of parliament on January 10, 2016.

Not surprisingly, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authorised the release of $1.2 billion in military aid to Egypt, overriding previous human rights concerns that had held up funding.

“Strengthened security cooperation with Egypt is important to US national security. Secretary Pompeo determined that continuing with the obligation and expenditure of these foreign military financing (FMF), funds is important to strengthening our security cooperation with Egypt,” the State Department said in a statement.

Australian government calls royal commission into aged care but numerous reports have already exposed major crisis

Clare Bruderlin

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced yesterday that his government will hold a royal commission into the aged care sector.

The decision is a desperate attempt to win support from older voters in the lead up to the next federal election and divert attention from the impact of ongoing cuts and privatisation of the industry by Liberal-National and Labor governments. The royal commission will not complete its investigation or release its findings until after the scheduled election.

Numerous reports, as well as two federal parliamentary inquiries in the past two years alone, have revealed that neglect, mistreatment and shocking conditions are now an everyday reality for an increasing number of the 259,000 people currently living in residential aged care.

Privatisation of Australia’s aged care sector has led to staff reductions and casualisation, the rationing of basic necessities to residents and a precipitous decline in standards.

Recent GEN Aged Care Data reports by the Australian government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reveal that the number of aged care facilities in Australia managed by the government fell rapidly from 14 percent in 2015-16 to just 9 percent in 2016–17. The number of privately managed aged care facilities rose from 21 percent in 2015–16 to 33 percent in 2016–17. A significant portion (58 percent) of aged care facilities are managed by so-called not-for-profit organisations—i.e., charitable, community-based or religious organisations.

A report released in May and based on an audit of 70 aged care facilities by the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union (QNMU) contains shocking accounts of mistreatment. These include incidents of residents being underfed and under-hydrated, sores and infections left untreated, continence pads being rationed and, as a standard practice across the facilities, bed-bound residents only being showered once a week.

It also revealed that aged residents on average only received 2.5 hours of care by nursing staff per day, well below the recommended 4 hours, and that just 16 percent of staff in the state’s 70 aged care facilities were registered nurses or degree qualified.

Aged care workers surveyed said that under-staffing had resulted in increased workloads and inadequate time to provide the residents with proper care.

Job cuts continue across the sector. In June this year around 120 laundry and kitchen staff at Christadelphian aged care facilities in Queensland and NSW were made redundant without any prior warning that their jobs were at risk.

Late last year, Blue Care cut staffing at its Queensland facilities, including the elimination of 11 out of 17 enrolled nurses’ positions. Nurses’ working hours were also sharply reduced at the Nubeena and NyMylo aged care facilities.

While a recent Australian Aged Care Charities report revealed aged care charities had combined net assets amounting to $15 billion in 2015, the number of full-time staff in not-for-profit aged care facilities fell by 7.7 percent and casual staff numbers increased by 14.4 percent between 2014 and 2016.

Australian governments claim that aged care providers’ services need to meet “quality standards,” but these standards in many crucial areas are low or non-existent. For example, there are no enforceable staff-to-patient ratios and aged care facilities receive accreditation according to the kind of care that the facility is able to provide—not what it actually provides.

Asked about the accreditation process at a Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry in 2010, Mark Brandon, the then-CEO of the Australian government’s Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency, admitted: “We do not measure nutrition levels. We look at the standards which we expect will stop malnutrition actually happening.”

However, according to a recent research paper published in the Australia Nutrition and Dietetics journal, malnutrition affects at least one-in-two residential aged care facilities. The paper also compared overall residential aged care facility economic outlay data and found a 5 percent decrease in food cost ($0.31 per person per day) in 2016, particularly in fresh produce, with a simultaneous 128 percent ($0.50 per person per day) increase in cost for supplements and food replacements.

The crisis in aged care has been further exacerbated by ongoing government funding cuts. While the 2018 budget projected an increase in aged care expenditure of $5 billion over four years, this comes after decades of cuts, including almost $3 billion since the 2013–14 budget and an overall reduction in healthcare funding. This has occurred as the number of people entering aged care has increased by 11 percent since 2014 and continues to rise.

The 2018–19 budget, moreover, only provided 14,000 additional home care packages over the next five years. Home care packages provide the elderly with funding to assist everyday needs, such as showering, dressing, meal preparation, transport and sanitation, allowing them to stay in their home for longer.

The most recent Home Care Packages Program Data Report shows that 108,456 people are currently on the waiting list for home care packages in the 2018 January to March quarter, up 3.7 percent on the previous quarter. This situation could see more elderly people forced to seek residential care.

Overall cuts in healthca re funding have also impacted on the quality of care provided to the elderly. An Australian Medical Association (AMA) survey released at the end of July revealed that 20 percent of medical practitioners planned to decrease their visits to residential aged care facilities. Almost 49 percent cited increasing unpaid non-face-to-face time as the reason while 40 percent said they were working in very busy practices.

The survey also asked doctors about access to particular services for aged care residence patients. Over 48 percent said it was “very difficult’ for aged care residents to access mobile x-ray and ultrasound services; and 27.6 percent reported difficulties accessing secondary support and consultation with specialists.

Lack of access to critical medical treatment and inadequate levels of care has had devastating consequences. A Medical Journal of Australia study in 2017 recorded 3,291 premature deaths in aged care nursing homes from potentially preventable causes between 2000 and 2013. It also found that preventable deaths had increased more than four-fold over a decade.

Labor and Liberal-National governments alike have maintained a systematic attack on aged care provision and the health workers’ conditions in the sector.

Under the Gillard Labor government in 2012, the Australian Nurses Federation (predecessor of the Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation) reported that there was a shortage of 20,000 aged care nurses and that they were paid between $168 and $300 less per week than nurses working in public hospitals.

By 2013, after six years of Labor rule, numerous reports by families, staff and volunteers pointed to ongoing chronic conditions and a plethora of abuses suffered by residents in aged care.

An ABC-TV “Lateline” investigation drew some of these together in a damning report that year. The show provided detailed accounts of residents left for days in soiled pads or bedding; poor nutrition and hydration; incorrectly or infrequently administered medication, and untreated broken bones and infections leading to many incidents of premature and preventable deaths.

“Lateline” declared: “Many elderly people are being left to die unnecessarily or are in great pain because of a critical lack of staff and training in many of Australia’s nursing homes. Only one in five are receiving proper palliative care. Up to 50 percent of residents are malnourished, with some people being left for entire days in soiled nappies.”

The deplorable state of aged care was described at the time by various advocacy groups, politicians and sections of the media as a “national state of emergency.” Five years on the crisis has only deepened.

The Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation (ANMF) and the Health Services Union (HSU), which cover aged care workers, have played a pivotal role in this process.

Like all the other health sector unions, they have worked to contain workers’ opposition to the staff reductions and casualisation, imposing one regressive enterprise work agreement (EA) after another, cutting wages and conditions. The latest EA brokered by the ANMF covering workers at Bupa aged care facilities, is typical. It included a pay increase of just 11.25 percent over five years, a little over 2 percent per year and barely covering inflation. ANMF members had called for a 14 percent increase, pay parity with public sector nurses and the introduction of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

The unions are now attempting to divert the widespread anger amongst aged care workers behind the ANMF’s current “Ratios for Aged Care” campaign and the Australian Council of Trade Union’s “Change the Rules” protests. Both campaigns are aimed at the election of yet another Labor government, whose pro-market policies are responsible for the increasing catastrophe in the sector.

Japanese prime minister seeks improved relations with Russia

Ben McGrath

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week attended the 4th Eastern Economic Forum, hosted by Russia in Vladivostok. Leaders and top officials from China, South Korea, and Mongolia also attended to discuss economic development and investment in the Russian Far East and the Asia-Pacific.

On September 10, Abe met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss plans for economic cooperation, particularly on the disputed Kuril Islands (known as the Northern Territories in Japan). They agreed to a road map in five previously-agreed fields—aquaculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and waste reduction. Few details were announced aside from plans to cultivate strawberries in greenhouses and sea urchins.

Other forms of cooperation include plans for business delegations from both countries to visit the disputed islands in October. The head of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, will visit Russia next month following the visit of General Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces, to Japan last December. Tokyo also plans to relax visa restrictions for Russians to increase tourism.

Both countries have promoted economic cooperation on these islands as a means of resolving the decades-long territorial dispute, which has also prevented them signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II. Both Abe and Putin have expressed an interest in a treaty with Putin saying on September 10 he was “ready to explore solutions that both sides could accept.” The dispute involves four islands off the coast of Hokkaido, which the former Soviet Union seized in August 1945 as the war was ending.

Last Wednesday, Putin in a seemingly surprise move during the forum’s plenary session went one step further, saying, “Let’s conclude a peace agreement by year’s end without any preconditions.” Tokyo responded cautiously by repeating its position that the territorial dispute should be resolved first.

However, last Friday, Abe suggested there was more going on behind the scenes: “I cannot talk about it because we are in the middle of negotiations... What I can say is that I believe a summit meeting in November or December will be an important one.”

It is unlikely that Putin’s comment was an off-the-cuff remark given the increased pressure Washington has placed on all the countries in the region. Putin may hope to seize upon Japan’s growing frustration with the US and the Trump administration over trade to break through some of the isolation imposed on Russia by US and Western European sanctions.

Tokyo publicly plays to the US president’s vanity, yet trade talks over the summer reportedly became contentious with Trump even referring to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during one fraught meeting.

Japan has already been impacted by the US trade war on China, in addition to US tariffs on Japanese steel and aluminum. Washington is also considering additional tariffs on Japanese vehicles while hinting at the possibility of more measures to come.

The Wall Street Journal ’s James Freeman wrote on September 6 that during a phone call Trump stated his relationship with Tokyo was good but quoted the US president as saying, “Of course that will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay.”

Within this context, Tokyo is trying to reposition itself within the Asia-Pacific region to offset Washington’s protectionist measures as well as find new trade agreements to replace the Trans-Pacific Partnership, formerly backed by the US but abandoned when Trump came to office.

During his speech last Wednesday, Abe portrayed Japan as a “dot connector,” linking up different projects and enterprises throughout Eurasia in various fields. The Japanese premier stated: “Through Japan-Russia cooperation, here, Vladivostok, and locations all around Far East Russia will become gateways where human resources, goods, and capital come together.”

Abe continued: “The Arctic Ocean to the Bering Sea, the North Pacific, and the Sea of Japan will together form a major, arterial sea road of peace and prosperity.”

Russia in the past has been reluctant to realize such a passageway or return the disputed Kuril Islands given the close military partnership between Japan and the US and the strategic nature of the sea route. Putin expressed concern over any territorial transfers in June 2017 saying that “tomorrow some (US) bases or elements of missile defence will appear there. For us this is absolutely unacceptable.”

In December 2016, Putin visited Japan and much was made about the potential for closer relations as well as a settlement on the territorial issue. However, with Trump coming to office and the uncertainty generated as a result, Moscow was under less pressure to make a deal.

In addition to talks with Putin, Abe met with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Significantly, both Abe and Xi emphasized that bilateral relations were “on the right track.” The two discussed how Japan and China could work together on investment projects related to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Abe is planning to visit China for a summit with Xi on October 23, where they will mark the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations. They also intend to move forward on negotiations for a “fifth basic document,” outlining relations between Tokyo and Beijing.

Japan’s goal in reaching out to Moscow and Beijing has nothing to do with peace and prosperity as Abe has claimed. Washington’s moves towards trade and military conflict with regional adversaries as well as allies is generating instability while pushing countries like China and Russia closer together economically and militarily.

Fearing such an alliance, as well as hoping to address its own flagging economy, Japan is inserting itself into the mix to ensure its own national interests are met, regardless of the impact on the US-Japan alliance.

The growing tensions in relations between Washington and Tokyo are ultimately not the result of the current US administration or mere aberrations that will subside after Trump leaves office. Rather they are the product of the drive by US imperialism to offset its historic decline and maintain global hegemony as the expense of any rival, including allies such as Japan.

UK Food Foundation: Four million children have poor diets

Liz Smith

As children return to school for a new academic year, a report by the UK Food Foundation, “Affordability of the UK’s Eatwell Guide,” reveals that nearly 3.7 million children live in families unable to afford a healthy diet.

A healthy diet is defined by the government’s Public Health Eatwell Guide. The Guide splits the diet into a five-category pie chart: fruit and vegetables; potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates; beans, pulses (legumes), fish, eggs, meat and other proteins; dairy and alternatives; and oils and spreads. Each section of the pie chart is based on the proportion of the diet that should come from each category and based on research at Oxford University.

The report shows:

• 3.7 million children in the UK are living in households earning less than £15,860 and are likely to be unable to afford a healthy diet as defined by the government.

• The bottom 20 percent of families would have to spend 42 percent of their after-housing income on food to eat the government’s recommended diet.

• As a proportion of their income, the poorest 20 percent would spend nearly four times what the richest 20 percent of UK families need to spend on food to meet the Eatwell Guide.

• 14 million households (half of all households in the UK) currently do not spend enough to meet the cost of government’s recommended diet.

• Widening inequality is leading to higher rates of childhood obesity in deprived areas, with 26 percent of children in Year 6 (age 11) obese compared to 11 percent in England’s richest communities.

The Eatwell Guide is taught to school age children. Cooking and Nutrition was introduced into the English national curriculum for pupils aged 5-14 years in 2014, following a comprehensive review of the state of food education and culture in primary and secondary schools in England.

According to government estimations, the cost of being able to “eat well” is set at just £5.99 per adult per day or £41.93 a week. It is impossible to maintain a balanced diet on this meagre budget. The costs are played down and are calculated per portion and not by how much it costs to buy the food in question.

Currently 1.2 million children are entitled to means-tested Free School Meals (FSM), in addition to the universal entitlement of five- to seven-year-olds. With the multiple impact of the introduction of the Universal Credit benefit (devised to cut the welfare rolls), cuts in state services and increasing food prices on an almost daily basis, a meal at school—in addition to school provision of healthy snacks—can be the main source of nutrition children living in poor families receive.

The government has long raised the issue of child obesity—but only to attack the poorest and most vulnerable on the basis that families decide to eat poor quality fatty foods as a choice, as opposed to necessity.

Dr. Megan Blake, a senior lecturer of food security and justice at the University of Sheffield pointed out in an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine, “People trade down when their budgets are tight, looking for food that will fit in the budget but also that their families will actually eat and that will fill them up. A £1 pizza will be eaten and not wasted while a £1 cauliflower will need to have other things put beside it to make a meal and may not be enough. What I do see is that … people do choose the fruits and vegetables once these basics are met and if there is enough money. We see from research that parents (particularly mothers) will go without to ensure their children are fed.”

The situation worsened during the summer school holidays, with an estimated 3 million children nationwide at risk of going hungry and having no access to a school meal for at least six weeks.

According to FareShare, the UK’s largest food redistribution charity (who redistribute surplus food from the food industry), they are helping to feed at least 50,000 children across the UK each week—an increase of 150 percent from 2017. This follows their launch of ActiveAte, a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of holiday hunger and increase its provision of meals for children at risk of food poverty.

FareShare Chief Executive Lindsay Boswell, while pointing out the situation during the holiday, said, “Even more alarming, support provided through FareShare Go, our scheme which brings together charities and retailers to reduce in-store surplus food, increases the total number of beneficiaries receiving food each week to over 160,000 children—and over 1,000 holiday projects nationwide.”

Combined with the massive increase in the regular use of food banks, which the food charity Trussell Trust says has hit a record high due to Universal Credit’s introduction—especially in areas where this has been in place for a year—four times higher with a 52 percent increase in uptake.

The Trussell Trust gave out 204,525 three-day supplies between July and August last year with 74,011 heading to children. By comparison, the previous two months saw 70,510 packages supplied to families with children.

A joint National Education Union (NEU) and Child Poverty Action Group survey of almost 1,000 union members carried out in March 2018 reported that 830 see children showing signs of hunger during the school day. Hunger not only has a negative impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of children, it also impairs learning by reducing children’s ability to concentrate.

Lisa, a learning mentor at an inner-city school in Sheffield told the World Socialist Web Site, “Children can often come to school without breakfast. This has a huge impact on their learning. They often present as tired, complain of feeling ill and struggle to concentrate. This can lead in some cases to children being labelled as having behavioural or learning problems if their family situation is not known or misunderstood by school staff.

“Cuts to benefits, benefit sanctions or waiting to access benefits, often means children can miss out on a hot school meal. Parents can struggle to provide a healthy lunch. Lunch boxes in such circumstances rarely contain a balanced meal. Cold chips [fries], a bar of chocolate and a slice of bread are some examples of the contents of lunch boxes we have seen. Access to food and the difference in the standard of lunch boxes highlights the social inequalities amongst peers and children in these circumstances become very quickly aware of the difference, which can impact on their social health and wellbeing by causing embarrassment and stigma.

“Without access to a balanced and nutrient providing diet children can present as malnourished but also we are seeing many more children with obesity problems. There is also a rising number of pupils suffering with dental decay and diabetes.”

A snapshot survey conducted in July 2018, found that more than half (59 percent) of NEU members polled said that children in their school experienced holiday hunger. Of these, 51 percent said that in the last three years the situation in their school was worse.

Despite the efforts of various charities and groups increasingly working in schools, like the Real Junk Food Project, Healthy Schools Initiative, these cannot address the reality of a stark social divide in society resulting in many working-class families becoming ever poorer.

Projections published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (before the release of the latest poverty estimates for 2016/17) indicate that the share of children in relatively low-income families will increase sharply between 2015/16 and 2021/22, assuming no change in government policy.

The Food Foundation report makes calls for a national measurement of food insecurity and the need for further investigation into children’s access to healthy food in the UK, to be led by the Children’s Future Food Inquiry it is running.

This parliamentary inquiry, while gathering evidence from those who have witnessed or experienced children’s food insecurity in the UK, is joining calls for a national measurement for food insecurity—as outlined in a Private Members Bill introduced by Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck. The bill is to be discussed in October but calls for nothing more than “to require the Government to monitor and report on food insecurity; to make provision for official statistics on food insecurity; and for connected purposes.” Next year, the inquiry will present recommendations to policymakers for understanding and tackling children’s food insecurity and its consequences in the UK.

There is no mystery why food insecurity exists in the UK or internationally. It is the outcome of the increased drive for profit by the food companies, under conditions of savage austerity measures that have pauperised millions and made a healthy diet unaffordable to many.

UN special rapporteur to examine extreme poverty in the UK

Barry Mason

The United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, is to visit the UK with a view to reporting on the impact of “extreme poverty” on people’s lives.

Alston begins his visit on November 6 and will spend 10 days talking to organisations dealing with effects of poverty and to those experiencing poverty. On his final day, November 16, he will hold a press conference in London to announce his initial findings.

Alston’s visit is significant, given that such visits are normally to “developing” countries where extreme poverty is a more endemic situation. Among the last countries he visited were Saudi Arabia and Ghana. The fact that the UK is now seen as requiring a visit demonstrates how large swathes of the population have been thrust into poverty, as a result of brutal austerity policies imposed over more than a decade. More than £110 billion in spending cuts have been imposed, with around a million jobs lost in the public sector. Alongside this, the National Health Service (NHS) and public education budgets have been cut to the tune of tens of billions of pounds.

The rapporteur’s visit is the first to a Western European country since a trip to Ireland in 2011. Like their class brothers and sisters in the UK, workers in Ireland have suffered crushing austerity measures over the last decade, in order to pay for the bailout of the bankers and super-rich.

Alston is to speak to organisations as to what constitutes poverty, including the impact of child poverty. Alston is to investigate the impact of the austerity measures imposed by the 2010 Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition and Theresa May’s current Conservative government in response to the financial crisis. Also being investigated by the UN is the role that the hated Universal Credit benefit system, first introduced in 2010, has had, and how Brexit will impact those living in poverty.

He stated, “Welfare cuts have taken place but there is now an interesting debate on whether they have gone too far and what measures need to be taken to shore up the NHS and other programmes.”

Alston in his role as special rapporteur visited the United States at the end of last year, where inequality is also growing at an exponential rate. In his report on his US visit, issued last December, he noted, “The dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by the President and Speaker Ryan … will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes. … I saw sewage filled yards in states where governments don’t consider sanitation facilities to be their responsibility. … I heard about soaring death rates and family and community destruction wrought by prescription and other drug addiction … at the end of the day, particularly in a rich country like the USA, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power.”

The Trump administration reacted with anger and denial when the special rapporteur’s final report was issued earlier this year. US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, described the report as “misleading and politically motivated,” adding, “it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America.” She accused Alston of wasting the UN’s time and resources by focusing, “on the wealthiest and freest country in the world.”

A similar reaction can be expected from the ruling elite in Britain when Alston publishes his final report next year. In 2013, a report on UK housing by UN Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik was dismissed as “a Marxist diatribe” by Kris Hopkins, the then-Tory housing minister. Rolnik had called on the government to reverse its policy known as the “bedroom tax,” which led to huge cuts in housing benefits for people in houses deemed to have unused bedrooms. Needless to say the request was ignored.

The right-wing Centre for Social Justice think tank has already declared it will not make a submission to Alston. One of the co-founders of the organisation is Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith, who as a former minister was responsible for setting up the Universal Credit system.

Prior to his visit Alston has called for submissions to be sent to him, from both organisations concerned with poverty and from individuals affected by poverty. The deadline for submissions was September 14.

One individual who has already sent in his submission is Alexander Tiffin. Tiffin, a former soldier, is now confined to a wheelchair and reliant on Universal Credit. He has created a web site— https://universalcreditsuffer.com —and explained his dire living conditions in a Guardian piece August 22.

Tiffin explains that he receives £95.35 in universal credit payments every two weeks. This leaves him just £10.50 after paying energy bills, fuel for his adapted car, TV licence, broadband connection and milk for his baby son.

He has kept a diary of his experiences. Relating his diary, he explained, “At one time in February, I had no food at all for two weeks. I probably ate on less than a quarter of the days in that month. I just had nothing. I lost two and a half stone [35 pounds] … my hair has started to fall out and my teeth are loose due to a lack of vitamin intake.”

Another entry for May 8 read: “I wanted to be able to make myself some sandwiches, so I bought a loaf of bread for 45p and a small block of cheese for £1.72. This left me with £3.30 [with 10 days to go until the next payment]. I must admit I felt bad after buying it as I shouldn’t have wasted the money.”

Tiffin has suffered mental health problems and says he has come near to a full mental breakdown.

Among organisations submitting to Alston is the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a charity that researches social policy issues. Together with Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University it issued a report in June giving figures for the levels of destitution among the population in 2017. According to their report, around 1.5 million were classed as destitute. Of these, around a third of a million were children.

The study defines destitution as lacking two or more essentials over the past month because they have been unable to afford them. They give a list of six essentials—shelter, food, heating, lighting, clothing and basic toiletries. As an example, they classed as being in destitution people who had fewer than two meals a day for two or more days or had been unable to heat their homes for five or more days.

The report noted, “Destitution is clustered mainly in northern cities with a history of de-industrialization, together with a number of London boroughs and other places with a similar history of de-industrialization.”

While citing official figures claiming levels of destitution had fallen since 2015, it added, “there is a very real risk that destitution will rise again if Universal Credit continues to roll out with its currently high sanction rate.”

A growing problem for many in poverty is being able to afford food. Human Rights Watch (HRW), more commonly known for its advocacy of human rights abroad, plans to highlight food poverty in the UK in its submission.

Speaking to the Guardian, HRW researcher Kartik Raj explained, “There is a lot of hunger that goes under the radar. … People have a right to food and an adequate standard of living. … If the fifth largest economy in the world is failing to ensure that basic minimum … then that is certainly something we will be bringing to the rapporteur’s attention.”

The Trussell Trust, an NGO coordinating 420 foodbanks from more than 1,230 centres across the UK, will also submit to Alston. Among the issues it will highlight are that the use of food banks in areas where Universal Credit has been rolled out rose by 52 percent. In areas where Universal Credit had not yet been rolled out or had just been introduced the rise in the use of food banks was 14 percent.

Regardless of the results of Alston’s investigation there can be no doubt that the policies that are driving increasing poverty will not be abandoned, as the ruling elite seeks to impose the crisis of capitalism on the backs of the working class.

Peru: Pseudo-left promotes anti-corruption protests to cover for anti-worker policies

Armando Cruz

On September 12, some 5,000 demonstrators marched through downtown Lima to demand the ouster of Peru’s current attorney general, Pedro Chavarry. Leaked audiotapes have exposed his close ties with judges implicated in a wave of judicial corruption and his apparent attempts to stonewall investigations into these scandals.

The march, which assembled on San Martin Square (the traditional gathering point for such protests) and then proceeded down Nicolas de Pierola and Wilson Avenues to the Parque Universitario, was comprised of union members, “collectives” of radicalized and non-party-affiliated young people and members of the pseudo-left coalitions Frente Amplio (FA) and Nuevo Peru (NP).

A section of the street clearners march

Also participating in the march was the Partido Morado (PM), a new, explicitly right-wing party that claims to oppose corruption and the old establishment.

Since 2016, when high-ranking officials from Brazilian’s construction giant Odebrecht confessed in plea bargains that they had bribed all the last four Peruvian presidents and their respective governments (the Lava Jato scandal), a crisis of governability has consumed Peru and destroyed all credibility in the political establishment.

In response to these revelations, thousands of young people have participated in rallies and protests demanding a reform of the entire system. Unfortunately, without a clear perspective, the pseudo-left parties have managed to impose their reactionary, opportunistic views upon the rallies.

When the right-wing fujimorista opposition—which controls an absolute majority in Congress—attempted to impeach ex-president and former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who had been discredited by his ties to Lava Jato, Nuevo Peru (led by former presidential candidate Veronika Mendoza) openly defended Kuczynski and accused the fujimoristas of trying to seize power by impeaching him.

This was an intensification of its already opportunistic view that Congress, dominated by the fujimoristas, is the main obstacle to the capitalist government “working” for the people. As a result, the marches have explicitly demanded that the executive shut down Congress, even though this is exactly what former President Alberto Fujimori did in 1992, establishing a repressive semi-dictatorship that lasted until its fall in 2000.

Kuczynski renounced the presidency amidst a vote-buying scandal in order to avoid another impeachment. Vice Pesident Martin Vizcarra took office, and the pseudo-left continued with its completely conciliatory policy towards the government, while denouncing only the fujimoristas in Congress.

Then, the leaked audiotapes recording high-ranking officials in the judicial system—both judges and attorneys—negotiating verdicts, bribes and the control of state offices—once again shook the government and forced Vizcarra to announce a reform of the judicial system and a referendum for annulling the re-election in Congress (among other things).

Rally in San Martin Square

Clearly, these measures are an attempt by the Peruvian bourgeoisie to prop up its state under conditions in which most of the population has lost any trust in capitalist institutions, threatening a collapse of governability. So far, the announcement of the measures has helped Vizcarra to recover 10 percent of his approval rating (from 39 to 49 percent).

The pseudo-left has adapted itself unreservedly to Vizcarra’s proposals, praising his supposed new disposition to “listen” to the people. In particular, Mendoza declared that Vizcarra had finally assumed his “historic role before the crisis”.

Chavarry, the Peruvian attorney general, has become the focus of outrage because, while implicated in the leaked tapes, he has been able to remain in power thanks to support from the fujimoristas, whom he has apparently helped with judicial maneuvers.

One of the organizations promoting September 12 rally (and others) calling for the ouster of Chavarry was the National Coordinator of Human Rights, a well-known NGO that has denounced many of the government’s human rights abuses during the last decades, but whose web site lists the Ford Foundation (accused of being a CIA front) as one of its supporters. Organizations like this support these rallies as a means of venting the anger of workers and young people, as well as promoting reformist illusions in the government.

The march demonstrated the continuing loss of support from workers and youth for the main union confederations, the CGTP and CUT, as well as the main teachers’ federation SUTEP, with very small numbers marching behind their banners. During a strike last year, SUTEP’s bureaucracy aligned with the government and denounced the rank-and-file teachers who initiated the walkout.

The most militant section of the march consisted of street cleaners from the Municipal Worker’s Union—SITOBUR—who came in their orange work clothes, carrying their brooms and chanting the slogans: “Out with the corrupt attorneys!” and “Let’s sweep, sweep, sweep… sweep corruption”.

A group of cleaners explained to a WSWS reporter that 200 had come, representing the more than 500 members of the union. They also said that 70 percent of them were women, and that they were paid just S/200 on top of the minimum wage, that is S/1,050 (approximately US$330 a month.) One worker explained that it was a hunger wage, not even enough to buy her family food.

Maria, a cleaner, told the WSWS that they were “furious with [Lima] Mayor Luis Castañeda for breaking his promise of giving us benefits”. Castañeda currently has a minimal approval rating and is widely detested for his corruption, secrecy and neglect of the city.

Another contingent on the march was made up of textile workers who came from private businesses. Like the cleaners, they told the WSWS that they received hunger wages, and that minimum wage should be S/3,000 (US$930 a month).

The number of followers of the pseudo-left parties (FA and NP) along with the right-wing PM didn’t surpass 200 each. The main bulk of the protest consisted of young people coming from the so-called “Colectivos” whose main demand—apart from “Out with everyone!” (“¡Qué se vayan todos!”)—was for the calling of a constituent assembly.

This demand has also been put forward by the pseudo-left, who advance it from the standpoint of asking President Vizcarra to include it in his “reforms”.

Israel bombs target near Damascus as Syrian war threatens to escalate

Jordan Shilton

Israel launched a series of missile strikes on targets close to Damascus International Airport late Saturday night. The strikes, which are the latest in a long line of aggressive interventions into the Syrian conflict by Tel Aviv, were reportedly aimed at destroying a weapons depot belonging to Iranian forces or the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

The Israeli missiles, according to Syrian government news agency SANA, were aimed at the airport but were intercepted by air defences. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group with ties to the anti-Assad opposition, reported that the target was not the airport but the nearby weapons depot.

While the Israeli government as usual refused to confirm or deny the attack, comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday all but acknowledged Tel Aviv’s involvement. “Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry,” declared Netanyahu following reports of the attack. “Our red lines are as sharp as ever, and our determination to enforce them is as strong as ever.”

If Netanyahu’s right-wing government can proceed so aggressively in Syria, it is because its provocative air strikes enjoy the full backing of Washington. The Trump administration, along with the entire political and military establishment, see Israel as a key ally in driving Iran out of Syria and preparing for war with Tehran—a war that would have catastrophic consequences for the entire Middle East and beyond.

Earlier this month, Israeli jets struck Iranian positions in the northwestern Syria city of Hama. In August, Syrian media blamed the Israeli intelligence service Mossad for the assassination of Aziz Asber, a government scientist who Israeli media alleged ran a chemical weapons development facility in Masyaf. In early September, an Israeli army spokesman confirmed that Tel Aviv has fired over 800 missiles at Syria over the past 18 months, striking 200 targets.

In May, Israel seized on Trump’s abrogation of the Iran nuclear deal to launch a series of air strikes on Iranian positions in Syria, killing at least 14 people and bringing the region to the brink of war. The two sides nearly entered all-out conflict after up to 20 projectiles were fired at Israeli positions on the Golan Heights in retaliation for the strikes, prompting the Israeli air force to respond with further missile attacks.

Tel Aviv’s latest incursion comes as the danger of war between the major powers in Syria mounts sharply. Over the past two weeks, Washington and its European allies have applied concerted pressure on the Assad regime and its Russian ally, including threatening an all-out military assault if Damascus and Moscow proceed with their plan to militarily crush fighters affiliated with Al Qaida in Idlib Province. Ten days ago, the Pentagon dispatched over 100 Marines to southeastern Syria, where they conducted artillery and air strike drills to intimidate Russia.

The aggressive US military build-up, which was aimed at reinforcing a base on the Syrian-Iraqi border that has served as a training ground for anti-Assad Islamist militias, was cynically justified by Trump administration officials and the corporate media with references to the threat posed to “human rights” in Idlib. In an interview with Fox News last Wednesday, UN Ambassador Niki Haley claimed that she was concerned for Idlib’s civilian population, while the New York Times and Washington Post have issued warnings about the war’s greatest “humanitarian” disaster.

The hypocrisy of such advocates for US imperialist violence knows no bounds. As well as being chiefly responsible for the Syrian bloodbath through its support for Islamist rebels with the aim of bringing about regime change in Damascus, the US has been involved in some of the most horrific crimes against the civilian population in Syria and neighbouring Iraq in the current conflict. The brutal US-led offensives to reclaim the cities of Mosul and Raqqa cost the lives of tens of thousands, while leaving much of these areas in ruins.

Washington has adopted this reckless agenda because it is determined to consolidate its unchallenged control over the energy-rich and strategically-important Middle East. The American ruling elite wants at all costs to prevent Assad from regaining control over all of Syria with Russian and Iranian support, since this would lead to Washington’s virtual exclusion from influencing post-war Syria and a would be a serious setback in its wider drive to contain Iran in preparation for war.

On Friday, Moscow confirmed that the Syrian government’s offensive on Idlib was being postponed. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a hastily-convened summit to agree on the next steps in Idlib.

Erdogan has made clear that Ankara will not tolerate a Russian-backed offensive. Fearing that an attack on Idlib would send a large proportion of its 3 million residents streaming across the Turkish border, Erdogan ordered the sending of reinforcements to Turkish troop positions in Idlib to serve as a warning to the attackers. Turkey has a series of military checkpoints in Idlib following an agreement it struck with Iran and Russia to turn the province into a deconfliction zone.

The alliance between Russia, Iran and Turkey was always one of convenience, with each country pursuing its own, and at times contradictory, interests in the Syrian conflict. While Turkey initially sought the overthrow of Assad, Iran hoped through its intervention on the side of Damascus to expand its influence in Syria and strengthen its regional power ambitions against Saudi Arabia and Israel. Russia’s intervention has focused chiefly on keeping Assad, the Kremlin’s only ally in the Middle East, in power.

However, Turkey fell out with Washington, a fellow NATO ally, over the US reliance during its anti-ISIS operations on Kurdish militias associated with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), against which Ankara has waged a counter-insurgency war for three decades. Erdogan patched up his differences with Putin after Turkey had shot down a Russian jet in late 2015 before launching two major military offensives into northern Syria to push back Kurdish forces from the Turkish border and prevent the emergence of contiguous territory under Kurdish control.

It remains unclear whether Erdogan and Putin will reach an accommodation. According to some media reports, one scenario under consideration would involve Ankara consenting to Russian air strikes against known Al Qaida positions in Idlib, but opposing an all-out ground offensive by Syrian troops. Turkey is the main funder of Free Syrian Army units in and around Idlib and is calling for a diplomatic solution.

In the event of a major US-led military intervention, however, Turkey could once again distance itself from Russia. Ankara has appealed both to Washington and Europe for support in dealing with Idlib.

All indications suggest that US-led military action would be of a much larger attack than the missile strikes in April 2017 and April 2018. Washington has not only encouraged France and Britain to join military action but is also publicly urging Germany to join a new “coalition of the willing.” As James Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s new adviser for Syria, stated on Thursday during a trip to Berlin, “The best way to show political support is not in a speech, but with military solidarity.”

Hundreds arrested as construction workers at Turkish airport clash with security forces

Jerry White

Hundreds of Turkish construction workers were detained by police and gendarmes over the weekend after workers carried out mass protests against deadly working conditions at the site of a new airport in Istanbul.

Thousands downed their tools and angrily protested after a shuttle bus accident left 17 of their fellow workers injured. The incident was the latest in a raft of industrial accidents at the site, which workers describe as a “graveyard” due to the lack of basic safety protections and pressure from the government and the contractor to open the giant airport by the end of next month.

Hundreds of workers chanted, “We are workers, we are right. We will have our way one way or another.” The hashtag supporting the workers, “#we are not slaves” (#köledegiliz) gained strong support throughout Turkey.

Police and gendarmes used military vehicles, tear gas and water cannon to break up the protests of striking workers, according to Ozgur Karabulut, an official of the Dev Yapi-Is union. “They broke into the workers’ camp with 30 gendarmerie, broke down the doors and detained around 500 workers,” Karabulut told Reuters by phone.

Police and gendarme attack protesting workers

Construction workers posted videos of state security forces rounding up and arresting workers. While some of the detained construction workers were released on Sunday, as of this writing hundreds remain in police and gendarme stations in Istanbul.

Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said that 401 people had been detained, either for refusing to work or “trying to provoke others,” according to the newspaper Hurriyet. It quoted him as saying that 275 were released on Sunday morning and the airport operator, Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), had started “addressing the problems.”

Karabulut said on Sunday that 160 people had been released and the union estimated 360 remained in detention. “Some of our friends who were released last night were taken back to the camps, but they are not working,” he told Reuters. “We expect these protests to go on for a long time.”

Workers injured in shuttle bus accident Friday

An IGA official downplayed the protests and said that the airport would open as planned on October 29, Reuters reported. “Our workers are working to schedule, there is no disruption at all,” said IGA’s corporate communications director, Gokhan Sengul. “There was a little bit of protest on Friday triggered by provocateurs who came in on Friday like union representatives.”

For months, workers have been protesting conditions at the site, a showcase construction project for the Erdogan government, which says it will be the largest airport in the world.

In an effort to shore up its credibility, the Dev Yapi-Is union—which has gone along with these conditions—issued a statement saying that the airport construction site was “no different than a concentration camp for workers.”

In a visit to the site last April, Minister of Transport Ahmet Arslan said that 27 workers had died from workplace accidents or poor health since construction began in 2015. Workers, however, charge that this figure is a gross underestimation.

The appearance of the transport minister followed the release of a report last February in the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet saying that the government was covering up as many as 400 deaths at the site, which employs 35,000 workers.

The workers told the newspaper that employers have put pressure on them to increase productivity after several delays in the target opening date. Many deaths go unreported, workers told the newspaper, because the government pays the families of the victims—many of whom live in impoverished villages far away from Istanbul or overseas—the equivalent to $100,000 in “hush money.”

Workers’ social media postings of squalid living conditions

Most of the fatalities, workers told Cumhuriyet, are due to the largely uncontrolled traffic of thousands of trucks around the airport site, while police officers and inspectors look the other way. One trade union official, Yunus Ozgur, told the paper that accidents killed three to four workers every week.

Workers have also complained about the poor quality of food they are served, along with infestations of fleas and bed bugs in their sleeping quarters and unpaid or late salaries. They have posted videos and pictures on social media of insects, uncollected garbage and cracks in the ceilings and walls of the company-supplied units where they are housed.

The regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fearful of opposition from the working class as the depreciation of the Turkish lira, rising inflation and a wave of layoffs sharpen class tensions.

The growth of the Turkish economy over the last decade has been chiefly based on a 15-year construction boom under Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has overseen the building of bridges, highways and now the third airport in Istanbul. These projects, however, have been dependent on the availability of cheap credit on world financial markets, which is now drying up.

Last Friday, Erdogan said that the government was freezing new investments to rein in inflation and support the lira, which has dropped 40 percent against the dollar this year. The construction sector has already come to a standstill, leaving tens of thousands of workers unemployed and slowing down other sectors of the export-dependent economy, including the auto industry, with Ford, Mercedes Benz and Renault preparing unpaid “holidays” for autoworkers.

Under the state of emergency imposed by Erdogan following the US-backed coup attempt in July of 2016, the right to strike or protest was sharply curtailed. The lifting of the state of emergency in July was largely a symbolic act. As the mass arrests at the Istanbul airport demonstrate, the structure for mass state repression is fully intact.

In hopes of appeasing 130,000 metal workers last January, Turkey’s Metal Industry Employers’ Association (MESS) and three major trade unions signed a two-year collective bargaining agreement providing a 24.6 percent average wage increase. The deal followed Erdogan’s ban on a scheduled industry-wide strike on the grounds that it would be “prejudicial to national security.” Metalworkers challenged the government decree and continued their demonstrations, carrying placards saying, “If the state of emergency is for bosses, strikes are for us.”

In February, the Interior Ministry announced that 845 people had been detained on terror charges due to their protests or posts on social media critical of a Turkish military incursion in the northern Syrian town of Afrin.

Security forces kicking down the doors in workers' quarters

During the same month, the newspaper Evrensel reported, two construction workers were detained by police when they arrived at the İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport to fly to their hometown of Diyarbakır. The two workers—Nazım Toplu and Ahmet Polat—were detained by police on the grounds that they looked “suspicious.” They were told to open their Facebook accounts to see if they had posted anything critical of the government. When they refused, saying that such demands were illegal, the police seized the workers’ mobile phones and entered their social media accounts from the phones. The two were eventually released when police said they were not targets of previous investigations.

The fatal accidents at the airport construction site underscore the deadly conditions for workers in Turkey, which functions as a cheap labor supplier for European and US-based multinational corporations. In 2014, the 28 EU countries registered a total of 3,700 work-related deaths. Turkey alone had 1,600 fatal accidents. The Workers’ Health and Work Safety Assembly, a Turkish NGO, put last year’s number of fatalities from accidents at work at 2,006. That figure was up from 1,970 deaths in 2016, the NGO said.

In 2014, 301 workers died in one of the worst industrial accidents in Turkey’s history when a fire broke out in a coalmine in Soma in western Turkey. The tragedy was the outcome of privatization and International Monetary Fund-backed “structural adjustment” plans. These were implemented by Erdogan and his predecessors from all factions of the Turkish ruling class, and imposed by the unions. As one coal miner, Oktay Berrin, told the AFP at the time, “There is no security in this mine. The unions are just puppets and our management only cares about money.”

The explosion of anger by construction workers in Istanbul is part of a growing movement and radicalization of the working class around the world. A decade after the global financial crash of September 2008, which was followed by the bailout of the financial aristocracy by the capitalist governments, workers in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia are mounting a growing number of strikes and mass protests against stagnating living standards, austerity and exploitation in the workplace. This movement will more and more take the form of an international struggle against the capitalist profit system.