US unemployment up 26 million in five weeks

Evan Blake

An additional 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of people who have filed jobless claims over the past five weeks to 26 million. Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.1 million people were already unemployed in the US, meaning that roughly 33 million are now officially unemployed, or over 20 percent of the labor force. The social impact of the pandemic on the US has in some ways already dwarfed that of the 2008 financial crisis, and the unemployment rate is rapidly approaching that of the height of the Great Depression in 1933, roughly 25 percent.

As of Thursday, there were 880,204 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49,845 deaths in the US, with cases and deaths continuing to grow rapidly.

The official unemployment figures, while staggering in themselves, are known to be a significant underestimation of the true levels of unemployment in the US. Approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants live in the US and are barred from applying for unemployment benefits. An untold number of these workers have been laid off, cast into destitution without any supports whatsoever.

Together Omaha food pantry workers load supplies into a vehicle driving up to the pantry in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

In addition, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of workers have been unable to navigate the complicated online application process, which in some states such as Michigan is the only possible way to apply, as phone applications have halted. It can take days and hundreds of call attempts just to speak with someone. For those whose claims are denied, there is no simple appeals process in most states, and little if any assistance is provided to help these workers.

Millions of workers whose claims have been approved have yet to receive any actual payments. In this regard, the most egregious state has been Florida, where less than 16 percent of all claimants who filed since March 15 have received benefits.

In Ohio, claims for the supplemental $600 provided by the federal government through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program will not be processed until May 15. Pennsylvania only began accepting applicants for this program a few days ago and has not said when benefits will be paid.

For the millions of Americans that have yet to receive unemployment benefits, most are facing financial ruin. A January survey by Bankrate found that only 41 percent of Americans had enough saved to cover a $1,000 emergency. Millions face the prospect of eviction or sliding deeper into debt, which will only compound the immense suffering wrought by the pandemic.

A particularly stark expression of the rapid growth of mass poverty in the US has been the miles-long lines at food banks in cities across the country, as millions now struggle to afford food for their families.

Similar processes are unfolding on a global scale, with the number of unemployed rising astronomically in every country. On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) warned that up to 265 million people around the world are in danger of starvation and death stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jay Bryson, acting chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co, told Bloomberg News that the number of weekly unemployment claims is beginning to slow down, but “if we open up too soon and this coronavirus comes roaring back then we may in fact see those sorts of numbers again.”

As states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Minnesota and Montana already begin to reopen their economies, amid growing calls by sections of the media and political establishment for a nationwide reopening without adequate safety measures in place, the ruling class is pursuing policies that threaten to produce a mass upsurge in the number of cases in May, with ensuing mass deaths shortly thereafter.

Efforts to quickly reopen the economy are driven solely by the profit motive, and the mass unemployment levels are being used as a cudgel to try to force workers to toil in unsafe conditions. In most states, if workers refuse work that is available, they become ineligible for unemployment benefits, placing enormous pressure on them to return to work despite facing unsafe conditions.

In the White House press conference Thursday, in response to a question about mass unemployment in the US, Trump stated, “I think our economy will start to pick up very substantially as soon as the states start to open.” He went on to make the threat, “They’re going to get back to work, and very fast.” At Monday’s press conference, Trump acknowledged that his administration is working to exempt corporations from legal liability for workers that contract COVID-19.

Georgia began to reopen barbershops, nail salons, tattoo parlors, gyms and other businesses today, with restaurants scheduled to reopen on Monday, under orders from Republican Governor Brian Kemp. More than 860,000 unemployment claims have been filed in the state since mid-March, costing over $500 million.

Employment lawyer James Radford commented to Reuters, “I think that one of the big drivers of this decision by Kemp is to get people off unemployment rolls and having the private sector keeping these people afloat.”

In the drive to restart the economy, capitalism is presenting the working class with the false dichotomy: return to work facing lethal conditions that put you and your family at risk or accept economic ruin with no social safety net whatsoever.

Workers in the US and internationally must reject the mounting calls for them to either return to work facing unsafe conditions or be thrust into abject poverty without any future. The only alternative path, which will become ever clearer in the eyes of millions, is that of socialist revolution. By taking control of the situation and seizing the wealth of the financial aristocracy, the working class can rapidly implement the measures necessary to contain the pandemic globally, provide safe working conditions to all essential workers, and ensure the health and well-being of all those whose labor is not essential.

Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) program 2020 for Young African Developers

Application Deadline: 13th May 2020

About the Award:  The aim of this program is to continuously engage with aspiring and existing developers to help them become professional developers with skills that can get them opportunities after the program.
To continue advancing through the sessions to get access to more courses and mentoring, you’ll need to prove you’re dedicated to learning these tech skills. You can do this by:

• Registering for your selected track
• Completing all requirements to advance to the next phase
• Participating in Andela challenges and meetups when you can

Advancing to each subsequent phase will help you master in-demand Google developer skills with expert-authored Pluralsight content. You’ll gain skills that can help you get opportunities after the program. 
Learners who complete the program may be eligible for an opportunity to take a Associate Android Developer or Associate Cloud Engineer Google certification exam with the certification exam fee paid for by Google.

Type:  Training

Eligibility: In order to participate in the Google Africa Certification Scholarship program, you must be at least 18 years of age and be a resident of a country in Africa.

Selection: Acceptance into this program is limited, so get started today to ensure you don’t miss out! Applicants will be prioritized for advancement based on onboarding survey completion, amount of Pluralsight content consumed and other target demographics.

Eligible Countries:  African countries

To be Taken at (Country):  Online

Number of Awards:  Not specified

Value of Award:  The Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) program gives you free access to Pluralsight course content plus support from the Andela Learning Community in your chosen skills development track. After completing your desired track, you may be eligible to receive a Google certification grant to take Google’s Associate Android Developer or Associate Cloud Engineer certification exams. Mobile web learners will not be eligible for certification.

How to Apply:

• Register at this link and meet the program criteria.
• Take the Andela onboarding survey with the same email you used to register on Pluralsight. Make sure to select which track you’re focusing on.
• Watch one or more hours of Pluralsight content in the track you chose.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

How the Acceleration of Death Precipitated by Covid-19 Exposes State Crime

Neve Gordon & Penny Green

It did not take long. Three weeks after the outbreak, the Hungarian parliament conferred formidable executive powers on prime minister Viktor Orbán, allowing him to rule by decree. Israel was even faster. Immediately after the government announced a nation-wide lockdown, the Justice Minister barred the courts from convening, a move that indefinitely postponed the corruption hearings against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, in Chile the government sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters.

The introduction of emergency measures to address the Covid-19 crisis is undoubtedly necessary, but numerous governments have also exploited the pandemic to undermine democratic principles, violate human rights and perpetrate crimes against citizens and migrants.

Yet the pandemic has not only unleashed new state crimes; it is also exposing underlying and largely hidden crimes. Like an earthquake that shatters a city, filling the streets with debris and leaving only the bare infrastructure exposed, Covid-19 has been uncovering the structural violence that states have instituted against their own populations. Also like an earthquake, the destruction and death in the pandemic’s wake are neither inevitable nor entirely natural.  

Structural Violence as State Crime

Despite being less visible than violence employed by state agents, such as the police, military and security forces, structural violence is nonetheless lethal. This form of violence is embedded in social institutions and policies and tends to harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. It often leads to many fatalities, while disproportionately affecting specific populations.

People frequently fail to recognise that the violence emanating from social structures is a manifestation of state crime, which, in our research, we define as a form of violence that involves human rights violations perpetrated by states to advance organisational goals. They don’t see this criminality because structural violence tends to precipitate social death, which is gradual, and therefore fails to generate the kind of visceral shock we are currently experiencing as the pandemic spreads across the globe.

The attritional violence perpetrated against the Rohingya in Myanmar—initially through stigmatization and the denial of access to education, livelihood and health care—was, for instance, effectively hidden from view. It was only after the genocidal violence of 2017 that Myanmar’s systemic violence was widely exposed for the world to see. Similarly, Covid-19 has illuminated the structural violence informing our societies through its acceleration of death.

Indeed, local newspapers in the worst affected countries immediately began reporting on their own health services, providing countless graphs of government investment in healthcare infrastructures and personnel. In the UK we learned that there are only 2.5 hospital beds and  only 2.9 doctors per 1,000 people, compared with an OECD average of 5.4 and 3.4 respectively. A connection was then drawn between the Tory’s austerity policies and the mounting body bags, and the British people could readily see that their government’s policies kill.

Exposing existing inequalities

The fatal consequences of treating healthcare as a commodity rather than as a basic right and of distributing healthcare unevenly within society have now become devastatingly clear. Although data is still limited, the claim that Covid-19 is an equalizer, killing the rich and poor, black and white alike is simply untrue. Numbers released on April 7 suggest  that in Chicago, black Americans account for 68 percent of the city’s 118 deaths and 52 percent of the roughly 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, despite making up just 30 percent of the city’s population.

The fact that African Americans are dying at double the rate of their percentage in society underscores their systematic marginalization, a strategy characteristic of most forms of state crime. And while structural racism may be more pronounced in the United States, preliminary data in the UK suggests that  black people are significantly over-represented in Intensive Care Units.

In a similar vein, the representation of the elderly during the crisis reveals that they are perceived as dispensable, while the pandemic has also laid bare how poverty renders people more exposed. Poor people have neither the resources to cope during this crisis, nor do they have a safety net to catch them.

Of course the situation in the global south will likely be much worse. Wide scale exploitation of resources, political corruption, repression and poverty create an intensified vulnerability to ‘natural’ disasters like earthquakes, floods and pandemics.

Adam Hanieh, points out that this disaster is largely human-made. The poor state of public health systems across most countries in the South, which tend to be underfunded and lacking in adequate medicines, equipment, and staff are due to ‘the subordination of poorer countries to the interests of the world’s wealthiest states and largest transnational corporations’.

UK State Crime and the pandemic

Social and economic structures are rarely understood as state crimes, because crime is generally perceived as a discrete act defined as criminal by law. But, as we have witnessed in the past few weeks, austerity measures that starved the NHS of necessary resources, while not formally illegal, have led to many unnecessary deaths and should be considered a crime.

Thus, the acceleration of death precipitated by Covid-19, while wreaking its own havoc, is also exposing the structural crimes of our governments. Although welfare packages—unthinkable just two months ago—will help some people get through this crisis, the most vulnerable remain without support. What we need now is to dismantle the very structures that precipitate the crimes. What we need, at the very least, is a Green New Deal.

Combating COVID-19: Bangladesh Perspective

Saifur Rahman Saif

Hotchpotch is my favourite food. But hotchpotch in service is not good, rather more than bad. In combating COVID -19, hotchpotch is seen everywhere in Bangladesh.

Theft of relief materials by ruling Awami League men has become a regular phenomenon in the country. Shortage of testing kits for COVID -19 is another problem.

American national Sally Dugman, who is noted writer, in an email to me expressed her deep concern about the matter.

In her email, sent about a week back, wrote – I read a few weeks ago data about different ways that different countries are equipped or not so to confront Covid-19. I was appalled that your country was at the utmost bottom of the list with only ten virus test kits for every one hundred thousand people of whom many of those thousands may need the test.

This being the case made me angry and very sad. In fact, I find this condition intolerable since it, obviously, is, she continued.

Professor Dr Anwar Hossain, vice-chancellor, Jashore University of Science and Technology, who leads a folk of researchers to test COVID -19 cases, also expressed his worry about the matter to me. `We’ll not be able to continue tests of COVID -19 if kits are not supplied in time,’ he told me on Wednesday.

The university, in its laboratory, has already been tested over 250 samples since April 17, after having government’s approval for testing of pandemic COVID- 19, the VC informed me.

Noted virologist Nazrul Islam told New Age, a popular newspaper, ‘though six weeks have passed since the first confirmed case, we are still in the dark about the prevalence and trend of the infection due to unorganised testing methods.’

‘It is still unpredictable about when the country will reach the peak of infections due to the faulty method and low number of tests,’ he told New Age.

10 more people died of COVID-19 and 390 more got infected with the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours till 8:00am on Wednesday.

With the new figures, the death toll rose to 120 and the number of infections rose to 3,772, said Directorate General of Health Services additional director general Nasima Sultana in the daily bulletin on COVID-19 situation, New Age reported.

I saw folks of people at several places outside their residences across the country although the country is enjoying a lockdown.

Jobayer Hossain, assistant teacher, Government BL College in Khulna divisional town described the folk as a fair like gathering.

Trader Selim Hossain told that he did not observe social or physical distancing at market places in Nawapara industrial town in bordering Jashore district.

KM Rafiqul Islam, executive magistrate and also assistant commissioner, in -charge of Abhaynagar land office, however, told me that the mobile court was trying hard to maintain social distancing.

The Guardian reported that the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research said that it had recorded a total of 3,772 cases so far.

With a population of 160 million, including close to 1 million Rohingya refugees, but with reportedly just 1,100 intensive care beds, Bangladesh is apparently ill-prepared for the Covid-19 outbreak, according to The Guardian.

In these circumstances, stranded foreigners are being taken to their countries by special aircrafts.

Left Democratic Alliance had handed over a memorandum to the deputy commissioner of Jashore on Wednesday describing famine like situation at the area, asking the government to come forward with appropriate supports. But the situation says the government is unable to do that. I cannot think the reality about the days to come. The world should come forward to contain it at that time. But it’ll not a wise decision, if the first world countries really want to do so, they should do it now.

‘Republic of hunger’ in the Time of ‘Lockdown’

Shashi Kant Tripathi

When some media outlets reported about starvation of the stranded workers during the lockdown due to the coronavirus, several other heartbreaking incidents came to light. 39 year old Ranveer Singh died midway as he walked from Delhi to Morena in MP. He was a delivery boy in a Delhi restaurant and left the capital because there was no social and economic security left after everything was shut. This poignant case is just one example of deaths which could have been completely avoided, that happened not because of the virus, but because of the not-so-thought-out, unplanned lockdown.

Millions of peoples who were worked in the gig economy now are unemployed. Since these jobs are not permanent, workers don’t have any provision of monthly income or social security related to labour laws. More than 90 percent of the workforce in India is working in the ‘informal’ sector. The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 and the Code on Social Security, 2019 are unable to protect their livelihood. Moreover, millions of ‘street children’ and homeless people are living on the roads without any considerations or adequate provisions. Wherever they are ‘dealt’ with, they are stuffed together in huge numbers without any guarantee of food and hygiene. When Prime minister Narendra Modi announced the three (now five) weeks lockdown, his government did not think about informal sector workers, street children and homeless people. Although the main argument of government on lockdown is to save lives and control the pandemic, in reality, out of sheer negligence, it left certain sections to starve and even die.

As per the Global Hunger Report 2019, India’s position in the index is 102 out of 117 countries. Neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh are better than India in this index. The portion of undernourished in the population is 14.5 percent. 37.9 percent children under five years are stunted and 20.8 percent children under 5 year are wasted. Another serious food related issue is anaemia. More than 50 percent of women and children are struggling with anaemia. Another study regarding diet related deaths by Lancet shows 310 deaths per one lakh in 2017. In 2016, 28.1 percent of the total deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases.  Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading cause for deaths due to lack of a complete diet. According to the National Sample Survey, 68 percent population of rural India are not able to access 2200 calories(benchmark nutritional norms to define poverty) in 2011-12 and 65 percent of the urban population are not able to consume 2100 calories in same year. This data shows that India’s condition is bad as it is and that lockdown will only worsen the health condition of people further.

Availability of food is another pertinent problem in India. Per person food absorption has been declining slowly after economic reforms in the country. Data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Family welfare shows that the net availability of food grains per person per year was 177.9 kg in 2016 while 186.2 percent in 1991. While, in 2015, China and Bangladesh’s food availability per capita were 450 kg and 200 kg respectively. This picture is alarming for healthcare in India. Utsa Patnaik, in her article “ The Republic of Hunger” (2004), stated that “this country with was once a developing economy, but which has been turned into the Republic of Hunger.”

The stock of foodgrains in central pool till December 2019 was 564 metric ton. This highlights the incompetency and more importantly, a lack of will of the government to not distribute available  food grains to its population. As Jean Dreze writes, “how would you feel if a family were to let its weakest members starve, even as the House’s granary is full to the brim.” He stressed the need for the central government to unlock the godowns and supply food to the States. Although there are some measures like food distribution by state governments, disbursal of Rs. 500 to 4.07 crore women as ‘ex-gratia’ in PMJDY account holders, these are not sufficient to tackle the hunger related problems.  Quoting Utsa Patnaik, “When as a ground reality, the incidence of hunger rises, a ‘denial mode’ amongst those who govern and amounts those who are associated with making or influencing policy… is common as to be expected.”

Already, India is struggling with severe hunger problems, the lockdown will push further deprivation amongst the people. Workers think that they will die of hunger before the virus kills them. While historically, hunger and poverty has been used as tools of ‘disciplining’ a population, civil society as an institution to criticise policies and demand rectification also has its hand tied because of the lockdown. Most media outlets are far from responsible journalism and are busy communalising the pandemic. Workers are scattered, scrambling to make ends meet and there is literally no way for activists to come out and protest against the enormity of injustice with the poor.

For the sake of saying, the virus does not discriminate between people, but in reality, it does. To begin with, it was a rich man’s disease that has now been passed on to the poor who lack the strength to fight it, both physically, and financially. People who are daily wage labourers and barely manage two square meals a day are incapable of stocking ration and supplies so that they can sit at home and practice social distancing norms (most of them, not ironically, do not even have homes).

A decent life is a fundamental right of the people. But the government is leaving the masses to think that even ‘survival’ is a privilege. If India doesn’t want to label the death of these workers as ‘collateral damage’, the government must ensure universal nutritious food for all and also ensure minimum income for majority whereby people can purchase non-food essentials. Only ‘cards’ based ration cannot solve the problem of hunger in India. What is urgently required is the politicisation of the issue of hunger, otherwise, through neglect and unsound policies, the government will lead large sections of its own population to death.

Rural Women Respond To Covid-19 With Great Enterprise

Moin Qazi

The COVID-19 crisis has spurred an entrepreneurial wave across the country. Rural women, particularly the farmers among them, have also jumped on board. They are, in fact, better placed to cope with the pandemic as their own uncertain lives pose every day challenges and keep testing their resilience. They carry the greater burden of nature’s cruelties and also have the emotional range to come up with amazing responses.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) has been one of the front rank nonprofits training rural women in the drought-prone Marathwada belt of Maharashtra to adopt climate-smart and drought-resistant farm practices. These women are now stewards of a new revolution that is resurrecting traditional farming and reviving time-honoured knowledge that has sustained these communities over centuries.

Many of these women saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to scale their work and use their insights to prepare their communities for the long battle ahead and to steer them through the impending food crisis.

Here are a few stories from villages in Maharashtra where women are serving as beacons in the smog that envelopes the hinterland.

Cultivating nutrition gardens during the #COVID19 Pandemic

Jijabai is an Arogya Sakhi from Madki village in Nanded district. With her training on nutrition gardening, she grows her own vegetables and fruits. She has empowered other women with her example to start their own gardens. Today, these kitchen gardens are helping families cope with the hunger crisis.

Arogya Sakhis, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Community leaders, in partnership with Swayam Shikshan Prayog and government front-line workers, are helping vulnerable families in rural villages by creating awareness about crucial aspects like prevention, hygiene, social distancing, combating stigma and providing dry food and hygiene essentials.

Families in our village are aware about the seriousness of COVID-19, says Geeta Chavan 

Geeta Chavan is working in Mohtarwadi village in Osmanabad district as a Community Resource Person (CRP) with Swayam Shikshan Prayog. She works with the Gram Panchayat in her village as a leader. She has been creating awareness about pre and post safety measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the support and contribution from her Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women’s Agriculture Group) members, she collected grains and vegetables for the neediest families. The group also collected funds from big farmers in her village and distributed them to over 80 families. The members also stitch masks for free distribution.

Leadership is the key to success, says Priya Khot

 

The nationwide lockdown paralyzed the life of the poor, making daily survival difficult. Panchincholi is one such village in Latur District, Maharashtra.

“Why aren’t people coming to help the poor?” asks Priya Khot, a Community Resource Person of Swayam Shikshan Prayog from Panchincholi village, who gave her PDS-allocated food items to three poor families as a sign of solidarity. Motivated by Priya’s action, 14 women from Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women’s Agriculture Group) came forward and mobilized food for 25 poor families. Priya runs a flour mill and provides free service so everyone in the village can grind wheat flour on the 15th and 16th of every month.

A training on mask-making was provided by Bhagyashree Mahila Griha Udyog, an NGO in Nilanga. Priya came back to her community and trained six women in mask-making. The group made 600 masks that are being collected by the NGO for distribution. When Panchincholi Gram Panchayat Sarpanch, Mr. Shrikant Salunkhe noticed Priya’s commitment and actions, he recommended the neighbouring Panchayat to use her skills in community mobilization and relief effort for COVID-19.

“I was so shy to go out and meet people. The changes came over me when I started getting involved in SHG meetings and become a Community Resource Person,” she says. Priya is overwhelmed with the response and recognition she has received. She has encouraged CRPs in neighbouring villages to work with the communities and support the gram panchayat.

“I am proud of what I am doing. Panchayat and community has shown me respect and I must give it back to my community,” says Priya Khot.

Selfless in the times of crisis…

 

Work-from-home has hit the widows – and their children – in Marathwada the most. They had lost their daily wage jobs and small businesses faced closure.

In the neighbouring district of Solapur, 20 widows in Boramani village had no one to look to. They would lose their dignity if they asked their neighbours for financial aid. Seeing their plight, Usha Gurav urged the members of her Self Help Group to step in. She said: “Wasn’t mutual aid the reason why we formed this group?” She motivated her group to dig into their precious savings in order to support 20 widows. In the presence of their Panchayat, the SHG procured and distributed 50 grocery kits, enough to feed over 200 people.

Unstoppable, these female leaders went on to help the Panchayat to look after migrants who have traveled back home empty-handed. “They are not outsiders, they are, after all, our people,” says Usha about villagers who have returned from various cities during the lockdown. Needless to say, these rural women have shown what it means to stay strong and kind in a global crisis.

Renewed Ebola outbreak threatens the Congo as COVID-19 spreads

Anthony Torres

Already afflicted by a growing COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen three new Ebola cases including two deaths in recent weeks, marking a resurgence of the Ebola epidemic. A catastrophe threatens millions not only in the DRC but across central Africa.

In the city of Béni in eastern DRC, one of the epicenters of the Ebola epidemic that broke out on August 1, 2018 and that has claimed 2,276 victims, a child died of hemorrhagic fever on April 10. Two days later, a 26-year-old man died of the same causes. According to a communiqué on the Multi-region Committee on Fighting the Ebola Virus, “it was a co-patient of the case confirmed on April 10.”

The number of people sickened with Ebola could rise rapidly and threaten to relaunch the epidemic, as health authorities have already identified 28 contacts of the new Ebola patient, “including 26 co-patients and two health service providers, one of whom is vaccinated.” Health authorities also reported the World Health Organization (WHO) was preparing Monday to officially announce the end of this 10th Ebola epidemic in the DRC. There had been no new cases of Ebola in the last 52 days.

(Image Credit: World Health Organization/S. Hawkey)

Along with the renewed threat from Ebola, Africa is being overtaken by the COVID-19 pandemic. The DRC now has 359 cases and 25 deaths, primarily in the capital, Kinshasa. Inside the ruling elite, associates of President Félix Tshisekedi have tested positive and others have died, including one task officer of the presidency, Jacques Ilunga. On April 15, Bishop Gérard Mulumba, the paternal uncle of Tshisekedi and head of his civilian cabinet, also died of COVID-19.

According to the state committee on fighting COVID-19, “the COVID-19 pandemic is entering into an exponential growth phase in the city-region of Kinshasa. … The high point of this growth will be reached between the first and second weeks of the month of May. In this period, we must expect rapid arrivals of patients in health authorities that will likely be overrun. If the current preparation efforts are not finalized in time, we must expect the worst.”

In the capital, a city of 12 million inhabitants, the La Gombe neighborhood—the epicenter of the pandemic within the DRC—has been on lockdown since April 6. However, in neighboring districts like Lingwala, Bandalungwa, Kintambo and Ngaliema, no measures have been taken.

The committee fighting COVID-19 reported that it “noted that social distancing measures are totally disrespected and fears that there will be intense human-to-human transmission of the virus in the critical period that is opening in the coming weeks.” It recommended “obligatory wearing of masks by everyone in all public spaces, and especially in mass transit and marketplaces,” as well as “extending confinement measures to districts located next to La Gombe.”

However, masks remain difficult to obtain in DRC, as in neighboring countries. In Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, wearing masks is mandatory; however, aware that Gabonese citizens cannot obtain medical masks, the government has recommended that they instead wear “alternative masks.” Many tailor shops in Gabon and elsewhere have begun making cloth masks, which are less effective but which nonetheless slow the spread of the coronavirus.

On Monday, the government of Chad had also decreed the mandatory wearing of masks on its territory, before rescinding its order the next day since masks are not available in Chad. Cameroon, one of the worst-hit African countries, with 1,163 cases and 43 deaths, had already adopted this measure last Thursday.

The explosion of COVID-19 cases and the recurring danger of Ebola, a highly contagious and lethal virus, underscore the enormous health dangers facing this region and the necessity of international coordination to ensure that necessary resources and treatments are available. This intervention will require the political mobilization of the working class in struggle, including to oppose renewed armed conflict and the maneuvers of the imperialist powers.

For a quarter century, the DRC has been torn apart by wars in which some 200 armed groups are fighting each other. It is currently the country that has seen the bloodiest war since World War II, with over 5 million dead. The DRC was the center of a regional war that lasted from 1996-1997 and again from 1998 to 2003, when various local and ethnic conflicts were poisoned by interimperialist rivalry between Washington and Paris—conflicts whose consequences still last today.

In 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a primarily Tutsi force linked to US interests, invaded Rwanda, which was then dominated by a genocidal, ethnic-Hutu regime backed by Paris. The French armed forces carried out Operation Turquoise, which protected the flight of Hutu units west into the DRC, including Interahamwe militias responsible for mass ethnic killings of Tutsis. These ethnic conflicts of the Rwandan war, bound up with US-French rivalries amid the collapse of the Mobutu dictatorship in the DRC, ultimately provoked all-out war across the Congo and the region.

Various regional powers—including Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe—intervened into the conflict, which had moved from Rwanda to the DRC, creating their own militias. This prolonged the conflict and allowed multinational corporations to pillage Congo’s mineral riches by developing links with the various local militias. This conflict led to a stalemate, in which militias and armies financed themselves by plundering local resources and terrorizing local populations.

Now, rivalries between Washington, the European imperialist powers, and China—a major economic power targeted by the imperialist powers with propaganda and military threats—again pose a grave danger in Africa.

Beyond armed conflict, the DRC has undergone intense social and political tensions in recent years, starting with the two-year delay of presidential elections by President Joseph Kabila, who had begun moving closer to China. The elections were ultimately held in December 2018. Last year, amid growing rivalries with Beijing, Washington ordered some of its troops to deploy to Gabon, using the DRC situation to justify the deployment.

Félix Tshisekedi, who won the presidential election, was denounced by his opponents and by France, who petitioned to the UN Security Council. Protests broke out, and four people were killed.

Against epidemics, the population of DRC and neighboring regions cannot simply rely on existing health infrastructure, which is insufficient or even nonexistent. Workers and the oppressed rural masses are again facing the bankruptcy of capitalism in Africa. Whereas countries there, and above all the DRC, have vast national wealth, the ruling elites act—in the final analysis—in close collaboration with the imperialist powers, who use armed militias to pillage Congo’s natural wealth and make enormous profits.

Without international coordination to fight COVID-19 and Ebola based on a scientific appraisal of Africa’s health needs, a major health catastrophe is looming. The decisive question is the international political mobilization of the working class. As anger is mounting in the imperialist countries against governments that impose back-to-work orders with contempt for human life, it is essential to mobilize hundreds of billions of euros in health and industrial resources for Africa and to prevent a relapse into a generalized internal war as in the past in the Congo.

Unrest spreads in France in response to police brutality

Will Morrow

Tuesday evening saw the fourth successive night in France of escalating youth protests and clashes with riot police in the suburbs of Paris and other major cities.

The unrest was immediately triggered by the latest act of police brutality. On Saturday night, a police officer in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, a town in the Hauts-de-Seine department just north of Paris, opened his car door as a 30-year-old motorcyclist passed. The young man suffered a badly broken leg after the incident and remains in hospital.

Video showing the victim spread rapidly on social media, alongside testimony from numerous witnesses indicating the policeman had intentionally opened the door in the motorcycle’s path. The police car was unmarked, and police have acknowledged they did not use their sirens or lights, while also admitting they were trying to stop the victim.

Anis Kesraoui, a friend of the victim’s family, told France Television, “The police car…was not marked ‘police,’ and it was black. The car was stopped at the lights and the bike came up from down there. And here, he [the policeman] deliberately opened the door.” He added, “We can see on the video that the impact is on the interior of the door and not the exterior.”

Other residents who were present at the scene said the officer smelled of alcohol. According to Le Monde, he was a ranked commissioner, of which there are approximately 1,200 in France and over 100 in the Paris region.

The police account has shifted. As documented by Libération, an initial police report claimed the officer was standing outside his car and attempted to stop the motorcyclist, who refused and then crashed as he attempted to escape. This claim appears to have been dropped—later accounts admitted the officer was inside his vehicle when the door was opened.

The victim is suing the police for intentional violence. His lawyer, Stéphane Gas, has stated that “my client was returning from his house and the police gave no sign of their presence; they did not even turn on their police light, and there was therefore no refusal to obey police instructions.” He told Libération, “My client is firm on this point. He said: ‘There is no question, I had the right to pass, the door was closed and was opened at the moment I passed by the car. There was no officer outside.’”

Heavily armed police have arrested dozens of youth in clashes over the last four nights, with the youth responding with fireworks and throwing rocks. Although the clashes began in Ville-la-Garenne, they have spread to other areas in the neighboring Seine-Saint-Denis region, to Nanterre, northwest of Paris, and last night to other cities, including outside Lyon.

France has seen repeated outbreaks of urban revolts in the impoverished suburbs around its major cities. In October 2005, two youth were killed while fleeing from police in the banlieues outside Paris, igniting riots over inequality, poverty and relentless police harassment and violence, disturbances that were brutally suppressed by riot police. The Sarkozy government enacted a state of emergency nationally and arrested more than 2,800 people over the course of several weeks.

The latest act of wanton police brutality comes on top of the conditions of inequality that have only worsened since 2005, as the financial aristocracy in France has siphoned off ever-greater sums of wealth while social programs and decent-paying jobs have been destroyed.

In the Seine-Saint-Denis region, the unemployment rate is more than double the national average and more than one in three 15- to 24-year-olds are unemployed.

These conditions have only been exacerbated by the Macron administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Seine-Saint-Denis and areas of Hauts-de-Seine have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. The most recently available government data, for March 13 to April 6, reveal that—after the eastern region of France where the coronavirus was first concentrated—Seine-Saint-Denis has seen the largest increase in mortality over last year of any department in the country, 101 percent.

Seine-Saint-Denis has just 0.5 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants, approximately one third the percentage in Paris proper, which itself has an entirely inadequate supply of beds that has rapidly been overwhelmed by the pandemic.

Because of the Macron administration’s refusal to provide significant support, the lockdown has been an economic and social disaster for broad sections of workers and youth. They are confined in cramped living quarters, with family members on top of one another and unable to go outside. Moreover, working class families are now also unable to access vital subsidized school lunch programs where children eat for €1 per day.

Lines for free food distribution in the Seine-Saint-Denis area over the past week have grown continuously and now stretch for hundreds of meters.

A report in Le Parisien on Tuesday focused on one local charity distributing food to confined families in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, where Saturday’s police violence occurred. A 40-year-old mother, whose husband works as a trash collector and is now dependent on charity to feed her children, said: “The canteen cost us less than 100 euros per month to feed our three children. The food budget has exploded with the confinement. We have already spent 500 euros and we are only halfway through the month.”

Other workers described combining lunch and dinner or skipping meals entirely so that their children could eat. “Before, I volunteered in food distributions,” said Soumaya, “and now I’ve become a recipient.”

In his speech on Monday last week, President Emmanuel Macron announced an insulting one-off payment to the most impoverished families of €150 per child. Four days later, the government signed into law a payment of €20 billion (US$21.6 billion) to the largest French corporations, including Renault and Airbus.

All the official parties of France are implicated in the social catastrophe laid bare by the pandemic and that lies behind the youth rebellions: from the Socialist Party (PS) which has participated in decades of austerity, slashing essential health and social services to the bone, to the trade unions and their pseudo-left allies such as the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), who have sabotaged any independent struggle by the working class and propped up the PS.

The police crackdown on the protests is a function of the extreme fear in the ruling class of social revolution. Within ruling circles, the central element in plans for “de-confinement” is preparation for a police-state crackdown against an inevitable eruption of opposition to the reactionary policies of the ruling class.

An article published by Le Parisien on April 11, headlined, “Confinement: Why the ‘days after’ worry the intelligence agencies,” cites internal documents produced by the Central Service of Territorial Surveillance (SCRT) on April 7, 8 and 9. The documents observe: “The ‘day after’ is a theme that is strongly mobilizing protest movements. The confinement does not permit broad masses to express themselves, but anger is not waning, and the [government] management of the crisis, which has been highly criticized, is encouraging opposition.”

The Gala website cited an unnamed ministry adviser on Friday asserting that “there will be a dégagiste [demands for the downfall of the government] movement after the crisis. It’s the end of all of us.” The term dégager (resign) was a main slogan of the Tunisian revolution of 2011.

Rescue of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea halted

Martin Kreickenbaum

For twelve days earlier this month, the rescue ship Alan Kurdi, with 150 refugees on board, waited for permission to land at a European port. This is like a scene from the 1930s, when Jews fleeing Hitler were denied safe haven by all the great powers.

In a cynical act, Malta and Italy declared their own ports unsafe because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only last Friday were the refugees and crew of the Alan Kurdi, a German vessel, transferred to an Italian ferry, where they will be tested for coronavirus and spend a fortnight in quarantine.

The Alan Kurdi rescued 150 refugees from two wooden boats on April 6, but the ship was then prevented from entering a European port. The situation on board the vessel, which was not designed to accommodate so many people over such a long period of time, became increasingly acute.

Syrian and Iraqi refugees from Turkey arrive at Skala Sykamineas on the island of Lesbos where they are rescued by volunteers of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, October 30, 2015 (Source: Ggia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The rescuing of the refugees itself had been extremely dramatic. On the morning of April 6, the Alan Kurdi, under Captain Bärbel Beuse, rushed to a wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya, with 68 refugees on board. During the rescue, a speedboat belonging to the self-proclaimed European Union (EU)-backed Libyan coast guard turned up. Without any warning, the Libyans fired into the air, and half the refugees jumped into the water in panic, without life jackets. The crew of the Alan Kurdi threw all available life-saving equipment into the sea, but the refugees could only be plucked from the water when the Libyan coast guard boat pulled away.

During this operation, the Alan Kurdi received notice of another maritime emergency further north. There, 82 refugees in another wooden boat were in distress. The offshore supply ship Asso Ventinove, which arrived at the scene several hours before the Alan Kurdi, refused to mount any rescue operation, claiming it had to stand ready for a possible accident on an oil rig. Therefore, the rescue ship evacuated this boat and asked the Italian authorities for permission to land at a safe harbour with the 150 refugees on board.

The Alan Kurdi set course for the waters north of the Sicilian port of Palermo, but was forbidden from landing. On April 8, the Italian government issued a new decree, stating that the country’s ports were not safe havens for people rescued at sea by non-Italian flagged vessels during the coronavirus emergency. An almost identical decree had previously been adopted by the Maltese government. Malta and Italy also made it clear that they would not allow rescue vessels to land even if the distribution of refugees to other EU states had been agreed beforehand.

The reason given was that it would no longer be possible to help migrants, as the police and military were concentrating their resources on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, medical care could no longer be guaranteed, as the health system was already overburdened with the care of those suffering from COVID-19.

This argument cynically pits human life against human life. The suffering of the victims of the coronavirus crisis should not be the reason for “refusing help to those who are not in danger of suffocating in an intensive care bed, but of drowning,” according to a joint statement by Médecins sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders], SOS Méditerranée, Sea Watch and Open Arms.

Nevertheless, the countries bordering the Mediterranean have stopped providing all aid to refugees in distress at sea. They are also supported in this by the German federal government. The German Interior Ministry, headed by Horst Seehofer, has called on all refugee aid organisations in the Mediterranean to halt their sea rescue operations. “In view of the current difficult situation, we therefore appeal to you not to begin any voyages at present and to recall ships that have already set sail,” the head of the ministry’s Migration Department wrote to Sea-Eye, among others.

The chairman of Sea-Eye, Gorden Isler, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “These are the same politicians who have been stressing for weeks that those affected by the corona crisis must accept all restrictions on freedom, because the aim is to save lives—and every single life is precious. On the other hand, they say we should stop the rescue work? It’s like saying, ‘Let people die.’”

But that is precisely the aim and slogan of the European governments.

In the week before Easter, according to information from the aid organisation Watch the Med—Alarmphone, as a result of better weather and the worsening situation in Libyan refugee and internment camps, more than 2,000 refugees set off for Europe in around 20 vessels, with ten of them needing assistance.

The Alan Kurdi was initially denied urgently needed drinking water, food, and fuel. On April 12, the crew was promised that an Italian quarantine ship would receive the rescued refugees within a few hours. But it was not for another five days that the ship even set sail.

Due to the tense situation on board the Alan Kurdi, the cramped conditions and uncertainty, conflicts became more and more frequent. On Wednesday, a refugee who had been held for months in a Libyan internment camp and had experienced terrible violence tried to slit his wrists. He and his two cousins were taken aboard boats belonging to the Italian coast guard.

In the process, other refugees threatened to throw themselves into the sea. “People are totally desperate and have been held on the Alan Kurdi for ten days. They indicated that they wanted to jump into the water to reach the Italian boats. They could hardly be calmed down,” said Jan Ribbeck, head of operations at Sea-Eye.

The Spanish-flagged Aita Mari, with 47 refugees on board, is now also not being allowed to enter port.

Not only are the authorities refusing to allow rescue vessels to enter their ports, they have also virtually stopped all sea rescue operations themselves, with terrible consequences for the refugees.

The aid organisation Alarmphone received distress calls from four rubber dinghies packed with refugees during the night of April 9-10. While two boats were still able to reach the Sicilian coast under their own power, and one was evacuated by the Spanish Aita Mari, there was no trace of the last boat for days. While the Italian and Maltese coast guards took no action, the self-proclaimed Libyan coast guard declared that they “cannot carry out any rescue operations at present because they do not have any face masks.”

The situation on board one inflatable vessel, packed with 63 refugees, was deteriorating rapidly. Water was coming in; children were screaming from thirst. Only on April 14, four days after the first distress alert, when the inflatable boat finally drifted into the Maltese sea rescue zone, did the Maltese authorities give the order to look for the boat. The Portuguese cargo ship Ivan stopped a mile away from the dinghy and observed the further developments. However, due to its size and the high swell, the Ivan was unable to carry out a rescue operation itself.

Seven refugees jumped desperately into the sea to get to the cargo ship. All seven drowned. Hours later, the remaining 56 refugees were picked up by a fishing boat, which illegally returned them to Libya. Five refugees did not survive the journey and died of hunger and dehydration.

In Libya, the fighting between the militias of the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Gen. Khalifa Haftar continues unabated. Artillery fire is commonplace in Tripoli and sometimes so heavy that 280 refugees who had been picked up by the self-appointed Libyan coast guard could not be brought ashore.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is making the situation of refugees even more difficult. Many international aid organisations have withdrawn from Libya. Refugees report that the supply of food and drinking water for them has collapsed.

In this situation, to halt sea rescues and attempt to send stricken refugees to their certain deaths is a crime. Maltese military personnel are even said to have deliberately tried to kill migrants. The 70 refugees on board a rubber dinghy reported that the Maltese naval speedboat P52 stopped at the marooned people, but only to cut the cables of the engine and to say, “We’ll let you die here. None of you will get to Malta.” Only hours later were they rescued and taken to Valletta.

“The situation is the worst I’ve experienced in all these years,” said Britta Rabe, a member of the Alarmphone staff, in an interview with the daily Die Welt on Tuesday. “The coast guards in Italy, Malta and Libya are no longer saving anyone. No one who gets into distress at sea will be helped.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has thus become a wretched and dishonest excuse to halt aid to refugees and to abolish the fundamental right to asylum in the European Union. The chairman of the rescue organisation Sea-Eye rightly stated, “It is unacceptable that rescue packages worth billions are being made available for industry, but at the same time, it is claimed that there are no resources to protect migrants. Europe has created a situation where humanitarian disasters are played off against each other.”

European Union summit argues over corona bonds

Peter Schwarz

The European Union (EU) and its member states have already mobilised €3.4 trillion to cover the economic losses triggered by the coronavirus, according to the calculations of the European Commission. This sum almost amounts to Germany’s annual gross domestic product and about one quarter of the EU’s total GDP. In the opinion of the EU Commission, at least another €1 trillion will be required to revive the economy.

Only a tiny fraction of these vast sums are being directed to lessen the medical and social crisis caused by the pandemic, which with 1.2 million cases and over 110,000 deaths in Europe remains ahead of the United States, the worst affected country in the world. The overwhelming majority of the money is flowing directly into the accounts of the big banks, major corporations and the super-rich.

By the end of this year, the European Central Bank (ECB) will purchase €700 billion of state and private bonds. Of the €756 billion emergency bailout adopted by the German government in March, €600 billion is going directly to the major corporations. The wealth of the world’s richest 500 people, which declined at the beginning of the crisis, has risen by 20 percent since March 23, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “The wealth gap that currently exists will only increase with what is happening,” commented a finance expert.

A bitter struggle is raging between the EU member states over how the trillions should be distributed and who will pay for it. The conflict has dominated preparations for the EU summit taking place today via video conference. While Germany, with the support of several wealthy northern European states, is attempting to strengthen its economic and political control over the EU, France, Italy and other southern European countries fear being left behind.

The dispute threatens to tear apart the EU, which is already heading towards a sharp break with Britain. The chances of an orderly Brexit being concluded at the end of the year are decreasing with every passing day.

In the struggle over the multi-trillion coronavirus bailout, vile nationalism is being promoted on all sides, recalling the two world wars of the last century. Even the representatives of the ruling class who advocate holding the EU together no longer do so by invoking the claim that it is a project for peace. Instead, they argue that Europe can only stand up to the United States, China and Russia, and pursue its imperialist interests on the world stage, if it sticks together.

As at the last EU summit two weeks ago, the main issue in dispute are the so-called “coronabonds.” Italy in particular is insisting that it is not enough for loans to be made available from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), European Investment Bank (EIB) and other EU institutions, which would all be tied to tough regulations and have to be paid back. Instead, Rome is calling for joint bonds for which all EU states would bear joint liability.

Economists warn that a failure to follow this approach will result in Italy’s state debt rising from its current level of 135 percent of GDP to 160 percent by the end of the year, forcing the country into state bankruptcy. Since Italy uses the euro and does not have its own currency, it would not be able to get through the crisis by printing money and using other inflationary measures.

The German government opposes coronabonds by arguing that EU treaties do not countenance a transfer of debt. Despite the common currency, each EU state is responsible for its own debt.

Germany already exploited the 2008 economic crisis to expand its economic hegemony. While Italy, Greece and other countries were forced to impose sweeping austerity measures, which decimated the living standards of the working class and led to an increase in state debt, Germany enjoyed budget surpluses and reduced government debt to 62 percent of GDP. The German bourgeoisie now wants to further extend this advantage.

Giuseppe Conte is stoking nationalism with the claim that Italy was left to deal with the coronavirus crisis alone. The Italian Prime Minister, who owes his post to the Five Star Movement and the far-right Lega and now leads a coalition of the Five Star Movement and social democrats, has sought to force the hand of his counterparts by threatening a return to power of the anti-EU Lega. According to recent polls, 49 percent of the population in the traditionally EU friendly country would now vote to leave the bloc.

At the same time, Conte has insisted that not a single German euro would be used to pay for Italian debt. He has boasted of his ruthless austerity policies, which have had devastating consequences for the working class. Apart from 2009, “no Italian government in the past 22 years spent more money than what came in,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The high indebtedness is the legacy of the lira era, for which Italy has to pay high interest rates, he added.

Conte is backed by Emmanuel Macron, who demanded in a Financial Times interview more “European solidarity” from Germany. “We need financial transfers and solidarity for Europe to remain together,” said the French President. Otherwise, the economic consequences of the pandemic threaten to bring populists to power across Europe. Now is “the moment of truth where the issue is posed, is the EU a political project or just a marketplace.”

Similar sentiments exist within sections of the German bourgeoisie. They argue that a further weakening of the EU would also undermine Germany’s imperialist interests on a global scale.

In an article on 5 April, former foreign ministers Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democrats) and Joschka Fischer (Greens) warned that Russia and China would profit from a failure of the EU. Germany must therefore “now show its readiness to lead in Europe.” According to the two former Foreign Ministers, “If we don’t do that, Europe will not realise its economic sovereignty, but will always be dependent when it comes down to business on the policy of the dollar region.”

A possible compromise prepared by German EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears likely at today’s summit. According to this, there will be no coronabonds, but reconstruction programmes will be funded through the EU’s 2021–27 budget, which is currently under discussion. Sums ranging from €500 billion to €1.5 trillion are being considered.

But even if the heads of government agree to this, which is by no means assured, the conflicts within the EU would not be resolved. In the final analysis, they are rooted in the impossibility of uniting Europe on a capitalist basis. The private ownership of the means of production and the struggle of powerful monopolies for market share and profits leads inevitably under conditions of crisis to an intensification of the class struggle and nationalist conflict. to this, the bourgeoisie knows only one answer: nationalism, war and dictatorship.

The only way to prevent a repetition of the catastrophe of the 20th century is through the unification of the European working class in struggle against capitalism and for the united socialist states of Europe.