US careens toward government shutdown

Barry Grey

The crisis of the political system in the US reached a new level of intensity over the past week, with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement Tuesday of an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, the announcement Thursday by a Justice Department special counsel of a criminal indictment against Biden’s son, Hunter, and the growing prospect of a shutdown of the federal government when the current fiscal year ends on September 30.

This takes place in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, in which the leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is under federal and state criminal indictment for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The presumptive Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is unpopular, visibly fragile if not senile, and focused on escalating the war against Russia and preparing for military conflict with China, two nuclear powers. This is coupled with mobilizing the trade union apparatus to suppress a growing rebellion by the working class.

To pay for the current and looming wars and shore up the world position of the US dollar, the American ruling class must brutally increase its exploitation of the working class, destroy millions more jobs, and gut what remains of basic social programs on which hundreds of millions of workers and young people rely.

It is not accidental that the escalation of the US political crisis coincides with the United Auto Workers’ calling of a mini-strike against the Detroit Three automakers. Working directly with the auto bosses and the Biden administration, UAW President Shawn Fain is desperately trying to block an all-out strike by 150,000 US autoworkers, who are furious over the deliberate undermining of a serious fight by the union bureaucracy.

On Tuesday, September 12, the day the House returned from its summer recess, McCarthy bowed to the demands of the fascist House Freedom Caucus and Trump, announcing the launching of an impeachment inquiry into alleged corrupt relations between President Biden and his son, Hunter. The latter’s shady and lucrative business dealings in both Ukraine and China while Biden was vice president are well known, as is Biden’s assistance in the efforts of Hunter to trade on his father’s position to win clients and amass consulting fees. Still, despite months of investigations by House Republicans, no hard evidence has been put forward showing that the senior Biden personally profited from his son’s operations or was directly involved. Just two weeks ago, McCarthy, lacking sufficient support among House Republicans to obtain a vote for an impeachment inquiry, had said he would not announce one on his own. But that is precisely what he did last Tuesday.

From left, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. attend the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the United States Department of Justice with testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. [AP Photo/Michaels Reynolds/AP]

Within minutes of McCarthy’s announcement, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a leader of the Freedom Caucus, gave a speech from the House floor calling the impeachment inquiry a mere “baby step” and threatening to lodge a “motion to vacate,” which would trigger a vote to remove McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair. Gaetz reiterated his caucus’s demands for trillions in cuts in social programs and a de facto ban on asylum seekers. He added demands for limits on Ukraine war funding, as well as non-compliance with the special counsel’s prosecution of Trump for attempting to overthrow the 2020 election, which he called “election interference” by Biden’s Justice Department. Unless McCarthy acceded to these demands, Gaetz said, his caucus would vote against a continuing resolution for short-term funding for the federal government and precipitate a shutdown on October 1.

Gaetz on deficits and the dollar

In an interview Tuesday on MSNBC following his speech from the House floor, Gaetz echoed the concerns of Wall Street over the explosive growth of the US national debt and government deficits and channeled their demands for unprecedented cuts in social spending. He said:

We are about to hit the moment in time where we are going to run $2 trillion annual deficits at a time when much of the world is de-dollarizing, from BRICS to the African Union to more energy being sold in the yuan due to the energy deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. So as the world de-dollarizes, I think that it’s really dangerous for us to be running up these deficits. If Speaker McCarthy brought us individual spending bills over the year, he would not be facing the challenge.

When the 218th Congress opened last January, Gaetz and company blocked McCarthy’s election as House speaker until the 15th ballot. With the Republicans holding a mere five-vote majority in the House, the Freedom Caucus exerted and continues to exert leverage all out of proportion to its actual support in the population.

The Freedom Caucus fascists extracted pledges from McCarthy in return for allowing his elevation to Speaker, including holding separate votes on all 12 individual appropriations bills for the federal government instead of an omnibus bill, a budget blueprint that would use fiscal 2022 as its starting point, a vote on term limits, plum committee assignments for Freedom Caucus members, further militarization of the US-Mexico border and a balanced budget vote. These demands add up to the evisceration of public health, education, nutrition, housing and anti-poverty programs, which have already been starved of funds under Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

On Thursday, David Weiss, the Trump-appointed US attorney for Delaware, who was elevated last month to special counsel by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, announced the indictment of Hunter Biden on three felony charges related to his illegal purchase of a gun in 2018. The charges, which potentially carry substantial prison time, mean the president’s son could be on trial in the midst of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. During the same period, Biden himself will likely face subpoenas and possible impeachment proceedings in the Republican-controlled House, and Trump could be on trial in either state or federal court.

The same day, at an internal meeting of House Republicans, McCarthy was blocked via a procedural vote led by Gaetz and his allies from moving to a floor vote on a Department of Defense annual defense spending bill. The $846.45 billion bill includes a 5.4 percent pay raise for service members and a large boost to starting pay for new recruits. McCarthy, who, along with most Republican leaders, supports the war against Russia, sought to get the bill passed by the House and then proceed to a one-month continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown of the government. McCarthy’s bill, in a concession to Gaetz and Trump, stripped out funding for the Ukraine war. By blocking a vote on the bill, at least for the present, the Freedom Caucus made a federal shutdown in two weeks more likely.

Biden responsible as poverty and inequality soar

The Biden White House has sought “common ground” with the Republican demands for massive social cuts. The omnibus budget bill passed by Congress last December and signed into law by Biden ended an emergency increase in food stamps benefits enacted after the COVID-19 outbreak. The cut, which took effect March 1 of this year, sharply reduced benefits for 42 million Americans, all of them poor and many of them children. This was followed by the removal from Medicaid rolls of tens of millions of low income people, including millions of children, the termination of the expanded child tax credit and other stimulus programs enacted at the onset of COVID-19 and the resumption of payments on university student loans.

It is under these conditions that a far-right faction of the Republican Party, publicly supported by Trump, is seeking to engineer a partial shutdown of the government. This would not affect programs of vital concern to the ruling class, since military operations and those of repressive agencies like the FBI and CIA would not be affected nor would payments on the national debt. But all domestic social programs and regulatory agencies would be halted, although Social Security and similar benefit payments would still be made.

Whether or not a shutdown occurs or is averted by a compromise agreement that includes a short-term continuation of current funding levels, the outcome will shift the trajectory of official policy further to the right and ratchet up the attack on the social conditions and democratic rights of the working class.

The political responsibility for the outsized influence of the growing fascist wing of the Republican Party rests with Biden and the Democrats, who have systematically worked to cover up the complicity of the Republican Party, as well as sections of the military, police, FBI, financial elite, corporate media and US Supreme Court, in the attempted coup of January 6 and the ongoing conspiracy to establish a dictatorship.

Even now, with Trump and his allies in Congress seeking to shut down the government and create the maximum level of havoc in advance of the 2024 elections, the mantra of Biden and the Democrats continues to be an appeal for bipartisan unity and a “strong Republican Party” in order to conduct the war against Russia and suppress the working class at home.

The Sunday interview shows highlighted the conflicts within the Republican ranks between various right-wing factions and the desperate efforts of the Democrats to maintain an alliance with a section of the GOP so as to prosecute the war against Russia. NBC devoted the inaugural appearance of Kristen Welker as host of “Meet the Press” to an extensive interview with Trump. Asked if he backed the threat of the Freedom Caucus to shut down the government unless the FY 2024 budget includes far deeper social cuts, Trump endorsed a shutdown, saying, “I’d shut down the government if they don’t get an appropriate deal.”

McCarthy, interviewed on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program, moderated by the fascistic Maria Bartiromo, dared Gaetz and Co. to bring a motion to vacate, which he knows would likely fail. He said he would bring a continuing resolution agreement to the floor for a vote this coming week. Touting his record as a budget-cutter, he cited his deal with Biden at the end of May to raise the US debt ceiling, saying it included “the biggest cut in US history, nearly $2 trillion.”

Interviewed on ABC’s “This Week” program, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York reiterated the Biden administration’s appeals for bipartisan unity. Calling for an end to “partisan gamesmanship,” he said, “We’re going to continue to try and find common ground with the other side.” Despite McCarthy’s launching of an impeachment inquiry against Biden, Jeffries did not rule out supplying Democratic votes to keep McCarthy as House Speaker should Gaetz place a motion to vacate the position. Asked if he would back McCarthy, Jeffries said “no decision” had been made.

New Thai cabinet stacked with pro-military and big business figures

Ben McGrath

The new Thai government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took office early this month after being approved by the monarchy. The administration came to power following May’s general election, after which the winner, the Move Forward Party, was blocked by the military from forming a government. The composition of the cabinet and the subsequent release of its first policy statement last week make clear the anti-working class, anti-democratic character of the government.

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, arrives at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. [AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit]

Srettha’s Pheu Thai Party formed a coalition with the two military-backed parties—the previous ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and the United Thai Nation Party (UTN). The coalition also includes eight other parties including the right-wing populist Bhumjaithai Party (BJTP), which was part of the regime installed after the 2014 military coup. Coup leader General Prayut Chan-o-cha held power as junta leader then prime minister up to this year’s election.

Within the 34-member cabinet, portfolios have been allocated to six of those parties, with Pheu Thai holding 18 ministerial positions. The BJTP has eight posts, the PPRP and UTN each hold three, and Chartthaipattana and Prachachart hold one each.

The cabinet also includes nine officials who served in Prayut’s government. These include Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of the BJTP, Labor Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, another BJTP member, and Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompow of the PPRP. He has previously been described in Thai media as a “fixer” for Prayut’s military junta. Another figure in the new government is Patcharawat Wongsuwon, a PPRP member who was not in Prayut’s cabinet, but is the younger brother of Prawit Wongsuwon, another 2014 coup leader and current head of the PPRP.

The inclusion of so many figures in the new cabinet who are close to the military and the monarchy makes clear that Pheu Thai, which has long postured as the party of “democracy” in Thailand, has abandoned any pretensions to represent a democratic alternative. In the face of growing discontent of workers, farmers and the poor, the bourgeois Pheu Thai party fears a social explosion no less than the military.

Pheu Thai is the de facto successor of the Thai Rak Thai Party, with its members migrating to the People’s Power Party following the 2006 coup, and then to Pheu Thai in 2008. The party represents a dissident faction of the ruling class frustrated at the domination of the traditional ruling elites—the military, monarchy and state bureaucracy. In power, it gained a following among the rural and urban poor by implementing limited social reforms while pushing for a further opening up of the economy to foreign investors.

The military, which controls the unelected upper house giving it a veto over the formation of a government, has allowed Pheu Thai to take power to mollify widespread public discontent, but is keeping it on a tight leash.

Pheu Thai’s pledges to rewrite the anti-democratic 2017 military constitution will be blocked or purely cosmetic. Prime minister Srettha has already made clear that his government will not touch the draconian lèse-majesté law that is used to muzzle criticism of the monarchy.

Any changes the new government does carry out will largely be to benefit big business and the ruling elites. Srettha himself is a 61-year-old real estate tycoon and not an elected member of parliament.

Many leading cabinet members are from big business. They have pledged to boost Thailand’s economy. Bangkok has set a modest target of 5 percent GDP growth annually. Currently, the government expects 3.2 percent growth for next year while growth stood at just 1.8 percent in the second quarter of this year. This inevitably means imposing austerity on working people.

The government’s agenda is being given a populist façade, with a three-year debt moratorium for farmers and small businesses announced on September 13. Thai household debt is more than 90 percent of the country’s GDP. More details of the moratorium will be announced in coming weeks.

In releasing his government’s agenda to the National Assembly on September 11, Srettha focused heavily on the economy. “Under the present economic circumstances, Thailand is like a sick person…Tourism and spending are recovering so slowly that there is the risk of economic recession. It is necessary to stimulate the economy and spending,” he said.

Another promise is a 10,000-baht ($US280) digital wallet scheme, slated to be implemented early next year. All Thai citizens 16 and older will receive 10,000 baht in digital currency as part of a stimulus plan. People are restricted in how they can use the digital currency, which will only be valid for six months. They will be barred from spending the digital currency to reduce their debt and must spend it within four kilometers of their registered address. It is not convertible to hard currency except by approved businesses who must pay taxes when doing so. The plan has specifically been touted as a means of raising tax revenue.

Like many of Pheu Thai’s pledges, detail of the digital wallet scheme has not been worked out or released to the public. However, the handout is primarily designed to develop new digital infrastructure for businesses and has been backed by companies working with blockchain technology.

Pheu Thai also pledged to raise the minimum wage to a paltry 400 baht ($US11.20) a day. The current daily minimum is between 328 and 354 baht, varying by province. Big business, however, has already pushed back on this limited increase.

Labor Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, a wealthy businessman and former Prayut cabinet member, criticised the increase, saying, “If we are going to increase the minimum wage to 400 baht, inflation and GDP must be considered.” He continued, “Under the current economic circumstances, the wage should increase by 2 percent,” or an increase to 361 baht at most.

A key aspect of the government’s economic plan is the promotion of new free trade agreements while opening the economy further to foreign investment. While traveling to the US for the UN General Assembly this coming week, Srettha plans to hold discussions with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Telsa on investing in Thailand.

While much has been said about these economic issues, little has been discussed publicly about the growing danger of a US-instigated war with China that would inevitably draw in Thailand. The new government has stated that it will continue a balancing act between Washington and Beijing. This will prove increasingly difficult as Washington lines up its allies in the Indo-Pacific for its war drive.

US imperialist hypocrisy and the Libyan flood

Patrick Martin

A man sits by the graves of the flash flood victims in Derna, Libya, Friday, September 15, 2023. [AP Photo/Yousef Murad]

Over the weekend, former President Barack Obama urged his 132 million followers on Twitter (X) to make contributions to charitable organizations aiding the people of Derna, the Libyan city devastated by a flood that killed well over 20,000 people, according to estimates by local officials.

“If you’re looking to help people impacted by the floods in Libya, check out these organizations providing relief,” Obama wrote, citing an appeal from his own foundation.

This statement provoked a barrage of hostile comments on social media from those who justifiably cited Obama’s own responsibility for creating the conditions for the Libyan disaster. His government launched the US-NATO war in 2011 that destroyed the existing regime of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The bombing set in motion the protracted civil war, still ongoing, that has laid waste to a country that was once the richest in Africa.

Other top US officials responsible for the war in Libya include then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who played the main role in publicly justifying the war. She gloated about US-NATO success in killing Gaddafi. “We came, we saw, he died,” she boasted at the time.

Now-President Biden issued his own sanctimonious appeal for support and sympathy for the Libyan people. “Jill and I send our deepest condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones in the devastating floods in Libya,” he said in a statement last week, adding that the US was sending emergency funds to relief organizations. No dollar amount has been announced yet, but it will be a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.1 billion spent by the US on the 2011 war, let alone the tens of billions being spent on the war against Russia in Ukraine.

The total aid appeal announced by the United Nations is only $71 million. This sum is dwarfed by the vast human need, and by the enormous amounts squandered on the killing zone that Ukraine has become. The European Union, which has poured nearly $40 billion into the war against Russia, pledged a mere $537,000 in aid to the victims of the Derna flood.

The United Nations also bears responsibility for the Libyan tragedy. On March 17, 2011, the UN Security Council approved actions against Libya (with Russia and China abstaining rather than vetoing), authorizing members states to “take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi.” This language gave the UN seal of approval to the imperialist pretext for attacking Libya, the supposed threat of a massacre of the people of Benghazi by Gaddafi’s forces. Two days later, the US-NATO bombing began.

That war killed 25,000 Libyans, including Gaddafi, who was tortured and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists recruited, trained and armed by the Pentagon and CIA, as well as Britain and France. These fighters were then shipped by the CIA to Syria to join an insurgent movement against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that became known as ISIS. The port through which these hardened guerrillas were transported was the city of Derna, now largely destroyed by the September 10 flood.

Other Islamists moved south, destabilizing most of the Sahel region, including Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, and spreading violence into Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.

A map featuring north and central Africa. [Photo: www.openstreetmap.org]

Within Libya itself, the consequences of the US-led war were catastrophic. Economically, Africa’s most prosperous country before the US-NATO attack has been transformed into one of poverty and deprivation, with crumbling infrastructure. In 2010, the year before the war, Libya’s GDP was $11,611 per capita. By 2021, this figure was cut nearly in half, to $5,909 per capita. The country’s net wealth actually fell 21 percent from 2010 to 2021, in sharp contrast to African countries like Ethiopia (up 591 percent), Kenya (up 468 percent) and Nigeria (up 230 percent).

The US-NATO bombing of Libya was followed by a civil war between rival factions, each backed by a different constellation of outside powers vying for control of the country’s vast oil and gas reserves, the largest in Africa. Libya has now been effectively partitioned between an eastern region headquartered in Benghazi and a western region controlled from Tripoli, the capital city.

Reportedly the eastern region rulers, headed by Khalifa Haftar, once a CIA asset but now allied with France, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, looked with suspicion on the city of Derna because of its role in the activities of the Islamic fundamentalists and American intelligence operatives. They were not inclined to expend resources to repair and strengthen the infrastructure there, even after reports of visible cracks in the two dams which protected the city against possible flooding of the wadi, the riverbed, usually dry, which ran through its center.

It was these two dams that failed under the impact of Storm Daniel, the hurricane-sized weather event, likely strengthened by climate change, which poured more than 15 inches of water on the city, a year’s average rainfall in a few hours. The huge volume of water, freed from any constraint by the dam collapse, roared down upon the defenseless inhabitants of Derna and swept away or buried in mud an estimated one in four buildings in a city of nearly 100,000 people.

The American corporate media, of course, says nothing in its coverage of the disaster about the responsibility of the Obama-Biden administration and the US government for this colossal human tragedy. There will be no indictments, either politically or juridically, of the war criminals in Washington.

When the United Nations General Assembly convenes Monday in New York City, the leaders of the major powers will give complacent speeches about the urgency of mobilizing the world in support of Ukraine. They may even give lip service to the causes of fighting global hunger and disease, the need to assist the victims of “natural disasters” in Morocco, Libya, Turkey and countless other countries.

Coinciding with this event is the two-day conference sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative, the foundation run by Bill and Hillary Clinton. This boasts seven US governors, four Biden cabinet members, two former White House press secretaries, a genuine war criminal, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and reportedly the Pope. There is no mention in its voluminous agenda of either the Libyan disaster or Hillary Clinton’s role in it.

There is silence likewise from the pseudo-left groups and “left” academics who backed the US-NATO war in Libya, and who now back the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. None of these groups has the slightest independence from American imperialism or its European rivals. All of them, like Obama, Biden and Clinton, have blood on their hands, and political and moral responsibility for one of great crimes of the 21st century.

Report exposes fraudulent antisemitism accusations at UK universities

Thomas Scripps

A report has highlighted the anti-democratic impact of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism, which maliciously equates criticisms of Israel with anti-Jewish hate.

“The Adverse Impact of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism” was co-authored by Palestinian legal advocacy group the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRSMES). It examines 40 antisemitism investigations in universities following accusations levelled under the IHRA. Not one has resulted in the accused being found at fault: 38 individuals or organisations have been cleared and two investigations are ongoing.

“The Adverse Impact of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism” co-authored by Palestinian legal advocacy group the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRSMES) [Photo: brismes.ac.uk]

The report concludes that critics of the Israeli state, advocates for Palestinian rights and those teaching the history and politics of the region have been “subjected to false allegations of antisemitism” and that “those falsely accused have felt their reputations to have been sullied.”

Accusations “have had an adverse effect on academic freedom and freedom of speech on campuses, leading, in some cases, to the cancellation of events”. They have created a “a chilling effect among staff and students, deterring individuals from speaking about or organising events that discuss Palestinian human rights”.

The IHRA definition has been adopted by 119 universities (75 percent) following a relentless cross-party campaign covered previously by the World Socialist Web Site. We warned in October 2020 that then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was “preparing for the censorship of hundreds of thousands of students and higher education staff” as “the latest move in a five-year conspiracy of the Conservative government, the Labour Party and Zionist organisations aimed at criminalising vast swathes of the political left.”

The ELSC-BRSMES report covers 24 cases involving staff members, nine involving students, and seven involving student groups across 14 different universities—11 of them in the prestigious Russell Group.

Its authors note a “common feature across several cases is the occurrence of significant levels of monitoring and surveillance of any publicly expressed analysis or opinion about Israel or Palestine. This includes recording student speeches, staff lectures, and other presentations; monitoring student or staff social media posts (including the collection of social media posts several years after they were written); reviewing academic publications; and reviewing course syllabi and reading lists.”

In most cases, students or staff were made to suffer a prolonged period of official harassment and interference on the basis of false accusations. Seven students were put through disciplinary hearings lasting “several months, resulting in prolonged student stress and anxiety”.

A highlighted case saw one student investigated for two months for sharing a Human Rights Watch infographic about Israel’s apartheid system in the West Bank, which they referred to entirely fairly as “ethnic cleansing…reminiscent of South African apartheid.”

Seven student societies had pro-Palestinian events or initiatives disrupted, with accusers focusing on Israeli Apartheid Week activities. Four events were fully cancelled by the university. Others had outrageous “vetting” conditions imposed, like requiring the organisers to declare their support for the IHRA definition in advance, to change the titles of their events, record them and refuse access to the public. Staff members were sent to monitor some events for IHRA compliance.

Dr. Somdeep Sen, Associate Professor at Roskilde University, felt forced to cancel a lecture on his book Decolonizing Palestine: Hamas between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial at the University of Glasgow. The Jewish Students Society lodged a complaint claiming the topic was antisemitic, leading the university to demand Dr. Sen provide details of his talk in advance and promise not to say anything that would contravene the IHRA. He refused to comply with these discriminatory conditions.

Eighteen staff members were investigated or given formal disciplinary hearings, all of which produced findings of “no case to answer” or “exonerated of all charges”. One was forced onto leave by stress and many “cited adverse consequences for their teaching preparation and research.”

This is political repression worthy of a dictatorship, carried out to safeguard the criminal Israeli state from criticism and cow its left-wing opponents.

But the report’s publication is another indication of a growing backlash against the campaign to enforce the IHRA. It notes, for example, the opinion of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, E. Tendayi Achiume, that the definition should not be used “owing to its susceptibility to being politically instrumentalised and the harm done to human rights resulting from such instrumentalization.”

Legal experts Hugh Tomlinson KC and Geoffrey Robertson KC, and the retired lord justices of appeal Sir Stephen Sedley and Sir Anthony Hooper have also been critical, with Robertson commenting pointedly, “The definition does not cover the most insidious forms of hostility to Jewish people and the looseness of the definition is liable to chill legitimate criticisms of the State of Israel and coverage of human rights abuses against Palestinians.”

The WSWS commented on the downplaying of far-right danger by the “left antisemitism” campaign last December.

In April this year, over 100 international and Israeli civil rights groups including B’Tselem, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch wrote to the UN urging it not to adopt the IHRA, explaining: “Adoption of the definition by governments and institutions is often framed as an essential step in efforts to combat antisemitism. In practice, however, the IHRA definition has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and sometimes suppress, non-violent protest, activism and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism, including in the US and Europe.”

This response cannot be separated from events in Israel-Palestine, where the Netanyahu government’s warmongering and dictatorial aspirations, backed by his fascistic coalition partners, are laying bare the character of the Israeli state and its oppression of the Palestinians. At the same time, critics of the IHRA have doubtless been emboldened by the hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting the government and visibly tearing apart the idea that the State of Israel represents all Jews for all time, or that opposition to it is inherently antisemitic.

But the widespread criticism of the IHRA raises fundamental questions. How did it become so entrenched in the first place, and how does the antisemitism witch-hunt continue to smear so many?

The answer is the bipartisan support lent by Britain’s main capitalist parties, and the politically criminal retreat orchestrated by former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn. Accusations of left antisemitism and the IHRA came to prominence in Britain in a slanderous attack waged by the Labour and Conservative parties and the media on Corbyn and his supporters, designed to ruin his chances of election and set a chilling example to left-wing, anti-imperialist workers and youth.

Corbyn capitulated, allowing the accusations to fester and accepting and even facilitating the expulsion from the Labour Party of some of his closest allies. In September 2018, he accepted the IHRA definition in full. An extensive account of the witch-hunt and Corbyn’s role was published by the WSWS in April 2020.

The Conservative government and the Labour Party cannot be allowed to continue dictating political opinions to students and academics. Israel’s crimes cannot be shielded by a sham definition of antisemitism which terrorises opponents of dictatorship, oppression and war. The Jewish population in Israel and around the world cannot be falsely and dangerously equated with the right-wing ruling class in charge of the Israeli state.

Study adds to growing evidence of link between COVID-19 and type 1 diabetes in children

Bill Shaw

A new study adds to the growing body of evidence that COVID-19 is responsible for the increased onset of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children. type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means that the immune system attacks the body’s own cells. Autoimmunity is typically mediated by the development of antibodies that erroneously recognize cellular proteins as foreign. These antibodies are called “autoantibodies” for short.

The study found that the development of antibodies to COVID-19 was associated with the concurrent or subsequent development of the autoantibodies that are characteristically seen in type 1 diabetes. These autoantibodies—collectively referred to as “islet autoantibodies”—attack insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Eventually the body cannot produce enough insulin, which results in blood glucose levels soaring to unhealthy and even dangerous levels.

The power of the study derives from the fact that it has followed children longitudinally since 2018 for the purposes of studying type 1 diabetes. It has collected blood samples from the children at least every six months from enrollment at age 4-7 months until the age of 6.5 years. More frequent collection occurred from enrollment until age 2 years. Thus, the study could pinpoint the timing at which islet autoantibodies and SARS-CoV-2 virus antibodies appeared in the children’s blood.

The study had two key additional strengths. First, it enrolled children from four countries, so its results were much less likely to be impacted by unique circumstances or populations in any one country. Second, it also looked at the development of antibodies to an influenza virus relative to the onset of islet autoantibodies. Comparing against influenza, which has not been associated with type 1 diabetes onset, served as a control to rule out potential other, undetected effects and a possible general effect of viral infections.

The children in the study who developed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies had a risk of developing multiple islet autoantibodies that was a staggering 3.5 times higher than children who did not. It is known that approximately 70 percent of children who develop multiple islet autoantibodies will progress to type 1 diabetes mellitus within 10 years. Thus, the vast majority of these children would be expected to develop type 1 diabetes.

In the influenza virus comparison, 101 children developed influenza virus antibodies. No children in the study developed islet autoantibodies concurrently with or after developing influenza antibodies. Thus, the expected lack of association with influenza virus was abundantly confirmed. The association between infection and type 1 diabetes is therefore not a general viral phenomenon but very likely specific to SARS-CoV-2.

The study also computed incidence rates of developing islet autoantibodies, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and influenza antibodies. The longitudinal tracking of the children over a years-long time interval was the key to enabling these calculations.

The incidence rates, during various time intervals, for developing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was consistent with the temporal course of the pandemic. For example, the incidence rate was highest—81.7 per 100 person years—during the Omicron variant surge from January to June 2022. It was zero prior to the pandemic and 4.4 per 100 person years in its first phase from July to December 2020.

The incidence rates for developing islet autoantibodies did not vary significantly over time. The incidence rate for the development of influenza antibodies was 13.4 per 100 person years prior to the pandemic, dropped dramatically to 4.0 during the first phase of the pandemic (during temporary lockdowns, mask mandates, initial school closures, etc.) and then rose again to 11.8 from January to June 2022, following the universal implementation of the criminal “let it rip” policies of the ruling class.

For children who developed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, their subsequent incidence rate for developing islet autoantibodies was 7.8 per 100 person years. This compares to an incidence rate of 4.0 for children who were negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The incidence rate ratio was therefore 2.3, which means that one would expect 2.3 times as many children per year to develop islet autoantibodies who are positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies versus children who are negative.

The attributable proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infection to the development of islet autoantibodies was 57 percent. That means that of all the children with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies who subsequently developed islet autoantibodies, approximately 57 percent of them would not have developed islet autoantibodies if they had not been infected.

The study also looked at the age at which children were infected and developed islet autoantibodies. The median age at which children developed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 18 months. Of the children who developed islet autoantibodies (n=60), 92 percent were positive by 24 months and 100 percent were positive by 30 months. One-third of them (n=20) have already progressed to type 1 diabetes.

The association between SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and development of islet autoantibodies was most pronounced at age 12 to 16 months. For these children, the incidence rate of developing islet autoantibodies (concurrent with or subsequent to developing SARS-CoV-2) was 36.5 per 100 person years versus 4.4 for similarly aged children who were negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, or an incidence rate ratio of 8.2.

One caution in interpreting the study is that the children enrolled in the original study of type 1 diabetes were selected for as already being at high risk for the disease. Thus, the study results show that in children already at high risk for developing type 1 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 infection increased their risk even further. Whether SARS-CoV-2 infection increases risk for children not otherwise at high risk for the disease is a subject for future research.

Also, although the study included four countries, the four countries were all in Europe and thus still not representative of the full genetic variation of humanity worldwide. The four countries were the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

Nevertheless, the study shows a clear temporal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of islet autoantibodies, which was not seen with influenza virus. Also, the age of children most affected is 12 to 16 months, a vulnerable population generally.

The results add to the evidence of the criminality of the ruling class, who have unleashed a novel virus far more dangerous than seasonal influenza on the world’s population, including its most vulnerable members. Robbing children of future potential by saddling them with not only the typical Long COVID sequelae, but now also a chronic disease with severe morbidity and mortality, is a monstrous act.

US resumes drone flights amid mass protests in Niger

Athiyan Silva

Less than two months after coming to power in a coup that toppled a French-backed president, Niger’s military junta has authorized US troops stationed in their country to resume patrols by drones and fighter-bombers. At the same time, Washington, which has 1,100 of the 6,500 troops it stations in Africa in Niger, is moving troops 920 kilometers north from the capital, Niamey, to Agadez.

The Pentagon said last week that U.S. forces had moved from Air Base 101 near Niamey to Air Force Base 201 in Agadez, amid ongoing mass protests in Niamey demanding that French forces leave the country. But now, Washington has reached “an agreement with Niger’s military leaders to restart drone, crewed aircraft missions at two airbases,’’ Al Jazeera reported.

Gen. James Hecker, the top Air Force commander for Europe and Africa, boasted that US intelligence and surveillance missions had been able to resume thanks to US negotiations with the Nigerien junta.

Hecker said. “For a while we weren’t doing any missions on the bases. They pretty much closed down the airfields, Through the diplomatic process, we are now doing—I wouldn’t say 100 percent of the missions that we were doing before—but we’re doing a large amount of missions that we’re doing before.”

In early 2013, US forces were massively deployed to Niger under the pretext of supporting the French military intervention in Mali. Later, it built a military air base with a 6,800-foot runway at Agadez, in northern Niger.

Construction on the site began in 2016 at a cost of US$250 million. Currently, the base is the main US observation center in West Africa, with a yearly budget of $20 to 30 million spent to maintain it.

“The Command also operates out of 12 other posture locations throughout Africa,” said AFRICOM chief Gen. Michael Langley. Langley also claimed that “These locations have minimal permanent US presence and have low-cost facilities and limited supplies for these dedicated Americans to perform critical missions and quickly respond to emergencies.”

US imperialism operates drones, fighter jets and also giant military transport aircraft like the C-17 Globemaster from this base. Washington now reports that it has resumed drone strikes from this base against al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates Boko Haram and other “Islamist groups” that the NATO powers initially used as proxy forces in their war that devastated Libya in 2011.

By placing these forces in Agadez, Washington aims to maintain control over a critical, resource-rich area, even as mass protests in Niamey demand the removal of NATO imperialist powers’ troops from the country. Northern Niger contains a number of uranium and gold mines that play a critical role in the region’s economy and in the global energy trade.

Agadez also hosts a large UN refugee camp that the NATO powers are using to detain African refugees seeking to flee north to Europe via the Sahara desert, North Africa and the Mediterranean. The US and French military presence in the area helps to block the refugees’ flight northwards, and to anchor a network stretching across Africa of NATO detention camps that block refugees from arriving in Europe.

So far, the Nigerien junta has responded to mass protests against the French and NATO troop presence by making limited diplomatic overtures to Moscow. Amid the NATO war on Russia in Ukraine, there is broad opposition among African workers and youth to the NATO imperialist powers. On this basis, the junta in Niger and similar regimes in nearby Mali and Burkina Faso have attempted to posture as anti-imperialist by criticizing France and developing limited military ties with Moscow.

The backdoor maneuvering of the Nigerien junta with Washington exposes this posture as a cynical fraud. While developing ties to the post-Soviet capitalist regime in Moscow created by the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, the junta is in fact seeking to maintain and develop its ties with imperialism. It hides its orientation to NATO and global financial markets, however, behind limited criticisms of France and false expressions of sympathy with Russia.

It is seeking to maximize the political advantages ruling circles in Niger and in the Nigerien military brass can obtain from playing off the major powers against each other. Relations between France and the United States have indubitably been strained by the coup in Niger.

A Nigerien military spokesman issued a statement last Saturday condemning the government of Emmanuel Macron, noting that France is preparing ECOWAS countries for war against Niger, to oust the military rulers in Niamey from power. Macron responded by insisting that Paris does not recognize the Nigerien regime in any way. “We do not recognize any legitimacy in the statements of the junta in Niger,” Macron said during a press conference.

Yesterday, Emmanuel Macron again told journalists that French Ambassador to Niger Sylvain Itté, whom the junta has demanded leave Niger, has been taken hostage. Itté is now holed up in the French embassy, refusing to leave. Macron however endorsed Itté and the deposed former French-backed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum as legitimate authorities in Niger.

Nigerien military forces, Macron said, “are preventing food from being delivered [to Bazoum]. He eats on military rations … I will do what we agree with President Bazoum, because he is the legitimate authority, and I speak to him every day.”

Washington has taken a different position on the junta in Niamey, however.

Acting Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who played a critical role in organizing the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine, made an official visit on August 7 to hold talks with Niger coup leaders. After the talks, Nuland said, “I hope they will keep the door open to diplomacy. We made that proposal. We’ll see. But we gave them a number of options to keep talking and we hope they take us up on it.”

It appears that Nuland’s hopes and expectations were realized through the talks US officials held with the junta in Niamey, which is keeping US forces in a key location to control Niger’s critical natural resources.

Tensions are rising therefore not only between Russia and the NATO powers in Africa, but also among the NATO imperialist powers, as forces in Paris fear that Washington will make its gains at the expense of French imperialism in Niger.

“France fears being overtaken by its American ally after the Niger coup,” wrote the right-wing French daily Le Figaro in a recent article. It quoted a French foreign ministry official as saying of the United States: “As long as we have allies like these, we don’t need enemies.”

The escalating war between the NATO powers and Russia in Europe, and the closely linked great-power rivalries in Africa, poses enormous dangers to the working class. The danger of a broader military escalation across much of Europe and Africa that will involve fighting directly among the major nuclear powers is now posed.

Australian studies reveal record levels of wealth inequality

Aditya Syed

In the decade 2009‒2019, 93 percent of economic growth in Australia benefitted just the richest 10 percent of the population. This extraordinary statistic was reported within a study, “Inequality on Steroids: The Distribution of Economic Growth in Australia,” published by the Australia Institute think tank earlier this year.

The data point to a historic accumulation of wealth by the ultra-rich, resulting in record inequality.

The proportion of economic growth monopolised by the richest 10 percent in Australia is significantly larger than that in the United States, Britain, Canada, and the European Union over the last period. These countries and areas nevertheless saw the wealthiest 10 percent of their populations absorbing more than 50 percent of economic growth between 2009 and 2019.

The Australia Institute’s study divided the years 1950‒2019 into five periods, each spanning from the beginning of a national recession to the eve of the subsequent recession.

In the first period, 1950‒1960, just 4 percent of economic growth went to the top 10 percent of the population. In the second period, 1961‒1981, this figure was 16 percent, leaving 84 percent of the benefits of economic growth for the lower 90 percent of the population.

These decades roughly coincide with the rise and fall of post-World War II reformism—like other advanced capitalist countries, the Australian ruling elite confronted the threat of social revolution fueled by determined struggles waged by different sections of the working class. Limited wealth distribution measures were enacted, together with the expansion of public healthcare, education and other social services.

There was a major shift in the third period, 1982‒1990: 48 percent of economic growth in these years benefitted the top 10 percent. This drastic increase in the proportion of wealth funneled to the top of society was engineered by the Hawke-Keating Labor governments (1983‒1996), which worked hand in hand with the trade unions to privatise and de-industrialise the economy, drive down real wages, and boost corporate profits at the expense of the social position of the working class. This was part of a global process of pro-business “free market” restructuring in the 1980s and ’90s.

In the fourth period examined by the Australia Institute, 1991‒2008, 36 percent of economic growth benefitted the top 10 percent. This served as the prelude to the final period, 2009‒2019, when nearly all economic growth was monopolised by the most affluent 10 percent of the population. This decade was presided over almost evenly by consecutive Labor and Liberal federal governments, each of which spearheaded the process of extreme wealth accumulation by the financial elite.

There is no question that social inequality is currently accelerating even further. The Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, again with the critical assistance of the trade union apparatuses, is enforcing major real wage cuts for workers amid a cost of living crisis. Big business reaped enormous subsidies during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to register record profits. At the same time, the government is funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to the war machine as it lines up with US imperialism in preparation for a war of aggression against China.

The Australia Institute made no serious attempt to politically analyse its findings on the historic distribution of economic growth in Australia. The so-called progressive think tank is itself part of the political establishment, receiving funding from wealthy patrons as well as from sections of the trade union bureaucracy.

The “Inequality on Steroids” report suggested that one cause of extreme inequality has been “the weakening of unions in the Australian labour market.” In reality, the unions are complicit in the hyper-accumulation of wealth, working with corporations against workers in imposing industrial agreements that erode real wages.

The Australia Institute concluded its study with a nervous warning to the financial elite that escalating inequality threatens social unrest. “How long can Australia sustain an economic and social setting which excludes the bulk of its people from sharing in the economic gains?” the report asked.

The devastating social consequences of extreme social inequality was underscored in another report, commissioned by the Actuaries Institute and titled, “Not A Level Playing Field—Exploring Issues of Inequality.”

This paper, issued last May, compared measures of social well-being between people in the highest wealth quintile (the top 20 percent of the population) and the lowest wealth quintile (the bottom 20 percent). Unsurprisingly, the poorest layers of the population experience significantly worse conditions in a wide range of measures, spanning physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, and many more.

For instance, the rate of home ownership in the lowest quintile is 34 percentage points lower than that of the highest quintile. The report notes that for younger people (aged 25‒34) in the lowest quintile, the rate of home ownership has more than halved since the 1980s. Those in the lowest quintile are four times more likely to have been recently unable to pay rent or mortgage costs. This situation is worsening, with housing costs rapidly rising for both renters and mortgage-payers. The report points out that since housing costs take up a greater proportion of disposable income for less wealthy households, the increases in housing costs will affect the poorer population more severely, exacerbating already severe inequality in home ownership and housing stress.

Grim outcomes of inequality are seen regarding health, both mental and physical. Those in the lowest quintile are twice as likely to commit suicide, and twice as likely to suffer psychological distress than those in the highest quintile. Australians in the lowest wealth quintile were also found to be three times more likely to die of COVID-19 infection than those in the highest quintile.

Additionally, those in the bottom quintile are about three times as likely to have been the recent victim of a violent crime, seven times as likely to experience homelessness, and thirteen times as likely to give birth as a teenager.

The Actuaries Institute report also described educational attainment as both a driver of inequality and an outcome affected by inequality. The Labor government’s education minister Jason Clare frequently asserts that public education in Australia serves as “the great equaliser in an unequal world”—but the reality is very different.

Students from poorer households are unlikely to achieve the same grades as those from wealthier backgrounds. This is due to the impact of inequality, such as housing stress, greater risk of crime and violence, and food insecurity, all of which worsen learning outcomes. High school learning outcomes strongly affect prospects for university admission, and by extension, career prospects. In this way, those from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to remain disadvantaged in life, and in turn have children who will face the same disadvantages.

This flows directly from the systematic under-staffing and under-funding of public schools, especially those in working class areas, and the lavish provision of public subsidies for private schools, including elite high-fee institutions.

The “Not A Level Playing Field” paper concluded by noting that there was “strong evidence” of “pressures that will lead to greater future inequality, unless policy action is taken.”

The only “policy action” being taken by the Australian ruling class is that which fuels inequality by eroding working class living standards while boosting corporate profits and the personal wealth of a narrow upper class layer. This polarisation of wealth will inevitably trigger enormous social and political upheavals.

Death toll rises in Greece as flooding devastates Thessaly region

John Vassilopoulos

Sixteen people have been declared dead following the flash floods which hit Greece early last week. All of the deaths occurred in the central Thessaly region.

Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and most recently Libya have all suffered extensive flooding, with Storm Daniel the largest the Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone ever recorded. In Libya around 20,000 are feared dead.

Floodwaters and mud cover the town of Palamas, after the country's rainstorm record, in Karditsa, Thessaly region, central Greece, Sept. 8, 2023. Daniel formed as a low-pressure weather system and became blocked by a high-pressure system, dumping extreme amounts of rain on Greece and surrounding areas before inundating Libya. [AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras, File]

Much of Thessaly was turned into a giant lake including parts of Larissa and Volos, the region’s largest cities. Given the large number of undocumented migrant workers employed as pickers in Thessaly’s agriculture industry, the real death toll is likely much higher.

Speaking live on SKAI TV last Friday, Yiannis Hatzis, a resident of the town of Palamas, said: “In one of the houses near to mine a grandmother has drowned and is floating in the water. Dead livestock animals are floating past like they are boats and three to four houses have been demolished. There is no co-ordinated response [from the government]. Help should have been provided from the beginning.”

Mayor of Palamas Giorgos Sakellariou was devastatingly frank in an interview on OPEN TV on September 6: “They told us they were going to send boats. [These were] paddle boats that can only take one other person… I’m sure people will drown. I have requested a helicopter since yesterday. 35 people are trapped in one village. Those people will drown.”

A week after the floods seven villages in Thessaly remained cut off, with significant areas of the local road network still underwater. These included parts of the Athens-Thessaloniki motorway, which is set to remain shut for most of this week. The rail network connecting Athens and Thessaloniki was also suspended.

The floods have also affected the water supply system leaving much of the region, including Volos (population 90,000 plus), with no access to drinking water. Power supply has been sketchy, with around 4,000 households across Thessaly receiving no electricity a week later.

Scientists have raised the alarm over the public health risks posed by stagnant flood waters and the vast numbers of dead livestock. There have been 48 confirmed cases of gastroenteritis reported in Thessaly, six of which have required hospitalisation. There is also a spike in respiratory tract infections with 65 new cases reported in Thessaly since Monday (41 of which were reported on Wednesday alone).

Stagnant waters are also a breeding ground for mosquitoes, raising the risk of diseases like West Nile Virus. There were 19 new cases of the disease reported last week, bringing the total for the year to 119. Of those, 93 were severe cases with 42 percent having occurred in Thessaly alone.

In a press conference, the conservative New Democracy government’s Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias declared, “I know the word unprecedented has been used many times and it may not make an impression. But here even this word does not convey the severity of the phenomenon. We are talking about unimaginable amounts of water.”

The fact is the government knew very well how climate change was making such an event more likely. The Environment Ministry’s own maps from 2018 already flagged most of the areas affected by the recent floods as high risk.

Three years ago, Thessaly was hit by floods during Storm Ianos. In response, the government allocated €400 million supposedly to strengthen the region’s anti-flood defences. But it is clear that next to nothing has been done.

Speaking to Greek daily I Efimerida Ton Syntakton, Nikitas Milopoulos, a Professor of Hydrology at the University of Thessaly, described the works carried out as: “fragmented, small, half-finished with a focus on some local flood tunnels which are ineffective.” He noted of the misuse of the funds, “of course anything to do with construction was labelled as an ‘anti-flood project’ even the restoration of roads.”

With a fifth of all arable land on the Thessaly plain under water, the economic devastation wrought counts in the billions of euros. Speaking on state broadcaster ERT, geologist and disaster management expert Efthymios Lekkas estimated that it would take at least five years for affected lands to be fertile again.

Regarded as the “bread-basket” of Greece, the Thessaly plain makes up 12 percent of the country’s cultivated lands and a quarter of its agricultural production. This amounts to over €10 billion, roughly 5 percent of Greece’s GDP.

Roughly a quarter of Greece’s wheat and barley is produced in Thessaly. According to initial estimates huge amounts of the recently harvested cereals were destroyed.

Around 35-45 percent of the region’s livestock population have died in the flood, which will have a knock-on effect on the supply of meat and dairy products. Thessaly alone accounts for 71 percent of pork meat, 50 percent of cheese production and nearly a fifth of milk production in Greece.

The resulting shortages will send food prices higher and further stretch the budgets of struggling working families, who have already seen food prices soar by 26 percent in the last two years.

The government has announced an aid package worth around €2 billion for those affected—a drop in the ocean given the scale of destruction. General Secretary of the Panhellenic Union of Livestock Farmers Nikos Palaskas noted: “To buy 1,000 animals you need 250,000 euros. To build a livestock farm you need 250,000 euros. The 5,000 to 6,000 euros aid is not enough even for one week’s worth of animal feed.”

The response of the EU was equally dire. During a meeting in Strasbourg Tuesday between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, the latter claimed that Greece had access to €2.25 billion worth of EU funds to address the crisis. What she failed to mention was that these are funds already earmarked for other projects that will now have to be re-diverted. The only new money promised is a paltry €400 million under the EU Solidarity Fund and even this is subject to other member states agreeing to top up the pot.

In contrast, the government made sure to fund an increased police presence in Thessaly, under the pretext of preventing post-flood looting. Speaking to the MEGA TV channel on Tuesday, Greece’s Citizen Protection Minister boasted: “We have huge forces in the region, which have been strengthened with 100 additional people in the last three days. Everything possible is being done to deter looting.”

The real reason for boosting the police presence is to clamp down on the immense anger breaking out in broad sections of the population regarding the government’s handling of the crisis, leading to a series of protests. They follow widespread condemnation of the government’s response to weeks of wildfires that led to dozens of deaths, including 18 migrants in the Dadia national forest.

Last Saturday, relatives of those affected by the floods in Thessaly held a protest rally in Syntagma Square in Athens. A huge banner they unfurled outside the Parliament building condemned the government reading, “You drowned the plain, our anger will drown you”

On Sunday police in Larissa threw tear gas and attacked flood victims who were protesting Mitsotakis’s visit. That these attacks were entirely premeditated was confirmed by a video released by the Press Project showing a police officer giving instructions beforehand: “We’re going to go inside the crowd! They’ll break up. Even if they don’t retaliate, we will beat them up.” Two days later, on Tuesday evening, a second attack took place when riot police launched tear gas at a peaceful march through the city centre of Larissa.

Following its resounding defeat in the general elections this June, the pseudo-left Syriza has sought to benefit from the Thessaly flood fallout. But Syriza was equally negligent in dealing with floods while in government. In November 2017 the floods that hit Western Attica claimed 23 lives. It took no measures to strengthen the area’s flood defences even though a blueprint had existed when it first came to power in 2015.