Aggression “Isn’t” A Crime

Farooque Chowdhury

Only about 11 years ago, Saddam Hussein was sitting in a Baghdad court and facing trial. His crimes were defined and dissected by the world-masters. And, Saddam, shackled and subdued, was delivered the masters’ judgment: face a knotted rope from gallows.

Only about 14 years ago, smoke was billowing up from Saddam’s presidential palace compound in Baghdad. An invading force was making air strikes there. More or less at the same time, an allied US-UK force was advancing across southern Iraq. It was a war of invasion by a coalition of more than 40 countries led by the US. Iraqi causalities of the invasion have been estimated by a number of authorities between 150,000 and 500,000.

Years later, came out the famous Chilcot Report in the UK. The 2.6 million word damning report by Sir John Chilcot condemned the then UK prime minister Tony Blair’s rush to Iraq invasion in 2003.

Now, weeks ago, the UK High Court blocked attempt to prosecute Blair over Iraq War. General Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat, a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army, had hoped to bring a private prosecution against Blair for the crime of “aggression” in Iraq. The former Iraqi general tried to overturn Blair’s immunity from prosecution for his role in the Iraq War.

On July 31, 2017, the court dismissed the application for a judicial review to overturn a 2006 ruling by the UK House of Lords: “Because of a decision by the House of Lords binding in this court, there is no crime of aggression under domestic UK law.” The 2006-ruling by the House of Lords said: There is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

So, there’s a void in the system of defining the crime of aggression. Is there any void in the legal system for securing the system of capital? So, there’s a void, and there’s no nihility, and the two currently cohabit peacefully.

Blair, enjoying immunity from criminal charges over the 2003 Iraq war, no doubt is happy. He is also grateful to the interests he pledged to uphold. A 2016 court ruling said attempting to bring any prosecution would involve revealing details currently kept under the Official Secrets Act of the UK. A 2016 ruling provides Blair immunity from criminal charges.

Lawyers upholding the immunity argued: The crime of aggression is recognized by international law; but, there is no such offence in English law. Lord Chief Justice Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd and Justice Duncan Ouseley found: There was no such crime, and, therefore, there’s “no prospect” of the case against Blair succeeding.

Hail the English Law! Hail official secrets in democracy!

The bourgeoisie need the operating mechanism of secrecy in their democracy. The principle and mechanism of secrecy were always there in state machine. Its increased use is now a permanent trend. “State policy is elaborated under the sign of secrecy, now established as a permanent matter of State through hidden mechanisms and a regime of administrative procedures that almost entirely escapes the control of public opinion. This represents a considerable change in the elementary principles of bourgeois representative democracy itself. Thus, the principle of public knowledge is completely discarded in favour of an institutionally recognized principle of secrecy […]” (Nicos Poulantzas, State, Power, Socialism, Verso, London, New York, 2000, English translation of L’Etat, le Pouvoir, le Socialisme, translated by Patrick Camiller) Do the bourgeoisie talk about transparency in their democracy? They know best. What about the scholars serving their bourgeois masters? The mighty minds will obviously construct explanations suitable to their masters, and apply those according to their sweet wishes as they apply definitions of political power, legality, separation of power, etc. in cases of opposing interests of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat: “yes” for the bourgeoisie while “no” for the proletariat, the class-enemy of the bourgeoisie.

So, it comes up: Interests define definition in the areas of politics, law, ruling mechanism, and related areas. Definitions are interpreted according to interests also.

Michael Mansfield QC, acting for General Ar-Ribat, argued: The international law banning aggressive war applies to Britain, and that Blair was at fault for invading Iraq.

On the issue, Respect Party leader George Galloway wrote:

“If there really is no law against launching an ‘aggressive war’ in England, then the law is an ass.”

The UK politician continued:

“The decision by two High Court judges that Tony Blair cannot be prosecuted for the war in Iraq gives immunity and in perpetuity to any two-bit hustler who gets his or her hands on state power in Britain and lays waste the lives of others and their own country’s vital interests.”

Galloway added:

“In the Nuremberg Trials Britain prosecuted the surviving beasts of German fascism for precisely the crime of launching ‘aggressive war.’ Even though what the genocidal dictator of Germany did was perfectly ‘legal’ under German law, even though there was no international legal definition of ‘aggressive war,’ Britain rightly tried the Nazi beasts and hanged a great number of them.

“From that moment onwards the de jure inadmissibility of such wars was established axiomatically in the British legal system.”

Galloway said: Blair’s war in Iraq was not a “war of last resort” and had no sound basis. Its consequences are “heading towards the gravity of the Hitlerite crimes.”

He further argued:

“More than a million people have died and that number is still rising daily. […]

“Sovereign states have been invaded, occupied and destroyed. International law has been shredded. Torture in secret prisons of victims illegally kidnapped and ferried to their fates on the torture tables of tyranny by, amongst others, us. As a result of Tony Blair’s war the youngest of our children will likely not enjoy a moment of peace and security in their whole lives.

“It’s quite a charge sheet. But not one we are told that can ever be tested in a British Court. If that’s justice, I’m a banana.”

It thus comes up: Definitions evolve, and the same definition carries different meanings, validity, legality and force with changing areas, interests and requirements over time.

The Blair-in-Iraq case has been exposed, at least partly, by the widely-referred Chilcot Report (CR), which is enough to define the war. The report heavily criticized Blair’s role in initiating the invasion over a baseless assumption that Saddam had WMDs – weapons of mass destruction.

Chilcot’s findings include:

# Blair and his allies’ assertion with Saddam’s WMDs “was not justified”.

# Blair’s arguments for going to war were based on “flawed intelligence and assessments”, which were not challenged, but should have been.

# Military action was not a last resort as diplomatic options had not at that stage been exhausted.

# Consequences of the invasion and the following conflict within Iraq are still being felt in the country, the Middle East and the UK. There are many bereaved families, and physically and mentally wounded. The Iraqi people suffered from years of violence.

Blair expressed his “sorrow” for lost lives, and “regret and apology” for his (mis)doings. He feels “deeply and sincerely […] the grief and suffering of those who lost ones they loved in Iraq.” Blair was asked about his regret for starting the war. His response: “I believe the decision was right.” He said: “I spend so much of my time thinking about this issue, I spend so much of my life analysing it”. He was speaking in the wake of release of the CR. But, Blair is “undone” for deaths in Iraq as “The Lord killeth and maketh alive.” (Samuel 2:6) How much Blair “to” blame?

Thus, facts stand as the following:

An invasion was triggered with unjustified and wrong assumptions, with flawed intelligence and assessment, and without exhausting diplomatic options, which caused loss of lives and other casualties numbering millions, and the decision for invading a country was “right” although one of the designers of the invasion feels sorry, and regrets and apologizes (!).

Imperialism thus builds up arguments for all its “noble” deed, and cost and price of the deeds are millions of lives, millions of maimed and wounded, and citizens’ taxes.

But, this is “not” a crime as this was not defined as crime or no law was found to define it as crime in a certain country or by a certain state. Isn’t the system arguing in this way?

The argument based on “absence of law” creates further arguments. As for example, no imperialist statute book defines:

1. Imperialist exploitation of human society and nature is a crime.
2. Devastations done by multilateral lending agencies with their prescriptions, and implementation of structural programs, etc. are crimes.
3. Devastations done by financial “gamblers” – the owners of monopoly financial capital – and by so-called austerity measures are crimes.
4. Acts by defense contractors – assaults, night-raids and killings for profit, etc., and defying laws and conventions – are crimes.
5. Imperialist intervention, invasion and aggression following and preceding the Iraq invasion are crimes.
6. And, Clive and Mir Jafar in Bengal should not be charged with crime for all their “nice” doings against the Murshidabad Nabob as neither the Nabob’s statute book nor the law book in London defines those acts a crime.

And, shall not these arguments and precedents be applied to all future imperialist conspiracies, interventions, invasions, aggressions, genocides, devastations, loots, and transfer of arms and chemical weapons to proxies?

There were no laws related to internet before the advent of the powerful communication channel. Examples can be cited from the areas of test tube baby, surrogate mother, sea bed mining, robot-body-toys, drone, artificial intelligence, etc. But, laws have been/are being enacted in these areas. These laws will go through amendments and evolutions. The British colonial rulers love to forget that they enacted many laws to maintain their savage rule in Bangladesh-India-Pakistan sub-continent. Those laws spanned from areas of land administration to taxation, from rivers to prison, from indigo to factory boilers, from lavishing lackeys with awards and titles – maharaja – to punishing patriots – transporting to banishment and sending to gallows, from banning creations to acts of so-called sedition. Once, the brutal Rowlatt Act was not there in colonial India. The British colonial rulers devised the act. The imperial power is giving reparations in at least one of its colonies for tortures it once carried out in the colony. The imperial power never imagined that it have to pay reparations for tortures it “awarded” the patriots. So, don’t these examples stand as counter-argument to the argument of a void in the area of law on crime of aggression?

Following the release of the CR, the families of British soldiers killed during the Iraq War had called for Blair to face legal action for war crimes, either by the International Criminal Court or The Hague. Has that happened?

SNP’s Alex Salmond, one of the first MPs to give a response to the CR, said:

“After such carnage, people will ask inevitable questions of was conflict inevitable and worthwhile? The answer from Chilcot is undoubtedly no. And who is responsible? The answer is undoubtedly Tony Blair. There must now be a consideration of what political or legal consequences are appropriate for those responsible.”

But, the imperialists are confident that as the lords of the world they are to define genocide, crime of aggression and crime against humanity. To the imperialist lords, all wars they wage are in accordance with jus bellum iustum, the just war theory. They have entitled themselves with jus ad bellum, the right to go to war. And, all they do during the wars they wage is jus in bello, the right conduct in war. So, there’s “no” reason to blame Blair.

Moreover, there is Saint Thomas Aquinas. And, “Aquinas combined the sense of cosmic natural law with Aristotle’s view that human beings, like every other natural object, have a specific nature, purpose, and function. A knife’s function is to cut sharply, a chair’s function is to support the body in a certain position, and a house’s function is to provide shelter from the elements. Humanity’s essence or proper function is to live the life of reason.” (Louis P Pojman and James Fieser, Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, Wadsworth, Australia, Brazil, etc, 7th edition) Shouldn’t imperialism have specific function if knife, chair and humanity have specific functions? The function is to secure imperialist world system, and carry on following functions, one of which is waging wars. Blair has faithfully carried on the function.

To Blair, his Iraq-functions were against Saddam, considered an evil by Blair, as all imperialists identify all its opponents, obstacles and competitors as evil, and Aquinas has argued: “Hence this is the first precept of law, that bonum est faciendum et prosequendum, et malum vitandum, good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided.” (Summa Theologiae I-II, Question 94: The Natural Law, Article 2, in short 94:2) Blair has followed the saint, and pursued “good” and demolished an “evil” although peoples in Iraq, the UK and other countries had to pay for this pursuance; and the “good” and the “evil” were defined by Blair along with a friend named Bush.

But, the acts of the duo – Blair-Bush – were not acts of individuals. Their acts represented a certain interest, the imperialist interest. So, the question of law related to crime or absence of law of such a crime is actually awarding immunity to imperialist interest; and thus imperialist interest stood against people, victim of the crime. Moreover, the absence of such a law legitimizes imperialist violence; and with this legitimization, state’s repressive role, camouflaged regularly, is being confirmed.

Here, one organ of state resorts to other to legitimize another organ’s functions: judiciary resorts to acts of legislative organ to protect acts of executive branch. Thus, it denies its much swashed separation of power, and unashamedly stands as an indivisible entity. It’s an arrangement of monopoly of power; and in case of imperialist states, the monopoly of power stretches from home to other countries with full fury of force of violence. The monopoly of power changes or experiences cracks with change in class-power equation favoring the dominated classes or due to factional fight of dominating interests, and the equation changes and temporary brakes on the power of coercion operate with intensification of class struggle by the dominated classes.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx identified bourgeois law as nothing more than the desires of the bourgeoisie: “[Y]our jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of existence of your class.” By building up a legal argument on the basis of absence of a law is nothing, but legalized expression of a desire and will of an interest – imperialist interests.

The bourgeoisie also desire: People have to accept and uphold bourgeoisie interests, and that has to be done in the name of law defined according to the wishes and desires of the bourgeoisie. And, desire of bosses is actually their order to subordinates. If that is the case, then, people falling as victims of imperialist crime – crime of aggression, etc. – shall never have justice.

But, there’s the maxim: lex iniusta non est lex, an unjust law is no law at all. People will find out this maxim through their experience of interaction with the system of bourgeoisie law. And, consequences of this experience created precedents in countries and empires over ages. A series of revolts compelled Rome to formulate the Twelve Tablets. Even, in the land of void in the English law, rage of subjects compelled crowning interests to enter into compromises in the form enacting new laws.

Whatever the pace of development in the area of claimed void in the legal system is, the current arguments, orders and verdicts virtually favoring an aggression come up as lesson for political education of people, which is more effective than teaching with abstract theories. Verdicts of void will be questioned and challenged with the spread of this lesson as ruling systems, legal system is part of ruling system, are not immune from subjects’ questioning.

Religious Cults, Godmen And Blind Faith

T. Navin

The conviction of Ram Rahim and the judgement to put him behind bars should ideally be welcomed by all sections of Society. But what cause worry are the incidents of violence which took place in support of Ram Rahim when he was convicted of the crime.

These do raise questions as to whether Society finds it acceptable if crime is undertaken by a so called Godmen. Crime related incidents involving Godmen are nothing new in the country. Godmen of all varieties have at some or the other stages have been caught in acts of crime. Sant Rampal of Satlok Ashram has cases related to assault, rioting and murder. Asaram has been charged with allegations of rape and the court case continues. Nityananda has allegations of rape, criminal intimidation and cheating made against him. Bimanand was arrested for running a sex racket in his ashram. Vikasanand was arrested for sexually abusing minor girls and making pornographic films. Premananda was put through two consecutive life sentences for involvement in rape of minor girls. Amrita Chaitanya was accused of cheating, raping and producing pornographic films. Sadachari was caught running an underground brothel. Yet despite the long list of evidence, Godmen only keep continue to thrive and only grow.

The violence following Ram Rahim’s conviction, while on the one hand shows the intolerance towards the judgement implicating the self-styled godmen, on the other hand shows the tolerance to accept a crime committed by him. It seems to show a deeper social psyche of having godmen who need to be venerated, glorified and worshipped but never questioned. Godmen accordingly can never be wrong. Even if they do an act of crime, blind faith only leads to the belief that they are only acts of ‘Ashirvaad’.

The superhuman association to Godmen with features which are extraordinary and beyond the understanding of human mind goes on to create such figures. Can the thesis of rationalism provide full explanation to the phenomenon of Godmen? Can rationalism by itself prevent and address the growing phenomenon of Godmen?

Godmen seems to be society’s shortcut to find immediate relief and solution to day to day challenges and problems. An association with a religious cult, an ashram, godmen seems to provide a temporary relief. While it does liberate the human mind by taking it away from the current pressures and challenges of the real world and create illusions of relief from the same, it never liberates from the real day to day life and social issues. A feeling of other-worldliness which is away from the real world creates this temporary sense of relief. A sense of hope also gets created. While a feeling from hopelessness to hope creates temporary relief to the human mind, it is in reality not real. Hence it acts like alcohol or a drug intoxicating and slowing down the brain temporarily and creating a sense of calmness and feeling of a sense of other-worldliness.

While rationalism and scientific temper can be a means which can prevent people from joining or coming away from such religious cults, does non-redressal of the deeper social problems arising from economic structures really prevent emergence of such religious cults.

The Scandinavian countries namely Denmark and Sweden continue to be the least religious. They are also known to be countries where life expectancy, child welfare, literacy, schooling, economic equality and standard of living continue to be among the top. On the other hand, aren’t the countries with largest concentrations of wealth, but with deeper social problems yet in need of such Godmen? Isn’t it a Mahesh Yogi becomes a needed figure in countries with large concentration of wealth such as US? Isn’t the Godmen wanted equally in a wealthier but unequal society in the same way as in a poor society? Doesn’t the shift towards a more just society undo a need for having Godmen at all? Doesn’t a movement towards a more egalitarian and just society by itself create a movement towards rationalism?

A system driven by the need for perpetuation of interests of the elite, the political, economic and religious come together and form an unholy nexus. Nexus between political and religious elite is well known. Political Parties have an inherent interest in perpetuating Godmen in Society. They patronize the same from time to time. The Prime Minister praising Dera Sacha Sauda chief with the motive of his influence over follower’s positively effecting electoral results for BJP is known. Similarly, leaders of all political parties Congress, SAD-BJP and AAP visiting Ashram to seek blessings from Ram Rahim are true. Instances of Indian Prime Ministers, Presidents, Ministers, Supreme and High Court Judges falling at the feet of Sathya Sai Baba and benefiting from the same are well known.

Any attempt in eradicating issues of superstition and blind faith and exploitation of people by the Godmen, needs to expose the unholy alliance that has come to be formed between the elite – economic, political, bureaucratic and how each of them perpetuate and support each other. Prevalence, existence and acceptance of Godmen only point that there is a deeper problem confronting society, which is caught in between the need for movement from illusionary liberated mind to a really liberated society based on idea of justice which creates actual conditions for liberation of human mind.

Tapping Into Private Sector For India’s Climate Finance

Deepak John

Since 2011, the coal cess has been at the heart of India’s climate finance mobilization strategy. The recent reports suggest that National Clean Energy fund(NCEF), formed through coal cess accrual, had collected more than Rs 54,000 cr until early this year. NCEF was created with a mandate to fund research and innovative projects in clean energy technology.  It was symbolic of a financial promise to lead the nation to low carbon development pathway. But the news of this fund being diverted for GST(Goods & Services Tax) compensation and other budgetary shortages has cast serious shadows on the government’s commitment. It is highly doubtful that National clean energy fund would survive or even be revived in the following years. The Government has not been successful in devising a consistent climate finance policy.

The current circumstances call for exploring newer avenues for resource mobilization and address the challenges in the accessing these resources especially private finance. Developed nations have committed to mobilize $100B in climate finance per year by 2020. This is a humongous task. It is impractical to reason that the governments of the developed world alone will be able to conjure up this much. The UNFCCC had taken cognizance of the enormity of this effort by highlighting the support of the private finance in its charter. The Green Climate Fund(GCF) has designed a private sector facility to enhance private sector engagement. Report of Centre for Policy Research acknowledge private finance as the critical link to bridge the climate funding gap.

In India, the private finance route has considerable potential considering mature financial sector and enterprising corporate and industrial sector. Until 2015, around USD 34 billion has been invested in India to mobilise private climate finance, predominantly in renewable energy, energy efficiency and transport sector. However, there are limiting barriers to scaling up that have deterred them from entering this space. The private sector in India faces significant policy, financial, technical and behavioural barriers.

One of the significant barrier is the lack of policy clarity and loose engagement with private sector on climate change policy framework. There has been increasing focus on renewable energy (RE) generation due to various incentives like fiscal incentives and generation based incentives. It has been further supported by faster and transparent approvals. This reflects a policy bias toward Renewable Energy(RE) and Energy Efficiency(EE) sector. The government has not incentivized other climate-related fields with comparable enthusiasm. Also, another major factor is limited engagement with private sector for designing climate change plans and strategies. The private sector has restricted decision-making power in climate change policy process. The private stakeholdership in climate dialogues is limited to weighing in views and opinions. But more often than not, their engagement is impaired by the lack of technical understanding on subject matter itself. As Michael Bloomberg said, “It’s critical that industries and investors understand the risks posed by climate change, but currently there is too little transparency about those risks”.  No one really understands the risks it poses or impact it has.

The climate finance delivery cannot be complete without the engagement of Indian banks and Financial Institutions(FIs) as they form the primary conduit for climate investments. However, the financial landscape for climate-friendly investment is still in its nascent stages. The Indian banks have enough funds but they are apprehensive of foraying into these new sectors.  Currently, the loans granted have lower tenure with high interest rates, which raises the cost of capital considerably. Also, there is a need to integrate climate priorities in the various steps of credit appraisal, risk assessments, project implementation and monitoring. A lack of comprehensive project evaluation framework deters private finances. However, private banks like YES Bank have taken a proactive lead in including climate change and sustainability component in the project evaluation process. In 2015, it aimed to mobilize USD 5 billion from 2015 to 2020 for climate action through lending, investing and raising capital towards mitigation, adaptation and resilience.

Interestingly, a bright spot in India’s private finance setting is CDM financing, which is a creative market mechanism to fund projects. India is the second largest recipient of CDM projects after China, with a total of 563 projects till 2014, representing almost 33% of CDM projects in Asia and 22% of CDM projects worldwide as per Ministry of Finance(MoF).  CDM or clean development mechanism allows a country with emission reduction target under Kyoto protocol to implement emission reduction projects in developing countries. Implementing these projects helps developed nations to either offset emissions which were discharged above their stipulated quota or gain CERs (Certified Emission Reduction) that are tradeable in carbon markets. For the developing nations, this route provides for funding domestic projects. A win-win for both developing and developed countries under Kyoto framework. In India, it was found that CDM projects are concentrated in states that are more industrialised, such as Gujarat and Maharashtra. In contrast, poorer and less industrialised states generally implement fewer CDM projects. India needs to diversify its CDM investments with an overarching policy structure in place for all the implementing states.

Private finance route can amply supplement public finance if there is coherent and coordinated mechanism to set common priorities for climate action.This calls for a more proactive engagement with private sector. Thiswill alsolower behavioural attitude that assumes climate-borne compliance as just another burden.

Labor Pains 2017

Rosemarie Jackowski

We celebrate Labor Day by honoring workers – especially the forgotten workers.  Stay-at-home mothers who home school their children are often forgotten.  Other forgotten members of the labor force are those who work in school cafeterias,  those who empty bedpans in nursing homes, and ordinary local guys, like my plumber.  He is smart, honest, and he never over-charges.  These are just ordinary people. Most have no degrees – no fancy pieces of paper to frame and hang on their walls. These are the ‘good guys’ that keep our country and homes running.  They are the real backbone of our country.

There are also many others. Can anyone celebrate Labor Day without thinking about farm labor.  If you are too old to remember it, or too young to have ever heard of it, now is the time to crank up your computer and watch “Harvest of Shame”.  That is the amazing documentary made by Edward R. Murrow.  https://www.youtube.com  There is no labor more important for our existence and survival than farm labor. Often those who work in the field are the most overworked and under paid.  In Vermont we should be sensitive to the plight of workers on dairy farms. Often they live in sub standard housing. They live in fear of exposure if they lack the ‘right’ papers.  In Bennington we depend on the workers from the ‘islands’ who pick the apple crop every year.   One of our nation’s greatest scandals is the treatment of child farm workers who never seem to have the legal protections necessary. In California, who is looking out for the kids?  They often are exposed to dangerous chemicals while working long hours in the blazing sun.

Any examination of labor must also include those who are overpaid – corporate CEOs.  Corporations have the right to compensate administrators any way and in any amount the Board determines. BUT, the unfair distribution of wealth is taking a toll on the unity of our country.  It is time for voters to speak up. This widespread policy of excessive pay for Corporate CEOs can be easily fixed by changing the tax code.  Place a 100% tax on all income above $100,000 – or a 100% tax on all income that is more than five times the minimum wage.  Of course members of Congress are not willing to do that.  It is obvious why.  We know whose side they are on.

The most outrageous compensation scheme is often in the so-called ‘non-profits’.  Of all those, the health care business is no doubt the worse.  It is the most dangerous because it is, in part, responsible for lack of universal access to quality health care which can lead to death.   The US has the most expensive health care system on the planet – but it is not the best.  Quality of health care in Thailand and many other countries is far superior – so much so that many Americans have become medical tourists.  They will do anything to avoid the ‘assembly line’, dehumanized health care in the US.

Remember the good old days when we were patients. Then we became customers.  Now we are just algorithms.  Has your doctor made eye contact with you lately, or is your doctor focused on a computer screen during the entire length of your annual visit. This is not always the doctor’s fault. They did not design the system, but maybe they could fix it if they organized and at least tried.

Not all doctors are over paid. Some are under paid. The problem is that too much of the money goes to the top and too little to real health care providers at the bottom of the wage scale.  This has resulted in a loss of quality in health care and puts patients at risk.

Take a good look at the following numbers from IRS Form 990 reports.  Can they be justified?

Vermont Hospital CEO pay – 2016
•University of Vermont Medical Center: $2,186,275
•Dartmouth-Hitchcock: $1,494,669
•Southwestern Vermont Medical Center: $620,368
•Porter Medical Center: $612,877
•Rutland Regional Medical Center: $565,038
•Central Vermont Medical Center: $503,385
•Gifford Medical Center: $470,574
•Copley Hospital: $435,524
•North Country Hospital: $417,940
•Brattleboro Memorial Hospital: $390,731
•Northwestern Medical Center: $378,272
•Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center: $374,660
•Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital: $350,764
•Springfield Hospital: $264,563
•Grace Cottage Hospital: $124,800

Just one more fact. Recently Dartmouth Hitchcock hired a new CEO, Dr. Joanne M. Conroy. Her compensation is being kept secret.

Resting Sea Shepherd: A Pause In The Whale War Saga

Binoy Kampmark

What a colourful run this outfit has had. Branded in 2013 by Judge Alex Kozinski of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as pirates, the Sea Shepherd crew will be hanging up their hooks while rethinking their whale protection strategy.  Their long designated enemy, the Japanese whaling fleet, will be given some respite this hunting season.

A crucial point here is evolution.  The environmental battle, spearheaded by the Southern Ocean Whale Defence campaign, had become more troublingly sophisticated. “Military” tactics, claimed founder Captain Paul Watson, were being used by Japan.  An already slippery adversary had raised the bar.

But Watson, in his announcement, was attempting to give some lustre to the long term efforts of the project.  Against absurdly gargantuan odds, a small organisation’s resources were mustered to save whale species from imminent extinction.

“In 2005 we set out to tackle the world’s largest and most destructive whaling fleet.” It was a destruction centred on targeting 1,035 whales, including an annual quota of 50 endangered Fin whales and 50 endangered Humpbacks.  The sceptics were to be found on all sides: they doomed the organisation’s mission to imminent, crestfallen failure.

The humble, worse for wear Farley Mowat was enlisted to harry Japanese whalers across the Southern Ocean.  But to it were added, over time, the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker, the Sam Simon the Brigitte Bardot and the Ocean Warrior.

For Watson and his dedicated piratical crew, the law of environmental protection often lagged, while political action and matters of enforcement proved timid.  States with greater power and resources were simply not keen on ruffling Japanese feathers.  Statements if disapproval hardly counted.

Japanese whalers have faced the legal music in a range of venues, though as with everything, the might of the gavel doesn’t necessary restrain the might of a state, whether directly used or incidentally employed.  In November 2015, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha was fined $1 million by the Australian Federal Court for hunting minke whales within an Australian sanctuary as defined by Australian environmental law. The whaling company cared not to turn up nor subsequently cough up.

Enter, then, the organisation’s insistence on the use of “innovative direct-action tactics”, thereby putting a premium on investigation, documentation and the taking of “action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas.”

Preventive tactics, such as those employed in 2013 in the Southern Ocean, would feature attempts to prevent Japanese ships from taking refuelling sustenance from a tanker.  On cue, both the crew of the Japanese vessels, and Sea Shepherd, would release material suggesting that the other had deliberately attempted to ram their ships.

On reaching the legal courts, the Sea Shepherd book of cetaceous protection tended to look more blotted.  The Japanese angle in these instances was to emphasise the danger posed to crews, the potentially lethal bravado of the Sea Shepherd warriors. To do so offered a sizeable distraction from the legitimacy of the hunting activities.

“When you,” directed a stern Judge Kozinski, “ram ships, hurl glass containers of acid, drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders, launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate.”

For years, the militant nature of the organisation brought various agents, and agencies, into play. It used guerrilla tactics of gumption and daring, though it was the sort of audaciousness that divided opinion, even in the environmental ranks.  Such methods may well been crude but few could dispute their effects. In 2012/3, Japanese whalers, according to Watson, returned with a meagre 10 percent of intended kills.

The strategy of the Japanese whaling fleet, as Watson reflects, has always been shape shifting, apologetics followed by bellicosity; the fictional narrative of science overlaying arguments of culture.  While still flouting legality, the number of intended whales has fallen to 333, a victory that can be, to a degree, chalked up to Sea Shepherd’s techniques of mass irritation and disruption.  But to this can be added a more expansive scope embraced by their adversary: wider killing grounds, more opportunities to gather their quarry.

By 2016/7, it was clear to Watson that the Japanese were still able to net their quota, albeit at greater expense in terms of time and cost.  That same hunting season also threw up a few new realities: the use by the Japanese of “military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd movements in real time by satellite”. While the group, assisted by their helicopter, did get close to capture evidence of whaling, they “could not physically close the gap.” Hence the sombre admission by Watson: “We cannot compete with their military grade technology.”

Sea Shepherd’s mission remains, as outlined on its web site, “to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.” But more than a few in the Japanese whaling fleet will be pleased at the organisation’s absence this killing season.

Syria And Lebanon Defeating The ISIS Terrorists

Andre Vltchek

Whatever the West may think, and no matter what the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri may say publicly, the Lebanese army, in clear coordination with Hezbollah (which is outlawed in many Western countries) as well as with the Syrian army, is now pounding the positions of deadly ISIS/Daesh, right at the border region.

The army began the operation on August 19, 2017, at 5 in the morning, by firingat the terrorists’ positions in Jaroud, RaasBa’albak and al-Qaa’ using rockets and heavy artillery. It all has an emotional twist: the army commanders declared that the operation was launched in honor of the country’s kidnapped military men and martyrs.

Apparently, Lebanon has finally decided: that, enough is enough! First Al-Nusra Front and now ISIS have to go.

Ignore the fact the Lebanese government went out of its way to say that the Lebanese army is actually not coordinating with Syrian forces, or with Hezbollah. After all, Mr. Hariri just recently returned from Washington, where he met the US President who is treating Syrian President Assad as his personal enemy, and Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Personally, Mr. Hariri likes the West, and he is very close to its loyal ally, Saudi Arabia, where he was born.

But Mr. Hariri was never elected. Lebanon is using a complex and obscure “confession system”, ‘distributing political and institutional power proportionally among confessional communities’. President has to be a Maronite Christian; Speaker of the Parliament is Shi’a Muslim and Prime Minister has to be a Sunni Muslim.

Therefore, one thing is what Mr. Hariri says, and other what most of the people of Lebanon think or do.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese resistance, political and social movement Hezbollah has also declared a joint anti-Daesh (ISIS) offensive with the Syrian army, at the other side of the border. The gloves are suddenly off.

Unlike one month earlier, when Al-Nusra Front was almost totally wiped out by the same coalition but in the end its fighters were spared and offered a transfer to a  ‘safe zone’ inside Syria (Idlib), this time there is not going to be any preliminary negotiation with the most venomous of all terrorist groups in the region. The message is clear: either the unconditional or at least irreversible surrender of all ISIS terrorists, or their total destruction.

By the evening of August 20, the Lebanese army was already holding around 80 square kilometers (roughly 30%) of the area that was previously controlled by Daesh (ISIS).

*

Before I departed from the Lebanese capital for Cairo, Egypt, I drank a few cups of coffee with my good friend, an intellectual from Syria. We were sitting in the middle of Beirut’s Christian neighborhood, Achrafieh.

“Let’s take a ‘selfie’ together,” he said. I was surprised; before he was known to despise social media.

“We are winning,” he said, “and that’s great… But you never know what happens next… There will be, surely, some terrible retaliation. Who knows whether we’ll see each other again, you know… Something may happen to me, or to you, on the way to the airport.”

I knew what he was talking about, and I have written about the situation many times before. Lebanon,in someof the non-Muslim neighborhoods of Beirut,has been literally saturated with so-called “dormant cells”, of various terrorist organizations, particularly ISIS. At any moment they can get ‘activated’, destroying hundreds of lives in this beautiful but long-suffering city.

Beirut is nervous, edgy. Great victories in the mountains liberated tormented local people, and Lebanon is finally regaining its territories. But the terrorists will not disappear from the country overnight. They may be losing big territorial battles, but they are still capable of inflicting terrible casualties on the civilians and even the military.

But so far, everything is moving rapidly, in Lebanon and across the border. The once astonishing number of almost 2 million refugees on its territory has gradually been reduced to 1.5 million, and then adjusted further down to 1.2 million. Soon it may drop well under one million.

Syrians are going back, confident that peace is returning to their scarred land.

The Syrian forces, as well as Russians, Iranians and Hezbollah, are clearly determined to stop the insurgency of several terrorist groups on the Syrian territory, while China is now also playing an increasingly important and positive role.

Most of the terrorist armies are directly or indirectly supported by the West or by its close allies in the Gulf. Turkey is also playing dangerous and deadly games in the region.

*

Almost no one is talking about the final collapse of the Middle East, anymore. Entire nations have been damaged; some went up in flames. Implanted militant Islam served well both the West and much of the Gulf. But Syria survived; it fought bravely and determinedly, supported by its allies and at an enormous cost, it has managed to stop the imperialists and their brutal extremist local offshoots.

While no one is celebrating, yet, the mood in Syria, Lebanon and in several other part of the region is suddenly upbeat.

The West is now fully discredited, while Russia has gained great respect.

As Lebanese and Syrian armies are, with Hezbollah support, conducting offensive against the ISIS, Russian jets, it is reported, killed some 200 terrorists heading for a region of Deirez-Zur in Syria. In the same period of time, US-led strikes killed at least 17 civilians in Raqqah.

Mr. Assad has no illusions about the motives of the Western involvement in the region. As reported on August 20 by SANA Syrian Arab Agency, he recently gave a powerful speech:

“…This conflict is a valuable opportunity for the West to ‘settle the account’ with so many countries and subjugating countries which have refused to bow to the West’s hegemony during the past years or decades, including Syria, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Belarus among others, even Russia.”

President Assad continued:

“Today the West is facing an existential conflict….living in a state of hysteria whenever there is a state that wants to take part with it in the international decision-making in any field and in any place in the world”.

*

By August 27 2017, it was clear that Daesh (ISIS) fighters were cornered, if not completely defeated. The Lebanese Army agreed to a cease-fire in its offensive, after terrorists decided to lay down arms. Negotiations began. It appears that the ISIS may soon pull out of Lebanese territory to Syria, to a designated zone.

Victory came at a heavy price: the Lebanese Army helicopters were flying helicopters with body bags containing remains of the soldiers, over the capital – Beirut.

Across the border (as was reported by Press TV on August 27), helicopters were used for totally different goals:

“For the second time this week, a helicopter operating under the US-led coalition has transferred members of the Daesh terrorist group in Syria’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province, a UK-based monitoring group says… Syrian sources said that the operation was accompanied by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces’ artillery fire… The sources speculated that the airlift was possibly meant to transfer US mercenaries fighting alongside Daesh or the terror outfit’s ringleaders who sought to defect…”

*

Tiny Lebanon is tied to Syria with an umbilical cord. It is a rocky, often extremely complex relationship, but during the historic moments like this it is clear that both countries can and choose to act in unison.The Prime Minister of Lebanon may like to flirt with Donald Trump in Washington and with Saudi Arabia, but the armies of both countries are clearly together, fighting the same enemy. And so is Hezbollah.

To both the Syrian and Lebanese people, it is clear who the real enemies of the region are. And they are definitely not Hezbollah or President Assad.

Former Thai PM flees as junta intensifies crackdown

John Roberts & Peter Symonds

Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was removed by Thailand’s current military rulers in the May 2014 coup, fled the country on Friday. She was due to appear in the Supreme Court in Bangkok to hear its verdict on trumped-up charges that could have seen her jailed for 10 years. Yingluck is thought to be in Dubai.

Around 3,000 Yingluck supporters, including some who came from the north and northeast of the country, gathered outside the court to hear the verdict and were confronted with thousands of police and barricades. While the military junta allowed the gathering to take place under strict conditions, it previously threatened to arrest those who gathered at Yingluck’s last court appearance in July. Yingluck advised her supporters not to turn up last Friday.

The judges issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck, revoked her bail of 30 million baht or about $900,000 and ordered it be forfeited. The next court date is set for September 27.

Yingluck was charged over her government’s rice subsidy scheme—a measure designed to assist farmers, particularly in impoverished areas. The farmers were paid above market price and the rice was stored in the hope that world prices would rise. Instead prices fell, leaving rice rotting in warehouses and the government facing substantial losses.

The junta exploited the policy failure to bring criminal charges in an attempt to stamp out the influence of Yingluck, and her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister in the military coup of 2006, and their Pheu Thai party.

The military rulers represent the country’s traditional elites. They are deeply hostile to the Shinawatras, who built a base of support among the urban and rural poor through limited social reforms, including the rice scheme, a health program and village subsidies. Thaksin also alienated sections of less competitive Thai business by opening up the economy more widely to foreign investment.

The flimsy character of the charges against Yingluck over the rice scheme is underscored by the fact that the military introduced an almost identical subsidy program in November 2016 in order to avoid widespread mass unrest in rice growing areas. Farmers were paid to hold on to their crops for several months until market prices rose.

In addition to seeking a 10-year prison sentence for so-called criminal negligence over the rice scheme, the junta issued an administrative order imposing an unprecedented personal fine on Yingluck of $US1 billion, supposedly to partially cover the government’s losses. She is barred from politics until 2020 after being impeached by the military-appointed parliament in 2015.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court also imposed draconian sentences, ranging from 24 to 48 years in prison, on 20 others, including five former officials in Yingluck’s administration, for allegedly profiting from the rice subsidy program. Former Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was sentenced to 42 years and his deputy 36 years.

The Trump administration effectively gave the green light for this judicial witch-hunt in early August when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson became the most senior American official to visit Thailand since the 2014 coup. Former army chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the coup leader and prime minister, has been invited to Washington in October to meet with Trump.

Tillerson held discussions with Prayuth and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai. He reportedly pressed the regime to further isolate North Korea and discussed security and trade matters but made no comment on the junta’s repressive police-state measures. Tillerson later made perfunctory remarks at the US embassy, saying he hoped elections would go ahead in 2018.

The junta exploited the death of the King Bhumibol Adulyadej last October to postpone national elections for the third time, until sometime in 2018. Bhumibol was key to the coups against elected pro-Thaksin governments. The junta is less than enthusiastic about his son, Maha Vajirlongkorn, now due for coronation in November.

The chief concern, however, is that even with the military’s highly restrictive constitution an election could result in a pro-Thaksin victory in the lower house of a new parliament. Pro-Thaksin parties have won every election for more than a decade, in spite of the military’s efforts to prevent that outcome.

The military junta has sweeping powers under section 44 of its interim constitution to stop “any act which undermines public peace and order or national security, the monarchy, national economics or administration of state affairs.” The section has been invoked more than 150 times. Other measures include a ban on gatherings of more than five people, censorship of Internet activity and trials of civilians in military courts on sedition charges.

More than 100 people have been arrested under the country’s reactionary lèse-majesté laws for supposedly insulting or offending the royal family. King Bhumibol was the linchpin of the state apparatus and the country’s ruling elites, including the military, state bureaucracy, the courts and sections of business. His death is compounding the political crisis facing the junta, which fears that rising social tensions will lead to mass unrest.

According to the Asian Development Bank, the Thai economy is expected to grow by just 3.5 percent this year, down from around 5 percent a decade ago. A 2017 report by Credit Suisse said Thailand became the third most unequal country in the world in 2016, with 1 percent of the population owning 58.0 percent of national wealth, beating India into second place. The highest concentration of poverty is in the rural areas.

The junta is well aware that it is sitting atop a social time bomb and is determined to suppress all opposition. On July 29, ten armed men in black balaclavas physically abducted a vocal opponent of the military, Wuthipong Kochathamakun, from his home in the Laotian capital Vientiane, where he was living in self-imposed exile.

Wuthipong is regarded as one of the more radical members of the Thaksin-affiliated United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD). The UDD led the mass demonstrations in Bangkok in 2010 against what amounted to a judicial coup that removed a pro-Thaksin government in 2008. The army brutally suppressed the protests, killing more than 80 people, but was eventually forced to concede elections that led to Yingluck’s victory in 2011.

UK: 228 high-rise buildings fail mock-up fire tests post-Grenfell

Steve James 

Tests on the fire resistance of aluminium cladding systems in England currently suggest that at least 228 high-rise buildings, over 18 metres in height, are potential death traps.

The tests, carried out on behalf of the British government by the British Research Establishment (BRE), are the latest in a hastily arranged series following the catastrophic June 14 fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London, which killed at least 80 people.

The tests involved a large-scale test fire on an aluminium composite material (ACM) filled with retardant polyethylene installed with phenolic foam board insulation. Twenty-two buildings are known to use this specific type of cladding, adding to the 206 buildings clad with ACM using differing types of filler and insulation. So far, of systems installed, only those with fire retardant ACM and mineral wool insulation have passed the tests.

No complete list of the buildings involved has been publicly provided, but all are likely residential tower blocks, each housing hundreds of working people and run either by housing associations or local authorities. The government is reported as having informed the buildings’ owners and recommended remedial measures. If the experience of evacuated residents in London’s Chalcots Estate is a guide, emergency measures amounted to improving fire doors and installing fire stopping measures between flats and floors, and unblocking stairwell ventilation. An unknown number of low-rise and private sector buildings may use the same dangerous combinations of materials.

The current set of tests is the second conducted on ACM cladding. In the days following the disaster, Conservative Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid offered free testing of ACM samples to landlords. Initially as many as 530 buildings were thought to have ACM cladding, but early investigations reduced the number to 259, including 240 public sector residential blocks. Landlords were encouraged to submit two 250 x 250 mm ACM samples for testing by the BRE. Of samples eventually submitted, all failed. The test that generated the extraordinary 100 percent failure rate was authenticated as sound by the Sweden Research Institute.

In July, Javid told Parliament that thus far only the core of the ACM panel was being tested. In response, housing authorities and fire safety commentators demanded supposedly more representative test methods in which a mock-up of a full cladding installation, including the ACM panel, the insulation and fire stopping, should be used. Concerns were raised that potentially safe systems were in danger of being removed from buildings.

Hoping, no doubt, for a meaningful reduction in the number of dangerous buildings, Javid called for the new tests, of which six of seven have now been completed by the BRE. But only 13 of 241 buildings covered by the more realistic test have passed, arguably a more devastating outcome than the initial tests, and exposing a regulatory collapse of unprecedented proportions.

Every single one of the cladding systems now being exposed as deadly had previously been signed off as safe. How can this be?

Responsibility lies with all the major political parties, and successive governments, who over the last three decades have embraced deregulation and privatisation and the subordination of public health and safety to private profit. There are many aspects of this revealed by Grenfell.

In England now, following years of erosion, there is no unified regime of building inspection run by local authorities retaining any degree of independence from the building companies. Nor is there an arm of government tasked with overseeing building standards.

Rather, building contractors themselves can hire an “Approved Inspector,” whose job is not to ensure adherence to a strict set of “prescriptive” standards but to follow looser “functional” guidelines assumed to be needed for building safety. A host of private and semi-private organisations, such as the Building Control Alliance (BCA), have sprung up to exploit the regulatory vagueness and loopholes regarding the materials that can be used in any given set of circumstances.

The BCA advised on three mechanisms whereby a cladding system could be approved, in line with building regulations which stated that external insulation should be of “limited combustibility,” defined as “A2.” Option 1 stipulated that all the component materials could simply be of A2 combustibility resistance or better. Option 2 proposed a fire test be set up, that could include inferior products, but if the fire test was deemed safe all was well. Option 3, clearly the easiest, involved a “desktop” study where cladding materials could be deemed safe without any tests and without any specified combustibility standards merely on the basis of considering similar scenarios. No records of these studies were required to be kept.

Even more reckless were guidelines issued, now withdrawn, by the National House Building Council (NHBC), another private body, closely tied to the building industry, which issues insurance to house builders and offers building inspection advice. According to the BBC, the NHBC simply decided that sub-A2 materials were acceptable based on a review of a “significant quantity of data from a range of tests and desktop assessments.”

Perhaps most seriously, the BRE, the organisation most directly responsible for fire testing and providing fire safety advice, has itself been compromised. The BRE was established in 1921 as an arm of the civil service tasked with improving house quality. Over the years, the organisation established itself as a reputable, state-funded source of building and fire safety advice, with a degree of independence from the building materials and construction companies. Privatised in 1997, the BRE has subsequently sought to establish itself as a global brand for sale of fire safety advice, drawing in revenue from the very organisations whose products and operations it should be policing.

In 2016, the BRE issued a report, “External Fire Spread,” following studies commissioned by Javid’s Department of Communities and Local Government into the dangers of cladding fires.

The report, clearly intended to silence growing alarm, is cynical and complacent. The authors complained that high-rise flat fires are “visually impressive, high-profile and attract media attention.” To avoid the fuss, unsuitable cladding materials should be dealt with “as part of the fire safety risk assessment carried out under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [12] ...”

This order, passed under the Labour government of Tony Blair, removed fire safety responsibly from the Fire Service and allowed anyone to set themselves up as a fire risk assessor, regardless of skills, experience or qualifications. In 2010, fire assessor Carl Stokes won the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chealsea fire assessment contract, including Grenfell Tower, by undercutting rivals Salvus Consulting. Stokes was praised at the time for his willingness to “challenge the Fire Brigade … if he considered their requirements to be excessive.”

Part one of the BRE report concludes with the assertion: “With the exception of one or two unfortunate but rare cases, there is currently no evidence from these investigations to suggest that the current recommendations, to limit vertical fire spread up the exterior of high-rise buildings, are failing in their purpose.”

Tanker makes solo voyage through melting Arctic Sea

Daniel de Vries

A Russian liquefied natural gas tanker completed its maiden voyage through the waters of the Arctic Sea last week without the use of an icebreaker, ushering in a new step in the exploitation of the dramatically warming polar region.

The specially constructed 300-meter tanker Christophe de Margerie became the first tanker to complete the Northern Sea Route voyage unassisted. The ship sailed from Norway to South Korea in just 19 days, 30 percent faster than the usual route through the Suez Canal. The Northern Sea Route tracks the northern coast of Siberia, which may provide an efficient alternative for trade between northern Europe and east Asia as climatic conditions change.

And those conditions are changing rapidly. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. As a result, both the extent and volume of sea ice is decreasing. The area of the Arctic Sea covered by ice in September has fallen by half compared to the average of recent decades. Likewise the average thickness of what remains has declined by 1.8 meters.

Scientists expect these observed trends to continue and even accelerate. Some scenarios envision largely ice-free polar seas during summertime as soon as the 2030s. While ice will continue to lock up the waterways during winter, the length of shipping seasons will grow. By the end of the century most of the Arctic may be open water half the year or longer.

The retreating ice is not only expected to open up shipping lanes, but also unlock more areas for oil and gas drilling. The Arctic holds perhaps an eighth of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves and up to a third of its gas reserves.

The voyage completed last week coincides with the development of the massive South-Tambeyskoye natural gasfield in northern Siberia. The field holds an estimated 926 billion cubic meters of untapped gas. Russian natural gas giant Novatek and major Chinese and French firms have formed a joint venture to extract, liquefy and transport up to 16.5 million tons of the liquefied gas each year.

The Christophe de Margerie is the first of 15 tankers planned to haul the massive payloads to markets in Europe and Asia. The new fleet will have reinforced hulls capable of cutting through two meters of ice. With the decreasing thickness of the sea ice, the ships are expected to operate nearly year-round on portions of the Arctic Sea.

The prospects for Arctic oil and gas development and open sailing are not limited to the Northern Sea Route and Russia. The Northwest Passage through the Canadian archipelago has seen a significant growth this decade in commercial and tourist activity, including a 1,600-passenger luxury cruise ship this summer making its second excursion along the Passage.

The warming temperatures and declining sea ice have brought with them intensified conflict over claims of sovereignty and expansion of military activity. The United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia all claim significant tracts of the Arctic, much of which is disputed. The US insists the shipping lanes are international passages, and a December 2016 Department of Defense Arctic strategy report highlighted the necessity to conduct “Freedom of Navigation operations to challenge excessive maritime claims when and where necessary.”

The US Air Force’s Alaska Command in May led the most recent joint military exercise with 6,000 personnel, 200 aircraft and several ships to simulate combat in the Arctic. Russia recently reorganized its Arctic Command and renovated Cold War-era Arctic bases.

Yet even as competition in the Arctic heats up, the variability of the weather has kept the risk high and reliability low. While container ships, oil tankers and cruise ships are now all active in the Arctic, the traffic relative to southern routes remains minute. Ice blockages during summer months are common. Ice flows and melting vary significantly from year to year and month to month. Shipping companies with regular schedules and tight deadlines are in no rush to reroute vessels north, a situation that analysts predict will persist for some time.

Compounding the extreme weather risk is a lack of infrastructure, which could prove catastrophic when disasters strike. Much of the Arctic is still poorly charted, with distances of hundreds of kilometers between ports, putting ships many days away from help if they encounter difficulty. Groundings or collisions could result in ships sinking or spilling its cargo. The danger is far from theoretical. In December of 2015, a Russian tanker carrying 200,000 gallons of oil ran aground in the North Pacific. The most well-known oil spill in the northern latitudes, the Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons, is still impacting the Alaskan environment more than a quarter century later.

Massive fire in Rostov, Russia destroys 123 houses

Clara Weiss

On Monday, August 21, a massive fire erupted in the historic centre of the southern Russian city Rostov-On-Don. It quickly spread to 10,000 square metres and destroyed 123 residential houses. One pensioner died in the fire, and dozens of people were injured. Survivors of the fire and Rostov residents widely believe that the fire was started intentionally by construction companies that have sought for months to buy the houses in this very district.

The outbreak of the fire was reported at 12:52 p.m. It reportedly started in an abandoned house on the Theatre Square in the city centre, and quickly spread to other houses and streets, partially due to a strong wind. Dozens of people immediately had to leave their houses, with many of the young helping elderly people to flee. Numerous gas pipelines exploded (For footage of the fire click here). One hundred twenty-three residential houses, many of which were made of wood, burned down before the fire was extinguished by firefighters.

One pensioner who was not able to leave his house in time, died in the fire. According to local officials, 58 people were injured. At least 218 families were affected by the fire, many of which lost all of their property and belongings (For footage of the devastation in the aftermath of the fire click here). In total, some 1,500 people are expected to ask for government support in the wake of the fire.

The Kremlin has promised some 600 million roubles (a little over US$10 million) to help the victims of the fire, but has a poor record in terms of providing the material help promised in cases of disasters. Moreover, the local administration and the Kremlin in Moscow have a sinister record in covering up the real causes and consequences of disasters such as this fire. So far, the Investigative Committee, a federal body, has only levelled charges of negligence at local services over the fire.

Even though issues such as the massive cutbacks in fire fighting stations in Russia in the past quarter century and the extremely decrepit housing infrastructure have contributed to this disaster, evidence strongly suggests that the fire was in fact instigated with the aim of making the houses and their residents disappear from this area.

The district is one of the poorest in the city, with many streets going without pavement, sewerage and running water. The slum-like district was separated from the rest of the centre by a large fence. However, the land here is the most valuable in the city and, according to local online news source donnews.ru, has been hotly contested among construction companies. Just 200 metres away, the Teatralny Square in the city centre will be used in 2018 for a fan zone and live screening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup which will take place in the nearby city of Sochi. High-ranking government officials and FIFA representatives are expected to come to Rostov for this occasion.

Just two weeks before the fire, donnews.ru published an investigative report, detailing how numerous local residents had received visits from murky representatives of construction companies who were eager to buy their property and threatened to torch their houses.

Valentina Livshits, 62, who lived in a house on the Teatralny Prospekt before the fire, told the newspaper that two men in sun glasses appeared at her house on August 4, declaring that she would have to soon leave it. “They resembled the gangsters of the ’90s,” Livshits said. One of them told her that he had to report to the head of Rostov’s city administration, Kushnaryov, that she was ready to leave her house on their conditions. He then told her: “I’ve already bought everything else in this area and will build something here.” The two men reportedly declined to name the company they were working for and offered her 2.4 million roubles for her property (approximately US$41,000).

“I told them that the property was worth twice as much and that I would never be able to buy something in the centre for 2.4 million roubles,” Livshits continued. In response, the men threatened her that a court would rule to have her thrown out.

Another resident, who was also visited by “men in black,” was told: “If you won’t give it to us for the price we offer, the property will be confiscated by the mayor’s office for the needs of the city.”

Another resident, Nina Reshetnik, indicated that some 70 percent of the people previously living here have already left the district. Reshetnik told donnews.ru: “A month ago some people came to those who live in the most dilapidated houses of the district. They offered the inhabitants between 100 and 600,000 roubles for one-hundredth of a hectare of land. But when they were told that you can’t buy anything on this kind of money, they responded: ‘Then it’s easier to torch you than to pay anything.’”

After this, a series of fires started in the neighbourhood. One resident told donnews.ru that he witnessed two fires at his house within two months. “The second time I was sleeping and my landlady managed to wake me up in time, otherwise everything would have ended in tragedy. Before this, there were never fires at my house, even though I have been living here for a very long time and have already seen hotter summers.”

No less than five houses went up in flames on August 5. On August 7, three houses started burning at the Chuvashsky corner. The residents of one of the affected houses had been previously told to leave their home, and neighbours reportedly spotted someone who set the fire. All of these houses were also all affected by the latest massive fire on August 21.

The fire in Rostov has sparked enormous outrage throughout the country, some of which is reflected in angry comments on social media and in articles such as the one quoted above. In an indication of extreme hostility and distrust among the working class and broader sections of the population toward the state and corporations, almost no one believes that this fire was an accident.

A petition started in the wake of the fire, which urges the city administration to cancel a celebration in the city center for a local holiday, just near the site of the disaster, and to instead use these funds for the needs of the hundreds of displaced families, has gathered over 120,000 signatures within just a few days.

It is significant that many residents and commentators on the internet felt reminded of the 1990s, a period which most Russians remember as deeply traumatic, as the most thuggish and criminal methods were employed to plunder the population and whatever had remained of the Soviet economy.

For millions of workers, intellectuals, and youth, it becomes ever more clear that the restoration of capitalism in the USSR has resulted in a seemingly unending nightmare. Social inequality in Russia is higher than in any other major economy of the world. The top decile of the population now owns a stunning 89 percent of total wealth in Russia, more even than in the United States where the top decile of the populations owns 78 percent of all wealth. Russia has the third-highest number of billionaires in the world (96) and some 79,000 US-dollar millionaires. Meanwhile, some 56 percent of Russian workers make less than 31,000 rubles ($531) a month.

The economic and social crisis has further been aggravated by the sanctions of the US and EU against Russia. With all the anti-Putin propaganda in the Western media, the truth is that the brunt of the sanctions is borne not by Putin and his cronies, but by the Russian working class which has seen its living standards further decline as the government has cut social spending while safeguarding and increasing the fortunes of the oligarchs as much as it could.

In the final analysis, the extreme criminality of the ruling class that has emerged out of capitalist restoration in the USSR is only a particularly acute expression of the decay of the world capitalist system. As the Grenfell Fire in London earlier this summer has shown, workers throughout the world are increasingly confronted with an ever more criminal ruling class, and ever more open assaults on their very social and physical existence. It is in them that workers in Russia will find their allies in fighting their own deeply corrupt and degenerate bourgeoisie.