2 Jul 2020

Johnson pledges “New Deal” for UK as he prepares savage attack on workers

Chris Marsden

Only the willfully naïve could possibly believe that Boris Johnson is about to deliver a “New Deal” to “Build! Build! Build!” Britain in what he falsely claims is the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that is the snake oil the prime minister of a government of arch-Thatcherites tried to sell to an incredulous public this week.
His speech was a political lesson in the utter indifference of Britain’s ruling elite to the suffering they have inflicted on millions of people during the pandemic, and proof of their preparations to do far worse in the weeks and months ahead.
Johnson at times appeared enraptured by what he assumed was his own soaring rhetoric, but which came over as rambling nonsense papering over transparent lies. He began his keynote speech in Dudley by acknowledging, “It may seem a bit premature to make a speech now about Britain after COVID, when that deceptively nasty disease is still rampant in other countries, when global case numbers are growing fast and when many in this country are nervous—rightly—about more outbreaks…”
But this was not about to stop him from doing so, as he insisted, “we cannot continue simply to be prisoners of this crisis.”
Johnson admitted in passing that “there are plenty of things that people say and will say that we got wrong, and we owe that discussion and that honesty to the tens of thousands who have died before their time, to the families who have lost loved ones.” But, he stressed, “I also know that some things went right—and emphatically right.”
He listed as proof the Nightingale field hospitals, built out of fear that the National Health Service (NHS) would collapse due to the impact of Tory cuts, trials of the drug dexamethasone—Britain’s sole medical success story—and the jobs furlough scheme. This latter example was made all the more cynical by the fact that he said later that furloughing “cannot go on forever” and that “jobs that many people had in January are not coming back—or at least not in that form.”
Now it was no longer the coronavirus that was the priority, but the “vertiginous drop in GDP.” Rescuing the economy through his murderous back to work drive was the task at hand, with the world facing a greater economic crisis than the 2008 crash.
In answer, Johnson proclaimed his “New Deal” as a “mission to unite and to level up,” that would “serve notice that we will not be responding to this crisis with what people called austerity.” This all amounted to infrastructure spending pledges of just £5 billion, most of which was money already pledged. The most significant pledges included:
· “£1.5 billion this year for hospital maintenance,” when thanks to years of under-funding there is a £6.5 billion maintenance backlog in the NHS. An investment “Project Speed” will deliver 40 “new” hospitals already promised, but this includes the “refurbishment” of existing hospitals. Johnson refused to promise a pay rise for health care workers.
· £1 billion to fund 50 projects in a 10-year school rebuilding programme. But any work will only begin in September 2021. This, too, had already been allocated.
· Other infrastructure pledges included £100 million for 29 road network projects, including such world-shaking projects as “boosting the quality of the A15,” making the key route network in Liverpool “more resilient,” maintenance work on a viaduct in Coventry and a road in York, and replacing “poor-quality footways” in Sheffield.
· Johnson also promised £96 million for the Towns Fund spending projects, which was already pledged from an existing £3.6 billion urban infrastructure project, and £12 billion for “affordable homes” over eight years, also already pledged. He said he would “scythe through red tape and get things done” by doing away with planning laws, including allowing all commercial premises to be reclassified as residential property. The last “bonfire of red tape” pledged by the Tories ended in the horrific loss of 72 lives in Grenfell Tower.
Union bureaucrats, Labourites, and liberal commentators lined up to denounce Johnson’s attempt to claim the mantle of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US President who responded to the Great Depression precipitated by the 1929 Wall Street Crash with his “New Deal” to stimulate the US economy through infrastructure projects. Their task was not difficult.
Trades Union Congress General Secretary Frances O’Grady could point out, “The £5 billion of spending he announced today was reheated, and his spending commitments are worth just 0.2% of GDP.” Roosevelt’s New Deal involved annual spending increases of between 5 and 7 percent of US GDP, which cumulatively raised federal government debt from 16 to 44 percent of GDP in a decade.
Equally unfavourable comparisons can be made to Roosevelt’s construction projects such as completing the Hoover Dam, the Grand Coulee Dam, and the Lincoln Tunnel. Johnson’s total spending bill would not even cover the cost of filling Britain’s potholes.
But neither O’Grady nor anyone else is proposing much more than Johnson. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was reduced to making a call for the partial retention of the jobs furlough scheme for workers in hospitality and retail.
Roosevelt was intent on defending the capitalist system at a time of an acute crisis that was not only economic, but political. The Wall Street crash and the Great Depression aroused widespread anti-capitalist sentiment in the working class towards financial speculators and industrial magnates alike. Fear of social unrest, the political growth of socialist sentiment, and the threat of revolution prompted him to speak in 1936 of “the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.” And to boast, “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
These fears of social and political conflict meant the US ruling class, in the world’s most powerful capitalist nation and with enormous economic reserves and industrial capacity, was prepared to tolerate Roosevelt’s concerted effort to placate social tensions. In contrast, Johnson is prime minister of a declining imperialist power, dominated politically, economically, and socially by a global financial oligarchy whose sole concern is that the flood of wealth into its coffers continues.
Even setting aside Johnson’s lies, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has promised a total increase in capital spending of just £100 billion over five years. Britain’s GDP is approximately £2.2 trillion. The real response of the Johnson government to the pandemic has, rather, been to hand over hundreds of billions to the major corporations, banks, and hedge funds, and to make available £750 billion in quantitative easing.
There are those within the Tory Party, MPs recently elected in former Labour strongholds in 2019, who are urging Johnson to express sympathy for the millions impacted by the pandemic. But even as he spoke of a government “that puts its arms around people,” Johnson insisted, “And yes of course we clap for our NHS, but under this government we also applaud those who make our NHS possible. Our innovators, our wealth creators, our capitalists and financiers.”
Johnson translated the essential social relations on which his government is based into the reassurance, “When I say level up, I don’t mean attacking our great companies.” He even felt obliged to make the most superfluous denial: “My friends, I am not a communist.”
The economic catastrophe now unfolding will see no change of heart by Johnson, any more than it will prompt the Labour Party or the unions to end their collusion with the Tories and the employers. It will see unrelenting class warfare waged by the ruling class and its parties. The working class must prepare its answer by building action committees in every workplace and neighbourhood, to maintain safety during the escalating pandemic and to oppose every attack leveled against jobs, wages, and essential services in a struggle for socialism.

Wall Street celebrates biggest quarterly surge in more than 20 years

Nick Beams

The end of the second quarter, June 30, must surely go down as one of the stranger days in financial history.
With the US economy in the grip of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, having experienced an even more rapid contraction than in the 1930s crisis, Wall Street recorded its best quarter for more than 20 years.
The S&P 500 finished up by 20 percent, its best result since the last three months of 1998. The Dow was up 18 percent, its largest increase since 1987. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index saw an even bigger surge, rising by 31 percent for the quarter and 12 percent since the start of the year.
The turnaround came after financial markets hit a low in mid-March, when they effectively froze, including even for secure government debt. The Fed then intervened, announcing a series of measures to become the backstop for Wall Street and the entire financial system.
According to calculations by the political economist Robert Brenner, market capitalisation was $21.8 trillion on March 23, rising to $28.9 trillion by June 4.
In the course of less than three months, the actions of the Fed in all corners of the financial markets—its reduction of interest rates to zero and purchases of debt across the board, including even junk bonds—put $7.1 trillion into the hands of stock investors and speculators.
Between March 18 and June 4, the wealth of US billionaires increased by $565 billion, reaching $3.5 trillion in total—an increase of 19 percent. The owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, increased his wealth by $34.6 billion, up 19 percent, while Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg gained an additional $25 billion.
Over the same period, tens of millions of American workers lost their jobs and a vast part of a generation of students and young workers saw their future educational and employment prospects wiped out. Millions of people now face economic devastation when the very limited government assistance they have received is cut off, scheduled for the end of this month.
At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rip through cities, towns and rural regions in the US, the result of the homicidal return-to-work to drive initiated by the Trump administration and dictated by Wall Street on the basis that nothing must prevent the extraction of surplus value.
The American economy is now characterised by looting and plunder, with the rise on Wall Street the equivalent of war profiteering.
In testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made clear that the flow of money to the financial markets would continue. He painted a gloomy picture of the US economy, noting that the downturn in the second quarter is likely to come in as the worst on record, and warned that the outlook is “extremely uncertain.”
But he reassured Wall Street that the flood of money—the Fed has expanded its balance sheet by $3 trillion in the past three months—would continue “at least at the current pace,” and more would be provided if deemed necessary. “We will closely monitor developments and are prepared to adjust our plans,” he said.
Figures released over the weekend are revealing. They show how Fed intervention into the corporate bond market, both through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and direct purchases of corporate bonds, backed by money provided by the US Treasury and leveraged ten-fold by the central bank, is benefiting some of the biggest US corporations.
Among the corporate bonds directly purchased are those of Microsoft, Visa and Home Depot. Indirect purchases, via ETFs, include bonds issued by Apple and Goldman Sachs.
The Fed has laid out $430 million on individual bond purchases—the program is only just beginning and much more is to come—and $6.8 billion on ETFs.
The purchase of corporate debt in the secondary bond market does not directly benefit the companies that issued the debt, but rather the bond traders and speculators who purchased it in order to make a capital gain. The major corporations do benefit indirectly, however, because the Fed’s purchases mean they can take on debt at a lower interest rate than would otherwise be the case.
So stark is the contrast between what the Fed is actually doing and its endless claims that its actions are designed solely to boost the American economy and secure the public good that it has raised a few eyebrows, even in financial circles.
As one financial executive tweeted, it was “exceedingly hard to fathom what public interest the Fed is serving” by buying bonds issued by Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. With the debt of luxury carmakers included in the Fed’s list, he asked “should the Fed really make it easier for you to lease your next Porsche?”
Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution said: “Why is the solution buying Apple, Microsoft and Comcast debt? Or eBay or Google? Is the problem in America that the holders of Apple stock need more help? Is the problem that investors in Google debt are likely to suffer catastrophic and unexpected losses from the COVID shutdown?”
But the Fed’s interventions into financial markets have many defenders, above all those who have benefited most. According to Goldman Sachs, market capital would have gone “awry” had not the Fed stepped and acted to stabilise the markets for corporate debt.
In other words, the Fed’s actions were necessary to enable continuation of the speculation and looting that played a major part in creating the conditions for the market crash of 2008 and the massive injections of money that enabled these criminal practices to continue thereafter. These actions set up the financial markets for potentially an even bigger disaster when the pandemic struck than in 2008.
As Wall Street, via the interventions of the Fed, continues to suck up money at an accelerating rate, the condition of the underlying American and global economy is worsening.
In its annual report issued on Monday, the Bank for International Settlements said “future economic historians might consider the COVID-19 pandemic a defining moment of the 21st century.”
It said many economies had shrunk at an annualised rate of between 25 and 40 percent in a single quarter, as unemployment rates jumped to double figures in a couple of months.
Noting the market exuberance, it said equity prices and corporate bonds had “decoupled from the weaker real economy,” but underlying financial fragilities, the product of the rapid rise in corporate debt of poorer quality before the virus struck, remained.
The present situation, it said, was more like a truce than a peace settlement, and what first appeared as a liquidity problem is “morphing into a threat to solvency.” It warned that “a wave of downgrades has started, alongside concerns that losses might cause widespread defaults.”
It reported that the condition of the business sector had “deteriorated significantly over the past decade” as firms took advantage of very low interest rates to take on more debt, with some 50 percent of companies holding cash and cash equivalents amounting to less than two months of revenue in 2019.
In a comment published yesterday, Sydney Morning Herald business columnist Stephen Bartholomeusz pointed to the parlous state of much of the US economy. “The proportion of zombie companies in the US—listed companies that only survive because ultra-low interest rates and continuing access to very cheap debt allows them to cover their interest costs—is now estimated at close to 20 percent,” he wrote.
This means that the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, but whose underlying cause lies in the internal rot and decay of the capitalist economy, has only begun to unfold, threatening to bring devastating social consequences.
But whatever the course of events, one thing has already been clearly established. The Fed, together with other arms of the state, will work to place the burden of this crisis onto the working class, while pulling out all stops to protect the profiteering and looting of the Wall Street financial oligarchy it represents.

Australia’s largest airline Qantas axes 6,000 jobs to slash costs

Terry Cook

Like its competitors internationally, Australia’s largest airline Qantas is seizing on the COVID-19 pandemic to restructure its operations in a bid to emerge as a dominant player in the global market.
In April, as the pandemic lockdowns began to impact international air travel, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told the media: “this will be survival of the fittest.” Joyce predicted that not all airlines would survive and declared: “One of the things we are working on is making sure we are the last man standing.”
In line with this predatory strategy, Qantas announced last Thursday that it will axe 6,000 jobs, from its 29,000-strong workforce. This is part of a drive to slash costs by $15 billion over three years and then $1 billion annually after 2023.
Qantas’s jobs cull comes on top of its decision in April to stand-down 15,000 employees without pay or on enforced leave. It grounded 150 aircraft including most of its wide-bodied planes, even as it pocketed its share of a $715 million federal government handout to Australia’s airline companies.
Joyce confirmed last week that at least 100 of the grounded planes will remain out of service for up to a year. This includes all of the company’s double-decker A380s. Existing orders for Airbus A321neo and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have been deferred.
The 6,000 sacked workers are being flung out in the midst of a rapidly shrinking job market across the global aviation industry that is already registering mass layoffs.
Since the pandemic began, 12,000 job cuts have been announced by British Airways, 3,000 by Ryanair and Lufthansa is planning to shed 22,000 full-time and 4,000 part time jobs.
While the sacked Qantas workers now face a bleak and precarious future, the airline’s board rewarded Joyce, who was paid almost $24 million last year, by extending his tenure to at least 2023.
Adding to the dire situation facing sacked Qantas workers, Boston-headquartered private investment firm Bain Capital has now acquired Australia’s second largest airline Virgin Australia. This followed a frantic bidding war involving as many as ten competitors who circled the ailing carrier after it was placed into administration in early April owing more than $6.8 billion to creditors.
Bain plans a far-reaching restructure of Virgin involving the ditching of its full service operation, the abandonment of numbers of routes, asset sell offs and a radical downsizing of the current 9,000 workforce. The deal is set to go to a creditors meeting for approval in August, while bondholders carrying $2 billion worth of debt are predicted to receive as little as 10 cents in the dollar.
Even as he announced the job cuts, Joyce admitted that Qantas currently has $5 billion in capital. He said this meant the airline could still “survive even under current restrictions.” To justify the mass sackings, Joyce added: “I don’t want to continue to burn through cash.”
In fact, over the past three years, Qantas made $4.43 billion in profits. The returns were on the back of previous restructurings initiated by Joyce from 2014 that included the destruction of 5,000 full-time jobs, the imposition of an 18-month wage freeze and the slashing of working conditions.
This assault on the Qantas workforce was opened by Joyce’s grounding of the airline’s entire fleet in 2011 during a work contract dispute to impose an agreement slashing jobs and conditions.
Following last week’s announcement, Qantas also turned to the capital markets to raise $1.9 billion in equity. This will allow existing shareholders to take up to $30,000 of discounted stock in a massive $500 million share purchase plan. Among those benefiting from this windfall will be the highly paid executives, including Joyce himself, whose company Alan Joyce Pty Ltd ranks fifteen among Qantas shareholders.
The sackings are also partly to apply pressure for the lifting of international and domestic travel restrictions, regardless of the threat this poses of COVID-19 infections.
Confirming that he had held “constructive discussions” with federal and state governments about border openings, Joyce told the media he expected to achieve 40 percent of the airline’s pre-crisis domestic flying before the end of this month.
Despite some mealy-mouthed criticism, the airline unions have already signaled that they will do nothing to oppose the Qantas job cuts.
Transport Workers’ Union national secretary Michael Kaine accused Joyce of being “quick to cut jobs and hang workers out to dry.” His main complaint, however, was that the company should have held back on sackings until after the federal Liberal-National government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced whether it would extend its JobKeeper wage subsidy past the current September deadline.
Qantas has benefited from the scheme, which provides companies with a payment of up to $1,500 per fortnight for each worker they keep on the books. While handing on the measly subsidy to the 15,000 it stood down in April, Qantas has been able utilise the JobKeeper payment to partly fund leave payouts in a ploy to save the company money.
While feigning anger over the Qantas sackings, the unions continue to appeal to the Morrison government to provide Qantas with further financial handouts. Kaine claimed last week that this was necessary “to allow the airline to weather the crisis.”
Michele O’Neil, president of the country’s peak union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), similarly declared: “Scott Morrison must act immediately to extend JobKeeper, and deliver a direct and urgent industry assistance package” to Qantas.
Determined to secure a place for the unions in Qantas’s restructuring operation, O’Neil called on the government to “convene crisis talks immediately.” She was joined by Australian Services Union assistant national secretary Linda White who urged Qantas and the federal government to work with the union “on alternative solutions to get through the crisis.”
The craven response of the unions is in line with their record over the past three decades of working with governments, Liberal and Labor, and the employers to enforce the destruction of thousands of jobs, the imposition of ever-more onerous workloads and the decimation of previous conditions.
The record shows that Qantas workers can only defend jobs and conditions through a break with the pro-business airline unions and the establishment of new organisations of struggle, including independent rank-and-file committees. These would be tasked with turning out to airline workers, and other sections of the working class around the country and globally, who are all facing a similar offensive against their social position.
The struggle must be based on a fight for a workers’ government to enact socialist policies including placing the airlines and all essential industries, along with the major banks and corporations, under public ownership and democratic workers’ control.

Unite offers support for 10 percent job losses at British Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair

Laura Tiernan

A report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), drafted in consultation with aviation unions and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has revealed the Unite union’s acceptance of mass redundancies this summer.
Published last month, the 25-page report, “Crisis Support to Aviation and the Right to Retrain,” is an appeal to the Johnson government. It sets out the unions’ corporatist proposals to protect the profitability of the major airlines as they restructure and slash thousands of jobs.
The report includes the admission that Unite has accepted a “redundancy cap” of 10 percent. This is a warning to workers about the content of Unite’s current negotiations with EasyJet and other airline companies.
A British Airways plane taking off
On Tuesday, the scale of the ongoing jobs massacre was underscored by EasyJet’s announcement that 1,900 pilots, cabin crew and ground staff will be made redundant. Hours later, Airbus announced 12,300 job cuts worldwide by Summer 2021, including 1,700 in the UK, as orders for new planes stall.
The authors of the NEF report, Alex Chapman and Hanna Wheatley, provide a blunt assessment of the scale of upheaval triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“[A]viation sector employers are planning to cut an estimated 27% of jobs in the immediate short-term, i.e., within the next two to three months,” they write. This equates to 39,000 aviation jobs and 70,000 jobs throughout the supply chain.
Without further government bailouts, they warn that 50 percent of aviation jobs will be wiped out during the next financial year—equating to 69,000 aviation jobs and a massive 124,000 in the supply chain.
“The short-term job losses projected are larger than the number of job losses seen at the peak of the UK coal industry’s socially damaging decline. Approximately 65,000 coal jobs were lost between 1980-81,” they write.
The report appeals for a new round of government bailouts to the airline companies, on top of the £1.2 billion handed to British Airways (BA), EasyJet and Jet2 by Boris Johnson’s government in April, and £7.1 billion in annual subsidies in the form of VAT and fuel tax write-offs. In BA’s case, shareholders in parent company IAG have received £3.4 billion in dividends and share buy-backs in the last three years alone.
Notwithstanding this grotesque financial parasitism, the TUC is offering the airline companies a “new bespoke, sector-wide, crisis support plan and package for aviation, with oversight from a new sector panel with representation from unions, businesses and government.”
The German government’s €9 billion Lufthansa bailout is the model they have in mind, with unions there having agreed massive cuts to pay and conditions and the axing of at least 22,000 jobs while further cementing their corporatist “social partnership.”
The TUC’s new “recovery panel” would “discuss and agree detailed plans for the sector and oversee their implementation,” including “commitment to a union-negotiated limit on redundancy rates across the sector.”
Under the subtitle “Protecting jobs,” the document spells out the unions’ agreement with job destruction: “In response to the immediate crisis the government must work with unions to agree a deal which locks in a fair and manageable decline in employment. This decline will vary, as appropriate, across the different sub-sectors of aviation.”
The section continues, “The maximum rate of decline proposed by Unite the Union, of 10% of their workforce in this financial year, represents an illustrative example. This cap on redundancy rates must be applied to any and all forms of government support extended during the crisis, including any loans extended at commercial rates.”
If Unite’s stated redundancy cap is enforced, this will mean the destruction of 4,500 jobs at BA, 1,500 at EasyJet, 1,750 at Ryanair and 1,350 at Airbus.
On Tuesday, Unite began talks with EasyJet and the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) on cutting 1,900 jobs, including more than 700 pilots. The airline plans to close three of its UK bases—London Stansted, London Southend and Newcastle.
Over the weekend, the Sun newspaper reported that BALPA had reached a separate deal with BA to sack 350 pilots, with a further 300 to be placed on half pay in a rehire “pool.” The deal was reportedly “awaiting sign-off” by BALPA and company executives.
Under the deal, other crew members would face a 15 percent pay cut, with just 7.5 percent of this returned once normal flights resume. Industry analysts warn it could be seven years before flights return to anywhere near their pre-pandemic levels.
An insider with knowledge of the BA talks told the Sun, “The deal is done. Balpa union negotiators are happy, but it has not yet been put to members for ratification.”
BALPA denied the report, but on Monday the Daily Mirror cited an unnamed BALPA official who merely stated they had, “ not yet reached an agreement with the airline on any proposed job changes.” (emphasis added)
The Sun reported on Sunday, “Last night Unite agreed to begin negotiations with BA bosses over the airline’s controversial staff proposals.” To date, neither BA nor Unite have publicly denied this claim, with Unite’s press officer telling our reporter yesterday, “As far as I know, there are no negotiations scheduled.”
Regardless of whether formal talks have begun, Unite’s pro-company agenda was underscored by two events in recent days.
On Saturday, financial website This Is Money reported on “a highly unusual call held by union Unite with 37 City analysts.” Unite officials reportedly pitched their own proposals for BA, based on a report they commissioned from Sheffield University accounting professor Adam Leaver.
According to summary notes from the meeting provided by Unite, Leaver’s paper argued there was “no need to ‘fire and rehire’ the workforce” as BA is not facing a “long-term profitability crisis” but “a short to medium term liquidity crunch which can be resolved by loans from parent company IAG.” Unite suggested that “BA could raise funds through IAG’s Qatari shareholders, by issuing bonds, by accessing debt or by taking up loans offered by government. And if all that fails it could apply for the Government’s new ‘Project Birch’ bailout scheme for large firms. Lufthansa have already taken a €9bn rescue deal with the German government, why can’t BA?”
The response of City analysts to Unite’s meeting was indicated by This Is Money’s headline, “City analysts say union leaders ‘delusional’ if they believe British Airways does not need to make deep cuts to survive,” with the article concluding, “One analyst on the Unite call warned that investors would not be willing to stump up money without major restructuring at BA.”
Earlier, Unite officials met with investors from BA’s parent company IAG. A Reuters report of the meeting was headlined, “In battle against British Airways, trade union goes to investors,” but contained few details. It cited Unite executive officer Sharon Graham who claimed BA may be stripped of valuable landing rights at Heathrow due to cross-party opposition among lawmakers to the airline’s slash-and-burn restructuring. Unite has won support for its nationalist #BABetrayal campaign among Labour, Liberal-Democrat, and Conservative MPs who will quickly denounce any industrial action by workers in defence of their jobs if it threatens “the national interest.”
Mass opposition exists among pilots, cabin crew and ground staff, who are bitterly opposed to plans to slash jobs and reduce them to a low-wage, on-call workforce. Moreover, unlike the 1980s, when trade union and Labour bureaucracies could isolate workers on a national basis, today’s opposition among airline workers is unfolding globally among an interconnected workforce of millions.
The Socialist Equality Party advocates a unified political struggle by airline workers across the world, including strikes and mass protests, to oppose all cuts to jobs, pay and conditions. The aviation industry must be run for social need not corporate profit! The airline companies’ wealth must be seized to provide decent pay and working conditions for all pilots, cabin crew and ground staff, and safe and affordable travel for the world’s population.

As flights increase, airline workers face more COVID-19 dangers

Steve Filips

At least 10 Delta Air Lines workers have died and 500 have become infected with COVID-19, according to an investor conference call last month. Despite the spread of the deadly disease among airline workers, the company, which has more than 90,000 employees worldwide, announced it would be increasing its domestic and international flights this month.
Even as the pandemic continues to surge, airlines continue to push for increased flights. American Airlines has resumed booking its flights to capacity on July 1. United Airlines, which never blocked out seats or limited capacity, will be adding 25,000 flights in August.
According to new data from the Transport Security Administration (TSA), the number of airline travelers reached 600,000 on June 29, exceeding 25 percent of pre-pandemic numbers for the first time since March 19. Although airlines revenue was down by 90 percent in the second quarter, the stocks of the major airlines rose sharply Tuesday on the news. The airlines have also benefited from a $25 billion corporate bailout under the bipartisan CARES Act, which includes the direct purchase of corporate debt.
At the same time, airline management is seeking to do everything to cover up the spread of infections and suppress opposition from workers. In April, Delta sent 25,000 flight attendants an e-mail directing those that tested positive for COVID-19 to “refrain from notifying” co-workers about their condition or posting reports on social media.
Whistleblowers were also fired. In April, on the largest US regional carriers, Envoy Airlines, formerly American Eagle, fired Kelly Kolberg, a ramp worker who exposed unsafe conditions at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Envoy is a low-cost subsidiary of American Airlines with 18,000 employees. Starting wages for ramp and baggage workers was $11.99 at Envoy compared to $15.23 at American.
The unsafe conditions led to the death of workers at DFW airport, including 37-year-old Glenmar Gabriel, a 15-year veteran ramp worker who died on April 5. Dozens of other workers also became infected at American Airlines’ largest hub. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan area has now become a hotspot for the deadly disease with nearly 7,000 cases reported June 30, up from 638 on June 8.
On his Facebook page in April, Kelly Kolberg explained, “I was FIRED for blowing the whistle on my company Envoy Air for the filthy dangerous conditions in which we were being forced to work in. Me and about 80 plus others run bags each shift between American Eagle and American Airlines connecting flights. We each pick up 20 bags without gloves then deliver to wherever and then end up back in our break room touching whatever.”
Kolberg recently told the World Socialist Web Site, “Apparently everything is back to the way things were before I made things public.”
Back in March, Kolberg first reported the unsafe conditions to Envoy, the Transport Workers Union (TWU), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). “I was disgusted with the filthy conditions, the lack of PPE, the empty hand sanitizer, empty soap, and empty paper towels,” he wrote at the time.
At first, management and the union feigned concern. “In that same break room, three weeks ago our VP at Envoy came in to address concerns regarding the 40 people in a break room and six people at a picnic table. He tells us it’s okay that we have this many people in a room because we are essential workers,” Kelly explained on his Facebook page.
“Fast forward two-and-a-half weeks and I hear of numerous infections at Envoy, all through word of mouth, not from Envoy or any official outlet. Turns out, the majority of cases were from the break room where I tried to shed light on unacceptable conditions. The following day I heard a work friend, Glenmar Gabriel, had passed away. He was COVID-19 positive in addition to two of his four men crew working gate B39.”
“There have been positive cases for two weeks,” Kelly continued, “yet the company hasn’t even informed a single employee officially of the cases. Everything is by word of mouth and Facebook pages.”
Glenmar, Kelly explained on his Facebook page, “was a really great guy” and “one of the hardest workers I’ve seen.” Kelly said his co-worker left a lifelong impact on him and others. “G trained me two-and-a-half years ago, and I’ll never forget every single time I’d walk by him with his big beautiful smile he’d go in his Filipino accent, ‘Hey Kelly, what’s up?’ I’ll never forget him.” He added, “Now there’s a family who has lost a massive part of their family, and most importantly there is a little girl who doesn’t have a daddy.”
To add insult to injury, in late May, American Airlines announced the layoff of 5,000 workers, mostly at its Dallas-Ft. Worth hub. Over the previous two months, the company forced nearly 4,500 workers—many of them the pilots and flight attendants—to take early retirements. The cuts came just a few months after the company opened up its new $300 million headquarters in Ft. Worth. The site at the American Airlines Center used for COVID-19 drive-thru testing was closed on June 30.
In addition to job cuts, the airlines are pushing for a new round of wage and benefit concessions from workers. Meanwhile, Delta CEO Ed Bastion got $17.3 million in total compensation last year, American CEO Doug Parker pocketed $11.5 million, and United’s Oscar Munoz got $12.4 million.

Senate votes to unanimously extended CARES Act loan program despite businesses pledge to lay off thousands more

Jacob Crosse

Despite receiving billions of dollars in low interest loans through the grossly misnamed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), thousands of US businesses plan on letting go over 700,000 workers across the country once the program runs out of funds.
In the survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, roughly 70,000 businesses that received thousands, or in some cases, millions of dollars in low-interest, forgivable loans, plan to lay off at least 10 workers each.
Sold as a lifesaver for small businesses and a “free market solution” to keeping workers employed and paid, the Paycheck Protection Program was never anything more than a handout to big business and a new taxpayer-funded revenue stream for Wall Street banks. Under the auspices of former Goldman Sachs executive and current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, applications for the loans were submitted through the Small Business Administration with no oversight, just as intended.
Published last week, the survey concluded that 14 percent of the 4.6 million companies that have received 1 percent interest loans through the corporate government slush fund are planning on laying off workers when the money is depleted. Exploding the narrative that the program would “save jobs,” businesses are firing workers and slashing hours even though the program allows a business owner to use up to 60 percent of their PPP funds on payroll through December 31.
Reports of PPP funds being abused since the program’s inception haven’t stopped Congress from replenishing the program with haste. Loan applications were extended through May and into June even as it was reported that a vast majority of the approved loans were being siphoned off by hotel and restaurant chains, cruise ship lines, medical device companies and well-connected hedge funds.
The PPP was launched in March when the $2.2 trillion CARES Act was passed 96-0 in the Senate, an overwhelming voice vote in the House, and was signed into law on March 26. The first round of funding for the program, $349 billion, ran out by April 16 and before thousands of small businesses could even get the necessary paperwork arranged in time to apply. Of the few small “mom and pop” small businesses that were granted funds, many didn’t receive them until the end of May.
Even as it was reported that only eight percent of small firms that applied for loans received any money, congress swiftly moved to enact a second round of funding after the initial $310 billion disappeared in two weeks. In that time, large businesses gobbled up loans worth up to $20 billion while Wall Street banks made over $10 billion in processing fees.
As social anger grew over the blatant corruption baked into the PPP, Mnuchin announced that new “guidelines” would be implemented that would supposedly exclude larger firms. Mnuchin also called for firms and businesses who didn’t need the loans to return them, which according to Forbes added an estimated $12 billion to the program at the start of June and has left the program with approximately $130 billion remaining.
The deadline to apply for any new loans was set for June 30, 2020.
However in a late-night Senate hearing Tuesday, and a textbook example of unanimity on the part of the ruling class, all 100 US senators, Republicans, Democrats and nominal independents, such as Bernie Sanders, voted on a five-week extension for the program through August 8. The extension is expected to pass the House and be signed by Trump as early as this week.
Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Mnuchin expressed his desire for the five week extension and that the $130 billion left in the fund be made available, not to laid off healthcare workers or cash strapped school districts, but instead, “businesses that are most hard hit... [including] restaurants and hotels and others, where it is critical to get people back to work.” That restaurants and hotels are known vectors for the spread of COVID-19 is not a concern to Mnuchin or the rest of the businesses and political establishment as it is not their lives that will be sacrificed at the altar of profit.
In announcing the extension through a joint press release, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, commended the program as, “a lifeline to ... small businesses struggling to stay afloat during these turbulent times ... Senate Democrats have ensured that small businesses can continue to have the opportunity to apply for these loans that can mean the difference between staying open and closing for good.”
Schumer’s delusional statements attest to the detached reality he and the rest of the political establishment inhibit. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the University of Chicago in May projected that more than 100,000 small businesses had shut down permanently since the pandemic escalated in March.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced this week that nearly half, 47.2 percent, of working-age Americans did not have work the month of May. In many cities, the line for the food bank stretches as long as the unemployment line. In addition to layoffs, workers will have to contend with militarized police departments preparing to evict hundreds of thousands of workers and families from their homes as the eviction moratorium in the CARES Act is set to expire at the end of July. There has been no signal from either party that the moratorium will be extended.
In addition to continuing layoffs and the threat of eviction, workers are also being squeezed by the continued intransigence of the Trump administration to agree to any extension of the federal $600 addition to state unemployment benefits. For those lucky few workers who have been able to get through busy phone lines and navigate the labyrinthian unemployment insurance, the $600 weekly benefit has been the only “lifeline” for thousands. This lifeline is scheduled to run out on July 25 and the stage is now set for an economic and social catastrophe not seen in the US since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Caterpillar slashes jobs in Illinois, rewards corporate shareholders

Jessica Goldstein

On Monday, earth-moving equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, Inc. announced that workers at its plant in Pontiac, Illinois would be issued layoff notices. The corporation did not report on the details of the number of layoffs or which jobs would be cut.
The latest round of layoffs comes after the company laid off an undisclosed number of workers and employees worldwide in late April, including managers, production and support workers, and contract workers at facilities in Aurora, Decatur and Peoria in Illinois as well as some workers in Minnesota in the US.
In March, Caterpillar slashed jobs at its KK Building in East Peoria and idled its iron foundry in Mapleton, Illinois.
The layoffs this year are the result of decisions made after reports of decreased sales and earnings by the company attributed to falling demand because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global production. They were imposed “to reduce costs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve our competitiveness during this period of economic uncertainty,” according to company spokesperson Kate Kenny in the Peoria Journal Star.
Through the layoffs, the corporation is forcing the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the workers, whose labor generates profits for its wealthy shareholders in the ruling elite.
After the March layoffs were announced, Caterpillar reported a $500 million distribution of dividends to shareholders. The quarterly dividends of $1.03 per share were voted on by the board of directors even after it pulled its 2020 financial outlook in response to the effects of the pandemic. Caterpillar is one of many US-based corporations that have laid off workers and cut jobs and pay since the pandemic took hold in the US, as it continued to pay out dividends to investors.
Caterpillar has subjected workers to relentless job and wage cuts to pay for its financial downfall. After a downslide in revenues and profits in the final quarter of 2015, the corporation moved to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, in addition to 5,000 more planned by the end of 2018, a boon of $1.5 billion annually in savings. Nearly half, or 2,300, of those jobs bled in 2015 were Illinois workers, through layoffs and forced early retirement.
Workers at the Pontiac plant build fuel system components for engines. Caterpillar acquired the plant in 1978 and introduced robot technology in the 1980s to vastly increase economic output and expand the exploitation of workers. In 2018, nearly 1,300 full-time and contract workers worked at the plant, which is the largest private sector employer in the small city of 11,931.
The layoffs will further devastate the working-class residents in the area, who have suffered increasing economic blight over the past two decades. The 2000 US Census reported a poverty rate of 11.7 percent in the city, shooting up to 19.8 percent in 2017, compared to 12.6 percent in the rest of Illinois. Over one quarter, or 26.8 percent, of children in the city live below the poverty level, compared to 16.8 percent in the rest of the state.
The metropolitan area in which the city sits has seen a 7.7 percent increase in unemployment from May 2019 (3.2 percent) to May 2020 (10.9 percent). Unemployment statewide reached 14.7 percent in May, an increase of over 11 percent from the past year.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) will do nothing to protect workers’ right to a job in the face of mounting unemployment, despite Local 2096 officially “representing” them in the plant.
In 2017, the UAW pushed through a massive concessions contract that many Illinois Caterpillar workers suspected was passed fraudulently. Leading up to the betrayal, the UAW defied a 93 percent strike vote and then rushed the contract vote without adequate time for workers to study the deal.
Despite widespread opposition by workers in Peoria and Decatur, Illinois, the six-year contract escalated job cuts, increased health care costs for workers, and extended a wage freeze for senior workers to 15 years.
In 2016, UAW Local 2096 forced workers at the Pontiac plant to take pay cuts between $1.50 and $3.93 per hour, a loss of up to $8,000 per year for a worker, in order to “bring new jobs” and keep the plant open, according to UAW Bargaining Chairman Jim Myer.
In reality, the UAW’s class-collaboration policies did nothing but destroy the livelihoods of workers for the benefit of the corporation, which raked in a $1.6 million tax abatement and capital incentive deal from the local Livingston County Board in return for deepening the exploitation of the working class.
The UAW sought to isolate Caterpillar workers locally and internationally, pitting them against one another and their fellow workers who struggled against the same corporation across the world. Later that year, after the contract was pushed through, Caterpillar moved ahead with the announcement of plant closures and layoffs in Aurora and Montgomery, Illinois.
In Belgium, the ACV-CSC-Metea union aided the company in closing its plant in Gosselies in 2017. The following year, Caterpillar completed the closure of 20 industrial sites throughout the US and Europe, laying off 20,000 workers.
The situation facing Caterpillar workers in Illinois is mirrored by the working class worldwide. Workers at Fiat Chrysler in Sterling Heights and Jefferson North Assembly plants have already established rank-and-file safety committees independent of the company and union to fight for better working conditions. Last Thursday workers at Jefferson North shut down production after three workers tested positive for COVID-19.
An independent, international political movement and program, of, by and for the working class, is needed to unify the struggle for these basic rights. It is above all a political struggle against the capitalist system for the program of international socialism and equality for all.
Both big-business parties in the state of Illinois have thrown strong support behind the heavy equipment manufacturer. Multimillionaire former CEO Doug Oberhelman was one of the earliest financial supporters of former Illinois Republican Governor and hedge fund manager Bruce Rauner, citing Rauner’s plans to make cuts to the state budget to benefit corporations in return for Caterpillar keeping its headquarters in the state.
Current Illinois Democratic Governor and corporate billionaire J.B. Pritzker deemed Caterpillar’s manufacturing operations as an essential industry after stay-at-home orders were executed in the state on March 21, an act of criminal negligence that put thousands of workers at risk for contracting and spreading COVID-19 in order to fulfill the corporations’ drive for profit.
The UAW stayed silent on this violation of workers’ right to a safe workplace. Local 974 President Randy Diehl kowtowed to corporate management by stating on Facebook that “[t]he UAW does not have the authority to force Caterpillar to shut down. This is a Caterpillar decision that is allowed by the federal government.”
There was no legitimate reason for Caterpillar to continue operations during the lockdown, other than to keep cash flowing into the stock markets and banks. The corporation reported $3.19 billion in profit globally for the first quarter of 2020, despite agonizing over a drop in sales. Its stock price has risen to $126.06 from an annual low of $95.50 per share in March, before Pritzker excluded it from the list of businesses that would shut down under the state’s order.
Illinois moves ahead with its economic reopening plan in spite of being one of 36 states reported by CNN to have an upward trend of new daily cases since June 23. State health officials indicated Wednesday that “it's really a matter of personal responsibility, rather than policy, right now,” according to ABC7 News. In other words, state officials have no intention of reverting to more restrictive social distancing measures, blatantly disregarding public health in order to fuel the dying capitalist economy.

The inequality pandemic: How American capitalism puts profits over lives

Andre Damon

The United States is in the midst of a devastating resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, a record 50,701 people tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest daily total ever. There have been seven consecutive days in which the US had more than 40,000 new cases, and daily cases this week are twice as high as they were in the beginning of this month.
The death toll now stands at 130,000. This is approximately equal to the combined total of US combat fatalities in World War I, the Vietnam War and the Korean War. With the disease spreading at its present pace, the United States could well reach 100,000 daily cases by the end of this month. By the end of summer, a quarter million people could well be dead.
In the innumerable hours of television commentary and in the countless newspaper columns that have been devoted to the pandemic, there has been no examination of the economic interests that underlie this disaster.
Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. executives ring the NYSE closing bell on June 26, 2020. (New York Stock Exchange via AP Images)
The truth is that the resurgence of the pandemic is the outcome of a conscious policy, led by the Trump administration but supported by the entire political and media establishment, of subordinating society’s needs to the economic interests of the financial oligarchy.
Over the past three months, more than 115,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and 45.5 million have become unemployed amid an unprecedented medical, social and economic disaster.
But the story has been very different for the stock market and the American financial oligarchy. In the midst of what the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calls the worst peacetime economic crisis in a century, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has staged its largest rally in three decades.
The Dow surged 18 percent in the second quarter of this year, its biggest quarterly gain since 1987. The Nasdaq grew even faster, rising 30.6 percent and leaving the index up by 12 percent since the beginning of the year.
The massive growth in stock values has led to an expansion in the wealth of America’s financial oligarchy. Since March 18, the wealth of US billionaires has increased by 20 percent, or $484 billion, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. Between March 18 and June 17, the total net worth of the 640-plus US billionaires jumped from $2.948 trillion to $3.531 trillion.
As a result of the stock market rally, the wealth of the five richest men in America—Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison—grew by a total of $101.7 billion, or 26 percent.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’ highest paid CEO, has had his personal fortune double over the course of the past year.
This week, Tesla overtook Toyota to become the world’s most valuable carmaker by market value. Tesla’s shares have increased five-fold over the past 12 months, growing from $230 to $1,100 this week.
Commenting on this development, the Financial Times wrote:
If the company breaks even in the quarter to June, it will be the first time the business has been in the black for four straight quarters.
While Toyota’s shares trade on a multiple that values the business at 16 times its earnings, Tesla’s shares trade on a multiple of almost 220 times the company’s profits, far above any other auto business and close to double the multiples seen by tech giants such as Amazon.
Such obscene stock valuations are the result of a massive government intervention in financial markets, which have pushed share prices to astronomical heights even as the real economy collapses.
Starting with the first outbreak of COVID-19, every action taken by the US government was aimed at protecting and expanding the wealth of the financial oligarchy. In January and February, as public health experts both inside and outside the government tried to sound the alarm, the Trump administration downplayed the dangers posed by the pandemic, while the media simply ignored it.
In March, when the inundation of hospitals made it impossible to simply ignore the pandemic, the ruling class responded not with an emergency surge of public health spending, but with a massive bailout of the financial oligarchy.
The Federal Reserve responded to the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic with approximately $4 trillion in emergency lending to banks and major financial institutions, backed by the near-unanimous action of Congress in passing the so-called CARES Act.
As an article in Foreign Affairs noted: “During March and the first half of April, the Fed pumped more than $2 trillion into the economy, an intervention almost twice as vigorous as it delivered in the six weeks after the fall of Lehman Brothers. Meanwhile, market economists project that the central bank will buy more than $5 trillion of additional debt by the end of 2021, dwarfing its combined purchases from 2008 to 2015.”
As another article in the same issue noted: “This level of spending has no precedent in history—not even close. Not in war. Not in peacetime. Not ever.”
Once the bailout of Wall Street was secured, the turn of the entire political and media establishment was to the demand for a return to work. The declaration of New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman—that the “cure” of closing businesses to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was “worse than the disease”—became government policy, spearheaded by Trump and implemented by Democrats and Republicans throughout the country.
All substantive measures to contain the pandemic have been abandoned, with workers in every industry, in every state, compelled to either return to work in workplaces that are hotbeds for the disease or forego unemployment benefits.
During the period of restricted economic activity, nothing was done to build up health care infrastructure. Federal funding for testing and contact tracing, the only measures known to contain the pandemic, stands at less than one percent of total federal spending on the pandemic response. And the results show it. Nationwide, there are just 28,000 contact tracers, less than one-tenth of the number called for by former Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden.
The testing situation is even worse. According to one survey conducted by National Public Radio and Harvard, the country needs to have twice its current testing capacity just to keep the pandemic at bay, and eight times more testing capacity to suppress and eradicate the disease.
Corporations have been allowed to hide COVID-19 outbreaks from workers and federal health officials alike, while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued just a single workplace citation related to COVID-19, despite receiving thousands of complaints.
To make matters worse, in just three weeks, the $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement passed as part of the CARES Act is set to expire, throwing tens of millions of unemployed workers into poverty overnight.
In recent weeks, the media has been endlessly preoccupied with promoting racial divisions. While the Trump administration, with the support for the Democrats, has focused on blaming China, the Democrats are escalating their militarist rhetoric against Russia.
In the real world, however, social policy is determined by class interests. The failure of the United States to contain COVID-19 is the direct result of the fact that it is ruled by a financial oligarchy to whose interests all policy is subordinated.
While the first six months of the year have been dominated by the policies of the ruling class and the unmitigated spread of the pandemic, there are many signs that the working class is beginning to respond to the crisis with its own demands.
Fiat Chrysler workers in Detroit have carried out work stoppages and formed rank-and-file safety committees to defend their interests, while hundreds of nurses in Riverside, California have gone on strike. They are joined by Amazon workers in Germany demanding safe workplaces, nurses in Zimbabwe demanding a living wage, and workers in Turkey opposing the Erdogan government’s attack on unemployment benefits.
The fight against the pandemic must be waged not only on the medical front, but on the political front as well. The mounting global working class struggles must be unified and armed with the political program of reorganizing society on a socialist basis.

1 Jul 2020

DAAD MIPLC Scholarships 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 15th October, 2020.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Germany

About the Award: With its development-oriented postgraduate study programmes, the DAAD promotes the training of specialists from development and newly industrialised countries. Well-trained local experts, who are networked with international partners, play an important part in the sustainable development of their countries. They are the best guarantee for a better future with less poverty, more education and health for all. The scholarships offer foreign graduates from development and newly industrialised countries from all disciplines and with at least two years’ professional experience the chance to take a postgraduate or Master’s degree at a state or state-recognised German university, and in exceptional cases to take a doctoral degree, and to obtain a university qualification (Master’s/PhD) in Germany.

Fields of Study: Development-Related Postgraduate Courses

Type: Postgraduate

Eligibility: Candidates eligible for the DAAD scholarship for “Development-Related Postgraduate Courses” must:
  • hold at least a four-year Bachelor’s degree (or a three-year Bachelor’s degree plus a further degree), completed with above-average results.
  • have received their latest degree no more than six years ago.
  • have at least two years of full-time professional experience gained in a public authority or a state or private company in a developing country (university staff and academics are generally not taken into account). To meet this requirement, it is sufficient if candidate has completed the two years by the time the program starts in October. In any case, the experience must have been gained after the completion of your first university degree.
  • have English test scores which meet the MIPLC requirements (see scholarship website).
Number of Awardees: Not specified
Value of Scholarship: 
  • The scholarship recipient(s) will get a full tuition waiver from the MIPLC.
  • The DAAD will pay the scholarship recipient(s) a monthly stipend of EUR 750.00.
  • As a rule, the scholarship additionally includes certain payments towards health, accident and liability insurance coverage in Germany.
  • In addition, the DAAD will generally pay an appropriate travel allowance, unless these costs are covered by the home country or by another funding source.
  • Furthermore, the DAAD will also pay a study and research allowance.
  • Last but not least, the scholarship covers a mandatory two-month German course before the start of the MIPLC LL.M. program.
The scholarship does not cover additional costs, e.g. enrollment fees or the fees for a semester ticket for public transport in Munich.

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of course

How to Apply: You may apply more than a year in advance. To apply for this scholarship, please proceed as follows:
  1. Please refer to the DAAD program brochure 2021/22 and read the information carefully.
  2. Determine whether you are eligible to apply by DAAD and MIPLC standards, keeping in mind that where MIPLC and DAAD have differing requirements, the stricter requirements prevail.
  3. Apply for admission to the MIPLC (please refer to the How to Apply page).
  4. When you come to the end of the online application form, check “I would like to apply for the DAAD scholarship” and complete the MIPLC Financial Assistance Application Form that opens automatically (please refer to the Financial Assistance Application Instructions).
  5. Print the forms and add all required documentation, as per the instructions provided.
  6. Download and complete the DAAD Scholarship Application Form and add the other documents required by the DAAD (please refer to the DAAD brochure; NB: the MIPLC does not require a research proposal). You only have to submit one copy of each document, even if a document, e.g. your CV, is required by both MIPLC and DAAD.
  7. Make sure that your file is complete, including all three application forms
    (the MIPLC application form for admission; the MIPLC application form for financial assistance, and the DAAD application form for the scholarship)
    and all the required documents. Otherwise, your application cannot be processed. Please note that we only need the original application package, no additional copies.
  8. Make copies of all application documents. If your are awarded the scholarship, you will have to upload electronic copies of these documents to the DAAD’s system.
  9. Send your application: Please submit your application directly to the MIPLC, unless you are from Cameroon, in which case you must submit your application through the German Embassy in your country. Your complete file must reach the MIPLC by October 15 of the year preceding the program start.
Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Mary Robinson Climate Justice Award 2020

Application Deadline: 23rd July 2020

About the Award: The Mary Robinson Climate Justice Award was created by One Young World to recognise and support young leaders behind impactful climate justice initiatives that are preserving the earth for future generations. 
The award seeks to:
  • Identify three young leaders at the forefront of impactful climate justice initiatives.
  • Raise awareness of and celebrate their initiatives.
  • Directly support their initiatives with grants of up to £4,000.
Type: Conference, Award

Eligibility: Candidates must be:
  • Aged 18 – 30* at the time of the One Young World Summit 2021.
  • Nationals of all countries are eligible to apply for this scholarship
  • Occupy a senior leadership role in a legally registered organisation which undertakes projects related to climate justice.
  • Projects must directly address sustainable development/or climate change with a particular emphasis on balancing the needs of future generations – this could be through financing, frontline services, advocacy, education, communication, legal/policy change or business solution.
  • Projects should be clearly associated with one or more of the seven principles of climate justice:
    • Respect and protect human rights
    • Support the right to development
    • Share benefits and burdens equitably
    • Ensure that decisions on climate change are participatory, transparent and accountable
    • Highlight gender equality and equity
    • Harness the transformative power of education for climate stewardship
    • Use effective partnerships to secure climate justice
Selection Criteria: One Young World will assess candidates based on their:
  • Ambition – how impactful the project is in balancing needs of present and future generations.
  • Relevance – the project is grounded in climate justice.
  • Community value – the project applies to a community/communities / stakeholder group who are directly impacted by climate change or will be more adversely impacted in the future.
Eligible Countries: Any

To be Taken at (Country): Munich, Germany

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:
  • Access to the One Young World Summit 2021 in Munich
  • Hotel accommodation between 23 – 26 April 2021
  • The cost of travel to and from Munich
  • Catering which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • £4,000 grant funding from One Young World to support their climate justice projects
  • Participation in an exclusive mentorship session with Mary Robinson during the Summit
Duration of Award: between 23 – 26 April 2021

How to Apply: APPLY HERE
  • It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.
Visit Award Webpage for Details