In major attack on free speech, Migrants NZ Facebook group forced to close

Tom Peters

In a blatant attack on freedom of speech, the popular Facebook group Migrants NZ, with a membership of more than 75,000 people, was recently forced to shut down after threats of legal action from the New Zealand Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA), a government agency.

A screenshot of the Migrants NZ Facebook page

The group, started by a number of migrants in 2020, expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provided an important forum, independent of the established parties and unions, for migrants and supporters to share experiences and to criticise the Labour Party-NZ First-Greens coalition government’s anti-immigrant policies. Like capitalist governments internationally, the Labour-led government responded to the pandemic and the resulting economic and social crisis by stoking nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Members of Migrants NZ opposed Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) decision to halt the processing of tens of thousands of residency applications during 2020, and other draconian policies including the separation of families by the border closure. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the government refused to provide sufficient quarantine facilities to allow thousands of people legally entitled to live in New Zealand to enter the country. Migrants NZ played a significant role in helping to organise nationwide protests last year against the government’s policies.

The Facebook group has been subjected to what can only be described as politically-motivated censorship—at the very point when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government is launching a new round of attacks on immigrants. The threats against Migrants NZ point to the increasingly anti-democratic methods that are being used internationally, as governments seek to block the development of working class opposition to their pro-business policies.

On March 31, Migrants NZ’s administrators posted a message saying the group would be “archived”—preventing anyone from making further posts or comments—because the IAA had received a complaint accusing two group members of “providing systemic unlicensed immigration advice.” The post noted: “Providing unlicensed immigration advice is a serious offence and can result in a fine of up to $100,000 and/or imprisonment for up to 7 years.”

A protester outside parliament in Wellington during the May 13, 2021 protest against the government's immigration restrictions. (WSWS Media)

The administrators said they were trying to find a “workable solution” to keep the Facebook group running. However, this proved impossible, and on May 9 Radio NZ reported that the group had folded permanently.

A source closely involved with Migrants NZ explained to the World Socialist Web Site that the administrators, as well as professional immigration advisors supportive of the group, had come under sustained attack and felt that they had no choice but to disband.

In late 2021, a number of licensed immigration advisers (LIAs) took to Facebook to publicly attack Migrants NZ for allegedly providing a forum for free, unlicensed immigration advice; they complained that this was undermining their ability to make money by providing such advice. Several LIAs then lodged a complaint with the IAA against Migrants NZ.

In April this year, the state agency wrote to Migrants NZ’s administrators saying that the group could be in breach of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007. The letter, seen by the WSWS, says that the IAA may take enforcement action against the group if it receives new evidence of offending or inadequate moderation of comments.

The IAA stated that administrators and moderators had a responsibility to remove comments that could be considered immigration advice, even though there were more than 73,000 members in the group.

Administrators were faced with the impossible task of combing through hundreds or even thousands of comments per day and assessing whether they could constitute a breach of the law. Administrators tried to address the issue by making regular posts warning group members not to give immigration advice. But this didn’t satisfy the authority.

The source told the WSWS that, to the layperson, the legal definition of “immigration advice” is not at all clear. While people are allowed to talk about their personal experiences with Immigration New Zealand, “there’s a very fine line. Once you say, ‘In your situation, I would…’ then suddenly you’re giving advice.”

An IAA spokesperson, Simon van Weeghel, admitted to Radio NZ that the “majority” of the comments appearing in the Migrants NZ group would be “exempt from having to be licensed” because they were made in an “informal” context and any “advice” they contained was not being provided for a fee. But this fact did not stop the IAA from threatening to take action against the group.

The shutdown of Migrants NZ prompted an outpouring of dismayed comments from its members. One member said: “It’s ridiculous that someone wants to make this group fall under illegal advice. Let’s say a group of friends decided to hang out every week and discuss laws, will that [mean they are] giving false legal advice?” Another person wrote: “This is probably the most effective advice group… sharing immigration news and updates, we stand by you! Shame on those attackers!”

The silencing of migrants goes hand-in-hand with stepped up anti-immigrant measures. Following the closure of Migrants NZ, the Labour Party-led government this month announced a new immigration policy that entrenches discrimination against low-paid workers. Migrants can apply for residency after working for two years in New Zealand provided they make more than twice the median wage, i.e., more than $115,480, or fall into a number of special occupations.

A “green list” allows some skilled migrants to apply for immediate residency. The list does not include nurses, midwives, aged care workers and teachers, who have to work for two years to qualify for residency. This is despite the drastic shortage of staff in hospitals, schools and aged care facilities. The government is also barring international students from working in New Zealand before they complete a degree.

Large numbers of people who do not meet the occupation or salary criteria can only work in New Zealand on temporary visas, making them much more vulnerable to abusive treatment and underpayment by employers.

The WSWS warns that the legal threats which forced Migrants NZ to close has set a precedent for further attacks on freedom of speech. Groups opposing the growing attacks on living standards, and New Zealand’s integration into US-led war plans, could find themselves similarly targeted—as is already happening internationally.

In Germany, the Socialist Equality Party’s widely-shared Facebook video opposing NATO’s rearmament and proxy war against Russia was banned by the platform in March; the ban was overturned after thousands of people protested against it on social media.

The Ardern government in New Zealand has led a global campaign for censorship of online content deemed “extreme,” and has given the Office of the Censor sweeping powers and resources to remove such content. While the Christchurch terror attack has been used as a pretext for internet censorship, its real target is not the far-right, but ordinary working people, including immigrants.

The attack on the free speech of 75,000 members of Migrants NZ has not prompted any public opposition from the established political parties, the trade unions, or media organisations. The Green Party, which is part of the government, and the opposition National and ACT Parties, have remained silent. Whatever their criticisms of the government’s policy, all these organisations support the “right” of the capitalist state to impose restrictions on immigration. None of them has any genuine concern for the democratic rights of immigrants.

The only constituency for upholding free speech and other basic rights is the working class. We call on workers and young people to oppose the silencing of Migrants NZ and to defend migrant workers who are speaking out and seeking to fight back against the Labour Party-led government’s policies.

Powerful strike movement emerges in the United States

Eric London

A series of powerful strikes and social protests have broken out across the United States against intolerable social conditions and breathtaking levels of social inequality.

Top left: Striking CNH workers in Racine, Wisconsin (UAW/Facebook), Top right: Nurses await the sentencing decision for RaDonda Vaught in Tennessee, May 13 (WSWS), Bottom left: Striking Chevron workers (USW L.5), Bottom right: Arconic workers rallying outside Davenport Workers in Riverdale, Iowa (WSWS)

Spurred by the spiraling cost of living, the struggles are breaking down the false barriers erected by the ruling class to divide and weaken workers. They involve workers of every race and ethnicity in every region of the country, in both urban and rural settings. They include workers across many different industries and at many different rates of pay.

• In Racine, Wisconsin, and Burlington, Iowa, 1,200 manufacturing workers at the agricultural and construction equipment company CNH have been on strike for three weeks, with workers telling the WSWS they are demanding at least a 50 percent increase to wages to overcome surging inflation and years of stagnating pay.

• In Richmond, California, 500 oil workers at a Chevron refinery have been on strike since March 21. Richmond is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most expensive regions of the country, and workers reported to the WSWS that they are barely able to afford to fill their cars with gas, which they refine, in order to drive to work.

• Roughly 5,000 nurses at Stanford Hospital in California went on strike earlier in May demanding significant wage increases and adequate staffing levels. Strikes have taken place in recent weeks at hospitals across California, including at Sutter Health hospitals in the northern part of the state and Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles.

• Nearly 3,500 aluminum workers at Arconic in Iowa, Indiana, New York and Tennessee voted unanimously for strike action last week. Like their brothers and sisters elsewhere, Arconic workers are furious over being dubbed “essential” only for the company to make massive profits while attempting to impose paltry wage increases that amount to pay cuts with inflation.

• Also last week, 1,300 autoworkers at Detroit Diesel in Redford, Michigan, who manufacture engines for military vehicles, overwhelmingly rejected a contract that would have raised wages by only 8 percent at the end of six years, a period in which inflation will have risen 45 percent if it stays near the current rate.

• Contracts for 15,000 nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports in Minnesota are expiring next month, and nurses plan to rally at hospitals across the metro area on June 1 to demand major pay increases, adequate staffing and safe working conditions. In addition, 400 mental health nurses in Iowa and Minnesota are scheduled to carry out a one-day strike on May 24.

• An estimated 10,000 nurses protested in Washington D.C. earlier this month over wages, staffing, and the for-profit health system. Hundreds of nurses protested the next day outside the Tennessee courthouse where framed-up nurse RaDonda Vaught was sentenced to probation for a medical mistake that was ultimately the product of understaffing and other hospital system failures.

The intensifying class struggle in the US forms a critical part of an emerging global movement of the working class. In every country, workers are being driven into struggle by the red-hot pokers of economic hardship, exacerbated by the US-NATO proxy war against Russia, and the ongoing pandemic.

The cockpit of world imperialist reaction is no exception. In the US, the price of gas increased 18.3 percent in just one month, from February to March, driven by the war in Ukraine, as well as war-profiteering by the oil and gas corporations. Grocery prices increased 10 percent from the prior year, the largest increase since 1981, while the price of electricity increased 32 percent annually.

Average rent increased 11 percent over the same time period. Rent for America’s 22 million mobile home residents is expected to increase a staggering 70 percent in the coming months because mobile home parks are being purchased by Wall Street investors, which are then squeezing residents for profit.

In the land of credit card debt, interest rate hikes are driving borrowing rates up to levels not seen in decades. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that delinquencies on subprime car and home loans “hit an all time high in February.”

According to the Journal, the increase in loan delinquencies is a product of the fact that the government has allowed social programs enacted at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to expire, meaning that millions are now unable to stay above water. The two capitalist parties found $40 billion virtually overnight to arm fascist battalions in Ukraine but claim there is not enough money to prevent unprecedented social hardship at home.

Demand for food pantries has never been so high, with one Florida food pantry operator telling a Tampa Bay television channel, “We are seeing different types of families coming through our lines, we are seeing first-time families, middle-class families, some families on social security.”

The “all guns and no butter” policy of the Biden administration is having devastating consequences. Although two-thirds of US food banks are experiencing rapidly increasing demand, they are also witnessing “a 45 percent drop in food provided by the federal government,” CNN reported earlier this month. One leader of the non-profit Feeding America told the news outlet, “We are in danger of running out of food. We are doing everything we can to avert a major hunger crisis.”

Millions of workers in “the world’s wealthiest country” are forced to sell their blood in order to survive. On Thursday, the Washington Post featured a 41-year-old teacher with a $50,000 salary who sells plasma twice per week to get by. “I never thought I would be in a position where I would have to sell my plasma to feed my children,” said Christina Seal of Slidell, Louisiana. “I’ve applied for every government program that I can think of. I don’t qualify for food stamps, I don’t qualify for any programs.” The Post explained that plasma donations “have quadrupled since 2006.”

To the world’s financial elite, the relentless pursuit of profit justifies even more social suffering.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell promised future rate hikes to reduce wage pressure and said, “There could be some pain involved.” Michael Tran, managing director for global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said that as the war in Ukraine drags on, “It is going to be an expensive summer.” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told G-7 central bank governors Thursday, “I think what we need to start getting more comfortable with is, this may not be the last shock.”

The claim that workers must “get more comfortable” with economic desperation comes after two years in which workers have had to “live with” a coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 1 million people in the US.

As they have throughout the pandemic, the corporations and the government are relying on the trade unions to isolate these struggles, subdue workers’ demands and keep production going.

At Arconic, the USW has defied the workers’ unanimous strike vote and is instead seeking to push through a deal with below-inflation raises, sparking outrage among workers. Similarly, at Detroit Diesel, the United Auto Workers (UAW) ignored the workers’ 98 percent strike vote and is forcing them to revote on virtually the same contract they already rejected. At CNH, the strike was sparked in part by anger over the fact that the last contract was negotiated by former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who was imprisoned for accepting corporate bribes.

The president of the United Steel Workers (USW), Tom Conway, pledged to Joe Biden that his union would help keep wage raises lower than inflation. The nurses unions have done nothing to address staffing issues anywhere. The teachers unions have forced teachers back to school during every wave of the pandemic. So critical have the trade unions been to implementing the policies of the government that the Biden administration is actively promoting the establishment of unions at companies such as Amazon in the name of maintaining labor discipline and managing supply lines.

But workers have passed through important experiences in the last year, including the strikes by 3,000 Virginia Volvo workers and 10,000 John Deere workers, as well as the contract struggle by 3,000 Dana auto parts workers. In each case, workers were able to establish rank-and-file committees and began to assert their strength against both the companies and the corporatist trade unions.

Workers confront not individual bosses or corporations but powerful global financial institutions backed by the world’s governments, police and armies.

War has Wreaked Havoc on Ukraine’s Public Health System

Cesar Chelala

The Russian invasion of Ukraine epitomizes many of the challenges children face today, by inflicting serious damage to children’s health and quality of life. By the middle of May 2022, more than 6.1 million people had fled Ukraine, half of them children. Millions more have been internally displaced. 90 percent of Ukrainian refugees are women and children. Since the beginning of the conflict, hundreds of children have been killed.

In addition, the damage to schools and hospitals has negatively affected education and health services. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science by the end of March more than 500 education facilities, some of which had been used as civilian shelters, have been damaged.

The forced eviction from their homes and unfamiliar personal and social environments are considered Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). They impair children’s cognitive development and their physical and mental health. As a result of an elevated level of ACEs resulting from war, many Ukrainian children now suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that, if not addressed with social support, therapy and sometimes medication, can have long-term negative effects on children’s quality of life. According to UNICEF, “every child caught in the conflict in eastern Ukraine is now thought to be in need of psychosocial support.”

Aside from unrelenting bombing attacks, Ukrainians face the challenge of the ongoing COVID pandemic. Basements of theaters and churches, crowded trains and subway stations and refugee processing units increase the risk for other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), measles and polio. Because of the war, it is difficult to make a real estimate of the actual numbers of patients suffering from those diseases.

Primary care, screening and immunization programs have been affected. Supply of potable water and functioning sanitation systems have been disrupted. Disruptions of care for chronic and for infectious diseases have a detrimental long-term impact on people’s health. Low vaccination rates among Ukrainians –particularly children—puts them at risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Several organizations working against trafficking of human beings have warned that Ukrainian refugees –particularly unaccompanied minors– are at risk of falling into exploitation and violence, including sexual violence. German authorities advise refugees not to accept help from unidentified people at train stations, and have increased the number of undercover police officers at train stations and other gathering places.

The Russian army attacks on health facilities, including hospitals and maternity wards, have been repeatedly denounced by international health agencies. “To attack the most vulnerable—babies, children, pregnant women, and those already suffering from illness and disease, and health workers risking their own lives to save lives—is an act of unconscionable cruelty,” said a March 13 joint statement from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

On April 7, the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care had verified 103 attacks on health facilities, impacting transport units such as ambulances. “We are outraged that attacks on health care are continuing. Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. Attacks on health facilities are also a clear violation of Geneva Conventions tenets.

“Across Ukraine, 1000 health facilities are in proximity to conflict areas or in changed areas of control. Health workers throughout the country are risking their lives to serve those in need of medical services, and they, and their patients, must never be targeted. Further, when people are prevented from seeking and accessing health care, either because the facilities have been destroyed or out of fear that they may become a target, they lose hope. The mental health toll wreaked by the war cannot be underestimated, affecting civilians and the health workforce alike,” explained Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine.

Despite limited resources, Ukraine’s health system has demonstrated a remarkable zeal to respond to increasing demands. However, many hospitals and other health care facilities are in close proximity to conflict areas, limiting their capacity to deal with those demands. In addition, supply lines with essential medicines and other basic items have been derailed. Networks of volunteers have provided assistance, delivering medicines and supplies near the frontlines.

Russian military aggression is having and will continue to have devastating effects on the health and quality of life of all Ukrainians, who will continue to suffer the consequences of this terrible war of aggression for decades to come.

Is This the End of the French Project in Africa’s Sahel?

Vijay Prashad

Photograph Source: Thomas GOISQUE – CC BY-SA 3.0

On May 15, 2022, the military junta in Mali announced that it would no longer be part of the G5 Sahel platform. The G5 Sahel was created in Nouakchott, Mauritania, in 2014, and brought together the governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger to collaborate over the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel belt—the region just below the Sahara desert in Africa—and to increase trade among these countries. Behind the scenes, it was clear that the formation of the G5 Sahel was encouraged by the French government, and that, despite all the talk of trade, the real focus of the group was going to be security.

In early 2017, under French pressure, these G5 Sahel countries created the G5 Sahel Joint Force (FC-G5S), a military alliance to combat the security threat posed by the aftermath of the Algerian civil war (1991-2002) and the detritus of NATO’s 2011 war in Libya. The G5 Sahel Joint Force received the backing of the United Nations Security Council to conduct military operations in the region.

Mali’s military spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga said on May 15 that his government had sent a letter on April 22 to General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno—President of Chad’s transitional military council and the outgoing president of the G5 Sahel—informing him of Mali’s decision; the lack of movement in holding the conference of the G5 Sahel heads of state, which was supposed to take place in Mali in February, and handing over the rotating presidency of the FC-G5S to the country, forced Mali to take the action of leaving both the FC-G5S and the G5 Sahel platform, Colonel Maïga said on national television.

The departure of Mali was inevitable. The country has been torn apart by austerity policies pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and by conflicts that run along the length of this country of more than 20 million people. Two coups d’état in 2020 and 2021 in Mali were followed up with the promise of elections, which do not seem to be on the horizon. Regional bodies, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have also imposed tough sanctions against Mali, which has only exacerbated the economic problems already being faced by the Malian people. The G5 Sahel defense ministers last met in November 2021, and the G5 Sahel member countries’ heads of state meeting in February 2022 was postponed. Mali was meant to take over the rotating presidency of G5 Sahel, but the other states who are part of the platform were not keen on this transfer (Chad has continued with the presidency).

Extra-Regional Power

The statement by Mali’s military blamed the institutional drift in the G5 Sahel on the “maneuvers of an extra-regional state desperately aiming to isolate Mali.” This “extra-regional state” is France, which Mali says has tried to “instrumentalize” the G5 Sahel for French objectives.

The five members of G5 Sahel are all former French colonies, who ejected the French through anti-colonial struggles and attempted to build their own sovereign states. These countries suffered assassinations (such as that of Burkina Faso’s former leader Thomas Sankara in 1987), dealt with IMF austerity programs (such as the measures taken against the government of Mali’s former President Alpha Oumar Konaré from 1996 to 1999), and faced the reassertion of French power (such as when France backed Chad’s Marshall Idriss Déby against Hissène Habré in 1990). After the French-initiated NATO war against Libya in 2011, and the destabilization it wrought, France intervened militarily in Mali through Operation Barkhane, and then—along with the United States military—it intervened across the Sahel as part of the G5 Sahel platform.

Since the reentry of the French military in the region, it has driven an agenda that seems to be more about catering to Europe’s needs than those of the Sahel region. The main argument made for the French (and U.S.) intervention in the Sahel is that they want to partner with the militaries of the region to combat terrorism. It is true that there has been a rise in militancy—some of it rooted in the expansion of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State activities in the Sahel. Conversations with officials in the Sahel states, however, reveal that they do not believe that countering terrorism is the main issue for French pressure on their governments. They believe, although they are wary of going on the record, that the Europeans are worried more about the issue of migration than that of terrorism. Rather than allow migrants—many from West Africa and West Asia—to reach the Libyan coast and make an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea, they want to build a perimeter in the Sahel to limit the migrant movement beyond that; France has, in other words, moved the southern border of Europe from north of the Mediterranean to south of the Sahara.

Poorest Place on Earth

“We live in one of the poorest places on earth,” former Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré told me before he died in 2020. About 80 percent of the people of the Sahel live on less than $1.90 a day, and the population growth in this region is expected to rise from 90 million in 2017 to 240 million by 2050. The Sahel belt owes a vast debt to the wealthy bondholders in the North Atlantic states, who are not prepared for debt forgiveness. At the seventh summit of the G5 Sahel in February 2021, the heads of state called for a “deep restructuring of the debt of the G5 Sahel countries.” But the response they received from the IMF was deafening.

Part of the budgetary problem is the demands made on these states by France to increase their military spending against any increase in their spending for humanitarian relief and development. The G5 Sahel countries spend between 17 percent and 30 percent of their budgets on their militaries. Three of the five Sahel countries have increased their military spending astronomically over the past decade, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: Burkina Faso by 238 percent, Mali by 339 percent, and Niger by 288 percent. The arms trade is suffocating these countries. With the potential entry of NATO into the region, this illusionary form of treating the Sahel’s problems as security problems will only persist. Even for the United Nations, the questions of development in the area have become an afterthought to the main focus on war.

Lack of support for the civilian governments to deal with the real problems in the region has led to military coups in three of the five countries: Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali. The military junta in Mali ejected the French military from Mali’s territory on May 2, a week before it left G5 Sahel. Indications of disquiet regarding French policies swirl around the region. Will Mali’s example be followed by any of the other countries who are part of the G5 Sahel group, and will France’s real project in the Sahel—to limit migration of people from the Global South to Europe—eventually collapse with Mali’s exit from the G5 Sahel?

Inflation surge past 11 percent in UK a disaster for millions

Robert Stevens

In speeches to Parliament and big business, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s declared war on the working class. He confirmed that no measures will be taken to stop millions being hammered by a never-ending surge in the cost of living.

Addressing MPs Tuesday, Sunak stated, “Families up and down the country are being hit hard by the rise in prices of fuel, of food and of heating.” But, he added, “There is no measure any government can take and no law we can pass that can make these global forces disappear overnight.”

Sunak spoke just 24 hours before the latest inflation surge was announced, with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure to April increasing 2 points (7 percent to 9 percent) to a 40-year high. The more accurate Retail Price Index (RPI) measure, which includes housing costs, shot up into double digits from 9 percent to 11.1 percent.

This is a devastating blow for workers whose wages and welfare benefits lag far behind both inflation measures.

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak addesses the Confederation of British Industry on Wednesday (Credit: Rishi Sunak/Twitter)

Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Wednesday, Sunak declared, “The Bank of England now expect inflation to peak at 10% later this year.”

The reality is that inflation is headed far higher. Sky News economics and data editor Dan Conway commented that “what we're facing now is a very broad-based inflation… producer price inflation, which measures those costs manufacturers face, rose from an annual rate of 11.9 percent in March to a whopping 14 percent in April. In short, it's clear that this period of high prices isn't coming to an end any time soon.”

Numerous reports attest to acute social distress, including millions of people suffering soaring levels of hunger.

This week Sky News published a survey showing that 27 percent of Britons aged 16-75 “skipped meals” in April. Sixty-five percent sought to reduce costs by not turning on their heating. Research cited this week by the Labour Party found that 250,000 families, including 500,000 children will be plunged into absolute poverty over the next year. Even prior to the pandemic which massively accelerated the social crisis, 14.5 million people, more than one in five of the UK population, were already in poverty.

April’s inflation hike is primarily due to the massive increase in household fuel and energy costs. Almost three-quarters of the increase was accounted for by the 54 percent increase in the energy price cap which came in this month. This will lead to household energy bills soaring up to £1,971 by October, before another massive increase is imposed.

Inflation impacts hardest on the poor, who spend a far higher portion of their income on gas and electricity. The Financial Times cited Heidi Karjalainen, economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies who “estimated that inflation for the poorest 10 percent of Britain’s households was running at 10.9 percent in April, compared with 7.9 percent among the richest 10 percent. With state benefits rising only 3.1 percent in April, it meant ‘big real-terms cuts to the living standards’, said Karjalainen.”

Last month, financial expert Martin Lewis warned that unless people were fed and able to keep warm, there would be “civil unrest”. Repeating the warnings this week to ITV’s Robert Peston he said, “The government needs to get a handle on it… and they need to stop people making choices of whether they feed themselves or feed their children. And we are in that now. We used to have a relative poverty condition in this country and we are moving to absolute poverty, and we cannot allow that to happen.”

Donations being made from supermarket customers to a foodbank in Warrington, England (Credit: Asda/Westbrook-Facebook)

Pointing to a projected household energy increase in October pushing up bills to hitherto unseen levels, Lewis declared the “public mood is desperate, it’s angry and… If we don’t sort this, when those bill rises come in the middle of October to £2,600 in the middle of winter, I worry about civil unrest.”

Tens of millions of people face catastrophe, but those at the top have never had it so good. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), “End-of-year rewards in the financial sector will jump 20 percent year-on-year in 2021-22, following a record period of deal-making.” It noted that “bonuses in professional services firms, which include the likes of lawyers and accountants, will soar 31 percent.”

Sunak told the CBI that he had already “introduced the biggest two-year business tax cut in modern British history”. There would be no respite for the working class, said the multi-millionaire chancellor, but “in the autumn budget we will cut your taxes…”

In contrast there has been a collapse in workers’ wages. Average wage rises are at 4 percent, now nearly three times less than RPI. The poorest 10 percent of workers saw pay increase by just 0.9 percent. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) calculated that real pay collapsed by 2.9 percent in March taking CPI inflation into account

The ONS’s April survey of average weekly earnings shows that real terms wage growth is effectively over. It reported, “In real terms (adjusted for inflation), in December 2021 to February 2022, growth in total pay was 0.4% and regular pay fell on the year at negative 1.0%.”

This is the result of a policy aimed at forcing workers to pay for the hundreds of billions in public funds handed out to big business during the pandemic and the £3 billion and counting that has been funnelled by the Johnson government, with Labour’s backing, to Ukraine for NATO’s proxy war against Russia.

The contribution of wages to inflation growth is negligible. Inflation is being driven mainly by the massive rise in asset values though speculation and share buy-back schemes—accelerated by the gigantic sums of finance made available to big business in quantitative easing (QE). A further £500 billion in QE was made available to big business by the Bank of England during the pandemic, taking the total to £895 billion since 2009.

Yet Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey has twice in a matter of weeks insisted that workers show wage restraint, even as he described the surge in food prices as “apocalyptic”. The Bank’s main policy response is to increase interest rates. On May 5, interest rates were raised from 0.75 to 1 percent, the fourth successive increase to their highest level since February 2009.

During Bailey’s appearance at Parliament’s Treasury Committee Monday, he said, “The most important thing we can do is to get inflation back to target [of 2 percent] and to get back to target without unnecessary disruption to the economy”. The Financial Times commented, “He implied the BoE would not shy away from generating a recession to do that if it was necessary.”

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (centre) with Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (left) and (right) Dame Carolyn Julie Fairbairn, Director General of the CBI, London, September 24, 2020 [Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein]

Sunak’s declaration that there is nothing that can be done to stop the onslaught against the working class is based solely on the ability of the Tory government and the capitalist class to rely on the imposition of below inflation pay awards and the suppression and betrayal of strikes by their industrial police force: the trade union bureaucracy.

Biden sends US troops back into Somalia

Alex Findijs

The Biden administration has ordered the redeployment of 450 US soldiers to Somalia at the request of the Pentagon. Government officials state the decision is aimed at countering the advances of the Islamist group al-Shabab, which controls much of the countryside in southern and central Somalia.

US Marines at Baledogle Military Airfield in Somalia in 2020 (Credit: Cpl. Patrick Crosley)

Biden’s decision is a reversal of a Trump administration order to remove 700 US soldiers from the country and deploy them to neighboring countries in January 2021. Trump portrayed the action as part of his campaign promise to roll back US involvement in “forever wars,” though US troops continued to conduct military activities inside of Somalia from their new bases in neighboring Kenya and Djibouti.

The stated goal of the redeployment is to target a dozen leaders of al-Shabab, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US government, and to “maximize the safety and effectiveness of our forces and enable them to provide more efficient support to our partners,” according to Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council in an interview with the New York Times.

Al-Shabab has been engaged in military confrontations with the central Somali government for over 15 years and has been the target of repeated US military operations and airstrikes. Having consolidated control over large parts of the country, the organization is believed to have 5,000 to 10,000 armed fighters and close ties to Al Qaeda.

Several deadly bombings have been linked to the group, including a truck bombing in the capital Mogadishu in 2017 that killed at least 587 people.

Capitalizing on the violent tactics and Islamist ideology of al-Shabab and other groups, the United States has used the threat of terrorism to justify military involvement in the impoverished East African country for 30 years. According to CNN, a senior Biden administration official argued that al-Shabab had the “intent and capability to target Americans.”

However, it should be noted such concern for the safety of American citizens was not shown to the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a dual US and Palestinian citizen assassinated by Israeli forces last week.

The United States has been militarily involved in Somalia since 1992 when it ostensibly deployed troops to protect United Nations aid workers. George H. W. Bush deployed 25,000 US troops to the country that had descended into fierce conflict between rival clans after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The Bush and Clinton administrations understood the strategic importance of Somalia for controlling trade through the Suez Canal and Red Sea. Up to $700 billion in maritime shipping passes by Somalia every year, encompassing nearly all trade between Europe and Asia. Seeking to establish US control over the region amid the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US imperialism sought to impose its domination through military force.

The campaign resulted in disaster, however, when the Battle of Mogadishu ended in the deaths of 19 US soldiers and hundreds of Somalis, including civilians, in October 1993. Better known as the “Black Hawk Down” incident, the failure of the US to control local warlords resulted in a drawback of direct US involvement.

For the next 15 years US imperialism took on a reserved role in Somali politics. However, the rise of al-Shabab in the mid-2000s prompted the US to steadily increase its military involvement throughout the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. Obama authorized multiple airstrikes against top al-Shabab leaders and the Trump administration increased troop deployments up to 700 soldiers before announcing his plan to withdraw them.

Significantly, reporting of Biden’s decision corresponds with the election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as president of Somalia, who was sworn in this Monday.

Returning for a second term after his previous term from 2012 to 2017, Mohamud’s election ends a 15 month period of crisis after outgoing President Mohamed Abdulahi Farmaajo attempted to extend his term by two years, throwing the country into further violent clashes between rival clans and political groups.

Farmaajo was defeated by Mohamud by a vote of 110 to 214 in the legislature. Somalia’s elections do not include the 15 million people who live in the country. Instead, clan elders select delegates to represent them in parliamentary elections. The parliament then elects the president itself without any direct input from the general populace. Effectively, only 101 people have the right to vote in federal elections.

Mohamud is a member of the Hawiye, one of the five largest and most politically influential clans in Somalia. He also leads the Union for Peace and Development Party, which currently controls a majority in both legislative chambers, securing his victory.

In an insult to the very concept of democracy, the US State Department issued a statement congratulating “the people of Somalia on the conclusion of their national electoral process.” It continued by congratulating Mohamud on his election and encouraged him to “prioritize strengthening democratic governance and institutions.” How Mohamud is supposed to strengthen something that does not exist is unclear.

Despite claiming to be defending democracy in Ukraine, the United States is not concerned with democracy in Somalia as long as its leaders are beholden to its imperialist aims. Mohamud was voted out of office in 2017 due to the intense levels of corruption and political infighting. Despite this, his return to office was facilitated by the United States, which took action to sanction Somali officials by restricting visas on the grounds that they were “undermining the democratic process in the country.”

International donors also threatened to withdraw $400 million in loans from the International Monetary Fund unless Farmaajo ceased his efforts to stall new elections.

The US now has its favored puppet, but it will not solve the intense social crisis in Somalia. Severe drought and decades of war have displaced hundreds of thousands and left 6 million people in acute food insecurity, including 1.4 million children. The US/NATO war against Russia in Ukraine has worsened the situation in Somalia, which relies on exports from both countries for 90 percent of its wheat supply.

Such conditions are what allow al-Shabab to persist, even thrive, despite regular attacks by the US, Somali government and African Union forces.

Al-Shabab has consolidated its power to operate effectively as its own state. It collects taxes, runs its own courts, organized a COVID-19 medical care site and has even issued a ban on single-use plastic bags in areas it occupies. According to Omar Mahmood, a senior Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group, al-Shabab is now often capable of “providing services that are more competitive than the federal government.”

The fact that US imperialism is not concerned with even attempting to alleviate these conditions is shown by the fact that three successive administrations have conducted military operations within Somalia without any clearly stated plan or end goal. Now US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is calling for a “persistent US military presence in Somalia” indicating that the US does not intend to leave anytime soon.

The ultimate goal of the US is to strengthen its hold on the geostrategic region in its pursuit of a confrontation with China. Should war with China break out, the US could use Somalia as a chokepoint for shutting down Chinese trade through the Suez Canal to Europe. The claims of countering al-Shabab is merely conducive to this end.

Senate passes $28 million bill that does not resolve US baby formula supply crisis

Kevin Reed

One day after President Biden invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) in response to the US baby formula shortage, the Senate approved a bill by unanimous consent Thursday that falls far short of addressing the devastating crisis facing families with infant children across the country.

People wait in line during a baby formula drive to help with the baby formula shortage Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Houston [AP Photo/David J. Phillip]

The Access to Baby Formula Act, which was first approved by the House on Wednesday, purports to ensure that families receiving government assistance benefits can continue to purchase baby formula during the shortage. The bill allows the Agriculture Department to waive the requirement that those using the federal program Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) must purchase only one brand of baby formula.

The $28 million bill also provides emergency funding to increase the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection staff, increase resources for personnel working on formula issues, stop fraudulent baby formula from entering the US marketplace and improve data collection on the formula market. 

However, the bill does nothing to fundamentally address the nightmare facing parents looking to buy formula for their infants when none can be found on store shelves. Stocks of formula have been down by 43 percent since the beginning of May. The crisis, which has been developing for months, was allowed by the Biden administration and Congress to reach catastrophic proportions before the latest measures were taken.

In commenting on the vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat from New York) was focused on the fact that the Democrats and Republicans agreed on a face-saving bill that will not address the immediate crisis that is facing millions of families. Schumer said, “It's rare that we have unanimity in the Senate on important measures, and I wish we had more. But this is one of these important issues and I'm glad we're acting with one voice.”

In some states, such as Tennessee, Texas and Iowa, more than 50 percent of the most used products are out of stock. The supply shortage is hitting poor and working class families the hardest where the need for baby formula is highest due to lower levels of breast feeding of infants because mothers are often forced to return to work sooner.

As Dr. Ann Kellams, a University of Virginia faculty pediatrician and board president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, told the Guardian, “Those women are less likely to have flexibility in their jobs to be able to pump and express milk. They are the ones I worry most about right now. They are going to be the ones who are less likely to have a relative in a pocket of the US where they still have enough formula on the shelves to send it to them.”

The formula shortage is of a piece with the capitalist response to the pandemic in the US and internationally. The supply of baby formula was already impacted by pandemic-related supply chain issues when Abbott Labs, manufacturer of the popular Similac product, shut down its factory in Sturgis, Michigan in February following the hospitalizations of as many as eight children, and deaths of two of them, from a bacterial infection.

While the FDA was notified by a whistleblower of the horrendous conditions in the Sturgis facility as early as October, the federal agency slow-rolled its investigation and three months went by before the plant was inspected. Between November and January, the FDA received numerous reports of babies getting ill from formula that was produced in Sturgis.

Initially, the company attempted to brush the crisis off with a recall of its products from store shelves. Even after two babies died from infections associated with the Cronobacter bacteria that was found at the Sturgis facility, the company is denying responsibility for the deaths.

The US baby formula market is dominated by four monopolies that provide 90 percent of the available products: Abbott Nutrition, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle USA and Perrio Company. Of these four, Abbott controls half of the market.     

Abbott Labs is a multinational medical devices and health care corporation based in Abbott Park in the northern suburbs of Chicago. The conglomerate, which split off its pharmaceuticals business into AbbVie in 2013, has a Wall Street value of $197 billion. According to the company’s 2021 annual report released in March, Abbot Labs sold $4.3 billion of pediatric nutritionals, with one half of this amount sold in the US, which includes its Similac, Pedialyte and PediaSure products.

During the pandemic, Abbott Labs’s Wall Street stock value has more than doubled. This is due, in part, to the spectacular increase in profits achieved following the launch of its over-the-counter, hospital lab and rapid point-of-care COVID-19 tests. In the first quarter of 2021, for example, the company tripled its profitability from the previous year to $1.79 billion, largely due to the FDA “emergency use authorization” of Abbott’s BiNaxNow home rapid test.

Since then, the company has been engaged in a massive stock buyback program, which increases the ownership stake of shareholders and further drives up the stock value, worth a combined $5 billion. On March 31, 2022, for example, Abbott Labs was busy buying back $2.3 billion worth of its stock clearly in anticipation of the negative impact of the shutdown of its baby formula factory in Michigan.

A measure of how much opposition exists within the US ruling establishment to any measures whatsoever to deal with the baby formula crisis was demonstrated in the House vote on the emergency legislation. The GOP leadership in the House was among the 192 Republicans who voted against providing $28 million to the FDA, saying the funding was unnecessary.