Welsh Government Wales for Africa Grant Scheme 2020

Application Deadline: 4th May 2020.

Eligibility: Funding will be allocated under 4 thematic areas:

Health  – projects that contribute to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of communities in sub Saharan Africa:

• Sharing of knowledge and skills between health institutions in Wales and Africa
• Supporting healthcare professionals in Africa to access small scale training and support from Wales; and
• Supporting communities in Wales and Africa to access to more equitable, quality healthcare

Sustainable Livelihoods  – projects that work to tackle financial poverty, enabling economic resilience in families and supporting small-scale enterprise and employment:

• Community-led, income generating cooperatives that have benefit to Wales and Africa
• Engaging the Welsh public through Fair Trade campaigns, advocacy or policy
• Activities that bring the Welsh consumer closer to the producer in a sustainable way
• Support to small scale Sub Saharan African agricultural projects and grassroots income generating activities

Lifelong Learning  – projects that support individuals and groups in Wales and/or Africa to develop new skills and knowledge:

• Linking communities in Wales with communities in Africa to develop mutual understanding of global development and international issues;
• Supporting the educational needs of disadvantaged children in Africa and sharing that experience with school pupils in Wales, contributing to their global education; and
• Supporting people in Africa to learn practical/vocational/artistic skills to improve their livelihoods

Climate Change and Environment – strategic and practical climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives using Welsh expertise:

• Projects which enable the use of renewable energy in Africa;
• Projects engaging people in Wales with climate change issues as they affect Africa;
• Work aiming to support African partners in implementing sustainable development practices.

Type: Grants

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Grants available in this round are for main grants of between £5,000 and £20,000. These applications must fit under one of the four thematic areas. There will be a one-step application for this value of grant and projects must be completed within one calendar year. The earliest start date for a project is 4 May 2020.

How to Apply: The application process for this round is an application form and a project profile, you can download both forms from this webpage.
Please ensure you read all the guidance in the WFA Small grants scheme guidance prior to completing the application form. If you require project developmental support, please contact Hub Cymru Africa. If you have a question about the application process, please email walesforafricagrants@wcva.cymru or call WCVA on 0300 111 0124.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Inequality and falling living standards fuel political “fragility” in Australia

Mike Head

A barely-reported survey of the widening wealth inequality in Australia has provided another insight into the rising levels of political disaffection among the country’s millions of working people.

The Roy Morgan Wealth Report, released in late October, looked at the shifts in personal wealth from 2007 to 2019, that is, since the global financial crisis that erupted in 2008–09. It helps explain other data showing falling real wages for many workers.

Based on annual surveys of 50,000 people, the report showed that the richest 30 percent of the population enjoyed a substantial rise in household wealth over the decade, while the poorest half suffered a decline. Those in the top 10 percent obtained a more than 60 percent rise, from an average of $1.2 million to almost $2 million per person, while the bottom 50 percent went backwards.

A person on median wealth—that is, halfway down the scale—had a net wealth of about $173,000. That was an increase of 26.3 percent since 2007. But when the cost of living was factored in, this person’s wealth actually dropped by 2.2 percent.

In reality, the decline is likely to be greater for those below the median mark, because the Consumer Price Index (CPI), used by Roy Morgan to estimate the cost of living, is known to underestimate the cost increases affecting working-class households with children.

Those in the lowest 10 percent were said to be in debt-laden “pockets of pain.” Even without adjusting for inflation, their average wealth remained negative, at -$19,000, a slight rise on -$20,000 in 2007.

This pattern was part of a widening socio-economic gulf. On average, while the top 50 percent increased their personal wealth by 58.7 percent over the decade, the bottom 50 percent of people saw their wealth increase by less than half that—27 percent—and a decline of about 1.5 percent after the CPI was calculated.

Roy Morgan principal researcher Michele Levine commented: “I find this growth level at the top end pretty stark, with huge potential for distrust,” adding: “Anything that has real extremes like that is vulnerable to anger.”

Levine said the research showed “bubbling fragility,” with massive levels of distrust in politics, the government and big corporations. Her comments were mentioned on news.com, a Murdoch media platform, but did not feature in any of the company’s tabloids.

The Roy Morgan findings shed further light on the underlying factors behind the results of the Australian National University’s survey of voters in the May 18 federal election, released this month. That survey pointed to an historic crisis of the existing political order, beset by unprecedented levels of popular distrust.

The election survey found that only 25 percent of voters believed governments could be trusted, the lowest level since such data began being collected, 50 years ago, in 1969. Only 12 percent thought the government was run for “all the people,” while 56 percent believed it was run for “a few big interests looking out for themselves.”

The Roy Morgan results document the intensifying polarisation of wealth that has driven the discontent, fueling a decade of political instability and marked by the removal of one prime minister after another—from Labor’s Kevin Rudd to the Liberal-National Coalition’s previous leader, Malcolm Turnbull.

The top 10 percent now hold 47.3 percent of net wealth in Australia, an increase of 0.5 percentage points. By contrast, the bottom half of the population now has just 3.6 percent, a decrease of 0.9 points.

This concentration of wealth is in line with the trend of global capitalism. Internationally, the richest 10 percent have 47 percent of the wealth and, according to charity Oxfam, the 26 richest billionaires own as much as the 3.8 billion people in the poorest half of the world’s population.

The Roy Morgan figures do not indicate the even greater accumulation of wealth in the hands of the richest 1 percent. A ground-breaking study released in 2016 estimated that the top 1 percent alone owned up to 20 percent of the net wealth, leaving the remainder of the richest 10 percent far behind in their fortunes and lifestyles, let alone the rest of society.

In Australia, as around the world, the financial elite’s enrichment has occurred at the direct expense of the wages, working conditions and social services of the working class. Successive governments have accelerated the process by handing massive tax cuts to the corporations and the wealthy, and pouring in trillions of dollars to prop up the banks and share markets, feeding growing corporate financial speculation and parasitism.

The upward redistribution of wealth will intensify in Australia under the Liberal-National government’s income tax package, passed by parliament this year with Labor’s backing. Over the next five years, billions of dollars will be handed to the top 5 percent of the population—those taxpayers receiving more than $200,000 a year—while millions of low-paid workers, students and welfare recipients trying to live on less than $41,000 a year will get nothing in tax cuts.

The Roy Morgan report raised concern that the overall growth of wealth, while channeled to the top 30 percent, began to reverse in 2019. It estimated that per capita gross wealth increased in real terms between 2007 and June 2019 by 20.9 percent, from $306,100 to $370,200, while debt increased by 13.7 percent. But this growth reversed, falling by around $5,000, or 1.4 percent, between the first and second quarters of 2019.

This turnaround was partly due to falling prices for houses, which make up half the household wealth. But it also was a product of global downward pressures, bound up with the aggressive economic wars launched by the US against China and other perceived rivals, as well as the Brexit uncertainty gripping Europe.

The slump is likely to further aggravate working-class discontent, as the burden is imposed on workers and young people. This week’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) showed that the government was forced to drastically cut its pre-election forecasts for wages, economic growth and tax revenues over the next four years. As a result, there will be sharper cuts to social spending and public services.

An analysis by the Guardian’s Greg Jericho drew attention to a “new normal” of “flat income growth in real terms.” Already, there had been a five-year “horror show.” Income growth had fallen sharply. In particular, private sector wages had increased on average by just 2 percent annually, barely above the CPI rate and nearly half that experienced in the pre-2007 mining boom.

Contributing to this “horror show” were losses of full-time jobs, especially for men. In 2009, 83.2 percent of men in work were employed full-time. Now the rate was just 81 percent, while for women workers the rate remained at 54.1 percent.

Under-employment—that is, workers wanting more hours of work—rose from 5.9 to 6.8 percent for men, and from 9.6 to 10.5 percent for women.

These statistics are just a surface indicator of the imposition by employers and governments, assisted by the trade unions, of a casualised “gig economy,” especially in the retail and health/aged care industries, and particularly among younger and older workers.

Hungary’s government continues its assault on democratic rights

Markus Salzmann

Last week, the Hungarian parliament, dominated by the right-wing Fidesz party, passed a number of controversial bills that represent a further step towards dictatorial forms of rule. Among the bills passed is a Culture Law, which recalls the darkest chapters in European history. The law effectively gives the government the ability to censor any form of culture it deems unfavourable.

The 200-page bill, also known as the “Muzzle Law,” permits the chairman of parliament to impose heavy fines on deputies or exclude them from sittings if they protest in parliament. The powers are very broad and allow Fidesz to impose financial sanctions making any effective opposition virtually impossible. The law also includes a de facto ban on the right to form political factions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán has pursued these goals since assuming power in 2010, despite its already firm grip on power, with a completely fragmented social democratic opposition and the fascist Jobbik party, which often lines up with Fidesz. Following a series of changes to procedural rules, the power of the ruling party has been further strengthened. At the same time, the official opposition has been stripped of any ability to block legislative proposals.

A driving force in these attacks on parliamentary and democratic rights is the president of the parliament, László Kövér. Kövér is a founding member of Fidesz, an avowed anti-Semite and an admirer of Adolf Hitler’s closest Hungarian ally during World War II, Miklos Horthy. In 2012, Kövér took part in events honouring the writer József Nyírö. Nyírö was the central cultural ideologue of the National Socialist Arrow Cross, under whose rule tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews were murdered between October 1944 and March 1945.

With its new Culture Law, the government is making clear it will not tolerate any opposition, even on a cultural level. According to the government, the bill will guarantee “the strategic control of cultural sectors by the government.” A draft published at the beginning of December included the abolition of the national cultural fund and the slashing of government grants for independent cultural institutions. In future subsidies are to be directly linked to the government’s ability to determine the appointment of theatre directors.

The new law triggered large-scale protests by artists and those working in the field of culture, forcing the government to moderate its draft somewhat. Just a few days after the draft was published, 50,000 people signed a petition opposing the law. In the country’s capital, Budapest, several thousand people recently demonstrated with posters reading: “Pigs, hands off the theatres!” The Reuters news agency quoted a retired bus driver taking part in the protests as saying, “I am a democrat and this is yet another step to steal another sphere of public life: this time theatres.”

The cultural fund is to be retained in the meantime, but when theatres request grants, the government can not only decide on the payment of any subsidies, but also have a say in the choice of director. At the same time, the National Cultural Council—a body set up by the government—will issue guidelines on culture. One can imagine the character of such guidelines, bearing in mind that fascist artists and intellectuals like Nyírö have been rehabilitated under Orban in recent years and their works made compulsory reading in Hungarian schools.

Orbán is clearly planning further authoritarian measures. “We cannot be sure with this government whether a stricter law will not come in a few weeks or months,” commented Martin Boross, artistic director of the independent Stereoakt theatre, to the German media outlet Deutsche Welle. “It is a proven strategy of the government to wait until the situation has calmed down before adopting even more serious legislative changes.”

Orbán justified the latest restrictions by saying that they reflected the will of the electorate. In fact, the opposite is true. The law is partly a reaction to the local elections in October when Fidesz suffered significant defeats. The opposition made gains in several areas and in particular won the capital of Budapest, which is significant in terms of federal policy. In a number of cities and municipalities, opposition parties had formed alliances and were able to top the polls. According to the new legislation this will no longer be possible.

First and foremost, however the law is not directed against the toothless opposition, which is quite prepared to enter into a pact with the fascist Jobbik party, but rather against the population. Strikes and protests against the government are increasing significantly. At the end of November, thousands of teachers demonstrated for higher wages and better working conditions. The head of the PSZ teachers’ union, Zsuzsa Szabó, was even forced to declare that the union would call for a nationwide strike in January if the government did not make concessions. There have already been massive strikes by teachers in Poland and Croatia this year.

The Orbán government has responded to the growing opposition among teachers in its typically provocative and repugnant manner. It released a statement alleging that teachers were directed by George Soros and that the goal was to overthrow Hungary’s “anti-immigration government.” The anti-Semitic campaign against billionaire Soros is not new. The fact that the government now brings it into play against striking workers must be understood as a warning. Orbán will not hesitate to dispatch fascist thugs against strikers.

At the same time, the government is pushing ahead with the country’s militarisation. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after the last NATO meeting in Brussels that Hungary would increase its participation in NATO missions by a third. An additional 70 soldiers would be deployed in Afghanistan and 100 in Kosovo. Szijjártó also confirmed that Hungary will increase its military budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2024. This militarist policy is most actively supported by the German government and its military industries. Recently, the Düsseldorf-based armaments group Rheinmetall received an order worth €300 million from Budapest for weapons technology.

The further the Orbán regime moves to the right, the more the European Union closes its ranks against any criticism. For example, the German EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, appointed Olivér Várhelyi, a close confidante of Orbán, as EU commissioner for enlargement. This enables Orbán to increase his influence on the corrupt, right-wing governments in the western Balkans. At the same time, his brutal anti-refugee policy retains the legitimacy of the EU and is increasingly becoming the policy of all European governments.

Facing scrutiny in the US, Purdue Pharma markets OxyContin overseas

Gary Joad & Brian Dixon

Purdue Pharma, which has gained notoriety in the US for its role in creating opioid epidemic by aggressively marketing its addictive painkiller OxyContin, is continuing to employ the same misleading tactics used in the US to push the drug overseas in China and other countries through its foreign affiliate, Mundipharma.

“It’s right out of the playbook of Big Tobacco. The United States takes steps to limit sales here, the company goes abroad,” David A. Kessler, a physician and former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told the Los Angeles Times in a December 2016 article that investigated Mudipharma’s sales tactics.

Last month, the Associated Press published its investigation of Mundipharma’s marketing practices, based on some 3,300 pages of training and marketing materials and interviews with four current or former employees.

The Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, enriched itself by aggressively marketing OxyContin to US doctors. Since the drug was first approved by the FDA at the end of 1995, the company has pulled in some $35 billion in sales, while the Sackler family accumulated an estimated family fortune of $13 billion.

Purdue Pharma’s push to get doctors to prescribe opioids for everyday chronic pain conditions is largely responsible for the opioid epidemic that is devastating communities across the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 700,000 people died from a drug overdose between 1999 and 2017. In 2017, 70,200 individuals died from drug overdoses, which is 6 times higher than the 1999 figure.

As a result of heightened scrutiny of the company and its marketing practices, sales of OxyContin in the US have collapsed, while Purdue Pharma faces more than 2,500 lawsuits from individuals, municipalities and states. Previously, in 2007, Purdue Pharma and three of its executives pled guilty to misbranding its product and were fined $635 million.

In response to this pressure, the Sackler family has moved its marketing strategy overseas, repeating the same lies it used in the United States. Thus, while Purdue Pharma discontinued marketing OxyContin in the US and disbanded its sales force last year, Mundipharma is busily hiring sales reps in China and other countries.

According to the AP, OxyContin sales in China have surged fivefold since its introduction across 700 major hospitals, while sales of the much cheaper morphine has flattened.

Like they did in the United States, sales representatives for Mundipharma are aggressively marketing OxyContin to Chinese physicians for everyday aches and pains, downplaying its addictive properties and giving misleading claims about how long it is effective.

In China, sales reps for Mundipharma pushed for higher doses when patients complained the painkiller didn’t work long enough. Sales reps also accessed and copied patient records without consent to be used to target sales and develop marketing strategies. According to the AP, sales reps would even don doctors’ clinical coats when visiting hospital patients and lie about their identity.

Chinese state health officials and Purdue Pharma both declined to comment on the AP story.

Mundipharma, Purdue Pharma’s foreign affiliate, is headquartered in Cambridge, England and Singapore. It has a sales presence in 122 countries, including those in Europe, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and areas of Asia. The company has reportedly set a goal of surpassing US OxyContin sales in China by 2025.

A recent company-produced promotional video, apparently referring to the success of OxyContin in the US, proclaims, “We’re only just getting started.”

Mundipharma recognized that countries outside of the US were large untapped markets. If OxyContin was prescribed for everyday chronic pain, the company estimated that the number of customers in Mexico would increase by 28 million, 80 million in Brazil and 11 million in Colombia.

According to the December 2016 investigation by the LA Times, Mundipharma hired Joseph Pergolizzi, Jr., a doctor who ran a Florida pain management clinic, to “talk up” opioids to Latin American and Asian physicians. His task was to overcome doctors’ aversion to prescribing opioids—a position Mundipharma management referred to as “opiophobia”—because of their addictive properties.

For example, Pergolizzi lectured to doctors at a Rio de Janeiro cancer pain meeting sponsored by the company. Mundipharma exaggerated Pergolizzi’s credentials, claiming he was a visiting faculty member at both Johns Hopkins and Temple University medical schools. While the LA Times confirmed that Pergolizzi had a temporary adjunct faculty position at Johns Hopkins, it failed to find evidence of his association with Temple.

At the meeting, Pergolizzi dwelt on what he called “the death sentence of chronic pain” and the relief provided by opioids. He noted that the use of pain medicines in Brazil was “still low” compared to the US, Canada and Europe. He added, “unfortunately, you may not have all the tools you need to properly address the pain.”

By sponsoring such international meetings, Mundipharma was simply following the playbook used by Purdue Pharma in the United States, where the company identified “key opinion leaders” in the field of pain management and invited them to all-expenses-paid weekend conferences at resorts in Boca Raton, Florida and Scottsdale, Arizona. Data collected by the company showed that physicians who attended such meetings were twice as likely to write prescriptions for opioids.

Company marketing similarly downplayed the drug’s risks. A South Korean company representative complained to the Korean Herald that “doctors worry too much about addiction.” In Spain, TV advertisements by Mundipharma featured nude celebrities exhorting viewers “not to resign yourself [to chronic pain],” claiming that “chronic pain is an illness in and of itself.”

By contrast, government agencies have warned physicians about the addictive qualities of opioid painkillers.

For example, in 2017 the CDC notified physicians of the findings of a study conducted at the University of Arkansas Department of Medical Science, which looked at the medical histories of 1.3 million cancer-free Americans over the age of 18 who had received one or more prescriptions for an opioid between June 2006 and September 2015.

Although none of the individuals had a history of opioid abuse, the study found that even with only a one-day supply of an opioid, 6 percent of those prescribed were still taking an opioid one year later. The percentage of those still taking an opioid a year later increased to 10 percent if provided a five-day supply, 20 percent for a 10-day supply, and 45 percent for a 30-day supply. These figures were even worse if higher doses were given at the outset.

The Sackler family has sought to protect their fortune by filing for bankruptcy protection for Purdue in September, which would likely freeze the current lawsuits, while moving funds around to minimize their liability.

For example, the New York Attorney General’s office reported a wire movement of at least $1 billion from one of 33 financial institutions linked to the family that answered a subpoena for records. Oregon’s attorney general says the funds moved offshore are much, much greater.

As part of the proposed settlement for bankruptcy protection, the company’s drug inventory, including OxyContin, an overdose rescue medicine and other pharmaceuticals will be handed over to the states. It is estimated that sales of these drugs by the states could generate $3 billion to $4 billion. The Sackler family would also contribute $3 billion. The total settlement could be as high as $10 billion to $12 billion, although critics of the deal are skeptical of this figure.

The Sacklers, however, have made it clear that they will only agree to the deal if the lawsuits against family members are dropped.

On November 6, federal bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain halted all lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family until April 8, 2020. The extension of protection to the Sackler family was highly unusual because the Sacklers themselves have not yet filed for bankruptcy. Even Judge Drain conceded that the order was “extraordinary.”

An audit released earlier this week found that the Sackler family began withdrawing huge sums of money after the company reached its 2007 criminal settlements. The family withdrew over $10 billion from the company between 2008 and 2018, eight times as much withdrawn in the previous 13 years.

“The Sackler’s pocketed billions of dollars from Purdue while thousands of people died from their addictive drugs,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement after the release of the audit. “This is the very definition of ill-gotten gains.”

Discovery court documents released in 2018 and earlier this year reveal the cynical approach company executives took as they began marketing OxyContin.

For example, Richard Sackler was disappointed when he was informed that Germany had designated OxyContin a controlled substance in 1997.

In company emails from that time, Robert Kaiko, charged with the drug’s development at Purdue, wrote Sackler that if the drug were uncontrolled, “it is highly likely that it will eventually be abused there and then controlled. This may be more damaging to OxyContin internationally than any temporarily higher sales that could be gleaned from an uncontrolled status.”

In reply, Sackler callously inquired, “How substantially would it improve your sales?”

To add insult to injury, Mundipharma is also promoting a naloxone nasal spray, Nyxoid, to treat individuals who overdose on OxyContin and other opioids.

According to an article published last week by the AP, lawsuits filed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York allege that Purdue Pharma discussed a secret proposal, known as Project Tango, during a 2014 conference call. Sackler family member Kathe Sackler was reportedly on the call.

According to an internal slideshow, Purdue Pharma could become an “end-to-end provider,” that is, provide “pain treatment” at the front end and “opioid addiction treatment” at the back end.

“It is an attractive market,” the staff wrote in the slideshow, according to the Massachusetts lawsuit.

Lawyers for the Sackler family claim that the proposal was put forward by a third-party private equity fund as a potential joint venture that never went anywhere.

According to the New York lawsuit, Purdue first looked into selling suboxone in 2015, but switched to naloxone the following year.

The Massachusetts attorney general claims that internal company communications stated that naloxone was a “complementary” product to its OxyContin. Purdue staff even suggested marketing its naloxone product to the same doctors to whom it was marketing its addictive painkillers.

Although Project Tango was apparently abandoned in the United States, Mundipharma soon began promoting its pricey naloxone nasal spray in Australia.

In response to a 2018 Australian coroners’ investigation into six fatal opioid overdoses in New South Wales, Mundipharma submitted a 15-page document highlighting the life-saving benefits of naloxone and encouraging government officials to make it more accessible.

The Australian government used the findings of a Mundipharma-funded study as a blueprint for a pilot program to distribute naloxone that included Nyxoid. The government even subsidized the price of Nyxoid, bringing the cost for Australians down from the US-equivalent of $50 to around $4.50 per pack.

“The way that they’ve pushed their opioids initially and now coming up with the expensive kind of antidote—it’s something that just strikes me as deeply, deeply, cynical,” Ross Bell, executive director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation told the AP.

“You’ve got families devastated by this, and a company who sees dollar signs flashing,” he said.

Amazon Logistics set to surpass delivery volume of FedEx, UPS by 2022

Kayla Costa

A report by the investment bank Morgan Stanley released last week notes that a major shift is taking place within the logistics and delivery industry which will accelerate the deterioration of conditions for millions of warehouse workers and drivers in the United States and around the globe.

According to the report, Amazon Logistics, a subsidiary of Amazon, the international technology company owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, is set to surpass the volume of FedEx by 2020 and United Parcel Service (UPS) by 2022, representing a potential loss of $65 billion in revenue for the rival firms.

An Amazon truck makes its way along interstate (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Morgan Stanley commented that the growth of Amazon Logistics “has been the most disruptive event within transportation in the last five years.” The report went on, “The collateral impact of the disruption has been obvious, a sudden and significant loss of business at several parcel companies.”

The bank’s report was based on an analysis of 70,000 Amazon transactions from 300 US shoppers over a nine-year period, allowing analysts to track changes over time and predict future outcomes.

Already this past August, Amazon was delivering 46 percent of US packages bought on its online platform through Amazon Logistics, an increase of 20 percent from a year prior. Fox Business compared the Amazon takeover of shipping and delivery to a new search engine taking over Google’s top position, as it ousts the former giants of the market.

While Morgan Stanley focused on American statistics, the rise of Amazon and changes anticipated across the logistics industry are global in character. As of 2018, there were 258 operational facilities in the United States and another 486 internationally, and those numbers are climbing.

Along with its fulfillment and Prime delivery facilities, Amazon will have a fleet of 70 aircraft by the end of 2020. It also owns 20,000 branded truck trailers, driven by independently contracted drivers who are among the lowest paid in the industry, though soon Amazon will begin hiring its own drivers.

Based on an assessment of new jobs created in import-related departments and Amazon’s strategy documents, Eytan Buchman at Transport Topics noted, “Amazon’s evolution into a comprehensive global supply chain is now an inevitability.”

With the support of the political establishment in the US and every other country where it operates, Amazon has rapidly expanded its operations into one sector of the economy after another: technology, cloud computing, satellite networks, global shipment and delivery, air freight and ocean freight, grocery services, and even healthcare.

Now valued at $1 trillion, Amazon’s corporate empire is the product, in part, of the extortion of billions in government handouts, the ruthless undercutting of its rivals, and efforts to integrate itself with the military and intelligence apparatus.

However, at its base Amazon’s rise has been based on the deployment of advanced techniques of workplace exploitation along with low wages and breakneck conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers around the world. In its wake, Amazon has left a trail of death and suffering, with untold numbers of injured and disabled workers left to fend for themselves without adequate healthcare.

The conquest of the package delivery industry means that Amazon will often control the entire process of ordering a package online from start to finish, from the software used to order the package all the way to the delivery of the package to a person’s doorstep.

The impact of Amazon’s business model has strained the existing transportation system, which was not designed to bear Amazon’s package volume. By attempting to develop its own private distribution network, “Amazon is just shifting the problem from UPS to itself, but it’s still the same fundamental problem of not having enough capacity,” logistics consultant Marc Wulfraat told the Los Angeles Times .” He continued: “Amazon’s solution is to whip everyone as hard as it can.”

Under private ownership, breakthroughs in technology are being used for the extraction of profit from workers, rather than for progressive applications that meet human needs. Amazon’s brutal use of technology includes psychological manipulation, tracking every movement of workers and setting unattainable quotas and rates.

Under pressure from Amazon, these techniques will now be used to “whip” all workers in the logistics industry, turning every worker into a slave at the machine until they are mentally or physically injured, tossed aside and replaced.

This process has already begun. A review of underreported injuries in warehouses across the United States by Bloomberg Law found that workers at United Parcel Services (UPS) labor under a “culture of fear” of reporting injuries, with threats of being fired if they raise a concern.

UPS received the green light to proceed with its own cost-cutting plan that included these safety violations when the Teamsters union enforced pro-company contracts on its more than 250,000 drivers and warehouse workers in October 2018, despite a majority “no” vote by union members rejecting the agreement.

The anti-democratic contract lays out plans for “hybrid” driver positions, in which a worker splits their hours between the warehouse and driving delivery routes, for a significantly reduced hourly wage. It also maintains the poverty conditions of hourly warehouse workers and part-time workers, who account for 70 percent of the UPS workforce.

Furthermore, the contract enforced by the Teamsters against the democratic will of UPS workers does nothing to end harassment by supervisors, limit increases in line and delivery speed, stop the tracking of workers through technological devices or meet other safety concerns.

The UPS-Teamsters contract is one of the most open expressions of the anti-working-class nature of the unions, which have become completely integrated with company executives and the political establishment.

Parallel trends can be seen in virtually every industry—from automotive to healthcare—as executives seek to pile on heavier workloads while cutting full-time staff levels, wages and benefits, all with the loyal assistance of the trade union apparatus.

However exploitative they may be, the common conditions that all workers share are not just oppressive in nature. They also have revolutionary implications. Linked together in the completely integrated global economy, logistics workers in every company and every country have an objective foundation for uniting in a common struggle against Amazon and the capitalist system which has spawned it.

It is a vital necessity to create independent workplace committees at every warehouse and hub, which will provide the necessary means to coordinate and organize the international struggle of all workers against the global corporations.

World Bank concerned about “global debt wave”

Nick Beams

World Bank research has pointed to a global wave of debt since 2010 that has led to developing countries accumulating a “towering” $55 trillion of debt—the largest in history.

The analysis is contained in a book-length report Global Waves of Debt: Causes and Consequences issued earlier this week.

In his foreword to the publication, World Bank president David Malpass noted that “waves of debt accumulation” have been a major feature of the global economy over the past 50 years, with four in emerging and developing economies since 1970.

“The first three waves ended in financial crises—the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, and the global financial crisis of 2007–2009,” he wrote.

A fourth wave began in 2010 and reached $55 trillion in developing countries at the end of last year, “making it the largest, broadest and fastest growing of the four. While debt financing can help meet urgent needs such as basic infrastructure, much of the current debt wave is taking riskier forms.”

The report pointed out that the present escalation was taking place in conditions of lower growth than prevailed in the period prior to the crisis of 2007–2009. While emerging and developing economies were growing at a slower rate than in the past, their debt levels were rising more rapidly.

Since 2010, debt in developing economies has risen to a total of around 170 percent of their gross domestic product, an increase of 54 percentage points in just eight years.

The report noted that, while developing economies had experienced periods of volatility in the current debt wave, they had not suffered a widespread financial crisis. However, it continued, the “exceptional size, speed and reach of debt accumulation” was cause for concern.

“Despite the sharp rise in debt, these economies have experienced a decade of repeated growth disappointments and are now facing weaker growth prospects in a fragile global economy. In addition to the rapid debt build-up, they have accumulated other vulnerabilities, such as growing fiscal and current account deficits and a shift towards a riskier composition of debt.”

Previous waves were largely regional in nature but the fourth wave has been widespread with total debt rising in 80 percent of emerging market and developing economies, increasing by at least 20 percentage points of GDP in just over a third of these economies.

The report warned that on a number of measures, developing economies were in a worse position than before the global financial crisis. Three-quarters had budget deficits, corporate debt denominated in foreign currencies was much higher, and current account deficits were four times larger than in 2007.

This meant that despite exceptionally low interest rates and the prospect of continued low rates in the near term, “the current wave of debt accumulation could follow the historical pattern and culminate in financial crises.”

The largest increase in debt is in China where the debt-to-GDP ratio has risen by 72 points to 255 percent since 2010. This is the result of measures initiated by the government and financial authorities to sustain economic growth in the wake of the global financial crisis and recession.

The Chinese government is now trying to rein in debt accumulation. At the same time it is seeking to maintain economic growth under conditions where the increase in GDP is at its lowest level in 30 years.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported on an interview given by Ma Jun, an external adviser to the People’s Bank of China, in which he called for measures to prevent “systemic risks” resulting from the failure of local government borrowing platforms. He warned of a “chain reaction” if defaults damaged market confidence and said local government borrowing vehicles should be allowed to take over their weaker counterparts, including those in other provinces. Local government borrowing, particularly to finance infrastructure programs, plays a vital role in maintaining the growth of the Chinese economy.

The rise of corporate debt in China is also of increasing concern. In the last eight years, corporate debt as a percentage of GDP has increased by more than 60 points.

A Reuters report noted that increased debt is generating smaller increases in production than in the past. This is reflected in a three-fold increase in the Incremental Capital Output Ratio from 2009 top 2017.

“In other words,” the report said, “China’s credit-heavy financing spree was not matched by a corresponding boost in productivity, but by an increasingly inefficient use of credit, which suggests China’s corporations may have a deteriorating capacity to repay their existing debts.”

It cited a finding by the International Monetary Fund in which it estimated that 15.5 percent of all commercial bank loans to the Chinese corporate sector were “at risk,” meaning that the firm’s earnings were not sufficient to cover the interest payments on its loans.

The growing problems in the Chinese corporate sector have been highlighted by a series of defaults and near defaults in Shandong province. Over the past three months, six privately-owned companies have either defaulted or come close to defaulting on debts totalling $9.7 billion.

Shandong is China’s third-richest province but in the past year its economy has markedly slowed. Industrial profits in October were down 15.5 percent compared to the previous year and its growth rate dropped to 5.4 percent in the first nine months of this year—one of the lowest levels in the country.

The financial problems of individual corporations in the province are compounded by the arrangements between them in which one company comes to the aid of another if it runs into difficulties. While this system provides for stability under conditions of overall expansion, it risks spreading instability if the economy turns down.

Commenting on the Shandong defaults, the Financial Times said the distress had “become harbinger for financial risk across the country.” It cited a report by Fitch Ratings that due to a “wave of defaults” on corporate bonds, the Chinese private sector default rate had risen to a record 4.9 percent at the end of November, compared to 0.6 percent in 2014.

Workplace violence a major problem for US nurses

Alex Johnson

An article released by CBS News last month revealed the extraordinary amount of violence and abuse directed toward nurses within their workplaces. The report provides a distressing account of the crisis facing nurses in hospitals and clinics all over the country, shedding light on conditions for one of the most victimized and vulnerable sections of the labor force.

Patti Kunz Howard, president of the Emergency Nurses Association, described the pressure placed on nurses as a “very real challenge,” adding that “if you ask emergency nurses, they will tell you every single shift they work there is some case of workplace violence.” Nurses more closely exposed to patients, such as workers in emergency rooms, frequently encounter harmful situations where physical assaults and verbal aggression are a part of daily routines.

A nurse veteran described the nursing profession as “dangerous,” with violence happening “frequently in the acute and critical care populations where you think patients are too sick.” Despite most violent incidents occurring in connection with patients and their family members, aggression from co-workers and even from physicians isn’t considered exceptional.

One nurse working a shift in an emergency room said that she was punched by a disgruntled patient who resisted having her blood drawn. Randee Litten, who works in St. Joseph’s Hospital in California, indicated that the patient was already designated as suffering from a mental disorder, and that she “was trying to medically clear them so they could go to a mental health facility, and I got punched in the face by her and got a black eye.”

According to American Nurse Today, journal of the American Nurses Association (ANA), incidents like this one occur with striking regularity, with the caption of one report declaring that “virtually every nurse has experienced or witnessed some degree of workplace violence.”

Donna Fountain, the co-chair of the ANA, described her experience as a student nurse as nearly intolerable. She recalled operating a therapeutic intervention with a psychotic resident. What at first started as a normal treatment changed rapidly when “he suddenly leaped across the table and started choking me. Immediately five big men [male staff] grabbed him, put him in a straitjacket, and sedated him.”

Last April, Lynne Truxillo, a nurse from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, died after being attacked by a mental health patient after she had tried to save the life of a co-worker who had been assaulted moments before. Truxillo, after making an attempt to escape, was grabbed and had her head violently shoved against a desk repeatedly, suffering injuries that eventually led to her death.

Nurses around the country spoke out on social media with shock and outrage over Truxillo’s death, with many revealing the frequent caution nurses must take when dealing with mentally ill patients, while at the same time expressing anger at the lack of protection that nurses are given while on the job. Although the great majority of mental health patients do not resort to violence, there is sometimes unpredictability and danger involved.

In a survey conducted and published by AMN Healthcare, 41 percent of nurses responded that they had been victims of bullying, incivility, and other forms of workplace violence, while 27 percent said they had witnessed it. Sixty-three percent of the respondents said their organization did not even address these incidences adequately.

These grim statistics, however, are only a conservative estimate, according to experts. Unreported incidents are common, and many nurses have even become accustomed to the attacks.

One of the major causes of the increase in violence within the workplace is the lack of mental health resources and treatment, either from the absence of local resource centers and clinics or the unaffordability of mental health care for a large section of the population. As a result, more and more people suffering from psychological trauma and disorders have resorted to emergency rooms as a first resort.

In California, where Litten suffered her injuries, the situation is dire. “Mental health hasn’t been invested in for years, and now we have a huge [increase] in the mental health population in California,” Litten said. “There are no resources for them, so they come to us.”

According to a California Health Policy Survey conducted in 2018, when asked if most people with mental health conditions in California are able to get the services they need, 57 percent responded “no.” In fact, the main institutions for psychiatric care in both California and across the country aren’t hospitals and clinics, but jails and prisons. In 2017, more than 30 percent of California prisoners received treatment for serious mental disorders, an increase of 150 percent for two decades.

No doubt social austerity and cost-cutting on the part of local and federal government officials have played a central role in worsening the mental health crisis in the United States. In California as well as countless other states, social programs and services have been starved of hundreds of millions of dollars since the financial crash of 2008, coinciding with the enrichment of the business and financial elite and the precipitous decline of workers’ livings standards. This has placed a burden, not just on the mentally ill and their families facing the skyrocketing costs of medical treatment, but also on physicians and nurses.

Despite most nurses cited by AMN Healthcare indicating they were satisfied with having a nursing title as a career choice, an overwhelming number were dissatisfied with the overall quality of the profession itself, from workplace conditions and safety to compensation and job security.

Out of an estimated 3.5 million registered nurses in the US, one in five hold second jobs and a striking 273,000 hold a second full-time job. Sixty-six percent of nurses surveyed said that they were worried that their job was affecting their health, and 44 percent admitted they often think about quitting altogether.

Pakistan court sentences to death former US-backed military strongman Musharraf

Sampath Perera

On Tuesday, a Pakistani court sentenced to death former US-backed military dictator Pervez Musharraf on treason charges stemming from the imposition of a state of emergency in 2007. The sentencing deepened the political crisis within the Islamabad ruling elite.

Predictably, the military rejected the verdict. Prime Minister Imran Khan has also directed his attorney general to defend Musharraf, who was tried in absentia, taking the side of the military in the unfolding crisis. Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan Wednesday condemned “gaps and weaknesses” in the ruling.

After deposing Nawaz Sharif as the elected prime minister in 1999 through a military coup, Musharraf ruled the country until he was forced to step down in 2008. In the face of several court cases, he went into self-exile in March 2016. In a video message from a hospital in Dubai earlier this month, Musharraf claimed the charges are “absolutely baseless.” He’s unlikely to return to Pakistan to face the sentence.

Musharraf played a major role in the United States’ “war on terror,” and the Bush administration viewed him as a “key ally.” After breaking with the Taliban regime in Kabul, under pressure from Washington on the eve of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he transformed Pakistan into the principal US ally in the region in prosecuting this criminal invasion and occupation.

Under his rule, Pakistan provided crucial logistical support for NATO forces. Musharraf also launched criminal and repeated expeditions into the semi-autonomous region bordering Afghanistan, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in a bid to crush the increasing popular opposition to the Afghan invasion among the predominantly Pashtun-speaking population, whose communities spread across the Durand Line, the international border dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These brutal expeditions of the Pakistani military during this period prepared the ground for the rapid rise of the Islamist militant groups that formed the umbrella organization, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also known as the Pakistani Taliban, separate from but affiliated to the Afghan Taliban. TTP increasingly directed terrorist attacks against the Pakistani military and the government, while also being responsible for some of the most brutal sectarian violence.

Another key element in the growth of insurgency in the FATA region was the CIA’s drone war, initially permitted by Musharraf, which successor governments continued to support. These remote-control killing machines plagued the entire FATA with constant terror, with the CIA given a free license to kill.

Tuesday’s ruling was issued by a special anti-terrorism court, with two of its three judges deciding against Musharraf. The court released its 169-page detailed judgement on Thursday. Musharraf has 30 days to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Pakistan.

The treason case was initiated by the government in 2013 after Nawaz Sharif returned to power. It was widely seen as politically motivated, given his overthrow in 1999 in the military coup led by Musharraf.

In the detailed verdict released on Thursday, the court states that Musharraf “has persistently and stubbornly strived ever since the commencement of this trial, to delay, retract and in fact evade it.” The court also implicated the military’s commanders in Musharraf’s crimes. The “Corps Commanders Committee” at the time, “in addition to all other uniformed officers who were guarding him each and every time, with boots on, are equally and fully involved in the act and deeds of the accused person.”

Indeed, none of the atrocities committed by Musharraf in his partnership with Washington in its “war on terror” were held against him. In fact, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government that came to power after Musharraf, followed by that of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) under Sharif, both prosecuted the same policies as the Musharraf regime with no less brutality. Indeed, the drone war was at a peak during the PPP’s tenure, and the PML-N government-ordered war in North Waziristan was one of the most indiscriminate acts of collective punishment against the population of the FATA in the history of Pakistan.

The case against Musharraf stems from his desperate attempt to thwart growing opposition to his rule by using emergency powers. He suspended the constitution from November 2007 until February 2008, while holding dual positions as chief of the armed forces and the president of Pakistan.

His use of violence, mass incarceration, preventive detention and all forms of media censorship could not reverse the growing hostility to his regime at the time. Apart from his hated role as a stooge of Washington, his regime was also implementing the diktats of the International Monetary Fund, another factor that made him a favourite in Western capitals, but deeply unpopular among the vast majority of Pakistan’s population.

Amidst growing popular opposition to Musharraf at home, Washington attempted in 2007 to broker a power-sharing deal between him and Benazir Bhutto’s PPP. Despite Bhutto’s continued willingness to strike a deal with Musharraf, mainly to retain the patronage of Washington, the latter’s camp wasn’t ready to give away its powers. However, the political situation developed rapidly, and even within the military high command, some saw Musharraf’s growing unpopularity as jeopardizing the extensive economic interests of the officer corps.

In the February 2008 general elections, despite extensive vote-rigging and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto less than two months earlier, the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League (Q)—the party created by the military-intelligence apparatus to provide a popular fig-leaf for Musharraf’s dictatorship—was routed and a government led by Bhutto’s PPP formed. Effectively abandoned by his domestic and international allies, Musharraf stepped down as president in August 2008.

Musharraf is the first former army chief to be charged with treason in Pakistan. Sharif’s initiative to prosecute Musharraf was a key point of contention between the military and the Sharif government. While Musharraf’s attempt to resume a political career was seen as a liability, the military considered Sharif’s attacks on Musharraf a challenge to the military’s claim to constitute the ultimate guardian of the capitalist state in Islamabad and the integrity of Pakistan.

Musharraf was allowed to leave the country for medical reasons, reportedly after the military’s intervention in 2016.

Responding to the court’s ruling, the military said the rank-and-file of the armed forces had received the decision with a “lot of pain and anguish.” Musharraf, “who has served the country for over 40 years, fought wars for the defence of the country can surely never be a traitor,” the military declared. Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said in a statement that “due legal process” had been ignored, including in the “constitution of special court, denial of fundamental right of self defence, undertaking individual specific proceedings and concluding the case in haste.”

The judgement is a part of growing conflict between the military and the judiciary. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court struck down a three-year extension of army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure, signed by incumbent Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) won the general elections in July 2018 amidst general acknowledgement in the local and international press that it had won the favour of the military, which played a key role in Khan’s ability to rout his rivals.

After 2013, when Sharif returned to power, the military had successfully pushed back against his attempts to assert civilian control over foreign and security policy. The challenge by the judiciary is opening up another stage of the political turmoil engulfing Islamabad. As Khan’s government is preoccupied with implementing IMF reforms—leaving behind all of the PTI’s populist election slogans—it has recruited several of the Musharraf regime’s former ministers and high-officials.

Magnitude 6.8 earthquake hits southern Philippines

Owen Howell

At least nine people died after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Sunday. The quake injured more than a hundred people, caused severe damage to numerous buildings, and displaced thousands of residents in the area. It is the latest in a string of powerful tremors to hit the region over the past few months.

Striking at 5:11 p.m. local time on Sunday, the quake’s epicentre, at a depth of 22.4 kilometres, was near the town of Padada in the poor rural areas of Davao del Sur province, about 90 kilometres south of the heavily populated Davao City.

One of the nine victims was a six-year-old girl who was inside her family’s house in a village in Mantanao town when the building collapsed on top of her. An 81-year-old woman died from a heart attack during the quake. The other fatalities were registered in the affected towns of Magsaysay, Hagonoy and Malita.

The latest count by the National Emergency and Disaster Risk Reduction Council stated 111 people had been injured. Over 9,700 people were evacuated after Sunday’s massive tremor, which destroyed 74 homes and partially destroyed 125. Damage was caused to 41 public buildings, 128 schools, and 19 health centres.

Patients were evacuated from hospitals as a precaution and nervous crowds gathered outside shopping malls after the jolt. Roads were blocked by rubble and mangled metal, while power outages soon became widespread.

Local police spokeswoman Lea Orbuda, in a comment to Agence France-Presse, spoke of the difficulties facing local authorities: “We can no longer use our office because the walls cracked and the stairs collapsed. The power is off and the water taps are dry.”

On Monday two female bodies were recovered from the rubble of a ruined municipal market in Padada town. Vice Mayor of Padada, Francisco Guerrera, told the media that rescuers at the market had deployed sensitive listening devices in order to detect any signs of life, as well as using chainsaws and thermal imaging equipment. Many are feared trapped beneath the devastated three-storey building.

Searchers were looking for a person who had texted authorities saying six people were still alive under the rubble. “It’s very distressing,” regional disaster official Christopher Tan told CNN Philippines. “There’s a very slim chance of finding survivors.”

Video footage posted by Twitter users showed a hotel swimming pool shaken violently by the tremor. Also captured was the horrifying moment when a sudden and loud electrical explosion sent people rushing out of a Davao shopping mall.

Aftershocks have continued to rattle Mindanao Island, the strongest being a magnitude 5.7 centred north of General Santos City. The state seismology bureau Phivolcs recorded 700 aftershocks, of which about 70 were noticeable, the Philippines Daily Inquirer reported. More aftershocks are expected to occur in the coming days and possibly weeks.

The quake was the third since late October with a magnitude of 6.5 or higher to hit the area. The series of deadly earthquakes and aftershocks has altogether cost the lives of about two dozen people and displaced nearly 20,000 Mindanao residents, forcing them into shelters.

Most of the deaths in October were due to collapsing walls and falling debris, including a teenage boy who was crushed by a crumbling wall as he tried to escape his school. Other fatalities were attributed to rock and landslides unleashed by the violent shaking that injured at least 400 people.

Senator Richard Gordon, who runs the local Red Cross operation, said first aid and trauma teams had provided assistance to several people, including a 39-year-old woman who was pinned down by a collapsed wall. Additional ambulances and medical volunteers were dispatched to affected areas to help overwhelmed local medical units.

According to the Manila Bulletin, Dr. Gloria Balboa from the Department of Health wrote in a situation report that medical as well as mental health and psychosocial support teams were deployed in the destroyed villages and were conducting rapid health assessments. Hygiene kits, drugs, and medicines were also distributed to regional health units.

Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles said the national government had mobilised to assist all victims. “President Duterte is closely monitoring the progress of ongoing operations to thoroughly evaluate the damage of the quake and all ground units are ordered to work round-the-clock to make sure that everyone is safe and are ready for possible aftershocks,” Nograles said.

The president ordered all disaster relief officials and security forces be placed on a heightened state of alert and that they escalate their work in recovery operations.

Duterte, however, whose private residence is in Davao City on Mindanao, utters these routine statements not out of genuine concern for the fate of thousands of workers and farmers confronting the disaster, but out of fear of opposition to the government emerging from his own area.

In response to the quake, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is now fast-tracking the construction of two evacuation centres in the Caraga region of Mindanao, with the objective of providing habitable temporary shelters for residents in times of calamities.

Poorer regions of the Philippines lack natural disaster facilities, in a country hit by two dozen typhoons a year, one that sits atop the volcanic Ring of Fire, and whose cities are submerged during the monsoon months. Schools often become default evacuation sites in impoverished villages when a calamity strikes.

In 2013, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction published a paper outlining the lessons learned from the catastrophic Typhoon Haiyan of that year. It concluded that tests such as soil analysis had to be conducted to ensure the safety of buildings throughout the Philippine archipelago. Furthermore, the number of hazard-adaptive evacuation centres had to be dramatically increased, while disaster programs had to be established to help the overall capacity of municipalities to respond to natural disasters.

Almost three decades have passed since the catastrophic Luzon earthquake in 1990, which toppled multi-storey buildings and killed an estimated 2,412 people. With no resources or shelters for those escaping the quake, thousands were forced to sleep on the streets.

But successive governments have failed to take these lessons into account, and little has been done to ensure new buildings are constructed to resist further calamities. Even Duterte admitted the abundance of unsafe buildings throughout Mindanao to the Manila Times in November.