Chilean health unions suspend indefinite strike, provoking anger among workers

Mauricio Saavedra

Less than two weeks after calling an indefinite strike, public health unions announced December 6 its suspension as they re-entered negotiations with the ultra-right government of President Sebastian Piñera. The decision provoked widespread opposition among health workers who rightly accused the unions of preparing a “sellout.”

Patricia Valderas of the Confederation of Health Workers (FENATS Nacional) told CNN Chile that seven health unions had agreed to suspend the strike to demonstrate their “conscientiousness” towards the Chilean public under conditions where the capital city of Santiago has experienced a recent spike in coronavirus cases. By December 6, the total number of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases in Chile reached 639,492 with 20,767 confirmed and suspected deaths.

Chilean healthcare workers march in Santiago. Banner reads “Less applause and more resources for Public Health”. (Credit: Guillermo Correa Camiroaga)

Valderas also told the CNN reporter that the unions were eager to conclude an accord with the government even if it meant reducing the so-called “COVID bonus.” A tripartite working group was agreed to on December 4 with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and representatives of the seven health unions with this end in mind.

“I think that in times of pandemic we can understand that they don’t want to give (the full bonus) but let’s reach an agreement and set up a roundtable to define that,” Valderas said appealing to the government not to “close (discussions) immediately, seeing that there were already agreements with the ministry.”

Valderas knows that if the ministry continues to stonewall, the unions will be left with an explosive situation difficult to contain. The bonus was originally offered to healthcare workers in June as a sop for the disastrous mishandling of the pandemic by the former Health Minister, Jaime Mañalich. The COVID bonus wasn’t even initiated the union bureaucracy, but rather by the parliamentary left congressmen who proposed giving a measly 500,000 pesos (US$645) to the workers at the coalface of the pandemic. Involved were the Stalinist Communist Party, the pseudo-left Frente Amplio and the Socialist Party who collectively control the leadership of the various union federations.

These political operators knew that they had to quell an incendiary situation. The deeply hated minister, Jaime Mañalich, was forced to resign following the scandalous exposure that he had been providing reduced coronavirus figures to the general public. For months, he faced hostile protests whenever he appeared at public hospitals. He was hated for his callous indifference to deplorable conditions and the spread of the virus especially among overstretched and burnt out staff, forced to sew masks, wear makeshift eye shields and don garbage bags for personal protective equipment from the onset of the pandemic.

The number of health professionals testing positive for COVID-19 has surpassed 37,500, and 72 workers have died due to the lack of resources and protective attire. Staff have been working 24, 36 and even 48-hour shifts due to the high number of workers falling ill, on top of insufficient staffing levels to begin with.

The latest Health Minister, Enrique Paris, has continued with the same “herd immunity” policies that aim to keep the country’s non-essential economic activity operational amid a threatened second wave. The ousted Mañalich in many ways served as scapegoat to protect not only the Piñera government, but the entire political caste that includes the parliamentary left, the true culprits in creating a systemic crisis in public health and causing so much wanton death.

Following the CIA-backed 1973 military overthrow of the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende, Milton Friedman, the principal figure in the Chicago school of economics, was called upon by Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to devise a “free market” program based on the deregulation of the economy and privatization—abolishing the minimum wage, quashing trade unions, privatizing the pension system, state industries and banks, and lowering taxes on incomes and profits.

The main author of the dictator’s constitution was Jaime Guzmán, founder of the ultra-right and fascistic UDI and proselytizer of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. Guzmán’s politically authoritarian and neoliberal economic philosophy enshrines the conception of the subsidiary state which meant guaranteeing private ownership and placing on the market all areas including education, health and social security, and utilities, including water. Any attempt at nationalization was strictly proscribed.

The Friedmanite free market nostrums, imposed through state terror and then consecrated in Pinochet’s 1980 Constitution, were maintained and intensified under the Center-left coalition that took power in 1990 with the return to civilian rule—with the assistance of the corporatist trade unions that they dominate and whose primary concern has been to oversee the implementation of pro-corporate policies.

For the public health system, which copes with over 80 percent of the population who subscribe to the National Health Fund (FONASA), this has meant chronic underfunding, under-resourcing and understaffing for over four decades. Outside of 2020, the yearly budget has not exceeded four percent for many decades.

One of the ways this has been achieved is by keeping health professionals in a permanent state of employment insecurity and precariousness. Last year, the number of permanent staff running the entire public health system in Chile—a nation of 19 million—was an extraordinary 39,740 employees.

The majority of staff, which for 2019 consisted of 109,217 employees, are obligated to sign contracts for a maximum of one year, expiring every 31st of December. In some instances, such as at Tomé Hospital in Talcahuanot, the contracts of nurses, kinesiologists and other health professionals have been only partially renewed until March 31, 2021, even though they may previously have had ongoing employment at the institution for four to seven years.

Underneath contracted staff are the “personal a honorarios,” which roughly translates to independent contractors, who can be hired and fired at will. The 11,999 honorarios hired in 2019 lack the right to sick leave, annual leave or maternity/paternity leave or any of the productivity-linked bonuses. And on the lowest rung are the substitute and replacement workers (15,355 for 2019) who replace contract staff away for more than a fortnight. This highly precarious sector must remain registered and technically up to date if they are to receive any work.

Healthcare workers reacted angrily to the unions’ suspension of the indefinite strike. Over the last week, many have posted hostile comments on the union’s Facebook page. Many are demanding renewed strike action.

Victor Arriagada from a hospital in Concepcion said: “Always remaining as martyrs without receiving any reward… We are already tired, they restricted our vacations, some of us still continue to take 24-hour shifts. Who thinks about us? Damned dictatorship in which we are surviving, they make fun of us and still do not give us what we deserve. Hopefully, there will be an indefinite strike, enough of putting others first.”

Erica Perez from a family health center in Temuco said: “We do not live on applause. What do they expect us to do with 380 lucas (US$514 per month) that I earn? A complete family depends on me. I am a replacement and I do not get any bonus. Let’s fight so that for once we are all equally respected.”

Tatiana Saldías said: “A mockery...lack of respect for the people that have been working so closely with this pandemic on exhausting shifts...we are physically and mentally exhausted and this is how they recognize our work.”

Janet Herrera from Santiago said: “now (the unions) say they’ve been disrespected, when they have lifted the strike. What did they expect? Pressure is created by fighting and not being sellouts to the government. We need leaders who are the voice of the members (not) inconsequential leaders who do not represent us.”

Claudia Flores, also from Santiago: “They should have called an indefinite strike today already! What are they waiting for? They just go out and make a show of being indignant and blah blah blah. They have me fed up!!!!”

Hugo Barrientos from a hospital in Talcahuano said: “Listen this is the same crap as every year. It’s all stitched up, damned sellouts as always including the C.U.T. (Workers’ Central).”

Nicol Hidalgo a nursing technician from La Serena wrote: “A voice is telling me NATIONAL STRIKE.”

The healthcare unions’ latest demands are an insult added to the injuries inflicted by the ultra-right government. They are calling for a four percent increase for monthly incomes of 3,000,000 (US$4,085) and under, but outside the upper stratum of employees no-one receives such an income. This is revealed in their other demand to increase the minimum salaries of assistants to 409,000 (US$557); of administrative staff to 455,000 (US$619), technicians to 484,000 (US$659) and for professionals to 850,000 (US$1,157). These are starvation wages that the unions will help impose!

No faith can be placed in these thoroughly corrupted and pro-corporate organizations. The resources and wealth collectively produced by millions of workers is hoarded by a parasitic financial and corporate aristocracy and defended by the state, its institutions and the political parties that serve their interests.

Human life, health, welfare and livelihoods will take priority only when the working class breaks with bourgeois politics, especially the Stalinist PCCh, the pseudo left Frente Amplio and the establishment left, who accept the confines of parliamentary legality, capitalist private property and production for profit. The working class must expropriate all socially created wealth and place it in public hands.

Editor of New Zealand’s major corporate think tank exposed as a bigot

Tom Peters

A December 11 Newsroom article by Marc Daalder revealed that New Zealand Initiative (NZI) chief editor Nathan Smith had a personal blog that “attacks Muslims and Jews and espouses incel [misogynist] ideology.”

The NZI is New Zealand’s most significant big business think tank. Its representatives are frequently interviewed in the media and publish op-eds advocating lower taxes, cuts to social services and other pro-corporate policies.

Photo from Nathan Smith's since deleted profile on the New Zealand Initiative website (Credit: https://nzinitiative.org.nz/)

The think tank is funded by international corporations including Google, British American Tobacco and MasterCard; and New Zealand’s five major banks, Fletcher Building, Countdown supermarkets, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy, Mainfreight and Vodafone, among others. The Universities of Auckland and Waikato, and Wellington City Council are also listed as members.

In short, the NZI represents the interests of dominant sections of New Zealand’s capitalist class. Smith, who resigned following the Newsroom article, played a major role in the think tank for at least a year. He edited and co-wrote numerous publications and interviewed people for podcasts.

Many of these items were erased from NZI’s website over the weekend, along with a brief biographical profile which had stated that Smith “brings deep experience writing about business and policy from his eight years as a reporter for the National Business Review, ” where he wrote “weekly columns on foreign affairs and trade [and] coordinated the newspaper’s feature section.”

Smith’s personal “Likebulb” blog, which has been deleted, contained views not very different to those of the fascist terrorist Brenton Tarrant, who massacred 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch on March 15, 2019, and far-right groups such as Action Zealandia.

Newsroom reported: “In a post from April 2018, Smith outright says he ‘just [doesn’t] like Arabs or Africans.” In April 2020, Smith wrote: “While not all Jews encourage immoral behaviour (from a Christian perspective), most people who do tend to be Jewish. Same with influential positions in the West. Not all Jews are in those spots, but nearly all those spots are filled by Jews… The answer to why Jews keep being kicked out of Christian countries is Jewish behaviour.”

In October 2020, he wrote: “The word ‘racism’ is a propaganda tool to pathologise normal human behaviour. Preferring your own race is a survival tool—like eating or sleeping.”

Responding to the Christchurch terror attack, Smith wrote on March 24, 2019: “There is no such thing as racism.” He called for Muslims to “forgive” Tarrant, adding: “Unfortunately, I have never heard a Muslim or a progressive forgive.”

Like right-wing extremists internationally, including the Trump administration in the US, Smith downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring that hospitals had inflated the death count.

NZI director Oliver Hartwich told Stuff he was “gobsmacked” to read about Smith’s views: “I almost fell off my chair… His sub-editing was extremely good, the podcast extremely good… we had no idea. I’m horrified.” Hartwich, who has known Smith for several years, said all publications Smith was involved in were being “vetted for any traces of his views.”

The National Business Review (NBR), New Zealand’s main financial newspaper, has remained silent about the fact that it employed an anti-Semite as a feature writer between 2012 and 2020.

It is scarcely credible that Smith’s colleagues in the NZI and NBR had “no idea” about his views. Several of his NBR articles in 2012 contained a link to his Likebulb blog.

Hartwich told Radio NZ that Smith’s “public writing in the [NBR] was very good and didn’t expose any of these issues.” In fact, his NBR articles frequently had a right-wing, militarist character and contributed to the demonisation of Muslims as potential terrorists. Smith defended mass surveillance by the US-led Five Eyes alliance, including New Zealand’s spy agencies; criticised the exposure of war crimes by WikiLeaks, and praised New Zealand’s alliance with US imperialism, including preparations for war against China.

An article on July 13, 2012, praised New Zealand’s participation in US-led naval exercises and the US military build-up against China’s increasingly capable navy. In January 2013, Smith wrote that NZ should send special forces to join the French war in Mali. On February 28, 2013, he hailed the CIA propaganda film Zero Dark Thirty, which glorifies the criminal war in Afghanistan and falsifies the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Smith’s November 2014 article, “‘Jandalled jihadis’ a growing threat in NZ,” which NBR appears to have removed from its website without explanation, inflated the supposed “threat” of Islamic extremism to justify “anti-terror” legislation that further expanded the state’s power to spy on the population.

The fact that Smith could fit in comfortably at the NBR and the NZI points to the increasingly far-right views held by the corporate elite and its media lackeys.

The NZI is a reactionary organisation dedicated to defending social inequality and the control of big business over all government policies. Its predecessor, the Business Roundtable, founded in 1986, played a key role in advising the then-Labour Party government as it launched a full-scale assault on the working class. Labour slashed taxes for the rich, deregulated the finance industry, privatised the railways, telecommunications and other industries and implemented tens of thousands of redundancies.

In its “Briefing to the Incoming Government” two months ago, the NZI advised Jacinda Ardern’s government to deepen its attack on workers by slashing the minimum wage “and re-introduc[ing] lower youth minimum wage rates.” It called for the reinstatement of charter schools to cut education spending, and for lifting the age of pension eligibility by two years.

The elevation of fascistic politicians and policies internationally, including in the US, Brazil, India, Hungary, France and the Philippines, is part of the ruling-class response to the unprecedented growth of class tensions, exacerbated by the pro-corporate response to the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Similar developments are underway in New Zealand. From 2017 to 2020, the Labour Party governed in a coalition with the Greens and the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party, which repeatedly agitated against Chinese, Indian and other immigrants, and demonised Muslims in terms like those used by Tarrant and Smith.

The Labour government’s anti-immigrant policies are intended to divert workers’ anger over soaring unemployment and the housing crisis. It has also promoted militarism, defending NZ and Australian war crimes in Afghanistan and strengthened New Zealand’s integration into US war plans against China. The views espoused by Smith, no less than the Christchurch terrorist, reflect this broader political environment.

Canada’s far north Nunavut Territory faces major COVID-19 outbreak

Alexandra Greene

Until early November, Canada’s sparsely populated Nunavut territory was among the few inhabited places on the planet that had not seen a single case of COVID-19. Located in Canada’s remote far north, the territory was able to remain COVID-free for eight months after the virus took hold in North America, by implementing strict travel controls and social distancing in grocery stores and other places.

However, as a second wave of the pandemic developed in Canada’s south this fall as a result of the reckless back-to-work and back-to-school policies pursued by the federal and provincial governments, the virus inevitably found its way into the territory. After the first COVID-19 case was reported last month, the virus quickly spread, forcing small and isolated Nunavut communities to cope with major outbreaks in the midst of harsh winter conditions.

Sanikiluaq, Nunavut in December (Wikipedia)

Only residents and essential workers were permitted to enter the territory as of March 24. Those coming from elsewhere who were approved to enter the territory had to undergo a mandatory 14-day period of self-isolation beforehand in either Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton or Yellowknife.

Health officials and community leaders in the territory knew that if the pandemic were to begin spreading in the isolated region, the consequences would be dire. The population of Nunavut, standing at just over 39,000—85 percent of whom are Inuit—has been burdened with simultaneous crises for many years. A chronic housing shortage, a food insecurity crisis and a decades-long struggle with tuberculosis are the main hardships already faced by those living there.

In 2018, the federal government committed to ending TB among Inuit by 2030. But after just two years of effort, progress was officially stalled in January 2020 due to a lack of funding. Rates of tuberculosis among the Inuit are 300 times higher than those observed in non-Indigenous, Canadian-born citizens.

Advocates for tackling the TB crisis in Nunavut acknowledge that the problem is inextricably bound up with a housing crisis, food insecurity and high levels of unemployment.

Varied stressors of poor living conditions oftentimes allow for the disease to become active in a carrier, and this fact combined with the affected population living in overcrowded housing and suffering from malnourishment mean the likelihood of transmission is very high.

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria that most commonly affect the lungs, causing chest pain, coughing and a host of other symptoms. A 2011 Globe and Mail article labelled Nunavut as “one of the world’s worst places for respiratory health”.

Based on these factors and many others, COVID-19 reaching the territory was a grim prospect, with the potential to cause mass suffering and death.

On November 6, Nunavut’s chief public health officer announced the first official case within the territory. The infected individual was in the small Hudson Bay community of Sanikiluaq, where only about 850 people live. All residents of the community were instructed to remain at home and limit contact with others as contact tracing and exposure tracking measures were put into place. Two days later, a second infection in Nunavut was announced out of the same town.

Just 12 days after the first case was announced, Nunavut had a total of 70 confirmed COVID-19 infections. As of November 28, the territory was into the triple-digits of case numbers, with 131 active cases.

On December 2, lockdown restrictions imposed two weeks earlier were lifted for all areas except the hamlet of Arviat. Although the number of active cases has eased somewhat, there were still 49 active cases in Nunavut as of yesterday. The community of Arviat is especially affected, reporting nine new cases yesterday.

Over 640 people who have potentially been exposed to the virus are being “followed” by the Government of Nunavut. The official Nunavut Department of Health website page recording COVID-19 information states that “persons followed includes individuals with specific symptoms and exposures as well as others who are self-monitoring or self-isolated,” but this statement is followed by a disclaimer noting that not all of these individuals have symptoms or require testing.

Arviat, a community of approximately 2,550 people, is now seeing families confined to their homes as winter arrives. The problems of overcrowded and inadequate housing are thus compounded.

Families are speaking out about the difficult living conditions that they are struggling to cope with. Cecilia Akammak, an Arviat resident, spoke to CBC News about how her household of 11 people has gone without hot water throughout the duration of the outbreak. The family’s boiler is broken, and at a time when hygiene and sanitation to limit the spread of the virus is of the utmost importance, Cecilia has had to boil water to disinfect surfaces and to provide her family with water to simply wash their hands.

Cecilia lives with her husband, children and grandchildren in a three-bedroom public housing unit. The Nunavut Housing Corporation says only emergency repairs are possible, as maintenance staff with the local housing authority are self-isolating. Consequently, Cecilia’s boiler cannot be fixed at this time.

Another Arviat resident, Jennifer Aulatut, told CBC News that the water in her household is yellow and makes her children sick. As a result, Jennifer buys fresh water at the store, yet due to financial constraints that is not always possible. Usually, when a situation like this occurs or the 60-year-old dilapidated home her family resides in needs repairs, she will stay with other family members in a different house. However, currently that is not possible due to lockdown measures.

These terrible conditions are faced by many other households in Nunavut, where 54 percent of Inuit peoples live in “hidden homelessness.” This means that they have no home of their own but are not visibly living on the street. Approximately one half of the 39,000 people living in the territory do so in overcrowded housing. As of 2016, 36.5 percent of the population were in “core housing need,” more than double the rate in any other province or territory.

The desperate housing crisis and rampant poverty confronting wide sections of Nunavut’s population are exacerbated by the longstanding problem of exorbitant food prices. Major retail chains offload the cost of shipping food to the far north by charging exorbitant prices that make it impossible for most people to eat a healthy diet. A kilogram of asparagus costs over C$32 in Iqaluit in January, while an apple averages around C$1.50. According to Food Banks Canada, it costs a staggering C$1,846 per month to feed a family of four in the community of Taloyoak, compared to C$868 in the national capital, Ottawa.

Government policies have actively contributed to the worsening food crisis. In 2011, the federal government implemented the Nutrition North Canada (NNC) program, which provides subsidies to retailers, supposedly to reduce prices for customers. However, this hardly ever occurs, both because the government does not enforce price controls and because the retailer receiving the subsidies is often the only store one can shop at in the entire community. According to a 2019 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, food insecurity in Nunavut’s 10 largest communities increased 13.5 percent following the introduction of the NNC, which replaced a scheme known as Food Mail, which subsidized food shipments via Canada Post.

Labor helps expand Australian spy agency’s secret interrogation powers

Mike Head

Last Thursday, just as parliament shut down for the year, the opposition Labor Party joined hands with the Liberal-National Coalition government to pass a bill to significantly expand the police-state powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

In just a matter of hours, the ASIO Amendment Bill was pushed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate with virtually no debate, accompanied by lavish praise for ASIO, the main domestic political surveillance agency.

The legislation allows ASIO to secretly interrogate teenagers as young as 14, rather than 16. It also extends ASIO’s coercive questioning powers beyond alleged terrorism-related activity to suspected “foreign interference,” “espionage” and “politically motivated violence.”

People can be detained by ASIO for up to 24 hours and forced to answer questions if the spy agency suspects that they have information about plans for such activity. If they refuse to answer a question, or provide an answer considered misleading, they can be jailed for up to five years. Moreover, they can be imprisoned for five years if they alert or inform anyone that they have been interrogated.

Despite its far-reaching implications for free speech and other core democratic rights, the bill’s passage went almost completely unreported by the corporate media. The political and media elite are seeking to keep the public in the dark about the growing power of the intelligence apparatus.

When this unprecedented power—effectively detention and interrogation without trial—was first introduced in 2003, it was presented by the Coalition government and Labor as an exceptional but necessary tool to extract information from anyone who might know of a potential terrorist plot.

Once more—as the WSWS warned from the outset—previously unheard-of powers that were originally imposed under the cover of protecting the public in the post-2001 “war on terrorism” have been expanded to cover fields far beyond terrorism. In particular, the legislation covers political activity that governments and ASIO deem “extremist” or coordinated with a “foreign” or international organisation.

This dovetails with the bipartisan commitment to back the escalating US confrontation against China, and the associated denunciations of the Beijing regime and its unsubstantiated supposed “foreign interference” in Australia.

The expansion of ASIO’s powers also points to preparations to try to suppress political discontent amid the increased poverty and social inequality resulting from the official response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and worst economic crash since the 1930s Great Depression.

Even 14-year-olds can now be interrogated for up to 24 hours at a time, without being charged with any criminal offence, in order to demand that they provide ASIO with “information.” A security-vetted lawyer can be present, as long as he or she does not “unduly disrupt” the questioning.

Under the amendment bill introduced by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, ASIO’s power to detain and question people for up to seven days, which has never been used officially, will be removed, but the questioning power will become more far-reaching.

The new law allows the attorney-general to issue ASIO questioning warrants, rather than a judge, and to do so orally in an “emergency.” It also permits police to search individuals they are interrogating and to seize items, such as phones, that could be used to alert other people to the questioning.

ASIO also will be able to place “tracking devices” on cars or in people’s bags with only internal ASIO approval, rather than a warrant.

As the WSWS explained when the bill was first unveiled in May, the expansion of ASIO’s interrogation powers “is another warning of plans to crack down on any views regarded as a threat to the capitalist political and economic order.”

The “foreign interference” laws do not only target China and its alleged local sympathisers. They can be used to outlaw political opposition, anti-war dissent and social unrest by alleging that it is connected to “foreign” campaigns.

These activities could extend to anyone opposing Australian involvement in a US-led military conflict with China, as part of a global fight against the danger of war.

According to a legal advice commissioned by the reformist lobby group GetUp, published in October, the bill could allow ASIO to coercively question journalists and members of civil society organisations, including those involved in international environmental and human rights advocacy.

The Labor Party’s role in helping push the legislation through was consistent with its record. It has either agreed to, or itself legislated, every one of the 140 “national security” laws since 2001. In fact, Labor had already given in-principle backing to the bill in May, before it went to parliament’s intelligence and security committee for fine-tuning with a number of minor amendments.

ALP deputy leader and shadow home minister Kristina Keneally (Photo: Wikimedia)

Speaking in the Senate last Thursday, Labor’s shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally specifically re-emphasised her party’s support for extending ASIO’s questioning power to cover “politically motivated violence, including terrorism, foreign interference and espionage.”

Keneally underscored the unity with the Coalition by quoting former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who said: “There is no set-and-forget when it comes to national security.” She echoed the government’s anti-China scare campaign, saying: “We acknowledge that foreign interference and espionage are at heights not previously seen in Australia, including at the height of the Cold War.”

Keneally concluded by paying tribute to ASIO, hailing it for “keeping Australians safe,” while using its powers “judiciously and sparingly.” Officially, the questioning powers have been used 16 times since 2004, but as Dutton had inferred in May, the powers have been used more often informally to pressure people into providing information or collaborating with ASIO.

Far from keeping ordinary people safe, ASIO has a decades-long record of spying on, harassing and conducting dirty tricks operations against socialists, militant workers and others, even church groups and Labor politicians, regarded as opponents of the political establishment.

Several federal and state inquiries conducted in the 1970s proved that ASIO and the state police special branches with which it collaborated, kept extensive files on the activities and personal lives of thousands of members and supporters of left-wing organisations, trade unions and anti-war groups.

Today, ASIO and its partner agencies, such as the Australian Signals Directorate, continue that function as members of the global US-led Five Eyes mass surveillance network, which is increasingly focussed on Washington’s confrontation with China.

Labor is no less committed than the Coalition to the alignment behind the US escalation of the economic and military drive to prevent China from challenging Washington’s post-World War II global dominance.

As Keneally’s remarks underscore, Labor is also equally devoted to suppressing domestic discontent amid the worsening danger of involvement in catastrophic US-led wars.

Pandemic exacerbates internet access crisis in Midwestern US

Cole Michaels

The US is experiencing a crisis of internet access in rural and urban communities. The continued lack of high-speed internet for millions of people well into the 21st century is called the “digital divide.” This divide was starkly exposed this year as school districts nationwide were forced to implement online instruction programs some or all of the time, and a significant portion of routine health evaluations were also moved online as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nationwide, around 95 percent of urban areas have broadband access, but less than 60 percent of rural areas do. The Pew Research Center published that nationwide, one in four residents in rural areas does not have access to high-speed internet.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that $80 billion would be required to close the broadband gap across the country. The agency defines broadband as internet service with a minimum download speed of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) and a minimum upload speed of 3Mbps. These guidelines are themselves inadequate in the modern age, where multiple people in a household are working, streaming video, or gaming at the same time.

As a result of the pandemic, states are seeing drastic cuts in their budgets that threaten existing weak and piecemeal broadband expansion plans. BroadbandNow publishes statistics on broadband coverage in every state. There are large disparities across the US. Illinois, which ranked 6th in access, has 89 percent coverage, while Nebraska, ranked 48th, only has 75 percent.

Even in states with wider coverage, deeply unequal access persists. One-third to one-half of children in working class and poor neighborhoods of Chicago, including Austin, Humboldt Park and Englewood, lacked broadband access as of April 2020. When schools went online, this lack of basic infrastructure undermined their education. Affluent Chicago neighborhoods have coverage of 90 percent or better, according to a study published by the Metropolitan Planning Council. In Detroit, Michigan 45 percent of households lack broadband access.

School districts providing hotspots to rural students and teachers is no guarantee of adequate access, as internet speeds will stay slow if the town has poor cell tower coverage. In school districts across the country, school buses equipped with Wi-Fi park in neighborhoods to allow students to complete their coursework. Very poor connectivity was one of the many pressures on rural school districts in the ongoing bipartisan drive to reopen schools full-time and put workers back on the job as COVID-19 infection rates soar.

Large internet providers use the profits they make from broadband service in urban areas to increase the dividends of stockholders, instead of using them to improve infrastructure and expand to connect rural customers. While fiber internet is being installed in some rural parts of the country, much of rural America still deals with slower internet speeds than large cities.

Nationwide, the U.S. Census Bureau found 36.4 percent of black households, 30.3 of Hispanic households and 21.2 percent of white households have no broadband or computers in 2017.

The Midwest, a 12-state region of 65 million people, has some of the lowest rates of high-speed connectivity in the nation. In 2018, Congress allocated $550 million through the ReConnect Program to bring broadband to rural communities, through a combination of grants and loans. As this funding is meant to cover all 50 states, each individual state gets only a small portion of funding. In the Midwest, each state can connect at most a few thousand people and businesses. The profit-seeking of these private providers may price some households out of the broadband newly available in their area.

In Indiana, northwestern Jasper County (population 33,500) is only now having broadband installed in its Kankakee School Corporation. The State of Indiana, Watch Communications, SBA Communications, Wabash College, and the Purdue Research Foundation’s Innovation Partners Institute (IPI) indicate plans to have broadband installed in the district by January 2021. 84,000 Indiana students lack internet access at home.

The IPI director of the project, Mohammad Shakouri, Ph.D., explained the importance of small communities having access to broadband internet. “We are experiencing a digital transformation in our communities, and the wise adoption of technology is critically important to ensure not only success but equity.” He made the point, “increasingly ‘connectivity’ is viewed just as important to one’s quality of life as food, shelter, education and safety.”

Kankakee Valley School Corporation Superintendent Don Street said, “This project will help us overcome the lack of connectivity in our area that suddenly became a huge hurdle for many of our students when we moved to e-learning in the spring.”

In Nebraska, $3.1 million of the ReConnect funds will be used in Brown, Rock and Keya Paha counties to connect 261 people, 70 farms and seven businesses. $8.9 million in Remote Access Rural Broadband Grant funding will allow Great Plains Communications (GPC) to connect 4,788 households in various small towns in a project begun this September.

The Missouri city of Hannibal (Marion and Ralls counties, population 17,300) has had a 4.5-mile fiber internet extension installed by communications infrastructure provider Bluebird Network, bringing the total number of fiber miles to 13.5. Hannibal now has 554 buildings with fiber service.

The Pittsburg School District of Hickory County, Missouri will install a private network for district families that cannot afford their own internet, and it can only be used for educational purposes. The school district began this initiative as it found that 20 percent of its students lacked adequate internet. Nearly 11 percent of Missouri children have no broadband access.

Stan Finger wrote a story on how rural Kansas residents’ efforts to maintain their work and complete schoolwork are hindered by lack of internet access. State Rep. Mark Schreiber said that around 95,000 Kansas households have nonexistent or inadequate internet. As with urban businesses, farmers need high-speed internet to keep track of the changes that happen throughout the growing season and to operate equipment.

Kansas Commerce Secretary David Toland remarked on how the pandemic exposed how badly needed broadband is in the state. “When you’re suddenly thrust into a situation where people are having to work remotely, and go to school remotely, and visit their medical provider remotely, you find out really quickly where those deficiencies are and how work and life can and can’t get done.” Minnesota Compass released a report stating that almost half of all households in Greater Minnesota, and 40 percent in the Twin Cities, with annual incomes of $20,000 or less, do not subscribe to internet service.

In Wisconsin, a quarter of rural residents lack broadband at 25Mbps or better. Ninety-two percent of urban and 75 percent of rural residents have broadband in the state. For Michigan, the US Census Bureau reports that 82,894 households in the Detroit Public Schools District and 14,221 households in the Flint School District have no internet access. In Washtenaw County, where University of Michigan Ann Arbor is located, 57 percent of K-12 students have no high-speed internet in their homes.

In rural northern Michigan, Lake County high school junior Michael Cavender explained how his home internet gets bogged down. “Since I have five brothers, the internet slows down a lot, like long wait times just sitting there. So, yeah, that’s kind of difficult. It’s really hard to turn in assignments and do work like that, and sometimes when I’m in meetings, I can barely hear the person because of how much of a lag there is.”

As of 2020 in South Dakota, 91.6 percent of residents had broadband access. However, the Regional Educational Laboratory Central at the Institute of Education Sciences reported that 11.1 percent of people aged 5-19 in South Dakota (17,280 people) did not have access in 2019.

The Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota have large tracts of Tribal land. Only 65 percent of Tribal lands had access to broadband as of July 2020, according to the DIGITAL Reservations Act.

In Iowa, $1.8 million of the ReConnect program funds will go to adding broadband, including for 1,338 people, 70 farms and 21 businesses in rural counties.

In Ohio, in areas with 20 or fewer households per square mile, 80-90 percent of households have no broadband access. One million people, or 340,000 households, in Ohio have no internet at all. Even in a major city like Columbus, 30 percent of households are unable to access broadband, mainly due to cost. About 402,000 children in the state lack internet-capable devices. ReConnect funds of $14.9 million will enable 2,722 homes and businesses to be served by 318 miles of fiber in southern Illinois by West Kentucky and Tennessee Telecommunications. The city of Quincy (Adams County, population 65,700) will receive $1.6 million to connect 440 people, 34 farms and 18 businesses. Work on the Quincy project is to begin next year. Over one million Illinois residents are still unable to access consistent high-speed internet.

The naked profiteering anticipated with the end of “net neutrality” is being accelerated by the pandemic, which has put families at home more than ever, relying on high-speed internet for work, school and recreation. Last month, Comcast announced that it plans to place data caps on users in 14 states and the District of Columbia, including Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington D.C., and parts of North Carolina and Ohio, according to The Verge. Once users use more than 1.2TB (terabytes) of data in a month, they will be charged $10 per 50GB, up to a maximum overage fee of $100. This cap is already in effect in other states.

Companies like AT&T are also imposing usage caps. A recent OpenVault study indicates that from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020, the number of internet subscribers using at least 1TB of data has more than doubled. Claims by the telecommunications companies that they must increase rates because high-data users “stress the system” are lies, and the companies have boasted in 2020 of how well their networks have handled increased demand throughout the pandemic.

Ensuring all have access to high-speed internet is a vital part of creating a socialist culture. The money to ensure that all Americans have reliable, high-speed internet exists many times over, but it is controlled by a tiny section of the megarich. It will be up to the American working class to return that stolen wealth to the people to address the many problems of infrastructure the country has, internet access included.

US Treasury and Commerce department email systems reportedly hacked

Kevin Reed

Major US news outlets reported on Sunday that hackers had broken into the US Treasury and Commerce department computer systems and were monitoring internal email activity for months without detection. Unidentified experts and government officials “familiar with the matter” were quick to conclude that the hackers were “believed to be” working for Russian intelligence.

Among the first to report the hack was Reuters, which wrote that their sources “feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg,” and that “the hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday.”

United States Department of the Treasury (Matt Robinson/Flickr)

Reuters reported that US government officials have not said much publicly about the hack other than the acknowledgment by the Commerce Department that “there was a breach at one of its agencies and that they asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to investigate.”

John Ullyot, Deputy Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, told Reuters the agency was “taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation.”

The report went on to say that the hack appears to have taken place when software updates from government IT service provider SolarWinds had been tampered with in what is known as a “supply chain attack.” The technology platform—which serves US government customers “across the executive branch, the military, and the intelligence services”—was attacked with malicious code embedded “in the body of legitimate software updates.”

The Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds issued a statement late on Sunday acknowledging it had “experienced a highly sophisticated, manual supply chain attack” on its Orion platform software. On Monday, the firm stated that fewer than 18,000 of its 300,000 customers had software compromised by the hack.

The SolarWinds hack did not involve stealing usernames and passwords, a common technique used to gain widespread access to secure systems. Instead, once the hackers were in the SolarWinds network management software through the updates breach, they were able to insert counterfeit “tokens,” essentially electronic indicators that provide an assurance to Microsoft, Google or other providers about the identity of the computer system to which its email systems are communicating.

The New York Times reported that the Trump administration acknowledged the hack on Sunday and said it was carried out “on behalf of a foreign government—almost certainly a Russian intelligence agency, according to federal and private experts.”

The Times wrote that the Commerce Department agency affected by the hack “appeared to be the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which helps determine policy for internet-related issues, including setting standards and blocking imports and exports of technology that is considered a national security risk.”

The Washington Post was categorical in its report that “Russian government hackers breached the Treasury and Commerce departments, along with other U.S. government agencies, as part of a global espionage campaign that stretches back months.” The Post claimed that Russian hackers “known by the nicknames APT29 or Cozy Bear, are part of that nation’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR,” according to “people familiar with the intrusions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.”

The Russian government, communicating through its embassy in Washington, DC, denied that the Moscow government was engaged in hacking and said it “does not conduct offensive operations in the cyber domain.” In a Facebook post, the embassy said, “attempts of the US media to blame Russia for hacker attacks on US governmental bodies” were unfounded.

The hack of Treasury and Commerce department email communications comes less than a week after the National Security Agency (NSA)—an intelligence organization specializing in international cyberespionage—issued a warning about “Russian state-sponsored actors” who were exploiting systems used widely by the US government.

Although no details about the nature of the exploits were provided at that time, several days later the cybersecurity company FireEye announced that state-sponsored hackers had breached its servers and stolen some of its tools used to find vulnerabilities in government systems. A subsequent FireEye investigation named the Russian intelligence agency SVR as well as the hackers Cozy Bear and APT29.

FireEye is used by US government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the branches of US intelligence, to test the security of their system with a battery of hacking techniques that the company maintains in a database. According to the New York Times report, the hackers who breached FireEye stole the firms “red team” tools and likely used these methods to hijack the SolarWinds Orion platform software updates.

While no evidence has been provided that the hacking was carried out by Russian intelligence, the fact that the top-level computer system used by the White House, the NSA, the Pentagon, the State Department and the Department of Justice—along with that of the top 10 telecommunications companies—has been broken into and was monitored for weeks without anyone knowing about it is a devastating revelation.

Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and president of the cybersecurity firm Rendition Infosec, told the Associated Press, “I suspect that there’s a number of other (federal) agencies we’re going to hear from this week that have also been hit.”

US Government TechGirls Programme 2021

Application Deadline: 15th January 2021 09:00PM EST

Eligible African Countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia;

To be taken at (country): USA

About the Award: Since 2012, TechGirls trained and mentored 186 teenage girls (ages 15-17) from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and Yemen. The core of the program is a three-week experience in the United States. 

TechGirls participate in an interactive technology and computer camp (with US Girls), join a tech company for a day of job shadowing, and participate in community service initiatives. There is a TechGirls multiplier effect – inspiring others in their local community to pursue Stem.

Type: Training

Eligibility: Students eligible to apply are those who:

• Are from one of the following eligible countries:
  • United States
  • Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia;
  •  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
• Are between the ages of 15 and 17 at the start of the exchange;
• Have demonstrated advanced skills and a serious interest in technology, engineering, and/or math in their academic studies;
• Intend to pursue higher education and/or careers in technology;
• Have strong English language skills;
• Exhibit maturity, flexibility, and open-mindedness;
• Will attend at least one additional semester of secondary school upon their return to their home country; and
• Are committed to completing a community-based project upon their return home.
• Preference will be given to those who have limited or no prior experience in the United States. You are not eligible if you have travelled to the United States in the last three years as part of any other ECA exchange program.

Please note that family members of U.S. Embassy or Consulate staff or U.S. Department of State employees are not eligible to apply.

TechGirls encourages people with diverse backgrounds and skills to apply, including individuals with disabilities.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The TechGirls program covers the following costs:

• Roundtrip international airfare from participant home country to the United States
• Housing during program

• Double occupancy hotel or dormitory accommodations
• Meals during program

• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

How to Apply: Online Application

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

Microsoft Imagine Cup Global Student Contest (USD$100,000 prize money) 2021

Application Deadline: 29th January 2021 before 02:59:59 GMT+0

Eligible Countries: Countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

About the Award: Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students. Social networks, music services, photo apps, games, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. We’re looking for the next big thing and we know students like you are going to make it. Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s premier international competition for young developers, is your chance to show off your biggest, boldest software solution. Code with purpose and show the world what you’ve got.

There are four categories in the 2021 Imagine Cup competition – Earth, Education, Health, and Lifestyle. Get started building your tech skills by completing a Microsoft Learn module in the category you’re most passionate about to advance in the competition.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: You’re encouraged to submit an original application/solution that you and your team of up to three (3) have built (either on your own time, through your coursework, as a participant in a student hackathon, etc.). For your submission to qualify for the 2021 Imagine Cup, your application must utilize Microsoft Azure. For more details, see the Contest Rules.

Selection: Organized by Microsoft subsidiaries in those countries, the National Finals select the best teams from each participating country as they pitch and demo their ideas to experts to vie for a coveted spot at the Imagine Cup World Finals.

Number of Awards:  These are the awards to be received by participants:

• First Place:
  • $85,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team
  • Microsoft Azure Grant
  • Remote mentoring session with Satya Nadella
• Second Place:
  • $15,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team
  • Microsoft Azure Grant
• Big Data Award
  • Required use of Azure Data + Analytics or IoT
  • $15,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the team
  • Microsoft Azure Grant
• Artificial Intelligence Award
  • Required use of Azure Artificial Intelligence + Cognitive Services
  • $15,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the team
  • Microsoft Azure Grant
• Mixed Reality Award
  • Required use of HoloLens, Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality
  • $15,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the team
  • Microsoft Azure Grant

Value of Award: 

Round 1: Each Local Event may offer prizes at the discretion of the local Microsoft representatives representing that competition. The existence, nature, and conditions of such prizes are subject to the rules of each Local Event. Every team who advances to round 2 will receive a trip to an Imagine Cup Regional Final event. Trip includes round trip coach airfare from a major airport closest to each competitor’s home, standard hotel accommodations, ground
transportation, and select meals during the Regional Final. Mentors to the team are not eligible for this travel prize.
Round 2: At each Regional Final, there will be three winning teams selected. At least one member of the team must be present to win. (Mentors and associates will not be awarded any portion of the monetary prize winnings.)

• First Place:
o $15,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team
o Microsoft Azure Grant
o First place teams will advance to Round 3 and receive a trip to the Imagine Cup World Championship

• Second Place:
o $5,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team
o Microsoft Azure Grant

• Third Place:
o $1,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team
o Microsoft Azure Grant

Round 3: At the World Championship one winning team will be selected. At least one member
of the team must be present to win. (Mentors and associates will not be awarded any portion of
the monetary prize winnings.)

• World Champion:
o $100,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of
the Team
o Microsoft Azure Grant

How to Apply: Register now!

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Seedstars/Shell Foundation Energy, Mobility & Agriculture Innovation Program 2021

Application Deadline: 20th December 2020

About the Award: Seedstars and Shell Foundation have joined forces to look for sustainable, scalable and innovative startups addressing universal access to energy-related challenges, as well as sustainable agriculture, mobility and transportation.

With support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), they are launching the Energy, Mobility and Agriculture Innovation Program to find African tech entrepreneurs in the mobility, transportation, energy, and agriculture space in order to provide them with the resources, training, and potential funding to scale their startups and impact.

The objective of this program is to support, catalyse and train the highest potential tech-based early stage (seed)African-led  startups working towards:

• universal access to energy (household energy to heat, light and cook; energy for business and large communities);
• sustainable mobility and  transportation (clean and safe transportation in rural areas and last mile transportation);
• or sustainable agriculture value chains ( innovations that improve access to knowledge, finance, markets or knowledge for smallholder farmers).

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: The following are the criteria for startups interested in applying for the program: 

• Startup should be African-led and based or operating in at least one Sub-Saharan African country;
• Tech solution must be focused on the mobility, transportation, energy, or agriculture value chains;
• Startup must be at their early stage/seed round with a minimum viable product (MVP);
• Startup must have initial traction and already able to generate revenue; 
• startup must have raised only less than $1M to date; and 
• Startup should have significant positive impact on lower income communities (in line with SDGs 2, 7 or 11)

Eligible Countries: Sub-Saharan African countries

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Selected startups will be able to take part in Seedstars’ three-month Investment Readiness Program, which will provide the entrepreneurs with 1-on-1 mentoring with industry experts, potential funding opportunities, and leverage  human and knowledge resources available within Shell Foundation.

How to Apply: Interested applicants can sign up here before Dec 20th: https://seedsta.rs/3meCEG1

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details