Signs of slump in Australia overshadow looming election

Mike Head

Economic indicators are pointing to a sharp downturn in Australia, driven by the intensifying global turmoil, that will shatter all the promises being made, including by the opposition Labor Party, in the lead-up to a general election that must be held by May.

Reports have emerged in recent days of poor retail sales, more closures and job losses, plunging consumer and business confidence and rising bank interest rates. These indices have added to the concerns generated by the collapse of the property market bubble that largely propped up Australian capitalism after the implosion of the mining boom in 2012.

The trends are further signals of the Australian economy’s exposure to the growing impact of the US-China trade war and underlying economic conflict. This is adding to a growth reversal in China—Australia’s largest export market—plus the uncertainty produced by the Brexit crisis, plunges on world share markets and signs of political instability and recession in Europe.

Adding to the nervousness in the corporate elite is the brittleness of the political situation in Australia itself. The Liberal-National Coalition government has continued to be wracked by factional warfare since last August’s backroom coup that installed Scott Morrison as the seventh prime minister since 2007. The Labor Party and trade union leaders sounded alarms at last month’s Labor Party conference about explosive discontent in the working class because of years of falling wages, attacks on working conditions and deteriorating social services.

Yet all the deceptive pre-election pledges being made by the Coalition, Labor and a plethora of other parties are predicated on unreal assumptions of strong global and domestic economic growth. Once the election is out of the way, whichever party heads the next government will seek to impose yet another wave of austerity measures and job-shedding.

“The latest sharp decline in consumer confidence highlights the fragile nature of the national economic outlook as well as domestic and global political uncertainty,” warned Thursday’s editorial in the Australian.

“A fall of 4.7 percent from last month—and more than 5 percent from the same time last year—is the largest drop in the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment for more than three years. It marks a tipping point from cautious optimism to a clearly pessimistic outlook and it is mirrored by anecdotal evidence of softness in the retail sector.”

That index’s fall to 99.6—below 100 indicates pessimism—followed what the Australian Financial Review termed “soft economic data in recent weeks.” These included weak housing credit, further falls in home prices, a plunge in residential building approvals—pointing to falling dwelling investment, continuing weakness in car sales, a downturn in job ads and vacancies, and falls in business conditions.

Perhaps the sharpest recent signs are those in the retail sector. The 87-store menswear chain Ed Harry went into administration on Tuesday following “particularly tough” Christmas trading, threatening about 500 jobs. Analysts expect more retailers to collapse this year.

According to ShopperTrak, which measures visits to shopping centres, customer traffic year-on-year fell 15 percent in the week ending December 23 and 23 percent in the week ending December 30, dragging the result for December down 12.2 percent. This cannot simply be accounted for by the growing shift to online shopping which has produced a 12-month average decline of just 2.2 percent.

Shares in Wesfarmers, the country’s largest retail and supermarket conglomerate with about 220,000 employees, fell on January 14 after the group said earnings from its department stores division would fall about 7 percent in the December-half to between $385 million and $400 million, with especially weak Christmas trading at Kmart.

The negative Kmart trading update followed profit warnings from two prominent retailers, Kathmandu and Costa Group. More such reports are likely to come. Deutsche Bank last week said several retailers had described recent trading as the “worst Christmas in a number of years.”

The Ed Harry liquidation adds to a list of high-profile closures that have destroyed thousands of jobs over the past two years. These included Herringbone, Rhodes and Beckett, Top Shop, Dick Smith, Oroton, Marcs, David Lawrence, Pumpkin Patch, Payless Shoes, Live Clothing, Maggie T, Metalicus, Esprit, Roger David and Toy ‘R’ Us. Major retail chains, such as Premier Investments, Myer and David Jones, are also shutting down stores.

Homewares retailers in particular face difficulties, with house prices tipped to fall another 5 percent in 2019, on top of 6.1 percent in 2018, cutting the capacity of debt-laden households to borrow on the basis of inflated values. Dwelling commencements dropped 5.7 percent in the third quarter of 2018.

The retail bankruptcies are adding to the pressure on the banks, already facing the prospect of rising mortgage defaults. Australia’s four big banks rely on home mortgages for up to 70 percent of their loans and profits, with commercial business lending accounts for most of the remainder.

Also experiencing rising interest rates in the global financial markets on which they depend for their lending funds, the banks have begun lift mortgage rates, and this will add to the likelihood of household defaults.

National Australia Bank’s digital bank UBank raised rates on a range of fixed-interest products by 20 basis points this week, following similar moves by Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s subsidiary Bankwest and Bank of Queensland’s Virgin Money. Other lenders are expected to do the same.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver told the Australian Financial Review this week that rising funding pressure and deteriorating economic conditions would force the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), to cut official cash rates, which have been held at an “emergency” low of 1.5 percent for a record 28 months.

This would be a stark turnaround. The RBA previously indicated that it would soon start to follow the US Federal Reserve and other central banks in increasing interest rates to “normal” levels after a decade of pumping cheap money into financial markets since the 2008 global breakdown.

The January 17 Australian editorial pointed to preparations being made in corporate ruling circles for an election defeat of the Coalition government, saying there was evidence that “consumers and businesses already may be factoring in a change of government in Canberra.”

The editorial demanded a political focus on the economic fragility, instead of the “leadership rivalries, personality feuds, and sex and entitlements scandals” that have erupted within the Coalition government. “Repairing our fiscal position” had to be a central issue in the election.

In line with such demands from the ruling class, Labor has vowed to deliver bigger budget surpluses than the Coalition, while still making populist pitches to address the deepening social inequality, and matching the government’s massive boost to military spending.

Eliminating the multi-billion dollar budget deficits that have prevailed since 2008 will mean intensifying the attacks on essential social programs, such as health, education, housing and welfare, regardless of all the election promises.

Extreme heatwave hits Australia

Frank Gaglioti

While Germany, Austria, Serbia and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe face one of their coldest January in recent years, the Australian continent is experiencing record heatwaves. Scientific evidence indicates that global warming is exacerbating the extreme conditions around the world.

The extended period of high temperatures in Australia is having serious impacts on people’s health, as well as agriculture and wildlife. On January 16, for example, some towns recorded temperatures just below 50C (122F).

Tarcoola in the middle of South Australia had the highest temperature at 49.1C. Swathes of central Australia, New South Wales (NSW) and northern Victoria recorded temperatures of around 46C.

The intense heat is expected to continue across the continent into this weekend, with Canberra, the national capital, suffering four consecutive days above 40C (104F), a record.

“Certainly the duration of this event and the spatial extent of the heatwave across the southern half of Australia seems to be quite significant,” Weatherzone senior meteorologist Jacob Cronje told the media. “By the end of the week, we should see many records broken across NSW.”

The heatwave started on December 25, when Marble Bar in the Pilbara mining region of northwest Western Australia reached 49.3 degrees. According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), this was the third-highest December temperature ever recorded anywhere in the country.

The BOM said the heatwave emanated from the Pilbara and extended across the country. The severe heat was intensified by the failure of monsoonal rains, making the region extremely dry. These weather systems moved east across the country. According to Cronje, temperatures may exceed 50C as the heatwave continues.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported a spike in cardiac arrests and people presenting to emergency departments and ambulance callouts.

NSW Health warned of heightened levels of ozone, resulting from pollution from vehicles and air conditioners interacting with sunlight. Ozone is known to be an irritant to people with respiratory conditions such as asthma.

Heatwaves are one the biggest killers in Australia. People suffering chronic conditions, such as heart disease and asthma, are the most vulnerable. The elderly and very young are at very high risk also. Medical researchers estimated that over 430 people died from the extreme heat during the January–February 2009 heatwave, when temperatures climbed to 46C.

Stone fruit farmers are losing their crops as the heat literally cooks the fruit in their skins. Dried Tree Fruits Australia chairman Kris Werner told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “The stone burns them, which means they burn on the inside, they become squashy and you can’t use them.

In December the BOM and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) issued their joint biennial assessment of Australia’s climate. The State of the Climate 2018 report pointed to the increasing impact of global warming on the world’s climate.

This year was the third warmest on record in Australia, with the annual mean temperature 1.14 degrees above average. Globally, 2018 was the fourth warmest on record. Eight of Australia’s hottest years on record have occurred since 2005.

“The shift to a warmer climate in Australia is accompanied by more extreme daily heat events,” the report stated.

The drying of southern Australia is one of the most important shifts in climate, impacting on agriculture and lengthening the bush fire season. Weather patterns are changing, with a reduction in the number of cold fronts and a decrease in the number and intensity in cut-off lows in south-eastern Australia. Such systems bring most rainfall to the region.

The El Niño, La Niña and the Indian Ocean dipole weather systems are variations in ocean temperatures in the Pacific and the Indian Oceans that influence Australia’s climate. El Niño and La Niña are currently very weak, with little impact on climate, while the Indian Ocean dipole is producing drier conditions across Australia, particularly in spring.

Scientists now understand that ocean temperatures have an enormous effect on climate. Measurements show that the sea has heated by one degree since 1910, similar to the warming taking place on land. Preliminary data for 2018 show the sea surface temperature around Australia was the tenth highest on record. Intense heatwaves have been measured in the Tasman Sea off southeast Australia and Tasmania. Such heat is also known to be a significant cause of the Great Barrier Reef’s bleaching events.

The State of the Climate 2018 report indicated that the world’s oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the extra energy from greenhouse warming. The rate of heating on the earth’s land surfaces has slowed as a result of this warming of the oceans, although what is occurring at deeper levels is not very well known.

Global warming is driven primarily by the increase in greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide. There are three key global monitoring stations located around the world where the air is cleanest, with the Australian station located at Cape Grim on the northwest tip of Tasmania. These stations have been continuously monitoring for 42 years. Cape Grim has shown an upward trend, passing 400 parts per million of air (ppm) in May 2016 and remained above this level ever since, with 2017 levels at 402 ppm.

The State of the Climate 2018 report warns that the last time carbon dioxide levels were at this level or higher was during the Pliocene epoch, 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago, when temperatures were generally 10 to 20 degrees hotter than today.

The report assessed that emissions from fossil fuels continued to rise during 2014–2016. It concluded that “the amount of climate change expected in the next decade or so is similar under all plausible global emissions pathways. However, by the mid-21st century, higher ongoing emissions of greenhouse gasses will lead to greater warming and associated impacts, and reducing emissions will lead to less warming and fewer associated impacts.”

In the measured language used by scientists this amounts to a stark warning that time is running out.

Significantly none of the leaders of Australia’s major political parties have uttered a word on these scientific reports.

Liberal-National Coalition Prime Minister Scott Morrison, an advocate of the coal industry, rejected calls by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last October for the phasing out of coal.

Asked if Australia would be held to its target to reduce emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels, Morrison contemptuously replied: “No, we won’t … Nor are we bound to go and tip money into that big climate fund. We’re not going to do that either. I’m not going to spend money on global climate conferences and all that nonsense.”

Both the Labor Party and the Greens claim they will cut greenhouse gasses but when Labor was last in office greenhouse emissions continued to rise. The Greens falsely insist that the problem of global warming can be resolved without tacking its underlying source, the capitalist profit system.

Climate scientists understand the measures needed to drastically cut greenhouse gasses and curb global warming. The resources necessary for this, however, cannot be mobilised unless the profits of the banks and super rich are expropriated and used for the needs of humanity.

Indian government foreshadows harsher internet surveillance and censorship

Wasantha Rupasinghe

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has announced that it is planning to introduce even more intrusive social media censorship and internet surveillance laws.

The new measures, which are in still in draft form and open for “public comment” until January 31, were announced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on December 24. The laws are in response to widespread popular opposition, particularly amongst young people, to the escalating anti-democratic attacks and austerity measures by Modi’s Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)-led government.

Under Delhi’s planned laws, social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and others, must remove within 24 hours “any unlawful content” that might impact on the “sovereignty and integrity of India.” In other words, anything expressing its opposition to the political establishment could be banned, a clear sign that the Modi government is preparing a wider crackdown against its political opponents.

India’s telecommunication authorities also want Facebook, and other social media, to allow them to trace and read encrypted messages. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has more than 200 million users in India.

The Indian government’s attempt to police the internet is in line with laws by governments everywhere to censor and monitor millions of internet and social media users. The US government, particularly since early 2017, has collaborated with tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter, transforming them from tools for communication and the free exchange of information into massive data dragnets for policing what their users say, do and think.

India, which has nearly 500 million internet users, has been in the forefront of internet crackdowns that target political dissidents. Previous measures taken by Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs), following demands from government authorities, included filtering systems that block the web pages of human rights organisations, feminist groups and political activists.

According to a recent report by Freedom House, a US-based internet monitoring agency, India leads the world in internet shutdowns with federal, state and local authorities ordering service providers to restrict cellphone, messaging and other services at least 96 times, between January and mid-August last year.

On December 18, Kishorechandra Wangkhem, a journalist in Manipur, was jailed for 12 months under the “preventive detention” clauses of the National Security Act, 1980. He had been arrested on November 21 for sedition and attempts to create enmity between groups after he posted a video on social media criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Manipur state government and Prime Minister Modi.

Two days later on December 20, the Modi government authorised ten law enforcement, intelligence and tax agencies, as well as the Cabinet Secretariat, the Delhi commissioner of police and the Directorate of Signal Intelligence, to “intercept information, generated, transmitted, received or stored on any computer, smartphone, tablet or other computing device.”

In a crude attempt to deflect widespread opposition to the announcement, the minister of home affairs claimed no new powers had been given to these agencies in the December 20 order. “Each case of interception, monitoring, decryption is to be approved by the competent authority, i.e., Union Home Secretary.” In others words, the surveillance of any perceived opponent can be determined at any time by the government.

As one unnamed senior government bureaucrat admitted in an interview with the NDTV network: “For the first time, powers of scanning data at rest have been given to various agencies… Earlier, only data in motion could be intercepted. But now data revived, stored and generated can also be intercepted because the powers of seizure have been given.”

The draft law also compels the subscriber or service provider and any individual in charge of the computer resource to extend all facilities and technical help to government agencies if requested. If they fail to do so they face seven years in jail and a fine.

Arun Jaitley, India’s finance minister, attempted to deflect criticism by pointing out that computer monitoring regulations had existed since 2009 and were authorised by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Notwithstanding the fact that the UPA introduced this anti-democratic legislation, Congress Party politicians have hypocritically denounced the current government’s new measures and postured as champions of democracy.

Congress Party spokesperson Anand Sharma told a December 21 press conference that the Modi government was “converting India into surveillance state” and that the draft laws were an “assault on the fundamental rights and the Rights to Privacy.” Sharma did not say a word about Congress’s duplicitous political record on internet surveillance.

No less hypocritical has been the response of the Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPM, to the proposed censorship and surveillance laws. On December 21, the CPM issued a statement denouncing the planned measures as a “blatant attack on fundamental right to privacy given to every citizen by our constitution” and called for them to be “rescinded immediately.”

The CPM kept its mouth shut about the fact that it was a partner of the UPA government from 2004 to 2008. The Stalinist party is currently working for an “electoral understanding” with Congress in the next general elections to be held in April-May.

India’s ruling elite, which confronts growing working-class opposition to government attacks on jobs, wages and working conditions austerity, is determined to establish a massive censorship and surveillance regime. Congress and the CPM posturing over the new laws are entirely tactical and centre on how best to control and dissipate this rising mass movement.

Growing signs of worker resistance to US government shutdown

Philip Guelpa

As the partial federal government shutdown, now in its fourth week, drags on, its effects on large sectors of the US population are intensifying and the resulting anger and reaction continue to grow.

On Wednesday, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) was forced to openly acknowledge what has been widely known for some time, noting in a statement that “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.”

TSA workers are among the lowest-paid federal employees, living paycheck to paycheck. The impossible situation to which they are subject—forced to work without any income—is prompting growing resistance going beyond the initial form of individual ‘sickouts.’ A TSA representative reported that increasing numbers are explicitly stating that their refusal to come into work is due to financial hardship. These frank statements, by workers who are legally prohibited from striking, are a gauge of their rising level of anger.

The TSA reports that on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6.1 percent of the workforce was absent. So far, three major airports—Atlanta, Houston and Miami—have been forced to implement contingency plans due to the lack of necessary staff, causing increasing delays for passengers. The situation will only worsen and spread as the lack of pay drives growing numbers of workers to stay home.

TSA and other unpaid federal employees are being forced to turn to food banks or donations from the public to provide meals for themselves and their families. At the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, for example, an unused room has been turned into a collection point for donations for the workers. Food banks across the country are expressing alarm that the demand will rapidly outstrip their resources.

The partial government shutdown is also impacting aircraft safety. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is forcing over 2,200 furloughed inspectors back to work, without pay. These are professionals who are responsible for ensuring the airworthiness of aircraft and for conducting accident investigations. Air traffic controllers have already been required to work without pay.

The wife of an air traffic controller in Chicago told the World Socialist Web Site, “Chicago has been working understaffed for a very long time.” Even before the shutdown began, her husband, who has been there for 20 years, typically worked six days a week, averaging 48 hours.

Now, she said, they’re on “short breaks and staying longer on position. Are they losing sleep? Yes, even more now.

“The new guys are having a hard time. One paycheck with no pay is bad, but wait until the second one comes with no pay.”

Despite this, when asked by the New York Times whether the union would organize any sort of job action, Trish Gilbert, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, replied that they “would not condone or endorse any kind of activity like that.”

Federal workers around the country are protesting against the shutdown and its devastating effect on their lives. They are expressing a growing determination to break out of the constraints imposed on them by the government and the unions.

Federal workers rally Wednesday in Manhattan

Dozens of federal workers participated in a rally in front of the federal building in downtown Manhattan Wednesday. WSWS reporters spoke to a furloughed Environmental Protection Agency worker participating in the protest. “This is the second rally we’ve had,” he said. “Today is bigger than the one last week—a fraction of the press though. They must be losing interest.

“I’m still furloughed now, but they’re calling back most of the IRS in our building. If I was them, I don’t know if I’d go back. It’s hard to stick your neck out when you’re by yourself, but it’s getting to the point, especially if we miss next week’s paycheck too, that a lot of people will be fed up and desperate.

“They keep saying that striking is illegal for federal employees. But I took an oath to uphold the constitution. What about the 13th amendment? Isn’t slavery supposed to be illegal? We didn’t ask for this fight, but what are we going to do? We can’t just sit back and keep getting pummeled.”

One of the more than 46,000 furloughed IRS workers being forced back to work without pay, Meeka Katherine, an IRS tax examiner, expressed her outrage in a Facebook post:

“The IRS workers can end this shutdown if we all refuse to work until we get paid they will have no choice but to give in and why shouldn’t we fight? We have been used as pawns long enough we should stand up united and give this guy a taste of his own medicine if he’s gonna hold out our checks and not care if we can even make it to work yet we are expected to be there that’s ridiculous... We need to come together or this could last a long time. We are not disposable and if we go along with this we are just making it easier for it to continue.”

Another federal worker posted her experience, faced by many who are about to lose their homes:

“So I spoke with my leasing office who is under the lincoln property management corporation they are a national leasing management corp. I was informed they have not received any direction from the corporate office. So if rent is not paid by the third of the month they will proceed with the eviction process. I was also advised if u know you cant afford next month rent turn in your keys by the last day of this month and we will work you on remaining balance of lease. So if you rent from lincoln property management please contact their corp office about the effects of the government shut down. Maybe if they hear from enough people they will grow a heart.”

The average federal worker is estimated to have lost about $5,000 so far since the shutdown began.

Federal employees are not the only workers whose lives are being severely impacted by the shutdown. Many jobs are done under contract. Unlike federal workers, the more than one million people working as contractors are not likely to receive back pay once the shutdown ends. These workers range from janitors employed by companies with contracts to clean federal buildings to professionals in large consulting companies. As invoices to the government go unpaid, growing numbers of workers will be laid off, and some companies will go out of business.

Bloomberg estimates that these losses could amount to as much as $200 million per day. The ripple effects of this alone will have major impacts on the US economy, even after the shutdown ends.

A growing number of commentators are raising concerns that effects of the partial government shutdown could push the US economy into recession. Estimates vary, but the combined cost of the shutdown is already in the billions. The direct and ancillary effects could well trigger a crisis in the already fragile US and world economy.

Behind the fears of a loss of business and consumer “confidence” due to the shutdown lies the reality of the extreme social inequality that has developed over decades, which is rapidly hollowing out any confidence that workers and young people may once have had in their prospects under capitalism.

The way forward is indicated by the Yellow Vest protests in France, auto parts workers in Mexico and recent teachers strike in the US in which the workers are moving to free themselves from the treacherous control of the unions and social democratic parties and their pseudo-left supporters. Workers must form their own workplace action committees and fight to replace capitalism with a socialist society dedicated to the fulfillment of human needs rather than private profit.

Report to Davos meeting points to deepening contradictions of global capitalism

Nick Beams

The report prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for its annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, next week presents a picture of the ongoing disintegration of all the mechanisms—economic, political and ideological—that have served to sustain the global capitalist order in the post-war period.

In his preface to the report, WEF president Børge Brende said the world was facing a “growing number of complex and interconnected challenges—from slowing global growth and persistent economic inequality to climate change and geopolitical tensions,” as well as changes brought about by technological developments, characterised by the WEF as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

As an institution dedicated to the preservation of the capitalist order in the interests of the multi-billionaires and global elites it represents, the WEF is very mindful of the mounting development of the international class struggle, noting that “social anger” is increasingly prevalent.

“Polarization is on the rise in many countries,” Brende wrote, and in some cases, “the social contracts that hold societies together are fraying.”

This was an era of “unparalleled resources and technological advancement” but for too many people it was an era of economic insecurity. “New ways of doing globalization” had to be found to respond to this development.

The report itself, however, indicates that right at the point where a coordinated response by the major capitalist powers is needed, conflicts among them are deepening.

The executive summary begins: “Is the world sleepwalking into a crisis? Global risks are intensifying but the collective will to tackle them appears to be lacking. Instead divisions are hardening.”

The summary noted that what it called “the world’s move into a new phase of strongly state-centred policies”—in other words, the rise of nationalism—which the WEF had previously cited, continued throughout 2018.

“The energy now expended on consolidating national control risks weakening collective responses to emerging global challenges. We are drifting deeper into global problems from which we will struggle to extricate ourselves.”

On the economic front, macro-economic risks had moved into “sharper focus,” with signs of a slowdown in the major economies and China. At the same time, global debt had risen to around 225 percent of global gross domestic product, significantly higher than before the financial crisis of 2008. “Deepening fissures” in the international financial system suggested that “systemic risks may be building.”

“If another global crisis were to hit, would the necessary levels of cooperation and support be forthcoming?” the summary asked. “Probably, but the tension between the globalization of the world economy and the growing nationalism of world politics is a deepening risk.”

At a press conference on Wednesday to launch the report, Brende also pointed to the implications of the slowdown in world economic growth.

“We simply do not have the gunpowder to deal with the kind of slowdown that current dynamics might lead us towards,” he said. Economic policy, once a way for economic rivals to mutually benefit, was now “frequently seen as a tool of strategic competition.”

Trade had been the “engine of growth” but that trend was now declining. The “coming months will be crucial in building trust,” Brende said. “The biggest risk is the lack of willingness to collaborate—we are not mitigating that risk.”

As an expression of rising economic nationalism, the report drew particular attention to the US Commerce Department’s strategic plan for 2018–22, which stated that “economic security is national security.”

This trend is not confined to the US and the Trump administration. The report said developments in foreign direct investment over the past years were “arguably even more significant than trade tensions.” A number of European countries had introduced restrictions on foreign investments.

“Western governments in particular have been sharpening their power to block investments in strategic sectors, particularly emerging technologies—raising the prospect of a partial unwinding of globalization in investment, as in trade.”

Pointing to what it called the threat to multilateralism, the report stated: “Political leaders have increasingly asserted the primacy of the national state in the international system and sought to weaken the constraints placed on national autonomy by international agreements and multilateral institutions.”

In seeking to track social and political tensions, the report cited a “sobering” finding from the Edelman Trust Barometer that the populations of 20 out of the 28 countries surveyed were “distrusters,” that is, they lacked confidence in the prevailing establishment.

“Beyond economic impacts, eroding trust is part of a wider pattern that threatens to corrode the social contract in many countries. This is an era of strong-state politics, but also one of weakening national communities.”

The term “class conflict” is one that the WEF and other such institutions seek to avoid like the plague. But the reference to “weakening national communities” is an expression of the rise of social struggles against the national ruling classes.

The report noted that in its survey of business and political elites, some 59 percent of respondents said they expected risks associated with “public anger against elites” to increase in 2019.

Such anger, the WEF warned, could have serious political implications. “A vicious circle may develop in which diminishing social cohesion places ever greater strain on political institutions, undermining their ability to anticipate or respond to societal challenges.”

The report said it was now widely acknowledged that more should have been done to “provide protection of or remedies to the losers from globalization” and that “it should not have taken a crisis to recognize this.”

Recognition may be one thing, but action is another. The WEF report could not point to a single instance where those lessons had been acted upon. In fact, what has been revealed since the 2008 financial crisis is that the very processes that led to it—the promotion of speculation and the accumulation of fantastic wealth on the heights of society at the expense of the majority—have become an entrenched and permanent feature of the global capitalist economy as whole and its modus operandi in every country.

The deepening social polarisation, the report said, would “complicate any attempt to find consensus on bold attempts to rethink global capitalism,” to which the 2019 WEF annual forum would devote itself.

Such efforts are doomed to failure—the modern equivalent of alchemists’ efforts in medieval times to turn lead into gold—for reasons to which the report itself alludes where it cites the global character of all economic processes, as national divisions harden.

These contradictions, which first erupted in the form of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, are once again ripping apart the world economy, threatening even more devastating consequences. They cannot be overcome by a “rethink” but only through the unified international struggle of the working class to end the rule and domination of the elites represented at the WEF annual meeting.

US-born anchor for Iranian TV jailed without charges

Bill Van Auken 

Marzieh Hashemi, an anchor and reporter for Press TV, the English-language station of Iran’s state-run broadcasting system, was arrested Sunday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, transported to a Washington detention facility in manacles and chains and has been held ever since without charges or any public explanation from either the US Justice Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Hashemi was in the United States to visit her family, including a brother suffering from cancer, and was working on a documentary film on Black Lives Matter.

Marzieh Hashemi

The arrest of Hashemi, a 59-year-old US citizen married to an Iranian, who has worked as a journalist in Iran for 25 years, has all the characteristics of the kind of forced “disappearances” executed by fascist-military dictatorships. It has been carried out in flagrant violation of constitutional rights to freedom of the press and freedom from arbitrary arrest, as well as the basic right of habeas corpus.

Hashemi was allowed to call her family to inform them she was imprisoned only two days after she was seized at the airport. US authorities have provided no information to her children as to the reason for her detention, saying only that she is a material witness in an undisclosed investigation.

Her son, Hossein Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado, said that he and his siblings have also been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Washington.

Hashemi’s children have reported that their mother has been subjected to cruel and degrading treatment by the US authorities. She is locked in a cell in manacles at an undisclosed detention facility. A Muslim, she has been denied food she can eat and offered pork by her jailers in a blatant attempt to ridicule her religion. She told her son she had only pretzels to eat since her arrest. She was stripped of her hijab and given only a T-shirt to wear.

Born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans, Hashemi studied journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she came into contact with Iranian students who supported the 1979 revolution against the US-backed dictatorship of the Shah. Marrying an Iranian, she moved to Tehran and pursued her journalistic career, working for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB.

She is a prominent figure on Press TV, anchoring the English language news for the Iranian broadcaster, conducting interviews and producing documentary films.

Her son, Hossein, noted that in her on-air commentary his mother had been “critical of a lot of the domestic policies of the United States government,” as well as “the wars abroad and the regime change policies that the United States enforces all the time and puts major budgets behind.”

Hashemi’s arrest has been largely ignored by the corporate media, as well as by the pseudo-left outfits that orbit the Democratic Party.

All the pundits and editorial boards that postured as defenders of freedom of the press in the face of the Saudi monarchy’s assassination of former regime insider and journalist Jamal Khashoggi have maintained a stony silence in the face of this grossly unjust imprisonment of the American-born Iranian journalist.

One can only imagine their furor had Iranian authorities dragged Christiane Amanpour, the Iranian-raised and US state-connected ABC News anchor, away in chains and imprisoned her without charges.

Their silence in the face of the Hashemi affair is no accident. Her jailing is in line with the attempt by the US ruling class—with the full support of the corporate media—to intimidate, censor and silence all critical and independent journalists and media organizations around the world.

The treatment meted out to her is precisely what the US authorities hope to inflict upon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if they are able to pry him out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has rather tenuous sanctuary.

The brutal abduction and detention of Hashemi is also bound up with the increasingly bellicose and provocative American imperialist offensive against Iran, which has escalated steadily since the Trump administration abrogated Washington’s commitment to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord and began the imposition of increasingly punishing sanctions aimed at starving the Iranian people into submission.

The US ruling establishment has been conducting a bitter internecine struggle over President Donald Trump’s announced decision to withdraw troops from Syria, with leading administration officials, including National Security Adviser John “Bomb Iran” Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, walking back Trump’s promise of a swift pullout and redoubling US threats against Iran.

Whether Hashemi is being held as part of a wider pseudo-legal plot to discredit Iran and stoke the war drive remains to be seen. Such an attempt was made under the Obama administration with the fabrication of a case based upon ludicrous allegations that supposed Iranian agents (one of them a DEA informant) had attempted to hire a Mexican drug cartel to blow up the Saudi ambassador to the US in a Washington restaurant.

Whatever the case, the imprisonment of Hashemi and the brazen violation of her basic democratic rights constitute a deadly serious warning. As they lurch toward war and are driven by mounting fear of the developing opposition and mass struggles of the working class from below, the US government and the capitalist oligarchs who rule America are turning ever more openly toward dictatorial forms of rule.

General strike of 700,000 public sector workers shakes Tunisia

Johannes Stern

Eight years after the ouster of Tunisian dictator President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011, renewed mass struggles are shaking the country’s government.

Yesterday a one-day general strike involving close to 700,000 public service workers brought the country to a standstill. According to media reports, all flights in and out of Tunisia’s main airport were canceled. Schools were closed and ports, hospitals, public transport and other public services disrupted.

Called by the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), the strike was the largest since the mass demonstrations following the assassination of prominent opposition leader Chokri Belaid in February 2013.

In the capital Tunis, tens of thousands of protesters rallied at the national union headquarters and marched through the city’s main thoroughfare with signs reading “Get Out!” and “The People Want the Fall of the Regime.” Demonstrations also took place in other important cities, including Sidi Bouzid, where the first mass protests broke out in December 2010 after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi.

The general strike follows nationwide protests and clashes with police after another self-immolation, by 32-year-old journalist Abderrazak Zorgui, in the industrial city of Kasserine at the end of December.

The renewed mass protests and strikes demonstrate, once again, that none of the grievances that sparked the mass revolutionary uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and throughout the Middle East have been resolved. “The core demands of the 2011 revolution were employment, the betterment of the Tunisian economy and an end to corruption. However, none of these demands have been met. This is why today we are here,” one protester, Lassad Hamdi, told the National.

The government of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and President Beji Caid Essebsi, who served under Ben Ali, is continuing the anti-working class, pro-imperialist policies of the old regime. In December 2016, Tunisia struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), pledging to impose drastic austerity measures and cut the public sector wage bill to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from the current 15.5 percent.

Chahed warned that the strike would result in a “considerable cost” for the Tunisian economy and might force the government to seek further foreign loans with even tougher conditions. Speaking on public television Wataniya 1 on Wednesday night, Chahed said: “We did everything possible to avoid the strike in presenting proposals that improve purchasing power while at the same time taking into account the country’s capabilities.” He invited the trade unions back to the “negotiating table” after the end of the strike.

The UGTT, long a central pillar of the Ben Ali dictatorship and now a key ally of the ruling Nidaa Tounes party of Essebsi and Chahed, called the strike to control the explosive anger in the working class, while continuing to work hand-in-glove with the regime. In an interview with Jeune Afrique, UGTT secretary general Noureddine Tabboubi complained that the government had “no respect for the agreements ... and decisions made.” However, he stressed, “a solution will be found.”

Tabboubi announced that the UGTT’s administrative commission would convene on Saturday to “make decisions up to the expectations of Tunisian workers who have campaigned for their rights.”

This is a transparent fraud. The UGTT is essentially in agreement with the IMF “reform agenda” and seeks to find a modus operandi with the government to implement it without provoking another revolution. In his speech on the 8th anniversary of Ben Ali’s ouster, Tabboubi warned: “We hope that the government will realize, before it is too late, its reluctance ... to initiate the necessary reforms in the fields of education, health care and take bold measures to resist tax evasion.”

The UGTT is being assisted by the Popular Front (PF), a petty-bourgeois “left” alliance that does everything in its power to subordinate the working class to the unions and their nationalist and pro-capitalist agenda. In a January 16 statement, the PF complained that the government “bears full responsibility for the failure of the negotiations” and pledged its support for the UGTT “in all the steps to be taken in defense of its perspectives […] and the independence and sovereignty of the country.”

This confirms the perspective advanced by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) immediately after Ben Ali’s ouster. In its statement, “The mass uprising in Tunisia and the perspective of permanent revolution,” the ICFI insisted that “the only viable program for the working class and oppressed masses of Tunisia and the entire Maghreb and Middle East is the program […] of socialist revolution. Only through the independent struggle of the working class, leading all of the oppressed sections of society against both the native bourgeoisie and imperialism, can democratic and social rights be won and social equality established as the foundation of political life.”

As a new powerful eruption of the class struggle is underway in Tunisia and throughout the region and internationally, the lessons of the 2011 uprising are decisive. The struggle for social equality and democratic rights requires a clear revolutionary perspective, program and leadership. Trotskyist parties must be built throughout northern Africa and the Middle East to unite the working masses under the banner of the United Socialist States of the Middle East and the Maghreb, as part of the fight for world socialist revolution.

AIMS NEI Fellowship Program 2019 for Women in Climate Change Science

Application Deadline:28th February 2019, 23:59 CAT.

About the Award:  Applications are invited from outstanding female scientists currently residing anywhere in the world. Successful applicants are expected to execute in a suitable African host institution a self-initiated project with the potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of climate change and its impacts, and/or to the development and implementation of innovative, empirically grounded policies and strategies for mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience.

This Fellowship Program was made possible by a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, www.idrc.ca, and financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC), www.international.gc.ca.
It is part of a broader effort by AIMS NEI to build the intellectual capital needed to solve the myriad challenges to Africa’s development resulting from climate change.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: To be eligible, applicants must be:

• female
• in possession before the fellowship start date of a doctorate in a quantitative discipline, including, but not limited to, applied mathematics, climatology, physics, chemistry, computer science, theoretical biology, and engineering
• currently employed, on either a permanent or a temporary basis, in a non-profit work environment, including government
• actively engaged in research, policy, and/or practice relevant to climate change modelling, mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience
• the lead and/or senior author of at least one refereed publication on a topic relevant to climate change modelling, mitigation, adaptation, and/or resilience.

Selection Criteria: All reviews done by the Selection Committee members and other reviewers will be based on the following criteria:

• Quality of applicant: academic qualifications; quality of publications; experience in climate change-related work; real-world impact & recognition (e.g. through awards) of prior work.
• Quality of proposed project: relevance to climate change modelling, practice and policy; strength of connection to the mathematical sciences; experience of applicant in project topic; quality of project design; feasibility; suitability of proposed host institution environment and of named collaborator; quality and realism of budget projections.
• Potential impact of proposed project on scientific knowledge, practice and policy.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The fellowship is worth up to USD 35,000. The exact amount of the fellowship will be specified at the time of the award. This amount will be paid to the Fellow in three installments in accordance with a schedule that will be defined at the time of the award. Fellows must submit accurate banking details (using the form provided below) to avoid undue delays in receiving their fellowship payments.

How to Apply: 

• To apply, please complete this online application form and submit by the 28 February 2019, 23:59 CAT with the following documents
• It is important to go through the Application process on the Program Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

SheTrades in the Commonwealth programme 2019 for Women-owned Businesses in Commonwealth Countries

Application Deadline: 15th February 2019

Eligible Countries: Commonwealth Countries

About the Award: The SheTrades initiative aims to connect three million women to market by 2021 and rallies stakeholders around the world to work together on seven actions to address trade barriers and create greater opportunities for women entrepreneurs. It is supported by a web and mobile digital platform. For more information, please visit shetrades.com

Under the SheTrades in the Commonwealth programme, selected women-owned businesses, business support organizations and corporations will benefit from a wide range of opportunities to expand their business and jointly advance women economic empowerment. 

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility:
Women Owned Business (WOB)- If your company/cooperative is at least 30% owned, managed and controlled by women; legally registered and incorporated company domiciled in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Operating in one or several of the indicated sectors:

Country	Products	Services
Bangladesh	Textiles and apparel including handicrafts	IT&BPO
Ghana	Agribusiness (shea, cashew and cocoa),  Textiles and apparel including handicrafts	IT&BPO and Tourism
Kenya	Agribusiness (avocado, beans&peas, coffee, tea), Textiles and apparel including handicrafts and leather	IT&BPO and Tourism
Nigeria	Agribusiness (cashew, shea, spices (ginger and turmeric)) Textiles and apparel including handicrafts	IT&BPO

Business Support Organization (BSO) – If you are a trade and investment support institution, e.g. export promotion organisations, chambers of commerce; women’s associations; and sector associations etc.

Corporation– If you are a company/foundation/academia interested in sourcing, investing and/or sharing and exchanging with women entrepreneurs

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 
For Women-Owned Business 

• Get connected to potential buyers, investors, suppliers and business support organizations;
• Learn new skills to boost your business potential through our free-of-cost and tailored  e-learning courses, on-site workshops and webinars; 
• Receive support to attend national, regional and international trade fairs;
• Participate in B2B meetings;
• Increase your visibility and enlarge your network in international markets.

Business-Support Organization

• Increase your visibility and expand your network in the international arena;
• Benefit from customised capacity building activities;
• Expand your portfolio of services offered to women-led SMEs;
• Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and support women’s economic empowerment;
• Share, exchange and learn from other institutions.

Corporation

• Connect with over 3000 women-owned businesses from Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria and expand your pool of suppliers;
• Identify unique and innovative businesses opportunities;
• Learn, share and exchange with key businesses, governments and institutions;
• Support the UN Sustainable Development Goals by empowering women;
• Develop new partnerships and increase your visibility in emerging markets.

How to Apply: 

• Register Now 

• It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

European Commission STARTS Prize (€20,000 plus funded to Award programs in Brussels and Amsterdam) 2019

Application Deadline: 1st March 2019

Eligible Countries: All

About the Award: Science, Technology and Arts (=STARTS) form a nexus with an extraordinarily high potential for creative innovation. And such innovation is considered to be precisely what’s called for if we’re to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe will be facing in the near future. The role of artists thus is no longer seen to be just about propagating scientific and technological knowledge and skills among the general public but much more as a kind of catalyst that can inspire and trigger innovative processes. The artistic practice of creative exploration and experimental appropriation of new technologies has a wide reaching potential to contribute to the development of new products and new economic, social and business models. Accordingly, the STARTS Prize focuses on artistic works that influence or change the way we look at technology, and on innovative forms of collaboration between the ICT sector and the world of art and culture.

Considering the novelty of this award competition and the interdisciplinary approach, Ars Electronica is launching the STARTS Prize 2018 with a dual approach for submissions:

• Submission via open call: The STARTS Prize aims to showcase and celebrate visions and achievements at the interface between innovation and creation—driven by both science/technology and the Arts. The submission is open to all forms of artistic work and all types of technological and scientific research and development.

• Recommendations through international advisors: 15 international advisors who have reputation and credibility in the field will recommend projects and help to encourage wider ranges of participants as well as a geographical and gender balance. These recommended projects will be contacted by the organizers and asked to submit their project via the submission platform. So the same process and deadlines will be applied as for the open submissions. The international advisors serve as facilitators to identify relevant works and projects during the submission process. However, they will not be part of the jury meeting and therefore will not have voting rights.

Type: Contest

Eligibility:

Who can enter?

• Artists / creative professionals or the researchers / companies involved from throughout the world; STARTS is not limited to citizens of EU-member states.

What can be submitted?

• groundbreaking collaborations and projects driven by both technology and the arts. Purely artistic or technologically driven projects are not the focus of this competition.
• all forms of artistic works and practices with a strong link to innovation in technology, business and/or society; furthermore, STARTS is not restricted to a particular genre such as media art and digital art.
• all types of technological and scientific research and development that has been inspired by art or involves artists as catalysts of novel thinking.

Selection Criteria: 

• Quality of the artistic research and its potential influence on technology
• Quality and success of the collaboration between art and technology
• Quality and intensity of the connection to innovation, education, social inclusion or sustainability
• General criteria such as aesthetics, originality, convincing concept, innovation and the technique and quality of the presentation

Number of Awards: 2

Value of Award: 

• Two prizes, each with €20,000 prize money, are offered to honor innovative projects at the intersection of science, technology and the arts: one for artistic exploration, and thus projects with the potential to influence or change the way technology is deployed, developed or perceived, and one for innovative collaboration between industry/technology and art/culture in ways that open up new paths for innovation.
• Grand Prize—Artistic Exploration
  Awarded for artistic exploration and art works where appropriation by the arts has a strong potential to influence or alter the use, deployment or perception of technology.
• Grand Prize—Innovative Collaboration
  Awarded for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts that opens new pathways for innovation.

Duration of Program: The jury convenes on April 15^th, 2019. All STARTS Prize winners will be notified by May 2019 at the latest.

How to Apply:

• A video documentary (approximately 3 minutes in length)
• Images (JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG) at the highest possible resolution; compressed files (such as .zip or .lzh files) are unacceptable.
• A clear, detailed description of the artistic concept, the form of interaction and technical implementation; since specific prerequisites have to be fulfilled for an onsite presentation to take place (e.g. in conjunction with the Ars Electronica Festival), the project’s specifications as to hardware & software and spatial requirements should be as detailed as possible. Moreover, the entrant must specify what he/she can provide on his/her own in order to stage such an onsite presentation, and what must necessarily be furnished by Ars Electronica Linz.
• A printable portrait photo and a biography of the artist
• At the entrant’s option, additional material such as images, documents and drawings (as PNG or PDF) can also be submitted.

 SUBMIT NOW!

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Canon Collins Trust Scholarships 2019/2020 for Masters Study for Africans – UK

Application Deadline: 25th February 2019 at 17:00 UK time.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible African Countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

To be taken at: the following UK Universities;

• School of Oriental and African Studies
• University of Sussex
• University of Edinburgh

Accepted Subject Areas: All Subjects

About the Award: Canon Collins Trust Scholarships Programme aim to help build the human resources necessary for economic, social and cultural development in the southern African region and to develop an educated and skilled workforce that can benefit the wider community. Canon Collins Trust scholarship holders are thus expected to use the knowledge, training and skills acquired through their studies to contribute positively to the development of their home country.
Scholarships fall under several different schemes, with some administered in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and UK universities.
Over the past 30 years the Trust has supported over 3,000 inspirational individuals who are now making their contributions through governments, NGOs, business and universities.

By what Criteria is Selection Made? Applicants for all schemes within the UK Scholarship Programme will be assessed on the basis of the information that they supply on their application form in addition to the criteria outlined below:

• Demonstrable leadership qualities
• Demonstrated commitment
• Quality and relevance of work experience, including work reference, and other skills
• Financial Need and the potential to contribute to Southern Africa’s future prosperity
• Academic record and academic reference
• Relevance of proposed course
• Intended career path
• Likely future impact
• Completion of form:
• Demonstrate a high standard of English with no spelling and language errors
• Answer all of the questions fully and with attention to detail
• Provide all the necessary documentation and supporting documents.

Who is qualified to apply? To apply for a scholarship under this programme you must:

• Be a national of, or have refugee status, in one of the following countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Be normally resident in southern Africa
• Be in possession of a good first degree (minimum second class, upper division or equivalent) or about to graduate in the year of application
• Be applying for a full-time one-year taught masters course at one of the above named universities.
• Have at least 2 years work experience in a relevant field

Number of Awards: Up to 5

What are the benefits? Full tuition fees, a monthly stipend, a return economy flight, a settling-in allowance and other support whilst in the UK.

How long will sponsorship last? All scholarships are for postgraduate masters taught study for one academic year.

How to Apply: Applicants can access the application forms and guidelines on the webpage. Applicants must apply to their chosen universities separately and awards are conditional on the applicant being offered a place at the relevant university.

Visit the Scholarship Webpage for Details