Ford to close Bridgend engine plant in Wales, eliminating 1,700 jobs

Robert Stevens

Ford Motor Company this week announced the closure of its Bridgend engine plant in south Wales, with the loss of 1,700 jobs. The plant is scheduled to close by September of 2020, inflicting a devastating blow to workers and their families in an area decimated by decades of deindustrialisation.

The Bridgend plant was opened in 1980 after Ford was offered incentives to invest by the outgoing Callaghan Labour government.

The closure is part of Ford’s global restructuring programme, with Ford of Europe President Stuart Rowley stating, “Changing customer demand and cost disadvantages, plus an absence of additional engine models for Bridgend going forward, make the plant economically unsustainable in the years ahead.” The company indicated that it plans to step up production of hybrid rather than petrol engines.

Workers at the plant were given no notice. They were sent home Thursday after receiving a letter saying they will lose their jobs in phases by September 25 of 2020. According to some employees, Ford could start making redundancies as nearly as Monday next week.

One of the workers told ITV News that “quite a lot of us relocated from Southampton to Bridgend when they shut the place.” He added, “There’s not going to be anything left is there?”

Ford closed its Southampton plant, which manufactured transit vans, in 2013, with the loss of 500 jobs. The firm shifted production to Turkey, boasting that its costs would be “significantly lower” than in Western Europe.

The move to full closure comes only months after Ford announced last January that it was cutting 1,000 jobs at Bridgend, with 370 going in the first wave.

Ford produces over a million engines annually at two UK locations—Bridgend and Dagenham in Essex (which makes diesel engines.) As part of an integrated global production network, petrol engines made at Bridgend are shipped to Ford production facilities overseas for use in the Focus and Kuga models.

A major factor in the closure was the upcoming end of a contract for larger engine production for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) models. Engine production for JLR stems back to 2008, when Ford sold off both Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors and agreed a contract to produce the engines in Wales. But in 2017, JLR announced it would start producing all its engines in-house at its plant in Wolverhampton from 2020.

Bridgend was to produce the new Dragon three-cylinder 1.5 litre engine from this year, but demand for it is dwindling. The plant was equipped with capacity to produce 750,000 Dragon engines annually, but predicted volumes fell first to 250,000, then to 125,000, and, according to reports, to just 80,000 now. As a consequence, since 2016, Ford has slashed planned investment at Bridgend from £181 million to £100 million.

Ford is not abandoning the Dragon, but will shift production in a cost-cutting operation—under its One Ford global strategy—from Wales to its plants in India and Mexico that already make them. Dragons are also produced in Brazil, China and Russia.

Ford claimed that the UK’s planed exit from the European Union was not a factor in its decision. However, Ford and other car manufacturers have repeatedly warned of the danger of the UK crashing out of the EU in a no-deal Brexit and stressed that loss of tariff-free access to the Single Market would imperil their myriad cross-border supply operations.

Due to a lack of demand, with a glut of vehicles on the global market, the number of cars built in the UK in April fell by almost half compared with the previous year. The fall was compounded as several manufacturers operating in the UK, including Nissan, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover, brought forward summer production stoppages in anticipation of a Brexit, which was ultimately postponed until October 31.

The Bridgend announcement follows Ford’s move last month to shed 550 office and management jobs in Britain as part of 7,000 white-collar jobs going worldwide.

Closure of Bridgend signifies an acceleration of Ford’s global restructuring, following the bringing on of a new chief financial officer from online retail conglomerate Amazon, a company notorious for the super-exploitation of its workforce. In April, Ford announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs in Germany. It also plans to close plants or consolidate its operations in France, Russia and Brazil. It is cutting thousands of jobs in China in response to a decline in vehicle sales, which fell by 40 percent.

The unions have reacted with feigned outrage at Ford’s decision. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey stated that the union would “resist this closure with all our might.” Speaking as would a corporate executive, he declared the closure “a grotesque act of economic betrayal” to the “manufacturing base” after “Ford broke promise after promise to the UK.”

Deliberately promoting economic nationalism in order to drive a wedge between British workers and their counterparts throughout Europe and around the world, he added, “The company has deliberately run down its UK operations so that now not a single Ford vehicle—car or van—is made in the UK.” McCluskey complained that it was “easier and quicker to sack our workers than those in our competitor countries.”

Neither strikes nor any other forms of industrial action are being organised by the union. Unite’s phony “resistance” is focused on a bankrupt “call upon the governments at the Welsh Assembly and Westminster to join us to save this plant, and to prevent yet another grave injury to UK manufacturing.”

McCluskey’s demagogy belies everything Unite and the other unions have already done in preparing the way for the closure, including collaborating with the firm to impose whatever “voluntary” redundancies it demanded.

In January, Walesonline reported that the unions would be party to a Ford presentation outlining how the company planned to cut the workforce over the next two years. At the time, Ford said it would work with its “union partners” and other key “stakeholders” to implement a “comprehensive transformation plan aimed at strengthening the Ford brand.” The company added: “The strategy will result in fewer jobs—both hourly and salaried—but it is premature to speculate on how many, as we have just begun discussions with our Works Council and union partners… [W]e aim to achieve the reduction in labour costs through voluntary employee separations and will be working closely with social partners and other stakeholders.”

This rotten process, carried out behind closed doors—with workers kept in the dark—has resulted just a few months later in a plan to scrap the entire plant. The unions are concerned only to cement their status as reliable “partners” of management and the government.

GMB regional organiser Jeff Beck said the announcement was a “real hammer blow for the Welsh economy and the community in Bridgend.” He insisted, “Regardless of today’s announcement, GMB will continue to work with Ford, our sister unions and the Welsh Government to find a solution to the issue and to mitigate the effects of this devastating news.”

In a nationalist diatribe, he declared, “What makes it worse is Donald Trump is in this country talking about a possible trade deal with the UK and the US—yet if the plant does close, the new line is likely to be produced in Mexico by an American company… So much for the special relationship, Mr Trump!”

To survive in a dog-eat-dog industry, Ford operates on a global playing field, always seeking to increase profitability at the expense of its workers’ jobs, wages and conditions, as demonstrated by its plans to shift Dragon engine production to cheaper sites in India and Mexico. All of the global automakers are conducting job-cutting campaigns like Ford’s. GM is slashing 14,000 jobs, Volkswagen 7,000, Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover is cutting 4,500 and Tesla is slashing 3,000.

Workers can oppose these corporations only by developing an internationally coordinated campaign to defend their jobs and living standards. This fight can be waged only in a struggle against the nationalist programme of the unions.

The unions are not working class organisations and do not function in defence of their members’ interests, but rather in the interests of the companies and the “manufacturing industry.” As all international experience in the car industry and elsewhere demonstrates, if the struggle against job losses is left in the hands of the unions, the Bridgend plant will close.

To avoid this devastating outcome, it is imperative that workers at Ford Bridgend take the fight to defend their jobs out of the hands of the unions and assert their own class interests—not those of the corporations—via the formation of independent rank-and-file committees. This must be based on mounting a common offensive in defence of their jobs and livelihoods alongside car workers in Britain and internationally.

Australian police chief links media raids to US-led “Five Eyes” spy network

Mike Head

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) called a news conference on Thursday to justify its raids targeting journalists at two media organisations this week.

Police spent seven hours ransacking a News Corp political reporter’s home in Canberra on Tuesday, and eight hours poring over and seizing files at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Sydney headquarters on Wednesday.

Acting AFP commissioner Neil Gaughan [source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation]

In an extraordinary admission, the AFP’s acting commissioner Neil Gaughan blurted out that the real reason for the raids was to protect the information that the Australian police and intelligence agencies receive from their “Five Eyes” counterparts. Five Eyes is a top-level network of intelligence agencies dominated by the US that also includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

“The Australian government, or particularly the Australian enforcement and intelligence communities, rely on secret and top-secret information from our international partners, particularly our Five Eyes partners,” the police chief said. “If we can’t be seen to protect our own internal information, [then] we are concerned that the information flow to us dries up.”

Citing government demands for investigations into leaks of secret information, Gaughan said the AFP received “numerous referrals to us [of leaks] and to be honest we get too many. But the premise of investigating these matters is to ensure the international community knows that we take the leaking of information, sensitive information, seriously.”

In other words, the AFP is under pressure not just from Canberra, but from Washington, to ensure that information, including about criminal actions of governments and its agencies, is kept from public view. This takes place amid the Trump administration’s mounting threats of war against Iran and Venezuela, as well as its escalating confrontation with China.

The AFP search warrants related to leaked documents exposing war crimes perpetrated by the Special Air Service (SAS) in Afghanistan and plans to legalise domestic mass surveillance by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), which are both central to Five Eyes operations.

Gaughan’s remarkable declaration went virtually unreported throughout the establishment media in Australia and internationally. His admission vindicates the analysis made by the WSWS on Thursday:

“[I]t is inconceivable that the Australian government would have instigated and pursued the investigation of the ABC and Murdoch media journalists without the agreement, if not urging, of Washington. Both the SAS and the ASD surveillance agency are closely integrated into all the wars and war preparations of the US.”

Gaughan’s statement also underscores the warnings made by the WSWS that the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for exposing the war crimes, mass spying and regime-change operations of Washington and its allies, including Australia, is setting a precedent for the criminalisation of journalism.

By specifically targeting journalists, as well as whistleblowers, the Australian government is following the lead of the Trump administration. The US has charged Assange, a journalist and publisher, with multiple counts under the Espionage Act, for which he faces life imprisonment.

At his press conference, Gaughan refused to rule out laying charges against News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst or ABC reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark for publishing alleged “national security” secrets. Such charges against journalists would be without precedent in Australia since World Wars I and II.

In a pointed warning, Gaughan said “no sector of the community should be immune” from police investigations into alleged law-breaking. Gaughan said the police are probing the “publication” of documents marked “secret” and “top secret,” placing journalists and publishers squarely under threat of prosecutions.

The AFP is investigating breaches of the Crimes Act, which criminalises unauthorised disclosures by public servants, and also contains offences that apply to journalists. Journalists, as well as alleged leakers, can be jailed for up to seven years. Dating back to World War I, the legislation outlaws “receiving” information that “prejudices the security or defence” of Australia.

But, asked what was the harm of revealing wrongdoing by Australian troops or plans to extend spying laws, Gaughan said the substance of the reports was “irrelevant.” The mere disclosure of protected information was a crime. He bluntly stated: “The issue of whether or not the public has the right to know is really not an issue that comes into our investigation process.”

The Crimes Act provisions were recently replaced by even more far-reaching measures embedded in the “foreign interference” legislation that the Liberal-National government pushed through parliament at Washington’s urging late last year, supported by the Labor Party. The maximum penalties were increased to 10 years’ imprisonment. However, the new laws could not be applied to the current cases, because the alleged leaks occurred in July 2017 and April 2018.

Gaughan tried to refute accusations that the AFP was acting at the government’s behest. He denied that the police had waited until after the May 18 federal election to execute warrants and claimed no contact had been made with the government since the AFP informed Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton when the investigations first began.

These claims fly in the face of the facts. The government itself instigated both AFP investigations, and the Labor Party fully supported it in doing so. And Dutton and other government ministers immediately defended the raids. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked at a press conference if he was bothered by police raiding journalists’ homes, he replied: “It never troubles me that our laws are being upheld.”

Above all, as Gaughan himself revealed, the raids were mounted to satisfy the Five Eyes powers, which means the US above all. Successive governments, both Liberal-National and Labor, have committed Australia to be a key partner in this network as part of its military alliance with the United States.

The police raids are part of a global crackdown on freedom of speech, including in the US and other countries, such as France, where governments are taking the Trump administration’s repressive lead.

This assault is targeted directly at the basic right of the working class to know the crimes, war plans and conspiracies of the capitalist ruling elites and the state apparatuses they control. It is being mounted amid growing struggles by workers around the world against soaring social inequality and declining living and working conditions.

The Australian police chief’s open threats highlight the urgency of the worldwide campaign being waged by the WSWS and the Socialist Equality Parties for the defence of Julian Assange and the jailed whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Their plight is a test case in the struggle against the lurch toward war and dictatorial forms of rule.

Austrian ruling class closes ranks following collapse of government

Markus Salzmann & Peter Schwarz

The Austrian ruling class is closing its ranks following the recent collapse of the far-right-conservative government. On Monday, the Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, swore in a “government of experts,” which he personally selected and is responsible for government affairs until fresh parliamentary elections this autumn. The new regime is supported unreservedly by all the parties represented in the Austrian lower house of parliament (National Council).

The government of experts has two functions.

Firstly, it has the task of instilling political calm in the country and ensuring that the massive opposition to the collapsed right-wing government does not find independent expression. In gushing tones, Van der Bellen, a former federal spokesman for the Green Party, stressed the theme of national unity during the swearing-in process. In a period of domestic turbulence, Austria had proved its resilience, he said, thanks to “the courage expressed in the national anthem and the ability of Austrians to communicate with one another.”

Secondly, the new regime is to continue the right-wing policies of the toppled outgoing government and enable the widely discredited Freedom Party (FPÖ) to return to government after the election. A secretly filmed video in Ibiza, which triggered the government crisis, made clear that the FPÖ chairman and vice-chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, was guilty of bribery and corruption.

The new federal chancellor is 69-year-old Brigitte Bierlein, the former president of the country’s Constitutional Court. The lawyer, regarded as “conservative in values” and right-wing, is reported to have good contacts with the FPÖ and the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). In 2002, she was appointed vice-president of the Constitutional Court by the then ÖVP-FPÖ government. Her promotion to head of the court two years before her planned retirement was thanks to the FPÖ.

Van der Bellen tried to disguise the right-wing character of the new transitional government by stressing that a woman was now heading the Austrian government for the first time. He was happy about this and “made no secret of the fact” that for the first time a woman was heading a government in which half of its members were female. “In the future,” the president said, “nobody can say anymore, ‘That's not possible.’ ”

The Foreign Ministry has been taken over by Alexander Schallenberg, the “eminence grise” ( Der Standard ) of Austrian foreign policy. The 49-year-old, who comes from an aristocratic and diplomatic family, has had a long diplomatic career. He is regarded to be a close ally of ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP). Previously, he was active as a leading representative for Austria in Brussels and has played a major role in shaping the country’s foreign policy, including under ÖVP-FPÖ rule.

The character of the transitional government is most clearly shown by the new infrastructure minister, Andreas Reichhardt. In 2003, the Freedom Party politician was deputy leader of the cabinet and spokesperson in the Transport Ministry headed by Hubert Gorbach (FPÖ) in Austria’s first far-right-conservative coalition government. In 2008, photos turned up showing Reichhardt as member of a far-right fraternity wearing a uniform while standing next to Strache and a convicted neo-Nazi.

The new interior minister is Wolfgang Peschhorn. Peschhorn is former president of the Financial Procurator and has the job of implementing a severe austerity programme. The lawyer is regarded to have played the leading role in the nationalisation of the Hypo Alpe Adria Bank. Following the financial crash of 2008, millions of euros were diverted from the national budget to save the collapsed bank. The Alpe-Adria crisis also demonstrated the close links between high finance and the country’s right-wing governments and parties.

Taking over as defence secretary is Thomas Starlinger, who has served as the main military advisor to the president since 2017. With the appointment of the 56-year-old major general, Van der Bellen, whose party was originally recruited from sections associated with the peace movement, has laid the basis for much more military influence in politics.

Prior to his move to the presidential office, Starlinger was the vice-chief of staff at the multinational NATO command centre in Ulm, which oversees military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa. From 2003 to 2007, he worked for the Austrian military mission at the European Defence Agency in Brussels.

A military man also headed the Defence Ministry in the interim government (which lasted just five days) appointed by Van der Bellen following the parliamentary vote to oust Chancellor Kurz. Deputy Chief of Staff Johann Luif has links with all the main political parties, and in particular the FPÖ. According to the Austrian Kurier newspaper, “He was on good terms with both Doskozil (Austrian Social Democrat, SPÖ) and Kunasek (FPÖ).” Between 2003 and 2016, Luif was military commander in the Austrian state of Burgenland, which was led by a FPÖ and SPÖ coalition.

Leading FPÖ politicians have praised the new government. On Monday, the new leader of the FPÖ, Norbert Hofer, thanked President Van der Bellen and Chancellor Bierlein for their prudent conduct and constructive discussions in recent days.

Hofer explained that the FPÖ would prove to be a reliable partner for the new government when it came to advancing the interests of Austria and its people. Ex-Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, an FPÖ hardliner, wished “all the best to the designate transitional government in its work.”

“I am confident that the ministers selected by designate chancellor Brigitte Bierlein will continue to run the administration well before the opportunity for new political changes following elections this autumn,” Kickl said. “It is now important for us to make the principles and arguments of the FPÖ to reshape our homeland Austria as visible as possible. It was FPÖ ministers who set the pace in government and implemented the main reform projects.”

There are many signs that after the elections, both the ÖVP and the SPÖ will be prepared to form an alliance with the far-right. ÖVP leader Sebastian Kurz and other prominent ÖVP politicians have already made comments to this effect.

Support for an alliance with the extreme right is also increasing inside the SPÖ, which is already in coalition with the FPÖ at state level. Recently in parliament, SPÖ Secretary Thomas Drozda gave a wink to Kickl indicating his readiness for talks, despite the fact that the latter had formerly severely criticised the SPÖ. The scene was broadcast on Austrian television the same evening.

Ukrainian president seeks support from Western powers

Jason Melanovski

Newly elected Ukrainian President and former comedian Volodmyr Zelensky headed to Brussels this week to meet with EU and NATO officials in an attempt to shore up support for his government among the imperialist powers. The trip marked his first official foreign visit.

During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday, Zelensky made clear that his pre-election, equivocal statements on Ukraine’s entrance into the EU and NATO were a ploy intended to gain the support of voters in the predominately Russian-speaking areas of the country where opposition to NATO membership remains especially high.

“The strategic course of Ukraine to achieve full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO, which is secured in the Constitution of Ukraine, remains unchanged. This is the priority of our foreign policy,” Zelensky declared this week. Previously, he had implied that any prospect of Ukraine joining NATO and the EU was far in the future and would be subject to voter approval through a national referendum.

While stating that he was willing to hold talks with Moscow over the pro-Russian separatist movement in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass, Zelensky also made clear his commitment to winning and maintaining the support of the US and its European allies at Russia’s expense.

“We are ready for the negotiations with Russia. We are ready to fulfill the Minsk agreements,” Zelensky said, adding, “But first of all we must be able to protect ourselves. I am grateful for the support Ukraine receives from the Alliance and allies.”

In a separate meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk, Ukraine’s new president indicated his support for the continuation and intensification of the EU’s anti-Russia sanctions.

“I today informed Mr. Donald Tusk and other partners about ongoing Russian aggression in Donbass and Crimea. I expressed my gratitude for the EU’s unchanged position in support of Ukraine and called for further consolidation of international efforts and strengthening of sanctions pressure in order to bring peace to Ukraine,” said Zelensky.

Prior to winning the presidency, Zelensky met privately with French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly to discuss ending the five-year old war in Eastern Ukraine that has claimed over 13,000 lives. Since his election, he has increasingly decried Russian “aggression.”

Zelensky also used his trip to Brussels to reaffirm his commitment to implementing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) austerity policies. Distancing himself from comments made by Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky that the country should snub the IMF and default on its massive external debt, on Twitter Ukraine’s president stated that he told EU officials his administration had “nothing in common” with Kolomoisky’s views. His advisors have made clear in recent weeks that Ukraine will remain in the current $3.9 billion IMF program, which requires drastic hikes in the price of consumer gas.

In his efforts to drum up support among the Western powers, Ukraine’s president increasingly finds himself enmeshed in the growing tensions between the United States and the EU, in particular Germany.

In a meeting with EU officials in May, Zelensky appealed “for the EU’s solidarity in the matter of countering the completion of Nord Stream 2” gas pipeline, which threatens to undercut Ukraine’s position as the main transit country for Russian gas to Europe by transporting supplies directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

There is significant fear within the Ukrainian ruling-class that should Nord Stream 2 be completed as planned, support for Ukraine’s entrance into NATO and the EU within Europe would be significantly weakened. Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, called the Nord Stream 2 a “Trojan horse” which would make Europe dependent on Russia.

NATO member Poland has backed Ukraine in its opposition to the pipeline, with Poland’s Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz stating that the pipeline “will kill Ukraine.”

Germany, which supported the so-called “Maidan Revolution” against elected President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, would be the main beneficiary of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The infrastructure project would ensure that Germany would receive Russian gas regardless of its policies towards Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe.

The pipeline has been a central component of the rapidly escalating tensions between Washington and Berlin. President Donald Trump, despite being depicted as a subversive Russian-agent by Democrats, told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “to stop buying gas from Putin.”

US officials have also threatened Germany with sanctions over the pipeline. A bi-partisan bill that would target companies working on the project was introduced into the US Senate by Republican Senators Ted Cruz, John Barrasso and Tom Cotton and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has so far refused to budge on the Nord Stream 2 issue and adopt the rabidly hostile posture demanded by Zelensky and the United States. “Geostrategically, Europe can’t sever ties with Russia,” she recently told Deutsche Welle .

This week, a Zelensky advisor revealed that Trump has invited Zelensky to Washington after the upcoming G20 summit in Japan later this month. “Zelensky has been given a certain credibility from the United States,” he said.

Prior to the Ukrainian elections in April that brought to Zelensky to power, the United States ruling class tacitly supported the continuation of the Poroshenko regime, with Washington-based think tanks such as the Atlantic Council issuing warnings about Zelensky’s business ties to Russia through his TV production company.

Subsequent to Zelensky’s election, Kurt Volker, the United States Special Representative to Ukraine, in an interview with Hungary’s Valasz news magazine, sent a veiled threat that a negotiated deal between Ukraine and Russia would not be tolerated.

Zelensky “will insist on the full restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and he supports the process that is already in place to do that. Doing otherwise would turn people against him very quickly,” said Volker.

Zelensky’s first official trip took place as criticism is already beginning to appear in Ukraine that his presidency does not substantially differ from that of Poroshenko.

This week, two Ukrainian policemen were arrested for killing a five-year old boy in Kiev while drunkenly shooting their weapons at empty cans.

The boy, Kyrilo Tlyavov, was initially brought to the hospital in the capital with claims by police that he had fallen and hit his head. The story proved to be made up, with doctors finding bullet fragments in his skull. The head of the police force where the incident took place has resigned.

In Kiev and around the country there have been rallies calling for the removal of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who controls the country’s police forces. Avakov so far has refused to step down. Zelensky, who has already removed several Poroshenko-allied ministers, has not moved against Avakov. He has instead called for an investigation of the official on his Facebook account.

The interior minister is said to have a close relationship with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who openly backed Zelensky against Poroshenko in another saga of the long-running, inter-oligarchic disputes that continue dominate Ukrainian politics.

US coal producer Cloud Peak Energy files for bankruptcy

Zachary Thorton

Wyoming-based Cloud Peak Energy has become the latest major US coal producer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that threatens the livelihoods of over 1,200 workers and their families.

The company is the third-largest producer of coal in the US. It operates three mines, two in Wyoming and one in Montana, in the largest coal mining region of the country, the Powder River Basin. In 2017, Cloud Peak was responsible for 7.4 percent of total US production, after Peabody Energy (20.2 percent) and Arch Coal (12.9 percent). Both Peabody and Arch filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

On May 10, Cloud Peak submitted its Chapter 11 filing in Delaware following wide speculation that the company was preparing to do so. With a $1.8 million interest payment due on March 15, the company did not make its payment and was granted a 30-day grace period. By May 8, Cloud Peak was issued its third forbearance, giving the company three days to make its payment or default. Extensions following the grace period were gradually reduced from two weeks, to one week, to just a few days.

The bankruptcy of Peabody Energy in 2016 followed a similar course, with the company submitting its own filing after the expiration of a 30-day grace period for a $71 million interest payment on its debt.

On March 27, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Cloud Peak due to poor performance. The company’s third quarter report released on October 25, 2018 revealed a 15 percent reduction in coal shipments compared to the same period the previous year.

The insolvency of the company has coincided with savage attacks on coal miners. Last August, management announced it would be cutting health care benefits for its retirees. Worker Anne Zollinger, who retired last May after dedicating twenty years to Cloud Peak, expected to receive a paltry $600 a month, but now receives only $250. Speaking to Wyoming Public Media, she said, “I put my time in, worked safely for over twenty years and now I don’t have what was promised to me.”

Companies seeking to offset their losses by attacking the pensions and benefits of workers and retirees is a well-established principle within the industry. When Patriot Coal, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, filed for bankruptcy in 2012, it sought to discharge health care and pension obligations for more than 2,000 active union miners and more than 10,000 retirees. Alpha Natural Resources, which filed for bankruptcy in 2015, was determined to cut medical and life insurance benefits for non-union retirees, impacting up to 4,580 workers and their spouses, as well as 6,670 future retirees.

The United Mine Workers (UMW) union has long overseen the erosion of workers’ gains through the betrayal of strikes at AT Massey, Pittston, Peabody and other coal companies in the 1980s and 1990s and the imposition of one concession after the other. This facilitated the shell game of changing company names, mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcies that have robbed retirees of their hard-earned pensions.

Richard Trumka, who oversaw the defeats of what was once the most militant section of the American working class, was rewarded with the highest position in the AFL-CIO, while his right-hand man, Cecil Roberts, has run what remains of the UMW since 1995. The union, which had 160,000 working coal miner members in 1978, has fewer than 50,000 members today and a large number are not miners.

A recent court ruling has established a precedent that could allow mining companies to shred collective bargaining agreements. In February, Westmoreland Coal Company, which operates mines in the US and Canada, was given the go-ahead to eliminate health care benefits for retirees and their union contract after a Texas bankruptcy judge ruled in the company’s favor.

While Cloud Peak miners face devastating losses, the executives, investors and advisors are walking away from the bankruptcy proceedings unscathed and oftentimes substantially wealthier. For navigating the process, Cloud Peak’s CEO, Colin Marshall, was granted a one-time “retention” bonus of $1.15 million in addition to his annual salary of $765,000, and any additional annual bonuses and compensation he might receive. The company’s other top executives each stand to pocket annual payouts of $2 million or more.

In its Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cloud Peak reported that it will be offering over $16 million in bonuses and incentives for “key” executives, and $40.2 million in “professional fees” for the bankers and advisors guiding the company through bankruptcy.

Cloud Peak’s insolvency is in part the result of financial incompetence, particularly the squandering of a $300 million cash investment on a mining project in 2012 that today remains at the permitting stage. However, more importantly, it is an expression of the overall decline of coal production in the US. Coal has been hit by the sharp decline in the price of natural gas—which is roughly on par with coal—and most of all, the slowing of demand due to the crisis of American and world capitalism, which has been exacerbated by the trade war between the US and China.

The 2008 financial crisis has left lasting effects on the coal industry and the economy as a whole, and although coal managed for a time to weather the storm, by 2011 coal prices had peaked. A January 30 report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that more than half of the US coal mines operating in 2008 have since closed.

Schneider Electric lays off over 300 in Peru, Indiana

Michael Walters

Schneider Electric has announced the closure of its Square D production plant in Peru, Indiana, 80 miles north of Indianapolis, destroying more than 300 jobs. The French multinational says approximately 70 percent of the plant’s production will be moved to Monterrey, Mexico, with the remainder shifted to plants in Texas and the US East Coast.

Corporate executives claimed the closure was necessary due to “competitive market dynamics and to meet the needs of Schneider Electric’s customers.” In reality, the closure is only necessary to meet profit goals for the investors.

Schneider’s 2018 profits were $2.73 billion, and CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire pocketed an estimated $7 million (€6.2 million) in compensation, according to Bloomberg.

The closure takes place amid a global assault on jobs and record corporate profits. Ford is expected today to announce the closure of its British engine plant in Wales, wiping out 2,000 jobs. This is the latest cut by global automakers, which have announced tens of thousands of layoffs since late last year in the face of declining sales and mounting signs of a new global recession.

Schneider Electric (Credit: WikiMedia Commons)

In the first half of 2019, six employers in Indiana have fired over 2,200 workers. As one of the largest employers in Miami County, Indiana, Schneider’s closure of the plant will have a devastating impact on the town of 11,000. Since 2017, the plant has cut 120 jobs, almost 25 percent of its workforce. The area already suffers from a 14 percent official unemployment rate with the real rate much higher due to the number of workers who have dropped out of the labor force.

Recent closures by KMart and Shopper Value Foods in the area have already hit working-class communities with the loss of ancillary jobs and tax revenue, and this is expected to lead to local governments slashing education and other vital services.

Schneider Electric purchased the company Square D in 1991. In 2014, after a 13-day strike, the workers at the plant were forced to accept a concessions contract that froze their pensions and switched them to a 401(k) defined contribution plan. The contract pushed by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and its 2017 successor gave the workers below-inflation pay raises. However, these concessions and the string of layoffs were not enough for Schneider’s corporate investors.

The closure of the Peru facility was first announced in February 2019. Since then, the local government and the IAM have groveled before Schneider, offering tax incentives as well as wage and benefit cuts in exchange for keeping the plant open.

Tony Wickersham, a representative for the IAM, told the Kokomo Tribune, “We made proposals to show the company some additional savings that might have them change their minds to stay, and they’re still intent to close. We tried to show them how much savings we could create through different means, but they’re moving the plant.”

Echoing Trump’s national chauvinism, IAM President Robert Martinez sent a letter to Indiana politicians calling Schneider Electric a “French multinational company that has no regard for the talent or skill of American workers in Peru.” Martinez, who receives more than half a million dollars in annual compensation, goes on to cite that IAM members at the plant make an average of $24.55 while workers in Mexico earn $3.49 an hour on average for doing the same work.

Far from fighting to unify US and Mexican workers in a common fight against the multinational corporations, the unions have long peddled economic nationalism to demand endless sacrifices from workers in the name of improving “competitiveness” and corporate profits. The enemies of US workers are not Mexican, Chinese or any other workers, but the capitalist profit system, which subordinates the jobs and living standards of workers for the endless enrichment of wealthy investors and corporate executives.

The company employs 130,000 people in over 100 countries. Last year, workers in India struck against Luminous Power Technologies—owned by Schneider—to fight unsafe working conditions. Maintenance workers employed by Schneider in Australia also struck at the Melbourne Airport against company plans to introduce a two-tier system with new employees hired at a substantially lower wage rate.

Earlier this year, Mexican workers at the maquiladora auto parts and electronics factories carried out strikes in opposition to the company-controlled unions and marched to the US border to unite with their American counterparts. Conditions are arising for a unified, international struggle against plant closings and mass layoffs.

Sri Lankan Muslim ministers resign amid growing threats of anti-Muslim violence

K. Ratnayake

Nine Muslim ministers of the Sri Lankan government resigned on Monday in response to renewed threats by fascistic Buddhist monks, Sinhala racists and other reactionary elements to violently attack the country’s minority Muslim population.

The resignations followed a provocative “fast unto death” protest on Saturday by Athuraliye Rathana, a Buddhist monk and Sri Lankan parliamentarian. Rathana demanded the removal of cabinet minister Rishad Bathiudeen and the governors of the Western and Eastern provinces, Azath Salley and M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, who are all Muslims.

Rathana has made unsubstantiated claims that these individuals assisted the Islamic extremist National Thowheeth Jamma’ath (NTJ) group which carried out the terrorist attack on Christian churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on April 21. His protest is in line with the ongoing efforts of Sri Lanka’s ruling elite to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment. Rathana is an advisor to President Maithripala Sirisena.

Representatives of the Sirisena-led faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) met with the fasting monk on Saturday and expressed their solidarity with his demands, as did officials from the SLFP faction led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse. The Rajapakse-led opposition group also tabled a no-confidence motion against Bathiudeen in the parliament encouraging chauvinist groups to step up the anti-Muslim campaign.

On Sunday, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, who leads the fascistic Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) group, met with Rathana and declared that if his demands were not carried out by noon the next day there would be nationwide protests. On Monday, monks organised racist thugs in Kandy, Colombo and several other towns in preparation for violence.

Following the April 21 terror attacks, tens of thousands of troops and police have been mobilised in search operations and indiscriminate arrests in Muslim areas, but nothing has been done to stop racist mobs threatening violence.

On May 12 and 13, Sinhala racist groups attacked Muslims in the north-west and at Minuwangoda in the western province destroying property, killing one individual and injuring many others. Police and military officers turned a blind eye to the anti-Muslim attacks.

On Monday, Azath Salley and M.L.A.M. Hizbullah sent their resignations to Sirisena who then appealed Rathana to end his provocative protest. He promptly obeyed. Later that day cabinet minister Bathiudeen submitted his resignation.

Addressing a press conference, key cabinet minister Rauf Hakeem appeared with other Muslim ministers and declared that all nine ministers had decided to resign in order to protect the Muslim community, which had been “terrified” by the escalating threats. He said the ministers wanted the government to expedite an inquiry into any allegations against the Muslim leaders. “If any of us are found guilty, we should be punished,” he declared.

Hakeem said that the Muslim ministers would continue to support the government as elected MPs until the investigation ended. The decision of the Muslim political leadership, who are part of Colombo establishment and have backed the government’s repressive measures, will only encourage the Sinhala racist and Buddhist extremist groups.

The ever-increasing threats against Muslims are a warning to the entire Sri Lankan working class. Every faction of the ruling elite is systematically using Islamophobia to divide the working class along ethnic and religious lines as part of its preparations for autocratic forms of rule.

The Sri Lankan ruling class is infamous for its use of Sinhala chauvinism against the Tamil minority to divide the working class and defend capitalist rule. Its anti-Tamil discrimination and pogroms culminated in the 30-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It was provoked in 1983 by the then United National Party (UNP) government, to divide the working class and break its resistance to Colombo’s “open market” restructuring.

While the Sri Lankan ruling elite and the media continues whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria, it is a fact that the defence establishment was warned in advance by Indian intelligence that a terrorist attack was planned for April 21. Evidence is now trickling out that a section of the government leadership also knew about the impending disaster but allowed it to occur.

Sri Lankan government and defence authorities have not provided any explanation for their inaction but have used the attack to impose a draconian state of emergency and deployed armed forces with sweeping powers throughout the country. Muslims have been ordered to provide information about the “terrorists” and Muslim women’s traditional attire, including the burqa and niqab, has been banned.

The Colombo media, which fully backs these repressive measures, is maintaining a vile anti-Muslim campaign, publishing inflammatory and sensationalist articles about the police and military raids and violent arrest operations.

The real target of all these repressive measures is the working class. The rising wave of workers’ strikes and protests over the past six months has been subdued by the government’s so-called anti-terror campaign, with the backing of trade unions and the pseudo-left. This is only temporary.

In December, over 100,000 plantation workers held a nine-day national strike to demand the doubling of their daily basic wage. In March, 200,000 teachers held a one-day national strike and were preparing for a two-day strike in May. Rural unrest has been developing and students have been involved in ongoing protests against the privatisation of education.

Terrified by this opposition to the government’s austerity measures, President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Rajapakse have all been preparing for authoritarian methods of rule. All factions of the ruling elite are now using the bogus campaign to “defeat the international terrorism” to support police-state measures.

Sirisena is systematically promoting anti-Islamic groups and on May 23 granted a presidential pardon for BBS general secretary Gnanasara and released him from prison. Gnanasara was serving six-year jail term for contempt of court. The BBS is notorious for its provocations against Muslims and Christians. In March 2014, Gnanasara instigated violent attacks on Muslims at Aluthgama and adjoining small towns. Scores of properties were destroyed, four Muslims killed and many others injured in the mob attacks.

Last week Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told a Jaffna meeting that his government would “show no mercy to those who sow the seeds of communal disharmony to achieve their political ends.” He claimed to have intelligence information about attempts to create violence and the individuals involved.

Wickremesinghe’s posturing is bogus. The UNP-led government and its political allies support the anti-Muslim hysteria and have passed a number of laws strengthening the military and the state apparatus.

The Rajapakse-led faction is likewise fanning the anti-Muslim campaign, while denouncing the government for “weakening” the military and its intelligence wing, and claiming that this paved the way for terrorist attacks.

Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) hopes to win government with the backing of section of the military. The SLPP has announced that its next presidential candidate will be the former president’s brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the former defence minister. He was responsible for the bloody final phase of the war against the separatist LTTE and also ruthlessly mobilised the military and the police to suppress struggles by workers and the poor.

On Monday, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce secretary Dhara Wijethilake wrote to the defence secretary and army commander, voicing his concerns about the danger of mob attacks. The letter declared, “As the highest-ranking official vested with responsibility for the maintenance of law and order, we expect you will ensure that all necessary measures are taken to maintain peace, law and order...”

Wijethilake’s “law and order” letter is another indication that Sri Lankan business chiefs will not hesitate to demand the military be used against the working class as it comes into conflict with the government and corporations.

Sri Lankan workers must seriously take stock of the situation. The working class must resolutely oppose the anti-Muslim campaign of the ruling elite and all its emergency rule measures and fight for unity of the workers across ethnic and national lines. Workers must take the initiative to build action committees in workplaces, large estates and neighbourhoods and call for support from youth, students and the poor.

The drive to dictatorial rule can only be defeated through the independent mobilisation of the working class in the struggle for a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement socialist policies as part of struggle for international socialism. This is the program the Socialist Equality Party fights for.

Military junta launches counter-revolution in Sudan

Jean Shaoul

The counter-revolutionary bloodbath launched by the junta in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman ongoing since Monday has killed some 100 people, including an eight-year old child, and injured hundreds more.

The number of victims includes 40 bodies pulled from the Nile River that the army dumped there. But with many protestors still unaccounted for the final total is likely to rise. A Sudanese journalist on Britain’s Channel 4 cited a former security officer who said that some of those thrown into the Nile had been beaten or shot to death and others hacked to death with machetes, declaring, "It was a massacre."

Victims of Monday’s massacre

The bloodbath is part of a broader move by the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to forcefully close down the protests and sit-ins in Khartoum and throughout the country. The TMC had seized power on April 11 after months of mass protests, in a preemptive coup against the 30-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir in a bid to preserve the military-dominated regime.

It is a prelude to a bloody military dictatorship along the lines of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s Egypt, with the full backing of Washington’s reactionary and ruthless regional allies, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. It was el-Sisi, then the Defence Minister in the elected government of Mohammed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood-led government, who led the murderous assaults on pro-democracy demonstrators in Cairo in 2013.

On Tuesday, TMC chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, announced the cancellation of a three-year power-transfer deal tentatively agreed with opposition leaders organized under the umbrella of the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC). Instead, it would hold elections in nine months’ time under “regional and international supervision.”

The Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), one of the groups within the AFC, rejected the move, accusing the junta of a “systematic and planned” crackdown. Calling for the “overthrow of the military junta,” they urged demonstrators to return to the streets for Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan, to honour those killed on Monday and to “demonstrate peacefully” in a nation-wide “civil disobedience” protest.

The SPA also called for an international inquiry into the killings, rejecting the junta’s investigation. It is opposed to early elections which, if indeed they are held, would likely be rigged and/or dominated by ousted dictator President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP), the only organised political party with the resources to mount an election campaign.

On Monday, the TMC had cut off electricity to the central area of Khartoum and country-wide access to the internet, before deploying convoys of heavily armed members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to guard the entrances to the bridges across the Nile and patrol the streets around both cities.

The RSF, previously known as the Janjaweed and notorious for their brutal suppression of the uprisings in Darfur and the east of the country, is controlled by the TMC’s deputy leader, Lieutenant General Hamdan Dagalo (known by his nickname “Hemeti”), who has ambitions of stepping into al-Bashir’s shoes. He was given carte blanche to unleash a general carnage.

Dagalo’s forces used live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas to break up the more than five-month-old sit-in outside the country’s defense ministry in Khartoum, where tens of thousands of Sudanese had encamped demanding an end to military rule and the transfer of power to a democratically elected government. They then set about demolishing the barricades, beating up anyone who resisted, with protestors shouting in disbelief, “During the month of Ramadan?”

Videos on social media show the military shooting and beating unarmed, defenceless civilians and setting fire to the tents. One soldier was filmed shouting to other soldiers, "Kill them, kill the child of the dog.” There were also reports of the paramilitary forces raping women.

Much of Khartoum is now under lockdown. One resident told the BBC, “We have reached the point where we can't even step out of our homes because we are scared to be beaten or to be shot by the security forces.” Another said members of the Janjaweed had pulled him from his car and beaten him on his head and back.

The TMC justified its crackdown with ludicrous claims that the security forces were pursuing “unruly elements” who had fled to the protest site and were causing chaos. The RSF’s Major General Othman Hamed accused the sit-in of attracting prostitutes and hashish sellers and demonstrators of throwing stones at soldiers.

The Sudanese Doctors’ Committee, a supporter of the SPA that has played a key role in organizing the protests, appealed for "urgent support" from international humanitarian organisations to help the wounded. It said that it was struggling to cope, with people being treated on hospital floors, while soldiers patrolled outside, preventing doctors and even volunteers from entering.

According to witnesses, the RSF and the military had looted and destroyed property in hospitals and threatened doctors and medical workers with reprisals if they treated the wounded.

Video clips showed troops beating medical staff at Khartoum’s Royal Care Hospital, in some cases so severely that they too needed hospital treatment. They demanded the evacuation of all the patients. Soldiers arrested one of the doctors, Waleed Abdullah, after shooting him in the leg. One Sudanese doctor told the Middle East Eye web site, “If they know I'm a doctor, they will arrest me,” while another said it was “chaos everywhere.”

The assault on the protest had been openly prepared for days after negotiations between the junta and the civilian opposition popular alliance broke down over whether a military or a civilian figure would head a joint military-civilian regime during a proposed three-year transitional period in preparation for presidential elections.

Demonstrators had remained in the streets, rejecting the protracted transition and demanding an immediate end to the ruling junta. Last week, the country was paralysed by a two-day general strike called by the SPA.

The murderous crackdown began just after the TMC chief al-Burhan and deputy Dagalo’s tour of the three countries--Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE--that have backed the junta and are Washington’s chief allies in the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE had already pledged $3 billion to prop up Sudan’s junta. The quid pro quo is the dispatch of Sudanese troops to support Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s near-genocidal war against Yemen. After the meeting in Riyadh, Dagalo declared that “Sudan stands with the kingdom against all threats and attacks from Iran and the Houthis [Yemen’s anti-Saudi rebels].”

The military junta’s brutal crackdown gives the lie to the treacherous line of Britain’s Socialist Workers Party, which backed its sister party, the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists’ (RS) support for the Egyptian military’s ouster of Mursi, that paved the way for el-Sisi’s bloodbath and repression that have been even more ferocious than that of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

RS’ Hossam al-Hamalawy, writing in SWP’s monthly journal Socialist Review,called for Sudan’s revolutionaries to negotiate and ally with the lower ranks of the officers and among soldiers, and seek their participation.

The SPA and AFC, under the influence of the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), are seeking to build a broad popular alliance of workers with political parties and armed groups, the same groups that have dominated Sudan since independence, to form a civilian-led transitional government. The notion that such a government--in a country dominated by a small, wealthy clique—would be capable of resolving the enormous social and economic problems confronting Sudanese workers is a dangerous illusion.

Egypt’s revolutionary struggles contain enormous political lessons, obtained at a terrible price, for the working class throughout the Middle East and North Africa where there is a growing movement of strikes and demonstrations by workers in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

The only way to establish a democratic regime in Sudan is through a struggle led by the working class, independently of and in opposition to the liberal and pseudo-left forces in the middle class who will stop at nothing to block a social revolution, to take power, expropriating the regime’s ill-gotten wealth in the context of a broad international struggle of the working class against capitalism and for the building of socialism.

Whither Indo-Pacific?

Sandip Kumar Mishra

At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this June, the US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan released the US Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. The subtitle of the report talks about the US goals of "preparedness, partnerships and promoting a networked region," and the 55-page report appears to be a new and clearer vision of the US Indo-Pacific strategy.

A few important points reveal themselves at the first reading. One, the Indo-Pacific strategy appears to have been accorded more priority in US foreign and defence policies, with the report stating that the Indo-Pacific is a "priority theatre" for US interests. In fact, it goes on to say that the "Indo-Pacific is the single most consequential region for America’s future."

Two, the US strategy is now going to be more overt in contending with China. For example, the report openly alleges that China "seeks to reorder the region to its advantage by leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce other nations." This posture comes in the wake of unending US-China trade disputes, China’s visible move to alter the economic order of the region through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea (SCS), and non-cooperation with the US in the denuclearisation of North Korea.

Three, the US Indo-Pacific strategy is aimed at involving more like-minded countries rather than being just a quadrilateral network among the US, Japan, Australia, and India. For example, the strategy envisages a more active role for Southeast Asian countries. This ties back to the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver asking ASEAN countries during his visit to Kuala Lumpur in April 2019 to aim for a code of conduct (CoC) in the SCS that would be "consistent with existing international laws and norms." The report indicates that the US will reach out to Taiwan, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam more proactively to convince them to fight for a free and open SCS, as around US$ 5 trillion worth of global trade passes through it. China, in recent years, has built military installations on around seven islands in the SCS. Thus, a horizontal expansion of the Indo-Pacific network is another important motive of the newly released strategy. However, this does not imply that the quadrilateral network would be diluted in the process.

Four, the US Indo-Pacific strategy is going to become more stringent in the implementation of Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs), and for that the US will provide technical assistance to willing Southeast Asian states. Under its Maritime Security Initiative, the US plans to provide ScanEagle 2 Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) to several countries free of cost, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It is interesting to note that the US is ready to give concessions to these countries despite its Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which restricts arms supply to those countries that do business with Russia in the defence domain.

The US Indo-Pacific Strategy Report is an important US statement on regional politics, and it says in clear terms that this strategy will be more focused, prioritised, horizontally expanded, but non-compromising. It will, in all probability, further intensify US-China contestation for regional influence. However, its efficacy and success are not certain. First, a horizontal expansion of the strategy may lead to a less cohesive approach, and there could be more varied shades of the same strategy pursued by different countries. Second, many of the regional countries are not going to be comfortable with the aggressiveness inherent in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. Third, Southeast Asian countries are more diverse than the report assumes them to be. They are not so likely to be willing members of any overt counterbalancing strategy vis-à-vis China. Several of these countries recently sent their warships to China when on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Navy, Beijing displayed its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

Overall, the US Indo-Pacific Strategy Report is significant development on matters that relate to regional security equations, but it is yet unclear as to how it could play out. Through the report, the US has shown its firmness against China’s 'revisionism', and China, in return, has also shown a similarly uncompromising stance. It is now time to witness how other countries of the region respond to it, which will play a big role in how the strategy unfolds.