Thai military block general election winner forming government

Robert Campion

On Wednesday, wealthy businessman Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP), was both suspended as a member of parliament in Thailand by the Constitutional Court and blocked from standing for election as prime minister. While the MFP won 151 seats in May’s election, the most of any party, the military-aligned establishment has essentially vetoed the party from forming government.

Move Forward Party supporters protest at Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. [AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn]

Speaking in parliament on his suspension, Pita said he would comply with the court’s decision. “I believe Thailand has changed since [the elections on] May 14 and the people have already won half the battle, there’s another half to go,” he said. “Even though I’m not carrying out my duties [as MP], I’m asking my fellow MPs to look after the people.”

Pita’s suspension is a blatantly anti-democratic decision. However, it was not opposed by any MPs in the 500-seat lower house of parliament, including from within the 312-seat coalition created by the MFP after the election.  That includes Pheu Thai with 141 seats.

Pita has been targeted ostensibly for holding shares in a media company defunct since 2007 called iTV, which he inherited from his father. Pita claims he attempted to sell the shares but could not find a buyer. While it is illegal for an MP to hold shares in a media company, Pita stated he reported the shares to the Election Commission in 2019 and was cleared to take his seat in parliament. For the moment, Pita’s suspension is temporary until the Constitutional Court rules on his case. He has 15 days to respond to the allegations.

The political establishment’s attack on the MFP is similar to that on the party’s predecessor in 2019, the Future Forward Party (FFP). At that time, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who led the FFP, was also suspended for owning shares in a media company, and the party was forcibly dissolved the following year. These moves contributed to mass protests calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s government, which seized power in a 2014 military coup, and the reform of the monarchy.

After Pita’s exhortations to parliament to “look after the people,” a vote passed 394 to 312 opposing his continued standing as a candidate for prime minister. Pita was first rejected as PM in a vote on July 13, with the military-appointed Senate nearly unanimously opposed to him. With one empty seat in the Senate, Pita needed 375 votes, or a majority of both the 749-seat combined lower and upper house. He received a total of 324 votes and only 13 from senators, while the rest abstained or voted against him.

The MFP has responded, not by calling protests in defense of the democratic right to vote, but instead by caving to the military and conservative establishment. The MFP stated on Friday that it would cease attempting to form a government and yield to coalition partner Pheu Thai, which will likely put up Srettha Thavisin as its PM candidate in the next vote to be held July 27.

In an Instagram post yesterday, Pita stated: “The most important thing is not that I haven’t become Prime Minister, but setting up a government based on the will of the people who want to change the coup, stopping the inheritance of the previous government.” In practice, this is an attempt to subordinate working people to the status quo, under the claim that Pheu Thai will defend democracy.

Yet Pheu Thai may break with the MFP to form a government with parties that will meet the military’s approval. According to the Nation newspaper, Pheu Thai sources are discussing replacing the MFP with the conservative Bhumjaithai party (71 seats) and the previous ruling party Palalang Pracharath (40 seats) led by Prawit Wongsuwan, the outgoing deputy prime minister and one of the 2014 coup leaders.

Ultimately, the ruling establishment is opposed to Pita and the MFP, not on the grounds that the party genuinely stands for democracy, but because the MFP represents sections of the bourgeoisie that have been marginalized by the traditional elites and which are now seeking to further their economic and political interests.

Social and political tensions in Thailand are far sharper that in 2020 when mass demonstrations primarily of young people erupted against the anti-democratic actions of the military-backed regime.

Household debt reached 16 trillion baht ($US465 billion) in the first quarter of 2023. About 58 percent of people between the ages of 25 and 29 are in debt, as are some 90 percent of rural households. In addition, economic inequality is growing with the top 1 percent taking in 21 percent of the national income, while the bottom 50 percent get only 14 percent.

While campaigning for the May election, the MFP made populist pledges including raising the daily minimum wage to 450 baht ($US13), which was opposed by other sections of the bourgeoisie. Undoubtedly, there are concerns that Move Forward’s reformist posturing, however insincere, may stoke working-class discontent that an MFP-led government is unable to control.

Furthermore, Pita has made overtures to the United States, a formal military ally of Thailand, as Washington continually ramps up military pressure on China and other countries to fall into line with its confrontation with Beijing. China, however, is Bangkok’s largest trading partner, accounting for $US107 billion in total trade in 2022, or 18 percent of Thailand’s trade volume.

The MFP, no less than the other bourgeois parties, are desperate to prevent a resurgence of mass protests, like those in 2020 and 2021. But while those protests primarily involved students, new demonstrations could draw in workers, who in addition to declining conditions, face the growing danger of war in the region and an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for which the ruling class has no progressive answer.

Some protests have already begun in Bangkok, though at present involving only several hundred. Tellingly, the middle-class leaders of protest groups organizing the demonstrations are calling for people to put pressure on military-appointed senators while accepting a potential Pheu Thai-led government.

Prominent human rights lawyer and activist Anon Nampa, for example, called on people to be “witnesses” to a potential Pheu Thai government so that it would not betray the people. In reality, a Pheu Thai-led government, if is finally formed, will be just as subservient to the traditional elites—the military, monarchy and state bureaucracy—as Pita and the MFP.

The Spanish elections: Podemos/Sumar and the return of Francoism

Alejandro López

It is likely that Sunday’s snap national elections will bring the overtly Francoite Vox into government in Spain as junior coalition partners of their co-thinkers in the Popular Party (PP).

Forty-five years ago, the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain (PCE) prevented a revolutionary reckoning with the Spanish bourgeoisie by the working class after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco. The 1978 Constitution, they promised, would be the birth of a parliamentary democracy under the aegis of the European Union and NATO.

VOX far right party leader Santiago Abascal delivers his speech during the closing campaign rally at the Colon square in Madrid, Spain, Friday, July 21, 2023. [AP Photo/ Manu Fernandez]

Decades later, the promises of democracy have been shattered by the social and economic collapse across Europe since the global financial crisis in 2008 and the ongoing financial storms, the imposition of deep, unpopular austerity measures and the war frenzy provoked by NATO’s war on Russia in the Ukraine.

Most polls show that Franco’s political heirs, the Popular Party (PP), founded by seven Francoite ministers, and the neo-fascist Vox, led by former PP member Santiago Abascal, will win the election. The PP is well ahead of the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) but will require the support of Vox to command a majority. Vox has stated it will only accept being part of a PP-led government and no other arrangement.

The PSOE-Podemos coalition government called the election six months before scheduled, after being hammered in May’s local and regional elections and as a growing strike wave sweeps across Spain and Europe involving millions of workers. Terrified by the rising social opposition, the PSOE and Podemos are deliberately handing the initiative to the right in the hopes that a far-right government will be able to successfully crush rising social opposition at home and escalate war abroad.

Vox is a party composed of former judges, police and generals that stands in the unbroken historical continuity of Francoism. Franco’s victory during the Spanish Civil War was sealed with the mass murder of 200,000 political oppositionists and left-wing workers. Over the next four decades, thousands were arrested, tortured or murdered by the secret police. Strikes, political parties and trade unions were banned and democratic rights suppressed. Newspapers and books were censored, and higher education and good healthcare were only available to the privileged. The regime only fell in the 1970s, amid mass working class strikes and protests.

Vox seeks to escalate war abroad and at home by hiking military and police budgets to recentralise Spain, criminalise separatist parties, imprison striking workers and promote Spanish chauvinism, while clamping down on Basque and Catalan linguistic rights and scapegoating migrants. It opposes abortion and LGBTI rights and denies climate change. For the rich, it seeks to abolish taxes on income, wealth, capital gains and inheritance. In all essentials this programme is shared by the PP, which shies away from Vox’s more extreme rhetoric, only to lend a veneer of respectability to its own class war and militarist agenda.

There is nothing peculiar about Vox’s rise. Across Europe, a dangerous pattern has been seen time and again when a mass leftward shift has prompted the formation of “broad left” parties, only to see them betray and hand the initiative to the far right.

In Greece, right-wing New Democracy was sworn in last month after defeating the opposition Syriza, which imposed savage austerity from 2015 to 2019 after promising to oppose it. The new parliament has now three far-right parties, in what one analyst described as “the most conservative parliament since the restoration of Greece’s democracy in 1974”.

In Italy, 78 years after fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was shot by partisans, his political heirs, the Brothers of Italy, are back in power under Giorgia Meloni for the first time since the end of World War II.

In Germany, 90 years after Hitler seized power, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), teeming with racists, antisemites and militant neo-Nazis who repeatedly minimise the crimes of the Third Reich, is the second strongest party in the opinion polls, before the ruling Social Democrats and behind the conservative CDU. In the East, it is the strongest party, with over 30 percent.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, historically tied to Pétain’s Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II, has been the main contender in runoff presidential elections since 2017. According to recent polls, if elections were held today, Le Pen would defeat President Emmanuel Macron.

In Portugal, the neo-Salazarist Chega (Enough) grew from one seat to 12 in last year’s national elections. It is projected to be Portugal’s third political force with 13.2 percent. According to recent polls, if the ruling Socialist Party were to call snap elections, Chega could rule with the right-wing Social Democratic Party, the first time the far right would enter power since the collapse of the fascist Estado Novo regime amid the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Political tendencies that should have been thrown to historical oblivion are making a comeback. How is this possible in a continent that suffered the brutal horrors of fascism? Above all, amid the largest strike wave since the 1970s across the continent, how is it possible that the chief political beneficiaries of deepening opposition across Europe and internationally to the entire capitalist elite’s agenda of imperialist war abroad and class war at home are the far right?

The answer lies not in these political forces, which, unlike in the 1930s, do not command the support of a mass movement. In each instance, it is the pseudo-left—whether Syriza in Greece, the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France, the Left Party in Germany, the Left Bloc in Portugal or remnants of Rifondazione Comunista in Italy—that have acted as the midwife of the far right.

Both in opposition and in government, these forces have deepened austerity, supported imperialist war and sought to demobilise and betray workers and youth who once looked to them for leadership. They do not represent the working class but the wealthy strata of the middle class, who have benefited from the upward redistribution of social wealth presided over by the financial oligarchy. Confronted with escalating class struggles, they are dropping their social pretensions and moving sharply to the right to defend their social privileges.

In Spain, Podemos was founded in 2014 by Pabloite Anticapitalistas and various Stalinist professors, led by Pablo Iglesias. It emerged directly out of the Indignados M-15 anti-austerity protests in 2011-2012, which unfolded during the tumultuous events of the “Arab Spring” and the fall of Egypt’s military junta and after a period of major strikes and struggles by the European working class following the 2008 global capitalist crisis.

Drawing on the political connections between Iglesias and his Stalinist associates and the bourgeois nationalist regimes of Hugo Chavez in Venezuala and Evo Morales in Bolivia, in alliance with the Pabloite United Secretariat, Podemos set itself in opposition to the building of a revolutionary leadership for the working class. It proclaimed an end to traditional “top-down” leadership in a new era of “broad left” popular formations, promising to oppose the European Union from the left and a new era of popular democracy, finally completing the unfulfilled “democratic” tasks of the transition to democracy after Franco. It sought constantly to dragoon the working class back behind the social democratic PSOE, the leading party of bourgeois rule since the 1980s, and the trade union apparatus.

In 2018, amid mounting popular opposition to the PP and its repressive policies in Catalonia, Podemos organised a parliamentary maneuver, ousting the PP and replacing it with a minority PSOE government. The Podemos-backed PSOE government continued the PP’s austerity budget, showered the army with billions of euros, attacked migrants and continued the right wing’s repressive campaign against Catalan nationalism even as its various pseudo-left satellites endorsed the divisive, pro-capitalist agenda of the separatists.

2018 also saw Vox successfully capitalizing on the whipping up of Spanish chauvinist sentiment, winning 12 parliamentary seats in the Andalusian regional election and entering a regional parliament for the first time. Two years later, in the 2019 elections, Vox rose to 15 percent of the national vote and 52 lawmakers, making it the third largest political force, overtaking Podemos.

That same year, Podemos joined a PSOE-led government. For the following four years, it championed the NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, slashed pensions and wages, pursued a profits-over-lives policy in the COVID-19 pandemic, and massively hiked the military budget and bailouts for major banks and corporations. It savagely attacked striking truck drivers and metal workers, imposed draconian minimum services on air crews and let migrants drown at sea.

While the pro-Podemos media presents the electoral collapse of the ruling parties as the result of the right-wing media, fake news and an anti-feminist “patriarchal” wave, the truth is that after four years in office workers have lost 8 percent of their purchasing power, mortgages and rents have risen by 50 percent and large Spanish corporations are reaping record profits. As Podemos lawmaker, then secretary of state and general secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, Enrique Santiago, boasted, “[I]n the history of Spain there has not been such a large transfer of resources from the state to private companies as the one carried out by this government.”

The role of Podemos, now rebranded as Sumar, in the electoral platform of 15 parties for tomorrow’s elections marks another bitter experience of the working class with the “broad left” parties created and championed by the pseudo-left groups and Stalinists.

Workers have been completely disenfranchised. Who can they vote for to oppose Spain’s participation in NATO’s war on Russia in Ukraine, which threatens to escalate into a nuclear war? Or the 140 billion-euro bailout fund for the banks and corporations paid for through savage austerity? Or to seek a political reckoning for the prioritization of profits over lives during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to 160,000 deaths in Spain and 12 million infections?

Sumar has made clear that it supports NATO’s war against Russia and wants to continue sending hundreds of millions of euros in weaponry and has promised Brussels 24 billion euros in cuts and tax hikes in 2024 to pay for the bailouts. It is led by Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who imposed labour reforms that have expanded low salaries and played a key role in reopening non-essential workplaces during the pandemic, leading to mass death. On each burning issue facing workers, Sumar has the same basic position as Vox.

German government decimates research funding for Long Covid

Tamino Dreisam

With the 2024 federal budget, the German government has ushered in a new era in social policy. In order to finance the huge costs of military rearmament and to continue the enrichment of a small minority, government funds for pensions, care, welfare, and public infrastructure are being slashed.

Among the many cuts that have hardly attracted public notice so far are the funds for research into Long Covid and the development of therapies and drugs against it. Instead of €100 million as originally announced, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democrat, SPD) wants to make only €21 million available for this purpose. Representatives of doctors, clinics and statutory health insurers want to raise another €20 million.

Although these are relatively low sums in the tens of millions, the consequences will be devastating. Millions of people, some of whom are seriously ill with Long Covid, will be abandoned to their fate. The massive cut in research funding is a slap in the face for all Long Covid sufferers.

Although Lauterbach claims that further money could be made available in the coming years, this is just a farce. Clinical research is so complex and expensive that it is only worthwhile if projects have permanent and stable funding. If money is only provided year by year, top researchers cannot be retained, nor necessary teams built up.

Long Covid outpatients department in Vienna [Photo by Herzi Pinki / wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0]

In fact, even the €100 million originally announced would only have been a drop in the ocean. There is a great lack of studies and therapies regarding Long Covid, as well as knowledge and corresponding capacities among medical personnel. For example, the waiting time at the outpatient clinic specialised in Long Covid at Berlin’s Charité hospital is around six months. A plan regarding how to better care for Long Covid patients is not to be published until the end of the year.

Long Covid is not an individual problem, but affects broad sections of the population. According to figures from the World Health Organisation, one in 30 people in Europe is affected. In Germany, that would be well over two million people. According to estimates by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), up to 36 million Europeans could have developed Long Covid in the last three years.

Depending on the estimate, between 6 and 14 percent of those infected with coronavirus develop long-term consequences. The effects cover a wide spectrum: some struggle exhausted through their everyday work and social life, others are completely unable to work. Almost all bodily organs can be damaged by the consequences, and many victims suffer for years.

In severe cases, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), only symptoms can be treated. According to figures from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, 500,000 people were already suffering from ME/CFS in 2021.

Numerous local media have published reports from Long Covid sufferers in recent weeks. They describe how they struggle with the long-term consequences of their coronavirus infection and how doctors have no way of responding appropriately.

“I am now working full time again, but of course I also regularly have so-called crashes, breakdowns, where it literally sends me packing and I have to go on sick leave,” Bianka Kilian reports in Sachsenspiegel. “I’ve been struggling with it for two and a half years now. It is very difficult. There are phases when it’s better, there are phases when it’s extremely bad. The doctors are sometimes powerless because they simply don’t know about the disease.”

In the Hessenschau, André Fouraté reports that he has been affected since the beginning of 2022 and would have liked more help even then: “One wonders why the measures didn’t exist two years ago.” He also denounces the lack of competent centres and outpatient clinics specialised in the care of Long Covid patients: “The Charité and Marburg [hospitals] are the first to be mentioned. Then there are two or three places—and that’s it.”

Health Minister Lauterbach, a medical doctor by training, knows very well what the consequences of his cutbacks are. “After all, we have declared the pandemic over,” he told a federal press conference. “For people with Long Covid, the pandemic is far from over. The future of Long Covid has unfortunately just begun.”

In fact, despite Lauterbach’s assertion, the pandemic is by no means over either. It is true that systemic surveillance of the virus has been discontinued. The Robert Koch Institute has not issued any Covid weekly reports since June 8 and discontinued its pandemic radar on July 1. However, indicators such as the viral load in wastewater show the extent to which the virus is still rampant.

Last week, 73 percent of wastewater sites reported an increasing viral load. The previous week, it was only 29 percent. In other countries, such as the US, sewage trackers also point to the beginning of a new wave of the pandemic.

This wave of infections is bound to be followed by another wave of people suffering with Long Covid. Lauterbach knows this. “We have to assume that many more will contract Long Covid,” he told the press conference.

Lauterbach explains the cutting of Long Covid funding to one fifth the initial proposal by citing the current budget situation. This makes it clear where the money is actually going: While the health budget will be reduced from €64.4 billion in 2022 to €16.2 billion next year, the military budget will increase to €51.8 billion plus another €20 billion from the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) special fund.

Two Australian schoolgirls die amid surge of flu infections

John Mackay & Martin Scott

The recent deaths of two school-aged girls from influenza highlights the danger from a major surge of the virus that is currently sweeping Australia. The profit-driven removal by state and federal Labor governments of almost all public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has created the conditions for mass flu infection, in parallel with the ongoing pandemic.

Generic influenza bacteria as viewed through a microscope. [Photo: Microscopy by John Gallagher and Audray Harris, National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)]

Emma Schwab, an 11-year-old girl from the Sunshine Coast in South East Queensland, died from Influenza B on July 6. Less than a week later, New South Wales (NSW) Health reported the death of another young person from the B strain, a 15-year-old high school student in the state’s Central Coast region.

The tragic fatalities highlight the danger of flu, which has killed at least 134 people in Australia this year, and, in particular, Influenza B, the effects of which tend to be most severe among pregnant women and children, including those who are otherwise healthy. Children have developing immune systems which are not capable of mounting an effective response to the virus.

As of July 9, some 71 percent of Australians admitted to hospital for influenza this year were children younger than 16. Of those, 5.9 percent were admitted directly to intensive care units (ICUs). Since May 2023, at least 16 children have been admitted to ICU with life-threatening complications from influenza, which include serious heart, brain, and muscle-related issues.

In Queensland, in the first two weeks of July, 89 children were admitted to hospital for influenza, with 58 infected with the B strain.

By 20 July, 168,133 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza had been recorded by the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), 44 percent of which were among children under 15. Children under 5 accounted for 12.68 percent of the total, with 21,327 cases recorded, while 33,318 infections (19.82 percent) occurred in those aged 5‒9, 19,971 (11.88 percent) among 10‒14 year olds and 11,358 (6.76 percent) in adolescents 15‒19.

Although the typical Australian flu season is only at the halfway point, more than 15,000 Influenza B infections have been recorded, more than the total number in all of 2019.

Some infectious disease experts have suggested that the surge of flu infections among children is partially the result of the almost total suppression of the virus in 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 public health measures were in place.

Like COVID-19, influenza is an airborne virus, and the implementation of measures such as masking, indoor capacity limits, remote learning and working, isolation requirements and wider access to sick leave were highly effective. In 2021, just 749 cases of influenza were recorded in Australia, while only 21,351 were detected in 2020. While the removal of public health measures led to 233,367 influenza cases being recorded last year, the B strain accounted for fewer than 200 infections.

Professor Frank Beard, associate director at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), told the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) that, as a result, “children would be more likely not to [have been] exposed to influenza B before, as opposed to adults who have had various infections over the years, including A and B, and also vaccination which can contribute to immunity as well.”

According to NCIRS data, just 14.3 percent of children aged between five and fifteen have received flu vaccinations this year. Rates are not much higher for other age groups, with 20.9 percent coverage among 15‒50 year olds, 24.5 percent for children under five, 35.1 percent for 50‒65 year olds and 62 percent among those 65 and older.

Federal and state governments, both Labor and Liberal, have ignored the need for effective public health information, leading to much confusion over vaccine need and safety. A 2022 poll conducted by the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne found that one in three parents did not know that healthy children can get seriously unwell from the flu, while more than half were unaware that it was safe to vaccinate children for influenza and COVID-19 at the same time.

With growth in inflation and interest rates massively outstripping nominal wage increases, cost is one factor behind the low influenza vaccination rate. The federal government funds flu shots for children under five, pregnant women, people over 65 and others deemed to be at high risk, but not for school-aged children.

Vaccination providers are allowed to charge an “administration fee,” meaning in many cases “free” flu shots cost almost as much as “paid” ones. Prices are generally between $15 and $30, meaning an average family may have to pay more than $100 to get vaccinated.

In response to public concern over the infection, illness and death of children from influenza, the Queensland Labor government announced Monday that all residents of the state could receive free flu shots, without administration fees, between July 22 and August 31. The NSW Labor government refused to implement a similar measure, merely urging people to get vaccinated.

But the Queensland measure comes far too late, as it takes around two weeks after vaccination for the body to build up enough antibodies to protect against infection, while the state’s flu season typically peaks in August. The move has more to do with covering up the Labor government’s responsibility for allowing respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and influenza to spread freely through schools and the broader community.

The severity of influenza and other respiratory illnesses, especially among children, has been downplayed for years by governments and health authorities. This has reached new heights with the campaign, spearheaded by Labor, to declare that the COVID-19 pandemic is “over,” even as hundreds of Australians continue to die every week, while tens of thousands more are infected and reinfected, and ever-growing numbers endure Long COVID.

Under the profit-driven “let it rip” policies adopted by all governments globally, in line with the demands of big business, there can be no reintroduction of the public health measures whose effectiveness in suppressing COVID-19 and influenza was proved in Australia at an earlier stage of the pandemic.

The experience of workers throughout the world since the beginning of 2020 makes clear that they cannot afford to place their health and lives, or that of their families, in the hands of capitalist governments. Public health policy must not be allowed to be determined according to the interests of corporations and the financial elite!

Congress, Biden embrace Israeli racists and warmongers

Patrick Martin

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats and Republicans joined hands this week in a bipartisan tribute to the state of Israel and its president, Isaac Herzog. They repudiated suggestions that Israel is a racist state and downplayed any policy disagreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the actual head of the ultra-right government in Jerusalem.

Biden began the week by telephoning Netanyahu and inviting him to meet during his next trip to the United States, which is likely to be for a United National General Assembly session in September. It was not clear whether the Biden-Netanyahu meeting, long postponed, would be held at the White House or on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York City.

US President Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [AP Photo/AP Photo/Debbie Hill]

The invitation came only days after a deadly Israeli military on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, in which at least a dozen Palestinians were killed. While Herzog was schmoozing at the White House, hundreds of thousands of Israelis were protesting against Netanyahu’s “reform” of the judicial system which would subordinate the only independent branch of the Zionist state to the demands of Netanyahu’s narrow majority in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

Netanyahu has pushed for the crippling of the Supreme Court for two reasons: to block it from disqualifying cabinet ministers for corruption convictions, such as Aryah Deri, the leader of the right-wing religious party Shas, a coalition partner, and Netanyahu himself; and to consolidate the entire state apparatus under the domination of his ultra-right coalition, which would then be able to forge ahead with such measures as the systematic dispossession of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and military strikes against Iran as well as pro-Iranian forces in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

The visit by President Herzog, a political opponent of Netanyahu who occupies a purely ceremonial position in the Israeli state, allowed Biden and the Democratic Party to put on a display of support for Israel while distancing themselves from Netanyahu and his ultra-right coalition, which includes both extreme religious parties and outright fascist groups based in the settler population of the West Bank, who advocate the wholesale expulsion of Palestinians and outright annexation of the Occupied Territories.

These differences, however, are purely tactical, although they were exacerbated by Netanyahu’s fulsome support for the US Republican Party and his open preference for the reelection of Donald Trump, an unprecedented intervention by a foreign country in US politics—and far more overt and consequential than the supposed interference by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the 2016 presidential election.

President Herzog enjoyed the full panoply of a state visit: a meeting in the White House with Biden, an address to a Joint Session of Congress, and subsequent meetings with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

At the beginning of the White House meeting, President Biden said of Israel and the United States, “This is a friendship I believe is just simply unbreakable… As I confirmed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, America’s commitment to Israel is firm and it is ironclad.” The US supplies Israel nearly $4 billion in military aid each year.

Before Herzog’s speech, the House of Representatives voted near-unanimously for a Republican resolution declaring an unshakeable US commitment to Israel’s security and repudiating any suggesting that Israel was a racist or apartheid state. The resolution passed the House by a vote of 419-9, with one abstention. 

All ten dissenters were liberal Democrats, including the members of the so-called squad, the group headed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush, all affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. The fifth DSA member in the House, Greg Casar of Texas, voted to support the pro-Israel resolution.

The resolution was sparked by the controversy touched by the remarks of Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, at the Netroots Nation conference of liberal and pseudo-left activists in Chicago over the weekend. In response to a protest by a pro-Palestinian group, Jayapal spoke an obvious truth, that Israel is a racist state, due to its policies of discriminating against Palestinians and elevating the Jewish population above the Arabs born and raised in the same land.

After a hue and cry by pro-Zionist Democrats, who circulated a letter denouncing Jayapal, she retracted her comments and issued an apology. The Republican resolution was then drafted to throw salt on the wound. Some 195 Democrats voted for the resolution, including the entire leadership of the party in the House.

After this debacle, the stage was set for Herzog’s speech to Congress Wednesday, ostensibly to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel and the initiation of the US-Israeli alliance. A handful of Democratic representatives boycotted the speech—basically the same group that opposed the pro-Israel resolution—but the members of Congress who did attend were near-unanimous in their praise, rising repeatedly to give standing ovations to the Israeli president.

Herzog repeated the outrageous amalgam developed by Zionist groups in the last few years, according to which anyone who criticizes the state of Israel is an antisemite. “[C]riticism of Israel must not cross the line into negation of the state of Israel's right to exist,” he said. “Questioning the Jewish people's right to self-determination, is not legitimate diplomacy, it is antisemitism.”

This argument leaves out, of course, the rights of the Palestinian people, which have been systematically violated by the Zionist state, and which are under attack every day through such measures as military violence, the operation of roads and other infrastructure limited to Jews, and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians by settlement building in the occupied territories.

ACI Foundation International Scholarships/Fellowships In USA & Canada 2023/2024

Application Deadline: 1st November, 2023.

Eligible Countries: All

To be Taken at (Country): ACI Foundation Fellowships can be awarded to anyone in the world; however, you must attend a U.S. or Canadian university during the award year.

About the Award: The ACI Foundation offers several Fellowship and undergraduate Scholarship opportunities for students and E-Members. ACI Foundation Fellowships and Scholarships are awarded annually to help students with an interest in concrete achieve their educational and career goals. The student must be considered a full-time undergraduate or graduate student as defined by the college or university during the award year. Applications will be accepted from anywhere in the world but study must take place in the United States or Canada during the award year.

Fields of Study: Structural Design, Materials, Construction

Type: Undergraduate, Graduate (Masters, PhD)

Eligibility: Each student is limited for the duration of their studies to receiving no more than one fellowship and one scholarship from the ACI Foundation.

A single online application form will be used for all the fellowships and scholarships. After answering some qualifying questions, the form will automatically display the fellowships and scholarships for which you may be eligible. Before beginning the application, have the answers ready for these questions:

• Have you ever received a fellowship or scholarship award from the ACI Foundation?
• When submitting the application, what is your current academic status (Undergraduate/Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD)?
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To be eligible for an award, you must be a full-time student for the entire award/school term (fall semester 2023 through spring semester 2024).

Selection Criteria: Based on essays, submitted data and endorsements, the Scholarship Council of the ACI Foundation will select scholarship and fellowship recipients who appear to have the strongest combination of interest and potential for professional success in the concrete industry.

Value of Award: Fellowship recipients will receive the following:

• • $10,000 USD educational stipend for tuition, residence, books, and materials;
  • Appropriate recognition in Concrete International magazine and on the Foundation website;
  • Paid travel expenses and attendance fees to two ACI conventions (must be used during the award year). Fellowship finalists must attend the Spring ACI Convention to be interviewed.
  • Matched with an industry mentor.

How to Apply: The application for the 2023-2024 season is now open! You can get started by reviewing the requirements in the links below. Once you have read the requirements, click one of the buttons below to start your application.

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Political Theater In Nepal is Driving Citizen Flight

B. Nimri Aziz

Photograph Source: Bijay Chaurasia – CC BY-SA 4.0

With unwelcome regularity, every few months Kathmandu Valley experiences a nationally watched theatrical production. This month’s will surely be unrivalled. Yet, each new production seems to outdo the last in commercial evaluations and the celebrity of its leading actors.

At the same time however, apart from eager journalists, the public does not attend. In fact, the Nepali public is largely focused beyond the valley, further than Everest, further than Darjeeling and Assam in N.W. India, the former go-to-destination for fleeing disenchanted youths and dreamers 3-4 generations ago. (Today, as we will see, they prefer to watch this drama from much further afield.)

Today’s dramas – offering commercial successes (for some), rich fodder for investigative journalists, and political accolades or disrepute for others – are an unending series of scandals. All have a similar theme – riches through corruption.

For the past decade, increasing as the national treasury of this new democracy swells, corruption and greed have grown at a rapid rate. It seeps into every corner of the nation, along newly-bulldozed roadways to once-remote nomad camps, into district headquarters in far flung provinces, and through engorged urban centers. It embraces a visa-and-passport racket; it spills over the gilded surfaces of the country’s holiest Hindu site; it entraps politicians of all political persuasions; it captures former ministers, members of parliament and their staff, a myriad of government agencies along with Nepal’s richest, most prominent merchants.

To review only the three most recent dramas: there’s the Bhutanese passport scandal. Almost 20 years ago, 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who’d been expelled from Bhutan where they’d been settled for generations, were sequestered in refugee camps within Nepal. Following international appeals, they were granted refugee status and could apply for asylum abroad. (The U.S. accepted more than 85,000.) But what about ordinary Nepalis? (Hadn’t thousands managed foreign visas from their fraudulent claims of lost homes in the 2015 earthquake?) It seemed unfair to the tens of thousands who wait more than two years even for a tourist visa to America, for example. Some aspiring-emigres who decided to claim Bhutanese refugee status won the sympathy of officials in relevant ministries who would furnish the necessary papers for 1-2 million rupees ($US 10,000- 18,000) each. When the racket was exposed, numerous culprits were identified and charged with treason, fraud and forgery; they included ministerial level officials, a police chief and a deputy prime minister along with lower-level clerks. (How any of the foreign embassies who might stamp these false papers responded to the exposé is unrecorded.) Nepal’s media had a field day publicizing the details, naming names; officials who had pursued the criminals were applauded. But how many of the named and accused were exempted, how many convicted, and how many of all of them are actually in jail today seem to be uncertain, or forgotten.

The obscurity that follows these exposés may be because, hardly a month later, a new political theater eclipses the last drama. Journalists excitedly pursue new celebrities. (Nepal’s press, a throng of papers, TV stations and online outlets, arose following the arrival of free speech – starting in 1990 and swelling after the blossoming of democracy in 2008. With so much corruption, between inter-and-intra-party scandals, press attention has increasingly turned in this direction, even as questions about the integrity of the nation’s young free press are raised.)

That Bhutanese ID drama follows a much discussed ‘gift’ of gold by Nepal’s former prime minister K.P. Oli and former president Mrs. B.D. Bhandari. Together, perhaps in search of spiritual merit after retirement, the pair committed government funds to purchase a massive quantity of gold (Jalahari) to adorn Nepal’s most sacred site Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. An initial revelation that the funds were not their own, but from the State Treasury, reportedly resulted in the plates being exhumed and the engraved names of their esteemed benefactors removed. (As far as is known the Treasury still honored the cost of the gift.) The final act of that drama highlighted a supposed discrepancy (approximately 10 kilograms of gold) between the 100 kg weight of the reported gift and what was eventually recorded.

Sometime after or between these hot affairs was another equally serious production, a spectacular property deal. Called the Lalita Niwas land scandal. It too involved ministers and other officials, businessmen, and huge sums of money. Lalita Nawas is a tract of government property (about 15 hectares) in Baluwatar, one of the capital’s most elite suburbs.) Corruption charges were filed against 175 individuals upon discovery that plots there had been illegally transferred in the name of individuals through collusion with officials, among then land revenue personnel and the election commissioner. The sums involved are staggering. Investigations are ongoing (as jails fill, or trials are delayed).

The effect of this on the public is profound, and long-lasting. After less than two decades of democratic liberties most Nepalis are losing confidence in their modern republic. (Maoists who fought to end the dictatorship are among the most corrupt, it is believed.)

A deeper, more troubling consequence of the corruption is found among school graduates and in applications for foreign visas. “Education is now a means to escape the country”, observes secondary school director Bhagwan Shrestha. From his many years in the field, he sadly concludes that education for the sake of learning is of low priority: “We are producing educated Nepalis for outside”. Few want to stay. He also notes the difficulties simple families endure to pay increasingly high school fees, hoping this would open a path abroad for their children. “Their dream is for their children to escape”, Shrestha adds. “Education is simply a ticket out.” He also suggests that this condition lowers the appeal of teaching as a profession.

Youths who leave after the compulsory 10^th class have aspirations to find work as laborers in Malaysia and Gulf Cooperation Council states. Those able to complete university do so with their eyes on Australia, Europe and the U.S. and Canada, with the U.S. most preferred. One thirty-year-old who intends to stay in Nepal notes: “From my graduating class of 131 students, almost 90 are outside – working abroad”.

One need only glance at the lines of aspirants at the gates of foreign embassies. From the airport, flights leave night and day ferrying mainly young men abroad. (800,000 are expected to be issued labor permits this year). They and their families consider themselves fortunate, despite tales of difficult conditions abroad. Their hardships, often exaggerated, may be sympathetically recorded in international papers. But however severe the stresses and risks abroad, Nepali youths view those as preferable to dim prospects at home where corruption is so invasive. With their overseas earnings they can leverage possibilities for themselves in their homeland. In fact, most return with sufficient savings to open a modest business, pay off mortgaged land, and afford school fees for their children to obtain a better education (and perhaps win a visa to a first-class destination!). Their remittances back to Nepal are not insubstantial. If Nepal’s government were really responsible, instead of the outflow generated by corruption and the lack of opportunities for citizens, it could foster local industry and agricultural innovation. What enterprise one finds in Nepal is in the private sector; this in a nation which, during its 15 years of democracy, has largely been led by socialist parties (Maoist, Marxist and Communist) with access to billions of rupees to offer fraudsters.

Foundations and Future of ‘INDIA’ Political Alliance

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

In the nine years that have passed since the BJP-led Modi government assumed office, there has been little or no opposition to the Hindutva fascist doctrine at work in India. This has allowed the government to implement most of its reactionary agendas and transformed India into a party state. The lack of political opposition has provided Hindutva with the opportunity to remain as a dominant political force, effectively concealing the glaring failures of the Modi government on every front. The Indian National Congress, as the main opposition party, has failed to counter the BJP effectively. Despite their ideological differences, their economic policies are indistinguishable from each other. Additionally, many regional political parties, apart from the left parties and RJD, have formed direct or indirect alliances with the BJP, further aiding the growth of Hindutva forces. After the 2019 general elections, the BJP managed to govern the country with just 37.4% of the votes, while the National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP, secured nearly 45% of the vote. It is within this context that we need to analyse the foundations, sustainability, and future of the ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ (INDIA).

The twenty-six opposition parties have come together to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) with the goal of challenging the BJP in the 2024 general elections. This unity among the opposition parties is a much awaited and significant step towards safeguarding India’s present and future as a constitutional, secular, and liberal democracy. While the electoral alliance has the potential to defeat the BJP, it is essential for the opposition parties to establish an ideological core and coherence to effectively counter Hindutva politics. Currently, these opposition parties lack a common ideological foundation or common minimum programme to combat the BJP and its reactionary Hindutva agenda. Some of the political parties within the alliance hold outright reactionary stances, characterised by regional chauvinism and a lack of progressive principles. For the long-term viability of the INDIA as a political platform, it becomes imperative to establish a common ideological coherence based on Indian constitutional values. By doing so, the alliance can strengthen democracy in India and present a unified front against the divisive and authoritarian forces of Hindutva politics.

The future of the ‘INDIA’ alliance can draw its political missions, visions, and agendas from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, which promises to transform India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. It also pledges to secure social, economic, and political justice, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship, equality of status and opportunities, and promote values of fraternity and dignity for all individuals. These values are central to the unity and integrity of India, as well as the deepening of its constitutional democracy and the protection of democratic rights for all citizens, irrespective of their backgrounds.

Indian sovereignty has been shaped by its freedom struggle, which vehemently rejected Yankee imperialism, European colonialism, and their racist ethnonationalism. For the ‘INDIA’ alliance as a political platform, it is imperative to reject Hindutva and its commitment to European ethnonationalism, as they clash with India’s multicultural ethos. Instead, the alliance should uphold the values of internationalism and demonstrate solidarity with the marginalised and persecuted, making them core values of Indian sovereignty. Furthermore, the ‘INDIA’ alliance should strive to expand the concept of sovereignty beyond just being a nation state, to encompass the sovereignty of its citizens. This means ensuring that all citizens have equal rights, opportunities, and representation, irrespective of their backgrounds, and guaranteeing their participation in the democratic process. By adopting such principles and values, the ‘INDIA’ alliance can pave the way for a more inclusive and just society, standing against divisive ideologies and promoting the true spirit of Indian sovereignty that is rooted in freedom, equality, and solidarity.

The BJP has not only adhered to but also expanded the neoliberal economic policies of the Indian National Congress. Additionally, most regional political parties and political outfits have also embraced neoliberalism as a means to achieve economic growth without critically examining its unequal outcomes for Indian citizens. However, these neoliberal policies have essentially facilitated a wealth transfer from the people to the crony capitalists associated with both the BJP and the Congress Party. Consequently, public resources have been diverted into the hands of Indian and global corporations, perpetuating income inequality. Furthermore, the implementation of neoliberal economic policies has had detrimental effects on various sectors in India. It has led to the destruction of agriculture, industry, and state-led educational and health infrastructure across the country. To ensure economic justice and uphold socialistic values that prioritize the welfare of all citizens, the ‘INDIA’ political alliance needs to unequivocally reject the neoliberal market economy. Instead, the alliance should advocate for a welfare state that works towards the betterment of all people in India, providing equitable access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. By rejecting neoliberalism and promoting a socialistic approach to economic policies, the ‘INDIA’ alliance can address the pressing issues of income inequality and foster a more inclusive and fair society for all.

The Brahminical social order, built on a rigid caste hierarchy, not only serves as the foundation of Hindutva politics but also poses a significant obstacle to achieving social justice in India. This caste-based society marginalizes a majority of the population and undermines the very idea of political justice that should be based on equal citizenship rights for all, which is essential for the advancement of democracy and economic justice in the country. For the ‘INDIA’ political alliance to create a more just and inclusive society, it must develop policies with unwavering commitment to combat caste discrimination. This entails reinforcing and expanding affirmative actions at every level of state and government functioning. Such actions are crucial to achieving social, economic, and political justice, fostering the deepening of democracy, and ensuring equal citizenship rights for all individuals in India. By actively addressing the issues of caste-based discrimination and implementing affirmative measures, the ‘INDIA’ alliance can work towards dismantling the violently oppressive caste system and fostering a society that values and upholds the principles of equality and social justice. This approach will not only strengthen democracy in India but also create an environment where every citizen can thrive and contribute to the nation’s progress, regardless of their caste or social background. The patriarchal Hindutva is detrimental to the empowerment of women. It is central to uphold gender justice and equality to mainstream gender in development. Equal accessibility and availability of resources and opportunities are central to egalitarian and sustainable development of India as a country.

The exclusionary and divisive nature of Hindutva politics has severely eroded the foundational ideals of fraternity, liberty, individual dignity, and solidarity in India. By promoting a monolithic linguistic, cultural, social, and religious outlook, Hindutva politics undermines the rich diversity that defines India’s national identity. The notions of Hindu, Hindi, and Hindutva can never serve as unifying forces for the nation’s unity and integrity. Instead, they exacerbate divisions and hinder the country’s progress. To ensure the survival of India as a diverse and inclusive nation, it is essential to confront and defeat the monolithic ideology propagated by Hindutva politics. For the ‘INDIA’ political alliance to have a sustainable future, it must unequivocally reject the monolithic ideology of Hindutva. Embracing diversity, promoting inclusive policies, and upholding the principles of pluralism and secularism are essential for the alliance’s success and the well-being of the nation. By standing against divisive ideologies and fostering an environment that celebrates India’s diversity, the ‘INDIA’ alliance can lay the foundation for a more united and prosperous future for the country. This approach is critical for safeguarding the core values of India and sustaining the alliance as a force for positive change and progress in the nation.

Coalition electoral politics can play a significant role in strengthening the processes of decentralization and deepening of democracy in India. By forming alliances across regional, religious, cultural, social, and sexual orientation lines, coalition politics can empower citizens and ensure their voices are heard in the governance of the country. This approach promotes inclusivity and equal representation for all, aligning with the ideals outlined in the Preamble to the Constitution of India. To defeat Hindutva and its ideological foundations, the ‘INDIA’ political alliance must avoid falling into the trap of opportunistic and populist politics solely for electoral gains. Instead, it should focus on using coalition politics as a tool for social, political, and economic transformation, advocating for policies that prioritize the welfare and development of all citizens.

The potential for transformation lies in the ability of the ‘INDIA’ alliance to address the root causes of Hindutva and challenge the divisive ideology espoused by the BJP. To achieve this, the alliance must maintain an unwavering commitment to inclusivity, peace, and egalitarian development for all, fostering a society that values diversity and upholds the principles of social justice. The future and sustainability of the ‘INDIA’ political alliance depend on its ability to remain true to these core principles, working collectively towards an inclusive and progressive India that benefits both its people and the planet. By doing so, the alliance can pave the way for positive change and advancement in the country, transcending divisive ideologies and creating a more harmonious and prosperous society for everyone.

The electoral defeat is the first step to halt the forward march of Hindutva and its crony capitalism in India. India and its citizens eagerly await the ‘INDIA’ political alliance’s promises and commitments to put an end to the despairs caused by Hindutva and its fascist upheavals.