Coronavirus pandemic intensifies humanitarian disaster in Yemen

Anna Rombach & Marianne Arens

In war-torn Yemen—devastated by five years of a US- and EU-backed war led by Saudi Arabia—the coronavirus pandemic is exhibiting its murderous potential. Doctors there report a death rate of 20 to 30 percent among those infected.

Intensive care physician Tankred Stöbe from the aid organization Doctors Without Borders told the German newspaper Tagesspiegel of the dramatic consequences of the pandemic . The pandemic, he noted, has swept through the bitterly poor and war-ravaged country “like a deadly desert storm.”

Stöbe estimates a 30 percent mortality rate among COVID-19 patients, the highest in the world. A significant lack of testing renders the official figures—just over 2,000 confirmed cases and 600 deaths—meaningless. “The vast majority of patients have suffocated in their homes without being counted, diagnosed or treated.”

Yemen students wear face masks to help curb the spread of COVID-19 as they take a final-term school exam at a public school in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Many Yemenis live far from a clinic and are left to fend for themselves if infected with the coronavirus. The virus spreads virtually unchecked. “There is hardly a family that has not been affected by the pandemic,” Stöbe reports.

Doctors Without Borders erected a specialized COVID-19 clinic whose 40 beds were immediately filled. “The mortality was very high because patients came too late,” Stöbe explained. “The average length of stay was five days—but not because people recovered, but because they died.” The clinic contends with a chronic shortage of personnel and materials. Moreover, the staff must transport oxygen bottles across residential districts devastated by war.

The high mortality rate is primarily due to the preexisting, unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe in the country from a years-long civil war and an imperialist-backed bombing campaign.

Saudi Arabia has waged an unrelenting air war in Yemen since March 2015 aimed at toppling the Huthi rebel government and reimposing the puppet regime of imperialist stooge Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The United States, France, Great Britain and Germany have all supported this murderous war, directly or indirectly. As such, the German government has exported over €1 billion in weaponry to countries participating in the war.

Stöbe described the situation now unfolding in Yemen as an “unbelievable tragedy.” Bombing and live fire continue on a daily basis: “Tens of thousands have already died. Millions have been displaced.”

Were the criteria and legal principles of the Nuremberg Trials to be applied to Yemen, the politicians responsible for these crimes against humanity would be tried in court and locked behind bars. Sentences handed down in Nuremberg after the Second World War sent the surviving leaders of the Third Reich to the gallows or a lifetime in prison.

Today, however, the United Nations sees this differently: Of all countries, they chose Saudi Arabia to host the charity conference for Yemen in June of 2020.

Under international pressure, early this year Saudi Arabia announced a temporary abstention of aerial raids against Yemen “for humanitarian reasons.” In fact, the bombing continued. Between March and June, the Yemen Data Project recorded 1,078 air attacks, at least 142 on civilian targets like residential areas, schools and hospitals.

The war perpetrated by Saudi Arabia with support of Western powers against the Yemeni population has impacted primarily civilians. The monarchy in Riyadh, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has blockaded food and medical aid to the country with the conscious intention of causing mass suffering and starvation. Roughly 20 million Yemenis depend on food aid for survival.

Ten million human beings are threatened by starvation, as reported this summer by the German broadcaster Tagesschau. It has been two years since the aid organization Save the Children reported that 85,000 Yemeni children had starved to death.

Other diseases—cholera, malaria, dengue fever—are taking an additional toll. Just this year over 110,000 people contracted cholera. A cholera clinic set up and operated at great personal sacrifice by Doctors Without Borders volunteers was bombed by Saudi fighter planes in the battle for the port city of Hodeidah.

Doctors Without Borders’ account of the pandemic is corroborated by Essen, Germany cardiologist Dr. Marwan Al-Ghafory, an advocate for suffering Yemenis. Via the free app “Tabiby” (my doctor) he has reached tens of thousands of people in Yemen.

The cardiologist concludes that the real situation in Yemen is far worse than officially reported. According to Johns Hopkins University, there are currently 2,070 known coronavirus infections and 602 deaths. “But the information our team has gathered, the statistics that we have collected ourselves, tell us quite something else,” the doctor said in an interview. “We peg it at more than 100,000 cases with a mortality rate of over 20 percent.”

For Dr. Al-Ghafory, the most important task is warning the population about a second, more severe wave of coronavirus. Yemenis have very little access to reliable information. He said: “I write articles every day and translate medical studies. My team and I post between seven and ten articles a day. We’ve taken the task upon ourselves to educate our forgotten people about COVID-19.”

The coronavirus pandemic is only accelerating the enormous catastrophe long wrought by imperialism. As a result of the war, the country is lacking not only necessary health care, but clean water for drinking and washing, sanitary systems, sufficient nutrition, shelter, as well as prospects for the future—in short, every elementary necessity for a healthy life.

The imperialist powers, especially the US, but also Germany, support the belligerence of Saudi Arabia because they consider Riyadh an important ally in their conflicts with Iran, Russia and China. Above all, however, they see in the Saudi monarchy a bastion against the threat of working class uprisings throughout the Middle East.

Australian bushfire report aids government whitewash on climate change and lack of resources

Margaret Rees

Late last month, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements issued a nearly 600-page report into the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire disaster, after hearing 270 witnesses and receiving 1,750 public submissions.

Despite all the evidence presented, the report faithfully follows the instructions of the Liberal-National government, which called the inquiry in February as an exercise in political damage control and cover-up.

On the release of the report, Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud quickly announced the government’s agreement with its 80 recommendations. “In terms of the federal recommendations there is nothing there that the federal government is concerned about,” he told the media. “I think they are very pragmatic recommendations and ones that we will continue to proceed.”

Fire on the outskirts of Harrington, NSW late last year (Credit: Kelly-ann Oosterbeek)

First and foremost, the report holds no one, least of all the government, responsible for the catastrophe. The foreword states: “Although informed by the existing national arrangements, we took a deliberate decision not to find fault, ‘point fingers’ or attribute blame.”

The three commissioners appointed by the government were ex-armed forces chief Mark Binskin, former judge Annabelle Bennett and environmental law professor Andrew Macintosh.

Their report begins by paying lip service to climate change as the driver of bushfire disasters. Based on testimony from witnesses from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), the official Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Geoscience Australia, it notes that clear global warming trends have emerged, and that Australia has warmed by approximately 1.4 degrees since 1910.

According to the BoM, further warming over the next two decades is inevitable, with the global climate system continuing to warm in response to the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The CSIRO stated that some further climate change is “locked in” because of emissions already experienced.

Yet the report advances no recommendations at all for responding to global warming. What is advanced instead is the catchphrase “resilience,” which means accepting more extreme weather-related disasters as inevitable, and somehow co-existing with them.

Accordingly, the report proposes that “a more mature understanding of the root causes and effects of disaster risk and, in particular, systemic vulnerability, is needed, so that our efforts to mitigate the risk and build resilience can meet the challenges of the future.” This is exactly in line with the terms of reference for the inquiry set out by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The report presents the resulting national disasters within the framework of the profit system, citing estimates of economic costs. It quotes Deloitte Access Economics, which in 2017 estimated that, for the previous decade, the national bill for natural disasters was $18.2 billion annually. The report projects that this amount will blow out to $39 billion per year by 2050, even without accounting for climate change.

The report takes a similar approach with the lack of civilian resources to combat infernos of the intensity experienced over the past year. It covers up the criminal lack of civilian firefighting resources—aerial capacity, modern trucks, professional firefighters and evacuation infrastructure—revealed by the bushfires.

The inquiry commissioners warn that the “increasing complexity of disaster risks” has “the potential to overwhelm the capabilities of our fire and emergency services.” Yet they make no recommendation for the allocation of the necessary billions of dollars to address this threat.

Given the lengthening of bushfire seasons in both northern and southern hemispheres, due to climate change, the hire of aircraft for aerial bushfire fighting from overseas is becoming increasingly difficult.

The report notes that during the 2019-2020 fires, 66 overseas aircraft were leased for firefighting, but the severity of the fires meant that more were needed at short notice, and could not be obtained.

In Australia, about two-thirds of aerial firefighting aircraft are owned or contracted directly by the states and territories, which meet the costs. The remaining one third (160) are contracted through the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC), which does not own any aircraft itself.

The report calls for a “modest” national aircraft fleet, ensuring a “sovereign aerial firefighting capability.” What is meant by “modest” is indicated by the mere $15 million per year that the Morrison government committed to spending on aerial firefighting between 2018 and 2021. This amount was hastily topped up during the 2019-2020 catastrophe by an extra $31 million, enabling an additional four Large Air Tankers to be procured for the season.

The report deals likewise with the inadequacy of evacuation facilities, with state, territory and local governments merely advised to provide nationally-consistent evacuation centres, Neighbourhood Safer places, places of last resort and natural disaster shelters.

The commissioners admit that during the last bushfire season “people slept on floors with limited to no bedding and others slept in cars or other vehicles.” Desperate people arrived together with their animals, big and small. There were chaotic evacuation scenes at fires such as those at Lake Conjola in New South Wales, Mallacoota in Victoria, and Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Yet the report provides no costing for evacuation centres.

The same attitude is maintained in relation to power outages, which proliferated during the 2019-2020 bushfire season, in some cases lasting for weeks. The insistence by the private power companies that they should not have to put power lines underground, is advanced in the report without any criticism, on the grounds that it would be “significantly more expensive.”

Then the Morrison government is applauded for having allocated $37 million toward “enhancing telecommunications resilience”—a mere drop in the bucket.

In line with the report’s underlying profit-driven response, it insists that governments cannot protect everyone. “Even the best prepared and resourced governments and fire and emergency services cannot entirely protect the public from the impact of natural disasters,” it states.

“Some bushfires, for example, will be too widespread; some Australians will live too remotely; and there are only so many firefighters, aircraft and trucks that can be deployed at the same time. Furthermore, governments and charities by no means cover the cost of rebuilding uninsured homes and replacing other property lost in natural disasters.”

Moreover, the report makes clear that the overwhelming volunteer base of the fire service should remain, rejecting calls for more full-time firefighters.

“Australia has a strong culture of volunteerism with over 200,000 volunteer emergency responders nationally,” it states. “Volunteers are willing to give their time to protect their communities, generally seeking no more than support and respect.”

Because of the extraordinary demands on volunteers, and the impact on their employment, the report merely suggests offering them some financial aid. “Volunteers need to be supported and enabled to participate in a way that respects the values of volunteerism, and considers the competing demands on their time.”

Under the heading of “land management,” the report proposes allowing farmers more leeway to clear land of trees, saying it is necessary to “ensure that there is clarity about the requirement and scope for landholders and land managers to undertake bushfire hazard reduction activities; and minimise the time that is necessary to obtain approvals.”

The report estimates that during and after the 2019-2020 bushfires, over $8 billion was provided for disaster recovery, by all levels of government, non-government organisations, charities and the private sector. This includes $2 billion from the Morrison’s government’s National Bushfire Recovery Fund, $1.8 billion from state and territory governments, and $2.3 billion from insurance.

Much of the proclaimed amount has not been dispensed, leaving many of the disaster’s survivors still in limbo, often in temporary accommodation. Furthermore, this outlay pales into insignificance besides the $575 billion to be spent over the next decade on the military, including for an expanded domestic role in dealing with social unrest and other “emergencies.”

Face-to-face teaching resumed at Australian universities, despite continuing COVID-19 cases

Carolyn Kennett

Several public universities in Sydney have returned to on-campus classes, requiring staff to physically deliver teaching and other student services. Although confirmed COVID-19 cases are currently low in the city, there are ongoing community outbreaks and a new wave of infections is possible.

Evidence from the US, Europe and around the world shows that a small rise in case numbers, accompanied by the lifting of restrictions, can have devastating consequences while the virus is still circulating in the community.

In both the United States and Britain, campuses have become centres for outbreaks of the virus among students and surrounding communities. In the UK, the University and Colleges Union has reported almost 40,000 infections among students and staff in higher education since the start of the academic term.

Part of Macquarie University [Credit: mq.edu.au]

Despite the clear dangers, the trade unions covering Australian university workers—such as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)—have mounted no opposition to the return to campuses.

This is part of the broader “return to work” campaign by the corporate media, big business and the federal Liberal-National government. It is also bound up with the drive to recruit a new cohort of international students. In June, the federal government approved a pilot program to bring international students to Australia, despite the border restrictions for general travelers, but only on pre-approved plans for particular institutions.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham defended the program on explicitly pro-business grounds, saying that international education was a key part of the economy. A report by the Mitchell Institute said that: “for every $1 lost in university tuition fees, there is another $1.15 lost in the broader economy due to international student spending.”

The collapse in the number of international students, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has exposed the deep funding crisis in the tertiary sector, which has driven universities to treat full fee-paying international students as cash cows. Following decades of cuts by both Labor and Liberal-National governments, the sector is forecasting billions of dollars of losses. If universities were to remain fully online, there would be little incentive for international students to continue or commence their studies.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Macquarie University recommenced face-to-face teaching for a large percentage of students at the beginning of their Spring semesters. While both universities are continuing to deliver lectures online, small group teaching, including practicals, labs and tutorials have resumed for the majority of courses.

Sydney University delayed the commencement of its Spring session until late August for most courses and is also teaching face-to-face small group activities. The University of New South Wales began onsite teaching in September, accompanied by the full return of all staff to the campus. Of the major campuses in Sydney, only Western Sydney University has remained largely online.

Macquarie University staff members were informed that the management was exercising its exemption, under COVID-19 health directives, to bring students back onto the campus. Under the state government’s Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order (No 4) 2020, the four-square-metre rule does not apply to a university when a gathering is necessary for its normal business. The UTS website notes that university learning activities are considered exempt “essential gatherings.”

Many Macquarie University workers were required to return to work on campus on July 20, while face-to-face teaching recommenced on July 27. Since then, there has been a further drive to get staff back onto campus. Many departments and offices are insisting that staff return to working from their offices full-time, with management insisting that even those in high-risk categories will not be in danger.

In its official communications, Macquarie University management promised additional cleaning regimes and the maintenance of social distancing—where possible. In reality, the additional cleaning is limited to a small number of staff members wiping down door handles and lift buttons. Students and staff are expected to wipe down surfaces in teaching and communal rooms, before and after their use. Cleaning wipes are provided for this task.

The situation at the other universities is similar. Students and staff are being asked to wipe down teaching and learning spaces when they enter and leave, and there is minimal cleaning of high-contact areas, such as door handles and lift buttons.

In learning and teaching spaces where, due to the nature of the space or the learning activity, it is impossible to physically distance at all times, Macquarie University staff and students were promised that additional risk control measures would be in place. This is limited to the availability of masks and disinfectant wipes. However, staff and students are not required to wear masks. In fact, the university web site notes that face masks are not recommended for the general population.

UNSW points out on its website that in teaching, learning, research or operational situations there will be situations where physical distancing cannot be maintained. It requires that face masks be used in those situations. But while staff were to be provided with face masks, students are expected to provide their own. Similarly, UTS students are required to wear masks where the 1.5 metre rule cannot be adhered to.

All the universities in the Sydney region draw students from across the city, as well as from satellite urban centres in the north, south and west of the city. Since the return to face-to-face teaching, several universities have reported active cases on campus. An outbreak at any one of these universities could have disastrous consequences for the greater Sydney metropolitan area, which has a population of five million.

The return-to-work campaign, amid the global pandemic, demonstrates the willingness of the financial elites to sacrifice the lives of workers and students in the interests of private profit. The refusal of the NTEU and other unions to oppose this drive underscores the necessity for the formation of genuine rank-and-file committees of educators and students, completely independent of the union apparatuses.

These committees are essential to organise a unified struggle to defend all jobs and basic rights, protect university staff and students from unsafe COVID-19 conditions, and link up with workers and students internationally who are facing similar critical struggles.

German public service union ensures smooth operation of public transport despite resurgence of coronavirus pandemic

Andy Niklaus

Under capitalism, profits come first. In order to ensure that workers attend their workplaces despite a surge in coronavirus infections, their children have to go to school, which in turn means public transport has to function. The key role in ensuring that public transport runs on time in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic is played by the country’s main public service trade union, Verdi (United Services Union).

In October, thousands of public transport workers went on strike in numerous German cities. The short term “warning strikes” and protest actions were not only directed against miserable wages and poor working conditions. The danger of infection by the coronavirus due to completely inadequate security measures increasingly became the focus of the dispute.

Verdi tried to dampen the growing anger of workers with a nationwide campaign to accompany its contract negotiations for 2020 (TVN2020). It organized isolated, regionally based strikes and phony forms of ineffectual industrial action. The main aim was to prevent a combined mobilisation of bus, streetcar and metro drivers with municipal and federal public service workers—a total of 2.3 million whose contracts had all been negotiated by Verdi at the same time. First, Verdi agreed a sellout of federal and municipal public service workers, now the union is doing the same for transport workers.

As part of its TVN2020 campaign, Verdi loudly demanded a new national contract for the 87,000 employees of the country’s 130 municipal transport companies aimed at ending regional divisions between sections of workers. A nationwide agreement was supposed to define minimum standards regarding vacations, overtime pay and shift allowances. In some states, Verdi also demanded a reduction in working hours and/or shorter shifts.

In the midst of the rapidly developing second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, however, the union did not raise a single demand directed at protecting transport workers from the risk of infection with COVID-19!

This is not surprising. The murderous strategy of federal and state governments, which have fueled the pandemic on the basis of facilitating “herd immunity,” is supported by the trade unions against the members they are supposed to represent.

There are now many studies revealing the dangers of infection in public transport where hundreds of thousands of people congregate daily in very confined spaces. A deliberate decision has been made to either refrain from collecting statistical data on drivers who fall ill with COVID-19 or withhold any relevant information from the public.

Last week, Verdi dropped its demand for a uniform nationwide contract and signed separate agreements in the two German states of Saxony and Baden-Württemberg, affecting around 12,000 bus, streetcar and subway drivers.

The contract agreed on October 27 with public transport employers in Saxony will run until the end of 2023. The union’s original demand for a reduction in working hours will not come into force until April 1, 2023. According to the agreement, working hours will then be reduced to a 38-hour week with corresponding wage compensation. Holiday entitlement is to increase to 30 days.

Wages are to be frozen for the time being and will only increase in stages by an average of 1.7 percent from April 2021. In light of rising prices and rents, this amounts to a wage cut, which the union has sought to sweeten with a paltry €200 extra payment this year, which it promotes as a “Corona bonus.”

In Baden-Württemberg, Verdi has agreed to a nominal wage increase for 6,400 workers in the municipal public transport sector—a step-by-step increase of 3.2 percent within a period of 28 months—which is in fact an effective wage cut when accounting for the rising cost of living. With the exception of some workshop employees, the agreed Corona bonus amounts to an increase in vacation pay of €120. Drivers on shift work with 10 years of service are to receive one additional “relief day” per year commencing in 2022.

A separate agreement is still being negotiated for employees in the Rhine-Neckar region, involving the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen.

In Berlin, due to the particularly tense situation caused by the latest partial lockdown and growing worker discontent, Verdi proposed freezing contract negotiations until next spring. In exchange, the Municipal Employers’ Association (KAV) was to agree the payment of a coronavirus premium.

However, the KAV has refused the proposal, offering only a one off €500 payment in exchange for a suspension of contract negotiations until June 2021. Union members objected to the employers’ plan and Verdi announced that negotiations would be continued. According to the union’s propaganda, the way is now “clear for the first cornerstones in a forward-looking, fully-fledged collective agreement.”

Similar negotiations are taking place in all other federal states.

This means that any common nationwide uniform wage agreement is dead and buried. On its website Verdi declares: “The VKA [Association of Local Employers’ Associations] refuses to negotiate a nationwide framework collective agreement now, but is prepared to enter into talks with us to reach an agreement on a joint process in the future. However, such a process will take some time.”

Sellouts are now being prepared in one federal state after another. In Saxony, Verdi writes: “In the midst of the pandemic and a pronounced economic crisis, i.e., extremely difficult economic times and also times of long-term uncertainty, a compromise was reached which offers a starting point for the further development of working conditions in public transport.”

Who is the union trying to fool? “In the midst of a pandemic and a pronounced economic crisis, i.e., extremely difficult economic times,” the European Union, German government and state administrations are handing out trillions of euros to major corporations. At the same time pittances are been given to transport workers—and all those key workers who were so loudly “applauded” for their services during the pandemic earlier this year.

Those affected are well aware of this. A driver for Munich’s public transportation company expressed her anger on social media with the manner in which Verdi functionaries patted themselves on the back for “the deal and laughable Corona bonus.” Another colleague, a bus driver in Munich, wrote: “If you calculate the Corona premium over three years, it amounts to 16.67 euros a month! O yay!” Calculated over 12 months, the wage increase in Baden-Wuerttemberg amounts to €50 per month. “But I bet,” the bus driver continued, “we’ll be sold out in the same way in Bavaria.”

A bus driver for Berlin public transport (BVG) told the WSWS: “The two deals in Saxony and Baden-Württemberg show you can’t expect much from Verdi here in Berlin. One hour less work and only a small wage increase over three years says it all.” Another Berlin bus driver said: “This deal is a slap in the face. It goes beyond belief. How does it help in anyway? After 10 years of service an extra vacation day first in 2023 does not help workers at all. This is no longer a joke.”

Another BVG worker said: “It’s typical Verdi. First of all the union talks big and then does not even conduct a joint struggle. With a real strike many more would immediately join in. But that is exactly what they don’t want. They all sit at the same table and just want peace and quiet.”

As the WSWS warned during the token strikes, “Verdi works very closely with the employers.” As in the past, the strike manoeuvres serve merely to let off steam within the workforce and “prevent independent action … and thereby ensure that transport is maintained even under adverse and dangerous pandemic conditions.”

Public transport is essential for the business and political ruling elites which are intent on maintaining their stream of profits. Without public transport, students cannot get to school. Without school attendance, parents cannot go to work—the priority for companies and governments at both federal and state level.

Verdi stands staunchly on the side of the employers and government and is ready to sacrifice the wages, working conditions, health and life of the members it claims to represent. Workers can only protect themselves and defend their interests by taking up a struggle against the union. They must form independent rank and file action committees and link up with fellow workers across Europe to prepare a continent-wide general strike.

Irish teachers vote to strike as infection rates spiral

Steve James & Dermot Quinn

Schools in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) reopened last week after a two-week mid-term break, despite secondary teachers voting for strike action against dangerous working conditions if COVID-19 related safety measures were not put in place by October 30.

6,759 teachers, members of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), voted by a large majority to support action up to and including strike action in seeking:

• Redefinition of “close contact” as being more than 15 minutes in a classroom with a positive COVID-19 case
• A serial testing programme for schools
• Guaranteed test turnaround times of 24 hours
• Provision for high-risk teachers to teach from home or have "reasonable accommodations" in school
• Free laptops in the event of students and teachers self-isolating or schools closing

However, the belated ASTI ballot, announced September 19, was a smokescreen to obscure the role ASTI's leadership, like that of all the trades unions, has played in fully complying with government demands to reopen schools as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

Despite teachers having voted, by clear majorities, to strike, ASTI President Ann Piggot went on TV with the opposite message. She told Susan Keogh of Newstalk Breakfast: "I want to assure every parent in this country that second-level schools will definitely be open on Monday morning and the ASTI shall not stop them opening. If we do strike, it's a very last resort, we have no intention of closing schools."

The union is also working in close collaboration with the Irish government.

Immediately after the vote, Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin took the same line as Piggot. Martin insisted the schools would open regardless of the vote and said there was a "good working relationship between all sides, and there is a determination on all sides to keep our schools open." This was, according to Martin a "very, very important national objective for the country."

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), which has around 47,000 members, is also functioning as a conduit for government policy. On the day of the ASTI teachers' strike vote, INTO General Secretary John Boyle issued a statement which did not mention the ASTI vote at all. Rather, he merely insisted, "It is beholden on the government to match its desire to keep schools open with a commitment to working with education stakeholders and to resourcing the system to best deal with the effects of the pandemic in primary and special schools."

What this "commitment to education stakeholders" amounted to was a Health Service Executive telephone line that school principals alone could use if they if have case of COVID-19 in their school. INTO insisted this number should not be made available to teachers, parents or pupils, clearly with the intention of ensuring schools remain open if at all possible.

For their part, the Teachers Union of Ireland took the same stance, calling on November 3 for "ongoing, robust engagement” between unions, the Department of Education and public health authorities to "ensure that the concerns of teachers are fully addressed."

This is despite dangerous infection rates across the country.

Having rejected repeated demands from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) for an intensified lockdown, the government suddenly changed its mind late last month with reports of a "rapid deterioration" in the situation and a recognition that hospitals and intensive care units were rapidly filling up.

The latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) record 64,538 infections in the RoI and 1,940 deaths. Although the infection rate has somewhat slowed, last Friday, November 6, another 499 cases and 8 deaths were recorded. Around 4.3 percent of tests carried out in the last week were positive. Of the new cases, 175 were in Dublin, 72 in Cork, 29 in Limerick, 26 in Mayo, and 21 in Meath, with the remainder spread across the country.

Mirroring the actions of governments across Europe, in October the government introduced belated and partial lockdown measures aimed at curbing social interaction and travel while keeping business and production running, schools open and profits flowing. These included a 5km restriction on travel, no visitors apart from extended households, and no organised outdoor or indoor events apart from weddings and funerals. Cafes, bars and restaurants are restricted to takeaways and deliveries.

The government also handed the police power to call on homes and break up indoor gatherings, which are now an offence under new legislation drawn up last month. 2,500 extra officers are now on duty with powers to impose on-the-spot fines and prison sentences.

This is in line with corporate media and government insistence that the majority of outbreaks are in the home.

Yet, after schools opened in August, after the summer break, public health officials announced, as early as September 19, that outbreaks had taken place at four schools in Cork. Cases have escalated in the subsequent weeks. In all some, 599 cases have been detected in Ireland's 4,000 or so primary and secondary schools, and 156 clusters—meaning more than one case per school—recorded. Thirty of these were recorded last week alone and 125 of the clusters remain active.

Other institutions are also dangerously infected.

41 of 500 prison officers and staff at Midlands Prison in Portlaoise have either tested positive, have symptoms or are self isolating. Five inmates of 810 have also tested positive. The prison authorities have restricted movements in the jail and cut time inmates can spend outside their cells. The Midlands infection is thought to have spread from a disciplinary meeting attended by one prisoner and three staff members. The RoI has 13 prisons and this is the first case in which internal transmission has been confirmed.

Five nursing homes are reported as facing serious "red" outbreaks, according to HSE officials, while another 35 have "amber" outbreaks. A "red" outbreak is deemed to be occurring when, as well as positive COVID-19 cases, the home has staff shortages, PPE shortages or poor infection control. Around one half of all COVID-19 cases have been in nursing homes.

November 6 it was reported that three mental health units had to close to new admissions after 55 cases were detected amongst patients and staff. 18 people have died from COVID-19 in mental health units since the start of the pandemic.

Overall, 1 in 5 of COVID-19 infections has been amongst healthcare workers. The HSE reported n October 21, the day the current lockdown was introduced, that there were 1,697 health workers off work with the virus. This was five times higher than the summer level. Ireland has one of the highest rates of diagnosed healthcare worker infection in Europe. The health unions have been as complicit in this as their teaching counterparts.

Thousands of cases have also been reported in meat packing plants.

Workers cannot go forward with the trade unions. New rank-and-file organisations, committees of action, independent of management and the trade union apparatus are urgently required. They must seek the broadest mobilisation of the working class, across sectors, industries, communities, and national borders, to oppose the ruling class’ policies of 'herd immunity' and mass killing. In this, as in all matters, workers in Ireland face a common struggle with their class brothers and sisters across Europe and internationally.

Hospitalization crisis across the US as coronavirus infections surge

Benjamin Mateus

Using 10 modeling groups’ data, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its four-week hospitalization forecast for Nov. 30. They estimated that there would be 2,600 to 13,000 new COVID-19 hospitalizations per day by the end of this month. Over the last seven days, the national rate of admissions to hospitals has been just over 1,200 per day. In other words, the CDC is expecting the rate to climb two to 10 times in the next three to four weeks.

This is an astounding rate that should force local and state governments to pause and give immediate considerations to their response to the pandemic. This is no longer a speculative matter. The need for greater mitigation efforts is becoming necessary to stem the tide of infections to provide relief to health care systems.

Nurses and physicians on a COVID-19 unit in Texas (Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr.)

Even the mainstream news and local media outlets have been raising repeated concerns over the alarming rates of hospitalizations from COVID-19 infections that are bringing health systems to the brink. Unlike testing and case numbers, which can be quite variable, hospitalization numbers are a reliable metric for the state of the community transmission as it represents people sick enough to seek care.

Europe’s health system, which is in a dire predicament, faces significant challenges and should provide the US with a terrifying perspective. Germany, which has twice the per capita ICU capacity on average compared to Europe as a whole, has reached 75 percent of its total capacity. Belgium is currently transferring patients to Germany as their ICU capacity has filled.

Dr. Susanne Johna of Saint Josef’s Hospital, an internist in Germany, speaking to DW News TV, said peak ICU capacity is usually reached two weeks after the peak in infections. Responding as to when she expected the peak to arrive, she answered, “nobody knows.” Due to significant staff shortages, nurses and physicians in Belgium and the Netherlands are being asked to keep working. The country’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, described the situation as a “tsunami of infections where the authorities are no longer in control.”

There are currently 55,817 hospitalized patients in the United States, up from a low of 28,608 on Sept. 20. Of these, 11,078 are in the ICUs and 2,943 are on ventilators. The previous peaks in hospitalization in April and July reached close to 60,000. The breakdown by age group (which has remained consistent throughout the pandemic) reveals that 75 percent are over age 50, with the majority in this group being over 65. Those between 18 and 49 account for 24 percent of hospitalizations.

El Paso Health Department hospitalizations

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator, sent an election-eve memo to President Trump warning that “we are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic … leading to increased mortality.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, blatantly opposing Trump, told the Washington Post, “We’re in a world of hurt.” These assessments are quickly being realized.

El Paso, Texas, which has been the center of the state’s hospitalization crisis, saw a record of 1,064 people hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, 315 in ICUs and 169 on ventilators. Over 660 people have died from COVID-19 in the metropolitan area. There are currently 24,562 active cases, with 10,000 cases reported in just one week. The weekly death toll has climbed back to its summer peaks.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego’s shutting down of essential businesses issued on Oct. 29 was allowed to stand by District Court Judge William Moody for lack of precedent for or against the shutdown. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had argued Judge Samaniego’s order was unconstitutional, infringing on the limits placed on private businesses. Meanwhile, non-COVID patients are being airlifted to other cities to free space in local hospitals as a fourth mobile morgue has been brought in and health workers are being deployed to El Paso. Apparently, the restrictions are beginning to turn the curve of new cases.

Hospitalizations throughout the midwest

Though the surge is evident throughout the US, the Midwest has been particularly ravaged during this phase of the pandemic. In Minnesota, where cases have been rising exponentially and positivity rates have climbed over 12 percent, the hospital systems reported that they were treating more than 1,000 patients each day with COVID-19, their highest volume so far in the pandemic. Despite the adjustments hospitals are making, Dr. Mark Sannes, an infectious disease doctor at the Bloomington-based HealthPartners, admitted, “This is the most concerned, I think, we have been in regards to the capacity of the system to be able to handle what’s coming.” Additionally, health care workers are falling ill or self-quarantining from possible exposures.

The state of Illinois has seen cases rocketing over the last two weeks, reaching a peak of nearly 12,500 new cases on Saturday. Governor J.B. Pritzker, speaking to reporters on Thursday, provided a disturbing assessment, saying, “We are going to experience a surge in hospitalizations much higher than where we are now. And in some areas of our state, that will mean that you’ll run out of hospital beds, and nurses and doctors who can treat you.”

With over 4,000 “daily bed usage,” the state is poised to surpass its April peak next week. Illinois has caught up with neighboring states, and the contagion is returning into more populated regions of the greater Chicago area. In Will and Kankakee counties, hospitalization rates have tripled. Amita Health Saint Joseph in Joliet, where nurses were on the picket lines striking for safer conditions several months ago, have seen numbers return to their previous highs.

With over 900 confirmed patients on Friday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said that hospitalizations in the state are the highest they have ever been. Dr. Eric France, Colorado’s chief medical officer at the health department, said, “As I think about this pandemic and these eight months I’ve been working on it, I’d say I’m most worried today.”

Wisconsin saw a record 7,000 new cases Saturday as their Chief Health Officer Stephanie Smiley tendered her resignation. The positivity rate now exceeds 15 percent. With a record of 3,931 cases on Friday, Missouri has 1,925 people in hospitals throughout the state. The Kansas City region may reach capacity in the next few weeks.

COVID-19 cases in the US and Europe

More than 40 states are reporting a rise in COVID-19 cases as colder weather has driven many people indoors again. Burnout and fatigue are being expressed by physicians and nurses that dare to speak to the media. Health officials fear that Thanksgiving and then the Christmas holidays will only pour gasoline atop a raging fire.

States across the nation are resisting lockdowns and strong mitigation measures that could quickly stem the coronavirus while feigning concern and blaming the population for failing to follow safe practices. Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s remarks encapsulated these sentiments when she said, “If we need to take further steps and move back into phase three or even going back to shelter in place, I’m not going to hesitate to do that. I hope that won’t be necessary, but it is all in your hands.”

With Illinois ranking number one among states with the newest cases of COVID in the past seven days, one must ask how much worse it needs to get? Despite the limited restrictions already imposed across the state, Governor Pritzker has offered mild rebukes of county and city leaders for not enforcing them.

As a trigger event, the pandemic has exposed the political establishment’s allegiance to finance capital regardless of the health catastrophe that is running roughshod over the population. The push to reopen schools and workplaces during the pandemic, by not only Trump but also Democratic governors as well, is a reflection of a political system that supports the financial oligarchy at every turn. The election of Biden will do nothing to change this situation.

The deliberate sabotage of online learning in the US (part 1)

Chase Lawrence

Tens of millions of students, parents and teachers across the United States and internationally are struggling through a semester unlike any other in modern history. The policy of closing school buildings and implementing online learning—the result of brave protests and strikes by teachers, parents and students—has saved an untold number of lives throughout the world.

In the US, the deliberate defunding of public education by both Democrats and Republicans, and years of a growing “digital divide” between the haves and have-nots, has meant that online learning is often bare-bones, unengaging or even completely inaccessible for millions of young people. It is no surprise that 60 percent of teens say that online learning is worse than in-person learning, and nearly one-fifth say it’s “much worse,” according to a recent survey by Common Sense Media.

The motives behind the sabotage of online learning

The unfolding disaster in the transition to online learning is both the cumulative effect of the decades-long defunding of public education and the intentional deepening of this policy amid the pandemic.

Student attending class online. (Image Credit: Twenty20.com)

The disregard of the ruling elites for the lives and education of young people has been made apparent in the chaotic implementation of distance learning done “on the cheap.” Students have experienced uncertain schedules, rotating between fully- and partially-online learning. Meanwhile, parents, teachers, and students have been left with little or no assistance and resources. The net result is the deliberate blackmail of a generation—to get a semblance of an education, they are being forced into deadly school buildings.

The ruling elites are attempting to force schools to reopen so that parents can be forced back into unsafe workplaces, pumping out profits for the major corporations. The last thing big business wants is a quality online education alternative which would cut across the demand that parents be on the job.

According to CISION PRWeb, over 60 percent of K-12 students now attend schools in-person at least part of the week, with 35.7 percent of schools offering in-person learning every day, 26.5 percent in a hybrid schedule of two-three in-person days per week and 37.8 percent of schools only offering virtual learning.

The unplanned character of online learning under capitalism

As the pandemic wore on over the summer and government officials at every level moved to embrace “herd immunity,” no financial support was forthcoming to assist schools in the creation of innovative new distance learning plans for the fall school year.

The consequences of this policy have been devastating for everyone involved. School children from the youngest ages through high school are forced into six-hour days of nearly continuous screen time online with little social interaction.

Educators were plunged into distance teaching and mostly left to completely redesign their lesson plans with no assistance. Teachers are consumed with fixing technical problems and managing large classes, while in many cases being directed to impose punitive policies for student “absenteeism.”

A pittance of resources were made available through the CARES Act, and most school districts chose to use these funds to pay for minimal PPE and community meals programs, instead of deploying them to assist with the transition to online education. This meant no significant funding on the part of the federal, state, or local governments—whether controlled by Democratic or Republican officials—to address this qualitative change in education.

Andrew, a Houston educator, told the WSWS, “Students were burned out from being on the computer all day. Students acknowledge that it’s boring, they will start searching TikTok and Instagram and stuff like that. In my class they are literally not there, they don’t show up. It wasn’t thought through about how to make this work.

“It was apparent to me that a lot wasn’t planned, it was just by ear. Even following up with missed work is too much, with the amount of students I have, especially with teaching both in-person and online simultaneously. It’s not possible to create an individualized learning experience with the amount of kids in a typical public school class. We have to manage 200 students.”

Another Houston teacher, Brandon, added that the transition was “rushed.” He emphasized, however, “Educators who know the facts about COVID-19 are for distance education. People saying that they want face-to-face are probably wanting to please their boss; most educators want to stay in online-learning.”

While there is certainly no substitute for in-person learning, saving lives must take priority in a pandemic, especially with no vaccine or reliable therapeutics. Young people overwhelmingly agree. In fact, nearly seven in 10 teens are worried—either somewhat or very—that they or someone they know will get sick with COVID-19 because of in-person schooling, reports EdWeek .

But instead of tapping into teachers’ creativity and public resources to envision new ways to enliven lessons, the government poured trillions of dollars into Wall Street, including the tech industry, which promptly handed out vast payouts to CEOs, owners and venture capitalists. The tech giants have amassed record profits during the pandemic, while leaving large sections of the US poorly-connected or charging fees unaffordable to many.

The deliberate sabotage of online learning is increasingly generating frustration and exhaustion among both teachers and students. These inevitable results are being cynically used as a battering ram to put students “in seats” even as the pandemic rages out of control in nearly every state.

Andrew explained the myriad difficulties faced by educators, saying, “I still can’t say there has been an effective transition from what we used to do to what we are doing now. A lot of the teachers are still struggling with it, a lot of the students have been struggling. At first it was kind of exciting and invigorating to have a new challenge, but it turns into a struggle to survive and you feel like you are just scrambling and don’t have enough time to do your job properly.”

There was a “slew” of back-to-back professional development courses, Andrew related, but not enough time to master the online learning tools. When asked about online learning tools for students, Andrew said, “I don’t know that there was any instruction or orientation for students.” He said he got the feeling that students were left to “learn as you go, by asking questions, and hoping that your teacher or one of your teachers knows the answers.”

Brandon noted that much of the software and hardware being used is ad hoc or of poor quality, saying, “The technology as it exists right now is not very student-friendly, students are not able to use cellphones and laptops interchangeably. Sometimes they have certain problems getting kicked off the system.”

He added, “One of the problems students and teachers have is the audio portion of the class or meeting is horrible. Some have good quality and some have terrible quality. Even if they want students to answer questions in class, there is no way to tell what their answer is.”

Noting that teachers are essentially being asked to do two jobs at once, Brandon emphasized, “Hybrid is a lot of work. There are four different systems for tracking attendance. You have to follow up with every attendance issue or else you end up with this huge roster of students who may not be attending. You have to go back, record all the work, make sure you have two grades and that there is no missing work.”

A further complication is added for students who are learning English as a second language. Brandon added, “There is a huge population of English language learners, and none of the technology is in dual language version. Not all of them are able to read or decipher what is going on with their technology. Teachers are left to deal with it, and not every teacher is qualified to teach dual language.”

Many teachers have reported working 12- and even 15-hour days, sometimes working 90 hours or more a week, rarely getting enough sleep or time to spend with their families in order to keep up with working both online and in-person teaching. Unsurprisingly, thousands of teachers have quit their jobs as a result. Cash-strapped school districts are leaving these as unfilled vacancies, creating even larger classes for teachers that stay in the profession.

As COVID-19 surges around the world, governments put profits ahead of lives

Andre Damon

This weekend, the world hit 50 million reported cases of COVID-19, and deaths surpassed 1.25 million, as the Americas and Europe faced the worst stage of the pandemic to date.

In France and Italy, hospitals are once again overwhelmed, prompting them to transfer patients to nearby countries, including Germany. On Saturday, France logged a record 86,852 cases.

Photos and video have circulated of the hallways of Italian hospitals crammed with people on ventilators, with some even lying on hospital floors, as the country’s health system is stretched to the brink. On Saturday, Italy’s health ministry reported 39,811 new coronavirus infections over 24 hours, the country’s highest daily tally. The total number of deaths related to the virus has reached over 41,000 in the country.

Medical personnel work in the intensive care ward for Covid-19 patients at the MontLegia CHC hospital in Liege, Belgium, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The United States logged record daily new cases on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, reaching over 132,000. The daily new case count in the US is now higher than the total number of COVID-19 cases in China during the entire pandemic.

The average number of daily new cases in America has surged by a staggering 30 percent over the past week. Nineteen states are reporting a record number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, and 43 states are reporting rising cases. This includes states in the country’s rural heartland, where health care systems are chronically underfunded.

Texas now has more cases than any other state, with over one million. The Department of Defense sent three emergency medical teams to El Paso, and the city has set up temporary emergency medical facilities to buttress its inundated hospitals.

The US now has 10 million COVID-19 cases, or one fifth of the world’s total, and nearly a quarter million people are dead. Epidemiologists have warned that the death toll could rise to up to 400,000 by the end of the year.

While in March, governments were forced to temporarily close non-essential businesses after spontaneous walkouts by workers in auto plants and other facilities. But amid the latest wave of the pandemic, which is far worse, governments have made clear that they will not close schools or factories.

While France, Britain, and Germany have implemented minor restrictions, including closing bars and gyms, they have not taken any measures to close schools or shut down production in non-essential manufacturing facilities.

In the United States, the Trump administration has openly embraced the doctrine of “herd immunity,” which holds that the spread of the pandemic is a positive good and that governments should do nothing to stop it.

Opposition from the ruling class to the closure of schools and factories comes amid new evidence of the role of workplaces in spreading the disease. A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that adults who tested positive for coronavirus were twice as likely to work in an office or factory compared to those who worked from home.

Democratic Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential elections was driven by a broad popular repudiation of Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. But Biden’s first order of business was to reassure major corporations that there will be no fundamental change in course from the current administration.

In his first speech since the major television networks called him as the victor in the election, Biden devoted only a single paragraph Saturday to the pandemic. He pledged to create an “action blueprint” to “turn around this pandemic,” without mentioning a single specific policy.

His transition team website does not call for the allocation of any additional funding to fight the pandemic. Its vague suggestions for “regular, reliable” testing and getting states “the critical supplies they need” are indistinguishable from those of the outgoing Trump administration. While Biden had called for a national mask mandate during the campaign, his website has dropped this demand, instead leaving such measures, as Trump did, to the governors.

Most importantly, the Democrats do not propose the closure of non-essential businesses, instead making vague statements like “Social distancing is not a light switch. It is a dial.” They likewise propose nothing to compensate workers and small businesses impacted by the pandemic, putting the burden of complying with recommended quarantine measures entirely on individuals and guaranteeing that workers will be forced by economic circumstances to work in conditions that are unsafe for themselves and others.

Millions of workers and young people who voted for Biden no doubt did so in the hope that he would carry out a coronavirus policy diametrically opposed to that of Trump. They are in for a rude awakening. A Biden presidency will be no less governed by the dictates of major corporations, which see any effort to contain the pandemic as antithetical to their social interests.

The pandemic is raging on both sides of the Atlantic because the response of governments is determined by the profit interests of the corporate and financial oligarchy, not by public health. The substitution of one capitalist ruling party for another cannot and will not fundamentally alter the direction of this policy.

Throughout the course of this year, the World Socialist Web Site has raised the alarm about the dangers posed by the pandemic, even as capitalist governments downplayed the threat and allowed the pandemic to spread. These warnings have been confirmed.

Containing the pandemic, the greatest health disaster in over a century, requires a radical social response.

Schools and non-essential workplaces must be shut down, and there must be a massive allocation of social resources to compensate workers for lost wages and to ensure children have the support they need for remote learning. Where production is essential to the functioning of society, safe working conditions must be overseen by rank-and-file safety committees and health care professionals, with no concern for corporate profit.

There must be a massive investment in public health care infrastructure, including universal testing, contact tracing and free treatment for all. This requires a vast public works program to build up health care infrastructure and hospitals.

A massive, global public effort is required to develop and freely distribute a vaccine. This vital effort cannot be subordinated to corporate profit interests and nation-state competition.

The implementation of such a rational and scientific response to the pandemic is blocked by the private ownership of production and the subordination of all of society to the interests of the financial oligarchy. The struggle against the pandemic, in other words, is not fundamentally a medical issue. It requires a political struggle of the international working class against the capitalist system.