The Lancet reveals impact of COVID-19 on health care workers

Kevin Martinez

The British medical journal the Lancet recently published an article describing the heavy emotional and physical toll that the coronavirus pandemic has had on frontline health care workers all around the world.

Enduring months of exhaustion, the threat of infection and the loss of countless patients, health care workers have unsurprisingly faced additional problems that have added to their stress and anguish affecting their ability to cope.

Medical workers tend a patient suffering from COVID-19 in the Nouvel Hopital Civil of Strasbourg, eastern France, Oct. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

The journal outlines how nurses were thrust into emergency settings with insufficient training and lacked personal protective equipment (PPE) despite their protests. Nurses and hospital staff had to keep up with the latest knowledge of the pandemic while at the same time working in facilities that were overwhelmed.

In addition to having to take care of patients, health care workers had to take care of each other when they became sick, console the dying and inform surviving family members remotely about their loved one’s fate. Some nurses were burdened with the responsibility of having to ration limited medical supplies and treatments, as well as tell non-COVID patients that their essential surgeries or appointments had to be either canceled or postponed.

Fear of infection prevented many health care workers from seeing their own families in person for months, contributing to their isolation and loneliness. The stigma of being a health care worker led to some being shunned by their community.

Despite being labeled as “heroes” by the political and media establishment, health care workers saw a real decline in their earnings because of the loss of outpatient visits, elective surgeries and the interruption of training and certification for new nurses and staff.

Home health care workers, who have little or no PPE, have been especially hit hard as they are faced with the agonizing decision of having to choose work and possible infection or unemployment and starvation.

The pandemic’s impact is especially acute in what the Lancet calls low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where there has always been a lack of basic medical equipment and supplies. A high burnout rate for nurses may have contributed to worse outcomes for patients with COVID-19. It was not uncommon for nurses to abandon their posts or refuse to attend to patients with the virus.

In countries like Uganda, these workers were targeted by political leaders and hospital administrators for persecution and had their policy decisions met with hostility. This, of course, was also evident in the US, with public health figures such Dr. Anthony Fauci and Rebekah Jones of Florida being attacked publicly for voicing concerns about the government handling of the pandemic.

Under pre-pandemic circumstances, nurses and hospital staff already faced high levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Severe burnout syndrome affected as many as 33 percent of critical care nurses and up to 45 percent of critical care physicians.

The experience of SARS in 2003 caused these workers chronic stress for months and years. A recent Chinese study found that among workers treating patients with COVID-19, 50 percent suffered depression, 45 percent had anxiety, 33 percent had insomnia and 72 percent suffered distress. This was based on a review of 13 studies involving more than 33,000 participants.

In Italy and France, studies showed high rates of depression, PTSD and burnout, with symptoms especially prevalent among those who were younger, female, nurses and working with patients infected with COVID-19.

These disproportionate rates among women are due to the fact that they comprise 70 percent of the global health care workforce. These inequalities increased the risk of unemployment and domestic violence. Working-class women not only have to care for patients under extraordinary conditions but also take care of their families, home school children, take care of their elders and still perform household chores.

The Lancet noted positively that social media was an important venue for workers to share their experiences and grievances, reducing the “sense of isolation and normalised conversations about mental health.”

The journal closes with the hope that the pandemic will promote a “redefinition of essential support workers, with recognition of the contribution of all health care workers and appropriate education, protection, and compensation.”

Help for health care workers and their families, however, will not come from the ruling classes, who have viewed the pandemic as an opportunity to make money and sacrifice older, less “productive” members of the population.

Health care workers must base their struggle for protection and compensation on a socialist basis and overturn the capitalist system, which views their lives as “nonessential.”

Ontario reopens all schools, delays March break ignoring warnings of a third COVID-19 wave

Jake Silver

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce delivered a tirade of lies at a press conference last week to cover over the deadly implications of the province’s school reopening policy.

His remarks came in the run-up to Tuesday’s return to in-class learning in the only remaining parts of the province with predominantly online instruction—Metro Toronto and the neighbouring Peel and York regions. All three areas continue to be hotspots for the spread of COVID-19.

The press briefing was called to announce a delay of the annual week-long March Break until April 12 for all public and publicly-funded Catholic schools throughout the province.

Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

With the spread of more infectious and lethal strains of the virus, the province is encountering increased resistance from teachers to its phased return to in-person learning.

Last year, schools were closed due to the pandemic for the first time immediately following March Break, when the seven-day rolling average of daily new COVID-19 cases was still in the hundreds. Now, it is in the thousands. However, the government, opposition parties, and trade union bureaucrats are all demanding that schools not only remain open, but are never closed again.

Lecce made this clear at the press conference, declaring that the government was “following the advice of the medical community and the chief officer of health to delay March break […] with one aim, to keep these schools open.”

The decision to delay March break has triggered a furious response from teachers and families. Educators have worked tirelessly in recent months to provide learning to their students, while receiving virtually no support from the government. They have been shunted back and forth between distance learning, hybrid models, and full in-person classes. Many of them justifiably believe that they deserve a break. Numerous families, concerned about their children being exposed to the deadly virus in overcrowded classrooms and public transit, would prefer to keep them at home, even though this means substantial financial hardship due to the totally inadequate assistance provided by all levels of government in Canada.

Lecce claimed the province’s concern was over community spread due to travel and holiday congregations. He asserted that requiring all students down to Grade 1 to wear masks would keep everyone safe, and that suspending March break was a necessary decision to protect kids’ mental health.

This is a hypocritical fraud. The vast majority of teachers, parents and working people recognize that travelling under pandemic conditions poses a severe threat, and have no intention of doing so. The most conspicuous travelers in recent months have been members of the political establishment and super-rich, including Lecce’s former colleague, the ex-Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips, who was forced to resign after jetting off to a private Caribbean resort as thousands died across Ontario in December.

While the Ford government claims to be protecting the health and well-being of education staff and students from the community transmission that may result from a small minority of travellers during March break, its policy of reopening schools is preparing the way for a much more catastrophic spread of COVID-19, including its more infectious variants. Multiple scientific studies have confirmed the central role that open schools played in triggering the pandemic’s devastating second wave.

With the support of the federal Liberal government, Ontario’s Conservative government and its provincial counterparts across Canada are preparing the way for a deadly third wave of the pandemic, a fact that is openly acknowledged by numerous medical experts. Commenting on the Ford government’s recent announcements concerning the reopening of schools and the economy, Dr. Michael Warner, the Director of Critical Care at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, said,“The hope that I had that we would have a little bit of light has been vanquished by this announcement by the government. It doesn't make any sense! I have not been able to encounter one scientist, an epidemiologist or infections doctor, who thinks this plan makes sense.”

The supposed safety measures put in place by the Ontario government to accompany the reopening of schools cannot even be described as a Band-Aid. In a school system with around 2 million students, Lecce boasted that the government will make available a mere 50,000 tests per week to test for asymptomatic cases. At that pace, it would take the best part of a year to test every student in Ontario just once! Moreover, given the government’s previous bungled efforts at mass testing and the rollout of vaccines, it is extremely doubtful that even its inadequate 50,000 target will be met.

The provincial government knows very well that schools are a major vector of transmission, yet it is doubling down on the lie that schools are safe. According to the Feb. 12 update on the Ontario government website responsible for tracking school outbreaks, 5,264 students, 1130 staff and 1125 unidentified individuals have been infected with COVID-19 since September. There are active outbreaks at 112 schools, four of which have been closed, with 167 cases reported in the previous 14 days. There have also been 2431 cases at licensed child care facilities, including 134 with active cases. 17 have closed their doors. Overall, the province has reported over 295,000 cases and 6,775 deaths since March.

The increased danger posed by virus mutations was highlighted by reports of two teachers in Brampton testing positive for the more infectious UK variant, and a student in Waterloo who likely also has a case of the same variant.

These developments underscore that it is impossible to safely organize in-person learning amid a raging pandemic. However, this will not stop the political elite from trying to force teachers, students, and their relatives to risk their lives on a daily basis, because the reopening of schools is seen as essential to boosting corporate profits. From the standpoint of the ruling class, children must return to in-person learning so that schools can function as holding pens, freeing up parents to fully participate in the “labour force,” churning out profits for big business.

Opposition among teachers and families to this homicidal course has been rising for weeks. Since November, educators at three Toronto-area schools have walked out to protest dangerous working conditions due to COVID-19 outbreaks. In the most recent example of this, 22 educational assistants and support staff walked off the job at Beverly Public School in late January. These determined struggles have been systematically sabotaged by the education unions, who insist that teachers and education assistants confine their protests to the reactionary anti-worker labour relations system, which is designed to impose the dictates of the government and big business.

Nine schools in northern Ontario, where schools reopened on January 11, had already reported cases by January 28. In response, Shannon Senior, an educational assistant and single mother with two school-aged children living in Sudbury wrote an open letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford denouncing the province’s school reopening. “None of our kids should be sick today. The schools should have been closed. This could have been prevented. It feels like we are a smaller community, so we have been overlooked,” she told the Sudbury Star. “One of the things that stood out to me a few weeks ago during Ford’s announcement was when he said that he doesn’t take the health and safety of our children lightly. I almost felt like saying you’re clearly not taking it lightly for your children, but what about ours?”

Six Capitol police suspended, 29 others under investigation for role in January 6 assault

Jacob Crosse

At a Thursday evening press conference, the Washington DC Capitol Police revealed that six Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay and 29 others are under investigation for their actions during the January 6 assault on Congress.

According to CNN, Democratic Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio said that one of the officers was suspended for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and taking selfies with insurrectionists. Another Capitol police officer, a lieutenant, was recorded on video wearing a MAGA hat and giving his bull horn to Trump supporters before leading them up the Capitol steps to pull officers under his command from the building.

Capitol Police officer willingly hands his bullhorn over to Trump supporter on January 6 (Screengrab YouTube User: Rico La Starza )

“Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman has directed that any member of her department whose behavior is not in keeping with the Department’s Rules of Conduct will face appropriate discipline,” Capitol police spokesman John Stolnis said in a statement.

In prepared remarks made last month to Congress, Pittman admitted that the department had “failed to meet its own high standards” and did not take the necessary steps to address the “strong potential for violence.”

She said: “By January 4, the Department knew that the January 6 event would not be like any of the previous protests held in 2020. We knew that militia groups and white supremacist organizations would be attending. We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. We knew that there was strong potential for violence and the Congress was the target.”

However, neither Pittman nor any official from the various police departments in the nation’s capital, nor any Pentagon official has explained the failure of the police and the military to protect the Capitol building from the fascist mob assembled and incited by ex-President Trump and his Republican accomplices. There was no serious police presence at the Capitol when the siege began, and it took hours for Trump’s hand-picked Pentagon officials to approve the dispatch of National Guard troops.

The Democratic Party conducted its impeachment and Senate trial of Trump in a manner guaranteed to cover up the role of Republican lawmakers, former Vice President Pence, and the military and police in aiding and abetting the mob. The Democrats also covered up the political aims of the insurrection—the outcome of a conspiracy to prevent the certification of the Electoral College vote and enable Trump to remain in power as dictator.

Now, within days of the Senate acquittal of Trump, the media and the Democrats have dropped any reference to the unprecedented attack on the Constitution and democratic rights.

In response to Pittman’s testimony, US Capitol Police union chair Gus Papathanasiou wrote in a statement last month that “this discourse that the entire executive team (former Chief Sund, now Acting Chief Pittman, and Assistant Chief Thomas) knew what was coming but did not better prepare us for potential violence, including the possible use of firearms against us, is unconscionable.”

Press reports on those who have been charged in the January 6 attack reveal that a substantial number are current or former police or active or former members of the military, many of whom are linked to far-right militias such as the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the III Percenters.

Unnamed police have reported seeing people with military or law enforcement credentials flashing their identification to gain passage through police lines.

Major media outlets have reported that at least 30 police or law enforcement officers have been confirmed as participants in the siege on the Capitol. An ongoing tally by the Appeal has catalogued media reports citing at least 40 police participants.

In a recent interview in the Los Angeles Times, Georgetown University Associate Law Professor Vida Johnson commented on a 2019 paper in which she found “white supremacist ideology” to be prevalent in police departments across the country. Johnson’s research documented “scandals in over 100 different police departments, in over 40 different states, in which individual police officers have sent overtly racist emails, texts or made racist comments via social media.”

A recent example of such activity was the sharing of a vile image mocking the police murder of George Floyd by Los Angeles Police Department officers.

Within the last five years, police and other law enforcement agencies in Virginia, Florida, Nebraska, Louisiana, Michigan and Texas have been forced to fire officers for belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.

Last year, the student newspaper, the Manual RedEye, uncovered a Kentucky State Police cadet training presentation that approvingly cited Adolf Hitler and Confederate General Robert E. Lee and taught cadets to be “ruthless killers.” Subsequent reporting by the Louisville Courier-Journal found that some of the violent images from the slideshow had been in use by the police training academy since 1998.

In Oklahoma, a petition seeking the removal of Canadian County Sheriff Chris West has garnered more than 3,000 signatures. West has confirmed that he marched on the Capitol on January 6 but denies storming the building. The current president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, David Mahoney, in an interview with the New York Times admitted that he passed on information to the FBI that West had made a “celebratory telephone call” from inside the Capitol.

In his role as sheriff, West has refused to enforce a mask mandate and has commissioned a civilian “posse” to “maintain order” at public demonstrations. He has agreed to detain immigrants on behalf of ICE and attended the 2019 Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) conference in Washington DC.

The elevation of far-right sheriffs continues in Michigan, where less than six months ago Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping and assassination plot in which some of the accused militia members freely associated and shared a stage with Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf.

Leaf is a leading member of the fascistic Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. A frequent featured speaker at the group’s annual convention, Leaf spoke at the last conference, which took place on September 30. In his speech, Leaf railed against “activist judges” and stated that the three branches of government were “biblical” in origin.

Following the November election, Leaf parroted Trump’s lying claims that the election had been stolen and filed a lawsuit against Whitmer, the state Board of Canvassers and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, claiming to have evidence of “massive election fraud.” The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Robert Jonker the day after it was filed.

While Biden proclaims “America is back,” imperialist conflicts dominate Munich conference

Bill Van Auken

US President Joe Biden used a live video broadcast Friday held in lieu of the annual Munich Security Conference to deliver his long-expected “America is Back” speech, waving the false banner of “democracy” to assert US global leadership in the “great power” confrontation with both Russia and China.

President Joe Biden participates in a virtual event with the Munich Security Conference in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Speaking at the video forum—made necessary by the still uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus in the advanced capitalist countries—Biden received a decidedly chilly reception from his fellow virtual panelists, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. Both stressed the independent interests of the European imperialist powers.

The title given to the livestreamed forum was “Beyond Westlessness.” In an opinion column written on the eve of the forum, Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German ambassador to the US and chairman of the Munich Security Conference, described a Europe “surrounded by a ‘ring of fire’—by bloody conflicts in the East, in Ukraine, and in the Caucasian region, but also in the South, around the eastern Mediterranean, and in our African neighborhood.”

He continued: “Great power competition has made a comeback. The rule-based international order and its institutional framework have been weakened. And we are faced with the massive impact of climate change and a global pandemic with potentially crippling effects on stability, prosperity, and human rights.”

As Biden’s remarks made clear, “America is back”—a phrase he repeated three times in his 20 minute speech—was less a promise than a threat. Behind it lies an even more aggressive and militaristic policy than that pursued by the administration of Donald Trump. His speech represented a thinly disguised demand that the European powers tie themselves unconditionally to Washington’s war wagon.

The US president insisted that the world confronted an “inflection point” in a supposed global struggle between “democracy” and “autocracy.”

Biden made a fleeting and oblique reference to the fascist coup attempt at the US Capitol on January 6, in which Trump attempted to overthrow not only the results of the presidential election, but the US constitutional order, and install himself as a presidential dictator.

Proclaiming that “shared democratic values” were the glue uniting Europe and America, Biden acknowledged that “none of us has fully succeeded in this vision.” He continued: “We continue to work toward it. And in so many places, including in Europe and the United States, democratic progress is under assault.”

That the events of January 6 leave Washington in no position to lecture anyone on democracy did not deter the US president from pivoting to an attack on China and Russia, portraying the two countries and their governments as an existential challenge to the Western world’s “shared democratic values.”

Biden suggested that the blame for the challenges facing democracy in the West lies entirely with nefarious Russian meddling. This, as both the US and Europe have seen the rise of ultra-right and fascistic movements, as well as the introduction of authoritarian and police state measures amid unprecedented levels of social inequality and the homicidal imposition of herd immunity policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Kremlin attacks our democracies and weaponizes corruption to try to undermine our system of governance,” Biden said, adding that “Putin seeks to weaken European—the European project and our NATO Alliance. He wants to undermine the transatlantic unity and our resolve.”

One of Washington’s main charges in terms of Russia undermining “transatlantic unity” has centered on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is nearly completed and will pipe Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany and other European customers.

On the eve of the Munich forum, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Washington is determined to stop the pipeline’s completion, claiming it will “enable the Putin regime to further weaponize Russia’s energy resources to exert political pressure throughout Europe.” The Biden administration is preparing fresh sanctions against companies involved in the project.

Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov responded pointedly to Washington’s threats, stating that “It would make sense for our American partners to be less interested in Nord Stream 2 and more interested in Texas’ heat and energy supply.”

Biden went on to demand that Europe align itself with US imperialism in order to “prepare together for a long-term strategic competition with China.” He called upon the NATO powers to jointly “push back against the Chinese government’s economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system.”

Under Biden, the US is escalating its military threats against China. In recent weeks, it has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups in the South China Sea and sent warships on provocative “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Taiwan Strait and near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands.

At the same time, China has supplanted the US as the European Union’s number one trading partner, and, at the end of last year, the EU and Beijing concluded a major investment treaty over Washington’s strenuous objections.

In a clear reference to the Trump administration’s “America First” policy and Trump’s crudely transactional attitude toward NATO, Biden said, “I know the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship,” adding that Washington was determined “to earn back our position of trusted leadership.”

The response of Washington’s NATO “partners,” however, left no doubt that Trump was far more a symptom of deep fissures in the transatlantic alliance than their cause, and that European imperialism is no more anxious to subordinate itself to Washington’s diktats under Biden than it was under Trump.

Both Germany’s Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron referred repeatedly to their support for “multilateralism,” by which they clearly meant their opposition to making an unconditional bloc with US imperialism against Moscow and Beijing.

Merkel began by citing the growing scope of the German military’s foreign interventions, including its role in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Africa.

She stressed the importance of an independent European defense policy, declaring that developments in Europe’s “neighborhood” are “more important to us,” including in Africa and Syria. Germany’s “relation with Africa has great strategic significance,” she added.

Macron was even more blunt. He began by expressing his own contempt for democracy, cynically stating that the most important thing was “protecting free speech” by regulating internet platforms to suppress “online hate.” This, as his government rams through an “anti-separatist” law that eviscerates democratic rights in the name of combatting Islamist “extremism.”

The French president stressed the need for a “new security architecture” and the necessity of “dialogue with Russia.” He repeatedly advocated “strategic autonomy” for the European Union, while suggesting that the US, with its escalating confrontation with China, was more interested in becoming a “Pacific power.”

Like Merkel, Macron insisted that Europe had to deal “with our neighborhood” and that its “agenda is not the same” as that of the US in terms of the “level of priorities.” He pointedly stated that this was something “we experienced in Syria in 2013,” when the Obama administration backed down from a regime-change intervention backed by Paris on the pretext of a poison gas attack that proved to have been staged by the Western-backed “rebels.”

The appearance of the three heads of state followed a virtual meeting of the Group of 7 that centered on the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly two-and-a-half-million people. While leaders of the major powers mouthed phrases about equality in combating the virus and providing vaccines to the most oppressed countries, none of them stated how many doses they would make available, or when.

At the Munich forum, Macron stressed the importance of sending at least enough doses to vaccinate health care workers in Africa, because of the increasing role being played on the continent by cheaper Russian and Chinese vaccines.

Biden’s first foray into international politics, cast by the corporate media as a radical departure from the policies pursued by Trump, has only demonstrated that the fissures dividing Washington and its nominal European allies are wider than ever. They cannot be contained within the structure of a NATO alliance formed when US imperialism still exercised global economic hegemony.

The working class all over the world is confronted with preparations for “great power conflict” and a new scramble by all the imperialist powers to recolonize the world, which threaten to plunge humanity into a new world war and nuclear annihilation. The virtual discussion between Biden, Merkel and Macron expresses both the immense dangers confronting the world population and the urgency of building a new mass antiwar movement based upon the international working class.

Rape allegations throw doubt over future of Australian prime minister

Mike Head

Allegations that a young female staff member was raped by a more senior male official inside a government ministerial office nearly two years ago suddenly erupted in the corporate media this week, raising questions about the political survival of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison (AP/Kiyoshi Ota)

Morrison told parliament on Thursday that his office had no knowledge of the allegations until last week, and he was not informed until Monday. But leaked email messages were published yesterday purporting to show that a senior officer in his office was notified in 2019, soon after the alleged sexual assault on the Liberal Party staffer, Brittany Higgins.

If the prime minister is found to have lied to parliament, he could be forced to resign. Whether the incident is used for that purpose is not yet clear, but it certainly has become a possibility.

By Wednesday, the Australian said “the political crisis” was “engulfing the Morrison government.” Australian Financial Review political editor Phillip Coorey said the government was “reeling from the allegations,” writing: “The events of this week have highlighted just how quickly the government’s fortunes can run off the rails.”

There is a long history of sexual assault accusations, even if untested, being exploited for political purposes. That needs to be borne in mind while assessing the scandal that is wracking the Liberal-National Coalition government. Many questions remain unanswered about this affair, but underlying political agendas seem to be driving events.

High-level sources within the government are evidently leaking emails, and working closely with the media, to accuse Morrison of being aware within days of the alleged rape, which occurred in then-Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ office on March 23, 2019, less than two months before the federal election of May 18.

The Australian reported yesterday it had obtained a text message sent to Higgins by a fellow Liberal staffer on the morning of April 3, 2019, within a fortnight of the alleged rape. In the text the Liberal staffer said he had spoken directly with a member of Morrison’s staff. Other media outlets later broadcast copies of the text.

“Spoke to PMO [Prime Minister’s Office]. He was mortified to hear about it and how things have been handled,” the text says. “He’s going to discuss with COS [Chief of Staff]—no one else.”

Morrison announced yesterday that the head of his prime minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens, would investigate the matter and check the phone records of his office. This is the fourth investigation into the affair that Morrison has announced this week.

Even before the publication of the leaked email, prominent figures in the political establishment had described as “implausible” or “unpersuasive” Morrison’s claim that he knew nothing about the incident until Monday, when the allegations were made public by news.com.au, a Murdoch media platform.

Among those casting doubt on Morrison’s denials were Malcolm Turnbull, whom Morrison replaced as Liberal leader and prime minister in August 2018; Kevin Rudd, a former Labor Party prime minister; and Peta Credlin, who was chief of staff to Tony Abbott, whom Turnbull had deposed in September 2015.

Questions have been raised also about the fate of Reynolds, whom Morrison elevated into cabinet as defence minister following the 2019 election. Photographs were broadcast of her in tears in the Senate on Thursday after publicly apologising for a second time for what she said was her failure to offer Higgins more support following the alleged rape.

On Tuesday, Morrison had openly criticised Reynolds, declaring that she should have told him about the incident. He told parliament it was not “acceptable” that Reynolds knew for almost two years but did not inform him. Later, Nine Media reported that at least five Liberal Party MPs said Reynolds should resign.

On Wednesday, Higgins escalated the spotlight on Morrison. She alleged that Morrison’s principal private secretary Yaron Finkelstein had called her to “check in” around the time an Australian Broadcasting Corporation “Four Corners” program into alleged sexual harassment in the Liberal Party was aired last November. And “sources close to Ms Higgins” said at least one other adviser in Morrison’s office had been notified about the rape allegations as early as 2019.

Yesterday, Higgins issued a statement saying she was now asking the Australian Federal Police to investigate the alleged rape and lay charges, something she had declined to do in 2019. This announcement followed four days in which Higgins and her supporters had aired the accusations throughout the media.

These are methods pioneered by the “MeToo” movement, in which targeted figures are subjected to trial by media, with allegations widely reported as fact, overturning the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

Among the unanswered questions about the scandal are: Who initiated this public raising of the allegations nearly two years after the events? Who is advising Higgins? Who is leaking against Morrison?

What is known is that the scandal was launched by an apparently well-prepared dossier presented via news.com.au. The Australian, another Murdoch outlet, reported: “According to a detailed document that was provided by Ms Higgins—which includes a timeline of events, as well as emails and text messages between herself and Liberal Party staffers about the alleged rape—she claims that Senator Reynolds and her acting chief of staff Fiona Brown ‘directly addressed’ the alleged sexual assault with her once.

“Ms Higgins said she was given the option to go home to the Gold Coast during the 2019 election campaign—but was told that this would affect her ability to reapply for a future Liberal Party job or she could stay in Western Australia with Perth-based Senator Reynolds for the campaign, which she did.”

After the election, Higgins was offered jobs by four senior government ministers, before ultimately taking a post in the office of Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, from which she resigned a month ago.

Increasingly, evidence has emerged this week of a protracted cover-up of the incident, involving Liberal Party figures, parliamentary presiding officers and official investigators.

Government sources said the former ministerial adviser accused of rape by Higgins was sacked for “security breaches” on March 26, 2019, three days after the incident.

A parliamentary inquiry later secretly examined the rape allegation after parliamentary security guards raised concerns. A guard said that Higgins was found half-naked and disoriented in the ministerial suite, indicating that an incident had occurred, but the room in which the rape was allegedly committed was steam-cleaned the next day, potentially destroying evidence.

Yet House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith and Senate President Scott Ryan reportedly accepted a report last October that found the evidence did not substantiate claims that senior officials had asked the guards to amend incident reports to minimise the event and remove key information.

Among the four investigations that Morrison has announced in an effort to smother the allegations, is one proposed by the Labor Party opposition Anthony Albanese. This supposed independent review into parliament’s “workplace culture” is a diversion that amounts to another effort by Labor to shore up the government and the parliamentary order, as it has done throughout the bushfire and COVID-19 disasters.

How far this affair goes remains to be seen, but it has further punctured the media-created myth of Morrison’s government being strong or stable. It confronts a historic economic and public health crisis, and concerns that deepening working class discontent will erupt.

All week, the Murdoch media has continued to promote the information throwing Morrison’s conduct into doubt, with the evident intent of either forcing his resignation or disciplining his government. An Australian editorial on Wednesday criticised the government’s response and warned: “The political ramifications of the drama are potentially enormous.”

Both the Australian and the Australian Financial Review (AFR) have expressed mounting frustration with the government’s refusal to more aggressively pursue “industrial relations reform” to further attack workers’ jobs and conditions amid the “biggest health and economic crisis in generations.”

Pentagon report reveals growth of fascistic networks within US military

Jacob Crosse

On Thursday, California Democratic Representative Peter Aguilar announced that he would be introducing legislation based on the findings of an October 2020 Pentagon report that lists seven recommendations aimed at curbing the growth of far-right “domestic extremists” within the US military.

“This report confirms that white supremacist extremists are attempting to use our military to acquire training, new recruits and validity for their hateful and violent causes,” Aguilar said in a press release dated February 18. Aguilar is the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus and he sits on the subcommittees for Defense and Homeland Security.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visits National Guard troops deployed at the U.S. Capitol and its perimeter, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Pool)

The fifty nine-page report does not give the number of suspected “domestic extremists” operating within the US military. Its recommendations, such as gaining access to an FBI tattoo database, are meant to screen out open fascists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists before they join, as opposed to ejecting those already in the ranks.

Citing research compiled by the New America Foundation between September 12, 2001 and June, 11 2016, the report notes that “right-wing extremists were responsible for more deaths in the US than any other type of extremists.” It acknowledges that some fascists are currently operating within the military even after they have been identified as such by military leadership.

The release of the report coincided with confirmation by Defense Department officials that nearly 5,000 US troops will remain in the capital until at least mid-March, following intelligence and open source reports that far-right forces loyal to Trump will assemble in Washington DC on or around March 4.

NPR and other media outlets have reported that as many as 15 percent of those arrested in connection with the January 6 siege of the US Capitol are current or former military personnel. The military is already in the midst of an unprecedented 60-day stand-down ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this month “to discuss the problem of extremism in the ranks.”

The document begins by acknowledging that the Department of Defense is “facing a threat from domestic extremists (DE), particularly those who espouse white supremacy or white nationalist ideologies.” It goes on to say that “despite a low number of cases in absolute terms, individuals with extremist affiliations and military experience are a concern to US national security because of their proven ability to execute high-impact events.”

The report asserts that since 2014, the US has “witnessed a resurgence in white supremacy and white nationalist activity.” It takes note of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, calling it “the country’s largest gathering of white supremacists in decades.” It also cites the proliferation of fascist shooters “inspired” by Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Breivik, including Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant and El Paso, Texas shooter Patrick Crusius.

Admitting that the number of current and former military personnel who subscribe to “white supremacist” or “white nationalist” ideology is unknown, the report cites, in a footnote, a Military Times poll from last year that found that roughly one-third of those in the military had witnessed signs of “white supremacy” in the ranks.

The report cites three groups, identified as “domestic terrorists'” and “domestic extremists,” that are targeting the military for recruitment and training. The groups “were selected for discussion because of their activity and connections with current and former military service personnel,” the report states. It names the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division (AWD), Identify Evropa (since rebranded as the American Identity Movement—AIM) and unaffiliated white supremacists and white nationalists.

The AWD officially disbanded in July 2020 and renamed itself the National Socialist Order. Prior to its rebranding, the group had an estimated membership of about 80 in the US, with affiliated cells in Europe and the Baltic States. It was co-founded in 2015 by Florida resident Brandon Russell, who would go on to enlist in the Florida National Guard shortly after creating the group.

Tattoo of Atomwaffen Division on shoulder of Brandon Russell (US Government)

Since its founding, the AWD has been involved in multiple murders and terrorist plots. Prior to enlisting, Russell had a large AWD “radioactive” symbol tattooed on his right shoulder, with the Waffen-Schutzstaffell (SS) shield encompassing it. The tattoo and Russell’s openly fascist views did not trigger alarm bells during his screening process or once he was in the military.

The report cited at least 4 AWD members who were in the military, one of whom was a recruiter for the AWD who allegedly was trying to bring 12 more like-minded individuals into the Navy.

In excerpts taken from the now-defunct Iron March online forum in 2016, Russell confidently replied to a fellow fascist concerned that he might be outed by soldiers or superior officers “I was 100 percent open about everything with the friends I made at training,” he said. “They know about it all. They love me too cause I’m a funny guy.”

In January 2018, Russell, then 22, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosive materials. Police discovered extensive bomb-making material, along with a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, flags and a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber and Army veteran Timothy McVeigh in the Tampa, Florida apartment Russell shared with another AWD member.

The report cites another exchange from the Iron March forum in which an infantry soldier admitted, “I’ve met quite a few rightists—some openly National Socialist, lots of neo-Nazis, others just nationalist, others red-pilled conservatives... You see plenty ‘of our kind’ in the combat arms.”

The post ends: “A good way people in the military find other rightists is to simply wear a shirt with some obscure fascist logo. I met my good buddy at a brigade luncheon when he noticed the Totenkopf on my shirt. On most bases, you can see the occasional right-wing symbol. Sun wheel there, 88 here, Mussolini’s face over there, a Templar cross tattoo. The symbols of SS units are especially common, even on things as public as cars, flags and helmets.”

The other major named group cited in the report is the Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement. In contrast to the AWD, IE/AIM is not an explicitly violent organization. Instead, its members have described their aim as creating “a better world for people of European heritage, particularly in America, by peacefully effecting cultural change” through “five principles: nationalism, identariatism, protectionism, non-interventionism, and populism.”

American Identity Movement propaganda (US government)

The report names 13 current or former soldiers who were identified as IE/AIM members, with multiple soldiers still in the military even after being identified as IE/AIM members. These include a lieutenant colonel serving as a physician in the Army Reserve, a US Air Force master sergeant who has been demoted to technical sergeant, a Texas Army National Guard soldier and a Minnesota National Guard soldier who was allowed to remain in the Guard after undefined “corrective action” was taken.

In the section discussing members of the “unaffiliated white supremacists movement,” the report cites the arrests of an Army reservist and two military veterans in Las Vegas this past summer. Andrew Lynam, Stephen Parshall and William Loomis are all suspected members of the Boogaloo movement. They were indicted on terrorism and explosives charges in July 2020 in connection with an alleged scheme to cause violence between police and anti-police violence protesters by throwing Molotov cocktails at police during protests.

The report, titled “Leveraging FBI Resources to Enhance Military Accessions Screening and Personnel Security Vetting,” has largely been ignored by the mainstream press. It was commissioned after representative Aguilar filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 directing the secretary of defense to submit a report on the “feasibility” of using the FBI’s Tattoo and Graffiti Identification Program and the National Gang Intelligence Center to screen those seeking to enlist for white nationalist and other extremist connections.

In addition to the Pentagon gaining access to the FBI database on tattoos, the report recommends an updating of the Standard Form 86, which is used for background checks, that DoD officials be offered an unclassified version of the FBI’s Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism training program, and that the Department of Defense contract with data companies to screen potential recruits’ social media accounts for evidence of extremism.

It also recommends that the Defense Department establish a special designation across all branches for those discharged for domestic extremist activity and that the Defense Department “collaborate with pertinent governmental stakeholders to develop a specific definition for domestic extremists across the whole of government.”

Dancing on the Edge Scholarship Program 2021

Application Deadline: 15th March 2021

Eligible Countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.

To be taken at (country): Amsterdam, The Netherlands

About the Award: We are calling the new generation of contemporary dancers from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) for the Dancing on the Edge Scholarship Program 2021. Dancing on the Edge (DOTE) offers scholarships to young talent from the MENA region to attend a three-week Summer dance workshop program.

In 2021, depending on the development around Covid-19, this will either be offline in Amsterdam (attending the three-week Amsterdam Summer Intensive) or online in the three-week Online Masterclass Program. On the application form, you can let us know if you are interested to participate in both programs, or just one or the other.

Type: Training

Eligibility: Dancers applying must:

• come from (and be at least partly based in) an Arab country or Iran
• have at least some (and preferably substantial) training and performance experience in contemporary dance 
• be no older than 27 years 
• For the offline program: be capable of travelling and living independently for this period 
• For the offline program: have enough resources to pay for food and other living expenses that may occur in this period 
• For the offline program: have or be able to acquire health/travel insurance for this period 
• For the offline program: arrange their own visa if necessary (with the help of organizing parties) 

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Duration of Scholarship: 3 weeks 

Value of Scholarship: The scholarships cover travel and visa expenses, accommodation, program fees, and some performance tickets. There is no per diem: participants are expected to pay for their own living and other expenses. They should also pay their own travel/health insurance.

How to Apply: Please fill in this form before March 1st 2021, after this application deadline the form will close and you will not be able to apply anymore. The next call for the 2022 Scholarships will open in December 2021.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Fellowship Programme 2021

Application Deadline: 8th August 2021 9:59:00 PM

Eligible Countries: FAO Member countries.

To Be Taken At (Country): FAO Regional, Sub-regional, Country Offices Liaison Offices and headquarters.

About the Award: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger and to support development in member countries in the areas of agriculture, fisheries and forestry. FAO’s mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy.

The Fellowship Programme is designed to attract fellows, typically PhD students, researchers and professors, who have an advanced level of relevant technical knowledge and experience in any field of the Organization. They are willing to fulfil their specialized learning objectives and at the same time, contribute their technical expertise and knowledge through time-bound arrangements with FAO. Assignments should be in line with FAO Strategic Objectives and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility:

• Graduate or post-graduate degree (Master’s or PhD) or be enrolled in a PhD programme.
• Working knowledge of at least one FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish). Knowledge of a second FAO language will be considered an asset. Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE and LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications.
• Be nationals of FAO Member Nations
• Age: no age limits.
• Candidates should be able to adapt to an international multicultural environment and have good communication skills.
• Candidates with family members (defined as brother, sister, mother, father, son or daughter) employed by FAO under any type of contractual arrangement are not be eligible for the Fellows Programme.
• Candidates should have appropriate residence or immigration status in the country of assignment.

Selection Criteria: Candidates may be assigned in a field relevant to the mission and work of FAO.

Number of Awards: Numerous

Duration of Program: According to time bound agreement with hiring office

How to Apply: 

• To apply, visit the recruitment website Jobs at FAO  at FAO and complete your online profile. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered.
• Candidates are requested to attach to their application a research proposal, copy of their academic qualifications and copies of their language proficiency certificates.

Visit Program Webpage for Details

Important Notes: 

• Qualified female applicants and qualified nationals of non- and under-represented member countries are encouraged to apply.
• Persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
• FAO strongly encourages candidates from the Global South and Indigenous Peoples to apply to this Call for Expression of Interest

Government of Mauritius Africa Scholarships 2021/2022

Application Deadlines: 

• Electronic application to be submitted: 30th April 2021
• Hard copies to be submitted: 14th May 2021

Eligible Countries: Countries in the African Union

To be taken at (country): Mauritius

Type: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD

Eligibility: 

• Applicants should be above 18 years of age and should not have reached their 26th birthday at the closing date of application;
• For Master’s programmes, applicants should not have reached 35 years and,
• for PhD programmes, applicants should not have reached 45 years by the closing date of application
• Applicants must have applied for full-time on-campus studies at any public Tertiary Education Institution in Mauritius for academic year starting in 2021;
• The scholarship will be for a maximum of four (4) years or the minimum course duration whichever is lesser.
• Qualification entry requirements
  • Candidates should have successfully completed end of secondary school to be eligible and should satisfy the minimum grade requirements as indicated below: : (i) 24 points at GCE A – Level which will be computed on the basis of the following grades obtained in three Principal subjects: A+=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6 & E=5; OR (ii) at least an overall average of 70% or an overall average of, 14/20; OR (iii) criteria equivalent to (i) or (ii) above.
  • In case the language of instruction is not English in the qualifying examination, the candidate will have to provide a valid TOEFL or IELTS test results with a minimum score not less than 550 or 5.5 respectively, or an appropriate proof of English Language proficiency.
• Candidates who are already holders of an undergraduate degree will NOT be eligible under this scholarship scheme.
• Self-financing candidates already studying in Mauritius in will NOT be eligible under this Scholarship scheme.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The Scholarship will support successful candidates in meeting tuition fees and contribute to their living expenses during their studies in Mauritius. Furthermore, the airfare, by the most economical route, from the country of origin at the beginning of studies and back to the country of origin at the end of the studies will be covered. This will be valid for travel from the country of origin at the beginning of the studies and back to the country of origin upon successful completion of studies.

Duration of Scholarship: 

• Undergraduate Diploma Three (3) years
• Undergraduate Degree Four (4) years
• Master’s Two (2) years
• PhD Three (3) years

How to Apply: 

​List of African Union M​ember States ​

​Guidelines for Nominating Agencies

​Guidelines for Applicants – Diploma and Undergraduate Degree

Guidelines for Applicants – Masters Progra​​mmes​

​Guidelines for Applicants – Mphil/PhD Programmes

​​​Application Form Undergraduate Programmes Application Form Undergraduate Programmes

Application Form Postgraduate Programmes​ Application Form Postgraduate Programmes​

​National Endorsement Form​ National Endorsement Form

It is important to go through all Application Requirements for application instructions before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

OWSD PhD Fellowships 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 15th April 2021

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): The award will give nominated students the opportunity  to study in centres of excellence in the developing world, and help educate the next generation of mathematicians thereby advancing science in the home countries of those chosen for the fellowship.

Fields of Study:

01-Agricultural Sciences
02-Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology
03-Biological Systems and Organisms
04-Medical and Health Sciences incl. Neurosciences
05-Chemical Sciences
06-Engineering Sciences
08-Mathematical Sciences
09-Physics

About the Award: The “South to South PhD Training” fellowships for Women Scientists from Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs) to undertake PhD research in the Natural, Engineering and Information Technology sciences at a host institute in the South. The fellowships are to be held at a centre of excellence in a developing country outside the applicant’s own country.

Candidates can choose between two study schemes:

• a full-time fellowship (maximum 4 years funding), where the research is undertaken entirely at a host institute in another developing country in the South.
• a sandwich fellowship, where the candidate must be a registered PhD student in her home country and undertakes part of her studies at a host institute in another developing country.
  The sandwich fellowship is awarded for a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 research visits at the host institute. The minimum duration of the first visit is 6 months. The total number of months spent at the host institute cannot exceed 20 months. The funding period cannot exceed 4 years.
  OWSD particularly encourages candidates to consider the sandwich option, which allows them to earn the PhD in their home country while accessing specialist researchers and equipment abroad, at the host institute.

The fellowship support is only provided while the student is on site, at the host institute.

Type: Postgraduate (Doctorate)

Eligibility: To be eligible, candidates must confirm that they intend to return to their home country as soon as possible after completion of the fellowship.

The minimum qualification is an MSc degree in one of the above listed study fields.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Each fellowship will cover the following:

• A monthly allowance to cover basic living expenses such as accommodation and meals while in the host country
• A special allowance to attend international conferences during the period of the fellowship
• A return ticket from the home country to the host institute for the agreed research period
• Visa expenses
• Annual medical insurance contribution
• The opportunity to attend regional science communications workshops, on a competitive basis
• Study fees (including tuition and registration fees) in agreement with the chosen host institute which is also expected to contribute
• Travel expenses to and from the host institute

Duration of Award: up to four years

How to Apply: The online application system will only accept applications complete in all parts, including the required documents. All documents must be uploaded through the online application system. Do not email any document to OWSD unless requested.

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

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details