Armed police used in illegal evictions in Dublin, Ireland

Steve James 

Gerard Doyle is a homeless father of two, living with his partner in emergency accommodation in Dublin for nine months. His Facebook video posts while fending off an illegal eviction attempt by armed gardai (police) called by the landlord of his homeless hostel have been viewed thousands of times.

The first video clip records Doyle and his partner trying to calm down gardai and prevent the armed unit from breaking down the door of his flat. The second clip shows Doyle explaining the bullying tactics of his landlord and Dublin City Council.

Ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and an Irish-based property bubble triggered the greatest financial crisis in Irish history, housing conditions are becoming desperate for large numbers of workers and young people.

Demonstrations have taken place in Dublin and towns and cities across Ireland against unaffordable housing. Thousands of mostly young protesters blocked O’Connell Bridge on Dublin for over an hour on September 22 in one of several demonstrations that began in a number of locations and converged on the city centre.

Demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as “Student homes, not student loans,” “Less cardboard, more homes” and “Public housing, not landlord state.” Smaller protests also took place around the country.

Over the summer, other groups, such as the Dublin Central Housing Action group and Take Back the City, have occupied properties to highlight the grotesque levels of empty properties scattered around the country amid a deepening housing emergency.

In the week before the Dublin protest, vanloads of gardai from the Public Order Unit broke into a property in North Frederick Street, Dublin. Six people from the Take Back the City group were removed and arrested. A squad of gardai wearing balaclavas boarded up the building. When approached by the Irish Times, they refused to give their names.

According to figures published by the daft.ie property website, the median deposit for first-time buyers in Dublin has reached €54,389, while average monthly rents are an astronomical €1,936. Average salaries in Dublin are €36,919, or €3,076 per month, meaning that nearly two thirds of an average salary would be required to rent an average dwelling and anyone below this salary figure has little or no chance of doing so.

While a software engineer might expect to earn €43,011, the living wage is a minimal €11.90 per hour. Someone earning this wage would need to work 162 hours monthly, or 37.5 hours weekly, just to pay an average rent. They would have nothing at all left over. Someone on the minimum wage of €9.55 an hour would have to work 46.7 hours and spend 100 percent of their wages on rent to keep a roof over their head.

Across the Republic of Ireland, average rents are at an all-time high of €1,304. The price of new rental contracts rose 12.4 percent last year and are now 27 percent above the peak of the pre-crash Celtic Tiger boom.

The consequences, as well as brutally squeezed living standards, have included an inevitable rise in homelessness, evictions, mortgage and rent arrears along with all the associated stresses.

In August, mother of six Margaret Cash, from Tallaght, Dublin, was forced to sleep in a Garda station because she had been unable to retain the emergency accommodation she had been forced into only days previously. The landlord of her emergency flat forced her out to make way for students. She had moved into emergency accommodation last September when the private house she had been renting was repossessed.

This month, Dublin City Council sought to remove Claire Elliot and her three children from a vacant house they had been occupying for a fortnight. Elliot had been on the waiting list for social housing since 2008. She was evicted from her private rented flat because the landlord was selling the property and she was forced into hotels and B&Bs, miles away from her children’s schools. The city council told the High Court that they expect her to live in an emergency hub for three years. She described the hubs to the Irish Times: “You’re in a room with bunk beds, barely any room for a cot. People are arguing, taking each other’s food--arguing over the washing machines, arguing over the kids. They’re stressful places.”

In all, 700 families became homeless in Dublin alone in the first seven months of 2018; and in total, 9,891 people were in emergency accommodation, including 3,867 children. These figures represent a 21 percent increase in one year for adults and a 30 percent increase for children.

Regional figures show the same pattern. In Limerick, the number of homeless children increased 120 percent in a year, from 80 to 176. In counties Kildare, Meath and Wicklow the figure increased 98 percent. In Galway, Mayo and Roscommon child homelessness rose 77 percent. In Cork, some 1,400 people used Cork Simon’s homelessness service, an increase of 18 percent to 2017, while the numbers of long term homeless grew by 10 percent.

While living conditions for workers are becoming impossible, the Irish bourgeoisie is desperately trying to maintain the most permissive and friendly environment for some of the world’s largest corporations. Just over a week before the housing protests, the Irish Department of Finance announced the US tech giant Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalisation and one of two worth over $1 trillion, had completed the transfer of €14.3 billion into an escrow account run by the Irish government.

The transfer arose out of a 2016 European Commission (EC) ruling, following a three-year investigation, which found that Apple had effectively paid just 1 percent tax on its European profits in 2003. Even this low figure had diminished to the vanishingly low 0.005 percent by 2014, through use of a variant of the “Double Irish” tax dodge employed by many US-based finance and tech outfits. Tax swindling on a massive scale remains the basis for much of the Irish economy.

The EC ruling expressed rapidly deepening transatlantic inter-imperialist tensions, which imperil the entire business model of the Irish economy. The EC demanded that Ireland collect the money, deemed state aid, from Apple. But the Irish government has no intention of touching the money. To maintain the country as a low-tax platform in the eurozone and the EU, the government transferred the money into a secure account and came into conflict with the EC over delays in collecting the sum. Legal action in the European courts is expected to continue for years.

For comparison, the Irish Exchequer has collected €32.4 billion in 2018 to date. Of this, income tax, largely from workers, amounted to €13 billion while VAT on retail sales, also mostly from the working class, accrued €9.4 billion. Corporation tax from companies that include Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Google and Oracle generated a mere €4.4 billion. The money the government refuses to collect from Apple is more than the country’s entire annual income tax take and almost as much as the entire 2017 health budget, €14.6 billion, for a nation of 4.7 million people.

Campaign grows inside Podemos for alliance with Spanish right

Alejandro López

Nearly a month has passed since top Stalinists associated with the Podemos leadership in Spain wrote an initial article endorsing the policies of the far-right-wing government in Italy. Since then, numerous members of Podemos have come out to defend this position, seeking to create a new movement based on nationalism, economic protectionism and appeals to the far right.

Former Communist Party leader Julio Anguita, Podemos deputy Manuel Monereo, and law professor Héctor Illuega published two articles in pro-Podemos online paper Cuarto Poder. The authors, all of whom are top associates of Podemos General Secretary Pablo Iglesias, hailed the Italian neo-fascists’ “Dignity Decree” as “a remarkable effort to defend the Italian people against the lords of finance.” They remained silent on Rome’s austerity policies, military intervention in Libya, terror campaign against the Roma and refugees, and threats of mass deportations.

In a series of interviews, Monereo and Anguita defended their positions and denounced the “political correctness” of their critics. They have enjoyed wide press coverage in official media. In a Ctxt interview, Anguita asked “how have the Spanish people benefited” from the EU and called for an exit from the euro currency, saying: “I want to regain sovereignty and the state, I want power to do something” while cynically claiming not to be a “nationalist.”

Similarly, Monereo told Cuarto Poder that the new movement’s aim is to “change the [European Union’s] fundamental treaties and the exit of the Euro, especially by the countries of the South.” He attacked Germany, claiming that “German Europe is breaking with a part of European history linked to the workers’ movement, to social rights, trade unions and popular sovereignty.”

Both Monereo and Anguita are quite open that the aim of their “Initiative for the III Republic” is to forge ties with the right and far-right. Monereo states that “the III Republic will not only be for the left, it will be democratic federalist and defender of social rights and it will go beyond the left as we know it today.” Similarly, Anguita says the new movement will be open to “democrats…but not necessary from the left.”

The endorsements of xenophobic policies and far-right parties from within Podemos testifies to the bankrupt and reactionary character of Podemos, a coalition of Spanish Stalinism with Anticapitalistas, the Spanish allies of France’s Pabloite New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA).

Stalinist, Pabloite and social democratic parties, as well as openly right-wing parties, have repeatedly enforced the interests of the financial markets and the European Union’s (EU’s) austerity diktat against bitter opposition from workers. This is again the case in Spain, where the Socialist Party (PSOE) minority government is supported by an alliance of the Stalinist-led United Left and Podemos. The PSOE government is adapting itself to EU budgetary austerity, military spending increases and the rapid turn to the right of the European bourgeoisie as a whole.

Such policies have led to disastrous social conditions. More than 4 million people in Spain live in severe social exclusion, 40 percent more than 10 years ago, according to Caritas Spain’s latest report. There are 3 million unemployed, and a third of youth have no job. Across Europe, these betrayals have repulsed workers and youth, and—absent a visible socialist alternative—driven some angry and desperate sections of the population to vote for far-right parties.

As far broader discontent provoked by deteriorating living standards and the extreme concentration of wealth emerges in the working class, sections of Podemos are responding by trying to channel this anger behind xenophobic Spanish nationalism.

Even though Anguita and Monereo began by defending far-right Italian minister Matteo Salvini’s policies, a number of Stalinists within Podemos have emerged to defend their position. The camp inside Podemos of what one Cuarto Poder reader aptly called “the white-washers of the white-washers of Salvini” is rapidly growing.

Hugo Martínez Abarca, who was a member for two decades of the Stalinist-led United Left until he left to pursue a career within Podemos in 2015 as deputy in the Madrid regional assembly, posted an article under the title “Republic or the Left: for a Patriotic Republicanism.” He calls the “left” to abandon any left content related to a “Third Republic” demand, so it can be a “transversal project for the country.”

Martínez, like Monereo and Anguita, makes clear that this new Republic will be compatible with right-wing politics: “If there is an opportunity for the Republic to be the name of change, this passes through untying its identification with the left and fill it with content shared by large sectors [of the population]: to make political republicanism synonymous with institutional republicanism.” The “content” would be “democratic, ethical, modernising values, and above all, extraordinarily tied with the future.”

Clara Ramas, a professor at Complutense University of Madrid, which is close to Podemos, wrote a piece for Ctxt defending a “new democratic patriotism, which speaks for law and order in a non-reactionary way, which offers security, welfare, belonging and protection.”

Salvador Arnal, another Stalinist university professor, defended Ramas in another article posted in Rebeli ó n. He defends Ramas’s “democratic patriotism,” stating: “Certainly in Spain a bloody counterrevolution triumphed, but not all the history of Spain in these last two centuries can be reduced to that triumph. That appeals to patriotism have been linked to repressive bodies such as the Civil Guard for about four decades [under the Franco dictatorship] does not mean that this has always been the case or that it always has to be so.”

He provides examples of “democratic patriotism” in the “democratic-patriotic struggle…of 1936-1939 against fascism and foreign intervention.” He also hailed the supposedly progressive use of “patriotism” by Spanish Stalinists and Maoists under the Spanish fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

These are anti-Trotskyist historical lies serving to cover up the rapid evolution of the Stalinist groups towards support for xenophobic positions and far-right organisations. The Stalinist promotion of nationalism during the Spanish Civil War, as well as during the fascist dictatorship that emerged from Franco’s victory in the war, was not a democratic and revolutionary policy. It was a defence of capitalist property against the repeated revolutionary uprisings of the working class during the Spanish Civil War and the workers’ deep opposition to the Franco regime.

During the Civil War, based on their bloodthirsty opposition to socialist revolution, the Stalinists tortured, jailed and murdered Trotskyists and anarchists who opposed the Popular Front government of the Second Republic.

Eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, and a decade after the eruption of the 2008 global economic crisis, the calls for more nationalism and patriotism emerging from Podemos again reflect its bitter opposition to a political movement in the working class challenging European capitalism on the basis of a Trotskyist programme. While the working class is moving towards ever broader strike action and political opposition to the regime, Podemos and its allies are moving into the orbit of right-wing and even neo-fascistic tendencies.

IMF chief warns of rising risks facing global economy

Nick Beams 

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has warned that rising trade tensions are starting to impact on world growth, issuing a call for countries to “de-escalate and resolve the current trade disputes” in the lead-up to the Fund’s meeting to be held in Bali, Indonesia, next week.

In a speech delivered in Washington on Monday, she noted that six months ago she had indicated “risks on the horizon.” “Today, some of those risks have begun to materialise.”

A year ago the IMF was pointing to synchronised global growth. That is no longer the case. There are signs that “global growth has plateaued” and is becoming “less synchronised, with fewer countries participating in the expansion.” She indicated that the IMF would downgrade the forecast of 3.9 percent global growth it issued in July when it releases its updated projections.

Without naming the United States and the trade war measures of the Trump administration, she said: “A key issue is that rhetoric is morphing into a new reality of actual trade barriers. This is hurting not only trade itself, but also investment and manufacturing as uncertainty continues to rise.”

While the US economy was growing strongly, for now, she said, in other advanced economies there were signs of slowing growth, especially in the euro area and to some extent in Japan. Emerging markets in Asia were continuing to grow at faster rates than other regions but there were indications of “moderation in China, which will be exacerbated by the trade disputes.”

And “challenges” were mounting in a number of other emerging markets and low-income countries, including in Latin America, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Many of these countries were facing pressure from a stronger US dollar and tightening financial conditions with some facing capital outflows.

There was not “broader financial contagion—so far—but we also know that conditions can change rapidly. If the current trade disputes were to escalate further, they could deliver a shock to a broader range of emerging and developing economies,” she said.

Lagarde called for countries to work together to build a global trade system “fit for the future.”

“The stakes are high because the fracturing of global value chains could have a devastating effect on many countries, including advanced economies.”

But this warning is destined to fall on deaf ears because a key objective of the Trump administration is not simply the reduction of its trade deficits with China and a number of other countries, but the breaking up of global value chains to bring manufacturing industry back to the US in order to strengthen its military capacities.

On financial conditions, Lagarde claimed that ten years after the financial crisis, the situation was safer “but not safe enough” and pointed to the escalation of debt levels which have reached new highs in advanced, emerging and low-income countries.

Global debt, both public and private, has now reached an all-time high of $182 trillion—some 60 percent greater than in 2007, leaving governments and companies “more vulnerable to a tightening of financial conditions.”

Emerging and developing economies were already “feeling the pinch” as they adjust to the “normalization” of monetary policies in the advanced world—an increase in interest rates. “That process could even become more challenging if it were to accelerate suddenly. It could lead to market corrections, sharp exchange rate movements and a further weakening of capital flows,” she said.

The IMF has estimated that emerging markets, excluding China, “could potentially face debt portfolio outflow of up to $100 billion” that would broadly match the outflow during the global financial crisis. “That should serve as a wake-up call.”

In addition to reducing trade tensions and stabilising financial conditions, Lagarde pointed to a “third challenge”—the need to “rebuild trust” in institutions and policymaking—noting that the causes for its decline are many.

“In too many countries, growth has failed to lift the prospects and livelihoods of ordinary people. In too many cases, workers and families are now convinced that the system is somehow rigged, that the odds are stacked against them.

“This is not hard to understand: since 1980, the top 1 percent globally has captured twice as much of the gains from growth as the bottom 50 percent.” Over that period many advanced economies have seen rising inequality and limited growth in wages due to technology, global integration and policies favouring capital over labour.

The IMF has noted this process on several occasions in the recent period, and warned of its social and political consequences. But every year, it continues to intensify as new data reveal that the accumulation of wealth at the heights of society has increased.

In the most recent analysis, it has been reported that a cohort of some 255,810 ultra-high net worth individuals with a minimum of $30 million now collectively own $31.5 trillion, an increase of 16.3 percent between 2016 and 2017.

That is a group of oligarchs, equivalent in size to a small city own more than 80 percent of the world’s population—some 5.6 billion people.

In order to “rebuild trust” Lagarde said it was necessary to scale up investment in training and social safety nets along with more progressive taxation and higher minimum wages and smarter taxation to ensure multinational corporations paid their “fair share.”

In the face of a financial system that has institutionalised the siphoning of wealth up the income scale and under conditions where governments the world over are continuing their cuts to all social services, such a call will be as effective as the plea for a lessening of trade tensions.

Lagarde entitled her speech “Steer, Don’t Drift: Managing Rising Risks to Keep the Global Economy on Course.” It might have been more appropriately dubbed “Lecturing on Navigation as the Ship Continues to Sink.”

Indonesian tsunami relief grossly inadequate as death toll tops 1,200

Tom Peters

Three days after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and 3 meter high tsunami devastated the Indonesian city of Palu and surrounding areas on the island of Sulawesi, the death toll is continuing to climb. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that 1,203 people were confirmed dead as of Monday afternoon.

The report was based on figures from Indonesian hospitals and agencies in Palu, with a population of 380,000, and nearby Donggala, home to 300,000 people, which was near the quake’s epicentre. The toll does not include the dead from Parigi Mountong and North Mamuju, which were also badly hit.

Accounts from the area paint a horrifying picture of the disaster and its aftermath, made immeasurably worse by the lack of civil planning and the impoverished condition of masses of people. The vast majority of dwellings in Indonesia are not built to withstand tsunamis and earthquakes, despite the frequency of these disasters.

The country’s tsunami early warning system is in a shambles due to underfunding and failed to gauge the severity of the deluge. A warning delivered following the earthquake by the country’s geophysics agency, the BMKG, was lifted after only half an hour.

Several buildings in Palu collapsed metres into the ground, including a residential complex in the neighbourhood of Balaroa that was home to 900 people. An eight-story hotel, with an estimated 60 guests, was also reduced to rubble.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, from the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), told the Associated Press that in the Petobo district, “it is estimated that there are still hundreds of victims buried in mud.” Rescue workers have begun to fill a mass grave in Palu, which has a capacity for over 1,000 bodies and can be expanded if necessary.

Xinhua reported on Monday night: “The stench of dead bodies was intense around Palu’s iconic Talise Beach, a popular tourism spot.”

Search and rescue efforts have been severely hampered by a lack of heavy machinery, with most of the digging being done by hand. Many people spent days trapped in rubble, while the region has been shaken by more than 200 aftershocks.

Several villages are still inaccessible due to landslides. A Red Cross team found 34 bodies of students trapped inside a church in the village of Sigi, which they accessed only on Monday.

At least 59,000 people are homeless or displaced and essential supplies are running out. The United Nations Office said on Monday that a total of 191,000 people in affected areas urgently need aid including food, fuel, drinking water, medical personnel and tents. Palu and Donggala are without electricity and there are lengthy queues for fuel.

Doctors report that survivors are deeply traumatised and that there is a risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, as well as malnutrition. BBC Indonesia’s Rebecca Henschke, who is in Palu, told CBC Radio today: “The situation is very bleak. There’s no power to the entire town so hospitals and medical clinics can’t do complicated operations. They are running out of medical supplies and in most of them, the ones that we have been to, there’s rows of bodies in plastic bags.”

Henschke said people she had spoken to had not received the aid they need, and that “in terms of an organized aid operation, there’s nothing like that here now.”

Many people are furious at the lack of assistance. Thousands flocked to Palu’s airport following the disaster, but they were not allowed to leave. The AP reported: “Video showed some of them screaming in anger because they were not able to get on a departing military plane. ‘We have not eaten for three days!’ one woman yelled. ‘We just want to be safe!’”

Many journalists sent to the region reported being stopped by people begging for drinking water and other items. According to the International Red Cross, the aid that has so far reached the area is a “drop in the bucket” compared to what is needed.

President Joko Widodo told reporters on Sunday: “I’m aware there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved as soon as possible, and I hope the people will remain patient in this situation.” The government has so far allocated just $38 million for disaster relief.

Meanwhile, soldiers and police have been deployed to defend private property and suppress starved and desperate people who have entered shops looking for food and other supplies. The media and politicians have demonised such people as “looters.”

The New York Times reported that Sarah Wati, a 20-year-old unemployed mother, was treated in hospital after being shot in the foot when police officers “sprayed bullets” at a group of people attempting to get access to an ATM with pickaxes, as well as several onlookers.

According to the Jakarta Post “police are reported to have ordered a shoot on sight policy against such robbers.”

Foreign governments have pledged a pittance in aid. Britain has made available $2.6 million, the European Union $1.7 million, South Korea $1 million and New Zealand $1 million. Australia’s government has said it is “ready to help Indonesia” but made no precise offer. US President Donald Trump said he offered “warmest condolences” to those affected by the tsunami, but so far Washington has not announced any specific aid.

By contrast, the ruling elites of these countries are collectively spending trillions of dollars on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the militarisation of the Asia-Pacific region.

The worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Central Sulawesi is an indictment of capitalism. Fourteen years after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 167,000 people, the majority of them in Indonesia, the latest tsunami reveals that nothing whatsoever has been done to prepare for such events.

It has rapidly emerged that the country’s antiquated tsunami warning system has not been functioning correctly since at least 2012, with 22 buoys designed to provide key information no longer operational.

Rahmat Triyono, the head of the BMKG’s tsunami and earthquake department, told BBC Indonesia this week that, “Our tools are very lacking. In fact, of the 170 earthquake sensors we have, we only have a maintenance budget for 70 sensors.” Sutopo, of the BNPB, likewise stated on Sunday: “If we look at the funding, it has decreased every year.”

The buoys, and the warning system as a whole, failed in 2016, when a tsunami was triggered by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Sutopo explained afterwards that much of the system’s infrastructure was no longer operational due to a lack of maintenance, caused by funding cuts and vandalism.

In the two years since, nothing has been done to fix the system, or to upgrade it to a more advanced model designed in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. The new system has been in the “testing phase” for over a decade, with the country’s disaster agencies unable to raise the 1 billion rupiah ($A95,500) required to complete the project.

The utter indifference of the Indonesian ruling elite, and its imperialist partners, to the safety of ordinary people is inextricably tied to the dramatic growth of social inequality and the super-exploitation of the working class in “developing” countries.

Indonesia is the sixth most unequal country in the world. Its ruling elite has enriched itself through the exploitation of masses of workers and rural poor, which are offered up as ultra-cheap labour for local and transnational businesses. Even the most basic measures to mitigate the impact of natural disasters are seen as an unacceptable impost on profits.

Iran fires missiles at Islamist “rebels” as US vows to remain in Syria

Bill Van Auken

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) early Monday morning carried out missile strikes against targets inside Syria, claiming that it had killed and wounded a significant number of Islamist militia members that it charged with responsibility for a terrorist attack against an Iranian military parade last month.

The six missiles fired from the western Iranian province of Kermanshah flew 355 miles over Iraqi territory to hit their targets in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province. Tehran said that the missiles, Iranian-made Qiam and Zolfaghar models capable of carrying over 1,500 pounds of explosives, were followed up with drone strikes.

The Pentagon reported that the missiles hit just three miles from where US troops are based in the Al Bukamal district of Deir Ezzor.

“Iranian forces did conduct no-notice strikes last night and we see open source reports stating that they were targeting militants it blamed for the recent attack on an Iranian military parade in the Middle Euphrates River Valley,” US military spokesman Col. Sean Ryan said in a statement. “At this time, the Coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred and no Coalition forces were in danger.”

Iranian media reported that some of the missiles were inscribed with the slogans “death to America,” “death to Israel” and “death to the house of Saud.”

Tehran has blamed Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh, as well as the United Arab Emirates for supporting “foreign mercenaries” responsible for the September 22 terrorist attack on a military parade in Iran’s southwestern city of Ahvaz that killed 29 people and wounded 70 others.

The Iranian missile strike coincides with a ratcheting up of tensions between Washington and Tehran, with US President Donald Trump and other top administration officials using last week’s opening of the United Nations General Assembly to demonize Iran as the source of all problems in the Middle East and to issue a series of bellicose threats.

The US is already imposing punishing economic sanctions in direct violation of the UN-backed nuclear accord from which the Trump White House unilaterally withdrew last May. Even more severe sanctions, imposing a ban on Iranian oil exports and barring Iran from accessing the US-dominated world banking system, are set to go into effect on November 5.

Meanwhile, as the Washington Post spelled out in a lead article Monday, the Trump administration has “opened a new chapter in American involvement in Syria, vowing to remain until the civil war’s conclusion in a bid to halt Iran’s expansion across the Middle East.”

The newspaper cites James Jeffrey, the State Department’s special representative for Syria, as stating that the US would maintain its presence in the country, where over 2,000 US troops are presently deployed without either UN sanction or the permission of the Syrian government, until Iran and Iranian-backed militias have left the country. Iran is the closest ally of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and its military advisers work closely with the Syrian army.

Similarly, Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, vowed that the US military would continue to occupy Syrian territory “as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders.”

Bolton delivered a blistering speech last week in which he warned Tehran, “If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay. … We are watching, and we will come after you.”

The Al Qaeda-linked militias that Iran targeted in its missile attack may well qualify as one of Washington’s “allies” or “partners.”

The Trump administration has sought to strengthen an anti-Iranian axis throughout the Middle East, centered on Washington’s close ties with and military support for Israel, Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf oil monarchies.

To this end, the US is not only seeking to continue its military presence in both Iraq and Syria. It is also providing indispensable military assistance for the near genocidal war being waged against the impoverished nation of Yemen. Washington and Riyadh are determined to impose a US, Saudi puppet regime there—and preclude any growth of Iranian influence—at the cost of what could prove to be millions of Yemeni lives already driven to the brink of starvation.

Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly on Saturday charging “the so-called international coalition” led by the US with having “done everything but fight terrorism” in Syria. “It has even become clear that the coalition’s goals were in perfect alignment with those of terrorist groups; sowing chaos, death and destruction in their path,” he said. “The coalition destroyed the Syrian city of Raqqa completely; it destroyed infrastructure and public services in the areas it targeted; it committed massacres against civilians, including children and women, which amount to war crimes under international law.”

Moallem went on to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US, French, Turkish and Israeli troops from Syrian soil.

The justification of the demands of the Syrian government notwithstanding, there is every indication that the dirty war in Syria is far from over. The US and its NATO as well as regional allies, having invested billions of dollars in arming and funding the so-called rebels dominated by Al Qaeda-linked Islamists, have no intention of abandoning their goal of regime change or of ceding any regional influence to Iran.

The US military presence in Syria is aimed not only at countering Iran’s influence, but at blocking the government in Damascus from accessing the vitally needed wealth of the oil and gas fields in eastern Deir Ezzor province, now under the control of American occupation forces and their proxy forces, comprised of the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia.

Washington’s regional NATO ally, Turkey, meanwhile, is committed to vanquishing the presence of the YPG, which it views as a branch of the Turkish Kurdish separatist guerilla movement, the PKK, on its border.

Tensions have also mounted in the wake of last month’s Israeli attack on Latakia, which caused the shoot-down of a Russian aircraft and the deaths of all 15 of its crewmembers. Moscow has responded by offering to deploy Russian S-300 air defense systems to Syria, which would threaten not only Israeli, but also US warplanes.

Even as the threat of a military confrontation involving these various countries mount, the Wall Street Journal Monday published an article questioning whether the stated ends of the US government in confronting Iran were being matched by the means of US military deployments.

The Pentagon, the Journal reported, “has scaled back its presence in the Persian Gulf region … removing ships, planes and missiles that would be needed in a major confrontation.”

The article points out that the US Navy has not sent an aircraft carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf since March, the longest interval in two decades, while four Patriot missile-defense systems are being pulled out of Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain this month.

It quotes senior Pentagon officials as saying that the forces are being shifted from the Middle East to confront China and Russia, in line with US strategy documents released late last year, which affirmed that “great power” conflicts have become the main focus for the US military.

Any mismatch between Washington’s rabidly anti-Iranian rhetoric and the actual deployment of military might, however, will only serve to deepen the instability of the situation in Syria, which increasingly poses the threat of erupting into a region-wide and even global war.

US-North Korea Nuclear Diplomacy: Contexualising the Third Inter-Korean Meet

Shivani Singh

The third inter-Korean summit took place between North Korean leader Kim-Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on 18 September. Topping the agenda was the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula as promised during the US-North Korea Singapore summit held in June 2018. Although some purportedly substantial commitments were reached on the denuclearisation front, it is premature to rejoice. Precedence suggests North Korea’s failure to live up to its commitments, and it is crucial that South Korean efforts are complemented with appropriate US diplomacy. However, the kind of diplomacy adopted by the US so far appears problematic, and is two-fold: US' emphasis on positional bargaining, and an absence of a 'trust-building framework' in the negotiations between the US and North Korea.

Broken Promises

During the summit, North Korea pledged to close the Tongchang-ri facility, a launch site used for testing rocket engines, and  "expressed readiness to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility...if the US took some reciprocal action" agreeing  to allow independent inspectors to verify said promises.

However, such commitments are not new. Since the last two inter-Korean summits and the US-North Korea summit in Singapore, North Korea has claimed compliance by allegedly practicing a moratorium on nuclear/missile tests and dismantling the Sohae rocket launch site and the Punggye-ri nuclear site. However, satellite images indicated "no significant dismantlement activity." Moreover, US intelligence agencies reported renewed construction activities towards building "two new liquid fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles at a large research facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang." 

Soon after, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), through its collection of satellite imagery, confirmed a detailed list of nuclear-related activities, like "the use of centrifuge enrichment technology and mining, milling and other fuel activities at a declared uranium plant" still being undertaken by the North Korean government.

As far as allowing inspections is concerned, it is important to note that since North Korea is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nor has it concluded any separate Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, it is not subject to the IAEA inspection protocols and therefore, it is too soon to consider the credibility or effectiveness of these inspections, if at all undertaken.

US Nuclear Diplomacy

Time and again, Moon Jae-in has assumed the role of a mediator between the US and North Korea, especially in light of the US decision to abruptly cancel US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang. However, South Korea’s success has been held back by the flawed US diplomacy adopted so far, with only some forward movement.

President Donald Trump has been very clear that he will not compromise on his demand of complete denuclearisation and is unwilling to lift sanctions till such time as complete denuclearisation is achieved. However, despite this rigid position, the ground reality remains that the US has engaged in tactical negotiations by matching concessions. The US offered to temporarily halt the US-South Korea joint military exercise in exchange for a cessation of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea. It is anybody's guess whether, and to what extent, the US-North Korea summit's immediate goal - persuading Kim Jon-un to cease his aggressive behaviour - has been achieved through this.

It is important to remember that building and sustaining trust relationships with the adversary is just as important as negotiating the substantive matters. South Korea has undertaken confidence-building measures to improve bilateral relations, like negotiating over a Peace Treaty, and its efforts at strengthening economic relations - such measures seem lacking in the US-North Korea negotiations. While North Korea has extended goodwill gestures such as returning the remains of 55 US soldiers killed in the Korean War and releasing three arrested US citizens, the US has not done much in instilling any kind of faith in the relationship except the current cancellation of joint exercises with South Korea. Clearly as larger concessions require some basis, greater confidence-building measures will be inevitable since, ultimately, a larger breakthrough is sought.

The entrenched adversarial relationship between the two countries has been the result of many years of strained ties and it will not be an easy - or quick - task to mend it. To that end, South Korea’s improving bilateral relationship with North Korea can be part of a step-by-step approach to eventually bridging the trust deficit between the US and North Korea. It is thus imperative that these diplomatic issues are addressed, and an optimal mix of smooth inter-Korean relations and cooperative US diplomacy be fused to yield the desired results.

HFG Foundation Young African Scholars Program 2018

Application Deadline: 15th October, 2018

Eligible Countries: African countries

Eligible Fields: Applicants’ projects are expected to highlight the issues of violence and aggression.

About the Award: Harry Guggenheim established this foundation to support research on violence, aggression, and dominance because he was convinced that solid, thoughtful, scholarly and scientific research, experimentation, and analysis would in the end accomplish more than the usual solutions impelled by urgency rather than understanding. We do not yet hold the solution to violence, but better analyses, more acute predictions, constructive criticisms, and new, effective ideas will come in time from investigations such as those supported by our grants.
The foundation places a priority on the study of urgent problems of violence and aggression in the modern world and also encourages related research projects in neuroscience, genetics, animal behavior, the social sciences, history, criminology, and the humanities which illuminate modern human problems. Grants have been made to study aspects of violence related to youth, family relationships, media effects, crime, biological factors, intergroup conflict related to religion, ethnicity, and nationalism, and political violence deployed in war and sub-state terrorism, as well as processes of peace and the control of aggression.

Type: Grants

Eligibility: Applicants must be aged 40 or younger, currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at an African higher education institution, and living on the continent.

Number of Awardees: 10

Value of Programme: The program includes:

• a methods workshop
• fieldwork research grants of $2,000 USD each,
• editorial and publication assistance,
• and sponsorship at an international conference to present research findings.

How to Apply: The online application will be available beginning October 1st.
Applications should be no more than ten pages in length and include the following:

• Research question
• Short literature review
• Description of research methods to be used
• Reference letter from official academic advisor
• Two-page C.V.
• Copy of passport or government-issued ID card

Eligible applicants may apply here.

Visit Programme Webpage for details

Award Provider: Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation

The Muslim Predicament

Faisal Khan

This is a bad time in history to be a Muslim. Whether as minorities or in predominantly Muslim countries Muslims live under enormous and perhaps unprecedented strain. There is war and chaos in much of the Arab Middle East be it Syria, Palestine, Iraq or Libya. Further afield in places like Myanmar Muslims are facing genocide and persecution. In Afghanistan, there has been an ongoing Western-led war for over 15 years with no immediate end in sight. In Pakistan, over 50,000 people have lost their lives fighting extremists. As a response to ‘9/11’ (in which nearly 3000 died including 500 Muslims) the US led a war on terror against majority Muslim countries resulting in the deaths of circa 370,000 people.

Muslims are simultaneously being demonised and vilified in the West whilst facing extermination in other places. In India, a genuinely hostile environment has been created for Muslims where many are persecuted on a near daily basis and killed for the pettiest of reasons (such as eating beef). In China, they are being forced to convert: imprisoned in camps, they are compelled to eat pork and drink alcohol. Even in supposedly benign places like Denmark Muslims are being targeted and treated like second-class citizens. Large numbers of the world’s refugees are Muslim. Muslims are the worlds ‘new’ Jews.

Moreover, it is Muslims who bear the brunt of Islamist terrorism. According to the Global Terrorism Index data, of the top 10 countries with the biggest threat of terrorism – eight are Muslim majority countries. According to a report by the US National Counterterrorism Centre, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 per cent of fatalities over the past five years, and Muslims are seven times more likely than non-Muslims to be the victims of terror. Further, 98% of all terrorist attacks occurred outside the US/Western Europe even if they didn’t dominate the news cycle. Muslim lives have become cheap and expendable. At the behest of greedy dictators, lacking unity and leadership, divided by nationalism and overwhelmed by Western-led interventions the Muslim World is truly in crisis. The current Muslim predicament is akin to the period of ‘Jaliyah’ (ignorance) that pervaded much of the Arab World before the Prophet Muhammed’s (PBUH) time in the 6th Century AD.

The Islamic World has known better times. Roughly the period between the 8th century and the 14th witnessed what was an Islamic ‘Golden Age’. This period was marked by the rapid spread of Islamic Civilisation throughout much of the Mediterranean and the Middle East and further. It was a period that saw great scientific progress, the invention of algebra, technological innovation, some of the finest architecture the world has ever seen (to this day, for instance, roughly 6,000 people a day visit the Alhambra palace in Spain). It was marked by learning, outstanding philosophers and writers -like Rumi, Ibn Battuta, Al-Ghazali, Avicenna (the reputed father of modern medicine)- and religious plurality. In Europe’s dark ages the light came from Muslim Spain. While Londoners slept in mud huts beside the river Thames Muslims in the south of Spain were building modern roads and bridges, elegant buildings and using deodorants. It is now accepted wisdom that this period inspired the European Renaissance.

So, what are the solutions to the darkness that currently pervades the Islamic World? It’s clearly a predicament that is caused by a multiplicity of factors, and therefore the solutions will be no less complex. I personally don’t have all the answers beyond making a few suggestions and observations. Its pure delusion for Muslims to expect help from the ‘Christian’ West to improve their situation. It has no interest in doing so: in fact, it is the West’s wars, empires, plunder and backing of dictators that has helped create this predicament in the first place. Islam has long been perceived as a threat in the Christian world and perhaps always will be.

What the Muslim world desperately needs is inspirational leadership (not Western-backed proxies), unity and a reawakening akin to that it achieved under the direction of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). Muslims need to use their past achievements to inspire them: like China and India have done. They need governments that represent the aspirations of their people (rather than those of the greedy elite or foreign powers). It’s not a reformation of Islam that is required but a unity and return to the fundamentals of Islam that emphasise peaceful co-existence, a balance between Deen (religion) and Dunya (the world) and social justice whilst simultaneously embracing ideas of the moment such as democracy.

While the picture is bleak, there are signs of hope. The year 2011 saw a major uprising through much of the Arab world where people sought to overthrow often western-backed dictators. While this was brutally crushed in some places, it nevertheless reflected a powerful desire for many in the Arab Muslim world to embrace democracy. Tunisia was one of the relative success stories and is forging a no doubt difficult path to representative government. Lebanon, an Arab country, is a democracy that recognises 18 official religions. Pakistan recently held its third democratic election in a row. Countries like Malaysia represent economic success stories from which other Muslim nations can take inspiration. The Muslim world can also learn from the European Union and develop a similar system pooling resources and helping further the development of its members. None of this will be done without visionary, courageous and inspirational leadership both within and between Muslim societies.

Construction and demolition – health hazards

Sheshu Babu

In cities and towns, houses are being rapidly demolished paving way for construction of flats/ apartments. The house owners are selling their houses for ‘ development’ with the intention of making money and the contractors are constructing flats selling each one with huge profit margin. Rubble created by demolishing structures and the spreading of dust particles in the air is not only causing lung related ailments but also closing ventilation to other residential house s near the constructed flats. Even roads and bridges are being demolished and re- constructed on a regular basis

Materials

C&D ( construction and demolition) material consists of debris generated during the construction, renovation and demolition of buildings, roads and bridges. C& D materials often contain bulky heavy materials such as concrete, wood ( from buildings), Asphalt ( from roads and roofing shingles), Gypsum, ( the main component of drywall) ,metals, bricks, glass, plastics, salvaged building components like doors, windows and plumbing fixtures , trees, stumps, earth and rock from clearing sites ( sustainable Management of Construction and Demolition Materials, www.epa.gov) EPA’s waste characterization report ‘the Advancing Sustainable Materials Management : 2015 Fact Sheet’ estimates C & D material generation in the United States generated 548 million tons of debris in 2015 – more than twice the amount of generated municipal solid waste. Demolition represents more than 90% of total C & D debris generation , while construction represents less than 10 percent.

In India, there is no agreement on the volume of C&D waste . The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2010 , put the annual estimate of C &D waste at 10-12 million tonnes. The central pollution board settled for 12 million tonnes in 2011, but its Guidelines Document of 2017 has upped the estimate to 25-30 million tonnes based on the information from Ministry of Urban Development. The centre for science and Environment swung into action and estimated C&D waste at a humongous 530 million tonnes in 2017 that include renovation/ repairs of one third of existing buildings. (Building from debris, written by Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Almitra Patel, published September 26, 2018, indianexpress.com ). The most recent C& D waste is 165- 175 million tons , jointly prepared by two government agencies the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council and the Center for Fly Ash Research and Management. The waste is illegally dumped in vacant areas, beside fly overs, lakes and ponds, open store water drains and low lying areas.

Health hazard

Delhi and Bengaluru are prominent example to indicate the rise of air pollution. The C&D waste in Bengaluru is being used to encroach upon lake’ bed land for construction. Nations like Germany have developed novel ways of recycling C&D waste by creating a small hillock outside Stuttgrt which now serves as a recreation ground.

The increase of C&D waste leads to pollution of land, air, water and environment that leads to several diseases . If children are exposed, they easily develop breathing problems. They also suffer severe cough and cold. Exposure also leads to skin – related diseases. The pile of rubble creates havoc during extreme climate conditions. Hence, people should demand that strict laws are made to dispose c & d waste.

Healthy atmosphere

For clean air and water, c &d disposal plants should be established in every city. Rubble of the demolished site should be thrown in remote areas. Construction of apartments/ flats should not be allowed to cover other residential houses. Due to no clear orders material is left on the roads without proper arrangement. Governments should see that no individual suffers as a result of accumulated waste . Multi- storeys flats and construction of high-rise buildings are closing ventilation to houses adjacent to the newly constructed flats. Sunlight and other natural elements should be allowed to pass through houses. Only then, future of the people might be saved from environmental hazards.

Egypt executed 32 people since military coup as dozens remain on death row

Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Egyptian military junta led by US-client Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has executed 32 people since al-Sisi overthrew the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

According to the New Khaleej, Egyptian authorities have executed 32 people in nine cases since the coup d’état while 64 people are awaiting the death penalty in 13 other cases.

There is no precise count of the number of death sentences pending appeals in Egypt, however human rights organizations say they amount to hundreds.

Since 2013, Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds to death, with most of the sentences appealed, while few were carried out.

At the same times human rights organizations have estimated that tens of thousands political detainees in its prisons. In September 2016, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said that the number of political detainees in Egypt has exceeded 60,000 individuals.

Egyptian Kangaroo Court sentences activist to jail for posting anti-govt video on social media

An Egyptian Kangaroo Court on Saturday (Sept 29) sentenced an activist to two years in jail over a video she posted on social media criticizing the government for failing to protect women against sexual harassment and over poor living conditions.

Amal Fathy, a member of the now banned April 6 youth movement which played a role in 2011 protests that forced President Hosni Mubarak from office, was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($562), her lawyer Tarek Abuel Nasr and state news agency MENA said.

She was charged with spreading false news that threatened national security and disseminating a video that violated public decency. She also faces other charges including joining an illegal group.

Rights groups have repeatedly criticized Egypt’s human rights situation, saying conditions have continued to deteriorate under Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in 2013 after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi.

Seventeen UN human rights experts criticized Egypt on Friday for its use of anti-terrorism laws to detain activists fighting for women’s rights and against graft, torture and extra-judicial killings.

Fathy was detained in May, days after she posted a 12-minute video in which she expressed her anger at poor public services at a local bank, heavy traffic, sexual harassment by a taxi driver and over a general deterioration in living conditions.

Egypt passed a law in July giving the state powers to block social media accounts and penalize journalists held to be publishing “fake news.”

UN experts says Egypt systematically targets rights activists

Seventeen UN human rights experts criticized Egypt on Friday for its use of anti-terrorism laws to detain activists fighting for women’s rights and against graft, torture and extra-judicial killings. The experts’ joint statement, unusual for attracting such a large number of signatories, named activists who had been detained for months, highlighting the case of women’s rights campaigner Amal Fathy.

“We are gravely concerned at the human rights defenders’ prolonged periods of detention, reportedly arising from their peaceful and legitimate defense of human rights,” they said.

The 17 independent experts all investigate rights for the UN Human Rights Council, which wrapped up a three-week session on Friday without any scrutiny of Egypt.

The systematic targeting of human rights defenders is yet another indication that the Egyptian Government is operating a zero-tolerance approach to dissent, which is often suppressed under the pretext of countering terrorism they said.

Earlier this month Amnesty International, a human rights charity, said Egypt had become an “open-air prison” under Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Court adjourns hearing session in ousted president Morsi’s trial

A Cairo Kangaroo court adjourned on Thursday a hearing session for former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and others in the case known as the “break-in of the eastern border” only minutes after it had started due to repeated failures in the courtroom’s loudspeakers.

One of the defendants, the Muslim Brotherhood group’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, was sitting on a wooden chair in the courtroom’s cage as he was suffering from back pain. When the court checked the presence of the defendants, the microphones would not work, which disrupted the session.

The court was set to hear the testimony of former interior minister Habib Al-Adli, who served during the era of US client ousted president Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for 40 years from 1981 to 2011.

A criminal court had handed down death sentences to former president Mohamed Morsi in addition to Badie and a number of other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

Senior management implodes after exposure of government interference at Australia’s state-funded media

Richard Phillips

Last week, two senior Australian Broadcasting Corporation executives—managing director Michelle Guthrie and board chairman Justin Milne—were forced out amid a crisis over revelations that leading journalists had been targeted for dismissal for criticising government policies.

The assault on ABC journalists is the most blatant example of direct government interference in the almost nine-decade history of the state-funded media outlet.

Under the ABC’s charter, federal governments cannot directly intervene in editorial policy, programming decisions, or day-to-day management. While ABC Board members are largely appointed by federal governments, they are supposed to defend the political independence of the state-funded network.

On Monday, Guthrie was sacked by Milne, who claimed that the ABC “needed a different leadership style” and that her managerial skills were inadequate.

In reality, the “problem” with Guthrie had nothing to do with her so-called management “style.” In line with her managerial brief, the highly paid former corporate lawyer and Google executive has ruthlessly imposed government budget cuts and destroyed hundreds of jobs in the past two and a half years of her five-year contract.

The real reason for her removal was revealed a day later in a leaked document. Guthrie was dismissed because she refused to obey orders from Milne to sack high-profile journalists Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn.

Milne is a close friend and former business partner of the multi-millionaire former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull, federal communications minister Mitch Fifield, and the rest of the Liberal-National Coalition government, are openly hostile to the two journalists and anyone else at the network who dares criticise the government.

In May, Alberici, the network’s chief economics correspondent, published an article exposing the Liberal-National government’s planned tax cuts for big business as a massive handout to the wealthy. She revealed that at least 400 Australian businesses paid little or no tax. Turnbull was furious, denouncing her report in parliament and in the media.

Days later Milne emailed Guthrie declaring: “They [the government] fricken hate her. She keeps sticking it to them with a clear bias against them. We clear her as OK. We r tarred with her brush. I just think it’s simple. Get rid of her. My view is we need to save the corporation not Emma. There is no g’tee [guarantee] they will lose the next election.”

Andrew Probyn recently reported on alleged discussions between News Corp chair Rupert Murdoch and Seven West chief Kerry Stokes. Murdoch is alleged to have said, “We have got to get rid of Malcolm,” in other words, Turnbull had to be removed as prime minister.

In October last year, Probyn described former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott as “the most destructive politician of his generation.” According to a leaked document published by the Daily Telegraph, Guthrie alleged that Milne ordered her to sack Probyn. When she refused, Milne accused her of “putting the future of the ABC at risk.”

The document alleges that Milne made his demand after he had met with Turnbull and Fifield. “Milne ­ berated me about Andrew Probyn, saying that the then-prime minister hates him and ‘You have to shoot him.’”

“I reiterated the need to maintain our public trust and the ABC couldn’t be responding, or be seen to be responding, to pressure from the government of the day. In response, Mr Milne continued to yell at me and berate me and wouldn’t let me finish the call,” Guthrie’s document states.

These revelations amounted to a veritable bombshell, forcing Milne to resign last Thursday.

Attempting to contain the political crisis, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, recently installed after the ousting of Turnbull, and heading a fragile and deeply divided government, quickly endorsed the appointment of Dr Kirstin Ferguson as interim ABC board chair. She is a big business executive, corporate lawyer and former Royal Australian Air Force officer. Yesterday, Morrison told the media that the ABC should “stop talking about itself and get back to work.”

Turnbull, of course, now travelling overseas, immediately denied any government interference in the ABC, declaring that he never issued instructions for any journalist to be sacked. These claims are laughable. When your close friend and former business partner is the ABC chairman, explicit instructions are unnecessary—“a wink is as good as a nod.”

As communications minister in former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government, and then prime minister, Turnbull regularly denounced journalists at the ABC and the partially state-funded Special Broadcasting Services (SBS).

Last week, ex-ABC technology writer, Nick Ross, told 2GB radio that an article he wrote in 2013 on the National Broadband Network was pulled so as not to upset Turnbull. Ross gave the article to the ABC’s head of current affairs, but was told “we’re not going to publish it because it’ll upset Malcolm Turnbull, and management don’t want to do that because they’re expecting the Liberals to win the 2013 election.”

In April 2015, popular SBS sports commentator Scott McIntyre tweeted his opposition to the government’s multi-million-dollar jingoistic promotion of the centenary of World War I, and Anzac Day commemorations in particular.

Turnbull was outraged. In less than 24 hours, he released a joint statement with SBS managing director Michael Ebeid and SBS director of sport Ken Shipp, which stated that McIntyre had been “terminated” with “immediate effect”.

In June that year, then Prime Minister Abbott demanded that “heads should roll” at the ABC after its “Q&A” panel discussion program allowed Zakky Mallah, an acquitted terrorist suspect, to ask a prepared and vetted question of a government minister participating in the show.

The government and the rest of the corporate media unleashed hysterical denunciations of the network, accusing it of providing a platform for terrorism. The ABC board responded by issuing a formal warning to “Q&A” producer Peter McEvoy, an award winning journalist.

In June this year, the New South Wales branch of the Young Liberals, in line with calls by the Murdoch media empire and other corporate outlets, passed a resolution demanding that the government privatise the ABC.

Ongoing government interference in the ABC, threatened sackings of ABC journalists and never-ending budget cuts, outsourcing and job destruction, are in line with efforts to restructure the state-funded network in preparation for a US-led war against China and other perceived international rivals. This agenda requires the silencing of politically honest journalists, along with others at the network and their transformation into slavish propagandists for the government.

These efforts run parallel with Australia’s new “foreign interference laws,” where opposition to militarism, war and government policy can be defined as “seditious” or “treasonous” and punishable with long jail terms.

Last week’s revelations provoked angry mass meetings of ABC journalists and staff in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on Wednesday. ABC workers vigorously denounced the overt government interference and resolutions were passed demanding the sacking of Milne, condemning the board and calling for its replacement.

It is necessary, however, for those determined to fight this anti-democratic assault to seriously examine how and why such a situation has arisen. The endorsement of the ongoing persecution of WikiLeaks editor, Julian Assange, by the Australian government, some senior reporters at the ABC and their counterparts in the rest of media, has opened the way for such attacks. The media unions maintain a deafening silence on his plight.

An essential first step in the fight against the ongoing and escalating campaign against Australia’s state-funded media is for ABC journalists and staff to declare their full support for Julian Assange and demand that the federal government utilise its diplomatic power and legal discretion to return Assange to Australia, if he so chooses, and that WikiLeaks be able to exercise its democratic right to continue its exposures, unhindered by state persecution.

ABC workers must understand that the slanderous attacks on Assange and WikiLeaks are inseparable from the Australian government’s attempts to censor and silence every journalist with whom it disagrees.