Millions in the US face disaster as $600 federal unemployment aid set to end this week

Jacob Crosse

For nearly 31 million people in the United States this week, more so than any since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, is one of extreme worry and anxiety. Two limited but vital provisions in the CARES Act, the $600 weekly enhanced federal unemployment benefit and a federal moratorium on evictions, are both set to expire by the end of this month.

The last of the $600 checks is slated to be sent out by July 25, while the eviction moratorium will expire midnight July 31. These two provisions of the CARES Act, separate from the trillions handed to the financial oligarchy by the Democrats and Republicans, have allowed millions of workers and their families to stave off absolute disaster during the pandemic.

The $600 weekly payment has been the target of venomous attacks by big businesses and right-wing think tanks as a “disincentive” to work and is unlikely to be reinstated in its current form. There have been numerous proposals from the two parties that propose reducing the weekly benefit by hundreds of dollars, possibly to zero.

People wait to speak with representatives from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission about unemployment claims Thursday, July 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

President Donald Trump’s chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, has floated a “back-to-work bonus” in order to incentivize desperate workers into risking their lives returning to dangerous and unsafe workplaces as coronavirus infections hit record highs, and work places across the country serve as vectors for the disease.

Meanwhile, Democratic senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Ron Wyden of Oregon drafted legislation at the beginning of July which would gradually phase out the weekly federal benefits, $100 per every percentage drop in a state’s unemployment rate. The benefit would phase out completely, regardless of the unemployment rate, by March 27, 2021.

In mid-May, in a near party-line vote, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which proposed extending the federal unemployment benefits through January 2021, as well as the federal eviction moratorium, and mailing out an additional $1,200 stimulus check.

The legislation, which Pelosi admitted was a political maneuver after its passage and was nothing more than an “opening negotiation,” was declared “dead-on-arrival” by McConnell and the rest of the Senate Republicans. Republicans have indicated that the next round of legislation must cost less than $1 trillion, including a payroll tax holiday and a shield for schools and businesses against lawsuits from workers who will inevitably contract the virus and die needlessly at work.

With Congress returning today from a two-week recess, the Democrats in the House and the Republicans in the Senate are expected to hash out compromise legislation this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a local radio interview last week, advised that the Senate would be discussing the fifth and likely last coronavirus “relief” bill before the November election.

None of the stipulations laid out by McConnell are deal breakers for the Democrats and will most certainly be embraced in whatever final version of the bill emerges after a week of horse trading and backroom deals between the two parties.

The wrangling over how to squeeze millions of dollars from unemployed workers comes as COVID-19 continues to spread out of control in the US, exemplified by the continuing rise in infections in 40 out of 50 states in the last two weeks and the staggering world leading death toll. As of this writing, over 3.8 million people across the country have tested positive for the virus, while 143,000 have died.

Compounding the pandemic, the working class and their families face an unprecedented economic crisis. Last week marked the 17th week in a row in which over 1 million new unemployment claims were filed in the US. The loss of employment has been a double gut punch for the roughly 5.4 million workers, who have lost their health insurance as a result.

Meanwhile, millions of workers have been unable to actually receive any unemployment benefits due to the outdated, neglected and dilapidated state unemployment systems. For those who have been able to make use of the enhanced benefits, the average 61 percent increase in weekly payments, from roughly $380 to $980, has been a lifesaver. While estimates vary, economists estimate that ending the federal stipend will slash workers’ incomes anywhere from 50 to 75 percent.

The $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit is more than any single state offers alone and is slightly higher than the average weekly wages of a US worker. Before the pandemic the most “generous” state in terms of weekly benefits was Massachusetts, which offered $552 a week, while the lowest was the state of Mississippi, providing a miserly $213 a week.

While millions of Americans were already living in a state of perpetual crisis before the pandemic hit, forced to ration food and medical care in order to afford skyrocketing rental and mortgage payments, the arrival of the virus has now forced them to forgo said payments.

A survey conducted by Apartment List, an online rental platform, found 24 percent of renters missed payments in April and that 31 and 30 percent of renters in May and June, respectively, did not pay rent. The survey also found that 37 percent of renters and 26 percent of homeowners fear they will be homeless by the end of the year. Researchers at Columbia University expect homelessness to increase by 45 percent in the US compared to 2019.

Courts have reopened across the country allowing for the processing of eviction cases as the patchwork of eviction moratorium executive orders passed in March and April by local city councils, mayors and governors continue to expire. In an interview with CNBC last week, Emily Benfer, chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force Committee on Eviction, estimates that between 20 and 28 million people will be evicted between now and September.

While politicians leisurely dither over the details of the upcoming bill on whether or not to extend the federal moratorium on evictions, hundreds of thousands of renters in nongovernment housing have already been served eviction notices in states, such as Michigan, New York and Nevada.

In Michigan, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has refused to extend an executive order which would have halted the processing of approximately 75,000 eviction filings, including 10,000 in the city of Detroit alone. Instead a minuscule $50 million bailout fund for landlords has been established to help offset payments missed by tenants. There is little doubt that these monies will quickly be depleted and along with it any leniency from landlords and property managers towards delinquent tenants.

In New York City legal experts are expecting a tidal wave of eviction cases, as high as 50,000, to begin making their way through the courts starting today. Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, just like Whitmer in Michigan, allowed an executive order which would have halted eviction proceedings to lapse. Instead Cuomo extended a less expansive moratorium, which places additional restrictions on renters applying for assistance. Those who wish to be considered must submit paperwork proving financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic or already qualify for unemployment.

Congress’s deliberate patience in mulling over what miniscule benefits are to be extended for workers stands in contrast with the great haste it moved to pass a five-week extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at the end of June. The passage of the bill ensured that the over $131 billion left in the program, after charterschools, the Catholic Church, and billionaires helped themselves, could still be accessed.

Speaking on Friday before the House Small Business committee on the program Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin suggested that the government “should consider forgiving all small loans, but would need fraud protection.” He failed to clarify what is considered a “small loan” nor did he explain what sort of limited “fraud protection” would be implemented.

Mnuchin’s comments are a response to a letter from a coalition of nearly 150 groups, comprised mostly of trade associations, commerce chambers and banks. The group, which claims to represent “thousands of small businesses, banks, credit unions and financial institutions” requested that all PPP loans which total $150,000 or less be forgiven without any verification that the funds were actually spent to retain workers.

The historic social, economic, and medical catastrophe will continue to ravage the United States and countries around the world as long as the financial parasites continue dominating society and use the pandemic to redistribute trillions of dollars from the bottom to the top of society. Only through the conscious political intervention of the international working class fighting to implement a socialist program aimed at securing the interests and safety of the vast majority of the population can the crisis be halted and the lives of millions be saved.

Destruction of full-time jobs intensifies in Australia

Mike Head

Mass unemployment in Australia, already at 1930s Great Depression levels, is deepening with the ongoing elimination of permanent jobs. Last month, full-time employment fell by another 38,100, according to the official statistics, even as more workers were pushed back into unsafe workplaces in the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.

These figures point to the long-term impact of the economic and social crisis triggered by the pandemic, which is now resurging in Australia’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales, as a result of the government-business “reopening the economy” drive.

Governments and employers are working with the trade unions to exploit the COVID-19 catastrophe to accelerate the casualisation of the workforce, forcing more workers into insecure part-time jobs.

The official unemployment rate climbed to 7.4 percent in June, up from 7.1 percent in May, despite part-time employment increasing by 249,000. This left 992,000 workers—nearly one million—jobless, a new record level.

Among young workers, aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate was more than twice as high—it rose 0.4 points to 16.4 percent. Yet they represented about half the increase in part-time work, bearing the full brunt of the casualisation.

Because of the surge in part-time work, the “underutilisation” rate, which combines the unemployment and under-employment rates, fell 1 point to 19.1 percent—but that is still more than two and half million workers.

These Australian Bureau of Statistics figures notoriously underestimate the true levels of joblessness. They exclude anyone who worked more than one hour a week and only count those classified as actively seeking work. If those who have dropped out of the workforce or been kept in employment by the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme were counted, the real level of joblessness would be around the 1930s level of 25 percent.

According to the more realistic employment survey estimates by the Roy Morgan company, 14.5 percent of the workforce, or 2.05 million workers, were unemployed in June, with another 10 percent, or 1.41 million, under-employed. That is a total of 3.45 million workers, or 24.5 percent of the workforce, either unemployed or under-employed.

Large companies are leading the elimination of full-time jobs. They are using federal, state and territory government business stimulus packages, now totaling more than $300 billion, to restructure their operations, at the direct expense of workers’ jobs, wages and conditions.

In one of the most ruthless examples, Australia’s largest airline, Qantas, announced last month that it will shed 6,000 jobs, while still maintaining the stand-down that it imposed in March of 15,000 other workers. Likewise, Australia’s largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, said it will slash 1,350 warehouse jobs in Sydney and Melbourne.

This week, two of the largest public universities, Monash University in Melbourne and the University of New South Wales in Sydney, announced a total of 770 job cuts. Universities already have eliminated thousands of jobs, mostly of casuals, with Universities Australia predicting up to 30,000 positions will be destroyed in the next three years.

By all accounts, much of the 249,000 rise in part-time work has been in cafes, restaurants, hotels and hospitality operations, which have almost fully reopened as part of the “return to work” drive by the bipartisan national cabinet to restore corporate profits.

According to some estimates, there are now 17 jobless workers for every vacancy. This will only worsen as the federal government compels more unemployed workers to apply for jobs, no matter how unlikely they are to succeed, in order to retain JobSeeker welfare payments.

In September, the situation will deteriorate further when the government scraps or slashes the pitiful JobSeeker allowances of $550 a week, and the $750-a-week JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, which is still covering more than three million workers.

During the same month, moratoriums on evictions, mortgage payments and small business rents and loans are due to end. This will mean a new wave of homelessness, house repossessions and bankruptcies of family-owned businesses, causing greater levels of financial stress and poverty for millions of working class households.

Even if the government’s budget update statement next Thursday maintains some wage subsidies and welfare supports after September, the spending will be targeted to meet the demands of big business for further investment breaks, de-regulation and employment “flexibility”—that is, lower wages and working conditions.

“The Australian economy is fighting back,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday in response to the last jobless statistics. “Australia has opened up again as people have gone back into their businesses and opened their doors.”

This claim flew in the face of the actual statistics, as well as the deteriorating economic situation in the US and globally. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is now predicting that global output could fall by 8.5 percent by the end of 2020, the worst result since World War II.

At the same time, Morrison underscored the real content of this “opening up.” He declared that “flexible” arrangements for employers during the pandemic were keeping people in work, and must continue, and people must keep working despite serious outbreaks of COVID-19 in Victoria.

These “flexible arrangements” were agreed by the unions as part of the JobKeeper program. They formed a central platform of the de facto coalition government formed with the Labor Party leaders, underpinned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, whose secretary Sally McManus pledged to give employers “everything they want.”

Earlier on Thursday, Morrison’s Liberal-National government unveiled yet another business support package, labelled JobTrainer. It pledged $1.5 billion to subsidise the jobs of 100,000 apprentices and $500 million to train or reskill 340,000 school leavers.

In the name of assisting young people, the government is handing yet more cash to business, while further seeking to channel young workers into vocational training to meet the immediate needs of employers.

Despite Morrison’s efforts to talk up the economy, other data indicated the opposite. Consumer sentiment has dropped by 4.5 percent in July, led by a 10.4 percent plunge in Victoria in response to the COVID-19 resurgence and limited six-week lockdown measures.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the survey’s Unemployment Expectations Index surged 12.1 percent, showing that “job loss concerns escalated sharply.” The higher the reading, the more consumers expect unemployment to rise in the year ahead.

An index of views of the economy for the next 12 months also slumped 14 percent in July to 25 percent below pre-COVID-19 levels. Even more revealing was a 10.3 percent drop in the views on the economy over the next five years.

Increasingly, people do not believe or trust the governments’ response to the pandemic, and there is growing opposition among workers, including teachers and warehouse and health workers, to being exposed to life-threatening conditions, without adequate protection, in workplaces.

American Airlines announces 25,000 job cuts

Steve Filips

American Airlines (AA) stock shot up over 16 percent yesterday as Wall Street learned of the company’s plan to cut up to 25,000 employees from its workforce of 133,700. Behind the sharp rise is the recognition by investors that the brutal cuts will help the company extort further concessions from workers under conditions where the trade unions can be relied upon to suppress any resistance.

The accelerating spread of COVID-19 has been the major factor curtailing the limited return of airline passengers that began in June. There are few still willing to risk their health under conditions where there are not federally mandated health precautions in place. Meanwhile, the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have added four more states to their tri-state 14-day quarantine list for travelers, bringing to 22 the number of sates slapped with travel restrictions. Pennsylvania has a similar list containing 18 states.

On July 1, AA took the decision to lift safety precautions requiring distancing in seating, an action revealing that it and other airlines such as United are in effect placing profits over the safety of passengers and crew.

AA Flight attendants will bear the majority of the cuts, 10,000 jobs, followed by 4,500 ground crew workers, 3,200 mechanics, and 2,500 pilots.

The AA announcement follows last week’s threat by United Airlines of 36,000 job cuts if there isn’t an extension of federal support. Delta Air Lines has seen 17,000 job cuts from their 91,000 total workforce. The cuts were made by forcing some into early retirement and giving others cash payouts. The company did not rule out seeking more aid and enforcing additional cuts.

The unions have not taken any action to fight for airline safety or defend jobs. Their only response has been to plead for another government bailout for the airlines. American Federation of Flight Attendants (AFA) President Sara Nelson, who during the 2019 federal government shutdown issued a bogus call for a general strike, exemplifies the duplicity of the unions.

The AFA as of Friday had yet to make a statement outlining a defense against AA’s job cuts other than pleading with the two parties of big business to grant another bailout to the airline companies and their major investors.

The federal $25 billion bailout package, or CARES Act Payroll Support Program, was designed to fortify airline profits and nominally prohibit airlines from cutting workers before September 30. The program was supported by the unions and AFA President Nelson.

The situation is no different with the other airline unions such as Transport Workers Union and International Association of Machinists (TWU-IAM). TWU Local 512 in Itasca, Illinois near Chicago posted on Facebook only offering this pathetic advice in response to the attack on workers’ jobs: "If possible, concentrate on the good things in your life and take good care of yourself through healthy eating, exercise, and sleep."

A further indication of the role of the unions in aiding management was revealed in a statement about the impact of the layoff announcement to local media by IAM Local 513 President Greg Cosey at American's hub at Dallas-Ft. Worth International (DF), San Antonio, and Austin. Rather than calling for unity with other workers in the aviation industry to defend jobs and conditions, Cosey declared, “We try to calm our members down," complacently citing supposed job protections in the union contract. As workers know from long and bitter experience, the value of these supposed guarantees is zero.

The airline companies are hoping for an eventual pickup in air travel in the near term, which shows their confidence that the government’s back-to-work drive will not encounter opposition from the trade unions. At the same time, they are looking for another government bailout, which even if it happens will not prevent further layoffs and pay reductions.

For workers to mount serious and effective opposition to the job cuts they must organize and carry out action independent of the trade unions. We urge airline workers to form independent rank-and-file committees uniting pilots, ground crew and flight attendants. The World Socialist Web Site and Socialist Equality Party will do everything in our power to aid in this effort.

Johnson’s return-to-work speech: UK ruling class opts for mass murder

Laura Tiernan

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that government support for home working will end, public transport restrictions will be lifted, and sports stadium and other live events resumed, marks the end of any effective measures to suppress the coronavirus pandemic.

Johnson’s homicidal plans, drawn up in consultation with officials from the Bank of England, reveal a financial oligarchy hell-bent on driving millions back to work no matter what the cost in human life.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference giving the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, at Downing Street in London, March 12, 2020 [Credit: Simon Dawson/Pool via AP]

His speech yesterday came just days after the Academy of Medical Scientists (AMS) published a 79-page report warning of 251,000 deaths by January-February 2021, unless the government took immediate mitigating action. The deaths would occur, “if there was a further relaxing of interventions, more contacts taking place, schools may be a factor, people going back to work and that sort of thing,” AMS’s Professor Azra Ghani said.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientist, told a parliamentary select committee on Thursday there was “absolutely no reason” to change government advice urging people to work from home. He told the Commons Science and Technology Committee that the government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies (SAGE) believed, “We’re still at a time when distancing measures are important.”

But Johnson made no reference to the dire warnings from epidemiologists and public health experts. In fact, it was revealed in Parliament Tuesday that this sociopath had not even bothered to read the scientists’ report. Yesterday he merely stated, “It is possible that the virus will be more virulent in the winter months.”

His speech was built on a pack of lies that the virus is under control. But all of the indices he cited—including a reduction in new infections, deaths and patients on mechanical ventilators—were achieved on the basis of a national lockdown which his government first opposed, then implemented too late, and is now ending against all scientific advice.

“As we plan for the worst, I strongly believe we should also hope for the best,” Johnson declared.

His plans, including new powers for local government and a one-off increase to National Health Service (NHS) funding, will do nothing to avert a public health catastrophe in the weeks and months ahead. Just £3 billion has been pledged to the NHS (which has an annual operating budget of nearly £134 billion), with Johnson revealing much of this will be funnelled into “the independent sector,” i.e., to further privatise the NHS.

The centrepiece of Johnson’s speech was his reversal of government policy on working from home. “From 1 August, we will update our advice on going to work. Instead of government telling people to work from home, we are going to give employers more discretion, and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely.”

He continued, “As we reopen our society and economy, it’s right that we give employers more discretion.” His cynical advice that employers “should consult closely with their employees, and only ask people to return to their place of work if it is safe” will be used to coerce millions back to unsafe workplaces on threat of losing their jobs.

Johnson’s announcement dovetails with the winding down of the furlough scheme, under which the government covered 80 percent of laid-off workers’ wages. In August, the subsidy will be cut to 60 percent, with the scheme ending altogether on October 31. The government hopes it can kick-start the economy by stripping workers of all protection, as part of its profit-driven herd immunity strategy.

On August 1, bowling alleys, skating rinks, casinos, and beauty parlours will reopen along with indoor performances. Large “stadia events” will also be “piloted” next month, with the resumption in October of major sporting fixtures, live concerts, and business conferences.

This follows measures already announced, including the opening of retail and the hospitality sector and the full reopening of schools in September.

To facilitate this agenda, Johnson announced the scrapping of all restrictions on the use of public transport, “In England, from today we are making clear that anybody may use public transport with immediate effect.” Buses, trains, light rail and the London Underground will be transformed into major vectors for the spread of COVID-19 between cities, towns and villages, making a mockery of Johnson’s focus on “targeted, local action” to beat the pandemic.

Finally, Johnson announced that the government’s shielding programme for those most at risk from COVID-19 will be “paused” at the end of July. It is not yet clear what this will mean for those medically vulnerable workers who are currently on some form of sick pay.

On Thursday, the Telegraph revealed that Johnson’s announcement followed an intervention by Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey who addressed the Tory party’s backbench 1922 Committee Wednesday. Bailey set out a “three-point strategy” to reopen the economy.

The newspaper reported, “One Tory MP on the videoconference said the Governor spoke at length of his concerns that the ‘fear of using public transport is really holding back the recovery because people aren’t going into their office’ and set out a ‘three-point plan’ of how he thinks this needs to be addressed.

“Another MP said it involved: ‘One, trying to get people to overcome their caution and trying to get more people back on public transport. Two, unlocking all the restrictions as quickly as possible. And three, trying to boost productivity by getting people back to work’.”

Bailey complained that train usage remained below 20 percent and was shocked to observe, during his morning drive to work, that London streets were so deserted. He railed against BoE employees and civil servants, demanding their return to work.

Baroness Harding of Winscombe

At yesterday’s SAGE meeting neither Vallance nor the government’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty, were present. Johnson was joined instead by a woman he referred to only as “Dido.” Diana Mary “Dido” is Baroness Harding of Winscombe, daughter of Lord Harding, granddaughter of Field Marshal John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton. She is married to John Penrose, Conservative Party MP for Weston-super-Mare. She was formerly CEO of TalkTalk, appointed a non-executive director on the Court of the Bank of England in 2014, and in 2017 became Head of NHS Improvement, a role devoted to the privatisation and break-up of the NHS. Harding later joined the board of the Jockey Club which oversees horseracing’s most popular events, including the Cheltenham Festival. This fixture became a COVID-19 super-spreader in March when it went ahead, over the strenuous objections of scientists. Wikipedia notes, “In May 2020, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that Harding was to be put in charge of the ‘Track, Test and Trace’ effort as part of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Harding’s presentation on the government’s test and trace efforts was a fabrication from beginning to end. Only last month, former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King, who now heads Independent SAGE, stated that “the system as it stands is not fit for purpose.”

Johnson told the British people it was his “strong and sincere hope” for a “significant return to normality” from November at the earliest, “possibly in time for Christmas.” His words recall the promises made by Europe’s governments in July 1914, when they promised soldiers enlisting in World War I that they would be home by Christmas.

The working class cannot leave the ruling class in charge of combating the pandemic. The entire political establishment, including Labour and the Trades Union Congress, has rubberstamped the government’s ending of the lockdown because they all serve the same financial and corporate oligarchy.

There is no time to lose. The Socialist Equality Party is calling for the formation of rank-and-file health and safety committees in every workplace to implement vital safety measures to save lives. This includes the temporary shutdown of all nonessential industry, and a ban on the full reopening of schools. All furloughed and unemployed workers must be paid a full wage. Key workers must be guaranteed a safe working environment, including full personal protective equipment, reduced shifts, and regular testing and contact tracing reports for every workplace. To finance these measures the major banks and corporations must be expropriated and placed under workers’ control, as part of the fight for a workers’ government and socialism.

Nearly 650,000 jobs lost in UK during pandemic, with much worse to come

Robert Stevens

Job losses continue at record speed across the UK economy. New figures in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) labour market report reveal that almost 650,000 workers are not on company payrolls in June compared with March, a 2.2 percent fall.

In late March, the lockdown was first put in place by the Conservative government, during which time over 12 million people—9.4 million employed by firms and 2.7 million self-employed people—were paid 80 percent of their wages by the government’s furlough scheme. Despite this the ONS data reveals that around half a million employees were not in work but received no pay in May.

The government now plans to enforce its back to work agenda—and have millions of people working under unsafe conditions during a pandemic—by withdrawing the furlough scheme fully by the end of October.

The collapse in the number of workers in employment takes place along with a drastic fall in hours for those remaining in a job, and a fall in wages. In the three months to May, total weekly hours worked in the UK fell 16.7 percent to 877.1 million hours. This represents the largest annual decrease since estimates began in 1971. Total pay fell by 0.3 percent on the year, equating to a fall of 1.3 percent when factoring in inflation.

Jonathan Athow of the ONS commented that the survey “is showing only a small fall in employment but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay. Both tax and survey data also show the number of new starters has fallen sharply. There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic. Pay is now falling on most measures, with many furloughed workers not having their wages topped up by their employers.”

KPMG UK chief economist Yael Selfin said the ONS figures “represent the calm before the storm.” He noted, “A sharp decline in the number of self-employed men, and around half a million workers who were temporarily away from their work due to COVID-19 without pay, point at a worse picture than the headline numbers convey.”

Many firms are utilising the crisis to carry out large-scale restructuring. Over 200,000 job losses have been announced in recent weeks from all sectors of the economy.

On Thursday, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found that thousands of businesses plan to axe jobs in the coming months. It reported that 29 percent of businesses expect to cut jobs in the next three months. In 2019, only 7 percent of companies expected to do so.

The report noted that “18% of micro firms (with fewer than 10 employees) expect their workforce to decrease. 41% of small and medium firms (with 10 to 249 employees) expect their workforce to decrease. 41% of large firms (with over 250 employees) expect their workforce to decrease.”

Of the 7,400 firms surveyed, more than a quarter of the firms (28 percent) reported they had already cut their workforces since the pandemic began.

This week the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) laid out three scenarios—all of which would see unemployment more than doubling. Under its “upside” scenario the economy would fall 2 percent over the course of the pandemic, under the “central” scenario—which the OBS views as most likely—by 6 percent and under the “downside” scenario, by 10 percent. In the optimistic scenario unemployment, now at around 4 percent, will reach 10 percent—significantly higher than the 8.5 percent peak following the 2008–2009 global financial crisis. The central scenario sees the jobless rate rising to 12 percent (with around 3.5 million out of work). Its downside prediction is that unemployment hits 4 million.

Massive job losses are being lined up in the fashion and events industries. The British Fashion Council warned this week that up to 240,000 jobs are expected to go over the next 18 months, 27 percent of the workforce.

Around 70 percent of the 1,100 trade shows and exhibitions originally scheduled to go ahead have been forced to postpone until the final months of the year. Were none to transpire, 30,000 jobs are at risk—more than a quarter of the entire workforce. The events industry is worth £8 billion to the economy. The cancellation of many events would have a devastating knock-on effect, with the Financial Times noting, “Trade shows are important for the UK economy as they are a way for about 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses to drum up new business, many of whom will be desperate to secure orders in the wake of the pandemic …”

The response to the pandemic has been dictated by the profit interests of the capitalist class. Utilising the maxim “never let a crisis go to waste,” corporations are using the threat of unemployment to tear up whatever remains of terms and conditions established through decades of class struggle.

Centrica, owned by British Gas, plans to enforce a “fire and rehire” agenda against its 20,000 workforce, with staff told to accept new working conditions, or risk losing their jobs. Last month, the firm slashed 5,000 jobs and restructured its management. With many of its engineers working longer hours over the winter period, including Christmas and New Year, Centrica is moving to end overtime pay, presently often double the normal rate.

British Airways is finalising moves to lay off 12,000 of its 42,000-strong workforce to force them to accept massive pay cuts and reduced conditions as an alternative to redundancy.

In contrast, Centrica favours enforcing its plans using its trusted partners in the trade union bureaucracy. Prior to announcing its proposals, the firm was holed up for two weeks of talks with the Unite union. Further redundancies would be an “option of last resort if it turns out we can’t work together to achieve this.”

Major job losses have been announced by companies in the last days, with casino owner Genting confirming that three of its 43 sites—at Torquay, Margate and Bristol—will close. Up to 1,642 jobs are threatened.

Entertainment group Buzz Bingo has announced the closure of 26 clubs with the loss of 570 jobs in Bournemouth, Carlisle, Milton Keynes and Wolverhampton.

On Thursday, the Southbank Centre confirmed that 400 jobs (two thirds of the workforce) are at risk, as it predicted a £5.1 million deficit for the 2020-21 financial year. Based in London, the Southbank is Britain’s largest arts complex. Jobs are expected to go throughout the organisation, including at the Hayward Gallery and Royal Festival Hall, among staff at eight orchestras, the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection.

The previous day, the BBC announced a further 70 jobs would go in its news division. This follows 450 redundancies from its news teams that were previously announced, but then paused as the pandemic took hold.

Jobs are being lost apace in the finance and banking sector. Prior to the pandemic, UK-listed bank HSBC embarked on a global restructuring centred on 35,000 jobs losses among its 235,000 workforce that it too was forced to put on hold. The job cuts are central to its plans to save £3.6 billion. It has now resumed the plans with interim chief executive, Noel Quinn, stating that there would be “meaningful” cuts in British operations. The Guardian noted, “The main focus is expected to be head office operations as well as its global bank and markets business, which are largely London based.”

Armenia-Azerbaijan border clashes threaten broader war in Caucasus

Ulas Atesci

Armed clashes involving tanks and artillery on the border between Tavush in north-eastern Armenia and the Tovuz district in Azerbaijan since last Sunday threaten to provoke all-out war. At least 12 soldiers, including a major general and a colonel, and one civilian from Azerbaijan are dead, as are four soldiers from Armenia. Many others are wounded.

After a dangerous China-India border clash last month, this is further confirmation that the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified geo-political conflicts all over the world. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan face a growing coronavirus outbreak and a serious economic and social crisis causing mounting anger among working people. While Azerbaijan, with a population of 10 million, has registered more than 26,000 cases and 334 deaths, Armenia has reported more than 33,000 cases and 607 deaths despite having a population of less than three million.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of having violated the ceasefire between their countries. The BBC reported that the border clashes came “just days after Azerbaijan’s President [Ilham] Aliyev criticised international mediators conducting peace negotiations with Armenia, describing the process as ‘meaningless.’”

Significantly, these clashes have taken place not in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, but along an internationally-recognized border between the two countries. Azerbaijani Deputy Defense Minister Kerim Veliyev claimed on Tuesday that nearly 100 Armenian soldiers have been killed, but Armenian officials denied this.

While Armenian official Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on Friday “it can be considered that the tension has been greatly eased,” this second armed clash in five years between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and official threats show an all-out war between the two South Caucasian states is a real danger. Such a war that could easily erupt into a conflict between Russia, a close backer of Armenia, and Turkey, a traditional ally of Azerbaijan and a member of NATO.

The seriousness of the conflict was underlined on Thursday with a statement from Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargyakhly, who said: “The Armenian side must not forget that the state-of-the-art missile systems our army has are capable of launching a precision strike on the Metsamor nuclear power plant, and that would be a huge tragedy for Armenia.”

This Soviet-built nuclear plant is about 35 kilometers from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and close to the eastern border with Turkey as well. A missile attack on this plant would inevitably lead to a horrific nuclear disaster affecting the entire region.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry called this threat an “explicit demonstration of state terrorism and genocidal intent,” adding: “We strongly condemn the nuclear threats voiced by Azerbaijan, which demonstrate absolute absence of responsibility and sound judgment from this particular member of the international community.”

Moreover, Baku and Yerevan both accused each other of targeting civilians. While Armenia’s Defense Ministry spokeswoman Sushan Stepanyan said on Thursday Azerbaijani forces were “shelling Armenian villages with mortars and howitzers,” Azerbaijani officials claimed that “Armenians shelled Azerbaijani villages with large-caliber weapons.”

President Aliyev sacked his Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov on Thursday after accusing him of engaging “in meaningless work, meaningless negotiations.” This came after a pro-war demonstration in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Tuesday night, involving about 30,000 people shouting slogans like “Karabakh is Azerbaijan!” and “Mobilisation,” according to local reports. At 4:00 a.m. local time, several protesters broke into the parliament.

According to AP, Aliyev “lashed out at nationalist demonstrators” and “accused the leaders of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan of inciting riots to destabilize Azerbaijan during the renewed fighting with Armenia.”

Since Sunday, many official statements have come from all over the world. Reuters news agency wrote: “International concern is high because of the threat to stability in a region that hosts pipelines taking oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to global markets.”

While UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for an immediate cessation of hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Co-Chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group urged all “sides to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric and attempts to change the situation on the ground,” in a statement on Wednesday.

The OSCE Minsk Group, led by the United States, France and Russia, was created in 1992, ostensibly to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian mountainous region in Azerbaijan, declared independence in 1991. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh had begun in 1988, when Azerbaijan and Armenia were still part of the Soviet Union. It escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s, after the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991. The war between Azeri troops and Armenian separatists had claimed some 30,000 lives by the time of the 1994 ceasefire.

As the World Socialist Web Site warned in 2016, when the last serious armed clashes erupted between the two countries, killing nearly 200 soldiers on both sides: “The war danger posed by the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis points to the disastrous geopolitical consequences of the dissolution of the USSR, and the reactionary character of the nationalist politics that predominate in all the former Soviet republics, including Russia. This provided the basis for the emergence of explosive ethnic conflicts and imperialist intrigue across the region.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared his government is “deeply concerned about deaths and violence on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” and called on “parties to immediately de-escalate, resume meaningful dialogue and ceasefire to start negotiations with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.”

France for its part condemned the “armed confrontation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” calling for “dialogue.”

“We are deeply concerned about the shootings on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We call on both sides to exercise restraint and respect their obligations under the cease-fire,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, adding: “Russia, as we have already stated at various levels, is ready to provide its mediation efforts for a settlement, as a co-chair of the Minsk group.”

Russia has two military bases in Armenia, with about 5,000 soldiers and hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery systems as well as reportedly a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, helicopter gunships and other weapons.

According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a “surprise combat readiness check” on Friday. It involved about 150,000 troops, over 26,000 weapon systems, 414 aircraft and 106 warships “for Russia’s Southern and Western Military Districts, the Airborne Force and marine infantry of the Northern and Pacific Fleets.”

Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said: “The check stipulates holding 56 tactical exercises with the troops. A total of 35 training grounds and camps and 17 naval ranges in the Black and Caspian Seas will be involved. … The results of training measures held should be taken into account in assessing the level of the preparedness of military large units and formations for taking part in the Kavkaz-2020 [Caucasus-2020] strategic exercise [scheduled for September].”

However, the most belligerent statements came from Ankara, a major ally of Baku for decades. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the “attack by Armenia against friend and brother Azerbaijan,” during a press conference on Tuesday. He said: “Moreover, this last attack was not on the Upper Karabakh line, but directly on the borders between the two states and with heavy weapons.”

Erdoğan was effectively implying the Kremlin is behind what he called “Armenia’s reckless and systematic attacks,” which he said aim “block the solution in the Upper Karabakh and to reveal new conflict areas.”

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar also declared that this move “goes over Armenia’s head,” after a meeting with Azerbaijani Deputy Defense Minister and Air Force Commander Ramiz Tahirov on July 16.

On Friday, İsmail Demir, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries, an affiliate of the Turkish Presidency, declared on Twitter: “We need to show the world that the two brother countries are in full unity. One nation, two states,” adding that “Our armed unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition and missiles with our experience, technology and capabilities are at Azerbaijan’s service.”

Emphasizing their full support for the Erdoğan government in the conflict, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Good Party backed a joint statement with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the name of the Turkish Parliament on Wednesday, declaring: “Turkey, which has always been a defender of peace and stability with the understanding of ‘two states, one nation,’ will continue to stand with Azerbaijan in its efforts to restore its territorial integrity.”

Amid dangerous proxy wars between Turkey and Russia in Syria and Libya, the Turkish ruling elite’s full support for Azerbaijan and Moscow’s massive military exercise constitute a warning that escalation between Azerbaijan and Armenia could rapidly spiral out of control and provoke a broader conflict including Russia, Turkey and NATO.

German automaker Daimler plans fresh assault on jobs and conditions

K. Nesan

In an interview published in the weekend edition of the Stuttgarter Zeitung, Daimler personnel manager Wilfried Porth threatened to increase the number of jobs to be shed at the auto company. Previously, the company had indicated it would shed up to 15,000 employees. Porth claimed that Daimler had never given a concrete number, but that the figure of 15,000 was now not enough. Compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out, he added.

Daimler’s head of personnel agrees with the head of Daimler works council, Michael Brecht, that the jobs massacre should take place in stages. The real plans for reducing the company’s workforce will only be announced piecemeal. The works council and Germany’s main auto union, IG Metall, fear they could lose control of the workforce if the real extent of the jobs massacre were to be announced all at once.

The IG Metall works councils have been working behind the backs of the workforce for some time preparing the onslaught against the company’s 300,000 employees worldwide—including almost 175,000 in Germany. As early as June 4, general works council chairman Michael Brecht told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten: “We will lose jobs permanently. Now we have to keep this number as low as possible.”

What number is as “low as possible” for Brecht? Has he already agreed to a concrete figure in secret negotiations? The workforce has a right to know. The World Socialist Web Site calls on Daimler workers to confront the works councils in the factories and demand to know the truth about the unprecedented attacks being cooked up behind closed doors.

A few days before Porth’s interview last weekend, Daimler CEO Ola Källenius set out the course the company would take at the Daimler shareholders’ meeting. He declared that current financial results did “not do justice to this proud company.” Therefore, the planned austerity programme would be “sharpened up.” He promised shareholders: “Daimler can do more. And we are determined to deliver.”

Porth has now indicated the extent of the “sharpening up” of the austerity programme. He explained that management was conducting intensive talks with the works council to implement a series of measures aimed at deepening the programme of cuts. Porth said that the plan to save €1.4 billion announced at the end of last year had been calculated under two aspects: investment in electric mobility and cost reductions to increase competitiveness.

The corona pandemic was now an “additional challenge” and a reason to step up the cuts, he said. The amount to be saved would be “considerably greater” than €1.4 billion (US$1.6 billion). Porth made it clear that the coronavirus pandemic would be used as an opportunity not only to lay off thousands of workers but, with the help of IG Metall, also to dismantle hard-won social achievements such as contract agreements on shift allowances and holiday pay.

Porth said that the personnel reductions planned so far could not be limited to administration. The company had excess workers in some production plants, and it might therefore be necessary to reduce workforces. He specifically mentioned the factories in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, Berlin and the “locations of some subsidiaries.” Porth refused to give figures or details about these sites and other production plants. There are 19,000 Daimler workers employed in Untertürkheim and 2,500 in Berlin.

Porth insisted that compulsory layoffs were necessary to implement the austerity programme, which could not be achieved solely by voluntary redundancies. He said that the “Company agreement on safeguarding the future,” which allegedly included job security until 2030, was a guide agreed by the company and IG Metall. At the same time, the union and the company had also agreed to reconsider the agreement in the event of changes to fundamental economic conditions. Porth refuted the promise of “Job security until 2030,” saying, “Compulsory dismissals cannot be ruled out in the process of safeguarding the future.”

The employment and plant security arrangements praised by IG Metall are not worth the paper they are written on. They are only valid as long as the company has no interest in job cuts and plant closures. The issue for the company and the union is not to protect jobs but rather to undermine working conditions and wages. In reality, “Job security until 2030” is a deal struck between management and IG Metall aimed at blackmailing workers. Using the phony and deceitful promise of a secure job, workers are being forced to accept intensified attacks on their wages and social standards.

In his interview with the Stuttgart newspaper, Porth provocatively explained that what was at stake for Daimler was not only a constantly growing number of workers threatened by loss of their jobs. The company human resources director, who takes home millions in salary, is also calling for the abolition of contract agreements, thereby throwing into doubt all those social gains generations of workers fought for since the Second World War.

For example, he claimed that break regulations and late-shift bonuses from 2 p.m. onwards were “historic achievements.” It may have been true at the time of their introduction, but they did not fit into the present day and the current cost structure. He spoke cynically of a large “bouquet of possibilities” and that plans to abolish Christmas and holiday bonuses were on the cards.

Porth made clear that despite this extensive list of cuts to conditions and wages, thousands of workers would still lose their jobs. Wage cuts could not prevent redundancies, and he cited the necessity of restructuring the auto industry. Electric vehicles could be produced with fewer workers than autos with combustion engines. Anything other than the layoffs he announced and the destruction of workers’ existing gains would endanger “competitiveness.”

In response to the Porth interview, Brecht also spoke to the Stuttgarter Zeitung and once again made clear on which side the union stood. In contrast to Daimler workers who reacted with shock to Porth’s revelations, Brecht reacted calmly. For Brecht, Porth’s comments apparently contained nothing new. The chairman of the works council merely said that IG Metall was prepared to talk about a temporary reduction in working hours.

In the style of a co-manager, Brecht explained he expected the demand for autos to fall for many years to come. “Last year we built 2.4 million autos,” Brecht said. “By June 2020, we had produced just 890,000. And we will hardly fill the gap of 1.5 million cars by the end of the year.” He then suggested reducing working hours, as he did during the financial crisis of 2008–2009: “Reducing working hours is a suitable instrument for the current situation.”

Brecht does not fundamentally oppose the abolition of Christmas and holiday bonuses. Instead, he criticises the proposal as half-baked and inconsistent. “If you want to change structures because you have too many people in the system, it doesn’t help if you cut the Christmas bonus. You may have saved money, but you’re still dealing with the same outdated structures.”

This is nothing other than a thinly veiled call for layoffs dressed up as “changing structures.” Once again, Brecht is on the same page as Porth. The austerity programme had to include the dismantling of past gains, but that alone was not enough to achieve the necessary level of competitiveness.

Workers should regard Porth’s and Brecht’s interviews as a warning. All the gains bitterly fought for by workers since World War Two are under fire in order to satiate the shameless greed of shareholders. If the works council, IG Metall and directors at Daimler, one of the world’s largest automobile companies, prevail, the way will be open for unprecedented attacks on millions of workers.

It is high time that Daimler workers counter the rotten and conspiratorial alliance of the executive and works council. Cuts to wages and social conditions will not save any jobs, but rather pave the way for further layoffs. All jobs, wages and social benefits must be defended. When Brecht & Co. declare this is not possible because it contravenes the drive for profits by the millionaire company executives and owners, it means that the defence of jobs and wages requires a fight against capitalism.

The right to work and wages must be prioritised above the obscene enrichment of major shareholders and their henchmen. The company works councils must be forced to disclose all the details of their secret negotiations with management.

Auto workers face the task of breaking with the unions and their cronies on the works councils. Workers must form independent action committees, join forces internationally and fight for a socialist programme. It is necessary to transfer the entire auto industry—including both manufacturers and suppliers—into democratically controlled forms of social ownership and redirect the billions appropriated by shareholders into securing jobs.

Neo-Nazi network in police covered up at highest levels of German state and politics

Christoph Vandreier

New reports about right-wing extremist terrorist threats in Germany against representatives of the Left Party, artists and journalists are revealing the extensive fascist networks inside the state apparatus, which are being covered up by the highest authorities in state and politics. The threats are intended to intimidate the widespread opposition to the right-wing policies of the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Two years ago Frankfurt lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz received threatening letters from right-wing terrorists that were as brutal as they were serious. Now many more such cases have come to public attention in recent weeks.

Like Basay-Yildiz, the leader of the Left Party parliamentary group in the Hesse state parliament, Janine Wissler, received death threats which were signed “NSU 2.0” and contained non-public information about her. “NSU 2.0” refers to the terrorist organisation “National Socialist Underground,” which murdered at least 10 people between 2000 and 2007.

In both cases, the information in the threatening letters had previously been retrieved from police computers in Hesse. The same applies to the information in threatening letters against the anti-racist Berlin cabaret artist İdil Baydar. She received a total of eight death threats from March 2019 onwards and had brought them to the attention of the police. But it was not until Monday that it became known that her personal data had also been retrieved from police computers.

İdil Baydar at a performance in 2016 [Credit: Plumpaquatsch]

Besides Wissler, other representatives of the Left Party have also been threatened. In April, Martina Renner, a member of the Bundestag (federal parliament), received death threats signed NSU 2.0, containing non-public information. Renner is a joint plaintiff in the trial against the neo-Nazi André M., which was just beginning at that time. M. is accused of having sent over 100 threatening letters and 87 bomb threats.

The Berlin state faction leader of the Left Party, Anne Helm, also received terror threats from NSU 2.0 containing non-public data at the beginning of July. It is currently unclear whether these also originate from police computers in Hesse. Helm herself suspects a link to Berlin. The threatening letters “contained, among other things, information that was probably obtained by spying on my home environment,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau. “This method has been used for a very long time by the neo-Nazi network, to which the series of attacks here in Neukölln is attributed.” It is therefore logical to assume that these circles are networked.

A Berlin police officer faces disciplinary proceedings for betrayal of secrets because he shared information about investigations in a chat group, in which at least one of the Neukölln main suspects was also active.

It turns out that it is not individual officers, but a widely spread network. The data from Basay-Yildiz, Baydar and Wissler were each accessed by different police stations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Basay-Yildiz received threatening letters even after six suspects had already been suspended from police duty. “You [vulgar insult] are obviously not aware of what you have done to our police colleagues,” it said.

Nor are the threats against individual members of parliament. The aim is obviously to intimidate anyone who opposes the right-wing policies of the federal government and the extreme right-wing danger. On July 14, several parliamentary groups in the Hesse state parliament and the editors of the talk show Merit Liner received a letter wishing the death of Wissler, Renner, Helm, Baydar and the taz journalist Hengameh Yaghoobifarah. The perpetrators wanted to reach as large a public as possible.

The members of the right-wing terrorist network are becoming more and more aggressive because they can rely on being covered up by the authorities. In the case of Basay-Yildiz, the investigation has been going on for almost two years without any charges being brought. Immediately after the first letters were written, the policewoman from whose account the data on the lawyer had been retrieved was found.

A house search revealed that she was a member of a WhatsApp group, in which five other right-wing extremist police officers glorified the Holocaust, exchanged Hitler pictures and sent Nazi symbols that are illegal in Germany. One of them was earmarked for promotion. So far, none of the police officers have been charged and only one has been released from his employment at his own request. The rest are merely suspended from duty.

Baydar filed charges eight times because of the terror threats, and eight times the proceedings were dropped. The data query from the police computer had already taken place in March 2019. However, she was not informed about this, but had only just found out through a reporter, she explained. So far, no investigator has contacted her. “I am afraid of the police,” she told Die Zeit.

Helin Ervin Sommer, a member of the Bundestag for the Left Party, also received a threatening email from NSU 2.0, warning she would suffer the same fate as Kassel’s District President Walter Lübcke (CDU), who was shot at close range by a neo-Nazi a year ago. Although Sommer had been attacked earlier, she was informed by the police only last week that her name was already on a neo-Nazi’s death list in 2010.

According to Left Party chairman Bernd Hiesinger, none of the threatened Left Party members of parliament were offered police protection.

In Wissler’s case, the police claim they have not yet been able to determine who accessed the data. The police officer whose login credentials were used to retrieve the data has long since been identified. However, because the police officer stated that he did not know Janine Wissler, he is not listed as a suspect but as a witness(!) There have also been no house searches. Even if someone else had logged on with the data, it should not be difficult to identify them, since the time of the logon is also stored. The fact that there is still no suspect can only be explained by the fact that no serious investigation is underway.

In general, attempts have long been made to cover up the fact that the data were obtained from police computers. Hesse’s Minister of the Interior Peter Beth (CDU) accused the State Criminal Investigation Office (LKA) of having informed him of this only last week. The LKA, however, had already identified the data retrieval on February 25. State Police Commissioner Udo Munch resigned as a result.

But as the Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Sunday, the state police headquarters, which is affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior, had already been informed by the LKA on March 5 about the data retrieval. At least that is what the newspaper cites from internal memos. An investigating officer, “showed that a Wiesbaden police station had interrogated Ms. Janine Wissler of the Left Party,” it says.

According to this, the Ministry of the Interior would have been informed about the data retrieval at an early stage and would have deliberately kept it secret, thus keeping its protective hand over the right-wing extremist terror networks in the police.

Such a procedure is completely in line with the political leadership of the Hesse state Interior Ministry. When Halit Yozgat was murdered by the NSU in Kassel in 2006, Volker Bouffier, then Interior Minister and now state premier, kept silent for as long as possible about the presence at the scene of the crime of an officer from the Hesse state secret service responsible for managing Confidential Informants inside far-right groups, Andreas Temme. When the matter could no longer be concealed, he granted Temme only a limited permission to testify. The corresponding files are still under lock and key today and are to remain so for another 30 years.

Temme was responsible for an extensive network of informers with which the police and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (as the secret service is called) had infiltrated and financed the neo-Nazi scene. At least two dozen Confidential Informants were active in the NSU environment alone, some of whom were in personal contact with the terrorists in hiding.

All these structures remained intact after the NSU was uncovered and were protected by the security authorities. Temme, for example, was transferred to Lübcke’s regional council, where he was still working when the CDU politician was murdered by neo-Nazis. The presumed murderer, Stephan Ernst, in turn, comes from Kassel neo-Nazi circles in which Temme was responsible for running informants.

Since the murder of Lübcke, these networks have increasingly been mobilized against political figures associated with criticism of right-wing extremism. Workers and young people must take this as a serious warning. The mass terror threats are part of a comprehensive offensive by the security authorities to act against anyone who criticises the policy of militarism and blatant social inequality and takes a stand against capitalism.