Another wave of COVID-19 infections looms in Nepal

Rohantha De Silva

According to the most recent figures, 28 people died from COVID-19 and 1,581 were infected over the weekend in Nepal, taking its cumulative death toll from the pandemic to 11,040 people and 784,566 infections.

The unreliable official numbers have declined in Nepal since infections and deaths peaked in April and May this year. However, a third wave of the pandemic has hit India and is threatening to cross into the small Himalayan country of 28 million people where millions live in poverty.

The Nepali ruling elite, like their counterparts internationally, have put profits before human lives. Former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s administration and the current government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba have failed to implement serious health and safety measures to deal with COVID-19 and the highly infectious Delta variant.

Nepalese demonstrators participate in a torch rally to protest against the dissolution of parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

The Deuba government was installed in June, after the country’s Supreme Court reinstated parliament, which had been prematurely dissolved in May for the second time by President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

On September 13, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) issued a damning 50-page briefing paper on Nepal entitled “Unprepared and Unlawful.”

The paper declared that Nepal’s response to COVID-19 was inadequate and had not implemented advice on the coronavirus from international authorities or orders from the country’s Supreme Court. The ICJ document follows a report issued last November on Katmandu’s response to the pandemic in 2020. Both reports are an indictment, not just of the Oli and Deuba regimes but the entire Nepali elite.

Citing ICJ legal advisor Karuna Parajuli, this week’s “Unprepared and Unlawful” report said that the government had “failed to prepare for the 2021 resurgence properly.” The vaccination rollout plan, the report said, had not been transparent and timely with the government missing its own targets; patients were over-charged at private hospitals; non-COVID patients were not provided with adequate health care; health workers had been attacked; and the country’s prisons were unsafe and overcrowded.

The ICJ called for the right to health to be guaranteed for all including: uninterrupted supply of oxygen, increased beds, ICU capacity and medicine and equipment to all hospitals treating pandemic patients; no overcrowding of prisons and the introduction of proper safety measures; private hospitals to follow legal requirements; and public disclosure of vaccine contracts with pharmaceutical companies.

The ICJ also condemned repeated statements by previous Prime Minister Oli “downplaying” the seriousness of the pandemic and claiming that the coronavirus was like the flu and could be blocked by hot water and sneezing. He also insisted that because Nepal had fresh air, and garlic, ginger and turmeric were an integral part of the daily diet, the country’s inhabitants had better immunity against COVID-19.

The vaccination rate in Nepal remains dangerously low. Around 5.12 million or 17 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated and only 5.74 million or 19 percent have received just one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to some medical experts, the September-November religious festival season in India could produce another coronavirus outbreak in that country and rapidly spread to Nepal. The countries share a 1,770 km open border with hundreds of thousands of migrant workers regularly crossing.

India’s second wave of the pandemic in 2020 was mirrored in Nepal and saw hospitals turning away patients because there were not enough ICU beds, ventilators and oxygen. The fast-spreading Delta variant first found in India is now being seen in most Nepali cases. Shortages of testing equipment have worsened the situation as only symptomatic cases are being screened, even at the official border crossings.

Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, Clinical Research Unit chief at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, told the Kathmandu Post that the Delta variant was circulating through Nepal “with little to no restrictions.” He said that “monitoring of violations of health protocols has not been effective.”

The pandemic has had a drastic impact on the Nepali economy which depends heavily on the tourist industry and remittances from the migrant workers. Travel and tourism, which constitutes about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, has virtually collapsed. The sector used to generate up to $500 million annually and provide jobs for an estimated 1.5 million workers in the hotel, airline, transportation, accommodation, restaurant and leisure industries.

Tourist arrivals have dropped precipitously with income expected to fall by $330 million this year, wiping out even more jobs, the Himalayan Times reported in July. Government authorities have made no attempt to resolve the serious economic hardships facing workers in this industry.

Temple Tiger Group executive chairman Basant Raj Mishra told the Kathmandu Post on September 12: “Undoubtedly, hotels and restaurants are the big losers. Some survived the pandemic because of the movement of domestic tourists. But in the last few years, development of hotels has been at such a rapid pace that domestic tourism cannot sustain them all.”

The number of Nepali children in poverty has increased four times to around six million in the past year. Nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns have impacted on students with two-thirds of the country’s eight million students unable to attend any kind of online learning programs. The school closures also meant that they could not receive the limited free meals provided by the Nepal School Meals Program.

At the same time, child labour has climbed to new levels. According to Human Rights Watch, a third of the Nepali children the agency interviewed worked at least 12 hours per day for as little as 517 rupees ($US4.44), with many suffering serious work injuries.

Professor Pasang Sherpa from the Nepal Institute of Health Sciences told the Borgen Magazine that the pandemic “has made poverty far worse than I have seen in my life so far.”

According to last month’s “Nepal: Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021” report, 36 percent of the multidimensionally poor people in Nepal live in crowded households, a major factor in the spread of coronavirus infections. Similarly, 38.2 percent of people in Nepal do not have access to hand-washing facilities with soap in their homes.

Indifferent to these unsafe conditions and another even more deadly wave of coronavirus infections, the Nepali government, like others around the world, are planning to reopen schools, insisting that the population must learn to “live with the virus.”

Britain commits to anti-China axis led by US in AUKUS military pact

Robert Stevens

The decision by the United States, the UK and Australian to establish the military alliance AUKUS pact is a historic turning point in Britain’s foreign policy with major consequences.

The AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) pact focuses on the Indo-Pacific region targeting China, one of the world’s major nuclear powers. Australia will be allowed to share nuclear technology and will be provided with eight nuclear-powered submarines. The UK will share contracts to supply the main component for the new submarines with BAE Systems and engine maker Rolls-Royce set to play a major role.

The UK Carrier Strike Group 2021, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, departing the UK (credit: Royal Navy/Flickr)

Expressing the rot of bourgeois democracy, all three governments involved are escalating a dangerous militarist agenda without even the pretence of democratic accountability.

There was no public discussion in the US Congress or the parliaments in Britain and Australia. The first that the world heard about AUKUS was on Wednesday, when it was announced in a joint press conference by US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

In a conspiracy against the populations of the three countries involved and the working class of the entire world, the plans were hatched behind closed doors over months.

Johnson’s Conservative government allocated less than 45 minutes for a “debate” in parliament Thursday to discuss the formation of AUKUS. He opened the discussion with an opening statement of less than seven minutes.

Johnson stated, “If there were ever any question about what global Britain’s tilt towards the Indo-Pacific would mean in reality, or what capabilities we might offer, this partnership with Australia and the US provides the answer. It amounts to a new pillar of our strategy, demonstrating Britain’s generational commitment to the security of the Indo-Pacific and showing exactly how we can help one of our oldest friends to preserve regional stability.”

Johnson didn’t conceal what was at stake in winning control of what he called the new “geopolitical centre of the world,” intervening in the debate to declare, “The whole Indo-Pacific tilt, of which this is a part, is a recognition of the fact that the CPTPP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific] area … is a £9 trillion trade area in which the UK has an increasing diplomatic and commercial presence.”

As brief as the discussion was in parliament, it underscored why Biden, Morrison and Johnson can procced with their predatory imperialist agenda—they can all count on “opposition” parties that share their aims.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said, “New challenges can emerge and issues in faraway corners of the globe can quickly turn into threats at home, so Labour welcomes increased co-operation with our allies.”

“China’s assertiveness does pose risks to UK interests in a secure Pacific region, in stable trading environments and in democracy and human rights,” he added.

The Labour leader was more overtly hawkish than Johnson, insisting that the turn to the Asia-pacific must not jeopardise the ongoing the military encirclement of Russia and Britain’s strategic interests in Europe and Asia. “In order to protect our security and interests, we also need to look after our broader alliances,” he said. “NATO remains our most important strategic alliance. It is also the most successful, having delivered peace and security in Europe for three quarters of a century. Whatever the merits of an Indo-Pacific tilt, maintaining security in Europe must remain our primary objective.”

He then asked Johnson to “guarantee that the arrangement will not see resources redirected from Europe and the high north to the Pacific.”

Other MPs were anxious not to be seen as any way unpatriotic or out of step. It was left to Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, ruthlessly dispatched from office by Johnson’s Brexit wing of the party in 2019, to point to the potentially catastrophic implications of a military confrontation with China

May asked, “What are the implications of this pact for the stance and response the United Kingdom would take should China attempt to invade Taiwan?”

Johnson refused to answer directly, replying that “The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law…” and this would be the “strong advice we would give to the Government in Beijing.”

The dangers of the UK’s new course were confirmed the same day by Taiwan, citing a 'severe threat' from China and clearly timed to coincide with the AUKUS announcement, announcing additional defence spending of £6.28 billion over the next five years, including on new missiles and warships.

May’s intervention made clear that shifting away from a decade old policy which has seen the UK massively extend its economic relations with China means entering unchartered territory. The David Cameron-led Tory government (2010-2015) established a “golden era” with China, leading to Beijing investing billions in the UK economy, including in the development of UK nuclear power stations and mobile phone infrastructure. This led to anti-China hawks in the Tory Party, military and security apparatus insisting that Huawei’s role must be curtailed.

In 2015, China set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to expand operations into less developed countries and to serve as China’s equivalent to the World Bank. Britain was the first Western country to pledge its participation.

Speaking for substantial sections of the capitalist class concerned at the implications of upending economic ties with Beijing, Starmer insisted, “We need to deal with those risks, defend our values and defend our interests, but the same [integrated review of foreign and defence policy] also rightly stated that the UK must maintain a commercial relationship with China, and we must work with them on the defining global issues of the day.”

How this circle was to be squared, Starmer did not say. But the factional warfare in ruling circles that erupted over leaving the European Union has not disappeared.

Johnson’s policy on coming to power was based on alliance with the US and the Trump administration, which had declared the EU a “cartel” and an economic rival. He claimed that this offered the possibility of developing a “global Britain”, with access to the US market and investments in China and other expanding markets in the Commonwealth compensating for lost trade with Europe.

This bubble was burst after Trump’s election defeat by Biden, with the Democratic Party leader making clear that the price for Britain maintaining a relationship with Washington is to enlist in the US-led trade and military war drive against China.

This has poisoned the UK’s already soured relations with Europe.

Britain played a major role in ensuring that Australia scrapped its A$90bn (£48 billion) submarine deal with France. British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said Thursday that Australia had come to the UK seeking a deal in March and wanted to abandon the French upgrade, and that Johnson, Morrison and Biden had discussed this on the sidelines of the UK-hosted G7 summit in June.

The secret talks put the unprecedented hardening of the UK’s position on China in recent months into context. This week Parliament’s Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, citing Beijing’s ongoing sanctions against seven UK MPs, banned China's ambassador to the UK from entering the parliamentary estate to speak at a scheduled meeting of the influential all-party parliamentary group on China.

This follows the unprecedented launching in May of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group (CSG), led by the HMS Elizabeth aircraft carrier, on a six-month round trip to the Indo Pacific. That HMS Elizabeth would be sent to the Indo-Pacific, including sailing provocatively into the South China Sea, was decided on last year. But as tensions were ramped up by Washington with China, the CSG was scaled up with substantial US participation. HMS Elizabeth and the CSG also participated in military operations in the Black Sea and Middle East.

Shortly before the CSG left the UK, Tory hardliner Ian Duncan Smith told the Telegraph, “I'm pleased the Aircraft Carrier is deploying in the South China Sea, but they need to complete this process by letting the Chinese know that they disapprove of their very aggressive actions against their neighbours by sailing through the Taiwan Strait.” He was backed by Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee.

Johnson refused to give the go-ahead to sail the Taiwan Strait, but it is now clear, through the formation of AUKUS, he was preparing “aggressive actions” against China on a vastly greater scale with incalculable consequences.

Even as Johnson boasted in the AUKUS debate that military spending had rocketed by £24 billion under his premiership, Ellwood said he hoped the prime minister “now recognises that our peacetime defence budget is no longer adequate, and we will soon need to increase it to 3 percent of GDP if we are to contain the threats that now we face.”

Paris recalls ambassadors to US, Australia over anti-Chinese AUKUS alliance

Alex Lantier

Last night, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recalled France’s ambassadors to the United States and Australia after the announcement Wednesday of the AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) alliance. Australia had repudiated a massive €56 billion arms deal with France for attack submarines, to instead obtain them from Washington and London.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Le Drian’s communiqué stated: “At the request of the President of the Republic, I have decided upon the immediate recall to Paris for consultations of our ambassadors to the United States and Australia. This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptionally serious announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States.”

This decision is without precedent in history. The recall of an ambassador is traditionally the last diplomatic measure taken before the outbreak of war. France, an ally of the United States in every war involving both countries since the 1775–1783 Revolutionary War for independence from Britain, has never before recalled its ambassador to the United States.

While the AUKUS alliance targets China, it has revealed explosive conflicts among the imperialist powers. Washington, London and Canberra prepared AUKUS over several months in total secrecy from what are ostensibly their closest allies among the European Union (EU) powers. This points to deep distrust among the United States, Britain and the EU countries, beset by insoluble military and economic rivalries in Asia.

On Thursday, Le Drian had given a TV interview to France Info to emphasize that the Australian and US decisions were fundamentally unacceptable to France. He said, “I am outraged; allies do not do this to each other. … To speak plainly, this is a stab in the back.

“We had established relations of trust with Australia; this trust has been betrayed,” Le Drian said, stressing his “great bitterness” and pledging to sue for damages. France’s Naval Group corporation in Cherbourg was working with Australian manufacturers to deliver the first subs by 2023, he said, “with teams of Australian engineers working in Cherbourg and Naval Group staff working in Adelaide [in Australia]. Then, suddenly, poof!”

Le Drian then denounced “America’s behavior,” blaming President Joe Biden for not resolving but compounding the crisis of US-European relations under his predecessor, Donald Trump.

He said, “This unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision is very much like what Mr. Trump used to do. We learned brutally, by a declaration from President Biden, that the contract between the Australians and the French is broken, and that the United States will propose to the Australians a nuclear deal whose content is unknown. … This is not how one treats allies or other powers who want to develop a coherent, structured Indo-Pacific strategy.”

Arguments that Australia’s violation of the deal was a technical move—to get longer range, nuclear-propelled submarines from Washington and London, as opposed to diesel-electric boats sold by France—do not hold water. The submarines sold by France were in fact a nuclear design, the Barracuda, with its reactor replaced by a diesel-electric engine to respect Australia’s nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Yet Australian officials did not contact their French counterparts to change the design, instead scrapping the contract overnight and replacing it with US nuclear submarines.

To defuse tensions, an anonymous US official told AFP: “Senior administration officials have been in touch with their French counterparts to discuss AUKUS, including before the announcement.”

However, the French embassy in Washington immediately responded with a formal denial. Embassy spokesman Pascal Confavreux said, “We were not informed of this project before the publication of the first reports in the US and Australian press, which came only a few hours before Joe Biden’s official announcement.”

This eruption of bitter conflicts between supposed NATO “allies” is a historic warning to the working class. The Soviet bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not resolve the deeply rooted, ultimately fatal contradictions of world capitalism. Depriving NATO of a common enemy, it exacerbated interimperialist conflicts that twice in the first half of the 20th century erupted into world war. Now, Asia’s economic rise and the US war drive against China are inflaming bitter US-European competition over profits and strategic influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

In Paris, Le Monde called AUKUS “a slashing blow in the web laboriously woven by French diplomacy in recent years in the Indo-Pacific. Precisely to avoid the trap of Sino-American rivalries, Paris made a military-industrial turn to Canberra a leading focus of its new strategy in the region.”

French attempts to pursue an independent policy in the Indo-Pacific region proved unacceptable to Washington, however. Le Monde compared the resulting breakdown in US-French relations to that of 2002, when Paris, Berlin and Moscow opposed US plans to invade Iraq: “Is the Iraq war (2003), launched by the Bush administration, the last crisis of such magnitude? After the chaotic, unilateral US withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is a new warning for Europeans to build their strategic sovereignty, especially in the Indo-Pacific…”

In an editorial titled “A Smart Submarine Deal with the Aussies” hailing the AUKUS alliance, the Wall Street Journal asserted that AUKUS was US retaliation for Europe’s failure to fully support US policies against China, Russia and Iran. It wrote, “French President Emmanuel Macron has made a point of emphasizing ‘strategic autonomy’ from the US, including on China, Russia and Iran. … Europe can’t play China’s game of divide-and-conquer on economic and strategic issues without consequences for its US relationship.”

Biden manifestly intended the announcement of AUKUS as a rebuke to the EU. He timed it the day before EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Foreign Policy Representative Josep Borrell unveiled a long expected Indo-Pacific policy statement, in the runup to France holding the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2022. In America, Politico wrote that the AUKUS alliance aimed to show the EU that it is “not in the geostrategic big league” and mock Europe’s “woolly Indo-Pacific strategy.”

In this interimperialist conflict, there is no progressive faction; the fundamental question is uniting workers internationally in a socialist, antiwar movement. After the bloody failure of decades of neo-colonial wars in the Middle East since the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq, and the millions of deaths and economic dislocations caused by their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NATO powers face catastrophic conflicts for which they have no peaceful solutions.

Last week, it emerged that during Trump’s January 6 coup attempt in Washington, US military officers worked desperately to prevent Trump from launching nuclear bombs at China.

European imperialism is not, however, fundamentally kinder or gentler than its American cousin. EU attempts to develop an independent Indo-Pacific policy are predicated on massive increases in military spending. This means new attacks on workers’ living standards and a continuing refusal to fund necessary social distancing policies to end the COVID-19 pandemic, after 1.2 million people are already confirmed dead of the disease in Europe.

Indeed, speaking Wednesday on the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, von der Leyen called for greater new military programs, “from fighter jets to drones and cyber.” She concluded her remarks by stating, “This is why, under the French Presidency [of the EU], President Macron and I will convene a Summit on European defense. It is time for Europe to step up to the next level.”

These announcements must be taken as a warning of the mounting danger of aggression against China, of explosive tensions inside NATO and of the necessity of mobilizing workers around the world against the war danger.

China’s Evergrande problems deepen

Nick Beams

The financial troubles surrounding the Chinese property developer Evergrande continue to worsen as discussion in financial circles focuses on what measures might be taken by the government to prevent a possible financial crisis.

China Evergrande Centre [Wikimedia Commons]

Evergrande, the country’s second largest property developer, with debts of more than $300 billion, has admitted it is on the brink of default and is desperately scrambling to build up cash.

But its efforts do not appear to be succeeding. On Thursday S&P Global Ratings, which has downgraded its rating of the company’s bonds several times over the past three months, announced another downgrade, saying its liquidity and funding access “are shrinking severely.”

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities had told major lenders the company would not be able to meet interest payments on loans due on Monday following a decision by Evergrande to hire debt restructuring advisers.

So far, the government is keeping the details of any possible response close to its chest. Responding to a question on what impact Evergrande could have on the economy at a press conference on Wednesday, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui said only that some large property enterprises were running into difficulties and the fallout “remains to be seen.”

The press conference was held on the latest national data which showed a worsening slowdown in the Chinese economy in August. Retail sales rose by only 2.5 percent for the month, well below forecasts by economists of a 7 percent rise. Industrial production, one of the main drivers of the economy, increased by 5.3 percent compared to the median forecasts by economists of an increase of 5.8 percent.

The slowdown is expected to continue. Goldman Sachs, which last month downgraded its forecast for growth in the Chinese economy from 5.8 percent to 2.3 percent for the third quarter, has cited a “meaningful slowdown” in industrial indicators such as electricity production and ferrous metal smelting.

So far, the problems surrounding Evergrande have not been transmitted into the banking and financial system. Interbank lending rates remain near average levels, indicating that there is sufficient liquidity. But the Japanese firm Mizuho Financial Group has reported that some banks are hoarding cash preparing for what it called a “liquidity squeeze in crisis mode.”

And there are some signs of broader financial stress. On Thursday, yields on Chinese junk bonds—those with a rating below investment-grade status—climbed to an 18-month high and shares in real estate companies fell sharply after Evergrande had had its rating lowered further and requested a trading halt in its bonds.

All eyes are turning to the response of the government. Bloomberg reported that “even senior officials at state-owned banks say privately that they’re still waiting for guidance on a long-term solution from top leaders in Beijing.”

The Chinese government is facing an acute dilemma. On the one hand, it wants to rein in debt in the highly leveraged property sector as well as other areas of the economy. Some of the problems facing Evergrande arise from the tightening of credit regulations earlier this year. Back in July, vice premier Han Zheng said the property industry should not be used to provide a short-term boost to the economy.

On the other hand, it is fearful of the consequences of a collapse of Evergrande on the property development sector and for the rest of the economy. There are various estimates for its significance, but Bank of America has calculated it makes up around 28 percent of the Chinese economy when both direct and indirect economic effects are considered.

Summing up the problems facing the government, in comments during a recent podcast, Yu Yong, a former regulator with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said: “The government has to be very, very careful in balancing support for Evergrande. Property is the biggest bubble that everyone has been talking about in China. So, if anything happens, this could clearly cause a systemic risk to the whole China economy.”

In a warning of the impact of a default by Evergrande in a note issued on Wednesday, Fitch Ratings said smaller banks and weaker property developers would be hurt the most.

But there are fears the damage would not stop there and extend across the entire property sector. As one financial analyst told Bloomberg: “Debt recovery efforts by creditors would lead to fire sales of assets and hit housing prices. Profit margins across the supply chain would be squeezed. It would also lead to panic selling in capital markets.”

On top of the financial ramifications of an Evergrande collapse, the government also must deal with social struggles that could erupt. Already there have been protests at Evergrande offices around the country.

Its modus operandi is to sell apartments off the plan or at least well before completion. This means that owners are confronting a situation where they will have paid out their money, only to be left with an incomplete dwelling. As of last December, Evergrande is reported to have received at least down payments on yet-to-be-finished properties from more than 1.5 million buyers.

Another key issue facing the government is how to prevent the effects of an Evergrande collapse from spreading both within China and internationally.

In 2015, the collapse of a share market bubble, which like the property boom had been promoted by the government, sent ripples through the global financial system. Since then, as a result of the massive speculation of the past 18 months, it has become more fragile and an Evergrande collapse could have major international consequences.

Entertainment industry workers continue to work without a contract

Hong Jian

Tens of thousands of entertainment industry workers, technicians, artisans and craftspersons on film and TV sets are continuing to work without a contract for months after the expiration of their old agreement as COVID-19 continues to spread.

The previous deal between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) expired on July 31. The contract was extended until September 10, but that deadline came and went last Friday with no new agreement forthcoming, and the IATSE leadership simply told workers to keep reporting to work.

IATSE President Matthew Loeb said on Wednesday that negotiations had reached a “critical juncture,” and he sent out a letter to members stating, “We are united in demanding more humane working conditions across the industry, including reasonable rest during and between workdays and on the weekend, equitable pay on streaming productions, and a livable wage floor.”

Matthew Loeb [Credit: Twitter/@matthewloeb]

Then on Thursday, Loeb said that after presenting their recent proposal on September 12, they have still not heard back from the AMPTP. He stated, “They have not submitted a counterproposal, though lines of communication remain open. The union remains committed to getting an acceptable contract that recognizes the value our highly skilled and experienced members bring to this industry, which includes addressing longstanding health and safety issues that have plagued our worksites for decades. Meanwhile, member mobilization is ongoing as we prepare for either a contract ratification or a strike authorization vote. You should continue to report to work. We will notify you as more information becomes available.”

The union even paused negotiations on the new contract in order to ratify new COVID-19 protocols with management that require less testing, less social distancing and less sanitation requirements, thus lowering production costs for management and increasing the risk of disease and death for workers as the new lax protocols were signed off on despite the Delta variant surge.

At the same time, the IATSE falsely claimed to be ensuring the safety of their members when they signed onto the following statement, “The COVID-19 Safety Agreement is the outcome of unprecedented coordination and solidarity between the unions and collaboration with employers to develop science-based protocols that minimize the risk of COVID-19 virus transmission in the industry’s unique work environments. ... The protocols have driven a successful rebound of film and television production while prioritizing safety for casts, crews and all on-set workers.”

The fact that workers have been operating without a contract for nearly two months and there still has not been a strike authorization vote, much less an actual strike, expresses the determination of the IATSE to accommodate AMPTP’s demands. In reality, there are no real “negotiations” taking place but strategy sessions between studio executives and the union over how to ram through a rotten deal.

One worker responded to Loeb’s remarks, “While I agree with IATSE’s main concerns, I am equally surprised no one is pointing out two things: 1) Matt Loeb has been head of IATSE since 2008. Why did he allow the working conditions and pension to decline to this level in the first place? 2) Unsafe hours and pension contributions were Cathy Repola’s (Editors Guild) main point of contention with the previous contract. Matt Loeb all but crucified her for speaking out. I’ll strike, but don’t have much faith in IATSE…”

The conditions which IATSE members endure are nothing short of terrible. They work upwards of 12 hours a day; some regularly work 16 hours a day. For many, the pay they receive leaves them officially rent-burdened in the city of Los Angeles, the main hub of the entertainment production. A survey done in February of this year showed that of 1,014 entertainment industry assistants, 79 percent of respondents made less than $50,000 a year.

Hollywood sign [Photo: Thomas Wolf]

One commentator on social media pointed out that “Writers’ Assistants and Script Coordinators who graduate from UCLA film school can expect to earn a scale rate of $16.00 and $17.64, respectively. The In-N-Out in Westwood, meanwhile, starts new employees out at $17.75.”

The Instagram account “ia_stories” has emerged as a forum where workers have been detailing some of their working conditions. One worker wrote: ”I was so tired on my last shoot with 14 hour days and a 45 minute drive to and from set for a month, that I legit prayed I got covid so I could take a break and still have a job in two weeks. Those turnarounds and the commute was brutal. I almost fell asleep 2 times driving to work.”

IATSE workers have been laboring under these conditions for decades one sellout contract after another. But there could not be a better time to wage a struggle against the AMPTP than right now, due to the backlog of work that was created by the pandemic. According to Daniel Mitchell, Professor Emeritus at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, “A strike threat that would impede production would be more effective from the union perspective now than in a more normal situation.” Precisely, last year all production was shut down.

Israel reports that 11.2 percent of all children infected with SARS-CoV-2 suffer from long COVID

Emily Ochiai

The Israeli Health Ministry announced Monday that over 10 percent of Israeli children who have been diagnosed with coronavirus are showing signs of post-acute COVID-19 (“long COVID”), meaning they are suffering COVID-19 symptoms for over four weeks after initial infection, according to the Times of Israel.

Its follow-up survey of 13,864 children between the ages 3–18 who recovered from COVID-19 found that a staggering 11.2 percent reported symptoms of long COVID. The troubling figures come as child infections and death continue to skyrocket across the world as a result of the Delta variant which is affecting and hospitalizing children at alarming rates.

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 [Credit: AP Photo/Oded Balilty]

The survey further revealed that 1.8 percent of children under the age of 12 and 4.6 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 18 reported long-term symptoms 6 months after the illness. Among the age group of 12 to 18, chances of developing long COVID were higher among those who had symptoms. However, those who were asymptomatic also developed long COVID symptoms.

Long COVID is a multisystem disease still poorly understood, which can last months and possibly years. The symptoms include a laundry list of ailments that include sleep disorders such as insomnia, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal issues, breathing difficulties, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, headaches and neurological issues such as cognitive impairment or “brain fog” and an overall lack of concentration.

With more than 200,000 children under 18 having tested positive in Israel, at least 22,400 children are suffering from lasting symptoms. The revelations are especially concerning for the youngest including infants and toddlers in early childhood crucial stages of development. Little to nothing is known about how long it will affect and potentially ruin their long-term development and lives.

Of the over 200,00 infected Israeli children, half of them were asymptomatic. This has created a situation in which many parents have to piece together information and determine the cause for what is afflicting their children and subjecting them to a growing list of symptoms. Thousands of parents have taken to social media to find support among groups of parents, as doctors lack knowledge of how to diagnose and treat long COVID.

According to Haaretz, Israel’s Education Ministry estimated in early August that 5,000 students will be infected daily by the time the school year starts on September 1. Nevertheless, the Israeli government proceeded to reopen schools as planned. Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash stated that reopening schools will be advantageous because it will allow “experimentation with all the methods we want to introduce, such as quick tests, quarantining versus not quarantining, and gaining trust in serological tests,” underscoring the absolute criminality of the reopening campaign.

With the aggressive reopening of economies and public institutions worldwide, the ruling class and the mass media have persistently promoted the lie that COVID-19 has a negligible effect on children. With over 227 million people infected worldwide, it is becoming increasingly clear that children and adolescents are the most vulnerable populations especially from the effects of long COVID.

The awareness group Long Covid Kids, founded in the United Kingdom, reports that data coming out of the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that 34,000 children are currently suffering from persistent symptoms since COVID-19 infection. Data from ONS is showing that in the UK, 13 percent of children 11 years or younger, and some 15 percent of children aged 12 to 16 are suffering from long COVID.

In the United States alone, over 5,292,837 children have contracted the virus, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, representing 15.5 percent of all cases nationwide as of September 9. If we extrapolate the number of children suffering from long COVID using the Israeli statistics, this means that at least 592,000 children in the US are experiencing post-COVID symptoms.

Access to data is difficult to obtain for both children and adults. The World Health Organization estimates the figure globally to be 10 percent of all adults who contract COVID go on to experience long COVID.

According to Ottawa Citizen, Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table estimated as of this past Tuesday that between 57,000 to 78,000 Ontario residents have reported that they are re-experiencing or are currently experiencing post-COVID symptoms.

The ruling class and the mass media all over the world continuously claimed that vaccination of adults “protects children” in order to justify the school reopening. Israel was one of the first countries to vaccinate their citizens against COVID-19. With one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with over 61 percent of the population fully vaccinated and the older population receiving a third booster shot, the current average of daily cases has skyrocketed to 7,500. Their growing case rate and infections among children clearly demonstrate that adult vaccination is insufficient at protecting children from infection.

US hospitals running out of beds amid COVID-19 surge

Benjamin Mateus

The Delta wave continues to ripple across the United States with approximately 150,000 new cases each day. Consistently, daily death tolls are reaching or exceeding 2,000 per day. Businesses are operating without restrictions and schools are forced to open.

Registered nurse Kyanna Barboza, right, tends to a COVID-19 patient as Kobie Walsh, left, puts on her PPE at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. [Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file]

Only 54.2 percent of the country’s population (180 million) has been fully vaccinated, and 63.5 percent has received at least one dose. The seven-day moving average of administered doses declines again, with approximately 774,000 doses being given each day.

This has led to a renewed health care crisis that has inundated hospital systems across multiple states. Presently, states where the worst outbreaks have been confirmed—Tennessee, Kentucky, Alaska, Wyoming and West Virginia—are also seeing their hospitals and ICUs reach critical levels comparable to previous winter highs. Many realize that they have to turn to rationed care to provide for those who might fare better with the available resources while others are left to die.

The situation is presently most egregious in Idaho, where the state has activated “crisis standards of care,” allowing health facilities to ration treatment. There are more than 628 beds occupied with COVID-19 patients, a 35 percent increase above the winter peaks.

Speaking before reporters at a press conference, Chris Roth, president and chief executive of St. Luke’s Health System, said, “COVID is absolutely crushing us.” He warned that if measures weren’t taken to halt this onslaught, “We will consume every single bed, and every single resource we have, with COVID patients in our hospitals.”

Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppsen wrote last week, “Crisis standards of care is a last resort. It means we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment care we expect.” In informal language, this means the hospitals will determine who has the best chance to survive.

Brian Whitlock, the president and CEO of the Idaho Association, said in disbelief, “It’s just nonstop trying to find placement for these patients and the care that they need. It really is a minute-by-minute assessment of where beds are open, and hospitals saying we don’t know where we’re going to put the next one.”

According to the New York Times coronavirus tracker, cases across the South and West have peaked. However, given the uncertainty in testing the population and tracking infections, these reported statistics must be taken with sobering skepticism.

COVID-related deaths in Florida continue to rise, with an average of 363 fatalities each day. In Texas, deaths continue to climb, and have reached 300 per day on average. Georgia sees 120 deaths per day, and the rise is exponential. Meanwhile, Alabama’s state health officer Dr. Scott Harris, has reported that hospitalizations decrease because people are dying. “Alabama is seeing double digit numbers of deaths, which accounts for some of the decline.”

The regions of the country that are reporting a rise in infections include the Midwest and Northeast. Specifically, in West Virginia, where the number of fully vaccinated individuals is the lowest in the country, new cases have skyrocketed to 109 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people.

Like every region where the Delta variant led to mass community transmission, health care systems quickly became inundated with COVID-19 patients leading to pleas from nurses and physicians to heed the call to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, elective surgeries were once more placed on hold as units were converted to manage severe cases.

As of yesterday, the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to West Virginia’s hospitals reached 905, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, with 278 in intensive care units and 166 on ventilators. Dr. Clay Marsh, who heads the state’s COVID-19 response, told the Guardian, “This has been more severe than we’ve seen at any point in the pandemic. I believe people are getting very anxious over what they’re seeing in West Virginia.”

Jim Justice, a Republican governor, recently commented on the issue of rising hospitalizations in his state, “We can stop this, West Virginia. We can stop it. The vaccines are safe. The vaccines are not an invasion on anyone.” The Governor’s response has been typical of the blame game that pits the vaccinated against unvaccinated but refuses to call for measures that focus on the right to profit. He lifted mask mandates on June 20 and has opposed mandating their use in schools. He has also denounced vaccine mandates as encroaching on businesses. Meanwhile, some of the most rural counties in the state face the highest per capita rates of infection.

Rural Ohio hospitals are reporting that their ICUs are also at capacity. Portsmouth, a small town of 20,000 people about 80 miles to the south of Columbus, is running out of beds at Southern Ohio Medical Center. Creative reconfiguration of the ICUs and wards will create additional vital space. However, with staff shortages, the situation is getting direr. The hospital released a statement to its staff on social media, writing, “At no other point in the pandemic have these steps been necessary. Because patient volumes can change rapidly, it is difficult to predict where we will be in weeks, days, or even hours. What we know right now is we cannot guarantee a bed…”

In fact, some 60 million people live in what is defined as rural regions relying on local health systems for their medical needs. These same systems are seeing a mass exodus of their experienced nurses who are being enticed by recruiting agencies with higher salaries that can be on the order of five to ten times above what they could ordinarily expect to earn.

Audrey Snyder, president of the Rural Nurse organization advocacy group as well as being a faculty member at North Carolina Greensboro School of Nursing, explained, “If you lose one or two nurses, that makes a difference. These hospitals are small, and they don’t have a large nurse workforce.” Many local rural populations live in deep poverty and are uninsured, leading to declining revenues for these community hospitals that can’t keep pace with their burgeoning budgets.

According to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services research, since January 2005, there have been 181 rural hospital closures, 138 of these since 2010. Last year, according to NBC News, dozens had filed for bankruptcy. Another 216 are at high risk for closure. Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with National Rural Health Association, told NBC, “the rural hospital workforce has always been a challenge. What COVID was uniquely suited to do was take advantage of every fracture and widen it significantly and make it even harder to cope with demands being placed on them.”

Ethiopia: TPLF Terrorism Expands, Civilians Massacred

Graham Peebles

As the armed conflict between Ethiopia and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) enters a new phase, Ethiopians are uniting against their common enemy. The TPLF is not a group of freedom fighters standing up for the downtrodden; they are a terrorist insurgent force waging a war against a sovereign state. Murdering, raping, destroying property and the lives of Ethiopians, the TPLF is a cancer that for decades has thrown a suffocating shadow of fear and division over the country, a cancer that must be cut out totally if Ethiopia is to flourish.

For 27 years they were the dominant force within a so-called coalition government. Corrupt and brutal, the TPLF stole election after election, trampled on human rights, embezzled federal funds and aid money and committed State Terrorism in various regions of the country. Administering a policy of Ethnic Federalism, they ruled through fear, divided the people along ethnic lines and are widely hated by most Ethiopians.

In 2018, after sustained public protests, they were ousted. However, after such a long period in power their divisive methodology and ideals still have influence. Senior members retreated to their Tigray heartland after losing office, regrouped, plotted, and waited for an opportunity to rise up against the government.

On 4 November 2020 they attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces Base in the northern region of Tigray. They killed soldiers, took control of the military’s Northern Command in Mekelle (capital of Tigray) and raided federal armories. This act of terrorism, set in motion an armed conflict in the northern region of Tigray; a fight the TPLF had been itching for, which has now spread into the neighboring region of Ahmara.

Thousands have died, combatants and civilians; claims of rape and sexual violence are widespread; tens of thousands have been displaced, homeless and hungry, with large numbers, frightened and distressed, making their way to camps in neighboring Sudan.

The TPLF’s brutal actions should be condemned unreservedly by foreign governments, particularly Ethiopia’s major donors. But, far from standing with the government, the US, UK and EU have consistently supported the terrorists, circulating misinformation, making false claims against Ethiopian forces.

Civilians Massacred

In an attempt to stop the killing and defuse the situation, on 28 June, the Government declared a “unilateral humanitarian ceasefire” and withdrew its forces from Tigray. In response, the TPLF marched into the regional capital and issued a series of outlandish conditions for complying: They demanded the release of all Tigray political prisoners (imprisoned for atrocities committed over many years), falsely accused Prime Minister Abiy of starting the war, and claimed that Tigrayans “have been subjected to…genocide and ethnic cleansing”. Federal forces are fighting the TPLF not the people of Tigray. But, as a result of the TPLF instigated conflict, civilians in Tigray have been severely impacted.

Unrelenting, obdurate, Tigray forces, which have now combined with another extremist group, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), have ignored the ceasefire and continued their attack on Ethiopia, moving into the Afar and Amhara regions bordering Tigray. Death, destruction and chaos is left in their wake with distressing reports of civilian killings, rapes, kidnapping and robbery. Homes are destroyed, office buildings, including Kabele (local government) headquarters vandalized, documents burnt, water and electricity supplies cut, Churches and schools damaged or demolished, cattle killed, crops destroyed.

Over 200 civilians were killed in Afar including more than 100 children, according to UNICEF, and around 300,000 were displaced. Federal forces have now driven the aggressors out of this region. In Deber Tabor in Ahmara, the main hospital was attacked and homes destroyed. A local resident, Mr. Deres Nega told Ethiopian media how his wife, children and friends had been killed by the TPLF. His life has been torn apart. His agony is being repeated throughout the area, his pain is the pain of a nation, a pain that has but one cure, the eradication of the TPLF.

Over 200 km north of Deber Tabor, in Chena Teklehaymanot, mass graves were recently discovered containing 124 bodies, many more people (over 100) are missing feared dead. Witnesses state that the TPLF went house to house and slaughtered men, women, children, even priests (revered throughout Ethiopia) were killed. The massacre, which has been confirmed by Gizachew Muluneh, Director of Communications for the Amhara Regional State, is but one atrocity in a series of coordinated assaults by the TPLF since the government ceasefire. Getachew Shiferaw, a leading Ethiopian activist, relates that, “Civilians were massacred [by the TPLF] in Woldia, Kobo, Alamata, Lalibela, Abergele, Maytemri, Gaint, Gashena and Mersa, among others towns.” He warns that, “Chena is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed’s press secretary, has said that TPLF atrocities in Ahmara “were carried out to avenge the military loss the clique suffered by federal and state troops,” as its fighters were routed from Afar. The government believes the Chena massacre was carried out by “the TPLF’s Samri youth group”, who are also thought to be responsible for killing over 1,000 civilians in “the town of Maikadra…last November.” After which they escaped to Sudan and hid in a UNHCR refugee camp.

Such brutal attacks, which are consistently ignored by western governments (who know very well what is actually happening) and prominent mainstream media, are forcing the Ethiopian government, until now relatively restrained, to respond and mobilize its forces. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry recently said the TPLF was pushing the government to “change its defensive mood which has been taken for the sake of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire,” and that unless (government) overtures for a peaceful resolution were reciprocated, “Ethiopia could deploy the entire defensive capability of the state.”

The government, which has been weak on law and order enforcement, cannot simply sit back and allow the TPLF to murder civilians. They must respond swiftly and decisively, including, if necessary, deploying the air force, something they are reluctant to do because of potential civilian casualties.

Malicious foreign forces

Since the conflict began the Ethiopian government has been battling, not just the terrorists, but malicious foreign forces and misleading information from western governments and mainstream media – the BBC, CNN, New York Times, Facebook etc. The US, which is widely believed to be indirectly arming the TPLF, have led the misinformation campaign, and appear (together with the UK and EU) to have sanctioned the TPLF’s attack on Ethiopia.

To its utter shame the Biden administration (and UK and EU) has failed to condemn the TPLF attacks, and has undermined the Ethiopian government from the outset. They repeatedly call for reconciliation (thereby legitimizing the terrorists), and instruct PM Ahmed to negotiate with the TPLF, which is not only unacceptable to the government, but to the vast majority of Ethiopians, who liken the TPLF to a pack of hyenas, pointing out the impossibility of negotiating with wild animals.

In response to their international backers’ call for ‘negotiations’ the TPLF drafted a list of preposterous demands for any such talks. Among other fantasies, they wanted PM Ahmed to step down and be replaced with one of their own, and a power-sharing arrangement introduced. This would amount to the overthrow (with US backing) of a democratically elected government: The Prosperity Party (a party of national unity founded by Abiy) has a huge mandate, taking 410 out of 436 seats in the June 2020 general election. The formation of a new government, which will include opposition parties, is expected by the end of September/early October, and is eagerly awaited.

As these malicious foreign forces seek to destabilize Ethiopia for their own corrupt geo-political reasons, and the TPLF commit atrocity after atrocity, the Ethiopian people are laying aside long held divisions (largely caused by TPLF policies) and coming together, standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters against the poison of the terrorists and the Imperial arrogance of America and Co.

While this is unquestionably a deeply troubling moment for Ethiopia, at the same time there is cause for celebration and real optimism: The staging of the first democratic elections in the country’s long and rich history was a major achievement, as was the second filling of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (the largest dam in Africa) reservoir. Along with the imminent formation of a new and democratically elected government, these are unifying national events. Significant developments which the Ethiopian people can take great pride in as they unite against the TPLF/OLA terrorists, destructive groups that must be purged from the country completely and utterly if peace and social harmony are to be established, and the  needed work of national transformation is to go ahead.