Hidden COVID wave starts to wane in US, with new variants around the corner

Benjamin Mateus

The latest hidden wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in the United States in late June appears to have finally begun to ebb. According to Biobot Analytics wastewater data, levels of SARS-CoV-2 are starting to decline throughout the US, with the Northeast lagging other regions of the country.

At present, however, infections remain near the peak reached during the week of August 30 to September 6, and viral transmission remains very high in each region. Infectious disease modeler JP Weiland estimating that current wastewater levels translate to more than 570,000 COVID infections each day. Based on his modeling, by the end of October the current wave will have likely infected more than 60 million Americans.

The virus is continuing to spread unhindered throughout the world, with wastewater data on the rise in Canada, Germany and other countries that still have such surveillance systems in place. At the same time, SARS-CoV-2 continue to evolve at a rapid clip, producing new variants and mutations all over the world.

The Omicron BA.2.86 subvariant (nicknamed “Pirola”) appears to have picked up an important escape mutation that has been seen in the FLip variants, including in the Omicron EG.5 subvariant (nicknames “Eris”), which is the most prevalent variant in the US and many other countries. In a recent report, Bloom Lab noted that Pirola’s affinity for ACE2 receptors is higher than BA.2 and XBB.1.5, writing, “Possibly this could impact transmissibility, and certainly could impact tolerance for future antibody escape mutations.”

The temporary decline in the COVID wave in the US is also evident in the hospitalization data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker, which reports that hospitalizations for COVID-19 have declined slightly from their peak in the week ending on September 9, 2023, when 20,562 Americans were admitted for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the official CDC figures for COVID deaths, the most lagging indicator, show that as of September 2, 2023, weekly deaths had reached 1,088 fatalities, up 2.3-fold from their lows on July 8, 2023. Given the lag associated with deaths, this figure may continue to climb throughout the month of September.

Unsurprisingly, amid the latest wave, even as COVID-19 deaths and excess deaths associated with COVID-19 were on the rise, the CDC announced last week that their website on provisional excess death counts for COVID-19 would be archived on September 27, 2023. The agency has taken great pains to quietly and in succession disappear virtually all meaningful data that the population requires to protect themselves from the many dangers posed by COVID-19 infection and reinfection.

Among these dangers are Long COVID, estimated to be impacting over 20 million Americans and hundreds of millions of people globally, as well as damage to myriad organ systems.

On Thursday, a study was published by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), finding that SARS-CoV-2 infects and replicates in the coronary arteries regardless of the level of plaque they contain. This appears to explain why certain COVID-19 patients have a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease or have more heart-related complications after their infection.

Regarding the mechanism behind these observations, the authors wrote:

SARS-CoV-2 induced a robust inflammatory response in cultured macrophages [human white blood cells] and human atherosclerotic vascular explants with secretin of cytokines known to trigger cardiovascular events. Our data establish that SARS-CoV-2 infects coronary vessels, inducing plaque inflammation that could trigger acute cardiovascular complications and increase the long-term cardiovascular risk.

Despite the best efforts of the entire political establishment and corporate media to ignore or downplay the recent wave of the pandemic, the reality of mass infection has had an impact on mass consciousness and behavior.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), four in 10 adults have modified their behavior during the current wave, with a quarter of all Americans saying they are now more likely to mask in public, 22 percent planning to avoid large gatherings, 17 percent less likely to travel and 15 percent less likely to dine indoors at restaurants. Also, nearly half the population is considering getting the latest booster shot tailored to the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant.

Indeed, there is a healthy response within the population to such information which is at the heart of the issue for the ruling elites. The forever COVID policy is not just to allow a deadly pathogen to continue to infect en masse large swaths of the population every few months.

These healthy developments within the population are anathema to the dominant views of the ruling class, for whom a globally-integrated public health infrastructure is seen as a threat to the functioning of commerce.

This anti-public health and anti-science approach is bound up with the accelerating phase of capitalism’s death agony, in which delirium and delusions grip the consciousness of the ruling elites, increasingly aware that their days are numbered. This makes the situation for the working class all the more dangerous and requires they openly enter the class struggle ever more determined to seize control over mankind’s productive forces.

When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic and the prevention of future spillover events, capitalist leaders are gripped by a paralysis of will. Even with more than 26 million excess deaths in the first four years of the pandemic, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response which met after the UN General Assembly concluded their meeting without any clear resolution. Their only agreement was to hold another session in 2026.

Speaking with the Associated Press after the meeting, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark commented, “I think it’s fair to say that the declaration is a missed opportunity. It has many pages and paragraphs and only one firm commitment and that is to hold another high-level meeting in three years’ time.”

She explained that the ministers and political leaders speaking at the summit attempted to avoid drawing any comprehensive lessons from the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting the impact on rising extreme poverty, hunger, massive economic impacts borne by populations of the world, and the rising crisis of social inequality, Clark stated:

Many of them missed the point. Pandemics don’t impact just health; they impact many different facets of people’s lives, and government operations. It was clear that they should have been taking the overarching view. But they went down quite a narrow track to talk about health.

At the UN Meeting, Clark warned:

Viruses that can cause pandemics will not wait for diplomacy to produce results … Ingenuity and human solidarity can make COVID-19 the last pandemic to cause such devastation. But all of it depends above all on the political choice of member states.

Beyond SARS-CoV-2, there remain many very deadly pathogens with pandemic potential that could spillover into human populations at any point, including the highly virulent H5N1 bird flu pandemic among multiple animal populations, the recent Nipah virus outbreak currently underway in Southern India, and more.

This week, former Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, Kate Bingham, promoting her book co-authored with vaccine expert Tim Hames, warned that the world has grown too comfortable with COVID.

In an interview with Daily Mail, Bingham remarked:

Let me put it this way: the 1918-19 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, twice as many as were killed in World War I. Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that exist. Today, there are more viruses busily replicating and mutating than all the other life forms on our planet combined. Not all of them pose a threat to humans, of course – but plenty do.

Bingham then stated that in a sense, “we got lucky with COVID-19, despite the fact that it caused 20 million or more deaths across the world.”

Recent modeling and historical analysis note that the threat of pandemics similar to or more deadly than COVID are no longer once-in-a-century dangers. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2021 found the probability of a COVID-level event is now around 2 percent in any year. The study notes:

together with recent estimates of increasing rates of disease emergence from animal reservoirs associated with environmental change, this finding suggests a high probability of observing pandemics similar to COVID-19 (probability of experiencing it in one’s lifetime currently about 38 percent), which may double in coming decades.

Mass migration from Nagorno-Karabakh continues as breakaway republic dissolves

Ulaş Ateşçi

Following the one-day offensive launched by Azeri forces against Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, it was announced that the number of Armenian civilians who had fled the region had reached 89,000. Around 120,000 people were thought to be living in the region when the offensive began.

The Russian RIA Novosti news agency yesterday morning quoted Nazeli Baghdasaryan, press secretary of the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers, as saying that since September 24, “88,780 people have arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh.”

According to the Interfax news agency, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday: “Analysis of the situation shows that in the coming days, there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh … This is an act of ethnic cleansing.”

The Azeri Foreign Ministry rejected the accusation, claiming the departures are a “personal and individual decision and [have] nothing to do with forced relocation.” Baku said the people of Nagorno-Karabakh would have the same rights as “citizens of Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan’s latest offensive, which reportedly killed a total of 400 soldiers on both sides, was a final act in a decades-long fratricidal conflict between the two former Soviet republics.

This conflict is a disastrous consequence of the Stalinist bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has re-emerged in the context of the ongoing war between two other former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Russia.

It points to the threat of the geographical expansion of NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine, a danger that can only be stopped by the mass mobilization of the international working class in an anti-war and socialist movement.

The Armenian-backed Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh, declared in 1991 but not recognized by any country, announced on Thursday that it would cease to exist at the end of this year.

A decree, signed by the unrecognized republic’s president Samvel Shahramanyan, who took office in an indirect election in early September, called on the population to integrate into Azerbaijan, stating: “The population of Nagorno-Karabakh, including those outside the Republic, after the entry into force of this Decree, should familiarize themselves with the conditions of reintegration presented by the Republic of Azerbaijan in order to make an independent and individual decision on the possibility of staying (returning) in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Azerbaijan’s latest military offensive, which resulted in the declaration of its full control over Nagorno-Karabakh, far from resolving the decades-long crisis, has only set the stage for a wider conflict in which the NATO imperialist powers and regional states will be involved.

Washington has seized on the conflict and the resulting humanitarian tragedy as an opportunity to increase its influence in the strategic South Caucasus region. The area is located south of Russia and north of Iran, as well as near international trade routes.

US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power, who is visiting the region, said Washington is “deeply concerned about the safety of vulnerable populations in Nagorno-Karabakh and the more than 50,000 people who have fled to Armenia.” She also said that Washington would stand in solidarity with Armenia.

“It is essential that a UN mission can access the territory within the next days,” Brussels said yesterday, while the US called to send an “international monitoring mission” to the region. The European Union has however increasingly oriented to Azeri gas because of sanctions against Russia. Baku announced yesterday that it might allow a group of experts from the United Nations to visit Nagorno-Karabakh “in the coming days.”

Although a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenia has recently improved its relations with the United States under the leadership of pro-NATO President Nikol Pashinyan. Azerbaijan’s latest offensive follows a series of events that have heightened tensions between Yerevan and Moscow.

Armenia and the United States held a joint military exercise outside Yerevan from September 11 to 20. The exercise was also intended to prepare Armenian forces “for a NATO Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC) evaluation under the NATO Partnership for Peace programme later this year,” according to a US official statement.

Earlier this month, Moscow responded to Pashinyan’s remarks that military dependence on Russia was a “strategic mistake” by summoning the Armenian ambassador to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

In addition, Russia issued a note to Armenia after Pashinyan made statements in favour of the Armenian parliament’s possible ratification of the “Rome Statute.” If Yerevan ratifies it, Russian President Vladimir Putin could be arrested upon entering Armenia due to a rule of the International Criminal Court.

Azerbaijan’s latest offensive has been prepared in coordination with Turkey, as in the 2020 war. Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler hosted the Azerbaijani defence minister at the end of August and the Azerbaijani chief of staff on September 11.

On the basis of the Russian-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement, Baku and Ankara advocate the opening of a corridor (“Zangezur Corridor”) between Turkey and Azerbaijan through Armenian territory.

The agreement states: “Subject to agreement between the Parties, the construction of new transport communications to link the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with the western regions of Azerbaijan will be ensured.” Armenia, however, declared its opposition to any attempt to violate its sovereignty.

The corridor, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has described as “strategic” is a crucial link in the Turkish ruling elite’s plans for a “Middle Corridor” from Turkey to China, in line with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

An article by the Atlantic Council in July 2021 stated:

According to Turkish officials, as well as potentially helping to establish Turkey as one of the world’s top ten economies, the Middle Corridor initiative could also significantly reduce transit time between China and European markets. The corridor offers the possibility of a 12-day freight time frame. This compares favorably to the 20-day travel time via Russia or more than 30 days via existing maritime options.

Erdoğan told the press on Tuesday, a day after his meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Nakhchivan that “We are doing our best to open the Zangezur corridor. There are also positive signals from Iran. If Armenia prevents the opening of the Zangezur corridor, it is possible for the corridor to pass through Iran.”

The Iranian state-owned IRNA responded: “This is the first time the Turkish president has welcomed Iran’s proposal that Azerbaijan can use Iranian territory instead of Armenian soil for its trucks to reach Nakhchivan.”

However, Tehran is not keen on a “Zangezur Corridor” through Armenia, fearing that it could alter its border with its northern neighbour and increase the influence of NATO member Turkey and Azerbaijan’s other critical ally, Israel, in the region.

Following a visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Iran on September 3, an article published by Iran’s Mehr News Agency stated:

…Tehran is against any change in the borders of its neighbors, as well as any change in the geopolitical map of the region and creation of the corridor. The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the creation of such a corridor will drain the geopolitical capacities of the region in favor of NATO and the Zionist regime. Because the Zangezur Corridor can provide NATO with access to the Caspian Sea.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel provided 69 percent of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports in 2016-2020. The Times of Israel reported that “Israel stepped up its weapons shipments to Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

Burkinabè junta arrests top officers over Burkina Faso coup attempt

Athiyan Silva

Last week, Burkina Faso’s military junta said that it had thwarted an attempted coup on Tuesday. “The country’s intelligence and security services have foiled the coup attempt against Burkina Faso’s ruling junta by military officers and others plotting to seize power and plunge the country into chaos,” the military said in a statement on Wednesday.

The failed coup attempt comes a year after Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in Burkina Faso through a military coup in September 2022. “I reassure of my determination to lead the Transition safely despite adversity and the various maneuvers to stop our inexorable march towards assumed sovereignty. THANK YOU to all Burkinabè people who continuously ensure citizen monitoring,” said Traoré after the junta announced the failed coup attempt.

FILE - Burkina Faso coup leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore participates in a ceremony in Ouagadougou, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Kilaye Bationo, File)

The Burkinabè military prosecutor’s office indicated that it had opened “a detailed investigation on the basis of credible reports of a plot against state security.” As a result, four officers were arrested and two more are wanted in connection with the failed coup.

“On the basis of a credible denunciation reporting a plot against state security in progress, implicating officers including two on the run and four arrested (… we) immediately opened a detailed investigation to elucidate the facts denounced,” Prosecutor Ahmed Ferdinand Sountoura of the military prosecutor’s office told the press on Thursday. In December 2022, the prosecution had already condemned the attempt to destabilize the regime and announced the arrest of soldiers.

The officers the junta has named as allegedly leading the coup attempt include:

*Lieutenant-Colonel Cheick Hamza Ouattara, who heads the Special Legion in the national gendarmerie; 

*Captain Christophe Maïga, the second-in-command of the same gendarmerie’s Special Intervention Unit;

*Abdoul Aziz Aouoba, commander of the Burkinabè special forces;

*Boubacar Keita, director general of the Higher Institute of Civil Protection Studies.

The two other fugitive officers are former members of the National Intelligence Service. One is Commander Sekou Ouedraogo, the former Deputy Director General of the agency. Ouedraogo was relieved of his duties on September 13 by Traoré, the leader of the Burkinabè military junta.

The junta also announced the suspension of “all methods of diffusion,” including print and Internet, for the French publication Jeune Afrique. Since 2022, the junta has already temporarily or indefinitely suspended several French television or radio channels, charging them with working to create chaos in the country. The military junta has already targeted LCI, Libération, Le Monde and France 24 specifically, as well as expelling foreign correspondents more broadly from French media.

News of the attempted coup spread across Burkina Faso on pro-government news media and social media. Thousands of pro-military government demonstrators took to the streets in Ouagadougou and elsewhere in the country on Tuesday to show their support for the current junta, after Captain Traoré issued public calls to his supporters to “protect” him. 

While the nature of the coup threat and the activities of the officers named as coup leaders by the Burkinabè junta remains unclear, the essential political issues driving the conflicts in the Burkinabè military establishment are ever clearer.

The military junta in Burkina Faso, as 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. Strikes and mass protests by workers and youth against the French and NATO troop presence led the military to oust discredited, pro-French presidents. The military juntas ruling Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali then asked France, the former colonial power, to withdraw its troops from their countries.

A politically explosive situation has emerged across West Africa. French imperialism is pressing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to prepare to invade Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Earlier this month, these three countries established a mutual defense agreement, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). This agreement specifies that they will respond to an invasion attempt against any one of the AES states as an attack on all three.

This conflict is also now deeply entwined with the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, as the Burkinabè junta led by Traoré develops military ties with the Kremlin. The Ukraine war thus threatens to spill across large parts of Africa.

This explosive global situation creates intractable divisions in the capitalist ruling elites of the AES countries, who maneuver between anti-imperialist sentiment of workers and youth, on the one hand, and their dealings with NATO imperialist countries on the other. It rules out the establishment of any stable, bourgeois-democratic regime that ends imperialist domination of the region and expels the imperialist powers from Africa. Instead, at every major political crisis and upsurge of class struggle, rival military factions vie for power.

French imperialism in particular has long experience of manipulating these factional rivalries of the African capitalist classes in its own interests. 

Paris has backed countless military coups in its former African colonial empire since nominal independence in 1960. It has repeatedly used its extensive connections in African countries’ officer corps to oust African regimes that criticized the neocolonial policies of Paris. In Burkina Faso itself, in 1987, the French government supported Blaise Compaoré’s overthrow and murder of pro-Soviet President Thomas Sankara.

These factional rivalries among the local bourgeoisie also reflect the intractable social and economic crisis facing workers and the oppressed rural masses in the region.

More than two million people have been displaced and tens of thousands pushed to the brink of starvation by the fighting in Burkina Faso, one of Africa’s worst refugee crises. Last week, officials said some 192,000 internally displaced people had returned to their homes after government forces recaptured various areas. Seventeen soldiers and 36 civilian volunteers were killed in Yatenga province in early September clashes with jihadi insurgents. Since 2015, more than 17,000 people have died in this violence in Burkina Faso alone.

Burkina Faso, home to about 23 million people, has seen two military coups in the past year. The number of people killed by rebels since Captain Traoré seized power in a second coup in late September has nearly tripled compared to the previous 18 months, according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. 

“This violence, coupled with the geographic spread of extremist activities effectively surrounding Ouagadougou, puts Burkina Faso more than ever at the brink of collapse,” the report said.

Brazil's military chiefs discussed coup plot after Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat

Guilherme Ferreira

The former commanders of the three branches of the Brazilian Armed Forces and the fascistic ex-president Jair Bolsonaro discussed a draft decree at the beginning of last November that would have resulted in a military intervention and the calling of new elections. The meeting occurred shortly after Bolsonaro’s loss of the October 31 election victory to Workers Party (PT) candidate and current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro and commanders of the Armed Forces, Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, Army General Paulo Sergio Nogueira and Air Brigadier Lieutenant Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior. [Photo: Marcos Corrêa/PR]

The meeting was first reported last Thursday following a plea bargain by Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, Jair Bolsonaro’s former personal assistant, with the Federal Police. Cid was arrested in May for falsifying Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 vaccination card.

According to Cid, the draft decree was handed to Bolsonaro by his then-international advisor, Filipe Martins, a fascistic figure linked to white supremacist movements in the United States. A copy of the document, that became known in the press as the “coup draft,” was found in possession of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, Anderson Torres, arrested in connection with the January 8 coup attempt in Brasilia. At the time, Torres was secretary of public security for the Federal District.

The “coup draft” found with Torres included the order to implement a “State of Defense at the headquarters of the Superior Electoral Court (STF),” with the possible arrest of STF Minister Moraes, who at the time was president of the TSE, Brazil’s electoral high court, and the investigation of alleged irregularities in the electoral process through an “Electoral Regularity Commission.”

Of the 17 representatives of that commission, eight would be appointed by the Ministry of Defense, which, at the end of last year, actively participated in the challenge to the electronic voting system initiated by Bolsonaro.

Of the three military commanders present at the meeting, Cid said that only the then-commander of the Navy, Adm. Almir Garnier, favored the coup plan and promised that “his troops would be ready to adhere to a call from the then president.” According to Valor Econômico, Cid has declared that, in contrast, the then-Army commander, Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, threatened Bolsonaro by saying: “If you go ahead with this, I’ll have to arrest you.”

The scene of General Freire Gomes standing up and crying to the President, “Stop in the name of the law!”, seems borrowed from a Hollywood movie. It plays directly into the hands of the narrative promoted by the top brass of the military and by Lula’s government itself, with both claiming that, while “bad apples” should be punished, the Armed Forces were the responsible for preventing a coup in Brazil.

The occurrence of such a meeting between Bolsonaro and the generals to discuss a coup d’état, as well as the Navy commander’s willingness to go ahead at any cost, has been confirmed by different sources, including US officials, as the Financial Times reported. The murky narrative about the Army saving Brazilian democracy, on the other hand, is contradicted by every piece of evidence, most damningly by the public actions of the former military commanders themselves in the aftermath of last year’s election.

While Bolsonaro refused to concede his defeat to Lula, and his fascistic supporters blocked roads and gathered in front of Army barracks across the country to incite a military coup, the Armed Forces command gave them repeated signs of support. 

Eleven days after the meeting with Bolsonaro, on November 11, the three military commanders issued a joint statement entitled “To the institutions and the Brazilian people.” The statement defended the fascistic movement to overthrow the elections as “popular demonstrations,” and asserted that the Armed Forces, “always present and acting as moderators in the most critical moments of our history,” had an “unrestrained and unwavering commitment” to the “people.”

Two days before this note was published, on November 9, the Ministry of Defense, headed by Army Gen. Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira, published its report on the “fairness” of the elections. Its main conclusion was that the “military technicians” identified electoral procedures that posed a “relevant risk to the security of the process,” adding that “it is not possible to affirm that the electronic voting system is free from the influence of a possible malicious code that could alter its operation.”

On the very eve of Lula’s inauguration, General Freire Gomes resisted an order to remove the encampment of Bolsonaro’s supporters from the gates of the Army Headquarters in Brasilia, where the mob that invaded the government’s headquarters on January 8 was mobilized.

Faced with the latest revelations by Cid, Lula’s Defense Minister José Múcio was forced to acknowledge that, “The way things are going when you talk about the Armed Forces, it seems that everyone is a suspect.” But, in the same statement, he redoubled the government’s efforts to promote the military as saviors of democracy. Múcio claimed: “There is only one thing I’m crystal clear about: the coup was never in the interest of the Armed Forces; these are isolated attitudes of components of the forces.” He concluded: “We owe it to the Army, Navy and Air Force to maintain our democracy.” 

The involvement of active and reserve military personnel in the coup plot that led to January 8 can also be revealed in the numerous investigations by the Attorney General’s Office.

On September 15, the Superior Federal Court convicted the first three defendants for the January 8 fascist attack on Brasilia’s Three Branches of Government. They were sentenced to between 12 and 17 years for having committed the crimes of criminal association, coup d’état, abolition of the democratic rule of law, qualified damage to federal property and deterioration of listed property. These crimes were considered “multitudinous,” in which it is not necessary to individualize the defendant’s conduct.

In his vote, the minister reporting on the case, Alexandre de Moraes, stated, “The idea was that, from this destruction [of the headquarters of the Three Branches], there would be a need for a GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order) and, with that ... obtain a military intervention, achieve the coup d’état and overthrow the democratically elected government.”

In addition to these convicted defendants, there are almost 1,400 other people already indicted by the Federal Attorney’s Office as the executors of the coup who will be tried in the coming months by the STF. The investigation by the Federal Attorney’s Office also includes, in addition to the “executors,” the financiers of the coup plot, the participants by instigation, the intellectual authors and executors, and the state authorities responsible for failing to prevent it. Bolsonaro is being investigated as one of the intellectual authors.

That Bolsonaro spent his presidential term plotting and building his fascist movement that led to the January 8 coup is undeniable. It is hard to predict if and when Bolsonaro will be arrested. That would risk exposing the entire rotten Brazilian capitalist system that gave rise to Bolsonaro and his coup threat, as well as the Lula government that is now covering up the role of the Armed Forces on January 8.

What can be said with certainty is that the eventual arrest of the ex-president will not end the threat of a new military-backed coup attempt in Brazil. The origin of this threat lies in the enormous crisis that is engulfing the world capitalist system, with explosive consequences in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Furthermore, all the power that a section of the Brazilian ruling elite invests in a reactionary figure like Minister Alexandre de Moraes in pursuit of Bolsonaro will only turn Brazilian bourgeois rule even further to the right. The legal precedents being set, such as the anti-democratic sentencing in July of Bolsonaro to eight years of ineligibility as a candidate, will be used with full force against the social protests and struggles of workers and youth that are to come.

Court rejects call for South Korean opposition leader’s arrest

Ben McGrath

A court in South Korea rejected an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the country’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP). The allegations against Lee go beyond the immediate charges and point to growing tensions over the danger of war and declining social conditions.

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, center, outside Suwon District Prosecutors Office in Seongnam, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. [AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon]

Prosecutors have accused Lee of bribery and related charges dating back to his tenure as mayor of Seongnam (2010‒2018), a city just south of Seoul, and as governor of Gyeonggi Province (2018‒2021). On August 22, prosecutors formally charged Lee with involvement in an alleged scheme to transfer millions of dollars to North Korea. They have also accused Lee of providing preferential treatment to private property developers and other companies in Seongnam.

In rejecting prosecutors’ demand for an arrest warrant, Judge Yu Chang-hun of the Seoul Central District Court stated, “In comprehensive consideration of the degree to which the defendant’s right to defense is needed and the extent of concerns about the possible destruction of evidence, it is difficult to see the rationale and need for his arrest to the extent that the principle of investigation without detention should be ruled out.”

On September 21, the National Assembly gave its consent for Lee’s potential arrest. As a sitting lawmaker, Lee was protected from detention while parliament is in session. However, the unicameral legislature passed a motion 149 to 136 in favor of the warrant. The National Assembly is comprised of 300 seats, but two are currently vacant.

Though it is the opposition party, the DP holds a strong parliamentary majority with 168 seats. The next-largest party is the ruling right-wing People Power Party (PPP) of President Yoon Suk-yeol, which holds 111 seats. A considerable number of Lee’s own party therefore voted against him. Another motion to approve Lee’s arrest was narrowly rejected in February.

Lee has denied the allegations against him and had embarked on a 24-day protest hunger strike that ended on Saturday. Lee stated in a press release last Friday in response to the National Assembly vote, “The livelihoods of the people and democracy should be guarded by stopping the recklessness and the regression of dictatorial administration by the prosecution.”

Lee has accused President Yoon, South Korea’s former top prosecutor, of a legal attack on him to eliminate a political opponent prior to next April’s general election. Yoon narrowly defeated Lee in the March 2022 presidential election.

According to prosecutors, Lee oversaw the transfer of $US8 million between 2019 and 2020 to North Korea through a third-party intermediary, Kim Seong-tae, the former chairman of the Ssangbangwool Group, a textile manufacturer. Allegedly, $5 million was a joint smart farm project in the North and the additional $3 million was to pave the way for Lee’s potential visit to the North.

Lee has rejected knowledge of Kim’s activities while the latter told investigators that Lee was aware of the money transfers. Lee’s former deputy governor Lee Hwa-yeong, who was also charged in relation to the case in March, reportedly told prosecutors in June that he had kept Lee Jae-myung informed of the cash transfers to the North after previously denying his former boss’ involvement for months. However, Lee Hwa-yeong altered his testimony this month to again deny the DP leader’s involvement.

Notably, the period during which Lee allegedly orchestrated the money’s remittance to North Korea was during a relative thaw in tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul. Securing various sanction exemptions, Seoul and provincial governments like Gyeonggi attempted to launch economic projects with Pyongyang, which were ultimately canceled as they cut across the US war drive against China and due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to these allegations, Lee has also been accused of corruption in several construction projects while mayor of Seongnam. These include current charges that he provided favors to private developers while blocking the public Seongnam Development Corporation from bidding on an apartment development project in the city’s Baekhyeon-dong district. Prosecutors allege that this resulted in 20 billion won ($US14.8 million) worth of damages to the public company.

Whether or not true, there is more to the case than just Lee Jae-myung’s alleged corruption. Backroom deals, preferential treatment, and illegal payoffs have long been part of doing business in South Korea. But as in the West, corruption cases in South Korea are used to settle political scores within the ruling class.

The Yoon administration is worried about its growing unpopularity. In August, Yoon attended a trilateral summit at Camp David near Washington D.C., meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The summit was hailed by the US ruling elite for bringing Seoul and Tokyo together and enhancing military cooperation between the two.

Historical issues stemming from Japan’s brutal colonization of Korea had for years prevented Washington’s two key allies in the region from deeper collaboration, seen as a necessity for its war plans against China. When Yoon came to power in May 2022, he pledged to deepen Seoul’s alliance with Washington and to improve relations with Tokyo. This has led to a growth in anti-war sentiment.

Furthermore, working class anger is growing towards declining economic and social conditions, as a result of inflation and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, a strike by truck drivers in June and then again in November and December had a serious impact on the economy. Recently autoworkers and railway workers have threatened to or have gone on strike.

For the past 30 years, the South Korean ruling class has relied on the Democratic Party and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) to contain social discontent and prevent workers from breaking from the confines of the capitalist system. While the DP poses as a worker-friendly alternative to the conservative PPP, the KCTU falsely postures as a militant labor organization to lead workers’ struggles into dead-ends. Both regularly use anti-Japanese chauvinism to drive wedges between Korean and Japanese workers and to distract from domestic conditions.

However, the corruption case against Lee Jae-myung is another warning sign that the government is preparing to crack down on any opposition to its policies.

In the past year, President Yoon has denounced protests against his government and threatened to seriously curtail democratic rights. He has labeled any political opponents as North Korean allies and sympathizers, declaring that “anti-state forces” are “still rampant” in South Korea.

The government is therefore reviving the police state measures of past dictatorships under the guise of tackling corruption and suppressing supposed North Korean supporters. In reality, these autocratic measures are ultimately being prepared to strike at the working class.

Armenian civilians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after new offensive by Azerbaijan

Alex Lantier

At least 28,000 Armenians have fled the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region since September 20, when Azeri forces attacked Armenian forces and Russian peacekeepers in the enclave and forced Armenian troops to surrender. A considerable portion of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 population has been turned into refugees.

Coming amid NATO’s war with Russia in Ukraine, the fratricidal war between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan is yet another disastrous consequence of the nationalist Stalinist bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. A first Azeri-Armenian war over Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1989 and lasted until 1994, resulting in an Armenian conquest of the region. Amid the NATO-Russia war in nearby Ukraine, this war is re-erupting again.

Already in 2020, Azeri forces armed with drones and backed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dealt a defeat to Armenian forces who controlled the Nagorno-Karabakh. Since June, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh, closing off its land transport routes and cutting off its access to food and medicine imports. Last week, Azeri forces rapidly struck Armenian forces and, after one day of fighting, compelled a rapid surrender.

Tens of thousands of Armenian civilians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, amid unconfirmed reports that Azeri troops are bombarding villages and control part of the capital, Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azeri). On Monday, in a further tragedy, a fuel depot in Stepanakert exploded, surrounded by civilian cars trying to get fuel to flee to Armenia. At least 68 people were killed and 290 injured in the blast, many of them with serious burns, which cannot be treated in the blockaded enclave.

Azeri officials have denied that they are attacking civilian areas, but civilians fleeing to Armenia told international media they faced horrific conditions. Petya Grigoryan, a 69-year-old driver who has fled to Armenia, told Reuters that Azeri forces bombarded his village, Kochogot, and that there were “truckloads” lying dead in the street. “There was nowhere to bury them,” Grigoryan said. “We took what we could and left. We don’t know where we’re going. We have nowhere to go.”

Nairy, a builder, fled the village of Shosh with his family after it was shelled by Azeri troops. “The kids were injured. We sat in the basements until the peacekeepers came in and took the people out,” he told Reuters. He and his family fled to the Stepanakert airport, where thousands were sleeping outside. “We are extremely grateful to the lads for sharing their rations with the kids,” he said. “The Russian peacekeepers went hungry to give the kids their rations.”

Narine Shakaryan said she and her family had fled in her son-in-law’s car, taking 24 hours to make the a 77-kilometer (48-mile) drive to Armenia, without food. “The whole way, the children were crying, they were hungry,” she said. “We left so we would stay alive.”

Azeri troops also fired on Russian forces who were stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh as peacekeepers after the 2020 war. According to Russian military sources, five men, including Captain First Rank Ivan Kovgan of the Russian North Fleet, were killed. Azeri officials have stated that this was a mistake, and have pledged a joint investigation of the killings with Russian prosecutors.

The disaster unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh is inseparable from the broader plunge of the former Soviet Union into fratricidal war like the current war between Russia and Ukraine. It is the poisoned product of both the nationalism of the Soviet bureaucracy and its false, Stalinist theory of building “socialism in one country,” and the imperialist powers’ decades-long waging of wars in the Middle East and Central Asia in the post-Soviet era.

The major capitalist governments are focused not on preventing massacres or keeping civilians from being expelled from their homes, but on using the crisis to improve their strategic position in the war. This begins first of all with US imperialism, which aims to detach Armenia, under pro-NATO President Nikol Pashinyan, from its traditionally close ties to Russia and Iran.

Pashinyan has responded to the Armenian military debacle by denouncing Russia. “As a result of the events in Ukraine, the capabilities of Russia have changed,” he said, adding, “All of this … was supposed to be in the sphere of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers and as far as these issues exist, the Russian peacekeepers have failed in their mission.”

On Tuesday, Pashinyan greeted US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, where she issued an appeal to the conscience of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. She called on Aliyev to “maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.” She also proposed an “international monitoring mission” to the region.

Power’s cynical rhetoric is not aimed at helping civilians or swaying Aliyev, whose regime aims to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh and boasts that Aliyev is building an “iron fist” to control it. Rather, Power aims to establish a broader NATO influence on Russia’s borders, near key war theaters in Ukraine. 

Indeed, the Caucasus is not only rich in valuable natural resources, but also strategically located near the areas of Russia bordering Crimea and Ukraine. A NATO strategic and military presence in the Caucasus would strengthen NATO in preparation for launching a war directly with Russia.

On Monday, Erdogan traveled to meet Aliyev in Nakhchivan, an autonomous land-locked enclave of Azerbaijan bordering Turkey, Armenia and Iran. Erdogan hailed the victory of Azeri troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, in what Aliyev claimed was an “anti-terrorist operation.” Erdogan cynically declared: “It’s a matter of pride that the operation was successfully completed in a short period of time, with utmost sensitivity to the rights of civilians.”

Erdogan and Aliyev also signed a deal for a joint gas pipeline to bring Azeri gas to Turkey through the areas contested by Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the weeks preceding Azerbaijan’s latest offensive, the Turkish and Azeri governments had raised the opening of the “Zanzegur corridor.” This is a plan, opposed by Armenia, to connect Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan and Turkey by taking control of a road passing through Armenian territory.

Erdogan said, “We will do our best to open this corridor as soon as possible. The realization of this corridor, which is very important for Turkey and Azerbaijan, is a strategic issue and must be completed.”

Also on Monday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller echoed Pashinyan’s remarks, stating that the war shows Russia is too weak to defend Armenia. “I do think that Russia has shown that it is not a security partner that can be relied on,” Miller said, calling for an “international mission” to the Caucasus.

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov replied by accusing Miller of aiming to “inflict strategic damage on Russia” and “push us out of the region.”

The influential Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington D.C. declares that the Armenian-Azeri conflict gives NATO the chance to replace Russia as the strongest military power in the Caucasus. It writes:

“Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has weakened its ability to effectively control and interfere in the decades-long conflict … This has created opportunities for other external actors—including Turkey, Israel, and Iran—to promote their own interests and agendas in the region. The renewed Azerbaijani offensive against Karabakh Armenians reflects these changing power dynamics, providing Western policymakers with an opportunity to step up as potential guarantors of longer-term peace and stability in the Caucasus—a title famously claimed by Russia.”

Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States

Mohd Ziyauallah Khan

In recent years, India has witnessed a concerning surge in hate speech and Islamophobia, particularly within states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This unsettling trend, highlighted  In a report by Hindutva Watch based in Washington, sheds light on the distressing reality that a staggering 80% of recorded hate speech incidents in the country occurred in BJP-ruled states. The report attributes many of these incidents to groups affiliated with the ruling BJP, such as the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Sakal Hindu Samaj, all of which have ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent right-wing Hindu nationalist organization.

The Hindutva Watch Report 

A report by Hindutva Watch, a Washington-based group monitoring attacks on minorities, has unveiled a disturbing trend of escalating anti-Muslim hate speech incidents in India during the first half of 2023. The report, which documented 255 instances of hate speech gatherings targeting Muslims, revealed an average of more than one incident per day during this period. Regrettably, there was no comparative data available for previous years. The report employed the United Nations’ definition of hate speech, characterizing it as “any form of communication… that employs prejudiced or discriminatory language towards an individual or group based on attributes such as religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender, or other identity factors.”

Notably, around 70% of these hate speech incidents occurred in states slated to conduct elections in 2023 and 2024, underscoring a disturbing correlation between political events and the rise of hate speech targeting the Muslim community. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat were identified as the states with the highest number of hate speech gatherings, with Maharashtra alone accounting for 29% of the incidents. These hate speech events predominantly featured conspiracy theories, calls for violence, and socio-economic boycotts against Muslims.

Alarmingly, approximately 80% of these events transpired in areas governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is widely anticipated to secure victory in the general elections of 2024. This concerning trend necessitates immediate attention and action to curb the propagation of hate speech and foster a more inclusive and harmonious society.

Hindutva Watch monitored online engagements of Hindu nationalist organizations, authenticated hate speech videos circulated on social media, and collated data on individual incidents as reported by various media outlets. However, the Indian government, under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, refutes allegations of minority abuse. Requests for comments from the Indian embassy in Washington remain unanswered

Beyond the The Hindutva Watch Report

Rather than relying on official data, the Hindutva Watch report sourced information from verifiable social media and news outlets, revealing a deeply concerning pattern of orchestrated hate speech and bigotry against minority communities, particularly Muslims. Senior political figures associated with the BJP have openly expressed prejudiced views, further fueling this divisive narrative.

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for instance, once singled out individuals protesting against the government based on their attire, specifically targeting those wearing traditional Muslim clothing. Prior to the 2019 general election, Amit Shah, the BJP President at the time, derogatorily referred to Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants as “termites” and pledged to forcibly expel them. Islamophobic sentiment is further propagated through social media, often within BJP-curated WhatsApp groups, where the past actions of Muslim rulers are wrongly blamed on the entire Muslim community.

This trend marks a stark departure from previous governments, which aimed to foster communal harmony, support India’s pluralism and diversity, and temper communal passions. The BJP, on the other hand, openly aligns itself with an intolerant majoritarian Hindutva ideology. Leaders within the party and close to the ruling establishment regularly denounce the Muslim minority, branding them a threat to India’s Hindu identity and accusing past governments of appeasement.

Under BJP rule, campaigns have been initiated against interfaith relationships, accusing Muslim men of pursuing “love jihad” to allegedly entrap Hindu women. Additionally, restrictions have been imposed on religious conversions, Muslim marriage practices, and family planning efforts. Discrimination against Muslims is evident in the controversial citizenship law, offering fast-track citizenship to refugees from neighboring Muslim-majority countries, excluding Muslims.

The Damage 

These developments dismay liberals and individuals advocating for secularism in India, revealing the erosion of the country’s constitutional secularism. In just nine years of BJP rule, the cultural pluralism and Hindu-Muslim amity that India once proudly touted have been severely compromised. Muslims, who once held prominent positions as a symbol of India’s unity, now find themselves marginalized in various sectors. Moreover, the rise of Islamophobia has deeply infiltrated north Indian society, while the south has managed to resist to a certain extent. The free press, once a beacon of democracy and inclusivity, has also played a role in erasing the syncretic cultural traditions that India has celebrated for decades.

Wrapping up 

In this climate, the segregation and disempowerment of Muslims are becoming normalized, with Indian society increasingly divided into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Anti-Muslim bigotry is now publicly expressed and practiced with alarming frequency, desensitizing the populace to this alarming trend. Those who decry these actions are met with derogatory responses, further polarizing the nation. In the face of these challenges, it is vital to address this growing discord and work towards promoting a more inclusive and harmonious society.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman seeks license to kill for UK police

Chris Marsden

Writing in support of Metropolitan Police officers who had handed in their guns in protest at the announced murder trial of the killer of Chris Kaba, Home Secretary Suella Braverman insisted on X/Twitter that armed officers should not “fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties”.

Braverman wrote Sunday, “We depend on our brave firearms officers to protect us from the most dangerous and violent in society… They mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties.”

She added, “That’s why I have launched a review to ensure they have the confidence to do their jobs while protecting us all.”

Armed Metropolitan Police officers on patrol ahead of the Coronation of Britain's King Charles III, in London, Saturday, May 6, 2023. [AP Photo/Richard Heathcote, Pool via AP]

Kaba was killed by a Metropolitan Police firearms officer in London with a shot to the head on September 5, 2022. He was unarmed. Braverman’s intervention came after the officer who shot Kaba was finally formally charged with murder by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Thursday. He has only been identified as NX121, after being granted anonymity.

Braverman was widely accused of contempt of court and potentially endangering the outcome of the murder trial by flouting restrictions on comments about ongoing legal proceedings. Writing in the Independent, Nazir Afzal OBE, the former chief crown prosecutor, stated, “Every lawyer I’ve spoken to thinks Suella Braverman has overstepped the mark … At the time of writing she hasn’t even deleted it. What does that mean for the integrity of our judicial process? What does that mean for justice itself?”

The Conservative Party government immediately supported Braverman, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak backing her proposed review during a visit to a community centre in Hertfordshire, telling broadcasters, “Our firearms officers do an incredibly difficult job. They are making life-or-death decisions in a split second to keep us safe and they deserve our gratitude for their bravery.”

His official spokesman said the Home Office review was expected to be finalised by the end of the year.

Criticism of Braverman for prejudicing a future trial barely scratches the surface of what is represented by her intervention. The aim of her proposed review is to provide armed police with de facto immunity from future prosecutions—effectively a license to kill.

Braverman’s post cited a report in the Telegraph newspaper of between 100 and 300 armed Metropolitan Police officers handing in their guns in protest against the charging of NX121. If the figure of 300 is accurate this represents a tenth of the Met’s 3,000 armed officers.

Their action was backed by the Met, as well as the government. A spokesman for the force said, “We are in ongoing discussions with those officers to support them and to fully understand the genuinely held concerns that they have.”

Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley sent an open letter to Braverman calling for reform of the way police officers are held to account, particularly when they use force. Welcoming the announcement of a review, he demanded raising the threshold for an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) or Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) investigation, and changing the test used for self-defence.

Maximising the atmosphere of crisis surrounding the police protest, the Met requested and the Home Office sent an appeal to the Ministry of Defence Sunday to “provide routine counter-terrorism contingency support to the Metropolitan Police, should it be needed”.

On Monday, the MoD agreed soldiers could fill the roles of firearms officers, with reports that the Met had specifically asked for elite SAS officers to take on anti-terror responsibilities. However, on Monday afternoon, Scotland Yard said that enough officers had returned to armed duty for the force to be able to meet its counter-terrorism responsibilities without military help.

Encouraged by the government’s stance, “Firearms officers in the Metropolitan Police are planning a mass downing of guns if the identity of the officer accused of Chris Kaba’s murder is made public by a judge”, reported Sky News on Tuesday evening. It noted, “The Met officer is known only as NX121 after a district judge granted an interim anonymity order. But the order could be lifted at a hearing at the Old Bailey on 4 October, which would lead to the officer being named publicly.” Sky News cited a “serving firearms officer” who said, “The anonymity hearing will determine what happens. If he loses his anonymity, then serious questions will be asked. I haven't handed my firearm in yet, but I would if that happens—and there are many others that would do the same.”

Leading legal and civil rights organisations pointed to the dangerous implications of the proposed Home Office review. Deborah Coles, the executive director of INQUEST, an independent charity working with families bereaved by state-related deaths, said, “The suggestion that there is something in the law or legal process that is biased against serving police officers does not bear scrutiny. Police firearms officers must remain accountable to the rule of law.”

Solicitor Harriet Wistrich, who represented the family of Jean Charles De Menezes—killed in hail of bullets at Stockwell Tube station in 2005 by police who mistook him for a terror suspect—told BBC Radio’s Today, “No one is above the law and neither should these officers be above the law… Many people have lost their lives at the hands of police and there is virtually never a prosecution.”

The reality is that the police are already virtually unaccountable for killings. According to INQUEST, 80 people have died as a result of police shootings since 1990. There have been 1,871 deaths in or following police custody or contact over the same period. But there has only been one successful prosecution of an officer for manslaughter, in the case of former footballer Dalian Atkinson, and no successful prosecution of any officer for murder. Ten murder/manslaughter charges following deaths have been brought without a successful prosecution.

The glorification of the Met’s armed officers as heroes by the government and the media is grotesque. They are members of easily the UK’s most corrupt and discredited police force, filled with criminals and psychopaths.

This month the Met reported that more than 1,000 of its officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties, as the result of a crackdown necessitated by widespread outrage following the convictions of former officers David Carrick, a serial rapist, and murderer Wayne Couzens. Couzens was given a whole-life sentence for the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021, while Carrick was handed 30 years this year for attacks carried out against a dozen women over two decades.

Following Carrick’s conviction, reviews were conducted of some 1,600 cases from the last decade in which officers faced allegations of domestic or sexual violence but no action was taken. Investigations into 450 cases are ongoing. Carrick and Couzens both worked in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, where only one in three staff under investigation have been cleared of wrongdoing.

The Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the number of affected officers was almost the size of a small police force, with one in 34 suspended or restricted for cases sometimes described as “abhorrent”. He warned that removing all corrupt officers could take years, even with plans to hold around 30 misconduct hearings and 30 gross incompetence hearings each month.

Former Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, who came to prominence as leader of the operation that led to the assassination of Jean Charles de Menezes, was forced to resign in February 2022. A review of the Met by Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock in March found that the organisation was institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic, warning that it could even be broken up if changes were not made speedily.

Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was drafted in to manage the fallout, setting up a London Policing Board to “oversee and scrutinise” the review while insisting, “Sir Mark himself has had the humility and candour to say, look, he needs around two or three years to turn things around. I think he’s right, by the way.”

More is at stake than rehabilitating a crisis-ridden police force.

Sunak and Braverman are leading a campaign to shift the government sharply to the right, especially on law and order and immigration. In part this has an electoral dimension, aimed at shoring up the party’s support in the upper middle class against a Labour Party led by Starmer that has adopted its right-wing economic and social agenda wholesale.

More fundamentally, however, the Tories are strengthening the repressive apparatus of the state in preparation for explosive class struggles.

Requests to the armed forces like that made by the Met were used last year to mobilise soldiers in strikebreaking operations against border staff and paramedics during a strike wave involving millions of workers.

The more widespread use of state repression was not needed because the trade union bureaucracy successfully policed and betrayed numerous strikes. However, this has gravely undermined the unions’ standing among workers, threatening the eruption of a more consciously insurgent moment of workers battered by a cost of living crisis at a time when ever greater sacrifices are being demanded so that British imperialism can take full part in the ongoing NATO-led war against Russia in Ukraine—and stake its place in US-led plans to confront China.

Allowing the police to kill with impunity is of a piece with a battery of anti-democratic legislation directed against the working class—including the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act criminalising industrial action in essential services and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and Public Order Act 2023 severely curtailing the right to protest.