Canada announces further arms shipment to Ukraine as calls grow for industry to shift to “wartime footing”

Roger Jordan

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Wednesday that Canada will send C$9 million worth of replacement barrels for the M-777 artillery pieces it sent Ukraine earlier this year. Coming on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels of the 40-nation US-led Ukraine Contact Groups, the latest shipment brings to C$147 million the total that Canada’s Liberal government has spent on military aid for Ukraine since tabling its 2022–2023 budget in early April.

In that budget, the NDP-supported Justin Trudeau-led Liberal government pledged to provide Ukraine with half-a-billion dollars’ worth of armaments by March 2023.

Under Operation Unifier, the Canadian Armed Forces played a major role in training and reorganizing Ukraine's military to prepare for war with Russia (Photo Credit: DND)

Wednesday’s meeting underscored that as Ukraine’s military position deteriorates, and hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers lose their lives on a daily basis, the Western imperialist powers are determined to further escalate their involvement in the US-NATO war with Russia. The Biden administration, which pledged a further US$1 billion in weapons for Kiev Wednesday, is determined to “break the back of Russia,” so as to reduce it to the status of a semi-colony, seize its resource wealth, and intensify US imperialism’s strategic encirclement of China.

Canada, which has depended for more than eight decades on a close military–strategic partnership with Washington to advance its own global predatory ambitions, is fully on board with this reckless agenda, including the provocations Washington is mounting against China in the Asia-Pacific, even while waging war on Russia.

Anand made clear in remarks following Wednesday’s meeting that the imperialist powers are planning for an extended period of military conflict. Making a direct appeal to weapons manufacturers and other industrial companies to expand production, Anand declared, “There is a continued need to provide equipment and military aid to Ukraine, and governments across this world only have so much inventory. And therefore the next step is for industry to see itself as having a role.”

Anand continued, “We are seeing the need for more industry scale-up. So for example, in the area of ammunition, that’s a key area that we need industry to continue to fortify themselves.”

What Anand is saying is that the Liberal government and its US allies are planning for many months, if not years, of warfare with Russia, irrespective of the number of casualties suffered by Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. This incredibly reckless policy increases the danger that the conflict could expand into a direct clash between Russia and the US and its NATO allies fought with nuclear weapons, threatening the lives of millions of people throughout Europe and beyond.

Discussions of the need for a dramatic expansion of war production have been ongoing within Canada’s political elite and military top brass for some time. Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre, told the CBC in early May that Canadian industry must move to a “wartime footing.” Eyre stated, “I think what this has shown though is we need to increase the capacity of [the] defence industry. Given the deteriorating world situation, we need the defence industry to go into a wartime footing and increase their production lines to be able to support the requirements that are out there, whether it’s ammunition, artillery, rockets, you name it. There’s a huge demand out there.”

Eyre is working closely with Anand and Deputy Defence Minister Bill Matthews to develop a comprehensive rearmament plan, including the procurement of new fleets of warplanes, warships and submarines. Anand declared at a Global Affairs Canada conference in early May sponsored by arms manufacturers, “We meet daily, sometimes twice daily. That’s the type of team I like to lead and that’s the type of team that will continue to deliver in this area.”

In its push to ramp up war production, the Canadian government will rely on its close ties to the trade union bureaucracy to maintain labour discipline throughout heavy industry and arms manufacturing. The Trudeau government has experience in this area, having worked with Unifor to ensure the supply of C$15 billion worth of armoured vehicles to the blood-soaked Saudi dictatorship to wage its brutal war in Yemen, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and plunged millions into hunger and starvation. When extremely limited criticism of this arms deal was raised by the New Democrats during the 2015 federal election, then–Unifor President Jerry Dias stepped in to tell the social democrats in no uncertain terms to shut up—a demand with which the pro-war NDP quickly complied.

Canada’s important role in escalating the war with Russia builds on its years-long support for the far-right regime in Kiev. Ottawa was a key supporter of the fascist-spearheaded 2014 Maidan coup, which removed the pro-Russian elected president, Victor Yanukovytch, and brought to power a pro-Western puppet regime in Kiev. Canada subsequently deployed military trainers to Ukraine, who were involved in providing instruction to the far-right Azov Battalion and other fascist groups as they were integrated into the country’s armed forces. At the same time, Ottawa joined NATO’s massive expansion of military force in Eastern Europe, agreeing to lead a NATO battalion in Latvia, one of four NATO advanced battlegroups in the Baltic Republics and Poland.

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly confirmed that Ottawa is implementing the planned increase of its military contingent in Latvia. “We had 700 troops and we are increasing that now by 450. We are now 1,300 troops in Latvia. We also increased our presence by making sure there is a frigate in the Baltic Sea,” she told the Canadian Press.

Canada will send six CF-18 fighter jets and 200 military personnel to Romania next month to support NATO air provocations against Russia. Bordering Ukraine to the south, Romania lies on the strategically critical Black Sea.

As Ottawa joins in the rapid escalation of hostilities with Russia, it is also ratcheting up tensions with China. Following the lead of the Biden Administration, which is seeking to provoke Beijing into a conflict by overturning the decades-long policy of strategic ambiguity towards Taiwan, Canada has conducted a series of air reconnaissance missions designed to provoke a response from Beijing. Supported by Australia, the US and Japan, Canadian planes took part in reconnaissance missions ostensibly aimed at enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program between April 26 and May 26. A Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman accused Canada of using the “excuse” of enforcing UN resolutions to conduct operations that were “endangering China’s national security and the safety of frontline personnel on both sides.”

Earlier in May, the Trudeau government confirmed in a long-awaited announcement its decision to ban Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from the country’s 5G and 4G networks. The aggressive move, which is part of a US-led campaign to cripple China’s major tech companies, underscores Ottawa’s support for the diplomatic, economic, and military moves led by Washington against Beijing aimed at blocking China’s rise as a strategic competitor.

The Trudeau government’s aggressive role as an attack dog for American imperialism around the world enjoys unanimous support within the political establishment. The social democratic New Democrats entered a “confidence-and-supply” agreement with Trudeau in March to guarantee his minority government a parliamentary majority through June 2025. The explicit aim of the agreement was to ensure “political stability”—i.e., the ability to enforce unpopular policies of waging war against Russia, rearmament, and attacks on the working conditions and living standards of workers to pay for the massive bailouts of the super-rich during the pandemic and the tens of billions needed to fund Canada’s preparations for World War III. The NDP’s votes secured the passage of the Liberals’ latest budget, which included an additional C$8 billion in military spending increases on top of the massive defence spending hike first unveiled in 2017.

Any criticism of the Trudeau government within the political establishment on these issues comes from the right. In a statement on the Huawei ban, the NDP complained that the move was “long overdue,” and accused the Liberal government of dragging its feet on the issue. “It has taken the Liberal government three years to make this decision while other Five Eyes countries made their positions known much sooner. This delay,” it continued, “only worked to raise serious questions at home and among our allies about the Liberal government’s national security commitments and hampered the domestic telecommunications market.”

The opposition Conservatives are demanding that the Trudeau government take an even more belligerent stance against Russia and have repeatedly accused the Liberals of being “soft” on, if not outright appeasers of, China.

The media, led by the Globe and Mail, and the Conservatives and New Democrats, launched a broadside against the Liberal government earlier this week following a sensationalized “exposure” of the fact that a low-level official from Global Affairs Canada, Canada’s foreign ministry, attended Russia Day celebrations at the Russian embassy in Ottawa last week. The “outrage” expressed by the opposition parties forced Trudeau to declare the official’s participation “unacceptable” and promise it would never happen again. “Conservatives have long been calling on the Liberal government to do more to isolate the Putin regime in the world, including by expelling Russian diplomats, as our allies have done,” stated interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen.

US squanders $80,000 every minute on nuclear weapons

Andre Damon

The United States spends over $80,000 every single minute on nuclear weapons, more than every single country in the world combined, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

The massive annual spending on these weapons of mass destruction is more than the  federal government spends on primary and secondary education programs. 

Despite rising inflation and a raging pandemic, the United States is massively expanding its nuclear arsenal, with spending on nuclear weapons surging 14 percent between 2020 and 2021. 

While the US spent $44.2 billion on nuclear weapons in 2021, China spent $11.7 billion, and Russia spent $8.6 billion.

Annual nuclear weapons spending by country (Source: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons)

Using the terror of these weapons of mass destruction, the criminal oligarchy in Washington threatens the whole world with “fire and fury” at a minute’s notice, purely at the discretion of one person—the President.

The report found that major corporations providing nuclear weapons contracts to the US and its allies had their nuclear arms contracts double in 2021. “Companies in France, the United Kingdom and the United States were awarded $30 billion in new contracts (some spanning decades into the future), twice as much as they received in 2020.”

The report noted that in 2021, the Department of Defense requested $28.9 billion for “Nuclear Modernization,” including the “Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, B-21 Bomber, Long-Range Stand Off Weapon, Columbia class submarine, missile warning” and “$7 billion for Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications.”

US annual defense budget (Source: Pentagon 2023 Budget overview)

But this already gargantuan nuclear spending was further expanded in the 2023 Pentagon budget, which declared, “Modernizing the Nation’s nuclear delivery and command, control, and communications systems is the Department’s number one priority, and these programs are funded in the FY 2023 budget request.”

It declares, “Recapitalizing nuclear platforms, delivery systems, and the associated support systems will require significant investment over the next 20 years.”

The official budget document quotes Navy Admiral Charles A. Richard, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, as declaring,  “Our existing nuclear forces are the minimum required to achieve our national strategy. We must modernize and recapitalize the nation’s nuclear triad, nuclear command and control, nuclear complex and supporting infrastructure to meet presidential objectives.”

The budget proposes to upgrade and modernize every single aspect of the US nuclear arsenal, from nuclear submarines to bombers and missiles. It includes $35.4 billion to “develop, procure, and modernize” the United States’ nuclear weapons, including:

• $6.3 billion for the Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Submarine;
• $5 billion for the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber;
• $3.6 billion for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, a new class of intercontinental ballistic missiles; and
• $1 billion for the Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) Missile, a new generation of nuclear cruise missiles.
• In addition, the budget allocates $56.5 billion for “Lethal Air Forces,” including the purchase of 61 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at the price of $11 billion. It allocates another $25 billion for missile defense, $7.2 billion for “long-range fires,” including hypersonic missiles, and $27 billion for the “Space Force” created under former President Trump.

A list of nuclear weapons systems being totally overhauled by the US defense department from the 2023 Defense Budget Overview.

In 2016, President Barack Obama initiated the most dramatic expansion and modernization of America’s nuclear forces since the end of the Cold War, at a projected cost of $1.2 trillion. 

Obama’s nuclear arms race sparked what commentators at the time called the “second nuclear age.” In contrast to the Cold War’s doctrine of “mutually assured destruction,” this “second nuclear age” would, in the words of a 2016 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, involve combatants “thinking through how they might actually employ a nuclear weapon, both early in a conflict and in a discriminate manner.” 

In 2018, the Trump administration intensified the arms race initiated under Obama by unilaterally withdrawing from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, freeing the United States to ring Russia and China with short-range nuclear weapons capable of hitting major cities in a matter of minutes. 

This was accompanied by the systematic expansion of the US nuclear modernization program, the cost of which subsequently ballooned to nearly $2 trillion. 

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons report further reviews the corrupt nexus between major corporations, lobbyists and leading think tanks, which function as paid-for agents of the arms manufacturers. The report notes: 

At least twelve major think tanks that research and write about nuclear weapons in India, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States collectively received between $5.5 million and $10 million from companies that produce nuclear weapons. The CEOs and board members of companies that produce nuclear weapons sit on some of their advisory boards, serve as trustees and are listed as “partners” on their websites. 

The Atlantic Council, according to the report, “received between $590,000 - $1,284,992 from eight companies that produce nuclear weapons: Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, Safran and Textron. Additionally, the Atlantic Council received between $50,000 - $99,999 from a national laboratory working on nuclear weapons, Los Alamos National Laboratory.”

The Brookings institution think tank, for its part, “received between $575,000 and $1,149,997 from three companies that produce nuclear weapons: Leonardo, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. This represents an inflation-adjusted increase of between $287,075 and $574,149 from past year funding. The Brookings Institution reported a new funder, Leonardo, and constant funding from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.”

These think tanks are routinely quoted in the press, who treat the proclamation of these corrupt representatives of the arms dealers as the gospel truth.

Ultimately, however, the damage caused by the colossal squandering of social resources on nuclear weapons pales in comparison to the damage that would be caused if these weapons were used.

With the United States massively escalating its war against Russia, the prospect of the weapons of mass destruction that the United States uses to cajole and bully the whole world being put to use is an increasingly dangerous reality.

Scholz, Macron and Draghi in Kiev: European imperialism backs escalation of war against Russia

Peter Schwarz

Anyone who believed that the leading European powers were adopting a more peaceful course vis-à-vis Russia than the United States was proven wrong on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled together on a special train to Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In Kiev, Romanian President Klaus Johannis joined the party.

The message that the four of them conveyed was unequivocal. While the war with Russia is increasingly becoming a war of attrition without a foreseeable end, claiming hundreds of lives every day, they are doing everything they can to escalate and prolong it. They promised to supply Ukraine with more heavy weapons and to raise the prospect of accession to the European Union (EU). In doing so, they consciously accept the danger of a nuclear, third world war.

Chancellor Scholz stressed the symbolic significance of the joint visit as the leaders traveled to Kiev. “It is important that the heads of government of the three major countries now go to Kiev and show their support for Ukraine in this very special situation of war,” he said. The aim was not only to demonstrate solidarity, he said, but also to continue providing financial, humanitarian and military assistance “as long as is necessary for Ukraine's struggle for independence.”

At a joint press conference with Zelensky, Macron, Draghi and Johannis, Scholz then assured: “We also support Ukraine with the supply of weapons, and we will continue to do so as long as Ukraine needs our support.” Specifically, in addition to the anti-aircraft Cheetah tank, the tank howitzer 2000, the modern anti-aircraft system Iris-T and the special radar Cobra, Scholz promised the delivery of multiple rocket launchers in consultation with Britain and the US.

Macron also promised to supply additional howitzers. “In addition to the twelve Caesars [self-propelled howitzers] that have already been delivered, six more are to be added in the coming weeks,” he said.

Zelensky was enthusiastic. Weapons would be delivered, including those desired by Ukraine, he said. “Germany is helping us a lot with this,” he added. He described the prospect of EU candidate status as a “historic choice for Europe.”

The day before, the defence ministers of the so-called Ukraine-Defense Contact Group, which includes 30 NATO members, as well as Sweden, Finland, Georgia, Moldova, Australia and a dozen other countries, decided at a meeting in Brussels on a massive increase in arms supplies.

Artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers, combat drones, armored vehicles, anti-ship missiles and other weaponry will be supplied to Ukraine as quickly as possible. The US and its allies hope the additional weaponry will turn the course of the war in favour of Ukraine, with Russia currently controlling one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

The lion’s share will come from the US, which has increased its arms supplies by another $1 billion. But the European powers are not simply following the US, as some critics claim. They are pursuing their own imperialist interests.

The massive rearmament of Ukraine, the deployment of ever-greater numbers of NATO troops on the Eastern European border with Russia and Ukraine’s aspiration to join the EU are changing the character of the European Union. It is evolving from its origins as an economic union more and more openly into an imperialist military alliance directed against Russia, China and ultimately against the US, as well as the European working class.

While the Ukrainian oligarchs and the country’s right-wing and corrupt elites dream of a place at the banquet table in Brussels, EU membership would be a nightmare for Ukrainian workers. Even during the absorption process, which usually lasts for years or decades, the government must curtail all “superfluous” social expenditure.

Mario Draghi, who now advocates Ukraine’s admission to the EU as Italy’s head of government, was head of the European Central Bank from 2011, when it imposed an austerity program on the Greek working class as part of the so-called Troika, which plunged millions into bitter poverty and drove thousands to death.

In the Eastern European countries that have been members of the EU for more than 15 years, workers continue to toil for starvation wages for international corporations, while social infrastructure has been decimated and one corrupt regime follows another in power.

In the twentieth century, Germany tried twice to bring Ukraine under its influence. The first was in 1918 during the dictated peace of Brest-Litovsk, when it forced the revolutionary government in Moscow to abandon Ukraine and established a puppet regime, which was last led by the brutal tsarist officer and dictator Pavlo Skoropadskyi. Then, in 1941, in the war of extermination against the Soviet Union, it murdered millions in the territory of today’s Ukraine to create “living space” for Germans.

Scholz’s visit to the Kiev suburb of Irpin, where he lamented Russia’s “unimaginable cruelty,” was the height of hypocrisy. He could have disembarked on the way from the city centre at Babi Yar, where the German Wehrmacht murdered 34,000 Jews from Kiev within 36 hours on September 29 and 30, 1941. But this would not have suited the Kiev regime, which reveres Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and his organization of Ukrainian nationalists as “heroes.”

When the US and its allies destroyed entire cities, including Baghdad, Mosul, Fallujah, Tripoli, Belgrade and Gaza, no corresponding pilgrimages like the one held Thursday took place. The morals of Scholz, Macron and Draghi are dictated exclusively by imperialist interests at home and abroad.

A decisive motive for the rearmament of Germany, which will triple its defence budget this year, and the whole of Europe is the intensification of the class struggle. The ruling classes of Europe and the US are responding to the growing rebellion against the deadly consequences of the pandemic and the effects of inflation by rearming against external and internal enemies. War and militarism have always served as a means of forcibly suppressing the class struggle.

President Macron, who is facing a wave of strikes and is in danger of losing his parliamentary majority on Sunday, announced at a military trade fair four days before his trip to Kiev that France and the EU were “living in a war economy in which we must become permanently organised.”

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht announced the formation of a new “Territorial Leadership Command,” largely unnoticed by the public, which is responsible for the defence and logistics of NATO in Germany as well as for “Homeland Security.” The domestic operations of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), which are in fact forbidden, are thereby placed under the same command as the war offensive against Russia.

“With the new command, we can provide the necessary forces for a national crisis team very quickly, if necessary, in addition to the purely military tasks,” Lambrecht explained. She cited the COVID-19 crisis unit in the Chancellery, which is headed by a Bundeswehr general, as a role model.

Ambulance services at breaking point across Australia

Clare Bruderlin

The impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, coupled with influenza and widespread understaffing, threatens to catastrophically overwhelm a health system already in crisis. New reports emerge every week of overflowing emergency departments and record ambulance delays in every state and territory.

An ambulance in Sydney in 2020 (Credit: Wikimedia, Helitak430)

Hundreds of deaths from COVID-19 are being recorded each week and hospitalisations continue to grow. The official death-toll is now over 9,000. This is entirely the result of the “let it rip” policy, enforced by state and federal governments, Labor and Liberal-National, which have sacrificed lives for corporate profits.

The New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Health Information’s “Healthcare Quarterly,” released on Wednesday, provided a glimpse of the deteriorating conditions.

In NSW, ambulance response times are at their worst recorded levels in the period from January to March this year. Ambulances did not arrive to 63.3 percent of emergency priority cases within 15 minutes. More than 20 percent of those in this category, requiring the most urgent care, waited for over 30 minutes.

A shortage of beds means that ambulances are frequently forced to “ramp” with patients outside of hospitals for hours on end. At times, the entire ambulance fleet at country centres such as Gosford and Wyong will be stuck outside the regional hospitals waiting for beds in emergency departments.

There are also occasions when there are no available ambulances whatsoever in the large regional centres of greater Newcastle and Illawarra.

Before the pandemic, NSW Ambulance, the employing authority, would attend about one million calls a year. However, in 2021 there were 1.43 million Triple-0 calls. Before the pandemic there were an average of 3,300 calls a day. In April this year there were 116,000 calls. This is an average of 3,860 a day, an increase of 500 every day.

With no boost to resources, paramedics are being asked to fill the shortfall. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that NSW Ambulance has asked crews to work overtime and start day shifts early to “assist with backlog.” One manager admitted to the paper that paramedics are being asked to work up to 16 hour shifts to “mop up all the calls ambulances haven’t been able to get to overnight.”

NSW Ambulance also moved at the behest of the state Liberal-National government to provide a short-term fix, which would see a sifting process to avoid an ambulance response for non-emergency calls to Triple-0. This would divert some callers to general practitioners or pharmacists or advise them to make their own way to hospital rather than relying on an ambulance.

Medical experts have warned that this could result in numerous tragedies, with ill patients effectively denied an ambulance and hospital admission.

Earlier this month, the NSW government announced a measly $1.76 billion over four years for “frontline emergency care.” It claimed that this would include the hiring of some 1,850 additional paramedics over four years and the construction of 30 new ambulance stations.

The Health Services Union ambulance division (ADHSU) which, along with the Australian Paramedics Association (APA), has repeatedly rejected calls from paramedics for united action, immediately welcomed the announcement. This was despite national president Gerard Hayes stating last month that there would need to be “at least 2,000 extra paramedics to be able to cope with rising demand.”

Workers have rightly asked, where will these paramedics come from? But even if the number of paramedics is increased, it will not alleviate the crisis.

Productivity Commission figures show that there are 48.6 ambulance officers, including students and qualified paramedics, per 100,000 people in NSW. This is compared to a still inadequate ratio of 61.7 per 100,000 in Victoria, 71.3 in Queensland and 61.1 in South Australia, where ambulance services are also buckling under the strain of rising COVID-19 and influenza cases, as well as staff illness.

In Victoria there have been two Code Reds called this year when there were no ambulances available at all to respond to emergency calls. A recent budget estimates hearing heard at least twenty-one Victorians have died waiting for an ambulance in the past six months.

In Queensland, in events that are becoming typical, 170 patients were left waiting for ambulances ramped elsewhere on May 16. Figures for the month of March showed that almost 50 percent of Queensland patients who had arrived at hospital by ambulance, waited more than 30 minutes to be admitted.

Hospital emergency departments are so overcrowded that patients are reportedly being treated in corridors as ambulances are routinely ramped for hours outside, waiting to offload patients.

Only Western Australia had a ratio worse than NSW, with 34 paramedics per 100,000 people. In June, St John Ambulance WA said roughly 22 percent of the Perth metropolitan fleet was ramped at any given time. Figures for May showed paramedics spent 5,252 hours ramped outside hospitals, the highest-ever total recorded for that month.

There is a growing gulf between the anger and frustration of paramedics and other healthcare workers, and the limited and isolated actions promoted by the unions. On the Facebook page of the Australian Paramedics Association, which recently ended workers’ five-day work bans without their demands being met, comments indicate that paramedics are being driven to the end of their tether.

One, forced into resignation wrote: “Got pulled into the office for a ‘chat’ for taking ‘too much sick leave’ even though I hadn’t actually used all my sick leave. Dangerously fatigued? No one cares. Haven’t eaten for 8 or 10 hours? No one cares… Thank god I got out when I did. I would’ve had a nervous breakdown or be dead by now.”

Another, pointed towards the heart of the problem, writing: “Sorry but I have to disagree with ‘the power is within our hands.’ If it WAS in Paramedics’ hands it would not be happening year after year & getting worse. If it WAS in Paramedics’ hands we would know that we were supported by upper management and both unions when we say we’re exhausted and need a break, not just supported but met with action… 

“If it WAS in Paramedics’ hands it would not have gotten to the point of collapse. These issues are not new, they have not magically materialise[d] due to CoVid. They are historically endemic within a broken system, a pandemic in its own right with a history of misuse, mismanagement by government, & yes complacency by those that are supposed to support & fight for us…”

The new federal Labor government, which has been welcomed by the health unions, has declared that “sacrifices” are needed in order to repair a “dire” budget situation. In its submission to the Fair Work Commission, the Labor government opposed any “across the board” pay rise for workers in line with inflation, regardless of the sky-rocketing cost of living.

Workers have demonstrated their willingness to fight these attacks. In recent months health workers have gone on strike, as well as teachers and other public sector workers, often in defiance of orders by the industrial courts.

These actions by workers in the face of prohibitions from the industrial relations regime have urgently alarmed health union bureaucrats who work constantly to subordinate their members to the orders of the industrial courts and prevent challenges to its legitimacy.

The unions act as a police force for governments and big business, and have presided over historic cuts to real wages and working conditions, attacks on jobs and the privatisation of healthcare, over decades.

Health workers everywhere are confronted with deep-seated systemic problems bound up with the prioritising of profits over lives, the decades of funding cuts and the privatisation of healthcare under Labor and Liberal-National governments alike.

UK Home Secretary Patel approves extradition of Julian Assange to the United States

Robert Stevens

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. If extradited, he faces life imprisonment on charges under the Espionage Act for journalism exposing US war crimes, coup plots and human rights abuses and the complicity of the UK and other imperialist allies.

Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel walks through the Central Lobby at the Palace of Westminster, during the State Opening of Parliament, in the Houses of Parliament, in London, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. [AP Photo/Justin Tallis/Pool Photo]

After over 11 and half years since he was first arrested in London in December 2010, kept in arbitrary detention and then imprisoned in London’s maximum security Belmarsh, the British government has dispensed with all legal norms and signed an order that could well result in Assange’s death.

A Home Office spokesperson said, “Under the Extradition Act 2003, the secretary of state must sign an extradition order if there are no grounds to prohibit the order being made.

“Extradition requests are only sent to the home secretary once a judge decides it can proceed after considering various aspects of the case.

“On 17 June, following consideration by both the magistrates court and high court, the extradition of Mr Julian Assange to the US was ordered. Mr Assange retains the normal 14-day right to appeal.

“In this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange.”

Patel’s decision obliterates any notion of democracy and due process. WikiLeaks denounced the decision as a “dark day for Press freedom and for British democracy”. It announced it would appeal the decision to the UK High Court.

WikiLeaks stated, “This is a dark day for press freedom and for British democracy. Anyone in this country who cares about freedom of expression should be deeply ashamed that the Home Secretary has approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, the country that plotted his assassination.

“Julian did nothing wrong. He has committed no crime and is not a criminal. He is a journalist and a publisher, and he is being punished for doing his job.

“It was in Priti Patel’s power to do the right thing. Instead she will forever be remembered as an accomplice of the United States in its agenda to turn investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise.

“The Home Secretary is condoning not only the criminality committed by the US government against Julian, but also those US government crimes exposed by WikiLeaks.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London on May 19, 2017 [AP Photo/Frank Augstein]

The statement finished with the pledge, “The path to Julian’s freedom is long and tortuous. Today is not the end of the fight. It is only the beginning of a new legal battle. We will appeal through the legal system, the next appeal will be before the High Court. We will fight louder and shout harder on the streets, we will organise and we will make Julian’s story be known to all.

“Make no mistake, this has always been a political case. Julian published evidence that the country trying to extradite him committed war crimes and covered them up; tortured and rendered; bribed foreign officials; and corrupted judicial inquiries into US wrongdoing. Their revenge is to try to disappear him into the darkest recesses of their prison system for the rest of his life to deter others from holding governments to account.

“We will not let that happen. Julian’s freedom is coupled to all our freedoms. We will fight to return Julian to his family and to regain freedom of expression for us all.”

If Assange is not successful with his legal appeals, he will be handed over to the Biden administration. In 2010, amid a global manhunt orchestrated by the imperialist powers, Biden, then vice president to Barack Obama, described Assange as a “hi-tech terrorist”.

The decision of Patel, a political sadist, to sign the order was a foregone conclusion, assisted by a judiciary determined to ensure his extradition. In January 2021, district court judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the US on mental health grounds, acknowledging that the WikiLeaks founder was at severe risk of suicide. But her decision was  overturned after an appeal by the US government, with Britain’s High Court judges accepting empty “assurances” that Assange would not be subject to oppressive prison conditions.

Patel’s decision came just one week after more than 300 doctors from 35 countries wrote to the home secretary calling on her to block Assange’s extradition, demanding his release. In signing the order Patel dismissed their grave concerns over Assange’s health.

Their letter declared, “In October 2021 Mr. Assange suffered a ‘mini-stroke’. This dangerous deterioration of Mr Assange’s health underscores the medical concern that the chronic stress caused by his harsh prison conditions, as well as his justified fear of the conditions that he would face in the case of extradition, leaves Mr Assange vulnerable to cardiovascular events.”

The doctors continued, “This dramatic deterioration of Mr Assange’s health has not yet been considered in his extradition proceedings. The US assurances accepted by the High Court, therefore, which would form the basis of any extradition approval, are founded upon outdated medical information, rendering them obsolete.”

Since taking over the Home Office under Conservative government Prime Minister Boris Johnson—who celebrated Assange being illegally dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was seeking refuge in 2019—Patel has authored a raft of ever more draconian legislation. Her latest assault on democratic rights is the National Security Bill. It is a charter designed to criminalise protest at military sites and journalism exposing government lies used to prepare and justify military aggression.

As it passed its second reading on June 6, a major step to becoming legislation over the next six months, Assange and WikiLeaks were the targets of frenzied denunciations in parliament by Tory MP’s. The government was backed by Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. When asked by Tory MP Theresa Villiers if she would “condemn the WikiLeaks-type mass dumping of information in the public domain,” Cooper replied, “Yes, I strongly do, because some of the examples of such leaks that we have seen put agents’ lives at risk, put vital parts of our national security and intelligence infrastructure at risk and are highly irresponsible.”

The WSWS noted that enacting the legislation demonstrated that “the persecution of Assange is setting the precedent for an unprecedented assault on freedom of speech, protest and the media, in line with escalating plans for imperialist war abroad and social counterrevolution at home.”

Patel’s order means that Assange is a major step closer to being extradited to the United States. And given the record of the British judiciary and its contemptible treatment of the heroic journalist since 2010, there is no reason to anticipate a positive outcome to a High Court appeal.

Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship 2023

Application Deadline: 31st August 2022

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries

To be taken at (country): Missouri School of Journalism and U.S. newsrooms, USA

About the Award: The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships are aimed at providing fellows with experience in reporting, writing and editing that will enhance future professional performance; transferring knowledge gained during the program to colleagues at home; and fostering ties between journalists in the United States and other countries.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: To be eligible, candidates must be:

• Early-career professional journalists from developing countries with proficiency in English
• 25-35 years old
• have at least three years of experience as a journalist at a print, online or broadcast media outlet.
• Participants who work as staff reporters in their host newsrooms are required to develop training plans that they implement when they return to their home newsrooms. ​

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Program: Fellows receive travel, health insurance and basic living expenses.

Duration of Program: 6 months. The ​all-inclusive ​fellowship starts in mid-March and ends in early September.

How to Apply: Click here to apply 

Visit Programme Webpage for details

Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship 2023/2024

Application Deadline: 12th August 2022

About the Award: The Biodesign Innovation Fellowship is a 10-month experience that equips aspiring innovators with a proven, repeatable process to identify important healthcare needs, invent novel health technologies to address them, and prepare to implement those products into patient care through start-up, corporate channels, or other channels. In addition, the Innovation Fellows become part of the Stanford Biodesign community, which is a life-long, worldwide network of innovators passionate about improving healthcare.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Individuals with advanced degrees and/or substantial work experience in the engineering, science, computer science, business, product design, law, medical, or nursing fields are encouraged to apply. Fellows will be selected based on their experience, passion, and drive, as well as their potential to become leading innovators in the health tech field. Applicants are welcome from any country.

Eligible Countries: Any

To be Taken at (Country): Stanford Biodesign Fellows become members of the Stanford Biodesign team at the James H. Clark Center on the Stanford University campus. Clinical immersion is completed at Stanford Health Care, as well as a variety of other settings across the continuum of care.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship is a launch pad for initiating, redirecting, or accelerating a career in health technology innovation. Stanford Biodesign graduates apply their talents to:

• Catalyzing innovation inside major health technology companies
• Building their own health technology start-ups
• Teaching and/or leading translational research programs for world-class universities
• Driving innovation initiatives within academic or private medical centers
• Becoming specialists in design, investing, or other aspects of the health technology innovation ecosystem

They also become part of the Stanford Biodesign community, which is a life-long, worldwide network of innovators passionate about improving healthcare.

Duration of Award: 10 months. The fellowship is a full-time, intensive experience that runs from the beginning of August through early June each year. Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellows receive a monthly stipend and health benefits during their fellowship period.

How to Apply: Apply here

• It is important to go through all FAQ in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

DAAD Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (PRIME) 2022

Application Deadline: 31st August 2022.

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): Germany

About the Award: With co-funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) gives young postdocs the chance to spend a period of time researching abroad, in combination with a research phase in Germany. What is special about this programme is that is provides jobs, not scholarships. Applications are invited from postdoctoral researchers of all nationalities and subjects.

Type: Research

Eligibility: Requirements for applicants include the following:

• PhD completed before the start of funding
• free choice of country for the research phase abroad, providing that the candidate did not spend a total of more than twelve months there in the previous three years
• agreement of host institutions in Germany and abroad
• confirmation from the German host that it is willing to employ the postdoctoral researcher for the entire funding period if funding is approved

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Program: 

• basic salary and international allowance, plus travel allowance for the researcher, spouse/partner and children
• invitation to attend an orientation seminar before programme begins

Duration of Research: 18 months

• twelve months spent abroad
• six months spent in Germany

How to Apply:

• The application form is available in the application portal. To get to the portal please click on Stipendiendatenbank für Deutsche, fill in Fachrichtung (subject of your research), Zielland (country of the period abroad) and Status “Promovierte” (position), and select the programme.
• Please mind the instructions on registering on the portal, choose English as portal language, activate, if necessary, the compatibility view of your browser and choose English as browser language. After registration in the portal, please click on the tab “personal funding“.

Call for applications 2022/23 (German) [pdf-file]
Call for applications 2022/23 (English) [pdf-file]

Visit Research Webpage for details

Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Fellowship 2023

Application Deadline: 30th June 2022

About the Award: MOFA Taiwan Fellowship is established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to award foreign experts and scholars interested in researches related to Taiwan, cross-strait relations, Asia-Pacific region and Sinology to conduct advanced research at universities or academic institutions in Taiwan. Up to now, there have been 1117 scholars from 83 countries accepted by this program. MOFA Taiwan Fellowship, echoing the APEC Scholarship Initiative, provides 12 Chinese Taipei APEC Fellowship openings per year exclusively for scholars and experts from developing APEC economies. MOFA Taiwan Fellowship is open for application in May and June every year and recipients will conduct their research in Taiwan as early as January the next year.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Recipients shall be foreign professors, associate professors, assistant professors, post-doctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, or doctoral program students at related departments of overseas universities, or are research fellows at an equivalent level in academic institutions abroad.

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): Taiwan

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value & Duration of Award:

(1) Monthly grants are paid at the beginning of every month.

           a. Professors, associate professors, research fellows, or associate research fellows: NT$60,000

           b. Assistant professors, assistant research fellows, or doctoral candidates: NT$50,000.

(2) One round-trip, economy-class ticket for the most direct route to Taiwan (The subsidy will be decided by MOFA in accordance with the relevant regulations).

     (3) The terms of fellowship are 3 to 12 months.

     (4) Accident insurance (plus a medical insurance for accidental injuries) coverage of NT$1 million.

How to Apply:

 (1) Fellowship administrator: Center for Chinese Studies at National Central Library: http://ccs.ncl.edu.tw/

      (2) The year of 2023 online application period is from May 1 to June 30, 2022.

      (3) Contact person: Ms. Elaine Wu

Tel: +886-2-2361-9132 #317

Fax: +886-2-2371-2126

Email: twfellowship@ncl.edu.tw

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Turkey Government TÜBİTAK International Fellowship 2023

Application Deadline: Application opens 15th June 2022 and will stay open all year long.

About the Award: The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) is the leading R&D funding agency in Turkey and an internationally renowned organization that supports and coordinates scientific research, provides scholarships to researchers and supports R&D activities and innovation in industry by promoting university-industry collaborations.

Type: Research

Eligibility: TÜBİTAK aims to attract leading researchers, espTurkish researchers, with international working experience to come to Turkey and conduct their research in leading Turkish academic, industrial or public institutions through its BİDEB 2232 programmes.

Eligible Countries: International & Turkey

To be Taken at (Country): Turkey

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:

• Outstanding Researchers Programme : 24.000 Turkish Lira/month
• Early Stage Researchers Programme: 20.000 Turkish Lira/month

How to Apply: Application is open as of 15.06.2022 and will stay open yearlong.

BİDEB 2232-A International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers and

BIDEB 2232-B International Fellowship for Early Stage Researchers programmes . 

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.