Greek fascists attack refugee camp

John Vassilopoulos

Dozens of refugees were forced to flee the Souda refugee camp on the island of Chios last Thursday after a brutal attack by Golden Dawn members.

According to reports, the attack began at around 9:30 pm and lasted until the early hours of the morning. The fascists threw petrol bombs, large boulders and fireworks into the camp from surrounding elevated areas. A 42-year-old Syrian man was assaulted and a Nigerian boy was injured by one of the rocks. Three tents were burnt down and three more were damaged.

Afraid to return to the camp, the refugees that fled slept at the fishing market that night when temperatures dropped to 8 degrees Celsius. Many were still there three days later, according to reports.

On learning of the attacks, a group of aid workers rushed to help the refugees. One of these, Alexandros Panagiotakis, told CNN Greece that the group “came upon around 150 migrants at the fish market where they had sought safety from the far-right attackers. [Another aid worker and I] went to get our cars so that we could transport the migrants to a safer place.”

On their way to get their cars Panagiotakis and his colleague were set upon by a mob of 30 Golden Dawn members, who attacked them verbally and physically. “They threw us down and started to kick and swear at us,” said Panagiotakis. “They stopped only when a riot police squad arrived. They hit me on my sides and legs and the girl [the other aid worker] was semi-conscious. We were taken immediately to hospital.”

Similar attacks had taken place the previous evening, when Golden Dawn members armed with makeshift clubs and crowbars attacked refugees outside the Souda refugee camp while large stones were also thrown into the camp. According to reports a 25 year-old Algerian man is still in intensive care after being hit in the head.

In covering the events, the media lay the blame on the refugees by claiming that the troubles on Wednesday evening began after a group of migrants broke into a fireworks shop and then reportedly proceeded to set them off towards police and local residents. Refugees who spoke to Greek daily I Efimerida Ton Syntakton (Ef.Syn.) paint a different picture and claim that the trouble started two hours before when a group of locals attacked a group of Algerians sitting at the Chios public park. “The group had firecrackers and started to throw them [at the refugees] for no reason,” said a Syrian refugee.

The wave of violence was in fact stoked by the visit of Golden Dawn MPs Ilias Kasidiaris and Yiannis Lagos to Chios on Tuesday, where they spoke at a public meeting that evening calling for mass deportations of all refugees and migrants. This was part of a wider tour with a similar event taking place on the neighbouring island of Lesbos. Kasidiaris and Lagos were accompanied by a delegation of parliamentarians from Belgium, members of the Flemish far-right Vlaams Belang party.

There are currently more than 16,000 refugees and migrants being detained in refugee camps on Greek islands in the Aegean, while existing infrastructure is only adequate for around 7,500 people. The overwhelming majority have fled from the imperialist-driven conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. In Chios alone there are 4,000 refugees and migrants--nearly four times more than the current capacity.

Overcrowding is directly linked to the March agreement between the European Union and Turkey, which stipulates that Turkey take back all refugees who come across the Aegean to Greece. As a result, refugee camps in Greece have become internment camps of people--most of whom are destined to be deported back to Turkey after their cases have been assessed. The process is extremely slow, and meanwhile arrivals continue to flow in, which places even more pressure on existing infrastructure. According to figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), nearly 3,000 people crossed into Greece from Turkey in the last four weeks alone.

The Golden Dawn meetings sought to exploit tensions among sections of the local population, partly due to the increase in petty theft as a result of the economic desperation of the migrant and refugee population and partly due to the effects the refugee crisis has had on the tourist industry, the backbone of the local economy. Their timing was also designed to cause maximum provocation, given that they coincided with the commemoration of the student uprising against the military junta on November 17, 1973.

A counter-protest was held that same evening in Chios, with around 200 people holding a march through the island’s main town towards the Grecian Castle Hotel where the Golden Dawn meeting was taking place. The demonstrators’ path was blocked by riot police.

According to various accounts from eyewitnesses, the attacks on Wednesday and Thursday were carried out under the nose of the police, despite their having been officially placed on high alert since the Golden Dawn meeting on Tuesday. Riot police only intervened to stop Thursday’s attacks on the camp in the early hours of the morning, after they had gone on for five hours. There was a notable delay in police intervening in the attack on the two aid workers, which took place a few metres away from two patrol cars.

Tolerance of far-right attacks by the Greek police, delaying intervention or letting perpetrators get away, is a common occurrence. Golden Dawn enjoys substantial support among officers, especially in riot police units. Three years ago rapper Pavlos Fyssas was murdered in Keratsini by a Golden Dawn member while police stood near-by and did nothing.

The police have arrested none of the perpetrators. The only people arrested so far were 37 refugees and three foreign aid workers during the altercations on Wednesday evening.

In a speech to his parliamentary group, Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos openly defended the attacks while railing against the “progressive journalists of this country who lay the blame at the door of far-right elements.” He added, “You know what? Yes! For them every Greek that resists is a Golden Dawn member. For us that’s a badge of honour. Golden Dawn is the national defence of Greece.”

Like their far-right counterparts throughout Europe, Golden Dawn has been emboldened by the victory of the fascistic Donald Trump in the United States—which Michaloliakos referred to in his speech as “a true victory against globalisation.” But if Golden Dawn is able to posture as an anti-establishment party and to exploit social anger by channeling it into the scapegoating of migrants, this is the responsibility of the Syriza-led government. Since betraying his anti-austerity mandate last year, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras signed a third austerity package with the EU while at the same time enforcing the EU’s reactionary refugee policy.

The 19,000 Dow: Markets soar on prospects for profiteering under Trump

Nick Beams

US stock indexes reached record highs again on Wednesday on expectations that the policies of the incoming Trump administration, based on “America first” economic nationalism, the removal of all regulations restricting corporate profit-making, and huge business tax cuts, will provide a major boost to the bottom lines of banks and corporations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its rise after closing above 19,000 for the first time ever on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the Russell 2000 were also in record territory. Only the tech-based Nasdaq index was slightly down after hitting a record high on Tuesday.

All four major indexes reached record highs on Tuesday, something that had not occurred since New Year’s Eve in 1999, at the height of the dot.com bubble.

The market rise is being led by two groups of stocks, banks and those involved in construction and infrastructure.

Bank stocks are being propelled by the prospect of interest rate increases, which will boost their profits, and indications that the Trump administration will wind back regulations, including some of the limited restrictions imposed under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The rise in bank stocks is the main reason for the jump in the S&P 500.

The other major boost to the market was provided by construction firms. Shares in John Deere jumped by more than 10 percent, resulting in a boost to the S&P 500 index. Shares in other industrial stocks, including Caterpillar, were responsible for a major part of the rise in the Dow.

Stocks in these companies have been boosted by Trump’s commitment to initiate an economic stimulus package program of tax cuts and infrastructure spending. The tax measures include a reduction in corporate taxes from 35 to 15 percent, as well as a reduction in the top tax levels for the ultra-wealthy. Companies repatriating profits from overseas may have to pay as little as 10 percent.

But it is the infrastructure program, which has been put at $1 trillion, that has sent the markets soaring on the ever-stronger smell of money. It is not a plan for the government to borrow money and use it to finance much-needed improvements on roads, bridges and other basic facilities.

Rather, it is based on a privatisation scheme, in which firms will receive massive tax cuts for undertaking such projects. By means of tax breaks, they will receive back as much as 82 percent of the money they invest. As the owners of the projects they initiate, they will then be able to collect tolls or user fees in perpetuity. In many cases, the projects will involve profitable ventures to which companies would have been attracted anyway.

The same modus operandi applies to deregulation of the energy and pharmaceutical industries. In his brief video announcement on Monday, Trump said that for every new regulation that is introduced, two existing regulations will have to be eliminated. This is a program aimed not at increasing jobs and wages or improving social conditions for the masses of working people, but at providing a profit windfall for corporate America.

Trump’s economic plan for the US economy bears a striking resemblance to the business model of his real estate and casino empire: a mixture of tax evasion, scams and outright swindling, coupled with the exploitation of low-wage workers.

It has been estimated that the tax cuts and infrastructure spending increases will lead to an increase in US budget deficits from 3 percent of gross domestic product to 6 percent. Trump is also planning an immense increase in military spending. Who is to bear the burden of this debt explosion? The working class.

Trump is planning to cut non-defense discretionary spending by 1 percent a year, which will mean further reductions in food stamps, home heating assistance, unemployment benefits, health programs and the enforcement of job safety and environmental standards.

He is targeting federal workers for immediate attack, calling for mass layoffs, the gutting of job protection provisions, the elimination of automatic raises and the imposition of 401(k) plans instead of pensions for new-hires.

During the election campaign, Trump sought to attract voters suffering cuts in their wages and living standards with the promise that Medicare, Social Security and other entitlements would not be touched by his administration. But the budget process is in the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress, where House Speaker Paul Ryan has reiterated his plan to privatize Medicare. Since the election, Trump has said he is “open” to such a plan.

The Trump agenda has major implications for financial markets and international economic relations. The rise in the stock market has been accompanied by a significant rise in bond yields—up from around 1.7 percent before the election to around 2.3 percent today on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note. This means a sharp fall in bond prices, which move in the opposite direction of yields.

Coupled with the near certainty that the Federal Reserve will lift its base rate at its meeting next month, the rise in interest rates could have a major impact on a financial system in which the bond market has been described as a bubble. Increased interest rates could bring about significant losses on financial deals made on the basis of rates remaining at their previous record-low levels.

The prospect of rising rates has already seen a rise in the value of the dollar, which has reached its highest point in 13 years as measured against a basket of international currencies. This means that US corporations that rely on international markets will face increased competition.

The Trump agenda of “America first” economic nationalism represents a major shift in US economic policy. It is being adopted under conditions in which the previous policy of near-zero interest rates and central bank money-printing is widely recognized to have exhausted its usefulness and failed to resolve the crisis that erupted with the Wall Street crash of 2008.

While the American ruling class has always pursued its own interests, US economic policy in the post-war period was based on the assumption that the interests of American capitalism were bound up with the expansion of global markets and trade. Now the free trade mantra has been thrown aside, threatening to set off a wave of retaliatory trade and economic warfare that sooner rather than later will rebound on the American economy.

Thanksgiving 2016 and the social crisis in America

Andre Damon

On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation authored by Secretary of State William H. Seward declaring the last Thursday of November “a day of thanksgiving.”

Despite a Civil War of “unequalled magnitude and severity,” the declaration stated, the conflict had not “arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship,” while “the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.” The proclamation concluded, “The country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.”

The ravages of the Civil War would last another year and a half. Nevertheless, it was true that society was being transformed by railroads, steamboats and the telegraph, an expansion in productive capacity that would accelerate with the rapid industrialization fostered by the Second American Revolution. The Civil War would clear the way for capitalist progress—and the explosive growth of the class struggle—by abolishing slavery.

As families throughout the United States gather to share a meal this Thanksgiving, relatively few will agree with Seward’s assessment that the country can expect “years with large increase of freedom.” Rather, for many, Thanksgiving will serve only to underline the economic hardship and oppression they face.

More than one in eight households will have had difficulty putting food on the table the year before, and millions will have a Thanksgiving meal only by standing in line at a food pantry or soup kitchen.

Over a million-and-a-half people were homeless last year, including some 300,000 children and 450,000 disabled people. Millions more live in substandard housing, doubled up with other families, or in motels. Such conditions may affect only a minority of American families directly. But the great majority of the population is economically insecure.

Forty-six percent of adults are so financially strapped that “they either could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money,” according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve this year.

Under these circumstances, the announcement that the average premium under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), supposedly designed to insure lower-income people, will increase 25 percent next year means that millions will either lose their health coverage or face hundreds, or even thousands of dollars in additional expenses.

The terrific stress caused by living in households one accident or illness away from financial ruin, in which young people are burdened by debt and face narrowing prospects, while the elderly confront rising medical costs and decreasing retirement benefits, produces many signs of social distress.

The brutality of this society, compounded by militarism and police violence, falls hardest on the young. One study has found that the prevalence of serious depression among teenagers increased by 37 percent between 2005 and 2014. Another reported that children from 10 through 14 are for the first time more likely to die from suicide than from a car accident.

Perhaps the most devastating manifestation of the social malaise is America’s drug epidemic. This year, a shocking 28,000 people will die from opioid overdose, almost as many as the number killed in car accidents. For tens of thousands of families, Thanksgiving will be a time of mourning for those who have lost their lives to heroin, fentanyl or prescription painkillers.

Many of the states most affected by the drug epidemic are those worst hit by joblessness and deindustrialization. Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the “rust belt” states that backed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but swung behind Donald Trump in the 2016 election, all saw their rates of opiate overdose increase by more than 10 percent between 2013 and 2014.

The social crisis in the United States is fueling an immense growth of oppositional sentiment, including significant signs of renewed class struggle and political radicalization that found only initial expression in the elections. This came first in the widespread support during the Democratic primaries for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who called himself a socialist and denounced the “billionaire class” and social inequality.

Sanders’ “political revolution” concluded ignominiously with an endorsement of Hillary Clinton, who ran on the claim that, in the words of President Obama, America is doing “pretty darn great.” The implication of this delusional narrative was that those who disagreed and were swayed by Republican candidate Donald Trump’s demagogic appeals to social discontent were part of the “white racist working class,” seeking to defend their “privileged” status against blacks and other minorities. Basing her campaign on various forms of identity politics, Clinton pitched her appeal to the affluent and complacent. The result was a sharp decline in votes for the Democratic candidate within all sections of the working class.

Trump, who is being installed in the White House with the blessings of the outgoing president and both parties, will not “make America great again.” Neither he nor any section of the ruling class has a solution to the social crisis gripping America. His “America first” economic nationalism will exacerbate the global capitalist crisis and mean sharper attacks on workers within the United States. His program of tax cuts for the wealthy, the elimination of regulations on corporations, cuts in social programs and an immense increase in military spending will fuel social discontent and anger.

Trump’s election marks a turning point in the looming showdown between the financial parasites he personifies and the great mass of the population, the working class.

Restraint to Retribution: Modi’s New Normal and Nawaz Sharif’s Challenge

Arvinder Singh Lamba

India’s response by a surgical counter-strike by Special Forces on launch pads against terrorists near the Line of Control (LoC) to infiltrate inside Indian Territory was the beginning of a natural but formidable exhibition of the changing political will and military precision assaults. The resonance of near global synergy and opinion against both - terror and a terror sponsor state - that uses its military machine to endanger peace and stability, should have warned Pakistan of possible responses.

 

India’s strong responses with complete ownership at the highest level signal the first ever reflection of rare strategic convergence between political leadership, the home ministry, the National Security Advisor, and the military.

 

For Pakistan, the message was one of India’s zero tolerance towards terror emanating from home grown groups in Pakistan, as well as terror groups or elements sponsored by Pakistan and operating within India.

 

In keeping with its strategy of denial and disowning terrorist actions from Mumbai to Uri, Pakistan’s military has dismissed the strike as a usual cease fire violation. The chorus of denial this time came from the highest diplomatic levels as office of the high commissioner of Pakistan in India to the political and the military hierarchy in Pakistan.

 

Pakistan's response is unmistakeable despite this denial. Visits of journalists to forward locations to negate the truth of Indian surgical strike have been followed up by intensified firing on border villages inflicting heavier casualties in the rice belt of RS Pura, sensitive Macchal and Gurez sectors, terror strikes in Afghanistan and Balochistan, and mutilations of Indian soldiers. Recent media reports of four posts in Keran sector routed by India’s fire assaults and increased casualties of Pakistan’s soldiers reflect the hardening responses.

 

First, it is imperative to identify the reasons impelling Pakistan’s denial. Foremost, the strike challenged the Pakistan Army’s rhetoric of being the saviours and guardians of the country, especially when viewed in India’s historically reactive and overcautious perspective; caused a paralysis, disabling Pakistan Army’s response to this strike, and more grievously, preventing Pakistan’s response to any further strikes by Indian military.

 

Second, the military’s inability to explain significant casualties to their trained and nurtured terrorists who expect due protection from the military during operations and suicide missions, added a sense of betrayal to their sacrifices.

 

Finally, for an event that has drawn enormous international support for India in its war on terror, what will the Pakistani military have to explain to the nation, and its political leadership, and where does the government go from here? The civilian government, forced to toe the military line, risks its own credibility.

 

The bigger spin off is one of paralysis in the political leadership and the chasm in civil-military relations intensifying with an environment of resentment against Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s money laundering in the Panama Papers leaks and other businesses; clampdown on media; and the military’s pressures for escalating the situation that may compel the government to box this big lie.

 

While Pakistan's military may be working to redress the ramifications, three major outcomes are likely:

 

One, obfuscation of the event will deny the government any grounds for justifying appropriate response or reaction, and such continued inaction will substantiate the perceived paralysis of the leadership and the policy makers.

 

Two, for Pakistan, their doctrine of bleeding India by a thousand cuts has been deeply frustrated, adding to uncertainty regarding the frontline role and space in future operations of jihadis and other terrorists.

 

Finally, the change of Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) will draw greater focus in light of accentuated and irrational responses. Whether or not incumbent COAS Gen Raheel Sharif gets an extension, the level of escalation across the LoC and the International Border (IB) may well threaten the civilian government’s aspirations for stability. In fact, the escalation, with a major risk of throwing the spiral out of control, may have already begun.

 

For India, the increased latitude and freedom by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Border Security Force, and the military to its tactical commanders for dealing with similar situations is a significant departure from the past that will encourage harder responses by India each time.

 

By irrational actions such as ceasefire violations, killings, mutilations on the border, and terror strikes in Balochistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan has more than crossed the threshold of India’s restraint.

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent warning of retribution is a unique mark up, threatening to escalate responses to the next level with graver consequences for Pakistan’s military, as much as for Nawaz Sharif - whose political leadership is already under test. The subsequent phone call by Director General of Military Operations to his Indian counterpart raising the white flag to stop increasing casualties is in acknowledgement that responses are beginning to hurt.

 

In the larger perspective, the tectonic shift from strategic restraint to credible military options by Prime Minister Modi not only indicates India’s new political direction, but also emphatically debunks the traditional myth of zero operational space between unabated terror by Pakistan and a nuclear war.

For the international community, India’s dynamic political leadership and professional military have underscored their capacity and resolve to protect national interests, as well as to play a credible role in ensuring stability and security in the region.

University of Brighton International Students’ Scholarships 2017/2018

Application Deadline: There are four application deadlines throughout the year: 31st January, 31st March, 31st May, and 31st July 2017.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: International countries

To be taken at (country): United Kingdom

Type: Postgraduate taught

Eligibility: To be eligible, candidate must:

• be new, full-time, international fee-status student who holds an offer of admission.
• have applied for the course of your choice at the University of Brighton, and have been offered a place on that course for 2016 entry.
• Students studying graduate diplomas, pre-masters programmes, or equivalent, at University of Brighton partner colleges or those on PG Cert and PG Dip courses (excluding OSPAP, Law CPE PGDip and Accounting PGDip) are not eligible for these scholarships.
• These scholarships are not open to students who are fully sponsored.
• Existing international students are also not eligible unless starting a new postgraduate programme.

Selection Criteria: The criteria for awarding University of Brighton international scholarships are primarily merit-based. Merit does not necessarily have to mean academic merit but could also be interpreted to include outstanding performance in a variety of spheres.

The strongest candidates will be those demonstrating a mixture of academic merit (including English language ability) and other merit or outstanding achievement in a particular field of activity.

Candidate will also need to show that they have sufficient funds to pay the remainder of the fees.

Number of Awardees: Thirty (30)

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship is worth £5,000 off the cost of students’ tuition fees for each year of your course.

Duration of Scholarship:  One (1) year

How to Apply: Visit the scholarship webpage to apply

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: University of Brighton

University of Warwick Commonwealth Shared Scholarship for Masters Students 2017/2018

Application Deadline: 16th March 2017.

Eligible Countries: Commonwealth countries

To be taken at (country): UK

Eligible Fields of Study: The Taught Masters courses offered for the academic year 2017/18 by the University of Warwick in partnership with the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission are the following 10 courses only :

MSc in Healthcare Operational Management – Warwick Manufacturing Group
MSc in Economics and International Financial Economics – Economics
MA in Global and Comparative History – History
LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights – School of Law
MSc in Biotechnology, Bioprocessing and Business Management – School of Life Sciences
MSc in Food Security – School of Life Sciences
MSc in Sustainable Crop Development; Agronomy for the 21st Century – School of Life Sciences
MA in Gender and International Development – Sociology
MA in International Development – Politics and International Studies
MA in International Political Economy – Politics and International Studies

Type: Masters

Eligibility: To apply for these scholarships, candidate must:

• Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
• Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country (for a full list of eligible countries, see the terms and conditions in link below)
• Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2017
• By August 2017, hold a first degree of either first or upper second class (2:1) classification, or lower second class (2:2) classification plus a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree)
• Not have studied or worked for one (academic) year or more in a developed country
• Be unable, either yourself or through your family, to pay to study in the UK

Selection Criteria: Selection criteria include:

• Academic merit of the candidate
• Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The Scholarships cover full tuition fees, offer a generous stipend, provide airfare to the UK and return home and an allowance for warm clothing.

Duration of Scholarship: 1 year

How to Apply: In addition to the University’s own online study application, applicants mustsubmit a funding application via the Commission’s electronic application system by 16th March 2017. No late applications will be considered.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: University of Warwick

New Zealand’s capital caught unprepared for earthquake and flooding

Chris Ross

On 15 November, the day after a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook the South Island of New Zealand, the capital city Wellington, on the lower North Island, was cut off by heavy rain and strong winds. Widespread flooding, land slips and aftershocks closed both main state highways, caused the suspension of rail and bus services and prompted the evacuation of some residents.

On the South Island, the town of Kaikoura remains devastated and isolated by the earthquake, with State Highway 1 severed in both directions. The government sent military convoys and navy vessels, including the guided missile destroyer USS Samson, to evacuate the township. Billed as a “humanitarian” mission, it is another example of how natural disasters are used to conduct joint military exercises.

In Wellington, the quake and severe weather highlighted the lack of preparedness for a major disaster. Late and inadequate tsunami warnings created confusion. GeoNet advised residents living in low-lying areas to seek high ground without waiting for official warnings. Following widespread criticism, Prime Minister John Key belatedly promised a national disaster warning system capable of sending alerts to every cell phone. He claimed it would cost “tens of millions” of dollars.

In a rush to get business back to “normal,” Wellington’s recently-elected Labour Party mayor Justin Lester declared the central business district (CBD) to be safe, just a day after workers were told to stay home so building inspections could be conducted. Workers and residents were met by cordoned-off areas outside buildings shut down over structural concerns, which were still being discovered days after the event. Lester refused to declare red zones near affected buildings, saying an evacuation of the CBD would be a “logistical nightmare.”

Relatively new buildings, such as the CentrePort-owned Bank of NZ Centre and the government’s Statistics NZ Office, that are built on reclaimed land, were badly damaged. On November 17, a carpark complex in the centre of the city was closed, with 100 residents evacuated from nearby apartments. The building has now been declared at “risk of collapse” and is to be demolished. Other buildings, such as Archives NZ, NZ Post House and Wellington Girls’ College, were also evacuated. The Queensgate mall and Wainuiomata mall in working-class suburbs outside the city remain closed. Some buildings could be shut for months.

Wellington Company director Ian Cassels said most workers returned to work the day after the quake “because their employers want them there.”

Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee initially said he was “a little surprised” at the decision to reopen the city so quickly but later backed off the criticism, complaining only of landlords not sharing building safety information with city authorities.

Mayor Lester told the media it was not his task “to create chaos or fear or hysteria.” Wellington, however, sits astride a major geographical fault and is at high risk of ongoing damage from aftershocks. The council has a list of over 660 buildings that are classified as earthquake risks. They are not among those damaged last week.

GeoNet, which monitors earthquake activity, has forecast aftershocks and smaller earthquakes in the immediate future. Yesterday another quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1–6.3 hit the North Island, north of Wellington. It was centred off the coast, almost 140km from Palmerston North, to a depth of 37 metres.

If a major earthquake, of 7.8 or above magnitude, strikes Wellington or the surrounding region, the capital could easily be thrown into chaos, resulting in death, destruction and severing the city from the rest of the country.

The day after the November 15 quake, Wellington was hit by a severe weather system with 140 kmph (87mph) gale force winds and heavy rain. Lester initially dismissed the weather warnings, telling the Herald that the wind was “nothing more than a gentle breeze.”

However, State Highways 1 and 2 out of the city were closed for more than a day by flooding and lands slips. State Highway 58 between Porirua and the Hutt Valley, Paekakariki Hill Road and others were also closed, severing the capital’s land access. Bus services were brought to a standstill. Thousands of motorists waited hours for State Highway 2 to reopen.

Train services were cancelled because of multiple slips, and could not be replaced by buses due to road closures. All train services were suspended after two quake aftershocks of 5.8 and 5.2 magnitude but were subsequently resumed, without thorough track inspections. The longest double-track rail tunnel in the country, near Wellington, had some surface flooding but services continued regardless.

Some residents were trapped in their homes by rising floodwaters. Many river banks in Porirua and the Hutt Valley flooded, threatening nearby houses and prompting evacuation calls. Schools, kindergartens and libraries were closed.

This is not the first time the capital city has been cut off. In May 2015, heavy rain caused floods and slips, resulting in the closure of both state highways and all passenger rail lines. Severe weather has repeatedly exposed the capital’s run-down, outdated infrastructure. Much of it is over 100 years old. Without rational planning and billions being spent on infrastructure, the region’s topography and geographic isolation makes a disaster inevitable.

Immediate responsibility for this state of affairs rests with the Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC). Both institutions have been dominated over many years by Labour Party and Greens representatives. Rather than attempting to meet the needs of working people, their overriding concern is to facilitate business operations. The GWRC has recently opened up the rail network to a private operator.

Events such as those of last week expose the complacency and indifference of the entire political establishment to the needs of ordinary citizens. This was starkly revealed in its response to the earthquake that devastated the city of Christchurch in 2011, with the loss of 185 lives.

Five years on, entire suburbs have been abandoned and areas of the central city remain rubble-strewn. Mayor Lianne Dalziel, a former Labour government minister, has worked closely with the National government to protect big business and impose the cost of the rebuild on the working class. The city council has cut staff, increased rates and begun to sell off assets to help fund its “share” of the rebuild.

The Christchurch debacle—in which the government and rapacious insurance companies have wrecked thousands of lives—stands as an indictment of the profit system and all its political representatives.

Sri Lankan president orders arrest of “inciters of racism”

W.A. Sunil 

According to the Colombo-based Daily Mirror, at a meeting of Sri Lanka’s security council on Sunday, President Maithripala Sirisena instructed the police and security forces to “take all who incite racism into custody and produce [them] before courts under the existing law.”

While the immediate reason given for this order is to “curb racism,” it signals that the government is preparing for a broader crackdown on opposition parties and the working class.

As Sirisena reaches the second anniversary of his installation as president, his pro-US government is in deep political crisis. The infighting between the ruling coalition and an opposition group led by ousted former President Mahinda Rajapakse is intensifying.

Sunday’s meeting of the country’s top security body was attended by the inspector general of police, the armed forces chiefs and several leading ministers, including Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe and Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake.

The Daily Mirror reported that Sirisena inquired about the possibility of enacting new laws to take action against people who promote racism. The justice minister said “steps had already been taken to draft the new law” and pointed out that even under the existing laws, “inciters of racism were liable for one year’s imprisonment.” Last month, the cabinet approved sweeping new anti-terror laws, which a parliamentary committee is now examining.

On November 15, both Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned about a “political conspiracy” against the government. The two were speaking at a meeting held to mark the 30th anniversary of Ravaya, a Sinhala-weekly newspaper that helped to bring Sirisena to office.

Sirisena declared there were moves to destabilise the government, and a “well-organised and well-funded political conspiracy to hinder the march toward reconciliation.” Wickremesinghe said “racist groups are trying to take the power.”

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe did not name names but implied that the “conspirators” were in the Rajapakse-led faction of Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). This faction opposes Sirisena’s national unity government with Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP).

The government is seeking to exploit provocations by Sinhala chauvinist groups in order to strengthen its hand. Sirisena and Wickremesinghe are not opposed to communalism. Both were leaders in successive governments that waged communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was defeated in 2009. Both have pledged their continued support for the domination of Buddhism and the Sinhala majority.

The chauvinist campaign by Sinhala Buddhist extremists has intensified during recent months. Last week, in Batticaloa in the eastern province, a Buddhist monk, a supporter of the Buddhist Brigade (Bodu Bala Sena or BBS)—a fascistic group of Buddhist monks—threatened an ethnic Tamil government village officer with bodily harm if he continued court cases against Sinhalese people. In another incident, police were compelled to arrest a Sinhala chauvinist last week who made similar threats against Muslims at a public demonstration in Colombo.

On Saturday, the BBS held a Buddhist prayer meeting in Kandy, directed against those “harassing Sinhalese.” The BBS is notorious for anti-Muslim provocations, including a riot in Aluthgama in 2013 that resulted in the killing of four people and the significant destruction of property.

These are not isolated incidents. Many Sinhala chauvinist groups, including the BBS, are backing Rajapakse. The ex-president and his supporters are accusing the government of “betraying” the “war heroes”—the armed forces that waged the ruthless communal war against the LTTE.

Two weeks ago, members of parliament supporting Rajapakse formed a new political party, named the Sri Lanka Podujana Party. Rajapakse, who is campaigning to regain power, indicated that he would take the leadership of the new party at a future date.

As part of its efforts to undermine Rajapakse’s campaign, the government is trying to intimidate media outlets that sympathise with him. In October, the media ministry revoked the broadcasting license of CSN TV, which is closely connected to the Rajapakse family over alleged license violations. The media ministry secretary has also threatened Derena TV, accusing it of distorting a recent speech by Sirisena.

The threat to the media is not limited to these two institutions. The government repeatedly attacks the media for criticising it. Wickremesinghe last week said the government would have to take action against media outlets that did not behave. Yesterday, in a veiled threat, Sirisena said the media did not see any positive actions by the government.

Last week, the head of the Sinhala racist Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Dinesh Gunawardena—a party supporting Rajapakse—added fuel to the government’s conspiracy claims. “There might be a military coup if the government does not take immediate action to arrest the rapid deterioration of democracy in the country,” Gunawardena warned parliament.

The concern of Gunawardena and Rajapakse is not the “deterioration of democracy.” The former Rajapakse government ruthlessly suppressed the media as part of its assault on democratic rights.

The government condemned Gunawardena’s comments and accused the opposition group of attempting to “disrupt political stability and create fear among the people.”

Both the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government and the opposition groups allied to Rajapaske are fearful that popular unrest involving workers, students and the rural poor could threaten capitalist rule.

Over the past year, there has been a series of workers’ protests demanding pay increases and better working conditions. In September, tens of thousands of estate workers came onto the streets demanding a pay hike and protesting against workload increases.

The country’s economic crisis is deepening, with falling exports and investment. Export earnings dropped by 5.8 percent during the first six months of this year and foreign investment fell to $US4.5 billion, a staggering 52.5 percent decline on the previous year. The government’s foreign debt has increased to $65 billion, and public debt has risen to 76 percent of gross domestic product.

This month, the government presented a budget that imposed heavy taxes on workers and poor, while cutting expenditure on public education and health to limit the deficit to the target set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One week later, the IMF released the second installment of its current loan package. To meet the demands of the financial markets, the government also decided to expedite the restructuring and privatisation of public enterprises. Tens of thousands of workers will lose their jobs. These attacks will provoke social upheavals.

The working people must take a warning. Inciting communalism, against Tamils and Muslims, has been standard operating procedure for every faction of the ruling elite for decades to divide the working class and deepen its repressive rule when it faces sharpening class tensions. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government’s measures are not designed to end racism and communalism but are strengthening police-state methods to suppress the working class and poor.

Hundreds killed in US home fires

Steve Filips

Three hundred twenty-six people have been killed in home fires in the United States so far this fall as the heating season is just beginning. Of the 326 people who died, at least 55 are children and another 70 are senior citizens. Twenty-five people died in both Texas and Georgia and 21 in Pennsylvania.

With the weather turning cooler in the US, the heating season has begun. This is the time of year when preventable fatalities increase due to inadequate housing and heating conditions, which are forcing many to utilize space heaters to supplement heating, raising the risk of house fires.

At least 1,869 people have died as a result of fires this year alone. The figure is most likely higher, as there are likely many cases that never get reported in the media.

Statistics compiled from media reports by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) reveal the scale of the crisis. There have been several tragic multiple fatalities in house fires across the US. These largely preventable deaths expose the social inequality and dangerous housing conditions that exist for the working class despite the so-called economic recovery.

On November 21, four children, girls ages 11, 9, 7 and 5, died when the house they were living in caught fire in Carroll County, Indiana. The mother was pulled from the blaze with burns on her hands and face and suffering from smoke inhalation. Two police officers who tried to rescue the children were also hospitalized with smoke inhalation.

In the last week of October, there was a horrific increase in residential fires, in which 67 people were killed. In that week, there were 12 incidents in which 36 people lost their lives. Sixteen of the victims were under 14 years old.

Georgia has had 25 deaths since the beginning of the heating season. Twelve people were killed in fires on the weekend of October 22 and 23 alone.

In Trion, in the northwest corner of Georgia, a mobile home fire took the lives of five family members and one relative visiting in a mobile home that caught fire around 11 p.m. on October 23. The victims were Brad Miron and Demi Jones, 29 and 22, and their three children, Clair, Lola, and Olivia Jones, who were aged 5, 3, and just 3 months old, respectively. A cousin staying overnight, Jada Kendrick, age 5, also perished.

Brad Miron had installed a wood stove in the trailer the day of fire, and it was determined to be the cause of the blaze. A family member told the local press, “Brad was going to make sure those babies were warm, and he had no other option, so he did what he thought was right to keep them warm and it cost them their lives.”

There has been no confirmation that the home contained smoke or carbon monoxide detectors. Mobile homes are notorious death traps, where fire can engulf the entire home is just minutes.

The town of Trion is home to one of the largest textile factories in world for denim, Mount Vernon Mills, which employs 1,700 workers. According to the US Census Bureau, the poverty rate in Trion for children under 18 years of age in 2014 was 29.4 percent, a nearly 8 percent increase over 2012.

Also that weekend, five people were killed in a home fire in Duluth, Georgia. Killed in the blaze were Kimberly Lewis, 45, David Waring, 45, Kelley Tomkinson, 47, Edward Brown, 21, and Danielle Waring, 19.

A mobile home fire in Kaplan, Louisiana, on October 23 killed a mother and two infants. Felicie Cloteaux, 22, was killed as she tried to save her friend’s children, Rory and Arabella Hudson, just 3 and 4 years old.

At the time of the fire, there were six inside the home, with three escaping when they became aware of the fast-moving blaze in the mobile home early in the morning. The victims were believed to have succumbed to smoke inhalation and were found in the back bedroom of the home.

After a preliminary investigation, it is believed that the fire may have started from an electrical malfunction in the living room area. It was reported that there were no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors operational in the home.

In Amarillo, Texas, a fire on November 10 in a recreational vehicle killed a mother and her three children. The family was using the RV as a home because their nearby mobile home was not in fit condition to be occupied. The emergency call came at 5 p.m. from a neighbor who noticed smoke. The neighbors’ attempts at rescue were repelled by thick smoke.

Killed in the blaze were Michelle Stone, 34, and her children Richard, Audrianna, and Keegan Stone, who were 8, 5, and 4, respectively. The victims are survived by Michelle’s husband, Rick Stone, and two older children. The cause of the fire, and whether there were detectors of any kind in the RV, is unknown.

All of these deaths were preventable. With the colder weather and the high price of fuel, many working class and low-income families are forced to rely on unsafe space heaters or wood burners. The high cost of housing is also forcing many families into overcrowded and substandard housing, which are often firetraps. As winter approaches, these tragedies will only increase and claim more victims.

Over 120,000 British children will be homeless this winter

Alice Summers

More than 120,000 children in the UK will be homeless this Christmas, according to a report by the charity Shelter. This is the equivalent of four children at every school in the country.

This figure comprising children living in temporary accommodation, such as emergency bed and breakfasts and hostels, or “couch surfing” involving indefinite stays at the homes of friends and relatives. It represents the highest level of child homelessness seen in the UK for eight years.

According to Shelter’s calculations, the number of families living in temporary accommodation has risen by 15 percent since last year alone, standing at 7,475 families by the end of June 2016.

In their report, Shelter interviewed 25 families who were currently or recently living in temporary accommodation. All of the families lived in grossly inadequate and overcrowded conditions, with every family having only one room to share between an entire family. Over half of the parents reported that they also had to share a bed with their children.

One family stressed how their accommodation fell way short of acceptable standards, explaining, “You know they say a brother and a sister can’t share [a bed] past 11 [years old], but [our daughter] shares with three boys and their mum.”

Another family told Shelter that they were sharing a two-bedroom terrace house with three other families.

The temporary accommodation these families are forced to live in was not only overcrowded, but also violated basic health and safety regulations leading many parents to fear for the safety of their children. Many of the rooms had problems ranging from dirty or broken mattresses to mould, sparking plugs, windows that would not shut and doors without locks. Some families reported vermin, exposure to drug abuse, fighting and strangers sleeping in the corridors.

These conditions had serious effects on the mental wellbeing of children, with 18 out of the 25 families reporting that their children’s emotional and mental health had been negatively impacted upon. Parents described how their children became anxious, socially isolated and had problems sleeping.

Over half of the parents interviewed said that their children’s development had been negatively affected. Shelter reported, “[W]hile children in emergency accommodation might have a roof over their heads, they are clearly without a home. They do not have the space to live their lives—to play, study, or relax. Nor a place of stability and safety where they can grow and develop.”

This growth in child homelessness reflects a general rise in homelessness across the entire population. Another report released at the start of this year by Crisis, a charity for single homeless people, documented a 30 percent rise in homelessness in England over a single year.

Both Crisis and Shelter cite the huge lack of affordable homes, instability and high costs in the private rented sector, and reductions in welfare as the main causes of this surge in homelessness.

Over the past years, relentless cuts to social security payments, such as Job Seekers Allowance and in-work and housing benefits, have removed much of the safety net that many families rely on to avoid homelessness while they look for work or cheaper accommodation.

This month a cap on the amount a household can receive in welfare benefits came into operation. The cap will particularly hit those most in need, including an estimated 42,000 single parents. The total amount of benefits a household can receive has been slashed by a massive £6,000 from £26,000 to £20,000 nationally, with the exception of London. In London, it is reduced from £26,000 to £23,000. The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said the benefit cap “almost exclusively affects families with large numbers of children or very high rents or both.”

Assessing the report, charities estimate that 112,000 families, responsible for 320,000 children, will be up to £115 a week worse off. The Children’s Society said more families could be made homeless as a result. “There are already 3.9 million children living in poverty across Britain and the new cap is likely to cause that total to rise. Children’s health, well-being and mental health could all be put at risk,” it stated.

Compounding the problem families face accessing any decent accommodation is discrimination in the private rented section, with landlords frequently refusing to accept families claiming housing benefits even if the household is in work. Under legislation that came into force at the beginning of this year, landlords are also obliged to verify the immigration status of potential tenants, with the possibility of receiving fines for letting out a property to an illegal immigrant leading many private landlords to be unwilling to let to people they perceive to be immigrants.

These stricter laws on renting to migrant workers—nominally to stop rogue landlords taking advantage of vulnerable people—have in fact imposed further restrictions on access to accommodation for migrant workers and the working class more broadly.

According to Shelter, barely half of the 250,000 new homes the country requires in order to keep up with demand are being built. The majority of which are sold at market rates—completely out of the price range of many families. Add this to skyrocketing property prices and the mass privatisation of many social homes under the “Right to Buy” scheme, and the reasons increasing numbers of families have been pushed into the unstable and unaffordable private sector become clear.

A tenant renting a property in the private sector can be asked to move out with just two months’ notice. For many families this is insufficient time to find alternative affordable accommodation, or to raise the large amounts of cash that are needed in advance to pay up-front costs such as letting agent fees, tenancy deposits and initial rents. As a result, many families are forced out of their homes and end up with nowhere to go.

Councils have a legal duty to provide homeless families with children with somewhere to sleep. However, due to the massive housing shortage, these families are often placed in insecure temporary lodgings.

A spokesman for the ruling Conservatives’ Department of Communities and Local Government hailed the provision of such inadequate housing, stating, “Temporary accommodation ensures that no families with children are ever left without roofs over their heads. … Just last week, this Government announced it would be backing [Conservative MP] Bob Blackman’s Homelessness Reduction Bill—which will also provide vital support for many more people.”

The bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament on October 28, will extend the period of time during which a person is considered to be “threatened with homelessness” from 28 to 56 days, giving families an extra four weeks to seek help from their local authority in finding new accommodation. This token measure will do virtually nothing to solve the homelessness crisis. Without greater provision of social or affordable homes, after this extended period many individuals will still be forced into insecure, temporary accommodation or onto the streets.

UK: Chilcot Iraq War inquiry cover-up confirmed

Robert Stevens

New documents made available, as the result of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, confirm that the Chilcot report into the Iraq War was set up to ensure that those who organised and planned the illegal war would not be held accountable.

The Chilcot Inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, was established by Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009. Chilcot’s report was only finally released seven years later, in July. The report provided sometimes devastating confirmation of the criminal role of the British and US officials who organized and led it, but it issued no finding on the legality of the invasion. No one, including then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush, the architects of the war, was called to account.

This was always going to be the outcome of the inquiry. Brown set it up with the limited remit of establishing the “lessons that can be learned” regarding British involvement in the US-led war. Its terms of reference ensured there would be no assigning of responsibility to any politician, civil servant, diplomat or military figure for their role in the events leading to the war, the military slaughter itself, or its aftermath. Those testifying were assured that no prosecutions or legal proceedings would arise from their appearances. Witnesses were not required to speak under oath and none of those testifying, including Blair and Brown, faced anything remotely near a proper cross-examination.

The papers confirming that this whitewash was the planned outcome were made public after Chris Lamb, an FOI campaigner, won a two-year court battle for the right to access classified memos by government officials relating to the setting up of the Chilcot Inquiry. The memos were all written in a four-week period in May and June 2009.

Labour government officials, including Brown himself, were opposed to any sort of public inquiry. They favoured an investigation by members of the secretive Privy Council—senior politicians who advise the monarch—along the lines of the Franks Inquiry into the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war. That inquiry, called by the then Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, has gone down in history as a whitewash and, as one commentator put it, “a classic establishment job.”

Writing to Brown’s Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Office official Ben Lyon said an inquiry could be designed to “focus on lessons and avoid blame.” A parliamentary inquiry, he warned, would lead to a “daily running commentary.”

In response, O’Donnell stated his agreement and told Brown a parliamentary inquiry would “threaten legal liability for individuals” and “take a long time.”

In June 2009, Brown announced that a Privy Council investigation into the war, to be held in secret, was to take place. He faced a public backlash and was forced to relent and authorise a public inquiry.

Even then, parts of the Chilcot Inquiry were still held in private “in the national interest.” Lamb told the Observer, “The inquiry was hobbled before it even started, with tight restrictions on what it could do that were not fully made public.”

That the Chilcot Inquiry was wholly a creature of the government and had no real independence is confirmed in the FOI documents. One of the memos by Lyon states that protocol was that the secretariat of the Chilcot Inquiry should not draw from civil servants and that those selected “should not have been involved in Iraq policy since 2002.” But O’Donnell immediately made Margaret Aldred the secretary of the inquiry, under conditions in which Aldred had chaired the Iraq senior officials group during the period Chilcot was investigating. A previous FOI request by Lamb found that Aldred was directly nominated by O’Donnell, despite the inquiry’s head of communications stating, “Sir John Chilcot had complete freedom to choose whoever he wanted both as Secretary and as head of communications.”

It only gets worse! Other senior Blair government figures involved in the 2003 war, who were enlisted to establish the inquiry, included Sir Jeremy Heywood—Blair’s parliamentary private secretary until 2003—and Sir John Scarlett, the chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Scarlett was the nominal author of a draft intelligence dossier produced on September 16, 2002 that contained an executive summary stating that “intelligence” (in fact, a single source) allowed the government to judge Iraq “has military plans for the use of chemical and biological [weapons], some of which could be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them.”

This was then published by the Blair government, with a foreword by Blair himself that focused on the 45-minute claim to justify war—an assertion that Blair then repeated in Parliament.

In another memo, O’Donnell advised that the Chilcot investigation be organised so that it would be prevented from reaching “any conclusion on questions of law or fact, which create circumstances which expose organizations, departments and/or individuals to criminal or civil proceedings or judicial review.”

Central to this was that there were to be no judges or lawyers among the inquiry appointees. This was critical, wrote O’Donnell, in order to avoid a “legalistic” focus being adopted.

The cherry on the cake in ensuring that the inquiry would be utterly toothless was the appointment of Chilcot, the very safest pair of hands, to lead it. Chilcot became a Privy Counsellor in 2004 and was a member of the Butler Review of the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Named after its chairman, Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell—a pillar of the establishment who served as private secretary to five prime ministers, including Thatcher and Blair—the Butler report, published in 2004, refused to hold Blair or anyone else accountable for the lies used to justify the war.

Throughout his career, Chilcot served as a top official in various Labour and Conservative governments in the Home Office, Civil Service Department and the Cabinet Office. He was private secretary to Home Secretaries Roy Jenkins (Labour), Merlyn Rees (Labour) and William Whitelaw (Conservative). Chilcot is now the president of The Police Foundation, a policing think tank.

Earlier this month Chilcot gave evidence at Parliament’s Liaison Committee and told them that Blair went “beyond the facts” in order to justify the war. Translated into plain English, Blair lied, as Chilcot and everyone knows. However, Blair, a widely despised, unindicted war criminal, remains free and is now in the process of establishing an office in London and returning to front-line politics. That this is the case is due to the now proven fact that the ruling elite ensured that none of those responsible for the Iraq war would face justice.

Just a few months after Chilcot’s report was issued, its 2.6 million words, in 13 volumes, are now gathering dust in the House of Commons library. It has served its purpose for the ruling elite, who always intended it as the basis for finally washing their hands of the Iraq War. Following the publication of Chilcot’s report earlier this year, only around 50 MPs, out of 650, even showed up to debate it in Parliament. Their main concern was that, whatever the consequences of Iraq, it would be wrong to use the criticisms to oppose further wars involving Britain’s military.