The farmers’ protests in Germany: A social uprising against the coalition government

Peter Schwarz

Over the course of last week, tens of thousands of farmers protested against the German government’s austerity policy, blocking motorways, access roads and city centres with their tractors. Some of the tractor convoys were up to 10 kilometres long. The farmers have planned another major demonstration in Berlin this Monday.

Farmers' protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin,January 10, 2024 [Photo by Stefan Müller / flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0]

The farmers’ protests are part of a social uprising against the government (a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party) embracing broad sections of the working class, as well as layers of the middle class. In the same week as the farmers’ protests, train drivers shut down the country’s rail network (Deutsche Bahn) for three days, with many craft workers joining the farmers’ demonstrations. Around 70 percent of the population have expressed support for the protesters, according to polls.

Last year, millions of public sector and postal workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action. This was then sabotaged by their trade unions, which then fobbed them off with wage settlements far below the rate of inflation. At the same time, a huge wave of job losses is unfolding in the auto and supplier industry, endorsed and co-organised by the country’s main engineering union, IG Metall.

Representatives of the government and related media outlets alternately tried to portray the farmers’ protests as a far-right conspiracy or as protests by privileged layers greedy for subsidies.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party), who was prevented from leaving a ferry by outraged farmers after a holiday on a North Sea island, ranted in a video produced by his ministry: “There are calls circulating involving fantasies of a coup. Extremist groups are forming, nationalist symbols are being openly displayed.” The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) claimed that “right-wing extremists and other enemies of democracy are trying to infiltrate the protests.”

The weekly Der Spiegel compared the farmers’ protest to the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters and warned of “far-right coup fantasies.” The Green Party-affiliated newspaper taz declared: “The protests are inappropriate and are encouraging right-wing extremists.” And the Frankfurter Allgemeine commented under the headline “Pampered farmers”: “German farmers can hardly rescue themselves from subsidies. But when they have to give up one of their privileges, tractors roll onto the motorways. This is not a reasonable protest, but rather an impertinence.”

In fact these are despicable slanders. Isolated attempts by right-wing extremists to attach themselves to the protests—such as a separate “farmers” demonstration by the Free Saxons in Dresden—have come to nothing. Right-wing extremists were unwelcomed at most of the farmers’ rallies. Attempts at ingratiation into the protests by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had called for “more competition” and “fewer subsidies” for agriculture in its 2016 programme, also had little effect. And as far as the economic situation of farmers is concerned, many are up to their necks in water.

The protests were triggered by the German government’s decision to cancel tax concessions for agricultural diesel and tax exemption for agricultural vehicles. These two measures were intended to save, respectively, €450 million and €485 million a year, i.e., just under a billion euros. Adjusted to the over 250,000 farms that exist in Germany, this amounts to the considerable sum of €4,000 per farm on average, directly reduced from farmers’ incomes.

The tax increase, however, was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. That is why the protests did not stop when the government made a partial retreat last Thursday, cancelling the abolition of the vehicle tax exemption and spreading the abolition of tax relief for agricultural diesel over three years.

Agriculture in crisis

For decades, there has been brutal cutthroat competition in agriculture, forcing thousands of farms to cease production every year—an extremely painful and nerve-wracking process. Fifty years ago there were still over 900,000 farms in Germany, today there are just 250,000.

In order to remain viable, farms must constantly expand by leasing new land, investing in new machinery and increasing their specialisation. They not only have to contend with rising rental prices—between 2010 and 2020, the rent per hectare of farmland rose from €230 to €375—and wildly fluctuating prices for their products, which are dictated by speculation on international commodity exchanges or by market-dominating retailers such as Aldi and Lidl, but also with ever new regulations from the European Union and the German government. Although some of these measures—such as setting aside certain areas for environmental reasons—are linked to payments (“subsidies”), this makes farmers even more dependent on the whims of politicians.

All of this makes long-term planning extremely difficult. However, in view of the high degree of mechanisation in agriculture, farmers are urgently dependent on such planning. At €794,300 capital per employee (not including land), agriculture is one of the most capital-intensive sectors of all. In manufacturing (industry) this figure is just €411,000, in trade €193,300, and in construction €59,500. Such high investments in machinery, stables and other facilities can only pay off if they are planned over decades.

In 2020, the German agricultural sector employed 937,000 people. Just under half, 436,000, were family workers in sole proprietorships; 229,000 were permanent employees and 271,000 were seasonal workers. Incomes were relatively low and very unevenly distributed.

The figure of €115,000 profit per farm, which is often cited as proof of the “wealth” of farmers, actually proves nothing of the sort. Unlike company profits, where the salaries of employees and board members have already been deducted, the profits must be used to cover the living expenses of the farm owner and family members who work on the farm.

The actual per capita income (profit plus personnel expenses per worker) amounted to €43,500 in the financial year 2021/22. This represented a huge leap of almost a third compared to the previous year, and resulted from the increase in food prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine. Food prices since have fallen significantly.

Previously, farmers’ incomes had stagnated for 10 years. In 2020/21, the average was €32,900, €1,700 below the level of 2012/13, which corresponds to an average gross monthly wage of €2,740. This is well below the average salary of €4,100, and involves for many farmers working hours of between 60 and 70 hours per week and hardly any holidays.

In addition, incomes vary greatly depending on the type of farm, region and form of employment, meaning that many farmers and employees earn significantly less.

There are 38,000 farms in Germany with an area of more than 100 hectares, which together farm 62 percent of the agricultural land. These are often agricultural enterprises. Their returns are relatively high, but this does not mean they also pay their employees well. In eastern Germany, where many of these agricultural enterprises are located, a third are owned by non-local investors.

In contrast, 86 percent of all farms cultivate less than 100 hectares of land. These range from intensive livestock farming to traditional family farms and organic farms to part-time farms. Eighty percent of all farms are family-owned—in some cases for generations. According to a survey by the Federal Statistical Office, 42 percent stated that in addition to farming, they were involved in other sources of income such as forestry, wood processing and the production of renewable energy.

A number of farms have tried to secure their existence by converting to organic farming. There are now 37,000 organic farms in Germany. Prices are more stable here, but incomes are also particularly low due to high labour intensity. The government’s increase in the price of diesel is hitting these farms particularly hard, due to their heavy reliance on machinery in order to compensate for their limited use of pesticides.

Lessons from history

The austerity measures of the coalition government have now managed to unite the different groups and sections of farmers. Unlike in October 2019, when smaller farmers’ associations organised tractor protests against the government’s agricultural policy, this time the German Farmers’ Association, which traditionally represents the interests of large landowners and agricultural businesses, has taken the lead. It is doing everything in its power to keep the movement under control and prevent it from becoming part of a broader revolt against the government and the state.

In fact, just such a movement is developing. The policies of the coalition government, which is spending hundreds of billions on war and rearmament, protecting the profits of the rich while cutting social spending, wages and public investment, are driving ever broader sections of the population onto the barricades. Similar developments are taking place in every capitalist country.

Even somewhat more far-sighted bourgeois commentators see it that way. The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

Around 70 percent of the population sympathise with the farmers’ protests. The farmers have been joined on the streets by small and medium-sized businesses, tradespeople and ordinary industrial workers. They are all united by a feeling of helplessness, which has long since turned into anger at the situation in the country. It is no longer just about cutting subsidies.

The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the energy emergency have left citizens unable to cope. Now there is also a fundamental mistrust of the state.

The coalition in Berlin will stop at nothing to suppress this movement and defend the bankrupt capitalist social system against any opposition. This is underlined by the brutality with which it is fueling the punitive war against Russia in Ukraine, supporting the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and adopting the refugee policy of the AfD. Despite some tactical differences, the government essentially agrees with the opposition parties, the conservative CDU and CSU, the Left Party and the AfD.

WHO officials warn sharply of the ongoing dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Throughout the world, COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are surging amid the fourth winter of the pandemic, as the highly infectious and immune-resistant JN.1 variant spreads globally. Wherever wastewater sampling is conducted, levels of viral transmission are currently at the highest or second-highest levels of the entire pandemic.

This ongoing wave of mass infection underscores the utter criminality of the World Health Organization (WHO), Biden administration and other national health agencies ending their respective COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declarations last May. The result of these unscientific and politically motivated decisions was that virtually all pandemic surveillance was lifted, while masses of people were led to falsely believe that the pandemic was over.

In two extraordinary press briefings last week, WHO officials made clear the ongoing dangers of the pandemic, while hypocritically admonishing the global population for no longer taking precautions, ignoring their own culpability in this process.

World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (center) declaring the coronavirus pandemic a Public Health emergency of International Concern in March 2020. [Photo: Fabrice Coffrini]

On Wednesday, January 10, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that in December the world had seen a surge in COVID-19 transmission fueled by holiday gatherings and the evolution of the JN.1 variant. He added:

Almost 10,000 deaths from COVID-19 were reported to the WHO in December and there was a 42 percent increase in hospitalizations and 62 percent increase in ICU admissions compared to November. However, the trends [on mortality] are based on data from less than 50 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas. It’s certain that there are also increases in other countries that are not being reported.

Information on the number of hospitalizations admissions is being provided by only 29 countries, while only 21 countries are providing data on ICU admissions. Again, these data are so scant because the vast majority of countries completely dismantled their pandemic surveillance systems in response to the WHO’s ending of the PHE last May.

Speaking two days later at another press conference held by the WHO on their UN Web TV, devoted to the co-circulation of COVID, flu and respiratory pathogens, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Technical Lead on COVID-19, remarked, “Essentially, given the lifting of the public health and social measures, with the world opened up, these viruses, these bacteria that pass efficiently between people through the air, take advantage.”

Van Kerkhove stated that access to vaccines remains a challenge in much of the globe, noting that where vaccines are available, demand and uptake are quite low, raising concerns about the elderly and most vulnerable, including immunocompromised people and pregnant women. She then warned starkly:

What is critical to know right now is that the public health risk from COVID remains high globally. We have a pathogen that is circulating in all countries … case-based data that is reported to the WHO is not a reliable indicator and has not been a reliable indicator for a couple of years now. If you look at the epidemiology curve it looks like the virus is gone, but it hasn’t.

Van Kerkhove added, “According to wastewater estimates we have from a number of countries, the actual circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is anywhere from two to 19 times higher than what is being reported. And what is difficult is that the virus is continuing to evolve.” Although she noted that the number of deaths has reduced drastically from two years ago, there continues to be around 10,000 official COVID deaths per month.

However, Van Kerkhove cautioned that this represents less than a quarter of all countries reporting data, and half of official deaths were just from the US, meaning there is a massive undercounting simply from lack of reporting. She stated bluntly, “We are missing deaths from countries around the world. Just because those countries aren’t reporting deaths doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.”

Official figures for January are expected to rise given the intense circulation of JN.1 and many large indoor gatherings that have taken place surrounding the holidays.

After acknowledging that the pandemic continues unchecked, Van Kerkhove noted:

On the one hand, while we are seeing a reduced impact, we feel that there is far too much burden in countries from COVID when we can prevent them with adequate tests, with adequate access to and use of antivirals, with appropriate clinical care, medical oxygen, and, of course, vaccination … COVID is still a public health threat and is causing far too much burden and we can prevent it.

Van Kerkhove estimated that presently “hundreds of thousands” are hospitalized around the world for COVID, based on the limited data available.

Van Kerkhove then acknowledged that the post-acute phase of COVID-19 infections known as Long COVID is considerable. She said that 6-10 percent of symptomatic cases can evolve into Long COVID, potentially affecting multiple organs throughout the body, with debilitating conditions that can last for 12 months or longer.

Simple math means that tens or hundreds of millions of people will develop some level of Long COVID in the current global surge alone. It is no hyperbole to characterize Long COVID as a mass disabling event and a pandemic within a pandemic.

Van Kerkhove then warned, “We don’t know the long-term impacts of repeat infections … Our concern is in five years from now, ten years from now, in 20 years from now, what are we going to see in terms of cardiac impairment, of pulmonary impairment, of neurological impairment; we don’t know. We don’t know everything about this virus.” She continued to state that the problem is significant and research in better understanding and treating Long COVID is severely financially under-resourced.

The dire reports from these two leading WHO officials begs the question: why are they not moving to quickly reinstate the PHE and urge all world governments to reimpose strict anti-COVID mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Clearly, the WHO’s abrupt scrapping of their PHE last May, one week before the Biden administration, came under intense pressure from US imperialism, to which they acquiesced. They were motivated by political pressures and not any meaningful change in the ongoing public health threat that COVID-19 clearly still posed.

In light of recent evidence that the JN.1 lineage of Omicron appears to have a higher predilection for the lower respiratory airways and the concomitant risk of the virus reverting to earlier, more virulent forms, it is imperative that the PHE be reimplemented and comprehensive public health programs be massively funded in every country.

Instead, all world governments have imposed a brutal “forever COVID” policy of endless waves of infections with a highly dangerous virus that harms more than just the respiratory organs, but every organ system in the body, with accumulating evidence that long-term consequences of pursuing these policies will have significant implications for the health of the global population.

Taiwan’s election result signals escalating tensions with China

Peter Symonds

The Taiwanese election held on January 13 resulted in a win for Lai Ching-te, the candidate of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who defeated Hou Yu-ih from the Kuomintang (KMT) and Ko Wen-je from the newly established Taiwan People’s Party (DPP). In league with the US, Lai will only accelerate the dangerous confrontation with China of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, also from the DPP.

Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, centre, celebrates his victory with running mate Bi-khim Hsiao, right, and supporters in Taipei, Taiwan., Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. [AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying]

Lai, who will be inaugurated in May, had the tacit backing of the US which under the Trump and Biden administrations ramped up tensions with China over the status of the island. While nominally adhering to the One China policy under which Washington de facto recognises Beijing as the legitimate government of all China including Taiwan, the US has deliberately undermined that program by strengthening political and military ties with Taipei.

The US and international media have trumpeted Lai’s win as a rebuff to “Chinese interference” in the election and a triumph for democracy. In reality, Lai only won the presidency on the basis of the island’s first-past-the post electoral system with just over 40 percent of the vote.

Lai, who described himself in 2017 as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence,” played down his pro-independence stance during the campaign, well aware that a majority of voters are fearful of war with China. Beijing has repeatedly declared that it is seeking peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but would resort to force if Taipei formally declared independence from China.

The current President Tsai Ing-wen, who was ineligible to stand again having served two four-year terms, attempted to avoid any immediate conflict by maintaining that Taiwan was already a sovereign country and had no need to declare formal independence. At the same time, however, with the backing of Washington, Tsai strengthened the Taiwanese military in preparations for war with China.

In the course of the campaign, Lai adhered to Tsai’s formulations and declared that he would maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. He is, however, opposed to reunification with China and champions greater independence.

Campaigning in July, Lai declared Taiwan wants closer ties with Washington. He provocatively added that he looked forward to the day when “the president of Taiwan can walk into the White House.” In other words, for the Taiwanese president to be treated as the leader of an independent country. In similar fashion, Lai declares that any talks with China must be “as equals,” knowing full well that Beijing would never accept such a condition.

Lai transformed his victory rally into a celebration of Taiwanese nationalism, telling supporters: “This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world.” While claiming he would maintain the cross-strait status quo, he added: “At the same time, we are also determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China.”

Lai’s running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim, who will become vice-president, served as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States. Known for her aggressive anti-China stance, she earned the nickname of “cat warrior” for her forthright responses to Chinese diplomats branded in the Western media as “wolf warriors.”

The confrontation with China over Taiwan has only come to the fore as Washington has escalated its diplomatic and economic offensive against Beijing along with a huge military build-up in preparation for war. In the same manner in which the US and its NATO allies goaded Russia into invading Ukraine, Washington is seeking to transform Taiwan into a military trap for China, which it regards as the chief threat to its global hegemony.

Just prior to Saturday’s election, the Biden administration leaked to the media that the US would be sending a high-level delegation to Taiwan headed by former national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and former deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg. That team is due to arrive next Sunday.

China, which regards Lai as a “troublemaker” and has warned of the dangers of conflict if he were elected, reiterated the One China policy and called for an end to foreign interference in the island. A spokesperson for the foreign affairs ministry said, “Whatever changes take place in Taiwan, the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change.”

To rub salt into the wound, the US and its allies, which in the past have largely ignored Taiwan’s elections, congratulated Lai. A US State Department spokesman praised the Taiwanese people “for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust democratic system and electoral process.” China’s foreign ministry responded by declaring that the statement “seriously violated US promises that it would only maintain cultural, economic and other non-official ties with Taiwan.

While Lai and the DPP won the presidency for a third term, the election outcome was not a ringing endorsement of their policies. KMT candidate Hou received 33.5 percent of the vote while the so-called independent Ko and his TPP gained 26.5 percent. Together, the two candidates that favour an easing of tensions with China received 60 percent of the vote. Lai is the first president to be elected with less than 50 percent of votes.

Moreover, the DPP has lost control of the legislative Yuan or parliament. Out of 113 seats, the DPP took 51 and the KMT 52, with the TPP holding the balance of power with eight seats. The election also revealed broad alienation from all of the establishment parties, with the second lowest voter turnout of just over 71 percent.

The KMT was driven out of China in the 1949 Chinese Revolution and took refuge on Taiwan with the assistance and protection of the US military. Under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, it established a brutal military dictatorship over the island that maintained its rule through martial law.

The bitter rivalry with Beijing eased as the Chinese Communist Party turned to capitalist restoration from 1978 onwards and opportunities opened up for Taiwanese corporations to exploit cheap labour on the Chinese mainland. The KMT adheres to what is known as the “1992 Consensus” that acknowledges “One China” but allows for different interpretations of what that means. The DPP rejects the 1992 Consensus outright.

The DPP rose to prominence amid the protest and strike movement in the late 1980s that finally compelled the KMT to concede popular elections. Its electoral support has fallen after eight years in power amid a deepening social and economic crisis. Young people in particular have been alienated by an economic slow-down that has led to a lack of jobs, low wages and soaring prices, especially for housing. The DPP has sought to capitalise on this disaffection while offering limited proposals to address the social problems.

The stance taken by the new Lai administration that takes office in May will certainly compound tensions across the Taiwan Strait. However, it is Washington, already embroiled in wars in Europe and the Middle East, that is the chief instigator of the war drive against China throughout the Indo-Pacific, now focused, above all, on Taiwan.

Respiratory infections rip as Spain’s COVID cases rise

Santiago Guillen

A wave of respiratory infections is rapidly spreading across Spain since the last weeks of 2023. The wave has been dubbed “tripledemia” a combination of infections of three different viruses, COVID-19, Influenza A and RSV, a virus that can cause bronchiolitis that mainly affects children.

The latest report posted January 4 from the Carlos III University Health Institute states that the rate of respiratory infections now stands at a total of 952.9 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants at national level, 78 percent more than a month ago.

Medical staff members attend to a COVID-19 patient in the ICU department of the Hospital Universitario, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) [AP Photo/Álvaro Barrientos]

In some regions the figure is much higher. In Castilla La Mancha there are 1,710 cases per hundred thousand and in Valencia it is 1,501.

Spain’s hospitals have come under immense pressure, as hospitalisations grew 60 percent in a week. In Madrid, the Hospital Universitario La Paz, which serves a population in excess of 500,000 people and is one of the largest in Spain by the number of beds, has been forced to suspend operations to make room for new patients.

Emergency services are saturated due to the avalanche of patients. The health authorities ask patients not to go to the emergency room and go to primary care centers, which face shortages of doctors after 15 years of spending cuts in the healthcare sector. With the prospect of taking several days or even weeks to be treated, many patients are going directly to the emergency rooms out of desperation.

The situation is becoming especially complicated with the flu, which saw a 75 percent increase in cases in the last week alone. The forecast is that the combination of the cold and Christmas gatherings, which in Spain last until January 6, the day of the Three Magic Kings, means the flu is expected to peak in the third week of January. The same naturally holds true for COVID.

Epidemiological forecasts calculate that at least 4,000 people will die by the end of February.

These viruses are dangerous for a large part of the population, but especially for children and people over 65 years of age, pregnant women, immunosuppressed or those who suffer from other ailments that may make them vulnerable. To this we must add those affected by Long COVID, which according to studies may be around 10 percent of the people who have been infected by COVID and rises with each subsequent infection. In Spain, this would mean around two million people affected.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID infections are on the rise worldwide, with an increase of 52 percent in the last month that is likely greater due to the decrease in reports and the dismantling of monitoring systems.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters this amounts to 850,000 new daily cases. The true figure is likely much higher. He stated, “You know that all throughout the world and you've seen it in many of your own countries, the reporting has dropped, the surveillance centers have dropped, the vaccination centers have dropped, have been dismantled as well or shut down”.

This is the result of capitalist policies of prioritising profits over lives. Across the world, governments are systematically seeking to hide the spread of COVID and other respiratory viruses by insisting on the non-use of masks, eliminating containment measures and dismantling information and control systems. The anti-vaccine propaganda strongly disseminated by the media is causing the population to vaccinate less, not only against COVID, but also against flu and other diseases.

The spread of respiratory diseases was predictable. Spain experienced something similar last year, although with less intensity. North America, China and Northern Europe are all experiencing a wave of respiratory infections with hospitals saturated.

Rather than heeding the continued dangers posed by the viruses and recognise the need for billions of euros investment in the depleted healthcare system after 15 years of austerity measures, the new government of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Sumar coalition formed by pseudo-leftists and Stalinists is debating whether to introduce the most rudimentary health measures, like masking in health facilities. It has adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards the “tripledemia”, six months after it declared the COVID  pandemic officially over.

On Tuesday, the government finally mandated minimal measures like mask-wearing in health facilities, after six regions had already imposed this over the past weeks. “We are talking about putting on a mask when you enter a health center and taking it off when you leave,” Health Minister Mónica García told Cadena Ser radio late Monday. “I don’t think it is any drama. It is a basic and simple measure of the first order.'

This is the same García who in December 2021 said that masking was a “useless measure”, echoing the worst and dangerous anti-scientific lies.

Instead of contracting more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, the latest proposal of the PSOE-Sumar government is to allow workers themselves to self-diagnose and take sick days without pay and without seeing a doctor. Once again, workers are being abandoned to their fate.

They are pursuing continuing the same criminal and reckless policies of its predecessor, the PSOE-Podemos government (2019-2023), which systematically dismantled some of the most basic facets of public health—testing, contact tracing and reporting of disease outbreaks. According to The Lancet calculations, these policies have already cost 162,000 lives in Spain as per excess deaths, even though official data remains at over 122,000.

Meanwhile, the government continues to spend billions of euros on the military and NATO's war against Russia in Ukraine, while showering large banks and corporations with billions from European funds. This is the money that could be used to fund vaccines, therapeutics and the renovation of infrastructure to prevent airborne diseases.

The fight to end the pandemic is inseparable from the struggle by the working class against capitalism and its subordination of everything to the profits of big business. It is to the working class that principled scientists and epidemiologists must turn.

Across Europe, health workers have been at the forefront of opposition to the capitalist offensive against public health care, as the ruling class privatises, dismantles and sacks thousands of staff. In Spain, they have participated in massive strikes to improve their working conditions and the medical care they give to their patients. Last month, 55,000 nurses went on strike in Catalonia against low wages and precarious working conditions.  

These strikes have received mass support, with healthcare workers protests being joined by tens of thousands of people like in Madrid in November 2022 when hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the right-wing Popular Party (PP) regional government of Isabel Ayuso.

Their struggles have been constantly betrayed by the trade union bureaucracy, which has refused to organize unified strike actions, instead calling them on different dates and regions. Union leaders have also sought to shut down strikes as soon as they break out, seeking agreements with the different regional governments that include pay raises below workers' demands and do not improve the public healthcare situation.

One month of the Milei presidency in Argentina

Rafael Azul

January 10 marked one month since the fascistic TV personality Javier Milei was sworn in as Argentina’s president, and his administration has already introduced massive attacks on the working class. 

Javier Milei with other heads of state in the presidential palace during his inauguration on December 10 [Photo: Casa Rosada]

On December 14, four days into his rule, his Ministry of Economy imposed a devaluation of the Argentine currency from 400 pesos per dollar to over 800, dramatically increasing the rate of inflation in food and transportation for millions of workers overnight.

A few days later, on the 20th, as tens of thousands were commemorating in the streets the anniversary of the 2001 workers’ uprising in Buenos Aires, when 100,000 surrounded Argentina’s Government House, Milei announced a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU). The act dismantles over 300 laws that regulate big business, shield working families and retirees from inflation and rent hikes and defend public education and health care. In response there have been scores of protests across the country.

The DNU has been followed by an omnibus bill named “Foundation and Starting Point for the Liberty of Argentinians” that includes about 600 ‘reforms’ that eliminate a half-century of social and economic regulations. The legislation is supported by big business and the International Monetary Fund, which manages the Argentine debt crisis and holds billions of dollars of Argentine debt. The Omnibus bill is currently being debated in Congress, with Milei expressing confidence that “we have the numbers” to have it approved.

The General Confederation of Workers (CGT), Argentina’s largest labor federation, has called for a 12-hour national protest strike on January 24, a totally insufficient measure aimed at pressuring Milei and timed to take place once the Milei proposals have been approved.

Milei’s anti-communist and anti-working-class party “Liberty Advances” rules in a coalition with former President Mauricio Macri’s Republican Proposal (PRO) and sections of the right-wing bourgeois Radical Party. Milei and his Vice President Victoria Villaruel have repeatedly declared themselves in support of the military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983 and have justified its murder of 30,000 workers and youth. 

Last week, the National Chamber for Labor Appeals (CNAT) suspended one of the measures in Milei’s DNU. The decision was in response to an appeal from the CGT. At issue are increases in probation periods for new hires (from three to eight months), a restriction on severance pay, restrictions on plant occupations and picket lines that block entrances to plants, and on the right to strike for jobs considered “essential,” such as education, transit, and communications.

The Labor Board’s toothless decision makes no mention of any of the other brutal attacks in the DNU. For instance, it introduces a near-total deregulation of housing and rents, making it possible to evict renters at will, to raise rents at will, and to demand payments in US dollars and other currencies. 

Milei’s spokesperson Manuel Adorni announced it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, insisting that the labor measures were meant to guarantee the “freedom” for workers to be hired and for owners to hire without fear. 

With only token opposition from the national legislature, Milei’s brutal austerity measures outlined in the DNU will likely be approved by at least one of the two houses of Congress (which is all that is needed according to Argentine law). 

Both the DNU and omnibus bill are designed to benefit the parasitic ruling class while destroying the living standards of the working class and retirees, whose incomes will no longer be pegged to inflation. It will also hit small businesses, which are suffering from a drastic drop in demand, driven by inflation and sales tax increases. The bill also includes the elimination of environmental measures and the ending of mental health programs.

Throughout his campaign and now in office, Milei has peddled the message that all this economic and social pain is necessary to usher in a transformation of Argentine society, bringing in a new epoch of prosperity and freedom. But false electoral promises of a shared sacrifice have now given way to a savage assault on the lower 90 percent of society, while big business, agricultural monopolies and multinational corporations celebrate.

Milei is also further subordinating Argentina to US and British imperialisms, celebrating the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza and moving to break commercial ties with China. After Milei rejected the invitation to join the BRICS group, China decided to withhold a currency swap agreement that Argentina was relying on to service its debt payments. 

The economic and political crisis in Argentina, which Milei and the legislature seek to resolve through police-state repression and economic shock therapy involving even worse inflation, austerity and unemployment, is the most intense since 2001-02. 

At the time, the Fernando De La Rua administration and the legislature implemented a “labor flexibility law” and massive cuts to healthcare and education as part of an IMF structural program, but this failed to contain a massive flight of dollars and other hard currencies, and the closure of banks and factories. This provoked a social explosion that began on January 20, 2001, and included the occupation and appropriation of shutdown factories across the country. De La Rua resigned and was forced to flee via helicopter as tens of thousands surrounded the government house and demonstrators battled the police. Over 30 demonstrators were killed that day.

But given this pre-revolutionary situation, what prevented the working class from taking over and securing its interests, abolishing capitalism and establishing a workers' state? It was the same forces that claimed to represent them: the Peronists, led by Nestor Kirchner, with their nostalgic message of populist bourgeois nationalism, and the trade unions, both supported by numerous Stalinist, Maoist, Castroite, pseudo-left, and other left-nationalist organizations. These tendencies already had a long record of steering the working class away from revolution and channeling unrest behind pressure tactics on the national bourgeoisie.

Social discontent erupts in Papua New Guinea

John Braddock

On Wednesday simmering social discontent, driven by escalating living costs, erupted into chaos, looting and arson in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) capital Port Moresby and elsewhere, after police and armed services personnel walked out and protested over persistent shortages in their pay.

Rioters outside Port Moresby shop in Papua New Guinea, January 10, 2024. [Photo: Facebook]

Prime Minister James Marape has declared a 14-day state of emergency in the National Capital District, with 1,000 defence force personnel on standby “wherever necessary to contain any situations that may arise going forward into the future.” PNG Defence Force soldiers and vehicles have been deployed on the streets of the capital.

The Post Courier, among others, said that the events marked “the darkest day” in Port Moresby’s history. At least 16 people are reported dead and dozens injured after 24 hours of mayhem in the capital and the country’s second city, Lae. Unverified videos have emerged of the bodies of men who were involved in the unrest allegedly shot dead. Women and children were wailing around them.

Buildings and shops were torched. PNG's fire chief officer said firefighters were outnumbered when trying to attend to fires. The Port Moresby General Hospital had to close overnight, eventually treating some 60 people for serious injuries. A smaller hospital at the Gerehu suburb evacuated its patients as a nearby shop was set on fire. The airport was closed with all international flights cancelled until further notice. By Thursday the unrest spread to several other provinces, including East New Britain and New Ireland.

Footage and images from the capital on social media show warehouses engulfed in flames and large crowds of people looting and rioting. The City Pharmacy Limited (CPL) group, which owns one of the biggest supermarket and pharmacy chains in Port Moresby had most of its shops raided and burned overnight. Looters also stole electronic appliances from warehouses and shops owned by the Brian Bell group of companies.

The Australian High Commission issued a general warning that Australians in Port Moresby should monitor local media and avoid “trouble spots.” It advised to pay close attention to personal security and follow heightened security measures.

An Australian citizen working in Port Moresby has sent the WSWS a list of premises burned or looted. They include: Stop n Shop (SnS) Harbour city looted into the night, Desh Besh Kone wholesale premise looted and set on fire, EFM container yard at NapaNapa Laba market junction looted, Red Sea housing base Baruni in flames with a Filipino lady trapped inside, Renbo SnS burned and Koki, Badili, Gabutu and Kilakila shops owned by Asians looted with nine looters and several others killed.

Port Moresby shop on fire in Papua New Guinea after rioting on January 10, 2024 [Photo: Facebook/Isaac A Itsima]

Police reinforcements were flown in from Lae as the unrest continued for much of the day and into the night, defying repeated calls by Police Commissioner David Manning to clear the streets and go home. Manning said security forces would not tolerate “troublemakers” and live rounds could be used. The government also issued a call out for the military to assist police.

The events began on Wednesday morning local time, after about 200 police and military personnel gathered at the Ungai Oval to protest pay deductions of between $US26-80 from their fortnightly pay—about half the take-home salary for some. A government minister who addressed them could not convince them why the deductions had been made. The tax office said the issue caused by a “glitch” in the accounting system which was being fixed.

Amid spreading rumours that the pay deduction were either deliberate or even a new tax, the protesters demanded an answer from the government, saying the “glitch” explanation was not satisfactory. They then moved from Unagi Oval to parliament house, opened the gates of parliament where Police Minister Peter Siamali unsuccessfully tried to address them.

When security personnel withdrew their services, the situation quickly escalated. Marape went into lockdown at Manasupec Haus which houses the Prime Minister’s Department and other central government agencies. The protesters burned the guard house in front of the premises.

By Thursday calls for nationwide strikes were being raised. The PNG Nurses’ Association issued a circular to its branches calling for urgent meetings to prepare for a national stop-work and sit-ins to protest what it described as an effective hike in public servants’ income tax from 32 to 42 percent. The union declared that the unjustified increase came in the face of rising inflation that had “already put pressure on the basic food stuff sold in our stores and supermarkets.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Marape claimed the riots had been “organised,” without offering any evidence. He acknowledged that economic times were “tough” while declaring citizens should not take to the streets and “do anything and everything they feel.” Ill-discipline in the police force and defence “will not be tolerated,” he said.

Manning and senior bureaucrats in the finance and treasury departments have since been suspended while the government has promised to sort out the public servants’ pay “anomaly” in the next fortnight.

Even if the claim of a “glitch” in the payroll system is true, the fact that the issue triggered such a social explosion is testimony to the extreme social tensions wracking the country. Living standards are deteriorating. Consumer price inflation, which averaged 5.1 percent in the ten years to 2022, was forecast by the Asia Development Bank (ADB) last September to continue at the same level through all of 2023 and 2024. GDP is expected to grow by only 2.6 percent in 2024.

Rich in natural resources, PNG is one of the world’s most unequal countries. According to UNICEF, of an estimated population of 10.3 million, 85.7 percent live in generalised poverty. ADB data shows that 24.4 percent of those employed exist on $US1.90 purchasing power per day.

With widespread anger over Marape’s handling of the dispute, his government, which took office in September 2022, is facing a major crisis. Six government backbench MPs have already resigned. Two, James Nomane and Kieth Iduhu made their resignations public via social media, blaming Marape for the riots and calling on him to resign.

A grace period preventing a vote of no confidence in Marape’s leadership is due to expire next month. If a vote is triggered, a new prime minster could be elected from the floor of parliament. Marape has begun warning against ongoing instability, saying: “Our development partners are watching, our international partners are watching, our investors are watching.”

The attitude of PNG’s former colonial ruler, Australia, was spelled out in a threatening editorial in the Australian yesterday. It called the episode a “tragic lapse” for PNG and “a concern for regional security more broadly.” After a passing reference to “respecting the sovereign wishes of PNG,” it demanded the Albanese government “be ready to step in should we be asked to help maintain law and order.” There is in fact a long history of Canberra interfering in the affairs of PNG, whether or not an “invitation” was issued.

The Australian further pointed to “worrying similarities” with the Solomon Islands in November 2021, when rioting spiraled into “a bigger security threat for Australia and our allies that stretched well beyond Honiara.” Those events saw China send a police contingent to the Solomons to help restore order. Any repeat of China offering “security and protection” to another Pacific government would be an “unwelcome development” for Canberra. “The growing security ambitions China has regarding PNG are of great concern to the US and Australia,” the warning concluded.

The social crisis facing the working class finds a particularly acute expression in PNG. The living conditions of the impoverished masses are driven down by the rapacious multi-national corporations, global financial institutions and their local political servants. At the same time, Australia, the US and the imperialist powers that dominate the Pacific are turning it into an arena for geo-strategic confrontation with China, further compounding the social disaster.

Awami League wins Bangladeshi elections amid mass opposition boycott

Wimal Perera

The ruling Awami League (AL) won the 12th national parliamentary elections in Bangladesh last Sunday in a “landslide win” with 222 out of 298 seats it contested amid a massive boycott by opposition parliamentary parties, including the right-wing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrives to address a press conference following her election victory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan.8, 2024. [AP Photo/Bangladesh prime minister's office]

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, 76, will continue as prime minister for her fourth term, following her election victory in 2009. Opposition parties have rejected the results and are demanding fresh polls.

AL coalition allies, such as the Jatiya Party of the now deceased General Hussain Ershad, won 11 seats, with the Stalinist Workers Party of Bangladesh and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal securing one each. Various independent candidates won 62 seats.

So far more than a dozen people have died in election-related violence, including four killed in an arson attack on a passenger train on January 5. Two were killed, dozens injured, and property damaged in post-election clashes.

On January 9, Hasina addressed visitors to her Dhaka official residence bragging that election would “be written in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh,” and claiming it was a “free and fair” ballot. The results make clear, however, that she was rejected by a majority of voters, particularly the youth. Only 41.8 percent of the 119.6 million registered eligible voters participated in the national ballot. By contrast, there was an 80.2 percent turnout in the 2018 elections.

According to the Daily Star, the Dhaka district, which contains the country’s largest concentration of workers and urban poor, saw the lowest voter turnout with only 25 percent casting a ballot. Only 13 percent of eligible voters participated in the Dhaka-15 constituency and 17 percent in the Dhaka-17 constituency.

The highest participant rates were recorded in constituencies contested by Hasina and her relatives. Hasina’s seat in Gopalganj-3 recorded the highest rate at 87 percent; with 83.20 percent voting in the Gopalganj-2 constituency, where her cousin Sheikh Selim stood. Two seats contested by relatives in the Bagerhat area had the next highest turnouts.

The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry immediately applauded Hasina on her “victory.”

BKMEA executive president Mohammad Hatem congratulated Hasina for winning her fourth consecutive tenure “on behalf of our industry.” However, editorials in major Bangladeshi newspapers, nervous about the rising discontent of working people and rural toilers towards the political establishment, criticised her handling of the election.

The New Age on January 10 described the election as “not-participatory, non-inclusive and unrepresentative” and noted that it was no different from the 2018 and 2014 elections, which were “mired in electoral fraud.”

A Daily Star editorial on January 9 raised concern about the rising loss of confidence among youth in Bangladesh’s electoral system and the censorship measures implemented by the Hasina regime. “Repressive laws and practices by the government have constricted the space for expressing opinions freely, so much so that, according to a recent survey, around 72 percent of the country’s youth feel unsafe to freely voice their opinions on social media platforms like Facebook,” the newspaper said.

The newspaper reported that the US had described the virtually opposition-less election as “not free or fair” and that the UK said the standards of democratic elections “were not consistently met during the election period.” The European Union regretted the non-participation of all major parties in the ballot. However, China, Japan, India, Russia, Sri Lanka and some Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia congratulated Hasina.

Along with the opposition BNP, other parties boycotting included the Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, as well as various Stalinist parties—the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh and the Revolutionary Communist League—and other organisations.

These parties held protests calling for the resignation of Hasina and her government and for the elections to be conducted under an independent caretaker government. Hasina rejected these demands while resorting to various anti-democratic measures. This included violence attacks on opposition parties across the country by security forces, aided by ruling party thugs, in the months leading up to the election.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk told the media that around 25,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, including key party leaders, since October 28. At least 10 of them reportedly died or were killed in custody in the last two months. He told the Daily Star that many human rights activists have fled the country or been forced into hiding, and dozens of suspected enforced disappearance cases have been reported.

The BNP says that over 20,000 of its leaders, members and activists remain in jail with at least nine facing the death sentence and 925 confronting harsh jail terms. Human Rights Watch reported that on November 3 Hasina had told her “party supporters that if they catch anyone committing arson to ‘throw [them] into the same fire.’”

Two years after coming to power in January 2009, the Hasina government changed the constitution to abolish the legal requirement to appoint an independent caretaker government to run national elections. Hasina’s anti-democratic move was upheld by the Supreme Court.

While the garment and other cheap labour factories have made massive profits under Hasina’s almost 15-year tenure, the country faces a deepening economic crisis, intensified by the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

The Business Post reported that Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have plunged from a record high of $US40.7 billion in August 2021 to $21.7 billion on January 3. The country’s external debt climbed to $97 billion at the end of 2022, a 265 percent increase since 2010 and debt repayments, including interest, have increased a six-fold during the same period.

In January 2023, Hasina negotiated a $4.7 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that included the implementation of draconian austerity measures.

Her government’s attempts to impose this worsening crisis on the working class and the rural masses has fueled mass anti-government discontent.

Food inflation in Bangladesh has remained at over 12 percent during the past few months. According to a recent Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 22 percent of the country’s households face moderate food insecurity and 1 percent confront severe food insecurity.

A weeks-long strike in November by tens of thousands of garment workers demanding a three-fold increase in monthly wages to 23,000 taka ($US208) to compensate for inflation and worsening living conditions was brutally suppressed by security forces. Four workers were killed and over 100 others wounded. The new Hasina government will intensify its repressive measures in an attempt to suppress all opposition by working people to its brutal IMF dictates.

While the BNP, with the assistance of the Stalinist parties and trade unions, have called for new elections, hoping to exploit the growing mass opposition, they oppose any independent mobilisation of the working class against the Hasina regime. The BNP and its allies have no progressive alternative to the government’s big-business policies or the IMF’s dictates. If elected they would impose the same austerity attacks.