US Supreme Court papers over rampant corruption with first-ever “Code of Conduct”

Kevin Reed

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States published, for the first time in its history, a document concerning what it calls “ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court.”

Members of the Supreme Court sit for a group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Octobert 7, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite]

The code elaborates five fundamental principles called “canons” and is signed by all nine justices on the court. The document also contains commentary from the court about this unprecedented statement.

The 15-page document begins with a “Statement of the Court Regarding the Code of Conduct” that dismisses the necessity for the code in the first place. It says the court “has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules,” derived from various sources, “including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice.”

The opening statement, however, goes on to say that in recent years there has been a “misunderstanding” that Supreme Court Justices “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”

Where has this “misunderstanding” come from? Actually, there is no misunderstanding. Although the court cannot say so, its code of conduct has been made necessary by the fact that it has been exposed before the world as a bought-and-paid-for institution of the corporate and financial elite. A series of exposures over the past year, in particular, have revealed rampant corruption in the US Supreme Court.

These exposures included investigative reports published by ProPublica showing that far-right Justice Clarence Thomas was the recipient of millions of dollars in unreported gifts from billionaire Harlan Crowe, a Republican Party donor and Hitler admirer. Thomas, a member of the court since 1991, has been a central figure in the rightward trajectory of the court, including its decision last year to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

ProPublica also revealed an undisclosed 2008 flight in a private jet that right-wing Justice Samuel Alito took on a luxury fishing trip to Alaska provided by hedge fund founder and billionaire Paul Singer.

Other reports have revealed that right-wing Justice Neil Gorsuch was involved in the sale of property for $1.8 million in Colorado to the chief executive of the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which litigated cases before the high court. And Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, took in $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms, at least one of which argued a case before the chief justice after paying his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, corruption has also been revealed among the ostensible “liberal” justices with Justice Stephen Breyer taking 225 subsidized trips all over the world between 2004 and 2018, some of which were paid for by ultra-wealthy supporters of the Democratic Party. Also, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went on a tour of Israel in 2018 that was funded by billionaire Morris Kahn, who had business before the court.

The content of the code and its five canons barely deserve to be mentioned. They are full of absurd references to the “integrity and independence of the judiciary,” the necessity that justices avoid “the appearance of impropriety in all activities,” that they perform the duties of office “fairly, impartially and diligently,” engage in “extrajudicial activities that are consistent with the obligations of the judicial office,” and refrain from “political activity.”

Clearly, the blatant corruption and political influence among the justices of the high court has reached such a degree that all involved have concluded that a statement of denial had to be issued.

Attempting to restore of the reputation of the court in the eyes of the American and world public, the Supreme Court has been working on the code of conduct since 2019. According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the court’s legal counsel prepared a draft at that time, “which later was revised with advice from Justice Samuel Alito, but no action was taken for over a year.”

The Journal report goes on to say that “a person familiar with the process” reported that Justice Roberts and his counselor Robert Dow “made additional changes to the code, which the justices discussed for the first time at their private meeting, known as the conference, on September 26.” The unnamed individual said that the justices continued to discuss the proposal “over subsequent conferences,” and on November 9, “all signed off on the version released Monday.”

To some degree, the justices are attempting to head off a congressional effort to impose its own ethical standards on the court. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Senate judiciary committee chairman, Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, have called for a law with limited rules and enforcement mechanisms.

Durbin called the Supreme Court’s toothless code, “a step in the right direction,” adding that he was concerned that, “the highest court in the land not languish with the lowest standard of ethics in our federal government.” Whitehouse said, “... a code of ethics is not binding unless there is a mechanism to investigate possible violations and enforce the rules. The honor system has not worked for members of the Roberts Court.”

The flagrant corruption among the justice of the high court is part of the degeneration of all the institutions of bourgeois rule that found its most overt expression in the presidency of the fascist Donald Trump and his attempt on January 6, 2021 to overthrow the US Constitution and remain in office by means of a mob assault on Congress.

Under the pressure of extreme wealth inequality, the pursuit of permanent imperialist wars that threaten a third world nuclear war and the growing assault on democratic rights within the US, the court has become a center of right-wing attacks on the working class.

The nine justices on the highest court in the country serve lifetime appointments, and no Supreme Court judge has ever been removed in US history. Throughout its history, the court has been a bastion of political reaction, including the defense of slavery and upholding Jim Crow segregation in the American South. 

The devolution of the Supreme Court achieved a qualitative transformation with the 5–4 decision in Bush v. Gore (2000) that halted the vote recount in Florida, stole the presidential election from Al Gore and handed it to George W. Bush, and put forward the argument that the voting public does not have the right to determine the President of the United States.

Other rulings since then that have intensified the attack on democratic rights include: Citizens United v. FEC (2010), which allowed unrestricted corporate donations in election campaigns; Shelby County v. Holder (2013), which removed the enforcement provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health (2022), which abolished the constitutional right to an abortion.

UPS workers face job cuts due to automation, stagnant wages under new contract

Jane Wise

Two and a half months after the “passage” of the sell-out United Parcel Service contract, there are growing signs that cuts in jobs and wages are imminent. UPS is seeking to recoup its small cost increases under the new contract to offset decreasing volumes resulting from the ongoing recession in the shipping sector, and to accelerate the shift to automation which is a clear threat to jobs.

The contract was “ratified” as the result of carefully-orchestrated theatrics by the Teamsters union, which spent months falsely claiming it was prepared to call a national strike. In reality, the union did not even bother to make preparations to strike and constantly walked back each of its “red lines,” eventually announcing a deal at the last minute which it claimed was the product of a “credible strike threat.”

From the beginning, the contract was a sellout which falls far below workers’ demands. The new $21 per hour starting rate for part-time workers does not come close to making up for nearly four decades of declining wages, and the contract freezes increases to pension contributions in many areas of the country. It does not even secure air conditioning in vehicles for the vast majority of delivery drivers. The contract was eventually declared “ratified” under dubious circumstances, in an online balloting process with significant vulnerabilities.

However, the full extent of the betrayal is only now becoming clearer. A recent article in FreightWaves explicitly states that Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien and his negotiators understood that jobs would be lost due the company’s move to automation and to lower package volumes. Law professor and Teamsters insider Michael Duff is quoted as saying, “I believe the Teamsters, at some point, just said that ‘These [job losses] are costs we are willing to live with.’”

UPS has already begun to automate many tasks inside its facilities with the goal of reducing its 140,000 part-time workforce inside its sortation centers in the next couple of years. As recently as September 29, UPS announced it was implementing “pick-and-place” technologies to move packages onto conveyor belts for sorting, a robot to unload trailers, and driverless inside vehicles to move items that cannot be processed by automated sorting.

Speaking with FreightWaves, Alan Amling, a former UPS executive said, “As wages rise, the relative cost of technology drops. I expect you will see accelerated investments in technology that help employees become more productive, and in some cases, replace them.” Amling predicts job cuts will come from attrition as job growth at UPS shrinks close to zero in the coming years. Analysts speculate UPS will save $3 billion a year in labor costs through automation.

The new contract contains virtually no protections against job losses due to automation. It only requires UPS to notify the Teamsters forty-five days in advance of the implementation of new technologies. However, it is clear that the new automation in some sorting centers was well underway before the recent contract was put to a vote, or more likely, before negotiations began, and the union stayed quiet about this development.

As previously reported by the WSWS, this was the plan all along, according to UPS CEO Carol Tomé who stated, “[W]e can put together plans to mitigate that cost, plans to drive productivity inside of our business through automation, which, oh by the way, we retained the ability to do so.”

Refuting the claim of the historic pay increase promised by the agreement, rank-and-file UPS workers are reporting to the World Socialist Web Site that they are experiencing sharp wage cuts under the new contract. In some cases, market rate adjustments (MRA), or local wage increases beyond the contractual wage rates designed to attract enough workers in higher-cost areas, are being rescinded as the new hourly pay structure under the new contract takes effect, causing workers in larger markets to make less than they did before their “raise.”

A UPS worker with an MRA transferred over a year ago from a Pacific Northwest city to a Midwestern city told the WSWS he initially kept his MRA after moving, but after the contract ratification, it was taken away and he is making $9 an hour less.

According to UPS Chief Finance Officer Brian Newman in an interview with CNBC, the new wage rates are intended to do away with MRA’s entirely, under which many workers were already making more than the new starting rate of $21 per hour. This means that, in some cases, workers are making even less, than they did before the “raise.”

UPS began slashing jobs last summer in the face of the ongoing shipping recession brought on by the slowing demand from e-commerce and the impact of rising interest rates. Hours were cut by 10 percent and 2,500 management jobs were eliminated. In August, almost 200 senior pilots at UPS accepted buyout packages rumored to be $360,000 after UPS sought to eliminate only 167 positions out of 3400 pilots.

According to a worker at the company’s Worldport air freight hub in Louisville, Kentucky, management has warned the roughly 8,000 employees at the facility that the holiday peak season will be nearly non-existent for them this year, due to both declining volumes overall at UPS and the diversion of volumes to other air facilities. The new contract is also offering a pension bonus to anyone who retires during the life of the agreement.

The company has also eliminated the “pre-trip” position at Worldport, a less physically-demanding job typically held by higher seniority workers. While this is likely being done to pressure these older workers into retirement, these higher-seniority workers also will have the right to “bump” more junior workers from their jobs. A senior worker who is close to retirement would not only be put back into a lower-seniority job that is more physically demanding for the remainder of their career, but the displaced junior workers themselves would retain “bump” rights over worker with even less seniority.

Subsequent developments have proven correct the statement by the UPS Rank-and-File Committee, which was founded to oppose the sellout by the Teamsters bureaucracy, and which declared upon the ratification of the contract that workers “went into this contract one of the most exploited unionized workforces in the United States–and have come out the same.”

Pointing to the serious questions surrounding the integrity of the vote and the circumstances in which it was held, the committee announced a rank-and-file investigation into the contract. “An illegitimate vote can only produce an illegitimate result,” it declared. “The bureaucracy will use the result to claim there is huge support for them and this contract. But that is a lie. The whole procedure, from start to finish, was manipulated to produce the desired outcome.”

Israeli forces bombard Al-Shifa Hospital, as finance minister calls for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza

Jordan Shilton

Dead and injured Palestinians are seen on the ground following an Israeli airstrike outside the entrance of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Friday, November 3, 2023. [AP Photo/Abed Khaled]

The Israeli government’s genocidal onslaught on the Palestinians in Gaza escalated Tuesday with an all-out bombardment launched on the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza. The operation was clearly given the go-ahead in Washington and came as Israeli government officials have used increasingly explicit language to describe their intention to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

Late Tuesday night, reports emerged of intensified Israeli firing and shelling around the Al-Shifa Hospital. One doctor reported a direct hit on the fourth floor, resulting in a hole in the wall of the building. Other reports described patients being moved into corridors for protection and medical staff manually pumping oxygen to keep patients alive. An Israeli attack destroyed the intensive care unit’s ventilation and air conditioning systems. At least 40 people died inside the hospital Tuesday.

Doctors at Al-Shifa reported that over 170 bodies were being buried in a mass grave on the compound. No other option was left open to the medical personnel to deal with the decomposing bodies, which had begun to attract the attention of stray dogs looking for food. An evacuation of patients and medical staff was organised at Al-Quds Hospital, which is also located in Gaza City and was under siege for 10 days. This option is not currently possible at Al-Shifa, which is totally surrounded by Israeli troops.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped in Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardments and ground fighting are most intense. “Desperate calls and urgent appeals are being made by civilians who are unable to move from the buildings where they are sheltering because of the presence of Israeli troops, ongoing ground battles or who have been caught in collapsed buildings,” reported the UN Human Rights Office.

The horrendous scenes of human suffering resulting from the striking of hospitals, schools and other places of refuge are intended to facilitate the Netanyahu government’s “final solution” for the Palestinians. The fact that 22 of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning due to bombardment and a lack of fuel, that the waste water treatment system has virtually ceased to function, creating the conditions for the rampant spread of disease, and that well over 12,000 civilians have been indiscriminately slaughtered since the assault began are seen by the Israeli regime as necessary steps in its genocide against the Palestinians.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared explicitly Tuesday what has become increasingly clear to millions of people around the world: The far-right Netanyahu regime is carrying out a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Smotrich appealed for “the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs to the countries of the world,” which was the “right humanitarian solution.” He added, “The reception of refugees by the countries of the world that really want their interests, with the support and generous financial assistance of the international community, and within the state of Israel is the only solution that will bring to an end the suffering and pain of Jews and Arabs alike.”

Underscoring that Smotrich’s views are widely shared within Israeli ruling circles, his comments were a response to an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal by Knesset members Danny Danon and Ram Ben-Barak that called for parts of Gaza’s population to be relocated to other countries. Danon was formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, while Ben-Barak was deputy director of the Mossad intelligence agency. Last month, a leaked report from Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence revealed plans to forcibly displace Gaza residents to camps in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. [AP Photo/Hatem Moussa]

The Israeli military has cynically sought to justify its trashing of international law with the targeting of hospitals by asserting that Hamas is using them for military purposes. This unsubstantiated allegation has been seized upon over recent days by the ever pliant mainstream media in Europe and the US, which dutifully echoed the Netanyahu regime’s talking points.

At a press briefing Tuesday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby invoked the dubious authority of US intelligence to back up the Israeli military’s propaganda—the same source whose claims of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq were used to justify the destruction of the country two decades ago in an invasion that led to the deaths of over a million people. Washington “has information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and support their military operations and to hold hostages,” declared Kirby, before adding with consummate cynicism that this did not justify Israel targeting hospitals. Just a few hours later, reports emerged of the stepped-up bombardment of Al-Shifa, specifically identified by Kirby as hosting a “command and control node” for Hamas.

At a rally supporting Israel’s genocide in Washington that mobilized Zionists, right-wing Christian fundamentalists and forces close to the Democrats and Republicans, speakers sought to equate all opposition to Israeli war crimes with “antisemitism.” Chants included “No ceasefire,” i.e., a continuation of the massacring of defenceless men, women and children.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leads the crowd in chants of "Stand with Israel" at the National Mall in Washington DC, November 14, 2023. [Photo: Jewish Federation of Greater Washington]

While US imperialism as always takes the lead in its brazen defence of Israeli war crimes, which mirror the crimes committed by successive American governments in wars over the past three decades in Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya and Syria, the European imperialists are just as unyielding in their support for Israel’s massacre of the Palestinians. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s description of the Netanyahu regime’s actions in Gaza as “fascism” by telling a press conference Tuesday that Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly.”

Such preposterous statements are made by the head of the government of a country where protests against the Israeli genocide have been repeatedly prohibited. When the authorities in Germany permit protests to proceed, they are approved only under strict rules enforced by a heavy police presence. Robert Habeck, Scholz’s Deputy Chancellor, recently declared in a video that “Muslims living here” would lose “their right to protection from right-wing extremist violence” if they fail to “clearly distance themselves from antisemitism,” a term used by the German ruling class to smear anyone who dares to criticise the far-right Netanyahu government. Meanwhile, Germany has increased its arms deliveries to Israel ten-fold.

The unconditional support from Washington and the European capitals is emboldening the far-right Israeli government to go even further in its ruthless onslaught. In a nationally televised speech Tuesday evening, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel was in the second phase of the war, a reference to his three-phase plan outlined earlier in the conflict. Phase Two includes extensive ground operations in Gaza, combined with air strikes to eliminate Hamas, while the final Phase Three was described as the “creation of a new security regime” and the “removal of Israel’s responsibility for day-to-day life.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J.Austin III, in Tel Aviv, Israel October 13, 2023. [Photo: US Department of Defense]

That this means a vast reduction, if not the complete elimination, of the Palestinian population in Gaza was underscored by an announcement Monday from Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Israel does not intend to open its two border crossings with Gaza after the war. The Kerem Shalom crossing is the main route for commercial goods in and out of Gaza, while the Erez crossing was used by Palestinian workers entering and leaving Israel. The only other land crossing into Gaza, the Rafah crossing with Egypt, is not designed for heavy commercial use and could not supply the pre-war level of goods into Gaza. There “won’t be a connection of goods, and there won’t be a connection of people, including workers,” Cohen commented, making clear that the Israeli government expects a significant depopulation of Gaza. The permanent closure of the two border crossings with Israel would also remove the possibility of economic links between Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israel Defence Forces continues to bomb all parts of Gaza, including in the south where Palestinians were ordered to flee for “safety.” Several air strikes were reported in Khan Younis on Tuesday. According to the United Nations, the Rafah water treatment plant in the south has ceased to function, and a lack of fuel is preventing waste disposal trucks from operating. “Coupled with the shutdown of municipal sanitation work, this is posing a serious threat to public health, increasing the risk of water contamination and the outbreak of diseases,” noted the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees. Netanyahu agreed to a limited fuel delivery late Tuesday, but its restriction to UN aid trucks means that this will have little impact on the sanitation crisis.

While Gaza is bearing the brunt of the Israeli regime’s brutal onslaught, residents in the West Bank also face growing deadly violence. Daily raids by the IDF are resulting in fatalities, dozens of detentions and the destruction of homes and businesses. In one of the bloodiest raids to date, seven people died, and 31 were seized in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem early Tuesday, when Israeli bulldozers destroyed five houses and several businesses. At least 196 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, and 2,570 have been detained.

Thousands rally in Israel demanding Netanyahu’s resignation as government seeks to crush dissent

Jean Shaoul

Thousands of Israelis took part in rallies across the country on Saturday evening demanding the government secure the immediate release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Demands for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation were widespread.

The main rally took place in Tel Aviv, with demonstrators marching to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) headquarters in the city. People lambasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for doing nothing to secure the hostages’ release, barely mentioning them in the five weeks since October 7.

Noam Perry, whose 79-year-old father was seized by Hamas on October 7, said of the government, “Do not talk to me about conquering, do not talk to me about flattening [Gaza]. Do not talk at all. Just take action… bring them home now.” Another said, “They can’t tell us, ‘trust us,’ but that sentence has had no meaning since October 7.”

Demonstrators in Caesarea, where Netanyahu has his home, demanded his resignation. In Jerusalem, around 1,000 people took part in a silent demonstration in support of the hostages. Demonstrators in the mixed Arab and Jewish city of Haifa called for a new government, saying they refused to wait for the war to end. A convoy then drove down to join the demonstration in Caesarea. Other rallies took place in Beer Sheva and Eilat.

The demonstrations, while small and still reflecting a Zionist opposition to the Netanyahu government, express growing concerns about the purpose and direction of the war that threatens to escalate across the region, putting the survival of the State of Israel at risk.

Thirty-five Israeli Jewish and Arab peace and human rights groups have issued an open letter calling on the government to work for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict. They said, “It is evident that there is no military solution to this conflict, nor can there ever be one. The only way to stop the bloodshed is a political agreement that will guarantee security, justice, and freedom for both nations.”

The groups include Machsom Watch, Rabbis for Human Rights, the Parents Circle Family Forum, Women in Black, Yesh Gvul, the Arava Institute for Environmental studies and the Jewish-Arab political party Hadash. They called on the government to immediately “promote a broad prisoner deal, stop harming innocent civilians, act to curb the rampant settler violence in the West Bank and stop the persecution and oppression of Palestinian citizens of Israel and of those who express solidarity with the residents of Gaza and oppose the war.”

They added, “Harming innocents on one side does not balance the pain of the killing on the other side, it just adds more pain,” and, “There are no winners in war. Only peace will bring security.”

The letter also calls for a curb on settler violence in the West Bank and an end to the persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel and those who express solidarity with the residents of Gaza and oppose war.

An open letter from a group of Israelis, “We deserve the truth about October 7”, published on Mondoweiss, states, “As Israelis we demand an official commission into the events of October 7. Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza in the name of Israeli victims and we still do not know who was killed, how they were killed, and who killed them. We demand answers and so should you.”

It draws parallels between the government’s domestic and international rhetoric and Nazi propaganda. The authors say that the government is carrying out genocide “in the name of Israeli victims of the October 7 attack even though bereaved families are strongly opposed to this vengeful atrocity.” They note that Israel’s bombardment has—according to Hamas—already killed 50 hostages. Yet the government has not published a complete list of the victims or explained how they were killed or by whom, referring to claims that some had been killed by Israeli security forces in the fighting against the attackers.

That the writers have not published their names for fear of reprisals testifies to the wall-to-wall propaganda and intimidation carried out by the Israeli government and its servile media, including the liberal Ha’aretz. There is virtually no reporting, nor pictures or film, of the horrific slaughter in Gaza that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are children, women and elderly, and buried many more under the rubble. Instead, the media focuses endlessly on the grief and suffering of the families of those killed, injured and made homeless by the October 7 attack, even though cabinet ministers have yet to visit the grieving relatives or the southern towns and villages for fear of an angry response while they talk about fighting “human animals,” “a second Nakba,” and “flattening”, nuking and ethnically cleansing Gaza.

An Israeli woman is comforted by another after an argument with a right-wing Zionist in Tel Aviv, November. 4, 2023 [AP Photo/Bernat Armangue]

The Netanyahu government has launched a McCarthyite campaign, cracking down on freedom of expression and all dissent and opposition to the war and vilifying those reaching out to the Palestinians or calling for a ceasefire as traitors, “terrorist supporters” and “the enemies within.” It recently introduced legislation making it a criminal offence just to watch material on social media that supports Hamas.

This crackdown on freedom of speech and the targeting of critics of Israel’s genocidal policies, long planned, flows inexorably from the government’s determination to establish a Jewish supremacist state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan river, and to grant itself dictatorial powers to do so that were the subject of the nine-month long protest movement.

The government has now set its sights on the foreign media, with the security cabinet debating emergency regulations allowing the government to close media outlets that “harm state security.” Qatar’s Al-Jazeera is currently the chief target.

Palestinian students and staff are facing a witch-hunt in the universities and colleges. Adalah, the Palestinian legal centre and human rights organisation, has reported more than 100 cases of students and teachers expelled or dismissed for their social media posts or even chats in private WhatsApp groups about Gaza.

There is harassment and intimidation in the healthcare system, where Palestinian Israelis make up 40 percent of the workforce, with a systematic campaign to expel doctors and health workers, including for things they had written before the war. Israel’s corporatist healthcare unions and medical associations have done nothing to defend them.

The police and state prosecutor have announced more than 120 indictments and arrests of Israel’s Arab citizens for posts supposedly constituting incitement or support of terrorism and identifying with Hamas. It follows the establishment of a task force, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to monitor expressions of Palestinian “extremism.”

This is not restricted to Palestinian Israelis. Dr. Meir Baruchin, a 63-year-old Jewish history teacher who posts names and pictures of Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli army in Gaza or the West Bank, was fired and later arrested and held on remand charged with “conspiring to treason” for opposing the army’s operations in Gaza. On Friday, a court in Jerusalem extended his remand for a further four days.

The police have banned any protests in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, arresting several dozen anti-war demonstrators on public order offences. On Thursday, they arrested four former Arab Israeli legislators who had planned to hold a demonstration against the war, with a court ordering their remand for a further four days. Such rallies have been violently dispersed in Haifa, Jerusalem and Umm al-Fahm.

Right-wing extremists have been threatening left-wing activists, following the publishing of personal information about targeted individuals on social media. In one incident, a dozen of the followers of the late extreme-right Rabbi Meir Kahane attacked the ultra-Orthodox reporter and left-wing activist Israel Frey, verbally and physically, throwing firecrackers at his home and chasing after him when he fled. The police took no action.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman sacked and plans far-right campaign from backbenches

Thomas Scripps

Suella Braverman has been sacked as Britain’s home secretary by Conservative government Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. This comes after weeks of her incendiary comments condemning anti-war protestors, and the police for failing to crack down on them hard enough.

Getting fired was clearly Braverman’s intention and strengthens her position as the Tory right’s leading candidate to challenge Sunak for leadership.

Suella Braverman speaks on immigration at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, in Washington [AP Photo/Kevin Wolf]

James Cleverly has taken her place, vacating the role of Foreign Secretary, which has been filled by former Prime Minister David Cameron. Having not been an MP since 2016, Cameron was appointed to the House of Lords to allow him to take up the post. He is the first ex-prime minister in half a century to return to the cabinet.

The reshuffle reflects a raging crisis in the Tory government as it confronts overwhelming popular opposition, with a section of the party making increasingly strident demands for a fascistic response.

Braverman forced the issue last week with an article in the Times describing protests of hundreds of thousands for a ceasefire in Gaza as “an assertion of primacy by certain groups—particularly Islamists—of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland. Also disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster are the reports that some of Saturday’s march group organisers have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas.”

Accusing the police of “playing favourites”, she went on, “Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law?”

Two thousand fascists took this as a call to arms and went on the rampage in London on Saturday, mostly fighting with police but trying to attack demonstrators. Meanwhile, the ceasefire protest swelled to the second-largest demonstration in modern British history—over 800,000 people.

Braverman doubled down, taking pains to this time praise the police while denouncing “The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march” and insisting, “This can’t go on… Further action is necessary.”

Braverman has placed herself at the head of the government’s anti-migrant campaign, helming the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and revels in attacks on the European Union. She has seized on demands to crush anti-war protests as the spearhead of a campaign to assume unchallenged leadership of the hard right of the Tory Party, now wrapped in a martyr’s mantle.

According to the Guardian, the New Conservatives faction has already held a meeting to plan a future Braverman leadership run. The Daily Mail splashed “Suella comes out fighting” across its Monday front page.

Her sacking indicates nothing more than tactical disagreements between Braverman and Sunak’s leadership on the need to repress popular opposition. The conflict is over timing and the need to properly prepare such an offensive, including by not alienating the Metropolitan Police and angering sections of the Unionists in Northern Ireland.

Making clear his intentions, Sunak’s office briefed several newspapers ahead of Braverman’s sacking that he would be personally spearheading a plan to suppress the protests. The Times ran the story under the headline, “Arrest antisemitic yobs now, Rishi Sunak will tell the police”.

It reports, “Rishi Sunak will urge the Metropolitan police commissioner to immediately arrest protesters seen using antisemitic slogans as he plans to make prosecutions for glorifying terrorism easier.

“The prime minister is drawing up a five-point package allowing police to prohibit provocative chants as a condition of allowing protests, and to take into account the ‘cumulative effect’ of weeks of marches in deciding on a ban.”

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has repeatedly requested extended powers of arrest. He is expected to tell Sunak that a heavier hand would have been used against Saturday’s march if Braverman had not whipped up a far-right mob armed with knuckle dusters and knives, who occupied his officers’ attentions.

Sunak’s challenge is to push this agenda through in the face of massive popular hostility, following a strike wave and amid a protest movement that have shaken the government. His replacement of Braverman and shift of Cleverly mark the 11th and 12th reappointments of the Great Offices of State—the prime minister, chancellor, home and foreign secretaries—since September last year.

Boris Johnson was forced out of office by his own MPs who believed popular outrage over his murderous record during the pandemic was undermining the ruling class’s ability to wage imperialist war abroad and stepped-up class war at home. But they have since been unable to find a better replacement, with each new attempt further delegitimising an already despised government.

Liz Truss’s disastrous 44-day premiership, courtesy of the party’s raving right-wing membership, prompted a selection of the next Tory leader and British prime minister by 357 MPs, with Sunak selected as the safest pair of hands. To soothe the markets and international investors, he appointed Jeremy Hunt as chancellor—one of the most senior and prominent figures of the Cameron-era government.

This was already desperate, with Hunt closely associated with post-2008 austerity and, as health secretary, with the further privatisation of the National Health Service. Now Sunak has reached for Cameron himself, the man notorious for announcing the “age of austerity,” who lost office after determining that a referendum would be held on Britain’s membership of the European Union—a plan to “lance the boil” of the Brexit wing of his party which ended in their victory.

David Cameron speaks with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak as he is appointed as Foreign Secretary as the Prime Minister reshuffles his cabinet from 10 Downing Street. [Photo by Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

Not even an MP, Cameron has a popular mandate of one—his appointer Rishi Sunak, himself an unelected prime minister—and cannot participate in the House of Commons.

Between them, Cameron’s appointment and Braverman’s self-imposed sacking sum up the trajectory in the ruling class. Unable to maintain the faintest trace of democratic legitimacy, it is turning rapidly to repression and dictatorship.

That it can do so in the face of such enormous popular opposition is thanks to the Labour Party, the trade union bureaucracy and the political organisations which orbit them like the Stop the War Coalition (STWC). Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the leading trade union general secretaries like Mick Lynch have fiercely policed the political activity of the working class, preventing any struggle to bring down the government. At all times they have set their sights on a Labour government only when the Tories deign to call a general election, so as to engineer a smooth transition that safeguards their shared agenda of austerity and war.

At the rally in London on Saturday, speaker after speaker placed the focus on ousting Braverman and convincing MPs, including Starmer and Sunak, to back a ceasefire. An array of Labour “lefts”, headed by Jeremy Corbyn, were given prominence to reinforce the claim that Starmer’s “party of NATO” can be made to respond to pressure when the vast majority of protesters despise Starmer and company for their naked support for Israel’s genocide.

STWC convenor Lindsey German commented on Braverman’s removal that it “should be welcomed by all who reject her divisive politics … Our march demanded an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, which the Liberal Democrats have now also done. Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak must now follow suit.”

Germany’s defence policy guidelines: “Ready for war”—like the Nazis

Johannes Stern

Just under a fortnight ago, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (Social Democrat, SPD) called for Germany to become “war-ready” and “capable of defence” again, and for both the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) and society as a whole to be arranged accordingly.

The goal of the comprehensive rearmament and militarisation of society as a whole not only links back rhetorically but also substantively to Nazi policy. Before and during the Second World War, the Nazis had constantly invoked the German people’s “readiness for war” and “ability to defend themselves.”

Nazi weekly newspaper “Das Reich” with editorial by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels

On July 9, 1944, when the defeat of the Wehrmacht (Hitler’s Armed Forces) was already unstoppable, the Nazi weekly newspaper Das Reich published the headline, “More fit for war than ever.” The editorial, penned by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, invoked Germany’s “ war-readiness” and called for all the forces of the “nation” to be mobilised for “victory.”

The German ruling class is pursuing this goal again today. On Thursday, Pistorius and the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, published the 2023 Defence Policy Guidelines, which can only be described as a blueprint for total war. The National Security Strategy, published in June, was already moving in this direction.

All areas of society are once again to be geared towards war, German soldiers and civilians are once again to die en masse for the predatory interests of German imperialism. This is the core message of the 35-page document, which Pistorius and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) underlined on Friday with further pro-war speeches at the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) conference in Berlin.

“Our ability to defend ourselves requires a Bundeswehr that is war-ready,” reads the very first section of the paper. This means “that its personnel and equipment are geared towards fulfilling its demanding missions.” The yardstick for this was “readiness to fight at all times with the aspiration to succeed in high-intensity combat.” We do not just want to win the confrontation with an “at least equal opponent,” we have to, the document declares.

Another key objective is: “War-readiness as a maxim for action.” Germany needs “soldiers who have the will to bravely defend the rights and freedom of the German people, consciously accepting the risk to life and limb.”

These statements are a warning. During the Second World War, Germany’s ruling class reduced Europe to rubble and ash and committed the worst crimes in human history with the war of extermination and the Holocaust. Since then, it has not dared to speak so openly about war, victory, and the will to die on the battlefield. Now it is determined to rearm Germany to become the leading European military power and to put it in a position to wage a major war in Europe itself.

“War has returned to Europe. Germany and its allies must once again confront a military threat,” reads the first paragraph of the document. This “turning point” is “fundamentally changing the role of Germany and the Bundeswehr.” As the “most populous and economically strong country in the centre of Europe,” Germany has a “responsibility” and must “be the backbone of deterrence and collective defence in Europe.”

The paper identifies the nuclear power Russia as the main opponent. Following its “war of aggression against Ukraine in violation of international law,” the Russian Federation “remains the greatest permanent threat to peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area without fundamental internal change.”

This turns reality on its head. In fact, NATO deliberately provoked the Russian invasion through its aggression. And German imperialism is now using the war to realise its long-cherished rearmament plans and, despite its historical crimes, to reorient itself militarily towards the East. The guidelines describe the “reorganisation of a combat brigade in Lithuania” as “the lighthouse project of the new era.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks at the Bundeswehr conference [Photo by Bundesregierung / Kugler]

And Scholz added at the Bundeswehr conference: “We are also contributing to airspace security in the other Baltic states, in Poland, Slovakia and Romania, strengthening our presence on the ground and also the Alliance’s deterrent capability at sea.” And all of this was “only the beginning; because with the implementation of NATO’s defence planning,” “we will be called upon to do even more. Our geographical position in Europe means that Germany functions as the central hub for the Alliance.”

The “implementation of NATO defence planning” means nothing less than war against Russia. At the last NATO summit in Vilnius, the alliance adopted a 4,000-page war plan that sets out in detail which troops will be deployed where and which weapons will be at their disposal.

Among other things, the NATO Rapid Reaction Force will be increased from 40,000 to 300,000 soldiers. Specifically, the NATO plan envisages “ensuring the timely reinforcement of all allies in accordance with our 360-degree approach.” There was a “commitment to fully fund these plans and to exercise regularly in order to be prepared for high-intensity and cross-cutting collective defence operations.”

The defence policy guidelines extend to nuclear escalation. “National and alliance defence continues to require participation in credible nuclear deterrence,” it says in the section titled “Strategic priorities of defence policy.” Through nuclear sharing, Germany “continues to make its contribution to nuclear deterrence within the Alliance.”

Germany’s great power ambitions are not limited to Europe and Russia. In the section “Defence policy assessment,” it states: “Even if our focus is on security from the Russian Federation, Germany faces a multitude of simultaneous, mutually reinforcing security policy challenges. Crises, conflicts and regional tensions influence our immediate security environment in Africa, the Middle East, the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific.” China was “simultaneously a partner, competitor and systemic rival.” And “cyber, information and space” were also of “strategic relevance.”

The paper explicitly formulates the Bundeswehr’s claim to intervene militarily worldwide. The “spectrum” of German contributions ranges “from the deployment of military advisory groups and mobile training teams to the deployment of extensively capable contingents.”

This explicitly involves economic and geostrategic interests. “For Germany as an economically globally networked trading nation ... destabilisation in other regions of the world and threats to the freedom of sea routes have a direct impact on security and prosperity.” German defence policy must once again “think and act in geostrategic spaces.”

The current guidelines also differ from previous strategy papers in that they are much more specific about the consequences of the war plans—including within Germany. They call for the development of a war economy and the complete militarisation of society. “The expansion of robust and secure defence industry capacity” was “an important element for the rapid, comprehensive and sustainable supply of the Bundeswehr in times of crisis and war.”

The term “Wehrhaftigkeit” (“defence capacity”) describes “the inner attitude towards defence readiness of the entire Bundeswehr with long-term appeal in all defence-relevant areas and in German society.” The Bundeswehr, including the reserve, belongs “in the centre of society” and must be “tangible where people are.” “Defence for the protection of Germany” is “a task for society as a whole” and “an active veterans’ and martyrs’ culture that is also supported by society ... is a constant obligation.”

The paper leaves no doubt that the working population should pay the price for this war madness: As victims on the front line, which according to Pistorius may again flow through Germany itself; through social and wage cuts to finance the rearmament; and in the form of massive attacks on democratic rights to suppress resistance to this.

“Operational readiness requires resources” and “security policy” will “not be able to manage without difficult prioritisation for the foreseeable future,” the paper states. At the same time, “the demand on the operational readiness of the Bundeswehr ... does not tolerate any delay” and makes “time a critical factor.”

The German ruling class can obviously hardly wait to wage war again and commit genocide and other crimes. “Please keep up the good work. Approach even complex processes with courage, make things happen,” Scholz called out to the assembled Bundeswehr leadership in Berlin. “Dealing with the new era” also included “learning lessons from the current war [in Ukraine and also in Israel] and adapting our equipment and procurement accordingly.”

In Gaza, all the parliamentary parties—from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to the Left Party—support the genocide against the Palestinians. The defence policy guidelines are intended to develop this criminal policy on a much larger scale.

Stipendium Hungaricum (Government Of Hungary) Scholarships 2024/2025

Application Deadline: 15th January 2024

Eligible Countries: International. See list of countries below

To be taken at (country): Hungary

Field of Study: Applicants are encouraged to apply for study fields that are in the educational cooperation programmes between Hungary and the specific Sending Partner.

About the Stipendium Hungaricum Award: Thousands of students from all around the world apply for higher educational studies in Hungary each year. The number of Stipendium Hungaricum applicants is continuously increasing as well as the number of available scholarship places.

The programme is based on bilateral educational cooperation agreements signed between the Ministries responsible for education in the sending countries/territories and Hungary or between institutions. Currently more than 50 Sending Partners are engaged in the programme throughout 4 different continents.

Offered Since: 2013

Type: Stipendium Hungaricum scholarships are available for bachelor, master, one-tier master, doctoral and non-degree programmes (preparatory and specialisation courses).

In the Hungarian education system, one-tier master programmes cover both the bachelor and the master level of studies; therefore it is an undivided master programme that results in a master degree. These one-tier programmes are offered in specific study fields such as general medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, architecture, law, veterinary surgery, forestry engineering, etc.

Eligibility: See full eligibility of all study types in Scholarship Webpage (Link below).

Applications will not be considered in the following cases:

• Hungarian citizens (including those with dual citizenships)
• former Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Holders, who are re-applying for studies in the same cycle of education (non-degree studies, bachelor, master, doctoral level) including both full time and partial study programmes

Number of Awardees: Numerous

Value of Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship: 

• Tuition-free education
  • exemption from the payment of tuition fee
• Monthly stipend
  • non-degree, bachelor, master and one-tier master level: monthly amount of HUF 40 460 (cca EUR 130) contribution to the living expenses in Hungary, for 12 months a year, until the completion of studies
  • doctoral level: according to the current Hungarian legislation, the monthly amount of scholarship is HUF 140 000 (cca EUR 450) for the first phase of education (4 semesters) and HUF 180 000 (cca EUR 580) for the second phase (4 semesters) – for 12 months a year, until completion of studies.
• Accommodation
  • dormitory place or a contribution of HUF 40 000 to accommodation costs for the whole duration of the scholarship period
• Medical insurance
  • health care services according to the relevant Hungarian legislation (Act No. 80 of 1997, national health insurance card) and supplementary medical insurance for up to HUF 65 000 (cca EUR 205) a year/person

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of candidate’s chosen program:

• Bachelor programmes: Fulltime: 2-4 years. Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Master programmes:  Fulltime: 1.5-2 years. Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• One-tier master programmes: Fulltime: 5-6 years Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Doctoral programmes:  Fulltime: 2+2 years Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Non-degree programmes:
  • Preparatory course in Hungarian language: 1 year
  • Other preparatory and specialisation courses: up to 1 year

List of Eligible Countries: For full time programmes, students can apply from the following Sending Partners: Arab Republic of Egypt, Argentine Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Kingdom of Morocco, Kurdistan Regional Government/Iraq, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Palestine, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, People’s Republic of China (including the Hudec scholarships), Republic of Albania, Republic of Angola, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Ecuador, Republic of Ghana, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iraq, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Korea, Republic of Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM is used at OSCE, UN, CoE, EU and NATO fora), Republic of Moldova, Republic of Namibia, Republic of Paraguay, Republic of Serbia, Republic of South Africa, Republic of the Philippines, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Yemen, Russian Federation, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, State of Israel, Syrian Arab Republic, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Tunisian Republic, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Mexican States.

For partial study programmes, students can apply from the following Sending Partners: Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, People’s Republic of China (only Hudec applicants), Republic of Albania, Republic of Belarus, Republic of India, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Russian Federation, Syrian Arab Republic, United Mexican States.

How to Apply: Apply for a Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Here

• Applications shall be submitted to the responsible authority of the Sending Partner
• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details