Omicron variant threatens to unleash new global surge of COVID-19 pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Scientists have detected a new variant of COVID-19, the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Friday was officially recognized as “variant of concern” (VOC). The variant appears to have originated in southern Africa but has already been detected in several other countries. Initial indications are that an unusual constellation of mutations make the variant far more infectious than the Delta variant and potentially vaccine-resistant.

In its statement Friday, the WHO said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs,” including the Delta variant. “The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa.”

The WHO said that the first known confirmed case of infection from the Omicron variant came from a specimen collected on November 9. In just over two weeks, however, it has quickly become the dominant strain in South Africa.

The seven-day moving average of new cases in South Africa has risen fourfold from 265 to over 1,043 new COVID-19 cases per day in two weeks. Yesterday, the country reported 2,465 new infections. Seventy-five percent of all currently sequenced coronavirus cases are attributed to the latest variant, soon expected to reach 100 percent. New infections are exploding in highly urbanized Gauteng, a small northeastern province in South Africa, accounting for less than 2 percent of the country’s land area but home to a quarter of its population.

Dr. Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine and director of the Centre for Epidemic Response & Innovation, explained that the variant is “really worrisome at the mutational level.” The new variant possesses over 50 mutations, with 32 on the virus’ spike protein, which it uses to bind to human respiratory cells.

Dr. de Oliveira explained that many of these mutations are linked to increasing antibody resistance, which raises concerns that vaccines and therapeutics will be less effective in combating the new variant.

Expressing the gravity of the threat to the entire world population, the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement, warning, “given its immune escape potential and potentially increased transmissibility advantage compared to Delta, we assess the probability of further introduction and community spread in [Europe] as HIGH.” It added, “In a situation where the Delta variant is resurgent in [Europe], the impact of the introduction and possible further spread of Omicron could be VERY HIGH.”

According to Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam, a complex system physicist who has been studying pandemics for nearly two decades, current rough estimates indicate that the Omicron variant is six times more transmissible than the original variant and twice as transmissible as the Delta variant. Bar-Yam also estimates that the mortality rate for Omicron is eight times higher than the original variant.

Dr. Anthony Leonardi, a T-cell immunologist, told the World Socialist Web Site, “The [Omicron variant] is probably everywhere, and it now has a huge capability to mutate. As it outpaces Delta, it's going to create even more infections. It will therefore evolve even faster than Delta.”

Genomic sequences in South Africa (B.1.1.529(Omicron) in Blue). Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding Twitter feed.

Hong Kong, Israel, and Belgium have already identified infected patients with the new variant, which means that the current iteration of the virus has spread globally. In Israel, one of the infected individuals, who had returned from Malawi, was previously fully vaccinated and had received their booster shot two months ago. Two others are also in quarantine, awaiting further testing.

The young unvaccinated woman identified in Belgium was traveling to Egypt via Turkey and had no links to South Africa.

European governments and the US scrambled to announce travel restrictions from countries in southern Africa. Early on Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, “The EU commission will propose, in close coordination with member states, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern African region due to the variant of concern, B.1.1529.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief pandemic adviser, attempted to assure the US public that there was “no indication” the Omicron variant had reached the US. This is an attempt to deflect public alarm and anger while the Biden administration works out its response.

In line with the EU, the Biden administration imposed air travel restrictions from southern African countries Friday afternoon. “As a precautionary measure, until we have more information,” Biden said in a statement, “I’m ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. These new restrictions will take effect on Monday.”

The travel restrictions have the character of stop-gap measures, which will come too late to stop the spread of the variant globally. The removal of all restrictions on the virus in the US and the major European countries (including the reopening of schools and workplaces) guarantees that if the variant has been introduced, it is already rapidly spreading.

Even prior to the announcement of the discovery of the new strain, COVID-19 cases have surged globally, particularly in Europe and the United States, which are entering the winter months when infection rates usually spike.

Biden encouraged Americans to get vaccinated or to get their booster shot. “If you have not gotten vaccinated, or have not taken your children to get vaccinated,” Biden said, “now is the time.”

While vaccines are a critical tool in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists warned that vaccination is not a “magic bullet” that will end the pandemic. Lockdowns, in coordination with a robust testing, contact tracing and quarantine program, are essential to controlling the spread of the disease. Allowing the virus to continue to propagate internationally, scientists have repeatedly warned, will lead to new and more infectious variants, such as Omicron, that could evade the immunity that the vaccines provide.

Biden has made the full reopening of schools and businesses—before the virus has been brought under control and while millions of children remain unvaccinated—a pillar of his administration. Under Biden’s watch, state governors have abandoned almost all mitigation measures, such as state-wide mask mandates, even as close to 100,000 people fall ill and more than 1,000 die every day from COVID-19 in the United States.

COVID-19 cases surge to record highs in South Korea

Ben McGrath

Last Tuesday, South Korea recorded 4,116 new COVID-19 cases, the greatest number for a 24-hour period since the pandemic began almost two years ago. The new high surpassed the previous record set the previous Thursday of 3,292. Another 3,937 new cases were registered on November 25. The explosion in infections is the direct result of the Moon Jae-in administration’s abandonment of any attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.

A medical worker in a booth takes a nasal sample from a man at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 [Credit: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon]

Seoul initiated its so-called “with COVID” era on November 1, in which the population would supposedly “live with the virus” while health officials only treated the most severe cases. Most social distancing restrictions have been lifted throughout the country under the rationale that nearly 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated and that masks are still required in public.

The new infections demonstrate the fact—already made clear around the world—that there is no living with COVID-19. Daily deaths have been climbing steadily since September with 38 people losing their lives on Thursday, the most since January.

At the same time, the number of patients in a critical condition also reached an all-time high of 617 yesterday, up five from the previous day, putting a strain on the country’s intensive care unit (ICU) wards, particularly in the Seoul metropolitan area. As of Tuesday, 83.7 percent of ICU beds in the capital city, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province were occupied. Nearly three quarters of ICU beds have been filled nationwide. As of Wednesday, 778 people have also been left on a waiting list for a hospital bed, unable to access care.

Despite the surge and the danger to the population, the government is doing all it can to avoid even moderate social distancing measures that would negatively impact big business. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-gyeong stated November 22 that no new measures to stop the spread of the virus were being considered, despite evaluating the situation as “very dangerous,” and noting the growing pressure on the health care system.

Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom backed this position on Wednesday, stating, “Our gradual return to normal life has faced its first hurdle. We are at a point to review whether we should move to the next phase or not, but the situation is more serious than we expected.” In other words, while the country faces record highs in infections and the danger of an even wider spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, the government is content to do nothing besides “review” the situation.

The lifting of restrictions comes with the full reopening of schools on November 22, resulting in a surge of new cases among children. In an interview that day with Arirang News, Dr. Alice Tan of MizMedi Women’s Hospital in Seoul said that children between the ages of 0 and 19 were “one of the fastest growing demographics in terms of new cases with COVID. I think school administrators, superintendents need to keep that in mind, that there are just that many more children with COVID in the community right now.”

Mass infection and death are the realities of the so-called “return to normal,” being ushered in by the Moon administration, which has lifted social distancing measures at the demand of big business. For the wealthy in South Korea, the pandemic has already been an enormous boon and inequality has risen sharply.

Large companies have used the pandemic as a pretext to slash thousands of jobs. A survey of 313 companies by market researcher Leaders Index found that these companies had cut approximately 18,200 regular jobs while adding 5,400 irregular positions. Irregular workers earn significantly less pay than their regular counterparts despite doing the same jobs. They also receive fewer benefits and risk being fired at any moment without recourse. The number of irregular workers has surged this year to 8.07 million people, an increase of 640,000 from 2020. This officially represents 38.4 percent of the total workforce.

Workers who have been fired or furloughed also face enormous difficulties. Over the past year, there has been a 75 percent surge of new cases from workers seeking workers’ compensation as a result of mental illness. Indicative of the pressures that workers face is the suicide of a flight attendant last fall after she had been furloughed by Korean Air. Following a review on September 30, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Eligibility Review Commission ruled the case a work-related accident.

Internet-based companies, such as food delivery apps, have taken advantage of the situation and seen their sales surge through the exploitation of low-paid workers in South Korea’s gig economy. The leading food delivery app in South Korea, Baedal Minjok, has had sales increase by 94.4 percent over last year, bringing in 1.09 trillion won ($US917 million).

Inequality is also being driven by a sharp rise in real estate and stock prices. The price of an average apartment in Seoul has doubled over the past four years, from 607 million won ($US510,689) to 1.21 billion won ($US1 million). This includes an 11.98 percent jump between January and September this year, the biggest increase in 15 years.

“The value of all assets has escalated to an all-time high, ranging from stocks, real estate, and virtual assets, which is pretty unprecedented,” Cho Young-hyun, from the Korea Insurance Research Institute, told the Korea Times in October.

“Rising household debt is also worrisome, not only from the perspective of its size, but also from the speed of the debt increase rate, which is one of the fastest among OECD countries. As it could later impact mid- to long-term financial stability, it is necessary to alleviate such an imbalance,” Cho said.

As a result, the wealth gap has sharply increased. The bottom 20 percent of income earners hold, on average, 24.7 million won ($US20,779) in assets. By contrast, the top 20 percent hold 35.2 times more for an average of 870 million won ($US731,940). This is an increase of two percent from last year.

The current policy of the government to live “with COVID” is designed to continue and normalize these conditions to allow big business to deepen its attacks on working and living standards.

Totalitarian Cyber-Creep: Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse

Binoy Kampmark

Never leave matters of maturity to the Peter Panners of Silicon Valley.  At their most benign, they are easily dismissed as potty and keyboard mad.  At their worst, their fantasies assume the noxious, demonic forms that reduce all users of their technology to units of information and flashes of data.  Such boys (they are mostly boys), felt somehow left out by the currents of reality, their own world excruciatingly boring and filled with pangs of childhood disturbance and regret.  So they sought vengeance upon us all: imposing a global regime of fairly useless cyber architecture that saps intelligence in the name of experience, destroys imagination even as it celebrates it, and luxuriates in a lowly prurience.

Facebook, in particular, has been trying to push such a model using a tactic all companies in distress have sought to adopt: rebranding.  Be it the scandals disclosed by the Facebook papers, the scrutiny over the use of algorithms by the company, the inability to combat galloping misinformation on its platforms, or the stark amorality of the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the chance to seek the metaverse has presented itself.

Enter, then, the world of Meta Platforms, aided by the virtual reality headset company Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion.  Astute watchers then would have been the strategy afoot at the time; most, however, thought the decision misguided and destined to flop.

The metaverse has become a goal for not just Facebook, but the likes of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, though Facebook is distinctly not interested in gaming.  It can be seen to be a sort of Internet 2.0, envisaged as shared 3D spaces streaked by virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR respectively).  You can access that reality via a pair of glasses or some virtual reality set and get transported to a virtual space populated by avatars.  “The essence of virtual and augmented reality is that you need to have a technology that delivers this feeling of presence,” Zuckerberg mentions in an interview this year.  “The sense that you are actually there with another person and all the different sensations that come with it.”

According to Facebook, the metaverse will feature a totalising system of various functions and services designed to be “the successor to the mobile internet”.  There will be Horizon Home for social interactions, “the first thing you see when you put on your Quest headset.”  Video conferencing and phone conversations will be replaced by Quest for Business.

For all the company’s egregious sins, this new technology will be pursued, says Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs and Nick Clegg, Vice President of the company’s global affairs, “responsibly”.  In September, $50 million in research development was promised to ensure that such products met that mark, an amount somewhat piddly when compared to other areas of research the company lavishes money upon.

On November 15, there were further announcements that the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital would “focus on improving our understanding of how we can foster young people’s digital literacy and embed wellness into emerging metaverse technologies.”  The children, it seems, will not be spared.

All this tells us that Facebook is moving towards its next stage of surveillance capitalism, a relentless drive towards extracting and squeezing every bit of nutriment of being that is human behaviour.  The privacy of users, already tattered and battered by the predations of Facebook data privateers, can be further diminished, even as it is supposedly protected. “Metaverse technologies like VR and AR are perhaps the most data-extractive digital sensors we’re likely to invite into our homes in the next decade,” reasons Marcus Carter of the University of Sydney’s Socio-Tech Futures Lab.

Zuckerberg has spent some time contemplating the road of enthronement in the VR/AR market.  The amount of money Facebook has heaped upon its VR and AR research and development division is eye watering.  One estimate places it at $10 billion.  Critics can at least take comfort in the fact that most of the company’s social VR/AR products to date have tended to splutter into well-deserved oblivion or flounder in “invite-only beta phases”.  Then there is the issue of the headsets themselves, cumbersome bits of hardware saddled across the user’s face like a harness.

None of that gets away from the sinister premise in this new company strategy.  Zuckerberg and his minions seek to corporately control the metaverse, using VR and AR to identify behavioural biometrics unique to each user.  Everything from body gyration to eye movement becomes fair game.  “We should all be concerned about how Facebook could and will use the data collected within the metaverse,” writes virtual reality enthusiast Bree McEwan.

In truth, we should be more than concerned.  Facebook’s strength of influence has been its embrace of the innocuous even as it gears up for inflicting the next societal harm.  But its increasingly centralising tendencies – making the user generate a marketable portrait of usage and behaviour – will be given a further kick along with the metaverse.

With Oculus and the Facebook account linked, one headset, and one user, ever greater pools of marketized data will be generated.  Work, fitness, entertainment, social choices will all become a deeper quarry to be mined and monetised by salivating wonks in a corporate enterprise.  This is totalitarian cyber-creepism run mad.  And Zuckerberg just might get away with it.

Ethiopia Conflict by US Design

Graham Peebles

Supported by America and other foreign forces, including elements within United Nations (UN) agencies, The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are attempting to overthrow the democratically elected Government of Ethiopia and regain power. This would be disastrous for the country and the region.

The impact of the year-long conflict is devastating. Perhaps as many as three million people are internally displaced, tens of thousands have been killed; women and girls raped, property trashed, land destroyed, livestock slaughtered by TPLF fighters. At this stage it is difficult to see how a peaceful resolution can be reached; the government has said it will not enter into negotiations until the TPLF withdraws to Tigray, and the TPLF, in no position to set any conditions, are demanding Prime-Minister Abiy Ahmed steps down.

The conflict was initiated when the TPLF attacked the Ethiopian State on 4 November 2020 (perhaps with US approval): despite this, the US and her puppets (UK, EU etc) have, to the incredulity of many, stood behind the terrorists and not the government of Ethiopia, or the Ethiopian people. It is widely acknowledged that the Biden Administration is behind the movement to replace the Abiy government, and install the TPLF – a less independent (the US doesn’t tolerate independent governments), more malleable group that, in exchange for the freedom to do as they like, will once again provide the US with a foothold in the Horn of Africa.

Unsurprisingly, Jeffrey Feltman – US Horn of Africa special envoy, denies all this, saying, “we have consistently condemned the TPLF’s expansion of the war outside Tigray, and we continue to call on the TPLF to withdraw from Afar and Amhara.”

True, however it’s actions not words that count (particularly politicians words), and in light of the US response since the start of the conflict, and the State Department’s behind-the-scenes shenanigans, his repudiation appears duplicitous at best, and is ignored by furious Ethiopians, many of whom attended protests recently. Huge crowds gathered under #NoMore in Addis Ababa, Washington, San Francisco, London, Pretoria and elsewhere, demanding an end to American interference in Ethiopia’s affairs. There is growing anger among groups in other African nations, who see American meddling in Ethiopia as an attack on Africa itself, a colonial assault.

US backing

American administrations, have consistently backed the TPLF, who established close connections with the US government during their 27 years in power (1991-2018), contacts that they are making full use of now.

It was only when, in 2018 after they were forced out of office by years of demonstrations, that the US withdrew backing and celebrated the new government led by Abiy Ahmed. But, consistent with their Support for Dictators the world over, until then and throughout the TPLF’s reign the US (plus UK and, less so, the EU) turned a blind eye, a deaf ear to the regime’s brutality, human rights violations and the anguished cries of the people.

And when the TPLF attacked the Northern Command Headquarters last November, and bases in Adigrat, Agula, Dansha and Sero, killing security personnel and stealing weapons, Washington, London and Brussels said and did nothing. This initial betrayal set the tone of the West’s orchestrated and shameful response. The US is leading the efforts of destruction and ‘transition’ – as TPLF officials and terrorist sympathisers call the move to overthrow the Government – giving the TPLF a range of practical and political support: They are believed to be sharing intelligence information about federal troop movements, providing food, water, and arms.

They consistently feed western media false or misleading information, and have repeatedly called for negotiations and a ceasefire: while this sounds reasonable and at some point a political settlement may be possible, such demands elevate the terrorist TPLF to a legitimate political group and disregard Ethiopian public opinion. The US also ignores the government-declared ceasefire in June/July, which the TPLF not only refused to respect, but, after federal forces withdrew, TPLF fighters marched into Afar and Amhara and committed a series of appalling atrocities.

At the same time as facilitating TPLF aggression, spreading their propaganda and criticizing PM Abiy’s government, the Biden Administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Ethiopia: In May visa restrictions were introduced against anyone deemed “responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution of the crisis in Tigray,” together with “wide-ranging restrictions on economic and security assistance”. This affects US financial support, and is potentially extremely damaging. At the same time, a request was made for the World Bank and IMF to also withhold funding. Four months later, on 17 September, President Biden signed an Executive Order, “Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons With Respect to the Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis in Ethiopia.” The rather vague dictate includes the Government of Eritrea as well as any “military or security force that operates or has operated in Ethiopia on or after November 1, 2020.”

From 1 January 2022 (unless there is significant change on the ground) Ethiopia’s Special Trade Status, which enables Ethiopian goods to be sold into the US free of import duty, will be removed. This is potentially the most damaging measure and threatens to cause wide-scale job losses among the poorest workers. According to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, it will “reverse significant economic gains in our country….We urge the United States to support our ongoing efforts to restore peace and the rule of law — not punish our people for confronting an insurgent force that is attempting to bring down our democratically elected government.”

The US is also targeting tourism in Ethiopia (in 2018 the sector grew by 48% and contributed $7.4 billion to the economy); urging its citizens to leave the country and deterring anyone from travelling there. Those who do have been warned there is a high chance they will be killed, and urged to make a will before travelling. This is blatant fear mongering. It is a coordinated effort (UK, France, Turkey, Germany and others have issued similar guidelines) to present Ethiopia as broken and dangerous and to isolate the country, and as US citizens who made the trip recently discovered, is completely false. These measures could cost the country $billions.

And in June, around the time the Ethiopian government initiated a ceasefire in Tigray, the US State Department announced “a review for a genocide determination” – by the government of Ethiopia against Tigrayans. This is utter nonsense, but represents another triumph for the TPLF and indicates the level of influence they have in Washington. The Ethiopian government is fighting the TPLF, not the people of Tigray, however, the impact on civilians in Tigray, as well as Afar and Amhara, has been devastating (largely resulting from TPLF violence) and there are some reports of Tigrayans being unduly targeted following the imposition of a State of Emergency (SoE) on 2 November.

Whilst it is important that security forces have the freedom to identify anybody working with the TPLF and to reduce the risk of random terror attack, actions such as indiscriminate arrests, risk fueling anger against ethnic groups, particularly Tigrayans (many of whom are not involved with the TPLF), and should wherever possible be avoided.

Within the chaos of conflict a powerful sense of national unity has emerged; the people have a common enemy – the TPLF, as well as the US, and western media, which has lost all credibility among Ethiopians. It is essential that this sense of togetherness is maintained and that fragmentation along ethnic/tribal lines, which the TPLF agitated when in power, is minimised. Introduced as a way to divide and rule, the TPLF’s policy of Ethnic (or tribal) Federalism split communities, enflamed resentments and fostered the creation of ethnocentric political groups, some of which, the Oromo Liberation Front e.g., now working with the TPLF in an unholy alliance, have morphed into armed insurgencies.

Stay Away USA

US administrations, self-righteous and arrogant, appear never to learn from their invasive mistakes, or recognize the degree to which they are despised in certain parts of the world. It is not a sense of global responsibility and altruistic kindness that impels the US (and other former predatory powers) to interfere in a nation’s affairs, it is self-interest, corporate gain, fear and arrogance, and is seen as such by people throughout the world; just ask the abandoned, violated people of Afghanistan, the abused Palestinians forced to live under occupation in their own land, or the millions in Iraqis whose lives have never recovered from the 2003 invasion.

Ethiopia, much to the fury of America, is now looking elsewhere for allies; China, which has a strong relationship with the country resulting from the Belt and Road Initiative, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – reported to be supplying arms – Russia and other African neighbors. The message to the US from Ethiopians and people standing in solidarity with Ethiopia is clear, ‘Stop Interfering’, ‘Mind your Own Business’, ‘We see you’. If you cannot be a friend to Ethiopia, a supporter of democracy and a Force for Good in the country, then Stay Away. Ethiopia is an ancient nation with a rich diverse culture, it has never been colonized: this fact is a source of great pride to Ethiopians, who are a deeply proud people, they will “never bow down” as one protestor put it, not to terrorists or modern-day colonialists, not now, not ever.

Ambulances called nearly 1,000 times to Amazon’s UK warehouses

Laura Tiernan

Ambulances have responded 971 times to emergency calls at Amazon’s UK “fulfilment centres” since 2018, according to data obtained by the Mirror under Freedom of Information (FOI).

Ambulance callouts happened at 24 Amazon warehouses, the Mirror reported this week. This included 178 visits to the company’s Tilbury warehouse in Essex, the largest in Europe, where an employee died earlier this month.

The newspaper obtained information from nine NHS ambulance trusts. It reported, “Paramedics treated people who had lost consciousness, or were suffering from traumatic injuries, breathing problems and chest or cardiac pain.”

The Amazon distribution centre in Tilbury (credit: Google Maps)

Among the medical emergencies were two Amazon employees who were suicidal.

Ahead of this weekend’s annual Black Friday discount sales, the newspaper’s exposé underscores the brutal exploitation underpinning the company’s global dominance and the obscene wealth of its founder Jeff Bezos who is worth £154 billion ($USD 205.5 billion) according to Forbes .

Amazon is expected to take £2 billion in UK sales this weekend and more than $USD 10 billion in the United States. Its total sales reached £20.63 billion in the UK during 2020, up by more than 50 percent in one year. The company employs 55,000 people in the UK and took on 22,000 extra staff last year as consumers shifted to online retail during the pandemic.

Global Amazon profits hit $USD 386.6 billion (£289.68 billion) this year, up 38 percent on the previous year. Amazon earned so much that even if all 1.3 million employees were paid a COVID bonus of $690,000, the company would still be as rich as it was in 2019. The company has a market value of $1.8 trillion.

The pandemic has vastly accelerated the grotesque inequalities and exploitation inherent in the capitalist profit system. Workers at Amazon’s UK warehouses report they are treated like “slaves and animals”, forced to meet impossible pick rates and bullied if they fall behind. A whistleblower from Tilbury told the Mirror, “Amazon sees people just like numbers, just like rats.”

Testimony from employees to an Amazon Workers’ Hotline set up by Unite and reported on Twitter includes:

• “When my second child was born, I requested the time off and was ‘ticketed’ for being off work.”
• “They are checking on you all the time. Once one of managers came to the toilet after me and my friend to check what we were doing there. It was horrible.”
• “We have targets of 300 items an hour. The bosses are bullies. The last hour of the shift is ‘Power Hour’ where if your targets drop it messes up your rate for the whole shift.”
• “I had a panic attack at my work station and nearly passed out l, got told that I could only take rest of day off and was to come back to work the next day, there is no mental health support with the Amazon.”
• “They have cut the staff by half and the volume has increased during the pandemic. The staff got smaller and smaller, and now we are having to work way more and they have the audacity to say it is for our safety's sake they reduced the number of workers!”

In 2018, the GMB union published results from its own FOI investigation which showed 600 serious medical incidents at 14 Amazon warehouses in just three years. At Rugeley warehouse near Birmingham, there were 115 ambulance callouts, including two for electric shocks and eight for people who had fallen unconscious. Since then, conditions have worsened, with paramedics attending 30 percent more often in the past three years, or 120 additional ambulance visits per year.

Amazon's one million square-foot fulfilment centre in Fife. Credit: Chris Watt

Trade unions, charities, lobbyists, NGOs and other representatives of the upper middle class are staging their annual Black Friday protests today. The #MakeAmazonPay coalition is a top-down operation aimed at suppressing a worldwide rebellion by workers against social inequality and capitalist exploitation. Members of the coalition present themselves as champions of Amazon employees, tapping into workers’ desire for globally unified action. But as with the Black Friday sales, it is necessary to look at the fine print.

#MakeAmazonPay reports it is holding “Black Friday actions” in Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia.

But despite the horrific conditions facing warehouse and delivery workers worldwide, and despite (or rather because of) the awesome potential power of the company’s 1.3 million strong workforce, no globally coordinated industrial action has been called. Amazon’s Black Friday profits will not be jeopardised. The protests are being widely promoted in the media precisely for this reason, in stark contrast to the media blackout of the explosive strikes by Spanish metal workers in Cadiz.

Token protests being held today in Britain confirm the stage-managed character of the Black Friday campaign. The GMB union announced it will protest alongside the Trades Union Congress, International Transport Federation, War on Want and Labour Behind the Label in the #MakeAmazonPay coalition. Four protests are taking place outside Amazon facilities in Peterborough, Coventry and Ellistown in the East Midlands, with the largest a gathering of 50-100 coalition supporters outside Amazon’s HQ in London. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn, that walking talisman against the class struggle, will be on hand to deliver Fabian homilies about the need to protect Amazon workers from rampant profiteering and the importance of Amazon paying taxes.

The #MakeAmazonPay coalition is led by the Progressive International whose founder, political charlatan Yanis Varoufakis, betrayed the Greek working class as Finance Minister in the Syriza government, imposing mass austerity diktats on behalf of the European Union, European Central Bank and NATO. These are people who have nothing to offer the working class except defeat.

The coalition has published a list of “common demands”, addressed to Amazon and capitalist governments, calling for “fair pay”, for Amazon to pay tax and to compensate for its impact on the planet. It calls on Amazon to begin “sharing power with workers, for instance by welcoming worker representatives elected by their colleagues in different management levels, and by increasing options for workers to receive not only shares in the corporation, but also voting rights, so that the company moves towards a model of democratic governance.”

Politically, its demands promote “unions’ rights to promote workers’ interests” and “giving unions access to Amazon worksites to inform workers on the benefits of unionization”. Its advocacy of the pro-company trade unions is in line with efforts led by United States President Joe Biden, whose Democratic Party administration has publicly encouraged efforts to unionise Amazon warehouses in Alabama, New York and elsewhere.

Union control of Amazon and logistics workers is viewed as a strategic imperative in ruling circles. The financial oligarchy is reliant on the unions’ vast apparatus to suppress strikes, discipline the workforce, weed out militants, promote economic nationalism and prevent the emergence of a global mass movement by the working class against capitalism.

Health and Social Care Bill’s naked onslaught on UK working class

Paul Bond

The passing of an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill on Monday marks a devastating attack on the working class across England. It ensures that poorer pensioners will bear a greater financial share of their social care costs than the better off.

The Bill sets a cap of £86,000 on the amount anyone will have to pay personally towards the cost of their social care. However, the amendment excludes from this figure any means-tested support that is received to help pay for these costs, meaning that poorer pensioners will pay personally the same as the richer.

The cap was originally proposed by Sir Andrew Dilnot’s 2011 report on overhauling social care funding, commissioned by David Cameron’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. The report was welcomed by then Labour leader Ed Miliband as “an important step forward,” and he offered Labour’s support in finding “a way to make this work.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot (Credit: Creative Commons)

Cameron’s government introduced the cap in the 2014 Care Act, but it was never implemented. The government is using the current amendment to effect its implementation, protect private assets and cut £900 million per annum from government expenditure by 2027.

The cap means that up to a quarter of those facing residential care in England could end up taking more from their assets than was envisaged in the 2014 Act. At least 125,000 people at any one time could face higher costs even than originally proposed by Dilnot.

Those with assets of less than £20,000 will not have to use these to pay towards care fees, although they might have to pay from their income. Those with more than £100,000 in assets will not be eligible for any council financial help.

Those with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will qualify for means-tested support to help pay for care. However, this contribution will not be included in the £86,000 personal liability cap.

Dilnot’s proposal was that any means-tested support should be included in the total cap. Excluding it, wrote Dilnot, would be “unfair for those on low incomes,” as the result would be that the poorer would only “contribute more slowly, rather than contributing less overall” than the richer.

That was exactly the class calculation Boris Johnson’s government introduced in the amendment. Dilnot himself noted that anyone with assets of less than £186,000 will be penalised under the amended scheme.

Torsten Bell, head of low income research thinktank the Resolution Foundation, tweeted: “Here’s a simple way to think about the problem the government has created: if you own a £1m house in the home counties, over 90% of your assets are protected. If you’ve got a terraced house in Hartlepool (worth £70k) you can lose almost everything.”

Sally Warren, of healthcare charity the King’s Fund, said the amendment “no longer protects those with lower assets from catastrophic costs.”

When asked by the press, business minister Paul Scully refused to guarantee no one would need to sell their home to pay for care. He told Sky News: “I can’t tell you what individuals are going to do… It will depend on different circumstances.”

Dilnot’s review marked the emergence of an official consensus that even the most essential publicly funded social provision had to be dismantled and privatised. It accepted that those living in care homes had to pay their annual living costs, including food and accommodation.

The Department of Health and Social Care guidance on the Bill makes clear that “daily living costs” are excluded from the cap, so even the notion that £86,000 is the most an individual will have to pay personally is false. Set at a nationwide flat rate of £200 a week, these costs come on top of the cap.

Much of the press coverage has focused on a regional divide, as house prices vary wildly across the country. Analysis by the Guardian suggests that those requiring long-term elderly care in northern areas will spend at least 60 percent of their eligible property value, compared to around 20 percent in the wealthier south.

The amendment caused unease among Conservative MPs in the northern so-called “Red Wall” constituencies won from Labour in 2019’s landslide election, capitalising on Brexit. Sitting in socially deprived seats, they are aware of the simmering class hostility that can be unleashed by yet more austerity and cuts and wanted to distance themselves from the reality of their party’s policies and hide behind its promises to “level up” the north with the south of England.

Despite an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, therefore, the vote only passed by 272-246, a majority of 26. Eighteen Tories voted against the government and there were 68 abstentions.

The rest of the Bill was equally vile. Since the planned changes were first floated in a White Paper in February, the press have been trying to spin them as a bold reversal of Lansley’s 2012 Act, which extended sweeping privatisation across the National Health Service (NHS). The Bill will replace Lansley’s Clinical Commissioning Groups—the vehicle for privatisation through their buying of services “on behalf of” patients and putting those services out to competitive tender—with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs).

The claim is that the ICSs are intended to “eliminate the need for competitive tendering where it adds limited or no value.” But this is far from hostility to private provision. The removal of fixed price tariffs, rather, offers the possibility of more private provision if companies come up with better prices.

Thinktanks have rejected claims that the Bill offered private firms a power grab, but it did not need to. It is a more thorough-going integration of private firms within the structures of the NHS. Each of the 42 regional ICSs in England will be made up of Integrated Care Partnerships, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), councils, charities and others. Alongside NHS clinicians and local public health officials, private health companies can have representatives on ICBs. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said that such appointments will only be blocked if they “could reasonably be regarded as undermining the independence of the health service.”

The end to public tendering is likely to see existing outsourced work being rolled over, cementing the place of private companies. The NHS will only be required to tender services where this might lead to better outcomes. But competitive tendering and privatisation will continue, especially in the most lucrative sectors.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed concern that the Bill “allows contracts to be awarded to private providers without proper scrutiny or transparency.” Given the naked cronyism of exorbitant private contracts handed out to government allies during the pandemic, this is well founded. Javid is keen to use the confused conditions of the pandemic as a smokescreen, arguing, “This is exactly the right time for these reforms.” The Bill also gives the health secretary a free hand to intervene in any local plans at any time.

Labour’s “opposition” to the Bill was for the record. Justin Madders summarised Labour’s ringing defence: “we on the opposition benches believe that the NHS should be the default provider. If it is not the only provider, it should be predominant provider… Where a service cannot be provided by a public body there is still the option to go beyond the NHS itself, but that should be a last resort and never a permanent solution.”

Unite the union’s national officer for health, Jacalyn Williams, described the Bill as “a licence for politicians to run down and sell off our NHS,” even as the health unions work might and main to prevent a struggle by their members to oppose the government and defend the NHS.

Hundreds more lives threatened on “disintegrating” boat in Mediterranean as London and Paris cross swords over Channel migrant deaths

Robert Stevens

Amid mutual recriminations between London and Paris over the deaths Wednesday of 27 migrants and asylum seekers in the English Channel, it was reported Thursday morning that 430 people are at imminent risk of death in a boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of north Africa.

The news was reported, with hardly any media coverage, by Alarm Phone, who provide a hotline for people on boats in distress. It said, “A boat with approximately 430 people on board, including dozens of children and minors, is in severe distress in the central Mediterranean Sea.”

Screenshot of Thursday's Alarm Phone article warning of the perilous situation facing over 400 migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea

Alarm Phone said it was alerted to the disastrous situation the previous day by people on board: “According to them, the boat is disintegrating, and they cannot hold out much longer. Moreover, they report that several people have already died. There are over one hundred people below deck—in case of a shipwreck, they would be trapped inside the vessel.” It provided the co-ordinates for the vessel.

The European Union (EU) was unmoved, with Alarm Phone reporting that it “has repeatedly informed European authorities in Italy and Malta. MRCC [Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres] Rome has informed us that they were not the ‘competent authority’ in this case, while… Malta simply hangs up the phone when we try to relay information on the case.”

After Wednesday’s preventable deaths, the attitude to the Mediterranean Sea boat underscores the criminality of the anti-immigration policies pursued by all the European governments. As this crisis unfolded, Britain and France stepped up their bitter recriminations following the deaths resulting from a flimsy inflatable dingy capsizing off the French port city Calais. Those on board were trying to reach the UK.

On Thursday morning the French government, who initially reported that 31 people had died, revised the figure down to 27—still the largest number of dead in the Channel since the International Organisation for Migration began systematically monitoring crossings and fatalities in 2014.

Among them were 17 men, seven women—including one who was pregnant—two boys and a girl. According to reports, most of the dead were Kurds from Iraq or Iran. Two of those rescued were from Iraq and Somalia. They are recovering from severe hypothermia. The deaths follow those of around 10 other migrants who also perished while attempting the crossing in recent weeks.

France, Britain and the entire European ruling class bear responsibility for the deaths. It is no coincidence that the origin countries of the victims—Iraq, Iran and Somalia—are those which have suffered from decades of imperialist oppression, including the 2003 invasions of Iraq and imperialist intrigues in Iran and Somalia. Millions have been left homeless and internally displaced by these crimes.

On hearing of the deaths, France and Britain swung into damage limitation mode, with government figures from each country declaring that all responsibility fell on “people smugglers” and “gangs”. France launched a criminal investigation, with four men arrested on Wednesday and a fifth on Thursday. French President Emmanuel Macron declared, “Everything will be put in place to find and convict those responsible.”

No end of crocodile tears were shed. The European Parliament held a minute’s silence Thursday. These are representatives of the EU powers responsible for turning the continent into” Fortress Europe”, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers by drowning in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

Recent tombs of migrants who died in their attempt to cross the English Channel are pictured in the Nord Cemetery of Calais, northern France, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

On Thursday, Macron called for “an emergency meeting of EU ministers concerned by the migratory challenge”. The EU border agency Frontex should provide “immediate reinforcement” to monitor the Channel, he said.

Johnson and Macron pledged Wednesday night to “step up” cooperation to stop deaths in the Channel, with Macron cynically requesting that Britain not exploit the deaths “for political purposes”.

Their bromides were only the signal for a tirade of accusations and nationalist outbursts on both sides of the Channel, from right-wing forces and the media.

Even before their phone call, Johnson had already accused France of being slack in monitoring its coast. “We’ve had difficulties persuading some of our partners—particularly the French—to do things in a way in which we think the situation deserves.”

The right-wing gutter press in Britain, who for years have scapegoated and hounded “illegal” immigrants and asylum seekers, were awash with recriminations. Alongside a photo of the remains of the flimsy dinghy in which the 27 tried to cross, the Daily Mail ran the online headline, “This is on you, Macron”.

The Metro’s front page wailed, “Why didn't France stop them?” The Sun and Daily Mail ’s print edition led with a photo of migrants taking a dingy to the shoreline with a French police car parked nearby on the beach, with the headlines, “Shameful: French police idly look on as rafts head to UK”, and “You’re letting gangs get away”. A Daily Express article complained, “UK has paid ‘duplicitous’ France £160m since 2015 to stop migrant boats”.

Macron was mainly concerned with parading his government’s law and order policies aimed against migrants and asylum seekers. He declared, “our security forces are mobilised day and night… Our mobilisation is total as far as our coasts are concerned.” The response to the deaths would be a “maximum mobilisation” of French forces, including deploying reservists and drones to watch the shoreline.

French interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spewed out a filthy nationalist, anti-immigrant diatribe in an interview yesterday morning with French radio station RTL, expressing more than a hint of envy at what he described as the UK’s economic advantage: “Everyone knows there are more than 1.2 million illegal immigrants in Great Britain, and that British employers use this labour force to make things that the British manufacture and consume.”

Just days before Wednesdays’ Channel deaths, he declared, “Why do people go to Calais? It’s to go to Great Britain… And why do they want to go to Great Britain? It’s because the labour market largely works in Great Britain thanks to a large army or reserves—as Karl Marx said—of people in an irregular situation but who can work at a low cost, obviously.”

He flung back accusations from Britain that France was lax in its treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers by boasting, “It is often said that France doesn’t deport enough, but we deport about 20,000 people a year.” By contrast, he said, the U.K. “expels 6,000, four times less than France, even though there are more people and twice as many illegal immigrants.”

Calais’ right-wing mayor, Natacha Bouchart, a member of the Gaullist The Republicans party, denounced the “migratory policies” of successive French governments, and attacked the “The failure of Boris Johnson who obliges our country to endure this situation because he doesn’t have the courage to assume his own responsibilities … in his country”.

In his comments, Macron claimed that in order to prevent death, “[A]bove all, we need to seriously strengthen cooperation ... with Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and the European Commission.”

Such cooperation will be based on the most ruthless suppression of the democratic rights of migrants and asylum seekers. Speaking in Parliament, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel stated that Channel crossings were “illegal”, adding, “I’ve offered to work with France to put [UK] officers on the ground [on the French coasts] to “to prevent these dangerous journeys from taking place.”

Patel’s Home Office is pushing through the draconian Nationality and Borders Bill, which is a declaration of war against established international law regarding the treatment of asylum seekers. As part of this onslaught, Patel is moving to impose a “pushback” policy, authorising the UK’s Border Force to turn back migrant boats and said in Parliament that she will “do whatever is necessary to secure the area” to stop sailings reaching Britain. “I have not ruled anything out” she warned, noting that “Greece”, whose anti-immigration policies she has repeatedly hailed as exemplary, “are using pushback”.

According to the Times, Johnson met a group of Tory MPs on Wednesday to assure them that the UK would tighten its immigration policies even further. The newspaper reported, “The prime minister left those present under the impression he was considering legal reforms to make crossings harder, something they have long demanded.” It cited one of the MPs who said, “We have to smash the merry-go-round of the asylum process.” Another of the MPs told the Times, “He [Johnson] agreed that we can’t just wait for the borders bill, but that we have to do something now. He told us to ‘watch this space’.”