Dozens feared dead in mine collapse as pandemic-fueled social catastrophe wracks Zimbabwe

Eddie Haywood

Thirty informal miners were trapped after the November 25 collapse of the abandoned Ran gold mine in Bindura, some 70 km (43 miles) north of capital city Harare. Six were rescued alive a few hours after the collapse. Simultaneous with the collapse, ground water and mud flooded the shaft, brought by heavy rains the previous day that caused a mudslide.

Rescue efforts were suspended the next day after a generator failed to operate while pumping out water from the flooded 100-meter shaft. By the following day, another generator was located and brought to the site allowing for the effort to resume.

Exterior of the collapsed mine (Twitter/@OFMNews9497)

Christine Munyoro, a spokeswoman with the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF), an advocacy group of small-scale miners, told the Guardian, “On Thursday the rescue team tried to pump out the water but the generator failed. They started again today. The hardest thing is that the shaft is 100 metres deep. We also do not know what level they are at. They may be trapped in the mud.”

Government officials told the media that the mine had collapsed due to “blasting,” a method in which miners utilize dynamite to expose gold veins. In the Ran mine, officials declared that blasting had damaged several support pillars and facilitated the collapse.

The Ran mine tragedy follows a string of collapses of abandoned mines around the country, and comes only days after 10 informal miners were buried alive in the Premier Estates mine in eastern Zimbabwe, and early November’s Matshetshe mine collapse in Esigodini, a town in southern Zimbabwe, which buried six miners.

Last year, 24 informal miners were killed at the abandoned Silver Moon and Cricket Mines in Kadoma, after severe rains caused the collapse of a dam wall nearby, resulting in massive flooding of the two gold mines.

The decommissioning of mines due to a lack of continuing profitability for Zimbabwe’s mining sector has led to the proliferation of abandoned mines around the country, in which common people, facing chronic joblessness, take up work mining these abandoned shafts, often selling what little gold they find for paltry sums.

Zimbabwe is home to rich deposits of gold, copper, and nickel, and miners employed in the country’s mining industry labor under extremely dangerous conditions for very low wages. The mining companies frequently bypass safety measures and forgo procuring proper protective equipment, risking miners’ health and lives in pursuit of profits.

In recent years, informal mining has attracted younger workers who need money while attending school. These youths are often exploited by buyers who often under-weigh the contents these youths bring for sale.

The tragedies of mine collapses take place amid an acute social catastrophe experienced by Zimbabweans, conditions that have worsened amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, there have been 9,822 confirmed COVID-19 infections in Zimbabwe, a country with a population of just under 15 million, since the pandemic began in March. As of November 29, 275 have died, a toll expected to rise in the coming weeks.

The intolerably desperate conditions facing the Zimbabwean masses, already present before pandemic, have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the response of the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In seeking to control the virus’s spread last March, Mnangagwa imposed a lockdown without the accompaniment of funding for the population to weather the shutdown, leaving many Zimbabweans completely destitute.

The callous response of the ruling class to the deadly pandemic—which has led to skyrocketing unemployment, accompanied by shortages of medicine and food—is nothing short of a social crime.

As a measure of the desperate situation experienced by jobless workers since the onset of the pandemic, there has been an increase of jobless women drawn into sex work in the larger cities around the country, along with many teen-aged girls entering the trade.

Speaking to Reuters on the conditions that led her to become a sex worker, a young woman related her experience of losing her job in March as a waitress in Mutare, a city in eastern Zimbabwe on the border with Mozambique.

“Life was better until the advent of this coronavirus. Our business came to a standstill due to lockdown...unfortunately I was one of the people who were retrenched. … I have two children. I could not watch them going to bed without eating anything.”

As part of the lockdown, accompanied by a strict curfew, the government also closed the borders of the country, which cut off the incomes of 1 million cross-border traders, a significant part of Zimbabwe’s economy, which left a devastating impact on small shops, which have been permanently shuttered.

Hazel Zemura, a former sex worker employed by Women Against All Forms of Discrimination, which provides medical services for sex workers, told Reuters, “As our incomes, like the cross border trading—the importation of weaves and makeup kits from China for resale—got eroded during the lockdown, we had to turn to men for survival.”

Zimbabwe, a country of abundant economic resources, including vast mineral deposits in addition to gold, platinum and diamonds, is one of the most socially unequal on earth. The claim by the Mnangagwa government that there is no money to vastly improve the country’s infrastructure, health care, education, or employment is a lie.

According to figures gathered by the World Inequality Database, the top 10 percent of Zimbabweans possess over half the nation’s wealth, with the bottom 50 percent holding just 12 percent. In a country that produces $28 billion in GDP, 70 percent of the population lives in poverty.

The Mnangagwa government’s refusal to provide any financial relief for the population during the pandemic follows the criminal policy adhered to by the ruling elites around the world, in which the health and lives of workers are sacrificed on behalf of the profit considerations of the wealthy aristocracy.

War tensions mount in wake of Israeli assassination of top Iranian scientist

Bill Van Auken

Iran’s top nuclear physicist Dr. Moshen Fakhrizadeh was buried on Monday, three days after his assassination, carried out by Israel with the support of Washington.

This criminal act of state terrorism has sharply escalated tensions in the region, which was precisely the aim of the killing. US President Donald Trump is still seeking to overturn the results of the US election, with roughly 50 days remaining until inauguration day. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces the probable dissolution of the Knesset this week and new elections under conditions in which he has been indicted on corruption charges. Both see a new war in the Middle East as a means of advancing their respective domestic political interests.

Scene of the assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh [Credit: Fars News Agency via AP]

The Pentagon has steadily built up US offensive forces in the region, dispatching both an F-16 squadron from Germany and B-52 strategic bombers from the US. The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group has been ordered into the Persian Gulf.

For its part, Israel is continuing its provocative attacks on Iranian-connected targets inside Syria. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi visited Israeli units on the border between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria over the weekend, telling them: “Our message is clear. We will continue to operate forcefully as needed against the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and we will remain on high alert for any belligerence against us.”

While neither Washington nor Tel Aviv have formally claimed responsibility for the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, the authorship of this crime is hardly in doubt.

The New York Times and other media have quoted multiple US and Israeli intelligence officials confirming that the killing was the work of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, which was responsible for similar state terrorist killings of five Iranian scientists between 2010 and 2012.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Times, an Israeli intelligence official involved in preparing the assassination declared that “the world should thank Israel” for murdering the scientist, on the grounds that his knowledge posed a threat.

The Israeli government has charged that Fakhrizadeh led a study on the feasibility of Iran building a nuclear weapon. Both the United Nations atomic inspection agency and US intelligence concluded that the alleged program was wound up in 2003. Tehran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms, insisting that its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen claimed in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio that he did not know who was responsible for the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, but went on to denounce those European governments that condemned it for “burying their heads in the sand.” He added: “His removal from the world contributed to the Middle East and the whole world. Anyone who takes an active part in creating a nuclear weapon is a dead man walking.”

The most grotesque acknowledgment of Israeli responsibility came from the right-wing Jerusalem Post, which reflects the politics of Netanyahu. It compared the assassination to the 1985 mafia killing of New York crime boss Paul Castellano, declaring that it showed “the power of those responsible” and that “any Iranian linked to the nuclear program can be found and killed.” One could ask for no clearer recognition of the criminal character of the Zionist state.

The assassination came barely a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s talks in Israel with the Netanyahu government and a subsequent unannounced trip with Netanyahu to the Red Sea city of Neom for consultations with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The focus of Pompeo’s tour, conducted in what is ostensibly the “lame duck” period between the US election and the inauguration, was to solidify the anti-Iranian axis between Washington, Tel Aviv and the reactionary Sunni oil monarchies led by the House of Saud. It is inconceivable that the impending assassination of Fakhrizadeh was not discussed and approved in the course of these talks.

The act of state terrorism also follows the revelation that Trump met with his national security cabinet on Nov. 12 to propose a strike on the main Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz, using as a pretext Iran’s increased stockpile of low-enriched uranium, which is neither a violation of any international law nor evidence that it is pursuing a bomb. While the US president’s senior advisors reportedly talked him out of launching such an infamous war crime, it is evident that his administration is continuing to seek a provocation justifying war.

The assassination, in addition to provoking angry spontaneous demonstrations in a number of cities, has also exposed political divisions within the country’s bourgeois-theocratic ruling establishment. President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif have urged restraint, essentially adopting a “wait for Biden” approach, with the hope that an incoming Democratic administration will rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement unilaterally abrogated by Trump two years ago and lift the devastating economic sanctions imposed under Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign for regime change.

Biden, significantly, has made no criticism of the state assassination of the Iranian scientist. He has also indicated that he would condition rejoining the nuclear agreement on extracting further concessions from Iran, including on its missile production. Iranian officials have stated that they may make their own demands, including for compensation for the devastating effects of the illegal US sanctions regime.

Other sections of the Iranian state have called for swift retaliatory actions. The Parliament voted for a resolution to withdraw from the part of the nuclear accord allowing UN inspectors from the IAEA access to Iran’s nuclear sites. The daily Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is named by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Sunday for Iran to retaliate for the assassination with an attack on the Israeli port city of Haifa. With presidential elections set for next year, these divisions will likely deepen.

Also on Monday, Iranian officials and media provided a new version of the Fakhrizadeh assassination, asserting that he had been killed by a new Israeli weapons system, a remote-control machine gun directed from a satellite, with no assassins physically at the scene where his car was attacked.

Earlier, state media had reported that Fakhrizadeh’s vehicle had been stopped by an explosion of a bomb set off in a parked truck carrying lumber and then set upon by 12 waiting assassins firing automatic weapons, one of whom dragged the scientist from his car and delivered a coup de grâce to ensure that he was dead.

No explanation has been provided for the change in the account of the killing. Clearly the assassination of Iran’s top scientist, who had been publicly targeted by Netanyahu two years ago, represented a serious security failure. If the first version of the assassination was true, the story of the remote-control machine gun could be an attempt to deflect criticism of this failure and explain away the fact that none of the attackers have been captured.

Under conditions in which there is mounting anger over increasingly desperate social conditions created by the US sanctions regime and the state’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a new round of strikes and protests developing, the government cannot afford to appear weak.

The danger that the Trump administration will exploit the assassination or even further provocations to launch a new war in the Middle East was raised by two former chief officials of the US military-security apparatus.

Appearing on the NBC News program Meet the Press on Sunday, Former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullens (retired) pointed to the recent purge of top civilian officials at the Pentagon and their replacement with Trump loyalists and extreme right-wing anti-Iranian ideologues.

He said that “it’s pretty difficult to think that over the course of 50 or 60 days you can do something constructive, but you can do something that’s really destructive. And a week ago there were certain—many—media reports that there was a debate about action against Iran specifically. The president reportedly [was] turned down. But I would be concerned that those issues continue to be raised.”

For his part, ex-CIA director John Brennan, who had described the Fakhrizadeh assassination as an “act of state-sponsored terrorism,” expressed similar concerns in an NBC interview on Monday. Referring to the shakeup at the Pentagon, Brennan said: “We all should be concerned about it … Over the next number of weeks that Trump remains in the White House, I don’t know what he might have planned for using the military either on the domestic front or on the international arena.”

Brennan did not spell out what he meant by using the military “on the domestic front.” However, Trump’s firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and his replacement with an ex-Special Forces colonel, Christopher Miller, stemmed in large part from the US president’s anger over Esper’s failure to support Trump’s call last June for invoking the Insurrection Act and deploying regular US Army troops on the streets throughout the country to suppress anti-police violence demonstrations.

The threat that Trump may exploit a provoked military conflict with Iran as the justification for carrying through such plans for martial law and the nullification of the US elections continues. Meanwhile, the driving forces for war and dictatorship, which lie in the insoluble crisis of US and world capitalism, will only intensify, no matter who occupies the White House after Jan. 20.

Evictions caused nearly 11,000 excess COVID-19 deaths in six months in the US

Jacob Crosse

Researchers from major universities in the US have determined that the lifting of state and local eviction moratoriums earlier this year contributed to an increase in COVID-19 incidence and mortality throughout the country, leading to 433,700 excess infections and an estimated 10,700 excess deaths.

The results are a damning indictment of the entire political structure in the US which has allowed thousands of evictions to proceed in states and cities across the country. Unable to guarantee safe housing for all, the demands of the capitalist system, which subordinates all aspects of life to profit making, have resulted in the unnecessary and cruel deaths of thousands of people, while at the same time prolonging and exacerbating the spread of COVID-19.

A rental sign is posted in front of an apartment complex Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The authors, which include researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Francisco; Johns Hopkins University; Boston University and Wake Forest University School of Law, found before moratoriums were lifted, the incidence rate, that is the number of growing cases, and the mortality rate ratios were relatively constant, “suggesting little evidence of pre-existing trends in states that went on to lift their moratoriums.”

However once states began allowing evictions to proceed, within ten weeks researchers calculated an increased incidence rate and a mortality rate 1.6 times higher compared to the previous weeks. Within 16 weeks states that had lifted their moratoriums saw an incidence rate 2.1 times higher while mortality jumped even more, 5.4 times higher, leading to thousands of deaths.

The study, which is awaiting peer review, focused on 43 states and the District of Columbia between March 13 and Sept. 3, 2020, that is, prior to the current massive “third wave” of infections following the deadly reopening of schools. The last two months have seen a massive resurgence of the virus, overflowing hospitals and morgues, forcing some governors and mayors to implement haphazard lockdown measures (without pay) and undemocratic curfews. Last week alone, over 10,000 people in the US succumbed to COVID-19.

Using publicly available data, the researchers write that they “used models [to] calculate cases and deaths associated with the lifting of eviction moratoriums as a difference between predicted counts under observed moratorium conditions versus predicted counts under a counterfactual scenario in which no state lifted its moratorium during the study period.”

The study focused on all the states that instituted a moratorium, beginning as early as March 13 and as late as April 30. Only 16 states and D.C. maintained an eviction moratorium for the entire duration of the study, while seven states, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming, never implemented a state moratorium and thus were excluded from the study.

By the time the study concluded, 27 states, with Republican and Democratic governors alike, had lifted their respective moratoriums, leaving the limited federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium, which began on Sept. 4 and expires on Dec. 31, 2020, as the only safeguard for millions of people who could be facing eviction in the next month. November data from the US Census Bureau estimates that of the 11.5 million adults who live in rental housing, 1 in 6 did not pay rent in October.

The researchers found that the median length of state moratoriums was only 12 weeks, which left ample time for landlords to evict tenants in between September CDC’s eviction moratorium going into effect and the lifting of state moratoriums, many of which expired at the end of July, along with $600-a-week enhanced unemployment benefits.

The authors are unequivocal in their findings: “Lifting eviction moratoriums was associated with increased COVID-19 incidence and mortality in US states, supporting the public health rationale for use of eviction moratoriums to prevent the spread of COVID-19.” The authors noted an increased rate of mortality and incidence over time which they suggest is due to the fact that displacement due to eviction can cause “crowding” as family members move in together or evicted tenants move into homeless shelters, leading to increased infection. The authors hypothesize the increased mortality rate is due to increased homelessness as the result of eviction.

Acknowledging that their study relied on public-health data, which is increasingly being withheld by government officials, the researchers note that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths “likely underestimate true incidence and mortality.”

Breaking down individual states by excess cases and deaths, the data reveals the deadly consequences of failing to provide basic shelter for thousands of people while the pandemic rages. Texas, which had the second most COVID-19 fatalities in the US last week at 806, had the highest number of excess deaths due to evictions through Sept. 3, an estimated 4,456 people. This was followed by South Carolina, whose moratorium expired on May 14, leaving residents unprotected for 16 weeks, contributing to over 37,500 new COVID-19 cases and an estimated 1,090 fatalities.

After South Carolina, and continuing the trend of southern states that went double digit weeks without a moratorium, Louisiana recorded 959 excess deaths through Sept. 3 with nearly 30,000 excess cases after its moratorium expired on June 15. Following Louisiana, Mississippi recorded 804 excess deaths with 22,010 excess cases after going 12 weeks without a moratorium. Alabama had the fifth most estimated excess deaths with 621, after a statewide moratorium expired on May 31.

As the study makes clear, state eviction moratoriums did not prevent all evictions. Landlords could still use alleged lease violations to justify the removal of tenants.

The CDC moratorium likewise has not stopped thousands of evictions from going forward. It also doesn’t absolve tenants of any past due rent or late fees that might have accrued, meaning potentially millions of evictions, and with them, millions of cases and tens of thousands more deaths loom with the moratorium expiration at the end of the month. Stout’s Investment Banking estimates that by January, renters will be behind as much as $34 billion.

Despite the extreme public health disaster, some landlords, such as Taylor Verhaalen of Stout Management Company, which oversees nearly 9,000 units across 56 buildings in Las Vegas, Nevada, have already begun taking tenants to court in spite of the federal moratorium.

“We’ve left it up to the courts to interpret how they’re going to enact the CDC moratorium,” Verhaalen told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Verhaalen declined to state how many eviction filings the company had already submitted since the expiration of an Oct. 15 statewide moratorium.

For tenants to be eligible to be included in the CDC moratorium, renters have to sign a declaration form, under penalty of perjury, which states they have used their best efforts to seek government assistance, will not have earned more than $99,000 in annual income and would be unable to pay full rent because of a layoff, reduced wages or work hours, or “extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses,” which in the US can be virtually anything from a check-up to trying to obtain a COVID-19 test.

Even for tenants who have provided a declaration, Verhaalen says he will still be filing eviction cases against them. “Our intention was that the judges would look at the paperwork submitted by the tenants and do some type of validation to make sure they had financial hardship,” he said. “So far, that hasn’t been the case.”

While it hasn’t been the case yet in Nevada, judges throughout the country have begun to push back on the CDC moratorium as more landlords bring eviction filings to court. In September, a North Carolina judge ruled that because a tenant was not in federally subsidized housing, the moratorium did not apply to them, even though the moratorium does not discriminate between federal and private renters. And on Nov. 24, a federal judge in Missouri rejected a request to halt evictions after a tenants rights group claimed Jackson County officials had violated the CDC moratorium.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake Forest University, said, “We are seeing variations in the way courts are applying the CDC order, and we are also seeing a lack of knowledge among tenants and property owners. Advocates are working overtime to inform tenants of their rights under the CDC order and, in many places, evictions are going forward.”

The confusing myriad of expiring protections for tenants has allowed landlords to take advantage of tenants resulting in thousands of people illegally evicted under previous CARES Act protections. In Maricopa County, an Arizona Republic investigation found that more than 900 evictions were filed against tenants who fell under CARES Act protections, with most of those renters wrongfully charged hundreds of dollars in late and legal fees.

There are more than enough homes and resources for everyone on the planet to have safe accommodations while avoiding the virus; the fact that safe housing remains unobtainable for millions of people in the richest country on the planet underscores the need for the abolition of private property and the implementation of an internationally coordinated scientific plan to fight the virus.

Last week, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, which tracks 26 major US cities, found, so far, landlords had filed 114,808 evictions throughout the pandemic, with nearly 4,000 evictions last week alone. The continued processing of evictions will continue unless the working class intervenes independently through coordinated action through rank-and-file workplace and neighborhood safety committees to stop the medically dangerous and socially unnecessary practice. The political struggle to provide housing for all, save lives, and end the threat from COVID-19 begins with joining the Socialist Equality Party and taking up the fight for socialism.

Fiji and Australia to negotiate new military pact

John Braddock

The announcement that Fiji and Australia are negotiating a new military pact is another significant step in the intensifying US-led build-up to counter China’s influence in the southwest Pacific.

The Status of Forces Agreement will facilitate Fijian and Australian defence personnel to undertake exchanges and joint deployments and allow the two forces to exercise in each other’s jurisdiction. According to an official statement, the “landmark” agreement recognises the “growing sophistication of defence engagement between Fiji and Australia.”

HMAS Parramatta, left, sails with USS America, USS Bunker Hill and USS Barry in the South China Sea. (Image Credit: U.S. Navy/MC3 Nicholas Huynh)

The negotiations were initiated at the second annual Defence Ministers’ Meeting involving Fiji’s Inia Seruiratu and Australia’s Linda Reynolds on 24 November. Reynolds declared the relationship was going from “strength to strength.” She praised Fiji’s deployment of a military unit to support Australia during last summer’s bushfire crisis. Australia and Fiji worked “shoulder-to-shoulder” in response to challenges from COVID-19 to Tropical Cyclone Harold, Reynolds said.

Both ministers stressed the importance of a “collective response to the security challenges” in the Pacific. The two countries’ armed forces should “work closely together to develop the capability and interoperability we need to help maintain a resilient and secure region,” Reynolds said. Seruiratu added that they must “move quickly to support one another, when required.”

Under Australia’s Pacific Maritime Security Program, Fiji received its first Guardian Class naval patrol vessel in March with a second scheduled for handover in 2023. Canberra will also fund and oversee construction of a new Maritime Essential Services Centre that will incorporate Fiji’s Navy Headquarters, Maritime Surveillance and Rescue Coordination Centre, Coastal Radio and Fiji’s Navy Hydrographic Service.

An Australian-funded regional security centre is also being established in Vanuatu. The Pacific Fusion Centre will host analysts and share information on “maritime risks,” “disinformation,” illegal fishing, drug smuggling, human trafficking and climate change security. A team of 21 analysts from 14 Pacific Island nations began training in Canberra a year ago to staff the centre.

The initiatives are part of the Australian government’s “Pacific Step Up” strategy, launched in 2018 to counter China’s growing influence, along with the New Zealand government’s “Pacific Reset” policy. Both regional imperialist powers are determined to ensure their continued dominance in what they regard as their “own” neo-colonial backyard.

Following the 2006 coup that installed Fiji’s current prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, Canberra and Wellington imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions, concerned it could destabilise the region and open the way for China. The sanctions backfired, with Bainimarama adopting a “Look North” policy, seeking and receiving economic, diplomatic and military aid from China, Russia and elsewhere.

Australia and New Zealand have made it a priority to restore relations. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited Fiji in February, only the second visit by a NZ leader since 2006. Her Labour Party government is bolstering military connections. In the largest project of its type, a NZ Defence Force team has been in Fiji since October, to “train, coach, mentor and embed alongside” Fijian military personnel.

Vanuatu is also involved in the escalating geo-political tensions across the Pacific. An official visit by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands in 2019 was the first by an Australian leader to the supposed Pacific “family” in more than a decade.

The Australian Defence Force has increased its engagements with Vanuatu’s police, alongside training and exercises. In February, a visiting Australian naval ship docked at a Chinese-built wharf in northern Vanuatu. The wharf was the subject of an alarmist media beat-up in 2018 in which the Sydney Morning Herald declared that China had pressured Vanuatu to build a permanent military facility, a claim the Vanuatu government vehemently denied.

The moves by Australia and New Zealand are in lock-step with Washington’s advanced preparations for war against China, begun under President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” and continued by the Trump administration. The Pentagon is planning to re-establish the US Navy’s First Fleet, which was deactivated nearly 50 years ago, to bolster its offensive positioning in the Indo-Pacific alongside its Japan-based Seventh Fleet.

US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told Radio NZ on October 27 that US Coast Guard cutters will also be deployed to American Samoa and Guam. The armed high-speed vessels will patrol and “enforce US laws,” while “partnering” with other Pacific nations. He falsely claimed that China is “threatening the rules-based order that’s kept the peace since World War II.”

O’Brien revealed that he had spoken with Ardern, who told him she was “pleased with the idea of more US law enforcement on the high seas.” Ardern’s previously undisclosed commitment, made in the midst of the campaign for New Zealand’s October 17 election, underscored the suppression of any public discussion of the country’s role in the US build-up to war.

Competing geo-strategic pressures have been escalating over the past 12 months. The impoverished states across the southwest Pacific are seeking to reduce their dependence on Australia and New Zealand by increasing economic relations with China. Meanwhile, rifts over climate change have intensified regional disputes, particularly over Canberra’s refusal to limit coal production.

The Solomon Islands last year sealed diplomatic relations with Beijing, ending 36 years of relations with Taiwan. Kiribati also announced it would similarly switch diplomatic relations. Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, now only has formal relations with Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

Washington reacted with alarm to these developments. The US State Department has just announced it will spend $US200 million on programs for Pacific nations. Sandra Oudkirk, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, accused China of increasingly “problematic behaviour,” including “predatory economic activities” that undermined “good governance.”

Nations such as Palau in the northern Pacific and PNG will receive the funding, Oudkirk said, to “promote development” and protect their fishing industries against competition from China. She declared that Pacific islands were “essential partners in fostering a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

The US Defense Department has also held talks with leaders of Palau and PNG regarding the establishment of an American military presence in both countries. Australia is already developing a joint naval base on PNG’s Manus Island to host Australian and US warships.

US President-elect Joe Biden has also signaled a more aggressive posture towards the Middle East, Russia and China. “America is back. We’re back at the head of the table once again,” Biden recently declared. “America’s going to reassert its role in the world.”

Washington’s Pacific allies are falling into line. In a conversation with Ardern on November 23, Biden stressed that he wants to “reinvigorate” the bilateral relationship. Morrison and Ardern have invited Biden to visit Australia and NZ next year for the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS military alliance between the three countries.

Eight protesting inmates demanding COVID-19 protection shot dead in Sri Lankan prison

Pradeep Ramanayake

At least eight inmates were shot dead and over 70 injured on Sunday when security forces opened fire on a prisoners’ protest at Mahara Prison, 15 kilometres from the capital Colombo.

Ten of those injured are in a critical condition at nearby Ragama Hospital, the hospital’s deputy director told the media. Another 61 injured prisoners, he said, had tested positive for COVID-19 and were being treated in a special unit.

Relatives of victims at Mahara prison demanding information about their family members (Credit: Shehan Gunasekara)

The protesting prisoners were demanding prison authorities provide proper protection from COVID-19, which is rapidly spreading through the Sri Lankan prison system. The inmates wanted to be transferred to coronavirus-free locations and given regular PCR tests.

Senaka Perera, a lawyer with the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners, said the Mahara inmates were frustrated with the prison officials who had ignored their month-long call for coronavirus testing and the separation of infected prisoners.

As of yesterday, more than 1,098 COVID-19 infections and two deaths have been reported in Sri Lankan prisons this year. At least 198 infections are from the Mahara facility.

Prison guards, backed by hundreds of police special task force and riot squads deployed by the government, were mobilized on Sunday to suppress the protesting prisoners. While it is unclear whether the police were involved in the shootings, gunfire was still being heard early yesterday morning.

Prison officials said two guards had been taken hostage by the inmates. They were later rescued and admitted to the hospital with injuries. Authorities claim that a kitchen and medical store had been set on fire by the prisoners.

Family members and relatives, who are acutely aware of previous brutalities by guards and police against the inmates, remained outside the prison pleading for information. Later police dispersed them. Yesterday hundreds of relatives gathered outside Ragama Hospital, blaming authorities for the deaths and injuries at the prison.

The shootings at Mahara Prison are the latest in a series of government crackdowns on prisoners demanding COVID-19 protection and proper healthcare. On November 18, one inmate was shot dead during a provocation at Kandy’s Bogambara Prison where 175 prisoners have been infected with the virus.

Protests have erupted in the past two weeks at prisons across the country, including Welikada, Magazine, Mahara, Bogambara, Boossa, Kuruwita, Angunukolapelassa and Negombo, as infections have spread throughout the island. Yesterday, several inmates began a rooftop protest at Negombo Prison demanding proper protection, testing and treatment.

The Rajapakse government responded to the killings at Mahara by seeking to blame “rioting prisoners,” without mentioning any of the inmates’ legitimate demands about COVID-19.

Relatives of victims outside Ragama hospital (Credit: WSWS Media)

Addressing parliament yesterday, Prison Reform Minister Sudarshini Fernandopoulle attempted to justify the shooting of unarmed inmates, claiming that the guards had no choice but to open fire to prevent a break-out.

Fernandopoulle went on to ludicrously declare there was, “an invisible hand which activated suddenly and we are ready to conduct an independent probe to uncover who is behind the riot.” The situation in Mahara, she insisted, was a part of “a trend of unrest.”

Parliamentary opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who failed to condemn the violent attack on the prisoners, called on the government to appoint a committee to probe the “unrest.”

Justice Minister Ali Sabry later announced a five-member committee headed by a retired high court judge to investigate. This committee, like all its previous government-appointed predecessors, will be used to deflect popular anger and suppress the truth.

Fernandopoulle’s allegation about a “hidden hand” is a patent lie. Sri Lankan prisons are overcrowded with each facility containing more than three times the number of people it can accommodate and ripe for a massive spread of the virus.

Although the capacity of the Sri Lanka’s 22 prisons is 12,000, there are currently more than 30,000 detainees, according to official government data. About 20,000 are in custody on remand without bail, while a significant number have been convicted of minor offenses but unable to pay the fines.

Committee for the Protection of Prisoners Secretary Sudesh Nandimal told the media that prisoners were under severe pressure because of the lack of COVID-19 protection, inadequate food and medical supplies and harassment by prison officials. He alleged that when protests erupted at Mahara, prison officials launched a series of provocations and then allowed the killings to occur.

While the violent repression of prisoners in these facilities is not new it has been increasing in recent months. Two inmates were killed and six more injured in March this year when guards opened fire during unrest at Anuradhapura Prison in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province.

At the same time, the infamous pretext used by police of “shooting while attempting to flee” to justify the killing of remanded prisoners or those in custody, is on the rise.

One recent alleged example was the death last May at Mahara Prison of a young inmate. Police said he died in an accident while trying to escape but relatives later claimed he had been brutally beaten and tortured by prison officials. No proper inquiry has been held.

In line with rising public criticism of these repressive actions, the toothless Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has drawn attention to the increased number of individuals who have died in detention during President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s administration. The commission has written to the Inspector General of Police, stating that eight such extra-judicial killings have taken place since last June.

The Mahara Prison killings are not an aberration but point to the repressive environment deliberately created by the Rajapakse government as COVID-19 spreads through the island. As of yesterday, the country’s COVID-19 cases climbed to over 26,000 cases and the death toll rose to 118.

On November 17, Rajapakse imposed an Essential Services Order on the country’s 15,000 port workers who were raising concerns about having to work amid rising workplace infection rates. Three days before the Mahara prison attack President Rajapakse appointed retired Admiral Sarath Weerasekara as the new cabinet minister for public security.

Workers and the oppressed masses must regard the bloody repression at Mahara Prison as a warning about the dictatorial preparations being made by the Rajapakse regime to suppress social unrest more broadly.

Rent debt “bomb” points to depth of social crisis in Australia

Mike Head

Nearly one million tenants may be in rental debt and hundreds of thousands could face eviction as COVID-19 pandemic moratoriums on evictions end around Australia, according to a report released last week.

The report by Better Renting, a non-government advocacy group, sheds further light on the extent of the poverty and financial stress throughout the working class. This social crisis is intensifying even though limited lockdown measures have, for now, prevented the pandemic from resurging to the catastrophic levels being suffered in the US, Europe and many other parts of the world.

State-owned housing in Victoria (Wikimedia)

The prospect of widespread evictions has already developed in Queensland, where the state Labor Party government ended eviction protections for residential renters on September 30, and in the Northern Territory, where the Labor government refused to even mandate an eviction halt.

In other states and territories, the eviction moratoriums will end early next year, mostly in March, just as the federal government scraps the JobKeeper wage subsidies and JobSeeker payments in which millions of working-class households have depended to avoid destitution.

This rent debt “bomb” is also growing amid worsening unemployment and under-employment, regardless of the efforts of the corporate media and governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike, to paint a rosy picture of “economic recovery.”

In its report, Better Renting analysed publicly available data on rent deferrals and negotiations. It estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of tenants Australia-wide may be in rental debt, which would equate to 324,000 to 973,000 people.

“These are people who could lose their current home if they remain in rental debt and landlords begin issuing termination notices as moratoriums are lifted,” the report stated.

Citing research from the Consumer Policy Research Centre, the report said there were other tenants who had “debt in the mailbox.” That meant they prioritised paying their rent but instead racked up debts to credit card or utilities companies. The Consumer Policy Centre found two in five renters have credit card debt or debt to a “buy now pay later” company.

The rental debt estimates drew on Better Renting’s own surveys and others by the Australian National University, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the University of NSW, the Consumer Policy Research Centre and the property management platform MRI. Overall, Better Renting said it analysed survey data from 20,000 renters.

In March, the self-proclaimed “National Cabinet” of federal, state and territory leaders, agreed to limited and temporary protections against residential evictions. They feared a social explosion as kilometre-length queues—not seen since the 1930s Great Depression—formed outside government unemployment and welfare offices.

The moratoriums sought to prevent the eruption of struggles against evictions that would have produced widespread homelessness. Renters were among the worst affected sections of the working class as the pandemic hit. A previous Better Renting survey found that nearly two-thirds of tenants had lost income due to the economic crash triggered by the pandemic.

That survey found 16 percent of respondents reported skipping meals to save money, while 44 percent said they had “struggled to make ends meet with rent and bills.” That was despite the JobKeeper scheme and the temporary doubling of the sub-poverty JobSeeker unemployment benefit.

However, the government measures gave no guarantee of protection from eviction—many landlords still tried to remove impoverished tenants—and they left renters liable for deferred rental payments and at risk of accruing huge debts. No government required landlords to reduce or even defer rents.

That is because residential rent is a lucrative source of revenue, mostly going to the largest corporate investors and wealthiest layers of society, not small landlords. There is an estimated annual transfer of over $40 billion from private renters to landlords.

Since March, the federal, state and territory governments have handed more than $400 billion to business via subsidies, tax cuts and cheap loans, but they have refused to protect tenants from the impact of the pandemic.

The previous Better Renting survey found that of the tenants who lost income, only 9 percent asked for and received a “satisfactory” rent reduction. It reported that 20 percent had their request for rental relief denied, while 7.5 percent had their rent deferred, meaning they would have to pay the reduced rent back as a debt at a later date. A further 4.5 percent received a “trivial reduction.”

Even these results might be an underestimate of the housing crisis. An interim Victorian parliamentary report into the pandemic, released in August, found that Consumer Affairs Victoria had registered 17,852 rent reduction agreements by July 5, representing just 3 percent of all rental households in that state. The average weekly rental decrease was only 27 percent, or $155 per week.

The Labor government in Queensland has been the most blatant in exposing tenants to eviction. While ending the residential protection, it extended its eviction moratorium for commercial tenants until the end of the year. That state’s legislation also allows for “no fault” evictions, meaning that in many cases, where leases have expired, landlords can act unilaterally.

In scrapping the residential moratorium, the then state housing minister, Mick de Brenni linked the move to the drive to fully reopen the economy. “Because of our strong health response, we’ve been able to keep the economy more open and we’ve already started delivering Queensland’s plan for economic recovery,” he stated.

The latest official jobs figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) dent such pro-business claims of “recovery.” Unemployment is still intensifying. In seasonally adjusted terms, in October the jobless rate increased 0.1 points to 7.0 percent—1.7 points higher than a year earlier. That meant nearly one million jobless, and nearly a quarter of a million over the year.

These statistics are vast under-estimates, because they only count anyone not working more than an hour a week. Even so, the ABS unemployment rate among young workers, aged 15 to 24, increased 1.0 points to 15.6 percent, up by 3.1 points over the year.

The under-employment rate decreased by 1 point to 10.4 percent, but remained 1.9 points higher than a year earlier, leaving the total “underutilisation” (unemployment plus under-employment) at 17.4 percent, or almost 2.5 million workers.

Surveys conducted by the commercial polling agency, Roy Morgan, indicate that the real situation is much more severe. Its unemployment estimate is 12.8 percent, with under-employment at 9.4 percent, making a total of 22.2 percent, or 3.15 million workers.

As well as rushing to end its eviction restrictions, the Queensland government was also the first in the country to freeze the wages of public sector workers, including nurses and teachers. As this demonstrates, the union-backed Labor Party is spearheading the imposition of the burden of the pandemic onto working-class families.

Mass unemployment, outright wage cuts and rental evictions on a large scale last occurred in Australia during the 1930s, producing explosive social struggles. Such a convulsions are again looming, making it essential to build a new socialist leadership in the working class.

Young people speak out about the unprecedented collapse in their living conditions since the pandemic began

Noah Ryan & Nick Barrickman

A majority of the United States’ young adult population has been forced to place its life on hold as the pandemic has erased the opportunity to move out of their parents’ homes or otherwise gain independence. This is the reality that has been exposed by a recent Pew Research Center report showing 52 percent of people between the ages of 18-29 are living at home with their parents.

According to the study, this is the highest share of young people living at home since the end of the Great Depression in 1940. As shocking as it is, this number belies the actual social crisis that is hidden beneath it.

The cover of the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding report (Credit: covidstates.org)

The psychological impact of the chasm that has opened up between expectations for the future and the objective conditions facing millions of people is reflected by a national survey conducted by researchers from four universities and published this month by the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding. The survey on mental health conditions for people in Generation Z, or young adults between 18 and 24, is a damning depiction of the mental and psychological destruction being wreaked on this generation.

According to the research, about 47.3 percent of young people experienced some sort of depressive symptoms during the last few months. The most common causes for depression seen in this age group are closure of schools (51 percent), working from home (41 percent), and suffering a pay cut. This compares to only 3.4 percent of people in this age group in 2013-2014 reporting suicidal thoughts, anxiety or sleep disruption.

“I’ve never been in a situation in my life when I was financially comfortable,” said Dasilva, whom has been forced to live with relatives along with her husband since spring. In a conversation with the World Socialist Web Site, she explained that her family in Michigan, where she lives, has caught COVID-19. This includes her aunt, uncle and cousin.

Prior to the pandemic, Dasilva and her husband were part of the performance industry. However, as live music venues, theatre and other creative arts have been upended, she admits that she has “no idea where I see myself in five years.”

In addition to her financial situation, Michigan has once again become hard-hit by the coronavirus. The state ranks ranked eighth in the country with almost 390,000 COVID-19 cases and over 9,500 deaths since March.

Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer re-imposed a 3-4 week shutdown of restaurants and bars across the state last month without any new financial aid for those affected. While being largely ineffective to stem new outbreaks—since the auto factories and other large workplaces remain open without any significant restrictions—the shutdowns will continue to devastate the retail and service industry, which largely employs young people.

David, a 21-year old student and grocery worker in Virginia, told the WSWS that the “state of the economy scares me.” During the first weeks of the pandemic, millions were laid off on a weekly basis, leading to tens of millions of people unemployed or underemployed. Even as millions are cut off from the last remnants of unemployment benefits which expire at the end of this month, hundreds of thousands continue to apply for assistance from their states on a weekly basis.

“Being stuck with parents, it used to be something that people would get made fun of for,” David said sarcastically. “Now we can see that this is a real concern for society.” Speaking about his own personal circumstances, David explained “I live with my parents but my mother was furloughed for three months” during spring. “She didn’t get paid anything during this time, she is labeled an ‘independent contractor,’” a term businesses often affix to workers in order to avoid paying them unemployment or healthcare benefits.

“I had to pay the bills. While the bill collectors lowered the cost of the mortgage and things like that, I was the only one working” in the entire house, he said. On top of this, David’s grandmother, a food stamp recipient, passed away during summer. Not only did this further traumatize family members, “but she was the only other person in the house getting any sort of financial support,” he said.

“I’m an essential worker,” he said in conclusion. “I was going to quit my job to pursue a career [in visual arts], but that field isn’t hiring right now. I don’t know when things will be normal again. I don’t know when I’ll be able to see my friends. This is a struggle.”

As misery among the working population grows millions are turning toward politics of a decidedly left-wing and anti-capitalist variety. According to a survey conducted by YouGov this year, the support for socialism among young people has increased significantly. Among the Gen Z group, support grew from 40 percent in 2019 to 49 percent this year. The report also indicated that 60 percent of Millennials are looking for an alternative to capitalism.

Mark, another young worker that was laid off in September, said that his plans to move out of his parents’ house “pretty much vanished” when COVID-19 emerged. “There aren’t any jobs beyond entry level, with horrible $10-12 per-hour pay.”

Speaking about the living situation for his friends, he said “those that can afford it are living together as roommates.” Even this poses difficulties, due to the fact that “landlords are increasing rent.” Mark explained that he had heard stories about states setting up courthouses simply to deal with the growth in evictions as moratoriums on owed rent expire.

“The unemployment benefits [made available by the CARES Act] were super helpful,” he said. “But when the expanded $600 weekly pay ended in July, jobs didn’t come back.” Mark said he had a job lined up with the local county government but the pandemic forced the office to furlough workers.

“The coronavirus proves that under the current system, capitalism can’t deal with the issue of joblessness,” he concluded. “It makes you wonder what things will be like when there are no expanded benefits for people.”

Labour Division Between Hindutva Fascism and Capitalism

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

History is about forgetting and remembering within different waves of time. If a society fails to view its present in the mirror of history, that society condemned itself to the dustbin of future. The Indian society is in such a dangerous crossroad. The despicable ideology of Hindutva led by RSS, evil politics of BJP and horrific policies of Modi government threatens the lives, livelihood of Indians and weakens India and Indian democracy. The failure of Modi led BJP government is written in all fronts of governance from home fronts to foreign policies.

The agricultural policies of Modi government ruined the life and livelihoods of Indian farmers and destroyed agricultural economy in India. The myopic foreign policies of Modi government have isolated India within the neighbourhood and outside South Asia. The vile of Hindutva politics and its inhuman actions have defamed India in world among the community of nations. The dismantling of state led welfare policies, planning and institutions by the Modi government led to the collapse of health, education and industries. Modi’s economic policies have ruined small and medium businesses in India. The growth of unemployment, crime, hunger, homelessness and insecurities are direct outcomes of BJP led Modi government and its directionless policies. These policies manufacture crisis that ensures suffering of millions of Indians. It is a Hindutva shock therapy that breeds enormous political power for the growth and stability of Hindutva fascism in India.

As India and Indians are suffering under multiple forms of crisis in different steps of their lives, Indian corporations and their multinational brethren continue to multiply the mountain of their profits. Hindutva fascism derives its economic, political, social and cultural strategy from European fascism and Nazism. There is a clear labour division between fascists and their capitalist crony corporations. The historical brotherhood between Nazis and corporate capitalism continue to thrive in India today as it has happened in Europe during and after world wars. The European and American corporations were not only sympathetic but also collaborated with fascists and Nazis for ideological reasons. Capitalism is concomitant with all illiberal and undemocratic forces in society today in search of profit. Their organic and historical relationship reveals itself with same motivation accelerated by Hindutva rule in India.

The Dehomag; a subsidiary of the IBM has supplied technology to identify Jews during nationwide census operation in Germany. The company has also provided punch card machines and sorting systems devices to identify and exterminate Jews in concentration camps. It was a lucrative business for the IBM. The German auto designer Ferdinand Porsche and his company has helped to develop the Volkswagen cars as per the order of Hitler. The Volkswagen had used slaves from the concentration camps to expand its car production and profit. Similarly, Hugo Boss has used slaves from the concentration camps to produce uniforms for the Nazi regime. He was also a sponsoring member of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazis’ paramilitary wing. The media corporations like the Associated Press have worked as Nazi collaborators. The Coca-Cola Company’s Fanta business was booming with the help of Hitler’s Youth. The corporations like the Kodak, Bayer, Ford, BMW, L’Oréal, Bosch, and many banks were beneficiaries of Nazi rule in Germany. Human miseries were the foundation of corporate profit under Nazism. The death of democracy and freedom were twin foundations on which fascism and corporate capitalism grew together in 19th and 20th century Europe.

The Hindutva rule led by Modi is not only following the ideological footprints of European Nazism and fascism but also following strategy of labour division between politics and economics for the success of Indian and global corporations at the cost of Indian lives and livelihoods. The shameful alliance between India corporations and Hindutva fascism is pushing India and Indians into a miserable chapter of history by ruining the present. The Hindutva forces decided to control the state power with the help of electoral politics dominated by one party whereas Indian corporations and their global brethren can control Indian economy and resources while Indians suffer under multiple forms of miseries. The democratic deficit, economic crisis, cultural and economic turmoil witnessed in India today is not Hindutva method of madness but a clear and historical strategy of labour division between Hindutva and corporations.

Indian capitalist class and higher caste’s complicity with Hindutva fascism breeds all forms if crisis and conflicts in India. Social, economic, political and cultural crisis consolidates the power of fascists and their crony capitalists. Both benefit from the crisis. The ever-willing industrialists and business partners of fascism and Nazism have failed to save Hitler and his rule. The Fuhrer’s thousand-year plan has collapsed within a decade. Hitler died by suicide and his regime collapsed like a pack of cards with the horror of death and destitutions. But Hindutva forces will not find their hiding place. Like any other anti-fascist struggles, people will follow the path of unity, peace, liberty and justice.   The Indian industrialists, celebrities, fashion designers, media houses and capitalist classes cannot save Hindutva led fascist Modi government in India for long. All illiberal and undemocratic forces sink under the waves of historic liberation struggles of the masses. History has witnessed the collapse of all empires and dictators. Hindutva fascism can bite the dust sooner if we can resolve to fight both capitalism and fascism together. This is the only long-term alternative for the survival of India and Indians.