European Union threatens retaliation against Trump tariffs

Alex Lantier

Ursula von der Leyen presents the new Commission and its program ahead of the vote in the European Parliament [Photo by Europäische Union, 2024 - EP]

European Union (EU) officials responded to global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration yesterday by moving to impose tens of billions of euros in tariffs on US products. With Washington now imposing a 20 percent tariff on all EU goods and a 25 percent tariff on European auto exports, US-EU ties are suffering a historic breakdown, and a trade war is being set into motion, threatening unprecedented attacks on workers in America, Europe and internationally.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke this morning from Uzbekistan, where she is attending a Central Asia-EU summit, appealing to Washington for talks while threatening a first raft of €26 billion in EU tariffs. Asking Trump to “move from confrontation to negotiation,” she said, “We are already finalizing a first package of countermeasures in response to tariffs on steel. And we are now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail.”

Vast numbers of goods and jobs are at stake. US-EU trade reached €1.6 trillion in 2023, including €851 billion in goods and €746 billion in services. While Europe ran a €153 billion trade surplus in goods, mainly in cars, machinery, aerospace and pharmaceuticals, it ran a €109 billion deficit in services, driven mainly by purchases of services by US banks and tech firms. The United States and the EU have invested over €5 trillion in each other’s financial markets.

The EU’s first wave of tariffs target US goods, including jeans, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, steel, aluminum and agricultural goods. The EU may also invoke its so-called Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), a 2023 law to coordinate trade war measures against countries the EU considers are seeking to economically coerce it. This would let EU countries cut payments to US banks and tech firms for financial services or intellectual property rights.

For now, uncertainty prevails in European ruling circles as to what sort of deal they can negotiate with Trump and how quickly and deeply trade war measures will undermine Europe’s economy.

Dutch bank ING estimated that a 25 percent US tariff would cut 19 percent of EU goods exports to the United States. The value of these lost sales, at around €100 billion, is 0.87 percent of EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, there would be far broader economic knock-on effects as workers in affected industries are fired, their income and purchasing power collapse, and the US and EU potentially impose further rounds of tariffs on each other. ING said it is “impossible” for now to quantify the economic collapse the “tariff tsunami” will cause.

Financial analysts are raising concerns over German car exports, with tariffs expected to largely price them out of US markets. “Tariffs on automotive exports present a major challenge for Germany’s economy,” said Daniel Parker of Capital Economics. “Stuttgart, Upper Bavaria, and the Braunschweig region—which includes Wolfsburg—are likely to suffer the most pronounced impacts.” Auto plants and parts suppliers in Germany and across Europe, notably in Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, would also be badly hit.

EU officials, together with broad sections of the European corporate and political establishment, are calling on Trump to come to reason and grant a deal reconciling US and European interests.

EU Council President and former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa told Euronews:

[US-EU] trade relations represent 30 percent of global trade [and] 40 percent of global GDP, so it won’t just affect Europe and the United States, it will affect everyone. So it’s a big mistake. ... We must respond in a firm but also smart manner. That means we must reach a negotiated solution … in the common and mutual interest of the United States and Europe.

Whatever deals the EU may make with Trump, however, they will not restore the US-European alliance and economic equilibrium as it existed in the decades after World War II. Not only do US and European imperialist interests clash, but trade war measures will vastly intensify economic hardships facing workers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Trump administration’s foreign policy is indubitably hostile to Europe. Beyond its tariffs, it is threatening to take Greenland from Denmark and aims to plunder hundreds of billions of dollars of Ukrainian mineral resources that the EU hoped to also seize in the Ukraine-Russia war. However, the US-EU conflict does not flow simply from the mindset of America’s far-right president but from objectively rooted inter-imperialist contradictions between America and Europe.

Trump’s trade war marks an eruption of US-European tensions that twice in the 20th century exploded into world wars. His trade war aims to address America’s relative economic decline, reducing its deepening budget and trade deficits, while defending US military dominance by consolidating US military supply chains. The EU powers, on the other hand, have been discussing for nearly a decade how to consolidate their industry and build European military forces ultimately to rival America’s.

While governments on both sides of the Atlantic are formally preparing for negotiations, hostile statements are mounting on both sides. Yesterday, acting German Economy Minister Robert Habeck denounced Trump’s tariffs, comparing them to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the EU opposed militarily. He said the tariffs recall “the beginning of our time in office, especially with the war of aggression against Ukraine and the threatening situation with natural gas.”

Yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, who agreed on a target of spending 5 percent of GDP on the military—which would require savage social attacks on workers in Europe. However, US officials reportedly objected to EU plans to build up its defense industry with a €800 billion rearmament package, by blocking EU purchases of US weapons systems. European diplomats demanded to be consulted on US plans to move weapons systems out of Europe to the Pacific to target China.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot had, however, traveled to China last week, seeking closer ties with Beijing on trade policy. He asked his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to help end the tariffs China imposed on French alcoholic beverages after France voted for EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and to pressure Moscow to include EU powers in the Ukraine negotiations. Wang called for “multilateralism over unilateralism” in world affairs, while Barrot said that “a number of major principles, particularly those of multilateralism, are being shaken.”

While conflicts are mounting between the imperialist powers, workers on both sides of the Atlantic face similar prospects of mounting attacks on their basic social and democratic rights. The first stage of the trade war threatens US workers with devastating price increases and layoffs, while European workers face vast job losses. The EU estimates that 5 million jobs in Europe depend on exports to the United States, while 2.4 million US jobs depend on exports to Europe.

As Trump’s tariffs take effect Stellantis announces thousands of layoffs in Canada, Mexico and US

Logan Buchko, Shannon Jones & Jerry White

Shift change at Stellantis Windsor Assembly, April 3, 2025

Only a few hours after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced, workers across North America began experiencing the consequences. Stellantis will “temporarily” idle its Windsor Assembly Plant in Canada and Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico. About 4,500 workers in Windsor will be impacted. Some 2,600 are employed at the Toluca facility.

In the United States, Stellantis is laying off 900 workers at factories, which supply both the Canadian and Mexican plants. Workers at Warren and Sterling Heights stamping plants outside of Detroit, and two transmission factories and one casting plant in Kokomo, Indiana are among those that will be impacted in the US by the layoffs.

In a statement to Stellantis employees, head of North American operations Antonio Filosa said, “With the new automotive sector tariffs now in effect, it will take our collective resilience and discipline to push through this challenging time.” He continued, “But we will quickly adapt to these policy changes and will protect our company, maintain our competitive edge and continue delivering great products to our customers.”

The Stellantis executive added that the company was still assessing the long-term impact of the tariffs but had decided to take certain immediate actions by idling the Windsor and Toluca plants.

The cuts are the predictable result of the disruption caused by the tariffs, which amount to a declaration of economic war by the Trump administration against the rest of the world.

Despite the lying claims by United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain that the tariffs will lead to more jobs for American workers, the reality is the working class will pay the price both in higher prices and layoffs. Any production “reshored” to the US, moreover, will come with demands for lower wages and other concessions.

Trump, who has the support of major union heads, including Fain and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, is aiming to create a fortress North America in preparation for world war against its global capitalist rivals. Fain has claimed that Trump—who is witch hunting immigrants, deporting students for opposing the US-backed Israeli genocide, firing thousands of federal workers and erecting a fascist dictatorship—is fighting for the working class by waging trade war.

In response to the layoff announcements Fain issued a defensive statement feigning shock and blaming Stellantis management for the cuts while not mentioning the tariffs at all. “Stellantis continues to play games with workers’ lives,” Fain said. “As we’ve shown time and again, they’ve got the money, the capacity, the product, and the workforce to employ thousands more UAW members in Michigan, Indiana, and beyond. These layoffs are a completely unnecessary choice that the company is making.”

The UAW bureaucrat predictably said nothing about the loss of workers’ jobs in Canada and Mexico.

These cuts are only a foretaste of the jobs bloodbath that is coming. In reality there is no such thing as an “American” car. Every vehicle that rolls off the assembly line represents the collective labor of workers all over the world united in a globally interconnected chain of production. Tariffs will disrupt production and lead to economic collapse. If not stopped by the intervention of the working class this path leads to trade war and world war as the experience of the 1930s testifies.

A World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter reporting team spoke to workers at the Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant Thursday. Referring to Fain’s support for trade war, one worker said, “That reflects upon their ignorance. The auto industry is too tied together and integrated. It’s going to affect his own members. Multi-billion-dollar companies are going to exacerbate the recession to the point that tariffs could possibly cause a depression like they did back in the 1930s. The collaboration of workers across borders would work.”

Another worker added,  “It’s not a tax against us (Canada), it’s a tax against the American people. It’s going to hurt both sides. There are five plants in the states where there are going to be layoffs and a few in Mexico. We are so closely integrated and we are in profit-driven industry.

“I don’t blame the American people, it’s completely out of their control. We’ve worked together for decades. We can’t be at each other’s throats.” Asked if workers should have a global strategy to fight the global corporations, he said, “Absolutely. That’s what the unions are supposed to do for us. But us, as workers, we can take it a step further.”

A younger worker said, “This trade war is garbage. All the tariffs need to be finished right now. I just started this job six or seven months ago and I didn’t think I’d be getting laid off this soon.”

Windsor Stellantis workers reading the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter denouncing the UAW's backing of Trump's tariffs and calling for the unity of US, Canadian and Mexican workers

Another worker said, “I love my American brothers and sisters. I am grateful to live next to America, but I disagree with the tariffs they are imposing on us. I won’t let them divide us and will do everything to fight that.

“A trade war is not good for anyone including the United States. It’s a shortsighted solution for a big problem. Workers should be working together, we should not be pit against each other. My plant has been here for over a hundred years. We are not taking any jobs from people in the United States. It’s just not possible, it’s just not true. Us in a trade war only hurts all of us. The US, Canada and Mexican workers should be together. Our economies are all integrated together.”

No less hostile to a unified movement of the working class than the UAW bureaucracy, the Canadian auto union called for retaliatory tariffs against the US. “Canada needs to respond swiftly and strategically to halt Trump’s attempt to steal jobs and pick off industries one by one,” Unifor President Lana Payne said.

These cuts in North America follow the announcement by Stellantis that it has scrapped plans for a battery plant and parts distribution center in Belvidere, Illinois, and scaled back plans for reopening its idled Belvidere assembly plant. The factory is supposed to open in 2027 with only 1,500 workers returning.

The decision to reopen the plant—which employed 4,000 workers in the 1980s—was the centerpiece of the supposed “victory” of Fain’s bogus “Stand Up strike” in 2023. After the wave of mass layoffs that followed the sellout agreement and Stellantis’ decision to put the Belvidere reopening on hold, the UAW launched the Keep the Promise campaign, which consisted of filing grievances and holding votes to authorize a strike, which the UAW bureaucracy never intended to call.

Fain attributed the resignation of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares last December to his publicity stunt campaign and then told workers to place their faith in Stellantis’ new North American executives to “work with the union” to reopen the Belvidere plant and “save” American jobs. In the run up to these new job cuts, the UAW worked with Stellantis to press workers in Michigan and Ohio to accept buyouts to proactively reduce headcounts. 

With a large selloff on Wall Street and increasing predictions of an economic recession, job cuts are sweeping across the US. According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, “US-based employers announced 275,240 job cuts in March, a 60 percent increase from the 172,017 cuts announced one month prior.” That is a 205 percent increase from March 2024, which was the highest monthly total that year. The total included 216,215 furloughs of federal government workers.

Among other job cut announcements, Whirlpool in Amana, Iowa is laying off 650 workers effective June 1, citing lower sales. Chevron meanwhile is cutting 600 jobs at its old headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Graphic Packaging Holding Company plans to close its manufacturing location in Middletown, OH, eliminating 130 jobs.

Conditions rapidly worsening for victims of Myanmar earthquake

Ben McGrath

A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Myanmar following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake there on Friday. As of early Monday morning, the death toll had risen to 1,700, though this figure will certainly grow as rescue teams search the rubble and reach outlying areas. Recovery efforts are underway in neighboring Thailand, which was also affected.

Buildings in damaged by Myanmar earthquake, March 29, 2025 [Photo: UNICEF]

The earthquake struck along the Sagaing Fault near Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar. Other major cities along the fault include Yangon and the capital of Naypyitaw. The earthquake as well as powerful aftershocks knocked down buildings and bridges while destroying roads, essentially flattening whole towns. There are also serious concerns about the state of Myanmar’s dams.

In addition to those killed, more than 3,400 have been injured while many more remain missing. The US Geological Survey estimates that the death toll could surpass 10,000.

Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world and many of the buildings were not constructed to withstand earthquakes. Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey told the Associated Press, “When you have a large earthquake in an area where there are over a million people, many of them living in vulnerable buildings, the consequences can often be disastrous.”

These conditions are making it difficult for healthcare and rescue workers. Damage to roads, airports, and other infrastructure is causing delays in getting aid to those who need it. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers.”

OCHA further noted, “Thousands of people are spending the nights on the streets or open spaces due to the damage and destruction to homes or fearing further quakes.”

Han Zin, a resident of the city of Sagaing, located near the earthquake’s epicenter, told Reuters, “What we are seeing here is widespread destruction—many buildings have collapsed into the ground… We have received no aid, and there are no rescue workers in sight.” He added that much of the town is without electricity and that drinking water was running out.

Most of the efforts to provide aid and locate people trapped under buildings has been conducted by self-organized groups of residents who lack the necessary tools and equipment to dig people out of the rubble. Rescuers have also cited fears that many buildings are unstable and could collapse, preventing them from searching for survivors.

The destruction could potentially equal as much as 70 percent of Myanmar’s GDP, which stood at $US64.28 billion last year. Prior to the earthquake, the World Bank also predicted the economy would contract by 1 percent at the end of the fiscal year this month. Nyi Nyi Kyaw, a political scientist at the University of Bristol who is from Myanmar stated, “In essence, Myanmar is wholly unable to deal with the shock and its aftermath.”

Several countries have dispatched rescue teams, including China, Russia, India, and Thailand. Beijing sent 135 rescue personnel and necessary supplies while pledging $US13.8 million dollars.

The Trump administration in the US has pledged support, but a three-person team from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is not expected to arrive until Wednesday. Even as the earthquake was unfolding, Trump was gutting the organization. Last Friday, USAID employees in the process of preparing a response to the earthquake received emails notifying them that they had been fired.

Other natural disasters have also battered Myanmar in the past year, including Typhoon Yagi, impacting an estimated 2.4 million people as well as half of the country’s agricultural firms. This led to a sharp increase in food insecurity, which is now being exacerbated.

In Thailand, which also felt the effects of Friday’s earthquake, at least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok, including 10 workers constructing a high-rise building. An additional 78 people are missing and some people are believed to still be alive under the wreckage. Naruemol Thonglek, the wife of one of the missing workers, who is from Myanmar, said, “I was praying that that they had survived, but when I got here and saw the ruin… where could they be?” Other fatalities also occurred at construction sites.

Many people in Bangkok were unable to return to their homes, pending safety checks. The city government said it had received more than 9,500 reports of building damage. Residents shared pictures online of their homes with cracks in them. People were forced to sleep in parks, with the city providing portable toilets and drinking water.

The earthquake disaster could lead to serious political unrest, particularly in Myanmar where the ruling military junta has been in control since staging a coup in February 2021. This intensified armed conflict involving separatist armed militias, which has been ongoing in the country for decades. The junta, which is highly unpopular, holds a fragile grip on power and its inability to provide aid could trigger a mass anti-government movement.

Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing stated over the weekend, “All military and civilian hospitals, as well as healthcare workers, must work together in a coordinated and efficient manner to ensure effective medical response.”

However, the government has restricted aid from reaching many of those displaced by the civil war. The National Unity Government (NUG), a coalition of forces opposed to the junta, controls large parts of the Sagaing region.

The NUG stated Saturday night that there would be a partial two-week ceasefire in earthquake-affected regions, beginning the next day. It also stated that it would cooperate with the UN and aid organizations “to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps.”

The military has reportedly continued air strikes against opposition forces, including in the states of Kayin and Shan, both of which border the Mandalay region. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews described the situation as “nothing short of incredible.” He stated, “Anyone who has influence on the military needs to step up the pressure and make it very clear that this is not acceptable.”

Over the last four years alone, more than 75,000 people have been killed and more than 3.5 million people have been displaced. Furthermore, throughout Myanmar, an estimated 19.9 million people, or slightly more than one-third of the population, were already in need of aid before the earthquake, with millions facing food insecurity.

Ecuador’s president meets Trump amid martial law elections and plans to deploy US troops

Cesar Uco & Andrea Lobo

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa meets with US President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, March 29, 2025 [Photo: @DanielNoboaOk]

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa held what his office portrayed as a “friendly and private” meeting Saturday with Donald Trump at the US President’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

The meeting came in advance of an April 13 runoff election being held in Ecuador under conditions of martial law and amid preparations for the deployment of US troops to the country. Noboa, a far-right heir to a banana industry fortune, is polling behind Luisa González, a nominally “leftist” stand-in for former President Rafael Correa.

Facing an uphill contest amid an economic crisis and growing opposition to austerity policies imposed to meet IMF dictates and afford a buildup of the repressive state apparatus, Noboa’s “private” meeting with Trump should sound an alarm over a threat to use a state of exception and US military intervention to overturn an election and establish an openly fascistic dictatorship. 

Noboa has acted as a dictator since he was installed after defeating González in the 2023 vote. This followed the resignation of Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved Congress amid embezzlement charges and is exiled in the US. In open violation of the Ecuadorian constitution, Noboa has refused to abide by a requirement that an incumbent step down from the presidency until after the completion of an election.

The current state of exception has been renewed since January 3, 2025 in seven provinces and the capital of Quito, suspends the right to “inviolability of correspondence” and the inviolability of the home, allowing the police and armed forces to conduct warrantless inspections, raids, and searches. In addition, a 10:00 p.m.-to-5:00 a.m. curfew has been imposed in 22 municipalities.

However, despite the suspension of democratic rights and the presence of the Army in cities, crimes such as extortion and kidnapping continue to multiply. Meanwhile, thousands have been swept up in militarized repression. Popular outrage swept the country after four children disappeared after being picked up by a military patrol in the coastal city of Guayaquil at the end of last year, their burned and mutilated corpses found on Christmas Day.

Under the pretext of fighting gangs, Noboa has invited foreign troops to be stationed indefinitely in Ecuador and established a “strategic alliance“ with Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater, to deploy a “mercenary army” to assist the Ecuadorian military.

Noboa has tried to downplay the Blackwater ties by saying that his main hope is for military support from the US, Europe, Brazil, and other regional countries. The involvement of South American militaries in Ecuador adds a new dimension to the continent’s class struggle.

Noboa suggests that far-right leaders like Milei in Argentina, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and right-wing parties in Colombia should unite against what they see as the common enemy: the international working class.

Ahead of the meeting with Trump, a top Ecuadorian official revealed to CNN plans for building a naval base in the coastal city of Manta for US military personnel. “These facilities are expected to house US soldiers,” the official said. 

The basing agreement was signed under the Biden administration, and new deals have been reached under Trump for a port and base associated with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as well as significant aid. 

Manta was the site of the last US military base in the country, which was closed in 2009 under Correa.   

Recently, Noboa also approved the presence of a US military base in the Galapagos Islands, an environmentally sensitive treasure of biological diversity. 

Noboa has raised the value-added tax from 12 to 15 percent to pay for new prisons, drawing inspiration from the far-right policies of President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Bukele has reached an agreement with Trump to detain deportees from the US in a new maximum-security prison.

Among Noboa’s most notable affronts to democratic rights was the April 5, 2024 assault by Ecuadorian police and military forces on the Mexican embassy in Quito to capture former Vice President Jorge Glas, who was sentenced for corruption.

Replicating Trump’s attack on immigrant families, on March 11, Noboa signed a decree ending the immigration amnesty that allowed legal residency and visas for Venezuelans  who arrived without documents. Such measures will serve to terrorize the nearly half a million Venezuelans residing in Ecuador.

After the final debate on March 23, Luisa González, the Correista candidate of the Citizen Revolution Movement (MRC), widened her lead over the incumbent Noboa of the National Democratic Action (ADN) party—52.9 percent to 44.1 percent—with 7.4 percent undecided, according to the Argentine consulting firm TresPuntoZero.

In the first round of voting on February 9, Noboa and González were nearly tied, with Noboa receiving 44.17 percent and González 43.97 percent—less than a 20,000-vote difference. Indigenous leader Leónidas Iza came in third, securing about 540,000 votes, or 5.25 percent. 

On Sunday the Ecuadorian Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) led by Iza officially endorsed González following promises by the MRC to halt the geographic expansion of oil production and cut the regressive value-added tax back to 12 percent. 

Demonstrating the abject corruption of the indigenous bourgeois leadership, a section of which had previously endorsed Noboa, the CONAIE has accepted these promises at face value even after Correa repeatedly broke similar promises and used the military to crack down on indigenous protests.

The Trump regime is placing its weight behind Noboa as a more pliant option for furthering US imperialism’s drive to assert its hegemony in Latin America in preparation for war against China. The Asian giant has displaced the US as South America’s number one trading partner and foreign direct investor in what Washington had long regarded contemptuously as its “own backyard.” 

Support for Gonzalez stems from the rising discontent among the public regarding the austerity policies that Noboa and his predecessors—Moreno (2017-2021) and Lasso (2021-2023)—implemented during their time in office. After years of protests over social inequality and worsening poverty, Noboa took power amid a deepening economic crisis. 

By 2023, six million of the country’s millions of residents were expected to live on less than $3 a day, and nearly 90 percent of workers earned less than $780 a month.

In the face of these conditions, González offers populist rhetoric akin to that of the discredited “21st Century Socialism“ or “Pink Tide” used by the ruling class to maintain control over the working class and poor and negotiate better conditions with imperialism. This has been combined with her promises to strengthen the state apparatus and assurances to US imperialism of pro-business policies and security collaboration.

Reflecting the MNR’s class character, González has criticized Noboa from the right to defend the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, which have a long record of repressing every protest and strike by Ecuadorian workers. In a video clip on Radio Pichincha, González said: “He’s [Noboa] mocking the Ecuadorian public forces by wanting to bring in mercenaries and assassins when what we have here are trained individuals who know how to provide security but aren’t given the proper equipment.”

As hunger and poverty grow, Trump halts $500 million in deliveries to food banks

Samuel Davidson

Army volunteers carry groceries to cars at a food bank distribution by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

As hunger across America grows, the Trump administration has stopped food shipments to food banks, including milk, eggs, meat and other perishables that are already sitting in trucks.

At food banks throughout the country, deliveries of millions of dollars’ worth of food were abruptly stopped last week by the Trump administration.

“Too stupid for words” was how one Cleveland, Ohio-area podcaster described the decision to stop the delivery of 20 semi-truck trailers full of food that was set to be delivered to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Much of that food is now sitting and rotting on trucks.

The shipments of food are part of a $1 billion program run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that buys fresh food from local farmers and provides it to local schools and food banks for distribution.

There is not a state or city unaffected by these cuts. Some of the headlines from throughout the country read:

• “Feds cancel $4.3M worth of poultry, cheese, eggs to Michigan food banks”

• “Trump administration halts millions of dollars in deliveries to Oregon food banks”

• “Trump administration’s cuts cancel food deliveries to Harvesters” (Kansas City)

• “Food bank in ‘crisis mode’ after federal cuts cancel food deliveries” (Orlando)

• “‘Too Stupid for Words’: Trump pulls back 20 semi-trucks of food from Cleveland’s food bank”

• “Delaware Food Bank loses nearly 1M meals after Trump administration ends food aid funding”

The list goes on.

“I come here once a month,” said Lori Scott, a young mother with two children who was in line at a food pantry near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where volunteers placed a large box of food into the trunk of her car.

Lori works as a caregiver, but between the low pay and the few hours, she says it is not enough to pay her bills and buy food.

“Grocery prices, rent, clothes, even water keep going up. Food stamps only last about two weeks, and this helps fill the gap. My children don’t go hungry, but sometimes I skip meals.”

Like millions of workers who are part of the uncounted unemployed, Lori only works part-time. They are not counted in the official unemployment rate as long as they work even a few hours each week. If they were, the true unemployment rate would be closer to 26 percent instead of the official 4 percent.

“I work hard taking care of elderly people in their homes, but we don’t get paid enough. We’re saving Medicare thousands of dollars a week by keeping people out of nursing homes and giving them a better quality of life. But I only get paid $15 an hour, and I work just four hours a day, four days a week.

“This is hard work. They depend on you to cook, prepare their meals, help them get dressed, and go to the bathroom. Some clients we even have to bathe.”

Poverty and hunger have been on the rise, especially in the last two years, as the expanded Child Tax Credit and other pandemic programs were cut during the Biden administration.

“These politicians don’t care about the people,” Lori told the WSWS. “I see what Trump is doing, and I don’t know how people are going to survive. You should be expanding programs for low-income people, not cutting them.”

In Cleveland, Ohio, the abrupt stopping of the USDA program meant that 20 tractor-trailer trucks, already loaded and on their way to deliver food to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, were pulled back.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, in turn, delivers food to area food banks, pantries, soup kitchens, and other organizations that provide food to those in need.

Milk, eggs, poultry, and other perishables were on the trucks and will now have to be thrown away.

“For the month of January, we served almost 600 people,” said Lauren Reese, who works at the Friendly Inn Settlement in Cleveland, Ohio. “That’s about an average.”

The Friendly Inn Settlement has been providing services for over 150 years. In addition to running a food bank, the organization provides a range of services, including youth programs, programs for young mothers and community-building events.

Reese lists a number of factors for the increase in need. “Prices of food have increased, that’s a big, big factor. Just having access because this area is a food desert.”

From December 2021 to December 2022, food prices increased a whopping 12 percent. For people in lower income brackets who spend a greater proportion of their income on food, rent, gas and other necessities, the increase is even greater.

Reese pointed out that the center serves as a primary provider of food for many people but has had to reduce the number of days they give out food from twice a week to just once. “We are unable to fully fulfill their needs because of our shortage of resources.”

She also cited a fact sheet published on their website that highlights living standards in the Central Cleveland neighborhood where the Friendly Inn Settlement is located, noting that 90 percent of the residents earn less than 200 percent of the poverty level. “The average household income is just $10,000 a year.”

In 2023, Cleveland had an overall poverty rate of 30.8 percent, with childhood poverty at a staggering 45.3 percent.

Nationally, hunger has been rapidly growing in the United States. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children in the US, found in a recent report on childhood hunger that 19 percent of children—roughly 13.4 million—“lacked reliable access to adequate food in 2022.” They noted that this is a 50 percent increase since 2021 and the highest level in eight years.

These figures don’t capture the full crisis, and they were taken before the cutting of several programs that addressed poverty. “Pandemic relief measures, including the expanded Child Tax Credit, [have] expired. The loss of this support contributed to historic increases in poverty, leaving families with fewer resources for food,” the Foundation noted.

The most recent cuts made by the USDA under the Trump administration will add to an already intolerable situation for millions.

These cuts are just the beginning. The Trump administration under billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has pledged to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. This cannot be accomplished without deep cuts to food stamps, TANF, Medicaid and other social programs. As has already been shown, Democrats in Congress will capitulate to these deepening attacks.

Indonesian parliament expands military’s role in government

Owen Howell

The Indonesian government of President Prabowo Subianto oversaw the passing of amendments to the country’s armed forces law in parliament on March 20. The amendments allow active-duty military officers to serve in a greater number of government roles.

President Prabowo Subianto. October 20, 2024 [Photo: Rahmat, Public Relations of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia]

The 2004 TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) Law reduced the number of civilian posts available to the military, after the collapse of the Suharto military dictatorship in 1998. It originally permitted active military personnel to serve in ten government positions, mostly related to security, such as the Defence Ministry and the state intelligence agency.

The new revisions, which were adopted unanimously by parliament, expanded this to include five more institutions: the Attorney General’s Office, National Counterterrorism Agency, Maritime Security Agency, National Agency for Border Management, and National Disaster Mitigation Agency. According to the AFP news agency, serving officers can also take posts in a critical sixth institution: the Supreme Court.

Military personnel may be appointed to other areas of government, but must first retire from the military, as stated in the previous TNI Law. Additionally, the amendments raised retirement age by several years for most ranks, with four-star generals now able to serve until 63, up from 60.

The change is among the most significant actions taken by the Prabowo government since it came into office last October. The amendments were, however, a watered-down version of an earlier draft proposal, which would have allowed Prabowo the right to appoint serving officers anywhere in the government, according to a Reuters report.

The revisions were drafted largely behind closed doors and rushed through parliament in less than two months after Prabowo requested them. The drafting process consisted of a series of secret meetings involving Prabowo, the Defence Ministry, and the Defence and Security Commission, held at a luxury hotel near Jakarta’s parliament building. The bill was then approved by the Defence Commission and passed unanimously in a special plenary session of the House of Representatives.

The amendments immediately sparked protests, as hundreds of student activists camped outside parliament the night before the bill was passed. On the following day, the crowd grew to a thousand, with protesters holding banners reading “Against militarism and oligarchy!” and “The New Order [the name of the Suharto dictatorship] strikes back!” One student group present described the law as “democracy-killing.”

By revising the military law, Prabowo, a former general in the Suharto regime, is taking a step towards dictatorial rule, under conditions of a massive social crisis in Indonesia as well as an international political shift to the right by capitalist governments.

What is being revived is the total control of every aspect of society by the military apparatus that existed under Suharto, known as dwifungsi (dual function). Military officers held leading positions not only in government, but in the state-owned enterprises, banks, the media, cultural institutions and elsewhere.

Since his October inauguration, Prabowo has declared his first term will see a “greater political centrality and policy influence for the military-security apparatus.” On his very first day in office, he appointed his personal assistant Teddy Indra Wijaya, an active military officer, as cabinet secretary.

In blatant violation of the TNI Law, his cabinet is comprised of numerous serving military personnel in posts outside defence including transportation and agriculture. The cabinet includes retired military figures in leading roles, such as Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono, who was previously a first lieutenant in notorious special forces group Kopassus which carried out some of the bloodiest crimes of the Suharto regime. Prabowo himself was once one of its commanders.

Prabowo has begun to expand the military’s role to public affairs. He has appointed active officers to the national food agency Bulog. His flagship Free Meal Program—a populist measure aimed at feeding 83 million schoolchildren—receives logistical support from the army.

The amendments to the military law have been publicly defended by several government officials, on the grounds that they are necessary due to domestic and geopolitical “challenges.”

Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, another former Kopassus officer, told parliament in March: “The geopolitical changes and global military technology require the military to transform… to face conventional and non-conventional conflicts.” Meanwhile, Budi Djiwandono, deputy chief of the commission overseeing the revisions and Prabowo’s nephew, dismissed concerns that the law signified a return to dwifungsi.

Armed Forces Commander General Agus Subiyanto declared that the pre-existing military law was outdated. “Adjustments are necessary to tackle various issues in implementing the fundamental norms of state policy and political decisions,” he said.

Prabowo’s moves towards establishing military political dominance take place amid the growth of mass opposition to his policies, as well as intensifying geopolitical tensions as the United States prepares for war against China.

The revised military law was passed just weeks after the unveiling of the president’s austerity campaign, slashing up to $44 billion from the state budget, under the false name of “combatting inefficiency,” targeting education, health, and other vital social services. These measures provoked a widespread student protest movement across the archipelago, against the government’s austerity as well as the degradation of social conditions, rising cost of living, poverty, and unemployment.

However, attempts to expand the military’s role in Indonesian society predate Prabowo.

The 2004 TNI Law was an element of the Indonesian establishment’s program of reformasi, or “democratic reformation” after the Suharto junta fell in 1998, and was nominally aimed at containing the army’s influence. But reformasi was a farce from the beginning, with military figures retaining powerful positions and much of the dictatorship’s structure remained intact, behind the “democratic” façade of elections.

Prabowo, who was Suharto’s son-in-law, attempted to set himself up as the dictator’s successor and was one of the bloodiest figures of the regime. Megawati Sukarnoputri, leader of the PDIP (the party most associated with reformasi), rehabilitated Prabowo politically as early as 2009 when she chose him as her vice-presidential running mate.

The previous president Joko Widodo, the PDIP’s candidate, who was widely promoted as a “reformer,” accelerated the process. During his time in office, networks of Suharto-era generals and officers played an increasingly prominent role in the government.

Widodo frequently violated the TNI Law, appointing an active duty general to head the national disaster agency in 2019. In 2023, nearly 2,600 active-duty officers were serving in civilian roles, according to Imparsial (Indonesian Human Rights Monitor). He effectively gave Prabowo his blessing in last year’s election when his son ran as vice-president on Prabowo’s ticket.

In the quarter century since the end of Suharto’s rule, the entire political establishment has covered up the crimes of the Indonesian military while paying lip service to democracy. It has now unanimously supported the expansion of the military’s role in government.

Reports reveal youth homelessness crisis in Australia

Jason Quill & Eric Ludlow

Recent reports have revealed a youth homelessness crisis in Australia amid broader social hardship fueled by the soaring cost of living, job insecurity and the worst housing affordability on record.

The Specialist Homelessness Services Annual Report 2023–24 (SHSAR), published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in December, provides an overview of the number of Australians who access government support for homelessness. In 2023–24, some 280,078 people sought assistance from homelessness services. This figure is a 2.3 percent increase from the 273,648 who sought support in 2022–23. 

Homeless people’s belongings, Chatswood, Sydney, November 2021 [Photo by Sardaka via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Nearly 115,000 of those who were provided support were under the age of 25. A total of 38,631 young people aged 15–24 who made homelessness service requests were in the most vulnerable cohort, appearing without family support or stable housing, or “presenting alone.”

However, a lack of services means that tens of thousands more are going without support which ranges from general support and assistance to immediate transitional accommodation.

According to the AIHW data, more than 75,000 (up from nearly 72,000 in 2021–22) people who made requests for homelessness services went unassisted. Of those who were turned away, 34,366—about 46 percent—were under the age of 25.

Couch-surfing now accounts for a significant portion of youth homelessness, with thousands of young people forced to rely on temporary stays with friends or acquaintances, further entrenching their vulnerability. 

Speaking to SBS News, a 19-year-old named Chelsea described her experience: “I called everywhere for help, but there were just no places. I was told I’d have to sleep in my car, but I don’t even have a car.” Chelsea’s experience is reflective of young people across the country who have been abandoned by a system that prioritises landlords, developers and military expansion over fundamental social needs.

A separate analysis by Australian charity the Foyer Foundation highlights the youth homelessness “hotspots” around the country.

The area with the highest youth homelessness according to the Foyer Foundation is Latrobe-Gippsland in regional Victoria. The region has more than 1,000 young people experiencing homelessness. Youth unemployment in Latrobe-Gippsland is almost 14 percent while school completion rates are below the national average.

The Latrobe Valley is a case study for the social devastation wrought by mass redundancies with the corporate-driven destruction of manufacturing and other industries in Australia, overseen by successive Labor and Liberal-National Coalition governments at state and federal level. These massive job cuts began in the 1980s and ’90s under the Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating with the full support of the trade union bureaucracies.

The demolition of energy production, logging, timber milling and paper manufacturing in the region has led to widespread poverty, unemployment and social problems like high levels of drug use.

Other major regional centres in the top 20 include Illawarra (four) in New South Wales (NSW), Ballarat (number eight) in Victoria, Hunter Valley (13) in NSW, and Cairns (16) and Townsville (17) in Queensland. Like the Latrobe Valley, these regions have experienced massive social devastation over decades brought on by the axing of thousands of jobs.

In the Hunter Valley, the destruction of coal mining in particular has seen thousands of job losses. Thousands of steelworkers, miners, dockers and transport logistics workers have also been sacked in the Illawarra in recent decades.

In the top 10 youth homelessness “hotspots” are outback regions of the Northern Territory (number two), northern Western Australia (five) and Queensland (nine) where the vast majority of homeless youth are indigenous.

These outback areas have little to no basic social infrastructure such as healthcare and education. This is a continuation of the protracted oppression of Australia’s Aboriginal people who comprise the most vulnerable section of the working class. Young indigenous people are regularly targeted by police and sent to juvenile detention centres and even adult prisons.

Working-class areas of major cities are also in the top 20 youth homelessness hotspots.

The western suburbs of Melbourne—Australia’s largest city—are 10th on the list. Melbourne’s west has a high population of immigrants, including those from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The industrial north of Adelaide, the South Australian capital, is number 11 on the list and Sydney’s outer west and Blue Mountains region sit at number 12.

Geelong, the second largest city in Victoria after Melbourne, rounds out the list of youth homelessness hotspots at number 20.

The wholesale assault on manufacturing and other industries has led to an overall casualisation of the workforce, particularly among younger workers. With precarious work on the rise, many young people are unable to afford rent, food or essential services.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 10 percent of Australians aged 15 to 24 were unemployed in January 2025. ABS data also shows that youth underemployment—struggling to get more work—was at 14.1 percent in December 2024.

While young people are about twice as likely to experience homelessness than the rest of the population, only 2.9 percent of public housing tenancies in 2021 were allocated to 15–24-year-olds in the state of Victoria. This is a sharp expression of the broader need to increase state assistance for housing, yet the response of governments nationally has been to destroy the last vestiges of public housing which was won by workers in the post-World War II period.

The Victorian Labor state government, under Premier Jacinta Allan, is leading the most aggressive attack on public housing in decades.

Plans are underway to demolish 44 public housing estates, including the Flemington and North Melbourne towers, displacing 6,600 residents. These demolitions have nothing to do with improving housing conditions as the government claims. Instead, they are aimed at clearing prime inner-city land for private developers, with the vast majority of replacement housing designated for the private market rather than social housing.

In New South Wales, the state Labor government’s demolition program is almost the same. There, public housing in the inner-Sydney suburb of Waterloo is being targeted, leaving 3,000 residents without a home. Similar demolitions and sell-offs are taking place in South Australia and Western Australia.

Meanwhile, the Labor federal government of Anthony Albanese has been forced to admit that virtually no new homes have been built under its $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. The fund was promoted as part of the Labor party’s election pitch at the 2022 election.

Labor says the fund’s aim is to build 30,000–55,000 “social and affordable” homes over five years. This is a mere speck compared to the estimated shortfall of 600,000 affordable dwellings nationally.

As with the promotion of social housing in favour of government-owned public housing, such housing policies are primarily pitched as a potential goldmine for property developers.

The attack on public housing is part of a decades-long and accelerating assault on social spending including slashes to health and education.