Humanitarian disaster on the Balkan refugee route

Martin Kreickenbaum

The crisis situation for refugees seeking to enter Europe escalated November 28 on the Greek-Macedonian border. Macedonian police used stun grenades to repel refugees who have been prevented from entering Macedonia from Greece. A total of 40 people were injured and photos show refugees with severe head injuries.

Hundreds of refugees, men, women and children, have been stranded on the border in freezing weather and without food at the cordoned-off border near the northern Greek city of Idomeni. For about a week, only refugees with Syrian, Iraqi or Afghan passports have been allowed to cross the border. Refugees with other nationalities are rejected on the grounds that they do not come from “war zones.”

In particular, refugees from Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, Somalia and Bangladesh are stranded on the Greek border and do not know what is going to happen to them. The makeshift camp at Idomeni operated by the UN refugee agency UNHCR is completely overcrowded. Hundreds of refugees are camping outdoors, without adequate sanitary provisions, and with inadequate supplies of food and clean drinking water.

In protest against the racist screening of asylum seekers at the border, the refugees have been blocking the single-track rail link between Macedonia and Greece for days. More than 60 refugees have gone on hunger strike, and eleven of them have sewn their own mouths shut.

Last Thursday around 200 desperate refugees stormed the border, throwing stones at the border policemen stationed there. The newly erected barbed wire fence along the border was demolished over a length of approximately 40 metres. Some refugees were caught in the barbed wire, others were chased by the police and forced back with batons. Only five people actually managed to get to the Macedonian side, where they were quickly intercepted and detained. Police officers armed with assault rifles moved to block the place where the border fence had come down.

“We cannot wait any longer, last night we slept in the rain,” 31-year-old Heritier Shabani told the press. He comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and arrived on the Greek island of Samos about ten days ago. The refugees do not receive any help from the Greek authorities. “If there were buses, we would return to Athens, but there are none, at least not enough,” said Shabani.

As a result, more and more refugees are stranded at the border. Of the approximately 4,000 refugees who had previously crossed the Greek-Macedonian border each day, more than 90 percent were allowed to cross because they came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. However, hundreds of refugees arrive each day for whom the border remains closed.

The humanitarian disaster developing along the Balkan route began with the decision by the Slovenian government on 19 November to no longer allow so-called “economic migrants” into the country. The governments of Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia followed suit.

Dimitris Christopoulos from the International Federation for Human Rights fears that the “nightmare scenario for Greece” has begun, because the border closures mean the country has now gone from being a transit state to one in which refugees are detained. There was no appropriate infrastructure in Greece for looking after asylum seekers, he said. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sharply condemned the actions of the authorities in the Balkans.

“To sort out refugees based on their adopted nationality violates the right of all people, regardless of their nationality, to apply for asylum, and their right to an individual examination of their need for protection,” Ban noted in a statement on Tuesday.

Asylum seekers from African countries such as Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea or the Republic of Congo, where no less bloody wars are raging, are routinely turned away at the borders along the Balkan route “by visual inspection” as alleged “economic refugees.” Hundreds of African refugees, taken by surprise by the developments, are now sitting in no man’s land in Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia, since they can neither move on or go back.

The real originators of the border closures are the governments in Germany and France. They are taking advantage of the terrorist attacks in Paris to further seal off Europe against refugees. The target of these racist measures, which constitute a blatant violation of international conventions on refugee protection, is to turn away as many refugees as possible at the borders of Europe.

While in Germany, the demands for a “ceiling” for refugees are growing louder, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has called for a complete stop to the influx of refugees from the Middle East to Europe. “We cannot accept any more refugees in Europe—that’s not possible,” Valls told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The European Union must find solutions with Syria’s neighbouring countries in order to process more refugees, Valls said, “otherwise Europe is placing in question its ability to effectively control its borders.”

On Sunday, the European Union heads of state and government met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in an attempt to negotiate a dirty deal. In return for a payment of 3 billion euros and the prospect of opening up further EU accession negotiations, Turkey would commit itself to preventing refugees from travelling to the EU.

Turkey has so far accepted around 2.5 million war refugees from Syria, but they do not have refugee status there. Some 250,000 people live in 25 huge camps without access to work or education.

Although the war in Syria has intensified with the enormous air strikes by France and the United States, as well as Russia, and the remaining infrastructure of the country, including schools and hospitals, is being razed to the ground, Turkey has begun to reject all refugees at the border.

In March, Turkey had closed the last two open border crossings. Until recently, however, refugees who needed urgent medical help could still enter. But in recent weeks they have also been denied this possibility. “The closure of the border forces pregnant women, children, old people, the sick and injured to run a gauntlet of border guards in order to escape the horrors of the war in Syria,” said Gerry Simpson of Human Rights Watch.

As a result, hundreds of refugees are gathering in the woods in the hills southeast of Antakya, Turkey in order to be taken across the border illegally by smugglers. There, border guards mercilessly hunt down refugees, forcing them back into Syria. Refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch tell of gunfire and severe mistreatment by the Turkish border police. Families are torn apart, and refugees herded into detention camps, before being forcibly removed to Syria.

These massive violations of the Geneva Convention are being carried out by Turkey under pressure from the European governments, which do not want to accept any more refugees, and are using Turkey to do their dirty work in pushing back refugees. In face of the inhuman treatment of the now millions of Syrian refugees, all talk of a military escalation in Syria being necessary to stop a humanitarian catastrophe is exposed as pure hypocrisy.

US: More than 3,000 laid off in closure of Fresh & Easy grocery stores

Jake Dean

Billionaire Ronald W. Burkle and his investment firm Yucaipa Companies announced the liquidation of all Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the United States in October. More than 3,000 workers have been abruptly thrown out of work with no guarantee of being relocated to one of the many other grocery chains owned by Burkle.

Based in El Segundo, California, Fresh & Easy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October for the second time in a span of only two years. All 97 of the chain’s locations in California, Arizona and Nevada were shut down last month.

Yuciapa Companies acquired the company from the British supermarket giant Tesco in 2013, when it first filed for bankruptcy. Burkle did so by means of a $120-million loan from Tesco itself.

The closure of Fresh & Easy comes on the heels of the recent store closures by Haggen, the Pacific Northwest grocery chain. In the span of only three months, more than 3,800 grocery workers, from both Haggen and Fresh & Easy, have lost their jobs.

A public statement issued by Fresh & Easy management read: “Over the last two years, we have been working hard to build a new Fresh & Easy. While we made progress on stemming our losses and moving the business closer to break even, unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain financing and the liquidity necessary to fund the business going forward.”

The company also cited increasing competition from giant retailers such as Walmart and Target, both of which have incorporated fresh food into many of their stores. Analysts have pointed out that on many popular items Fresh & Easy charged as much as 20 percent more for its private labels than their name-brand counterparts.

David Living, a supermarket analyst at DJL Research of Waukesha, Wisconsin, stated that he had expected Fresh & Easy to collapse. “They failed because it was a poor format without an identity, and they took bad location,” he said. “You couldn’t do any worse unless you did it on purpose.”

Whatever the factors contributing to Fresh & Easy’s demise—tough competition, bad training of the staff, overpriced food—the attack on grocery workers is part of a much broader campaign by the corporations and banks to drive down the wages and living standards of the entire working class.

Grocery workers throughout the country have experienced stagnating or declining real wages, already at poverty levels, as well as being subjected to insecure and irregular employment. The closure of both Fresh & Easy and Haggen is a testament to the ruthlessness of finance capital in the drive for profits at the expense of the working class.

The timing of the announcement is also significant in terms of impact on the company’s workforce. Losing their jobs right before the holidays, a stressful time for many working class families, Fresh & Easy workers will be forced to look for low-paid seasonal work just to make ends meet.

Yucaipa Companies, founded by Burkle in 1986, specializes in private equity and venture capital with a focus on leveraged buyouts and turnarounds. With a net worth of $1.63 billion, Burkle is the 248th richest person in America. Yucaipa Companies is a controlling shareholder in a number of other multimillion-dollar companies, including entertainment distributor Alliance Entertainment, Golden State Foods foodservice, and Dominick’s, Fred Meyer and Ralphs supermarkets.

Burke is a long-time Democratic Party contributor and was at one point the business partner of former president Bill Clinton. Serving as senior adviser for Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund, Clinton was brought on its board to persuade the Teamsters union to accept a 15 percent wage cut at trucking firm Allied Holdings. Clinton left Yucaipa in 2009.

Burkle also has strong ties to prominent California Democratic Party figures, donating to the campaigns of Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Burkle has also cultivated a reputation as a “friend” of the trade unions, and has been publicly praised by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. “He’s probably the best employer we ever dealt with,” said Ricardo Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. “I have done a lot of things with him and he never looked for publicity. Never. You’d never suspect he’s a billionaire.” As demonstrated by the closure of Fresh & Easy, the question is not whether Burkle “looks, dresses or acts” like a billionaire, but his relationship to the means of production.

While Fresh & Easy was nonunion, the UFCW had attempted to unionize the company’s employees and the union represents workers at Ralphs, also owned by Burkle.

Effectively functioning as Burkle’s press agent and loyal accomplice in imposing low wages and exploitation upon supermarket workers, the UFCW has made no statement condemning the billionaire for the recent store closures, not to mention any call for uniting workers at Haggen, Fresh & Easy and the rest of the supermarket chains throughout the US in a common struggle against layoffs and low wages.

Germany to send 1,200 troops to Syria

Johannes Stern

Just days after the German government announced it was deploying tornado aircraft, a warship, a tanker plane and satellite technology for combat operations in Syria, the extent and costs of the military mission are becoming increasingly clear.

On Sunday, in a two-page interview with Bild am Sonntag, under the martial headline “Germany’s top general declares war,” General Volker Wieker revealed that Germany would send at least 1,200 troops to Syria. Wieker said that while the “final decision” on the number of soldiers to be included in the mandate had not yet been made, “from a military point of view… about 1,200 servicemen and women will be necessary for the operation of the aircraft and ships.”

On Monday, ARD News reported that a joint cabinet submission by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party—SPD) and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (Christian Democratic Union—CDU) specified “the area of operation as the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and adjacent sea area,” while leaving room for “a possible expansion of the mission.” The 16-page text, expected to be approved today by the cabinet, put the cost of the operation at 134 million euros.

This makes the operation in Syria the largest and second most expensive foreign deployment in the history of the Bundeswehr (the post-World War II German armed forces), without even considering likely increases once the deployment begins. As part of NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, 996 and 907 German soldiers are currently deployed in those countries, respectively.

For the Bundeswehr missions abroad, the Defence Ministry has estimated costs in 2015 of 460 million euros, 263.2 million of which are for Afghanistan. Almost overnight, and without any public debate, a combat intervention has been set in motion whose consequences and final extent are unknown.

There is an additional ominous aspect of the interview with Wieker. Seventy years after the end of World War II, the constitutionally enshrined principle of the primacy of the civilian authorities over the military is being upended. As in the Kaiser’s Empire and under the Nazis, the German military is once again playing a central role in the drafting of German foreign and war policy.

In introducing the interview with Wieker, the Bild am Sonntag reported that “Germany’s highest-ranking soldier,” in “his office in the Defence Ministry,” was planning “combat missions against ISIS.” In the interview, Wieker at several points explicitly expressed himself politically. The newspaper wrote that the general, when asked “how long the Bundeswehr would be involved in the Syria operation,” declared that while the politicians would decide “the duration,” the Bundeswehr was “militarily self-sustaining.”

Wieker spoke explicitly in favour of deploying ground forces in Syria and announced a massive rearmament of the Bundeswehr. He said ISIS could “certainly not” be defeated simply with air strikes and added that the “best suited troops” for the fight on the ground were those with a “high motivation to defend their own country.” From a “military point of view,” he continued, “everything that attacks ISIS” was beneficial.

At the end of the interview, the general announced, “Employing about 5.6 billion euros, we will invest heavily in the coming years in the improvement of the operational readiness of the Bundeswehr.” Some 650 measures had already been initiated and many of them would show “lasting effect in 2017,” he added.

He said the “operational readiness” of the main battle tanks and armoured transport vehicles, ships and submarines, and Tornadoes, Euro fighters and transport aircraft had been improved, but the situation with respect to helicopters was “still not satisfactory.”

Monday’s cabinet decision was accompanied by a veritable war hysteria on the part of prominent politicians and the media. Von der Leyen published a so-called “Six-Point Plan Against ISIS” in the Bild. In it, she declared that Germany and “everyone in the Alliance” had to show “military strength” and “weaken ISIS, limit its range of movement, destroy its training camps, recapture towns one by one, cut off ISIS’ oil revenues, and break its aura of invincibility.”

To achieve those goals, a “temporary political marriage of convenience” was needed. “The fight against ISIS must be a top priority,” wrote von der Leyen, “for France as well as for the US, China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, the Arab states and us.” This meant that, “air strikes must be clearly directed against ISIS, not against the opponents of the dictator Assad, who terrorizes his people with barrel bombs.”

In the name of the fight against ISIS, Germany is pursuing a strategy of bringing all the powers to the table to install a puppet regime in Syria, which would allow Berlin to advance its geo-strategic and economic interests throughout the Middle East.

The German generals, politicians and newspaper hacks who beat the drum for a massive German intervention in Syria know well the crimes they are preparing. Stefan Kornelius of the Süddeutsche Zeitung declared Sunday on the ARD “Press Club” program that the intervention in Syria would “not be a clean story” that would produce “moral laurels.”

He gave free rein to his dreams of a new round of German colonial policy. Kornelius declared that the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan was a mistake. He said the reorganization of Syria would take “an incredibly long time” and would be “incredibly expensive,” noting that nation-building was “a matter of decades, not a few years.”

On Monday, the editor of Die Welt, Stefan Aust, who, following the attacks in Paris, called for a “global war on terror,” published an apocalyptic article on the likely outcome of the escalating war in Syria. He wrote of a new “Thirty Years’ War in the Middle East,” and prophesied, “Maybe the year 2015 now coming to an end will go down in history like the last summer of peace in 1913 or the equally desperate and unsuccessful attempt at appeasement before the [second] great conflagration erupted.”

Polish government cracks down on culture

Dorota Niemitz

The deputy prime minister and minister of culture, Piotr Gliński, in the newly formed right-wing government in Poland led by PiS (Law and Justice) Premier Beata Szydło has immediately gone on the offensive with blatant attacks on the constitutional right to freedom of expression. Gliński has demanded the banning of a play by a Nobel-winning author and threatened to cut public spending for “alternative and leftist” art projects.

Based on the measure of “preventive censorship”, banned since the dissolution of the Polish People’s Republic in 1989, Gliński appealed to the governor of the Lower Silesia region to “immediately prohibit staging the playDeath and the Maiden before it premiered at the Polish Theatre in Wrocław” on November 21. The reason given for the ban was the fact that the play’s director, Ewelina Marciniak, had hired several guest porn stars.

“There will be no pornography in Polish theatres funded with public money”, stated Gliński, who had not seen the play himself. According to TV Kultura, the sex scene in the play lasted around 60 seconds in a two-and-a-half-hour production. The culture minister then went to note that the 5 million złoty (about €1.2 million) annual contract to subsidise the Polish Theatre in Wrocław is about to expire at the end of the year—a statement clearly implying financial blackmail.

In response, the governor of Lower Silesia, Cezary Przybylski, stated merely that the play should be evaluated after its premiere, not before it. “We cannot rule out that the media frenzy around the play is a planned marketing campaign aiming at increasing interest in the premiere”, he said.

The opening night of Death and the Maiden had a full house, with the public providing a standing ovation. All the tickets for this year’s performances are sold out.

The play was written by the Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek (Lust, The Piano Teacher, Illness or Modern Women). Jelinek is feted in postmodernist, pseudo-radical circles for her advocacy of feminism and identity politics, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004. Death and the Maiden, first published in 2000, is described on the Polish Theatre’s web site as “a spectacle on how to inflict torture in the most efficient way”, with a warning that the play is suitable for “very adult audiences only” as it contains sex scenes.

The protest arranged in front of the theatre on the night of the premiere was organised by the religious group Rosary Crusade for the Fatherland. About a dozen nationalists tried to block the entrance to the building, among them individuals from the neo-fascistic National Radical Camp (ONR). ONR members are notorious for burning an effigy of an Orthodox Jew holding an EU flag during anti-refugee demonstrations at the Wrocław Market Square on November 18. The next day, the home of the theatre’s artistic director’s 82-year-old mother was pelted with eggs and tomatoes. According to the theatre’s director, his employees have received threats.

The Rosary Crusade called for the ban of the “pornographic” Death and the Maiden on their web site: “We will not allow this profanation and Bolshevik chutzpa in the Polish Theatre!” Jelinek was a member of the Austrian Communist Party from 1974 to 1991.

The Rosary Crusade also picketed the play Golgotha Picnic by the Argentine Rodrigo Garcia in several Polish cities last year and the removal of the play from the programme of the Malta Festival in Poznań in 2014.

The protest against Jelinek’s play was supported by the daughter of late president and PiS leader Lech Kaczyński, Marta Kaczyńska. She wrote in the far-right weekly paper wSieci (inTheNet) that “porn in the Polish Theatre without a doubt automatically degraded the institution.”

One day after the premiere, during an interview with the “Past 8 p.m.” show, minister Gliński turned on the Polish media and accused the news channel TVP Info of being responsible for “manipulation and propaganda” in recent years. In the course of the interview, talk show host Karolina Lewicka reminded her guest of article 73 of the constitution that guarantees the freedom of artistic expression. This was enough to prompt Gliński to demand her suspension from her job for “unethical behaviour.”

The journalist has been defended by her colleagues, who released a statement protesting the threats issued by representatives of the new government and calling them an attack on basic democratic rights. Gliński, on the other hand, received full support from the head of government, Beata Szydło, who agreed that the public funding for culture should go to projects abiding by “certain cultural norms”.

Immediately after entering office, Gliński had already indicated that the ruling PiS would reallocate funds for culture. “The division of the public cake will certainly be different than up to now”, he told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Making clear that the priority of the government would be the promotion of extreme nationalism, Gliński stressed the importance of a revival of “cultural snobbism” and declared that the government would favour institutions and projects based on national identity, pride and history, such as the Museum of Polish History and the Polish Army, as well as the Hollywood-style film productions promoting Polish national heroes. He also revealed government plans to transform public media such as TV, radio and the Polish Press Agency into “missionary” tools of the nation state.

The artistic director of the Polish Theatre in Wrocław, Krzysztof Mieszkowski, also a new member of parliament on behalf of Nowoczesna (Modern), a pro-business opposition party, called on Gliński to resign from office. “So far I don’t think we had a case where the prime minister of the Polish government openly tries to break the constitutional law”, he said. Mieszkowski himself has in the past been a target of criticism from the former neo-liberal PO (Civic Platform) government.

In its previous period of rule between 2005 and 2007, the PiS already made a major change in the country’s broadcasting law that allowed the government increasing control of the media. The current initiatives of the PiS threaten the autonomy of all art and cultural institutions, which may soon be subjected to blatant censorship and checked for the proper “level of their patriotism or religious morality”.

Sections of the country’s liberal intelligentsia that support PO are now hypocritically crying foul. But the PO was also responsible in government for turning the mainstream media into a nationalistic and religious propaganda machine, promoting war and privatisation, and justification for social and economical inequality, while distorting the harsh reality of life for the majority of the population. In so doing, PO, whose former leader Donald Tusk is current president of the European Council, paved the way for the even more authoritarian methods favoured by PiS.

The PiS leadership is evidently drawing from the example of the far-right government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, which has been able to erect an authoritarian, racist regime under the nose of the European Union and with the support of leading European political parties. Orbán was recently guest of honour at a conference of the Christian Social Union (CSU), one of Germany’s ruling coalition parties.

Entergy to shutter two nuclear plants in US, laying off 1,200

Steve Filips

The energy company Entergy, based in Louisiana, announced last month the decision to close the Fitzpatrick nuclear plant by 2017, resulting in the layoff of over 600 workers. The plant is located near the small city of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. The company has said that it will save up to $275 million within five years if the plant is shut down.

In October, the company said they would be closing down the Pilgrim nuclear power station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 40 miles southeast of Boston. Entergy also owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is in the process of decommissioning. It takes several years to close and fully decommission a nuclear power plant.

The upsurge in closures is largely being driven by lower energy prices due to the glut in the supply of oil and natural gas from the recent boom in hydraulic fracturing of shale, alongside reduced demand caused by stagnant economic conditions.

Natural gas-fired electric plants are, for the time being, producing lower priced power than the single reactor power plants with their higher overhead and costly repairs. The three plants being closed are all single reactor power plants and, due to their advanced age, are prone to significant costly repairs.

New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is in closed-door negotiations with Entergy to keep the Fitzpatrick plant open. In the past, Cuomo has offered companies millions in tax credits and other incentives to keep plants open.

It is likely that discussions included the topic of the 20-year extension for the operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the lucrative Entergy-owned Indian Point reactors.

Entergy operates two of the three reactors at Indian Point Energy Center, 25 miles north of New York City. The plants are near a seismic fault zone. Entergy acquired the Indian Point 2 plant for $528 million from Con Edison in 2001, and purchased the Indian Point 3 plant the previous year from the public utility, New York Power Authority (NYPA). In total, Entergy has acquired nine nuclear plants and is eliminating single reactor plants that are less profitable from its holdings.

The downstate region has some of the highest costs for electricity in the nation. In an effort to replace the power generated at Indian Point, Cuomo has promoted the building of the Champlain-Hudson 1,000 megawatt transmission line from a hydroelectric project in Canada to supply New York City by 2018, with an expected 3 percent savings on utility bills.

While the project was held up for years by objections from environmental groups such as Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper, they are all now supporting it after the establishment of a $117.5 million mitigation fund that the environmental groups will help administer.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) contends that the Fitzpatrick plant is still viable and that another owner should be found. Rather than mount a struggle against the closures, the IBEW seeks to divert workers’ attention with the hope that the plant can be sold to other owners.

They have suggested possible buyers, which include the prior owner, the NYPA or their competitor Exelon, which owns the nearby Nine Mile Point One and Two nuclear generating station and Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, near Rochester.

The US Department of Labor’s 2014 annual report for IBEW Local 97 lists 34 employees, with nine pulling down six-figure salaries, including $145,472 raked in by local President Ted Skerpon.

Last year, Exelon announced the planned closure and decommissioning of the Ginna plant. A recent study into the effects of Ginna’s closing found that it would leave the power grid unstable, leading to probable blackouts. The closings have been averted for the time being through the imposition of a 2 percent surcharge on consumers’ utility bills in the area.

It is expected to take up to 2019 for the installation of the upgrades to provide an alternative energy supply for Rochester Gas and Electric utility customers.

In a lawsuit, Entergy is also seeking to stop a deal struck by the Cuomo administration with the NRG company, which owns two coal-fired plants near Buffalo. Those plants were slated to be shuttered, but gained new life with the state granting financial aid for their conversion to natural gas.

Entergy claimed state involvement would be unfair because it would force prices for energy lower. The shortfall in energy represented by the loss of power from these plants is expected to be made up by coal-fired generators in Pennsylvania and from the Canadian portion of the Niagara Project.

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, also a single reactor plant, is scheduled to be shuttered by 2019, axing over 600 full-time workers. It is estimated that $60 million in upgrades would keep the plant running. The plant provides from 5 to 10 percent of the region’s power, a significant enough shortfall that is expected to cause energy price rises with the closure.

Like at the Fitzpatrick power plant, the union representing workers at the Pilgrim plant has made it clear it will do nothing to oppose the shutdown of the plant and loss of jobs.

Acting Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 President Craig A. Pinkham released a statement saying, “[Massachusetts] Gov. [Charlie] Baker, officials at the New England power grid, ISO-NE, and our state and federal legislative delegations need to tell Entergy to work harder to find a way to keep this resource up and running, safely and economically.”

US: 2,200 locked-out steelworkers lose health care

Samuel Davidson

On Tuesday, 2,200 steelworkers who have been locked out of their jobs since August 14 had their health insurance eliminated by Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI).

“My wife goes in for an MRI on Monday,” said a steelworker on the picket line in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. “I don’t know what to expect or what will happen,” he said.

For workers to continue with their health insurance they will have to pay the full premiums, which range from $800 a month for individual coverage to as much as $1,800 a month for family coverage, an amount they cannot afford.

Steelworkers Dave and Dave picketing outside ATI’s flagship mill in Brackenridge Pennsylvania

“I had to find another job,” said Dave (pictured right), who had worked nearly eight years at ATI’s Brackenridge mill and is now locked out. “It doesn’t pay as much, and there are no paid holidays or time off, but at least I do get health insurance.

“By the end of February, the unemployment runs out and you are going to have 2,200 people without any benefits at all.

“I don’t understand why they are doing this. We were willing to work; it is the company that has locked us out.

“I don’t have kids at home. It is really hurting the guys that have a family to support and take care of. I don’t know what people are going to do. You have to have health insurance when you have kids. It is a waiting game.”

Workers who don’t continue coverage through the company’s plan will be forced to buy insurance elsewhere or face being fined under the Obama administration’s misnamed Affordable Care Act.

Picketing alongside Dave was another steelworker, also named Dave (pictured left), who has worked for ATI nearly 10 years. He said that he is able to get health insurance from his previous job, where he had been a coal miner for 20 years until the mine where he worked shut down.

“I would just like to know what we did that was so wrong to deserve this,” Dave said, speaking of the lockout.

“You have a group of guys who know how to do their jobs. We got the production out, we did quality work and we did it safely. I worked in the three departments, and on the afternoon and midnight shifts we didn’t even have any supervision and we always got the product out.

“What company wouldn’t want to have a workforce like us, instead of always having to have someone standing over your head telling you ‘do this and do that’ all the time? Unless there is a breakdown or something, a supervisor is never there in the afternoon or midnight shifts.

“Health insurance is very important for us. We work with silica and acid fumes and lots of dangerous things in there.

“They don’t want to talk to the union; they are trying to break the union. I think the big companies are behind this, they want to use us to set the example.”

ATI began locking out its workforce at 12 mills in six states on August 14, several days after putting forward its “last, best, and final offer.” ATI is demanding steep increases in out-of-pocket health care payments, which can amount to more than $10,000 a year per family, factoring in deductibles, prescription drug costs and other expenditures. In addition, ATI is calling for massive cuts to benefits for new hires, including the replacement of pensions with 401(k) plans.

The company also aims to turn its workforce into casual labor, demanding the ability to contract out 40 percent of all jobs. Proposed new scheduling rules would essentially eliminate time-and-a-half overtime pay after eight hours of work, while placing workers’ schedules at the day-to-day discretion of employers.

ATI has replaced its workers with scabs through Strom Engineering of Minnesota, which specializes in hiring scabs for companies during strikes or lockouts.

ATI is being used as a model in the entire steel industry, which is seeking to place the full burden of the drop in demand and falling prices for steel onto the backs of its workers.

For its part, the United Steelworkers (USW), who represent the locked-out workers at ATI, continue to isolate and divide the workers. Thirty thousand steelworkers at US Steel and ArcelorMittal have been ordered to continue working despite the expiration of their contract on September 1. Both US Steel and ArcelorMittal are making similar demands for massive concessions in health care and contracting out as at ATI.

Far from defending steelworkers, the USW is seeking to prove to the companies that it can be relied upon to provide a disciplined workforce and thus serve as a second level of management in restoring the steelmakers’ profits.

Parasitism and the slump in US manufacturing

Andre Damon

In the latest sign of a downturn in the global economy, US manufacturing activity last month hit its lowest level since June 2009, when the economy was still reeling from the Wall Street crash the previous September.

The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of manufacturing activity fell to 48.6 last month, from 50.1 in October. The fifth consecutive monthly decline brought the figure below the milestone of 50 that indicates contraction.

There were sharp declines in both demand and output, with new orders falling 4 points and production declining 3.7 points.

More than seven years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the US economy remains in a protracted slump. It has grown at an average rate of just over 2 percent during the official economic “recovery” of 2010-2015. This is markedly less than the 3.2 percent growth rate in the 1990s and the 4.2 percent rate in the 1950s.

Despite the Obama administration’s claims that it has turned US manufacturing around, there are 4.7 million fewer US manufacturing jobs today than there were in the late 1990s, and 1.8 million fewer than in 2006. The last time there were as few US manufacturing workers as at present was in 1950, when the population was less than half its current level.

In recent months, leading financial commentators and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund have been forced to admit that there exists no prospect for a return to “normal” economic conditions in the foreseeable future.

It is clear that the monetary policy conducted by the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve in response to the 2008 financial crash, based on the provision of essentially unlimited funds to the financial elite with no strings attached, has failed to restore the real economy.

These policies were sold to the American people as a means of promoting economic recovery and “creating jobs.” In reality, they have facilitated a massive growth of financial parasitism, in which an ever-greater share of social resources is diverted away from productive economic activity into various forms of financial speculation.

This process has been fully on display this year. “Business investment across the US is fizzling out,” declared the Wall Street Journal in an article published Monday. The newspaper added, “Companies appear reluctant to step up spending on the basic building blocks of the economy, such as machines, computers and new buildings.”

As evidence, the newspaper noted that orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a measure of business investment in productive economic activity, fell 3.8 percent in the first ten months of 2015 compared with a year earlier.

Nor is business investment expected to grow in the future. A survey by the Business Roundtable released Tuesday showed that 27 percent of US chief executives expect to cut spending on capital goods over the next six months, the largest share planning to reduce investment since the 2008-2009 crisis.

The money that corporations are refusing to spend on productive investment is being channeled back to the financial elite in the form of share buybacks, dividend hikes and increased CEO pay.

US companies increased their dividend payments by an “astonishing” 24 percent in the third quarter alone, according to Henderson Global Investors. Firms listed on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index have increased their share buybacks by 10 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier, and share buybacks are up 80 percent over the past decade.

An analysis by Bank of America found that for every job created by major US corporations over the past decade, companies spent $296,000 buying back their stock.

The growth of economic parasitism takes its most malignant form in the boom in mergers and acquisitions, which are on track to set a new record this year. These transactions, which create billions of dollars in paper wealth for the rich investors, executives and financial firms that orchestrate them, result in mass layoffs, wage cuts and speedup for employees.

A case in point is the newly merged Kraft Heinz Co, which announced last month that it would close seven North American plants as part of its plans to slash $1.5 billion in costs. At the same time, the company said it would raise its stock dividend by 4.5 percent.

By means of stock buybacks, dividend hikes, mergers and other parasitic activities, the financial aristocracy has plundered the real economy to boost its personal wealth. The resulting destruction of decent-paying jobs, pensions and health benefits has fueled a vast upward redistribution of wealth, which only accelerated during the so-called Obama “recovery.” While the income of a typical US household fell 5 percent between 2010 and 2013 (on top of an earlier fall of 7 percent), the wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans doubled from 2009 to the present.

It is worth noting that the US financial markets responded enthusiastically to Tuesday’s dismal economic figures, with all three major indexes up by around 1 percent for the day. US markets are solidly in the green over the past month, despite a continuous stream of negative economic data, the Paris terror attacks, the ongoing refugee crisis, and the danger of the proxy war in Syria sparking an international military conflagration.

This reality points to certain fundamental characteristics of the present period. In a process that grows more naked by the day, the wealth of the financial elite is derived not from productive investment and the expansion of the productive forces, but the plundering of existing wealth, which goes hand in hand with the impoverishment and ever-greater exploitation of the working class.

This process is mirrored in the sphere of foreign policy in the drive by every major global power, spearheaded by the United States, to use military violence as a means of ensuring geopolitical dominance. Accustomed to making its money through parasitic and semi-criminal means, the ruling elite sees international law as a dead letter and proceeds to bomb and invade countries at will.

Economic stagnation, parasitism and war are accompanied by an enormous buildup of the repressive apparatus, to be used against any and all domestic opposition, above all, the financial elite’s historic enemy—the working class.

Slump, war and dictatorship have a common root: the capitalist system and the financial oligarchy that presides over it. The great task of the present historical period is to overthrow this system, expropriate the financial aristocracy, and reorganize society on socialist foundations.

China’s Cult called Xi Jinping

Monika Chansoria

November 2015 marks three years since Chinese President Xi Jinping (习近平) took over the reins of power by assuming office of the Party Commission in November 2012. At that point, it was hard to fathom that within a short span of three years, especially in the context of a large nation like China, Xi would be able to establish, what perhaps has been China’s most tight-fisted socio-political control since the era of Mao Zedong. Interestingly, this is not the astounding part. While leaders in democracies around the world have certain commonalities in terms of their approach and consequent connect with their masses/electorate, the case of China is different for obvious reasons.

In this reference the demeanour of Xi Jinping spreads far and wide - of smiling and laughing in public, cuddling babies, enjoying sports, shunning the state limousine motorcade and opting for a mini-bus to travel with the masses instead, self-serving a bowl of dumplings at local restaurants, and having a meagre traditional meal in a farmer’s hut in the countryside - thereby pointing towards a vital changing reality vis-à-vis the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP is finally being associated singularly with the face of its leader - Xi Jinping - who strikes a chord with the Chinese public and keeps track of public opinion, to the extent that he is often referred to nowadays as “Xi Dada” in local Chinese media.

For that matter, even the People’s Liberation Army owes open allegiance to Xi Jinping with state-run and controlled newspapers carrying full-page expressions of absolute loyalty by military commanders across regions (for more details, see, “The Power of Xi Jinping,” The Economist, 20 September 2014) as an attempt to quell any form of rift between the Party and the PLA, as has been debated frequently. Xi Jinping happens to be the youngest leader to take over command of China’s 2.3 million-strong armed forces. Owing to his political capital, his association with the PLA and having witnessed military diplomacy up close, Xi’s control over the PLA is far greater than both Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, who struggled to coagulate their authority during their respective tenures.

In the backdrop of the above, it appears that the winds of Chinese politics are taking a definitive, yet very gradual bend. Xi became the Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and General Secretary of the Party in November 2012 and thereafter the President of the PRC in March 2013. While popularising his image among the Chinese masses, Xi made an astute and deliberate attempt to strengthen his grip on power, especially by placing effective checks on the power elite. The most profound manifestation of this came in the form of reducing membership of the most powerful political decision-making body of the CCP - the Politburo Standing Committee - from nine to seven members. Noteworthy is that no member, as of now, is exclusively responsible for domestic security, and it remains Xi Jinping’s fief (for more details, see, “The Power of Xi Jinping,” The Economist, 20 September 2014).

Xi Jinping has given out a clear message on who calls the shots in China, unlike his predecessor Hu Jintao. Recall that Hu had been challenged by then Politburo Standing Committee member, Zhou Yongkang (in-charge of the entire law-enforcement apparatus, from the police, secret police and judiciary). Incidentally, Zhou Yongkang is presently being tried for corruption charges and his investigation and trial grabbed international headlines primarily because Zhou is among the highest-ranking officials to have been subjected to the kind of trial that was unheard of in China ever since the Party took over in 1949. Xi Jinping is sparing no political elite when it comes to charges of corruption, and by doing so, in effect, is neutralising all potential political rivalry that could threaten his power and control, in any way. A person whom Xi Jinping would not like to forget is Bo Xilai, the Party chief in China’s south-western province of Chongqing, sentenced to life-in-prison on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Bo and Xi had many similarities in traits and background - both being Princelings with a proclivity to enchant masses. The alternative argument suggested that it was the challenge that Bo posed to Xi’s political rise, which became the key reason for his eventual downfall from public life.

The unimaginable and unprecedented crackdown on corruption is becoming the most potent tool in Xi’s hand with more than 200,000 been rounded up by party investigators, as reported by The Economist. Corrupt officials above ministerial level have apparently been identified in all 31 provincial regions of the Mainland. As the anti-graft campaign in China catches momentum, key political appointees are falling prey, and are being formally charged with taking bribes and embezzling public funds, including prominently:

Ai Baojun (Vice Mayor of Shanghai and Head of the Shanghai Free Trade Area), Lyu Xiwen (Deputy Party Chief in Beijing), Yao Gang (Vice-Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission), Zhang Yujun (Assistant Chairman at the Securities Regulator), Lu Qinhua (Former Vice Mayor of Qinzhou city in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region), and Mao Xiaobing (Former Member, Standing Committee of the CCP’s Qinghai Provincial Committee).

The Communiqué released following the fifth plenary session of the 18th CCP can be described as a caveat that summed up the objective of the anti-corruption campaign, “… so that officials … do not want to be corrupt, do not dare to be corrupt, and could not be corrupt even if they wanted to be.” (Xinhua Press Release, “CPC tightens anticorruption efforts as Shanghai, Beijing officials fall,” 12 November 2015.) That corruption in China is systemic and widespread is all too well-known and acknowledged, but, the fact that Beijing and Shanghai - China’s political and economic hub - too have fallen to corruption charges as the last provincial-level regions only reflects the depth of the roots of corruption, now a social pandemic in China.

Notwithstanding that Xi’s political standing and control at present pronounce him as China’s most powerful ruler since Deng Xiaoping, and possibly even since Mao Zedong, it simultaneously brings to light the nation’s turbulent political past when Chairman Mao’s reign was notoriously reminiscent of the turbulences of a dictatorship. Although Xi Jinping is attempting to add a dash of populism to his rule, the concurrent tightening of control on online social networks and brute crackdown against political dissent and activism shall blemish the very idea of being “Xi Dada” - which he would like to be remembered for.

VW workers to bear the cost of emissions scandal

Dietmar Henning

Gradually, more and more details of auto maker VW’s systematic fraud concerning emissions test results are coming to light. Behind the scenes, the VW board and the trade union representatives on the works council are working out how best to pass the resulting costs onto the workforce through job losses and wage cuts.

In September, it was revealed that VW had used software to falsify the nitrogen oxide emission results of some 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. In early November, VW then admitted to “irregularities” in the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in its diesel and gasoline engines. CO2 is principle greenhouse gas that contributes to climate chage. In addition to the “legal” tricks used to conceal real exhaust emission values, the reported results were simply falsified in the test procedures. A total of 800,000 vehicles are said to be affected.

Two weeks ago, VW distributed a list containing a “critical overview of CO2 values for 2016 models”. The business daily Bilanz from Springer-Verlag evaluated these, finding it covered a total of 430,000 cars delivered since the spring, and which for the most part are still at dealerships. It is noteworthy that in addition to the many models with diesel engines, more models are included with petrol engines than were previously known.

The manipulated results over the last six to seven years affected at least 130 models, meaning that blame cannot be attributed to a small group of senior executives and developers. This is large-scale fraud, requiring a high level of criminal energy and numerous accomplices in the upper echelons of VW.

It is completely implausible that the works council, which stresses at every opportunity that it closely collaborates with the company’s executive board, was not involved. It turns out that Germany’s much-vaunted “social partnership” between unions and employers is a veritable conspiracy against the workers—both car makers and car buyers.

Now the exhaust scandal is to be used to enforce the long-planned restructuring of the VW group at the expense of around 600,000 employees worldwide. VW CEO Matthias Müller announced that all VW expenditure would be under scrutiny. Last Friday, he announced that investment plans would be slashed. The company will only invest a maximum of €12 billion in the coming year. A year ago, the projection was an average of €16 billion per year through 2019.

Above all, it is the core VW brand that will be affected. The construction of a planned design centre in Wolfsburg will be postponed; the construction of a paint shop in Mexico is to be “reviewed”. Cuts are also planned in the model range. It is still unclear how much the company will have to pay out for the exhaust fraud. Estimates range from €20 billion to almost €100 billion.

In the US, VW has offered those customers affected by the exhaust scandal—some half a million—an indemnity of $1,000—half of which can only be redeemed at VW dealerships. This “good-will” action meant to placate VW’s US customers, is aimed especially at the authorities.

US environmental agencies had submitted deadlines to VW for proposed reductions in the nitrogen oxide emissions of diesel engines. VW has now admitted that the emission values have also been manipulated for both the two- and three-litre engines in VW, Audi and Porsche models. The company said that it had not disclosed a total of three computer programmes in the test procedures.

On November 16, company representatives held discussions with the Investigation Commission of the Ministry of Transport at the VW headquarters in Wolfsburg concerning possible solutions to the exhaust fraud. On Monday of this week, speaking to a thousand executives in Wolfsburg, VW CEO Müller then announced that solutions had now been confirmed for more than 90 percent of the affected vehicles in Europe. The cost of retrofitting was “technically, mechanically and financially manageable.” In cars with 1.6-litre diesel engines, no “essential interventions” in the engine were needed. In addition to a software update, only “relatively simple changes” to the air grille or the air filter cartridge were needed, Müller said.

If this is correct—and not the result of a questionable deal between the German authorities, the EU authorities and VW—then the company has placed the jobs of tens of thousands at stake for savings of just a few euros per car.

However, all the fines, tax arrears, conversion costs and even the possible repurchase of the affected vehicles hinted at by the US authorities are nothing compared to the consequences of a possible downturn in sales due to the exhaust gas scandal.

As a result, the VW group works council and the IG Metall union are working behind the scenes to deal with this eventuality. The works council chairman, Bernd Osterloh, together with the VW board have the task of calming the situation. Osterloh is spreading reassurances in the press. He told theSüddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) that VW had a diesel problem, not a sales problem, and concluded, “Jobs will only be reduced if we sell fewer cars.”

But this is just what it currently looks like. Since the beginning of the year, 4.84 million Volkswagen vehicles were delivered, a decline of 4.7 percent compared to 2014. In all 12 Group brands, the decline was 1.7 percent, down to 8.26 million cars.

According to a November 17 report by the industry association Acea, new vehicle registrations for the core VW brand in October fell by 5.3 percent compared to the same month last year. The VW brand Skoda sold 2.6 percent fewer cars, and Seat sold 11.4 percent fewer cars than the year before. Because the gap between order and delivery is often months, automotive experts expect that the exhaust scandal will be reflected even more strongly in later sales figures.

In a joint interview with Osterloh, VW brand chief Herbert Diess was more restrained. What was clear was only that there would be “losses” in employees’ special payments. He said he “believed” the “core workforce” could be kept. “We must be careful with taking on temporary workers at the present time.” VW employs about 7,000 temporary workers in Germany alone.

Osterloh confirmed this. The SZ quotes him as saying, “If sales go down, then we have less employment—that’s clear. Then we will also have to discuss how to deal with the issue of temporary work.”

Last Saturday, the FAZ also brought short-time working into the debate. “If the cars produced are only stockpiled, the spectre of short-time working will arise in Wolfsburg.”

In other words, the works council and top management are preparing massive cuts for employees. According to a report from the Reuters news agency, VW CEO Müller and works council chief Osterloh agreed on the next steps for “investment and capacity planning” on November 9. Müller emphasised that he attached great importance to the experience of the works council representatives. Osterloh said the staff stood behind the company. Since then, a series of meetings have taken place between the Management Board and employee representatives about which no information has so far been given to the workforce.

This was preceded by a letter from Osterloh to the Board, which criticised Diess, along with the board members, of sketching out the savings plan without involving him. Osterloh said in the SZ interview, “We want to be involved.”

The works council and IG Metall play a key role. They are the ones who plan out the company restructuring and the strategy to implement it. In a joint statement on October 20, they wrote, “The IG Metall and the works council will jointly develop a concept in the coming weeks. We will describe the necessary changes in our own position paper and put this forward for discussion. The involvement of management is important to us.” IG Metall and the Volkswagen Group works council would “continue to consistently follow a course in which employment and competitiveness remain equal corporate objectives”.

At the end of the year, works council head Osterloh had wanted to take over the post of VW personnel manager, with its €7 million remuneration package. In Manager Magazin in May, he called for a “leaner Group structure” and threw his hat in the ring as a successor to the current personnel manager, Horst Neumann. But that was before the crisis. Now IG Metall has decided that he should provisionally continue as works council chief in order to enforce the restructuring programme, including job losses and wage cuts, and to keep the workforce under control.

But the highly paid top job is being kept open for him. Last week, it was announced that VW CEO Müller would “temporarily” take over Neumann’s tasks. The conspiracy against the workers continues.

Sri Lankan government presents austerity budget

Saman Gunadasa

The first budget of Sri Lanka’s “unity” government, presented to parliament by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake last Friday, will impose a series of austerity measures on working people while granting significant concessions for local and foreign capital.

The budget is in line with the pro-business demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the “economic policy statement” delivered by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to parliament on November 5. Those measures included the commercialisation or privatisation of state-owned enterprises, the cutting of price subsidies and greater tax burdens on workers and the poor.

To deflect popular opposition, Karunanayake tried to disguise the anti-working class character of the budget. By lowering of the Special Commodity Levy imposed by the previous government, the prices of some essential items, including potatoes, large onions, infant milk powder, sprats, dhal, chick peas, canned fish, kerosene oil and cooking gas will be somewhat reduced.

The Colombo media quickly seized on these meager concessions to declare that the government had presented a “peoples’ budget.” This claim is absurd as any examination of the measures will show.

Karunanayake began his budget speech by highlighting the need to slash public spending. “The time has come to critically analyse and evaluate the expenditure needs of the line ministries and departments to rationalise unnecessary expenditure,” he declared.

The finance minister targeted the country’s very limited welfare schemes for the poor by declaring they would be restricted to “those who actually require assistance.” The government plans to set up a network headed by village officers who will decide “who actually need to be included in social protection schemes.”

The present price subsidies for fertiliser will be replaced by fixed grants of 25,000 rupees per hectare. Farmers have already expressed concerns that the change will add to their financial problems as fertiliser prices tend to rise quite quickly.

The government proposes to abolish public sector pensions for new recruits from next year. Instead workers will have to pay into a contributory pension system. Karunanayake justified the measure, saying: “The pension bill has increased by 170 percent during the 2005–2014 period requiring appropriate actions to manage the continuous increase.” The IMF has long demanded deep inroads into the government pension fund, branding it as unaffordable.

The budget will further increase indirect taxes, which constitute 80 percent of the government’s tax income, while slashing direct taxes on big business and the rich. The burden of indirect taxes falls disproportionately on the poorest layers of society who are already struggling to make ends meet as prices continue to soar.

Liquor and tobacco will attract a 25 percent surtax. The Value Added Tax for services is to be increased from 11 to 12.5 percent, adding to the cost of water and electricity in particular. The Nation Building Tax (NBT), which is applicable on all imports, manufactures and services, including wholesale and retail trades, will be doubled from 2 to 4 percent. The Ports and Airports Development Levy (PAL) on all imports will be increased from 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Karunanayake also signaled a major assault on the working conditions of public sector workers. “I regret to note that public sector delivery has remained below par. It must be corrected. Productivity remains a serious issue hampering overall economic growth in the country,” he said.

The finance minister proposed a series of pro-business measures, including further privatisation. He proposed the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to boost private investment in government-owned entities such as Norochcholai coal-fired power plant.

Private universities are to compete with state universities, which will inevitably be starved of funds and degraded. In a bid to blunt student protests over the establishment of private medical colleges, Karunanayake declared: “Our government also is of the view that private universities should be allowed to operate and offer courses, except in medicine.”

The finance minister “requested” the private sector increase monthly salaries by 2,500 rupees within two years. He remained silent, however, on fulfilling the remaining portion of the government’s promise to increase public sector salaries by 10,000 rupees.

The rates for corporate and personal income taxes have been “simplified” to two bands of 15 percent and 30 percent. Apart from gambling, liquor, tobacco, banking, financial services and trading, all other business sectors will be taxed at 15 percent—down from the previous general tax rate of 28 percent. At a post-budget forum on Monday, Karunanayake boasted that Sri Lanka now had the world’s best income tax rate.

The government has also removed restrictions on foreigners owning land and withdrawn the tax for foreigners on leasing land. It has also removed income tax for non-citizens on dividends and allowed any bank account to provide for foreign investment. Karunanayake also eliminated taxes on the wealthy, including a mansion tax on luxury condominiums, levies on luxury and semi-luxury cars and a tax on corporate super profits.

Not surprisingly, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce welcomed “the 2016 Budget for its measures to boost private investment and promote inclusive economic growth.” It demanded the strict implementation of the budget’s pro-investor proposals: “While the direction of the Budget is broadly positive, it needs a focused implementation strategy with specific milestones,” its statement declared.

The budget is above all geared to meeting the IMF’s demand to reduce the budget deficit from the current 6.8 percent of GDP to 3.5 percent by 2020. The government is desperate for an IMF loan of $US4 billion to avert a grave balance of payment crisis. As noted by Karunanayake, exports have slumped from 33 percent of GDP in 2000 to 14 percent in 2014.

The finance minister opened his budget speech by boasting of the record of successive United National Party (UNP) governments in imposing the pro-market agenda. The government of President J.R. Jayawardene initiated the opening up of Sri Lanka to foreign investment in 1977. The previous Wickremesinghe government implemented its infamous “Regaining Sri Lanka” from 2001 to 2004, which Karunanayake bragged, had turned the economy from negative to positive growth.

As indicated in the first reading of the budget appropriation bill, the government has allocated an unprecedented 306 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) to the armed forces and police. In the budget speech, the finance minister said that the number of police stations would increase from 428 to 600—an indication that the government is preparing police repression against the inevitable opposition that its budget will provoke.

Ethiopia suffering worst drought in decades

Joe Williams

Ethiopia is facing its worst drought in over a decade, following a poor rainy season due to a particularly strong El Nino this year. The number of people receiving emergency food assistance has nearly doubled, from 4.55 million in August to 8.2 million in October. Schools, hospitals, and other critical facilities have been forced to close due to water and food shortages, and 350,000 children are experiencing acute malnutrition.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the level of need has already exceeded that produced by the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa that caused 200,000 deaths in neighboring Somalia, and is comparing the situation to the droughts of the 1980s, which devastated the country and made Ethiopia synonymous with hunger in the minds of many around the world. It expects the number of Ethiopians requiring food assistance to rise to 15 million in 2016.

The official response of the government has been to deny the severity of the crisis. Speaking to Reuters, Finance Minister Abdulaziz Mohammed said, “Regarding the impact on economic growth, the drought-affected areas are peripheral and pastoral communities in the southern and eastern parts of the country … normally, those parts of the country contribute not more than 5 percent to our GDP. On the other hand, we expect harvest to be more this year.” He added that no funds will be diverted from other budget items to bring the crisis under control.

This is fully in line with the economic mismanagement and corruption that have characterized the US-backed Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government since it seized power in 1991. Far from being revolutionary or democratic, it is considered one of the most corrupt capitalist governments in the world, with Transparency International ranking it 111th out of 177. Nearly 40 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, and the UN ranks Ethiopia 174th out of 187 countries for human development.

Despite chronic food shortages, agricultural products constitute nearly 80 percent of the country’s exports. Coffee is the largest export product, followed by meat, livestock, pulses (beans, legumes, etc.) and grains. Much of Ethiopia’s arable land is used to grow non-food products, such as flowers and palm oil, almost all of which is for export. About 80 percent of the workforce is in agriculture. Ethiopia has the highest livestock population in Africa, at 150 million animals, but its cattle are of the zebu sub-species, which produces low yields of milk and meat.

Aside from political and economic mismanagement, there are natural reasons for Ethiopia’s frequent food shortages. Significant amounts of fertile land are difficult for farmers to develop because they are swarming with deadly insects, including malaria-carrying mosquitos. The mountainous landscape makes irrigation difficult, so farmers rely solely on rain to water their crops, which comes only during the rainy season lasting from July to September. In years like 2015, when there were only three days of rain during the season, crops are doomed to failure. If the rains are substantial, on the other hand, Ethiopia’s mountainous terrain ensures that the topsoil, dry and crusty from not absorbing any rain for most of the year, will wash into the Nile, where it flows into Egypt and produces bumper crops for farmers there.

The 2011 drought led to a societal breakdown in Somalia, where already existing tensions between Islamist forces and the Mogadishu government erupted into outright warfare. Ultimately, US-backed African Union forces, led by Kenya, were sent in to stabilize the country. Today, Ethiopian troops play a leading role in propping up Somalia’s puppet government, highlighting the challenges posed to US hegemony in the region by the current crisis.

During a visit to Addis Ababa this summer, Obama hailed the regime of Hailemariam Desalegn as an “outstanding partner” in the war on terror. He referred to it as “democratically elected” just two months after a blatantly rigged election in which the EPRDF won all 546 seats in Parliament. One can expect that Obama will continue to support the EPRDF’s repressive policies as long as the regime ensures, in his words, that the US doesn’t “need to send our own Marines in to do the fighting. The Ethiopians are tough fighters.”

Underlying Obama’s visit were fears that the government, and its “tough fighters,” are being courted by China, which has surpassed the US and become Africa’s top trade partner. Chinese trade with Africa has grown rapidly since 2009, while US trade has declined by nearly half, from $125 billion to $70 billion. In Ethiopia, this economic activity comes in the form of badly needed infrastructure investments. Ethiopia’s lack of reliable roads and bridges is often cited as a major barrier to economic development, and China’s willingness to construct them may undermine the ability of the US to maintain the allegiance of the country’s elites.

The capital city’s brand new subway system, as well as the African Union headquarters located there, were financed entirely by China. The US is also concerned that its “pivot to Asia” will be threatened by plans to build the LAPSSET rail and transportation corridor, which will link Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Sudan and allow the easy export of goods and raw materials back to China.

The US and its allies have attempted to compete with China by investing in electricity production. The government recently signed a $1.55 billion contract with a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group to build an oil and gas pipeline to Djibouti, and now that company is considering investing in wind and hydro power.

In 2013, US-Icelandic firm Reykjavic Geothermal agreed to invest $4 billion in geothermal energy production. USAID has coordinated many such transactions through its Power Africa program, which “works with African governments and private sector partners to remove barriers that impede sustainable energy development in sub-Saharan Africa and unlock the substantial wind, solar, hydropower, natural gas, biomass, and geothermal resources on the continent.” Power Africa has nearly a hundred “private partners” in its effort to “unlock” Africa’s resources, including General Electric, Goldman Sachs, and the Shell Foundation.

As these efforts have failed to tip Ethiopia’s trade balance away from China and toward the West, the US will surely exploit the crisis produced by the drought to increase its military presence in the region.