Civil war elections in Bolivia

Tomas Castanheira

Next Sunday, the first general elections will be held in Bolivia since elected president Evo Morales was overthrown in a US-backed military coup, placing in power Jeanine Áñez’s self-proclaimed government.

The coup regime, which took power promising to call new elections within 90 days, has postponed the date of the vote three times. Today, less than half of Bolivians, just 43 percent, believe that their vote on Sunday will be respected, according to a survey by Tu Voto Cuenta .

The broad popular rejection of the Áñez government has been expressed over the past year in continuous demonstrations by masses of workers and peasants throughout the country.

In November, tens of thousands took to the streets of the capital La Paz and other Bolivian cities to resist the coup. They were violently repressed by military forces joined by fascist gangs like the Cochala Youth Resistance (RJC) and the Crucenista Youth Union (UJC), linked to the ultra-right presidential candidate, Luis Fernando Camacho. In two brutal episodes, the military massacred at least 23 people and left another 230 wounded, subsequently receiving legal protection from the government.

Jeanine Áñez speaks at the anniversary of the Bolivian Air Force, October 12, 2020. (Credit: Agencia Boliviana de Informacion)

The protests resumed this year in opposition to the regime’s incompetent and violent response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its successive election postponements. In August, a wave of strikes and roadblocks rocked the country for 10 days, with the masses demanding the immediate fall of the Áñez government.

On both occasions, Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) played the essential role in disarming the revolt in the streets, maneuvering with the promoters of the coup behind the backs of the workers and peasants. Morales harshly opposed the popular demand for the overthrow of the regime, arguing that holding new elections was the only way to reestablish democracy in Bolivia.

The electoral agreement engineered by the MAS, however, is proving a farce, providing no guarantee that democratic forms of rule will be reestablished by the ruling class.

On September 18, self-proclaimed President Jeanine Áñez withdrew her bankrupt presidential candidacy, which received little more than 10 percent of support among potential voters, throwing her support to right-wing presidential candidate Carlos Mesa of Comunidad Ciudadana (CC), who was defeated in last year’s elections by Morales.

When Áñez dropped her candidacy, Mesa was in second place in the polls, with 26.2 percent, more than 10 points behind Luís Arce of the MAS, with 40.3 percent, which indicated a victory in the first round for the MAS candidate.

But the political calculations of Áñez and her allies, even as they try to support a stronger contender to MAS, are not guided by an electoral strategy. When she withdrew from the presidential race, Áñez called for unity among the right-wing parties, crying out: “If we do not unite, Morales returns, the dictatorship returns.” This statement, whose essential content has been systematically repeated by the coup leaders, implies that even a MAS victory at the polls will be considered illegitimate and is likely to be overthrown by the military.

This is exactly the path being paved by Áñez behind the backdrop of the elections. She and Government Minister Arturo Murillo are using their grip over the state machine to drive a campaign to outlaw the MAS and mobilize fascistic forces among the military to serve as the pillars of a terror regime against the working and popular masses.

Last Friday, the de facto government celebrated the 53rd anniversary of Ernesto Che Guevara’s summary execution at the hands of the Bolivian military and its CIA “advisers,” paying a sordid tribute to his assassins. Áñez declared that the lesson of Guevara’s death “is that communist dictatorship has no place here.” And she warned that any foreigner, “whether Cuban, Venezuelan or Argentine,” who comes to Bolivia to “cause problems, will meet his death.”

The fascistic agitation continued in the following days. On Saturday, in an official event broadcast on national TV, Áñez violated Bolivia’s election laws by calling upon the population to vote for those who would assure that “Morales and the MAS won’t govern us again.” She also said of the MAS: “They are violent, they despise democracy, they want to subject the whole people and design a way of life.”

On the same day, Government Minister Murillo participated in a police event in Santa Cruz, where he glorified the role played by police officers in the November coup, and appealed to them: “We, I say we because I feel as one of you, have a double task; one with democracy to go and vote to make sure that the dictatorship does not return, that the pedophile does not return, and the other, we have the obligation to take care of the people’s vote.”

On Monday, in an event celebrating the anniversary of the Bolivian Air Force, Áñez followed the same script. She declared: “Last year, in November, the Armed Forces, together with the Bolivian people, said no to the dictatorship, and that was the end of a long and terrible period of populist authoritarianism.”

Murillo made clear the “double task” that he reserves for the military in the elections as he demanded an extension of the “good government act,” which prohibits the gathering of people in public places, for two days after the elections. A joint operation of the armed forces and the police will be mobilized throughout the country, ready to violently repress any popular demonstration against a new election coup.

These efforts are being coordinated almost openly with US imperialism. On September 28, Murillo embarked on an official trip to the United States, allegedly “to fulfill a work agenda with the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Department of State of that North-American country.”

Even as the MAS representatives denounced a series of violations that put the legitimacy of the entire electoral process in question, their response to these events exposes the cowardice of this party of the Bolivian bourgeoisie, as well as its hostility to any independent mobilization of the working class.

The MAS campaign activities have suffered repeated violent attacks, like the use of tear gas to disrupt a recent youth meeting in El Alto. On the other hand, other attacks have been attributed, without proof, to MAS militants by the press and right-wing parties, which, together with the government, seek to label it a terrorist organization.

Only 10 days before the elections, the MAS presidential candidate, Luis Arce, was accused of illicit enrichment while he was Minister of Economy in Morales’ government. The MAS responded by declaring the accusation part of a “dirty war” against them. Arce faces four criminal charges, including one of “terrorism,” all concocted by Áñez’s coup regime.

This week, the MAS warned that a “second coup” was underway in the country, pointing to a series of irregularities and lack of transparency in the procedures adopted for Sunday’s elections.

Nevertheless, in an interview this Monday with La Razón, MAS spokesperson Sebastián Michel stated that the problems of the population will end next Sunday, as soon as the elections are held!

Michel made an appeal for confidence in the rigged electoral process urging that: “the people who are suffering, have a little patience; that the people who are starving, hold on a little longer; the nightmare will soon be over. ... A time is coming when the state companies will start to work again. ... when the distribution of income will work again.”

This is a lie. Not only because of the fraudulent nature of the elections conducted by the coup regime, but because the problems faced by the Bolivian masses are rooted in a deep crisis of international capitalism, which the bourgeois national perspective of the MAS cannot resolve. They have nothing to offer to the working masses, except the demand that they “hold on a little longer.”

The economic conditions upon which the Morales administration based itself, the rise in commodity prices and the influx of European and Chinese capital, were already rapidly receding in the last years of his government, which were marked by attacks against the working class. It is the party’s defense of capitalism that makes it shamefully capitulate to the fascists.

The dictatorial efforts of the ruling class and the conditions of growing misery among the masses can only be fought through the independent political mobilization of the Bolivian working class on the basis of a socialist program. Such a struggle will open great possibilities and find overwhelming support among workers in Latin America, the United States and internationally.

Indonesian workers continue to protest pro-big business “omnibus law”

Ben McGrath

Protests against Indonesia’s new pro-big business “omnibus law” have continued into their second week across the country. Workers and youth correctly fear that the bill will be used to slash job protections, further enrich big business, and harm the environment. The new law includes more than 1,200 amendments to 79 existing laws. Nearly 6,000 people have been arrested so far.

Workers held rallies in Jakarta and other cities such as Bandung and Medan on Monday, demanding the repeal of the law that was rushed through parliament on October 5. Last week, approximately one million workers from industries including automotive, pharmaceutical, and textiles participated each day in the planned strike from Tuesday to Thursday in more than 60 locations, according to organisers.

Workers expressed deep frustration with the law. Francain Edy, from Makassar on Sulawesi Island, told the Straits Times last week that he already earned less than the monthly minimum wage of $300 for the city and has had his pay slashed as a result of the pandemic. “Our welfare is only going to worsen [because of the new law],” he stated.

Student protesters react as police fire tear gas during a rally against a controversial bill on job creation in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A 51-year-old factory worker named Entin expressed concern for her children: “What will happen to my children in the future? They don’t have proper qualifications. It’s already tough getting a job, why does the government have to bother labourers like us?” The last sentiment was echoed by numerous other workers.

Ema Liliefna, an official with the Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions (KSBSI), told Reuters on Monday, “We want the omnibus law to be revoked, and the government to issue a presidential decree to replace it.” She stated that approximately 1,000 workers had taken part in the demonstration in Jakarta.

The state’s response has been to employ violence against the strikers and demonstrators. On October 6, police first used water cannon and tear gas to attack peaceful protesters and blockaded Jakarta to prevent a larger rally from taking place. Police used similar methods throughout the week.

As in the United States during protests against police violence, members of the press have also been directly targeted during the past week’s demonstrations. Suara.com journalist Peter Rotti and his colleague, videographer Adit Rianto S., were attacked by police after filming officers attacking a student protester in Jakarta on Thursday.

Rotti’s camera was taken away and the journalist was beaten by six police officers. He stated afterwards, “I explained that I was a journalist, but they still grabbed and dragged me. I was dragged and beaten until my hands and temples were bruised.”

This was not an isolated incident. According to Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists on Friday, at least seven reporters, likely far more, have been attacked while covering the rallies, including a reporter for CNN Indonesia, named Tohirin, who photographed police putting protesters in choke-holds. Ponco Sulaksono, a journalist for Merahputih.com, went missing late Thursday.

Among its many pro-business clauses, the new legislation extends contract employment indefinitely, leaving workers in precarious positions; removes a requirement for the government to consider inflation when setting the minimum wage; eliminates mandatory leave, including for childbirth, marriage, and bereavement; and sharply reduces employers’ mandatory severance pay from 32 times a worker’s monthly salary to 19 times. It will also slash the corporate tax rate from 22 to 20 percent by 2022.

The new law and the violent police response are part of a global assault by the bourgeoisie on the international working class. The ruling class in each country is attempting to force workers, farmers, and youth to bear the brunt of sharply growing economic crises while also dispensing with the façade of liberal democracy.

At the same time, the protests by Indonesian workers against the pro-business omnibus law are part of an international fight back against these attacks. Workers and young people are waging a common struggle for their rights to safe, high quality jobs and education whether in the United States, Greece, Hong Kong, Thailand, and other parts of the world.

In this struggle, however, the labour unions serve big business and work to divert workers into political dead ends. Said Iqbal of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) stated last week that he would work through the courts—a move to contain and suppress the protests. In fact, this is precisely what the government wants, with President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, denouncing protesters and telling them to challenge the law in the judiciary instead.

Demonstrating the broad anger towards the president, who left Jakarta for a trip to Central Kalimantan on October 8, the Twitter hashtag #JokowiKabur (Jokowi Runs Away) trended on the platform.

KSBSI President Elly Rosita Silaban stated last week, “The actions taken by workers are the result of the government not understanding the situation of workers during the pandemic. In addition, the new law degrades workers’ rights, eliminating most of what they receive today… We oppose it and hope the president can withdraw this law. We have prepared a lawsuit for a judicial review to the constitutional court regarding articles that contradict the law.”

The recent protests, however, were not caused simply by the new law or the pandemic. The economic crisis this year compounded long-standing attacks on the Indonesian working class that are the result of capitalism itself. Therefore, the unions’ claims that workers can defend their interests in the courts—an arm of the capitalist state carrying out the attacks in the first place—is entirely fraudulent.

The government claims the law will create one million jobs a year. Even if this were true, millions of others would still be left without employment while any jobs actually created would be highly exploitative. Just as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 6.9 million workers have been left unemployed with the government announcing last month an additional 3.72 million workers had been sacked in the world’s fourth most populous country. The official unemployment rate is expected to reach 9.5 percent this year, nearly double the rate last year.

Right-wing extremist networks in German state apparatus continue to grow

Jan Ritter

The first anniversary of the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, which nearly led to the worst massacre of Jews in Europe since the Second World War, was marked last Friday. On October, 9, 2019, the neo-Nazi Stefan Balliet sought to force his way into the Halle synagogue on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. He shot two people in the process. Only the strong wooden door, which remained firmly shut, prevented a massacre.

All of the declarations of sympathy and crocodile tears shed by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the commemoration in Halle on Friday cannot conceal the fact that responsibility for far-right terrorism is born by the ruling class. Over recent years, it has systematically created the ideological and political climate within which right-wing extremist acts of bloody violence like those in Halle and Hanau could flourish.

Representatives of all parliamentary parties applaud the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and implement the fascist party’s anti-refugee policies. Politicians and the media downplay xenophobic demonstrators as “concerned citizens” and defend right-wing extremist academics, like the Humboldt University professor Jörg Baberowski (“Hitler was not vicious”). Right-wing extremist networks in the intelligence agencies, military and police are consciously built up and covered up by the bourgeois state and its parties and continue to expand.

German police (Credit: Max Pixel)

Recent days have seen several new instances of right-wing extremists within the German state apparatus come to light. “Monitor,” a programme on public broadcaster ARD, reported on a far-right chat group within the Berlin state police, and the right-wing extremist network exposed just three weeks ago in the police in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) also has ties to the state intelligence agency in the country’s most populous state, according to research by the Rheinische Post (RP).

In mid-September, a wide-ranging right-wing extremist network with ties to all three command structures within the NRW state police was exposed in Müllheim. Five further cases have now been uncovered. The workplace and apartment of an officer from Bielefeld was searched. According to a report on tagesschau.de, the commissioner shared right-wing extremist propaganda in a private police chat group with 50 members. In addition, it was revealed that three members of the observation team in the state intelligence service, and an administrative specialist in the state interior ministry, were right-wing extremist suspects.

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (Christian Democrats, CDU) told a press conference that the members shared Islamophobic and anti-immigrant videos in chat groups and on social media. He told the RP, “In the videos, all Muslims were described as a threat.” Reul still relativised the racist outlook of his co-worker, stating that although the chats were unacceptable, they were much less serious than the content discovered in Müllheim.

Reul’s colleague maintained contacts via Facebook in the right-wing extremist milieu. The three members of the observation team were responsible, among other things, for the surveillance of right-wing extremists. In other words, the Nazis carry out surveillance on themselves. Reul added incredibly that there was no evidence to suggest that operational secrets had been betrayed or that the surveillance was not conducted according to protocol.

The NRW interior minister acknowledges having known about the cases that have now become public for almost a year. A week ago, Reul told the committee for internal affairs in the NRW state parliament that 100 employees of the police had been suspected of racism or right-wing extremism since 2017. Twenty-nine cases have been closed, although there were only eight instances in which the investigations resulted in consequences for the officers concerned. In the remaining 21 cases, “the suspicion was not confirmed” or “it was not possible due to other reasons to impose disciplinary measures,” reported Der Spiegel.

“The affected team in the state intelligence service was dissolved and its leadership replaced,” explained the Interior Ministry. One of the officers was disciplined following an emergency investigation so as to avoid drawing attention to the right-wing extremist structures in the state apparatus, which have been built up from above and remain under special protection. This is a clear instance of the Interior Ministry attempting to cover up the true extent of the right-wing extremist networks in the security agencies through disinformation and distraction.

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union, CSU) presented a report assessing the state of right-wing extremism in the security agencies on October 6. It downplayed the far-right networks within the state apparatus and gave a free pass to racists and anti-Semites.

Following the exposure of a series of groups in the police, intelligence services and military, which have exchanged neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic chats, threatened left-wing lawyers and activists, hoarded weaponry and prepared for a violent uprising on “Day X,” Seehofer was forced to admit that there were over 400 suspected cases of right-wing extremism within the federal and state security services between 2017 and April 2020. However, he claimed that there is “no structural right-wing extremism” within the security services.

In reality, Seehofer’s figures are a vast undercount. Firstly, the figures do not include the military, which had 1,064 suspected official cases over the same period. Secondly, the figures are based on reports provided by the right-wing extremist-infested security agencies themselves; there was no independent investigation. Thirdly, the sharp increases in cases since March are not included. In NRW alone, suspected cases have increased from 45 to 104 since March. Finally, the unreported number of cases is many multiples higher, because the police and army are dominated by a siege mentality that views any sharing of information as a “betrayal.”

The Interior Ministry in NRW has maintained a deliberate silence on the contents of the videos and chats, and the possible links between the four latest cases and the far-right network within the NRW police uncovered in mid-September. It is clear that the fascist content and wide-ranging terrorist plans are to be concealed.

The communications in the right-wing extremist chat group within the Berlin police, which were made public by the ARD magazine Monitor, expose the growth of fascism within the German police.

Racism, hatred of left-wing individuals and violent fantasies were shared in an entirely normal manner along with plans to meet up for breakfast or sport. The group, consisting of more than 25 officers, has existed for three years. Although only seven officers were allegedly responsible for the right-wing extremist content, their fascist agitation received enthusiastic support from their colleagues.

According to the two informants who gave Monitor access to the contents of the chat group, Berlin police officers regularly use expressions while on duty like “n---er, Moor, darky, oily-eye, faggot, trans.”

One female group leader ordered an obviously racist police control by writing, “We’ll stop the oily-eye there.” The head of a Berlin service team was cited as saying, “We also have headscarf terrorists cleaning here.” Superiors were aware of the contents of the chats, which Monitor has now made public, but did nothing about them.

The right-wing extremist officers exchanged messages describing Muslims as a “fanatical primate culture,” and refugees as swarming “like locusts over Europe,” “rapists, murderers, organised criminals and terrorists” and “rats.” They referred in their exchanges to the “great replacement in Europe,” according to which the white population is being intentionally replaced by immigrants.

Similar tirades were to be found in Balliet’s manifesto, which the Halle terrorist published shortly before his murderous rampage. The police chat groups also contain explicit calls for refugees and left-wing protesters to be murdered.

For example, the armed officers who were members of the chat group demanded a fascist ideological test before new recruits would be accepted into the police. One of the practical tasks would allegedly be, “Shoot six illegal immigrants.” Referring to how the police deal with immigrants, they demanded that in order to create the necessary respect for the police, “every day…one must be [sent] to the afterlife.”

Referring to the G-20 demonstrators in Hamburg, they called for “the use of firearms” and “blasting them.” They also saw neo-Nazis as “allies” with whom they could establish a “powerful striking force” to “throw a party for the right-wing.”

Polish high school students strike to demand end to in-person classes

Clara Weiss

High school students across Poland on Monday started a one-week strike to demand an end to in-person instruction in schools. The strike, which has been almost totally blacked out in the national and international press, has been organized primarily on social media under the hashtag #uczniowskiprotest and the slogan “We are scared.”

Students are either refusing to go to school or they are going to school dressed in black. While no numbers about participants have been reported, high school students who spoke to the WSWS said that the majority of their classmates have joined the strike and that it enjoys overwhelming support among teachers and parents. Hashtags relating to the student strike were trending on Twitter on Monday and Tuesday. A petition demanding either hybrid models or stricter safety protections in schools, but not an end to in-person instruction, has gathered over 36,600 signatures as of this writing.

The strike comes shortly after a wave of school occupations in Greece. Poland, like all of Europe, is now in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic. Daily infections reached 5,300 on October 10, up from 837 new cases on September 17. This is about ten times more than the daily new infections recorded in spring during the first wave of the pandemic. The country, which has a population of less than 40 million, has over 135,000 infections, one of the highest numbers in Europe.

Jakub Zieliński, an epidemiologist from Warsaw University, acknowledged last week, “We are losing control over the pandemic. In two out of three cases, we don’t know where the infection originated. However, we know that in the majority of cases, they [the infections] originated with children who had gone to school.” Zieliński also said there may be up to ten times more cases of the virus in Poland than officially acknowledged.

Nevertheless, the government of the far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS) is adamantly refusing to shut down the schools that were reopened on September 1. Only a small portion of schools have shifted again to remote learning.

Kamil Pietrzyk, a 31-year old elementary school teacher who died from COVID-19, source: Facebook, Kamil Pietrzyk

Over the last week, at least two teachers and one student have died from coronavirus. The death of Kamil Pietrzyk, only 31 years old, an elementary school teacher who was a poet and cultural journalist in his free time, provoked particular shock. Just a few days earlier, a 44-year-old teacher in Osiek, a small town in northern Poland, died from COVID-19.

Then, on Monday, it was reported that a 20-year-old high school senior from Bydgoszcz, a mid-sized city in northern Poland, died of the coronavirus. The student, who had reportedly had comorbidities, attended school until October 2 and was hospitalized five days later. His case echoed the horrific death of a 19-year-old US college student who died from complications of the virus, giving the lie to the claim that “only” the elderly die from COVID-19.

Under these conditions, high school students have taken the initiative to shut down the schools in order to protect their own health, as well as that of their loved ones and teachers.

Julia told the WSWS: “I’m participating in the strike because I want the government to change its approach to this issue, which is so important to the safety of students, teachers, and their families in a pandemic that threatens the lives and health of many people. It also has a negative effect on the mental health of these groups.” Julia noted that most parents and teachers and a growing number of young people were supporting the strike.

Aleksandra, a student in Lublin, echoed these sentiments, stating, “I’m participating in the strike because I fear for my own safety and that of my relatives, some of whom, unfortunately, have comorbidities and are immunocompromised.”

She said it was difficult to say how many students in Lublin were participating in the strike but that the majority of her acquaintances and friends are.

Speaking about the recent death of the two teachers and student, Aleksandra said: “It is really irresponsible and sad that young people have to take care of their own safety by protesting. The government has been telling students the same thing since the beginning of September: ‘There is no need to close the schools.’ Do we really need more tragedies like this to understand that schools are the main source of infection?”

She recounted that a student in her class had been in contact with someone who was ill with COVID-19. However, when the teacher called the State Sanitary Inspection, which manages national testing, she was told not to have the student tested because he did “not show symptoms.” Aleksandra noted, “Both the school and the State Sanitary Inspection ignore those who are ill with COVID when they ‘don’t have symptoms.’”

Others reported similar cases on social media. One Polish worker wrote on Twitter: “In the school of one of my colleagues, one student felt very ill, she was very pale and eventually passed out. She had previously been in contact with someone who was in quarantine. The school swept everything under the rug and did not provide information to anyone.”

Another Twitter user reported that one student whose parent had tested positive was told by an employee of the State Sanitary Inspection to leave quarantine because she showed no symptoms.

Full responsibility for the mass infection and deaths lies with the Polish ruling class. Like capitalist governments around the world, the Polish PiS government has de facto adopted a policy of herd immunity. It is letting the virus rip through the population, without any concern for how many people will die, and the many more who will suffer the long-term medical, psychological and social consequences of mass infection and death.

While Poland has, so far, a relatively low official death rate, those who fall ill with COVID-19 are left to fight for their lives in a health care system that has been left in shambles by the restoration of capitalism and decades of austerity. At the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals became overwhelmed when dealing with just a handful of COVID-19 patients. Entire cities lacked functioning ventilators.

The government pushed for a premature reopening in May, both to guarantee the exploitation of the working class, and to enable it to hold the highly contested presidential elections in July, which were dominated by the anti-Semitic and far-right nationalist campaign of Andrzej Duda. In Silesia, the government had refused to shut down the coal mines from the very beginning, creating the basis for the region to become the center of the pandemic in Poland.

However, it is not just the PiS that is responsible for this policy. The nominal liberal opposition party of the Civic Platform has enabled the PiS at every step of the way, blocking any genuine opposition to these policies from the working class and working with the government to ensure its implementation. The trade unions, for their part, have played a key role in propping up the government by betraying the 2019 national teachers’ strike. Now, they have not even issued nominal support for the student strike and are seeking to prevent any broader mobilization by teachers and other sections of the working class against the unsafe reopening.

Workers and youth in Poland are confronted with political and international tasks. The reopening of schools is an integral part of the response of the capitalist class to the pandemic across Europe and the Americas. In order to extract profits from the working class and pay for the massive bailouts of major corporations earlier in the spring, workers have to be forced back into their factories and workplaces. Without the forced reopening of schools, this policy would be impossible.

Hefty profits for top US banks as millions face social disaster

Shannon Jones

Big US banks reported much stronger than expected profits in the third quarter while wide layers of the population face misery and hardship.

Buoyed by government cash poured into the financial markets, JPMorgan Chase reported third-quarter profits of $9.44 billion, or $2.92 per share, well above the forecasts of economic experts. That figure compared with $4.76 billion last quarter and $9.08 billion one year ago.

JP Morgan’s bond and stock trading operations accounted for a 20 percent year-over-year increase in revenues, offsetting declines in consumer loans and credit cards. The bank’s earnings rose despite a charge for $524 million for legal fees related to its criminal manipulation of global markets in commodities and US treasury notes.

Citigroup reported $3.2 billion for the third quarter, despite a 13 percent drop in revenue from consumer banking as its trading and investment revenue rose 5 percent.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, also reported strong third quarter profits, which rose to $1.36 billion. Fueled by US Treasury cash, its assets under management increased to $7.8 trillion, which is an increase of 12 percent from the third quarter of last year.

Bank of America (Image credit: Mike Mozart/Flickr)

Other large US banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, are expected to show healthy third quarter profits when their reports come out later this month.

The strong results for the banks come in the midst of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression and mounting hardship across the US. The situation facing the unemployed is increasingly dire as the limited and inadequate support for the unemployed contained in the CARES Act long ago expired and funds released by the Trump administration for a $300 supplement are largely exhausted.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury continues to pump cash into the financial markets, money that will have to be repaid at devastating cost to the working class in terms of social benefits, wages, working conditions and lives. The necessity of restarting production in order to repay the trillions handed over to the banks and corporations is the driving force behind the homicidal back-to-work policy of the US ruling class and governments around the world. This has led to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths, with the number of fatalities surpassing one million internationally and 221,000 in the US.

Despite the reported decline in the official unemployment rate, September saw an unprecedented increase in the number of long-term unemployed, those out of work 27 weeks or longer. Some 2.4 million were classified as long-term unemployed last month, a rise of 781,000 since August. That represents 19.1 percent of the total unemployed.

Alongside the growth in the number of long-term unemployed is the rise in permanent layoffs, indicating that many of the jobs lost during the pandemic are never coming back. The number of permanent job losses increased in September by 345,000, bringing total permanent job losses to 3.8 million. That number is 2.5 million higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Nick Bunker, an economist at job website indeed.com, told Business Insider, “Longer and longer durations of unemployment are a sign that the shock from the coronavirus is becoming more and more enduring and that the ability for people to quickly be recalled to old jobs seems to be fading."

Tens of thousands of jobs are being wiped out at airline and aviation companies, movie theaters and entertainment firms like Disney. Chevron, the number two US oil company, announced 700 layoffs this week at its Houston headquarters as part of its plan to cut 6,000 jobs globally this year. Other layoffs are expected soon at aviation engine maker Pratt & Whitney, tech company Cisco, sports network ESPN and dozens of other companies and public sector employers.

The jobs crisis has dealt the hardest blows to low-paid sections of workers, particularly in the service sector. Employment in the travel industry as well as bars and restaurants remains depressed, as workers chose to stay home rather than risk COVID-19 infection.

New unemployment claims continue at unprecedented levels going back to March when the pandemic exploded across the US. Another 840,000 filed for unemployment the week ending October 3, the most recent weekly report.

All told in September, some 26 million received some form of unemployment assistance, including support for “gig” workers and the self-employed. That did not include some 5 million small businesses that are getting aid.

According to a report in Axios, if so-called discouraged workers or those forced to stay home during the pandemic for childcare or who are not able to find a full-time job at a living wage are taken into account, US unemployment stands at 26.1 percent. This is more than three times the official jobless rate of 7.9 percent in September announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many furloughed workers who are being recalled are finding their wages or hours are being cut, including at Walmart, where many workers are seeing reduced hours but increased workloads. Southwest Airlines pilots are facing demands for a 10 percent pay cut to avoid furloughs.

Under these conditions, millions of working-class families face the stark choice between paying for medical care, rent, food or utilities.

Underscoring the brutality and irrationality of American capitalism, some 10 million people in the US will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance in the midst of a deadly pandemic, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

While the US Centers for Disease Control issued an eviction ban last month, many families have not been able to secure protection due to varying interpretations of the ban by judges and onerous documentation requirements. Between September 27 and October 3 more than 2,100 landlords in 17 states began eviction proceedings, according to the Princeton University Eviction Lab.

Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau reports nearly half of 8.3 million renter households it surveyed were “very” or “somewhat” likely to leave their home in the next two months due to eviction. About one in three adults say they fear that they may face foreclosure or eviction in the next two months.

As millions face destitution, Congress and the Trump administration are continuing their months-long charade of negotiations on a new economic stimulus bill. Behind the parliamentary maneuvering is a deliberate policy by both parties to block any further help to the unemployed in order to push workers back into COVID-infected workplaces to crank out profits. Whatever eventually emerges from Washington will involve a further wholesale handover of cash to banks and corporations with at best a pittance for workers.

Despite the funneling of massive amounts of government cash into Wall Street, the US financial situation remains precarious. Banks and corporations are utterly dependent on the continued infusion of funds and any reduction from the Treasury spigot threatens an economic meltdown.

The situation facing small businesses is already dire. An analysis of credit card transactions by the online marketing firm Womply indicates that one out of every five small businesses operating at the start of 2020 had permanently closed by September—that includes 23 percent of restaurants. Forty percent of restaurants said they would be out of business in six months without help from the government.

With social tensions at the breaking point the Trump administration is moving forward with plans for a presidential coup if he is defeated at the polls in November. Meanwhile, the Democrats are desperately trying to smother social opposition and disorient the population through the promotion of identity politics.

Live music industry in the US faces “massive collapse” due to pandemic

David Walsh

The indifference of the political establishment in the US—and everywhere else, for that matter—to popular economic hardship is hard to overestimate.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, millionaire politicians—representatives of the banks and large corporations—from both major parties demonstrate on a daily basis how impervious they are to the loss of jobs and income experienced by great numbers of people, along with the threat of evictions and foreclosures and the growth of hunger and homelessness.

Crystal Ballroom (Photo credit–LiveEventsCoalition).png

The overall devastation has implications that go beyond even the immediately economic situation, as desperate as that is. The coronavirus crisis is presently threatening to wipe out a considerable portion of cultural life in the US.

The American ruling elite, pig-ignorant on the whole, would not blink an eye over such a prospect. In so far as it contributed to a further cultural regression and numbing of the population, the powers that be might consider it a positive good. In any event, fixated on short-term profits and the rising stock market, they only have interest in the portion of the music and film industries customarily generating large earnings.

We have reported in the WSWS on the circumstances facing musicians, popular and classical, along with visual artists and others. The news continues to be dire. The situation has no precedent, in wartime or any other period.

Port City Music Hall

In regard to live concerts, for example, the life blood of the popular music world, an article on the website Live for Live Music notes that when the pandemic erupted in early March, “we started compiling a list of all the scheduled shows, tours, and festivals affected by the outbreak.” As the situation worsened, the article continues, “it became clear that documenting every canceled/postponed show was a fool’s errand. We quickly pivoted to building a list of concerts that were still not canceled. That list, too, rapidly proved to be pointless. To borrow a concept from the sports world, there’s no need for a box score if the whole game is rained out.”

In August, NPR reported that the “independent live music industry sits … on the brink of catastrophe.” Thousands of concert halls and clubs remained closed. As the pandemic dragged on, it was creating “an existential crisis for these venues and the critical role they play in music scenes and communities across the US. The Barracuda in Austin, The Satellite in Los Angeles and Portland’s Port City Music Hall are just a few of the venues that have closed for good in recent weeks, with many more at risk of going under.”

The Barracuda in Austin, Texas (Photo credit–Barracuda)

In September, the Live Events Industry of Oregon (LEIO) released the results of a survey to business owners that asked how much longer they could hold on. “Close to a thousand people responded. More than 20 percent expect to go out of business by the end of October. That number jumps to over 70 percent by January.”

To take a further concrete example, a recent report by Denver Arts & Venues reveals that the city’s “creative industries have taken a massive hit since the beginning of the pandemic.” The study shows that Denver “has lost an estimated 29,840 creative-industry jobs, as well as $1.4 billion in sales revenue, between April 1 and July 31.” Colorado’s music industry as a whole lost an “estimated 8,327 jobs, which amounts to a 51 percent loss. The study showed that Denver alone accounted for 4,525 of those jobs, as well as $213.7 million in lost sales revenue.”

The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), a recently formed coalition, warns that its constituents, “small, independent businesses,” which “normally contribute billions of dollars to local economies, are on the precipice of mass collapse” if government funding is not forthcoming. The $10-billion “Save Our Stages” act, passed by the US House of Representatives, is currently in limbo as part of the political warfare in Washington. In addition, as the New York Times points out, the venues are jockeying for the federal government’s “attention alongside restaurants, movie theaters and the thousands of other businesses that have suffered.”

The Village Vanguard jazz club in New York (Photo credit–Alwinian).jpg

Even were Save Our Stages to be enacted, the measure would hardly remedy the problem or bring back to life those venues and concert halls that have closed or are on the verge of closing—or revive the careers of the countless artists who have already given up.

According to trade publication Pollstar, the concert industry could lose as much as $9 billion in 2020 alone, and that figure, points out Variety, “doesn’t include the losses of income by musicians, technicians, dancers and others in its sprawling supply chain.”

A NIVA survey conducted in June found that 90 percent of the organization’s 2,000 member businesses might close permanently if they continued to lose revenue for another six months.

Another recent initiative, #SaveLiveEventsNow, formed by a combination of some 20 business groups and entertainment unions, argues that while Save Our Stages is a significant step, “it is only a first step: The vital workers across every sector of the live event industry are still at risk.”

Variety explains that #SaveLiveEventsNow seeks to broaden government support and assistance “to 90 percent of the 12 million industry workers employed by venues and businesses that don’t qualify for support under Save Our Stages.” The new initiative estimates that a staggering 77 percent of behind-the-scenes live event workers have lost 100 percent of their income. This grouping includes lighting technicians, arena concession workers, parking attendants and many others.

Along the same lines, Newsy reports the claim by Nancy Shaffer, the president of another group, the Live Events Coalition, that “approximately 66 percent of all those involved in our industry have either had a reduction in pay, or it’s been slightly reduced, or it’s gone altogether.” Half of the industry is unemployed, Newsy explains, and the Live Events Coalition indicates that “many companies have laid off or furloughed ninety to ninety-five percent of their teams.” In a survey of almost 2,500 industry workers, more than 80 percent said they had applied for unemployment insurance.

The numbers are astonishing: before the pandemic, trade shows and conferences represented a $17 billion industry, concerts a $35 billion industry and weddings had a market size of $74 billion.

Jazz clubs comprise one of the most fragile sectors of the arts and music world. The New York Times recently observed that after suffering nearly six months of lost business, jazz venues in New York “have begun sounding the alarm that without significant government relief, they might not last much longer. Even with support, some proprietors said, the virus may have rendered their business model extinct.”

Among NIVA’s 2,000 members is the Village Vanguard, a landmark on Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue South since 1935. Its owner, Deborah Gordon, told the Times that the club might not be able “to weather a year or more without business.” Gordon commented about the legendary venue, “History gives you a nice mantle … But history doesn’t protect you.”

The newspaper reports that “jazz’s nationwide network has already begun to crumble. In Washington, a number of clubs have closed since the start of the pandemic, including Twins Jazz, which had been the last full-on jazz club on the city’s historic U Street corridor.”

The situation is disastrous, and neither big business party nor any other portion of the political and financial establishment will address it. This is the harsh reality of capitalism in 2020. The sooner this finds a response among musicians and other artists, the better.

IMF report points to ongoing plunge in world economy

Nick Beams

When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck there was considerable speculation about a V-shaped economic recovery, with the world economy rapidly returning to “normal.” That prospect was blown apart some time ago, and the latest projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released yesterday make clear that the global economy has been irrevocably transformed.

The latest IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) projects that the global economy will contract by 4.4 percent in 2020, with growth expected to rebound by 5.2 percent in 2021 before flattening to just 3.5 percent in the medium term.

“This implies only limited progress toward catching up to the path of economic activity for 2020-2025 projected before the pandemic for both advanced and emerging market and developing economies. The pandemic will reverse the progress made since the 1990s in reducing global poverty and will increase inequality,” the report said.

The WEO projections for 2020 are for a slightly smaller contraction in the world economy than was forecast in June. But this is only the result of the moves by all governments in May and June to scale back lockdowns, as they adopted a return-to-work agenda at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

As IMF research director Gita Gopinath acknowledged in her foreword to the WEO, compared to the June forecast, “prospects have worsened significantly in some emerging markets and developing economies where infections are rising rapidly,” and there are “renewed upticks in COVID-19 infections that had reduced local transmissions to low levels.”

The IMF forecasts are based on the assumption that a vaccine will be rapidly developed and that it will be made widely available. There is no guarantee of either. The WEO warns that the risk of growth outcomes worse than projected remains “sizable,” and adds that if the virus resurges and progress on a vaccine and treatments is slower than an expected, and countries’ access to them remains unequal, economic activity could be lower than expected.

There is also the prospect that the severity of the recession could lead to the withdrawal of emergency support in some countries and rising bankruptcies, which would compound job and income losses. Deteriorating financial sentiment could lead to a “sudden stop in new lending” to vulnerable economies, with cross-border spillover effects.

Before the pandemic hit, the global economy was on course for a significant downturn following a brief uptick in growth in 2018—a process that has now intensified. The IMF noted that the “scarring” effect of the pandemic is “expected to compound forces that dragged productivity growth lower across many economies in the years leading up to the pandemic.”

In other words, COVID-19 has functioned as a trigger and now an accelerant for processes already underway.

The devastating impact on the global working class is highlighted by figures from the International Labour Organization, which estimates that the global reduction in work hours was equivalent to the loss of 400 million jobs in the second quarter, topping the equivalent loss of 155 million in the first.

The IMF report advocates continued government support, even calling for the temporary relaxation of fiscal rules where this is considered necessary. But there are clear indications of where policy is heading. It states: “Room for immediate spending needs could be created by prioritizing crisis countermeasures and reducing wasteful and poorly targeted subsidies.”

It advises that governments “may need to consider” raising progressive taxes in higher income brackets, as well as taxing property and capital gains, along with changes to tax regimes to ensure that firms pay taxes commensurate with profitability. It states that countries should “cooperate on the design of international corporate taxation to respond to the challenges of the digital economy.”

There is virtually no prospect of any of this taking place. The Australian budget brought down last week, for example, provided a graphic illustration of the direction that will be followed. It contained tax cuts benefiting higher income groups combined with tax write-offs for big business, while moving to cut unemployment relief programs. As for cooperation on a new tax regime covering the digital giants such as Google and Apple, Trump has made it clear that any such measures will be met with immediate retaliation by the US.

The IMF calls for much-needed investment in public health. But this too will fall on deaf ears.

Given the worsening situation facing so-called emerging market economies as they confront increasing debt, the IMF recommends “support from the international community through debt relief, grants, and concessional financing.”

But according to the international aid agency Oxfam, the IMF itself is not following its own prescriptions. The agency said 76 of the fund’s 91 loans since March have involved spending cuts.

Oxfam International’s interim executive director, Chema Vera, noted that the IMF has “sounded the alarm about a massive spike in inequality in the wake of the pandemic.” But the measures it is adopting “could leave millions of people without access to health care or income support while they search for work, and could thwart any hope of sustainable recovery.”

While hundreds of millions of people the world over are confronting economic and social devastation, the financial oligarchy continues to prosper. A report issued by UBS last week said the world’s 2,189 billionaires had increased their wealth by $2 trillion in the past six months, to reach a record of more than $10 trillion, with those investing in health care companies among the main beneficiaries.

This massive redistribution of wealth is being financed through the injection of trillions of dollars by the world’s central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve, into the financial markets. And this is expected to continue.

“If markets believe that policy supports will be maintained or scaled up in response to the deterioration in the economic outlook, current risk asset valuations could be sustained for some time,” the IMF states in its Global Financial Stability Report, also issued yesterday.

However, it warns that vulnerabilities are rising, leading to “financial stability concerns in some countries,” while vulnerabilities are increasing in the non-financial corporate sector, as firms have taken on more debt to cope with cash shortages, and in the sovereign sector, as fiscal deficits have widened to support the economy.

It adds that as the crisis unfolds, “corporate liquidity pressures may morph into insolvencies, especially if the recovery is delayed,” with small and medium-sized firms the most likely to be affected because they have less access to capital markets.

A warning of rising bankruptcies is also contained in an analysis published by the Bank for International Settlements last week. It states that support from governments and the central banks has limited the number of bankruptcies so far, but given the size of shock, it “may be just a matter of time” before they rise, leading to a further increase in unemployment.

Just a few a months ago, the air was filled with talk of a “V-shaped recovery,” “snapback” and “rebound.” Now the underlying reality is bursting to the surface—a breakdown of the world capitalist economy, triggered, but not caused, by the pandemic.

Merger between Beaumont Health and Advocate-Aurora Health collapses amid expanding staff opposition

Kevin Reed

After five months of negotiations, Beaumont Health announced on October 2 that plans to merge with Advocate-Aurora Health based in Milwaukee had been called off. The collapse of the deal comes amid a growing chorus of opposition from medical staff and others connected with Beaumont, which is based in Southfield, Michigan.

In a conversation with news media, Beaumont CEO John Fox said the two companies mutually agreed to call off the deal in order to focus on “local market priorities.” The planned merger would have created a single $17 billion entity, uniting Beaumont’s eight Detroit-area hospitals with Advocate-Aurora’s 26 hospitals in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas under a board of directors made up of an equal number of representatives from each organization.

The deal between the two health care systems—announced in June amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin—was widely opposed by Beaumont employees. The health care staff made it known early on in the negotiations that the executive leadership was placing financial considerations above the quality of health care being provided to patients.

Beaumont Health corporate headquarters in Southfield, Michigan.

In his statements to the media, Fox acknowledged the opposition, declaring that “we’ve listened to the perspectives” of physicians, nurses, staff, donors, elected officials and community members and “their concerns about a partnership with Advocate-Aurora,” and “we very much appreciate their candid feedback.”

However, Fox added dismissively: “All of that, frankly, was overshadowed by both COVID issues and non-COVID issues.” He then went on to complain about how the pandemic hindered face-to-face meetings between the corporate representatives. “Our boards have never physically met yet,” Fox said.

But the fact that opposition from staffers, and the danger that this opposition could quickly escape their control amid a wave of strikes by healthcare workers across the country, played a major role in the ending of talks was revealed in comments from Advocate-Aurora management that the talks ended due to “internal issues” at Beaumont.

The opposition of the medical staff first emerged in July, when a group of Beaumont physicians began circulating a petition among the hospital’s 5,000 doctors declaring no confidence in CEO Fox and others on the executive team, including COO Carolyn Wilson and CMO David Wood. The doctors called on the board of directors to remove these individuals.

The doctors said that they were concerned with the “continual erosion of the standard of patient care” and that the current leadership team had been preoccupied with the increasing “the financial status of the organization.” In spite of Beaumont's status as a “non-profit,” CEO Fox earns a salary of $6 million annually.

The opposition to the merger among the doctors, in the face of a culture of retaliatory firings by Beaumont management of employees who spoke out against conditions in the facilities, galvanized opposition among other staff and, once the objections became public, the board of directors agreed on August 17 to postpone a vote on the deal until these concerns were addressed.

The board’s decision was followed on August 19 by the circulation of a survey among staff about their confidence in the management of the hospital. The survey results showed 76 percent of the physicians who responded said they strongly disagreed or somewhat disagreed with the statement, “I have confidence in corporate leadership.”

The survey also showed 70 percent of physicians said they strongly disagree or somewhat disagree that, “The proposed merger with Advocate Aurora Health is likely to enhance our capacity to provide compassionate, extraordinary care.”

A second survey of nurses conducted on August 20 showed that 650 nurses had no confidence in the hospital leadership and that they were also opposed to the merger with Advocate-Aurora.

By this point, the hospital donor community and those connected to the board of directors began to voice their opposition to Fox’s merger plans. On September 10, Mark Shaevsky, a former Beaumont Health board vice chair and trustee, sent a letter to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel objecting to the merger and calling for Fox, Wilson and Wood to be fired.

One week later, twenty Beaumont donors sent a letter to the board of directors which said, “The loss of (medical) staff as well as recent surveys, including those by doctors and nurses, demonstrate something is seriously amiss. This situation must be addressed and improved immediately and with an immediate sense of urgency. This must be your primary focus.

“Among other things, we believe this requires that the proposed transaction with Advocate Aurora Health should not divert your attention or even be considered unless and until the current crisis at Beaumont is fully addressed.”

Lastly, on September 29, three legislators from Royal Oak, Michigan—where Beaumont’s largest hospital is located—released a joint statement warning that the merger with Advocate-Aurora would be “harmful to the community” if allowed to go through.

US Senator Andy Levin, Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow and state Representative Jim Ellison, all Democrats, wrote that the overwhelming majority of Beaumont staff and donors opposed the merger.

The letter makes clear that Democrats, in a state where wildcat strikes shut down the auto industry earlier in the year and mass opposition is growing to the re-opening of schools, fear that the proposed merger could touch off a social explosion. “During a global pandemic that has acutely impacted our region and claimed more than 7,000 Michigan lives, we call on the leadership of Beaumont to do what is in the best interest of patients, not earnings, address the issues raised by medical staff concerning their ability to offer excellent care—and promptly reevaluate this proposed merger.”

The collapse of the merger plans between Beaumont and Advocate-Aurora is the primarily the result of the action of the staff in opposition to it. Doctors, nurses and other employees can only defend their interests against the financially motivated business maneuvers of management—which are always connected to an intensification of the attacks on working hours, health and safety conditions, salaries and benefits—by organizing and articulating their own demands.

With the end of the talks with Advocate-Aurora, like the collapse of the previous negotiations with Summa Health in Akron and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit—Beaumont management is only biding their time. They will no doubt announce new plans for a merger with one or another different hospital group.

This fight can only be taken forward by establishing workplace committees that are politically independent from the Democratic Party and the official labor movement. This independence can only be established on the basis of the fight against the capitalist profit system, including the adoption of a socialist program that will take the healthcare system out of the hands of financial interests and run it as a public service under the democratic control of health care workers, nurses and doctors.