The way forward for rural and agricultural development in India during and after COVID-19

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The spread of COVID-19 infused crisis has huge impact on all aspects of life and economy across India. It is particularly posing a serious challenge to the social and economic development of rural poor, migrants and farmers. The local businesses and communities are significantly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 12th of May that his government would provide a relief cum stimulus package of Rs. 20 lakh crores. It is 10% of Indian GDP. But the reality came out in open when the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman revealed the details about the package. It is clear now, that the stimulus and relief package announced by the Government of India is just 1% of India’s GDP. It too less to provide relief to the poor and rehabilitate the Indian economy. It puts rural development in jeopardy; thereby creating conditions for long term rural distress and destitution.

The agricultural market reforms led by the BJP led government in New Delhi are not panacea for the serious agrarian crisis in India. The reduction of tax on consumption and GST rate is a welcome policy initiative in right direction. But the reform of the Essential Commodities Act led to the removal of cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potato from its purview. Such reforms destroy both food security of the rural poor and destroy the farmers confidence to produce these items. The universal approach to food security by public distribution system was diluted and destroyed by the previous Congress governments in center. The BJP government is following the path initiated by the Congress government and ensuring permanent damage to food security and agricultural economy in the country. The policy of private investment in agriculture will create new landlords. What to produce? How to produce? When to produce? What will be the price of the product? The answers to these questions will be decided by the market forces. It will take away the farmers freedom to decide the production processes and price of their own products. The market forces will control the farmers creating conditions for the growth of a new era of neo-feudalism in India. The announcement of the allocation of Rs. 1 lakh crore by the Government of India is a bonanza for the private corporations for the development of agricultural and food processing infrastructure. The history of tax credit and fertiliser subsidies reveals that farmers are not beneficiaries of agricultural subsidies. Therefore, the Government of India and state governments need to redirect their policy focus to empower farmers and rural poor to expand rural economy.

There are several alternative policy options available within the existing development frameworks to revive the economy by reinvigorating rural development programmes. The existing cash transfer programmes in different states like; Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana (RGKNY) in Chhattisgarh, Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) in Odisha, Krishak Bandhu (KB) in West Bengal, Mukhya Mantri Krishi Aashirwad Yojana (MMKAY) in Jharkhand and Kishan Kerala are some of the good policy initiatives by the state governments which led to the creation of the PM Kisan Yojana.  The cash transfer around Rs 15,000 crore under the PM KISAN scheme by Modi government provides temporary relief.  These cash transfer policies are beneficial in short term. But these policies are not enough to reinvigorate rural economy. These policies do not have potentials to revive agricultural distress. It can have long term positive impacts if it is supported by long term investment in agriculture and agricultural infrastructure.

The Government of Kerala has the most comprehensive, and sustainable rural development policies in India. The Government of Kerala’s policies follow an integrated approach by combining several policy initiatives together. For example; increasing rice, vegetables, spices and coconut production is combined with organic and technology intensive planning. The biodiversity conservation and farm diversification combined with institutional mechanisms of the Agro Service Centers and Regional Farm Facilitation Centers creates sustainable policy foundations that addresses rural economy and development issues in a permanent manner. The policies of crop insurance schemes, integrated pest management and group farming immensely help the rural poor and farmers in Kerala. The Government of Kerala also provides contingency programmes to meet natural calamities including pandemics like COVID-19. The public participation, decentralised development plans, market intervention support system, training programmes via virtual university and Rural Infrastructure Development Funds (RIDF) ensures confidence among rural poor and farmers. The involvement of Panchayat Raj Institutions in the processes of policy formulation to policy implementation ensures sustainable rural development and revitalises rural economy. The existing Kerala model can be adopted immediately and replicated in different states as per the conditions and local requirements of the people in the rural areas.

The consequences of Coronavirus pandemic demand urgent attention on rural development. The rural development policies need to be revamped to address the serious issues of rural agrarian distress in different states in India. The specific objectives of the policy need to focus on farmers, agricultural workers and rural poor.  The policy makers in India need to move away from technocratic short term policy objectives by which the state can play a significant role in the revival of rural economy. The investment in rural health, educational, sports and recreational infrastructure can help in reducing rural to urban migration. It can reduce the pressure on urban infrastructure. The investment in irrigation, electricity, rural infrastructure, seed and fertilizer subsidies and higher minimum support price can encourage farmers to produce. It can generate rural employment in agricultural and regional rural crafts in different parts of the country. Such internal mobilisation of resources and labour power can revive rural economy and contribute immensely in reducing poverty, food insecurity and unemployment.

There is no surprise or radical about these policy suggestions. The most of the developed countries provide massive subsidies to farmers to increase agricultural production. The developed countries invest massively to reduce the gaps between urban and rural areas as a result of which rural areas are better in Europe than the European cities. India as a country has all resources, skills and labour power, only political resolve is missing. The political commitment to better public policy focusing on rural development can recover Indian economy from the brink of COVID-19 led catastrophe.

At the end, the states are as strong as their citizens. The states can never be powerful with weak citizenry. The success and failure of a state depends on the partnership between the government and citizens. The disconnect between the government and citizens led to the failure of the states and empires in history.  The propaganda can only give temporary relief by diverting public attention but in long term people revolt against the state and ruling class that discriminates and disempowers them. The idea of peace depends on prosperity and the pursuit of prosperity depends on creating conditions for greater equality and liberty in political, social and economic sphere. India can do it if the governments of India show their political commitment for the all-round development of Indians. India lives in its rural heartlands. The future of India depends of the future of poor, farmers, migrants, women, students and youth in rural India.

Cancer Care during COVID 19 Pandemic: Untold Challenges

Akhter Hussain Bhat & Mohammad Akram

The novel COVID-19 has caused widespread concern, fear, anxiety and stress among millions of people worldwide. The virus has affected more than 5 million people causing more than 3.3 lakh deaths while many are battling for recovery around the globe. Owing to the stern and infectious nature of the virus, the World Health Organization in March, 2020 declared the virus as a pandemic in order to emphasize the gravity of the situation and urge all countries to take action in detecting infection and preventing spread.

As the medical fraternity around the world is still to find a proper cure for the treatment of the virus, the primary interventions that the countries have adopted are social distancing, isolation, hand and respiratory hygiene and complete lockdown. This in turn has posed bigger challenges through all areas of daily life. All economic, political and social activities have come to a halt. The delivery of medical care for people suffering from various ailments has become a challenge for health professionals world over. The coronavirus has forced sudden and dramatic changes throughout the medical world. Annual checkups, routine surgeries and even normal services have been cut back or canceled to minimize exposure to the virus.

As we see the virus is affecting people worldwide and hardly there can be any part unaffected. India is no exception which is experiencing thousands of people getting affected on daily basis. As of May 24, India is reported to have 1, 31, 868 people affected from the virus and 3,867 have been killed by it. Many categories of people around the country are susceptible to the pandemic in different ways. One such group of people is of cancer patients who are more prone to the infection from the virus than any other. According to a recent study titled ‘Cancer Care Delivery Challenges Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak’ published in Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, cancer patients are more susceptible to coronavirus and subjected to severe complications than individuals without cancer as they are in an immunosuppressive state because of the malignancy and anticancer treatments.

In India, cancer is witnessing an alarming increase. According to a parliamentary standing committee report on Science, Technology and Environment published in The Hindu last November, the incidence of cancer in India is about 16 lakh annually. Nearly 8 lakh people die of the disease annually. Among these are 140,000 cases of breast cancer, 100,000 cases of cervical cancer, and 45,000 of oral cancer among India women. Among men, the top three cancers with the highest incidence are of oral cavity (1, 38,000 cases), cancer of the pharynx (90,000) and of the gastro-intestinal tract (2, 00,000). Further, the systematic failure to address the needs of cancer patients contributes to 20 per cent higher mortality among Indian cancer patients says the report. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (2018) expects India’s cancer burden to increase from the estimated incidence of 13 lakh cases in 2018 to about 17 lakh in 2035, and cancer deaths from 8.8 lakh to 13 lakh during the same period. Given these facts and the highly inadequate cancer care facilities aided by the complete lockdown due to the pandemic, the patients suffering from cancer are at a higher risk and the foremost risk is inability to receive essential services including cancer specific treatment. Cancer patients need to visit the hospital five or six days every week and are advised not to skip the treatment. However, due to public transport off the roads and the governments’ advisory of maintaining physical distance these patients cannot travel from one place to another. Additionally, hospitals that offer cancer specific treatments are mostly located in urban areas and hence pose an additional burden to patients from remote areas. About 95 per cent of the cancer care services are restricted to the urban areas and hence the 70 per cent of the people living in rural areas can’t afford these services. So there is a lot of disparity in cancer care in India says Dr Abhishek a Delhi based oncologist.

As India is focused largely on responding to the threat from Covid-19, it has been forced to turn a blind eye to deaths from other preventable causes as a result of highly restricted access to healthcare during the lockdown. The supply of essential drugs has been badly hit as has been the attendance and workforce participation of hospital personnel. Many hospitals have limited the patient flow for treatment which has resulted in some avoidable incidents to occur. One such incident as reported in India Today can be cited of a two-year-old child suffering from stomach cancer in West Bengal who died because of the non-availability of timely treatment. The child’s family is reported to have said that they visited four hospitals in Kolkata but could not get the treatment. “Everywhere we went, we were turned away,” the father who is a cycle van driver by occupation is reported to have said. The toddler had undergone a surgery in her stomach last December at state-run Calcutta Medical College (CMC) hospital. Amidst the lockdown, her condition deteriorated and accordingly the family took her to several hospitals but to no avail. Unable to get any treatment in at least four hospitals- the Barasat District hospital, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Specialized Hospital and Research Centre, RG Kar Medical College and Barasat Cancer Research Centre- the child died on her way back to Barasat District hospital the family is reported to have said.

The pandemic is posing major challenges on the psychological well-being of cancer patients. The physical distancing requirement could render cancer patients to feel lonelier than they already do and this in turn could result in poor prognosis and survival rates. For cancer patients, stress is more disturbing than the cancer itself says Dr Shankar. He further says that in this situation, it is very difficult to manage these people as they are unable to come to the hospital. The cancer specialist remarked that it is a dilemma for healthcare professionals as well as patients because there is an issue regarding what to follow and what not to. For a cancer patient, nothing, not even the danger of contracting COVID-19, is more worrisome than that of compromising his/her cancer care. Considering the high risk of contracting COVID-19, many patients with weak immune systems have discontinued their treatment in an attempt to improve their chances of fighting off a COVID-19 infection.

There is no denying the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has presented India like every other country with a crisis, but a crisis is no excuse to focus all of one’s efforts on one disease at the expense of others. Considering the serious medical and emotional needs of patients, the government needs to issue scientifically drafted patient centric guidelines about managing cancer patients and handling their care against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak. Health professionals engaged in cancer care also have a responsibility to communicate information about appropriate medical care, practice modifications and treatment regimens to the people under their care.

Retrieving the True meaning of word Jihad

Ram Puniyani

Words Jihad and Jihadi have been in abundant use for the negative purposes from last two decades in particular. They have been closleyl linked to the word terrorism and violence, done by section of Muslims here and there. This global use of word is particularly a post 9/11 phenomenon. Just to recapitulate after the WTC was hit by two aeroplanes; the building sunk leading the death of nearly three thousand innocent people. The victims belonged to most countries and religions. In the aftermath; Osama bin Laden called it Jihad. American media coined the word Islamic terrorism since then. Most of the acts indulged in by Muslim terror groups have been labelled under this title. This; irrespective of the fact that many an Islamic Scholars, many a Muslim clerics like Maulanas of Deoband and Barelvi, stating that Islam does not approve of violence against innocent people. The words have stuck.

This has also beoame one more weapon in the hands of communal sectarian elements. Apart from the mainstream media social media has been delving this with gay abandon using these words in a derogatory way. The lap media also called Godi media, which is an important part of the opinion making against Muslims has been using it day in and day out.

Recently (March 11, 2020), Mr. Sudhir Chaudhary, the Editor-in-Chief of Zee channel in a show went on to the limits of this misrepresentation by showing a chart and classifying Jihad into various categories, Love, Jihad, Land Jihad and latest in series being Corona Jihad in the wake of Tablighi Jamaat event. Mr Chowdhary concluded that all these types of Jihad are being done to weaken India. Surely, these types of programs have been increasing and intensifying Hate against Muslims and Jihad.

Unlike most of the times, this time around a complaint was filed against the said editor, a FIR was filed and lo and behold the editor’s tune changed. In the next program he talked respectfully about the word Jihad! The tone and tenor changed. Was it a late realization or the fear of facing criminal action which made him change the tune, he alone should know, but that’s another chapter to the story?

As such jihad is by and large used as synonym for violence, terrorism. This is very much contrary to the its use in Koran. Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer argues that its use in Koran is multilayered. It stands for ‘utmost striving’ and has nothing to do with violence against innocents. As per him the concept of Jihad is far above violence. Those indulging in power games have used it as a cover for expanding power and called it as Holy War. This is very similar to the use of word Crusade by Christian Kings and Dharm Yudh by Hindu kings.

A deeper and more rational study of Koran and Hadith bring forth the real meaning of the term. Sufi’s who were away from the power struggle and focussed on spiritual aspects of religion like Bhakti Saints or liberation theologians, unfolded the deeper meaning of the term. Engineer points out that “it is for this reason that they describe war as jihad-e-Asghar and jihad to control one’s greed and selfish desires as jihad-e-Akbar (Great jihad)” (On Multi Layered Concept of Jihad, in A Modern Approach to Islam, Dharmaram , Page 26, 2003, Bangalore)

The reference to Jihad comes in Koran over 40 times, mostly referring to Jihad-e-Akbar, striving to overcome personal greed and selfishness. The real transformation of the word Jihad in popular perceptions and Chaudhary is the extreme example of that, takes place during the training of Mujahideen in the few specially set up Madarssas in Pakistan. This was initiated and coordinated by America in the decade of 1980s, when the Russian Army occupied Afghanistan. That was the time American forces were totally demoralised due to their humiliating defeat in Vietnam, at the hands of Vietnamese people.

To confront the Russian army, US planned to join the anti Russian forces. For this with the help of extremist Salafi version of Islam, they promoted the radical tendencies within a section of Muslims. The brain washing of the Asian Muslim youth as Mujahedeen to Taliban took place in few Pakistani Madrassas, totally funded by America. For this funding opium trade was also put into operation. The brainwashing module designed in Washington incorporated many components which also distorted the concept of Kafir, and created Hate against communists. Communists were labelled as Kafirs (Non believers) and so killing them was presented as Jihad. Getting killed while doing such an act was to be rewarded with entry pass to Jannat with 72 virgins waiting for those embracing this path.

America further went on to promote Taliban and Al Qaeda, which joined anti Russian forces, leading to defeat of Russian forces. Mahmood Mamdani in his book ‘Good Muslim Bad Muslim’ makes an inference based on CIA documents that America invested 8 thousand million dollars and also supplied seven tonnes of armaments, including the most sophisticate missiles to these forces. One also recalls the Al Qaeda leaders’ visit to US, White house. In the Press meet the then US President Ronald Regan, introduced them as being the equivalents of founding fathers of United States as they are fighting against the evil of communism.

Now of course the situation has taken its own turn and nearly three decades after their inception the same elements, later followed by ISIS and IS acted like Frankenstein’s monsters, killing Muslims in large numbers. It is estimated that over 70000 Pakistanis have been killed due to the action of these groups, who were propped up and nurtured by US to enhance its control over the oil wells of West Asia.

The likes Sudhir Choudhary can merrily propagate the Hate using the term Jihad. That such elements can also be partly controlled through the process of law is a part of great learning after the FIR filed against him. One hopes that such hate filled programs will come to a halt once we combat them ideologically and after resorting to the provisions of Indian Constitution.

Pandemic Paxicide

Dustin Pickering

Globally, three million children a year die of hunger or malnourishment according to theworldcounts.com. The site also notes the number is dropping steadily. In a May 2019 editorial ,Voice of America reports, “Today, some 821 million people suffer chronically from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.”

Why then does the coronavirus, which has claimed more lives in the United States than other countries at 91,163 total deaths, offer cause for a global economic shutdown? Belgium hosts the highest rate of mortality in the world from the virus at 16.4 percent. In the United States, Cook County, Illinois records 61,212 cases of the virus as of May 17 according to John Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center. There are 315,174 total global deaths attributed to COVID-19 so far, with the highest confirmed numbers in the United States. Transmission of the virus, says this Chinese study, is elevated by cooler and less humid climates. This possibly explains why areas such as New England and Chicago are heaviest affected, especially New York City.

This essay does not intend to question the lifestyle of American citizens or the policies of the global leadership. However, it may take that tone but I ask that you dig deeper. I propose a question to the reader: why does a mutation of the COVID bug command so much initiative from us whereas global hunger does not seem too much of a concern? How long before the equitable world we all wish to see appears before us?

Already the Coronavirus lockdown has an economic cost reported at BBC here. We are seeing oil prices in the negative in the USA, stock values declining, looming recessions worldwide, and massive unemployment due to the response. Industry is slowing in China where the virus is said to have originated. All in all, we are seeing global political conflicts ranging from who controls the narrative to what cure will work best while political leaders tell citizens “business as usual”, or in contrast turn to authoritarian measures. Richard Hoftstader writes of the paranoid leader in “The Paranoid Style of American Politics”, “He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated — if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.”

In this work on social psychology, Hoftstader further writes: “It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is on many counts the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him.” Clearly the authoritarian and paranoid styles merge in conspiratorial logic. The Other must face blame, ostracisation, or anything to distract the populace. The paranoid leader in authoritarian style pins the fearful onto the opposition; it is that fear which he or she embodies in this action that makes the leader effective to others.

Authoritarians thrive on fear, hostility, and incomprehensibility so it is no wonder they are cropping up during these emotionally heated times. Regardless of whether or not coronavirus is indeed “a little flu” , Brazil’s president makes himself the central issue. He is the victim of a conspiracy. Even President Trump in the United States practices better diplomacy — he suggests that he has worked with governors in all the states, of both parties, and they are working together. He also notes in an April press conference that the pandemic shows why the United States must be an ‘independent nation’.

In spite of the media’s attempts at Paxicide and character assassination, the Global Happiness Report tells us that in 2020 more than half the world’s citizens are in urban areas and that “Cities are economic powerhouses: more than 80 percent of worldwide GDP is generated within their boundaries. They allow for an efficient division of labour, bringing with them agglomeration and productivity benefits, new ideas and innovations, and hence higher incomes and living standards.”

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx’s praise of the bourgeoisie speaks for itself: “The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.”

What is this pandemic and what is the panic around it? Returning to Hoftstader’s comments on the paranoid style, it seems the establishment has pruned and developed it. As the United States faces the worst unemployment rate in history since the Great Depression, and a study predicts a possible extra 75,000 deaths due to despair from the conditions imposed by the virus, there is no easy way to measure the economic costs of this pandemic.

Even now, Chinese officials say the virus may be changing as new cases show symptoms much later, and take longer to test negative. No one knows what the future harbors. The uncertainty itself is torturous as the Well Being Trust and The Robert Graham Center study relates its reasons for calculating higher numbers of deaths of despair, “unprecedented economic failure paired with massive unemployment, mandated social isolation for months and possible residual isolation for years, and uncertainty caused by the sudden emergence of a novel, previously unknown microbe.”

The human is a social animal. Imposing bizarre restrictions on our social lives seems unnatural, especially under conditions we cannot assess.

There are also socioeconomic factors that are emerging in this crisis. The chart shows that workers with less than high school education are suffering the highest rates of unemployment at 21.2 percent, and education level seems to even further reflect on one’s employment according to the chart. Perhaps it is time for a radical restructuring of the economy and tax policy, which may be possible suggests an article in MIT Technology Review. It’s not quite what you expect, however. For instance the article tells the reader that “The tax policy that the AI Economist came up with is a little unusual. Unlike most existing policies, which are either progressive (that is, higher earners are taxed more) or regressive (higher earners are taxed less), the AI’s policy cobbled together aspects of both, applying the highest tax rates to rich and poor and the lowest to middle-income workers. Like many solutions that AIs come up with—such as some of AlphaZero’s game-winning moves—the result appears counterintuitive and not something that a human might have devised. But its impact on the economy led to a smaller gap between rich and poor.”

Let’s not confuse this with flat rate or regressive tax rates that countries like Estonia or Russia used to build capitalist markets. We have capitalist markets in the United States, and do not need to build them. But will we have markets as rich and sturdy post-COVID? The uncertainty is mind-boggling, and the propaganda regarding the virus is frightening.

Janet Yellen of the Brookings Institute tells CNBC that GDP in the United States may be down 30 percent in the second quarter due to the virus. She said, “This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business as quickly as possible.” This interview took place in April 2020. The first quarter already saw a drop of 4.8 percent according to the BEA.

According to a March 2020 Bloomberg article, China’s GDP is at -20 percent in Q1. The article quotes Michelle Lam, a greater China economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong, “We expect infrastructure stimulus to be much stepped up to support aggregate demand and tax and fee cuts to cushion the COVID-19 shock, especially now external demand will be much dampened by the global pandemic.”

President Trump is also calling on infrastructure development, as reported in this CNBC article. When he first entered office, he wanted a two trillion dollar infrastructure package while interest rates were at zero but the Fed upped the rates.

Perhaps, the pandemic paxicide is also bringing some agreement.

The fact is we will not know what COVID-19’s inception into the world will bring until the future arrives. Have we seen any white horses yet? Or is the garbage mounting in sea? As government spending escalates, I think it is safe to assume we are running a course only our imaginations can dream. Meanwhile, migrant workers in India continue to suffer while people use their plight to further their reputations. In the USA, as mentioned we see a downward spiral in the future of blue-collar workers.

It is time we consider something new. While the entire system collapses, we must rebuild because if the future isn’t certain, one thing is: we must make the future. Possibilities are already emerging for us, such as this initiative in Portland.

“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” wrote Emily Dickinson who also wrote “Will there really be a ‘Morning’?” Perhaps there will be. A more equitable world stands before us if we wish to make it.

Australian governments rush to end lockdowns in line with business demands

Oscar Grenfell

Australia’s federal, state and territory governments are rapidly overturning lockdown measures introduced for the coronavirus pandemic. This is in line with the demands of big business for a “reopening of the economy” aimed at ensuring corporate profit-making activities and stepped-up exploitation of the working class.

Hundreds of thousands of students and teachers are returning to schools, crowded public transport services are operating and millions of workers are being herded back onto the job. In a number of states and territories, large gatherings, which pose a particular risk of mass COVID-19 infections, will resume over coming days.

The campaign is accelerating despite ongoing community transmission of the coronavirus, especially in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. These are the two most populous states and also have had the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Nationally, 7,116 cases and 102 deaths have been reported officially since the crisis began in March. These official figures, which likely understate the true rates, indicate that there are still more than 500 active infections.

The federal Liberal-National Coalition government and state and territory leaders have openly acknowledged that the reopening will result in increased infections, meaning that growing numbers could become seriously-ill and possibly die.

Yesterday, federal health minister Greg Hunt stated that once restrictions were overturned, they were “unlikely” to be reinstated, regardless of the progress of the health crisis. Instead, he declared, authorities would seek to impose “localised rings of containment” in response to “suburban, facility-based, or regional outbreak[s].”

Hunt said the reimposition of lockdowns would be considered only after “systemic, statewide” transmission, i.e., after tens or hundreds of thousands had been exposed to the virus. Governments have previously flagged the possibility of military-enforced shutdowns of suburbs and neighbourhoods where large numbers of infections occur.

In an indication of the immense dangers, Hunt referenced last month’s mass outbreak in northwest Tasmania as an example of the “containment” strategy. More than 100 people were infected within days, before 1,000 health workers were placed in isolation and two hospitals were closed in an operation involving military personnel.

Demands for the full resumption of face-to-face teaching in the schools have spearheaded the back-to-work campaign. Government ministers, Labor and Liberal alike, have acknowledged that the return of classroom teaching is aimed at creating the conditions for parents to go back into their places of employment.

Public schools were fully reopened yesterday by the state Liberal government in NSW and the Labor administration in Queensland. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian dispensed with a previous plan for a “staged return” without even a pretence of consultation with teachers or parents.

Labor governments in the Northern Territory and Western Australia had already overseen the resumption of most classes. In Victoria, Labor Premier Daniel Andrews ordered a return to classrooms of years 1, 2, 11 and 12 from today, to be followed by the remaining students on June 9.

The risks were underscored this morning, when parents at Sydney’s Waverley College received a text message instructing them to immediately pick their children up from school after a year seven student had tested positive and the campus had been “evacuated.” Then, this afternoon, a primary school student at nearby Moriah College was also confirmed as having the virus, prompting that school to shut. Last week, a private school student also tested positive.

The cases further expose the claims of the authorities that students are unlikely to contract and transmit COVID-19. These politically-motivated assertions have relied on cherry-picked “evidence,” which has not been peer-reviewed.

They have ignored studies in France and Germany, indicating that school pupils are as likely to be inflicted with the virus as any other cohort, and have made virtually no reference to the emergence internationally of a new illness among school-aged children linked to COVID-19, with symptoms similar to Kawasaki Disease.

The hasty return to the schools has provoked widespread opposition. Last week, Ash Parmar, a worker in the Sydney suburb of Toongabbie, initiated an online petition, demanding that parents be permitted to decide whether or not to send their children to school. In the space of several days, it has received over 8,000 signatures.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Parmar branded the reopening as a “bullying act to get everybody in,” adding: “Just to open up schools for political mileage or different pressures other than health, I don’t think that I want to make my kids guinea pigs to that kind of behaviour from the government.”

Teachers have taken to social media denouncing the endangerment of their health and safety, pointing to the impossibility of social distancing in schools and exposing the failure of the authorities to provide them with protective and hygiene equipment. Many have condemned the education trade unions, which have either actively promoted the resumption of face-to-face teaching or prevented any struggle against it.

Governments have claimed that schools and workplaces where infections occur will receive “deep cleaning.” Experts, however, have described the concept as “totally made up.” A recent national survey of cleaners by the United Workers Union found that nine in ten were compelled to rush essential jobs, while eight in ten lacked adequate equipment, including appropriate disinfectant.

One anonymous cleaner who works at schools in Melbourne told the New Daily: “We don’t have enough equipment like proper cloths, and dusters, things like that... We don’t have enough to make sure it’s safe.” The cleaner said they often ran out of disinfectant and had been provided with only “one box of gloves to share between four cleaners” and “the supervisor said to try to wear only one glove.”

The comments highlight the dangers facing the millions of workers who will be compelled to return to their places of employment over the coming weeks. Already, hundreds of thousands of workers in manufacturing and construction have been forced by the trade unions and employers to remain on the job throughout the pandemic.

The risks will be compounded by the reopening of bars and restaurants. From June 1, a raft of restrictions will be lifted on the hospitality sector, along with competitive sports and other large gatherings. In South Australia, for instance, pubs, gyms, cinemas, places of worship, beauty salons and other sites will be allowed to accommodate 80 people at any given time, rendering contact tracing almost impossible if infections occur.

The back-to-work campaign shows that the same criminal indifference to the plight of ordinary people, demonstrated throughout the pandemic in the US and internationally, dominates in the Australian ruling elite and the political establishment that represents it.

As in every other country, the crisis response by Australian governments has been aimed solely at ensuring the fortunes of the corporate and financial elite. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been handed to the largest businesses, while only a pittance of official relief has been provided to the millions of workers who have been thrown out of their jobs or whose earnings have been slashed, since March.

Today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered an address to the National Press Club, outlining the economic “road out of the crisis.” He signaled sweeping cuts to public spending and a further pro-business overhaul of industrial relations, to be enforced by the unions. This is aimed at returning workers to conditions not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Israel’s new government plans war on Palestinians and working class

Jean Shaoul

The new National Emergency Government, headed by an indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his deputy Benny Gantz, has taken office amid a political crisis unprecedented in the country’s 72-year history.

The new government was formed after 18 months of political stalemate and three inconclusive elections. Following weeks of wrangling, Netanyahu reached a deal with his main rival, the former army chief Gantz, who as leader of the opposition Blue and White party had pledged never to serve under Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases began on Sunday. He has accused police and prosecutors of inventing “baseless cases” against him, saying probes “were corrupted and fabricated from the start” and part of a left-wing plot to unseat him. The whipping up of his fascistic supporters against the judiciary is reminiscent of incitement against the “treachery” of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for signing and implementing the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians that led to his assassination in 1995.

Gantz’s U-turn has shored up Netanyahu’s position and led to the disintegration of his own party, leaving him with just 15 members, less than half the original list.

Netanyahu has pledged to “restore the economy”—by which he means shore up the position of Israel’s financial and corporate oligarchy—and to annex Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

He said his priority was ending the economic crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. He had already eased lockdown restrictions, ordered businesses and schools to reopen and allowed houses of worship to reopen for prayers, even as new cases bring the total number in Israel to nearly 17,000 and deaths to 280. This week, restaurants, bars, clubs, swimming pools and hotels will open, which will lead to a resurgence of the virus.

In the Palestinian Territories, for which Israel is responsible under international law, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 554 in the West Bank/East Jerusalem and 55 in Gaza, while there have been 55 deaths in the West Bank/East Jerusalem and one death in Gaza, a woman who had recently returned from Egypt where the disease is raging.

With totally inadequate healthcare facilities due to Israel’s occupation, its punitive and repeated withholding of taxation and utility revenues to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the 13-year long blockade of Gaza, the lockdown has taken a heavy toll on people’s livelihoods and brought many families to the brink of starvation.

More than a million Israelis—26 percent of the workforce compared to just over 3 percent in February—have lost their jobs, thanks to Netanyahu’s decision to protect employers by granting then low interest loans while allowing workers to be laid off with only unemployment benefits. This has discriminated against Israel’s Arab citizens whose municipalities are less well funded than Jewish municipalities.

It is expected that at least 30 percent of those laid off will not be rehired even as the designated period—50 days—for unemployment benefits comes to an end. Many businesses are not expected to reopen. A further 500,000 self-employed and gig economy workers, who are not included in the unemployment statistics, are drowning in debt, while asylum seekers and foreign workers are ineligible for government support.

Even before the pandemic, one in three children were living in poverty, with workers foregoing buying medicine to pay their water and electricity bills, tens of thousands of families were facing food insecurity and thousands waiting for public housing. Now even that seems a distant dream as the ending of welfare benefits affects the most vulnerable, including people with disabilities who have seen their income vanish after the factories employing them shut down.

The new budget is expected to increase taxes and slash services in a bid to recoup the billions of dollars made available to the financial elite.

According to the coalition deal, Netanyahu will retain the premiership for 18 months as he seeks to stall the prosecution’s case with endless legal challenges, before handing over to Gantz. The government cannot pass legislation on other major issues until after the end of the pandemic and these will be subject to Gantz’s approval. The government includes a record number of ministers as a sop to Netanyahu’s fascistic and ultra-orthodox support base.

Crucially, Gantz agreed—with no right of veto—to moves to annex parts of the West Bank in July, after the Trump administration gave Israel the green light under its “deal of the century.” While the exact scope of the annexation is unclear, it is expected to include the settlements blocs, all or part of Area C in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military control, and the Jordan valley.

The annexation, which has popular support within the Republican evangelical constituency, takes on a greater urgency in the light of the US presidential elections in November and Washington’s belligerence against Iran as part of its broader campaign to reduce Chinese influence in the region. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf petro-monarchies, plays a key role as Washington’s attack dog and local proxy.

Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential candidate, has nominally opposed Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territories, saying it would “choke off any hope of peace,” but renewed his pledge to unconditionally continue US military aid to Israel if elected president.

Netanyahu emphasised the importance of achieving sovereignty for biblical sites such as “Shilo, Bethel, Hebron” and others, saying, “This is a historical mission which will be achieved together.”

It will lead to a tsunami of dispossessions and expulsions as Palestinian land is expropriated to make way for new or expanded settlements, with Palestinians transferred to the nearest big city, as happened with the Bedouins in the Negev and East Jerusalemites who found themselves in areas cut off from the rest of the city.

Leading the drive for annexation have been fascistic settlers who, notwithstanding Israel’s social-distancing measures and lockdown, have ramped up their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank to drive them off their land. They have used clubs, axes, electroshock weapons, stones, and assault dogs, in some cases causing severe injury, as soldiers have looked on. They have attacked homes, torched cars, vandalized and uprooted olive trees and other crops, and stolen livestock.

According to the human rights group B’Tselem, Israeli security forces raided 100 homes in the West Bank and arrested 217 Palestinians, 16 of them minors, between March 1 and April 3. It documented night raids on 12 homes, of which 8 belonged to members of one extended family.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers continued to work in Israel and the settlements. Some of the country’s least protected workers, they were not allowed to commute across the border, but had to agree to remain in Israel so as not to spread the disease. At the mercy of their employers, some have had to sleep in construction sites in atrocious conditions. Those who returned home received no compensation and many lost their jobs.

In one of his last acts before quitting Netanyahu’s coalition to sit with the Opposition, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett approved a settlement project in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, one of several around the Ibrahimi Mosque, that will involve the seizure of Palestinian land.

Annexation will involve military force, under conditions where the Palestinians in the occupied territories and Israel now number approximately the same as Jewish Israelis.

An open-source document published by the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) in Herzliya states that annexation would destabilise the eastern border of Israel, which is “characterised by great stability, a quiet and a very low level of terror,” cause a “deep jolt” to Israeli-Jordanian relations and lead to the “gradual disintegration” of the Palestinian Authority, which acts as Israel’s local police force, and another Palestinian uprising.

Reopened schools close across France as coronavirus found among students and staff

Will Morrow

Two weeks after the reopening of schools and ending of lock-down restrictions came into force in France on May 11, schools are being forced to close again after students and teachers have tested positive for coronavirus.

The closure of schools only underscores the criminal indifference and recklessness of the reopening policy pursued by the Macron administration with the backing of the trade unions and the political establishment, in line with other governments across Europe and America.

There is no official record provided on the number of French schools that have closed since they reopened on May 11. On May 18, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer admitted that 70 schools had either closed or postponed reopenings after a student or staff member tested positive. As symptoms most commonly do not appear until several days after a patient becomes contagious, an untold number of other staff and students were placed at risk of infection as a consequence.

After admitting to the large number of schools that had closed, Blanquer blithely declared that this was “inevitable,” and that “the fact that a school has had to close should not be a concern,” since the first cases in the wake of the reopening would have to have been contracted prior to the reopening of schools. However, this only makes clear the danger that the schools will become a major propagator of the virus as the impact of ending lockdowns on the spread of the virus begins to be felt.

After elementary schools and kindergartens had reopened on May 11, secondary schools opened for students in years 7 and 8 on May 18, and the two higher-year levels will return at the beginning of June. Since Blanquer’s statements, there have been no further statistics provided by the government, but limited news reports in the week since indicate that many more schools have been forced to close, including three secondary schools in their first week back.

On Sunday the François-Mitterand secondary college in Fenouillet, near Toulouse, announced on its website that it would close until June 2 to allow for a cleaning of the premises after a staff member tested positive. Health authorities are conducting tests on their contacts.

In the central city of Tours, the Jean-Philippe Rameau secondary school close after a student in the seventh grade tested positive. The school’s announcement stated, “After an investigation by the Regional Health Service and the school medical staff and while waiting for the outcome of tests of teaching staff, school management…and students who were alongside the student who tested positive, the department council and the academic directors in l’Indre-et-Loire are taking the decision to close the school.” The closure is effective from May 25 to June 1.

Last week, in the same city, a primary school had been closed after a student in grade 5 tested positive, after having shared a classroom with four other students and a teacher on May 14 and 15. All classes at the school have been stopped while the building is being disinfected.

There is no national government policy requiring the closure of schools when a case is detected; the decision is left to local authorities. In some cases they have closed schools, but in others they have only asked students from the class of the infected student to remain at home.

Last Wednesday, May 20, an administrative staff member at the Simone-Veil secondary school in Sablé-sur-Sarthe tested positive for the coronavirus. They had been involved in the preparations for the May 18 reopening of the school along with other teachers. The school was not closed, however, with the under-prefect for La Flêche Jean-Michel Delvert declaring that since “Sablé is not a cluster, the school will not be closed.” Another staff member who worked in the building with staff and students on May 15, 18 and 19 has since been tested positive.

Secondary schools that opened on May 18 can have up to 15 students with a teacher in a single classroom, making it impossible to maintain adequate social distancing. Teachers have also published posts on Facebook groups protesting the lack of protective equipment for themselves and their students.

One secondary school teacher wrote on Facebook yesterday, “I saw the opening of secondary classes: A non-certified tissue mask for half the day, an optional mask for students, up to 15 students per classroom with the teacher for hours.”

The teacher continued, “I’ve seen the health conditions in stores this weekend. Serious masks for the sellers, plexiglass walls at the counters, disinfecting everything, wet wipes, antibacterial gel available at the entrances, and no more than two or three customers per store, with masks sometimes required. The employees nonetheless seem nervous. I just saw the reopening of classes in junior high. A non-certified tissue mask for half the day, an optional mask for students, up to 15 per classroom with the teacher for hours, no cleaning wipes but a cloth and cleaning product, not disinfectant, to be used without gloves. It seems on the news that the teachers are anxious. The only compensation for the lack of plexiglass protection is the wall of contempt for their conditions by the minister, echoed by all the media.”

The Macron administration has made no attempt to square the fact that students in classrooms are contracting the virus with the government’s claims, used to call for reopening schools, that young people do not transmit the disease. That is because its policies are not based on a scientific programme to combat the virus but are dictated by the drive of the corporate and financial elite to force the population back into their workplaces so that the flow of corporate profits can be resumed. Children are sent into classrooms so their parents can be freed to work. The loss of additional thousands of lives is for the government not a matter of significant concern.

The government is depending entirely on the support of the national trade union federations to suppress massive opposition among teachers to the compulsory reopening of schools. While polls consistently showed more than two-thirds of teachers opposing the reopening, unions have refused to call any strike action to reject the reopening drive. Instead they worked to isolate teachers, insisting only on teachers’ individual right to withdraw their labour if they are personally forced to work in unsafe conditions.

UK: Johnson government opposes pay increase for nurses

Rory Woods

Every Thursday, millions of people have participated in the Clap for Carers in support of health workers, with the overwhelming majority insisting that National Health Serice (NHS) workers be given a substantial pay rise.

Boris Johnson and other members of the Tory government outside flapping their arms and hailing nurses and doctors as “heroes” have made clear they are bitterly opposed to any pay rise whatsoever.

On May, 18 Health Secretary Matt Hancock was asked by a member of the pubic if the government would sanction a nurses’ pay rise amid rumours of a public sector pay freeze. He replied by claiming that nurses have already had a “very significant pay rise.”

He was referring to the meagre 6.5 percent over three years awarded to health care workers in mid-2018. This was a de facto pay cut. Over the preceding eight years, nurses and the other health care workers had seen their pay slashed by nearly 15 percent through inflation and the one percent pay freezes imposed under Conservative austerity. This was carried out with the tacit support of the trade unions.

Hancock claimed, “We put up nurses’ pay last month, and in fact last year we had the fastest rise, the biggest rise in pay—especially for nurses who are starting their career and the lowest paid nurses, who got a very significant pay rise of over 15 percent.

“So there has been a significant pay rise for nurses,” he said, adding another falsehood to his non-stop lies about there being “adequate PPE for frontline staff” and the government providing adequate levels of COVID-19 testing for NHS staff.

Hancock’s claim adds insult to injury to nurses who are facing a life and death struggle to deliver care to patients, including those infected with COVID-19. Such are the dangers facing workers that a Royal College of Nursing (RCN) survey found that more than a third of nursing staff (34 percent) “say they’re still under pressure to care for patients with possible or confirmed COVID-19 without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).”

The situation is about to get much worse thanks to the ending of the lockdown. Yesterday, Weston General Hospital in Somerset stopped admitting new patients and shut its A&E department after a “spike” in COVID-19 infections. The Weston-Super-Mare facility is carrying out a deep clean.

The government’s criminal indifference to protecting frontline staff had resulted by last week in a death toll of 312 health and social care workers—among the highest number of fatalities of health workers globally. Almost one-third (33 percent) of the nursing and midwifery workforce has reported severe or extremely severe depression, anxiety, or stress.

The NHS was left entirely unprepared to face the pandemic, not only due to the government’s murderous policy of herd immunity but because it had been brought to the point of collapse by years of underfunding and privatization. The NHS has 30,000 fewer beds than 10 years ago and has more than 110,000 unfilled vacancies of staff, including 40,000 nurses.

Hancock’s remarks on nurses’ pay provoked anger among nurses and other health professionals. When Nursing Notes reported his remarks on Facebook, hundreds responded.

A nurse, Stephanie-Faith Bates, wrote, “If we survive the virus, why should we have to wait [for a pay increase] when we are putting ours and our families’ lives at risk daily just by going to work… Do not defend a government who has contributed to the killing of over 200 of our brothers and sisters and then had the cheek to threaten us with a 2 year pay freeze mid pandemic. Totally indefensible.”

Another nurse, Karen Wright, commented, “I certainly have not had a 15% payrise... ever!! Not a scrap near it… but would settle for £10,000 one off [payment] like the MPs though! I bet they don’t worry about going to work and being directly involved with the Coronavirus and maybe taking it home to their family.”

Sarah Hermione Tyrer commented, “The banks, and their business pals have been handed BILLIONS for nothing… So you know, poor people have to wait and hope. They’ve just said there won’t be a pay rise.”

A health care assistant, Jason Wright, wrote, “That’s easy to say for an MP who’s had an above inflation pay rise. I’d be happy with a job that pays 79k + a year too thank you, ohh and not forgetting expenses. I’ve proudly worked in the NHS for 21 years as a HCA earning less than 20k a year. I’m poorer now than I was 20 years ago due to pay freezes and inflation increase in the cost of living!!!”

Eve Crocker wrote, “Lie after lie after lie. The NHS and care sector have saved thousands of lives in these last few months and the Tories want to kick them in the teeth. Why? Because they hoped for even more deaths of the old and sick infirm.”

To save face, the RCN, with a long record of selling out its 430,000 members, sent an email stating that “The majority of nursing staff will not recognise the 15% figure quoted by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Care.”

Its only response, however, was to explain, “Your Council and Executive Team are working together to write to the Prime Minister and UK Secretary to clarify these inaccuracies.”

Nurses were not fooled and many also denounced the RCN. Along with other health unions, the RCN played a crucial role in selling the rotten 2018 pay deal—now hailed by Hancock—to their members. The RCN proclaimed it “the best deal in eight years” and said that “it will amount to an increase of at least 6.5% over three years, but much more for some members, up to 29%.”

When the pay deal was revealed as a total deception, members rebelled and the RCN council had to step down following a no confidence motion by the membership in September 2018.

In response to the RCN, Marie Winterton wrote, “We got 0.5% because the RCN f***** it up. I got 18p extra in a month’s pay, is that significant enough for [Hancock]?”

Gary Beecheno wrote, “Condemnation from the RCN is a bit like a kiss from a great aunt… Unpleasant but not going to kill you… It’s been seen too often to take the side of government over the needs of its members.”

Louise Neesham commented, “er... didn’t the RCN advise that we all accept the latest pay deal saying it was ‘the best we were going to get’. This letter is 3 years too late!!”

Jacqueline Smith wrote, “The RCN condemned the statement? The RCN couldn’t work out what the rise was and advised people to vote for it!!!”

Mandy Bostwick wrote, “Bit delayed RCN!!! I always find they are lack lustre in representing us at best of times.”

Gary Evans commented, “So what are you going to do about it. Flag waving. Strikes in break periods the usual crap I fear.”

Romanian harvest workers in Germany strike for promised wages

Marianne Arens

About 180 harvest workers at an asparagus farm near Bonn went on strike last Friday to demand the wages promised to them. Their protests and a demonstration on May 18 shed further light on the unspeakable working conditions facing eastern European seasonal workers.

The workers, who arrived from Romania at the beginning of April, had been promised they could earn €1,500 to €2,000 per month for three months while harvesting asparagus. However, the asparagus farm, belonging to Claus and Sabine Ritter in Bornheim near Bonn, was already insolvent in March. The insolvency administrator, who has been running the business ever since, hired them nonetheless.

The administrator, attorney Andreas Schulte-Beckhausen, presented a report on the insolvency to the creditors’ meeting quoted from by the General-Anzeiger. According to this, the company had generated millions in income two years ago but has been in debt ever since. This was because of high irrigation costs in the last two years due to heat waves; in addition, the Ritter Spargel company had invested €1 million in the construction of a huge asparagus restaurant. The report says, “The shareholders [i.e., Claus and Sabine Ritter] may have taken the profits and invested them outside the agricultural sector.”

To maximise the bankruptcy assets, the insolvency administrator apparently decided to follow the profit model to the extreme, based on the exploitation of cheap seasonal labour. With the active support of Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), he succeeded in having the low-wage workers from Romania flown in despite the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, savings were made in their working conditions and accommodation wherever possible.

This meant the workers encountered conditions that defy description. Although they faced deductions of more than €400 a month for food and accommodation (€13.50 per day), they were accommodated in a remote container village on a completely filthy site, far from any civilisation, in the vicinity of a sewage plant and a railway line. The sparse food supplied by a caterer was said to have been bad, often cold and sometimes mouldy.

Although the lockdown had dominated everyday life in Germany for two weeks, they were forced to live in circumstances that meant they could neither adhere to the social distancing rules nor observe a minimum of hygiene. The workers slept four to a room and had to use dilapidated, dirty communal toilets and washrooms, without a supply of soap and shower gel, not to mention disinfectant. As for masks, they were given them only once, by a bus driver who took them to the fields.

Two weeks ago, the management suddenly decided to stop harvesting asparagus because restaurants had closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. On May 14, the workers were told, “In a week, this will be over, then you will all have to leave.” The harvesters were paid miserable sums of money for five to six weeks of hard work. At the same time, they were told that they would have to vacate their accommodation in a week.

In a promotional video from March, still circulating on the Internet, insolvency administrator Schulte-Beckhausen advertises hourly wages of €10 to attract harvest workers. In reality, the workers received only a few hundred euros in total. One Romanian worker told a newspaper he received just €500 for 500 hours’ work.

The workers had not received their full wages, nor had they been given proper, timely notice or any prospects of being able to return to Romania under conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. In this situation, the asparagus cutters decided not to work another hour until they received their full pay.

On Friday, May 15, some 180 workers refused to board the buses that would take them back to the field to work. Instead, they all stayed together and made their wage demands clear on hand-painted cardboard signs. The plant manager alerted the police, who arrived with 20 officers.

As a result, the conflict, which had previously developed out of sight, was reported in the press and attracted attention. A group of the FAU Bonn, which calls itself an anarcho-syndicalist union, and the initiative “Aktion gegen Arbeitsunrecht e.V.” (“Action against Labour Injustice”) spread news of the strike on the Internet. The mainstream unions had ignored the fate of the harvest workers.

Over the weekend, the workers received solidarity visits from Bonn and Cologne, and a protest demonstration was announced for Monday, in which at least another 150 supporters, including from the Ruhr area, participated.

The protest, with “Solidarity” signs and posters saying “Germany, you lousy piece of asparagus,” marched through Bonn in front of the office of the insolvency administrator Schulte-Beckhausen. The march then went to the Romanian consulate, where some of the demonstrators were able to speak with the Romanian minister for labour and social affairs, Victoria Violeta Alexandru. The minister promised to visit the workers the next day.

She had just been on a state visit to Germany to negotiate a new model of the infamous work contracts for Romanian seasonal workers with federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (Social Democratic Party, SPD). These lucrative but murderous contracts have met with massive criticism, especially in connection with the spread of coronavirus at German slaughterhouses.

When the strike attracted public attention and numerous visitors from trade union circles, the media and the local Left Party, a cleaning crew suddenly appeared to clean the washrooms in the accommodation. Debris and rubbish were removed from the premises by an excavator. Suddenly there were also sufficient quantities of face masks.

Most importantly, their wages were paid out. However, this was done in a manner reminiscent of the Wild West, with the workers sent in small groups to distant parking lots and fields to receive their pay envelopes.

Stefan Hübner, a labour lawyer, insisted on being present for the payments. He stated that the workers were presented with receipts, which, if signed, would have meant that they would have waived all further claims, and finally managed to get the workers to refuse to accept these illegal waivers.

As Hübner explained at an impromptu press conference on Friday, the vast majority of workers have received only a fraction of the wages to which they are entitled. The insolvency administrator, on the other hand, told the media that everything had been paid off.

While the protests continued and the media attention was still focused on the farm, the workers were promised, and in some cases given, paid return travel home or placement in other harvesting operations, depending on their wishes. Thus, at the end of last week, only about three dozen workers remained in the container village.

The spontaneous strike by the asparagus cutters made two things clear. Firstly, it highlights the inhuman way in which the German bourgeoisie and government treat seasonal workers from other countries. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed hundreds of such cases over the past few weeks. In slaughterhouses, at parcel depots, on construction sites, in truck factories and elsewhere, the health and lives of migrant labourers are being put at risk. Hundreds have already been infected with COVID-19. On April 10, Romanian harvest worker Nicolae Bahan died of COVID-19 in Bad Krozingen. Big business and the political establishment are walking over dead bodies.

Secondly, the industrial action at the asparagus farm is part of a worldwide development that is constantly bringing new layers of workers into struggle. During the pandemic, spontaneous strikes and protests for the right of workers to protect themselves against the virus have already taken place in Italy, France, the United States, Brazil and many other countries.

To change the situation, the working class needs a perspective and a socialist party. To this end, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has published the statement: “Prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives! Build action committees in all factories!”

It says: “The pandemic exposes the urgent necessity for a complete restructuring of the processes of production, distribution and economic activity in general. The lives of working people and their families must not be sacrificed in the interests of corporate profits and the private wealth of billionaire oligarchs.”