German government wants its own aircraft carrier

Johannes Stern

The German ruling class dreams of building its own aircraft carrier. This was made clear by statements from leading government and opposition politicians last week.

At a press conference with the Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins in Berlin last Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was asked what she thought of the “interesting proposal for a European aircraft carrier made by the leader of the Christian Democratic Union.” Merkel replied, “I think aircraft carriers are good ... It is only right and proper that Europe has such equipment. I am quite willing to cooperate.”

One day earlier the head of the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, responded to the European manifesto of French President Emmanuel Macron by raising the prospect of a joint Franco-German aircraft carrier. In a guest commentary for the Welt am Sonntag, she wrote: “Germany and France are already working together on the project of a future European fighter, other nations are invited to participate. As a next step, we could begin the symbolic project of building a joint European aircraft carrier to express the global role of the European Union as a force for security and peace.”

Workers and young people in Germany and throughout Europe must take this announcement as a serious warning. It is obvious that the construction of a German-European aircraft carrier is planned for war, not peace. Germany’s only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, was launched on December 8, 1938. It was a project with great symbolic importance for Adolf Hitler during the process of rearming the German army (Wehrmacht) to fight World War II.

The current German grand coalition’s military and rearmament plans leave no doubt that the ruling class is preparing once again for large-scale warfare. The construction of a powerful navy plays a central role in the plans of German imperialism to assert its predatory interests worldwide—as was the case preceding the First and Second World Wars.

According to the new policy doctrine of the German army presented last July by Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), Germany “As a foreign trade and commodity-dependent nation is particularly reliant on unrestricted use of the sea.” Due to “Germany’s maritime dependence,” “the Bundeswehr has a special responsibility for the protection of its own coastal waters, the adjacent sea areas such as the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the waters of NATO’s northern flank area and international maritime lines.”

The doctrine then goes on to explain what this entails. Among other things, German naval forces would have to be able to “prove effective in three-dimensional naval warfare over the entire spectrum of intensive operations,” “plan and lead multinational operations at an upper tactical level and participate in naval warfare” “via their own A2/AD [Anti-Access Area-Denial] skills and ability to conduct operations against A2/AD-enabled agents” and “maintain tactical-offensive naval warfare and deny the enemy the ability to engage in offensive naval warfare.”

In other words, the call for an aircraft carrier is not simply the brainchild of Merkel, but rather the implementation of war plans which have been worked out behind the backs of the population. According to the current “ capability profile of the Bundeswehr ”—an internal planning document for the comprehensive modernisation of the Bundeswehr up to 2031—the navy, in the next few years, is to receive all necessary “capabilities” to conduct comprehensive naval warfare. According to media reports, the central issue is “recovery of the ability to conduct naval warfare from the air.”

The cost of these insane plans is to be carried by workers and youth in two ways: as cannon fodder on fresh battlefields and in the form of massive social cuts to free up the billions necessary for military rearmament. In their founding government pact the coalition of the conservative Union parties (CDU/CSU, Christian Social Union) and the Social Democratic Party pledged to increase defence spending by 2024 to 2 percent of gross domestic product, i.e., more than €75 billion annually.

The purchase of an aircraft carrier would far exceed all previous rearmament plans. To give just one example, the construction costs of the USS Gerald Ford, which was commissioned by US President Donald Trump in July 2017, amount to $13 billion. The total price of the ship and its F-35c fighter aircraft squadron then soars to about $30 billion. Additional costs include operating expenses of around €13 million per month—during “peacetime.” These figures do not even include the costs for the crew of several thousand men.

Despite the monstrous nature of such a project, there has not been a word of opposition from the entire political and media establishment. On the contrary, five years after then president Joachim Gauck and the German government announced at the Munich Security Conference in 2014 that Germany must take on “more responsibility” in the world, the ruling class is increasingly making clear what this means.

According to a recent article on the pro-government think tank, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), it is time to junk the “wishy washy term ‘responsibility,’” which “spreads a diffuse sense of comfort in the midst of global political turmoil.” In reality, it is all about “conflicting interests and the means of enforcing them.”

The SPD, which has long since played a leading role in Germany’s new aggressive foreign policy, is now attacking US imperialism from the right. During his brief visit to Afghanistan last week, German foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD) attacked Trump’s announcement to withdraw US troops. One should not leave Afghanistan “too early,” Maas warned.

According to media reports, the German government is preparing to increase its own troop levels in this resource-rich and geo-strategically important country. The aim was to replace “capabilities provided by multinational partners which are critical for the mission,” according to a document cited in the German daily Tagesspiegel. To this end, “forces will be held ready in Germany” and an “increase in the mandate’s time limit will be examined on an individual case basis.”

Germany’s so-called leftist opposition parties also agree in principle with the grand coalition’s war and rearmament plans. According to the security spokesman for the Green Party, Tobias Lindner, the government should “finally ensure that the Bundeswehr is once again operational.” His criticism of the planned aircraft carrier is limited to the fact that this project has not been preceded by “any serious debate on German defence policy or the capacity profile of the Bundeswehr.” A project “that would be far more realistic and not to be underestimated for the integration of European armed forces” is, in his opinion, “a joint training sailing ship”!

As for the Left Party, it has failed to make any comment on the government’s plans, and that comes as no surprise. A congress of the Left Party in Bonn at the end of February agreed a European election program with a large majority. The program is basically in alignment with German-European armament policy. In the run-up to the conference, the party executive had rejected any criticism of the European Union and a passage describing the EU as “militaristic, undemocratic and neoliberal” was deleted from the draft program. Since then, the leadership of the Left Party has even abandoned any verbal criticism of militarism.

The Socialist Equality Party (SGP) is the only party that has placed the return of German and European militarism at the heart of its European election campaign to arm the widespread opposition among workers and young people with a socialist program.

Its election statement declares: “In May 2019, the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) will run in the European elections with a nationwide electoral list to oppose the rise of the far right, growing militarism, the building of a police state and increasing social inequality. Together with the other sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), we are fighting for a socialist program to unify the European working class in struggle against capitalism. This is the only way to prevent the continent from relapsing into fascist barbarism and war.”

Macron denounces growing wave of protests in France

Alex Lantier

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in protests in France this weekend. The 18th successive yellow vest protest against social inequality took place alongside protests directed against the Algerian regime of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and a demonstration against climate change.

Multiple police prefectures refused to provide the number of demonstrators in their regions, and the interior ministry claims only 32,300 people joined yellow vest protests across the country. This figure, far below the figures reported in previous demonstrations, was accompanied by claims in the press that the protests are decreasing in size.

In fact, what is shown by the protests is the continuing growth of opposition among workers and youth. The Facebook page “The Yellow Number” reported 230,766 protesters on Saturday, as the yellow vests marked the end of Macron’s fraudulent “grand national debate.” More than 350,000 people protested at the “March of the century” to oppose climate change, according to organizers. Thousands joined protests in solidarity with the Algerian workers and youth demanding the fall of Bouteflika’s National Liberation Front (FLN) regime.

“March of the century”

Fearing, above all, that the mobilization of millions in Algeria may inspire a revolutionary struggle by large sections of workers in Europe—already shaken by yellow vest protests—the government and media have stepped up their denunciations of the protests. Citing acts of public vandalism in which the police have played a murky role, the Elysée and media called for suppression and end to the protests.

In Lyon, 30,000 people protested on Saturday in three demonstrations. The protests against Bouteflika in Algeria were livestreamed on the internet. Thousands demonstrated in Toulouse, a hotspot of yellow vest protests. A group of protesters separate from the group insulated the right-wing mayor, Jean-Luc Moudenc, who denounced the “climate of terror” imposed by the yellow vests. Large protests were reported in Montpellier, Caen and Dijon.

In Bordeaux, where, like in Toulouse, the prefecture refused to provide the number of protesters, thousands demonstrated. Skirmishes broke out with police forces. A retiree at the yellow vest protests told France-Television, “I saw a protester injured by a grenade. He was against a wall and was doing nothing. Many people are sickened by the police’s actions. This will not calm people down. On the contrary. It’s always the same people rioting, and if they [the police] had really wanted to arrest them, they could.”

In Paris, 10,000 yellow vests were on the Champs-Elysées, and some joined the “March of the century,” which involved 100,000 people (only 36,000 according to police) at Republic Square.

Yellow vests at the “March of the century” expressed demands both on climate change and also broader social issues. “The yellow vests are not only fighting for higher purchasing power, but also against social injustice and the predatory actions of multinational companies that plunder the planet’s resources,” one participant told Le Monde. A care worker added: “We’re told to buy electric cars, but when you live in an apartment complex, where would you park it, and how can you pay for it?”

On the Champs-Elysées, the police deployed a large force to block off sections of the road, and began firing tear gas from the morning onwards. WSWS reporters noted the presence of a large number of police officers in civilian clothing standing side-by-side with their colleagues on the barricades supposedly established to fend off rioters.

After the arrival of a group of a few hundred people dressed in black and wearing masks, who passed through all the police barricades, clashes broke out between protesters and police. Around 80 well-known store brands on the street suffered damage, including the Fouquet’s brewery, the Gaumont cinema, the Swarovski jewellery store, and the Tarneaud bank.

As masked protesters arrived at the Champs-Elysées, yellow vests who spoke to the WSWS expressed their hostility toward the rioters and their suspicions that they were collaborating with police. One protester from Lyon said: “You come once to protest, and you get hit and tear-gassed. At a certain point there is no longer any respect for the people. In Lyon the fascists come, and they are protected by the police. It’s not normal. We went to find the riot police to get them to protect the yellow vest protesters. They ran away in the other direction.”

He added, “In the protests, half the time they are there infiltrating. We all know them. The cops don’t change. The BAC police insulted my wife. We don’t speak to people like that.”

Riot policeman caught on video filling his bag

It remains to be established exactly what took place on the Champs-Elysées and above all the responsibility of the police for the events. Police officers were filmed by a reporter, Remi Buisine, as they were stealing merchandise from the store of the Paris Saint-Germain football club. In the video, which has been widely viewed on social media, police strike Buisine to try to take his phone and prevent him from filming. A police source told Liberation that the images of the incident were “embarrassing.” The Paris police prefecture has announced that the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) would conduct an internal investigation.

The emergence of a mass movement demanding the fall of the Algerian regime since February 22 objectively raises the problem of the international unification of working-class struggles. While strikes are taking place against European austerity measures from Portugal to Berlin, a new revolutionary wave is developing in northern Africa, targeting a regime directly supported by Paris. Terrified by this development, the Macron government is responding with repression and provocations.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe denounced the yellow vests as responsible for the violence on the Champs-Elysées, because “all those who excuse or encourage the acts that I denounced, in excusing, in encouraging them, become complicit in them.”

While the most serious questions are raised about the role of the police, Macron, rushing back from his ski weekend in La Mongie, also targeted protesters. In an emergency meeting of the interior ministry, he declared that “all those who were there were complicit.”

The government propaganda against the protesters has been taken up by a large section of the media close to the government. On Twitter, Bernard Henri-Levy vituperated: “Let’s stop with the myth of ‘certain’ Yellow Vests, ‘infiltrated’ by the bad ‘rioters.’ This movement of [yellow vests], from day one, has been a factional, hateful and anti-republican movement.”

These are shameless lies and provocations. The vast majority of the yellow vests, and the other protesters from Saturday, were not rioting. The official torrent of denunciations against the protesters is a defence of the tiny capitalist elite in Europe, completely corrupted and no less terrified of the working class than the bloody regime around Bouteflika that they support.

The question posed by the protests is the necessity for a perspective and revolutionary leadership capable of uniting the struggles of workers and youth on an international scale, in a struggle for political power and the overthrow of the capitalist system.

Obesity-related cancers rise among US millennials

Alex Johnson

Obesity-related cancers among millennials have climbed to rates higher than what was generally witnessed during the baby boomer generation, according to a recent scientific study. Astonishingly, the publication found that these cancers, which are typically present in elderly adults, have become increasingly common at younger ages over the past 20 years.

The study, published in The Lancet last month, found that between 1995 and 2014, out of the over 14 million incident cases for 30 types of cancer, incident occurrences increased significantly for six of 12 obesity-related cancers in young adults aged 25-49.

Funded by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute, the study examined data over a 20-year period, covering 67 percent of the US population.

It found that the risk of pancreatic, colorectal, endometrial and gallbladder cancers in millennials is far higher than baby boomers when they were the same age. This increase is steeper in progressively younger generations (individuals aged under 50) and successively younger generations (individuals born after 1950).

Senior author Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of Surveillance and Health Services Research for the American Cancer Society, told CNN that “the risk of cancer is increasing in young adults for half of the obesity-related cancers, with the increase steeper in progressively younger ages.”

Excessive body weight is a known carcinogen that is associated with over a dozen cancers, and the report provides further evidence that obesity is a significant risk factor for cancer. Besides cancer, obesity and being overweight are also major risk factors for other serious diet-related diseases and illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and strokes.

Nearly 40 percent of adults are currently obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while at least two-thirds are classified as either obese or overweight. The CDC found that 18.5 percent of children aged 2- to 19-years-old were obese.

Although cancer rates have fallen steadily over the past 25 years, due primarily to the reduction of lung cancer caused by smoking, the gradual increase in obesity-related cancers is beginning to roll back this progress.

The researchers stated that young adults still have an overall lower risk of developing these cancers compared to older adults. However, Jemal notes that the implications of the study for future trends in cancer diagnosis are harrowing.

“Cancer trends in young adults often serve as a sentinel for future disease burden in older adults, among whom most cancer occurs,” Jemal said.

One of the principal factors contributing to the rise in obesity rates among American adults is the lack of access to healthy foods among low-income and rural populations. Healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and high-quality proteins are often unaffordable for poor and working-class Americans.

A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in 2007 found that low-income Americans would have to spend up to 70 percent of their food budget on fruits and vegetables to meet new national dietary guidelines for health eating.

Moreover, even if they could afford it, low-income residents in rural areas and inner-cities often cannot even access healthy foods. According to a 2010 report by the US Department of Agriculture, 23.5 million people live in “food deserts,” locations without a nearby supermarket where healthier options are available and residents are instead forced to rely on convenience stores and fast-food restaurants.

Burdened by the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and skyrocketing student debt, millennials have less time and fewer resources to address important health needs. As a result, they have increasingly turned toward unhealthy food options.

A survey conducted by the CDC this past October found that 45 percent of Americans aged 20 to 39 ate fast food on a given day. A study conducted by Bankrate.com discovered that 54 percent of millennials eat out at least three times a week or more.

Widening social inequality in the US is reflected in dietary differences between the rich and the poor. According to a 2016 article published by STAT, only 38 percent of low-income people (a family of four making around $30,000) eat an intermediate diet (a diet quality better than poor, but not ideal), versus 62 percent of higher-income people (a family of four making around $69,000).

The rise in obesity is not unique to the American population, but an expression of a wider and global public health crisis. The World Health Organization has called obesity a “rising epidemic,” with over 1 billion adults considered obese worldwide.

Millions of American youth attend schools with police but no support staff

Valery Tsekov

On March 4, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a devastating report which exposed the increasingly militarized state of public schools in the United States and chronic underfunding of school support staff.

The report, “Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students” provides a state-level student-to-staff ratio of employed student counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers and contrasts these numbers to the increasing presence of police officers in public schools, especially in lower-income neighborhoods. The statistics revealed in this report are harrowing.

The ACLU found that over 90 percent of individual schools in the US do not meet the one to 250 counselor-to-student ratio recommended by professional standards and the US Public Health Service. On average, all of the schools in the country employ close to half of this number of counselors: one for every 444 students, with Arizona having the worst ratio in the country at one counselor for every 758 students. Only three states out of 50 meet the recommended ratio.

Student-to-counselor ratios

The report went on to note that there are 1.7 million students in the US who attend schools where there are police on campus but no counselors at all; 6 million students attend schools where police are present but not a single school psychologist is employed; and finally, 10 million students have police in their schools where not a single social worker is employed.

Many schools in the US do not have any nurses on campus. The nurse-to-student ratio recommended by professional standards is one nurse for every 750 students. Twenty-nine states do not meet this standard. Michigan and Oregon employ the fewest school nurses in the country. The ratios of students per nurse provided in the report for these two states are downright criminal: both are above 4,100 students per nurse. Three million children in the country attend schools where there are police officers on staff but not a single nurse.

Student-to-nurse ratios

These statistics are staggering. Even as they are being starved of much needed funds, working-class schools are being turned into armed camps replete with metal detectors, online video surveillance and even military equipment.

Examples can be found throughout the country.

· The impoverished Detroit Public Schools spent $41.7 million on a district-wide security upgrade in 2011, creating a 23,000 square-foot Police Command Center and Headquarters for the school system.

· Just last week in Chicago at a mayoral forum, Democratic candidate and former president of the Chicago Police Board Lori Lightfoot suggested turning the city’s 38 recently shuttered schools into police-training sites.

· Capitalizing on last year’s horrific massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the Florida state legislature recently passed a bill allocating $58 million toward arming teachers throughout the state.

Detroit Public School Control and Command Center

While millions of dollars are easily found to militarize public schools, teachers and students are told by Republican and Democratic politicians alike that there is no money for much needed resources like nurses, counselors and other support staff. These conditions have compelled hundreds of thousands of teachers to go on strike, in a wave of teachers struggles across the US and internationally. In every case, teachers have made the demand for more support staff a central issue, and in every case the unions have facilitated the ramming through of concessionary contracts that do nothing to address the fundamental issues.

Most recently in Oakland, in a state dominated by the Democratic Party, the union rejected demands by rank-and-file teachers to include opposition to budget cuts in the strike demands, even though the district planned to pay for any pay increases by slashing millions of dollars from educational services and closing schools. The contract the union hailed as “historic” left untouched the staffing ratios for nurses in the district, which currently stand at one for every 1,350 students.

The effect of these dual processes, the chronic underfunding of education and the further militarization of schools, has devastating effects on students. The ACLU report notes that there is no research to substantiate the claim that having police present in schools has any positive effect on delinquent behavior and school safety. On the contrary, the report notes that "in many cases, [the presence of law enforcement staff in schools] causes harm. When in schools, police officers do what they are trained to do, which is detain, handcuff, and arrest. This leads to greater student alienation and a more threatening school climate."

The ACLU found that schools where police are always present have reported 3.5 times as many arrests per 10,000 students as schools without police.

To the extent that the American government invests in public schools, hiring additional police is promoted by the political establishment as a necessary response to increasingly frequent school shootings. However, filling school campuses with cops does nothing to address the underlying societal ills that are the root causes of violent and antisocial crimes committed in the first place.

Student-to-social worker ratios

Outbursts of mass violence, along with other causes of early death among teens such as drug overdoses and suicides, are bound up with the growth of social inequality and the miserable conditions under which the bulk of the working class is living. Since the economic recession of 2008 and the decline of full-time employment that followed as a result of the restructuring of many major industries under the Obama administration, economic uncertainties in working-class families have no doubt plagued millions of children in the last decade.

Children in the US today are growing up in a country that has been at war during the entirety of their lives; wars that have destroyed entire societies and whose victims are treated with callous indifference in the bourgeois media. These experiences sweep into social consciousness in innumerable ways.

In fact, the ACLU report cites a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which found that the suicide rate among children ages 10 to 17 increased by 70 percent between 2006 and 2016. Approximately 72 percent of children in the US will have experienced at least one major stressful event—such as witnessing violence, experiencing abuse, or experiencing the loss of a loved one—before the age of 18.

Under such conditions, the need for school nurses, psychologists, and counselors can quickly become life and death questions for students.

The authors of the report note the substantial amount of research done on the benefits of having health care professionals trained to work with children in schools: “School counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists are frequently the first to see children who are sick, stressed, or traumatized.” The report goes on to state that “schools with such services see improved attendance rates, better academic achievement, and higher graduation rates as well as lower rates of suspension, expulsion, and other disciplinary incidents.”

The data cited in the report shows that school-based mental health and special learning needs services, when made available, improve the overall safety of schools and promote student participation in interactive educational initiatives.

The resources to provide all of these services and much more exist in society. However, to secure a healthy and productive learning environment for teachers and students requires a frontal assault on the wealth of the ruling class and the social and economic system it defends, capitalism.

The defense of public education requires a fight for socialism, which above all means the establishment of a society based on social need, not private profit, in which the wealth produced by the working class is owned and controlled democratically, and in which every individual has the right to an education, a decent job, a livable income, health care, a healthy environment, and access to culture.

Nationwide strike by primary school educators in the Netherlands

Harm Zonderland

More than 100,000 primary school educators joined a nation-wide strike in the Netherlands on Friday, March 15, closing more than 2,600 primary and several middle schools across the country. Some 40,000 teachers and support staff traveled to The Hague, where the Dutch parliament sits, to protest horrendous conditions in schools, low wages and high workload caused by years of austerity carried out by all the major parties.

The determination among educators to fight is part of a wave of teachers strikes spanning five continents and a rise in working class struggle around the world. There is a growing opposition after more than a decade of deep cuts to education budgets and other areas of social spending, overseen by the trade unions. In many cases educational spending has not returned to levels seen prior to the global financial crash of 2008 even as endless resources are spent to re-inflate the stock markets, military spending is massively increased and social inequality continues to rise.

The past year has seen strikes by educators across the US, in West Virginia, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana, involving over 450,000 teachers, the largest number in decades. In Latin America, teachers have struck in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina to protest against pension cuts and “school reform.”

Dutch teachers rally in The Hague Friday (Credit: AOb)

In Europe, teachers in Germany held a protest march in Berlin last month, Portuguese teachers joined a general strike and “Red Pen” teachers organized on Facebook in France supported “Yellow Vest” protesters against Emmanuel Macron. In Africa, teachers have struck in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe, against declining education budgets and school privatization. Indian teachers as well as teachers in Iran and Israel struck against poverty wages, in the face of state repression.

A recent nation-wide survey of 10,000 teachers in the Netherlands gave an indication of the conditions that have pushed them to the breaking point. They reported going to work while sick, described training one temporary teacher after another, and said they could not provide the individual attention and guidance pupils require. More than 80 percent of primary schools report a lack of substitute teachers, with 20 to 29 percent of job vacancies unfilled in 2018.

Indeed, on the day of the strike, news emerged of a primary school in the university city of Leiden forced to close its “Group 8” class, the highest class before students advance to middle-school, because there was no teacher for them. This is one of many such cases. Often children are transferred to other schools, increasing their class sizes and workload, or are put back down one class lower. Other schools have resorted to a four-day school week.

During the demonstration at The Hague, teachers gave short speeches and shared their own experiences, which painted a devastating picture of school conditions.

One teacher said: “I know children who are afraid to go to the toilet at school, because there is no money to have them cleaned.”

A primary school teacher from Almelo, near the German border, came to The Hague to call for more funding. “We can no longer provide individual attention to our pupils. We came here because the workload is way too high. We and other teachers are striking for a good cause.”

A trainee teacher from Amsterdam said she experiences high work pressure. “Classes are sent home regularly because there are no substitute teachers. In many cases, unqualified personnel teach pupils, trainees such as me.” She wants more funding for primary education, “to equalise wages with teachers in middle schools. It is strange that there is a difference.”

The teachers’ strike and demonstration were called by the Dutch Association of Teachers (AOb), part of the FNV union federation. Its aim is not to conduct a struggle against these conditions, but to dissipate anger even as the union continues to collaborate with the government’s austerity program. The teacher unions have overseen decades of cuts, including under the former Labour Party (PvdA) government.

The CNV education union, the FNV’s Christian counterpart, opposed any participation in the strike, declaring that they were still in negotiations with the government. The unions kept high school and university teachers on the job during the strike.

According to the AOb’s own figures some four billion euros are required in additional funding for education. However, the coalition government headed by Mark Rutte of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy has proposed an increase of just 270 million euros in this year’s budget.

Education Minister Arie Slob, of the Christian Union, declared his “sympathy” for the striking teachers, and proceeded to reiterate the government’s refusal to increase funding. “Financially, we already do a lot,” he said. “People want more, and that is alright. But this is the money we have, and I am trying to get it to them as soon as possible.”

Slob proposed to increase the annual budget per school by the paltry amount of 50,000 euros, up from the previously agreed 35,000 euros. This increase, assuming it actually materializes, would do nothing to resolve the crisis of staffing in most schools. In fact, the funding increase is being promised over the four-year budget and may never arrive.

There is immense anger against these conditions. But to conduct a struggle, this fight must be taken out of the hands of the union apparatus, which is determined, now that the strike is over, to work out a rotten deal with the government, just as they have for decades. Teachers should form workplace action committees in every school to outline the demands for what they and their students need, not what the government and the unions say is affordable. These committees should organize a real struggle and appeal for the broadest support from students, parents and the working class.

The fight by teachers against austerity places them in direct conflict with the entire political establishment, both the right-wing Rutte government and the Labour Party, and their allies in the trade unions. The PvdA’s record of cuts saw it punished by workers in the last elections, with its vote collapsing from 25 to 6 percent.

The entire political establishment declares that there is “no money” for schools, hospitals and social services, while the Dutch military saw its funding increased by 1.5 billion euros in the last budget. The government has pledged to meet the NATO-demanded military spending of 2 percent of GDP in coming years.

The fight against austerity and militarism being pursued by the European Union and capitalist governments around the world requires the fight for socialism and the taking of political power by the working class. Only in this way can the economy be reorganized according to social need, rather than private profit, and tens of billions poured into education, healthcare and other social services.

Median CEO pay in US tops $1 million a month

Patrick Martin

The median income for 132 CEOs of major US corporations jumped to $12.4 million in 2018, more than $1 million a month, according to an analysis published Sunday by the Wall Street Journal. The CEOs, representing about one-quarter of the S&P 500 firms for which figures have thus far been released, saw pay rises of about 6.4 percent apiece compared to 2017.

The CEO gains were driven by rising stock prices for the year, despite a sharp drop in December 2018, the worst December for the financial markets since the Great Depression. Assuming the pay rises for the remaining CEOs in the S&P 500 match those of the first group, 2018 would mark the third consecutive year of record CEO pay in the United States.

Bob Iger, CEO of Disney

Among the biggest payouts were $66 million for Robert Iger, longtime CEO of Walt Disney Co., $44.7 million for Richard Handler, CEO of Jefferies Financial Group, and $42 million for Stephen MacMillan, CEO of medical equipment maker Hologic Inc. Patrick McHale of Minneapolis-based manufacturer Graco Corp. made $34.9 million in 2018.

Some CEOs outside the S&P 500 received even bigger windfalls, topped by the $125 million for Nikesh Arora, a former Google executive who became CEO of Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity company, only in June 2018.

Corporate criminals like the CEO of Boeing and the heads of the major banks suffered no consequences from the devastation that their actions have caused for their own workers and the population as a whole.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg received $23.4 million after a year that ended with the crash of a 737 Max jetliner operated by Lion Air of Indonesia, killing 189 people. Two weeks ago, a second crash of a 737 Max, this time in Ethiopia, killed 157 people and led to the worldwide grounding of all the 737 Max 8 and Max 9 jets made by the company. Boeing stock plunged 10 percent, wiping out $25 billion in stock market value.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase

Among bankers, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase topped the list with $31 million, while Brian Moynihan of Bank of America received $23 million. Along with Goldman Sachs, these banks played central roles in precipitating the 2008 Wall Street crash.

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan saw a pay rise to $16.4 million, including his first-ever bonus, despite the company’s stock plunging 24 percent due to the scandal involving the creation of millions of false accounts for customers, leading to fines and regulatory penalties.

Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett received a 10 percent raise in 2018, raking in $17.75 million, while the company continues to slash jobs both in the United States and internationally. According to press reports, the Ford CEO received 276 times the median pay for all Ford employees. General Motors has yet to report the 2018 compensation for CEO Mary Barra, who made $21.9 million in 2017.

Jim Hackett, CEO of Ford

A study reported last month in the magazine Institutional Investor found that median CEO pay at major US corporations has soared over the past four decades—from $1.8 million in the 1980s to $4.1 million in the 1990s, reaching $9.2 million in the early 2000s.

Following a drop after the 2008 Wall Street crash, when CEO compensation was driven down by falling share prices, the combined compensation from pay, stock options and bonuses for corporate bosses has returned to the level that prevailed before the financial crisis. In contrast, most workers have seen no significant recovery.

CEO pay has risen nearly 72 percent since the low point in 2009 and is now just 3.3 percent below the record levels set in 2007, on the eve of the financial collapse. According to the study reported in Institutional Investor, CEO pay grew 17.6 percent between 2016 and 2017 alone, while average pay for workers rose by only 0.3 percent.

The ratio of CEO pay to the pay of the average worker has risen from 20-1 in 1965 to 30-1 in 1978, 58-1 in 1989, 112-1 in 1995 and a record 344-1 in 2000. After the dip following the 2008 crash, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio rose back to 312-1 in 2017.

One corporate CEO’s record pay package deserves particular attention: Daniel Loepp, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the largest insurer in the state, covering the majority of autoworkers and other industrial workers, as well as auto retirees. Loepp has seen his annual compensation rocket from $1 million in 2006, when he became CEO, to $9 million in 2015, $13.4 million in 2017 and $19.2 million in 2018, including a staggering bonus of $16.2 million.

Daniel Loepp, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Loepp’s bonus was “only” $10.4 million in 2017, and the $5.8 million raise in his bonus was due to meeting “performance targets” set by the corporate board. These targets included slashing corporate expenses by $360 million over the past three years, through cuts in jobs and employee compensation. Loepp also pushed through a cut in the health care coverage for Blue Cross retirees, who had expected, having worked for a health care company, that their benefits would be secure.

Loepp is by far the best-paid chief executive officer of a company that is still nominally not-for-profit—but posted an “operating margin” last year of $605 million—and which, because of its longstanding relationship with the auto industry, the UAW and the AFL-CIO, has eight union executives on its board of directors.

These union officials approved the bonus and other compensation for Loepp and set the “targets” that Loepp had to meet, which were achieved by cutting the jobs and benefits of Blue Cross Blue Shield workers, many of them members of the UAW, as well as benefits for workers insured by the company, which is the principal health insurer for unionized workers across the state.

The Detroit Free Press contacted the eight union officials, including those from the UAW, Michigan Education Association, Michigan Building Trades Council, and Michigan AFL-CIO, to question them about the basis for Loepp’s whopping bonus and raise. Seven did not respond, while the Teamsters Union representative on the board of directors defended the $19.2 million payout.

William Black, executive director of Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43, said in an email to the newspaper: “We at the board are sensitive to compensation issues, and we have emphasized that pay be tied to performance... His compensation is heavily weighted against company performance, as it should be. That performance has been very strong in recent years.”

This statement underscores the scurrilous and thoroughly corrupt role of the unions in supporting the profit system and the gouging of union members to enrich the capitalists and the corporate bosses. The union executives have far more in common with Loepp than with the workers they claim to represent. In institutions like the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, the union officials preside over multibillion-dollar corporate entities with salaries and bonuses that are modeled on those of the Loepps, Hacketts and Jamie Dimons.

The New Zealand terrorist attack and the international danger of fascism

Tom Peters

The death toll from last Friday’s fascist terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand was revised upward to 50 over the weekend. The youngest person killed was a three-year-old boy. Thirty-four people remained in hospital on Sunday, with 12 in a critical condition, including a severely injured four-year-old girl.

People throughout the world are horrified by the cold-blooded, racist massacre, which targeted defenceless Muslim men, women and children while they were praying. Tens of thousands of people joined vigils over the weekend in New Zealand and internationally to show solidarity with the victims and their families and to defend Muslims, immigrants and refugees.

New Zealand police are now saying that Australian-born, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant was the only gunman and had no assistance from others. He has appeared in court on murder charges. Authorities in both New Zealand and Australia claim that he at no time came to the attention of either the intelligence agencies or the police, and was therefore not under any form of monitoring

This attempt to portray Tarrant as a disturbed “lone wolf,” and especially the claim that he was “off the radar,” is simply not credible. The 74-page manifesto issued by Tarrant makes clear that he prepared and carried out the terrorist atrocity on behalf of an international network of fascists and white supremacists, with whom he had openly collaborated for several years.

Tarrant’s manifesto is a modern-day Mein Kampf. It combines calls for genocidal violence and civil war to force non-European “invaders” from Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand—including all people of Muslim, Jewish, African, Asian and Roma background—with pathological hatred of socialism. It is steeped in the white racist and ultra-nationalist nostrums of “blood and soil” that animated Nazism and other fascist movements in the 1920s and 1930s.

The gunman wrote that he had “donated to many nationalist groups and… interacted with many more.” Since 2012, he has visited Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, France, the UK, Spain, Turkey, Pakistan and even North Korea, as well as returning to Australia and traveling to New Zealand.

He claims he decided to turn to terrorism during a two-month tour of Europe in 2017 and following the defeat of the far-right National Front in the French election. Tarrant contacted the so-called Knights Templar, an organisation allegedly linked to Norwegian fascist mass murderer Anders Breivik, and asserts that he received its “blessing” for the Christchurch attack. He was active on ultra-right social media and blogs and joined a gun club not long after arriving in New Zealand. He declared that he chose New Zealand as the country to stage his attack in order to demonstrate that “nowhere in the world was safe” for “non-whites.”

If all of this did go “under the radar” of security agencies around the world, Tarrant’s manifesto provides one explanation as to how. He boasted that fascist groups are deeply integrated into the state apparatus, the military and the police. He wrote: “The total number of people in these organisations is in the millions… but disproportionately employed in military services and law enforcement. Unsurprisingly ethno-nationalists and nationalists seek employment in areas that serve their nations and community.” [Emphasis added]. Tarrant estimated that “hundreds of thousands” of European soldiers and police belong to “nationalist groups.”

The Christchurch attack—and the conceptions that inspired it—must be taken as a deadly warning by the international working class and progressive sections of the middle class. It is the product of the deliberate cultivation, at the highest levels of the capitalist state in country after country, of the most extreme right-wing nationalism. As the working class internationally comes forward in a mass, resurgence of class struggle against unprecedented levels of social inequality and the danger of war, the ruling class is once again, as it did in the 1920s and 1930s, seeking to use fascist forces to divide, intimidate and suppress the opposition to the bankruptcy of capitalism and the nation-state system.

Political parties and individuals espousing views that are not far from those of Brenton Tarrant can be found in the governments and parliaments of every European country, in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and in the US Congress and White House.

In Germany, Merkel’s coalition government has adopted the policies of the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which sits on the opposition benches of the German parliament. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer lined up behind a neo-Nazi demonstration in Chemnitz last September, saying he would have marched alongside the fascists if he had not been a minister. The then-president of the German secret service, Hans-Georg Maassen, likewise defended the Chemnitz mob and denied its blatant anti-immigrant and fascist character.

A secret right-wing terrorist network has been exposed within the German armed forces, with hundreds of members. The network, whose members have been protected by the judicial system, had detailed plans to murder prominent figures in the government and attack Jewish and Muslim organisations.

In the US, both the Democrats and Republicans have sought to scapegoat immigrants for the social crisis in America. They both use racial politics in an effort to divide the working class.

President Trump, whom Tarrant described as “a symbol of renewed white identity,” has sought to nurture a fascist constituency. In a message of solidarity to his fascist base, Trump told reporters after the Christchurch attack that he did not consider “white nationalism” a threat. Two days before the New Zealand massacre, he made a clear threat to mobilise his supporters in the military, police and thuggish groups like “Bikers for Trump” against his opponents, telling Breitbart News that they were “tougher” than the “left.”

This followed the arrest in February of fascist US Coast Guard officer and Trump supporter Christopher Paul Hasson, who planned to kill prominent African-American and Jewish individuals and members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

In the weeks leading up to the Christchurch attack, a campaign of slander was unleashed against left-wing critics of the Israeli government’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, was branded an “anti-Semite” for pointing to the influence wielded by the pro-Zionist lobby over both parties. This campaign echoes the witch-hunt accusing UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and hundreds of Labour members of “anti-Semitism,” which is aimed at delegitimising and purging left-wing opposition to British imperialism.

In Australia and New Zealand, where politicians are making hypocritical statements condemning racism and violence, the establishment has, since 2001, demonised Muslim refugees as a threat and potential terrorist fifth column, and blamed immigration for every social problem.

The New Zealand First Party, which controls the ministerial portfolios of defence and foreign affairs in the Labour Party-led coalition government, has repeatedly demanded measures to stop “mass immigration” from Muslim and Asian countries—using language not very different from that used by Tarrant and other right-wing extremists.

The barbaric attack in Christchurch underscores the warning made by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in its January 3, 2019 statement: The Strategy of the International Working Class and the Political Fight Against Capitalist Reaction in 2019. While fascism is not yet a mass movement, it is receiving support from sections of the ruling class, the state and the establishment media.

Extreme right-wing organisations, the statement noted, have been allowed to “exploit demagogically the frustration and anger felt by the broad mass of the population.” It stressed: “All historical experience—and, in particular, the events of the 1930s—demonstrates that the fight against fascism can be developed only on the basis of the independent mobilization of the working class against capitalism.”

The ICFI has spearheaded the struggle to bring the crucial lessons of history to bear in the struggle against the promotion of fascist forces in Germany, across Europe and internationally.

This fight is at the centre of the election campaign by its European sections and a series of public meetings across the United States titled “The Threat of Fascism and How to Fight It.” The meetings will be addressed by Christoph Vandreier, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany and author of the book Why Are They Back? Historical Falsification, Political Conspiracy and the Return of Fascism in Germany.

The ICFI must be built as the leadership of a unified, international and socialist working class movement capable of preventing the horror of fascism from overtaking society on an even greater scale than in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.

AIMS/Mastercard Foundation Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund ($10,000 Seed Grant) 2019

Application Deadline: 18th March 2019

Eligible Countries: African countries


About the Award: The MCF – SIEF aims to better prepare AIMS Mastercard Foundation scholars and alumni with knowledge and skills to innovate and generate creative solutions to social challenges. Participants will collaborate and create inspirational entrepreneurial projects that contribute to improving their lives and that of others.
The program brings together Mastercard Foundation Scholars, alumni and other AIMS Scholars and alumni to learn how Design Thinking works and how to apply it to real-world challenges. Participants will work on a specific design challenge in one of the following broad areas:

Improving existing livelihoods;

Enabling diversification of income; or

Creating dignified and fulfilling work (jobs).

By the end of the program, participants will have developed innovative entrepreneurial solutions ready to be pitched to others.

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: The applications are open to AIMS Mastercard Foundation Scholars, Alumni and other AIMS students based in Rwanda who are interested in being catalysers of socio-economic transformation. Applicants should be interested in learning how to become creative problem solvers and be committed to generating innovative entrepreneurial solutions to help improve their lives and those of others.
Applicants can apply as individuals or in teams of 2-3 people. At least one individual (preferably the one assuming the position of team leader) per application should be a Mastercard Foundation Scholar or Alumni.

Applicants can apply to the program with OR without an existing solution idea.

• Applicants who do not have an existing idea but are passionate and committed to solving a social challenge can generate a new idea as they go through the program.
• Applicants that already have an existing solution idea in mind should be flexible to adapt it as they go through the program’s facilitated process of innovation.

All applicants must be able to attend all training sessions and dedicate time additionally to continue developing their solution ideas

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:

• Skills and knowledge in Design Thinking and social innovation
• Certificate of completion for participants attending all training sessions
• Seed funding grants of up to $10,000 for winning solutions
• Mentorship support for winning solutions
• Opportunity to collaborate with other Mastercard Foundation Scholars and Alumni

Duration of Programme: 

• 21 March: Accepted students will be notified
• 29 March: Training sessions start
• 17 May: Training sessions end
• 31 May: Final Challenge
• June – July: Follow up and mentorship support

How to Apply: 

• If you are applying as an individual, click here: http://bit.ly/SIEFIndiv
• If you are applying as a team, click here: http://bit.ly/SIEFTeam

• It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage (see link below) before applying

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition 2019 for Secondary/University Students ($700 Prize+More)

Application Deadline: 14th April 2019

Eligible Countries: All


About the Award: The International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition gives you the unique opportunity to show your knowledge and astronomy skills! The IAAC is the biggest online astronomy competition for students from all countries. Win awards and cash prizes worth over 700 USD or become official IAAC ambassador in your country!

Type: Contest

Eligibility:

• You have to be a high-school or university student to participate in IAAC 2019. There are two age categories:
  • Junior: under 18 years on 14. April 2019 (submission deadline)
  • Youth: over 18 years on 14. April 2019 (submission deadline)
• Students from all grades and all countries are invited to participate!
• You should be smart, open-minded, and creative to solve the science problems.

Selection: 

1. Qualification Round: The qualification round 2019 consists of five astronomy problems and you can submit your solutions online until 14. April 2019. All participants receive certificates.
2. Pre-Final Round: Successful participants can register for the pre-final round: You have one week to solve the ten challenging problems of the pre-final round.
3. Final Round: Successful finalists can participate in the final round: You will take a supervised exam of 60 minutes. The winners receive certificates and cash prizes worth over 700 USD.

Value of Award: Successful participants receive many certificates, awards, cash prizes, and honors:

• All Participants: Official Participation Certificate
• All Finalists: Special Finalists Certificate
• 1. Prize: 200 USD Cash Prize, Special 1. Prize Certificate
• 2. Prize: 150 USD Cash Prize, Special 2. Prize Certificate
  
• 3. Prize: 100 USD Cash Prize, Special 3. Prize Certificate
• Special Regional Awards:
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of Africa
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of Europa
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of Greater Middle East
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of South Asia
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of South East Asia
  • 1, 2, 3. Regional Award of America

We understand the crucial role of teachers and schools for scientific education. Because of that, we award several school awards to honor the efforts of the teachers and the schools:

• IAAC School Award for Most Participants: This award receives the school with the most overall participants of the qualification round to honor the efforts of the teachers for encouraging students to participate in scientific competitions.
• IAAC School Award for Most Finalists: This special award receives the school with the most students that have shown an outstanding performance and have participated in the pre-final and/or final round.
• IAAC School Award for Excellence: This award receives the school with many outstanding students that have achieved high results throughout the overall competition to honor the quality education in general.

The IAAC Network: Winners and former participants of IAAC become automatically part of the IAAC network: This network consists of outstanding and talented students from all around the world!

How to Apply:     Participate Now

• It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage (see link below) before applying

Visit Programme Webpage for Details