“Pandemic be damned”: Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans list reveals billionaire bonanza

Kevin Reed

The American business magazine Forbes published its 39th annual list of the 400 richest people in the country on Tuesday, celebrating the parasitic elite’s total wealth expansion by $240 billion to a record $3.2 trillion over the past year.

While millions of working-class families in the US are facing unemployment, economic ruin, eviction and hunger arising from the deep economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, Forbes introduces its top billionaires list with “Pandemic be damned.” Noting that the stock market has “defied the virus,” Forbes editors write, “Even in these trying times mega-fortunes are still being minted.”

Topping the Forbes list for the third year in a row is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $179 billion. Up from $114 billion in 2019—an increase of 57 percent—Bezos’s increase in personal wealth of $65 billion in one year is greater than the individual wealth of all but eight others at the top of the list.

Along with Bezos, the top ten richest Americans include: Bill Gates (Microsoft, $111 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, $85 billion), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway, $73.5 billion), Larry Ellison (Oracle, $72 billion), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft, $69 billion), Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, $68 billion), Larry Page (Google, $67.5 billion), Sergey Brin (Google, $65.7 billion) and Alice Walton (Walmart, $62.3 billion).

With the exception of Warren Buffett, whose net worth dropped by $7.3 billion over the past year, the other nine of the top ten richest billionaires increased their wealth by a total of $194 billion. This means that 80 percent of the increases in the top 400 wealthiest fortunes went to nine of the ten richest individuals.

Forbes began the repugnant business of hailing the accumulation of personal capitalist wealth in 1982. This was during the decade that began with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan as President and when the ruling elite went on the offensive against every gain made by the working class since the 1930s. Since that time, a massive intensification of the exploitation of the working class and transfer of wealth to the financial oligarchy has taken place.

Providing something of a picture of just how far the social counterrevolution of the past four decades has penetrated American society, in 1982 there were 13 billionaires in the Forbes 400, and someone with a fortune of $75 million could secure a spot on the list.

In what passes for analysis, Forbes provides additional details about the “mega-fortunes” being “minted” by this year’s list makers. “We welcome 18 new members to the ranks, who made their piles in everything from electric trucks to the now-ubiquitous Zoom. Plus, there are 9 returnees—former 400 members who fell off the list and have made a comeback.”

Attempting to inject some semblance of reality into their report, the Forbes editors add, “Two from last year’s list died, and 25 dropped off as their fortunes fell; 10 of those setbacks were directly attributable to the Covid crisis.” Although it does not mention the President specifically, the report shows that Donald Trump’s fortune fell by $600 million to $2.5 billion, dropping him from number 275 to 339 on the list.

Forbes explains the methodology behind their net worth calculations in “how we crunch the numbers.” Here, editor Jennifer Wang writes: “Uncovering their fortunes required us to pore over thousands of SEC documents, court records, probate records and news articles. We took into account all types of assets: stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art, yachts, planes, ranches, vineyards, jewelry, car collections and more. We factored in debt and charitable giving. While some billionaires provided documentation for their private assets and companies, others were less forthcoming.”

In short, given that the financial elite specializes in concealing the full extent of their wealth, the net worth given in the Forbes 400 are no doubt below the real amounts of wealth owned.

The Forbes 400 list also includes some qualifying data points such as the age, sex, industry, state where they are located, the corporate source of their wealth, a philanthropy score and something called the “self-made score.” The last of these has a scale from “1: Inherited fortune but not working to increase it” to 10: “Self-made who not only grew up poor but also overcame significant obstacles.” Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who came in with a net worth of $2.6 at number 327 on the list, has a self-made score of ten along with investor and philanthropist George Soros (#56 at $8.6 billion).

What the Forbes report leaves out, of course, is any reference to the role that the US government has played in the colossal escalation of Wall Street wealth during the coronavirus pandemic. With the passage of the misnamed CARES Act, supported with a near-unanimous vote by both Democrats and Republicans—Congress and the White House began injecting massive amounts of cash from the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve into the coffers of corporate America, the stock market and the pockets of the super-rich.

The richest have seen their wealth rise while tens of millions of workers lost their jobs and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by an annualized rate of 34.3 percent during the coronavirus economic shutdown in the second quarter of 2020, the lowest on record. Meanwhile, the $600 federal supplement to unemployment payments which had provided a lifeline to those put out of work by coronavirus restrictions has been cut off since the end of July, plunging millions into misery or forcing them to return to work under unsafe conditions.

While effective analogies illustrating the scale of the wealth accumulation of the super-rich and the degree of inequality that exists in the US are very hard to come by, a look at the joint wealth of Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott is instructive. Adding Scott’s net worth ($57 billion) to that of Bezos, the two would have a combined wealth of $236 billion.

First of all, recent reports show that 40 percent of Americans have a negative net worth. This means that their debts, such as loans, credit cards and student debt, are greater than their assets, such as a car or a house or savings in a bank account. Still, the median net worth of American families—the point at which 50 percent are below and 50 percent are above this value—is $97,300. This means that the former Bezos family has a net worth that is equal to 2.4 million times that of a median family’s net worth.

Two decades of US “war on terror” responsible for displacing at least 37 million people and killing up to 12 million

Jacob Crosse

A staggering new report coauthored by Professor David Vine at the Watson Institute at Brown University conservatively estimates that 37 million people, equivalent to the entire population of Canada, have been forced to flee their home country, or have become internally displaced within it by nearly two decades of unending US imperialist war.

The analysis, published by the Costs of War Project, sought to quantify for the first time the number of people displaced by the United States military operations since President George W. Bush declared a “global war on terror” in September 2001 following the still unexplained attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

Professor Vine and his coauthors note that the 37 million estimated displaced is a “very conservative estimate,” with the real number of people displaced since September 2001, “closer to 48-59 million.” That is as much as, or more than, all of the displaced persons in World War II and therefore more than any other war in the last century. It is difficult to articulate the levels of misery, poverty, hardship, strife, pain and death visited upon entire societies and endured by millions of people.

The latest Costs of War report focused on eight countries that have been subjected to major US military operations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

The two countries with the highest number of displaced persons were Iraq and Syria, whose populations have suffered for decades under US-led regime-change operations and military occupations initiated by both Republican and Democratic administrations. The authors estimate that 9.2 million people in Iraq and 7.1 million in Syria have been displaced respectively, in both cases roughly 37 percent of the prewar population.

The authors were careful to note that they only counted Syrian refugees and displaced persons post-2014, even though US-funded and supplied terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, the Islamic State and other Islamist groupings began operations against the Syrian government as early as 2011. If the figures were to include the previous three years, the estimates exceed 11 million.

Somalia, where US forces have been operating since 2002, has the highest percentage of displaced persons with 46 percent of the country or nearly 4.2 million people displaced.

Throughout the “war on terror,” the authors estimate between 770,000 and 801,000 civilians and combatants on all sides have died in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen since US forces began military operations in those countries. The number of “indirect deaths,” that is, those who weren’t confirmed killed by military weaponry, but died due to lack of healthcare, infrastructure, or food as a result of US military operations, embargoes and blockades may exceed 3.1 million, although the authors noted that credible estimates range in excess of 12 million.

While orders of a magnitude lower, an estimated 6,100 US military personnel and contractors have also died since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. If one were to include US deaths from Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and the dozens of African countries the US military has been waging secretive covert wars for years, the death toll rises to roughly 15,000.

Mentally and physically broken from the trauma of war, hundreds of thousands of US veterans have returned with horrific physical and mental wounds, from amputations and burns to post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. As of 2018, 1.7 million veterans have reported a disability connected to their deployment.

The horrific numbers are a damning indictment of the capitalist system, the source of imperialist war and conflict. Since the fall of the USSR in 1990-1991, the US ruling class has embarked on an endless effort to reverse through military means the protracted erosion of its dominant global economic position and stave off any challenges to American hegemony in Eurasia, Africa and the Pacific.

Despite President Donald Trump’s recent statements in which he attempted to posture as an opponent of the “top people in the Pentagon” who just “fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs...stay happy,” the report illustrates that far from ending the illegal US wars or cutting back on military spending, the Trump administration has continued the aggressive regime-change operations, began under the Obama-Biden administration, in Libya and Syria, and accelerated bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Somalia.

In addition to unending wars in central Asia, Trump has broadened the scope of the “war on terror” to include large swaths of Africa with over 6,000 troops spread out over 22 countries. In all, some 80 countries are now occupied by over 800 US bases, airfields, black sites and private military watch posts, costing over $50 billion a year to maintain.

Trump has also continued the US military occupation of the Philippines, specifically the southern islands of Mindanao, where up to 6,000 US special forces and “military advisers” have engaged in a four-decade-long campaign to root out “terrorists” and “counterinsurgents.” In 2017, US forces fought alongside the Philippine military, providing weapons, training and aerial reconnaissance, leading to the destruction of the historic city of Marawi, displacing nearly 200,000 people.

Since assuming the presidency, Trump has repeatedly boasted that he has “replenished” the US’s “depleted” military under his watch. With the help of the Democrats in Congress, Trump has increased the US military budget each year in office, including signing a monstrous $738 billion budget for fiscal year 2020, a 5.3 percent increase over the previous year. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that arm sales revenues for the top five US war profiteers, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics, increased by 30 percent between 2015 and 2019.

While the Trump administration has refused to publish a monthly Airpower Summary since February 2020, US Central Command declared earlier this year that US warplanes dropped 7,423 bombs on Afghanistan in 2019, more than any other year since 2006. Since Trump came into office, Afghanistan, with an estimated 5.3 million displaced since 2001, has seen over 20,000 US bombs dropped on the country, including the criminal deployment of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (video), the most destructive bomb used in combat since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

To paraphrase Leon Trotsky, capitalism has turned entire regions of the globe into a foul prison, with millions of refugees forced to live in squalid refugee camps, rife with disease and exploitation. The vast majority of those fleeing evictions, death threats, and ethnic cleansing, perpetuated by US-fueled sectarian violence in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Somalia, are not soldiers or “radical terrorists,” but young jobless men, single mothers, and unaccompanied children.

Global travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have forced those fleeing US-instigated conflict to seek refuge within their own country, resulting in millions of internally displaced persons. Based on their conservative estimate of the 37 million total displaced, the authors estimate eight million people have been forced to flee across international borders as refugees and asylum seekers, equivalent to the entire population of Virginia, while 29 million, more than the entire state of Texas, have been internally displaced.

Thousands have died attempting to flee war zones as the imperialist powers in Europe and America wage proxy wars throughout Africa and Asia in order to secure markets and resources for exploitation. The European Union has adopted a policy of mass murder, refusing to accept refugees fleeing from Libya and Syria across the Mediterranean Sea, leading to over 20,000 drowning deaths between 2014-2020, according to statista.com.

A Democratic administration led by former Vice President Joe Biden would not reverse these horrific trends. As former Obama administration officials repeated throughout the Democratic convention last month—which featured a bevy of neoconservative war criminals responsible for the destruction of Iraq and nearly two-decades-long occupation of Afghanistan—a Biden administration, no less than Trump, would increase US military aggression, leading to millions more dead and displaced.

While the human cost of the so-called “war on terror” is incalculable, the material cost to the US population is astronomical, with Brown University estimating the cost of the wars exceeding over $6.4 trillion as of November 2019. To put that in perspective, the US government spent roughly $260 billion to provide 13 weeks of enhanced unemployment benefits to roughly 30 million people, allowing millions of people to feed and clothe their families, while staying home in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. $6.4 trillion would equate to roughly 320 weeks of $600 weekly payments, or over 6 years’ worth.

The US government’s switch in 2018 from the “war on terror” to “great power conflict” portends an even more massive and deadly conflagration that will lead to the displacement and deaths of hundreds of millions of people. The ever-deepening crisis of capitalism and the global order, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, a trigger event in world history, poses starkly and urgently the question of building a massive anti-war, anti-capitalist and socialist leadership in the working class, capable of leading an international movement to put an end to imperialist war.

Western US ravaged by catastrophic fires, record heat

Rafael Azul

Fires are raging across the US west coast states and in the Canadian province of British Columbia, triggered by a combination of lightning storms, high winds and extreme heat.

On Monday, a wind-driven fire destroyed the community of Malden, Washington, home to 200 people. About 100 homes, nearly every house in the town, along with the downtown area, was consumed by flames. The fire station, post office, city hall, the municipal library and other downtown structures were destroyed.

“The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,” Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said in a statement. “The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime. I just hope we don’t find the fire took more than homes and buildings. I pray everyone got out in time.” As of Tuesday, there were no reports of fatalities or injuries.

Elsewhere in Washington, and the neighboring state of Oregon, blackouts affected nearly 250,000 households, as trees, knocked down by the high winds, toppled electrical cables.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz tweeted that “we’re still seeing new fire starts in every corner of the state.”

East of Oregon’s Willamette River Valley, a wildfire swept through the communities of Blue River and Vida on Monday. Hundreds were evacuated, and 150 homes were burnt, and at least one person was reported killed. Both communities were reported to be a “total loss,” according to report by local news station KVAL.

Evacuations also took place east of Salem, the state capital, where residents were evacuated from many of the small communities in the foothills of the Cascade Range. The air above the city of Portland was covered by a thick layer of smoke and ash. Residents with respiratory problems were strongly advised to stay in their homes.

As of Tuesday, the Doctor Creek wildfire in southeast British Columbia, not far from the Idaho-Montana border, had burned 7,937 hectares (19,613 acres) and was out of control. High winds and steep terrain make this wildfire difficult to control.

Further south, California is experiencing its most intense fire season on record this year. Over two million acres (800,000 hectares) of forests and fields have burnt. On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for multiple counties.

In the Central Valley near the city of Fresno, Pacific Gas and Electric cut off power to more than 170,000 people. High heat and very dry conditions on the ground are feeding wildfires across the region, many of them out of control. Over 1000 fires are burning in California, caused by a series of intense lightning storms; high heat and strong winds forced the Forest Service to close eight national forests.

A fire truck drives along Highway 168 while battling the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Hikers and campers near Fresno were trapped by the fires and had to be rescued by helicopters. The Creek Fire in Huntington Lake northwest of Fresno is zero percent contained and is burning near a hydroelectric plant.

Meanwhile, to the west, the Dolan Fire, which is burning south of the coastal city of Big Sur, grew from 2,300 acres to 34,175 acres, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It has yet to be fully contained.

In the vicinity of Los Angeles, the Forest Service announced the closure of several national forests threatened by the Bobcat Fire. The Bobcat and the El Dorado fire, in Southern California’s San Bernardino County, have each consumed more than 8,000 acres. Forest Service officials do not expect to fully contain the Bobcat fire until October 15.

The current devastation dwarfs California’s previous record fire seasons of 2017 and 2018. The fires have increasingly become more numerous and destructive as a result of global warming. Increasingly, the fire season, formerly an autumn phenomenon, has extended into the summer, where it now combines with extreme heat, wind conditions and drier vegetation. In addition, autumn rains begin later than average.

According to a study titled “Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California,” published last month, “state-wide increases in autumn temperature (~1 °C) and decreases in autumn precipitation (~30%) over the past four decades have contributed to increases in aggregate fire weather indices (+20%).” The study gives strong evidence that continued global warming will “amplify the number of days with extreme fire weather” and calls for a global solution “consistent” with the United Nations Paris Agreement.

At the time, signatories of the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to hold global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Except for some cosmetic measures, this “promise” was never seriously followed through. Since the agreement was signed, global temperatures have increased by more than 1.5°C. From the moment it was signed, the Paris Agreement became a dead letter. The repudiation of the agreement last November by President Donald Trump was the last nail in its coffin.

Across the world, any measure to reduce or resolve the climate change crisis that in any way threatens capitalist profits is rejected by the financial aristocracy and the fossil fuel industries, as California, the West Coast and the world head to a major environmental catastrophe.

Moreover, it is impossible to address or resolve a problem of international scope within the limited framework of national politics. Any attempt of capitalist nations to implement a worldwide plan has failed to produce any result as every country has sought to limit its own costs and obligations at the expense of others.

The West Coast fires and all the other effects of global warming are revolutionary questions. Their resolution requires the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by a world socialist society committed to human needs above profits.

Republicans, Democrats block restoration of jobless aid

Barry Grey

As the Senate returned from its nearly month-long recess on Tuesday, there was little prospect that Congress would provide any significant relief for the tens of millions of workers who lost their $600 weekly federal jobless benefit when it was allowed to expire on July 31.

The ending of that lifeline plunged millions of working class families into desperate financial straights. The economy is still short 11 million jobs from the level of employment in February, and more than 30 million unemployed workers continue to receive government aid.

As of this week, only 19 states will be providing the temporary $300-per-week benefit authorized by President Trump in an executive order last month. The program is financed by Federal Emergency Relief Agency funds that are expected to run out in about five weeks.

The Aspen Institute reported last month that 30-40 million people in the US were at risk of being evicted in the coming months. The Hamilton Project reported even before the cutoff of jobless aid that more than 20 percent of all US households and over 40 percent of mothers with children under the age of 13 were experiencing food insecurity.

State and local governments face a collective $500 billion budget deficit, and are preparing massive layoffs and cuts to education, health care, food assistance, public transit, firefighting and pensions.

While Republicans and Democrats rushed to pass the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street by a near-unanimous vote in last March’s CARES Act, neither party is in any great hurry to enact legislation to address the worst social crisis since the Great Depression.

They have a common interest in using the threat of destitution and homelessness to pressure workers into returning to COVID-19-infected factories and teachers to unsafe schools in order to “reopen the economy,” i.e., resume the pumping out of profits to back up the massive debt incurred in the bailout of the corporate-financial oligarchy. This homicidal policy is being spearheaded by the Trump administration, but it has the full support of the Democrats, who are implementing it at the state and local level.

Amid mutual mudslinging, both parties are posturing as advocates for laid off workers and blaming the other for obstructionism. This is political theater to disarm and deceive workers who are seething with anger over the mounting wealth at the top and indifference to death and poverty for the masses. Not a single prominent Democrat, including presidential candidate Joe Biden, has called for an increase in taxes on the rich or a rescinding of the corporate bailout to fund desperately needed emergency social measures.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a new pandemic relief bill and said there would be a vote on the Senate floor as early as this week. The $500 billion measure is only half as large as the abortive $1 trillion HEALS Act he proposed in July. There are questions as to whether it can garner a 51-vote majority from Senate Republicans, let alone obtain the 60 votes needed to override a filibuster.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer issued a joint statement saying the Republican plan “doesn’t come close to addressing the problems and is headed nowhere.” They are continuing to promote a $2.2 trillion Democratic proposal, a markdown from the $3.2 trillion HEROES Act passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in May. The House is slated to return from its summer break next Monday.

The Republican Senate bill includes a federal unemployment supplement of $300 per week, half the benefit that expired six weeks ago, to last through the end of the year. It also includes more than $250 billion in additional small business loans, $105 billion to reopen the schools, $16 billion for coronavirus testing and tracing, $31 billion for vaccine development and distribution, $20 billion for farm assistance, $10 billion for child care support and $10 billion for the US Postal Service.

It also includes legal immunity for businesses from potential suits from workers impacted by unsafe conditions during the pandemic and a two-year “school choice” tax credit to promote private schools at the expense of the public education system.

The Republican proposal, backed by the Trump White House, does not include a second cash stipend to families or any funding to aid near-bankrupt state and city governments.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reported that in discussions with House Speaker Pelosi, the two had agreed to pass a “clean” bill to continue funding the federal government when the current fiscal year ends on September 30. This signifies that the Democrats will not attempt to use the expiration of funding to put pressure on the Republicans to agree to provide significant aid to state and local governments, a full restoration of the $600 jobless benefit, money for food assistance and other provisions they claim to be fighting for.

Whatever their secondary, tactical differences with the social policy of Trump and the Republicans, the Democrats are committed to a policy of austerity and intensified attacks on working class living standards. In New York State, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is threatening to cut $8.2 billion in grants to local governments, noting that such a measure has “no precedent in modern times.” He said further that the cuts would “hit nearly every activity funded by state government,” including special education, child health care, substance-abuse programs and mass transit.

States are cutting back on their pension contributions and their outlays for Medicaid. Colorado, headed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis, is increasing co-payments that Medicaid recipients must pay for doctor visits, pharmaceuticals and medical transport.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, says he will send school districts in the state $12.5 billion in IOUs in lieu if cash to keep their schools running.

The real position of the Democratic Party was spelled out Tuesday in an editorial in the New York Times on New York City’s $5 billion budget shortfall. The editorial is an unvarnished demand, in behalf of Wall Street, that Democratic Mayor de Blasio adopt a program of “tough” budget and job cuts before seeking a loan to cover the deficit.

“Before Mr. de Blasio adds billions to the city’s debt sheet—or lays off thousands of workers—he needs to find savings,” the newspaper declares. He will have to “make unpopular decisions and demand serious cost-saving measures from nearly every city agency and, crucially, the municipal unions,” which will have to “share in the sacrifice.”

This includes “a far stricter hiring freeze” to eliminate thousands of city jobs through attrition. The alternative, the Times suggests, is to turn the city’s finances over to the state Financial Control Board, the unelected Wall Street-controlled agency that was set up to impose mass layoffs and sweeping cuts in social services when the city faced bankruptcy in the mid-1970s.

India now second only to US in number of COVID-19 cases, yet continues to expand “reopening”

Deepal Jayasekera

After recording over 90,000 new infections on Monday, India surpassed Brazil as the country with the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.

Despite the calamitous situation, which includes approximately 1,000 daily deaths, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the various state governments are pushing ahead with the reopening of the economy. This includes the state governments led or supported by the opposition Congress Party and various regional and caste-ist parties, and their Stalinist collaborators in the CPM and CPI.

According to figures released by India’s Ministry of Health, the country reported a new single day world record for new infections with 90,802 Monday, pushing India’s official total above 4.2 million. For about a month, India has reported the highest number of daily cases in the world. The death toll has climbed to 71,642.

A doctor speaks with a COVID-19 positive patient at an isolation center in Mumbai, India. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

The pace at which the virus is spreading has dramatically accelerated over the past month. Whereas around 55,000 new daily cases were being recorded in the first week of August, India is now averaging well in excess of 80,000 new cases per day. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in India has doubled from 2 million to more than 4 million within just one month. It took just 13 days for infections to increase by one million, from 3 million on August 22 to 4 million on September 4.

Horrific as these figures are, they are a substantial underestimation of the true scale of the crisis. Virtually all experts agree that due to a miserably low-testing rate, only a fraction of COVID-19 infections are being identified. Some have even suggested that India has already surpassed the United States to become the worst impacted country in the world.

Dr. Ramanan Laxinarayan, a public health researcher and director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP) told CBS News: “It's only a matter of time before India crosses (the) US. We are talking about reported infections, and given the low levels of testing, it is certainly possible that actual infections in India have already exceeded those in the U.S.” He added that “seroprevelance” screening of blood samples “indicate that there have been at least 100 million infections” in India.

The callous and criminal policies of the Modi government at the center and the various state governments have produced enormous social suffering in addition to the health catastrophe.

Modi’s ill-conceived and ill-prepared coronavirus national lockdown, which was implemented on March 25 with less than four hours’ notice, was a total failure. The Indian ruling elite refused to use the time bought by the lockdown to implement a comprehensive system of mass testing and contact tracing, or to pour resources into the country’s chronically under-resourced public health care system.

Moreover, the BJP government provided the tens of millions of impoverished workers who lost their jobs overnight due to the lockdown no more than famine-style relief programs, resulting in widespread destitution, homelessness, and hunger. The lockdown and the government’s refusal to provide social support has produced an unprecedented economic collapse. In the quarter ending in June, India’s GDP declined by 23.9 percent, the largest recorded drop among major economies.

The ruling class subsequently exploited this social misery to push workers back on the job, so that the extraction of profit through sweatshop exploitation could resume. The BJP government started sanctioning the removal of lockdown restrictions on export industries and other industrial concerns in late April. This quickly led to a spike in infections.

The virus has now spread throughout the country, entrenching itself in poor neighbourhoods in many major cities and in rural areas, where health care facilities are non-existent. It has even reached the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are located more than 1,000 kilometers from the mainland.

The surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths has caused no let-up or even pause in the drive of the Modi government and its state counterparts to reopen the economy. Putting profits before human lives, they are pursuing “herd immunity”—a homicidal policy in which the authorities allow the virus to run rampant until it expends itself by infecting the overwhelming majority of the population.

Most businesses have now been allowed to reopen. Social distancing and other elementary preventive measures, which were always impossible for the tens of millions of urban poor who live five or more to a room and without access to proper sanitation, have been largely abandoned. Markets in towns and cities across the country are once again teeming with people, increasing the risk of a further acceleration of infections.

As per the fourth phase of the Modi government’s “Unlockdown,” on Monday, the same day as India set a new world record for daily infections, subway train networks resumed in the national capital, Delhi, and in more than ten other cities, ending a five-month shutdown. With large numbers of people crammed into poorly-ventilated subways, infections and deaths are certain to increase sharply.

The reopening of the Delhi Metro, the country’s largest rapid transport system, is particularly reckless given the volume of passengers and the recent uptick in coronavirus cases in the capital. Before its forced closure in March, it carried an average of 2.7 million passengers daily in packed trains. The Yellow Line, which was first to reopen, runs between north Delhi and the satellite city of Gurgaon, an industrial and IT hub in the northern Indian state of Haryana. This is the busiest route, connecting 37 stations and carrying around 1.45 million passengers daily.

In another example of the ruling elite’s indifference to the threat posed by the deadly virus to working people, the National Testing Agency (NTA), a central government agency, is going ahead with university entrance examinations in major cities throughout the country. Protests by angry students, many of whom have to travel significant distances to participate, were ignored. The Supreme Court, siding with the Modi government’s decision, dismissed an appeal filed on behalf of students on August 17. The Court claimed that failing to hold the exams would put students’ careers “in peril.” It added: “Life should move on even in COVID-19 times.” This is entirely in keeping with the mantra of the Modi government and its state counterparts. They all insist that businesses must reopen and workers be forced to toil in unsafe conditions, so that life can return to “normal,” i.e. the ruling class can continue to enrich itself.

Like their counterparts around the world, the Modi government and India’s capitalist elite as a whole, have seized upon the pandemic to shift bourgeois politics further right. In Modi’s own words, his government is pushing ahead with a “quantum jump” in economic reforms, i.e. pro-investor policies to attract global capital. The “reforms” include stepped up privatisations, drastic changes to labor laws so that employers can “hire and fire” workers at will, the relaxation of regulations on the use of land for corporate development, and harsher austerity measures.

To divert the mounting social anger towards its policies in a reactionary direction, Modi is also whipping up a bellicose Indian nationalism by intensifying India’s border conflict with China. In this, he has been encouraged by US imperialism, which views India as a crucial partner in its economic and military-strategic offensive against Beijing.

On Monday, tensions between India and China escalated yet again when shots were fired during a dispute between Indian and Chinese troops over where the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two countries, lies. Each side accused the other of firing the first shot. Although several dozen Indian and Chinese soldiers died in a clash fought with rods and knives on a Himalayan ridge in June, this marked the first time that there had been an exchange of live fire between the two sides in 45 years.

So acute has become the danger of a military conflict between the two nuclear-armed powers that even sections of India’s mainstream media that have been urging New Delhi to resist Chinese “aggression” are now expressing alarm. “We are on the verge of entering a dangerous escalation matrix that could lead to full-blown war,” declared an editorial in the Times of India. “If that happens, it would be a catastrophe.”

In opposition to the Modi government’s right-wing policies, growing numbers of workers have participated in strikes and other protests in recent weeks. Anger has been especially directed at planned privatisations and the authorities’ failure to supply adequate personal protective equipment for health-care and other frontline workers during the pandemic.

The only way that the relentless spread of the coronavirus can be stopped, working people shielded from the pandemic’s ruinous economic fallout, and the Indian ruling elite’s incendiary alliance with US imperialism and stoking of military conflict can be successfully opposed is if the working class constitutes itself as an independent political force. It must rally the rural poor and other toilers behind it in the fight for a workers’ government and socialism.

As the International Committee of the Fourth International explained in its statement, “For international working class action against the COVID-19 pandemic!”:

“Control over the response to the pandemic must be taken out of the hands of the capitalist class. Mass action by the working class, coordinated on an international scale, is necessary to bring the pandemic under control and save millions of lives that are now at risk. The fight against the pandemic is not only, or even primarily, a medical issue. It is, above all, a matter of social and political struggle.”

Hong Kong: Why New Delhi Must Do More

Kamal Madishetty 

China—amidst widespread international criticism and no letting up of protests on the streets of Hong Kong—implemented the draconian National Security Law (NSL) on June 30. This was done within weeks of the country’s rubber stamp legislature’s decision to this effect. The NSL, which criminalises political dissent in a way yet unseen, has caused unprecedented damage to Hong Kong’s promised autonomy. This commentary examines the implications of the NSL for Hong Kong, and explores India’s response to these developments.

Over the past two months, global outrage against Beijing’s move has snowballed, with several Western democracies, led by the US, recalibrating their policies towards Hong Kong. The US has also imposed sanctions on eleven officials in the Hong Kong administration, citing their role in ‘crushing’ people’s freedoms.

China’s actions in Hong Kong have also evoked a response from New Delhi, which made a cautiously crafted statement at the UN Human Rights Council’s meeting in early July. India’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Rajiv Chander, said that India is closely monitoring ongoing developments given the sizeable Indian community in Hong Kong. He also expressed India’s hope that “the relevant parties” will take into account the international community’s concerns, and “address them properly, seriously and objectively.”

That India reacted to these developments marks a welcome shift in its usual approach, which in the past entailed hesitance to even give visas to pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong and other regions under Chinese control. Still, New Delhi can do more, keeping in view the dramatically altered political and legal landscape in Hong Kong, Beijing’s unbridled aggression across various geopolitical flashpoints, and the ongoing churn in the India-China relationship.

The End of Hong Kong As We Know It?

The NSL is touted by Chinese authorities as a new legal framework that seeks to prohibit acts of “secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference” in Hong Kong. In reality, the legislation is primarily aimed at crushing dissent: Hong Kong has seen spirited public demonstrations against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) diktats in recent years. The NSL severely undermines the “One Country Two Systems” principle, as part of which Hong Kong residents were promised basic freedoms—including rights to free speech and assembly, free press, and an independent judiciary.

To be sure, the authorities in Hong Kong had been squeezing the space for pro-democracy activism even before the NSL. However, after the NSL, the crackdown on dissidents has intensified dramatically. The law has introduced new crimes and associated legal procedures, as well as allows mainland intelligence agencies to formally establish themselves in the city. Consequently, it has given further ammunition to the police and other authorities to rein in any public display of protest—be it on the streets, newspapers, or the Internet.

Several pro-democracy politicians have been arrested on flimsy charges, while others have been disqualified from running for a seat in the city’s semi-democratic legislature. The election itself has been postponed by a year on questionable grounds. Meanwhile, media organisations based in the city are under pressure, with authorities seeking to intimidate them through high-profile arrests and visa curtailment. The NSL will also erode the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary. It allows for a transfer of jurisdiction over certain cases to the mainland, where the suspects would face unfair trials and a denial of human rights.

Potential for Indian Signalling

Indian foreign policy has traditionally taken a cautious approach to human rights and democracy elsewhere, balancing it with the principles of non-interference and non-intervention. While it would be impractical to expect a dramatic departure, there is scope for New Delhi to do more in its response towards Hong Kong while staying within the existing normative framework. The developments in the city, which is a global financial hub, have a direct bearing on the 38,000-strong resident Indian community, as well as India’s economic presence.

Multiple, and more strongly-worded statements from New Delhi will help reflect Indian concerns better, and provide an opportunity for stronger signalling to China about a sterner approach. It will also strengthen India’s participation in global discussions on the future of Hong Kong. India must review its 1997 extradition treaty with Hong Kong in light of eroding judicial independence. With the mainland’s authoritarian judicial practices spilling over into Hong Kong, India’s legal arrangements with the city cannot remain unchanged.

India’s policy-making elite are no doubt considering the larger context of China’s growing belligerence around its geography, including the still unresolved border standoff. This consideration must reflect more clearly in diplomatic statements that respond to developments in Hong Kong. After all, Beijing’s move in Hong Kong cannot be viewed in isolation from its wider attempts to alter various geopolitical equilibria. Pushing back against its agenda is a strategic imperative shared by multiple countries, not least by neighbouring India.

India is already exploring ways to raise the non-military costs for China’s aggression in Ladakh, in the face of Beijing’s uncooperative and deceptive approach in talks over the LAC. Upping the ante with the opportunity provided by Hong Kong can be a natural progression as India recalibrates both its short and long-term policies towards China. Any concerns that such a move would harden Chinese positions on India’s internal issues, notably Jammu and Kashmir, would be misplaced—China has already tried to raise the Kashmir issue multiple times at the UNSC in the past year. India must be confident of articulating and defending its positions, irrespective of the degree of diplomatic confrontation that China lobbies back.

Brazil’s 63,000 Fires

Robert Hunziker

Amazon Day, a day of celebration for over 100 years on September 5^th has passed. Amazon Day commemorates the year 1850 creation of the Province of Amazonas, encompassing 60% of Brazil and extending into Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and French Guyana.

Meanwhile, illegal fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rage on, and on, and on stronger than ever. Nowadays, in spite of the spirit of Amazon Day, suicidal spates of lawlessness rule Brazil’s precious rainforest.

Indeed, leading scientists believe there is genuine concern that the Amazon rainforest ecosystem could collapse. Already, severe devastating drought sequences have hit every fifth year like clockwork so closely spaced together that normal regrowth does not happen. Thus, the ecosystem is inordinately weakened in the face of human-generated firestorms, further weakening this beleaguered ecosystem.

As substantiated by NASA, the rainforest doesn’t react like it used to. It does not have enough time between droughts to heal itself and regrow. Throughout all of recorded history, this has never been witnessed before, a fact that is horribly concerning and downright depressing. (Source: NASA Finds Amazon Drought Leaves Long Legacy of Damage, NASA Earth Science News Team, August 9, 2018)

Not only is an ecological breakdown apparent above ground, the breakdown is also found underground. Based upon current images by NASA’s GRACE satellite, the Amazon is in tenuous condition in an unprecedented state of breakdown. The GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) satellite system monitors water levels stored deep beneath Earth’s surface. GRACE’s images detected large areas in what’s classified as “Deep Red Zones,” meaning severely constrained water levels. Nothing could be worse.

Furthermore, the peak rainy season, which runs from December to February, was among the top 10 worst on record this year, with just 75% of the season’s usual rainfall.

Additionally, and of consequential concern, the world’s two leading Amazon rainforest scientists made a startling announcement only recently: Thomas Lovejoy (George Mason University) and Carlos Nobre (University of Sao Paulo) reported: “Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now.” (Source: Amazon Tipping Point: Last Chance for Action, Science Advances, Vol. 5, no. 12, December 20, 2019)

Tipping points define equilibrium between life and death.

Furthermore, it is important for world opinion to realize that raging fires are not normal in rainforests, which contain tons of wetness, dripping moisture, and cool air. In fact, even during normal dry seasons, if a fire starts in the undergrowth, it peters out quickly because of extreme wetness throughout rainforests, a moniker that perfectly describes the ecosystem… “rain… forest.”

Not only are fires an aberration under normal conditions, but also deforestation, which brings on the fires in the first instance, is illegal, especially in Brazil. Yet, deforestation is rampant with massive fires as part of the clearing process. It’s highly probable that nearly all 63,000 fires for the current year are the result of illegal deforestation.

Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) monitors and reports on the fires, 63,000, and still counting for the year 2020. (Source: Brazil: Alarming Number of New Forest Fires Detected Ahead of Amazon Day, Amnesty International, September 3, 2020)

The Amazon contains the world’s most precious natural heritage, teeming with the richest biodiversity on the planet, including break-thru medicinal resources, many not yet discovered, and most importantly, serving as the single most significant global climate regulator. Without the Amazon, life throughout the world turns miserable, beyond wildest imagination, like a Stephen King horror movie.

Yet, it is burning, and it is unnecessary, and it is illegal.

After all, the world can get by “just fine” without burning down the most precious resource on the planet in order to grow palm oils and soy and cotton and to raise cattle and dig for gold and oil and logging. But, the world cannot get by “just fine” with a crippled rainforest. That’s happening right now smack dab in front of the world’s eyes closed wide shut.

According to Rainforest Alliance, Brazil’s government knowingly looks the other way. As such, President Jair Bolsonaro deflects international criticism, going so far as to say that environmental NGOs start the fires to make his administration look bad. It’s obvious that he’s reading, and likely memorized, Trump’s playbook.

World leaders, like France’s Macron, have called him out in the past, but Bolsonaro merely flips ‘em the bird. He’s living proof that mean-spiritedness, as it originates via purest of ignorance, goes a long way towards deflecting criticism. For proof, the international community has done nothing substantive to stop the illegal fires.

Bolsonaro wins as the world loses.

And, abiding by the precepts of the Trump playbook, in an address to the UN, he said, “the Amazon remains pristine and virtually untouched,” claiming that Brazil is “one of the countries that protects its environment the most.” At the time of his speech, the Amazon rainforest was burning at record rates and illegal deforestation had surged by 84% following his inauguration.

In his UN speech, Bolsonaro especially heaped praise on U.S. President Donald Trump for supporting him, even as he was under fire by the international community.

Meanwhile, because of excessive global warming, climate change has turned up its intensity way-way-way beyond the models of climate scientists as registered with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). From Antarctica to the Arctic, the climate system is out-of-control, including the all-important life-supporting integrity of the Amazon Rainforest.

Sadly, the facts are indisputable based upon numerous scientific reports; the world climate system is literally coming apart at the seams as excessive usage of fossil fuels spews CO2 that blankets the atmosphere that retains more and more heat that undermines the world’s major ecosystems. Given enough time, society has an insurmountable problem, like right now.

Look to Siberia, the Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland, Australia, and the Amazon Rainforest for incontestable evidence. Meanwhile, severe droughts haunt the world from the Amazon to the Middle East (900-yr drought) to Australia (800-yr drought), throughout SE Asia to all of Central America (“the Dry Corridor”), to a 10-year mega drought-turned-desertification in central Chile to a massive 60-yr drought in Brazil, to totally dried-out to-a-crisp portions of Africa, t0 China’s Lancang River (the Danube of the East) at 100-yr low water levels in Thailand where it streams, and the list could go on and on.

In turn, eco migrant footsteps follow in kind, kindling rightwing politics throughout the world.

All of which prompts the obvious query: Will the nations of the world never seriously coordinate efforts to combat fossil fuel-generated global warming with its deadly accomplice, abrupt climate change?

Notably, it’s already started everywhere nobody lives.

Mercy!

International Literacy Day 2020 and India’s Progress and Promises: An Introspection

Nawaz Sarif

Youths and children, the most demographic dividend of any country, are equally important for the society specifically as well as for the nation-building in general. They are the impregnable pillars of any country’s social integration and economic growth. Education is treated as best mode of shaping these young populations towards their holistic development, thereon the destiny of any nation depends on. The people across the globe commemorate September 8 of each year as the “International Literacy Day” to raise awareness and remind individuals, society, and communities of the importance of lifelong learning. The 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference on October 26, 1966, has declared September 8 as “International Literacy Day” and since 1967 celebrations have been enlivened annually across the world. UNESCO declares this day as an opportunity for governments, civil society, and responsible stakeholders to highlight improvements in the world’s literacy rates and reflect on the world’s remaining literacy challenges.

In the recent past, the celebration has been associated with different themes on the eve of the “International Literacy Day”. Some of the themes were like 2006 – Literacy Sustains Development, 2013 – Literacy for the 21st Century, 2016 – Reading the Past, Writing the Future, 2017- Literacy in a Digital World, and 2019- Literacy and Multilingualism. According to the United Nations, the theme of “International Literacy Day 2020” is “Literacy Teaching and Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond”. The theme takes literacy in a lifelong learning perspective and the role of educators and changing pedagogies are greatly acknowledged to meet the emerged learning crisis in the times of pandemic.

The day places special focus on the greatness and significance of literacy. It underscores the ability to read and write is not only essential for individuals but societies as a whole. It is also highly urged to recognize literacy as an essential foundation of education. The ability to read and write enables individuals to a different plethora of opportunities and increases the quality of life. The United Nations reveals that the world literacy rate is 82 percent while globally 773 million adults and youths still cannot read and write. It also reports that over 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Currently, there are 155 million children around the globe who are not attending school.

India’s stand in literacy is 77.7 percent which is still behind the world’s average that is 82 percent. There is a wide disparity, gender-wise (male; 84% & female; 70.3%) as well as locality-wise (rural; 71% & urban; 86%) as reported by National Statistical Office (NSO). Besides, a wide gap in literacy attainment across different states of India is also a big issue as the data shows Kerala as the most literate state with 96.2 percent literacy while Andhra Pradesh is at worse with 66.4 percent literacy rate in the country.

For the last decades, India has been experiencing harsh realities of school education with several problems like universal enrollment, drop out, lack of basic facilities, and paucity of required infrastructures, adverse school environment, and shortage of skilled teachers. According to Census (2011), there are over 6.5 million children aged between five and fourteenth years who are out of schools and working in agriculture and household industries. Besides, there is a big concern for school dropouts. The report of UNESCO, (2016) reveals that over 47 million youth in India are school dropouts by the 10th standard.

The international literacy day sets targets to attain proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. However, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER, 2018) revealed that about 49 percent and 27 percent of children from class V and VIII cannot read class II level textbooks respectively. Similarly, more than 72 percent of the students from class V and 56 percent from class VIII cannot solve simple mathematical problems.

Moreover, there have been several teachers’ related issues in schools. According to the report of U-DISE (2016-17), the country has more than 92 thousand single-teacher government schools at both elementary as well as secondary levels. It is also evident that over 18 percent of teachers at government schools do not have any professional training in delivering and designing structural pedagogies for effective classroom-transactions. Besides, a study on the teacher (2013) found that nearly 25 percent of teachers in India are irregular to schools. The cases of teacher-absentees have been reported highest in the economically poorer states like Jharkhand (41%), Bihar (37 %), Punjab (34.4%), Assam (33.8%), Uttaranchal (32.8%), Chhattisgarh (30.6%), and Uttar Pradesh (26.3%).

The implementation of ICT still remains a concern in today’s scenario in Indian schools. According to the DISE survey (2015-16), only 24.01 percent of schools have both computers and electricity. The states having schools with both computer and electricity less than 2 percent are Assam (0.27%), Bihar (1.52%), Jharkhand (1.49%), Madhya Pradesh (1.55%), Manipur (0.85%), and Odisha (1.63%). Also, it has been reported that the availed computers are used only for data recording, and hardly a few percent of schools that use computers for classroom teaching-learning purposes. In such a perilous condition, how far digital outreach and the implementation of ICT will be successful in targeting the quality education in the schools still remaining today’s biggest challenge for stakeholders.

Notwithstanding, India’s New Education Policy 2020 approved by the Union Cabinet July 29 has proposed some key analyses keeping in mind of resolving the existing learning crisis as well as to uphold its education system up to the global standard. The policy is much cleared about the current crisis and targeted to bring those non-school attended children back to the schools. In this context, the policy is rightly noted to take necessary steps and strategic plans and initiatives to accomplish the 100 percent literacy by 2030.

Concerning improvements in the existing infrastructure, the policy promises to boost the government schools in terms of availing basic infrastructures to digital infrastructures. The policy states for hiking in the capital allocation for education with the expectation to boost the overall infrastructure in schools. Further, the policy document rightly ensures to minimize the learning gaps through its new proposed 5+3+3+4 education model where it is targeted students’ attainment of foundational knowledge and numeracy competency by grade 3.

To tackle the issues of teachers’ teaching and professional competency, the policy document urges few teaching- and school administration-related strategies. Firstly, the policy emphasizes on the professional development of teacher educators through different in-service training programs. With due recognition to teachers’ professional development, the policy rightly stated four years integrated B.Ed. training programs as mandatory for teaching at the school level by 2030. Secondly, the document also rectified the flaws with the existing governance and administration system of schools. It sets to establish regulatory bodies to check the teachers’ commitment and full engagement in full-time teaching in schools. Besides, it also says that there is an urgent need to look into these problems and urges responsible stakeholders for necessary steps with government supports.

In closing, it is thus inferred that India has set a high ambition to achieve universal enrolment besides tackling the issues of drop-out and minimum learning proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics. However, to materialize those ambitions, the governments with respective stakeholders must have to take some forwarding steps towards ensuring the infrastructures as well as the expertise required to teaching students in schools. The Centre should prioritize its working plans in co-ordination with different states to ensure the ‘Universalization of Elementary Education’ (UEE-NPE, 1986) under the flagship program of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA, 2001) across the country and make 100 percent retention of the enrolled kids in schools. Besides focusing on the improvement of the students’ proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, the governments should also underscore due importance on reducing the learning gaps in educational attainment in terms of gender as well as locality. Additionally, while underpinning the undeniable importance of school education and to accomplish the 100 percent literacy as set by the Right to Education Act, 2009, all the states must work in co-ordination with different educational regulatory bodies to ensure free and compulsory quality education accessible to all the children aged between 6 and 14 years.