2024 was the deadliest year on record for migrants trying to reach Europe

Lena Sokoll

The last deadly shipping accident in 2024 at the gates of Fortress Europe was reported on December 27: a boat with 80 people on board sank on its way to the Canary Islands. Only 11 lives could be saved, 69 people died. Many of the victims were from Mali, a country in West Africa where armed conflict has raged for more than a decade, where various powers, including European countries, have been heavily involved.

A handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing. [AP Photo/Hellenic Coast Guard via AP]

The year 2025 began with the sinking off the Tunisian coast of two refugee boats bound for Italy in the Mediterranean, in which 27 people lost their lives. No further details about the deceased were available in news reports. With these victims, the tragic death toll at Europe’s external borders ushered in the new year.

According to the Spanish human rights organisation Caminando Fronteras, 2024 was the deadliest year so far for migrants trying to reach Europe. On average, more than 30 people died every day on the journey from Africa to Spain, and the NGO counted a total of 10,457 migrants who died or disappeared at sea.

This is an increase of more than 50 percent over the previous year and the highest number since records began in 2007. Caminando Fronteras obtains its data from hotlines for migrants in distress at sea, from family members of missing migrants and from official statistics on rescue operations.

The victims came from 28 countries, mainly from Africa, but also from Pakistan and Iraq. Most of the deaths are due to shipwrecks on the Atlantic route between the African continent and the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are the nearest embarking point, just about 100 kilometres from the Moroccan coast, but boats also set out from much further south in Senegal.

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior reports that between January 1 and December 15 of 2024, 60,216 refugees entered Spain irregularly, an increase of 14.5 percent over the same period last year. Over 70 percent of them landed in the Canary Islands.

About one in five migrants, however, lose their lives on the Atlantic route, with Caminando Fronteras documenting 9,757 deaths along the way. The route is dangerous not only because of the waves on the open sea and strong currents that prevail in the deep water. Most of the boats used for the crossing are not seaworthy and are overloaded. Above all, rescue systems and resources are completely inadequate in view of the number of accidents that occur on the route on a permanent basis. “More than 10,400 people dying or going missing in a single year is an unacceptable tragedy,” said Helena Maleno, a spokeswoman for the NGO, calling the toll “proof of a profound failure.”

This tragedy, however, is not only tolerated by the European Union, it is very deliberately allowed to happen in order to deter so-called “illegal” migration. Not only Spain, but especially Italy and Greece, as the largest EU Mediterranean coastal states, bear direct responsibility for the deaths of thousands fleeing poverty and oppression, hoping for a better life for themselves and their families in Europe. However, the brutal border policy is ultimately supported by all EU countries and is being driven forward by Germany in particular.

Thousands of people continue to lose their lives in the Mediterranean every year because there are no legal ways for them to come to Europe. The European Union’s border policy, with the practice of pushbacks, cooperation with North African rulers and their troops, and the active obstruction of sea rescues, is directly responsible for the deaths in the waters bordering Europe.

In its 2024 annual report the NGO SOS Humanity states: “Almost 21,000 people seeking protection were intercepted by the EU-funded, so-called Libyan coast guard, unlawfully returned to Libya and imprisoned there under conditions that the United Nations fact-finding mission classified as crimes against humanity.”

Under the government of fascist Giorgia Meloni, Italy is increasingly harassing not only refugees but also civilian sea rescue operations. Since 2023, a government decree has allowed civilian rescue ships to be detained and assigned to ports far from the rescue area in northern and eastern Italy. SOS Humanity counts a total of 323 days of detention, 117,000 additional kilometres and 293 lost days of operations for the civilian fleet maintained by NGOs in the Mediterranean in 2024.

Another decree, which the Italian government only passed at the beginning of December 2024, allows future civilian rescue ships to be confiscated after being detained multiple times. In addition, the ships are now no longer allowed to help anyone in distress at sea if they already have refugees on board. Various civilian sea rescue organisations have therefore described the so-called Flussi decree as an “under the hand death sentence.”

They summarise: “The aim seems to be to make life impossible for those who save lives and witness the violations of international law that take place daily in the central Mediterranean. It is yet another harmful, propagandistic and inhumane law that is, in addition, clearly illegal.” With the decree, the Italian government is attempting to abolish international law in order to “inflict the greatest possible damage” on both rescuers and those being rescued.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the number of people who died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2020 is estimated at around 2,400. This brings the total number of people who have gone missing on the Mediterranean routes since 2014 to over 31,000.

At another of the European Union’s maritime borders, the English Channel, a record number of irregular crossings and a record number of deaths have also been recorded since official counting began in 2018. The British government reports that a total of 76 people have died in 20 incidents between France and Britain.

This massive crime against refugees and migrants will continue in 2025. European governments are individually and collectively responsible for the mass and completely avoidable deaths at sea of those seeking protection and safety, work and a better life in Europe. The most fundamental human right, the right to life, is denied to migrants at the gates of Europe. And if they do set foot on European soil, they face inhumane detention in camps, all kinds of harassment and deportation to war and crisis zones.

At least 67 dead in Nigeria in stampedes for food assistance

Alice Summers

At least 67 people have been killed in a series of stampedes in Nigeria at charity events offering financial assistance and free food parcels. The tragic deaths come in the midst of a severe cost-of-living and food insecurity crisis across the country which has left millions of people struggling to access adequate food supplies.

On December 18, at least 35 children were crushed to death and many more were injured at a Christmas funfair held at a high school in the Bashorun district of Ibadan, Nigeria’s third-largest city. The fair’s organisers had invited children aged under the age of 13 and had advertised that cash handouts and food aid would be provided for all attendees, as well as giving children the opportunity to win prizes like scholarships.

Screenshot of a TRT World news clip showing aftermath of stampede in Abadan, Nigeria [Photo: TRT World Now/Facebook]

Around 5,000 attendees had been expected, with organisers promising handouts of N5,000 (around $3) to each child. Such is the desperation of Nigeria’s increasingly impoverished population that at least 7,500 people arrived at the venue, with some news sources estimating that as many as 10,000 may have turned up. Many arrived at 5 a.m., several hours before the event’s scheduled start time, while others reportedly slept outside the school the previous night to ensure they received handouts.

Eyewitnesses reported scenes of panic when parents and children rushed to enter the venue as organisers arrived. Victims became trapped in a crush at the main gate, leaving them with no way to escape the crowd as children fell and were trampled underfoot. Others tried to scale fences to access the event. The overwhelming turnout also caused gridlock on the road leading to the high school, complicating rescue efforts.

Only three days later, on Saturday, December 21, at least another 32 people were killed in crowd crushes at two separate charity events.

Of those, 22 people died in the town of Okija in the southeastern state of Anambra at an event organised by a local philanthropist to distribute food, including rice and cooking oil. Hundreds arrived at the venue, leading to a crush as crowds surged forward to try to claim the food aid. Victims of the stampede included “the elderly, pregnant [women], nursing mothers and children,” Christian Aburime, Chief Press Secretary to the Anambra State Governor, said in a statement.

The same day, another 10 people, including four children, were crushed to death in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, at a food and clothing distribution event for the vulnerable hosted by a local church.

Deadly stampedes are by no means new in Nigeria, although the number of incidents and fatalities appears to be increasing. In 2014, 18 jobseekers were killed at various locations across Nigeria as thousands of applicants attempted to enter venues for recruitment events. Thirty-one people were crushed at a Port Harcourt food distribution event in 2022, while another 20 died the following year at a rice distribution event in Ilorin, the capital of the western state of Kwara.

In 2024 alone, at least three other deadly crushes took place, all involving desperate individuals trying to obtain rice or other food or financial assistance. At least 17 died, although official death counts are rarely given and news reports often lack detail, so the real toll may be much higher.

In a statement on December’s deadly stampedes, Nigerian president Bola Tinubu declared that he had cancelled his official engagements in honour of the victims and urged state governments and the police to enforce strict crowd control measures at festive and charity events. While much of the media reporting of these incidents has followed Tinubu’s lead in focusing on poor planning and insufficient crowd control, the main cause of the tragic deaths is the rampant poverty facing Nigerians across the country, exacerbated by the government’s International Monetary Fund (IMF)–dictated austerity measures.

Since coming to power in May 2023, after an election marred by violence, fraud and other irregularities, Tinubu has introduced a raft of pro-market policies, including floating the Nigerian naira, previously pegged to the US dollar, and ending a decades-long fuel subsidy. This led to a rapid doubling of the price of petrol on which many Nigerians rely to generate electricity for their homes. Since then, the Nigerian currency has lost around 70 percent of its value, pushing inflation up to a 28-year high of 34 percent over the summer—and 40 percent for food—and sparking a crushing cost-of-living crisis.

Around 40 percent of Nigeria’s population now live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank—some 93 million people. Between October and December 2024, 25.1 million Nigerians were also estimated to be acutely food insecure by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), a figure which is predicted to rise to 33 million in 2025.

Around 5.4 million children and almost 800,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Nigeria are also at risk of acute malnutrition or wasting in six of the most affected states across the country—Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in the northeast, and Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara in the northwest—according to the WFP. Of these, as many as 1.8 million children could face Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and require critical nutrition treatment, the WFP reported.

Food and transportation costs have been particularly impacted by inflation, tripling over the past 18 months. Beans, a staple food product for many Nigerian households, have skyrocketed in price, increasing by 283 percent between October 2023 and October 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The cost of rice has also shot up, with locally produced variants increasing in price by 153 percent over the same period.

Nigeria’s food insecurity crisis has been exacerbated by protectionist government measures restricting food imports. Between 2015 and 2022, the government of president Muhammad Buhari, Tinubu’s predecessor, introduced various measures that effectively banned the import of rice, as well as other foodstuffs, into Nigeria, ostensibly to encourage local farmers to grow more of the crop. While rice production has increased, it is still far outstripped by demand, with farmers only able to fulfil about 60 percent of the country’s rice consumption needs.

Climate change, particularly floods, has also severely impacted food production in Nigeria. Last year, just between October 1 and 15, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recorded that floods affected over 9.2 million people in Nigeria and submerged 4.5 million hectares of land, including approximately 1.6 million hectares of farmland. According to the FAO, flooding could lead to annual production losses for maize, sorghum and rice of 1.1 million tonnes—enough to feed 13 million people for a year.

Ethnic and religious conflicts have disrupted agriculture, too, particularly in northern Nigeria, where the bulk of food production occurs, interfering with supply chains and leading to food shortages across the country.

While Nigerians are particularly badly affected by food insecurity, the problem of hunger is a global issue. According to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, released in July, a staggering 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally and including one in five in Africa. Global hunger levels have remained the same for three years and now include around 152 million more people than in 2019.

UK retail chains begin cull with more than 200,000 job losses predicted in 2025

Barry Mason

UK fashion retail chain New Look is to speed up its planned closure of around 90 of its 364 stores. Hundreds of its 8,000 strong workforce are set to lose their jobs.

In 2018, New Look had around 600 stores but two restructuring exercises in the intervening period reduced its portfolio to the current 364. While New Look was planning some closures this year, it plans to accelerate the rate of closures in response to Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget in October over increasing employer national insurance contribution (NIC), due to be implemented in April—plus the planned rise in the minimum wage.

New Look's store in Brighton, England in 2016 [Photo by Hassocks5489 / CC BY 1.0]

This is only the latest in a wave of job cuts. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) estimates around 170,000 jobs were lost in the sector in 2024. This was the highest number since the 200,000 lost in 2020 as a result of the forced closures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail is an important part of the UK economy with its 2.8 million jobs around 8.5 percent of the total workforce.

According to the CRR, around 13,500 stores shut for good last year—an average of over 35 a day. Among the big names lost were fashion chain Ted Baker, and flooring and carpeting retailer Carpetright, which closed around 200 shops. DIY supplier Homebase collapsed into administration with around 50 stores to go, despite rival The Range taking over some. The level of closures was up more than 40 percent on 2023.

The CRR’s analysis noted that 38 major retailers entered administration in 2024, accounting for over 7,500 store closures and 55,000 jobs were lost. The remaining approximate 115,000 job losses were a result of cutbacks by big chains rationalising store numbers or independent outlets shuttering their shops.

Larger chains shut over 2,100 stores in the year. Pharmacy chain Boots, established in 1849, closed around 300 of its stores in 2024 following a plan drawn up in June 2023 to close around 650 of its UK outlets with savings of over £600 million. In December, Boots’ parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance entered into talks with US private equity firm Sycamore Partners in attempts to relieve financial difficulties.

CRR figures show around 11,300 independent shops shut in 2024—an increase of over 45 percent on the previous year.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR, noted, “The comparatively low figures for 2023 now look like an anomaly, a pause for breath by many retailers after lockdowns if you like.

“The problems of changed customer shopping habits, inflation, rising energy costs, rents and business rates have continued and forced many retailers to cut back even more strongly in 2024.”

He added, “Whilst the results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”

The CRR expects a major cull in the sector for 2025, predicting 17,300 store closures of which around 14,500 will be independent shops. This represents an expected loss of around 200,000 jobs.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) sent a letter to Reeves following her October budget making clear they would respond to a rise in employer’s national insurance contributions and the minimum wage by cutting jobs. Among the 81 signatories were supermarket chains Asda and Sainsbury’s, department store John Lewis, high street pharmacy chain Boots, and electronic goods chain Currys, along with charity shops such as the British Heart Foundation and the Associated Independent Stores trade group.

From April the threshold at which employers pay NIC will be £5,000 rather than the current £9,100 and the rate paid will be 15 percent rather than the current 13.8 percent. BRC said this will cost British retailers over £2.3 billion a year.

In April, the minimum wage will increase 6.7 percent to £12.21 an hour, heavily affecting an industry that runs on appallingly underpaid minimum wage staff. A further cost on larger companies from October will be the extended producer responsibility scheme. Under this scheme, introduced by the previous Conservative government, the costs of recycling previously met by local councils will be transferred to the companies using the packaging.

Another additional cost for retailers is the planned increase in business rates. While some rents have fallen due to the lack of demand for store premises business rates have not come down. Hospitality and retail businesses not qualifying for small business rates relief currently get a 75 percent business rate discount but from April this year the discount will reduce to 40 percent.

A Guardian article published December 27, based on a report by insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor, reported that the proportion of retail businesses that could be described as in “critical” financial distress had risen by 25 percent to over 2,100 in the final quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter.

Brick-and-mortar retail stores have also been impacted by the move to online shopping, a growing trend accelerated by the COVID pandemic. A Retail Bulletin piece last May noted that 91 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds shop online. It explained, “The tidal wave of shifting consumer habits and the relentless pull of the internet have been particularly devastating to the fashion retail industry…

“More than one in every four retail sales from textile, clothing, and footwear stores are made from online channels. This has caused problems for traditional high street retailers, which has resulted in closures and job losses due to the new consumers’ shopping habits.”

As big business responds to these pressures in predictable fashion, by firing workers and making those who remain work twice as hard—while forcing smaller, independent outlets into collapse—no response is forthcoming from the unions in the sector. This is in keeping with their waving through of the last few years of unprecedented job losses, generally only going so far as to plead that chains going out of business be taken over by one or another competitor or asset stripper looking to make a killing in the administration process.

The GMB union’s response in August 2023 to the closure of Wilkos stores was to run up the surrender flag entirely, saying it would “continue to support members through this process and will fight to ensure members are consulted as per the law and that you receive every penny you are entitled to.” The final closures of Wilkos stores in October 2023 coincided with a report issued by the GMB showing over 420,000 retail jobs had been lost since 2010 and that the high street may be in “terminal decline”. All these went without the unions lifting a finger in opposition.

Unite’s response to planned café closures at Sainsbury’s supermarkets in March 2022 with the threatened loss of around 2,250 jobs was a call to “rule out compulsory redundancies”. This support for “voluntary” redundancies has become a standard practice of the unions over many years across a wide range of employers, and enables companies to smoothly carry out job cuts with minimum disruption.

In January last year in response to the loss of 120,000 retail jobs and 10,000 store closures in 2023, the shop workers’ union USDAW issued a call only for “the Government to work with them and employers to develop a retail industrial strategy to tackle longstanding and ongoing difficulties in the sector and help save our shops.”

More Australians at risk of homelessness but missing out on vital support

Vicki Mylonas

Abandoned homeless camp site in Mawson, Canberra [Photo by Johnscotaus / CC BY 4.0]

Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis, with rental inflation and mortgage repayments skyrocketing but wages remaining stagnant. Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) however, are unable to meet the growing demand for help which puts more people at risk of becoming homeless. 

A recent Impact Economics and Policy report for the national peak body Homelessness Australia revealed that in 2022, there were between 2.7 million and 3.2 million Australians at risk of homelessness. That represented a 63 percent increase between 2016 and 2022. Even just one negative shock could put these people at risk of losing their homes and seeking assistance from already over-stretched homelessness services.

This crisis is cutting across all demographics of the population, including women with children, those over 55 years old and full-time workers. 

Another report. “Australian Homelessness Monitor 2024,” by the University of NSW (UNSW) and University of Queensland showed that there is a growing representation of people from the low and middle-income bracket who are finding that a full-time job doesn’t protect them from the risk of homelessness. More older Australians are being impacted by the housing crisis, with home ownership decreasing across all age brackets, including Australians at retirement age. This forces more older people to rent while being dependent on the paltry age pension. 

This report noted that between March 2020 and June 2024 the median advertised weekly rent throughout the country rose from $413 to $624, a nominal increase of 51 percent. General inflation increased by 29 percent over the same period. 

The combination of record low rental vacancies and rents spiraling in prices led to higher rates of rental stress. The Impact Economics and Policy report estimated that those experiencing rental stress has increased by 141,000 across the nation since the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census (a 17.9 percent increase). 

The housing crisis has been exacerbated by Australian governments, including the federal Labor government, which together with the corporations and the unions have imposed historic cuts to worker’s real wages. 

Contrary to the Labor government’s boast that wages have grown since 2022, wages nominally rose to just 3.5 percent in the last year to September 2024. The meagre increase was eaten up by inflation, while rental increases were well above the inflation rate and mortgage repayments rose by 155 percent under the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 13 interest rate increases, supported by the government. 

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) Raise the Rate Survey 2024 showed again that Australians relying on welfare payments such as JobSeeker and Youth Allowance face a life of deprivation and isolation, well below the poverty line. Ninety-four percent of those surveyed who rent privately are experiencing housing stress, having to pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent. Fifty-two percent pay more than half of their income in rent, defined as severe housing stress.

The report on the survey stated: “Australia currently has the worst rental affordability on record and one of the highest rates of homelessness among wealthy countries. Australia’s supply of social housing is at a four-decade low.”

There have been decades of cuts by both Labor and Liberal-National governments to public housing, reducing these dwellings to a tiny fraction of total stock. State Labor governments such as in Victoria are continuing this assault on the working class, with every high-rise public housing tower in the city of Melbourne targeted for demolition, to be replaced by primarily privately-owned apartments. A third are to be reserved for so-called social housing. 

The Albanese Labor government claims to be addressing the housing crisis with its $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), with the aim to build 30,000 new “affordable” homes by 2029. However, this has as its primary purpose the increase of the wealth of major property developers. Even if the homes are built by 2029, this barely addresses the extreme shortage of social housing. The Housing All Australians organisation has stated that the current shortfall of affordable/social housing nationally is well in excess of 500,000 dwellings. 

Under the National Housing Accord, Labor claims to be aiming for the construction of another 1.2 million new homes over the next five years to address the housing affordability crisis. However, data from the ABS has shown that the year 2023-2024 was the worst year for home building in more than a decade. Housing construction dropped 8.8 per cent. 

The nation’s peak building and construction industry association, Master Builders Australia, stated that “if building continues at this pace, we’ll be in less than 800,000 new home starts over the next five years.”  It described the target to build 1.2 million new homes as “impossible.” Regardless, Labor’s target has nothing to do with the construction of affordable dwellings, and is simply encouragement for the property development sector, which bears substantial responsibility for the crisis, to continue to profit.

It is clear that the housing crisis and the broader social crisis of which it is a part will only deepen.

Although over 250,000 Australians received assistance from a SHS between 2022-2023, thousands of other requests for assistance went unmet due to lack of resources and an increase in those seeking assistance. The Impact Economics and Policy report revealed some of the following statistics from a two-week survey that was completed of various homelessness services:

• 39 percent of services were forced to close their doors to people seeking help at least once during the fortnight.
• 83 percent of services were unable to answer phone calls for some period, leaving people in crisis without immediate assistance. 
• Families with children who had no accommodation were not assisted on 1 in 5 days. 
• Unaccompanied young people and children with no accommodation were turned away on 1 in 9 days. 

Those who do not receive help are frequently not included in official statistics measuring people requiring such assistance. In addition, services have been reporting increasingly complex needs, bound up with the lack of medium- and longer-term housing solutions.

The housing disaster is contributing to broader social hardships. A recent Red Shield report by the Salvation Army found that 94 percent of respondents could not afford essential living expenses such as housing, groceries and medical care, and 35 percent were unable to pay their rent or mortgage on time. 

People are being forced to take drastic actions, with 22 percent saying that they either live in darkness or use candles and torches at night to cut down on their electricity costs. Forty-seven percent of respondents said that they had experienced severe food insecurity, going a whole day without eating because of financial difficulties.

UK Labour government announces surge in privatisation of the National Health Service

Robert Stevens

The Labour government announced a major privatisation offensive in the National Health Service (NHS) on Monday, centering on a new “partnership” with the private sector, aimed at handing over tens of billions of pounds to the corporations.

Downing Street presented its “Elective Reform Plan” as one to “end waiting list backlogs through millions more appointments” and allow better access to health care. There are now a record 6.4 million people on a waiting list to receive 7.5 million treatments

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer repeated Labour’s insistence that any funding received by the NHS under his government be linked to “top to bottom” reform, i.e. productivity increases, and allowing further large-scale involvement of the private sector in the NHS.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre as he announces the government’s Elective Reform Plan [Photo by Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

It is a stark indication of Labour’s transformation into a Thatcherite party that Labour ministers now openly deride the NHS and its workforce in terms only previously used by the most venal elements of the Tory Party.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said—via the pages of a cheering right-wing media—“We are not going to have a something-for-nothing culture in the NHS with Labour,” and threatened, “I’m not prepared to pour money into a black hole”. The NHS is “a service, not a shrine,” which is “going to have to get used to the fact that money is tight”.

This agenda is now being enforced, with Starmer bemoaning in his speech that the cash-starved “NHS can’t become the national money pit” and that “Productivity can’t bump along 11 percent lower than it was before the pandemic.”

Outlining his answer, Starmer told reporters: “I welcome a new agreement that will expand the relationship between the NHS and the private healthcare sector.” This would “Make the spaces, facilities and resources of private hospitals more readily available to the NHS.”

He added, in reference to mass popular opposition, “I know some people won’t like this, but I make no apologies,” claiming, “I’m not interested in putting ideology before patients and I’m not interested in moving at the pace of excuses.”

Under the deal struck between NHS England and the private sector, the government is pledged to reach by the next election a target of 92 percent of patients being seen within 18 weeks. The private sector will be given responsibility to treat up to an additional 2.5 million extra NHS patients a year in pursuit of this target.

The privatisation of the NHS accelerated off under the Blair government, with successive Tory government’s legislating to widen access to the profiteers. Starmer acknowledged this on Monday stating, “An element of private sector support in the NHS has been there for a very, very long time,” Starmer commented, pointing to the record of Tony Blair’s Labour and subsequent Tory governments, “and clearly we need to make best use of it.”

Under the plans, private health companies will be handed £2.5 billion to carry out an extra million treatments of NHS patients a year. The private sector already receives anything from £12.3 to £29 billion (around 20 percent of the NHS budget) annually from the Department of Health, depending on how the figures are calculated.

According to analysis of NHS contracts data supplied to the We Own It public ownership campaign by public sector contracts specialists Tussell: “£6.7 billion, or £10 million each week, has left the NHS’s budget in the form of profits on all private contracts given by the NHS from January 2012 to May 2024.”

The one million more treatments would expand private provision within the NHS by a massive 20 percent at a stroke. This would mark a further, huge acceleration of privatisation. Already in 2021, private facilities carried out 13 percent of elective treatments, up from 3 percent in 2011.

Far from Starmer’s claims of providing an “NHS that is faster, easier and more convenient with waiting times cut”, Labour’s plan is premised on kicking as many people off the waiting list as possible, and largely moving care out of hospital settings and into community “hubs” and getting patients to “monitor” themselves at home.

Ahead of Starmer’s speech, the Thatcherite Telegraph—in which Health Secretary Wes Streeting was lauded in opposition, such was his commitments to privatisation—enthused in an article that he planned to “scrap over a million ‘pointless’ hospital appointments”.

Instead, said Streeting, “Our elective reform plan will change the way the NHS runs, to put patients in control, drive up productivity, and cut waiting times. We will cut out appointments that are frankly a waste of everyone’s time…”

The Telegraph added, “Health Department officials believe that ‘remote monitoring’ alone could free up half a million appointments next year, with another half a million freed up by patients being given the choice of whether they actually want the follow-up appointment rather than being offered one as a default.”

Labour’s plan includes the creation of “virtual wards” that will “monitor patients with respiratory problems, heart disease and frailty.” It will be down to patients, often seriously ill, to “record their own vital signs in apps that share the data with teams of NHS medics who check on patients if readings raise the alarm.”

In an op-ed piece in the Times accompanying his Monday speech, Starmer also announced plans to “drag care out of the hospital and into the community”. Diagnostic centres would be set up “operating 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning up to 440,000 more appointments a year. More of those appointments, tests and checks will be carried out in community settings.”

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund health thinktank, commented simply, “Where are the staff going to come from? The NHS still has about 100,000 vacancies. The government have talked a lot about their ambitions for these two types of facilities but not said much about who exactly will staff them.”

There were 32,000 nurse vacancies last year alone, according to NHS England, and almost 16 percent fewer qualified GPs in Britain than comparative countries. As for Labour’s magic bullet of shifting hospital treatment into the community, the number of nurses working in the community in the UK fell by at least 5 percent between 2009 and 2023.

Streeting’s answer is to “drive up productivity”—annual increases of 2 percent—among already exhausted staff, working overtime in crumbling buildings and without the right equipment and facilities, after a decade in which UK capital spending in healthcare fell hundreds of billions behind its European counterparts. Labour’s funding for the NHS in its October budget allows it to stand still at best.

The reality is that these conditions have made it impossible for the NHS to run the services required by a nation of over 69 million people.

This was rammed home the very day after Starmer’s speech, with a report that no less than nine hospitals across five NHS trusts in England—including in major cities, Birmingham and Liverpool—had to declare critical incidents over the previous week. The Royal Liverpool University ­Hospital patients were advised they faced a 50-hour wait in A&E, with one patient at the hospital waiting almost four days (91 hours).

The situation has been fueled by a “quad-demic” of illness as outbreaks of flu (around 5,000 hospitalisations a day), COVID-19, norovirus and RSV exacerbate a now normalised winter health crisis.

Streeting, for once, was truthful, telling LBC radio, “We are taking people in ambulances to emergency departments to die because then there isn’t the right care available”. This is the same man who previously denounced the NHS for its “begging bowl culture” and its workers as “obstacles” to “reform”.

Bolivia faces deepening economic crisis at start of election year

Cesar Uco

Bolivia’s ruling party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS in Spanish), enters 2025 deeply divided, confronting a growing economic crisis and a challenge in the country’s August presidential elections from neo-fascist and far-right movements centered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Evo Morales and Luis Arce [Photo: comunicacion.gob.bo]

President Luis Arce last month issued an arrest order for ex-president Evo Morales (2006 – 2019), his former ally and now rival, based upon an investigation into allegations of rape and human trafficking. The move has sparked anger among Morales supporters, who have announced plans for mass mobilizations starting as early as January 10.

The main demand raised by protesters has until now been the release of individuals arrested during previous demonstrations. At least 90 people were detained during blockades erected in October and November 2024.

These recent developments take place at the start of a year pregnant with explosive class struggles in a country plagued by poverty and oppression, particularly of the indigenous population in the Andes and the Amazon basin. All factions of the ruling class are now scrambling to divert growing social tensions behind one or another representative of the capitalist political establishment.

With the World Bank reporting a per capita income of $6,686, Bolivia ranks the poorest among the nations of South America. In 2024, inflation reached 8.82 percent, the highest level seen in the 16 years since the Great Recession of 2008.

The government blames Morales's supporters for the 2 percent jump in the inflation rate, citing the 10-day roadblocks last January and 24 days of protests in October and November. These protests significantly impacted food and fuel prices, disrupting production and trade.

Particularly steep was the 1.46 percent November hike in prices, amounting to an annual rate of 19 percent. Basic products such as beef, rice, and interdepartmental transport saw sharp price rises. The increasing cost of the basic food basket is causing significant discontent among Bolivia's workers and poor.

Hoping to avert a massive uprising, President Luis Arce has implemented economic measures including price controls, targeting essentials like bread and pork, aimed at combating inflation.

These measures have, however, led to dissatisfaction among small business owners who are struggling with rising costs and are unable to sell their goods at a profit. Bakers have protested, demanding a 40 percent increase in bread prices—from 0.50 to 0.70 bolivianos—citing a spike in the cost of flour imported from Argentina.

Especially affected is El Alto, the densely populated working-class city neighboring La Paz. The Regional Federation of Trade Unions of El Alto has threatened a march on La Paz.

Additionally, the ongoing fuel shortage has caused long queues at supply stations. In areas like Puerto Suárez in Santa Cruz, which borders Brazil, residents have reported waiting in line for up to eight days to receive fuel, leading to threats of blockades to demand fuel supplies.

Similar situations have been observed in Chulumani, located in the Yungas region near La Paz. Juan Yujra, a representative of the heavy transport sector in Santa Cruz, commented, 'Difficulties persist in purchasing fuel in the provinces, which affects the economic and productive activity of each region.' However, Armin Dorgathenr, the executive president of the state oil company, claimed that distribution is 'normal' across the national territory.

Since the beginning of 2023, Bolivia has been grappling with a shortage of dollar liquidity, leading to the currency being sold on the black market for nearly double its official price of 6.96 bolivianos. Currency devaluation is a major factor behind rising inflation.

The increasing economic problems have intensified the conflict between MAS leaders, especially after Morales accused Arce of deploying “elite agents of the Bolivian state” to assassinate him after shots were fired at his caravan. This led Morales to mobilize his base, implementing numerous roadblocks and disrupting economic activity.

The Bolivian bourgeoisie has responded by pressuring the MAS ruling party for “effective measures,” including “austerity and the implementation of structural and urgent actions, … [to] guarantee private investment, encourage national production, and promote exports,” according to Giovanni Ortuño, president of the Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia (CEPB).

On December 18, 2024, to capitalize on the divisions within MAS, extreme-right politicians, including former presidents Carlos Mesa (2003-2005) and Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga (2001-2002), along with businessman Samuel Doria Medina and representatives of Santa Cruz governor and leader of the right-wing Creemos party Fernando Camacho, signed an agreement aimed at unifying the right behind a common presidential candidate to remove the MAS from power.

Camacho faces trial for his role in ousting Evo Morales from the presidency amid allegations of electoral fraud following the annulled 2019 elections and demands by the military, the US embassy and the union bureaucracy for his resignation in what constituted a coup d’état.

The World Bank in its latest report on Bolivia warns that:

After the commodities boom ended in 2014, Bolivia resorted to high public spending and increasing domestic credit to sustain economic growth. This approach led to rising public debt, dwindling international reserves, and fiscal savings accumulated during the boom. The situation worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which plunged the economy into recession and heightened poverty.

In another report, the WB emphasizes that to “ensure a path of inclusive and sustainable growth, it is essential to address significant structural challenges to strengthen stability, promote private sector development, and protect the most vulnerable.” “Protecting the most vulnerable' is clearly interpreted as conditional upon “stability” and the development of the “private sector.”

Arce and Morales have both accused the United States of interfering in Bolivia's internal affairs and backing their rivals. There is no doubt that Bolivia, which boasts the world’s largest lithium reserves, is a target of Washington’s intrigues. However, neither faction of MAS represents an alternative upon which to base a genuine fight against imperialism.

Far-right Austrian Freedom Party on the verge of heading the government

Markus Salzmann

After the failure of coalition negotiations and the subsequent resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer (Austrian Peoples Party, ÖVP), all signs now point to the formation of a government led by the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).

On Monday, President Alexander van der Bellen, a former Green Party member, met with Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl and officially tasked him with forming a government. “I did not take this step lightly,” claimed Van der Bellen, as anti-fascist protesters rallied in front of the Hofburg palace in Vienna. “Respect for the voters’ vote requires that the federal president respects the majority.”

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl [Photo by C.Stadler/Bwag / CC BY-SA 4.0]

On Sunday, van der Bellen said he had the impression that the voices within the ÖVP that ruled out working with Kickl had become significantly quieter. “This in turn means that a new path may be opening up,” said van der Bellen. It’s clear what this “new path” is all about: the ruling class is seeking to establish a far-right government to implement the policy of rearmament and social cuts pursued by all parties.

The FPÖ made significant gains in September’s parliamentary elections, emerging as the winner. After neither the ÖVP nor the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) initially wanted to form a coalition with the FPÖ under its leader Kickl, incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer received the government mandate. In mid-November, he entered into coalition negotiations with the SPÖ and the right-wing NEOS (New Austria and Liberal Forum).

On Friday, NEOS pulled out of the negotiations. On Saturday, Nehammer also ended the talks between the ÖVP and SPÖ, which had been continuing in the meantime. Although all three parties have no fundamental differences, the negotiations ultimately failed on the question of how and over what period of time the planned austerity measures should be implemented against the population.

The ÖVP and NEOS called for a brutal and rapid austerity programme to avoid an EU deficit procedure, which Austria is facing due to exceeding the 3 percent limit. The EU Commission expects a budget deficit of 3.7 percent for 2025 and 3.5 percent for 2026.

The SPÖ advocated offsetting the deficit over a longer period. Essentially, this would mean the same burdens for the population; the government would merely have more leeway to avoid a social confrontation.

In addition, the SPÖ called for the introduction of a wealth tax to balance the budget. Although this would never be more than symbolic, the proposal was vehemently rejected by the ÖVP and NEOS.

NEOS party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger justified her party’s withdrawal by saying the social attacks were not comprehensive enough. The party is considered the most aggressive defender of the interests of the upper-middle class, which views any social equalisation measures as a curtailment of its own wealth and interests.

Observers of the negotiations noted that NEOS wanted to push through its programme—brutal pension cuts, curtailment of public healthcare and public education, and the end of the country’s military neutrality—without any compromises.

Nehammer gave similar reasons for his resignation and the failure of the talks with the SPÖ, saying it was “evident that the destructive forces in the SPÖ have gained the upper hand.” His party would not sign a programme that was “hostile to business, competition and achievement.”

In fact, the SPÖ does not in any way advocate such a programme. It simply considers such an open attack on the working class to be too risky, as it would inevitably trigger massive opposition that the trade unions might no longer be able to control. The SPÖ is concerned with better disguising the anti-working class and militaristic policies in order to stifle resistance to them.

Nehammer’s resignation has now cleared the way for a government of the far right able to push ahead with radical budget cuts, rearmament, increasing state powers at home and a tightening of restrictive anti-refugee policies.

Kickl himself is on the far-right of the European far right. He began his political career as a speechwriter for Jörg Haider, who transformed the FPÖ into an openly far-right party. He later fell out with Haider and attacked him from the right. From December 2017 to May 2019, he served as Austrian interior minister under ÖVP chancellor Sebastian Kurz, making a name for himself as a law-and-order politician, pursuing an aggressive anti-refugee policy and getting involved in several scandals. In June 2021, he was elected FPÖ leader.

Kickl has appeared at demonstrations against coronavirus protection measures and maintains close ties to German and European neo-Nazis. In 2016, for example, he spoke at the “Defenders of Europe” congress in Linz, which was also attended by well-known right-wing extremists such as Compact editor Jürgen Elsässer, far-right ideologue Götz Kubitschek, the Identitarian Movement and the German network “One percent for our country.”

The ÖVP leadership met at the Federal Chancellery on Sunday and quickly agreed on Nehammer’s successor, the party’s current Secretary General Christian Stocker, considered a loyal representative of the right wing of the party.

For a short time, former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was considered for this position. According to the dpa news agency, however, he was unavailable. As could be seen from press releases, Kurz would only have been willing to take over the party chairmanship if he simultaneously held the office of Federal Chancellor.

Although Stocker had previously spoken out against negotiations with an FPÖ led by Kickl, he now stated he was ready to negotiate with them. He said that they would be willing to hold such talks if invited to do so and assumed Kickl would be tasked with forming a government.

Stocker emphasised that the Alpine republic now urgently needed a government, and that this was the priority, saying the ÖVP would not shirk this national duty. He did not address the question of whether he would be available as vice chancellor in such a government.

If the ÖVP and FPÖ are unable to form a coalition, fresh elections would likely be the alternative. According to the latest polls, the FPÖ would increase its lead further and win around 35 percent.

In September, the FPÖ gained around 13 percentage points compared to the 2019 election, taking it to 29 percent, while the ÖVP, which had previously governed with the Greens, lost almost as much. The SPÖ was also unable to capitalise on its role in opposition, losing half a percentage point since the last election.

Since then, the far-right has already been heavily integrated into the government and entrusted with important offices. Walter Rosenkranz, a representative of the far-right, holds the office of President of the National Council, the second-highest in the state. In a secret ballot, 100 of the 183 parliamentarians voted for Rosenkranz. The FPÖ itself has only 57 seats, so he received at least 43 votes from other factions.

The party is now part of five state governments in Austria, and in Styria it even provides the state governor.

Developments in Austria are not an isolated case. Across Europe, the rise of far-right extremist forces has been driven by the right-wing and anti-working class policies of the establishment parties and their pseudo-left appendages. Similar to the dissolution of the French parliament by Emmanuel Macron, the calling of new elections in Germany was also guided by the consideration of bringing a government to power that can aggressively enforce a brutal policy of war and austerity against the population.

Crisis in UK special needs education escalates as Labour announces a fraudulent inquiry

Tania Kent

The crisis in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) funding and placements in Britain continues to expand as councils—tasked with providing placements and resources—face imminent bankruptcy. Families, sometimes waiting years to receive educational support for their children, are at breaking point.

The need for SEND placements had already surged to over half a million (576,000) as of January 24 last year, while education funding is still at 2009/10 levels in real terms after over a decade of austerity.

Families have a statutory right to demand their local authority provide Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) to children who have been identified as having a special educational need, granting them additional support to access learning—including one-on-one support, transport services and, in some cases, access to private education.

According to analysis by the Guardian, more than £100 million was spent last year by local authorities and the government on failed efforts to block this support. They won just 136 out of more than 10,000 tribunals in 2022-23, a success rate of 1.2 percent.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in June 2024. [Photo by Keir Starmer / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

A spokesperson for the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice, a charity providing free legal support to families, said, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that local authorities must calculate, at some level, that it costs them less to contest tribunal appeals, even if they lose, than to provide every child and young person with what the law entitles them to as a matter of course—because the majority of families don’t [or] can’t appeal.”

In 2022-23, the SEND tribunal registered 13,658 appeals against EHCP decisions, a 24 percent increase from the 11,052 the previous year. The latest data, published last month, showed that tribunal costs will continue to surge after 21,000 appeals were registered in 2023-24—an annual increase of 55 percent. Only 17,000 were concluded, adding to the 9,000-case backlog.

The number of children and young people requiring special education needs support in England has more than doubled over the past decade, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Almost five percent of all students now have a special needs plan, up from a steady rate of 2.9 percent between 2000 and 2018, according to the IFS.

Meanwhile, local government funding has collapsed, with several authorities already going bankrupt and dozens more at risk. SEND costs are a major factor. According to an estimate by the IFS, councils will be running a collective £3.3 billion high-needs provision budget deficit this year, which it warned could rise to £8 billion in the next three years.

Lack of places is a major problem, with two-thirds of special schools full or over capacity. Tory and Labour government plans for expansion are grindingly slow. Of the just 67 new special schools in the pipeline, almost a third were approved more than four years ago, according to the Financial Times. Only 36 state special schools are expected to open by 2025-26, down from a previously estimated 47—plus four “alternative provision” schools, down from 6.

A lack of state-maintained places means local authorities are increasingly having to turn to costly private providers, who are making fortunes out the expanding business. While the number of local authority special school increased just 6 percent between 2018-19 and 2022-23 (to 1,050) the number of independent special schools increased 49 percent to 728.

A SEND place in the state sector costs an average of £24,000 a year, versus £62,000 in the private sector. In total, private places cost councils £2 billion in 2022-23, up 46 percent since 2018.

Among the beneficiaries is Outcomes First Group, which increased its revenues by 87 percent between 2019 and 2023, with profits up almost ninefold from £3.3 million to £27 million. Witherslack Group’s revenues went up 130 percent in the same period, while profits more than tripled to £36 million. Both Outcomes First and Witherslack are owned by private equity groups.

The previous Conservative government allowed councils’ high-needs deficits to sit off their balance sheets to avert a wave of bankruptcies. Originally in place until 2024, this “statutory override” was extended to March 2026 on the understanding that 10 councils would otherwise have had to formally declare bankruptcy “overnight”. The National Audit Office has warned that four in ten councils are likely to be at risk of bankruptcy with the expiration of the new deadline.

Government SEND “bailouts” have meanwhile been made to the tune of £1 billion pounds, always at the cost of “reforms” cutting provision. One council refused a deal because it said expected cuts would break the law.

This is the direction of travel. Last month, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced a paltry £740 million capital allocation for mainstream schools to adapt buildings and facilities to accept more SEND pupils. Labour’s main plan is to restrict eligibility for support.

At end of December 2024, MPs on Parliament’s cross-party education select committee announced a SEND inquiry. Like all previous inquiries into the crisis in education, it will provide a pretext for slashing government provision in the name of efficiency and giving handouts to the private sector.

Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP made clear the primary concern of the announced inquiry is the financial drain on the government purse. “This crisis has many symptoms that bleed into the rest of the education system: from attrition in the teaching workforce to soaring levels of pupil absence. There are also symptoms which blight local councils’ budgets—ever increasing spending on transporting pupils to settings far from where they live, and the chaos of money being poured into tribunals that parents are expected to win,” she said.

According to analysis by the Financial Times, thousands fewer students could be entitled to the full package of special educational support in England under changes being considered by Labour. The proposals involve changes to the system that underpins the provision of support, likely to affect children on the “lighter” end of a range of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, according to a senior official. “It would mean thousands fewer pupils getting statements,” they said.

The continued starving of resources to SEND is of a piece with Labour’s taking fuel allowances from pensioners, refusing to scrap the two-child benefit cap, and insistence on 5 percent “efficiencies” in every department. Growing private sector involvement in special educational needs provision aligns with the government’s plans for the National Health Service. The only area of state spending for which Starmer insists money must be found at all costs is on the military.