Johnson under renewed threat as prime minister after devastating by-election defeats

Robert Stevens

Boris Johnson’s crisis-ridden premiership became more so Friday after the ruling Conservatives suffered two worse than expected by-election defeats. The elections were the first held since the “partygate” scandal that has rocked Johnson’s leadership since last November.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaving London to attend Chogm 2022 in Rwanda. 22/06/2022 [Photo by Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street / CC BY-ND 4.0]

The defeats ignited calls for Johnson, currently in Rwanda at the June 20-25 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to step down as party leader. It is less than three weeks since Johnson survived a vote of no confidence by his party, with 41 percent of Tory MPs casting their vote against him.

Conservative Party chair Oliver Dowden resigned Friday morning, issuing a letter at 5.00am stating, “We cannot carry on with business as usual.” Former Tory leader (2003-2005) Michael Howard told the BBC, “the party and more importantly the country would be better off under new leadership.”

Both elections were triggered by sex scandals. The vote in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was forced followed the resignation of Imran Ahmad Khan, jailed in May for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. Tiverton and Honiton was triggered after Neil Parish resigned in May after admitting twice watching pornography in Parliament’s main chamber.

In Wakefield, the Tories lost the seat to Labour, with Simon Lightwood securing a 4,925-vote margin in a 12.7 percent swing. The result saw Labour regain one of the Brexit-voting “Red Wall” constituencies lost to Johnson in the 2019 general election the Tories fought on a policy of “Get Brexit Done”.

Wakefield has historically been a safe Labour seat, held by the party from 1932.

Johnson will be far more concerned at the loss of the safe seat of Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, south-west England to the Liberal Democrats. The result was the worst in by-election history, in terms of overcoming a large majority held by the incumbent party. It was the third time within a year that the Lib Dems have won a previously safe Tory seat.

Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Foord overturned a 24,239 vote majority to win a seat the Tories had held ever since its creation in 1997. The Tories’ vote fell to 16,393, by nearly 22 percent. The Liberal Democrats won with the aid of tactical voting—increasing their vote by over 38 percent while Labour’s dropped by nearly 16 percent. The almost 30 percent swing to the Liberal Democrats from the Tories is one of the largest ever. The result was so bad that Tory candidate Helen Hurford barricaded herself in a dance studio at Crediton sports centre, where the count was being held, refusing to speak to the media.

Politico noted, “The last time this seat was represented by a non-Conservative MP was [in 1835] two years before Queen Victoria ascended to the throne…”.

Barring two seats, the Tories hold every seat in the largely rural southwest of England. Thursday’s results will prompt further attacks on Johnson’s leadership from MPs fearful of losing their seats in any upcoming election.

Johnson’s pitch that he is best placed to secure a successful post-Brexit era didn’t wash in Tiverton and Honiton, a constituency which voted to leave the European Union by 58 percent to 42. His presence was considered so toxic that when he visited the constituency on June 10 it was not published on any of Hurford’s campaign social media sites/leaflets.

Pollster Joe Twyman has noted there are 291 Tory MPs with smaller majorities than Tiverton and Honiton, out of a total of 359 MPs.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the backbench 1922 Committee and MP for the Cotswolds, with a 20,214 majority over the Lib Dems, declared, “I think factually if I were to run under a bus today it would be difficult to hold my seat, there’s no doubt about that.”

One unidentified Tory MP told PA that the by-election “precipitates electoral disaster, which can only be avoided by replacing Boris Johnson with the better leadership the Conservative Party needs and deserves.”

Johnson still has a commanding parliamentary majority of 75, and, having won the no confidence vote, under party rules cannot be removed in a leadership challenge for 12 months. But such is the crisis enveloping the government that changing the party’s rules to allow a challenge, first mooted by 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady during the no confidence vote, is being discussed.

The Daily Telegraph reported, “Some Tory MPs now think that the rules should be changed to allow Mr Johnson to be removed from office if a majority can be reached… Tory MPs are preparing to vote in the 1922 Committee elections… expected to be completed before Parliament's summer recess, which begins on July 21. The election could see some of Mr Johnson’s opponents on the Conservative back benches elected to key roles, making rule changes more likely.”

Asked as he boarded the plane to the east African state on Wednesday, 24 hours before polling day, if he would resign if the by-elections were lost, Johnson replied, “Are you crazy?”

Speaking Friday from a news conference in Kigali, he doubled down declaring, “in mid-term governments post-war lose by-elections.”

He then cynically referenced the devastating crisis hitting millions and fuelling intensified class conflict as a factor in his leadership woes. “I think as a Government I’ve got to listen to what people are saying—in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which I think for most people is the number one issue. We’re now facing pressures on the cost of living, we’re seeing spikes in fuel prices, energy costs, food costs—that’s hitting people.”

Despite such bromides, the Johnson’s government’s agenda is one of militarism and war abroad and class war at home. As Johnson boarded his flight to Rwanda, where the Tories intend to illegally send hundreds and then thousands of asylum seekers, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab put before Parliament his Bill of Rights, which will replace and eviscerate the Human Rights Act. Further anti-strike legislation is being prepared.

The criminal Johnson and his government only remains in office, committing the UK to war with Russia and China and able carry out a devastating offensive against the working class, because there is no fundamental opposition to his agenda within political circles.

The Liberal Democrats, who only seven years ago were booted out of office after being the junior partners in a Tory-led coalition that imposed brutal austerity against workers, are just as frenzied in their war fervour.

The main force preventing the hated Johnson government being dealt with from below is the Labour Party and the trade union bureaucracy.

Under conditions in which every sector of the working class is demanding a turn to industrial struggle, the unions have permitted only one major strike by 50,000 rail workers to proceed. Labour responded with horror to the first national strike on the rail for 35 years, with party leader Sir Keir Starmer threatening any Labour MP who went on a picket line (only 25 did) with disciplinary action.

Over 2.4 million other workers are involved in disputes, just considering those employed in council and schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (1.4 million); doctors and nurses (666,000); civil servants (188,000); Royal Mail (115,000) and BT telecoms (40,000). The Trades Union Congress and its affiliated unions operate as the industrial police force of the government.

Dock workers strike at six German ports

Ulrich Rippert

Thousands of dockworkers at Germany’s major ports went on strike Thursday at the beginning of the early shift. The ports of Hamburg, Emden, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Brake and Wilhelmshaven were affected.

This was the second 24-hour warning strike in the ongoing contract bargaining round. Approximately 12,000 dockers had already stopped work on June 9. Dock workers are not prepared to accept the wage dictates of the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS) and, in view of rapid price increases, are demanding appropriate compensation for inflation.

Container terminal in the port of Hamburg (Alexander Hoernigk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The trade union Verdi is leading the negotiations in the 58 port companies in Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen covered by the contract. Verdi’s demands are very limited; they include an increase in hourly wages of €1.20 and, in container companies, an increase in the annual allowance of €1,200. Because neither of these would even compensate for the already horrendous inflation, the union has also demanded an unspecified “compensation for actual inflation.”

In fact, even these minimal demands, which do not recompense the wage theft already caused by the price increases, will not be pushed through by Verdi. The union is desperately seeking a deal with the employers, but these are not even willing to make cosmetic concessions.

After a long period of hesitation, ZDS presented an offer that meant a massive real wages cut. Under the new contract, wages would increase by 3.2 percent for this year and by only 2.8 percent next year. In addition, there would be a one-off payment of €600. In a provocative statement, the employers’ association said that “in combination with the federal government’s relief package” this was equivalent to an adjustment for inflation.

When the union’s negotiating commission rejected the offer as non-negotiable and announced strike action because it feared workers’ anger, the ZDS reacted angrily. “We are in the middle of an absolutely exceptional situation,” ZDS negotiator Ulrike Riedl said in a written statement.

Global supply chains had been severely disrupted, he said. On the one hand, there was a large wave of delayed ships approaching ports; on the other hand, there were major bottlenecks in rail freight transport, which delayed onward carriage and caused additional storage costs. Calling warning strikes now was absolutely irresponsible, Riedl said.

The Kiel Institute for World Trade (IfW) also warned against the effects of a dock strike and drew attention to the ongoing disruptions in container shipping in the North Sea.

International trade was suffering greatly from the congestion and delays in container shipping, which were now also reaching the North Sea, Vincent Stamer, head of Kiel Trade Indicator, explained in the current issue of World Trade Indicator.

Container ships are also backed up in the North Sea off the ports of Germany, Holland and Belgium. According to the IfW, almost 2 percent of global freight capacity is currently stuck there and cannot be loaded or unloaded. About a dozen large container ships with a total capacity of about 150,000 standard containers were waiting to dock in Hamburg or Bremerhaven, according to a press release.

But dockworkers were not intimidated and stuck to their demand for compensation for inflation and an increase in real wages.

The employers then presented a new “final” offer, which included Verdi’s demand for an increase in hourly wages of €1.20. In the area of car shipping, where many low-wage workers are employed in so-called car handling, the hourly wage would increase by only 90 cents. The employers agreed to increase the allowance to the €1,200 demanded and, as compensation for inflation, there would be a one-off payment of €1,000 in container operations and €500 in conventional ones. At the same time, however, the contract duration would be extended by six months.

Verdi’s negotiating commission showed that calculated overall, the new offer was pure sham and with a duration of 18 months, meant a deterioration compared to the first offer.

This was followed by the second warning strike, in which even more workers participated on Thursday, marching in protest demonstrations through Hamburg, Bremen and other port cities.

It has been several decades since dockers in Germany have gone on strike. Up to now, Verdi and its predecessors have always negotiated a compromise, which they pushed through even if it meant real wage losses and a deterioration in working conditions. This has resulted in hourly wages of between only €14 and €20 being paid for the hard and often dangerous work of loading large containers and operating container gantry cranes.

Even now Verdi is trying to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.

Workers must be on their guard and organise themselves independently of Verdi in rank-and-file action committees to extend the strike and assert their own interests.

Verdi is closely linked to the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens and supports the government’s policy of imposing the cost of billions in corporate giveaways and military build-up on the working class through massive price hikes and lowering living standards.

Verdi has already signed collective agreements in other sectors, such as the printing industry, insurance, private banking and newspapers, which are far below what the port employers have offered. Most of these Verdi wage agreements run for two years and consist of one or two one-off payments of €500 and annual wage increases of 1.5 to 3 percent. Like the IG Metall union, Verdi also rejects seeking compensation for inflation.

The real level of inflation is much higher than the usual figures quoted. Above all, prices for food, heating, rents and energy, which represent a particularly heavy burden on those dependent on low and middle incomes, have risen several times more than the official inflation rate. The World Bank expects international food prices to rise by 22.9 percent this year. For many workers and their families, this threatens their very existence; they are simply no longer able to make ends meet on their monthly salaries.

In addition, there are unbearable levels of work stress, the threat of losing jobs and the consequences of the government’s ruthless coronavirus policy, which has claimed 140,000 lives in Germany alone and infected 3.6 million, one in 10 of whom are suffering from long-term consequences.

On the other hand, profits in many corporations are rising astronomically. The top companies listed on the German Dax index have also set new profit records. In the first quarter of 2022, their profits were 21 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year. The large container shipping companies are also taking advantage of the crisis to make massive profits. Because the demand for overseas transport exceeds the supply of available shipping capacity, freight rates are being driven up. Nevertheless, it is workers who are made to bleed.

All over the world, workers are concluding that they must fight if they are to defend their rights and gains. The number of strikes and protests has increased significantly around the world—from the US to Europe, Asia and Africa. This week, 50,000 rail workers are taking strike action in Britain.

Dockers in Germany need to see their wages struggle as part of this international mobilisation of the working class, and they need to address the issues today facing workers everywhere.

US Supreme Court abolishes constitutional right to abortion

Eric London

On Friday, at the stroke of a pen, six unelected judges ended the right to abortion, dramatically altering the country’s legal and social landscape. For the first time in American history, the Supreme Court eliminated a fundamental constitutional right broadly recognized and supported by the overwhelming majority of the country’s population.

The 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is effective immediately. Abortion is now or will imminently become illegal in at least 21 states with a combined population of 135 million people. For the vast majority of working women, travel to the mostly coastal states where abortion remains legal will not be an option.

This is the new reality: Many will die in botched back-alley operations. Doctors who perform abortions or prescribe medication to terminate pregnancies will be sent to prison. There is often no exception to abortion bans in cases where the individual is a child or was impregnated through rape or incest.

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The decision is the opening salvo in an historically unprecedented attack by the ruling class on all democratic rights. The concurring opinion by Clarence Thomas announces that the court will now begin to revisit all prior cases in which the Supreme Court protected the substantive due process rights of the population. “In future cases,” Thomas wrote, “we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” These decisions, respectively, protected the right to contraceptives, overturned laws criminalizing sodomy, and legalized same-sex marriage.

Though these decisions are first on the chopping block, Thomas’ concurrence makes clear they are just the starting point. “After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated,” he wrote.

Such cases include Brown v. Board of Education (barring school segregation), Gideon v. Wainwright (establishing the right to free criminal defense counsel), Loving v. Virginia (banning laws against interracial marriage), West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parish (upholding minimum wage and child labor restrictions), and many more. The day before issuing its decision in Dobbs, the court issued a separate decision drastically scaling back protections against police violating the rights of those under arrest.

The decision is not legally legitimate. It is part of a far-right political conspiracy. It is the latest in a long train of reactionary decisions legitimizing state surveillance, police violence, mass deportations and corporate domination of the electoral system. It was issued by a court that does not constitute a democratic branch of government but a battering ram for medieval clericalism and bigotry.

The court is now dominated by fascistic ideologues. Three of the justices voting with the majority in Dobbs (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett) were appointed by Donald Trump, the would-be dictator who conspired with two of the justices (Alito and Thomas) to orchestrate a coup attempt on January 6, 2021, overturn the results of the 2020 election and establish a dictatorship.

Dobbs is the judicial continuation of Trump’s coup attempt. It is being wildly celebrated by the far-right across the country, which views it as a testament of their power and prospects for the future.

Trump issued a pious statement declaring that “God made the decision.” In Texas, pro-Trump state Attorney General Ken Paxton declared June 24 a holiday and closed state offices “in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973,” the year of Roe v. Wade.

The Republican Party will press forward in the fight to abolish abortion even in those states where it remains legal. Fascist congresswoman and January 6 co-conspirator Marjorie Taylor Greene declared, “We are one step closer to ending the mass genocide of abortion in America,” but warned that “it’s not totally over.” Former Vice President Mike Pence said, “We must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.”

The response of the Democratic Party confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that the defense of even the most basic democratic rights is impossible through the framework of capitalist two-party politics.

At a press conference Friday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read a poem and solemnly said, “We hope that the Supreme Court will open its eyes.” House Democrats gathered on the steps of the Capitol building and sang “God Bless America” as protesters chanted in the background. President Joe Biden stumbled through a perfunctory 11-minute speech in which he called the decision “sad” and urged “Congress to restore protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law,” which everyone knows will never happen.

Biden did not announce that the Democratic Party would use the last months of its House and Senate majority to overturn the filibuster, appoint additional Supreme Court justices, or initiate impeachment proceedings against Clarence Thomas for his role in Trump’s coup. Instead, Biden absolved himself of any responsibility, declaring that “no action of the president” can protect abortion. After admitting that the Democratic Party will do nothing to legally protect abortion on a federal level, he then urged people to vote for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.

Biden also gave voice to the Democratic Party’s primary concern that mass opposition to the decision may produce a social explosion and warned protesters not to “intimidate” the far-right. “Keep all protests peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable. Threats and intimidation are not speech.” As Biden spoke, a phalanx of Capitol Police deployed to respond to a protest that had broken out at the Supreme Court building. In marked contrast with January 6, 2021, the police were wearing full riot gear, and there were snipers deployed on the courthouse roof.

The day before the Supreme Court ruling, as the fifth day of hearings took place showing the Republican Party was fully engaged in Trump’s coup plot on January 6, Biden referred to the Republican Party during a press conference as “my Republican friends.” In the same remarks, Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for rising gas prices and defended the massive armament of Ukraine as necessary to spread “democracy” and combat “Putin’s murderous ways.”

Biden and the Democrats rely on their “Republican friends” to wage US imperialism’s neocolonial war against Russia, which aims to open up Eastern Europe and all of Eurasia to the unbridled domination of American corporations, and risks nuclear war. But this bipartisanship legitimizes the extreme right, provides wind in the sails of an increasingly fascist Republican Party, and paves the way for the Supreme Court’s rampage on democratic rights.

The Dobbs decision has the character of a “civil war ruling,” akin to the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Sanford v. Dred Scott, which hastened the outbreak of the American Civil War of 1861-65 by ruling that southern slaves remained private property when taken to northern free states, and that all individuals of African descent had no rights because they were not citizens.

Today, Biden is playing the role of then-Democratic President James Buchanan, who was inaugurated two days before Dred Scott was issued and whose administration was defined by his efforts to conciliate his slaveholding “friends” in the doomed, reactionary belief that accommodation with the right would preserve the union.

Dred Scott shocked the Northern population and contributed to a growing realization that democracy was incompatible with the “peculiar institution” of slavery, which allowed a tiny slaveholding elite to dominate the laws of the entire country. The conflict over slavery came to be seen as “irrepressible,” and the question was resolved through the revolutionary war for emancipation.

Today, millions are coming to similar conclusions about capitalism, in which a handful of reactionary oligarchs dominate the political system, attempt to establish dictatorships, wage war with potentially catastrophic consequences, allow the deaths of millions through the preventable spread of diseases like SARS-CoV-2, destroy the environment for profit and oversee the expansion of massive levels of social inequality and poverty.

The Dobbs decision shows that the defense of basic democratic rights today is entirely dependent on the development of a mass movement of the working class independent of the rotten two-party system. Such a movement is developing in the United States and internationally, spurred by the rising cost of living which is driving millions into deeper levels of economic hardship.

Wave of protests against India’s new military recruitment scheme driven by anger over mass unemployment

Wasantha Rupasinghe

Mass protests erupted across India in response to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s June 14 announcement of a new four-year, “merit-based” military recruitment scheme—Agnipath or Tour of Duty—aimed at slashing the military’s expenditure on personnel.

To the dismay of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the protests, which were organized by young people via social media, persisted for days. They are an expression of mounting social anger over mass joblessness, especially in north India, the BJP’s traditional political stronghold.  

Protest against Agnipath military recruitment scheme. (Photo Credit: Newsclick)

Under the new recruitment scheme, all non-officer recruits or jawans will henceforth be denied pension and other social security benefits.

Indian military and geopolitical experts have long called for action to curtail the salary and pension costs of India's 1.38 million-strong armed forces, so that more of the mammoth military budget can be devoted to buying advanced weapons systems.    

The 2022-23 Union Budget allocated 5.25 trillion rupees to defence. Of this, the pension bill represented more than 20 percent, 1.19 trillion rupees.

For the past two decades, India’s governments, whether led by the BJP or the Congress Party, have rapidly built up India’s armed forces, including pressing forward with the building of a “blue water navy” and developing a nuclear triad—that is the capacity to carry out nuclear strikes from land, air and underwater.

Developing India’s military prowess through the acquisition of new weapons systems and the “indigenisation” of armaments production is seen as crucial to aggressively pursuing India’s great-power ambitions, countering its principal rivals—China and to a lesser extent Pakistan—and deepening its reactionary “global strategic partnership” with Washington.

These considerations were summed up in remarks by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on June 13, the day before he announced the Agnipath recruitment scheme. Singh told a class of Indian Administrative Service personnel who had just completed a joint civilian-military training program, that India must be ready to wage “full-scale war.” He cited the US-NATO war with Russia in Ukraine to argue that India is facing a more turbulent geopolitical environment, marked by cyber- and proxy wars, and referred, albeit obliquely, to the need for India to prepare for war with nuclear-armed China. “Considering the machinations of our neighbours, especially one, as you know, India needs to keep itself ready for a full-scale war in the future,” declared India’s Defence Minister.

India is already the third-largest military spender in the world, trailing only the US and China. According to data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in April, India's military spending amounted to US $76.6 billion in 2021, an increase of 0.9 percent from 2020 and 33 percent from 2012. Indicating India's preparation for military confrontation with China and Pakistan, SIPRI noted: “India has prioritized the modernization of its armed forces and self-reliance in arms production.”

Under the Agnipath scheme all jawans recruited to the military’s three wings–Navy, Army and Air Force—will receive four-year contracts. This includes a six-month training period. At the end of the four years, only 25 percent will be re-enlisted for regular military service.

The first allotment of Agnipath recruits, Agniveers, are to be enlisted over the next 18 months, with 46,000 youth inducted. Initially the government limited Agnipath recruitment to those aged between 17.5 and 21. But in an attempt to placate the protesters—some of whom had enrolled in private “military training courses” during a COVID-19 pandemic freeze on recruitment to better their chances of being selected—the government has now raised the age limit to 23.

Of the 46,000 only 11,500 will be retained at the expiry of their four-year contracts. The remaining 34,500 recruits will be discharged with a contributory severance package of 1.17 million rupees ($14,955) each. There are also provisions for non-contributory death and disability compensation. During the 4-year period, the salary package of an Agniveer will be around 476,000 rupees ($6,083) in the first years, rising to 692,000 rupees ($8,845) in the fourth year.

Unlike under the existing military recruitment framework, however, these short-term soldiers will not be eligible for pension or gratuity. And when their four years as potential cannon fodder for the Indian ruling class comes to an end, they will be pushed into India’s massive army of unemployed, under-employed and precariously employed.

The vast majority of Indian workers are employed in the so-call “informal sector,” with no social security, and pension or health benefits. Even in the so-called formal sector (large private firms, the state sector and government-owned firms) contract-labour has become increasingly pervasive.

Under these conditions, the BJP government’s decision to greatly restrict the possibility of finding permanent employment in the military, with access to pensions and other benefits, led to an explosion of frustration among a section of youth, especially in rural villages and smaller towns and cities.      

Rohit Kumar, a farmer's son from Anandpur village in Bihar's Begusarai district, who has been waiting for four years to join the Army, told The Wire: “According to the new scheme I will work in the army for four years and get a salary of Rs. 25,000-30,000 a month. After four years, I may be thrown out of the army. What will I do then? After four years, I will have to sell pakodas (street food)! It would be better if I take a private job somewhere else.”

Eighteen-year-old Shailesh Kumar Rai from Makhdumgani in Bihar's Chhapara district had also set his sights on a military career. “I have been preparing for two years,” he said, “with the hope that I will have a stable career after joining the Army and not that I will become unemployed after just four years.”

Because of the Modi government’s ruinous mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Indians, particularly migrant workers from rural areas who had gone to major cities in search of employment, lost their livelihoods overnight. India's unemployment rate in last December stood at 7.91 percent, compared with 6.3 percent in 2018-19 and 4.7 percent in 2017-18.

India's youth make up more than one-fifth of the country's 1.4 billion people. Every year, the labour force grows by more than 5 million people. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), nearly 30 million Indians aged 20-29 were jobless and looking for work in 2021. Statistics from the International Labour Organisation showed that in February this year, one in every four youths aged between 15 and 24 was out of work. Meanwhile, according to CMIE's April 2022 data, 42 percent of the 20-24 age group and 12.7 percent of the 25-29 age group are jobless.

The outrage over the recruitment scheme triggered angry protests by tens of thousands of military job aspirants in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Telangana. These states, which have some of India's highest unemployment and poverty rates, contribute a substantial portion of the Indian armed forces’ manpower. The protesters demanded the government withdraw the Agnipath scheme and retain the old recruitment process. They blockaded major highway and railway lines, leading to violent clashes with police and security forces. In some places, buses were set alight.

At least one person died in southern Telangana when police opened fire after a crowd gathered at Secunderabad railway station and torched train coaches. Scores of people, including police officers, were injured.

As the protests grew, a number of states invoked Section 144 of India’s Criminal Code, banning gatherings of more than four people. Police arrested hundreds of protesters, including over 700 in Bihar alone.

The government, backed by big business and the corporate media, has remained firmly committed to the new recruitment scheme and declared that it will not be rolled back. Addressing a joint press briefing with officers from the Indian Navy and Air Force, Lt. General Anil Puri from the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Military Affairs announced that those wanting to join the military will have to present a certificate, subject to police verification, showing “they were not part of anti-Agnipath protests or vandalism.

Various opposition parties, including the Congress Party and Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, have rushed to declare their support for the protests against the Agnipath recruitment scheme. However, their opposition to the Modi government’s policy is from the right, from the standpoint that it will weaken the armed forces. Moreover, they have nothing to propose in regards to the real issue—the calamitous economic crisis and the determination of the ruling class to place its full burden on the working class and rural toilers.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, a Congress leader, criticized the scheme at a press conference for making a “mockery of [military] training” and because it “inducts into the defence forces an ill-trained and ill-motivated soldier.” In other words, his concern with the new scheme is that it will undermine India’s military, which would cut across Congress’ demand for a more bellicose stand against China.

The CPM, which has been promoting the Congress Party for decades as a “secular” alternative to the BJP, is even more explicit. In a June 16 statement, the Stalinist party said that it “strongly disapprove(s)” of the scheme because it “does disservice to India's national interests”—that is the reactionary interests of the Indian bourgeoisie—and “severely compromises the quality and efficiency of our professional armed forces.” In a revealing line, the CPM statement declares: “It is criminal to call upon our youth to be prepared to make the supreme sacrifice without the minimum protection of job security.”

US doubles long-range missile shipments to Ukraine in war with Russia

Andre Damon

The US will double the number of medium to long-range missile launchers being sent to Ukraine in the US/NATO war against Russia, the Defense Department said Thursday.

The US will send four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket (HIMAR) systems, in addition to the four that have already been deployed there, as part of yet another weapons package announced this week.

The package includes, according to the Pentagon, “four high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 36,000 rounds of 105 mm ammunition, 18 tactical vehicles to tow 155 mm artillery, 1,200 grenade launchers, 2,000 machine guns, 18 coastal and riverine patrol boats, spare parts and other equipment.”

The latest package is the thirteenth shipment of weapons to Ukraine since February. Since the outbreak of the war the US pledged $6.1 billion in arms shipments.

The renewed escalation of US involvement in the war comes amid a series of significant military setbacks for Ukraine.

On Friday, the Ukrainian military ordered its troops to withdraw from the city of Severodonetsk (or Sievierodonetsk), the main focus of the Russian offensive in East Ukraine. The city is the capital of the Lugansk (Luhansk) region, which is already more than 90 percent under Russian control.

The nearby town of Lysychansk is the only remaining large settlement in the region not under Russian occupation. Russia is now in control of one fifth of Ukrainian territory, and Ukraine is suffering as many as 500 to 1,000 casualties per day.

“Unfortunately . . . it will be necessary to withdraw,” said Serhiy Hayday, regional governor of the eastern Lugansk region, according to the Financial Times.

“We now have a situation where holding on to destroyed positions for many months just to be there makes no sense. Because with each passing day, the number of deaths in unsecured positions can grow proportionally,” Hayday added.

The New York Times reported that “Ukrainian soldiers have been shuttling people across the river in small boats. Some soldiers have had to swim.”

But these military setbacks have only prompted the US and its NATO allies to redouble their involvement in the war. On Thursday, the European Union made Ukraine a “candidate member.”

It will be joined by Moldova, home to a Russian-controlled breakaway enclave known as Transnistria.

Next week, US President Joe Biden will attend the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain. At the summit, “Leaders will announce new force posture commitments to strengthen NATO's defense and deterrent posture,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

'The U.S. will announce steps to strengthen European security alongside expected major new contributions from allies,” Kirby added.

In the face of a series of disastrous setbacks in the war, the United States is planning to intensify the conflict, expanding both the scale of weapons shipments and the geographic scope of the war.

Kirby said that, for the first time, the NATO summit will include official leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea. Kirby stated that “whether it's in Europe or the Indo-Pacific region, the United States and our allies and partners will defend the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The transformation of NATO from a European anti-Russian alliance, to a full scale fighting force operating in the Pacific as well points to the rapid acceleration of the US conflict with China even as the Ukraine war surges out of control.

A central aim of the summit will be to fast-track the application of Sweden and Finland, which share a vast land border with Russia, into the alliance. Noting the objections from Turkey to the countries’ membership, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declared, “My aim is to find a common way forward so that both countries can join our Alliance as soon as possible.”

Stoltenberg said the summit would focus on expanding the share of economic output devoted to military spending by member states. “We must continue to invest more. And invest more together in NATO,” he said.

Amid the relentless military escalation by the United States and its allies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week issued what was perhaps the most blunt assessment by any Russian official to date of the efforts of the US and NATO to intensify the war against Russia.

Lavrov warned that the moves by the EU to accept Ukraine and by NATO to accept Finland and Sweden as members represent the formation of a “new coalition” targeting Russia.

“Hitler rallied a significant part, if not most, of the European nations under his banner for a war against the Soviet Union,” Lavrov said. He continued, “now, the EU together with NATO are forming another – modern – coalition for a standoff and, ultimately, war with the Russian Federation.”

Meanwhile the economic consequences of the war continue to reverberate. The German public could face a tripling of energy prices in the coming months if Russia completely shuts off gas deliveries to the country, Klaus Müller, the head of  Germany’s federal network agency, said in an interview.

Russia has already slashed output from the Russian-German Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, and there is growing speculation that it could shut off gas exports to Germany completely.

Müller warned of “enormous leaps in price,” saying “a doubling or tripling is possible.”

All over the world, the working class is being told to foot the bill for the rapidly-spiraling war, both in surging prices and out-of-control military spending. As they enter into struggle, they must take up the demand to end the war as a critical component of the defense of their social and economic rights.

Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government bans walkout as Ryanair workers strike across Europe

Alejandro López & Santiago Guillen

As airline and airport workers walk out in an escalating wave of struggles across Europe, Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos cracked down on the three-day European Ryanair cabin crew strike by imposing draconian minimum services, thereby making it illegal for most staff to strike.

On Friday, cabin crews in Belgium, Spain and Portugal walked out against the onslaught on their jobs, wages and conditions. It is the first of a three-day strike. The company was forced to cancel 315 flights to and from Brussels international airport during the three-day strike. In Spain, where Ryanair employs 1,900 people, no flights were canceled except those heading to Belgium, and two flights from Portugal to Brussels were canceled as well.

In France, cabin crews are striking today and tomorrow. In Italy, a one-day strike will be held today. Spanish workers are also scheduled to strike from June 30 to July 2.

Ryanair is just one of many airlines to be affected by strike action this summer. Brussels Airlines pilots and cabin crews started a three-day strike on Thursday, finishing today. In France, Air France pilots, went on strike today against the safety risks of increasing capacity during the busy summer season.

In Spain, EasyJet cabin crews plan to go on strike for nine days intermittently in July (1-3, 15-17 and 29-31) to demand higher wages. Flight attendants are demanding a 40 percent increase in their basic salary, which stands at 950 euros ($1,000).

In Northern Europe, around 900 pilots from Denmark, Norway and Sweden’s flag carrier Scandinavian Airlines are set to strike in late June.

Ground crew staff at airports across Europe are also going on strike. Over the weekend, French air traffic controllers centred in Marseille are striking, severely delaying and impacting flights crossing French airspace. These strikes come weeks after a one-day strike by ground staff at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris that forced the cancellation of one-quarter of flights through the airport. They are demanding a €300 monthly raise amid spiraling increases in the cost of living, and further action is being planned for July 2.

On Monday, Brussels Zaventem Airport had to cancel all departing flights during action from security staff. On Thursday, hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport voted in favour of strike action later this summer to demand the reinstatement of a 10 percent pay cut imposed during the peak of the pandemic.

Airline workers are a strategic section of the working population whose mobilisation points to the vast social and industrial power of the international working class. Strikes are mounting over the surge in the cost of living and the consequences of the disastrous official handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unified and coordinated across national borders and different job designations, they could rapidly shut down Europe’s airspace and bring the economy to its knees.

Such actions could win powerful support among broader layers of the European working class, amid growing strikes by health care, metal, rail and trucking workers—laying the basis for a coordinated struggle against inflation, official policies on the pandemic and the diversion of massive resources to the NATO military build-up and war against Russia. It takes place as Boris Johnson’s Conservative government in the UK confronts the biggest national rail strike in a generation, involving more than 50,000 workers.

Such a struggle requires, however, a break with with the national union bureaucracies. At present, the various unions are working to divide strikes along national and industrial lines, schedule strikes on different days and keep workers from mobilising their full strength against Ryanair and allied governments.

Currently, Ryanair is brazenly planning to ride out the strike, relying on the support of capitalist governments across Europe. Ryanair stated that less than 2 percent of its 3,000 flights have been affected by European cabin crew strikes.

At the onset of the strike, Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson arrogantly said: “We believe stoppages are not going to have a great follow-up and that the impact will be minimal.” He added, “Even if cabin crews are going to go on strike, they have to operate those flights by law.”

Wilson was referring to the draconian anti-strike measures imposed by Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government before the first day of the strike. The Ministry of Transport declared that 73 to 82 percent of Ryanair flights were covered by “minimum services” laws—that is, that they are so strategic to the Spanish economy that the government can ban strike action against their operation. On this basis, Ryanair workers in Spain largely showed up for work yesterday.

This marks yet another assault by the pseudo-left Podemos party on the struggles of the working class. In November, it deployed armored vehicles and riot police against striking metalworkers in Cadiz, and in April it mobilised 23,000 police to crush a truckers strike protesting rising fuel prices amid NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine. Spain’s principal unions, affiliated to the PSOE or Podemos, isolated the strikers in both struggles and imposed a concessions contract on the Cadiz workers.

The Ryanair strike is no exception: Management is working directly with national governments and union bureaucracies to isolate and shut down the strike. From the outset, the trade unions signaled that they were willing to sabotage the strike by complying with “minimum service” requirements. In Spain, the unions USO (Unión Sindical Obrera)and SITCPLA (Sindicato Independiente de Tripulantes de Cabina de Pasajeros de Líneas Aéreas) negotiated with Ryanair for minimum services ranging from 25 to 50 percent.

Ryanair management also has resorted to signing contracts with factions of the union bureaucracy that do not even represent any Ryanair workers—the Podemos-linked Workers Commissions (CCOO) in Spain and the Union of Portuguese Transport Workers (STTAMP). Trampling labor law underfoot, Ryanair is now trying to impose these contracts on the workforce.

US-China tensions flare over Taiwan Strait

Peter Symonds

In the wake of the inflammatory anti-China speech delivered a fortnight ago by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to the Shangri-la Dialogue security forum in Singapore, Washington has continued to escalate its confrontation with China over Taiwan.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (Wikimedia)

Yesterday, the US Navy provocatively flew a US Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane over the Taiwan Strait to underscore its rejection of Chinese claims, reiterated in the wake of the security forum, that the Taiwan Strait falls within its jurisdiction.

At the Singapore event, Austin explicitly accused China of “intimidation,” “coercion” and “aggression” toward Taiwan in particular. He singled out the Taiwan Strait as an area where “the stakes are especially stark,” declaring that the US would continue to fly and sail in what it regards as international waters.

Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe responded by denouncing the “hegemony and power politics” of the US and declared that China was ready for war, if necessary, to defend its sovereignty, including over Taiwan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province of China and has repeatedly declared that it would reintegrate the island by force if Taipei ever declared formal independence.

Last week China’s foreign ministry reiterated that it “has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait” and rejected the “false claim when certain countries call the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters.’” This week the Chinese air force reportedly flew 29 military aircraft, including fighter jets together with various surveillance, early warning and refueling aircraft, into Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The US and international media seized on the operation as further evidence of China’s aggressive intentions toward Taiwan. In fact, Beijing is responding to ongoing US provocations, both diplomatic and military, over Taiwan. The extensive Taiwanese ADIZ, which covers parts of mainland China, has no standing in international law and no Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwanese airspace.

The reaction to the Chinese operation is part of the broader US propaganda campaign accusing China of preparing to invade Taiwan, likening it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington’s claims not only lack any evidence, but stand reality on its head. Just as the US goaded Russia into intervening in Ukraine, so it is seeking to drag China into a war over Taiwan and transform the island into a quagmire for the Chinese military.

It is not China, but US imperialism, under the Trump and Biden administrations, that has deliberately upset the delicate diplomatic protocols surrounding the status of Taiwan adopted when Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979 and ended its ties with Taipei. The US sought to transform China into an ally against the Soviet Union by de facto recognising Beijing as the legitimate government of all China, including Taiwan, in what is commonly referred to as the One China policy.

Washington has deliberately undermined the One China policy by authorising top-level contacts between the US and Taiwan, boosting its arms sales to Taiwan, including of offensive weaponry, sending US special forces to Taiwan to train its military, and increasing the number and size of US and allied naval exercises near Taiwan.

The number of supposed “freedom of navigation” operations by US warships through the Taiwan Strait has increased under Biden to roughly one a month—the most recent being on May 10 by the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal.

Last week, the US State Department flatly rejected Chinese claims of sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait, declaring it to be “an international waterway” where “freedom of navigation and overflight are guaranteed under international law.”

The US assertion of its “right” to sail through and fly over the Taiwan Strait is shot through with hypocrisy and contradictions. According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a country has exclusive rights within its territorial waters—12 nautical miles from its coastline—and more limited rights within its 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The Taiwan Strait is about 70 nautical miles at its narrowest point and 220 nautical miles at its widest. Moreover, if one accepts that Taiwan is part of China, as the US nominally still does under the One China policy, then the entirety of the strait falls under Chinese jurisdiction of one form or another. What can or cannot be done within an EEZ is in dispute between China and the US and its allies. Washington’s attempt to claim the higher ground based on “international law” is particularly two-faced given that it is one of the few countries not to ratify UNCLOS.

Quite apart from the finer points of UNCLOS, the US is claiming the “right” to fly warplanes and sail its warships close to strategic military bases on the Chinese mainland and thousands of kilometres from the nearest American territory. At the same time, it denounces China for conducting similar operations in what the US insists are international waters and international airspace.

The aggressive character of the US confrontation with China over Taiwan is underscored by President Biden’s declaration on three separate occasions, most recently last month, that the US is fully committed to backing Taiwan in a conflict with China.

Despite attempts by US officials to “clarify” the comments, Biden has effectively overturned the longstanding US policy of “strategic ambiguity.” By previously refusing to give a firm security guarantee to Taiwan, the US aimed at preventing conflict across the Taiwan Strait—by, on the one hand, warding off a Chinese assault, while, on the other, constraining any move by Taiwan to declare independence and precipitate a war.

The ambiguous status of Taiwan suited both Washington and Beijing while the two were de facto allies against the Soviet Union and subsequently close economic partners. US imperialism, however, is determined to prevent China’s economic rise from threatening its global hegemony and Taiwan is vital to those plans. It is not only strategically located in the so-called first island chain, running from Japan through to the Philippines, that Pentagon strategists see as essential to blockading China. It is also home to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that produces over 90 percent of the world’s most advanced computing chips, essential to both the US military and industry.

While the Biden administration still maintains that it adheres to the One China policy, despite all its actions to the contrary, the most hawkish sections of the American political establishment are moving to decisively overturn it.

Earlier this month, two senators—Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Lindsey Graham—announced the introduction of a bipartisan Taiwan Policy Act into Congress that would drop any pretence of “strategic ambiguity” and commit the US to a war with China over Taiwan. As well as providing almost $4.5 billion in military assistance to Taiwan, the bill would designate Taiwan as a Major Non-NATO Ally. By effectively treating the island as a sovereign nation, it would essentially overturn the One China policy and call US diplomatic relations with China into question.

Even as it recklessly pursues its proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, the US is setting course for a confrontation and conflict with China that would transform the European war into a global conflict between nuclear-armed powers.

India and the US send envoys to Sri Lanka amid worsening economic crisis

K. Ratnayake

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that the Sri Lankan economy had “completely collapsed” and appealed for the unity of all political parties. The population, he said, would have to “bear hardship for a short period” but high-level delegations from India and the US would be visiting Sri Lanka to assist on June 23 and June 27 respectively.

Ranil Wickremesinghe [Source: United National Party Facebook]

The real concern of US and India is the acute political instability in Sri Lanka amid rising social opposition against the government and the entire political establishment. Both countries are keen to enhance their political and military ties with Sri Lanka, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, and to pressure Colombo to distance itself from Beijing.

A special International Monetary Fund (IMF) team began talks on Monday in Colombo with senior Central Bank and finance ministry officials. Wickremesinghe, who also participated in the first day of talks, wants a rapid deal with the IMF, which is urging ruthless cuts to the fiscal deficit, increased government revenue and the implementation of privatisation and other austerity measures.

Wickremesinghe told parliament that the country was “facing a far more serious situation” than the current shortages of fuel and other essentials. He warned of “a possible fall to rock bottom… our economy has completely collapsed.” In order to resolve this crisis, he continued, “We must first resolve the foreign reserve crisis.”

Wickremesinghe blamed the previous administration for not addressing the problem and approaching the IMF earlier. Sri Lanka had secured a $4 billion loan from an Indian credit line, he said, but India cannot “continuously support us in this manner.” The only safe option to resolve this dire situation, he told the parliament, was to hold discussions with the IMF.

“If we receive the IMF seal of approval, the world will once again trust us. It will help us to secure loan assistance as well as low-interest loans from other countries in the world,” he declared.

In other words, the “solution” proposed by the Rajapakse-Wickremesinghe government and the Sri Lankan ruling class is for more loans and even further tightening of the dictatorship of international finance capital against all working people. This means workers will have to pay with even more brutal attacks on their jobs, wages and pensions, along with further cuts in subsidies and to free public education and health.

“I call on all Sri Lankans to bear these difficulties and hardships for a short period of time and contribute to the nation-building effort,” Wickremesinghe cynically declared. The government is indifferent to the suffering of workers and the poor who have already endured months of food, medicine and fuel shortages, and long hours of power cuts.

Last month’s official inflation rate hit 45 percent, with food inflation at 58 percent. Johns Hopkin University Professor Steve Hanke said yesterday, however, that Sri Lanka’s actual annual average inflation rose to 130 percent last month. Starvation is rampant with 70 percent of residents skipping at least one meal a day, schools were shut down last week, and major public sector services closed this week.

Acutely aware of the rising mass opposition in the working class, Wickremesinghe issued a desperate appeal for all political parties to rally behind his austerity program.

“[I]nform us of a better solution if you have one available,” and we will discuss it, the prime minister told parliament. It was a direct appeal to the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led the National People’s Power Party (NPP) which began a protest boycott of parliamentary sessions this week.

Wickremesinghe recalled that the SJB had “previously stated that Sri Lanka must work together with the IMF.” He also asked whether the NPP and the JVP agreed with the IMF discussions and suggested they attend the talks.

The SJB or the NPP have not yet responded to Wickremesinghe’s appeals but have not criticised the IMF talks. Nor have they opposed the austerity measures already being implemented by the government, including drastic cuts in public sector jobs or the devaluation of rupee, and recently approved VAT increases.

Their demagogic posturing about the plight of people without food, fuel, cooking gas, medicine and starvation is aimed at hoodwinking the masses, while covering up the fact that they have no fundamental differences with the government’s IMF-dictated measures. Likewise, the trade unions actively back the IMF policies and have not uttered a word against them.

On June 18, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar held a special parliamentary consultative committee discussion with senior Sri Lankan officials in New Delhi. “A good discussion held in a positive atmosphere on various issues and India’s role,” Jaishankar tweeted.

The high-level five-member team sent for meetings in Colombo on June 23 was led by Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra. According to the High Commission, the delegation was based on India’s “‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and Security and Growth for All in the Region vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” a euphemism for New Delhi’s geo-strategic agenda to dominate South Asia.

The Indian High Commission statement said there had been “a productive exchange of views” and “in-depth discussion” with the Sri Lankan president and prime minister. The talks “highlighted the importance of promoting India-Sri Lanka investment partnership including in the fields of infrastructure, connectivity, renewable energy and deepening economic linkages between the two countries.”

The US delegation to Colombo includes Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Department Kelly Keiderling, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury Robert Kaproth and other senior Biden administration officials.

The US and India are totally indifferent to the suffering of the Sri Lankan masses which will be further intensified by the next round of IMF attacks. Their principal concern is to open up the country to further investment and profit-making, and to enlist Sri Lanka in their confrontation with China. The US and India both falsely claim that China is responsible for Sri Lanka being caught in Beijing’s “debt trap” policy.