Germany’s Reichsbürger trials: Terrorist network with deep roots in the state apparatus

Justus Leicht & Peter Schwarz

Three trials have begun in Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich against the right-wing terrorist Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens Movement) network centred around Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, which the federal prosecutor’s office accuses of planning an attack on the Bundestag (parliament) and a violent coup. A total of 26 people have been charged so far.

Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss [Photo by Steffen Löwe / wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Since May, the leading members of the conspiracy have been on trial in a specially constructed hall in Frankfurt’s Sossenheim district.

The so-called Reichsbürger Council was supposed to form a transitional government after a successful coup. According to the indictment, Reuss, a property entrepreneur and scion of an old noble family, was the “ringleader” and chairman of the council.

The trial against the “military arm” of the group has been ongoing in Stuttgart-Stammheim since April, and other leading members have been on trial in Munich since this month.

The president of the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court, Andreas Singer, spoke in advance of one of the largest state protection proceedings in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: five judges, two supplementary judges and 22 defence lawyers will take part in the Stuttgart trial alone. The investigation files comprise 700 Leitz document folders.

The indictment makes clear that this is far from being a radical but harmless group of nutcases, but rather it is a networked organisation with a lot of money, a lot of weapons, the expertise to use them and detailed plans to commit massive, murderous terror. It has close links to the military and other state institutions. Although the ideological ideas of those involved are crude, they are widespread in right-wing extremist milieus.

The group had procured 382 firearms, 347 stabbing weapons and more than 148,000 pieces of ammunition. Its members include dozens of military officers. A group of 20 people was to enter the Reichstag (parliament building) in Berlin with armed forces and arrest the politicians there. The police were to be placed under the control of the military and the government overthrown.

Former Bundestag member for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and judge of the Berlin district court Birgit Malsack-Winkemann is accused, among other things, of providing the military members of the group access to the Reichstag building. Malsack-Winkemann herself possessed several firearms, was a member of the “Council” and was intended to be the future “Minister of Justice” under Reuss.

At the same time, the group pursued the goal of establishing 286 “homeland defence companies” throughout Germany, which, according to the indictment, were to carry out purges after a coup. The military head of the group is said to have been 69-year-old former Bundeswehr (Army) Colonel Rüdiger von Pescatore, commander of a paratrooper battalion of Airborne Brigade 25, a predecessor of the Special Forces Command (KSK) military unit, until the mid-1990s.

Another accused member of the military arm is Maximilian Eder, 65, a former Bundeswehr colonel. He served in Kosovo, Afghanistan, at NATO headquarters in Brussels and with the KSK. The defendants Peter Wörner and Marco van Heukelum are also former KSK soldiers.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the defendants are ideologically united by three main things: most of them are either Reichsbürger followers, coronavirus deniers, QAnon conspiracy supporters—or all of the above.

Members of the Reichsbürger movement do not recognise the post-war Federal Republic of Germany and believe that the German Reich founded in 1871 continues to exist. In their view, the Federal Republic, on the other hand, is merely a limited liability company founded by the Western Allies and externally controlled—not least by “Jewish big capitalists,” as Prince Reuss had fantasised. The “new order” they conceive is to be based on the German Empire of 1871, and rule is not to be democratic.

According to the latest report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (as the Secret Service is called), the Reichsbürger scene comprises up to 25,000 followers, although the Secret Service absurdly claims that only 5 percent of them are right-wing extremists.

In fact, the defendants were not striving to establish a medieval fairytale kingdom, but a brutal military dictatorship whose main task was to work through lists of “enemies” who were to be liquidated.

“Treason was punishable by death—to be pronounced by Prince Reuss and executed by military courts,” reported the Süddeutsche Zeitung at the start of the trial. “And there were precise instructions on how the homeland defence companies were to proceed after the coup. They were to ‘clean up’. They were to ‘neutralise’ ‘counter-revolutionary forces from the left-wing and Islamic milieu’ and focus primarily on the cities. Resistance was suspected there.”

According to the indictment, the group around Prince Reuss emerged at the end of July 2021 with the aim of eliminating the state order of the Federal Republic of Germany by force of arms. At that time, there was an increase in dissident demonstrations against state-imposed coronavirus protection measures. However, it is obvious that there are numerous links to other right-wing terrorist conspiracies that have been uncovered in the past and then quickly covered up again.

This is most clearly demonstrated by the high number of members, or former members, of the KSK who are now standing trial. As we have shown in an earlier, detailed article on this topic, the “elite unit, which comprises just over 1,000 men, has a fascistic trail behind it. Its almost thirty-year history is accompanied by right-wing extremist incidents that have been repeatedly whitewashed and trivialised.”

The secretive combat unit, which is trained to track down and kill opponents, has repeatedly hit the headlines in recent years. In 2021, one of four KSK companies had to be disbanded because Hitler songs were sung at a farewell party. And the so-called “Hannibal” network, which includes commandos, elite police officers, secret service officers, judges and other civil servants from all over Germany, has its centre in the KSK. The similarities between the Hannibal and Reuss networks are obvious.

This is also evident in the three courtrooms. The defendants are celebrated by like-minded people and in many cases defended by well-known lawyers from the far-right scene who share their extremist views and represent them not only legally but politically.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on trial attendees wearing T-shirts with slogans such as “I believe in you” and travelling “like a caravan” from trial to trial. The far-right coronavirus denialist party “Die Basis” (The Base) was particularly well represented.

Several defendants and lawyers are members of this party. For example, the accused Johanna Findeisen-Juskowiak is being defended by Professor Martin Schwab. Both were parliamentary candidates for “Die Basis.” Schwab, who teaches law at the University of Bielefeld, accused the court of “the greatest abuse of the administration of justice.” He claimed that the indictment had been constructed so that the government could declare a state of national defence and then remain in office beyond the 2025 Bundestag elections.

The defence bench includes far-right lawyer Olaf Klemke, who defended the accomplice and neo-Nazi German National Party (NPD) functionary Ralf Wohlleben in the trial of the fascist terrorist group National Socialist Union (NSU). Alongside him sit the QAnon-type activist Markus Haintz and the former front singer of the neo-Nazi band “Noie Werte,” Steffen Hammer. Malsack-Winkemann is being represented by the right-wing Cologne lawyer Jochen Lober.

The plan to establish a dictatorship in Germany under Prince Reuss was not successful. However, the plans for violence and murder by the accused and their circle show how dangerous and advanced the proliferation of ultra-right-wingers in the state apparatus, especially in the military, is. These are closely linked to the revival of German militarism and the associated shift towards authoritarian forms of rule.

The milieu of Reichsbürger, coronavirus deniers and other right-wing extremists that the group around Reuss draws upon is strongly reminiscent of the forces that Donald Trump mobilised to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021. His coup almost succeeded because parts of the military and the security apparatus stood behind it and allowed the attackers to storm the Capitol—and because the Democrats were not going to call on the masses to resist.

Suicides rates among US construction and mine workers at alarming levels

Kevin Reed

Studies published recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have revealed that construction and mine workers in the US are committing suicide at alarming rates.

Construction workers help direct traffic outside a residential and commercial building under construction, Manhattan, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. [AP Photo/Mary Altaffer]

An analysis published last December by the CDC, based on data collected in 2021, reported that the suicide rates in these industries are nearly double the average of all occupations and the highest of 20 industry groups examined.

The CDC analyzed suicide deaths by industry and occupation in 49 states using data from the 2021 National Vital Statistics System. The study noted, “The suicide rate among the US working-age population has increased approximately 33 percent during the last 2 decades.”

The study found that “overall suicide rates by sex in the civilian noninstitutionalized working population were 32.0 per 100,000 among males and 8.0 per 100,000 among females.”

In the construction industry, the suicide rate among male workers was 56 per 100,000 and 10 per 100,000 for women. In the Construction and Extraction occupation group, which includes all building trades as well as mining, oil and gas workers, the rates were more than double the average, reaching 65.6 per 100,000 for men and 25.3 per 100,000 for women.

A similar analysis conducted by the CDC in 2016 from 32 states showed that suicide rates among Construction and Extraction were at 49.4 per 100,000 for men and 25.5 per 100,000 for women. This means that the suicide rate among men in these occupations went up by 33 percent between 2016 and 2021.

Some industry experts attribute the rapid rise in suicides to the intense pressures on these workers during a construction boom and an ongoing shortage of workers.

Much of the media coverage of the suicide rates among construction workers is concentrated on the issues of access to mental health services and combatting the stigma of mental health problems among this layer of workers.

While there is a significant need for mental health services, there are other issues that lie behind the rise in suicides that are part of the intensified exploitation of construction and extraction workers by the capitalist employers.

The first of these is the impact of injuries on workers. According to Dr. Mitchel Rosen, the director of the Center for Public Health Workforce Development at the Rutgers University School of Public Health, industry-related factors, such as injuries that damage muscles and tendons due to repetitive motions and constant use, compound the potential for suicidal ideation.

Rosen told NJ Spotlight News that working through some injuries due to insufficient paid time off or fear of unaffordable healthcare costs are among the contributing causes to suicide. Rosen also pointed out that 15 percent of construction and extraction workers are US military veterans, who also have a high rate of suicide compared to the rest of the population.

According to a report by NBC News on Monday, “A recent surge in construction projects, spurred by billions of federal dollars for infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductor projects have put increasing strain on an already stretched workforce.”

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported in January that the construction industry would need an additional 500,000 workers to meet labor demands in 2024. Chief economist of ABC Anirban Basu said:

There are structural factors, including outsized retirement levels, megaprojects in several private and public construction segments and cultural factors that encourage too few young people to enter the skilled construction trades. …

More than 1 in 5 construction workers are 55 or older, meaning that retirement will continue to contract the industry’s workforce. These are the most experienced workers, and their departures are especially concerning.

NBC News also reported that $450 billion in funding provided by the Biden administration to the semiconductor industry to build 80 new manufacturing facilities in 25 states has led to excessive overtime and the relocation of workers needed for these high-pressure projects.

Intel is building a $20 billion facility in Arizona with financial support from the US government. NBC News reported workers are on the construction site for “two 60-hour weeks followed by a 50-hour week for months at a time in the hot Arizona weather with no paid vacation time.”

Many of these workers are coming from out of state and leaving their friends and families behind to live in temporary housing or hotels for months or years at a time. Josh Vitale, a superintendent for Hoffman Construction, the general contractor overseeing the construction of the Intel computer chip factory, told NBC News, “There’s a lot that goes into how stressful it is, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically … we have to realize that we are legitimately wringing the life out of people.”

Vitale continued, “It would be rare to find someone in the industry who hasn’t known a person that has taken their life within the last year or two. As an industry, we just keep putting more and more pressure on the worker to outperform what they’ve done before, and at some point, it’s just untenable.”

Elizabeth Clemens, the executive director for the New Jersey chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Suicide, told NJ Spotlight News that suicide is a complex issue with many factors contributing to it, including access to lethal means.

Clemens said, “I don’t think that specific occupations in and of themselves have higher rates due to the occupation itself.” She noted that access to physical and mental healthcare, reasonable workloads under safe conditions, and education and awareness can all reduce the risk factors.

While employer associations have referred to wages among construction workers as “skyrocketing” in the past year, average hourly wages increased 3.2 percent in 2023 to $30.73 per hour. Meanwhile, in 2020, the highest paid CEO in the construction industry, David Auld of D.R. Horton Inc., earned a compensation package worth $30 million.

New Caledonia independence activists deported to prisons in France

John Braddock

Seven New Caledonia pro-independence activists arrested during an early morning raid in Nouméa on June 19 were indicted last Saturday and, without warning, flown to mainland France to be held in custody pending trial.

In all, eleven members of the CCAT (Field Action Coordination Committee), alleged to be the main organising group behind the past month’s riots, face charges ranging from organised destruction of goods and property to incitement of murder or attempted murder of police.

New Caledonia in Oceania [Photo by Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0]

The raid, which included the headquarters of Union Calédonienne (UC), the colony’s largest pro-independence party, was a provocation by the French state. It occurred just two weeks out from the first round of elections for the French National Assembly on June 30, called by President Emmanuel Macron. The snap election is being conducted amid a sharp rightward shift by the French ruling elites following large gains for far-right parties in the European Parliamentary elections.

New Caledonia’s Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas said the indictments followed a decision made by one of two judges dedicated to the case. The transfer to France was organised “during the night by means of a plane specially chartered for the mission,” he said. The prisoners were dispatched on the pre-arranged flight in the early hours of Sunday.

The seven Kanak activists were deported, Dupas declared “due to the sensitivity of the procedure and in order to allow the investigations to continue in a calm manner, free of any pressure.” In other words, they are placed in a hostile environment, isolated from each other and their support base and at arm’s length from legal advice. A frame-up cannot be ruled out.

Among those indicted is Christian Tein, the main leader of CCAT, who was sent to a jail in Mulhouse in the north-east of France. Others include Brenda Wanabo-Ipeze, CCAT’s communications officer, in jail in Dijon in the south-east and Frédérique Muliava, chief of staff of New Caledonia’s Congress President Roch Wamytan (a major figure in UC), jailed in Riom near central France.

Others indicted but not yet transferred are Guillaume Vama and Joël Tjibaou, son of pro-independence Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who signed the Matignon “peace” agreement in 1988 and was assassinated a year later by “hardline” members of the pro-independence movement.

RNZ Pacific reported that the deportations were met with widespread shock and outrage. Tein’s lawyer Pierre Ortet said he was “stupefied” that his client was being sent to France, 17,000 kilometers away, accusing magistrates of “answering to purely political considerations.” Lawyer Christelle Affoue said: “With our clients in mainland France and us here, it will be very complicated to organise a proper defense.”

Thomas Gruet, Wanabo-Ipeze’s lawyer, added: “My client would never have imagined ending up here. She is extremely shocked because, in her view, this is just about activism.” Gruet said, “At no time was imprisonment in France mentioned during the proceedings. This was announced to my client during deliberations. It was too late to challenge.” Wanabo had “spent the whole of her first night (of indictment) handcuffed,” he said, and leaves three children behind in Nouméa.

Another lawyer, Stéphane Bonomo, observed: “If this was about making new martyrs of the pro-independence cause, then there would not have been a better way to do it.” UC president Daniel Goa described the transfer as a “political deportation.” “The independence of the judiciary is a farce in New Caledonia,” he declared and denounced “France’s colonial, repressive, and retrograde policy against the Kanak people.”

The activists are accused of being the “order-givers” within CCAT that was set up last year by UC, one of four parties of the FLNKS alliance. CCAT organised a series of marches and protests, mainly peaceful, to oppose plans by the French government to change eligibility rules for local elections, which the pro-independence movement said would further marginalise indigenous Kanak population votes.

Rioting erupted on May 13, mainly involving disaffected indigenous Kanak youth, after the French National Assembly voted to proceed with the constitutional change. Nine people have been killed and the capital Nouméa and surrounding districts devastated. Hundreds have been injured and 1,200 arrested, some flown out to France due to overcrowding in the Nouméa prison. Damage of €1 billion is estimated with up to 500 businesses and stores looted or destroyed by arson.

CCAT has consistently denied responsibility for the civil unrest. While under house arrest Tein accepted an invitation to meet with Macron during the latter’s Nouméa visit on May 23. As Macron demanded the pro-independence leaders use their influence to have roadblocks dismantled, Tein took to social media calling for the easing of security measures so he could speak to militants.

Despite a massive police-military operation and pressure wielded by Macron, the rebellion has not been brought under control. The FLNKS admitted that it failed to persuade protesters to remove roadblocks because the young activists were not convinced Macron would drop the electoral reform. Macron announced on June 12 he had “suspended,” but not withdrawn, the contentious amendment.

The deportations have provoked a new wave of unrest and clashes. The Guardian cited French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc who alleged they began on Sunday night, including fires at the Koumac town hall, the premises of the municipal police in Dumbéa, an attack on a gendarmerie in Maré, and alleged acts of “destruction and vandalism” in different neighbourhoods of Nouméa. Broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1ère also reported unrest in the neighbourhoods of Vallée-du-Tir, Magenta and Tuband.

Barricades have again been erected across the main island. Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan posted on X/Twitter a scene of a protest in Poya, on the border of the Northern and Southern Provinces. Until now protests had been centred in Noumea and surrounding towns in the south, but they are spreading beyond the capital. On the outer island of Lifou the airstrip was damaged, and all Air Calédonie flights cancelled.

Solidarity Kanaky, a pro-independence network in France, organised an emergency protest outside the Ministry of Justice in Paris on Sunday opposing the deportations and calling for the prisoners to be freed. The organisation has denounced the “criminalisation of CCAT” and the “abusive arrests, which once again are designed to meet the expectations of the most radical [pro-French] ‘loyalists.’”

There is no doubt the prison transfer was organised at the highest levels of the French state, including by Macron. Paris has turned the colony of just 270,000 people into an armed camp with over 3,700 security personnel, supported by armoured riot control vehicles, helicopters and other heavy equipment. Hundreds of military personnel patrol the streets and an 8.00 p.m.–6.00 a.m. curfew is being maintained.

Despite the authorities seeking to pin the blame on a handful of CCAT leaders, the riots erupted from below and remain outside the control of the official “independence” parties. The unrest expresses deepening social discontent, particularly among unemployed and alienated Kanak youth who see no future amid grinding inequality and an escalating economic crisis in the prevailing set-up. Maclellan posted on X/Twitter that they “burned symbols of wealth and targeted large shopping centres and businesses. They live in urban areas and face daily difficulties. With their families, they are in poverty. They don’t have a job.”

Amid the election campaign in France, the far-right Rassemblement National is backing Macron’s reforms, the “restoration of order” and continued French colonial domination of New Caledonia.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Unbowed (LFI), part of the New Popular Front, said Tein’s prison transfer was “an alienation of his rights and a gross and dramatic political mistake.” He has accused Macron of being responsible for the civil unrest in the territory. The Front’s joint election statement calls for the New Caledonia reforms to be abandoned as a “gesture of appeasement” and to return to “the path of dialogue and a search for consensus.”

High levels of toxic PFAS chemicals found in Australia’s drinking water

Frank Gaglioti

A recent Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) report on “forever chemicals” in drinking water across Australia’s eastern seaboard and further afield shows a large section of the population has been exposed to these cancer-causing substances for many years.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in numerous household products such as non-stick cooking utensils; stain-, grease- and water-resistant clothing and carpet, and cosmetics. They have also been used as fire retardants as they resist extremely high temperatures.

Barwon River in northern New South Wales [Photo by NSW Water / CC BY 4.0]

They have been dubbed “forever chemicals” as they don’t break down in the environment and accumulate with continued use. They persist in the human body and in animals, meaning that prolonged exposure is cumulative. The use of the chemicals has become so ubiquitous that they have been detected in the tissue of polar bears in extremely remote areas. There are more than 5,000 PFAS chemicals and only a few have been tested for their toxicity.

The SMH report included data from publicly available sources showing that the water supply of the country’s two most-populous cities, Sydney and Melbourne, has been contaminated with the toxic substances.

Suburbs named as most affected in Sydney include North Richmond, Quakers Hill, Liverpool, Blacktown, Emu Plains and Campbelltown. Regional centres in New South Wales such as Newcastle, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, Lithgow, Gundagai and Yass had high concentrations.

In Melbourne, Footscray was named, while the pollutants were also detected in Queensland regional centres Cairns and Gladstone. They were present in the cities of Darwin, Adelaide, Hobart, and Canberra.

Australia is considered to be a PFAS contamination “hotspot” along with China, Europe and North America.

PFAS chemicals have been found to be a considerable health threat causing thyroid cancer and liver damage. High exposure can lead to decreased fertility, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers.

This has led to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling in April that there is no safe level of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in drinking water, even at very low concentrations. The US has set a limit of 4 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA, while in December the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that PFOA was carcinogenic.

Senior Advisor to the National Toxics Network Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith told the SMH that it was a “national disgrace” that PFOA is permitted in Australia’s tap water at 140 times the maximum level the US will now allow. The accepted limit for Australia of PFOA is 560 parts per trillion.

The only Australian study into the prevalence of PFAS chemicals in drinking water funded by the federal government was conducted in 2011 by the University of Queensland. The report, “Concentrations of PFOS, PFOA and other per-fluorinated alkyl acids in Australian drinking water,” examined 34 locations around the country.

Some individual water authorities have since conducted their own testing and found higher levels than in the 2011 study.

The University of Queensland study warned, “Due to their ubiquity in the environment, adverse effects in toxicological studies, and currently uncertain human epidemiology, efforts have been made to limit [PFAS] production and release into the environment.”

The lack of concern for the health and safety of the population was starkly shown by the fact that governments did nothing to halt the importation of this dangerous class of chemicals, or even monitor the level of contamination in the water supply. The 2011 study remains the only systemic one conducted in Australia and monitoring has been left to individual water authorities.

In Sydney, the SMH revealed, only one site is regularly tested for PFAS, North Richmond, and the chemicals were detected there as recently as January.

Predictably the political authorities gave worthless reassurances of the safety of Sydney water. While New South Wales Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed PFOA is cancer-causing, the state’s Labor Premier Chris Minns claimed the city’s supply was “generally considered very good.”

In October, the Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced that, by the end of 2023, nine toxic chemical groups including PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS would be banned from being manufactured or imported into Australia.

“After a decade of stagnation and falling behind the rest of the world… Labor is taking action on industrial chemicals including PFAS,” Plibersek said.

In spite of the considerable risks, the importation won’t be halted until July 2025.

Moreover, there is no suggestion that any Australian government will enact measures to remove PFAS contamination from the environment or the public water supply. According to the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth, “in Australia both ‘conventional and advanced’ Drinking Water Treatment Plants are presently not designed to adequately treat PFAS to anywhere near the new U.S. guidelines.”

In an article published in April in the Conversation, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Kyle Doudrick, describes the complexities and huge costs of lowering the level of PFAS chemicals in the water supply to the new limits set in the US. The new requirements stipulate that if the concentration of PFAS chemicals exceeds the new limit, a treatment plant must be established by 2029.

Various estimates have been made as to the cost. The US EPA estimates US$1.5 billion per year while the American Water Works Association put the cost at over US$3.8 billion per year for PFOS and PFOA alone.

Once the chemicals are filtered out, the question remains of their disposal. Doudrick states that “PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ for a reason—they are incredibly resilient and don’t break down naturally, so they are hard to destroy.”

The chemicals are known to break down at temperatures over 1,000 degrees Celsius, but this would be extremely energy intensive and potentially create harmful byproducts.

It has been well known since 1998 that PFAS chemicals have a deleterious effect on human health. Evidence has emerged that the manufacturers of PFAS knew of the safety problems with their chemicals from as early as 1961. A toxicologist at DuPont raised safety concerns that Perfluorooctanoic acid (C8), a PFAS chemical, was toxic and should be “handled with extreme care.”

3M, which began production of PFOA in 1947, noted signs of trouble in their workers exposed to high levels of these chemicals in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically at their Teflon factory in Parkersburg, West Virginia, a cluster of birth defects was possibly linked to PFOA. Their own internal documents had found these chemicals in fish and recognised their toxic potential.

The dangers were just as well known by governments, including in Australia. The Department of Defence ignored warnings dating back to at least 1987 that PFAS-containing fire-fighting foam should be treated as “toxic waste.”

Nevertheless, the use of PFAS proceeded, and the multinational chemical corporations continued to derive vast profits from their production. It is the working class, however, who will bear the cost of PFAS pollution, both through the expensive measures needed to decontaminate public water supplies, and through the enormous toll on health and lives. A 2019 study conducted by the Nordic Council of Ministers on health impacts linked to PFAS exposure estimated the annual cost to the European Union at €52–84 billion.

The issue of PFAS pollution is one reflection of the fact that, under capitalism, the health and lives of ordinary people and the environment are totally subordinated to the profit demands of the corporate elite.

In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, capitalist governments around the world abandoned even the most minimal mitigation measures, adopting a “forever COVID” program in the interests of big business. As a result, some 28 million people have been killed, even though the public health measures necessary to eliminate the virus were well understood.

Government Of Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) 2024/2025

Application Deadline: 14th July 2024

Tell Me About MTCP Award: Do you want to study in a country in Southeast Asia? Then apply for MTCP Scholarship in Malaysia 2024. Eligible candidates should not miss to become a part of this tremendous opportunity, which will help them learn and enrich their knowledge in their area of interest. The Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) aspires to attract a talented pool of candidates from developing nations to Malaysia. In this way, the successful candidates will learn the required skills and abilities that would play their part in the development of their home countries and Malaysia as well.

The Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) was established in 1980 as Malaysia’s commitment to South-South Cooperation through the sharing of Malaysia’s development experiences and expertise with other developing countries.

The Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education will not only provide you the chance to scale high-quality education but also will help you enjoy the positives of Malaysia in a due manner. Suppose you have a good academic background and an enthusiasm to do something different and bigger in your country. In that case, the Malaysian government is welcoming you with open arms under the global scholarship program.

The objectives of the MTCP are:

• To share experience with other developing countries;
• To strengthen bilateral ties with developing countries;
• To encourage and promote South-South Cooperation; and
• To encourage and promote technical cooperation within developing countries.

Type: Master

Who can Apply? Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) Scholarship applicants must COMPLY with the following criteria:

a. Not more than 45 years old at the time of application.
b. For Master’s Degree Programme, applicants should obtain a minimum of Second Class Upper (Honours) or
a minimum CGPA of 3.5 or equivalent at the Undergraduate Degree level.
c. Proof of English Language Proficiency:
i. Scanned copy of the original proof of English Language Proficiency such as IELTS (minimum total
score 6) or TOEFL internet-based test (minimum total score of 60); or
ii. Has obtained a previous degree(s) with English used as the medium of instruction.
d. Has an excellent level of health certified by a doctor/physician. The cost of the medical check-up shall be fully borne by the applicant.
e. Applicant must undertake full-time study for postgraduate programmes (Master’s Degree) at the selected Malaysian Universities (Please refer to List of Universities)

f. Application is only open to applicants who have received a valid admission offer letter/s from at least one (1)
university in Malaysia but have not yet started their postgraduate studies or those who have registered for no
more than one semester for a Master’s Degree.

How are Applicants Selected? High potential and excellent graduates who:

1. are citizens of the MTCP recipient countries*; and
2. intend to pursue full-time postgraduate studies (Master’s) in Malaysia.
   *refer to the List of MTCP Recipient Countries in the FAQ section

Applications will be considered according to the following selection criteria:

1. High-level academic and extra-curricular achievement.
2. Excellent communication, writing and reading skills in the English Language.

Which Countries are Eligible? Developing countries

Where will Award be Taken? Malaysia

List of Universities

1. Universiti Malaya (UM)
2. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
3. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
4. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
5. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
6. Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM/IIUM)
7. Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP)
8. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
9. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
10. Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
11. Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP)
12. Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT)
13. Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM)
14. Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)
15. Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)
16. Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM)
17. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTEM)
18. Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)
19. Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK)
20. Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA)

How Many Awards? Not specified

What is the Benefit of Award? The MTCP Scholarship is sponsored by the Malaysian government and is dedicated to international students from the developing world to pursue their postgraduate studies in Malaysia, whilst at the same time acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills that could contribute to the development of their home country.

1. This scholarship covered:
   a. Tuition Fees
   b. Other allowances of RM3,500.00 per month which
   includes:

• Cost of Living Allowance
• Book Allowance
• Tools Allowance
• House Rental Allowance
• Placement Allowance
• Thesis Allowance
• Travel Allowance
• Practical Training Allowance
• End of Study Allowance
• Medical Allowance
• Insurance Allowance

c. One-off return economy-class airline ticket from student’s closest international airport to Malaysia and back to student’s home country.

Method of Payment: Scholars will receive allowances as mentioned above from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia through their individual savings accounts. Scholars are advised to open any Malaysian Bank account immediately upon arrival in Malaysia

Duration of Award: The duration of the award is between 24 to 36 months for Master’s Degree Programme.

How to Apply: The online application system will be made available from 23rd May 2023 until 30th June 2023.

. All applications must be submitted through our online application system via the link
https://biasiswa.mohe.gov.my/INTER/index.php
All the documents below are COMPULSORY and to be UPLOADED via online application (scanned and saved in
PDF format):
a. Application form (to be filled in the online system);
b. Latest Admission Offer Letter from Malaysian Universities for academic intake 2023 (Please refer to List of
Universities);
c. Letter of Recommendation from two (2) referees;
d. Statement of Intent;
e. A certified copy of Academic Transcript;
i. Record of all the courses taken throughout the degree programme must be reflected in the academic transcripts;
ii. Applicants must submit transcripts of their undergraduate studies; and
iii. Applicants must submit an official document issued by the applicant’s alma mater describing the university’s grade system. If an applicant’s transcript does not include information on CGPA, marks or score percentile, the documents must be certified.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

US debt warnings grow louder

Nick Beams

In the wake of the latest update by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), showing a marked escalation in how far and fast US debt will rise, there are mounting warnings that it is sowing the seeds of another financial crisis.

US dollar bills [AP Photo/Mark Lennihan]

The Financial Times (FT) carried a lead story last week in which it cited analysts who said the increasing turn by the Treasury to the short-end of the bond market—Treasury bills of one-year duration as opposed to 10 years—to finance the debt could cause problems.

It cited Jay Barry, co-head of interest rate strategy at JPMorgan who said the stock of unredeemed short-term debt would rise from $5.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion by the end of this year to hit an all-time high.

Torsten Slok, chief economist at the financial firm Apollo who is regarded as an astute observer of the financial system, warned this could cause a disruption.

“It is likely that the share of Treasury bills as a share of total debt increases, which raises the question of who is going to buy them. This absolutely could strain funding markets,” he said.

As the FT article noted, the size of the Treasury market (now at more than $26 trillion) has quintupled since the financial crisis of 2008 in an “indication of how much the US has turned to debt financing over the past 15 years.”

Longer-dated Treasury auctions have been at record sizes in the recent period and “questions about who will buy all the debt on offer have plagued economists and analysts for months.”

The global chair of research at the Barclays bank, Ajay Rajadhyaksha, told the FT: “We are spending money like a drunken sailor on shore for a weekend.”

The liquidity problems of the Treasury market are being compounded by the withdrawal of the Federal Reserve as a buyer of bonds due to its efforts to run down its stock of debt holdings built up during the period of quantitative easing—so-called quantitative tightening.

There is a risk that a lack of liquidity could cause problems in the overnight repurchase (repo) market in which interest rates, normally a fraction of a percentage point, went to as high as 10 percent in September 2019, causing the Fed to intervene.

Rajadhyaksha warned the US could again experience “a September 2019 moment.”

And given the acceleration in the debt levels since then it could well be something even more serious.

What was significant about the CBO update was not just the amounts involved but the pace at which the debt level is rising.

In its report last week, the CBO said the budget deficit for 2024 was $400 billion (27 percent) larger than it had projected back in February and “the cumulative deficit over the 2025‒2034 period is larger by $2.1 trillion (10 percent).”

Not only are the amounts significant but so is their relationship to US gross domestic product (GDP). The CBO forecast that debt would rise from near 100 percent of GDP this year to 122 percent over the next decade, surpassing the 106 percent it reached in 1946 at the end of the Second World War.

Over the following years, the US was able to reduce its debt because of the post-war boom, and the vast expansion of US industry. That is not a prospect today because the US is no longer an industrial powerhouse, but the world centre of financial speculation and parasitism.

The events at Boeing exemplify the relationship between the two. Once a byword for the power of American industry, its planes are becoming too dangerous to fly in because of the promotion of shareholder value through share buybacks and other schemes in the interests of the financial oligarchy at the expense of safety.

And there is little prospect for sustained growth in the US economy over the longer term. The CBO forecast that the growth rate for 2024 and 2025 would be lower than in 2023 and for the years 2026‒2034 it would average only 1.8 percent a year, well below levels reached in the past.

What growth there is and the increase in government revenue it brings will increasingly be gobbled up by military spending.

Pointing to the reasons for the sharp uplift in debt, the CBO said: “The largest contributor to the cumulative increase was the incorporation of recently enacted legislation… which added $1.6 trillion to projected deficits.

“This legislation included emergency supplemental appropriations that provided $95 billion for aid to Ukraine, and countries in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The CBO did not specifically indicate where the spending cuts would be made to pay for the increasing military bill, but it identified the target—social spending.

“The aging of the population causes the number of beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare to grow faster than the overall population. In addition, federal costs per beneficiary for the major health care programs continue to rise faster than GDP per person. As a result of those two trends, outlays for Social Security and Medicare increase in relation to GDP from 2024 to 2034.”

In addition to immediate concerns over turbulence in financial markets, warnings have been issued about the implications of rising debt for the position of the US as the dominant capitalist power and whether it will impact on the status of the dollar as the world’s currency which enables the US to run up debt in a way not possible for any other country.

In an interview with the FT in May, Ray Dalio, the multi billionaire founder of the giant hedge fund Bridgewater, said he was concerned over whether the continued military involvements of the US would deter foreign investors from buying US bonds.

He was concerned about Treasury bonds because of the high debt levels and sanctions such as those imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine when $300 billion of its foreign assets were frozen by the US and the European powers.

If sanctions were imposed on other counties this could reduce the international demand for US Treasury bonds. Any moves in this direction—there are already signs of it as China has started to reduce its holdings of US debt—would impact on the status of the dollar.

He also voiced concerns about the state of US politics, characterising the present situation as leading to what he called a “civil war.” That did not necessarily mean a situation in which people “grab guns and start shooting” although he maintained such a scenario was possible.

The growth of debt has also set off alarm bells at the Wall Street Journal, one of the chief voices of US imperialism. Long-time writer and editorial executive Gerald Seib authored an essay published Saturday with the title “Will Debt Sink the American Empire?”

He said America was cruising into “an unchartered sea of federal debt,” pointing out that history offered some “cautionary notes about the consequences of swimming in debt.”

“Over the centuries and across the globe, nations and empires that blithely piled up debt have, sooner or later, met unhappy ends.”

He cited warnings that even if a country had the chief reserve currency and was the leading geopolitical power that did not necessarily bail them out and a withdrawal by China and other Asian nations from US Treasury debt could set off a fiscal and economic crisis.

Thailand holding antidemocratic Senate election

Robert Campion

Elections for Thailand’s Senate, the upper house of the National Assembly, are currently taking place. While they are the first since the 2014 military coup, the selection process is entirely antidemocratic, with the vast majority of the electorate having no say in who is chosen. This once more exposes the fraudulent claims of a return to “democracy” in Thailand after 2014 military coup.

Former leader of Move Forward party Pita Limjaroenrat at news conference at the party's office in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, June 9, 2024 [AP Photo/Jintamas Saksornchai]

After the previous Senate’s term expired on May 10, the election began on June 9 and is slated to take place over two and a half weeks. It is divided into three rounds: district, provincial, and national. In a highly complicated process, 45,753 candidates initially vied among themselves for the 200 seats in the new Senate or 50 less than previously. Provincial voting, the second round, took place on June 16. The final, national round will occur on June 26 with results scheduled to be announced on July 2.

Candidates have been barred from engaging in public political discussion and were only required to submit a two-page résumé outlining their background and professional qualifications.

The new Senate will have the power to endorse bills and candidates to the Election Commission of Thailand, the Constitutional Court, and the National Anti-Corruption Commission previously chosen by the military. It will also vote on constitutional amendment proposals. However, unlike the previous Senate, it will not vote to select a prime minister.

The election began at the district level, where candidates were divided between 20 so-called professional groups. Candidates, the only group eligible to participate, then cast two votes within their own groups. The top five candidates from this process were then placed in supposedly randomized groups and then voted for by candidates in other groups until the top three candidates from each professional group were chosen to proceed to the provincial level.

At the next stage, the process was then repeated until the top two candidates were selected to advance to the national round. The remaining candidates will have ten votes at the national level in order to select the top ten candidates from each professional group, producing 200 senators.

The ostensible aim of this absurd operation is to establish a “nonpartisan” body through a process in which political parties and other interest groups would not be able to influence. In reality, after the 2014 coup, the Thai military wrote these procedures into the 2017 constitution as a means of maintaining control after it had ostensibly handed power back to a civilian government.

In order to simply stand for election, candidates had to first pass an anti-democratic screening process set by the Election Commission—itself a military-appointed body. Candidates were not allowed to be public servants or members of any political party. Neither could they be a child or spouse of a current member of the National Assembly. However, candidates who had served in parliament over five years ago were eligible to run.

Additionally, candidates were required to have over 10 years of experience within one of 20 accepted occupational fields, including law and justice, government administration, and security. They had to be over 40 years old and were required to pay an application fee of 2,500 baht ($US68.20)—approximately a week’s minimum wage—preventing youth and workers from applying.

In some districts, it was reported that only one professional group was participating, a reflection of the low candidate registration. This is bound up with these undemocratic barriers placed on potential candidates. Regardless of who is elected, the Senate will be stuffed with a bureaucratic layer of careerists who are hostile to the Thai working class and poor.

Despite the claims of “nonpartisanship,” four distinct factions have emerged in the election. The first and largest has been dubbed the “Big House.” These candidates have close connections to the political establishment and include people like former Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has moved on to the national round.

The second faction is composed of candidates close to the military and government bureaucracy. The third faction is made up of business leaders.

The last faction comprise so-called “people’s senators,” those with some connection to civics groups typically associated with so-called “progressive” politics and currently grouped around the Move Forward Party (MFP). The MFP seeks to prevent any break from the political establishment while posturing as a democratic alternative to the traditional right-wing elites, including the military.

The election takes place as the Thai political establishment is wracked by a growing crisis. The military and its allies in the conservative bureaucracy and monarchy have allowed the election to go ahead under the assumption they will maintain influence over the Senate.

However, in the past year, the MFP emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, though the previous Senate blocked it from forming a government after the May 2023 election. Pheu Thai, which the military removed from power through coups in 2006 and 2014, is now the ruling party in an unstable coalition with the military-aligned parties.

As part of the deal to allow Pheu Thai to form a government with military support, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who retains a great deal of influence, was allowed to return to Thailand after 15-years in self-imposed exile. Thaksin was ousted in 2006 though he remains the de facto head of Pheu Thai. He managed to avoid a jail term as part of the deal.

However, sections of the military and the traditional elite are dissatisfied with this unstable political alliance amid declining economic conditions. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of Pheu Thai faces being removed from power over charges of violating ethics clauses in the constitution.

The MFP also faces dissolution for previously advocating for reforming Thailand’s draconian lèse-majesté law. Thaksin faces new criminal charges, accused of lèse-majesté for comments made nearly 10 years ago.

The legal offensive from the military to destabilize its opponents in Pheu Thai and the MFP amounts to a judicial coup now unfolding. Yet throughout this process, Pheu Thai and the MFP have steadfastly encouraged people to keep faith in the parliamentary system and to place their confidence in the new Senate in order to supposedly democratise parliament.

These parties represent sections of big business and the upper middle class, whose differences with the monarchy and the military are centered on the distribution of power within the country’s elite. All factions of the political establishment are fearful of the growing anger in the working class and poor.

As the economic situation worsens, the military may very well decide to carry out another direct coup and dispense with the whole “democratic” façade, particularly if the results of the Senate election do not proceed as it desires.