New coalition in Thailand excludes general election winner

Robert Campion

More than 12 weeks have passed since Thailand’s general election. Since then, the military establishment has essentially barred the winner of that contest, the Move Forward Party (MFP), from forming a government and its eight-party coalition has disintegrated.

Leader of Bhumjaithai Party Anutin Charnvirakul, left, holding hands with Pheu Thai party leader Chonlanan Srikaew at press conference announcing coalition in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. [AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit]

The runner-up in May’s election, the Pheu Thai party, announced on Monday that it had formed a new coalition with the right-wing populist Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) and will attempt to form a government that will exclude the MFP. Pheu Thai has 141 seats in the lower house of the National Assembly and the BJT 71. Pheu Thai announced on Wednesday that it had added six minor parties, bringing the total number of coalition seats to 228.

The minor parties include four parties from the previous MFP-led coalition: Prachachat Party (9 seats), Pheu Thai Ruam Palang (2 seats), Thai Liberal Party (1 seat), Palang Sangkhom Mai (1 seat). The new additions are Charthaipattanakla (2 seats) and the Thongtee Thai Party (1 seat). The Chartthaipattana Party with 10 seats may join the coalition.

The MFP remains the largest party in the lower house with 151 seats. It earnt the hostility of the military, which seized power in a coup in 2014, and the country’s conservative elites by making an appeal for limited democratic reforms.

Under the anti-democratic constitution imposed by the military, the prime minister is elected at a joint sitting of the lower and upper houses of parliament. As a result, the upper house appointed by the military has a de facto veto over the next government. The outgoing prime minister—coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha—never faced an election.

The Pheu Thai coalition requires another 147 seats for its nominee—60-year-old real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin—to become prime minister. At present, senators are reportedly split on supporting Srettha.

On July 13, a joint sitting blocked the leader of the MFP, Pita Limjaroenrat, from becoming prime minister despite forming a majority coalition of 312 seats in the lower house of parliament.

The Election Commission (EC) and the Constitutional Court subsequently removed Pita from parliament on trumped up charges of owning shares in a defunct media company. While MPs are banned from owning shares in media outlets, Pita reported that he had previously disclosed the shares to the EC without issues being raised.

Pita has also been barred from standing in a second vote for prime minister. The move has delayed the selection of a new PM due to an ongoing review by the Constitutional Court of an MFP petition challenging parliament’s rejection of Pita’s renomination. The court is due to announce a decision on August 16.

In announcing the new coalition, Pheu Thai leader Chonlanan Srikaew stated on Monday, “We would like to thank Bhumjaithai for accepting the invitation so that we can step over this political deadlock.” The two parties blamed the political impasse not on the military, but on the MFP’s proposed reforms that include amending Thailand’s draconian lèse-majesté law.

Reaching out to the pro-military Senate, Chonlanan expressed his party’s “sincerity to our friends in all political parties and the Senate” and pledged to “preserve the important institution of the country as the cornerstone of the people in the nation,” referring to the monarchy.

At present, the Pheu Thai/BJT coalition would have a majority in the 500-seat lower house. More parties are expected to join the grouping, though Chonlanan claimed that it “won’t have the two uncles” referring to the 2014 coup leaders, Prayut and Prawit Wongsuwon from the United Thai Nation Party and Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) respectively. The latter has indicated it may be willing to join the coalition if asked.

The BJT, which appeals to Thailand’s farmers, previously served in the military-backed coalition government led by the PPRP and formed following the rigged 2019 elections. It had declared that it would not join any coalition involving the MFP or any party seeking to reform the lèse-majesté law.

The monarchy is a cornerstone of capitalism in Thailand, having extensive business interests throughout the country while also providing stability during times of political crisis. The MFP, however, does not represent a threat. The party speaks for dissident factions of the bourgeoisie that bridle at the domination of the military, monarchy and traditional elites and seek to advance their economic and political interests.

The fear in conservative ruling circles, however, is that MFP’s tepid calls for limited reforms could trigger a social upheaval involving the working class that the party cannot control. For this reason, BJT leader Anutin Charnvirakul declared on Monday, “The country needs to move on.”

The comment also echoes strong concerns from big business that prolonged political instability is affecting the stock market and international investment. Following the announcement last Thursday that a planned vote for prime minister would be delayed for another two weeks, the baht fell by 1.1 percent to a two-week low and the biggest decline among major Asian currencies. The benchmark stock index ended the morning session 0.7 percent lower.

While pursuing a token legal challenge, the MFP has accepted being sidelined. On July 21, the MFP announced that it would step back to allow Pheu Thai to form a government while remaining within the original and now-defunct eight-party coalition. It immediately became clear that Pheu Thai would dump the MFP. Instead of warning supporters and calling for protests, Pita and the MFP endorsed Pheu Thai, claiming it would protect democratic rights.

Pita said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on July 25, “Yes, I endorse and support the second victorious party, Pheu Thai Party, Thaksin Shinawatra’s party to form a coalition, because it’s not just about a personal goal for me to become prime minister, but I think it’s to stop Thailand from a vicious cycle of military dictatorship.”

Former Prime Minister Thaksin, a billionaire, was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and has been living in exile since 2008. He is the founder of Thai Rak Thai, the predecessor of Pheu Thai and is considered the party’s actual leader. In a sign that Pheu Thai is moving to make peace with the military establishment, Thaksin had announced that he would be returning to Thailand.

Pheu Thai and the MFP are both orienting to the pro-military sections of the political establishment. This is not a mistaken policy but stems from a shared fear that a protracted political crisis could pave the way for intervention of the working class and threaten the continuation of bourgeois rule.

West African states step back from immediate military action against Niger due to popular opposition

Thomas Scripps

Plans for a military intervention in Niger to restore overthrown president Mohamed Bazoum have been put on hold by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Four days after its deadline for his reinstatement passed, a closed-doors summit was held Thursday in Abuja, capital of lead ECOWAS state Nigeria. Its President Bola Tinubu told the media, “We prioritise diplomatic negotiations and dialogue as the bedrock of our approach” and said it was “our duty to exhaust all avenues of engagement to ensure a swift return to constitutional governance in Niger.”

Nigeria's President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, center first row, poses for a group photo with other West African leaders before an ECOWAS meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. Thursday, August 10, 2023. West African heads of state began meeting Thursday on next steps after Niger's military junta defied their deadline to reinstate the nation's deposed president. [AP Photo/Gbemiga Olamikan]

A week ago, Nigeria and ECOWAS were speaking about a military intervention as almost a certainty. Senegal, Benin and the Ivory Coast had all pledged to contribute troops and battle plans had reportedly been drawn up.

The union was backed by the imperialist powers, most aggressively the former colonial power in Niger, France, whose 1,500 troops are threatened with expulsion. Their main concern, set out by US Secretary of the State Antony Blinken, was that Niger would go the way of Mali and Burkina Faso—where military coups took place in May 2021 and September 2022—and turn to Russia and its Wagner paramilitary group.

Russian flags have featured in pro-coup demonstrations in Niger and its military leaders have reportedly been in touch with Wagner.

Blinken said Tuesday, “I think what happened, and what continues to happen in Niger was not instigated by Russia or by Wagner, but... they tried to take advantage of it.

“Every single place that this Wagner group has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed.”

China is also seen as a threat to imperialist interests, which has major stakes in Nigerien uranium mines and oil fields and refineries. In 2019, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) launched a five-year plan to “deter Chinese and Russian malign action”. The US has two military bases and 1,100 declared soldiers in Niger.

Almost immediately, however, imperialist officials were sounding notes of caution, stressing “mediation” and a “diplomatic solution” between Niger and ECOWAS. On Wednesday, Blinken called in careful language for “continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis,” specifying only “the immediate release of [Bazoum] and his family.”

Fears that a war would destabilise imperialist investments and security agreements played a part, particularly for the European powers, who have turned to Africa as a source of energy exports in the wake of the NATO-Russia war and rely on Niger to police the movement of refugees set for Europe across the Sahara to the Mediterranean coast.

But the main problem faced by Washington and other imperialist capitals is anti-imperialist sentiment and social discontent throughout West Africa undermining ECOWAS’s ability to respond—most importantly Nigeria.

Mali and Burkina Faso were suspended from the union following military coups which made a point of appealing to anti-colonial feeling. French and other European soldiers were told to leave.

Both countries pledged to join any war against Niger in its defence. They have written to the United Nations Security Council asking it to prevent any military intervention and “Accusing Western powers of using ECOWAS as a proxy to conceal a hostile agenda towards Niger,” according to Al Jazeera.

During a visit to the Nigerien capital Niamey earlier in the week, a Mali government spokesperson commented, “I would like to remind you that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have been dealing for over 10 years with the negative... consequences of NATO’s hazardous adventure in Libya.”

Mali’s military rulers have their own self-serving reasons for raising these points, but they are true and express broadly held views among workers and the rural poor.

NATO’s 2011 war against the government of Muamar Gaddafi shattered Libyan society and created a breeding ground for Islamist militias—the first of which were funded and trained by the US as proxies. These have spilled over into the wider Sahel region, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands, sustained by the poverty of a region devastated by centuries of Western colonialism and imperialism.

Ongoing violence has since been used as a pretext for imperialist soldiers and military bases to operate throughout the region, amid widespread popular hostility.

The governments in Mali and Burkina Faso fear this anger. Their biggest worry is that a major Western-sponsored conflict would unleash the mass and genuine anti-imperialist they imitate and topple them from their own positions of power—from which they adopt various anti-colonial poses while overseeing the continued relentless exploitation of the population by global banks and corporations.

The class character of these military regimes has been made very clear by Niger itself, where Tchiani has appointed Ali Lamine Zeine as prime minister—a former finance minister who oversaw an International Monetary Fund-directed “restructuring” of the Nigerien economy in the early 2000s.

Similar issues have burst to the surface in Nigeria. Tinubu’s bullish response immediately following the coup have melted away over the last week under the glare of popular opposition, especially in the north of the country whose people share close ties with Nigeriens.

The BBC reported that many people were “appalled that electricity to Niger was cut.” The country depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its supplies and has suffered blackouts.

A 24-year-old textile trader, who plans to marry a Nigerien woman, told the New York Times, “If a fight erupts, who will be at the receiving end? Me and most of us with dual nationality.”

The paper noted the “ethnic ties, language and a livelihood from active trade” binding the two populations. Hausa speakers are spread across the two countries, divided by the colonial border drawn between the French Nigerien and British Nigerian colonies.

What the Financial Times referred to as “fierce domestic opposition” builds on growing popular anger against Tinubu’s savage economic programme enacted on behalf of international investors, which will see the government spend 60 percent of its revenue on debt repayments this year. Fuel subsidies have been cut, tripling petrol prices, and inflation is running at 22 percent, prompting strikes and protests. It is only three years since anti-police End SARS protests rocked the country.

Concerns that an unpopular and costly war would explode this powder keg were reflected in nervous statements urging against war from various politicians, civil society groups, councils of elders, religious organisations and even General Christopher Gwabin Musa, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff the most senior uniformed military adviser to the president and minister of defence—who commented that Nigeria and Niger would be “next to each other forever” and that a war would be like “fighting your brother”.

Niger [Photo by Peter Fitzgerald / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Without Nigeria to lead it, any ECOWAS intervention is impossible. The country has a larger population than the 14 other ECOWAS states combined, is the largest economy in Africa, and its roughly 230,000 soldiers dwarf other local militaries.

Amid the geopolitical schemes, conspiracies and power plays across West Africa and the entire continent, the decisive factor is the rapidly growing working class and the rural poor. Their hostility to the imperialist powers has seen French soldiers driven out of its former colonial stomping grounds almost entirely and forced the US to operate with a low profile, leaving major actions to proxies to which it bestows the titles of “free” and “democratic” countries.

As the situation in Nigeria shows, even this strategy is falling foul of popular opposition to imperialism’s continued baleful influence in the region, leaving its clients without a trace of “democratic” legitimacy.

However, the threat of war remains, driven by the global conflict between the imperialist powers and Russia and China erupting in different flashpoints and via various proxies across the globe. Tinubu announced at the close of the ECOWAS summit in Abuja that “no option had been taken of the table” and that the union’s “standby force” had been activated.

Death toll from wildfires in Maui reaches 55, with many more expected

Kevin Reed

Deaths from wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui rose to 55 on Friday morning with local officials expecting the number to go significantly higher as rescue teams continue their search for survivors and victims. The disaster will likely be the deadliest since Hawaii became the last of the 50 US states in 1959.

A banyan tree rises among the wildfire wreckage, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii [AP Photo/Rick Bowmer]

Firefighters have dropped approximately 150,000 gallons of water on the fires, but the high winds that caused the fires to spread rapidly out of control in the first place Tuesday night have hindered rescue and firefighting efforts.

Hawaii Department of Defense Adjutant General Ken Hara said in a news conference on Thursday, “Because the winds were so high, we couldn’t provide the helicopters to do the water bucket support.” Hara added that Maui County firefighters had “a hard time” containing the fires due to gusts that have reportedly reached 85 mph.

The flames moved so swiftly that some victims were burned alive in their cars. An online database called the Maui Fire People Locator maintained by resident Ellie Erickson and shared widely on social media showed more than 1,300 people had yet to be located as of Thursday evening.

Residents are reporting that the number of dead is much higher than official reports. One tweet on Thursday morning said there were “body’s [sic] all over town and in the water that have not been accounted for and reported yet. So many people never made it out. There are possibly hundreds dead and even more missing.”

A rescue volunteer posted a video on Facebook describing the tragedy he saw in Lahaina, a community of more than 12,000 residents. He said he saw 50 bodies that have already been recovered by the Coast Guard and National Guard. He also said three big dump trucks had been sent into the area for the purpose of body recovery. 

The blazes that raged across Maui since Tuesday continue to burn with fires also now reported on the islands of Oahu and the Big Island of Hawaii. As of Thursday morning, the fires that destroyed most of the town of Lahaina on the west side of Maui were 80 percent contained, according to county officials.

Aerial video shot over historic Lahaina showed entire neighborhoods had been wiped out and turned to ash. The Associated Press (AP) reported, “Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbor were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.”

Hawaii Governor Josh Green told AP, “Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” with more than 1,000 structures destroyed by fire. The Governor also said, “As we get into the many hundreds of houses that were overwhelmed by fire, of course we have great concerns that we’ll find the remains of people that weren’t able to escape.”

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Adam Weintraub told news media, “Some of the aerial footage that we’ve seen from the area reminds me of the pictures from Dresden from World War II,” referring to the German city that was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombings in February 1945.

The deadly speed of the Maui wildfire recalls the devastating Camp Fire which raged through Butte County in the Sierra foothills of Northern California for over two weeks in 2018. That fire was the deadliest and most destructive in the history of California, killing 85 residents of the town of Paradise.

At its peak, the Camp Fire was spreading at the rate of 80 football fields per minute and sending embers in many directions for miles. It destroyed over 18,804 structures and burned over 153,000 acres. Many of those who died were unable to evacuate in time, some died in their cars while other perished in their homes without receiving any notice of warning that the flames were coming.

President Joe Biden issued a perfunctory three-paragraph White House statement on Thursday declaring a “major disaster” in Hawaii. Biden ordered federal aid to areas affected by wildfires and mobilized the US Coast Guard, Navy Third Fleets and the Army “to help with fire suppression and search and rescue on the Island of Maui.”

As with every disaster involving the forces of nature that are being amplified by capitalist-made climate change, the ruling establishment is quick to absolve themselves of any responsibility for creating the conditions that lead to death and destruction that has been predicted by the scientific community for decades.

Numerous reports are now revealing that the island of Maui had become a tinderbox in recent decades and was primed for a disaster. In one study by researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Colorado published in 2015, for example, they found that the previous 25 years saw rainfall at selected monitoring sites fall 31 percent lower in the wet season and 6 percent lower in the dry season.

On Thursday, the New York Times spoke to Abby Frazier, a climatologist at Clark University who has researched Hawaii, who said that there are multiple causes of the climate shift in Hawaii.

One is a weather pattern known as La Niña that began delivering less rainfall to the Hawaiian islands beginning in the 1980s. The weaker La Niñas, “are not bringing us out of drought,” Dr. Frazier said. Another factor is that higher temperatures cause the clouds over Hawaii to thin out and, with less cloud cover, there is less precipitation. On top of that, big storms have been moving north over time—delivering less of the rainfall that they typically bring to the islands.

Dr. Frazier said all three of these factors are the result of rising temperatures, “There’s likely a climate change signal in everything we see,” she said.

Another study published by the University of Hawaii in 2016 cited deforestation and the abandonment of agricultural lands along with the introduction of non-native, fire-prone grasses as factors making Hawaii more susceptible to fire.

Experts have said that the vegetation in the lowland areas of Maui were very dry this year, after below-average precipitation in the spring and summer. According to data issued by the US Drought Monitor on Thursday, almost 16 percent of Maui County is in severe drought and an additional 20 percent is in moderate drought. These are the areas where the fires are burning.

In the place of crops such as pineapple and sugar cane grown on farms, and other native vegetation, dry and invasive grasses have spread. The invasive grasses, such as Guinea grass, which can grow as quickly as 15 centimeters a day and reach up to three meters tall, are better able to regrow after a fire and are also quick to ignite. This is one factor in the rapidity of the fires’ spread.

As Ryan Longman, a research fellow at the educational institute East-West Center, told the New York Times, “The landscape is just covered with flammable stuff. All of the conditions just came together.”

These underlying circumstances—all of which are man-made and given free reign under the capitalist system—were set in motion by the winds from Hurricane Dora, which passed south of Hawaii as a Category 4 storm on Tuesday. Although the hurricane was hundreds of miles to the south of Maui, it contributed to wind speeds of greater than 60 miles per hour, helping to spread the fire at unprecedented speeds.

Clarence Thomas has lived like a billionaire in more than 30 years on US Supreme Court

Patrick Martin

An investigative report published Wednesday by Pro Publica outlines the utterly corrupt lifestyle of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The most right-wing of the nine justices, the most consistent advocate of the interests of the super-rich and enemy of democratic rights, has lived like a billionaire throughout his three decades on the high court.

In this Nov. 10, 2011, file photo Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas laughs while talking with other guests at The Federalist Society's 2011 Annual Dinner in Washington. [AP Photo/Cliff Owen]

The report, published under the headline, “Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel,” is a devastating exposure of corruption and criminality. 

The report declares: 

Thomas has secretly reaped the benefits from a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is far more extensive than previously understood… 

During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. 

The gifts include “at least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas.” This is better than one expensive vacation every year of Thomas’s 32 years on the court. In addition, there were “26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.”

These trips were largely unreported, either by the corporate media or by Thomas himself in his annual financial filings with the court. Pro Publica observes, “Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets, according to ethics experts.”

At least four billionaires, representing several sectors of the US economy, have been identified as sponsors of Thomas. There may be others, but these four, as profiled by the New York Times and Pro Publica, include:

• Harlan Crow, heir to the commercial real estate giant Trammell Crow, founded by his father, which became the largest US owner of real estate. Harlan Crow controls the family holding company, Crow Holdings, with assets of $20 billion.
• David Sokol, oil and finance executive, who made his initial fortune at Berkshire Hathaway, the massive investment firm founded and headed by Warren Buffett, before resigning in disgrace over an insider trading scandal.
• The late H. Wayne Huizenga, whose fortune derived from Waste Management, the leading waste disposal firm in North America, Auto Nation, once the largest auto dealer, and Blockbuster video. He also owned at one point or another most of the professional sports teams in Miami, Florida.
• Paul Novelly, oil executive, whose family owns the billion-dollar independent Apex Oil and several other oil industry firms, most involved in trading and storing heavy oil products, including fuel oil and asphalt.

What these billionaires have in common, besides enormous wealth, is an extreme right-wing political perspective, opposing any restriction on the capitalist market and any effort to provide state support for working people whose jobs and living standards have been devastated by market forces.

They were not “personal friends” of Thomas, as the justice claimed of Crow when his financial ties with the real estate mogul was brought to light by Pro Publica earlier this year. All four began their relationships with Thomas only after he had become a Supreme Court justice in 1991, when he was in a position to reinforce the drastic shift to the right in the high court which was already under way.

Thomas occasionally reported trips and gifts from Crow, but never for any of the other three, although these relationships were extraordinarily lucrative as well.

Huizenga twice sent his personal 737 to bring Thomas to South Florida, a flight that would have cost $130,000 for the round trip. Thomas attended Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers games several times as Huizenga’s guest, during the period when the billionaire owned the football and hockey teams (which he later sold). He also flew in Huizenga helicopters and Gulfstream jets. But the biggest perk he received was becoming a frequent guest at Huizenga’s Floridian country club, a resort so exclusive that it rejected Donald Trump for membership, when he was a mere real estate mogul and television personality.

Novelly’s favored mode of transport was on the sea rather than in the air. He owned two yachts used for cruising the Caribbean and Thomas was a frequent guest. A Novelly chauffeur described picking up Thomas in the Bahamas, where he had flown in on the oil billionaire’s private jet, and taking him to the marina where one of the yachts, Le Montrachet, was docked.

According to Pro Publica, “Le Montrachet, named after the premium French wine, is a 126-foot luxury vessel complete with a full bar, multiple dining areas, a baby grand piano, accommodations for 10 guests and a handful of smaller fishing boats and jet skis. Novelly charges about $60,000 a week to outsiders who want to charter it.” Thomas, of course, did not pay a dime.

Sokol hosted Thomas and his wife Ginni nearly every summer for ten years at his estate in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Paintbrush Ranch. He also entertained the Thomases at home football games for the University of Nebraska, using the $40,000 sky box belonging to former Nebraska coach and Republican congressman Tom Osborne.

In a speech in New Orleans last October, Sokol denounced the limited student loan forgiveness plan announced by the Biden administration and predicted, “It’s going to get overturned by the Supreme Court.” Eight months later, the Supreme Court did exactly that, with Sokol’s good friend Clarence Thomas voting to kill debt relief for impoverished college students.

The billionaires were well aware of each others’ sponsorship of Clarence Thomas and occasionally collaborated. Thus Novelly, Sokol and Crow provided financing for a pro-Thomas documentary made in response to a critical film aired by HBO. On another occasion, Sokol and Thomas shared a lodge in the Adirondacks owned by Crow.

The revelations in the Pro Publica report would justify the impeachment of Thomas and his criminal prosecution. They would also warrant the systematic review of all of his significant opinions and every case where his was the decisive fifth vote. This includes such historic and reactionary actions as last year’s Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade, and the Bush v. Gore decision that awarded the White House to the Republican who actually lost the 2000 presidential election.

Nothing of the kind, of course, can be expected from the Biden administration or congressional Democrats. There has been no response from the White House about the Pro Publica report, and leading congressional Democrats issued blustering calls for Thomas to resign, and for the adoption of stricter ethics rules for Supreme Court justices.

But the Democrats seek to defend the key institutions of the capitalist state, of which the Supreme Court is one of the most important. Biden has already disavowed even such limited reforms as increasing the number of justices, derided as “court-packing” by most of the corporate media and all leaders of the Republican Party.

Most importantly, the Democrats have been completely silent about Clarence and Ginni Thomas’s political connections to the fascistic conspiracies of ex-president Donald Trump. Ginni Thomas is not even mentioned in the special counsel’s report on Trump, even though she was deeply involved in the effort to induce state legislatures to overturn the results of the 2020 election in their states and substitute Trump electors for the Biden electors actually chosen by the voters.

The Trump camp was counting on justices Thomas and Alito to play a critical role in this plot, expecting that any action by state legislatures to hijack the election might find its way to the Supreme Court. Alito, the justice who handles appeals from Washington DC, had in his possession on January 6, 2021 a motion to delay congressional certification of the Electoral College results, but he kept it in his pocket while awaiting the results of the violence on Capitol Hill. Thomas would certainly have supported such a delay.

Biden escalates economic war against China

Nick Beams

In a presidential executive order issued on Wednesday, the Biden administration has announced sweeping measures to block US investment in high-tech Chinese companies together with bans on Americans working in collaboration with them.

The order is aimed at reinforcing the bans on exports of high-grade computer chips and other advanced technology to China imposed last October and shortly to be further enhanced.

A man reads Global Times article titled "US has resisted strong skepticism about restricting investment in China" on a public newspaper bulletin board in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. [AP Photo/Andy Wong]

The aim of both measures, enacted on the grounds of protecting US “national security,” is nothing less than crippling the rise of the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest, which the US regards as the greatest threat to its global dominance.

It also requires that American citizens doing business in China inform the US government about investment in artificial intelligence and work in the production of advanced semiconductors.

The executive order did not specifically name China. It referred to “countries of concern,” but an appendix named only three: China and the territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

According to the order, these “countries of concern,” that is, China, “eliminate barriers between civilian and commercial sectors and military and defence sectors, not just through research and development, but also by acquiring and diverting the world’s cutting-edge technologies, for the purposes of achieving military dominance. Rapid advancement in semiconductors, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence capabilities by these countries significantly advance their ability to conduct activities that threaten the national security of the United States.”

This implies that, far from the claims being advanced by the US that the bans will be limited, as the Biden administration pursues what national security adviser Jake Sullivan has called a “small yard, high fence” strategy, they will be extended across the board.

This is because there are no barriers which have to be eliminated. All developments in the design and manufacture of semiconductors and artificial intelligence by their very nature have military applications.

And as for the convergence of the commercial and military sectors, which the US maintains is the hallmark of China’s economy, there is no country where this process has been more developed than the US. The term “military-industrial complex” was coined more than 60 years ago to characterise the economic development of the US, above all in high-tech areas.

The executive order claims the US is in favour of open capital flows that “create valuable economic opportunities and promote competitiveness, innovation, and productivity, and the United States supports cross-border investment, where not inconsistent with the protection of United States national security interests.”

But these interests are not just immediate military developments. As multiple reports, both by official government bodies and influential think tanks, have made clear, the economic rise of China, the continuation of which depends on high tech, is in and of itself an existential threat to the economic position of the US and thus endangers its “national security.”

The broad scope of the order is indicated in a stipulation that the Treasury secretary shall identify transactions that “pose a particularly acute national security threat because of their potential to significantly advance the military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities of countries of concern” and US citizens will be prohibited from engaging, directly or indirectly, in such transactions.

Virtually every development in these areas has, by its very nature, the potential to enhance military capacities.

The executive order seeks to extend its scope beyond US firms requiring notification to the Treasury Department of “any transaction by a foreign entity” controlled by a US person “that would be a notifiable transaction engaged in by the United States person.”

But in imposing its technology and now investment bans on China, the US is confronted with an objective economic problem. The development of every commodity today, and above all high-tech commodities, is the product of a complex international division of labour extending across the world.

Chip design is carried out in one country, very often the US, the equipment for the laser writing of the complex electronic circuits is manufactured in another, the Netherlands, the production of the most highly developed chips is carried out in Taiwan, manufacturing processes integral to the production of chips and computers takes place in South Korea and so on.

Concerns are now being raised in other countries about where the US is heading and the impact of its sanctions and restrictions on high-tech production. They were given voice in an interview conducted by the Financial Times with Yang Hyang-ja, a former chip engineer and Samsung executive, now a member of the South Korean parliament.

In a warning to Washington, she said that if it “continues to try to punish other nations and to pass bills and implement ‘America First’ policies in an unpredictable manner, other countries could form an alliance against the US.”

So far, she said, the US “tech war” measures had not harmed South Korea but indicated that could change.

“The more the US sanctions China, the harder China will try to make rapid technological progress. China will provide more national support for the goal. Then it will pose a crisis to South Korea, given China’s abundant talent and raw materials. The US should abandon its current approach of trying to get something out of shaking and breaking the global value chain.”

The US has no intention of doing any such thing. The executive order contains a provision that it may add to the list of products which affect national security, while in Washington there are calls for even more severe measures.

Republicans have criticised the order for not going far enough. Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN in the Trump administration and now a presidential aspirant for the Republican party, said it was “not even a half measure.”

“To stop funding China’s military, we have to stop all US investment in China’s critical technology and military companies, period,” she said.

The inexorable logic of the US measures against China, aimed at bringing high-tech production back to its shores or confining it to what it regards as its closest and most reliable allies, is military war, to which the lessons of history speak loud and clear.

The lead up to Pearl Harbour in December 1941 was the oil embargo imposed on Japan in the 1930s. In today’s world, high tech is just as much the lifeblood of the capitalist economy as was oil at that time.

Accordingly, the economic warfare against China is being accompanied by a relentless military buildup, the efforts to create anti-China alliances, the increased involvement of NATO in Indo-Pacific affairs, the virtual scrapping of the One China policy as it attempts to goad China into some kind of military response in relation to Taiwan, the same kind of provocation that set off the US-NATO war in Ukraine.

There is only one way to counter this war drive and that is the mobilisation of the international working class on a socialist anti-war program. Imperialist war, of which the latest moves by the Biden administration are a component, arises from the fundamental contradiction between global economy and the nation-state system, a contradiction which assumes an excruciating form in the development of high tech.

The US proposes to resolve this contradiction by ensuring that it remains the dominant economic and military power, threatening in pursuit of that goal to plunge humankind into a nuclear holocaust.

White House requests another $24 billion for Ukraine war

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.

US President Joe Biden called on Congress Thursday to allocate another $24 billion to the war in Ukraine. The “supplemental funding request” would include $14.1 billion in direct military aid, plus $8.5 billion in economic payouts.

To date, Congress has approved $113 billion in spending on the war, including $70 billion directly on weapons.

The Ukraine war has unleashed a level of bloodletting unseen in Europe since the Second World War. Approximately 50,000 Ukrainians have lost limbs in the conflict, indicating, based on the ratio of casualties to deaths, that hundreds of thousands have been killed.

The tens of billions more that Biden is planning to send will be used to perpetuate what is a mass slaughter of already historic proportions, with total indifference to the lives of the Ukrainian population, which US imperialism sees as cannon fodder.

The request, taking the form of a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, stated:

First, the president has reaffirmed that we will stand with Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty for as long as it takes, a strategy that has successfully united our allies and partners and equipped Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression. Previous supplemental appropriations for direct military aid, economic and humanitarian assistance, and other support have been committed or nearly committed. The administration is requesting supplemental security, economic, and humanitarian assistance funding that would support Ukraine.

Beyond this paragraph, the letter includes no explanation of why the money is needed or what will be done with it.

In a press briefing Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder reiterated that the United States would continue to fund the war “as long as it takes.”

“When it comes, broadly speaking, to support for Ukraine, I would say that as we have said in the past, we will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Ryder said.

The massive new spending proposal comes as the magnitude of the military debacle in Ukraine is becoming clear. In an article published this week, the New York Times admitted the existence of a unit whose entire composition was either killed or injured three times over, and thus had to be replaced three times.

The Times wrote: “The heavy losses were not a shock to them. Most of the commanders said that they had seen units, including their own, decimated at times during the past 16 months of fighting. The battalion commander, Oleksandr, said that casualties were so high during the counteroffensive in Kherson last year that he had been forced to replace the members of his unit three times.”

Increasingly frank statements are appearing in the US media about the disastrous situation confronting the Ukrainian military and the total failure of its counteroffensive. CNN reported this week that US allies have received “sobering” assessments about Ukraine’s ability to capture any more territory.

“They’re still going to see, for the next couple of weeks, if there is a chance of making some progress. But for them to really make progress that would change the balance of this conflict, I think, it’s extremely unlikely,” one “senior western diplomat” told CNN.

The diplomat added that “Russians have several defensive lines and the [Ukrainian forces] haven’t really broken through the first one.” He continued, “Even if they continue fighting for the next several weeks, if they haven’t been able to make more breakthroughs in the past seven or eight weeks, what is the likelihood that they will suddenly, with more depleted forces, succeed? Because the conditions are so challenging.”

Picking up on a similar theme, The Hill carried a report entitled “Alarm grows as Ukraine’s counteroffensive falters,” which warned that “There is growing alarm about the pace and prospects of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with few signs of progress in recent weeks and Russian lines holding strong.”

The article cited Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who compared the Ukrainian military to “a junior high team playing a college team,” adding, “They can’t win.”

Russian officials have claimed that Ukraine has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the offensive, adding to the hundreds of thousands that have likely died in the war so far. Ukraine has lost dozens of tanks and armored vehicles supplied by the US and its allies in the latest offensive.

Under these conditions, there is growing pressure on the United States and NATO to escalate their involvement in the conflict to stave off a potential Ukrainian collapse.

In June, former NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen raised the prospect that NATO members would deploy “troops on the ground” in Ukraine.

Rasmussen said at the time, “If NATO cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action. We know that Poland is very engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground.”

He continued, “I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assembling a coalition of the willing.”

These words give an ominous tone to the ongoing buildup of Polish troops now occurring on its border with Belarus, whose government is allied with Russia in the present conflict.

On Thursday, Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said the country would deploy 10,000 troops to the border, just one day after he announced that Poland would be sending 2,000 troops to the same area.

“It will be about 10,000 soldiers, 4,000 of whom will be directly engaged in border police support operations and 6,000 others as reinforcements,” Błaszczak told Polish public radio.

Highlighting the surge of troops to the eastern borders of the military alliance, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said Monday, “NATO has significantly increased its defensive presence in the eastern part of the alliance in response to Russia’s aggressive actions, and we continue to do what is necessary to deter any threat and protect every inch of allied territory.”

Catastrophic floods strike Slovenia and Austria

Markus Salzmann

A state of emergency continues in Slovenia and southern Austria following severe floods. Massive rainfall and flooding in recent days means there is a threat of widespread landslides. The situation remains extremely tense.

Flooding in Črna na Koroškem, Slovenia. [AP Photo/Uncredited]

In Slovenia, six people have died so far. In the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, a man died in the Sava River. Earlier, three people also lost their lives. Two of the fatalities are Dutch mountaineers presumed to be the victims of lightning strikes while hiking. Earlier, other Dutch holidaymakers were considered missing, but then found unharmed. Last Sunday a man was found dead in the Glan River in Carinthia, Austria.

Slovenia has been particularly hard hit. Prime Minister Robert Golob said the small country between the Alps and the Adriatic had suffered “probably the greatest damage from a natural disaster in the history of independent Slovenia.” The total damage is expected to exceed 500 million euros, he said. Slovenia has asked the EU and NATO for technical aid to repair riverbanks and destroyed houses.

The scale of the flooding is immense with about two-thirds of the country affected, following 36 hours of heavy rain last week. Numerous villages have been cut off from the outside world since Friday, and some are still inaccessible or can only be reached by special vehicles. Villages need to be supplied with drinking water and food because local infrastructure has collapsed.

Within 36 hours, civil protection services reported more than 3,700 operations nationwide, including rescuing people who had taken refuge in trees or on the roofs of houses.

On Saturday, a dam broke on the Mur Rver in the east of the country. As a result, more than 500 people were evacuated from the village of Dolnja Bistrica. In other parts of the country, people had to be rescued from the floodwaters. This was in some cases only possible from the air, following the flooding of railway tracks and motorways.

The area around Ljubljana was also badly affected. In Skofja Loka, 20 kilometres northwest of the capital, buildings were flooded and streets left under metres of water. In the Gorenjska region, on the border with Austria, there were extensive road closures due to flooding.

The town of Črna na Koroškem is one of the worst affected places. Three people died there within 24 hours of the start of the disaster.

The situation stabilised somewhat on Sunday due to decreasing rainfall, but massive landslides now threaten both countries.

In the Carinthian communities of Brückl and Keutschach, dozens of houses were evacuated over the weekend due to the threat of mudslides. Here, too, several villages were completely cut off from the outside world. By Monday afternoon alone, 400 landslides had been reported to the authorities in Carinthia and Styria.

Neighbouring Croatia was also affected by the floods. The Sava, Drava and Mura rivers coming from Slovenia brought record water levels to the neighbouring country.

A state of emergency was declared in Rugvica, Botovo on the Drava, and Mursko Sredisce and Gorican on the Mura. It was only the rapid construction of dams made of sandbags that prevented major damage to residential buildings.

Politicians in both Austria and Slovenia have been making gushing promises to provide “rapid and unbureaucratic assistance” to help those affected by the flood disaster and repair the damage. Such promises cannot hide the fact that all politicians, regardless of party colours, have shown themselves to be completely incapable and unwilling to take the measures necessary to prevent such a foreseeable catastrophe.

During the last 30 years, Austria, especially on its border with Slovenia, has repeatedly experienced massive floods.

In 1991, the worst floods since the 1950s occurred when the rivers Salzach, Inn and Enns burst their banks. Within six days, six people died as a result of the floods, and the harvest was destroyed on around 6,000 hectares of farmland. Over 50 percent of the animal population in the affected areas was also wiped out.

Just three years later, massive rainfall occurred in the east of Austria killing one person and then in August 2002, the country’s so-called flood of the century caused damage on the order of several billion euros. Nine people died.

Between 2004 and 2007, floods occurred almost every year. In 2012, in Styria, which has again been affected, violent landslides occurred after a flood, killing one person. This was followed a year later by another severe flood, causing damage amounting to several hundred million euros.

Most recently, in Carinthia in 2018, numerous communities were cut off from the outside world by floods. Despite the increasing frequency of heavy rain, floods and landslides, no significant protective measures have been undertaken.

The latest flood disaster in Slovenia and Austria is only one of numerous natural disasters in Europe in recent years that show the growing impact of global warming and climate change.

Two years ago, at least 243 people died in floods all over Europe, the majority of them in Germany and Belgium. Property damage was in the tens of billions of euros, and 200,000 households were left temporarily without power.

Last month, large parts of Europe sweltered under a heatwave in which record temperatures were reached in several countries, with highs of up to 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) recorded in large parts of southern and western Europe. Thousands of people died and the heat sparked devastating forest fires in many regions.