Australian Treasury flags 150,000 job losses as JobKeeper ends

Martin Scott

Millions of workers in Australia who have been depending on JobKeeper wage subsidies or increased JobSeeker dole payments during the COVID-19 pandemic face losing their jobs and being thrust into poverty when the Liberal-National government scraps the schemes tomorrow.

Workers queuing outside an inner-western Sydney Centrelink office [Credit: WSWS]

The same prospect confronts thousands of self-employed workers and small business operators, with the social crisis intensified by the end of remaining moratoriums on rents, mortgages, utility bills and business insolvencies.

While the corporate media has again focused this week on mounting sexual misconduct allegations against the government, the impact of the JobKeeper and JobSeeker measures on workers, especially those in low-paid and insecure jobs, and the unemployed has been largely buried from view.

After months of government cover-up of the expected losses, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy told an Australian parliamentary committee on Wednesday that his department expected up to 150,000 workers to become jobless, and indicated that up to 110,000 small businesses could collapse, following the end of JobKeeper.

Kennedy reported that in February, 88,000 workers being paid wages via the JobKeeper scheme remained on zero or very low hours and 110,000 small businesses receiving JobKeeper subsidies had seen their December quarter turnovers fall by more than 75 percent compared to 2019, throwing doubt on their survival.

Overall, 1.1 million workers and around 370,000 businesses were still relying on the wage subsidy, despite the government and media claims of a “remarkable recovery.” These figures suggest that the Treasury estimate may be an understatement of the social crisis. This month, University of Melbourne economist Professor Jeff Borland estimated up to 250,000 jobs would be lost once JobKeeper ended.

Coinciding with the end of the JobSeeker “Coronavirus Supplement” for 1.6 million jobless workers, the cessation of the JobKeeper subsidies of $500 a week means that close to two million unemployed workers could be forced to survive on just $44 a day—well below the semi-official poverty line.

Echoing previous statements by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Kennedy claimed it was necessary to terminate the scheme because, “it distorts wage relativities, it dampens incentives to work, it hampers labour mobility and the reallocation of workers to more productive roles.”

In other words, the payments stand in the way of big business demands for further restructuring of the workforce, involving the further cutting of wages and conditions and destruction of full-time jobs in favour of part-time and casual employment.

While the JobKeeper wage subsidy was primarily a $90 billion handout to big business, it did keep a significant number of workers employed on at least a part-time basis, and stave off insolvency for many small businesses and sole traders.

At the same time, all remaining COVID-19 safety measures are rapidly being lifted at the behest of big business, the country’s vaccine rollout has barely begun and fundamental problems with hotel quarantine facilities remain unresolved. That means further outbreaks of more transmissible variants of the virus, as currently occurring in Brisbane, are entirely probable.

With the slashing of the already inadequate JobKeeper and JobSeeker income support schemes, any necessary reintroduction of state border closures, lockdowns and capacity restrictions could mean the end for many small businesses and sole traders who have survived the past 12 months.

JobKeeper’s termination will be felt most severely in the tourism and live entertainment sectors. The tourism industry, already heavily impacted by the 2019–20 bushfires, lost an estimated $59.1 billion between January and September 2020.

In the far north Queensland city of Cairns, 1,821 businesses received JobKeeper payments in December, in a population of less than 160,000. Around 8,000 workers—10 percent of the local workforce—are directly employed in tourism and hospitality, and at least 4,000 more are employed indirectly.

The government’s recent announcement of $1.2 billion in “targeted support” for the tourism industry consisted of a further handout to major airlines Qantas and Virgin, which last year sacked tens of thousands of workers despite pocketing vast sums from JobKeeper and other bailout measures.

A recent survey by Live Performance Australia found that 90 percent of live entertainment companies were still relying on JobKeeper, and one third said they would be forced to retrench staff when the wage subsidy ended.

For all the hype about “recovery,” according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), only the business services sector, which encompasses telecommunications, financial services and real estate, saw an increase in full-time employment between February and November 2020.

While part-time employment in goods-related industries covering retail, mining and manufacturing grew by around 25,000, twice that number of full-time jobs were lost in that sector. Small increases in mining and utilities positions were vastly outweighed by the destruction of more than 100,000 full-time jobs in manufacturing, wholesale trade and logistics.

In household services, which includes health, education, arts and accommodation, just a handful of new part-time positions were created, while around 130,000 full-time and 60,000 part-time jobs were scrapped. During the first wave of the pandemic, around 40,000 full-time jobs were even lost in health care and social assistance.

Young workers have suffered the most, especially those without university qualifications. While the rate of employment (as officially defined) for workers older than 24 has essentially returned to the pre-pandemic level, the rate for younger workers has decreased by around 2 percentage points.

The employment rate for those not in full-time education fell 4.2 points. The employment rate fell by 17.5 points for those whose highest level of education is a diploma or vocational certificate, 9.8 points for those who completed Year 11 or 12, and 14.1 points for those who left high school earlier.

Professor Borland noted that the impact of COVID-19 had severely worsened the employment prospects of young people, “exacerbating the long-run trend underway since the GFC [global financial crisis]” of 2008–09.

Working class households will be hit the hardest. A recent report by Deloitte Access Economics predicted retail spending, which jumped 6.4 percent last year, will slow as a result of the termination of JobKeeper and the JobSeeker supplement. Deloitte noted: “Our fiscal stimulus tap has been turned down to a drip, meaning less money for households to spend.”

In recent weeks, the Labor Party, the trade unions and the corporate media have belatedly criticised the exploitation of the JobKeeper scheme by major corporations that have recorded record profits on the back of billions of dollars in wage subsidies.

Retailer Kathmandu’s board declared this week, for example, that it will not return $18.5 million in government grants and wage subsidies, despite reporting a 32.8 percent increase in profit to $21.2 million over the past six months.

Likewise, one fifth of the top 300 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange received the wage subsidy in the second half of 2020 before reporting increases in year-over-year earnings. Morrison, however, denied this was a problem, saying “a profitable company is putting people in work.”

In reality, such outcomes were always intended by JobKeeper, which Labor and the unions helped the government design and agreed to give employers sweeping powers to reduce workers’ hours and change their duties.

Labor and the unions worked hand-in-glove with the government to introduce JobKeeper and the JobSeeker supplement last March in order to head off an explosion of working class unrest over the worst mass unemployment since the 1930s Great Depression.

With big business now shored up, these schemes are being scrapped to ensure there is a large base of desperate unemployed workers to be coerced into poorly-paid and insecure work. This will trigger immense discontent and working-class struggles.

Australian government and media seek to bury Afghanistan war crimes

Oscar Grenfell

Four months after the government-commissioned Brereton report said there was “credible evidence” of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, including the murder of at least 39 civilians and prisoners, and multiple acts of torture, the perpetrators remain in the military. No investigations for criminal prosecutions have begun.

Australian Special Air Service (SAS) soldier murdering unarmed Afghan civilian [Screenshot from video leaked to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in March 2020]

This is only the starkest expression of an ongoing cover-up involving the Liberal-National Coalition government, the Labor Party opposition, multiple state agencies and the official media. For years they have sought to hide evidence of the atrocities, which occurred under a Labor government between 2009 and 2013.

The Brereton report was a damage-control operation, initiated after some details were leaked to the media. It suppressed more information than it revealed and absolved governments and senior military command of any responsibility, based on the implausible assertion that they had been unaware of the crimes. The report’s release was greeted by brief hand-wringing from politicians and the media over the impact that the revelations would have on “our military.” The issue was then dropped almost entirely.

It resurfaced at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday. Chris Moraitis, director-general of the Office of the Special Investigator, established at the recommendation of the Brereton report to conduct a criminal investigation into the allegations, provided an update on the progress of its work.

In short, Moraitis indicated that the body he heads has done virtually nothing. The organisation does not even have any investigators.

“We’re in the process of engaging investigators and we’re going to do that in the next one, two, three months,” Moraitis said. “That involves them being sworn in as special members of the Australian Federal Police and involves at least three weeks of induction in preparation, and involves us also doing a few other things.”

Moraitis is clearly working to a timetable prepared by the government. After the report’s release last November, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and other government representatives declared that any criminal prosecutions, if they eventuated at all, would likely take up to a decade. These statements had the character of a directive rather than a prediction.

Moraitis’ comments underscored the character of the Brereton report, as a continuation of the cover-up. Conducted in secret, it was dragged out from 2016 to 2020. Investigators provided an untold number of military personnel with immunity for testimony, and much of the evidence was given on the proviso that it could not be used in a court. This was justified on the pretext of encouraging witnesses and participants in the crimes to testify freely.

The overwhelming majority of the material remains classified. The publicly-released version of the report contains few details that had not been previously reported in the media. Its descriptions of the war crimes were as vague as possible.

The main outcome of the Brereton investigation was to create a potential legal minefield, as to what evidence is admissible and what is not. Moraitis said his staff were sifting through the Brereton material to “help ensure investigators will only receive information they can lawfully obtain and use in criminal investigations and any future criminal proceedings.” This process is being conducted under a shroud of secrecy.

Moraitis’ testimony followed a report in the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph on March 16, which revealed that at least some of the 25 soldiers implicated in the war crimes remain in the military. The alleged criminals would not be sacked. They would be allowed to discharge from the army on unspecified “medical grounds.” No other media outlet picked up the story.

The article, apparently based on information provided from within the military, appeared just days before the Coalition, Labor, the Greens and other MPs voted for a royal commission into the treatment of military veterans and their high rates of suicide. The timing indicates that the hardships faced by soldiers, resulting from their deployment to predatory and illegal wars, will be exploited to obfuscate the criminality of what occurred in Afghanistan.

As for the victims and their relatives, the Coalition government stated after the release of the Brereton report that it did not intend to provide them with any compensation. A Google search indicates that the issue was last mentioned in the corporate media in December.

The obvious attempts to forestall any criminal prosecutions of the soldiers involved are all the more extraordinary, given that millions of people have seen cast-iron evidence of at least some of the crimes.

Last March, for instance, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation published footage from a soldiers’ helmet camera, showing the point-blank execution of an unarmed Afghan civilian in 2012. Had the murder occurred in any other context, the perpetrator would have been arrested, charged and sentenced years ago. Military whistleblowers, as well as Afghan victims, have also provided eyewitness accounts of some of the crimes to the media.

The bid to prevent the cases from ever reaching a court is motivated by several factors. When the report was released, some of the soldiers implicated indicated through the press that they felt “betrayed” and “scapegoated.” Shortly after, an image was leaked to the media, showing a senior special forces commander drinking beer from the prosthetic leg of a dead Afghan.

It was rapidly revealed that the man pictured was warrant officer John Letch. When he stood down after the publication, Letch was the Command Sergeant Major of Special Operations Command. Letch had worked at Army Headquarters and Headquarters Special Operations Command.

Whoever leaked the image of Letch, it was directed against the claim of the Brereton report that no one above the level of squadron command was aware of the violations of international law. The government and military command are undoubtedly fearful that if soldiers are tried, they will testify that they were merely following orders.

Many of the murders occurred after the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard ordered greater involvement of Australian troops in US-led “kill and capture” raids, supposedly targeting insurgent leaders in 2011.

In April 2013, then Chief of the Defence Force General David Hurley issued a secret directive to soldiers, warning that they could be “exposed to criminal and disciplinary liability, including potentially the war crime of murder” if they could not prove that those they killed were participating in hostilities. In other words, the crimes flowed from the government-led prosecution of a neo-colonial war, and were known to military command.

Clearly, there are also concerns that the true scale of the war crimes could be revealed if the alleged perpetrators are pressed in court. The Brereton inquiry acknowledged that there were likely many more incidents that were not covered in its report.

The latest proof that murder and torture were commonly used instruments of the occupation was provided by Shamsurahman Mamond, who worked as a translator for the Australian military in Uruzgan Province.

Mamond told the Special Broadcasting Service this week: “[In the] provincial reconstruction team, it was our job to connect with local elders and local people. They were coming and telling us what was going on out in the fields. They would say, ‘They’re destroying the whole house. They’re killing the kids and ladies and everyone because they’re looking for insurgents and Taliban.’”

The translator indicated that torture was routine at the Australian base in the town of Tarin Kowt. “My accommodation was a few metres away from the jail,” he said. “I saw sometimes they were taking people out of the car like toys, we also sometimes heard people yelling, it was sad because if someone is in the detention centre, they don’t have a weapon, they are not a threat anymore, there was no necessity for punishment.”

Such information runs counter to the promotion of the military by the entire political and media establishment, and preparations for its involvement in new and even greater crimes.

The last major media mention of the war crimes came in December, when Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry representative, tweeted a condemnation of the killings. This was accompanied by a graphic, produced by a visual artist, showing an Australian soldier holding a knife to the neck of an Afghan child. The picture clearly referred to an incident described in the Brereton report, involving soldiers slashing the throats of two 14-year-old boys.

Labor, the Liberal-Nationals, the Greens and various independents all denounced Zhao’s tweet as a Chinese “attack” on Australian soldiers. The media treated the tweet as a far more serious offence than the killings themselves.

The hysterical reaction was a warning that ongoing exposure of the military was beyond the pale and would be treated as treasonous and “un-Australian.” This was directed against anti-war opposition, and was the signal for the war crimes to be dropped entirely from the press.

The denunciation of China also highlighted the fact that the cover-up of the war crimes is aimed at ensuring that the crimes conducted in Afghanistan do not get in the way of the preparations for Australia to play a frontline role in US plans for a catastrophic war against China.

US-backed UNHRC resolution puts Sri Lanka on notice

K. Ratnayake

On Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a new resolution on Sri Lanka and called on the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to monitor human rights violations in the country.

Tamil families fleeing war in January 2009 [Source: Wikimedia]

The resolution was presented by the UNHRC’s “Core Group on Sri Lanka,” whose members include the UK, Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Malawi. The US State Department issued a statement declaring that it was a co-sponsor.

Entitled “Promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka,” the purpose of the resolution is to pressure President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s government to break relations with China and more actively integrate with Washington’s military-strategic preparations against China. The resolution was supported by 22 countries, with 11 in opposition and 14 abstentions.

Senior Sri Lankan leaders, including President Rajapakse himself, heavily lobbied the UNHRC members to oppose the resolution. The US and UK intensely campaigned to isolate and reduce support for Colombo. The media reported that it was the lowest number of votes for Sri Lanka, when similar UNHRC resolutions were first moved against the country.

Washington backed a 2009 resolution a month after Colombo’s ended its bloody war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and sponsored all UNHRC resolutions on Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2017.

This week’s 16-point resolution called for the devolution of power, protection of human rights, and a “review” of the prevention of terrorism act, accountability, respect of religious freedoms and protection human rights defenders. It also expressed concerns about militarisation of the civilian government.

In formulating the resolution, its sponsors have cynically exploited the anti-democratic measures of the Colombo government. Accountability is a reference to the crimes committed during the final months of the war against the LTTE when at least 40,000 civilians were killed, including surrendering LTTE leaders. The Tamil population has continuously demanded Colombo provide information about the hundreds of young men disappeared after surrendering to the army.

In recent months, the Rajapakse regime has inflamed anti-Islamic sentiment and alienated the community with the forcible cremation of Muslims killed by COVID-19. It has also stepped up the militarisation of his administration with the elevation of retired generals into key government positions.

Significantly, the resolution calls on the OHCHR “to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka to advocate for victims and survivors, and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings including in Member States with competent jurisdiction.”

According to media reports, establishment of a relevant database for “future accountability processes” would cost $US2.8 million over an 18-month period. The body would be staffed by 12 personnel, including three legal advisors, two analysts, two investigators and human rights officers. It is the first time a UNHRC resolution has outlined specific measures for an international intervention in Sri Lanka.

Concerns about war crimes, suppression of democratic rights and militarisation of the government by sponsors of the UNHCR resolution are utterly hypocritical.

In the last three decades alone, the US, UK, Canada and Germany have unleashed neo-colonial military interventions killing hundreds of thousands of people and committing countless war crimes.

The ruling elites in these imperialist countries have responded to the economic and social crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting extreme right-wing and fascistic forces. A sharp expression of this extreme-rightward turn was the Trump-led fascistic coup attempt in Washington on January 6.

The UNHCR resolution has nothing do with exposing war crimes or defending human rights but is another expression of intense US efforts to undercut Beijing’s influence in the region by placing putting Colombo on notice over its relations with Beijing.

The US and its strategic ally India are concerned about the Rajapakse government’s increasing financial dependence on Beijing. Teetering on the brink of default, the cash-strapped government last week obtained a $1.5 billon swap loan from People’s Bank of China to boost its falling foreign reserves.

In 2015, Washington orchestrated a regime-change operation against former President Mahinda Rajapakse, the brother of the current president, after “human rights” resolutions at the UNHCR failed to persuade Colombo to distance itself from Beijing.

Last week, Beijing, well aware of Washington’s political manoeuvres, campaigned against the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka. China’s envoy in Geneva urged UNHCR members to oppose the resolution and condemned the “double standards and politicisation of human rights.” He called on the UN body to “promote and protect human rights through genuine dialogue and cooperation” and “respect the sovereignty and independence” of other countries.

President Rajapakse spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appealing to him to oppose the resolution. India, however, abstained on the UNHRC vote. New Delhi maintains close contact with the Tamil nationalist parties in Sri Lanka who are pressuring Colombo for a power-sharing arrangement.

Pawankumar Badhe, India’s envoy in Geneva, called on Colombo “to address the aspiration of Tamil community… [and] engage constructively with the international community to ensure that the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all its citizens.”

Addressing parliament on Thursday, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena ludicrously declared that the resolution “will have an adverse effect on the ongoing efforts to maintain peace, reconciliation and economic development in the country.”

Conscious that Colombo is under immense pressure from Washington, he insisted, however, that “Sri Lanka will continue to engage constructively with the UN and its agencies in the same spirit of cooperation...”

Sajith Premadasa, leader of Samagi Jana Balavegaya, the main opposition party, told parliament that the reason the UNHRC resolution had been passed was “because the government has adopted policies that have led to disunity and mistrust among different communities in the country.” In the same breath, Premadasa declared that his party “is willing to support the government to take forward a domestic mechanism.”

Leading Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) member Bimal Ratnayake said that the government “has betrayed the country for its vicious and dictatorial power. Even now we should admit our mistakes without being conceited. We urge the government to respect human rights, abolish the 20th amendment to the Constitution, stop militarisation and we will win at the UNHRC next time.”

These organisations have consistently downplayed the geo-strategic issues underpinning the UNHCR resolution. The SJB leadership, previously in the United National Party, and the JVP fully backed the war and deny that the military committed any war crimes. Like Rajapakse’s ruling party, they depend on the military and know that it will be needed to defend the ruling elite against the mass eruption of social tensions.

The UNHRC resolution is not just about Sri Lanka but is another indication of the intense pressure being exerted by Washington on its allies in preparation for US-led military operations against China. A war between these nuclear-armed nations would rapidly escalate into a catastrophic global conflagration.

German Chancellor Fellowship 2021

Application Deadline: 15th October 2021

About the Award: We are searching the leaders of tomorrow. Are you a graduate with initial leadership experience? Do you come from Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, India, the Russian Federation, South Africa or the USA? Would you like to implement a self-chosen project that supports your career development, is societally relevant and has a lasting public impact? Are you interested in actively participating in an international network of dedicated leaders? Then come to Germany with a German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to take the next step of your career.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: The German Chancellor Fellowship sponsors future decision-makers, multipliers and thought leaders – regardless of industry. We invite you to apply if you

• hold Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, Russian, South African or American citizenship
• work in a field such as politics, business, media, administration, society or culture and have demonstrable initial leadership experience
• will have completed your first academic degree (Bachelor or comparable degree) no more than twelve years ago when you start your fellowship
• want to conduct an independently developed project with a host of your choice in Germany
• have good knowledge of English and/or German

Eligible Countries: Brazil, China, India, Russia, South Africa, USA

To be Taken at (Country): Germany

Number of Awards:  Up to 60 German Chancellor Fellowships are awarded each year – up to ten per country.

Value of Award: This fellowship for prospective leaders brings you to Germany for one year to implement a project idea you have developed yourself. We will help you network with international future leaders here to find new answers to the global issues of our time. We offer you

• a monthly fellowship grant of 2,170 euros, 2,470 euros or 2,770 euros – depending on your training and career level
• an intensive language course before you begin your fellowship and funding for German courses during your fellowship,
• individual support during your stay in Germany
• additional financial support, e.g. for accompanying family members, for travel expenses, for full private health insurance or for an additional German language course
• joint events where you experience professional and personal intercultural exchange with other fellows from your year group and gain insights into German culture and society,
• networking activities that enable you to collaborate in peer groups and independently organise smaller network formats with other fellows,
• a two-week study tour through Germany as well as a number of events where you can connect with other fellows and meet representatives of German businesses and institutions
• extensive alumni sponsorship, in particular to support long-term connections with your cooperation partners in Germany over the duration of your entire professional career

Your host institution will receive a monthly allowance for research costs of 500 euros.

Duration of Award: 12-month project in Germany

How to Apply: Before applying, you should discuss the details of your project with your chosen host.

Please submit the necessary application documents to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation online only.

• letter of motivation: Tell us what drives you, what leadership experience you already have and what your career goals are
• project plan: Outline the project you have developed yourself and agreed with your intended host prior to applying. Why is your project of societal significance, and how will you be able to build bridges between Germany and your home country in the future?
• extensive statement including mentoring agreement from your host in Germany
• two letters of recommendation (not more than 12 months old) from individuals who can provide information on your professional, personal and/or academic background

The online application form contains links where the letters of recommendation and statements can be uploaded. Please forward these links to the relevant individuals as soon as possible. We will send you a confirmation e-mail as soon as we have received all the required documents.

If you have any doubts or questions, please contact us (info[at]avh.de) before submitting your application. We are happy to help. Apply now

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Masters in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Scholarship 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 9th April 2021

About the Award: The objective of the scholarship award is to equip theoretical and practical skills to successful candidates in:

• Background of climate change and related fields including assessments, reporting and negotiations
• Tools and techniques for climate data analysis including developing climate change and extreme indices
• Climate change vulnerability and impacts assessment
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation assessment and reporting at various scales.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) baseline determination, measurement, monitoring and inventory.
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems and tools.
• Development of policy interventions to respond to climate change challenges at various levels.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: Applicants should;

• hold Bachelors of Science degree in climate change related field, earth science, and engineering from a recognized University
• have good computing skills
• be working in any institution of the IGAD Member States preferably in ministries responsible for climate change and provide evidence that he will work in his/her own country for at least two (2) years upon completion of the study
• be willing to study in a University outside their home country with a modest stipend
• undertake a research project in the area of climate change adaptation and mitigation
• be below 40 years of age at the time of application and must be a citizen of one of the IGAD member states
• submit a motivation letter expressing their interest in the scholarship
• Submit two recommendation letters, one from the employer and the other from academic mentor in support of the application

Eligible Countries: IGAD Member states

Duration of Award: The scholarship will be for a duration of 18 – 24 months from September 2021

How to Apply: Interested candidates should send a motivation letter, two recommendation letters, admission letter (if available) and copies of their academic credentials by 09 April 2021 at 1700hrs to recruitment@igad.int with a copy to recruitments@icpac.net.

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

European Union summit retreats from vaccine export ban

Robert Stevens

The European Union’s (EU) two-day summit was dominated Thursday by growing tensions over its failed vaccine rollout. But having threatened an export ban on vaccines, EU leaders issued a joint statement late Thursday backing away.

“We underline the importance of transparency as well as of the use of export authorisations,” the statement said. In a reference to UK-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca—which is expected to only fulfil about of a quarter of the 120 million doses ordered by Brussels this quarter— it continued, “We recognise the importance of global value chains and reaffirm that companies must ensure predictability of their vaccine production and respect contractual delivery deadlines.”

Tensions between the EU and Boris Johnson’s UK government reached boiling point ahead of the summit over the supply and distribution of vaccines from AstraZeneca.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (credit: WSWS media)

Britain and the EU have both signed deals to receive millions of doses, but only a small proportion have been delivered with the company citing production difficulties. The UK insists that its deal was signed three months earlier than the EU’s and must receive priority, including doses made at a plant in the Netherlands. Britain exited the EU last year and cut its own deal with corporations manufacturing vaccines.

Total vaccinations within the EU are catastrophically low and by March 22 stood at just 12.9 per 100 people. In contrast the UK has vaccinated 44.7 per 100. Just 88 million vaccine doses have been distributed within the EU to constituent states with a total population of nearly 450 million.

In response the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, threatened to ban exports of vaccines. On Wednesday, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis announced plans that all shipments of vaccines from the EU be assessed in relation to the destination country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports. The tightening of EU policy was aimed at the UK, which has not exported any vaccines to the EU, with officials and senior political figures queuing up to denounce Downing Street ahead of the summit. Dombrovskis complained that the EU “continues to export vaccines to countries that have production capacities of their own, but when these countries do not export to the EU there is no reciprocity”.

To stem a crisis with the summit imminent, Johnson phoned EU heads of state and the EC this week, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. No solution was reached.

Johnson threatened that if the EU issued an export ban, this would fuel trade conflicts that the UK would seize on to its advantage. “I would just gently point out to anybody considering a blockade or interruption of supply chains that companies may look at such actions and draw conclusions about whether or not it is sensible to make future investments in countries where arbitrary blockades are imposed,” he said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Financial Times Wednesday, “I believe that free trading nations follow the law of contracts.” He ridiculed the EU’s contract with AstraZeneca declaring, “They have a ‘best efforts’ contract and we have an exclusivity deal.” While stating that ongoing talks were “co-operative, practical and collaborative,” he added, “Our contract trumps theirs.”

Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner told the newspaper, “We have a feeling that the vaccine nationalism is really on the other side of the Channel.”

By late Wednesday all that could be achieved was an EU/UK joint holding statement that “We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes co-operation between the EU and UK even more important.'

Claims that peace had broken out were belied by the recriminations hurled as the talks began. An official said that the EU had sent 21 million vaccines to the UK but received none in return. Among these were about 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. France’s EU affairs minister, Clément Beaune, said, “We want to avoid that AstraZeneca doses produced in Europe go to Britain when we are not receiving anything… AstraZeneca says: ‘I am experiencing delays’. We say: ‘mobilise your plants for us and if you don’t, we will block exports to the UK.’”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that the “EU has exported 77 million doses of vaccines to 33 countries since 1 December 2020” and that the EU summit needs to 'ensure that Europeans get their fair share of vaccines'.

Tensions reached such a peak that last weekend an elite unit of Italian military police, acting on EU orders, raided the Catalent plant in Anagni, near Rome, where the AstraZeneca vaccine is put into vials and labelled. The unit was reported in La Stampa to have found a stockpile of 29 million doses being “hoarded”. The Italian media initially said that the vaccines—roughly half AstraZeneca's delivery shortfall to the EU—were being readied for delivery to the UK. This claim was false, with the UK saying they had no order coming from the plant. Within hours the EU was forced to acknowledge that the vials were in fact being sent in two separate batches onto AstraZeneca's Belgium plant for onward distribution around the EU.

Only a few weeks previously, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia.

Prior to the summit Pfizer stepped in to warn the EU that the UK could retaliate against an export ban by withholding raw materials for its vaccine that are shipped from Yorkshire. On Thursday, Reuters reported that “US biotech Novavax is delaying signing a contract to supply its vaccine to the bloc,” with an EU official citing problems it had “sourcing some raw materials.”

Every major capitalist power is engaged in the same beggar thy neighbour policy, with catastrophic consequences that only aids the spread of the virus. President Joe Biden’s US administration does not export to any other country, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel making the barbed remark this week, “We can see clearly that British facilities are producing for Great Britain. The United States isn't exporting, and therefore we are dependent upon what can be produced in Europe.'

After Thursday's meeting, Merkel commented, “Regarding the export regime we said we had absolutely no desire to disturb the global supply chain, but also that we of course have an interest in ensuring that the companies that have made contracts with us remain truly loyal to those contracts.

“We are, as the EU, the part of the world that is not only supplying itself but also exporting to the wider world—unlike the US, unlike Britain.”

The EU’s retreat does nothing to prevent further crisis. The day before the EU summit, India, one of the world’s biggest vaccine producers, announced that it would not export any more until further notice after a surge in infections. On Thursday it reported 53,000 new infections over the previous 24 hours, a level not recorded since October and heading to the peak of nearly 100,000 new infections a day last September. The UK has already been hit by a delayed shipment of five million AstraZeneca doses from India’s Serum Institute, with Johnson’s government warning that its vaccine rollout will soon start to be scaled back as a result.

The vaccine rollout has exposed not only tensions between the EU and UK, but between EU states. Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz demanded to know how an extra 10 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine would be distributed. Countries including the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia and Estonia have not received the AstraZeneca jabs they ordered and are demanding they receive the BioNTech/Pfizer first. Speaking before the event, Kurz said, 'If no solution is found here it could cause damage to the European Union the likes of which we have not seen in a long time.” He was insisting he would veto any distribution deal that does not include Austria. Austria’s demands were rejected.

The row over the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has nothing to do with concern by the major powers for their “own” citizens. The mass distribution of vaccines is being used to justify a homicidal policy of reopening economies globally, with schools at the forefront. Every government lyingly claims that this can be done without a significant threat to the lives of millions of people thanks to vaccination. But their justifications collapse in the face of a calamitous rollout.

More fundamental still, as the world’s leading epidemiologists make clear this is a global pandemic and the failure to combat the virus on that basis is already leading to a resurgence of COVID-19. In Europe alone, 19 EU states are recording a rise in infections. The UK variant of the virus that is significantly more infectious is now dominant in many countries, including Germany, and Spain has said it accounts for half of all new cases.

Other mutations are associated with South Africa, Brazil and the US. It is feared that the surge in India could be due to the emergence of new mutations.

The vaccination of the world’s population must be taken out of the hands of the capitalist class. What is required is a scientific approach centred on the globally planned distribution of vaccines, with the pharmaceutical conglomerates taken into social ownership. The working class must act independently to spearhead an international fight against COVID-19 by uniting its struggles and directing them against capitalism.

US officials visit Mexico to organize intensified assault on asylum seekers

Andrea Lobo

US officials held talks in Mexico on Tuesday with the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to discuss measures to halt the wave of asylum seekers escaping the humanitarian crisis in Central America.

The essence of the measures announced, however, is to tighten the stranglehold of US imperialism—its corporations and Wall Street—over the local governments, which has been the main historic cause of the poverty and violence underlying mass migration.

Mexican National Guard troops (Wikimedia Commons)

So naked was the neocolonial character of the trip by US officials that López Obrador was asked by the vetted reporters in his press conference on Tuesday whether it was “a visit to supervise” policies being taken in exchange for vaccines. López Obrador angrily responded, “We are not a colony or protectorate.” He then added submissively, “We have said that Biden’s immigration policy is very good.”

While promising to address the “root causes” of migration, the most immediate and devastating cause of the humanitarian crisis in Central America, the pandemic, is being totally disregarded by the Biden administration.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) reported last month that the number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has quadrupled in the last two years, which has doubled the percentage of people making concrete plans to migrate.

“The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” the WFP explains.

Instead of helping ease the pandemic crisis in Central America, the Biden administration has continued hoarding vaccines, while employing a limited supply to extort Mexico into agreeing to further militarize its southern border to block migrants.

After Biden announced last week that the US would send roughly 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico, a vaccine which is still unapproved in the United States, the AMLO administration ended all non-essential travel from Guatemala into Mexico. This accompanied new deployments of National Guard troops and immigration officers with drones, night-vision goggles, and other equipment to patrol the border with Guatemala.

Following their visit to Mexico, Biden’s National Security Council official Juan Gonzalez and the newly appointed special envoy to the Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zúñiga, announced in an online press conference the creation of a Regional Anti-Corruption Task Force with governments, “civil society” and the private sector.

The task force will establish a “preferential relationship with actors dedicated to anti-corruption efforts,” they explained. It is an old tactic of US imperialism to look the other way when favoring corrupt politicians until they fall out of favor. This was most clearly illustrated by the falling out with Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a former CIA “asset” who was overthrown in a 1989 US invasion.

As Obama’s Vice President, Biden oversaw the work of US-sponsored “anti-corruption” commissions in Guatemala and Honduras, which selectively pursued cases to pressure the local ruling elites into implementing policies favorable to US banks and corporations, while opposing the influence of geopolitical rivals, chiefly China.

These crusades were also employed to focus local politics on questions of corruption, as opposed to social inequality, austerity and exploitation. In 2015, mass protests against Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina were successfully channeled by US-backed politicians and NGOs behind the UN-sponsored “anti-corruption” commission CICIG (International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala) and its investigations of Molina, who was then replaced by another pro-austerity and repressive administration.

On Wednesday, Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to take up his former role in working with regional governments to address migration.

Biden’s new task force will directly sponsor judges, attorneys and politicians favored by Washington, instead of relying on independent commissions, which were ultimately shut down under pressure by the local oligarchies.

A planned visit yesterday to Guatemala, where US officials were reportedly going to lobby in defense of several favored judges and prosecutors, was postponed after the country’s international airport was shut down because of ash clouds from the nearby Pacaya volcano.

White House officials spoke to reporters yesterday of “a sense of decency with treating migrants like human beings… and treating our neighbors with respect and dignity.”

This is coming from a government that is sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives in a pandemic to safeguard the flow of profits for Wall Street. Congress and the Biden administration, moreover, have spent the last months accommodating their policies to the Republican co-conspirators in Trump’s January 6 coup, who are anti-immigrant fanatics tied to fascist paramilitary forces.

The Biden administration has responded to pressure from Republicans by escalating the assault on asylum seekers and repeating ad nauseam: “Don’t come! The border is closed!”

In his first press conference, Biden boasted yesterday that “the vast majority, the overwhelming majority of people coming to the border crossing are being sent back—thousands, tens of thousands… We are trying to work out now with Mexico the willingness to take back more of those families.” He then insisted on addressing the “root causes” of migration.

On a March 11 press release, Democratic Senate Pro Tempore President Patrick Leahy warned that the judicial system was being filled with “cronies of the other branches of government” in Guatemala; “corruption permeates the highest ranks of government” in Honduras; “El Salvador is becoming a one party state.” He concluded that these regimes “are the antithesis of credible partners.”

Allied with murderous dictatorships across Africa and the Middle East, Washington is not concerned about credible partners, but is fearful of the inability of these regimes to deal with an eruption of the class struggle.

In the 1970s, the last time Central America saw such a drop in living standards as today, mass rebellions of peasants, workers and youth broke out against the US puppet regimes. Between 1945 and 2000, Central America experienced eight times more years of violent conflict between governments and insurgents than the world average, according to researcher Fabrice Lehoucq. Central American countries spent on average 72 percent of the period from 1900 to 1980 under dictatorships and saw a total of 38 coups.

US imperialism consistently backed and trained the militaries as a bastion of its own control. Between 1946 and 1992, it provided $1.8 billion in military assistance to the region, which was used to crush left-wing movements.

During a brief interval, between 1962 and 1972, the United States spent $617 million in Central America under the Alliance for Progress initiated by John F. Kennedy, which was used to build schools, roads, hospitals and other key infrastructure.

The Biden administration’s Central America Plan, just like Obama’s Alliance for Prosperity and Security, will focus on building up the region’s repressive state apparatus and providing greater incentives for US transnational corporations, while getting the Mexican ruling class more involved in anti-immigrant repression.

However, even Kennedy’s intentions were to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union and the threat of social revolution. The American ruling class today, which is facing an existential crisis of declining global hegemony and the increasing instability of its class rule at home, will respond to the social crisis and threat of revolution in Latin America with unvarnished brutality.

Infections surge after Turkey’s “gradual normalization” in pandemic

Ulaş Ateşçi

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “gradual normalization” or unrestrained “herd immunity” policy implemented since the beginning of March has led to a health disaster. New cases have again reached 30,000, the highest level since December.

The government removed restrictions without imposing an intercity travel ban, based on an unscientific four-risk categorization (low, medium, high and very high) for cities. As more contagious and lethal variants spread across the country, weekend curfews were largely lifted, and restaurants and cafés opened at 50 percent capacity in daytime. The opening up of pre-university schools to in-person education and exams worsened the disaster.

Pedestrians in Kizilay Main Square, Ankara, Turkey, June 16, 2020

Scientists and public health specialists are warning that ending the current limited restrictions will cause a disaster overshadowing even the November-December massacre.

After the government reopened schools for in-person education last autumn, the country saw over 30,000 infections and more than 250 deaths per day during the last two months of 2020. Limited measures, including the closure of schools, reduced the daily number of cases to 5,000 in early February.

In early March, the government made this “opening,” while scientists and public health organizations called for 14-28 days of full lockdown and a vaccination campaign.

Opposing this homicidal “opening” policy, the World Socialist Web Site warned that it would create another disaster. “These moves are part of a universal back-to-work and back-to-school drive in the interests of the ruling elites at the expense of workers’ health and lives.” It called on workers to “struggle for a halt to all nonessential production and schools until the pandemic is contained, with full compensation to all affected workers and small businesses.”

As a result of the government’s herd immunity policy, however, the Health Ministry reported 29,762 new cases and 146 deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday. On March 1, there were nearly 9,000 new cases and 69 deaths. Official data shows 3.1 million cases and 30,462 deaths, including at least 391 health care workers.

These figures underestimate the true losses. According to investigative filmmaker Güçlü Yaman’s calculations, there have been 98,000 excess deaths in Turkey until early March.

The country now stands fifth in the world in terms of new daily cases. Moreover, test positivity rate surpassed 13 percent—compared to only four percent in the United States, where its ruling elite’s herd immunity policy has led to nearly 560,000 deaths. The reproduction rate (R0) in Turkey rose to 1.22, according to Prof. Dr. Fatih Tank’s calculations, indicating exponential growth in infections.

According to Health Ministry data, the number of serious cases rose to 1,720, with adult intensive care occupancy at 65 percent. Prof. Dr. Bengi Başer pointed out that the mortality rate among serious patients reached its highest level (7.68 percent) to date on March 24 and warned, “The situation is serious; the UK variant is wreaking havoc.”

On March 10, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca stated, “Until today, a total of 41.488 B.1.1.7 (UK) mutants in 76 provinces, 61 B.1.351 (South Africa) mutants in 9 provinces, 2 B.1.427 (California-New York) mutants in 1 province and 1 P.1 (Brazil) mutant detected” in Turkey.

According to official data, 87 percent of the population, or nearly 72 million people, live in cities categorized as “high risk” or “very high risk.” This means that they live in areas where the incidence rate is over 50 or over 100, respectively, per 100,000. This number is 251 in Istanbul and 508, the highest figure, in Samsun.

Erdoğan announced the “opening” policy, that restrictions would be reestablished if risks grew, but no measures have been taken in this direction. In fact, his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ignores even the limited restrictions that do exist.

More than 1,000 delegates were bused in to Ankara to attend the AKP’s party congress on Sunday. Erdoğan held a rally outside the congress hall, and the presence of 1,500 delegates in the hall greatly angered the population. He said, “I greet you at a meeting where snowfall destroys all germs.”

Responsibility of the ruling class’ criminal policy, which has caused tens of thousands of deaths and millions of infections, lies first and foremost with the Erdoğan government. But the bourgeois opposition parties led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been complicit in this policy since the pandemic began. They have raised no serious objection in parliament, and they pursue the very same policy in the cities under their control.

The trade unions and pseudo-left groups have totally adapted to the government’s herd immunity policy. Education unions make only suggestions to the government as mass anger builds among workers at the reopening of schools. Moreover, the pseudo-left parties that line up behind the CHP remain completely silent and complicit in the face of this murderous policy.

The Turkish health care system faces collapse, as Izmir Medical Chamber chair Lütfi Çamlı told the daily BirGün, “Hospitals in Izmir are now at full capacity. Especially since the beginning of the week, almost all pandemic services and intensive care beds are full.”

Referring to the impact of opening schools, Çamlı warned, “If urgent measures are not taken to stop the increase in cases and the number of cases cannot be reduced, it does not seem possible for the health care system to meet this demand.”

The Istanbul Medical Chamber published a report on March 23, emphasizing that COVID-19 has become a “disease of the working class,” due to the government’s “Wheels should turn, production should continue” policy. The pandemic, it added, shows “how harmful it is for public health to leave health care to the anarchy of the market via privatization policies.”

Moreover, vaccination is progressing slowly in Turkey and internationally. Only 7.2 percent of Turkey’s population, or 6.1 million people, have been fully vaccinated as of Thursday, when the distribution of first doses of the vaccine was paused.

Last week, less than 20,000 people daily received the first dose. Amid uncertainty on new vaccine supplies, health care workers went to social media and asked, “Where are the vaccines?” Moreover, despite the government’s promise to vaccinate teachers, the Education Ministry said only 10 percent of teachers have been vaccinated so far.

The pandemic is also aggravating the social catastrophe facing the working class. The short-time work allowance to 1.3 million unemployed workers will expire at the end of this month. According to a recent DİSK trade union confederation report, the number of broadly defined unemployed has risen to 9,638,000, or 27.4 percent. In 2020, the number of “gig” workers employed for less than 40 hours a week rose by 900,000 to 1,251,000.

After President Erdoğan sacked the head of the Central Bank last Friday, the Turkish lira lost nearly 10 percent of its value against the US dollar, further raising the cost of living for workers.

Amid this growing economic, social and political crisis, the government, fearing a social explosion in the working class, has been increasingly using anti-democratic measures to divide the working class along national lines and deflect social opposition. Last week, it filed a case to ban the Kurdish nationalist People’s Democratic Party (HDP).