Germany supplies tanks to Ukraine and prepares for war against Russia

Johannes Stern

According to media reports, the German government is planning further arms deliveries to Ukraine. A report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung states that armaments worth some €300 million could “be delivered to Ukraine in the short term.” Unlike previous deliveries, the latest shipment would not consist of military equipment from German army stockpiles, but include weapons provided directly by German industry.

Finnish BMP-1 from Soviet production [Credit: Balcer~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/]

The planned shipments are massive. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the government’s list of weapons includes “about 200 products.” These included 2,650 Matador-type anti-tank weapons and 18 reconnaissance drones, “which could be delivered immediately.” Other items included mortars, machine guns, 3,000 night vision devices, several thousand protective vests and helmets, eight ground monitoring radar devices, airspace monitoring systems and “unprotected and protected vehicles, from touring coaches to armoured off-road vehicles.”

Apparently, Social Democrat Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht has already approved the arms deliveries. Information from “sources around the Ministry of Defence” say that Lambrecht “has no objections” to “the purchase of military equipment for Ukraine according to the list,” writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Yesterday, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that the German government is now even supplying tanks to Ukraine. This includes 58 gunner tanks which originally came from the stockpiles of the National People’s Army of the former East Germany and are now in Czech possession. The infantry tanks of the type “PbV-501” (also known as BMP-1) are equipped with cannons and machine guns.

After initial restraint, Germany is thus increasingly at the forefront of military support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. According to Ukrainian data, over the past few weeks, 500 anti-tank weapons, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and 2,000 Strela missiles have been delivered to Kiev. The heavy weapons of war demanded by Kiev are now following.

At the same time, Germany is systematically expanding its military presence in Eastern Europe. In recent weeks, 350 additional German soldiers were transferred to Lithuania with heavy military equipment to strengthen the NATO battlegroup led by the German army. In addition, the Air Force sent six Eurofighter fighter jets to Romania and 700 soldiers, as well as the anti-aircraft missile system Patriot to Slovakia, where Germany took over the leadership of another battlegroup.

The transfer of troops and the delivery of weapons, which to a large extent go to far-right forces in the Ukrainian army and the so-called territorial defence of the country, are exacerbating the war in Ukraine. These are in effect indirect acts of war against Russia, which are constantly increasing the risk of a direct military conflict with the nuclear power.

In her speech to the federal parliament (Bundestag) on the war budget last week, Lambrecht warned against Russian attacks on arms deliveries. She urged everyone “to refrain from public discussions about when what is delivered and where. Otherwise, those who carry out these deliveries will become targets.” It should not be allowed “that these transports may also become targets of Russian attacks.”

Despite the deafening propaganda in the political establishment and the media, it is becoming increasingly clear that Ukraine is a proxy war between NATO and Russia. With the military alliance’s systematic advance to the Russian border, the imperialist powers literally incited the Kremlin’s reactionary attack on Ukraine. Berlin in particular now sees war as an opportunity to implement long-cherished plans for rearmament and militarisation.

“With the ‘new epoch’ it is now finally possible for us to equip the German army with the means we need to defend the state and the alliance,” Lambrecht enthused in an interview with Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. “The focus is on equipping the soldiers.” The “new epoch”—a propaganda term for the meticulously planned and prepared return of German militarism—“can also be felt by taking the German army to where it belongs: in the midst of society.”

Lambrecht gave an insight into the far-reaching war and great power plans of the ruling class. In the case of the EU, “there is a plan for a Rapid Reaction Force and the expectation that Germany will take part,” she said. That is why she had “offered that we would provide the core of this force from 2025—with 1,500 soldiers.” It will also involve “permanently strengthening the NATO eastern flank and not just securing it at the moment.”

Central to the implementation of the plans was the swift adoption of the “German Army Special Fund” in parliament. Last week, the defence minister had already spoken to the inspector general of the German Armed Forces, Eberhard Zorn, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the use of the planned €100 billion. It is particularly important to her to “procure equipment very quickly that arrives directly to the soldiers.” And then, of course, “there are the many important major projects such as the successor to the Tornado (fighter jet) or the armed drones.”

The decision to buy dozens of nuclear weapons-capable F-35 stealth bombers was followed last weekend by the plan to build a national missile defence shield. Further items will now be announced. “According to informed sources,” the German army could receive another 350 “Puma” and “thus double the number of its gun tanks,” writes the Handelsblatt. In addition, “further boxer-type wheel armour and logistics vehicles are likely to be purchased.” The report continued, “it is considered certain that the Federal Navy will receive five more K130 corvettes and one to two additional submarines.”

This is just the beginning. Four weeks after Scholz announced the largest German rearmament programme since Hitler, it has already been declared that the previous plans are not sufficient. “The magnitude of the €100 billion special fund is quickly relativised if you look at the need for ammunition alone,” comments Handelsblatt. In order to achieve the NATO target of “30 days of combat capability,” the government would have to “spend at least 20 billion on cartridges, grenades and rockets alone.”

The German armaments industry is rubbing its bloody hands and, in close cooperation with the government, preparing to produce equipment for the war machine. According to Handelsblatt, the Ministry of Defence invited the managers of the largest German armaments companies to an “emergency meeting.” The representatives of the ministry had stressed that “the existing military equipment should be upgraded and new material should be purchased as soon as possible.”

According to the newspaper, the Rheinmetall Group alone offered the federal government a list of armaments worth €42 billion. In addition to ammunition, it also includes helicopters, as well as chain armour and wheel armour. “In many plants we work in single-shift operation; we can also work around the clock,” said the CEO of Rheinmetall Armin Papperger. The production of tank ammunition could thus be increased from around 40,000 to 240,000 pieces per year.

Eighty years after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which killed at least 27 million Soviet citizens, the ruling class is once again on a war path against Russia. At its core, it pursues the same goals as it did during World War II. German imperialism is concerned with militarizing Europe under German leadership in pursuit of its global geostrategic and economic interests. The subjugation of Russia to secure unhindered access to the country’s vast resources is the first step in this process.

“For Europe, it is now up to the German army,” writes Die Welt in in a commentary and makes a very open plea for NATO and the EU to prepare for a war against Russia—under the leadership of the German armed forces. “With regard to the strategic orientation of the German allies and the reduction of land forces, in particular armoured combat units, in other EU and NATO states, no one apart from Germany can and will provide the necessary armed forces to secure the eastern flank of NATO in such a way that the alliance could exist in a potential conflict with Russia.”

The preparations for war are accompanied by a genuine war against the working class at home. “We are a quasi-war party, a quasi-economic war party,” said Robert Habeck, the Green Minister for Economic Affairs, in the Tagesthemen on public television. “And we also pay a price … and we will become poorer as a result.” By “we” Habeck does not mean the bourgeoisie and the wealthy middle classes for whom he speaks, but the working class, which must bear the costs of the drive to war.

“McKinseyGate” scandal hits Macron ahead of French presidential election

Samuel Tissot

On March 25, the French Senate announced that it was pursuing legal action against management consultancy firm McKinsey. The investigation was led by Senator Eliane Assassi, a member of the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF). McKinsey is accused of evading hundreds of millions of euros of tax as it advised the Macron government on COVID-19 policy, and of perjury, for lying about this to a Senate committee.

French President Emmanuel Macron. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

The report detailed massive financial corruption inside the Macron government. It has awarded McKinsey €2.4 billion in consultancy fees since 2018, including over €1 billion in 2021. The real total is probably higher, as the investigation only probed the most prominent sections of the administration. Despite a turnover of €329 million, McKinsey did not pay a cent of corporation tax in 2020.

The report stated that the government’s use of consultancy firms “had become a reflex” and that McKinsey and other firms were involved in “most of the major reforms” of the Macron government, including attacks on pensions, housing, and unemployment benefits. While private consultancy firms including McKinsey have been utilized by previous French governments, Macron massively expanded their use.

Perhaps most explosively, McKinsey advisers were reportedly at the heart of Macron’s vaccine-only policy on the pandemic, and its refusal to implement basic social distancing measures to eliminate circulation of the virus—even as over 142,000 people died in France.

US-based McKinsey has an annual revenue of $10 billion and offices in 65 countries. It charges governments and private companies exorbitant fees for “strategic management” advice, which typically leads to savage assaults on the working class. A Macron spokesperson inadvertently underlined McKinsey’s parasitism by citing the fact that the UK government has paid the firm 40 times more than the French government in recent years. McKinsey gained particular notoriety for its role in the ongoing privatization of the British National Health Service.

On Sunday, Macron’s initial response was to deny any wrongdoing, insisting “no contract is awarded in the Republic without respecting the rules of public procurement.” Speaking in Dijon on Monday, however, he distanced himself from the McKinsey affair, stating: “I am not the one that signs the contracts.” On Wednesday, his spokesperson vowed to reduce spending on outside consultancy by 15 percent.

There are extensive ties between McKinsey and Macron’s Le Republique En Marche (LREM) party. Paul Midy, deputy director of LREM, was a partner at McKinsey from 2007 to 2014. Mathieu Maucourt was a project leader at McKinsey for three years before becoming a political director for LREM and is now part of the state secretariat. Etienne Lacourt was on LREM’s direction committee until 2018 before being hired as a partner by McKinsey.

There can be little doubt that McKinsey’s evasion of taxation and their role in advising the Macron administration have a criminal character. Clearly, moreover, it has been an open secret in French government, judicial and media circles for some time. The Senate report, itself in preparation for over four months, is being brought to the fore on the eve of the upcoming presidential election.

In the run-up to the first round of the presidential election, scheduled for April 10, rival candidates are criticizing Macron over the scandal, pointing to close ties between the US-based multinational and Macron’s LREM.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted, “With Emmanuel Macron, McKinsey, which cost you €1 billion last year for very vague missions, will continue to gorge itself on public money, not pay taxes and lie to the Senate!” Unsubmissive France candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded by claiming that “with me, consulting groups will be gone.”

Les Republicains (LR) candidate Valérie Pécresse stated on Wednesday that “it seems the government has something to hide.” Pécresse supporter Xavier Bertrand described the report’s findings as a “state scandal,” calling for an enquiry into the state’s use of consultancy firms.

The rival candidates’ condemnations of Macron’s corrupt deals with McKinsey are utterly hypocritical. LR candidate Pécresse worked alongside McKinsey consultants during her tenures as Minister of Higher Education and Minister of the Budget under former French President and convicted criminal Nicolas Sarkozy. Xavier Bertrand also worked alongside McKinsey consultants.

LR’s eagerness to discredit Macron over a consultancy firm to which they are also tied reflects their eagerness to shed their own popular association with rampant corruption. The corruption cases brought against Sarkozy, who was convicted of illegal wiretapping last year, and against 2017 LR presidential candidate François Fillon are still fresh in public memory.

Candidates Jean-Luc Mélénchon of Unsubmissive France and Fabien Roussel, of the Stalinist PCF, have supported the pandemic policy advised by McKinsey and pursued by the French financial aristocracy from the beginning of the pandemic. This support was crucial in imposing policies of mass infection and death on the working class, alongside a continuous stream of bailouts to line the pockets of the corporations and the super-rich.

The focus on McKinsey, which is just one of an entire thieves’ nest of consultancy firms around the French government, underlines the cynical nature of this campaign. In reality, McKinsey accounts for only a small part of the French government’s outlay on private consultancy firms. According to the Senate report, from 2018 to 2020, 1 percent of the state’s consultancy expenditure went to McKinsey, 5 percent to Capgemini, and 10 percent to Eurogroup.

Amidst the scandal, reactionary anti-vaccine activists have jumped on McKinsey’s relationship to Pfizer to denounce any measures taken to stem the spread of the virus.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Chief Business Innovation Officer Aamir Malik are both former employees of McKinsey, which advised governments to buy Pfizer vaccines. McKinsey’s advice to buy vaccines was no doubt associated with criminal profiteering, which netted Pfizer alone some €30 billion in profits. Their principal crime, however, was not that they advocated the use of life-saving vaccines, but that they collaborated with the French government to refuse to scientifically implement life-saving social distancing measures.

The whole sordid affair simultaneously exposes both Macron, popularly dubbed “the president of the rich,” and his electoral rivals. All of them are complicit in the funneling of trillions of euros of public money into private hands that occurred throughout Macron’s presidency—whether it be from stock market speculation, corporate bailouts, or large government contracts. Under the cover of the pandemic, moreover, this wealth accumulation was dramatically accelerated.

In the final analysis, what the McKinsey scandal has revealed is not the personal corruption of a single man, party, or consultancy firm, but the corruption and parasitism of the entire social order dominated by the capitalist class.

US corporate profits, CEO pay surged in 2021 while inflation slashed real wages

Shannon Jones

The corporate assault on US workers’ living standards during the pandemic intensified in 2021. While inflation slashed living standards for most of the population, corporate profits surged to their highest levels in decades, rising 25 percent year over year to $2.81 trillion. The rise is even greater—37 percent—when taxes are factored in. This is the highest figure since records began in 1948.

Worker in an Amazon fulfilment centre (AP Photo/David McNew)

At the same time, according to a report by Compensation Advisory Partners, US CEO pay increased in 2021 by an average of 19 percent at the 50 companies surveyed, a record amount. Leading the field was Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who took in a staggering $246.6 million. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy received a pay package valued at $212.7 million, mostly from stock options.

Others cashing in included:

• Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took in $99 million last year
• Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who received $178.6 million
• Chad Richison, CEO of Paycom Software, who was paid $211,131,206
• Lawrence Culp Jr., CEO of General Electric, who pocketed $73,192,032
• Mike Sievert, T-Mobile CEO, who received $54,914,015
• Leonard Schleifer, CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, who took in $135,350,121.

Surging profits on Wall Street boosted the average employee bonus in the New York securities industry to a record $257,500 last year, according to state officials.

The statistics on corporate profits and executive pay expose the blatant profiteering by large corporations during the pandemic. Companies have been able to raise prices far beyond increases in production costs, vastly inflating profit margins.

According to a report by a watchdog group, the top 25 global oil companies reaped $237 billion in profits in 2021. Last year, oil giant ExxonMobil posted its largest profit in seven years, $23 billion, as increased oil prices added $100 billion to its sales revenues. Saudi Aramco, a major oil and gas company owned and managed by the Saudi royal family, reported $110 billion in profits last year, a 124 percent increase from 2020.

Logistics giant Amazon reported $33.4 billion in after-tax profits in 2021, up from $21.3 in 2020.

Despite COVID and chip shortages, US auto companies enjoyed a profit surge. Ford recorded $17.9 billion in after-tax profits, following a loss in 2020. GM reported $14.3 billion in 2021 earnings.

The official inflation rate was 6.7 percent last year. Inflation has accelerated in 2022, with prices rising 7.9 percent year over year in February 2021, eclipsing year-over-year wage gains of 5.1 in February and 5.6 percent percent in March.

According to Bloomberg Economics, the average American household will spend $5,200 more this year to buy the same goods and services it purchased last year. With prices on basic commodities set to rise even higher due to the war in Ukraine and US and NATO sanctions on Russia, a further assault on living standards is being prepared.

Even though real wages are declining in many sectors, Wall Street is expressing concern over the tight labor market, which has allowed workers to press for higher wages. The US jobs report for March, released Friday by the Labor Department, reported the addition of 431,000 jobs, the 11th straight month of job gains surpassing 400,000. The official unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in March, close to the 3.5 percent pre-pandemic rate, which was a 50-year record low.

In fact, the figure for new jobs was lower than predicted by economists, and far below the average of 600,000 over the past six months. More threatening to the ruling class are near-record highs of unfilled jobs and voluntary quits.

In remarks Friday morning after the release of the jobs report, President Biden hailed the increase in hiring, citing “Record job creation. Record unemployment declines. Record wage gains.” However, the reality is quite different for workers, whose paltry wage gains are being eaten up by rising prices for gasoline, electricity, food and other necessities.

The most significant job gains have been for workers in the retail sector and leisure and hospitality, such as hotels and restaurants. These sectors have historically paid poverty-level wages.

The resistance of workers to laboring for near-starvation wages in the midst of a deadly pandemic, and ongoing supply chain bottlenecks due to shortages of workers in key sectors such as trucking, potentially put workers in a strong position to fight for significant improvements in living standards.

In 2021, strikes took place in a number of key industries as workers sought to fight back against rising prices and the impact of decades of wage stagnation. These struggles for the most part took the form of rebellions against the trade union bureaucracies, which for decades have worked to impose brutal cuts in wages and the destruction of working conditions, in line with their transformation into corporatist appendages of the corporations and the capitalist state.

In a number of contract struggles last year, unions settled for pay raises well below the rate of inflation, including Volvo (average 2 percent annually over 6 years), Nabisco (2-2.5 percent annual raises), Kellogg’s (one-time 3 percent for “legacy” workers), and Dana Corporation (as low as 1 percent annually for top pay scales).

In each of these cases, the unions sabotaged the struggles of workers, keeping the strikes isolated and shutting them down at the point where they threatened to seriously impact corporate profits and inspire solidarity action by other workers both in the US and internationally. Workers were forced to vote without having time to adequately review the terms of the contract and were often denied the right to see the full contract language.

At Volvo and other workplaces, unions called strikes only after workers had voted multiple times by massive margins against sellout agreements brought back by union officials.

In one of the latest acts of treachery, the Steelworkers union blocked strike action by 30,000 US oil workers and rammed through a sellout deal with wage increases far below the rate of inflation, even as the oil giants continued to gouge the public with spiraling gas prices.

In recognition of the vital services of the unions in suppressing workers’ wage demands and squashing strikes, the Biden administration has made a central focus of its anti-working class policy the promotion of the trade unions, appointing a “Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment,” including national security cabinet officials. In a report issued in February, the task force made a series of recommendations to encourage unionization by government contractors, with the aim of “promoting stability” and “minimizing disruption”—that is, preventing strikes.

Fearing that low levels of unemployment will encourage workers to battle back against raging inflation by demanding significant wage increases, US financial authorities are taking measures to slow down the economy by increasing interest rates. Remarking on the fact that there are 1.8 job openings for every unemployed worker, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said, “By many measures, the labor market is extremely tight, significantly tighter than the very strong job market just before the pandemic,” adding that it was tight to “an unhealthy level.”

After raising rates by 0.25 percent in March, the Federal Reserve is indicating support for a more substantial 0.5 percent rise in May. The central bank has already said it plans at least six more rate increases in 2022, the first increases in three years.

The last round of rate increases set off a precipitous fall in the stock market, inducing the Federal Reserve to rescind its rate hikes. Since then, the markets have become even more inflated as the US Treasury pumped trillions of dollars into Wall Street. The turn toward deflationary policies threatens to upset this financial house of cards in dramatic fashion.

Growing sections of workers are defying the pro-corporate unions, including oil refinery workers in Richmond, California, who have voted down two sellout contracts pushed by the United Steelworkers’ union and gone on strike to secure a substantial wage increase and an end to brutal overtime and unsafe working conditions. They are joined by 5,000 teachers on strike in Sacramento, California and tens of thousands of other workers with looming contract expirations. This is part of a growing movement of workers internationally fueled by inflation, inequality and the growing threat of world war.

Reports of the unrestrained profiteering by the financial elite will only further fuel workers’ anger over declining living standards and the criminal mismanagement by all sections of the political establishment of the pandemic. The impending war danger and the demands that workers finance another huge military buildup at the expense of wages and social services will heighten class tensions.

Despite BA.2’s global dominance, World Health Organization shifting to end emergency phase of COVID-19 pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Yesterday, as the BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19 continued its assault, more than 1.5 million infections were reported worldwide, and over 4,000 people died from complications associated with their infections. Currently, this version of the Omicron strain accounts for 90 percent of all sequenced viruses.

Medical workers in protective equipment, Station 43 of the Berlin Charité Hospital (Image: DOCDAYS Production)

Last week also saw global deaths surge 40 percent after declines from BA.1’s ebb, with close to 46,000 succumbing as infections have risen across the globe. All told, almost one-half billion people have been infected and more than six million have died. Yet, these grim astronomical figures are known to be a vast undercounting, the best estimate places global excess deaths over 20 million.

Even as these statistics demonstrate that the pandemic is far from over, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its Strategic Preparedness, Readiness, and Response Plan to End the Global COVID-19 Emergency in 2022. The international health organization noted that two key objectives would need to be met: reducing COVID infections and early diagnosis and treatment of cases to reduce deaths. As the Hill summarized, “The WHO said that can be achieved by increased surveillance and monitoring, improving global vaccine equity, bolstering healthcare systems and supplies, as well as upgrading research and data analyses.”

None of these objective measures have been met. On the contrary, they have become acutely worse as country after country has summarily ended any public health response to the present threat. These declarations, as experience has shown, are simply a prelude to the WHO acquiescing to pressures by the capitalist governments that keep a tight rein on their activities.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted in the report, “We now stand at a pivotal and dangerous moment in the fight against COVID-19. Although it is impossible to predict precisely how the SARS-CoV-2 virus will evolve, we know that new variants will arise as transmission continues and, in many cases, intensifies. And yet we can look into the future with a sense of hope that we can end the COVID-19 pandemic as a global emergency through our actions.”

These comments are a betrayal of the international working class and their welfare. The mixture of truth couched in rhetorical optimism can only mean the WHO as a public health organization has abandoned its principles as it tries to accommodate the demands of finance capital.

In the US, where cases have plateaued at an average of more than 30,000 per day for the last three weeks as BA.2 has become the dominant variant, governors of many states have already rescinded their state’s COVID states of emergency. By April 22, only three states—Arizona, Nevada, and West Virginia—will have their emergency status in place “until further notice.” And the rise in cases is arriving as all funding for COVID-19 response has been exhausted. As reporting requirements are being curtailed, states will be flying blind through the BA.2 storm that is gaining momentum each day.

Perhaps more concerning is the detection of a new version of the Omicron variant in the UK that has combined BA.1 and BA.2. In their COVID-19 Weekly epidemiological Update published on March 29, 2022, they wrote, “The XE recombinant [BA.1 and BA.2] was first detected in the United Kingdom on January 19, and more than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since. Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of ten percent as compared to BA.2, however, this finding requires further confirmation.”

The WHO acknowledged in reply that confirmation would be more difficult due to “the recent significant reduction in SARS-CoV-2 testing by several member states. Data are becoming progressively less representative, less timely, and less robust. This inhibits our collective ability to track where the virus is, how it is spreading and how it is evolving, information and analyses that remain critical to effectively end the acute phase of the pandemic.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, in the UK, COVID-19 infections at the end of March reached a record high with almost five million people being infected in a single week. This accounts for one in 13 people in England with COVID. In conjunction with the rise in cases, hospitalizations have surpassed the BA.1 peak. The average daily COVID death rate has continued to climb and is currently at 220 and quickly approaching its predecessor.

The European continent, and in particular Germany, is seeing BA.2 continue to rage. Despite the “reporting anomalies” in Germany, where multiple states had not reported data in several days, cases continue to climb. Germany’s per capita rate of infection is now higher than the peak reached in the US and the UK during their Omicron surges. The death rate is also increasing every day.

The situation will most likely grow direr as plans are underway to end mandatory quarantine for most people. More than four million people are currently isolated due to infection, impacting businesses ability to extract surplus value. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has demanded that isolation be voluntary and to allow infected workers back on the job to address these concerns.

The complete disregard for the spread of infections and the continued evolution of the virus towards more contagious and immune-evasive forms will significantly impact the world’s population in the third year of the pandemic.

China, which has attempted to contain the virus using a Zero COVID strategy until now, is facing the full brunt of the malign neglect that characterizes the policies employed by every other country to place profits over lives during the pandemic. The virus that emerged out of Wuhan has been redirected against China as a more dangerous and formidable pathogen. The response to the virus has become a political line in the sand.

Figure 1: Daily COVID cases in March 22 China [Source: WSWS]

Indeed, suppressing the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant of Omicron is proving a difficult challenge for the Chinese authorities as more than 100,000 COVID cases have been reported domestically in March. At best, current efforts have managed to cap the community spread of infections which have affected multiple cities and provinces and dogged public health officials.

The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China reported that yesterday’s daily case count was the largest one day total on record, with a total of 9,875 on April 1, 2022.

Approximately 4,500 of these cases were documented in Shanghai, the current epicenter of the pandemic in China and one of the world’s financial centers. The city’s two central banks—the China Construction Bank and the Bank of China—operating through the central government’s Ministry of Finance are responsible for managing capital investment funds for state enterprises.

The city’s lockdown, implemented in two phases, has perturbed global finance capital. Not mincing words, the Financial Times, the mouthpiece for financial oligarchs, in no uncertain terms asserted that “China will need a strategy to exit zero-COVID and live with the virus.” The implications of broad uncontrolled transmissions will have disastrous consequences for the Chinese working class. The Wall Street Journal noted that a large Shanghai elderly care hospital is battling a COVID-19 outbreak. They indicated some patients have died because of their infections, but Chinese officials have not corroborated these reports.

According to the Journal, “Six replacement orderlies at the city’s Donghai Elderly Care Hospital, brought in after previous caretakers were sent away to quarantine, told the Wall Street Journal that they had witnessed or heard of the recent removal of several bodies from the facility, where they said at least 100 patients had tested positive for COVID-19.”

It may be reasonable to assume that the report is accurate and would be consistent, and in line with what is understood about the lethality of COVID-19. One Shanghai physician told the WSWS, “I feel China is feeling the economic pain and is gradually lifting policies.”

These developments only underscore the need to press forward with elimination strategies against the virus and ensure life and livelihood are protected. But given the pressures being placed on China by global financial demands, a national Zero COVID strategy will be more challenging to sustain on a national level as an elimination strategy must be pursued internationally. In this aspect, the Chinese state will not be unable to find a progressive path out of the present crisis.

Meanwhile, the second phase of Shanghai’s lockdown commenced on Friday. However, given the persistent spread of the virus, authorities have said restrictions affecting areas east and south of the Huangpu River would stay in place for at least another three to ten days. This means the entire city of 26 million people is now under lockdown orders in the hopes of bringing cases back to zero. Mass testing continues to locate and map every infection.

On announcing a city-wide lockdown that will last for several days, Moody’s Analytics quickly added, “With China’s largest city closed for nine days, there will undeniably be an economic blow that will follow into the second quarter of the year.” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking with Global Times, countered, “Based on the experience accumulated from the past two years and our understanding of the virus’ mutations, I believe China is still able to realize the dynamic Zero COVID.”

Jilin City has announced they are exiting lockdown after three weeks despite having persistent daily cases in the 700 range. It will be critical to follow the trajectory of COVID cases in the capital city of the northern province and assess the response from the authorities. By all accounts, it remains premature to lift these stringent measures. But the statements by Moody and Wu posits the underlying contradictions that only the working class can resolve.

Sri Lankan president declares state of emergency to suppress mass protests over austerity

Deepal Jayasekera

Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse imposed a state of emergency yesterday in response to the growing anti-government demonstrations in Colombo and throughout the country over fuel and cooking gas shortages, the skyrocketing cost of essential food items and lengthy daily electricity cuts.

A Sri Lankan man shouts anti government slogans during a protest outside Sri Lankan president's private residence on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

The emergency was necessary, the declaration said, for “public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.” The reference to “maintenance of supplies and services,” makes clear that the real purpose of Rajapakse’s state of emergency is not just to suppress current protests but is directed against the rising wave of working-class strikes and protests against the government’s austerity measures.

The Rajapakse government faces a severe economic crisis due to drastic falls in export income, tourist visits, declines in remittances and increasing foreign debt repayments. This is has been worsened by COVID-19 pandemic and now the Ukraine war.

In February, Sri Lanka only had foreign exchange reserves to pay for one-and-a-half months of imports, drastically impacting on supplies of fuel, cooking gas and even medicine. The lack of fuel for power plants has led to electricity shortages with long queues for fuel and cooking gas commonplace throughout Colombo and outlying areas.

The government’s decision last month to embrace harsh International Monetary Fund-dictated measures, including the further devaluation of the rupee, cuts in subsidies and restructuring of the public sector will see even deeper attacks on the jobs, living conditions and wages of the working class.

The current protests against the Rajapakse government are taking a more and more spontaneous and mass character. On March 31, about 100 demonstrators blocked the road to President Rajapakse’s private residence at Mirihana, Nugegoda, in Colombo’s outer suburbs. Protesters tried to storm the president’s home, chanting “Gota, go home,” and demanding that he resign.

Fifty people, including Sanjeewa Gallage, a free-lance video journalist, were arrested by police. Gallage who was assaulted by the police and injured, has complained that police prevented him from going to hospital for treatment.

Two journalists, Nisal Baduge and Waruna Wanniarachchi from the English-language Daily Mirror, who were covering the protest, received multiple injuries to their heads and arms after being hit by stones and other blunt objects. Three police officers, including an assistant superintendent of police, were injured in clashes with the protesters.

Twenty-eight of those arrested, were brought before courts and 22 granted bail with six others remanded until April 4. The remainder were being treated in hospital for injuries receiving during the police crackdown.

Agents provocateur are seen in video footage taken at the Mirihana protest when a few vehicles, including a police bus and jeep, were set alight. The video, which has been posted on social media, clearly shows that the bus was on the same side as the police, not where protesters were. An unidentified person is seen setting fire to the bus. Police took action to stop the individual, strongly suggesting that the incident was used to justify the subsequent police attack, including the use of tear gas, on protesters.

Ajith Perera, 26, who attended the Mirihana protest told Al Jazeera: “We came to protest the unbearable cost of living, fuel shortages and electricity cuts… The decision to come to the president’s house was spontaneous. We want the president, who has caused so much destruction, to go home.” Mohamed Asri, 21, another protester said, “The economy is got so bad that we can hardly eat two meals [a day]. Things were never this bad in my lifetime. Gota has to go.”

Anti-government protests erupted elsewhere in the Colombo area, including Kelaniya and Mount Lavinia. In Kelaniya, protesters used burning logs to block the main highway from Colombo to Kandy, the hill country capital. Saman Wanasinghe, a protester, told the media: “I am angry, everyone is angry… Who knows what will happen now? There will be protests all over.”

In an attempt to stop the protests spreading, the police imposed an immediate curfew in North, South and Central Divisions of Colombo, as well as in Nugegoda, Kelaniya and Mount Lavinia. While the curfew was lifted at 5 a.m. on Friday, the Inspector General of Police declared a curfew for the whole of the Western Province from midnight until 6 a.m. Saturday.

Underscoring the Rajapakse government’s moves to criminalise all protests, the Presidential Media Division (PMD) declared on Friday that “an extremist group” was behind the protests near Rajapakse’s residence. It provided no evidence for this accusation. It also claimed that many of those arrested were “organised extremists.”

A communal adjective was not added to the accusations of “extremism.” However, the use of communalism to try and derail the mass protests and justify state repression will not be long in coming. Rajapakse seized on the 2019 Easter Sunday terror bombing by Islamic extremists to whip up anti-Muslim chauvinism and since his election has fomented anti-Tamil sentiment.

Islandwide protests against the Rajapakse government are being organised via social media in Colombo and other cities for Sunday, April 3. Those organising the demonstrations have urged people to come to the streets “for ourselves, our country and our future.” They have called on those attending to bring handwritten placards but without the name of any political party.

Parliamentary opposition parties, such as the right-wing United National Party (UNP), the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the National Freedom Front (NFF), a government ally, have distanced themselves from the planned protests. Their response points to the fears in the political establishment that the mass anti-government unrest is developing outside their control.

The JVP nervously declared that the “general public has a right to protest against this crisis,” but expressed concern that the protests “cannot be traced back to a recognisable and accountable organiser or group.”

A UNP statement issued on Thursday afternoon said that it “will not be joining any protests organised by anonymous groups.” The NFF described the demonstrations as “Sri Lanka’s version of the Arab Spring,” then added that 11 parties that make up the government coalition, including the NFF, did not support the April 3 protests.

The Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), the main parliamentary opposition party, is attempting to exploit growing popular opposition against the government for its own political gain. The SJB said it supported the protests but denied having anything to do with their organisation.

While criticising the Rajapakse government, the UNP, SJP and JVP have no fundamental opposition to its economic policies and the IMF-dictated austerity measures. The UNP and SJB has previously called on the government to approach the IMF. The JVP is maintaining a silence over the IMF measures, indicating that it would implement same policies if in office.

The Rajapakse government knows well that its austerity measures will not be implemented easily and will provoke mass opposition from the working class and the rural poor. This is why it has declared a state of emergency and is increasingly relying on police state methods of rule.

Organisers have called for the April 3 protests to be “non-political,” reflecting widespread public hostility to all the major parties. Workers must recognise that they are facing a political fight not only against the government but the entire political establishment that defend capitalism and support austerity measures.

Protests by themselves, no matter how large and militant, will not resolve the crisis facing working people. The central issue is not “no politics,” but the fight for a socialist and internationalist perspective to put end the capitalist system that puts profits ahead of everything else—including the health and lives of the working class.

Biden administration announces end of Title 42 anti-asylum policy, issues a fast pass for Ukrainian refugees

Norisa Diaz

On Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Public Health announcement confirming it was terminating the use of the Title 42 Order on May 23. The move is in accordance with statements earlier this week by the Biden administration that it will halt the immigration ban initiated by the Trump administration at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump cited public health concerns in order to justify the closure of the United States’ borders to migrants and halt all applications for asylum.

A group of migrants rest on a gazebo at a park after they were expelled from the U.S. and pushed by Mexican authorities off an area where they had been staying, Saturday, March 20, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico [Credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez]

As recently as last month the Biden administration defended the extension of the policy, lifting it only for unaccompanied minors, while continuing to deny asylum for families and adults.

However, in recent weeks a growing number of Ukrainian refugees have landed at US border crossings fleeing the US/NATO-led war. Many are arriving in Mexico on flights from Paris to Mexico City and Tijuana. These refugees are presenting themselves primarily at the San Ysidro crossing at the US/Mexico border in San Diego, the most frequently crossed border in the world.

Unlike their counterparts from Latin America, the Ukrainian refugees are being processed and entering the United States in a matter of hours or days, what is essentially a fast track as tens of thousands wallow in migrant encampments along the border awaiting their turn for the processing of asylum.

Despite their quick turnaround, many are commenting on the inhumane conditions in the border processing jails. Mark Lehmkuhler, a US citizen, reported that his fiancée who is a Ukrainian citizen was held overnight in a detention center. He told NBC news that she had to sleep in a holding cell with metal benches cramped with nine other women. They were given thin mats and forced to use an open toilet in the room.

“There is no rhyme or reason why they treated people like this. Nobody was prepared,” Lehmkuhler said.

The announcement of the ending of Title 42 and the arrival of a growing number of Ukrainian refugees is treated in the mainstream media as entirely separate phenomena.

The reality of the situation is that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, which oversaw unprecedented numbers of deportations under the Obama administration, had no intention of lifting Title 42. Since assuming office in January 2021 the Biden administration has defended the anti-migrant policy in response to litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other immigrant rights groups.

The Biden administration is compelled to formally drop the immigration policy because it cannot justify the hypocrisy of allowing Ukrainian refugees into the country, an act which directly undermines the Title 42 policy currently in place.

Simultaneously, all COVID-19 mitigation measures have been dropped throughout the country even as the US reached the grim milestone of over 1 million dead. Despite growing case numbers of infections by the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, the administration has overseen the lifting of all mask mandates in schools and indoor settings. The argument that Title 42 was needed in the “interest of public health” no longer holds water with the dropping of all COVID-19 restrictions and the full resumption of international travel.

Title 42 was first initiated in March of 2020 by the Trump administration, which cited the COVID-19 pandemic as justification for halting the processing of asylum cases for hundreds of thousands of migrants. The statute comes from a 1944 law which grants the President broad powers to block foreigners from entering the country in order to prevent the “serious threat” of a dangerous disease.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s fascistic immigration adviser who long saw the special protections children are granted under asylum law as a major hurdle, seized on the crisis to carry out this policy. Miller had, in fact, attempted to invoke the law twice before, during a mumps outbreak in the immigration jails and once again during the flu season.

Trump, Miller and the Republican Party and its far-right allies have been at the forefront of the lifting of restrictions and reopening campaigns. Yet the public was supposed to believe the lie that Title 42 was carried out to stop the spread of COVID-19, while simultaneously pushing for the full reopening of the economy and herd immunity policies.

Millions turned out to the polls in 2020 believing a Biden administration would provide a more humane response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ruthless immigration policies of Trump, but the opposite has been the case. The Democratic Party has shown its bipartisan agreement with brutal crackdowns on immigration, defending both Trump era policies of Title 42 and the 2019 Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) also known as “remain in Mexico” that requires every person seeking asylum in the US to wait in Mexico while a judge evaluates his or her claim.

In February the Biden administration deported its 20,000th Haitian migrant, according to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) as the administration has chartered flights filled with deportees.

In the run-up to the May 23 expiration of Title 42, the Biden administration has been working to stop migrants from Central and South America before they reach the southern border. Washington, which has historically treated Latin America as its backyard, is demanding that governments step up their immigration controls and crackdown on travel without visas. In his State of the Union address last month, Biden confirmed, “We’re securing commitments and supporting partners in South and Central America to host more refugees and secure their own borders.”

Throughout March, Biden hosted Colombian President Iván Duque at the White House, and US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with officials in Costa Rica and Mexico, which play key roles in transit routes from South America and abroad.

Costa Rica began requiring visas for Venezuelans and Cubans in February with the purpose of slowing their migration north. Mexico began requiring the same from the two countries in January.

As a result of these new visa requirements, Al Jazeera reported that “US authorities encountered Venezuelans along the US-Mexico border 3,072 times in February, down sharply from 22,779 times a month earlier” which “demonstrate[s] the impact of Mexico’s new requirement for Venezuelans which took effect January 21. Colombians, who do not require visas for Mexico travel, were encountered 9,600 times, up from 3,911 times in January.”

These countries have been targeted as they host growing numbers of migrants. Thousands of Haitians seeking asylum in the US pass through Colombia every week. Colombia is also home to some 1.8 million Venezuelans fleeing political and economic turmoil. Costa Rica is receiving tens of thousands of Nicaraguans annually since political protests and crackdown began in 2018.

The lifting of Title 42 and the crackdown on migrants in Central and South America, will be for the purpose of stopping migrants before they reach the border, whatever the cost, while saving face and allowing Ukrainians to enter the US who take direct flights to Tijuana and Mexico City.

Radicals and other middle class layers, who view the world entirely through racial lenses, are denouncing the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees as “racist double standard.” But such a stance neglects the connection of the plight of ordinary Ukrainians fleeing war to Washington’s war aims, which are bound up with the threat of a nuclear world war that would engulf the entire planet and bear the heaviest tolls on the working masses in each country and of all races.

China rejects EU calls to cut ties with Russia over Ukraine war

Alex Lantier

Hostile EU remarks after yesterday’s virtual European Union (EU)-China summit point to the rising global tensions provoked by NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine. EU officials sought but did not obtain Chinese guarantees that Beijing will honor sanctions Washington and the EU powers have unilaterally imposed on Russia.

People walk past a video screen displaying an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping at an exhibition in Beijing, March 1, 2019 [Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein]

The run-up to the summit was dominated by EU and US threats against China, as they poured billions of dollars of arms into Ukraine for use against Russian troops. Beyond threats of sanctions, there were mounting denunciations of China’s Zero-COVID policy in the European media, while US Indo-Pacific Command head Admiral John Aquilino called on Washington and its allies to be “prepared at all times” for war with China over Taiwan.

On March 25, an unnamed senior EU official told Politico the EU has “very reliable evidence that China is considering providing military aid to Russia. … We’re concerned about the fact that China is flirting with the Russians.” The official said the EU would “impose trade barriers against China” if China helped Russia militarily or financially, as “this is the only language Beijing understands.”

US officials had already claimed Russia had asked China for military aid. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan demanded China not “bail out” Russia from US-EU sanctions: “We will ensure that neither China, nor anyone else, can compensate Russia for these losses. In terms of the specific means of doing that, again, I’m not going to lay all of that out in public, but we will communicate that privately to China …”

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang rejected Sullivan’s claims, calling for a diplomatic settlement to the war and denying that China is arming Russia. “What China is doing is sending foods, medicine, sleeping bags and baby formula, not weapons and ammunition to any party,” Qin said, adding: “We are against wars, as I said. … China’s trusted relation with Russia is not a liability. It’s an asset in the international efforts to solve the crisis in a peaceful way.”

Chinese officials also briefly expressed hopes that the EU-China summit could revive the EU-China trade deal negotiated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in December 2020, shortly before Merkel left office. The deal’s ratification was suspended, however, after the EU echoed unsubstantiated and false US assertions that China is carrying out a “genocide” of the Uighur ethnic minority in its western Xinjiang province, which borders Russia.

Another item in the EU-China summit was China’s freezing of trade with Lithuania, a former Soviet Baltic republic, after Lithuania opened formal trade representation for Taiwan in its capital, Vilnius. Chinese officials have said they view this as a European threat to repudiate the “One China” policy and encourage Taiwan to declare itself a fully independent state. Sections of the European foreign policy establishment have advocated using this policy to encourage parts of mainland China like Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia or Tibet also to declare independence, dividing China.

Lithuanian Deputy Prime Minister Mantas Adomėnas explained that this policy is driven by hostility to communism and to the Chinese government. “We see the threats and dangers which arise out of the expansionist policies of Communist China,” Adomėnas told CBC. “We wanted to curtail this … and support democracy in Taiwan.”

Margarita Šešelgytė, director of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, said Lithuania’s anti-China policy aims to obtain US military aid against Russia. She said, “For us, being a small country in the vicinity of Russia is a very bad scenario. So how do we become more attractive to the United States? Broaden our foreign policy and also be part of US policy in the Asian region.”

With these explosive conflicts, it came as little surprise that brief official statements on yesterday’s EU-China summit indicated that no agreements had been reached.

After meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen criticized China’s position on Ukraine: “We exchanged very clearly opposing views. This is not a conflict. This is a war.” She demanded, “China should, if not support, at least not interfere with our sanctions [on Russia] … equidistance is not enough.”

“We will also remain vigilant on any attempts to aid Russia,” EU Council President Charles Michel said at the press conference with von der Leyen, adding: “We raised our concerns about China’s treatment of minorities in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, and of the people of Tibet.”

Chinese officials told the South China Morning Post that Xi supported “the EU playing a leading role” in talks on Ukraine and asked EU officials to address the security concerns of all powers, including Russia. “The root cause of the Ukrainian crisis lies in the regional security conflicts that have accumulated in Europe for a long time. The fundamental solution is to accommodate the legitimate security concerns of all parties concerned.”

The imperialist powers have no intention of giving security guarantees to Russia, however, or to any other country in their gun sights. Russian President Vladimir Putin undoubtedly launched a bloody war in Ukraine, which is reactionary and divides Russian and Ukrainian workers. However, while Putin launched the war and bears political responsibility for it, Russia is neither the more powerful nor ultimately the more aggressive party to the conflict.

As Ukrainian troops and far-right militias fight Russia to a draw, it is clear Putin’s invasion was a desperate, preemptive move as NATO turned Ukraine into an heavily-armed base directly on Russian borders.

Since the 1991 Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, the NATO powers and, above all, the United States have sought to counterbalance growing economic weakness with military force. Washington led decades of NATO wars that shattered Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and cost millions of lives. In 2017, the US National Security Strategy declared, moreover, that US military objectives were to wage “great power conflict” with countries like Russia and China.

These conflicts underlie Xi’s refusal to cut off ties with Moscow, for now at least. As US officials demand regime change in Russia, Putin’s ouster, and Russia’s return of regions such as Crimea to Ukraine, it is increasingly clear that the NATO powers aim to break up and crush Russia and China. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov bluntly said Washington aims “to destroy, break, exterminate, strangle the Russian economy and Russia as a whole.”

Chris Johnson, a former CIA agent working on China, told the Financial Times that Beijing fears US-led regime change in Russia. He said, “if they even are considering providing assistance [to Russia], that speaks volumes about … Chinese fears that Putin could fall, unleashing chaos on their northern border unseen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

The only progressive solution to the reckless, aggressive policies of the imperialist powers is the mobilization of the working class in an international, anti-war movement. While Russia and China can use their military and nuclear arsenals to try to threaten NATO, it is apparent that the mounting danger of war does not deter the NATO powers. Rather, they are risking a global military clash that could escalate into nuclear war, betting that this opens up unprecedented opportunities for plunder.

In a Washington Post column titled “The West is winning the economic battles in Putin’s war against Ukraine,” US Council on Foreign Relations fellow Sebastian Mallaby gloated: “China’s economy is far larger and more sophisticated than Russia’s, but it looks newly vulnerable.” Mallaby speculated Washington could seize the trillions of dollars China has earned over decades of exporting goods to US and European markets, just like it is threatening to seize Russian dollar reserves that Moscow earned exporting oil and gas to world markets.

He wrote, “Beijing’s $3 trillion-plus stockpile of foreign-currency assets looks less potent. If Russia’s reserves could be frozen, so could China’s. Likewise, if Russia can’t generate leverage from its highly concentrated exports—until its invasion of Ukraine, it supplied more than half of Germany’s imported natural gas—it appears unlikely that China will be able to fight sanctions by threatening to cut exports of consumer electronics.” This would undoubtedly be one of the largest acts of imperialist theft in history.