US universities enlisted in military production as part of anti-China campaign

Chase Lawrence

Universities are being drawn ever more directly into the US war preparations against China. A central battleground in these war preparations is the semiconductor industry. Semiconductors are critical to the production, use and maintenance of planes, tanks, ships and other weapons systems. 

In an effort to offset the decline of the US position in the global semiconductor industry, the US government has ramped up its investments in US-based semiconductor manufacturers for military production and the enrichment of defense company shareholders.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 is a critical part of these efforts. It was passed with bipartisan support and committed $280 billion over five years to the American semiconductor industry and scientific research in several strategic high-tech disciplines. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, speak to reporters after a bill designed to encourage more semiconductor companies to build chip plants in the United States passed the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite]

As part of the bill, tens of billions of dollars in research funding will flow into academia. Commenting on the impact of the legislation on academia in the September 13 article “Not Just Chips,” Inside Higher Ed rejoiced that the “scale of new funding opportunities for universities is seismic.”

As of 2023, the Department of Defense already accounts for 60 percent or more of total Research and Development funding at universities in fields such as aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering. It also provides over 50 percent of federal funding for university research in electrical, electronic, communications and mechanical engineering, and nearly half of federal funding in computer and information science. Now, the proportion of funding for university research that is directly tied to the war machine will increase even further.

The Act, much like many of the universities that its funding is going towards, embraces identity politics. Inside Higher Ed reported that “many of the act’s provisions are designed to ensure that some funding is routed to historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and institutions in states that historically have not benefited from this type of federal support.” In other words, the efforts to cultivate support among more affluent sections of African Americans and other minorities are directly tied to funding on behalf of the imperialist war machine.

A number of universities are now involved in the CHIPS and Science Act, helping develop key components of the imperialist war machine. Arizona State University made a press announcement that was explicit about ASU’s intention to work for “national security enterprises” as part of the Act:

Responsive to action initiated by the Department of Defense, Arizona State University President Michael Crow has appointed two senior leaders to guide the university in creating a world-class center of excellence for microelectronics research, development education and training. … The CHIPS and Science Act includes $2 billion for DoD to establish the Microelectronics Commons, which aims to close the innovation “lab-to-fab” capabilities gap in the United States. By building enduring partnerships across emerging technology research and development, manufacturing and government stakeholders at all levels, the Microelectronics Commons will work to scale the semiconductor technologies necessary for the U.S. national security enterprise, and develop the skilled American workforce needed for this essential sector.

Also involved is Purdue University in Indiana, which is leading the Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement program. On its website, Purdue described the program as “the preeminent U.S. program for semiconductor workforce development in the defense sector.” Its aim is to to train “highly-skilled U.S. microelectronics engineers, hardware designers, and manufacturing experts, ensuring U.S. leadership in this important area.”

In total, the program involves 17 US universities, including Vanderbilt University, Georgia Tech, Ohio State University, SUNY Binghamton and Indiana University, with 67 faculty and staff spread across them and over 200 students enrolled at present. The institutions receive a total of $30 million in funding from the Department of Defense for their participation in the program. 

The Naval Surface Warfare Center

The program is managed by the Crane division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), which is under the Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA), headquartered in Washington D.C. According to NAVSEA’s website, it is “the force behind the fleet.”

NSWC Crane is a shore command of the US Navy located in Crane, Indiana, under the NSWC that develops, maintains and upgrades numerous key weapons systems for the Navy and other armed forces sections. NSWC Crane focuses on “expeditionary warfare,” including developing and deploying “sensors and communications technologies that enable the most advanced intelligence gathering, and surveillance capabilities for ground, surface and air support” and special weapons systems.

The NSWC has also been working with the fascist-ridden Special Operations Command (SOCOM)—which is headquartered in the Pentagon—since its inception in 1987 and is playing a “vital role” in it. SOCOM is the unified command for US special forces, and as of 2021 was deployed to 154 countries covering 80 percent of the world’s nations. SOCOM is charged with carrying out the most secretive and illegal military operations and works closely with, and sometimes under, the direct authority of the CIA.

NSWC Crane also focuses on “strategic missions,” including radar surveillance, integrated missile defense (IMD), and Global Strike, which focuses on nuclear warfare including Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM), and land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM).

Notably, NSWC Crane’s archived March 2022 Global Strike fact sheet states that, “Teaming with academia is an important element to the depth of work the Strategic Mission Center provides to the Warfighter.” It lists partners with Global Strike as Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University and Penn State University—that is, many of the institutions now involved in the SCALE program. The fact sheet was drawn up before the passage of Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act. This pattern persists through most of its programs as will be shown below.

NSWC Crane Global Strike Fact Sheet

NSWC Crane’s other focus is electronic warfare (EW) in ground, air and naval forces. Its Electronic Warfare Center is set up for this purpose. Crane has provided full technical support and development in partnership with private industry, including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin and ITT Corp., for the AN/SLQ-32(V) electronic warfare suite. Since 1984, AN/SLQ-32(V) has been built by Raytheon (initially by Hughes Aircraft), which an archived fact sheet lists as being “installed on every combat surface ship in the Navy.” It has developed test equipment for conducting “Operational Readiness Certification” for the AN/SLQ-32. The system is used for threat detection and countermeasures against anti-ship missiles, providing for detection of missiles before they are even fired by detecting high frequency targeting and fire-control radars, and electronic jamming of missile guidance, among other features.

The Ground Electronic Warfare (EW) component of NSWC Crane focuses on so called Counter RCIED Electronic Warfare (CREW) systems. These are designed to counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (RCIED) systems. This expertise is provided to the US Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Army, as well as “coalition partner forces.” In addition to working with numerous organizations that are affiliated with the Department of Defense (DoD) and private industry, the ground EW component of Crane collaborates with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University.

The Air EW component deals with systems airborne jamming systems such as those found on aircraft like the EA-18G, C-130 variants, and EP-3 Aries II and P-3 Orion. It also deals with information collection for these aircraft and training for crews. The fact sheet also states that Crane “is a leader in IRCM (Infrared Counter Measures) solution development and testing for multiple airborne platforms for all of the DoD.” The Air Electronic Warfare component partners with the government and private industry, including Northrop Grumman, Exelis Inc. and Science Applications International Corp. In academia, its partners include the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Purdue University as well as the Penn State Electro-optics Center whose aim is to “research and develop innovative solutions” for NSWC Crane. 

The University of Texas at Dallas 

Another university that plays an important role in US war strategy to dominate the semiconductor industry is the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), a public university with a student body of 29,500. The university is particularly well equipped for semiconductor research and had initially been established by semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments in 1961 in order to train more employees for the company due to a lack of qualified personnel in the Dallas-Fort Worth area at the time.  

University of Texas at Dallas. Engineering and Computer Science Complex.

According to a university news release, the university has created a new center called the Center for Harsh Environment Semiconductors and Systems (CHESS), which is an initiative under the newly created North Texas Semiconductor Institute (NTxSI). The press release notes that NTxSI “positions UTD to contribute to the goals of the recently enacted federal CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act provides $52.7 billion in incentives over five years for American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing and workforce development.”

The pro-war character of NTxSI is exposed by the statements of the director of CHESS. The news release reads:

Dr. Manuel Quevedo-Lopez, director of CHESS, said microelectronic devices capable of operating in harsh environments are vital for national defense in applications such as quantum computing; resilient networks and communication systems; resilient electrical grids; autonomous vehicles; space exploration; and hypersonic weapons, which travel beyond Mach 5, five times faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1).

That is, these are technologies explicitly designed for warfare.

The NTxSI held a “Harsh Environment Electronics Workshop” on November 1, which is a representative event of the collaboration of the university apparatus with the military industrial complex, as is shown by the speakers list.

The Department of Defense has a list of “trusted integrated circuit fabricators” that are scrutinized by DoD auditors for compliance with security requirements set up by the DoD, as well as with quality requirements for military hardware. The program was launched in 2003 to 2004. Only 16 foundries are considered “trusted” by the DoD, in addition to one broker foundry. As the imperialist think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies notes, while these foundries account for a small minority of devices used in military systems at only about 2 percent as of 2021, these are “generally chips used in secret programs or for application-specific uses such as radiation-hardened devices for use in space or nuclear conflict.”

The speakers list on the agenda of the “Industrial Session” of the workshop illustrates the character of NTxSI as a nexus of the military industrial complex at the University of Texas in Dallas. What made the event stand out as one centered around warfare production is that it had a number of DoD trusted integrated circuit fabricators as well as other military-related semiconductor manufacturers presenting. The presentations fixated on electronics primarily for use in warfare. Notably, unlike the workshop held afterward on December 7, no workshop presentations were available on the university’s website.

These are some of the speakers:

• Helmut Puchner, Vice President Fellow Aerospace & Defense at Infineon Technologies AG, High Reliability Group, which produces computer memory for use by the military, and is a leading company in the semiconductor in military and aerospace market. These include high reliability radiation hardened electronics, which are used in outer space, typically in satellites for military and commercial applications.

• Kenneth Decker, Director of TX Advanced Reliability at Qorvo gave a presentation on Qorvo Texas LLC’s radiation hardened Gallium Arsenide and Galium Nitride transistors. Qorvo is one of the foundries trusted by the DoD and manufactures communications, electronic warfare equipment, radar, and space related technology. It is, one of seven DoD trusted sources of Gallium Nitride transistors and one of six trusted sources of Gallium Arsenide transistors. According to a press release by the company, Qorvo was awarded a DoD contract “to proceed with the Advanced Integration Interconnection and Fabrication Growth for Domestic State of the Art (SOTA) Radio Frequency Gallium Nitride (GaN) program, also known as STARRY NITE, as part of the Office of Undersecretary of Defense Research & Engineering’s (OUSD R&E) microelectronics roadmap.” A presentation by S2MARTS lists some of the applications of GaN in a presentation from July 1, 2021. These include electronic warfare jammers, ground, air, and naval radar, and military communication systems.

RF GaN in Defense by the NAVSEA Warfare Centers Crane

• Babu Chalamala, Energy Storage Program Manager of Sandia National Laboratories, another one of the DoD’s16 trusted foundries, gave a presentation on the Role of Energy Storage and Power Electronics in Grid Modernization. Sandia National Laboratories is one of six silicon on insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors and one of three RH (radiation hardened) SOI CMOS trusted fabrication suppliers. Sandia manufactures “radiation-hardened trusted components for Nuclear Weapons,” including for the B61 thermonuclear gravity bomb, and the W87 and W88 ICBM thermonuclear warheads. 

An image from the presentation given at UTD by Babu Chalamala of Sandia National Laboratories

• Ron Dusterhoft, a Technology Fellow for the defense company Halliburton, was scheduled to give a presentation on an unknown topic (announced as “TBD”). Halliburton is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations and is deeply implicated in war crimes of US imperialism. During the war in Iraq, in particular, the company reaped tremendous profits from no-bid contracts in the war zone awarded by its former CEO and then vice president and corporate-military gangster Dick Cheney. Halliburton also bears responsibility for the poisoning of the Texas coast in the Deepwater Horizon Explosion in 2010 alongside British Petroleum (BP) and Transocean.

• A. Matt Francis, President and CEO of Ozark Integrated Circuits, gave a presentation on electronics in extreme environments. According to the US Small Business Administration, Ozark has been awarded over $4 million in contracts by the Department of Defense, which is the leading source of government grants for the company, comprising around 37 percent of the total award amount. Some of the contracts include “supersonic capable single conditioning electronics for turbine engines” for use in the Air Force’s F35 for around $50,000; High-Temperature Instrumentation for use in Hypersonic Engine Development for the DOD and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for $1.5 million; and packing methods based on Silicon and SOI components for advanced control of turbine engines for the DoD and Missile Defense Agency.

NTxSI is by no means the only connection of the university to the military. Other examples could be pointed to. Thus, the National Association of Black Engineers of Lockheed Martin awarded the 2022 Community STEM Impact Award to the assistant director of outreach in the Multicultural Center at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). The university also has a crosstown agreement with University of North Texas (UNT) so that UTD students can take Reserve Officer Training Cadets (ROTC) classes at UNT. Moreover, there are numerous research grants provided to university researchers from the Department of Defense.

NTxSI represents a new stage in the university’s integration into the military industrial apparatus. This development is paralleled at universities across the country as US imperialism ramps up its war preparations against China and is engaged in a war against Russia in Ukraine.

These war projects at the universities are discussed and negotiated by university administrations and privileged, pro-war layers of the professoriate behind the backs of students and the overwhelming majority of academic workers. No doubt most students would oppose these pro-war machinations of the university administration if they knew about them and understood their political significance.

General strike and mass protests stagger Israeli regime

Patrick Martin

Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan outside the parliament in Jerusalem on Monday, March 27, 2023. [AP Photo/AP]

Late Monday, Jerusalem time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was temporarily suspending action by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on his plan to carry out what amounts to a coup against the country’s judicial system, the only arm of the state that his ultra-right coalition does not control.

Netanyahu made this tactical retreat in the face of the largest outpouring of popular opposition in the history of Israel, with massive street protests Sunday culminating in a full-scale walkout Monday by vast sections of the Israeli working class. Airports, shipping, transport, manufacturing, utilities, schools, day care centers, universities and virtually all government operations were affected. Israeli embassies all over the world were closed, and the Israeli consul general in New York City resigned.

The immediate trigger for this political explosion was Netanyahu’s firing of his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who on Saturday called on him to abandon the plan to straitjacket the judiciary because the political conflict over it was splitting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Gallant, a top leader of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, cited statements by thousands of reservists that they would refuse their regular call-ups because they did not want to serve under a government that was destroying democracy.

The crisis in the military is only one expression of a conflict that has profoundly shaken Israel and blown up the fundamental myth of Zionism, that Israel represents the unity of all Jews against the world. Instead, Israel is riven by enormous social, political and class conflicts. As Netanyahu himself admitted, the country is on the brink of “civil war.”

The self-proclaimed leaders of the protest movement, mostly officials of the previous government that gave way to Netanyahu after elections last year, like Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, are themselves committed defenders of the Zionist state and its oppression of the Palestinian people, as is the judicial system which they defend. They do not represent a “progressive” alternative, objecting to Netanyahu’s measures only because they fear that he will destroy the democratic fig leaf of the state of Israel.

Nonetheless, the massive popular movement shows that far deeper issues are involved. Long suppressed social contradictions are exploding through the opening provided by the conflict in the ruling elite, bringing broad masses of the Israeli population and, above all, the working class onto the political stage. The postponement or even the resolution of the conflict over the Supreme Court will not suppress the further development of this social movement, fueled by immense economic inequality within Israel and the impact of the global capitalist crisis.

Despite its enormous scale, however, this mass movement has a weakness that will prove fatal if not combatted: It has not so far embraced in any way the struggles of the Palestinian people. There has been a sea of Israeli flags, with not one attempt to mobilize support from Israeli Arabs, let alone the Palestinian population of the occupied territories.

To have any chance of success, Jewish workers and youth must cast off the blinders of Zionist ideology and adopt a socialist strategy, based on the revolutionary unification of Jewish and Arab workers in a common struggle against capitalism.

There exists a powerful objective basis for the development of such a movement. For months, there have been large protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, huge for a country the size of Israel. The events of this weekend were a qualitative leap, however. Masses of people took to the streets, and a crowd estimated at 100,000 blocked the main road through Tel Aviv, fighting police attempts to clear it. Thousands demonstrated in front of Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem.

Strikes began on Sunday, a normal work day in Israel, and became so widespread that the Histadrut, the official union federation which has long been a direct arm of the Israeli state, was compelled to call a nationwide general strike. Many employers announced closures Monday, bowing to the strength of the strike movement. All departing flights from Ben-Gurion International Airport were grounded, and the country’s two main seaports, Haifa and Ashdod, shut down.

Netanyahu’s statement announcing the temporary suspension of Knesset action on the judicial coup acknowledged the power of the popular opposition. “Out of national responsibility, from a desire to prevent the nation from being torn apart, I am calling to suspend the legislation,” he said. “When there is a possibility to prevent a civil war through negotiations, I will give a time-out for negotiations.”

While Netanyahu promised talks with the opposition, he has actually been negotiating with the openly fascistic elements in his own extreme-right coalition because they initially opposed making any retreat, even a tactical one, in the face of the mass movement. Their agreement to accept the postponement came with an ominous concession: The government will establish, fund and equip a new National Guard, under the control of the interior ministry, which is headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the main leaders of the fascist settlers on the occupied West Bank.

The time during which the judicial coup is suspended will be used by the fascists and the government to prepare the systematic use of violence against renewed political opposition. Their aim is to create a paramilitary force that, unlike the military, is politically vetted to include only the most rabid racist and religious Zionists and therefore can be more easily used for internal repression against the Israeli working class and youth.

Ben-Gvir, the last cabinet minister to give his approval to the temporary suspension of the judicial “reform” bill, gloated to his supporters in a tweet: “The reform will pass. The National Guard will be established. The budget I demanded for the Ministry of National Security will be passed in its entirety. No one will scare us. No one will succeed in changing the people’s decision. Repeat after me: de-mo-cra-cy!” The last was a mocking reference to the main chant of the anti-government demonstrators.

Moreover, now that Netanyahu has bought himself some breathing space, he may well use that time to launch a military provocation against Iran, seeking to create national “unity” on the basis of an explosion of militarism. In this he would be following the example of his imperialist patrons in Western Europe and the United States, who have incited the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, in large part to divert their mounting internal tensions towards a foreign adversary. 

Netanyahu put forward the plan to place the courts under direct control by the cabinet and Knesset at least in part to save his own skin. He is being prosecuted on a series of well-founded corruption charges, and the courts could declare him ineligible to remain in office if convicted.

But the issues are far more fundamental than this. The real substance of the judicial measures is to eliminate all legal and procedural obstacles to the unrestrained dictatorship of the religious Zionists and the settler fanatics, who are a minority of the Jewish population but increasingly dominate the political system.

The turn toward violent repression and dictatorship in Israel is part of a global process. As demonstrated in recent months in France and Sri Lanka, in both imperialist powers and impoverished and oppressed countries, the ruling class sees no way out of the social and political crisis of world capitalism except through such methods. The safety switches of democracy are burning out, and the two major classes in modern society, the capitalists and the working class, are confronting each other in open struggle.

The events of the past months mark the end of a long period of political reaction in Israel, in which the class struggle has been systematically suppressed and the ideology of Zionism employed to justify the subordination of the working class to the garrison state erected to maintain the continued oppression of the Palestinian people. Now the forces mobilized against the Palestinians—above all, the fascist settler elements—are being turned against the Jewish workers and youth as well.

These attacks have provoked a mass movement that has brought masses of Israelis into the streets, where they have begun to measure their strength against the ultra-right. At the same time, they have brought Jewish workers and youth face to face with the historical necessity of a political reckoning with Zionism.

The Zionist presentation of Israel as a classless state, one where all the Jewish people could be united under one flag, where social divisions would be erased, was always a lie. The foundation of the state of Israel came about through the systematic dispossession of the Palestinian people and their forced expulsion through violence and terror. Then followed the series of wars waged to expand the territory of Israel and build it up as a powerful, nuclear-armed spearhead for American imperialism in the Middle East.

In 1948, the Fourth International, the world Trotskyist movement, condemned the establishment of Israel based on religious identity as reactionary, a tragedy for both the Arabs and Jews living in Palestine. It declared: 

The Fourth International rejects as utopian and reactionary the “Zionist solution” of the Jewish question. It declares that total renunciation of Zionism is the sine qua non condition for the merging of Jewish workers’ struggles with the social, national and liberationist struggles of the Arab toilers. 

This perspective of the unification of the working class of the Middle East—Jews, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Armenians and other peoples—in a common struggle against capitalism, resonates more powerfully today than ever. It is the only basis for a revolutionary struggle against dictatorship, national oppression and imperialist war.

It is impossible for Jewish workers and youth to defend their democratic rights under conditions where the Palestinian population of Israel and the occupied territories remains under savage military repression and increasingly brazen vigilante and settler violence. There cannot be military dictatorship in the West Bank and Gaza and democracy within Israel.

All groups which reject the possibility of uniting Arab and Jewish workers in a common struggle are politically bankrupt and in the final analysis share the perspective of Zionism, albeit in an inverted form, accepting the state of Israel as permanent and unalterable and writing off the Jewish working class.

This includes both the bourgeois national groups among the Palestinians, such as the corrupt PLO and the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas, and international “solidarity” movements like Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which effectively blame Jewish workers for the crimes of the Zionist ruling class.

Fallout from Silicon Valley Bank collapse raises broader concerns over financial system

Nick Beams

Despite some easing yesterday of the turmoil which has hit the markets in the past two weeks—the shares of Deutsche Bank rose after sharp falls last week and First Citizens Bank acquired the failed Silicon Valley Bank—there is a growing recognition that deep-seated problems in the financial system are coming to the surface.

The North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank is to buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month. [AP Photo/Richard Vogel]

Their immediate cause is the actions of the Fed in response to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the market freeze of March 2020 when the central bank pumped trillions of dollars into the financial system to prevent a complete meltdown.

It achieved this objective, but only by the skin of its teeth, and its actions created the conditions for the eruption of the underlying crisis in a new form.

While Fed chair Jerome Powell has characterised SVB as an “outlier,” and Fed vice chair Michael Barr sought to portray its problems as the result of poor management in testimony to Congress yesterday, its demise is the expression of deepening problems in the financial system that are being exposed by the ending of the ultra-cheap money regime which prevailed from 2008 to 2022.

When money was available virtually for free, SVB gorged itself on US Treasury bonds and other supposedly safe assets. But as a result of the Fed interest rate hikes over the past year, their market value fell below their book value. This meant incurring real losses when they had to be sold to meet the cash demands of depositors.

Recognising that, far from being an outlier, the SVB crisis was the sharpest expression of a worsening situation for a swathe of middle-sized banks that collectively play a major role in the US economy and financial system, the Fed instituted a new loan facility for banks earlier this month.

It enabled banks to obtain a loan using their Treasury bonds at their book value, rather than their market value, averting the need to sell them at a loss to meet the demands of depositors for cash.

And, according to Fed data, this facility is being widely used. Last week, banks borrowed a total of $163.9 billion, only slightly down from the $164.8 billion they borrowed the week before, compared to the normal weekly borrowing of around $10 billion.

But apparently even these measures are not sufficient, and the Fed is looking at ways to expand them, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The immediate focus of concern is the fate of the First Republic Bank which is in danger of going the same way as SVB and the failed Signature Bank. This is despite the depositing of $30 billion with it in an operation involving 11 major banks, organised by JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week. First Republic’s shares have plunged by more than 90 percent this month.

Because it is not allowed to take action with regard to particular banks, the Fed has to devise the new facility so that it is available to all, but crafted in such a way that First Republic can benefit.

As well as the problems of liquidity and solvency for banks, the deepening crisis is causing mayhem in the $22 trillion Treasury bond market, particularly at its shorter end.

An article by Joe Rennison in the New York Times last Friday expressed some of the concerns.

“In the typically tame market for government bonds, investors have been left reeling from some of the most chaotic trading conditions they have ever seen, entrenching concerns about the broader economy since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank,” he wrote, noting that the volatility struck “at the heart” of the financial system.

In the past two weeks the yield on the two-year Treasury note has moved within a range of 0.3 to 0.7 percentage points each day. Under so-called “normal” conditions daily shifts are a tiny fraction of this amount.

As Sonal Desai chief investment officer Franklin Templeton Fixed Income said: “These are monster moves for single days.”

Another financial strategist, cited in the article, said he had never gone through what he was seeing now, which was “off the charts.”

It is becoming impossible to ignore the fact that the immediate form of the crisis is rooted in the previous actions of governments and the Fed in mounting bailout and rescue operations.

Writing in the Financial Times (FT), financial analyst Ruchir Sharma, now chair of Rockefeller International, said while it is politically impossible for governments not to organise bailouts, the “snowballing problem” was one of their own making.

“The past few decades of easy money created markets so large—nearing five times larger than the world economy—and so intertwined, that the failure of even a midsize bank risks global contagion.”

One of the justifications advanced by the Fed for its quantitative easing program initiated after the 2008 crisis—the aim of which was to enable speculation to continue with the virtually free money it provided—is that it would give a stimulus to the underlying real economy.

Sharma cited figures which dispose of this fiction.

“The rescues,” he wrote, “have led to a massive misallocation of capital and a surge in the number of zombie firms, which contribute mightily to weakening business dynamism and productivity. In the US total factor productivity growth fell to just 0.5 percent after 2008, down from about 2 percent between 1870 and the early 1970s.”

Long-time financial analyst and former Australian banker Satyajit Das, has taken issue with the outpourings of officials on the stability of the banking system in a New Indian Express column, reported on by the Australian Financial Review.

“If the authorities are correct,” he wrote, “then why evoke the ‘systemic risk exemption’ to guarantee all depositors of failed banks? If there is liquidity to meet withdrawals, then why the logorrhoea [excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness] about the sufficiency of funds? If everything is fine, then why have US banks borrowed $153 billion at a punitive 4.75 percent at the discount window, a larger amount than in 2008–09?”

There is considerable unclarity about how the present crisis will develop. But one thing is certain: there will be a credit crunch that will hit all areas of the economy around the world.

An FT editorial, published at the weekend and summing up the crisis so far, said this would take place even if more banks were not toppled.

“Higher interest rates have already slashed lending to the real economy, and banks are likely to raise their lending standards even further in response to recent events. Property appears particularly vulnerable. If credit tightens significantly, a spiral of falling prices and defaults is possible. … Mortgage-backed securities held by banks are already taking a hit, a risking a self-reinforcing cycle.”

The powers that be, who never acknowledge a crisis until crashes over their heads, hoping to prevent the working masses from drawing the necessary conclusions about the toxic character of the profit system they live under, are trying to pass off the crisis as merely a passing phase.

But this fiction has worn so thin that the FT editorial had to conclude: “Rather than a blip, this episode could be a sign of things to come.”

Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Scholarships 2023/2024

Application Deadline: 30th April 2023

About the Award: The Islamic Development Bank funds and implements its scholarship programmes as part of its overall efforts to develop the human resources of its member countries and those of the Muslim communities in non-member countries.

1. Undergraduate
2. Master’s
3. PhD and Post-Doctoral Research Programme
4. IsDB-ISFD for Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) for 21 Least Developed Member Countries (LDMCs):  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Yemen
5. IsDB-ISFD Bachelor studies for 21 LDMCs as mentioned in No. 4 above
6. IsDB-The World Academy of Science (TWAS) Joint Programme for Capacity Building and Technology Transfer

Objectives: The Programmes are important parts of the developmental initiatives led by the Bank since 1983 to foster technology and knowledge sharing among its member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries. They are designed to attract talented male and female students and in order to build the right competencies required with a special focus on sustainability sciences to empower communities and to assist them in achieving their national and global development plans including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The motto is to develop the students/researchers as Good Citizens & Competent Professionals (GCCPs).

Concept:

The IsDB Scholarship Programme is more than just a scholarship programme in the traditional sense of a straight financial assistance to the outstanding and qualified students. It is also a tool for the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the Member Countries and Muslim communities.It is basically a scholarship programme and a development programme at the same time, since the scholarship is given as an interest-free-loan (Qard Hasan) to the students and as a grant to their communities /countries to which they belong.

The students are required to fulfil the obligations detailed, under each programme, after graduation and gainful employment. Besides, the students are also required to take part in the development of their communities/countries, through their respective professions. The repaid fund will be used to provide scholarships to other students from the same community/country to complement the IsDB Programme and to ensure its continuity in the long run, while the community development services rendered by the students and graduates will contribute to the overall development of the community/country.

Type: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD, Postdoc

Eligibility:

Undergraduate:

The Programme is open for academically meritorious students with strong desire to engage in social services and community development after graduation. Candidates MUST ensure that they meet all the criteria of the programme listed hereunder, failing which the Application will not be considered:

• Must be a citizen of any of the IsDB member countries or Muslim communities in non-member countries.
• Candidate from non-member countries must be a Muslim.
• Must have obtained a high school diploma or registered in one of the top 10 public/government universities in his/her own country.
• Must have minimum of 70% in his/her high school final GPA.
• Must choose a field of study listed among the approved disciplines of the programme.
• Must provide evidence of language proficiency in university medium of instruction as relevant. The language proficiency must be supported by a document or certificate, e.g., for English, by a recognized language certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or passed required level test conducted such as by British Council or equivalent system in French or other language).
• Must provide certified English or French translation of all documents in case if they are initially in other languages.
• Must not be in receipt of any other scholarship at the time of application and during study.
• Must be medically fit and willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

Apply Now for the IsDB Undergraduate Scholarship Programme

Masters:

The Programme is open for academically meritorious students and mid-career professionals from member countries and Muslim Communities in non-member countries. Candidates MUST ensure that they meet all the criteria of the programme listed hereunder, failing which the Application will not be considered:

• Must be a citizen of any of the IsDB member countries or Muslim communities in non-member countries.
• Candidate from non-member countries must be a Muslim.
• Must have minimum of 70% in his/her Bachelor studies’ GPA.
• Must choose a field of study listed among the approved disciplines of the programme.
• Must provide certified English or French translation of all documents in case if they are initially in other languages.
• Must provide evidence of language proficiency in university medium of instruction as relevant. The language proficiency must be supported by a document or certificate, e.g., for English, by a recognized language certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or passed required level test conducted such as by British Council or equivalent system in French or other languages).
• Must not be in receipt of any other scholarship at the time of application and during study.
• Must be medically fit and willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

Apply Now for the IsDB Master Scholarship

PhD and Post-Doctoral Research Programme:

The Programme is designed to help promising and outstanding scholars from member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries who meet the following criteria:

1. PHD STUDY

• Have Master’s degree in one of the fields of study of the programme.
• Have minimum (“Very Good”) academic standing;
• Preferably have work and/or research experience.
• Have a research proposal in one of the fields of study of the programme stating its scientific and development relevance to the community / country.
• Be medically fit and be willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

2. POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

• Have PhD degree in one of approved fields of the programme.
• Have minimum (“Very Good”) academic standing.
• Have not less than two (2) years of experience in the field of research.
• Must have a record of publications/research in the same field.
• Have a research proposal in one of the fields of study of the programme stating its scientific and development relevance to the community / country.
• Be medically fit and be willing to undergo medical tests after selection

Apply Now for the IsDB PhD and Post-Doctoral Research Programme

Eligible Countries: Muslim communities

Number of Awards: Numerous

Value of Award:

Undergraduate & Masters:

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study.
• Tuition fees, if any, subject to IsDB’s approval.
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.

PhD study

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study;
• Tuition fees, if any, subject to IsDB’s approval;
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.
• Thesis preparation allowance
• Scientific papers’ preparation allowance

Post-doctoral research

The programme covers the following items:

• Monthly stipend commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study;
• Cost of medical treatment at university/government hospital.
• Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered universities/countries.
• Scientific papers’ preparation allowance

How to Apply: Apply below

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Sinn Féin backs NATO’s war against Russia ahead of Biden’s planned visit to Ireland

Dermot Quinn

A planned five-day state visit next month to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by US President Joe Biden has been welcomed enthusiastically by all sections of the establishment in both parts of the country.

Biden is due to fly into Belfast April 10 for five days to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), signed in 1998, which ended decades of armed conflict.

President Joe Biden attends an event to support legislation that would encourage domestic manufacturing and strengthen supply chains for computer chips in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, March 9, 2022, in Washington. [AP Photo/Patrick Semansky]

Sinn Féin , now the main bourgeois nationalist party in the north and south of Ireland, has also welcomed Biden’s visit.

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s First Minister-designate and the party’s deputy leader, was first out of the gate saying she would be “delighted to welcome President Biden to Belfast. The US has been a key partner for peace in Ireland and such a visit demonstrates its continued commitment, which is deeply valued.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald tweeted, “President Biden’s support for the Good Friday Agreement and the protection of Irish interests remains consistent and unequivocal.”

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and Vice President Michelle O'Neill in 2018 [Photo by Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

Biden’s visit to Ireland will seek further compliance from the local ruling elite and their political representatives with NATO’s escalating war with Russia in Ukraine. The invitation to Biden to visit Northern Ireland came from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the AUKUS summit in San Diego last week, which was attended by Australia’s Anthony Albanese. The AUKUS pact is a deal to enable Australia to eventually buy nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK, and to immediately open up Australia as a base for US and UK hunter killer submarines targeting China.

Washington’s particular interest in Ireland is centred on normalising relations between the British ruling class and the European Union (EU) post-Brexit, to pursue US global imperialist interests and NATO’s proxy war with Russia. As there are over a thousand large global American companies with production and financial operations in Ireland, maintaining stability on the island is an enduring geopolitical aim of every US administration.

In line with this, Biden has voiced support for the “Windsor Framework” the latest deal worked out between the EU and Sunak’s Conservative government. The agreement amends post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland to allow for two routes for goods being traded from the UK into Northern Ireland, seeking to minimise paper work on goods not being forwarded to the South.

The agreement is also intended to pressure Jeffrey Donaldson’s hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) into allowing the Northern Ireland Assembly to be revived. The assembly has been suspended since early 2022, when the DUP walked out in protest at then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, which effectively put a customs border in the Irish sea.

The new framework proposes to give members of the Northern Ireland Assembly a say on any changes to EU law. The so-called “Stormont brake” will allow the UK, at the request of 30 members from at least two parties in the assembly, to oppose updates to new EU goods law, in exceptional circumstances.

Nevertheless, March 20, the DUP announced it intended to vote against the Windsor framework deal when it comes before Westminster. How this plays out remains to be seen, but it is imperative for British and American imperialism that the Northern Ireland Assembly is reconstituted. This is to intensify Northern Ireland’s transformation into a low tax investment platform for American companies with access to both the EU via the Republic of Ireland, and UK markets.

The working class on both sides of the Irish border have nothing to gain but increased levels of exploitation and deprivation.

Sinn Féin, which will be the largest party in a revived Northern Ireland Assembly, has welcomed Sunak’s deal with open arms.

On its announcement, Mary Lou McDonald said it would be an “incredibly foolish lost opportunity” if the assembly was not restored by the GFA anniversary and Biden’s visit. McDonald pledged to make the agreement work: “The reality is, we have to share power... communities in the north of Ireland need, deserve and want government and proper political leadership. There’s no dodging that, that’s just an immutable fact.” The party is reported to have its sights set controlling the Department for the Economy, currently run by the DUP.

Sinn Féin is bending over backwards to display its loyalty to the geopolitical aims of American imperialism. The corporate media and all political parties, including Sinn Féin, have seized on the humanitarian crisis generated by the war in Ukraine to whip up anti-Russian hysteria and bring Ireland closer to the military aims of NATO and the European Union.

McDonald obscenely used the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, 24 February, to make a speech outside the famous General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin—centre of the 1916 Easter Rising against rule by British imperialism, at the height of the First World war. The party portrays the US and NATO backed corrupt puppet regime in Ukraine, backed with billions of dollars and awash with NATO weaponry as, in McDonald’s words, standing “against Vladimir Putin’s attack on sovereignty, self-determination and international law.”

McDonald endorsed NATO imperialist militarism, stating, “Putin must immediately withdraw his army and end the invasion. Standing resolutely against the Putin invasion, the international community and international diplomacy must use all its muscle to end the war and begin the journey to peace.” The “muscle” to which McDonald refers are the Leopard and Challenger battle tanks, light tanks, missiles, fighter jets and drones being poured into Ukraine by NATO.

By offering total support for the geopolitical aims of Biden’s administration and its proxy imperialist war against Russia, Sinn Féin is offering itself as a safe pair of hands in both parts of Ireland against the working class.

Across Ireland workers of all ages are having to make the stark choice between heating their homes and feeding their families. In the South, the number of parents using food banks doubled last year. There are now 671,000 people living in poverty according to Social Justice Ireland, including 188,000 children. The population of the Republic of Ireland is just 5 million. The cost of food and energy bills has soared as inflation pushes beyond 8 percent.

While the number of people homeless has reached close to 12,000, a ban on evictions introduced by the current Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green Party government in 2022 will be abolished at the end of March. Homeless charities are predicting an avalanche of evictions. The Irish Simon Community has detailed that as many as 290,000 people in Ireland are experiencing hidden homelessness, as friends or family are now relied on to provide accommodation for others.

The humanitarian crisis in the emergency departments of Irish hospitals continues unabated. Ireland has now the same number of hospital beds it had in 2010, despite a 600,000 population growth. Dr. Chris Luke, a consultant in emergency medicine in Cork for over 20 years elucidated last month that due to the lack of hospital beds “We estimate that hundreds of people in Ireland are dying every year unnecessarily.”

Sinn Féin’s social policy is in line with its support for imperialist militarism. Despite occasional left rhetoric, Sinn Féin is neither socialist or anti-imperialist and represents the economic interests of the affluent middle class, bitterly hostile to the social interests and aspirations of the working class. The party is increasingly indistinguishable from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the long-established bourgeois nationalist parties who dominate the ruling coalition.

Strike wave erupts in Portugal against inflation and soaring poverty

Santiago Guillen

A powerful explosion of the class struggle is emerging in Portugal. Workers in one sector after another are springing into action with multiple calls for strikes.

Protesting teachers march through Lisbon, Portugal, January 2023. [Photo: Maureen Danovsky, M. Ed @MaureenDano]

The strikes take place against the backdrop of a wave of strikes against austerity and inflation by millions of workers across Europe. In France, the current epicentre of the struggle, a revolutionary confrontation is developing between the working class and the government of President Emmanuel Macron. In Germany, hundreds of thousands are participating in public sector warning strikes and are demanding a full strike that the trade unions desperately seek to prevent. In Belgium, on March 10, public sector workers went on a nationwide strike. In the Netherlands, hardly any week since January has passed without Dutch workers entering into a struggle for better wages, working and living conditions, the latest 200,000 health care workers went on strike.

In Portugal, strikes by teachers have been taking place since November over wages and working conditions. Their anger erupted in the mass march on February 11, which brought 150,000 people to the streets of Lisbon, following the January protest that gathered 100,000 demonstrators—marches already considered the largest since the Carnation Revolution toppled the far-right Salazar regime in 1974.

In February and March, Comboios de Portugal railway workers paralyzed hundreds of trains. They will continue striking throughout the month of April. Since February 15, an ongoing strike by civil servants at the judiciary has forced the delay of more than 21,000 trials and legal proceedings.

On April 6, workers at Infrastructure of Portugal, which manages the railway and road infrastructure, will go on strike over wages after previous strikes on February 29 and March 2. Tax workers are also on intermittent strikes, covering the first three hours and the last three of the working day.

The airway industry is also rocked by strikes. Cabin crew staff at British low-cost carrier EasyJet will go on a three-day strike to call for higher wages to compensate for the high cost of living. The SNPVAC union said that strike action was supported by 277 votes in favor and only 1 against. TAP Air Portugal pilots have also called a strike during the Easter break, between 7 and 10 April, to restore working conditions withdrawn in 2021 by the PS government. The prior notice of the strike was approved by the pilots with 515 votes in favour (87 percent).

The magnitude of this new strike wave was confirmed by the data released by the Directorate General for Employment, which indicates that in January the number of strike notices quadrupled that of the same month the previous year (204 to 51).

The Portuguese government of the Socialist Party (PS) is increasingly facing a situation like France. Amid this context, like Macron, PS Prime Minister Antonio Costa is resorting to mass repression against strikes. It is imposing minimum services obligations or threatening to outlaw altogether some strikes, such as the indefinite one called by teachers by the STOP union or the justice union that the advisory council of the Attorney General’s Office has already described as illegal.

Last week, the government announced a battery of measures worth 2.5 billion euros that will do little to help workers cope with soaring inflation and high interest rates. The measures include scrapping value added tax (VAT) on essential food products still to be discussed with large retail chains, 140 million euros in support for farmers, as well as a ridiculous paltry additional monthly subsidy of 30 euros to low-income households and plus 15 euros per child. It will also increase civil servants’ wages by 1 percent, whose wages rose by an average of 3.6 percent last year, still way below inflation levels 8.2 percent.

The root cause of the strike wave coincides with what is happening across Europe and internationally as a response to the collapse of living conditions. Everywhere, the ruling class is claiming that they cannot make any concessions while funding bank bailouts and vast military budgets to fuel the war that NATO is waging against Russia in Ukraine.

The union bureaucracies, however, offer no alternative. In Portugal, both the social democratic Union General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP), the largest union and linked to the Stalinist Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), are strangling mounting opposition.

They are calling one-day strikes in an uncoordinated way, or calling them by region, sector or even hourly stoppages, avoiding at all costs to paralyse the economy and bring down the PS government. Systematically, they rapidly call off strikes as was done with the strike of the television TVI workers forced to accept a 5.3 percent wage increase when inflation in February stood at 8.3 percent.

To release pressure, the CGTP called a demonstration on March 18 that brought together tens of thousands of workers in Lisbon calling for measures to limit the prices of basic products and contain inflation. This is a strategy of the union bureaucracies to exhaust workers in one-day strikes and protests. The Stalinist PCP and the petty-bourgeois Bloco de Esquerdas, who supported this call, also collaborate with them.

Its leaders made an exercise in hypocrisy during the demonstration. PCP general secretary Paulo Raimundo said that employment must be accompanied by rights and salaries “which is what the bills are paid with.” BE leader Catarina Martins impotently complained that the government is not fulfilling its commitments, because “respect for those who work is to update wages and freeze prices.”

Omitted is the fact that these forces applied the same austerity policies for years for which they now criticize the PS government. In 2015, they supported the Socialist Party into power until the January 2022 elections, when the PS obtained an absolute majority. During those years, together with the PS, they applied an agenda of right-wing and austerity policies, in line with the one previously carried out by the right-wing PSD. In 2019, while the PS enjoyed the support of the PCP and BE, the PS government mobilized the army to break a nationwide truckers strike.

The government kept the labour laws imposed by the European Union (EU), as the vast majority of jobs created were precarious and real wages continued to decline. Workers in Portugal now face mass poverty. Half of workers received less than 1,000 euros per month in 2022, a percentage that rises to 65 percent among youth under 30. Health and education continue to deteriorate due to cuts, while hospitals and schools are threatened with ruin because of nurses and teachers shortages. Even before the strike, many students were without classes due to a lack of educators to teach the subjects.

Economic recovery was largely based on tourism, which has fueled a real estate bubble. In cities like Lisbon, it is impossible to find even a room for less than 600 euros per month.

The right-wing policies of the PCP and the BE impoverished workers while enriching large corporations that are making record profits. Fifteen large companies listed on the Lisbon stock exchange recently paid 2.5 billion euros in dividends to their owners, a historical record.

These forces also intervened to denounce workers struggles opposing the PS government. In 2019 when strikes began to break out against the PS government, the leader of the Bloco Catarina Martins defended the adoption of anti-strike measures, declaring that “In certain fundamental sectors, it is It is understandable that there are minimum levels of service.” The leaders of the PCP criticized strikes such as those in transportation, justifying the PS’ military repression of the truckers’ strike.