Military on standby ahead of UK lorry drivers’ strike

Harvey Thompson & Laura Tiernan

The British Army has been placed on standby ahead of a national lorry drivers’ strike due to take place August 23. Soldiers are being readied on the pretext of dealing with a threatened breakdown in UK supply chains due to Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and an unprecedented shortage of long-haul lorry drivers.

TNT Solo Lorry Units (Credit: John Carver, Wikimedia Commons)

Army personnel with Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) license qualifications “are being put on [a] five-day stand-by notice for driving jobs at major distribution centres around the country,” according to a report in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun on Sunday.

“Soldiers will be put up in hotels where necessary and will be working extended hours to assist with the crisis. They will be involved with food distribution as well as the transportation of other essential goods and medical supplies,” the Sun reported.

Unnamed military sources were cited after news broke of a national stay-at-home strike being organised by rank-and-file lorry drivers. According to reports in the Sun, Telegraph and Daily Mail, the military’s involvement would come under pandemic response legislation enacted by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government as part of Operation Rescript. This was described by the Ministry of Defence as the UK’s “biggest ever homeland military operation in peacetime”, involving up to 23,000 personnel within a specialist task force, named the COVID Support Force (CSF).

The significance of the military’s involvement goes well beyond its stated purpose of maintaining “essential goods and medical supplies”. It is a clear threat to growing industrial unrest and points to state preparations for a direct confrontation with the working class.

Lorry drivers are planning a one-day strike to protest lengthening working hours, low pay, intolerable conditions and the consequences of a recruitment and retention crisis that has resulted in a shortage of 100,000 drivers across the UK.

The strike call was started by the HGV Drivers on Strike Facebook group, formed in March and since renamed Professional Drivers Protest Group, UK. More than 3,000 drivers have reportedly signed up for the “stay at home” strike day.

The group’s mission statement is to “unite professional drivers across the United Kingdom, all of you, who would like to see some changes in their profession” including an end to “low wages, long hours, general disrespect and disregard to needs of drivers, including being denied access to toilet facilities etc., no family or social life, more and more rules and expectations, increased responsibility and finally—massive exploitation. All this with wages going down.”

It continued, “We are the backbone of the economy. The spine and the blood. Without transport, any country would be on its knees within a few days. There is a power in that. We should unite and stand together to try to change things. Let’s start with forming a petition to the government, stating our demands. If they won’t be met, then a protest should start. With 100,000 drivers short at the moment, there has never been a better time.”

The lorry drivers have drafted a list of demands, including a £15 per hour minimum wage, a 45-hour working week, time-and-a-half for overtime and double-time for Sunday work, and a penalty charge for companies that refuse drivers the use of toilet facilities. They call for “employment rather than self-employment”, noting “if an agency can charge their customers up to £30/hour, they shouldn’t be allowed to pay drivers £11.”

Drivers have taken to Facebook to vent their anger over these conditions and to correct the mainstream media’s narrative surrounding the lorry driver shortage.

As one HGV driver explained, “There is no shortage of drivers. There is a shortage of cheap drivers. There are 3.7 million drivers in the UK who will not do HGV because of the long hours, poor wages and lifestyle…

“The industry doesn’t give a toss about its drivers, only keeping the costs as low as possible by exploiting drivers from poorer areas of the EU. Now this option is gone, suddenly there’s a crisis.”

Another driver wrote, “Everyone treats you like nobody, and nobody gives a damn about you. Same wages as 15 years ago; Companies push drivers to work abnormal load; 24h a day; Shift 13–15 hours; Travel to work and home 1.5h… then only 5h left for sleep… It is a joke and not a job… Few more months and I’m leaving this industry so you can count 1 more driver.”

Other drivers agreed, “DVLA have confirmed in a government enquiry there are more than enough LGV [Large Goods Vehicle] licence holders to meet demand. What there is is a lack of drivers willing to leave home at 4am Monday morning, be out all week putting in 60–70hrs getting home late Friday night doing one of the 10 most dangerous jobs in the country just to earn the same money as the median UK wage for a 37hr week. Some companies in my area advertising for drivers are still advertising an hourly rate I was earning in 2008. And then they wonder why they can’t find drivers.”

The last national lorry drivers’ strike took place on January 3, 1979, during the “Winter of Discontent”, when more than 1.7 million workers took strike action against James Callaghan’s Labour government’s imposition of wage restraint policies demanded by the International Monetary Fund. Callaghan had readied the army for use against the lorry drivers’ strike, but drivers won pay increases of up to 20 percent.

Labour’s betrayals, backed by the trade union leaders, paved the way for the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, beginning a process of deregulation by successive Labour and Tory governments that has resulted in brutal and degrading conditions for drivers. The success of this offensive rested on the collusion of the transport unions, which suppressed industrial action over four decades. Today, of 320,000 HGV drivers currently working, only about 15 percent are unionised.

A warning must be sounded over the role being played by today’s pro-company trade unions. Last month, after the Johnson government announced a dangerous extension of working hours to ten hours per day, the unions rubber stamped the move. Unite merely issued a mealy-mouthed statement that the government’s brutal measure would “not resolve” the shortage of HGV drivers, adding, “Unite will be advising its members to not place themselves in danger and that if they are too tired to drive safely they have a legal right to refuse to do so.” Unite proposed no collective action, merely promising it would “fully support” any individual who refused to work the longer shifts.

With drivers’ anger reaching boiling point, Unite has announced disputes at logistics firm GXO and Booker Retail Partners. At GXO, around 1,000 drivers at 26 UK sites are due to strike for 24 hours on August 24, followed by a second walkout on September 2. The strike vote saw 97 percent of drivers reject the company’s miserly offer of a 1.4 percent pay rise for 2021. GXO supplies 40 percent of the UK hospitality industry’s beer.

Lorry drivers at Booker Retail Partners, a wholesale company delivering to around 1,500 convenience stores in London and the southeast, are to be balloted for industrial action over the last two weeks of August. The ballot only covers the 30 Unite members at Booker’s Thameside depot, who are demanding the same £5 an hour temporary pay increase given to the company’s Hemel Hempstead drivers in response to the nationwide shortage of drivers.

The union is seizing on the driver shortage and threat of wildcat industrial action to position itself as a peacemaker and partner to the Johnson government and the transport companies. It has submitted a 6-point plan to Transport Minister Grant Shapps, the centrepiece of which is the call for a “national council to determine industry standards” that would “vastly reduce the ability of rogue employers to undercut rates at the cost of drivers’ safety, pay and conditions.”

Unite’s attempt to reduce the problem to a few bad apples is belied by the reality of brutal exploitation across the industry.

This pitch to the Tories mirrors efforts by Unite, the RMT and ASLEF in joining the Johnson government’s Rail Industry Recovery Group, collaborating with railway company executives to drive through cuts, with plans to axe thousands of jobs, gut pensions and introduce full “labour force flexibility”.

The planned lorry strike takes place amid the biggest crisis in global supply chains since the Second World War, triggered by the pandemic and Brexit. The owner of one of Britain’s largest food producers, 2 Sisters, warned last month that the government must act or face the “most serious food shortages that this country has seen in over 75 years”. The situation will reach crisis point after new Brexit border checks on animal and plant products entering the UK take effect on October 1.

Workers are seizing on a crisis created by the ruling class to fight for long-suppressed demands as part of a resurgence of class struggle internationally. Lorry driver Mark Schubert told the Guardian last month that in nearly forty-years he had never seen such desire for change, “For far too many years we have been ignored, exploited and taken for granted. Now our time has come, now we have a window of opportunity to be listened to.”

Significantly, Schubert condemned the British government’s treatment of foreign workers. Lorry drivers from Poland, Romania and other Eastern European countries have long been used as cheap labour by transport companies in the UK and western Europe. At least 25,000 HGV drivers are thought to have left the UK because of Brexit. “Looking at the way [home secretary] Priti Patel and her cohorts in the Home Office treat foreigners, they’re not going to be overly keen on coming back,” Schubert told the Guardian. “Even if they can, are they going to be treated like criminals when they arrive at the border?”

Over the past 40 years, lorry drivers have become part of a globally integrated workforce, shattering national insularity and parochialism. Last December’s lorry queues at Dover, sparked by tensions between Britain and France over Brexit, exposed the brutal conditions facing drivers of all nationalities. Left for days without food, water or toilet facilities, such conditions showed the indifference of transport companies and capitalist governments on both sides of the English Channel to the rights and dignity of workers whose labour is essential to everyday life for millions of people.

The planned stay-at-home strike on August 23 deserves the support of working people everywhere. The precondition for its success is complete independence from the pro-company trade unions and an appeal for a unified struggle of workers in transport, logistics and aviation across Britain, Europe and internationally. The pandemic, the national antagonisms within Europe leading to Brexit, and the explosive growth of social inequality are global problems that require a global solution.

The Johnson government’s plans to mobilise the military against striking lorry drivers goes hand in hand with trade war measures against Europe and Asia, stepped-up border protection measures against refugees and immigrants, and the growing threat of militarism and war. Such authoritarian measures are born of the central contradiction of the capitalist system: between the world market and its division into rival nation states each defending the wealth and power of a tiny financial oligarchy.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro orders tanks to roll past Congress as it rejects his new electoral law

Miguel Andrade

In a move without precedent since the fall of the 1964–1985 US-backed military dictatorship, Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro ordered Navy tanks to parade through the capital of Brasilia as Congress met for a vote on his proposed changes to the Brazilian electoral system. Bolsonaro has repeatedly declared that without the adoption of the law, Brazil “will not have elections” in 2022.

Armored column rolling through Brasilia (Credit: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil}

The proposed change to the Brazilian Constitution would mandate the attachment of a backup printer to Brazil’s electronic ballots. Bolsonaro claims that only paper ballots can guarantee fair elections in 2022, as the electronic voting system would be actively manipulated by the Electoral Court for a return of former Workers Party (PT) President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Under such conditions, Bolsonaro claims, he will not accept the results.

Bolsonaro’s claims of vote rigging have been debunked by every major political force, including virtually every political party, the Federal Police, the Attorney General’s office, the Budget Court, the Supreme Court and, before his election, the Army itself—which now has endorsed the “printed ballot” proposal as a “legitimate concern” of Brazilians.

The order for the tank column to roll was given on August 6, after the House Speaker Arthur Lira decided he would put the proposal to a vote on the House floor on Tuesday.

According to the official account by the Navy, the parade was designed to formally invite Bolsonaro for yearly exercises conducted at an Army training field in Formosa, to the northeast of the capital, Brasília, at the center of the country and over 1,000 km away from the coast.

In face of what was unanimously seen as a threatening show of loyalty to the would-be dictator Bolsonaro by the Armed Forces, frenzied speculation took over the corporate media during the early hours of Tuesday. Papers demanded that the House trounce the “printed ballot” proposal as a message in defense of democracy.

As the session ended Tuesday evening, however, a different scenario transpired: the proposal won a majority of 229 votes against 218, with 65 absentees and 1 abstention. As a constitutional amendment, the proposal required 308 out of the 513 deputies to support it. The 229 votes were insufficient, but enough for Bolsonaro to consider the vote a political victory, claiming the absentees and a significant number of those opposed actually supported the proposal, but feared “retaliation” by the supposedly corrupt Electoral Court.

The latest developments make it impossible to overstate the dangers facing Brazilian workers. In itself, the significant support in the House for a proposal that most political parties have formally rejected can only be based upon political calculations that Bolsonaro may indeed succeed in overturning election results by force.

The entire operation being conducted by Bolsonaro is based upon an international coordination of far-right forces, and consciously follows Donald Trump’s playbook in the run-up to the January 6 coup attempt in Washington D.C.

Bolsonaro immediately endorsed Trump’s claims of election fraud after the November elections, refusing to recognize Biden’s victory until December 14. Immediately after the storming of the US Capitol, Bolsonaro declared that “if we don’t have printed ballots in 2022, some means to audit the vote, we are going to have a problem worse than in the United States.”

As it was later confirmed, Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, then the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Brazilian House, was a guest at the preparations for the invasion of the United States Congress.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has met multiple times with US fascist organizer and ideologue Steve Bannon, who has described him as one of the leaders of his international fascist alliance, The Movement.

Trump himself tried repeatedly to have a military parade in Washington as he organized the attempt to establish a presidential dictatorship in the United States.

Support for Trump’s baseless electoral fraud claims by key Republican officials in the run up to the confirmation session on January 6 played a key role in mobilizing the fascists who later worked as Trump’s foot soldiers.

Claiming Tuesday’s vote as a moral victory, while charging that those who did not support the printed ballot amendment were fearful of retaliation, Bolsonaro is targeting the Electoral Court for violence by his own foot soldiers, in order to replicate the conditions of the January 6 Capitol invasion.

At the same time, the organization of Bolsonaro’s own foot soldiers is intensifying, with the majority of Brazil’s fascist Integralista movement joining the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), the sixth largest political party in Brazil, with over 1.1 million members.

The Integralistas joined the PTB on June 11 in a ceremony featuring the Greek “sigma” letter, used in mathematics for representing a sum, and adopted since the 1930s as a Brazilian adaptation of the Italian fascio which originated the name “fascism.” The Integralista movement, nowadays led by the Frente Integralista Brasileira (FIB), initially developed in the 1930s and supported the rise of corporatist dictator Getúlio Vargas, before being purged when Vargas consolidated power in 1937. Later, the movement supported the 1964 coup, but had not found a mass party in which to operate since the end of military rule in 1985.

The movement of the fascists is being coordinated with the government, with Bolsonaro’s former chief of staff, Gen. Luiz Eduardo Ramos, meeting PTB president Roberto Jefferson on August 4, calling him “a soldier fighting for our freedom.” Yesterday, Jefferson was arrested by the Federal Police in connection with multiple threats against the Supreme Court. He threatened the leading judge in the case, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, declaring things “will now get personal.” Moraes is due to take over as the head of the Electoral Court for the 2022 elections.

The ominous prospects for the 2022 elections were spelled out by the senior political analyst at the Estado de S. Paulo, William Waack, on Thursday. In an opinion piece defending the need for the military to disobey Bolsonaro, Waack described the script for Bolsonaro’s coup: “to defy the Supreme Court, call out his supporters for some kind of ‘resistance’ on the streets, resulting in conflict, bloodshed, and then the Armed Forces will be summoned to some sort of Guarantee of Law and Order operation.”

Waack also reports that military commanders are keenly conscious of the explosive social situation in Brazil, which, he writes, they describe “as a ‘social bomb,’ with unemployment, misery and inflation which are intolerable for the poorest layers.”

Estado de S. Paulo military correspondent Marcelo Godoy also raises the possibility of the military imposing a dictatorship independently of Bolsonaro but using violence surrounding the electoral process as a pretext. He recounts that a significant section of the high command held that if Bolsonaro had died as a result of the attempt on his life in the 2018 campaign the elections would lose their legitimacy, because the results would not be accepted by his supporters.

Chief responsibility for the unfolding of such conspiracies lies with what is deemed as the opposition to Bolsonaro, led by the PT. Its foremost leader, former president Lula, treated the whole process of the vote and the military parade as a non-event.

On Twitter, he reduced the relentless denunciations of the electoral system and the mobilization of the Armed Forces and the far right by Bolsonaro to “a fuss to draw the attention of the press.” In other words, these events should not even be news. The PT’s official news report on Tuesday’s event was a defense of the military, titled “Military ‘parade’ shames the Armed Forces, isolates Bolsonaro and becomes a world embarrassment.”

Yesterday, a report by the news agency of the PT-affiliated CUT trade union federation cited as a guarantee of democracy in Brazil the “lack of international mood for adventures” such as a coup. It cites a personal appeal by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to Bolsonaro not to attack the Brazilian elections in a meeting on August 5. Never mentioned in the report was the primary reason for Sullivan’s visit—to strengthen an alliance against China and ban Chinese firms from Brazil’s 5G infrastructure in preparation for a war against the world’s most populous nation and soon to be largest economy. Such a war cannot be organized, be it in Brazil, the United States or anywhere else, by democratic means.

The criminal complacency of Bolsonaro’s opposition recalls the declarations before the 1964 coup that the Brazilian Army was essentially a democratic force—“which had fought the Nazis,” many would emphasize—and would never establish a dictatorship. Such illusions were aptly captured by the description of the 1964 coup as “the day that lasted 21 years.” The price was paid in the murder, torture, imprisonment and exile of tens of thousands.

The class roots of the complacency of the PT and its pseudo-left allies lie in their defense of the profit system, whatever their rhetoric about being “socialist” or speaking for “workers.” The PT is seeking to chloroform public opinion to the danger of dictatorship, because it fears a mass reaction of workers, which would inevitably target the whole of Brazilian capitalism, more than it fears the threats of Bolsonaro. The military and Bolsonaro himself are conscious that the entire world situation, dominated by unbearable levels of social inequality and the drive to war, is utterly incompatible with democratic forms of rule. They are preparing accordingly.

Amid xenophobic campaign, far-right mob attacks Syrian refugees in Turkey

Barış Demir

A far-right mob of hundreds of people took to the streets of Altındağ district in Ankara on Wednesday night, chanting anti-Syrian slogans. They threw stones at the homes of Syrian refugees while some shops were also ransacked, and some cars burnt. This fascistic onslaught is a serious warning to workers in Turkey and all over the world.

The violence came after 18-year-old Emirhan Yalçın was reportedly stabbed to death in a knife fight with a group of refugees earlier that day. Two foreign nationals accused of “intentional homicide” had been arrested.

Ankara police said a total of 148 suspects were taken into custody on Thursday and Friday, suspected either of being involved in the attacks or of sharing provocative social media postings. However, many videos were shared on social media showing that the police did not interfere with the attackers during the violence.

The eruption of far-right attacks targeting immigrants and refugees is a result of the xenophobic sentiment incited by the all representatives of the Turkish ruling class, especially by the bourgeois opposition led by the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its far-right ally, the Good Party.

The attack came shortly after Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan escalated his appeals to xenophobia, launching a far-right social media campaign targeting Syrians and Afghans. He announced that the water bill of foreign nationals, i.e., Syrians and Afghans in the city, will be increased tenfold.

After the attack, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu hypocritically warned against provocative actions: “I can see where this is going. I won’t allow the palace government to set the country on fire. We will solve this refugee problem; and of course, we will do it with common sense.”

However, Kılıçdaroğlu himself was recently blaming Syrian refugees for economic difficulties, saying: “There are serious complaints. People who can’t make ends meet and are unemployed complain about Syrians, and we may face much more serious dilemmas in the coming period as a society. We have to solve this problem.” In fact, their proposed solution is mass deportation.

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş made a statement after the events, stating that “I hope that the authorities will create an emergency action plan and ensure the return of the guests before this problem becomes uncontrollable.” Having origins from fascistic Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), he was elected from the CHP with the support of pseudo-left parties as a “progressive” alternative to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in last local elections.

Only a few weeks ago, the World Socialist Web Site drew attention to this danger and warned of potential attacks: “This xenophobic lynch-mob atmosphere, especially incited by pro-bourgeois opposition parties and media, paves the way for fascistic attacks not only against refugees but against the entire working class.”

A recent study conducted by Aksoy Research exposed the criminal role played by the bourgeois opposition parties in inciting xenophobic and chauvinist sentiments. When asked, “If you were the president, what would you rather do about the Syrians?,” 50 percent of CHP voters and 42 percent of Good Party voters replied: “I will send them back to their country, even if it is forcibly.”

These rates are well above the answers given by voters of the ruling AKP (27 percent), the fascistic MHP voters (29 percent) and the average in Turkey (35 percent).

The bourgeois opposition parties are attacking the government from the right and creating a xenophobic atmosphere especially after Taliban seized large parts of Afghanistan following the US military withdrawal.

The so-called “Artists’ Initiative,” formed by people associated with the CHP and pseudo-left parties such as Left Party (former Freedom and Solidarity Party, ÖDP) and the Stalinist Turkish Communist Party (TKP), recently issued a statement ostensibly criticizing government policies, but in fact targeting Afghan refugees fleeing decades of imperialist aggression and social destruction.

Reflecting fears and interests of affluent upper middle class layers completely indifferent and hostile towards the plight of migrant workers, the statement declared: “Another disaster we are now seeing is the groups of young men that are coming in waves, especially through Afghanistan.” It continued: “It is openly expressed by those who are concerned about the future of our country that this illegal immigration phenomenon is a preparation to form a possible militia against the secular, democratic, patriotic citizens of our country and the vast majority of our population.”

These developments vindicate the warnings made by the World Socialist Web Site over the reactionary character of the bourgeois opposition parties and their pseudo-left allies in Turkey.

The Erdoğan government, which is equally hostile to immigrants and workers, faces growing economic, social and political crises deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as disasters such as floods and wildfires. In the face of increasing social anger among workers, it calls for restraint with a phony religious and humanitarian rhetoric. On the other hand, it continues its anti-immigrant policies to divide the working class and divert the social opposition.

In an operation carried out by the police in Istanbul on August 7, 196 Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian migrant workers working in recycling and waste collection were caught and transferred to the Removal Center for deportation.

The Turkish government is also building a wall on its Iranian border, in line with the policies of Fortress Europe and the US construction of a border wall with Mexico.

Moreover, Ankara aims to use refugees as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the NATO powers. A rotten deal between the EU, Turkey and Greece in March 2016 established Greece as the EU’s jailer of refugees and obliged the Erdoğan regime to ensure that refugees from the war zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan do not make their way to Europe.

The agreement mandates that all refugees entering Greece via “irregular” routes—that is, those making the dangerous journey via boat from Turkey to Greece—will be deported back to Turkey. On these “irregular” routes, many lose their lives trying to reach the shores of Greece by crossing the Aegean Sea in makeshift boats, or while entering Turkey from Iran from Lake Van.

The nearly 5 million refugees and immigrants in Turkey, including at least 3.5 million Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Afghans, represent a significant fraction of the 80 million refugees fleeing war and poverty worldwide.

Canada enters fourth COVID-19 wave, as governments gut remaining public health measures

Roger Jordan & Dylan Lubao

Canada is entering a deadly fourth wave of COVID-19, with new infections on the rise across the country. This trend, which has seen the number of active cases more than double to over 13,000 in the past two weeks, will only accelerate in coming weeks due to the drive of Canada’s ruling elite to reopen all businesses and schools so corporate profit-making can be maximized.

Protest against UCP government's plan to eliminate all anti-COVID 19 measures. (Twitter)

“The latest national surveillance data indicate that a fourth wave is underway in Canada and that cases are plotting along a strong resurgence trajectory,” warned Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, at a Thursday press conference. Tam explained that an average of 1,500 new infections are now being reported daily, with the 20 to 39 age group most severely impacted.

Tam added that the increase in case numbers is already leading to a rise in serious illness and hospitalizations. “On average, 511 people with COVID-19 are being treated in the hospitals each day, an increase of 12 percent compared to last week,” she said.

Around 40 percent of the Canadian population, including all children 11 and younger, are yet to be fully vaccinated. This leaves millions exposed to the threat of infection from the Delta variant, which is many times more transmissible than the original virus. Evidence is also emerging that those who are fully vaccinated still face a significant risk of so-called breakthrough infections. The Delta variant has also been observed to cause more serious symptoms among those it infects, with figures suggesting that 1 percent of all children infected by the variant end up in hospital and 10 to 33 percent suffer from long-term effects.

Warning of the threat the Delta variant poses to the still large unvaccinated population, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases physician and member of Ontario’s vaccine task force, commented, “If a large proportion of those individuals get sick in a short period of time, our health care system is going to get stretched and we’ll be in trouble.”

This worst-case scenario is made all the more likely because governments at all levels, from Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal government to the hard-right provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario, and the union-backed New Democratic Party government in British Columbia, are pursuing a homicidal policy of prioritizing big business profits over saving human lives. As the fourth wave gathers strength, they are recklessly abandoning even the limited public health measures that proved inadequate to stop the pandemic’s previous three waves, which claimed over 26,600 lives.

In Ontario and Quebec, the country’s most populous provinces, the Progressive Conservative and Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) governments are moving to fully reopen schools to in-person learning, while scrapping most of the limited social distancing measures that failed to prevent schools from becoming major sources of transmission last fall and in the spring. While mask-mandates remain, the Ontario and Quebec governments have greenlighted the resumption of all non-essential economic activity, including retail, entertainment and sporting events.

British Columbia, governed by the nominally left-wing NDP, along with Manitoba and Saskatchewan—which suffered devastating second and third waves of the pandemic—have hastened to remove all mask mandates and scrapped most capacity limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings. In the Atlantic provinces and the northern territories, parallel processes are underway.

Alberta’s right-wing populist United Conservative Party (UCP) government has led the way in gutting COVID-19 restrictions. As of this coming Monday, August 16, it intended to end virtually all contact tracing and even abolish the self-isolation requirement for people who tested positive for COVID-19. Two weeks later, on August 31, the UCP government planned to scrap virtually all COVID-19 testing, with testing limited to those exhibiting severe symptoms. Instead, a wastewater surveillance system was to alert public health authorities to generalized COVID-19 hotspots, a method of tracking the virus’ spread that the World Health Organization cautions should be used only as “complement” to a full test and trace system. Finally, the government intended to eliminate all mask mandates by the end of August.

The unveiling of this criminal policy in late July triggered public outrage and protest rallies across Alberta. Significantly, the latter were organized by doctors and other medical professionals independently of the trade unions, which in the province’s major industries, from energy, mining and construction to meatpacking, have enforced the government’s policy of working full tilt through the pandemic. The public outcry led the Edmonton Public and Edmonton Catholic school boards to write the government this week demanding authorization to require anyone infected by COVID-19 to self-isolate and everyone to wear masks in schools.

Faced with this public backlash and a sharp rise in infections produced by last month’s abandonment of limits on the size of gatherings, the UCP government convened an emergency cabinet meeting Thursday evening and yesterday announced a temporary delay to its plans to dismantle all remaining public health measures. The requirement that people who test positive for COVID-19 or display symptoms must self-isolate will now remain in place until September 27. Contact tracing will also continue for the next six weeks. However, schools will open with no mask mandate in September. Making clear that the government plans to stick to its course, the province’s chief medical officer of health, Deena Hinshaw, declared, “We are not going backwards. We are pausing to monitor and assess before taking a next step forward.”

Prior to Friday’s “pause” announcement, Hinshaw published an op-ed in several major newspapers in an attempt to blunt the fierce criticism of the government’s course. She said she “apologized.” Only this apology was not for recommending a health policy that would overwhelm hospital ICUs and put children on ventilators, but for the “confusion, fear or anger” the government’s critics felt. Hinshaw tried to justify the government’s profit before lives policy by claiming that the fight against COVID-19 was draining scant public resources from other health crises, like the opioid epidemic. “COVID-19 is a wicked problem,” she intoned, “But it is not the only wicked problem.”

Hinshaw’s lament about the damage caused by taking life-saving measures to fight COVID-19 is a self-serving lie of monstrous proportions—made all the more egregious in that the UCP government she serves is currently in the process of slashing thousands of health care jobs. The truth is the public health system in Alberta, as across the country, has been starved and gutted for decades by governments of all political stripes, even as the profits of the corporations and the wealth of the super-rich have soared. There is one spigot of cash for the big banks and corporations, which gushes continuously, and one for health care and other social services, which has been wrenched ever more tightly shut.

The UCP’s temporary retreat in no way represents a turn away from its reckless pandemic policy of placing corporate profits ahead of human lives. In reality, this is a policy endorsed by the entire political establishment. In Ontario, the Doug Ford-led Progressive Conservative government plans to throw schools open in September although it is fully cognizant this will promote the rapid spread of the Delta variant among unvaccinated children. Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore callously asserted last week that he expects between 10 and 15 percent of students at any one time to have COVID-19. “We have to normalize COVID-19 for our schools,” he declared.

Prior to Friday’s announcement, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu made a show of criticizing the Alberta government’s proposed measures, while studiously avoiding using any of the powers at Ottawa’s disposal to actually overturn them. Hajdu sent a letter to her provincial counterpart, Tyler Shandro, in which she termed them an “unnecessary and risky gamble.” She noted that recent modeling of the pandemic in Alberta forecasts the runaway spread of the Delta variant and asked that the UCP government furnish the scientific rationale behind its course of action.

This is cynical posturing. The federal Liberal government in which Hajdu serves has been no less ruthless in prioritizing the profits of big business over safeguarding human lives than their UCP counterparts in Alberta. The Justin Trudeau Liberal government’s pandemic response was defined by the more than $600 billion in emergency bailout funds it funnelled into the financial markets and coffers of Canada’s big banks and corporations in March–April 2020, so as to protect their profits and investor wealth. It then unleashed, with the full support of the trade unions and the New Democrats, a murderous back-to-work/back-to-school campaign that played the pivotal role in fuelling the pandemic’s second and third waves.

Masking their full agreement with the herd immunity policies pursued across by Canada behind a charade of upholding the provinces’ constitutional responsibility for administering health care, the federal Liberal government continues to insist that all lockdown measures to fight the spread of COVID-19 be “short-term” and implemented at the “local” level. In this, they have been provided critical support by the federal NDP, which has guaranteed the minority Liberal government its parliamentary majority throughout the pandemic.

Fiji opposition MPs arrested over criticism of land Bill

John Braddock

Nine Fijian opposition politicians, including two former prime ministers, were recently arrested for voicing concerns about a contentious land bill, as the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama moves to further intimidate political critics.

Fiji Primer Minister Frank Bainimarama [Credit: UNclimatechange, Flickr]

Six members of parliament and three other high-profile politicians were taken into custody by police on July 26–27 following comments they had made regarding the bill before it was debated in parliament. According to police, the arrests were part of a “proactive” approach to thwart possible civil instability.

The nine were Viliame Gavoka, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Liberal party (SODELPA); opposition whip Lynda Tabuya; MPs Adi Litia Qionibaravi and Ro Filipe Tuisawau; Biman Prasad, leader of the National Federation party; NFP president, Pio Tikoduadua; former prime ministers Sitiveni Rabuka and Mahendra Chaudhry; and Unity Fiji leader, Savenaca Narube.

The MPs were held for almost 48 hours without charge then released after questioning. Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu posted a statement on the Police Force’s Facebook page baldly denying any intimidation, and declaring that “not everyone who is brought in for questioning will be charged.” So far, no charges have been confirmed.

The crackdown, carried out under the authoritarian regime’s Public Order Act, came in the midst of an escalating health and social crisis arising from the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. There have been 38,742 cases during the surge that started in April and 345 deaths. Fiji has an average daily test positivity rate of 32 percent, the highest in the world per capita.

Bainimarama opposes a full national lockdown, insisting that such a move would “cripple” the economy and impact jobs. Alongside its pro-business strategy, the government is pursuing a mandatory vaccination campaign. Workers have been told they must be fully vaccinated by November or face losing their jobs. Only those who are vaccinated can obtain the paltry government income support.

The country’s health system is close to collapse. Half of those who have died from COVID-19 did so at home, due largely to overcrowded medical facilities. The Fiji Red Cross Society’s Neomai Kafoa said this week that blood stocks are so low they had 85 volunteers on phones urging friends and family to donate blood. “The need for blood is dire, if I can say, right across the country,” she warned.

The working class is bearing the brunt of the worsening crisis. The tourism industry has collapsed resulting in the loss of 100,000 jobs. Half the country’s 880,000 population is experiencing extreme financial hardship. Even before the pandemic, the minimum wage was just $FJ2.32 ($US1.12) per hour. With many families struggling to get enough food, charities and NGOs have been distributing thousands of food packs.

People who criticise government handling of the crisis, including some of the arrested MPs, have been lambasted by the administration. The NFP’s Prasad, who has been detained four times by police, said the government was using the arrests as a “distraction” in dealing with the COVID situation, as “people are dying, not able to put food on the table or get medical care.”

The legislation, Bill No.17 (2021), which passed through parliament last week, amends the iTaukei Land Trust Act 1940 that governs the administration of native land. The Bill removes the requirement of obtaining the consent of the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB), which was set up to protect indigenous landowners’ rights, for any mortgage, charge, pledge or caveat on a lease under the act, or for any such lease to be dealt with by a court.

This would mean that if the TLTB granted a native land lease to someone, the lessee could use that land for different purposes without having to seek the board’s permission. The government maintains the changes are purely “administrative” and designed to improve business efficiency by eliminating delays in getting consent for mortgages.

According to the opponents, however, the bill introduces a significant reduction in the power of the TLTB, an erosion of the guardianship role of TLTB and significantly reduces the power of landowners to have their rights and interests protected by the board once their land has been leased.

Bainimarama told parliament the opposition were “super-spreaders of lies,” seeking to mislead and incite indigenous people. Over 30,000 signed an on-line petition against the bill, raising the prospect of protests. Police erected several security checkpoints around the country and warned they would “come down hard on any person or group that tries to cause instability and civil unrest.”

The dispute is part of ongoing deep-seated conflicts within the Fijian ruling elite. Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, has oriented to sections of the Fijian capitalist class and pro-business members of the chiefly elite. His military junta has adopted various measures aimed at eliminating barriers to investment and private profit.

The ethnic Fijian nationalist wing, however, which seeks to maintain political and economic privileges for the traditional chiefs, is bitterly opposed to aspects of Bainimarama’s rule, particularly over issues of land ownership. Approximately 87 percent of land in Fiji is customary land, owned collectively within the tribe or family through kinship ties. It is often controlled by a narrow elite represented by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs, who jealously guard privileges from the land ownership system.

Steven Ratuva, a University of Canterbury sociologist, told Radio NZ a “critical question” is whether the bill was intended to benefit the landowners or “to serve the interests of foreign investors and other local entrepreneurs who have been part of the government’s lobbying and patronage system.” In Vanuatu, he said, the removal of regulatory process of sub-leasing and mortgaging by lessees saw 90 percent of land on the main island of Efate alienated, through extensive sub-leasing and selling by foreign investors with little income for the landowners.

The Bainimarama government, which continues to rest firmly on the military, has a history of viciously suppressing political and social opposition. Arrests of opposition MPs are a common occurrence. The sedition provisions in the Crimes Act and the Public Order Act have been used to target journalists, activists and government critics. Assemblies, protests and strikes are routinely banned.

Anti-democratic measures are being intensified under the cover of the pandemic. In March, Bainimarama withdrew a Police Bill, which would have vastly increased the search and seizure powers of the police. The backdown followed an outpouring of criticism. Civil liberties groups, NGOs, opposition parties, sections of the media and the Fiji Law Society all condemned the bill, describing it as another step towards the transformation of Fiji into a police state.

Regional governments meanwhile, including the Pacific Islands Forum which met last week, have been silent on the recent arrests. New Zealand’s Labour-led government only registered “concern,” through an anodyne Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement. Head of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali told Radio NZ: “I have never seen such a docile international community as I have seen this time around.”

The silence is not surprising. Under pressure from Washington, leaders in Canberra and Wellington have made it a priority to restore relations following Bainimarama’s 2006 coup, in order to fend off China’s growing influence. They endorsed Fiji’s 2014 bogus election, won by Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party, declaring the country had restored “democracy.”

This has paved the way for the restoration of full diplomatic, economic and, above all, military relations. Doing business with the Fijian government now means maintaining a hypocritical silence over the regime’s ongoing abuses.

North Korean floods compound precarious situation in impoverished country

Ben McGrath

Flooding in North Korea caused by torrential rain during the first two weeks of August has forced thousands to evacuate along the country’s east coast, leaving homes and farmland devastated. The destruction is being compounded by North Korea’s isolation resulting from US-led sanctions and the closing of borders since January 2020 in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a Workers’ Party meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea [Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP. File]

Following more rain this past week, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday that Premier Kim Tŏk Hun traveled to South Hamgyŏng Province in the eastern part of the country to meet with emergency responders. Kim stated that he was going to the flood-stricken region to “learn about the living conditions of the flood victims” and to organize flood relief.

Much of the damage was caused by collapsing river levees, resulting in the widespread inundation of farmland. The flooding this month has forced around 5,000 people to evacuate and left more than 1,100 homes damaged. In some cases, water rose as high as the roof tops and caused damage to about 17 kilometers of roads and bridges, according to the state media.

As much as 300 millimeters of rain fell on parts of North Hamgyŏng Province on Wednesday. “Downpours have already hit these regions, so we need to prepare thorough countermeasures,” said state broadcaster KRT. This included plans “to prevent damage from landslides caused by floods,” indicating the danger that continues to exist. During the first week of August, North Hamgyŏng Province received upwards of 500 millimeters of rain in a three-day span while South Hamgyŏng Province also experienced above-average daily rainfall.

Other parts of the country have also been hard-hit. The western city of Sinuiju, which sits along the Yalu River separating North Korea from China, was reportedly flooded and was without power earlier in August. A resident of Dandong, China, across the river from Sinuiju, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on August 3, “This morning I got in touch with an acquaintance in Sinuiju over text message. He said that the entire city is flooding and that electricity supply to the whole city has been cut off since the afternoon.”

North Korea residents living near China are sometimes able to use cellphones that connect to Chinese networks to communicate with those on the other side of the border. The source told RFA, a propaganda outlet for the US government, that Sinuiju residents were preparing to evacuate to the nearby mountains. Another source stated that due to rains on August 2, “every part of the city is flooded and the roads are cut off.”

In addition to the devastating rains, the entire Korean Peninsula has also been hit by a weeks-long heatwave. Temperatures this summer have reached as high as 36.5 degrees Celsius (97.7 Fahrenheit) during the day in parts of the North, causing damage to rice and corn crops. The heat wave has been attributed to climate change, as has the increased rains and floods during the region’s summer monsoon season over the past several years.

Weeks prior to the onset of the downpours, North Korean authorities attempted to improve and strengthen existing infrastructure including dikes and levees ahead of the monsoon season. However, the impoverished country lacks necessary resources to carry out a full overhaul of its crumbling infrastructure in large part due to the crippling sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the United States unilaterally and through the United Nations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly discussed aid to North Korea during a phone call with South Korean Foreign Secretary Jeong Ui-yong on August 6, but details were not made public. However, any offer of assistance from Washington would be entirely cynical. The purpose of the crippling sanctions on the North is to weaken and starve the population, either forcing the Pyongyang regime to bow to US demands or preparing the ground for a devastating war of aggression, similar to the invasion of Iraq.

These sanctions have compounded North Korea’s already precarious position. Its entire agricultural sector is highly susceptible to weather conditions, with a bad harvest any given year risking food shortages and starvation for the country’s working class and farmers. Pyongyang relies heavily on China for food and fertilizer to stave off famine despite UN Security Council sanctions banning large-scale economic assistance.

Over the past year, Beijing has provided large amounts of fertilizer and foodstuffs as the North is also still reeling from poor weather the previous year as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further damaged its fragile economy. The South’s Bank of Korea estimated at the end of July that the North’s economy had shrunk by 4.5 percent last year, the most since 1997.

As of late July, North Korea had reported no cases of COVID-19 to the World Health Organisation but had conducted limited testing—a total of just over 35,000 tests. No vaccination program is underway in part because the country needs to develop the infrastructure to store and develop the vaccines. The regime has imposed strict border controls including a three-month quarantine for all goods entering the country, compounding the economic crisis.

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned that the country was facing a food shortage. He stated during a Workers Party of Korea plenum, “The people’s food situation is now getting tense as the agricultural sector failed to fulfill its grain production plan due to the damage by typhoon last year.” KCNA stated at the time that authorities would be “directing all efforts to farming this year.”

Last year, North Korea imported 550,000 tonnes of fertilizer from China, an amount the South Korean government called unusually high. Fertilizer and oil also made up the majority of Chinese exports to North Korea this past spring. However, despite the importation of these materials, much of the strict border controls to prevent the spread of COVID-19 remain in place. North Korea has so far rejected aid from the US and South Korea. Pyongyang similarly rejected any aid following the typhoon and floods last year.

Shaping Fate: Canada and Haiti

Yves Engler

Canada is a major player in a coalition shaping the fate of 11 million Haitians, yet few citizens of this country have even heard of the Core Group.

Recently, the Core Group (representatives of the US, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, UN and OAS) published a note saying Ariel Henry was the prime minister of Haiti. Henry has no constitutional legitimacy as he was named by a (now dead) president whose mandate had expired. Henry was also not approved by parliament and there’s little sign that Henry is popular. Still, the Core Group succeeded in having the other individual claiming to be prime minister quickly fall into line behind Henry.

Many Haitians have criticized the Core Group’s ‘selection of Haiti’s leader by statement’. On its front-page Haiti Liberté declared “Le Gouvernement Core Group-Ariel Henry installé!” (Core Group-Ariel Henry government installed) while Le Nouvelliste noted “Des partis politiques de l’opposition retirent leur soutien à Ariel Henry, le Core Groupe le supporte” (Opposition parties withdraw their support for Ariel Henry, Core Group backs him).

A coalition of foreign ambassadors that periodically release statements on Haitian affairs, the Core Group is nakedly imperialist. If you doubt this truth, just imagine the Jamaican, Congolese, Guatemalan and Filipino ambassadors releasing a collective statement on who should be prime minister of Canada. Remarking on the racial dimension, Haitians on social media often contrast the skin tone of Core Group ambassadors to most Haitians.

Some have labeled a group that meets regularly with Haitian officials a “fourth branch” of the Haitian government. But the Core Group’s success at rallying government factions behind Ariel Henry demonstrates its influence may be greater than that.

In a sign of the divide between the imperial centre and periphery, there’s a remarkable gulf in awareness of the Core Group between those dictated to and those who dictate.

Outside of the Haitian community, very few Canadians have even heard of the Core Group. I’d wager 99% of regular readers of ‘serious’ Canadian newspapers haven’t heard of it and the same for 90% of international affairs academics.

In Haiti, on the other hand, almost all modestly informed adults would be aware of the Core Group. There’s graffiti in Port-au-Prince targeting the coalition and protesters regularly hold signs criticizing the Core Group. Haitian media refers to the coalition matter-of-factly, as if people are expected to be familiar with the Core Group.

The same cannot be said of Canadian media. A recent search of the Globe and Mail and National Post databases found only one mention of the Core Group in its 17 years of existence.

The Core Group was officially established by a UN Security Council resolution on April 30, 2004. That resolution replaced the two-month-old Multinational Interim Force — created after US, Canadian and French troops invaded to overthrow the elected government — with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which occupied the country for 15 years. Point 5 of the resolution “supports the establishment of a Core Group chaired by the Special Representative and comprising also his/her Deputies, the Force Commander, representatives of OAS and CARICOM, other regional and subregional organizations, international financial institutions and other major stakeholders, in order to facilitate the implementation of MINUSTAH’s mandate, promote interaction with the Haitian authorities as partners, and to enhance the effectiveness of the international community’s response in Haiti.”

While it is specifically cited in the UN resolution, CARICOM (Caribbean Community) hasn’t played much of a role in the Core Group, John Reginald Dumas recently explained. He is a Trinidadian diplomat who was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Haiti at the time of the Core Group’s creation.

Unofficially, the Core Group traces its roots to the 2003 “Ottawa Initiative on Haiti” meeting. In a rare major media look at that private meeting, Radio Canada’s Enquête pointed out that the Core Group was spawned at the “Ottawa initiative on Haiti”. Held at the Meech Lake government resort on January 31 and February 1, 2003, no Haitian officials were invited to a gathering where US, French, OAS and Canadian officials discussed overthrowing Haiti’s elected government, putting the country under UN trusteeship and recreating the Haitian military, which largely transpired a year later.

The Core Group seeks to dictate Haitian affairs. But it’s also a forum for the bigger bullies to ensure the lesser bullies toe the line.

When the US, France and Canada invaded in 2004, they didn’t want to keep their troops in Haiti long term. They pressed the UN, especially Brazil, to take over. But they didn’t want Brazil, which led MINUSTAH, or the UN to become an independent force in Haiti. That might enable popular and anti-imperialist forces.

As a result, the Core Group seeks to minimize division between the foreign powers because dissent of that sort generally benefits Haiti’s impoverished majority. For example, when the 2004–2006 coup government finally held elections, the Core Group tried to block former social democratic president René Préval from winning. As counting dragged on for a week thousands of marked ballots were discovered half-burned in a garbage dump outside of Port-au-Prince. The apparently stolen ballots added fuel to simmering discontent with the coup government’s bid to rig the election against Préval. An explosion of protest following their discovery led to division among the primary foreign actors in Haiti. The US, French and Canadian ambassadors insisted the electoral council continue counting votes to force a second round while Brazil and Chile, as well as the UN representative, wanted to grant Préval a first-round victory. The US/France/Canada were forced to concede.

Having learned their lesson, the Core Group now seeks to lessen the room for popular, anti-imperialist forces to maneuver. Hence the note anointing the new prime minister. A key characteristic of imperial control is making clear who is running the show.

Many Canadians celebrate the supposed fact that their country has never been an imperialist power. Perhaps it is time for them to revisit their beliefs about Canada’s role in the world.