El-Sisi dictatorship plunges Egyptians into poverty, steps up repression

Jean Shaoul

More than one third of Egypt’s 106 million population are living in poverty, while another 30 percent were teetering around the poverty line in 2019, according to World Bank estimates. That number has risen dramatically under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the US-NATO led war against Russia in Ukraine that has sent the price of grain soaring.

Inflation is raging at more than 30 percent as the Egyptian pound has fallen to half its value in the last year, with the black-market rate on which many depend even lower. Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent, with poultry, pasta, dairy and red meat rising faster. Many workers have been forced to seek second or even third jobs in order to put food on the table for their families.

President Joe Biden (left) speaks as Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi laughs during a meeting at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

The government plans to increase the price of basic commodities distributed through ration cards. More than 60 million of Egypt’s 110 million population use the cards to buy 32 types of goods, including pasta, flour, and fava beans, at subsidised prices. The price of a bottle of vegetable oil will increase from 25 to 30 pounds ($0.81 to $0.97) while kilogram sacks of sugar and rice will go up from 10.50 to 12.60 pounds ($0.34-$0.41).

Professional workers are leaving the country in droves, while some workers are even crossing the border to seek work in war-torn Libya, where there are around 144,543 Egyptian migrants who are “routinely at risk of arbitrary or collective expulsion,” according to a 2022 United Nations Institute of Migration report.

General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who overthrew the elected government of Muslim Brotherhood affiliated President Mohammed Morsi in a bloody coup in July 2013, has ruled the country with an iron fist ever since, using the country’s anti-terrorism laws to jail around 60,000 people, many without charge or trial.

In anticipation of social unrest and renewed opposition, the authorities have added 81 human rights defenders to the “terrorism list” as part of broader efforts to silence regime critics and dissidents. Among those designated as “terrorists” are 32 Egyptian journalists from Al Jazeera, Al Sharq, Mekameleen, Watan, the Rassd Network and other news websites critical of the government. Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate previously subject to government surveillance, is on the list.

It is believed that all those named are living in exile. The government is refusing to provide or renew identity documents to dissidents, journalists and political activists living abroad, exposing them to the risk of deportation, to pressure them to return to Egypt. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, dissidents based in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Kuwait and Malaysia have in recent years been extradited, with some later sentenced to years in prison. Some of those interviewed by HRW were considering attempting to “migrate irregularly” from Turkey to Europe to apply for political asylum.

Egypt, the second largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has received $13.5 billion in loans from the institution. In return, it has pledged to float the currency, implement a massive privatisation programme, rein in the military’s role in the economy, increase taxes and impose stringent austerity measures. The IMF has estimated that Cairo needs $17 billion over the next four years to cover its financing gap, largely to cover the cost of el-Sisi’s megaprojects that have benefited the military’s construction companies. Others believe the required figure is much larger. Oxford Economics Africa calculates that Egypt’s external financing gap may already be closer to $20 billion this year and $29 billion in 2024.

A rare lengthy article on the subject in the New York Times, “As Egypt Faces Crisis”, pointing to “rising discontent and a sinking economy”, expresses the deep worry in ruling circles at the situation, especially given Egypt’s history of mass working-class action.

Foreign currency has all but dried up, despite the central bank raising interest rates to 19 percent. The shortage means goods are piled up at Egypt’s ports, with ships waiting to be unloaded. Importers without access to foreign currency due to reduced allocations to non-governmental importers, the shortage of dollars, and the depletion of the central bank’s reserves are unable to get their goods released from customs. This and the soaring cost of loans has forced small businesses to fold.

In May, Moody’s, the credit ratings agency, warned that a prolonged conflict in neighbouring Sudan could pose a credit-negative risk for countries in the region, including Egypt. Should the armed conflict between two rival military factions—one backed by the US and the other by Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—now engulfing the country spill over the border it would trigger concerns by the banks that have lent to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia. It would disrupt the flow of investments into Egypt, while the numbers of Sudanese fleeing the fighting would force down wages and increase the poverty rate.

So great is Egypt’s debt crisis—more than 100 percent of GDP—that more than half of the government’s budget for the 2023-34 fiscal year will go on debt servicing ($78.8 billion), after the Big Three credit ratings agencies downgraded the country’s credit worthiness. It means gutting what remains of public funding for health, education, and social welfare. Around half of government revenues ($69.2 billion) are set to come from loans.

El-Sisi has announced that the government will develop three other sources of capital inflows: foreign direct investments, exports and the private sector. He undoubtedly calculates that Egypt is “too big to fail,” but the butcher of Cairo’s plans have as yet come to nought.

Only a fraction of his promised privatisations have materialised, with the sale of the government’s Paint and Chemical Industries and its 9.5 percent stake in Telecom Egypt raising just $146 million—mostly in local currency not dollars—of the $2.5 billion target by June 2023.

Egyptian businesses, struggling with the high cost of financing their operations, including the cost of foreign currency to pay for raw materials, face falling demand in key export markets as a result of the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine.

The oil rich Gulf States that have shored up the el-Sisi regime in the past are taking a tougher line, insisting on buying only commercial investments and demanding the government curb the military’s economic role, which stretches from agriculture and food farms to construction and food factories. Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, said, “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached, and we are changing that. We are taxing our people. We expect others to do the same.”

Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund, which had pledged $10 billion in investment funds, pulled out of negotiations to buy the state-owned United Bank after the plummeting Egyptian pound wiped hundreds of millions off its dollar value. The Qatar Investment Authority declined to take a stake in a military-owned biscuit manufacturer, saying it would only consider profitable ventures, while the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ has declined to buy Egypt’s state-owned and military-controlled companies. With most military-owned companies depending on the state for funding and their financial arrangements anything but transparent, Egypt’s privatisation programme has struggled to find buyers.

This has prompted Egypt to release Al Jazeera journalist Hisham Abdelaziz, who had been held in pretrial detention for nearly four years. The authorities had detained Abdelaziz, an Egyptian journalist working in Qatar for Al Jazeera’s Mubasher channel, at Cairo International Airport in June 2019 while traveling for a family visit. The state prosecutor ordered him detained on charges of “belonging to a terrorist group and spreading fake news”—commonly slapped on government critics. Egypt had targeted the network because of Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

So desperate is the Egyptian government to secure US dollars to pay for imports, it has eased its citizenship requirements for foreigners—typically those who have fled wars and violence in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. They can now obtain citizenship by investing $300,000, instead of $500,000 in real estate, including land and buildings owned by the government or Egyptian citizens, or by providing $350,000 to investment projects or depositing $500,000 in a local bank.

In April, the government decided to charge foreign yachts and tourist ships anchoring in Egyptian ports in US dollars instead of the Egyptian pound.

Study finds that COVID-19 could cause brain cells to fuse, leading to permanent damage

Philip Guelpa & Evan Blake

A new study published last week in Science Advances develops the understanding of the effects of COVID-19 and other viruses on the brain. The findings are believed to help explain “brain fog”—one of the most common Long COVID symptoms which can involve headaches, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness and other symptoms—as well as other neurological manifestations, such as the loss of taste or smell, and potentially death.

Long COVID advocates often note that “brain fog” is simply a euphemism for brain damage, and the findings of this study underscore this point. Published shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Biden administration in the US formally ended their declarations of public health emergency due to COVID-19, the study reaffirms that these decisions were premature and unscientific. The coronavirus continues to spread unchecked throughout the world, killing thousands and damaging the brains and other organs of an untold number of people each day.

Conducted by a collaborative of researchers at Macquarie University, Sydney, and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, both in Australia, along with the University of Helsinki, Finland, the study found that when brain cells (neurons and glia) are infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the cell membrane is altered, causing the cells to fuse together. The result is that the fused neurons, which transmit information by generating electrical impulses, either cease to fire or fire simultaneously, likely with unintended consequences.

The lead author of the study, Massimo Hilliard, draws an analogy with the effect of fusing household circuitry controlling lights in different rooms. The messages that these neurons normally transmit become either scrambled or cut off, potentially wreaking havoc with a whole range of bodily functions.

The research involved the use of brain organoids, which are accumulations of brain cells grown in vitro (i.e., artificially in the lab from human stem cells). These provide a simulation of conditions in the brain.

The study examined the process by which specialized molecules, known as fusogens, which are associated with the viral spike (S) protein, are used by the virus to penetrate cells, enabling the virus to hijack the cell’s machinery to produce more viruses which then spread to adjacent cells.

Representative fused neurons (arrowheads) transfected with either spike S and GFP or hACE2 and mCherry before being cocultured. Fusion is observed at the somas (top left) and the neurites (top right and bottom), with neuronal bridges (asterisks) of variable lengths. Immunocytochemistry for nuclei (blue), MAP2 (magenta), GFP (green), and mCherry (red). [Photo by Ramón Martínez-Mármol et al. / CC BY 4.0]

Understanding of that basic mechanism of viral infection was already known. What is new is the observation that in infected cells the fusogens alter the cell’s membrane, which then causes separate cells, both neurons and non-neurons known as glia, which provide structural support to the neurons, to fuse together. They also found that dendrites and axons, components of neurons involved in cell-cell communication, can be sites of cellular fusion.

The study found that 90 percent of the fused cells do not die but “resulted in synchronized neuronal activity,” while in the remaining 10 percent of fused cells, “neuronal activity completely stopped.”

The authors write, “Our results indicate that viral infections, driving the expression of viral fusogens, can initiate the irreversible fusion of brain cells, causing alteration in neuronal communication and revealing a possible pathomechanism of neuronal malfunction caused by infection.” They add, “The impact on neuronal fusion will depend on the viral load in the brain and the specific areas infected.”

The study authors further propose that the intracellular environments created by masses of fused cells might allow viral replication in an environment shielded from a body’s immune system. In effect, this could produce a reservoir for repeated bouts of disease as the replicating viruses periodically emerge from their sanctuaries, even without exposure to an external source of infection. This has implications for the course of other neurological diseases as well, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

An article on the study published in Science reports that similar fused cell masses, known as syncytia, have previously been observed in other organs of patients with COVID-19, such as the lungs. Examination of the brains of human patients who have died of COVID-19 for the presence of syncytia, has yet to be reported.

The real-world implications of this study and many others done on the neurological impacts of COVID-19 are staggering. The damage to brain cells shown in the study is irreversible. Repeated bouts of COVID-19 are likely to compound the effect, leading to progressive neurological decline in individuals who are repeatedly reinfected, not to mention effects on other organ systems.

The horrifying results of this study were shared widely by scientists and anti-COVID advocates on Twitter. Dr. Eric Topol of the Scripps Institute, who has done important research on Long COVID, shared an image from the study with the comment, “Not a pretty picture.”

Another widely shared post from anti-COVID activist @1goodtern embedded a video interview with study co-author Dr. Yazi Ke of Macquarie University. Commenting on the fact that COVID-19 has caused millions of individuals to lose the sense of taste and smell, Dr. Ke states, “I would imagine that the virus is causing, wreaking havoc in these brain areas.”

Asked whether she believes that the neurological damage caused by COVID-19 is permanent, Dr. Ke replies, “Knowing what I know, I would say that it’s quite permanent. And over time, I can imagine that these large structures of cells actually eventually might die because they don’t get to do what they’re supposed to do.”

In the interview, Dr. Ke also notes that the study’s findings indicate a potential source of neurological symptoms associated with many other viruses. In the study, the authors write:

Our results also imply that other viral infections can potentially cause neuronal fusion. Several viruses can cause severe neurological symptoms and/or death, such as HIV, rabies virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, poliovirus, measles virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, Zika virus, cytomegalovirus, dengue virus, Nipah virus, and chikungunya virus, among others. Cell-to-cell contact has been shown to be involved in the spreading of HIV, measles, and SARS-CoV-2, but viral-mediated neuronal fusion remained poorly understood.

The “forever COVID” policy adopted by governments around the world—i.e. allowing the pandemic to rage on without any effective control—means that the vast majority of the world’s population will suffer repeated bouts of COVID-19 annually, with potentially increasingly severe impacts and a growing section of the population developing Long COVID. The result, as the WSWS has stated, will be a deepening “mass debilitating event,” which will reverberate for generations to come.

Neurologists and care providers are already reporting upticks in patients suffering from early-onset dementia and other neurological disorders, and many are deeply concerned that recurring waves of COVID-19 will produce a deluge of patients suffering from these afflictions in the years ahead. How many children growing up today, whose parents were misled into believing that COVID-19 is essentially harmless to them, will have their lives or well-being cut drastically short?

Political uncertainty continues after Thai election

Robert Campion

In the month since Thailand’s May 14 general election, who will form the next government remains uncertain. The Move Forward Party (MFP), which took the most seats, faces multiple barriers to assuming office from the military and state apparatus. At present, the Election Commission (EC) will certify the results by July 13, and a vote for prime minister could be conducted on August 3.

Leader of Move Forward Party Pita Limjaroenrat, answer to a reporter with other seven party leaders, during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, May 18, 2023. [AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit]

The MFP, led by wealthy businessman and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat, won 151 seats, ahead of the previous main oppositional party, the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), which took 141 seats. The MFP currently leads a coalition with a majority in the lower parliamentary house with Pheu Thai and six minor parties, giving them 312 seats out of 500. It is noteworthy that a record 75.2 percent turned out to vote while MFP won 32 of 33 constituency seats in the capital of Bangkok.

The military has effectively held power since the 2014 coup in which it ousted the Pheu Thai led government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The armed forces are closely aligned with the monarchy and state bureaucracy, including the courts, that have long dominated Thai politics. The military-backed parties won a total of just 76 seats in last month’s elections.

The election results reflect a growing political radicalisation and deep hostility to the military and monarchy’s longstanding domination over Thai politics. By pledging to reform both institutions, and address social inequality, the MFP attracted a great deal of support from students and young people, though it has already begun to shed these pretensions.

At the same time, behind the backs of the working class, sections of the ruling class are manoeuvring to try to maintain stability and to avoid a repeat of the mass protests that rocked the country following the last rigged election in 2019.

There is a great deal of concern over the potential economic impact of any political uncertainty or unrest. Sanan Angubolku, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, recently stated: “The private sector would like a new government to be formed quickly. Any delays could slow down the economy.” According to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the economy could grow 3.6 to 4 percent if a government can be formed in August, but only 3 percent if it takes until September or October.

The ultimate arbiter of political affairs in Thailand remains the military, which holds sway over the EC and the 250 seats in parliament’s upper house, or Senate. In order to form a government, a party requires a majority from the combined houses, or 376 seats, leaving the MFP-led coalition short. While some senators have indicated support, it is still unclear if the country’s traditional elites close to the military will support an MFP-led government by providing the necessary senate votes.

Currently, the EC is investigating MFP leader Pita over accusations of owning shares in a media company while running as a parliamentary candidate, which is prohibited. Pita had previously disclosed the ownership of shares in iTV, which ceased media operations in 2007, and the EC accepted his candidacy. Now, however, the EC claims that if Pita was aware that owning the shares could impact his eligibility, this would violate the law.

MFP like Pheu Thai in no way challenges capitalist rule, but rather represents sections of the Thai ruling class who regard the domination of the military and monarchy as an intolerable restraint on their business interests. It rests on sections of the upper middle class and appeals to youth and workers on the basis of empty promises of addressing democratic rights and the worsening social crisis facing working people.

The MFP formed its coalition based on compromises with a number of small parties, excluding those typically associated with the military. As well as Pheu Thai, the coalition includes the Prachachat Party (9 seats), Thai Sang Thai (6 seats), Pheu Thai Ruam Phalang (2 seats), the Thai Liberal Party (1 seat), the Fair Party (1 seat), and Palang Sangkhom Mai (1 seat).

The coalition released a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a vague and highly conditional platform seeking to garner the support of military-appointed senators. It states that the coalition will “not affect the country’s status as a unitary state, the country’s status as a democracy under a constitutional monarchy framework, and the inviolable status of the monarch.”

The document makes no mention of the draconian lèse-majesté law, which in very broad terms makes it illegal to criticize or insult the king with penalties of up to 15 years prison. Hundreds of youth are currently in jail or facing charges under the law from the 2020–2021 pro-democracy protests. The MFP has claimed it will reform the law, but has not made the issue a feature of the coalition so as not to alienate other parties or military-aligned senators.

The Thai monarchy, as well as having extensive business interests, has proven to be the linchpin of the capitalist state in times of political crisis. The political establishment as a whole is determined to maintain the monarchy and parties like the MFP at most seek very limited reforms.

Deputy MFP leader Sirikanya Tansakun stated in an interview earlier this month with the Bangkok Post that it is seeking merely to “improve the relationship between the monarchy institution and the people.”

The coalition also claims it will create a “comprehensive welfare system” and improve “the rights of workers” while taking “fiscal sustainability” and “economic growth” into consideration. However, under conditions of economic crisis in Thailand and globally, these pledges will be quickly junked.

The MoU also pledges to “maintain balanced international relations between Thailand and major powers.” The ruling class is deeply concerned over the economic and political instability in the world produced by the US-NATO war in Ukraine, as well as the intensifying US-led confrontation with China. According to the Department of International Trade, exports to Russia fell 43.3 percent to $585.44 million in 2022. Thailand’s top exporting destinations are the US and China, representing 15.9 percent and 13.2 percent respectively.

The ability of Thailand to maintain “balanced international relations” is becoming increasingly fraught as the US ramps up its military preparations for war against China. Thailand is a formal military ally of the US and played a critical role in support of the American military during the Vietnam War. However, it is dependent on China for trade and also military supplies.

With a month to go, political manoeuvring in Bangkok is certain to intensify. It is possible that Pheu Thai may desert the MFP-coalition and make its own bid for office. It could seek support from the Bhumjaithai Party, which won 71 seats but has rejected a coalition with any party that suggests a reform of the lèse-majesté law. Moreover, the military could just step in as it did after the last election, and, with the support of the courts, install its own regime.

Whatever finally emerges, the next government will be a party of big business determined to impose the burden of the developing economic crisis onto working people and to suppress any opposition to its policies.

“Spring offensive” produces bloodbath for Ukraine

Andre Damon

This still image from a video published by the Russian armed forces showed destroyed Leopard 2 battle tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles that were used as part of Urkaine's offensive operations.

When the Ukrainian “counteroffensive” began last week, it was hailed in the American media as a decisive turning point in the US-NATO war against Russia.

“An Endgame for Ukraine,” proclaimed Bret Stephens in the New York Times, which would produce a “crushing and unmistakable defeat” for Russia. Washington Post columnist Max Boot quoted General David Petraeus as stating that he expects “the Ukrainians to achieve significant breakthroughs and accomplish much more than most analysts are predicting.”

All of these statements have proven both delusional and self-deluded.

Ten days in, the offensive has turned into a bloodbath for Ukrainian soldiers, many of them new recruits with little or no training. The Ukrainian government claims to have captured a mere 40 square miles of territory over the past week, at the cost of thousands of lives. It has gotten to the point where the US media describes as a massive triumph the ability of Ukrainian forces to capture, and hold for a few hours, a tiny nondescript village.

The current state of the war recalls the slaughter of World War I, in horrendous bloodbaths such as the battle of the Somme, the first day of which produced as many as 60,000 casualties. While the death toll in Ukraine has not reached this level, there is no doubt that Ukrainian soldiers are being killed in great numbers, in the modern-day equivalent of the slaughter of trench warfare.

In figures that have not been contradicted by Ukraine, Russian officials state that over 1,000 Ukrainians are dying per day during the offensive, which would put the total Ukrainian death toll at a minimum of 10,000 so far.

While the horror of the war is generally covered up in the media, some acknowledgement of the reality has emerged. The Guardian quoted a US official as saying there will be “grinding costly warfare likely for many months to come.” The officials said that the casualties inflicted on Russian forces “are not significant,” adding, “The idea that the Russians were just going to melt away and the Ukrainians were going to drive straight through their defensive line was in people’s wildest dreams.”

An article in the New York Times, written by Helene Cooper, asks coldly, “Will Ukraine suffer a lot of casualties in the counteroffensive?” The answer: “That is already happening. US officials have confirmed that Ukrainian troops have suffered casualties and equipment losses in the early fighting. Little information is available on Russian losses, but the officials pointed out that attackers typically suffer heavier initial casualties than dug-in defenders, for the reasons outlined earlier.”

The Times then asks, “Does that mean the counteroffensive is failing?” The answer: “No. Two U.S. officials said on Monday that the main thrust of the counteroffensive had probably not begun.”

In other words, the death toll is only a down payment. With complete indifference, the US and NATO powers, along with their media spokespeople, treat the lives of Ukrainians as so much cannon fodder. The fascist slogan, “Slava Ukraini” has morphed into the reality of “Slaughter Ukrainians.”

And for what end? From the start, the real aim of the Ukrainian offensive was to create the political conditions for further involvement in the war by NATO. 

As the New York Times wrote on Saturday:

Some battlefield success, whether by decimating Russia’s army, claiming some territory, or both ... would build more support in Europe for some sort of long-term security guarantee for Kyiv.

Both Ukraine and Western allies have invested in the counteroffensive because, regardless of the specific outcome, it will set the stage for the next phase of the war. The American and British plan to help secure Ukraine involves building support for robust security guarantees from the United States and NATO countries...

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley will host a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base. This will be followed by a summit of NATO defense ministers on June 16.

These meetings will set the stage for the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in which the NATO powers are expected to announce some form of formal military alliance with Ukraine, which would set the stage for the direct involvement of NATO troops in the conflict.

The Vilnius meeting was conceived as a victors’ summit, against the backdrop of a victorious offensive intended to issue ultimatums to a Russia on its back foot. But an altogether different scenario is emerging: Faced with a military debacle, the United States is escalating its involvement in the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration has decided to send depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, which are known to cause cancer, and is actively discussing the deployment of cluster munitions.

On Friday, the American Enterprise Institute published an op-ed by one of its senior fellows, Michael Rubin, advocating the deployment of US nuclear weapons to Ukraine. The op-ed is titled “Can Biden Deter a Russia Nuclear Attack on Ukraine? Yes, If He Gives Ukraine Tactical Nukes.”

Rubin called on the White House to threaten to provide Ukraine with nuclear weapons “without any controls on where and how Ukraine might use them.” Finally, the NATO powers are moving rapidly toward the admission of Ukraine to NATO or some form of formal military alliance, which would set the stage for a direct NATO involvement in the conflict.

The war in Ukraine has become an existential issue for the Biden administration and NATO. Having bled Ukraine white, the imperialists will need to find more bodies to throw at the Russian cannons.

The Biden administration is repeating the United States’ long pattern of responding to military debacles with escalation. Unless this war is stopped, it will spiral into a massive catastrophe for all of humanity.

Mass protests against anti-Russian law in Warsaw as Poland moves towards open war with Russia

Martin Nowak & Clara Weiss

On Sunday, June 4, one of the largest mass demonstrations against the Polish government since the collapse of Stalinism and the restoration of capitalism in 1989 took place in Warsaw. Observers spoke of up to half a million demonstrators in Warsaw, which has a population of 1.76 million. Many travelled to the capital from all over Poland to participate in the demonstration.

The main reason for the protests was a recent law by the ruling far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS), establishing a Special Commission against Russian Influence. Standing outside parliamentary control, this “quasi-court” is to investigate the country’s politicians retroactively from 2007 to 2022. In the style of the anti-Communist and anti-Soviet McCarthyite hearings of the early 1950s, the “Special Commission against Russian Influence” would hold public hearings. If “influence” is found, defendants can be fined and banned from holding political office for up to 10 years.

Coming on the heels of the de facto abolition of an independent judiciary, the scrapping of the powers of parliament, and a large-scale assault on democratic rights such as abortion and free speech, the law represents a further escalation of the efforts by PiS to establish dictatorial rule.

It comes amid advanced discussions that Poland might openly intervene in the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. The PiS has justified the law as essential to safeguarding “national security.”

The protest was organised above all by the largest opposition party “Platforma Obywatelska” (PO, Civic Platform) under party leader Donald Tusk. It views the law as an attack on the PO and Tusk, in particular, ahead of the national elections this fall.

The protesters predominantly came from urban middle class layers and footage of the demo showed a sea of Polish national flags, as well as EU and Ukrainian flags. The protests also included many young people, however, and some placards raised social issues, such as the high inflation of over 18 percent. Others demanded the right to free abortion.

There is undoubtedly growing social discontent among the Polish population and anger at the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) government and its attacks on democratic rights. This social and political discontent is however directed by the PO opposition into right-wing, militarist channels.

The PO timed the protest to coincide with the 34th anniversary of the 1989 elections. Lech Wałęsa, ex-leader of the Solidarność movement and Poland’s first president after 1989, spoke at the rally.

The 1989 elections were immediately followed by the smashing of the Stalinist-ruled Polish People’s Republic and the restoration of capitalism, which led to a social catastrophe for the working class in Poland and throughout Europe. Both the PO and the ultra-right PiS ruling party emerged from the restoration. They fully support the NATO war offensive against Russia in Ukraine and outdo each other in their anti-communist and anti-Russia agitation.

Poland, along with the Baltic states, is NATO’s main frontline state against Russia. Earlier this month, former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen declared the alliance could intervene directly in the conflict militarily, naming Poland and the Baltic states in particular. In March, Polish Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rościszewski threatened that Poland would have “no choice but to enter the conflict” if Ukraine alone could not successfully wage war against Russia.

Warsaw is also preparing a massive expansion of the Polish army to 250,000 soldiers, which would make it one of the largest armies in Europe. In addition, the Polish army wants to acquire 1,500 battle tanks, which would make Poland’s army the third largest tank army within NATO. Both factions of the Polish bourgeoisie are ramming through these rearmament and war plans behind the backs of the working class.

The far-right PiS accuses Tusk, who was Polish prime minister in 2007-2014, and EU Council president from 2014 to 2019, of having “Russia-friendly” and “Germany-friendly” policies. In reality, like all Polish governments, Tusk worked closely with Washington as head of state. The Tusk government also played a central role when the US and the EU financed and co-organised a right-wing coup in Kiev against the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

There are longstanding conflicts in the Polish bourgeoisie over its foreign policy and, in particular, Poland’s relationship with Germany. Both parties are vehemently anti-Russian and work closely with Washington. In contrast to the PiS, which is often vehemently anti-German, however, the PO favours close cooperation with the EU—above all Germany, with whose economy Poland is closely intertwined. Tusk was considered a close ally of then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, especially during his term as EU Council president, and was denounced as a “German candidate” by the PiS.

While the two parties have bitter conflicts about the allies and methods with which to wage war, both are on a war-footing against Russia. Indeed, in both the choice of means and the right-wing nationalist and anti-Russia rhetoric, there is little difference between PO and PiS.

As recently as autumn 2022, the PO itself suggested a parliamentary commission of inquiry into PiS energy policy, claiming that it had been “Russia-friendly.” PO also blames its electoral defeat of 2015, due to its anti-social policies, on a wiretapping scandal for which the PiS had allegedly allied itself with the Russian secret service. During the parliamentary vote on the special commission, angry anti-Russian outbursts against the PiS came from the opposition ranks, including accusations that “this law bears Putin's spirit.”

The factional fighting within the Polish bourgeoisie and the hysterical agitation against Russia reflect deep social tensions and far-advanced preparations for direct Polish intervention against Russia.

While the law is part of an increasing factional struggle within the Polish bourgeoisie, its primary target will be opponents of the war against Russia and opposition within the working class. Indeed, a central motivation for the anti-Russia hysteria and warmongering of both parties is the attempt to divert attention from explosive class tensions in Poland.

Poland borders directly on Ukraine and has been particularly affected by the social and economic consequences of the war. Millions of Ukrainians fled to Poland after the war began, where they were taken in by hundreds of thousands of Polish families, mostly at their own expense. In some cities, the population increased by a quarter, a third or even a half, practically overnight. The inflation rate in the country is among the highest in Europe, still exceeding 13 percent.

The war has already deeply destabilized one of the most socially unequal societies in Europe. As a result of capitalist restoration, the top 1 percent has more than quadrupled its income since 1989, and new statistics show a further increase in the number of millionaires during the pandemic.

By contrast, in 2020, almost 2 million Poles were living below the subsistence level of 640 zloty per month (about €144), 1.7 million of whom were working. More than 400,000 children lived in abject poverty. In total, according to official figures, over 41 percent of the total population (15.5 million) lived in poverty that year. Under these conditions, exacerbated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, inflation has devastated millions of Polish workers and their families.

The massive military expenditures now prepared by the Polish bourgeoisie will be accompanied by further attacks on workers’ living standards.

Colombia’s President Petro warns of “soft coup” attempt

Andrea Lobo

At a march in Bogotá on June 7, the pseudo-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned about a “soft coup” attempt against him, as his administration faces a corruption scandal, a breakdown of the ruling coalition, a drop in popularity and open coup threats by retired military officials and opposition groups.

Petro marches with the military leadership during the inauguration of his MInister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, August 20, 2022. [Photo: @infopresidencia]

Petro said in his speech that he could face a similar fate as Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who was overthrown last December in a US-backed parliamentary coup. But he added: “Pedro Castillo was alone, and Petro is not alone: if they dare to destroy democracy, the people will come out of every corner, street and district, out of every rock, to defend with its hands the popular mandate.” He concluded demagogically that his “government is at your service until death” and that he has “introduced the reforms the people want,” and it’s up to Congress to approve them.

After a demonstration by retired troops against Petro last month, the former chairman of the Association of Retired Military Officials (Acore), John Marulanda, declared that reservists would do their best to repeat what took place in Peru and “defenestrate” Petro. 

Then, on June 8, several right-wing opposition groups demanded Petro’s resignation in a demonstration convoked by a fascistic businessman, who called for stopping Colombia “from falling in the hands of the Communists.” 

On June 7, thousands demonstrated across Colombia against these threats and to demand the reforms Petro promised. However, the president’s approval rate has dropped dramatically less than a year into his term, from over 50 percent last November to 26 percent just before the latest scandal.

Moreover, while a slight majority of Colombians views his labor bill positively, over 60 percent oppose his overall reform proposals, according to a May poll by Invamer. 

With the support of the trade unions and pseudo-left, Petro was able to channel a series of mass social explosions and general strikes in 2019, 2020 and 2021 against social inequality, the homicidal “let it rip” response to COVID-19, and the brutal repression which left close to 100 protesters dead, hundreds “disappeared” and many more injured.

But it has not taken long before most of his supporters have concluded that he is not going to significantly impinge on the wealth and properties of the financial, corporate and landowning elites. Simultaneously, a section of the ruling elite has decided that his “left” populism, which rests heavily on identity politics, and his inadequate reform proposals are failing to suppress social opposition and the class struggle, as shown by the collapse in his popularity.

The demonstration on June 7 was convoked by the trade union bureaucracy to protest that legislators are using the corruption scandal to discard Petro’s reform proposals. These consist of: 1) a healthcare bill that promises to expand the network healthcare primary services but will only serve to provide new subsidies for the mostly privatized healthcare providers; 2) a pension bill that would cover the massive deficit of the privatized pension funds with public money while transferring most pensioners to the state pensions and expanding coverage (the campaign promises of handing a meager US$120 per month to all elderly Colombians without a pension and to guarantee a living pension were abandoned), and 3) a labor bill that would enshrine in law the 8-hour day, a night shift differential and wage parity between men and women.

Revelations emerged in the last two weeks that Petro’s chief of staff Laura Sarabia had wiretapped her nanny and that his ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, threatened to disclose illegal campaign financing to Petro’s campaign. Both officials belonged to Petro’s closest circle and have been fired.

The right-wing weekly Semana, which has led the exposures, published a series of audios and text messages between Petro, Sarabia and Benedetti. The former ambassador threatened to disclose the presumably illegal source of $3.5 million in campaign money. “We are going to jail… With all the shit that I know, we’ll all be fucked. If you fuck me, I’ll fuck you,” he said to Sarabia.

In text messages to Petro, Benedetti accused Sarabia of leaking information and slandering Benedetti to the press. After being terminated, Benedetti kept bitterly attacking Sarabia while claiming he has drug problems and acted out of “rage and drinking.” He then decided to cool off by traveling to Istanbul to see the football final of Europe Champions League.

This was a Petro’s official in charge of organizing with the Biden administration a diplomatic rapprochement with the Venezuelan government. In one of the audios to Sarabia, published by Semana, Benedetti boasted of his “excellent relations with the US Department of State, but I can’t tell you about that, but it’s not like I’m becoming a spy…”

In response to the scandal, the US State Department reaffirmed the Biden administration’s “excellent partnership with Colombia under the Petro administration.” 

While the illegal wiretapping so casually employed by the 29-year-old Sarabia has raised suspicions of whether the government is employing such measures more widely, the far-right opposition is using the scandal in the most hypocritical fashion. Their political leader, former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), was found to regularly spy on politicians, activists, journalists, and judges, and the military was exposed for wiretapping politicians, judges and journalists under the Uribista administration of Iván Duque (2018-2022). 

Regarding illegal campaign financing, indictments were filed on Monday against former Uribista presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga and a minister under the Liberal-led administration of Juan Manuel Santos as part of millions of dollars in campaign money and kickbacks from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, in a corruption scandal that has implicated the entire political establishment in Colombia and across Latin America. 

The longstanding ties between Uribe and drug cartels were repeatedly reported in US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. These also acknowledged widespread extrajudicial executions by the military, and the collaboration of the armed forces and Uribe directly with fascist paramilitary militias that massacred peasants for land grabs, but Washington continued to send billions in military aid, ostensibly to fight drug trafficking and defend democracy. 

The Sarabia-Benedetti scandal, nonetheless, has offered an excuse for the main forces in Congress, including within Petro’s “Historic Pact” coalition, to put a hold on the reform proposals and describe his government as “illegitimate.” 

Meanwhile, Petro is seeking to exploit the rescue of four indigenous children who survived 40 days alone in the Colombian Amazon after a plane crash to try to boost his image and provide a progressive varnish to the armed forces, whose search teams worked with the indigenous communities. “The joining of forces for a common good: the indigenous guard and the Armed Forces of Colombia… that is the true path to peace,” Petro tweeted after visiting the children at a military hospital.

This followed a trip to Cuba, where he signed a ceasefire with the ELN (National Liberation Army) Colombian guerrilla group as part of Petro’s plan for a “total peace,” even as the military and paramilitary fascist groups keep massacring peasants and disarmed, former guerrilla leaders.  

Petro was a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement, which laid down its weapons in 1990 and became a bourgeois party along with sections of Stalinist guerrillas that formed the Patriotic Union (UP). The Colombian state, working closely with US forces, collaborated with paramilitary forces to kidnap and kill thousands of M-19 and UP rank-and-file and leaders. Just last month, from his prison cell in the US, the paramilitary leader at the time, Salvatore Mancuso, acknowledged that the state intelligence office had given him the order to murder Petro himself, who was elected to Congress in 1991.

One of his main campaign promises last year was a “police reform” to eliminate the Anti-Riot Squadron (ESMAD) implicated in many killings and transfer the police from the Defense Ministry to the Interior Ministry. But even such window-dressing has been de-prioritized by the administration due to “difficulties” in even presenting it to Congress. 

Instead, the ESMAD was simply renamed to the “Unit for Dialogue and Policing,” and it has kept repressing protests. So far this year, according to official records, it has intervened 2,731 times in demonstrations or gatherings and used force 211 times. As recently as June 8, in response to the injury of an officer during clashes with students protesting at the National University, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez demanded that the unit “enter and detain these criminals,” which would have been the first police invasion of a campus since 1984. While the request was denied, the incident shows the repressive frenzy building up in the ruling class. 

Petro has also tried to regain popularity by criticizing the economic and anti-immigrant policies of US imperialism, even as he vows to “consolidate” Colombia’s strategic partnership with NATO. 

Along with Lula in Brazil and other so-called “Pink Tide” governments, Petro has promoted the renewal of regional commercial deals like UNASUR that circumvent the dollar, but even during the commodity boom in the early 2000s, the ruling elites failed to establish any real “integration.” Such initiatives are undermined at every turn by competition, nationalist chauvinism, and efforts to attack wages and working conditions locally and offer the most profitable conditions to foreign capital.

Meanwhile, the union bureaucracy and pseudo-left are working to channel opposition behind the government by falsifying its capitalist class character. A particularly criminal role is being played by the Socialist Workers Party (PST), which has claimed to represent “Trotskyism” in Colombia since the 1970s, when it was founded by the renegade Nahuel Moreno.

The Colombian Morenoites have endorsed Petro repeatedly and concluded from the recent social explosions that workers must pressure Petro to “expropriate the expropriators,” suggesting that he could be pressured into leading a socialist revolution. The PST opposed participating in the pro-Petro demonstration last week due to the corruption scandals. Instead, on June 7 it called on Petro to kick out Benedetti and other particularly discredited politicians, while writing: “We demand the government to break with the bourgeoisie and transfer power to the workers to advance toward the fundamental changes required.” 

Strikes and mass protests led by teachers erupt across Argentina

Rafael Azul & Andrea Lobo

In the Argentine province of Salta, on the border with Bolivia and Chile, the local legislature has rammed through a law that criminalizes any form of social protest that may restrict other freedoms, including strikers’ picket lines, roadblocks and mass gatherings. 

The misnamed “Citizen coexistence and conciliation” law is aimed at repressing an ongoing mass upsurge by teachers and healthcare workers in Salta, which has involved six weeks of wildcat strikes, roadblocks across major mining routes, and mass demonstrations.

“Once heroes, now criminals.” Healthcare workers demonstrate in Salta [Photo: @Magnum_Buzz]

Similar bills are being discussed by legislators in neighboring Jujuy, where teachers have been striking for over a week and leading demonstrations that have faced heavy repression.

Even before the law was passed, educators in Salta were repeatedly and brutally attacked by police, while suspected strike leaders were singled out, persecuted and arrested.

On Saturday, a “self-convoked” assembly of workers, organized in defiance of the union bureaucracy that opposes their protest actions, voted to continue the strike and mobilizations and reject an offer made by Salta’s right-wing governor, Gustavo Saenz, which would have raised the starting monthly wage for teachers to 203,000 pesos per month and ignored all other demands.

This is well below the 320,000 pesos (or US$662, according to the more accurate black market “dollar blue”) and automatic cost-of-living adjustments demanded by teachers in accordance with the cost of the basic basket of goods. Strikers have also demanded the revocation of what they’ve called the “anti-picketing law,” the dropping of all charges against the 19 strikers who were arrested and later freed, and major budget increases. 

While teachers across Argentina are being repressed by state and federal authorities even without such legislation, the fast-tracking of the anti-picketing law by Salta authorities in response to demands by business groups represents a warning to workers across the country and internationally. The bill was backed by legislators from both main factions of the political establishment, the coalition of Peronist President Alberto Fernandez and those belonging to the openly right-wing coalition led by former President Mauricio Macri. Governor Saenz has backed both factions.

Forty years after the fall of Argentina’s savage military junta, and in the context of financial demands from the International Monetary Fund and Wall Street, as well as the political demands of US imperialism to align behind its confrontation with Russia and China, the ruling class is once again responding to the growing struggles of the working class with a turn to dictatorship and police-state repression.

Currently, striking teachers are mobilizing in seven of Argentina’s 23 provinces (Jujuy, Salta, Misiones and Formosa in the north; Santa Cruz and Chubut in the south; and Buenos Aires in the center). Protests are taking place independently of and in opposition to the trade unions that claim to “represent” them.

Teachers are raising vital demands over wages and working conditions as Argentina’s chronic inflationary crisis has accelerated and is predicted to reach 150 percent this year, severely impacting poverty rates and teachers’ living standards, even as share prices are skyrocketing on the Merval stock market index.

What is also at stake in these struggles is the defense of public schools and public hospitals, whose services and infrastructure are seeing a rapid deterioration to finance this transfer of wealth to the ruling elite.

Striking Chubut teachers have described deplorable conditions in their Patagonian schools, for example, with classrooms that lack heating and the absence of transportation for students. Teachers also describe being owed months of back pay and not being able to pay their rent and utility bills.

A recent report from Buenos Aires’ Catholic University (Universidad Católica Argentina, UCA) shows a record number of citizens in poverty, 18 million or 43 percent of the population. Over 3 million, or 8 percent of the population, face food insecurity. These numbers have been increasing since 2010. Government welfare allotments have not kept up with the increasing poverty rates.

Teachers are also demanding more money for in-school nutrition programs that have not kept up with the increasing poverty and hunger that teachers witness among many of their students. Another demand is that child psychologists be hired to meet student needs; teachers report more students with psychological problems, including depression.

The waves of educator protests and strikes, in this nation of 46 million, have been uninterrupted since the reopening of schools in 2021 (after closing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic). This greatly affected teachers and students’ health and lives. In poorer districts, teachers were forced back to work in old, sometimes collapsing schools, in conditions where social distancing is impossible and when many students and teachers had not been vaccinated. These areas also lack sufficient clinics and hospital beds. 

The reopening of schools caused dramatic increases in COVID-19 infections, from 2.3 million in March 2021 to 5.5 million at the end of the school year (December 2021) and 9 million in March 2022.

The provincial and federal governments responded to workers’ demands with the same excuse—“there is no money”— while increasing repression and relying on the betrayals by the corporatist trade union apparatus.

One month ago, teachers in Santa Cruz province mobilized and demanded a national strike. Since then, educators, transit workers and dockworkers have gone into struggle, raising the specter of the Cordobazo of 1969, which triggered one of the biggest popular insurrections in Latin American history. This revolutionary crisis was betrayed by the Peronist trade union bureaucracy and parties and their Stalinist and Morenoite satellites, who channeled opposition behind illusions in the Peronist government and set the stage for the 1976 coup that installed a brutal US-backed military junta.  

On May 30 and 31, following weeks of wildcat strikes, tens of thousands of teachers, healthcare workers, public employees and their supporters carried out mass demonstrations and roadblocks across Salta, called the “21st Century Salteñazo” in the Buenos Aires daily Página 12, alluding to 1969.

As it did 54 years ago, the Peronist trade union bureaucracy is working today to suppress the emerging upsurge across Argentina. Meanwhile, each major pseudo-left party is calling for conferences of their own factions within the teachers’ trade unions for emergency discussions.

Ultimately, each tendency seeks to channel the protests behind their own maneuvers with sections of the ruling class. This was demonstrated by the appeal by the Partido Obrero and the Morenoite Workers Socialist Movement (MST) to “all the left and all involved in struggles” to participate in a “national plenum” in Buenos Aires ahead of the presidential elections this year. While both parties are campaigning for their own slate within the so-called Left Workers Front-Unity (FIT-U) coalition, the event will discuss how to “unite the forces of all popular struggles” and present “an alternative for power.” 

This means that they are escalating their efforts to form a coalition with sections of the Peronist ruling party. This has already involved joint demonstrations under a fraudulent “united front” with the forces around the Peronist presidential candidate Juan Grabois, the government official Emilio Pérsico and the movements they lead. 

In Salta as elsewhere, the Socialist Workers Party (PTS), also part of the FIT-U, is appealing to the Peronist union bureaucracy of the CTA, which supports the Fernandez administration, to call for a general strike. Meanwhile, the Salta Teachers’ Classist Tendency of the pseudo-left party Política Obrera—a faction thrown out of Partido Obrero and led by Jorge Altamira—has been playing a major role in directing the self-convoked workers behind talks with the right-wing Governor Saenz. 

On May 31, after the mass demonstrations, the Tendency wrote in a statement: “Let Saenz himself receive us, recognize our elected and revocable delegates as the exclusive representation of teachers and let him fulfill immediately our list of demands since he has the power to do it.” 

Workers need to oppose these opportunist proposals, which will only lead to new betrayals. There is nothing that will be resolved by personal appeals to Governor Saenz, any other governor or President Fernandez, all of whom have made clear their commitment to further impoverish workers and let social infrastructure and services collapse against the will of the working majority. All of them must be brought down by the working class, organized independently of all Peronist and pseudo-left factions of the union bureaucracy.