On Brazil’s Independence Day, Lula government seeks to strengthen armed forces

Guilherme Ferreira

In recent weeks, the political crisis in Brazil has reached a new stage as a series of investigations, stemming from corruption scandals to the plots for a coup d’état, are getting increasingly closer to the former fascistic president Jair Bolsonaro and his political and military circle. In response, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers Party, PT) has redoubled its commitment to protect and politically rehabilitate the armed forces that conspired alongside Bolsonaro to overthrow democratic forms of rule in Brazil.

President Lula reviews troops on Brazil's Independence Day [Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/Twitter]

In the latest attempt in this direction, the PT decided to use the celebration of Brazil’s Independence Day on September 7 to link the armed forces to “democracy” and “national unity,” while seeking to “depoliticize” and “re-signify” the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag that in recent years became the symbol of the fascistic movement connected to Bolsonaro.

In the last two years, the Independence Day celebrations joined massive military parades with demonstrations of Bolsonaro’s fascistic supporters calling for a new military dictatorship. The armed forces, which fully promoted the president’s challenge to Brazil’s electronic voting system, were the co-organizers of last year’s political-military rallies of September 7.

This process unfolded amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of the Brazilian Senate pointed out nine crimes committed by Bolsonaro. Today, he is being investigated in more than 20 cases before the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and other judicial bodies.

The collaboration of the Brazilian armed forces with Bolsonaro has already led to 13 military officials being investigated, with the possibility of this number increasing in the coming period and reaching the senior army officers who participated in his government. One of them, Bolsonaro’s former personal assistant, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, has been under arrest since the beginning of June for having falsified Bolsonaro’s vaccination card. He is also being investigated in seven other cases, including the January 8 coup attempt and the illegal sale in the US of jewelry received by Bolsonaro from foreign dignitaries.

On Cid’s cell phone, seized in May by the Federal Police, was found the so-called “coup draft,” which, according to the STF minister in charge of the investigation, Alexandre de Moraes, provided a “legal and juridical roadmap for the execution of a coup d’état.”

After remaining silent in a previous appearance before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Brazilian Congress investigating the January 8 coup, Cid only last week spoke for more than 22 hours in two sessions with the Federal Police. A plea bargain proposal was submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. According to a source who spoke to GloboNews journalist Andrea Sadi, Mauro Cid’s statements focused on the “coup script” and were described as “broad, diverse and bad for Bolsonaro.”

She also reported that “military officials in the Bolsonaro government are ... concerned about what he can report about involvement and meetings with Heleno, Braga Netto, and new characters from the military nucleus.” Gen. Augusto Heleno was head of the Bolsonaro government’s Institutional Security Office (GSI), and Gen. Walter Braga Netto was Bolsonaro’s chief of staff and his vice-presidential running mate. Both may be summoned to give evidence before the CPI.

Among the high-ranking military personnel involved in corruption schemes and in the January 8 coup plots are Gen. Mauro César Lourena Cid, the father of Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, and Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former minister of defense in the Bolsonaro government.

In this context, in which the top ranks of the armed forces are heavily implicated in Bolsonaro’s coup plot, the Lula government is doing everything it can to shield them. The daily Globo reported on August 28 that, as the investigations into the military progressed, Lula’s defense minister, José Múcio, and Army Commander Gen. Tomás Paiva “have launched an offensive in recent weeks to try to avoid damaging the image of the armed forces.” They are advancing the claim that it is necessary to “preserve the institution” and “individualize the conduct” of the military personnel involved in the January 8 attacks.

As part of this offensive, a meeting was held on August 23 between Gen. Paiva, Minister Múcio, and the president, and rapporteur of the CPI, Arthur Maia, and Eliziane Gama, who have been fraudulently reiterating that the armed forces not only did not take part in the January 8 coup but prevented it from happening.

More significantly, Minister Múcio, General Paiva, along with the heads of the Navy and Air Force, met with President Lula on August 19. Exposing the “extraordinary nature” of the meeting, veteran journalist Jânio de Freitas said in his weekly program on August 25 that “the government owes a clearer explanation of what happened there. ... The population has a right to know.” However, Lula remained silent about the meeting, with the website Terra reporting that a source present said the president “reiterated [his] confidence in the armed forces.”

The cowardly stance of the Lula government concerning the most significant attack on Brazilian democracy since the 1964 military coup has been widely criticized, including by members of the PT itself. Federal Deputy Carlos Zarattini said in an interview with Forum last Monday, “The government should withdraw its veto of the CPI through Múcio to prevent an investigation into the military who participated in coordinating the [January 8] coup.” Previously, the Lula government, which was supposed to be the most interested in shedding light on the events of January 8, had worked hard to prevent the CPI itself from being set up.

However, the belief that the cover-up of the military’s role is being carried out only by Minister Múcio is belied both by recent developments and by the record of previous PT governments to the military. Lula has kept Mucio in office even after he praised the pro-coup encampments in front of the Army General Barracks that prepared the attack on the headquarters of the three branches of government as “demonstrations of democracy.” The defense minister has repeatedly insisted that the page must be turned on the January 8 coup as quickly as possible.

In early August, the Lula government fulfilled its promise made immediately after the January 8 coup of an investment of 53 billion reais (US$10.6 billion) for numerous armed forces programs. In contrast, the announced budgets for health and education were 45 billion reais and 31 billion reais, respectively.

According to the government’s website, this investment aims to “generate employment and foster neo-industrialization,” strengthening the “national defense capacity” and the “Defense Industrial Base. ... Currently, the sector represents around 5 percent of the gross domestic product and generates 2.9 million direct and indirect jobs.”

In a harsh response, the Brazilian associations of Defense Studies, Social Sciences, and Political Science wrote in a joint note, “The budget allocated today to the armed forces is not compatible with the construction of a democratic society ... The government cannot continue to be held hostage by an institution marked by a coup tradition.”

If the Lula government is “held hostage,” this is not because of external pressure but because of its own policies. What has prevented the PT from drawing the fundamental lessons from the years of military dictatorship in Brazil between 1964 and 1985 and, more recently, from the coming to power of an ardent supporter of military dictatorship like Bolsonaro, is its nationalist and pro-corporate character. 

Today, this program is leading the PT to repeat and deepen, in a much more explosive international context marked by the war in Ukraine, the policy that its previous governments implemented between 2003 and 2016, paving the way for new defeats of the Brazilian and international working class.

During this period, the the PT governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff strengthened and increased the autonomy of the Brazilian armed forces, which received the most significant investment in their history. As is being repeated today, they were considered by the PT governments of the time as part of their national economic development strategy, which led to the creation of specialized defense divisions in large Brazilian companies, such as the giant contractor Odebrecht, now involved in constructing Brazil’s nuclear submarine project.

As part of its “active” foreign policy, Brazil commanded the United Nations “peace operation” in Haiti, led by General Heleno. Domestically, they were used to suppress protests against the 2014 World Cup, the 2016 Olympic Games, oil privatization and countless other mass demonstrations. At the same time, when confronted by the military, the PT governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff capitulated. In the most significant episode, the National Truth Commission, which ran from 2011 to 2014 and investigated military crimes under the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985), was ended without a single charge against the military.

The main military document of the PT government, the 2008 National Defense Strategy, summed up the PT’s program on the military: “the national project for the military forces [is a] means of uniting the nation above social class differences.”

As the history of Brazil and Latin America has shown over the last century, the policy of “national unity” of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalist governments has only paved the way for strengthening the extreme right and the threat of new military coups in the region.

Russia strengthens ties with African military juntas calling to expel French troops

Athiyan Silva & Alex Lantier

A week ago, a Russian delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov visited Burkina Faso and met with the head of the military junta, Ibrahim Traoré. Russia has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Burkina Faso since 1992, when the Soviet embassy closed as the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union.

After meeting with Traoré, Yevkurov told reporters they had discussed military aid, nuclear energy and economic ties. He said, “We will do our best to help you develop in all these spheres. I have already reminded your president of this. In the field of military cooperation, we will discuss the training format of your cadets and officers of different levels, including pilots, in our country.”

The Russian-Burkinabè military talks highlighted both the explosive international geopolitical tensions emerging amid the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine, and complex political issues raised by the growing mobilization of African workers and youth against imperialism.

In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, March 4, 2023, Russia's Deputy Defense Ministers Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, left, Viktor Goremykin, center and Valery Gerasimov attend Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's meeting with military commanders in Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service photo via AP) [AP Photo]

The junta in Burkina Faso, like those in nearby Mali and Niger, came to power amid deep popular opposition to French imperialism’s 2013-2022 war in Mali and across the Sahel. All three juntas have asked France, the former colonial power, to withdraw troops from their countries. While Paris has called for Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and other countries in the French-backed Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to invade and topple the three juntas, Moscow is offering these juntas support.

Denunciations of Russian operations in Africa by NATO imperialist powers such as France reek of hypocrisy. They are part of a thinly-disguised attempt to maintain these powers’ crumbling domination of the region, including, potentially, by plunging the entire Sahel into war.

Thus French President Emmanuel Macron’s dismissed the Nigerien, Burkinabè and Malian juntas’ ties with Moscow as anti-democratic and a “baroque alliance of self-proclaimed pan-Africanists with neo-imperialists.” Given France’s colonial past, and its wars against Algerian and Cameroonian independence that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, such remarks have no credibility. After a decade of bloody French operations in Mali and across the Sahel, masses of African workers and youth legitimately view them with contempt.

Nevertheless, bitter historical experience shows African workers cannot rely on military alliances with Moscow to oppose imperialism. The struggle against imperialism, which has deep ties with the African capitalist class, requires an African and international mobilization of the working class and oppressed masses on a revolutionary, socialist program, aiming to overthrow the economic power of the ruling elites. This is the lesson in particular of the French-backed ouster and murder of pro-Soviet Burkinabè President Thomas Sankara by Blaise Compaoré in 1987.

Neither the post-Soviet capitalist regime in Moscow, nor the military juntas in the Sahel aim to carry out such a struggle. The Kremlin views the Sahel primarily as a bargaining chip in its dealings with the NATO imperialist powers amid the war in Ukraine. It would readily abandon African workers, as it did in the 1990s, if it believed it could thereby reach a deal with NATO.

As for the junta, it sits atop the state machine of the old Compaoré regime. The junta now criticizes certain French imperialist interests, in response to mass popular sentiment in Burkina Faso and across the Sahel. However, the regime retains close ties to European and US capital, and especially the powerful international mining and energy conglomerates active in the Sahel.

Traoré, a 34-year-old officer, came to power through coups in January and September 2022, shortly after French troops left Mali at the demand of the junta there. Last year’s coups in Burkina Faso removed President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, a puppet of French imperialism and longstanding ally of Compaoré. During the coups, protesters in the capital, Ouagadougou, waved Russian flags.

The day after he took power, Traoré gave a televised speech which did not cut ties with Paris but declared he would seek an additional partnership with Moscow. Referring to the bloody war France had waged in the Sahel as a “partnership” with the Burkinabè military, Traoré said: “The French have long been our partners, but we could have other partners now to support us. We are in fact in a partnership with Russia. We need to strengthen it.”

Three months later, the Burkinabè junta ultimately requested that French troops leave the country.

Traoré then traveled to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin at the July Russian-Africa summit in Saint Petersburg. This came just after protests in Niger, the country in the Francophone Sahel with the largest population and the most strategic uranium and oil reserves, led to the installation of a military junta in Niger via a coup on July 26. After mass protests outside NATO’s main military base in Niger, the junta has now asked French troops to leave its territory.

Speaking to Putin in Saint Petersburg, Traoré again hailed cooperation with Russia but also stressed that he views French imperialism not as an oppressor of working people and youth in Burkina Faso, but as a “traditional partner.”

He said, “Let me assure you that our people support you and our government. You talked about the Russian Embassy, the Soviet Embassy that was closed in 1992, but we have already taken a number of steps to reopen it. I hope this will be done as soon as possible, whether it is an embassy or a Russian military mission. At present, our sub-region is going through difficult times. It has found itself in a zone of turbulence. We want to change our policy. Some of our traditional partners are turning their back on us, and we see who our true friend is.”

This is a more or less overt admission that, unlike workers and youth across the Sahel who want to expel imperialism from Africa, the Burkinabè junta is seeking to maneuver between the imperialist powers and the Kremlin. It is not leading, but rather blocking a struggle against imperialism.

This poses enormous dangers for the working class in the Sahel. Some of the issues raised by Putin’s alliance with regimes in the Sahel emerged this week, in reports that the Kremlin may provide security for the Niger junta. RIA Novosti cited a Russian intelligence report analyzing Washington’s plans to intervene against pro-Russian regimes in Africa and referring to CIA targeting of pro-Soviet African bourgeois nationalist figures in the 20th century:

“The White House is working on different options to ‘reinforce democracy’ in Niger. It does not support doing this via an intervention of ECOWAS, which has close ties with Paris. The Americans consider the physical elimination of ‘putschists’ who count upon the support of the majority of the population as a more ‘effective’ option. …
“Starting in the 1960s, the Americans have sought to ‘provide’ the African continent with strong national leaders. The CIA notably contributed to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, the toppling of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, and the arrest of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.”

Today, the imperialist powers are doubtless seeking allies and support inside the region’s ruling elites, to plot wars and the installation of new dictatorships to crush the anti-imperialist mobilization of workers and youth.

In the 20th century, they found anti-communist dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko, who led the ouster and murder of Lumumba in 1960, or Compaoré, who ousted Sankara. Ruling circles in Africa were terrified that the social promises to the population made by figures like Lumumba or Sankara cut across their privileges and ties to imperialism. This took place, moreover, at a time when the African bourgeois regimes were much further to the left. Figures like Lumumba or Sankara were popular internationally and made a far stronger social and political appeal than the leaders of today’s juntas in the Sahel.

Google at 25: Celebrating Successes and Acknowledging Missteps

Mohd Ziyauallah Khan

In the fast-paced world of technology, few companies have had as profound an impact as Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were still students at Stanford University, Google has grown from a humble search engine to a global tech giant that touches nearly every aspect of our lives. As Google celebrates its 25th anniversary, it’s a good time to reflect on what has gone right and what has gone wrong during its remarkable journey.  Starting its journey exactly 25 years ago in the garage of an apartment in the US, the giant tech company has come a long way. It has experienced both the good and the bad during its 25-year journey, which makes it interesting to explore. Let’s begin:

What Went Right?

There are numerous successes that allow the Tech Giant to showcase and celebrate. How about we first examine these major accomplishments before delving into the missteps?

Search Dominance:

Google’s success story began with its search engine, which quickly became the most popular and reliable way to find information on the internet. Google’s search algorithms were revolutionary, providing users with highly relevant results and an easy-to-use interface. Today, Google processes over 5.6 billion searches per day, making it an integral part of our digital lives. And the number is still counting ahead to make it a giant in search engines.

The search engine wielded a tangible impact on the world, making it simpler for people to connect with information, individuals, and businesses globally. Moreover, it has enhanced the accessibility and usefulness of information. Looking ahead to the coming year, expectations are high that the search engine will persist in innovating and introducing novel products and services that will revolutionize our lifestyles and work routines.

Innovation and Diversification:

One of Google’s greatest strengths has been its ability to innovate and diversify. The company has constantly expanded its product offerings, from Gmail and Google Maps to YouTube and Android. These services have not only enhanced user experience but also created new revenue streams for the company. Google Maps assists individuals in navigating to their destinations effectively. Google Translate facilitates seamless travel to different countries by breaking down language barriers, enabling easy communication for users. Google Earth allows people to explore the world from the comfort of their computers. With Google Photos, individuals can effortlessly store and share their photos.

Android Dominance:

Google’s acquisition of Android Inc. in 2005 was a pivotal moment in its history. Android has since become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, powering billions of devices worldwide. This move allowed Google to extend its reach into the mobile ecosystem, ensuring its presence on smartphones and tablets.

Advertising Empire:

Google’s advertising platform, Google Ads (formerly AdWords), has been a cash cow for the company. By creating a highly effective and targeted advertising system, Google has generated vast revenues, making it one of the world’s largest advertising companies. Advertisers can reach their target audience with precision, maximizing the return on their advertising investment.

Cloud Computing:

Google’s foray into cloud computing with Google Cloud has been a strategic move. While Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure dominate the cloud market, Google Cloud has steadily gained ground. Its advanced AI and machine learning capabilities have attracted businesses seeking innovative solutions.

What Went Wrong?

Like many of the positives about Google, there are also some missteps, which are as follows:

Data Privacy Concerns:

Google has faced significant criticism for its handling of user data. From tracking users’ online behavior to sharing personal information across its ecosystem, Google’s data practices have raised privacy concerns. The company has faced legal challenges and regulatory fines for its data handling.

Antitrust and Monopoly Concerns:

Google’s dominant position in online search and advertising has drawn the attention of antitrust regulators in various countries. The company has been accused of abusing its market power to stifle competition, leading to ongoing antitrust investigations and lawsuits.

Censorship and Content Moderation:

As the owner of YouTube, Google faces constant challenges in content moderation. The platform has been criticized for hosting harmful and extremist content, leading to concerns about censorship and the spread of misinformation.

Employee Discontent:

Google, once known for its open and innovative culture, has faced internal strife in recent years. Employee protests and controversies surrounding company policies, such as its handling of sexual harassment allegations, have raised questions about its workplace culture.

Environmental Concerns:

Google’s massive data centers and energy consumption have drawn criticism for their environmental impact. While the company has made commitments to use renewable energy, some argue that it should do more to address its carbon footprint.

Wrapping up 

Google’s journey over the past 25 years has been nothing short of remarkable. The company’s innovations have transformed industries and improved the lives of billions. However, its success has also come with challenges and controversies. As Google looks ahead to the next quarter-century, it will need to navigate complex issues like data privacy, antitrust scrutiny, and employee relations. The company’s ability to adapt and innovate will determine whether it continues to be a dominant force in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Israel: Netanyahu threatens Eritrean migrants with mass deportations after violent police crackdown

Jean Shaoul

The brutal police assault on Eritrean migrants in Tel Aviv last weekend marks a fresh step in the direction of a fascistic, police state in Israel.

It is part of a broader effort by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to whip up a climate of xenophobia and fear. Refugees, particularly Eritreans, have long faced discrimination at the hands of the authorities. They are now being subject to police violence and a concerted racist campaign based on propaganda and lies by a state that justifies its existence based on the monstrous crimes committed by the Nazi regime in Germany against European Jewry.

Israeli riot police attack Eritrean protesters in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, September 2, 2023 [AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg]

Netanyahu’s aim is to deflect rising the social discontent against his government among Jewish Israelis.

Fierce clashes broke out on Saturday morning between around 1,000 supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime near the Eritrean Embassy in downtown Tel Aviv as well as in southern Tel Aviv, home to some of Israel’s poorest citizens, as well as migrants and refugees.

The Eritrean Embassy had organized a cultural festival to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the state following decades of war against Ethiopia which had ruled the country after Italy’s defeat in World War II. Since 1993, President Isaias Afewerki has ruled Eritrea with an iron fist, presiding over a regime of arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture, persecution, rape and murder by government agencies.

More than 500,000 Eritreans (12 percent of the population) have fled the country and sought asylum elsewhere, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Even when living in exile, Eritreans have reported being harassed and threatened by the Eritrean authorities, while remittances to their families back home that constitute a massive 32 percent of the country’s US$8 billion GDP are often diverted to the Eritrean state.

There are around 18,000 Eritreans who, having entered Israel, mainly before 2013, as asylum seekers of whom only a small number are believed to be Afwerki supporters. In Israel, asylum seekers live without rights or access to healthcare, working in low paid, manual jobs. Just 1,000 requests for asylum have been reviewed and fewer than a couple of dozen applications accepted.

Representatives of Israel’s Eritrean community had asked for the event to be cancelled after explicit threats against regime opponents were posted on social media. They warned police that violence would likely erupt, citing events in Toronto where nine people were injured; in Sweden where 100 demonstrators were arrested and 50 injured; and Germany where hundreds of police using clubs and tear gas arrested 100 people. This led to Britain cancelling a similar event.

The Israeli authorities refused to cancel the event, apparently due to Tel Aviv’s close, if secretive, relations with the repressive state. This is despite tensions within the Eritrean community that have spilled over into violence: in 2019, when 20 asylum seekers were arrested in Tel Aviv, and most notably in 2020 when a regime supporter was stabbed to death.

When the expected violence broke out Saturday morning, with demonstrators smashing cars, shop windows and police vans, police responded with unprecedented violence. Wearing full riot gear, they used tear gas, stun and gas grenades and batons and fired live rounds and sponge-tipped bullets at the crowds. At least 170 people were injured, including 49 police officers. Of the protesters, 19 were seriously injured, including 15 from gunshot wounds. Fifty Eritreans were arrested. An investigation has been opened to determine whether the police’s use of firearms was lawful.

Netanyahu said he not only wants Eritreans involved in the clashes deported immediately, but all the country’s 27,000 African asylum seekers, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. “We want harsh measures against the rioters, including the immediate deportation of those who took part,” he said, ordering plans to be prepared “for the removal of all the other illegal infiltrators.” He tied this to his campaign to curtail the powers of the judiciary, noting that the Supreme Court had previously struck down some measures meant to force people to leave.

Israel, despite being a signatory to the International Refugee Convention of 1951, refuses to grant refugee status to those who flee persecution, including to African asylum seekers, because it would lead to renewed demands for the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants who were forced from their homes in the wars of 1948-49 and 1967.

Designating the African asylum seekers as “infiltrators,” Israel says it has no legal obligation to keep them, defying international law that outlaws the forcible return of people to a country where their life or liberty is at risk. After various rulings by the Supreme Court that refugees cannot be forcibly removed, Israel has tried various ways of coercing them to leave. These include sending some to a remote prison in the Negev, later ruled illegal, withholding 20 percent of their wages until after they agree to leave the country, or offering cash inducements to those who agree to move to Rwanda. Together, these measures have resulted in more than 30,000 Africans leaving Israel. Few African asylum seekers have arrived in Israel since 2013, when Netanyahu erected a fence along Israel’s southern border with Egypt.

Israel allows anyone who can claim Jewish descent to live in Israel and become an Israeli citizen under the Law of Return. It even amended the law in 1970 to widen the definition of a Jew to enable Russian immigration to Israel. But it refused for decades to recognise the right of Jews from Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel. Many to this day experience racist discrimination and poverty, while around 10,000 are still “waiting” to immigrate to Israel around 7,000 in Gondar and 3,000 in Addis Ababa.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said the government would draft a new immigration law to override the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court. He described “the massive infiltration of illegal workers from Africa” as “a tangible threat to the character and future of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

As well as extending Israel’s high-tech fence with Egypt, he announced, “Now we will build a fence on our eastern border [with Jordan] and ensure that there will be no infiltration from there either.” The purpose of such a fence that would cost hundreds of millions to upgrade can only be to further isolate and blockade the West Bank, illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

National Security Minister and the fascistic leader of Jewish Power Itamar Ben Gvir is planning to introduce a law that would enable the indefinite detention without trial and/or the mass deportation of people that entered Israel “illegally.” Overriding Israel’s 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, would intensify Israel’s constitutional crisis.

The 53 Eritreans arrested were detained in custody on remand, only to be placed in administrative detention in Givon Prison for 60 days, a period that can be renewed repeatedly, apparently on Ben Gvir’s orders. He was anxious to avoid pressing criminal charges, both because the police evidence was weak and because this might prejudice their being deported to a third country.

On Wednesday, the first 10 Eritreans appeared before an administrative tribunal that served to expose the police’s lack of evidence, and their own criminality—detaining them on suspicion of holding an “illegal gathering” that should not result in police detention—and inhumanity. One detainee hobbling on one leg, without crutches, his other leg having been torn apart by a bullet, told the judge as he choked back tears, “I was in bed in the hospital. Policemen came, took out my infusion and told me come. I’m still hurting and I don’t sleep at night, I thought this was a democracy. We’re people like you, human beings.”

Margalit Cohen, a lawyer for the detainees, read from the transcript in court, “The police had nothing, no evidence against any detainee... why did you arrest him? Because he’s Eritrean? Because someone had to pay to restore the police’s lost honor?”

A regime of mass deportations and administrative detentions, long used against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, is a threat to workers of all national origins, regardless of immigration status, and will inevitably be used against Israeli workers as well.

Jill Biden reinfected with COVID amid latest wave of the pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

The reinfection of first lady Jill Biden with COVID-19 this week, in the midst of an accelerating surge of infections and hospitalizations across the United States, has exposed the utter farce and hypocrisy of the Biden administration declaring the pandemic over and ending the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in May.

Jill and Joe Biden. [Photo by Phil Roeder / CC BY 2.0]

While the first lady remains quarantined at home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, President Joe Biden has flagrantly violated the public health guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and even joked about doing so.

The CDC guidelines state that for those like Joe Biden who have knowingly been exposed to a COVID-19 patient, they must immediately wear a “high-quality mask or respirator (N95) any time you are around others inside your home or indoors in public.” They recommend testing for five full days after the known exposure, adding that for 10 days the exposed person should “Take extra precautions if you will be around people who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19.”

For the US President, these protocols are evidently mere suggestions to be discarded at his discretion. As an 80-year-old man who was already infected with COVID-19 last year, Biden is at elevated risk of severe disease, death and Long COVID if re-infected. But he has clearly become so self-deluded by the ruling class’ pandemic propaganda that he has no concern for his own health or that of others.

On Tuesday, the day after his wife tested positive, while at a ceremony honoring 81-year-old Vietnam veteran Army Captain Larry Taylor, Biden removed his KN95 mask, made a few remarks to the crowd gathered in the East Room, then pinned the Medal of Honor and stood inches from the elderly and at-risk man for a few minutes while the citation for Taylor’s award was read out loud.

At a press briefing the following day, Biden voiced his ignorance and open disdain for public health when he walked out to the podium, again unmasked, and stated while holding his KN95 mask, “I want to explain to the press, I’ve been tested again today. I’m clear across the board. But they keep telling me, because this has to be ten days or something, I got to keep wearing it.” He then joked, “But don’t tell them I didn’t wear it when I walked in.”

These callous and stupid remarks were widely denounced on social media by principled scientists and anti-COVID advocates. In stark contrast, no reporters at the press briefing raised the slightest criticism. Were there a single principled journalist in the room, they would have asked any variation of the following questions, or more:

• If the pandemic is really over, then how did your wife become reinfected?
• If the White House is abiding by pandemic protocols such as testing, then shouldn’t the rest of the nation?
• What type of example are you setting by joking about mask-wearing and using ineffective KN95 masks, when ample research has shown that consistently wearing N95 or better respirators has been proven to prevent COVID infection and transmission?

In a tweet Wednesday, WSWS International Editorial Board chairman David North commented, “The COVID reinfection of 72-year-old Jill Biden is further evidence of the recklessness and sheer stupidity rampant throughout the Biden administration. In both its response to COVID and its Ukraine policies, a self-deluding indifference to reality and human life prevails.”

For the time being, Biden has continued to test negative for COVID-19, but there are reports that an outbreak is spreading through the White House and Biden could easily become re-infected himself at any time. Despite his exposure to Jill Biden, the president is scheduled to fly to India on Thursday for the Group of 20 summit, clearly posing a security threat to the leaders of other countries. Under any rational public health program, this trip would be postponed for the safety of all involved.

Jill Biden’s reinfection takes place as SARS-CoV-2 levels in US wastewater are now nearly four-fold higher than in late June, corresponding to more than 620,000 daily COVID infections. Since the return of students to universities and schools in August, the trend in wastewater is only accelerating upwards.

In the US, hospitalizations are up nearly three-fold, in line with the spike in wastewater data. Weekly COVID-19 admissions were up to 17,418 for the week ending August 26, the most recent date for which data are available, after the lows seen the week ending June 24, when 6,315 people were admitted for COVID-19.

Even the World Health Organization (WHO), itself culpable in downplaying the dangers of the pandemic, warned, “We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the northern hemisphere. Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia; intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalizations are increasing in several regions. Still, data are limited. Only 43 countries—less than a quarter of WHO Member States—are reporting deaths to WHO, and only 20 provide information on hospitalizations.”

As the latest, hidden surge of the pandemic deepens, more research continues to be published on Long COVID, which scientists estimate is now impacting hundreds of millions of people globally and causing massive impacts on the health and well-being of society.

A study recently published in The Lancet indicates that those who suffered from symptoms of muscle pain, impaired attention, shortness of breath or rapid heart rates had a less likely chance of recovering from their post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) two years later than other symptom clusters.

In their two-year prospective examination of the question, the authors also found that pre-existing medical conditions, socioeconomic factors such as educational level, and the specific symptoms mentioned were able to predict the “development of and recovery from the PCC.” They further indicated that “[A]s long as SARS-COV-2 transmission continues and few people are cured from the PCC, subjects with such disabling post-viral syndrome [ five to ten percent per infection ] will continue to accumulate and will have to be properly absorbed and managed by currently unprepared systems.”

On Wednesday, the same day Biden joked about not wearing a mask or following CDC protocols, leading Long COVID researcher David Putrino tweeted, “It’s 2023, and that means my clinic is now seeing a new generation of Long COVID patients who say, ‘I didn’t think this would happen to me, I got through the last *n* infections just fine.’ Be careful out there: viruses don’t care about the pet theories you tell yourself to feel safe.”

Clearly, the realities of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the policies in place for workers in their workplaces are far different than those experienced by the Bidens, who have access to the best healthcare and physicians in the world.

In fact, as a result of the bipartisan, manufactured “end of the pandemic,” over 5.6 million Americans have lost access to health insurance through Medicaid since April 30. The overwhelming majority of workers, who have to labor under onerous and dangerous conditions, do not have the luxury to call in sick or see a doctor, let alone receive free COVID testing or treatments.

As student loan payments resume, millions face a lifetime of debt while Wall Street profits

Kevin Reed & Barry Grey

Starting on October 1, monthly payments on US student loans held by 43 million youth and workers are due to resume for the first time since March 2020. The resumption of payments on $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt, as well as the restart of interest accrual this month, will have devastating social consequences for millions of people.

As part of his 2020 presidential campaign, Democrat Joe Biden promised to forgive the federal student debt of borrowers making under $125,000 a year. Like so many of the Democrats’ campaign promises, this one too has proven completely worthless. For all of Biden’s demagogy, American capitalism is incapable of addressing this or any other significant social issue.

Student debt relief advocates gather outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, as the court hears arguments over President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan. [AP Photo/Patrick Semansky]

Student loan payments were suspended in March 2020 in response to the mass economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which millions of people lost work and pay amid the socially necessary shutdown and quarantine measures taken to stop the spread of the disease. Now, along with the dismantling of any measures to track the virus or stop the continuing and deadly spread of COVID-19, the political establishment is imposing repayments to satisfy the demands of Wall Street to end the 42-month pause.

Since the initial suspension of debt payments, the social crisis has continued to deepen. Over the past three years, the cost of living has increased 20 percent while median wages have fallen.

The scale of the student debt crisis is enormous. According to data maintained by the Federal Reserve, as of March 2023, total US student loan debt was $1.774 trillion, which is greater than the $1.03 trillion credit card debt or the $1.56 trillion auto loan debt. The volume of student loan debt has increased more than three-and-a-half times since 2006, when it was $480 billion. Today, approximately one in five US adults owes money on student loans.

The restart of payments will have a crushing financial impact on students and their families. It comes amid rising interest rates on all types of loans, and at a point when delinquencies on credit card debt and auto loans are the highest they have been in a decade, according to Moody’s Analytics.

As Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told the Washington Post, “The increase in delinquencies and defaults is symptomatic of the tough decisions that these households are having to make right now—whether to pay their credit card bills, their rent or buy groceries.”

Since 2006, average student loan debt has increased by a factor of four, rising from $9,366 to $37,338. According to the US Department of Education, nearly two-thirds—more than $1 trillion—of all the student loan debt is owed by some 27 million individuals between the ages of 25 and 49.

Numerous studies have shown that these borrowers have been forced to take second jobs and postpone life decisions, such as starting a family, buying a house or taking vacations, due to their student loan payments.

Additionally, parents have taken on debt to help their children afford a college education. There are 3.7 million Direct Parent Plus loan borrowers, who owe an average of $30,000. Some have debts as high as $200,000.

Many of these parents will be taking this debt into retirement, and since laws have been passed (at the bidding of the banks) to prevent these loans from being discharged through personal bankruptcy, payments will be garnished from their monthly Social Security checks if they are unable to pay and go into default.

With the June 30, 2023 decision of the US Supreme Court to reject the Biden administration’s plan for extremely limited student loan forgiveness, the ruling class made it clear that nothing will be permitted that reins in the student loan operations of Wall Street.

Aware that the resumption of interest charges and payments will have devastating consequences for millions of borrowers and is already meeting with popular indignation, the Biden administration has put forward a few palliatives that it presents as great boons to the victims of the student loan racket.

Among these are a temporary “on-ramp,” under which no credit reporting or debt collection will be initiated against borrowers who miss payments during the first year of debt payment resumption. However, interest will continue to accrue, and the unpaid debt will be all the greater when the grace period expires.

In addition, Biden’s Save on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan is canceling the debt of approximately 800,000 borrowers who have been forced to make payments for more than 20 years and those who took out less than $12,000 and have been repaying for more than 10 years—in all, about 2 percent of student loan debtors.

Other programs, which do not eliminate debt, involve income-driven repayment options that can reduce monthly payments to $0 for a period, but will extend the loan term to 20 or 25 years while interest accrual continues. As a result, the total debt will exponentially increase.

A geyser of profits for Wall Street

A little-known fact of the government-sponsored system is that the entirety of $130 billion in private loans and a significant portion of federal loans have been securitized in the form of Student Loan Asset-Backed Securities (SLABS).

These are traded by the big financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The banks, hedge funds, investment companies and other Wall Street parasites are raking in billions of dollars in profits from the immiseration of tens of millions of student loan borrowers and their families—perhaps a third of the US population in all.

As was the case with the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme that crashed the housing market and brought the entire capitalist financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008, the private lenders and the government are providing loans to borrowers known to have little or no means of ever repaying. In the financial ruins left by the collapse of the subprime racket, tens of millions of workers lost their jobs, their homes and their life savings. However, the predator bankers and speculators were bailed out to the tune of trillions of dollars by the Bush and Obama administrations, the Federal Reserve and the two big business parties.

So they moved on from profiteering off of housing to looting the population through the soaring cost of higher education.

The sweetheart arrangement between the government, the financial industry and the educational institutions has been built up over decades to fleece the public, using the false promise that a college education will guarantee a good paying job and high standard of living.

As explained by Josh Mitchell in his recent book, The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe:

The student loan program is the quintessential form of crony capitalism. It privatized profits and socialized losses. In an echo of the housing bubble, all the risks fell to students and their families, who have been told repeatedly that college and grad school are safe and necessary investments.

Among the most indebted students are those pursuing graduate degrees. The average debt of grad students is $71,000, and for those seeking a law, medical or dental degree, the average owed is $130,000, $203,000 and $301,000, respectively. Many of these students are forced to work as teaching assistants and paid at minimum-wage rates.

Penny, a graduate student at West Virginia University, told the World Socialist Web Site:

I did the math recently for an income-based repayment plan where I could pay on my loans for 10 years, and I would owe more at the end of that 10 years than what I started with, despite paying something like 75k.

The ballooning of student loan debt is not only a means of intensifying the economic exploitation of the working class, it is also part of a systematic attack on the right to education.

The New York Times recently reported that since 1992 the price for attending four-year private colleges has almost doubled, while the price at four-year public colleges has more than doubled, even after adjusting for inflation. The average cost of attending a private college, including living expenses, is now about $58,000 per year. Prestigious public institutions like the University of Michigan can cost more than $80,000 a year.

More and more, attending college has become an almost unbearable financial burden for working class and lower-middle class families. Since 2008–2009, college enrollment has been steadily declining, from 21 million in 2010 to 18 million in 2021, and only a third of Americans now say they have a great deal of confidence in higher education, once seen as the prime lever of social mobility.

As a result, higher education, especially at a top university, has increasingly become the prerogative of the very wealthy. Only about 10 percent of students are enrolled in selective colleges, and the most selective—often the most expensive—are largely attended by the children of the top 10 percent and even top 1 percent of income earners.

While the public is told there is no government money available for education, trillions of dollars are being spent on war as well as massive bank bailouts. The US has so far spent more than $60 billion on the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, including $43 billion in direct military aid, such as for weapons and equipment. For 2024, the Biden administration requested a $1 trillion military budget to prepare for a world conflict, including against China.

And when Silicon Valley Bank and several other banks collapsed last spring, the Biden administration stepped in to provide more than $150 billion in funds to protect rich investors.

As the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin emphasized, imperialism means “reaction all down the line.” All social needs in society are subordinated to the financial and the geopolitical interests of the financial oligarchy. The money spent for war and the destruction of human life abroad is being plundered from the working class at home, through attacks on its living standards and its democratic rights, including the right to public education. 

The profiteering on college loans by the financial elite is part of a broader attack on education, including the shutdown of public schools and their government-backed takeover by private companies, cuts in public school budgets, and attacks on educators’ wages and working conditions.

UN report reveals multidimensional social catastrophe in Sri Lanka

Saman Gunadasa

On September 1, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its Understanding Multidimensional Vulnerabilities: Impact on People of Sri Lanka report.

The wide-ranging survey of 25,000 households, conducted between November 2022 and March this year exposes the devastating impact of the deepening global economic crisis and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures being implemented by the Wickremesinghe government.

Protesting women demand Aswsuma relief payments in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, on 26 June 2023 [Photo: Facebook]

The report examined living standards, health, disasters and education. These were subdivided into 12 indicators, including debt status, physical health condition, food stock, employment status, asset ownership, school attendance and water sources. It revealed that approximately 12.34 million people or 55.7 percent of the Sri Lankan population of 22.16 million are “multidimensionally vulnerable.”

These extraordinary figures point to the social factors that gave rise to last year’s popular uprising against then President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the increasing opposition to the Wickremesinghe government, and the rising number of working-class struggles.

According to the report, the highest contributor to multidimensional vulnerability is household debt, with 33.4 percent of the population experiencing social deprivation caused by this factor. Overall national poverty in 2022 doubled to 25 percent and urban poverty tripled to 15 percent.

In 2022, the Sri Lankan economy contracted by 7.8 percent as a result of IMF measures, with half a million jobs destroyed, mainly in construction, transport, food and accommodation, which are predominantly based in urban areas.

The Multidimensional Vulnerabilities survey found that individuals adopt “various coping strategies in response to their challenging circumstances.” These include, “pawning jewelry, borrowing from friends and relatives, taking on additional work, reducing meal portions, purchasing food on credit, and even skipping meals.”

A staggering 60 percent of Sri Lankans are reducing their nutritional intake by turning to cheaper food alternatives. “About 30.8 percent opt to decrease meal portions to prolong the period of sustenance, while approximately 20.9 percent limit the number of daily meals for the same purpose. Around 19.5 percent resort to buying food on credit. Another 3 percent of Sri Lankans report skipping meals for days due to their circumstances,” the survey said.

Protesters occupy Divisional Secretariat office in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, June 26, 2023 [Photo: Facebook]

The high cost of essential food items, it continued, meant that more families “are at risk of falling into the vicious cycle of malnutrition, poor health, and poverty, which, in the longer term, results in reduced human capital development and poor health outcomes.”

The report warned that this would have a long-term impact on “human capital”—i.e., was a risk to profit generation by big business and international finance capital.

The UNDP said that the second largest contributor to Multidimensional Vulnerabilities was reductions in the “adaptive capacity to deal with disaster” now being aggravated by “accelerating climate risks.”

It warned that nearly half of the population lacked climate-related disaster preparedness. Damage to their livelihoods was “causing indebtedness, food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable communities and eroding their capacity to adapt and respond.”

Sri Lanka is “highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change—in particular, rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and intensifying extreme events such as flooding, storms and droughts.”

The survey noted that agricultural workers and others whose livelihoods depended on natural resources are heavily impacted by increasingly severe and frequent weather events and experience higher poverty rates compared to other sectors.

The survey called for “key interventions to enhance education levels among both genders” and said the whole education system had been set back in 2022 by the economic turmoil and the full or partial closure of schools for the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 35 percent of the Sri Lankan population, the survey said, is vulnerable and deprived in relation to water. The “lack of reliable access to safe water is one of the strongest contributors to vulnerability,” the survey added. This deprivation has been created by successive Sri Lankan governments.

Launching the report last Friday, UNDP Sri Lanka Resident Representative Azusa Kubota said the survey should compel policy and decision-makers to “dive deep into the real issues” facing Sri Lankan people.

But contrary to Kubota’s appeals, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government are ruthlessly implementing IMF austerity measures, which are deepening the social assault on the lives and conditions of workers and the rural masses.

In March 2023, the IMF approved a $US3 billion bailout loan to the Sri Lankan government with strict conditions. These include the privatisation/restructuring of 430 state-owned enterprises (SOE), the destruction of tens of thousands of jobs and the elimination of remaining subsidised services.

State funds for health, education, subsistence agriculture and other sectors are already on the chopping block. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena told an “SOE reform: Challenges and Opportunities” seminar that there were no funds for social services, and that the government needed “more tax revenues or dividends from [more efficient] SOEs.”

While the official Sri Lankan inflation rate was four percent in August, the price of food, fuel, water, cooking gas and other essentials continue to rise as the rupee falls and import costs climb.

Direct and indirect taxes on working people have been raised to backbreaking levels, and workers’ pension funds are subject to expropriation to lower the government’s domestic debt. The Wickremesinghe government is also moving to impose new labour laws that will eviscerate workers limited, but nevertheless hard won and essential, democratic rights to facilitate increased big-business investment.

With the backing of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, which is controlled by the Rajapakse family, the Wickremesinghe regime is implementing the IMF dictates. Sri Lanka’s so-called opposition parties, including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, (JVP), as well as the pseudo-left and the trade unions, fully endorse the IMF’s demands and defend capitalist profits.

The only way the working class can overcome the worsening social catastrophe and defeat the attacks of the government, which act on behalf of international finance capital, is by mobilising its independent political strength, in alliance with its international class brothers and sisters, and fighting for a socialist program.

Such a program includes repudiation of all foreign loans, nationalisation of the big business conglomerates, including the banks and plantations, and placing them under workers’ democratic control. This also involves organising production according to social need, not profits, and the seizure and redistribution of the wealth of the super-rich to overcome mass poverty and starvation.