Australian central bank chief insists on “difficult” budget cuts

Mike Head

With the world slump deepening, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens this week delivered a warning to the Turnbull government and the political establishment as a whole: you must slash social spending, despite popular opposition, or the cuts will be imposed via a “moment of crisis.”

Stevens spoke as the latest statistics showed US economic growth falling, Europe stagnating, China slowing and much of South America in depression. The data underscored the failure of the world economy to recover from the 2008 crash, despite central banks flooding financial markets with trillions of dollars in cheap credit.

The RBA chief essentially told an audience of bankers, economists and corporate executives in Sydney that Australian politicians had to move more swiftly to impose the burden of this crisis on the working class. He lent his weight to the message that has been delivered increasingly insistently via the establishment media since the July 2 election on behalf of the financial and corporate elites.

“Many difficult choices will need to be made along the path of budgetary adjustment,” Stevens declared, because of “volatile” global conditions, “very low” domestic growth, mounting household debt and the inability of central banks internationally to halt the slide by reducing interest rates to “unprecedented” levels.

The speech by Stevens, who has been RBA governor for 10 years, was billed as his last before he relinquishes his post. But the timing was designed to send a message to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal-National Coalition government, which barely survived the federal election. When parliament resumes on August 30, the government will have just a one-seat majority in the lower house and only 30 seats in the 75-member Senate.

That result, the product of widespread hostility toward the austerity drive pursued by successive governments, both Coalition and Labor, means that the government will have to rely on Labor and/or the Greens to push through deep cuts to health, education and welfare. Alternatively, it must secure the support of nine of the 11 “crossbench” senators, mostly right-wing populists who won seats by posturing as opponents of the major parties.

While speaking in the guarded language of a pillar of the financial system, Stevens emphasised the depth of the breakdown that occurred in 2008. Adopting a phrase coined by his former British counterpart, Lord Mervyn King, Stevens said the “great stability” came to an end 10 years ago.

Stevens made muted references to the domination of financial parasitism over economic life, which triggered the 2008 crash and has since seen immense resources diverted from production into speculative activities. He said the central banks increasingly lacked any capacity to stem the slump, despite “unconventional policies,” such as negative interest rates.

“Through a combination of extraordinary circumstances, the central banking community globally has found itself doing unprecedented things,” he said. The RBA now had “interest rates at levels lower than any of us have seen before in our lifetimes” (lowered to 1.5 percent this month). “Moreover, the ‘return to normal’ at the global level looks like being a very, very slow process. And normal is a different place now.”

Turning to his central theme, Stevens railed against the “rather narrow notions of ‘fairness’” advanced by “interest groups” that had stymied the “general public debate.” Specific proposals to put public finances on a “sustainable” track had “often run into the sand.”

The central bank chief warned: “If we think this rather other-worldly discussion will not have to give way to a more hard-nosed conversation, we are kidding ourselves. That will occur should there be a moment of crisis, but it would be better if it occurred before then.”

The contemptuous reference to “fairness” expresses the financial elite’s indifference to the widening gulf between rich and poor and to the social needs of the vast majority of the population—the supposed “interest groups.” The broad opposition to proposals such as making patients pay up-front to see doctors, decimating hospital and school budgets, and charging tertiary students fees of tens of thousands of dollars, is expressed in a distorted form in the political deadlock in parliament.

Stevens also sounded an alarm about the growth of household debt to about 125 percent of gross domestic product, which is about three times higher than the public debt held by governments. He said the private debt undercut the impact of any RBA interest rate cuts, because mortgage holders had less capacity to take on more debt, no matter how low rates went.

This household debt, one of the highest levels in the world, reflects the dependence of Australian capitalism on an unsustainable residential construction boom driven by soaring housing prices since 2012. Over the past four years, according to figures published by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia this week, residential construction has grown by 25 percent, and is now outstripping demand.

Over the same period, the mining boom has collapsed, sending investment crashing and destroying about 70,000 jobs directly. Non-mining capital expenditure has fallen by more than 10 percent, driving further job losses throughout basic industries. While the finance houses and billionaire property developers that have profited from this process continue to do so, driving up share market values, it is workers and young people who must be made to pay the price.

Prime Minister Turnbull yesterday responded to Stevens’ call, insisting that he would ensure that the federal budget deficit, now about $40 billion annually, would be eliminated. “That is founded on a fundamental concept of fairness,” Turnbull claimed. “There is nothing more unfair than saddling our children and our grandchildren with mountains of debt that we have created because our generation could not live within its means.”

Far from ordinary working people “living beyond their means,” there is a yawning gulf in Australia, and around the world, between the super-rich whom Turnbull and Stevens represent, and the rest of the population. In Australia, an estimated 2.5 million people are living in poverty, a quarter of whom are children, while the combined fortunes of the wealthiest 200 individuals, notably headed by property tycoons, have reached nearly $200 billion.

Today’s editorial in the Australian welcomed Turnbull’s commitment and insisted that the Labor Party had a “duty to serve the national interest” by assisting his fragile government to “carry the conversation” needed to slash spending. During the election campaign, Labor already repudiated previous pledges to oppose multi-billion dollar cuts to welfare, healthcare, education, pensions, aged care and family payments, while also claiming that its “tough, unpopular” measures were “fair.”

Because of the deteriorating economic situation, these cuts fall far short of what the corporate elite is now demanding. This means an intensified offensive against the social conditions of the working class, as the Socialist Equality Party warned throughout the election campaign.

US price of EpiPen for allergic reactions skyrockets

Brad Dixon

The price of the EpiPen, relied on by millions to treat severe allergic reactions, has increased by 450 percent in the United States since 2004. The price surge has made it more difficult for patients to afford the potentially life-saving device, leading many to hold on to expired EpiPens or turn to the riskier method of administering the hormone epinephrine using manual syringes.

While a two-pack of EpiPens cost about $100 in 2004 (adjusting for inflation), it now costs over $600. Some emergency medical services pay upwards of $900 for the drug device from medical supply companies. The EpiPens must be replaced each year when they expire.

The EpiPen Auto-Injector, marketed by the pharmaceutical company Mylan, is used to treat anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially deadly allergic reaction to food, medication or insect bites. The device uses a spring-loaded needle to quickly deliver a controlled dosage of epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). The device was developed in the mid-1970s by engineers at the Bethesda, Maryland-based company, Survival Technology, and first introduced in 1980.

The administration of epinephrine is the treatment of choice for anaphylaxis, and it is recommended that individuals with a history of severe allergic reactions carry an EpiPen.

An estimated 2 to 5 percent of the population experience anaphylaxis over the course of their lifetime, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. A survey published in the journal Pediatrics in 2011 found that 8 percent of the children had a food allergy, while nearly 40 percent of these individuals had a history of severe reactions.

An estimated 200,000 people visit emergency rooms each year due to food allergies, while nearly 10,000 end up staying in a hospital. When deaths do occur, it is almost always associated with not having access to epinephrine.

The dramatic price hikes of the EpiPen by Mylan, however, have made it increasingly difficult for working class families, even those with health insurance, to have access to the device.

Dr. Michael Pistiner, an allergist and member of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has observed these difficulties among his patients.

“I am hearing some of the families are opting to carry expired auto-injectors,” Pistiner told Milwaukee Public Radio, “or, if they have a high deductible sometimes they say do they really want their auto-injector, and do they really need it?”

Amie Vialet De Montbel, a mother living in Troy, Virginia, has a young son who is severely allergic to milk. When she went to fill a prescription for two 2-packs of EpiPens, she was shocked by the $1,212 price tag. “I don’t even pay that much for my mortgage,” she told Stat News. Since her health insurance has a $4,000 deductible, she would have to cover the entire cost. She had to turn down the potentially life-saving device. Her older son currently carries an expired EpiPen.

In response to the price increases, patients, such as Vialet De Montbel, and emergency responders are increasingly resorting to the use of manual syringes instead of EpiPens, reports an article last month in Stat News. This substitution raises a number of safety concerns.

“Anyone using this approach would require extensive medical training to do it effectively and safely, without contamination or accidental intravenous injection,” Dr. James Baker, Jr., CEO and chief medical officer of Food Allergy Research & Education, told Stat News.

At least 10 states have pushed for training EMT’s to give epinephrine injections using manual syringes to reduce costs.

An article published by Bloomberg in September of last year shed light on how Mylan transformed the EpiPen into a real moneymaker, bringing in annual revenue of $1 billion, which constitutes 40 percent of the company’s profits.

Mylan acquired the EpiPen through its purchase of Merck’s generic division in 2007. Led by the company’s CEO Heather Bresch, Mylan’s marketing strategy combined branding with a massive public awareness campaign, which sought to get EpiPens stocked in schools and other places. The company hired consultants who had worked with Medtronic to make defibrillators widely available in public places.

With support from Bresch’s father, Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat-W.Va.), new federal guidelines were established recommending patients with severe allergic reactions be prescribed two doses, and the FDA revised the drug’s label to allow its use by anyone at risk, not just those who had already experienced anaphylaxis.

In response to the high-profile death of a student at a Virginia school in 2013, Congress passed legislation encouraging states to stock public schools with epinephrine devices, which is now a requirement in 47 states.

To popularize the brand, Mylan spent $35.2 million on EpiPen TV ads in 2014, compared to $4.8 million spent in 2008. It also issued free EpiPens, which have to be replaced each year, to 59,000 schools. As a result, EpiPen use has grown by 67 percent since 2008. Over 3.6 million prescriptions were written for EpiPen last year.

As Mylan captured more of the epinephrine market, while simultaneously expanding the market through public awareness campaigns, it drove up the price of a 2-pack of EpiPens to over $600.

The price increases “reflect the multiple, important product features and the value the product provides,” Mylan told Stat News, while declining to state what exactly these product features were.

To counter backlash from patients and the public, Mylan offers a savings program that it refers to as the “$0 co-pay card.” However, it only covers $100, leaving patients who have insurance plans with high deductibles, increasingly common under Obamacare, to pick up the remainder.

When Nicole Smith, the founder of an online support community for families with allergies, went to fill a prescription for a 2-pack of EpiPens at Walgreens for her child, she was astounded by the price: $600, or $500 with Mylan’s “$0 co-pay card.”

The price is “higher than some people’s homeowners insurance, higher than renter insurance by far,” Smith told MarketWatch. “With the cost of them, you’re not going to buy one for each place” where your child might need one. “You’re hoping the diaper bag goes everywhere that kid goes.”

Smith says that she has heard of people driving to Canada where Mylan’s EpiPen is sold at pharmacies for only $131.

Although the EpiPen has been available since 1980, it still faces little competition. When doctors write prescriptions, they are generally for the most well-known product, EpiPen. Patients cannot substitute generic alternatives with the prescription because the FDA says the devices are not similar enough. Moreover, these generic alternatives, Adrenaclick and Auvi-Q, are priced similar to EpiPen.

Since its introduction in 2013, Sanofi’s Auvi-Q has only captured 10 percent of epinephrine prescriptions, compared to the 85 percent share held by Mylan’s EpiPen. In 2015, Sanofi had to recall its product in the US and Canada due to a potential inaccurate dosage delivery. Since then, Sanofi has indicated that it may abandon the product completely, leaving Mylan with 95 percent of the market.

This will continue into the near future as the FDA rejected Teva Pharmaceutical’s generic EpiPen earlier this year, delaying the launch until at least 2017.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals was founded in West Virginia in 1961. The company focused on manufacturing over-the-counter products and soon switched to the production of generic pharmaceuticals. The company began to diversify in the mid-1990s, acquiring the pharmaceutical firm Bertek Inc. in 1993.

In 2000, the company agreed to pay $147 million in order to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that Mylan had illegally restricted trade. The company had set up exclusive licensing agreements in 1998 that allowed it to monopolize the market for the raw materials necessary for two widely prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, clorazepate and lorazepam, and then respectively raised their prices from $11.36 a bottle to $377 and from $7 to $190.

“What makes this behavior even more unconscionable,” Betty D. Montgomery, the attorney general of Ohio, told the New York Times in 2000, “is that these drugs, especially lorazepam, are antianxiety medications frequently prescribed for nursing homes and hospice patients, including those suffering from long-term debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

“We continue to believe we acted properly,” Milan Puskar, the company’s CEO, stated at the time.

The company continued to grow through mergers and acquisitions. In 2007, it acquired a controlling interest in Matrix Laboratories, an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients supplier, and the generics division of Merck KGaA, which included the EpiPen. More recently, it acquired the generics division of Abbot Laboratories for $5.3 billion in 2015 and purchased the Swiss drug maker Meda in a $9.9 billion deal earlier this month.

The company, which is now incorporated in the Netherlands, is expected by financial experts to pull in $12 billion in annual revenue as a result of its acquisition of Meda.

Heather Bresch, who became the company’s CEO in 2012, took home $25.8 million in total compensation in 2014, according to FiercePharma. After the company distributed free EpiPens to schools in a bid to expand the product’s market, she told the New York Times in 2012, “I think this goes to the heart of being able to do good and do well.”

Mosquitoes infect pregnant Florida woman with Zika

Matthew MacEgan

Two weeks after the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) announced that 14 mosquito-contracted Zika cases had been found in southern Florida, the count has increased to 22, including a pregnant woman in her early 20s. This woman and two of the other new cases have no clear connection to the “warning zone” in Wynwood, Florida, where all of the initial cases were found.

While the pregnant woman and one of the other two cases did come from Miami-Dade County, where Wynwood is located, the other case is a man from neighboring Broward County. Both of the men work in businesses in Wynwood, but not within the one-square-mile warning area. One of the men purportedly has co-workers who travel to Brazil frequently, where the Zika epidemic has been centered since last year.

Eighteen of the positive cases have come from within the warning area, including four new cases on Tuesday and a fifth on Wednesday. Most of these have reportedly been connected to a small area where several businesses are located, including those connected to the two men described above.

On Monday, a new case was reported in Palm Beach County, expanding the outbreak to three Florida counties. The FDOH has begun conducting a door-to-door investigation in that county, similar to what they did in Wynwood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that single isolated cases were expected.

Overall, 1,825 confirmed cases of Zika exist on the US mainland, but most of these are related to travel to Zika-infected areas. These areas are notable for their extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure that could protect people from such an outbreak. That the virus has spread to the continental US says something about the social conditions there.

The young pregnant woman, for example, who recently contracted the virus, was unemployed and living with her boyfriend in a rooming house with no air-conditioning or window screens. The high temperatures and humidity levels in southern Florida during the summer months mean that many people who cannot afford central air-conditioning, or the high electric bills that come with air-conditioning units, are forced to open their windows and use fans. This puts them more at risk for mosquito bites.

The woman in question was 23 weeks pregnant and went to the emergency room on July 7 after feeling ill for three days. Medical staff determined that she had symptoms of Zika. This case is particularly troubling because Zika is more dangerous for pregnant women because it can damage the development of the brain of a fetus. One child has already been born in New Jersey with microcephaly, a brain disorder related to Zika. Out of 403 positive cases in Miami-Dade County, 57 infections involve pregnant women. Within the continental US, 479 pregnant women have been infected, and a further 901 pregnant women have also been infected in Puerto Rico.

Officials have continued collecting urine samples in the affected areas as well as distributing leaflets on how to prevent an infection. According to the leaflet, a mosquito can bite an infected person, perhaps someone who traveled to a location where the Zika virus has been circulating, and then bite another person, spreading the virus in a new area. Residents have been instructed to eliminate standing water, use insect repellent, and put screens on open windows and doors.

The CDC claims that the disease will not be as easily transmitted within the United States because many Americans live in air-conditioned, mosquito-free homes. However, in the current worsening economic crisis, those who cannot afford such amenities are more likely to contract the Zika virus, making it a disease of the impoverished.

After stating last week that Florida is still open for business, Governor Rick Scott is now saying that no one “should take this lightly.” He says that his office has an outstanding request for 10,000 Zika-prevention kits for pregnant women and is planning on working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the future.

The Obama administration stated Thursday that it will transfer $81 million to maintain Zika vaccine research that would otherwise run out of funding at the end of August. The ongoing project still needs an additional $500 million to fully fund its research through 2017.

Police violence in Los Angeles continues unabated

Alan Gilman

Within the space of two weeks police in the Los Angeles area have shot and killed three people, including a 14-year-old youth engaged in graffiti, an unarmed man mistaken for a carjacker and an unarmed homeless man on a bicycle.

According to the Guardian, which has been tracking police killings, Los Angeles led the nation last year with 19 police killings. This number, however, only refers to those committed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). This number doubles when taking into account police killings committed by other police agencies within Los Angeles County, which encompasses the Sheriff’s Department and over 40 municipal police departments in independent cities such as Long Beach, Inglewood and Pasadena.

In the most recent police shooting on August 9, 14-year-old Jesse Romero was shot and killed by an LAPD officer in East Los Angeles, a poor, largely Hispanic working class community. The police claim that Romero was suspected of writing gang-style graffiti in the area before he bolted from officers and then fired a gun at them.

The Los Angeles Times, however, interviewed a woman who said she witnessed the shooting and who would only identify herself by her first name, Norma. This witness described to the Times how she was in a car stopped at a traffic light at Cesar Chavez and Breed Street when she saw someone running from Chicago Street. He was pulling up his basketball shorts, which appeared to be falling down, she said.

As the runner turned onto Breed Street, he pulled a handgun from his waistband and threw it toward a fence, the witness said. The gun hit the fence and fell onto the ground, and she heard the weapon fire.

At that moment, she said, the runner turned around and appeared startled. She heard two more gunshots and the runner fell to the ground. Moments later, officers placed handcuffs on him, she said.

“He didn’t shoot,” the woman said of the runner.

According to an LAPD spokesperson, the officers involved were wearing body cameras and investigators were still reviewing videos, which will be compared with other evidence, including witness and officer statements.

The ACLU of Southern California released a statement saying it was “particularly concerned” by the killing and argued that the LAPD should change its body camera policy so that recordings are made public.

“Under current policy, LAPD will show the body camera footage to the officers involved before they make an initial statement, allowing them to tailor accounts to the details they see on video,” wrote the group’s executive director, Hector Villagra. “At the same time, LAPD will keep the video secret from the public.”

According to the Guardian, Jesse Romero was the 13th LAPD victim this year and the 25th person killed by the police within Los Angeles County this year.

In another police killing on August 2, William Bowers, a 51 year-old homeless man, was riding his bicycle in Castaic, a city just north of Los Angeles, when Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies tried to stop him. As the unarmed Bowers dropped his bicycle and fled on foot, a deputy opened fire, fatally striking him in the torso. The sheriff’s claim Bowers was reaching for his waistband when he was shot.

Deputies initially tried to detain Bowers because they recognized him from previous interactions and knew he was on probation for a narcotics conviction, detectives said.

According to sheriff spokesperson, Lt. Joe Mendoza, investigators were still waiting to obtain the deputy’s explanation for why deadly force was used during the encounter.

“We don’t know why the deputy did what he did at this point because he has yet to be interviewed,” Mendoza told the Los Angeles Times. “No weapons were recovered at the shooting scene.”

Detectives, however, have interviewed several witnesses and most said Bowers had his hands near his waistband, according to Mendoza. Movement toward a waistband is often cited by police officers as a sign that a person is reaching for a gun in order to claim a shooting was justified.

“We have a witness who says the man’s arms were at his sides. We have other witnesses who say his hands were in front of his waistband,” Mendoza said. “The deputy had the best view.”

One witness told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that the man was running from deputies when he was shot.

“He jumped off his bike and started running, and the cop shot him,” the man told the news station.

Another recent shooting victim, Donnell Thompson, an unarmed 27-year-old man, was shot to death by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy last month in Compton, California. The sheriff’s department had originally identified Thompson as a suspect in a carjacking, but now concedes he was an innocent man who had no involvement in a carjacking.

“We have determined that there is no evidence that Mr. Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle, nor that he was involved in the assault on the deputies,” Los Angeles Sheriff Department (LASD) said in a statement Tuesday.

In the early morning hours of July 28, Thompson, who is black, was shot and killed by an LASD deputy following a carjacking in which a suspect crashed a stolen car in a Compton neighborhood and fired on sheriff’s deputies. Following a search, the carjacking suspect was arrested.

Shortly after that arrest, however, sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call in the same neighborhood by a resident who found Thompson lying in his yard. LASD deputies believed Thompson to be a second suspect in the carjacking incident.

Sheriff’s officials have claimed that Thompson was in a position on the ground that concealed his hands and that they thought he might have been armed. They also say he did not respond to their commands and that at one point he stood up and “charged at the deputies.”

That’s when a deputy shot and killed Thompson from the turret of an armored vehicle. No weapons were recovered in the incident.

Brian Dunn, an attorney representing the Thompson family, said that it was a series of “tactical blunders” by LASD that led to the shooting, one that was clearly a “mistake.”

“We’ve done our own investigation and have not heard anything to suggest that Donnell Thompson was in any way acting in an aggressive manner or in any way demonstrating that he posed a threat to anyone,” Dunn told the Huffington Post .

“He hadn’t committed a crime, he was not wanted, he had not done anything wrong, he was legally authorized to be where he was, he was legally authorized to be doing what he was doing, he wasn’t breaking the law and he wasn’t armed—when you take that backdrop of facts it’s just not only a tragedy, but it’s a homicide, in every sense of the word.”

Dunn was also critical of the sheriff’s use of an armored vehicle in this situation.

“In a civilian neighborhood, they bring an urban assault vehicle,” Dunn said, “the BearCat, it’s like a tank. Their response to this situation was so aggressive. Their tactics were so aggressive.”

Dunn said he has filed a federal civil rights claim against the county and that a lawsuit is forthcoming.

“Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadn’t happened?” LASD Capt. Steven Katz said at a news conference. “It speaks for itself.” Katz, however, declined to describe the shooting of Thompson as a mistake, or as an unjustified or unlawful killing.

Family members described Thompson, who had no criminal record and went by the nickname Little Bo Peep, as gentle and shy. He attended classes for the mentally disabled at El Camino College’s Compton Center. His oldest sister, Matrice Stanley, said that “his age was 27, but mentally … he was probably 16.”

The LASD said that the deputy who killed Thompson, who has not been identified, has been reassigned to non-field duties. An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

German deportations rise sharply in the first half of 2016

Marianne Arens

While the German government is actively involved in the escalation of tensions and wars in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, driving more and more people to take flight, it is simultaneously determined to deal brutally with those refugees that arrive in Germany. In this, it is supported by the opposition Left Party and the Greens.

In the first six months of 2016, the pace of deportations has massively increased nationwide. Up to the end of June this year, 13,743 people were deported, most of them to the Western Balkans. This is considerably more than last year. In the whole of 2015, some 20 thousand deportations took place—twice as many as 2014. This was revealed by the government in response to a question tabled in the Bundestag (parliament) by the Left Party.

In parallel with the deportations, more than 14,000 people have been refused entry into Germany in the first half of 2016. They were turned away either at the border or an airport because they were unable to provide valid papers or because they were unable to apply for asylum. This means 50 percent more people have been already been turned away this year compared to the whole of 2015. Refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria and Iraq are often denied entry.

In addition, from January to June 2016, over 30,000 asylum seekers left the country “voluntarily”, a third of them to Albania and several thousand to Iraq and Afghanistan. Such “voluntary” departures are usually the result of strong pressure from the authorities.

For example, just last Monday a group of Roma families with small children and a six-month old baby were expelled from the rectory in Regensburg, where they had found a few weeks’ protection. They are being forced leave for Kosovo, Serbia or Macedonia. The refugee agency had wanted to deport them at the beginning of the year. Recently, the diocese of Regensburg had refused to grant them sanctuary, and had even blocked their food supply. Despite such coercion, their exit is likely to be considered “voluntary”.

In total, almost 50,000 refugees have been expelled from Germany in the first six months of this year—more than 400 people every day. Nevertheless, the government is not satisfied with this pace of deportations and wants to massively accelerate it.

Half a million asylum applications are to be processed by the end of the year, which corresponds almost exactly to the number of people that were registered as refugees over the last period. They have all provided their identity papers and fingerprints, photos and personal data in the central computer system and are now waiting in one of the many refugee shelters for a date for their asylum applications to be examined by the Federal Office for Refugees (BAMF).

The operational director of BAMF, Katja Wilken-Klein intends to decide upon the asylum applications of all these people by the end of the year. When asked on the Morgenmagazin news programme on August 2, “Why is this suddenly happening so quickly?” Mrs. Wilken-Klein responded, “We have set priorities.” The newly-established BAMF assessment centres could rapidly decide on up to fifty percent of the cases “very quickly”, she said.

The refugee organization Pro Asyl correctly fears that the right to asylum is being effectively undermined in this way. Its spokesman Bernd Mesovic, in a guest contribution in the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote, “the pace has been unceremoniously speeded up to enable a large number of decisions to be sent out, regardless of quality”. In “dry, boilerplate” terms, the authorities spell out why an asylum application is “manifestly unfounded”. Not infrequently, “duplicate decisions are sent to one and the same asylum seeker—one saying this, the other that, one granting protection status, the other a rejection”. According to Mesovic, BAMF wants to “work through the delays—at almost any price.”

In this way, a majority of the new arrivals from the Western Balkan countries have had their applications rejected, and many of them have been deported. In the first half of 2016, three-quarters of deportations were people from the Balkans. Last autumn, the German government coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats declared the last Western Balkans states Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro to be “safe countries of origin”. And since the Maghreb countries, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have also been defined as safe countries at the beginning of the year, more and more people are being deported to North Africa.

Refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan are also affected. The German government wants to establish “safe areas of origin” as quickly as possible in Afghanistan, although fighting there continues to flare up. As if this was not enough, the government is also working towards declaring sub-regions even in Syria as “safe”.

This is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. For 65 years, the 1951 Convention has formed the basis of international rights for refugees and asylum. It prohibits the refoulement or deportation of people who are exposed to the risk of injury or death in their home states, and explicitly states that no one who seeks protection and asylum should be sanctioned for illegal border transgressions.

The virtual abolition of refugee protection is being supported and driven through, not only by the government, but also by the two opposition parties. The Green Party-run state executive in Baden-Württemberg ranks number three nationally for deportations since the start of the year.

Party representatives repeatedly call for a tightening up of deportation practice. For example, the Green Party mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, recently demanded that offenders be deported, even to countries where there was a war taking place. “Because Syrians can no longer be sent back to their countries of arrival, there is only one way—send them back to the country of origin,” he said. One must check whether there are safe areas there, he said.

The Left Party is also actively pushing forward deportation policy in the states it leads. In Thuringia, where Bodo Ramelow heads a Left Party administration, particularly brutal deportations take place. The budget for such deportations was increased sixfold in the state in 2015, from 750,000 euros to 4.9 million euros in 2016.

This has already led to a significant increase in deportations. According to the State Administration Office in Weimar, 339 asylum seekers were deported from January to mid-July—almost as many as in the entire previous year. In addition, there were 1,411 “voluntary” departures, which have increased even more sharply.

Ramelow is fuelling the machinery of deportation and has urged the federal government to decide about the fate of incoming refugees more quickly than ever. The Left Party’s parliamentary leader Sahra Wagenknecht has attacked Chancellor Merkel from the right, declaring, “The reception and integration of large numbers of refugees and immigrants is a significant challenge and is more difficult than Merkel’s frivolous, ‘we can do it’, as she tried to tell us last autumn”.

Brazilian Senate votes to proceed with trial of Workers Party president

Bill Van Auken

The Brazilian Senate’s vote Wednesday to move ahead with an impeachment trial of ousted Workers Party (PT) President Dilma Rousseff has been accompanied by a concerted drive by the “interim” administration of Michel Temer to ram through sweeping austerity policies. The purpose of these measures is to impose the full burden of the crisis gripping Latin America’s largest economy—the worst in a century—onto the backs of the working class.

Wednesday’s vote, which followed a 15-hour, all-night session, was 59 to 21 in support of the trial, exceeding not only the simple majority needed to launch the trial, but five more votes than the two-thirds super majority required to end it by permanently removing Rousseff from office.

The Senate’s action appeared to have sealed not only Rousseff’s fate, but that of the PT, which has ruled Brazil for the past 13 years, including two terms under her predecessor, former metalworkers union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The formal grounds for the impeachment are trumped up charges of fiscal improprieties by Rousseff, alleged loans secured from banks and budgetary allocations made behind the back of congress in an attempt to conceal the depth of the crisis in the run-up to her re-election in 2014. The PT president and her supporters have insisted that the same methods have been employed by virtually every administration that preceded her own.

The driving force for the removal of Brazil’s elected government, however, is the demand by both Brazilian and international finance capital for a radical change in regime in order to carry through draconian attacks on social spending and working class living standards designed to “restore economic growth” by lowering labor costs and ensuring higher profits and unfettered operations by big business.

Those supporting impeachment and Temer, previously Rousseff’s vice president and political ally, have been able to carry through this undemocratic conspiracy because of the overwhelming popular hostility toward the PT, which not only failed to introduce policies to protect Brazilian workers from the impact of the economic crisis, including an official unemployment rate that has topped 11 percent, but rather sought to initiate the same austerity policies now pursued by the interim government.

On top of that was the party’s deep involvement in the Petrobras bribes for contracts scandal, which saw billions of dollars siphoned out of the state-run energy giant to finance politicians’ election campaigns and line their pockets.

In addition to the impeachment of Rousseff, a trial of her predecessor, Lula, is also in the works. He was officially charged last month with obstruction of justice for allegedly masterminding a scheme to buy the silence of former Petrobras director Nestor Cerveró over the Petrobras kickbacks.

Meanwhile, Temer himself, a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) along with his “interim foreign minister,” José Serra, former presidential candidate of (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) PSDB, are implicated in illegal campaign contributions from the construction conglomerate, Odebrecht, whose billionaire director, Marcelo Odebrecht, has been jailed since July of last year in connection with the Petrobras scandal. He has apparently named both, along with PT leaders, in a plea bargain arrangement.

Supporters of Rousseff have charged that Temer and his allies in the Senate are seeking to rush through the impeachment, which is now expected to conclude by the end of this month, in order to grant him status as a sitting president, which would grant him impunity under the Brazilian constitution in relation to investigations into offenses occurring before he took office.

Meanwhile, the government is pushing through a series of “reforms,” including a proposal to impose a spending ceiling that could last for 20 years, bankrupting the country’s health care and education system, as well as labor law revisions attacking workers’ rights and a pension reform that would raise the minimum retirement age to 70.

While PT members of Congress have denounced the measures, those who support them point out that Rousseff had proposed similar legislation. Then, however, they had blocked the measures as part of the attempt to bring about her downfall.

Recent polls have shown that two-thirds of the Brazilian population support the removal of Rousseff, but an equal number also oppose Temer’s presidency.

Rousseff has responded to the actions by preparing an open letter to the Brazilian people and to the Senate, pledging that if she were to survive the impeachment, she would seek a popular referendum to call early elections. Reportedly, she is dropping her previous references to her removal from office as a “coup” in order curry favor from the political right.

While a recent poll has shown 62 percent of the population supporting early elections, there is little if any possibility that this maneuver will succeed, however. It would require not only a vote by a super-majority in Congress to amend the constitution, but also the approval of the judiciary, and, in all likelihood, would take over a year to implement, bringing her close to the end of her term.

Hostility to Temer has been expressed in scattered protests, including at the Olympic games, where demonstrators holding up signs opposing the interim president have been hustled out of the stands by militarized police in scenes reminiscent of the military dictatorship that took power in 1964 and ruled the country for 21 years.

But the attempt by the pseudo-left in Brazil to subordinate these protests to the PT and its affiliated union federation, the CUT, have served to block any mass popular appeal.

The pseudo-left groups themselves have been thrown into intense crisis by the removal of the PT government. The Morenoite PSTU (Unified Socialist Workers Party) suffered a split which saw half the membership leave the party. While neither those who left nor the PSTU leadership itself have provided any clarification of the grounds for the split—each side declaring their respect for the other as “revolutionaries”—the reality is that it rose entirely from national tactical issues; specifically, the demand raised by PSTU of fora todos “throw them all out,” during the impeachment drive.

The demand constituted a reactionary adaptation to the right-wing impeachment drive and its impact upon popular consciousness, failing to distinguish between bringing down the PT government from the right and bringing it down from the left. Those who split found it increasingly uncomfortable to defend this position within the broader “left” milieu dominated by more open supporters of Rousseff and the PT.

Meanwhile, the Pabloite layers embedded in the PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party), a parliamentary split-off from the PT, have latched onto the demand for new elections, seeking to channel popular anger back into bourgeois politics and hoping to score more positions in municipal elections set for October.

Despite the efforts of these elements, the austerity measures being prepared will inevitably bring the Brazilian working class into a new wave of class struggle against an unstable and corrupt government, whether it is headed by Rousseff or, far more likely, Temer.

WikiLeaks offers $20,000 reward over murder of DNC staffer linked to email leak

E.P. Bannon

WikiLeaks head Julian Assange has offered $20,000 for information leading to a conviction of the killer of a young staffer for the Democratic National Committee. The staffer, a 27-year-old named Seth Rich, was shot twice on his way home in Washington, D.C. around 4 a.m. on July 10. He died later in the hospital.

The circumstances of the murder remain murky. According to D.C. police, the murder was the result of a botched armed robbery. Strangely, Rich still had his wallet, cell phone and watch on his person when his body was found. Because Rich was in charge of DNC voter expansion data and had access to a wide range of information about the inner workings of the Democratic party, some believe that his murder may have been politically motivated.

Though the details of his death are still very unclear, the fact that Assange himself has weighed in so heavily on the case is significant. In a recent interview with Dutch television station Nieuwsurr with Assange via Skype, he openly questioned the official narrative regarding Rich's death:

Assange: Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often significant risks. There was a 27-year old that works for the DNC who was shot in the back … murdered ... for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.

Host: That was just a robbery wasn’t it?

Assange: No. There’s no finding.

Host: What are you suggesting?

Assange: I am suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that.

Host: But was he one of your sources, then?

Assange: We don’t comment on who our sources are.

Host: But why make the suggestion?

Assange: Because we have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and that our sources face serious risks … that’s why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity.

The announcement by Wikileaks comes after the Washington, D.C. Police Department issued a $25,000 reward for information that could solve the case. A police spokesperson said there is “no evidence at this time” that linked Rich's murder to any other ongoing case. The same spokesperson went on to say, “We are very pleased if anyone is going to assist us with the giving of reward money.”

It is now suspected that Rich may have been behind the leak of 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee server that established widespread corruption and anti-democratic practices within the party. In particular, the leak revealed that the DNC had specifically targeted the Sanders campaign and undermined it in order to assist Hillary Clinton’s rise to the nomination. It also showed the corrupt funding practices within the Democratic Party.

One scheme was the Hillary Victory Fund (HVF), which appealed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for Clinton. The fund could accept checks as large as $356,100, with individuals limited to $10,000 per state party, $33,400 for the DNC and $2,700 for Clinton’s campaign. Most of the funds, however, were channeled into the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

A new revelation concerning emails from her personal server has shown that Clinton has consistently done the bidding of her Wall Street donors, while her office gave out high-level positions for those connected to the Clinton Foundation. In particular, one email directly connects her financial backer Morgan Stanley to her diplomatic maneuvers in China.

What is equally significant is the tone of the response from the major corporate news outlets to Assange's intervention. The headlines hardly contain impartiality, calling his statements a “conspiracy theory” deserving of a “tin foil hat.” Others describe Assange as attempting to “politicize” Rich's death, with the Daily Mail referring to it as an “outrage.” Several papers even allege that the story has gained interest due to the machinations of Clinton's Republican opponents in an attempt to smear anyone questioning the official narrative. Clearly, the press is working overtime to discredit Assange's remarks.

The political fallout from the DNC and personal server leaks has deeply worried the Democratic Party. In an effort to distance Clinton from the party machinations, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz stepped down on the eve of the convention in Philadelphia. The political officialdom is now making every effort to downplay the significance of the revelations, while officially implicating Moscow and moving to crush whistleblowers.

The corporate media immediately set about painting the DNC email leak as the result of Russian intelligence, as part of a broader campaign aimed at whipping up pro-war sentiment. The statement in which hacker “Guccifer 2.0” claimed sole responsibility for accessing the DNC servers has since disproved such claims.

One might also note that investigative journalist Michael Hastings died in a fiery car crash in June of 2013 while working on a story concerning CIA director John Brennan. An email obtained by WikiLeaks alleged “Brennan is behind the witch-hunts of investigative journalists” who reveal government secrets. The correspondence was from an internal communication within Stratfor, a global intelligence company with connections to the US state, with a subject line stating that the message was for internal use only and should not be forwarded.

Assange himself has been the target of a six-year-long politically motivated witch-hunt over an alleged sexual assault in Sweden. Originally consisting of four allegations, three have since been dropped due to lack of evidence and a five-year statute of limitations. The case has been spearheaded by the United States, likely in the hopes a conviction against him would allow for his transfer to the American judicial system. Assange has been forced to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, unable to leave due to fear of arrest.

Some sections of the American ruling elite have begun to argue for more barbaric methods in dealing with their political opponents. Bob Becker, a Democratic Party strategist and pundit for CNN, has called for Assange's illegal assassination. Having previously denounced Assange as a “traitor” (despite the fact Assange is an Australian national), he bluntly stated, “Just kill the son of a bitch.”

US military prepares new offensives in Syria and Iraq

Peter Symonds

Even as tensions are rising with Russia in Eastern Europe and China in Asia, the United States has launched a new war in Libya and is preparing a major military escalation in the Middle East, nominally directed against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

In an interview yesterday with USA Today, Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan confirmed that the US-led coalition is planning coordinated offensives against two ISIS-held cities—Mosul in northern Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. “If we are able to do simultaneous operations and synchronise the Mosul piece and the Raqqa piece, think about the problem that generates for [ISIS],” he said.

Harrigan, who recently took over command of air operations in the Middle East, said coalition war planes had been striking targets in both cities in recent months. “The team is focussed on force generation to try and make that simultaneous operation occur, because we see huge benefits from it,” he said, referring to the build-up of anti-ISIS ground forces in Iraq and Syria.

USA Today reported US troops are already operating extensively inside Syria, stating: “US Special Operations Forces are helping to identify and organise Syrian rebel groups into a force that can take on the Islamic State [ISIS]. The force now numbers about 30,000 and had generated some surprisingly early successes, particularly around the northern city of Manbij.”

Within Iraq, US-led preparations have been underway for months to retake Mosul, the country’s second largest city, which still has a population of up to one million despite a mass exodus. Iraqi government forces last month seized the Qayyarah air base, 60 kilometres south of Mosul, which is being transformed into a major hub of operations for the upcoming offensive.

The US has funnelled in around 400 troops to carry out repairs, as well as to provide military advice, logistics, communications and intelligence to Iraqi ground troops, which have already begun seizing villages and towns to the south of Mosul. The air base’s runways are being upgraded and extended to allow large military transports to land, along with US and Iraqi fighters and helicopter gunships.

The anti-ISIS forces preparing for the Mosul offensive consist of an unstable coalition of Kurdish peshmerga militia, regular Iraqi army troops and Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilisation Forces, which are notorious for their atrocities against Sunni civilians during the battle for Fallujah. Already concerns are being raised about the potential for sectarian fighting and human rights abuses once Mosul is recaptured.

Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, the top US commander in Syria and Iraq, declared this week: “We are going to try to get Mosul back as fast as we can. It’s one million people living under an oppressive rule under terrible conditions... The Iraqi security forces around Qayyarah are in a position now to begin that process and we’ll try to hurry that along as fast as we possibly can but putting an exact time on it, I’d rather not.”

MacFarland, who is due to be replaced, declared the US was winning the war against ISIS, reducing their territory in Iraq by more than half. “Although it’s not a measure of success and it’s difficult to confirm, we estimate that over the past 11 months we’ve killed about 25,000 enemy figures.” He provided no estimate of the number of civilians killed in the fighting or in US air raids.

The general also downplayed the role of US military forces, declaring they were only playing an “advise and assist” role at a distance and in specific locations. It is clear, however, that US troops are increasingly involved closer to the frontlines.

In an article late last month, the Washington Post reported: “While US Special Operations forces have already been advising elite counterterrorism troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces at their lower levels, the Qayyarah mission marks the first time since 2014 that US forces have advised Iraqi army battalions in the field.”

A small team of American combat engineers accompanied Iraqi forces on July 20 to advise on the task of constructing a temporary bridge over the Tigris River to the southeast of the town of Qayyarah. According to the Post, the US troops spent a few hours in the field in what was a “narrowly targeted mission, with limited battlefield exposure”—a model for “the restricted role that American commanders are planning for US ground forces in the Mosul operation.”

US generals are clearly concerned that American battlefield deaths will fuel anti-war sentiment at home, but have not ruled out putting US troops on the frontline. “In private, other senior officers are even more blunt, making reference to troops they lost in earlier Iraq deployments. This time, they will place Americans in the thick of fighting only if the overall mission is at risk,” the newspaper stated.

The timing of offensives in Iraq and Syria is also being driven by political considerations. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party are increasingly attacking Republican nominee Donald Trump as being unfit to be commander-in-chief of US forces. A substantial military victory in the Middle East, no matter what the cost in Syrian and Iraqi lives, has the potential to boost Clinton.

The issue is clearly being discussed in Washington circles. An article on the Politico website on August 1, entitled “Get ready for Obama’s ‘October Surprise’ in Iraq,” suggested that “the American public could be treated to a major US-led military victory in Iraq this fall, just as voters are deciding who will be the nation’s next president.”

The article cited unnamed senior US officers who insisted the Mosul offensive’s timing was not bound up with politics, but it did not rule out the possibility. “If Mosul is retaken, it would both mark a political triumph for Barack Obama and likely benefit his party’s nominee at the polls, Hillary Clinton, undercutting Republican claims that the Obama administration has failed to take the gloves off against Islamic State,” it noted.

Wall Street celebrates mass layoffs by Macy’s

Patrick Martin

Wall Street rose to new record highs on all three major stock price indexes Thursday, powered by rising oil prices and the announcement by Macy’s, the biggest US department store chain, of better-than-expected profits and a massive store-closing program, which could wipe out as many as 12,000 jobs.

Macy’s stock price rocketed 18 percent, the best showing for the company in nearly eight years. Other large retailers also saw huge gains in their share prices, with Kohl’s up 17 percent on higher quarterly profits, J. C. Penney up 9.34 percent and Nordstrom’s up 7.23 percent.

Thursday marked the second consecutive day that all three stock market indexes posted records, with the Dow-Jones Industrial Average rising 117.86 points to close at 18,613.52.

The Macy’s announcement of mass closures (and mass layoffs, although the exact number was not made public) was widely regarded as “bullish” for the stock market. TheStreet.com headlined its report, “Macy’s Stock Jumping as Investors Cheer Store Closure News.”

As USA Today reported it, “Investors … cheered an announcement by Macy’s that it would close 100, or nearly 15 percent, of its 728 stores in early 2017, a move that Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren says was a ‘proactive’ step to jumpstart growth going forward …”

The store-closing program comes on top of the closure of 41 Macy’s stores over the past year, at the cost of 4,800 jobs. At that rate, the 100 stores to be closed in 2016-2017 would mean the elimination of as many as 12,000 jobs.

Macy’s did not reveal which locations would be closed, indicating that workers would be notified later in the year. Lundgren said the company was shifting its focus more to online sales, where it is third in merchandise sales volume, after Amazon.com and Walmart.

Company President Jeff Gennette, who moves up to CEO next January, said in a statement, “Nearly all of the stores to be closed are cash flow-positive today, but their volume and profitability in most cases have been declining steadily in recent years. We recognize that these locations do not yield an adequate return on investment …”

Lundgren made it clear that the downsizing of Macy’s was only in its initial stages, and part of a process that would sweep through the entire retail industry. He cited figures showing 7.3 square feet of retail space for every American, five times more than most other developed countries. He told CNBC it was time to close all but the most profitable locations.

Many stores are worth more as real estate than as sales locations, company officials said. Macy’s is in negotiations to sell off its iconic 250,000-square foot Union Square location in San Francisco. Macy’s main New York City location, a full Manhattan city block, is valued at $3 billion to $4 billion.

One research firm estimated that the US retail industry should close 800 department stores—one fifth of all mall anchor space—to restore per-store sales levels to those of ten years ago, before the Internet sales revolution took hold. Given the average number of employees per store, this could mean the elimination of 100,000 retail jobs.

Then there are the knock-on effects of such closures. Macy’s stores, for example, are either the focal point of a downtown shopping area or the anchor of a shopping mall. In either case, closure will have a huge effect on smaller shops nearby, which depend on the traffic generated by the department store to sustain their business.

US retailers have already announced a major wave of closures this year, including all 460 Sports Authority stories, after the company’s bankruptcy; 154 Walmart locations and all of its smaller Walmart Express stores; 113 Aeropostale stores (the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May); 78 Kmart and Sears stores; 50 Ralph Lauren stores; and 18 Kohl’s department stores.

Beyond the immediate effect on the jobs and living standards of retail workers, the crisis in the industry is an expression of the decline of working class living standards overall. Wages are stagnant or falling in real terms, compared to the steady rise in prices, particularly for food, rent and other necessities.

Median family income in the United States was 8 percent lower in 2013 than in 2007, the last full year before the Wall Street financial crash touched off the deepest economic slump since the Great Depression. There has been little improvement over the past two years.

The 2016 elections have unfolded under conditions of deep dissatisfaction among working people, who, as is now widely acknowledged, have not had a raise in 16 years, a period that spans two full administrations, eight years of a Republican, George W. Bush, and eight years of a Democrat, Barack Obama.

The failure of both parties to address the decline in living standards is the driving force of the political upheavals of this year—the victory of billionaire demagogue Donald Trump in the contest for the Republican nomination, and the widespread support for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist,” in the campaign for the Democratic nomination.

With Sanders’ capitulating to the favored candidate of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, Hillary Clinton, and Trump daily revealing his noxious combination of fascistic demagogy and loyalty to his billionaire class, the two-party system offers nothing to working people seeking a way to defend their jobs and living standards.

The “economic programs” announced this week by Trump and Clinton, in dueling appearances in the Detroit area, underscored the bankruptcy of the profit system and the two corporate-controlled parties that defend it.

Trump spoke Monday at the Detroit Economic Club, telling his well-heeled audience that he would slash taxes on the wealthy by trillions of dollars, cutting the tax rate for corporations by more than half and eliminating the estate tax entirely, while offering workers nothing but the false promise that imposing restrictions on foreign imports would restore jobs in manufacturing.

Clinton’s speech Thursday at a former auto parts factory in suburban Warren was just as right-wing and even more demagogic, as she denounced Trump for his tax cuts for billionaires, while avoiding any mention of the fact that more billionaires actually support her own campaign. She also sought to outdo Trump in appeals to economic nationalism, reiterating her promise to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and attacking Trump for outsourcing his branded products to foreign manufacturers.

Clinton promised to launch the biggest infrastructure investment program since World War II, although the amount would be less than one-third of the “stimulus program” enacted during the first year of the Obama administration. This was largely a failure in terms of job creation, and paved the way to the destruction of 300,000 jobs by state and local government, mainly in public education.

Like Obama’s, Clinton’s economic plan would consist of federal handouts to private business, either in contracts or wage subsidies to hire the unemployed. In other words, it would rely entirely on the private sector, with no federal public works program or any other direct job-creation measure.

Tensions rise between Russia and Ukraine after terrorist provocation

Bill Van Auken

The Western-backed regime in Ukraine announced Thursday that it was placing its military forces on the highest state of combat alert amid the ratcheting up of tensions with Russia in the wake of a reported terrorist provocation in Russian-ruled Crimea.

For its part, Moscow announced the staging of maneuvers in the Black Sea, with the Russian navy rehearsing tactics for the repulsion of a attack on Crimea.

The Ukrainian government, which on Thursday sent its ambassador to the United Nations to speak before the Security Council on the matter, charged that Russia has massed more than 40,000 troops in Crimea and on the Ukrainian border. As Crimea is the historic base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, it has always had a large deployment of the country’s military.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, dismissed the charge, declaring, “Instead of counting our military, they should be bringing an end to the conflict” in eastern Ukraine, where the Kiev government’s forces have continued to attack a separatist Russian-speaking minority, claiming some 10,000 lives since April 2014.

Moscow has charged the Ukrainian government with organizing a terrorist attack aimed at striking vital infrastructure inside Crimea, a territory that Russia annexed following a plebiscite in which the peninsula’s population voted for unification with Russia. The move followed the February 2014 coup, orchestrated by Washington and Germany and spearheaded by ultra-nationalist and fascist forces, which overthrew the elected, pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and installed a rabidly anti-Russian regime. The United States backed the putsch in a bid to escalate the US-led drive to encircle and militarily subjugate Russia.

A NATO official told the AFP news agency that the US-led military alliance was carefully following the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, declaring that “Russia’s recent military activity in Crimea is not helpful for easing tensions.”

State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau called the situation “very dangerous” and reiterated Washington’s position that “Crimea is part of Ukraine.”

Both dismissed Russia’s account of terrorist actions against Crimean territory by a Ukrainian-organized special operations squad.

Russia’s state security agency, the FSB, issued a detailed statement Wednesday, saying that the attacks were carried out on the night of August 6-7 under the direction of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Further attempts at infiltration were repeated on August 8.

The statement said that one FSB agent was killed in the attempt to detain the Ukrainian operatives, whose object was described as the targeting of “critical infrastructure and life support facilities” in Crimea. A Russian soldier also was reportedly killed by fire from Ukrainian military units, including armored vehicles, in support of the operation.

The FSB claimed to have recovered “20 improvised explosive devices with a total explosive power of 40 kg [of] TNT,” along with land mines, grenades and special assault weapons.

The agency also presented evidence it said was given by a Ukrainian described as an operative of Ukrainian military intelligence and a leader of the special operations units, identified as Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Panov.

Sergei Aksyonov, Crimea’s prime minister, charged that the real source of the terrorist operations was Washington. “Ukrainian officials wouldn't have had the courage for such actions ... These are not their own actions and messages,” he said, adding, “the US State Department is looming behind them.”

There is every reason to suspect that this is the case. The provocation in Crimea comes in the midst of a drumbeat of escalating US rhetoric and actions taken against Russia. The US has stepped up its arming and funding of Al Qaeda-linked militias in Syria in an attempt to reverse the victories of Syrian government forces, which have been closely supported by Russian air power. On August 1, the US-backed jihadists shot down a Russian helicopter on a relief mission, killing all five aboard. In the media, former top officials and columnists with close government connections have called for US air strikes against the Russian-backed forces and the imposition of a “no-fly zone” that would inevitably spell a confrontation with Russia’s air force.

In Ukraine itself, Washington has worked to build up the military of the crisis-ridden, right-wing regime in Kiev headed by the oligarch Petro Poroshenko. A 500-strong US unit is presently on the ground in western Ukraine training Ukrainian forces, including members of fascist-led militias, while hundreds, if not thousands, of other US military personnel and contractors are regularly rotating in and out of the country. Last month, the US Navy joined with Ukrainian warships in the “Sea Breeze” exercises aimed at challenging Russia in the Black Sea. In July, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Ukraine for talks with Poroshenko, where he reiterated Washington’s support for the Kiev regime’s claims on Crimea.

The dangerous war tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been unleashed in the midst of an election campaign that has seen the presidential front-runner, Democratic candidate and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, attack the fascistic Republican candidate Donald Trump from the right, particularly over the question of Russia.

The Democrats have staged a neo-McCarthyite campaign against Trump, accusing him of being a puppet of Vladimir Putin, while also charging—with no evidence—that the Russian president was behind the WikiLeaks release of Democratic National Committee emails exposing attempts to rig the primaries against Clinton’s challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Among the charges leveled against Trump—again without substance—is the assertion that his campaign “watered down” the Republican platform’s language on Ukraine. The language, in fact, denounces the Obama administration for abetting a “resurgent Russia,” backs sanctions against Moscow, and calls for “appropriate assistance to the armed forces of the Ukraine.” The complaint was that it left out a reference to supplying them with “lethal weapons,” something the Obama administration itself claims it is not doing.

That Clinton attacks such policies from the right, with growing support from key figures in the US military and intelligence apparatus along with growing numbers of Republican policy makers, constitutes a clear warning. Preparations are being made for a direct military confrontation with Russia in eastern Europe, with provocations like those staged in Crimea serving as the likely trigger. Whether such a dangerous escalation of conflict, involving the world’s two major nuclear powers, will be postponed until after November is itself an open question.