Mass demonstration in Warsaw against right-wing Polish government

Martin Nowak

Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in the Polish capital Warsaw Sunday for the removal of the far-right PiS (Law and Justice Party) government. Under the slogan “Marsz Miliona Serc” (March of Millions of Hearts), opposition leader Donald Tusk of the right-wing Citizens’ Platform (PO) called for the demonstration two weeks before the parliamentary elections. The leaders of the social democratic Nowa Lewica, Włodzimierz Czarzasty and Robert Biedroń, and the peasant movement Agrounia, Michał Kołodziejczak, also supported the demonstration. Thousands took to the streets in other cities such as Krakow, Szczecin, Toruń and Lodz.

Part of the demonstration in Warsaw [Photo by X / Platforma Obywatelska ]

The organizers declared that a million had participated, while the police estimated hundreds of thousands. According to the organizers, the demonstration was twice as large as the one held on June 4, one of the largest since the end of the Stalinist regime and the reintroduction of capitalism in 1989. The trigger for the June protest was the adoption of a repressive law to establish a special commission against “Russian influence.”

The PiS government’s repressive policies played a central role in the latest demonstration. At the end of July, it was revealed that Joanna, a young woman, had been denounced in Krakow by her psychiatrist and mistreated by the police for taking an abortion pill. Three years ago, the PiS government tightened the abortion law in order to strengthen its followers in the arch-Catholic and right-wing extremist milieus. Prior to that, Poland was already one of the countries with the strictest abortion laws. Since the new law, legal abortion is almost impossible.

At the time, hundreds of thousands across the country spontaneously demonstrated for weeks against the ban on abortion. Again, widespread disgust with the government’s far-right agenda drove masses onto the streets. The PiS, which has led the government since 2015, has been working systematically to establish an authoritarian regime by forcing the courts and the media into line. At the same time, it strengthens fascist and antisemitic forces in particular, most recently with the smear campaign against film director Agnieszka Holland.

But the platform of former EU Council President Tusk, who was Polish head of government from 2007 to 2015, offers no alternative. To call Tusk’s party, the PO, “liberal” would be an absurd euphemism. As the election campaign has confirmed, he too is pursuing an ultra-right agenda. He supports NATO’s war against Russia, fully supports the European Union and attacks the social policy of the PiS from the right. As the election campaign comes to an end, he has become increasingly aggressive against refugees and presented himself as a “better” nationalist and militarist.

Tusk accuses the PiS of not closing the border with Belarus effectively enough, not effectively rearming, insulting Polish officials and secretly serving Russia. Like all parties in the Polish parliament (Sejm), the PO also voted in favour of the governments multibillion-dollar rearmament programme, which also provides for the militarisation of society. At the same time, the PO criticized the PiS’ limited social measures, such as the child benefit.

At the core of its economic program are extensive tax breaks and deregulation in favor of the corporations. For example, companies with a turnover below a certain annual limit would be exempted from continued payment of wages in the event of illness. This responsibility is to be taken over by the state social security program (ZUS), whose additional expenditure would serve as a pretext for further cuts.

The coronavirus pandemic has shown that the Polish health system is largely broken, provoking mass protests and strikes by doctors, nurses and paramedics in 2021. The same goes for the Polish education system. The entire working population is ultimately being made to bear the enormous costs of rearmament and war in full. Inflation, which rose to 18 percent at its peak, is still above 8 percent.

According to official OECD figures, the average purchasing power of Polish wages has fallen by 7 percent in the past year alone. Increased food and energy prices exacerbate the consequences of these massive real wage cuts.

All parties in the Sejm, from right to left, agree on these attacks on the working class. This also applies to the Polish left-wing Lewica party, which according to surveys could win around 10 percent of the vote. The party has subordinated itself to the right-wing PO to such an extent that even the news magazine Polityka describes its campaign as “silent and lackluster.” It merely pursues the goal of not losing too much and staying in the Sejm.

Trzecia Droga (Third Way), an electoral alliance of the right-wing peasant party PSL and the new party PL2050 of Szymon Hołownia, distanced itself from the demonstrations of the PO and has positioned itself in the election campaign between PiS and PO. It could serve to secure a majority for either of the larger parties given the 9 percent of the vote it is expected to win, according to the polls.

Support for the fascist Konfederacja is fluctuating between 8 and 15 percent in the polls. It benefits from the discrediting of the old political establishment and, according to surveys, attracts an above-average number of young voters. The two new leaders of the fascist party, Sławomir Mentzen and Krzysztof Bosak, are both in their mid-30s and enjoy constant media attention.

The rise of 34-year-old young entrepreneur Mentzen is strongly reminiscent of Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni, who gave their fascist parties a modern facelift and were embraced by the media. He sums up the party’s program with the formula: “We want a Poland without Jews, homosexuals, abortions, taxes and the European Union.”

Konfederacja is the only major political group in Poland to question support for Ukraine. It also leads a campaign against Ukrainian refugees and attacks German leadership in the EU even more sharply than PiS. It calls for far-reaching relief for companies and attacks the PiS’ coronavirus policy, which has claimed 120,000 lives, from the right because the government-imposed lockdowns at certain stages.

Whoever wins the elections in two weeks and forms the new government will continue the war policy, social attacks on the working class and the profits-before-lives pandemic policy. Any incident at the border with Ukraine could be used as an excuse to “enter the conflict,” as Poland’s ambassador to Paris, Jan Emeryk Rościszewski, explained in March.

Cost-of-living, jobs and social crisis deepening in Australia

Mike Head

Recent economic data point to the intensifying financial pressures being deliberately applied to working-class households by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Albanese Labor government.

Unemployed workers registering to receive social welfare outside Centrelink office in Sydney in 2020.

Facing higher mortgage repayments and rent hikes, resurging prices for essentials and falling real wages, increasing numbers of people are depending on credit cards and pay-later services to survive. Statistics show inflation rising again, especially for petrol, housing and food, household savings falling for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis, and job cuts spreading.

This deepening social crisis is fueling discontent with the Labor government, reflected in media opinion polls reporting collapsing support for the government, and correspondingly for its Voice referendum to entrench an indigenous advisory body in the country’s 1901 Constitution.

The government’s bid to use the referendum to divert attention from the deteriorating working-class conditions is unravelling. The claims that a yes vote for the Voice would lead to “better outcomes” for indigenous people have become just as unbelievable as Labor’s May 2022 election promises of a “better future.” The reality is that workers and youth—indigenous and non-indigenous alike—are suffering the greatest cut to living standards in generations.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the value of household deposit accounts decreased by $6 billion in the June quarter, the first decline in 16 years. “This was the first fall in deposit balances since the global financial crisis and indicates that the household sector was tapping into cash reserves amid rising cost pressures,” the ABS said.

The household saving-to-income ratio fell for the seventh consecutive quarter to 3.2 percent, its lowest level since the June quarter of 2008. That is another indication of the historic reversal in household finances since December 2021, which accelerated after the Labor government took office.

New figures from the RBA last Friday showed the stock of personal credit jumped by 1.6 percent in the five months to August. RBA documents about mortgage stress reveal that the National Debt Helpline is receiving an increasing volume of calls from people who have never before experienced financial hardship nor drawn on social services.

An internal RBA email in July, obtained via a freedom of information request, said the helpline “reported a significant number of callers experiencing hardship who are accruing additional debts via credit cards, Buy Now Pay Later, borrowing from friends and family, and increasingly unpaid obligations to the ATO [Australian Tax Office], their utilities providers and council rates.”

These documents demonstrate how conscious the central bank, backed by the government, is of the suffering being caused by 12 interest rate hikes since May 2022. This is a calculated offensive by the ruling class to trigger an economic slump in order to drive up unemployment and further cut real wages.

That agenda was spelt out by multi-millionaire property developer Tim Gurner at last month’s Australian Financial Review Property Summit.  “We need to see pain in the economy,” he told his audience. That included “massive layoffs” to cause “less arrogance in the employment market.”

In line with that blunt statement, the RBA expects a “mortgage cliff” to worsen over coming months as tens of thousands more households come off fixed interest rates to much higher variable rates, and the time lag between rate rises and arrears shortens.

“All of this meant that there was a long lag between households making significant adjustments to their personal finances as they become more stressed (especially if they had managed to ‘roll over’ a hardship arrangement for up to 12 months), and falling into arrears as reported in the official data,” the RBA email noted.

Mortgage payments as a proportion of household income are already at record highs. The minutes from the central bank’s board meeting last month said “scheduled mortgage payments rose to 9.7 percent of household disposable income in July, a little above the estimated previous historical high… Members noted that aggregate payments were set to increase further as more borrowers with fixed-rate loans roll off onto higher rates.”

Those minutes warned of further rate hikes “should inflation prove more persistent than expected.” Even if the bank holds off on another rate rise this week, the financial market players expect at least one more this year.

Last week’s ABS monthly inflation report showed that consumer prices increased by 5.2 percent in the year to August, up from 4.9 percent in July, with the rising cost of fuel, power, insurance and rents adding to the pressures on working-class budgets.

Childcare workers demand higher wages at Melbourne protest in 2022.

The most significant contributors to the August annual increase were housing (+6.6 percent), transport (+7.4 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.4 percent) and insurance and financial services (+8.8 percent).

Treasurer Jim Chalmers falsely claimed that “it’s clear the peak in inflation is behind us,” citing the 8.4 percent monthly figure last December. But the August result gave a glimpse of the intensifying impact on working-class households. Automotive fuel costs have surged by 15 percent over the past two months. Rents rose 7.8 percent in the 12 months to August, up from 7.6 percent in July, following the government’s refusal to introduce rent caps.

Electricity prices rose 12.7 percent and gas prices rose 12.9 percent in the year to August, making a mockery of the government’s claims to be providing financial relief. Prices for bread and cereal products and dairy products rose over 10 percent in the 12 months, while the supermarket chains made huge profits, although fruit and vegetable prices dropped 8.3 percent due to improved agricultural conditions.

The relentless cost-of-living squeeze is forcing a generational cut to retail spending. The ABS said a 1.3 percent annual trend growth rate in retail sales recorded in ­August was the lowest in the history of its records. If not for inflation and population growth, sales would have fallen outright in real terms.

“Considering how high inflation and strong population growth have added to retail turnover in the past year, the historically low trend growth highlights just how much consumers have pulled back in response to cost-of-living pressures,” ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber commented.

On a per-capita basis, the economy fell into recession in the first half of 2023, with only an increase in net migration marginally lifting economic output.

Other recent ABS figures point to a declining labour market, an early indicator of rising unemployment. The number of job vacancies fell by 8.9 percent in the three months to August, the fifth straight quarterly decrease. Vacancies have dropped by 18 percent from a peak in May 2022.

Job cuts in September included steel manufacturer Molycop announcing it would slash 250 jobs, around half the workforce, at its plant in Newcastle, a large regional city north of Sydney. Optus, a major telecommunications company sacked up to 150 workers—nearly half the workforce—from its call centre in Adelaide.

Despite making record profits, the banks are eliminating more jobs. The Bank of Queensland is axing up to 250, the National Australia Bank 222. Westpac has destroyed more than 1,000 so far in 2023, and the Commonwealth Bank has cut more than 300 since June.

Meanwhile, big business—including the banks, retail giants and mining conglomerates—is funding the Voice referendum Yes campaign to an estimated tune of more than $50 million. For the corporate elite and the Labor government, the referendum is an attempt to give a facelift to this underlying agenda of making the working class pay for the global capitalist crisis. It is also to fashion an equally false pitch for “national unity” for the purposes of preparing to join a US-led war against China.

Labor government starves Aboriginal schools of funds in Australia’s Northern Territory

Leith Smith

In the midst of the Australian federal Labor government’s campaign for a yes vote in its Voice referendum, claiming it will improve the lives of indigenous people, data has emerged showing that the Labor administration in the Northern Territory is grossly underfunding schools in Aboriginal communities.

Falling school attendances in Australia's Northern Territory (NT), particularly in remote areas. [Photo: Facebook/NT Department of Education]

The territory Labor government is continuing to impose a punitive schools funding model based on attendance, not enrolment. This regime was initially implemented by a Country Liberal government in 2015, but Labor has maintained it since taking office in 2016.

This has exasperated the vast social inequality involved, creating a cycle of worsening literacy rates. Indigenous people make up nearly 30 percent of the Northern Territory’s population of about a quarter of a million, and almost 8 percent of Australia’s indigenous population. About 45 percent of the territory’s young people are indigenous.

Many schools are not receiving adequate support, with attendance rates as low as 20 percent in some cases. This has resulted in 58 percent of all students and 85 percent of indigenous students in the Northern Territory falling below minimum literacy and numeracy standards.

Remote Aboriginal homeland communities have been hit hardest. Many students are learning in buildings without power or water, and 78 of these communities have no access to local secondary education, resulting in high dropout rates and crime.

This is a breach of the basic social right that every child has access to free, high-quality education. In some instances, students are receiving only a part-time education, with a registered teacher providing classes just once or twice a week. Many local assistant teachers are forced to run classrooms for months.

The Australian reported that a remote school at Gamardi, in central Arnhem Land, had its first registered teacher appear on May 18, over three months after the start of the school year.

One in five Northern Territory students have no money spent on their education and over half the student cohort lack funding at some schools. In 2022, it was reported that a school in Gunbalanya had not received any funding for 121 of its 229 students and a school in Yuendumu had 89 unfunded students out of 165.

In 2021, 34 of 151 government schools received less than 50 percent of the allocated income in their school budgets. Every school but three of these had an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island student population of more than 95 percent.

Students and teachers from Yuendumu School, Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia. [Photo: Yuendumu School Facebook]

The Australian claims that the budget shortfall is due to a bloated education department bureaucracy and proposes reducing employment in the territory’s public service by 10,000, as suggested by former senior economist Rolf Gerritsen.

In reality, the deprivation of students flows directly from a funding model that blames schools, communities and students for low attendance rates, which are bound up with poor facilities and deep social problems. This model only multiplies the problems by punishing children.

A 2022 Deloitte report revealed that in 2020, students in the Northern Territory received only 78 percent of their estimated $29,831 per student required to provide minimum standards of education. That standard, set by the federal government’s “Gonski model,” is itself inadequate.

Deloitte is an active participant in the corporate world. It “provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and legal services” to the ruling elites. Its purpose is not to ameliorate social conditions, but to recommend options that “streamline” and improve “efficiency.”

Delloitte’s 2022 report was commissioned by the Northern Territory Department of Education in partnership with Charles Darwin University’s Northern Territory Institute to review “the use of Effective Enrolment in the School Resourcing Model.”

Nowhere does the report mention the squalid conditions suffered as a result of this attendance-based funding model. Deloitte’s only brief was to assist the Northern Territory government in “appropriately allocating” funds as “aligned to the [Education] Department’s strategic goals.”

Neither the federal nor the Northern Territory (NT) Labor governments have made any detailed outline as to how these issues will be addressed. NT Education Minister Eva Lawler essentially defended Labor’s record. She said “intensive work is currently under way to build stronger foundations for long-term improvement for Aboriginal students in the NT.”

Earlier this year, Lawler announced that a shift back to enrolment-based funding would be made “within five years.” The government is in no rush to replace the current system, nor is the Albanese federal Labor government. 

In July, Lawler said the territory government would use the attendance formula, which she referred to as “effective enrolment,” to distribute $40 million of funding that was announced earlier this year by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare last week admitted that Northern Territory schools receive “approximately 80 percent of their full and fair funding level” and “on average, public schools in the NT are the most underfunded schools in the country.”

Clare refused to criticise the proposed five-year delay in scrapping the attendance-based system. Instead, he said his office was “working with” Lawler's office to ensure funding would be distributed “based on the Gonski model.” 

Other statistics from the Northern Territory point to the fraud of the claims made by both the Yes and No campaigns in the Voice referendum that “billions” of dollars are being spent on indigenous programs, insinuating that funds are being wasted.

As 95 percent of the Northern Territory’s prison population was Aboriginal in 2019, 95 percent of the territory Labor government’s prisons budget was counted as indigenous expenditure. Former senior public servant Bob Beadman told the Australian that this was why the government reported “generous” indigenous expenditure.

European Union foreign ministers meet in Ukraine to escalate war with Russia

Alex Lantier

The foreign ministers of the European Union’s (EU) member countries met yesterday in Kiev for a summit to pledge continuing support to NATO’s war with Russia in Ukraine.

Though the summit came after the bloody failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and amid mounting divisions in ruling circles over how to finance the war, leading EU governments signaled their intention to escalate war with Russia.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, right, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell attend their press conference during the informal EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, October 2, 2023. [AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky]

“I am convening today the EU Foreign Ministers in Kyiv, for the first-ever meeting of all 27 Member States outside the EU,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X/Twitter. Borrell added, “Ukraine’s future lies within the EU.” Borrell announced that the summit had agreed to spend a further €5 billion on the war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Borrell’s remarks, tweeting, “Glad to welcome EU foreign ministers at the historic meeting in Ukraine… For the first time in history, outside current EU borders. But also within its future borders.”

With Ukraine’s army shattered, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead and many more maimed, such statements amount to a reckless, open-ended pledge to escalate war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power. Before the EU summit, UK officials indicated that British troops could deploy directly to Ukraine, ostensibly to advise Ukrainian soldiers. Plans to announce EU military deployments to Ukraine are no doubt also at an advanced stage.

The EU has emerged as the top financier of the war, having given Kiev €84.8 billion, including €5.6 billion in arms, by the end of July 2023, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. This is on top of spending by individual European states, led by Germany (€20.87 billion), Britain (€13.77 billion), Norway (€7.45 billion), Poland (€4.27 billion), and the Netherlands (€4.08 billion). These figures include €17 billion in weaponry from Germany, €6.6 billion from Britain, €3.7 billion from Norway, €3 billion from Poland and €2.5 billion from the Netherlands.

In Kiev, German Defense Minister Annalena Baerbock called to further arm Ukraine. She said, “We must now further intensify all our efforts to prepare Ukraine for this winter. When I was here in September, I already made it clear that Ukraine needs a protective shield for winter… that consists of air defense but also generators and strengthening energy supply.”

The summit came amid signs of mounting divisions in European ruling circles over the financing and planning of the war. The foreign ministers of Hungary and Poland did not attend the Kiev summit, after Warsaw announced last week that it would send no new arms shipments to Ukraine.

At the Kiev summit, the leading EU imperialist powers were intent on signaling that they will allow no climbdown in participation in the war. They replied in particular to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who said that “fatigue from this conflict, fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime, will grow in various countries, including the United States.”

At a press conference in Kiev, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna pledged French support for war on Russia. Colonna called the Kiev summit “a demonstration of our resolute and lasting support for Ukraine, until it can win. It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come.”

Borrell added, “The EU remains united in its support to Ukraine… I don’t see any member state folding on their engagement.”

EU officials stressed their close collaboration with Washington on the war. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the EU must arm Ukraine “to support Ukraine, but also to send a strong trans-Atlantic signal that what’s going on on our own soil is something we have to take on a great responsibility for.”

The EU was founded in 1992, the year after the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union, as a free-market, pro-austerity economic bloc. NATO’s war with Russia is accelerating its emergence as a military alliance asserting European imperialist interests on the world stage. This has gone hand-in-hand with the rehabilitation of neo-fascist parties and the emergence of police-state regimes in Europe that violently repress strikes and protests against the austerity measures and wage freezes that serve to finance war spending.

The political and class character of this war was exposed last week, when the Canadian parliament unanimously applauded Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian ex-member of the Nazi Waffen-SS, as a Ukrainian patriot for fighting against the Soviet Union in World War II. The Waffen SS played a central role in the Holocaust of European Jewry, Hitler’s war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, and the repression of resistance to Nazi occupation in Europe.

This exposed the close ties between NATO and far-right Ukrainian forces, like the Right Sector militia that led the 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev that brought NATO’s current Ukrainian puppet regime to power. With other far-right militias, like the Azov Battalion, it now plays a central role inside the Kiev regime. Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian collaboration with Nazism, is regularly hailed by top Ukrainian officials.

The Canadian parliament’s politically-criminal applause for a Waffen-SS fighter also speaks to the character and political implications of the EU’s redefinition as a militarist bloc dedicated to war with Russia until total victory.

“The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way,” Danish EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager declared at a May 2023 EU summit in Brussels. Waging the Ukraine war, she continued, “is absolutely Europe’s top priority, and we will stay supportive of Ukraine until the war is won and Ukraine has been rebuilt, and become a member of the European Union.”

Commenting on Vestager’s remarks, the Guardian cited top advisors of Borrell who asserted that the Russian war overcame the conflicts between the European powers in the 20th century. “The European project was first and foremost intended to prevent a new conflict between France and Germany. It aimed to pacify intra-European relations through exchange and economic cooperation,” wrote Zaki Laïdi, a professor at Sciences-Politiques university in Paris.

Now, however, argued Nicole Gnesotto of the Jacques Delors Institute, war with Russia is overcoming conflicts inside Europe. “In one night, Russia killed all EU philosophy since 1956,” she said.

Claims that the EU will overcome historically-rooted contradictions of European capitalism via war with Russia testify to the reckless, fascistic moods seizing the ruling class. In reality, divisions are mounting in ruling circles across the continent, as was seen with the absence of Hungarian and Polish officials in Kiev. Moreover, it is notable that France, Italy and Spain, historically more oriented to imperialist conquest in Africa than in Eastern Europe, have spent less on Ukraine than their northern European allies (€1.69 billion, €1.29 billion and €900 million, respectively).

New Thai government seeks foreign investment

Ben McGrath & Robert Campion

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has spent his first weeks in office seeking to deepen Bangkok’s connections to foreign corporations, particularly in the US, and further open up the country as a cheap labour platform.

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. [AP Photo/Richard Drew]

In his first overseas trip since taking office, Srettha travelled to New York for the recent UN General Assembly Meeting in New York, spruiking Thailand as a dependable hub for foreign investment. Speaking to reporters, Srettha stated, “It is a positive sign and a good starting point. It is the first step in telling the world that Thailand is open (to investment).”

Srettha, a wealthy real-estate tycoon with no prior experience in office, was approved as prime minister by a joint sitting of the national assembly in which the military-appointed Senate effectively holds a veto. His coalition government includes the two main political parties of the military.

In his government’s first policy statement released on September 11, Srettha placed emphasis on the economy and boosting GDP growth. This inevitably means imposing austerity on workers and farmers. Thailand’s economy is expected to grow by only 2.8 percent this year, less than expected due to weak exports, and by a modest 3.2 percent next year.

Srettha stated last week that he expected Tesla, Microsoft, and Google to invest at least $5 billion in Thailand. “Tesla would be looking into an Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility, Microsoft and Google are looking at data centers,” he said. Thailand is the fourth-largest auto assembly centre in Asia producing between 1.5 and 2 million cars each year.

Srettha, who is also the finance minister, spoke with Elon Musk to discuss the EV industry offering incentives to EV and battery makers. Tesla plans to ramp up vehicle production to 20 million vehicles per year by 2030, and is exploring options for several new “gigafactories,” capable of producing at least 0.5 million cars a year.

Srettha’s appeals to big business make clear where Pheu Thai Party’s real interests lie, despite the new government’s claims of being “for the people” and addressing poverty. While the government has stated that it will raise the minimum wage to at least 400 baht ($US11) per day, to attract investment it will no doubt be driven to create the business-friendly conditions. The minimum wage promise has already received pushback from big business and even from within Srettha’s own cabinet.

At the UN General Assembly, Srettha extolled the virtues of “human rights, human dignity and freedoms,” yet a 4-year prison sentence was just handed down to human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa who in the 2020 pro-democracy protests called for reforming the monarchy—supposedly a breach of the country’s draconian lese majeste law. Hundreds more protesters face similar charges, aimed at maintaining the monarchy which has been the political linchpin of bourgeois rule in Thailand.

The big business agenda of the Thai government demonstrates the interconnectedness of the economic struggles that the international working class faces. The expansion of the EV industry in Thailand will no doubt have an impact on the jobs of autoworkers in a country that has branded itself as the “Detroit of Asia.” Thailand is competing with other countries, such as Indonesia, that are similarly looking to attract EV investment, which ultimately means a race to the bottom for workers in all countries.

At an economic forum dubbed “Next Chapter Thailand” on Friday, Srettha pledged to make it easier for companies to exploit foreign workers in Thailand. Whilst introducing a debt moratorium of three years for struggling farmers, Srettha stated it would not guarantee the prices of farm produce, such as rice, short of a devastating disaster that damaged and destroyed crops. More than 90 percent of Thai farmer households are indebted at an average of 450,000 baht and are caught in a vicious debt cycle.

Regarding the ongoing tensions between the US and China, Srettha stated Thailand would be continuing its neutral stance, as was the case with the previous military government. He was careful not to mention the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine at the UN General Assembly in New York, instead promoting the illusion that increased international economic ties were the path towards peaceful relations.

China is a significant factor in Thailand’s economy. Bilateral trade reached $US107 billion in 2022. Bilateral trade between Thailand and the US was $US65 billion last year, making it Thailand’s second-largest trading partner after China.

Thailand is also courting further Chinese investment into EV production which already amounts to $US1.44 billion since 2020 from companies such as BYD and Great Wall Motor.

The US and its allies, however, are undoubtedly putting pressure on Bangkok to align more closely with Washington as it intensifies its war drive against Beijing. This includes Germany, which is refusing to sell Bangkok a submarine engine for a vessel that would be constructed in China.

Srettha briefly met with US President Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and emphasized the longstanding trade relationship between the two countries. The prime minister stated that he expects to hold a meeting with Biden in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in San Francisco.

The US and Thailand historically have had close military ties. The two countries are formal military allies. During the Vietnam war, the US used bases in Thailand to launch airstrikes. The US and Thailand hold annual Cobra Gold military exercises, some of the largest multilateral war games in the region.

Immediately after the appointment of Srettha as PM, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent his congratulations, declaring Washington would work closely with Bangkok advancing......“a free and open, connected, peaceful, and resilient Indo-Pacific region.”

In reality, the US is intensifying its military build-up and confrontation with China throughout the Pacific and is no doubt seeking to incorporate bases in northern Thailand into its war planning.

Srettha is planning to visit China from October 16 to 19 to “tighten the relationship and increase cooperation in investment,” according to a government spokesperson.

British government prepares to send troops into the war against Russia

Andre Damon

British soldiers attend a military exercise 'Iron Sword 2014' near Vilnius, Lithuania. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)

On Saturday, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps raised the prospect of deploying UK troops directly into Ukraine, nominally to serve as trainers for Ukrainian forces.

“Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country,’” he told The Telegraph. 

“I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country,” Shapps added. He also raised the prospect of the direct involvement of the Royal Navy in combat operations against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, declaring, “Britain is a naval nation so we can help.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak effectively confirmed Shapps’s assertions, saying, “What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine.”

A warning must be made: If plans to deploy NATO troops to Ukraine are being publicly discussed, it is because the decision has already been made, by a political and military cabal working in secret. They might initially be termed “advisers,” “consultants,” or “guards,” but the strategy is obvious: British “advisers” and “trainers” will be killed in Ukraine, and the Sunak government will use this fact as a pretext for further escalation.

The US-NATO war against Russia is being waged without public support. The NATO governments are engaged in a conspiracy to escalate the conflict behind the backs of the population. Publicly, they declare that they are not at war with Russia and that they intend to strictly limit their involvement in the conflict. Privately, they are contriving to escalate the conflict to a full-scale war between nuclear-armed powers.

Time and time again, the NATO governments have categorically asserted that there are “red lines” they will not cross, and then proceeded to cross them. First it was sending long-range missiles. Then tanks. Then advanced fighter jets. Each time, the public was categorically told these actions would not be done, only to be informed months later that the NATO governments were carrying them out.

Just two weeks ago, the World Socialist Web Site asked, “Now that NATO weapons are being used for strikes inside Russia, how much more room does the United States have to escalate? The next step is the deployment of US and NATO troops.”

The statements by Shapps and Sunak followed an article in Foreign Affairs last month titled, “Why America Should Send Military Advisers to Ukraine,” which declared that “Washington should, therefore, lift the strict restrictions on the number of US government personnel allowed in Ukraine and begin stationing military advisers within the country and across its defense apparatus.”

Hundreds of active-duty NATO troops are already in Ukraine, along with thousands of ex-NATO military members serving as mercenaries. In November, the Pentagon confirmed that “small teams” of active-duty military personnel are in a “variety of locations” in the country. Leaked Pentagon documents from earlier this year show that nearly 100 NATO special forces, including 50 from the UK, plus 100 other US government staff are in Ukraine.

NATO is planning not only to increase the troop presence inside Ukraine, but also for the direct involvement of NATO troops in a shooting war against Russia.

This reality arises not just from the statements of Shapps or Sunak, but from the military logic of the situation. The US and NATO have staked their credibility on the outcome of the war in Ukraine. In January, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley stated that the goals of the United States are to “liberate Russian-occupied Ukraine” and “liberate the occupied areas.” Last April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “We want to see Russia weakened.” That same month, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Ben Hodges asserted that the goal of NATO in the conflict is “breaking the back” of Russia.

The NATO powers have failed in all of these aims. The Ukrainian offensive, built up for months in the US media as a decisive turning point in the war akin to the invasion of Normandy during World War II, has produced a bloody disaster. In an article entitled “Ukraine Faces a Long War. A Change of Course Is Needed,” the Economist wrote,

“The counter-offensive… is not working… Ukraine has liberated less than 0.25% of the territory that Russia occupied in June. The 1,000-km front line has barely shifted…. Ukraine’s soldiers are exhausted; many of its finest have been killed. Despite conscription, it lacks the manpower to sustain a permanent large-scale counter-offensive. It needs to husband resources, and to change the game.”

With Ukraine running out of cannon fodder in the conflict with Russia, the only way to “change the game” is for NATO forces, up to now providing the weapons, intelligence, logistics, and command structures for the Ukrainian army, to intervene directly in the conflict.

The open talk of sending troops to Ukraine followed speeches at the United Nations last month by US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, all condemning any peaceful settlement of the war. Biden declared, “Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine’s children.”

This was followed by Zelensky’s appearance at the Canadian Parliament, in which all of Canada’s MPs, as well as ambassadors from leading NATO countries, took part in a standing ovation for a 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi war criminal.

The same week, the US confirmed that Abrams battle tanks had already arrived in Ukraine, and US news reports revealed that the White House had already agreed to send ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine. Just two days after Biden spoke, Ukraine, using NATO intelligence and NATO weapons, carried out a strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that led to the deaths of dozens of high-ranking military personnel.

The First and Second World Wars killed tens of millions of people in Europe. Entire generations of young people were wiped out on the battlefields. Now, the European governments, working alongside Washington, are conspiring to inflame a new world war that threatens to kill tens of millions more.

Homelessness rises in the UK as rents skyrocket

Dennis Moore & Thomas Scripps

104,510 households were living in temporary accommodation in January-March this year, a 10 percent increase on the same period the year before—exceeding 100,000 for the first time in 20 years. They are home to 131,370 children.

A further 79,840 households are owed local authority support for current or threatened homelessness, also a 10 percent increase. 13,670 of these have a priority need, up 20 percent on last year, mostly due to a larger proportion of households with children.

A homeless man sleeping in a shop doorway in Romford, London, December 2022

Factoring in unrecorded experiences of homelessness, the charity Crisis puts the real total figure at 242,000 households.

On a given night in March, an estimated 2,447 people were sleeping on the streets on any given night—a 35 percent increase on a year before. This is only a snapshot of the much larger group of people intermittently rough sleeping. In London alone, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network counted 13,325 different people rough sleeping between April 2022 and June 2023, about half of them for the first time.

In total, 296,180 households were owed homelessness support in the year 2022-23, a 6 percent increase on the year before.

Areas of the UK where historically there was very little homelessness are now seeing people with nowhere to live. Oldham, in the north west of England, once had relatively affordable housing. Now its level of homelessness stands at twice the national average, with an 80 percent year-on-year increase between January and April, and a similar rise in the numbers of children living in emergency accommodation.

Jasmine Basran, policy and public affairs manager at the homelessness charity Crisis, said, “Unfortunately, the trends aren’t that surprising and reflect that the overall housing crisis has affected all parts of the country, particularly places that aren’t traditionally thought of in this way.”

Behind this crisis is a dire lack of affordable housing, as an ever-larger proportion of the population is forced to rely on the private rented sector.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that private rents in the UK rose at their fastest rate since records began in the year to this August, by 5.5 percent—in London, the increase was 5.9 percent.

Rents for new lettings are increasing fastest, at 12 percent in the year to August according to estate agents Hamptons. Again, this is the largest increase on record. The average asking price is now £1,304. In London, a 17 percent year-on-year rise has taken the average rent on newly let properties to £2,332 a month.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, commented, “Each passing month has ushered in a new rental market record” adding that new let rents across Britain have increased more in the last year than they did between 2015 and 2019.

These rent rises come on top of increases in the general cost of living, with families not able to keep their homes warm and feed themselves. In a survey of 11,000 people, flat mate finding service SpareRoom found that a third of the UK’s private renting households are spending half or more of their take-home pay on rent.

According to the Conservative government’s figures, loss of private tenancy—including through the landlord selling or re-letting the property or increasing the rent—was the largest single cause of homelessness in the first three months of the year, affecting 39 percent more households than the year before. The number of privately renting households put at risk of homelessness increased by 24 percent.

Over 24,000 households were kicked out of their homes by Section 21 no-fault evictions, a 21 percent increase over the previous year. A lockdown-era ban on these evictions was lifted in 2021.

This year government has begun discussing a “Renters Reform Bill” which would axe no-fault evictions, but it has been subject to repeated delays, with the can now kicked at least into the next parliamentary session starting November 7. Five of the 16 government whips responsible for the passage of bills through the House of Commons own rental property—along with nearly one in five Conservative MPs.

The major factor driving up rents has been the Bank of England’s interest rate rises, increasing the cost of mortgage repayments and prompting landlords to pass on the costs to their tenants or to sell up—reducing the supply of rental properties and jacking up rates event further. Most of the private rental market is run by small landlords, aptly described as “mum and pop” investors, who are particularly exposed to increases in bank interest rates.

Ben Beadle, CEO of the National Residential Landlords Association said, “While there were no signs yet of a mass exodus of landlords from the market, yet anecdotally “more people are selling than buying and more people are saying that they are going to sell than invest”. He added “I’ve just spoken to a chap whose mortgage is going from £800 to £1,500—he’s not going to be able to pass on a £700 rent increase … he might have to sell”.

According to research commissioned by the BBC, there are now 20 viewing requests per available property, up from six in 2019. Estate agency Zoopla reports that the number of rental properties listed on its site is 33 percent lower than before the pandemic and has flatlined. Guy Gittins, chief executive of another agents, Foxtons, said, “This is the worst supply and demand balance we have ever seen, and it’s only going to get worse.”

Renters have practically no protection against these surging costs. Local Housing Allowance (LHA), social support payments available to the poorest households, was frozen in 2016. Analysis from the estate agency Zoopla, found that just 5 percent of rents advertised across Britain in the first quarter of 2023 could be fully met by LHA payments.

Households not able to afford a deposit or mortgage have very little choice besides the private rented sector. Over 1.2 million people are on the social housing waiting list in England, up 5 percent in the last two years. There are just over 1.4 million homes for social rent across the country, down 160,000 in the last decade.

Even in this far below market rate sector, the cost-of-living crisis is pulling people into homelessness. In January-March, rent arrears made over 2,000 households homeless from social or supported housing—a 30 percent increase on the year before.

The insanity of the market system for delivering a basic human need like housing is underscored by Britain’s record number of empty homes. According to analysis by Crisis reported in the Observer newspaper, up to a quarter of a million properties have been standing empty in England for months—a more than 24 percent increase over the last six years. London has 34,000, a 73 percent increase over the same period.

Chris Bailey, campaign manager for the charity Action on Empty Homes, said the new research was the “tip of the emptiness iceberg” because the figures covered the empty properties that were known about. “It’s a disgrace that we’ve seen the numbers keep climbing in lock step with rising homelessness, and housing shortages…

“Many end up sold at auction, often after long periods of emptiness and decay, to landlords operating a low-investment model.”

With their operations at the heart of the crisis, Labour Mayors of London, Manchester and Liverpool Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram felt compelled to make some noises about rent controls. But this has only served to highlight how totally hostile the Labour Party is to any such measure which limits the money-making of property owners.

The Financial Times reported in August that “senior party insiders” had told the paper Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s “office was not exploring introducing national rent controls or devolving related powers to mayors if elected.”

Shadow Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy said of rent controls at a housing conference this June that it was “perhaps inevitable that the debate has turned again to short term fixes,” adding, “It might be politically easier to put a sticking plaster on our deep-seated problems, but if it is cowardice that got us here, it is never going to get us out.”

Given Labour’s outspoken commitment to “fiscal restraint” and the contribution of “private enterprise”, no significant building of social housing should be expected either.

UK government and education unions leave life threatening RAAC crisis unaddressed

Margot Miller

The ongoing RAAC crisis in UK public buildings reveals the same malign neglect by the government that led to the avoidable deaths to date of around 230,000 during the pandemic.

 Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete (RAAC) is a lightweight, cheap concrete that was used widely in the 1950s-1980s, with a design life of 30 years after which it can collapse without warning. In 1982, RAAC production in the UK ceased amid safety concerns, however, there was no attempt to monitor or replace it.

Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC), close-up view [Photo by Marco Bernardini, own work / CC BY-SA 3.0]

The presence of RAAC is just one of many problems plaguing public buildings. The widespread use of, and failure to remove, cancer-inducing asbestos has caused 10,000 deaths from mesothelioma over the past four decades. Another form of cheap concrete, High Alumina Cement (HAC), is also causing problems.

The BBC reported that Cleveland School in Somerset has closed 22 classrooms and erected marquees as it has beams made of HAC, which degrades if it gets damp. The school was built in 1962, when HAC was used widely for its quick-setting properties. Work is underway to build a two-story portacabin to house pupils.

Buildings containing RAAC include schools, nurseries, housing estates, colleges, universities, hospitals, airports and even the House of Commons. The Harlequin Theatre and library in Surrey has closed pending an inspection. RAAC was found in a former Marks and Spencer store in Wokingham that the council planned to occupy. Oxford University students at St Catherine’s College are studying in marquees after RAAC was found, affecting the library, dining hall and 152 bedrooms.

The problem is widespread and deadly serious, but the government is dragging its feet over inspecting, let alone remedying, the problem.

The confirmed number of schools with RAAC on September 14 was 174. The government will update the list only every two weeks, next on October 3. In all likelihood, the numbers revealed so far are the tip of the iceberg. The National Audit Office (NAO) estimates 38 percent of school buildings contain RAAC.

In Scotland, no more than half the 254 National Health Service buildings, including hospitals suspected of containing RAAC, have been surveyed.

Remedial work is proceeding at a glacial pace, and chaos reigns. Stepney All Saints School in London was told to close two weeks into term, even though it had previously identified RAAC and informed the Department for Education (DfE), which approved its mitigations.

The unserious nature of government approved “mitigations” can be garnered from DfE Under Secretary of State Baroness Barran’s comments to parliament. In addition to using portacabins as temporary classrooms, she suggested “semi-permanent” timber be secured beneath areas with RAAC that could last for up to 10 years.

The government remains vague about the timetable for refurbishing or rebuilding RAAC schools, which Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claims will be financed through capital grants or the school rebuilding programme. Head teachers report that schools have not received firm financial commitments from the government to underwrite costs. They fear a downward spiral and closure, as parents transfer children elsewhere.

According to Permanent Secretary at the DfE Susan Acland-Hood, many schools will not be rebuilt until 2030, and the school building programme has only 100 spare slots. She made an empty promise that “the next spending review will allow us to increase the total number if we need to.”

At St Leonard’s Catholic School in County Durham, locals have set up a campaign group to demand the school is rebuilt, holding a demonstration on September 27 when Baroness Barran visited.

The secondary school with 1,400 pupils is not even top of the rebuild list. Since term began, pupils have been taught online for four days week. Those attending school on certain days are taught in corridors or the sports hall. The school governors have been trying to get extra funding for building work since 2006.

Angry parents expressed their outrage on social media. Roger Barrett wrote on X/Twitter: “Your [ruling Conservative] party has known about RAAC and the potential for catastrophe yet you’ve done nothing until the last moment. Now you expect parents, pupils, staff to be grateful.”

Helen Tracey wrote: “The government has refused our school funding for portacabins meaning only one day per week in school for our kids standing in corridors writing on clipboards.”

Despite having hundreds of thousands of members risking life and limb, the education unions are doing nothing. They have not even broached the subject of Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which allows workers to walk off the job if they fear for their safety.

In January 2021, amid a huge surge of COVID cases, school workers threatened to do so en masse, forcing the unions and the government to abandon school reopening plans and implement a renewed lockdown, saving many lives.

Fearful of a repeat, the unions are directing anger and opposition into appeals to a government which has proved time and again its indifference to human life. The NAHT, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Education Union (NEU), NASUWT and the GMB issued a pleading letter to Keegan to provide the resources to make schools safe.

This after Keegan arrogantly responded to initial reporting of the life-threatening RAAC crisis as “sensationalist.” She told parliament on September 19, in words beyond satire, “In terms of the portacabins, I’ve seen and met children in the portacabins and at the first school the children were petitioning me to stay in the portacabin which they preferred to the classroom. Portacabins are very, very high quality.”

On September 25, the NEU, ASCL, NAHT, GMB, UNISON, Unite and Community trade unions representing more than three million workers wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking for a commitment in the Autumn budget statement for a £4.4 billion annual increase in spending on school building, to £7 billion a year. Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said, “We need the government to commit to a programme of capital investment that repairs and rebuilds our public estate.”

This is totally inadequate. In May 2021, years before the RAAC scandal broke, the DfE estimated a repair and maintenance backlog of £11.4 billion—up from £6.7 billion (as estimate by the NAO) just four years previously.

Even the pittance demanded by the unions will be ignored by the government. As Chancellor under Boris Johnson, Sunak cut school rebuilding funding despite warnings over a “critical risk to life”. Former permanent secretary to the DfE Jonathan Slater accused Sunak of cutting new school rebuilds to 50 a year, when what was needed was 300 to 400. Dozens of schools with RAAC had plans for rebuilds binned or bids for work turned down in the past decade.

Investment in education is the last thing any government, whether Conservative or Labour, intends, committed as they are to ensuring British business increases its profitability and military spending increases for the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine.

Educators and children face years herded into substandard buildings only fit for demolition. Schools are neither structurally sound nor safe from the spread of new COVID variants, lacking even the basic mitigation measures to ensure clean air, such as HEPA filters and UV light disinfection systems.