Ethiopia slides towards civil war as Tigray conflict escalates

Jean Shaoul

The escalating military conflict in Tigray, home to six million people, in northern Ethiopia is creating a horrific humanitarian crisis that is spilling out across the country’s borders. It threatens to spiral out into a broader civil war across the 110 million-strong country and to engulf the Horn of Africa.

Hundreds of people have died since the fighting began earlier this month after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered airstrikes in response to what he claimed was an attack by Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), on a military compound and deployed troops to the province.

The airstrikes’ targets included TPLF positions around the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle, with Ethiopian troops seizing the airbase in Humera in a bid to secure the border with Sudan and prevent TPLF forces from escaping. Sudan has responded by deploying its forces to the border, potentially blockading Tigray which already had 600,000 people in need of aid.

Ethiopia regions (credit: map for use on Wikivoyage, English version)

Fighting has been reported in several locations, but details are sketchy as the federal government in Addis Ababa has cut the telephone and internet lines, arrested journalists, and prevented people reaching the province.

Abiy’s government has declared a six-month state of emergency in the province, while Ethiopia’s federal parliament has declared Tigray’s regional government illegal and voted to dissolve it. It said that the Tigray leadership had “violated the constitution and endangered the constitutional system” by holding regional elections in September after Abiy postponed this year’s promised elections, ostensibly due to the pandemic, as anti-government protests and opposition mounted.

Parliament said a new caretaker administration would hold elections and “implement decisions passed on by the federal government.” It declared that the TPLF should be branded a terrorist group after blaming it for a massacre of ethnic Amhara in Oromia on November 2, further escalating tensions.

Abiy’s reformist pretensions essentially mean loosening the country’s ties with China and adopting neo-liberal economic policies that open up Ethiopia’s largely state-run economy to the transnational corporations and financial institutions to the acclaim of the imperialist powers. He is a former military intelligence officer and minister of defence in the previous TPLF-led government. Abiy hopes that the military assault on Tigray will secure the removal of the TPLF leadership and establish a new leadership subservient to the federal government.

Ethiopian refugees line up for water in Qadarif region, easter Sudan, Sunday, November 15, 2020. Thousands of Ethiopians fled the war in Tigray region into Sudan. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Abiy has rejected calls by the United Nations and the African Union for talks and reiterated his intention to prevail by force. But his aggressive response may backfire and prompt the TPLF and its supporters to dig in. More than half of Ethiopia’s army is based in Tigray, a legacy of its war with Eritrea, and its support is not assured, prompting Abiy to sack his army chief, head of intelligence and foreign minister.

The conflict may inspire Ethiopia’s other semi-autonomous, ethnically based states, including Abiy’s own Oromia where an armed rebellion is already underway, to secede. Politicians of all stripes have whipped up ethnic tensions to prevent a unified struggle by the impoverished masses against the Ethiopian elites. Killings and intimidation are a daily occurrence. Unrest is mounting in the Somali region, with at least 27 people killed in clashes on the border between the Afar and Somali regional states in the last few weeks. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said gunmen had killed at least 34 people on a passenger bus on Saturday night in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz that borders Sudan.

Ethiopian officials said that Tigrayan forces had fired rockets towards Amhara state that is adjacent to Tigray, with one rocket hitting the airport in Gondar and another the airport in Bahir Dar, near lake Tana, on Friday. While the number of casualties is unknown, both airports are used by military and civilian aircraft as the country’s road infrastructure is poor.

The TPLF said that the rocket attacks were in response to the air strikes and attacks carried out by Abiy’s forces that have included both federal troops and Amhara’s regional forces as well as units from Eritrea, on Tigray’s northern border. It appears that armed Amhara factions are seeking to regain territory in west Tigray they claim the TPLF annexed when the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) set up the federal structure in 1995.

A Tigrayan spokesperson warned of further strikes not only against Ethiopian targets but also Eritrea, sparking fears of the fighting spreading beyond Ethiopia’s borders. Debretsion Gebremichael, Tigray Regional President, told Reuters that Eritrea had deployed 16 divisions to Ethiopia, without specifying the number of troops involved. On Sunday, the BBC reported that Tigrayan forces had fired rockets into Eritrea, after claiming Ethiopian soldiers were using an Eritrean airport to attack Tigray.

For nearly two decades, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a brutal war over disputed borders that spilled over into Somalia, cost the lives of up to 100,000 people and led to massive internal displacement on both sides. It ended in 2018, with Ethiopia agreeing to cede Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, to Eritrea, as per a UN ruling, for which Abiy but not his counterpart Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. This was little more than a PR stunt aimed at boosting his credibility as he seeks to link Ethiopia more closely to the imperialist powers.

This was met with fury by the TPLF, which claims Badme as its own. It refused to join Abiy’s new Prosperity Party coalition that replaced the EPRDF, a coalition of several militia groups and parties, in which the TPLF had been the dominant partner that governed the country since 1991. The TPLF viewed the peace treaty as “selling out” Tigray and set up regular border posts around Badme, preventing the full implementation of the 2018 peace deal.

This set the TPLF on a collision course with the Abiy government that had sought to marginalise it by dismissing senior Tigrayans from federal institutions, issuing an arrest warrant for a former spy chief and member of the TPLF’s leadership body, and blaming the TPLF for hiring proxies to incite violence.

In the last few days, reports have emerged of a civilian massacre, with human rights organisation Amnesty International saying it had confirmed that “scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death” in the town of Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) near the Sudanese border on November 9. Abiy accused forces loyal to the TPLF of carrying out the killings, a claim the TPLF denied. Tigrayan refugees in Sudan have blamed the massacre on unknown perpetrators from the neighbouring Amhara state.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN human rights chief said, “There is a risk this situation will spiral totally out of control,” and warned the massacre, if confirmed, would amount to war crimes if committed by one of the belligerent forces.

The fighting has forced at least 20,000 civilians to cross the border into Sudan, according to the UN, which has warned nine million people could be displaced by the fighting, adding to the already massive 1.8 million people internally displaced within the country.

On November 11, the Sudanese government warned that 200,000 Ethiopians might soon flee Tigray into Sudan, leaving the country unable to cope amid rising discontent with the military’s stooge civilian government’s inability to address the terrible social and economic conditions. In April last year, the Sudanese military, backed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, mounted a pre-emptive coup against the long-running regime of President Omar al-Bashir as mass anti-government protests threatened to get out of control.

The TPLF has also accused Abiy of using drones from the United Arab Emirates’ military base in Assab, Eritrea, to attack the region.

Toledo Coca-Cola workers continue strike over unsafe conditions and rising health care costs

Katy Kinner

Workers at the Coca-Cola Consolidated facility in north Toledo, Ohio, have been on strike since November 2. While the union wants to limit the strike to a set of minimal and vague demands, workers are expressing their anger over low wages, unsafe conditions and rising health care costs.

After months of negotiations on a new contract, 100 workers, members of Teamsters Local 20, rejected the company’s final contract offer and began a strike. Toledo Coca-Cola Bottling Company is the largest cola bottling facility in the country and employs 130 people. The factory has continued to operate throughout the strike.

On the second day of the job action, a tractor-trailer driven by a strikebreaker hit a picket, sending 59-year-old Jeff Rudnicki to the hospital. No charges have been filed and Toledo police brushed off the incident, claiming that Rudnicki walked in a manner that “intentionally caused him to be struck by the trailer.”

In one photo strikers held picket signs reading, “Coca-Cola Consolidated doesn’t protect its employees from COVID-19” and “Coca-COVID.”

A leaflet posted on the Teamsters Local 20 Facebook page stated that workers went on strike to protect themselves from unsafe conditions in the plant and to demand lowered health care costs. One section of the leaflet read, “Even though Coca-Cola’s Toledo distributor is raking in Covid profits, the company has failed to comply with Ohio and CDC [Centers for Disease Control] Covid safety guidelines and is demanding that its essential food supply chain workers pay up to almost $10,000 every year for family health care at a time when they are putting themselves and their families at risk to help our community.” The leaflet is the only mention of the Coca-Cola strike on the union’s Facebook page.

However, neither the leaflet nor any official demands have been posted on either the Teamsters Local 20 official website or reported to journalists. In a statement to the Toledo Blade, Teamsters Local 20 President Mark Schmiehausen merely explained that Toledo Coca-Cola workers had been working long hours during the pandemic and, “We feel that the company is not negotiating in good faith. That’s all we ask for is for them to be fair.” He also asked the nearby community to show their support by boycotting Coca-Cola products.

The strike is a reflection of growing anger among many sections of workers who are looking for a way to fight against unsafe working conditions exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure of the Teamsters to publish strike updates or list any strong demands demonstrates that union bureaucrats, in tandem with company management, are seeking to ensure that production is maintained at all cost even amidst the dangerous conditions produced by the pandemic.

The safety conditions in the bottling plant are sure to worsen as the pandemic resurges in the US and globally. According to the most recent Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 update, the state is reaching record numbers of cases and hospitalizations. A record number 8,071 coronavirus cases were reported over 24 hours between November 12 and 13, breaking the previous record from the day before by more than 1,000 cases.

Hospitalizations—which are a more reliable metric for the state of community transmissions—were also up to 2,075 on November 5, a 55 percent increase from two weeks prior. Of the hospitalized patients, the Ohio Department of Health reports 541 were in the intensive care unit, breaking the previous record from April of 533 ICU patients.

Sixty-eight of Ohio’s 88 counties are at Red Level 3—indicating there is a high risk of exposure and spread. This number is expected to rise.

In addition, Coca-Cola workers across the country, including in Ohio, face the possibility of mass layoffs. In August, Coca-Cola announced a “restructuring plan” stating that the company would begin with 4,000 “voluntary” layoffs in the US and Puerto Rico followed by an unnamed number of “involuntary” layoffs around the world. These are only the latest job cuts to be carried out by Coca-Cola, which has reduced its global workforce by 100,000 in the last eight years. James Quincy, CEO of Coca-Cola, has a net worth of $47.3 million and received a salary of almost $19 million in 2019.

Toledo Coca-Cola workers must break the isolation of their strike and fight to mobilize other sections of workers—in health care, auto and education—against the strikebreaking operation by management. A powerful movement in the working class must be developed against the inhuman policies of the ruling class to let COVID-19 spread unchecked. This requires the formation by Coca-Cola strikers of a rank-and-file safety committee independent of the Teamsters.

The pandemic cannot be controlled in a humane and effective way within a system that sacrifices the lives of workers for the sake of the ever-greater accumulation of private wealth by the corporate and financial oligarchy. Workers need to adopt a socialist program and perspective aimed at the reorganization of economic life based not on private profit, but human need.

UK Universities step up job cuts with connivance of the University and College Union

Ioan Petrescu

The University and College Union (UCU) is working in partnership with college and university management in enforcing job losses and attacks on terms, conditions and pensions.

Last Monday, the UCU finalised a sell-out agreement in its dispute with Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, just one day before strike action was to commence.

The strike was called in opposition to more than 100 threatened compulsory redundancies. Staff voted for strike action by a 77 percent majority, on a 66 percent turnout. The union called off the walkouts after management promised they would not impose compulsory redundancies. For the UCU, sanctioning the strike was only ever a PR exercise as they had already reached an agreement with the employers in early August to open a “voluntary” redundancy programme.

Manchester University staff and students protest at the Oxford Road campus during a strike earlier this year (credit: WSWS)

While the UCU and its various pseudo-left appendages have attempted to pass this off as a victory for workers, it is nothing of the sort. In the press release calling off action, the UCU said that the dispute was over “Following the progress made via this voluntary process”. Contrary to the claims of UCU, no jobs are being saved. Rather, the university is to achieve its desired cuts through the voluntary scheme and does not require the use of compulsory redundancies for the time being. The only “concession” extracted from the university is a worthless promise not to impose compulsory redundancies at this juncture.

Hundreds of redundancies are being enforced at institutions nationwide.

• The University of East London plans another 10 staff redundancies, including seven academic posts and has put 441 in an “at-risk” category, even though it had achieved its financial targets for the year. This is in addition to 82 “voluntary” redundancies already cut this year with the connivance of the UCU. UEL plans 132 job losses in total
• Up to 200 jobs are at risk at Bangor University after “an anticipated fall in income, mainly related to international student recruitment”. 120 support staff and 80 academic jobs could go. It is the third round of job cuts in three years. All three unions representing staff (Unison, Unite and UCU) have issued criticisms but no action is planned to fight the attacks.
• Job cuts loom as the University of Leicester sets out plans to cut funds for certain subjects. The university declined to say how many posts are at risk but in a letter to staff it said, “[W]e need to make some difficult decisions by disinvesting in certain areas of the university to sustain our areas of excellence and take advantage of emerging areas in research and education.” The impacted areas are: School of Arts; Business; Informatics; Mathematics and Actuarial Science; Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour. The local UCU branch has said that it was “staggered” and “angered” about the timing of the cuts, though not about the necessity for cuts in the first place.
• The University of Central Lancashire is threatening the loss of 69 jobs by next March. UCU regional official Martyn Moss said, “The University of Central Lancashire has already released 240 staff through voluntary redundancies over the past 16 months, whilst student numbers have increased.” He said the UCU is open to negotiation, “but the threat to our members’ jobs must be lifted before meaningful dialogue can take place.”
• Cuts are also planned at three colleges at Cambridge University colleges, Downing, Queens, and Trinity
• Solent University, Southampton has confirmed that 109 positions are at risk. It recently opened a voluntary redundancy scheme as the preferred method to eliminate positions.

These redundancies are made in the context of lecturers being forced to take on more workload, because they must prepare material for both face-to-face and online learning in parallel.

In these struggles, the UCU plays a pernicious role in dividing workers at different institutions and directing their militancy toward useless appeals to management centred on convincing them that job losses can be better organised on a “voluntary” basis. In this it continues its demobilisation of all struggles epitomised by its utilising the pretext of the COVID-19 lockdown in March to end the largest strike of university staff in history at 74 institutions.

In June, the UCU Solidarity Movement, a new formation within the UCU, was set up by personnel in a few local branches with the declared aim of pressuring the UCU leadership. Among its demands were “To designate every branch industrial dispute as having national significance, and provide it with the appropriate resources, including organising solidarity across the union.” It intervened in the dispute at Heriot Watt, including by organising a “day of action” on November 10 day—the strike was set to go ahead—and setting up a GoFundMe for members to donate money for their strike fund. It never offered an explanation as to why a union bringing in over £22 million a year from members’ dues should have to donate to strike funds.

UCU Solidarity is backed by various pseudo-left forces and received support from John McDonnell—Jeremy Corbyn’s closest ally when he led the Labour party. The UCU Left, a grouping within the union politically led by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), endorses UCU Solidarity. UCU Left is a well-established part of the UCU hierarchy, having four seats on the National Executive Committee of the union. Among the SWP’s leading bureaucrats is UCU Scotland President Carlo Morelli.

Highlighting its upper-middle class character, at last month’s UCU congress, the UCU Left supported no less than 15 motions relating to racial and identity politics, including one explicitly supporting the anti-democratic #metoo movement.

In recent weeks, as more and more workers are beginning to recognise the bankruptcy of the UCU, the UCU Left has responded by adopting a more critical tone towards the UCU. As term began, the UCU Left criticised the “Jobs First” strategy of the UCU leadership as a “dangerous strategy”, on the basis that it is premised on sacrificing pay and conditions for promises--that are inevitably broken--from the employer of not eliminating jobs.

The UCU Left couches its criticism in the politest terms, while failing to mention that, due to its members holding important positions in the union’s bureaucracy--including in negotiating committees--they are directly implicated in the attacks on jobs, pay and conditions. The timing of the article, in the wake of the betrayals of the pensions dispute and the “Four Fights”, and ahead of a rash of cuts by management makes clear that the main concern of UCU Left is the exposure of its own negotiators as they impose cuts and job losses.

The UCU Left’s perspective was articulated in an article by SWP member Sean Vernell, a member of UCU’s National Executive Committee. In it, he complains that universities are being kept open during the second lockdown--a recognition of growing anger among UCU staff whose safety and lives are being threatened.

Last week, the UCU launched a consultative ballot at the University of Birmingham (UoB) over the forced return to on-campus teaching and working. The UoB has the greatest number of COVID-19 infections among staff, 23, of any institution.

However, Vernell urges workers who want to fight to remain shackled by the government’s anti-strike and anti-worker laws and attempt to “beat the government’s balloting thresholds and secure legal requirements to resist.” He gives an approving nod to the UCU’s “escalation strategy” regarding Covid infections on campus—a convoluted 12 stage process involving “advising members on an individual basis” sending template letters, holding an emergency meeting, then sending more letters, towards eventually hold a local industrial action ballot--under conditions in which tens of thousands of students have COVID-19, along with hundreds of staff. Vernell’s afterthought, “But we may have to move more quickly to protect lives”, sums up the UCU Left. (emphasis added).

The UCU, as with all unions, operate as adjuncts of management to suppress all opposition by workers to attacks on their jobs and livelihoods.

University workers want to fight back against the reckless and homicidal response to the pandemic allowed to spread by Boris Johnson’s government and facilitated by the education unions. This fight cannot be waged via the UCU apparatus, or through any of its pseudo-left appendages, such as the UCU Left/UCU Solidarity. The way forward is through the organisation of rank-and-file safety committees at all universities, uniting workers with students to oppose and close down unsafe campuses until they can be made safe.

Coronavirus spreads throughout Germany’s schools and businesses

Gregor Link

The coronavirus pandemic is increasingly running out of control in Germany. The federal and state governments are responsible for this situation. Laboratories and health authorities are overloaded because testing capacities have not been expanded and investment in protective measures have been refused.

Although hundreds of people are dying every day, those showing no symptoms are no longer being tested. Outbreaks at factories and schools are being covered up, and medical professionals who raise criticisms warning of the strain and mass deaths are ignored.

On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 23,542 new infections—a new peak, following that of the day before. Since the end of September, the number of fatalities in Germany has doubled every one to two weeks. By Wednesday evening last week, the health authorities had already reported more deaths (848) than in the entire previous week (822), in which the number had doubled since the last week of October.

Classroom in Dortmund, August 2020 (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

According to the RKI, there are now 269 city or rural districts with an incidence of over 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which corresponds to what was described as a “hotspot” at the beginning of the pandemic. On a map produced by the RKI, 16 of these districts are depicted in the darkest red, i.e., they show an incidence of over 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

With the beginning of the influenza season, the report also warns of rapidly increasing cases of “severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).” Half of SARI cases were hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis in the week from October 26 to November 1, significantly more than four weeks before. The “number of SARI cases in the age groups 35 years and older ... was at a significantly higher level than in previous years.” The “main diagnoses” of SARI cases include “influenza, pneumonia or other acute infections of the lower respiratory tract.”

According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), more than 95 percent of all intensive care beds are now occupied in 13 city and district hospitals. In the districts of Lüchow-Dannenberg and Wittmund (Lower Saxony), Oberspreewald-Lausitz (Brandenburg), Südliche Weinstrasse (Rhineland-Palatinate), Karlsruhe, Rastatt and Hohenlohekreis (Baden-Württemberg), as well as the five Bavarian districts of Augsburg, Kitzingen, Dachau, Erlangen-Höchstadt, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen and Altötting, no regular intensive care beds are available at all.

Given the time delay of several days between infections and admissions, there can be no doubt that the situation will worsen many times over nationwide in the coming days.

Increasingly, medical staff with other specializations must also be called in. “From Monday, trauma surgeons will be working in the coronavirus intensive care unit,” a trauma surgeon and emergency physician reports on Twitter. Against this background, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn confirmed Friday at a press conference that in case of doubt, doctors and nurses infected with the coronavirus will also have to continue working. In the spring this had led to overloaded hospitals becoming veritable death traps.

COVID-19 cases transmitted to the RKI with a reporting date within the last 7 days in Germany by district and Federal state (n

Offices and factories are also becoming coronavirus breeding grounds. This is shown particularly drastically by a mass outbreak in a factory of the automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen in Eiltorf (North Rhine-Westphalia). According to the Bonner General-Anzeiger, 91 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. This means that two-thirds of the total number of infections in the town (currently 141 cases according to the district health office) are attributable to the company.

This case offers a devastating insight into the close collaboration between the corporations and public authorities when it comes to trivializing and covering up outbreaks in companies and in pushing for regular operations to be resumed as quickly as possible, despite the danger to workers’ lives.

Although the employees had already tested positive November 16, and the entire workforce was in “home quarantine” by order of the health department, production did not come to a standstill until November 19. As with previous mass outbreaks in the meatpacking industry, the concept of so-called “work quarantine” was applied to ensure that workers, while “isolated” from their fellow employees, could still generate profits. A district spokeswoman told the General-Anzeiger that workers “may leave their homes to go to work under protection ...”

On Thursday, a ZF Friedrichshafen spokeswoman announced that production would be suspended until Sunday, but at the same time claimed that there were “no signs” that “the coronavirus had spread at the ZF factory premises.” The company wants to do everything in its power to “continue to reliably supply our customers with shock absorbers.”

The General-Anzeiger also reports a “telephone conference in which [District Administrator] Schuster and [COVID Head of Department] Thomas, representatives of the health and legal authorities, the mayor of Eitorf, Rainer Viehof, as well as the plant and Group Management took part.” The head of the “COVID office” also referred to the “room for manoeuvre in the implementation by the regulatory authorities.” After all, this was “an international corporation” and an “important employer”—so it was necessary to “weigh up the pros and cons.” Schuster concluded that one could “imagine that the plant would start up production again around noon [November 16].”

As the World Socialist Web Site explained at an early stage, the spread of the pandemic and the deaths of hundreds and thousands of people per day are the result of a deliberate policy.

The government is well aware that schools are one of the main drivers of the pandemic, along with businesses. As Social Democrat (SPD) Member of Parliament Karl Lauterbach said Friday on Twitter, “Unfortunately, the situation in schools is beyond our control. What we gain in restaurants and pubs, we lose in schools.” The SPD is not only a member of the federal government but also governs in some of the most severely affected states and districts (including Berlin and Bremen with a 7-day incidence of 173 and 178 respectively).

In France, tens of thousands of teachers again took part in strike action against the unsafe school system on Tuesday. Among pupils, teachers, parents and scientists, there are increasing calls demanding the closure of all schools.

On Friday, the student council of the Hugo-Kükelhaus-Berufskolleg (HKBK) in Essen addressed all students at secondary schools and vocational colleges in North Rhine-Westphalia on Twitter. “We demand education with responsibility,” the appeal said. “We are afraid: Afraid to infect grandma and grandpa. Fear of infecting ourselves. Fear of losing people who mean a lot to us.”

Teachers and students are “together day after day for hours in a confined space ..., without a ventilation system and without the possibility of maintaining sufficient distance.” “All of Germany’s incumbent education ministers,” the appeal went on, had so far refused “to continue teaching in hybrid [alternating in-person and online lessons] classes in secondary schools and vocational colleges”—not to mention more far-reaching measures.

The students, therefore, conclude: “We as learners, but also teachers and school administrators are obviously not being heard.” Therefore, they declare, “from Monday, November 16, 2020, for an indefinite period, we will go on hybrid strike and call on the country’s secondary schools and vocational colleges via all social media channels available to us to do the same!”

Sixty-five years of the Bundeswehr: German president appeals for militarism, rearmament and war

Johannes Stern

Germany’s ruling class is using the 65th anniversary of the German army (Bundeswehr) to intensify its aggressive push for a return to militarism. In an interview on the public broadcaster ARD’s Morgenmagazin show, Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer called for a major increase in military spending in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. The media is stepping up its propaganda for militarism and war, and representatives of all parliamentary parties released official statements declaring their full support for the army.

In his speech to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Bundeswehr’s founding, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sought to cover up the militarist roots and war-like character of the army, and portray it as a guarantor of freedom, democracy and peace. But his claim that the Bundeswher has nothing to do with “the unwholesome role of German militarism” and the criminal record of the Wehrmacht is just as dishonest today as it was 65 years ago.

At its founding on November 12, 1955, the Bundeswehr was called New Wehrmacht, and for good reason. It was only renamed in 1956. All of the 44 generals and admirals sworn in by 1957 came from Hitler’s Wehrmacht, above all from the general staff of the army. Of the 14,900 professional soldiers who made up the officers corps in 1959, there were 12,360 Wehrmacht officers, 300 of whom came from the leadership of the SS.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers his speech to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the German army at the Bellevue palace in Berlin (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

The ruling class attempted for an extended period to conceal this continuity. However, ever since the federal government announced the end of military restraint at the Munich Security Conference in 2014, the grizzly traditions of the German ruling elite and its military have emerged ever more clearly. As was the case during the German Empire and under the Nazis, the military is to be made the centrepiece of society and the Bundeswehr transformed into a war machine capable of defending German imperialist interests around the world.

Steinmeier’s speech left no doubt about this. The Bundeswehr “expresses our will to defend ourselves and is an important instrument in our ability to do so,” Steinmeier declared. “Despite all the changes over the past decades, the Bundeswehr will remain essential for our country in the future.” He proceeded to explain what he meant by this: war abroad and major military deployments domestically.

“Never before has the Bundeswehr had to shoulder such wide-ranging responsibility in the form of solidarity with our allies in Central and Eastern Europe, overseas deployments from the Balkans to Afghanistan and Mali and from Iraq to the Indian Ocean, and defence, including in cyberspace, and support in national crises, as is the case now in the pandemic,” stated Steinmeier.

Steinmeier already played a central role in reviving German militarism as foreign minister. At the 2014 Munich Security Conference, he remarked that Germany is too large and too strong economically merely to “comment on world politics from the sidelines.” He now considers it his task to push ahead with the drive to war and impose this policy against the widespread opposition among the population.

“[E]ven under President Biden, Europe will not be as important to the US as it used to be,” added Steinmeier. “With regard to security policy, I see our country as having a dual responsibility.” He meant by this the development of an independent great power policy for Europe under German leadership, and a stronger role for Berlin within NATO. “For Germany, the development of an EU capable of taking action in defence policy is as pressing as the expansion of the European pillar of NATO,” continued Steinmeier. Germany must “do everything to make Europe strong.”

To finance these policies, the grand coalition plans to hike the military budget, which was already increased last year by 10 percent. “This will cost more,” Steinmeier acknowledged. Soldiers “have a right to be equipped with the best possible kit this country can provide them, equipment that provides them with the best possible protection and enables them to fulfil the mission defined by the political sphere.”

The mission is essentially the same as it was under the German emperor and the Nazi dictatorship: the military enforcement of the economic and geostrategic interests of German imperialism around the world. The propaganda to justify this runs thus: “We need the Bundeswehr because Germany must assume responsibility for its own security, because we have taken on responsibility for our neighbours and allies, just as they take on responsibility for our security; because the world around us is changing, and not always in the way we would like …”

The ruling class is well aware that after two catastrophic world wars during the last century, the return of militarism and war is widely opposed by the population. “War, combat, courage, injuries, trauma, death, armed Germans, let alone Germans fighting in other countries—these are topics we prefer to sweep under the carpet. We do not like to talk about these things, and when we do, it is usually to express criticism,” complained Steinmeier, before adding threateningly of “a mutual lack of comprehension between soldiers and society. We cannot simply accept this state of affairs.”

Steinmeier and the ruling class are demanding that the entire population identify with militarism. The experiences of “soldiers who … served in combat, where they were wounded physically or psychologically … form part of our experiences. Their battles are our battles, even if indeed because peace prevails here in Germany,” stated Steinmeier. “This is not merely something we can expect of our society. It should also be important to our society. Society owes you this empathy and interest.”

The implications of this are clear. As on the eve of World War I and World War II, all opposition to war should be criminalised. Instead, the cult of soldiers and heroes should be revived. Steinmeier recalled how he participated as foreign minister in 2007 in a ceremony to honour three German soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. “I never met any of these three men,” he said. “But I stood before their coffins in Kunduz, where two of their comrades stood guard of honour. … It is the duty of us all to remember them with respect and gratitude.”

Steinmeier’s speech is a warning. He may distance himself in words from the Wehrmacht and the Nazis. However, the content of what he says and does shows that the ruling elite stands in these very same traditions and is responding to the deepening crisis of capitalism and mounting opposition from the working class by turning to militarism and fascism, just as it did during the 1930s.

Already after the entry of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) into parliament in September 2017, Steinmeier used his speech to mark German Unity Day to promote political cooperation with the right-wing extremists. Then, in late November 2017, he invited the leaders of the AfD at the time, Alexander Gaulland and Alice Weidel, to Bellevue Palace for talks. The militarisation and drive to war he has now proclaimed at the same location will further strengthen the fascist forces, including those within the Bundeswehr, not weaken them.

Peruvian government falls after two killed in anti-impeachment protests

Cesar Uco & Bill Van Auken

Less than one week after being sworn in as successor to Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra, impeached in what amounted to a parliamentary coup, the former president of the Congress, Manuel Merino, was forced to resign Sunday.

Demands for Merino to step down as president mounted amid overwhelming popular outrage over the bloody assault on peaceful demonstrators in Lima on Saturday in which two were killed and over 100 wounded. Over 40 youth have been reported missing. The slain protesters identified thus far are two university students, Jack Brian Pintado Sánchez, 22, and Jordan Inti Sotelo Camargo, 24.

Police have repeatedly attacked peaceful protests with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, while it is widely reported that live ammunition has also been used.

A caravan of demonstrators on motorcycles ride after interim President Manuel Merino resigned his post, in Lima, Peru, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Pressure mounted on Merino after the resignation of an overwhelming majority of his extreme right-wing cabinet. Media reports said that 13 cabinet members, who had been named only last Thursday, had quit. Among those who resigned was the interior minister and ex-police general, Gastón Rodriguez, who had defended the police rampage as an act of self defense. Another of the resigning ministers had made the absurd suggestion that the massive demonstrations were not spontaneous, but rather had been organized by remnants of the Maoist guerrilla movement, Sendero Luminoso.

Right-wing figures such as Peruvian novelist and former presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa and Kiko Fujimori, the leader of Fuerza Popular and daughter of the ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori, jailed for his role in death squad massacres and wholesale corruption, also called for Merino to step down, as did the main employers’ association, CONFIEP.

Merino announced his resignation after the Congress gave him an ultimatum that, unless he did so, it would convene within hours to vote to remove him from office.

Who will succeed the exceedingly brief reign of Peru’s interim president is still unclear. Vizcarra is banking on a decision by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal to put him back in office. It is to issue a decision on the use by Congress of an obscure part of the 1993 Constitution that allows the removal of a president on the grounds of “permanent moral incapacity.”

The clause is widely interpreted as referring to a mental or physical inability to serve as president. In Vizcarra’s case, however, it was invoked on the pretext of allegations that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes for awarding construction contracts when he was the governor of the southern mining region of Moquegua.

The charges are entirely plausible. Virtually every living ex-Peruvian president has been implicated in the massive bribery and kickback scandal involving public works contracts awarded to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and its Peruvian partners. For that matter, more than half of the 105 congress members voting for Vizcarra’s impeachment are facing similar charges.

Mass protest in Plaza San Martin in Lima

In Vizcarra’s case, however, the allegations are just that: statements given by defendants seeking plea bargains that have not even been investigated, much less adjudicated. One of the main issues underlying the push to oust Vizcarra was his support for stripping legislators of their immunity from prosecution.

In the vote on impeachment, congress members also delivered demagogic speeches denouncing Vizcarra for the catastrophic handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying they were casting their votes in the name of the dead. With 934,899 cases and 35,177 dead, Peru has the highest per capita mortality rate in the world, double that of the US and Brazil.

The protests were driven not by support for Vizcarra, who accepted his impeachment with barely a whimper, but by hatred for the corrupt Congress and the entire political setup in Peru. This was laid bare by the coup-like impeachment, which took place just five months before scheduled presidential elections.

Under the Constitution, Merino’s successor as the president of the Congress should succeed him. A member of the Alianza para el Progreso (APP), which played the key role in swinging congressional support to the parliamentary coup, he is not seen as viable in the face of the masses in the streets.

While the majority of the pseudo-left front, Frente Amplio, in the Congress voted in favor of the impeachment that brought Merino’s short-lived regime to power, its leading legislator, Rocío Silva Santisteban, has now been named as the new the head of the leadership of the Congress—and potentially the next president. This is a patent attempt to lend a “left” face to the political maneuvers of the Peruvian bourgeoisie.

Verónika Mendoza, another pseudo-left politician who is seeking a presidential nomination, denounced Vizcarra for seeking to return to office after failing to resist the impeachment but offered no alternative outside of the call for a new constitution. Mendoza was booed and driven out of a mass demonstration in the city of Cusco, where she was justifiably seen as another member of the hated political establishment.

In the last week, Peru has seen some of the largest demonstrations in its history with a national march organized last Thursday and a second one, bloodily repressed, on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of youth chanting “Merino out” and “They messed with the wrong generation” have poured into the streets throughout the country.

A protester in Lima.

The main demonstration Thursday took place in Lima. Youth flooded the capital’s central San Martin square, marching for miles from upper-middle class districts such as Miraflores, as well as from the northern and southern cones, the impoverished districts where millions of working class families live. Groups of students from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) joined in the protest.

“We are manifesting our feelings,” Marcelo, one of the marchers told the World Socialist Web Site. “Our politicians are corrupt and unqualified. It is inconceivable that Congress would vote for the impeachment when we are in a huge health crisis. They know that, but they care more about what is in their pockets. What we want is money for health and education.”

An older worker who joined the protest told the WSWS: “I worked at the Crillon Hotel until it closed in 1999. Now I live off my pension which is a miserable 1,000 soles (US$ 300). In addition, I have a sick daughter. I do not know what to do. The judiciary doesn’t work. About socialism, I think it would be right to provide health care and education for all. Also, a salary that allows for a decent life.”

Paul, a student from Northern Private University, said: “I am against the state of emergency. Vizcarra should have finished his term. And then he can be judged on whether he received bribes from the Brazilians. It’s good to go out on the streets so that they listen to us, but then what? I can’t find an answer. I know that capitalism is destroying us.”

Demonstrations also took place in cities across the country, from Tacna near the southern border with Chile, to Chiclayo and Trujillo in the north.

In a statement dripping with hypocrisy, the US State Department congratulated Merino, shortly before his resignation, for saying he would allow the Peruvian elections to take place in April along with a “successful democratic transition to a new administration.” It further declared that Peruvians should enjoy the “right to democracy,” including “the right to peacefully protest.” This, from a US government that has unleashed militarized police against protests and seeks to nullify the results of a presidential election!

The militancy of the youth who have taken to the streets has its roots in the insoluble crisis of Peruvian capitalism, which has been sharply accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the worst mortality rate, Peru is facing the largest drop in gross domestic product of any major economy, with a 30 percent fall from the previous year and nearly half of the formal sector in urban areas becoming unemployed. Poverty has deepened sharply for the 72 percent of workers in the informal sector.

These are the conditions underlying the protracted crisis of rule within Peru’s venal capitalist oligarchy. It has taken the form of an internecine conflict between the executive and the legislature, with the military playing the role of final arbiter.

At the end of September 2019, Vizcarra shut down the Congress, with the explicit support of the Armed Forces, and ruled for months by decree. Last week, the military shifted its allegiance after meeting with Merino, backing the parliamentary coup.

If the military and the ruling class as a whole are pulling back from the coup, it is out of fear that the mass protests will become uncontrollable, sparking a broad social struggle by the working class and the most oppressed layers of the population.

Under conditions in which they are conducting a back-to-work drive in the face of continuing mass COVID-19 deaths, both the Peruvian ruling class and the transnational mining corporations are anxious to quell the political crisis with the assistance of pseudo-left forces. They know full well that their policies will require repressive measures against Peruvian workers.

Large COVID-19 outbreak in Xinjiang, China

Jerry Zhang

On October 24, Chinese authorities suddenly announced a lockdown of the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang, due to an outbreak of COVID-19, without releasing any details. From 4 p.m. onward, a large number of flights at Kashgar Airport were cancelled and the highways were closed. The lack of information caused a degree of panic among the population.

By early October 25, the official report was of a single coronavirus infection in Shufu County, Kashgar Prefecture. In the afternoon, however, after the disease control department began testing, 137 people were found to be positive.

On October 26, four townships in Kashgar were declared high-risk areas. Two days later, 183 people had tested positive: 45 people were symptomatic, including three severe cases, and another 138 were found to be asymptomatic.

People wearing masks in China [Credit: AP Photo/Kin Cheung]

By November 5, there had been nearly 400 cases of COVID-19 infection in Kashgar, including 78 confirmed cases with symptoms, seven severe cases, and 318 asymptomatic infections.

After the state-owned media downplayed the severity of the outbreak, the Xinjiang government held a video meeting on November 5. Chen Quanguo, Xinjiang secretary for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), admitted that the outbreak in Kashgar and nearby Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture was still severe, and the task of prevention and control remained difficult.

According to several media reports, the source of the outbreak was a local factory in Kashgar, and most of the infections detected so far were related to the factory. Both the parents of the first infected person worked in the factory—a sweatshop engaged in making garments. Most of the workers come from poor towns and counties in Kashgar. Samples taken from the factory’s workshop, warehouse and toilets have tested positive for COVID-19.

As of November 14, the official data showed 25 confirmed symptomatic cases and 187 asymptomatic infections in Xinjiang. The following day, weeks after the outbreak was first announced, authorities finally rated some areas near the factory as low-risk areas.

The outbreak in Kashgar underscores the fact that, although China officially resumed production and economic activities as early as six months ago, the risk of further flare-ups still exists.

In June, hundreds of infections were discovered at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing. The following month, a third wave of infections broke out in Urumqi in Xinjiang. The entire province was blocked off for two months, and it was not completely opened until September.

In early October, 13 cases were discovered in the coastal city of Qingdao, which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. The infections were of particular concern as it was a public holiday and there were large numbers of visitors to the city. Some evidence points to the infections being caused by contact with the packaging of imported frozen seafood.

An official report from Shanghai on November 10 also found that the outer packaging of a batch of frozen beef from Argentina tested positive for COVID-19. On November 13, the Zhengzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention discovered a batch of frozen pork, also from Argentina, that tested positive. China is the main buyer of Argentinian beef and had been seeking to sign an agreement worth $US3.5 billion that would make Argentina its largest pork supplier.

The ability of COVID-19 to be transmitted via frozen food, if proven, underscores the fact that China’s strict control of international travel and its mass testing are no guarantee against outbreaks. The pandemic is a global issue that cannot be resolved on a parochial national basis by locking down borders. Nowhere is safe in a world of globalised production.

The repeated flare-ups of coronavirus in different regions also point to the fact that working-class communities are the most vulnerable. The factory dormitories and residential areas are overcrowded and there is a lack of sanitation and protective equipment. Compounding the risk is the state-owned media’s continuous downplay of the pandemic to justify the lifting of prevention and control methods in order to ensure a return to work.

Over the past year as COVID-19 emerged, China’s economy has been severely affected, with a huge 2020 first quarter contraction of 6.8 percent. While the official growth figure for the third quarter [July-September] rose to 4.9 percent, this is well short of the 8 percent that the CCP regime previously maintained was necessary to prevent widespread unemployment.

Moreover, any resumption of economic benefits has only exacerbated social inequalities. The country’s billionaires are expanding their wealth during the pandemic, while the working class has been hard hit. Workers have not only suffered from the virus but their economic situation has become more precarious, with mounting unemployment, wage cuts and unpaid wages. Workers have received virtually no support or assistance to alleviate their deteriorating living conditions.

Currently, winter is approaching in China, and in many parts of the country the temperature has dropped sharply. According to medical experts, this heightens the danger of new coronavirus surges.

Migrant workers demand right to return to their homes in New Zealand

Tom Peters

Thousands of migrant workers who lived and worked in New Zealand have been trapped outside the country since the borders were closed in March. Unable to return to their jobs and their lives, many are facing severe financial distress and some have been separated from their partners and other family members.

The Labour Party-led government’s cruel treatment of migrant workers exposes the media propaganda in New Zealand and internationally portraying Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as the embodiment of kindness and compassion. In reality, Labour and its former coalition partner, the right-wing nationalist NZ First, have sought to scapegoat migrants for the worsening social crisis.

Thousands of migrants still in New Zealand, who have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, have been denied access to unemployment benefits. Former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the NZ First leader, told them to “go home” because the system would not support them, despite the government giving tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses.

Migrants protest in Sangrur, India, calling on the New Zealand government to allow them to return (Source: NZ Temporary Visa Holders Stuck Offshore, Facebook group).

Meanwhile, nearly 30,000 people who have applied for residency have faced delays of a year or more due to a deliberate slowdown of visa processing by Immigration New Zealand. Many now fear they may not be allowed to stay in the country.

In the lead-up to the October 17 election, which saw Labour return to office with an overall majority of the votes, the major parties and the media maintained a virtual silence on the fate of migrants. Immigration policy was not discussed in the four televised debates between Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins.

In a sign of the continuing brutal treatment of migrants, the New Zealand Herald reported on October 28 that Minister for Immigration Kris Faafoi had denied residency to Sanaul Elahi, who was injured during the fascist terrorist attack in Christchurch on March 15, 2019. This was despite a recommendation from the ministry’s own Immigration and Protection Tribunal that Elahi and his family should be allowed to stay in the country. Elahi originally moved to New Zealand in 2015 and had been working as a halal butcher.

A petition recently submitted to the New Zealand parliament urged the government to “to allow migrants with current New Zealand visas who are stuck offshore to either re-enter the country, or extend their visas.”

It stated: “Thousands of us are ordinarily residents and have spent almost a year away from home, jobs and in some cases our partners and kids. New Zealand is our home. Our lives are there, as are our families, jobs, careers, homes and friends. Please let hard working people return home. It’s been a long time without access to our belongings.” The petition so far has about 1,700 signatures.

Migrants have also held demonstrations, both in New Zealand and internationally, against the Ardern government’s policies. On Tuesday, migrants will rally in New Delhi to demand that “all workers normally resident in New Zealand, be allowed to return the same as citizens.”

NZ citizens are allowed to return and must spend two weeks in hotels that have been repurposed as quarantine facilities.

The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with Belu, who had lived in New Zealand for six years. She and her husband, and their baby, had travelled to her family’s home in Argentina to get married when New Zealand closed its border. Belu has been separated from her husband, who is from India and was unable to stay in Argentina due to its visa regulations.

“We started our life, our family in New Zealand and then with no notice, we can’t go home,” she said. “It’s very tough because in this country or in India we have to start again from zero… It’s the middle of a crisis, we don’t have a house, we don’t have our belongings, we don’t have anything.” The couple was still paying $600 a week rent for their house in New Zealand, and had received some assistance from their employer thanks to the government’s temporary wage subsidy scheme, until it expired in September.

Belu believed that the government “don’t want to lose votes. If they say: all the immigrants can come back, all the Kiwis who don’t want immigrants or don’t know the situation will not vote for them. I don’t understand why the media never asks [the government] about it. It’s a very big thing. We are thousands, with our families.”

She said her employer was “desperate” because “they see the job’s there to be done and nobody to do it. So why if they need me so much can’t I come back?” She explained that she was extremely stressed. “I haven’t slept eight hours for the last eight months. Thank god I have my mum with me and my baby, because otherwise I don’t know how other people do it.”

The WSWS also spoke with Swarna, who is currently stuck in India, unable to return to her home in Auckland. Like many others, she had been given a large amount of money by her parents to study and work in New Zealand, which she had been repaying through remittances. “My parents are both retired now, they are unable to pay the money,” she said. “Any moment the bank will start sending me letters. They can take away my home, the only home I have in India.”

Swarna had been in New Zealand for two years when the pandemic hit; she had been working as a security guard and in a public hospital, sometimes up to a total of 72 hours a week. “[Migrant workers] don’t eat properly, we don’t sleep properly, we just work like a dog… we are just working, working, working,” she explained.

She had to return to India to visit her mother, who was seriously ill, just before NZ shut its borders in March. Swarna had applied for an exemption from Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to return to New Zealand, but was rejected with no explanation.

Swarna described the government’s “exemption” criteria—supposedly allowing some migrants to return—as “nonsense” since the vast majority were rejected, despite being legally entitled to be in New Zealand.

She said: “Overnight my life just changed and it changed so badly. I have nothing here because I have my life in New Zealand. My parents are going into depression, my mum cried saying: you should not have come. I honestly want to see Jacinda Ardern face to face. I’m that angry with her. I have not done anything wrong. She is the one who has, in the name of COVID, in the name of the election.”

Swarna explained that there were many others in similar situations. “We are not the ones who brought COVID… we are being punished. I know a boy who came to attempt suicide a few months back. He ate so many sleeping pills, he was rushed to hospital.” Swarna urged the NZ government: “Let people in who are eligible to come in. Let them start their lives! [Ardern] has just stopped our lives, she is controlling our lives for eight months.”

Closure of Louisiana’s Shell Convent Refinery will impact 1,100 jobs and create economic hardship

James Langley

On November 5, oil giant Shell announced that it will be shutting down the Convent Refinery in Saint James Parish, Louisiana, after failing to find a buyer for the massive complex. The refinery is located on 4,400 acres of land between Ascension and St. James parishes and is expected to begin the shutdown process starting in mid-November.

As of now Shell is continuing to seek a buyer for the idled refinery, which can process up to 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day and employs over 1,100 workers, including 400 contract workers, making the operation a key part of the local economy.

The news of the closure comes after a $500 million investment in 2015 by the previous owner of the refinery, Motiva, to connect the Convent Refinery to the Norco Refinery down river by a pipeline, integrating their productive capacities and creating the Louisiana Refining System. Then CEO of Motiva, Dan Romasko, boasted that the Louisiana Refining System would have a crude capacity of more than 500,000 barrels per day, making it one of the five largest North American refineries.

After sharp contractions in the demand for oil due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on energy use by both private business and individuals, Shell has decided that the refinery is no longer financially viable. Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith stated in the announcement: “Despite efforts to sell the asset, a viable buyer was never identified. After looking at all aspects of our business, including financial performance, we made the difficult decision to shut down the site.”

Though the decision was sparked by the pandemic, Shell and other oil companies have long been preparing for large-scale restructuring measures. In fact, Shell is planning on consolidating its assets into just six energy and chemical parks internationally.

The Norco Refinery in conjunction with Shell’s chemical complex in Geismar in Ascension Parish is one of the six sites. The other sites are in Deer Park, Texas; The Netherlands; Singapore; Germany; and Canada. Other refineries under review for potential sale or closure include Puget Sound, Washington, and Mobile, Alabama, along with others in Canada and Denmark. The fate of those refineries has not been decided yet, according to the company. The international scope of such restructuring measures means they will impact workers all across the globe.

The turn by Shell toward consolidating its business, as well as to focus on the integration of its remaining assets to allow the production of more chemically based products such as biofuel, hydrogen and synthetic fuels, is due to major changes in the financial viability of shale well drilling. The overall decline in the productivity of shale, as well as the future focus on lower carbon sources of energy, means the continued reliance on financialization to fuel the industry’s rapid growth is no longer feasible. Rapid shale well production decline rates mean more drilling, higher debt and smaller profits, making many companies reconsider their outlook on shale oil in future markets.

The closure of the Convent Refinery, the largest taxpaying facility in St. James Parish, will greatly affect the economic well-being of surrounding communities, with the loss of 1,100 jobs and associated tax revenue. The population of the Parish was 21,151 in 2018, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), and the poverty rate was 16.7 percent. In 2017, 3,911 residents received benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, due to food insecurity. These were the numbers before the pandemic hit.

St. James Parish resident Pete Dufresne, in an interview on WAFB9 local news, commented on the refinery’s closing, saying, “Since 1967, this refinery has provided economic impact to St. James Parish operating under several different companies over the years. The facility has consistently been the largest taxpayer in St. James Parish, therefore its consolidation will certainly have an impact on our community and the supporting businesses who rely on industry.”

Though the Convent Refinery is organized by the United Steel Workers (USW), the local branch has been unavailable for contact by the media and has not published any statement on the shutdown. In the spring of 2015 workers at the Convent Refinery joined in the month-and-half-long strike by over 30,000 oil workers across the United States. During that time, the USW bureaucracy actively worked to sabotage the strike every step of the way, calling out only a portion of the refineries organized by the union in Louisiana and campaiging for workers to get back on the job.

The strike was ultimately sold out by the UAW, with nothing being done to address the decline of living standards for workers or the grave concern of workers over job safety. In the end, the only meausure adopted was the formation of joint union-management safety committees that, while providing cushy posts for union officials, did nothing to implement or enforce real safety measures.