World Health Organization declares B.1.617, first identified in India, the fourth variant of concern

Benjamin Mateus

At their Monday COVID-19 press brief, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the highly contagious variant first identified in India, classified as B.1.617, as a variant of concern, meaning that it is now considered a global health threat. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the COVID-19 pandemic, explained, “In our consultation with our virus evolution working group, our epidemiology teams, and our lab teams internally, there is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B.1.617.”

She added that this variant could also reduce neutralization from antibodies, implying it has the ability to evade immunity to some degree, one of the key reasons it was classified as a variant of concern. The designation is used for those mutations that have been demonstrated to be more contagious, deadly or resistant to the COVID-19 vaccines currently being employed.

A health worker takes a mouth swab sample of a Kashmiri boy to test for COVID-19 in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, May 8, 2021. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)

Along with the B.1.117 (UK variant), B.1.351 (South African variant), and P.1 (Brazil variant), this makes B.1617 the fourth strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to have undergone a mutation toward a more virulent and transmissible form, arising independently under the pressures of mass infections, brought on by the criminal policy of herd immunity that threatens to make the coronavirus endemic.

The B.1.617 variant that is behind the massive surge across India and neighboring countries such as Nepal has three sub-lineages. The B.1.617.3 was first detected in Maharashtra, India, on October 5, 2020, but has remained the uncommon form compared to the two sub-lineages B.1617.1 and B.1.617.2, first seen in December.

The average daily COVID-19 case count in India is approaching 400,000, and the official daily death toll, a vast underestimation, is close to 4,000. The current official tally for India has tallied over 23 million COVID-19 cases and more than a quarter-million deaths. More recent estimates place that figure over 1 million.

In recent animal models, the B1.617.1 variant showed a higher viral load and pathogenicity than the B.1 variant. The early evidence suggests that the B.1.617 is more transmissible and immune evading compared to the B.1.117 and B.1.618 mutants. In West Bengal, a state in eastern India, between the Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal, where B.1.618, which contains the E484K mutation, was dominant, it has been supplanted by the B.1.617 lineage. Additionally, the B.1.617 has spread to 40 other nations, including the United Kingdom, the US and Canada.

Dr. Sujeet Singh, director of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, based out of New Delhi, speaking at a press conference on May 5, said, “In some states, the surge can be tied to B.1.617.”

B.1.617 Lineage of SARS-CoV-2

Virologist Dr. Shahid Jameel of Ashoka University in Sonipat, and chair of the scientific advisory group of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia (INSACOG), added, “Its prevalence has increased over other variants in much of India, suggesting that it has better ‘fitness’ over those [other] variants.” Initially, in October, INSACOG had only detected a few such cases. By mid-February, the B.1.617 accounted for 60 percent of all SARS-CoV-2 cases detected in Maharashtra.

The timing of the emergence of the B.1.617 strain coincided with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that the policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had beaten the virus. He then allowed tens of thousands to attend cricket matches in March and welcomed millions of devout Hindu pilgrims to the Kumbh Mela festival along the Ganges River, which may become the largest super-spreading event of the pandemic.

The B.1.617 lineage possesses 13 to 17 mutations, three of which are in the virus’ spike protein. The E484Q mutation appears to confer the virus increased binding capacity to the human ACE2 receptor and better ability to evade the immune system compared to other variants. The L452R mutation provides a similar enhancement of functions as the E484Q. The third mutation, P681R, may increase the infectivity of the virus particles by facilitating the splicing of a unique precursor protein into its active infective conformation, a microscopic ignition key.

Limited in-vitro studies conducted on human lung and intestinal cells in Germany by Dr. Stefan Pöhlmann and colleagues suggest that the new variant of concern is moderately better at entering these cells than previous strains.

They also collected serum from 15 previously infected individuals and found their neutralizing antibodies were about 50 percent less effective against B.1.617 than previous strains. When they obtained serum from people fully inoculated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, these antibodies were 67 percent less potent.

Dr. Ravindra K. Gupta and colleagues working at the INSACOG found that neutralizing antibodies obtained from a handful of vaccinated individuals were 80 percent less potent against these mutations. The researchers from INSACOG noted that some health care workers in Delhi who had received the Indian version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield, had been reinfected, in most cases with the B.1617 variant. Dr. Gupta cautioned, however, that this does not imply that the vaccines are ineffective against preventing severe disease or hospitalizations.

There is an urgent need for population-based studies that can address these questions in a real-world setting. However, these developments further drive the critical point that comprehensive public health measures are ever more necessary. But as the high-income countries have begun to see a significant number of their populations vaccinated or infected, the drive to pry reopen the global economy has accelerated. Meanwhile, the pandemic has spread to more impoverished regions that had somewhat escaped the clutches of the virus in the first year.

As the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday, “Globally, we’re still in a perilous situation. The spread of variants, increased social mixing, the relaxation of public health measures, and inequitable vaccination are all driving transmission. Yes, vaccines are reducing severe disease and death in countries that are fortunate enough to have them in sufficient quantities, and early results suggest that vaccines might also drive down transmission.”

He added, “But the shocking global disparity in access to vaccines remains one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic.” With 1.32 billion doses administered worldwide, equating to 17 doses for every 100 people, the differences by income are blatantly stark and revealing. North America has seen 52 doses administered per 100 people. Europe has climbed to 35 doses per 100. Meanwhile, South America with 20, Asia with 14, Oceania with seven, and Africa with 1.5 doses per 100, highlighting the inequity that characterizes capitalist relations among nation-states.

Because of the ban on exporting vaccine supplies, last week was the first time the US delivered  Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to another country, in this case 10 million doses to Mexico, after the Trump administration’s restrictions on dose exports expired at the end of March, according to WebMD. The Biden administration had also announced it would finally send 60 million doses of unused AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to other countries. Up to now, the bulk of vaccine exports have come from China, India and the EU.

Posing an essential question, journalist Michael Butokiev from CNN Opinion asked the WHO panel, “I was wondering if you might advocate a code of behavior for countries engaging in vaccine diplomacy because I think a lot of countries that are poor, and Dr. Tedros mentioned the poorer countries are not getting enough vaccines, I think are getting in situations which they might regret later on.”

Dr. Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products, responded, “in terms of the COVAX facility being an equitable access mechanism that we are very much working on and striving to get enough doses to be distributed. I would say we also need a change in the… It’s not necessarily the code of behavior, but I think we are seeing also we are living in a world where many of the producers are moving towards a profit-driven approach instead of an equitable access approach.”

Dr. Tedros then supplemented these remarks, stating, “In international relations, there are three ways of engagement. … One is cooperation, the second is competition, and the third is confrontation or conflict. To end this pandemic, the only choice we have is cooperation. Vaccine diplomacy is not cooperation. It’s actually a geopolitical maneuvering. I don’t think this is really something that many don’t understand; everybody understands it, but from WHO’s side, we have been saying, we cannot defeat this pandemic through competition. We can’t. If you compete for resources for geopolitical advantage, then the virus gets the advantage.”

US media seize on Pfizer vaccine authorization for children to fully reopen schools

Evan Blake

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected soon to grant similar authorization, which would allow vaccinations for this age group to begin immediately. President Joe Biden recently stated that roughly 20,000 pharmacies are prepared to administer the vaccine to adolescents.

The authorization follows the release of initial results from an ongoing clinical trial by Pfizer-BioNTech, which involves 2,260 participants ages 12-15. The results found 18 cases of symptomatic coronavirus infections in the placebo group and none among the group that received the vaccine. On this basis, the companies have claimed that the vaccine is 100 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. Side effects from the vaccine were comparable to those seen in older age groups.

Jane Ellen Norman, age 12, poses for a photo after getting vaccinated at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Angie Wang)

The initial results of the ongoing clinical trial and the granting of EUA to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been seized upon by the corporate media to press for the rapid vaccination of this age group in order to fully reopen schools and “return to normalcy,” in the words of the New York Times. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, there are substantial economic motives involved in this campaign, whose fundamental aim is to ensure that all parents are able to return to workplaces as quickly as possible to maximize the production of corporate profits.

In its print edition, the Times ran a front-page article Tuesday announcing the authorization, with the subheading: “Widespread inoculations may speed a return to classrooms.” Author Apoorva Mandavilli wrote that the authorization “removes an obstacle to school reopenings by reducing the threat of transmission in classrooms.”

On Sunday, a day before the FDA’s announcement, the Times ran a separate piece by education writer Dana Goldstein titled, “Schools Are Open, but Many Families Remain Hesitant to Return.” The article bemoans the fact that while only 12 percent of elementary and middle schools remain fully online, “the percentage of students learning fully remotely is much greater: more than a third of fourth and eighth graders, and an even larger group of high school students.”

Inventing a term out of whole cloth and without citing any scientists, Goldstein writes, “Experts have coined the term ‘school hesitancy’ to describe the remarkably durable resistance to a return to traditional learning.” She claims that these unnamed “experts”—in reality, the financial oligarchy for whom the Times speaks—“see the phenomenon as a social and educational crisis for children that must be combated—a challenge akin to vaccine hesitancy.”

Throughout the past year, Goldstein and the Times have been among the foremost advocates of school reopenings, in the process distorting science, vilifying teachers and elevating right-wing pro-reopening parents.

As part of the campaign to rapidly vaccinate children in order to fully reopen schools, the print and broadcast news media is belatedly acknowledging that children can become infected and die from COVID-19, develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and readily transmit the virus to their parents. These facts—proven by multiple studies since last summer—have been downplayed by the entire corporate media and political establishment as tens of millions of children were herded into unsafe classrooms. The studies and their findings have been reported extensively only by the World Socialist Web Site .

Just as the media has barely reported recent estimates that over 900,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the US and nearly 7 million worldwide, not a single outlet has reported the CDC’s own estimates that nearly 26.7 million children under 18 have been infected with COVID-19. This amounts to more than a third of the total US population in that age group, 74.2 million children. According to the CDC, 3,185 children have been diagnosed with MIS-C and 36 have died, both of which are also surely underestimates.

Recent studies have shown that roughly 10-15 percent of all children infected with COVID-19 develop long-term complications, known as “Long COVID,” including sleep disorders, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal issues, breathing difficulties, muscle and joint pain, headaches, cognitive impairment, lack of concentration and other debilitating symptoms. Using the CDC’s estimate of 26.7 million child infections, up to 4 million children may already be suffering from Long COVID in the US alone.

The deliberate distortion of science and downplaying of the risks posed to children over the past year constitute a conspiracy orchestrated by the entire political establishment, the corporate media and the teachers unions. This began last summer under the Trump administration, with adviser Paul Elias Alexander writing in a July 4 email, “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk ... so we use them to develop herd ... we want them infected.”

The school reopening campaign has been intensified under Biden. In February, the newly inaugurated president lied directly to a second-grade student at a CNN town hall event, stating, “Kids don’t get … COVID very often. It’s unusual for that to happen.” Just last week, he reiterated this lie in an NBC News interview, saying, “There’s not overwhelming evidence that there’s much of a transmission among these people, young people.” He concluded, “Based on the science and the CDC, [schools] should probably all be open.”

Throughout the pandemic, the federal government has refused to implement national surveillance testing of children or any other section of the population. The only database tracking COVID-19 outbreaks at schools was “The COVID Monitor,” established by Florida whistleblower Rebekah Jones. After logging 762,259 infections tied to K-12 schools, the website now states that it “was decommissioned on March 1, 2021, after the Biden administration began an effort to overtake our responsibilities.” This was evidently premature, as the White House has yet to set up any comparable tracking system for schools.

In the school reopening drive, the teachers unions have played the most pivotal role. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA) and all of their state and local affiliates have suppressed the enormous opposition among educators to the reckless reopening of schools, isolating every strike and protest that has broken out over the past year. It was recently revealed that the AFT directly influenced the CDC’s unscientific update of its school reopening guidelines in February, calling for schools to open “at any level of community transmission.” This set the stage for every major district in the US to resume in-person learning.

Throughout the pandemic, children, educators, parents and all of society have been endangered by the powers-that-be. For the political establishment and media, the push to quickly vaccinate adolescents is motivated not by public health concerns, but rather by the profit interests of the corporate-financial oligarchy which they serve.

The initial clinical trial results for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine among adolescents appear promising. However, the approval process must not be allowed to be rushed or politically driven. Moreover, the vaccines must not be viewed as a magic bullet to end the pandemic in a given country, which is scientifically impossible.

Underscoring the global character of the pandemic, on the same day that the Food and Drug Administration granted EUA status to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the highly contagious triple-mutant B.1.617 variant spreading in India as a “variant of concern,” indicating that it poses a major health threat globally. As long as the virus spreads unchecked in any part of the world, the danger will grow that the existing vaccines will lose their efficacy, creating conditions where the pandemic can become endemic and tens of millions more could die worldwide.

What is required is a globally coordinated program to fully contain the pandemic. This includes the immediate closure of all schools and nonessential workplaces on a world scale, combined with the provision of ample economic resources for all workers and families affected, as well as universal testing, contact tracing and the safe isolation of all infected patients. Intellectual property rights must be abolished and a global production and distribution system rapidly established to safely vaccinate the world population.

US retail and food service industry complains of lack of workers

Trévon Austin

The US retail and food service industry is dealing with a severe labor shortage. According to Landed, a restaurant hiring app, the industry faces a deficit of 3.4 million jobs, a number which is expected to grow. One poll found more than 31 percent of restaurant company leaders have been forced to close stores because of a lack of workers. An additional 44 percent of respondents stated they were still considering whether to close.

Retail CEOs and Republican politicians have argued that the $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits supplement incentivizes workers to stay at home instead of returning to work. Earlier this month, Representative David Rouzer tweeted a picture of a Hardee’s drive thru with a sign that read “Closed due to NO STAFF.”

A hiring sign offers a $500 bonus outside a McDonald's restaurant, in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, May 5, 2021 (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

“This is what happens when you extend unemployment benefits for too long and add a $1,400 stimulus payment to it. Right when employers need workers to fully open back up, few can be found,” Rouzer tweeted.

Some McDonald’s franchisees said the additional $300 per week unemployment payments were driving the shortage. The National Owners Association, an independent group of McDonald’s franchisees, sent a letter to its members on Sunday that suggested the industry worker shortage was due to the “perverse effects of the current unemployment benefits.”

“What’s going on here? When people can make more staying at home than going to work, they will stay at home,” the letter said.

In a bid to force workers back to work, multiple Republican governors announced they will stop participating in the federal government’s supplemental unemployment benefits program in June. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) announced Tuesday that residents will no longer receive the extra $300 a week after June 12. North Dakota, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Montana have also announced an end to their participation.

Others have called for an early termination of unemployment benefits, currently set to continue until September. After the publication of the April jobs report, which reported only 266,000 new jobs compared to the 1.3 million predicted by economists, the Chamber of Commerce urged Congress to end the weekly $300 in federal unemployment benefits.

“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” the Chamber’s chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said in a statement.

In reality, rather than a worker shortage, the retail and food service industry faces a wage shortage. Workers are not willing to return to work and risk their lives for poverty wages. Workers in the industry have complained of burnout and toxic workplaces after a year of working during the pandemic.

A recent report from the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California Berkeley and the non-profit group One Fair Wage found that service workers were deeply concerned with wages. A survey targeting food and restaurant workers indicated 78 percent of respondents said they would stay in their jobs if they could be assured of a “full, stable, livable wage.” Now, approximately 30 percent of restaurant workers are seeking jobs in other industries, according to a Joblist survey.

The pandemic has devastated retail workers. Millions of retail and food service jobs were among the first to go when corporations began mass layoffs early last year. Workers who kept their jobs were forced to endure longer hours and understaffing, while being patronized as “essential workers.” Many were fearful of catching COVID-19 because some customers who refuse to wear masks take out their frustration on employees.

Additionally, those on Wall Street and in the major corporations who lament the federal unemployment supplement ignore the fact that the small stipend exposes the abysmal conditions workers face. A 2020 study from the University of Chicago found more than two-thirds of workers earned more from unemployment benefits than they did while working. At the time, the federal government provided the jobless with $600 a week. Even today’s $300 benefits exceed or match what many retail workers take home on average.

A Dollar General store made headlines this week after workers at a store in Eliot, Maine quit in protest of low pay and overwork. Workers walked off their jobs and taped signs to the store windows denouncing Dollar General and capitalism.

“Closed indefinitely because Dollar General doesn’t pay a living wage or treat their employees with respect,” one sign said.

Another read, “Capitalism will destroy this country. If you don’t pay people enough to live their lives, why should they slave away for you?”

Nine dead, twenty-one injured in Russian school shooting

Clara Weiss

A school shooting in Kazan, the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan in southwestern Russia, has left at least nine people dead, among them seven children. Eighteen children and three adults were hospitalized, at least two in critical condition.

The shooter, 19-year old Ilnaz Galyaviev, entered School No. 175 Tuesday morning, armed with an assault rifle. He forced his way into the building, shooting and wounding an elderly man who served as a guard. He then went on to shoot six children and two teachers, one of whom was just 25 years old. Two children jumped to their death when trying to flee. Earlier reports of a bomb exploding during the event have not been confirmed.

People stand near a school with flowers after a shooting in Kazan, Russia, May 11, 2021 (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Galyaviev surrendered to the police and National Guard after the 20-minute long massacre. He has been charged with multiple counts of murder.

Galyaviev, who comes from a poor family in the city and had previously graduated from the school, was by all indications mentally disturbed. Before going on the rampage, he posted a video on the popular social media platform Telegram, in which he described himself as “God” and announced that he would kill “a huge number” of people. He said, “I didn’t immediately understand that I am God, not until two months ago. And in the summer a monster was awakened in me. I began to hate everyone. I have always hated everyone and began to hate everyone even more.” He reportedly stopped attending his college classes around January and was recently expelled.

The shooting has provoked horror and an outpouring of sympathy across the country and internationally. It is the mass shooting in Russia with the greatest number of fatalities since the Kerch school shooting of 2018 in Crimea, in which two dozen people were killed. In recent years, there have also been several fatal stabbings in Russian schools.

Russian politicians have responded to the disaster with a combination of platitudes that seek to deflect attention from the social causes of the shooting and exploit the tragedy for state repression. Such is commonplace in the US after events of this character.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed overly lax gun laws, and the Russian government is now working on a bill limiting the purchase of firearms. The speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, also declared that the parliament would discuss a bill that would make it illegal for internet users to remain anonymous, in order to fight “propaganda of violence” and “extremism” after the Kazan shooting. The Russian government has already heavily censored the internet and banned the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), which hide the IPs of individual users.

Not a single politician has been able to honestly address the social roots of this horrific massacre. The mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, could do little more than declare it a “terrorist act” of the “most base, most degraded kind that you can imagine.”

However, the fact that a mentally disturbed youth like Galyaviev could conceive of such a horrific act of mass murder cannot be understood outside the profoundly diseased state of Russian society. The crimes of Stalinism, culminating in the destruction of the Soviet Union by the Soviet bureaucracy three decades ago, have left generations without a viable social and political perspective. The vast majority of working class people live in poverty, while a criminal oligarchy has enriched itself to an extraordinary degree by plundering the former property of the Soviet state. Russia is now the most unequal large economy in the world.

The coronavirus pandemic has further deepened and revealed the brutality underlying social relations. The past year, during which Galyaviev’s mental health seems to have deteriorated sharply, was one of social murder—above all of workers and poor people—on an unprecedented scale in both Russia and internationally.

The Russian oligarchy has been as indifferent to the suffering and deaths of the population during the pandemic as its international counterparts. It pushed for a premature reopening of the economy last spring. The COVID-19 death toll in Russia is extremely high. While only 113,647 deaths have been officially acknowledged, Russia lost half a million citizens last year, more than at any time since 2005.

Recent estimates, which have put the global death toll of the pandemic at 6.93 million, assume that as many as 593,000 people have died from the disease in Russia, almost as many as in Brazil. The number of people perishing from the virus is so high that the business daily Vedomosti suggested that official statistics now show a lower total number of people living in extreme poverty because so many from this category have died.

Despite an effective Russian-made vaccine, Sputnik-V, daily new cases have plateaued at between 8,500 and 9,500 for the past two months. Epidemiologists fear that a third wave may be coming, with substantial portions of the Russian population still not vaccinated.

While the poor have suffered enormous hardship and mass death, there are more Russian billionaires now than before the pandemic. According to Forbes, the number of Russians in this category has grown from 99 to 117 during the pandemic. They are now worth a collective $584 billion, up from $385 billion the year prior. The ten richest Russians all became wealthier and are now worth a combined $223 billion, up from $152 billion.

End the US war on Afghanistan

Bill Van Auken

In the wake of Saturday’s horrific terror bombing outside a school in Kabul, there has been a significant escalation of a campaign within the US ruling establishment for a continuation of the murderous two-decades-long war in Afghanistan.

A massive car bomb followed by two other bomb blasts claimed 85 lives, while wounding nearly 200 others in a poor neighborhood of western Kabul that is predominantly Hazara, a Shia minority population. The majority of the victims were schoolgirls between the ages of 13 and 18.

U.S. Marines prepare to board helicopters at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009. (Photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse)

Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal published editorials Tuesday seizing upon this atrocity to attack US President Joe Biden’s announcement last month that all US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11. The date chosen is the 20th anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. that were utilized as the pretext for the October 7, 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.

Titled “Afghanistan’s Terror Future,” the Wall Street Journal editorial states, “The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan undermines American security interests, but the humanitarian disaster may be more immediate. The attack on a school in Kabul over the weekend is a likely preview.” It concludes that “A U.S. presence can't thwart every horrific attack, but leaving means accepting there will be more of them.”

The Post, under the very similar headline “A Grim Preview,” editorialized: “The horrific bombing of a school for girls in Kabul on Saturday was a grim presage of the catastrophe Afghanistan—and, in particular, its women - may suffer with the withdrawal of U.S. and other international forces.” It questioned “why the United States does not simply retain its relatively small footprint in Afghanistan, which in recent years has consumed less than 10 percent of the Pentagon's budget and cost few U.S. casualties.”

In the context of the bitter divisions within the US state over the Afghanistan withdrawal, the bombing attack in Kabul assumes a particularly sinister character.

While the US puppet government in Kabul along with the American media has sought to blame the Taliban for the mass killing, the Taliban has condemned bombing and has generally sought not to provoke Washington ahead of its promised withdrawal. As yet, no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

From the standpoint of who benefits from these killings, there is ample reason to question whether elements within the US military-intelligence apparatus or Afghan ruling circles whose fortunes are directly dependent upon a continued US occupation had a hand in the attack. In terms of both its timing and its target, the bombing was tailor-made to fit the phony narrative promoted opponents of withdrawal that, without US troops, the “gains of the last 20 years” and, in particular, “the rights of women and girls” will be extinguished.

This cynical propaganda falls into the category of the “big lie.” It casts the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as not merely a crusade against terrorism, but also an exercise in “humanitarian” interventionism aimed at promoting democracy and gender equality.

What the big lie conceals is that Afghanistan’s tragic encounter with US imperialism began not in 2001, but more than two decades earlier, when the CIA, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, recruited Islamist fighters from throughout the Muslim world for a proxy war against Soviet forces supporting a secular government in Kabul. Prominent among the CIA’s collaborators was Osama bin Laden, who founded Al Qaeda with the agency’s assistance. The Taliban itself was a product of the chaos and destruction wrought by this decade-long war, which claimed the lives of as many as 2 million Afghans. It was initially backed by Washington as the force most capable of restoring order in the country and with which US imperialism could “do business” on pipelines and other interests.

What are the supposed “gains” of two decades of US bombings and massacres? The conservative estimate is that 175,000 Afghans have lost their lives, though the real toll, including deaths indirectly caused by the war, is likely closer to a million. According to the United Nations’ Human Development Index, Afghanistan ranks 169, behind most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of the population, women as well men, live under conditions of grinding poverty and oppression. This, after Washington has spent $143 billion on Afghanistan’s “reconstruction,” enriching a narrow stratum of corrupt politicians and warlords.

Whether the Biden administration will make good on its September 11 withdrawal pledge remains to be seen. It should be recalled that Donald Trump announced a complete withdrawal from Syria in 2019. In the face of a firestorm of opposition from the military and intelligence complex, he reversed course, claiming that he was leaving troops behind only to “keep the oil.” If Biden confronts a similar level of blowback, he will, no doubt, say he is leaving troops only to “save the women.”

Underlying the divisions over the Afghanistan withdrawal are neither concerns over terrorism, nor, much less, the rights of women. At stake are geostrategic interests in a country that provided US imperialism with a beachhead in energy-rich Central Asia and a potential launching pad for wars against China, Iran or Russia.

A glimpse into the real reasons for the US intervention in Afghanistan was provided in a 2018 speech by retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to then Secretary of State Colin Powell at the time of the October 2001 US invasion.

Wilkerson said that among the aims was the deployment of “hard power” within military striking distance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which runs through Central Asia. Pointing to Afghanistan’s narrow border with China’s western Xinjiang Province, he stated that it would provide the CIA a base of operations “to foment unrest” among the predominantly Muslim Uighur population and “destabilize China.” He noted the participation of thousands of Uighurs in the Al Qaeda forces that have served as the CIA’s proxy ground troops in the war for regime change in Syria.

The Pentagon is preparing for an Afghanistan withdrawal by seeking new bases that will serve the same purposes. Veteran US Afghanistan envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been sent to the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which border Afghanistan and provide similar proximity to China, Iran and Russia. Washington is also placing pressure on Pakistan to provide an air base.

The military brass speaks of maintaining “over the horizon” forces that can continue the Afghanistan war indefinitely, with bombing raids, drone strikes and ground operations as needed. Meanwhile, it remains far from clear that all US military, not to mention CIA, assets will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. While there are officially approximately 3,300 members of the US armed forces deployed in the country, there are three to four times that number in terms of US “contractors,” including those directly involved in “counter-terrorism” operations.

Meanwhile, as no troops have reportedly left the war-ravaged country, the Pentagon has deployed B-52 bombers, F-18 fighter jets and an aircraft carrier strike group to the region to supposedly cover the planned withdrawal.

Washington has no intention of ending the longest war in US history; at best, it plans only to continue it by other means. Moreover, its strategy in Afghanistan is inextricably bound up with the strategy of “great power” conflict spelled out in US national security documents, i.e., the preparations for world war against nuclear-armed China and Russia.

The propaganda campaign to justify continued war in Afghanistan in the name of “human rights” and “women’s rights” is mirrored in the lies spread by Washington and its allies about Chinese “genocide” against the Uighurs. The resurgence of “human rights” imperialism under Biden is paving the way to a global conflagration.

The only way to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan and prevent the eruption of new and even more catastrophic wars is through the mobilization of the working class in Asia, the Middle East and internationally, unifying their growing struggles with those of workers in the US, Europe and the rest of the world in a socialist anti-war movement. Without the revolutionary intervention of the working class, the threat of a third world war will only intensify.

Ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline disrupts fuel supplies across Southeast US

Kevin Reed

Shortages of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel are mounting in the Southeastern region of the US and prices are rising across the eastern half as supply was disrupted from the shutdown of the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline by a cyberattack late last week.

Media reports on Tuesday said that hundreds of filling stations in the Southeast ran out of gas or moved to restrict sales as buying surged amid concerns that supplies would run out. GasBuddy noted on Monday that demand was 40 percent greater in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia than it was one week earlier.

A Murphy Oil gas station shows no gas on pumps, Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Kennesaw, Georgia (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said jet fuel is a concern because it is only stored at airports. “They’re at risk of running out of jet fuels, and airlines have to make alternative plans, loading up aircraft before they fly into those airports, making sure they have supplies before they go to their next destination.”

In response to the shortages, American Airlines announced it was adding stops to the long-haul flights from Charlotte to Honolulu and from Charlotte to London in order to conserve fuel at its North Carolina hub.

The AAA automobile group reported that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 6 cents in one week and increased an average of nearly 13 cents in South Carolina and 17 cents in Georgia during the same period.

Colonial Pipeline—based in Alpharetta, Georgia—reported on Saturday that it learned of the ransomware attack the previous day. In response, the company said, “we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations.”

Ransomware is a computer virus that renders a targeted system inoperable by encrypting all data and demanding ransom in exchange for decryption. Ransomware attacks typically include information about how the ransom—sometimes in the millions of dollars—can be paid, including in the form of cryptocurrency. Sometimes the hackers will also threaten to leak confidential data as part of their extortion tactics.

The privately owned Colonial Pipeline manages the largest transport system for refined oil products in the US that stretches from Texas to New Jersey and carries up to 3 million barrels of fuel each day. The main lines of the 5,500-mile system are made up of two pipes—one is 40 inches, and the other is 36 inches in diameter—the first carrying primarily gasoline and the other carrying petroleum distillate products, such as aviation fuel, diesel and home heating oil.

Energy analysts have said that the problem is not a shortage of refined fuel as much as it is products stuck in the wrong places. CNBC reported on Tuesday afternoon that while there are refining facilities across the Gulf Coast, “[M]oving it requires a hodgepodge of solutions, and analysts say it will be impossible to meet demand without the pipeline.”

While some corporate media sources are saying the crisis will be short lived, CNBC warned of the ripple effects of a prolonged shutdown. “If the Colonial Pipeline is not back in business by the weekend, prices could continue to rise at the pump, and there will be broader localized fuel shortages across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.”

Michael Tran, energy analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, raised a more alarming prospect. “Given the size and the direction of the pipeline and the market that it feeds, the Colonial Pipeline is the single most important artery moving refined products in the country. This is already an earthquake, and the magnitude of the earthquake just grows by the day.”

Concerned about the possibility of a run on fuel supplies prior to the increase in travel expected during the Memorial Day holiday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a short statement saying President Biden is “continually assessing the impact of this ongoing incident on fuel supply for the East Coast. We are monitoring supply shortages in parts of the Southeast and are evaluating every action the Administration can take to mitigate the impact as much as possible.”

Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also attempted to downplay the crisis by saying that federal agencies are working around the clock to help the pipeline return to normal operations and that she held “several conversations with the CEO of Colonial and who has indicated that by close of business tomorrow, Colonial will be in a position to make the full restart decision. But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations.”

Meanwhile, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order on Tuesday suspending gasoline taxes through Saturday, which amounts to roughly 20 cents a gallon. Kemp said this decision would “help level the price for a little while” and cautioned against panic buying, which he said was unnecessary. Democratic Governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Ralph Northam of Virginia declared states of emergency in order to suspend some fuel transport rules, such as lifting hours of service limitations and tanker weight restrictions.

Colonial Pipeline issued a press release on Monday saying it was working with “third-party cybersecurity experts, law enforcement and other federal agencies to restore pipeline operations quickly and safely.” The statement went on to say that the company was “executing a plan that involves an incremental process that will facilitate a return to service in a phased approach.”

Although Colonial Pipeline did not disclose any details about its plan or the extent of the malware infection of its systems, it is typical for ransomware attacks to gain access to one unsecure computer within an organization and then replicate itself on all the other systems on the network. Since restoration of operability is never guaranteed with a ransom payment, many organizations opt to replace their entire IT infrastructure from scratch.

On Monday. the FBI confirmed in a short statement that the hacking group DarkSide was responsible for the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. The Biden administration wasted no time attempting to connect the attack to the Russian government, with Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger saying that DarkSide was “a criminal actor,” and the US government was looking for any nation-state ties that the group might have.

President Biden then also said that although there was no evidence from US intelligence officials that Russia was involved, “There is evidence that the actors’ ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this.”

Australian budget pours billions more into corporate coffers while driving down wages

Mike Head

The Australian government last night unveiled an annual budget that pumps billions more dollars into big business and the military, and seeks to further boost profits by continuing to drive down the wages and conditions of the working class.

For all the government and media hype about a “popular” and “big spending” budget, it has a vicious class content. Drumming up nationalism, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government was rewarding “Team Australia” for its efforts during the pandemic.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in conference with the Business Council of Australia [Credit: @JoshFrydenberg, Twitter]

However, the budget underscored how the pandemic is being used to further restructure economic relations in the interests of the corporate elite.

On top of the more than $400 billion handed to companies by the federal, state and territory governments in 2020, this budget will mean an estimated $50 billion more going into business subsidies, tax write-offs and investment incentives over the next year alone. Far from the various handouts flowing into productive activity, they have helped fuel a speculative frenzy sending share and home prices to new records.

The government claims that the unprecedented corporate bonanza will flow through to higher employment and wages, but the budget forecasts that real wages will continue to fall for the foreseeable future, after a decade of stagnation. According to the budget papers, inflation will rise faster than wages for the next four years at least.

Frydenberg conceded that the budget will stay in multi-billion dollar deficits for at least a decade to pay for the business stimulus measures and increased military spending. Net government debt is predicted to reach nearly $1 trillion by 2024-25, even if near-zero interest rates continue. The burden of that mountain of debt will increasingly be imposed on workers, by way of wage cuts and freezes, and the slashing of spending on health, education and other essential social programs.

The corporate media almost exclusively depicted the Liberal-National Coalition’s reversal of its decades-old opposition to budget deficits and debt as a bid to postpone electorally damaging cuts to social spending until after the next general election, due within a year.

More essentially, however, the about-face reflects anxiety throughout the ruling class about the deepening working class discontent over the health, economic and social toll produced by the profit-dominated government responses to the pandemic, which have allowed it to spiral out of control worldwide.

Buried in all the media coverage is the reality that the budget continues the government’s failure to protect the lives and livelihoods of working people from the worsening global pandemic. Not a cent was announced last night to build proper quarantine facilities, despite flawed quarantine hotels posing the greatest danger of coronavirus outbreaks. And no vaccination program for the full population is even “likely,” according to the budget, before the end of 2021.

Nor was there any new funding for public hospitals. Even the relatively limited number of COVID-19 cases so far have already exposed serious shortages of staff and resources. Dismissing pleas from health workers, the budget papers show public hospital spending rising by just $1 billion, or 4 percent, per year. Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said: “Our public hospitals need an urgent injection of federal funding to address capacity issues that are leading to long waiting times in emergency departments and for elective surgery.”

Because of repeated quarantine failures and the chaotic vaccine program, the budget assumes that international borders will remain substantially closed for another year. Yet, the budget is also predicated on there being no serious COVID-19 outbreaks and no shutting of internal borders so the “economic reopening” can continue.

The biggest item in the budget is a $20.7 billion extension of instant asset investment write-offs and tax loss “carry-backs” for businesses to mid-2023, accompanied by an extra $15.5 billion to be spent over the next decade on business-related infrastructure—roads, rail and freight—adding to the $100 billion slush fund for such projects. There is also nearly $2 billion more for wage subsidies to businesses for trainees and apprentices, and a previously announced $2.1 billion package for the airlines and tourism operators.

These outlays dwarf those for chronically-underfunded social services. Some $17.7 billion has been promised over five years to supposedly address the shocking conditions in aged care homes, which are also where most of Australia’s 910 reported COVID-19 deaths have occurred. This is grossly inadequate—expert analysis shows up to $20 billion a year is required just to implement the limited recommendations of the government’s own royal commission inquiry into the nursing homes. It pours more money into the hands of the highly profitable conglomerates that dominate the sector, without requiring them to improve staff-patient ratios or the poverty-level wages paid to care staff.

Similar glaring shortfalls and reliance on profit-hungry operators exist in the other fields elected for spending increases in the budget—childcare subsidies, mental health services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Frydenberg foreshadowed future unspecified cuts to the NDIS, in the name of making it “sustainable,” and began clawing back social spending by further reducing access to welfare payments for migrants and funding for the public universities.

Private schools will get $14.7 billion in 2021-22, up 13 percent from 2020-21, while public schools continue to be starved of funds, despite the extra burdens placed on teachers and students due to online learning during the pandemic. According to the Australian Education Union, public schools face a $19 billion funding shortfall over the next four years.

For cynical electoral purposes, the government claimed to be issuing a “women’s budget,” allocating $535 million for female health and wellbeing over four years. However, that averages out at less than $15 per woman per year, a pittance.

To help push down wages, international students and temporary visa holders will be allowed to work unlimited hours, but only if they accept jobs in the low-paid hospitality and tourism sectors. At the end of March, the government expanded the pool of potential cheap labour by simultaneously terminating its JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme and winding back JobSeeker dole payments to pre-pandemic, sub-poverty levels.

Frydenberg’s budget speech underscored the preparations being made to join a US-instigated war against China, reflecting the Biden administration’s escalation of the conflict with Beijing. The treasurer highlighted the allocation of an extra $270 billion over a decade for military hardware, $1.9 billion more for the intelligence agencies to combat domestic unrest, and measures to protect “supply chains” from disruption in the event of conflict.

Deteriorating relations with China, still Australia’s largest trading partner, are likely to impact on the Australian economy. The budget papers forecast a precipitous drop in iron ore prices by next March, down to $55 a tonne from the $230 a tonne to which they have soared recently on the back of higher steel production in China. Such a fall in Australia’s largest export would strip as much as $30 billion from the budget via smaller company tax receipts.

Extending its record of providing “constructive” support for the government’s pro-business program throughout the pandemic, the opposition Labor Party vowed not to oppose the budget. Labor leader Anthony Albanese emphasised that Labor “will not block supply.” Pressed on national television this morning, he would not even nominate one measure that Labor would oppose.

Interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last night, Labor’s shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers underscored the unanimity between the two main capitalist parties on making working people pay for the cost of the pandemic and the business bailouts.

Chalmers declared that a “government of either persuasion” would have to start “budget repair” after “getting the economy going.” That is, after further restructuring the economy in favour of the corporate and wealthy elite, the cost of the huge government debt would be extracted from working class households.

This was in line with the message delivered by today’s editorial in the Murdoch media’s Australian. While backing the government’s recourse to deficit financing for now, it warned: “But when the time for reckoning does arrive, it will lay a heavy burden on younger workers and future generations.”

Peace First Fellows-in-Residence Program 2021

Application Deadline: 4th June 2021

About the Award: The Fellows in Residence Program is a paid, year-long Fellowship for emerging social change leaders who aspire to build a movement of youth working for change. We search the world for young people who have led movements, campaigns, nonprofits, and social enterprises, made significant positive change in their community and are looking for their next leadership opportunity as they work towards a lifelong career as a leader in the social sector. Through a competitive application process, we select an exceptional cohort of young people (under age 26) who join the Peace First team for one year to lead our programs in their home region.

During their year of service, Fellows-in-Residence receive competitive pay, professional development funding, mentorship and training and travel opportunities. They join a global Community of Practice, collaborating with other Fellows in Residence from around the world who become a critical source of support, guidance, feedback and friendship on their journey. Over the course of the year, Fellows in Residence grow their networks within and beyond their region and build skills across many different domains critical to social change leadership.

Fellows in Residence lead Peace First’s programs in their region, working to mobilize and support hundreds of young leaders in their community as knowledgeable yet approachable near-peers. Job duties of a Fellow in Residence include:

• Designing and implementing recruitment strategy in their region
• Mobilizing and managing volunteer Ambassadors to meet regional goals
• Providing feedback and support to a large portfolio of youth project leaders
• Reviewing and approving all mini-grant applications within their region
• Developing and managing  partnerships with organizations in their region
• Serving as a coach for Accelerator grantees
• Hosting Labs, Community Calls and other trainings for young people
• Speaking on behalf of Peace First
• Supporting the design of new and improved Peace First programming  
• Contributing to organizational fundraising and storytelling efforts  

The Fellows in Residence program is designed to be a launchpad for the next generation of social change leaders. Our alumni have received Fulbright, Chevening and Mastercard scholarships for further study, advanced into management positions in the social sector and startups and returned to their organizations with the skills, networks and knowledge needed to take their ideas to scale. Many Fellows in Residence choose to serve a second year in the program.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility:

• Under 26 years old on August 1, 2021
• Have reliable access to fast, stable internet (assuming the cost of internet access is covered)
• Able to commit to at least one year as a Fellow-in-Residence, beginning August 2021
• Hold a valid passport and are able to travel between 10 and 20% of your time
• Must be based in the region where you intend to work.
• Fluent in English
• MENA Fellows-in-Residence must also be fluent in Arabic. Fluency or proficiency in other languages, especially French, is highly desirable

Eligible Countries: Sub-Saharan African & MENA Countries

To be Taken at (Country): Sub-Saharan African & MENA Countries

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The Fellowship-in-Residence, a paid, year-long Fellowship with Peace First, is an unparalleled opportunity to build your skills and networks as an emerging leader — and set you up for a career of lifelong leadership for social change.

Duration of Award: 1 year

How to Apply: Follow links below to apply for the region you’re interested in. 

• Fellow in Residence: Asia and Oceania
• Fellow in Residence: Middle East and North Africa
• Fellow in Residence: Sub-Saharan Africa
• Fellow in Residence: UK & Europe 

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details