What the OAS Did to Bolivia

Mark Weisbrot

Bolivia has descended into a nightmare of political repression and racist state violence since the democratically elected government of Evo Morales was overthrown by the military on November 10. That month was “the second-deadliest month, in terms of civilian deaths committed by state forces, since Bolivia became a democracy nearly 40 years ago,” according to a study by Harvard Law School’s (HLS) International Human Rights Clinic and the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) released a month ago.

Morales was the first Indigenous president of Bolivia, which has the largest percentage of Indigenous population of any country in the Americas. His government was able to reduce poverty by 42 percent and extreme poverty by 60 percent, which disproportionately benefited Indigenous Bolivians. The November coup was led by a white and mestizo elite with a history of racism, seeking to revert state power to the people who had monopolized it before Morales’s election in 2005. The racist nature of the state violence is emphasized in the HLS/UNHR report, including eyewitness accounts of security forces using “racist and anti-Indigenous language” as they attacked protesters; it is also clear from the fact that all of the victims of the two biggest massacres committed by state forces after the coup were Indigenous.

What has gotten even less attention, but is equally important to understanding how Bolivia’s democracy was destroyed last November, is the role of the Organization of American States in this terrible crime.

As The New York Times finally reported on June 7, the organization’s “flawed” analysis immediately following the October 20 election “fueled a chain of events that changed the South American nation’s history.” As the Times noted, the OAS analysis “raised questions of vote-rigging — and helped force out a president ….”

The OAS allegations were indeed the main political foundation of the coup that followed the October 20 election three weeks later. And they continued for many months following the coup. In Bolivia, the electoral authorities report a preliminary vote count, which is unofficial and does not determine the result, while the votes are being counted. When 84 percent of the votes were counted in this preliminary tally, Morales had 45.7 percent of the vote, and was leading the second-place vote-getter by 7.9 percentage points. The reporting in this unofficial, nonbinding tally was then interrupted for 23 hours, and when it picked up again, Morales’s lead had increased to 10.2 percentage points. By the end of the official count, it was 10.5 percent. According to Bolivia’s election rules, a candidate with more than 40 percent of the vote and at least a 10 point lead wins in the first round, without a run-off election.

The opposition claimed that there was fraud and took to the streets. The OAS Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) issued a press statement the day after the election expressing “deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results after the closing of the polls.” But they provided no evidence to support these allegations ― because there wasn’t any.

This has since been established repeatedly by a slew of expert statistical studies, including the one that formed the basis of the New York Times article of June 7. As sometimes happens when numbers become the subject of political controversy, the statistical studies were needed mainly to refute other ― in this case, often bogus ― statistical analyses. But the truth was quite plain and easy to see from data available on the web immediately following the election. And indeed the Center for Economic and Policy Research ― where I am Co-Director ― used that data to disprove the OAS’s initial allegations the next day, and followed up with a number of statistical analyses and papers in the ensuing months, including a refutation of the OAS’s final audit report.

There was no inexplicable change in trend. All that happened was that areas reporting later were more pro-Morales than the ones that reported earlier, for various geographical and demographic reasons. That is why Morales’s lead increased when the last 16 percent of votes came in, just as it had been increasing throughout the preliminary count. This is a fairly common occurrence in elections all over the world.

But after its initial press release, the OAS produced three more reports, including its preliminary audit of the election results, without ever considering the obvious possibility that the later-reporting areas were politically different from those where votes came in earlier. This by itself is overwhelming evidence that OAS officials did not simply make a mistake in their repeated allegations of fraud, but in fact knew that their allegations were false. It defies the imagination to conceive of how this simple explanation ― which is the first thing that would occur to most people, and turned out to be true ― would not even occur to election experts, in the process of months of investigation.

On December 2, 133 economists and statisticians published a letter to the OAS, noting that “the final result was quite predictable on the basis of the first 84% of votes reported” and calling on the OAS “to retract its misleading statements about the election.”

Four members of the US Congress, led by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, also weighed in with a letter to the OAS asking 11 basic questions about the OAS analysis. One concerned whether they had considered the possibility that the later-reporting areas were “different in any ways that would make them more likely to vote for Evo Morales, by a wider margin, than voters in the typical precinct in the first 84 percent of reported votes?” More than nine months later, the OAS has yet to answer.

In July, the US Congress held briefings with top officials of the OAS, and confronted them with some of the same questions; they gave no substantive answers.

With the original and politically decisive allegations of fraud increasingly discredited, the OAS turned to “irregularities” in the election to maintain their assault on its legitimacy. But it turned out that these allegations, like the ones based on statistical claims, could not withstand scrutiny. The OAS appears hell-bent on justifying its initial, and clearly false, allegations of wrongdoing that precipitated the coup.

Meanwhile, Bolivia has a de facto president, Jeanine Áñez, who has called Indigenous religious practices “satanic;” in January she warned voters against “allowing the return of ‘savages’ to power, an apparent reference to the indigenous heritage of Morales and many of his supporters,” according to The Washington Post. Hers was supposed to be a “caretaker” government, but new elections ― now scheduled for October 18 ― have already been postponed three times.

The wheels of justice grind much too slowly in the aftermath of US-backed coups. And the Trump administration’s support has been overt: the White House promoted the “fraud” narrative, and its Orwellian statement following the coup praised the overthrow: “Morales’s departure preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard.”

Senator Marco Rubio is one of the most important influences on the Trump administration’s policy in Latin America. In this case, he got in on the action even before the first OAS press release: “In #Bolivia all credible indications are Evo Morales failed to secure necessary margin to avoid second round in Presidential election,” he wrote the day after the vote, and there was “some concern he will tamper with the results or process to avoid this.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Carlos Trujillo, the U.S. ambassador to the OAS, had steered the group’s election-monitoring team to report widespread fraud and pushed the Trump administration to support the ouster of Morales.”

This week, US Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Chuy Garcia called for the US Congress to “investigate the role of the OAS in Bolivia over the past year, and ensure that taxpayers’ dollars do not contribute to the overthrow of democratically elected governments, civil conflict, or human rights violations.”

That would be a good start.

TV journalism in India: Crying for TRP or Truth

Ahmed Raza

The recent observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court towards the functioning of media in India seem to be an urgent need of redefining and restructuring the electronic media in accordance with the constitutional values, freedom of media, individual rights and right to privacy. ‘Sensation above sense’ becomes one of the most important weapons in the hand of media owners to rig the viewer’s mind so as to get high Television Rating Point. (TRP is a tool used to know about the popularity of a program). Professionalism and ethics of media always happen to be missing aspect for the last few years as viewers themselves surrendered their preferences of news and stories based on sensation as politically motivated, ideologically inspired and iconic glamour news. Diversion of media from their core democratic responsibilities would be as inherent as their existence depends upon high rating of TRP. Nowadays, the number of electronic media showing their program in principle with truth, information, logical debating and awareness stories has been experiencing low rating of TRP leads to huge financial loss. Therefore, locating space for autonomy and freedom appears as an outrageous for media as their existence and survival always depend upon corporate and business entities leads to a floating idea of securing high TRP. This piece of writing highlights about three types of models of journalism existing in India pose a greater risk to democracy.

Aggressive model of journalism

Aggressive journalism evolved over the time as an offshoot of post-globalization when electronic media began telecasting live news into 24 hours formats. Initially, the media remained engaged in covering the news round the clock so as to make viewers convenient and make them aware of all the happiness quickly. But, with the rising number private channel after 2000, there have been a beginning of attracting the viewers towards their own channel by spreading the news quickly, pitching the stories as sensations, media trials etc so as to secure high TRP. Such type of practices in the media is glorified positively as aggressive journalism on account of free media enriched in the Constitution of India as freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 1 (a), which deals with ‘Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. Although, at the same time, freedom of media is restricted under article 19 (2) if there have been issues related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offense. A few of such cases namely,  Jessica Lal case, 2010,  Priyadarshini Mattoo case, 2006 and Bijal Joshi rape case, 2005, Aarushi Talwar’s Murder, 2013, very recently media trial of Rhea Chakraborty  etc. were declared as guilty by the media even before the actual trial had begun. Though, the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Sahara vs. SEBI (2012) strongly observed that such types of trials by the media are likely to affect the reputation of the judiciary and judicial proceedings adversely. On the one hand, a large number of media editorial teams have been covering issues in such a way that it seems like a trial leading to a high TRP, on the other hand, issues of national interest and societal importance do not get a full length coverage as viewers themselves prefers news of sensation above sense.

Journalism as ideologically inspired

Another effort towards securing a high TRP by the media happens to be brainstorming and rigging of the viewers’ mind associated themselves with any ideologies as well as political parties. Hence, coverage of news are selectively sensitized and dramatized in accordance with the political and ideological agenda so as to reach a large number of viewers. With more than 75,000 newspapers and well over a1000 satellite channels in several languages competes each other for their existence and survival, hence, political allegiance becomes an edge of media as well as an easy way of getting a high TRP from politically and ideologically inspired viewers. The ten-year period of 2009-2019 has seen such an explosion of the TRP game as leading media in India have been covering the issues accordingly a strict ideological allegiance and a steadfast commitment to a (in some cases many) political parties. The freedom of Indian media has changed significantly over the last decade as few of the media owners have direct or indirect links with politics even while some of them even represent a political party. The recent observation of the Hon’ble Supreme Court towards independent functioning of media must be viewed as a wake-up call for government as there are no regulatory safeguards against political control over the media and, at the same time, the laws of the land do not restrict political ownership in television or print media.

Journalism as a personality of news anchors

The third category of journalism, existing in India derives its TRP from the individual personalities of the news anchors as the present electronic media has evolved as news entertaining industry where TRP war is fought among the news anchors. Every news channel is highly dominated by particular news anchor who are well versed with viewers choices of news and stories. Panel discussion, debate, prime hour news program, interviews, etc. attracts a huge TRP under the lead news anchor. Hence, anchors across Indian media news channels engage in conflict, fear and tussle in order to secure a high TRP as viewers get huge entertained of the debates rather than get educated. Honesty, grit, and perseverance of the news anchors have been doubtful in the last decade as the quality of journalism emanating from news debates has been hitting new lows for a few years due to prevalence of paid news. TV debates are being organized as propaganda without a certain amount of knowledge of professional ethics of journalism. With the beginning of TRP war among the TV channel, a large majority of TV debate moves around the religion, whereas, according to a Supreme Court ruling of 1995, no news channel is supposed to mention the religion of the person especially in case of political news. Therefore, the adherence to media ethics must be strictly followed by the news anchors rather than gain popularity among the viewers.

Conclusion:

Though, India is not a surveillance state, there must not be any kind of illegal and un-constitutional check and balance on freedom of media provided that media stick to the core principles like truth, accuracy, transparency, independence, fairness and impartiality. At the same time, there must be professionally strengthening of institutional and regulatory framework, namely the Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association (NBA), PIB, etc. so as to bring Indian news media at the forefront of world ranking. Therefore, it’s high time for Indian media to prioritize truth and professionalism over TRP while covering the issue.

Can the Social Sciences choose to be Reflexive in times of Crisis?

Chandreyee Goswami & Dhriti Sonowal

As students of social sciences, we often harbour a sense of enlightenment in knowing that the subject matter we engage with has been historically instituted to identify the varieties of social realities that individuals might find them in. The legacy of social sciences has been its deep inspection and understanding of the social world which is produced by living humans rather than the non-living physical world. A thriving intellectual community within the social sciences has contributed to the growth and reach of the various disciplines. However, over time there have also been dichotomies and a growing sense of indifference within the community which on many counts strives to produce knowledge about inequalities and power relations in the social world. This sense of indifference has become multifold today at a time when the whole world is battling with a pandemic. As educators and students we have been pushed into the brink of crisis, with the shutting down of universities, colleges and schools to arrest the spread of the virus. With this shut down of institutions, there was an almost immediate shift in the mode of operation of the educational institutions from physical classrooms to virtual classrooms. With schools, colleges and universities steering their students to ‘study from home’, finish their coursework online, sit for exams from home and even ‘graduate’ from home- it seems the transition to a “new normal” has taken a prompt digital path. This shift to the online mode has been massive and has generated various critical debates on the future of learning and evaluation and the transforming nature of pedagogic strategies. These debates are also being placed across the spectrum- questions of how access to education continues to be disproportionately placed with a select sections of educators and private institutions who can make smooth transitions from physical classrooms to ‘online’ classrooms as opposed to most public institutions which cannot afford a quick technological adaptability, to students who can afford to participate in online learning to those who cannot. As critical discourses are being churned about the changing social order, it’s interesting to note how we as practitioners of social sciences are placed within these very questions we are raising.

Home as the Epicenter of the New Normal:

As the pandemic has seemingly caused a disruption to our ‘regular’ lives, a virtual solution has been instituted in place to create a “new normal” of existing. This virtual solution however creates a structure which poses a prerequisite need for tools such as smart phones, computers, laptops and internet connection, which produces a strong digital dependency, the corollary of this dependency is the exclusion of a section of people who can’t afford these prerequisite tools. Besides the “digital divide”, this shift in the teaching and learning methods has also brought the focus on to the most private and intimate spheres of both educators and learners. Home has become the epicenter for work. The separation of work and home which was a feature of the modern capitalist world had been the norm. But now the personal, intimate space of home and family is shrinking. For many students they have had to continue their studies amidst these transitions at home. But home has different meanings for different individuals. While the home space becomes the centre of work in this new norm, there is an assumed acceptance of the “home” as a comfortable space which provides freedom for creativity. While it may be true for some, drawing generalisations would be highly flawed. Since individuals occupy different social realities, the reality of home differs from individual to individual. Home spaces can often be intervening spaces and also often act as sites of violence. Case in point would be the number of domestic violence incidents that have been on the rise during the lockdown. Even if a household posits as a non-intervening space, there does exist complex co-dependencies in co-residential households, with particular roles for each member which means that each student who participates in online classes operate from different social realities with varied circumstances at home. Therefore to assume that attending classes from home is an easy task would be disregarding the experiences of many students who come from vulnerable homes.

More Inequality, Less empathy- Are we listening to them? 

The number of students who have had to lose out from participating actively or drop out of courses because they were unable to keep up with the requirements of the virtual platform of conducting academic activities is quite considerable. Internet connectivity is a major factor in the smooth conduction of online classes, the absence of which proves to be a hurdle for many students in remote areas. These are not polemical arguments but are rooted in narratives of students  Students enrolled in a masters programme at a regional university in the Northeastern region of India have had to constantly submit assignments which were not only difficult without consistent engagement in the classroom but with the additional requirement of internet facilities, laptop and know-how of creating google groups, zoom meeting schedules etc was also untenable for many where getting a strong internet alone is difficult. On the other hand, a prestigious programme at a private university which took no time to shift its coursework online saw students dropping out without completing their final term courses, again due to very practical problems of connectivity. These are a few narratives that we had collected in specific contexts but there are many such instances where each day we are contributing to the existing inequalities in the name of continuing academic lives and functions under the buzzword of the “new normal”.

The transitions being brought about the technological intrusion has been symbolic in many aspects. The virtual classrooms in Zoom and Google meet and such platforms have become an intrusive agent into the intimate and vulnerable space of the home. The phone and laptop camera becomes the medium through which an individual’s home space is opened for scrutiny. Although classrooms and university spaces had for good measure been able to provide a neutral space and were able to bridge certain inequalities that arise by providing a formal environment for learning, a shift to an online mode has revealed layers of inequalities. The online space has become a platform that reveals markers of class and privilege for some while laying bare the vulnerabilities for others. Hence, a shift to the online mode has not only created inequalities in terms of participation and non participation but has also unraveled symbolic aspects of inequality in participation. However, the quest for upward social mobility shapes aspirations for many students who see education as a sure shot way to move up the ladder of social hierarchy and achieve a position of security. Consequently, therefore, for most students and households, online platforms have become the only source of continuing education and hence in spite of difficulties and adjustments in accessing it, virtual education is being accepted as the new normal. This transformation in the structures of pedagogy means our aspirations are now being oriented to fit into this neo-normal paradigm of productivity and to suit its conditions. The number of webinars attended, papers presented in e-conferences, online certification courses completed have become the new yardsticks for being identified as productive students, scholars and academicians. It seems the pandemic has also unraveled  how miserably we have failed as a community of social scientists to internalise the critical social theories of which we are proud proponents of and metamorphosize them into practice with our inability to empathise with each other.

Locating Social Science and its Community within the conundrum:

As members of the social scientific community, we would especially like to problematise the approach of our own fraternity with regard to the aforementioned discussion. We have been perplexed to witness how the rigor of the social sciences has come to be reduced to a one-dimensional, increasingly calculative and utilitarian exercise. Is it possible that the theories that have been instituted as tools to identify the multitude of social realities have become apathetic to the very ‘human experience’ it seeks to unpack? This transformation in  the social sciences is not instant and the context within which this change operates is a market driven, competitive society where time is considered to be of utmost importance and our work cultures are oriented to fit in this perfectly ‘rational’ system of operation. But the irony runs deep to see an arena like social sciences-which through its critical engagement with the market claims to work towards unraveling the growing inequalities and discrimination caused by it, itself step into these very shoes. This dichotomous nature of social science is not a novel feature but there seems to be a reluctance to have a meaningful engagement and reflection of the internal lapses. Have we, the practitioners been evading this seemingly paradoxical reality which the social sciences have got itself entangled in? Or are we blinded by our quest to be in a rat race as “skilled” and “qualified” that we have stopped asking some pertinent questions about our disciplines and our practice?

Legacy of the Social Sciences: Are we doing justice to it today?

In the modern period, science has been placed on a pedestal because it can supposedly deliver ‘practical results’ which are exact and precise and not imaginary. Replacing theology and philosophy it led the world to achieve the unachievable, showing immense promise to humankind to be able to acquire mastery and control over everything. But amidst this over enthusiasm to know the infinite, the world was going through upheavals, first brought by French revolution and later enhanced by the industrial revolution. No amount of scientific progress, technological advancement and mathematical knowhow could explain why social relationships were changing. A need was felt to develop a branch of disciplines to fill in these gaps in the production and organisation of knowledge to reflect on the social and political transformations taking place in the world (Gulbenkian Commission 1996). This led to the emergence and institutionalisation of social science that was deemed as a form of knowledge embedded in the social realities and not distant from people’s lives (Gulbenkian Commission 1996).Notwithstanding its methodologies (the constant tussle between objectivity and subjectivity), the primary goal of social sciences is to systematically examine the veracity of different social realities, and not to invent or intuit (Gulbenkian Commission 1996). This is the beauty of social science and its pertinence in each society is that it teaches individuals to be more humane and gives hope for a better society.

But today, with this whole obsession with online education, has social science become absolutely distant from the multiple social realities in which people are ensconced? Borrowing from Emile Durkheim who argued that each society is intrinsically marked by both normality and pathology, we would like to argue that as social scientists, acknowledging and engaging with both norm and deviance is our responsibility as it brings us closer to the social realities (Durkheim 1895). However, instead of using this moment to analyse and understand how society continues to evolve through the dialectics of “normal” and “pathological” (Durkheim,1895),  social scientists seemed to be more interested to contribute in the ‘neo-normalisation’ process that began as an aftermath to the pandemic. Consequently, what is increasingly becoming a norm is the notion of remaining ‘productive’ and academically relevant and visible. Feeling of guilt and fear of losing out has become more evident as soon as work shifts to the realm of domestic since it is stereotyped as an ‘unproductive’ realm in the capitalist world. Does it mean that we are falling into the same trap of the technocrats and corporates; becoming highly calculative, competitive, very one dimensional, growth driven and producing “solutions to technical problems” (Habermas 1994: 192)? Instead of asking questions that address the root causes of the problems that academics and the education system in particular is experiencing due to the pandemic, social scientists seems to be making a beeline to be a part of the new normal. Such an approach might eventually hinder the growth of the social sciences if it keeps reinforcing a single overarching truth. Failing to recognise that individuals are caught up in different and byzantine circumstances due to the pandemic and creating a spectacle out of social science through the virtual media is a tragedy of our times and in George Ritzer’s famous phrase, it is nothing but ‘irrationality of rationality.’(Ritzer, 1993: 157). Nothing can be more unfortunate for us as a community than roping social sciences away from its essence, the very basic principles which led to its emergence, sustenance and dissemination.

One may then ask, how should we pursue our studies, research and other academic engagements? Asking this question in this manner puts an end to any critical and creative solution that might have been possible in a situation of this kind. Whereas, if the question itself is reframed to ask- Whose education and future are we talking about? Can online presentations, webinars, Google meet classes be regarded as the only way forward when it puts a number of students’ academic lives at stake? When framed in this manner- it brings out the lacks in this new system immediately. It showcases the gross injustices not only to those who are unable to access the new platforms but also the injustice caused to the discipline and rigour of social sciences. Of everything else that we have learned from the legacy of the social sciences, a fact that stands true is that a majority of the discourses we know of have emerged in times of crisis or have emerged as critiques to periods of crisis in history. Having said that we have to be aware of the responsibility we are placed with as a community- we have to keep churning debates, discussions and work towards fostering criticality. Hence a practical concern that might be directed to us at this point would be that for critiques to be generated, intellectual activities must be carried on, and it must be done on the platforms made available to us through the active tinkering of technology. We cannot absolutely disregard the role of technology at this point but we can only hope we as a community can cultivate reflexivity as a serious intellectual exercise. Finally going back to the question we began with- can we afford to become non-reflexive scholars and academics that have become disjointed from the realities we are living in? If we fail to introspect at this important juncture of history then in no time social science would breed its own tradition of indifference and passivity.

Sri Lanka’s Boiling Tamils And Failing Tamil Political Leaders

Thambu Kanagasabai

There is no denying of the fact that the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end by the successive Governments in power and targeted in the agenda of GENOCIDE including structural GENOCIDE since the time of independence in 1948. Their history since then is dotted with state discrimination and marginalization aided with legislations like the SINHALA ONLY ACT OF 1956 and more than 100 massacres of civilians by the Sri Lankan’s Security Forces  and Sinhalese thugs, state sponsored pogroms in 1956, 1958, 1971, 1977, 1983, 1987, and the genocidal war between 2006-2009. Tamils history is marked with betrayals by Sinhala political leaders and their Governments, breaches of Pacts, agreements, promises and understandings reached with Tamil political parties and leaders since 1956. While all the Sinhala leaders and parties are united to achieve a pure SINHALA -BUDDHIST STATE, their resort to rivalry and competition as to who can achieve this faster than the others is the driving and underlying factor and motive to win the majority of the SINHALA-BUDDIST votes to capture the political power in Sri Lanka.

This process of GENOCIDE and assimilation of Tamils through BUDDHISISATION, SINHALISISATION AND MILITARIZATION has driven the Tamils to a state of fear, insecurity and uncertainty. This process has now drawn in the hidden agenda of the Government to hide and destroy the history and archaeological sites of Tamils which evidence their inhabitancy in Sri Lanka before B.C 500. A pure Sinhala Archaeological Task Force is now embarked on a mission to conduct searches, to concoct evidences and conclude the archaeological sites in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka as belonging to Buddhists as to stake the claim that the Eastern Province belongs to the Buddhists, thereby removing the “Historical Evidence of Tamils  being the original inhabitants in the Eastern and Northern Provinces while Eastern Province is not their traditional homeland, a fact which was endorsed by India and Sri Lankan governments and recorded in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.

It has to be stated that the position of the Tamils as far as political equal rights as equal citizens almost remains static, but on the contrary they are being driven to a state of desperation and possible slow and steady extinction. The plain truth is that the Tamil political parties and their leaders have miserably failed to stop the agenda of GENOCIDE due to their lacklustre, lethargic and insolvent attitude, lack of ground action, including staging of mass protests and agitations which would have been made possible had they had the political will and determination. Instead they focused their efforts and time to not to antagonize the Governments in power – under Mahinda Rajapakshe, Maithiripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickremasinghe and now Gotabaya Rajapaksa.s Government. Pretty well knowing the blotted past history of betrayals and chicanery of Sinhala political leaders, their choice to trust and acceptance of the betrayals is the other part of betrayals of Tamils and other causes.

It appears they are contented and happy with the perks and privileges granted to a Member of Parliament and appear to be occasionally breaking their silence by making occasional statements, speeches and rhetoric to cover up their deceptions and failings as fighters to achieve the national aspirations of Tamils, the main base of their political campaigns.

The last eleven years from 2009 – 2020 have kept the traumatized Tamils in a state of uncertainty, desperation and despondency. The plethora of problems and painful memories are still haunting and raking them.

A few of those problems which remain intact and becoming worse are as follows:-

1. No sign of withdrawal or reduction of the Security Forces stationed in the North to the ratio of one soldier to every four civilians [01: 04] even though the UN and International community demanded this.
2. The Security Forces are still occupying 3207 Acres of civilian lands – mostly fertile lands for agriculture and coastal areas thereby depriving the livelihood of farmers and fishermen.
3. Delaying the release of the Tamil political prisoners who are languishing in the jail – some for more than 10-15 years without trial who were arrested under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, [PTA} The request by the European Union and the UNHRC is still not honoured.
4. The Government continues to build Buddhist Viharas and Buddha statues in the North and East where few/no Buddhist live. On the other hand there are still thousands of refugees living in camps without even basic needs.
5. The Government has so far failed to investigate war crimes even though it accepted to conduct its own investigation to the UNHRC [UNHRC Resolution 30/1] and now it seems to withdraw from this promise and disregard this UNHRC Resolution
6. The Office of the Missing Persons is now defunct and the fate of thousands of missing persons is in dark. [The Paranagama’s Commission received more than 23,000 complaints and  it has been put on back burner] The mothers and relatives of the missing persons are on sit-in protest for more than 2300 days demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones.
7. No genuine steps have been made so far to find a just and durable political solution to the burning problems faced by the Tamils since independence. The Sinhala-Buddhist Majority Governments since 1948 made several Pacts, undertakings and promises and nothing is fulfilled due to the pressure from the Maha Sanga, Buddhist clergies, extremist Sinhalese political leaders and racist Sinhala Buddhist people.
8. Sri Lankan Government is accelerating its agenda to promote Buddhisisaion, Sinhalisisation and Militarization in the North and East to create a BUDDHIST -SINHALA STATE [The agenda and the dream of the Maha Sanga and Buddhist clergy] On the other hand the North and East is neglected and no developments or actions to reduce the poverty and unemployment in the North and East.

Statement of President, Prime Minister and leading Buddhist Monks reiterate that ‘SRI LANKA IS A BUDDHIST COUNTRY’’ justifying their genocidal measures against the minorities.

The persisting problems of Tamils have so far not been effectively and seriously handled by the Tamil National Alliance and other Tamil political parties, all of them appear to be contented with rhetoric speeches, condemnation with requests to the present Rajapakshe’s family Government pretty well knowing that all their wailings and pleas will be like blowing trumpet in the ears of a dumb person.

The empty performance and lethargic conduct of Tamil leaders only provided the vacuum and fertile source for the entry of Sinhala Political Parties and leaders to the North and East whose hands are blood stained being accused of having committed war crimes, crimes against humanity amounting to genocide.

Tamil National Alliance’s hobnobbing and flirtation with the “Good Governance” produced nothing constructive for the Tamils politically or economically from 2015 to 2019. Tamil parties and leaders fell in to unexplainable silence and were in a state of coma and hibernation. There were hardly any political activities or aggressive actions taken on the ground to advance the causes of Tamils. The tragedy is that the civilians have been assigned and forced to organize and stage protests and agitations when their lands are marked for seizures or when Buddha Viharas and statues are planned to be erected. In all these instances, they have successfully thwarted the moves of Government and Security Forces. Besides, Tamil National Alliance has weakened the Nationalism and eroded their aspirations for which they have been punished with reduced number of members of Parliament. It is high time the Tamil National Alliance to rise to the occasion to prevent their slow demise, failing which, they will go down in the history as the executioners of Tamil Nationalism and accomplices to the gradual extinction of Tamils,

Another discordant factor is the incurable chronic disunity which has been afflicting the Tamil parties and their leaders who cry out Tamil Nationalism but failing to pursue the national aspirations of the Tamils united with one voice while TNA is riddled with in-house disorder which continues to weaken the political strength of Tamils, the new parties and their leaders which sprang up exploiting the disunity and insolent performance of TNA are themselves engaged in a political battle of rivalry boost their own image and popularity vying for electoral votes and as replacement for TNA.

The new TMNF is lead by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran has resorted to recalling the ancient history of Tamils to strengthen his position and increase the vote bank. This could help to sustain and keep the momentum of Tamil Nationalism TNMF led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has staged some protests calling the attention of Tam il mass.

Sadly the naked truth is that no Tamil leader or party has laid out any agenda foor ground map to pursue the National aspirations and put a break on the Genicidal agenda of Sinhalisisation, Buddhisisation and Militarization. The Tamil parties and their leaders are under obligation to be united and speak with one voice to advance the causes of Tamils. The need of the hour is a permanent, sincere and dedicated united Tamil front and not temporary unities for specific occasions accompanied with stirring speeches and statements.

“NTEU Fightback” aims to replace the discredited Australian university union leadership

Jack Turner

Amid the greatest crisis of the university sector in decades, compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the pseudo-left tendencies around the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) are trying to fashion themselves as a new leadership for the union.

These groups criticise some of the most blatant offers of sacrifices of jobs, wages and basic conditions made to the university managements by the increasingly discredited current union leadership, which have sparked rebellions against the NTEU.

At the same time, the fake “socialist” groups are trying to head off these revolts by urging university workers to join and try to rebuild the same union.

These supposed “socialists” are seeking to keep workers trapped within the industrial and political straitjacket of the NTEU and all the other trade unions. They are hoping to follow in the footsteps of their pseudo-left predecessors in taking full-time positions in the union bureaucracy.

The grouping around “NTEU Fightback,” which has close ties with Socialist Alternative (SAlt), is the most revealing.

In an article “NTEU Fightback: Rank and file rebellion in a most unlikely union,” published in the latest edition of SAlt’s Marxist Left Review, Diane Fieldes and Jordan Humphreys, begin by saying: “The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed the university sector.”

In reality, the pandemic has only laid bare and accelerated catastrophic processes that have been underway for decades.

The purpose of their formulation is to conceal the fact that the NTEU has long played the central role in implementing attacks on university educators and staff. Via one enterprise agreement after another, the NTEU has facilitated the transformation of universities into highly-casualised corporate entities serving the needs of big business.

As part of this process, the NTEU fully backed the last Greens-backed Labor Party government’s “education revolution.” Introduced in 2012, it compelled universities to compete with each other for enrolments, while cutting billions of dollars from their budgets by the time the government lost office in 2013. The current Liberal-National government has simply intensified the process.

The SAlt leaders present the union leaders as mistaken, or weak. “Shamefully, the top officials of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) responded by surrendering without a fight,” they write.

There was no “surrender.” Instead, the NTEU led the offensive against workers, which has continued unabated. At the start of the pandemic, the union leaders rushed into closed-door discussions with the employers. On May 13, the NTEU released a “Job Protection Framework,” which called for wage cuts of up to 15 percent, and for the acceptance of the destruction of an estimated 18,000 jobs.

This was no aberration. It was not only in line with the NTEU’s long prior record. It matched similar moves by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the trade union movement as a whole to impose sweeping cuts of jobs, working hours, penalty wage rates and other basic conditions on millions of workers, including in the retail, hospitality and clerical sectors.

Hostility by many members forced the NTEU to withdraw its framework, but the union officials only stepped-up their partnerships with individual managements to impose cuts, while blocking any unified national struggle. This has paved the way for a tidal wave of job losses and restructuring.

The NTEU’s conduct is a continuation of the role of the unions over decades in collaborating with employers to attack working class conditions. Under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments from 1983 to 1996 the unions, through a series of Accords, joined with the government and industry leaders to impose sweeping job and wage cuts, break up shopfloor workers’ committees and begin the pro-market restructuring of the economy, including education, to make Australian capitalism more profitable.

The root cause of this collaboration by the unions, not just in Australia but on a global scale, was to be found in the globalisation of production, which shattered the previous trade union perspective of seeking concessions within national economies while tying workers to the wage labour system of capitalism. The unions became police forces over workers, intent on making “their” national capitalist economy “competitive” on world markets by extracting sacrifices from their members.

SAlt claims that unions can be rebuilt to defend workers. That is because SAlt is seeking to enter the union bureaucracy in order to save it, just like SAlt’s forerunners.

As the article notes, Alison Barnes, the NTEU national president, was a member of one of SAlt’s antecedents, the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) and Michael Thomson, the union’s New South Wales (NSW) state secretary, was a member of Solidarity, another ISO offshoot, and continues to work closely with them.

Likewise, another NTEU national executive member, Damien Cahill, the NSW assistant secretary, was a student protestor and editor of the University of Wollongong’s student newspaper, and the NTEU branch presidents at James Cook University and Charles Sturt University are members of another pseudo-left group, Socialist Alliance.

SAlt members themselves sit on various union branch committees. Their aim is to fully enter the union bureaucracy. In their article, Fieldes and Humphreys insist that SAlt members must work with any union boss, “even the most despicable.” Moreover, even though the “left officials” (such as Barnes, Thomson and Cahill) have a history of “selling out rank and file members,” it would be a mistake to write them off.

The article says SAlt is engaged in activity that is “modest in scale” in other unions too, “and none of it is anywhere near enough to turn the tide in the class struggle.” For Fieldes and Humphreys the supposedly “difficult objective conditions” mean it is necessary to “work with trade union officials on joint campaigns where possible.”

The truth is that SAlt and all the pseudo-left satellites of the unions are concerned about a movement of the working class erupting outside the unions. That is why they constantly turn reality on its head to present defeats as “victories.”

In another article published in Socialist Alternative’s Red Flag in July, titled “The NTEU fightback goes on—on difficult terrain,” Fieldes claims that members of NTEU Fightback and “other union activists” at the University of Melbourne “defeated a management-initiated attack on wages and conditions in June.” This “sent a message to higher education workers everywhere that it is possible to defeat such attacks,” although “so far it has been an isolated success.”

This was not a “success” but a slight delay as university management prepared to implement sweeping job cuts with the collaboration of the NTEU. In early August, Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell announced the destruction of 450 permanent jobs, or the equivalent of 5 percent of the workforce, plus an unknown number of casual and fixed-term positions. Maskell told staff that he would begin “formal consultation” with the NTEU to work out the details.

While a disaster for workers, for the NTEU this is a “success” because it retained its role as the facilitator of the management’s cuts, stifling staff opposition and keeping a seat at the negotiating table. This is precisely the role the NTEU has played in enforcing pay and job cuts on campuses nationally.

Fieldes attempts to portray this collaboration as an unfortunate error on the part of the union leaders, who mistakenly believe that agreeing to cuts will save jobs. “Agreeing to wage cuts and undermining conditions just signals to the government and management that university workers are an easy target,” Fieldes writes. “But the NTEU officials are incapable of learning this lesson.”

But no break from the NTEU can be tolerated. Hence Fieldes concludes by stating that the tasks of NTEU Fightback remain, “arguing that unions exist to fight the bosses, not to do deals with them, and building rank and file confidence to act on it.”

In other words, the task of the NTEU Fightback group is to instill illusions among workers “that unions exist to fight the bosses,” when these apparatuses have long ceased to be working class organisations in any sense.

NTEU Fightback and similar pseudo-left groups are fashioning themselves as the union’s future leaders and beneficiaries of all the associated perks and privileges.

To fight for their interests, university workers must break free from the union bureaucracy. They have to join with students in building new organisations of struggle—rank-and-file committees, totally independent of the unions. These committees are essential to prosecute a national and international industrial and political struggle against all the union-enforced cuts, as well as returns to classrooms in unsafe COVID-19 conditions.

This requires rejecting the dictates of the capitalist profit system and turning to a socialist perspective based on the total reorganisation of society in the interests of all, instead of the financial oligarchy. That is the perspective fought for by the Socialist Equality Party and the Committee for Public Education.

Devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Sally and Laura along the US Gulf Coast

J. L'Heureau

Power restorations, debris hauling, and the rebuilding of damaged critical infrastructure continues in communities along the northern Gulf Coast portion of Florida and southern Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Sally, which made landfall as a Category 2 last Wednesday in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

But amidst the widespread flood damage, mass power outages, prolonged boil water advisories, and water rescues, the Gulf region of the contiguous US, home to 64 million people, remains lodged in the crosshairs of a historically overactive hurricane season.

Though its original path placed the city of New Orleans and the southwest Mississippi coast as its center for landfall, Hurricane Sally, made a sharp eastward turn towards the Alabama-Florida border before making landfall, causing almost 600,000 homes and businesses from southeast Louisiana over into the heart of Georgia to lose power at one point last week.

Sally brought torrential rain and major flooding to the area even before it made landfall. Less than a week later, there have already been seven reported deaths related to the Hurricane—two in Baldwin County, Alabama; two in Escambia County, Florida; and three in the Atlanta area.

Widespread flooding resulted from Hurricane Sally in a large area spanning from southeast Louisiana to as far as Tallahassee, Florida. Pensacola Fire Chief Ginny Cranor told CNN that "four months of rain" fell in "four hours"—well over 30 inches.

The storm surge was one of the worst Pensacola had ever experienced, at one point producing flooding up to a depth of five feet.

Describing the completely inadequate preparedness on the part of the ruling class to handle natural weather events, Amanda Marcial, a resident in Escambia County whose home flooded, told the Pensacola News Journal that "[e]very time it rains we live in fear," adding that "I am in what they say is a 100-year flood plain," but "it's flooded again" since a rainstorm flooded her home in April 2014.

At least 600 water rescues have been carried out in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida in response to Hurricane Sally. Food, water, and tarp distribution sites had to be established in several locations throughout Escambia County, serving 20,000 cars up until last weekend. Responding to how badly the wind and floods damaged the area, Charles Baker, a resident of the Brownsville area of Pensacola, told the Pensacola News Journal that many "can't find anything. Not ice, water, anything right now.”

The beachside cities of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores in Alabama saw heavy flooding. Many of the roadways turned into lakes. Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon contrasted Hurricane Sally with Hurricane Ivan, which struck the Alabama Gulf Coast in in 2004 as a Category 3. He said with the latter hurricane, "we had 11 to 12 inches of rain. With this, we had 20 plus."

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft made a similar comparison in response to the flood damage to that city. A resident of the city, Doris Stiers, told CNN that the area looked "like a war zone," with "[l]ots of destruction, homes destroyed, roofs gone."

Other southern Alabama counties, such as Elba, saw severe flooding. Water rescues were also carried out in Orange Beach and Dauphin Island. As of Sunday morning, Baldwin EMC, the largest electrical provider in Baldwin County, which has a population of over 200,000, said that over 40,000 of its customers were still without power, with many facing "extended outages." The same day, Gulf Power said almost 21,000 of its customers throughout Escambia County in Florida were still without power.

At least $180 million in damages to public and private property has been tallied so far by officials in Alabama and Florida. This includes $19 million in Mobile County in Alabama, $139 million in Escambia County, and $21 million in Santa Rose County in Florida. As assessments to road and home damage to debris removal continues, the total amount of damages in these areas alone will undoubtedly increase.

Many farmers in the Panhandle, who are still suffering from the damages brought on by Hurricane Michael in 2018, are seeing tens of millions of dollars resulting from crop damages. Nikki Fried, Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture, told the Pensacola News Journal that "it's probably going to be almost 100% losses on most of the farms." Donna Burkhead, the wife of a farmer, told the paper "[y]ou wake up from a hurricane, you go out to look at your crops and it's laying on the ground. There's only one word—devastating."

Such despair rings true for the residents of southwest Louisiana, many of whom continue to have their lives upended by the damage wrought by Hurricane Laura, which struck the area as a Category 4 only three weeks before Sally made landfall. $1.6 billion in damage was done to agriculture—including to the rice and sugar cane crops—and forests in Louisiana, more than the damage inflicted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Kurt Guidry at the Louisiana State University AgCenter told Nola.com that "the total economic impact to the food and fiber sector from Hurricane Laura will be as large as or larger than any storm that I have developed estimates for since my time with the AgCenter."

The Calcasieu Parish School District, which has about 32,000 students, suffered damages up to $300 million, more than the $26 million caused by Hurricane Rita. District Superintendent Karl Bruchhaus said all but two of the 76 schools were damaged, and less than half of the district's 350 school buses are operable.

Statewide, 35 percent of the school districts have been impaired, with almost 150 buildings on over a dozen college campuses being damaged.

Even this, however, has not stopped the heads of some colleges and universities in Lake Charles—an area of the state that has seen some of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases—from enforcing the irrational and homicidal back-to-school campaign, with classes already resuming at McNeese State University. President Daryl Burckel told Nola.com that "We have a very aggressive plan to make our students know we will be back, that they will be taken care of," and that "The most important thing is to get them through this semester."

There have been 14 billion-dollar weather disasters in the US so far this year, with the month of August alone seeing four of these disasters, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released last Thursday.

This includes Hurricane Isaias, which impacted over five million homes and businesses from North Carolina up to New England; the Midwest Derecho, which destroyed almost 10,000 homes in Iowa and caused at least $4 billion in damages in that state; the ongoing West Coast wildfires, which have destroyed thousands of homes and buildings; and Hurricane Laura.

The human cost of these disasters is incalculable.

This year's Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June until the end of November, has seen 23 named storms, almost double the average, and will likely produce more storms than the 27 named storms of the 2005 season. Last Friday alone saw the formation of three storms, Wilfred, Alpha, and Beta (the naming system is now using the Greek alphabet), the first time this phenomenon has occurred since 1893. Tropical Storm Beta, already affecting millions with heavy rain and flooding along southeast Texas and southern Louisiana, is scheduled to impact the area for the duration of this week.

Amidst the material and human costs these increasingly frequent and dangerous natural weather events are causing, irrefutably conditioned by human-induced climate change, the political representatives of the ruling capitalist class continue to place on full display their irrational and anti-scientific character.

In an article published by the Washington Post over the weekend, Craig Brown, Mayor Pro Tem of Galveston, Texas, dismissed the need to address climate change, writing, "As mayor of a city dealing with that problem and trying to prepare your city and keep your citizens safe, the reasons for [these disasters] go out the window.”

In the lead up to Hurricane Sally, Cynthia Lees Sheng, president of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, said at a press conference on September 13 that "What happened in the past doesn’t matter," and that "We handle every threat the same... You can’t say, 'I’m tired of this, I don’t want to do it.'"

Even more noxious is the nationalism sprinkled on top of this criminal outlook, evinced by Orange Beach mayor Kennon when he told the Post that "if you’re serious about climate change, you need to stand up to China, India, everyone in the world that has absolutely no regard for the climate. Those culprits who are 90 percent of the polluters need to be held accountable. Otherwise, it’s just political, or a game or something."

EU parliament calls for international investigation into alleged poisoning of Navalny

Clara Weiss

Last Thursday, the European parliament passed a non-binding resolution, calling for an international investigation into the alleged poisoning of the right-wing Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny. The resolution represents a significant escalation of the attempts by the European imperialist powers to destabilize the Putin regime and ratchet up tensions with Russia.

Without providing evidence for any of its claims, the resolution speaks about the “attempted assassination of Alexei Navalny,” condemning it as “part of a systemic effort to silence him and other dissident voices.”

The EU parliament urged an investigation involving the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) into a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Russian Nezasimaya Gazetapointed out that such an investigation “into Russian domestic affairs” would be “unprecedented,” writing: “The proposal of the European parliament is reminiscent of the practice of international tribunals which have been created for a number of countries, above all in [the former] Yugoslavia and Rwanda.”

Alexei Navalny

The resolution also explicitly expressed political support for the anti-Putin opposition that Navalny is leading and calls for sanctions that target financial assets of “corrupted figures” from the Putin regime, in a clear attempt to further destabilize and foster divisions within the crisis-ridden Russian oligarchy. Finally, the resolution calls for pausing the construction of the almost completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is to deliver gas directly from Russia to Germany, falling short of demanding that the project be scrapped entirely.

In the German media, an aggressive campaign has been waged ever since the illness of Navalny, demanding that the project be scrapped altogether. However, there are also concerns about the impact on German companies, which have been heavily involved in this project. Moreover, newspapers like the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a leading mouthpiece of the German bourgeoisie, have warned of giving up the project, which Washington has repeatedly demanded. Shortly before the Navalny case began, the FAZ insisted that “to give in [to the US over Nord Stream] is not an option.” The pipeline is also part of an energy and national security strategy by Berlin that is aimed at turning the country into a central hub for European energy supplies.

A few days after the EU resolution, on Saturday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published an interview with Leonid Volkov, the chief of Navalny’s staff. In the interview, Volkov insisted that there was no question that Putin ordered the “attack” on Navalny, and called for involvement of the OPCW in an investigation.

There is little question as to what results such an “investigation” would bring: WikiLeaks documents have exposed the foul role of the OPCW in imperialist provocations during the Syrian civil war, in particular. In 2018, the OPCW fabricated a false report, on behalf of the US, Great Britain and France, that gave credence to their lies that the Assad regime was to blame for chemical attacks in the Syrian civil war. The doctored report, which was written in explicit opposition to evidence the OPCW’s own investigators found, was critical to providing the pretense for a military attack on Syria.

Volkov also repeatedly compared Putin directly to Hitler, whose Nazi regime was responsible for the murder of 6 million European Jews, countless political opponents and tens of millions of civilians throughout Europe and the Soviet Union. These comparisons were gleefully encouraged by the interviewer, Konrad Schuller. Over the past years, the FAZ has played a central role in justifying the relativization of Nazi crimes by German academics like Jörg Baberowski, and has spearheaded the public campaign against the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP-Socialist Equality Party), which has led the opposition to the resurgence of fascism in Germany.

Volkov then emphasized that the opposition had to be “the strongest force“ in Russia should there be a palace coup and a movement against Putin.

The Navalny case bears all the hallmarks of a major political provocation. On a factual level, nothing makes sense. While the imperialist powers unanimously proclaim that he has been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, one of the deadliest poisons in the world, Navalny has almost recovered within weeks with no apparent lasting damage, and is now hammering away at the Putin regime on social media.

Navalny fell seriously ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. His illness coincided with the peak of the crisis in Belarus, where mass protests and strikes against the Lukashenko regime erupted after the August 9 elections. The EU, and especially Germany, have sought to intervene in this crisis by bolstering the pro-NATO opposition, while seeking to contain the strike movement, to advance their geopolitical interests in Eastern Europe.

Within 48 hours, German Chancellor Angela Merkel arranged for his flight from Omsk to Berlin’s Charité, the leading university clinic in Europe. The flight was organized by an NGO whose backers and board members include Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer.

In fact, by the time he reached Germany, his condition had already stabilized. Laboratory tests done by the German army (Bundeswehr) allegedly found traces of the extremely deadly Novichok nerve agent on a bottle that Navalny supposedly used, as well as on his body.

No one has even tried to explain how not only Navalny survived the alleged poisoning with Novichok largely unscathed, but also why no one in his surroundings showed the slightest symptoms of poisoning. When Sergei Skripal and his daughter were allegedly poisoned in Britain with Novichok in 2018—a case that was generally no less obscure than that of Navalny—one person that had come into contact with the Skripals died, and entire buildings had to be evacuated for contamination.

The story was made even less credible when reports emerged last week alleging that supporters of Navalny had physically rescued this particular water bottle from a hotel room as soon as news of the poisoning had emerged. None of the team’s members showed any signs of poisoning. Moreover, up until the German army lab claimed to have found Novichok on the bottle, there had been no reports whatsoever of any water bottle. On the contrary, Navalny’s team insisted for days that all he had consumed on August 20 was a cup of black tea at the airport.

Despite these glaring contradictions, the German government and media have launched an extraordinary campaign over the Navalny case directed against the Putin regime. The Russian government has repeatedly described the case as a “gross hostile provocation” and has sharply warned of a serious deterioration of Russian-German relations.

Workers must be warned of the sinister operations of the imperialist powers which now center on escalating the military build-up and bolstering the forces around Navalny. Navalny’s opposition has nothing to do with defending democratic rights or opposing the Putin regime on an even remotely progressive basis.

Navalny himself has long maintained ties to far-right forces in Russia, and Leonid Volkov is a key figure in the opposition’s strategy of bolstering regionalist and separatist forces in Russia.

Volkov has close connections to Leonid Krashennikov, an advocate of separatism in the Urals who has been described by the Russian business daily Kommersant as one of the many “local businessmen who feel squeezed by Moscow [businessmen].” In the past, Krashennikov has worked for Anton Bakov from the Monarchist Party of Russia, who is considered the “grey cardinal” of the separatists fighting for a “Ural Republic.” Last spring, Navalny’s staff and Krashennikov co-led protests in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals, under regionalist and separatist banners. Navalny’s opposition has also supported regionalist demands in the recent protests in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.

Both Navalny and Volkov have participated in Yale University’s “World Fellows Program,” which has a long record of training imperialist stooges in Eastern Europe.

Genuine popular opposition to the Putin regime and the criminal oligarchy that has emerged out of the Stalinist restoration of capitalism is growing by the day as the Kremlin, like capitalist governments around the world, is pursuing the murderous policy of “herd immunity” amid the pandemic. However, this opposition can only find a progressive expression if it is based on the independent mobilization of the working class, in conscious opposition to the machinations of imperialism and the capitalist system as a whole.