European Union suspends its visa agreement with Russia

Gregor Link

The 27 governments of the European Union have agreed on a “complete suspension” of the visa agreement between the EU and Russia. As a result, the number of new visas for Russian citizens will be “significantly reduced”, declared EU foreign affairs commissioner Josep Borrell last Wednesday at a summit of EU foreign ministers in Prague.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock with her then Estonian counterpart Eva-Maria Liimets in March [Photo by Estonian Foreign Ministry/CC BY-SA 2.0]

The measures include doubling the visa fee from 35 euros to 80 euros and eliminating the standard processing time of ten calendar days after receipt of an application. A freezing of the current 12 million valid visas is also being considered by EU officials. Borrell justified the aggressive move by citing a “significant increase in border crossings from Russia to neighbouring countries”, which allegedly pose a “security risk”.

In addition to the millions of holidaymakers directly affected, Russian middle-class and working-class citizens are also to be systematically excluded from Europe. Only a few days after the war began, the EU imposed an airspace ban on Russian planes and airlines, which has since forced holidaymakers from Russia to enter the EU by land via Finland, Estonia and Lithuania, where they face open hostility from governments and authorities.

The visa agreement between the EU and Russia had allowed easier visa issuance for travelers since 2007 but, following the start of the war, it was initially suspended for businesspeople, government representatives and diplomats. The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Green Party)—who is said to have played a key role behind the scenes in negotiating the agreement between EU states—explained that in future, visa applications from Russian citizens would take “several months in cases of doubt”.

For pro-European oligarchs, however, all doors remain open. According to a report in the daily Die Welt, front companies and offshore registrations are routinely used to disguise the owners of aircraft and circumvent the airspace ban. Those able to invest between 1.15 and 2 million euros can also obtain citizenship documents in Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria which guarantee freedom of movement throughout the Schengen area.

A number of EU states had called for even more comprehensive measures, up to and including a complete halt to the issuing of visas. These included the Baltic countries as well as Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and the Czech Republic—which currently holds the EU Presidency—have already announced or introduced such travel bans. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, Baerbock warned that the aim of Western sanctions must be to ensure the Russian people turn “against their own president”.

In reality, the measures are an escalation of the collective forms of punishment against Russia deployed by EU states since the start of the Ukraine war. The measures are aimed at fueling the war and strengthening the most right-wing forces in Russia, Ukraine and the countries of the EU.

The war is a murderous proxy war, triggered by the invasion of the Russian military but systematically provoked and planned by the main Western powers over many years. Contrary to the deafening propaganda of governments and bourgeois media, the NATO powers, in arming Ukraine and weakening Russia, are pursuing an imperialist agenda aimed at bringing Ukraine under Western control and dividing up Russia.

The visa restrictions are part of the EU states’ efforts to foment nationalist agitation and attack anti-war sentiments, which have deep roots in the working class following two world wars. By pressuring and attacking Russian artists, scientists and now travelers, the aim is to prepare the people of Europe for even more brutal wars, up to and including nuclear war with millions of lives at stake.

Baerbock made clear to the press that the end of the visa agreement was the prelude to an aggressive “strategic reorientation” of the European Union’s policy towards Russia. This comprises “four points”: further “support for Ukraine”, “support for Russian opponents of the regime”, “strengthening our own defences” and “cooperation with global partners to defend international law”.

When a German foreign minister speaks of “working with global partners to defend international law”, this must be understood as a thinly veiled threat. It means that the NATO powers and their allies—who have been responsible for countless wars, mass bombardments, coups d’état and drone terror all over the world in recent decades—are to have the sole right to break “international law” in order to enforce their imperialist interests.

What Baerbock, Borrell and the European capitalist governments have in mind is a comprehensive militarisation strategy that subordinates all aspects of social life to a policy based on war. As Baerbock herself stressed, there must be “no let-up” vis-à-vis Russia, “neither in support for Ukraine nor in sanctions”. Since “social peace” was at stake as a result of Europe’s energy dependency, a “more resilient” society was needed in addition to “new technologies and equipment”.

The “four points” were elaborated in a paper by Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and presented to the other member states for the informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Prague as a “proposal for discussion”. The paper, classified as “confidential” but made available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, states that “Russia’s war against Ukraine must turn into a strategic failure”. This failure is defined in the “broadest sense” and includes a “decoupling from Russia in the field of energy”.

Russia ends Nord Stream 1 gas exports to Europe as US prepares “more aggressive” involvement in Ukraine war

Andre Damon

In a move that will have devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of Europeans, Russia has indefinitely ended natural gas exports to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Nord Stream 1 is the largest source of Russian natural gas exports to Europe, which up to this year amounted to 40 percent of European natural gas imports. Over the past months, Russia has repeatedly cut off supplies via Nord Stream 1 for days in a row.

FILE - Pipes of the gas storage plant Reckrod are pictured near Eiterfeld, central Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

Prices for natural gas, the leading energy source for home heating, have already risen 10-fold over the past year and surged by more than 33 percent on Monday following the announcement.

European households, facing surging energy and food prices, have been driven to the brink, and small businesses are facing bankruptcy throughout the continent.

This massive social disaster is the consequence of the US-NATO war with Russia, which was instigated by the NATO powers by their efforts to bring Ukraine into the NATO alliance. The war has already led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, the deaths of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and the shattering of Ukrainian economic life.

The primary beneficiaries of the conflict have been US and European defense contractors, which are seeing the largest orders in decades, and US energy companies, which have surged energy exports onto the European market at record prices, leading to bumper profits.

Despite the economic disaster looming for Europe, the US and NATO have only escalated their involvement in the war.

The White House called on Congress Monday to appropriate a further $11 billion for the war in Ukraine, adding to the more than $50 billion that has been allocated to date.

It has become undeniable that the White House is removing nearly all remaining restraints on US involvement in the war, which US President Joe Biden warned earlier this year might risk “World War III.”

In an article entitled “Why the US is becoming more brazen with its Ukraine support,” the Hill reports that “the Biden administration is arming Ukraine with weapons that can do serious damage to Russian forces, and, unlike early in the war, U.S. officials don’t appear worried about Moscow’s reaction.”

The article quoted William Taylor, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine and a leading figure in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, saying, “Over time, the administration has recognized that they can provide larger, more capable, longer-distance, heavier weapons to the Ukrainians and the Russians have not reacted.”

He continued, “The Russians have kind of bluffed and blustered, but they haven’t been provoked. And there was concern [over this] in the administration early on—there still is to some degree—but the fear of provoking the Russians has gone down.”

If Russia has not been “provoked,” the response of US officials is to escalate their involvement in the war until the necessary outcome is achieved.

The article noted that last month, “defense officials said the United States for the first time would send Ukraine ScanEagle surveillance drones, heavily armored MaxxPro mine-resistant vehicles and TOW guided anti-tank missile systems as well as various new munitions and ammo.”

These are added to the AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles, as well as a massive increase in the number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) long-range missile systems being sent to the country.

The Hill wrote, “Looking ahead, multiple reports have indicated that the U.S. plans to soon send Excalibur precision-guided artillery munitions—weapons that can travel up to 70 kilometers and would help the Ukrainians target dug-in Russian positions and command posts.”

The article cited an unnamed US official who said, “I think the instincts of the people in the departments and agencies, particularly State and Defense and the intelligence community, I think their instincts are to be more forward leaning and more aggressive. … We have a lot more space on our side, I think, to take actions that will assist Ukraine without being unjustifiably afraid of how Putin is going to respond.”

While Russian officials have repeatedly called for peace negotiations, the United States and its proxy government in Ukraine have refused any negotiations with Russia short of Ukraine’s goal of retaking Crimea. “It’s a question of dialogue with terrorists. We cannot—you cannot discuss anything with terrorists,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told ABC.

The US media, meanwhile, is cheerleading a Ukrainian offensive in southern Ukraine which the White House is using as the pretext to greatly expand US involvement in the war. To date, the US has provided hundreds of drones and aircraft, hundreds of vehicles, tens of thousands of missiles and millions of rounds of ammunition. But as The Hill makes clear, this is just a down payment as the US prepares a “more aggressive” intervention in the war.

Financial crisis in European energy markets

Nick Beams

The continued escalation of the US-led NATO war against Russia in Ukraine is threatening to spark a financial crisis in European energy markets that could spread more broadly to hit banks and other areas of the financial system.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, second right, shakes hands with Ukraine's Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko, left, after a signature ceremony on the sidelines of the EU-Ukraine Association Council at the European Council, Brussels on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022. [AP Photo/Virginia Mayo]

Over the weekend the Swedish and Finnish governments announced they were providing emergency assistance, running into the tens of billions of dollars, for energy companies hit by liquidity problems as they confront a 10-fold escalation in gas prices and violent swings in the market which are making it increasingly difficult to finance their trading operations.

The immediate origins of the move, in which the Swedish government said it would provide up to $23 billion in credit for utility companies, lie in the decision by major powers to step up sanctions against Russia.

Last Friday, finance ministers from the G7, comprising the US, Canada, France, Germany Italy, Japan and the UK, agreed they would press ahead with efforts to impose a cap on Russian oil prices in order to reduce the revenue to the Russian government and “build on and amplify the reach of existing sanctions.”

In response, Russia said it was cutting off gas supplies through the Nordstream 1 pipeline, claiming sanctions had impeded maintenance work.

There was an immediate outcry against the Russian response amid claims that the gas market was being “weaponised,” and Moscow’s move was proof of Russian “cynicism.”

Comments by Swedish and Finnish government ministers as well as from industry representatives point to the extent and depth of the financial problems confronting energy companies arising from the way they trade in the gas market.

This involves the use of derivatives in which they try to cover large movements in prices for which they must obtain credit from banks and other financial institutions. But prices have become so high and the movements so violent that the money which they need to place with their creditors as collateral has reached a point where once “normal” operations have broken down.

According to one European trader, cited by the Financial Times (FT): “The amount of cash you need to participate in these markets is getting to impossible levels.”

Announcing the move in the wake of the decision to shut down Nordstream 1, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderrson said the government would provide hundreds of billions of kroner to fund the collateral energy producers need to post to finance their deals.

Standing beside the Swedish financial regulator, the central bank governor, and the finance minister, as she made the announcement, Anderrson said Russia’s decision “not only risks leading to a ‘war winter’ but also threatens our financial stability.”

The Swedish move was followed by a tweet from Finnish Finance Minister Annika Saarikko that similar action was underway. “The concern is shared. Similar preparations are well under way in Finland,” she said.

This was followed by a press conference conducted by Finnish Economy Minister Mika Lintilä in which he outlined the seriousness of the problem which has seen the government announce a €10 billion loan and guarantee package.

“The nervousness in the market is strong,” he said. “Here are all the ingredients for the energy sector’s version of Lehman Brothers.” The collapse of the US investment bank in September was the trigger for the global financial crisis.

Remarks by those involved in energy markets underscore the extent of the financial dangers.

Jean Francois Lambert, the founder of a commodities trading company and a former head of commodity trade finance at HSBC, told the FT other countries were likely to intervene in energy markets.

“The crisis is moving into the next stage. If one of the large energy companies collapses there are fears there could be a domino effect,” he said. “The call for liquidity is so enormous that maybe one day we have a problem that could harm the whole market.”

Speaking in support of the Swedish government’s measures, Stefan Ingvfes, governor of the country’s central bank, the Riksbank, said: “We need to isolate this in one market so it doesn’t infect the financial sector.”

The crisis is not confined to the Nordic countries but extends across the European continent and to the UK.

Lambert said the situation was not yet a financial crisis but indicated that it could become one.

“The large banks in Germany, France, Italy and Spain should be able to stomach this. But if one of their large customers traps them in a liquidity squeeze then you could see all the banks pulling back,” he said.

The effects of the gas price escalation have already been felt. In July the German government announced a €15 billion rescue package for Uniper, the largest European buyer of Russian gas which has been losing tens of millions of euros a day, and the company last month asked for a further €4 billion.

Speaking to the FT about Sweden’s move, the country’s finance minister Max Elger said: “This is a problem that is Europe-wide… liquidity is an issue in many countries. It may be the case that other countries will have to follow suit.”

The crisis is also heavily impacting Britain. The deputy director at Energy UK, a trade organisation which advocates for around 100 energy companies, told the FT that electricity producers in Britain were “really concerned about the situation this winter in relation to liquidity.”

Urging the British government to investigate and understand the scale of the problems confronting companies, he said: “Fundamentally the energy markets is not designed to deal with the scale of market volatility that we have seen over recent months.”

But as the war against Russia intensifies and further economic sanctions are employed the crisis is set to worsen.

The top Russian energy official Alexander Novak said the EU was responsible for the cuts in gas supplies and if it did not roll back sanctions the situation could worsen as prices continued to rise.

“The whole problem is at their end,” he said. “This nearsighted policy is leading to the collapse we see on European energy markets. This is not even the end, because we are still in the warm part of the year. Winter is coming, and many things are hard to predict.”

It has been reported that European energy ministers will meet on Friday in an emergency meeting to consider their response to the crisis under conditions where one electricity executive has warned it would only take “matter of days for not only small but large generators” to collapse because of liquidity problems.

Long COVID and the working class: Brookings Institution report finds millions have left the labor force

Benjamin Mateus

A Brookings Institution report published on August 24, 2022, estimated that in the United States alone a staggering two to four million working-age adults have left the labor force due to Long COVID, also known as Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). The annual impact on lost wages has been placed at around $200 billion, or 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report found that there are 10.7 million unfilled positions, meaning Long COVID is responsible for as much as one-third of these vacancies. With the pandemic continuing to rage, the BLS wrote, “These impacts stand to worsen over time if the US does not take the necessary policy actions.”

In partnership with the National Center for Health Statistics, the Census Bureau recently estimated that around 16 million working-age Americans (18 to 65) have Long COVID, or about 8 percent of the total.

The Brookings Institution examined three reports to arrive at the number of workers who have left the workforce due as a consequence of their infection.

The first is from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which recently conducted a survey that found almost one-quarter of people who contracted COVID-19 experienced symptoms for three months or more. Based on the official estimates of how many have been infected with COVID, this would mean that roughly 34 million working-age Americans have had Long COVID. Half of the respondents in the Minneapolis survey reported they had recovered from Long COVID, which leaves 17 million still affected, roughly confirming the Census Bureau’s estimate.

As for who among this group has left the labor market, the Minneapolis study reported that almost 26 percent had either reduced working hours (at least 10 hours a week on a 40-hour week basis) or quit altogether.

These estimates were echoed by a survey from the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) that 20 percent of people with Long COVID were no longer working while another 16 percent said they were working fewer hours.

A third study was cited from The Lancet on an international cohort found that 22 percent of Long COVID victims could no longer work due to poor health, and another 45 percent had to reduce their hours.

Finally, given that three-quarters of working-age adults are active in the labor market (or around 12 million of the 16-17 million with Long COVID), Brookings estimated that two to four million full-time equivalent workers are out of the labor force due to Long COVID. The range of the figure suggests that almost 2 percent of the labor force has been disabled. This estimate has been substantiated by the Bank of England, which recently noted that labor force participation had dropped by 1.3 percent in the UK due to “long-term sickness,” i.e., Long COVID.

People wait in a long line to get a COVID-19 test, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in North Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The pandemic has killed 260,000 working-age adults in the US, about one in 820, making it one of the leading causes of death in this age bracket. These statistics, however, only tell part of the story.

Another study published last week in The Lancet Public Health, which reviewed COVID-19 and excess mortality among working-age residents of California, found that essential workers in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation/logistics, facilities, and emergency services were dying of COVID at twice the rate of all workers in the state. Meanwhile, those in non-essential sectors were dying at only half the rate, or four times lower than their essential counterparts.

A study from late December 2021, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that socioeconomically disadvantaged regions in the US experienced a 31 percent heavier mortality burden as compared to more well-off areas.

These findings are similar to those from a study conducted by the University of South Florida’s (USF) College of Public Health. In the first year of the pandemic, the USF researchers found that those in low socioeconomic levels died of COVID at a rate five times higher than their more privileged counterparts. Their analysis found that 72 percent of the mortality difference was attributable to essential workers’ inability to participate in remote work.

Given the socioeconomic disparities revealed in the COVID pandemic, the working class is bearing the brunt of the Long COVID pandemic. 

The Financial Times estimated that about 100 million people worldwide have debilitating symptoms from Long COVID that “linger for 12 weeks or more, frequently leaving them unable to return to their previous working lives.” But many countries do not collect the necessary data or are reluctant to share it publicly. Additionally, workers who fear losing their jobs if they tell their employers about their symptoms choose to conceal them.

The social cost of the pandemic’s mass disabling event is now coming to light. In addition to disabling millions, Long COVID impacts on the lives of millions who must care for those afflicted with the disease.

Those infected require multiple visits to doctors and hospitals, if they have the resources to seek treatments, as yet undiscovered. Clinical treatment thus remains largely guesswork. Meanwhile, appropriate medical care has failed to keep pace with patient needs. Wait times for an appointment at Long COVID clinics can be months-long, if even available at all.

The promises to fund research have yet to materialize. Many who suffer from Long COVID lack paid sick leave or, because of the nature of their work, cannot accommodate their disabilities by working from home.

Most disturbing has been the recent evidence that the injury from repeated COVID infections is cumulative. The fatigue, breathlessness, and mental drain are a product of a combination of persistent viable viruses, immune dysfunction, and injury to critical organs from micro clots that cause them to decline in function.

Dr. David Strain, a physician at the University of Exeter in England’s west country, speaking with the Financial Times, compared the mass COVID infection as an “inversion of the huge drop in respiratory illness” that occurred in the 1980s when millions stopped or reduced smoking due to the recognition of its deleterious health consequences. As to the impact COVID has had, he said, “The level of damage that’s been done to population health [during COVID], it would be as if everybody suddenly decided to take up smoking in one go.”

Data from the UK has corroborated the study published by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly based out of Washington University in St. Louis, analyzing databases at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Both have reported a significant rise in deaths from heart disease, even among working-age adults. Rates of heart failure, diabetes, and stroke are higher among those who have recovered from COVID.

These are life-long health complications that have suddenly been exacerbated by the infection and are being compounded by repeat infections. As the Financial Times recently noted, “COVID generated a kind of epidemiological aftershock by leaving people susceptible to a huge range of other conditions.”

Yet, attempting to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance in the United States is a nightmarish bureaucratic challenge for Long Haulers (the colloquial term for those with Long COVID). To be approved for disability, they must demonstrate objective evidence of their illness. Then they must prove the disease has been present for at least 12 months, which is problematic as the definition and diagnosis remain opaque. Worse, many don’t know why they are sick or comprehend that they are eligible to apply for disability.

Many of these Long Haulers suffer from severe fatigue, shortness of breath, and brain fog that precludes them from doing even simple tasks, let alone analyzing data, making plans, and using careful judgment. Yet, insurance companies are looking for solid evidence of unavailable tests or diagnostics. As Mark D. DeBofsky, a Chicago lawyer who works for patients fighting for their benefits, told the Washington Post, “A lot of times the insurance company is just looking at the physical requirements and saying you have a sedentary job, and nothing precludes you from sitting at a desk all day.”

In a March 2022 article titled “Long COVID through a public health lens,” the authors provide a glimpse into the lives of these patients. They wrote, “Many reported functional restrictions that often require lifestyle changes, changes in physical activity levels, restricted social life, and role limitations. Neurological, cognitive, and psychological symptoms, such as anxiety or memory impairment, strongly impact daily living and quality of life, while routine activities, such as driving, and cooking can become very difficult or even impossible.”

However, for the financial oligarchs, the names and faces of workers who toil to enrich their stock portfolios count for nothing compared to their day-to-day experiences at board meetings and luxury vacation getaways.

Harvard economics professor David Cutler, who recently updated his study on the economic cost of Long COVID, gives at least an approximate estimate in dollar terms of this new mass disability.

Lost quality of life multiplies the years lost to Long COVID times an estimate that a “year in good health is worth $100,000.” Assuming Long COVID lasts five years on average, based on “slow rates of recovery observed,” the implied cost is $2.2 trillion.

Using assumptions for the number of people with Long COVID and those with severe symptoms having a 70 percent impairment in their labor force participation and this persisting for five years, the net loss in income is $1 trillion.

Finally, the spending on medical care, estimated at $8,731 for people with three or more symptoms, and one-third of that amount for those with less severe disease, translates to an additional $528 billion.

The total cost reaches over $3.7 trillion over five years, slightly less than the US military budget over the same period. Cutler wrote, “By another metric, the cost of Long COVID rivals in aggregate the cost of the Great Recession … because Long COVID is so new, there is uncertainty about all of the numbers involved in the calculations. Still, the costs here are conservative, based on only cases to date.”

The recent report on the continued decline in life expectancy in the US speaks volumes about the deeply rooted contradictions in capitalist relations that are most acute at the center of the world finance capitalism. The voracious greed that demands the extraction of ever more surplus value from the working class is draining them not only economically, but in terms of life and happiness.

The CDC’s primary role is said to be disease prevention, but the agency fails to acknowledge the role socioeconomic factors play in the population’s health. And not once in their recent report on life expectancy during the COVID pandemic do they address poverty and insufferable economic conditions as the root cause of the manifestation of the disease and its spread.

Russia, China conduct joint military exercises in East Asia

Ben McGrath

Russia, alongside China and 12 other countries, launched the Vostok 2022 military exercises in East Asia last Thursday that are scheduled to run through September 7. The military collaboration between Moscow and Beijing is developing as the US provocatively deepens its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and continually inflames tensions with China over Taiwan.

Chinese troops march during the Vostok 2022 military exercise in Russia's Far East, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) [AP Photo]

The countries participating in the war games in addition to Russia and China are India, Mongolia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Laos, Nicaragua, Syria, and Algeria. The military exercises are taking place at seven locations in the Russian Far East and in the Sea of Japan, involving some 50,000 troops, 5,000 weapon units, 140 aircraft, and 60 warships. They are being overseen by Russia’s General Staff Chief, General Valery Gerasimov.

In conducting the exercises, Moscow seeks to demonstrate that it is capable of fighting on more than one front in the face of ongoing US provocations. However, the Vostok exercises are smaller than the last time they were held in 2018 when 300,000 troops were reportedly mobilized. The US proxy war against Russia and Washington’s provocations against China over Taiwan is pushing Moscow and Beijing towards a de facto military alliance. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that he has not ruled out the possibility of an alliance with China in the future.

Underlying the growing cooperation, this is the first time Beijing has sent three branches of its military to take part in a single, Russian-led exercise. China has dispatched more than 2,000 troops, 300 vehicles, 21 aircraft, and three naval vessels.

Commenting on the nature of the drills, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Fomin stated on August 29: “The exercise isn’t directed against any specific countries or military alliances and is purely defensive.” The Russian Defense Ministry added that Russian and Chinese navies in the Sea of Japan would “practice joint action to protect sea communications, areas of marine economic activity, and support for ground troops in littoral areas.”

China’s defense ministry spokesman Colonel Tan Kefei stated on August 25 that China’s participation in the exercises “aims to deepen pragmatic and friendly cooperation between the militaries of the participating countries, enhance the level of strategic cooperation among all participating parties, and enhance the ability to jointly respond to various security threats.”

It is noteworthy that India has also sent a contingent to the exercises, albeit a small one comprised of 75 soldiers, taking part in army drills. While New Delhi is part of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), alongside Japan and Australia, a quasi-military alliance aimed against China, India has not joined the US in denouncing Russia over Ukraine, as it depends on Russia for resources such as oil and for weapon sales.

Vostok 2022 takes place amid a sharp escalation of the US confrontation with both Russia and China. The United States has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion in weaponry and other funds, including pledging an additional $3 billion dollars on August 24. Washington is providing Kiev with the tools to force Russia into an expansion of the conflict that began in February as a result of US and NATO military expansion up to Russia’s border.

In addition, on September 2, the Biden administration notified Congress that it had approved a $1.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan. It includes 60 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, 100 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and logistics support for radar systems. It is the sixth, and largest, provision of military equipment to the island under Biden, whose government, following in the footsteps of the previous Trump administration, is seeking to normalize military contact and collaboration with Taipei.

Washington is using Taiwan and Ukraine as launching points for larger wars aimed at carving up and turning China and Russia into semi-colonies, subordinated to the US. This agenda includes highly provocative visits to Taiwan by US officials, including last month by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and sending military vessels on so-called “freedom of navigation” exercises through the Taiwan Strait. Washington is increasingly challenging the “One China” policy that states Taiwan is a part of China, and to which Washington formally adheres.

Washington hypocritically criticized Moscow and Beijing over the Vostok exercises. Pentagon Press Secretary General Patrick Ryder stated at a press briefing on August 31, “Well, certainly, it is the right of all militaries and all nations that have militaries to conduct exercises. Our own military obviously conducts exercises. It’s certainly something that we'll keep an eye on, given the nature of those nations, and in some cases, the instability that they are seeking to cause in various regions of the world.”

Over the past 30 years, Washington has carried out criminal invasions and bombings of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving the Middle East and North Africa in ruins. The US has threatened to destroy other countries like North Korea, and recently held its own war games in East Asia with South Korea, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Shield.

Yet, according to Washington, it is Russia and China that are destabilizing the region. By implication, the latter two should not be allowed to conduct military exercises in and around their own territories while the US regularly conducts war games in Asia, thousands of kilometers from the US mainland.

Furthermore, Japan, a major US ally in the region, has made clear that it would join a Washington-instigated conflict over Taiwan, deepening tensions with Beijing. Japan’s Defense Ministry unveiled plans last Wednesday to develop and mass produce cruise and ballistic missiles in violation of the Japanese constitution. The ministry justified the move, stating, “China continues to threaten to use force to unilaterally change the status quo and is deepening its alliance with Russia.”

Encouraged by Washington, Tokyo has also taken a more aggressive stance towards Russia over the four disputed Southern Kuril Islands (called the Northern Territories in Japan), which sit just north of Hokkaido and are controlled by Moscow. Russia is using two of the islands, Iturup/Etorofu and Kunashir/Kunashiri as locations for the Vostok drills, drawing protests from Tokyo. Japan, however, hosts 56,000 US troops, with an additional 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, putting US soldiers on Russia’s doorstep.

Pilots strike at Lufthansa and LH Cargo

Marianne Arens

Around 5,000 Lufthansa pilots took part in a 24-hour strike on Friday. Dozens of planes belonging to the core brand Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo remained on the ground. About 800 flights were cancelled at Frankfurt and Munich airports, and about 130,000 passengers were affected, according to the company.

Most flights were cancelled at Frankfurt Airport on Friday (Photo: WSWS)

All attempts to negotiate a new contract with Lufthansa had failed, according to the official statement of the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union. The union is demanding salary increases of 5.5 percent in the current year (with inflation now at 8.5 percent!) as well as automated inflation compensation starting next year. In contrast, management claims to have made a “very good and socially balanced offer,” most recently offering €900 more per head per month. “We lack any understanding for the strike call by VC,” Lufthansa personnel director Michael Niggemann grumbled in the press.

The offer of €900 more per head and month, which is to run for 18 months, is a poisoned chalice. It serves two main purposes. Firstly, after the job cuts from the coronavirus lockdown, the company lacks many pilots, whom it wants to attract with the offer. Secondly, Lufthansa wants to use it to avoid the demand for automatic inflation compensation and a mandatory job guarantee.

There are very important issues at stake. The pilots’ jobs at Lufthansa, which are covered by collective bargaining agreements, are coming under increasing pressure. CEO Carsten Spohr is in the process of operating more and more flights via the new Eurowings Discover and CityLine2 airlines, which are not bound by the collective bargaining agreements covering the core brand. Although these are subsidiaries of Lufthansa, their crews are paid much less. The Lufthansa corporate collective agreement (KTV), which has been in place for 30 years and has already been severely eroded, is being increasingly undermined.

Against this, the pilots’ union is demanding the Executive Board guarantee it will maintain a minimum number of aircraft of the core Lufthansa brand covered by the KTV. Even the pro-business Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung conceded that haggling over percentages was only a formal peg on which to hang the wage dispute: “In fact, the pilots’ demand for a minimum fleet size for the core Lufthansa brand is about the long-term security of their jobs.”

The pilot profession had already undergone major changes before the pandemic. Globalization created fierce competition in air travel, and Lufthansa’s board of directors systematically attacked employees’ salaries, pensions and transitional arrangements to meet the competition from those like Ryanair. With low-cost airlines employing pilots under increasingly precarious conditions, the profession has turned from a dream job into a nightmare.

When the pandemic broke out, the Lufthansa board—like the boards of Fraport, WISAG, etc.—used the forced lockdown as an opportunity. With the help of the unions, it pushed through unprecedented attacks on wage structures and jobs. At Lufthansa alone, 32,000 jobs were cut and a total of €1.4 billion was saved in wages, fringe benefits and pensions.

These attacks were carried out under pressure from shareholders. They were pushed through in cooperation with the works councils and airport unions. In fact, such savings would never have been possible without the active assistance of the unions Verdi, UFO, VC and IGL.

For example, every Lufthansa employee has accumulated a considerable salary deficit during the pandemic. Since then, this has been compounded by inflation, which has been increasingly fueled since the start of the Ukraine war. Official inflation in Germany is 8.5 percent but is significantly higher in sectors such as food and gasoline. On the very day before the strike, gasoline prices skyrocketed exorbitantly, so that a litre of diesel, for example, no longer costs €1.80, but €2.35. In Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and Munich locations, rents are also rising steadily.

In its agitation against the strike, the bourgeois media repeatedly cite the comparatively high pay of pilots. But they fail to mention that pilots today usually have to pay themselves for their entire training, which costs around €100,000, and thus start out burdened with a mountain of debt.

In addition, the pilot’s job involves constant stress, constant time shifts, climate changes and permanently changing working hours. As a result, only very few pilots continue to work until retirement age. Meanwhile, very few pilots can hope for early retirement, which was still common a few years ago.

The pilots’ strike is part of a growing mobilization of the entire working class. However, their very justified strike for job and income security cannot be won as long as it is left to the Vereinigung Cockpit. VC officials fear a joint class offensive, which alone could lead to victory. They isolate the Lufthansa pilots from their colleagues in other areas.

Only Lufthansa’s core airline and Lufthansa Cargo were on strike Friday, while subsidiaries Eurowings, Eurowings Discover, CityLine and Swiss, Austrian and Brussels airlines all operated as scheduled. Nor did Vereinigung Cockpit organize any rallies or demonstrations at the airports during the strike, or issue any flyers addressing other Lufthansa workers, those working in airports or aviation as a whole. This made it virtually impossible for outsiders to talk to striking pilots.

Yet Eurowings pilots are also ready to strike, as became known just hours before the Lufthansa strike began. In another strike ballot held by the VC, they had voted by 97 percent in favour of strike action over wages. In response to a question from the WSWS as to why VC was not taking joint industrial action against Lufthansa and Eurowings, VC press spokesman Matthias Baier said that these were completely different wage disputes that had nothing to do with each other and only coincided in time.

The opposite is true: The very factors that most concern Lufthansa pilots—inflation, job insecurity, the uncertainty of the pandemic and the Ukraine war—also affect all other employees. Unrest is growing, and with it the willingness to fight. This affects not only workers at other airlines and airports, but also at the ports, in local and long-distance transportation, in nursing, logistics and schools. And this resistance is a thoroughly international phenomenon.

Macron visits Algeria amid escalating NATO war on Russia

Kumaran Ira

French President Emmanuel Macron made a three-day visit to Algeria on August 25-27 to strengthen French imperialism’s strategic influence in Africa. Amid the NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, Macron also sought energy guarantees from Algeria, Africa’s biggest natural gas exporter, as the NATO countries’ cut-off of purchases of Russian gas threatens to provoke catastrophic energy shortages and social dislocation in Europe this winter.

Macron was accompanied by Engie natural gas company CEO Catherine MacGregor, billionaire telecommunications magnate Xavier Niel, several ministers, and military officers. Nonetheless, the Elysée presidential palace implausibly claimed Algerian gas was “not really the subject of the visit,” adding that there would be “no announcements of major contracts.”

“It’s clear that Algeria has become more important on the energy front [for France]. But the Italians got in first, the Ukraine crisis was already bad in November last year and they started negotiations,” said energy expert Francis Ghilès from the CIDOB research center in Barcelona, referring to a €4-billion deal signed last month between Algeria and Italy.

For French imperialism, relations with Algeria are essential not only for the profits of major French companies, especially due to Algerian gas resources, but also for waging war in the Sahel. France launched a war in Mali in 2013, following the 2011 war in Libya. As it withdraws its troops from Mali nine years later, France is seeking to expand its influence across West Africa as it faces challenges from economic rivals in the region, including China and Russia.

Macron’s visit to Algeria comes as the NATO imperialist powers led by the United States intensify the war against Russia in Ukraine and are stepping up war threats against China. The policy. While supporting all-out NATO war with Russia, Macron pledged to boost military spending while intensifying attacks against the working class.

French imperialism is deeply concerned about the rising influence of China and Russia, which have strengthened its bilateral relations with Algerian regime over the past years. France is no longer Algeria’s main trading partner, having long ago been replaced by China. Visiting Algeria this May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia-Algeria trade had reached $3 billion last year.

Algeria abstained when the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution in March demanding Russia withdraw from Ukraine. In early August, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared that Algeria may apply to join the BRICS, the bloc of emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “The BRICS interest us,” Tebboune said in a televised interview. “They constitute an economic and political force.”

During his trip, Macron made bellicose statements against Russia, China and Turkey. Amid growing opposition to French imperialism in the region, Macron accused them and Islamist forces of presenting France as “the enemy” of their countries. Macron told young Africans “not to be fooled” by the “immense manipulation” of “networks” controlled by foreign powers hostile to France.

“I want to say simply the African youth: explain to me the problem and do not let you embark because your future, it is not the anti-France,” said Macron. He warned, “Let’s be clear. Many activists of political Islam have an enemy: France. Many of its networks are guided underhand, by Turkey, by Russia, or by China, and have one enemy: France.” He denounced the “agenda of influence, both neo-colonial and imperialist” of these three countries.

Remarkably, Macron branded them as part of “anti-France,” a term employed by the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II to describe Jews and communists targeted for deportation and extermination.

Macron’s denunciation of China and Russia as “imperialist” powers is an absurd historical and political lie. It was French imperialism—not China, Turkey or Russia—that colonized northwest Africa. and which still aims to impose its neo-colonial interests by waging war across the region. French imperialist wars in Libya and Mali have plunged all of north Africa into war, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Indeed, Macron’s visit coincided with the 60th anniversary of the end of the eight-year Algerian War (1954-1962) that ended 132 years of French rule with the proclamation of Algeria’s independence in 1962. His visit to Algeria was widely reported as an attempt to repair relations with Algeria after a diplomatic crisis erupted between Paris and Algiers over Macron’s incendiary remarks about Algeria last October.

Macron had provocatively claimed the “the post-1962 Algerian nation was built on exploiting historical memory.” This was a reference to the Algerian people’s heroic and bloody struggle against French colonialism in the 1954-1962war for independence. Macron accused Algeria of rewriting history and of encouraging “hatred towards France.” He also questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before French colonization. Algeria responded by recalling its ambassador to France for three months in protest.

On the first day of his trip to the country, Macron claimed he wanted to open “a new page” in bilateral ties with Algeria with more honesty and openness on the French role in Algeria.

“We have a common past, it is complex, painful and it has sometimes prevented us from looking at the future,” Macron said, calling for “great humility” in looking ahead. He announced the creation of a “joint commission of historians, opening our archives and allowing us to look at the whole of this historical period, which is decisive for us, from the beginning of colonization to the war of liberation.” This must be done “without taboos, with a willingness to work freely, historically, with full access to our archives,” he claimed.

Bowing before Macron, Tebboune hypocritically welcomed what he claimed were “encouraging results” from discussions and hailed “promising prospects to be drawn up in the special partnership which binds us.”

With the assistance of the Algerian bourgeois nationalist regime, Macron is trying to whitewash French imperialism’s crimes in the Algerian War. The criminal colonial war waged by French imperialism left half a million Algerians dead. Of 10 million Algerians at the time, France detained 3 million in internment camps. Twenty-five thousand French soldiers died in the war and over 60,000 were wounded. Of the 1.5 million French soldiers involved in the war, most of them young conscripts, many returned traumatized by the crimes they had seen or committed.

The attempt to revise the history of French imperialism in Africa, Macron is escalating attacks on Africans—in particular, by slashing the number of visas it grants to citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The French government said the decision had been made necessary by its former colonies’ failure to do enough to allow illegal migrants to return.

Pursuing a far-right policy of witch-hunting and deporting immigrants, Macron vows to combat immigrants arriving in France. He said he wished to “work together” with Algerian capitalist regime to be “more effective” in fighting illegal immigration. “What we have decided upon is to work together with a certain collective confidence. … We will be very rigorous to struggle together against clandestine immigration and networks and be much more efficient to stop them and accompany people back home effectively.”