Echoing Nazi “Madagascar plan,” US and Israel seek to displace Palestinians to East Africa

Andre Damon

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi]

The US and Israeli governments have opened up discussions with officials from Sudan, Somalia and the internationally unrecognized breakaway Somaliland over the mass expulsion of Palestinians in Gaza and their forcible relocation to those countries.

The talks were first reported by the Associated Press (AP) Friday and separately confirmed in a report in the Financial Times.

The ongoing discussions mirror the “Madagascar Plan,” the proposal by officials of Nazi Germany to resettle Europe’s Jews to Madagascar, the then-French island colony just off Africa’s southeast coast. The plan marked a key transition point to the Holocaust, in which the leaders of Nazi Germany carried out the mass extermination of the Jews instead of merely deporting them.

Somalia has one of the lowest Human Development Index rankings in the world, with widespread poverty, food insecurity and lack of access to healthcare and education. Sudan has experienced decades of civil war, triggering ethnic killings, sexual violence and mass displacement affecting millions of people.

The AP reported that “The contacts with Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland reflect the determination by the US and Israel to press ahead” with Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

Asked to comment on the revelations by the AP, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel was building a “very large emigration department” within the Ministry of Defense.

In February, Trump announced his plan to ethnically cleanse and annex Gaza for the United States. “We’re going to have Gaza,” Trump said. “We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza. ... We’re going to take it,” Trump said on February 11.

The AP reported that separate outreach efforts by the United States and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, shortly after Trump and Netanyahu introduced the Gaza plan. The officials also noted that Israel was primarily leading these discussions.

The AP reported:

Two Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter, confirmed that the Trump administration has approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians. One of them said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance.

Trump’s plan to displace the people of Gaza is a flagrant violation of the prohibition under the Fourth Geneva Convention of the forcible transfer of civilians during armed conflicts. And his plan to steal their land violates the 1970 United Nations treaty, ratified by the United States, which stipulates that “The territory of a State shall not be the object of acquisition by another State resulting from the threat or use of force.”

Michele Zaccheo, a UN spokesperson in Geneva, responded to the AP’s report by saying:

Any plan that could or would lead to the forced displacement of people or any type of ethnic cleansing is something that we would obviously be against, as it is against international law.

Last weekend, Finance Minister Smotrich said the Israeli government is creating an administration for the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. “We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister and Defense Minister” he said.

Endorsing Trump’s proposal for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, he continued, “If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” adding, “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”

The ongoing preparations for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza take place as Israel continues its total blockade of food, water and electricity into Gaza which is aimed at either starving the population of Gaza to death or forcing them to relocate through famine. For 13 days, no food or water has entered Gaza, and food insecurity and starvation is spreading.

Gaza’s government media office reported that 80 percent of its citizens have lost access to food sources, and 90 percent of the population is without reliable access to clean water. A quarter of Gaza’s remaining bakeries have been forced to shut down due to shortages of supplies, while others are on the verge of closing. The office reported that 150,000 people are suffering from either chronic disease or war wounds and are facing major shortages of medical supplies.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Al Jazeera that there is “fear, alarm and concern that supplies are running out.”

She continued, “The water and sanitation situation was already dire with most of the facilities destroyed during the months of fighting.” She added that the Israeli cutoff of electricity to Gaza “reduces access to drinking water to about 600,000 people.”

On Thursday, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory accused Israel of genocidal acts targeting the reproductive rights of Palestinians. The report was the first time that a UN committee officially and formally asserted that Israel has committed genocidal acts.

The commission declared:

Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.

The report explained:

Sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities have been systematically destroyed across Gaza, including maternity hospitals and maternity wards of hospitals and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic. … The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.

The mounting evidence of Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and systematically exterminate the Palestinian population only underscores the criminality of the drive by the Trump administration to persecute opponents of the Gaza genocide, including Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested this week and is being held incommunicado and facing deportation for opposing the Gaza genocide.

Facing record unpopularity and multiple disasters, Peru’s president turns to austerity and repression

Francis Portocarrero

President Boluarte poses with Peruvian National Police during a ceremony in Lima, February 20, 2025 [Photo: Presidencia]

In the face of deteriorating social and economic conditions, along with a series of environmental and infrastructure disasters, the Peruvian government of President Dina Boluarte has shifted ever more aggressively to the right.

Speaking before the Peruvian Congress Tuesday, Economy Minister José Salardi proposed a “deregulatory shock” to consolidate business confidence. This new policy, including the revision of labor legislation favorable to private investment along with corporate tax cuts, is to be combined with “austerity” measures that will further degrade living standards for the broad masses of the population. 

Taking as models the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by the fascist oligarch Elon Musk in the US, as well as Javier Milei's “chainsaw” against jobs and social spending in Argentina, the Peruvian bourgeoisie is preparing a massive offensive against the working class. The “shock” proposed by Salardi can only be imposed by a further development of dictatorial rule against the working class.

The turn toward intensified repression has seen the Boluarte regime impose a state of emergency in three provinces of the La Libertad region: Virú, Trujillo and Pataz. This dictatorial measure, which was extended for another 60 days on March 10, allows the deployment of the armed forces alongside the police in the name of upholding “public order” against rising crime rates.

The rightward trajectory of the Peruvian government was spelled out at the end of January, when Boluarte participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos. There she offered large mining corporations and global financial capital unhindered exploitation of the country's natural resources, while signaling the unreserved submission of her corrupt and repressive regime to the new administration led by Donald Trump in Washington.

Boluarte ranks as the most unpopular president in the world, and not a day goes by without corruption or political scandals with their far-reaching effects on society.

Despite official claims of an economic recovery, projections have appeared in various media outlets indicating the government overestimates economic growth. Real wages have not risen in the private sector and only minutely in the public sector, without having recovered their pre-pandemic level. Nor has the situation improved for the three million plunged into poverty during this period.

In 2024, private investment grew by just 2 percent. Current state expenses are lower than in 2022, and there has been no boost in public investment.

The worsening conditions faced by Peruvian workers have been exacerbated by a series of catastrophic events resulting from the dismantling of the country's infrastructure. The Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) reported that 1,605 homes were destroyed and about 10,000 were declared uninhabitable as a result of intense rains and landslides in the north, center and south of the country. The rains left 62 dead, nine missing and 23,743 victims in total throughout February 2025.

On February 12, there was a new oil spill on the North Peruvian Pipeline affecting indigenous communities in the Amazon. It was the second oil spill in less than a week.

Although urgent solutions are demanded from the affected communities, their requests fall on deaf ears. The OEFA (Environmental Assessment and Control Agency), while claiming to be  investigating, refuses to act, as in other cases. According to the law, both the OEFA and PETROPERÚ must respond, but inefficiency, the relaxation of controls and impunity continue.

On February 21, the roof of the Real Plaza de Trujillo, which belongs to a chain of shopping centers nationwide, collapsed, leaving eight people dead and 84 injured.

This tragedy was the result of a series of deficiencies in the construction of the plaza, owned by one of the richest men in the country, Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor. The lack of state oversight and the political pressure exerted from Congress to suspend sanctions imposed on the company, despite the obvious dangers, became evident and scandalous.

Housing is another issue that reveals the abandonment and lack of planning over decades by the Peruvian State. In the last two decades, Peruvian cities grew by 50 percent, a rate higher than the Latin American average (30 percent). However, more than 90 percent of this urban expansion has been informal, through illegal occupations and informal subdivisions.

Amid endless disasters, corruption scandals and waves of mass protests, Boluarte has become a hated figure with an approval rating of less than 5 percent, a record low. How can such a regime remain in power and pursue its agenda?

Social opposition is growing, but fails to find channels to express the anger of Peruvian workers. All of the union bureaucracies and pseudo-left political tendencies are pro-business, that is, they do not defend the interests of Peruvian workers and merely advance proposals that seek to underpin the weakened institutions and the dead end of capitalist politics.

The protests that rocked Peru in the final months of 2024 around the issue of organized crime and growing violence, revealed deeper problems. On February 6, 2025, Peru experienced its fifth national strike in less than 12 months, but it had less participation than the previous ones. From the beginning, these strikes have been dominated by business organizations representing both small operators and large transport companies. There are 117 unions representing public transport drivers in Lima, but they did not play a significant role.

The government and the leaders of these demonstrations have tried to pass off the strengthening of the police state as a response to the demand raised by the protests for an end to the insecurity caused by organized crime and its extortions. However, the existence of gangs is rooted in Peru’s rampant social inequality. They have political connections, generate profits for a wealthy elite, and can recruit from among masses of impoverished youth who can neither find work nor afford to continue their studies.

On February 25, the main trade union, the General Workers' Confederation of Peru (CGTP), tightly controlled by the Stalinist Peruvian Communist Party, called for a “national mobilization” against mass layoffs. As on previous occasions, this “national mobilization” was only carried out in Lima. Despite the union’s efforts to contain the movement’s scope, workers from different branches of industry mobilized.

The CGTP’s protest sought to channel the growing social opposition of the working class against a wave of mass firings behind futile appeals to change the director of Prevention at the Ministry of Labor. 

Citizen insecurity, natural disasters caused by rains and tragedies due to the collapse of public and private infrastructure have all created a breeding ground for anger among workers and the impoverished population. Protests, strikes and social uprisings will inevitably grow. For that reason, the government is preparing to spend millions of dollars more to build up the Armed Forces and the police. 

Elections are being organized as a means to contain mass discontent within the political system. There are already more than 40 candidates for the 2026 presidential election. The traditional parties of the Peruvian bourgeoisie have collapsed, existing only as empty shells. The nominal left, including Together for Peru (JPP), the Maoist-led Workers and Entrepreneurs Party (PTE), Free Peru, and New Peru, among others, is also preparing to participate electorally. None of these forces provide a means of opposing the drive to authoritarianism, remaining quiet, for instance, about unpopular electoral laws approved ad hoc by the right-wing controlled Congress to elect a bicameral legislature and allow the re-election of existing members. 

The only solution for the masses of workers and youth in Peru facing this social catastrophe is to mobilize independently. It needs to shake off the yoke of conciliatory bureaucracies. The decisive question is that of revolutionary leadership. The latest protests were dominated by petty-bourgeois tendencies due to the absence of a genuinely socialist leadership in the working class. The historic betrayals carried out by the Stalinist-led trade union apparatus, the diversion of social struggles towards bourgeois politics by the nominal left, and the bitter experiences with guerrilla movements, have all contributed to a political disorientation that Peruvian workers need to overcome.

Crucial lessons must be learned. No faction of the Peruvian ruling class, from the right-wing Fujimoristas to populist demagogues like ousted President Pedro Castillo, is capable of solving any of the basic economic and social problems faced by the working class and the rural poor in Peru or, for that matter, across South America. All national bourgeoisies of semi-colonial countries such as Peru are intertwined with and subordinated to foreign finance capital, with national sovereignty existing in name only.

Trump escalates tariff war against Europe

Nick Beams

US President Trump has escalated his trade war against the European Union with the threat to impose a 200 percent tariff on champagne and wines coming from Europe.

The threat, announced on his social media platform yesterday, came in response to the imposition of a 50 percent tariff by the EU on a range of products, including whiskey, which were imposed in retaliation for the 25 percent US tariff on steel and aluminium.

Champagne on ice [Photo by Harald Bischoff / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0]

Denouncing the EU decision as “hostile and abusive,” Trump declared: “If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries.”

There is little likelihood of the EU backing down as it has set out a plan for retaliation, the first phase of which will go into effect on April 1.

It will be followed by a series of measures directed against US agricultural products that will come into effect in the middle of the month, targeting rural areas which form a base of Trump’s support. The plan was drawn up in the expectation that Trump would respond as he has.

In a post on X yesterday, Laurent Saint-Martin, the French foreign trade minister, said: “We will not give in to threats and we will always protect our sectors.” Trump “is escalating the trade war he chose to unleash.”

Nor is there any sign of an easing of the economic war against Canada. After it had sent a delegation to Washington yesterday aimed at trying to calm the situation, Trump said: “I’m not going to bend at all.”

In an example of how day-to-day decision-making is taking place in the White House, in a Bloomberg interview yesterday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned countries against provoking Trump.

“If you make him unhappy, he responds unhappy,” he said.

But he then went on to at least indicate the underlying logic of the growing economic madness. Some countries, he claimed, such as Britain and Mexico, had thoughtfully examined their relationship with the US. As for others, which responded with tariffs, pointing to the EU, “the president’s going to deal with them with strength and power.”

The overriding aim of Trump’s economic war is to form a bloc, centered on North America, but including others as well provided they bow to the US, which can take on China, which the US regards in the longer term as the greatest threat to its global hegemony. Those that do not comply and are also seen as threats to the US, such as the EU, will be dealt with.

The Trump tariff war is causing chaos for large sections of US industry unsure of what is going to happen from one day to the next, let alone undertake longer-term planning. The stated aim of the Trump regime is to force corporations to locate their operations in the US.

But the economic irrationality of this perspective in a world of globalized production was highlighted in a letter from Tesla, the Elon Musk owned company, to the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer earlier this week.

The letter was unsigned because, as one person familiar with its drafting told the Financial Times, “nobody at the company wants to be fired for sending it.”

The company said that while it supported fair trade—a nod to Trump’s bogus claim that he is making the global system fairer because the US has been taken advantage of—it warned that US exporters were “exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions.”

Pointing to the situation which faces a myriad of US firms, it said that “even with the aggressive localization of the supply chain, certain parts and components are impossible to source within the US.”

It called on Greer to “further evaluate domestic supply chain limitations to ensure that US manufacturers are not unduly burdened by trade actions that could result in the imposition of cost-prohibitive tariffs on necessary components.”

The growing chaos in US industry and the fears that tariffs are going to bring a surge in inflation as well as recession is starting to impact heavily on Wall Street.

Yesterday, the S&P 500 index, the market’s leading indicator, extended its fall and entered what is known as “correction” territory—a fall of 10 percent since its previous record high barely three weeks ago on February 19. In that time, some $5 trillion has been wiped off the total market capitalization.

In another sign of growing uncertainty, gold has continued its steady ascent and yesterday reached a new all-time high of $2,985 per ounce, bringing its total rise this year to 14 percent.

The market selloff has hit stocks hard with the tech-heavy NASDAQ index already having fallen by more than 10 percent. The stock price of Tesla, one of the so-called Magnificent Seven, is down by 40 percent since the start of the year.

It is not only tech stocks that have been hit. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies has fallen 18 percent since its high last November and is on the edge of entering bear market territory—a decline of 20 percent.

Previously, there have been claims that the reaction of the stock market – in the absence of any opposition from the Democrats, the trade unions, and the complicity of the courts – would form a kind of “guard rail” to curb the Trump regime, that it would pull back from some of its economic madness if Wall Street started to fall.

But so far, the administration has brushed off what the New York Times has characterized as “the market turmoil.” Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was focused on the “real economy” and was not concerned about “a little bit of volatility over three weeks.”

In fact, the real economy is presenting a rapidly darkening picture. Consumer confidence is falling, consumer spending was down in real terms at the start of this year, business surveys indicate a fall in new orders, and business investment plans are being put on hold because of the lack of certainty about the direction of the real economy. And the latest job surveys show a major spike in layoffs for the first two months of the year.

Growth estimates are being revised down, with the Atlanta Federal Reserve warning that the US could experience a contraction of more than 2 percent in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs has cut its forecast for US gross domestic product from 2.4 percent to 1.7 percent.

Connecting the fall in the markets to the underlying real economy, Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at the investment management firm Invesco, told the Times: “I think what the markets are telling us is that they are very concerned about the potential for a recession. That is certainly not what markets expected going into 2025.”

Trump steps up tariff war as US recession threat grows

Nick Beams

US President Trump has proceeded with the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on aluminium and steel imports, refusing to grant any carve-outs or exemptions for long-time US allies, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia.

The European Union (EU) has responded with a series of retaliatory measures imposing tariffs on $26 billion worth of goods, including Kentucky bourbon whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Further tariffs are to be imposed in April.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters next to Air Force One after arriving back at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sunday, February 2, 2025. [AP Photo/Ben Curtis]

In a further escalation, Trump said yesterday the US would take countermeasures.

“Of course I’m going to respond,” he told reporters. “The problem is our country didn’t respond. Look, the EU was set up to take advantage of the United States.”

Following the Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Zelensky, the tariff war is another blow to the all but collapsed post-war Transatlantic alliance.

The response in Australia is no less significant. While the economic fallout is not so great—Australia is only a minor exporter of steel and aluminium—the political consequences are enormous. The refusal of the US to grant an exemption, or even to take a phone call from Prime Minister Albanese, is being regarded as an existential blow to the US-Australia alliance that has been foundational to the post-war political order.

The tariff measures went ahead, despite lobbying from US businesses concerned they will have a major impact on the economy. The lobby group even included the country’s largest aluminium company, Alcoa, which warned that the tariff hikes could threaten tens of thousands of jobs and raise prices for American consumers.

In its explanation of the refusal to grant exemptions, the White House pointed to the central issue of China. It said that carve-outs, such as those that had been made in the past, “inadvertently created loopholes” which allowed Chinese-made steel to come into the US via those countries duty-free.

The intensity with which Trump is proceeding with his global economic war was illustrated on Tuesday in a social media post issued in response to a threat by Canada, since withdrawn, to impose a surcharge on power supplies.

“If other egregious, long-time tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the tariffs on cars coming into the US which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA!” he wrote.

April 2 is the date on which a range of government departments will report on the implementation of the central thrust of his tariff war, the so-called “reciprocal tariff” program.

This goes far beyond the imposition of like tariffs on countries such as India which have relatively high tariffs on US goods. It will set in motion retaliation via tariffs for the internal policies of individual countries that are deemed to be inimical to US corporations.

For Europe, this includes measures such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), environmental regulations and measures to impose taxes and regulations on the activities of the social media and high-tech giants. In Australia, even the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) which the US has long opposed, could be a target for “reciprocal” action.

The global Trump tariff war will accelerate the recessionary trends already showing up in the US economy. These were highlighted in the report on job tracking by the firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas issued last week, which detailed the largest number of job losses since the financial crisis of 2008–2009.

“US-based employers announced 172,017 job cuts in February, the highest total for the month since 2009 when 186,350 job cuts were announced,” the report said.

It was the highest total for any month since July 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 262,649 cuts were announced.

Perhaps even more significant than the overall numbers is the rate of increase in job cuts.

“February’s total is a 245 percent increase from the 49,975 cuts announced once month prior. It is a 103 percent increase from the 84,638 cuts announced in the same month last year,” according to the report.

Commenting on the numbers, Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of the firm, said: “Private companies announced plans to shed thousands of jobs last month, particularly in retail and technology.”

With the impact of DOGE actions “as well as cancelled government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February,” he continued.

Retail has been the hardest-hit sector, reflecting a downturn in consumer confidence and spending. Total job cuts for the first two months of the year were 45,375, an increase of 572 percent from the 6,571 job cuts announced for the same period in 2024.

Fears of a recession were fueled by an interview given by Trump to Fox News last Sunday, in which he declined to rule out either inflation as a result of his tariff hikes or a recession. Asked to comment on the possibility of a recession—the Atlanta Federal Reserve has warned of a 2.8 percent contraction in the first quarter—Trump dodged the issue.

“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transitions, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing, and there are always periods, it takes a little time.”

Trump’s sudden reluctance to make predictions stands in marked contrast to his “snake oil” electioneering rhetoric promising a new “golden age” virtually from day one.

Asked to comment on the potential for tariffs to cause inflation, Trump replied: “You could get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down.”

But, contrary to Trump, the fall in interest rates, as reflected in the decline in the yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, is not a sign of economic health but is the outcome of the pricing in by investors of the likelihood of a recession.

At the start of the year, with the US Federal Reserve indicating that it was in no hurry to lower rates, the market consensus was that there would likely be only one interest rate cut this year. The consensus now is that there will be three, totaling three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of the year, because the Fed will be forced to intervene to try to prevent the economy falling into recession.

At the centre of what has been characterised as the “exceptional performance” of the US economy over the past three years, compared to other major economies, has been the growth of consumption spending.

However, this has been a highly skewed picture because analysis of Fed data has shown that spending by the top 10 percent of income earners—households making $250,000 a year or more—accounts for 49.7 percent of all consumption spending, comprising almost one-third of gross domestic product.

Now the worsening conditions for the vast majority of the population are starting to show up in consumption spending data.

Nominal personal spending fell 0.2 percent between December and January as against an expected rise of 0.1 percent, the largest fall since the beginning of 2021. Adjusted for inflation, personal consumption was down by 0.5 percent with the biggest falls coming in consumer durable goods, particularly cars.

The index of consumer confidence issued by the Conference Board fell seven points in February to 98.3, the sharpest fall since August 2021 and well below the prediction of 102.5.

Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard said it was the third consecutive monthly decline. “Views of current labour market conditions weakened. Consumers became pessimistic about future business conditions and less optimistic about future income,” she said.

“Pessimism about future employment prospects worsened and reached a tenth-month high.”

In another indication of growing economic stress, the Financial Times reported that “serious delinquencies on credit card balances hit a 13-year high at the end of last year, with steep interest rates increasingly squeezing households.”

Another purported factor in American exceptionalism was the strength of the private sector dynamism as reflected in a “strong” labour market.

However, in a recent article titled, “The US economy is headed for recession,” FT columnist Tek Parikh noted that “government, healthcare and social assistance accounted for two-thirds of new jobs created since the start of 2023 (and half of the 151,000 non-farm payrolls added in February.)”

The full effect of the sweeping DOGE cuts has yet to be felt, but according to an estimate by the financial firm Evercore ISI, the cuts could total half a million jobs this year, possibly rising to 1.4 million.

On top of the decline in the real economy, there is the ever-present fear that the sell-off on Wall Street can precipitate a financial crisis. The S&P 500 index has declined almost 10 percent from its high recorded on February 19, and total market capitalisation has dropped by $4 trillion since then.

The Trump regime is signaling that it is determined to press ahead both with its tariff war against the world, which has thrown business planning into chaos, and the attack on all forms of government spending which in any way benefit the broad mass of the population.

In remarks on the weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the idea that Trump would ease some of his savage cuts as a result of an adverse reaction on the markets.

“There’s going to be a natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending,” he said. “The market and the economy have just become hooked. We’ve become addicted to this government spending. And there’s going to be a detox period.”

Former Philippine President Duterte arrested for crimes against humanity

John Malvar

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant charging him with crimes against humanity. Within twelve hours of his arrest, Duterte was flown to The Hague.

A plane carrying former President Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague takes off in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. [AP Photo/Aaron Favila]

The 15-page warrant issued by the ICC panel of three judges charged Duterte with acts of murder “against the civilian population of the Philippines,” under the auspices of his so-called “war on drugs,” both during his terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao and as President. Duterte organized, encouraged, funded, and oversaw a network of murder, involving the police and vigilantes, that killed tens of thousands.

The arrest and immediate extradition of Duterte expresses the intensity of the ongoing political warfare among the Philippine elite over the country’s geopolitical orientation. The country is in the midst of a midterm election, scheduled to be held in May, that is being fiercely contested by the forces allied to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, on the one hand, and those allied to his rival, Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president, on the other. Rodrigo Duterte is the most influential figure, the political godfather, of the slate opposed to Marcos.

Washington’s accelerating preparations for war with China are fueling the conflict in the Philippine elite. It has become entirely impossible to balance between economic relations with China and political relations with the United States. During his term as president, Duterte attempted to orient Philippine foreign policy away from Washington, announcing an end to a number of joint military exercises with the United States and refusing to pursue sovereignty claims against China over disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Over the past three years, Marcos, the son of the country’s former dictator, has reintegrated the Philippines in Washington’s war drive. He has opened military bases for US forces, allowed the Pentagon to supervise confrontations with China in the South China Sea with drones, and authorized the US deployment of an intermediate range Typhon class missile launcher system to the country with the capacity to target nearly all of China.

The “war on drugs” is not a divide between Marcos and Duterte. Marcos has continued Duterte’s policies. While the unrestrained bloodshed under his predecessor has been curtailed, the repressive apparatus created by Duterte remains in force, and the police and vigilantes continue to kills scores. If Duterte stands charges for crimes against humanity, Marcos should as well.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte takes oath during a senate inquiry on the so-called war on drugs during his administration at the Philippine Senate, on Oct. 28, 2024. [AP Photo/Aaron Favila]

The uncertainty surrounding US policy under the new Trump administration has sharpened the political volatility and widened the schism in the Philippine elite. The question of Manila’s geopolitical orientation has been compounded by intense speculation over the slashed funding of USAID and its impact on basic social amelioration programs, and, above all, the impact of possible tariffs on the Philippines economy.

Rice prices in the country are at record highs. The Marcos administration declared a national food security emergency last month. Rodrigo Duterte made rice prices, and Marcos’s inability to control them, a key election issue.

The midterm election, which most critically will select half of the Senate, became a referendum in the elite over the country’s geopolitical orientation and response to deteriorating social conditions. On the last day of the congressional session prior to its adjournment for the duration of the election, impeachment charges were abruptly filed against Vice President Duterte, charging her with corruption and with having called for the assassination of President Marcos. Congress voted to impeach, and the charges will be sent to the incoming Senate for trial.

The Marcos headed campaign has issued repeated statements calling on Filipinos not to vote for “pro-China” candidates. Baseless allegations of massive Chinese spying are being used to whip up an atmosphere of war hysteria and racist nationalism. The function of these lies is to attempt to divert mass anger away from the immense social crisis.

Rodrigo Duterte, running to again become mayor of Davao, headed the opposition slate. On Sunday he travelled to Hong Kong, along with the Vice President and other candidates of the opposition, for a political rally among the large community of Filipino workers there. On Tuesday morning, he was arrested when his return flight from Hong Kong landed in Manila.

The Marcos administration, in a press conference on Tuesday, reported that they received an arrest warrant from the ICC, served by Interpol, at three in the morning on Tuesday and authorized the Philippine police, with an Interpol representative, to make the arrest of the former president. Hundreds of police officers filled the airport. Duterte was taken, not to police custody at Camp Crame, but to the Villamor Air Base, headquarters of the Philippine Air Force.

Duterte’s legal representative filed an emergency case with the Supreme Court, claiming that the international warrant was invalid, as the Philippines had withdrawn its membership in the ICC. The Supreme Court did not convene, saying that it would hear the case the following day. On Tuesday, a private chartered plane flew Duterte to The Hague.

In 2018 Duterte withdrew the Philippines from membership in the ICC, rejecting any international investigation into the ongoing human rights violations of his administration. President Marcos in his brief press conference on Tuesday, absurdly pretended that the decision to arrest and extradite the former president was not a political decision but simply compliance with Interpol. The Philippines was not recognizing the jurisdiction of the ICC, he claimed, but simply responding to a request from Interpol. “Interpol asked for help,” he said, “and we obliged, because we have commitments to the Interpol.”

News of Duterte’s arrest was greeted with immense enthusiasm by wide layers of Philippine society, particularly among students and families of the victims of the war on drugs. Duterte is unquestionably guilty of the crimes of which he is accused.

Duterte publicly instructed the police to shoot people accused of drug dealing, rather than arrest them. He explicitly and repeatedly stated that he was extending immunity from prosecution to all police accused of murder in this campaign. The police, under Duterte’s instructions, began to pay vigilantes money for every person they killed. Mutilated corpses were left in the streets, cardboard signs reading “I’m a pusher” laid across their lifeless bodies.

The best estimate for the number killed by police and vigilantes under the Duterte administration, based on a careful tally of the official death toll and the ratio of vigilante killings to police murder, is around 30,000. The victims were drawn exclusively from the most impoverished and oppressed layers of Philippine society. Duterte’s war on drugs was a war on the poor. It was the fascist face of the ruling elite in suppressing the worsening social crisis and the threat of unrest.

Duterte did not create this apparatus of murder alone. Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, then head of the Philippine National Police, oversaw the daily operations of repression. Duterte’s legal team justified it. A network of businessmen, cabinet officials and religious figures sat on his Anti-Terror Council and oversaw the stripping away of the democratic rights of the population. An overwhelming majority of the legislature, the largest supermajority in Philippine history until then, backed the President. Many of those on the Marcos ticket, who now denounce Duterte, were in fact his enablers.

The Obama administration provided millions in funds earmarked for Duterte’s war on drugs in 2016, after the body count was already in the hundreds, and as Duterte publicly spoke of killing a hundred thousand. The Obama White House only discovered its concern for human rights when Duterte oriented Philippine foreign policy to China. The Trump administration in 2017 enthusiastically endorsed Duterte’s policies. Trump told Duterte in a phone call that he hoped Duterte could teach the US how to use his methods for dealing with the immigrants on the southern border. Joe Biden invited Duterte to a “Summit for Democracy” with a letter that read we “recognize and appreciate your partnership in working to build democratic and human rights-respecting societies that allow all citizens to thrive.”

Political culpability for Duterte’s rise to power rests with the Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the various national democratic organizations, such as Bayan, that follow its political line. The CPP long supported Duterte as mayor of Davao. The organization Bayan campaigned for his election in 2016. Jose Ma Sison, head of the CPP, hailed Duterte’s election, calling Duterte a “socialist,” and selected three members of Duterte’s cabinet. In the early stages of his war on drugs, the CPP and Bayan defended the President.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr himself faces international charges for human rights violations. He was an integral part of his parent’s military dictatorship, serving, among other things, as governor of Ilocos Norte. When Marcos was elected President in 2022, Biden arranged immunity for Marcos against an outstanding arrest warrant in US courts on charges of human rights violations.

The legal case justifying the arrest and extradition of Duterte was presented by Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile. Now over 100 years old, Enrile was the architect of martial law and the head of an entire apparatus of military torture and murder under the Marcos Sr administration.

The content of the ICC warrant and, above all, the timing of its release are of a highly political character. While details have yet to emerge, the arrest of Duterte could not have occurred without the endorsement and support of Washington, even though the US has not ratified the Treaty of Rome and is not a member of the ICC. However the decision to arrest and extradite Duterte was exactly arrived at, it clearly serves the interests of US imperialism.

Washington defends and funds war criminals when it serves its interests. It threatens sanctions against anyone who aids the ICC in serving its outstanding warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza. It backed Duterte’s crusade of murder as long as he served US interests. Duterte’s arrest is part of a political war being waged by Washington for the geopolitical loyalty of Manila in its drive to war with China.

Jobs cull at universities in Wales, part of over 10,000 losses UK wide

Henry Lee

Welsh universities are cutting hundreds of jobs, including 400 redundancies and the closure of courses at Cardiff University. This slash-and-burn campaign takes place with the direct collaboration of the Welsh government led by the Labour Party.

More than half of the universities across Britain have announced thousands of job cuts. Higher education workers have begun to resist, with three weeks of strikes having begun at Dundee University against 200-500 jobs cuts, and workers at Newcastle University and Brunel University striking during March/April against hundreds of cuts.

The Ewing Building, in the city campus of the University of Dundee, Scotland. [Photo by Otsima / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of East Anglia have voted by 82 percent to strike, and a ballot is open at the University of Sheffield where as many as 1,000 staff face redundancy. Ballots are also going ahead at Durham University over plans to cut £20 million from the university’s staffing budget and Keele University over £2.25 million in cuts involving job losses in its School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Business School.

Stopping the destruction of large parts of higher education will require workers to confront the Labour Party and its partners in the trade union bureaucracy. Any notion that Labour can be pressured to defend education is refuted by the experience of the cuts at Cardiff.

Cardiff plans to shut down its courses in nursing—amid an NHS staffing crisis—music, modern languages and ancient history. Some staff have reportedly been told that if they want to keep their jobs they should prepare to teach at the university’s campus in Kazakhstan!

Staff cuts mean increases in class sizes. It is already common in UK universities that students cannot fit in lecture rooms and have to watch on a screen from another room, or lecturers have to give the same lecture twice to different groups. The vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia told THE (formerly, Times Higher Education) that increasing class sizes is “one of the easiest ways to improve efficiency and boost productivity”.

There is mass public opposition. Almost 20,000 people have signed a petition to save Cardiff’s School of Nursing, and a petition for the School of Music has over 25,000 signatures.

Cardiff’s is one of only two scholarly music studies courses in Wales. The department, Professor Ian Pace told THE, is “home to arguably the UK’s leading scholars of Liszt, Stravinsky and Janáček, not to mention pioneering, world-leading scholars of Mendelssohn, historical performance, music in Vienna, and both 19th- and 20th-century French music and opera.”

Around half the job cuts will come from the merger and “reshaping” of other departments, including the School of Mathematics, which will become part of the new School of Data Science, Mathematics and Computing. This is despite the fact that universities tend to make a profit on maths students, who need little beyond a blackboard and a mathematician to learn.

Such cuts to “pure” and exploratory science will be driven by the calculation that courses based on AI and data science can take more of the lucrative market for one-year masters, charging enormous fees to international students.

More than 3,000 scientists and mathematicians, including two Nobel prize-winners in physics and 17 Fields medalists (a mathematics prize as prestigious as the Nobel) signed an open letter warning the cuts could be “the beginning of the end of pure and applied mathematics research and teaching”. The letter notes, “Mathematics is the foundation and fuel of AI … Separating mathematical scientists in the proposed new structure is a short-sighted move that will put Cardiff on the back foot in this rapidly developing field.”

As well as the 400 cuts at Wales’s only Russell Group university (a leading public research institution) in Cardiff, another 200 cuts are planned at Bangor University. Aberystwyth University’s recent financial report noted “increased use of a revolving credit facility”. The University of Wales Trinity Saint David will stop offering undergraduate degrees at its historic campus in Lampeter—the first higher education institution in Wales—and older than every English university apart from Oxford and Cambridge.

The UCU has a track record of collaborating with management in job losses, provided they can proceed on a “voluntary” not compulsory basis. Many thousands of jobs have already been cut in the last 15 years in this way.

The union refuses to organise any nationally co-ordinated industrial action to fight the jobs cull—in which over 10,000 of its members jobs are on the chopping block—instead launching a feeble “Stop the Cuts” initiative last week. The campaign’s main purpose is to divert members’ anger into bankrupt appeals to the pro-big business Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer.

Opposed to industrial action with the potential to bring university sector to a standstill, the UCU instead proposes a March 18 rally and parliamentary lobby, and for a national demonstration in London, even later and virtually as term ends, on May 10. Its goals are to “demonstrate the current dire conditions in UK universities and the consequences of government inaction”—as if everyone is not already aware—and that the “UCU will put pressure on the UK government to change their current position and invest and intervene to alleviate the crisis in higher education.”

But Starmer’s right-wing government has made clear it will not prevent widespread destruction of jobs in higher education. Minister for Skills Baroness Jacqui Smith pledged that “there will not be a major reform of the way in which we fund higher education.”

The new chair of the universities regulator Office for Students (OfS), Edward Peck, told MPs last week that bailing out universities in financial difficulties would create a “moral hazard” and risk “universities and colleges and other providers becoming public sector organisations, which I think we want to avoid.”

Labour’s response to the crisis in Welsh universities has been a mixture of denial, token measures and attempts to exclusively blame Cardiff University’s leadership.

Vikki Howells, the Minister for Further and Higher Education in the Welsh government, announced £18.5 million in additional funding, but not to save jobs. The funding is earmarked to be spent on “estates maintenance” and digital projects to reduce operating costs, which only means it will free up more money to be used on paying redundancy costs and other measures to cut the staffing bill.

Much has been made of plans to change Competition and Marketing Authority rules on collaboration between universities, which can only mean sharing services to cut administrative jobs.

In a Senedd debate on February 5, Howells denied that there was even a crisis, declaring “Our universities in Wales are not underfunded. OECD data suggests that universities in the UK are some of the best funded in the world.”

Claiming restricting social spending was the only option, she said “even if we were to cut grants for students or divert funding away from the NHS, schools or local government to increase funding for our universities, as some Members opposite would have us do, universities would still need to change in response to external challenges”. The military budget, being increased by at least £6 billion a year from 2027, was not mentioned by a single member as an alternative source of funds.

For its part, Plaid Cymru, the nationalist Party of Wales, suggested that more funding could be taken out of students’ pockets by “recaptur[ing] around £34 million from maintenance grants that currently go to the 40 percent of Welsh students who study outside Wales”.

Warning strikes in Germany’s public services: “€500 billion for us instead of for armaments”

Marianne Arens

Warning strike in public services, demonstration through Berlin’s Wedding district. The banner reads: “Public services broken and broke,” March 6, 2025

The current public sector warning strikes in Germany express the great anger that is building up in all areas of public services. On Thursday and Friday last week, tens of thousands of care workers, nursery nurses, cleaners, social workers and midwives went on strike. On Monday, ground staff at 13 airports went on strike for the whole day; there were also strikes in the aviation security sector. From Hamburg and Berlin to Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Munich, a total of 13 airports went on strike, resulting in more than 3,000 flights being cancelled for around 400,000 passengers. Strikes at many municipal companies and in local public transport will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, all these operations have been run down. Today, workers are confronted with the fact that the incoming Christian Democrat (CDU)-Social Democrat (SPD) coalition government is pumping hundreds of billions into the arms industry even before taking office, while it starves public services of much-needed funds.

The warning strikes are taking place before the third and decisive round of negotiations on the new public sector contract (TVöD), which will be held in Potsdam March 14-16. The service trade union Verdi is officially demanding 8 percent more pay, with at least €350 more for those on low wages, as well as an extra three days leave.

However, the union leadership already knows that the contract that will emerge will fall far short of meeting these demands. It will be no better than the one they just signed at Deutsche Post, which with 2.3 percent inflation this year only provides for a 2 percent increase, effectively lowering real wages. In addition, 8,000 postal jobs will be cut this year.

Nationwide, more than 2.6 million public sector employees are affected. On March 14, Verdi negotiators Frank Werneke (SPD) and Christine Behle (SPD) will meet with the representative of the municipal employers, Karin Welge (SPD), and current Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) in Potsdam. Their party, the SPD, together with the CDU/CSU, have just approved taking out war loans of several hundred billion euros. Up to €1 trillion are to be spent on preparing society for war!

In the public sector, this will inevitably lead to even sharper attacks on jobs, wages and social benefits. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Verdi to push this through. For this reason, the token “warning” strikes this week and next week have taken on a greater scale than originally planned. At the same time, Verdi is firmly sticking to its support for the government’s pro-war policies and its close cooperation with the SPD.

Warning strikes in the public sector, demonstration by hospital staff through Berlin’s Wedding district, March 6, 2025

In Berlin’s Wedding district, a Verdi spokeswoman and representative of the Left Party, Stella Merendino, warmly welcomed the SPD’s labour market policy spokesperson to the podium. Several speakers called for a wealth tax and inheritance tax, without mentioning a single word about the “special fund” for war that the SPD has just agreed with the CDU/CSU.

Last Thursday, staff were on strike at the Charité and Vivantes hospital in Wedding, where around 1,500 employees demonstrated for higher wages and better working conditions. Among them were employees of Charité Facility Management (CFM), which had been spun off from the parent company years ago. Since then, around 3,000 CFM employees have been earning up to €1,000 less than the TVöD contract provides for the remaining 23,000 or so Charité employees.

One CMF employee told WSWS, “It cannot be that billions are spent on the rich and on war, and we ordinary workers are supposed to get less and less.”

Guido, who works as a cleaner at the hospital, reported on the poor pay he receives, well below €2,000 net a month despite shift and holiday work. What was particularly important to be addressed, he said, “are the poor working conditions: no paid breaks, every smoking break must be accounted for. We often must clean our work clothes ourselves.” He explained that he thought it “important if we all went on strike together and not just one day here and then another day there.”

What Guido expressed is on the minds of thousands across the country, because the warning strikes are carried out in isolation and separately from one another—precisely to “let off steam,” but not to really mobilise the fighting strength of the working class.

Warning strikes in the public sector, Verdi rally in Nuremberg, 7 March 2025

In Nuremberg, too, several strikers expressed the same wish. “The union should be taking a completely different approach,” a young psychiatric nurse from Middle Franconia told us. “In the social sector, the strike is made difficult for us,” he said. “We don’t want people to die because there is no one in the hospital. But it’s not our fault! We should finally go on strike together properly, that would show solidarity and make sense.” He added, “I would also take to the streets in solidarity with my colleagues at Deutsche Post.”

In Nuremberg, several thousand strikers took part in actions that paralysed the Nuremberg Clinic, other hospitals in Middle Franconia and the youth welfare offices and municipal daycare centres.

Many strikers carried self-made signs and banners with inscriptions such as “It’s not the strike that endangers patients, but the normal state of affairs.” Others read “I can’t work as badly as I’m paid.”

Public sector workers on strike, Nuremberg strikers demand: “500 billion for us instead of for armaments’

“500 billion for us instead of for armaments!” demanded nursing staff on a home-made poster. Others had written: “You’re quick on armaments, but you’re doing nothing for nursing.”

The psychiatric care specialist quoted earlier also told us, “What Verdi is demanding is not enough. Our wages are only slightly above the minimum wage. If we had a four-day week and better pay, staff turnover wouldn’t be so high.” That was why it was important for him to take part in the strike, he said. “A pay freeze—that’s just not on. We have a really stressful job in nursing, and we deserve more money than that.”

With a frown, the same nurse described the latest pay agreement at Deutsche Post as “a big Verdi joke, to be honest.” He said he did not understand why postal workers, like nurses and other public sector employees, were not paid as well as, for example, a skilled Mercedes worker.