Ethiopia: Assailed by Terrorists and Betrayed by the West

Graham Peebles

As the new government led by Prime-Minister Ahmed Abiy takes office for their second term, the West’s relentless propaganda campaign against Ethiopia continues. Since the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Ethiopian State on 4 November 2020 (the day after President Biden was elected coincidentally), the US and allies, factions within UN agencies and human rights organizations have worked to undermine and discredit the democratically elected government.

Aided by mainstream western media – The Economist, BBC, The Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera, Facebook (who, according to former employer now whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is “fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia”) and others – they have spread misinformation and lies about the situation inside Ethiopia. False accusations that Abiy’s government is deliberately “starving its own people”, “blocking humanitarian aid” from reaching displaced groups and carrying out atrocities in the region are widespread on such platforms.

They receive their information not from Ethiopian journalists working on the ground, or well-informed local people, but, it seems, from statements issued by the US administration, UN agencies, external organizations and TPLF spokespeople. The same material is published or broadcast by each media outlet, more or less. It is consistently untrue and serves to undermine the Ethiopian government, create confusion and strengthen the TPLF’s campaign. What western governments don’t mention, and consistently fail to condemn, are the atrocities perpetrated by the TPLF.

The terrorist group refused to adhere to a government initiated ceasefire in July, advanced into neighboring regions of Afar (from where they have since been ejected by federal forces) and Amhara, massacring civilians, raping, destroying property and crops, killing livestock. Mass graves have been discovered in a number of locations in the Amhara region, where local people relate harrowing accounts of TPLF brutality. And yet the US, UK, EU etc, remain silent.

TPLF’s terrorist subversion

This TPLF force, which includes children and teenagers in its ranks, is not a righteous group tussling with an evil government, or a band of “local guerrilla fighters” as the New York Times described them. The TPLF are the evil force; a vicious terrorist gang, that is trying to overthrow the legitimate government of Ethiopia and with the support of external powers (most notably the US, which many suspect may even be arming them) seize power.

These same countries (US, UK, EU) stood behind the TPLF when it was in office (1991-2018), turning a blind eye as it threw a blanket of fear over the country. They trampled on human rights, divided communities along ethnic lines; siphoned off aid money, embezzled federal funds, buying properties in London and elsewhere. After 27 years in power it is well resourced and well connected, has an organized propaganda machine with certain individuals within certain foreign governments and UN agencies sympathetic to their violent cause.

According to two UN staff members working in Addis Ababa, one of the most influential pro-TPLF voices within the UN is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian Director-General of the WHO. A senior member of the TPLF junta (Minister of Health, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for abducting UK citizen and opposition leader, Andargachew Tsige at Sanaa airport in Yemen), his appointment at the WHO was widely opposed by Ethiopians, who regard him as a criminal.

The whistleblowers make clear that certain elements within the UN, including Dr. Tedros, want to remove the head of the UN in Ethiopia (the Resident Coordinator), Dr. Catherine Sozi, and replace her with “someone who will dance to their tune.” Their “tune” is to subvert the government through an international misinformation campaign that supports the TPLF, and presumably helps facilitate their ascension back into power. Something that, no matter the subterfuge, will never happen.

“When the humanitarian aid effort in Tigray was ramped up many [UN] agencies brought in additional support to be posted in Tigray,” they explained. In an unprecedented step, Emergency Coordinators in the region were instructed to report directly to UN headquarters, cutting out UN staff in Addis, because they “are more sympathetic to and are working with the Ethiopian government”. Dr. Catherine Sozi is reported as saying she has “never seen anything like this”, i.e., local UN reps being sidelined and a direct line of communication being established between Tigray and New York/Geneva. In the interview, the whistleblowers make clear that the “TPLF……. have networks within UN system.”

The Ethiopian government had been aware that the UN inside Ethiopia had been compromised for some time and on 27 September they expelled seven senior UN officials from various agencies. Ethiopia’s permanent representative to the UN, Taye Atske Selassie said his country had found a “multitude of transgressions” by the expelled officials alleging that, “they openly conducted activism for the TPLF.”

In a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ethiopian government accused the expelled UN staff of “Dissemination of misinformation and politicization of humanitarian assistance; Diversion of humanitarian assistance to the TPLF; Violating agreed-upon security arrangements; Transferring communication equipment to be used by the TPLF [and] continued reticence in demanding the return of more than 400 trucks commandeered by the TPLF for military mobilization and for the transportation of its forces since July 2021.” The missive makes clear that such concerns were “brought to the attention of the relevant UN high officials and other international partners on multiple occasions, but to no avail.”

This is a staggering list of offences, a shocking breach of trust that gives an indication of what the Ethiopian government is up against. They are not only fighting the TPLF, which the federal forces are more than capable of dealing with, but are also battling an array of external forces; former allies and friends turned enemies.

Cohesion and pride

Following the expulsion of UN staff, and consistent with their anti-Ethiopia stance since the conflict began, instead of requesting an independent investigation into Ethiopia’s concerns, the US condemned the government’s actions. Secretary of State Blinken issued a press statement in which the US threatened to apply targeted sanctions (authorized by Biden earlier in the month), and called on the international community “to employ all appropriate tools to apply pressure on the Government of Ethiopia and any other actors impeding humanitarian access.”

The “actors impeding humanitarian access” are the TPLF forces, not the government as repeatedly alleged by the US, UN etc. and western media; all pressure should be applied to the terrorists and all support from the “international community”, given to the democratically elected government, as it should have been from the beginning of the conflict. However, far from standing by Ethiopia, as could rightly have been expected, the government and the Ethiopian people have been betrayed by the “international community” – meaning the US and its mates.

The government has repeatedly been “instructed” by Washington and New York to negotiate with the TPLF, which is not acceptable to the government or the people. Even when the government took the positive step of declaring a ceasefire and withdrew its forces, they were criticized.

One reason – probably the main one – for this shameful reaction is the Ethiopian government’s refusal to toe the imperialist line and do what they are told. This outrageous act of defiance by a poor black nation (can we ignore the racist element?), together with the successful construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – the biggest in Africa, the nation’s proud history of independence (Ethiopia was never colonized) and its importance within the Horn of Africa, which is set to grow, all have infuriated their Western benefactors. Add to this list the influence of the TPLF in Washington, London, Brussels and New York (UN), plus the malignity of international mainstream media, and a cocktail of destabilizing anti-Ethiopia forces emerge.

The collective response to The West’s sustained attack, a betrayal that has shocked and angered many Ethiopians, has been to unite the people and strengthen their resolve against their common enemy, the TPLF. This sense of national cohesion and pride was vibrantly expressed at PM Abiy’s inauguration ceremony on 4 October. Many African leaders were present at the joyful occasion held in the capital, Addis Ababa, under the banner of “A New Beginning”. They saluted PM Abiy’s overwhelming electoral victory (something western governments failed to do) and expressed solidarity with their African neighbor and friend.

The days of imperial rule in Africa are long gone, and, as Ethiopia is demonstrating, and the US is discovering, the time when global powers can tell African nations what to do is also becoming a thing of the past.

Western voices that are supporting the TPLF terrorists, and distorting the situation inside Ethiopia, are complicit in the ongoing violence; the deaths and destruction, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the nationwide pain and uncertainty that this appalling conflict is causing.

Mass deaths hit Eastern Europe as COVID-19 surges across the continent

Samuel Tissot

This past week, 1.4 million COVID-19 cases were recorded across Europe, up 18 percent from the previous week. Also 20,503 deaths were recorded in the same time period, up 17 percent. Cases are rapidly spreading across the entire continent: Only four of Europe’s 47 countries have seen cases fall in the last week.

Medical workers tend a patient suffering from COVID-19 in the Nouvel Hopital Civil of Strasbourg, eastern France, Thursday, Oct.22, 2020.(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

All indicators suggest that the number of deaths and infections will continue to rise as colder weather creates optimal conditions for the virus to spread. Without the immediate imposition of stringent scientific measures to eliminate the virus, the coming winter in Europe threatens to be the deadliest so far in the pandemic.

The center of the surge is Eastern Europe. In Russia, 7,454 people died over the last week. In Ukraine, 3,785 people died, a 63 percent week-on-week increase. In Russia and Ukraine, mass infections of children have led to appalling conditions in overflowing pediatric wards.

In Bulgaria and Romania, 127 and 154 people per million inhabitants died last week, respectively, the two highest rates of any state in the world. The virus is ripping through a largely unprotected population; only 30 percent of Romanian citizens have received both vaccine shots. In Bulgaria, just 20 percent of the population have received two doses.

With Romania’s 2,000 critical care beds already full, COVID-19 patients are waiting in hospital corridors for treatment. Last week, 50 patients were evacuated to beds in Poland and Hungary to try to free up space. Dorel Sandesc, head of intensive care at Timisoara hospital in western Romania, told the BBC, “I feel like the whole country has become a resuscitation department.”

Governments are trying to contain and defuse public anger over their policy of mass death by implementing a few insufficient health measures. A one-week partial lockdown has just gone into effect in Russia. Elsewhere, most workplaces remain open, however, and families are not receiving the financial support necessary to allow them to remain at home. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, “We don’t want to introduce lockdowns because our economy is gaining momentum, and lockdowns would have a negative impact on economic development.”

A similar catastrophe is unfolding in the Baltic countries, though their populations are over 50 percent vaccinated. Last week, Lithuania (population 2.6 million) recorded 19,792 cases and 216 deaths. Latvia (1.8 million) recorded 17,462 infections and 165 deaths, a 53 percent increase over the previous week. Estonia (1.3 million) recorded 10,746 cases and 45 deaths—both increases of more than 30 percent from the week before. As a proportion of the population, these case rates are twice the levels recorded in Britain, the pandemic epicenter in Western Europe.

The conditions prevailing in these countries are a warning for workers across Europe and internationally. As vaccine efficacy wanes over time, new variants develop, and winter weather causes a spike in infections, hospitals throughout Europe will soon be overflowing. Already, conditions in Western and Central Europe are rapidly aligning with those in the East.

Every Scandinavian country has witnessed a near-doubling of infections over the last week. Denmark’s cases rose 77 percent to 9,663. In Finland, infections rose 22 percent to 4,187. In Norway, cases rose 78 percent to 5,573. The Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of Denmark in the North Sea with a population of just 49,000, is facing an acute outbreak with 428 cases recorded in the last week.

In Germany, weekly cases increased by 32 percent to 98,101. The 31,402 daily cases recorded on October 26 were the highest daily figure recorded in Germany since January 4. Nonetheless, the incoming SPD-Green-FDP coalition government plans to let the state of emergency expire on November 25. Weekly cases also increased in Austria by 44 percent to 25,090.

In France and Italy cases and deaths are rising following weeks of decline. In France, cases increased by 16 percent to 38,215 last week. Following the end of free tests in France, the week of October 18-24 saw 675,200 fewer tests compared to the week before.

Britain is one of the only countries to record a fall in cases in the previous week. However, the 305,882 recorded was only a 4 percent decline and still left the country leading Europe for the number of recorded infections and only behind the United States in the rest of the world. The 1,010 recorded deaths in the country represented a 6 percent increase on the week before.

Other seasonal diseases also threaten to worsen the crisis. Scientists in many countries have warned that influenza will have a greater effect than previous years due to a lack of natural immunity built up by lower amounts of social interaction during the pandemic. In France, bronchitis infections in children are overwhelming pediatric wards.

Even in European countries with the highest vaccination rates, millions remain unprotected, including school children and many of the elderly. Waning effectiveness of vaccines month by month and new variants also threaten a surge in cases and deaths. Although the ratio of cases to deaths is less than in previous waves due to vaccination, the vast increase in infections due to the increased contagiousness of the Delta variant means that once again hospitals throughout Europe face inundation in the near future.

The number of deaths this winter may well exceed the levels seen in December, January and February a year ago. However, capitalist governments across Europe are preparing for this wave of mass infection and death by again placing profits above lives.

Throughout the pandemic, the guiding principle of the ruling class has been to maximize the number of hours, weeks and days that profit can be extracted from the working class. They are entirely indifferent to the 1.3 million confirmed COVID-19 deaths across Europe so far in the pandemic, and the millions suffering from Long COVID or serious organ damage. This was most crassly summed up in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wish to “let the bodies pile high in their thousands,” but it is held in government offices across Europe.

Meanwhile, the EU has pumped billions into its military budgets and gifted hundreds of billions of euros to corporate bailouts. Spanish courts have ruled that lockdowns are unconstitutional. In France, unions and pseudo-left groups have supported far right-led anti-vaccination protests. These policies all seek to impose a policy of “living with the virus” on a working population that opposes mass death and the continued spread of the virus.

This conscious policy of social murder can and must be opposed. Without a scientific policy to eliminate the virus, the cycle of mass death and social dislocation will continue for years.

German Defence Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer threatens Russia with nuclear weapons

Johannes Stern

In the midst of negotiations to form a new governing coalition in Berlin, Germany’s federal government is threatening Russia with the use of nuclear weapons. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk last Thursday, incumbent Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Christian Democrats, CDU) said, “We have to make it very clear to Russia that in the end—and that is also the deterrent doctrine—we are ready to use such means [nuclear weapons] so that it has a deterrent effect beforehand and nobody gets the idea, for example, to attack NATO partners in the areas over the Baltic states or in the Black Sea. That is the core idea of NATO, this alliance, and it will be adapted to the current behaviour of Russia.”

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Eberhard Zorn (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

The fact that Kramp-Karrenbauer speaks of the use of nuclear weapons against Russia without blinking an eye gives harrowing insight into the state of mind at the highest levels of the German state. Eighty years after the attack by the Nazi Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union and the war of annihilation in the East, scenarios are being discussed behind the backs of the population that directly endanger hundreds of millions of lives. These discussions take place amid the raging pandemic, which has seen the ruling elite sacrifice thousands of people to protect corporate profits.

The Defence Ministry’s official website said the minister had chosen her “clear words on the occasion of the meeting of the nuclear planning group” at the meeting of NATO defence ministers at the end of last week. Kramp-Karrenbauer has made it clear that “Germany is and will remain firmly integrated into the alliance’s nuclear planning. Germany stands by its obligations in the alliance.”

A report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.) on the NATO meeting explains what this means in concrete terms. “That could mean, for example, that German tornadoes equipped with atomic bombs are relocated to the eastern flank when a certain conflict threshold is reached. This is not discussed in public, but it is part of the strategic considerations when the so-called nuclear planning group, to which all member states except France belong, provides advice,” the newspaper noted.

In other words: German warplanes armed with US atomic bombs stored in Germany would be relocated to the Russian border in the event of a conflict and they would possibly also drop them—with unforeseeable consequences. A nuclear war between NATO and Russia would not only turn the whole of Europe into a nuclear desert; it would call into question the survival of all humanity.

The F.A.Z article, headlined “Defence Planning of NATO: The Art of Flexible Deterrence,” shows in detail how aggressively NATO is advancing war preparations against Russia and the central role Germany plays in this.

The new concept “Defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area” (DDA), which was adopted in June, is currently being implemented. The first step in this direction is the “Saceur’s AOR Strategic Plan,” which restructures the area of responsibility (AOR) of the Commander-in-Chief for Europe (Saceur),” the F.A.Z. explained. The alliance is going “back to an organizational structure that already existed during the Cold War.” Each corps gets “a precisely allocated area of operations.” On the other hand, “it is about other threats and the ability to react flexibly to them,” according to the F.A.Z.

The plans read like a modern form of total war. An operation plan stipulates to act “early and effectively.” To this end, the alliance wants to “include all of its headquarters in the defence” in the future, which of course also applies to the rapid mobilization and relocation of combat units. Ultimately, “it is about regaining the dominance of escalation.” The “trickiest part” of it is “the nuclear strategy.”

The incoming federal government will have the task of implementing these war plans. “The planning cycle” is, “as usual, designed for four years, which is important for the new federal government,” writes the F.A.Z. This would “define the future priorities and investments, including defence spending.” It is about providing the necessary “military capabilities that make it possible to actually deploy troops: reconnaissance, strategic air transport, digital operations management, missile defence.”

The plans for the implementation of these massive war and armament projects have already been finalised. In May, the Ministry of Defence adopted the “cornerstones for the future of the Bundeswehr (German army),” which are intended to effectively prepare the German military for the conduct of major military conflicts, including nuclear war.

The Bundeswehr must “be able to conduct military operations against an equal opponent in combined arms combat, and in the future also in combined dimensions—across the spectrum up to and including high-intensity combat,” it says. For this, “military capabilities for deterrence across the board, including nuclear participation, are necessary.”

In addition, the German armed forces would have to “be able to provide the political leadership with flexible military options and to provide forces and capabilities that are able to act in all dimensions, adapted to the situation.” They would have to “act quickly and seamlessly across dimensions and be able to function in the entire spectrum of dimensions at the same time.” The “guiding principle” must be: “Organize yourself as you fight.”

There is no doubt that the current coalition negotiations between the Social Democrats (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens are discussing the implementation of this aggressive foreign and defence policy agenda. As with the formation of the government four years ago, the talks are taking place in strict secrecy. The ruling class knows that its agenda is deeply hated by the population and faces tremendous opposition.

SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich reacted nervously to Kramp-Karrenbauer’s open threats against Russia. He told the DPA that she should not burden the work of a future federal government. Her “recent mind games ... on the use of nuclear weapons in a conflict with Russia” are “irresponsible.” She “unfortunately does not differ from the equally unfounded threats from the Russian side.”

Mützenich’s statements are false in two respects. On the one hand, he knows very well that it is not Russia, but NATO, that is the aggressor. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, the military alliance has been systematically advancing towards the Russian border. The SPD plays a central role in this. The incumbent Social Democratic Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as foreign minister supported the right-wing coup in Ukraine in 2014 in order to install an anti-Russian regime in Kiev and weaken Moscow. The subsequent dispatch of German combat troops to Eastern Europe also took place with the explicit support of the SPD, which has headed the Foreign Ministry without interruption for eight years.

On Monday, government spokesman Steffen Seibert defended Kramp-Karrenbauer’s nuclear threats as a logical implementation of the policy of the grand coalition. As long as nuclear weapons are understood by some states as a means of military conflict, “there is a need to maintain a nuclear deterrent within the framework of NATO,” he said cynically. That is “also the case in the coalition agreement.”

Significantly, the annual nuclear weapons exercise “Steadfast Noon” took place in Italy last week. Belgian, Dutch, Italian and German combat bombers were involved in practicing nuclear participation; that is, to train them to use atomic bombs.

The Putin regime has nothing to offer when it comes to opposing the Western preparations for war. It represents the interests of a corrupt oligarchy that has enriched itself through the restoration of capitalism and fears the growing social and political opposition of the working class as much as the imperialist powers. Moscow is responding to threats from Washington, Brussels and Berlin with a mixture of diplomatic and military manoeuvres that further increase the risk of war.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the defence attaché of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Russia was summoned on October 25. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in an official statement that it is hoped that “there are level-headed people in the German leadership who can prevent their defence minister from recklessly wanting to test our armed forces.”

Strikes erupt across Portugal as government fails to adopt budget

Alejandro López & Alex Lantier

Prime Minister António Costa’s seven-year minority Socialist Party (PS) government collapsed on Wednesday, as parliament voted its budget down. The pseudo-left Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and Left Bloc (BE), which, since 2015 have backed Costa from outside his government, suddenly opposed the budget. It is the first time since the 1974 Carnation Revolution toppled fascistic dictator António Salazar’s Estado Novo regime that a Portuguese budget has been rejected.

Finance Minister Joao Leao holds his head during a debate at the Portuguese Parliament before the voting of the government's state budget, in Lisbon, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

As President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa schedules a week of talks with the leading parties to prepare snap elections, the ruling elite is clearly terrified of an eruption of the class struggle.

In the capital, Lisbon, Metro de Lisboa workers have been holding strikes for a week for wage rises, better living and working conditions, and career advancement plans. All stations were shut yesterday morning as workers massively joined the strike. Amid broad anger among metro workers at a long-running wage freeze, further strikes are planned next week. Earlier this month, 90 percent of railway workers at state-owned Comboios de Portugal struck for higher pay and more hiring.

Today, Portuguese National Health Service pharmacists are to go on strike today until November 2 to demand wage increases and greater opportunities for career advancement. They are joined by workers at the beer and alcohol distributor Novadis, who will strike and protest at the Sagres de Vialonga bottling plant. Novadis workers are demanding wage increases, suppression of wage inequalities between workers in Lisbon and other parts of Portugal, and the use of the “bank of hours” scheme to impose flexible work schedules and limit overtime pay.

Next week, nurses are set to strike on November 3-4. They are demanding the permanent hiring of temp nurses working for the Public Health System, the hiring of more staff, and increasing bonuses paid to health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 5, teachers are set to strike to protest the low pay increase, well below the 5 percent official inflation rate that was set in the now-failed PS budget. Teachers had already organized work stoppages in September as the school year started. Now, they are also set to join a nationwide one-day protest strike by civil servants scheduled for November 12.

Civil servants will strike against the 0.9 percent salary increase proposed by the PS, which would mean a cut in real wages of over 4 percent. On November 11-12, firefighters and prison guards will strike. Firefighters are demanding wage increases and the granting of a risk bonus equivalent to that paid to the security forces. The Tax Workers Union has also announced a strike for December 5.

EU austerity policies imposed since the 2008 Wall Street crash, and continued under Costa, have devastated the working class. Portugal is one of the most unequal EU countries. Official 2020 data showed that 2 million people face poverty and social exclusion, as 16 percent of Portuguese (1.6 million people) live on incomes below the poverty line, including 10 percent of employed workers. Working class opposition erupted in 2019, as a wave of strikes and “yellow vest” protests against social inequality modelled on those in France, spread across Portugal.

While the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily halted the eruption of the class struggle in Portugal, it is now returning in full force. Workers are outraged as the PS negotiates a multi-billion-euro EU pandemic bailout payoff with Brussels, while trying to slash real wages for working people and hand over massive sums to the super-rich.

Moreover, it comes amid an international eruption of strikes by US auto, health and food workers, rail and transport strikes in Germany and France, strikes by UK bus and university workers, and nationwide work stoppages called in South Korea and Sri Lanka. The critical issue, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) has explained, is the independent organization and international unification of the working class. The ICFI is fighting to build an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).

Workers in Portugal face union bureaucracies that cut them off from their class brothers and sisters internationally, and reactionary bourgeois parties like the PS and its pseudo-left satellites, the PCP and BE. These parties have not only imposed EU austerity and real wage cuts for years on working people, but implemented the EU’s deadly policy of “living with the virus” during the pandemic. Over 1 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 18,000 have died in a country of barely 10 million, and daily infection numbers are now climbing back toward 1,000.

The violent hostility of the PCP and BE to the class struggle emerged in the 2019 truckers strike, when the PS called out the army to break the strike and force truckers back to work at gunpoint. The PCP, the BE and the union bureaucracy isolated the strike, blocking solidarity action by broader layers of workers to halt the military onslaught against the truckers. The budget talks have again utterly exposed these bankrupt, pseudo-left organizations of the affluent middle class.

Signs that the PS might fail to ram through its austerity budget mounted this month. On October 18, as anger increased among teachers at the budget, the BE published a “public clarification” desperately denying the PS government’s claim that the BE would, as usual, support its budget. The BE vaguely declared it was still looking for a “convergence” with the PS, to “make the state budget viable,” thus “promoting a social and economic relaunch.”

Last weekend, PCP secretary Jerónimo de Sousa issued a statement on the PCP’s central committee meeting. “Portugal does not need a budget, but a response to existing problems,” he wrote, adding: “The country’s situation and the problems it faces due to decades of right-wing policies aggravated by the pandemic demand a response and a solution that cannot wait.” Issuing a few demands for wage increases and social programs, he pledged to act “always with the same coherence and decisive action, always on the side of the workers and the people.”

This is a pack of lies by a pretentious bureaucrat who has spent years helping impose the same right-wing policies that he is now denouncing. To maintain the false pretence that they oppose austerity, however, the BE and PCP felt compelled to oppose the budget in the October 27 vote in parliament, leading to its immediate failure.

President de Sousa is now moving to dissolve the government and call snap elections, having declared: “My position is very simple; either there is a budget or there will be a dissolution.” De Sousa clearly aims to defuse mounting class struggles by distracting workers with an election campaign, and then assemble a new, reactionary government that will continue imposing EU austerity and murderous pandemic policies on the working class.

Yesterday, EU Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis demanded Portugal continue austerity, declaring: “There will be no payments unless targets are met.” He threatened to withhold the next €1.3 billion EU bailout payment to Portugal. That is, there is plenty of money—so long as it all goes to the super-rich, and none of it goes to working people, who are to be bled white with falling real wages, social cuts, and the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peasant protests demanding fertiliser erupt across Sri Lanka

Gamini Karunathilaka & W. A. Sunil

Tens of thousands of farmers in Sri Lanka have been involved in daily protests since the beginning of September to demand fertiliser be provided for paddy cultivation during the Maha (north-east monsoon) season. Peasants growing paddy, vegetable and other commercial crops have held demonstrations in paddy fields, farmland and in the cities.

Farmers marching in Kantale (Photo credit Facebook Sampath Lahiru)

The protests were precipitated by the Rajapakse government’s sudden decision in April to ban imports of chemical fertiliser and other agrochemicals. President Rajapakse attempted to justify the ban by claiming that chemical fertiliser, along with pesticides and fungicides, had caused health problems in rural areas.

The real reason for the ban, however, was because the government confronted a rapid drop in foreign reserves caused by the global crisis and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Colombo also slashed many other imports to try and save its foreign exchange holdings.

With Sri Lanka’s annual imports of fertiliser costing about $US400 million, the government also wants to end the meagre fertiliser subsidy it provides farmers.

The farmers’ protests, which initially began in June, were halted during the six-week lockdown imposed on August 21 in response to the Delta variant rapidly spreading across the island.

The demonstrations resumed when the lockdown was lifted last month, the rural masses fearing that their crops would fail without fertiliser and other necessary agrochemicals, throwing them deeper into poverty. The peasants and small farmers have threatened to abandon all cultivation if they are not given fertiliser. Some groups have said they will march to Colombo in their thousands if the government does not address their demands.

Speaking to the media, farmers have angrily explained that crops failed for the last Yala (north-western monsoon) season because they did not have fertiliser. Television reports have shown demonstrating farmers burning and destroying failed sweet corn and other crops.

Several farmers spoke to the WSWS about the problems they confront.

Karunaratne, a farmer from Ginnoruwa in Uva Province, explained that farmers’ representatives had clashed with Mahaweli irrigation project officials at a meeting. Mahaweli is Sri Lanka’s largest irrigation scheme. When officials proposed releasing water to prepare paddy fields for cultivation, the farmers’ representatives refused to accept any water until they were provided with fertiliser. Similar incidents occurred in several other places in meetings with irrigation officials.

Abeyratne, a peasant from Hebarawa in the same area, described the extreme indebtedness of farmers and peasants. “Without fertiliser our situation has now gone from bad to worse,” he said. “We are living under conditions of never-ending indebtedness. Every new season we hope to save ourselves from the debt issue but it never happens and the price of everything, including food items, has gone up to unbearable levels.

“I borrowed 50,000 rupees ($US250) by pawning my gold chain and ring in order to obtain money for last year’s cultivation. Now the banks refuse to give any new loans because the previous loans haven’t been settled. Last season I had to borrow from a lender who charged higher interest rates but our harvest was reduced by a half because there was no fertiliser. How are we going to be able to pay back these loans?”

A 36-year-old woman from Kilinochchi, in the country’s war-torn north, said that it was hard to make any profit from rice cultivation, even with the necessary fertiliser and agrochemicals. “I prepared the land hoping to receive manure but nothing happened,” she said. “I’m a tenant farmer but if we can’t cultivate rice in this season then we won’t be able to get land for the next.”

Farmers demonstrate in Kilinochichi in the war torn north (Photo credit Gnanasangary)

Gunatilake, a vegetable farmer from Bandarawela, said: “Peasants have been using inorganic manure for decades so it’s impossible for them to get used to organic manure all at once. Farmers have not even been guaranteed the provision of other suitable inputs. How can one prevent pests and various diseases affecting crops without pesticides? Some of these chemicals are available on the black market but at intolerable prices.”

Sri Lankan Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has insulted farmers and peasants, claiming that the multibillion-dollar profit-making agrochemical companies were behind the protests.

President Rajapakse insisted that the government would not remove the fertiliser import bans. But when plantation companies warned that this would drastically impact tea production, the government quickly allowed imported fertilisers for that industry. Sri Lanka hopes to earn $1.4 billion from tea exports this year.

Vegetable farmers protesting at Nuwara Eliya in the central plantation district (Photo credit Malayagakuruvi)

Many Sri Lankan agricultural scientists have criticised the government’s sudden bans and called for the combination of inorganic and organic agricultural inputs, based on a proper plan, and systematically implemented. They warned that Colombo’s hurried actions would result in declining harvests and a severe food shortage.

Last week, the government began importing shipments of nano-nitrogen liquid fertiliser, a type of chemical fertiliser, from India for distribution among farmers. Agricultural specialists, however, warned that this was not a viable solution. Saman Dharmakeerthi, a professor of soil and agriculture management at the University of Peradeniya, said the liquid fertiliser was only four percent nitrogen and that this was inadequate.

Agriculture Minister Aluthgamage has said that farmers would be compensated if they incurred losses and that government authorities were ready to purchase a kilo of paddy at a guaranteed 70-rupee price if farmers cultivated their crops with organic manure.

Aluthgamage’s promises and the import of nano-nitrogen have not succeeded in quelling the protests, which are the result of decades of accumulated discontent and anti-government distrust that has deepened with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a 2016 government survey, over 142,300 rural households were under the then-official 4,116-rupees poverty line and 61 percent of rural households were indebted. The poverty-line figure, even on 2016 data, was insufficient for survival, and the high debt levels have worsened exponentially during the last five years.

The lack of adequate land, exploitation by the banks, usurers, agricultural companies and their middlemen, along with the spiralling cost of cultivation, are just the most obvious problems confronting the rural masses.

The opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), which was formed early last year by a majority of MPs from the United National Party (UNP), and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have intervened in the farmers protests in an attempt to politically exploit and derail them.

Sajith Premadasa, the SJB parliamentary opposition leader, has been seen mingling among farmers in several parts of the country, feigning concern and calling on the government to remove the fertiliser ban, while insisting his party would resolve farmer’s problems. These claims are worthless.

The capitalist SJB, in fact, has called on the Rajapakse government to appeal to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to solve the economic problems. But as the Sri Lankan masses are fully aware, the sort of solutions proposed by the IMF and slavishly implemented by consecutive Sri Lankan governments have been for a full-scale austerity restructuring of the economy.

Economic reforms implemented by UNP governments since 1977 have seen the rural farming sector opened up to big business, and the systematic gutting of fertiliser and other necessary subsidies for farmers. Successive Sri Lankan governments since then have intensified these policies. Current SJB leaders were part of the 2002–2004 UNP administration and Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government in 2015–2019 which brutally imposed these assaults.

Farmers burn effigy of agriculture minister at Naamal Oya in Ampara (Photo: WSWS media)

The JVP-controlled All Ceylon Farmers Organisation, which has organised many of the current protests, is attempting to direct the pent-up anger against Agriculture Minister Aluthgamage. At demonstrations, farmers’ have beaten and burned his effigy.

The JVP and its farmers’ organisation are deliberately attempting to cover up the fact that the root cause of the government’s social attacks is the capitalism profit system.

Since the early 1990s, the JVP has transformed itself into a party of the Colombo political establishment, openly propping up capitalist rule in Sri Lanka.

In 2004, the JVP became part of Chandrika Kumaratunga’s coalition government and held four ministries. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the JVPs’ current leader, was appointed Kumaratunga’s agriculture minister and actively imposed her regime’s austerity measures.

The JVP supported former President Mahinda Rajapakse and then moved to bring the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to power in 2015. When workers’ and peasants’ struggles erupted against that government, the JVP intervened to divert the movement into futile appeals to the government.

The SJB, JVP and the peasant organisations are promoting the illusion that peasants’ and farmers’ problems, including the fertiliser issue, can be resolved by pressuring the Rajapakse government. This is false.

The Sri Lankan ruling elite and their successive governments have not, and never will, address the social and democratic problems of workers and the poor. Amidst an unprecedented crisis triggered by the pandemic, the Rajapakse government and the capitalist class are preparing even more brutal attacks on the masses.

France, Britain threaten trade war over Brexit fishing dispute

Alex Lantier

Paris and London are threatening each other with large-scale trade war measures starting next week, amid a mounting post-Brexit dispute over how to assign fishing rights in the English Channel.

On Wednesday, French police vessels stopped two British fishing boats off the French coast, detaining one at the Le Havre port. They said the ship detained in Le Havre “was not on the list of fishing licenses granted to the United Kingdom” by French and European Union (EU) authorities. They threatened both “the confiscation of the fisherman’s catch” and to criminally prosecute the ship’s captain.

It was an act of retaliation against British authorities, who have granted only 15 of 47 French requests for fishing licenses in British waters. Jersey island, a UK dependency off the French coast, has also granted only 66 of 170 French fishing license requests. While British officials claimed they granted around 1,700 EU vessels fishing licenses or 97 percent of the total requested, French Fisheries Minister Annick Girardin replied that only 90.3 percent of license requests were granted, and that UK refusals almost exclusively target French ships.

As Paris and London mount these attacks against fishermen on both sides of the Channel, relations between the European powers are unraveling. Tensions over Brexit are becoming entangled with French hostility to the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) alliance against China, which led Australia to suddenly repudiate a €56 billion French submarine contract. Moreover, both French and British imperialism are stoking nationalism to try to distract from the pandemic and a rising tide of COVID-19 deaths across Europe.

Yesterday, Girardin went on RTL radio to threaten Britain with large-scale retaliatory measures if London does not grant French vessels fishing licenses before November 2. These are:
*intensified health screening of all British seafood products in France;
*banning British fishing vessels from docking at French ports where their catch is processed;
*imposing security checks on all British vessels in French waters;
*intensified security and customs screening of all British truck freight arriving in France.

The French measures are intended to make it virtually impossible in practice for Britain to export goods to France, and for British ships to sail in French waters. Referring to the British government’s sudden scrapping last year of the Brexit treaty negotiated in 2019 with the EU, Girardin told RTL, “It has been nine months that French fishermen have no longer been able to work. The British are not respecting treaties they signed. We have had enough.”

French officials have made other bellicose threats, including to cut off electricity exports to Britain and also to Jersey, which relies on France for 90 percent of its electricity supply. This would likely shut down hospitals and schools on the island.

“Now we must speak the language of force because I believe unfortunately that this British government understands nothing else,” France’s European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune told the far-right TV channel CNews. “We will have no tolerance and make no exceptions,” he continued, adding: “We cannot act as if we have climate of trust with a partner who does not respect the rules.”

The British government issued a statement calling the French threats “disappointing” and promised to retaliate in kind if they were imposed. Yesterday Foreign Secretary Liz Truss summoned France’s ambassador Catherine Colonna to the Foreign Office to face questions today about “disproportionate” threats.

Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News, “We don’t know what they’ll do, they said they wouldn’t introduce these measures until Tuesday probably at the earliest so we will see what they do. But if they do bring these into place, well, two can play at that game and we reserve the ability to respond in a proportionate way.”

The escalating tit-for-tat attack on key economic activity and international trade, on which millions of jobs depend, testifies to the irrationality of the capitalist nation-state system. It is a vindication of the principled position taken by the Socialist Equality Party of Britain on the Brexit referendum in 2016. Calling for an active boycott of the referendum, mobilizing the working class in Britain and across Europe against both the nationalism of the Brexiteers and the EU, a brutal tool of European finance capital. 

The Brexit referendum triggered the fight over the division of fishing rights after Britain left the EU, but EU policies and French trade war threats are a deepening expression of the same reactionary nationalist tendencies. This emerges very starkly from the COVID-19 pandemic. London and the EU capitals pursued a virtually identical policy of “living with the virus,” leading to over a quarter-million COVID-19 deaths in Britain and France, and 1.3 million across Europe.

With the highly advanced state of breakdown of international relations in Europe, the danger of a military clash is growing rapidly. Already in May, a previous Franco-British fishery dispute off Jersey led to a tense naval standoff, as London and Paris dispatched warships to the disputed waters. 

Now, the fishing dispute is taking on the character of an all-European diplomatic crisis, as French President Emmanuel Macron meets today with Biden to try to repair US-French relations after the AUKUS treaty in the lead-up to this weekend’s G-20 summit in Rome. 

Earlier this month, French Prime Minister Jean Castex had spoken on the fisheries dispute at the French National Assembly, demanding “firmer support” from the EU against London. Calling on the EU to “ensure Britain respects the terms of the Brexit accord,” he threatened to veto the execution of Brexit accords and also “place in question… our bilateral relations with Britain.”

Yesterday morning, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland alongside Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, and Sweden issued a joint statement demanding a British response to French fishing license requests that respects Brexit accords. It concludes, “We call on the United Kingdom to provide a response as soon as possible and to engage in further technical work in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the Agreement.”

British officials for their part are announcing plans to build an alliance with the so-called Visegrad group (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) targeting France. The right-wing UK DailyExpress wrote that London aims to build an “alliance with ‘sympathetic’ nations against anti-UK France,” cited a senior source close to British Foreign Minister Truss. The source said Truss “is talking a lot to the Baltics [Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia] and the Visegrad 4.”

The source added that “the EU basically is France,” and dismissed it with the statement that Truss is “fairly relaxed about what they think.” The source suggested that Britain encourage Poland and other Visegrad group countries to follow the example of Brexit: “Perhaps we should set up an advisory unit on leaving the EU.”

Draconian PTA, Presidential Pardon to Criminals and Impunity to Security Forces

Kumarathasan Rasingam

President Gotabaya Rajapakshe in his speech in the United Nations General Assembly in his ambitious statement said “Fostering greater accountability, restorative justice and meaningful reconciliation through domestic institutions is essential to achieve lasting peace. So too is ensuring more equitable participation in the fruits of economic development. It is my Government’s firm intention to build a prosperous, stable and secure future for all Sri Lankans, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender.”

It is to be noted that his actions and moves were just opposite to what he promised considering his actions and inactions: Also a long list of emblematic cases which UNHRC and other Human Rights Organizations listed still remain unattended. Some of them are listed below:

[1] Killing of five [5] students in Trincomalee allegedly killed by the Sri Lankan Special Task force [STF] on January 02, 2006. So far no one has been held responsible for the brutal killings.

[2] Killings of 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger – ACF  [known as Muttur Massacre] were shot at close range in the city of Muttur – close to Trincomalee. In August 2006. The victims included 16 Tamils and one Muslim.

[3] Killing of Journalist and founder of Sunday Leader was killed on his way to work around 10.30 am on 8th January 2009. In April 2019 Wickkremasinghe’s daughter Ahimsa Wickremasinghe filed a civil suit against Gotabaya Rajapakshe [Now President of Sri Lanka] in the State of California. USA alleged Gotabaya Rajapakshe was behind his death.

[4] Killing of Mylvaganam Nirmalarajan Jaffna based Journalist on October 19, 2000. A group of gunmen stormed his house in Jaffna and brutally killed him. He was reporting for various news organizations including BBC Tamil and Sinhala, Tamil daily Veerakesari and Sinhala weekly Ravaya.

[5] Presidential Pardon of Sunil Ratnayake in 2020 who was found guilty of the massacre of Tamil civilians including a five year old child in Mirusuvil, Jaffna. This is one of the emblematic cases that traversed the criminal system in Sri Lanka with the highest Court of the land affirming the conviction. Despite no evidence to show a miscarriage of justice, a Presidental Pardon was granted, robbing the victims of accountability and undermining the justice system in Sri Lanka.

[6] Decision to drop case against  the formerNavy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, a man who was wanted over the abduction and suspected to be involved in the killings of 11 youths, This latest announcement from Sri Lankan Authorities is drawing international condemnation, including from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International.

[7] Earlier this year the Attorney General’s decision to discontinue the prosecution in the assasination of the Tamil MP and human rights activist Joseph Pararajasingam who was gunned down during Christmas Mass in 2005 in the Batticoloa Church. It is notable that one of the accused is S. Chandrakanthan  alias Pilliyan, a present Member of Parliament in the ruling government.

[8] Another interesting case that received wide attention was the decision by the Attorney General to withdraw the indictments against the finance minister Basil Rajapakshe [Brother of President Gotabaya Rajapakshe] and others related to the alleged misappropriation of public funds in the DIVINEGUMA DEPARTMENT.

[9] Appointing Retired Army Generals alleged to have committed war crimes in top posts in the civil administration of the country and assigning some to diplomatic posts to represent the  country is deplorable.

These few examples highlighted in this article are only an indication of the many setbacks in the judicial system in Sri Lanka. The failure of this system begs the question as to why victims should trust a rotten judicial system that continues to betray them.

UK budget: austerity for workers and billions for bankers

Robert Stevens

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered a class war budget yesterday, ending the limited social concessions passed during the pandemic and returning to a slash and burn Thatcherite orthodoxy.

The intended direction of travel is epitomised by the statement by the Office of Budget Responsibility statement that public spending is set to fall 'back sharply from its peacetime high of 53.1% of GDP in 2020-21 to 45.1% this year and to 42.1% next year as pandemic-related support comes to end.'

Sunak, who is worth an estimated £200 million and is married into one of India richest billionaire families, rubber stamped a series of massive attacks on workers’ living standards, and yet more subventions to the banks and super-rich who have made a financial killing during the pandemic.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak leaves No11 Downing Street to deliver his 2021 Budget to the House of Commons. 27/10/2021. (Picture by Luca Boffa / No 10 Downing Street/FlickR)

It was Sunak’s third onslaught against workers in the space of eight months, following his budget in March and his announcement in September of a hike in National Insurance Contribution taxes and end to the triple lock pension system.

Sunak’s budget was a masterclass in smoke and mirrors, heavily trailed as doling out tens of billions in giveaways to workers that have been hammered during the pandemic.

It was nothing of the sort. In his speech to MPs, Sunak declared he was inaugurating an “new age of optimism”. This was a reference to former Tory Chancellor David Cameron, who in a 2009 speech ushered in the “Age of Austerity”, a year before becoming prime minister. In office Cameron, in government with the Liberal Democrats, unleashed a savage onslaught against the working class including £100 billion in cuts to local council jobs and services.

But Sunak’s age of optimism is reserved for the oligarchs, while workers suffer continued austerity. In the largest transfer of wealth announced, Sunak slashed by 60 percent surcharges on bankers’ profits that were due to be enacted in 2023. This measure alone saves the banks £4 billion in taxes over five years.

The initial surcharge, along with a planned increase in corporation tax for the banks, would have meant banks paying a combined rate of 33 percent. With the new measures, including the cutting of the profit surcharge 8 percent to 3 percent, the banks will pay a combined rate of just 28 percent.

The Financial Times wrote approvingly last week of his “effort to keep the City of London competitive on a global scale in the wake of Brexit.”

For public consumption, however, the media gave the impression of Sunak carrying out a “£150bn splurge on public services” (Daily Mail) as part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to “level up” the country.

Sunak’s first job was in fact to warn everyone of “the importance of strong public finances,” under conditions in which “Coronavirus left us with borrowing higher than at any time since the Second World War.” He unveiled a ‘Charter for Budget Responsibility’ which “sets out two fiscal rules which will keep this government on the path of discipline and responsibility. First, underlying public sector net debt… excluding the impact of the Bank of England… must, as a percentage of GDP, be falling. Second, in normal times the state should only borrow to invest in our future growth and prosperity.”

Borrowing for public spending would cease as “Everyday spending must be paid for through taxation.” This was necessary to balance the books for day-to-day spending by the end of the parliament in 2024-25.

Central to the new fiscal tightening was his plan to “keep welfare spending on a sustainable path.” This month, the government ended the £20 per week uplift in the Universal Credit welfare benefit payment in place since the beginning of the pandemic. This has thrown millions of people into desperate financial circumstances overnight, the largest one-off welfare spending cut in British history taking £6 billion a year away from the poorest households.

Due to criticism, Sunak made a few token changes to the Universal Credit system in the budget. At best these would only benefit a small minority of the around six million people claiming the benefit and then only by a small amount. Announcing a cut to the UC taper rate, taxing claimants 63p in the pound on anything they earn over their base level of benefits, to a rate of 55p Sunak hailed it as £2 billion gift to the lowest-paid workers.

This still means that the poorest in society lose a collective £4 billion a year, or a £1,040 per year cut for claimants. The change only affects less than a third of those who lost the £20 uplift. The Independent noted that “a lone parent on minimum wage part-time will still lose £361 next year.”

Sunak announced an increase in the minimum wage of just 6.6 percent, with those aged 23 and over expecting £9.50 per hour. This will help only 2 million workers out of a workforce of over 30 million people. Moreover, such a small increase will be cancelled out by inflation with the RPI inflation rate already at 4.9 percent and expected to soon top 5 percent. Sunak acknowledged that even the CPI rate of inflation, which doesn’t include rising housing costs, would top 4 percent next year.

Much of the spending announced by Sunak was capital spending and very little was actual new money. The Financial Times noted, “An £11.5bn allocation to build up to 180,000 new affordable homes, £10bn to ‘unlock 1m new home’ and the £5bn cladding fund—all cited by Sunak on Wednesday—had each been previously announced”. One example, which will have tragic repercussions, is the pittance of £5 billion for spending to remove dangerous cladding on residential buildings. The amount required is up to £50 billion, and the £5 billion that Sunak hailed in the budget is the fourth time that this measure has been announced already!

Sunak’s budget fraud was punctured by sober analysis of documents accompanying the budget statement by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the OBR. With the huge increase in the cost of living, including mammoth rises in energy prices over the last months, the OBR noted that real household disposable incomes, after inflation is factored in, fell by 0.6 percent last year. This year it will rise by barely 1.1 percent year and in 2022 will increase by an even smaller 0.3 percent. As reported by the Guardian, the OBR estimates that “on a per person basis, real household disposable incomes only return to pre-pandemic levels in the latter half of 2023, with growth of 1.5% that year.”

Even this is optimistic, with more than a decade of austerity having already vastly reduced workers’ disposable income. Commented on the result of a social counter-revolution, the IFS tweeted that “real wages are expected to remain stagnant for 20 years. In 2026, wages are forecast to be £11.70 lower than if the pre-2008 trend in wage growth had continued.”

Noting the impact of the two budgets this year and the NIC tax rises being imposed, the IFS wrote, “Rises in national insurance contributions and (through a freeze to the personal allowance) income tax in April will come on top of rising inflation, taking a significant swipe at people’s spending power.

“According to the new forecasts, over the next year a median earner will find their pre-tax pay just about outpaces inflation, but after the extra income tax and NICs due their take-home pay will fall by about 1%, or £180 per year, in real terms.”

The Resolution Foundation assessed that Britain was “still in the midst of its weakest decade for pay growth since the 1930s,” and that real wages would continue to fall to 2024. The think tank said that the measures of the Johnson government, including Wednesday’s budget, would raise household tax bills by £3,000 on average by 2027.