Ethiopian’s Crying out for Freedom and Justice

Graham Peebles

Usually the 11th September, or 1st of Meskerem on the Ethiopian calendar, is a day of celebration. It is the Ethiopian new-year. However, this year there was a distinct shortage of happy gatherings or collective jubilation to mark the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, either inside the country or amongst the diaspora.

The country is in crisis and the majority of Ethiopians believe there is little to celebrate, instead many people spent the day in quiet reflection, dressed in black. Prayers were said at church services in Ethiopia and abroad for those who have been killed protesting (a constitutional right), by security forces of the ruling regime.

As the movement for democratic change grows, the government continues to try to put it down by violent means. Security forces indiscriminately shoot peaceful protestors in the streets, beat and intimidate others. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says they receive “daily accounts of killings and arbitrary arrests”, and estimate that up to 500 protestors have been killed since November 2015, although many inside the country put the figure higher.

Thousands have been arrested and falsely imprisoned; young people – who are leading the charge for democracy – are being specifically targeted. Torture is widespread in Ethiopian prisons, and for those detainees who have expressed political dissent, it is virtually guaranteed. Witnesses have told ESAT News (an independent broadcaster based in Europe and America) that some detained protestors have died as the result of torture, and are buried in the prison grounds.

The ruling EPRDF party (in power since 1991) was not democratically elected, and has remained in power by stealing one election after another. They demonstrate no concern for democratic principles or human rights, and like all dictatorships, will do anything to remain in power. They seem unable to grasp the severity of the current situation, or understand the feeling among the population, the vast majority of whom despise the regime and are desperate for fundamental change. Protestors are calling on the government to step down, and for real and honest democratic elections to be held.

Government ministers and spokespersons repeatedly claim that ‘outside forces’, and ‘anti peace elements’ (whatever they may be) are behind the popular uprising. This of course is nothing more than propaganda; complete lies promulgated to appease the EPRDF’s benefactors and maintain the false image of a democratic government, concerned with national and regional stability and the wellbeing of its citizens. They refuse to enter into meaningful discussions with opposition leaders and activists, and have sanctioned a policy of violence, which they presumably hope will frighten the people into collective submission once more. But the democratic genie is out of the bottle and the regimes heavy-handed, not to say criminal actions, are only serving to inflame the situation.

In an action that reveals their crude and bullish approach, over a thousand regime soldiers have now been stationed in Bahir-Dar in the Amhara region, where a dignified ‘stay-at-home’ protest has been taking place for weeks. Such an intimidating presence will further antagonise local people, and strengthen already existing anger. Troops were transported on Ethiopia Airlines commercial planes on 1st September, and are now receiving their deadly orders from the Chief of Staff, Samora Yunis, who has set up base in the city. The Internet (which is controlled by the government) in the region remains largely shut down, and locals suspect telephone calls are being monitored.
Growing Unity

Freedom and justice are like healthy seeds – once planted there growth and realization is inevitable, it is a question of when they blossom, not if. The desire for these basic human rights, so long denied, is now firmly rooted in the hearts and minds of Ethiopians throughout the country. People from various ethnic, tribal and religious groups are coming together, and despite the governments attempts to divide communities, a growing sense of unity and shared purpose is evolving, strengthening the movement for change. There is a danger however that the anger felt towards the regime, which is dominated by men from the Tigray region, will spill over into hatred for all people from Tigray, fuelling an ethnic conflict. This would be a terrible mistake and should be avoided at all costs. Unity of all ethnic and tribal groups is the key for peaceful change in the country, and the signs are encouraging.

The people of Oromia and Amhara, who together constitute the majority of the population, are combining their efforts; two opposition parties – the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF) and Patriotic Ginbot 7 for Unity and Democracy (PG7) have formed an alliance, and on the sacred Islamic day of Eid-Al-Adha, the Ethiopian Muslim Arbitration Committee “called on all Ethiopians to stand in unison regardless of ethnic and religious background in the struggle to restore justice in the country”, report ESAT News. The committee went on to make clear that no amount of government force would ‘stop the people from reclaiming their freedom’.

Predictably the government responded to this call for national solidarity with violence, attacking and detaining members of the Laity, as well as Muslims in Dire Dawa and Aweday in Eastern Ethiopia. The EPRDF’s sole response to calls for freedom and justice is to try to silence by any means, those making such democratic demands.

Nationwide Actions

What started as a regional dispute in the region of Oromia (central Ethiopia) is turning into a nationwide movement that is increasingly well coordinated and determined. Throughout the country different groups have different grievances, but one enemy – the EPRDF government. Inter-related democratic fires have been erupting up and down the land as groups protest against a range of unjust government policies; unconstitutional policies that have been violently enforced for over two decades.

In the town of Konso in southwest Ethiopia, over 50,000 residents signed a petition calling for self-determination – a constitutional right. The regional council dismissed the request without discussion. Insulted and angered the people went on strike, causing government offices and businesses to close down. Security forces were brought in and, ESAT News report, killed scores of people, forcibly displaced up to 300 Amharas whose village homes were set on fire, and attempted to “incite ethnic violence” between Amharas and local indigenous groups. Frightened for their lives “over 4,000 [Amhara] people have left Konso”, with many more planning to migrate to neighboring regions.

Protests over territorial land have been taking place in the city of Gondar in the North–West of the country for months. There is a huge military presence in the area now and residents had been ordered to hand over any guns held for self-defense. However far from complying with the decree to disarm, furious locals attacked soldiers and gun battles ensued. In the Lower-Omo Valley (south-west), people from the Bodi and Mursi tribes united blocking roads in protest at the government’s land-grab policy. Large tracts of ancestral land are being sold off by the regime to national and international companies, causing the displacement of thousands of indigenous people.
In the second incident to take place in a prison in a matter of weeks, a fire broke out at the high security Qilinto prison on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa. Under cover of the fire special-forces personnel, who were brought in to replace prison guards, killed a number of inmates. Whilst the BBC carries the (government influenced) figure of 23 dead, other sources claim military snipers shot at least 60 prisoners. Opposition party members, journalists and protestors are amongst those held in Qilinto.

It took the authorities over a week to release the bodies of those killed; a week in which the names of victims were also withheld, causing intentional anguish to families and friends of those detained.

The Ethiopian diaspora has also been active, protesting throughout the western world. And in what appears to have been a coordinated action, Ethiopians living in London, Frankfurt and Stockholm stormed the Ethiopian Embassies. Protestors took down the (current) national standard, which bears the regimes emblem, replaced it with the countries original flag and called for an end to the killing and arrests taking place in the country.

Change is coming

Ethiopia is regularly cited as an African success story and receives huge support from western donors – both financial and political. The countries primary donors are the USA, Britain and the European Union, all of who have allowed the ruling EPRDF to violate human rights on a colossal scale. The ‘allies’ – of the government not the people – to their utter shame, have (with their virtual silence) continued to support the regime as it slays innocent people in the streets. The US, it is said, has raised “grave concerns” about the use of force against protesters; ‘concerns’, which unless backed up with actions to influence the regime, are simply hollow words, insincerely spoken.

All pressure needs to be brought to bear on the Ethiopia government to stop the violence, listen to the people and enter into serious dialogue with opposition groups. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights request for access to affected areas of the country was denied, and leading human rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have written to the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling for an immediate halt to “excessive” use of force by Ethiopian security forces against protestors.

The ruling party of Ethiopia will no doubt ignore such reasonable calls and continue with their violent response, they seem unable to react in any other way. But whatever the EPRDF may do, the movement for change is sweeping through the country and the struggle for freedom will go on. The fear that hung over the population for so long is at last loosing its grip; people sense that the momentum is with them, and that with consistent, united action, change is a real possibility.

TISA and the Privatization of Public Services

Joyce Nelson

A new report reveals the extent to which local governments around the world have been taking services delivery back into the public sector. Water and waste water services, garbage collection, electricity delivery, health services, transit systems, and other services that were contracted-out, partially privatized through public-private partnerships (P3s) or privatized outright are now rapidly being brought back into public control across the globe because privatizations resulted in economic (or other) major problems.

The report, called Back In House: Why Local Governments Are Bringing Services Home, was recently released by the Centre for Civic Governance at the Columbia Institute in Vancouver, B.C. It focuses on the process called “remunicipalization,” so-called because the changes in ownership structure usually occur at the municipal level.

While the report is thorough and helpful, it is strangely reassuring about the impact of pending trade agreements on remunicipalization. Mentioning only NAFTA and one of the pending trade deals – the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) – which have raised the concerns of local governments, the report states: “However, while it is important to be aware of these trade rules it is equally important to understand that most decisions made by municipalities will never be affected by these agreements.” 

On the contrary, as I reveal in my new book – Beyond Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism  – the financial oligarchy is particularly focused on increasing privatization and is pushing the trade deals in order to make remunicipalization impossible. 

This is especially true of the little-known, secret deal called the Trade In Services Agreement (TISA), which the writers of Back In House might not know about. TISA is the back-up deal in case TPP (TransPacific Partnership), TTIP (TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and CETA fail.

Team TISA

TISA involves 50 countries, including every advanced economy except the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India China, and South Africa). TISA is being negotiated in secret, with the unelected and unaccountable European Commission representing the 28 EU countries. Other countries negotiating TISA include Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Ideland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

Nick Dearden, director of UK-based Global Justice Now (GJN), calls TISA “a massive super-privatization deal covering everything from finance to education.”  TISA focuses on services, not goods, and allows multinational corporations to provide services across national borders by turning public services into commodities run for profit.

TISA specifically prevents remunicipalization, or any reversals of previous privatizations of public services. The Transnational Institute has noted, “TISA will make it impossible for governments to reverse privatization or decrease the influence of the private sector. Governments will only be able to choose to maintain privatized services as they are or to extend liberalization.”  Similarly, Public Services International warns that TISA “would lock in current levels of services liberalization in each country, effectively banning any moves from a market-based to a state-based provision of public services.” As Ellen Brown has written, “TISA is a one-way street. Industries once privatized remain privatized.”  Negotiations on TISA are set to conclude in December 2016.

As I reveal in Beyond Banksters, TISA was dreamed up by the Global Services Coalition, whose “Team TISA” members include Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife, Prudential, Verizon, Wal-Mart, and other corporate titans intent on privatizing the world. Unfortunately, municipalities will be affected by pending trade deals, especially TISA.

Controlling Bodies: Italy’s Fertility Campaign

Binoy Kampmark

Demography is destiny, and the destiny of aging Europeans is long run death.  How the demographic strategists have dealt with this varies, but the tendency in various countries is either to accept refugees en masse (the now questioned Merkel solution for Germany), or encourage home breeding through various initiatives.

The latter point became an issue in Italy when the population wonks got busy with a program of encouragement: Breed for the state; conceive in patriotic circumstances.  Since the 1960s, the birth rate in Italy has fallen by half, to 488,000 babies born in 2015.  Negative birth rates has been the norm for decades.

The Fertility Day was born, and it caused quite a rotten stir.  On Wednesday, accusations were made that a booklet, published by the health ministry pointing out undesirable and desirable personal habits, was more than mildly racist.

The top part of the cover was positively bread white, sporting two couples of near Aryan fairness.  All happy, ambitiously sexual, all hopefully fecund. The dark side of life was conveniently portrayed on the front as well, just to provide a suitably ugly contrast.  Instead of horizontal collaboration in the name of the state, lounge lizards, one of them visibly black, were lighting up, decadently passing the day.

While engaging oneself in the good act of copulation (or assisted reproduction), and lighting up a reefer, are hardly inconsistent activities, such campaigns tend to be resolutely austere. Fuck, but do so with biblical purpose and concentration. It’s all a rather serious affair.

Health minister Beatrice Lorenzin, member of the New Centre Right and self-proclaimed apocalyptic Cassandra, thought she was being clever in suggesting that the photos conveyed diversity in Italy yet also making a homogenous claim.  “The photos represent a homogeneity of people, as is the multi-ethnic society in which we live.  Racism is in the eye of the beholder.”  As is, come to think of it, racial homogeneity.

The country has borne witness to a range of posters encouraging a fertility drive.  Twelve have been produced.  “Beauty has no age,” goes one trite claim.  “But fertility does” (La bellezza non ha età.  La fertilità sì.)

Even the Italian Prime Minister has expressed irritation at the campaign run by his minister.  Matteo Renzi decided to throw his colleague to the wolves by distancing himself in a radio interview. He claimed that none of his friends felt an urgency to have children after seeing such an advertisement, with only stable jobs and appropriately financed day care being the priorities to ensure more children.

“If you want to create a society that invests in its future and has children,” asserted Renzi, “you have to make sure that underlying conditions are there.” Not the most earth shattering of revelations, but entirely appropriate to the standard policy maker, and one having to face the traditional impediments facing Italian families.

Sexuality and fertility tend to be minefields for policy makers.  While families and sexual life should be deemed areas of autonomous endeavour, family policies rarely reflect the family as a totally private, and privatised matter. Behind every child is a demographic consideration, a population marker.

In this case, it was obvious that fertility was being treasured, the sacred grove of a society’s existence.  The infertile one would invariably be cast on the outer, as would those waiting for an appropriate partner, or a more appropriate economic situation.

As author Robert Saviano noted on his Facebook page, the focus in this odd campaign was on urgency and desperation, rather than discretion and discrimination. “You are not certain that your partner is the right one?  Come on, procreate, for where they eat two eat three.”

When states start to fiddle the demographic picture, unevenness is a standard result.  The other aspect of the fertility coin is restriction and control.  When governments get involved in that field, problems can also arise.

China’s one-child policy, the classic example of fertility fiddling in action, had its backers, but it has always had its prominent detractors.  The fear there was that a centrally imposed directive about breeding would be demographically disturbing. Cultural impediments, in other words, were not adjusted to cope with the aspirations.

The inadvertent consequence of that approach was a preponderant favouring of male children.  The results of that all too remarkable social engineering exercise is a conspicuous shortage of brides for the surfeit of men. The availability of inexpensive ultrasound machines, notably in the countryside, also enable parents to make tactical decisions accordingly.

Then there is another side, often neglected by the panic mongers keen to see prams filled and cots populated. Aging is not necessarily a cause for crisis. The National Academy on an Aging Society has made the claim that demography need never be destiny – provided that a “reasoned set of policy choices” are put in place. Sort out the care options and employment, and the babies will duly follow.

Earth Could Reach Critical Climate Threshold In Decade, Scientists Warn

Nadia Prupis

The planet could pass the critical 1.5°C global temperature threshold in a decade—and is already two-thirds of the way to hit that warming limit, climate scientists warned on Thursday.

Speaking at a University of Oxford conference this week, led by leading U.K. climate researcher Richard Betts, scientists said global greenhouse gas emissions are not likely to slow down quickly enough to avoid passing the 1.5°C target.

The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C was agreed to in the landmark Paris agreement negotiated by 195 nations last year.

But the planet is continuing to experience unprecedented heat month after month, setting 2016 on track to be the hottest year ever recorded. In fact, the scientists said, Earth is currently on a trajectory to hit at least 2.7°C in global temperature rise.

Pete Smith, a plant and soil scientist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said mass lifestyle change must be undertaken to combat rising temperatures, such as developing more sustainable diets, reducing food waste and red meat intake, and importing fewer greenhouse gas-heavy vegetables.

“There are lots of behavioral changes required, not just by the government…but by us,” he said. He also warned that controversial geoengineering techniques such as sunlight blocking could become the norm in some countries.

The warning came the same day that Oil Change International released a report that found we have 17 years left to get off fossil fuels, or else face unprecedented and irreversible climate catastrophe.

Yet more bad news also emerged Thursday as a new study published in the journal Science found that the Earth is soaking up carbon at a far slower rate than previously estimated—which could mean a massive setback for environmental efforts.

Once considered a vital weapon in the fight against climate change, the soil, which traps carbon that would ordinarily be released into the atmosphere, has now been found to take a much longer time to absorb carbon than scientists believed—which means its potential for carbon sequestration this century “may only be half of what we thought it was,” the Washington Post explains.

As Jim Hall, director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, put it at the conference, “We need to get ready to deal with surprise.”

Australia: Thousands more jobs being destroyed

Terry Cook

The jobs crisis in Australia continues to mount, amid world stagnation and falling demand for commodities such as iron ore and coal, once the major mainstay of the economy’s growth. Major companies are restructuring their operations, destroying jobs and working conditions in a bid to slash costs as part of a ruthless fight for market share and profits.

During the July 2 federal election, the Liberal-National Coalition claimed it would create “jobs and growth,” while Labor promised it would generate “full employment.” The stark reality for thousands of workers is low-paid and insecure part-time or casual employment, or poverty-level social security payments.

The official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) unemployment rate for August fell to 5.6 percent, the lowest level in three years, down from 5.7 percent the previous month. But the survey counts as employed anyone who has worked for more than an hour in the month.

Even on these figures, there are more than 720,000 unemployed workers, an average of 18 per known vacancy. As a result, thousands are dropping out of the workforce.

The drop in the official rate was largely attributable to a fall in the seasonally adjusted workforce participation rate from 64.9 last November to 64.7 percent last month. The number of people looking for work declined by more than 100,000 over that period.

While 11,500 full-time jobs were added in August, part-time positions fell by 15,400, an overall loss of 3,900 jobs. This does not alter the underlying shift toward casualisation of the workforce at the expense of full-time jobs. Over the past year to August, full-time jobs fell by 64,500, while 136,300 workers were pushed into part-time work.

The total number of hours worked in part-time jobs climbed 5.3 percent this year, whereas full-time hours worked increased by just 0.33 percent, well down from the more than 5 percent pace of five years ago, at the height of the mining boom.

According to the Roy Morgan employment survey, based on a broader interview process, the situation is far worse. Unemployment in August stood at 10.4 percent, with another 7.1 percent of workers under-employed, that is, looking for more hours. On this result, 2.249 million people were unemployed or under-employed, up by 132,000 since August 2015.

Young people are most affected. According to the ABS, the unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds is 12.4 percent, more than double that for older workers. Young workers also make up a growing percentage of the casual and part-time workforce. The ABS estimates that their under-employment rate is five times that of the early 1980s.

Better-paying jobs are still being destroyed throughout mining-related and manufacturing industries, as commodity prices fall back from recent slight recoveries. More than 2,300 mining jobs have been axed this year as companies cut back workforces, suspend operations or close mines entirely.

Iron ore prices have dropped by more than 9 percent since August 23, down from almost $US62 per tonne to $US56.09 last week. Iron ore and coal prices are likely to remain low, because China has pledged to cut steel production by 150 million tonnes a year by 2020. Some 60 percent of Australia’s iron ore and coal is exported to China.

The Joint Coal Board statistics report for the New South Wales coal industry for 2014-16 shows that more than one in five coal mining jobs have gone since employment peaked four years ago. As of June 30, the equivalent of 19,388 full-time employees were working in or around a coal mine or coal washery, compared to 24,972 in June 2012. The number of operating coal mines in the state fell from 62 in June 2010 to 40 this June.

Retrenchments in the construction sector are mainly driven by the lack of investment in new LNG and other mining projects. According to ABS figures, the value of total construction on a seasonally adjusted base fell in the June quarter for the fifth consecutive quarter, dropping 3.7 percent to $47 billion, a level not seen since 2011. Over the year, construction was down 10.6 percent.

Major employers across a range of sectors recently announced further job cuts.

Oil and gas company Santos revealed it will axe 600 jobs across its Australian operations, mainly in Queensland, in a bid to rein in cash flow and pay down debt. Telecommunications provider Optus will eliminate over 90 jobs in its networks division, on top of the 480 to be cut from a range of areas announced in April. Competitor Telstra will slash over 50 jobs from its wideband design workforce.

News Corp announced it will axe 300 jobs when it takes over APM News and Media’s regional newspaper businesses across Queensland and northern NSW. Ship builder ASC will cut a further 175 jobs at its Port Adelaide shipyard in South Australia.

In the public sector, the State Library of South Australia will shed 20 jobs in a bid to save $6 million over three years following budget cuts. The state government also confirmed that 200 nursing positions will be cut fromSouthern Adelaide Local Health Network when the Repatriation General Hospital closes at the end of next year.

The New South Wales government plans to cut 132 full-time teaching positions from the state’s prison education program by December.

Unrest in the Congo: Political turmoil rocks Kinshasa

Eddie Haywood

Martial law was declared Monday in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congo, after Congo’s main opposition parties made a public call for mass demonstrations against the government, declaring their fears that President Joseph Kabila will refuse to leave office when his term ends in December.

The electoral commission was set to announce a date for elections on Monday, but has said that it will not be possible to hold them in November.

Kabila has been president for 15 years and has served the maximum of two terms allowed by the constitution. His presidency is set to expire on December 20. He took power in 2001, succeeding his father, President Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated.

Several headquarters of various political opposition parties were attacked with grenades and machinegun fire. The Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the largest political party opposing the current Kabila government, was set ablaze, incinerating several people inside alive.

Also attacked were the headquarters of the Forces of Union and Solidarity (Fonus) party and the headquarters of the Lumumbist Progressive Movement (MLP). Witnesses report the attackers were soldiers in uniform.

Several people have been reported killed in the unrest, and much of the city was smoldering, with buildings on fire, as well as scores of cars set ablaze. Hundreds of police were called out to quell the violence.

Opposition sources put the death toll at 50, while witnesses declared that police opened fire into crowds. There have been reports of mass arrests and beatings of demonstrators carried out by police.

On Thursday, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the Kabila government, stating that he was particularly shocked at reports that some men in uniform took a direct part in some of the attacks against the headquarters of six opposition political parties.

While it appears that that the unrest in Kinshasa has abated, the threat of renewed chaos has not been resolved.

The current political unrest is just the latest manifestation of deep going instability within the Congolese political setup. In May of last year, opposition political parties staged a rally in Kinshasa against the Kabila government, sparking a violent government crackdown and resulting in scores killed.

The political forces opposed to Kabila are led by various wealthy Congolese businessmen, former Kabila allies, and individuals who formerly served in the Mobutu Sese Seko dictatorship.

One of the leading candidates for president, Moise Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and former governor of Katanga, with previous close ties to the Kabila regime, called for demonstrations for Monday, stating on his Twitter account: “I call for peaceful demonstrations everywhere in the country to ask for elections!”

Katumbi fled the country last May after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was a one-time confidante of Kabila, but the two have since had a falling out. He has been sentenced in absentia to three years in prison after being convicted of corruption in a land sale deal, a charge he denies.

Katumbi’s main claim to fame is as the owner of the Congolese football club TP Mazembe, which has won several championships and is a major source of pride for many Congolese. Katumbi is the most favored candidate from the main opposition parties.

Étienne Tshisekedi also backed the call for demonstrations. Tshisekedi is the leader of the presidential candidate of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress opposition party. Now aged 83, Tshisekedi has a long and sordid history; he served various ministerial positions in the reviled US-backed dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, including as Sese Seko’s prime minister, during the period of the regime’s worst crimes.

As finance minister for Sese Seko, Tshisekedi oversaw the expropriation of vast sums of wealth from the country that were funneled into the accounts of international financial interests exploiting the Congo as well as those of Sese Seko and his ruling clique. Tshisekedi also oversaw the savage repression of political opponents of the dictatorship.

Congo has had a long and brutal history, beginning with Belgian colonial rule in the 19th century. After a bloody and protracted fight, in 1960 Congo gained independence from Belgian colonialism. The leader of the anti-colonial struggle, Patrice Lumumba, emerged as Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister in 1960.

Less than satisfied with the election results, Belgium, with aid from Washington and the Central Intelligence Agency, set out to remove Lumumba from power. Lumumba’s demands that Congo’s significant mineral wealth be controlled by the Congo were considered his death sentence by Belgium and Washington.

After being arrested, Lumumba and two of his closest advisers were removed from their prison cell in the dark of night and shot to death by a firing squad.

This barbaric act brought to power the brutal dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, which received significant support and approval from Washington and Belgium. The Mobuto dictatorship carried out the some of the worst crimes of any post-colonial African regime. The dictatorship ruled the Congo until 1997, when Mobuto was forced to flee after a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila, then a rebel military leader. This led to the Congo War, which lasted from 1996 to 2003 and resulted in millions of deaths.

For its part, Washington indicated its displeasure with the Kabila regime in June when the Obama administration threatened to impose sanctions against the country if Kabila refuses to leave office. Washington has warned Kabila not to seek a third term, with the usual vacuous platitudes about “respecting the constitution.”

The real concern from Washington is for the vast mineral wealth of the Congo, and the maintenance of a reliable and pliant regime in Kinshasa to facilitate the exploitation of these resources. The chaos that would ensue from a recalcitrant regime that refuses to leave office is something Washington wishes to avoid, as this would disrupt the flow of resources and profits.

Another point of contention between Washington and Kinshasa is the Kabila government’s business dealings with China. By reaffirming it dominance through AFRICOM and US military alliances, Washington is aiming to halt the growing economic influence of China on the African continent.

China has invested heavily in Congo, particularly in the mining sector and copper.

Congo is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the most socially and economically polarized. It is home to some of the largest deposits of mineral wealth in the world, including resources used in the manufacture of electronics such as computers and mobile phones, coveted by wealthy Western interests.

The Congolese economy has been drastically affected by the sharp drop in commodities indices on world markets in recent years; the fall in the price of copper (Congo is Africa’s largest exporter of copper) has left the Congolese economy reeling. The country’s oil and mining sectors account for some 98 percent of Congo’s exports. Claiming fears of hyperinflation, Kabila is projected to cut the budget this year by as much as 30 percent, slashing spending for public services and other essential government functions.

Congo is controlled by a wealthy corrupt ruling class, while the vast majority of Congolese live in dire poverty, with millions across the country having no access to clean water and enough food to eat. The total mineral wealth and natural resources of the Congo are estimated to be worth some $24 trillion, but this vast wealth is completely out of reach for the majority of Congolese.

The living conditions are miserable for the masses of Congolese. Fewer than 25 of the population has access to sanitary facilities, and fewer than half access to clean water. This lack of basic sanitation results in annual outbreaks of cholera and other air and water borne diseases, such as dysentery, which affect millions of people. Two out of every five child deaths are caused by malaria, which afflicts nearly 7 million Congolese.

The prevalence of these conditions and the widespread misery for the majority of the population in a country with such vast wealth and resources stands as an indictment of both world capitalism and Africa’s national bourgeoisie.

Puerto Rico hit by nationwide blackout

Kevin Martinez

The entire US territory of Puerto Rico suffered a blackout beginning Wednesday night after a fire caused a substation to break down. The plant had not been repaired in decades and the cause of the fire is unclear, although a lightning storm is thought to be responsible.

Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told reporters Friday morning that 75 percent of the island’s 1.5 million homes and businesses had electricity restored, and that the entire system would be returned to normal only by Saturday, 72 hours after the power went out. During the press conference at the island’s emergency management center, the lights went out briefly prompting laughter from the assembled reporters. Padilla was forced to admit that periodic blackouts and shortages would still occur as the demand for electricity increases.

The blackout shut down the entire island of 3.5 million people, who are already struggling with an economic crisis and forced bankruptcy analogous to the city of Detroit, Michigan. Residents are angry that they are being forced to pay for electric utilities that are already charge double the rates in the United States.

Governor Padilla called out the National Guard and declared a state of emergency, shutting down all public schools and government buildings for the week. Authorities warned that tropical storms could still knock out power lines and black out areas that had power restored. An estimated 250,000 people don’t have access to water.

Temperatures were recorded at 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, causing many Puerto Ricans to sleep outdoors for the third night in a row. Residents formed long lines outside of grocery stores to get ice, a precious commodity, and recharge their cell phones.

Hotels in the capital San Juan offered special rates to island residents but were soon booked up. At least one person died from carbon monoxide poisoning after fixing up a personal power generator in their home. An elderly man was also taken to the hospital after spending the night in a stuck elevator, and at least four police officer were hit by cars while trying to direct traffic; they are all expected to recover.

While local power outages are common in Puerto Rico, an island-wide blackout is extremely rare. Authorities have since traded blame for the failure to maintain the island’s outdated and grossly unmaintained infrastructure.

The Electric Power Authority, which oversees the Aguirre power plant in the southern town of Salinas, is still investigating what caused the fire. Two transmission lines were knocked down, causing circuit breakers to automatically shut down as a safety measure, affecting the broader power grid. The authority’s executive director, Javier Quintana, said that the preliminary investigation suggested that lightning might have struck a transmission line, causing the switch to explode.

Governor Garcia, for his part, denied that the blackout was the result of the country’s decade long economic slump. He insisted that the switch at the power plant was not properly maintained. Puerto Rico’s electric company faces a $9 billion deficit and numerous allegations of corruption.

These corruption charges are not confined to the utility companies by any means. Garcia’s own campaign manager has been accused of illegally soliciting cash donations, and the president of the House of Representatives was forced to resign.

Puerto Rico is now undergoing massive austerity on behalf of Wall Street banks and hedge funds that are demanding the former US colony “restructure” $70 billion in public debt, $20,000 for every man, woman, and child on the island. The country's gross national product has contracted in eight of the last nine years. Government corruption has diverted public funds from going to socially useful projects to wasteful ones.

As Emilio Pantojas Garcia, professor of Sociology at the University of Puerto Rico wrote in an article titled, “Is Puerto Rico Greece in the Caribbean?” published in the Winter 2016 edition of the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, the government used bonds starting under the governorship of Pedro Rossello (1993-2001) to finance “mega public works projects.”

“Examples of major projects undertaken with bond issues guaranteed with future income to be realized from the fees of [the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority] include the ‘Super Aqueduct’ of the PRASA and two natural gas pipelines … of PREPA, which were intended to deliver natural gas from ports to various power plants. Other projects included the ‘Urban Train’ subway, a multi-purpose coliseum, and various municipal projects.

“Of these the ‘Super Aqueduct’ was the only functional project. The urban train operates with a large deficit, and the two gas pipelines were never completed, although the materials were bought and contracts to develop them were issued, as a rule to party donors and affiliates.”

Pantojas Garcia continued, “As a result, 33 members of the Rosselló administration were later indicted and convicted of corruption by U.S. Federal Prosecutors in Puerto Rico. In general, these projects established a 'pay-for-play' scheme, requiring contractors to kick back 10% of the contracts to the ruling party, a practice that became known as 'tithing' (el diezmo).”

Puerto Rico’s economy has stagnated over the last decade, particularly after the 2008 crash. The population has declined every year since 2005 according to the Census Bureau. Last year saw the population decline by 1.7 percent, the biggest drop since at least 2000.

The exodus of Puerto Ricans abroad is the result of no jobs at home. About 46.2 percent of the island lives below the poverty line, compared to 14.8 percent in the US. Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate is at 11.7 percent, down from a high of 16.9 percent after 2008, though more than double the “official” US unemployment rate of 5 percent.

Of course, these figures are an underestimation of the real unemployment rate, which would include those who have stopped looking for work entirely. Puerto Rico’s labor force participation rate has fallen about 9 percentage points since 2007 to 40.6 percent. This is triple the decline in the US, where it fell from 66.4 to 62.8 percent in the same period.

Total employment in Puerto Rico stands at roughly one million, down nearly 300,000 from 2007. Government employment accounts for 70,000 lost jobs. Tourism, one of the few employers on the island, is now threatened with the outbreak of the Zika virus.

Such conditions are what produced this week’s ongoing blackout, the combination of a rotten government infrastructure and over a century of American colonialism.

Yahoo reports 500 million user accounts were hacked in 2014

Kevin Reed

Internet service provider Yahoo acknowledged on Thursday that the account information of at least 500 million users was hacked and stolen in late 2014. According to a press release posted on Yahoo’s investor relations page, the information theft “may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.”

Hashing refers to server-level conversion of passwords into strings of unreadable characters that are difficult to convert back into their original form. Bcrypt is a specific password hashing method that is used in Linux-based on other open source computing environments.

The Yahoo announcement, written by Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord, also said the company’s investigation shows that the copied data does not include unprotected passwords or users’ bank account information or payment card data. The statement went on, “the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network.”

Although Yahoo’s assertion that the breach was the work of a state-sponsored hacker has been repeated widely in news reports, no facts have been presented to substantiate the claim. The only additional information that has been reported is that Yahoo is working “closely with law enforcement” in their investigation. This follows the pattern set when Democratic Party mail servers were hacked and material delivered to WikiLeaks. This was subsequently blamed on Russian intelligence by unnamed FBI sources without any evidence ever being presented.

Meanwhile, the announcement that the hack took place two or more years ago also places a number of question marks over the Yahoo revelation. While large-scale hacking of user information has been on the increase and has become more sophisticated in recent years, it defies logic that no one at Yahoo—the company is a pioneer of the World Wide Web technology—knew that their security had been breached until 24 months after the event occurred.

It should not be ruled out that the timing of the hacking report is related to the pending purchase of Yahoo by Verizon for nearly $5 billion. The mega-merger was announced on July 25 following more than a decade of stagnation at Yahoo since the collapse of the dot-com bubble on Wall Street in 2001. As the stock market value of Yahoo has been sliding in the wake of the hacking announcement, the Verizon deal will most certainly be impacted. According to Verizon officials, they only found out about the Yahoo security issue two days before the public announcement.

The massive Yahoo data breach is the biggest ever, eclipsing those of LinkedIn in 2012 and MySpace last May, in which 164 million and 359 million accounts were hacked, respectively. Cyber security experts are saying that the impact of the Yahoo attack will be felt for years to come as the information that was stolen contains a “treasure of secrets” that can be used to gain access to other online accounts of those affected.

For example, illegal access to an individual’s email account can be used as a “stepping stone” to gain entry into other sensitive information through commonly used username and password resetting methods. The same kind of access can be gained with answers to online security questions such as “What is your mother’s maiden name?” and “What is the make and model of your first car?”

The Yahoo press announcement included a list of steps the company is now taking to secure customer data along with steps users need to take to protect their accounts and other private information. The Yahoo announcement also contains a link to a public security page where FAQs are being published about the issue.

Police violence and the social crisis in America

Joseph Kishore

In Charlotte, North Carolina, protests continued on Friday over the brutal police killing of Keith Lamont Scott, 43. Local and state officials announced a curfew earlier this week and have deployed riot police using tear gas and the National Guard against demonstrators.

As political officials and the city’s police department debate whether or not to release police video of the shooting in an effort to defuse social tensions, a nail in the coffin of official lies came Friday with the release of cell phone video shot by Scott’s wife. Rakevia Scott can be heard pleading with police not to shoot her husband, shouting that he does not have a weapon, that he had a traumatic brain injury, and had just taken his medication. The video also shows Scott after the shooting, prone on the ground, without a gun at his feet as appeared in subsequent photos, suggesting that police may have planted evidence.

Both the killing of Scott and the protests in response to this killing starkly expose the deep social tensions and class divisions in America. The fact that these demonstrations erupt only six weeks before the presidential election underscores the deep alienation of masses of workers and youth from the entire pseudo-democratic electoral charade. Hundreds of workers and youth would not be in the streets if they believed that the upcoming elections will lead to a more just society.

Conditions in Charlotte are a microcosm of America as a whole. The “Queen City”—a main corporate center for Bank of America, Wachovia bank, Duke Energy and other companies—has been listed as among the “best places to live,” celebrated as a beacon of progress and “growth” in the US South. However, this applies only to the rich and the privileged upper middle class.

Since 2000, the number of people in Charlotte living in poverty has doubled, from 159,000 to 314,000 (out of a total Metropolitan area population of 2.4 million). It is among the cities with the highest growth of concentrated poverty, with the census tracts deemed high poverty (poverty rates of more than 20 percent) rising from 19 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2014. A quarter of all children in the city are poor, and a Harvard study found that poor children in Mecklenburg County have one of the lowest chances of escaping poverty of any county.

Similar conditions exist in cities throughout the United States. Eight years after the financial collapse of 2008, social inequality is at record levels. The Obama administration has overseen the funneling of trillions of dollars to the banks, with a corresponding inflation of the wealth of the super-rich. Millions of workers and young people face a future of unemployment, low-wage work, and soaring costs for housing, rent and other basic necessities.

In the two years since the killing of Michael Brown led to protests and a brutal crackdown by militarized police forces in Ferguson, Missouri, more than 2,000 people have lost their lives to police violence. Even the most casual interactions with police can end in violent arrest or death.

Despite all the protests, and despite nervous appeals from sections of the political establishment and media for some restraint to forestall social unrest, the killings continue, day after day, week after week. It becomes difficult to keep track of all the names added to the list of victims. This only demonstrates that there is something deep and organic involved, embedded in the structure of American society and politics.

Media commentators and Democratic Party officials proclaim that Scott’s killing is another expression of the immense racial divide in America, with police killings a subset of the broader conflict between “white America” and “black America,” between police departments and “communities of color.”

Racism exists and, of course, frequently plays a role in police violence. However, those who seek to enforce a racialist narrative ignore basic facts. To a degree unknown during the heyday of the civil rights movement a half-century ago, police departments and state institutions are racially integrated. The cop who allegedly shot Scott is African-American, as is the city’s police chief, who has opposed calls for the release of the video. Many of the political officials who run cities with the most brutal police violence (like Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore who chaired the Democratic National Convention and called protesters against the killing of Freddie Gray “thugs”) are African-American. And is it necessary to call attention to the racial background of the individual who has served as US president during the past seven and a half years of escalating police violence?

In the final analysis, police violence is a class issue. Consider some of the recent killings tabulated by the Guardian newspaper, one of the few media sources that have kept a systematic record of police violence in America. Each tells a story of social breakdown in one form or another, with the tragedies charting similar paths regardless of the race of the individual killed.

A disproportionate number of African-Americans are victims of police killings, but approximately one-half of the victims of police violence are white. To cite several cases that have occurred in the past ten days alone involving members of this supposedly “privileged” white demographic:

* Joshua Scott, 22, from Port St. Lucie, Florida, was killed on September 20 when police officers sought to involuntarily commit him for mental health treatment. He reportedly armed himself with a gun and was shot after a six-hour standoff.

* Jeremy Swenson, 30, from Logan, Utah, was killed on September 19. He was reportedly suicidal and was making “threatening actions” against another person, prompting police to shoot him dead.

* Jesse Beshaw, 29, of Winooski, Vermont, was shot seven times on September 16 by police who were serving him an arrest warrant. He was unarmed, but police claim he advanced toward them with an arm behind his back.

* Joseph Schlosser, 69, of Weeki Wachee, Florida, was killed on September 15. Police officers were responding to a 911 call from a health care worker who said that Schlosser, a military veteran, was suicidal. He was shot and killed in his home.

* Timothy McMillan, 38, of San Gabriel, California, was killed on September 14. McMillan was homeless and allegedly stole a police car. Unarmed, he died after being accosted and restrained by police at a McDonald’s restaurant.

The list goes on and on. Each of these stories, and many more like them, could be the subject of novels exploring the horrific consequences of social dislocation, inequality and war.

Police violence—like unemployment, poverty and all the consequences of capitalism—affects workers of every race and background. It is this basic fact the purveyors of identity politics seek to cover up. Those who talk about “white privilege,” or claim that the United States is convulsed by racial hatred, are engaged in a conscious political fraud, aimed at concealing the class nature of the state and blocking what is the necessary precondition for any fight against police violence: the unity of the working class.

The epidemic of police murders is one symptom of a deeply dysfunctional society. The homilies of Obama and other government officials about American “democracy” cannot cloak the reality of a ruling class that operates with unparalleled violence at home and abroad. The United States is in the midst of an election campaign between a fascistic demagogue and a right-wing representative of the military-intelligence apparatus, competing with each other over who will represent the interests of the ruling class most ruthlessly. The contest between Trump and Clinton, as with the political establishment as a whole, appears separated by a vast gulf from social reality.

The global predations of the American ruling class have innumerable consequences, from the bombings carried out last weekend in New York, to the practice of torture and assassination, to the increasingly violent character of the political process itself.

In the videos that have come out of police killings, beatings and other atrocities, one is struck by the inhumanity of it all, the indifference to human life. It is not a matter fundamentally of individuals, but of the institutions of the state, that “body of armed men” acting in defense of the ruling class, in which the combination of war and social inequality is expressed in homicidal behavior.

The events in Charlotte over the past several days point to the social upheavals that are to come. The same capitalist crisis that produces war and social counterrevolution also produces class struggle. A way forward, however, can only be found through a conscious fight to unify all sections of the working class, of all races, to connect the fight against police violence to the fight against war, unemployment, poverty, inequality and the capitalist system that underlies it all.

New Australian “anti-terror” laws overturn basic legal rights

Mike Head

Among the first bills to be tabled in the Australian parliament after the Liberal-National Coalition government barely survived the July 2 election are two “anti-terrorism” laws that contain serious attacks on fundamental democratic and legal rights. Significantly, both bills have bipartisan support, with the Labor Party already pledging in-principle backing.

The political establishment is moving, as a matter of high priority, to bolster the repressive police-intelligence apparatus with measures that can be used to target political opponents, not just a relatively small number of Islamic extremists. This is under conditions of mounting war in the Middle East, growing tensions with China and a deepening domestic offensive against welfare, essential social programs and the living standards of the working class.

Both bills go well beyond what the government has publicly acknowledged. In a media release, Attorney-General George Brandis presented the bills as providing for the “ongoing detention of high risk terrorist offenders” and reducing the age from 16 to 14 for control orders to be imposed on teenagers.

But the details of the first bill show that the convictions for which prisoners could be detained indefinitely, even after serving their sentences, extend beyond terrorist-related offences to others that could be used against opponents of the government and its escalating involvement in US-led wars, including the air force bombings in Syria.

The Criminal Code Amendment (High Risk Offenders) Bill violates the core principle of habeas corpus—no detention without a criminal trial. It allows for prisoners to be incarcerated indefinitely, using renewable three-year detention orders. This means locking prisoners away for life, regardless of their original terms of imprisonment.

Such orders require no proof of any intent to commit a further offence—just a “high degree of probability” that a crime could occur. This standard of proof is much lower than the criminal one of “beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt.”

In deciding to issue orders, the courts are instructed to consider reports provided by “relevant experts” on the “unacceptable risk” of the prisoner committing a terrorist-related offence if released. The prisoner’s “criminal history” can be taken into account—reversing the legal principle of excluding prior convictions from decisions about guilt.

The “relevant experts” must say whether the prisoner has “actively participated in any rehabilitation or treatment programs.” Any prisoner who refuses to cooperate with the authorities, such as by becoming an informer or undercover agent, is likely to remain incarcerated.

The bill has been approved unanimously by the state and territory governments, Coalition and Labor alike, which will adopt matching legislation. Such state laws are being used to evade the Australian Constitution, which has no bill of rights but does effectively prohibit punishment, including detention, by the federal government except via conviction by a court.

Brandis described the bill as dealing with “terrorist offenders” who pose an “unacceptably high risk” to the community if released. But, firstly, the official definition of terrorism is wide enough to cover political acts of protest that cause any injury or property damage.

Secondly, the crimes for which prisoners can be incarcerated include many loosely-defined offences, such as “providing or receiving training” or “possessing things” connected with terrorist acts, or “collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts.” On the list as well is membership of, or raising funds for, an organisation declared by decree to be terrorist, and “providing support” to such a “terrorist organisation.”

Also covered are prisoners convicted of treason or “foreign incursions.” Treason includes “assisting enemies at war with the Commonwealth” and “assisting countries or forces engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force”—which could mean opposing wars and other military interventions.

“Foreign incursions” include entering areas declared by the government, such as Syria, or preparing to engage in “hostile activities” (including damaging government property) in a foreign country. The bill extends to allowing the use of a building to facilitate recruitment to “serve in or with an armed force in a foreign country.”

The second bill, the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill, not only allows 14-year-olds to be placed under control orders—a form of house arrest, or curfew and tracking. It also targets supposed “hate preachers,” who could be jailed for seven years for a vague new crime of “advocating genocide.”

“Advocating genocide” is a deceptive term. It can be committed by “counselling, promoting, encouraging or urging” a broad range of conduct, such as inflicting “destructive” conditions of life.” A person can be convicted simply on the basis of comments they make, publicly or privately, that are deemed to be “reckless as to whether another person will engage in genocide.”

The bill’s explanatory memorandum states that the offence is directed against the use of social media by “hate preachers” who supposedly choose their words carefully so that there is insufficient evidence of incitement, urging or intention to cause harm.

The 142-page bill boosts an entire range of police and intelligence powers of entry, search, surveillance and electronic tracking. It also extends the use of preventative detention orders beyond alleged “imminent” threats of terrorism to where there are “reasonable grounds to suspect” that a terrorist act could occur within 14 days.

As well, there are wider powers to close court proceedings and prevent disclosure of “national security information,” including in control-order hearings. Jail terms of up to 10 years can be imposed for disclosing, even recklessly, information about Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) activities, if that disclosure “endangers the health or safety of any person or prejudices the effective conduct of a special intelligence operation.”

The two bills add to the more than 60 laws introduced under the banner of the “war on terrorism” by Coalition and Labor governments over the past 15 years. Sweeping precedents have been set, such as detention without trial, that erode essential legal and democratic rights. This barrage is accelerating. The latest bills constitute the sixth major tranche of such laws since the Coalition took office in 2013.

US-led invasions and wars, in which Australia has participated, have devastated the Middle East, killing hundreds of thousands of people and sending millions fleeing their homes.

Now, with Labor’s backing, and assisted by the corporate media, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s unstable government is seizing upon overseas terrorist attacks and whipping up local terrorism scares to justify erecting a police-state framework in the face of rising social and class tensions. Two recent “terrorism” arrests, one against a right-wing activist and the other against a Kurdish journalist, highlight the capacity of the laws to be used against political opponents, particularly anti-war and socialist organisations.

These measures, accompanied by intensifying witch-hunting of Muslims, seek to divide the working class along communal and ethnic lines, and create the ideological conditions for escalating Australian participation in the widening war provoked by the US in the Middle East.