China 101

M Adil Khan

Regardless of whether it is in democracies or otherwise, decisions on foreign policies including those that concern wars against other countries are almost always made exclusively by the governments, with limited or no consultations with the citizens and often at the behest of vested interest who operate both within and t times, from abroad. Once decisions on wars are made, public consensus are “manufactured” via the corporate media, often a cahoot in the cabal.

As a result, we have seen how in recent past, wars that were based on falsehood but those that successfully manipulated and garnered public support in favour, destroyed country after country and killed and maimed hundreds and thousands, with impunity.

Lately, a similar spectre of war seems to loom large. Led by the US, the West seem to be on a similar mission to undermine, intimidate and demonize China at multiple fronts, a familiar ploy to wars. Although at this stage these posturing are lip-deep, war drums are beaten in near distance, non-stop and this is ominous.

It is true that China’s system and its behaviour, both internal and external are not the most ideal. But question that must be asked is whether China’s system and its dealings are so bad or are these worse than others to merit the kind of vicious demonisation it has been subjected to by the West and more particularly, by the US, lately?

The article is an attempt to analyse China and its dealings objectively with the hope that broader citizen awareness of and their collective informed conversations on concerned issues would help understanding this important country and their position better and in the process, help separating truth from myths and resolving  disputes in a more collective, respectful, credible and peaceful manner and this is important for world peace and stability.

Allegations against China

Led by the US, the West regard China’s one-party “authoritarian” political system, an abhorrent practice and thus, is in conflict with “our liberal democratic values”.

The West also rebuke China for its “human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims”.

Furthermore, West/US berate China for its harsh treatment of the Hongkong pro-democracy/anti-Beijing protesters.

Lately, the West especially the US has been denouncing and militarily intimidating China for its alleged unilateral “illegal” control of the South China Sea (SCS) and for its “aggressive posturing” against Taiwan etc.

The West/US also blame the Asian giant for “mishandling” the COVID 19 outbreak which originated in Wuhan, China. They blame China saying that the virus is “lab leak” and that China’s poor handling contributed to its worldwide spread, an allegation that China denies. The West especially the US also criticise China for “unfair trade practices”.

Against these barrage of allegations, complains and intimidations it is indeed interesting to note that it was not that long ago that the West, especially US, applauded China for its rapid economic growth, dramatic poverty alleviation and its economy’s remarkable transformation from an impoverished peasant economy to a manufacturing market economy, a world factory, that supplied cheap goods to the world, especially the West.

Thus, it is important that we explore and analyse more objectively the West/US/China relations and their changed perceptions within the contexts of realities on the ground and strive for a more balanced view on concerned issues and map out a way forward.

China’s economic transformation

We all know that in recent years, China has transited from a factory economy to an advanced technology-based economy and progressed from a $92.6 billion GDP in 1970 to a $14.72 trillion GDP economy in 2020, the second largest economy in the world after the US, poised to surpass US in few years.

In recent years, China overtook US in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and during the same period, it also emerged as the leading FDI provider to the developing world –  China’s FDI outflow increased from virtually zero in 1970 to $1.23 trillion in 2019 and currently, covers 125 countries and in the process has spread its influence worldwide, especially in West/US’ hegemonic backyards in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

A redeeming feature of China’s dramatic economic rise is that much of its success owes to its own efforts and most importantly, unlike the West which accumulated  its wealth through colonisation, occupation, loot and plunder and lately, through neo-colonial “international order’ that according to Andre Gunther Frank institutionalised “unequal exchanges” that promoted extraction of resources at one end and accumulation at the other, China’s economic prosperity came entirely through its own efforts – through hard work, innovations, adjustments, investments in science and technology and in infrastructure, both within and across and through competitiveness.

In this regard it is noteworthy that during the period that China transited from the factory economy to world’s second largest economy and emerged as world’s biggest FDI provider and more importantly, modernized and built its military capability that has since reduced West’s capacity to intimidate it militarily,  West’s attitude towards China especially that of the US seem to have changed dramatically, from adulation in 1990s to outright hostility at the present time.

 

China’s political system

It is true that in the aftermath of the communist takeover in 1949, China began with a top-down heavy-handed authoritarian system of governance and they paid heavy price for it.

Thereafter, and guided by the Confucius philosophy that, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do” China has since incrementally reformed its legislative and decision-making processes, and made their governance and policy-making processes inclusive, participatory, decentralised, and accountable, albeit within the framework of the one-party system. In the current system, China permits free and frank critiquing of policies within but not outside which is contrary to West’s political system – namely, the democracies – that allows freedom of expressions, within and outside.

Nonetheless and in contrast to the democracies that stipulate “freedom”, as a key component of governance but do not incorporate in their political systems the guarantee of right of citizens to the basic needs which ought to be the core mandate of every state, China’s political system has made access to health, education, food, jobs and shelter inalienable rights of all citizens and a responsibility of the state whereby policies are made and resources are allocated, accordingly.

Indeed, the contrasts between the two systems in terms of outcomes are quite stark. For example, outcomes of China’s ‘’citizen right-to-basic needs” policy is there for all to see – with a population of 1.4 billion, China is among the top five least hungry countries of the world. Whereas, India, the largest democracy of the world and a member of the US led QUAD (a quasi-defence alliance), is among the seven most hungry countries of the world, where 190 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs. Similarly, in the US, per the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Household Survey, there were, 35 million hungry people in that country in 2019. What makes these dismal hunger statistics of India and US a real tragedy, is that both these democracies produce enough food to feed their people a few times over, and yet they have systems that deprive large sections of their people from gaining access to food.

The key reason why democracies fail to meet the basic needs of people is because not many democracies have made this the core mandate of their political systems and furthermore, unlike China which has continuously reformed its systems to respond to its emerging needs and prioritised citizen-right-to-basic needs as its key agenda, West’s model of ‘representative democracy’, which according to some has since morphed into a “liberal-totalitarian system” has not undergone adjustments/reforms in the last one hundred years and thus has lost its capacity to represent nor serve the interests of the people, equitably. On the contrary, elements of inequity and powerlessness of citizens are now structurally embedded such that in these countries, liberalism is an illusion and representation, a myth.

Another noteworthy contrast between China and the West’s political systems is that while China does not lecture others to follow their system, the West especially the US tirelessly harangues others to follow theirs, forgetting that “..imposition of ideological attitudes [on others] is somewhat reminiscent of the history of the late Soviet Union, in that it doesn’t even believe the values it tries to project abroad” (Sergey Naryshkin).

Finally, and this is important – regardless of how faulty or otherwise the Chinese political system is, one thing is certain:  their political system would never allow someone like Trump to ever become the president of their country.

China’s human rights records

China’s human rights records are at best patchy. In recent times, the US has bitterly criticised China for its persecution of Uyghur Muslims in its Xinjiang province. While an independent international probe would be the step in the right direction to assess and validate these allegations, there is no doubt that persecution of Uyghurs in one form or another has occurred and is taking place, warranting due investigation and accountability.

Regardless, what makes America’s condemnation of Uyghur persecution a little problematic if not hypocritical and makes the case of the Uyghurs somewhat weak, is that the flag bearers of human rights tend to cherry pick human rights cases. For example with respect to India, a close ally of the US, where the ruling BJP government has turned Kashmir, a Muslim majority autonomous state, into a virtual concentration camp and in other parts of the country, where Muslims are lynched, harassed and murdered with impunity almost daily, Washington has chosen to look the other way. Similarly, Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its persecution and murder of Palestinians are known facts, and yet the US does not condemn these blatant human rights abuses and much worse, stands by Israel and justifies these horrific abuses as “Israel’s right to defend itself”.

Sadly, America’s selective targeting and condemnations of human rights abuses have dented its moral credibility and weakened much of its capacity to promote change. This is unfortunate.

To address more credibly the cases of human rights abuses around the world including those that occur in China, efforts should be made to pursue these cases through established global frameworks through agreed international standards, compliances, reporting and imposition of sanctions on the defaulters.

Hongkong

Democracy protests in Hongkong, a city-state which operates under the one country-two system political framework, constitute a legitimate right for Hongkong dwellers and therefore, the brutal suppression of the protesters by the Hongkong authorities, which have been undertaken at the behest of mainland China, is reprehensible, though the protesters’ waving of American flags and carrying of placards bearing images of Trump during the protest marches do raise questions regarding the backers and real motive of these protests and much worse, provide the perfect pretext for the Chinese government to brand the protesters as “foreign agents” and legitimise suppression. This is unwarranted.

Indeed, Hongkong demonstrators need to demonstrate clearly that this is their movement and that the protests that are their legal rights are neither inspired nor instigated by outsiders.

China, a “security threat”

In recent years, China has asserted its control over the South China Sea (SCS), an important shipping route that connects East Asia with rest of the world. China routinely monitors the movements of non-Chinese vessels in the area. The US and its allies see China’s “unilateral” control over the SCS a “security threat”.

Indeed, China’s assertion of its control over the SCS is problematic, but none of its Asian neighbours (except Japan) that are in the vicinity, regard the territorial dispute a “security threat”.  For example, the Philippines President, Mr. Duterte has made it clear that, “We do have disputes with China over the use of the South China Sea, but I am not choosing war to resolve it.” Similarly, Malaysia, another contender to the SCS has chosen quiet diplomacy over confrontation as its strategy on the issue of maritime-territorial sovereignty of the SCS.

On the other hand, the US, which is approximately 15000 kms away from the disputed area, regards China’s actions in the SCS as hostile acts and Australia, an obliging ally of the US and in the region, though not in the immediate vicinity, has joined the US in flexing military muscles and threatening China. These activities in SCS, namely war posturing by the West/US/Australia and China’s readiness to confront and not discuss the issue are hardly reassuring.

Indeed, rather than waiting for the tension to blow over and since the maritime sovereignty is an international issue, it may be more helpful to seek an internationally agreed solution, say through deployment of multi-national forces that guarantees equitable access to the SCS to all and ensures security of all parties including China’s.

China/Taiwan hostility is another unresolved issue in the region. However, given the complexities of the geopolitics, it is very difficult to say who threatens whom. Regardless, all parties need to treat the issue with care and sensitivity and avoid conflagration.

COVID 19 and the “Wuhan lab leak”

In recent times, the US raised concerns about the source of COVID 19 that first broke out in December 2019 in China’s Wuhan. Mr. Trump, then the US President, called the  virus “Wuhan/China” virus and claimed, without evidence, that the virus was a “lab leak” from a Wuhan laboratory, implying China’s culpability in the creation and spread of the deadly virus. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has doubted the theory and asserted, along with the majority of international scientists, that the virus is likely to have occurred through natural mutations, “the most likely origin is from an animal species to a human.” Lately, the Director General of WHO, Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that an “accidental lab leak is possible” and thus is asking “China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus”.

Indeed, COVID 19 is a pandemic and therefore, world has the right to know the truth of its origin to ensure accountability and more importantly, find enduring therapy and preventions and therefore, efforts must be made to get to the truth of the source and establish accountability, through a well-coordinated global effort, through WHO where China must cooperate.

China 101: Key Lessons

There are many things that are positive about China and it would do the world some good to draw lessons or two from the Asian dragon. On the other hand, like most countries China is not perfect. They thus need to mend some of their flaws. However, to expect that China – a country which happens to be the world’s second largest economy, the largest trading partner and the largest provider of FDI to the developing countries and militarily a mighty country – would change through demonization and/or intimidation especially by those whose own track records in peace and human rights are anything but inspiring, is delusional. Indeed, China’s recent snub to a proposed visit to Beijing by the US deputy secretary of state, Wendy R. Sherman is a clear demonstration of its depth ire against and an illustration of its distrust of the US as a trustworthy partner.

Therefore, at a time when the entire world is reeling under a ravaging pandemic and is in serious economic duress where thousands are falling sick and dying daily and millions are losing jobs and livelihood and counting, bad mouthing and muscle flexing may not be the most effective way to resolve disputes anywhere let alone those that involve China and therefore, the way forward is not through the diktats of any group and/or alliance whose own moral standing is anything but inspiring, but through internationally laid down protocols and frameworks, such as the UN.

Flood of the century in Western Europe: Over 100 dead, thousands missing

Elisabeth Zimmermann & Marianne Arens

The flood disaster in western Germany, Belgium and part of the Netherlands is taking on increasingly dramatic proportions. By midday Friday, the death toll in the German regions of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia had risen to 106, with more being added every hour. Thousands of people are still considered missing.

The provisional death toll in Belgium has risen to 23, with another 20 missing, according to an account released by the government at midday Friday.

And in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, 10,000 people had also been evacuated after fears that the Meuse River would overflow its banks so much that residential areas would be flooded. Due to the power outage associated with the flooding, many cell phones are inoperable as there is nowhere to charge batteries. Entire communities are cut off because roads, bridges and railroad tracks are impassable. The floodwaters have washed them under or over and destroyed them.

Communities along the Ahr, a western tributary of the Rhine, south of Bonn, located partly in Rhineland-Palatinate and partly in North Rhine-Westphalia, are devastated. The village of Schuld in the district of Ahrweiler, which lies on several bends of the Ahr, was largely destroyed. In many other places along the Ahr, houses are flooded, partially or completely destroyed or in danger of collapse. People have neither clean drinking water nor electricity.

A particularly tragic case occurred in Sinzig, where the Ahr flows into the Rhine. Here, due to the floods, 12 people died in a home for the disabled. They lived in a house run by the Ahrweiler district association. Due to the rapid rise of the Ahr overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the first floor of the residential home was flooded. The severely disabled people were not evacuated in time and could not save themselves.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the number of known fatalities had risen to 63 by Friday afternoon, with at least 362 people reported injured in the Ahrweiler district alone. It is feared that these numbers will continue to rise. Not only is there a lack of electricity and drinking water in Ahrweiler, but a gas pipeline has also been destroyed. The gas supplier said this could take several months to repair.

In the neighbouring state of North Rhine-Westphalia, 43 deaths have been officially reported. Here, too, it is feared that the number will rise sharply.

The situation is particularly critical in Erftstadt-Blessem, near Cologne. Here, at least three residential buildings and part of the town’s historic castle have collapsed. Rescue workers are trying to pull people out of these houses, but so far have had difficulty reaching them. “We assume several dead, but we don’t know,” said North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU).

The Erft, also normally a small river, rose enormously due to the rains, turning into a raging torrent. The dam at one of the lakes broke, unleashing a flood wave. Large areas of land are also flooded, and the harvest in the farmers’ fields has been destroyed. Volunteers are caring for those who managed to escape their homes in emergency shelters, though this raises the risk of COVID-19 infections.

Another crisis point is the district of Euskirchen. There is still a danger that the dam of the nearby Steinbach reservoir will burst, so that the nearby villages could be flooded. Some of the residents were already evacuated on Thursday. The situation is also critical at other dams.

The districts of Aachen and Düren were also hit by heavy storms and heavy rain. In North Rhine-Westphalia, 23 municipalities are affected by heavy flooding. Cologne, Trier, Solingen, Hagen, Leverkusen, Aachen are also affected, though the extent of the damage is still unknown.

In many regions, people have described the levels of damage as the worst since World War II. In Schuld, population 700, the mayor described the impact as “Like after a bombing raid.”

The floods followed several weeks of intense, persistent rainfall. In the narrow valleys of the Eifel, the region around Cologne, the Bergisches Land and the Sauerland, small streams became raging torrents within hours.

The causes are to be found both in climate change and in a lack of safety infrastructure. Scientists have long warned of the effects of climate change, which is causing unprecedented heat and drought in Canada and the western United States. However, periods of heavy rainfall in Europe have been attributed to the warmer atmosphere, which now can absorb significantly more moisture than before. Changes in the jet stream, also caused by climate change, are another contributing factor.

The Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute reported a record rainfall over 48 hours in Liège, near the German border, with more than 271 mm recorded at Jalhay and 217 mm at Spa. David Denehauw, the head of meteorological forecasts, said on Twitter that these levels are seen “statistically once in 200 years. Normally we measure 100mm in July in these areas.”

Flood disasters have been increasing for several years, and researchers, geographers and urban planners are well aware of this problem. It would be entirely possible to prevent such natural events from turning into deadly catastrophes by taking the necessary preventive measures.

There are examples of this. For example, in the Saxon city of Grimma on the Mulde River, a flood protection system was installed three years ago after major flood disasters of 2002 and 2013. It consists of numerous flood gates and a protective wall several kilometres long, reaching 12 metres deep into the earth. A complex canal system under the city can absorb and drain large amounts of water. Within two hours, the city centre can be sealed off tightly.

But such installations are extremely rare. After the previous floods of the century, government politicians have concentrated—if at all—on the major rivers. But even in the smaller valleys, many mayors have been aware of the dangers for years and are quite prepared to take preventive measures. However, the municipalities simply do not have the money to do so.

In Germany and across Europe, governments have spent trillions of euros on bailouts for corporations, banks and shareholders during the coronavirus pandemic. Massive war preparations, overseas troop deployments and modern weapons systems are being financed. The German Bundeswehr is being upgraded, and the government is making investments in cyberspace and space warfare. However, there is no money for the elementary security of the population.

The causes of this latest flood disaster are to be found in the capitalist system. The capitalist class has been incapable and unwilling to take any action over more than 30 years to prevent climate change or significantly improve critical infrastructure, because to do so would impact upon the profit and geostrategic interests of the capitalist elite.

It has demonstrated its indifference toward human life throughout the coronavirus pandemic, as it deliberately allowed the virus to spread in order to prevent any impact of social-distancing measures on corporate profits. With the same indifference it has rejected necessary expenditures in social infrastructure to protect the population from social disaster. It views such expenditure as an intolerable inroad into its own wealth.

The answer of the working class to this policy of social murder must be the conscious struggle for socialism. Trillions of dollars must be invested into social infrastructure projects for the protection of the population on an international scale, and toward a transition toward renewable energy. Such a policy requires the taking of political power by the working class and the organisation of social life on the basis of social need, not private profit.

Israel: Histadrut union federation kicks hospital workers’ strike into the long grass as support grows

Jean Shaoul

On Thursday afternoon, the Histadrut labour federation called off the nationwide strike of 13,000 support workers at Israel’s public hospitals. This came just three days after the start of the strike over intolerable workloads, massive staff shortages and the dismissal of 200 workers taken on at the height of the pandemic.

Israelis receive a COVID-19 vaccine from medical professionals at a coronavirus vaccination center set up on a shopping mall parking lot in Givataim, Israel. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The health care workers, who include both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, have been pushed to the brink. They are also seeking extra payments for dealing with Covid, as cases rise again to levels not seen since April 5, and the implementation of a 20-year-old decision of the finance ministry that recommended pay parity between public and private (insurance owned) hospitals.

Union representatives called off the strike, officially a “45-day suspension”, until the start of the Jewish New Year when the country closes down. This followed a meeting with an aide of Nizan Horowitz, health minister in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s right-wing “government of change” that replaced that of longstanding premier Benjamin Netanyahu last month.

There were reportedly vague promises that Horowitz would handle the negotiations on health workers’ contracts with the Finance Ministry and prioritize their demands, with the Civil Service Commission agreeing to “suspend” the 200 job cuts.

Eli Badash, the head of the union representing the striking workers, said the workers would agree to the decision “providing these [200] workers are directly employed by the hospitals, rather than by a contractor who makes money at their expense.” The union is also calling for the implementation of the 20-year-old decision on pay parity.

None of this meets the workers’ demands who face an impossible workload. The union cites the case of one cleaner in a medical centre in Nahariya who is required to clean an inpatient ward of 14 rooms, 15 bathrooms and showers, two offices, a treatment room, a nurses’ station and a sitting area in one six-hour shift. Her supervisor said that could not be completed in 15 hours, let alone six.

All this is done for a pittance. The basic wage for a new housekeeper in a public hospital is $550 a month, while longstanding workers can earn up to $1,320 a month, and with overtime up to $1,764. Israel has one of the highest costs of living and lowest wages among the rich club of 38 OECD countries, of which Israel is a member. The median annual salary of a doctor ranges between $35-40,000, while that of teachers and nurses is between $17-20,000.

It was only when forced that the union called the strike in the first place. Public hospital workers voted for action three years ago, in the run up to a nationwide nurses’ strike over their grueling workload, staff shortages, the low standard of care and a planned pay cut. But the vote was set aside by a court injunction demanding employers and workers negotiate an agreement. Even when the negotiations went nowhere and the National Labour Court cancelled the injunction, the union held off calling a strike, citing the pandemic as a pretext.

The strike had seriously disrupted patient care in at least 20 public hospitals, including general hospitals, psychiatric facilities, and rehab and geriatric centers, as all administrative, maintenance, dieticians, and cleaning and kitchen staff stopped work. It forced the closure of outpatient clinics and the cancellation of non-urgent surgery.

There were reports of surgeons transporting patients to operating rooms and nurses sterilizing critical equipment, serving meals, and removing trash. As garbage and dirty laundry piled up in the summer heat, one hospital official warned that the situation could put patients at risk as infections spread.

The strike won widespread support under conditions where Israel’s health care system has deteriorated dramatically as successive governments have privatized the network, outsourced workers to private contractors and cut funding. Further cuts are planned, and many hospitals are in debt due to the government’s failure to update its system of reimbursement between the health funds and the hospitals. The High Court, in response to a petition from the prestigious Hadassah University Medical Hospital, recently ordered the Health and Finance ministries to register a new budget and new pricing model for hospitals by the end of the summer.

Health care professionals, including dietitians, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, planned strike action on Sunday morning in support of the striking workers. Eli Gabbai, who chairs the Health Professionals Union, said the “time had come for the Finance and Health Ministries to treat with respect these ‘invisible’ workers, who suffer disgraceful work conditions and insulting wages.”

Dr Ze’ev Feldman, the leader of the medical association representing doctors in the public sector, expressed his organisation’s support for the strike, saying that the strikers were left with no choice. He wrote, “Your justified demands have been dragged along for three years, and your fight is all of ours. The health system requires administrative and maintenance staff just as it requires doctors.”

Last May, 600 doctors went on a 24-hour strike demanding job protection in the face of the Netanyahu government’s decision to cut health care funding, already among the lowest in the industrialised countries, in favour of the defence budget to finance the suppression of the Palestinians and Israel’s operations in the region.

The corporatist Histadrut labour federation said that if “the professional staff at the Finance Ministry don’t find a solution quickly to the demands of these ‘invisible’ workers, other sectors can be expected to join the strike.” That Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David felt compelled to make such an insincere threat testifies to the explosive social conditions in Israel.

Conditions of low wages and appalling workload are replicated across the country. Some 1.5 million workers, out of a 9 million population, are paid the minimum monthly wage of $1,650 for a 42-hour week, significantly longer than in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This has put the Histadrut under enormous pressure to demand an increase to about $1,850 along with a two-hour reduction in the working week as workers struggle to make ends meet.

The cost of housing that 10 years ago sparked protests has risen. It now takes 148 months of salary to purchase an apartment, compared with 127 in 2011, while the amount of public housing has shrunk and rental plans have not helped those in need. With the average monthly rent at about $1,200, 37 percent of an average salary goes on rent.

The Adva Center’s recent report on the pandemic called “The Epidemic of Inequality” concluded that Israel’s richest 1 percent had come out ahead, having received the most of the government’s protection and benefits, including the purchase of $440 million worth of corporate bonds. This is set to be squeezed out of the working population in the new budget. Small businesses, mainly service providers, were the main losers as per capita consumption fell by 11 percent, nearly double the OECD average of 6 percent.

By far the worst affected are Palestinian Israelis, with nearly a quarter reporting in April 2020 that they or family members had reduced their food intake, compared with 14 percent of the general population. As the poorest members of Israeli society, the COVID-19 death rate of Palestinian Israelis aged 60 and older was three times that of that of the ultra-orthodox Jews, Israel’s second poorest group, which in turn was four times that of secular Jews.

The Histadrut’s sellout of the strike comes as health care workers worldwide have struggled to prop up decaying capitalist health care systems that have been looted for decades by the corporations, banks and insurance and pharmaceutical companies, leaving them ill-prepared for a global pandemic.

Canada’s new indigenous governor general and the crisis of bourgeois rule

Roger Jordan & Keith Jones

On the recommendation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s monarch—Queen Elizabeth II—has named Mary Simon the country’s 30th Governor General. The political establishment and corporate media have rushed to hail the appointment of Simon, a long-standing state functionary, as “historic,” because she is Inuit and the first indigenous person to ever serve as “the Queen’s representative,” that is Canada’s acting head of state.

Justin Trudeau and Governor General designate Mary Simon at an announcement of Canada’s next Governor General [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Behind this cynical propaganda, which draws heavily on the right-wing nostrums of identity politics and the Trudeau government’s policy of “reconciling” the Native population to ruthless capitalist exploitation, lies growing concerns within the ruling class over the popular legitimacy of the post of Governor General under conditions of intensifying capitalist crisis and class struggle.

Whilst the media and political establishment portray the Governor General, and indeed the monarchy as a whole, as little more than ceremonial window-dressing, they in fact occupy a pivotal position within the Canadian state and bourgeois-democratic constitutional order.

Hand-picked by the monarch on the basis of a recommendation from the Canadian government of the day, the Governor General is subject to no democratic controls. Yet, as the Queen’s representative, they wield vast “reserve powers.” These include the ability to prorogue parliament and designate and dismiss the prime minister. No legislation can become law without their assent. For the most part, these powers are held in abeyance, hidden behind pomp and circumstance and the lie that the monarch and her representative are above the political fray. But this anti-democratic, authoritarian institution has been retained at the centre of the constitutional order, precisely so that it can be deployed at times of crisis to safeguard bourgeois rule. This is why the occupant of the post must be a trusted ruling class representative, while also possessing the wherewithal to maintain the façade that the Governor General and monarch are above politics and symbols of national unity.

For decades, Canada’s ruling elite has been struggling to shore up popular support and legitimacy for this institution, which wide swathes of the population view as alien and archaic, if not anachronistic. The growing indifference and hostility to the position of Governor General is inextricably bound up with the broader discrediting of Canada’s British-based monarchy, which embodies the British aristocracy in all its backwardness, stupidity, and hostility to democracy and social equality. In recent years, the royal family, the House of Windsor, has been rocked by scandal and bitter feuding.

Canada’s ruling elite has in recent years sought to “freshen up” and “modernize” the position of Governor General by appointing a succession of media personalities and celebrities. Julie Payette, who Trudeau nominated for a five-year term as Governor General in 2017 apparently without serious vetting, belonged to the latter category. A former astronaut, Payette was forced to resign, creating the vacancy that Simon will now fill, after scores of current and former employees of Rideau Hall (the Governor General’s residence) accused her and her principal assistant, a close personal friend, of workplace harassment, including physical abuse.

After parts of a report backing up these allegations were released in January, a preposterous spectacle unfolded as the media and political establishment, with Prime Minister Trudeau in the lead, postured as the most fervent defenders of workers’ rights against an abusive boss. This is from the same political forces that have condemned hundreds of thousands of workers to infection and thousands to death from COVID-19 by insisting that workplaces remain open throughout the pandemic.

After a week-long campaign of choreographed media outrage, Payette got the message and resigned, with the assurance that she will receive a lucrative pension from the public purse for the remainder of her life. Even prior to the harassment allegations, Payette had discredited herself in the eyes of the establishment by failing to conceal her disdain for the ceremonial duties of the Governor General, which are seen as crucial to duping the population as to the real function of the Queen’s representative.

Payette’s swift departure testified to the nervousness within ruling circles that the social and economic crisis, and the surge in inter-imperialist and great-power conflict, both of which have drastically intensified since the onset of the pandemic, could lead to the sudden emergence of a political crisis that will necessitate the Governor General’s intervention to defend the stability of capitalist rule.

In Mary Simon the ruling class believes it has found someone who will both loyally serve their interests and who can lend legitimacy if not lustre to the office of Governor General. An Inuk from Nunavut, Simon helped negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Accord in 1975, a treaty between the Cree, Inuit, the provincial government and Hydro-Québec. Beginning in 1982, she served for four years as head of the Makivik Corporation, an organization charged with managing assets running into the tens of millions of dollars accrued through economic development projects on traditional Inuit land. She was part of the Inuit delegation that helped negotiate and endorsed Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s Charlottetown Constitutional Accord, and for a time was the Co-Director (Policy) and Secretary to the federal government-appointed Royal Commission on Aboriginal Affairs. From 1994 to 2003 she was Canada’s first Inuit ambassador, serving for all nine years as Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs and from 1999 to 2001 as Canada’s Ambassador to Denmark. This included negotiating the creation in 1996 of the Arctic Council, which has representation from all eight states that border the Arctic Ocean.

In picking Simon, the ruling elite have a double purpose. First, it calculates that Simon’s Native heritage can give a much-needed boost to the Trudeau government’s policy of “reconciliation,” which aims at cultivating a tiny privileged indigenous elite to staff positions within the capitalist state and private enterprise to give Canadian capitalism a “diverse” and “progressive” face while the majority of indigenous people continue to live in grinding poverty. Even before recent discoveries at multiple sites of hundreds of unmarked graves highlighted the brutality and genocidal character of the Canadian state’s residential schools policy, the government’s reconciliation agenda was facing increasing opposition from native people due to Ottawa’s manifest failure to address the horrific social conditions faced by the majority of Canada’s indigenous people, both on- and off-reserve.

Simon lost no time in beginning the task of deploying reactionary identity politics to revive “reconciliation.” In her acceptance speech, she declared that her appointment as the representative of the British monarch, an anti-democratic relic of feudal privilege and autocracy, was a “historic and inspirational moment” for Canada. Underscoring the absurdity of identity politics, which claims that the real divisions in society are ones of race, ethnicity, and gender, Simon, the former CEO and capitalist state functionary, proclaimed that her Inuit ethnicity means that she can serve as “a bridge between the different lived realities” of Canada, and “relate to all people no matter where they live, what they hope for or what they need to overcome.”

The government and Canadian ruling class also calculate that Simon’s Inuit heritage will be useful under conditions where the Arctic has become an increasingly important arena of great-power competition. In collaboration with the United States, Canada’s closest military-strategic partner for over three quarters of a century, Ottawa is in the process of modernizing NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, with the aim of combatting strategic rivals like Russia and China. An important element in this is expanding military capacities in the Arctic, where climate change is making the region’s vast natural resources more readily accessible and opening up new sea-lane trade routes. The Globe and Mail has noted that Simon, who has long argued that the Inuit are pivotal to asserting “Canadian sovereignty” in the Arctic, could prove very useful asset in asserting Canadian interests in the far north.

The second and no less important expectation of Canada’s ruling class is that Simon’s decades of political experience as a representative of the Inuit elite and Canadian state will provide her with the political acumen and public respect to effectively deploy the vast powers of the Governor General, should that prove necessary.

The last such situation emerged in the immediate aftermath of the September 2008 global economic meltdown, when the Liberals and New Democrats, backed by the trade union bureaucracy, concluded a pro-austerity, pro-war coalition agreement with the aim of replacing the minority Harper Tory government. Determined to impose the full burden of the economic crisis on the backs of an increasingly combative working class, the ruling elite deemed that a Liberal-NDP government would be too unstable, and that Harper should remain in power. They therefore staunchly supported Harper when he prevailed on Governor General Michaëlle Jean to arbitrarily shut down parliament so as to prevent the opposition parties from exercising their democratic right to vote non-confidence in his Conservative government. Jean’s approval of Harper’s prorogation Dec. 4, 2008 request allowed Canada’s most right-wing government since the 1930s, to cling to power in what the World Socialist Web Site correctly described at the time as a “constitutional coup.” By the time parliament reconvened in mid-January 2009, the coalition agreement had collapsed as the Liberals, responding to the sentiments within the corporate elite, ditched the planned coalition.

Another stark demonstration of the virtually unlimited powers possessed by Governors General is in the events in Australia in 1975. The country’s Labor government was sacked by Governor General John Kerr after the ruling elite became apprehensive that Prime Minister Gough Whitlam could no longer control the increasingly militant working class. Correspondence, subsequently made public, revealed that Kerr consulted closely with the Queen’s top advisers, underlining that Whitlam’s dismissal was engineered by powerful forces within the British and US imperialist state apparatuses.

The prospects for an eruption of a crisis of bourgeois rule that would far surpass both the events of 2008 in Canada and Australia in 1975 is very real. On January 6, a mob of far-right protestors stormed the US Capitol, at the behest of US President Donald Trump and with the complicity of the Republican Party leadership and powerful sections of the state apparatus in order to prevent the coming to power of President-elect Joe Biden. In the intervening months, the entire American political and media establishment has gone out of its way to trivialize Trump’s attempted coup, which was the culmination of a months-long effort to annul the election and came within minutes of succeeding, by effectively denying that it ever took place. Meanwhile, Trump and his supporters continue to refashion the Republican Party as an openly far-right, fascistic organization.

The same social and political processes that underlie the support which sections of the ruling elite in the US have extended to Trump’s dictatorial efforts—unprecedented levels of social inequality, intensifying global trade and geostrategic conflict, preparations for war against China and Russia, and mounting anti-capitalist sentiment in the working class nourished by the ruling elite’s savage “profits before lives” policy during the pandemic—are convulsing Canada.

The country’s 48 billionaires saw their wealth shoot up a whopping $78 billion during the pandemic’s first year. In pursuit of its own predatory interests, Canadian imperialism is ever more deeply implicated in the US military-strategic offensives against Russia and China, and in the Middle East. And the working class, like its brothers and sisters in the United States, has engaged in a series of militant strikes and other job actions over recent months that have not only challenged the decades of concessions imposed by big business and successive capitalist governments, but also the pro-capitalist trade unions that have helped enforce them. These struggles include the ongoing strike by 2,450 Vale miners in Sudbury, who voted down a rotten concessions-filled contract recommended by the USW, and the rank-and-file work stoppages by autoworkers in Windsor and the United States at the beginning of the pandemic that forced the adoption of lockdowns in the face of the efforts of Unifor and the UAW to keep production running.

The Canadian ruling elite will not hesitate to deploy the full force of the capitalist state apparatus, including the carefully concealed powers of the Governor General, to impose its reactionary class war agenda of militarism and war, attacks on democratic rights, and the stepped-up exploitation of the working class. Workers in Canada must respond in kind by unifying their struggles with their natural allies, working people in the United States, Mexico, and around the world.

Delta variant escalates catastrophic spread of COVID-19 in Brazil

Tomas Castanheira

In recent days, the health secretariats of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have announced the existence of community transmission of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the two largest metropolitan centers of Brazil.

Street vendors in Brasilia, July, 2021 [Credit: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil]

On Wednesday, São Paulo City Hall reported that the investigation of a Delta variant case, originally confirmed on June 21, revealed that the patient had had no contact with anyone from abroad, and that three other people from his family were also infected. The following day, Rio de Janeiro City Hall reported its first two cases of local transmission of the variant, along with 10 other infected people who had been in contact with the patients.

The Ministry of Health, while not yet assuming community transmission in Brazil, recognizes 27 confirmed cases of the variant that originated in India, which have already led to five deaths.

The president of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, made an alarming statement last week, declaring that “The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic.” Transmission of the Delta variant around the world has already reached at least 104 countries, is being accompanied by an explosive rise in epidemiological curves in dozens of countries.

This situation, with its incalculably devastating potential, is being driven by the criminal actions of capitalist governments around the planet, which are promoting the irresponsible suspension of measures to control the virus under the mantra of a “return to normalcy”

In Brazil, the picture is no different. On Friday it surpassed 540,000 COVID-19 deaths and continues to record the highest number of daily deaths in the world. On average, 1,244 people die from COVID-19 every day in Brazil, while another 42,819 are being infected, according to Worldometer data.

The Brazilian public health institution Fiocruz warned in an extraordinary bulletin on July 14 that despite observing “the maintenance, for the third consecutive week, of a downward trend in COVID-19 incidence and mortality indicators” in Brazil, “the high rate of positivity demonstrates an intense circulation of the virus.”

The reduction in the rates in recent weeks, according to the researchers of the Fiocruz COVID-19 Observatory, is a result of an advance in the vaccination of the Brazilian population, which is still at an early stage, with only 15 percent fully immunized.

The researchers, however, warn that “the available vaccines have limits in relation to blocking the transmission of the virus, which continues to circulate with intensity” and maintain that the “concern with the possibility of the emergence of variants with the potential to reduce the effectiveness of available vaccines is pertinent and cannot be lost sight of.”

They end by appealing to the population to maintain measures of social distancing, wearing masks, and attending vaccination campaigns.

These recommendations clash head-on with the policies being pushed by all parties of the Brazilian ruling class, which are forcing the end of any isolation measures and encouraging among the population the feeling that the dangers of the pandemic are over.

The malign effects of these actions were revealed in a Datafolha survey published on July 14, which points out that, for the first time, “the perception that the pandemic is under control in the country is a majority.” According to the survey, 53 percent of the Brazilian population believes that the pandemic is partially controlled, 5 percent that it is totally controlled, and 41 percent that the pandemic is out of control. In March, 79 percent stated that the pandemic was out of control.

Neither Folha de São Paulo, which conducted the survey, nor the other corporate media outlets question what has permitted this perception to advance among Brazilians, and even less do they propose to combat such ideas by exposing their misleading bases and the extreme risks they carry.

In an editorial this Friday, the Estado de São Paulo celebrated the drop of COVID-19 numbers in Brazil and referred to the Datafolha survey stressing that the “relief and the perception of control are justified.” Its only recommendations—which reflect the dominant position of the capitalist class—are that governments continue vaccinating the population “in the shortest time possible” and that “personal care is still strictly necessary.”

While seeking to isolate the growing opposition of the Brazilian population against the homicidal capitalist response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the figure of “denialist” President Jair Bolsonaro, these bourgeois outlets work to frame the equally criminal actions of local politicians as “responsible” policies.

The millionaire governor of São Paulo, João Doria, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), is promoting a widespread attack on coronavirus restriction measures, totally indifferent to their catastrophic effects. With a terrible average of 373 deaths per day, São Paulo is the state most affected in absolute terms by COVID-19, and already has 133,901 deaths from the disease.

With the full support of the media, the São Paulo government promoted the reopening of its schools last February. This measure has already resulted in at least 1,194 outbreaks in school facilities and the deaths of 100 teachers and three students in the state public network alone, according to data from the APEOESP union up to June 30.

Last week, Doria announced a flexibility package that includes, besides the expansion of the capacity and working hours of all economic sectors and the realization of 30 test events with large public participation, the resumption of in-person classes in universities and the end of the limit on students within school classrooms. The requirement for 1.5 meters distance between students was also reduced to only 1 meter.

On Wednesday of this week, he continued his series of attacks on social distance measures by demanding the return of all public employees who were allowed to work from home for belonging to so-called high risk groups. Justifying his ruthless action he declared, “Life is returning to normalcy and we are confident about it.”

Just one day later, Doria announced he was infected for the second time with COVID-19, even after being fully immunized. His illness, a product of his own criminal policy on behalf of capitalist interests, completely demolishes his cynical “life is back to normal” claim.

Doria’s policies are being replicated by governors in every Brazilian state. The capital city of Rio de Janeiro has also adopted the reduction to 1 meter of distance in classrooms, aiming for a full return of students soon. Last week, teachers in Minas Gerais voted massively for a one-week strike in protest against the reopening of state schools by governor Romeu Zema of the pro-capitalist New Party.

In Bahia, teachers are clashing with Workers Party (PT) Governor Rui Costa, who announced the return of in-person classes later this July. Confronted by the decision of teachers not to return to schools, Costa publicly threatened them, stating, “If you miss [work] days in a row without an excuse, you will not receive your salary and eventually you will be fired.”

The uncontrolled development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil and around the world is exposing the utter inability of capitalism and its political representatives to respond to the most basic problems of humanity.

The task of putting an end to the pandemic through a response based on the science and the social interest of preserving life depends upon the mobilization of the working class as an independent political force.

The intensification of the class struggle internationally, which finds its expression in Brazil through the growing strikes and massive demonstrations against the homicidal policies of the ruling elite, is opening the way for this revolutionary perspective.

Indonesia becomes new COVID epicentre as infections and deaths skyrocket

Robert Campion

Following months of skyrocketing daily cases and deaths, Indonesia overtook all other countries this week to become the new global epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, the official number of infections rose above 50,000 for the first time to 54,517, along with almost a thousand deaths. On the same day, India recorded fewer than 42,000 daily cases, far below the height of more than 400,000 infections in May. Brazil’s daily tally dropped to below 53,000 on Thursday, as Indonesia continued to climb to 56,757 cases.

UNICEF aid workers in Indonesia [Credit: UNICEF]

The situation in Indonesia is starkly similar to that of India in April–May, when it was devastated by the highly-infectious Delta variant. In that period, India reported roughly 29 cases per 100,000 people, which Indonesia is swiftly approaching with 20 per 100,000, according to official figures. Indonesia’s vaccination rate is estimated to be 5.8 percent, whereas India’s was 3.3 percent in early May.

Taking into account the far lower levels of testing and contact tracing, it is highly likely that Indonesia has already outstripped the infection rates at the height of India’s outbreak. Disagreements between health experts over the true number of cases are not focused on the accuracy of official statistics, which are widely dismissed, but rather on how many times greater the real infection tally is.

Indonesian epidemiologist Dicky Budiman stated that the number of daily cases could already be over 100,000, a figure he warned could double by the end of the month and lead to a death toll of 2,000 per day.

Official figures show that more than 90,000 of the country’s 120,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied. Cases of the Delta variant are concentrated in the islands of Java and Bali, but it is also spreading in the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and West Papua, which are unequipped to deal with a major outbreak.

Bed occupancy in the province of Lampung in Sumatra reached 86 percent on Monday, 85 percent in East Kalimantan and 79 percent in West Papua.

It is likely, however, that these figures substantially understate the extent of the crisis. There are widespread reports of hospitals overflowing—with some constructing makeshift emergency COVID wards in car parks and outdoor areas, and others turning patients away. An untold number of people are perishing in their homes for lack of treatment, while in some areas, gravediggers are working through the night because of the high death toll.

Many health workers, particularly on the remote islands, have not even had their first dose of a vaccine. The government is now scrambling to reach its vaccine target of inoculating more than 181 million of its population of 270 million by March 2022.

The outbreak in the world’s fourth most populous country, with cases of the Delta strain spreading, portends dire consequences elsewhere. Surges are also being recorded in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, while South Korea and Taiwan are also experiencing a resurgence.

So long as the virus is allowed to spread anywhere it threatens the whole world, not only with further sickness and death but the possibility of more virulent mutations. The massive growth of cases is an indictment of the global capitalist system, which at every stage of the pandemic has subordinated human lives to the interests of profit.

The Indonesian administration of President Joko Widodo has responded to COVID-19 along the same criminally-negligent lines as his counterparts around the world. Far more resources over the past year have been devoted to propping up big business than the health sector.

When the virus first hit Indonesia in January–February last year, the government initially denied there were any cases, in order to “avoid panic.” When the level of deaths became undeniable later in 2020, the government continued to downplay the risks, with some of its prominent representatives promoted unscientific remedies such as praying, supposed “wonder drugs” like ivermectin and even eucalyptus necklaces.

With a daily positivity rate well above the World Health Organisation guidelines of 5 percent, Widodo brushed off the “commotion” that the government was placing the economy over public health. He stated in October that compared to other countries with similar populations, Indonesia was much better at handling COVID-19. The high positivity rate, however, demonstrated that the real number of infections was far higher than the official numbers.

An indication of just how widespread the virus already was in this period has been provided by a recently published study involving the Jakarta Provincial Health Office, the University of Indonesia, the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology and staff from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It found that by March this year, nearly half of all residents in Jakarta had likely contracted COVID-19, or more than 12 times the official tally.

The figure was based on testing for coronavirus antibodies, which can last for 5 to 7 months after infection, in the blood of around 5,000 people between the dates of March 15 to March 31. The results showed that 44.5 percent had the antibodies. If extrapolated to Jakarta’s population, that would indicate that 4.7 million of the city’s 10.6 million people had potentially caught the virus.

In the early days of the latest surge, the government continued to downplay the severity of the situation, despite clear warnings from epidemiologists. Even last Monday, the senior minister in charge of Indonesia’s pandemic response, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, claimed that the outbreak was “under control,” with the government preparing for a “worst case scenario” of 40,000 to 50,000 cases a day.

In light of the latest figures, Pandjaitan abruptly reversed his position, declaring at a press conference on Thursday: “Now, I ask that we understand that the Delta variant is a variant that cannot be controlled.” He also substantially revised the “worst-case” scenario,” stating: “If we’re talking about 60,000 [infections per day] or slightly more than that, we’re okay. We are hoping not for 100,000, but even if we get there, we are preparing for that.”

The government has blamed the outbreak on workers, accusing them of “indiscipline” and of not following limited stay-at-home orders. Millions, however, have no possibility of isolating, because they are forced to work just to put food on the table.

The government has also refused to implement a complete lockdown. Instead, designated “red zones” on Java and Bali were belatedly introduced on July 3, leaving milder restrictions in place throughout the archipelago.

“Emergency social restrictions are still inadequate,” stated University of Indonesia epidemiology expert Pandu Riono. “They should be twice as stringent since we are facing the Delta variant, which is two times more contagious.

“I predict the outbreak will increase continuously in July as we are not able yet to prevent the spread of infections,” he warned.